Chapter 37

Act III

It had been hours since Reno's near death experience and it was now dark outside. He and Aeron had been given new, mud free clothes. Yazoo's to be exact. They were also given a bed to share. Aeron was curled up in Reno's arms and watching the two Remnants as the climbed into own their beds.

"Good night Little Sister." they said quietly and closed their eyes.

"Good night guys." she replied and snuggled closer against Reno's chest.

"Why do they call you little sister, yo?" he whispered.

"That's what Sephiroth called me. They're a part of him, so they feel the same for me as he did."

"You miss him." Reno stated. She nodded.

"Those two remind me of him a lot." she explained, turning around to face him. He smiled half-heartedly.

"What's wrong? You've been acting oddly all day."

"I'm a hostage. How am I supposed to act?" he asked sarcastically.

"Even for being a hostage you're acting odd. You know they have no reason to harm us, and yet, you're back is almost always against me or a wall. And when someone does manage to get behind you, you turn pale and get all twitchy." she explained, causing Reno to frown.

"You'd make a great Turk." he muttered in annoyance. She grinned wolfishly.

"Are you going to explain or shall I have to force it out of you?" she asked and slid her hands up to his sides and poked at his ribs. He squirmed and pulled away from her.

"Oh, please don't tickle me. That's the worst thing you could do." He wasn't kidding with her either. He despised being tickled with a burning passion. He would rather have his teeth pulled in all honesty.

"Then spill. What's bothering you?" He sighed and looked down at the pillow beneath his head. She reached up and lifted his chin, a look of concern on her face.

"You recall the day you found me?" he asked softly. She nodded as he avoided all eye contact.

"It was really late when I left the bar. Around two or so. I knew it had been a bad idea to go out drinkin' alone, but it had been a really bad week and I'd just gotten back from a mission. Of course I was armed with my EMR, but that doesn't really matter when I was too drunk to even stand up straight. I knew I was bein' followed by a group of guys, so I ducked into an alley to get away, but it was an ambush. They recognized me, just like you did, as the one who dropped the plate and killed their families." Reno paused and bit softly on his bottom lip. Aeron wrapped her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He continued.

"They jumped me, and it started out like I'd expected. They took turns punchin' me until they decided I wasn't with the trouble of holdin' up. I fell and they started kickin' me. I could feel my bones crunchin' and breakin', but they weren't actually tryin' to kill me. I couldn't understand why, until they started cuttin' my clothes off. I tried to fight back, but by then, I was in no shape to fight a stuffed animal. I was on my back, so the flipped me over and…" he trailed off and shuddered. His eyes were squeezed shut, as if trying to block out the memory. Aeron petted his hair and held him close, trying to comfort him.

"They… They cut my pants off and one of them took his own off. I… I was so scared, yo. I wished they would just kill me, but they wouldn't. They said… They said I had to suffer." A quiet sob escaped his lips and he pulled Aeron tightly against him. It was hard for her to breathe, but she didn't complain.

"He kneeled behind me and… And…" he couldn't bring himself to say it. Aeron kissed his temple and petted his hair as tears streamed from his eyes and into her shirt.

"I'm sorry Reno. You're safe now. Nothing like that is ever going to happen to you again. I'll die first." she whispered softly. He snorted.

"That's my line, yo." he said and nuzzled her cheek.

"Why is it your line?"

"I know what happened to you Aeron. The experiments. I'm supposed to tell you that you'll never go through that again and that I'll protect you. But look at me. I'm a whimperin' mess in the arms of the woman that I l-…" he stopped himself before he could finish the sentence.

"That you what? Love?" she asked, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. Though Reno didn't notice, as his eyes were once again closed.

"Yes. But I shouldn't love you. I don't deserve to be happy after what I've done."

"You're ridiculous. I know what you've done and it honestly doesn't bother me. You're not a bad person Reno. You were loyal to the people who owned you. It's what you were programmed to do from the first day with them." she explained.

"I'm a killer Aeron. And killer doesn't deserve to be happy."

"So you're saying anyone who kills deserves to be miserable for their whole life? Is that it? Even if it's they're job." she asked, becoming irritated.

"Yes." he replied. With that, she couldn't contain herself any longer. She pushed him away and slapped Reno, hard, across the face. She jumped out of the bed and glared down at him.

"You're saying that Cloud, Vincent, and even Zack deserved to be miserable for life and that they weren't worthy of happiness? How dare you! Did it ever occur to you that even if they were killers, they are heroes! By killing the people they did, they saved everyone, including you and I!" she shrieked, waking everyone in the cave before storming out and leaving a dejected Reno curled up in the bed.

Genesis was sitting outside the cave on the still damp ground when she came out. He was in the shadows and out of her line of vision. She stomped toward one of the rock piles that littered the desert and punched it. A sizeable chunk fell off and she glared down at her hand, which was now bleeding. After that, she wandered toward the lights of Midgar, not really trying to get there, but wanting to go away from Reno.

"My friend, do you fly away now?

To a world that abhors you and I?

All that awaits you is a somber morrow,

No matter where the winds may blow

My friend, your desire is the bringer of life,

The gift of the goddess

Even if the morrow is barren of promises,

Nothing shall forestall my return."

Came a soft voice from the shadows. Aeron regarded him with curiosity and walked toward him.

"And what brings you outside at such an hour?" he asked, patting the ground beside him. She growled.

"An idiot who thinks all killers are bad and undeserving of love." she sat down and looked up at him.

"I take it that you love the afore mentioned idiot?" he asked and Aeron nodded.

"You're really quite a strange hostage, you know that. Does it even bother you to be my captive?" he asked, tugging gently on one of her long bangs. She shrugged.

"You remind me of Sephiroth. I guess I just miss him."

"Do you want him to come back?" the man asked, Mako staring into Mako.

"No. Because he's no longer the Sephiroth I once knew. He's been twisted and warped. I don't want to see the man I adored and looked up to like that." she explained. Genesis patted her head.

"I understand."

A/N: There you have it. I finally wrote in what happened to Reno. And yes, those are SephyXGenesis references. ^^