FicWad

When they landed Reno set them on the old car park. The blades chucked up a lot of debris and Reno turned to speak to Vincent but found he was already gone. The immortal had not waited to be seen with him and Reno shrugged.

“For once it would be nice to be thanked for the taxi fares but…” Reno collapsed forward and the mystery attacker cut the engine and dragged him off.

“I hope he makes for a quiet prisoner.” The younger of the two men said as the other helped him throw the Turk in the boot.

“Don’t bet on it.” The older man told him. “If he’s got one thing about him it’s his mouth.”

“I can’t believe the Turk let himself get taken so easily. Why the hell are people so worried about them?”

“It’s the friends, numbers and uncanny knack of being at the right place.” The older man threw the redheads EMR on to the backseat. “Let’s hope Palmer is happy with this.”

“Well he’s got enough support.” They got in the car and drove off.

Vincent opened the door to the rear of the helicopter. Palmer - the bumbling idiot of the Space Exploration Department! Vincent was utterly confused. He hadn’t been fired; Rufus had seemingly trusted him and even after all the terrible events the fat executive had followed him around happily.

It just didn’t seem to add up but then again so many things had occurred. He headed out with a sigh and now he had to get a Turk and Reeve back. Vincent had an internal groan and checked Cerberus was loaded. ‘Just once I’d like to get a coffee and go home without any trouble.’ He mused to himself as he followed the car by hopping across the rubble.

The car pulled up outside an old bar and the two men carried the unconscious Turk through the door. Vincent slipped into the back seat and took the EMR before following them both and wincing as the redhead’s skull cracked against the doorframe to the room where he was thrown on to an old pool table.

Reno groaned as he came around from the knock to his head and instantly put his hands to his skull moaning. Damn that was some hang over… no, not a hang over… that was definitely blood mixed in with those red tresses. His hand slid out immediately and caught one of the men, his hand slamming against the man’s throat. The victim slid to the floor struggling to breath as Reno was caught by two more men that appeared from the darker recesses of the room. Vincent held back a chuckle that would have given away his presence.

“Yo fuck that hurt.” Reno muttered the man on the floor groaning in agreement. “Okay, okay… I know when I am outnumbered.” He said stalling for time as he looked around.

“A precaution.” The voice from behind him muttered. “You will have to be restrained.”

“What the?” Reno looked around. Some of the faces he knew but most of them were just goons he was clocking up to kill later. “Seriously you gotta be kidding me if you think you’ll get away with it?”

“We only intend to take out two of you and then the rest will either do as they are told or go to their graves with Rufus.” One of them shrugged nonchalantly.

“Oh come on!” Reno rolled his eyes. “You’re idiots.” He swung his legs around to get off the table. He needed painkillers. That was going to be a thumping head, maybe a cure materia too for good measure.

“Not so fast.” The other man grabbed him, Reno didn’t know him but he was fast and strong. Reno brought his other hand up and around to the guys’ chest, his fingers fishooked down the breastbone around his under his throat and he pushed down against him.

That prompted the others to take more drastic action and they pulled their guns. Six or seven firearms faced the redhead. Vincent silently cursed. He could shoot them but he risked Reno being shot at the same time. Sure the redhead could be annoying but at the same time he was very good at what he did and Rufus would likely not be happy if he lost the second best Turk he had. He sighed and moved around. It was about to be a lengthy come back but maybe the redhead’s insane chatter would give away more information.

“Okay, okay so I’m stuck here.” Reno held his hands up. “Come on you guys… if you didn’t have guns I’d be on to a winner.”

“You’re not on to a winner and you’re going to be here for a while.” Someone said from the background. “Now kindly give yourself up in a sensible manner and everyone can get on with their scheming.” The man was dressed in a black shirt and trousers. Reno couldn’t put a face to his voice at all.

“Where did you used to work?”

“For your blasted company.” Was the only answer he got before a door was rapped upon and he headed inside the bar.

“What’s under this place then?” Reno looked at another guy trying to ignore the guns. He couldn’t afford to let them know it worried him. Bravado was all he had, that and a silent wish that Vincent would come and rescue him.

“A complexity of tunnels and prison barricades. I am sure you will enjoy looking through them.”

“Is that where I am going?”

“Do you EVER shut up?” Someone snapped.

“Um…” Reno thought hard about. “I guess not. Rude says I talk in my sleep and he’d know I mean we’ve…”

“SHUT UP!” Someone smacked the already growing headache. Reno was forced to cut his banter short as the pain sent him into a blurred vision.

“Pack that in. Didn’t ya mother ever tell you it was nice to just damned ask.” He rubbed his head as they pulled him to his feet and dragged him through a back door, down a side alley and towards what looked to be a grate into some large tunnels. “Gonna…” He didn’t manage the rest of his warning as the dizzy sensations forced his stomach contents up.

“Gross.” One of them opened the grate up.

“Had worse…” Reno muttered as the pain grew worse from the violent throw up.

The men patted him down, took his gun and a couple of other items such as lock picks and then barrelled him into the tunnel and shut the grate up and locked it. Reno looked at them and folded his arms. This was not a good day… no, yesterday was bad, this was definitely getting worse. He slid against the cool tiles and rested his head. At least that was easing the pain he mused and closed his eyes.

Vincent waited patiently and set ready to take out the guards now that Reno was out of the line of fire. He pulled Cerberus and smirked, they honestly thought the Turk wouldn’t have got back up? Vincent watched the two men talking and wondered for a moment if they were too casual before he aimed his gun and fired. The first man fell gripping at the artery on the side of his neck as blood spewed out all over the place. The second man pulled his gun but the ex-Turk fired twice into him and he was soon sprawled against the grate.

Reno opened his eyes he winced when the flash from Cerberus caught his eye and then scrambled to his feet. Vincent! He took a step back when the body flew up against the grate and then moved forwards. Vincent moved to the grate and looked around; okay he needed him out fast but how? Vincent looked at Reno and motioned him back before looking to the large padlock and firing another shot once he’d reloaded.

“Damn that gun is cool.” Reno muttered as the immortal pulled the grate over.

“You need healing.” Vincent said bluntly and looked at him. “Can you move?” He threw him the EMR and Reno missed it completely. “You’re not good enough to move.” He came into the tunnel and found his materia.

“Sorry man they kinda snuck up on me.” Reno said wavering on his feet. “There is another door back there but it’s locked and I can’t hear or see anything to know if it is safe.”

“I think we’re better retreating in there than guessing about outside.” Vincent listened at the door and then put his shoulder to it and pushed. The door groaned and heaved before the hinges finally gave out and spewed into a stream of sewage. “Lovely… can tell we’re in the slums.”

“Yeah.” Reno said quietly and moved behind him. He hated the place. There were too many memories and he wanted to move forward not back again. He put his hand to Vincent’s shoulder for stability and let the chaos made creature lead them onwards. “Do you ever think about joining Shinra again? I never thought of leaving… I mean what else would I do?”

“Just stop thinking.” Vincent chuckled. “You’ll make your head worse. Burn out the last of your brain cells or something.” Vincent looked up and down before they moved down the trail to the right where there seemed to be a junction.

They came out to a t-junction and the Turk stopped Vincent so he could get the cure cast. The headache was still there but the worst of the pain had receded. Feeling much better the redhead looked up and down before deciding it was going to be a right hand turn back to the helicopter.

“Why are we going there? We need to find Palmer.”

“Palmer?” Reno looked at him. “Why the hell are we looking for that idiot?”

“He is the one behind it.” Vincent told him and then briefly explained what he had heard. “So that’s your man.”

“Well I’ll be damned.” Reno looked at him. “I thought he was just generally pointless. Oh damn it well we need the bird to get back to Edge.”

“Okay but you can’t fly like that and I’m not having an affair with rotary blades so we have to find somewhere to rest.”

“Well from here we can go to the Old Train Graveyard but Holy knows what state it will be in.” Reno shrugged. “It’ll be a trek back to the old Sector 7 remains but we can get up and then find out way back under cover?”

“You know your way around well then?”

“Lived here in my childhood and let’s be honest a lot happened here to set things off didn’t it?”