Chapter Text
Tseng corners Reno a bit faster than he really expects.
“A word, if you will?” the man asks, like Reno has any real choice in the matter, and starts to walk before Reno even answers.
Shit , Reno thinks, sighing quietly and turning back from where he was just ready to head home for the night after giving his report on the Ancient girl’s daily activities.
The Shinra building is still awash with activity as employees from various departments (most from Tuesti’s) scramble to get plans in place for the reconstruction of the Sector 1 Reactor. Honestly, if the Turk was a little less jaded and a little more sentimental, he’d be impressed by just how dedicated and resilient the regular employees of the Shinra building are. One thing that Reno has come to understand from his time with the company, is that there’s a world of difference between the types of people that work standard nine to five hours for Shinra and the upper echelon of the company. It’s almost enough to make him feel a bit of sympathy for the stressed and weary-eyed accountants that he and Tseng pass on their way to the elevators. Just almost though.
They have good reason to be stressed, he figures. As Reno understands, the hold-up is getting funding redirected from Public Security and Weapons development to throw towards both cleaning up the Plate around the Reactor and trying to salvage the Reactor itself. And that’s no small ask, because Weapons Development (and Public Security to a lesser extent) have been eating up the Shinra budget ever since that whole fiasco with the Genesis Clones, and either Scarlet or Heidegger have managed to convince the President that this investment in Shinra’s Military is the best choice.
Reno finds himself lazily examining Tseng as they step onto the elevator that will carry them back to the Turk’s floor.
Heidegger definitely wants War, Scarlet likely just wants an excuse to flex her power and an outlet for her sadistic tendencies, and the President has to be going along with it because he sees more money and resources at the end of it. So what are the Turks going to do in all of this?
If Tseng notices Reno watching him, he doesn’t react, body relaxed and face the picture of serenity. It used to creep Reno out honestly, just how impassive Tseng is by nature, but he’s long since gotten used to it. Hell, it's even made him feel better about things on occasion when he’s certain that he and Tseng are agreeing on something.
But, if Tseng is calling him in to ask about what Reno thinks he’s going to ask about, then this may be one of the rare occasions where they have very different opinions about something, and Reno’s not looking forward to it.
“Something very curious has happened,” Tseng begins when they’re in place in his office. Rather than sit behind his desk, he sits on one of the arm chairs and gestures for Reno to sit on the couch across from him.
“Yeah?” the redhead asks, flopping down on the couch carelessly. Inwardly, his defenses are raised. Tseng only chooses to sit directly across from them without his desk as a barrier when he’s in interrogation mode.
“You’re familiar with Ignis Scientia?” Tseng asks, staring at him.
“‘Course, yo.” Reno nods, “Haven’t seen him in a hot minute, but I remember the kid.”
“Hmm,” Tseng hums thoughtfully, “well he’s recently returned from his medical leave. I received a formal request from Heidegger to temporarily place him under Public Security purview so that he may assist them as an analyst while they attempt to flush out and destroy Avalanche.”
Reno only nods. They both know that anything Heidegger wants the Turks to do lately is not at all a “request”.
“So for the time being, he reports directly to Heidegger,” Tseng explains uselessly, like Reno doesn’t already know what it means for a Turk to be requisitioned by one of the Department Heads. “But all of his reports still come to me afterwards.”
“This about something in his report yo?”
“Prompto Strife.”
Reno feels a headache coming on, but studiously keeps it from showing on his face. “What about him, yo?”
“Would you remind me of the details of your last encounter with him?” Tseng asks serenely. Reno nearly huffs. Tseng has an eidetic memory, he never needs reminding of anything.
“Wasn’t nothing special yo,” Reno plays along anyway. “Caught up with the kid halfway between Fort Condor and the Mythril Caverns,” he recites, “and he wasn’t about to come quietly.”
“You two fought, correct?”
“Sure did,” the redhead nods, “we trained that kid well, he gave me a run for my money.”
“And?” Tseng asks expectantly, and Reno puts on a suitably sheepish expression for his response.
“I fucked up, yo.” He says with a small shrug, “hesitated when I shouldn’t have, and he got away from me.”
“Right, I remember now.” Tseng bullshits. “You found it difficult to terminate someone who’d been under your direct supervision for such a long time.”
“Told y’all I wasn’t cut out for training.”
“And if I’m remembering correctly,” Tseng looks up thoughtfully, “you stated in your report that Strife left his fight with you severely injured with no curative materia or restoratives and headed for the Mythril Caverns.”
“Right,” Reno responds, keeping his face carefully relaxed.
“It was your opinion as both an experienced and tenured Turk as well as hisTraining Facilitator and Mentor, that Prompto Strife would not survive the trip, no?”
“If the monsters in the cave didn’t take him out,” Reno states, “then the Zolom sure would have. Kid didn’t have access to a chocobo, and we had eyes on both sides of the cave by the next morning.”
“And so,” Tseng looks back down at Reno’s face, “it was your direct recommendation that we halt pursuit when he didn’t turn up on either side of the Mythril Caverns nor the cave itself when after two days of searching for him.”
Reno shrugs. “Thought he probably leant into his stubborn streak and kept going when he could barely defend himself, yo. Seemed likely that he got ate by the Zolom, especially if he kept goin’ that same night.”
“And thus Prompto Strife was taken off the ‘active pursuit’ list and placed instead on the ‘ presumed dead ’ list,” Tseng concludes, “he remained on the ‘ kill-on-sight ’ list on the off chance he survived his circumstances.”
“Ya see,” Reno grins, “you remember just fine, yo.”
“I suppose that I do,” Tseng says plainly, “though there’s something that I neglected to ask you about when you first gave your report.”
“Ok,” Reno shrugs again, “go for it.”
“Ignis Scientia tried to stop Prompto Strife before he left Wutai.”
“Yeah,” the redhead acknowledges, “and he got his ass kicked for it.”
“Crass, but true.” Tseng says, “Ignis was not prepared to fight someone with Prompto’s particular enhancements, and he mistakenly assumed that Prompto would at least hesitate before using lethal force.”
“Fat chance that would have happened boss,” Reno snorts, “the kid had literally just found out that you and Scientia were forging emails from his bro and had been for god knows how long. He was pissed, Ignis never should have tried to take him alone.”
“It was a miscalculation on our part certainly,” Tsneg nods, “though we at least expected that we would have had another few months before Prompto came to that conclusion.”
Reno says nothing to that, recognizing that the conversation is moving into dangerous territory for him. Instead he attempts to redirect.
“I don’t know how Scientia didn’t think to prepare for Strife’s enhancements,” Reno mutters, “we all knew that the kid had mako enhancements comparable to SOLDIERs.”
“Though they seemed to have manifested in him very differently than they do in SOLDIER,” Tseng nods.
Reno had noticed, of course, even before he’d been officially read into Prompto’s mako injections. The kid had been way too strong for his tiny frame, though not quite to the level of SOLDIER. He was damn fast too, could almost keep up with Reno at times. But what had clued Reno and Rude into the fact that the kid had to have been enhanced prior to coming under their watch was the fact that Prompto could tank hits that would lay men twice his size flat and get right back up as though nothing happened.So it hadn’t come as a surprise when they’d been told that Prompto had been flagged for some type of experiment that Shinra had done way back then and that mako was involved.
They’d never been read into the exact nature of the experiment that resulted in the kid’s capabilities, but whatever the hell it was, the project had been abruptly shut down when the Genesis Clones started to become a bigger issue and they had to divert staffing. With that, Prompto Strife had been dumped into their laps to be watched without any memory or practical knowledge about what had happened to him.
Reno’s always thought that the kid found out, and that’s what led to him digging around and eventually finding out that he was partnered with Scientia in Wutai specifically for the purpose of recording the ultimate results of the experiment.
Because even though Tseng had never said anything, Reno could read between the lines. Ignis Scientia was plucked from Analytics and pushed into the Turks specifically for the purpose of watching Prompto Strife and reporting his findings back to whatever creep in the Science Department was responsible for overseeing that unknown experiment. If there was anything about the scientists that Shinra employed that was true across the board, it was that they never simply stopped trying out their crazy ideas, even if ordered to do so.
“So taking into account the injuries that Scientia came out of his encounter with,” Tseng is still talking, and Reno hopes that they’re getting to the meat of this conversation soon because thinking about all of this really is giving him a massive fucking headache. “I’ve always found it curious that you came out of your fight with him almost completely unscathed.”
There it is.
“You think that he’s around.” Reno says plainly.
Tseng merely arches one perfect eyebrow and stares.
“You think that he’s around,” the redhead continues, “and you want to know if the reason he’s still around is because I let him go.”
“You have to admit that it’s curious,” Tseng says calmly, “I’ve met and seen Prompto fight myself, after all. You outclassed him in skill and experience, but his fighting abilities expanded exponentially during his time in Wutai, a time that you were completely absent from in the last two years. It stands to reason that you would have at least been roughed up a bit if you were able to injure him to the point of barely being able to defend himself like your report suggested.”
“So?” Reno asks, mildly impatient now that they’ve both stopped talking around this.
“So,” Tseng’s voice is firm, “Reno. Did you lie on your report? Did you let Prompto Strife go?”
Reno sighs heavily, but doesn’t look away from Tseng’s gaze as he answers.
“Yeah, I let him go.”
…
There’s a nervous energy about Tifa as they make their way down the train car.
Cloud has to wonder whether or not it’s really good for her to be doing this, since it’s clearly not something that she fully believes in. He can’t proclaim to be an expert on Tifa or anything, not after they’ve spent so much time apart, but he can definitely say that this whole Avalanche thing isn’t like her.
Going through town with her the day before, helping out the townsfolk with their problems, most petty but some not, that’s what Cloud expects from the Tifa that he knows. Living a quiet yet fulfilling life using her skills to help people out. It’s the type of person he remembers her being, and though his head tries to split itself in two every time he tries to call up specific instances from their past that supports that idea, her actions now support the idea enough all on their own. Tifa isn’t meant to be going around laying down bombs, Cloud wonders why she planned on coming along in the first place.
Maybe as a favor to Barret, the ex-SOLDIER wonders briefly as he watches the very man stride confidently and cross over into the next car, no mind at all for the people that stare at him as he walks past.
Thinking of the men who’d come around asking questions the night before makes Cloud feel his own type of nervous energy, and he can’t help but wish that Barret would at least try to be a bit more subtle. It’s no surprise at all that Tifa ends up asking him to keep an eye on the man. Cloud reluctantly agrees and moves to tell his brother that he’s switching cars.
Prompto is sitting leisurely on one of the benches, seemingly calm and unbothered by their mission. But as Cloud focuses on him a little more, he can see that Prompto’s quietly fiddling with a band around his wrist. A sure sign of his own nervousness, if Cloud’s remembering correctly.
“You good?” he asks instinctively when he steps up next to Prompto, eyes tracing his brother for any more signs of tension.
“Yeah,” Prompto grins, bright and happy and fake. “‘Course I’m good, dude.”
“Prompto.”
“What?” His brother’s time in the Turks has certainly sharpened his skills of putting on a carefree face, but Cloud still knows better. Even after five years, Prompto’s kept his habit of concentrating on Cloud’s forehead when he’s not being entirely honest.
“Is it the Reactor?” Cloud asks, “Are you just nervous about being there, or are you still iffy about the plan?”
Prompto looks for one moment like he might protest and try to tell Cloud that he’s fine again. But something in the ex-SOLDIER’s stance must communicate the fact that Cloud’s not moving until his brother gives him a straight answer, because Prompto huffs out a sigh and his smile falls into something a little more strained.
“It’s just jitters,” his brother states, “not anything that’ll affect my performance. But I gotta admit that I’m worried about everything going according to plan. I’ve had some pretty shit luck over the years so far, dude.”
Cloud wants to ask about that, wants to know anything and everything that he can about that so he knows better what he needs to protect Prompto from. But they’re on assignment right now, and the Prompto that Cloud remembers doesn’t like attention being diverted from something important to focus on him. And Cloud figures that they’ve got time, considering it seems like they’re both going to stick around Avalanche for at least a while after this.
Instead of asking, he says, “Yeah, I know the feeling.”
Prompto snorts, and seems for a second like he wants to press for more info himself, but ultimately decides not to as he crosses his arms and grins a little more genuinely.
“Let’s hope that we don’t make each other’s luck worse then,” he says, “I’m really ok though, Cloud. I have the oddest feeling that there’s no way everything goes smooth and easy, but I know that we can figure it out.”
Cloud nods in response, feeling satisfied that Prompto’s no longer fidgeting.
“Now didn’t Tifa ask you to go check on the big guy or something?” Prompto teases, and Cloud can’t do anything but sigh.
“Let’s hope that there’s Shinra employees on here looking to pick a fight,” he mutters, giving his brother a wave moving to cross the cars himself.
It’s in the back of his head to ask Prompto how he’d heard Tifa when she was speaking in just barely over a whisper, but Cloud resolves that it can wait when he realizes that not only is there a Shinra employee looking for a fight in the next car, but that it’s literally one of the same Shinra employees that had antagonized Barret only two nights previous.
Luckily, it’s not at all difficult to calm Barret down. Though the lines of his body are still rigid with tension even as he sits down and gestures for Cloud to do the same. The ex-SOLDIER finds himself morbidly curious to find out what Shinra has done to Barret in the past to make him carry such an air of tragedy about him.
It’s something that Cloud can’t help but notice, that the only time Barret seems to be truly at some form of peace is when he’s around his daughter. And even then, the peace isn’t absolute, because Barret looks over her with such a fierce protectiveness that it's like he’s just waiting for someone to try and take her away from him.
Looking back in the direction of the car that Prompto and Tifa are still in, Cloud can’t help but feel that he’s going to be able to relate to that really soon.
Great , he thinks to himself, Biggs has somehow transferred his worrying to us.
The train ride is uneventful right up until it’s not anymore.
When Cloud goes back to check in with Tifa again and they set off the ID scanners as the train passes them, he knows that it's going to be a long-ass day. As if he shouldn't have already guessed that. What with them being attacked by dusty-looking apparitions not even an hour ago.
“Oh no!” Tifa’s face is panicked as she looks around at the other occupants of the car. Cloud is inclined to agree, because it’s way too risky to be fighting in such close quarters with civilians all around them.
“Shit,” Prompto’s up and next to him nigh instantaneously, “I didn’t think they’d crack the IDs this fast.”
“Are we compromised?” Tifa asks anxiously as the alarms continue to blare.
“As far as our identities go? No.” Prompto assures, “all of the personal info attached to the IDs are forged, and there’ll be no record of your pictures attached to them either.”
There’s something that his brother isn’t saying, but Prompto continues on before Cloud can think to ask about it.
“As far as us right here, right now?” the younger man sighs, “They’re definitely sending sentry bots after us as we speak.”
As though summoned by Prompto’s words, several sentry bots chose that very moment to crash through the windows of the train and hover dangerously in the air. The tense atmosphere brought on by the alarms immediately devolves into full blown panic as the civilians around them scramble and push to get to the next train. Tifa, without any hesitation, begins to help them along.
“You guys have to get rid of them!” she says frantically, “I’ll get the people clear of the next few cars!”
Cloud nods in acknowledgment, brandishing his sword at the bots. They’re small, and probably can’t take too many hits, but there’s a thrum of electricity that dances along their bodies that probably doesn’t bode well for the long run.
“Hard to get a clear shot off here,” Prompto says, stepping back to give Cloud some room. “I’ll get anything that gets past you and your back!”
“Sounds good,” Cloud acknowledges, and darts forward.
The metal plating of the sentry bots isn’t very strong, and one of the three crunches and crackles under one of Cloud’s swings immediately. They don’t shoot bullets at him (thankfully, because getting hit with bullets suck), rather defaulting to some electric pulses that are easy enough to block with the flat of his blade. All in all, they’re bots clearly designed for subduing the everyday pickpocket or trespasser, and they stand no chance against an ex-SOLDIER. Cloud makes quick work of them.
“Nice,” Prompto compliments already backing up to the door, “we gotta keep going, they have cameras on them and more will show up soon. They don’t have good friend or foe recognition protocols, so they’ll definitely fire at civilians if they’re in the way.”
“They’ve probably already started swarming the stations with security,” Cloud adds, following close behind Prompto. “We’re gonna have to either stop the train or jump it.”
“It wouldn’t be good for us to get stuck here with all the people on board.”
“No kidding,” Cloud responds, “they’ll just keep coming.”
Tifa is in the process of convincing the other passengers to keep going when they step into the car. Barret’s at her back, firing at a cluster of sentry bots buzzing about erratically.
“Jumping off a moving train,” Prompto mutters sarcastically, “just what I’ve always dreamed of doing.”
“Think they’ll send anything heavier duty at us?” Cloud asks instead of responding to his brother’s words. Barret seems to have a handle on the bots, and Cloud doesn’t want to get in the way of his fire, so the ex-SOLDIER takes a brief look out of the windows and behind them to see he can detect the signs of anymore approaching.
“Not while we’re on the train, probably.” Prompto muses, “I think that they’ll probably keep sending little guys to try and overwhelm so they can take us out at one of the further stops.”
There’s a crackle and a crash as Barret disables the last of the sentry bots. Cloud looks impassively at the wrecked train car as he and Prompto move forward to Tifa ushering the last of the people into the car ahead of them.
“Not much farther that they can go,” Prompto mutters nervously.
Cloud frowns, realizing that they’re near the front of the train already. They’ve got to clear out. Fast.
In an exercise of annoying-yet-appropriate timing, the windows of the train car they’re currently in shatter as well as more sentry bots crash their way into the area.
“My turn,” Cloud hears just before Tifa darts past them in a flash and intercepts one of the bots with a brutal kick.
The ex-SOLDIER joins her and together they make quick work of the remaining sentries. It’s then that the train gives a lurch and an awful screech. Cloud turns to see that Prompto’s engaged the emergency brakes.
“No time to keep thinking about it,” his brother says, “we really do have to jump off a train right now.”
Cloud merely nods, sheathing his sword and walking briskly over to where Barret is riddling one of the car doors with bullets. It works, and the man’s able to kick out the door with a triumphant noise.
“Ok,” Barret says, some of the power leaving his tone. “It’s just jumping out of the train,” he mutters, “you got this.”
It’s probably not something that Cloud is meant to hear, much like the nervous pacing around that Barret had done when they were in the elevator of an actively exploding Mako Reactor. Much like then though, Barret takes a deep breath and steels himself, vaulting himself off the moving train with a shout. Cloud ignores the jolt in his chest at watching it happen.
“Oh man…” Prompto’s the closest one to the opening after that, walking right up to it and placing his hands on the edge of it anxiously. “I thought I’d have to stop doing crap like this when I left the Turks...go figure.”
Cloud wants to reach out, maybe put a hand on his brother’s shoulder to reassure him and hopefully not clue him in that Cloud’s just as nervous simply watching Prompto about to jump.
But Prompto’s always been the type of person to just do it. Even if it was something that scared him or something that he just didn’t want to do, he’s always had a strong sense of duty and urgency that’s always outweighed his fears. So it’s not really surprising that Prompto takes a split second to look over his shoulders at them with a sharp grin.
Then he jumps.
If watching Barret jump off of the train gave Cloud a minor jolt in his chest, then watching Prompto do it feels like a fucking anvil pressing down on it. Nevertheless, Cloud holds that same sense of duty that Prompto does, so he turns and gestures Tifa on.
It’s hard to remember sometimes that he’s former military. But watching his friend freeze at the opening, watching her stare at the zooming lights of the tunnel pass by them in a blur as the train continues to move at an intimidating pace. Well, that makes his former military status and her civilian status stand out a bit.
I made a promise , Cloud thinks as he grabs Tifa, wraps her up in his arms and throws himself off the train.
He angles his body to take the brunt of the impact, and it’s no fucking walking in the park. The Buster takes most of the force as it clangs harshly against the ground, and Cloud grunts as he moves them in a roll, shielding Tifa to the best of his ability.
The woman in question is breathing heavily, adrenaline no doubt coursing through her form and making it difficult to calm down. Cloud’s patient with her, ignoring the disconcerting sensation of bugs crawling beneath his skin where it meets hers (his head always hurts when tries to remember just what resulted in him having such a strong revulsion to touch), as well as the jittery feeling in the back of his mind that demands that he go look for Prompto to make sure he’s alright. Instead he focuses on the warmth of her skin and the puffs of her breath against his neck. She’s alive, safe.
“You good?” he asks, when she looks up at him.
“Yeah…” Tifa murmurs, giving Cloud that look again. It’s an odd one, some mix of awe and confusion and nostalgia and...longing? Almost.
It makes Cloud immensely uncomfortable, because he feels like he’s missing the context for it, and he doesn’t know what it is she’s looking for when she searches his face like this. Especially when she never seems to find it.
Now is much of the same. Tifa stares and examines his face for a moment, before her own face falls just slightly (or maybe it relaxes? Cloud really doesn’t know how to interpret it. His head hurts) and she pushes off of him.
“Are you ok?” Tifa asks, offering him a hand that he accepts despite the anxious energy set underneath his skin from the prolonged contact.
“I’m fine,” the ex-SOLDIER answers honestly. Whether by the mako enhancements or by sheer luck, Cloud’s only got a few minor scratches to speak of, nothing even worth wasting a potion on.
“That’s a relief,” his friend says, “thanks.”
“Anytime.”
Tifa gives a small smile, before aiming a frown down the tunnel stretched out before them.
“We’re so far behind,” she says quietly, and Cloud just hears the guilt rising in her tone.
“Don’t worry about it,” he says, walking past her a bit to look down the tunnel himself. “We just have to move forward and catch up.”
“I hope that they’re alright,” Tifa mutters, falling into step with him as Cloud begins moving down the tunnel.
“Barret’s tough,” Cloud reminds, “and so’s Prompto.”
He hopes that none of the swelling anxiety he’s feeling at the thought of Prompto getting injured in the fall reaches his voice.
It must not, because Tifa gives a tiny chuckle and says, “Yeah, you’re right. Barret won’t go down without a fight and Prompto’s a professional, like you.”
She sounds confident, which actually settles him in a weird way.
“Yeah,” Cloud responds, “he is.”
…
“The hell you think you’re doin’, yo!?”
“Reno...I just…”
“Fuckin’ every Turk is ion high alert out lookin’ for you right now! And your little performance with Scientia caught the attention of some crazies in the Science department too!”
“...Is Ignis going to be ok?”
“ Priorities , kid! Fuckin priorities!”
“...”
“Where do you think you’re goin’ anyway!? To Midgar !? That’s fuckin’ crazy, kid!”
“I need to find my brother.”
“He’s probably dead, yo!”
“But you can’t say that for sure, you said yourself that you don’t actually know what happened to him!”
“I know that it can’t be fuckin’ good and that no one’s seen him in years!”
“Well Midgar’s a damn good place to start then!”
“What the hell are you gonna do, Prompto? Tear into the Shinra building and wreck shit until you find the answers you want?”
“I might just do that!”
“...Fuckin seriously, yo?”
“...Are you going to try and stop me too?”
“You really think you can take me, kid?”
“I think that I’m going to try if you get in my way.”
“...”
“...”
“...Fuck.”
“...Reno? Where are you go-?”
“You fuckin’ stay low, kid. You hear me? You better move fuckin smart as shit because the bigwigs at the company are starting to do some crazy stuff lately.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Wantin’ to go to war with Wutai again is just the tip of the iceberg, yo. I mean it, Prompto. It better be a damn good while before I get Tseng pulling me aside and grilling me about why you’re not dead.”
“...Dead?”
“You think they’re gonna stop looking for you just if I tell ‘em that you got away from me, yo? With your security clearance? Hell no. Find a tiny spot in the Mythril Caverns and stay the hell there for at least four days, use your creepy monster senses or something.”
“And then what?”
“Then nothin’, yo! That’s the best I got for you unless you’re trying to relocate to the Gold Saucer or something.”
“...Ok, got it. Four days.”
“Not a day less, you hear me? Kill anyone that finds you, even if it’s me. Wait, I take that back. Just knock me silly. Rude too. Don’t you dare kill Rude, kid. He still sends you birthday cards, even if he never signs ‘em.”
“...Right.”
“Don’t smile like that, yo. Four days.”
“Four days.”
“Then lay fuckin’ low.”
“Lay fucking low. Got it.”
“Good. Glad we had this little chat, yo.”
“Reno!”
“Whaddya want now? My soul or some shit?”
“...Thanks.”
“...”
“See ya!”
“You better not, yo!”
…
...
…
“Don’t fuckin’ thank me kid, I ain’t done shit for you but what’s owed.”