The next day Reno was called into Dumbledore's office to discuss the sudden changes that had overcome him during the First Task. He rolled his now blue eyes and glanced over at the Slytherin table while Dumbledore asked him that. His eyes ghosted over the blonde that was sitting with his fingers steppled under his chin.
He waited for a confirmation and received a nod from the dark haired boy sitting next to the blonde. This happened in five seconds and blue eyes flicked back to the Headmaster's. Reno nodded and then proceeded to ignore the old man in favor of talking to his friends next to him.
As soon as Dumbledore walked off Reno looked at the red-head turning black across from him, "So I guess as soon as I changed back into my former self, you all started changing back as well?"
Hermione nodded, her hair tied back into a braid with two side bangs hanging next to her face. Her eyes were green and filled with happiness, "That's right. The Goddess decided to give us a second chance at life." She stated.
Reno nodded, "Well I guess that's it then… does that mean that the others will be coming as well?" He asked, meaning the three First Class SOLDIERS that started the whole problem that eventually caused his death.
The red-turning blonde- head next to Fred winced when he realized what Reno meant, "I sure hope not…" He muttered getting a sidelong glance from Hermione.
"Cloud you have to understand that after Sephiroth learned of JENOVA he let her in to control him. He might have been in slight control at Nibleheim, but the next times that you fought him it was all JENOVA. I talked to him and the others in the Lifestream. Genesis had to stop him from fading completely when they watched you fight the JENOVA controlled body." She said softly.
Fred reached over and ruffled the spiky hair, "Don't worry Chocobo-head. I'll protect you from the big bad Sephiroth." George, or Cloud, glared at the arm that was attached to the hand ruffling his hair.
"I think I recall being the one to defeat Sephiroth three times, Zack." Cloud stated, knocking Zack's hand away.
Zack pouted, "No need to be violent Cloudy. I was just saying." Cloud sighed and shoved Zack playfully.
Reno smirked at the two's antics, "You two would be reborn as brothers, wouldn't ya?" He teased, lying his chin in his hand and staring at the two, "And as twins. Who woulda thought?"
Ginny chuckled, "It was certainly a shock when I got my own memories back and noticed the two of them changing. Even if I didn't get to meet Cloud and only knew Zack for a short period of time, I knew the two of them had opposite personalities. How was I supposed to know that they would come back as my identical older brothers? It was a strange summer for sure, I mean Mum could finally tell the two of them apart with no trouble, though I believe the hair color was a factor to that." She stated, eyeing the two.
Cloud had a light blush on his face and Zack was grinning, "You weren't the only one shocked! Imagine how it was when we discovered you were one of the Turks!" His eyes glazed over for a second, "That was hilarious; you guys should have seen Cloud's face when she called the both of us by our names while telling us to shut up."
Reno chuckled, imagining the Chocobo-head flipping out in shock, "That would have been a sight to see."
Then the table got quiet and they all turned towards Reno, looking him over, "Reno, we weren't told how you died… or who killed you, and the memories we had in the Lifestream are fuzzy at best. What exactly happened to you? And why do your eyes seem brighter than they were when we last met?"
Reno's smile froze and faded, "It's… ah I mean, no… I'll tell you later. Meet me in the Seventh floor corridor later today; get Tseng and Rufus to come to. Tseng knows some of it, but I was killed before I could tell him the rest. I need to go to my meeting with Dumbles." And with that he made a quick retreat away from the prying questions.
Reno sat across from the old man and watched as Fawkes burst into flames, signaling his Burning Day. "What did you want to talk about again?" He asked, leaning back in the chair and splaying his legs out lazily.
"What happened on the field the other day Harry?" Dumbledore asked.
Reno paused at the name, "I think it had something to do with the spell I cast. I don't know. Maybe it unlocked some old inheritance form my mom's family. Hence the red hair." He lied, showing nothing on his face.
"Harry, are you are not being affected by some sort of personality altering spell? You seem to be very different this year." Dumbledore tried to skim his mind with Leglimency, only to be thrown out by a wave of green.
Reno frowned inwardly at the attempted mind reading, "Maybe this is what I would have been like if I hadn't been placed with the petting zoo rejects that you put me with. Or maybe I just got tired of being the type of person who doesn't think before he acts, and lets people walk over him." He shrugged, the statement was true he had been tired of his personality.
Dumbledore frowned behind his hands, "Are you sure, this change seems very dramatic from last year. Have you told Mr. Weasley what has happened?"
Reno scoffed, "I broke off our friendship after he accused me of trying to get into this stupid tournament." He then smirked when he felt Dumbledore try his shields again, "By the way, over the summer I found some of my mother's old books on Occlumency. So please stop trying to read my mind. It isn't very polite." He lied about the books, he knew that the only person that was able to read his mind would be the others with the Lifestream in their blood or the Lifestream itself.
Dumbledore fought down a flinch and removed the probes that were trying to enter the boy's mind, "Please excuse my behavior my boy." Albus closed his blue eyes and sighed.
"So is that all? Cause I need to meet my friends." Reno asked, standing up and moving away from the chair.
Albus nodded, "Yes Harry, you may go." Reno grinned and left the room, kicking the door closed as he walked out.
Reno walked three times in front of the wall, a blank look on his face as he thought of the explanation he would have to give everyone. Slowly a door formed from the wall, it was black with a silver knob. Reno opened it and his eyes widened. The inside looked exactly like the conference room at Shinra.
"You got here early for once." A voice came from behind him. He blinked and turned to see the others with Tseng and Rufus in the front.
He chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah, I guess I did." He then sighed and frowned at them all, "Well, I guess i should get this over with, yo. Come on in guys." He gestured to the open door.
They all entered and took a seat, Reno sitting in the middle on one of the sides and the other around him. He ran a hand through his hair and muttered something under his breath.
"So, what happened." Tseng asked, his tone not leaving any room for arguments.
Reno leaned back and looked at the ceiling, "The last mission I was on was to track down a scientist that had gone rogue. He had been working directly under Professor Hojo. In fact he was Hojo's apprentice. So he knew almost everything about all of Hojo's experiments and how to perform then himself." He closed his eyes, "Rude had been called on another mission so we were separated, which should have been fine, since it has happened before and I am perfectly capable of protecting myself and fighting for myself. But then something went wrong." He opened his eyes again and continued to stare at the ceiling, "I was forced into unconsciousness. The rogue had somehow gotten behind me and injected a sleep inducing drug into my system. When I woke up I was hooked up to quiet a bit of equipment," He shut his eyes and remembered.
Blue-green eyes flashed open as he tried to move. He noticed his arms strapped down and multiple tubes leading to the major veins in his body. He forced the panic down as he tested his movement abilities while strapped. He found that whoever had strapped him down knew of the Turks increased strength and strapped accordingly.
He opened his mouth to yell something when he noticed the breathing mask over that half of his face, covering his mouth and his nose. His eyes widened when the rogue walked into the room with a sadistic smile. The rogue pushed the table that he was in over to a glass tube.
"Good day Reno Sinclair. So nice of you to finally wake up." Reno glared at the man, unable to say anything due to the mask. The rogue moved around and started typing on a computer while talking, "You see, I was hoping they would send you after me. I've had my eye on you for a long time now. Your original blood tests said that you wouldn't be compatible for more than the Turk level of Mako. But after your last donation I found an anomaly. It seems that they were wrong. You could take more than just a normal Turk. And your blood and tissue samples are beautiful." He went on and on, making Reno's head hurt until the rogue scientist turned around with a grin worthy of Hojo.
"Well then, let us get started." He pressed a button and suddenly Reno was watching him from inside the tube. He banged his fists against the glass as some sort of substance started filling the tube. By now he was full on panicking and banging as hard as he could against the walls. Then the liquid was over his head and he watched in horror as the green substance known as Mako started streaming through the tubes implanted in his veins.
The first thing he felt was pain as the Mako burned through his veins. Then it went black as he fell into unconsciousness.
He awoke the second time to sirens and a crack forming across the tube. He brought up his hand and shoved against the already damaged wall, causing it to explode outwards, releasing the liquid and Reno with it. The red head stumbled out of the tube and grabbed the mask off of his face, taking in a deep breath of uncirculated air. He then quickly tore the tubes leading into his veins out.
He held onto the side of a table as he took in his surroundings. His clothes were in a locked glass cupboard on the side, so that was the first place he went.
One dressed he peered around the corners, looking for either the exit or the scientist. But when he passed by a stray mirror he couldn't help but look. He cursed slightly when he caught sight of his eyes and made himself move faster to find an exit. His eyes were not a regular blue-green anymore. They were glowing, and the green was brighter than before.
There must have been an alarm on the glass because as he turned another corner, the scientist was there, with a scalpel. Reno only had a moment to block as the scalpel tore through his skin and nicking his lung. Reno cursed as he fell to the floor. He pulled the scalpel out and put pressure on the wound.
A gunshot was heard and the rogue scientist was falling next to him, blood gushing from the hole in his head. Reno looked up in relief. He looked up at the man who saved him and noticed a trail of blood coming from his forehead.
Tseng closed his eyes, he had told them all from there, but he hadn't known what had happened before. Reno still had his eyes closed, brow furrowed in pain from the memory.
"The rest I believe you know. I'm just glad that I died before whatever plan that scientist could go into action and probably turn me into another Sephiroth." He then chuckled, hand thrown over his eyes, "Oh Goddess, could you imagine that, yo! Hahaha." The others laughed as well once the tension was broken.
"So how did the rest of you die?" He asked, looking at all of them with luminescent eyes.
Rude coughed and went first, "I died a few months after you in a shoot out with some renegade infantry men." Reno patted his shoulder and smirked slightly.
Zack and Aerith looked at each other and then said as one, "You already know how we died." The others nodded, Cloud frowning and looking down before Zack whacked him in the back of the head, "We've been over this Chocobo-head."
Tseng looked around and sighed, "I was killed in an explosion as I protected Rufus... I got him out but was stuck in the building."
Cissnei continued, "You guys remember how I died." The others nodded and the attention turned to Cloud and Rufus.
Cloud looked at the other blond and sighed, "I actually didn't die until years afterwards. Tifa died from a plague that swept the land and I couldn't live without her, so I found the nearest Mako pool and joined her in the LifeStream. And she is one of the one's I'm sure are coming back, mostly because she would follow me, if only to beat me up for basically committing suicide to join her." Reno nodded in surety, a little saddened that Cloud wold throw his life away like that.
'What happened to everyone else if he was willing to leave them just for Tifa instead of living his life afterwards.' He thought before turning his attention to Rufus.
The blonde closed his eyes, "I died while trying to cure the plague that was spreading. It seemed to infect everyone who didn't have any Mako in their systems. But when Tifa came down with it, Cloud asked me to help him find a cure for her. When I heard she died I worked twice as hard. I worked myself so hard that even my Mako-increased immunity system couldn't stop the disease from entering my system." He then opened his eyes with a triumphant smirk, "But before I died I came up with the cure. So in my death, everyone else was saved."
Reno grinned at his boss, "Congratulations. Now what are we going to do now?" He asked.
The others looked at him in confusion, so he elaborated, "We've obviously been given a new start for a reason, yo, especially if we all have our memories and abilities from before. My question is, what is it that the Goddess wants us to do? And are there any other friends from our past that are going to be showing up?" Reno's eyes narrowed slightly. "But before that, what is this egg supposed to do?" He held up the egg, completely breaking the seriousness that he had just brought.
Rude brought his hand up and rubbed his eyes in exasperation, while Zack laughed, "Even if you can act serious, it doesn't last long before you turn your attention to something non-serious."
Reno glared at the SOLDIER, "Shut it puppy." He growled lowly.
Cissnei sighed and pulled the egg out of Reno's hands and undid the clasp. A horrible screeching sound filled the air and they all yelped in shock.
"Close it, yo! Close that damn thing before my brains leak out from my ears, yo!" Reno shouted over the noise. Cissnei scrambled to close the golden egg and once she did they all sighed in relief. "What the hell was that, yo?" Reno questioned, rubbing his ears, trying to stop the ringing.
"I don't know, but never open it again." Rude stated, glaring at the red-head who was reaching for it.
"I wasn't gonna open it, yo. I was gonna examine it." He stated, picking it up and looking over it. He noticed the carvings on the sides. "Yo, Aerith, you're takin' Runes right?" He asked, and after he received a nod he pointed out a set of runes to her, "Can ya tell me what that says?" He asked.
Aerith took the egg from him and examined the strand of runes, "This one means 'Capture', the one next to it reads 'Water', and the last to are connected and say 'Voices of Maids'. So essentially the whole series of runes states 'Capture the Voices of the Water Maids'." She handed it back and Reno nodded.
"So what is contained in here, tha thing we heard, are the voices of water maids?" He cracked his fingers and stretched, "OK, I got it, yo. I read that ya can't hear the voices of the merpeople above ground because they cannot speak out of water. So whatever message is in this egg, it can only be heard when it is submerged in water." He then grinned, "Sounds easy enough, yo." Reno leaned back and propped his feet on the table.
The Next chapter might not be out fast, because I do have school and it is my last year of highschool so I don't have that much time to write anything. -cries in a corner- But I'll try my hardest. Thanks fro reading. Tell me what you think about it, and if you have any questions, leave a review and I'll answer, or PM me and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.