Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Counterfeit God; Part I ❯ Chapter 3
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Shiratori-Strife Inc 
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.02.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.7K | Visits: 213 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Drama / Adventure / Action | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 10.02.2006 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.7K | Visits: 213 | Status: Completed
3
“You wanted to see me, Sir?” Interesting gathering…Reno thought as he glanced around the room. Rufus Shinra was standing by the window, staring out over Midgar, Tseng and Elena off to the side, Rude right next to him.
“Yes, Reno,” Rufus turned, looking serious. “Since the waif isn’t going to help us in defeating Sephiroth, I have decided that she’s too much of a threat to this company to be left alive,”
“What?” Reno took a step back, shocked. “But, she’s harmless! It’s been two months and she still hasn’t recovered from using the Lifestream…she may never recover!”
“I understand that you’ve become attached, Reno. You’ve always needed something to take care of. However, I cannot take the chance that she will one day recover and destroy this company. My father has already done enough to send us into the ground. I can not let her do that literally,”
“But, sir!”
“I want you to kill her, Reno,” Rufus’ posture was stiff, serious. “I will not have these orders disobeyed, otherwise I will be forced to kill her myself, and I promise you, I have no mercy towards those who would threaten my company. It would be in the best interests of the both of you if you were to do it yourself,”
Reno looked as if Rufus had just run over his new puppy. Elena averted her eyes to the ground, biting her tongue to keep from protesting. Reno had taken responsibility for the girl and, in the two months that he’d been taking care of her, he’d fallen in love with her. Rufus knew that, yet he was still making Reno do this. But what could she do? She was a Turk, and by her very nature, she was ruthless, but still, she had a heart in there somewhere.
Tseng touched her arm and she glanced at him, realizing that he, too, knew what this would do to Reno in the end.
“You have your orders, Reno,”
When Reno cursed and left the room, Rufus looked to Rude, his eyes narrowed. “Follow him, Rude. I don’t want him trying to hide her. I want you to bare witness to it. No, wait,”
Rude paused in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder at Rufus. “Bring them both back here. I want to see him do it for myself. He’s a wonderful asset to this company. I’d hate to have to kill him for disobeying me. If he kills her in front of me, it will keep him from taking that chance,”
“I…yes, sir,”
---
Morghann lifted the sleeve of the shirt up to her elbow and flinched at the nasty discoloring of the skin of her arm from wrist to elbow. The scars had not healed, and she still felt pain in her limbs whenever she moved, which was why Reno hadn’t allowed her out of this room since he’d brought her here. Without his help, she could barely make it to the bathroom and back without collapsing.
“Damn the Lifestream and its cursed energy,” She whispered, pulling the sleeve back down over her arm. “I’ll never be well again and I’ll always need someone to take care of me. Invalid…” She looked away from the window and moved to sit on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest while she mourned the loss of her own vitality. “How can he stand to look at me? How can he love something like this?”
The door flew open suddenly and Reno was in the room, looking around hastily as if in a panic.
“Reno?”
He threw the door closed, unaware that it remained cracked. He came at her, grabbing her arm and hauling her violently off of the bed.
“You’re hurting me!” His grip instantly loosened and he stopped moving. “Reno…what’s going on?”
“You’re leaving,”
Hurt filled her but she didn’t show it. At least…so she thought.
“You’re not safe here,” He said after a few minutes of silence. “Rufus just ordered me to kill you because you won’t help him destroy Sephiroth,” Her body stiffened and she started trembling from the effort to contain herself.
“Reno, where will I go?” He moved towards the table where she’d been playing cards earlier and shoved it aside, flipping a carpet back to reveal the same metal flooring that covered the rest of the room.
“I have a cabin on the outskirts of Kalm, near the ocean. You can stay there,”
“But…” She watched him trace the outline of one of the floor panels with his index finger, saw it glow, lift, and vanish to reveal a ladder.
“I used Mako to create this little tunnel. It goes all the way to that cabin near Kalm. It’s a long walk,” Reno rose, moving to touch her arm. “I know you can’t make that walk on your own, but you have to try. My motorbike is parked at the end of the first leg of the tunnel. It’s about three hundred yards from this entrance. Wait for me there,”
“But-”
“Do you trust me to come for you, Morghann?”
“I…yes, Reno, I trust you,”
“Then get out of here,” He pulled her towards the ladder and urged her down onto it. “One hour, Morg. If I’m not with you in one hour, you’ll have to go without me. I can’t risk you still being here any longer than an hour,”
“I don’t know how to drive a motorbike,”
“It’s an upgrade. If I’m not there in an hour, get on it and turn the key to automatic drive. It will get you to the cabin on its own. Everything you’ll need is there,” Reno eased her onto the ladder, his hands shaking in the effort to contain himself.
“What about you? Won’t Rufus know…?”
“Don’t worry about that,” He dropped to his knees and helped her further down. “Hurry, there’s not much time…”
“Reno…” She reached for him, which surprised him, but he took the invitation she was offering and kissed her as fiercely as he’d been wanting to for the last several weeks. It was a wonderful kiss, even if there was a hint of fear in it. “One hour, Morghann. Go,”
When she finally let him go and started to climb down the ladder, he ran his finger along the edges of it and the panel returned to its place. He pulled the carpet back over it, as well as the table and shook himself of the emotions that were churning in him.
“Reno,”
He whirled around and faced Rude, fear slamming into him so hard he lost his balance in too many ways. “Rufus has ordered that I bring you both before him so that he can watch her execution,”
“No, Rude,”
“You can’t disobey a direct order,”
“He’s not the President yet,”
“No, he isn’t, but that’s irrelevant at this point,”
“Rude, I can’t,” Reno grasped the edge of the table to regain his balance. “I care about her,”
“Then care enough to kill her yourself,” Rude snapped his fingers and, scaring the shit out of Reno, there was Morghann.
“No, Rude!” He looked down at the carpet, confused. There was no way… He looked up at the woman next to Rude and narrowed his eyes. Same face, same body, same eyes…No, not the same eyes. Anyone who had spent the last two months in the same room with the woman would have been able to tell the difference between her and the woman standing next to Rude. There was no life in the sapphire orbs that stared back at him. Nothing. They were just eyes.
“You have your orders,” Rude said simply. “I told you a long time ago, Reno. I’m a damn good liar.”
“Reno…”
Not her voice, either, Reno realized. It had a hint of her voice, but there was no life in that either. But Rufus wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because he hadn’t gotten more than a glimpse of the woman. He’d never heard her speak. He wouldn’t be able to tell so long as the scars were there.
“Let’s go, Reno,”
Moving with stiff limbs, Reno took the woman’s arm and followed Rude into the hallway and back towards the meeting room where Rufus was waiting. He glanced at the woman next to him and felt himself breaking. Rude was right, he was a good liar. Rufus would believe this was Morghann, and, until he could get down that tunnel to her, Reno would believe it, too. He couldn’t afford not to.
“Ah, miss Morghann, join us?”
Reno let her go with a soft shove, looking as if he’d been wounded. The girl just stared at him in shock. If he didn’t already know better, he’d really think this was Morghann and not some kind of stand-in. His hands still shook as Rufus walked up to her and examined the discoloring of the skin along the right side of her neck.
“It’s such a sad sight,” He purred when she jerked away. “The Lifestream destroyed what, I’m sure, was once very lovely,”
She cursed him in a language he didn’t understand and took a step back from all of them. Rufus glanced between her and Reno and believed what he saw was real. Reno couldn’t fake that much emotion without giving himself away. “Reno, you may proceed,”
“Proceed with what?” The stand-in looked at him, confused. Uncomfortable, but unable to do anything else, Reno’s fingers flexed and tightened around his electro-mag rod and he turned towards her, unable to meet her eyes. “Reno?”
He walked towards her, breathing hard, already knowing he was going to break. “Don’t move,” He whispered when he got close enough to her. “It won’t hurt as badly if you don’t move,”
“Reno? What do you-Ahh!” He cried out in anguish as he did it, unable to look up for fear that it was really Morghann he’d just run through. “W-why…I thought…I trusted you…”
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry!“ He pulled back and felt her fall forward, bracing herself against him. “Reno…” She fell to her knees, bleeding out on the floor. Elena muffled a gasp, averting her gaze when Reno looked up at her. He dropped the rod next to the dead woman, took two steps back and shook his head. Elena, even if she’d only gotten a brief glimpse, had seen what lay in those eyes of his. He was broken now, in more ways than one. Ruined…Rufus had made Reno kill something that had become a part of himself and now Reno would never be the same.
“You are dismissed, Reno. I understand that was difficult. You may take a few days if you wish,”
Reno’s hard eyes pinned Rufus in place and he fought against the urge to skin the man alive. Rufus knew it, too, the prick. Reno left the room in a hurry, looking more infuriated now than any of them had ever seen them. With a faint nod from Rufus, Rude followed after him to make sure Reno didn’t do anything stupid.
He reached his room before Rude had a chance to stop him and grabbed his duffle, shoving clothes and essentials into it. He was quite literally shaken when Rude stepped into the room. Reno didn’t even turn around to look at him, simply braced his hands on the bed.
“Who did I just kill in there, Rude?”
“The girl was already dead. A little Mako energy just reignited her nerves. I told you, I’m a good liar,”
Reno shivered as he zipped up his duffle. “Did Rufus believe it?”
“Yes, he did,”
Nodding, Reno moved towards the table. “I’ll be back in a couple of days, maybe a week or so. I can’t…be here right now,”
“I understand,”
---
Morghann huffed, leaning against the wall to try and catch her breath. She’d made it to the bike without any really big problems, save for the fact that she couldn’t breathe. If she stopped and sat down she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back up again. At least, not before the hour was up. “Is this my punishment? You offered me your energy and yet you punish me for using it…” Morghann shook her head and rested it against the cool metal of the tunnel, feeling the Mako that pulsed within the walls. If Rufus realized that Reno had hidden her away rather than kill her as he’d been ordered, it wouldn’t take him long to find this place. Reno had hidden it well, but he’d never had any reason to worry about Rufus or anyone else in Shinra for that matter, finding this place. They didn’t have a reason to look.
Until now. “I’ve pretty much ruined his life,” She chuckled, but it was bitter. “An invalid just ruined his life. But he kissed me…” Which didn’t necessarily mean anything. She’d seen Reno the night she’d attacked Shinra and he didn’t seem like the type that would kiss someone with any kind of meaning. He loved his alcohol, that was for sure. She’d seen him in the bar that night while she’d been watching all of the Turks, and he hadn’t had any inhibitions about groping every female that passed by him, Elena included, even if she’d voiced her dislike of it rather loudly. He didn’t seem the type for any kind of commitment.
But if he didn’t actually care about her, why would he send her into hiding? Did he pity her because she couldn’t defend herself anymore? Did he not have it in his heart to kill someone who was helpless? Was it pity that made him kiss her, or did he really care?
Morghann slid down along the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She didn’t care that she wouldn’t be able to get back up again; her body was too drained, too exhausted to continue to stay upright. She was tired of being like this. She was tired of being trapped in this husk of a body because she couldn’t use it any more. But Reno hadn’t resented that. His interest hadn’t faded because of how weak she was. He never seemed angry about having to help her around constantly, never made any indication that it was too much trouble.
Maybe he really did care about her, even if she could never trust him to be faithful. Not that it mattered; he cared, didn’t he? That had to mean something.
Morghann closed her eyes, rested her head back against the wall and focused on breathing for a few minutes. She could barely move because she was so tired. She shouldn’t have sat down…
“Morghann!”
Jolting alert, Morghann looked at Reno and relaxed. He came to her, sliding onto the ground in front of her, embracing her. “You’re ok?”
“Tired…”
“Come on,” He grasped her arms, lifted her up and supported her all the way to his bike. “We need to go,” He helped her on the bike and then climbed on behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Reno…”
He turned the key to automatic and then they sped off, heading for Kalm. For safety.
---
The conscious world slowly tugged at him and he became aware that someone was running nimble fingers through his hair. Reno opened his eyes and smiled.
“When did you get home?” Morghann asked dreamily, smiling at him.
“Just after sundown. You were already asleep so I just slid in and got comfortable,”
“Little sneak,” He could see the question in her sapphire eyes, and wanted to answer it for her, but he found that he wasn’t able to do it. He hadn’t cheated on her. Hadn’t, in fact, ever been unfaithful. Which, and it disgusted him to think this, actually surprised even him. Still she had her reasons to suspect, and he wouldn’t resent that. He was, after all, a wild one by his very nature. Still, whether she got the answer or not, she stuck by him.
But she wasn’t weak anymore. She was far from it, so he knew she wasn’t staying with him out of some kind of obligation. They weren’t married, but they were having a child. The fact that he had asked her to have a child with him instead of just going out to get some random woman knocked up for a son had to mean something. He had changed a lot in some ways even if no one ever really knew that besides Morghann. She needed him, but not to help her around. Her body was healed and since she now knew how to properly channel the Lifestream through her body and give the energy back in order for a healing, she was hardly an invalid. It did leave her exhausted for a few days, but it was nothing like it had been before.
He figured they were both making progress. But there were lines on her face now that clearly indicated that she hadn’t gotten any more rest in the last three days than he had. “Are you hungry?”
“Famished,”
He glanced at her stomach before sitting up and stretching. “I’ve been thinking, Morghann,”
“Oh no. Everyone duck and cover,” She grinned as she left their bed and changed out of her pajamas. “All right, Reno. What have you been thinking?”
“We should go to Kalm for a few days. We haven’t been back at the cabin since…well, since we found out for sure that you were pregnant,” He looked over at her, admiring her for a moment while she slipped into a comfortable pair of slack pants and one of the many maternity shirts she’d had to purchase over the last several weeks. “It would be a delightful little getaway, don’t you agree?”
“Depends on how many bars you go to before you realize that I need to eat,” It was meant as a joke, but it still hurt.
“Morghann…You know I…Well, shit, you have your reasons, and I don’t blame you, but I haven’t…”
“You haven’t what?” She asked softly, too softly.
“I haven’t been unfaithful,” He looked dead at her, hoping she could see it on his face. She seemed to have caught it because she smiled, her sapphire eyes glittering.
“I believe you, Reno,” Her smile brightened. “I suppose I’m honored. After all…at first…well, I always thought you stayed with me out of pity. But after Rufus ordered you to execute me because of my refusal, I think that’s when I started to understand. You did, in the beginning, take care of me because you felt sorry for me. You may have even done that seeing what I could do for Shinra had you been able to sway my feelings towards them. Yes, I knew that. But…I saw that change.”
“I’m glad,”
“Me, too, considering.”
“I hurt you somehow. I’m sorry,”
“There is no life or love without some kind of hurt, Reno. We step over it and continue on,” Morghann motioned him out of the bed so that she could straighten the linens. “Love teaches us that there is a reason for life. And Life teaches us that, if we wait long enough, what we yearn for in love or out of it will come,”
She moved the pillows back into position near the headboard and straightened up. Reno changed his clothes and watched her. “Did you say that to Cloud?”
Morghann’s hands paused as she smoothed the wrinkles from the blankets. “Yes,” She whispered. “I did say that to him. I just hope that, in the end, he finds that his waiting was not a waste,”
“Good. Then, let’s go get some breakfast and bother Cloud about it,”
“Reno…”
“What? I can’t start the day without being an ass about something. Besides, Cloud’s the only person here besides you, Cid and Tifa that don’t retaliate against me with fists,”
“True,” As they made their way down the stairs, something odd and familiar crept in around Morghann’s mind, warning her that something lay in wait at the bottom of the stairs. But it wasn’t something dangerous.
“Do you…?” She glanced at Reno when they reached the bottom only to find that he was staring into the bar with wide-eyed open-mouthed astonishment. She followed his gaze and felt tears springing to her eyes. “Sirius!”
---
End Chapter
“You wanted to see me, Sir?” Interesting gathering…Reno thought as he glanced around the room. Rufus Shinra was standing by the window, staring out over Midgar, Tseng and Elena off to the side, Rude right next to him.
“Yes, Reno,” Rufus turned, looking serious. “Since the waif isn’t going to help us in defeating Sephiroth, I have decided that she’s too much of a threat to this company to be left alive,”
“What?” Reno took a step back, shocked. “But, she’s harmless! It’s been two months and she still hasn’t recovered from using the Lifestream…she may never recover!”
“I understand that you’ve become attached, Reno. You’ve always needed something to take care of. However, I cannot take the chance that she will one day recover and destroy this company. My father has already done enough to send us into the ground. I can not let her do that literally,”
“But, sir!”
“I want you to kill her, Reno,” Rufus’ posture was stiff, serious. “I will not have these orders disobeyed, otherwise I will be forced to kill her myself, and I promise you, I have no mercy towards those who would threaten my company. It would be in the best interests of the both of you if you were to do it yourself,”
Reno looked as if Rufus had just run over his new puppy. Elena averted her eyes to the ground, biting her tongue to keep from protesting. Reno had taken responsibility for the girl and, in the two months that he’d been taking care of her, he’d fallen in love with her. Rufus knew that, yet he was still making Reno do this. But what could she do? She was a Turk, and by her very nature, she was ruthless, but still, she had a heart in there somewhere.
Tseng touched her arm and she glanced at him, realizing that he, too, knew what this would do to Reno in the end.
“You have your orders, Reno,”
When Reno cursed and left the room, Rufus looked to Rude, his eyes narrowed. “Follow him, Rude. I don’t want him trying to hide her. I want you to bare witness to it. No, wait,”
Rude paused in the doorway, glancing over his shoulder at Rufus. “Bring them both back here. I want to see him do it for myself. He’s a wonderful asset to this company. I’d hate to have to kill him for disobeying me. If he kills her in front of me, it will keep him from taking that chance,”
“I…yes, sir,”
---
Morghann lifted the sleeve of the shirt up to her elbow and flinched at the nasty discoloring of the skin of her arm from wrist to elbow. The scars had not healed, and she still felt pain in her limbs whenever she moved, which was why Reno hadn’t allowed her out of this room since he’d brought her here. Without his help, she could barely make it to the bathroom and back without collapsing.
“Damn the Lifestream and its cursed energy,” She whispered, pulling the sleeve back down over her arm. “I’ll never be well again and I’ll always need someone to take care of me. Invalid…” She looked away from the window and moved to sit on the bed, pulling her knees up to her chest while she mourned the loss of her own vitality. “How can he stand to look at me? How can he love something like this?”
The door flew open suddenly and Reno was in the room, looking around hastily as if in a panic.
“Reno?”
He threw the door closed, unaware that it remained cracked. He came at her, grabbing her arm and hauling her violently off of the bed.
“You’re hurting me!” His grip instantly loosened and he stopped moving. “Reno…what’s going on?”
“You’re leaving,”
Hurt filled her but she didn’t show it. At least…so she thought.
“You’re not safe here,” He said after a few minutes of silence. “Rufus just ordered me to kill you because you won’t help him destroy Sephiroth,” Her body stiffened and she started trembling from the effort to contain herself.
“Reno, where will I go?” He moved towards the table where she’d been playing cards earlier and shoved it aside, flipping a carpet back to reveal the same metal flooring that covered the rest of the room.
“I have a cabin on the outskirts of Kalm, near the ocean. You can stay there,”
“But…” She watched him trace the outline of one of the floor panels with his index finger, saw it glow, lift, and vanish to reveal a ladder.
“I used Mako to create this little tunnel. It goes all the way to that cabin near Kalm. It’s a long walk,” Reno rose, moving to touch her arm. “I know you can’t make that walk on your own, but you have to try. My motorbike is parked at the end of the first leg of the tunnel. It’s about three hundred yards from this entrance. Wait for me there,”
“But-”
“Do you trust me to come for you, Morghann?”
“I…yes, Reno, I trust you,”
“Then get out of here,” He pulled her towards the ladder and urged her down onto it. “One hour, Morg. If I’m not with you in one hour, you’ll have to go without me. I can’t risk you still being here any longer than an hour,”
“I don’t know how to drive a motorbike,”
“It’s an upgrade. If I’m not there in an hour, get on it and turn the key to automatic drive. It will get you to the cabin on its own. Everything you’ll need is there,” Reno eased her onto the ladder, his hands shaking in the effort to contain himself.
“What about you? Won’t Rufus know…?”
“Don’t worry about that,” He dropped to his knees and helped her further down. “Hurry, there’s not much time…”
“Reno…” She reached for him, which surprised him, but he took the invitation she was offering and kissed her as fiercely as he’d been wanting to for the last several weeks. It was a wonderful kiss, even if there was a hint of fear in it. “One hour, Morghann. Go,”
When she finally let him go and started to climb down the ladder, he ran his finger along the edges of it and the panel returned to its place. He pulled the carpet back over it, as well as the table and shook himself of the emotions that were churning in him.
“Reno,”
He whirled around and faced Rude, fear slamming into him so hard he lost his balance in too many ways. “Rufus has ordered that I bring you both before him so that he can watch her execution,”
“No, Rude,”
“You can’t disobey a direct order,”
“He’s not the President yet,”
“No, he isn’t, but that’s irrelevant at this point,”
“Rude, I can’t,” Reno grasped the edge of the table to regain his balance. “I care about her,”
“Then care enough to kill her yourself,” Rude snapped his fingers and, scaring the shit out of Reno, there was Morghann.
“No, Rude!” He looked down at the carpet, confused. There was no way… He looked up at the woman next to Rude and narrowed his eyes. Same face, same body, same eyes…No, not the same eyes. Anyone who had spent the last two months in the same room with the woman would have been able to tell the difference between her and the woman standing next to Rude. There was no life in the sapphire orbs that stared back at him. Nothing. They were just eyes.
“You have your orders,” Rude said simply. “I told you a long time ago, Reno. I’m a damn good liar.”
“Reno…”
Not her voice, either, Reno realized. It had a hint of her voice, but there was no life in that either. But Rufus wouldn’t be able to tell the difference because he hadn’t gotten more than a glimpse of the woman. He’d never heard her speak. He wouldn’t be able to tell so long as the scars were there.
“Let’s go, Reno,”
Moving with stiff limbs, Reno took the woman’s arm and followed Rude into the hallway and back towards the meeting room where Rufus was waiting. He glanced at the woman next to him and felt himself breaking. Rude was right, he was a good liar. Rufus would believe this was Morghann, and, until he could get down that tunnel to her, Reno would believe it, too. He couldn’t afford not to.
“Ah, miss Morghann, join us?”
Reno let her go with a soft shove, looking as if he’d been wounded. The girl just stared at him in shock. If he didn’t already know better, he’d really think this was Morghann and not some kind of stand-in. His hands still shook as Rufus walked up to her and examined the discoloring of the skin along the right side of her neck.
“It’s such a sad sight,” He purred when she jerked away. “The Lifestream destroyed what, I’m sure, was once very lovely,”
She cursed him in a language he didn’t understand and took a step back from all of them. Rufus glanced between her and Reno and believed what he saw was real. Reno couldn’t fake that much emotion without giving himself away. “Reno, you may proceed,”
“Proceed with what?” The stand-in looked at him, confused. Uncomfortable, but unable to do anything else, Reno’s fingers flexed and tightened around his electro-mag rod and he turned towards her, unable to meet her eyes. “Reno?”
He walked towards her, breathing hard, already knowing he was going to break. “Don’t move,” He whispered when he got close enough to her. “It won’t hurt as badly if you don’t move,”
“Reno? What do you-Ahh!” He cried out in anguish as he did it, unable to look up for fear that it was really Morghann he’d just run through. “W-why…I thought…I trusted you…”
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry!“ He pulled back and felt her fall forward, bracing herself against him. “Reno…” She fell to her knees, bleeding out on the floor. Elena muffled a gasp, averting her gaze when Reno looked up at her. He dropped the rod next to the dead woman, took two steps back and shook his head. Elena, even if she’d only gotten a brief glimpse, had seen what lay in those eyes of his. He was broken now, in more ways than one. Ruined…Rufus had made Reno kill something that had become a part of himself and now Reno would never be the same.
“You are dismissed, Reno. I understand that was difficult. You may take a few days if you wish,”
Reno’s hard eyes pinned Rufus in place and he fought against the urge to skin the man alive. Rufus knew it, too, the prick. Reno left the room in a hurry, looking more infuriated now than any of them had ever seen them. With a faint nod from Rufus, Rude followed after him to make sure Reno didn’t do anything stupid.
He reached his room before Rude had a chance to stop him and grabbed his duffle, shoving clothes and essentials into it. He was quite literally shaken when Rude stepped into the room. Reno didn’t even turn around to look at him, simply braced his hands on the bed.
“Who did I just kill in there, Rude?”
“The girl was already dead. A little Mako energy just reignited her nerves. I told you, I’m a good liar,”
Reno shivered as he zipped up his duffle. “Did Rufus believe it?”
“Yes, he did,”
Nodding, Reno moved towards the table. “I’ll be back in a couple of days, maybe a week or so. I can’t…be here right now,”
“I understand,”
---
Morghann huffed, leaning against the wall to try and catch her breath. She’d made it to the bike without any really big problems, save for the fact that she couldn’t breathe. If she stopped and sat down she knew she wouldn’t be able to get back up again. At least, not before the hour was up. “Is this my punishment? You offered me your energy and yet you punish me for using it…” Morghann shook her head and rested it against the cool metal of the tunnel, feeling the Mako that pulsed within the walls. If Rufus realized that Reno had hidden her away rather than kill her as he’d been ordered, it wouldn’t take him long to find this place. Reno had hidden it well, but he’d never had any reason to worry about Rufus or anyone else in Shinra for that matter, finding this place. They didn’t have a reason to look.
Until now. “I’ve pretty much ruined his life,” She chuckled, but it was bitter. “An invalid just ruined his life. But he kissed me…” Which didn’t necessarily mean anything. She’d seen Reno the night she’d attacked Shinra and he didn’t seem like the type that would kiss someone with any kind of meaning. He loved his alcohol, that was for sure. She’d seen him in the bar that night while she’d been watching all of the Turks, and he hadn’t had any inhibitions about groping every female that passed by him, Elena included, even if she’d voiced her dislike of it rather loudly. He didn’t seem the type for any kind of commitment.
But if he didn’t actually care about her, why would he send her into hiding? Did he pity her because she couldn’t defend herself anymore? Did he not have it in his heart to kill someone who was helpless? Was it pity that made him kiss her, or did he really care?
Morghann slid down along the wall until she was sitting on the floor. She didn’t care that she wouldn’t be able to get back up again; her body was too drained, too exhausted to continue to stay upright. She was tired of being like this. She was tired of being trapped in this husk of a body because she couldn’t use it any more. But Reno hadn’t resented that. His interest hadn’t faded because of how weak she was. He never seemed angry about having to help her around constantly, never made any indication that it was too much trouble.
Maybe he really did care about her, even if she could never trust him to be faithful. Not that it mattered; he cared, didn’t he? That had to mean something.
Morghann closed her eyes, rested her head back against the wall and focused on breathing for a few minutes. She could barely move because she was so tired. She shouldn’t have sat down…
“Morghann!”
Jolting alert, Morghann looked at Reno and relaxed. He came to her, sliding onto the ground in front of her, embracing her. “You’re ok?”
“Tired…”
“Come on,” He grasped her arms, lifted her up and supported her all the way to his bike. “We need to go,” He helped her on the bike and then climbed on behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“Reno…”
He turned the key to automatic and then they sped off, heading for Kalm. For safety.
---
The conscious world slowly tugged at him and he became aware that someone was running nimble fingers through his hair. Reno opened his eyes and smiled.
“When did you get home?” Morghann asked dreamily, smiling at him.
“Just after sundown. You were already asleep so I just slid in and got comfortable,”
“Little sneak,” He could see the question in her sapphire eyes, and wanted to answer it for her, but he found that he wasn’t able to do it. He hadn’t cheated on her. Hadn’t, in fact, ever been unfaithful. Which, and it disgusted him to think this, actually surprised even him. Still she had her reasons to suspect, and he wouldn’t resent that. He was, after all, a wild one by his very nature. Still, whether she got the answer or not, she stuck by him.
But she wasn’t weak anymore. She was far from it, so he knew she wasn’t staying with him out of some kind of obligation. They weren’t married, but they were having a child. The fact that he had asked her to have a child with him instead of just going out to get some random woman knocked up for a son had to mean something. He had changed a lot in some ways even if no one ever really knew that besides Morghann. She needed him, but not to help her around. Her body was healed and since she now knew how to properly channel the Lifestream through her body and give the energy back in order for a healing, she was hardly an invalid. It did leave her exhausted for a few days, but it was nothing like it had been before.
He figured they were both making progress. But there were lines on her face now that clearly indicated that she hadn’t gotten any more rest in the last three days than he had. “Are you hungry?”
“Famished,”
He glanced at her stomach before sitting up and stretching. “I’ve been thinking, Morghann,”
“Oh no. Everyone duck and cover,” She grinned as she left their bed and changed out of her pajamas. “All right, Reno. What have you been thinking?”
“We should go to Kalm for a few days. We haven’t been back at the cabin since…well, since we found out for sure that you were pregnant,” He looked over at her, admiring her for a moment while she slipped into a comfortable pair of slack pants and one of the many maternity shirts she’d had to purchase over the last several weeks. “It would be a delightful little getaway, don’t you agree?”
“Depends on how many bars you go to before you realize that I need to eat,” It was meant as a joke, but it still hurt.
“Morghann…You know I…Well, shit, you have your reasons, and I don’t blame you, but I haven’t…”
“You haven’t what?” She asked softly, too softly.
“I haven’t been unfaithful,” He looked dead at her, hoping she could see it on his face. She seemed to have caught it because she smiled, her sapphire eyes glittering.
“I believe you, Reno,” Her smile brightened. “I suppose I’m honored. After all…at first…well, I always thought you stayed with me out of pity. But after Rufus ordered you to execute me because of my refusal, I think that’s when I started to understand. You did, in the beginning, take care of me because you felt sorry for me. You may have even done that seeing what I could do for Shinra had you been able to sway my feelings towards them. Yes, I knew that. But…I saw that change.”
“I’m glad,”
“Me, too, considering.”
“I hurt you somehow. I’m sorry,”
“There is no life or love without some kind of hurt, Reno. We step over it and continue on,” Morghann motioned him out of the bed so that she could straighten the linens. “Love teaches us that there is a reason for life. And Life teaches us that, if we wait long enough, what we yearn for in love or out of it will come,”
She moved the pillows back into position near the headboard and straightened up. Reno changed his clothes and watched her. “Did you say that to Cloud?”
Morghann’s hands paused as she smoothed the wrinkles from the blankets. “Yes,” She whispered. “I did say that to him. I just hope that, in the end, he finds that his waiting was not a waste,”
“Good. Then, let’s go get some breakfast and bother Cloud about it,”
“Reno…”
“What? I can’t start the day without being an ass about something. Besides, Cloud’s the only person here besides you, Cid and Tifa that don’t retaliate against me with fists,”
“True,” As they made their way down the stairs, something odd and familiar crept in around Morghann’s mind, warning her that something lay in wait at the bottom of the stairs. But it wasn’t something dangerous.
“Do you…?” She glanced at Reno when they reached the bottom only to find that he was staring into the bar with wide-eyed open-mouthed astonishment. She followed his gaze and felt tears springing to her eyes. “Sirius!”
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End Chapter