What the Turk Dragged in : Chapter One

Reno Spiegel and Drakonlily

Everyone knew how Cloud Strife led a group of ragged heroes to save the world from certain doom, only after taking out the company that started the whole mess in the first place.  Then there was the meteor.  Its harsh heat and light spread across the world like flame over a gas covered floor.  The ice covered northern continent melted, taking half of the planet with it.  Wutai's once proud plains were gone, instead the survivors somehow managed to board an old Shinra craft.  Now the whole of the city floats around, some grounded starship in a damaged world.

Cosmo Canyon and Gongaga shared one small island. The handful of creatures surviving didn't need much space anyway, so if one had to think about it, the scenario wasn't all that bad.

Mt. Nibel was covered in an ashy residue from the mountains, while Icicle Inn became more like Lake Cabin.  Bone Village, while still there in location, was leveled to the ground.

Kalm faired well, moving towards Midgar; the sole savior of the technological mecha was the plate that had been so hated.  Fort Condor, half covered now by ocean, was slowly rebuilding. There was no more Junon to mention, or Costa del Sol for that matter. 

The only two places to really survive were Corel and the Gold Saucer.  Its jail was wiped away, but it somehow remained.  The Gold Saucer became a city, sitting on a vast plate of glass.

Walking on glass has a funny way of forcing one to look at one's self. 

Reno had come to the Gold Saucer after the ocean had risen, one because it was one of the last safe havens of the Planet, and two because he had an unquenchable thirst for gambling.

He had demanded after their last battle with AVALANCHE that the Turks disband temporarily and meet in Junon when Meteor had fallen. Rude and Elena, looking like the most rejected people in the world, had walked off away from him without a word, probably thinking he was the biggest egotistical asshole on the Planet.

He hadn't seen them since.

Trying not to look down at his mocking reflection in the mile-thick and giant plate of glass he was walking on, due to something about a heat flash on sand, he had been walking around out here in search of anything of value to bet on the Chocobo Race Tournament the next week.

He could faintly see a large black shape off the coast, which he often walked along because you could see the towering Gold Saucer for maybe a hundred miles in each direction so you never lost your way. He knew this as the Wutai carrier, where they had found refuge until they re-settled on solid ground.

So far his search, spanning a few days, hadn't yielded results. All he'd found was a shack with its door wide open, a freezer with a bit of spoiled meat in it, and an iron-post bed that was as hard as a marlboro in a potato sack. Nothing worth betting in there, but he had taken a bedpost for defense if needed.

If needed, of course, translated to, if his mag-rod were to somehow get separated from him.

A flash caught his eye, very short and sudden, and he looked in the direction he had seen it. Maybe a mile off, on the shore, was a small lump of something. It could be seaweed for all he knew, but it was something aside from a hot slab of glass, so he made his way for it with a little hurry in his speed.

What he found was something worse than seaweed.  "This must be how the Planet taunts people," he growled, prodding the thing with the bedpost. He was thoroughly disgusted something like this had even survived Meteor, especially after drifting so far, but there it was anyway.

The unconscious, but breathing, body of Cloud Strife.

The blonde seemed insistant on staying unconscious, but Reno felt obligated to do something now that he'd found the worthless "hero." Articles in the paper had said he'd gone missing, and here he was, completely defenseless except for his sword in its raggedy sheath, strapped to his back.

Reno damned the thing for sparkling and catching his eye.

Glancing at the high-rising Gold Saucer, Reno wiped the sweat off his forehead and damned his last bit of human decency to a deeper circle of hell as he grabbed Cloud Strife's leg and began dragging him the forty-some miles back to the amusement park he now called home.

It was maybe six hours later, a short time due to the fact there wasn't much to go around on a big plate of glass, that Reno walked into the Gold Saucer, hoisted Cloud over his shoulder, and started to one of the apartments, where he was residing after a deal with Dio.

About halfway there, he ran into one of his poker "buddies," who smiled toothily at him. "Hey, Drannor. Find anything to bet next week?" he growled.

Reno stared at him for a moment, then turned and showed him the man's face. "Yeah," he said over his shoulder. "Cloud fucking Strife." And with that, he went to his room with a big smirk.