Business As Usual:
Chapter 12
By Miyamashi
Miya's Note: Sorry it took so long to update, but I got back to school, and my class work's been taking up most of my time.
I printed out a copy of this fic so that my friends could read it and…IT'S FRIGGIN' LONG!!! My guesstimate how long it's going to be is at LEAST 30 chapters, and probably more. Do you realize that this only covers about three months in about an eight year period? I'm not going moment-by-moment, though. Thank goodness!
To Nanaki-BH: Yay! I have an official flamer! I write scripts because I'm a drama geek. The two tend to kind of mesh together. Oh, and I didn't even want Rufus to marry Malita. Of course, what my brain tells me to write, I must write, or it goes on strike. BLAST YOU, BRAIN! At least I killed her off, right?
I looked up Gravitation right after I got your last review, and it sounds interesting. I had already heard of Trigun, but I've never read any of the mangas and have only seen one episode. I'm very deprived in my anime/manga…too broke…
Did you like the leg-shooting part, or was it too overdone? Rufus was trying to be melodramatic.
Don't worry. No more weddings. Although Rufi's a widow now and Reno's still single, one wedding was enough.
To MyOwnShukuun: I laughed, too.
To Kuro Yokai: Yesss, this be your dedicated grapefruit. (Let's call it a grapefruit, like you said. I don't like "limon".) And…OH, THE IRONY! I went to Nanaki-BH's fic up there, and read it, along with your review. So, the Runos you like are mine and the one that my official flamer wrote? Hehehe…that's funny.
To Mashimaro-Byul-012: Let's sing the "Malita's Dead" song! sings song
To kuja-46: Do you want to join in the singing and dancing, too? Come on! Let's all celebrate together!
To roxi: It's okay. Mmmn, citrus.
To catnip25: Just wondering: who are Prance and Shanella?
AoiGensou: Glad you liked it. Rufus loves his little games.
To Tinkeu: Oh, you're sadistic, too? Do you want to join in the celebration with the other reviewers? We can add the "Haha, Shinra, you sucker!" song to the list!
"Who did this?" hissed Leiza as she hurriedly pulled the sheet back over what was left of her friend. She tried to hold back her angry tears, but her mascara made dark shadows under her eyes.
"It was a Turk named Reno Kiribani." Shinra held up Reno's file, which Leiza snatched from his hand, staring at it before pulling the Turk's picture out and ripping it to shreds. "He brought my poor son into that room at gunpoint and raped him, and when my late daughter-in-law got suspicious and caught him, he shot her down in cold blood."
"I'll kill him…I'll kill him myself…he murdered my best friend…I'll kill him…" she wept, and the shadows under her eyes spread down her cheeks. A drop of black dripped onto her bridesmaid's dress.
"I don't deserve to keep you from your revenge. Kiribani lives in apartment 37A on floor 5. I assure you that you will be sufficiently armed and prepared. I am the President, you know."
Late that night, while most of the Shinra building was sound asleep, Leiza slipped a copy of the card key to apartment 37A into the door lock, and it opened with a click. The apartment was dark and quiet. The lanky platinum blonde woman slipped into the room nonetheless, locking the door and ducking behind the couch to wait for the occupant's return.
After what seemed like forever, the light clicked on, and the voices of not one but two men rang through the air.
"Just pick up what you need. It's dangerous for you to stay here for long," said the first, a smooth tenor voice that Leiza recognized as belonging to her friend's widow.
"…What? Why is he here…and why is he helping him?"
"All I need are some clothes and my toothbrush and that kind of stuff. I really don't have that many things, and most of it's unimportant," said the other voice, which Leiza guessed had to be her target's.
She disengaged the safety on the pistol that the President had given her.
Rufus sat down on the couch to wait for Reno to pack. Leiza noticed that he wasn't wearing his coat and was unarmed.
"You can get something to eat if you want, you know. This is your last chance before we leave and my refrigerator turns into a giant science fair project," Reno said from the hall. Rufus laughed and stood slowly, balancing himself on his good leg before heading onto the small kitchen.
"Your apartment's tiny. You'd think they'd give you something bigger, with your being a Turk and all," said the thin strawberry blonde as he rifled through the junk food.
"Hey, it's better than my old SOLDIER apartment. I shared that one with three other guys, and we all slept in bunks. Not everyone has a mini-mansion like yours, you know." Reno finished packing the few things that he wanted to take, stepping back into the main room.
Leiza saw her chance, standing from behind the couch and aiming the gun at Reno. She tried to keep from showing it as her hands shook. Reno dropped his bag.
"Hey, hey, hey, lady! What's the big deal?" Reno asked, laughing nervously and putting his hands up next to his head.
"You…you…Malita's dead because of you…"
Rufus heard, and he stood quickly, wincing from a sudden pain in his leg. He limped over to the counter and scanned his eyes over the objects laying on top of it, finally settling on one and picking it up.
"You killed her…" Leiza continued, and her hands shook even harder. Reno could see that she had never handled a gun before, but also knew that even that probably wouldn't stop her from firing and killing him, especially not at such close range.
Leiza heard a sound from behind her and she turned quickly, feeling a sharp pain as the cold metal of a steak knife pierced the soft flesh just under her ribs. Her eyes widened and locked with the cold blue of the Vice President's.
Rufus pulled the knife from her chest, and she fell forward and held herself up on his shoulder. The blonde eased the gun out of her lax hand.
"You picked the wrong path, siding with my father, and this is your reward," Rufus' whispered into her ear. He sidestepped, and Leiza breathed her last shaky breath, toppling lifelessly onto the floor, the blood that had begun to fill her lungs pooling from her mouth onto the carpet.
Rufus threw the gun and knife onto the couch, stooping down to the body and picking it up by the hair. "Go to my apartment and wait," he said to Reno without looking up. "I have something to discuss with my father about sending innocent women to their deaths."
Reno stared at Rufus, wide-eyed, for a moment before picking up his bag and rushing out.
Blood streamed down Rufus' arm as he grabbed the body more firmly and slung it over his shoulder. He ignored his throbbing leg and half-limped to the elevator, then to his father's doorstep.
The young blonde tried the door handle in vain. 'Locked, of course. Father always was paranoid,' he thought to himself.
So, he knocked. He waited for a moment, hearing nothing coming from within the room, before knocking again, but harder.
"Who are you and what do you want?" came the voice of President Shinra from just past the door.
"A word, Father?"
"Boy, what are you doing awake at this time of night?"
"A word, Father?" Rufus repeated.
The lock clicked and the door swung open. Shinra stared at his son, who had blood running down his arm and the body of the vengeful hitwoman over his shoulder. The cold blue eyes of Rufus Shinra gleamed back at him, as icy as ever.
"Step back into the room," Rufus sneered. "I need to talk to you in private."
Shinra stepped out of the doorway as his son passed, and he locked the room's entrance after the younger man and his cargo had crossed through it. He moved to flick on the light, but his son stopped him.
"Leave it off," Rufus said. "I don't want to have to look at you."
"What is this about, Rufus?"
"You know damn well what this is about. What did you tell the woman?"
"I told her the truth. I told her that you and that filthy Turk laid down together."
"You sent her to kill him. You should have known that she would fail."
"You killed her, didn't you, Rufus?"
"Yes, Father"
"Then the filthy Turk is still alive."
"Yes, Father."
"And you came here to taunt me, didn't you?"
"Exactly, Father."
"There will be others, Rufus."
"I know, Father."
"That's Sir to you, you dirty little heathen."
Rufus only laughed.
"If you weren't such an insolent little wretch, I wouldn't have had to kill your mother, do you know that? You are the reason that your dear Mommy is dead. You are the reason that the woman on your shoulder is dead. You can't keep a woman alive to save your own skin. Maybe that's why you had to settle with a nasty little Turk."
"Leave my mother out of this," Rufus hissed.
"Your little scolding isn't affecting me, Rufus. Go off and cry in your boyfriend's lap, and tell him how you killed your mother."
Rufus lifted Leiza's corpse from his shoulder and dropped it to the ground, letting the blood stain the clean, white carpet.
"Oops. Sorry about that, Father. I didn't mean to add another spot to your pretty carpeting. Of course, I think it goes quite nicely with the others, don't you?"
Rufus stepped down on Leiza's skull, crushing it with a sickening crunch. He wiped his boot on the carpet.
The father watched as Rufus shadow glared at him out of those ever-present ice-eyes, which glistened slightly in the dull lighting from the mako-reflecting smog outside of the window.
"Just a little reminder of how you took just as much part in killing her as I did. Just a little reminder of how you gave the order, and how you shot your wife through the eyes of another man…how you stabbed this woman through the eyes of your son…of how you kill with your words alone. Goodnight, Father."
And Rufus walked out. The father noticed his son's slight limp and smiled.
Reno looked up as the door to Rufus' apartment opened and the blonde stepped in, pushing the hair out of his eyes tiredly. Rufus strode over to Reno and touched his jaw, leaning in toward him. Reno turned away and spoke softly:
"What was that," he asked, "back in my apartment?"
"That was me saving your ass," was Rufus' reply.
"That was you killing a woman in cold blood."
"She would have done the same to you."
"She didn't even know what she was doing," said the redhead. "You probably could have talked her out of it."
"You can't deter a person who's looking for revenge, Reno. Every minute I tried would have been a minute closer to your getting shot."
"But you could have done something else, couldn't you? She was inexperienced. You could have taken the gun away."
"This is coming from a man who kills people just because of an order and a paycheck? You, who murders just because its your job tells me that I could have saved a woman if I had just done something differently, although it would have put your life on the line?"
Reno looked down at the floor, suddenly feeling like a monster.
"I'm a bit disappointed, Reno."
"You're right."
"No. I'm surprised you didn't find the error in my logic."
"What? But…you're right…" he repeated more quietly.
"It's easy to sound like a hero if you use the right words." Rufus said, expressionless. "But, remember, Reno, that I'm one of the men who gives you those orders. There are no heroes in this world. Keep that in mind."
And he stepped past the redhead, stopping in the threshold of his bedroom.
"Well, enjoy the couch, since I'm sure you don't want my company tonight," the blonde continued, steeping fully into the room and closing the door behind him.
Reno stared at where Rufus had been for a moment before walking up to the door, opening it, and stepping inside.
Rufus laughed and scooted to one side of the mattress.
Miya's Note: Uhh…this chapter is my strangest one yet, I have to say. (I like it, though. So weird!) Sorry about Rufus' little corpse-abuse escapade. I hope I didn't gross anybody out. Of course, if you've made it this far, you probably have a pretty hardy stomach. Parts of this one are going to tie into the next chapter, which will be titled "Remembrance", just as a heads-up.