The Last of an Elite

Chapter Thirteen: Rude the Rebel

By InterfaceLeader

-~-~-~-

Rude's apartment was spartan, each item of furniture simple and without decoration. It was decorated in mainly sombre colours, with lamps spotlighting a chair or a table but leaving washed out shadows around the rest of the room.

Rude sat in one armchair, drumming his fingers against the arm. Wild thoughts – thoughts he would never have suspected he could think – ran through his head.

I could free her... we could run away together. Maybe move to Wutai. Or wherever, I'm sure we could find some place to hide out. Maybe Fort Condor would let us stay there for a while.

I could quit the Turks, quit Shinra. I could –

The phone rang. Rude knew of only one person who still used his phone to contact him rather than his PHS.

He considered letting it ring, but he knew that the person on the other end was quite capable of letting it ring for hours. And the one time he had pulled it out she had come round to his door instead.

A phone call was preferable to a face to face argument. He picked up the receiver.

"............"

"Rude Jacques! When you answer the phone you should say something!"

"......Joanna"

"I mean that's just typical of you isn't it? You answer a phone without saying anything."

"Why have you called?"

"Why do you think I called? I want to know when you're coming back."

".....Joanna......."

"Don't "Joanna" me! You're supposed to be at home, with me. Not in some stinky apartment, all by yourself. People are talking!"

"........Joanna, nobody's talking about us anym -"

"I know those malicious gossips are! Rude... I know we can fix this. I know we can make it better. You just have to give me a second chance."

".......I did....."

"Oh so it's all my fault now!? I should have known you'd blame me! You always blamed me!" The woman's voice became near hysterical in tone "I hate you Rude! I'm glad you left me!"

".....fine"

"I still have the ring Rude! You have to come back, you have to marry me like you promised! Y..you promised....."

"..........."

At the other end of the phone Joanna started sobbing, no longer coherent. Rude pressed the reset button and dropped the receiver on the table. He sat for a moment, unmoving.

Then he stood and grabbed his coat, hurrying out of the door as he pulled it on.

-~-~-~-

He reached the Shin-Ra HQ quickly and as he entered the front door he became aware that something was very wrong.

It was unusual for the building to be so quiet. Even in the early hours of the morning there were usually ambitious employees doing overtime, and Hojo's assistants often worked round the clock on whatever new experiment he had. Shin-Ra guards were supposedly positioned at regular intervals around the building, yet there wasn't a sound.

Rude hesitated in the main foyer. His plan had been to release the members of Avalanche and use his rank to get them out of Midgar. But now he proceeded cautiously up the stairs, one hand on his gun.

He smelled the blood before he saw it.

The body had been slashed, so viciously the force of the swing had ripped most of the insides out and sprayed them across the hall.

Rude stood by it for a moment, his eyes following the trail of blood and destruction.

Then he headed as fast as he could up the rest of the stairs, aware even as he ran that he was probably too late.

He was right. The President had been skewered, a macabre sight even to Rude. His professional training had kicked in, he was operating on auto-pilot. Ignoring the blood and his nausea he left the room, using the elevators to take him back down to the ground level. As the lift hummed downwards he called through to Tseng to report what he had seen.

-~-~-~-

A beeping noise split the air.

Behind the white curtains of the four-poster bed someone groaned. A slim hand slipped through the curtain's and pressed the accept call button.

"Rufus Shinra, formerly Vice President of Shin-Ra?" The voice was vaguely familiar to the man as he sat up in bed, rubbing groggily at his eyes and frowning at the electronic clock next to the bed.

"What do you mean formerly Vice President?" Rufus snapped, wondering if his Father had finally decided to disown him. I hope he didn't trace that assassination attempt back to me. I knew I should have killed those idiots who messed it up. Damn it! He doesn't have any evidence!

"I mean, sir, that your father has unfortunately passed away, leaving control of Shin-Ra and all its subsidiaries to you."

Rufus blinked. Then he jumped out of bed, for once all thoughts of dignity fleeing his mind as he did a victory dance whilst whooping with joy.

"Sir?" The voice on the other end of the PHS sounded slightly worried. Rufus recovered himself with a start, his face burning red as he realised what he was doing.

"Yes, very good." Rufus considered for a minute. "How did he die? And who is this?"

"This is Tseng, sir, head of the Turks. The circumstances surrounding your fathers death are somewhat strange. However I believe it would be safe to say that Septhiroth attacked and killed him."

"Septhiroth? I thought he'd disappeared or died or something... I'm coming to the HQ understood? Have a full report ready for me when I get there. And get all the heads of departments there as well."

"Yes sir"

Rufus ended the call, feeling highly satisfied. The news had been unexpected, considering he'd almost given up on eliminating the man after the last three disasters. But fate had smiled on him, and now he was essentially ruler of the world.

Enough wasting money on crap... Let the people feel the full might of Shinra!

-~-~-~-

Rude stood outside the cell, looking in at Tifa as she lay sleeping on the bed. Cloud sat against the wall, sleeping but clearly uncomfortable.

Rude turned the key in the lock and opened the door silently.

-~-~-~-

Elena sank back in her chair with a sigh. It had been an exhausting night – the empty coffee mugs around the room testified to that – but she had finally pieced together the entire history of Shin-Ra, and compiled all the information about the Ancients or Cetra and the Promised Land.

She stretched, feeling her shoulders click and unknot themselves.

Her PHS buzzed, surprising her. She answered it swiftly, making herself sound as professional as she could.

"This is Elena Rushthorn, currently working for Shin-Ra Electric Power Company in the capacity of a Tur- "

"Elena. You don't advertise the fact you are a Turk." Tseng's voice came over the PHS, admonishing her. Elena flushed.

"oh I uh... I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"I know. I want you to come to the HQ, President Shin-Ra has been assassinated and it looks as though Septhiroth was behind it. The President's son is coming here, and I want to start an investigation into this before he gets here." Tseng paused, and then added more quietly "I knew searching for the Promised Land was a bad idea."

"I.... I don't think the Promised Land is a place you can find by searching..." Elena ventured.

"You probably think it's a legend" Tseng said. "There's a lot more to it than myth and superstition"

"Y... Yes sir. But I think it's a... a kind of cover word. I don't think it's really a land as such. I was looking at the parallels between it and some of the rest of the information that has come from the Cetra and uh... I think it's linked with the lifestream..."

"Elena... You've been researching the Promised Land and the Cetra? May I ask why?"

"Oh! I uh... I was um..." Elena flushed pink as she remembered she wasn't supposed to know what had been discussed in the meeting between the President and Avalanche.

"Hmmm." Tseng sounded slightly amused "Perhaps you'll make a good Turk after all. We'll discuss this at a later date. I want you at the building in 10 minutes, understood?"

"Yes sir!" Elena saluted the PHS.

-~-~-~-

The Turks, excepting Reno who was still in hospital, met in the foyer. Rude was as withdrawn as always, Tseng seemed worried, and Elena was flushed and nervous. Rude reported what details he had discovered to the group, no emotion in his voice as he described the scenes of bloodshed.

"......The sword undoubtedly belonged to Septhiroth....." He finished.

"Didn't Septhiroth disappear a few years ago?" Elena asked "During the Nibelheim incident?"

Tseng glanced at her, wondering at the extent of her knowledge. "He did. But now he's back. And I want to make one thing clear... none of us are to challenge him in any way. He is the supreme fighter, none of us are able to come close to his level of skill."

The two Turks nodded solemnly.

A guard came running down the stairs, saluting the Turks. He seemed shaky, unsurprising considering many of his comrades had been violently murdered.

"Sir!" He addressed himself to Tseng "Avalanche have escaped!"

-~-~-~-

"I don't believe it!" Tseng surveyed the empty cells. "Did Septhiroth free them? Have they joined forces?" He sounded furious. Rude said nothing.

The guard that had informed them stood uneasily at the foot of the corridor, trying to avoid looking at the slumped body of the guard that been guarding the cells.

"The door's haven't been forced. Wouldn't Septhiroth have just cut through the doors rather then bother with keys? I mean... um, considering the rest of the damage he did...." Elena looked from Tseng to Rude and back.

A second guard came running down the corridor, joining the first. He too saluted and then said;

"Sir! Avalanche attacked Rufus when he landed a few minutes ago, and have now stolen two vehicles from the showrooms and are escaping down the unfinished Sector Four motorway!"

-~-~-~-

Hojo swore under his breath as he regarded the mess in his laboratory. He was particularly unhappy about the gaping hole in the container that had held Jenova.

He comforted himself with the knowledge that Septhiroth was back, and further experiments could now be done. Leaving the lab for his assistants to clean up – though he'd have to hire some new assistants first – he was unaware of the dark shadow that slipped in through the door just as he left.

-~-~-~-

A/N: I'll confess: I'm not very experienced at handling romance, or domestic disputes. I will do my best (and I've read a fair few romances so maybe some of that will rub off on me) but if it starts going horribly wrong let me know.

I reshuffled some scenes by the way.... That's why Tseng didn't get his brooding. I'm not quite sure about the structure of the next few chapters, so you'll have to just wait and see what happens ^_^