"What's the occasion" he asked, rushing to the Hall, the new Shinra meeting room. God knows how much money they spent to make it the most modern and advanced at the building.
"It was a new attack, just an hour ago" Rude was on his right side, almost running to the elevators, where other agents were waiting.
"An hour? But it's just…"
"Just after the first attack" he finished the line. "I know."
"Anyone died this time?"
"No" Rude managed to get in the elevator before the door closed, there was barely space to move inside, everybody was going to the Hall."But two more are missing."
"Man, we are like chickens in a hen house, they will take us one by one."
"Talk about yourself, moron!" some of the other agents said behind Reno's back.
"Eat me."
Arriving at the Hall, it was full this time. Rufus Shinra was dressed as always, in white, recovered completely after geostigma was gone from his organism, he started immediately even before people, Turks and Soldier took their places.
"I want to know who kills my people!"
Modern dark room with lights hidden under a dark blue reflective ceiling was making place luxury. Many mobile screens were placed in front of the people in the hall, diagrams, numbers, pictures of the missing agents were circling all around the information tablets.
Rufus was mad, as he hardly could be seen. Known for being a calm and reasonable leader, now he was making big steps around and his moves were sharp.
"Move, all of you!" he said at the end of the very short meeting, after all of the people were provided the little information they had. "I don't wanna hear about a single accident anymore! Any information you have, the smallest detail… I want you back here reporting, am I clear?"
"Yes, sir" everybody said.
"Or else!"
"Man, this is bad…" someone behind them said while Reno and Rude were on the move again, this time to the roof to get one of the choppers.
"Tell me about it."
Reno said nothing while they were at the elevator, but when they stepped out of the building and black night sky fell on them, like it was a cap over the entire world, hiding them from the sun, he stopped and put his hands in his pockets.
"Come on, man, we are in quadrant C. I got some sandwiches; we will spend the entire night… What now, you froze there?"
"When you came to my room…"
Reno was biting his tongue, he had to tell him, Rude was his partner.
"What was that?" The other man took a step back. "I can't hear a thing, the damn chopper.
"When you came to my room, I was with Akane."
"What?" he made another step back. "You lucky bastard!"
Rude was laughing Reno wasn't.
"Wait, how she left, I didn't see her. Are you coming?"
"Through the window" Reno was still like glued to the ground.
"Very funny, man. So what? Since when? Are you going to…"
"She is a Mutant. She killed our people."
Next thing that happened was Rude grabbed Reno's shoulder and pulled him closer to the chopper. There were no microphones on the roof, but cameras were still catching them.
"WHAT!?" Rude took off his glasses and finally left the red haired.
Reno told him about their conversation; Rude was covering his face with a hand, then suddenly hit him so hard on the back of the neck that Reno could see sparkling stars in the sky that had not a single one tonight. "What have you…"
"Reno, Rude, go already!" Rufus' voice scolded them on the megaphone and they had to leave the conversation behind.
"What the hell were you thinking, we need to go back and report, are you out of your mind!?"
"We are going on watch, it will take an hour or two…"
"No! Rufus must be informed now!" Rude opposed.
"Then go inform him!" Reno said and turned his back on him, getting on the last chopper standing there, waiting for it's passengers.
They were flying in silence, only voices on the other side of the line were speaking from time to time, reporting they found nothing and sharing location. They could see the entire city from above, never sleeping light and green lights, reactors, homes of people, renovated center with the ruined monument, a fixed bridge, and the church.
Rude was mad, Reno – even more, both silent.
"This is the most stupid thing you've done in your entire career" said at least Rude, who was clenching his teeth since they got on the chopper. "Including setting on fire the Reactor 12.
"Just spare me the bullshit, man, I'm not in mood…"
"You better be."
"You weren't there!" Reno finally turned his glare at his partner. "I tried. I wanted to attack her and kill her, but she blocked me. Even if I managed to reach for my gun, she would gut me before I knew it. And even more…"
He turned right, like he was checking how things are going through the window.
"What?"
"I saw a little girl there, not a monster. She is not controlling the transformations, I couldn't just… Couldn't just execute her!"
"For the chocobo's sake, Reno!" Rude almost swore at him.
"You think I failed, did you? Just say it!" Reno snapped. "Say I'm a poor excuse of a Turk." Reno turned the chopper right and reported they found nothing. His arms shake on the steering wheel.
"I think you never were a Soldier" said Rude, serious but without a judge in his voice this time. "That's why you never became one. Those guys are trained to kill, we are not."
Reno looked at him and moved his turquoise sight fast, like he was ashamed.
"Yeah."
"We need to tell Rufus who is killing our people, every next corpse found is our responsibility. Willingly or not, this girl is a treat, a danger to our people."
"He will send to kill her" said the red haired man.
"It's not ours to judge. We have to, man, this is our duty."
Few hours later Reno locked himself in his room again. This time not circling, he was sitting in his black couch instead, passing pale fingers through his red hair. After the checking they went to Rufus' office and told him about Akane. Like they expected, he was mad at them both and removed them from the case.
"If I see your face out of your rooms, I will ground your asses for life, you hear me?!"
Now Rude was cleaning his weapons to have something to do, he was mad at himself, at Rufus and mostly at Reno. Reno was amok, he saw himself in the eyes of that girl, she was scared, and he was so good at hiding his fear in front of others, his boss, his partner. He has been trying so hard to repay all his debts since he came here. Still could remember the death of that kid, Zakk Fair, first class Soldier they couldn't find in time and he died trying to protect Cloud. He never liked Cloud either, at least he was fighting for what he thought was right. Reno was running and running.
He grabbed his wand from the table and threw it with anger at the other side of the room. At the same moment a shadow appeared on the wall and he turned, standing face to face with Akane again.