Guilt’s Cost: Part XCVII

Homeward

Reno continued to sit with Angel at the fallen Turk’s side for awhile, afraid that she might need him to help her further. Once it became clear that Porter was asleep and was most likely going to stay that way for the rest of the trip, Reno dared to move. He crawled over to where Tifa was holding Vincent’s unmoving body. Angel had told him that Vincent was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and he needed to see how Tifa was coping with it.

He sat next to Tifa and placed an arm around her shoulders. "How you doing?"

She hadn’t even noticed him move over to sit beside her and she was a little surprised to realize that he was there. "Uh, hey Reno."

"You didn’t answer my question." Reno said, squeezing her within his one armed embrace.

"I don’t know…" Tifa hung her head to stare down into Vincent’s blank face. His eyes were, for the moment closed. "Tell me he’s going to be okay…"

Reno’s heart went out to her. It was all too clear to him at this point how deeply she cared for Vincent and it was also equally clear that there was something profoundly wrong with him. For her sake, he managed a slight smile. "Come on, little lady, you know as well as I do that Vinny’s one tough son of a bitch. In a day from now he’ll be talking you ear off so much that you’ll wish he was out again."

His attempt to soothe her didn’t seem to work, and the darkness around her deepened. "Reno, I’m so scared… I keep losing him…"

"Naw, he’s right there." Reno shook her slightly.

She finally managed to break her gaze away from Vincent and she looked up at Reno, a look of puzzlement upon her face. "What?"

Reno, in a rare occurrence, blushed from the stupidity of his own comment. "I’m sorry, Tifa. I just can’t stand to see you like this."

The right side of her mouth tugged up in a brief grin. "I know you’re trying to help, thanks."

"Yeah, well, I do what I can." Reno examined Vincent’s body. "Hojo really did a number on him this time."

She nodded, feeling tears sting her eyes. "Yeah…"

"I’m really sorry, Tifa." He whispered.

"It’s not your fault, Reno." She responded kindly.

"Yes, it is." His shame became tangible. "I should have known that Hojo was setting a trap, and I never should have let you and Vincent go into that lab alone."

"You didn’t know… none of us did." Tifa stroked Vincent’s hair as she thought. "I feel like a damned fool for risking Vincent’s safety over the hope that Cloud really was still alive. It must have killed him to think that I was still harboring some kind of feelings for Cloud. That’s why I wanted him to be wed to me before we went, so he wouldn’t think that I was doing this for anything more than friendship for Cloud."

"Tseng’s the one who sent us on this mission, and then only out of concern that Cloud might give Hojo some sort of help in his mad ambitions. Vincent knew that. It’s not as though you came up with this whole thing on your own. Hojo played all of us like fucking toys, knowing exactly what it would take to get us to go into that lab." Reno couldn’t stand the thought that Tifa would blame herself for any of this. "You didn’t do anything wrong."

She continued to stare down at Vincent, coming to realize that his Death Penalty was still clutched tightly in his seized up right hand. Tifa carefully reached down and pried the weapon from his grip and handed it over to Reno. "Keep this, for now."

He took the weapon and laid it on the floor next to him. The sight of the gun prompted him to tell Tifa something she did not yet know. "Vincent kept his order."

"What’s that?" She was lost to his meaning.

"Tseng ordered him to kill Cloud if things didn’t work out right, remember?" Reno hung his head.

"Yes." She answered simply.

"And he did." He sighed. "When we went into the room where he was being held he was laying there just like he is now. Porter and I started to drag him out, but when he caught sight of Cloud standing before us in the lab, he woke up, took his gun from Porter, and shot Cloud. There’s no way that Hojo’s gonna be able to use him anymore."

Tifa turned her tired eyes up to him. "So he was like this before?"

"Yes, and he woke up. So don’t go losing hope on me, all right?" Reno gave her another weak smile.

The knowledge that Cloud’s body would no longer be used by Hojo gave her an odd sense of comfort. If Vincent came back once to fulfill a mission, then there was every chance that he would come back again for her. Maybe it was wrong, but she couldn’t help but be pleased that Vincent had kept his promise to Tseng. Cloud was finally dead, once and for all, in both body and mind. Tifa hoped that this meant that he was with Aeris now, somewhere drifting in the life-stream.

Reno picked up on the small change in her demeanor. "What are you thinking?"

"Just relieved, for Cloud’s sake." Tifa said quietly.

Reno nodded, knowing that the sight of her former husband walking around under Hojo’s direction must have been very hard for her. As a silence fell over them, he couldn’t help but find himself staring at Vincent again. The only portions of Vincent’s body that were real anymore were his upper body and head. Everything else was mechanical now, and Reno was sickened by it. As a male, he found the current state of Vincent’s lower body disturbing. Vincent’s now absolutely genderless form drew his attention, and before he was able to stop himself, Reno said something more than a little off color. "Since Vinny doesn’t have the equipment anymore, feel free to come to me with your womanly needs."

Tifa hauled off and hit him in the jaw as hard as her tired and stressed state would allow. No sooner had her blow landed did she immediately regret it. "Reno, I’m sorry…"

He wiped his bloodied and throbbing lip with the sleeve to his suit coat. "No, I deserved that."

She felt a little uneasy as she realized that everyone was now staring at her and Reno. Not knowing what else to do, Tifa dropped her gaze back to Vincent, trying to block out everyone else around her.

Reno, extremely upset at himself for his usual lack of tact, picked up Vincent’s gun and got up and made his way back toward Angel. He needed one of her instant cold packs for his face before it got any worse. Tifa had packed quite a punch, and his face felt as though it had gone nine rounds with a professional boxer from the one simple hit.

Jaras, who had previously become wrapped back up in the book he’d produced from his pocket looked up to see the sight of a bleeding and embarrassed Reno retreating from Tifa’s side. He saw the depressed look upon Tifa’s face, and although he tried to restrain himself from doing so, he soon found himself going over to take up the place so recently vacated by Reno.

Tifa looked over, a little surprised to see that Jaras had managed to escape his book. There was a strange look upon his face, and Tifa was concerned. "Hey, Jaras."

He produced a smile for her, and dared to place a hand on her shoulder. "I just wanted to see how you were doing. You know, wanting to make sure Reno didn’t say anything to upset you. Which I guess is stupid, because he obviously did."

She couldn’t help but return his grin, the memory of striking Reno almost humorous. "I have a feeling it wasn’t the first time he’s been hit for saying something dumb."

"Probably not." Jaras let his hand fall away from her, fearing that too much contact with her would drive him mad. "But are you doing all right?"

She just motioned vaguely down at Vincent. There were no words left within her to describe how she felt. Even if she had them, Tifa didn’t want to have to rub Jaras’s nose in her feelings for Vincent. She knew he was still convinced that his feelings for her were love.

Jaras nodded, knowing what was up. He was hurt by his own words before he spoke them. "He knows you love him, Tifa, and if there is anything that is going to bring him back, it will be that. I just wish there was something I could do."

Tifa raised her eyebrows, a little shocked that he would say that to her. "Just knowing that you’re there for me helps."

If you only knew how much I am here for you, Tifa. Jaras’s saddened eyes betrayed his thoughts. "I just want what’s best for you, and my father."

Tifa couldn’t bear to see the pain in his eyes anymore and looked back down at Vincent. She pitied Jaras for loving her. "Thank you, Jaras."

He moved to get back up, not wanting to make her uncomfortable by his continued presence. "It’s nothing."

She watched as he made his way back to where he had been sitting. He at once pulled his book out again and started to read. At least, that’s what Tifa thought he was doing. The truth was that he wasn’t reading at all, nor had he been this entire time. Rather, he had been watching her over the top of the small novel, pretending to be absorbed in the words whenever she would glance over in his direction. His mind was tormented by the thoughts of what she might have endured at the hands of the scientist. Although Vincent’s wounds were far more obvious, there was something inside that was hurting her terribly, and he wanted to be the one to alleviate that. But he knew Tifa wouldn’t let him that close. She never would.

Angel looked up to her husband as he landed back at her side. She had seen Tifa hit him and knew what he wanted. Reaching into her medical bag, she pulled out a small plastic bag and broke something within it. After a few seconds, the bag became very cold, and she handed it to Reno who at once placed it up against his lip.

Angel shook her head and sighed. "I don’t want to know what you said to deserve that."

Muffled behind the ice pack, Reno laughed. "That’s nice, cause I wasn’t gonna tell you anyway."

"Have you called Tseng?" Angel asked, already knowing the answer.

"Oh…" Reno realized that he should have at some point attempted to contact his boss, but hadn’t. He dropped the ice pack for the moment and pulled his phone from his coat pocket.

On the other end, Tseng’s voice answered. "Hello?"

"Hey old man, still alive?" Reno smiled at himself upon hearing Tseng’s familiar tone.

"Yes, what’s going on? You were supposed to be back yesterday!" A short pause. "I was getting worried."

"Aw, you were worried? That’s sweet." Even now Reno couldn’t help but taunt his boss.

"Cut the shit, Reno, what’s going on?" He was obviously desperate for information.

"Well, we had a little chopper trouble on the way in and we had to drive into Midgar while Brad fixed the piece of crap. We stayed at the hotel across the street and staked the Shin Ra building out. Then the damnedest thing happened. Some sorry Turk motherfucker came out of the building with Tifa. Turns out Hojo was letting her go."

"But you have her and she’s safe, right?" Tseng wished that Reno would just get to the point.

"Yeah, we got her, more or less okay." Reno sighed. "The Turk with her was willing to help us in return for us helping get an implant out of his girlfriend, which Angel did. With his help, we were able to get into the Shin Ra building without any trouble and nabbed Vincent."

"How is he?" Tseng asked.

"Not good." Reno lowered his voice, not wanting Tifa to hear what he had to say. "Hojo really fucked with him. Cut off his right arm and damned near turned him into a robot. He’s not able to move at all and he’s slipped into some sort of trance. I don’t know if he’ll ever be all right."

To learn of his brother’s state pained Tseng deeply, and he found it hard to go on. "So Hojo just wanted Vincent to torture him?"

"He wasn’t after Vincent, Tseng." Reno fidgeted with the Death Penalty laying at his side. "He was after Tifa."

"Why?"

"It’s the Neo-Jenova Project. He took some of Tifa’s eggs. He’s going to start the project, using her genetic material." Reno said quietly.

"Oh dear God…" Tseng fell back into the chair he had been standing before. Quickly he popped some more of his heart pills beneath his tongue. "Neo-Jenova is underway?"

"It will be soon." Reno looked at Porter’s sleeping form before him. "But I’ve got some good news."

"And that is?" Tseng needed anything positive at this point.

"I know where the secret Midgar facility is now." Reno smiled to himself.

"No kidding?" Tseng’s voice grew excited.

"Yeah, turns out this Turk that helped us out was Hojo’s personal guard. He knows all kinds of shit, including the location of the lab. He’s with us, and God willing he lives, he’s gonna join us." Reno couldn’t help but pat the sleeping Turk on the head.

"You’re bringing a Turk back!" Tseng stood back up. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"Hey, he’s cool, trust me." Reno looked over to where Rayna was sitting with D. "His dog and his girlfriend are here too. We’re over the ocean now, so it shouldn’t be too long."

"What the fuck, Reno!" The fact that Tseng was swearing gave away his anxiety. "He’s a Turk!"

"Yeah, and just like Tifa reminded me, so were we." Reno said simply.

"I hope you know what you’re doing…" Tseng sighed.

Reno couldn’t help but smile at the fact that he was having the same conversation that he and Tifa had gone through earlier that same day, except now the rolls were reversed. "Trust me, Tseng. Bye."