Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. But you already knew that.
Praetorian
"-and if any of you screw up like that again, I'll have you handed over to Hojo," Rufus coldly informed the Turks gathered in his office. "He's always asking for more specimens, so-"
Reno interrupted, "Hey boss, I'm bored. Can we kill him yet?"
"What was that?" Rufus demanded. "You think I'm kidding about giving you to Hojo?"
"Nope," the smirking redhead replied. "We all think you've been a pain in the ass as long as any of us've known you. And I'm bored. Sorry, Tseng, I know you wanted a slower schedule for this," he continued as he drew his handgun and pointed it at Rufus.
"What! Tseng, do something!" The shocked blonde president demanded.
"Very well," The tall Wutian man replied before calmly drawing his own handgun. His other subordinates followed suit.
"What the hell's going on here?" Rufus demanded when he found himself staring down four pistol barrels.
Tseng directed a cold smile at his employer before explaining, "As your bodyguards, we hold your life in our hands. We've decided that it's time for someone less... problematic to fill your position."
"You can't do this! I'm the president! I rule this world! I order you to drop your weapons!" He was answered with cold laughter from two of his bodyguards and uncaring gazes from the other two.
"You still haven't figured it out? There's nothing you can do," Elena spoke up.
"Farewell, Mr. President," Tseng calmly intoned before opening fire, followed by his teammates. Tseng then walked up to the president's desk and made a call on his phone. "Reeve? Report to the president's office immediately." He then hung up before the other man could ask any questions.
When Reeve arrived, he was stunned at the sight that greeted him. "What happened here?" he asked, staring at Rufus's cooling, bullet-riddled body sprawled across his desk. "Did terrorists-"
"Are you familiar with the history of this area?" Tseng interrupted.
"What?"
"Midgar stands on the site of an ancient empire," Tseng calmly explained. "The rulers of this empire had elite bodyguards, called the Praetorian Guard. These guards were responsible for the safety of the emperor, and were said to also carry out his dirty work. But sometimes, they would grow tired of the current emperor, and replace him."
"You didn't..." Reeve gasps in shock.
"Yes, we did. You see, while the emperor ruled this ancient empire in name, the real power was held by his bodyguards. No emperor ever had the power to change this. Those who tried, were eliminated. This applies as well to modern rulers. We have decided that you are the most likely of the executive board to learn from history. Congratulations on your promotion, Mr. President."
Author's Note: Inspiration struck, so I ran with it and came up with this very short one-shot. I came up with this idea when I noticed how many fics have high-ranking Shinra executives basically treating their bodyguards like shit. I think this is a fairly likely scenario if those executives pushed too hard. And for those who don't recognize the name, the Praetorian Guards were the bodyguards of the Roman emperors, and were known to occasionally assassinate and replace them, but not nearly as often as Tseng suggests here. Well, what did you think? Is it good? Does it suck? Let me know!
New note: Edited again because some site update deleted all the '--' lines I used to use to denote scene changes and seperate out the title and notes from the actual story. So time to slap horizontal rulers into all my fics.
