Chapter 11

Healin Lodge was as dull as it had ever been. He supposed it was meant to be more secure than the other building the Turks had been but hell, Turks shouldn't need to be secured. They WERE the security. Reno sat alone in the small living area of the suite he and Rude were staying in. The bottle of liquor he had bought from Tifa was almost half empty, partly from the night before and now from him waking. Rude was off guarding Rufus again and Reno was still 'confined' to the room. He was bored but in a distracted way. He didn't want to kill Yazoo. This in itself was odd as normally Reno couldn't care less who he was assigned to take out.

He had been letting the image of cat like green eyes and silver hair swirl around in his mind while he pondered the dilemma. He knew about Yazoo's suicide attempt, that day when they had gone chasing after him and Cloud. He had missed the actual event but some things just needed to be put together to see the picture. When he had seen Yazoo when he and Tifa had stopped by it was obvious that he had tried hard to move past a lot of things. There was still this sadness you could see in his eyes, especially when something reminded him of his brothers.

Turks never refused missions. But Turks sure as hell had failed on missions. He himself had botched them before, it was just how things went. No one was infallible. What if he failed with this one? It wouldn't be unbelievable. AVALANCHE was a worthy adversary and so was Yazoo himself. But his advantage was that they wouldn't see him coming. Tifa and Cloud somewhat trusted Reno and Rude now. But what if they didn't? What if they knew to be on guard? Hmm interesting. He would have to warn them but there was no one but himself that he really trusted other than Rude. And the thing with Rude was that he could be a really terrible liar. He was excellent at the whole silence is golden-you'll-never-get-shit-outa-me type deal but if someone like Tseng were to ask him a direct question he would blow it.

Reno sighed and put the cap back onto the bottle of liquor. If he was going to go now would be as a good a time as any. He would deal with Tseng being pissed at him for leaving later.


Pulling up outside 7th Heaven he noted Strife's bike outside. So they were back. He parked the car he had come in beside it. Hopefully no one would notice that he hadn't officially checked it out. It wouldn't be an unusual occurrence for him but it would alert Tseng to his absence.

He pushed the door to the bar open. It was getting late and it was busy inside. Tifa was working the bar and taking orders. She was the only person that he could pinpoint off the bat. She nodded to him in greeting. He took the only spare seat at the bar and waited for her to finish with her current customer.

"Reno, how are you? What can I get for you?" she asked sweetly. Reno shook his head.

"I actually needed to talk to Yazoo. Is either he or Strife around?" Tifa gave him an odd look at first then motioned upstairs.

"Yeah, Cloud and Yazoo are in their room along with Vincent. Go ahead, its up the stairs and down the hall, first door on the left."

Reno wanted to tell her he knew where it was but just nodded his thanks and went. He was surprised at how quickly the sounds from the bar faded once he was up the stairs. The voices of children were heard from the third floor but even they were muffled.

He knocked lightly on Cloud's door and then pushed it open. Cloud was sitting at a desk going through delivery orders, Yazoo was sitting on the floor cleaning his gunblade and Vincent was standing by the window. They looked up as he entered everyone but Vincent giving him a silent greeting. God's this was what you get when you put three quiet guys in a room together.

"Hey" Reno started feeling awkward. "How did monster hunting go?"

Yazoo decided to take pity on him and stood. "It went well, all things considered. You must be feeling better."

Reno nodded, he put his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath. He had never sold himself out before. "Look, I uh. Okay I'm gonna get straight to the point. Shinra wants you dead. They want me to do it and they want it to be soon."

The silence in the room became very thick all of a sudden. Cloud stood and was glaring daggers at Reno. Vincent turned to face them. Yazoo didn't seem surprised but was studying Reno. "Why are you telling me this then?" he asked finally.

Reno shrugged. "Stuffs not the same with Shinra. I have the feeling that if we kill you to salve the companies image then the Turks will just be next. I don't know, there are a lot of reasons but I'm not here to discuss them. Just be on your guard or leave or…..I don't know."

Yazoo crossed his arms over his chest and sighed. "Shinra…..they started this whole thing in the first place" he said softly. "Shinra and Sephiroth."

There was something in Yazoo's tone that made Reno's blood run cold. He had a look on his face that was carefully blank but you could almost see a kind of predatory rage hiding behind it. Vincent strode forward and took Yazoo by the shoulders.

"No, young one. Don't even think of it. No amount of revenge will bring back your brothers." Vincent met Yazoo stare for stare. His demeanor was firm but almost…..fatherly. Reno recalled some of the files he had 'accidentally' seen about Vincent. He had been a Turk after all. Something to do with a girl named Lucrecia, that psycho Hojo and Sephiroth. He pushed it all out of his head. He didn't know what was going through Yazoo's head but obviously Vincent did. He didn't like the way things were going. Cloud had remained silent but was watching intently. Was Yazoo planning on taking down Shinra? Reno almost laughed. Sure Yazoo was an exellent fighter but there were the Turks, some remnants of Soldier and….. Reno remembered how Kadaj had beaten he and Rude senseless to get to Rufus. He hadn't even broken a sweat.

Maybe he really could do it. The look on his face right now certainly said that he thought he could.

Reno scuffed his foot against the floor. He all of a sudden felt like shit. He had expected Yazoo and Cloud to come up with a way to keep Yazoo safe and then talk Rufus out of his plan or something. Not for Yazoo to retaliate.

Yazoo moved away from Vincent gently. He had his back to all of them for a few minutes. "I don't want to kill Rufus. But I want all the knowledge used to create my brothers and I destroyed. All the records of what was done to Sephiroth to make him what he is. I don't want anyone ever to have to be trapped in the same nightmare that me and my brothers were." Yazoo turned and faced Reno. "Is all of that still in the old Shinra building?" Yazoo's face had lost the softness it had gained in the past few weeks. He was sharp and determined.

Reno debated telling him. It was definitely betraying Shinra. But he wasn't loyal to Shinra. He was loyal to the Turks. The Turks who may die at Shinra's hand unless something was done.

"Yes, most of its still there. In the labs, but some is at Healin. There are more parts of Jenova. I don't know where but they exist. Look, I've told you this but…. I don't want any more of my friends dead. I don't want to be dead. This is all….. So fucked up." Reno walked over to one of the beds in the room and sat down and put his head in hands.

Damn, he was tired, he hurt. He didn't want to be a part of this anymore. Why the hell hadn't he just stayed in bed like Tseng told him to?

He felt the mattress sag as someone sat beside him. Cloud. "What will you do now?"

Reno snorted. Trust Cloud to be the one to ask the question that he didn't want to think about. Damn he needed a drink.

"I want to wash my hands of this. I've told you what I came to tell you. What you do from here on out is your business. But just to make things clear. I take orders, I do my job and I do it well. I don't want to carry out this mission but I will if I'm ordered." Reno stood and made his way to the door. Yazoo caught his arm.

"I understand and thank you for coming here." Yazoo's green eyes bore into Reno's blue.

They may have to fight each other again, maybe someday one would take down the other. But it sure as hell wouldn't be because they wanted to. And both of them new it like they new their own names.

Reno just shrugged and pulled away. He headed back to Healin Lodge and didn't allow himself to think until he was back in his room with the bottle of liquor in front of him. No one had noticed his absence.


A/N okay so now everyone who thought Reno would heartlessly snipe off Yazoo can relax. Sort of. Anyways, please let me know what you think and thank you to everyone who had been reviewing I really appreciate it.