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The Reaper	By : crystalwind Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 676 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
- 10
- 11
Warnings: Fluffy kittens with killer claws, and not much else :p

Chapter Eight - Pass

The elevator ground to a halt, a cold, mechanical voice announcing that "You have reached the Upper Plate. Please have your pass or government identification ready for inspection." A tired roll of the eyes and flick of a finger greeted the recording's statement, and the elevator's lone passenger straightened up, stretching slowly and grabbing his bags with one hand. He pulled a pass out of his pocket with the other, wondering if the guard outside the elevator would be able to tell that it was forged. The doors grated open, sounding as though the elevator hadn't been used for years.
The guard looked up, taking in the red hair, neat clothing, and dark duffel bags with one bored look before holding out a hand. "Pass or identification." Reno handed him the pass, resisting the urge to kick him in the face instead, and waited while the guard scanned the small card. "Renault Ryker?" Reno nodded, and the guard narrowed his eyes, looking back down at the pass. "19?" Reno rolled his eyes this time, nodding again, and the guard grumbled to himself, scanning over the card one more time. "Well… it looks like this is in order…" He huffed, irritated that he had to let some good-for-nothing slum dweller onto the Upper Plate, and handed the card back, stepping aside to let Reno pass.
Sticking the card back in his pocket, Reno hefted his bags and walked out of the elevator station, not even bothering to look at the guard as he passed by. He even waited until he turned a corner before letting the smirk show on his face. 'Too easy.' Now that he knew he could forge a pass, he'd have ten of them by the end of the week, all with a different name and a different reason for him being on the Upper Plate. He probably wouldn't ever need any of them, but it never hurt to have back-ups, just in case.
The streets of Upper Midgar were quiet, and Reno walked slowly, scanning his surroundings. The elevator had dropped him off in some kind of industrial district, and warehouses and tall office buildings lined the streets. It reminded him eerily of Sector 4, except these buildings were intact, and not abandoned. No dust swirled through the air – the streets were damp, almost slick – but the light quality was much the same as it was below the Plate. The only difference here was that a bank of low-lying clouds provided the dim grayness, not the looming monolith of the Upper Plate. Reno stared at those clouds a little while, wondering what caused them, why they stayed above the city. He could smell the dampness in the air, and wondered if the clouds were the reason the streets were wet. The only time the streets were wet below the Plate was if a pipe or a drain somewhere on the Upper Plate was leaking.
Deciding that he'd find out about the clouds when he got to the Turk Training Center, he let his eyes fall back down to the streets in front of him, making his silent way through the dim maze. The instructions on where to go, as well as the original pass that Dot-Head had given to him, were still in their envelope, tucked away in one of his pockets. He had the directions memorized, and didn't bother pulling the envelope out. He'd worry about which pass to use when he got to the guard shack.

Voices echoed off the walls, the over-sized gym filled with teenagers of varying ages and backgrounds, all trying to have their opinions heard. A few dozen Turks stood along the walls, talking to each other quietly, observing and analyzing the group of teenagers as they waited. A clock on the wall read 1025.
"Why, exactly, are we actually waiting until noon to start the official training?" The question seemed to sum up most of the other teens' agitation, and many who were sitting around the loud brunette nodded in agreement. "I mean, we're seriously waiting for one person? This is probably the first time in history that training has actually started on time, instead of early. What the hell is so special about this one guy that we all have to wait on him?"
A girl piped up. "Is that why we're waiting? I was wondering…" The original speaker nodded.
"Yeah. See, the way this usually works is, the "draftees" show up retardedly early – well, a lot of them are in jail or something anyway, so they don't really have a choice. The volunteers and recruits show up a couple days early, like we're supposed to, for inprocessing. Once everyone who's expected to be here is, well, here, they go ahead and start the intro classes. If any idiot who wants to be here shows up after that, they go through a selection screening to see if the Turks want to bother catching him up, or if they want to send him home and make him try again next selection. They never actually wait to start the intro classes! So, now all of a sudden they have a recruit who couldn't be bothered to show up a couple days early like he was supposed to, and the rest of us are basically screwed because of it." He crossed his arms, scowling, and leaned back in his chair.
"I heard he's from below the Plate," a quiet voice murmured. A shocked silence was quickly followed by a roar of outrage. They were being forced to wait on some slum rat? Had the senior Turks lost their minds? A round of vicious rumors quickly followed this outburst, making hypotheses on the slum rat's education, literacy (or illiteracy, as many prophesied), even the way he probably looked. The Turks looked on in silence, calmly building their own evaluations of the trainees, noting who took part in the discussions, who sat there and nodded, attaching themselves to the "powerful", and who looked on in silence or disgust before turning away. This was always the best sort of environment for cataloguing the trainees.

Tseng watched the events in the gym from a security booth, not needing audio to guess what the outrage was about and who was being discussed. As expected, Reno was causing trouble before he'd even arrived.
"Think they'll learn to give him a chance?" He glanced over at Elena, thinking a moment before he responded.
"I doubt it. Those who aren't partaking in the discussion might, but the rest have already made up their minds. He will have to deal with enemies."
"That doesn't seem like much of a "home" for him…"
Tseng sighed. "I expect most of those in the gym to fail out. Very few of the opinionated ones will pass, simply because they aren't open enough to accept their training. The home, the family, isn't the Training Center, it's the Turks."
"Will he know the difference?"
Tseng frowned; he didn't know. A knock sounded on the door before he could answer her. "Enter."
"Sir, the boy's here. Rude is escorting him to meet with Albany right now." Tseng nodded, but the Turk hesitated, then continued. "Sir… the guard at the gate didn't know any better, but the boy entered the grounds using a fake pass. It had a different name and age on it." Elena covered her mouth, hiding an amused smile.
Tseng sighed before dismissing the man. A fake pass… 'First an alcoholic, now a forger. I hope this boy isn't more trouble than he's worth…' Elena giggled at the look on his face.

Reno spent the majority of the walk through the Training Center glaring at Rude out of the corner of his eye. He hadn't forgiven the silent man for taking away his bottle, and when the gate guard had introduced him as "Rude", Reno couldn't agree more. 'What an asshole…' When Rude took Reno's pass from the guard, and saw the name on it, he had smacked Reno on the side of the head before dragging him into the complex, which, as far as Reno was concerned, was an invitation to war. He just had to figure out how to make the guy actually look at him, which was difficult at best. Rude had stolidly ignored him, not even playing tour guide and pointing out any buildings. They were now walking down a blindingly white hallway lined with unmarked doors, and Reno was beginning to think that Rude was going to win by the simple fact that he wasn't giving Reno any opportunity to fight. It was almost depressing.
Rude stopped ('Finally…') and knocked on a door at the very end of the hallway. The door swung open instantly, and an irritable man peered down at Reno, scowling. His face reminded Reno vaguely of a rat, with beady eyes and small, sharp features, and he was calling the man "Ratty" even as the man introduced himself as Albany.
"I have the misfortune of having to watch over all of you brats while you're here at the Training Center." His voice was a high-pitched nasal whine that made Reno cringe internally. "While you're staying here in the dormitory, you will follow some simple rules. Simple, and you and the rest of the worthless cretins staying here will still find a way to break them, and claim it was an accident." He sniffed before continuing. "You will not own any keys while you're here. Locks, fine, but no keys. You will not make a drunken nuisance of yourself while you remain here." His tone indicated that he doubted Reno would remain here very long. "You will not make loud noises between the hours of 2200 and 0600. You will not invade the privacy of my room. That's this room, in case you're too dense to figure that one out. You will keep your room clean at all times. The Turks reserve the right to conduct room inspections at any time. You will not allow food or anything else to rot in your room. You will follow all orders given to you by myself or any other Turk. Do you have any questions?"
Reno stared, and wondered if he'd get in trouble for asking when the last time was that Albany had gotten laid. Deciding against the question, he shook his head.
Albany sniffed again. "Of course you don't. Now, I don't have the time to show you little scurrying rodents around to your rooms," Reno almost laughed out loud to hear Albany call someone else a rodent, "so Rude will show you where you'll be staying. I expect that there won't be any problems with you." His voice made it clear that he expected quite the opposite, and Reno made sure to grace him with a broad smirk and a flippant wave before Rude led him away again.
"I expect that he's gonna hate me before the week is out." Reno wasn't entirely sure, but he thought he may have seen the corner of Rude's mouth twitch in response.

Rude spoke for the first time when he dropped Reno off at his room. "You have about an hour to settle in before you need to be at the gym." He gave Reno some quick directions to get to the gym and left, clearly uncomfortable with having to string more than three words together in a sentence. Reno shook his head and let himself into his room, hauling his bags in after him.
The room was small, only 10' by 12', and was just big enough to fit a twin-sized bed, dresser, bookshelf, and mini-fridge. The walls were as white as the hallway outside, and Reno decided immediately to repaint it the first chance he got. Dropping his bags on the bed, he quickly pulled out the bedclothes that Tseng's instructions had said he'd need, pleased that he could at least add some color to the room. He then put away his clothes, stashed what few books he owned on the shelves, and flopped down onto the bed. He hadn't brought a whole lot with him, since he'd wanted to see what he was really going to need before carrying it all up, so now he had nothing to do, and a while before he needed to be at the gym.
Stretching a little bit, his eyes fell on the fridge, and he rolled over to open it, more out of boredom than curiosity; he didn't really expect to find anything. He almost fell off the bed when he was met with the sight of a bottle of gin, full and unopened. Pulling it out, he stared at the label, surprised to see that it was the same brand he'd been drinking when Rude had snatched the bottle out of his hand the other day. Rude… 'Maybe that's why he left in such a hurry.' Reno smiled, setting the bottle carefully back in its place.

The clock on the wall read 1159 when the large double-doors to the gym opened. The mob of trainees silenced immediately, as every head turned to look at the newcomer. Most of them were surprised by what they saw.
Reno was pale compared to most of them, which they had all expected, but instead of being sickly-looking, his skin was a smooth cream color, contrasting healthily with his hair, which he had actually taken the time to wash and brush before coming to the Upper Plate. His clothing was also different than what they'd expected and, to be fair, was different than what he usually wore. He had abandoned his usual wife-beater and torn cargo pants (although he'd packed them and now had them stowed in his dresser), and had opted for clothing that was virtually new, un-torn and un-stained: Black military fatigues and a black, form-fitting turtleneck. His boots were his usual battered combat boots, but he'd cleaned and darkened them with black shoe polish (although he hadn't actually shined them), so they contributed easily to his overall appearance.
Combined with his confident manner of carrying himself, and the amused half-smile he usually wore, all of this conspired to give him the appearance of a super model. Not exactly the image of a scrawny, filthy slum rat that people were expecting. All of it, of course, intentional…hence the reason for why he was currently smirking. He knew when people were talking about him, and the complete silence in the room was a dead giveaway. Glancing over them, quickly picking out the ones who had been at the center of the discussion and identifying those who had probably kept out of it, he picked a spot against the wall – well away from where any of the Turks were standing – and slouched there, waiting for the clock to strike noon.
Having entered the building with only a minute to spare, he didn't have long to wait. The clock reached 1200, and the doors opened again, admitting Tseng, precisely on time. 'There's a real shocker…' Tseng was flanked by Rude and a blonde woman that Reno hadn't met yet, who he promptly nicknamed Kitten. She just had that sweet, innocent look about her… He figured she could probably kill him with a look if she felt like it, since most innocent-looking women were like that, but since he never planned on calling her Kitten to her face…
Tseng began to speak, and Reno focused, pushing the image of fluffy kittens with killer claws out of his mind. "Today begins the first official day of your training to become Turks. Most of you will not make it. Some of you," he paused, letting his cold gaze travel around the room, "have already been blacklisted as probable failures." There was an uneasy shifting throughout the room at that. The Turks, of course, took careful note of those who weren't bothered by the statement. Those who happened to be looking his way made special note of the fact that Reno smirked and rolled his eyes. Tseng continued, "This is not said to discourage you. You have the potential to prove us wrong. It doesn't happen often, but it's not unheard of. We expect a lot from all of you, and we do not expect to be let down." Few of the trainees caught this for the hidden warning that it really was, and most of those who caught it were those who hadn't been unnerved by his earlier statement. This, too, was made note of.
Tseng's speech wasn't long, so far as introductory speeches go. He informed them all that they had three months in which to fail without fear of reprisal; if they failed out after that, they would be "terminated". Nobody had to ask what he meant by that. Additionally, after the Deadline had passed, they could not leave of their own volition. They would be given a three day grace period to come to their senses and return; after that, they would be hunted down. Most of the trainees took that to mean that the Turks would start looking for them after three days; Reno took that to mean that the Turks would be watching you from the instant you left, and would be in place and waiting for the order to kill by the time the three day mark was up. Anything else would be an inefficient waste of time, after all, and he got the feeling that Tseng was nothing if not frighteningly efficient.
Tseng concluded his speech with a final set of instructions: "Most of you have already completed inprocessing, and may retire to your rooms or the common areas for the remainder of the day. For those of you who arrived too late to inprocess," and every eye turned to Reno, "you will report to me after I release you. Dismissed."
The trainees took a while to vacate the room, making plenty of noise as they left. The scraping of chairs and loud chatter grated on Reno's nerves, and he was glad when they were finally gone. The silence they left behind was a blessing, and he noted that the Turks scattered throughout the room made no noise when they crossed over to stand by Tseng. He was quick on their heels, making as little noise as they had, and reached them in time to hear Tseng order them to leave reports with their observations and analyses on his desk. 'Figures that they start analyzing us before we're even 'officially' trainees… no wonder they've pegged the people they expect to fail already.'
Tseng turned to him, and Reno quickly found himself the center of attention again. He resisted the urge to fidget, and balanced on the balls of his feet again, ready to fight or flee as he saw fit. Having the undivided attention of 30-odd seasoned Turks was a bit different than being stared at by a bunch of untrained teenagers. Tseng gave no indication of noticing his tense posture, although Reno was sure there would be several notes about it in the reports, and began speaking again. "Rude will guide you through inprocessing today. It usually takes trainees approximately two days to complete the paperwork and medical exams, but I expect that you'll have no trouble finishing it today, especially since you won't have to wait in line. You will be given rules on things such as uniform wear and attendance policies as you receive all of your paperwork. Do you have any questions for me at this time?"
Reno wasn't sure if the question was actually looking for an answer or was just a formality, but he capitalized on it anyway. "Is Rude my official babysitter?" Tseng stared, resisting the urge to bury his face in his hands, and didn't answer.
"Do you have any other questions?" Reno grinned, recognizing an evasion when he saw one ('Rude definitely got screwed into babysitting me.') and asked his next question. "What's the policy on drinking in the dorms?"
Tseng wanted to scream. Several of the other Turks were trying not to laugh, Elena included. "Didn't Albany talk about that with you already?" His growl was enough to indicate to everyone that he was annoyed, and most people would have stopped at that point. Reno had never been one for staying on his side of the line, and rolled ahead.
"I will not make a drunken nuisance of myself while I remain here." His voice was perfectly even, without any sort of emotion or inflection, and Tseng fought the desire to leave.
"You will also not be drunk while on duty, or while hung over. Alcohol on your breath during classes is punishable in any way your instructors see fit." He paused, clearly regretting what he was about to say, and continued, sounding pained to do so. "Any other questions?" Reno had a mischievous glint in his eyes that Tseng found ominous, but he recognized when he'd worn out his welcome, and shook his head. Tseng sighed in relief and nodded at Rude, who took Reno by the arm and steered him out of the gym.
The other Turks, many still trying not to laugh, turned to Tseng. "Do you want that encounter included in the reports, Sir?" Tseng sighed again and nodded, giving a brief wave of his hand in dismissal. He should have known better than to ask if Reno had questions…

A/N: Ok, I know in-game Elena is a new Turk, Vincent has been in a coffin 30 years, and Cissnei is Before Crisis/Crisis Core, but… that's part of the reason I'm calling this AU :P And yeah, we're going to see Vincent and Cissnei in this story too :)
Also, look for a picture of Reno all spiffied-up soon ;) I can't post one yet, because I'm still at Ft. Benning and don't have access to a scanner, but I should be able to get one up soon as I get home in a week.
Aaand… was originally going to make this longer, but this seems like a good stopping point, and the next chapter I can talk about Reno's first week as a trainee, and start going into some of his escapades and battles with the other trainees.
- 9
- 10
- 11
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The Reaper