Tengoko: Once again, I'm back to updating quickly. But, it's five in the morning, and you know how it is. Read and Review please.

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Rated M for language and romance

Chapter 3: Ruined

How he hated Mondays. In his opinion there was simply nothing worse than a Monday morning. He dragged his feet, walking as slowly as possible and trying to ignore the presence of his little sister at his side. She followed behind him by about a step, and just stared at him expectantly.

"What?" he snapped, still not looking at her. She shook her head and averted her eyes. "Why don't you ever talk? All of my friends are beginning to think that you are some kind of weirdo. Do you understand how embarrassing that is for me…to tell them that I have an involet sister just so they are compelled to pity you instead of morosely mock you."

She still said nothing, conveniently ignored him in fact. Wesley always found that if he ever wanted to condescend or fiercely insult somebody, Lena Mae was the last to try it on. It was just that she didn't really care. She'd just go on as though nothing had happened, and it annoyed the ever living hell out of her older brother.

"Well, don't expect me to hold your hand when we get to school, little girl. Imagine how that'll make me look."

"Yes, we wouldn't want your friends to think that you have a soul," she said quietly, still avoiding his hard gaze.

"Does it speak?" he asked in mock surprise. "Oh, I believe it does! And what's that? It's trying to sound intelligent? Amazing!"

"You aren't very nice," she barked, looking up at him finally. "Just wait 'til I tell dad what you said."

"Dad won't do a damned thing," Wesley said under his breath. It was true. Reno hardly ever lost his temper where Wesley was concerned, even when he purposely tried to piss him off. In fact, Lena Mae got a lot of her patience from their father, it's just, Reno was quick on the comeback and often put Wesley back in his place.

"Then I'll tell mom!"

"Like I can't handle mom," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey, Wes!" Wesley turned his head away from Lena to see three boys about his age, running towards them. Smiling deviously, he stopped and greeted them with elaborate handshakes and high-fives. "Whatchya up to, bro?"

"Nothing much, just walking the involet to school," he said, sneering at his little sister.

"To hell with school, we've got something much, much better," the boy said, flipping his blonde hair. "Viggo had the idea that we go to the Sector Seven ruins and try to find materia and shit. I mean, come on, with Shin-Ra wanting to rebuild, this may be the last chance we get."

"Wes, you'll get in trouble," Lena warned.

"Shut the hell up," he said curtly. He looked at his three friends and contemplated it for a moment. Lucius, the friend who proposed it, looked down at his sister and smiled slightly, but then snapped his attention back to Wesley and waited. His hazel eyes seemed bored, as though he'd love nothing more than to be anywhere else. "Well, let's go then. We've got quite a walk."

"Wes!" Lena implored.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up!"

"Ah, don't be like that," Lucius said. "She can come too. Hell, maybe the dweeb'll learn a thing or two about slum scrounging."

"Why would she need to learn that?" Wesley asked. "She doesn't live in the slums." It was amazing how it worked. Wesley treated his sister as though she were a disease, but when other people did it, he became extremely defensive. "Besides, my mother will kill me if she finds out that Lena picked up that nasty habit."

"I don't want to go," Lena protested.

"Well, we could leave you here, all alone, without a phone or a way of getting back."

Lena didn't say another word. How could she, especially when the boys took off in a hurried stride and she had to run just to keep up. And they never slowed down. It was a good thing that she was energetic and active, or she never would have been able to run the whole way.

"Damn, I've never been here before," Wesley said as they began climbing over the debris. "I can't believe how bad this place is."

"Christian once found a body," Viggo said excitedly.

"Liar," Lucius accused, though he smiled. "It's been nearly twenty years since the plate came down. Besides, with the force and weight of the plate, all bodies would have been crushed to oblivion, destroyed all together."

"You're full of shit," Wesley laughed. "You know that's not true. Crushed, yes, but there's a possibility that we could find a body here."

"Wouldn't that be awesome?" Viggo smiled.

"You are so morbid," Christian said. "But, that's why we wanted to come. People kept talking about how they found parts."

"Parts?" He didn't know why he furthered the conversation by asking. The idea of finding a corpse repulsed and terrified him. He could never understand his friend's fascination with stuff like that. He supposed his inability to deal with seeing a dead body or thinking about the prospect had something to do with Hayden, the brother his friends didn't know about.

"Parts of people, Wes. Stop being so obtuse."

"You guys actually…want…to find a dead body?" Wesley asked, looking a bit disgusted. Do you realize that we are talking about remains that are nearly twenty years old. Do you really want to see that?"

"Yeah!" Viggo and Christian said together.

"Really, why do we hang out with them?" Lucius asked Wesley underneath his breath, so that only he could hear. "I honestly thought they wanted to scour for materia and weapons, not bodies. Had I known, I never would have suggested the idea to you."

"Dude," Wesley stopped walking and looked around. "Do you hear that?"

"It sounds like a truck, but it sounds far away," Lucius said.

"No, it's coming this way," he said, his eyes widening. "It's a Shin-Ra truck."

"Damn!" Viggo shouted. "Let's get out of here before they catch us."

They were all about to take off when suddenly, Wesley called out, "Where's my sister?" They all stopped and looked around. Indeed, Lena Mae was gone and panic swept over the four boys. "Oh shit! Lena!" he cried. "Lena, this isn't funny! I get your point, now come here!"

Nobody answered and Wesley began to get worried. What if something happened to her? It would be all his fault. "Maybe she got tired and sat down to rest," Viggo suggested.

"That doesn't help me," Wesley shouted.

"What the-" The boys wheeled around, unaware that the truck had already parked nearby, and half a dozen Shin-Ra employees were walking about. That wasn't the worst of it though. Wesley stomach fell when his eyes found those oh so familiar black shades. "Wesley? What are you doing here?"

"Run!" Lucius screamed, and instinctively they all took off in four different directions.

Wesley knew it was pointless. Rude was a Turk, and so was the man standing next to him, Tseng. Trying to out run them was like trying to hold water in a cupped hand. It just doesn't work out.

"Stop!" he heard Tseng shout, his voice not too far behind. But still, it was behind him, so he had a chance of escape. Or so he thought.

"Hold it!" Rude said, his hand clasping around Wesley's shoulder and whipping him around to look at him. "Shouldn't you be in school?" he asked, his gloved hand reaching up to take off his sunglasses. "Does your father know that you are here?"

"I'll wager that he does not," Tseng said, approaching them. "You do know that it's against the law to be here, don't you. This is a restricted area and if you were any older I just might have pressed the issue."

"Sorry," he lied, looking around. "I won't do it again, now can I go."

"I don't think so," Rude said. "Not until you tell me what you were doing here."

"Nothing really, just looking for something fun to do."

"Well, you picked the wrong thing to do," Tseng said. "This place is dangerous. You could have been hurt or killed."

"And what do you think you are doing risking your father's good name. If the press found out about your little adventure, they'd have a field day. It could've cost your father the election."

"Rude, take him home," Tseng said.

But as Rude began to pull Wesley along, he pulled away and shouted, "No! I can't go yet. I've got to find Lena."

"What?" Rude and Tseng both shouted.

"You brought her here? How could you be that senseless?" Tseng demanded, as he pulled his cell phone out of his coat. He pressed a button and then put it to his ear. "Jun, yeah, it's Tseng. We have a problem. No, it's worse. It seems there is a four year old girl missing here. No, I'm not. Now, I want you to halt the inspection and have everybody search for her. Now!"

"Where's the last place you saw her?" Rude asked, grabbing Wesley by the collar.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? She's your sister, Wes." Rude shook his head disappointedly. "You should have known better than to bring her here. She was your responsibility."

"I know," he said.

Tseng stepped on top of a mound of rubble to get a better look at the site. It would be almost impossible to find a four year old girl in this. But then, by mere luck, a bright, red caught his eye and he breathed a sigh of relief. Jumping down, he raced towards her.

Wesley was about to follow, but Rude held him firmly and shook his head. "You aren't leaving my site," he said. "I'm taking you home myself."

Wesley frowned but knew resistance would get him nowhere. His mind began to race with all sorts of excuses he could give his mother, but he knew she wouldn't buy a one of them. Even as he watched Tseng bring Lena towards them, even as his heart leapt with relief, he knew that soon, he would rue the day he was born.