Thanks for the review, everyone! 81 hits - not bad (grin). A lot of people seemed to like the last sentence. I like it too. I thought up of that particular sentence in one Physics class when I was not paying attention (do I ever?) and had kept it in mind to use it ever since. Now it's out!
For those of you who have not yet watched FFVII: Advent Children (I really can't see why you haven't - it's an awesome movie), there are MAJOR, MAJOR, GINORMIC SPOILERS. I mean, quarter of the story's a direct rip-off from the movie. But anyways, do read on.
I apologize to those people who think that Enix English dubs should be used, I didn't. I thought they weren't too good, so I used mine instead. Please forgive this non-canon-ness. But I couldn't stand Reno not saying "yo".
RaspberryPolarBear - as always, encouraging review! Thanks!I like to make my characters suffer - a little cutesy Rufus this time, not the "I am the corporate president, I never stain my white jacket and I'm gorgeous as hell" Rufus. I like that Rufus, but come on, he can't be perfect all the time. A little cameo on Rude as well.
toyBOX - I have a feeling that Arien will not be alright. Just kidding! I myself don't know. All I know so far is that she isn't what she seems to be, but then, who is? Reno's going to be bashed around, so please beware. But then, he was bashed around in the movie as well. Poor guy. But he is funny.
NarcissisticRiceBall - I LOVE YOUR LONG REVIEW. (cap cap cap!) Anyways, Thanks for the long review. I was very hurt with the first review for C'est La Vie (it was a complete flame saying that nobody would read it and it sucked), so I resolved not to make Arie a Mary-Sue. I guess it was success. Thanks!
Devil-Angel - PERFECT timing. Your questions will be answered (mostly) in this chapter. My plan succeeded - I decided that Rufus wasn't going to be the perfect, self-controlled, cold, calculating President Shinra. Arien and Reno are cute, in a way. They keep bickering at each other, but I couldn't imagine Reno going lovey-dovey.
Kind of lengthy chapter, but I kind of liked it. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 9 - Northern Crater
Arien DeVir woke up the next morning, and wondered why her shoulder and her back ached so much. Why was the bed under her so hard? She tried to turn, and then realized that she was not on the bed. And she wasn't in her pajamas. She was still fully clothed, on the floor.
Oddly enough, she had no recollection of the happening of the night before, just that she had gone through intense pain. She lifted herself up, and saw that the floor – about where her head was – had black crusty substance stuck onto the wooden panels. She scraped one off with her finger, then looked at it.
In a sudden horror she realized what it was. Where it came from.
Geostigma.
The sudden realization hit her violently. She could not move. The sudden realization that she was afflicted with that illness, the illness that apparently had no cure yet, shook her from the core. She felt the need to do things, so that she would not regret before her death, but she somehow felt that something fearful – death, perhaps – was outside the bedroom door, ready to grab her. So she sat there, immobile, for a few minutes.
She heard Rufus calling her name, and finally stood up. It was good to know that someone who was alive, someone in the same situation as her, was within the same house. Besides, she had her duties; her military training told her to put aside her fears and attend to Rufus as the diligent good soldier.
She opened the door and found herself tiptoeing through the hallway To Rufus' room. She knocked.
"Come in."
"You called, sir?" Even after the months, she was still calling Rufus "sir". It felt unnatural to call Rufus by his name. Even after the company's fall, Rufus was still the president for her, clad in immaculate white, his blond hair perfect, his presence commanding.
"I called you several times, DeVir. It is unlikely of you to sleep in. Were you tired?" He looked at her, then asked, "What's that thing on your face?"
"What thing?" She walked over as Rufus beckoned to her imperiously with his delicately shaped hand. "Where, sir?"
"Here." He gently touched her cheek. The black thing flaked off, and landed on Rufus' duvet soundlessly.
They stared at the black flake, wordless. Then Rufus looked at her.
"So… you too…" There was a look of infinite pity in Rufus' eyes.
Tears flooded her own eyes, and she broke down. She could do nothing but cry, and realized – perhaps too late – how much she loved life. She finally understood how desperate Rufus felt everyday, and how much willpower it must have taken him to keep control of himself.
As she cried, she wondered: how can he lead this life? How can he go on?
"Yo, Elena, stop blabbin'." Reno stuffed a finger in his other ear as he listened to Arien's voice. Elena was chatting with Tseng, and he could not hear what she was saying.
"…so I think there's enough evidence to say that Jenova is still in the Northern Crater, Reno. The satellite images indicate that there's some Lifestream turbulence going on around there; besides, isn't that where Sephiroth was last seen, before he had the final battle?"
"Supposedly, yah."
"Rufus is saying to get on with the plan and retrieve Jenova as soon as possible. I can hold him off, but not for long. He's demanding results." He heard paper shuffling. "Do you want me to send you the map?"
"Arie, weren't you the one who was suspicious of Rufus being the power-hungry blond boy? What's up with this… hurrying?" He was treading on thin ice, and any wrong movement would be sending him to the wrong side of Arien DeVir for at least three days. While they weren't even physically together, they still exchanged phone calls, and he did not like it when Arien was angry with him. He was also half-expecting a woman's gentle voice saying "I just miss you, that's all" or something in similar context. He was sorely betrayed, and he reprimanded himself for expecting it. Arien DeVir was a Wutaian, and it was rare for her to express her emotions verbally. Even if she did miss him – which he doubted still – she would not say it.
"I just need you all back here, I'm extremely exhausted with Rufus' eating habits." Arien sounded exasperated. "I need someone to switch before I collapse of exhaustion. If I see another slice of smoked salmon, I am going to scream."
"Have you heard from Rude?"
"Yes. He's coming back tomorrow. He found nothing in the rubble except Cait Sith's old battered body. He asked Reeve if he wanted it. Reeve said no." Arien chuckled. "So, do you want the map or not? I think it's pretty accurate."
"Sure, yo. By the way, how's Geostigma death toll going?"
The silence was not something he expected. After what seemed to be hours of silence, Arien finally said, "It's… bad. It's really bad. More people are dying everyday, and all the pus specimens are what we've never seen before. There's still no cure." For some reason, her voice sounded cracked. Maybe he should switch to a new phone.
"How's Rufus?"
"He's doing fine. He can stand and walk, but he likes to keep to wheelchairs for some reason." There were some keys being typed. "I'll send you the map to your cell phone, okay? It's in Shinra server."
"Okay, yo."
"Alright. Bye." The phone went dead. He snapped the phone shut, and slid it in his pocket, then turned his attention to Elena and Tseng. He winced as the cloth of the sleeve touched his injured shoulder, and missed Arien sorely. She did not have her medical license, but she did have enough knowledge and practice to act as an emergency physician among the Turks. Elena had hastily bandaged the shoulder, but it still hurt.
"What's going on?" Tseng asked, writing something down on the napkin with a ballpoint pen. Elena looked at it, nodding. Reno shrugged, then winced again.
"Rude's comin' back to The Edge. Arie found stuff about the target, she's sending the map to my cell right now, Boss." Tseng looked away from whatever Elena was writing on the napkin and looked at the Turk Ace. "Prez is pissed off, because the assignment's taking longer than he expected. He expects us to come back soon, with solid results."
"Bugger," Tseng mouthed. "When is DeVir sending the map?"
"Uh, now, actually." He flipped the phone open, and turned the phone mode to a small browser. Sure enough, there was a document in his account on the Shinra server with the document title "map" on it. Using the slidepad on the cell phone, he maneuvered the cursor and hit "open".
"Hey Tseng, can we get out of this dingy bar? I can't see shit."
Tseng mouthed "go ahead", then turned his attention back to Elena's writing, furrowing his eyebrows slightly as he tried to decipher the young blonde woman's cramped handwriting. Reno sighed, stood up from the chair he was sitting, and walked out the bar.
The bright sunshine outside hit the snow, and reflected it. He winced involuntarily as the light rays intensified the beams and hit his mako-enhanced eyes. Coming straight out from the bar's gloom into a brightly-lit noon was not a pleasant experience. Looking at the cell phone again, he noticed that Arien had marked the terrains and the locations of the nearby areas explicitly. A small green circle was painted upon a certain area of the Northern Crater, with an arrow pointing at it. The description said, "Presumed Area of Jenova".
He scrolled down, and saw that below there was some information on the local terrain. He ignored the local footholds and grounds, retrieving the actual damn thing was Elena and Tseng's job, not his. He paid special attention to the weather, however. Piloting a helicopter was quite different depending on the weather; he had piloted jet aircrafts before in snow, but not choppers. He quickly ran through the report, "… heavy occasional snowstorms, bright sun when no clouds, may prove to be difficult to see clearly around 2 in the afternoon, due to heavy fog", then looked at the weather forecast attached below. The best weather to fly was in three days.
He walked back to the bar, where Elena and Tseng were talking quietly. He took a seat next to Tseng and said, "I think Arie hit the jackpot."
"Let's see," Tseng said. He silently handed the cell phone over to the boss, who looked through the report. Tseng nodded.
"This looks like our best lead yet. I'll have to commend her to Rufus, of course," he said. "Reno, when's the earliest you can pilot the chopper there?"
"Three days from now, Boss."
"Not earlier?" Elena asked.
"Nope, 'Laney. Weather's too bad. Unless you wanna risk becoming a frozen meat alongside Jenova. Your choice."
"But weren't you bragging that you can pilot anything anytime, anywhere?"
"Generally, yeah. But there's a snowstorm raging right there – probably to make sure that Jenova doesn't come back to life or something – and it's a chopper, which is much tougher to keep control of rather than a fighter jet which I'm used to, and Arie said that landing's pretty much impossible. I gotta hover above you guys while you guys go on a nice snowy date, and there's no way that I'm doing that in a storm. So you can go fuck yourself."
Elena winced at Reno's unnecessary profanity.
"Trust me, 'Laney, I wanna get done with this shit ASAP too. Rufus' fucking pissed at three of us because we're taking damn too long, and Arie was sounding shitty. But that's the earliest, and that's that."
"Let me take a look," Elena said. Tseng handed over Reno's prized cell phone. Elena looked at it, and seemed to determine that all the piloting lingo was quite beyond her. Indeed, Arien had taken intensive lecturing from Reno about piloting. He was the only one who could pilot a fighter jet to a chopper on the team.
She handed back the phone as it rang. Reno hit talk. "Reno here."
"It's Rude."
"Hey, Rudy baby. Ready to face the mighty Rufus, yo?" He tried to make it sound jovial. Tseng was used to Rufus' outbursts, and Rufus tended to curb his explosions in front of Elena. Arien was stoic enough not to show anything, and Reno could care less. But Rude tended to take his missions seriously, and was seriously depressed when Rufus reprimanded him.
"No. Why?"
"Haven't you talked to Arie yet?"
"DeVir? No." As usual, Rude's responses tended to be limited to three words max.
"Apparently Rufus is being very shitty. Pissed off that we aren't doing our job fast enough. Whatdya find in the old rubble?"
"Cait Sith's body." He sounded emotionless. "And rubbles."
"Huh. You going back?"
"I'm back."
"Oh. Why use cell then?"
"Landline tapped."
"Oh." That made sense. Arien sounded like she was breaking up, and his caller ID registered her number from her cell phone. He was wondering why.
"Reno, we're going," Tseng was saying next to him. He nodded at his boss.
"Hey, Rude, gotta go. Keep updates."
"Right."
"See ya." He hit end.
Sergeant Rude Richardson was glad to be back to The Edge. The trip to the Temple of the Ancients had been absolutely worthless. He drove out of the rubble, caught a flight, and came back to The Edge, still amazed at how quickly people could recover.
When the Meteor hit Midgar, the people were in absolute terror, despite the warnings they had received. They had looked to the batter Shinra Company for shelter and peace. Shinra could offer neither; the entire structure was falling down with the President quite literally on top, and all they could do was not to fall into absolute pieces.
With most of the execs gone, it fell to the Turks to keep the Shinra propped up. Rufus, with all of his brilliant mind, was one of the first who were afflicted with Geostigma. Although the Turks could not do anything in the open – they were assassins, and they could not really be charitable in the open, enough people hated Reno from the Sector 7 incident – they tried to help from the shadows, keeping the relative discipline of the refugees and eliminating those who sought to take advantage of the weak and the poor.
The people's vitality was what brought the Midgar back. It was not exactly Midgar, it was a new city, uncontrolled by the corporation monarchy called Shinra Company. However, in but a few months stores were up, cybernet was back on, cell phones were working, and there were structured public services, such as medical facilities. People were no longer living in hovels and prop-up shacks, and apartments and buildings were growing at an alarming rate.
He made his trek up the unpaved path to the Healin Lodge. He pulled his keys out, and opened the door. He saw Arien just walking out from the main wing, looking tired. She was dressed in jeans and a pink turtleneck. She looked at him and smiled.
"Welcome back, Rude." Her voice was still crisp, no nonsense. But there was a hint of relief and gentleness in it. "Are you alright?"
"No injuries."
"That's good news." She walked over and closed the door. "Are you hungry?"
"A little."
"Alright. It's time for lunch anyways." She looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "Why don't you go to your room and get changed? I'll be making lunch. Rufus is sleeping, so no point waking him up till lunch. Any requests?"
"…" Rude shook his head no.
"I'm so glad. I've been obeying a strictly unhealthy diet for the past few days."
Rude nodded. Arien walked back partway with him, then turned to the direction of the kitchen. He entered his room – there was no dust, and it was clean. Arien had been cleaning.
He took off his jacket, then his shirt. He changed into jeans, then pulled on a grey hoodie. He then placed the shed uniform on the hanger, then the hanger into the closet. He then lay on his bed.
He did not mean to fall asleep, but apparently he did, because he woke up with Arien peeking into the room from the slightly ajar door. A red, large apron was visible. "Lunch is ready," she said. "Rufus is up. Do you want to sleep? You can, if you want to."
"No, I'll come."
"Alright." She disappeared.
Lunch turned out to be much better than what he had been eating for the last few days. The simple pasta and bread seemed to be more delicious than luxurious dinners that he had tasted; he ate vigorously, without much talk.
Rufus ate sparingly, and did not finish even half the plate when he pushed the dish away, saying that he was full. He sat back in the chair, eyes closed, his blond hair falling on his face.
Arien ate moderately, quietly asking questions, to which Rude answered with few words. She seemed unconcerned about the lack of success, and seemed to be genuinely glad that he came back. It was only after the conversation turned to the certain redhead that Rude saw the woman's expression darken a little. It vanished in an instant, but he still saw it.
"Where's Reno?"
"Somewhere around the Northern Crater, I presume," she said as she collected the plates and the dishes. She piled them up, then stood up and carried them to the sink. "He's doing fine, I think. They're closing in."
"Huh," he said, picking up the recent issue of Junon Weekly.
After cleaning the aftermath of lunch, Rufus went back to his room. Rude left the house again, telling the two that he wanted to take a walk. Arien retreated back to her own domain, where a large question was growing in her mind.The encounter with Sephiroth – or the projection of him – greatly disturbed her, shaken her to the core.
And what was up with what he called her? Sister? Excuse me, she thought, but I don't remember being a sister of some psychopath who thought it was a brilliant idea to destroy the world, thank you. Besides, I would have known if I had a brother.
But Sephiroth – or whatever that thing was – had sown a small seed of doubt that was constantly being nourished by her curiosity and her fear. It did not help that numerous memories constantly reminded her that people thought she looked like him. Looking into the mirror, she absently touched her nose. Did she really look like him?
There was only one way to check without Reno knowing it.
She knew what to do.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? The Lady Turk herself."
"Shut up," Arien retorted, though not too harshly. "What's with this merriment? You two are positively glowing."
Ivana Delassi smiled demurely and took hold of her lover's hand. Zen Flescher, who closely resembled Rufus when he was young although he was in no relation with him, smiled back at the silver-haired woman with much love and happiness in his face. Arien had a strong urge to start laughing uncontrollably, and used her training to keep her face straight. If Reno was here, the two would be cackling like hyenas. She had an awful habit to start laughing whenever it was the least appropriate, especially in front of these two.
"I'm pregnant, Arie," Ivana said dreamily.
Arien could not have been more surprised if Ivana had told her firmly that there was a love triangle between Captain Cid Highwind, the legendary Vincent Valentine of the Turks, and Reeve Tuesti. She nearly fell off her chair. Married? This coming from Zen Flescher, who always used to say that his only dream and aspiration in his life was to become Renaldo Miller Junior? Ha, very funny.
"Congratulations," she said with much enthusiasm and some sarcasm in her voice.
"Did you come here for this? We haven't really told anyone, but…"
"No, Ivy, even with my training in Intelligence and being with the Turks will let me know that. I didn't even know it until you told me." Another bubble of laughter surged up and she coughed. "I have to ask you something. It's serious, so don't gloat or bask in the happiness of your marriage just right now. It doesn't have anything to do with you, but it's very important."
Ivana sat straight. Zen looked at her with his sky blue eyes. "Shoot," he said. Arien reached inside her pocket and pulled out a profile shot and a front shot of General Sephiroth, one of the few dozen that Shinra owned.
"Does he look like me?"
Ivana looked at the picture, then her. Then studied her face for few minutes. Arien could imagine what Ivana Delassi was seeing: the same eye color, the similar contours of the nose, the high cheekbones, the same mouth, the same long, slanted eyes. She also fervently hoped that she would notice their definitely different hair color. Zen just kept staring at her. She was starting to feel that she was an animal at the zoo, and also began to wonder if she had made the right decision in coming here.
"Yes," Ivana said finally, and Arien snapped awake. "If I didn't know you, you two can almost pass as brother and sister."
She nearly topped off the chair for the second time within five minutes.
Few hours later, Arien was typing frantically in the search engine of the Shinra server in her own room. Geneal Sephiroth's pictures lay on the floor, ripped in tiny little pieces. Both her father and Sephiroth's parents were Shinra-related; all Shinra-related personnel and their families were diagramed in a huge chart, with their names written on it. If they had any common relatives, it would be listed here. She had always thought that this part of their job – researching the relatives and listing each member in the server – was a thorough waste of time and money, but now she was thankful for it.
She browsed through the D, and quickly found her family. Listed were, Soukou DeVir, Arien DeVir, Reniel DeVir. She clicked on herself first.
Arien DeVir: Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department (Turks). Second Lieutenant. Rank 20. Born on October 19th, 81. Daughter to Soukou DeVir and Flera DeVir (Maiden name Crescent). Height: 175cm. Weight: 57.4kg. Status: Alive. Vision: 2.0 (Nightvision 4.0). Eye color: blue-green. Hair color: raven. Last Mako treatment on: March 3rd, 99 by Dr. Hideki Hojo. Currently residing in Midgar with Renaldo Miller (Sergeant, Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department, Second-in-Command). Education: Military Academy. Intelligence Quotient:178. Materia Affinity: Ice. Weapon Preference: firearm ammunition. Currently under the command of Tseng Uzuki (Major General, Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department, Command) and Renaldo Miller. Diligent worker. Quiet.
Arien chuckled slightly at the last comment. She then clicked on the name DeVir. After a cursory glance at each family member's name, she clicked print, then went back to the previous screen. No clue there, Arien thought, then scrolled up. She found Renaldo Miller. Grinning, she clicked on it.
Renaldo Miller: Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department (Turks). Sergeant. Rank 25. Born on June 30th, 79. Son to Leon Miller and Isabella Miller (Maiden name Doppio). Height: 183cm. Weight: 70kg. Status: Alive. Vision: 2.0 (Nightvision 3.0). Eye color: aquamarine. Hair color: red. Last Mako treatment on: January 17th, 98 by Dr. Hideki Hojo. Currently residing in Midgar with Arien DeVir (Second Lieutenant, Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department). Education: Junior High School. Intelligence Quotient:115. Materia Affinity: Lightning. Weapon Preference: Electromagnetic Rod. Currently under the command of Tseng Uzuki (Major General, Administrative Research, Investigation Sector of the General Affairs Department, Command). Disobedient, reckless.
That made her laugh. She never knew Reno's intelligent quotient was lower than hers; sure, she was the educated one, but he was the one who came up with assertions that tended to be correct. Chuckling, she typed into the search engine, "Sephiroth".
Sephiroth (Hojo): SOLDIER General. Born on July 23rd, 71. Son to Dr. Hideki Hojo (Scientific Research, Biotechnology Sector) and Dr. Lucrecia Crescent (Scientific Research, Chemical Engineering Sector). Height: 196cm. Weight: 78kg. Status: Deceased. Vision: 2.0 (Nightvision 6.0). Eye color: blue-green. Hair color: silver. Last Mako treatment on: November 2nd, 94 by Dr. Hideki Hojo. Education: Military Academy. Intelligence Quotient: 251. Materia Affinity: All. Weapon Preference: Bladed (Masamune). Currently in command of the SOLDIER unit 1st Class. Extremely capable.
Extremely capable. What a way to put it. Something was amiss; there was a link between her family and his, but she could not immediately place it. She read her own life story again, then his.
Then it hit her.
Crescent.
Both of their mothers had the same last name. However, how could it be? Lucrecia Crescent was in prime of her life almost 30 some years ago. Flera DeVir was a single child.
It did not make much sense.
She clicked on her mother's name, then selected Family Tree. For the size, she typed in 5. Immediately the computer loaded the family history in a neat diagram in front of her, three generations posted on a single screen. She looked for her mother; Flera Crescent was born to Delara Crescent and Kirua Crescent. Her mother was a half; Delara was a Wutaian, but Kirua was from Icicle Area. She never knew that.
She then looked for Lucrecia Crescent. It was a relatively easy search; she was listed right next to Flera Crescent. Apparently Lucrecia's mother and Kirua were siblings.
They were cousins.
That made Sephiroth and her second cousins.
And Sephiroth was older than her.
That meant she could be his sister, in a way.
That could mean that the gene which drove Sephiroth insane could be in her.
Oh god, Mother, who am I? What am I?
Snow blew wildly at the cliffy edges of the ground that swelled like a menacing pit of doom. The white powder decorated the black crater with white mask of death, promising misery to anyone who was unlucky enough to fall into it. It was not a pleasant view, and that was, by far, everyone's agreement.
Above one of the cliff edges hovered a chopper, its propellers whirring with loud rapping noises. It was a relatively large one used mainly in the military, seating at least four people or more. The windows were lightly masked with snow, which melted as soon as it came in contact with the warmth On the door was a logo that was painted in gold and crimson, emblazoning the owner of the chopper: Shinra.
Inside, Renaldo Miller, Sergeant, called by his colleagues and his friends with a lovable nickname "Reno", the second-in-command of the Turks, was boredly maneuvering the control stick of the chopper, sitting in the pilot seat. Yet, if a knowing person had seen him, one would have known that Reno was anything but bored. His eyes had an aggravated look that was a telltale sign that he was not happy. And rightfully so.
"Ah, fuck, stupid fucking weather," Reno swore. It was a perfectly clear day when they took off, but it was as though as whatever was in there – whether it was Sephiroth's corpse or a god or some evil demon – really didn't want them there. As soon as the Crater came into view, snow started to fall, and while it was not yet a full-blown blizzard, it was getting close.
Ignoring Reno's repeated swearing, the two other Turks were seated in the passenger seat, conversing about what was in Tseng's lap.
"Tseng!" Reno heard Elena cry. "Look at this!"
Tseng's voice. "Jackpot."
Elena again. "Looks a little gross, doesn't it?"
Reno was getting slightly annoyed. Here he was, swearing his ass off and fighting the wind and the snow to keep the stupid thing in the air, and the two others were just ogling at the prize. What fuckers.
"Just hurry up, yo," he muttered, repeating what Tseng had told him. What a bastard. He jerked the stick toward him violently, and the entire body shuddered in response.
"Reno! Please!" Tseng's voice blared through the headset. Reno made a vague gesture with his hand, then sat properly in the seat, gripping the control stick with both his hands this time.
"Gotcha, yo."
It was when Reno was banking to the right when it happened. There were shots ringing through the crater, one, then two, then whole bunch, like the sounds were hitting the crater walls and reverberating like thousand echoes. Then, he heard Tseng's voice shouting, "hey, hey hey!" like Reno was planning this ambush all along. Asshole.
Or maybe not. It didn't sound like it was directed toward him.
"Sir! Quickly!" Elena sounded panicked, and Reno jerked to attention. Elena was always panicky, but then Tseng was sounding panicky too. This meant something was up.
"Sir!"
"Who is it…?" Reno wondered to himself. He heard a gasp, Elena's, filled with pain, and his question was out of his mind.
"Elena!" Tseng was screaming now. Reno heard footsteps and scrambling around. What the hell was going on?
He had no time to wonder, as suddenly the chopper felt too light and then Elena's voice was yelling, "G… go!"
He continued to bank, then swerved back to the direction of Midgar and The Edge. It was only when he was out of the snow that Reno risked looking back at the passenger seat. No one was there. There was just a black box sitting complacently on the plastic leather seats.
No sign of Tseng or Elena.
Reno groaned, mentally beating himself. "Oh shit…"
