Scars of the Past

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Wish I was in your arms - Lying right there beside you - But I know that I'll be in your dreams tonight - And I'll gently kiss your lips - Touch you with my fingertips - So turn out the light and close your eyes - I'm already there - Don't make a sound - I'm the beat in your heart - I'm the moonlight shining down - I'm the whisper in the wind - And I'll be there until the end - Can you feel the love that we share - Oh I'm already there (Lonestar – I'm Already There)

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Chapter 5 - Rufus is a Sore Loser

In the hospital wing of the Shinra building, Reno laid in bed, thinking. He hated thinking. Thinking always led back to.... her. He never thought it was possible to miss someone so much. Everytime he closed his eyes, he could see her face, her eyes, her smile. God he wished with all his heart that he could see that smile again, that it was all a mistake and she wasn't dead. He sighed, he didn't want to admit it, but there was nothing he could do to change what happened. Maybe if he didn't stall her she would have come back before it blew up. Maybe if he wasn't too busy throwing Rude's coffee cup out the window, he could have gone instead. He would have been better off dead than she would.

He opened his eyes and sat up. He figured the time to be about eight in the morning, but there wasn't a sound in the corridor outside. 'That's strange, What the hell happened last night?' He contemplated getting out of bed and having a glimpse around the door. After a couple of minutes debating with himself, he pulled back the bed sheet and put his bear feet on the cold tiled floor. He managed to drag himself to the door. He pushed it open and poked his head out into the corridor. It was completely deserted. Reno noticed that at the far end of the corridor, there were dark red stains on the carpet. Venturing to the blood soaked carpet, Reno could see that the stains carried on down the hall and up the nearest set of stairs. 'Holy shit........'

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"Tseng, Wanna be President?" Rufus asked while sat on a desk, swinging his feet like a five year old would.

"I don't think so some how." The Turk said, as he looked up from some paperwork he was doing.

"Rude?"

"Nice try, but no." The bald Turk answered while grabbing himself yet another cup of coffee. Rufus turned his head to speak to Elena.

"Don't even think about it." The blonde retorted before he could ask her. The President sighed.

"Fine I'll just go and ask Scarlet, I know none of you would want that." Rufus pushed himself off the desk.

"Hey, she's not that bad when she's not hitting on people" Elena said.

"I know, but she is hitting on people 95% of the time" The blonde man said, with his back turned towards the door.

"Who's hitting on people 95% of the time?"

Rufus spun around to face the voice. "Oh it's you Reno." The blonde looked him up and down. "Aren't you a little under dressed for work?" The red head looked down and realised he was still dressed in a hospital gown. He looked up at Rufus.

"Ok, so I forgot about that. Anyway, what the hell happened last night?"

"I'll tell you, if you promise to at least cover your butt cheeks up." Tseng spoke still staring at the paperwork. Reno twirled round, so his back was facing everyone in the room.

"What's wrong with my butt cheeks?" A pair of trousers and a shirt hit Reno in the face. The red haired Turk glared at Rude.

"For god sakes put them on, before I throw you out the window, or even worse, lock you in a room with Heidegger." The bald Turk said, adjusting his sunglasses. The blonde Turk started giggling.

"Ok ok, I'm already changing." Reno said, as he walk into another room. Five minutes later, the red head walked back in, fully clothed, and sat down at his desk. "So what happened last night?" He put his feet on his desk and leaned back in the chair. Tseng took a deep breath.

"Avalanche came and went, taking the Ancient with them, but that's the least of the problems." The Turk leader click the top of his pen and rose from his seat to sit on the edge of the table. "Sephiroth is alive and he went on a massacre last night. All the guards that were posted to the Shinra building were killed. As well as the President." Tseng said, a little quieter.

"I think I might just go back to bed." Reno laid back on his chair a little more. "It can't get any worse than this."

"Oh yes it can." The blonde woman said while looking out the door. "Because Scarlet is walking down the hallway, not in the best of moods either." Reno's face went pale.

"Shit!! Okay where can I hide?" The red head dived under his desk. Rufus started to chuckle.

"At least she doesn't hit on you." The blonde President said before bursting into laughter. Scarlet appeared in the doorway, dressed in her normal red dress.

"Where is he?" The blonde demanded. Rufus was still giggling at this point, which had also set Elena off. They both looked at each other and pointed to Reno's desk. Scarlet grinned. "Okay, as he's not here I'll just have to find him later." She walked over to his desk and with one swift push, the table toppled over to reveal Reno. He acted as though he was looking for something. He saw a pen on the floor and grabbed it.

"There it is! I swear I've been looking for this for ages." He turned to look at the blonde. "Scarlet! Didn't see you there. How are you this fine morning?"

"You know, you should act sweet more often, suits you better. I don't even want you for anything, just thought it would be fun to shake you up a bit." Scarlet grinned even more. She swore she heard Reno mumble something along the lines of 'bitch', but wasn't sure. "Just wanted to wish the new President good luck that's all."

"Thanks.......... I think" Rufus muttered, back to swinging his legs, while sat on Tseng desk again. "Hey Scarlet do you mphhhh" The blonde was cut off by Tseng putting his hand over his mouth.

"Ignore him, he's still grieving" The Turk said. Scarlet opened her mouth to say something but stopped. She turned to Reno instead.

"I expect......"

"Yeah yeah I know. He'll be there in a couple of hours ok?" She smiled at the red head and walked out the room.

"Thanks, I nearly said something I was gonna regret then." Hoping off the desk again, Rufus walked towards the door. "I'd better go and do some President type things". With that he left the room. Reno ran over to the door.

"Just don't over exert yourself by sitting down on your ass all day." The red head shouted to the retreating blonde. Rufus stopped and turned back round to face him.

"I'm not like you Reno." He began to walk off again.

"Ouch, now that hurt." Reno said. Rufus just held up his hand and waved to him. "So what do we do now?" He asked walking back into the room.

"You, are going home. The rest of us are going after Sephiroth." Tseng said, as he got up.

"Are you nuts or what? You need more than us to stop that psychopathic freak!" Reno shouted.

"Try telling Heidegger that."

"I might just......" A hand touch Reno on the shoulder.

"Reno don't bother, just go home alright. We'll handle it." Rude told the other Turk.

"Alright, but don't any of you go dying on me ok? I've got a kid to pick up to see his Grandmother." He chuckled a bit, then left the room.

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Elena walked out of the Mythril Mines with a sigh. 'Damn it!! Had to open my big mouth didn't I?' Rude strolled out after her. He patted her on the back.

"Don't be too hard on yourself. To be honest, you probably did us a favour." The bald Turk took off his sunglasses to give them a clean on his jacket.

"A favour?" The blonde asked. Rude turned to look at her

"Think about it. Avalanche are looking for Sephiroth as well. If they get to him first and hopefully kill him, then it saves us a job." The bald Turk put the sunglasses back on, adjusting them a little.

"Maybe you're right." Elena mumbled to herself more than to the other Turk. She laid down on the grass and looked up at the sky. "Heh, that cloud there looks like a bush." Rude let himself smile a bit.

"Don't all clouds look like bushes then? I could have sworn all clouds look like that one." Elena turned to look at him, then hit him in the leg.

"You know what I mean." The blonde smiled. 'Maybe it won't be so bad being a Turk'.

Tseng strode out the mines. He gazed over to where Rude and Elena were. He had to admit Elena was making a better Turk than he thought she would. He felt bad about having to reprimand her in the mines, but he wanted to make Avalanche believe that she wasn't supposed shooting her mouth off. He was pretty glad she ended up telling them where the silver haired psychopathic freak was heading to. He sighed. This was the most suicidal mission Heidegger have ever sent them on. It was as he didn't give a shit about them anymore, which was probably true. He was hoping that when Rufus found out he would beat Heidegger to a pulp. Well, ok not to a pulp, but he would certainly start shouting at the fat ass. The old President wouldn't have given a damn, but he liked to think Rufus was actually a friend. He was always hanging around in the staff room when he had a minute. His thoughts then led onto Adrienne. It had only been a week since the reactor blew up. They all missed her, she was a good Turk. He expected Reno to acting worse than he was. Maybe it was just his way of grieving. He hoped so, he didn't want to lose another perfectly good Turk and a friend. He sighed yet again and walked over to the other two Turks.

"We have to get going if we want to get to Junon by sundown." Elena looked up at the Turk leader and smiled a little. "You did right talking about Sephiroth. I, personally, don't want to fight him. If we can get them to do it..........."

"Then we don't have to right?" The blonde cut in.

"Exactly. Come on lets get going. We've got to be at Junon before Rufus anyway."

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The blonde President was sat at the desk in the Presidential Office, playing a game called Frazzle. He touched the metal bit for the fifth time and it buzzed. Slamming the handle down on the desk, he muttered.

"Damn it."

"Heh, can't even play a kid's game without being a sore loser." The red head said, as he lounged in a chair, feet up on the desk. Rufus looked over at the Turk, then at the small child sat on the floor, playing with an Action Man.

"I'm not a sore loser, Reno. And this isn't a kid's game. Hell I'd like to see your kid try." Reno laughed.

"You're on. Hey kid come here Uncle Rufus has a new game for you to play." Callum looked up.

"Call me Uncle Rufus one more time and I'll happily lock you in a room with Heidegger." Reno ignored him. He gave the game to the red haired boy and patted him on the head. He bent down to whisper in his ear.

"If you do this game, I'll buy you an ice cream on the way home, ok?" Callum nodded his head as hard as he could without it actually falling off and toddled over to where he was playing before. A few buzzes could be heard in the background.

"Isn't that called mean trying to make a child play that game." A black haired man asked from the doorway.

"I'm just showing Rufus that it's a kid's game since he can't do it to save his life." Reno told the Shinra Executive.

"I can too. I'm just not very good when people are watching me."

"Any excuse Ruffie." Rufus scowled, while Reno and Reeve laughed at him.

"What do you want anyway Reeve?" The blonde asked, still sulking from losing the game.

"I came to tell you that Cait Sith is finished." Rufus smirked. Reno waved his hand in front of the President who looked as though he had gone insane.

"Err hello, what the fuck is Cait Sith?"

"It's a robot. A robot that's going to help us spy on Avalanche." Rufus told the Turk.

"Ooooo now that idea I like, but what does this thing look like?"

"Exactly as the name suggests." Came Reeve's comment from near the door. He opened it. A grey cat balanced on top of a huge white moogle walked into the room. "This is Cait Sith."

"It's a fucking cat on top of a really big moogle. And that's going to spy on Avalanche how?" Reno asked, coming to have a closer look.

"Hey, I resent that comment." The cat said as it jumped off the moogle.

"Trust it to have it's own personality." The red head mumbled under his breath.

"Of course I have my own personality." Reno glared at the cat.

"I'm beginning to hate this thing already."

"And I love you too." Cait said as he started to walk towards where Callum was, who was still playing Frazzle.

"I think it's cute." Rufus said from in his chair. "I have the perfect plan for getting it to spy on Avalanche too."

"Do tell your royal highness." Reno said collapsing back into his chair.

"We send it to the Gold Saucer. Dio owes Shinra a favour anyway so he can't say no. When Avalanche go there, we get Cait Sith to try and join them. We can then keep tabs on them, wherever they go. Sound good?"

"I have one slight query about that. What if they find out? There's nothing to stop them tearing it apart when they do." The black haired man asked.

"Didn't one of the members of Avalanche have a kid? Maybe we could kidnap her and if they do find out, we can say we have her. There isn't a thing they can do about it. The only way would be to keep the dumb robot in the team." The Turk added to the conversation.

"I dunno......."

"Aw come on it's not like we are going to hurt the kid. We'll give her back right after this whole mess is done with."

"That's not a bad idea Reno. I knew you were a Turk for some reason." The blonde said. Reno took a mock bow. "And since it was your idea, you can go and get her." The red head groaned.

"Come on, can't you send a SOLDIER to get her. I hate dealing with the Ancient's mother." He mumbled the last part.

"You're telling me Reno of the Turks can't deal with a woman, an not too young woman at that?" Rufus chuckled.

"Stupid up, Mister I-can't-play-a-kid's-game." The blonde scowled at Reno's comment.

"It's not a kid's game!" Rufus shouted. The red head laughed and pointed towards Callum. The blonde looked over. Come to think of it he hadn't heard the buzzer for a while. As he looked over, he could see that the red haired boy was near the end of the puzzle. Callum carried on until the handle got to the end of the metal part and pulled it out. He looked at Rufus and grinned. Reeve started laughing.

"What was that about it not being a kid's game Ruffie?" Reno managed to get out before he burst out laughing as well.

"Shut up, just shut up."

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