There's a rain that will never stop falling,

There's a wall that I tried to take down.

-Words I Couldn't Say, Rascal Flatts

"Reno, there was a perfectly good door there, you know."

"It could've been booby-trapped," Reno pointed out, swinging down off the window sill. "Plus, this way is far more enjoyable."

Tseng's frown told Reno exactly what he thought of his explanations, but he said nothing. By that point, he'd become accustomed to Reno's quirks, and knew better than to try to reason with him. "President Shinra, sir, I apologize for my subordinate's behaviour. Reno, you're late."

Reno scowled and crossed his arms. "Well, scaling the Shinra building ain't easy, y'know."

Tseng just sighed and turned away. "Be serious, Reno. President, you had a mission for us?"

"Yes. We have confirmed that AVALANCHE has a hide-out in Sector Seven."

"So you want us to infiltrate it for you?" Reno asked, crossing his arms. An ordinary, run-of-the-mill job, then, albeit one that had the potential to end with several corpses.

"No. I want you to bring down the Upper Plate."

"Wha -" Reno stepped back and gaped at the President for a few seconds, trying to make sure he'd heard him right. He'd been on all kinds of shocking and unpleasant missions before, but this one had to take the cake. Bring down the upper plate?! But... that would kill millions of people, cost fortunes to repair, it would... that's just insane! No way a tiny terrorist group is worth that kind of damage. "Uh - could you say that again, please, sir?"

"You heard him, Reno."

"That's just -"

"You are aware of the self-destruct system in the Pillars, right? All you need to do is activate it, then get out of there. It shouldn't be a difficult job."

"Understood... sir..."

"I also want you to take that Ancient girl. Hojo thinks he can obtain vital information from her."

"Gotcha." Kidnapping was far closer to Reno's comfort zone than dropping an entire plate on the slums.

"I've had this move planned for a while now... originally I was going to ask Heidegger to assign this mission to you, but recent matters have made me decide I should have a personal discussion with the head of Turks and his second-in-command... urgently."

Reno tensed. He did not like the tone the President's voice had taken. In fact, this entire briefing seemed to be spiraling rather out of control. He'd have no problem completing the mission, of course - he was a Turk. But did the President really think this was appropriate action to take just to get rid of a handful of terrorists?

"We're listening, sir," Tseng assured him. The President placed his hands on his desk.

"Hmm. Very dutiful, as always, Tseng. Dutiful and trustworthy. Your entire department is like that, actually. Which is good, because your department has to be trusted with many important company secrets. It would be very bad for us if any of you suddenly proved... untrustworthy."

Tseng met President Shinra's gaze steadily and stonily, but Reno could see vague hints of a frown forming on his face. So he was uneasy about this too. Whatever the President was trying to get at, it wasn't something good. "Shinra likes to keep a tight rein on its Turks. Any Turk out in the open could be... highly dangerous. A Turk working for AVALANCHE would be... unthinkable."

Reno's mouth was doing a decent imitation of a goldfish by that point. "...What?"

"Reno."

The President began to thumb idly through the pile of papers on his desk, then drew out a file. "So Cissnei died on a mission to Mideel, did she? Interesting that I ran into her only a couple of hours ago in Mako Reactor One, and she tried to kill me."

"WHAT?!"

President Shinra leant forwards. "I trust this is all one big mistake, which will soon be rectified. Turks are very good at making people disappear, but I don't want Cissnei to pop up again. I hope that by the end of today you can provide me with evidence that she is, indeed, KIA. Otherwise... I may be forced to conclude that the Turks are not as reliable as I had hoped."

Reno opened his mouth to speak, but Tseng shot him a look that could have frozen a pool of molten magma in less than a second. "Understood, sir."

"That is all, then. Good day to you."

"Cissnei, yo?!" Reno asked a few seconds after they were out of the President's office. Now, that was one hell of a mission briefing. He'd known she'd been angry at Shinra, of course... the day before she'd left, she'd ranted to him, a rare expression of emotion in Cissnei, but he hadn't thought... but, in hindsight...

"Reno. Hush."

Reno rolled his eyes. "No, you hush! Why'd ya let her go?! You must have known something like this would happen!" He wouldn't have known, because he'd never been able to figure Cissnei out, but even he'd been able to tell that she'd been... unstable. Stupid SOLDIERs.

"I trusted her judgement."

"The hell, Tseng? You trusted her judgement? She was angry and hurt and heartbroken, and you thought she'd have good judgement?"

"She was a Turk."

Reno threw his hands up in exasperation. Yes, Cissnei had been a Turk, second only to Tseng when it came to emotional control, and yes, Turks didn't make foolish decisions in the heat of the moment, didn't let themselves be guided by foolish sentiments. But Turks also didn't fall in love with SOLDIERs. Turks didn't quit because a mission hadn't turned out the way they'd wanted it. "She wasn't thinking straight, yo! You could have talked some sense into her. If you'd refused her she'd have cooled down eventually and moved on, and everything would be back to normal. She'd've forgotten him eventually. It was just a stupid little crush, or... oh, don't tell me you believe it was true love or some shit like that. You know better than that, Tseng. She should've known better!"

"Reno Sinclair."

Reno froze mid-rant. He knew how far he could push Tseng, and Tseng's tone told him he was about to pass that limit. "I am your superior. You will not speak to me like that. And you will not question my decisions. Understood?"

Reno looked down at the carpet. "Sorry, sir," he muttered angrily. He wasn't sorry at all, but pushing the point wouldn't help.

Tseng sighed. "It was her choice to leave. I do not think she made it in the heat of the moment. I gave her plenty of time to think things through, and I chose not to interfere with her decision-making. She understood what she was doing, and I respect her decisions." Tseng paused and turned to look at Reno. "I will admit that I was... not entirely satisfied with the outcome of that mission, myself."

Reno opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it. He'd antagonized Tseng enough already. 'I was... not entirely satisfied with the outcome of that mission, myself'?! Zack isn't the first person you've seen die. He's hardly likely to be the last. What the hell makes him so special? As far as Reno could see, he'd been nothing but another SOLDIER idiot running around trying to be a hero and impress girls and everything. Nothing he could have done would ever have made him deserve Cissnei.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, sir." But I'm not happy about this.

As Jessie walked away, Cissnei found herself wondering if she'd made the right decision. It still wasn't too late to leave AVALANCHE. The sooner she left, the sooner she'd stop endangering those around her. Barret's promise of protection just made her more uneasy. She didn't want anyone else to end up like Zack. Especially not because of her.

I don't want to leave... but the best thing to do is rarely the easiest. She hadn't wanted to betray the Turks by helping Zack too much, either, but she'd ended up doing so regardless. Too late, though.

A few steps away from her, she saw Tifa polishing a bar counter. She was giving the job a lot more of her attention than she required, not looking up even once. She wondered if Tifa remembered their promise to discuss things. Is there any point in having it now? Both Cloud and Zack were dead. There was nothing left worth discussing. And even if there were she was afraid of how she might react to the ensuing conversation.

I'll be damned if I cry in front of someone. I'm not going to cry at all. I'm a Turk, trained by Tseng. I don't take these things to heart.

Something about the atmosphere in the room made Cissnei feel mildly claustrophobic. "Tifa, I'm going for a walk to clear my head. Let the others know if they ask after me."

"Where to?" Tifa asked, still not looking up from her cleaning. Cissnei wondered if she was letting her long hair cover her face like that to hide her emotions from Cissnei.

"Nowhere in particular. I shouldn't take more than half an hour, but... I'd rather go alone, if that's all right with you."

"It's fine," Tifa replied, looking down. "I'll let them know."

Irish-Brigid: aaand you would be right :). One Upper Plate, incoming. Shade the Hero, I'm glad you like Reno, since this chapter is mostly him. Also, I also got a lot of my information from cutscene movies, too, since I don't actually play video games a lot.

I'm sorry to everyone who wanted more of the other characters (besides Reno, I mean), but this scene was necessary.

So, no Cloud right now, unfortunately. He will be back soon, I promise, along with Aerith. I just couldn't find a way to fit them in.

P.S. Things are about to get exciting... pretty soon ;). Just saying.