Room 504, Thursday Evening

[intraspective]

So, once upon a time Ino was pretty sure Romeo had made her promise to tell him about anything crappy happening on the island before someone else did. Which explained the message she left for him.

… Four days late, sure, but she was trying here.

Leaving her door open, Ino was sprawled out on her bed and scribbling into a notebook she'd started working through on Tuesday. Writing down every little thing she could remember about Jenova, what she knew about Jenova from other sources (well, Elena and Reno), and what she could guess about her from—being her for a weekend.

Ino wasn't sure what purpose there was in it, really, except for the fact that—

This way she'd know her new shiny fear as inside and out as she could.

[Open door, open post!]

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[intraspective]

"I don't--not want you knowing," she said, hunching her shoulders as tried to put it into words. "I just... don't know how you'll take it."

[raspberryturk]

"I'm ain't goin' nowhere, Rookie."

He meant that. He wasn't in the habit of taking people under his wing just so he could spook and take off, after all.

[intraspective]

Ino swallowed. Maybe one day she'd believe that. It was nice to hear--more than nice, if she was honest with herself--but there was always that doubt.

Everybody left sometime.

"I..."

Her free hand clenched in her blankets so tight it ached. She was still scared--admitting it made it worse.

"Fandom turned me into Jenova."

Almost toneless, as she braced herself for--for however he'd react. She was trusting him and that was hard too.

[raspberryturk]

She was afraid of how he would react, and he was being very, very careful not to react at all. At least until he could get his head around that statement.

Fandom had turned him into some guy called Axel. It had turned Rikku into a psychotic fairy.

Ino had definitely gotten the short end of the stick, there.

"Free?"

Deal with this one step at a time. First, find out what Jenova had been capable of. Then, find out what state the island was in. Systematically. He was a Turk. He could freak the fuck out when he wasn't on the phone.

[intraspective]

She shook her head then remembered he couldn't see it.

"No, there was this--tube thing. And wires and machines everywhere."

And Jenova had been equal parts angry and contemptuous about that.

[raspberryturk]

Okay. Not free. Fandom wasn't burning to the ground, or else Elena would have called him. Elena wasn't dead because Ino was telling him not to talk to her. He could breathe again.

"Been a while since I saw her ugly mug," he shared. Conversationally. Really.

[intraspective]

Ino didn't laugh. Or--do anything, really, in response to that.

Jenova wasn't something she could make light of yet. If ever.

Being called 'the mom in the tube' by Jen was something completely different than Reno saying something--like that.

"Elena said she's gone."

[raspberryturk]

"She's gone," Reno agreed, his tone taking on an almost sharp note, as though really driving that point in would mean that this fact would never change. "I didn't see what happened to the head, myself," he'd been too busy being fairly certain that he was dead at the time, "but I got it on good authority that we ain't seein' it again."

[intraspective]

"For you," she said, nodding jerkily. "Elena said that too. But--that's only one world."

And there was more than one Jenova and how scary was that with Fandom's multi-universal travelling capabilities taken into account?

[raspberryturk]

Okay. After this conversation, Reno was going to take a few minutes to just lurch forward and puke, before freaking out. That sounded like a plan.

"Fuck."

Still a multi-purpose word, right there.

"There's Zack's timeline too."

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuckity fucking fuckerfuck fuckshit.

[intraspective]

"I--"

Ino closed her eyes.

"Yeah."

[raspberryturk]

Reno went very, very quiet for another very, very long moment, there.

"You know Gaia's gonna let a lot nastier before it even comes close to bein' what I see every day," he said, carefully. And then, after a moment. "I think you probably got a better idea'n anyone about what caused it, zoto."

And then he stopped talking, kind of lingering on what he wanted to say, next. Trying to figure out if it was a good idea to mention it at all. Spit it out? Don't?

What he settled on was, "You got some time left to enjoy the place before all that, though."

Because he knew damn well that there was no way he'd be able to keep her out of Zack's timeline if she wanted to be a part of it.

[intraspective]

"I'm scared," she blurted. "I mean--I'd seen Edge before and, and I know Midgar at least a little and I've heard enough to put things together and I s-still wasn't scared. Then I was her and there was Zack and Jen and Alice and it was awful and it's over but it's not over because she's still around and..."

Breathe, Ino.

"I hate it. I'm scared and I hate it, R-Reno."

[raspberryturk]

Reno's laptop was open, and he was now booking portal tickets. The soonest he could get to Fandom would be Saturday, and he was going to shove his EMR up somebody's ass if they couldn't do better than that, and people were going to hurt if there were any delays.

"I'm scared," he admitted. Which was a phrase that he would probably never utter again so long as he lived. "Only an idiot ain't scared of her, zoto. But... She ain't got no way offa Gaia. And she wouldn't want to leave until her work's done there anyhow, yoto. You don't ever gotta deal with it again if you don't wanna."

She'd mentioned Zack and Alice.

He was going to have to get Elena to see what she could find out about that. One was Zack, and the other was practically a Rookie of his, too. And he didn't think Ino really needed the prying, right now. Like. At all.

[intraspective]

His admitting it gave her some measure of comfort, though.

It was hard to think it was babyish to be scared when Reno was scared of the same thing, in Ino's opinion.

She took a deep breath, then another. "I-I don't know what I want to do about all of that."

Because Gaia and Midgar were tied up with Zack and Zack was...

He was.

[raspberryturk]

This was about the SOLIDER kid. Wasn't it? Reno found himself exhaling messily, and then hitting confirm on the Portalocity ticket order.

"I... don't wanna be the one who says it, Rookie. I don't. But when you're talkin' about her, there ain't much that can be done."

[intraspective]

She swallowed.

"Except hope that she gets destroyed again?"

[raspberryturk]

Reno was making a reach for the Corel Ale now. Now seemed like a damn good time to reach for the Corel Ale.

"Everything 'bout his world seems to be goin' the way it went here, so far," he pointed out. "I mean, ain't no mention of Zack headin' off to some island for school around here, but the rest... Sounds like it's been goin' the same. Ain't no reason why her bein' stopped should be any different, either."

[intraspective]

Ino did not want to argue for her possibly not being destroyed but--

"But even a little ch-change can make a big difference."

And oh, was Ino going to cling to that forever.

[raspberryturk]

Don't say it, Reno. Don't say it. Don't. Don't. Don't.

"You wanna be the one who risks changin' it for the worse, knowin' full well what's out there, now?"

[intraspective]

Flinch was a poor word to describe Ino's reaction. Shudder wasn't much better.

She didn't want to make things worse--but things could be just the same made better. Nothing was set in stone. If everything was set in stone then what was the point in trying?

No one was needed if nothing ever changed.

"I--" Ino, don't, "I've got to go. I-I'll see you when you get here."

Then she hung up on him. And just shivered.

[raspberryturk]

She'd hung up.

She'd hung up, and Reno knew better than to call her back just yet. She said she would see him when he got there. That would have to do.

Still and all, he was going to have to sit there for a minute, cradling the phone in his hands. Staring at it. Playing the words she'd said over and over in his head.

That's only one world.

They couldn't change it. They couldn't. Even if it wasn't their Gaia, Reno couldn't possibly live with that many more lives on his head.

He opened the bottle he'd reached for earlier.

They couldn't.

... Couldn't they?