Disclaimer:
We own nothing. No companies, franchises, chains, characters, products….nothing.
A/N:
Ah, it is my (Corncob's) turn again….wonderful…oh well. I hope you enjoyed the last chapter (I died laughing at it, I don't know about you. Gotta love TooLittleTooLate) and I hope you will enjoy this one as well!
Happy reading! Only 4 chapters left after this one!
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6pm found a majority of the Shinra employees headed off to their respective homes/barracks, and Zack happily making his way to his favorite (and only) General's office. Once reaching it, he would proceed to beg, plead, and finally drag the taller man away from his work and back to his place for movies and, well, whatever it was that those two did.
Approaching the door, Zack didn't bother to knock and simply strode in.
"Hey Seph, you ready…?"
He wasn't there.
Zack stilled as he glanced around the room suspiciously. Opening his mouth as if to speak several times, he continued to stare mindlessly at Sephiroth's large leather chair -- as if the General would suddenly appear in it.
When this technique proved worthless, he cautiously approached the desk. Perhaps Seph has left a note or something…like 'Hey Zack! Got anxious and left early! Meet you at your house, buddy!"
Well, Zack found a note alright, but it wasn't in the frighteningly perfect script that he was used to. No, it wasn't from Sephiroth, and it certainly wasn't anything he wanted to hear.
Fair-
I know that you know that I know that you took Tseng. In retaliation, I have taken that which you hold most dear. If you ever again wish to stare into the eyes of your beloved, you will rendezvous at the western corner of Building 12.
Zack continued to stare blankly at the note, his panic-stricken mind being able to make no sense of it. Flipping it over, he saw something else.
(I have Seph. You have Tseng. Meet me by the office with the good snack machine.)
The mortified SOLDIER shoved the note in his pocket (he's be damned if anyone else ever saw it. No one needed to read that beloved crap) and took off for the good vending machine…or rather: Building 12, if you wanted to be all technical about it. Smart ass.
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Zack reached the meeting place in almost record time only having to deal with a few people along the way. Fortunately, Reno was there when he arrived, something that he had been slightly worried about.
"Good, so you can read." The redheaded Turk 'greeted', rolling his eyes.
Zack ignored the action and was about to get down to business when a young man ran up to them, or more specifically, Reno
"Evening, Sir! I was just wondering…and since" the boy cast a quick look Zack and lowered his voice.
"You know who is missing…when are the fall term test scores coming out?"
"Erm…" Reno wracked his over-worked brain.
This is how it had been for the last 8 hours. Tseng's disappearance had been instantly recognized among the Turk ranks, though they were keeping it strictly under wraps. There was no need to let the SOLDIER enemy know that their captain was no where to be found.
Since then, all questions and/or issues has fallen on Reno's shoulders, and very few of these questions/issues could he answer.
"Next Saturday."
He quickly turned from the confused trainee and motioned for Zack to follow him.
"Let's walk and talk."
"What did you do with him?!" the dark haired man whispered furiously once out of ear shot. Though Sephiroth had only been missing for a matter of hours, it seemed like the entire base knew. After all: 7 foot, silver haired, freaky eyed, leather covered military war heroes didn't just drop off the face of the earth without anyone noticing.
"First, you tell me what you did with Ts-" the Turk was cut short as another man walked up to them. This time, the interruption was for Zack.
"Excuse me, Lieutenant, when will Platoon 46 be leaving for the upcoming protocol mission to Junon?"
Like Reno: Zack, in the wake of his missing Commander, had to deal with all the problems that the SOLDIERs were bound to have. And also, like Reno: he had no idea how to answer their questions.
"Next Saturday!" Zack informed the man with a smile, lying through his teeth just as his Turk counterpart had done moments before—something that did not go unnoticed by the redhead.
Pushing his annoyance with these people down, Reno was about to attempt conversation again when even more men came trotting up. This time there were two Turks and a SOLDIER.
Both parties glared resentfully at each other while their fill-in Superiors made up answers to questions they were only half listening to in the first place.
As the men left, the Turk and SOLDIER gave each other a long, hard look.
Reno was the first to speak.
"What are we doing, man?"
He lowered his head and shook it as he lifted his arms and gave a humorless smile.
"Look what we've gotten ourselves into. Look what we've gotten the whole company into! We don't know how to deal with this!" he gestured to the base surrounding them.
"We don't know how to solve peoples' problems and shit!"
Reno dropped his arms and Zack released a sigh.
"I don't even know how this got so far out of control. One minute, we're at odds, and before we can even turn around the whole friggin' company is divided."
"I have no idea…" the Lieutenant answered, leaning back against a building as he cradled his forehead.
"This was never supposed to hap-"
"Sir! There's been a 2-9-2 down by Sector 4. We can either do a standard code 43 or leave it to the fall backs. What do you suggest we do?"
Both men looked at one another blankly before answering at the same time.
"Next Saturday."
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If there had ever been an unlucky man in all of Shinra, it was Rod. He was the kind of guy who tried his hardest to do everything right, but nothing ever seemed to work out for him. As opposed to Reno, who just bullshitted everything and it turned out just fine.
Rod was having a rather bad day, and the normally collected Turk was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
When he had been told that he would be watching over Rufus in Tseng's abscense, he had no idea things would turn out like they had. How was he supposed to know that the kid was a complete neuro-case?
All day the blond had been sending him paranoid glances, and hadn't allowed him to come within 4 feet of him. It was like he thought Rod was going to eat him or something.
This, though, did not take Rod too long to accept. He could deal with keeping a small distance from the Vice President of it made his young charge more comfortable.
The second Rufus had found out that Tseng was missing, he had been a basket-case. He had been running around Shinra, looking every where for the Wutian man himself, as he believed that no one else was putting out a true effort. It would seem that the boy had quite an attachment to the Head Turk, something that Rod just couldn't understand.
Rod's mistake has come about the time that young Rufus had given up hope.
"What if he ran away because…because he was tired of dealing with me?! I thought Tseng was my…friend…"
At the utterly heart breaking look of Rufus' face, Rod had made his fatal error.
He laid a comforting hand on Rufus' shoulder which, with a startled shriek, sent the boy shooting out of reach, yelling about Tseng before settling into a corner, shaking neurotically and glaring at a helplessRod.
Today just wasn't his day.
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Vincent Valentine was pissed.
Utterly, totally, thoroughly, completely, 100 pissed.
Tseng was no where to be found, and that idiot Reno was now temporarily in charge of everything Turk oriented.
He should be the one in charge. He was the rightful Second in Command of the Turks. Hell, he would have been FIRST in Command if not for the Higher Ups claiming that he was too unstable for that kind of authority, and that he would send many-a-Turk to an early grave, too chemically imbalanced and socially inept. Or some shit like that.
Vincent rounded the corner of whatever building he had entered (he had been too blinded by rage to notice at the time). He needed to find someone/something to take his aggression out on, and he needed to find it now.
Ahead of him, he could hear a female voice bitching about stolen weaponry. Who ever she was, she had an obnoxious voice, and that was reason enough for him.
Thus marked the single occurrence in Shinra history that anyone had ever made Scarlet cry. Reeve was very pleased that he had been there to see it.
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After an hour of half-answering, half-avoiding various inquiries, Zack and Reno managed to make it to the privacy of Zack's office. Reno had been less than thrilled at the prospect of being on the SOLDIER floor, but figured being escorted by everyones favorite Lieutenant pretty much guaranteed his safety.
By the time they had reached the office, they were both thoroughly exhausted. Never in their lives had they had to exercise so much responsibility. They didn't know how Tseng and Seph could do it.
Granted; Tseng's usual answer to such questions was "Please excuse me, I have a call." And no one dared to bother the General with such trivial things as personal problems.
Both collapsing—Zack in his chair, Reno on the desk---they stared at one another.
"Reno…" Zack started.
"I…like I said. I don't know when or why this started, but…I'm sorry. I'm sorry for those things I said and did. I didn't mean any-"
Reno sat up.
"I'm sorry too. I didn't mean anything either. I've missed havin' you around, yo."
Zack smiled brightly, feeling truly relaxed for the first time since the whole ordeal started. It was great to have his friend back.
"Me too! I've got so much to tell you! Did you kno-"
Reno looked up suddenly, panic written on his sharp features.
"Shit! I've got a lot to tell you too, man, but we've still got Seph and Tseng!"
Zack froze.
"Oh…" his expression looked pained as he released a nervous chuckle.
"Almost forgot about that…We are so dead."
After working it out, they came to the decision that they should just go get their own bosses, as the kidnappers has little to no desire to face their victims. Ever.
"So. Where is he?" Reno asked, anxious to go 'rescue' Tseng.
"Room 33, the Holiday Inn!" the SOLDIER answered happily, smiling until Reno almost fell off the desk.
"YOU TOOK HIM OFF BASE?! Oh my God! He's---" Reno stopped mid-shriek and smiled, shaking his head. "Psh, what am I worried about. He's got a gun. He'll be fine."
At Zack's uneasy silence, the Turk became very nervous.
"He..does have a gun, right?"
"Eh." Zack fidgeted before reaching into a desk drawer and revealing Tseng's pistol. "Didn't want him to pop a cap in room service…"
Reno took the next few minutes to suffer a minor hear attack.
"Oh my God! Oh my God! He's unarmed!"
Zack tried to quell his friend, finally succeeding after a few minutes. Apparently the fact that he'd hung the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door made Reno feel worlds better.
Lying back on the desk, the redheadpointed to the ceiling.
"Seph's unconscious in Tseng's office."
"WHAT?!" It was now Zack's turn to panic. Especially since he knew for a fact that Masamune was still in the General's office.
"He's on the TURK FLOOR WITHOUT A WEAPON!?"
Reno blinked, looking at his friend blankly.
"Dude. He is a weapon."
Zack paused. "Oh, yea…"
Silence passed between them before Zack spoke up once more.
"Guess we should go then…it's almost 8…."
Both men were having mixed feelings about facing their commanders.
On one hand, Tseng and Sephiroth would be safe, and everything would be normal again.
On the other…
There was no guarantee that Zack and Reno would be allowed to live once they were face to face with, for all intensive purposes, their personal hell.
The two men set off to find Tseng and Sephiroth, exciting the sanctuary of Zack's office.
"Hey Reno…Remember that time you arm wrestled with Reeve? And lost?"
"Shut up, Fair."
All was right again. Sort of.
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Beh, another crappy chapter done! Curious to know what happens to our boys? Me too! I guess we'll just have to wait! But fret not, for we have a time schedule to fill now! So the wait won't be TOO awful long…hopefully, anyway.
Thanks for reading, and please let us know how you're liking it! There's no shame in the occasional ego boost :)