Reno of the Turks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raspberryturk) wrote2008-06-24 11:18 am
raspberryturk) wrote2008-06-24 11:18 am
Entry tags:
Room 429, Tuesday Morning.
Once Reno had returned to his room after his flight session with Murdock and his conversation with Romeo yesterday, he had stared at his laptop monitor blankly.
Today, he had spent most of the morning doing the same thing.
He had to write a report on this. This whole incident involving the vice-principal. If he didn't, Tseng would find out anyhow, stubborn ass that he was, and that would be a one-way ticket right back to ShinRa and Healin and the Turks and Edge, never to return. And it wasn't really that he didn't ever want to go back. Gaia was home, after all, and he was damn proud to be a Turk. It was just that, after the conversation he'd had with Rikku two nights ago regarding the mortality rate of people in his particular line of work, getting dragged back now would just be rotten timing. And he'd miss her. A lot.
He took a deep breath. Okay. He could do this. He'd do this, and then he'd brace himself for the phone call that was damn near inevitable, because there was something about fighting a hell-god down in his own domain that Reno figured Tseng was going to have to clear up far more quickly than e-mail would allow.
Tseng.
report days early because this isn't a weekly, its an incident report. figure you'll want details over phone. will give more thorough report with weekly. Hands njured. typing sucks.
Monsters swarmed island over weeknd. Vice-principal tried to take control. people abducted- living nightmares.
Wentonrescuemissiontohell.
everything is back to normal!!!
Reno
.... Yes. That would do.
Reno sighed, hit send, set his phone on the nightstand next to his head, and shut his eyes. He didn't have to wait too long, of course. The phone rang, Tseng's ringtone, Reno answered it, and then was greeted by the sound of a long, patient silence on the other end. Nothing like a long stretch of nothing to get words tumbling from Reno's mouth, and Tseng knew it.
"So. Uh. I think they do better background checks on the faculty now since the VP was the god of the underworld or whatever." It was probably the best that Reno could do, given the silence. He was met with.. More silence. And so, in true Reno fashion, he continued to babble. "......... And my jacket got burned. Maybe send me a couple more?"
"I would like for you to back up to the bit where you mentioned 'hell.'" Good old Tseng, cutting right to the chase like that.
"Kinda came to me this time, anyhow. So it wasn't a huge stretch walkin' down the stairway while someone sang somethin' about a slinky." Reno waited. That long pause there, he figured, could only be the long pause that happened when Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose. He listened to the boss exhale before he continued. "Totally took out a centaur on my own. Was pretty badass."
"Yes. So you went looking for trouble."
"Trouble came lookin' for me. I just happened to find it first."
"The centaur, of course, came to you."
"He did! I was walkin' down the street, and he was followin' me." The next long pause was that silence that was reserved for Tseng calling bullshit and waiting for Reno to incriminate himself further. It was a good call, really. Eventually, Reno always filled the silence with more words. "He was easier to take down than a behemoth or whatever, anyhow." More silence. "...Not that I ever went chasin' behemoths." And more silence, still. "...Really."
"Reno." Tseng was using that no-nonsense voice again. The one that always made Reno speculate about the length of stick someone had shoved up his ass. "I know you labor under the misapprehension that you are amusing. You aren't."
"The vice-principal was tryin' to turn the island into hell." Reno's own tone had gone tense, now. He hated, hated, hated these calls from Tseng, ever since the first one he'd gotten from the boss since he arrived on Fandom. They always seemed to go downhill. This one wasn't shaping up to be an exception of any sort. "I helped do somethin' about it, because he was bringin' it to us anyhow, and there was some shit about whatever his domain touched..." Yeah. Reno could tell that this wasn't helping his situation any. "Couldn't be avoided."
"And your phone was broken." This was, of course, not in any way meant to be a trap. Oh, no. Not coming from Tseng, aimed toward Reno, after a history of Reno neglecting to inform him of dangerous happenings on the island before leaping in to get involved in them against orders.
Never.
"Nah." Reno would just nip it in the bud. Take that, Boss. "Phone totally worked. Didn't feel like sendin' you a text this time around just so you could bark orders I was gonna ignore anyhow."
"So," Tseng replied, after taking a moment to assimilate what he'd just heard, "you do, at least, realize that I'm livid, at this moment."
"When aren't you?"
"When my Turks follow the orders they are given." Tseng's voice had that dangerous edge to it. The one that tended to be reserved for anyone who was making a point to push their luck relentlessly when dealing with him. People like Reno, for example.
"You wanna cut my pay again, get it over with now so I know how much ramen to buy. I wasn't up for livin' in Hell, and I wasn't up for leavin', so I made a choice, fought a fuckin' god, and pulled someone outta hell while I was at it. Worth losin' the Gil." It had been. Every last bit of it. Even if he lost half a decade of ponytail growth in the process. That part had sucked.
"You fought a god."
"Annoyed him, more like it." Reno was making a point to enjoy this. If Tseng was going to use his cranky voice on him, then Reno was going to milk it for all it was worth.
"You chased down centaurs, walked into Hell, you fought a god." Tseng, of course, never did seem to see it Reno's way. "You hid this information from me because you knew I would object. This is, of course, only one part of your larger pattern of lying and withholding relevant information. This is nicely accompanied by your failure to make any meaningful progress on this assignment."
"You wanna define 'meaningful,' or you just not usin' the information I been sendin' in my other reports?" Reno's voice was all spit and venom, now. "Solar power in the middle of the desert ain't efficient enough fuel source to tide people over with? Damn. And here I thought I was on to something." Then his tone went dry. Sandpaper-thick and aimed at Tseng's face as if it could possibly reach. "Guess that holy gem wasn't worth sendin' me here for, either. Well, shit. And next I was gonna include the write-up on how they stripped a god of his invincibility, but I guess you don't wanna hear that either, Tseng."
Fuck you, Tseng. Fuck you.
"What I want is you packed and waiting for Rude when he arrives."
Fuck you sideways. With a Buster Sword.
"And sometimes," Reno spat, growing a backbone he wasn't aware even he had, "we can't all get what we want."
"Being your boss does allow me a certain amount of leeway on that front."
"You and which army, boss?" ShinRa had fallen, SOLDIER had disbanded, there wasn't so much as an infantryman or ShinRa security guard on the planet anymore, and there wasn't a Turk alive who would even agree to hunt Reno down. He'd been chewing on that answer for months, now. And even so, it surprised the hell out of Reno when it finally came out of his mouth.
Evidentally, it seemed to catch Tseng off-guard, too. There was another pause before he found words again, himself.
"..... Is that what this has come to?"
"I'm still a Turk." Reno set his jaw and took a deep breath, wrestling down the butterflies and the bile and the sweat on his palms. At this point, what did he have to lose? "Your second-in-command and damn proud of what I am. I don't ever remember when bein' all that meant rollin' over and playin' dead when gettin' involved actually mattered."
"You're a Turk." Tseng's replies were becoming more and more strained, now. "We're running a little low on them at the moment."
"So hire more." Reno was spitting out bullshit again. Being difficult and he knew it. But Tseng had called him on his loyalties, first, and now he was making this out to be some kind of mercy mission. Keep Reno alive, like Reno needed the coddling. Bastard. For all the coddling he ever got when they were actually still doing work that could be considered dangerous. Beating double-agents into submission and forcing innocent human beings into disgusting genetic experiments, and now was the time to start pretending like the Turks needed to have their hands held. "Didn't have a problem findin' Elena after the plate came down."
The planet coming down was far, far different than the fall of just one sector of Midgar, at Reno's own hands.
"Damn it, Reno. This assignment is bullshit and you know it." There was so much emotion in Tseng's voice that Reno almost felt the need to get up and write this date down on the calendar. It wasn't much emotion. It was barely a shift in tone coupled with words Reno hadn't figured he'd ever hear from his boss' mouth. But it was huge, for Tseng. "I'm tolerating it, but my patience is wearing thin. You insist on provoking me and flaunting your irresponsibility. I'm not losing another Turk."
...
Huge, for Tseng. Reno had to take a moment to take a breath and gather his wits before he could even pretend he was alright to continue on with this particular conversation.
Okay. Okay, he was good.
"You sent me to this place as a Turk, on a Turk assignment. Told me to get info, told me to fit in." Reno took another moment, looking for the words, trying to get his point across without causing another train wreck that would leave one or the both of them puking in the wastebasket after this talk was through. "Fittin' in means I become one of them. Fittin' in means if Hell rises up to meet me, I'm not gonna hide in my dorm room pretendin' nothin's goin' on outside. Wouldn't be the assignment. Wouldn't be me either. Threw enough of myself away over this." This. This. This Turk bullshit. This tearing the world apart for ShinRa. This killing and torturing and sucking everything dry, leaving himself just as dead inside as the whole damn world was now. This. "Fuckin' sick of it, Tseng."
"So you chase down hell gods and mock them because you don't give a damn any more." Tseng's tone was edging back to the side of reason. Back to that dangerous, determined place where he was going to start coming up with valid reasons that Reno wouldn't be able to brush aside even if he had a crowbar and all the time in the world to try. "All the more reason I need you here, where I can see you."
But there was a flaw in Tseng's reason, wasn't there? Something that Reno picked on and dug his teeth into and was going to tear apart come hell or high water if he could.
Tseng had made the mistake of thinking that Reno didn't give a damn anymore. That being tired meant he was trying to find an easy end.
That was Reno six months ago.
Tseng couldn't have been any more wrong, now.
"No, Tseng." Reno's voice found a level of certainty that he hadn't been aware he even had in him, anymore. "I chase down hell gods because if I don't, maybe there won't be enough. And then this place falls. And then he's still around, and he's got access to everywhere. And then it's you chasin' down hell gods instead. I chase down hell gods because I can't walk down the fuckin' street to get a drink because there are gryphons and one-eyed giants runnin' around, and they don't belong here. I chase 'em down because they make off with people who don't deserve to get trapped inside their own heads just because they didn't have someone there to pull 'em out sooner. This ain't a fuckin' game, Tseng. This ain't just I woke up one day and decided I was sick of livin', so maybe I should take on a God. I ain't woke up without a reason to breathe in months now."
Tseng fell silent. He had his careful argument planned out. He was waiting for Reno to finish so he could destroy his arguments, one by one. And then that last sentence managed to hit him square in the chest.
..........
"Start at the beginning. The assistant principal ... opened a portal to hell."
..........
Well. That wasn't the response that Reno had been expecting. He could barely remember what he had said, himself, now. He spoke what he felt and his brain only had say in the matter now and again. But he was going to have to pick it all apart again later and figure out what in the world had managed to break Tseng's head like that.
"Yeah. Vice Principal. Been bidin' his time waitin' to take his domain from down below to up top. Started small, few spirits or whatever, floatin' around. And then he sent up monsters, and people started disappearin'."
"Who disappeared?" This right here, this was Reno's get-out-of-jail-free card. If it was that girlfriend of his, now was the time for Reno to say it, and Tseng wouldn't even bitch about it.
Crazy, then, how Reno didn't need to use that card.
"Some of the faculty, bunch of the students, and this newbie I kinda been keepin' an eye out for." No Rikku, anywhere in that sentence. No throwing himself into Tartarus over the girl that had supposedly clouded his judgment. Somehow, there was a note of victory in Reno's voice as he told Tseng who was down there. Most of the people trapped in the catacombs, Reno hadn't really had a chance to meet outside of class, even.
And Tseng was well-aware of Reno's protective streak, so far as newbies were concerned. It usually kept them alive.
"The people who disappeared. Where were they taken?"
"Buncha' cells down below. Way down below." Reno was answering the questions now just as easily as he would at any formal debriefing. They weren't attacks on his loyalty. This wasn't a test to try to rope him into being pulled back to Edge. "Wasn't hard to get in, really. Hades left the door wide open for anyone who wanted to wander through... Not the same Hades as the summon, though."
"More powerful, or less? You mentioned he was a deity." Tseng paused for a moment before asking another question, as well. "Why did you fight him?"
"Didn't turn nobody into a frog." The Gaia version of Hades evidentally had a sick sense of humor. "But he was playin' with all of us. Nobody died." This was said with an air of wonderment to it, actually. Reno was far more used to casualties. Especially where fighting the gods was concerned. "More powerful, I'm gonna say. In different ways." He stopped, mulling over that other question. The important one. The why, which Reno knew damn well had the potential to pull the conversation into dangerous territory all over again. But there was an obvious answer. The truth. "Someone had to fight him while others snuck off to free the abducted, yoto. We took turns at him."
"And you couldn't be one who snuck off." Of course not. Tseng was talking to Reno, after all. "... Was everyone rescued?"
"Everyone. Everyone got outta there alive."
There was the sort of long pause that only happened when Tseng was scrambling for words. "That's ... impressive."
Reno wasn't even going to pretend to mask how proud he was when he opened his mouth again.
"Alive, and nobody's missing any limbs or any shit, and did I mention someone made the invincible god vulnerable and they shot him in the ass?"
This was a huge deal, okay?
"You were going to tell me how."
"I was gonna write up the report on how. I was on the raiding team, not the away mission. Gotta ask around, first."
"I see. You signed up to go beat on a hell god."
"I signed up to go get people back alive." There was a clear distinction, here. Reno hadn't marched down there with the sole intent to smack Hades around. If it had been so simple, he might have even sat it out.
"You weren't one who got people back alive; you were letting a hell god abuse you so others could." And there they were again, with Tseng coming up with reason after reason to tell Reno he was being irresponsible. Excuses to pull him back.
Reno didn't need any godsdamned coddling.
".... Got one person back. After he was done with me. She was... pretty bad off."
That, clearly, was yet another response that Tseng hadn't been expecting.
"....How bad?"
"Physically, just fine. It's what they did to her head that..." Reno drew in a deep breath. This was hard, putting his head back there. Back in front of Alice, with her fire and screaming and jumping, and her Card Guards and Red Queens. "Pulled her outta bein' catatonic. Pulled her outta talkin' in fantasy and rhyme and denyin' that any of anything at all was real, and I walked her outta there."
He had made her stand up. And he had made her walk herself out of there.
There was a very long pause, there, too. Tseng had broken people, before. Reno had, too. Sometimes it was the job, and the job sucked. It was ... never pretty.
"... That's ... impressive, as well."
"She looked better for it. I dunno how. Just... She said she let 'em die. I told her she could sit there, or she could get up and atone for it, and that kinda..." Reno gave a shrug of his shoulders. ".... Was really somethin'. And she's a good kid. Just busted up a whole lot."
This. This was a huge pause. Tseng didn't know how to put words to this pause. To hear this coming, so glibly, from Reno, who was so broken, and yet ... healing?
".... I imagine it would be something. A way to pull someone out of crippling guilt." One Tseng would have to remember.
"She stood up, thanked me, and we walked outta there."
"You've had quite a weekend." He couldn't do justice to what he was feeling in words. That would have to suffice.
"Hell of a weekend. Had some potions handy, took care of most of the burns. Got off pretty easy."
"And you wake up with reasons to breathe." That bore going back to.
".... Yeah. Yeah, I do that, too."
There was another long pause, before either one of them managed to find words again. It was Tseng who happened to find them, first.
"Reno. I think it would serve both of us well if you were more forthcoming in the future."
".... So you can keep tellin' me to keep my nose outta things like this, and then threaten to pull me?"
"So you can tell me when you stop having reason to breathe."
... Oh.
"Don't know that I'm gonna."
"You didn't tell me last time," Tseng pointed out. And then he paused again, mulling over his next words carefully. "I'm not ... unsympathetic to your situation."
"This is a situation, now," Reno asked, lifting an eyebrow as he struck up the defensive again. Nothing like this ever came without a catch. "Is it?"
"Isn't it?"
"Don't see why it would be. Guess it depends what you consider 'a situation.'"
"Divided loyalties. Outside interests. A romantic entanglement." Just like that. So damn simple and so damn Tseng, it almost made Reno laugh aloud the moment it had left Tseng's lips.
"Entanglement? That's a hell of a word for 'Reno got himself a girlfriend,' ain't it?"
"Very well." Tseng was used to Reno. By that point, he really should have been. "Divided loyalties. Outside interests." His tone became so very dry. "And Reno got himself a girlfriend."
Oh, good. If Tseng was a landmass, he'd be a freaking desert. And somehow, someone would find a big stick. And would find the ass of the desert, and would find a way to shove a big stick up the ass of the desert. Of this, Reno was sure.
"So, where you figure my loyalties are divided to, boss?"
"Between your assignment and this island that you've been assigned to." Tseng loosed a grumbling sort of sigh. "Must this be a war?"
"You keep makin' it one. You think I'm loyal to the Turks or don't you?"
"I believe you've added to the number of things you're loyal to since you took this assignment."
"That ain't what I asked." Reno was getting annoyed, now. Ask a question, get a runaround. Good old ShinRa, telling you what you needed to know only when it did them any good since... a long, long freaking time ago. "You figure my loyalty to The Turks is in question?"
"Your loyalties are divided. Can you contest that?"
"I dunno, Tseng." Reno rolled his eyes, not even making an effort to mask the annoyance that was creeping back into his voice. "You keep usin' big words on me, I might never follow you again."
"I was trying to speak with you," Tseng replied after a long, deep sigh, "on a personal level. Obviously, you aren't interested, and I'm wasting my time."
"You wanna talk to me on a personal level, you don't start by insultin' me, Tseng. Don't work too hot."
"'I'm not unsympathetic to your situation.' I can see where my harsh words have hurt your delicate feelings." Tseng was getting grumpy now. Moreso than usual. Reno was going out of his way, clearly, to make this conversation as miserable as he possibly could.
"You started explainin' your sympathy by tellin' me I wasn't loyal to the Turks. That just warms me in all those little fuzzy spots, yoto."
"No. I stated that, and you became abrasive. Is it that upsetting to have someone imply that you care for more than just your job?"
"It's a situation, is it?" Reno's brain was clearly not running on logic that remotely resembled Tseng-logic. "Like, Reno gives a damn about somethin' that ain't ShinRa. Reno ain't a good Turk. Reno's a liability. Reno's gotta get put down. I danced this dance before, boss. It always leads to the next step right after you admit to takin' the first one."
Tseng's next reply had to wait a moment. He was too busy pinching his nose and wondering if he could call Reno home just long enough to throttle him to be able to speak again.
"It's a situation. It's a potential conflict of interest. It was certainly a conflict of interest when I developed feelings for someone ShinRa was surveilling, and lied about the situation as long as possible to protect her."
...
...
...
Reno's brain had to stop and jump-start itself again after that statement. It hadn't been any secret among the Turks that Tseng was hot over that Ancient. He'd just shut off entirely if Aerith ever came up in conversation. He'd hang around the outside of that stupid Sector Five church day in and out, trying to convince her to come over to ShinRa's side peacefully, instead of dragging her off. But he'd never, ever acknowledged it. Tseng, talking about his feelings, or even admitting that he had any was enough to send Reno's head spiralling about for a moment.
"Yeah. Well. I ain't you."
It was the best that Reno could come up with. And it damn near had Tseng breathing fire when he replied.
"I am painfully aware of that, Reno."
"Good." Good. This was good, wasn't it? Somehow, on some weird, insane level, this was a good thing? Reno was going to push to find out. Because that was just how Reno rolled. "Then maybe you can answer what I been askin' you. You think I'm not loyal to the Turks because of this? You figure I'm gonna drop everything to run the fuck away and be with her, or whatever?"
"I have no idea. I didn't know she existed until you turned into a grade schooler." Okay. Reno had to admit that maybe Tseng had a point, there. "She's important enough that when I mention her, you become angry."
"She's..." Reno hesitated for a moment. And then finally, finally, he relented. "She's a lotta things. But she doesn't mean I'm not loyal to the Turks, first. You call me back, I'll go. I'll fuckin' hate you forever if you're pullin' me for anything but an actual assignment. But I'll go."
"Reno. This is why I'd like for you to be more forthcoming. Because I understand your situation." Tseng was going to say situation again, dammit. "Because I had matters of my loyalties going against my own feelings, and it was a difficult experience that ended badly."
Badly. Yeah, there was an understatement if ever Reno had heard one. They'd had to grab the ancient while the plate was coming down. It couldn't be put off anymore, really. Go figure she had time to make friends with AVALANCHE before then. They busted her out, for all the good it did. After all, she was pretty damn dead, now.
Reno had to shut up. He had to take a moment to pause, mulling this over. He didn't for the life of him know if he was going to open his mouth and have the wrath of Tseng fall on his head for just breathing, here.
And then it hit him.
"Holy shit. This is turnin' into sharing and caring time or something, zoto."
Whoa.
Wait.
Uh.
"You have, at least, retained your ability to make me regret my attempts at communicating with you."
"Good to know I ain't lost my touch?"
"Have you anything useful to contribute?"
Actually, Reno did, didn't he? And for him, this was huge. Still eating at his head and turning the whole situation- damn it, it was a situation, wasn't it?- upside-down.
"She offered to give herself up to the devil if it'd keep me from havin' to go back to Edge, play ShinRa's stooge, and die stupidly young."
...
"Reno?"
...
"Yeah?"
"You do understand why I say that you have divided loyalties." This was a calm sort of note, even coming from Tseng.
"Do I?"
Did he?
"She offered to hand herself to this deity you were fighting, to free you from your contract with us. Can you say you wouldn't do something similar on her behalf?"
She had offered Reno an Out. Rikku had offered Reno a way to never have to walk back into hell. By potentially handing herself over to Hell. Did Reno have anything in the world that he would give up in a heartbeat that was anything remotely close to what it was that she had wanted to give him?
He did.
".... I'd go back to work for ShinRa if it meant she didn't have to hand herself over to Hades."
Reno could have been free.
But it would have been at the cost of Rikku.
The price had been too damn steep.
"I see." Tseng sighed, again. "I can't say that I'm happy about this. I'll likely never meet this girl, and I have to accept that she's going to influence your decisions, and your judgment."
"I'm still a Turk," Reno repeated, a little more firmly than before. "I don't think you understand what that actually means to me, Boss."
"I do," Tseng said. "You are my most trusted Turk, and continue to be so. I don't say that lightly."
"I don't take it lightly," Reno replied. For what it was worth, when there were two other Turks under him. But he wasn't going to nitpick, at this point. "Kinda realized not long ago that I sorta... showed up on this island and let myself stop bein' what I am. I mean, shit, Tseng. I'm a Turk. Sometimes, that's all I got, but maybe now there's somethin' else, too. And... She don't like it, Boss. She doesn't have to like it. I got somethin' to do, and I'm still doin' it. Just... there's a fuckload of things to dig through, and I'm takin' 'em as they're thrown at me and I got no clue where to start otherwise."
Deep breath. Take a moment to assimilate the fact that he just spat all of that out. At his boss. Okay then.
"Start at the beginning," Tseng said, nodding. "I do trust your judgment." For now, as it stood, but there was nothing to be gained by adding that. "And I know what you're experiencing. That's why I'm asking you to be more forthright with me. I could offer assistance, or advice, instead of you and I constantly being at one another's throats."
"Aw, but there ain't no fun in that," Reno joked. For all the breakthrough they'd just managed to make, he was, after all, still Reno. "I'll. Uh. From here on in? Maybe ... somethin'." Cusadrehk. "I'll figure it out, boss. It's what I do, yo."
"I have complete faith in you," Tseng said. Back to that dry tone again. "Keep me informed on all developments. On any front."
"Yes, sir," Reno replied, grinning a bit in spite of himself. "Next time the faculty goes evil or the stonework starts eatin' people, you'll be the first to know."
"Very well," Tseng said.
And then it was just Reno again, holding the phone for a moment after the click, wrapping his brain around what the hell had just happened there.
He closed his phone, stared at it for a while, and then finally set it on his nightstand.
"Huh," he grunted, not making much progress on the brain-wrapping front.
...
"Huh."
[I have no idea how this managed to get so huge. Tseng was played by the ever-awesome![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
the_merriest, and Reno's door is shut. Interaction comes with a warning of extreme I-work-and-then-do-radio-tonight slowplay. But OOC is always welcome, if you make it through this monster. Also, pretend that the subject line always had Reno in his own room. Wtf, typeyfingers.]
Today, he had spent most of the morning doing the same thing.
He had to write a report on this. This whole incident involving the vice-principal. If he didn't, Tseng would find out anyhow, stubborn ass that he was, and that would be a one-way ticket right back to ShinRa and Healin and the Turks and Edge, never to return. And it wasn't really that he didn't ever want to go back. Gaia was home, after all, and he was damn proud to be a Turk. It was just that, after the conversation he'd had with Rikku two nights ago regarding the mortality rate of people in his particular line of work, getting dragged back now would just be rotten timing. And he'd miss her. A lot.
He took a deep breath. Okay. He could do this. He'd do this, and then he'd brace himself for the phone call that was damn near inevitable, because there was something about fighting a hell-god down in his own domain that Reno figured Tseng was going to have to clear up far more quickly than e-mail would allow.
Tseng.
report days early because this isn't a weekly, its an incident report. figure you'll want details over phone. will give more thorough report with weekly. Hands njured. typing sucks.
Monsters swarmed island over weeknd. Vice-principal tried to take control. people abducted- living nightmares.
Wentonrescuemissiontohell.
everything is back to normal!!!
Reno
.... Yes. That would do.
Reno sighed, hit send, set his phone on the nightstand next to his head, and shut his eyes. He didn't have to wait too long, of course. The phone rang, Tseng's ringtone, Reno answered it, and then was greeted by the sound of a long, patient silence on the other end. Nothing like a long stretch of nothing to get words tumbling from Reno's mouth, and Tseng knew it.
"So. Uh. I think they do better background checks on the faculty now since the VP was the god of the underworld or whatever." It was probably the best that Reno could do, given the silence. He was met with.. More silence. And so, in true Reno fashion, he continued to babble. "......... And my jacket got burned. Maybe send me a couple more?"
"I would like for you to back up to the bit where you mentioned 'hell.'" Good old Tseng, cutting right to the chase like that.
"Kinda came to me this time, anyhow. So it wasn't a huge stretch walkin' down the stairway while someone sang somethin' about a slinky." Reno waited. That long pause there, he figured, could only be the long pause that happened when Tseng pinched the bridge of his nose. He listened to the boss exhale before he continued. "Totally took out a centaur on my own. Was pretty badass."
"Yes. So you went looking for trouble."
"Trouble came lookin' for me. I just happened to find it first."
"The centaur, of course, came to you."
"He did! I was walkin' down the street, and he was followin' me." The next long pause was that silence that was reserved for Tseng calling bullshit and waiting for Reno to incriminate himself further. It was a good call, really. Eventually, Reno always filled the silence with more words. "He was easier to take down than a behemoth or whatever, anyhow." More silence. "...Not that I ever went chasin' behemoths." And more silence, still. "...Really."
"Reno." Tseng was using that no-nonsense voice again. The one that always made Reno speculate about the length of stick someone had shoved up his ass. "I know you labor under the misapprehension that you are amusing. You aren't."
"The vice-principal was tryin' to turn the island into hell." Reno's own tone had gone tense, now. He hated, hated, hated these calls from Tseng, ever since the first one he'd gotten from the boss since he arrived on Fandom. They always seemed to go downhill. This one wasn't shaping up to be an exception of any sort. "I helped do somethin' about it, because he was bringin' it to us anyhow, and there was some shit about whatever his domain touched..." Yeah. Reno could tell that this wasn't helping his situation any. "Couldn't be avoided."
"And your phone was broken." This was, of course, not in any way meant to be a trap. Oh, no. Not coming from Tseng, aimed toward Reno, after a history of Reno neglecting to inform him of dangerous happenings on the island before leaping in to get involved in them against orders.
Never.
"Nah." Reno would just nip it in the bud. Take that, Boss. "Phone totally worked. Didn't feel like sendin' you a text this time around just so you could bark orders I was gonna ignore anyhow."
"So," Tseng replied, after taking a moment to assimilate what he'd just heard, "you do, at least, realize that I'm livid, at this moment."
"When aren't you?"
"When my Turks follow the orders they are given." Tseng's voice had that dangerous edge to it. The one that tended to be reserved for anyone who was making a point to push their luck relentlessly when dealing with him. People like Reno, for example.
"You wanna cut my pay again, get it over with now so I know how much ramen to buy. I wasn't up for livin' in Hell, and I wasn't up for leavin', so I made a choice, fought a fuckin' god, and pulled someone outta hell while I was at it. Worth losin' the Gil." It had been. Every last bit of it. Even if he lost half a decade of ponytail growth in the process. That part had sucked.
"You fought a god."
"Annoyed him, more like it." Reno was making a point to enjoy this. If Tseng was going to use his cranky voice on him, then Reno was going to milk it for all it was worth.
"You chased down centaurs, walked into Hell, you fought a god." Tseng, of course, never did seem to see it Reno's way. "You hid this information from me because you knew I would object. This is, of course, only one part of your larger pattern of lying and withholding relevant information. This is nicely accompanied by your failure to make any meaningful progress on this assignment."
"You wanna define 'meaningful,' or you just not usin' the information I been sendin' in my other reports?" Reno's voice was all spit and venom, now. "Solar power in the middle of the desert ain't efficient enough fuel source to tide people over with? Damn. And here I thought I was on to something." Then his tone went dry. Sandpaper-thick and aimed at Tseng's face as if it could possibly reach. "Guess that holy gem wasn't worth sendin' me here for, either. Well, shit. And next I was gonna include the write-up on how they stripped a god of his invincibility, but I guess you don't wanna hear that either, Tseng."
Fuck you, Tseng. Fuck you.
"What I want is you packed and waiting for Rude when he arrives."
Fuck you sideways. With a Buster Sword.
"And sometimes," Reno spat, growing a backbone he wasn't aware even he had, "we can't all get what we want."
"Being your boss does allow me a certain amount of leeway on that front."
"You and which army, boss?" ShinRa had fallen, SOLDIER had disbanded, there wasn't so much as an infantryman or ShinRa security guard on the planet anymore, and there wasn't a Turk alive who would even agree to hunt Reno down. He'd been chewing on that answer for months, now. And even so, it surprised the hell out of Reno when it finally came out of his mouth.
Evidentally, it seemed to catch Tseng off-guard, too. There was another pause before he found words again, himself.
"..... Is that what this has come to?"
"I'm still a Turk." Reno set his jaw and took a deep breath, wrestling down the butterflies and the bile and the sweat on his palms. At this point, what did he have to lose? "Your second-in-command and damn proud of what I am. I don't ever remember when bein' all that meant rollin' over and playin' dead when gettin' involved actually mattered."
"You're a Turk." Tseng's replies were becoming more and more strained, now. "We're running a little low on them at the moment."
"So hire more." Reno was spitting out bullshit again. Being difficult and he knew it. But Tseng had called him on his loyalties, first, and now he was making this out to be some kind of mercy mission. Keep Reno alive, like Reno needed the coddling. Bastard. For all the coddling he ever got when they were actually still doing work that could be considered dangerous. Beating double-agents into submission and forcing innocent human beings into disgusting genetic experiments, and now was the time to start pretending like the Turks needed to have their hands held. "Didn't have a problem findin' Elena after the plate came down."
The planet coming down was far, far different than the fall of just one sector of Midgar, at Reno's own hands.
"Damn it, Reno. This assignment is bullshit and you know it." There was so much emotion in Tseng's voice that Reno almost felt the need to get up and write this date down on the calendar. It wasn't much emotion. It was barely a shift in tone coupled with words Reno hadn't figured he'd ever hear from his boss' mouth. But it was huge, for Tseng. "I'm tolerating it, but my patience is wearing thin. You insist on provoking me and flaunting your irresponsibility. I'm not losing another Turk."
...
Huge, for Tseng. Reno had to take a moment to take a breath and gather his wits before he could even pretend he was alright to continue on with this particular conversation.
Okay. Okay, he was good.
"You sent me to this place as a Turk, on a Turk assignment. Told me to get info, told me to fit in." Reno took another moment, looking for the words, trying to get his point across without causing another train wreck that would leave one or the both of them puking in the wastebasket after this talk was through. "Fittin' in means I become one of them. Fittin' in means if Hell rises up to meet me, I'm not gonna hide in my dorm room pretendin' nothin's goin' on outside. Wouldn't be the assignment. Wouldn't be me either. Threw enough of myself away over this." This. This. This Turk bullshit. This tearing the world apart for ShinRa. This killing and torturing and sucking everything dry, leaving himself just as dead inside as the whole damn world was now. This. "Fuckin' sick of it, Tseng."
"So you chase down hell gods and mock them because you don't give a damn any more." Tseng's tone was edging back to the side of reason. Back to that dangerous, determined place where he was going to start coming up with valid reasons that Reno wouldn't be able to brush aside even if he had a crowbar and all the time in the world to try. "All the more reason I need you here, where I can see you."
But there was a flaw in Tseng's reason, wasn't there? Something that Reno picked on and dug his teeth into and was going to tear apart come hell or high water if he could.
Tseng had made the mistake of thinking that Reno didn't give a damn anymore. That being tired meant he was trying to find an easy end.
That was Reno six months ago.
Tseng couldn't have been any more wrong, now.
"No, Tseng." Reno's voice found a level of certainty that he hadn't been aware he even had in him, anymore. "I chase down hell gods because if I don't, maybe there won't be enough. And then this place falls. And then he's still around, and he's got access to everywhere. And then it's you chasin' down hell gods instead. I chase down hell gods because I can't walk down the fuckin' street to get a drink because there are gryphons and one-eyed giants runnin' around, and they don't belong here. I chase 'em down because they make off with people who don't deserve to get trapped inside their own heads just because they didn't have someone there to pull 'em out sooner. This ain't a fuckin' game, Tseng. This ain't just I woke up one day and decided I was sick of livin', so maybe I should take on a God. I ain't woke up without a reason to breathe in months now."
Tseng fell silent. He had his careful argument planned out. He was waiting for Reno to finish so he could destroy his arguments, one by one. And then that last sentence managed to hit him square in the chest.
..........
"Start at the beginning. The assistant principal ... opened a portal to hell."
..........
Well. That wasn't the response that Reno had been expecting. He could barely remember what he had said, himself, now. He spoke what he felt and his brain only had say in the matter now and again. But he was going to have to pick it all apart again later and figure out what in the world had managed to break Tseng's head like that.
"Yeah. Vice Principal. Been bidin' his time waitin' to take his domain from down below to up top. Started small, few spirits or whatever, floatin' around. And then he sent up monsters, and people started disappearin'."
"Who disappeared?" This right here, this was Reno's get-out-of-jail-free card. If it was that girlfriend of his, now was the time for Reno to say it, and Tseng wouldn't even bitch about it.
Crazy, then, how Reno didn't need to use that card.
"Some of the faculty, bunch of the students, and this newbie I kinda been keepin' an eye out for." No Rikku, anywhere in that sentence. No throwing himself into Tartarus over the girl that had supposedly clouded his judgment. Somehow, there was a note of victory in Reno's voice as he told Tseng who was down there. Most of the people trapped in the catacombs, Reno hadn't really had a chance to meet outside of class, even.
And Tseng was well-aware of Reno's protective streak, so far as newbies were concerned. It usually kept them alive.
"The people who disappeared. Where were they taken?"
"Buncha' cells down below. Way down below." Reno was answering the questions now just as easily as he would at any formal debriefing. They weren't attacks on his loyalty. This wasn't a test to try to rope him into being pulled back to Edge. "Wasn't hard to get in, really. Hades left the door wide open for anyone who wanted to wander through... Not the same Hades as the summon, though."
"More powerful, or less? You mentioned he was a deity." Tseng paused for a moment before asking another question, as well. "Why did you fight him?"
"Didn't turn nobody into a frog." The Gaia version of Hades evidentally had a sick sense of humor. "But he was playin' with all of us. Nobody died." This was said with an air of wonderment to it, actually. Reno was far more used to casualties. Especially where fighting the gods was concerned. "More powerful, I'm gonna say. In different ways." He stopped, mulling over that other question. The important one. The why, which Reno knew damn well had the potential to pull the conversation into dangerous territory all over again. But there was an obvious answer. The truth. "Someone had to fight him while others snuck off to free the abducted, yoto. We took turns at him."
"And you couldn't be one who snuck off." Of course not. Tseng was talking to Reno, after all. "... Was everyone rescued?"
"Everyone. Everyone got outta there alive."
There was the sort of long pause that only happened when Tseng was scrambling for words. "That's ... impressive."
Reno wasn't even going to pretend to mask how proud he was when he opened his mouth again.
"Alive, and nobody's missing any limbs or any shit, and did I mention someone made the invincible god vulnerable and they shot him in the ass?"
This was a huge deal, okay?
"You were going to tell me how."
"I was gonna write up the report on how. I was on the raiding team, not the away mission. Gotta ask around, first."
"I see. You signed up to go beat on a hell god."
"I signed up to go get people back alive." There was a clear distinction, here. Reno hadn't marched down there with the sole intent to smack Hades around. If it had been so simple, he might have even sat it out.
"You weren't one who got people back alive; you were letting a hell god abuse you so others could." And there they were again, with Tseng coming up with reason after reason to tell Reno he was being irresponsible. Excuses to pull him back.
Reno didn't need any godsdamned coddling.
".... Got one person back. After he was done with me. She was... pretty bad off."
That, clearly, was yet another response that Tseng hadn't been expecting.
"....How bad?"
"Physically, just fine. It's what they did to her head that..." Reno drew in a deep breath. This was hard, putting his head back there. Back in front of Alice, with her fire and screaming and jumping, and her Card Guards and Red Queens. "Pulled her outta bein' catatonic. Pulled her outta talkin' in fantasy and rhyme and denyin' that any of anything at all was real, and I walked her outta there."
He had made her stand up. And he had made her walk herself out of there.
There was a very long pause, there, too. Tseng had broken people, before. Reno had, too. Sometimes it was the job, and the job sucked. It was ... never pretty.
"... That's ... impressive, as well."
"She looked better for it. I dunno how. Just... She said she let 'em die. I told her she could sit there, or she could get up and atone for it, and that kinda..." Reno gave a shrug of his shoulders. ".... Was really somethin'. And she's a good kid. Just busted up a whole lot."
This. This was a huge pause. Tseng didn't know how to put words to this pause. To hear this coming, so glibly, from Reno, who was so broken, and yet ... healing?
".... I imagine it would be something. A way to pull someone out of crippling guilt." One Tseng would have to remember.
"She stood up, thanked me, and we walked outta there."
"You've had quite a weekend." He couldn't do justice to what he was feeling in words. That would have to suffice.
"Hell of a weekend. Had some potions handy, took care of most of the burns. Got off pretty easy."
"And you wake up with reasons to breathe." That bore going back to.
".... Yeah. Yeah, I do that, too."
There was another long pause, before either one of them managed to find words again. It was Tseng who happened to find them, first.
"Reno. I think it would serve both of us well if you were more forthcoming in the future."
".... So you can keep tellin' me to keep my nose outta things like this, and then threaten to pull me?"
"So you can tell me when you stop having reason to breathe."
... Oh.
"Don't know that I'm gonna."
"You didn't tell me last time," Tseng pointed out. And then he paused again, mulling over his next words carefully. "I'm not ... unsympathetic to your situation."
"This is a situation, now," Reno asked, lifting an eyebrow as he struck up the defensive again. Nothing like this ever came without a catch. "Is it?"
"Isn't it?"
"Don't see why it would be. Guess it depends what you consider 'a situation.'"
"Divided loyalties. Outside interests. A romantic entanglement." Just like that. So damn simple and so damn Tseng, it almost made Reno laugh aloud the moment it had left Tseng's lips.
"Entanglement? That's a hell of a word for 'Reno got himself a girlfriend,' ain't it?"
"Very well." Tseng was used to Reno. By that point, he really should have been. "Divided loyalties. Outside interests." His tone became so very dry. "And Reno got himself a girlfriend."
Oh, good. If Tseng was a landmass, he'd be a freaking desert. And somehow, someone would find a big stick. And would find the ass of the desert, and would find a way to shove a big stick up the ass of the desert. Of this, Reno was sure.
"So, where you figure my loyalties are divided to, boss?"
"Between your assignment and this island that you've been assigned to." Tseng loosed a grumbling sort of sigh. "Must this be a war?"
"You keep makin' it one. You think I'm loyal to the Turks or don't you?"
"I believe you've added to the number of things you're loyal to since you took this assignment."
"That ain't what I asked." Reno was getting annoyed, now. Ask a question, get a runaround. Good old ShinRa, telling you what you needed to know only when it did them any good since... a long, long freaking time ago. "You figure my loyalty to The Turks is in question?"
"Your loyalties are divided. Can you contest that?"
"I dunno, Tseng." Reno rolled his eyes, not even making an effort to mask the annoyance that was creeping back into his voice. "You keep usin' big words on me, I might never follow you again."
"I was trying to speak with you," Tseng replied after a long, deep sigh, "on a personal level. Obviously, you aren't interested, and I'm wasting my time."
"You wanna talk to me on a personal level, you don't start by insultin' me, Tseng. Don't work too hot."
"'I'm not unsympathetic to your situation.' I can see where my harsh words have hurt your delicate feelings." Tseng was getting grumpy now. Moreso than usual. Reno was going out of his way, clearly, to make this conversation as miserable as he possibly could.
"You started explainin' your sympathy by tellin' me I wasn't loyal to the Turks. That just warms me in all those little fuzzy spots, yoto."
"No. I stated that, and you became abrasive. Is it that upsetting to have someone imply that you care for more than just your job?"
"It's a situation, is it?" Reno's brain was clearly not running on logic that remotely resembled Tseng-logic. "Like, Reno gives a damn about somethin' that ain't ShinRa. Reno ain't a good Turk. Reno's a liability. Reno's gotta get put down. I danced this dance before, boss. It always leads to the next step right after you admit to takin' the first one."
Tseng's next reply had to wait a moment. He was too busy pinching his nose and wondering if he could call Reno home just long enough to throttle him to be able to speak again.
"It's a situation. It's a potential conflict of interest. It was certainly a conflict of interest when I developed feelings for someone ShinRa was surveilling, and lied about the situation as long as possible to protect her."
...
...
...
Reno's brain had to stop and jump-start itself again after that statement. It hadn't been any secret among the Turks that Tseng was hot over that Ancient. He'd just shut off entirely if Aerith ever came up in conversation. He'd hang around the outside of that stupid Sector Five church day in and out, trying to convince her to come over to ShinRa's side peacefully, instead of dragging her off. But he'd never, ever acknowledged it. Tseng, talking about his feelings, or even admitting that he had any was enough to send Reno's head spiralling about for a moment.
"Yeah. Well. I ain't you."
It was the best that Reno could come up with. And it damn near had Tseng breathing fire when he replied.
"I am painfully aware of that, Reno."
"Good." Good. This was good, wasn't it? Somehow, on some weird, insane level, this was a good thing? Reno was going to push to find out. Because that was just how Reno rolled. "Then maybe you can answer what I been askin' you. You think I'm not loyal to the Turks because of this? You figure I'm gonna drop everything to run the fuck away and be with her, or whatever?"
"I have no idea. I didn't know she existed until you turned into a grade schooler." Okay. Reno had to admit that maybe Tseng had a point, there. "She's important enough that when I mention her, you become angry."
"She's..." Reno hesitated for a moment. And then finally, finally, he relented. "She's a lotta things. But she doesn't mean I'm not loyal to the Turks, first. You call me back, I'll go. I'll fuckin' hate you forever if you're pullin' me for anything but an actual assignment. But I'll go."
"Reno. This is why I'd like for you to be more forthcoming. Because I understand your situation." Tseng was going to say situation again, dammit. "Because I had matters of my loyalties going against my own feelings, and it was a difficult experience that ended badly."
Badly. Yeah, there was an understatement if ever Reno had heard one. They'd had to grab the ancient while the plate was coming down. It couldn't be put off anymore, really. Go figure she had time to make friends with AVALANCHE before then. They busted her out, for all the good it did. After all, she was pretty damn dead, now.
Reno had to shut up. He had to take a moment to pause, mulling this over. He didn't for the life of him know if he was going to open his mouth and have the wrath of Tseng fall on his head for just breathing, here.
And then it hit him.
"Holy shit. This is turnin' into sharing and caring time or something, zoto."
Whoa.
Wait.
Uh.
"You have, at least, retained your ability to make me regret my attempts at communicating with you."
"Good to know I ain't lost my touch?"
"Have you anything useful to contribute?"
Actually, Reno did, didn't he? And for him, this was huge. Still eating at his head and turning the whole situation- damn it, it was a situation, wasn't it?- upside-down.
"She offered to give herself up to the devil if it'd keep me from havin' to go back to Edge, play ShinRa's stooge, and die stupidly young."
...
"Reno?"
...
"Yeah?"
"You do understand why I say that you have divided loyalties." This was a calm sort of note, even coming from Tseng.
"Do I?"
Did he?
"She offered to hand herself to this deity you were fighting, to free you from your contract with us. Can you say you wouldn't do something similar on her behalf?"
She had offered Reno an Out. Rikku had offered Reno a way to never have to walk back into hell. By potentially handing herself over to Hell. Did Reno have anything in the world that he would give up in a heartbeat that was anything remotely close to what it was that she had wanted to give him?
He did.
".... I'd go back to work for ShinRa if it meant she didn't have to hand herself over to Hades."
Reno could have been free.
But it would have been at the cost of Rikku.
The price had been too damn steep.
"I see." Tseng sighed, again. "I can't say that I'm happy about this. I'll likely never meet this girl, and I have to accept that she's going to influence your decisions, and your judgment."
"I'm still a Turk," Reno repeated, a little more firmly than before. "I don't think you understand what that actually means to me, Boss."
"I do," Tseng said. "You are my most trusted Turk, and continue to be so. I don't say that lightly."
"I don't take it lightly," Reno replied. For what it was worth, when there were two other Turks under him. But he wasn't going to nitpick, at this point. "Kinda realized not long ago that I sorta... showed up on this island and let myself stop bein' what I am. I mean, shit, Tseng. I'm a Turk. Sometimes, that's all I got, but maybe now there's somethin' else, too. And... She don't like it, Boss. She doesn't have to like it. I got somethin' to do, and I'm still doin' it. Just... there's a fuckload of things to dig through, and I'm takin' 'em as they're thrown at me and I got no clue where to start otherwise."
Deep breath. Take a moment to assimilate the fact that he just spat all of that out. At his boss. Okay then.
"Start at the beginning," Tseng said, nodding. "I do trust your judgment." For now, as it stood, but there was nothing to be gained by adding that. "And I know what you're experiencing. That's why I'm asking you to be more forthright with me. I could offer assistance, or advice, instead of you and I constantly being at one another's throats."
"Aw, but there ain't no fun in that," Reno joked. For all the breakthrough they'd just managed to make, he was, after all, still Reno. "I'll. Uh. From here on in? Maybe ... somethin'." Cusadrehk. "I'll figure it out, boss. It's what I do, yo."
"I have complete faith in you," Tseng said. Back to that dry tone again. "Keep me informed on all developments. On any front."
"Yes, sir," Reno replied, grinning a bit in spite of himself. "Next time the faculty goes evil or the stonework starts eatin' people, you'll be the first to know."
"Very well," Tseng said.
And then it was just Reno again, holding the phone for a moment after the click, wrapping his brain around what the hell had just happened there.
He closed his phone, stared at it for a while, and then finally set it on his nightstand.
"Huh," he grunted, not making much progress on the brain-wrapping front.
...
"Huh."
[I have no idea how this managed to get so huge. Tseng was played by the ever-awesome
the_merriest, and Reno's door is shut. Interaction comes with a warning of extreme I-work-and-then-do-radio-tonight slowplay. But OOC is always welcome, if you make it through this monster. Also, pretend that the subject line always had Reno in his own room. Wtf, typeyfingers.]