Ch2.
Reno watched out the back passenger window of Rude's SUV as they came around the last forested curve in the road leading just outside Gongaga. He had stayed quiet the whole ride not feeling like participating in any conversation.
"This place sure went down," Reno thought as he caught his first view of what used to be his home. "Wow, what a dump," Elena exclaimed in disgust, and he sighed in silent aggreance. It used to seem so big, there were so many places to explore, to hide. His father's house was a large three story grey plantation style estate. There were many memories here, Reno could account so many more bad than good.
Something moving through the large willow trees caught Reno's attention but he caught nothing more than a blur. It startled him just the same as the engine halted to it's stop.
"Well," Tseng asked abruptly and Reno snapped "Well what?" Rude and Tseng exchanged a glance and Elena tried to smother laughter. Tseng sighed. "Weren't you listening to a single thing I said," the Wutaian asked. Reno tossed him a lopsided smile then his usual sarcastic grin. "Not really." Tseng stared blankly for a moment then got out, as did Rude.
"There's no way I'm ready to do this," Reno thought as he watched Elena get out. Everything he ever loved, was ever attached to, was lost in this house.
Reno wandered over to lean against a tree while the others went through the details of this mission. He didn't need to listen. He already knew the story by heart. He had lived it every night and survived it every morning.
Reno lit up a cigarette and surveyed the grounds. A lot had changed since the last time he had been here. Noticeably, the house was leaning more than just a little to the side, the roof was barely supported and the foundation itself was crumbling into nothing. Squinting his eyes against the blazing afternoon sun, he could just barely make out where his room used to be. It was the one with the boarded up windows. He could account for the day his father had nailed it shut. It was the day he lost his everything but himself.
Reno was pulled from his thoughts as Elena encouraged him to join. Rude had pulled their overloaded cardboard box, containing crucial paperwork, from the back seat and had it sitting on the ground where Tseng and Elena were sifting through it. Reno glanced from the box to Rude and sighed. "You aren't shitting me, right?" Tseng paused and looked over. "Oh, so I see you finally came back to us." Reno sneered at him, then grinned. "At least I didn't get put on probationary for..." "That's quite enough thank you, mind your mouth," Tseng interrupted quite quickly. Reno didn't feel like arguing today so he let it slide.
"If we're ready then," Tseng asked, to which Reno needlessly answered "Whenever you are." Tseng stared blankly for a moment, then pulled a manila envelope out of the box, to which he opened and started reading from. "Today's assignment... Hmm. It seems it may indeed follow through the night and into the weekend if needed..." Reno and Rude both exchanged panicked glances, the weekend was their sacred drinking time. "Okay, down to business. First off, make sure we are each protected by Barrier Materia at all times, between Reno's unnecessary acts of reckless endangerment and Elena's habit of firing at will and bad aim, we really don't need any more injuries. We are short of recruits this year and cannot afford to gift time off." "Aww man," Reno mocked disappointment. Elena tried not to notice as she dug through their stuff in the back seat for her laptop.
"Anyway," Tseng read further down the paper, scanning it for anything worth reading. Reno scooted closer to Elena and threw her a grin. "So, ya think that means we get guns?" "No, actually," Tseng answered to Reno's dismay." She stays out here with me, with MY gun. Rude takes his if he wants and you get your choice between any stick you can find in the yard, or nothing." Reno challenged him with a killer stare, but the older man ignored it. Reno shrugged it off and playfully smirked. "Yeah, I got a stick for ya right here..."
Rude shook his head. He hated being the most mature of the four. "So, what are we... me and stickboy here... assigned to do?" Reno grinned to that and shoving his hands in his pants pockets, leaned back up against the truck. "Yeah, learn it to me." Tseng tossed the paper in their main direction and turned his full attention to Elena's fingers as they rapidly typed something into her computer.
Reno leaned over and looked for himself. "No way, there's no way I'm going into the basement." Rude grinned. "What's the matter? You're not scared of the dark..." Reno shook his head. "No man, I just... Never mind." "No, what," Rude urged curiously. Reno smirked. "You know. It's just been awhile. Last time I was in a basement, I was... tied up if you know what I mean." Luckily Rude took it for something else and laughed. "Yeah, okay. Sorry I asked."
Elena went alongside Reno and Rude to the back of the house, long enough to pick open the rusty deadbolt holding the splintering portal to hell closed to the rest of the world. She smiled at the two and before she retuned to the safety of Rude's truck slipped something very cold and heavy into Reno's coat pocket. "For good luck," she winked as she walked away. The two stared at the blonde's backside as she made her way back through the tangles of tall grass until she was out of sight. Reno pulled the .25 out of his pocket and tucked it into his belt with a grin. "I knew he was full of shit."
Rude looked in first and found it to be dimly lit in the hallway leading down with no lights, which should have been expected. "Hey Reno," he called. "Yeah?" "You got a light?" Reno tossed Rude his lighter, much to Rude's dismay. "I was thinking of something just a bit bigger." "Oh. Here," Reno drawled out as he fumbled to unclip his EMR from his belt loop. Rude laughed nervously. "I'm not touching that thing, I don't know where it's been." Reno sighed. "Guess that makes sense... ya big baby." "What's that?" "I said... Guess I'm going first, kay?" Rude eyed his friend skeptically then shrugged. "You first?"
Reno's heart pounded as he slowly lead the way down the darkened hallway leading into the depths of hell. The gentle glow from his EMR cast shadows as the two pushed farther down the old staircase, shadows he wish he didn't see. As they hit the base of the stairs and landed at ground zero, they were engulfed in pitch black... Even with Reno's MagnaRod at it's highest voltage they could only see maybe three feet in front of them.
"This sucks dude," Reno complained as he backed up slowly against the staircase. "What..." Rude asked, slightly interested in something just out of sight. "Hey, tell you what," Reno offered, "Why don't we see if Elena can hook us up with some lights and then come back later?" Rude turned and looked Reno over. "You serious?" "Well, yeah. It would be quicker that way, right? The more we can see, the faster we get this done, the faster we get to go home, you get me?" "Yeah," Rude answered, wondering why the redhead was so antsy to leave all of a sudden.
"But Reno?" "Yeah." "Wouldn't it be easier... and quicker... for you to find the circuit breaker and fix it yourself? I mean, it's gotta be around here somewhere, and you are a level three electrical technician..." "No. Let's just get out of here."
Elena looked up from her typing and watched curiously as Reno swore and kicked through the grass and climbed through a broken window at the side of the wrap-around porch. Figuring since Tseng had went into town without saying anything and she wasn't doing anything relevant, Elena closed her computer and went over to follow Reno. Anything he was doing would surely be more interesting than typing. She had a harder time climbing through and not cutting herself on the shards of glass, but she got in okay, just in time to slip her work boots off and track him as he started up the main stairs.
Reno sorely missed the grip of his EMR but leaving it with Rude had been the best choice. He looked down the hallway and was shocked to see the family's portraits still hanging on the wall. He walked over and traced a finger over his mother's picture, wiping the layers of dust away from her dark brown eyes. He bit his bottom lip and tried to keep a straight face. His mother had been beautiful. So many times in his youth he could remember holding her picture at night, telling her everything. "Only... There were things you kept to yourself and you know it."
With trembling fingers Reno took it off the wall and, carefully prying the backing off the glass case, took the photo out. This one he would re-case and put in his apartment. Gently rolling the picture, he put it in his coat pocket and went ahead and wiped down another glass case. He found himself looking at his sister's picture with overcoming grief. Danielle had only been 15, her body never recovered. He took her picture out and pocketed it also. There were so many here and he didn't have anything to hold on to them by, and they were rightfully his anyway, right?
Reno stopped cold as he found himself staring ... himself... directly in the eyes.
"You... It's been so long since I dared look at your picture... Yesterday it seemed an insane thought, but here I am, staring you dead in the eye. Your presence is suffocating. In the only place I ever felt safe, your breath suffocates me. Your hollow thoughts and empty emotions, your cruel and heartless bloodshot eyes bearing through my soul. If you weren't already dead I could swear you were right behind me planning my demise this very moment. Daddy how could you... Nearly twenty years later, and here I stand, the spitting image of you, the one who dared to take everything I ever held close away from me. You took my mother from me before I even got to meet her. You took my sister, you took my innocence, you took everything but my miserable excuse for a life. I loved you the only way a child could, pure and untainted innocence... And you dared to leave me without anything. No home, no family, nothing but a soulless shell. How could you..."
With an anger no one else had seen him exhibit, Reno plucked the picture from it's nail and threw it against the opposite wall, sending shards of glass showering around him. "Fucking hate you! Goddamit I fucking hate you," Reno screamed at the top of his lungs, then collapsed against the wall laughing. "You son of a bitch.."
Reno pushed himself back up, with shards of glass puncturing his palms but he didn't care, he was too pissed off to notice. He checked his pockets for his cigarettes and his lighter (thank goodness Rude had given it back or he'd have been screwed right about now) and lit one up. Neither did he notice his earpiece fall to the floor.
Out of one eye he did notice a small ray of light pushing it's way through the dingy darkness and followed it with interest. He knew exactly where it was leading. His bedroom. He wandered in and lay down on his bed for a moment, thinking. A sudden thought sparked his imagination and he got up and pushed his bed aside.
Underneath where the bed had been, he pried the four floor boards up and pulled out a medium sized metal box. Holding it in his hands it felt dirty... not just because of the dust and cobwebs... but what it stood for. He set the box aside and pulled out the paper binder he had stored away so many years before and opened it. He leafed through it and found some of the pages missing... "What the fuck," he thought to himself as he clicked open the backing and started taking the pages out one by one. "Come on... They have to be here..."
Elena followed Reno's words to just outside the room and peered in. She couldn't deny the fact that her coworker was obviously emotionally disturbed, but wasn't anywhere near prepared to approach him. Instead, she leaned up against the hallway wall outside the door and cautiously surveyed him. She had never seen him this upset before, and for some odd reason she didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone up there.
It was Tseng's footsteps that broke the silence. "What exactly are you doing up here," he began questioning at Elena but abruptly stopped as he noticed Reno and the gaping hole in the floor and the papers scattered around him on the floor. Tseng stood, evaluating the scene. "Did... You do this," he slowly asked, entering the room and looking around. Reno sarcastically snorted a laugh. "Yeah. What's it to ya?" Tseng crossed his arms and stood ground. "You're supposed to be looking in the lower floors with Rude, and Elena..." He pauses to look at her, then back, "Should be helping me with papers outside. I demand to know why you two are shirking your duties. Reno?" "RENO!"
Reno didn't respond. Neither did he even hear Elena scream, his ears ringing from the single shot Tseng had fired into the ceiling.
A gun used to be a symbol of protection, something of exterme worth... He knew it stood for more now. How could he even face his boss... They were looking for something they weren't even sure of, and here he sat, right in front of them, knowing everything. He hated it, but there was no way out. "I'm screwed."
"Listen... I know this may sound funny, but I might know a hell of a lot more than I've been letting on..." Elena stepped forward, but Tseng held his arm out for her to stay back. Reno watched this as he lit up another cigarette. "Then what..." Tseng started, but Reno cut him off." Shut up and listen and you'll know. That's the problem with you 'Sen, you can't listen to anyone but yourself. That don't matter to me though, you're gonna listen, and you're gonna listen good cause I'm only saying it once, alright?" Tseng stared at Reno, somewhat in shock that he would speak against him, and somewhat in amusement. "Indeed."
From the innermost depth inside the basement, Rude felt his shoe stop clean, stuck inside something. "A tree root? Down here," he thought to himself a bit perplexed. From that moment on, he wished he hadn't leaned down for a closer look. "Hey Reno I found something! You gotta see this! Reno? Do you copy?"
To be continued...
A/N
So what secret is this Reno hiding from everyone? What exactly was he protecting under the floorboards in his bedroom? And what did Rude "unearth?" You'll find out next time, so stay tuned.