By: General Quistis
Disclaimer: I neither own Final Fantasy 7 nor the characters. Duh. I don't own anything…but the story plot…
Author's Note: I'm so sorry if there's this OOC tendency for this fic… I have to transform their personalities… like Cloud turning evil whatsoever… -.-' Please forgive meh… ;_;
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Chapter Fourteen
Rufus opened his eyes when he heard someone trying to pick the lock of the door of his prison cell. He instantly got up from the prison bed and rushed to the door, listening closely to the conversation from outside.
"Hurry the hell up with that, Elena! If that guard wakes up…"
"Shut up, Reno! I'm trying my best! Are you sure the alarm won't go off?"
"Reeve's taking care of it upstairs. Just hurry up, okay? I didn't use any Sleep on that Soldier, I just knocked him out by punching his face."
Rufus frowned slightly, feeling confused as he took a few steps backward. "What the hell are they doing here?" he thought in confusion. He stiffened when the door suddenly burst open, revealing to him a startled Reno and a joyful Elena holding a hairpin.
"Yes!" she cheered with a whispery tone.
Reno smiled weakly at Rufus and waved lightly, "Eh… hi, Prez. How ya doin'?" he asked.
Elena entered and got Rufus's hand. "Let's get out of here, sir." She said with a wink as she dragged him to the hallway outside.
"W…wait a minute… how'd you…" Rufus stammered, but he snapped out of his confused state and frowned, withdrawing his hand from her. "I demand a valid explanation about this, Elena," he told her sternly.
"Please, sir… you can punish us once you return to your office, but first, we have to get you out of here as quickly as we could!" she said with a weak smile on her face as she led the way to the exit.
Rufus did not follow at first; he was just looking at the nameplate by the door of his old prison cell. "Cloud Strife," he read it aloud. He twitched. "What the fuck?!" he thought angrily before proceeding to follow Elena.
Reno saw the nameplate and made a disgusted face before following Elena and Rufus.
"I'm pretty sure there are guards by the main exit and all the secret passages." Rufus told them before stopping.
Reno and Elena stopped and turned to him. "How did you know?" she asked.
"Cloud followed Old Man's strategies… he doesn't know how to improvise things so he's using the dead man's methods for everything in maintaining the security, the money… EVERYTHING in ShinRa. Besides, I've been observing that ever since I learned how to talk," he told them with a wink before turning to Reno, "You said that you've knocked out a Soldier?" he asked.
"Y…yeah." Reno replied.
"Does he have a gun?" Rufus asked.
"Yeah. He's holding one before I punched him… but I don't know where he dropped it when he fell to the floor." Reno replied.
"It's easy to get inside here but it's hard to get out… we need to kill everyone in our way… though it'd definitely make the situation more difficult for us… so what do you think?" Rufus asked.
Elena thought for a while. "I know what to do!" she said happily before reaching for something in her trouser pocket. She brought out a small bottle of hair gel. "I don't leave home without this!" she said happily.
Rufus raised his eyebrows at her. "What are you going to do with that?" he asked.
Elena just smiled happily at him. "Don't worry, this will wash off with water once we get back to Midgar," she said.
"Wait, we're taking him to Midgar?" Reno asked.
"Yeah, that's what Reeve said, remember? Oh yeah, you don't know that coz you fell asleep on the boat!" she said.
"As in ShinRa HQ in Midgar?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No. We'll hide him until we kick out Cloud from his office… also that Hojo. I think he's really crazy, imagine, he enjoys using Cloud as a puppet…" she said.
Rufus frowned as he flipped his hair. "Wait a second… if you're not taking me to ShinRa HQ, where are you going to make me stay?" he asked.
"Sorry to say, President Rufus, but we're going to take you to a place that would definitely ward off all the snotty executives of ShinRa… except maybe for Mister Reeve since he's nice." Elena said before opening the bottle of gel…
***
"Of all the things I'll leave behind, why the @#$%*^% wallet?" Cid cursed angrily as he made his way back to the house. He had this deep frown on his face, but upon seeing the door wide open, his face had this startled expression on it as he ran to it. "What the @#$%?!?!?" he cried out in shock as he stepped inside the house. He instantly ran up the stairs. "Aerith?!" he called out as he reached the second floor, but he stopped upon seeing Tifa and Red XIII standing by the door of Aerith's room. "Tifa? Red? Where's Aerith?" he asked.
Tifa raised an eyebrow. "We're waiting for her… she went downstairs to answer the door…" she trailed off, feeling so nervous all of a sudden.
"WHAT?!?!?" Cid demanded before rushing down the stairs again.
Tifa and Red XIII followed and they were shocked to see that Aerith wasn't there anymore and the door was still wide open. "I @#$%^*^% came back here and I saw the @#$%^*%$ door wide open! Where the @#$% is Aerith?!" Cid said in panic.
Red XIII clenched his teeth, growling. "The Turks must've gotten her!" he said.
"What?" Cid asked, turning to him.
"But she didn't scream! She said that if something goes wrong, she'll scream!" Tifa said in panic.
"They must've done something to her…" Red XIII said before rushing outside, sniffing the ground.
"Can you find them?" Cid asked.
Tifa got out of the house, standing in the middle of the street and she looked up, seeing the tall ShinRa Tower from where she is. Her eyes were wide as she stared at it for a long time. She frowned and clenched her fists. "They've taken her to Cloud…" she said softly, surprising Cid and Red XIII.
Red XIII stopped sniffing and turned to them. "She's right… the scent leads to ShinRa HQ." He said.