Author's Note:

The beginning of this chapter takes place a little bit before 64, and ends... well, where it ends. Heh. I don't own the rights to Final Fantasy or any of its characters, music, graphics, story, or any of that other sweet jazz.

Chapter Sixty Six

Turk War

Reno smirked. Dealing with the guards outside had been easy. A few hand grenades here, a rocket launched from Cait's Roboguard there, and the fodder outside known as 'Shinra guards' had been neatly dealt with. Oh sure, Cait's Roboguard had malfunctioned after that and short-circuited, something about conflicting orders not to harm Shinra personnel, but that was beside the point. It was about the victory dance. And right then, walking into Hojo's lab unopposed felt like a victory dance.

Today was the day when Professor Hojo and Colonel Trask would finally be put to rest, six feet under. Whether or not they were still alive when they would be buried depended entirely on Reno's mood. He contemplated burying them both in a twelve by twelve foot metal box, with a small, Shinra-issue life support device capable of giving them air for supposedly one hundred years, and about two months worth of food and water. Reno gave their life expectancy about a week in such circumstances. Shinra always did put out shoddy life support systems. His smirk widened at the thought.

Then he heard Elena gasp. His eyes moved a little to the left of Hojo, and his smirk slipped.

There stood Tseng, in all his Wutaian glory, sporting a new pair of lavender glowing Mako eyes. But there was something more different about them than just the soft glow, something bone chilling. A glassiness, as if there was no will behind them. Reno wasn't sure what pissed him off more. The unlife that Tseng had been forced into, or the fact that even undead, the man still had perfect hair and manicured nails.

"Cait, do it!" Reno said, a growl on the edge of his voice.

"It's no good! He's too far!" Cait cried.

The look of horror on Hojo's face nearly made the whole thing worth it. The man turned and fled, and Reno reacted. As fast as he was with his Turk-honed reflexes, Elena was faster, a shot from her pistol firing out and clipping the man in the side, just above the kidney.

It was a wound known as the "Running man's problem", a shot that Tseng himself had taught Reno, Rude and Elena, supposedly made by the legendary Vincent Valentine himself. Reno made note to ask the red-caped vampire about it the next time he saw him. Reno also made not to ask Valentine if he really was a vampire and that's why he wasn't around fifty years old like he should have been.

The wound was meant to cripple, but not completely incapacitate or kill the target, meant to slow them down while two other Turks chased him down. In the 'good old days', Tseng would deliver such a wound to a target, and Reno and Rude would race each other to see who could get the fleeing culprit first.

"That'll slow him down," Reno said. "Cait, you stay here. We'll deal with Trask and Tseng first. Elena..."

She cut him off before he could finish the order he had been dreading to give. "I know. Shoot to kill."

As one, both trained their pistols at what they perceived to be the deadlier threat. While Trask was lightning fast with his hands and had a war record the size of Masamune, Tseng had earned the personal respect of both Reno and Elena, and combined with his new Mako enhancements, the two knew who the bigger threat of the two was.

As the two pistols fired, Tseng neatly sidestepped, then dropped to the ground, rolled, and moved behind the cover of a lab table, which he kicked over to shield himself. Out of the corner of his eye, Reno saw Yuffie's arm draw back and pump forward repeatedly, and in the space of a second, four metal projectiles in the form of shuriken and shaken were spinning through the air at Trask. The large Soldier, not as agile in body as Tseng but still fast, moved his right arm up to intercept the objects, each sinking into its flesh. The man made no expression of pain, just calmly removed them and threw them back in a wide arc. Reno and Yuffie dodged left, while Elena dove right and forward, closer to Tseng.

Even as Reno recovered, Trask began his menacing walk towards him and Yuffie. Reno grinned, and pulled the remote Elena had retrieved from Shera's office. "Recognize something?"

For the first time since Reno had met him, something other than the condescending superior look crossed Trask's face. Pure, unbridled dread. Reno pushed down the button in Trask's moment of hesitation, a sadistic smile spreading across his face.

Nothing happened.

Reno looked at the remote and saw a message flashing across its display screen. 'Target out of range.'

"Oh come on!" Reno said. "I'm within ten feet of him! How close do I have to be?"

The moment ended, and Trask reacted. The man surged forward, knife coming into hand and charging ahead. Reno pushed down the button repeatedly as the large Soldier bulled forth, refusing to move. Each time the message on the display screen issued forth. At the last moment, Yuffie shoved Reno out of Trask's way, and the large Soldier slammed into her, sending her into the wall. The girl slammed into it, grunting, and fell limply to the ground.

"You are weak, Melville," Trask said, turning to face Reno. "Depending on others to save you."

Reno gave one last stubborn push of the button on his remote, and when it didn't work, he tossed it aside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cait grab it, and then begin furiously pressing the button.

"Never mind that!" Reno said. "Get Hojo!"

"But you said-"

"Never mind what I said!" Reno snapped, drawing his 'mag-rod, while shifting his pistol to his offhand. "Just get Hojo. I'll deal with this psychopath."

Cait shrugged, slipped the remote into his megaphone, and ran in the direction of the back door Hojo had exited out of.

"Just you an' me now," Reno said through clenched teeth.

"About time," came Trask's response. "I've awaited this far longer than you could possibly know. It was you who-"

"Do I look like I care?" Reno said bluntly, trying to appear uncaring to everything around him, but taking note of everything. Trask's knife was gone. Where had it gotten to? He continued, the same apathetic tone in his voice, "Obviously you have some sort of grief about me from your past. I probably stole your girlfriend, or some bullshit. Big fucking deal. Get over it, whatever it is."

"No, Melville. You committed two crimes against me. First, I was passed up for a position in the Turks over you. You received the position while I did not!"

"Boo hoo," Reno said, pretending to wipe his eyes. "And the other crime I committed?"

Trask grated, "Sector Seven."

"Figures," Reno said, lifting his pistol and firing at Trask. The aim was true, but just as they were about to strike the Soldier, a blue shield flashed forth, absorbing the hits. Reno glanced over and saw Tseng crouched down by a locker, a Materia bandoleer strapped about his chest. He swore.

"Will you deal with him?" Reno demanded, meaning to target the comment to Elena, not knowing where she was. Then, to Trask, he said, "Whatever happened to me being weak for needing help?"

Trask growled and charged forward. Reno tossed aside his gun and lit up his 'mag-rod, a genuine smile coming over his face.

Elena fired a few shots off at Tseng, only to have them deflected once more by the Protect spell he had cast on himself. Most Materia didn't seem to be working recently, but apparently the various protection spells still did.

She hated doing this. Hated fighting Tseng, hurting him. One part of her was glad to see him alive, walking about, moving so fluidly and perfectly. Another part of her felt sad, seeing this mockery of his former self walking about, some sort of killing machine that took the orders of the man who had brought him back. And another part of her was afraid. So desperately afraid. Tseng was her mentor, the man who'd taught or improved everything she knew about combat. She would never hope to surpass him. Never. And now he was trying to kill her.

Tseng took one green orb from the bandoleer he wore, and a look of concentration came over his face. When the Materia failed to work, he hurled it at the blond Turk. Elena was forced to try to dodge those projectiles, failing more often than not, green orbs striking her in sensitive locations, leaving behind bruises. This one was no exception. Even as she moved to the left, the Materia almost seemed to curve in midair, heading to her location. The ball struck her hand, and she cried out, dropping her pistol.

Out of reaction she immediately bent over to pick it up, but Tseng closed the distance between them quickly, leaping over the desk that had been his cover, and weaving around assorted tables decorated with various scientific tools. Even as he raced past one, his hand deftly picked up a scalpel, not even slowing his run at all.

As the pistol came into Elena's hand once more, she brought it up and squeezed the trigger. Her aim wasn't true enough, the bullet only grazing Tseng's shoulder. The man stumbled for a second, the left half of his body jerking backwards as the right half continued forward from sheer momentum alone. Tseng spun squarely into Elena, the scalpel flashing forward and neatly slicing across Elena's right wrist. She gasped in pain and the pistol she held on to flew out of her hand once more and into the wall where it discharged.

The couple fell to the floor, face to face, but while Elena's subconscious didn't fully register what had happened for several split seconds, Tseng adapted instantly and robotically, bringing his clenched fist up into the air and ready to smash into Elena's face. As it began its descent Elena's mind caught up with the current situation and jerked her neck muscles to the side just as Tseng's fist splintered the concrete beneath where her head had just occupied.

Somehow, she managed to both punch Tseng's wrist, causing him to drop his scalpel, brought her knee into Tseng's groin, however he just grunted and glared at the woman beneath him.

"Really not the man you used to be, huh Tseng?" she muttered just before he wrapped both of his hands around her throat and squeezed with all of his strength.

Reno's 'mag-rod crackled as he scraped it along the floor and up into Trask's face, the weapon spitting sparks and burning flesh until Trask grabbed Reno by the shirt front and lifted him bodily off the ground. With a gleeful smile, Reno shoved the rod into the vulnerable spot just below Trask's sternum and pressed the shocky button. The redhead's eyes slowly creased in disbelief at the amount of electricity the man's body was absorbing and promptly ignoring.

Trask faintly smiled and, obviously tired with this game, threw Reno into the nearest desk. The redhead slammed into it, ribs first, the desk and its contents toppling from the impact. Trask was strong, that was for damn sure. Fast, too. Grunting, he looked up and saw Trask striding to finish the job. The redheaded Turk struggled, kicking and cursing and throwing files and breakable objects out of his way in his attempts to stand up again.

"I've looked forward to this for a very long time," he said before striding forward, his hands out-stretched to snap Reno's neck like a twig.

It was at this point that Reno's infamous luck kicked in. Across the room, Elena dropped her gun, causing it to go off. Trask's head snapped to the side and he crumpled to the ground, blood running from the bullet wound in his temple.

Reno sat staring at the Soldier's body for a full three seconds before his mind could comment.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," he managed before freeing himself from the desk to help Elena.

Elena clawed at Tseng's hands, gripped as they were about her throat. She wasn't afraid of strangulation so much as the Wutaian crushing her windpipe with his enhanced strength.

If felt as if something in her throat was about to give, her head about to pop from the pressure. Her eyes bulged, and she feebly dug her nails into the offending hands, drawing small amounts of blood. Her knees bucked, colliding repeatedly into Tseng's groin, but they were quickly losing their strength.

I don't want to die.

A shadow loomed over her and Tseng, and a foot jutted out, slamming into the side of the Wutaian's head. The man let go, falling to the side, and Elena sucked in air raggedly, rolling over onto her belly and trying to get on all fours as she did. She looked up and saw Reno repeatedly striking Tseng with his 'mag-rod, the one end blazing with electricity. Even as he did, the Wutaian would collapse for a moment, then attempt to stand up again, only to fall back down from a new strike.

With each strike, Reno shouted a word, "What! The! Fuck! Is! With! You! Damn! Soldiers! Not! Just! Dying!"

He looked as if he were about to elaborate on his little rant, but Tseng, in an amazing display of speed, managed to recover from the latest strike and spin, one foot swinging out and sweeping Reno's feet out from under him.

Elena, still gasping, managed to finally stand up, and with her left hand, drew a gun from the holster on her calf under her pants. Even as she did, a large shape pushed her aside, growling in fury. She was bowled over, and even as she oriented herself, saw the large figure of Trask, blood streaming from the side of his head, shove Tseng out of the way, knocking him hard against a wall, and grab Reno. Elena shifted her aim, no longer targeting Tseng, and pumped four rounds into Trask's back. The man didn't even seem to notice. He lifted Reno up and solidly head butted the wisecracking Turk. Reno mumbled something, and whatever it was seemed to drive Trask even further into his rage. The man head butted Reno again and again, until blood poured down the redhead's ruined nose. Elena, shocked to see that Trask was still standing, fired again, emptying her entire clip into the Soldier's back. Still the man didn't notice the injuries, although he seemed to be slowing down. Tossing aside her gun, Elena ran to Trask's left, to where the gurney where Tseng had once laid sat. Quickly positioning it, Elena pushed and ran with it, moving her fastest, and drove it right into Trask's side. The man dropped Reno, and Elena, moving more from momentum than physical strength, continued forward, slamming her unsuspecting passenger into the wall.

Trask, bleeding profusely, seemed only mildly annoyed at this latest development. He shifted himself around, blood smearing the wall, and grabbed the gurney, shoving it back. Elena slowly gave ground until finally, with one surge, the Soldier flipped the gurney over and out of her hands entirely. He advanced on her menacingly.

"Oh, Trasky-poo," came Reno's voice.

Elena managed a glance over, and saw Reno, barely standing, his face a bloody mess, holding up his 'mag-rod in one hand, his other held up, middle finger extended and wagging, in the 'come here' motion.

Trask looked between Elena and Reno, the man who was barely standing and the woman who had only sustained a few injuries, one who was capable of fighting back and presented far more of a threat versus someone who couldn't defend himself, and chose. He charged past Elena and moved straight for Reno, a look of madness on his face. Elena kicked the man solidly as he raced by, driving her foot into the back of his knee. Trask stumbled and fell face first into the ground with a satisfying thump.

Elena moved in, one foot repeatedly kicking Trask in the ribs, losing focus of the moment in her sheer determination to bring this opponent down. She heard something go snap, and knew that she'd broken one of Trask's ribs, possibly two. The man, even enduring the abuse, slowly tried to stand up.

The blonde redoubled her assault; beginning to aim at the man's upper torso, figuring if she broke some lower ribs, perhaps she could break some higher ones as well, maybe get the bone fragments to penetrate something necessary.

Even as she did, a moment too late she saw the figure of Tseng diving at her. She turned to face this new threat a moment too late. The Wutaian collided into her, sending the two of them reeling, towards the wall, towards-

Elena only had time to let out a small gasp as the two of them smashed into a window and outside.

Reno stood calmly, one hand placed on a table to keep himself oriented and upright, the other holding firmly onto his 'mag-rod. Through the haze and sweat and blood and his one swollen eye, he managed to make out the events going on around him.

In one corner, Yuffie was just stirring, regaining consciousness after being driven into a wall by Trask. On the other side of the room, Elena and Tseng had just taken a swan dive out of a window out looking the rocky cliffs outside Junon. Turk pragmatism told Reno that Elena was probably dead, but he hoped that the rookie was still alive. It was just him and Trask for now, either way. Until Yuffie managed to get her wind back. Then it'd be a whole new ball game.

Reno just had to distract Trask for a little while.

"So, Trask," he said, watching the man advance on him. "Gonna let me in on the details? Who'd I kill when I dropped the sector plate?"

The man stopped, a look of confusion on his face. "What does it matter to you? Do you wish to taunt me with it?"

"A little. But I figure, you're all big and bad... you probably want to get it off your chest, right?" He thumbed the button on his 'mag-rod, switching it from 'shocky mode' to 'flamy mode.'

"It doesn't matter, Melville. They're dead, and 'getting it off my chest' will not help. But your death will. I will kill you, Reno Melville, and I will live on."

Reno stood perfectly still for a second, managing to keep a straight face, then burst into laughter.

"Why are you laughing?" Trask demanded.

"You really don't know, do you?" Reno asked. "You have no idea. It's the 'enhancements', isn't it? You don't feel pain at all, so you don't know."

"Know what?"

"Elena. She shot you. Put an entire clip into your back. Sixteen rounds. You've got a bullet lodged in your skull. I've fed enough electricity in you to drop a godamn Midgar Zolom. Yuffie put four shuriken in your arm. You're bleeding everywhere, man. Even if you do kill me, you're not going to 'live on.' We've already killed you, Trask."

"That's where you're wrong, fool," Trask said, shaking his head in denial. "Professor Hojo can fix any injury sustained on me. He has before. He'll do so again."

Reno glanced behind Trask, watching Yuffie creep up on the large man. "Yeah. Just one thing. I don't see Hojo here, do you?"

The Soldier's eyes widened, but he continued shaking his head. "He will return. The Professor never abandons his projects. Never."

"Unless they fail him," Reno said. "Speaking of... where's your knife, Trask?"

The man's head jerked upright, and he reached for his hip sheathe, only to find the weapon gone. A moment later, his back stiffened as the weapon was returned to him, directly into a kidney by Yuffie's hand. The weapon came out again and plunged back in, penetrating the other kidney. Trask, with all his superhuman endowments was incredibly fast. But Yuffie's hands were those of a master ninja, trained by Lord Godo himself. In 2.7 seconds, Trask had stabbed Shera seventeen times. In 2.7 seconds, Reno couldn't even begin to count how many times Yuffie stabbed Trask. His mind's eye settled the count as 'a lot' and was happy with that.

Even wounded so, Trask still managed to spin around and club Yuffie across the face with a backhand, but even as he turned away from Reno, the redhead lifted up his 'mag-rod and pressed the little red button.

A small fireball blasted out the end. Trask only had time to turn around with a surprised expression on his face as the bolt struck him directly in the eyes. The man stumbled back, letting out a scream of pain. It sounded like the most beautiful music Reno had ever heard.

The doors burst open, and Reno turned to face the newcomer, fearing Shinra guard backup, that somehow, the rent-a-thugs had finally become reliable and showed up where the trouble was.

Instead stood Reeve, shirtless, pants near to falling down, with a sword in hand and blood covering his body. Reno pointed his 'mag-rod at him.

Reeve dropped the sword and exclaimed, "It's me! I swear, it's me! Ask me something, anything! I can prove it's me!"

Reno barked out a laugh, and said, "Don't worry. I believe you. Hojo wouldn't have nearly peed himself from someone threatening him."

The Turk stumbled towards the blind Trask, who was flailing his fists around wildly. Yuffie stood up, moving towards Reno, and took his arm, putting it around her shoulders.

Reno looked at Trask, then looked at the bloody knife in Yuffie's hand. He whispered into her ear, "Yuffs."

"Yeah?"

"I am so unbelievably turned on right now."

"That's so gross."

Reno let out a laugh, surprised at her reaction. He couldn't help it. "Alright, let's say we just kill Trask, then we find a bed somewhere. I don't care where."

"I am not sleeping with you."

He snorted. "As if. I can barely stand. I need some sleep. I'm feeling really tired."

"Probably the concussion talking. Trask hit you in the head a lot. You look like a wreck. Sleeping right now is probably the last thing you want to do."

He smirked. "Well, I can think of one or two things you can do to help keep me awake."

"Uh, guys?" Reeve called. "We have more important stuff right now!"

"Like what?" Reno asked. "I'm trying to get laid here!"

The executive rolled his eyes. "By a sixteen year old. But that's not important right now. Hojo's getting away!"

"What?" Reno asked.

"He's prepping the Highwind and has locked all the doors. I can't get to him. I figured you could, I dunno, uh..."

Reno waved his 'mag-rod in the air. "Right. Got you. Blow him up. I'm good at killing shit. Except this fucker right here, who just doesn't want to..." He brought himself up short, looking for Trask. "... Fuck."

Elena slammed into the rock side after she flew out the window, Tseng still holding onto her. The two, a mass of limbs, tumbled down the slope of the small mountain Junon was built on, bringing up a cloud of dust and debris as they did.

Even as they fell, Tseng continued to strike her with his fists, gouge her with his fingers, and in one case, even bit her. All the while, she attempted to grab hold of something, to grasp onto anything that would let her stop falling, and save her life.

She found her salvation in a small rock that was jutting out from the main face, no longer than a foot, almost as wide as her leg. Grabbing onto it with both hands, her entire body jolted as her momentum was halted. She bit back a scream; it felt as if both her arms had just dislocated.

Something still pulled her down, though. She peered at her legs, and saw Tseng clinging on to her, a look of determination on his face. Not anger. Not fear. Just... determination. He'd been told to kill her, and now it appeared as if he'd try his best to do that, no matter what it meant. Even if he died in the process.

"Will you ever die for your job, Tseng?"

"Be reasonable. My loyalty is to my paycheck first, then Shinra. I don't think I'll ever see anything worth dying for when it comes to Shinra."

An old conversation the two had shared once. Oh how so much had changed since then. And now, looking at the situation... how stupid it all seemed.

"Tseng," she said. "I'm sorry."

The shell that was Tseng reacted, flinching away from what it expected to be a kick. But Elena couldn't bring herself to strike him. After a moment of inaction, the man looked up, catching her eyes as he did.

They both knew it. The rock wouldn't hold them up forever. She wasn't strong enough to hold them both up. Already she felt her limbs giving way, screaming in protest against this weight they were forced to uphold. The cut at her wrist that Tseng had inflicted with his scalpel began to ooze blood again. Only adrenaline managed to keep her going.

If she didn't kick Tseng off, they would both die.

She hung her head in defeat. She couldn't do it. She couldn't lose Tseng again. Even after that battle. She realized that throughout that entire fight, even though she'd been fighting for her life, she hadn't had the killer instinct required to finish it.

And now they were both going to die. So be it.

She caught Tseng's eyes one last time. And for a brief second, the glassiness faded away, leaving behind only Tseng, the consummate gentleman warrior. For one brief moment, the test subject of Hojo was gone, the robot shell left in place of the former Turk Commander.

And in that one brief second, Tseng let go.

Author's Notes:

Whoa boy, that chapter took a long time to write. I'm sorry about the ... week and a half? It took. Nisus wrote a small portion of this, and in the end, he was what got me motivated to finish this chapter. I got stuck half way through, because as I was writing, my machine decided to restart on its own, causing my to lose three pages of work. I managed to rewrite most of it without any difficulty, but then had trouble continuing. Nisus offered to pick up where I left off, but he quickly found difficulty continuing as well. Luckily, I decided to pick up my own responsibility and finish it. Heh. A lot of the ideas in here are still his, though.

Next up is Hojo!