The Last of an Elite

Chapter Sixteen: No One Tells Me Anything

By InterfaceLeader

-~-~-~-

Rude came round slowly. He kept his eyes shut, feigning unconsciousness and concentrated on assessing his surroundings.

He was in a car, that much was obvious from the feel of the seats, the sound of the engine and the swaying movement. His hands and feet had been tied. He tested the knots gently, feeling the thick rope rasp against his skin. They were firm, well-tied.

He opened his eyes a crack, then fully when he realised he still had his sunglasses. The car was his. His blue jacket had gone, along with his gun and materia.

The car swerved round a corner, taking it at such a sharp angle he was thrown back against the seat. He kept himself loose and floppy, he didn't want his return to consciousness to be noticed yet.

When the car swerved the other way though, he had no way of stopping the sharp exclamation that was forced from him as he slid the length of the seats and slammed into the far door.

"!"

"Awake now Rude? You've been out for ages... I was worried!" Joanna's voice was shrill, and as they skidded round another bend, accompanied by a frenzied scream of tires, Rude recalled that Joanna couldn't actually drive.

"Joanna."

"I thought I'd pick you up after work today. I hope you don't mind. I've got a nice cup of tea waiting for you at home. No sugar, not too milky! Just the way you like it!"

".............." Rude twisted both hands down to his back pocket and managed to hook two fingers inside.

"Of course you'll have to stay out of the way when my friends come round!" Her voice, unnaturally bright and perky, filtered back to him over the noise of the engine and the tires. Rude felt around inside his pocket and located his penknife. Catching it between two of his fingers he managed to pull it free of his trousers.

"You remember Christina don't you?"

"How could I forget her." The bitter words contrasted with his emotionless voice. Joanna frowned, turning her head round to look at him as the car sped through a set of red lights.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"........nothing" Rude held the penknife between his index and middle fingers on his right hand, and tried to hook his thumbnail into the groove on the edge of the knife.

"If you've got a problem you should talk about it." Joanna said, starting up the old argument once again.

"This is pointless Joanna. You can't force me to stay with you."

The car bounced over a kerb, scraping the corner of a house and bending a wing mirror. Joanna leaned over the back of the seat, on hand on the steering wheel and the other pointing an accusing finger at Rude.

"You promised you'd stay with me! You said you'd stay with me forever and ever."

Rude felt the penknife spin out between his fingers as the car bounced across the opposite kerb, and fall down behind the seat. Sitting up slowly he twisted his arm round and forced his two hands after it.

"..........." He met Joanna's gaze, wanting to distract her from what he was doing. "Too bad."

"Too bad!?" Joanna glared at him, before a sudden burst of honking and a scream of brakes from the road pulled her gaze away from him. They had somehow found their way onto the sector three highway, and cars were swerving to avoid them, in more cases than one crashing into each other. Rude closed his eyes and the side of his little finger touched the cold plastic shell of the penknife.

"Oh Rude! You've no idea how accurate that is! It really was "too bad"! Too bad for me to cope with! What was I supposed to think when you just upped and left for Junon for two years? To become a Soldier no less! You bet that was too bad!"

".........." The knife slid open, cutting into his palm as it did so.

The car shot down the highway, completely out of control. Swerving around the lane it collided with another car which sent it spinning off the road and through the barrier that separated the road from the streets. As the car skidded across the pavement a single pedestrian walked calmly towards them.

Joanna screamed as Rude suddenly yanked his hands apart, the cut ends of the rope soaked in blood. He jumped forward, grabbing hold of the hand brake and pulling it up. Gears ground against each other, and the car slammed into the pedestrian before slowly coasting to a stop, smoke pouring from the bonnet.

-~-~-~-

Elena stared up at the man stood over her, eyes wide with horror.

"O-oh no!"

"Who the hell is he?" Reno uncurled slightly and looked belligerently through the broken wall at the blonde man who stood there, looking supercilious. He returned Reno's gaze, flicking his hair back as he did so.

"That's President Rufus Shinra!" Elena scrambled to her feet and saluted. Reno looked from her to Rufus.

"What happened to the old one?" He said, somewhat confused.

"You don't know!?" Elena turned to him, suprised.

"No one told me we had a new President! Dammit, what's been going on!?"

"Septhiroth killed the old President! Didn't you hear?"

"What!?" Reno gaped at her. "But Septhiroth is – he disappeared ages ago!"

"And now he's back." Rufus interrupted coolly. "You appear to be somewhat behind the times, Turk."

Reno scowled at the pointed barb. "My only source of information has been Rude, sir, I don't know if you've met him yet but he's not exactly the fountain of all knowledge."

"I'm sure my predecessor relied on word of mouth and gossip to get important news around. In future all the Turks, and Head's of Departments must report to me at the start of the day in order to be updated. Obviously this means you'll have to come into work at least half an hour earlier." Rufus smirked "Now, your doctor informs me that you'll be ready to return to work tomorrow."

The doctor saluted smartly from behind the President, smiled nervously and said;

"It looks as though further damage might have been caused by uh...." he waved at the scattered rubble.

"Hmmm." Rufus frowned at the doctor. "I want him functioning in two days at the most, understood? These are dangerous times doctor, with terrorists and Septhiroth and Odin only knows what else. I want all the advantages I can get."

"Y-yes sir! But you do have the two other Turks and the replacement." The doctor indicated Elena, still stood to attention nearby. Rufus shot her a brief glance.

"Yes, but none of them have Reno's special ability." Rufus turned and left, coat flying out behind him as he strode from sight.

"Half an hour earlier...?" Elena said, when he had gone.

"Two days....." The doctor groaned.

"Special ability...." Reno scowled in the direction Rufus had disappeared in.

-~-~-~-

Reeve awoke. For a minute he was completely disorientated. Then he remembered and sat up quickly, looking about him.

Scarlet had gone, all that remained was a trace of her smell. And, Reeve noticed, a folded note on his desk.

He stretched and then stood up, wishing desperately for a strong cup of coffee. Rubbing his eyes, he picked up the note and opened it.

Reeve – mention this to anyone, including me, and I will personally make sure you die a slow painful death. – Scarlet

Reeve shook his head and sighed. Dropping the note into his wastepaper bin, he picked up his sheets of calculations and went in search of Rufus.

-~-~-~-

Rude yanked open the car door and hurried round to the front. Plenty of people on the top plate had the power to make life very difficult for anyone who hurt them, accident or no.

The man the car had hit was crawling down the street determinedly, one leg was mangled, and he left blood in a sticky trail behind him. Joanna scrambled free of the car after Rude, looking around her, dazed. Then she saw the blood and her eyes went wide.

"Stop! You're hurt!" Rude called after the man, who ignored him completely. Rude wondered if the guy was in shock and hurried after him. Joanna followed.

They caught up with the guy quickly, and Rude knelt down in front of him, grabbing hold of his shoulders to make him stop moving. Joanna knelt down too, examining his leg.

"This is bad." She looked at Rude, worry and shock written across her features. "What are we going to do?"

But Rude wasn't listening, he was looking at the man's arm. Joanna looked too, and saw that the cloth of his shirt had torn away, revealing a tattoo of the number 17.

"Hojo......." Rude muttered, and pulled out his PHS.

-~-~-~-

A/N: Not a lot to say about this chapter. Hope you like it.

Next up: Tseng gets to do what he does best, Rude and Joanna have a heart-to-heart.