Left Behind
Initial Questioning
May 29--PM--Bearnin
Reno shivered.
He was naked in the cold cell. Hell, they had not even given him a blanket for the bare cot. The men in the Militia group had followed her orders to the letter. "Strip him, make sure he is not hiding anything, and throw him in the basement."
And that is what the creeps did. He was barely conscious when they strip him and gave him a none-to-pleasant search and then threw him into the basement, which is the lockdown cell that he was currently shivering in.
Well he was awake now.
Damn cold cell too!
Damn cold and feeling very naked! So, if she wanted to see him naked he wasn't going to hide. He was so close to getting the message out and there she had stood with a smug grin on her face as he was promptly knocked unconscious and treated like a common criminal. How the hell she tracked him was beyond him. Damn it. She was good. He underestimated her and now he was paying the price. He wasn't going to let his pride get in the way though. Just because he was naked, he wasn't going to make their lives miserable too!
It was the second in command that came down first. He was hoping that it would be her. Reno stood and tried not to shiver, but he swore that his skin was turning blue. Lore looked at him with a sad smile on his face. He had to keep his pride!
But damn, he really didn't like the way the guy was looking at him.
"What the hell, yo? I wasn't doing anything wrong!" He snapped and tried not to shiver. It was pretty hard to act all tough when you were naked and shivering.
Lore just shook his head. "It doesn't really matter. You are a Turk. Turks work for ShinRa. Therefore, you are a threat." Lore went to a cabinet that was across from his cell and pulled out a couple bottles of water and then placed them by the cage. Hell, cold water wasn't going to do him any good. He needed something warm. Can't he see that he was shivering?
"Did you really think you could get away from her?" Lore chuckled and gave him a good look up and down. Okay. Yeah. Really didn't like the way the guy was looking at him.
"Yeah, well, I am a Turk." He shrugged and tried really hard not to let that look bother him.
Lore laughed lightly. "She can beat a FIRST who was trying to get her sunglasses off, you do not have a chance, and that was when she was a kid. Do you really think you stand a chance now?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" he said. She beat a FIRST? Only other SOLDIERS beat SOLDIERS in battle. She was not a SOLDIER so what the hell and he asked the question too. Hell! A FIRST? Was he talking about Sephiroth? He could see that she beat him alright, but it sure didn't look like it was a battle! What the hell is the deal with her sunglasses anyway? Why the hell did a SOLDIER want them removed so badly that it leads to a fight? Man, he felt like he was hooped. It looked like they knew more information than he did and that was not a good situation to be in.
"You really should have read that report that Tseng sent with you. She is not to be messed with." Lore said. "And quite temperamental too."
"Yeah, yeah, I get that? Which SOLDIER did she beat?" He didn't know if the answer really mattered. Hell, a SOLDIER. He had never even beat a SOLDIER, or even a wannabe SOLDIER.
Lore shrugged his shoulders, "It wasn't Sephiroth, if that is what you are thinking. She is strong, but I don't think she could have ever battled him in that way. She had to prove herself as a match for them and she proved herself to them. I don't know why Tseng would just send one Turk. He knows how she is." Lore scratched his chin and looked at him with his head tilted. The last part of the conversation was like he was talking to himself. Lore was staring at him again.
Reno refrained from shuttering and from wanting to cover himself. The way that Lore was looking at him reminded him of how he looked at the ladies that swung around the pole at the Bumblebee lounge.
"Hell, I was just here to report, not fight anyone," he frowned. "I mean, ShinRa is not the same organization as it was before."
"Really? Are you sure that is why Tseng sent you here?" Lore asked. Reno pressed his lips firmly together. "As I thought. ShinRa may not be the same as it was before, but it has so much of its past in things that you most likely don't even know."
Lore sighed and looked at him. Reno didn't much care for the look that he was getting from him. He was feeling really exposed right now. Really exposed but he wasn't about to let the guy know that he was feeling that way.
"I would like very much to believe that Tseng sent you here, as you say, for just information. But that still does not mean that we want ShinRa to come back this way." Lore said. "Really, Turk, you should answer honestly. I am much gentler at asking the questions than my sister. I am a bit saner that she is."
"No kidding and I have a name. It is Reno." He snorted.
"Yes, we already discovered that," Lore said and crossed his arms. "We searched your room and found all the evidence we need to declare you a Turk. I did not doubt that once you gave sis the slip. She knew where you were going though. She had her eye on you the moment you opened that cell phone of yours. You have a pretty fancy one for an accountant at a rinky-dink delivery company. She did note that you took a picture. Oh, and the phone has been disabled so that you will not be traced back here, or where we plan on moving you. Now, why are you here?"
"I was just on surveillance and all. I didn't have a target." He said.
"That is a lie," Lore whispered. "I found a picture of sis, when she was young. A picture form when ShinRa visited this town with the SOLDIERS." He pulled the picture out of his back pocket. "She was just sixteen/seventeen then and she did have some trust in ShinRa at that time, you understand. We all wanted the war to end and being close to the border of Wutaii, we were willing to aid them in finding a way to end the war. They left, the war ended. ShinRa came back after the war, but that is when Errow was threatened and ShinRa was no longer and is no longer welcome here."
"Errow? That kid that looks like a mini-Sephiroth?" Reno asked.
"Yes, Lira sees you a threat to her son." Lore said and ran his hand through his dark hair. He just realized that the guy was not wearing the full uniform anymore. He had taken off the jacket and was just wearing a muscle shirt. The guy was ripped and why wasn't he affected by the cold like him. If anything, he looked a little flushed. Cold blooded mountain people!
He tried to remain on focus. "Lira sees me as a threat to him. What the hell would I want to hurt a kid for?"
"Yes indeed. Why would people from ShinRa want to hurt him? They have done it before. Is that's why Tseng sent you?" Lore looked from his computer and started at him intently. Man, those dark blue eyes of his were intense. He really wanted out of here. If he was so intense, how intense would Lira be? He didn't want to find out.
Reno stood there, feeling very naked and confused. "Lira sees me as a threat? What about you?" he asked.
"It really doesn't matter what I think. She is the commander and what she thinks goes." He said. "And she is my sister."
"Suck's to be you." Reno muttered.
Lore gave a light chuckle that made him shiver, "She would have let you go, if you had not targeted Errow, you know, of course, after a conversation. That is not going to happen now."
Reno shook his head. His hair was loose; they had even taken his elastic away. "I wouldn't target a kid. Okay, so she was the target, all I was supposed to do was report on her and the town. That's all I knew. Okay. Seeing a mini-Sephiroth was not on my list. I knew nothing about the kid! I saw nothing of that in the report!"
Lore frowned a bit and rested his chin his hands as he stood there. "Did Tseng even know of Errow? Did he just leave that piece of information out?" he whispered.
"How the hell am I supposed to know that?" Reno said. He was getting very irritated and he could no longer control his shivering. The room was so very cold. Lore wasn't bothered by the cold! He refrained from letting out a barrage of curses. Curses about the cold and curses about the information that Tseng left out of that report. Hell, if Tseng knew about the kid, he wished that he had said something to him. He would have brought Rude or someone along with him. He needed to get backup for this. Tseng wouldn't have sent him in that blind.
"Would he purposely leave that out?" Lore mimicked his thoughts with the question. Lore then looked at him with his intense blue eyes. "A few member of ShinRa knew about him and they came, after Sephiroth's first announced death, to investigate. There were no Turks in that group, but a few SOLDIERS that remained and a bunch of those pesky lab rats." Lore said. "And Tseng, the head of the Turks, knew nothing of this?"
"I don't know!" Reno said and tried to stop his teeth from chattering. "Hell, I am pretty sure that if we knew about the kid, we would have been here sooner."
Lore sighed and walked back to the cupboard. There seemed to be a computer in there. There was the sound of clicking keys.
"That is the reason why we have made sure that Errow was not to fall under ShinRa's influence again, if they have the same motivations as they do in the past. Both my sister and Sephiroth would have wished it that way, I believe."
"Pfft. Whatever. Listen, we don't work for that Jack anymore okay. We work for Rufus and we are trying to mend all the damage that…" he stopped talking as Lore raised his hand to him.
"All that doesn't really matter. The past is remembered strongly here. The last group that came was still under the rule of that Jack ShinRa. I realized this was before the meteor fall incident and your precious Rufus may not have been aware of what some of the scientists were doing at the time, but the trust was lost when Hojo tried to take Errow away from us."
"Hojo?" he gasped. He remembered that crazy scientist. Scared the hell out of him on numerous occasions with that creepy laugh of his and after all the dealing with the whole Underground thing. "Well, Hojo is dead now." He said simply. "Finished off."
"And what would the doctors want to do if they saw mini-Sephiroth?" Lore asked. "I believe they call themselves the WRO, now. I am afraid that I don't see them much different from the group of mad scientists that you had before. I believe many are the same." Lore tapped at the computer in the cupboard. "I believe that some of them are exactly the same ones that even worked under Hojo. We need to ensure that those past mistakes will not be made again with Errow. He will not be harmed. He is enough pain, he doesn't need any more pain."
Reno narrowed his eyes at the man. Okay, so the backwater attitude was just a ruse. Lore knew his stuff alright and seemed to have good reasons for suspicion.
"Listen, man, things were really screwed up in the past, yo," Reno said. "You can't hold a grudge forever! I mean, did Sephiroth even know about the kid?"
Lore rubbed his forehead and looked away from him. "Yes, that is why Hojo knew. It must have been noted somewhere, and after his death, we had your mad scientist arrive." Lore said and clicked on the computer in the cupboard.
"Well, he certainly didn't making it part of his working knowledge," Reno said.
"I know that he did not." Lore sighed and shook his head. "Now, we have gotten off tract. I am the one that should be asking he questions of you," Lore said and looked at him with a smile. "How long were you supposed to be here? Investigating?"
"I don't know if I feel much like cooperating. I am freezing to death here!" he snapped and allowed himself to hug himself now. Yeah, his fingers were quite blue and weren't giving him any warmth in the self hug.
"I noticed," Lore muttered and looked at him very inappropriately. Reno wanted to curl up on the bed and hide as much of himself as possible. "It will warm up soon," Lore said. "I suggest you answer my questions. I have already warned you that, I am much gentler when it comes to questions, than my sister. And since you threatened her son, she may have no mercy on you at all."
"I didn't threaten the kid!" He yelled.
"You place listening devices in the Medical room where he was staying. That, my red headed friend, is considered a threat." Lore said. "Now, answer the questions. Truthfully please."
Cloud
June 17 -- PM -- 7th Heaven
Cloud frowned. There was a car blocking his driveway and he recognized the big black man get out of the passenger side and then stands there like a road block. He really did not want to deal with Turks right now especially those two. He had a delivery to make and he wanted to get home at a reasonable hour.
"What do you want?" He said as he sat astride his motorcycle. He positioned his goggles over his eyes. He was going to make this conversation quick. If Rude was here that pesky red head was here and that always meant trouble. He had enough trouble in his life time.
Rude pushed his glasses back up on his nose. "We need your muscle."
Cloud laughed. They needed his muscle? The Turks. He thought he was done dealing with ShinRa and there trying to patch up the world that they destroyed. "We? I don't see the red rat anywhere?" He couldn't see inside the tinted windows. It wasn't like Reno to keep his mouth shut and not throw a couple of insults at him or try to sway him to join ShinRa in helping the world recover, crap.
"That is exactly the problem."
Tseng exited the car. Tseng. He was no normally the one that even left the command of his office. He was the one that pulled the strings. Cloud knew that all to well. If Tseng was here, this was bad news and he wanted nothing to do with it. Tseng did not leave his office unless it was a bad situation.
"I have a deliver to make," he said and adjusted his goggles and revving his bike. He really didn't want to get involved with them again. It was never good news. Never.
"Cloud, we need your assistance in acquiring a target," Tseng said. "We are afraid that we may not be able to acquire target without your assistance." His voice was calm. Was that a black eye that he was sporting? It looked like it was pretty new too. One of his hands was even bandaged up and… was his suit rumpled. Okay, he really wanted to drive his bike over the car and tell them to deal with their own mess.
"What make you think that I want to help you?" he grumbled. "I have no reason to want to help you."
"Reno is the hostage." Rude said simply. He looked at the big man. He was still standing there with his arms crossed but his hands were in fists.
"Good riddance." He mumbled. Reno was such a pest at times, but…
He watched Rude tense and even a frown came across his face. He didn't want to get dragged into anything like this again. He had enough of this Hero crap and he just wanted to do his job and take care of his family! Damn it! They kept dragging him back in! He had his childhood dream of being a Hero and realized that it sucked and he wanted to live a normal life, but it was not destined to be, as he kept getting dragged back into trouble.
"Cloud, you do not understand the gravity of this situation." Tseng said. "It is something that is beyond our ability to handle. We need to ensure that this retrieval is a success and we need you to make sure that it happens."
Cloud shook his head. "I don't want to be dragged back into ShinRa or the WRO going on. I am just trying to make an honest living here." He revved his bike again for emphasis. If they didn't get out of the way soon, he was going to drive over their car.
"We are not strong enough to get him back without you." Tseng said. Rude nodded.
Cloud felt like he was going to throw up. "What the hell did you guys dig up this time? What monster had you been hiding now?"
Tseng sighed. "It is more like something that got left behind."
Cloud fought the ever increasing urge to ride his motorcycle over the car, make the delivery and never been seen again by the crazy Turks.
"I have Reeve already assisting us in making sure that our medical needs will be met," Tseng said in a reserved tone. "We need to ensure that she will…"
"What the hell? Medical needs?" Cloud yelled. "Why the hell can't the Turks handle this? Damn it! What the hell type of monster are we dealing with here?"
Tseng sighed and rubbed his bruised eye with his bandaged hand. "A woman scorned."
- - - tbc - - -
Next Chapters…..Breaking & On their way
