oOo
There's no angels here, just the sun to light the way.
- Lost
oOo
Apocalypse Please
All he could do was stare as ashes fell. Burning paper fluttered like autumn leaves, glass still falling from the initial recoil. There wasn't light but for the building which had always towered above the rest of the city, though now it was several stories shorter, and accented the horizon much stronger than usual, burning as though intentionally set ablaze as a signal fire. Here is where Midgar stands, soon to fall... save us...
He was running despite the hands on him. There was no way in hell they were going to stop him, time was of the essence.
'Reno! Reno, come back, you can't fly that thing up there!' Rude took chase, knowing full well where he was going, and watching him b-line for the helicopter completed the thought. A quick glance at the building told Rude that the seventy-third floor wasn't even there anymore. Survivors would be far too much to hope for... there was nowhere stable to land... so he made sure to get to the pilot's seat first. Reno gave him a glare before jumping in the passenger side, Elena closely following. Whether or not they were going to land... they were going up all the same.
From the air, things were different, but no better. The chopper was far from silent, but the eerie feeling thick on the air seemed to dull the sound.
The mako cannon still stood, spanning over the darkened city whose life it consumed. The badlands seemed more inhabitable than Midgar as fallout from Diamond drifted over the city on its own wind, removed from the breeze that they felt.
'Reno you're going to have to jump... there's no way I'll be able to land this. I can get close enough though.'
The redhead nodded silently, watching their approach to the skeletal building intensely. There had to be some way... maybe the president hadn't been in his office at all. He could have given the order to fire from anywhere in the building. The flames died quickly, everything flammable being incinerated ravenously, casting a haunting glow over the city which provided no real light.
'Get ready--' Rude paused, interrupted as Elena was surprisingly first to jump. She seemed like a little nervous wreck most of the time, but determination had risen in her in this time of need, though Rude didn't know her motivation. Reno was shortly after, and once both had cleared the gap, Rude pulled away to prevent the drafts from disturbing the remnants of the building.
There was silence once the chopper was gone from sight. 'I think a flashlight would be useful.' Reno muttered quietly. He heard his heart hammering away, rushing through his ears in the darkness that pressed around them. Standing there in the ruined building, he still couldn't fully believe what had happened... it seemed so far-fetched, too science fiction in spite of everything he'd seen and done throughout the course of his Turk career.
'Hang on, I have one in my bag...' Though she was feet from him, he could barely see her outline as she rummaged through a small pack she happened to grab before everything spun into this insanity. Rookies were always more cautious, tended to over think everything... and brought things that they probably wouldn't need because there was a small chance that they could. Reno had long since outgrew that habit, but was thankful that Elena hadn't just yet.
'There.' She clicked it on and Reno blinked at the light and jumped as Elena shrieked and dropped it.
Reno turned quickly, flinching slightly at the crack as the flashlight hit the ground and echoed through the hollowed floor. It flickered a moment then kept shining.
Elena whimpered and knelt to grab for the light. When it rose from the floor again, the beam was shaky as it roved, then paused on an odd shape in the dust.
Half a blackened skull.
'It's not him, it's not him...' he muttered reassuringly, easing the light from her hands. The words were for his own vanity; she didn't silently weep because she believed she knew who the shattered bones belonged to.
Reno turned the light, and Elena away from the sight and continued along what was left of the corridor. He couldn't tell what floor this was; objects from levels above had fallen when the floor beneath them seared away, so each level was a medley of everything that had been above it. Armored siding from the outside wall in some places had sliced through walls horizontally, cutting rooms in two so cleanly that it seemed the rooms were made for people half their height. In other cases, it split rooms and hallways strangely as if an abstract painter had tried his hand at architecture.
With Reno in control of the flashlight, if he saw something that might be the remains of another unfortunate soul, he turned it away. The building was too ruined to tell for certain when they'd descended to the next level lower, all of them somehow blended into a downward spiral. Reno's heart skipped several beats when he saw a section of wall that indicated they were on level 70; Rufus' office.
The flashlight beam flicked from side to side, the normally immaculate office was littered with enough debris to turn it into a shoulder-height obstacle course of sharp edges and sparking circuits.
'Rufus!' His voice didn't echo before being swallowed up in the twisted mess before him. 'Come on, you're in here somewhere. Come ON!' Reno kicked at some crumbling drywall. Faintly he heard Elena calling into the darkness somewhere beside him.
Logically, he knew there was no chance anyone would have survived above the fiftieth floor. The fumes and smoke rising from everything still burning below was making his head spin, and it was probably seriously unhealthy, but they were going to recover Rufus now, no matter what his condition was.
Vaguely he recalled a conversation they'd had not too long after Rufus took his father's place, about what would happen if the Turks weren't there for him... well, it seemed that this was the disastrous aftermath. Word of Tseng's death affected the young man more profoundly than anyone realized, though those closer to him had more of an idea than the others. He had wanted to be alone. He had wanted to strike a serious blow at Sephiroth. He had wanted to defend his city from the rampaging WEAPONs that didn't seem to be protecting the planet at all. Not even Reno imagined that he could to all at once with a single, perfectly timed command to fire. He could see him in his mind, standing in front of the window and seeing Diamond's return volley. He wondered what his last thoughts might have been...
...no, not last. He would have more, they would find him alive in this mess. If he'd been at the window... Reno placed himself in the general area where the young president might have stood. Ballistics stated he would have...
Reno turned right around, turning his back on the remnants of the window, tracing his eye along the floor, a line straight forward from where he stood. Half a short-circuiting computer console, twisted filing cabinet spilling still-glowing embers, then there was a large scrape in the floor, worsening until a hole was gouged into it and the level below could be seen. Blank metal. Another section of outer armor from the building lodged through the wall and had gouged out the section of floor. Reno scoffed. Some good that did, useless armor.
A flash of colour.
There was blue in midst of black and white and grey. A small section of tile floor that peeked out from under the sheet of armored metal was astoundingly unsinged. Reno quite literally stopped breathing as he scanned the edges around the thing. The edges were blackened, but here and there he'd see faint indications of the colours the room used to be. He followed the edge all the way to the hole in the floor where something dark dripped slowly from the lowest point.
He shoved aside the sparking console and skirted the hole, dropping to his knees quickly to peer under the sheet of metal. It was like looking into an aquarium; a whole little aquatic environment, absurd, out of place, but perfectly stable. The floor underneath was virtually unmarked, though there was rubbish scattered that the sheet had taken with it when it was blasted back. It was a tight fit; a computer monitor- screen broken, but otherwise intact; the floor pattern could be made out; clean, white unburned papers were crumpled in corners and underneath things; an overturned mug spilled coffee which dripped down the metal.
No, the mug was clean, and the coffee was the wrong colour.
'Elena! Elena, get over here... here!' He gasped. Whether it was the smoke, or the discovery, or the fact that he really hadn't taken a breath since seeing clear floor that caused it, he wasn't sure. The rookie vaulted several blackened, unidentifiable objects and knelt beside him. Reno promptly handed her the flashlight and pushed his way under. It was smaller than it looked, and he exhaled so he could worm his way in further. He almost cried aloud when he pushed aside the broken screen and was met with a pair of feet.
Squirming quickly backwards, he tried to issue a command to the junior Turk, but when it came out as a wheeze, he decided it was better left unsaid anyhow. He dashed around the gaping hole in the floor to see if it was easier to get in from the other side, the whole time with Elena was on his heels, making certain she was never in his way, and the light was always where it was needed. They were silent as they pulled what they could out from under the sheet, being careful not to touch anything that might be supporting it and as soon as there was room, Reno crawled back under on his stomach. It was slightly easier from that side and tremors overtook him at the first sight of blond.
'Rufus...'
Somehow, he'd been miraculously saved... Reno had little in the way of spirituality, but he thanked whatever hand guided this to shield him. Were things slightly different... if Rufus had been three inches to one side, if there hadn't been a desk behind him... it would have crushed him instead. Trembling fingers touched the ashen skin, stiller than Reno ever wanted to see it. There was breath there, but not for much longer if they did nothing but cry with relief. Kicking more debris out from under the metal sheet, he cleared a space around the fragile form. A jagged edge of the sheet had sliced into his side, and he was bleeding heavily. The only touch of colour in his face was his blue-hued lips, and an angry gash just above his temple. What was broken, what was damaged? One arm was twisted strangely, but other than that, there wasn't anything outwardly obvious.
He needed to move him, but he couldn't. There was no way he could be careful enough with the way his hands were shaking. He and Elena didn't have the strength between them to move the metal plating, so they'd have to move Rufus himself... He was in an isolated world in that moment, there was nothing else but himself and this pale, fading thing before him.
'Hey Rufus...' Reno had no idea how upset he would have been if he'd found him dead, but he could only stare numbly, few coherent thoughts crossing his mind. Would he have lost it completely if they had found him lifeless? He was frozen... He wanted to touch him, to hold him to tend his wounds... but he knew he didn't know the first thing about healing, and the last thing he would do on a good day was hurt him. He was far too precious for that.
'Stay with me, okay...?' Whether it was his imagination, or if it actually happened, he saw those eyes open just a fraction, as though in acknowledgement. If eyes were a window to the soul... then they were broken and his soul was falling...
He eased him off of the metal's sharp edge and quickly placed his coat over the wound. The whole time he kept himself as close to the shattered form as he could, keeping him warm knowing that he was too weak to shiver, and shielding his failing spirit from drifting away. By the time Reno had freed him, Elena had cleared a space on the floor to lay him.
He barely heard Elena make the urgent radio call for the medics, and held his pale hand in his own when they were finally lifted away.
