Bullet Catchers
By Jazzbo22
Jazzbo22 hotmail . com
An assassination attempt leaves Rufus questioning his vulnerability. The Turks struggle to keep the President out of harm's way, but is it enough?
TsengxRufus, RudexReno, yaoi, angst
A/N: Thank you for being so patient! I'm flying out for school this Monday (yay one more year to go and then I'm free!) so I'm madly trying to gather my things and pack. It's driving me crazy. Every year I leave things to the last minute. SO! That's why my writing is taking longer. Not to mention this is the POOREST I've ever been. The recession definitely hit my family hard (I have 37 cents in my bank account after paying tuition…) For the first time ever I am taking a creative writing course in school so hopefully that goes well for me! (Fingers crossed…)
Anyways, here is another chapter – thank you for all the reviews! I've never played Before Crisis so I didn't know that there was a character named Sasha! Whoopsie! :S Enjoy! Let me know what you think…and here's hoping my housemate will actually leave me alone this year so I can write!
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Chapter ElevenHeidegger had started talking after some…influencing. With two knives in his forearms, as well as some missing fingernails, he finally cracked.
"I wasn't part of the initial planning," He stuttered out, pale and clammy. "I was recruited later on."
"By who?" Tseng asked, his voice scarily soft. Heidegger didn't seem to hear him.
"By then the plan to assassinate Rufus at the Supreme Conference Center had already been worked through. They needed me to get them into the security room, to get clearance."
"What about the ex-SOLDIERs involved?" Rude questioned, standing to the side of the light. Heidegger could hear him, but was unable to see him.
"Yes, yes. Those men. I did let them out of prison before…it was one of the first things I did for her."
"And you did all this…what? With the hopes that someday you might finally be President?" Tseng was holding another knife, flipping it dangerously close to Heidegger's head.
"It was a source of motivation to me, yes. I thought that I might be a better President – a better representative of this company."
"By murdering the President?" Rude remarked, at the same time as Tseng asked, "Who's her?" Heidegger was shaking.
"If I had known everything would pan out this way…"
"You mean, if you had known you'd get caught." Rude snarled.
"I am not going to ask again." Tseng spoke, his dark eyes narrowing menacingly. Heidegger flinched.
"…oh…the woman in charge. Sasha Maksim. She's the person that launched the plan, assigned the parts…this is all hers. She's the one you should be questioning! She wants Rufus dead!"
"You will never say his name again." Tseng hissed, his face inches from Heidegger. The man visibly gulped.
"Sasha Maksim…sounds familiar." Rude said, looking at Tseng questionably. If Rude recognized the same, surely Tseng would have some insight. Sasha Maksim…
Then Tseng remembered. She was an insignificant plaything of Jack Shinra's a number of years ago. Did she really have the balls to go through with such an operation? To organize the entire thing?
"I don't believe you." Tseng told Heidegger, holding the blade against the larger man's cheek.
"I, I swear! She's behind the entire thing! She's been planning this for years, since she got ousted by the company."
Tseng did recall her extensive work on weapons development, before it suddenly came under another man's name. The late President Shinra had made her go away, along with the work she had done. At least, removing her name from the work she had completed for Shinra. Her grudge was acknowledgeable, but this wasn't the way to go about it. Rufus had nothing to do with it. This was just a petty hate crime.
"Where can we find her, as well as the SOLDIERs she's working with?" Tseng asked, coming to stand directly in front of Heidegger. The man looked pathetic, slumped over in defeat.
"The SOLDIERs will be with her. She never told me where her headquarters was. I knew they were working out of the sector four slums for a short while, near the train station, but that wasn't permanent."
"So you don't know where she is at all?" Rude chose to clarify. Heidegger shook his head.
"I could call her though, see if she could set up a meeting."
"No." Tseng shook his head, his expression cold as ice. "She'd know you're captured. You can hear it clearly in your voice." Tseng turned, nodding to Rude before leaving the room. Rude stepped closer.
"Please Tseng! Don't!" Tseng didn't need to be in the room to know what Rude was doing. He was dialing Reno as he heard the muffled sound of a pistol with a silencer going off. Heidegger's whimpers were silenced.
"Reno here."
"Remember Sasha Maksim?"
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"Now that I have you here, I don't want to kill you just yet." Rufus tested his bonds. He was cuffed, and no amount of pulling was going to loosen them. His wrists were already sore from the effort. She didn't seem to notice just yet though.
"Like to play with your food for awhile?" Rufus mused, wrapping his hand around the steel bar of the bed frame. If he could find some way to loosen that, he might be able to break free. She laughed, but it was without humour.
"What a fitting analogy. I suppose that could be the case."
He had been there less than an hour, and Sasha had only left the room once. When she had, he had sat forward to see into the hall, where she was conversing with two men – both were definitely the ex-SOLDIERs that Reno had mentioned. Their eyes held the unmistakable glow of mako.
Rufus wasn't sure how many men Sasha had working for her. Reno had counted four previously. He had been in the process of checking the prison release records when Rufus had been captured, so he was unaware of what he was up against. He hoped Tseng would be done his interrogation with Heidegger and back at his apartment now. Then he would know there was a big problem, and would be looking for Rufus at this very moment. It felt better if Rufus could envision all the Turks out searching for him right now. If they weren't aware he was gone yet…it left a cold lump in his stomach. He didn't want to die before they even knew he was missing.
"I always knew without the Turks by your side you'd be fairly easy to capture. Your father was much the same way. Not so concerned with learning self defense." Rufus declined to comment. He wasn't as versed in hand to hand combat like his Turks, but he was a dead shot with a gun. Too bad he didn't have one on him. He would enjoy showing her how defenseless he was with it.
"No comment eh? You've grown quiet."
"There's not much to say." Rufus admitted. If she hadn't been able to convince Heidegger to work for her, they might've not been in this situation. He would probably die, and it was all because of Heidegger. If Tseng hadn't killed him yet, Rufus would finish the job.
"Not even going to try begging for your life?" Rufus laughed. What a sense of humour this girl had. She was looking at him straight-faced. Tighter even, since he had laughed. Whoops. That wasn't a joke?
"I wouldn't give you the satisfaction of hearing me beg, slut." She came to the side of the bed, her face red with anger. She hit him again, those damn brass knuckles making him see white.
"Asshole! You'll wish I killed you right away!" She hit him again, Rufus' mouth filling with the metallic taste of blood.
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Tseng and Rude had gone to the sector four slums, not the least bit surprised to find nothing. It occurred to Tseng that Sasha played Heidegger like a pawn, and wouldn't actually divulge any useful information with him. Keep him in the loop long enough to get what she wanted, and then discard him later, like garbage.
He went back to his apartment, Rude following. He didn't anticipate in the slightest what he came across.
His door was ajar, splintered where the safety chain once was. The hair on the back of his neck rose, his blood running cold. Rufus…
Rude was right behind him, gun drawn. They flanked the door, Tseng using the edge of his boot to push the door open. Rude slipped in first, clearing the front hallway, making his way into the living room. Tseng was close behind him, trying to analyze what he saw. Nothing else was disturbed in his house, except the forced entry on the front door. Which meant…Rufus had to be close to the door when whoever broke in. Sasha…
"Rufus isn't here." Three words Tseng didn't want to hear.
"Bedrooms look fine, kitchen, bathroom, living room…only sign of disorder is the front door." Rude said, coming to stand beside Tseng.
"Rufus wouldn't have gone with her willingly." Tseng spoke more to himself, running through possible scenarios in his mind. Somehow, she managed to draw his attention to the door, knowing he was there, broke in and incapacitated him? It didn't make any sense to him. How did she know where he lived even?
Rude had Reno on the line, filling him in on. Tseng felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest. If Sasha had hurt him, or worse… he was numb. She would pay. Heidegger would be a massage in comparison to what he would do to her.
"Reno and Gomez know. Reno's on his way over, so let's hold tight til he gets here. Sir?" Tseng had been standing by the front door, clenching and unclenching his fists. Rude touched his shoulder lightly. What was that? Reno coming over…
"Yes, that's fine. We'll wait." Tseng felt the muscle jump in his jaw. He was so close to crossing that line, the one where he would be blinded with rage, cold with hatred.
Not yet.
Rufus needed him to think. Needed to analyze. The anger, the want to kill…it had to come after, when he finally confronted Sasha and her henchmen. Taking a deep breath, Tseng willed his heart to slow, his concentration to settle back in. He tried to think about Sasha, about where she disappeared to after being let go from Shinra. They had kept tabs on her for close to a year after she lost her job, just incase she tried some form of retaliation. It had been several years since then, and they never anticipated this.
Reno had been fast. Weapon drawn, he appeared around the corner of the splinted door, bright eyes calculating what had gone on. Tseng ignored him as he went to Rude's side, conversing with him quietly.
Rufus was unarmed, and judging from how ferociously they had gone after him, from the Conference Center to attacking the Turks, they wanted to end this. He didn't have long – less than a day, that was certain. They wouldn't keep Rufus alive until the morning…a cold chill ran up Tseng's spine, his vision sharpening and his mouth dry. Just a few hours, and then it would be over – one way or another.
"Tseng." Reno was by his side, just as sharp, focused. Tseng turned his attention to him.
"What is it?"
"I think I have a lead on Sasha." Tseng faced him, crossing his arms across his chest. Rude stepped closer. No doubt Reno had all ears on him.
"Did some pretty illegal things to get it though, so I hope you'll just overlook it."
"Go on."
"Seems she's been paying taxes on two properties. Rufus could be at either of them. I printed coordinates out." Reno handed a folded paper over. Tseng nearly tore it open in his haste, eyes scanning the two addresses.
Both were under the plate, as to be expected. Sasha hadn't been making a considerable income since having been booted from Shinra, that evident especially in the location of the properties.
"One is in a cleaner part of the slums," Tseng started.
"And one is in the grittier. I grew up in that part. I know it well." Reno finished, gazing steadily into Tseng's eyes. He could see the request plain and simple – that was Reno's end of town, he had a feel for the area.
"I'll go with you. Rude, you check out this first address. I don't expect they'll be anything there, but I'd be stupid not to have someone check it out."
"Oh, and one other thing," Reno interjected. "There aren't six SOLDIERs. There's seven."
Good god, could things more complicated?
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"You can tell you're not a professional by how quickly you react to heated words." Rufus drawled on, trying to distract her as he found a way to squirm out of the cuffs. It was hard work, and it hurt like hell. It seemed to be working though – the bed rail he was secured to was slowly coming loose.
"If you're trying to psycho-analyze me, you can stop. I'm not falling for it."
"I'm just surprised you have the audacity to take on the world's biggest, most powerful company and actually dream you'll get away with it. I don't know which weighs more – your balls or your stupidity." Rufus waited for her to stand in rage and come hit him again. She seemed to love this power-trip, but her skin was much thinner than he had first thought.
She did stand, nostrils flaring, Rufus deciding to take a chance and laugh. Whatever. If the bitch wanted to hit him again, so be it. At least it kept him alive longer.
"See? You're doing it again. Honey, if you want to be successful, you gotta put up with all the shit that's thrown at you."
"Shut the fuck up Rufus."
"You wouldn't even last a fucking day in the office. What? You're just going to hit everyone that says something derogatory about you? I can see why my father got rid of you – you're too goddamned weak."
Sasha wanted to hit him very badly. Rufus could see the muscles in her arms and neck tensed, her fists shaking. Her face was a remarkable shade of red – it was probably taking all of her effort to stay in place.
"I am capable of keeping my temper asshole. Don't view this as any sort of surrender – you'll be getting what you deserve soon enough."
"You underestimate everything to do with this company." Rufus spat at her, pulling sharply at the rail. Make her think he was struggling to get to her, when he was really just trying to loosen it up a bit.
"It doesn't matter if I am alive or dead – my Turks will come for you. Don't doubt that for a fucking second. The only reason you're even winning this pathetic little insecurity game is because you have me chained to a goddamn bed. Leave it to someone like you to need to lock me up to get your way. It seems to be the only way you can think of killing me – all your other options fell apart."
"Insecurity game?" Sasha spoke in a deathly near-whisper.
"Isn't this what it is? You feel like shit because you didn't get your way and you were thrown out on your ass. Your confidence was completely crushed and this is the only way you can think of to feel better and get back on your feet. Normal people go to counseling – you like to kill people. Sounds mighty deranged to me."
"This isn't insecurity, or a game. You shouldn't be speaking so carelessly, especially since you're the one chained up. I just have to call out into the hall and your life would be over."
"So why don't you? You are prolonging it long enough that I'm just thinking you're getting cold feet. I would be- what a fucking stupid idea, taking out the President of Shinra."
Baiting her with his upcoming death probably wasn't the best idea, but Rufus was growing tired of this lame-ass cat and mouse charade. The Turks weren't here, he was bound to die before the morning – why wait? Let's just get it over with.
"For someone wanting to live you seem far to eager to die." Sasha remarked after a short silence. She had a small smirk playing at her lips.
"I'm just calling your bluff."
"Oh Rufus, there is no bluff. You'll find that out soon enough."
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I guess it all remains to be seen. Right now I'm just getting smacked around by an uptight bitch who clearly likes to play the dominatrix. Too bad you weren't wearing some sexy leather- it would at least make the boredom bearable."
She wanted to hurt him, but she was exercising some amazing restraint. Perhaps the 'insecure' word or the mention of her lack of restraint and thin skin made her think twice about her actions. While it was good for now, Rufus knew he was only compounding his pain for later. Sasha would kill him if Tseng didn't come fast, and she would do it in the most painful way she knew how.
"You're going to wish you'd never been born." She seethed, fists clenched tight again. Rufus rolled his eyes.
"Please honey, I hear that everyday. I'm the President of the goddamn world. Not everyone can be my friend." Tseng had to come fast. Rufus knew his time was running out.