Summary: AU / Cloud Strife is Rufus Shinra's best assassin, so when a rebel group rises in Midgar he is sent to deal with it. Everything went according to plan; the blonde just didn't expect the guilt afterwards. / Cloti / character death

Yo! I have a few quick notes here. First of all I do not own this idea. In fact I'm just borrowing it from weatherwitch. You see, on YouTube I was browsing through some random videos where I found a lovely video. Instantly my heart was captured; I'm a sucker for angst and the video pretty much screamed it to me, and then I realized the video was calling to the fanfic writer in me.

I couldn't ignore the call. So I'm borrowing weatherwitch's storyline for the video and forming a fanfic revolving around it. It's not exactly like the story for the video; however the core events are the same.

So, all credit goes to weatherwitch and the video Beautiful Lie. I should have the link up in my profile under one of the sections.

Now read, review, and don't rant on it being not canon; this is AU. I stated in the sum, didn't I?

TK
Twin Kats

Beautiful Lie
Cloud Strife

Lie awake in bed at night, thinking 'bout your life;
Do you want to be different (different)
Try to let go of the truth, the battles of your youth;
'Cause this is just a game, it's a beautiful lie;

Beautiful Lie by 30 Seconds to Mars

Reno shifted quickly out of the way of the bloodied blonde, letting him pass into Rufus Shinra's quarters. He had become a regular here lately, and Reno had heard the rumors that circulated around the Turks about him.

Cloud Strife; hired assassin who never failed a mission. Cold hearted, ruthless, and efficient; all the qualities the blonde showed and all required from his profession. He always appeared so calm and indifferent, even when he got orders that would make even the best Turks shudder.

Reno never wanted to be on the receiving end of his sword; none of the Turks did, so everyone stayed out of his way. The man only reported to Rufus anyway, and frankly Reno felt relieved at that.

Cloud Strife was not someone people wanted to be around for long and Reno was no exception.

Cloud pushed open the door with his clean gloved hand and stepped inside. He kicked the door shut the minute he was past the threshold and walked calmly over towards his employer.

"The mission?" Rufus Shinra questioned.

"Complete," Cloud replied bluntly. "The resistance has been successfully silenced."

"Good," Shinra murmured, placing a hand by his mouth; a pleased smile was already spreading across the lips. "There's nothing else needed now," the blonde man stated after a few minutes silence. "Go clean up and rest," Rufus waved one hand in dismissal.

"Yes sir," Cloud muttered, bowing his head slightly as he did so. Seconds later he turned and swiftly pulled the door open and left, the door swinging shut gently in his wake.

"Reno," Rufus called after pushing a button on his desk, "get me Tseng, will you?"

"You got it, boss," Reno's replied, voice slightly distorted over the speaker.

Cloud pulled himself under the flowing, steaming water from the shower, letting it wash away the blood from his hair and body. He had already tossed his clothes into a pan to soak; all that was left was cleansing his body of the blood upon it. Calmly the blonde scrubbed at his hair, tilting his face slightly, eyes closed, to let the water wash away the blood left there.

His eyes snapped open a second later, his left hand immediately moving to steady himself against the shower wall as his body shook heavily.

"Stupid," he cursed softly, flicking off the water and pulling himself from the shower the minute he was able to steady himself. The blonde toweled himself dry, pulling on a pair of dark, loose pants before calmly searching through random bottles and materia of this or that on the counter. He grasped something a second later, pocketing it before reaching for the towel again, this time rubbing at his hair as he left the bathroom.

Cloud dropped the towel on the floor, kicked over the pan that held his clothes (thus successfully dumping the red stained water outside) before snatching First Tsurugi and a warm, wet hand towel. The blonde quickly segmented his blade and began methodically cleaning away any blood that had remained. Once he was sure his sword was clean he put it back together and headed over towards the overturned pan.

Cloud pulled out his soaked clothes and moved towards the cleaning machine set up off-side to his room. He dumped them inside, along with detergent and a bit of bleach, before turning the thing on and walking away.

His normal routine now finished the blonde settled down to calmly flip through the channels on the TV. Doing this usually gave him a heads-up on what job Rufus wanted done next.

Cloud calmly walked past the red haired Turk and entered the immaculate office. A blonde man dressed in white—Cloud immediately noted that he was Rufus Shinra—sat in a chair behind the desk.

"What do you want?" Cloud questioned, tilting his head slightly in Rufus' direction.

"Your services," Rufus replied. Cloud remained silent. "You do some jobs for me and I'll pay you in return."

"How much?"

"5000 gil," the blonde CEO said calmly.

"Deal."

Cloud was up within seconds, holding one of the thinner blades from First Tsurugi threateningly before the person who entered his domain.

"Whoa," the red head cried, backing up and hands in the air. "I come in peace, yo." Cloud lowered the blade slightly, recognizing the Turk almost immediately. "Boss wants you," the Turk stated, "I'm just the messenger."

Cloud lowered the blade and asked, "Another job?"

"How should I know?" the Turk shrugged. "Anythin' you do is kept quiet until it's done, yo."

"Hmph."

Cloud turned away from the Turk, calmly reconnecting the blade and grabbing some clothes hanging off the dresser. Within seconds Cloud had on a black, sleeveless turtleneck, his gloves, various belts, and his usual baggy black pants. He calmly reached over for the shoulder pad that connected the one sleeve he wore before turning back towards the Turk.

"I'll be there," Cloud told him and the Turk nodded, taking it as his cue to leave. As he was heading towards the door Cloud called, "Oh, and Reno? Knock next time."

Reno nodded and left the room swiftly. Cloud finished gathering the little things he needed, pocketing a cell phone as the last item, before leaving the room and locking the door.

The blonde entered Rufus' office, noting the wheelchair and sheet instantly.

"Gotten worse?" he asked his employer. Rufus Shinra didn't respond and Cloud didn't expect him to. "So," Cloud asked after a minute, "what do you need."

Rufus eyed him from beneath the sheet before saying, "Infiltrate and eliminate."

"Interesting," Cloud muttered and waited for Rufus to elaborate.

"In Midgar a rebel group has been gaining ground," Rufus stated, watching Cloud's expression.

"AVALANCHE," Cloud nodded. They were on the news earlier that day.

"Yes," the Shinra CEO replied. "They're gaining too much ground; people are beginning to question Shinra."

"You want me to get rid of them?"

"In a fashion yes."

The room was silent for a few minutes until Rufus spoke again.

"You are to infiltrate AVALANCHE, discover their plans, their leaders, and eliminate any threat they have to Shinra. I will require an occasional update on the situation. In return I'll pay you 10,000 gil upon the start and another 5000 once the job is completed. Do we have an accord?"

Cloud was silent for a minute, mentally assessing the pay and job before stepping forward.

In one smooth sweep the blonde bent down and said, "Mission accepted."

"Go then. The sooner they are dealt with the sooner you get paid."

Cloud rose and left.

'Infiltrate and eliminate, huh?' the blonde thought somewhat amusedly. 'Not what I normally do but that won't stop me from completing the job.'

After getting the payment and returning to his room to gather a few more items the blonde headed outside towards his bike. With a somewhat loving touch Cloud quickly geared the bike up, storing First Tsurugi within seconds, hopped on and started the engine. He pulled his goggles down over his mako eyes and left.

'All I need is a story to start this ball rolling,' the blonde thought, methodically mapping out how to play this mission, 'and to get that story I need to see just what would appeal to them. One day of observation; next day start the infiltration. The rest will come together.'

If there was one thing Cloud prided himself on it was his ability to effectively hide any ill-intentions and emotions; he usually didn't show much emotion anyway so it wasn't that hard, really. He also prided himself on his stealth abilities, however meager they were they still helped in missions where information gathering was key. The blonde usually didn't do such missions since his stealth level really wasn't all that great, but he did accept them on occasion to keep improving the lacking skill.

Cloud didn't really need the one day to figure out how to infiltrate AVALANCHE he discovered shortly after starting his observations. It was obvious on how he could get into their little group, and it in fact didn't require any elaborate story. All he had to be, the blonde reasoned, was what he was.

A hired mercenary (although he preferred assassin his profession was really that of a mercenary) that would take pretty much any job, and by judging on how protective some of the members of AVALANCHE were of the dark haired woman he could easily proffer his services as a bodyguard.

The next day the blonde 'officially' entered Midgar and found a form of hotel to stay at near the sector AVALANCHE was based in. Setting up his area of operations Cloud began to ask around for jobs within the next few hours. During the day the blonde had taken a few rather odd jobs here and there so as to build up some gil to use for the mission and not the gil Shinra provided, while still stating that though he could do them they weren't up his alley per se.

His profession was a mercenary, and thus he was much more used to killing or protecting people. Unloading carts of food just weren't as appealing as his normal jobs.

Either way his advertising (and patience) paid off as by the end of the day one of the members of AVALANCHE, one of the more protective members of the group, approached him.

"Can I help you?" Cloud asked, only stopping after the man attempted to touch him. Cloud had instantly jerked away and pulled up First Tsurugi defensively.

"You the mercenary?" the dark skinned man questioned and Cloud's eyes narrowed.

"If I am?" he asked.

The member of AVALANCHE eyed him for a minute before saying, "Is there a place we can talk privately?" Cloud arched an eyebrow but nodded. He holstered First Tsurugi and gestured for the man to follow. As they headed towards the 'hotel' he was staying at. It was cheap as he was using gil he had scrounged from some of his kills during his work for Shinra instead of the pay Shinra gave him; the money he used now was purely for jobs like the one he was on.

Cloud calmly led the bulkier male up the stairs and into his hotel room, constantly keeping a watchful eye on him, something the man noticed.

"What is it you want," Cloud demanded once the door was shut and locked.

"Name's Barret," Barret replied.

"Cloud," the blonde offered calmly before bluntly asking, "What is it you want. I don't have time to waste."

"You the mercenary?" Barret questioned again.

"Why?" Cloud replied. "You got a job for me?" The blonde eyed the dark skinned man warily, Barret doing so in kind but he did not answer the question. "Listen, I don't have all day to waste; you either got a job for me or you don't. Which is it?"

"Why are you here in Midgar," Barret questioned.

Cloud stared at the man before calmly leaning against the dresser, un-holstering First Tsurugi and pulling apart the segments. He began to clean one of them, wiping away the monster blood it gained from his ride to Midgar.

"The last town had no jobs worth anythin'," Cloud stated bluntly. "I heard Midgar might have something worth offerin' so I decided to come here. I'm guessin' you wanted to know if I was a Shinra lackey, considering what's been reported and all."

Barret narrowed his eyes and questioned, "What do you know?"

Cloud looked up from his blade and stated, "I'm a mercenary; I make it my job to know if there's anythin' goin' on in the place I'm headin' to." Barret narrowed his eyes and Cloud added calmly, "You're not very discrete; I overheard you shouting about AVALANCHE when I came into the city. Now do you have a job for me or not?"

"You don't work for Shinra?" Barret asked suspiciously.

"If I did would I tell you?" Cloud questioned back and Barret stilled. "No, I don't," the blonde stated. "Haven't been hired by Shinra for years; I guess they didn't like the fact that I took a job that killed one of their SOLDIER's." Barret blinked in shock but Cloud offered no more information. "So are you goin' to continue skirting around answerin' my question or can we finally get to the topic at hand?"

"Yeah I got a job," Barret replied and Cloud calmly put the segment of First Tsurugi down and turned his full attention to the member of AVALANCHE.

"What is it?" the blonde questioned.

"I want you to protect Tifa," Barret stated.

"Who's Tifa?" Cloud questioned while calmly watching the man. Barret fished out a photo and handed it over. The blonde examined the imagine before asking, "How much?"

"Wha?"

"How much am I goin' to get out of this?" Cloud questioned. "And how long do you want her protected? How do you want her protected? Silently or openly?"

Barret blinked before saying, "1000 gil a week and bein' secretive would make her suspicious. Jes don' tell her who sent ya."

Cloud eyed Barret calmly before saying, "When and where do I start?"

"So you'll do it?!" Barret cried.

"Yes," Cloud replied.

"7th Heaven," Barret told him. "Start tomorrow."

"Deal," Cloud nodded and moved towards the door. A quick flick of his wrist and the door was unlocked; the blonde pulled it open and motioned for Barret to go.

The dark skinned man paused for a minute to say, "You can stay at the bar," and then left quickly. Cloud watched him until he disappeared down the stairs. The blonde shut the door and relocked it, heading over towards the dresser. Sedately Cloud leaned First Tsurugi against the dresser and pulled open a drawer. He pulled out a small, dark cell and flipped it open. His fingers moved across the keypad as his other hand rummaged through the sack that rested within the drawer.

Cloud pulled the phone to his ear and listened to it ring; the line picked up the minute the blonde grasped a flask.

Cloud spoke instantly, not waiting for the other to get a word in, "I'm in."

"Good."

"Update's will be slow," Cloud stated. "I'll be near too many and it'll blow my cover."

"What is your cover?"

Cloud replied instantly, "I came to Midgar after hearing it might have some jobs worth offering; previously I was in Kalm. I worked for Shinra once, several years ago, but haven't since because of that one contract."

"I see."

"You'll back it up?"

"Yes."

"Good; that's all I have for now," Cloud said bluntly.

"Very well; I expect an update as soon as you are able, understood?"

"Yes sir," Cloud replied and the line went dead. The blonde flipped the phone shut after wiping the call from the cell's memory. He set the phone down on the dresser and moved towards the bed, sitting so that he could view the darkening sky as he swallowed the drink inside the flask.

'And so it begins…' the blonde thought with mild detachment.

End Chapter.

Please review; as I said before this idea is solely weatherwitch's. It is based off of the storyline for the video Beautiful Lie. I highly suggest watching the video. The link will be in my profile.

Review please!

TK
Twin Kats