Rude lit the cigarette and tossed the lighter back to Reno, who caught it with the palm of his left hand. He placed it back into his suit pocket.
Reno was rather bored standing in that hallway, but he had nothing better to do. His apartment was a total wreck thanks to a party he had with the Shinra board a week ago and he didn’t feel like cleaning the shit up. Scarlet was the head of The Weaponry Department of Shinra, but she never had much success in creating good weapons minus the Proud Clod. Heidegger, was in business with her in making weapons but he was more concerned with being the boss of the Turks. Unfortunately, they were rivals and you couldn’t trust them in the same room together, especially if they’re drunk. Hojo was head of Shinra’s Science Exploration Department, but he had died recently. Palmer, a rather stupid man was head of Shinra’s Space Exploration Program, but he died too. Didn’t he? … Maybe, I don’t know… Reeve, was a normal Shinra employee to Reno, because Reno had no clue what he worked for. Reno thought he was a great guy, and deserved to be coming to his parties at his place. The other Turks, along with Reno were Elena and Rude. Well… there was Tseng… But… Gee… I wonder why Tseng couldn’t make it… Reno thought.
Tseng was one of his fellow Turks who had died recently. Tseng was still very young, he was only three months younger than Rufus. Tseng was twenty-four when he died, and he was a very well respected Turk. That bastard… Reno thought, That bastard Sephiroth… he killed him! He was very angry when he heard the news of Tseng’s death from Elena. He puffed his cigarette with his lips and blew the smoke out. Tseng was born in Kalm twenty-four years ago, three years after his older brother, Sien. Tseng’s mother, Caleigh, was quite young when she gave birth to her sons, and their father, Lang Edon, was older, but not by much. Tseng grew up with an older brother and a dog, and luckily, both of his parents. His dog’s name was something like Zarik, Reno couldn’t remember.
Caleigh was a tall woman, with brown hair and brown eyes. Their father was also tall, but he was a very tall and very skinny man. Lang Edon was his name, first name that is. Lang was tall, had almost black eyes they were so brown and extremely brown hair, which looked almost black as well. His brother ended up with stranger genes than Tseng had. Sien was tall which was normal in the family, Tseng was tall as well, but his brother had brown hair, normal brown hair with natural highlights of gold. Tseng had dark brown hair, almost black like their father. Tseng had brown eyes like his mother, but his brother ended up with blue eyes. Obviously, the genes were strangely set up.
When Tseng was ten years old, his father died of a heart attack and the family was left in Kalm without a father. Sien was then thirteen and he already had a job at the bar working night shifts as waiter. They had enough money from when their father was working as a store owner. Soon, their mother was placed as the owner of their store, but Reno couldn’t remember what kind of store it was. Porn store… ha ha… Their dog also died around that time. Anyway, his mother had worked for a clothing designer and was out of town a lot of the time. When Tseng’s mother died, he was fourteen years old, and she had taken his older brother Sien along on a business trip to Gold Saucer. The Gold Saucer was where they both died when an accident occurred. Tseng only mentioned the word “accident” and he never said anything else. Tseng told Reno about his past when Reno invited him over to his place. But then, Tseng was so depressed by his brother’s loss, because he had loved his brother a lot, that he tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself in his midsection. Unfortunately, someone had caught him doing it. Tseng joined Shinra at fifteen and was placed in the Turks. Reno joined one year later, when he was thirteen, Rude joined about four months after Reno when he was fifteen, and Elena was placed in Reno’s position after Reno was seriously hurt at twenty-two.
When Reno had invited Tseng over to his apartment that night, Tseng also spoke of a friend he had in Kalm, when she moved there around the time he turned thirteen. She was twelve then, and was rather small for a twelve year-old. Tseng said he had fallen in love with her, her name was Liana or something like that. Anyway, Tseng had mentioned that Liana moved when his mother and Sien had died, and he never saw her again until a couple years before she died. Even then, he felt like he wasn’t even seeing her real face. Oh God… Liana… Luckily, he gave Reno a picture and showed him what Liana looked like. Tseng said he had never fallen in love with a woman other than her after she left Kalm. Liana, Reno had to agree with Tseng, was a very beautiful woman. Liana was tall in the picture, which Tseng had taken of her two months before she left, with golden brown hair hanging off on the left side of her face, cut off right in the middle of her neck, and the rest hung in a ponytail behind her head. Liana had beautiful cerulean colored blue eyes and a very slim body. She was rather flat in the picture and didn’t have much of a curve in her hips, but Reno knew otherwise.
Yeah… I met her some years ago… but why didn’t I tell him we were dating? … Well… for personal reasons… I couldn’t…
Reno found out that she was not a very healthy woman either. Liana had caught on an addiction to smoking when Reno had offered her a cigarette once. But the smoking caused her health to steep low. He remembered, Liana once had pneumonia and was sent to the hospital for over two weeks. Cause was smoking.
Reno had dated her for over three years after he had met her in Midgar, according to Tseng’s picture of Liana he had given Reno. She didn’t know him, but they grew to know each other very well. Three years later, and still Reno had not told Tseng of their dating, Liana was making bad decisions. She decided to not date Reno anymore, because she disliked his drinking habit. Then, she met Rufus, the son of President Shinra and was engaged to be married to him in less than four months after she had left Reno. But, the wedding was canceled because she died.
Reno had cried for days, he had still loved her and had seen her a lot in the Shinra Headquarters. They still remained good friends after she left. Liana was never quite a member of the Turks, but the Turks thought she was. Rude had liked her as a good friend, and he loved to go out in the hall alone with her outside Reno’s apartment and share a cigarette or two. Tseng, never knew Reno was dating her, but he only knew they were friends. Rufus had met her in a Shinra Board Meeting and Reno took her along to listen. Liana didn’t have a job then, but she helped with Shinra’s plans once in a while.
Reno never found out anything about her, not even when they were dating each other. He remembered the day she had died.
Liana was exploring Dr. Hojo’s laboratory with him once and she gazed inside a tank containing a Mako infested creature. Since Liana had to have Mako injected inside of her before she was born to keep her alive because of some rare type of disease, the chemicals reacted to each other and caused a mysterious type of explosion. At first, Reno thought Hojo had killed her, because he was the one who had injected the child with Mako years ago, had done it on purpose and had planned something. Reno knew nothing of her. Only the fact that he loved her…
I can’t even imagine it… she died a virgin… God, and I had my chance once! But… I need her right now. I remember the constant smoke drifting from her cigarette in the bedroom… she slept in my bed… together with me… We were… so… young…
Reno gazed at Rude, who had almost finished his cigarette. His eyes started to well up with tears, and he held a cry of pain in his throat. Reno wouldn’t cry now, because men never cried. But Rude had spent so much time and had smoked so many cigarettes with her… Reno couldn’t handle it…
Reno slammed his fist into the wall when he turned his body around to the right. The plaster on the wall crackled once or twice as the force of the impact rendered it to nothing but only a helpless wall that could be cracked or vandalized, a plain wall with red paint. Reno leaned his body against the wall, his one hand that now hurt like raging hell flew to his green eyes and he wiped them with his fingers. He began to slide down on the wall and Rude crushed his cigarette under his foot to help his companion in the hall. Reno threw his cigarette away, not extinguishing the hot ashes and watched with wet tearing eyes as it fell on the carpet and burned out itself. He let out a choked sob and bent his knees and wrapped his arms around them in a fetal and weak position.
Rude sat down on the floor next to him on the red carpet and wrapped one
arm around his shoulder. He asked, concerned, “… Reno? Reno…
you okay?”
“God…” Reno sobbed, wiping his eyes with his hands. He slammed his foot on the carpet and screamed out in the desolate hall, “You bitch! God, does it look like I’m all right?!”
“Well… I’m only concerned for you Reno. I mean… well… you’ve been different… lately. I don’t mean physically, I mean both mentally and physically. You… aren’t yourself…”
“How would you measure that, Rude?!” Reno spat at him, placing his hand flat on the floor and raising his fist up to his chest level. He was starting to get quite angry with his fellow Turk.
Rude sighed, and said, “You… never cry. Never once have I seen… you… cry.”
Reno gazed into Rude’s pair of sunglasses and only thought silently, You can’t even begin… to imagine my pain. Yet… your past. Nevermind, Reno. Reno, don’t even think about his past, Rude’s past has nothing to do with her. Only the time spent in the halls, only time was what you had with her! You… oh God I need… a drink… and I need it… now… Reno brought his fist down from his chest level and set it on his lap in a comfortable, yet cool and rested position. He remembered it all when Rude had told him about it. Not that it mattered any…
Rude was the oldest of four children in a port called Junon. His mother, Lydia was twenty when she had him, and a year later, his twin sisters, Erika and Hope were born in Junon. His father, a man named Horoshin, then got a promotion in his occupation after his youngest was born two years after Erika and Hope. They named their daughter Cassidy after Lydia’s grandmother, because before they could give their new baby a name, Lydia died from complications with breathing and loss of blood. Rude’s mother had mentioned naming one of their children Cassidy. Rude’s mother was the one in the family who had a darker skin tone than their father, but she had naturally brown hair and blue eyes. Though Lydia was never around because of her occupation as an electric circuit repairer, she had a reputation at the house when she was gone. Horoshin took care of the children by day, and went to his job at night as a instructor of self defense. Horoshin was a tall man with black hair and extremely dark brown eyes, almost sable or eerily similar to an ebony. He had light skin, which all of his daughters inherited, but Cassidy was growing taller than her sisters, because Erika and Hope were a little shorter, thanks to their mother. Rude was tall, had black hair like his father but had darker skin. A lot darker than he liked at times.
Rude spent his childhood on the beach, swimming, and accomplishing a great deal in school. His grades were very well, however, his social life was a drag. Rude was made fun of constantly in school, about how tall he was, his crushes on other girls in school, or sometimes about the fact that he had entered puberty a little earlier than they had. Unfortunately, Rude grew to ignore speaking to people that but three words at a time.
By the time Rude had grown to be ten years old, his father had taught him almost everything about self defense. It was also around this time when Shinra was sending troops to Junon and through-out the waters in vessels because of nasty threats of war breaking out. They never knew Shinra had plans for their nice home of Junon.
When Rude was fifteen, Shinra had almost finished completing a sector on top of their beach in Junon, which polluted everything in sight. Citizens were angry, and began to argue when Shinra started giving people the go-ahead to boss citizens of Junon. Horoshin had no of it, and when he went to protest with others, he never came back. When a day had passed, Rude knew his father was dead and sent his sisters down to the Item Shop down the street to their good friend who was employed there. Rude set out to find a different shelter on the other side of Junon, where his sisters wouldn’t annoy him with questions. Though Erika and Hope complained, their friend came to the rescue and helped Rude along. Sadly, a fire was set ablaze on the Item Shop by Shinra and his sisters couldn’t be found in the ash. Altogether, Rude was alone. Alone…
“Reno? Reno… are you still with me?”
Reno was gazing off into the other direction, and hadn’t moved in three minutes. Rude had been shaking him, but he didn’t take notice. He pulled his hand up and looked at Rude helplessly. He replied, “I’m sorry… what…?”
“Reno, holy shit. What is wrong with you?”
“… I’m really sorry about the mess with you… and your… past and all.” Reno replied, scratching his head with his fingers and throwing his goggles off his forehead and placing them limply on his spiky brown-red hair. He wasn’t frustrated with Rude anymore. “I guess it came up with why… why…”
“You were crying?”
Reno sighed and took out another cigarette from his pocket. “Yeah… I guess so.”
Rude took his arm and placed it on Reno’s knee and waved his right arm around in gesture. He asked, “Reno… don’t take this… personally, but… why were you crying…?” He shoved his right hand into the pocket of his dark navy blue pants and further wrinkled the material. He adjusted his sunglasses on his eyes and scratched the black stubble on his face with his fingers.
Reno lit the cigarette with the lighter, stuck the lighter away in his blue pocket and puffed the smoke in his mouth. He wiped a tear away from his eye and blew the white concoction out through his nose. He rested his head back on wall, anger rising inside his body. Reno did take the question personally, even if Rude told him not to. I can’t believe this! Why the fuck should I tell him? The bastard doesn’t even know anything! I can’t take it in front of him!
Reno slammed his fist on the red wall again and replied, “Why the fuck should you care?! You… didn’t even know her… like I did! I’ll, I’ll kill somebody… if I have to!”
With that, he climbed up from his weak position and began to run down the hall in the building. Rude reached his hand out to him to grab his arm, but he only could grasp empty air infested with smoke. He stood lonely and watched Reno run down the hall with his cigarette grasped between his fingers. Rude called out to him, “Reno! Reno, get back here!”
But silence took its place after the echo was repeated once… twice… and three times before Reno turned to his left on his way to the balcony of the top floor. Rude sighed, knowing Elena would probably greet him on the top of the balcony, where she normally sat to think.
He turned to walk down the deserted hall.
.
Reno had gotten away from him, him, as in his friend that used to be his friend but no longer is his friend because he asked a personal question men never ask other men about. He had turned left to the stairs and was on his way up to the top. He ran up the stairs three at a time.
Reno laughed as he ran up to the stairway. His usual spot up in the balcony, or the deck, was just waiting for him! He would run all the way up and climb the hedges up to the roof of the deck. It was more like a gazebo, but it didn’t matter what it was… just as long as Elena wasn’t there.
Reno heard a soft mumble above.
His steps began to slow gradually. He slowed, and slowed and continued to stop his tracks when he heard another low and rough grumble above his head.
I have to stop here, I need to stop. I need to stop! His footsteps from his black leather boots finally ceased to pound on the stairs. He heard the low grumbling again from the stairs, a human, male, not a creature, it was human, he was human. What is that annoying sound? Who could be doing that?
… I really wish… Rude, yeah… I wish Rude was here. … I was kinda mean to him… wasn’t I? I guess I shouldn’t have… blown my top and all… I bet he feels really bad right now. … Oh man what should I do?!
A loud sound came from above Reno, a loud click of something.
Holy shit! What the hell was that?!
Another click sounded through the stairway.
… Hey… hey wait… a minute! I think… yeah! I know that sound… I know that sound! Is it her?!
A soft laugh came from above his head. His back sent a shivering chill up to his neck.
That can’t be… it isn’t. I was… hoping, but… she’s not there. But… I still know that sound… like… like it was a… sound that was pounded into my head, again and again…
A chilling evil voice rose from cracked lips.
“Again and again… again… and again…”
!!!
Reno turned his body around as fast as he could to face his opponent and reached for his weapon. He couldn’t find it there, he couldn’t find it.
His opponent laughed again, and held out something. “Is this… yours?” A long silver rod extended from his opponent’s fingers and his opponent sparked the weapon. Flashes of blue green light came from the end of the silver rod and the smell of electricity ran through Reno’s nose.
Reno began to panic, a sign that didn’t show on the outside but a complete and total shiver of panic ran through his veins on the inside and he dropped his cigarette from his hand on the floor. He had forgotten about his cigarette he was smoking.
A flash of light came from the dropped cigarette. Sparks of flames ignited near his boot. He jumped back from the hot flames and slammed himself against the wall. His exit was blocked, and he couldn’t go down.
Holy shit! I’m stuck, I can’t get out! I can only… go…
Reno dashed up on the stairs, not caring if he had a run-in with his opponent. He still didn’t know quite what he looked like, his opponent that is, but he had a hunch on who it was. Reno had two choices, a third one wasn’t optional.
One… I could die from the inhalation of the smoke from the flames… if I decide to go back down… Two… I could continue up and face him… and die… Last, I… I can’t use the third.
… No windows…
… No doors…
No escape route…
No… future…
An image flashed through his head like a speeding bullet and he grasped his temples with his fingers. A woman arrived to greet him on the balcony, the gazebo was filled with bright lights, and sounds like gunshots, trains blowing their horns, rolling wheels, shouting and killing… oh how he wanted to rid those sounds from the deck and from his head. Reno screamed, “No, you can’t come back to me! Not to him either! You’re… dead, you’re supposed to be dead!!” as he ran up the stairs.
He arrived at the top of the stairs and arrived to meet his challenger. Reno closed his green eyes and breathed in slowly as he heard another click. A soft fetal click, not as loud as the others.
“Would you like to meet her again… you filthy son-of-a-bitch?”
Reno hissed as he launched himself at the person. He was in the air for one second, barely, before falling flat on his face. He yelled out with his manly voice and grasped his badly bleeding nose, blood trickling down his fingers. His attacker came around and grabbed his suit. He pulled Reno up to his face, his breath shallowly coming in and out. He hissed, “Who am I you… coward? You coward…”
Reno opened his eyes and continued to hold his bleeding nose. He could smell the smoke of the fire in his nose, even if it was filled with red blood. It smelled awful.
So this ends it for me…
His green eyes widened as he saw the attacker’s face.
Reno tried to get out of his grasp. “Son-of-a-bitch! President Ru-“
“That’s all for now you ass!” he shouted, and pointed a weapon to Reno’s chest. A loud bang was heard in the hall, yet not a person opened their doors to see the raging fire or the commotion in the red hall.
Soon… Reno could see nothing…
.
Rude was not quite out of the building yet. He still gazed blankly in the halls, wondering if Reno was going to come back. Even if he thought Reno wasn’t he sure had a feeling in his head.
That was when he heard a loud shot from inside the building.
Rude turned around in surprise, his hands knocking against the wall. He knew it was Reno, it had to be Reno because this apartment building was for Shinra employees only. Top members had the luxury apartments on the top, SOLDIER members next, and finally, your average secretary, your average Shinra worker helping in any of the Departments. He stopped in his tracks on the forty-seventh floor, and waited to hear something on the fiftieth floor.
Rude didn’t hear anything and he grew worried. He started running again and opened the door to the stairs. On the way, he almost knocked into several Shinra employees who were wondering what the racket was all about. He nearly knocked several SOLDIER members, a woman in a fancy dress with a look in her eye that said, “I’ve been partying, can’t you tell?!” and several others. He had reached the forty-eighth floor and he began to smell something. Something like… he sniffed the air with his nose… something like burning plaster and rubber. Rubber, maybe not, but it didn’t matter, because Reno was up in the top levels. He dashed up the stairs and opened the doors to the forty-ninth floor.
He had barely begun to open the door to the fifty-first floor after jumping over the flames in the stairwell when he could smell something… something, not the flames…
Don’t make a move… Rude thought to himself.
… Just my imagination…
A musty smell arrived to his nose, and he put his hand over it. He coughed from the flames rising on the stairs, and he heard a window shatter open. Glass tinkled softly in the hall, and landed in tiny pieces on the carpeting.
What the hell happened?
The hallways were now coated with smoke, and the walls were now a more black color than red as he opened the door to the top level. This was the level where you could reach the gazebo. His apartment was only several feet away, and Reno’s was next to his, so he had a hunch Reno had only lit a cigarette, accidentally dropped it and made a run for his apartment and not be accused.
So then… where is Reno? Huh, Rude? … And really… what was that loud bang…?
He smelled something behind him again and he heard a clicking sound. Rude swallowed and dashed in a one-hundred eighty degree turn and faced the sound.
Nothing there.
How stupid… I must be hallucinating…
He took a few steps to his door and heard a window shattering. He stopped, hearing the glass tinkle on the floor.
Wait a minute… there isn’t any windows here…
Rude let out a choked sound and called out, “All right you son-of-a-bitch! I’m right here, come on and catch me! Right here, right now!”
No answer.
“You bitch! Come out and play!”
A soft whisper of wind blew behind Rude and he turned to see what it was. Still… nothing. He shouted out into the dark, “Reno! Reno, answer me!”
Nothing.
Rude grabbed his head, and his fingers slipped. He took another few steps to his door and fumbled for his key. He would go inside and call Shinra to put out the fire and help find his fellow Turk, and fellow friend. Rude unlocked the door and walked in.
He didn’t find a single thing wrong with his apartment, which was good. Rude smiled and laughed delicately to himself. He set his keys down on the coffee table in his living room. His apartment had ten rooms, measured on what you called them. He had his bedroom of course, which he had only slept in. Rude never had a girlfriend in his life, though he had several crushes as a teenager. His bedroom, and the four other bedrooms in his apartment were altogether five. One bedroom was really a guest bedroom, because when Reno got seriously drunk, Rude would take him to his place to rest. Reno never had his keys on him, yet his door was always locked. Reno never minded, he said sometimes that bed was a lot more comfortable than his own. Rude walked into the bathroom in the hallway to wash his sweating forehead and his damp face. Six rooms, now for the others. There was the living room, which was the largest room in his house, minus his bedroom. Two couches, three chairs, a large television set, stereo, everything.
Sure feels pretty damn good… to feel rich… I guess my job is damn well worth it. Being a Turk… yeah… Shinra does have its people…
His dining room was not exactly big, but he hadn’t planned on it being big. Eight rooms, the only other two were the office and his bathroom adjacent to his bedroom. The kitchen was connected to the living room, there was nothing blocking it.
He remembered Reno had invited him to his apartment once, and Rude was surprised to find it so much larger than his. Rude didn’t care though…
Being myself is enough…
He washed his face with cool water and closed the bathroom door after he was done. He stopped in the hallway when he smelled that scent again.
Is the constant clicking associated with it?
Rude shrugged his shoulders and turned the handle on his bedroom door to call the Shinra caretakers of the apartment. Rude threw the door against the wall.
Shinra always told me… keep calm in dire situations… keep your guard up, rest easy, and drink until you can’t even see who you’re sitting next to… … Reno sure didn’t do a good job today of keeping his promise to those rules… Wonder what’s eating him…
Rude turned his back to the bed and walked to the table to pick the phone up. He heard another clicking sound behind him and turned.
This time, he stood behind Rude.
Rude said, “P-President Shinra?! W-What are you d-doing here? I thought Heidegger said you w-were… were…”
“Dead? Goodness, of course not.”
Rude sighed and hung the phone up. He beckoned President Shinra to his door. “I need you to help me then. We need to put out a fire on the stairwell.”
“The one Reno started?”
“S-Sir?!” Rude replied, his hands shaking.
President Shinra smiled devilishly and proclaimed, “I mean the poor lazy coward whom rests on your bed right now…”
Rude’s eyes widened underneath his sunglasses and he turned to face his bed.
President Shinra continued smiling. He clicked something in place.
“Rude… he’s waiting for you…”
Reno was laying on his bed, his eyes closed, his teeth clenched together tightly and he was shaking violently with pain. Reno was only semi-conscious, but Rude knew he was a goner. Reno’s shirt was partially open, revealing a gaping hole in his chest, and blood… oh the blood was all over. His hissing between his teeth was causing shivers down Rude’s back.
Rude turned to President Shinra and yelled, “What the hell did you do to him Rufus?! What the hell is going to happen now you ass-hole!?”
Rufus nodded his head up and down. “You bitch! Come out and play.”
Rude was panicking severely, he needed a drink to calm his nerves.
Rufus smiled again and said, “Come out and play Rude… come out and play…”
The words echoed in Rude’s head over and again. He watched as President Shinra pulled something out from behind his back. A gun, his shotgun.
Rude shouted out frantically, “It’s ending here, you bastard! I’m killing you right now!”
“Not if I kill you first…”
President Shinra brought his shotgun up, just as Rude was taking a step to punch his face. Rufus aimed the barrel at Rude’s chest and took off a shot. Rude’s sunglasses fell off his face as he tumbled to the ground, his eyes closed.
Rufus stood, towering over Rude, who was only breathing in small amounts of air. Rude was still wreathing in his pain on the floor and his eyes were still closed. His teeth were clenched together tightly. Rufus gazed over to the bed and saw Reno’s face. Reno was almost dead, Rufus could feel it. His gunshot wasn’t enough, but his slow and painful death was enough to satisfy his taste to kill. He brought his shotgun over his head and attached it to his belt. The barrel was still smoking from the shot he took at Rude’s chest, which had a gaping hole filled with blood that was rushing out like a stream of water.
Rufus said, “Only… this is red water…”
He silently walked over to the bed and sat down on the wet and bloody dark blue covers. Reno was only slightly twitching and his body was being drained of his life. Rude was already gone, his breathing had stopped when President Shinra had stepped to the bed.
“So you didn’t die before Rude afterall…”
Reno opened one of his glazing green eyes and his eyebrow twisted in anger.
President Shinra laughed and pulled his gun out again from his belt. He smiled as he unlocked the trigger. Rufus brought his body up from the bed and held the gun at eye level. Aiming directly between Reno’s closed eyes, his finger tightened on the trigger and the gun fired, a speeding bullet rushing out. His aim wasn’t even near where he had aimed, but the blast was enough to send Reno into a pulsing shock. The blood began to pour out from his neck, or at least what was left of his body’s blood from the bullet in his chest and Reno hissed through his teeth. Then, silently, his shaking hands stopped and they dropped onto his midsection together, his left over his right. His teeth loosened and his mouth remained slightly ajar to reveal perfectly straight teeth and white as bone. White as bone that is, from his neck which showed a bloody bone in his neck cavity. Reno released his last breath and died.
Rufus grinned evilly, and set the gun back on his belt. He laughed loudly to himself and walked to the bedroom door. President Shinra returned a sloppy salute to the dead Turks. He didn’t need to destroy Elena, because she wasn’t there. His hand fell from his forehead and he closed his blue eyes. His head slumped down and his shoulders eased. After a moment, his head started to rise back up, his blue eyes now rising with them, his eyebrows held down in an evil position.
He saluted them for the last time and gazed at the fallen Turks.
“Game over.”