Rufus did not like surprises.
That Kadaj had actually found him in Healin and had then dropped both of his fearsome—if somewhat eccentric—bodyguards surprised him greatly.
That the boy was now pacing languidly in front of his two brothers in Rufus' office was another nasty shock that he tried to cover by hiding behind his sheet.
Reno, he noticed, was not his usual tension-diffusing self. He was staring intently at Kadaj's feminine, silent brother, who was hanging behind the bigger brother almost as if he didn't wish to be looked at. A strange reaction for so handsome a creature—upon meeting him Rufus had been certain that he was a beautiful and rather shy woman, until the graceful, reticent man had murmured something to Kadaj. Rufus idly wondered how drunk Reno was, the way he was looking at that man, his lean face a mixture of attraction and utter contempt.
Interesting.
Rude, also, was strangely out of sorts, his head jerking ever so slightly from Reno back to the brother called Yazoo, as if finally reaching the solution to a puzzle and not liking it one little bit.
"It's time," Kadaj said, and walked towards him with a swinging gait that would've made any runway model proud—the boy's blatant sexuality rather frightened Rufus. He liked power and recognized it in others and sensed that this lithe and dangerous child wielded great power with such sensuality. Kadaj, it seemed, was never one to mistake his control over others and used his lovely body to his own advantage, actually smirking when he saw the discomfit in the set of Rufus's posture. "Let's go get a good view while my brothers go and play, shall we?"
Rufus knew better than to argue with this lovely, utterly mad creature. Kadaj was passionate and determined—two things Rufus admired in others, but he was grossly misled and hideously controlled. There really was no telling what that frank, sassy little shit would do next, and Rufus wasn't really willing to see the game end so soon anyways. If anything, Kadaj was an amusing distraction and being able to admire his slender youth was a perk Rufus wasn't willing to pass over. After all, he liked to keep beautiful, powerful things around him—hence, Rude, Reno, Elena, and Tseng…Though Elena and Tseng were gone now, thanks to this walking storehouse of crazy. That, however, didn't stop Rufus from garnering a long look at Kadaj's backside when he turned away. He didn't mind lechery at all, it was one of the things he so loved about Reno…
"Go to them, find Mother," Kadaj murmured to his brothers, swinging around behind Rufus' wheelchair to push him along. "We'll rip this place apart to get her."
The big one, Loz, smiled a wry, rather cruel smile at Kadaj and left. Yazoo shot Kadaj a dubious, unsure look that quickly glazed over into fanatical belief, the pain coming off of him in near palpable waves. He averted his face when he passed Reno, and Rufus noted that his red-haired Turk couldn't keep his burning, hate-filled gaze off of Yazoo's graceful, slim figure as it disappeared out of the door.
"Rude, Reno, why don't you take the day off," Rufus said, waving them away. He knew the weird request would get their suspicions up and that they would probably go after the brothers. Rufus might consider Kadaj's backside in the same way one considered biting into a ripe plum, but that didn't mean he had to let his subordinates sit on their hands when they could be fighting to free themselves. "I think I'm safe enough with Kadaj."
The pair exchanged glances, wary. They really had no choice in the matter. He watched them go and asked, "Now, what did you want to show me, Kadaj?"
"You'll see," the boy purred, and stroked his shoulders with quick, firm hands. He pushed the chair into the elevator and they ascended to the unfinished thirteenth floor.
Rufus's lucky number.
Reno could hardly believe his good luck! Permission from the boss to fuck with the creeps—if he hadn't felt so sick inside, he might've actually been glad. Instead he just felt a fierce, hardened knot of pure loathing inside him, the scab over that bloody chunk that was torn from his soul.
Feeling confident that Rufus was more than capable of protecting himself from the little kook, especially with baby-boy's mommy right there in his lap, Rude and Reno had little compunction leaving him alone. Rufus was a big boy, and if he thought he could handle Kadaj alone, well, so be it.
The two hitmen-cum-bodyguards quickly left Rufus to his own plots and games and went to collect the bird from the airfield—quick escape was always foremost in the mind of killers, and Reno wanted to be able to get airborne if the situation called for whisking Rufus out of harm's way.
It took time to get the helicopter prepped and in the air, and even more time to find a place to land that wouldn't draw the little terror's attention. Reno finally settled on putting her down on the top floor of an unfinished parking garage while Rude busily rummaged in the cargo.
They left the bird and went on foot, following the general ruckus to find a huge crowd milling around the monument—and in a circle around the monument were all the street rats, standing like little statues with their heads hanging low and their tiny bodies unmoving. The sight wrenched Reno, who too well remembered being a helpless child, and once again he felt hatred well up for the creature who could use children in such a way.
Yazoo and Loz had wrapped chains around the monument, clearly intending to take it down one way or another. Now the two brothers moved between the children, taking care not to disturb them—something Reno did not want to see, monsters with the capacity to sympathize.
The crowd antagonized them until Yazoo, his face a blank mask but for the slightest flicker of irritation, lifted his slender, gloved hand and drew forth nightmares from the cobbled surface below.
The crowd screamed and dispersed, only a few people actually making an attempt to save the children they'd so vehemently shouted over.
Reno readied his EMR, cautious of those randomly attacking things. For the most part they ignored the oblivious children, and Reno wished he hadn't seen Yazoo use a flick of his fingers to turn one away from one of the children. He wished he hadn't seen Loz shoo another with firm, disapproving hands until those creatures went for easier prey. He didn't want that…he needed Yazoo to be a monster. Because nobody could be in love with a monster, now could they?
He and Rude made their way through the quickly clearing crowd and Reno called out, "And what are we up to?"
He tapped his EMR against his shoulder, anticipating a fight and wanting one more badly than he had in a long, long time.
When Yazoo turned to face him his whole body clenched, taking in the sight of his beauty like a physical blow. Just a look at those large, cool eyes and porcelain-doll face made him want to throw caution to the wind and beg him why, why would he do such things? But the anger welled up, drowning it, and he steeled himself as the silky purr of Yazoo's voice questioned, "Mother's here, isn't she?"
"How do you figure?" Rude asked, at his back as always, aware of the singing tension in Reno's slender, muscled body.
The big guy, Loz, turned and gestured at the monument, saying, "ShinRa made this…monument, didn't they?"
There was something naggingly familiar about the man's voice, but Reno's brain was on auto-retort and dismissed it, focusing on his anger. It felt good to have a target for all of this hatred building up inside him, he relished being able to get rid of it.
"Oh-ho, don't think yourself to death there, big boy!"
"Because it isn't like that," Rude finished, the pair of them sharing a chuckle at the others' expense.
Reno looked back at Yazoo, still sneering, and the cat-like, graceful man cocked his pretty head and meaningfully breathed, "Oh? And who would trust you?"
Reno actually flinched, guilt flaring up in an uncomfortable, disquieting wave. Yeah, he'd stood him up, he'd come off looking like the liar, insisting that Yazoo trust him enough to hang around and wait for him all night while he never bothered to show up. But he clung to Yazoo's own sins, shocked beyond all measure that the man had the balls to actually question his integrity or the fact that Rufus trusted him.
Rude seemed to share his outrage, both of them affronted.
With a snarl of pure fury, Reno made for Yazoo, fully intending to kill him if he got ahold of him.
Unfortunately, just as he made a mad dash for him, something huge and monstrous dropped from the sky to land atop the monument, pausing him in shock.
Staring at it in open-mouthed shock, he didn't even realize he popped Rude one in the face. He gazed up at the monster and realized it was going to blow an energy ball at the monument.
"Holy…" he weakly said.
"…shit!" Rude finished, and the pair of them dashed back the way they had come, pausing to grab whatever kids they could and make a run for it.
The blast from that monster's mouth hit like a shockwave, blowing them both off of their feet to land some bit away, kissing asphalt.
It was Reno who came to first, groaning a little as the pain hit him. The kids, as kids will do, rebounded swiftly and wandered off, unmindful of the danger.
"Are we having fun yet? Oy," Yazoo sighed, gazing down at the fox-faced man and his rather bulky partner whose name he still did not know. It wasn't as if Rufus had given introductions, after all—and the Turks didn't seem to use their given names often.
He watched the two gain their feet while Kadaj's summoning raked the coals for Mother. Perhaps she wasn't even here. Perhaps the monument had simply irked Kadaj and they were here for no reason. No matter, Mother would make it right.
Reno, true to his nature, shot of a smart-ass retort and came up fighting.
Yazoo laughed, enjoying it. It had been so long since he'd seen Reno that touching him was pure joy—even if it was touching him to hurt him. Still, Yazoo blocked and blocked his furious attacks, only laying him out when Reno came close to actually hurting him. He leapt to the top of a building and looked down at Reno.
"Call it a day already!" Reno shouted up at him, his irritated look making him just that much more like a fox.
"Give us Mother and that will be the end of everything," Yazoo said, covering himself in apathy because he knew he was right—anyone without Mother's genes would die after the Reunion. The whole world would die, and Reno along with it. Still, it had been folly to think anything could come of it. Reno fought him like he was battling a demon, and his disgust was apparent. Yazoo wondered just how long it had taken once he left Reno's bed for the shame to set in…but he'd seemed so sincere on the phone…
He realized belatedly that Reno was clambering up the side of the building with preternatural speed, a snarl frozen on his face. He flipped out of the way just in time to avoid having that EMR come down on his skull with braining force.
"Forget about your Reunion! Your brother is a kook!" Reno snapped.
Yazoo's eyes narrowed and he softly, lowly said, "He's just a baby, he needs his Mother—can't you understand? We do this for Kadaj, it's the only thing that can save him from himself."
"A baby? You know, when you put it like that…" Reno panted, striking and blocking Yazoo's half-hearted hits. "…You sound like a kook, too!"
"Fine with me. If saving Kadaj makes me insane, then so be it. One of him is worth a world full of people like you," Yazoo said, his face cold. "At least being insane I'm not like you, Reno. I try to protect the people I love…"
He thought of his pleas for Reno to stay in the helicopter and wondered if, even then, he'd known. And even when there was the possibility of Reno actually having Mother, Yazoo hadn't told Kadaj out of fear that the baby would simply kill Reno and ask questions later. He'd done his best, even after Reno had so thoroughly rejected him, putting himself at risk from Kadaj's temper when he admitted to the baby that killing Reno would truly hurt him.
And for what? For this? For this contempt that cut like a blade? For this hatred? Reno had more than confirmed what Yazoo had feared and the pain of it ate away what little was left of Yazoo's will to resist Mother. Even being nothing would be greater than this offense. Perhaps it would be best if resurrecting Sephiroth did destroy the three of them. There was no room in this harsh, cruel world for them and not a single soul to care if they left it.
"Yeah…like your boyfriend?" Reno snapped, coming at him.
Yazoo had almost forgotten Loz's prank, and said with no little confusion, "I don't have a boyfriend."
"Liar," Reno growled, and when he attacked it was with murder in his eyes.
"I've never lied to you," Yazoo murmured, and gave him a kick that sent him crashing into a street sign and down into his partner's arms.
Yazoo leapt down after him and landed lightly beside his prone body. Again the pair struggled to their feet and Yazoo laughed, covering the welling panic inside him. Things were spiraling out of control and Yazoo was losing himself with it.
And then, before the foursome could continue their fight, the baby shrieked in furious anger and the building above them exploded into fire.