Hello there everyone. I've made quite a few changes to this chapter. There are certain things I was just not loving and felt needed a better explanation so this and the next chapter will be seeing change. Please understand that I have never played Before Crisis, Crisis Core, or DOC and I am not too familiar with those stories so they do not play much of factor in mine. I am just trying to not repeat already done ideas or mess up the already established canon. Thanks for the reviews and please keep the feedback coming!
Disclaimer: The characters and places of Final Fantasy belong to Square Enix.
" What!?" Tifa said breathlessly, her ruby eyes filled with fright and disbelief. Tifa took a look at Reno, but there was no disbelief and shock on his face, just a look of concern and more importantly... confirmation. Before Tifa or Reno could say anything else the sirens and flashing lights were upon the three of them. A few policemen opened their car doors, pointing guns at each of them demanding them to put their hands where they can see them. As Reno and Tifa slowly turn an ambulance and another car pull up. The medical team from the ambulance are immediately at the side of the robed girl but both Tifa and Reno have their eyes on the detective getting out of the unmarked car. " Easy boys, these two are on our side." His voice was gruff and harsh but his grey eyes were kind. "Should have known you would be right in the thick of it Reno, you Turks never miss an event do ya?"
Reno flashed his trademark smirk 'If there's action count me in yo." The detective and the Turk shook hands. " So tell me is this going to be a jurisdiction issue?" the detective asked. " I'm afraid so detective." Reno looked very weary all of he sudden, almost like he had seen an event like this too often recently.
Tifa took a quick glance back to see how the girl was doing, the medical team already had her on a stretcher and were loading her into the ambulance. Tifa was about to express her opinion of them needing restraints for her but as she opened her mouth she heard the detective yelling to the medical team "Make sure that girl is restrained, I am not taking any chances with the suspect."
Reno spoke next " Detective Burton I hate to cut our chat short but there is another area I need to check out; Tifa would you mind coming with me?"
"Woah, wait a minute, you didn't even introduce me to your protege,' wow how did you get on Rufus' good side to be training that sweet piece of as-
Reno abruptly cut him off, "Uh detective, I would like you to meet Tifa Lockhart."
The detective grey eyes widened. "Oh, you mean of Avalanche fame?" the detective sputtered out. "Oh, Miss Lockhart I apologize for my inappropriate outburst."
Tifa could help but smile, "It's okay detective but Reno and I really must be going."
"I should have known when reports started coming in about a women taking on a group of 50 by herself. Miss Lockhart, it has been an honor meeting you." The detective and Tifa shook hands. "I'll have Tseng contact you as soon as I have finished my report with him." Reno stated to Detective Burton as they hurried to get to Reno's vehicle.
Once in Reno's car Tifa spoke " I would say that you need to start explaining yourself, but that would be such an understatement." Her voice was consumed with bitterness as she continued "This..." Tifa couldn't even get their name out of her mouth. "This is what has been keeping you so busy isn't it?" Reno only responded with a slight nod while opening up his cell phone.
"Hey Tseng, yeah the intel we got was legit; it appears that Jenova's Hope is the real deal. Yeah, and they are still only attacking materia shops and other high priced stores. It has to be how they are funding his research."
There was a slight pause and then Reno continued, "No I am not going to call Rude in on this now, look until I have a good lead on where Iotola or at least his leading goons are I am going to let Rude have the rest of his vacation. Look I have a few more stops to make and then I'll be back at the office. Yeah it will be at least a few hours from now."
Reno hung up the phone and glanced briefly a Tifa. "I know you need a lot of blanks filled in." He let out a weary sigh. "And yes Rude's disappearance is connected." Tifa could see Reno hesitate for a few seconds but then continued. "I'm afraid there is another factor I didn't mention on the phone that effects you personally."
As they came to a red light Reno turned and looked at her with a very solemn face. "Tifa, there are reports about having big plans for the protector of the planet."
Tifa's heart felt like it dropped down to her stomach. "Oh Shiva, I...Aerith...why...how could they possibly have big plans for her?" Tifa was shaking all over, and she was obviously having trouble keeping a steady thought together, the only reason she regained herself at all was when she saw where Reno's destination was.
"No." was all Tifa could breathlessly muster to come out of her mouth. They had pulled up at the church, Aerith's church. Tifa jumped out of the car and bolted for the door. Reno's voice barely registered on her ears and she slammed her way past the doorway. She would take out anyone who was desecrating this building, so help her... but then her surroundings started to register and she came to a violent halt. Standing a few feet inside the doorway was a man with his back to her, but it didn't matter that she couldn't see his face, she knew the man all too well and besides the spikey blonde hair was a dead give away. "Cloud?"
As Tifa watched Cloud turn around she took in the whole seen. in her rush to get inside she had jumped over a pile of bodies, probably at least 20 that were all right outside the door. The actual inside of the church, the pool, pews, and stained glass windows were still intact. Tifa gasped when she met Cloud's blue eyes, they were flashing with hate. But as soon as he registered who was in front of him, his features and eyes softened. "Tifa?"
Tifa ran and embraced him, crying as she put her head in his chest. "Oh Cloud you kept them from"... but she couldn't finish the sentence. She cried softly in his chest for a minute and when she had regained her composure she asked "Wait how did you get here in time to keep them out? I doubt you just happened to be here when all hell broke loose in Edge."
Cloud gently pulled away from Tifa's embrace as he responded to her questions. "Well, I got a interesting phone call." His eyes move past Tifa as Reno comes up to them. "I guess a thank you is in order Reno."
Tifa spun around, partly confused and partly shocked "You called Cloud?" Tifa tried to comprehend Cloud thanking Reno for anything. Even in other crisis time periods she was pretty sure Cloud had never spoken those words to anyone who was a Shinra employee.
"No problem, I'm just glad you picked up." Reno smirked "Especially when you saw who it was."
"Figured it had to be important, you and I aren't known to be in touch." Cloud's voice was serious and quiet.
"Yeah, nice to see you were able to get here in time." Reno had lost is smirk now and his voice was quiet and reflective. "This place...I'm glad it's still intact."
Cloud then turned his attention back to Tifa putting his hand gently across a cut on her forehead. "Looks like you were dealing with problems of your own."
Tifa turns away from Cloud, lowering her head. Her voice cracks as she begins to tell him what happened earlier in the evening. "Their was an attack in downtown Edge. A few stores were looted, there were a lot of scared citizens." She let out a hugh sigh, maybe it was having to retell the events of what had occurred but she finally felt every ache in her body, the fatigue was almost overwhelming.
"There was a group, hooded figures standing around the Angel statue...her voice trailed off. Tifa forced herself to look at Cloud, and at the mention of the statue his eyes regained the look they had sported just minutes earlier. Tifa glanced over at Reno who was leaning on his car, her eyes pleading for help and Reno was kind enough to oblige.
"Strife, this group, they pulled down the statue...it's ruined."
Cloud stood motionless, he was looking at Reno with just a dead stare. Reno quickly finished telling Cloud how he and Tifa fought the group and what they had been told by the one group member. Tifa could help but be impressed, Reno was completely business like in his retelling of the events. He stated the facts of what happened and was very accurate in his details. Tifa had never taken the time to think about how good Reno was at his job, she had been watching Reno in his element since that woman had screamed outside the bar all those hours ago.
"We are called Jenova's Hope for a reason." and with that Reno had finished but neither he nor Tifa were ready for what they saw next. Cloud's eyes were now flashing with hate and you could see the hate carry throughout his entire demeanor; there was a darkness around him and Tifa let out a gasp because of it. Tifa had only seen Cloud look like that one other time and that was when he was face to face to his mortal enemy in the crater; the man who had wanted to end the world and had taken a huge part of Cloud's when he murdered Aerith. Tifa instinctively backed away from Cloud and for a few moments was truly frightened at the sight of him.
"Jenova's Hope?" Cloud asked through clinched teeth. Tifa took another glance at Reno and was surprised to see him staying so calm; though she noticed him fidget. But his eyes never left Cloud.
"Yeah pretty sick right?" Reno said with disgust.
"They want to finish what Kadja, Loz, and Yazoo started?" Cloud whispered.
"It may be better if I let you listen to an audio tape recovered." Reno said warily. "It started out as just a string of materia shops being burglarized. But the more we investigated...well anyway we finally figured out where their headquarters were, or so we thought. When we got there the headquarters had been abandoned. They did a good job getting rid of a trail...except for this." Reno goes to his car an retrieves the audio tape. " Left on purpose, but we didn't want to give them the satisfaction of publicity, so it's been kept quiet." Reno was speaking without any emotion as he updated Tifa and Cloud.
He paused momentarily and looked at them both. His body language changed and Tifa could tell he had tensed. Reno cleared his throat. "Look, before I have you both listen to this I need you to understand this may be...hard for you both to hear. "Tifa's heart started to quicken but Cloud's expression never changed.
"Why is that?" Cloud asked.
Reno pulled out his pack of cigarettes, "I had started to tell Lockhart earlier...his voiced drifted off as he slid one of the cigarettes out and lit it. As he exhaled the smoke he said "One of their main objectives is to resurrect the last Cetra."