Disclaimer: I'm fairly certain we still don't own anything...let me check. Yup, no men in the closet or under the bed. Tough luck, friend
A/N: Yeah, yeah. You all like corncob more. She updates faster. Her chapters are longer. Deal with it. But be heartened that she's writing the next one. Sadly, it'll be her last one for this story. So make sure you review TONS on the next one especially! Okay, on with this chapter...Enjoy!
"Fair, you Goddamn liar!" Reno stormed into Tseng's office. "Where the hell is he?"
Reno had just returned from a very empty, very Tseng-free Holiday Inn room. He had looked everywhere. He'd even been desperate enough to look in the drawers, as though Tseng could fit in there. Once he had exhausted every possible place in that cramped little room that Tseng could be, he had come running back to Shinra, intent on killing Zack. After he found out where Tseng was, of course.
"Well?" Reno demanded when Zack refused to acknowledge his presence. Zack was facing the window with his head bent. "Yo, you okay?"
Zack just reached over his shoulder, offering a small piece of paper to Reno. Reno took the paper, giving Zack a confused look. He looked down at it and saw the handwriting that was usually only seen on funding request forms for the science department.
First of all, I must thank you with all of my being for hand-delivering two of the finest specimens I have ever had the pleasure of handling. While I have been dealing with the General for quite some time, never have I had the opportunity to truly dissect his mind as I have always wished.
The Turk was more exciting than I had anticipated, though he possesses surprisingly fragile wrists. No matter, he isn't going to need them any longer.
Again, thank you so very much. The lab has been so dreadfully slow lately, this was just the spice I needed to motivate further efforts. If either of you would like to make an appointment: you know where to find me. If neither of you would like to make an appointment: I know where to find you.
-Professor Hojo
Reno looked up from the note to see Zack had turned away from the window and was now looking at him with complete despair in his eyes.
"This is all my fault. I gift-wrapped Seph for him," Zack said, anguish in every word.
"It isn't totally your fault. I did this too, and how were we supposed to know Hojo would get a hold of them?" Reno tried to comfort his friend.
Zack looked up at him and shook his head.
"I should've known something like this would happen. And not only is Seph in trouble, but so is Tseng," Zack slid down the wall and sat with his knees bent, arms resting on them.
"If you knew this was gonna happen, you'd be some sorta fucking psychic," Reno argued, crouching down in front of Zack.
Zack smirked and looked at him, "Better stay away from me. I might have you tortured and killed next."
What the hell? What happened to the fun-loving, everything's-okay attitude? Now I'm going have to act like everything is fine and shit...I'm going to have to act like ZACK! Reno stared at Zack in disbelief.
"What? You know it's true. I seem to ruin everything. Even that harmless potato chip bag prank, you ended up hitting Rufus and getting in trouble," Zack buried his head in his folded arms.
"For the love of…would you give it a rest Zack? We need to go see if we can Tseng and Seph outta that insane Frankenstein's hands," Reno stood up and put out a hand to help Zack up.
"If there's anything left of them to get," Zack muttered, accepting the offered hand.
Reno sighed and led the way down to Hojo's labs.
Great. Not only are we about to go into the freak's lair willingly, no one's around to SEE us go in. I feel real safe. Especially with Zack-o here backing me up.
-------
"You go in."
"No way man; you go in."
"No, you."
"You!" Reno yelled in frustration. Zack was really getting on his last nerve with all that self-loathing and now the cowardliness. He was a SOLDIER; he should be used to going into less than pleasant places. Of course, so should he, but that was neither here nor there.
"Rock, paper, scissors for it?" Zack suggested, eyeing the door to the lab door wearily.
"Fine, two outta three?" Reno fisted his hand.
"Sure, ready?" Zack prepared for the 'battle.'
"One…two…three…shoot," they said together. Zack threw out rock, so did Reno.
"One...two…three…shoot," both did paper.
After what had to be the longest game of RPS, considering it was best two out of three, Reno watched gleefully as Zack slipped into the labs.
"I can't believe he won. I always win at this game. He probably cheated," Zack mumbled as he inched his way into the room. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed a distinct lack of Reno.
"Are you coming or not?" Zack asked.
"Yeah, yeah. You go first and I'll…ummm…follow," Reno claimed as he stared nervously into the lab.
"Sure you will," Zack rolled his eyes and crept into the room.
He pushed himself against the wall and started walking sideways. Hearing a noise to his left he whipped is head around. It was Reno, and he was laughing.
"Wow, you're really sneaky. No one will ever see you if you're against the wall," Reno laughed. He had the door cracked enough for his head to peek around, but the rest of him was safely on the other side of the door.
"I thought you were going to follow me," Zack snapped, hurt that his sneaking abilities had been called into question.
"I lied, deal with it. Now go find Tseng and Seph before Hojo finds you," Reno made a shooing motion with his hands.
Comforted by the thought of Hojo finding him, Zack continued his inching along the wall. The room was overwhelmingly white. There wasn't a single color in the place. And the fluorescent lighting wasn't helping either, it just made everything give off an unearthly glow.
Zack shuddered at the thought that this was where Seph had grown up, and where he and Tseng were now being held captive. His eyes started to water from the strong smell of ammonia.
Just as he was about to relax, he heard a noise coming from a room up ahead. Panicking and not wanting to be alone anymore, he turned and tried to motion for Reno to get in there. Unfortunately, Reno wasn't looking into the lab anymore. In fact, the door was closed.
Did he really just leave me? I can't believe him! I'm the one IN the lab, and he runs off…If I die, I'm so going to haunt him.
Vowing painful revenge on his friend, he walked up to the door where he had heard the noise. Hearing it again, Zack cocked his head to the side, trying to figure out what it was.
Oh my god…is that Hojo…laughing? He's probably chopping Tseng up right now. Or maybe he's fusing their bodies together!
Zack stood, rooted to the spot, trying to decide what to do. Should he run? But that would leave Seph and Tseng at the mercy of Hojo. He could go get Reno…they could probably take on Hojo no problem.
"That was most unexpected. Who would've thought the Turk would make Sephiroth look somewhat sane?" Hojo's voice carried from the room.
Zack forced down the nausea that overtook him and forced himself to walk closer. Creeping to the door, he pushed it open just enough to look inside. It was an office. There were filing cabinets along two walls, half the draws couldn't even close because they were so full.
Hojo was sitting at his desk, his back to the door. He was looking over some papers and making notes, the whole time smiling and talking to himself.
Zack slapped a hand over his mouth to keep from crying out. There was blood all over his lab coat. Backing away quickly, Zack ran back to the door. He really didn't want to see what was making that crazed lunatic so happy. And he really didn't want to see what had become of his boss and idol.
I am so not coming back in here without Reno. If we find their mangled bodies, I'm not finding them alone.
Zack ran out the door and stopped short. Reno was standing inches from Holt's face. Holt was yelling and spit was flying out of his mouth, hitting Reno.
"How the hell do you come up with this crap?" Reno snarled.
"Like it's such a stretch thinking you were a traitor to this company. How many times have I heard Tseng complaining about how you sympathize with some of your targets? You'd have every opportunity to let them get away and continue threatening the president and his son," Holt yelled back, his face turning red.
Reno looked like he had just been told alcohol was no longer in production. Zack rushed forward before one of them killed the other, and his money was on Reno doing the killing.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Zack asked, attempting to push the two men apart.
For someone so skinny, Reno is freakin' heavy! And Holt is going on a diet when this is over with.
Holt stopped looking at Reno and turned his attention to Zack. With a grin that looked more like a dog bearing his teeth, he stepped back and stared down at Zack.
"Well, if it isn't my new boss," he stressed the last word. "How's the search for the general going?"
Holt looked around the hallway.
"Looks like you two are just playing hide-and-seek," Holt said.
Zack flushed a little and pulled himself up to his full height. He was still shorter than Holt though, and had to incline his head to look him in the face.
"It's none of your concern what we're doing," Zack snapped. He looked back at Reno and jerked his head, motioning that they should leave.
Reno nodded and followed Zack past Holt.
"Go ahead, run. Without Sephiroth here to protect you you're not so brave, are you?" Holt asked as they walked past.
Zack and Reno stopped, their backs still to him. Zack was shaking with silent fury and Reno was using all his willpower to keep from killing the man.
"I never did understand why the general would put someone like you in charge. You can't handle the pressure. Is that why you were down here? Thought it would just be easier to give yourself over to Hojo?" Holt laughed. "I don't blame you, you would probably make a better experiment than general."
Reno glanced sideways to see Zack's reaction. He fully expected to have to hold Zack back. Zack's face was blank though, completely and utterly blank.
Reno had never seen Zack look so…broken. There had always been some kind of emotion in his violet eyes. Boiling over with the rage that had been building over the past weeks, Reno spun around.
CRACK! Reno's fist collided with Holt's face. Blood gushed from his newly broken nose.
"Whad you do thad bor? You fucking lowlife!" Holt howled, pushing gingerly on his nose.
Reno smiled and walked away, leaving Zack to look from him to Holt, whose face was dripping blood into a growing puddle, and back.
Zack smiled at Holt and waved before running to catch up with Reno, who was almost to the elevators by that time.
"You know you're going to regret that," Zack commented.
"Already am. My hand is killin' me. That guy has a hard face," Reno stretched his red hand. "But he deserved it."
Zack looked down at the ground as they entered the lift. Reno pushed the button for the 67th floor and leaned back against the wall.
"Maybe he was right though," Zack mumbled, still not looking up.
Shit, not this again. Why can't the idiot get over this self-doubt crap?
"You don't mean that," Reno said, running a hand over his face.
Zack gave a small shrug and went back to silently staring a hole into the floor. The elevator 'pinged' as it reached the desired floor and the doors slid open. The two men walked out and down the hall, back towards Tseng's office.
"You just gotta ignore that guy," Reno stated matter-of-factly.
"Easy for you to say. He didn't…" Zack trailed off, not wanting to let Reno know just how truthful Holt's words had been.
"Didn't what? Didn't accuse me of things that are in no way true? 'Cause that's what he did to both of us. Besides, do you really want to listen to a man who tries to seduce a pin-up of Seph?" Reno asked, nudging Zack in the ribs.
Zack raised his head and looked questioningly at Reno.
"Yup, saw it while I was in the vents the other day. That man is seriously twisted, yo," Reno grinned.
Zack smiled and joined in Reno's laughter. He was right, he shouldn't let Holt's words get to him. Seph had chosen him to be his Second-in-Command for a reason.
They had reached Tseng's office and Zack fell behind Reno so he could go in first. Not paying attention to where he was going, Zack ran into his back. He looked over Reno's shoulder to see what was happening. There was a note taped to the door.
Tomorrow. Conference room 498. 6 AM.
Reno looked at Zack, confusion written all over his face.
"Any idea who wrote this?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I see that handwriting almost everyday. It's Seph's," Zack stared at the note.
"Seph's? Then that…Those jerks!" Reno slammed his hand into the door.
Zack started at the sudden change in Reno's attitude.
"This means they were fine the whole time! We went down to that fuckin' lab for no reason!" Reno growled as he fisted his hands in his hair.
"But this is good news! We didn't kill them!" Zack yelled, trying to calm Reno down.
"That's great that they're not dead. But we're going to be at 6 tomorrow morning," Reno said.
"Shit. Well, we'll just have to explain our actions to them," Zack asserted, refusing to let his bubble of happiness be popped.
"And how are we supposed to do that? They're not going to listen to a thing we say," Reno said, dropping his hands to his side and turning to face Zack.
"Umm…I don't know. Seph doesn't really hold that many meetings, he just has someone send out memos or something. How does Tseng get his point across?" Zack asked.
Reno chewed his lip as he thought. He never paid attention in meetings, how was he supposed to know? He tried to recall any details he could but kept coming up empty. Until…
"I got it. But it's going to take all night. Do you know where we can get a projector?" Reno asked.
A/N: There you go. Seph and Tseng are completely fine...no idea why Hojo had blood on him. Late night torturing? Well, only one more chapter and the epilogue left. So make the most of what's left and REVIEW like crazy!