the first half of this chapter is lovingly dedicated to Banana peel, who seemed incredibly distressed by the fact that Rude was not with the other turks in the midgar ruins. here he is, hon, but you might not like what i did.
eerian
Chapter 13
Somehow, Reno dragged a promise to search for Rude out of Yuffie. And, despite the doctors' protests that he was severely dehydrated, Reno was out in the rubble helping her look. Elena was still unconscious in the medical tents, and the doctors weren't holding out much hope for her recovery.
Yuffie had decided that it was the better part of valor not to tell Reno this as they worked. He had enough on his mind, worrying about his missing friend.
"So, I thought the Turks were bad guys," Yuffie said, hoping to drag him into any sort of conversation. And trying to figure out why he was being so nice to AVALANCHE.
"We're not bad guys. Help me lift this." She helped him pull up a heavy board. "We just did what we were told. That was the job, you know? They trained us to kill, and then that's what they told us to do. Quitting was never an option. You quit, and they killed you."
The Turk sighed. "After a while, you told yourself that you stayed because the paycheck was too good to leave."
"Geeze, I never looked at it that way. I guess Shinra screwed all of you guys too, huh?"
Reno didn't reply. He just kept sorting through the rubble.
Yuffie kept searching too, though secretly, she didn't think that they would find the last Turk. Reno, Elena and the boy they'd saved were pretty near death when they were rescued, and it had been nearly a full day later before they started searching in earnest for Rude. If they found him, she was pretty sure he would be just another body.
But she wouldn't tell Reno that either.
Suddenly, she felt something wrap around her ankle. She screamed and looked down.
"Yuffie, what?" Reno asked, turning to look at her. He followed her gazed down.
To a dark brown hand sticking out from the rubble, clinging to her ankle.
"Hey guys!" she called to the closest rescue team. "We need some help here!"
Reno wasn't willing to wait for help to arrive. He began digging at the rubble around the hand. "Yuffie, help me!"
She bent down to help him, only mildly surprised when the hand released her ankle so she could work. Whoever was under there must be able to hear them. The rescue team joined them quickly, and it was the work of mere moments to have the majority of their rescuee's body uncovered.
Reno began crying unashamedly when he saw that they really had found Rude. His sunglasses were gone, and his suit was trashed, but he was alive. Yuffie felt sick when she saw why he hadn't been able to dig himself out, despite being so close to the surface of the debris.
One of his legs was missing below the knee. And a piece of metal pipe was sticking out of his stomach. Frankly, she was stunned that he was still alive. He had to have had a cure materia somewhere to have survived that kind of damage.
"Hold on man," one of the workers said. "We've got the doc comin' with a stretcher. Just a little longer, then you'll be just fine."
She had to admire his kindness. A month ago, these workers would rather have spat on a Turk than looked at them.
Rude opened brown eyes and looked at them. "Reno?" he asked weakly. "You crying?"
Reno gave him a half-smile. "You shouldn't talk man. You got this big-ass pipe through your stomach, man."
"Where's…Elena?"
"With Lockheart. She'll be good as new in no time. You too."
Yuffie hoped that Reno was telling his friend the truth.
Later that night, Yuffie was in the medical tent waiting for news on the Turks when the screaming started. She ran toward the exit to help, reflexively reaching for Conformer.
When her hand hit empty air where it should have been, she remembered that it was in the North Crater and she was now weaponless.
She gritted her teeth and stepped outside anyway. There would be something she could to help, even if it was just throwing rocks to distract whatever—or whoever—was attacking the camp.
Nothing could have prepared her for seeing a familiar winged black demon crashing to the ground as Reeve put an incredibly accurate shot into its head.
"No!" she screamed, drawing the attention of every person near enough to hear her.
She ran toward the demon, ignoring Reeve's cry of, "Yuffie, that's not Chaos!"
But it was; she'd known it when she saw him fall.
Why isn't he turning back into Vincent? The girl knelt down next to the demon and looked him over. "Somebody get me a phoenix down."
"Yuffie," Reeve repeated, "Its not Chaos. Look, its not turning back into Vincent. This isn't him."
"It is him. Get me a phoenix down."
Reeve put a hand on her shoulder and pulled gently. "C'mon Yuffie. Let it be."
"Get me the goddamn phoenix down, Reeve!" she shouted.
Reeve shook his head, but went to do as the ninja demanded.
Carefully, Yuffie checked the demon's head, searching for entry and exit wounds. The bullet had entered just above his left eye, but didn't seem to have left. The phoenix down would take care of it, but she was more worried about brain damage than anything else. She'd seen some of that after the war.
She yelped when Chaos opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Yuffie…Vincent's in…mountain…Galian Beast…" She thought she read frustration in his face as he passed out again.
He's alive! Yuffie felt her heart soar. Somehow, Vincent's alive!
Something tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to see Cid holding a phoenix down out to her.
"Reeve says you're outta your goddamn mind," the pilot said. "His words, not mine."
"How quickly can you have the Highwind ready to fly?" She took the phoenix down from Cid and threw it on the demon.
"An hour or so," he told her, watching carefully as the demon stirred. "Why?"
"Chaos says Vincent's alive. I'm going to go find him."
