The Rise

Reno wasn't surprised when Rufus was gone in the morning. It's not as though he expected cuddling and breakfast from some one like Rufus Shinra. He wondered how he was supposed to navigate his way out of the building, but the small elevator only went to one place, and that was to the hallway outside of Rufus' office. And when he got there there was a guard waiting for him, more than happy to escort him out. As soon as he got home he fell back into bed. It had, after all, been a long night.

* * *

Reno's cell phone buzzed and vibrated on the floor of his coffin. A dull, soft noise, but enough to wake him up, and when he picked it up he saw it was almost two in the afternoon.

"Hello?" he said, his tongue thick with sleep.

"Reno, my man," came Gabe's voice, though it took Reno a moment or two to place. "How are you doing this fine day?"

"It's the same old shit as any other day," Reno replied. He made a grab for his cigarettes. "What's with the phone call?"

"I have a job you might be interested. Are you looking for work?"

Reno paused. Thought about it for a second. "Yeah, man, I'm always looking for work."

"That's nice to know, my man." A chuckle, low and humorless. "Stop by my office sometime today. At your leisure, of course."

Reno sat up as he hung up the phone. He took a drag, enjoying it for a moment, wondering what Gabe had in mind.

An hour later he was outside of the familiar office, feeling a lot better than he had an hour before. Awake, clean, and caffeinated, he all but bounded up the stairs to Gabe's office. Some one was coming out, one of Gabe's regular men, a muscle-bound tough with a mohawk that barely came up to Reno's shoulders.

"Go ahead," the guy said as he walked past Reno, "no one else in there right now."

Reno pushed the door open and stepped in, taking a seat when Gabe motioned for him to do so.

"Reno. I'm glad you came."

"Yeah, well, could always use the extra cash. This doesn't involve Shinra, does it?"

"Would it bother you if it did?" the words came from the door, and Rufus flicked lazy eyes over to see a tall, black-haired man blocking the doorway.

"Reno," Gabe said, "this is my business associate at the moment, Yuta."

"Yeah," Reno said, "got it. And, yeah, I'm not getting involved if Shinra is. You really fucked me over last time Gabe."

There was a silence then, Gabe and Yuta intently watching Reno, and the tension of it was enough to make Reno sit up a little straighter then he had been. His eyes made a quick scan of the room. Possible exits, possible techniques, possible weapons. Not that he didn't have some on himself.

"Did we?" Gabe asked. He leaned forward, smiling in a very hard way. "Reno, you wouldn't mind indulging me, would you? If I asked you one small question."

"Shoot."

"What exactly is your relationship with Rufus Shinra?"

Reno felt himself go cold. "You kidding? You think someone with a name like Shinra knows someone like me?"

"That's exactly what we think," Yuta replied, moving forward to stand by Gabe's desk. "In fact, that's what we know. We've seen Rufus come to your apartment. We've seen you escorted to and from Shinra Towers. So, Reno, if you would please answer the question."

"So we've fucked a few times," Reno said, careful to watch their reactions. "I don't know him. Wouldn't even be able to get in touch with him if I wanted to."

"Are you sure about that?" Gabe asked. "Because there are two people who are, right now, very interested that you get in touch with Rufus Shinra."

Gabe pressed a button on a remote on his desk, and one of the monitors behind him flickered to life. Reno's hands clenched around the armrests of his chair as he watched the scene unfold. Hedge and Dill, confined in some small room somewhere, looking completely bored and a little concerned but ultimately unharmed.

"What exactly do you want from me?" Reno asked. "Whatever you want, I don't have it."

"But Rufus does," Yuta explained. "You see, right now Shinra is stockpiling weapons and materia in the jungles outside Wutai. We want the locations of these storehouses. We want the passcodes."

Reno shook his head. "So, what? You think Rufus will give that information to me? Sorry to break it to you, but I ain't got that kind of pull."

Gabe studied him, leaned back in his chair. "You better find some way, Reno, sometime in the next twenty-four hours. Because if you don't, my man, your friends are dead."

Gabe was smiling at him, a polite, pleasure-doing-business-with-you smile, but his eyes were hard and vacant. Reno's mouth was dry, and for once he didn't know what to say back. It was a moot point anyway, as there were guards pulling him out of his chair and tossing him out of the office.

"Twenty-four hours," Yuta said from the doorway, "I look forward to hearing back from you, Reno."

Reno walked a little bit, not really sure of where he was going, before collapsing in some random, darkened alleyway. His legs just gave out from underneath him. He cradled his head in his hands, heart racing. He felt sick. What the fuck was he going to do?

* * *

Shinra Showroom was a huge, multi-floor affair, taking up the first six floors of Shinra Towers. It was where the latest in technology would be shown off, from cars to computers to microwaves, on bright and well-lit platforms that turned and floated appealingly for consumers. It was the most accessible part of Shinra Towers, some mechanism of security protecting it from where Shinra's decisions were really made.

Reno had been making his way through it for a few hours, searching for just what that mechanism was. He was careful to avoid cameras and security guards, knowing that he looked suspicious enough, even if he hadn't been loitering around the showroom for so long. The possibilities ran themselves over in his head, but none of them looked good. He could just try to fight his way up. . . that was the plan that he called Certain Suicide. No, he was calculating for survival, so it had to be something covert.

As far as he could tell, the workers here didn't even have clearance to enter the rest of the tower, connected to the showroom by a certain pair of elevators in a less crowded area of the store, two guards always standing outside of them. Jesus, Reno though, Shinra and their secret elevators. In the few hours he had been staking it out, Reno saw maybe one person go in through those elevators.

There was another entrance, through the lobby of Shinra Corp., but that was even more heavily guarded. There were five checkpoints to go through just to get inside of there, and Reno didn't have the time to make up the proper credentials. Besides, the guards here in the showroom seemed less alert.

What Reno needed now was a diversion. It had to be big enough to distract the guards at the elevator, but small enough that it didn't raise any further inquiries when it was over. It was a hard line to walk and Reno wasn't really sure how to do it.

Well, it was now or never.

There was an alarm rigged to all the doors and openings that led to the showroom, and there was a window in the bathroom. Reno made his way there. It was inactive, but he knew a little bit about electronics, and pretty soon had it up and buzzing. He quickly ducked out of the bathroom, avoiding the cameras he had noted before, and was careful to stay within hearing distance but out of sight of the guards.

Out of the periphery of his eye, he could see one of the guards take out his walkie talkie.

"Security breach in section 018A. Report."

Reno figured that the elevator guards wouldn't go inspect it themselves, but he was hoping that with enough times. . . of course, this could all lead nowhere, and he'd be back to the drawing board, but Reno always did have luck on his side.

It was only a few minutes before another guard walked up to the other two.

"Reporting on the breach. Where's the location?"

"It seems to be coming from the bathroom."

The new guard nodded before heading in that direction. Pretty soon the buzzing of the alarm had stopped, and the guard had walked away.

Reno waited half an hour for the next attempt, but then he was ducking back into the bathroom and setting the alarm off again.

"Security breach in section 018A. Report."

A different guard came calling this time, something that put Reno just a little bit at ease with his plan.

"Hey, guys. So where's this breach?"

A few minutes and the alarm was off again, a great relief to the few customers who found themselves shopping in this section today. Reno didn't even wait fifteen minutes to set off the alarm next time. The guard's walkie talkie buzzed to life.

"Security breach in section 018A. Report."

Third time was the charm. Silence, for a minute or two, before the other side buzzed to life. "018A, why don't you go check it out yourselves. The alarm seems to be malfunctioning, just turn it off."

"Understood."

One of the elevators guard left to the bathroom then, and Reno strode up to the man who was left, knowing he only had a few minutes before the other guard came back. He smoothed the wrinkles of the black suit he had "borrowed" from floor 4, clothing and home goods, as he walked towards the elevator.

"Reporting on the breach," he said, "same place as the other two times?"

"It's being taken care of."

"Really?" Reno eyed the guard suspiciously. "That's not what they told me."

The guard shifted uncomfortably under Reno's gaze, but shrugged. "Sorry. Miscommunication, I guess."

"Yeah, well, I've gotta go up to the lobby anyway, so I guess my coming over here wasn't a total loss.

The guard nodded, and Reno slipped inside the elevator.

The elevator spit him out into the lobby, and Reno quickly made his way to the periphery of the large room as he thought. He wondered if half the job would be figuring which elevator would take him to each floor. But he found the stairs pretty quickly, and soon he was racing upwards. They stopped at the twentieth floor, and Reno wasn't sure whether to be relieved he had gotten so far or disappointed that they didn't go all the way up to the thirtieth.

"Well," he said to himself, "only ten more to go."

Only ten more flights to go, but no plan and no cover in case any one came across him at the moment. Stay calm, he thought, walking through the hallway. He took note of the names on the doors and the directions he was going in, making a map in his head of the layout. It was a completely different part of the building than the one he had been in that morning, but there were two competing goals in his mind: either find a keycard and the proper elevator, or find a staircase going up.

"Excuse me. Can I help you?"

Reno nearly jumped at the voice, at least inwardly. From all outward appearances he wasn't phased by the interruption, only turning around to look at the security guard with one of those smug smiles elite businessman were always using.

"I was just on my way to see Elliot," Reno said, regurgitating a name he had seen on one of the doors earlier before. He dug his hands in his pocket. Knives and other assorted knick knacks at the ready, just in case.

The man stared back at him for longer than made Reno comfortable. He seemed like he was about to believe him, but then. . . "I'll walk you to his office, sir."

Crap. Reno smiled as he followed the guard. It seemed as though he couldn't avoid physical confrontation any more. This would start the clock, Reno knew, on how much time he would have in the building. As soon as someone found the guard's body or the guard woke up. . . but there was nothing for it. As they neared a janitorial closet that Reno had found before, Reno swung into action, moving forward to knock the guard's head into the wall. Before the man could say anything Reno covered his mouth and shoved a tranquilizer dart into his arm, holding him until he went still.

Reno moved the body into the closet, taking the time to bound and gag him before making a search of his body. Five separate key cards, Reno saw with glee, hoping at least one of them would take him up to the thirtieth.

He made his way out, locking the door, and made his way again down the hallways. Every footstep or voice that he heard caused his breathing to slow and his pulse to quicken, but he didn't pass any one else. It took him ten minutes to find himself in the elevator marked 20-30, but that ten minutes felt like hours.

His fingers fumbled as he took the keycards out of his pocket.

"Come on, lady luck, don't fail me now."

He inserted the first card. Red light. Second card. Red light. Third card. Red light. His heart was pounding in his ears now, and he imagined the security guard waking up and pounding at the closet door. He held the last card up to his lips, gave it a kiss, and inserted it.

Green light.

Reno couldn't help the grin that spread over his face as he got into the elevator and hit the number thirty. The elevator turned out to be a glass one on the periphery of Shinra Tower's thinner upper levels, and as it rose out of the twentieth floor and into the night sky, all of Midgar rose up below him. Reno placed his hands on the glass, breathing a little bit easier.

Maybe, he finally let himself think, I can actually get away with this.

The elevator chimed at thirty and Reno got out, soon finding himself in a familiar hallway. He was high on adrenaline now, and he needed it, at least for the next piece of bravado he was about to pull off.

Steeling a breath, Reno walked right into the outer chambers of Rufu Shinra's office.

Reno smiled as he made his way to the secretary, who smiled pleasantly back up at him in remembrance.

"Hi, doll," Reno said. "How are you today?"

"Oh, just fine, thank you," the woman said, giggling. Reno was much too young for her to take any kind of flirtation seriously, but as a woman of a more vintage age, she always enjoyed the attention. "Are you here to see Mr. Shinra again?"

"No, I don't want to bother him. I was just wondering if you could tell me if he had any breaks scheduled for today. I might stop by then."

"Oh, let me see." The woman turned to her computer screen, looking over whatever data she had on there. "I'm sorry, no. He has a break at eight, but he's already scheduled a dinner meeting for then."

"Will he be here for that meeting?"

"Oh, no, it's with his father. They'll probably be going out to one of those fancy restaurants President Shinra likes so much."

"Of course. I'll call him later to schedule something. No need to let him know I stopped by."

Reno winked at the woman and stepped out of the room, knowing exactly what his next plan of action was. It was nice, he thought, to actually have an action plan, after the last few hours of improvisation, even if it wasn't the most foolproof one.

There was a small hallway next to Rufus' office. And at the end of the small hallway was a small window, set high against the ceiling. The window itself led to a near-ninety degree drop off of Shinra Tower. Reno, for once glad for his skinnier-than average frame, flipped open the window and jumped out.

Fingers, curling around a metal ledge, and Reno was hanging on by a thread. It was freezing up this high, and his fingers hurt from holding on for even thirty seconds, but if he fell just right. . . he let go with his right hand, pushing himself off the wall to flip himself over so he was facing outward, then let go with his other hand too. The maneuver generated enough leftward momentum that he started sliding to the side, much, much more quickly then he thought he would. The glass burned his hands as he slid, and he could feel glass and metal rip into his clothes and skin. But he was only falling for a second, and then his legs were colliding dangerously with solid ground. The balcony outside Rufus' office.

It was the landing that nearly killed him, knees buckling forward in a way that almost sent him past the railing. But then he was standing stable, laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. What the fuck had he just done? He stared downward off the balcony, and he couldn't even see the ground it was so high.

Reno laughed. He reached until his pocket for a cigarette. He had some time to kill, any way, before 8:00 pm.

He waited until 8:20. He couldn't see past the thick curtains whether Rufus was still there or not, and he couldn't hear any sound, so he had to be careful. At any rate, the window itself wasn't hard to pick. . . Reno figured Shinra wouldn't be too worried about people breaking in from the outside on the thirtieth floor.

Reno was relieved to find that, true to plans, Rufus wasn't there. The room was completely dark save for the bright light of the jungle terrarium, green-blue eyes glowing at him from the leaves. But the overgrown cat wasn't making any movements towards him, and at that moment Reno was glad that Rufus had brought him up here just the night before.

He sat down in front of the computer, turning it on and getting his USB ready. He didn't even know if the information Gabe wanted was going to be on the thing. He didn't really have time to sit there and look. But, he figured, if any one was going to have information on anything Shinra-related, it would be Rufus. He started the process to copy the entire hard drive onto his USB, sitting back as the timer came onto the screen.

Plus, he figured, even if the exact information Gabe wanted wasn't there, there was bound to be something on that hard drive that would be worth the lives of two slum punks.

The transfer finished with no interruptions. Reno pulled out his USB, turned off the computer. The lights weren't on in the outer room so, figuring the secretary had left, he just walked out. He walked out of Rufus Shinra's office, into an elevator, and out of Shinra Towers.

Reno couldn't help the shit-eating grin from spreading across his face. Now that he wasn't in danger anymore, he let his most recent accomplishment sink into his head. He had actually done it. He had taken on Shinra and lived to tell about it.

Meanwhile, Tseng sat in a vast office on the seventh floor of Shinra Tower, watching a few of the many monitors that formed the long wall of the room, each hooked up to a specific security camera in the building. Well, he thought, that had been quite the entertainment. He leaned back in his chair, got up, and slowly walked to the window.

He imagined he could see an unruly mop of red hair disappearing into the crowd. He smiled to himself, then flipped open his cell phone.

"Have a car brought around to the front," he said. "I feel like a drive."