Tseng: *snaps* “Are you hard of hearing? Put your hands up!”

Originally Published: 1/30/06 . 8 pages

Synopsis
Tseng, Reno, Rude and Elena on a real job.

Ramble Milestones
Nothing this time.

I’m obsessed with Shinra and the Turks, so I wanted to showcase what they really do when they actually have work.

(reeve is sound asleep in bed, as it is still quite early in the morning. Tseng sits next to him on the edge of the bed, his head in his hands. he’s fully dressed in his turk uniform. suddenly the alarm besides the bed goes off. tseng reaches over and shuts it off. reeve stirs a bit and looks at him)

Reeve: “…You up already?”

Tseng: *stands* “Yeah.”

(he goes and grabs his keys and heads for the door. reeve props himself up on his elbows and watches him)

Reeve: “You okay?”

Tseng: *freezes with his hand on the doorknob* “I’m fine.”

Reeve: *frown* “Is it dangerous?”

Tseng: “………I don’t know. Maybe.”

(reeve gets out of bed and goes over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder)

Reeve: “Tseng… Where do you have to go?”

Tseng: “You know I can’t tell you that, Reeve.”

Reeve: “You know you don’t *have* to do this.”

(tseng turns around, and he and reeve just stare at one another for a long moment. then tseng leans forward, kisses him quickly, and rests his forehead against reeve’s)

Tseng: “I love you.”

(and with that he leaves the room. all reeve can do it sigh.)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(tseng goes into his office at the shinra headquarters. elena, reno and rude are already there. and if reno’s there on time, you know this has to be bad. tseng goes over to his desk and looks at a memo. the rest of the turks stand in a neat line in front of his desk. when he’s done reading he puts both palms on the desk and looks at the others)

Tseng: “I know I gave you all the briefing last night, but I wanted to go over it again. This is a big job. There are three main things that need to be accomplished here. One. We have to take care of the people inside the building. Two. We need to get the needed documents out of the building. Three. That building has to come down. This section of the city is otherwise dead on a weekend morning, so we want to get in and out without causing much of a disturbance. Everything has to be clean. You get me?”

Reno, Rude and Elena: “Yes, boss.”

Tseng: “Reno, you’re with me. According to the reports the documents are kept in a safe on the second floor. It’s probably locked, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Reno: *nods* “Sure thing, boss.”

Tseng: “Rude, I want you waiting outside, listening for my order. When you hear it, you know what to do.”

Rude: *nods* “Already mixed, boss.”

Tseng: “And Elena, you stay at the vehicle and serve as the communications hub. If anything goes wrong, you know what to do.”

(elena frowns, but she nods.)

Tseng: “All right. Let’s get out of here.”

(reno and rude turn and leave. tseng starts to head out the door but elena grabs his arm)

Elena: “Tseng. Why am I always the one to stay behind? I’m just–“

Tseng: “You’re a mother, Elena. I can’t have you in the field on a job like this.”

Elena: “And you’re a father.”

Tseng: “And I’m also your boss. So are there any other problems?”

Elena: *hangs head and sighs* “No, sir.”

Tseng: “Good. Because we have no time to waste.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(they get into a black car with tinted windows. elena is driving. tseng sits in the front passenger seat and rude and reno are in the back. everyone sits up straight, staring ahead and not talking. tseng stares out the window, thinking about a conversation he had with sephiroth the previous night…and here we flashback to that conversation. tseng and sephiroth are leaving the club. sephiroth still has his arm around tseng’s shoulders)

Sephiroth: “Are you all right?”

Tseng: “I’ll be fine. Are you sure you’re okay to drive?”

Sephiroth: “I’m fine. I barely drank anything. Can’t say the same for Alucard. I’m glad I’m not the one going home with him.”

(they get in the car. sephiroth starts it up and they start to drive away. tseng sighs and rests his head on the window. there’s silence for a minute. then…)

Sephiroth: “You got a call?”

Tseng: “It’s obvious, huh?”

Sephiroth: “Level one?”

Tseng: “Level two, but…the guy is known to be heavily armed.”

Sephiroth: “I see.”

Tseng: *sigh* “It’s just been so long. I should have went to the range tonight, but I had already promised Zidane and the call came too late.”

Sephiroth: “You have nothing to worry about. Shinra recruited you for a reason. …I know you hate to hear it, but you are a natural.”

Tseng: *hangs head* “…I know.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(and back to the present time…the car goes through the streets of midgar until they get to a deserted neighborhood. they pull around into an alley where elena parks the car. she then puts a small ear piece in her ear. it has a little wire that comes out and rests on top of her jaw. the others all have the same thing already in place. this are their headsets so they can communicate with one another.)

Tseng: “Reno?”

Reno: “Kit’s in my pocket.”

Tseng: “Rude?”

Rude: “We’re set.”

Tseng: “Elena?”

Elena: “Ready to go, boss.”

Tseng: “Rude, you have thirty seconds to get back to the car after I give my order. Elena, have the car ready to go.”

Elena and Rude: “You got it, boss.”

(and all at the same time tseng, reno and rude get out of the car. reno and tseng start to walk towards a three story building that has two driveways on either side. they head for the front door. rude, on the other hand, goes around to the side of the building. reno and tseng don’t say a word to each other. tseng takes his gun out and gives reno a nod. reno tries to open the door, but it’s locked. he then reaches into his pocket and takes out a small device which he then puts into the keyhole on the door. the door easily clicks open, and reno puts the device back in his pocket. he then steps aside and lets tseng go first. leaving the door open behind them, tseng and reno go into the building. it’s very quiet inside. tseng nods his head in the direction of the stairs and reno nods. so they quietly go up the stairs. as they get closer to the top they can hear someone moving around and shuffling papers in one of the rooms. tseng and reno freeze where they are at this point, listening carefully. reno slowly goes into his jacket and gets his gun. tseng listens very carefully, straining to hear the person’s every move. finally he nods to reno and the two of them go the rest of the way up the stairs. they then creep over to the doorway where they heard the person moving. they press their backs against the wall, listening again. then tseng looks at reno and nods. then they both quickly step through the doorway, guns pointing at the very tough and scary looking guy seated behind the desk)

Tseng: “All right! Don’t move!”

Reno: “Hands where we can see ’em, pal.”

(the guy behind the desk doesn’t move. he just kind of smirks at them)

Tseng: *snaps* “Are you hard of hearing? Put your hands up!”

(still smirking, the guy puts his hands halfway in the air)

Guy: “I should’ve known Shinra’d send you scum along.”

(tseng looks pissed, but he says nothing. instead he gestures with his gun for reno to go into an adjoining room. reno does. in this room there is a safe. he goes over to it and examines the lock)

Tseng’s voice: “Hey! Keep your hands in the air!”

Guy’s voice: *creepy chuckle*

(reno goes into his inside jacket pocket and takes out a small detonation device. he carefully fits it on the door of the safe above the lock and stands back)

Guy’s voice: “You Shinra think you’re so tough, don’t ya?”

Tseng’s voice: “Don’t move!”

(just as the door on the safe blows itself open, there is a loud scuffle from the other room with a lot of shouting and something crashing to the ground. Tseng keeps screaming for the guy not to move. finally there is the sound of a gun cocking. reno lunges forward and grabs everything out of the safe. just as he does that there is the sound of three gunshots. he goes racing into the other room to find tseng standing there, still holding his gun out in front of him. he looks a little scuffed up but is otherwise fine. the guy lies on the floor, shot three times in the same part of his body. a shotgun lies close to his body. the desk is turned over and papers are everywhere. as reno enters the room tseng puts his gun away)

Tseng: “He threw the desk and pulled a shotgun on me.” *looks at reno* “You got the papers?”

Reno: “Everything?”

(tseng just nods and heads for the door, reno as his heels. they hurry down the steps and as they head for the door. tseng presses on the device on his ear)

Tseng: “A-Ok, copy in hand, one in the hole. Send it to the sky, Rude.”

Rude’s voice: “Ten-Four.”

(tseng and reno hurry back to the car where elena is waiting for them. they get in and twenty seconds later rude jumps in. elena starts to drive away from the building which now has flames spreading from the windows…)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(a short time later, elena, reno and rude are all sitting in tseng’s office when tseng enters)

Tseng: “Report’s been made, everything’s finished. This job’s over. Head on home.”

(he goes and sits at his desk. no one moves for a second. finally reno gets to his feet. he jumps up and down a couple of times, shaking all his limbs like they’ve all fallen asleep. rude slowly gets to his feet. they both leave. elena takes a deep breath and gets up. she looks at tseng for a long moment and then leaves herself. tseng sits there for about ten minutes. then he gets up and walks out of his office.)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(when he arrives home he finds reeve and elena playing with lily in the ramble room. he goes in with a smile and elena holds the baby out for him to take. he takes her.)

Tseng: “Hey, sweetie!” *frowns* “What happened to your pacifier?”

Elena: “Oops! I knew I forgot something!”

(she runs out. tseng cradles lily and picks up one of those baby key toys to amuse her with. reeve just stays where he’s sitting on the couch)

Reeve: “How was it today?”

Tseng: “Fine.”

Reeve: “Did you have to–“

Tseng: *squeezes his eyes shut* “Reeve…”

Reeve: “…Sorry.”

(there’s a long pause. tseng goes back to playing with lily but he’s not smiling anymore)

Reeve: “…Did they at least tell you why?”

(tseng looks up at him, a sad, drained look on his face)

Tseng: “They never do.”

 

THE END