Things had fallen into a peaceful state, for the most, since the the Deep Ground incident. The Turks had become the police force of the area surrounding Edge, keeping people safe, making sure that any and all bad people were not on the streets. Maybe they had gotten complacent, even a little lazy, but they still looked out for everyone.
The stars were bright and sparkling overhead as the red haired slender young man walked next to his boss, just watching the sky and enjoying the cool air of the evening. A slight smile touched the corners of his lips as he walked. “So, Director. . .doesn’t it feel good for things to be peaceful?”
They were walking up the main strip that ran through the center of Edge, from the shopping district, through the square, and then into the residential districts, traffic flowing next to them in a way that to Reno was comforting. It was a thing that he was used to, considering that he’d come to adulthood in the city.
Thus it was that Reno’s sharp hearing caught the sound of an SUV jumping the curb before Tseng could ever even hope to realize it, and his quick reflexes kicked in, triggering him to grab the Wutain man around the waist and toss him out of the way of the oncoming car.
There was no pain at first, only the sensation of the vehicle impacting against his body and then the feeling of flight, the wind buffeting against his back as he sailed backward before he hit the ground with bone jarring force. It wasn’t until the massive chunk of steel and glass rolled over him that the pain hit.
“I didn’t even see him, I’m so sorry!” The driver stepped out of the truck, he was wobbling on his feet and reeked of whisky, even as the middle aged man with his disheveled hair and ratty beard and flannel shirt reached into his pocket for his PHS, fumbling and almost dropping it before finally catching hold of it and calling for the medics.
Tseng was highly tempted to shoot the man right there and then. How dare he cut short the life of a man who had done everything he could to make up for the things he had done? How dare he run over the last of those with Cetra blood on the entire planet as if he didn’t even matter? But what good would it do? It wouldn’t make what had happened unhappen. It wouldn’t unbreak the shattered bones inside the slender body. So instead, he told the man instead that he would be facing prosecution for this and handcuffed him as they waited for the ambulance.
By the time they reached the hospital, Reno’s eyes had slipped closed and he’d lost consciousness, pain and blood loss taking him under swiftly even as his organs began to shut down. It had been too much stress for his body to take, but still he fought.
The surgery was long, leaving everyone that had been close to the young Turk pacing, waiting for news as to whether he’d even survived the surgery or not, the interminable wait to see if he would recover came after.
For six weeks he lingered, on life support, fighting for his life, doing his best to live with that indomitable spirit. Tseng knew it was time to call Veld. . .the man would have his head if he was not called back now when his son was horribly injured. “Reno is in trouble, sir. I thought, considering your relationship with the young man, that you ought to know this.”
Despite the fierce fight the redhead put up, infection and fever were what finally took him down.
Tseng finally made the decision after the infection left him brain dead to remove him from the machines. He’d called everyone, but he had not been able to get hold of Shona, so it had surprised him when she walked into the hospital room just as the screaming chime of a flatline began.
