Chapter Six

Tseng closed the file he'd been reading. Looking out the window of his office, he watched Reno, Rude and Elena leave the building and head toward Edge. He wished he was able to go with them. His three subordinates were being sent to make sure the situation at the Marketplace square was safe enough for Rufus to go in to make a speech to the residents of Edge. He would then accompany him in later. He hoped the day would go according to plan.

He mentally ticked off what they had to go through. Make sure the town was safe enough. Secure the area. Escort Rufus in and maintain his safety. (A task which was becoming more and more difficult lately.) And finally, if the opportunity presented itself (And when did a Turk fail to find an opportunity?) assassinate Hugo Barron, head of some jumped-up company that thought it could be the next ShinRa.

Hugo Barron had been using the public's feelings about ShinRa to further badmouth them, only resulting in further violence as he tried to make ShinRa look worse and paint his own company as the world's saviours. He was also supposed to be speaking today. If all went to plan, he'd never get to say another bad word about ShinRa.

Elena surveyed the crowd carefully. A lot of the people rushing around the square were just here for the markets. She supposed that when Rufus got up onto the makeshift podium that had been erected at one end of the square, they would stick around to listen, though. Even if it were just to jeer and throw things. She eyed a nearby fruit stall, wondering how much of the produce would end up splattered all over the podium.

She wondered if Rufus would still wear white.

Spotting Rude heading for her through the crowd, she walked toward him.

"All good?" She asked. He nodded silently. "There's more people here than I thought there'd be."

"Yeah."

"You guys done already?" Reno appeared beside them, grinning.

"Yeah, looks okay." Rude commented.

"Mmm. Any one of them could still be packin', though." The redhead replied. Elena looked at him. While he was still grinning, she noted that his strange aqua eyes were still very much searching the crowd, and that he was still very much alert and aware of what was going on around them.

"Okay to let the boss come?" she asked.

"Yeah" he nodded, "We'll keep an eye on them while the boss does his thing."

She nodded while Reno pulled out his phone and called Tseng to report. As she looked around again, she realised that people were starting to notice them and shoot them displeased looks. They were being recognised as ShinRa employees.

"Ugh..." She began as Reno slipped his phone back into his pocket.

"Yeah," he said, taking her elbow and pulling her along. "Time to move."

Reno led them to the other end of the square and they tried to look as inconspicuous as they could until Tseng and Rufus arrived. Elena was then sent into one of the small tents that had been erected for those who were to speak to get ready in. Giving Rufus' tent a quick onceover, she decided that it was safe enough for him and went back to report. She and Rude then followed him in while Tseng pulled Reno off somewhere else. Watching her two superiors disappear off into the crowd, she knew there was something else going on and wondered what it was. Reminding herself that if she needed to know, she would be told, she returned her focus to her actual job. She would protect Rufus at all costs.

"It's on?" Reno asked, looking to Tseng who nodded.

"The President wants Barron taken care of."

"'Kay." Reno nodded, squeezing between to middle aged women carrying large baskets. Tseng followed him.

"You'll do it."

"Thought as much."

"It can't look like we had anything to do with it." Tseng continued and Reno looked at him again. "It can't look professional."

"Got it."

Reno left Tseng and wandered the marketplace for a while, just waiting and looking around until he felt it was time. He'd use a knife he'd decided. If the killing couldn't look professional, then his EMR wasn't an option. Not every random person off the street could get their hands on one and it would definitely point their way. A knife, however. Everybody had access to knives. He could certainly make it look as if anybody had wandered into Barron's tent and killed him. He could make it look like random violence, or he could make it look gang related. He could make it look like whatever he wanted it to look like.

Pressing his hand to his hip, he felt his blade beneath his suit. This was going to be messy.

Before long, he found himself near Hugo Barron's tent. The man had a single guard outside the entrance and Reno gave a feral smile. The man had no idea what he was getting himself into, saying all the shit he had been about ShinRa. Only an idiot would try that and post a single guard to protect himself.

"And that's why you're a dead man." He murmured, moving around the side of the tent. Slipping a kid a few Gil, Reno bought himself a quick diversion nearby and when the guard wandered off like a moron to sort it out, Reno slipped inside.

Inside, there was a short passage up the centre of the tent with a large room on either side. A quick glance into the first one revealed a dressing room complete with wardrobe and vanity with a large ornate mirror. It was empty. Reno turned and moved to the second room.

The second room was much the same, but this one contained a large table in the centre, laden with plates of fruit. Sitting with his back to Reno was a large, round, man. Even from behind, Reno recognised him immediately as Hugo Barron. He moved silently forward. Barron's thinning silver hair was plastered down across his head in an obvious attempt at making it look like he had more hair than he did. Reno was sure he'd die if his hair ever looked like that.

Blinking, he forced his attention away from the man's hair. Slipping his knife out from beneath his suit he came to stand behind Barron, who was still fully focused upon his food and completely unaware that he was no longer alone. Reno had always been swift and silent; skills that had proven invaluable to him time and time again, both in service of ShinRa and before that, in the slums. People never knew he was there until he wanted them to. It made him extremely effective at missions of this sort.

With quick, deft, movements, Reno yanked Hugo Barron's head back with his right hand and slit the man's throat easily with the knife in his left hand. He watched as Barron's eyes widened in shock and fat hands came up to clamp at the wound in order to try and stem the flow of blood. Stepping back, Reno watched as Barron stumbled to his feet and turned to him. He had to give it to the guy, most people were on the ground by now, bleeding out helplessly. He knew the wound he'd given the man was fatal and there was nothing that the old guy could do to save himself, so he watched calmly, as he stumbled about the place. Eventually he came at Reno, grabbing a handful of Reno's suit before collapsing to his knees at his feet. Reno stepped back, watching as he fell onto his face and was still.

Casting a quick look around the tent, Reno decided that the messy trail of blood worked in his favour as it made the kill look even more amateur. Striding to the table he knocked a few pieces of fruit onto the floor for good measure and then moved quickly to the side of the tent, running his hand gently over the rough canvas before slicing roughly down it with the knife until there was a slit big enough for him to step through. Without looking back, he stepped easily back out into the marketplace and disappeared back into the crowd.

Aura swore softly to herself when someone jostled her roughly as she moved through the market, trying to find the small shop that sold the gloves she needed. There were so many people. She'd woken up later than she had planned to and so hadn't gotten into town as early as she had hoped. As a result, the place was packed. Even on the busiest market days, there were never this many people. She supposed a heap of them had come to listen to the speeches that were due to start soon. She had hoped to be home by then. With the attacks against ShinRa employees she didn't fancy being around when Rufus Shinra was talking, especially as that other guy was meant to be here, too. The round one. The one who had been blaming ShinRa for everything shit to happen to the planet in the last forty years. It was like the guy was asking to start a riot. She wanted to be long gone when that went down.

"Ow! Watch where you're goin', yo!" She growled when some guy around her age nearly knocked her over, hurrying past. The guy didn't stop to so much glance in her direction and she scowled, trying to force her way over to the edge of the market square to seek some shelter from the crushing weight of the growing crowd. Finding a small space between the doors to two stores, Aura leaned against the brickwork and looked around the square. People were hurrying around, moving in all directions. She'd just begun to wonder what could have gotten them that excited when she heard a snippet of a nearby conversation.

"Dead! Killed. Hugo Barron, that's right. Had his throat cut not twenty minutes ago! Right here!"

Aura turned to try and see whose conversation she was listening to, but that only resulted in getting herself swept back into the crowd and a moment later she was being moved along helplessly. She tried to get out of the crowd, but she was too short and slight to have any effect over which way the crowd was surging. She did not want to be here. If someone had killed Barron, here, today... with Rufus ShinRa around, then it was only a matter of time before a whole lot of shit went down. The last place she wanted to be when that happened was in the middle of a crowd with no way of escape. She'd be trampled to death at best.

A few moments later, Aura realised that she'd been swept along nearly to the makeshift podium that had been erected for the speeches. It was here the crowd seemed to stop surging, as if they had gone still, waiting for something. Going up on her toes, she saw a man in a white suit climbing the steps to the podium and a moment later realised that it was Rufus Shinra himself.

A flash of red nearby caught her attention and she spotted Reno standing near Rufus Shinra up on the podium next to a shorter woman with blonde hair. On the other side of the ShinRa President was a large, solidly built, bald man and a slim, exotic looking, man with long black hair. Her eyes wandered over them for only a moment before going back to Reno.

She took in the straight way he was holding himself, and her eyes moved over the suit he was wearing. She watched him attempt to close his suit jacket over some sort of stain on the white undershirt, and then she knew instantly and without doubt just who had killed Hugo Barron. A single word forced its way into her mind. Turk.

That couldn't be right. She shook her head slightly. Turks were ruthless and cold. They were ShinRa's assassins. They did whatever they were told without question and they had no morals.

That coudn't be what ShinRa had hired Reno for.

She'd known they'd recruited him because he was resourceful and clever... She blinked again, that was exactly what a Turk needed to be. Resourceful and clever.

But her Reno was no killer. ...was he?

Reno watched Rufus wave to the crowd a bit while they waited for the hour to close. At eleven sharp, the President would begin his speech. He wondered vaguely what the blond man would say to convince the world that ShinRa had nothing to do with Hugo Barron's death. Looking back to the crowd, he tried to read the faces of those looking at Rufus. After a moment however, he froze when he noticed one of the faces wasn't looking at Rufus, but at him. His heart hit his stomach when he realised it was Aura.

He lost sight of her when Elena shouldered past him and threw herself at someone rushing up the stairs. Turning, he caught a glimpse of silver as she knocked a blade from the person's hands as she wrestled them to the ground. Rude was suddenly there, and had pulled the guy to his feet and dragged him back down the stairs while Elena got slowly to her own feet, picking up the knife as she went.

"Damn, Laney." He said, smiling. "Well done..."

"Thanks." She replied, and he noticed the faint blush spread across her cheeks as she tucked the knife into her waistband.

"Yes..." Rufus said, drawing the attention of them both as he stepped toward them. "Thank you, Elena."

"Not a problem, Sir." She said softly, and Reno watched her look to Tseng who inclined his head ever so slightly in her direction. Looking back to the stairs again, Reno was almost disgusted with himself. How had he not noticed some maniac with a knife rushing up toward them? If Elena hadn't spotted him... He didn't want to think about what could have happened. At least she'd gotten to prove herself, though. In front of the President, no less.

He wouldn't let himself get distracted like that again. Why was Aura here, though? He searched for her again in the crowd, finding her within seconds. She was still staring at him. He realised that she'd never seen him in uniform before and he suddenly felt slightly self conscious.

Why was she even here? She'd promised that she wouldn't come! He frowned.

Aura watched Reno frown as he looked at her. She just stared back. What the hell had she just seen? That blonde woman had moved so quickly, jumping on a man that Aura hadn't even seen until he was being tackled to the ground. The guy had had a knife. Had he seriously just been trying to attack Rufus Shinra? In front of half of Edge?

That was just stupidity.

She blinked, looking at Reno who was suddenly glancing around as if uneasy.

The explosion knocked half the town off their feet. Aura's eyes went wide and she watched as debris rained down on the podium. The man with long dark hair threw himself over Rufus Shinra and she watched Reno pull the blonde woman to the ground, shielding her as chunks of concrete and steel fell around them.

The second explosion sent pieces flying into the crowd. Something struck Aura across the face and she found herself on her knees, her ears ringing. Pressing a hand to her cheek, she frowned when it came away bloody. Blinking back the tears of pain that welled in her eyes, she forced herself to her feet before she got trampled, and looked around. She could already see the bodies of those who were dead, and as people began to get to their feet, panic began to set in among the general populace.

Screams went up and people began to run. Deciding her best course of action was to get out of there, Aura headed for the side of the market square. She was knocked off her feet three times before she got there, but she made it without further injury. Well, without further serious injury. She'd lost some skin off her hands and knees, but she would deal with that later.

Coughing as the fire from the explosions took hold and smoke began to fill the square, Aura turned to look desperately up at the podium. She couldn't see anything. Hurrying closer, she stopped, watching, as the dark haired man helped President Shinra to his feet. She held her breath then as she waited for Reno to get up.

Reno groaned and swore. He pushed himself to his knees and off Elena who looked slightly dazed.

"Okay, Rookie?" he murmured.

"Mm." She replied, rubbing her head as she sat up. Reno got to his feet, blinking as smoke stung his eyes. Moving toward the edge of the podium, he looked out over the chaos. People were screaming and running, bodies strewn everywhere. There had to be at least a hundred of them.

His breath caught in his throat as he looked for Aura. She wasn't where she'd been before. Nearly stumbling off the edge of the podium, he looked around almost frantically. Eventually he found her, over by the shops on the right, standing amidst the smoke, looking back at him. Reno had been about to jump down off the podium in order to get over to her when Elena seized his arm and yanked him backward.

"What are you doing? We have to go!" She said, dragging him back.

"No..." he muttered, pulling free.

"Reno! The President!" She said sharply. Reno stopped. His job was Rufus. Aura was alive and even standing on her own two feet. She would be fine. He would get Rufus back to Healin and then he'd go and make her tell him exactly why she had done what she'd promised him she wouldn't.

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*Substitutions can be made for Tseng or Elena. (Rufus is currently unavailable.)