So now I pushed my way through the crowded Wall Market streets to the clothes shop just north of the clinic I'd just been too. It wasn't very far away at all, but getting through the mass of people swamping the streets made it seem like an eternity to get to.

It was only the other side of the street and I couldn't see it. I inhaled deeply and tried to make myself as thin as possible whilst navigating my way through the crowd. The amount of times I was shoulder barged or got a knock on the head from people's elbows was starting to make me feel dizzy. Didn't these people know who I was? They would have all gone running scared if they knew that I was part of Shinra.

I finally made it to the clothes shop. It wasn't exactly top of the range either. It was all dusty and smelly, much like the rest of the Wall Market, but I would never have bought clothes from here; not under any other circumstances anyway.

There were about 10 racks on each side of the shop all filled with old torn jackets and badly beaten boots. I thought it would be impossible to try and find an old SOLDIER uniform amongst all of that.

Suddenly I was approached by a young lady in a pink dress. She had long brown hair and beautiful green eyes. It couldn't have been, I thought. I shook my head in disbelief and looked at her again. Her pink dressed stood out like the moon at night amongst the dusty surroundings.

"A-A-Aeris?" I stuttered.

The young lady paused. She looked a little perplexed.

"Aeris" she said. "Who is Aeris?"

I was the one a little taken aback now.

"Nobody, nevermind."

I took a closer look at her. She was wearing the same outfit Aeris always used to wear and her hair and her eyes were the same, but when studying her face closer I noticed they actually looked quite different. That could have been embarrassing, I thought.

"Can I help you with anything?" the young lady asked.

"Um, yes. I'm looking for an old SOLDIER uniform, a pair of old brown boots and a spiky blonde wig."

"My, my, what an odd combination!"

I paused. Had she worked out my plan already? I thought I might have been in deep trouble.

"No, no" I said. "It's for a fancy dress party, that's all."

The young lady laughed.

"Oh wow, that's so cool. I love fancy dress parties. Where is it?"

The words hit me as if they were knock-out punches coming from a 300 pound man. I had to wipe the sweat off my forehead with my arm. I had to think of an answer fast.

"Um, where is it?" I asked, hoping that wasn't what she actually asked me.

"Yes. There can't be many people throwing fancy dress parties round here, so whose is it?"

"Er, Don Corneo's. He's having it up in his mansion."

The young lady put her hand to her mouth and giggled.

"Don Corneo" she said. "Don Corneo is quite the smooth ladies man. I'm sure they'll be lots of lovely ladies there for you to spend the evening with."

I breathed a sigh of relief. She bought my story, not that I had anything to hide from really. Ok, I was on a kidnapping mission, but it was an important kidnapping mission and I was sure people would understand if I explained to them how important it was to Shinra.

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it." I said. "It's such a beautiful mansion."

"It is indeed. Now, you're looking for a SOLDIER uniform aren't you? Let's see what I can find or you. You just wait there a second."

I stood still like she told me and watched her move over to one of the rack. All of the clothes were piled high to almost the ceiling. I could see the woman, who was quite short, I would have said she was 5'2 at the most, standing on her tip-toes trying to reach up. She seemed to be struggling a lot, I was wondering whether I should have gone to help her.

"Do you need any help there?" I asked.

She had both her arms up trying to rummage through the clothes and her head was buried somewhere between them. She pulled her head out and turned towards me.

"No, no, I'm fine, thank you, sir."

Suddenly I could see the stack of clothes becoming unstable as she rummaged through. Then suddenly the whole pile came crashing down on top of her. She had held out her arms to try and stop it but there were far too many clothes and they sent her flying down to floor as she lay, crushed beneath them. She was completely submerged in clothes.

I couldn't just stand there now. I quickly threw as many of the clothes as I could to one side, there I could see the woman's hand. Phew, I thought. There was life. I grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet with little effort. She coughed and dusted herself off.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"I-I'm fine. Thank you very much kind sir. I really wish that would stop happening actually."

"This has happened before?"

"Yes, yes. It happens all the time actually."

"I think you need an assistant to work here."

"No, no, I've been here all my life, I don't need an assistant. I'm fine on my own, thank you."

"Well, suit yourself, but I really think with two people here, things like that wouldn't happen. It's what teamwork and cooperation is all about. Those are Shinra's strong points."

"Well, I don't care too much for the Shinra. I think they are the reason why the Wall Market is in such a state."

Did this woman really not know who I was? Wasn't it obvious to her that I was the President's son? I guess not. A lot of the people in the Midgar slums were quite uneducated and they had never seen the big corporate Shinra executives, so of course they would have no idea what they looked like.

"Anyway" she said. "Not to worry about that."

She reached down into the pile of clothes and pulled out a blue uniform.

"Look, here we are. I've found it."

She wiped off all the dust and dirt and handed it to me.

"The changing rooms are just over there."

"Thank you." I replied.

I walked into the changing room and locked the door behind me. There was a large mirror and I put on the uniform to see what it looked like. It was a tight fit, whosever this was had to be a good 4 inches shorter than me and weigh about 30 pounds less. I forced it over my head and I heard a tear. I looked round and I'd created a tiny rip along the side. It was only tiny though, barely noticeable.

After I'd finished putting it on I looked in the mirror. It was tight and looked it too. The trousers were a little small but that wouldn't matter so much if I was going to where huge boots with it. All in all I thought it looked okay, not perfect, but it was all I had and it would have to do.

I left the changing room and approached the young woman.

"Is it okay?" she asked.

"Yes, it is fine."

"Good."

"Thank you for finding it for me, um, sorry, I don't even know your name yet."

"Oh that's quite alright. Most customers don't really pay any interest in me. I get some perverted customers sometimes but they are less interested in my name and more interested in groping me. This job isn't all that great, you see. But I can tell you're a really nice person and not a pervert. So yeah, ok, my name is Doris. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you, Doris. My name is Rufus."

"Just like Rufus of the Shinra company, eh?"

"Yes, just like it."

The common Midgar folk really had no clue what was happening around them, but there was no television or radio or newspapers anymore so news circulated round Midgar very slowly.

Doris extended her arm out to shake my hand. I gently took her hand and brought it up to my mouth, kissing her tenderly on the hand. Doris blushed. I let go of her hand and she slowly moved it back towards herself and pressed it against her lips.

"Y-You're such a gentleman, Rufus. Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Unfortunately not at the moment, but hopefully this will change soon. But right now, all I need is a blonde spiky wig."

"Oh yes, of course, I'll get that for you right away, Rufus."

She quickly ran behind the counter and pulled out a blonde spiky wig. That was so fast, I thought. It was amazing what a bit of charm could do. She handed it to me and I tried it on.

The wig was a little itchy but that was okay. It fit perfectly. I walked into the changing room again to have another look in the mirror. Wow, looking at my reflection, it was almost like Cloud Strife was staring back at me; I looked so much like him. This disguise was perfect, it could fall anyone, even Tifa Lockheart.

I walked out of the changing rooms and saw Doris standing daintily over a huge pair of brown boots. I grinned.

"Thank you" I said. "This is exactly what I need."

I put on the boots.

"How much do I owe you?"

"Owe me?" said Doris. "How could I ever charge such a gentleman as yourself. People like you don't come along that often, you know."

I smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"You can have them for free. Also I found this, you can have this as well."

She pulled a small device out of her pocket and gave it to me. I studied it. It looked like some kind of walkie-talkie. It was white and hate the letters 'PHS' scribbled on it. PHS? That was the device that Avalanche members used to talk to each other on. This was all too perfect, everything was falling into place far too easily, there had to be some kind of catch.

"Thank you so much for all of your help Doris. I won't forget this and I especially won't forget you."

I took her shoulders gently, leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Her face beamed as though you could never erase the smile off her face. I could see her knees quivering and then all of a sudden her eyes rolled to the back and closed and she fell back.

I quickly caught her as she fell. She opened her eyes and stared at me.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"I am fine, Rufus."

"You just passed out for a second there. I think you should see the doctor. There's one just down the street."

"No, no, I'll be fine."

Doris tried to stand up but lost her balance and fell back down into my arms. Her eyes then closed and her head fell limp as she fainted again. This was bad news, I thought. I had to get her to the doctor quick.

I stood up, lifting her as I held her in my arms. She was incredibly light. I was guessing good, nutritious food was hard to come by in the Midgar slums. She looked so peaceful and delicate, like a sleeping angel in my arms. This wasn't the time to think about such a thing, I thought to myself. I carried her out of the clothes shop and onto the busy streets of the Wall Market.

This was going to be the difficult bit. It was hard enough getting through there on my own let alone whilst carrying a young woman. Surprisingly I saw that people moved out of the way when they saw me holding her. This gave me a relatively free path to the clinic.

I walked into the clinic and the doctor turned around, startled.

"My word" he said. "What is this?"

"She fainted. Can you do anything for her."

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, yes, it won't be a problem."

The doctor came towards me and took Doris out of my arms. He then carried her over to the table and laid her down. He examined her face for a moment.

"She will be fine here" he said. "There is nothing to worry about."

"Thank you, doctor."

The doctor looked at me closely again.

"Haven't I seen you before?" he asked.

"Yes, we met just a while ago."

"Really? I don't remember that."

"I'm Rufus Shinra."

"Rufus Shinra? I don't believe it. You look nothing like you did earlier."

This pleased me somewhat. I knew now that the disguise had worked and if it could fool one then it could fool another.

"Yes, I just bought a costume. I have to rush off now, I'm afraid. Take care of Doris."

"I will."

I quickly left the clinic leaving the fainted Doris with the doctor. The girls didn't normally swoon for me, this must have been a special occasion. I was a bit thirsty after that bit of stress and heavy lifting so I thought the pub would be next best place to go.

I made to the pub in the north side of the market. It wasn't nearly so crowded here. I stepped inside and to my amazement there sat Reno, Rude and Elena; the Turks.

They didn't notice me at first so I walked closer to them. Then Rude's head shot up and stared at me through his dark sunglasses. Reno's and Elena's attention was distracted then too. Now all three of them were staring at me, their gaze piercing a hole through my chest.

"It's Cloud Strife!" Rude shouted.

All three of them suddenly pulled handguns out of their pockets and pointed them at me. I instantly raised my hands in the air. Why were these guys pointing their guns at me, but then I realised that I was still wearing the Cloud disguise. It had worked again, I thought..

However I still had my three best friends pointing guns at me. I didn't know what to do.

I gulped and prayed that they wouldn't fire.