A/N: It all started when I was playing Grand Theft Auto. I swear to god.

Squall brought his stale cigarette to his lips and slowly inhaled the smoke. It flooded his lungs and helped ease his tension. He was in the middle of an empty alley, having just finished a failed attempt at stealing a Maybach '62 sedan and nearly getting caught. Having a congratulatory cigarette was certainly in his favor. It also killed the time in between his working hours and going home. It would spare him time away from the wrath his boss was eventually going to put on him.

Day in day out, Squall was paid to do the dirty business that was too risky to be done by certain individuals, such as his boss. Out of all of his boss's employees, possibly about three of them had spent ten minutes with him in total. Making eye contact was an entirely different issue.

Before Squall could think, he saw the flashing lights of police cars once again. Quickly, he threw down his cigarette and slinked back into an alley within the one he was already in. "I fucking love this job," he mumbled sarcastically. The sirens grew closer and closer, and he found himself running faster. He wasn't sure whether or not they had a clue as to where he was, but he'd been doing this for almost a year now and still had a clear police record. With that thought of, Squall assured himself that things would be fine.

Suddenly, he could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket. It was one of his co-workers. He quickly flipped the cover open and pressed it to his ears

"The hell are you doing?" his co-worker Zell yelled at him. "There are fuckin' sirens everywhere man, are you in trouble?"

Squall was still out of breath. "No, I'm cool. I'm in an alley. I'll wait until dark to come out." Squall looked at his watch. It was going to be dark in only an hour. Perhaps he should wait even longer.

"Alright bye." The phone clicked and Squall put it back in his pocket. He leaned against the brick wall and slid down, falling onto the ground. He let out a heavy breath and closed his eyes, waiting for some time to pass.

Some time later, Squall's eyes shot open and he quickly stood up. Typically, he'd fallen asleep on the job. It was now too dark to see much of anything. He looked at his watch. It was now 22:00. Three hours had gone by, leading Squall to believe that they were through searching this particular area. Casually, he walked out of the alley. He wasn't sure how to get back, either, so he just started to walk and ultimately called Zell to come get him.

Minutes later, Zell's beat up bus drove up next to Squall. "Hey man. You look worn."

Squall shrugged and got in the vehicle, anxious to get the hell out of here. "Where ya going?"

"Home to the shithole," Squall replied. He really should have gotten a new apartment by now, but was afraid to spend the money. Squall was well-paid. He got paid more than his boss's other employees. But he was also afraid of losing his job and losing his money. It was a pretty common thing to get fired from a job such as this. You could only mess up so many times.

"Squall, you should stop smoking. It's a waste of money and will slow you down when running from the police."

"If they slowed me down that much I wouldn't even be here right now."

A while later, Zell's bus screeched to a stop outside of a tall apartment building. Squall got out of the car. "You can come in if you want to," he offered.

"Nah I'm good." He sped off, leaving Squall alone on the sidewalk. He opened the door to his apartment and walked up the staircases. Once he arrived at his door, he took his keys out from his pocket and opened the door. His apartment always smelled of cigarettes and booze, which made Squall feel sick. Squall couldn't handle drinking. He couldn't even handle thinking about the taste. He didn't want to watch himself waste away anymore than he already had.

Squall walked into his dark bedroom and collapsed on the squeaky mattress. Just as he closed his eyes, he was woken up by his phone ringing. He reached over to his night stand, angrily, and picked it up.

"Hello," he mumbled.

On the other line of the phone, a deep voice evily chuckled.

"Seifer?" he asked.

"Squall. You fucked up today," he calmly but angrily stated.

Squall rubbed his eyes with his fingers. "I know but I didn't get caught so that's really all that matters."

Seifer chuckled again. "Three strikes you're out. And I'll tell you what, tomorrow is going to be a test."

Squall let out a deep breath. He didn't feel like putting up with Seifer's head games. Not at this hour, at least. "What kind of test, Seifer?" He clenched his teeth together. How did he have such an immature boss? How did he work for somebody who was his own age?

"At this day and age, do you know how many assassins there are out there?"

"No," Squall carelessly replied. He knew that Seifer would never fire him, so none of this even mattered. None of Seifer's employees even knew who Seifer was. They had talked to him, but had never actually seen him or developed any sort of relationship with him. They were simply his puppets that he had the capability of controlling. He was just the person with the money who they had to obey to get through a day of living.

"Well, FYI, there are a lot. And you know they are after me, right?"

Squall took the phone away from his ear. This man was crazy. "No. I wasn't aware."

Seifer let out an evil chuckle. "The most notorious assassin there is, Squall. Do you know who it is?"

"No," Squall replied.

"It's a woman."

"Oh?"

"I don't know her real name, but they call her the sorceress. She's never missed a single target. But that's just what I've heard, but it's come from reliable sources."

Squall thought about what sort of reliable sources Seifer could have had. It was The Emptiness. The Emptiness were the people who were at the top of society, but actually below it. They were the black market. They had more money than the average person, and they got it from people like Squall. They sat in a dark room at a dark table, Seifer being one of them, discussing and planning their convoluted business. Sometimes there were times that drastic measures came up, and sometimes there wasn't. They didn't do any of the dirty work, either. Their shit paid employees did it all. They had no records and no family. They didn't exist. They were impossible to find, and impossible to catch.

"What about her," Squall replied.

"Well we've been discussing it lately. And we need somebody to start spying on her."

Squall's heart jumped. "Give me a reason, first."

"I can't spread false information, Squall. That's why we need you; for a month and then you'll bring us back a report of any suspicious movements."

Squall scoffed. The Emptiness was beyond paranoid about things like this. In all of their years in being in business, not one person was skilled enough to catch them. This especially went for someone like an assassin. Assassins could have cared less about underground societies. They might as well be allies. They were both in the same dirty businesses. "Okay well I need more detail."

"Acceptable. As you know it isn't safe to speak of these things over the phone so we'll meet up tomorrow." With that said, the phone clicked, and Squall hesitated before hanging it up. Squall had stolen drugs, cars, and money but had never spied on anyone before. Especially not an assassin. He had absolutely no idea what to expect. With his thoughts out of the way, he tried to close his eyes once more and went to sleep.

The next morning Squall found himself pacing on the sidewalk outside of his apartment. He didn't know where The Emptiness resided, complicating his meeting with Seifer. He hadn't gone over anything with him and Squall was confused. He waited for Seifer to hopefully call his phone, and he did.

"Hello?" Squall answered, relieved.

"Squall," he said. "I can see you."

Squall quickly whipped around looking for a trace of Seifer. He then caught sight of a shiny jet black car parked a few blocks down. "I see you," he mumbled.

"Come to me," he demanded. Squall silently obeyed and hung his phone up. He started to walk to the black car. He couldn't believe he obeyed such commands the way he did. It was disgusting.

He neared the car and stood next to the window. He knocked on the glass and seconds later it rolled down. "Get in," Seifer said, and Squall opened the door and sat. Seifer handed a blindfold to Squall. "Put it on or I won't drive anywhere. He silently slipped it over his eyes and in response, Seifer pushed down on the gas petal and they sped off.

Soon they landed at a small house in the middle of the woods. Seifer got out of the car. He was wearing an expensive black business suit that radiated a musky smell. Every member of the emptiness that Squall had seen seemed to wear black. To Squall, it seemed like such a stupid thing as they were exceptionally shady.

They walked up to the door and Seifer used a key to open it. "This is headquarters for the head honchos in this business we have here. Nobody can know where this is."

A few minutes later Squall found himself sitting at a table in the basement of this house. There were a few men sitting, but it was too dark to see any of their faces.

"This here is Squall Leonhart," Seifer said, and the men grunted a bit. "He's one of my employees."

Squall continued to look around. Why was he here, and was this The Emptiness?

"We've brought you here today, Squall, because we've targeted you to be the head of the upcoming issue that we've recently gotten a hold of."

Squall sighed. If this had been a choice, he would have strayed far from it.

"We're dealing with an assassin who has, in turn, been targeting us. She's a member of another underground organization called The Opprobrious Organization. They threaten to take us over as they have the skill to track every single one of our employees down as well as somehow finding this base. And they are starting with Mr. Almasy, thus striking up this miserable concern and also having a reason for you to be here. So here we are, Mr. Leonhart, putting you on the spot. Should you reject it, you're name will once again exist in society."

Author's Notes: Well, I feel this fic is going to crash and burn, so I am hoping that perhaps reviews will tell me otherwise, if at all possible.