Blood 23: One man and his dog

Tifa's fingers were beginning to hurt. Near on an hour now she had been digging through endless depths of rubble, and her fingertips were red raw. Sitting back on her feet, she took a rest, examining the fingers of her left hand closely. Her nails were torn to shreds, and skin had begun to come off the ends. She blew on them, finding a little relief in the cool air.

"Oh, my nails are never going to be the same!"

She looked round, finding a HoneyBee kneeling on the rubble pile, a little way from herself. Like all HoneyBees, she was pretty, everything except her hands in pristine clean condition; her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, curled artificially and left to tumble down her back in a shiny auburn stream. She hadn't been allowed time to change out of her Bee uniform, looking a little chilly in the scanty yellow and black bikini. "They're never going to polish up right again!" At that point she felt Tifa's eyes on her. "Huh? Oh, hello."

"Hello." Tifa returned to greeting.

Taking that as a sign of friendship, the HoneyBee crawled across the rubble to continue her search beside Tifa. "What's your name?"

"Tifa."

"Oh." She smiled, a little embarrassed, "That's a pretty name. I'm Pepper."

"You work at the HoneyBee Inn, right?"

"I did." She sat up, looking up at the sky as though deeply contemplating how to continue, "Everything got wrecked when Meteor came down. The people down around there went nuts and started looting the place. Mukki and Trey could only hold off so many. In the end Mukki and the bubbies took us into the dressing room and guarded us. Trey told us to stay there, then went out with that nail bat of his and things got bloody. When he didn't come back, I thought something terrible must have happened to him."

Tifa rubbed her arm, unsure why she was about to ask this question, or even why she cared, "You like that Trey guy then."

"Sure."

"You don't think he's a little... creepy?"

Pepper appeared shocked, letting up in her digging to look Tifa in the eye. "Trey IS NOT creepy. Sleazy, to a point, but you have to be to survive in our business. Of all the guys working in and around the HoneyBee Inn, Trey is the only one that won't lay a hand on you in any way other than as a friendly gesture. If any of us girls were ever in trouble, we called for him. A lot of times I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't come running." She shook her hair back, taking a strand of it from her mouth and slinging it over her shoulder. "Mukki takes good care of us, but he's got his young bubbies club, and all the promo work to think about, so he's not always around."

"He couldn't stick around and help with the rescue work." Tifa said aloud, resuming her digging.

"My ears feel hot. Hmmmm, almost like burning."

She nearly leapt out of her skin, looking round to see Trey standing behind her, Muffin at his hip, tail wagging. Nothing came to her that could justify what she had just said, that annoying hot feeling flushing across her cheeks. Trey didn't care, scrambling up the rubble pile to sit between her and Pepper and start digging.

A smile flashed between Pepper and himself, but no words were exchanged. He glanced at Muffin and hissed, "Rats!" The dog snapped to attention, growling deep in his throat and raking madly at the rubble with his large paws. Tifa frowned. Trey shrugged lightly, "You tell him there's rats, he's just gotta dig 'em out."

"Oh."

"You know something? I give up on you." He turned his back on her and focused his attention on Pepper. Without a word he took off his waistcoat and draped it over her shoulders. She nodded gratefully, brushing his hand with her own before setting to work once more. Trey joined her. This was going to be a long night...

---------

Four AM had come and gone by the time all of AVALANCHE reconvened in the Sector one square. Barret stalked up and down like a drill sergeant, Yuffie's patience wearing thinner and thinner by the minute. Cloud saw an argument coming, but decided to let it pass by. He was too tired to break up fights of any kind, and a fight between Barret and Yuffie would take a lot of energy to quell.

Each group report sounded very similar; we came, we saw, we dug through piles of rubble and helped those we could. Cloud did not relish telling them what he had signed them all up to next. "We're going to check out the other towns on this continent."

Cid and Yuffie both froze, the ninja boiling over much faster, "We just got through helping here! You want us to go through two more towns straight away? What is wrong with you!"

Cloud recoiled, forgetting himself momentarily. "Yuffie, there's nobody else here right now that can get away. Everyone is working on something or someone, a team has to go and check out the situation elsewhere. We're a team. Cid, can you fly a chopper?"

"'Course."

"Then we can get away and check the other places without too much trouble to those working here."

She muttered something in reply to that, folding her arms and turning away, tapping her foot impatiently. Cloud ignored her, looking to his other teammates. "Any more objections?"

"Shit, let's just get out of here. I wanna see Marlene." Barret grabbed Cloud's wrist and towed him towards the ruined number one reactor, and the train tracks. The others followed, none too happy about moving out straight away, but all understanding the need.

Vincent followed quietly with Cid, Yuffie skipping along behind. This night had made him regret more than usual- He stopped, raising an eyebrow in surprise at the golden retriever in front of him, half-crouched on the ground, a ball in its mouth, wagging its tail from side to side in a slow repeating sweep.

Yuffie took interest, leaning down on her knees to look at it. "Ooh, doggie."

"Hey!" She looked round, frowning to see Trey standing there, his HoneyBees and a young man with interesting hair standing in a uniform line behind him. "I heard you guys are moving out."

Cloud halted, looking round in surprise. "Yeah. We're going to look at the situation in the other towns."

"You'll be going to Junon then?"

"Your heads ticking, Trey." The young man said, fighting off a smirk.

Cloud frowned, sure he recognised him, something clicking in his head. The guy couldn't have been any older than twenty-five at the most, Yet half of his hair was messy and grey. Could have been dye, the other half in shiny black cornrows, swept back and smothered in wet look gel. He displayed a friendly disrespect for Trey, inclining his head with a smirk when the older man looked back at him. How they knew each other was anyone's guess, but he seemed to keep himself tidy, a once-white shirt with sleeves rolled up and top two buttons undone his choice, untucked over the lower half of a dark blue business suit.

"You been spending too much time in my head if you hear it too." Trey joked, grinning round at Cloud.

Vincent jumped to attention, shocking Yuffie with his sudden movement. He couldn't help it, zeroed in on Trey. He could not believe it. After twenty-seven years, there he was, every six foot something red-topped inch of Trey Henson. Greying a little around the roots, and slightly more wiry than once upon a time, but Trey Henson none the less.

He steadied himself, fighting the urge to run straight up to him and punch him in the face for old time's sake. No, a left hook would do more damage than it used to. Besides, Trey must be what? Fifty-nine years old?

Vincent's blood ran cold, the realisation hitting him as to exactly how long he had been locked away. If Trey was fifty-nine, he himself was fifty-four years old. 'I've lost a lifetime.'

"Anyways," Trey's voice snapped him out of it, the red head still addressing Cloud, "I need a ride to Junon, and seeing as y'all are going my way... I can offer you guys my skills in the mean time."

Cloud looked at Barret, who merely shrugged and asked, "What can you do that so special?"

"The question is, what can't I do?" Before Barret could say anything, Trey kicked a piece of plastic piping into the air, snatched his knife from the sheath at his ankle and threw it, straight into the piping to pin it against the partially demolished front wall of Goblin's bar.

Barret stared, tearing his attention away from the piping and back to Trey. "You're hired."

"Better watch your back, Trey." The young man behind drawled. "You know AVALANCHE have it in for people of our ilk."

"Shut yer cake cave, Nickel! I got nuthin' to say to that."

"Your funeral, Sir."

Cid scratched his head, elbowing Vincent in the side. "So being the good guys in this whole thing, if we're talking sides, that mean we're morally too high for this guy?" Vincent said nothing, aware Cid was thinking aloud, and would continue to do so - "I mean, the man did work in a whorehouse."

"Technically speaking, I didn't work in a whorehouse. I worked outside, being a doorman." Trey corrected him, taking a cigarette from his jeans front pocket and sticking it in his mouth. Yuffie grimaced,

"Oh great, two smokers. Now we're all gonna be smoked out twice as fast."

Trey glanced at her, "Mouthy little thing, aren't you?"

"I am not little!" She screeched back, stamping her foot.

Cloud cleared his throat, "Let's mose- move out." He didn't wait for any arguments, trailing away towards the sector one station. That was enough for the others, all of them following. Trey bid his HoneyBees goodbye and saluted Nickel, who readily returned the action. Trey gave a small smile, snapping Muffin's lead onto his collar, murmuring in a low voice "Keep looking for Reno. Call me if you hear anything." as he did so.

He walked away, Muffin trotting alongside him on his red lead. It felt wrong, leaving the Bees in such troubled times, but if AVALANCHE were heading Junon way, Evan and the others would need to be warned. It was difficult to tell how the rebels would react to confrontational Turks, and Rose and Tessi were naught but confrontational more often than not. 'Gotta give the kid a heads up on this. I owe her that.'

Turning the corner onto the station road, a wave of disappointment crashed into him, almost bowling him over. Yuffie was waiting for him, hopping from one foot to the other. She stuck her hands on her hips at the sight of him, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! What's the hold up?"

Trey kept hold of his precious composure, quietly reviewing the patience section of parenting 101 in his mind. "No hold up. Just taking it easy."

"We don't have time for taking it easy!" She exclaimed, grabbing his sleeve and towing him along quick enough to make Muffin lengthen his trot. "This isn't door-guarding now. You gotta keep up or fall behind, old man."

Trey's lip twitched, that first indication that he was about to go spare alerting him to his anger before he even felt it as an emotion. Able to control himself, but not beat his anger, he grabbed Yuffie's hand and tore it from his sleeve, winding his fingers through hers and twisting and squeezing.

Yuffie yelped, her middle finger cracking wrenching a scream out of her. Trey pulled her to his chest and clamped his free hand over her mouth, dropping Muffin's lead. The retriever sat down, watching them closely.

"Now," Trey began, hissing in Yuffie's ear, "we're going to get a few things straight. Number one, I've taken apart bigger and uglier than you. If it came down to it, I could snap you like a twig. Number two, I may be getting old, but that doesn't mean I'm worn out. You call me 'old man' again, I'll cut out your tongue and feed it to you raw. Understood?" Yuffie nodded, terrified. "Number three, you don't have to put up with me for long, so I don't have to put up with you for long. Stay away from me, and summer will touch both our lives for the rest of this trip. Capiche?" She nodded again. Trey loosened his grip on her fingers. "Number four and last, you mention this to anyone, you wormy little turd, and I'll make sure it's the last thing you ever do, clichéd as it may sound." He pushed her away. "Conseguir perdido."

Not about to hang around, she ran off after the others, Trey calmly selecting a restore from his silver armlet and casting a cure spell on her as she vanished down the steps. Nobody called him old except his nearest and dearest. It was the only thing stopping him from getting old; not hearing about it.

"'Spose it's got to happen sometime, Muffin." He told the dog, picking up his lead and setting off after Yuffie at his own leisurely pace. "Can only dodge rheumatism so long before it sneak attacks you from round a corner or snipes you with rheumatoid arthritis from a nearby rooftop." He wriggled the fingers of his right hand, sighing deeply at the nagging pain there. Shouldn't have been problems with them yet. He knew why there was -

"You going to explain this sudden intrusion, Trey? Or do I have to guess, as always?"

"Explain? EXPLAIN? You want me to explain to you why I'm here? You must be the lowest form of shit not to know WHY, Richards."

"Enlighten me. After all, you're not going anywhere for a few minutes, are you?"

"Fuck you! All you want is to hear it from my mouth. If yer mooks didn't have me pinned to this table I'd tear you a new asshole then turn ya inside out and use you as a throw rug."

"Very creative. That's what I always liked about you, Trey. Your way with words."

"That's more 'way' than you'll ever get. My gecko gets more pussy than you."

"Fuck it. This is great. You're not in the Company anymore, Trey. At Shinra there are rules, things I can't do to ya. Here, you're a civillian. There are no rules. This can be easy. That's up to you. Just tell me what I want to hear, and it can be easy."

"Take a long walk off a short cliff, you maggoty sack of meat."

"Fine then. Number one-"

Trey clenched his fist, biting back a whimper at the pain in his fingers. Richards went through them, one by one with a claw hammer until not one of them would move without coercion. They healed all right to look at, but were never quite the same. He never got back that snake like movement the other hand still had.

"Bastard was here now I'd castrate him and cauterize it with match." He looked up, halting in his tracks and narrowing his eyes.

One of those AVALANCHE guys leant against the wall, watching him. None of them looked quite 'normal', and this one took the biscuit and punted it unceremoniously out the window. He looked like something out of an old vampire movie, or maybe a villain from a silent movie, the ones that tie damsels in distress to train tracks and twiddle their moustaches while playing organs in the forest. The cape was the culprit in that. Then again, that claw didn't help matters. 'Wonder if he's got "made in Shinra, © Hojo" molded into the small of his back?'

A little unexpectedly, 'creepy' at the end of the street beckoned him on with a jerk of his head, and turned away, walking off with a swish of his cape. Trey smirked, "Come to bed, Trey." He chuckled, shaking his head and jogging to catch up, aware AVALANCHE were probably waiting for him. 'Those were come to bed eyes if ever there were some. He wants me, with that dramatic cape swishing. Peacock showing off it's ass clear as day is light and night's meant for sneaking.'

This whole thing could be quite fun, if his imagination continued to run away with him and entertain him like it was.

Quite a bit of fun.

---------

"Hello?" Evan sighed, snapping his phone closed and slotting it back into his belt. Someone had got through, but from an unknown number, and the connection had failed before anything could be said. Something must be wrong with the city's mast. He resumed buttoning his shirt.

Without power, the only way of washing clothes was to go out and fill a bucket with water and soap. Luckily Junon was equipped with spare uniforms in the Turks' living quarters. Rose would be glad of the spare flares he had picked up from her temporary residence. Each of them had their own style of dress, even though it was not allowed to stray too far from standard uniform. Rose liked her uniform with a largely flared leg and fitted shirt. He liked his shirts to have wide collars; didn't like the feeling of being strangled. Tessi liked heavy leather shoes with a double-buckled strap across the top. Quite why remained a mystery when he needed something light on his paddies.

Evan stopped himself, realising that he was trying to occupy his mind with trivial rubbish. Focus on the task at hand; that was what he had been taught, and a good lesson it was.

He halted at the medical bay door, frowning to see Rose missing from her bed. The previous few hours had been a lot of fun (though her note taking had been a bit disconcerting to begin with). It surprised him to see she made notes on his TTF tape. To do with rifle work apparently.

He smiled gently, spotting her suddenly. She lay beside Tseng on his bed, snuggled into his side, asleep. Evan leant against the door frame, folding Rose's flares over his arm. That was sweet to see. As long as she was comfortable.

"EVAN?" He froze, the echo of his name rebounding up the stairs and around the empty office outside the medical bay. He knew that voice... "WOO-OOH! EVAN? ROSE! ANYBODY AROUND!"

He bolted to the office door, "Tess!"

"Evan! HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" There was another voice,

"Nice maniacal laugh there, Tess. Bravo." Only one man at Shinra could be so pleasant yet bitingly sarcastic at the same time. Reeve Tuesti. Tessi had brought Reeve with him. In all the hurry and commotion, Evan had forgotten to free Reeve. Good thing someone had their head screwed on right.

He hurried downstairs, frozen to the spot at the sight of his youngest colleague and Reeve, standing in the lobby, looking up at him. Seeing them was very different to hearing them.

Tessi spread his arms, "Evan! How're you, hun?"

"Glad you're alive. Rose and I have been trying to contact you, but we couldn't get through."

"Cell mast's down." He thumbed over his shoulder out the doorway. "Saw it as we flew overhead. Things mangled worse than a drunk spider."

"Junon's cut off by landline too." Reeve added, cradling his chin thoughtfully. "We're isolated, short of VHF radio. We may as well send out the pony express."

Evan reassured him, wandering down the stair to greet them, "We have everything we need here. It's dangerous outside, but this place is fortified, and equipped with all manner of anti-life form weaponry. We can wait the storm out here quite happily, then venture out and see what's what."

Tessi appeared to have stopped listening, staring off up the stairs in a sort of a daze. "Where's Rose?" He asked at last, looking back to Evan with that childlike expression in his eyes.

"Upstairs, in the medical bay. Tess-" Evan took him by the shoulders, looking him square in the eye, "Rose was quite badly hurt. She's fine, but quite badly scarred in places."

Tessi swallowed. "What places?"

"Her leg, and her face."

Somehow Tessi knew the answer before Evan even thought it. He took a breath, looking up at Evan for a bit of elaboration. Evan obliged, lowering his eyes to the toes of Tessi's shoes. "It looks worse now than it will. There's nothing much there besides a pink line, but if you know it's there..." He shook his head, "Just don't stare, whatever you do."

"I'll try not to, but sometimes you can't help it, even if it's just for a second."

"Do your best."

He knew even that was asking a lot, but there was no getting round it. Rose was going to be hurt by any less than neutral reaction from Tessi, and though he may try his best to ignore her injuries, inevitably some emotion would escape. Tessi was good at that, spurting emotion. Especially when it wasn't wanted.

With Reeve around there would be extra work to do. No doubt the man would be up on the roof as soon as day broke, examining the broken mast. Which one of them would he take with him? That was the question Evan didn't really want to broach right then. First thing, breaking the news to Rose that Tessi was alive...

(NOTE: Vinny and Trey. This is going to be fun. Heh, heh, heh! Something you have to remember about Trey, is that he's not a nice guy. He's a downright nasty piece of work. He does have a decent side, but is happier to be a complete and utter bastard than put effort into being nice. He's good to people he knows and loves, but Yuffie doesn't qualify yet, if she ever will.

Trey's companion, Nickel is Gun Male of Before Crisis. He was Don Corneo's bodyguard before becoming a Turk, so is Trey's natural old colleague. As Joe pointed out, their careers took opposite paths.)