Tifa was frantic when she learned that Cloud had been captured by Don Corneo while crossed dressed and trying to rescue her. The ironic thing was that she had already rescued herself. She had managed to secret a powerful sleep draught when they had captured her, that she had transferred to the blue dress they had dressed her in. She waited until her bored guard was distracted and poured it into his water. She had waited until he was asleep and had slipped away and was on her way home before Cloud had even arrived.

Tifa paced as she imagined all the horrors and tortures Don Corneo might come up for Cloud, she mourned that all of AVALANCHE was away on a mission and realized it was up to her to rescue him.

She monitored the brothel and realized that the girls came and went as they pleased when not on duty. She knew with her figure, she could certainly pass as one of them, but lacked the bee costume they normally wore while working and could think of no way to procure one. Then she heard that there was to be a masked "ball" on the premises for New Years and saw her chance. A quick trip to an erotic dancer store solved her problem and she was ready.

She undressed that night and put on the black satin garter belt and matching g-string and fastened her black sheer stockings to the garter clips. She pulled on the burgundy loincloth dress that was slit on either side to her waist to reveal the smooth band of her garter belt and matching g-string, against her scandalously bare skin of her hips and upper thighs not covered with her stockings. The straps at the top of the dress held up the fabric that loosely covered her unbound breasts. The neckline plunged almost to her navel, revealing her blemish free globes at the sides and in between, allowing just enough material to cover the middle of them. Tifa didn't like the how revealed she was but had to pass as a hooker. She then slathered on makeup to mask her almost wholesome appearance until she barely recognized herself. An hour spent with a curling iron gave her normally slightly wavy hair, wild, loose messy curls. Finally, she put on the stacked high heels to disguise her height and a half mask that matched her dress. What stared back at her from the mirror was a lady of the night, she looked wild, she looked untamed and easily taken to bed.

Tifa felt nervous as she put on the long coat in preparation of the walk to the brothel. She had no trouble gaining admittance to the building as the guards barely spared her anything but a glance of appreciation as she walked in through the trade entrance, following a group of scantily clad women who teased the guards while she just gave them a stiff nod and found a place to stash her coat where she could grab it in a hurry.

She soon stood for inspection by Don Corneo himself and he eyed each masked girl. Some of the outfits were downright lewd, some girls were completely bare breasted and wore just a loincloth or g-string with a mask or had paint on clothes over their bare skin. While others could have passed for nuns or school teachers or wore fetish attire consisting of PVC, latex or leather; proclaiming them to be in the BDSM end of the skin trade. Whereas other girls were dressed similar to Tifa.

Don Corneo examined each and every costume and seemed to approve them all. "Okay ladies, remember decorum, do not be lewd in your mannerisms or speech. You are not expected to sell yourselves tonight, this is a private party with all your fees paid in advance. You will comport yourselves as charming ladies to these highborn gentlemen. They are here to have a good time and you will be their entertainment. You all up for grabs tonight and it is the gentlemen's choice. When they approach you by themselves or have a servant do it on their behalf, you will go with them and you are theirs for as long as they wish tonight. Once they are done with you, you are free to enjoy the rest of the night" he explained. "All limits are off, feel free to eat, drink and dance the night away or go anywhere you want" he added to the women's excited squeals. "Now go to work" he said pointing towards the punter's lounge and with a seductive sway in their hips, the women filed out to do just that.

Tifa followed them with what she hoped was a seductive smile on her face and tried not to blush as each male in the room seemed to strip search her mostly nude body with their eyes, her being the bustiest one in the room. She had decided she was going to do a circuit of the room and then slip up the stairs, find Cloud and free him. Yes she was very visible to the horny crowd but there were plenty of women to satisfy them and she would not go noticed when she disappeared. She could see about finding some kind of disguise for Cloud and then they could both slip out of the building as if he were her John, they could be home by midnight and sharing a bottle of champagne in victory. She was so positive this would work that she could taste it the cold, bubbly flow in her mouth. She could see the gratitude on Cloud's face. It would have happened just that way if only fate hadn't intervened.

Tifa hung back and only smiled at the punters as they surged forward to claim a girl as their own, as Tifa had predicted, the ones the most openly displaying themselves were selected first. She kept on the move, dodging people advances until most men were seated with their girl of choice for the night and she was just about to duck behind a curtain when a hand seized her arm.

"There you are. Glad to see you weren't claimed yet, my employer is most interested in meeting you" he said.

"B-but" Tifa stammered.

'Well are you spoken for, girl?" The large man with mako glowing eyes asked her.

"No" she admitted.

"Then let's get you to your date for the evening" he said towing her firmly by the arm and all Tifa could do was hope that he was a reasonable man that would release her when she explained she was not a hooker, but just in disguise to rescue her boyfriend. She couldn't risk Don Corneo finding out about her rescue attempt or it might make things worse for Cloud and for herself if he captured her too.

"I got the one you wanted, Sir" the man said to a tall, cloaked man she had seen previously wearing a skull mask and cloak. The person appeared to be dressed as the grim reaper.

The person peered at her through his mask "she'll do" he said dismissively in a silky baritone that seemed familiar to her.

"Do you want me to stay? Just in case you need anything" the former SOLDIER said.

"No, leave" the person snapped at him and then leveled his gaze on her, the dimly lit room and cloak draped face covered by the mask gave nothing away as to his identity but there was an odd green glow where his eyes should be. "You, what is your name girl?" He demanded.

"Tif-Tiffany" she stammered, correcting herself.

"That sounds nicely made up" he mused with the slightest hint of mirth in his voice.

"I'm sorry and who are you?" She asked.

"I thought all of your clients were simply Johns to you prostitutes. Does it matter? I'm the one paying for your time. Or are you that particular about who you fuck?" He said with bitterness in his voice.

"Please you have to listen to me..." She said in a soft voice.

"It's time for the masks to come off, I guess that even whores have their standards" he said and threw back his hood and pulled off his mask to reveal himself to be Sephiroth. "Well, Madame, have you anything to say? Unmask yourself" He demanded.

For Tifa, learning his identity was like having a bucket of cold water dumped over her. This was no reasonable man who might even assist her in her quest. He was her enemy who would certainly report her to Don Corneo and seal Cloud's fate and her own.

With trembling hands she removed her half mask and glared defiantly at him, she waited for his reaction and then realized; he didn't recognize her. Ever since she had heard that he had been spat from the lifestream and into someone's duckpond, she had been following his case from afar. She went nowhere where she might chance to meet him.

He had been arrested and stuck into a psych ward until a local lawyer, Dexter Andrews Esq. had taken on his case Pro Bono. He had insisted on Sephiroth's release into his custody. Sephiroth was finally put on trial for crimes against humanity and Tifa had gone out and bought a bright red party dress to wear to his execution, intending to be there to watch it and watch the light go out in his glowing eyes as he succumbed to final death,. However, somehow he had won his trial and got a full pardon and then countersued Shinra for damages incurred while he had been a human experiment and had won that too, then he just seemed to fade from existence. What was he doing in a brothel?

Sephiroth thought the girl looked rather familiar but couldn't quite place her, not realizing she was the same girl from so long ago that he had tried to kill at the onset of his madness. He only vaguely recalled the cute teenaged girl wearing a cowboy outfit that accompanied his guide, that he pretty much ignored during his mission as she lead him to his fatal destination. His now rational self didn't realize it was the same girl all grown up. He hadn't seen her since then as he had no reason to seek her out and had a swiss cheese memory when it came to the past ten years. "Would you like a drink?" He asked her, feeling awkward.

"I'll have a glass of red wine" she said, stalling for time. Could you she punch him out and run? No she didn't have her gloves with her. Could she talk him out of it? She doubted that, she was supposed to be a prostitute and he expected her to fulfil the role she had dressed for. Perhaps she could reason with him? She had heard positive things about him from the few colleagues of hers that had dealings with him. No, as soon as he found out who she was trying to rescue, they both were dog meat. He poured her a glass and she took a nervous sip of it.

"Would you prefer me to shower first?" He asked her.

"No, you look nice and clean" Tifa said, realizing with dawning horror that she would have to go through with the act.

"So I guess we should take our clothes off?" Sephiroth questioned her.

"Um-yeah" she said and tried to steel up her nerves when it was all she could do to not run screaming from the room. She woodenly pulled her dress over her head and forced herself not to clamp her arms over her exposed breasts. She licked her lips nervously and caught the bands of her panties and with a sharp forfeiting breath, quickly pushed them down to her ankles and then did an awkward shuffle when they got tangled on her high heels. With two quick steps, they hit the floor beneath her and she trembled as she straightened up to reveal her full nudity to her enemy, save for her garter belt, stockings and high heels.

He could only gaze at her to see his first naked woman up close and swallowed as his throat got dry. He examined every inch of her from her wild hair, her over madeup face, her ample bosom perched high on her slim frame, her small waist and well groomed pelt of her dark pubic hair, to her long legs still in her stockings and small feet in her high heels.

"Aren't you going to undress?" She asked him, startling him out of his trance and he flinched at what her words meant.

"Huh-oh yes, please turn around" he requested of her.

"What?" She asked him at the ludicrous request.

"I'm new to this and am not used to undressing in the presence of a person of the opposite sex, please indulge me and turn around" he said making an insistent spinning motion in the air with his finger.

Tifa suddenly felt irked more then embarrassed as she turned around at the request of the persnickety man but realized she was facing a mirror, she smirked as he attempted to remove his pants before removing his boots and had to hop in place as he wrenched off first one and then the other while his pants were at half mast and his underwear still around his hips. Managing to rid himself of his bottoms, except for a pair of black socks, he went to undo his shirt and then his eyes raised up to meet hers in the mirror and his face seemed to flame at her muffled giggles.

"I hope you enjoyed your little peep show, you can turn around now" he said and she blushed to find him seated on the bed with only a pillow covering his genitals.

"How would you like to start?" She asked him, feeling exposed as anything as she made herself walk towards him.

"I don't want anything weird, just normal intercourse" he said.

"Any certain position?" She asked him, trying to delay their coitus.

"It doesn't matter as long as its safe. I understand that it's the house policy to use birth control. If you could hand me..." He said, trying to hide his twitching length from her view.

"Of course," she said sliding open the nightstand where such things were normally kept and blushed at the sight of the sex toys in there, but was glad to see lube was present. Seeing a box of condoms, she seized it.

"Here" she said and her eyes went wide to see him reading the instructions. "Do you need help?" She asked him, wanting only to get the whole business over with and out of there and rescue Cloud. Cloud, she thought, he could never know that she had gone to the very gates of hell to rescue him.

"I'm fine, if you could just look away" he ordered her and she did and he hastily put one on, not bothering to hold the reservoir tip to prevent an air pocket.

Tifa took that time to rub lube inside herself, guessing correctly that he wasn't going to take the time to prepare her in the least.

"Are you ready?" She asked him.

"I don't really know how to begin" he said.

"Just go with however you're comfortable" she said and then gasped when she was suddenly pinned underneath him and without preamble, his large appendage found her sheath and filled her, she cried out in a mixture of pleasure and pain to be stretched so widely and so deeply, he seemed to be trying to part her very cervix!

"Please give me a second" she gasped out, pinned beneath his larger body with her breasts flattened against his own chest. She appreciated it when he did, but his own face was clenched tightly and he seemed to be biting his lip to the point of drawing blood.

Sephiroth brain could only register how hot the hidden passage of the female he barely knew was, she was clenching on him in a way that made him long to spill his essence into her right then and there. It is only sheer willpower that fought off his impending orgasm, wanting to experience sex to the fullest. Then he slowly started to move in her, setting off a series of whimpers in his partner, he was simply too large and her body too tight after years of abstinence for it to be comfortable for her at first. Her body struggled to accept his bulk while she felt like heaven itself to him. She looped her legs loosely over his knees, allowing him to set the pace.

Sephiroth kept his movements slow at first, sensing his partner's discomfort and knowing he was not a small man, but at the same time wondered why someone who did this for a living would have problems accepting him. Soon however he was able to move in her much more easily as she adjusted to accommodate him, but she was still tight as anything, as if he was being milked by an invisible fist.

Tifa's eyes flew open when he suddenly set a brutal pace and their semi-making love style hyped up to more like an animalistic fucking. Soon both were slick with sweat as the volume of their coupling escalated as cries poured forth that were woven with curse words, grunts, wails and out and out screams when Tifa had each shameful orgasm induced from her enemy's cock. The raw pleasure of the act raced through her system and he struck places in her that had never been breached before until she was wailing like a banshee.

She tried to kiss him, feeling generous and needy at the same time at the bliss he was giving her but his own face was closed off, yet animated by the sex they were sharing and she could only watch him, each pump of his hips was met with a wild flex of her own until his eyes went wide, rolled and he grunted as his essence spilled forth from him in a wild burst.

He all but collapsed forward panting and her arms encircled him automatically, holding him in her embrace, his arms were positioned to support most of his body weight, not wanting to squash the petite hooker beneath him. His face was purposely turned away from her as he sought to compose his features, too embarrassed to be caught looking so vulnerable even to a prostitute that wouldn't care either way about him. Raw emotions washed all over his face while his eyes were full of confusion and covered with a sheen of unshed tears that he tried to contain. He got himself under check just as his breathing returned to normal and with deliberate movements, he moved away from her after tugging himself free of her. She made a small noise at this but looked away from him as he got up and removed the condom from himself to put in the waste basket beside the bed, but something caused him to pause when he saw it contained no sperm.

"Tiffany, I think the condom broke" he commented as he examined it.

"What?" She all but squeaked at the idea and then realized what the fluid leaking from her was.

"I imagine in your profession, you use another type of birth control just in case of this" he said in a calm voice and wondered why she had covered herself with the sheets. Were hookers normally this modest?

"Of course," she lied while she struggled to calculate what time of the month it was, she normally didn't keep that close tabs on her period, it normally arrived around the 20th of every month. It was light enough and she neither bloated or got too crampy for it to be more than a tad annoying and gone within three days. She wasn't sexually active and therefore didn't have to worry about birth control. Even after she had put Cloud back together mentally after Sephiroth interfered with him, he wasn't ready to resume a sexual relationship with her in his confusion. So she kept on being there for him and hoping they would have a family someday and live together as man and wife and provide brothers and sisters for Denzel, rather then continue to live together as celibate roommates. She wasn't a virgin, Cloud had taken care of that one summer night when they were still young and innocent.

"Good, I'll leave you to get dressed" he said, pulling his clothes back on. "I understand that you accept tips" he said, placing a hundred gil note on the nightstand beside her.

"I don't want it" Tifa said what she hoped was a normal sounding voice while struggling not to cry that she had broken her personal vow to Cloud and slept with another man and one he could never forgive her for. He could never know.

"Please, I insist you take it. I understand that you have the night free after-this. Leave here and find something fun to do on this festive night, everyone deserves to have some fun" he said in a contemplative voice. "I thank you, it was very..." He said with a frown, not sure how to describe it, so he left his thoughts hanging and departed, leaving his mask and cloak behind as if no longer needing a disguise. He wore only a pair of black pants and a black long sleeved shirt beneath.

Tifa sprang from the bed and washed herself angrily in the bidet, trying to wash her enemy's filth from her body while crying bitter tears. Once she composed herself, she got dressed and took the grim reaper costume with her, leaving the tip earned from her dark deed still sitting on the nightstand.

After that, it had gone as she planned, she had located Cloud and had knocked his body guards out. He had been hurt and deprived of food and given very little water while in captivity, so she had dressed him in Sephiroth's costume and walked him out of there while he staggered against her as if drunk. She got him home and nursed him back to health and never told him the whole truth about that night.

Two Months Later

Tifa just made it into the forest behind the bar and leaned against a tree to puke and the opened the bottle of water and rinsed out her mouth and stood up with a groan. How much longer could she keep this hidden from Cloud? She had tried to ignore what her body was trying to tell her for months, first her breasts had been overly tender and she had felt queasy a few weeks after her encounter with Sephiroth. Then her period hadn't arrived but she refused to believe what might have happened and carried on as before. Then she started to feel nauseous every morning and refused to even consider the possibility. Then she didn't get another period and had bought ten pregnancy tests and took them all at the same time until ten cheery blue plus signs smiled back at her as if to mock her dawning horror. But she couldn't be pregnant with his child...could she be? Was his altered DNA even compatible with a regular humans? Then she knew that it had to be him, babies didn't come from storks, they came from two people fu-mating. She almost had a panic attack at the idea of what had invaded her body, the Jenova cells that had been introduced to his own DNA invitro, how would they effect a child of his? They had eventually led to her own world collapsing around her while it burned and his descent into madness. It had been a pivotal moment for both that had altered the courses of both of their lives. It was just an innocent child, no it would never been innocent, he probably had never been, it would be an abomination like its father. She needed it out of her body and right now! That resolved, she returned and dressed and went to the WRO hospital unit where as a member of AVALANCHE, she was always welcome to use the facilities. She needed confirmation from an actual doctor of her pregnancy before she would be allowed to terminate it.

Sephiroth so hated the monthly meetings with Rufus that he was forced to endure due to the arrangement that he was allowed to keep tabs on his life. He normally resided in a mountain cabin in Icicle, his life was much different that he now owned property but he still lived a hermit's existence save that he belonged to a community of ex-SOLDIERS who preferred to dwell in the unforgiving weather then live in a world that hated them by association. Though not all were as isolated as himself, many had wives or husbands and families.

He didn't like being back in town, he was accepted where he was and missed his rustic log cabin with its open concept first floor that he could either heat by a wood stove, but had electrical heating as well and a generator as backup, it was nice reading before the over sized windows and would glance out to see the majestic sight of snowy mountains. A cathedral ceiling with a fan redirected the heat back down to him and the two bedroom sleeping loft could be reached by a wrought iron spiral staircase. The kitchen he had gutted and upgraded when he bought the place but he had changed very little otherwise, he had built an adjoining dojo as well but that was about it. The tranquility of the place suited the solitary man, he enjoyed his privacy with no one checking up on him or gawking at his unusual appearance. His life was now completely his own for the first time. The weather wasn't normally so bad that he couldn't drive into the town as he needed to and supplies were delivered to him every Saturday, consisting of a weekly list he would email to the grocery store and would promptly pay them for the credit they extended him once a month. It was much different from his regimented lifestyle from before, but it suited him.

"Are we done here?" He asked Rufus.

"Yes, I'll walk you out" Rufus said, then he got a phone call.

"We have to stop by the medical unit, that was a reported pregnancy" he explained, fishing a cigar out of his desk.

"What does that have to do with you?" Sephiroth asked him with a frown.

"Only WRO employees and some other authorized people are allowed to use the medical unit. I ask to be informed of pregnancies as it's good to show your employees that you care by being the first to congratulate them" he explained to him.

"It's that called prying?" Sephiroth asked him with a frown and slight elevated brows.

"It's call good healthy employer-employee interaction" Rufus insisted. "Okay if you will just give me the woman's medical chart so I can read their last name properly" he requested of the nurse.

"I think you might want to give this one a miss, Sir, she seems most upset..." The nurse objected but handed it over, Rufus stepped past her, followed by Sephiroth who didn't know where to go with all of what was going on, so he just followed Rufus.

The curtain was drawn back when Rufus announced. "Congratulations on your good news, Mrs...Miss Lockhart" he said and his head snapped up when he realized who he was addressing. "Tifa?" He said. "I guess that congratulations are in order for you and Cloud Strife" he said recovering his composure and pressing on.

"Yes quite" she said with a guilty look on her face.

Sephiroth meanwhile was studying her, he wasn't fooled for a minute as to who she was, even without her garish amount of makeup, her wild hair and slutty costume, not that what she had on was any less revealing when he thought about it, it was Tiffany, the hooker from a couple of months ago that he had slept with. "Tiffany?" he said in a questioning tone of voice.

"I don't know who you have mistaken me for" she coldly informed him. "I must go" she said looking only at Rufus.

She left when a hand clamped on her wrist, "you and I have to talk" he insisted.

Tifa looked over the rim of her coffee cup at the man she had hoped never to see again as he drank a cup of tea and seemed more interested in shredding the muffin he ordered then eating it as she told him of the events leading up them sleeping together.

"Why didn't you just tell me? I wouldn't have slept with you nor informed Don Corneo as to your presence. I could have even helped you" he said in confusion.

"Yes because you're Cloud's biggest fan" she said with an unladylike snort.

"Things are different now, I'm different. I still have to atone for what I did to you" he pointed out.

"You were too busy being a whore master to want to help me" she said.

"I was only there because Rufus insisted I take that as a gift and I decided it was time to try such things" he said in a vague way. "I'm sorry what transpired between us, that you didn't want to. I wish you and Cloud joy on your pending arrival" he said, trying to placate the saddened looking girl.

"It isn't Cloud's" she said in a small voice.

"You have other lovers?" he asked her.

"Are you always this obtuse? I have had sex with two men in my life, the first was Cloud and the other one is the father of my child" she said cryptically.

"But you had sex with me too" he objected and then shut his eyes when a glimmer of understanding presented itself. "I'm the father of this child" he said.

"Bingo, you're going to be a Daddy" she bitterly said in a facetious voice.

"Then I guess we shall have to discuss living and custody arrangements, or you do prefer to get lawyers involved?" He said so logically that it baffled her.

"So you're not going to deny it or accuse me of sleeping with other men?" She demanded, recalling her first pregnancy scare with Cloud where he had done both.

"What purpose would it serve for you to lie about the paternity of your child? I don't have a lofty rank anymore and am your ex-enemy, if you say I'm the father, I believe you and shall do my part to assist you financially and physically with this child" he said with resolve in his voice even as he inwardly quaked in his boots at the foreign idea.

"Yeah like I would keep a bastard of yours" she sneered openly at him.

"I shall marry you if you require it" he said, hoping she would say no but remembered how Angeal had drilled into his head that if he got a girl in trouble, he would have to fix it with a wedding ring. It was the right thing to do. Clearly his friend had believed it would happen, while Sephiroth himself never had. Yet here he was faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

"I want nothing to do with you or this abomination, I'm getting an abortion" she said standing up to glare down at him, which didn't help because he was almost a tall as her sitting down.

"You would punish this child for my crimes?" He said getting up himself to loom over her. "What if I want this child even if you don't?" He demanded.

"It's my body; it's my baby. I won't carry a monster born from another monster" she insisted and shook off his hand as he tried to stop her.

"It is not a monster, but a baby and I want it. Would you make yourself a murderess simply because of who the father is?" he asked her.

"It's fitting considering you are a murderer" she snapped at him.

"That wasn't me. If this child was from another man, anyone. You would keep it, right? Tell me" he demanded.

"Perhaps. But it came from you and I can't allow it to be born for that reason. You shouldn't be allowed to procreate anyway, its too dangerous to have another like yourself in this world. You should do the world a favour and get a vasectomy. Sorry, this child is getting out of as soon as the doctor makes arrangements and there is nothing you can do about it" she said and left.

"We'll see about that" Sephiroth said staring after her, the implications of what she said filling his lonely heart with a mixture of infinite joy and dread as he imagined raising a child of his own.