Here's chapter 4! Hope you like it...

Warning: Will contain one minor sexual detail, nothing graphic though, you'll be safe. Just wanted those who are under age to consider yourselves WARNED!

Disclaimer: All belongs to Square Enix...


Tifa restrained her urge to laugh hysterically when she stared at the silver haired man before her. He was back again? Not matter how many times they defeated him, he just kept on coming back! Was it their mission of life, killing Sephiroth?

"You!" Rufus spat at the former general. "What's your mission this time? We've proved several times over that you can't beat us!"

Sephiroth's eyes were firmly attached to Rufus', he made no move to remove Masamune's blade from the other man's throat. "I have no wish for world domination, Shinra."

President Shinra wasn't as calm as he pretended to be. He knew he wouldn't stand a chance against Sephiroth, he may be a good shot, but he was useless in hand to hand battle. That was Tifa's specialty, but he'd be damned to have to hide behind her back, what would she think of him then?

"Then what do you want?"

With a quick glance to Tifa, the former general eased his threatening grip around his sword. Having made such an aggressive move at his first encounter with her was not to his benefit. Seeing her with Shinra was enough to tear his self control to pieces. He may not be controlled by Jenova's blood thirst anymore, and he definitely did not wish to harm innocent people, however, Rufus Shinra was not an innocent man. He had many sins to atone and abusing unwilling women was now one of them. The man could not go unpunished.

"What do you want?" He retorted, very well aware that Rufus would not dare to answer the question in her presence.

Rufus gasped. The hidden meaning had not passed unnoticed. Did Sephiroth want Tifa? Why? Before he could say anything, the other man continued.

"You can give up your hunt, Shinra. Your prey belongs to me." Sephiroth rose his sword once again. "Now leave, you are not wanted here and if you refuse, I will not stand for the consequences."

He had no choice, Sephiroth would kill him. It was a better move to retreat and find a way to get rid of him, again, than foolishly be slaughtered by the worlds nemesis.

Tifa watched as Rufus slowly backed away from them and walked stoically down the street. She was so utterly confused that she hadn't been able to say more than a few words throughout the whole episode. She didn't know why, but she was a little fascinated. The two men couldn't have been more hostile towards each other, still, which was what fascinated and confused her, there seemed to have been some sort of understanding between them. All their cryptic talks about wanting, hunts and preys, what was that?

She turned her gaze to the ex-general and felt a rage rise in her that she hadn't felt in years. Not since… Never mind. She didn't want to go into that. Let's just say she was pissed.

"Why? Why are you back? AVALANCHE will beat you every time you come back, so why don't you get a grip?! You come back, we kill you, end of story. No use repeating at all over and over! Just go back to whatever dark corner of hell you came from and stay there, damn it!"

She breathed heavily after her ranting and half expected Sephiroth to impale her gut with the Masamune. But no. Hate didn't glimmer his eyes, instead, a small smirk tugged the corner of his lips as he bowed with a mocking gaze.

"As you wish, Ms Lockhart. I will return to 'whatever dark corner of hell I came from'. I shall give you time to cool down, but I will be back." With that he turned around. As he started walking, he glanced over his shoulder. "I'll see you around…"


It took Tifa two hours to come home. She'd been on her way to the car when she remembered that she'd left the grocery bags behind the old boxes in the alley. Thankfully, no one had stolen all her things when she finally found them, she wasn't in the mood to go buy everything a second time.

When she got home, there was a note on the fridge which told her that Cloud had taken the kids out for ice cream and that they should be back in a few hours. It felt good, not having to give all her attention to Marlene and Denzel and give herself some alone quality time instead. One couldn't say she didn't have a lot on her mind.

Sitting in her favourite armchair in her bedroom she contemplated the day's event. She knew she should tell Cloud everything, but something stopped her from calling his PHS. He'd finally come to starts with living out his life again and bringing up the encounter with Sephiroth would just cause him to close himself up. He didn't need that one more time.

Whocould she talk to? Not Reeve, he would engage Cloud in the matter and then things would repeat once more. Not Barret or Cid, she wasn't really sure how they'd react, but knowing them, it wouldn't be in a good way. She couldn't call Vincent either, his PHS had been out of service the last week. Yuffie was totally out of the question. Not that she would be immature in the matter of Sephiroth's reappearance, in this issue she'd most certainly show some of the maturity she had as the young empress of Wutai and go off to hunt him down herself to revenge him for murdering her mother. Then she could get hurt or killed and that was just plainly a bad idea for the most important person of Wutai. Besides, Yuffie's phone had been unreachable the last week, too.

That left her with…herself. She'd have to go after him alone. But since she had no idea where he was, she'd have to wait until he appeared again, she had no doubt he would, he told her so himself, and then she'd either follow him to his demonic lair, or she'd take him on right away, whatever felt right at the time.

In the mean time, she'd act like nothing was wrong and spend her time with the kids and Cloud. No one was too know. She had to make sure Rufus didn't tell either. Maybe she should call him right away?


Rufus sat locked up in his office. He couldn't believe Sephiroth was back. And this time he didn't want world supremacy, he wanted something much more precious. He wanted Tifa.

He had to do something! 'I can't let him get to her.' The thoughts whirled around in his head. 'I have to get rid of him… I swear, the man's more annoying than a jumping clown in a box…'

Darkness settled over the city. The only thing that lit up the room was the alarming traffic lights outside, but Rufus didn't care to turn the light swift on, he was to wrapped inside his thoughts to even bother. Something had to be done. Sephiroth was dangerous, especially with his mission. As he thought about it, the former general seemed to be a bit…off. Rufus hadn't been able to sense the usual air of evil the man usually surrounded himself with. That was alarming enough, the history repeated itself once again, but the villain was different, and different meant unpredictable, which probably meant trouble. It was an all too all bad situation…

His phone rang. He didn't bother about that either. Whoever it was could give up waiting for him to pick up or leave a message.

It kept ringing.

"You have reached President Shinra's office phone. Unfortunatley, he cannot take your call, but leave your name and number and he will call you when he can… " Beep

"Rufus!"Tifa's irritated voice was heard though the speakers of his answering machine. "I know you're there so pick up!" She made a short pause to see if he would actually answer. "I said pick up! I'll sit here all night if I have to! We have to talk…"

It twitched in his stomach when he thought about spending the whole night on the phone with her, but he was sure she had other things than telephone sex in mind. He didn't want to talk about Sephiroth, even though he knew it was childish of him not to pick up. He was not childish by nature, it was Tifa herself that caused him to act in other ways than he usually did.

"You wouldn't believe how much you learn about patience when you have two adopted kids and a best friend like Yuffie…"

The chatting continued in an attempt to wear him out and, well… it worked. Yuffie must've given her lessons in persuasions because most of her words sounded like they would have come out of the ninja's mouth instead of her's. Sighing, he picked the phone up.

"Yes, Tifa?"

"Well, took longer than I'd thought. I could never do it as good as Yuffie, though…"

He was getting tired of how many times the shinobi's name had been used and it showed in a scowl only he was aware of. Honestly, he'd never gotten along very well with the ninja anyways. Her only use was the connections to Wutai that he gladly took advantage of whenever he could.

"I know you want to discuss Sephiroth. You don't have to worry, I'll take care of it…"

"No, you wont."

"Excuse me?"

"I want you to promise me that you won't take care of him…"

"Why?! He's dangerous! I have to do something!"

"But not right now. Give me some time to do some research. And by the way, he hasn't killed anyone yet. I don't know what he's after, but I want a chance to find out. If I can't handle it, or if he kills someone, he's all yours, ok?"

"No."

Neither of them were in any position to give their case up, so they spent the remainder of the night on the phone, arguing their points. Tifa, of course, won at the end and made him swear not to talk about what had happened to anyone.

A defeated President Shinra put his head in his hands and asked himself what the hell he'd gotten himself into…


Sitting in a dark corner of his newly bought mansion, Sephiroth let pictures of Tifa Lockheart flash before his closed eyes. She was as beautiful as ever, and as lively and soulful as when he'd first met her many years ago…
Well... Hope you liked it. If any of you missed some of the regular elements that have occured in the earlier chapters, fear not my friends, they will be back! I just had a really good day today, so I guess the language is a little more humoristic than usually. Does it show? If it does, I hope you won't stop reading because I don't intend to make this another parodic unserious thing. But life's not life without some humour... It's needed in times of darkness... And the darkness will come into Second Chances, be sure of that...

Seraphaguin: As you see, I managed to solve the "Grocery Bag Problem"!

kaza85: Thank you so much for your ideas! I will most definitely use some of them in the following chapters!

Silent Comet: Yeah, Sephiroth's a little OOC, but just as you said, he did just come back from the dead.. And by the way, he's no longer controlled by Jenova... Best we cut him some slack )

My thanks to all other readers who have reviewed the last chapter! I hope you still want to read this and review this chapter to! I like getting reviews, they make me smile...

So, go along! Make me smile!