The Last of an Elite

Chapter Thirty Two: What Else Can I Do?

By InterfaceLeader

-~-~-~-

People ran about the office, talking at speed on PHS's and phones. The coffee machine was developing a queue, and the air conditioning had just cut out for the third time that day.

"Can't they get those bloody reactors back online already?" groaned an overweight employee in a suit as he wiped his hand across his perspiring forehead and pulled a sheet of paper from his printer.

"Yes ma'am. Yes…" another employee said into a PHS, before pressing the end call button. "Man Scarlet is such a goddamn bitch. What's she wanting all these parts for anyway?"

"Beats me," the overweight employee said, glancing over the printout. "At least you don't have to deal with goddamn Heidegger. He's so desperate to prove himself to his highness Rufus he's got us all working overti - is that right?"

"What?"

"This printout - look, it's an aerial photograph of topography to the north. I've been looking at them all day, Odin knows why. But see here? This kind of crack or something? What's that inside it?"

"Beats me. Why not send it up to Heidegger? Maybe it'll give him that medal he's after."

"Yeah, and the promotion I'm after. The wife wants to redecorate again."

-~-~-~-

Heidegger's office was damp and hot, the broken air conditioning leaving everything sweating.

"…. And, with the assumed death of Turk commander Tseng, the decision has been made to promote Turk Reno Denli to the post, and Rude Jacques to second in command." Heidegger laid the memo from Rufus on the table and glowered at the three Turks stood before him. "Onto more important things. We've discovered something strange in the north. Possibly the Promised Land, gya-ha-ha-ha! Therefore - "

"The Promised Land doesn't exist!" Elena interrupted suddenly. "How many more people are going to die before you realise that it's all a stup - " she was cut off by Reno stamping on her foot. "Ow!"

"Idiot!" Reno hissed.

"Gya-ha-ha-ha! The Promised Land not exist? Preposterous! It must exist, all the scientific evidence points to it." Heidegger glowered at the blonde Turk. "In fact, why don't you go investigate it? Gya-ha-ha!"

"M-me?" Elena flushed, and then frowned. "Fine sir."

"Good. Reno, you and Rude will be assisting Scarlet. She's become obsessed with finding these huge materia's. Dismissed."

-~-~-~-

The Turks walked towards the stairs, intent on leaving the building.

"We should go after Avalanche." Elena said, flatly. "They killed him."

"……." Rude turned his head away and looked at the wall. The Shinra logo, its familiar red and white shapes stared blankly down at him.

We owe him revenge.

"No." Reno's voice was as flat and measured as Elena's, no trace of a sneer. Just a simple denial.

"No? Why not!? They killed him!" Her voice began to shake; blank misery had turned, as it so often does, into anger. "They deserve to die for what they did! They killed one of the best, one of the most brilliant men on the Planet! We need to bring them to justice!"

"Justice? We don't deal in justice. We do our job. That's all."

"You're not going to do anything!?"

"Elena… we've killed members of Avalanche. Tseng himself gave one of them over to Hojo to use as an experiment. As far as they're concerned killing him was probably 'justice'." Reno looked up at the Shinra logo, frowning faintly. "I don't know what we are, but we're sure as hell not the good guys out to right wrongs in the name of justice."

"But…. Reno…." Elena shook her head. "I'm not arguing. I don't want to. I'm going north." she hurried past the two men, wiping her hand across her eyes and disappearing down the corridor. Reno waited until the sound of her footsteps had disappeared into the distance, and turned to Rude.

"You understand right?" he said, desperately.

"……………………." Rude looked at him for a moment. Reno waited, anxious. Then the heavyset man shook his head once, abruptly, and walked after Elena.

"Aw hell" Reno slumped against the wall. "I seriously hate this…."

"You'll have to forgive them. They haven't been exposed to the same complexity of moral emotion as you have." The quiet sibilant voice came from the stairway. Reno pulled out his electro-mag rod as the door opened, muscles tensing.

Hojo stepped through, entering the corridor. His hand was curled round a three-inch thick chain he was using as a leash. At the end of the chain, a strange feline-canine creature strolled, tail weaving slowly whilst it's yellow eyes flicked from side to side, scanning the surroundings with a cat like awareness. More than a cat though, it seemed to be evaluating and judging as it went.

"Funny hearing you talk about morals." Reno increased his grip on the rod. I could say I didn't know it was him, that I thought he was an intruder… worse accidents have happened. At most I might get a reprimand. And he'd be dead which'd be a definite plus. Bet it wouldn't take much either.

"People's morals are buttons by which they can be operated like machines." Hojo smiled faintly. "A person without morals is one with free will."

"Yeah, 'til he gets killed by an angry mob," snapped Reno.

"Yes, something of a problem. However, if you get a group of people without morals you get Shinra." Hojo gave his choked up repressed giggle. "A group with the ability to rule the world. I wonder how smart you are?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reno's index finger twitched over the button on his electro-mag rod.

"Can't you see the flaw?"

"….."

"Shinra rule the world. None can stand up to them. They need protecting, of course, from the occasional would-be-hero. That's where you come in." Hojo smiled faintly again. "Your brainwashing was a fairly simple procedure to say the least, did nothing to develop my own work. Done solely at the request of the President, Heidegger - and Tseng - "

"Tseng requested it!?"

" - However to de-brainwash you, that was interesting. To somehow repair the super-ego, to check the id. More, to put you back into a place where you can learn to empathise with another, where you can relate your emotions to someone else. I made you a monster and then I made you a man, and I may well turn the results into part of a paper I'm writing."

"Part of a paper? I am not one of your stupid specimens!"

"My hypothesis is that you'll go insane, most probably a form of undifferentiated schizophrenia. I await the outcome with interest. Now… I must go and speak with Rufus. I can assure you that you cannot hurt me, since I have always been my own best specimen. So drop your pathetic little weapon and let me past, Turk."

"……. Fine Hojo. I can believe you'd turn yourself into a monster, you were already most of the way there. But someday you're gonna need a bodyguard and Odin knows I won't be the one to take the post. And when you're dead I'll dance on the pieces." Reno stepped aside and managed a half smirk. "It's not worth my time to attack an impotent scientist who lost his girlfriend to a guy with a gun anyway."

A flicker of green tinted anger flashed across Hojo's eyes. "You'll regret that comment Turk."

"I never regret anything. Now go cosy up with Rufus, kiss his ass 'till he gives you your job back. I have better things to do." Reno slung his rod over his shoulder and went the same way Elena and Rude had gone.

Stupid Turk… Hojo hunched his back and pulled the red cat-dog creature along the corridor.

-~-~-~-

Tseng opened his eyes.

A greyish wooden ceiling, a smell of anti-septic. The clean light that diffused through the room could only be sunlight. He was on a bed, a metal bed with soft clean white sheets. There was some medical equipment around the room.

"Oh! You're awake!" A female voice. Tseng automatically turned his head towards it, and felt a spasm of pain leech through him.

"Please don't move! You might further damage yourself." The woman walked into view. A dark haired lady in a nurse's uniform. "The wound you've taken - you're lucky it didn't kill you."

"I know. Where am I?"

"You're in Mideel. The Doctor will come in a few minutes, please stay very still until he gets here."

"…" Tseng stayed flat on the bed, feeling ill at ease. He did not like the enforced trust in the Nurses word, but he had no choice. "How long have I been here?"

"You were brought here two days ago." The nurse picked up a clipboard. "I just wanted to check; you've never been in contact with any kind of mako infusion process correct?"

"Correct."

"Hmm, that's what the tests showed. But that wound was so bad; I was surprised you survived to be honest. You must have a very strong constitution."

"Hmm."

"Erm, yes." the nurse flushed. "What's your name please?"

"…Tseng."

"Tseng…….?"

"Just Tseng."

"Erm, OK. I'll go see if the doctors available yet," the nurse hurried away.

As soon as she had left the room, Tseng started shifting, trying to evaluate the extent of the damage. The pain was a tight hot line that concentrated mainly just below his ribcage, and ran at a slight vertical through him. There was a sharper, tighter knot in his back where the sword had exited.

"Ah, so our friend has awoken at last! You had us all quite worried." The doctor, a thin gangly man dressed in brown under his white coat, entered and smiled pleasantly at Tseng. His grey hair was thinning on top, but his eyes were sharp and clear behind his spectacles.

"How soon until I can leave?" Tseng had no desire to make conversation.

"Hmmm." The doctor frowned slightly, looking worried. "I just want to make it clear you've survived something that could very easily have killed you. We must be thankful you are still with us at all."

"Just tell me how long until I can leave." Tseng shifted impatiently. He needed to get back to Midgar and report what Sephiroth had said.

"Tell me, do you have close friends, family who might be worried about you right now?"

"Don't sidestep the question."

The doctor sighed. "Persistent aren't you? Well, let me blunt. You'll be here for a quite a while - there has been massive internal ruptures, but more to the point your spinal cord has been injured. From the nature of the wound I'm assuming you twisted so it avoided penetrating your spine directly, which would have resulted in death or paralysis. However, the sword still managed a glancing blow off one of the vertebrae."

"…"

"You'll find your motor functions have been severely curtailed. Most people recover some functions between a week and 6 months after the injury - but I sincerely doubt you'll ever return to the level of fitness and dexterity you had before."

"…"

"Do you have any close friends and family who we can contact?" The doctor raised a questioning eyebrow.

I'm a Turk. Turk's don't have close friends or family.

This is insane. I can't go back to Shinra if I can't fight. I'd just be a liability - and Shinra knows how to deal with liabilities.

I can't fight.

What else can I do?

Where else can I go except to Shinra?

-~-~-~-

A/N: Yay! Finally! This chapter has been a long time in the making, due to me messing up the storyline something chronic. But it's here, it's done, and I'm back on track. I think. I hope. Thanks to reviewers, as always ^_^

Next up: Elena goes to Icicle Inn and meets Avalanche, Tseng is forced into a new and difficult situation, and Rude spends some quality time with Hojo.