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Snapshot	By : crystalwind Category: Final Fantasy VII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 682 -:- 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
- 6
- 7
Warnings: Tanner talks a lot. Again.

Chapter Five – Welcome to the Jungle

Year 487
The Meet location was an empty, dusty square, devoid of any life and only accessible by a few narrow alleys. There should have been people there – a street gang full of young toughs, strutting around like they owned the place. Instead, there was no one. Rude frowned, looking over at where Tseng was waiting. Tseng sighed, shaking his head; the other gang should have been there by now. The sound of laughter and loud, echoing footsteps reached them, and the two Turks drew further back into the shadows.
It didn’t take the youths in the street long to realize that something was seriously wrong. A few moments after entering the square, they were pelting back the way they’d come. Rude and Tseng dove towards the back of the building they were lurking in, barely hearing Reno shout his bomb warning in time. The explosion shattered the windows and blasted rubble into the air.
The fight below was swift and brutal. Reno’s gang, still reeling from the explosion, fought like madmen, blood dripping from ears and noses after the concussion. Their opponents, overconfident fools that they were, didn’t realize at first what was going on – backed into a fight or flight situation with no real option to flee, Reno’s gang snarled and snapped with animalistic fury as they fought, and they didn’t stop raging until there was nothing left except for blood, silence, and dust drifting slowly through the air.
Tseng and Rude, still safely ensconced in the shadows of their building, climbed silently to their feet, shocked in spite of themselves at the brutality of the clash that they’d just witnessed. It was easy to forget sometimes how cruel and dangerous children could be. Reno left them with no doubts on the matter; Rude’s stomach gave a slow roll when he saw Reno begin to start cutting faces off of the bodies. Cruel and dangerous… perhaps “children” wasn’t the right word for the battered and bloody creatures down below.
Neither Turk moved when the small gang finally began to disperse; they were there to discover what Tanner’s intentions concerning Reno were, and Tseng knew that the man was somewhere there, watching. Rude looked briefly back the way Reno had disappeared; he could have sworn that someone was still standing there. Tseng shifted beside him and Rude finally turned, eyes immediately zeroing in on the Reaper. Tseng and Tanner stared at each other across the now-empty street. Tseng broke eye contact first, his posture contemptuously dismissive as he gestured for Rude to follow. Rude glanced back at the building he’d been staring into earlier on his way out, but no one was there.

Rude was waiting the next morning when Reno made his way through the silent streets of Sector 4. His instructions were simple: “Observe from the shadows and take careful notes on everything that you see. Don’t assist Reno unless he’s overwhelmed; in that case, get him out of there and bring him up to be quarantined.” Neither Turk expected Reno to have a lot of trouble during the Bloodletting, but Tseng had Cissnei on standby in Sector 3, just in case. Once Rude figured out where Reno was heading he stopped trailing the redhead, choosing instead to take his time sneaking into the area. The last thing he wanted was for one of Tanner’s cronies to spot him watching the proceedings.
By the time Rude made it into position, Reno had somehow lost his jacket… and he had a gorgeous young blonde hanging all over him. Rude’s eyes narrowed, and he quietly pulled out his cellphone.

Tseng stood at his window, looking quietly out at the lights if Midgar. He had never particularly liked working in the ShinRa building; the tower with its window-walls and glass elevators was a security nightmare, and there was something about the way it flaunted the company’s wealth that had always bothered him. On rare nights like this, however, the smog that covered the city in a perpetual shroud was thinner than usual, and the view from his office made working in the monstrosity worth it.
He was bothered, as he often was these days, by the mystery that still surrounded Tanner’s actions. Assuming that Tanner wanted to hand over his organization because it wasn’t making enough money was too… convenient. The man was a megalomaniac; he shouldn’t be willing to give up his power so readily without a plan in place to strengthen his position afterwards. Then there was the situation with Price… Why cultivate such a perfect informant within the company, if Tanner was just going to step down anyway? None of it made sense.
His cellphone chimed on the desk behind him and Tseng sighed, turning away from the window. Perhaps tonight’s activities in the Slums would shed some light on the situation; he just hoped that Reno made it through the whole mess. It would be unfortunate to lose such a promising Turk candidate.

Tanner made his grand entrance while Rude waited on Tseng’s response, and the dark-skinned Turk was baffled when he spotted the little girl wearing Reno’s jacket. The look of annoyance on Reno’s face didn’t provide any enlightenment, but it did make a corner of Rude’s mouth quirk into a smile; he had to stifle a chuckle when Reno missed the summons to the center of the square. After a bout of yawn-inducing talk on Tanner’s part, the square finally emptied, and Rude focused on the group of contestants down below.
Three of Reno’s competitors were talking quietly together, sneaking quick, angry looks at the redhead, and Rude suspected that they would give Reno the most trouble. The others didn’t seem to be actively planning anything, and Rude wondered briefly what Tanner’s criteria were for sending out invites; the majority of the young men milling about below didn’t seem like they’d be much of a competition.
The instant the city clocks struck 1830, Reno snapped into action. One of his three primary opponents was down with a shot to the head before anyone realized what was happening, and Reno bolted down an alley and out of sight before the others could react. Rude was stunned by the teen’s speed; even he hadn’t expected Reno to act so quickly. His cell vibrated in his pocket and he frowned, pulling it out. There was no way he would be able to keep track of Reno during the next three days.

Tseng stared at the text message from Rude, his mind working rapidly.
‘T’s ex is hanging all over R down here. Weird that T would invite him to be here? We’re missing something.’ Rude was right – Tanner and Sim had broken up well before Tanner decided on the location for the start of the Bloodletting. There was absolutely no reason why he would invite his ex to attend; there was no reason he would allow Sim to attend… unless he wanted Sim there. But if Reno was Tanner’s favorite to win, and Tanner’s ex was all of a sudden hanging on Reno… the most likely candidate to become the next Reaper… Tseng cursed. Why would someone like Tanner give up his position of power in the organization? The answer was simple: it was easier to manipulate people from behind the scenes and reap the benefits of their hard work than it was to actually be in charge. Reno wouldn’t even know that Sim and Tanner were connected; Tseng doubted that anyone in the Lich would dare say anything to him about it, and to them it would just look like Sim was jumping from one leader to the next. The city’s clocks chimed 1830, and Tseng’s heart sank. They were far too late to do anything about it now; they would be forced to continue watching and waiting, and hope that this was the extent of Tanner’s machinations. He sat at his desk, typing a short response to Rude.

‘Plot on T’s part. Too late to stop it. Continue with previous orders, report when complete.’ – Tuesday, 18:31

‘R out of sight already, four down.’ – Tuesday, 18:34

‘Hold position unless necessary for resupply. Keep me informed.’ – Tuesday, 18:35

‘Wilco’ – Tuesday, 18:37

‘R back in sight, holing up in adjacent building.’ – Tuesday, 21:17

‘Continue to observe.’ – Tuesday, 21:25

‘No changes to report.’ – Wednesday, 06:00
‘No changes to report.’ – Wednesday, 18:00
‘No changes to report.’ – Thursday, 06:00
‘No changes to report.’ – Thursday, 18:00
‘R stringing some sort of lines between buildings. Objective unknown.’ – Friday, 05:32

‘Two targets have reentered the area.’ – Friday, 16:04

‘Targets eliminated. R returned to hole-up site.’ – Friday, 16:28

‘Remaining targets have reentered the area. No activity from R.’ – Friday, 18:23

‘End game. R successful. T giving a speech. Again.’ – Friday, 18:32

A/N:
First, I’m really sorry about the gap between updates again. I’ve been having a lot of trouble drumming up the motivation to work on this… partly because work is busy, partly because I have this alternate version of The Reaper stuck in my head, and it’s hard writing something that parallels the original version right now. I can’t just change things to match my “updated” version, because it’s a lot more violent, Reno’s a lot more of a killer, and the Lich doesn’t exist in that story – the Reaper exists as a totally different concept. Maybe someday I’ll put that story on paper/computer… but I’d feel kind of bad starting yet another story when I have so many that I’m still working on :-/ I’ll probably do it anyway, because I kind of like my other version better, but eh. I’ll try to work on this one a little more often at least.
Second, sorry about (yet another) short chapter. I think I’m having so much trouble with this because I have to continually cross-reference back to The Reaper to make sure the stories line up properly, instead of just writing. How do real authors do it? Lol.
Aaanyway. Thanks again to everyone who’s reviewed my Final Fantasy stories since my last update. I appreciate your guys’ continued support, and the positive reviews really mean a lot to me, even if I don’t always get to respond or update quickly after receiving them. You guys keep me going :)
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