By Kristen Gupton-Williams

After losing sight of Chaos, Reno stopped running and cursed loudly. Knowing that there was no more he could do in his current position he turned back to reenter the base and check on Tseng. He went in and found Tseng, Tifa, and Dr. Arlin where he had last seen them. Tseng was now standing although his posture was one of pain.

Tifa looked at Reno with desperate eyes. "Where’s Chaos?"

"How the fuck should I know?" he snapped back while flipping his hand in frustration. "In town somewhere."

"You lost him?" Tseng straightened up and knit his brows.

"The son of a bitch can fly! How am I supposed to keep up with that?" Reno tucked his night staff back away.

As disappointed as Tseng was, he knew that Reno had a point. "Okay, we can still find him. I’ll call Brad to get the chopper up and search for him. Costa del Sol isn’t very big, there aren’t many places to hide."

Dr. Arlin snatched Tseng’s phone away from him the second he pulled it from his pocket. "I’ll call Brad. I want you to get into the infirmary and have an EKG run to make sure that you’re going to be all right."

"No, I’m going out to look for my brother." Tseng replied, not wishing to give any attention to the terrible pain in his chest.

The doctor easily kept the phone away from the weakened man. "Absolutely not! Go to the infirmary NOW!"

"Come on, Tseng." Tifa took his hand. "I want to go out and look for him too, but I’ll stay with you for now. Reno will take care of everything."

Reno sighed loudly, not in the mood for any of this tonight. "Fine, I’ll go find the bastard. Give me the phone."

Dr. Arlin gladly handed the cell over to him and turned to go take Tseng for his exam.

After dialing the phone, Reno held the phone up to his ear and waited to hear Brad answer.

The chopper pilot, who was currently out tinkering in a hanger despite the hour eventually picked up. "Yeah?"

"It’s Reno. I need you to get the helicopter and pick me up by the base entry." He mumbled.

Brad’s curiosity was piqued. "What’s going on?"

"We got to go look for someone." Reno was not up to giving long explanations at the moments. "Just get here quick, okay?"’

"Okay." Brad hung up and made his way to the chopper.

Reno went back up to the airfield to await his ride. He pulled out the phone again and dialed.

Angel answered. "Hello?"

"It’s me." Reno smiled slightly at the sound of her voice. "Your old man went nuts again and turned into that fucking thing."

"Oh my God, is everyone okay?" She was shocked at this news.

"Yeah, pretty much." Reno kicked at the dirt. "Tseng got a little stressed and the doc is checking him out right now but I think he’ll be fine. Thing is, Chaos flew the coop."

"He’s gone?" Angel’s eyes grew wide.

"Yup." He shrugged. "The boss’s got me going out in the chopper to look for him. He headed for town so hopefully I can find him, although I’m not real sure what I’m gonna do once I get to him."

"Wait for me, I’m coming with you." Angel said, getting up from her desk.

"This might be dangerous, I don’t want you to get hurt." Reno admitted.

"To hell with that, Reno. I’m going so don’t leave until I get up there." She ordered firmly.

"Damn it." Reno hung up and dropped the phone back into his pocket. He hadn’t intended to invite her along as her safety was a concern but knew that there was no way he could disobey her.

Just a few minutes later he heard something coming toward him in the air. As the helicopter set down, he saw Angel emerge from the base ready to go. She came up right beside him as they continued to wait for Brad to open up the chopper.

"So what you been up to?" Reno asked her.

She gave him a sidelong glance. "Trying to help Quigley and Porter come up with the drug that would have gotten rid of that monster in my father once and for all."

"And?" He asked.

"And what?" She crossed her arms. "We aren’t done yet."

The door on the side of the helicopter finally slid open and they boarded. They sat down so that they could see out the door as they left it open. Both of them donned headsets to allow them to speak with Brad if they saw anything. The chopper lifted up into the air and headed for town.

***

Tifa sat next to Tseng as Dr. Arlin hooked him up to the EKG and ran it. Tseng was clearly feeling better now and was growing increasingly impatient.

After the machine had run for several minutes, the doctor turned off the monitor and tore off the long strip of paper that had come out of it. She examined closely the electrical read out of his heart. "The complexes look normal, and the arrhythmia is gone for the moment."

"English?" Tseng asked, annoyed that she never just told him if he was okay or not.

"You’re fine." She folded up the EKG strip and stuffed it into Tseng’s medical record. "But you need to remember that before you had your bypass, a lot of damage was done to your heart and it is still weak. I need you to take it easy or you’re going to undo all we have done."

"I don’t have time for this." He said as he pulled the electrodes from his chest and started buttoning up his shirt. "If my job was about taking it easy it would be pretty god damned boring. My brother is out there somewhere and I need to see that he doesn’t hurt himself or anyone else."

"Tseng, you won’t do anyone any good dead." Tifa sighed, knowing how frustrated he was.

"If I promise everyone that I won’t die, will you all leave me to what I have to do?" Tseng growled as he slid from the hospital bed.

"I know you well enough by now that trying to get you to do anything is equivalent to talking to a wall." Dr. Arlin shot back as she started toward her office. "Just come back if you start to feel any pain again, all right?"

"Fine." He picked up his coat from the chair it had been flung over and headed for the door. "I’m taking a car into town to look for Vincent. Come along if you’d like, Tifa."