The Last of an Elite
Chapter Thirty: Maybe He's In Trouble
By InterfaceLeader
-~-~-~-
Rude set the empty shot glass down on the table, and leant back in his chair. Behind the sunglasses his eyes were closed, his thoughts turned inward.
Maybe if I apologised... I should never have ended it the way I did.
The night was quiet, only the background hum of the reactors disturbed the peace. He was sliding into sleep, internal worries smoothing away....
The explosion shattered the silence. Rude jumped to his feet, instinctively thinking of Avalanche and their bombs.
He looked out across Midgar, and saw the smoke curling up from two sectors away. It would take at least fifteen minutes to make it there. He sighed and headed for the door.
-~-~-~-
The blast threw Reno head-first up the street and into the metal wall at the far end, which collapsed under the force of the shot. The floor buckled and blistered, and the Mako powered lights flickered off.
"Shit!" The Pilot dropped the gun and clutched his arm, which had borne the full brunt of the recoil. "My arm! It's broken!"
"Steal!" The guards had already reached the fallen Turk, and were quickly carrying out their plan. Reno, dazed from the explosion and struggling to extract himself from the crumbled remains of the wall, suddenly found himself divested of his electro-mag rod. Swearing profusely he made an attempt to grab it back, but the Shinra Guard had already jumped back.
"Wall - " A second guard went to use his own materia, but was knocked off his feet by a sudden leg-hook from Reno. He crashed to the ground, the spell dying on his lips. Reno flipped himself out of the rubble, landing in a half crouch, a defensive posture, whilst he scanned the attackers.
The fallen guard also clambered back to his feet, cursing and grabbed his materia again.
"Wa - "
Reno ran forward and used the guards shoulders as a springboard to flip himself up and over the group. The guard started to turn, desperately trying to keep the spell under control, but Reno grabbed the back of his uniform and threw him headfirst into the wall. The guard's head smashed against it, the masked helmet breaking loose and revealing a young man, with soft brown hair now clumped and matted with the blood that was flowing from his nose.
Shiva... he can't be any more than 14, Reno thought with disgust, turning away from the unconscious body.
The remaining four guards clumped together as they faced him, automatically seeking safety in numbers. Reno smirked slightly, enjoying their obvious discomfiture.
"What's the matter? Can't finish what you started?"
"Don't let him back up!" The Pilot's voice echoed up the street, twisted with pain. Reno started to turn, only to find himself once more being blown backwards by a second shot from the gun. The Pilot cried out as his broken arm was further twisted and shattered by the recoil.
"Get him!" The Shinra Guards instantly piled on top of Reno as he smashed back up against the broken wall. Punching, kicking and slamming their machine guns into him, they kept up a frenzied, savage attack designed to keep the Turk from rising again.
"Shit!" Reno yelled, as the blows slammed into him. The pummelling was taking its toll, he could feel darkness edging up on him. With a strength born of desperation he lashed blindly upwards, his fist connecting with one guards stomach and sending him flying backwards. The temporary let up was all he needed, and he was back on his feet, this time attacking immediately.
He sent a flying kick into a second guard, sending him crashing down on top of his comrade and immediately twisted round, grabbing one of the remaining two guards and snapping his arm back, hearing the crunch as the bone broke. The guard screamed, and Reno let go, spinning to face the final guard who was racing forwards with his machine gun aloft. Reno ducked the blow, and lifted the guard round the stomach, throwing him up and over his shoulder.
The fourteen year old brown haired guard came round with a groan of pain. Looking up, he saw the Turk demolishing the rest of his group. Ignoring the blood that was flowing freely from his head, he started to crawl determinedly down the street towards the pilot who was curled up round his arm, sobbing quietly.
"Thought you could beat a Turk huh?" Reno raged, as he slammed his foot down on a fallen guard. "Thought you could just waltz up and attack for no fucking reason - "
"There was a reason!" The young guards voice resounded down the street, and Reno groaned. Spinning round, he found himself facing the muzzle of the gun that had already laid him low twice, this time in the hands of the bleeding youth. The gun was shaking, the guard was having difficulty holding it.
"Put it down." Reno snarled, knowing a third shot would be more than he could take. He was already weakened from the previous shots, and the pummelling. He was shaking nearly as badly as the guard.
"You killed my sister! She was four you bastard! Four! She didn't even have a chance..." The guard swayed, but somehow managed to keep the gun trained on the Turk. "You killed her. You're a murderer. You're worse, you killed children...... I'm going to kill you!" Tears were running from the guard's eyes, mixing with the blood and coating his face in streaks of red. For a second Reno's harsh, Mako-glowing icy blue-green eyes met soft, grieving brown ones.
Then the guard pulled the trigger.
-~-~-~-
Rude rounded the corner, panting from the long run he had made. Shinra Guards littered the street, some still, some moaning softly. Slumped over a smoking gun was an unmasked guard, clearly dead.
And past that...
"......Reno!?"
-~-~-~-
Elena sat on her bed, staring at the elegant black evening dress that was draped over the back of a chair opposite her.
I should call him... find out what's wrong. It's late. He should have called. I should call him. What if something's happened? What if it hasn't? What if he forgot? What if he was joking? No... he wouldn't do that. I should call him.
Her PHS buzzed, and she jumped. Answering it so hastily she nearly dropped it, she yelped into it, "Tseng?"
".....Rude........... I need you. Bring a cure materia. And a phoenix down. And handcuffs."
Elena blinked.
"Um... what for exactly?"
"........ mutiny....... Just bring them."
-~-~-~-
"I do hate Turks." Hojo said pleasantly to the animal yanking and twisting crazily on the end of a chain. Foam flowed from its mouth, and feral yellow eyes rolled in its head.
"Tut... stop pulling. You'll choke yourself." Hojo shook his head. The chain wasn't the best way of keeping subjects under control. He missed his Shinra laboratory, with all the equipment he needed. The basement of a house in Costa del Sol just wasn't the same.
"Hopefully those malignant cells I put in his morphine back when he was in hospital will have started working by now." The scientist mused to himself. "Reversing the previous experiment of course. Perhaps we'll be lucky and he'll shoot his partners when the guilt really sets in, eh Pussy? Turks.... so reliant on force and image and style eh? They have no respect for science."
The giant cat screamed as her muscles swelled against her fur, her very insides changing shape. As she threw her head back the nose gradually lengthened and her gums began bleeding under the pressure of new, larger and sharper teeth.
"Yes... the cells should be working right now..."
-~-~-~-
Reno was detached from himself, floating free in a soft sparkling green cloud. Everything was warm, and there was a smell of flowers, cut grass and sunshine. Even in his drowsy, semi-aware state he appreciated the rare scent.
"Mum! Mum! Reno stole my blankee!" The little boys voice cut through the cloud like a knife, a nearly tangible force. The scent disappeared, replaced by the dank rot of the slums. Reno opened his eyes, still detached, an omnipresent observer.
He was overlooking a kitchen, a slum kitchen. The walls were cracked and peeling, the table rough and wooden. A tired looking woman with short red hair was stirring a pot on a botched looking stove. A boy, around two, had fastened himself onto her leg, sobbing. "He stole my blankee!"
The woman sighed and put a lid on the pot. The little boy pulled her across the room and into the hall, where a slightly older boy was showing a four year old girl how to fold a tattered blanket up to make a rose.
"Reno, you know Gerry doesn't like people taking his blanket." The woman chided as she took the half-folded blanket away from the older boy.
"I was just trying to show Ali how to make origami" The boy said crossly.
"Well show her with something else." The woman gave the blanket to Gerry, and went back into the kitchen.
That's me? Reno frowned at the boy. The little girl - Ali - tugged on his shirt.
"Tell me a story instead," she suggested.
"Ok." The Reno-child replied. "I'll tell you the story of the three chocobo's and the mean old wolf."
"Goodie!" The girl sat on the floor, smiling cheerfully as the Reno-child began the fairytale. Reno shook his head.
I... remember this. Today was an important day. But why? Frustration bubbled up inside him at the memories he could feel, but not see. The scene before him shattered, breaking up into green shards.
Something happens. I know it did! Why can't I remember?
-~-~-~-
"....... he spends a lot of time in hospital....." Rude said, as they left the ward.
"Has Tseng called you? Recently?" Elena asked nervously. After putting the Shinra Guards in jail, with the exception of one who had been dead from a head wound, and taking Reno to the hospital wing after the phoenix down had failed to revive him, she had found her thoughts once more turning to the man who had invited her out that evening.
"......no." Rude looked at his watch and sighed. The bars would have just closed, and it hardly seemed worth going home.
"It's just... I think he might... he said he'd take me out." Elena went pink. "But then he didn't, and he hasn't called or anything."
"........" Rude looked at the blushing Turk.
"I just... he might be in trouble."
"....Did you call him?"
Elena shook her head. Rude frowned slightly and took his PHS out. Pressing a button, he held the device up to his ear and waited. After a minute had passed his frown deepened.
"What is it?" Elena asked anxiously.
".....nothing. Not even a tone." Rude looked at the blonde. "..... We'll take a helicopter."
-~-~-~-
A/N: Nothing to say! Nearly at the end of disk one now ^_~