Reno crept along the shoreline of the large ornamental pond with Rude, their knees protesting as they crouched down to avoid being seen by the sentries searching around the compound they had just infiltrated. Rude had the precious, albeit slightly bloodstained, documents they had come to fetch clutched in one large hand, a gun grasped in the other. Reno had the ID card of the target they had taken down settled neatly in the front pocket of his jacket; he had made the kill so he got to present the card to Tseng; it was simply a rule between Rude and him. He hadn't relished the kill, the man had taken a child from a woman on the street and used it as a hostage; there had been no way for Reno to kill one without the other being killed. The choice had been one child's life and future sacrificed to keep one man from smuggling, torturing, and killing hundreds of other children and their mothers and fathers; but it had been a hard thing to sacrifice. Reno knew that unless he got smashed tonight he wouldn't be able to sleep at all.
The memory of squelching across the blood-soaked floor still plagued his thoughts as he crept along the mud-stained shore, his feet squashing and stomping over carpet fibers that swam in the blood of victims and villains; a man like Dominick didn't go down quietly and Reno and Rude had had to take down his cronies before they could even hope to land a clean shot on Dominick himself. Reno had faced a dilemma as Dominick leveled his gun at the temple of the screaming child, a sick smile on his sunken and slimy face. Rude had yelled for him to shoot as he struggled with one of the last cronies, his hands too full to help with Reno's situation. Dominick had cocked the gun and twisted his lips into a sicker smile; clearly indicating what would happen if Reno took another move. Reno had cocked his own gun and pulled the trigger perhaps a millisecond after Dominick did; time enough for both child and villain to perish from the bullet wounds they received.
Now they were squelching through mud and grit with their heads low and their hackles raised. They were taking a different route out than they took in; only an idiot would do otherwise. Reno and Rude were not idiots, though some did point the accusatory finger at Reno's IQ on occasion, and they knew what they were doing. They had fifty yards of crouching left before they were in the clear to sprint their way to freedom; they just had to make it that last seventy-five crouching steps without being seen or heard and that was easier said than done. When Tseng had drawn up the plan for them it had looked like such a short distance, but as Reno peeked over Rude's shoulder to the woods ahead of them he found that a finger-length on a piece of paper wasn't an accurate measurement of distance.
Rude stopped and Reno stopped with him, both of them working to keep their adrenaline fueled hearts quiet. The pond water lapped at the shore beside them, its currents dictated by the breeze instead of the moon, as they waited for the flashlight beams crawling over the grass ten feet away from them to move in a different direction. There were only two sentries searching in this direction, the rest had no doubt found the trail Reno and Rude had purposefully laid false and were searching blindly on the other side of the compound where several trip wires were waiting to be set off. The two figures flashing lights at them would be easily disposed of, but Reno and Rude would wait for them to act problematic before they tucked them into the sleepy waters of the pond beside them. They were sick of killing for the moment.
Thankfully, the pair walked past without noticing them. Reno breathed a quiet sigh of relief as Rude started creeping forward again and followed after the large man. They moved at a faster pace now, the near miss with the guards had shaken their confidence a little and they wanted to get away as fast as possible. Their feet were thickly coated in fast drying mud by the time they reached the tree line, their crouching run turned into an all out sprint as they raced towards the vehicle that would take them to safety. They had brought two vehicles, one that was expendable and would be found by Dominick's men first and the other that would speed them to safety. Reno let Rude lead the way to their getaway car even though he was the faster runner, Rude was better at remembering where they parked. Reno would probably lead them to the wrong car if he was the one leading.
Rude slipped into the driver's seat noiselessly; waiting for Reno to get in before he started the car. They had one shot at getting out and if they started the car before they were ready to go they would increase their risk of botching the mission. The kill wasn't supposed to be relatable to Shinra in any way; the company didn't need another terrorist group out to sabotage their operations. Reno and Rude had to look like they were from a rival gang. They were wearing rival gang colors and they had their car unmarked so that they could slip back into society with relative ease. Now they just had to get away from the compound and back to civilization without getting into a gun fight; the limited number of bullets they had brought with them had been depleted during the earlier shooting match. Luckily neither of them was hurt physically; that would make escaping harder.
Rude flicked the car to life, headlights switched off and radio silent. The car rumbled and the tires spun as Rude gunned the gas, tearing up the ground beneath the car as the tires searched for traction. There was a heart stopping moment where they thought the car was stuck, but fate smiled on them and they were able to grasp dry enough ground to shoot forward. Rude drove expertly, ignoring the screams following them of, "that way!" and "the bastards are over there!" Reno clutched his gun tight, the documents stuffed into the glove box to keep them from getting soiled further if another shooting match did get started.
They managed to slip away without being seen, the gang members had only heard them leaving and had had to rush back to the compound to get their own vehicles before they could follow. Reno and Rude had counted on the fact that the gang members wouldn't be able to follow them right away; they needed all the extra time they could get.
After ditching the car in the slums they tore off the bandanas that made them look like gang members, knocking some of the mud on their boots off by kicking the car. Rude held the papers and Reno kept the ID card as they got onto the train that would take them back up to the surface of Midgar and away from its seedy underworld; though some would argue that the real evil took place on the surface. Prostitution and gang crimes were one thing; but pollution and extortion were in another category of evil and not many people wanted to think about or give the elite crimes recognition.
Reno and Rude sat on the train in silence, Reno scraping mud off the sides of his boots with a pocket knife and Rude sitting with his hands folded in his lap, staring at his feet. Even though it was nighttime, Rude still had his sunglasses on; Reno knew that he hid behind them so that his eyes wouldn't give his true feelings away, but he could read the slump of his shoulders well enough to know how he felt. He cleared his throat to prepare for the first words he had spoken since they started the mission. "I'm goin' ta Tifa's bar after we clear things up with Tseng. Wanna come?"
Rude nodded silently, his eyes still trained on the ground.
Reno sighed and looked around the empty train car, knowing that the cameras above would be watching. "That was messed up, huh?"
Rude nodded again, his voice lost deep in his chest.
"Glad it's over, yo. Can't take too much of that shit." Reno sat back and stowed his knife in his pocket; once he had scraped off enough mud to see the blood he had stepped in he decided to call it quits with his boots. They would be tossed into a garbage can tomorrow after he got another pair.
Another silent nod was his answer.
"Think we left any traces?" Reno gave the camera in the corner the finger.
Rude shook his head.
"Hope you decide to start talking again. I don't wanna be the one to tell Tseng all the details. He doesn't trust my reports, ya know?" Reno leaned his head against the seat and stared at the ceiling of the train, wondering why and how people had stuck gum to it.
Rude cleared his throat, "You do tend to exaggerate."
"The hyperbole police can't prove shit. I'm in the clear for that." Reno smiled, glad that Rude was talking again.
"Whatever. This is our stop. Come on." Rude stood and walked to the doors as they slid open, revealing the empty train station.
Reno stood and followed, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. "Lead the way, buddy."
Tseng took their report with a stony face and a few nods of approval, writing down the information and taking the documents and ID card they presented for evidence. He didn't say it, but he was pleased with the work they had done. It wasn't often that Reno was able to say they had pulled off a mission flawlessly without lying about it. He dismissed them both with a nod, knowing that they would probably be late for work in the morning. He didn't mind though; they had done a good job tonight and they were forgiven for their inevitable transgressions in the morning. He knew that he had to give them time to cope with what they had done and would allow them both a two hour grace period in the morning. After two hours, however, they would be penalized for tardiness. There was only so much consideration Tseng could handle giving out.
Reno drove to Tifa's silently, following Rude's car. He had his radio off, it interrupted his thought process, and he knew Rude had his off as well. After a mission like the one they had just had, some loud music was not what they needed. What they needed was a bottle of booze each and some time to mull things over. Rude would probably end the night in a room above the bar; Tifa was always more than willing to allow him a room; Reno blamed it on the fact that they were fuck buddies and possibly an actual couple. Reno would end the night sleeping in front of his apartment of curled up at someone else's place; too drunk for Tifa to willingly return his keys. He would act like a slob and a pig and get her pissed with him and in the morning when he returned for his keys he would buy her chocolates to make up for it. It was just how nights after a mission worked and the process was probably the only stable routine Reno had in his life. Thankfully, he didn't really require routine for anything else and he was happy as he was so long as he didn't have to think about what he had done. The drink would make him forget the regret that played over and over in his mind as he replayed the memory of a small child's head exploding from the point blank impact of a bullet to his head.
Author's Note: This is a prequel to my story 'Don't Follow'. It's depressing, I know, but I like it so nyah! Hopefully it's not so depressing that you hate it and maybe it will shed some light on what happens in 'Don't Follow'. I realized after writing that one that there were a lot of things that were lost in ambiguity.