Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII or Crisis Core…as usual :P

A/N: Hi nerds! And…SORRY, SORRY, SORRY .! It took a little longer than I expected to finish this chapter, but believe me I have my reasons. First thing is that I have been sick…very sick actually and it took a while before I got better. Don't worry though, I'm pretty much fine now. The second thing is that I've been having some difficulties with my writing. Since I started this story so long ago I have completely forgotten my original purpose for the story (in other words, the ending itself. I know I'm THAT good…-_-). After a while of brainstorming with my sister, I finally got to a satisfying conclusion (now I'm only hoping you all will like it too when the time comes). But there's a long way to go before the end of this story, so for now just enjoy the new chapter ;)

P.S. It has been pointed out that there's a lot of mistakes in my texts (like missing words, bad grammar etc), and I did a little check through all the chapters and fixed those that I could find. Just wanted you to know that I am aware that my writing isn't always great (and English isn't my first language either) so I just hope you don't get too annoyed if you notice some faults through the story. If there's a part somewhere that really bugs you just tell me and I'll fix it (after all, I'm writing for you guys so…:P). Yeah…I'm done babbling over here…START READING! XD

Chapter 6 – Old enemies

"Hey! Who the hell is this?" the redhead yelled impatiently. It took Cloud a serious amount of self-control to convince himself not to hang up right away. He'd never had any high regards for the Turks to begin with, but with Reno his tolerance was next to nothing. Though Shinra no longer was the same way it had been during his struggle against Sephiroth, that didn't mean that he trusted them. Actually, with everything that happened in the past he would probably never trust them. But trustworthy or not, it was the only lead he got. In one deep breath he swallowed his pride and cut of the Turk's loud questioning.

"We need to talk" he said, getting straight to the point. As much as he needed his help, he'd rather make this a short call. Reno on the other hand didn't seem as quick on the matter as he was. Even after hearing his voice twice it didn't seem to occur to him who it was.

"W-wait what? We, meaning who?" the Turk repeated "God, why do people always call me on my day off?" he grumbled quietly to himself. His voice was groggy and slightly incoherent, indicating that he probably just woke up. Cloud threw a glance at the clock. It was already four in the afternoon. To think that they could be slacking this much when there was someone going around killing off their colleagues. On the other hand, this was Reno we were talking about.

"It doesn't matter who I am" he answered, deciding to ignore his question. It would probably be easier if he didn't know who he was straight away anyway.

"Meet me at 'The Desert Rose'. 6 o'clock sharp, don't be late" he replied simply. His patience was at its end. This call was ending now!

" 'the fuck are you-?" CLICK. There, it was done. Hopefully it was enough to make him show up, though part of him wished that he wouldn't. He looked over at the clock again. Still four o'clock, which meant that he had some time to kill before he needed to go, and he knew exactly what he was gonna do with that time. In one swift movement he picked up the Peacemaker from the table and swung it into a steady aim before shooting at his target. With a loud bang it hit one of the beer bottles that shattered immediately into tiny glass pieces. 'Shit!' He cursed quietly to himself as he reloaded. He'd been aiming at the one in the middle, but instead he had hit one standing on the left. As he'd thought, his aim was completely off. Having loaded it with new rounds of bullets he turned his back on the bottles again. Speed and accuracy; that was the only way to stay alive while wielding a gun. Right now he lacked both. And with his wounds stealing most of his speed, he'd have to make sure he at least had accuracy in firing. He took a deep breath. One…two…three! He turned and fired again. A new bottle disappeared into a thousand pieces. Unfortunately it was not the middle one, but this time it was closer. Only two bottles from it actually. Just a little bit more! He redid the exercise again, this time even more focused than last time. As he let the bullet fly it flew with great precision right into his target. 'Great' he thought to himself. He was going to need waaay more beer bottles.

18:20…

He was late. Or maybe he wasn't going to show. The way Cloud had sounded on the phone it wouldn't have surprised him if the Turk decided to stay in bed. But in case the lazy bastard was just taking his sweet time getting there, he decided to wait at least a little while longer. He'd picked the perfect place for their meeting. Desert Rose was unlike Seventh Heaven quite big, but they had since months ago started to lose their customers. He didn't exactly know why, but from the cockroaches lining up in one of the corners he had a pretty good guess. Now they usually only had a few old regulars, or occasionally a few drunks who were looking for some cheap, tasteless beer. Cloud had only been there once before when he'd been taking a few deliveries for Joe, the owner of the place. At least it was good for something, since it was the perfect place to talk undisturbed.

Fifteen minutes later he was almost about to give up and leave when the red haired Turk entered the bar. His appearance was just as Cloud remembered it. Despite wearing the same suit as his coworkers he had a very distinctive look with his shirt slightly unbuttoned and with a missing tie. His favorite weapon still seemed to be around too as he spotted the EMR clenched in his right hand. He was looking around the place, undoubtedly searching for the one who'd called him.

Cloud slowly got to his feet. Guess there was no use hiding anymore huh? With a deep sigh he took a few determined steps towards Reno. First he seemed too caught up in his searching to notice him, but then suddenly their eyes met. The Turks eyes widened in clear surprise, but it didn't last long as Cloud spotted a fox -like grin forming on his lips.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in" he said, letting the EMR rest on his shoulder "Long time no see I guess, spikey head". Oh how much Cloud just wanted to hit him and leave, but he knew very well that it was not an option. Still it was hard to look him straight in the eye. All he saw was a nonchalant murderer who cared for nothing and no one but himself. A true dog of Shinra.

"Come with me" he answered and was ready to lead him to his table, but Reno didn't follow. From his expression it seemed he thought it was a joke.

"Thanks but no thanks, I have some business to take care of" he said laughingly waving Cloud off with his hand. Cloud stared at him in amazement. He still didn't get that it was he who had called him.

"Yeah I know, that's why I asked you to come with me. We need to talk" first Reno only grinned at his words, but then a hint of realization sparked in his eyes. The grin slowly disappeared from his face as his mouth started to form into a small 'Oh' of complete suprise. He turned and pointed questioningly at Cloud who nodded in response. For a few seconds he just stared at him. His expression said one thing: 'You got to be fucking kidding me!'

"And what the hell makes you think that I would talk to you?" he finally replied. Cloud stared gravely back at him. He had already expected this response.

"It's a about the murders. You know which ones I'm talking about" somehow he'd expected him to dodge the question, but he didn't. His usually layback attitude was replaced by a very serious expression. A side of the Turk which had never seen before. With a short nod he confirmed the statement and followed Cloud to the table. There was a heavy silence between the two before Reno let out a frustrated sigh and called for the waitress.

"Ey lady! Two beers and make it quick!" he called a little louder than necessary. Within two minutes a women arrived with two big draft beers. She muttered something along the lines 'Please enjoy' before returning to her work, loudly complaining about how the job was not worth the money. The drink had hardly touched the table before Reno snatched it and took a big swig out of it. When half of the content was gone he finally put it down with a big gasp.

"Man no wonder this place is shutting down. Ugly waitresses and the beer taste like crap. You're paying by the way" he said and took another swig, this time emptying the glass completely. With his drink finished he leaned tiredly back in his chair.

"So you've heard of our little…situation" he finally said. Cloud nodded.

"I want know what you've found out so far. Everything" he confirmed. This earned him a hard glare from Reno.

"And exactly what makes you think that I'm going to tell you that" he questioned. His cold attitude towards the subject was something Cloud thought was quite unusual. Normally he would just joke it off with some sarcastic comment and then tell him to stick it where the sun don't shine. There was something about the topic that brought a dark feeling to him, and whatever it was it sure as hell couldn't be good. Cloud carefully thought through his words before answering.

"I want to help" This time the Turk started laughing.

"You? Help us?" he exclaimed. Even to Cloud the thought sounded completely ridiculous, but it wasn't a lie. He wanted to find this guy before he could get the chance to come anywhere near his family. If catching him meant helping Shinra then so be it.

"I'm not doing it for you" he clarified with a cold stare. Reno grinned and leaned further back in his chair.

"Ouch, that hurt spike" he said while putting his hand on his heart dramatically. Cloud rolled his eyes and turned to the window, hoping that perhaps the sight of something else might calm his urge to punch the guy's face. There was a long silence, and Cloud was actually starting to think that he wasn't going to get any information out of this. He started to stand up when Reno suddenly spoke.

"There's not much I can tell you ya know" he said with a sigh. Cloud stared silently at him as he waited for him to go on. When he didn't, he sat down and pushed his untouched beer towards him.

"Whatever you know is fine" he assured him. Reno glanced a few seconds at the offered glass in front of him before deciding to take a drink out of it. With some more alcohol in his blood he started explaining the current situation. Apparently it was exactly like Vincent had said. All victims (that they knew of at least) had a tight connection to Shinra. The majority was presently working for the company and there were specifically a large amount of Shinra military soldiers missing. A large part were also ex-employees, which made them suspect that whoever was doing this had an access to a lot of Shinra's records and documents. And that meant someone in the company was giving out information.

"There's like a freaking zoo up there now" he sighed "everyone is blaming everyone. Suspicions and accusations are thrown around like you'd think the whole company was corrupt or something" he noticed Cloud looking away a little awkwardly.

"Hey we're not like that anymore you know!" he protested. Yeah right… so far they didn't seem to have changed that much Cloud thought.

"Anyway we've tried to raise the security and so on but those bastards always see through our every move! They even…they even-!" He threw his fist hard into the table. There was a hard look in his eyes, a wild anger that threatened to kill anything standing in his way. Cloud tensed a little and rested his hand on the gun in his belt. Thankfully he didn't need to use it as Reno, with a bit of effort, let his anger slip away.

"They even got some of our guys. Three of us to be exact and they were no newbies either" He took a swig out of his beer before he continued "Last week one of them showed up dead". He rested his head on his hand cursing quietly to himself. Cloud was amazed. Though he himself had beaten the Turks in battle before, he knew they were tough. If whoever was doing all of this had enough resources to take down as much as three of them, he must be very powerful.

A hint of a flash in the window broke him out of his thoughts and he quickly turned to look outside. For a moment he was sure he'd seen two clear blue eyes staring at him from the darkness, but the street outside was completely deserted. A bad feeling was rising in his stomach so he decided to round up the conversation.

"Do you have any leads at all on what's going on? Clues? Suspects? Anything?" he carefully studied Reno, waiting for a sign that hinted that he was hiding something from him. Reno however didn't exactly seem to be hiding anything, but he had a very odd look on his face. He scratched the back of his head as if he seemed to reflect on whether he should speak or not.

"We do have a suspect…well sort of…but by my opinion it's not exactly valuable information" he said awkwardly. Cloud stared confusedly at him. How could a suspect not be valuable information? That was closest thing they had to a lead!

"What do you mean?" he asked. Reno sighed loudly and waved his hand dismissively in front of him.

"The girl is a nut job ok? No matter how many times we interrogate her it's the same shitty answers all over again" he muttered with clear irritation. Something told Cloud that he probably knew that by experience. The nut job part had caught his interest though. What possible excuse could this girl have to be treated as a mental case?

"So what is she saying then?" he persuaded without trying to sound too interested. Reno shook his head and started massaging his temples as if just the thought of it all brought him pain.

"She insists that ghosts are doing it all" the words were like a bucket of ice showering over him. He completely froze whatever movement he was doing as shock overcame him. No it was impossible wasn't it? It couldn't be real. Like Reno said only a nut job would be talking about ghosts. He had actually started to come to terms with the possibility that he might be insane. Now he wasn't sure what would scared him the most. That possibility he might be losing his mind or that the dead were actually coming back to haunt him.

Then as if they had felt his fear, he felt a cold presence on his left side. Slowly he turned towards the window. The street was still as empty as ever, but as he concentrated his gaze on window itself he felt his breath being taken away. There, in the reflection in the glass a pair of blue eyes was staring back at him. A familiar dark figure was peaking up from behind him, hiding in Cloud's shadow. The loathing is Zack's eyes were as piercing as any sword as he opened his mouth to speak. A cold breath touched his neck as he uttered the three short words.

"I'm watching you"

Cloud flew abruptly up from his chair almost tipping the whole table over in the process. Reno cursed loudly as he saved the beer in the last second, but Cloud was not paying him any attention. He was staring at the empty spot behind him were Zack should have been standing. A strong feeling was starting to settle as he traced his hand along his neck…a feeling he'd ignored so far. The thought that he might not be crazy after all…the thought that everything he'd seen so far could actually be real.

A/N: As promised! Longer than last time! A quick thanks to Sylvur's Tourniquet!It was actually your review that gave me enough boost to finish this chapter even though I was feeling a little crappy, so yeah thanks. It was needed! ^^ I'm almost all better now so hopefully the next update won't be as late as this one ;) Now go review all of you! :P