Chapter 6: Veritas: part 2
Disclaimer: I don't own the Square-Enix characters. I only own my charries and my plot.
Me an' Rude arrived at the Shinra hospital as the sun peaked over the edge of the horizon. Its fiery red haze vaguely reminded me of my hair, at least of what Elena and Cloud say about its color. Although I was dead on my feet and about to find out if I was gonna die, I walked in with my usual cocky swagger. Had to keep appearances, didn't I?
We walked past the front desk without being questioned and made our way to the back of the building. There, we continued on until we reached a room that looked like it was being prepped for major surgery. The adrenaline began to pump through my body at the sight of it. Have I mentioned that I hate hospitals?
"Uh, Rude…"
He looked at me and seemed to understand.
"Listen, partner, I'm gonna be here the entire time. Rufus already gave me permission. We just want to figure out what's going on."
I nodded, but I still didn't feel any better. I hate doctors, I hate hospitals, I fucking hate it all! But I fucking wanted to find out what was up. I needed to know what this whole Argos deal was.
A nurse came in and asked that I change into the hospital gown. As I did that, Rude went to get cleaned up and sterilized. I felt very exposed as a cool breeze blew up the back end. I seethed, hating the fact that my ass was open for all eyes. I mean, it's one thing if I'm at a bar showing off, and it's another to have creepy doctors and nurses staring at me like a piece of meat.
Another nurse came in and sat me down as he drew a blood sample. Once he disappeared, I was left there to wait until the doctor came in. A few minutes of fidgeting and shaking my leg nervously, and something weird happened. I had to take a piss. I REALLY had to piss.
I looked around and didn't see anyone. Trying to ignore the feeling, my mind drifted to Cloud; our argument was just stupid, and I couldn't believe that his chicken tasted so terrible. He never cooked that bad. Then my mind drifted back to the thoughts of my bladder. I wondered where the bathroom was, but I couldn't remember seeing any of them on the way over here. I took to pacing to try to keep my mind off of my predicament, but I began to tremble with the need to freakin' piss. Now where the hell was a damn person so I could find a fucking bathroom!?
At that moment, a little lady nurse came in with a tray full of different color coded needles. Her graying brown hair was tied up in a neat loose bun at the back of her head and she looked like a nice little lady, but at the moment there was only one painful thing on my mind. I didn't lose the chance to practically jumped her.
"Where the fuck is the bathroom, lady!?"
She jumped back and stared at me with wide eyes. "Uh, i-it's down the hall to the left, take a-another left, and it is on t-the right."
Damn! Why did it have to be complicated to go to the bathroom? No time to complain.
I began jogging down the hall, no longer concerned about my skinny ass mooning random people. That was a far better option than losing bowel control before reaching the lavatories.
"Left, left, right," I whispered over and over as I went down the long cold hallways. "Left, left, right."
After a few minutes, I found the bathroom and barreled in. I lifted up the front of my gown and finally relieved myself at the urinal. I couldn't help but sigh in relief. In sure I don't need to go into explicit detail, but I was quite relieved. It was a good thing that I had great control over my body.
As I exited the bathroom, a wave of nausea stopped me dead in my tracks. I fell right into the wall and began to dry heave. I saw the hallway spinning, and felt sick. My reaction to the Mako was getting worse and worse, and the symptoms were getting stronger. However, I needed to know what was going on, so I forced myself to rush back to the surgery room. A few minutes later, Rude came in with scrubs and some plastic gloves. I grinned mischievously.
"Yo, Rude, ain't you supposed to have a hair cap or something? Oh wait, you don't have any hair!"
I laughed out loud with fake happiness. I felt obligated to my best friend to keep a good attitude up. He didn't need to know that I was feeling like shit, or that I was almost ready to put Rufus's Ivory Reaper up to my temple. No, he deserved to think that I was unaffected, calm, and a constant idiot.
"Hey Reno, what are you wearing a handkerchief for? Oh wait, I forgot, your skinny ass is too small to fit in normal stuff."
I stuck my tongue out at him. He attacked my visibly small frame. So what if I was wearing a size "extra small"? Big oaf.
"Loser."
He smiled confidently. Yes, he didn't need to know; it was so much better to see him like this. At that moment, however, a wave of nausea hit and I swooned, nearly falling off of the metal table. Luckily, Rude caught me, saving me from another broken nose.
"Shit, Reno! What the fuck? Are you ok?"
I grabbed his arm tightly, letting this wave pass just as the other one did. He rubbed my back and held me up to his chest. In a few minutes it was over, and I looked up into those dark lenses.
"'S ok, Rude. No biggie…."
This time he didn't look so convinced that I was being honest. A doctor walked in before he could question me further, and raised an inquiring eyebrow.
"Are you Reno Stryker?" he asked in a nasally voice. I shuddered.
"Listen, it's Reno, yo. I'm a Turk."
He just nodded and wrote on his clipboard.
"Please step over here on the scale."
I grimaced. This was my least favorite parts of a check up. Besides getting needles shoved into my veins and doctors of both genders groping at my body freely, of course. Rude watched me very carefully as I stepped down and went to the stupid scale. I stepped on it and braced myself to hear the same speech all over again.
"Mr. Reno! W-what?" He tapped the scale needle several times before he was sure that it wasn't lying. "Do you realize that you're only one hundred pounds?!"
"Shit, just do your job, and leave me alone about my weight."
"It's not healthy at all!"
"Shut up! I hear it all the time!"
He shook his head in disbelief and even Rude frowned in disappointment. I winced remembering that I had promised to get to one hundred and twelve pounds the next time I got a check up. Instead I had lost five.
"Don't ya dare say anything, partner, this doesn't count."
"The hell it doesn't," he mumbled. "I won't say anything this time…"
The doctor scribbled furiously on his clipboard, taking notes in handwriting that made my chicken scratch look legible. Sheesh, now Rude couldn't complain about it.
"Now, please, step over here," the man continued.
I walked over to the wall with the measurements notched in it. I leaned back like a good boy and waited.
"Uh, Reno, you need to stand straight," he said.
"I am standing straight, yo."
"N-no, you're slouching."
"Just take the fucking measurement."
The small man gave Rude a pleading look, and my partner nodded.
"Reno, don't be difficult. Just stand up straight for five damn seconds."
I growled in frustration, I really really hated doctors and their stupid check ups. Nonetheless, I listened to my bald friend and stretched out my body to its full height. Five seconds was all, though.
Next, I had to endure the bastard touching my chest, and listening to my heart. Then he listened to my breathing, yada, yada, yada. Finally, he got the needle and took a large amount of my blood. When he left, I leaned back and sighed in relief.
"'S almost done, right, partner?"
Rude nodded and came close to my side. He took my hand and unclenched the stiff fingers; heh, I never even noticed that I was so tense. Then that glorious comb was pulled out of his dark pocket and I practically whimpered in glee. He pulled my hair out from under my head and began to untangle the knots starting from the bottom. There was still dried blood, and gore in my hair, but he kept going; slowly and carefully. Little waves of pleasure cascaded over my body as each strand of hair was gently pulled, and teased free from their messy tangles. No man could comb hair as good as Rude could; I don't know, maybe it has something to do with his longing for hair himself, but he was the only other person, besides myself, that I would allow near my crimson tresses.
By Ifrit, I would rather die than let Cloud do it! That guy has never even looked at a comb until we started sleeping together. Believe me when I say that he has absolutely NO talent in the art of hair combing. The one time I allowed him to try, and I nearly went to work as bald as Rude. Never again.
Another doctor walked in and I thought that I was finally seeing the end of the tunnel.
"Yo, can I leave now?"
The lady looked at me.
"Of course not, it's time for the second part of your check up."
I paled.
"W-wha? No fucking way!"
"Mr. Stryker, we are dealing with your life here. We need to be thorough, no exceptions."
She was making sense, but I didn't like it one bit. I bit my lip in frustration but leaned back ready for more abuse.
"Just hurry and get it over with."
"Please lay still, I need to scan your internal organs and check for internal bleeding."
I did as I was told and didn't move. She spread cold jelly-like shit all over my chest and stomach before she turned some weird machine on. After making a shit load of noise, it clicked and turned off. The doctor got a towel with some cleaning solution and, thankfully, got that goo all off. Once she was done, the lady took her readings and left.
"Damn, I hope that NOW they're done…fucking hate doctors…"
Rude patted my head affectionately and finished combing my ratty hair out. This time, a nurse walked in and cleared out the room and added some sitting chairs before taking another vial of blood.
"Don't worry, the testing is done. The doctors will be here in a few moments, so please just relax."
The nurse gave me a blanket to cover up while I waited for even more doctors to tell me my fate. As soon as she left, another wave of dizziness and nausea came, but this time I recovered quickly. Rude still noticed, unfortunately. Instead of being all impatient for the doctors I decided to lie down and chill. Finally, a moment to rest…
Twenty minutes later, three different doctors came in, followed by Rufus, Tseng, and Elena. All of them wore serious expressions.
"Lighten up, yo! Can't be too bad, 'cause I've seen a lot worse before."
I tried my best to keep my mask of stability and carefree up. I didn't feel very carefree right now, what with my Ma, the crazy doctors, Argos, the fact that I might be dying, and my argument with Cloud. Yeah, I was feeling like shit, but my friends needed to see me strong; just like with Rude, everyone just needed me to be strong for them.
"Mr. Stryker, I assure you that things are indeed serious," one of the doctors started. "Please, everyone, sit down."
The other Turks shared a look and sat down. Rufus held his impenetrable mask up.
"We were correct. The Mako inside your body is having an unusual reaction. It is all concentrating to one portion of your body, yet your body seems to absorb it at will. It doesn't get absorbed by all of your cells like it normally would. Instead, the Mako seems to exist in you stably until your cells choose to absorb it."
I was getting confused with all his talk, like, was it good or bad?
"Uh, I ain't seeing where you're goin' with this."
"Just listen, Mr. Stryker," another doctor chimed in.
"Just, Reno, I'm a Turk."
He nodded and picked up where the first one left off.
"You have a unique condition that has never been seen before, Reno. The ability to choose when you absorb the Mako is phenomenal in itself, but the most intriguing part is that your cells use only the pure essence of the Mako. Then it takes what is left, the impurities, and recycles them!"
The doctor was pretty excitable by now, waving his arms around and pacing. I still wondered where this was leading to. I really wished that the doctors would just get to the damn point. I saw that Rude was feeling the same way I was, if not a little more violent. His fingers kept clenching and unclenching around an imaginary neck. Tseng was looking interested in all that was being said, Elena was looking sharp since she couldn't really understand what they were babbling about, and I couldn't read the Boss's face. A strange and dangerous glint in his eye was the only hint of what was going on inside his scheming brain.
I turned my attention back on the doctors and found that they were giving details on how exactly my damn cells were separating and recycling the Mako. This was ridiculous, I just wanted to know if I was gonna die or not!
"SHUT UP!!!" I screamed. They all looked at me in surprise. "Listen up, yo. I'm tired, I need a good deep bath, and my bare ass is freezing on this freakin' steel table! Let's move this ON! You said something about the Mako focusing in one area of my body. Where and why?"
No one moved or spoke; deathly silent. I felt a cold chill run through my body. Every eye turned to the last doctor. She was a middle aged woman with her short graying hair in a braid; her eyes softened as she looked at me.
"Reno, the Mako is gathering in your abdomen, more specifically, in your womb."
My mouth dropped stupidly as I gaped at her in shock. I looked at the others and saw that my shock was reflected on their faces. Rufus had paled considerably but he didn't seem as shocked. My chest tightened as I thought that he knew more about me than I did. I looked back at the doctor and she continued.
"Your womb is very different from a normal one. It seems to be composed of mostly pure Mako; the rest is a strange tissue and blood. It looks like your body took the Mako and made a womb to harbor a child. We don't understand why at the moment."
Gulp. "A child?"
"Yes, Reno, you are pregnant."
I almost fainted right there. And I had been worried about Cloud getting pregnant!!! Look, now I was carrying a fucking BABY!
"There is a problem, though…"
"WHAT? Like being pregnant isn't a problem in itself?!" I screamed, nearing hysterical.
The doctors shared a look before deciding to continue.
"We were getting different and garbled DNA codes. Every time we tried to get information, our readings would come out unintelligible." Another glance at each other. "So we decided to check your DNA."
I looked around in exasperation; I was fucking tired of these damn idiots skirting around the damn issue!
"GET TO THE DAMN POINT YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!!!"
A pause. "Your DNA has mutated, Reno."
That painful choking silence swallowed the room. I couldn't understand it. Why was this shit happening to me? My head began to swim as yet another dizzy spell hit me.
"Wha-what do ya mean?"
"When you entered Shinra as a Turk, samples of your DNA were required for identification. At that time, your DNA was coded a little strangely, but we didn't think anything of it. When we scanned you after that incident, its readings were chaotic. At first we thought that we just got a bad sample; that was not the case. The coding of your DNA is not normal, almost to the point of being inhuman, yet somehow your body has only had minimal change."
The doctor stopped, giving me time to soak it all in. So I was a freak; all that big talk boiled down to five small words. I was a fucking freak.
A large hand on my shoulder took me out of my daze and I looked up into Rude's perfectly controlled face. He squeezed reassuringly and I knew that he was letting me know that he would always be there. Elena was sitting there staring at my stomach like she expected to see the baby moving. Tseng looked frazzled by the news; heh, he was way out of his comfort zone. Finally, my eyes rested on my Boss. His eyes were closed as if he was having an internal struggle. He knew something about me, something important. I needed to hear it.
"Boss, please," I asked quietly. I look at him with imploring and desperate eyes. "I need to know! I just- please?!"
Icy blue eyes were revealed from their veil of flesh and looked me straight in the eye.
"Step out for a moment, good doctors. We aren't through, but I need to discuss something with my Turks."
The doctors obeyed him immediately, but they didn't look too happy. Tseng got up and, out of habit, locked the door and made sure that we were not being eavesdropped on. He nodded and took a seat. Rufus sat back and drummed his fingers against the arm of the chair. He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then addressed us in his calm, commanding voice.
"Everything that I am about to say is strictly confidential, and will not be disclosed outside this group under any circumstance." My shoulders slumped in disappointment when I realized that I was being asked to leave. "Reno, because of the present situation, I have re-instated you as the second-in-command of the Turks. But understand this, I cannot risk anymore disloyalty. Do not fail me again, as I would hate to lose an excellent and experienced Turk like you."
"I promise, Boss, never again," I replied eagerly.
A lump formed in my throat and tears threatened to fall. These people here were my family. Being let back in was such a relief that all of the joy didn't really have a place to go. I wiped my eyes, and a large honest smile spread across my face. Even all of the terrible news could not dampen my spirit at that moment. The prodigal son was back. The other Turks gave me quick smiles before turning their attention back to the president. He had leaned forward, and his voice seemed to have a secret and ominous tone to it. We were about to finally get some truth.
"Now, what I am about to tell you all started back about eighteen years ago. It all starts with my personal tutor, Mrs. June Argos."