It was only half 10 when the film ended, and no one was particularly inclined to move. Reno himself was feeling rather smug – he'd seen a couple of the guys trying to surreptitiously wipe away tears when the transvestite died, and the girls were openly weeping at the demise of the blonde boy-toy, and had spotted the high-resolution security cameras in the corners of the rec room. You didn't get to be a rookie turk without a speciality of some kind, and Reno had several; hacking the security cameras was one of the talents he hadn't chosen to share with Veld, although he had no doubt Tseng knew. The Wutaiian seemed to know everything about him, and Reno didn't like it. Lost in his plotting, he didn't notice a figure standing in the main doorway, gazing at the scene through darkly-tinted glasses.

A sudden lack of beanbag caused Reno to crash to the floor, and he leapt up, cursing.
"What the fuck, yo?"

To give her credit, Bertha didn't flinch. Instead, she gestured towards the paper screen.

"You put it up, right? Well, we can't figure out how to take it down – did you fasten it to the ceiling beams or something?"

"Bertha, it's paper. Why not just tear it down?"

"Because, if you take it down for me so I don't have to go up there and remove all the evidence, I might tell you my name."

Reno moved a little closer, until all that was between them was the beanbag. It rustled as he pressed into it, as she refused to give ground. The other rookies tensed, waiting for the inevitable.

"Might?"

"Might. And you'll not know, either way, unless you take the screen down." He couldn't argue with that, but he was quite happy to keep calling her Bertha. The flicker in her eyes told him she knew this, and he waited.

"Besides, we can't tear it up. You need it for your paperwork..."

The laughter of the rookies echoed through the room, following Reno as he scowled and scaled the wall beside the screen. The beeping of a PHS cut through the laughter, and Reno watched Kat check the screen as the other rookies started stashing the beanbags in the cupboards and binning the empty bottles and popcorn bags.

"Shit."

Every head in the room turned to Kat. The man was almost a carbon copy of Tseng – the same instinctive perfectionism, the same clear, careful consideration of each word he said, before he said it. Kat came up quite a lot in Tseng's lectures to Reno, not that Reno would listen to anyone telling him to stand up straighter, or to fasten his tie, tuck his shirt in and lose the ragabond look. For Kat to be swearing indicated... Well, Reno wasn't sure. Kat didn't swear, so it couldn't be good.

Noticing all eyes were on him, Kat dropped the bombshell.

"You guys all know John, right?"

Most of the rookies nodded. Unsurprisingly, Reno had no idea who they were talking about. He waited, hoping for someone to elaborate.

"Well, he pulled the nightshift tonight, hence why he vanished after the meeting. He just got a text from Tseng, telling him that he wasn't expected to attend the training session tomorrow morning."

"Lad, tomorrow's Sunday. We ain't got sessions on a Sunday."

"I know. I reminded him of this, and he sent me the text. So I checked our schedule. Tseng has added a session, tomorrow morning at 3.30am in the dojo. No clarification as to what the session is about, but we are all expected to attend."

There was a flurry of movement, as the rookies reached into their pockets for their PHS' to check their schedules.

"Shit."

"Fuck."

"Damn."

"Everyone excep' John?"

"Everyone except John. Might I suggest we curtail tonight's activities? It is fast approaching 11pm, and a session in the dojo implies physical exertion, for which we will all need sleep."

Sleep. Reno vaguely remembered what that felt like. He looked back down again, his PHS confirming that yes, he had a 3.30am session in the dojo, to see the room had completely emptied. He cursed a little more, wondering how in the name of ShinRa he was supposed to finish dismantling the screen alone, when a shadow in the corner of the room moved. He tensed, straining in the darkness to identify the shadowy figure creeping closer towards him.

A slight tearing noise flicked his attention back to the flimsy paper ripping its way free of the beam. Once that corner ripped, the only thing holding the screen up was Reno, and he was going to have to let go if he was to deal with the shadow. Letting go would make noise, which would alert the shadow to his presence and remove the element of surprise from his defensive attack.

A small click beneath him. Reno froze. The person was underneath him? A small smile crept across his face. This could yet turn out in his favour... He hadn't been an idle slum rat, and being a rookie Turk was improving his skills beyond expectation.

The last corner of the screen gave way as Reno scampered back along the beam, crumpling loudly onto the figure, who swore and fought his way out of the pile of paper. Reno gazed smugly downwards as the paper tore. No paperwork without paper... One almost dainty leap off the beam, and Reno was behind the figure, his EMR in his hand and pressed to its throat.

"..."

Reno had only heard of one person in the whole of ShinRa who spoke in silences and pauses. And the fact he had that person by the throat meant that he was in trouble, and it might be advisable to vanish – quickly.

He flicked the EMR up and away from Rude's throat, intending to make a clean get-away. Unfortunately for Reno, the EMR snagged on something. So he wiggled it.

A pair of sunglasses hit the floor and shattered. Rude turned and stared down at Reno, golden brown eyes meeting aqua blue, a strong hand snagging his left wrist and preventing his escape. The EMR fell from Reno's grip and clattered to the floor, letting out a few sad sparks as it joined the sunglasses.