In the middle of the third interrogation, when Reno's head was already ringing with a few different tones, it was two or three o clock after midnight, a message arrived that there was suspicious movement at the underground levels. With the information he already had from Rubrum, the head of the Turks decided not to underestimate that and check it himself.
The lower levels of Shinra castle were no less expensive and vast, full mostly of laboratory wings, mako reserves and weaponry. Also a room full of old document boxes, servers of the entire building, and the morgue. Some of the bodies were kept there in case the close ones asked them back for a proper goodbye.
Reno got the elevator, then the stairs for the weaponry. It was all so quiet that his steps were ringing like he was wearing metal armor. Dark, empty, lonely. He almost felt a chill with the skin of his neck coming down here. It reminded him of the old mazes of rooms and corridors of Shinra. The bodies kept down there, the experiments. It all turned back to him, while he was heading for the location pointed at his device.
His red hair contrasting on the grey of the walls, his pale face illuminated by the screen of the device in his hands, his eyes watching in the dark with caution.
Rude was probably taking a deserved rest in the meeting hall, or in the office. Elena and Marlene for sure were to bed at this time, there was no need to wake them up until it was necessary.
His concern started growing since there was no one in the long dim corridors, the absence even of the guards was more than odd. Reno prepared his gun, keeping it low, making slow wide steps.
When he peeks behind the corner, the door of the weaponry was gaping open. That was the other proof that something wasn't right. The third one came almost immediately after that, a sound of running feet behind him.
His senses were tense and he expected to see someone, something. His eyes narrowed to the empty space in front of him.
At the moment Turk turned back, a shadow of a man came behind him and hit him in the back of the head, Reno lost balance for a moment and the gun was kicked off his hand.
He recognized the man. Hiess, a strong, tall, heavy trained, with a square cut face and sharp dark hair. The head of the security team. A brute man, an example of military shit.
Reno tried to hit him back but missed due to his sudden dizziness.
A painful strike in his jaw turned him back on the ground.
"Fuck…" Red haired spit blood and got on his feet immediately. His pepper temper came back in an instant. "So you are the little bitch that is mudding the waters around. I should have known."
Reno got a position ro fight, bringing his well known foldable rod. Hiess attacked. Reno kicked him in the chest and sent him back, the other man struck with equal force and Reno felt cracking in his right arm.
"You are starting to get on my nerves, scum!"
"Oh, am I?" The security asked. "Maybe I should talk to your little girlfriend out here, pretty girl, indeed!"
Reno lost it at that moment and attacked with a pure rage in his mind and actions. That was the last drop, he was about to gut this rat right away. Reno attacked, a few hits exchanged, each of the men equally determined to destroy the other. Reno struck with the rod and dislocated his shoulder, Hiess hit him in the abdomen and sent him back on the ground.
A second, that what it takes in such a moment, and the young Turk knew it. At the moment Hiess raised his fist to break his skull, a sound of a gunshot came in the corridor.
BANG!
Blood spilled in Reno's face. Bullet hole in the forehead of the man smoked while the body fell on the floor.
Rude was standing right behind him, weapon still pointed straight, his face was ice cold.
Three men of the guards were already running their way, Rude put his gun down and made a few steps closer, his face still dangerously mad, offering a hand to his partner. Reno took it and had a lift.
"You saved my ass, partner. Again." Reno was brushing his jaw.
"I saved more than that." Rude was dark as usual.
Reno was still touching his jaw and feeling discomfort when they turned back to the office.
"We have their names, sir." Elena was just saying, Rufus standing there like a lighthouse in a stormy sea, an obvious threat in his posture.
"Bring them to me." His ice cold voice ordered. "I will deal with them myself."
"You have it." Reno was still in not his best shape, but rushed to the door with the others.
His Turks, Rufus, thought. His loyal servants. His pride and stubbornness wouldn't allow him to tell Reno to take care of his injuries first. Or Elena to take care because she was the weakest of all. He hardly granted anyone with something more than a cold glance, even now, after all this time.
He cared about them, those reckless people who would risk flesh and bone for him. Rufus's influence over Reno and Rude seemed almost paradoxical, but they had witnessed the darkest days of Shinra, and they believed in the new path being forged under Rufus's leadership. Their faith in the company and its future was profound and unshakeable.
.
Rufus couldn't share less care about the man they brought him at the late hours of the night. Turks stashed him in the president's feet, Rufus' gaze fell on him like on a piece of garbage, staining the neat floor.
"So you are the one who corrupted my people to work against me, huh?"
Three of them, Reno, Elena and Rude standing by the wall, watching in silence how the worst, the darkest side of Rufus came alive. He draws his gun out and shoots the man in the leg. Man started screaming in pain.
"It turns out you actually succeed in that, but you see, I didn't build my name on foam."
Before the man could replay, Rufus raised his gun and shot him in the head.
.
Three days later the atmosphere was still numb. One of his business partners arranged the assassination, of course. Not for the first time, nor for the last. Turks secured the entire building. People were unpredictable, dangerous, sly. They would attempt another attack, he was sure of it. But none of his army underestimates their own strength, determination and faith in him. Rufus could hardly ask for something better.
.
President refused even to discuss his returning to the old office. They cleaned it from the explosion and whoever wanted it could take it. Instead he chose a relatively smaller space at the ninth floor with a view to the east-southern part, also providing everything for his daily activities.
New office was sickle shaped, not little by size and with less people in the surrounding rooms.
Sitting there in silence, staring at the black leather couch before the windows, he couldn't help but think of how things turned for him. His ever loyal Turks now were searching for any other sign of a threat, still locking the building, his army standing in front of him as a living shield, and still he was a target.
Rufus abandoned his place behind the wide black desk and started walking around in silence. He chose this path, his need to create something different, to rule and possess. He was a man with ambitions that he wasn't even trying to deny. After all, he guessed, the shadow of his father would ever weigh over him, turning him into a tyrant in people's eyes.
It was comical and sad, actually, a mocking grin to himself made the corners of his mouth twist a little. The very few people that really knew him could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
.
Someone knocked at his door, he barked a short order.
"Come in!"
It was Marlene, wearing a pile of papers, records, reports.
"I came to bring you these, sir." She left them on his desk and respectfully took a step back.
The eyes of this man scared the girl. She knew his story and all, but his insensitive, almost motionless demeanor stunned her.
"You are dismissed." Was the only thing Rufus said to her, and she almost ran to escape his office.
He stayed, staring at the windows of his office, his face impenetrable, yet something inside of him was about to break.
.
Reno was making his inspection of the south wing when he saw Marlene sitting at one of the benches in the corridor. Her expression stressed, he slowly approached.
"Yoo, girly, isn't it late to wander alone?"
She didn't answer and Reno noticed her nervous gestures, biting her lips, her fingers fidget the hem of her jacket.
"What's the matter?" he came closer and kneel down, watching her.
They were really like an older brother and younger sister. Reno felt the need to protect her from the moment the girl passed Shinra's doors. Her condition now was worrying.
"You wanna talk? Or should I spoil you with some candies?" he dragged out a chocolate in bright wrap and gave it to her, she smiled. "What's it, Marlene, talk to me."
Reno sat next to her, her body language, her nervous behavior were a sign of distress.
"Can you tell me more about the president?"
That took him aback, but he didn't hesitate.
"He scared you or something?"
Marlene was furiously folding her jacket, he got her hand and held it in an attempt to calm herself down.
"He's like… Like… A man without a soul!" the girl spat out. "He freaks me out!"
Reno starts laughing.
"Oh yeah, the first expression, the cold facade Rufus was putting in front of others." Reno thought a little before he started his tale, Shinra needed devoted units and it wouldn't happen with fear among their lines. "I bet you heard about the old Shinra past." He said, carefully, sparing her from the worst of the old times. "There were dark times, really terrible things his father did."
"His father?" Marlene raised her eyes.
"Boss inherited it all from his father, the former president. Greedy, spineless, soulless man. Under his command humans were enslaved, tortured, experimented on and killed. That's how Sephiroth was born, and Genesis, and all. That's how Cloud turned like this. The day they brought survivors from Nibelheim we got what they were going to do with them and refused to have anything with it, orders or not. We were still stupid Turks back then but we weren't blind. We refused to take part of the holocaust and that's when the riot against the company started. They took them into the laboratory and those who survived were kept there for three years."
Marlene was staring at him with an open mouth and fright in her eyes.
"You mean... Cloud?"
Reno nodded with a grim expression on his face.
"Even that guy, Zack, he was one of our best units. They put him in a tube just because he realized what was going on."
Marlene covered her mouth with both hands and made a sound of shock.
Yeah, Reno thought. It wasn't easy to process all this. The terror, the fear, the memories keeping you awake at night.
"Rufus hated his father back then to the point he tried to take down the president himself, with different intentions, but still, I bet he still hates him. He saved our asses, we were all goners. "
"I still can't understand." Girls said. "You are so devoted to this job, like your life depends on it."
Of course he did. He believed in this new Shinra, rebuilt from the ashes of the past.
"President has been through a lot, Marlene. After being neglected by his own father, he went through another, different kind of hell. They kept him in captivity for months, torturing him, when we finally found him he was skin and bone, abandoned all hope, and with the stigma. You can't stay sane after all this."
She was holding her hands together, terrified of this story.
"He asked about you, actually. He was concerned."
Her eyes opened wide.
"He did?"
Reno nodded and smiled. For a short time.
"Not many people can say they know the boss, only three of us, actually. And now you."