Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Between the Lines ❯ The Cost of Living ( Chapter 9 )

Between the Lines

 

Description: What happened to Reno and Rude in Advent Children during the times they were off camera. How and why they showed up where they did when they did. Rated T for language and descriptions of torture.

 

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and its characters are the property of Square-Enix. Everything in this fic is just speculation on my part. I have no insider information. I also have no money, so suing me would be pointless.

 

Nine: The Cost of Living

 

The chilly evening air washed over Reno's hot face as he left 7th Heaven and escaped the blazing fireball of virtuous anger that was Tifa Lockheart. He knew from experience that she never pulled punches with her enemies, but he hadn't expected her to do the same with her friends. Reno had pegged Tifa as the nurturing type, not the bash 'em over the head with a sledgehammer type.

 

She had certainly let Cloud have it. Reno had actually been embarrassed to be present, so much so that he had attempted to leave the room. I mean, really, it's bad enough the poor guy had to be tongue-lashed, but to have witnesses too? That kind of shit leaves scars for life. Not that he has much longer to live.

 

On the bright side, she had essentially done their job for them. Thanks to Tifa, Cloud would go to the Forgotten City where he would face Kadaj, just like Rufus wanted, and Reno and Rude could head off to Silvereave to check on Tseng and Elena. Reno had to admit he owed Tifa some gratitude for that. He wasn't sure how much more of angst-boy he would have been able to take.

 

A stiff wind whipped through his jacket, ruffling his untucked shirt, and Reno suddenly realized he was alone out there in the dark. He turned around, looking for Rude and, not finding him, yanked the door to the bar back open. His partner stood just inside the entrance, his eyes staring over at the stairs.

 

"What the hell are you doing?" Reno demanded. "We're done here, right? Let's go."

 

Rude shook his head very slightly. "We need to be certain," he replied.

 

Reno half-sighed, half-growled in frustration. Rude always had to "be certain". He could never just go with his instincts or trust common sense. To be fair, his insistence on confirmation had saved Reno's ass a couple of times in the past -- just a couple -- but in a situation like this, it was overkill. Maddening, time-wasting overkill. Reno propped himself against the open door, refusing to come inside again, and waited.

 

A few minutes later, the two Turks heard the sounds of a door opening and heavy feet walking down the stairs. As expected, Cloud appeared. He paid them no mind and continued moving forward, glancing only briefly in Reno's direction before passing through the open door and exiting into the night.

 

Reno cocked one eyebrow at Rude and, with more than a little self-satisfaction, asked, "Now can we go?"

 

Rude gazed at him impassively through his sunglasses. "Yes, Reno, now we can go."

 

"Wait."

 

Both Reno and Rude turned in surprise to find Tifa standing on the stairs. Her dark eyes examined them with a mixture of distrust and gratitude. "I have to say," she began, "it was quite a coincidence that you two happened to be passing by that old, run-down church in the middle of a ghost town." Reno opened his mouth to start an excuse, but Tifa cut him off with a simple smile. "But it's okay. I don't need to know why you were there. I'm just glad you were. Thank you for helping me and Cloud and for looking for Marlene and Denzel. It was very kind of you."

 

Reno swallowed. He had the unsettling feeling that his face was rapidly turning the color of his hair. Pretty girls weren't supposed to say things like that to him, especially when kindness almost never influenced his decisions.

 

Thankfully, Rude came to his rescue. "You're welcome," he replied simply.

 

Tifa continued to smile as her eyes traveled back and forth between them. After a moment of meaningful silence, she nodded once and ordered, "Now get the hell out of my bar."

 

Reno smiled. There was the Tifa he was used to. He mock-saluted her and said, "Yes, ma'am." Rude had already begun moving out of the room, so Reno stepped backwards to let him through and then released the door. It shut with a comforting sound of finality.

 

Once they were safely on their way to the hospital, Reno risked an admiring whistle. "She's quite the firebrand. I don't know if even you could handle her. You sure you want to try it?"

 

"Reno," Rude grumbled, clearly annoyed, "why are you so set on fixing me up with Tifa?"

 

Reno grinned evilly. "You revealed your heart to me, remember? At that backwater hick-town we had to stake out."

 

His partner sighed. "That was two years ago."

 

"Yes, but true love never dies!"

 

"What would you know about love, true or otherwise?"

 

"Not much," Reno admitted with a shrug. "But I did read up on it some when I found Elena's stash of romance novels."

 

Rude stopped walking and stared at Reno in shock. "Elena reads romance novels?" Reno only grinned in response. After a minute, Rude shook his head and continued forward. "Never would have guessed that," he commented quietly to himself. Reno walked beside him, a definite skip in his step from the joy of revealing one co-worker's embarrassing secret to another.

 

Eventually, the gray stonework of Silvereave Hospital loomed over them, a dark presence in the night. Reno took a moment to gaze up at the building from the warm halo of a streetlight. Funny how this place gives me the creeps. It's a place where sick and hurt people come to get better. So why does it feel evil to me? He shook his head forcefully. Stop being an ass, Reno. It's just a frigging building. Rude had already passed through the glass doors, and Reno quickly followed him.

 

Inside, Reno let Rude deal with the overly-plump woman behind the desk. Experience had taught both of them that these people with their slow, deliberate movements and their blank, stupid looks sent Reno into a wild, incoherent rage faster than you could say, "What part of death didn't you understand?" So Rude did the negotiating while Reno fantasized about knocking down the building and squashing them all.

 

Reno let his eyes drift aimlessly around the empty waiting room -- visiting hours had ended a while ago -- until they found a corner where someone had set up a small coffeemaker in an attempt to make the place more pleasant. Coffee actually sounded good after a day as long as this one, so Reno walked over, pulled a styrofoam cup from the stack, and poured himself a generous amount. It was pure sludge. Quite possibly the most disgusting stuff he had ever tasted. Reno spit the mouthful he had taken back into the cup and poured the entire thing over a depressed-looking potted plant that sat on the table nearby. He balanced the cup on top of it like a hat.

 

"Reno," Rude called to him from the other side of the room. Another woman, this one grouchy-looking, stood in the open door that led inside the hospital. Reno quickly joined them, waved off the "Visitor" badge the woman offered, and headed toward the elevator that would take them to ShinRa's wing. The woman scuttled along behind him; her hurried footsteps and disapproving clucks made Reno smile.

 

Rufus was waiting for them as expected, the sheet over his upper body making him look like a large pile of laundry. Rude crossed the room to report the success of their mission. Reno was very grateful to him for that; he had just seen the bodies in the beds and knew he wouldn't be able to talk for awhile.

 

Tseng lay in the bed closer to the door. Reno looked down on him, guilt raking through his chest. The various doctors from Icicle Inn to here had bandaged or sewn most of the cuts that all but covered Tseng's chest and handsome face, but Reno could still see them, could still imagine how they had gotten there. He watched Tseng's chest rise and fall for a few minutes, taking comfort in the action of breath, even if the lips that the air passed through were cracked and swollen.

 

"Mr. President!" a clear and jarringly happy voice rang out from the doorway. "I'm so sorry I couldn't come to see you until now."

 

Reno's mind registered the long brown ponytail, scruffy beard, and round wire-framed glasses that passed by as Rufus replied, "I understand, Doctor."

 

Morgan yanked a clipboard from the bottom of Tseng's bed, flashing a smile at Reno, and then moved to Elena's bed to do the same. "I assume you'd like a full report now?" he said to Rufus.

 

"Please."

 

"All right. The male and female sustained almost identical injuries, although in the male's case, they tended to be slightly more severe, probably indicative of his ability to withstand more pain compared to the female."

 

Their names are Tseng and Elena. Reno reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the two cards he had retrieved from the floor in Healin. Tseng and Elena. Absently, he scraped at the dried blood with a fingernail. His ears continued to listen, but his mind pulled itself away to spare him the pain and anger.

 

"Both have been cut multiple times on the arms and legs with a small blade. The male has an incision from the right ear to the jawline. The female has one from temple to temple running across the hairline. They were also punctured multiple times in the thighs and back with a larger blade. The consistent spacing of the wounds suggest that it was a double-bladed weapon used. Using this theory, the count is four times in the female, six in the male.

 

"Based on your previous reports, my colleagues in the north looked for and found a bullet in each: the left shoulder of the female and the upper right arm of the male. These were removed before they were sent here. Both patients have a great deal of bruising from various impacts, and they have multiple burns on their chests and backs, probably from an electrical source. And finally, the left hand on each has had all of the finger bones broken, most likely done individually to elicit the maximum level of pain."

 

"Fine. How soon can you get them on their feet?"

 

"Well, the bullet entries, the incisions, and the punctures have all been treated, and, due to the patients' previous enhancements that they received here, they are all healing quite rapidly. I would expect that in a matter of hours they will have entirely disappeared. The bruises and burns as well. The slowest to recover will be the bones. I can give them an accelerator, but I'll need your signature for that."

 

"Where?"

 

"This sheet here. Here and here. One for each of them."

 

"Fine. And make sure they're both up-to-date on their programs. I want those wounds dealt with and both of them back in action as soon as possible."

 

"Actually, Mr. President, this would be a perfect opportunity to update their programs with a more modern set of modifications. Instead of healing the bones, I could remove the hand and replace it with one of these. And if you look further down the list, there are some new options available."

 

"I don't think so. Tseng would never forgive me if I modified him without his approval, and Elena is deadly enough as she is. But what's this one? It looks very interesting."

 

"Oh, that one is completely new. Only lab-tested in fact. I would be very grateful, Mr. President, if you could find someone to field test it for me."

 

"Yes, I'll definitely send someone over as soon as I have the opportunity. But nothing for these two. Just patch them and send them back."

 

"All right, sir."

 

Reno gently ran the edge of his hand over the plastic, brushing away the last flakes of blood from the cards. This building has no sense of good or evil. It's just stone and steel. But the people inside …

 

Rude's hand shook him from his thoughts. "Did you hear me? I said the President told us we could leave."

 

"Oh."

 

"I thought I'd go get a drink before heading home. You want to come?"

 

"Oh yeah." Reno placed the cards on the table beside Tseng's head before turning to leave. "I need to get seriously drunk."