Chapter 8: Textus Unus

The Textus chapters are dedicated to both my beta IceLady, and to one of my favorite fans/friends, Kigichi. Please enjoy.

"Hello, Mr. Stryker. I'm tired of waiting for cooperation from you and Cloud, so Damon and I have decided to take a new approach. We set off Professor Hojo's backup plan. You might want to check up on your lover, Reno, things are about to get real messy."

My heart almost stopped and I looked over at Chaos and signaled for him to check on Cloud. He moved almost faster than my eyes could see, and I was left in the room by myself with a crazy bitch on the line.

"C'mon, ya can't keep doing this shit to us, yo! Why're you so hooked up on all of Hojo's work? It's all bad news and you should know that more than any of us!"

"Now, now, Reno, it's not all bad news. Finding out that you are Argos's experimental child is excellent news for us and the work we plan to do."

I couldn't help the sigh that passed my chapped lips. "What do you want from us now?"

"It's very kind of you to ask! After Sephiroth failed, Hojo began to search for the solution to the mental degeneration problems. Genesis and Sephiroth both carried it, and he didn't want any more of their destructive kinds around."

"What does this have to do with me?"

Hmmm, Genesis sounded vaguely familiar, but I let that pass without devoting too much attention. Sephiroth I knew, and I would focus on him for now.

"Not you, Reno, it has everything to do with Cloud."

My blood ran cold and I looked down the hall worriedly. What more did that crazy hack-job do to Cloud?

"Just get to the point, lady," I hissed.

She chuckled at my impatience and continued. "Hojo experimented on several subjects with the idea of the artificial womb, but none of them survived. Finally, he created a hormonal sequence that would trigger a SOLDIER's body into creating a womb and releasing the artificial sperm and egg to create another Sephiroth child. This new child, however, was hypothetical and whether or not the entire procedure worked was up for debate. Only two SOLDIERs survived the experiment, and as of today, only one is alive. For now, that is."

My mind raced and made the connections easily. It made me sick, thinking that Hojo's transgressions never seemed to end. Poor Fair and Cloud were made into time bombs, waiting for something to trigger this abomination. And to think that at this moment Cloud was feeling all of that pain…

"So, bitch, why'd you do it now and not in the first place?"

"Well, considering that Professor Hojo's experiment was never tested, Damon and I didn't want to risk it with the only possible carrier alive. But now that we found you, we decided to give it a try. There is, of course, a high failure rate, especially in a failed clone like Cloud."

My hand went to my stomach and held it and I let out a stream of curse words.

"Cloud's strong, and he's gonna live through anything that you put him through! And I am not, I repeat, not doing anything to help you and your crazy husband create a destroyer of the world! Oh, and for your information, I will personally kick you ass when we find you!"

"I expect nothing less, my dear Damnation. However, you have to catch me first. That, and you have to beat your own biological countdown."

"What, am I gonna go through menopause too?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, if I told you everything now, where would the fun be in that?"

"It doesn't matter, we're still going to stop you both."

"You're welcome to try."

The tone beeped in my ear for a moment when she hung up, and then I slammed down the receiver and ran down the stairs. Once I made it into the kitchen I saw Vincent looking Cloud over. There was sweat running down in his face and it was contorted in pain. Rich crimson blood dribbled from his lip as he bit down on it to keep silent. The brunette looked up at me.

"Reno, what did she say?"

"Er, she said that Hojo had done some experiments on Cloud and set it up so that his damn successors could trigger some serious messed up shit. Cloud's body is trying to form a womb on its own and trying to conceive the kid that Hojo had set in there."

Vincent's eyebrows shot up and Cloud turned to me with an absolutely horrified look.

"What the fuck?! My b-body's trying to make a baby?!"

He winced again as the pain overtook him. I fell to my knees beside him and rubbed his shoulders. The look he gave me kind of stung; it was a look of disgust, or horror, the look you would give to a monster. Yeah, what he was repulsed by was what was happening in my body. I couldn't help but wonder if he would find me gross, maybe even to the point of never love…liking me again. This was exactly why I wasn't going to tell him about my issues.

"There's nothing we can do for you right now, babe. I really wish that I could help you, but since I can't I've got a better idea."

Vincent looked warily at me. "And what would that be?"

"I'm gonna catch those crazy people, and I'm going to shove my EMR down their damn throats. Once that's done, I'm gonna boil their flesh and feed it to the creatures down in Midgar's center."

The vehemence in my voice was a little surprising to myself, but I meant every word of it. Those doctors had been a pain in my ass for far too long, and I was going to end it soon. Cloud's dark blue eyes looked up into mine intensely.

"I want to be there when you do it," he strained out. "I want to help you find them."

He curled up a little more, trying to get over the pain.

"Not this time, kitten. You need rest and Vincent here is gonna take good care of you. Leave the work to me, but I'll make sure that you get payback too." I looked at Vincent. "Can I trust you to make sure that he'll be ok?"

"Of course, but you need to be careful yourself. These people are very dangerous, so you need as much help as you can get."

I felt a feral smile pull at the corners of my lips. "I've got all of the help that I'll need," I assured him.

Me and Vincent carried Cloud up to the bedroom before I left and made my way to the new Shinra Tower. Finding those sneaky bastards was going to be a very difficult task and I needed the best equipment for that. Only the Shinra Company had what I needed. No one could hide very long from the Turks when they put their minds to it, and this seemed to be a priority right now.

Once I reached the Tower, the front desk had a message for me from Rude. It read "Meet me up in our office." I dragged myself up to the elevator, suddenly realizing how sick and tired I was feeling. My head was spinning, so I rested it against the cold glass panes on the elevator. The constant binging sound started to grate on my nerves. I glared at the little light that blinked when a new floor was reached, and I was highly tempted to break it.

Before I had the chance to, though, the door opened letting me off on my floor. I sauntered over to the cubicles where all of us Turks worked on our stuff. Only Tseng had an entire room to himself. The rest of the rooms were used for storage at the moment since we were still sorting out the old place's stuff. My acute eyes instantly spotted all of my fellow Turks. Elena was bent over her report at her desk, Tseng was drumming his fingers on his cherry wood desk, his eyes gazing at nothing in particular, and Rude was dialing my number on his company-issue cell. Before my phone even had a chance to ring, I was standing behind my partner. The song "Who Am I" rang loudly making Rude jump straight into the air. Even Elena jumped.

"Oh, it's just you, Reno," she gasped clutching her chest.

Rude flipped his phone shut.

"Hn, there you are."

"Yeah, 'm right here, yo. Whaddaya need?"

Rude just stood up and walked out, so I took the hint and followed him. We walked to the break room where the eternal smell of burnt coffee stung at my super sensitive nose. I sat on the edge of the couch and my fingers twitched nervously; man, I really, really wanted a drag right now…

"Where've you been, partner?" he asked quietly.

"Oh yeah, I forgot ta tell you that I was gonna stay at Cloud's place for some rest. Sorry 'bout that."

"Hn."

I tilted my head knowing that something was seriously bothering Rude and that he wasn't letting me know what it was. His dark eyebrows were furrowed in thought and he fiddled with his new leather gloves.

"What is it, yo? Jus' tell me straight out like ya always do."

Rude removed his sunglasses and looked up at me with those amber eyes. They were filled with worry and wariness.

"Partner, you understand that you've got a real, living baby inside of you, right?"

A block of ice settled in my stomach and my throat tightened uncomfortably.

"Yeah, I know that. What of it?"

"Reno," he sighed. "There's no doubt in my mind that you're planning to continue going after the doctors who did this to you, but I can't let you do that."

How did he—oh that's right. Rude was always able to figure out what no good I was up to. But he had to realize that I absolutely had to do this, and no one was going to talk me out of it.

"C'mon, yo. You of all people should realize how fruitless it is to make me back down from getting my revenge. They…" My eyes narrowed in rage as I thought of my lover in his home, suffering indescribable pain because of those fuckers. "Listen, they did something to Cloud too, and that's crossing the line. There's nothing you can do that will stop me from getting them."

"But, Reno, you have a baby, dammit! You can't just run around recklessly because it's not only you now! Doesn't that mean anything to you?!"

His words stung at me. Of course I knew that there was a baby inside of me, that's why I decided to quit smoking and drinking cold turkey. Nothing short of a baby would make me do something crazy like that. However, the truth was still there; anytime I put myself in danger I was also endangering my baby…babies…whatever. It was useless to try to deny that those little buggers were growing inside of me, and only idiots would deny something that was right up in their face.

"Of course it means somethin' to me! I've stayed clear of drinks and cigs ever since I found out! But getting those crazy fuckers before they do something to someone else is more important than that right now. I've been on plenty of crazy missions, and I've lived through them all, so don't fuss so much. I'll take care of myself, but I damn well refuse to stop my entire life because I'm pregnant. Got it?"

"I'm not trying to get you mad, Reno, you know that. I'm just saying that you can't go about being as reckless, because you might survive something crazy, but there is no guarantee that the kid will. I'm looking out for the both of you because you won't."

"Psshhh, you worry too much, Rudo."

I absentmindedly searched my pockets for a cigarette, and he shook his head in defeat. Well, at least he was backing off for now. If I knew anything about my aibou, it was that there was no way he was giving up for good. He'd pick a better moment to try to get me to quit being so reckless.

"Well, Rufus gave you a ton of paper work, so don't make any plans on going anywhere any time soon."

Damn it all, I bet Rufus was feeling the same way as Rude. He would try to keep me as far away from missions as possible.

"Bleh, did you guys forget to get him some coffee or somethin'?"

Rude smiled, remembering all the times I would make the Boss some coffee to get him in a good mood if I wanted something. Yes, I shamelessly tried to bribe him several times. The sad thing is that I'm not even sure if he likes coffee. He just seemed to be in a better mood if I got it for him. Heh, maybe he just liked seeing my ass bringing his "royal highness" a drink. I turned and poured out a cup as Rude walked out of the break room. I was sure that he ran into Elena out there because I heard her eavesdropping on us, but I wasn't mad. I drowned the black drink in milk and sugar knowing that the Boss had a sensitive tongue.

Once the drink was just right, I made my way to the President's office. Unfortunately, I had to take a bathroom break on my way up there, but it wasn't long enough for the coffee to get cold. After the little detour, I went straight up to the lavish room that belonged only to the Boss.

I slammed the door open without knocking, as usual. The large cold room looked nearly naked since it lacked any kind of personal touch. I sighed before planting a large smile on my lips. Rufus was sitting at his desk, typing away on his laptop.

"Hey, Boss! Are ya writing some steamy yaoi again?"

"Hello, Reno," he answered without missing a beat. "Forget to knock again?"

"Ooohh, no proper English today?"

He held out his hand expectantly so I handed him the coffee. Maybe I was getting too comfortable with him; after all, he was my boss. I sat on his desk and looked over at the statistics he was writing out. Hmm, it looked like the Shinra Company was starting to get back into favor, just like I knew it would. He sipped the cool drink, which probably didn't taste very good by now, and I sat there quietly.

"I'm going to guess that you want me to assign all that paperwork to someone else."

"You're just too good, Boss," I snorted, looking towards the large windows off to the side. Man, it would be easy to assassinate the President with such large and clear windows. Well, it would be if they weren't bullet and mako cannon proof. One could never be too careful, especially when he was the most hated man on the PLANET.

"Actually, you came here to talk about something else, didn't you?"

This guy had to be freakin' psychic.

"Well, I guess I did wanna just talk to you about something."

Rufus closed the lid of his computer and pushed it to the side before he leaned back in his large backed leather chair. His slender fingers interlaced and rested on the flat expanse of his stomach. Icy blue eyes that looked as sharp as mine rested on me waiting for me to talk. It was always like this between us, him listening and me talking. To think that he was my younger brother…it was just weird. This intelligent, cold-hearted bastard was my baby half-brother. On a whim, I leaned towards him and tasted those surprisingly soft lips, my fingers ghosting over the soft skin under the Boss's bad eye. Ever since that damn WEAPON's attack, he's been nearly blind in that eye. I pulled back from sucking that plump lower lip that still had the fresh bitter taste of coffee and looked into the curious and analyzing eyes. He had not been fazed one bit by my actions, but would he feel the same way once he knew that we were related, by the same damn old man, nonetheless? One slender eyebrow rose as the corner of his lips curled in amusement.

"Yes?"

"I talked to my Ma, Boss."

"And I would care because—?"

I sighed. "Her code name was the 'Leviathan.'"

I watched as his smile widened a bit and his eyes continued to watch me. To be honest, he didn't look very surprised and that unnerved me a bit.

"There's more you wanted to say, right?"

"Er, yeah. Uh, well, my Ma told me that she fucked with your dad when she was sixteen and got pregnant. Then she made a deal with Argos and her husband and the results of all of their experiments was me. Shiva, please don't tell me you already know."

"Fine, then I won't."

"No fucking way," I groaned. "You knew and you made me confront my Ma anyway?"

Rufus absently looked at the well groomed nails of his right hand. "I didn't make you do anything, Reno. But, if I could make you do something, I would want you to finally confront your mother and settle things instead of blaming her for no reason. It's always better to blame your parents if you have a decent reason to."

"Fuck, how did you know?"

"Who said I already knew?" His smug look was enough proof for me.

"Bastard! Don't toy with me like everyone else!"

There was no hate in my voice, but I didn't want to be manipulated by Rufus. People I didn't know and didn't like were doing enough of that in my life and I didn't want him to do that as well. His eyes never lost their sting and he took another sip of the nasty cold coffee before speaking.

"If you can recall the moment that I was giving all of you Turks an explanation, you ran out before I finished speaking."

I blanched. "Don't tell me you were—"

"I was going to tell you, more likely in a private situation after I was done informing you all on the basics, but yes, I was going to tell you."

All I could do was stare at him with my mouth agape. Once again, my short temper made me do something stupid. "B-but you! Gah, it's no use…" I shook my head helplessly which made my sadistic boss chuckle. "Boss, how is it that you know everything?"

"Now now, Reno, if I knew everything, then I would know that you used my Shinra issued credit card to not only furnish your entire apartment, but to also buy lemon flavored condoms as well. Those are the newest flavor you were trying with Cloud, right?"

Ok, I am officially freaked out. THIS GUY FREAKIN' KNOWS EVERYTHING!!!

"Wait, then you knew me and Cloud were getting it on?!"

"Of course."

"Then why the hell did you suspend me?!" I shrieked.

He once again turned his attention to his nice clean nails. "Like the saying goes, no punishments until you get caught. And anyway, I needed to make an example of you. Besides, it was probably for your benefit. Now you'll always be honest with me."

I shuddered thinking about what else he probably knew. I just could not fathom how he got so much information. If the Turks were good at finding information, this guy was an absolute god.

"Um, hey, you're not mad about the kiss are you? Knowing that we're kinda related after all…"

"Of course not. I'm not too picky about who I sleep with."

"Er, ok," I replied, more than a little disturbed. There was almost a hint of bitterness in the words, but it was too little to really discern.

The Boss smiled in a mock sweet way and I couldn't help but think of what a twisted person he was. I always thought that he was very picky with the people he slept with considering that I've never seen him with anyone. Not even a freakin' date. Er, well there was that one time…

He leaned forward with a mischievous smile. "I've never forgotten that time, brother, and I hope you haven't either."

I swallowed loudly and looked him in the eye a bit nervously. "Did you know back then too?"

Leaning back he let a chuckle escape. "Maybe?"

"Ugh, you are so twisted…I don't even wanna know."

"True, so true. Well, you best be off; you do have a large amount of paperwork to do."

"Bastard," I grumbled as I hopped off his desk.

I was not looking forward to all that work at all. There was no reason I should be doing freakin' paperwork when those two crazy doctors were wandering about ready for me to kill them. A cold hand wrapped around my wrist, effectively stopping me. I looked back in surprise and saw that Rufus was holding out a manila folder and his face was very serious.

"Reno, this is information on the doctors' past experiments. I hope you use it well, but I want you to know that I don't plan on giving you field assignments for a while. I may be cruel and psychotic, but I don't want an innocent baby being fucked up because its mother is being reckless."

Ooohhh, he even added a curse word for emphasis! I'm impressed. I smiled at his indirect way of telling me that he didn't want me getting hurt and snatched the folder from him.

"Thanks, Boss. I'll be a good boy and stay out of trouble for now." I stuck out my tongue at him. "But I'm not forgiving that mother comment anytime soon."

Rufus leaned back with a smile. "All you have to do is serve me some more of that repulsive coffee again and you will have your revenge."

He's back to the proper language, with the proper air of authority, and I'm back on the trail of a couple of doctors who really pissed me off.

Er, and I'm also headed right back to the bathroom…