"You're late, Jiggy." the man said impatiently.
"Sorry about that, Slick, but you know how it is." The short white haired weasely-looking man replied as he got into the car with Slick.
Slick frowned, remembering once upon a time when he had been the one to make people wait on him, but those days were as dead as…he shook his head slightly to focus on his current task. "Did you get it?" he asked Jiggy.
"Right here." Jiggy took a manila envelope out of his jacket, and when Slick tried to grab it, he jerked it away. "Uh-uh. First things first." Jiggy rubbed his thumb and forefingers together in an easily understood gesture.
Slick pulled a huge wad of cash out from his own jacket and handed it to Jiggy, who immediately started counting it. "Now give me that." Slick demanded the envelope.
"After I get my full ten thousand." Jiggy told him.
"Ten thousand?!" Slick exploded. "We agreed on five!"
"The price had to go up because I went through a lot of hassle to get that for you." Jiggy informed him with a smug smile on his face. "It's nothing personal you understand, but business is business."
"Fine!" Slick snapped. "But I've got my extra stash hidden in the trunk. Get out." He opened the driver's door and got out himself, unlocking the trunk. "No one knows you got that for me, do they?" Slick nodded at the manila envelope.
"Of course not!" Jiggy was offended by the suggestion. "All of my clients know I would never talk out of turn." He walked to the trunk where Slick seemed to be rummaging in it as if trying to find something.
"Okay, there's the rest of your payment. Take it and give me what I paid for." Slick stood up to his full height and backed up a couple feet.
Jiggy stepped forward to look inside the open trunk and stared in surprise to see nothing but a tarp. "What is th…ughhh." Jiggy's sentence ended in a pained groan as Slick brought down a tire iron hard on his head with a sickening thud and crack sound. Jiggy's body slumped forward, half into the trunk, and Slick helped it the rest of the way.
"You'll never talk out of turn now, will you?" Slick took the manila envelope and his money back before tying the tarp around the body with an expertise that spoke of long practice. "It's nothing personal you understand, but business is business." He slammed the trunk shut and got back into his car, speeding out of the alleyway and heading out of town. He dumped Jiggy's body over the side of the first bridge he came to.
Slick really had no need to cover up the murder, but old habits died hard. His next destination was going to take a few days to reach, so he stayed in flea trap motels and ate at the cheapest crappiest diners he could find. It galled Slick to hell and back to travel like this, but his glory days were long gone, and he had to blend in with the masses if he was to avenge his fallen comrades. He now craved destroying all those in Jenova Castle above all else. Slick put his hand on top of his head, feeling the buzz cut he now sported. The changes he had made to his appearance out of the necessity of survival made him feel like a different person, and he constantly reminded himself he was now.
"Shinra mansion at last." Slick said as he stood in front of the building. He had driven past it to make sure it was still there, then parked on the next street over and snuck back in the shadows. "You and I are both relics of a bygone era now, aren't we?" Slick commented as he picked the lock to the front door and entered the mansion. The last thing he needed for his vengeance was here, according to the reliable rumours he had heard years ago.
"Dammit, Vincent…where are you?!" A frustrated Slick demanded to know after hours of fruitless searching through the house. He started heading back to the kitchen to see if there was anything still edible, but somehow he tripped going down the stairs, and instead of falling down the stairs, he fell through them, and ended up in a hidden section of the basement. Brushing himself off once he knew he wasn't hurt, he looked around and his jaw dropped when he saw one of the containment capsules he had seen many times in the research labs. "Well I'll be…you're not Vincent, but you'll do." he said to the person inside it as he tried one of his old high level security clearance codes on the keypad lock, but the lock was malfunctioning, so he grabbed a chair and smashed it against the capsule til it broke open.
Zack Fair coughed and spluttered as he lay on the floor surrounded by the suspended animation nutritive fluid and broken glass. Taking a moment to collect himself, he stood up and looked around, wondering where he was. The last thing he remembered was Sephiroth walking out of the Mt. Nibel reactor with Jenova, and Cloud being unable to fight him for some reason. There was a man standing a few feet away from him, who looked somehow familiar, but Zack didn't recognize him. "Who are you?" he asked. "What's going on?"
"Oh, yeah." The man put his fingers up to his eyes and took out the colored contact lenses, revealing his unique aquamarine eyes. "Does this help?"
"Reno!" Zack exclaimed. "What's…what's happened to you?" He looked at the Turk in shock. Reno had very short black hair now, colored contacts that made his eyes brown, and his facial tattoos were gone.
"I'll fill you in on the way. We've got a job to do." Reno replied.
"What's the job?" Zack asked.
Reno reached into his jacket and pulled out the manila envelope. Opening it, he took the invitation to the Bacchanalia celebration at Jenova Castle. "We're crashing a party." An ugly smile spread over Reno's face.