Author's Notes:

Yes, I purposely skipped Cloud, and for story reasons, I'm going to skip him for a little while longer. Trust me, not much is going on with him right now. Any chapter with him in it would be three paragraphs long, tops. But don't worry I haven't forgotten him. I don't own Final Fantasy. Final Trinity is coming.

Chapter Fourty One

Hiding In A Bottle

Reno leaned back in his chair, watching a television screen, a bottle of half empty brandy in his hands. A package of cigarettes had been thrown across the room, and several small scorch marks surrounded it from where he'd previously attempted to shoot them with his 'mag-rod, but had missed every single time. He'd finally given up in frustration, and thrown the weapon to the other side of the room, somehow miraculously making it land in a garbage can.

He'd been alone for nearly a full day now, and his desk was covered in empty bottles. Beer, whiskey, scotch, even a bottle of sake from Tseng's old desk decorated the wooden surface. Reno looked even more dishevelled than usual, his shirt pulled from his pants, his jacket missing from when he'd taken it off running down the street hoping to stop that bastard Trask from…

He couldn't even finish the thought, merely took another swig off the bottle, and watched the television screen as it endlessly played Shera's death over and over, putting onto endless repeat.

She'd managed to knock out the power, using the feed cable to electrocute Trask, but then had turned her back on him. He slowly stood up, obviously staggered, but far from incapacitated, much less killed, and readied his knife. The man walked up silently behind her, said something, and then plunged the blade into her back. Not once. Not twice. Not even three times. The knife went in and out, a rapid succession of piercing. In 2.7 seconds, and Reno had counted several times, Trask had managed to stab her seventeen times. The man was unbelievably fast, despite his size. As Shera fell, she whispered a word, and Reno said it with her, having witnessed it countless times now. "Cid."

All the while, the camera, on its own battery run power supply, had watched on in cold impassiveness.

Reno wished he could mimic that. Just watch the event and have no feelings about it at all. Just watch, and record the information. He was a Turk. He was supposed to be like that. Hell, he'd been the one to drop the Sector Seven plate with a grin on his face. Why'd he feel so bad about this one death?

A knock sounded at the door to the Turk office, and Reno shouted, "Go away!"

He wanted to be alone, and several times, Elena had come to him trying to cheer him up, even one time offering him a comfort screw. His eyebrows had risen up at that last suggestion, followed by his pistol coming out of his jacket and aiming it at the woman, chasing her out. He hadn't wanted comfort or pity then, he certainly didn't want it now.

"Go away or I open fire!" he slurred at the door as the knock sounded once more. When the offender continued to knock, he pulled out his pistol and awkwardly blasted away, emptying his clip and missing the door entirely, the shots impacting on the wall to the left of it.

"Always did aim a bit too much to the right," he muttered. "Or was that to the left?"

He wasn't sure anymore. He took a swig of his… what was he drinking again? Oh right, brandy. He took a swig of his brandy and let it burn its way down his throat. Even as he did, the door banged open, and in walked Yuffie. A shuriken flew from her hand and suddenly the bottle was in pieces, glass strewn about the desk, and some of it cutting Reno's face, hands, and chest.

"Fuck!" he yelled, more annoyed than anything. "What do you want?"

Yuffie didn't answer, just crossed the office, hopped over his desk, and punched Reno firmly in the nose. He swore again, and tried to stand up so he could defend himself from this unexpected attack. As he did so, Yuffie's foot came up, and then down hard, directly between his legs. He fell back into his chair, holding his wounded groin, making a soft groan. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he nearly felt like passing out. Yuffie seemed to have other ideas.

Grabbing him by his ponytail, the girl yanked him from his seat and dragged him from the office and into the bathroom. Reno was forced to stumble along, swearing all the while, and attempting to swat at her, but in his drunken state, merely continued to lose his balance and nearly fall as he did so.

When they made it into the bathroom, Reno nearly gagged. The smell of urine filled the air, and he remembered that he'd been the last one to use it, the only reason why he'd left the office, and hadn't flushed.

He really regretted that decision when he suddenly found his head submerged in the toilet, Yuffie forcing it into the water. He choked and gasped and flailed, but somehow, the girl was stronger than him and managed to hold him under.

Maybe I'm gonna die, he thought, and almost welcomed the fate, wallowing in self-pity as he was.

But that was not Yuffie's intent, and the ninja brought him up, and said, "Are you done?"

Knowing she meant his recent attitude since Shera's death, he croaked, "No."

In again he went, and was forced to stay for a few seconds, until once more he was released. He felt like vomiting, drenched in toilet water and urine and filled with alcohol as he was.

"Are you done?" she asked again.

He almost said 'no' just to be an asshole, but instead answered, "Yes! No more!"

"Good," she said, then stood him up against the wall.

He gasped, and panted as he let air fill his lungs. "You're pretty strong for a girl," he said, letting a mock grin show on his face. In reality, he didn't want to smile, didn't want to banter, but if it shut her up and got her to leave him alone, he'd do it.

She ignored his comment and said, "I hate being the responsible one. I don't want to be. Gawd, I know you don't want to be either. But you're our leader now, and Hojo's still out there. We freed Cait, but Shera died in the process."

"Yep. Because of my shitty plan," he said. "She's dead because of me."

Yuffie's palm print on his cheek reminded him a second later that he was supposed to be laying off the pity trip. The Turk frowned at her, but continued on with it anyway. "Why do you like me?"

"What?" the girl asked, a blush coming to her cheeks. "What do you mean?"

"Don't deny it. 'Lena told me that you're crushing on me. Why do you like me? How could you possibly like a guy like me? I drop Sector Plates on people for a living."

She made as if to slap him again, but this time he caught her arm and held it. He wanted an answer to this, an honest answer. She must have seen that, because a minute later, she cast her eyes down, and took in a deep breath. When she looked up again, she answered in her most sincere voice, "Because you're not such a bad guy."

"Says who?"

"You rescued me from Corneo."

"No, I rescue Elena from Corneo. You just happened to be a side bonus."

She shook her head. "But afterwards, you got your orders to hunt down Avalanche. They didn't have their Materia on them, they were wounded in the fight against Corneo's pet, and you had the superior fighting position, and you knew it. You could've taken them down right then, but you didn't."

"I was on vacation," he said, deflecting her accusation.

"You saved all our lives against Jenova's army of monsters by self-destructing your 'mag-rod and nearly killing yourself in the process."

"Life and death situation. Figured it was the best chance I had."

"Oh yeah? And howabout when you dropped the Sector Seven plate?"

"What about it?"

"Elena told me," she said. "She said you dropped the plate and then came back and cried afterwards, like you felt really bad about it. You only did it because you're afraid of Shinra, didn't you?"

He straightened himself up. "She told you that, eh? Remind me to shoot her in the leg. Probably heard it from Tseng. Okay, so she told you that story. Fine. But she doesn't know the whole thing. Nobody but Rude does, and I know he sure as fuck didn't go running off at the mouth. Rude's a real friend like that.

"You see, I took the Sector Seven job because I figured I had to be the one to do it. Tseng's too much of a priss to do it, and Rude… well, Rude's a big baby deep inside. Acts all tough, but me and Tseng both knew that he was just a teddy bear waiting to find his princess to protect.

"No, I had to go, because I knew if Tseng went to do it, he'd warn everyone out of the sector first, some sort of anonymous tip. And if Rude went to do it, that shit would haunt him. So I did it. You might think that's me being a good guy, but no. I did it because I had the least amount of conscience out of the three of us. I'd do it, and I'd do it right."

"But you cried," she said firmly, as if that meant everything in the world.

"So? So I felt a little bad afterwards. I still did it. Means nothing. So, still crushing on me? Still 'like' me?" He let go of her arm, letting it drop down to her side.

The girl clenched her fists, and then said without a hint of a smile on her face, "I'd kiss you to prove how I feel, but you're soaked in pee."

She turned and left then, and Reno was left standing there wondering what had just happened. Shera was still dead, Hojo was still in control of Shinra, and Sector Seven was still flattened, but he managed to push it all from his mind for a minute as he left the bathroom. When he walked into the office, he saw Cait Sith sitting on his desk.

"What do you want?" Reno asked.

"Feeling better about yourself?"

"A little. She died to save you. Didn't even know what she was fighting for."

The robot sighed. "I know. Maybe she can find some rest now that she's dead. I hope she finds Cid's spirit in the Lifestream. Those two belonged together."

"Whatever. Is there a point to your being here?"

"Trask," Cait said. "We can't do anything to Hojo with how many guards he surrounds himself with, but we can avenge Shera and nail Trask. What have you learned about him?"

Indicating a file that was now scattered on the floor, Reno answered, "I looked it over while I was running through the first part of the Shera's death marathon. Hojo did all sorts of experiments to him. Apparently he's resistant to cold, electricity, and heat. He's about twice as fast as a normal human, meaning about half again as quick as your average Soldier. Endless stamina and endurance, and doesn't feel pain at all. He's also a psychotic. He loves to kill people, and he's good at it."

Cait nodded. "Okay. Then our first order of business is-"

"Woah, wait up there. I'm in charge here, not you. This is a Turk operation. I decide what we do."

"I thought you weren't in any condition to do so, so I came up with a plan."

"Good for you. Now you'll listen to mine. You stay in hiding. We don't want Hojo to figure out where you are. Yuffie's going to lay low, too. Elena's going to act like everything's status quo, and lead the search against you, but conveniently never come near the Turk offices during her search. Meanwhile, I'm going to take Trask out on a training run, since he's now a Turk. I'm going to find out what he's capable of, and then I'm going to kill him. Sound good?"

The doll nodded. "More or less what I had in mind."

"Good," Reno responded. He picked up his gun, retrieved a clip from the desk, and slammed it into place.

"Where are you going?"

Reno didn't answer, just merely left the office and went to the locker rooms. He found Elena in there, getting changed.

"Told Yuffie about me crying?" he asked, not really expecting her to answer truthfully.

Elena looked confused at first, but her eyes gave it away. She had mentioned it. And true to his word, he shot at her, the bullet grazing her leg. The woman let out a yelp of pain as she hopped up and down, clutching at her wounded leg.

"What was that for?" she yelled.

"Just be glad I'm not still drunk," he answered, remembering the bullet holes to the side of the Turk office door.

Author's Note:

I just wrote that chapter in the space of 45 minutes, and am very proud of the result. I loved writing that, and I'm actually starting to like Yuffie somewhat.