Rufus let out a long scream when Reno tried to hoist him up. They fell back together in a heap, Rufus fighting back tears of agony, Reno trying not to collapse from his own injuries.
"It's no good Reno..." Rufus panted eventually. "I can't be moved. You should just get out."
"No.." Reno was panting too and just leaned against the railing trying to catch his breath. "We just stay here then, and try no to get cut in half."
Reno reached out and picked up one the security guard's guns.
"Think it will do any good?" Rufus asked.
"It makes me feel better." Reno shrugged. He stared back at Jenova's head, still suspended by the many tubes attached to it. Then his eyes trailed down to the mess of glass and blood but among the shards something else.
"Don't." Rufus had followed his gaze. He was staring at the syringe, still intact. Cloud was not winning this battle. The blonde was already wounded and Sephiroth seemed unharmed.
"What if it's the only way to stop him?" Reno said, starting to move.
"No, you'll just create another monster. Don't do this Reno."
Reno pulled himself up using the railing and staggered over to the needle.
"He'll win." Rufus continued to protest.
"He thinks I'd lose my mind like him."
"You probably would."
"Well, I kind of lost it already so maybe I'd be okay."
"Not funny, Reno." Rufus watched him bend and pick it up. "Don't."
"You could shoot me if I went crazy."
"It didn't seem to have much affect on him."
"I'm sure I could hold on just long enough. I mean, he wasn't always crazy was he?"
"Reno stop."
The red head gripped the whole needle with his fist, still not terribly dextrous at the moment.
"He said it might get rid of these." he almost whispered, staring down at the terrible scars and stitches.
"Reno..."
Cloud gave a holler of pain and an arc of blood flew off the end of Sephiroth's sword.
"Why?" Reno asked suddenly. "Why did you continue this Rufus?"
"I didn't know about the search for more candidates, Reno. I only wanted to see what we might gain from Jenova's cells."
"Nothing. Nothing but evil and despair."
"Then don't inject yourself with it."
"I can't watch anyone else die, not when I could have done something." Cloud cried out again. Reno watched him fall to his knees. Sephiroth was bleeding now too but not as heavily. He wasn't sure Cloud could even stand again.
Sephiroth stood over him menacingly. He was speaking but Reno couldn't hear him. But then he whipped around and Reno saw what he heard– the double doors practically fell off their hinges this time when the four burst through. Reno's eyes widened. Rude was in terrible shape but somehow still standing. Elena and Tseng had their guns already trained on Sephiroth and didn't hesitate before opening fire. Tifa held up her fists but couldn't help look to Cloud with fear and concern.
Cloud managed to stand, finding some new strength at their arrival. Reno saw an evil smile spread over Sephioroth's face. He knew he was going to kill them all.
Reno raised the syringe.
"DON'T!"
He exposed his arm but when he pressed it in the vein just above the scars he froze. Those were Sephiroth's marks on him. He had let him win. Reno had managed to make Don Corneo's marks into his own, something with meaning. But Sephiroths had won over him. If he did this, he would no longer be human. He would be what Sephiroth wanted and the monster would triumph.
Reno dropped the syringe and let it break against the grate, the liquid slipping into the abyss that loomed beneath them. He met Rufus' stunned gaze.
"You're right, sir. But I'm still going to stop him." He pulled the gun from the back of his pants and then reached to the slimy head hanging in the tank above him. He mercilessly yanked Jenova from the tubes that held her.
"What are you–"
"Thanks for bringing me back from the slums that day, Rufus," Reno said quietly, not making eye contact as he scooped up the largest piece of glass he could fine and slid it under his his remaining bandage.
Then he held up the calamity by its hair and put the gun against it's temple and began marching with purpose toward the battle.
"SEPHIROTH!"
To say the room went silent was not so dramatic for Reno who really couldn't hear much anyway. But the hatred that boiled out of those two points of green light definitely had an effect on him.
There was nothing logical about the situation other than Reno's reasoning of how Sephiroth would react. Jenova was a head, long dead, putting a bullet in her now would do nothing but maim her. But that was really all it would take to set Sephiorth off. His obsession was powerful.
There were no words. Sephiroth simply began running toward him. Reno emptied his clip into the oncoming force. But somehow he just kept moving. At the last minute he looked at the abyss below the grates and threw Jenova.
He had hoped Sephiroth would dive after it. But he had counted on him not.
Reno raised his hand and waited.
Sephiroth's sword slid through him. He had taken a step at the last second so as not to be run through like Rufus but the long edge ripped deep against his ribs. But he felt nothing but the shard of glass he gripped in his hand and brought down with all his force into Sephiroth's neck.
"I am better than you." Reno hissed out. Sephiroth spasmed, clutching his throat where blood poured freely. But through the torrent that spurted up into his mouth and out his lips, Sephiroth smiled.
"You think so?"And he ripped the shard free of his throat.
"No..." Sephiorth drug his sword back, grating the steel against Reno's ribs and the human fell backwards.
"You could have been so much more." Sephiroth hollered.
"No!" Reno screamed out again in utter frustration. He couldn't move his arm on his left side because he had to keep it tight against the terrible gash but neither could he stand, so he drug himself backward with one arm as Sephiorth made his slow advance.
"Stop!" Sephiorth turned with an annoyed expression to see Tifa leaping through the air at him. But even wounded as he was he sent her flying back with one swipe. She flew over the abyss and Reno just glimpsed Cloud drop his sword to catch her.
Sephiroth raised his sword again. Reno was still in range.
"Reno!" The shots rang out. The three Turks stood shoulder to shoulder firing upon Sephiroth. This time the bullets did seem to hurt him.
"I thought I already killed you a long time ago." Sephiroth smiled at Tseng.
"NO!" Elena stepped forward, recklessly, seeing the images of Tseng's body when she found him one year ago. Rude grabbed her back just in time from the swipe of the sword and Tseng dodged beneath and ran forward still firing. But not even the director the Turks was fast enough. Sephiroth's sword went right through his shoulder. He stagger back and the other two Turks moved to catch him.
"Just die!" Reno screamed at Sephiroth from the ground and the other slowly turned back to him.
"No, Reno, it is you who will die. Insignificant. Pathetic."
The sword was against his chest. With every laboured breath it bit deeper into him. Sephiroth wanted it to be slow. Reno grit his teeth but his sharp eyes caught a flash behind Sephiroth and he knew Cloud was making his move.
And it all played out in Reno's mind. The one scenario in which everyone lived. He knew Sephiroth would hear Cloud leap, feel the rush of wind of his descent, the blade slicing through air. He knew Sephiroth would impale him, or at least counter him. But he felt the weight of the cuffs the demon above him had place on him earlier, cuffs he'd broken his thumb to escape. He raised his right hand and gripped Sephiroth's blade and looked him in the eyes.
"Just get it over with." he said defiantly, masking the slight of hand at work.
Then Sephiroth turned. His sword swooped upwards but as it did, the empty cuff Reno slid around it's tip worked its way down the blade, and Reno used all of his body weight to leverage against the weapon.
It was just enough. He screamed through the pain of the terrible force on his wrist, cutting skin and breaking bone, but he also screamed in triumph, feeling the blade slowed just enough before it cut through the cuffs. And Cloud had his opening.
Reno had been drug forward by the force of Sephiroth's swing and collapsed face first on the grate. He didn't actually see the moment when Sephiroth's chest was so perfectly exposed, see the look of calm that passed over Cloud the second he knew that this was it- this was the moment they finally won.
He didn't see the shock on Sephiroth's face when his sword failed to swing. When his flesh was pierced. But he did see the bloodied end of Cloud's sword cut deep into the grate before him as it impaled their enemy, and most of all, he heard it. The resounding clink that sounded as loud as the explosion next to Reno's ears. That sound of metal on metal that rippled through the room declaring the end to a battle that had started so long ago.
And all that was left was silence.
Cloud ripped his sword free. Sephiroth sputtered, but there were no words, and then he fell in a cold heap right before Reno. But his body didn't spasm and let go like Reno's first kill, and every kill since. It wasn't human, so it died inhumanly. Cloud stood in a trance, hands and face and actually most of his body covered in blood. He panted, holding the sword that had ended it all as if it was a lifeline. Everyone in the room still seemed too afraid to move.
"Cloud." Reno finally broke the silence. He was still laying on his stomach but he was propped on one arm, though it shot chills through him to put any weight on it, he was sure the cuff had broken his wrist and it had definitely torn some of his stitches. "You came. You did it."
Finally Cloud returned from wherever he had drifted and looked at Reno.
"Yeah." He dropped his sword and collapsed to his knees. "Thank you, Reno."
And now there was so much noise. Tifa was running toward them, her sneakers thundering on the grate against which Reno was rapidly slumping again. Rude was yelling orders, Elena was in crisis mode trying to patch Tseng back up. Someone spotted Rufus finally and Reno felt feet rushing past him. But a warm hand was on his back and he heard Tifa making promises that he'd be okay intermingled with orders to Cloud to stay conscious. But now it didn't really matter, he was free to drift, and so he did. He let it all go, all the pain, and slipped away into the gentle embrace of nothingness.
Well I think I will be able to wrap things up in one more chapter! I'll try not to take too long with it. Sad to see this one coming to an end but I might have one more Reno-centred fic on the way, I'll just have to see how it goes.
thanks for the reviews,
Riza.