Chapter 13

As he observed the nurse work frantically to restrain a feebly struggling Reno from stumbling out of bed, Rude acted on instinct and stepped forward to place a massive hand on his friend's shoulder. He firmly pinned the redhead onto the bed, glaring down at him through his black sunglasses.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rude asked, almost in exasperation. Reno gazed back at him, his face still reminiscent of a dreary queasy look.

"Feel sick," he managed.

"And so you feel the need to rip out the I.V. needles and attack the nurse?"

The nurse in question blushed and quickly fled the presence of the two men who had commenced a staring contest with each other. Of course, Rude won out in the end, leaving Reno to pout and look away in a form of childish disobedience. The older and taller man sighed, feeling annoyed that his partner could never take anything seriously. Instead of reprimanding his friend he picked up the chart situated at the end of Reno's hospital bed and consulted its findings.

"Multiple lacerations, bruising and breaks, not to mention a gun wound that left untended could have been fatal." Rude peered up to take in Reno's expression before adding, "I guess we have Tifa to thank for that."

"Must remember to send her a thank you card," Reno grumbled and moved his attention to the coarse bed sheets he was trapped in. Somehow, the plain white bedding had become a lot more interesting to study than his partner's piercing gaze.

It was at this moment that Rude's PHS began to beep and the tension dissolved, much to Reno's relief. He really did not relish the idea of having to go into any more detail of his stay at Tifa's, especially since he suspected that Rude had a rather large crush on the bar tender already.

The redhead watched as his friend frowned at the message and left without a word. The strange behaviour pricked at his curious nature and so it was not long after the departure of Rude, Reno had resolved to attempt his own withdrawal from the maddeningly clinical room.

First, he slowly sat up, careful not to tangle himself in any IV drip tubes. Then, ignoring the sharp stabs of pain, he yanked out the needles from his hands and the tubes in his nose. The most challenging task was next. Standing. On wobbling legs, Reno stayed very still while the nausea and dizziness subsided, then he made a few uncertain steps to the cabinet on the opposite side of the room. He almost cried in relief when he discovered a pair of new working shoes and a black suit folded neatly on one of the shelves. After half dressing himself, he pushed his hair back into a messy ponytail and beat his unruly fringe into submission with a pair of goggles also located in the cabinet. To his dismay, there were no weapons to be found, but Reno figured (with an impish grin) that he could improvise along the way.

"Now, to get to HQ," Reno muttered to himself determinedly.

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It was not an unusual occurrence for Tseng to be pacing his office. This was how Rude found him once he arrived at the newly refurbished ShinRa building.

"Thanks for coming so quickly, I thought it best to talk to you in person with what I have to discuss with you." There were no pleasantries, just down to business, and Rude liked that about Tseng.

"As you know, the doctor's report for Reno's injuries has noted an incredible healing rate."

Rude nodded, remembering the medical chart he had read just minutes before receiving the mysterious message from Tseng.

"Do you not find it odd at how much Reno has recovered, considering he was beaten almost to death approximately five days ago?"

"I imagine it has something to do with Mako treatments he received," Rude replied. Out of the four Turks, Reno was the only one who had undergone the Mako treatment required when joining SOLDIER. Tseng and Rude had been dismissed from it, given that they had been Turks for years previously and Elena had joined their team much later on, when it was less acceptable to be using the lifestream as a way to enhance ShinRa employees. Back then, Reno and Rude had not been close friends, although the older man remembered his first meeting with the young Turk well.

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"He is to become a Turk you know," Tseng muttered to Rude quietly. The two were standing in the medical bay watching a young Reno through a one-way mirror. Rude scrutinised the scrawny boy in question before raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Verdot's orders. He's gone through the Mako treatments and has shown remarkable skills in certain fields."

"What fields would they be?" Rude asked, not really believing that the boy he was watching was capable of much.

"Test results show that his brain is extremely susceptible to picking up complex patterns and tasks quickly. His skills in a stealth related environment are also impressive. It also seems he has a knack for technology," Tseng answered, rubbing his lip thoughtfully.

"Stealth? He's a thief from the slums, I've arrested him before. This is what Verdot wants in the Turks?"

Tseng shook his head, "I don't fully understand it myself, but Verdot is in charge and I trust in his decisions as first in command. If Verdot wants this kid in our team, he must be something special, especially to gain Turk status without any previous training."

They watched through the window Reno's flailing body. His treatments were almost over, and he was currently in the last throws of the horrifying process. Rude had read up on it for his theory exam to become a Turk. The subject was given a dose of pure Mako each day for three weeks, each time the dose would be increased slightly. However, in many cases the subject would suffer an overdose of sorts, which was called Mako-poisoning. Mako, after all, was a drug. A highly addictive drug, which if used continually could lead to a dependency on it and finally cause the body to shut down completely. The top scientist at ShinRa, Hojo, had found a way though to administer it just enough to reach a subject's optimum ability level, although it took years of trial and error. Rude himself had been the driving force of the "selection process" for test subjects. In layman's terms, he was the one assigned to pick up suitable subjects from the slums.

Hojo himself had overseen Reno's treatments, and he was in the room now, checking vitals and furiously scribbling down reams and reams of notes in his scientific notebook. Rude had never liked the man, who treated people as mere apparatus for his sick and twisted experiments.

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Yes, Rude remembered that day quite well indeed. Soon after, Reno had been introduced to the team and was assigned to Rude as his training partner. To his great surprise they bonded relatively quickly after a mission-gone-wrong where Reno had saved their asses with his rapidly improving computer hacking skills. Even more surprisingly, despite Reno's unique reactions in the field and his casual approach to pretty much everything, he climbed up the pecking order swiftly. First over taking the lower level Turks, then even Rude himself so that he answered to Rufus and Tseng alone. Tseng spoke up then, stopping dead Rude's train of thought.

"Even for a Mako enhanced subject, the rate of healing is phenomenal. The blood loss from the bullet wound alone should have killed him!"

"You know Reno, Sir. He's lucky," Rude answered somewhat unsure of his reply.

Not answering straight away, Tseng gave his colleague a long hard look, as if to say, "he's not that lucky" and moved to his desk, where he proceeded to pick up a fat looking folder.

"This is Reno's medical record. Everything should be in here, every idiotic injury, every type of medication he's been prescribed, results of psychological testing, everything." Tseng handed over the file and Rude stared at it and then to his superior

"Sir?"

"I want you to look into his file for any…anomalies," Tseng replied.

"Yes Sir." Rude straightened up and went to leave, but as he reached the door, Tseng's voice stopped him.

"Reno doesn't need to know about this." A warning.

"…Of course." And with that Rude strode out of the room, leaving Tseng behind to continue his pacing.

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A/N I hope you all aren't disappointed by this well over due chapter! Just a few things to mention. It took me a while to get back into the swing of things for this story and to remember all the subtleties that I had planned before. Hopefully you'll all like it, and let me know if there can be room for improvement!

Oh and the character Verdot (I did a little research) was meant to be an old leader of the Turks and someone that Tseng looked up to.