Disclaimer: Not mine

Author's Notes: Wow. Real life is really kicking my ass lately. This took a lot longer than expected but at least it's out, right? And I hope the extra-long chapter made up for the half-assed last one. This chapter is very strongly rated for Reno's potty mouth!

As always, thanks for the support!

"I am going to fuckin' kill you, Strife," Reno repeated for the umpteenth time in the day. Actually, he wasn't so sure if it was day anymore. It was dark as night in the storage space that acted as their holding cells.

After being disarmed and tied up by the mercenaries (who were incidentally second on Reno's revenge list, right after Strife), they were hauled into a van like cattle and driven into an abandoned warehouse. From there, they were separated into different cells. Tifa and Elena were in one beside Reno and Cloud while Reeve and Rude were in another room a few metres away.

Cloud rolled his eyes to high heaven at Reno's comments. At first, he did feel slightly guilty as he was the one that led them into this mess but as time passed, the comments became plain annoying.

His eyeroll served to piss Reno off even more. "Don't roll your damn eyes at me, Strife!"

Cloud never did listen to orders from people he disliked, so when Reno ordered him not to do it, the child in him made him roll his eyes again anyway.

Driven off the edge at that gesture, Reno pounced on Cloud and they started scuffling. Reno interjected his punches with curses so vile, Cloud actually cringed. It turns out that Reno wasn't the only hot-headed one around; the guards stationed outside their cell had enough of the squabbling duo. They fired two warning shots and pounded on the door angrily.

"Shut the hell up! If I heard another word from you two, these bullets are not going into the ceiling, they will be going into your damn brains!"

The two separated immediately; Reno smirked at Cloud's cut lip.

"Spiky headed bastard," muttered Reno, loud enough for Cloud to hear.

"Red haired moron," Cloud shot back.

There was peace for a moment and Cloud closed his eyes to savour it, leaning against the cold wall tiredly. However, he should have known it was too good to be true as it was quickly ruined by Reno.

"I think I liked you hell of a lot more when you were all fucked in the head by Sephiroth.".

"So,uh..," began Elena awkwardly, "I...like your top...", in an attempt to strike up conversation with her cell mate. They had been sitting in silence for hours now and Elena was bored.

Tifa, who had been counting the cracks in the ceiling to pass time, looked at the other occupant in the room as if she had never seen a Turk so sociable before. "Um...thanks," she answered just as awkwardly, "I...um...think your...uh...shirt is nice too."

It was a lie. Tifa had never seen a dirtier, more ill-fitting shirt than what Elena was wearing. She obviously borrowed the shirt from Reno after they left the hospital.

They fell into another stretch of silence after the exchange.

"Um...also, I like how you styled your hair," Elena said.

Tifa began to feel extremely suspicious; the question was at the tip of her tongue but she couldn't gather the courage to ask the Turk in fear of Elena murdering her in her sleep. "Thanks",
was all she could manage.

"Yeah, it's very nice...smooth and silky," the blonde continued.

Oh, to hell with this, Tifa thought to herself. The two of them are going to be spending a lot of time together and Tifa did not want the blonde woman to...misunderstand anything. "Are you trying to hit on me?"

Elena's jaw dropped.

How the hell did she jump into that conclusion?

"What? No! Of course not."

"I mean, I am flattered if you are, but I just don't...go that way," Tifa said quickly, hoping that she did not offend the Turk.

"No. No. God, no!" Elena protested, "I am not hitting on you. I love men!"

"Um...okay, I am glad we got that out of the way."

No more words were being said that night.

"..." said Rude.

"..." said Reeve.

It is going to be a long night.

Reno did not bother hiding his glee when a guard came to extract him out of the cell. At this moment in time, he'd rather face a firing squad than spending another minute with Cloud Strife.

"Oh, tell me you are here to end my misery," Reno said, purposely directing his eyes at Cloud as he said the word 'misery'.

The armed man obviously was in no mood for jokes. He pulled Reno up by his collar and shoved the gunpoint into his back. "Move."

Reno was directed into another room that seemed to be built like the interrogation room out of a very bad B-movie. His escort shoved him roughly onto a wooden seat and directed a bright light into his eyes.

Can it get anymore clichéd?

He sat silently, unfazed by his current predicament like any good Turk would. A few minutes passed before another man entered the room. This man was wearing an ill-tailored suit that looked like it had been stolen off a dead body. He circled Reno like a hawk before taking the seat on the opposite side of the table.

"Mr. Strife...," the man started, "My boss wants to know where your friend is."

"...Strife?" Reno repeated.

"That's your name isn't it? Cloud Strife?"

Reno bit his tongue to stop himself from making a sarcastic comment, "Yes, yes. That's my name...Cloud Strife."

The interrogator crossed his arms in what he perceived to be a threatening gesture. "Tell me about your old friend, Barret Wallace."

"You shot at me, shoved me into a black van and locked me up with the most annoying person in this planet," Reno said, leaning forward and smirking arrogantly, "Why the hell would I tell you anything?"

BANG!

The man in the bad suit slammed Reno's face on the table. "Answer the damn question!"

Reno licked his bleeding lips and answered with a leer. "He's dead."

His interrogator's face contorted with anger. He grabbed a fistful of Reno's hair and repeatedly smashed the redhead's face onto the table. Satisfied with his handiwork, he snapped Reno's head backwards and pushed his face as close to Reno. "I am warning you Mr. Strife, my patience is wearing thin."

With his head tilted backwards in that angle, Reno could feel the blood trickling down his broken nose into the back of his throat. He choked and coughed up a mouthful of blood. "Fine, I'll tell you. He eloped with some chick from the Honeybee Inn, caught an STD and died."

Reno's comment pushed his interrogator over the edge. Hauling Reno up by his collar, he managed to land a few punches into the redhead's stomach before being interrupted by a sharp trill of a PHS. The man dropped Reno on his stomach and gestured for the other guard to take over.

As he lay on the cold cement floor, Reno knew it was a chance for escape. Employing a trick that he'd learnt many years ago, he closed his eyes and started to count.

The boss is a pain in the ass, the interrogator decided after getting off the phone with his employer. That's the problem with being a mercenary; you'd unwittingly end up working for a bunch of psycho, power-crazy maniacs who are extremely high maintenance.

At least the money is amazing.

Sighing to himself, he opened the door into the interrogation room to continue on with his business. The subject was still lying on the ground where he'd left him. The interrogator kicked the prone body several times to make the redhead move but to no avail.

"Sir, maybe you hit him too hard," the other guard in the room interjected.

The interrogator started to panic; his boss had told him clearly that everyone had to be brought in alive. "Shut up and check his damn pulse!"

The guard got onto one knee and leaned forward to check as ordered, inadvertently leaving his gun holster exposed. The interrogator opened his mouth to warn him about exposing his arms but when the gunshot went off; he knew it was too late.

The redhead on the ground stared at him, blue eyes glinting murderously, "Don't you ever call me Strife again."


The gunshot from the inside of the interrogation reverberated in the walls of the empty warehouse. That drew all the guards from outside the holding cells towards the room; they were on high alert.

"Boss!" called out one of the guards while he repeatedly knocked on the locked door. When no one answered, he signaled his colleague and barged into the room. His other friends quickly joined him.

The boss and his bodyguard were lying in a pool of blood, the prisoner nowhere to be seen.

The crack of gunshot caught them all by surprise and when they all turned to face the source, all they saw was a flash of red-hair and a diabolical grin.

Despite the nagging pain in his ribs and nose, Reno felt superhuman.

There is just something about facing possible death that gets him high. As he shot another guard, he grinned; that was what he joined the Turks for.

These mercenaries, although good with their arms are not prepared to deal with surprise attacks. He took them out with relative ease. Collecting weapons from the fallen bodies, Reno's mind quickly formed an escape plan.

This woman must be insane, Tifa decided. The numerous gunshots did not seem to faze the blonde Turk at all. While Tifa had jumped onto her feet immediately after the first gunshot, Elena had just sat calmly in her corner with a hint of a smile on her lips.

When someone started pounding on their cell door impatiently, Elena finally got up and placed an ear on the cool metal. "Reno, is that you?"

"Elena?" The voice was slightly muffled but was unmistakably Reno.

"Open up!" Elena said, "We are in here!"

There was a moment of hesitation and a calm voice replied, "No."

"No?!" repeated Elena disbelievingly. She pounded on the door angrily. "Reno, this isn't funny! There could be more of them coming. Get us out of here so we can back you up!"

"No."

Elena kicked the door out of frustration and instantly regretted the decision when pain shot up her foot. "Damn it Reno!"

"I'll get you out if you go out on a date with me."

"What?!" The two women in the cell exclaimed in unison.

"Red," Tifa warned, "Stop joking and get us the hell out of here."

There was a scoff outside the door and Reno replied in a tone made Tifa want to punch a hole through the door. "No, not you, babe. I was asking Elena."

Elena scowled. She could almost see the shit-eating grin through the wall. "Reno, you ass! You have to stop threatening girls into dates."

"Not all girls, Elena. Just you."

Despite circumstances, something in Elena's stomach fluttered.

"How romantic," Tifa muttered sarcastically.

They could hear more footsteps and voices now and instantly knew that more guards were on their way in. "So what do you say, Laney?" Reno asked, purposely using that nickname that she despised.

"Fine," Elena answered softly.

"What's that? I couldn't hear you," said Reno in a sing-song voice even though Elena knows that he could definitely hear her.

This time, she practically screamed her answer. "FINE, GODAMNIT! Now get us out before we all die."

Tifa grinned secretly. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't impressed by the stunt Reno pulled. It was actually quite romantic.

"What took you so long?" was the first thing Reeve said to Reno when the door to the cell he shared with Rude opened.

Reno busied himself by passing around guns and ammo before answering with a grin and a brief glance at Elena, "I had some... business to take care of."

When they were armed and ready, Reno started leading them out the door.

"Hang on!" Tifa called out, "What about Cloud?"

"Oh. Damn. Sorry, I forgot," said Reno, not sounding sorry at all.

As they ran back to Cloud's holding cell, Elena whispered conspiratorially into his ear, "You didn't really forget, did you?"

"Heh, that's for me to know and you to find out."

Cloud paced impatiently in his cell. After Reno was taken out by the big, burly guard, he had heard gunshots and muffled shouting but now it was silent again.

When his cell door creaked open, he jumped into fighting position but nearly let out a sigh of relief when he saw Tifa at the other end.

"Heads up, Strife," Elena said and tossed a gun at him. He caught it easily and grinned crookedly, suddenly feeling like his SOLDIER days. "Still know how to use one of these?"

He answered her question by shooting a guard right in the chest. "Yup."

"And what the hell happened to your face?" he asked rudely when he caught sight of Reno's bruised eyes and bleeding nose.

"No time to explain," said Reno, noticing that more and more enemy reinforcement had arrived, "Let's get the hell out of here."

The bullets were raining on them the moment they stepped out of the compound, coming from all directions. Whether it was pure luck or skill that saved their life, they would never know, but somehow they managed to make their way into a van without a single scratch on them.

"Go! Go!" shouted Reno from the backseat. He'd lost a scuffle with Cloud to be the driver, much to Elena's relief as she was still recovering from Reno's piloting skills.

Cloud put the gear into reverse and hit the accelerator, hard. The car lurched forward and promptly stalled.

"FUCK! Strife, you piece...!" Reno cursed, but never got to finish his sentence as a hail of bullets interrupted him.

The occupants in the van took cover quickly as the back mirror broke into pieces. Rude and Reeve attempted to return fire. Reno cursed again and slapped Cloud's seat, "Move it, Strife."

Cloud started the engines, put the van into first gear and promptly stalled again.

"Godamnit," Elena muttered in frustration from her seat. When the bullets had stopped, she quickly clambered over and plopped herself onto Cloud's lap, taking over the driver's wheel.

"Hey. What the hell...?!" Cloud protested.

"Shut the hell up and stop squirming," Elena ordered through gritted teeth. She attempted to start the van again and this time, managed to it to move.

Once they made their way onto the freeway, Elena floored it, swerving traffic to lose the other van that had trailed them.

When Reno tumbled sideways for the fourth time from all the swerving, he started swearing. "Keep it steady, Laney. I am trying to shoot at those bastards and I can't do it when you are driving like a madwoman."

Elena smiled to herself and swerved again for one good measure.

"Fuckin' hell!"

"Don't call me Laney."