Yamanaka Ino (Iris)

It was a testament to their long, long association that she didn't just turn around and punch him. He was still faster than her, but she was fast enough to get a punch off on him if she really wanted to.

He was really lucky that she loved him.

Her eyes narrowed, her mouth flattening as she pressed her lips together. Iris sent her mind out around the village.

"Okay," she said, after a long, long moment. "But it ain't nothing but a normal village so far. Those ain't ShinRa operatives we've got in the town."

They were just… normal people. Living their lives.

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"Yeah," Reno agreed, glancing sidelong at her. "I ain't recognized a single one of 'em as anyone livin' in Nibelheim in our time. Town looks around right, though..."

He looked around quietly. Didn't like the way this all sat in his guts.

"You got your PHS charged? Check the date."

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"It's the day after your birthday," she grumbled, more out of habit than anything else as she dug her PHS out. Iris frowned at it.

Then frowned harder at it.

"Huh."

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Reno didn't even have to check his PHS. That 'huh' was enough to confirm what he was afraid of, right there.

The date was one thing.

Yesterday, they hadn't thought to check the year.

"How much time we got?"

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Curling her fingers protectively around her PHS, Iris kept on frowning.

"Not as much as we'd like, but shit ain't going down, like, right now."

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Reno gave a small nod. Pulled out his own PHS. Frowned at it.

"Figure we hit the right one, wrong time? Or are we in someone else's bullshit reality about to go nuclear?"

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"Ain't sure," she admitted, "though I ain't inclined to just leave without seein' what's up either."

The question, really, was what was the best way to go about…

"No such thing as a sure thing but a way to narrow it is to find a Turk and see if they know me," Iris admitted reluctantly. "I were one, already, by this point."

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Reno nodded a little, glanced again at her PHS.

"Call Tseng?"

Was as good a solution as any, really. Easier than making a trek all the way to Midgar, at least.

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"He's going to love this," Iris said, amused. "Whether or not he knows me."

Honestly, she couldn't decide which scenario would irritate him more.

Still, she was calling him.

"Here goes?"

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"Gods-speed, Rookie," Reno replied, smiling wryly and firing off a sloppy salute.

The phone rang.

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The phone rang once.

Twice.

Three times.

And then, on the other end of the line, a faintly suspicious sounding but familiar voice picked up.

"Tseng."

Businesslike, as usual.

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And she hadn't even done anything to warrant that tone of voice yet!

"Yo, boss!" Iris said cheerfully. "Just checkin' in to see if you know me."

What?

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Tseng's voice was slightly terse as he replied, "Yes, Iris. We've met."

And then after another brief pause, added, to someone slightly away from the phone, "Continue your rounds, Iris. I need to take this call."

There was a tone underneath it all that said something he'd been thinking since the day he'd met Zack Fair: 'I really, really hate that island.'

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Iris grinned at Reno as she fist-pumped. He knew her! Yes!

This was terrible!

And amazing!

"Got it," she said cheerfully. "Reno and I'll take Nibelheim then!"

Sorry-not-sorry, Tseng!

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There was a long pause.

"Reno and you will take... Nibelheim?"

You could practically hear him counting to ten in his head.

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"Yeah, sorry," she said, not sounding the least bit sorry about, well, anything. "We're a little temporally displaced right now, so you've got two of each of us running around—you lucky man! Be nice to little me, okay? She has no idea this is happenin'."

He could be mean to Reno, though, since it wasn't even the right Reno he'd be being mean to in… several other ways too.

Renos were complicated.

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Renos were always complicated.

"Two of..." Tseng sounded a little like he wanted to just start pulling his hair out. "This is one of those... 'because of that island' things, isn't it?"

Hated that island.

So much.

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"…I don't think we can really blame the island this time," Iris admitted, after a moment's thought. "Reno and I were tryin' to get back to our Gaia and it's turned out that the multiverse really, really does not want us to get back to our time. This is the closest we've got in months and we're still something like six years off."

But they were on the right planet! It was a pretty great step in the right direction.

"But, hey, it just means we're going to be workin' here a little. Consider this a heads up? And yay, you know me! We figured there were greater odds you didn't, which would have made things way more awkward."

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"Things are already awkward," Tseng muttered under his breath. And then, a little more loudly, said, "By all means, then."

He sounded dubious.

"What, pray, are you working on?"

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Iris hesitated.

Sure, she knew where they were in the timeline and breaking it was something she was entirely in favour of (those years thinking Zack were dead were not her best years in any sort of way) but at the same time…

"Oh, you know, we're workin' on saving the world," she settled on. "It all comes back to Nibelheim, time and time again."

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Tseng hesitated for a few moments, himself.

"How soon can you have a report on my desk?"

Look, Iris, temporally displaced or not, he was the boss. If he wasn't the boss, he was dead.

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Uh.

Iris glanced at Reno.

"We don't have computers on us," she admitted, "but if you're fine with a phone-emailed report, we can… work something out?"

Probably?

It was going to have emojis and chatspeak in it. 100%

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"That will suffice," Tseng replied, tone clipped and still ever the picture of professionalism.

... He would rue the day.

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She was just going to hope he was up on his slang from six years in the future.

"I'll let you get that other call then," Iris said. "And maybe we'll send you a selfie or something."

It would be when they were doing something stupid. Just because.

"And six years or so from now, you're going to look back on today and sigh."

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