Don't Play with Fire (Turks FF7)

34) Epilogue

"Are you okay?" Elena asks me quietly in the back of a Shinra vehicle. We're on the way to one of Kilmister's hospital's in Cliff Resort. Reno's driving with Rude next to him up front. Rufus is beside the window with Tseng between he and the doctor that's had us captive for a long time. I nod, turning to look out at the soggy world.

"Yeah. I'm just tired. Very relieved that this is all over with."

"I bet," she laughs gently.

I hadn't wanted to tell them at first, but after a flood of torturous memories from Jenova left me shaking on the floor of the lobby in one of the Resort buildings, it all came spewing. Reno had left the room silently and Elena had stayed with me until I stopped freaking out. Tseng had come back from an errand to see the two of us huddle on the flood while I blubbered dramatically and figured it out for himself.

Speaking of those two, he finally asked her out to dinner maybe six months ago. Me and Reno fangirled together while Rude looked at us weirdly and Rufus told him to ignore us. Kilmister became more addicted to the pain reliever and forced Rufus to have us make more of the stimulant. Elena went out to make more while we continued to discuss our distrust for the guy Rufus wants to keep alive. Maybe it's because Kilmister was his last hope for life...

One day we woke up and Kilmister was dead. Judd fessed up but refused to tell us where he'd gotten the gun. So, with Kilmister dead and all hope for a cure dropped, people returned to their homes and the Turks fixed up a lodge outside of Midgar, a place that was in decent shape for how empty it had been. One day, two years after we were freed, Reno and Rude were re-painting the sign outside while I sat nearby under a tree, fiddling with the setting on my new rod.

"What's 'Healin' mean?" Reno asks.

"To heal the world," Rufus says behind them, sounding scarily excited.

"What's up your sleeve, Shinra," I ask, rolling my eyes. The blonde suppresses his slight smile.

"You'll have to wait and see." When he's gone, Reno drops his paintbrush into the bucket of paint and Rude sets his down with a little less mess.

"You going inside?" I ask, using the trunk of the tree to pull myself to my feet. This metal leg thing is really hard on my knee.

"Yeah," Reno looks over at me with a grin. "Cmon Ed."

"Nah, I'd rather be Al," I smile back sheepishly, walking over to the two.

"Great. My girlfriend wants to be a robot boy," he scoffs, giving Rude a sly look before kisisng me and leading the way back to the lodge.

A few days later, Rufus tells us that he's finally located Jenova, her head to be exact. And he's sending Tseng, Elena, and me down into the Northern Crater to get it, finally listening to my begging. Reno's supposed to fly us down there and back.

Things didn't go as planned. Reno wound up flying away with the head and we were captured and tortured by the Remnants of Sephiorth. We were saved by the one and only Vincent Valentine. Because I was better off than Tseng and Elena, Vincent let me go to find Reno and Rude. They picked me up in the helicopter and I helped fight the Remnants while they attacked Cloud. Before the chopper crashed, we had to jump and I had a mini panic attack at the worst time possible, almost getting three of us killed in a crash.

So yeah, all that was fun. Sephiorth came and Cloud kicked his butt. The cure for Geostigma was called forth in Aerith's church. Remembering her death from two years ago led to me being oddly silent every time we've been around the building. Even if Reno and Rude don't understand, I know Tseng gets it.