I am just not having a good groove writing this scene from the film. I don't think I know if the pacing's right or not, since this particular part's chock-filled with rapid action. But that's for this Friday. Thankfully, now I know what'll happen in the next few chapters... it's nearly the end. And then fun ideas for story III... (that means don't leave after I say THE END on this fic.)

Bloodwitch Raven - To me, Reno and Rude very rarely have true "oh shit" faces. They have their game faces, their normal faces, and and then "oh my god I'm gonna die" faces, but the last one I think we've only ever seen it in On the Way to a Smile when they thought they were going to die during the Meteor Crisis. So I gave this scene my spin.

Echo the Ethereal Swordmaster - Poor Tseng and Elena... they're thrown right back into action. Rufus needs all hands on deck for the coming few days, and possibly the next few years. The two weren't as fast as Reno and Rude were, so I guess they aren't in their top-notch shape.

If anyone's interested in the song Reno is humming in this chapter, it's Stevie Wonder's Superstition.

Chapter 51: Intuitions and Superstitions


Reno came back to Healin that evening exhausted and quite frankly ready to crawl into bed and not come out for a week. Looking for kids was one thing, but having to deal with a chirpy teenage girl, then stand in the middle of an ongoing talk-to from Tifa Lockheart, wasn't exactly his idea of his job. He barely managed to get out of his clothes before crashing. Forget nightwear. He was wearing underwear, wasn't he?

Of course, his bed had a previous occupant. Who groaned, cussed him out, and then mumbled an apology when she saw who had disturbed her sleep. "Oh," she said, yawning, "it's you."

"Wow, aren't you a happy girl," Reno retorted. "What's up with you?"

"Tseng and Elena's back. Oh, and I had another attack." She pondered for a bit. "Hey, that rhymes."

"Back, as in back back?"

"Back, as in Acid and I brought them back, and then I spent a good part of the afternoon casting healing magic on them. They're almost healed."

Reno frowned. "That can't be safe."

"It wasn't. Rufus' orders, though." She yawned again. Rapid, repetitive application of healing magic was discouraged in general, mainly because minute adjustments were needed for many things to heal properly that required fine control. Making the body go under cell regrowth that quickly could cause replication errors as well. Arien had her doubts when she had used the materia, but Rufus had been glaring at her and it was rather clear that for Rufus, the possibility of Tseng and Elena up and kicking around far outweighed Tseng and Elena becoming maimed or having horrible, uncontrollable growths. "Can I go back to sleep now?" She grumbled. She wasn't good with sleep interruptions, and she was very, very grouchy in the mornings. Reno had made it a habit to keep out of her way before she had her morning coffee. Waking her up again would probably end up with a bullet hole in his privates. Dark, soft hair fell onto the pillow as she rolled over toward him, her eyelashes fluttering, her breaths soft. Reno watched her sleep for a bit, felt assured that she was back asleep.

Then Reno fell asleep as well, and for the night it had been peaceful. Tseng and Elena slept through the night, Rufus did not have an attack, and Rude was a peaceful sleeper, if a very, very light one.

But if Reno expected the next day to be peaceful, he was dead wrong.

The morning started off with Reno accidentally walking in on Elena hobbling her way down to the bathroom. The blonde woman promptly screamed - whether for propriety since she was in nothing but a tank top and shorts, because Reno was just a lecher, or psychological trauma, no one ever got to know - but she did scream bloody murder, waking everyone up. Arien came storming out, her hair a rumpled mess, her eyes sleepy, and fiery vengeance etched onto her face. Reno winced, feeling the oncoming tornado.

"Why do you people hate sleep!" she shouted. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Reno pointed at Elena, who blushed and fled. Arien stomped down the corridor, her slippered feet going slap, slap, slap against the wooden floor as she stormed into the bathroom to wash her face and take a shower. She came out, fifteen minutes later, wearing nothing but a towel. Reno, who was sitting on the bed, trying to not move and get lost in the cigarette smoke, turned.

"Nice view," he said, his tone dry.

Arien did not react as she whipped her towel off and began to get dressed. Her dark hair fell forward, limp and wet, as she wrapped the towel around her hair and slid into a pair of panties, the dark grey lace of the waistband making her flesh look milky white with just a hint of pink. He exhaled, a white cloud obscuring his vision for a moment before clearing. She pulled out a pair of wide-legged trousers and a tank top that was so vividly blue Reno squinted for a moment. Then she pulled out another tank top that was so loose it looked as if it will fall off her shoulder. She slid into the trousers, then yanked the tighter tank top over her head, then pulled on the looser one over the blue. Arien's fashion sense borderlined teenage rebellion, but with her angular chin and her thin nose and her straight hair, she just managed to not look rebellious but rather put together. The general theme of her body was lanky, and so she very rarely wore fluffy skirts. The straight lines and the angles of her attire made her look even taller and thinner, but also gave her a feline look that he found enticing.

"I am so tired," she complained as she whipped the towel off her head and began to put her hair up in a ponytail. The wet hair slapped against her breast, making straight, wet marks on the white fabric of her shirt.

"Same shit, different day." Reno tapped the ash into the ashtray, then squished the cigarette. "Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna be kicking and punching and screaming today?"

She shrugged, then stretched. "Intuition? Yours do tend to hit the mark, though."

"Great," Reno grumbled, flopping onto his back. "Very superstitious," he hummed to the ceiling, "writings on the wall." He sat back up. "Why does awful shit keep happening to us? Did I cuss out a god or somethin'? Break a mirror?"

"So it's your fault?"

The redhead thought about it for a bit. "Haven't broken any mirrors," he recalled.

"Walked under ladders? Stepped on cracks?"

"Oh hell, how the fuck would I remember that?" He groaned. "Maybe."

"You are so, so, jinxed out." Arien laughed, then sat by his head, on the bed. He felt long fingers latch onto his shoulder, then groaned as her hands kneaded the hard muscles. "Oh, oh god," he moaned. "That is so good."

"You sound like you're about to come," she laughed again, continuing to ease the tension out of his body, bit by bit, flesh by flesh.

"It feels that good," Reno murmured. "Well, kinda opposite… ooh, right there." Arien fell silent as she concentrated on a particularly stubborn muscle just below his neck. "Ow. Oww. Oh, right there."

"What's the opposite?" She asked as she gestured for him to roll over.

"Well, when I'm about to come, I'm all tense and…" he began chuckling into the cover when he heard Arien sigh. He felt her straddle him as her hand continued to work on the back muscles, making him feel like a puddle of jelly. "Actually, I feel like I just came. Sorta." He now understood that sexual element of a massage; Arien would be even more pliant after a massage. Maybe he should try it. She'd be defenceless and powerless, a puddle of soft pleasure ready to be taken and devoured.

"Your silence disturbs me," came the sharp voice. She really knew him too well. "What're you thinking about?"

Telling her that he was considering using massage as a sexual foreplay was pretty much a guarantee she'd never let him do it. So he fibbed. "Just my hunch," he said as he rolled over again, letting her work on his legs as he moved up on the bed so his entire length would be on it. "About luck."

"Worried?" She began working on the other thigh. Unlike his other body parts, his thighs were larger, with far more defined outlines of the muscles. A few minutes of silence, and then she made him roll over onto his back. He finally spoke.

"Well, nah. Not worried. Just, ya know, tense."

"I know that," came the soft giggle. "Down, boy," he heard her say, and he realised that he must have been aroused. She probably knew what sort of thoughts had been caterwauling through his head. And she had made no mention of it. Did this mean she was open to the idea, or just oblivious?

"I am not fucking you this morning," Reno said in retaliation. "It'll probably start with a bullet crashing through the wall."

Her hand traced the particular scar that he had gotten from when he had been shot, the night they had first slept together. "It did spice the night up, or so you said later on, if I recall correctly," she retorted. "Seriously. Are you nervous?"

He licked his lips. He just had a bad feeling about today. But saying it out loud wouldn't help. So he kept his silence. She continued down the leg, then finally patted his leg, signalling that she was finished. He sat up, feeling suppler, his movements more fluid. They sat in silence, Reno with his legs dangling from the bed, Arien with her legs thrown out in front of her on the duvet.

"Hey, we've survived," Arien said suddenly. Reno looked behind him, at her. "We might have the cesspit of luck, but we haven't fallen through the bottom. Don't worry." She stood up. "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I don't want breakfast."

"Well, if your intuition's right and you're going to be kicking and screaming, then you're going to need some food." She winked. "C'mon. If you're right, you're going to be in for a long day."


Reno ate breakfast - along with everyone else - and then Rufus told Reno and Rude to head out into the city. Which was just making the bad omen feeling worse for the redhead. No one else seemed to be feeling it, but he felt all the hair on the nape of the neck stand up.

Yeeech.

"Errr, why?" Reno asked, uncharacteristically. Rufus raised an eyebrow, but Reno very rarely asked the why, so Rufus let this indiscretion slide. If he asked why, then he probably had a very good reason, and it wouldn't hurt to indulge the redhead.

"Just go," Rufus said. "Call it an intuition. Something's going to happen in the town, very soon."

"And you'd know that because…"

"Kadaj called," Rufus explained in as few words as possible. Reno frowned, as if he didn't like it, but that wasn't any of the redhead's concerns, so Rufus ignored it. "So I will be going, as well as Tseng. We'll take the helicopter."

Arrgh. That word again. He really, really must have jinxed himself somewhere. Did he shit in a god's temple? Piss off a black cat? Did a bird fly in the window? Did a dog howl last night? "The helicopter?" Reno echoed.

"The one Acid and DeVir brought back yesterday," Rufus reminded them. "Rude, you'll be flying." No if's or buts allowed. Reno said nothing, and Rude, as usual, said nothing. Arien saw them to the door. "Don't take your guns out in the street unless it's empty," she warned. "You two aren't that good at shooting, and if something does happen, there'll be people going everywhere." She leaned onto the doorframe, and Reno, in the morning light, saw just how wan and thin Arien looked. She had always been a thin woman, but it was clear that geostigma was taking its toll.

I need to start rebuilding my goddamn life, Reno thought, and I can't do that when we're trying to scramble to save the now. Damn it.

But he didn't say it. He nodded, grinning. "Don't sleep on the table," he called as he walked down the path to the helipad. The song continued to whirl around in his head as Rude started the engine; Tseng helped Rufus in, and then came in himself, slamming the door shut. For a man who had been on the verge of death the day before, Tseng appeared to be… alarmingly hale. Either something was wrong or Arien's control on healing was finer than Reno had thought.

As Rude took to the air, Reno sank further into the seat, propped his knees up against the dashboard, and rolled the window down. It was a grey kind of a day, the sky cloudy, the wind clammy and cold against his cheek. Tseng and Rufus were talking behind them, inaudible with the lub lub lub of the spinning blades and the wind.

"Thirteen month old baby," Reno sang to the wind as he clasped his hands behind his head, using his hand and arms as a makeshift pillow. "Broke the lookin' glass-"

"What's the song's name?" Rude asked.

"'Superstition'. Funny thing, I have this weird feeling that I'll be yellin' and screamin' today. A lot. Lotsa runnin' 'round, ya know? I told that to Arie, and she says that I'd better eat up, since my hunches are usually true. What the hell." He hummed the next phrase, then told the wind that when people believed in things they didn't understand, people suffered.

Rude said nothing. Rude agreed with Arien's assessment - that Reno's 'hunches' were uncannily accurate, but only when it was bad, like an animalistic instinct that made all the rats flee a sinking ship - but he didn't say it to his friend. Instead, he sang along, because maybe singing would ward the bad luck. It wouldn't hurt.

When they did descend down to the outskirts of the city, they hid the flying vehicle, watching people move differently from what they knew. Rufus said that he needed to go somewhere to meet one of the silver-haired thingies. Something to be discussed, the blond president said. Tseng was to park himself somewhere and wait for the signal after escorting Rufus to his destination, whatever the signal was. And so the four dispersed, Rude and Reno in one direction, Tseng and Rufus in the other. Rude saw Tseng make a call - or at least, it looked like he was calling someone - but they were by then too far away for even Rude to eavesdrop. No matter.

Reno and Rude walked, their gaits rapid. Something was odd with the town. Usually, most people walked in every direction, each with their own destinations and their own intents and purposes; but today, they all seemed to be walking to-

"The town centre?" Reno asked his buddy. "Are they throwin' a party or somethin'?"

Rude doubted it. "Let's go," he said.

They found out soon enough that it wasn't a party as they neared the town centre, since all of a sudden there were screams and people started running toward them. Reno stood, amazed and more than dumbfounded. "What the hell?" he asked to no one, pulling his baton out.

Rude kept on walking.

Reno followed, caught up, and they walked down one of the narrow alleys that led to the monument that had just gone up; there were big alleys and small alleys, sprouting like spokes of a wheel from the centre of the town. People were still running, every which way, screaming, chaotic, some falling over nothing in their panic. Women with children inert and unmoving in their arms, men protecting their wives…

And amidst the chaos, were the two silver figures. And black wolf-looking thingies running around, apparently eating people. Or chewing people. Whatever the things were doing, all of a sudden the victims started to have a black cloud of vapour rising from their bodies. There was a crawling woman, sobbing, trying desperately to claw her way away from the thing. The thing slammed its paw into her back, making her hit her jaw. Blood trickled out from her mouth. She must have bitten her tongue. And then…

Oh fuck me. My hunch got right. Just my luck.

They were pulling on something.

They were pulling on… the monument? Why?

Reno decided to ask. "Whatcha doin'?" he drawled as he ambled up to them.

"Huh?" said the one that sort of looked as if its ancient ancestor, if it had any, had accidentally mated with a gorilla. Reno felt a crick in the neck and slapped his baton into his neck lightly a few times.

"Mother's here, no?" the thin one that looked like a girl asked.

That's it. I'm calling you Sissy from now on, and the other one I'm calling Gorilla.

But what was up with their mummy issues? Did they really expect that JENOVA was a maternal being? She was never, ever going to bake cookies with these morons or take them to the zoo or feed them ice cream. Either they were crazy, or they were completely batshit crazy. Either way, he found this 'Mummy' obsession get a little out of hand. They couldn't be less than twenty years old, and they were moaning and whining that their mummy was lost. Boohoo.

"What makes you say that?" Rude asked without betraying even a hint of emotion.

"This… ya know… this monument?" Gorilla up-talked as if he wasn't quite sure if the thing behind him was a monument or a large teddy bear. Was he retarded? "Shinra made it."

Reno was feeling mean.

"Oh hey, you guys used your brains!" He congratulated them.

"But you're wrong," Rude added.

"We don't know either."

They laughed.

Which pissed the silver-haired duos off. Or something.

"What, no trust in us?" Sissy mocked.

Nobody fucked with the Turks. Nobody made light of the Turks. That slight was not something that could easily be let go. They would have to do something about it, or go home with their proverbial tails between their legs.

Which was so not gonna happen.

Reno's face turned savage, but he looked at Rude, just to make sure. Rude looked away, as if refusing to make a decision. Alright then. Time for some kicking and punching and screaming.

With a cry, Reno made an overhand downward blow.