Mission 51: Spirited Away
Elena leaned on Tseng and stayed as close as possible while he kept his arm around her shoulders, not that either Turk was scared. They were Turks and they didn't believe Reno's childish ghosts stories, they simply shared a mutual crush.
Finally, the time came to extinguish the camp fire after Reno was done stuffing his face with roasted marshmallows while telling his story, and occasionally being scolded by Tseng, Elena or both, for talking with his mouth full, not that he listened anyway.
They retired to their respective tents to sleep and plot in their dreams. They would plot the demise of the fool who hired them to catch a ghost that appeared in a remote area of the jungle near Mideel. There was no such thing as ghosts but the contractor insisted so much that the matter reached Rufus and, trying to avoid trouble with the press, the young president ordered the Turks to accept the mission.
While Reno drifted off to sleep, curled into a ball in his sleeping bag, he thought he heard a sound outside. Far from being a ghostly wail, it sounded more like a soothing female voice, but it was different from Elena's voice, and it was calling him.
Reno peeked out of the tent but couldn't see anything in the vast darkness now that the fire had been put out. He grabbed a flashlight and ventured outside, following the voice and disappearing into the darkness.
xoxox xox xoxox
"Where's Reno?" Tseng asked the following morning.
"Gone," Rude replied, simple and to the point.
Tseng shook his head in annoyance. How could Reno bail out on the mission? Further more, the mission was almost over anyway since the Turks were only hired to 'investigate' until morning. Then again, this was Reno and he would leave.
The Turks' history wasn't very good in Mideel, they thought they would be banned from the town forever after a certain incident involving a hammer that ended up with death, torches and pitchforks, but the Turks would rather not remember that.
However, it seemed that a ghost was even worse than the Turks in the minds of the Mideel citizens. But even so, not even Reno would be stupid enough to visit the new Mideel alone at night. But again, this was Reno and everything was possible.
The Turks returned to Mideel to inform the new mayor that there was no ghost anywhere to be found. But the lack of precense of the forth member of their little group terribly alarmed the mayor and the townspeople who had gathered at the mayor's house to await the report from the Turks. "That red haired one was spirited away and you're trying to hide it!"
"He wasn't spirited away he just had to leave early," Tseng tried to explain. There was no such thing as ghosts, only the uncivilized country bumpkins of Mideel would believe it. Smart and civilized city people knew better than to believe such ridiculous myths.
The mayor's house was filled with murmurs until someone among the crowd yelled, "prove it!" and the others supported the request.
Then the door was opened to reveal an exhausted Reno with a silly grin plastered on his face. "I'm back!"
The people of Mideel had no choice but to shut up and accept the apparent fact that Reno wasn't spirited away after all. The Turks had accomplished their investigation mission, but that would not dispel the ghost stories of Mideel right away. Urban legends were hard to kill, but at least the Turks' job was done.
While flying back to Shinra Headquarters, Tseng disapprovingly asked, "where did you disappear to last night?"
"I was spirited away by a body of thoughts... nice thoughts," Reno replied.
"What does that mean?" Tseng questioned.
"The fan girl! The embodiment of all my fan girls, the being made from their love. Don't you remember her?" That incident should be hard to forget, but after time passed and no solid conclusions were drawn, most of the people who had heard the story had either forgotten about it or stopped believing it.
"You were dreaming," Elena concluded.
"And sleepwalking," Tseng added.
"I don't sleepwalk!" Reno tried to explain it, but no one would believe him. After all, Rude didn't think he could sleepwalk either and recently it was proven that he could, in fact, walk in his sleep and also fight in his sleep, 'sleep-kill' as it was later called.
At that moment Reno wondered if with the passing of time he would forget this incident, be convinced that he was sleepwalking, or simply stop believing it ever happened. It was a likely possibility since even now he couldn't remember exactly what happened while he was spirited away. At least he knew that if the spirit made from the thoughts of his fan girls still existed, he was still loved.
End of Mission 51
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Missions 51 was inspired by les yeux sans visage who asked what happened to Reno's stalker. Special thanks to Sharem who came up with the term "sleep-killing."