Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God; Part I ❯ Chapter 7
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Shiratori-Strife Inc 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.02.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 179 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.02.2006 | Pages: 2 | Words: 3.2K | Visits: 179 | Status: Completed
7
She instantly regretted her sarcastic outburst, but she could hardly control it anymore. An apologetic look crossed over her face for a moment just as Reno went back to his drink. She wanted to go to him, to sit with him and be with him, but she couldn’t risk making another smart remark that would stir another fight between them. They’d had too many of those as of late to really be too terribly comfortable with each other because of it. Reno knew the mood swings were caused by her raging hormones, and he likely also knew that his resistance to giving up Shinra wasn’t helping the situation. She wanted nothing more than to see him walk away from that damned company, but knew she wouldn’t see it if she kept pushing the subject.
I’ll leave it alone for a little while. I miss him too much to keep nagging him…
Another scream rang out and Morghann flinched when she heard Tifa sigh. “I don’t suppose we’ll be opening tonight?”
“We could, but I don’t think the customers would be too comfortable. But we’ll be fine without opening tonight. Cloud made enough money today with those deliveries that it won’t phase us in the slightest.” Tifa moved towards the door to flip the sign, glancing between Reno and Morghann briefly. He wasn’t looking at her, so he couldn’t possibly have seen the longing look Morghann was giving him. Tifa shook her head and opened the door, pausing in surprise at the man that walked through it. She tensed and in that instant, Morghann’s faced was wiped clean of any kind of feeling towards Reno.
“Rufus,” Barret said haughtily, drawing the man’s attention onto himself and away from Morghann’s stiff form. Reno looked up and winced, wanting nothing more than to be left alone right now.
“I’m sorry to barge in unannounced,” Rufus gave Morghann a nasty look before turning his attention to Reno and Rude. “Rude, Reno, I need to speak with you outside for a moment,” Rude jumped up immediately, but Reno hesitated, sparking a little bit of hope in Morghann. It dwindled, however, when he looked at her and abruptly walked outside with Rude and Rufus. She wanted to scream in that instant, but instead, let Sirius scream for her.
“Morghann?”
Morghann’s beautiful sapphire eyes had hardened over to a dull blue as she looked over to Cid who was perched precariously on the end of the bar, studying her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.
“You should eat something,”
“I’m fine,” She huffed when she realized he was going to fuss over her to turn her attention away from what was happening outside.
“I think your son disagrees,”
“And you would know this how?” Morghann growled suddenly, glaring down at her stomach as her child kicked her hard in the ribs. The pain wasn’t as bad as what Sirius was currently undergoing, but it still hurt like a bitch. “Traitor,” She hissed as she moved to sit down. “I guess I am a little hungry,”
Tifa was just sitting a plate in front of her when the door opened and slammed as Reno came back inside, obviously fuming about something that had just taken place.
“Morghann-”
“Reno!” Rufus’ voice rang out over his, sounding a little annoyed. “This is very important, Reno. I won’t have your attention divided between your job and that trollop you’ve been bedding!”
A stiff silence fell about the room when this was said. No one moved, no one said a word, and the one person who should have moved, who should have said something hardly did anything but twitch in anger at the declaration.
“Trollop?” Morghann whispered, stung. Reno was standing right beside her and she could feel his stiffness and his fury, yet he said nothing against what Rufus had said…Why?
“Hey!” Cid hopped down from the bar, scratching his chin nonchalantly. “I don’t think you ‘ought to talk about this fine lady like that, President Shinra,”
Rufus looked at Cid and sneered, obviously unimpressed. “Reno, you will report to work in the morning, is that understood?”
Reno nodded after a few minutes and everyone in the room watched Rufus leave, Rude trailing behind him uncertainly. The silence continued for five minutes after the door closed again before Reno finally moved to look at Morghann. All he saw in those sapphire eyes was pain.
“Morghann,”
“Don’t defend me, Reno. After all, I’m just the trollop you fucked while you were bored. I thought because you saved my life that you had some kind of backbone and some kind of heart. I thought you cared. After all, I’m the mother of your child,” Morghann rose from her chair, her food ignored completely. “I wouldn’t want you to defend me against that son of a bitch!”
“Morghann-”
“Shut up! Just shut up!” She shouted, her body shaking. “Why didn’t you defend me?!”
“I…” He shook his head, growling. “Why do you have to be so sour about this?”
“You said you cared about me, Reno. You said you loved me. Yet Rufus insults my very existence and you do nothing. Nothing! Sour? No, I’m not being sour because I’m too fucking pissed off to be sour!” Morghann had tears pouring out of her eyes, but her voice didn’t crack in the slightest. “I guess the only reason you really stayed with me was because you felt sorry for me,”
“That’s not it at all!” Reno shouted back, his temper snapping. “I do care about you, Morghann! Shit, why do you think I stayed with you? If you were a trollop I had picked to fuck for a little while, I would have left you behind years ago! I didn’t stay because I felt sorry for you, either, damnit! For fuck’s sake, I asked you to have children with me!”
“Oh, yes, because you’ve shown your appreciation for that little tidbit. Jesus Christ, Reno! I don’t expect much out of you, I really don’t, but then again I didn’t think that it would be too much for you to defend me!”
“What the hell do you want me to do?!”
“Prove that you care, Reno! Prove it to me! Say no to Rufus for once in your fucking life and stay with me!” She screamed it at him, wanting him to understand that this was his chance to move on, to prove to her that he loved her and that he was willing to make their family work.
I think I liked you better when you were too tired to argue…
He didn’t realize that he’d said it out loud until a look of shock spread across her face suddenly. He saw her arms slide around her stomach in that instant and knew he’d made a huge mistake but it was too late to apologize or take it back. He’d said it out of anger and fury. There was no meaning behind that, but after what had just gone on, it would be a very long time before she’d believe that.
“I…” Morghann’s voice broke and she lowered her eyes from him, her lips parted in surprise. “I just…you…”
“Morghann, I’m sorry! I didn’t-”
“Go away,” She whispered as she moved passed him, looking weaker and more pathetic than she had looked the day he’d first met her. His heart broke when she walked out of the room without looking at anyone, tears starting to stream down her cheeks again. Marlene and Denzel were staring at him in shock, worried over what this turn of events would mean for the couple and their still unborn child. Reno was a real jerk sometimes, but never like this, never to Morghann.
“Reno…” Tifa approached him and then stopped, shaking her head. “You shouldn’t sleep here tonight,” Then she turned and headed for the stairs to make sure that Morghann wasn’t alone for the next few hours. She needed someone with her right now.
“That was a damn dirty thing you just did, Reno,” Cid snarled as he lit himself a cigarette. “If I weren’t worried about Morghann’s condition, I’d kick your ass into the next God damned century. But since she loves you and because she’ll eventually forgive you for being an insufferable dick instead of the loving father-to-be that you should be, I’ll restrain myself to just cursing your existence.”
“Shut up,” Reno snarled as he moved towards the door, wanting to be alone to beat himself up for being an, as Cid had so delicately put it, insufferable dick towards the one person he had never wanted to be. He’d made her cry. Not even cry, he just…broke her.
“I’m sure Rufus will share his bed with you,” Barret snarled, trying to keep his insult clean since Marlene and Denzel were both still in the room. “After all, you seem to care about that damned company more than anyone else,”
It hurt, but he would bare it because, at that moment, he felt enough like shit to admit that he’d stooped to an all new low. He deserved to get his ass kicked by everyone in the bar, but they weren’t going to do that because they knew it would upset Morghann even more than she already was. In Barret and Cid’s case, it was taking a hell of a lot of restrain to keep from going after him physically.
“Go on,” Cid snarled, taking a predatory step forward. “Go play lap dog to Shinra since you seem to do it so well,”
---
“Mama?” Morghann raised her head a little as her mother brushed through her unruly curls and smiled faintly. “When I grow up, will I get married?”
“I suppose you will when you find the right man, honey,” The brush paused in her hair. “Why, Morghann? Are you having dreams?”
Curiously, she looked at her mother and then nodded. “Sometimes…I like the fairytales I hear at school about Princesses and their knights in shining armor. Will I find someone like that, mama, that will love me and protect me?”
“I have no doubt of it,” Leaning down, Sarah Matthews squeezed her daughter’s shoulders. “My little girl deserves the best that life can offer her,”
“Thanks, mama,”
“You’re welcome. Now, time to tuck in to bed. Here’s your bear,” Once Morghann was comfortably tucked into bed, snug and warm and cuddling up to her favorite stuffed bear, Sarah leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, sweetheart,”
“Good night, mama,”
“How did everything go so wrong?” Morghann whispered as she ran her hands over the old bear resting on the windowsill. “I was so sure that I finally had everything that I had ever wanted…why did it go so wrong?”
“You’re hormonal,” Tifa closed the door behind her as she came into the room. “Your raging hormones and Reno’s temper don’t exactly mix when they’re against one another,”
“Tifa…” Morghann faced her, looking pathetic. “I know he didn’t mean what he said…but because of everything that’s happened…I can’t forgive him for that. Not yet…”
“You need time, we know that,” Tifa shook her head. “None of us blame you for what you’re doing. You want to know that your family is the most important thing to Reno, and it really is, but you have to understand that, to Reno, it’s a really big adjustment to be made. I don’t think he really grasped the weight of what having a baby with you meant when he asked you. And he may be an insufferable dick as Cid calls him at times, but I’d like to think that I know him a little better than Cid does. Reno cares about you otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed with you. He wouldn’t feel sorry for the things he said to you today,”
“I know. It’s just so hard to deal with because I hate Rufus so much. It’s my fault. I let my loathing of that jerk get in the way of my relationship with Reno. We love each other. That should be enough for us,”
“Sometimes it takes time for couples to get to the point where love is enough for them,” Tifa paused, leaning against the wall as she watched Morghann move to sit on her bed. She eased down carefully, annoyed by the discomfort in the small of her back. “Have faith, Morghann. Reno’s taken a step towards being the man you want and need him to be,”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten Rufus into such a fuss. Remember that Reno came storming back in and walked right up to you when Rufus came after him and insulted you,”
“I guess so,” The smallest hint of a smile bloomed on Morghann’s face before it vanished. “I just…it hurt, Tifa, when he didn’t defend me,”
“I know. It bothered us all, but in the heat of that moment, I don’t really think Reno knew what to do for himself or for you. Maybe he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get Rufus into more of a fury as to insult you more severely? Maybe he was submissive to Rufus so that the jerk would leave sooner so you wouldn’t have to hear anymore of his disapproval of you? Look at it this way; if Rufus is jealous of your relationship, then you have to know that Reno isn’t as loyal to Rufus as you might think,”
Morghann nodded, wiping the tears from her reddened cheeks. “I guess I just got so caught up in wanting to hear him tell me this that I blinded myself from what was being shown rather than said,”
“Exactly,”
There was a long pause where Morghann just rubbed her stomach and then, in a whisper, “I still need time,”
“Take all that you need, Morghann,”
---
“You’re sure this will cleanse me?”
“Absolutely,” The Doctor smiled as the ex-SOLDIER relaxed in the chair and extended his arm out towards him. This is working better than I thought! I’ll get all the Materia I need, plus the pure Mako energy it will take to get my revenge on Shinra for my banishment. Rocket Town is mine now…and it won’t be long before I’ve collected all that I can from this place. When my “Word of God” spreads from Rocket Town to those around it, I’ll be able to collect more freely. The doctor paused in his thoughts as he drew the Mako from the ex-SOLDIER via his blood stream and a needle, knowing he’d have to do something about the resistance in Midgar. No doubt when Cloud Strife and the Turks heard about this, they’d get suspicious.
He’d have to do something to distract them…Luckily, he had many spies amongst some of the important bureaus in Midgar to create a bit of a distraction. After they’re distracted, I can begin my search for the person with a connection to the Lifestream directly to more accurately power my weapon…And Strife’s little girlfriend will be most valuable. The Geostigma cells in her blood is what I need the most. And when I find a human whose body is a capable vessel for the Lifestream, I will be invincible. And this time, the experiment will not fail!
---
“Reno?”
He whirled around in surprise and swallowed the lump of emotion in his throat at the sight of her. He hadn’t seen her in two weeks and was surprised that she’d made this trip after what he’d said to her.
“Morghann, I-”
“I’m sorry, Reno!” She took a few steps forward and stopped, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” He closed the gap between them, grasping her shoulders gently. “I was in the wrong. The things I said…”
“You didn’t mean them. I know you didn’t…” Morghann shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’ve been pressuring you about this whole Shinra thing so much that I couldn’t see what you’d already given up for me. I see that now…You were trying so hard to give me what I wanted without making the situation worse. It was subtle and because of that, I ignored it. I wanted so much to hear you say that you loved me more than Shinra. I got jealous because I hate them so much and you’re a part of them…I…”
“Morghann,” He lifted her face so that she would look at him and shook his head. “I should have tried harder for you. Yes, I am a part of Shinra. It’s all I’ve ever really known and it’s going to be hard to let go,”
Her eyes glinted with tears as she took in the weight of his words. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t need to apologize. It’s me, sweetheart. I’m the one who’s sorry,” He tilted her head up and kissed her softly, willing her to understand that he was submitting to her completely. If she accepted, it would all be over. All those weeks of arguments and tension would be gone. They could finally move on. He’d finally see her smile again.
Her kiss was everything he had hoped it would be.
---
End Chapter
She instantly regretted her sarcastic outburst, but she could hardly control it anymore. An apologetic look crossed over her face for a moment just as Reno went back to his drink. She wanted to go to him, to sit with him and be with him, but she couldn’t risk making another smart remark that would stir another fight between them. They’d had too many of those as of late to really be too terribly comfortable with each other because of it. Reno knew the mood swings were caused by her raging hormones, and he likely also knew that his resistance to giving up Shinra wasn’t helping the situation. She wanted nothing more than to see him walk away from that damned company, but knew she wouldn’t see it if she kept pushing the subject.
I’ll leave it alone for a little while. I miss him too much to keep nagging him…
Another scream rang out and Morghann flinched when she heard Tifa sigh. “I don’t suppose we’ll be opening tonight?”
“We could, but I don’t think the customers would be too comfortable. But we’ll be fine without opening tonight. Cloud made enough money today with those deliveries that it won’t phase us in the slightest.” Tifa moved towards the door to flip the sign, glancing between Reno and Morghann briefly. He wasn’t looking at her, so he couldn’t possibly have seen the longing look Morghann was giving him. Tifa shook her head and opened the door, pausing in surprise at the man that walked through it. She tensed and in that instant, Morghann’s faced was wiped clean of any kind of feeling towards Reno.
“Rufus,” Barret said haughtily, drawing the man’s attention onto himself and away from Morghann’s stiff form. Reno looked up and winced, wanting nothing more than to be left alone right now.
“I’m sorry to barge in unannounced,” Rufus gave Morghann a nasty look before turning his attention to Reno and Rude. “Rude, Reno, I need to speak with you outside for a moment,” Rude jumped up immediately, but Reno hesitated, sparking a little bit of hope in Morghann. It dwindled, however, when he looked at her and abruptly walked outside with Rude and Rufus. She wanted to scream in that instant, but instead, let Sirius scream for her.
“Morghann?”
Morghann’s beautiful sapphire eyes had hardened over to a dull blue as she looked over to Cid who was perched precariously on the end of the bar, studying her with an intensity that made her uncomfortable.
“You should eat something,”
“I’m fine,” She huffed when she realized he was going to fuss over her to turn her attention away from what was happening outside.
“I think your son disagrees,”
“And you would know this how?” Morghann growled suddenly, glaring down at her stomach as her child kicked her hard in the ribs. The pain wasn’t as bad as what Sirius was currently undergoing, but it still hurt like a bitch. “Traitor,” She hissed as she moved to sit down. “I guess I am a little hungry,”
Tifa was just sitting a plate in front of her when the door opened and slammed as Reno came back inside, obviously fuming about something that had just taken place.
“Morghann-”
“Reno!” Rufus’ voice rang out over his, sounding a little annoyed. “This is very important, Reno. I won’t have your attention divided between your job and that trollop you’ve been bedding!”
A stiff silence fell about the room when this was said. No one moved, no one said a word, and the one person who should have moved, who should have said something hardly did anything but twitch in anger at the declaration.
“Trollop?” Morghann whispered, stung. Reno was standing right beside her and she could feel his stiffness and his fury, yet he said nothing against what Rufus had said…Why?
“Hey!” Cid hopped down from the bar, scratching his chin nonchalantly. “I don’t think you ‘ought to talk about this fine lady like that, President Shinra,”
Rufus looked at Cid and sneered, obviously unimpressed. “Reno, you will report to work in the morning, is that understood?”
Reno nodded after a few minutes and everyone in the room watched Rufus leave, Rude trailing behind him uncertainly. The silence continued for five minutes after the door closed again before Reno finally moved to look at Morghann. All he saw in those sapphire eyes was pain.
“Morghann,”
“Don’t defend me, Reno. After all, I’m just the trollop you fucked while you were bored. I thought because you saved my life that you had some kind of backbone and some kind of heart. I thought you cared. After all, I’m the mother of your child,” Morghann rose from her chair, her food ignored completely. “I wouldn’t want you to defend me against that son of a bitch!”
“Morghann-”
“Shut up! Just shut up!” She shouted, her body shaking. “Why didn’t you defend me?!”
“I…” He shook his head, growling. “Why do you have to be so sour about this?”
“You said you cared about me, Reno. You said you loved me. Yet Rufus insults my very existence and you do nothing. Nothing! Sour? No, I’m not being sour because I’m too fucking pissed off to be sour!” Morghann had tears pouring out of her eyes, but her voice didn’t crack in the slightest. “I guess the only reason you really stayed with me was because you felt sorry for me,”
“That’s not it at all!” Reno shouted back, his temper snapping. “I do care about you, Morghann! Shit, why do you think I stayed with you? If you were a trollop I had picked to fuck for a little while, I would have left you behind years ago! I didn’t stay because I felt sorry for you, either, damnit! For fuck’s sake, I asked you to have children with me!”
“Oh, yes, because you’ve shown your appreciation for that little tidbit. Jesus Christ, Reno! I don’t expect much out of you, I really don’t, but then again I didn’t think that it would be too much for you to defend me!”
“What the hell do you want me to do?!”
“Prove that you care, Reno! Prove it to me! Say no to Rufus for once in your fucking life and stay with me!” She screamed it at him, wanting him to understand that this was his chance to move on, to prove to her that he loved her and that he was willing to make their family work.
I think I liked you better when you were too tired to argue…
He didn’t realize that he’d said it out loud until a look of shock spread across her face suddenly. He saw her arms slide around her stomach in that instant and knew he’d made a huge mistake but it was too late to apologize or take it back. He’d said it out of anger and fury. There was no meaning behind that, but after what had just gone on, it would be a very long time before she’d believe that.
“I…” Morghann’s voice broke and she lowered her eyes from him, her lips parted in surprise. “I just…you…”
“Morghann, I’m sorry! I didn’t-”
“Go away,” She whispered as she moved passed him, looking weaker and more pathetic than she had looked the day he’d first met her. His heart broke when she walked out of the room without looking at anyone, tears starting to stream down her cheeks again. Marlene and Denzel were staring at him in shock, worried over what this turn of events would mean for the couple and their still unborn child. Reno was a real jerk sometimes, but never like this, never to Morghann.
“Reno…” Tifa approached him and then stopped, shaking her head. “You shouldn’t sleep here tonight,” Then she turned and headed for the stairs to make sure that Morghann wasn’t alone for the next few hours. She needed someone with her right now.
“That was a damn dirty thing you just did, Reno,” Cid snarled as he lit himself a cigarette. “If I weren’t worried about Morghann’s condition, I’d kick your ass into the next God damned century. But since she loves you and because she’ll eventually forgive you for being an insufferable dick instead of the loving father-to-be that you should be, I’ll restrain myself to just cursing your existence.”
“Shut up,” Reno snarled as he moved towards the door, wanting to be alone to beat himself up for being an, as Cid had so delicately put it, insufferable dick towards the one person he had never wanted to be. He’d made her cry. Not even cry, he just…broke her.
“I’m sure Rufus will share his bed with you,” Barret snarled, trying to keep his insult clean since Marlene and Denzel were both still in the room. “After all, you seem to care about that damned company more than anyone else,”
It hurt, but he would bare it because, at that moment, he felt enough like shit to admit that he’d stooped to an all new low. He deserved to get his ass kicked by everyone in the bar, but they weren’t going to do that because they knew it would upset Morghann even more than she already was. In Barret and Cid’s case, it was taking a hell of a lot of restrain to keep from going after him physically.
“Go on,” Cid snarled, taking a predatory step forward. “Go play lap dog to Shinra since you seem to do it so well,”
---
“Mama?” Morghann raised her head a little as her mother brushed through her unruly curls and smiled faintly. “When I grow up, will I get married?”
“I suppose you will when you find the right man, honey,” The brush paused in her hair. “Why, Morghann? Are you having dreams?”
Curiously, she looked at her mother and then nodded. “Sometimes…I like the fairytales I hear at school about Princesses and their knights in shining armor. Will I find someone like that, mama, that will love me and protect me?”
“I have no doubt of it,” Leaning down, Sarah Matthews squeezed her daughter’s shoulders. “My little girl deserves the best that life can offer her,”
“Thanks, mama,”
“You’re welcome. Now, time to tuck in to bed. Here’s your bear,” Once Morghann was comfortably tucked into bed, snug and warm and cuddling up to her favorite stuffed bear, Sarah leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Sweet dreams, sweetheart,”
“Good night, mama,”
“How did everything go so wrong?” Morghann whispered as she ran her hands over the old bear resting on the windowsill. “I was so sure that I finally had everything that I had ever wanted…why did it go so wrong?”
“You’re hormonal,” Tifa closed the door behind her as she came into the room. “Your raging hormones and Reno’s temper don’t exactly mix when they’re against one another,”
“Tifa…” Morghann faced her, looking pathetic. “I know he didn’t mean what he said…but because of everything that’s happened…I can’t forgive him for that. Not yet…”
“You need time, we know that,” Tifa shook her head. “None of us blame you for what you’re doing. You want to know that your family is the most important thing to Reno, and it really is, but you have to understand that, to Reno, it’s a really big adjustment to be made. I don’t think he really grasped the weight of what having a baby with you meant when he asked you. And he may be an insufferable dick as Cid calls him at times, but I’d like to think that I know him a little better than Cid does. Reno cares about you otherwise he wouldn’t have stayed with you. He wouldn’t feel sorry for the things he said to you today,”
“I know. It’s just so hard to deal with because I hate Rufus so much. It’s my fault. I let my loathing of that jerk get in the way of my relationship with Reno. We love each other. That should be enough for us,”
“Sometimes it takes time for couples to get to the point where love is enough for them,” Tifa paused, leaning against the wall as she watched Morghann move to sit on her bed. She eased down carefully, annoyed by the discomfort in the small of her back. “Have faith, Morghann. Reno’s taken a step towards being the man you want and need him to be,”
“You think so?”
“I know so. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten Rufus into such a fuss. Remember that Reno came storming back in and walked right up to you when Rufus came after him and insulted you,”
“I guess so,” The smallest hint of a smile bloomed on Morghann’s face before it vanished. “I just…it hurt, Tifa, when he didn’t defend me,”
“I know. It bothered us all, but in the heat of that moment, I don’t really think Reno knew what to do for himself or for you. Maybe he didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to get Rufus into more of a fury as to insult you more severely? Maybe he was submissive to Rufus so that the jerk would leave sooner so you wouldn’t have to hear anymore of his disapproval of you? Look at it this way; if Rufus is jealous of your relationship, then you have to know that Reno isn’t as loyal to Rufus as you might think,”
Morghann nodded, wiping the tears from her reddened cheeks. “I guess I just got so caught up in wanting to hear him tell me this that I blinded myself from what was being shown rather than said,”
“Exactly,”
There was a long pause where Morghann just rubbed her stomach and then, in a whisper, “I still need time,”
“Take all that you need, Morghann,”
---
“You’re sure this will cleanse me?”
“Absolutely,” The Doctor smiled as the ex-SOLDIER relaxed in the chair and extended his arm out towards him. This is working better than I thought! I’ll get all the Materia I need, plus the pure Mako energy it will take to get my revenge on Shinra for my banishment. Rocket Town is mine now…and it won’t be long before I’ve collected all that I can from this place. When my “Word of God” spreads from Rocket Town to those around it, I’ll be able to collect more freely. The doctor paused in his thoughts as he drew the Mako from the ex-SOLDIER via his blood stream and a needle, knowing he’d have to do something about the resistance in Midgar. No doubt when Cloud Strife and the Turks heard about this, they’d get suspicious.
He’d have to do something to distract them…Luckily, he had many spies amongst some of the important bureaus in Midgar to create a bit of a distraction. After they’re distracted, I can begin my search for the person with a connection to the Lifestream directly to more accurately power my weapon…And Strife’s little girlfriend will be most valuable. The Geostigma cells in her blood is what I need the most. And when I find a human whose body is a capable vessel for the Lifestream, I will be invincible. And this time, the experiment will not fail!
---
“Reno?”
He whirled around in surprise and swallowed the lump of emotion in his throat at the sight of her. He hadn’t seen her in two weeks and was surprised that she’d made this trip after what he’d said to her.
“Morghann, I-”
“I’m sorry, Reno!” She took a few steps forward and stopped, her shoulders slumping in defeat.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” He closed the gap between them, grasping her shoulders gently. “I was in the wrong. The things I said…”
“You didn’t mean them. I know you didn’t…” Morghann shook her head, wiping the tears from her eyes. “I’ve been pressuring you about this whole Shinra thing so much that I couldn’t see what you’d already given up for me. I see that now…You were trying so hard to give me what I wanted without making the situation worse. It was subtle and because of that, I ignored it. I wanted so much to hear you say that you loved me more than Shinra. I got jealous because I hate them so much and you’re a part of them…I…”
“Morghann,” He lifted her face so that she would look at him and shook his head. “I should have tried harder for you. Yes, I am a part of Shinra. It’s all I’ve ever really known and it’s going to be hard to let go,”
Her eyes glinted with tears as she took in the weight of his words. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t need to apologize. It’s me, sweetheart. I’m the one who’s sorry,” He tilted her head up and kissed her softly, willing her to understand that he was submitting to her completely. If she accepted, it would all be over. All those weeks of arguments and tension would be gone. They could finally move on. He’d finally see her smile again.
Her kiss was everything he had hoped it would be.
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End Chapter