Left Behind
A Story in the Turks of Midgar Arc
Chapter 8 – Youth
Reno Coral (Valentine) hated being five years old. As the only child of successfully Mako enhanced parents to survive past diapers, he was gifted with an unusually high intelligence and physical ability. Many would think this heightened development would turn the ordinarily dull existence of a young boy into something wonderful, but it was quite the opposite. Nothing could change the fact that Reno was a special child, and special children had a habit of disappearing.
He tried his best to help his mother, and rarely got in trouble if he could avoid it. The redheaded boy knew that he was the only one who could protect his mother from the evil men who laughed about her behind her back.
But if he were just a few years older, he could do so much more for her. His mother was his world you see, the sun he revolved around. He got good grades to make her proud; he told funny jokes to make her smile. He scared off all the men who wanted her, so she couldn't love anyone else. But this new man was different. He wanted Jesse badly, but Jesse didn't want him. Reno had heard of the man, and despite his youth (or maybe because of it) he wasn't afraid. Warriors came and went, he knew that, and so he assumed that this new suitor was no different.
He hadn't left for Rudy's orphanage like his mother had ordered; he'd stayed behind, hiding in the shadows under the stairs, watching the silver-haired man wipe the blood from his mother's neck. He saw the sudden, harsh embrace and the delicate kiss. Reno's first thought was that the man had poisoned his mother, but then he was gone, slipping out the back door as though he'd never been. His mother paused to re-route some of her Mako energy into knitting her skin back together where the General had cut her, then she dashed through the house, packing things with an inhuman speed.
His mother always moved like that, and Reno had grown so accustomed to it being the norm that he began to imagine that everyone else were just dummies to fill the empty space, and that his mother was the only real person in the world. He loved his mother; she was life and death and all things that he knew were true. And now they had to flee. Jesse performed no unnecessary motion; she moved as though her mind had already planned out her path twenty steps ahead.
"Mommy...?" Reno stepped into the living room and saw his mother tense at his voice. "Where are we going?"
"We're going to the secret house. I thought I told you to go see Rudy." Jesse turned to look at her son; he was so precious.
"And leave you here alone with that man?" His tone brought a smile to his mother's lips.
"I'm a big girl, Reno. Now, come here and put on this costume."
"Oh great, I get to play the beggar boy again..." He sighed and rolled his eyes with great emphasis. Jesse burst out laughing and gathered the little boy into a hug. She didn't know what she'd do without him.
Reno stood at the sink and washed dishes, chatting animatedly with his best friend Rudy. Jesse had slipped back into Midgar to go to Rudy's orphanage and adopt him. Reno had wanted a brother for his birthday, and so Jesse had provided. Rudy looked nothing like Reno; his skin was the color of well-creamed coffee, he was tall for his ripe old age of seven, and his eyes were a crisp green color that contrasted well with his light brown hair.
"...and then he left, and Mommy started packing. Then we snuck out of the sector and came here." Reno and Rudy were going over recent events for the billionth time, trying to formulate a plan to make sure the Bad Man didn't ever come back. Rudy finished rinsing the last dish, and Reno hit the glowing green button by the sink before draining the water. He knew the importance of always activating the wards before letting any water leave the house.
It was a shame that there were people in Kalm who were unknowingly Mako-enhanced and shared similar radiation patterns to Jesse. All the wards in the world wouldn't erase their traces.