Authors note: Another chapter!! this story is getting pretty long ain't it? Well anyway, I left it on kinda a cliffhanger. Hope you all enjoy!


Chapter 19 – Race for Life

Elena still had hold of Reno's hand as they ran after Tseng and Rude. Elena ignored Reno trying to catch her attention and concentrated on getting out of there. Suddenly she stopped, making Reno run straight into her.

"Where are they?" she said quietly. They were in a dark corridor and all she could see was the room ahead which was quite brightly lit for some reason.

"Finally, that's what I've been trying to tell you…" Reno panted. "C'mon." he walked forwards, motioning her to follow. As they walked towards the room ahead, it became clear that there were a lot of fights and the faint glow was coming from the numerous spells being cast. Reno nearly yelled out loud when he tripped over something on the floor.

"Oh my…Reno?" Elena looked at the floor. There was a body there, quite clearly someone from Shinra. He appeared to be not quite dead. Elena bent down to help him, only to be pulled back to her feet by Reno.

"C'mon, 'Lena. We gotta work on saving ourselves first." He grabbed her hand her away.

They entered the room, immediately seeing Tseng and Rude fighting for their lives against a lot of people dressed similarly to the man they had seen earlier.

"C'mon." Reno pulled on Elena's hand lightly and they crept, unnoticed around the edge of the room.

Reno pulled out his gun and aimed towards the group where Tseng and Rude were struggling. Elena opened her mouth.

"You should know by now, I don't miss." Reno said. Elena was about to point out that he had indeed missed the first time they had been assigned to assassin Claudia but Reno had already fired, hitting one of the people Tseng was being attacked by. Tseng looked slightly confused for a minute, then looked over to Reno and Elena. Unfortunately, so did the other man Tseng was fighting.

"Oh, shit..." Reno said, staring to run, Elena following in his tracks. Before Reno knew what had happened he was hit by a spell the man was casting. He fell to his knees, Elena ducked down to help him. Judging by the sudden wave of exhaustion that had come over him, he gathered it was "sleepel".

"Reno? Come on. We have to get out of here." She tried to pull him to his feet. Her voice seemed to become distant in his head, and he wasn't sure where he was. He tried to pull himself together, for Elena's sake. She was the rookie, after all. He dragged himself to his feet and grabbed Elena's hand.

"Let's go." He said weakly. She followed him, alarmed at how much he was stumbling, and amazed at how he was managing to resist the spell. He suddenly stopped and turned to Elena. They were surrounded. The only way was back, and then they would be stuck anyway. Reno took his gun out again and shot at them. His aim was bad due to the sleep spell. Suddenly, they heard shouting form behind them. Elena turned to see Tseng and Rude running towards them.

"Come on." Tseng said holding his hand out to Elena.

"Reno...?" she turned to him.

"Just go." He shouted, falling to one knee, still shooting. Elena nodded and followed Rude and Tseng to safety.

Reno's mind was becoming more and more clouded. He still fired at the enemies before him, but he wasn't having much luck. He lowered the gun, unable to fight the spell any longer, and collapsed on the ground.