In Stride: Chapter III
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The first thing Martin did after guiding Auron into the car was call Reno on an instinct, and he was lucky that the older man had just gotten home from Kalm. Within three minutes, he was leaping down staircases of his apartment building and making calls. The first one told him that the stranger had been driven to the ShinRa Building. The second told him that a news crew had gotten to him just before he got inside, and more had followed. The third was for his own good.
"Elena!" he shouted, leaping across the parking lot on one foot. He was trying to put a shoe on the other one; this late at night, one's priorities were scrambled. "Elena, get outta bed and get down to the building, now! Order from your superior!"
Some two miles away, the blonde sat up in bed, thinking there had been an attack or something. "What, why? Did something happen to Sc --"
He shouted, "Don't ask questions!" as he tried to open the car door, failing to use his hand and therefore just crashing into the side of it. "Shit!" He opened the door and climbed in, the world around him one big blur. "Martin Stern found this Auron guy on patrol and the media's already got him. We need to get down there and get the story before they can twist it into some tabloid alien-love-triangle bullshit." He started the car and tried to calm down. "Now get your ass outta bed!"
He didn't wait for an answer before throwing the phone into the back seat and squealing out of the parking lot. With the flip of a switch, a rim around his car began flashing red and the road suddenly opened up for him. There were few people out at this time of night, but it was still nice to speed through traffic for time's sake.
The ShinRa Building trip was like walking to him, so he was there within five minutes. Rufus had liked to have his help close and had assigned them residences they were far enough off the premises to be safe for the Turks to live in, but close enough for emergency needs. His horn was blaring as he swung into the parking lot, scattering some camera men and almost hitting a few news anchors. Martin was trying his best to deflect questions, but Auron was getting physically pulled this way and that, everyone eager for his side of the story.
"No further questions!" Reno yelled, getting out of the car and raising his badge. The crowd quieted "The next person to question Mr. Auron about any part of his or the mystery woman's life will be taken into custody by Martin Stern, SOLDIER First Class. Any other questions can be directed at myself, but my official comment on the matter is that the Turks have been assigned to this and we will take care of it as we see fit."
He grabbed Auron by his high collar and dragged him inside before any questions could be fired. Martin followed them with a dumb expression on his face, and when the redhead saw this, he furrowed his brows and asked what his problem was.
Martin straightened slightly, smiling like an idiot. "F - First Class? You mean it, Sir!"
Reno and Martin had known each other for a while. The Turks had kind of taken a liking to the guy, even. There had been many nights that involved the two of them playing poker and taking the shirts off people's backs. "No," the Turk said firmly, beginning to walk away with Auron in tow. After a second, he reached in his pocket and tossed the badge over his shoulder. "You're now my personal assistant." He pointed as Martin caught up. "RDRAN ASSIST. If you ever need authorization, just show 'em that."
"This is very touching and all," the stranger said gruffly, "but why am I being spoken for?"
The two were caught wordless for a moment before Stern remembered Auron's significance. "You don't by chance know a Lulu, do you?"
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When Elena arrived at the survivors' hospital room, Reno walked out and closed the door behind him, an odd expression on his face. He'd just seen a strange reunion; Auron had walked into the room, taken one look at Lulu, and started drinking. He kept muttering things like, "I knew we weren't done" and "Why did you do it, Jecht?" Reno wasn't sure what they meant, so he had left Martin to keep watch while he went for breakfast.
"I had to shove past some news anchors. They all looked really pissed. What happened with Auron?"
"Nothing," he muttered. "That's the problem. He's not giving us any kind of a story."
This was a problem. The Turks had been in legal trouble with technicalities many times and had learned to look at everything right down to the elements. If Auron didn't declare he knew Lulu outrightly and the suspicion got around that he was a Wutain samurai impersonator, the force in blue would be the ones catching the blame. Word on the street spreads like wildfire, and the press had a hand in everything, so they needed to get a straight answer from him soon.
Not everyone knew that Turks did much more legal work than just eliminating threats.
"Shit," the redhead swore, kicking the wall feebly. "First Valentine, then that weird lady, now this. If I survive this whole ordeal, I'm retiring."
The door closed next to them, revealing Martin. "At thirty?" The look he got told him to get to business. "He said he'll talk if we get him some sake. Good morning, by the way, Elena." She was another Turk that he had frequented himself with. Really, he'd been gladhanding most of the executives for some time now, hoping he might bypass First Class and go straight to Turk, and he was just about there as of tonight.
Reno and Elena exchanged a look that spoke volumes. "Alright," the latter said," I think Rufus has some imported stuff in his office. Come with me to get it, Reno."
He followed without hesitation, and they kept quiet until they were in the elevator, like it would be taboo to bring it up elsewhere. As soon as the door was closed, he hissed, "Sake!" His eyes went wide. "If he doesn't have a good story, they're gonna think he's a spy for sure!"
Elena's look said something else. "That's not what's on my mind. . .I'm wondering. . .what if he is? What if this is just one big ruse?"
He had a feeling retiring might be the right idea, as old age must have been getting to him. That hadn't even occured to him. If it turned out that he was a spy and this had all been planned quite some time ago, it was their asses again. As much as they loved each other, Turks were pretty much against anyone that had no corporation connections and the only asses they watched were their own. "Okay. We get him a drink. If he talks and we like what we hear, we talk to the press. If he doesn't give us something believable, they died of complications."
Elena watched the city lights drop until she was looking almost directly down on the parking lot. Despite who he was, Reno could be ruthless sometimes. She figured that's what happened to everyone in their position. You suddenly grew another side and they both started fighting for physical control. Reno's secret side was malicious, even sadistic at times. Rude's was an angry tank with more than enough ammunition to destroy. . .hell, he could blow up the whole goddamn world.
Elena hadn't grown a second side yet. She'd been too caught up in the Meteor drama to get calloused by the day to day jobs the others had. She'd never been under the tyranny of Rufus ShinRa for an extended period of time, so she didn't know how it had been with him in the office. The only jobs she'd been on had something to do with Cloud Strife's gang, and now they were all dead.
Would she ever know the life of a real Turk? Or would they be rebuilding so long that she'd be retired before normal jobs came back?
She snapped out of her daze and noticed they were going down now. Reno was watching her with a strange expression, but she smiled slightly and shrugged. "Growing up in Costa, nobody ever told me about seeing the cities at night this way. Just kinda lost myself there."
He knew what she meant, so he took a sip of the drink, shivered, and nodded. "How can those weirdos drink this stuff?" he asked, grating his teeth along his tongue.
They got off the elevator and hurried back to Auron's room. Martin Stern stood outside like a sentry awaiting them, and all three went inside. The strange warrior hadn't moved from where Stern had left him, so they handed over his sake and he savored it. When a long enough silence had passed, Martin said quietly, "Maybe we can save this until the morning. He must be t --"
"I can speak for myself," Auron interrupted. There was something distinctly commanding about his quiet tone. It was actually more controlling than anything else.
The redhead had done many hostage negotiations and interrogations, so he set Martin up with a pen and a pad and got comfortable, advising everyone conscious to follow suit. "Perhaps we should start with you speaking your side, then?"
He looked them over, as if debating whether they were good enough to hear this or not, then sat back and took a drink. "I've nothing to lose, now, do I?" He paused for a moment, closed his only working eye, and was looking at the ceiling when it opened again. "I once knew a man named Braska. We attended the same church as young men, and when he became a summoner, he took me along on his journey to vanquish Sin."
"Wait, wait," Martin interrupted. "Sin's inside everyone or something like that, right? How can you get rid of it?"
The stranger didn't seem to notice he'd been spoken to at all. "I know there are differences among us, which will all be explained in due time. Anyway, I went along on Braska's pilgrimage, along with a prisoner we had met named Jecht. We were doing quite well, in all honesty, until we met with Lady Yunalesca, which was enough of a surprise even without her asking what she did of us." He stopped again.
Reno interjected this time. "What did she ask?" He was trying to play the good guy in all this, jotting notes and trying not to tell everyone how insane this sounded.
"She asked for wither Jecht or I to be sacrificed as an aeon. . ." He took another drink before saying, "She told us it was the only way to really defeat Sin; that Yu Yevon would need a new aeon to take over and make into a new monster. Obviously this meant the entire cycle would perpetuate and another summoner would die. I objected violently, but Jecht told me it was okay, that he would find a way to make it all work." His eye had moved to the ground now, but he still looked as casual as ever. "When Braska was killed in the final fight, I found Yunalesca and tried to get my revenge, but. . .she killed me before I could get her."
The two Turks exchanged a look and noticed Rude had walked in. Elena chewed at the inside of her cheek. The story had sounded almost valid until he'd mentioned his own death, and Rude was surely even less flexible than the other two. With the disbelieving, large man in charge of their force, it looked like Auron might be meeting a second early demise.
"What happened between then and my second fight with the Final Aeon is not important; only that I tell you I had not been sent and therefore could freely roam the world of the living. I followed Jecht's son to the new world after Sin attacked, sending myself to an advanced Luca. I once again journeyed with a party, this time with the son of Jecht and the daughter of Braska. Instead of making our mistake and sacrificing someone to be an aeon, however, they simply killed Lady Yunalesca and physically entered Sin, killing it at the core."
Auron looked over at the woman asleep on the bed, perhaps wondering if she had anything to say. "Lulu died protecting Yuna from Jecht, and we were sent to the Farplane together, but that's where the normalities end. There we met again with Yunalesca, who told us that, though the higher body of power was busy deciding what to do with Maester Seymour, that we had died for a good cause and would be allowed another life. The only condition was that it would not be our world we were sent to again. And so here I am, living my third life and wondering just what will be asked of me this time."
Everyone else seemed to digest this differently. Martin had figured it wasn't really on his shoulders and therefore he would stay the hell out of it. Reno had questions fighting for priority positon in his head and couldn't seem to form words, and Elena was too worried about the sudden rustle of a suit over by the door.
It turned out she had every right to be. Rude walked around all three of his comrades, standing within arm's reach of the stranger. He held himself there, forehead wrinkling and flattening for a moment, then drew his gun. He pressed it to Auron's forehead and muttered, "Nothing's going to be asked of you at all, Wutain."
