All for Love
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Part 2: Chapter 5: Gongaga
"Things can only get worse," Reno muttered to Rude as the two of them plus Adrienne followed Tseng to the Board room. "I mean they only make us come if they've got a huge job for us."
"The last huge thing was Nibelheim six months ago, and then only Tseng got called to that meeting anyway," Adrienne commented.
"You don't even have to be here. It's not as though you're coming on the mission anyway."
Adrienne stared at Reno. "Am too!"
"Nuh huh," Reno wagged his finger at her. She grabbed hold of it and twisted his arm around a little.
"Yuh huh."
"If you come, I'll make Rufus tell you to go on maternity leave earlier then you won't be able to go anyway." He stuck his tongue out. The blonde let go of his finger.
"Jerk," Adrienne muttered and pushed past him to walk with Tseng instead.
"That's so gonna earn me a spot on the couch," Reno muttered.
"Shouldn't piss a pregnant woman off then. You'd think after this long you'd have learned by now," Rude smirked.
"Just shut up."
They managed to make it to the board room with no more hassle. The Turks were the last ones at the meeting. All of them remained standing in front of the door. The rest of the executives were sat in their usual places. Rufus was strangely absent from the meeting, not that anyone would comment on the fact. The head of SOLIDER, General Baxter Brighton appointed after Sephiroth died, was also in the room. He was stood straight about an inch away from the wall, looking like he didn't want to be in the room.
Reeve looked a little peeved. Scarlet leaned over to him and whispered something in his ear that seemed to calm him down a bit. Occupants of the room were muttering among themselves until President Shinra spoke.
"I know you're all wondering why I called this meeting so suddenly, but it's a matter we need to address immediately." He puffed on his stout cigar before speaking again. "The reactor near Gongaga town exploded sometime during the night." There was a murmur around the room that quieted when the president spoke again. "Since the town is small and a little distance away from the reactor, the town is salvable." He took another drag of his cigar again. "Brighton. I expect your Soldier's there by tomorrow morning to help with the clean up. We're not re-building anything that's entirely demolish, only what can be rescued. Understand?"
Brighton nodded. "Yes Sir."
The President turned his gaze to Tseng. "I want you to take your men-" That comment earned a scowl from Adrienne. "-and investigate how this happened."
"With all due respect sir-"
"Don't back chat Tseng, just take orders." The President stared at the head of Turks with anger in his eyes.
"Yes Sir." Tseng fought the urge to sigh.
"If no one has anything else that needs bringing to my attention," he paused slightly. "Meeting dismissed."
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"This sucks," Adrienne moaned as she sat in the Turks office. The rest of them had headed off to Gongaga, and just as Reno promised, he made her stay behind. Elena was sat on the junk pile that was Reno's desk, looking amusedly at the blonde.
"C'mon, it ain't that bad. I mean you have me to keep you company since I got some time off." She swirled the coffee in her cup a little. "At least I didn't get put on clean up again. I swear someone would have died if that had happened."
Adrienne smiled lightly. "I would have helped."
"And I would have let you," Elena agreed cheerfully. She took a sip of her coffee and pulled a face. "Shit it's stone cold."
"I'm glad I have you around for the amusement factor or I really would be bored." Adrienne ducked as a balled up piece of paper was throw at her from across the room. The two girls laughed.
Rufus walked into the office, not knocking as always, and looked around for a minute. "Where's Tseng?"
"In Gongaga." Adrienne answered, propping her feet on her desk. "Why'd you want him?"
Rufus waved his hand dismissingly. "Doesn't matter. It can wait till he gets back."
Elena jumped off the desk, brushing her uniform down lightly. "I'd better be going Addy, I'll see you tonight."
"Why tonight?" the blonde asked.
"Dunno thought we could do something girly." Elena smiled sweetly.
Adrienne sighed. "Ok something girly it is." Elena nodded and closed the door behind her.
Rufus looked amused. "Something girly eh?"
"Shut up before I box you one," Adrienne scowled. It disappeared as quickly as it came, replaced by sympathy. "Hojo still giving you creepy looks, watching your every move?"
The Vice President sighed. Rufus had told all the Turks about his visit from Hojo. How the man caught him hacking into his network, which Rufus though with all due respect that he should be allowed to do. President Shinra didn't see it that way. "The old man's started as well. I swear Hojo is getting pushed off that balcony."
"Where were you during the meeting?" Adrienne stood up and walked over to pour herself a glass of water.
"Bumped it off. Went and hid out in the sleep room near the gym, I knew what it was about anyway. Me and the old man had a argument about it before hand, so I decided it was best to avoid him."
"For the best though."
Rufus looked up. "I suppose so."
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Reno had been to Gongaga once in his life the year before, when all the buildings were still standing and the town was full of life, as much life as a town this size could be. Today, the town was empty. It was almost unnerving. It was worse than Nibelheim in a way. At least Nibelheim hadn't looked like a town anymore, and he'd never been there before. He had no idea what it was meant to look like. Gongaga on the other hand looked like a ghost town. The houses further away from the reactor that had been left untouched, were empty. The only people that were there were gathered around the small, but growing graveyard.
Reno realised he was staring at the people, and that Rude and Tseng were leaving him behind. With one quick shake of his head, he jogged to catch the other two Turks up.
The three of them walked in silence towards the remains of the malfunctioned reactor, which could be easily seen from the center of the small town. Twisted metal covered the ground around it. The ground itself was scorched, the grass had completely burnt away.
"This is worse than I thought it would be." Tseng walked further into the reactor, leaving Rude and Reno stood just in front of the charged mass.
"You gotta admit this looks pretty bad. I mean wouldn't someone have noticed the fact that a reactor was overloading. They monitor all the reactors all the way back in Midgar don't they?" Reno asked.
Rude carried on looking at the reactor. "You have a point."
Reno looked at Rude as if the man had grown another head. "You mean you're actually agreeing with me? Must be a first."
"Shut up Reno."
"Okay, that lasted a long time," Reno mumbled, leaning against what remained of the reactor doorway. Rude ignored him, but smirked to himself behind his head. If Reno saw, the redhead ignored the gesture. Tseng appeared in the two men's line of sight again.
"You two ought to come and look at this."
Reno and Rude looked at each other before following their boss back into the reactor, to where the core used to be located. There was nothing left of it now, just a pool of mako that had gathered in the hole.
"It did a pretty good job of blowing up didn't it?" Reno commented.
Tseng shook his head. "If the reactor overloaded and malfunctioned on it's own, the core would still be here." Tseng looked at the blank look on Reno face and sighed. "When a reactor malfunctions, the core should be able to contain itself to a certain extent, but it wouldn't stop anywhere else in the reactor from exploding. All the other pipes would probably burst from the overload."
"You saying the reactor didn't malfunction?" Reno asked a bit dubiously.
Tseng smiled grimly, "that's exactly what I'm saying."
Reno looked back at the Mako pit. "Someone blew it up."
"With what probably was a bomb of some kind. No wonder the President wanted us to come down here. He knew," Rude stated.
Tseng kicked some dust into the Mako pool below him. "It's what it looks like."
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Chapter 18 is done. All for Love now has more chapters than Scars of the Past, but Scars of the Past is still longer in words. I'm guessing All for Love will be about the same length as Scars of the Past, if not a little longer. The Gongaga reactor actually being blown up with a bomb was a last minute decision I made. I don't think that really happens in the game, I think it just overloads, but I decided to change the fact to make the trip to Gongaga seem more 'interesting'.
Chapter 19, the Turks work on catching the person responsible for blowing up the reactor. This part is gonna be interesting trust me ^_^. Don't ask why my chapters have gotten a lot shorter than they were right at the start.