Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Prophetic Fulfillment ❯ Visions and Revelations ( Chapter 2 )

"Oughtta dye the rest of your hair silver though. Then you'll resemble everyone's favorite deceased psychopath. Now that's truly scary." ~ Reno Charlemagne

"I was of the feeling,
I was out of control,
I had the opinion it was
Out of control.

I fought fate,
There's blood at the garden gate
The man said childhood,
It's in his childhood.

"Out of Control"
U2

Silence.

Reno stared at Genesis. Genesis stared at Reno.

Reno burst into laughter.

"Riiiight. Okay. I'm going to go back to reality and you, well... it was nice meeting ya." He wasn't in the mood for a fairy tale and he wasn't in the mood for dealing with the socially and psychologically inept. "I suggest you seek some professional help, sister."

"Excuse me?"

"You are crazy. Nuts. Out of your fucking gourd." He grinned. "That bit with my name though. That was the icing on the cake. Oughtta dye the rest of your hair silver though. Then you'll resemble everyone's favorite deceased psychopath. Now that's truly scary."

The girl crossed her arms in front of her chest and raised an eyebrow.

"Anyone with the right computer know-how could find out my full name. 'Course, it'd be easier to just rummage through my wallet." Reno stood up and stretched, noting the familiar pressure of leather in his back pocket. She would have had to stick her hand in an... interesting location to get that little piece of evidence. And this Genesis seemed a little too formal and uptight to do such a thing, unless it had been a dire emergency.

"I need neither method. I know you."

Reno sighed. This was getting nowhere, and if he needed anything it was fresh air. Then a cigarette to pollute that fresh air. "Y'know, you have to let this go... I don't know you. I've never known you. You must be mistaken. If I seem vaguely familiar, yeah, I was on the televisions and in the newspapers a while ago." He snorted and grinned. "I'll just conveniently forget the Mage Warrior crap and be on my way. Toodle-loo."

Genesis grit her teeth, an action of weariness, frustration, and a little bit of sadness. She could remember such fond childhood memories. She knew this was her Reno, Cosmo Canyon's Reno. But why didn't he remember?

Time... Yes, time would have to be a factor. It had been over twenty years since she had seen him. Maybe she was clinging to the past? Maybe he had just moved on, forgotten the easily forgotten. She could remember five years prior, the Meteor incident, knowing vaguely, hearing something about a Turk named Reno, wondering if it was him. When things got bad, the state of Midgar affairs worsened, she had read a paper and known - it was him. He was the man who had bravely defended the Sector Seven tower from collapse, tried to stop the terrorists but failed.

She remembered hearing otherwise. She didn't want to fathom it.

The picture was all she had to base her perception of him on. He had aged, he looked so much different. When last she knew him, he had been shorter than her, his red hair a softer shade, mussed, but not crazy. The Reno in the newspaper photograph was tall, his hair somewhere between wine and blood. His eyes were different, and yet the same. Something within told her, he was the one. But something else, a sense of detachment, hatred, pain. Cold, hard, green.

Emeralds. Wine. Blood. If only Genesis knew how right her images were. She wanted to know what had happened, and now her opportunity was walking out the door.

Reno stared at the girl from the corner of his eye. Maybe he'd been a little harsh with her. Maybe he should have broken from tradition, habit. Sugar coated his words. 'You're crazy' just didn't sound nice. But she was... Wasn't she? She seemed so sure of herself, but mage warriors didn't exist. That he knew.

Did he?

Reno remembered his childhood. Growing up in the slums of Midgar. No real family, moving from neighborhood to neighborhood with a whore of a mother and a father who beat them. He remembered finally breaking free at the age of fourteen, running away, living on the street for three years, being recruited. And no where in those memories did he remember a Genesis Atlantis.

Genesis Atlantis. Strange black and silver hair. Violet eyes. An accent unfamiliar to his ears. Even her name seemed exotic, different. He knew he'd remember her had he met her. And he didn't. There was no getting past that. His hearing was picking up sounds he knew he shouldn't be able to physically hear. His vision was clearer, stronger, his sense of smell strangely accute.

Just what in the name of Ifrit was going on?

Stay.

Reno stopped in his tracks, inches from the exit. "...What?" His voice was barely above a whisper. That voice... it seemed so familiar, but he knew he had never heard it before.

Stay where you are.

He looked around wildly, hoping to find someone, whoever was speaking. Genesis sat in her seat, stirring her tea, her eyes downcast. She obviously didn't hear the voice.

"Who are you?" He had worked up the courage to ask.

You will find out in due time.

"Reno... who are you talking to?" Genesis' voice echoed across the room, confused. Yes, she obviously didn't hear the voice.

Stay with the girl. She will show you the truth.

Reno growled inaudibly. "The truth about what?" He was tired of this. Not ony was he hearing voices, but the voices were talking in riddles. Maybe he had spoken too soon. The girl's insanity must have rubbed off on him.

You.

He barely had a moment to think, to give a quizzical look to the nothingness that spoke, before a sharp pain stabbed beyond his eyes and a flash of white danced into his line of vision. He fell to his knees.

"Reno?!" Genesis ran to his side.

He slumped forward into her arms, feeling the pain intensify, feeling himself dropping into an all too familiar darkness. "Gen..."

The truth about my past... Gen... She seems so familiar...

She will show you...

His eyelids felt heavy... so heavy. It was taking so much effort just to keep them open, aloft. He felt like his brain was shutting off, his senses clicking off one by one, his system going into stand by.

...the path to the fulfillment of your destiny.

He will hear the voice of the planet... The truth shall be revealed...

~Torn manuscript shred.

Darkness. The boy was terrified, confined, and more importantly sedated. They had made sure he had no means of escape, and despite his diminutive size, he was powerful, far more powerful than they had expected upon his capture.

The boy had awoken to find himself suspended in a liquid filled tube, his arm hooked up to an IV, an oxygen mask tied around his face. Sensors were attached to his body, monitoring every movement and statistic. His small body was naked, all dignity and decency stripped from the pale flesh.

The clicking of heels.

A scrawny, spectacled man stepped forward into the room, an assistant to his right.

"How's specimen 26 doing?"

"So I see you finally got one. Now all you need is a Cetra."

"Yes, yes. In due time. But for now I need to work with this one."

"A little small, don't you think?"

"Heh... but it's a powerful one, that it is. Incredibly powerful. We'll put a stop to that though. Soon enough. Tried to get its parents too, but they tried to stop us... A pity. But this one will be useful enough."

A grin.

The professor known as Hojo noted the look of terror and sadness spreading across his specimen's face. And he grinned.

"Yes. We'll wipe everything out. But... it'll be quite useful to us once the experiments are complete. Quite useful indeed."

The boy glared at the professor, and for the first time in his young life, pure hatred flowed through his veins, threatening to boil over. And for the first time in his young life he tried to use everything he knew, everything he'd learned, and centuries of inherited skills to break free, to kill.

And nothing happened.

Reno Charlemagne could do nothing but sit by and wait. Wait to be used, studied. Wait to have his memories torn from his psyche. Wait to be manipulated. Wait to find solace and breed loyalty to the company that kidnaped him, murdered his family, and killed off his sense of self.

The figures left. A door closed. His eyelids dropped in sorrowful compliance.

Darkness.

Reno gasped and bolted upright, his heart thudding loudly in his chest. His eyes almost bulged in fright and disbelief. It couldn't be...

Everything was coming back to him. His childhood mixing with false memories. He looked to Gen, and instead of seeing a stranger he could picture a young girl in a yellow dress playing tag.

He looked away. It was too much. Too much.

"Are you okay?" Her voice chimed over the screaming in his head, almost calming him. Almost.

Reno swallowed, trying to ignore the uncomfortable, almost painful dryness. How could he answer that question when he himself didn't know the answer? He felt like he had been living a lie for his entire life, but at the same time felt like he was losing it. Something felt damaged, cracked. He was being bombarded with memories, random memories.

"I'm not sure..."

Had he been living a lie?

Who was Reno Charlemagne?

"I... don't know."