The Last of an Elite

Chapter Thirty One: Grief

By InterfaceLeader

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Floating. Twisting through half-caught scenes, flickers of events. A smile, a single blade of grass forcing its way through a crack in the pavement, a light turning off, a shelf of food-cans, someone shouting, the smell of illness, sights and sounds and smells.

Everything faded out, and he was once again watching himself. Another slum house, this one slightly more luxurious. A faded pattern of roses decorated the walls, and there were two stuffed armchairs, both new.

He was older here, at least 18 or 19. Leaning against the wall of the room, twirling his electro-mag rod and smoking, whilst his eyes were fixated on the door.

I remember this. After I became a Turk. Some guy running weapons to Wutai. Not a major mission, just an assassination. Why am I here?

The door clicked open and a tall, dark haired man with a paunch entered the room. He was slightly hunched, as though trying to hide into himself, and his eyes were focused on the floor. Without noticing the Turk stood against the far wall he turned and locked the door.

"...Have to get out..." his voice was thick and deep. "Have to get Martha and get out."

"I hear Gongaga is nice this time of year," Reno-Turk said cheerfully from behind him.

The man spun round, eyes wide and bloodshot, his face pure white. The Reno-Turk grinned, obviously enjoying the sight of the man's fear.

"Who - who are you? Why are you in my house?" The man made an attempt to sound normal.

"I'm Reno. Pleased to meetcha." Reno-Turk stubbed his cigarette out against the wall and did a mock bow. "I'm a Turk. You won't have heard of us."

"A... Are you from... Shin-Ra?"

"Something like that." Reno-Turk flicked the button on his electro-mag rod and electricity crackled from the end. "I hope you didn't have anything planned for this evening."

"No - !" The man took a step back, hands upraised in supplication, but Reno-Turk was already across the room. There was a sudden burst of blue-white light and the man slid to the floor, twitching but dead.

"Johan!" The woman came running down the stairs, and into the front room. Seeing the man sprawled across the floor and the Turk standing over him she froze for a second, before throwing herself forward onto the dead body. "Johan! Get up! Get up!"

Reno-Turk took his lighter out and lit another cigarette.

"Johan! Please!" The woman's face was twisted with grief, tears ran unchecked down her face and her voice had become a moaning wreck. Reno-Turk gave her a blank look, the look of someone who neither understood nor cared what was wrong.

She was stupid. I didn't even know she was in the house. If she hadn't ran out to him she'd have been able to escape no problem. Reno frowned. Why the hell would anyone do something so dumb as to run out to a dead body when the murderer is right there?

Reno-Turk lifted the rod and brought it down on the woman's head. She crumpled on top of the man, also dead.

Idiot woman. Reno shook his head as everything dissolved around him again. This sucks! I already knew about that dammit, it's not important! I want to know what happened on that other day...

-~-~-~-

"............" Rude looked down the enormous square hole in the ground. The bottom was a long way below, the walls roughshod earth.

"It was here!" Elena wailed, unable to believe her eyes. "The temple was here I swear!"

"............" He looked around. Forest surrounded the area, the huge straight-edged hole was the only break in the trees.

"Tseng was here! In the temple! What happened!?" Elena scrambled over the edge and started climbing down the earthen wall.

Rude listened to her laments fade slightly as she got further away. He lifted his PHS again and tried to call Tseng for the third time. Dead silence was his only reward.

"........." He stared into the distance.

"Rude" Elena clambered back over the edge and knelt there, shaking. "Rude, he's not here."

"...... Did you see anything suspicious as you left?"

"No I.... wait.... yes! I saw three people coming towards the temple. I saw...." Elena started shaking harder as she remembered. "I saw Avalanche."

".........." Rude looked at the place where the Temple had been.

"Rude... he's not... he's not...."

"........." Rude crossed his arms, and dropped his gaze to the ground.

"Oh Shiva..."

-~-~-~-

Reno opened his eyes.

"Oh man, not here again!"

The doctor sighed. "Yes, here again. You suffered some minor concussion. Nothing serious. You were attacked by some Shinra Guards apparently."

You killed my sister! She was four you bastard! Four! She didn't even have a chance. You killed her. You're a murderer. You're worse, you killed children...... I'm going to kill you!

Reno frowned as the guard's last words replayed through his head.

"People sure get worked up over nothing huh? What happened to 'em?"

"I'm not sure, I think your friend dealt with it." The doctor picked up a clipboard and shuffled away. "You can leave anytime, as I said before; just minor concussion. I'm suprised the phoenix down wasn't enough."

"Yeah, ok." Reno slid out of the hospital bed. "I'll give Rude a buzz, find out what he did with them."

-~-~-~-

Joanna looked at the Shinra Guard she was now sharing the cell with. He looked back at her.

There was silence.

-~-~-~-

Rude stared out of the helicopter window. Elena was crying, soft gentle sobs from the opposite seat. Everything seemed far away, like it was wrapped in cotton wool. He was numb.

His PHS buzzed. He slowly answered it, his movements stiff and clumsy.

"......"

"Rude buddy! Don't leave me ringing for too long yeah?"

"........." Rude couldn't reply, his voice had seized up.

"Rude?" Reno's voice became concerned. "What's up?"

"....... Tseng......"


"Tseng?"

"........ dead ......." The word came, a word he was familiar with. A word that had long ago lost its ability to shock. He had become inured to it, had used it so often it had lost any kind of meaning.

And it hurt. It hurt all the way down inside him. Rude felt the word leave his mouth and with it went any hope that he could be wrong. Tseng was dead. And it wasn't a statement empty of meaning, it meant loss and it meant pain.

Rude dropped the PHS and bent over. He couldn't cry, it went beyond that. All he could do was hurt.

-~-~-~-

Reno sat on the bed, his fingers cradled round the PHS. Eyes glazed over, he was frozen and still.

"Tell me a story instead," she suggested.

"Ok." he replied. "I'll tell you the story of the three chocobo's and the mean old wolf."

"Goodie!" Ali sat on the floor, smiling cheerfully as he began the fairytale. In the kitchen his mother was cooking, something that smelt nice. Gerry was listening to the story too, curled up with the blanket. He was getting into the story, jumping and down, acting out the parts. Ali was laughing.

There was a knock at the door, his mother went to answer it. He stopped the story, and went over to the door to listen, it wasn't often they got visitors. Ali came too, and they both stood there, listening. A man was speaking, a stranger.

"We're sorry Mrs Denli. Your husband was crushed by the machinery. I'm afraid he's dead."

"D... dead?"

He and Ali had looked at each other, understanding without understanding. Ali had spoken first.

"Daddy's... dead?"

And he had stared into her frightened eyes, and he had wanted to cry.

"Reno!" The doctor was shaking him. Reno raised his eyes and looked at him. The doctor let go and took a step back.

He stood slowly, and looked round the hospital room. It was white, windowless. Nothing had changed and yet everything had, and he felt a desperate desire to get out into the open.

The doctor stared at the door as it banged shut after the running Turk.

-~-~-~-

Reno tore up the stairs. Flight after flight passed him by as he shot further up the Shinra building. Breathing became painful, his heart hammered in his chest and his vision was blurring. He ran faster.

He burst onto the roof and into the safety rail. Leaning over it, he gasped for breath. Midgar stretched out below, dark and gloomy even in the day. He shut his eyes, he didn't want to look down at the tiny people and buildings.

The sound of a helicopter landing. He didn't move, staying half over the safety rail, eyes shut. Footsteps. A hand touching him on the shoulder.

He turned and opened his eyes. Rude stood there, a solid shadow blocking out the sun. Misery streamed from every tense line in his body. No words were needed.

Elena was just behind, and Reno looked into her eyes, wet, frightened eyes. Memories of his sister ached inside him and he held out his arms. She looked up at him for a moment, and then collapsed forward into them, tears spilling from her eyes and soaking into his chest. Her unrestrained tears broke down the last of his barriers, and he too began to cry.

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A/N: The hardest chapter I've written yet. If ff.net's reviews still aren't working you can send questions/comments/flames etc to interfaceleader@hotmail.com, or alternatively you can leave a message for me on the TurkBoard at http://shin-ra.net/turks/

Hope you're still interested enough to keep reading, thanks for all your feedback ^_^