NOTICE: No jellyfish were harmed during the making of this story.

"Hey, Cloud! One of the cadets gave me a pair of earrings today!"

"What, why?"

"No idea, I think he likes me or something. Hey, I know! I'll give you one!"

"Don't be dragging me into your hero-worship problems with the recruits, Zack. Wear them yourself."

"Aww, don't be like that, cutie. Anyway, I can't wear one on my right ear. That's like publicly announcing that I'm gay."

"Stupi--"

"Here, I'll put it on for you. Ah ha! Hey, Cloud, you like it?"

"…Yeah."

Cloud was abruptly jerked out of his dream when an extra weight suddenly toppled over him on his bed. His first instinct was that the person - or thing - was some assassin sent by the Kir Facaz scientist, but before he could lunge for his sword by his bedside and slash through the intruder, he opened his eyes to see a flash of blazing red. Cloud froze just inches from his First Tsurugi and stared down at the "attacker" on top of him.

"What the--Reno? What the hell are you…?" He glanced around the room in bemusement and quickly discovered that the bathroom door was wide open. This guy washed his hands, right…? No, wait, that was the least of his problems.

Cloud slid his knee under the sleeping Turk's stomach and made a failed attempt at trying to shove the other man off. Reno just wound his arms around Cloud's neck and held on tighter. It was beginning to be debatable whether the red-head was really this affectionate while he was sleeping - something completely opposite from his usual uncaring personality - or was in fact wide awake and reaping revenge for the night before. Either way, it was working. Unfortunately for Cloud.

"Reno, you moron!" The blonde muttered furiously, "Get--get off!" By this time, Cloud had half the mind to really just take his First Tsurugi and slice through the Turk as he would an actual intruder, but paused mid-lunge when he spotted the pillow that Reno had left forgotten on the carpet. Hell, maybe I'll just sleep on the floor, he thought dryly, better than being smothered by this idiot until morning.

But before he could wriggle his way out, the red-head shuffled on the bed until he was nearly on top of half of Cloud's body and wrapped his leg around one of the blonde's, his thigh rubbing almost dangerously close to the other man's groin. "Oi, don' leave, yo…" Reno mumbled, his words slurred from being half-asleep.

Cloud bit his lip, his body stiffening in reaction to Reno's touch. Stupid, stupid, stupid, what a fucking moron, he thought, cursing himself more for his own reaction to the red-head's seemingly innocuous movements. Then again, he really did have reason to be angry with the Turk. Reno made such a big deal about sleeping on the ground and now he crawls into Cloud's bed? Way to be completely hypocritical.

"I'm not a fucking body pillow, you idiot!" Cloud said annoyed, at a volume not far from yelling, despite the fact that the walls were noticeably thin and it was the middle of the night. Though running the risk of waking the entire inn was less than worth it. Reno didn't budge an inch.

But before Cloud could make any more subtle movements to edge out from under the Turk, the quiescent red-head began moving again, mumbling softly in his sleep. Cloud froze altogether, tensing despite himself. Fuck, was this guy a human or a dog? Why couldn't he just shut up and sleep still? Cloud glared down at the other man and hissed, "You moron! You seriously need to stop shuffling around and let me go before I--ah!" His threat was interrupted abruptly when Reno unexpectedly nuzzled against the blonde's neck. Cloud gasped and almost had to suppress a moan from being caught off guard.

Fuck, that was retarded sound. Cloud bit his lip again, clearly annoyed at himself. Even if he had to grudgingly admit - somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of his mind - that the Turk's lips brushing against the sensitive skin on his neck just maybe felt a little good, this wasn't the fucking time for it. Really, this needed to stop. "Reno, I'm going to punch you any second now…" Cloud muttered into Reno's hair. As irrelevant as it was, the Turk's hair smelled surprisingly good. Fingering his long ponytail of blazing red hair, Cloud suddenly found himself wondering what kind of wash the red-head used… And cursed when he realized his mind had wandered.

As Cloud resumed his futile attempts to shove the red-head off of him, he heard a drowsy mumble from somewhere around his shoulder, "Cloud…"

"Urk," The blonde muttered intelligently, surprised at the fact that Reno was actually dreaming about him. Then again it probably shouldn't have surprised him that much in the first place. The other man was sleeping on top of him at the moment after all.

The Turk began mumbling to himself again, slurring his words so much that it was almost completely incoherent. Cloud just groaned and decided his failing attempts at releasing the man's death grip on him would probably be more successful than trying to pry into the red-head's dreams. But at least one recognizable phrase managed to float into his ears. "I'm sorry, Cloud…"

"What?" Cloud blurted out from genuine shock, almost forgetting to lower his voice.

"Sorry…" Reno continued, now speaking more clearly, almost in response to Cloud's reply, "Sorry I took you away from Edge for this mission… Don't get pissed, yo…"

Cloud looked down at the man, not sure whether to laugh because that was seriously what Reno was dreaming about or to look taken aback that the sincerity of his words. Did the cynical Turk really have such a gentle side to him? Shiva, after all those years of running away from the Turks and warily - and not to mention grudgingly - accepting their cooperation while still doubting the Shinra group all the while, it was hard to believe anything worthwhile came out of their mouths at any given time.

But as Cloud looked down at the red-head, the Turk's eyebrows furrowed in genuine distress over the fact that he forced Cloud on another mission to ruin his attempt at a normal life and the softness of his tone when he spoke the blonde's name, Cloud couldn't help but feel a certain doubt in his mind that maybe the usually nonchalant Turk actually had some heart after all. There was no doubt that Reno would probably still turn away from drowning puppies without any sense of guilt in his mind, but somehow Cloud's heart ached at the concern the red-head felt for him - subconscious or not.

Cloud laid back his head again, sighing to himself. "It's okay," He found himself replying in a low voice, "I don't regret it."

Unable to muster up the strength to move anymore, he closed his eyes and, despite himself, relaxed into a deep slumber in the red-head's arms.


"You're kidding right? Did Reno really hack into Rufus's computer?"

"Wouldn't be the first, nor the last, time I would imagine, Elena. But why would he even go so far as to go searching through Rufus's confidential files? The President keeps them hidden from us for a reason, as I'm sure he well knows."

"Obviously, it's because you got us on probation, Tseng. It was just a joke."

"…If you two got away with it, I would have been stuck to that chair for a whole week."

The rest of the Turks crowded around Reno's office table back at headquarters, scrutinizing all the hastily gathered papers and information scattered over their fellow red-haired Turk. Rude peered at the open machine before him and narrowed his eyes at the sight of it - not that it actually mattered, seeing as no one could really discern any sort of emotion through the black man's nearly opaque sunglasses. "It was kind of stupid of him to leave his laptop on with all the evidence here," He muttered, clicking his tongue in exasperation, "I thought I taught him better than that."

"Hmph," Tseng folded his arms and shook his head at the amateur's laptop, evidently still holding a rather childish grudge over Reno's attempted prank. "Just proves how incompetent he really is."

"Oh, shut up, Tseng. Just 'cause me and Reno want to have a little fun--"

"C'mon, you two," Elena cut in hastily, before the heated argument potentially got physical between her two fellow Turks, "I think we should probably turn our attention to the more pressing issue here: why Reno would go off on his own in the first place."

"Hrmm," Rude mused thoughtfully. Of course, being the red-head's lifetime partner, Rude would know him better than any other Turk in the force. "Well, we usually get the good missions when he's off the job. So, he's probably trying to get himself off probation."

"You mean, get himself killed," Tseng interjected in a low voice, as he leaned over the laptop and scanned through the various files. He clicked on the most recently opened file and leaned back, letting out breath of air. "It's the Kir Facaz experiment."

"What?" At these words, Rude grabbed the laptop and stared at it millimeters from his face. Upon realizing that it was much too close for him to see the actual article, he put the laptop back down on the table to read it. He rubbed his bald head with his right hand and groaned audibly, "Does he have any idea what he's getting himself into?"

"H-hey, wasn't that the warning report we got today?" Elena asked slowly, peering over Rude's shoulder at the laptop herself, "Something about… a dangerous lab scientist aware that the Turks were on his tail?"

"Yeah, I remember that," Rude nodded as he scanned quickly through the rest of the long article Reno had looked through mere days before, "If we didn't know what it meant then, we sure as hell get it now. What a coincidence. And we just recently got new information on the experiment too."

Elena let out a relieved breath of air and laughed nervously, "Good thing we hadn't showed that report to the President yet, or he'd have out heads."

"Yeah, tell me about it. But," Rude said as he looked meaningfully towards his other Turks, "You know what we have to do now, right?"

Tseng turned away from his two co-workers and rubbed his temples with one hand exasperatedly, "You can't be serious, Rude…"

The other man just snapped the laptop closed and straightened his tie, "We gotta warn Reno."


A short helicopter ride over the mountain range and several more grudging comments later, the trio of Turks arrived at the edge of Junon just after daybreak. Tseng spotted the custom-made motorbike belonging to the sword-wielding delivery boy and gestured towards the inn, "They're probably spending the night in there. Looks like they haven't crossed the ocean yet."

"All the better for us then. Let's go!" Elena said as she pulled out her pistol and burst through the inn door, startling a barely awake innkeeper along the way.

"Elena, we don't need guns. It's an inn for Shiva's sake," Rude called out to the blonde's retreating back. He groaned as he watched her bound up the stairs and out of sight. Always the newbie, some things never change.

The feisty Turk dashed down the hallway, completely unaware of her disrespect for the other travelers sleeping in their rooms, and burst through the unlocked door at the end, "Renooo! Wake uuuu--"

Originally striding up the stairs at their own page, Rude and Tseng broke into a sprint, simultaneously pulling out their handguns in response to the petite blonde's subsequent shriek of what seemed to be terror. "Elena!" Tseng yelled, uncharacteristically concerned for his fellow Turk, "What's going o--WHOA!"

Upon reaching the doorway and laying their eyes upon the same scene that caused the female Turk's scream, Rude's gun dropped from his hand, as well as Tseng's jaw from his face. Needless to say, the three Turks gaped shamelessly at the scene before them.

And the looks of astonishment were not uncalled for. With their clothes askew and limbs tangled in such a way that their actions the previous night were certainly suspicious, Reno and Cloud looked nothing less than two men who were considerably more than just accomplices.

"Nngh…" Cloud groaned as he slid in and out of consciousness. Upon realizing that the entire right side of his body was completely numb, he nudged the top of Reno's head with his chin, "Get off, Reno. I can't feel my arm."

Reno opened his eyes slowly, squinting in the steady stream of sunlight and clearly reluctant to move from his surprisingly comfortable position. He didn't remember the ground being this soft. Wait, that wasn't right. "What the?" His eyes shot open to meet Cloud's own just centimeters from his own, the resulting look of dumbfounded horror on his face endlessly amusing. "Wagh!" Reno yelled alarmed. And he seriously thought that his sleeping self wouldn't assault the blonde? Sweet Shiva, was he fucked up.

Elena picked this very moment to close her gaping mouth, only to open it again and blurt out, 'What are you two doing?"

The two guilty culprits on the bed simultaneously turned their heads towards the door, clearly shocked by the fact that they actually had an audience. Reno sat straight up, hastily fixing his shirt and goggles into a somewhat presentable state. "What the fuck are you guys doing he--WHOA!" And promptly fell off the bed. "Fucking--oww…"

"What are you Turks doing here?" Cloud finished as he sat up himself, shaking the blood back into his stingingly numb arm and pulling his shirt back down. He was slightly puzzled himself at how exactly his clothes got so disheveled, but wasn't sure he even wanted to know the answer.

"Answer my question first!" The female blonde demanded, still pointing an accusing finger at the two men.

Both Reno and Cloud looked at each other and immediately blushed a bright red.

"We were--!" They began in stereo.

They pointed at each other at exactly the same time, "He was--!"

"Stop copying me!" The two yelled, glaring daggers.

"Hmm, and here I thought we were going to have trouble finding you guys, seeing as Reno was so determined to sneak out on this mission. But who knew you two just wanted some private alone time together?" Rude voiced out, promptly preventing the two men from waging a mental war against each other.

Reno jumped up defiantly. "What--no!" He said a bit too fast.

Tseng smirked, choosing this moment as a perfect chance to get back at his fellow Turk, "Well, you two seemed pretty intimate sleeping on the same bed. Or were you doing more than just sleeping? Guess I didn't take you for the type to, well, you know what I mean, don't you, Reno?"

Reno leapt up from the bed and grabbed the Wutaian's collar at a speed that would have shamed even Cloud at his fastest. "If you don't fucking shut it right now, I really would be doing more than just sleeping," He said menacingly through gritted teeth.

"No, but seriously. You go off on a self-assigned mission - apparently - and bring Cloud Strife of all people," Rude stated logically, "And then you two go on and share a single one-bed room?"

"That's so sexy…" Elena whispered spontaneously.

"Huh?" The four men turned to the female Turk in disbelief.

Evidently dismayed at the fact that she actually voiced her thoughts aloud, Elena quickly realized her outburst as her face turned redder than Reno's hair. "I--I didn't mean it like that!" She explained quickly, waving her hands in front of her, "It's just that, you know, Cloud and Reno are both really hot and I just, well, I just thought that them sharing the same bed was really eroti--no wait, I mean--agh, shit." She slapped her hands over her eyes, utterly mortified.

"That… is just disturbing, yo," Reno said as he slowly loosened his grip on Tseng's collar, thinking that maybe if he let go of her love interest, she'd get back to her senses. Maybe.

"Yeah," said Rude, subtly edging away from the blonde, "We guys really didn't need to know that."

Cloud just stared at Elena for a moment before groaning to himself. This conversation was going completely in the wrong direction. "Reno just went to the bathroom last night and came to my bed instead of sleeping on the ground like he said he would and I tried to get him off but he wouldn't let go," Cloud clarified hastily before any more troublesome misunderstandings could be made.

Reno nodded understandingly, slowly getting a grip on the situation, "Oh, so that's what happened, yo. I thought it was weird how I ended up there." He laughed nervously. Although it was even more bizarre how he ended up in that position. Fuck, it was enough that he knew what his body wanted. He didn't need the guy he was somehow lusting for to know it as well as he did.

Tseng smirked at Cloud's words and raised an eyebrow at his fellow Turk mockingly, "He wouldn't let go, huh?"

"Okay, that's it, yo! I'm gonna fucking kick your ass until you fucking--"

Cloud sighed and put up a hand to stop Reno before he tackled the Wutaian man to the ground. "So, I answered your question," He said in a low voice, looking up at the three suited Turks, "It's time you answered mine. What are you three doing here?" Admittedly, the whole scene of each Turk making a pass at the red-head until he exploded was surprisingly amusing, but Cloud seriously doubted that they came all the way across the continent from Healin Lodge just to poke fun at the relationship between him and Reno, or rather, lack thereof. The Turks had better things to do. Though from the sounds of Reno's attempted prank on Tseng, maybe they didn't.

Prevented from being able to utterly destroy Tseng, Reno settled for sitting on the bed in a huff instead. "And how did you find us, yo?" He demanded.

Tseng rolled his eyes and said, not bothering to make himself discreet, "An amateur as always."

"What was that?!"

"If you guys are going to the Wutai Continent, you guys are obviously going through Junon. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out, Reno," Elena said, folding her arms over her chest proudly. Quite. If even Elena could figure that out, Reno may truly be incompetent indeed.

"Plus, you forgot something back in your room. Careless mistake on your part, partner," Rude cut in before Reno could make another contumelious comment.

"My laptop!" Reno exclaimed, grabbing the machine out of Rude hands and kissing it in relief, "I knew I forgot something, yo!"

"Well, let's just forget the fact that you're an incompetent retard and get to the point," Tseng said, evidently wishing to give the last blow to Reno's steadily shrinking ego - assuming that was possible, of course. But before Reno could lunge out for the other man in rage, Tseng pulled out a stack of papers and spread them out on the bed in front of him.

"This is…" Reno picked up a few papers, scanning over them as Cloud crawled over on the bed to take a look for himself.

"The Kir Facaz experiment," Elena answered promptly, "If you hadn't rushed out to catch the guy without us knowing, you would've received them yourself. The information arrived from our recon just today."

Cloud grabbed an article titled "Lab Scientist Obtains Research Grant For Human Experimentation" and glanced at the rest of the papers with increasingly narrowed eyes. He held the article up in front of the three Turks. "Why are you giving us information about Kir Facaz? I thought you three came to force us back or something."

"Rufus actually doesn't know about any of this," Rude shrugged indifferently, "We got a notice that the people working on Kir Facaz somehow knew you two were after him, so since we just got this new information, why not just give you guys a helping hand?" Of course, going against the former President of Shinra wasn't exactly the initial thoughts of all three of the Turks, seeing as Tseng was leaning against the doorway with furrowed eyebrows and a scowl on his face.

"Nice call, partner," Reno grinned at the other man, "Just like old times, eh?"

"It's been a while since our last," Rude nodded as he shot an almost mischievous glance at the red-head from under his sunglasses.

"Anyway," Tseng continued after clearing his throat disapprovingly at his two fellow Turks, "Like we said before, now that the scientists know that Reno the Turk and Cloud Strife are after them, they're guaranteed to up the security and speed up development on Kir Facaz. You two need to get to the Wutai Continent and destroy the experiment before this becomes more trouble than it already is." He paused for a moment before looking away almost guiltily. "I'll give you two clearance and coverage on anything you need from Healin Lodge. Shinra owes Gaia a big favor, and it's about time we paid it back."

Cloud nodded in appreciation and gathered the rest of the papers on the bed into a pile. "That should make it considerably easier," He said as he jumped off the bed and reached for his First Tsurugi to strap onto his back, "Just get to the Wutai Continent, take out the experiment, and go home, right?"

"Problem is," Elena piped up, "Kir Facaz is targeting you the moment you step onto the Wutai Continent. You won't have time to dilly-dally searching for the lab."

"Seriously?" Reno clutched his head in frustration, "Man, the obstacles are just piling up as we go along, yo." He shook his head and heaved a sigh. "Well, I think the first thing we need to do is get there, yo. We'll worry about the rest once we're there."

"Speaking of which," Rude voiced out from his place leaning against the wall, "Today is Thursday, right? If I recall, the ship will be leaving…" He looked at his watch. "Oh, in about fifteen minutes."

"What? Fuck, we need to get outta here!" Reno scrambled off the bed after Cloud, who was already dashing out the door. Halfway down the hallway, he suddenly sprinted back again, "Hey, Rude. I need to borrow some money, yo."


"Ow, you're sitting on my foot!"

"Well, it's not my fault it's pitch-black, yo."

"There has to be a light switch somewhere here…"

"Yo, Cloud, I think we need to--what the hell is this?"

"That's my belt you're grabbing, you idiot."

"Oh, sorry. Wait, why are you standing up, yo?"

"To find a light switch… ah, here." Cloud flipped on the light switch and immediately the endless rows of light bulbs flashed on. He squinted in the sudden burst of light and walked back, stepping over dozens of boxes along the way, to his red-haired companion.

"Man, that's bright, yo," Reno muttered, covering his eyes with one arm as he slowly stood up against the wall.

Cloud sighed and sat down next to his motorbike, "Well, beggars can't be choosers. I mean, we're in the storage room. This is probably as good as it's going to get." He put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the wall. "Not to mention the fact that we're hitching a free ride too. We're lucky we even caught this ship in time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," The red-head waved him off and began feeling around the ship, his left hand still over his eyes, "We must've started sailing off. It's getting pretty chilly in here, yo." He heard the blonde shuffle around behind him, no doubt exemplifying his extreme sensitivity to cold for the second time this journey. Reno brushed away any ideas of him warming up the other man with his body again and proceeded to search through the various boxes. "I'll see if I can find some blankets or something before you sink the fucking ship with your shivering--what the?" Amongst all the various items in the boxes, his hand suddenly came into contact with something slippery and… wet? He looked at the object in his hand in utter confusion, "What the fuck is a jellyfish doing inside this ship--AGH, IT STUNG ME! THE HELL?!"

Now completely enraged at a mere coelenterate, Reno flung it across the room, shaking the pain out of his hand and he grumbled, "That's it, yo. I am not staying in this shitty storage room for one more minute!" And with that, he shoved his thriving hand into his pants pocket and stormed off towards the stairs up to the deck. "Fucking jellyfish."

"Hey--what the? Reno!" Cloud called out to his retreating back, making a failed attempt peer around the corner at the red-head from his place by the wall, "It was just a jellyfish, where are you going?"

"Well, it fucking pissed me off, yo! I'm just gonna go find some random guy to knock out, so we can steal his room. And fuck jellyfishes!" Reno yelled back, the loud bang of the storage door following his enraged voice.

Cloud chuckled despite himself at the Turk's reaction to the jellyfish - whatever it was doing inside a ship. But as Reno's sudden exit began to sink in, Cloud abruptly jumped up, moving as if he were about to bolt for the door after the red-head, "Hey--wait! Idiot! You better not get caught!" He stopped mid-step, realizing belatedly that Reno couldn't possibly hear him by now. "Or we might get kicked off the ship…" Cloud finished rather lamely to himself as he slid back down the wall to the ground again. It wasn't that he was being paranoid or anything. Reno was so careless and indiscreet sometimes that it was highly likely he'd catch more than a couple bystanders' attention and get into trouble, especially since his logic was clouded by irritation at the moment - a completely unprecedented reaction to a jellyfish.

Banging his head lightly against the cold metal wall behind him, Cloud let out an unsuppressed groan at the thought of the two getting thrown off the ship they had so much damn trouble sneaking on in the first place. To think that just an hour ago, Cloud and Reno were quarreling yet again about how they were going to get on in the first place. It would've been the simplest thing if it was just the two of them, but with Cloud's more than inconspicuous motorbike, well, it was damn hard. This journey was a lot more trouble than he'd bargained for.

Cloud sighed and leaned against his motorbike on his side, thinking back to the article he'd just read back at the inn. This Kir Facaz person - or maybe even, thing - seemed to have obtained some sort of Mako injection similar to the SOLDIERs, but an almost lethal amount. It almost horrified Cloud to think what kind of monster could resist what could possibly have been severe Mako poisoning to any ordinary human. Thinking back, it suddenly occurred to him that the experiment was likely from the SOLDIER program already, as he vaguely remembered Zack mentioning certain experimental procedures being done on some fatally injured SOLDIERs. Despite himself, his mind wandered yet again to the topic of Zack as he began wondering whether his friend knew the SOLDIER that was created into this lethal weapon. It was certainly likely. Zack knew everyon--

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a loud clang of boot against metal sounded near the stairs that lead up to the door out of the storage room.

Cloud tilted his head in confusion. "Reno?" He called out warily, "You back already? That was fast."

No answer.

This struck him as odd. For one thing, he had no idea that that idiot red-head could ever resist babbling in any situation, much less a childish prank. Rolling his eyes irritably, Cloud sighed as he stood up and started walking across the room towards the stairs, "Alright, that's it, Reno. If you're going to jump out and scare me, it's not going to work. You're not a very scary pers--"

"Well, well, well, now what do we have here?" A menacing voice loomed out of the shadows.

Fuck. Cloud silently cursed to himself as he spun around to see two - no, three men lurk out of the darkness in the far corner of the storage room near the stairs. Shiva, how could he have been so fucking careless? Life as a delivery boy had evidently hampered his usual paranoia to any stranger near him, especially in unfamiliar places. And it wasn't just the constant alertness from mako-enhanced SOLDIER senses that had dulled. Zack had taught him better than that.

"Damn, so we're boarding this boat to cross the ocean? You'd think Shinra would spend more money on its precious SOLDIERs and give us an actual ship."

"Yeah, I wish. Unfortunately for us, this is a ship. Plus, over half of the squadron going on this mission are cute little recruits like yourself. In their opinion, it's hardly worth the mone--Hey, Cloud, watch out, will ya?!"

"What the--Oww. God, Zack, chill out. The way you grabbed me like that, you'd think some oversized monster was going to bite my head off. It's just one of the ship's crewmen. Sheesh."

"Just the ship's crewmen? Ha, guess you're too much of an innocent to recognize that look they were giving you."

"What look? And stop treating me like a kid!"

"Ow. Feisty, as usual. Well, let's just say if I were them, staring at a hot recruit like you, I'd look like a bunch of animals in heat too."

"Hot? Oh c'mon, Zack. I get enough teasing about being a pretty boy from my unit. I don't need the whole world gawking at my apparently obvious lack of gender--"

"Just… be careful around them, alright? You wouldn't imagine what they'd do to you if they could. I wouldn't want a cutie like you to get taken away. You're mine, remember?"

"…Cut it out, I get enough teasing from you too."

"Ouch, struck down again. But you'd be lying if you told me you didn't like it, eh Cloud?"

"Well--!"

Cloud quickly shook himself out of his stupor just in time to hear one of the men's next few words, also mentally shooting himself in the process as he realized he was thinking about his past with Zack yet again. "Hey, I told ya I saw some guys sneak in here couple hours earlier," One man nudged the bulkier one in the front, who was seemingly the ring-leader in this ambush, "Whatta catch, eh?"

"Looks like blondie's alone for now. Where's yer friend, cutie?" The man lingering in the back asked in a mocking, sugar-coated voice.

Cloud didn't answer, but instead subtly started to edge back towards his motorbike. If it was just one man, there'd be no problem, but he was up against three - not to mention the fact that each of them were nearly twice his height. His hand ached for his First Tsurugi as he subtly scanned over each of the men. He was never particularly adept at hand-to-hand combat, seeing as Zack usually had to hold back at least half his strength to spar with him. …Fuck, this was really not the time to be thinking about that guy.

"You gotta pretty still tongue on you, blondie," The man growled, cupping Cloud's chin and turning his face towards him violently, "Oi, answer me!"

Three men or not, he was just going to have to break for it. Swinging his fist as far as it could possibly go, Cloud punched the man across the face and bolted for his bike.

"Why you little--!" The other two men sprinted after him and tackled Cloud to the ground just moments before his hand could reach the switch for his sword compartments. "That'll teach ya not to mess with us!" The man slammed Cloud's head into the ground. "Punk!"

The bulkier man merely scoffed at the entire show and walked towards Cloud's trapped body with his hands in his pockets. He bent down and grabbed a handful of Cloud's blonde hair, pulling his face up to look at him. "You're a feisty one, aren't you? Not that it matters. Better fuck for me." The other two laughed heartlessly as the man leaned in closer, "You really wanna get to the Wutai Continent that badly, huh? How 'bout we make a deal, you and me." He sneered at Cloud diabolically, "Cooperate for a couple of minutes and I swear I won't rat you out. Whaddya say? I haven't had some tight ass in a while. You're a pretty one too. I promise you'll have a good time."

God, could he fucking be in a worse - or just less mortifying - situation than right now. Cloud closed his eyes for a moment, feeling some hairs ripping out of his scalp from the man's tight grip on him, though, despite the pain, that was the least of his problems at the moment. He looked at the man emotionlessly, "Fat chance, you fuck-ass."

The man stood up whistling, apparently impressed. "You think you're so tough, eh? Well, I'm afraid my previous offer wasn't exactly a question." He nodded towards the other men. "Tie him up."

Shit, Cloud thought as he was hauled up and thrown against the nearby wall, his hands tied brutally behind his back. How ironic. And he was the one warning Reno not to get caught too. He slowly stood up, leaning against the wall as the man approached him, cracking his knuckles and sneering all the while. Fuck, how was he going to get out of this one? Where was that idiot red-head when he needed him?

The man put his arms on the wall on either side of Cloud, "You really are pretty cute, you know that?" He said with a sinister smile, leaning closer to lick at the soft skin at Cloud's neck. "I think I'm gonna have fun with this one, boys."

Cloud cringed at the reeking smell of the man's breath and shivered in revulsion from his tongue. "Like fucking hell you are," He growled as he slammed his forehead into the man's nose and, not a second after, raised a leg to knee him hard in the groin.

"Fuckin--damn it!" The man yelled loudly as he doubled over in pain, but almost immediately straightened up again, panting, "Little shits like you need to learn to behave!" And with that last word, the man grabbed Cloud's forehead pulling his head forward before bashing it against the wall .

There was a loud crunch as Cloud's head collided with the ridged inner hull of the ship. Cloud groaned, coughing out scarlet blood as he felt a warm liquid trickling from the back of his head and down his neck. The man took advantage of Cloud's sudden disorientation to grab him around the waist and violently pull him closer, fumbling with the blonde's belt buckle. "Oh, you're gonna get it now, punk," The man whispered viciously, "You're gonna get it now. I was gonna let you get away with just a fuck 'cause you're such a cute little bastard, but man am I going to fucking torture you now."

It took Cloud a distressingly longer time than he wanted to hurl himself out of the concussed daze he was in, but by the time he realized what was going on, the man had plunged his hand down Cloud's pants to wrap his fingers around his length. Cloud felt himself scream in his head for him to somehow kill the man on the spot, but his blurred mind could only barely form the words through a raspy throat, "No… no, stop--fucking, no, stop! Stop it!"

The man only laughed at Cloud's yells and pulled his hand out of the blonde's pants to slap him across the face with the back of his palm, the sound of it loud enough to echo across the storage room. "Don't lie to me, blondie. You fucking liked that didn't you? Little bitch." He took advantage of how the impact of his slap threw Cloud off balance to flip the blonde over, so he was pressed painfully against the wall instead, his face smothered into the blood that had been dripping from the back of his head.

Cloud heard the clink of the man's belt buckle behind him and suddenly panic flooded his system. But all he could do in his position was swing his leg behind him to kick the man as hard as he could, and even that was intercepted.

The man squeezed Cloud's leg for a moment before pressing the blonde harder against the wall, effectively preventing him from moving another inch. Cloud grimaced at the stench of rum as the man whispered into his ear, "You may be protesting now, but I promise you your tight little ass is gonna loosen up after this fuck."

"You fucking bastard--Stop!" Cloud yelled again, struggling with all he had as he felt the man grab at the back of his pants, attempting to pull them down to his knees. Fuck fighting Sephiroth. He had thought battling it out to the death was terrifying, but for one of the first times in his life right now, he was scared out of his mind. Shiva, where was Zack--no, where was Reno? God, what he wouldn't give to hear that goddamn Turk make some sort of fucking cynical comment at him again. God, what he wouldn't give just to see him again.

Cloud wasn't quite sure what exactly happened next, seeing as his concussed head refused to help him remember the exact details, but before he knew it, he suddenly he felt the pressure on him relieved and opened his eyes to see swirl of black and red. He had never exactly done a huge dose of drugs before, but he thought the experience would probably be somewhat like this. Blurry. Disorientating. Flamboyantly colorful. And strangely elating. Wait a minute. He blinked hard only to see he familiar sight of blazing red hair and signature goggles before him.

Before Cloud's dazed mind could figure out exactly who this mystery man was, the angered sound of his voice confirmed it for him. "You fucking son of a bitch," The Turk growled, with a glare filled with enough rage and bloodlust that it made even Cloud feel shivers run up his spine, "You think you can touch this guy and fucking get away with it?! Well, you were fucking wrong, you hear me?!" Reno shouted savagely, kicking a body on the ground intermittently between syllables.

It took Cloud a moment to realize it was the man that pinning him to the wall only moments before, now bloodied and bruised himself, no doubt by the hands of the enraged Turk.

The red-head pointed his E.M.R. at the other two menacingly, "This… is mine, you bastards. Now get the fuck out of here before I decide to beat the fucking shit out of you like this idiot here on the floor." He gestured towards the stairs fiercely with his stun baton. "Well? GET OUTTA HERE! And take that trash with you!"

The two men whimpered pathetically before dragging their unconscious leader unceremoniously up the metal stairs and out the door.

But even before the storage room door had slammed closed, Reno had already stuffed his E.M.R. into his pocket and bent down to get a better look at Cloud. "Shit, they really did a number on you, yo. You okay, Spiky?" He asked, quickly reaching behind Cloud to untie his wrists.

Cloud let out a hoarse laugh as he reached a hand up to touch the back of his head, grimacing at the feel of blood caked all over his hair, "You're seriously asking me that? You idiot, Reno. You're late." He was still disorientated enough that the entire world from his viewpoint was one gigantic blur, but he thought he might've seen a worried look on the Turk's face.

"Hey," Reno smacked the blonde across the arm, "You're lucky I ended up coming at all, yo. I was roaming around deck, completely pissed about that fucking jellyfish when I heard some crewmen sniggering about some guys going down to a storage room to have a little… fun." His face twisted in revulsion at the idea. "I ran back as fast as I could without getting seen, but… Cloud, yo, did they… did they touch you?" He said, his voice uncharacteristically soft for the usually cynical and nonchalant Turk.

"No," Cloud answered, almost a little too quickly, "They just beat me up a little. It's nothing a potion wouldn't heal." But as he said those words, Cloud winced as he felt Reno's gaze lower to glance at Cloud's unfastened belt buckle and loosened pants.

"Those fucking little bastards…" Reno growled under his breath, his grip on Cloud loosening as if he was preparing to bolt out the door after the men.

"Hey, whoa, whoa! Reno, calm down!" Cloud grabbed the red-head's arm before he could drop the blonde completely, "They just grabbed me a little, okay? But it's not like I'm some emotionally distraught girl. You don't need to go running off after them for me - believe me, if I didn't have his goddamn concussion I'd have ran off to pay them back myself."

Reno laughed, despite himself, "Well, at least you're okay enough to be making wisecrack at me." But even as he said it, Reno glanced over at the blood splattered on the wall behind them. Man, was this girly blonde was tougher than he looked. But Cloud was right. He wasn't a girl. So, why was Reno suddenly so apt to burst out of the storage to reap revenge for him? He shook the thoughts out of his head fiercely and lay Cloud back against the wall, "Hey, I'm gonna go wet a rag or something to wipe all that blood of your face, alright, yo?" Yeah, the blondie's well-being was more important at the moment, not Reno's now completely obvious sexuality issues.

As he watched Reno's back, searching through the various boxes, Cloud thought back to the whole experience and shivered slightly. Even if he wasn't a girl, the whole gang rape thing was pretty terrifying. He didn't even want to think about what would have happened if the Turk had appeared even a few minutes later. This… is mine, you bastards. "What did you mean by what you said back there?" Cloud blurted out abruptly, an entirely involuntary response to his sudden flashback to Reno's rescue.

Reno froze noticeably in the middle of ripping a part of one of the sailor uniforms he had found, flushing as he thought back to the memory as well. "Er, that was--I didn't--I just said that to make them go away, yo! It didn't mean anything!" He said hastily. It wasn't a lie. It really was to get the men to run off. But some part of his own mind was confused as to why he had said such a thing. Incoherent death threats were more than enough to send the men scampering off, so why had he been so quick to make his claim on the blonde?

Cloud nodded slowly, slightly doubtful of the truth in the entirety of the red-head's reply, but before he could ponder on the reason for Reno's stammering, another thought suddenly occurred to him. "Reno."

"Yo."

"It's great that you came back to help me out and all, but what happened to that room you were going to get?"

"Uhh."

"Don't tell me you seriously--"

"Yeah, about that…"


yeah, what was a jellyfish doing inside that ship? reno doesn't know. i don't know. you don't know. it'll be one of the world's greatest mysteries. the jellyfish in junon's ship.

and yay, for the rest of the turks appearing in this chapter. it was fun writing dialogue for their such different personalities. and we all know what elena said about reno and cloud is totally true. yeah, you know who you are ;)

so, yeah, the rape - or rather, near rape - scene. pretty terrifying huh? yeah, forget sephiroth, gang rape is definitely its own realm of horrors. anyway, lucky for cloud, reno was there to save the day. yay?

so anywho, a review would be nice. i work so hard for you people, i deserve at least some credit, yeah? :)