LEFT BEHIND
Authors Note:
This story is being edited mainly for grammar and hopefully it will become more coherent as well. 10/04/10
Thanks to all of you that reviewed to the original flawed text.
Summary:
Reno is missing in action after being sent on a simple scouting mission. Old relationships that were deemed unimportant are causing havoc in the recovering world...specifically for Shin-Ra.
Information Gathering
3 weeks ago -- May 27 -- Bearnin
Reno smiled brightly as he got off the bus. This was going to be a breeze of a mission. All he had to do was report on a girl and do a report on the town's progress.
Easy, pezzy, breezy!
It was like a paid vacation. There was enough in the town to keep his attention for the week that he was going to be here. Bearnin; a hick town nestled in the mountains near Wutai. There was a bar and a hotel that had a big comfy bed and that is all he really could think about at the moment. He hated the bus ride. He missed taking a chopper but he had to at least present himself as a tired worker who was on a runaway vacation.
He was wearing casual clothes to fit the role and it felt a little odd to be out of his suit. Reno was comfortable though. His jean shirt was open slightly at his throat and he wore a simple warm wool jacket and a pair of black jeans. He still had his weapon hidden in the jacket; there was no way he would travel without it.
He picked up his bags, and lit up a cigarette and took a deep drag. It was nothing like Junon or Edge but it wasn't too bad. It wasn't as Hicksville as Nibelheim or Gongaga.
He didn't understand why he had to report on the town though. From the picture that he was given, he had inferred that Tseng had an old flame in this town and he wanted to check up on her.
He didn't really care about the motivation. He wanted to have a drink, a good meal and go to bed. He would start his work tomorrow and see if he could find this chick that Tseng wanted him to scope out.
He got his room and threw his bags in and went down the bar. He smiled brightly as he ordered his drink.
"On vacation?" the bar tender asked as he served the rye and coke.
"Oh yeah. Glad to be outta the big city, that is for certain, yo." He grinned and drank a little too quickly. The bus ride had been grueling. He would ask to at least be flown in for the next time he went on one of these information searching missions.
The bartender laughed. "Where ya from?"
"Edge," he said easily and downed the rest. He would have to ask what type of rye it was, it was damn good.
The bartender frowned slightly. "Don't let them hear that."
"Them?"
The bartender pointed his chin towards two figures standing outside the big window that was in front of the bar. They looked like they were in some sort of military uniform. He frowned. He didn't read anything about a Militia in the notes that Tseng gave him, but then his notes were vague for what he was supposed to be looking for.
"Why?" he asked and shook his glass at the bartender. The ice hadn't even had a chance to get the last drink cold.
"Shin-Ra caused a lot of problems in the past and those two are determined to make sure that they do not cause any more problems, especially the Commander." The bartender gave him another drink.
"Well, that is not a problem. I don't work for Shin-Ra, yo," he grinned. "I work for Strife Delivery Service, finally got a break to get away from that slave driver." He chuckled lightly. Strife would kill him if he knew that he was using him and alibi but he didn't care really. It was not like anyone could easily get a hold of Strife anyway. The guy never answered his phone. Reno didn't know how he kept his business up.
The bartender smiled. "Good, would hate to see another one driven out of town."
Another one? He thought about asking but decided to change the subject; didn't want to appear too snoopy on his first day in the town. "I just wanted to get out of the city, you know. It's so stuffy in Edge," he said. "Don't realize it until I got up here, yo."
The bartender nodded. "Yeah. It helps that there never was a reactor up here."
"What? No reactor? I thought there was one here, yo?" Reno frowned. He knew that they were close to Wutai, but he thought he heard mention of a reactor here. He must have heard wrong.
"Another reason for ShinRa to stay out of here. I know that they don't do that anymore, but the Commander, well, the Commander is the Commander and that is that." The bartender laughed and went to take another patron order.
'The Commander is the Commander and that is that?' Reno tried to figure out what that was supposed to mean. He was beginning to wonder if he should have done a little more research on this town. Now he was curious on whom this Commander was. She obviously didn't like ShinRa. He was glad that he took Rude's advice and didn't wear his Turk suit. He would most likely be thrown out by now, if he remotely looked like a Turk.
He flirted with a nice girl that came in for dinner. She was quite pretty and told him quite a bit about the mountains and places to visit that would help him relax. He was curious to ask about this Militia group that seemed to be the police force in the town but refrained. He was sure that he would find out more about this Militia as he walked around. He had to set up his backup plans first before he got so intense in his investigation of the town. He promised to meet her for dinner tomorrow.
He smiled and watched the pretty girl walk away from him as he admired how she walked.
This was going to be a good mission.
He went back to the bar for one more drink of the rye before he went back to his room. "You work quick."
"Huh?" he asked as the bartender grinned at him.
"Marci. I heard you talking. She seems to like you," the bartender grinned.
"She seems sweet," he grinned.
"Careful though," the bartender warned. "She works with the Commander."
"Why would that make a difference?" he asked as he took a deep drink of the rich rye.
"The Commander is quite protective of the townsfolk, and she will not tolerate you hurting Marci. Marci is taking care of her son and the Commander would not want to see her distracted."
"I wouldn't want to take her from her job," Reno said. "I mean…man. I just thought she was cute and she was nice to talk to her,yo."
The bartender shook his head. "I just like to warn people that getting in the Commander's way is a good way to get hurt. She has quite a temper."
"Temper?"
"You don't want to be the reason she goes off," the bartender said. "You won't have a problem if you don't cross her."
"I just want a nice vacation, yo," he said. "You are freaking me out with this talk. I don't plan on doing anything illegal. I mean, I plan to go for a walk in the mountains and all, not rob a bank."
"Sorry, man. I don't mean to disturb your vacation. This last one is on me." The bartender said as he handed him another shot of rye. Reno graciously drank the free drink.
He went back up to his room and grabbed one of his duffel bags. He wanted to crawl into the bed but he had to make sure that he had an escape plan. The talk about this Commander got to him a bit but he doubted this sleepy little town would cause trouble, but then, sleepy little towns have been known to go bad before.
He walked outside and lit another cigarette as he planned where he was going to place his emergency kit. The night air was getting a little chilly and he was glad for the warm wool coat that he was wearing. He knew that it would be cold, but he could see his breath and it just wasn't his cigarette that he was smoking.
He noticed two Militia members in front of the Medical Center. A man and woman, and it was the woman that got his attention. It was the woman in the picture that Tseng had given him.
She was prettier than her picture. She was wearing the uniform and weapons of someone who was seasoned at her job. She obviously was not a token member, like he had seen in other small town Militia groups, where they just filled the uniforms with high ranking family members. He moved to a bench to finish his cigarette and casually watched the two.
It took him a moment but he remembered her name. Lira. From the uniform he could see that she was not just a lackey either. He figured out that she was the Commander when a passing Militia member saluted her and darted off when she scowled at him. She looked pretty even with the scowl.
There was something hot about a woman in power. He flipped open his phone and took a quick picture. He caught the man beside her as well. He typed a quick text to Tseng and closed the phone. There, his initial report was done. He knew that it would piss off Tseng, but hey, it was a report. It wasn't like he had much to say anyway. He just spotted her.
He spotted Marci come out and talk to the woman. They nodded to each other and the young man that wore a similar uniform who placed a hand on her arm.
He wondered why she wearing such dark sunglasses? The sun was setting. Of course, the picture that Tseng gave him, she was wearing them there too. He figured that she must be like Rude and sensitive to light.
He finished his cigarette and put it out in a nearby sand pot. He normally would have flicked it away, but he really didn't want to piss off the authorities that were standing in front of the Medical Center.
Marci came back out, and she was pushing a chair that had a kid sitting in it that was wrapped in a warm blanket.
He stopped cold at the sight. He swallowed hard and tried not to gape and hoped that it was just his eyes that were playing tricks on him. He rubbed his eyes to make sure that he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
Lira knelt in front of the boy and ran her hands over his cheeks.
He knew that he shouldn't be staring. He wondered if he had to much rye to be seeing the impossible.
Obviously it was not impossible.
Reno wanted to pull out his phone and take another picture, but he knew that would be a bad idea. This was not going to be a good mission.
He had thought that this Lira was one of Tseng's old flames but by the kid in the chair, it wasn't Tseng that this woman had a relationship with.
It had been Sephiroth.
