8

The Truth Outs

Previously: "That is all. Jennin, he's all yours. And don't be soft on him girl. I felt your pain for what he did to you long before we met. If you don't get proper revenge for yourself, I will do it for you." Jennin nodded and beckoned him over for a quick goodbye kiss before he sauntered off. Reno kept a hard eye on her as she came over and sat next to him. She looked different when she was angry.

"Who's he?" Reno demanded in a cold voice.

"He's Dale. My boyfriend." He just stared at her, his lips pushed together, anger and sickness pumping through him.

"How long have you and him…"

"Two years." Reno sighed angrily, feeling defeated and thoroughly deflated.

"Why? Why did you make me believe you liked me? Why did you make me fall for you? Was it that pendant? It was, wasn't it? It wasn't a Protect Pendant at all, it was a manipulate materia or something. I'd never fall for a woman that intensely or so quickly without the aid of magic!"

"The pendant was a Protect Pendant Reno. You fell for me yourself. I admit I was surprised in how fast I had you hooked on me… I wasn't even going to do it like that. I was just going to kill you, real slow. To be honest I never thought I'd see you again. But I vowed that if I ever did, I'd make you feel what I felt…

"When I saw you again in the bar in Mideel I didn't know what to think. At first sad, and angry. But then my creativity kicked in and I thought of all the slow and painful ways I could kill you. I never expected you'd come and dance close to me. But you did and a new plan formed. Why kill him straight away? Build him up before I knock him down. Welcome to being knocked down, Turk." Reno gaped, what was she talking about, he'd never seen her before that night in the hotel bar.

"What? I think this is a case of mistaken identity. I never saw you before four days ago. What's this all about?" She leant in really close to him, her sweet scent filled his nose and reminded him of earlier, when everything was good and she wasn't blaming him for something he had never done.

"Sector. Seven. Slums." She said this in staccato, emphasising each syllable, her eyes unblinking and slightly narrowed in the anger she was clearly trying to keep suppressed. He closed his eyes and gently bit down at his lip as he hung his head, his insides felt like jelly and his heartbeat drummed against his ears.

"My family lived in the sector seven slums. We lived a quiet life. My childhood was all right considering the circumstances. Of course, my father pushed down my claims of hearing voices and denied the things I could do without the aid of materia. In fact the only Indigo Child ability my family did embrace was my heightened intelligence, my mother used to say that one day her sweet Jennin would live up on the top with the sky above her. Her sweet Jennin just knew things, knew things without having to be taught. She didn't have to pay for me to go to school because I already knew enough. Well, as soon as I was sixteen I got a job, I was bright enough. I'm an Indigo Child. All Indigo Children are bright. That was where I was on that day, working in a shop up top making money for my parents and two little sisters while they were being crushed to death under the plate that had hung over their sorry heads their whole life." He could see the hint of tears hang at the corner of her eyes. The hint of tears at the back of his own eyes were edging on threatening to surface, but he pushed them down, grinding his teeth together.

"When I heard the news, I didn't know what to think. They were dead. The rumours reached me soon enough. It was the Turks who did it. Some said it was AVALANCHE, but I learnt the truth soon enough. The Turk with red hair, he was the heartless bastard who had ripped apart my family, my friends, my home, my life with no consideration to who he hurt, how many lives he destroyed."

"That's not true." He said with quiet solemnity. A jolt of pain hit his cheek, she had slapped him hard.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I HATE YOU! Speak when you are told to." She raged, turning red in anger. He hung his head again. Ok, she deserved to have this moment, he could understand that.

"I had nothing. Not even the job I hated, I got fired when I missed work the day after. I had nothing. Nothing except the voices. The voices in my head had always been there, no matter how much I ignored them. They had been calling me to them since before I can remember. In Midgar all you need to survive is a credit card, and a job to keep it filled up. In the country all you need is a good knife and a sharpening stone to keep it sharp. I no longer had a job or credit card. But I did have a knife and a sharpening stone. So I left the city and followed the voices. Followed Dale's voice here. I never thought I'd see you. But here you are." Disgust filled her voice and expressions; she looked down on him like he was a piece of shit on her shoe. He felt like a piece of shit on her shoe.

"In these past few days I got to know you and I have to admit I was surprised. You're not quite the jerk I had pictured you to be; you have some humanity in you. I wonder if that is just because you are three years older than you were when you thought you could crush thousands of innocent people to death and get away with it. I decided to give you a chance to admit that what you did was wrong, that you maybe you felt something about it. When I asked you if there was anything you had done that you truly did regret you did not think that murdering those poor souls was anything to be especially regretful of."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" It came out less strong and angry than he had meant it to, it sounded more pained than strong, but he couldn't just sit back without justifying himself, she had to at least hear his side of it.

"Go on then, convince me that you're a saint, that you deserve the life you've been given." Suddenly his excuses seemed pathetic, but she at least should know why he did it, she deserved to know. As he told her he did not dare look up from the dusty wooden floor his eyes had rested on.

"I'm no saint. I don't pretend that I am worth anything or deserving of life. But that incident was not my own personal wish, you know that don't you? You know that I am a Turk. My job is to do what ever the hell I am told to do without questioning it. I admit, even I had to question that order the day it came to me.

"I grew up in the slums, hell I probably knew some of those I killed. I dunno. I guess the human instinct for survival kicked in. That order came from above; if I didn't do it I was dead."

Tears streamed down her face freely now, every tear she spilt cut into Reno like a knife, he had caused those tears, but she had to understand.

"Selfish jerk! You could have just taken that risk, one death would have been better than thousands!"

"You seriously think they'd say 'Oh, Reno won't do it. Let's kill him and leave it at that?' No. There were other Turks and countless freelance contract killers that would have been put on that job." She just shook her head, sobbing; he didn't know what to say to make her better. There was nothing he could say.

"For the record, I hate myself for doing it, but I did and that's that. I have to grin and bear the scars of what I have done in the past, even that scar, in all it's hugeness, I have to move on. And you too have to move on and live your life."

Through her sobs she tried to say something, but she was sobbing too hard. This was a torture too great for Reno, despite all that was happening he still felt for her, he still had the seeds of love for her growing within him. But he would not let those tears threatening to well up come, he clamped his eyes closed and tried to think of something else, craving alcohol, drugs, anything just to be somewhere else, someone else.

"I…I had planned all the ways I… could hurt you for so long and…and now you're here I can't do any of them…I just…I…Dale's gunna hate me…" She said through sobs

"Believe me, you've hurt me. A hurt that won't heal any time soon. I'm a Turk, I've had more broken bones than I could list, I have stared death in the eye enough times, been tortured till there was no part of my body that wasn't bruised, burnt or cut. But I have never been as hurt as I am now. Tell that to your little boyfriend!" He snapped bitterly. Seriously, he'd prefer conventional torture.

"Jennin! We need your help here!" Dale had put his head round the doorframe and looked pretty flustered, Reno tried to see what was going on, but from the chair he sat on, all he could see was the room he was being held captive in. Seeing as he had been left alone he gave wriggling his arms free a go, but the rope had been tied too well.

A few minutes passed, he could hear shouts now drifting into the room from outside, the sound of shuffling feet and muffled shouts grew closer until Dale and another man a few years younger brought in Yuffie Kisaragi kicking and trying her best to scream through the hands clamped around her mouth. She struggled her jaw free and shouted

"Let me go you JERKS! Gimme my materia back now, or you'll all pay BIG TIME!" Her eyes fell on Reno's tied up figure and she stopped kicking for a moment, her eyes going wide in surprise; Dale used her moment of submission to his advantage and clapped his hand over her mouth again. She didn't take kindly to this and struggled twice as hard as before. But Dale had reached the destination he had been heading in. He and his associates dumped her onto one of the beds. Reno had not noticed that they had straps attached to them till now. Jennin had been following the two men and buckled the straps up onto Yuffie's wrists and ankles as Dale and the other man held her down. As soon as Dale took his hand away from her mouth she started ranting again

"Let us go! You'll regret this you sons of bitches! I'll deck you one, I will! LET ME GO!" Dale paced across to one of the cabinets and opened a drawer, pulling out a piece of red cloth and returning to Yuffie, gagging her. Reno wished he had thought of doing that before.

"Do you know this girl?" Dale asked him. Reno narrowed his eyes and went back to his tactic of not answering. Jennin was Dale's; he could taunt him all he wanted now he knew that, Reno couldn't change the way things were. Dale flashed him a hard stare and pulled a chair out from under Yuffie's bed, sitting on it and pulling a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket, lighting up and taking a drag. He went over to Reno and leant down to him, letting the smoke waft out of his mouth into Reno's face.

"Do you know this girl?" Reno didn't know what the hell he thought smoking would do to make him talk; he felt no more like answering. Dale stood and went over to Yuffie, putting the end of his cigarette between his index finger and thumb, staring at the smouldering end for a moment with a smirk on his lips before taking a sturdier grip on it and stubbing it down onto Yuffies bare skin. A muffled, but pained scream filled his ears and made him grimace. Dale did not remove the cigarette; he simply looked at Reno with that arrogant smile of his.

"Do you know this girl?" He asked again. Yuffie would never forgive him if he didn't answer soon.

"Yes." Dale nodded and retracted the cigarette from her skin.

"Wasn't so hard to speak now was it Turk?"

"Is she one of the three you were in Mideel with?" Reno nodded, biting down on his lips. Dale looked over to Jennin, from the way they looked at one another Reno guessed they were communicating telepathically. She nodded and sat on the floor looking miserable.

"There is little time left now. Too many people know about us being here. The test must happen tonight."

TBC…

Authors note: OK, I think I'll go back to longer chapters now. I just wanted to see if it worked any better with the shorter ones, I'm not sure that it does, thanks to darkbeerangel and Ayane 7 on your advice on this. Anywoo, thanks to Ayane7, darkbeerangel, ducky in spandexand Astaroth the fallen for reviewing! (And anyone else who is reading thanks!)