Author's Note: Well, that was a refreshing little hiatus for me, and now I can hopefully get back on track with this and some other stories of mine. By the way, I've been using the Café Faust for about a year or so now as an original place, so don't expect to remember it.
Sidenote: Alright, this has bugged me too much to let it go. I know some of you may be thinking that I'm stupid, there's no way these guys could do all this without being arrested or something. Well, you're right, but it's my AU story, and I'll do what I want. Nyah nyah.
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Silver Rose 2
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
.
.
.
March 8, 3078
Mid-Morning. Stall Three. Abandoned Bathroom. 10:59 A.M.
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"So, Rufus is that egotistical. I suppose this is a good sign for us, though." Jinaisim, Café Faust
.
.
Okay, so I lied about those last two parts. In all truth, we stayed up and drank as a mild celebration last night. I was just trying to sound like I cared about the explosion and its victims. Apparently, as Reno tells me, the reason they're not asking for clues but saying they have no information on the "criminals" is that ShinRa likes to handle its own matters. And yes, this means they're pretending they have no idea who did it.
Oh, well. Their loss.
Reno had found information from the small apartment complex across the street from the hotel two nights ago that Aeris had been taken away in a sleek-looking car, most likely a relatively new model of a sportscar. It had been dark, so no one can give him plate numbers or a color, but anyone watching agrees on what it looks like. New. Streamlined. Fast. I'm going over there later to do my own search.
Reno, currently, is shaking me awake while I realize my massive hangover, however.
I try to curl deeper into the blankets, only to remember I'm on a fucking cot. Yeah, that explains why it's so cold. It's about now that Reno punches me in the neck, and I roll over, ready to fire out and hit him. Problem is, I seem to have rolled straight onto the floor. Well, my eyes are wide open now. When I go to look at him, my eyes snag on the fact that there's no movement in the other half of the bathroom, but a lot of snoring.
Seems they're all asleep.
Reno just lifts me by the collar of my vodka-stenched trenchcoat and forces me to look at his hand, beckoning me to follow him. He helps me to my feet, then turns on his heel and starts walking, looking half-way to decently-clean. In other words, damn spiffy for Reno Drannor. We're walking right over all the passed-out people -- Jinaisim, Dais, Cloud, Keeve. Mark and Turner are no longer with us -- and out the door.
Reno leads me up a ramp in the parking complex we're in, all the way to the top. I look around and see a, more or less, telescope at one of the edges, including a manual -- probably for it -- and a few bottles of water. Reno's more than likely been up all night doing shit, as I know he slept while the rest of us were out last night. Truth be told, he's done more work than the rest of us. I hear morning doves still, the sun high and bright, burning my newly-opened eyes. Damn, I need some coffee.
Reno points silently to the telescope, held in place with a vice he somehow rigged up, with this look of grim regret in his eyes. What the hell? I walk over cautiously, but hear no steps following. Nearing the edge, I see it's aimed at the apartment complex, so I bend down and look through it.
I want to vomit at what I see.
Clearly written in a red substance on the window it's aimed at is a jagged, deep message, just three words I never want to setmy eyes on again.
"Hello, Little Professor."
Reno's voice shatters my jaw-dropping shock with his first words. "We can't get a warrant to search it, and since that place is tight as a drum, we can't just barge in, but I'm leaving this here so we can watch whoever that is. I saw a shadow or two last night, while that message was up. He knows we're watching him, or her, for that matter, and he or she doesn't like it. Hopefully, no one has an urge to park in an abandoned, condemned parking lot."
It's true. There are holes on every floor of the place, and as far as I can tell, the elevator has been out of order for a good year. I assume it had at one time been used for the apartment complex we're spying on, but there's another one on the other side, leaving this one to decay and nothing more. It's no secret, now I'm desperate to know who's in that window over there, and as soon as I find my voice, I turn to Reno and ask, "Do you think they have anything to do with Aeris?"
He gives me the look. Now, Reno has three looks. Casual, drunken fool having fun, and "you know the answer and I don't want to let you know you're right." Guess which one he's giving me now.
I shake my head in disgust and brush past him, having stood up and walked to him by now. There's one bit of comfort I can take from that message, however. Not the fact he or she knows who I am and who I'm related to, sure as hell not the fact he or she knows where I am, but the fact that it's only written in red marker. After all, blood runs. This was set there. Planned. Not slopped on.
I'll take care of him, I tell myself as I start walking back toward our little makeshift headquarters. When I get back, Jinaisim is sitting there muttering to himself, scratching his head, and looking very confused. Back turned to me, I reach into my pocket, pull out my pen, and throw it at the back of his neck. Dead-aim. He whirls around, eyes wild and prepared to fight, then smiles in his hungover way and waves at me shakily. "'Eeeeeya, Seph."
I can't help but grin back. "G'morning, Jin. Up for some breakfast?"
-=-=-
"That complicates it a bit."
Jinaisim and I are sitting at a cozy little café I used to come to when I was a kid. Once a greasy place with undercooked burgers, the bitch who used to own it is now a kindly old woman with a basket of free cookies on the counter. She minds her own business, generally, and this place is usually empty around this time of day. Mainly, it's a family spot for dinners.
We pause in our discussion as the old woman drops off our breakfast, a giant plate of bacon for him and a few slices of toast for myself. I ask for a refill on my coffee. In her own, wrinkled way, she smiles, nods, and walks off with my cup.
"We got a call from Cloud last night. He said he went all the way to Kalm and hasn't found a trace of her yet. I should probably call and tell him to haul it back here. I'll do that now, acutally," Jinaisim murmurs as a final sentence of the breakfast. He pulls out his cellphone and begins to dial, but something's wrong. I don't get a chance to see it, but out of the corner of my eye, I get a glimpse of a figure rushing by the window. I lower myself in my seat, just before the door flies open, a man skids around the corner, and opens fire on us.
Jinaisim's phone goes first, and he dives for cover quickly. I saw enough of the guy to tell that he's a SOLDIER, probably one of the higher ranks, too. He appears to have a gun that fires on its own, because even when the splinters of wood fly over us, Jinaisim and I having flown under the table by instinct, the shots keep coming.
When he finally runs out, he cautiously makes his way around the table, thinking he must have hit us by now. Bad move. Jinaisim, great with a handgun and always carrying one, shoots out from underneath the table and sweeps his leg up, catching the man in the wrist, then firing. Three shots, one to the trigger-finger, one to the left knee, and a final to the chest, all in the span of about two seconds.
I stand up, my coat tearing on a loose nail but being the last of my worries right now. Jinaisim's rubbing his temples and has his eyes closed, the SOLDIER -- turns out it was a woman -- clearly at the end of her life. The old lady was apparently taken down somewhere in there, because she's sprawled out over the counter, and we look like two dumbstruck cows.
I reach over and grab Jinaisim's plate. Silently, we both take a piece of bacon and chew in thought. Suddenly, my companion feels an odd need to smile. "Hey, Seph."
"Hmm?"
"We can call this self-defense." He turns to me and grins. I shoot him the nastiest look in history, turn on my heel, and walk out. He follows. Later, in the papers, ShinRa will give a tribute to the old woman, who of course died of natural causes, and mention nothing about the shots. Jinaisim takes the van back to headquarters while I start off toward Hellfire to pick up my car.
I'm strangely calm to notice, when I get there, that my ashtray has been emptied, particularly of the three-hundred-gil stash I keep in there, a usual thing in Midgar. Otherwise, nothing else seems to be messed up. Then again, the CD player was only one-hundred, so I'm not surprised they didn't take it. I put the key in the ignition, and it turns over without a problem, the regular hum of the car vibrating through it.
The music doesn't kick on this time, being as how Dais drove it last, but I don't mind as much as you'd think. Putting it in reverse, I back out of the Hellfire and start the route back to headquarters, the one I know by heart. It's not too far, just a few minutes, and then I'm back in the parking garage, but after looking to see that I have half a tank of gas left, I notice something's wrong.
Reno, Jinaisim, and Dais are standing outside the bathroom door, Cloud leaning against the corner behind them. Keeve doesn't seem to be in sight, which isn't a problem immediately, but the next thing I take note of is the black ring of fabric around Reno's neck.
His stealth-mask.
I get out of the car and Jinaisim holds up his assault rifle, the one his father gave him when he came back from the Wutai/ShinRa War. But it's Reno's grim face that delivers the message.
"They're sniffing too close, Seph."
I look at him strangely. "What do you mean?"
"...We're doing this. Tonight."
My blood freezes, but I know he's right. ShinRa has to fall today.
.
Author's Note: Yep...we're drawing to a close on Book Two. In a few chapters, anyway. I apologize for the length.
Sidenote: Alright, this has bugged me too much to let it go. I know some of you may be thinking that I'm stupid, there's no way these guys could do all this without being arrested or something. Well, you're right, but it's my AU story, and I'll do what I want. Nyah nyah.
.
Silver Rose 2
by Reno Spiegel
Dante@towernetwork.net
.
.
.
March 8, 3078
Mid-Morning. Stall Three. Abandoned Bathroom. 10:59 A.M.
.
"So, Rufus is that egotistical. I suppose this is a good sign for us, though." Jinaisim, Café Faust
.
.
Okay, so I lied about those last two parts. In all truth, we stayed up and drank as a mild celebration last night. I was just trying to sound like I cared about the explosion and its victims. Apparently, as Reno tells me, the reason they're not asking for clues but saying they have no information on the "criminals" is that ShinRa likes to handle its own matters. And yes, this means they're pretending they have no idea who did it.
Oh, well. Their loss.
Reno had found information from the small apartment complex across the street from the hotel two nights ago that Aeris had been taken away in a sleek-looking car, most likely a relatively new model of a sportscar. It had been dark, so no one can give him plate numbers or a color, but anyone watching agrees on what it looks like. New. Streamlined. Fast. I'm going over there later to do my own search.
Reno, currently, is shaking me awake while I realize my massive hangover, however.
I try to curl deeper into the blankets, only to remember I'm on a fucking cot. Yeah, that explains why it's so cold. It's about now that Reno punches me in the neck, and I roll over, ready to fire out and hit him. Problem is, I seem to have rolled straight onto the floor. Well, my eyes are wide open now. When I go to look at him, my eyes snag on the fact that there's no movement in the other half of the bathroom, but a lot of snoring.
Seems they're all asleep.
Reno just lifts me by the collar of my vodka-stenched trenchcoat and forces me to look at his hand, beckoning me to follow him. He helps me to my feet, then turns on his heel and starts walking, looking half-way to decently-clean. In other words, damn spiffy for Reno Drannor. We're walking right over all the passed-out people -- Jinaisim, Dais, Cloud, Keeve. Mark and Turner are no longer with us -- and out the door.
Reno leads me up a ramp in the parking complex we're in, all the way to the top. I look around and see a, more or less, telescope at one of the edges, including a manual -- probably for it -- and a few bottles of water. Reno's more than likely been up all night doing shit, as I know he slept while the rest of us were out last night. Truth be told, he's done more work than the rest of us. I hear morning doves still, the sun high and bright, burning my newly-opened eyes. Damn, I need some coffee.
Reno points silently to the telescope, held in place with a vice he somehow rigged up, with this look of grim regret in his eyes. What the hell? I walk over cautiously, but hear no steps following. Nearing the edge, I see it's aimed at the apartment complex, so I bend down and look through it.
I want to vomit at what I see.
Clearly written in a red substance on the window it's aimed at is a jagged, deep message, just three words I never want to setmy eyes on again.
"Hello, Little Professor."
Reno's voice shatters my jaw-dropping shock with his first words. "We can't get a warrant to search it, and since that place is tight as a drum, we can't just barge in, but I'm leaving this here so we can watch whoever that is. I saw a shadow or two last night, while that message was up. He knows we're watching him, or her, for that matter, and he or she doesn't like it. Hopefully, no one has an urge to park in an abandoned, condemned parking lot."
It's true. There are holes on every floor of the place, and as far as I can tell, the elevator has been out of order for a good year. I assume it had at one time been used for the apartment complex we're spying on, but there's another one on the other side, leaving this one to decay and nothing more. It's no secret, now I'm desperate to know who's in that window over there, and as soon as I find my voice, I turn to Reno and ask, "Do you think they have anything to do with Aeris?"
He gives me the look. Now, Reno has three looks. Casual, drunken fool having fun, and "you know the answer and I don't want to let you know you're right." Guess which one he's giving me now.
I shake my head in disgust and brush past him, having stood up and walked to him by now. There's one bit of comfort I can take from that message, however. Not the fact he or she knows who I am and who I'm related to, sure as hell not the fact he or she knows where I am, but the fact that it's only written in red marker. After all, blood runs. This was set there. Planned. Not slopped on.
I'll take care of him, I tell myself as I start walking back toward our little makeshift headquarters. When I get back, Jinaisim is sitting there muttering to himself, scratching his head, and looking very confused. Back turned to me, I reach into my pocket, pull out my pen, and throw it at the back of his neck. Dead-aim. He whirls around, eyes wild and prepared to fight, then smiles in his hungover way and waves at me shakily. "'Eeeeeya, Seph."
I can't help but grin back. "G'morning, Jin. Up for some breakfast?"
-=-=-
"That complicates it a bit."
Jinaisim and I are sitting at a cozy little café I used to come to when I was a kid. Once a greasy place with undercooked burgers, the bitch who used to own it is now a kindly old woman with a basket of free cookies on the counter. She minds her own business, generally, and this place is usually empty around this time of day. Mainly, it's a family spot for dinners.
We pause in our discussion as the old woman drops off our breakfast, a giant plate of bacon for him and a few slices of toast for myself. I ask for a refill on my coffee. In her own, wrinkled way, she smiles, nods, and walks off with my cup.
"We got a call from Cloud last night. He said he went all the way to Kalm and hasn't found a trace of her yet. I should probably call and tell him to haul it back here. I'll do that now, acutally," Jinaisim murmurs as a final sentence of the breakfast. He pulls out his cellphone and begins to dial, but something's wrong. I don't get a chance to see it, but out of the corner of my eye, I get a glimpse of a figure rushing by the window. I lower myself in my seat, just before the door flies open, a man skids around the corner, and opens fire on us.
Jinaisim's phone goes first, and he dives for cover quickly. I saw enough of the guy to tell that he's a SOLDIER, probably one of the higher ranks, too. He appears to have a gun that fires on its own, because even when the splinters of wood fly over us, Jinaisim and I having flown under the table by instinct, the shots keep coming.
When he finally runs out, he cautiously makes his way around the table, thinking he must have hit us by now. Bad move. Jinaisim, great with a handgun and always carrying one, shoots out from underneath the table and sweeps his leg up, catching the man in the wrist, then firing. Three shots, one to the trigger-finger, one to the left knee, and a final to the chest, all in the span of about two seconds.
I stand up, my coat tearing on a loose nail but being the last of my worries right now. Jinaisim's rubbing his temples and has his eyes closed, the SOLDIER -- turns out it was a woman -- clearly at the end of her life. The old lady was apparently taken down somewhere in there, because she's sprawled out over the counter, and we look like two dumbstruck cows.
I reach over and grab Jinaisim's plate. Silently, we both take a piece of bacon and chew in thought. Suddenly, my companion feels an odd need to smile. "Hey, Seph."
"Hmm?"
"We can call this self-defense." He turns to me and grins. I shoot him the nastiest look in history, turn on my heel, and walk out. He follows. Later, in the papers, ShinRa will give a tribute to the old woman, who of course died of natural causes, and mention nothing about the shots. Jinaisim takes the van back to headquarters while I start off toward Hellfire to pick up my car.
I'm strangely calm to notice, when I get there, that my ashtray has been emptied, particularly of the three-hundred-gil stash I keep in there, a usual thing in Midgar. Otherwise, nothing else seems to be messed up. Then again, the CD player was only one-hundred, so I'm not surprised they didn't take it. I put the key in the ignition, and it turns over without a problem, the regular hum of the car vibrating through it.
The music doesn't kick on this time, being as how Dais drove it last, but I don't mind as much as you'd think. Putting it in reverse, I back out of the Hellfire and start the route back to headquarters, the one I know by heart. It's not too far, just a few minutes, and then I'm back in the parking garage, but after looking to see that I have half a tank of gas left, I notice something's wrong.
Reno, Jinaisim, and Dais are standing outside the bathroom door, Cloud leaning against the corner behind them. Keeve doesn't seem to be in sight, which isn't a problem immediately, but the next thing I take note of is the black ring of fabric around Reno's neck.
His stealth-mask.
I get out of the car and Jinaisim holds up his assault rifle, the one his father gave him when he came back from the Wutai/ShinRa War. But it's Reno's grim face that delivers the message.
"They're sniffing too close, Seph."
I look at him strangely. "What do you mean?"
"...We're doing this. Tonight."
My blood freezes, but I know he's right. ShinRa has to fall today.
.
Author's Note: Yep...we're drawing to a close on Book Two. In a few chapters, anyway. I apologize for the length.