Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Glass Tower ❯ Blood ( Chapter 15 )

#21 Blood

 

It was all over the news: The assassination of the president's wife, his step-mother, along with the conference he'd held to address such a tragedy. Rufus watched the footage for the umpteenth time in the matter of a day. She had been giving a speech vowing the company's vigilance to discover her husband's murderer as well as toward the recapture of AVALANCHE's ringleaders. A tall, dark-skinned man had waded through the crowd and stopped in front of the small stage. He'd taken aim and fired before anyone had noticed that he'd been armed. The image cut away as blood sprayed from the fatal shot and chaos and panic ensued.

 

“Rude did a great job,” Reno observed as he shifted in his position on the couch. He was still in recovery from his tangle with AVALCNHE, though he'd been cleared from the hospital with orders of bed rest.

 

Rufus frowned slightly as he gazed down at the Turk, whose head was nestled comfortably in his lap. “Do you really think so? I'm a bit concerned that it appeared a bit too…professional.”

 

Reno snorted, “Yeah, maybe…I told him he oughta run up on stage after taking her out and start spoutin' anti-Shinra propaganda. He actually thought it was a pretty good idea but I guess he got cold feet in the end. Anyway, it ain't like it really matters, right? Ya really think the general public knows what a professional hit looks like?”

 

“Hm,” Rufus murmured, “You may have a point there.”

 

The news program began to show a brief highlight reel on the woman. Ah, Rufus thought, that's right…her name had been Penelope. She'd married his father about three years ago, while Rufus had been sent away, and had been little more than a trophy wife. Pretty, affluent, and only half his father's age, Rufus was quite sure she'd wed him to improve her social standing. He honestly didn't know, though. Rufus had only just met her at his father's very private and blessedly short funeral service. She'd seemed very broken up and had actually the gall to accuse Rufus of being behind the old man's death. Apparently no one had told her that Sephiroth had killed her husband and Rufus had been content to keep it that way.

 

Now it didn't matter much anymore. Rufus felt the rush of a triumphant shiver through his body. It had just been so goddamned easy and none would know the better. The assassination would be blamed on AVALANCHE, a lie that the people would believe without question.

 

Finally it got to showing a few choice snippets of Rufus's speech. Reno turned it up and Rufus stared at his own face on the television screen, listened to his own words as he spoke lies so convincingly that it almost horrified him.

 

“You are so fucking hot when you get that determined gleam in you eyes,” Reno practically purred.

 

Rufus idly stroked Reno's hair and wondered if the pain pills they'd been feeding him in the hospital were still going strong. Perhaps he was just so happy to have Rufus back for good that he couldn't let a little thing like Shinra's dirty laundry get him down.

 

“Ah,” Rufus murmured more to himself than his lover, “but do I look sincere?”