Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Prophetic Fulfillment ❯ Rediscovering ( Chapter 5 )

"What. Happened?"

"Genesis..." Nanaki cautiously approached the woman. It was apparent. She knew that Reno was no longer anywhere within the vicinity of the canyon.

"You let him leave?!" She heaved a frustrated sigh as she tore her fingers through her dark hair. Her eyes were blazing a shade of violet Nanaki wasn't sure he'd ever seen. "I cannot believe you let him leave!"

"Genesis, please calm down. He wished to leave. There was no stopping him."

She clenched her fists, and her teeth in anger. No stopping... I bet an ultima spell would stop him... About to voice her opinion, she was cut off once more.

Nanaki sat down, his tail whishing back and forth in an almost rhythmic motion. "Would you like to know why he left, Genesis?"

She looked up, startled. "Huh?"

"Do you wish to know the cause of his leaving?" Gen nodded, silently, allowing for Nanaki to continue. "I will try to be unbiased, though it is hard. I do not know if I can believe that a man such as Reno of the Turks could be the chosen one, however I do not see how he can not be. It is contradictory. Such is the Planet.

"I will take the standpoint, that Reno is a man whom I have never met. In the past week, if my memory serves me correctly, he has learned that he was a specimen for Hojo, that the entirety of his childhood memories were false, that he's a Mage Warrior, and on top of that, the Chosen One."

"Are you saying this is my fault?" She looked at him incredulous.

"I do not wish to put the blame on anyone. However, you have put a lot of pressure on him. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that he feels a great deal of guilt about his past... and has no faith in himself for the future."

"You've reached Rude Davenport. I'm not here right now, but leave a message and I'll try to get back to you soon." BEEP

Reno sighed inwardly. "Hey, Rude... just calling to see how you all are doing. So... whenever you're not busy... just give me a call." He pocketed his PHS in frustration. Yet another failed attempt to catch his best friend.

Where to go... Where to go... Wutai? Too far away... Costa Del Sol? Too warm. Mideel? Still being rebuilt. Nibelheim?

Reno stuffed his hands in his pockets, a smile forming. "Why not?"

I can't believe he left like that.

Gen stood hunched over her inn bed, stuffing clothes into her bag. She grabbed her black gloves, and walked out of the room, oblivious to the stares around her, and the questions concerning the whereabouts of the "Chosen One."

She had a few questions of her own.

Gen met Nanaki at the front entrance of Cosmo Canyon, where her chocobo, Kieran, waited for her.

"Did he mention anything? Hint at where he was going?"

Nanaki shook his head. "No. Not a thing."

She attached her bag to the chocobo saddle. "Damn bastard."

"He said one thing, Genesis."

"What's that?"

"He's sorry. For everything."

"What the HELL do you think you're doing here?!"

Reno calmly looked into the burgundy eyes of Tifa Lockheart. He would have been afraid, should have been afraid, but he was beyond that. Reno no longer cared what was to happen to him.

Instead he gazed cooly at Tifa. "I was hoping for better service, that's all."

Tifa growled, and grabbed Reno by the collar of his already damaged white shirt, pulling him face to face, eye to eye. "I want you out of here, now."

He grinned, taking this opportunity, this sudden moment of closeness, and planted a passionate kiss on the furious, yet enticing lips of the ex Avalanche member.

Always wanted to do that...

Tifa looked up, speechless, and gasping for air. Silence filled the room as tension built. Then, Tifa pulled herself up over the bar table and punched Reno in the eye, sending him reeling off the stool.

"Christ, Lockheart. I've already taken a beating from the latest woman in my life." He rubbed his eye, tenderly, feeling the flesh beginning to puff up. I'm gonna have a bruise there...

"Get. Out. Of. My. Bar." Tifa was nearly screaming, angry beyond compare.

Reno straightened up, and once again sat on the bar stool. "I would, but you still owe me for that kiss. And, I'm just willing to throw in double the amount of gil it would take to get myself real wasted. So if you wouldn't mind fetching me that vodka I asked for..."

Tifa looked at Reno in disbelief. She couldn't kill him... that would lower her to his level, a place she'd rather not venture. Stifling a growl, she turned away, towards the shelves of alcoholic beverages. She hated to wonder what, exactly, was his reason for wanting to get so drunk.

But she couldn't help herself.

"Glass or bottle?"

He seemed to ponder a moment, then nodded slowly. "Bottle. Definitely."

She grabbed the unopened bottle and handed it to him. "Good quality. 100 gil. But..."

"Yeah. I have the money."

She sat down, staring holes into Reno as he downed several gulps of vodka.

"Slow night, eh?"

She looked away, still annoyed. "Yeah."

"Nights always like this? I heard you guys make pretty good business."

"Yes. We do, Reno."

"So..."

"Enough small talk Reno. Just get drunk and leave already. Why are you here in the first place, anyway? What did you do this time?"

The glass vodka bottle landed on the bar table with a thunk. "Why do you automatically assume that I did something?"

"Because you always DO do something!"

"Calm it, Lockheart. I didn't do nuttin'"

"Then why are you here?" Tifa had to admit. She was intrigued. Beyond intrigued.

Reno paused for a moment, then smiled. "Let's just say I have something in common with Cloud." He glanced at Tifa and grinned a slightly lecherous grin. "Maybe more than one thing..."

Tifa rolled her eyes, but allowed Reno to continue.

He took another gulp of the vodka, finishing off the bottle. If there was one thing that Reno was good at, beside his former job, it was handling liquor. "There's a lot more to Reno Alec Charlemagne than you would guess."

"How are you like Cloud?" Tifa cut him off. She wanted to know, needed to know.

"You want to know how someone like me is anything like your dear, heroic Cloud Strife? That boy has more screws loose than my rickety old car."

She growled audibly. "He has an excuse. A damn good one. What's yours?"

He stood up suddenly, emerald meeting burgundy once more. "I wish I understood it half as well as Cloud understands what happened to him."

"What? What do you mean?"

"I don't know." Reno dug through his jacket pocket, pulling out his wallet. He laughed softly, speaking more to himself than Tifa. "I don't know who I am... what I am anymore!" He counted out two hundred and fifty gil and slammed it onto the wooden table. "I mean... One second I'm Reno, the Turk. Hated by all, including himself!"

"Wha..."

"...Then, wham! I pass out in the desert, meet a strange woman who's creepy like Sephiroth, sexy like you, and talks like Nanaki! And there goes my entire fucking world!"

"So this is all about a woman?" Tifa looked at him, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

Reno chuckled softly, his laughs dying down. "No... this is about a guy who wakes up, different. This is about a guy who starts hearing freakish voices claiming to be the Planet, of all things. This is about a guy who finds out that his entire life is a lie in one fateful vision. This is about a guy who's suddenly thrown the role of savior to an entire civilization. THAT is what this is all about." He looked at her, shocked and surprised. "Why did I tell you all this?"

Tifa sat back down on her stool. She didn't know, and he obviously didn't either.

"I mean... I know I came here because you serve the best drinks..." He rubbed his forehead, feeling a migraine coming along. "Why?" He shook his head. "Anyway... here's double the amount for the vodka... fifty for being a pain in the ass." He turned to leave, knowing she probably still had her mouth hanging open in questioning and disbelief.

He turned back to her, noting that his assumption was correct. "By the way... for what it's worth... I'm sorry for the shit I pulled five years ago. You'll never know how sorry..."

Tifa watched the door close in silence, then looked down to her gloved hands. The hands of a warrior who had also committed atrocities, despite her good intentions.

"I may not like you, Reno... but I forgive you."

"Nibelheim?"

Nanaki sat in his room, wearing his rigged up PHS headset to relay the news. Tifa had called him fifteen minutes earlier, asking about the ex-Turk. Maybe this was the information, the break in their current streak of bad luck. "My friend, Tifa Lockheart called, and said that she had served him in her bar."

Gen's voice crackled over the other end. "Let me guess... the Seventh Heaven?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I'm about an hour away from there. I'll call you if I find out anything. Have the scrolls ready. He needs to see them."

"Good luck, Gen."

"Thanks... I'll need it."

Nanaki awaited the beep signaling the end of the phone conversation. It had been a long day. A very long day. He sighed as he removed the headset, and headed over to the large wooden box, holding the ancient scrolls within it. They were ready. They'd been ready for hundreds of years.

He jumped onto his bed and laid down. It had definitely been a long day.

Where am I now?

Reno surveyed the terrain. Grass, grass, and more grass. He sighed and looked to the stars.

Well, if that's the North Star... then I'm heading to... Rocket Town?

He shrugged. Why not? If he'd already been nearly killed by Tifa Lockheart, than surviving in Rocket Town wouldn't be that hard. Especially if he just happened to not run into the infamous captain.

A strange growl shook him out of his thoughtfulness. Reno turned to his right, dropping the bag next to him.

"Shit..."

Green, with the appearance of a hungry brussel sprout.

Of all the creatures in the world, it had to be a Marlboro.

It was five minutes after one o' clock when Genesis finally arrived at the Seventh Heaven bar in Nibelheim.

Well, it's still open. She thought smugly as she noted the sign on the door and entered the building. A blond man stood behind the counter, apparently counting the day's earnings. He looked up at her and smiled, his eyes glowing a strange shade of blue, startling her into silence.

"I'm sorry, we're closing."

"Oh... Well, I'm not exactly here as a customer." She fumbled for words, still stunned by his eyes. "I'm here to speak with a Tifa Lockheart?"

"Okay, just a moment Miss..."

"Atlantis. Genesis Atlantis."

Reno took an instinctive step back as he eyed the creature warily.

This shouldn't be that bad. I'll just... He reached for the small holster he used to wear on his side, hoping to be met with the familiar sleek handle of his electro-magnetic rod. Instead he grasped at thin air.

Reno mentally kicked himself. Why the hell did I put it in my bag? Am I asking for it that much?

The creature lunged, screeching a sound that shook Reno to the core as he dug, furiously, through his bag. He looked forward, to see the once clear air filling with a hazy cloud of poisonous gas as the Marlboro unleashed its vile breath attack. Stumbling over his feet, he felt the gas overtake him, burning his eyes and choking his lungs.

The Marlboro had Reno right where it wanted him. It watched, calmly, as its prey blindly fought to rise up from the ground, clutching a mid level fire materia, struggling to shout out the incantation.

Reno coughed, trying to clear his throat of the gas. This was worse than any silence spell he'd been put under. Far worse. The air was clear of the creature's breath, but he could still barely make out the shape of the Marlboro through his temporary blindness.

Use Ultima...

What?

Use it...

He fell to his knees as the creature attacked once more, using his Sound Wave. He held his head, weakly, desperately. I don't have that materia... I can't... I can't do anything...

You can. The power is there.

The Marlboro saw its chance and lunged in for the kill, but stopped suddenly in its tracks. Something was different. Unnatural. Its prey rose, slowly to its feet, its eyes closed. Fear no longer lingered strongly in the air. The Marlboro backed up, sensing oncoming danger.

Reno opened his eyes, focusing as best as possible toward the creature in front of him. He opened his mouth, taking a quick gasp of breath, and through his silenced state uttered one word.

"Ultima."

The spell encapsulated the Marlboro, exploding and burning up around the dying and frightened creature. The power of a spell magnified at least ten fold. It screamed, cried out, knowing that it would not survive this attack.

The last glimpse it caught was the furious gaze of Reno Charlemagne.

The glowing furious gaze of Reno Charlemagne.

The spell cleared, leaving the charred remains of the Marlboro, smoking and twitching. Reno doubled over in pain and fell to his side, his entire being throbbing with a pain he had never felt before. He shook, weakly, feeling the last remaining ounce of strength seep out of him. Unconsciousness slowly began to set in, the darkness blanketing, comforting his tired body

"Gen..."

"So you're friends with Nanaki? How did you meet him?" Tifa and Cloud both sat across from Gen in their now abandoned bar. It was obvious how intrigued Tifa seemed, from the way she sat to the gleam in her burgundy eyes.

Gen took a sip of her martini. "I actually grew up in Cosmo Canyon. I don't remember him being there when I was small, and I moved away when I was a little older. I met him a week or so ago to go over the relics and history of my people."

Cloud leaned forward, a curious smile playing upon his face. "Your people? You're not a Cetra, by any chance, are you?"

Gen smiled, sadly. "No... I'm sorry. It appears that all assumptions were correct. The Cetra are gone. I on the other hand, am one of the last Mage Warriors."

"Mage Warrior?" Tifa questioned.

"Yes. We are a race with inherent magical powers. It's hard to explain exactly what we do... why we're here. I myself don't necessarily understand it all.

"When I visited Cosmo Canyon, met Nanaki, he was rather excited. The elders had just uncovered a closed off section of the Canyon which held several valuables related to several Warrior families. Two of which were the family of Atlantis, my family, and another.

The family of Charlemagne."

"Wait, wait, wait... You don't mean... I mean, there have to be plenty of Charlemagne's out there in the world." Tifa held the bridge of her nose, wearily.

"There is only one Reno Charlemagne. As there is only one Chosen One."

Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"I am not making this up, the scrolls prophesies that..." Gen doubled over in pain, grasping her forehead. Something was wrong. A flash of a field. A dead creature. A body lying on the ground. A voice...

"Gen..."

She opened her eyes and shook her head, dismissed the pain as quickly as possible, and looked up to see the worried faces of Cloud and Tifa.

Tifa spoke up, out of the silence. "Are you okay? What happened?"

Gen rubbed the side of her head. "I saw him." She rose unsteadily to her feet, nearly falling into the arms of Cloud.

"Who? What was that?"

"A vision... Reno... Something happened. He's hurt..."

Tifa walked to Cloud's side. "How do you know?"

"He... He called out to me."

Reno...

Everything faded to black.

"His power will awaken from its slumber..."

~Manuscript piece of a larger whole

A/N: So finishes another chapter, and perhaps the longest one I've written yet. They all seem to get longer as they go along. ^_^ Strange phenomena.

Quite obviously, Gen likes her Martinis. Just an amusing little observation I've made concerning her. I'm working on a crappy fanart of her, to get some idea of what she looks like. Once I get to my old computer at school, I'll be able to color it in. I have no talent, but I like to pretend. ^_~

I've never mentioned it, but I imagine her as having a slightly upper english accent. Very eduacated sounding. Seems to go with her character a bit.

Please, tell me what you think. C&C makes me happy, as long as its polite. I'll try to make another chapter appear as soon as possible.