Summary: "This is the story of Reno before he became a Turk 


The Assassin Chronicles:
Close to the Ground 
Part 1
By Diego Chavez and converted to FF7 by Anya


Diego's note- hello, my good friend anya offered to convert my story to ff7 for me and I complied, so once again thanks to anya. I have absolutely no clue about ff7, anya did all that stuff for me. This story is basically the same as A Better Life Part 1,  my original story that anya offered to convert to ff7, please r&r. heres anya's note.

Anya's note- Hey people, Anya here. Okay, this is the Final Fantasy 7 version of Diego's really cool story, A Better Life. (R&r it! It's good!) I read it, and freaked out when I noticed how similar it was to FF7. I also noticed how similar the main character is to what Reno could have been before he was a Turk. (Yes, he is supposed to be a rookie, and yes, he is supposed to be really naive.) Diego knows absolutely nothing about FF7, so I offered to convert it to FF7 for him, and he very nicely let me. Please, send feedback on this (and the original) to either me or Diego. (If you want to know how to contact me, I'm on Diego's favorite authors list. Diego won't give out his e-mail address, so just inform him in a review.) Diego's going to continue churning out the originals, and I'm going to keep on converting them to FF7. Please, r&r. Enjoy! ~Anya~

I sat in a putrid hole in the wall bar deep in Sector 7, the worst 
district in Midgar. I had lost all money, possessions, love, and hope in my life. I wasn't even sure if I could go on. But I knew that I must, for I knew that I deserved more than this and could get more if I had the will to go on. My name? Reno. There's nothing else to tell, really, except that I knew next to nothing of the killing and violence and bloodshed that ran so rampant in the 10 sectors beneath the Plate. 

I was suddenly interrupted from my thinking by a tap on the shoulder. I slowly turned around and found myself face to face with a man who clearly was out of place down here. What he wanted with me was a mystery.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked grumpily, trying to sound tough to fit in.

The man was about to sit down at the bar stool next to me but decided against it due to the mysterious stains and substances still painted on the stool. Instead he stayed standing to insure the safety of his trench coat. 

"Yes, as a matter of fact, you can. I'd like to make you an offer." He said as he nervously ran his hand through his slicked back hair.

"What's the offer?"

"I give you 1,500,000 gil, and you dispose of someone for me."

"Dispose of? Oh you mean…"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

I thought over the offer for a moment, oblivious to the man's growing impatience. That kind of money would really give me a boost, but in exchange for taking someone else's life. How could I justify that? But I still could use the money.

"I'll do it." I said without any emotion.

"Excellent. Now if you come with me I can discuss the details further."

Without a word I complied and got off my stool, while throwing a gil coin at the bartender. 

As we walked out onto the street I saw that there was a large crowd around something. As we approached it I saw the reason for the crowd. A brand new luxury car, most likely belonging to my new employer. 

Sure enough the man with the slicked back hair and ponytail parted the crowd and opened the door to the car. I followed quickly before the gap in the crowd closed up, not wanting to lose my entry to the brand new vehicle. 
As I stepped in, a chauffeur shut the door behind me. I looked over at pony tall man and read relief on his face, relief of getting out of Sector 7, not a desired spot to travel to.

The seats in the mysterious man's car were all jet black leather, and extremely comfortable. The driver wore a black bodysuit and didn't look like anyone you'd want to mess with. He was possibly pony tail man's bodyguard.

After a maybe ten-minute drive we reached a small brick building. The doors automatically opened at the driver's command and I stepped out into the street. We were in Sector 6, a step up from 7, but not much better.

I followed ponytail man and the bodyguard to the back door of the building. The bodyguard produced a key and unlocked an old rusted metal door leading downwards into what was presumably the cellar. 

As I walked down the creaky old wooden stairs I found that my assumption was correct. We were in a leaky old cellar, with limited lighting and a musty smell. As I observed my surroundings I realized that ponytail man was already elsewhere. 

I turned around and saw that there was a table in the back corner with two chairs, one already being occupied by my host. I went over and sat down opposite from my employer and was silent.

He broke the solitude. "As we have already discussed I will give you 1,500,000 gil once you dispose of a certain someone. I will provide you with the appropriate information on this man, a photo, where he can be found, etc. Is that clear?" asked ponytail man.

"Yeah, that's clear." I replied.

"Good. You will be paid upon completion of the job, and we will arrange that at a later date. I am going to give you a private cell phone that we can contact each other through. You will contact me upon completion, or if you have any questions."

"Alright." I said as he handed me the phone. A compact little unit, but disposable also; he couldn't trust me with anything too valuable, I suppose.

"There is one problem." I said, apparently annoying him a bit.

"What?"

"I don't have a weapon. I'll need to be paid half in advance to buy a weapon."

The ponytail man mulled it over for a bit and finally gave in.

"I will give you one third right now so you can buy your weapon. If that is not acceptable to you then I can easily find someone else for the job."

One third was barely enough for a weapon. But I really need the money, so I guess that it will have to be enough.

"Okay, one third, in hundred thousand gil notes. Paper money, not coins." I said, intentionally trying to get a rise out of him at this point.

With a snarl in my direction he turned to his bodyguard and gave him a nod. The bodyguard went to the other side of the cellar and disappeared into the darkness. He returned with information on my target and my money in an envelope, and went back to his post.

"Unless you will be needing anything else I suggest that you leave before you wear out your welcome. We will be in touch," said ponytail man.

I decided that hanging around any longer would be pointless, so I got up and walked up the stairs back onto the street. 

I walked all the way back to Sector 5 and caught a train to 2. Sector 2 was known for their extensive weapons and artillery selection. 

I spent all of three hours going through shops looking for something that I could afford. It seemed that ponytail man might not have given me enough money, he didn't look like he'd know how much weapons cost anyway.

As the day turned into night I reached the last store in the entire district, Big Tank's Weapons and Stuff. Not a very creative name but he was selling what I needed and that was all that mattered.

As I stepped inside I saw that Big Tank's store was nothing more than a tiny closet of a room with boxes of guns everywhere. No one was apparently there at the moment. I made my way around the room and was startled as I heard boots come clomping into the shop.

I looked up and saw who I guessed was "Big Tank". He wore an old white stained undershirt and suspenders. His belly and his overall size told me right away why he was called Big Tank.

"How can I help you?" he asked in a rich raspy accent.

"I need a gun, but all I have is 300,000," I told him, not wanting to reveal how much money I truly had.

"Well, I don't know if I have much for that price. But I'm sure I could find something."

He waddled over to where I was standing and began pawing through the boxes. 
After about five minutes he laboriously stood back up with a weapon in his hand.

"Here, I can sell you this for 400,000. I'm afraid that's the cheapest I have in the store."
I picked up the gun from his hands and studied it. All I really knew about guns was you wanted a trigger, and a hole for the bullets to come out of.

"So what features does this gun have?" I asked, trying not to sound too ignorant.

"Well there are some unique things about this weapon. It is very accurate, and has a very powerful scope. It is a good gun, and will get the job done for most whatever you need to do."

It sounded like he was reciting it right off of an advertisement, but everything he said sounded good. And it was all I could afford for now.
	"I'll take it, but I can only give you 325,000."
	"350,000 and you've got yourself a deal."
	I agreed and gave him the appropriate payment. 
	I put the gun in the inside pocket of my coat and decided that it was time to find a place to sleep for the night. 
	After seeing that the prices of many hotels were too expensive I found something I could afford. It was in Sector 5, not the most glamorous of places but also not 7. After giving the clerk 200 gil to spend the night, I found my room.
	If you could really even call it a room. It was basically a cot, a toilet and a sink. But at least it didn't have rats and it didn't smell, so things were good. I took the gun out of my coat and sat down on my cot to look 
at it again.
	As I studied it I realized that I'd been ripped off; the thing had been used quite a bit. But after this job I would have enough money to move up to at least Sector 8. Hopefully, from there, I could get enough gil to move back onto the Plate and get a real job. Not this business of life and death.
	 As I lay on the cot that night I thought over what I was doing. Within the past twelve hours I had become an assassin. One who works in the business of cold-blooded killings and the ruining of lives. What had I done? But then I told myself that after this I could be done with the business of ruthless murders, and I could move on. There had to be a better life out there for me somewhere.

-Anya's note-The black haired man is not supposed to be Tseng. I just took the description straight from Diego's original story. I wasn't sure about the sector thing, so I just kinda stuck in random numbers. Okay, let us know if you want us to continue this or not through the reviews Thanks! ~Anya & Diego~