Chapter 2

Unwanted Company

Massaging out the kinks in his neck he crossed the room in three strides, scattering the ashes of his little arson job in the process. Gray flecks of cinders kicked up into the air like filthy snow as the draft from the closing door sent them scattering. When they had settled, the inside of Reno's office looked just like the outside of Midgar.

The PHS in Reno's pocket suddenly started ringing.

"Yo," he drawled.

"Reeve here. Reno, have Elena and Rude returned yet?"

Reno shifted the cigarette to the other side of his mouth. "Not since I woke up."

There was a definite pause on the other line. When Reeve spoke into the receiver again it sounded deliberately patient. Reno chuckled.

"Well, I need that report on the Junon base ASAP. Could you meet them halfway?"

"Where? At Fort Condor, or maybe Cosmo Canyon?"

"No. Ideally they could bring it on a straight path here, but I need to send them off on another errand that will take them north to Glacier."

"Reeve… The Turks are a team. You can't just keep splitting us up like this. We work best together. What the hell are you doin'?"

"I'm sorry, Reno, it can't be helped. All three of you are indispensable, but you're also the most experienced and capable employees we have left of ShinRa. I need people I can trust."

"..."

"Reno?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"First I need you to pick up the package from Elena and Rude in...I guess, Costa del Sol, and then I want you to go to Nibelheim."

"What? Nibelheim? What the hell do you want from that creepy husk of a town?"

Even Reno couldn't just shrug off the atmosphere of gloom and wrongness that personified Cloud Strife's former home. Before Meteor had taken the concept of chaos to new heights, Sephiroth had razed the town to ashes in his madness, and whatever Hojo and Gast has conducted there, traces of it still lingered. He had no desire to set foot back into what he considered the origin of weirdness. After all, Cloud had come from there, hadn't he?

Silently Reno chanted under his breath, "Not the mansion. Not the mansion…"

"I need you to get some files Hojo left in the laboratory. In the mansion…"

"Figures," he grumbled irritably, grinding the end of his cigarette into pulp.

"What was that?"

"Nuthin', but you don't expect me to go in there without backup, do you? What's the point of splitting up the Turks if…"

Reeve cut him off. "I don't expect you to go anywhere without proper support. I actually have someone in mind to send with you."

Reno spit out the remains of the cigarette in disgust. Here it comes, he thought.

"Cloud let me know that he's heading in that general direction. I've asked him to accompany you."

"Spike?!" he said incredulously. This was worse than he'd even imagined. "You're sending me with psycho chocobo boy?!"

Anyone but Cloud. Even Tifa. Despite the fact that she had personally promised to break his bones into so much powder and then light what remained on fire for the Sector Seven incident, he could still think of several reasons why he would rather travel with her. Two big ones, actually.

"I know you're not keen on working with him, Reno, but Cloud's a friend and…"

"And nobody else was stupid enough to take you up on the job?" he finished for him.

"Well, actually I was going to say he was the only one available…" Reeve ended lamely.

"Same difference."

"All the same, will you do it, Reno?"

"Yeah, whatever." And he clicked off the PHS to show how little he liked the idea.

The next morning brought the faint remains of a hangover and Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER, current occupation in question now that world had been saved. Neither were welcome.

"You're early," Reno grunted. He slouched back in the chair in his office, still shaking off sleep. He didn't bother standing up to greet the other man.

"And you haven't changed a bit," Cloud remarked, leaning casually against the door frame.

Reno yawned and gave his guest a careful assessment behind shaded eyes. Cloud Strife had never been tall. At 5'6" he was still a good six inches shorter than Reno, but if one added the additional seven inches of hair, then one might also say they were even. And if saving the world had been Strife's last physical job, his physique showed no signs of change. If anything, the leanness that had made him seem slight and boyish had been shed for a tougher skin. He was tanner than when Reno had seen him last, and there was a long white scar that ran from his elbow to disappear beneath a gloved hand. The Mako blue eyes regarded him solemnly.

"What?"

"Just wanted to see how tough this babysitting job is gonna be."

A blond eyebrow shot up. "If anyone got stuck with the raw deal here, it was me," Cloud said. "Reeve asked me to go with you to see that you didn't fuck up or get fucked up in turn. I don't have time for your bullshit, but I do have to pass through Nibelheim. If you hurry your ass up, maybe you'll catch up." He turned away and started down the corridor.

"Screw you, Strife!" Reno shouted at the retreating back. "I don't need this, especially from a punk like you! You think saving this shitty world means people gotta kiss your feet now? Who died and left you in charge?!"

Cloud reappeared in the doorway, the Ultima Weapon unsheathed. Reno instinctively reached for his own weapon, but instead of anger there was a sad kind of amusement smoldering in the other man's eyes. The blond man studied the sword for a long time, admiring the sheen of its edge and leather bound grip. Without looking up he said, "I never asked for it, Reno. It just sort of came with taking down Sephiroth. If you want this," he held up the weapon, "You're welcome to it...and everything that goes with it."

Reno sniffed, lit up another cigarette.

Cloud's somber expression abruptly changed into a feral grin. "I don't expect you to understand—"

"Or care," Reno added.

"—but from what Reeve has told me, whatever he wants from Nibelheim also has something to do with the both of us."

That gave him pause. Reno narrowed his green eyes. Smoke blew out of his nose in twin jets of vapor that rose and collected above the shock of red hair like a gathering storm of clouds.

"Reeve hadn't mentioned what it was exactly that he wanted from the mansion yet."

Cloud held up a thin, cream-colored packet, which had by the looks of it, already been opened. He tossed it unceremoniously on Reno's lap and re-sheathed the sword.

Transferring the cigarette from left hand to mouth, Reno thumbed it open and randomly pulled out a piece of typed paper. The heading read: "Human Subjects; Mako Infusion Study."

He gave an involuntary shudder.

Glancing up at Cloud he saw the other man press his own lips together into a thin line of what could only be revulsion.

Reno himself had undergone what all candidates for SOLDIER did, namely, the Mako infusion process that Professor Gast had perfected thirty years earlier. It wasn't a pleasant experience by any definition, and only the soundest in body and mind made it through unscathed. Mostly, anyway. The interesting thing was, as his memory reminded him with a sudden burp of information, Cloud had failed the initial stages of the process and had never made it into SOLDIER.

He gave a half smirk that seemed to puzzle Strife, but then his memory regurgitated another piece of information that wiped it from his face. Strife and another guy, an actual SOLDIER named Zax or Zack or something, had been captured by ShinRa after their flight from the massacre at Nibelheim and had been returned there only to be experimented on by Hojo. From the sketchy information he'd been able to wheedle from Tseng, it had involved a new infusion process that had transformed Cloud into the warrior he was now. No wonder the vibes he was getting from the blond were bordering on anxiety. And, not that he'd ever admit it, the Mako process wasn't something he'd rather dwell on too long, either.

Cloud shifted impatiently in the doorway, and gave Reno a pointed look that said, hurry the &*$ up.

Ignoring him, Reno scanned down the page through the scientific babble that threatened to numb his brain worse than a shot of Midgar Special and paused when he reached a list of names at the bottom.

The heading there read:

UNDER STRICT OBSERVATION. SUBJECTS ARE UNAWARE AND STILL UNDERGOING TREATMENTS AS OF MIDGAR YEAR 77.

It was currently Midgar year 79.

KYLA DOLLEN

TOL FOREMAN

JANET RAMALESE

SAMPRIS DAVEK

The list continued on. Some of the names sounded vaguely familiar, others were complete strangers. And one was enough to make him choke on the smoke he suddenly couldn't exhale.

RENO DELANEY

"What the fuck…"

"You ready to go yet?" Cloud prompted.

"It wasn't that you were the only one available, was it?"

Cloud shook his head. "Actually, it was just coincidence that I was in the area. I promised Cid I'd see what I could do about getting Neo ShinRa to consider another space program. But I guess you could also say I'm the one who needs to do it."

Reno shoved the papers back into the envelope. He put the cigarette out on the corner of his new desk and stood up. With more confidence than he felt he said, "All right, then. Let's get out of here."