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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
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Warnings: Some language

Chapter Seventeen – Claster, Part Three

"The reactor is situated right on the edge of the reservoir. Rude's last call from the Communication Center makes me suspect that the town is overrun; they might not even have made it to the reactor by the time you and your troops arrive… They have three miles to walk and they're both recovering from injuries."
"I'll have the transports follow the road around the reservoir once we get into the valley. If they're not at the reactor yet, we'll pick them up on the way and clear the way in for them to finish their job."
"Excellent. Everything is in order for you to leave then. And… Sephiroth? I'd really like to get my best Turks back alive."
"Of course. That redhead is far too amusing for me to simply allow him to return to the Lifestream; whoever would entertain me?"
"I'm sure Rhapsodos and Fair would manage. Safe flight."
"We'll bring them back to you. Don't worry."
"I'm counting on it."

It was difficult at first to focus on the reactor – blood loss, exhaustion, and a three mile walk full of mutant freaks didn't lend well towards properly-functioning eyesight – but once he did, Reno found himself unable to look away. "Half of it… fell over." Rude was equally transfixed, and didn't respond.
Reno's assessment of the reactor's state wasn't very exaggerated; the earthquake had caused significant pieces of the reactor to crack and fall apart. Pipes and sections of stairs and catwalks had fallen to the ground, and the Shin-Ra sign on the front of the reactor was split in two. It was fairly apparent that a reactor leak had indeed caused the mutations in the town. Rude sighed.
"We'd better go in and see what the damage is before reporting to Tseng; he'll want to know." Reno dragged his eyes away from the reactor to the path leading up to it and groaned.
"Had to be uphill, huh?" He muttered to himself incomprehensibly for a little bit before raising his voice loud enough for Rude to hear again. "And a chain-link fence on the reservoir side… won't even get a nice view while we're suffering up that stupid thing…"
Rude moved forward, waving for Reno to follow. "The sooner we can get up the path, the sooner we can get the job done and rest. Even with the damage there should be a secure room of some kind in there; we can wait there for a transport to come get us." It was Reno's turn to sigh now, but he followed obediently. Rest at the top sounded good.
They were two-thirds of the way up when a flaw in their plan to reach the top made itself apparent. A loud screech and a large blur were all Reno had time to take in before the mutant that had been hidden off the side of the path crashed into him, its momentum carrying them both off the path… through the chain link fence… and into the freezing-cold reservoir.
Reno had the presence of mind to take a breath before he hit the water, but the shock of the cold almost made him lose it.

Her hands reached for him wrapping tightly around his neck. He couldn't breathe; he couldn't move. Before he could even think to try and pry her fingers away, he was shoved under the water. The red-tinted liquid exploded into sparks and black spots when his head struck the ceramic; he would have lost his breath if her hands hadn't been wrapped so tightly around his throat still. His vision faded, along with the pain. He was going to die…

A stabbing pain in Reno's ankle brought him sharply back to reality and he thrashed, briefly panicking and nearly letting out his breath again before he realized what was going on. The twisted remains of the chain link fence were tangled and wrapped around him, and they were slowly dragging him down. His ankle… He looked down and discovered that his ankle was not pierced by a piece of fence; it was pierced by the sharp teeth of the mutant, who apparently didn't need oxygen nearly as much as Reno did.
Reno's first instinct was to grab for his gun, before he remembered that he'd lost it to the jaws of yet another mutant about a mile back. Giving a mental curse and trying to kick at the thing's head with his free foot, he reached for his knife next. After struggling for a moment to try and reach down to the mutant with the blade, he concluded that the gnarled fence wasn't going to allow him that much movement. If he wasn't desperately trying to hold his breath and keep from passing out, he would have sighed at this point. He only had one weapon left.
Reno generally tried to avoid electrocuting himself, although he did enjoy the sharp snap and light tingle when he set the EMR to its lowest setting and tapped his tongue with it (plus it was great for irritating Tseng). He had, however, had Rude zap him with it once just so he would know how powerful it was and (hopefully) respect it a bit more; he had never let Rude do that again.
The blast that he experienced now was nothing like that one time; magnified by the conductivity of the water around him, it was about a hundred times worse. He didn't need to try and hold his breath any longer; his muscles had seized so tight that his lungs were no longer functioning. His body was strained and twisted, paralyzed by the shock, and he stared blankly as the chain-link fence continued to drag him down to his death; he didn't even register the fact that the mutant had let go.

Reno's entire plight – from initial panic to electrocuting himself – only lasted moments, even if it seemed like a lifetime to him. It was just long enough for Rude to kick off his shoes, toss his shades to the ground, watch the water light up, and dive in. No mutant freak was going to drown his partner.
He saw the mutant before he saw Reno, its now-lifeless form slowly sinking away. It only took a second for the twisted mass of fence to draw his attention though, and he kicked as hard as he could towards the shock of red that he saw entangled in it. Reno wasn't moving. His muscles had relaxed almost as quickly as they had seized up, and he hadn't been cognitive enough to prevent the exhalation and subsequent intake of breath. He hadn't had the strength or will to even be concerned about it; some monster in a pretty little vacation town was going to finish the job that his mother had started years ago, and that was that. He was unconscious and no longer breathing by the time Rude reached him.
Reno was too close to dead to panic about his own condition, but Rude more than made up for it. He struggled with the remains of the fence, pulling at it and twisting at it. He grabbed Reno's knife from its sheath and sawed at the crumpled and weakened metal, cutting through clothing and skin when he had to, just to get Reno free.
They surfaced in a rush of water and bubbles and blood when Rude finally succeeded, dragging his unconscious partner through the water until he could lay him out on the rocky shore, pounding on his chest and breathing life back into his abused and waterlogged lungs. It was less than a minute, but it seemed like an eternity before Reno coughed and vomited up the water in his lungs and stomach, choking and dry heaving until he could take in a ragged gasp of air. He stared up at Rude, dazed and wondering why Rude was wet and wasn't wearing sunglasses and 'I never knew his eyes looked like that,' and then he was cloaked in the green haze of a Cure materia and couldn't really see much of anything.
Once the haze faded away, they both just stared at each other for a moment, too confused and exhausted and crashing down from the adrenaline high to think coherently, let alone get up and move. As it was, it took a high-pitched shriek from the bottom of the path to get them up and moving. The town's denizens had heard their compatriot scream as it hurtled into the water, and they apparently weren't very happy about it. Eleven of them stood at the base of the path, screeching at the tops of their lungs.
Rude backed up slowly towards his shoes, praying that they wouldn't stop screaming and attack before he was fully prepared to run. Reno backed up with him, stumbling slightly and still breathing raggedly from his trip into the water. It was amazing what a sudden spike in terror could do to your adrenaline levels. He chanced a glance at the reactor while Rude quietly slipped on his shoes, wondering if they'd be able to make it there and shut the door before the mutants were on them. It only took a split second for him to decide that that wasn't going to happen, and he tugged wordlessly on Rude's sleeve. Rude finished putting his shoes on and picked up his glasses, looking warily to see what Reno wanted. When he saw what Reno was pointing at, he stood the rest of the way up and put on his glasses, straightening his tie and the hem of his jacket with a few sharp jerks. There may have been eleven mutants at the bottom of the path, but there were twenty or so at the top, and they were a lot closer.
As though Rude's attempt at straightening his clothing was a challenge, the mutants at the bottom screamed even louder and attacked. The mutants at the top hadn't screamed to begin with, and simply attacked without a sound. The screams and sounds of battle drowned out the heavy drone of engines in the background.

"This is Garuda One. Crossing over the boundary of the target town now. Garuda Flight moving towards reactor."
Sephiroth was only half-listening to the pilot speak on the radio, more focused on the ground below. He wasn't much of one for taking time to look at scenery, but the view of the mountains from the air was incredible, and had made the last part of the flight much more enjoyable. Now, however, they were in the airspace directly over the town, flying high enough to see a good portion of Claster, but low enough for the Soldiers' enhanced eyes to pick out details along the road that the flight of four transports followed. Low enough to see the bodies that the isolated Turks had left in their wake. Sephiroth frowned. Their transport wasn't moving nearly fast enough towards the Turks to suit him; he peered forward to try and spot the reactor, wondering if the Turks had managed to make it there.
A dark mass in front of the reactor told him his answer as soon as the transport was close enough to it for him to see. The two Turks were there… along with nearly a hundred mutants, all bent on eating the humans in their midst.
Sephiroth scowled, tapped the pilot on the shoulder, and ordered him to drop them right in the middle of the melee. Then he crawled into the back of the transport, flexing his fingers and preparing to swing Masamune as soon as there was a mutant neck within reach. Three pairs of eyes watched him. Genesis smirked when he saw the General flex his fingers, anticipating a good fight; Angeal's smile wasn't as enthusiastic, but equally prepared to wreak havoc. Zack grinned and bounced in his seat, thrilled at finally being able to get off the transport and kick some ass. Only one person in the transport didn't seem at all happy or excited; a small blond Third Class stared at the floor of the transport, looking rather ill. Sephiroth spotted him and gave a smirk to match Genesis'; the boy had gotten airsick as soon as the transport lifted off the ground. He wasn't very thrilled right now, but Sephiroth suspected that he'd be the happiest one of them when his boots were finally on the ground. 'Until he realizes that he has to get back on the ship to get back home.' The General's smirk was almost sadistic by the time the pilot announced that the doors were opening. As predicted, the blonde looked up instantly, his face immediately brighter. Sephiroth laughed, turning towards the door as the wind gusted into the transport. A few more feet, and they would be low enough to jump out. His grin turned feral, and he moved towards the door.

Rude and Reno flopped to the ground, exhausted beyond their ability to stand. The four transports full of Soldiers, led from the front by Sephiroth, had quickly dispatched the massed mutants, leaving the Turks to catch their breath and try to Cure themselves. Having done so, they no longer had the energy to do anything besides wait for someone to put them on a transport home. Someone else could go into that damned reactor; they had lost have of the equipment needed for testing the mako levels anyway when Reno was thrown into the reservoir.
Remembering his partner's recent dunking, Rude scooted over to him and dragged him close, wrapping an arm around Reno's shoulders to try and keep him from shivering. Now that they weren't moving and keeping warm, Reno's lips were turning blue, along with his fingertips, and he was grateful for the added warmth. They sat that way, leaning against each other and huddled together, until Sephiroth and Angeal picked them up and put them on a transport.

Rude's injuries only needed a day of sleep and a few bags of blood to get him back on his feet; he spent the next three days sitting by Reno's hospital bed as the redhead battled hypothermia, an infection in his ankle, and severe dehydration. Tseng sent a new team of Turks, escorted by a large complement of Soldiers, to shut down the damaged reactor. He didn't bother asking Rude to write a report; the extent of Reno's injuries told most of the story, and he suspected that Rude would wind up writing the report anyway… once Reno was well enough to be out of the hospital.
It was sitting on his desk when he arrived at work four days later.

"Your birthday is in two weeks."
"How the hell did you find out about that? And why are you bringing it up?" Reno glared at Rude suspiciously. "I'm not celebrating it. Ever. Until I'm fifty, and can have an Over the Hill party." Rude stared at him silently for a moment before replying.
"We're going on vacation for a month."
"What's a vacation?"
"No work."
"Oh. That sounds cool." Reno paused. "That actually sounds really boring. Who the hell wants to go on a vacation?"
Rude rolled his eyes. "Normal people. We're going, Tseng is making us anyway. He thinks we need some R&R after Claster."
"So… we're going to sit on our asses here in Midgar for four weeks, not doing anything… because the boss says so?"
Rude smirked slightly. "I think you missed the part where I said we're going on a vacation. As in going. Leaving Midgar, and visiting somewhere else."
"Forgive me for not being excited, but the only time I've ever been out of the city, a town full of mutants tried to eat me." Rude only continued smirking, and Reno sighed, deciding he might as well bite the bullet and ask. "Where are we going?"
Rude's smile grew into a broad grin. "We're going to Costa del Sol, to see my mother."

A/N: I hate trying to write battle scenes, so I try to avoid them by just writing about the aftermath. In case you couldn't tell :p
Poor Cloud has been marginalized, and will only be noted for his motion sickness :( At least he (finally :p) appeared though! And he'll show up more in the one-shots I think.
This part of Reno's tale is nearly finished; The Reaper will end with their visit to Costa (although it will take a few parts before it's through). Then I'll move on to the next part of the story (either the prequel about Rude, or the semi-sequel about Reno's brother and when they meet up again). That also leaves me open to do some short pieces about Reno's time as a Trainee, or about some of his entertaining times with Rude. (I'm also tossing around another Reno-centric story idea about shapeshifters… might actually start work on that while I'm finishing The Reaper up)
Anyway, finally finished the Claster nonsense :p Hope you guys enjoyed it… got some more cuddling in at the end too lol.
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The Reaper