A/N: If you squint hard enough, behold! A symbolic reference in the chapter title.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Dear, I do tend to blather, don't I?

Chapter #11

Bodyguard

"Tifa, wake up."

A warm, calloused hand nudged her cheek, rousing her from the strange dream she'd been having. The smell of smoke and something else remained in her mind as she came back to reality. "Huh?"

"Something's happening." Sephiroth hovered over her, his green eyes guarded and wary.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up slowly. The fragments of her dream, already vague and hazy, fell out of reach. Her fighter's instincts kicked in, years of training and stress having honed them to sharp perfection, and she became awake and alert within seconds. "What is it?" she asked, scrambling to her feet.

Sephiroth straightened. "There's a helicopter outside."

"A helicopter?" She rushed out of the room, Sephiroth on her tail, and peered out at the canyon floor below her. In the darkness she could make out the Shinra chopper, parked right next to the Shera, and a group of people standing off to the side. She turned to Sephiroth. "Shinra. I wonder why they're here?"

"Shinra," he echoed, the note of distaste in his voice clear as a bell.

Tifa made to climb down the ladder, but Sephiroth gently grabbed her arm. She looked at his hand, gripping her firmly, then up at him. "Sephiroth..."

"I can't go down there," he said. She could tell he wanted to, by the look on his face. He wanted to see what was going on, but he had the good sense to know that revealing himself to Shinra was not a smart move.

She also knew he didn't want her going down there alone. Did she dare ask him to wait here? "I can't just stand here..." she began, and was not surprised when he cut her off mid-sentence.

"Go. I will wait here."

His complacency surprised her, and Tifa let out a mental sigh of relief. "Okay." She wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a fierce hug, and when they finally parted, he gave her a quizzical look.

"You'll be fine," he said, the corner of his mouth twitching oddly.

She nodded and swung herself down onto the rope ladder. Sephiroth crouched in front of her to meet her eyes. He seemed suddenly amused, the worry momentarily gone from his face. "Report back, Tifa."

She couldn't suppress a grin at his militant tone. "Yes, sir," she said sternly, saluting him before scaling down the rope ladder to the canyon floor. Several feet from the ground she jumped, stirring up a cloud of dust around her feet, and hurried towards the chopper. Her stomach twisted into a knot of anxiety at the sight of spiky blond hair sticking up from one of the people huddling beside the chopper.

"What's going on?" she asked. Vincent, Nanaki, and Cloud all turned to her, surprised by her sudden appearance. Genesis was conspicuously absent from the group, but another man with flaming-red locks caught her attention. "Reno!" she gasped.

He looked terrible. His lip had been split open, and a trail of dry blood stained his chin. A black eye was beginning to shadow the left side of his face, and his arm stuck out at a funny but painful-looking angle. He looked exhausted, and his aqua eyes were oddly flat, not as bright as usual. But at the sound of his name, he managed a tired grin and a sly wink. "Hey honey."

She shook her head, holding back a retort. "What happened?"

"Tifa!" Cloud said, staring at her, his electric blue eyes shocked and slightly wary. "What are you doing here?"

She shot him a brief glance. He looked almost as tired as Reno; there were dark smudges under his eyes, and his hair was unwashed and wild. He seemed paler than usual, probably from huddling over papers in the library for the past few days. She waved the question away. "Never mind that. Reno," she put a hand on the redhead's arm, the one that wasn't broken, "what happened to you?"

"Got into a scrap."

A snort from behind Reno drew Tifa's attention to the other Turk, Rude. He looked even worse than his partner. His sunglasses were cracked, there was a vicious cut on his head that still leaked blood, and a rainbow of bruises covered his neck and face. It was the first time she'd seen Rude look less than the perfectly composed Turk. His tie was crooked, and for some reason that scandalized her more than his injuries did.

"A scrap?" she echoed weakly.

"We came to see Cloud," Rude said.

"Tifa, what are you doing here?" Cloud demanded, his tone taking on a hint of impatience.

"You didn't expect me to just sit around washing dishes, did you?" she shot back. Reno smirked, and Rude let out a short guffaw of amusement. Turks. Even after they'd just taken a beating, they still carried on being jerks. Tifa admired that about them. Even with a busted arm, Reno played the slick player, and even with his scalp sliced open, Rude kept his cool.

"No, but..." Cloud paused.

"But what, Cloud?"

"Tifa..."

Vincent stepped forward and cut him off. "Priorities. They," he nodded at the two Turks, "require medical attention. Then they will tell us what happened, and why they are here. And after that," his eyes flickered from Cloud to Tifa, "you two can get into your argument."

Tifa wanted nothing more than to give Vincent a hug. But somehow she doubted the stoic gunman would appreciate that, so she settled with shooting him a grateful smile.

"Come," Nanaki said, glancing at Tifa briefly, considering her. "Vincent is correct. You need medical attention. Especially that arm," he said to Reno.

"What, this arm?" Reno pointed with his good arm to his broken one. "It's nothing."

Tifa, Rude, and Vincent all snorted at the same time, making for a truly bizarre chorus of noise. Nanaki led them all up the stairway and into his study. Tifa cast a wistful glance at the observatory, her mind going to Sephiroth. He would like it in there. She wished things weren't so complicated. She wished she could simply go get him, drag him into the observatory and watch the stars with him.

Cloud rested his hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention to him. "Tifa..."

"Later," she said, nodding at the two Turks. They collapsed in unison on a squashy blue sofa, and Reno cradled his broken arm against him, grimacing slightly from the pain.

Nanaki leaped onto the sofa and settled himself between the Turks. He turned first to Reno. "This may tingle slightly. Don't worry- my cure materia is very well-developed." He gave himself a little shake, his mane bristling slightly, and an unearthly green light began to shimmer its way up Reno's body, from his feet to his head. The cut on his lip vanished, and the bruise on the left side of his face began to fade. A grotesque popping noise came from his arm, and he winced.

"Damn!" he hissed.

"Sorry," Nanaki said. "The bone is resetting now." He cast the spell again, and the green light flashed over Reno, this time focusing on his arm. He flexed his fingers and rotated his shoulder.

"Thanks, Fido."

Nanaki growled, but ignored the jibe, shifting his attention to Rude. "You should carry cure materia with you," he said, casting the spell on the stoic Turk. The gash on his head healed, and the bruises peppering his neck and face slowly disappeared.

"Well! Sorr-y," Reno drawled. "It's not like we planned on getting our asses handed to us."

"What happened?" Tifa repeated for the third and hopefully final time.

"Shinra business," Rude grunted.

"This is hardly the time to be elusive," Vincent said. "I remind you that Shinra business is WRO business." He crossed his arms over his chest. "And WRO business is my business." His imposing posture and cutting tone reminded Tifa of something. The way he held his shoulders, and the way he drummed his fingers along his arm impatiently. For a moment her mind almost subconsciously began to connect dots that she hadn't known were there, and she felt as though she was staring at something that should be glaringly obvious in its nature, yet it escaped her.

Cloud stiffened and glanced over his shoulder, his eyes uneasy. Tifa could see the fine baby-blond hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "I feel funny," he muttered.

"Great. Nice to know." Reno tilted his head and watched Cloud. "We were in Nibelheim, checking out a few missing person reports."

"What did you find?" Tifa asked, ignoring Cloud's statement. She had a good idea of what was causing his agitation. He had the disturbing ability to sense whenever Sephiroth was near, and she was quite sure he had the feeling his enemy was close by.

"Monsters," Reno answered, his eyes shifting to Tifa. She shuddered under his gaze- he looked haunted, like he would give anything to reverse what he'd experienced in Nibelheim.

"There have always been monsters in and around Nibelheim." Vincent's voice was laced with irony.

Tifa's temper bristled at the suggestion. Whether he was referring to himself, Hojo, or Sephiroth... well, she could agree on Hojo being a monster, but that was about it. "You might want to work on your definition of monster, Vincent," she said to him.

Vincent shrugged. "You found monsters in Nibelheim. Did you find the missing people?"

"I think the monsters are the missing people," Reno said. "They were... they looked like they used to be human. But whatever happened to them... "

"Extreme mako infusion," Vincent supplied. "Hojo's work, no doubt."

"Yeah... anyway, we checked the basement in that old mansion, and we were on our way up to the reactor when we got attacked. It was almost... almost like they were protecting something. We tried to get past them and they just went berserk. There were twenty of them, at least." Reno rubbed his mended arm.

"Hojo's in Nibelheim," Cloud said. "And Sephiroth..."

"Nibelheim," Tifa mused, not wanting Cloud to brood over and think about her friend. "That seems almost too obvious, doesn't it? I mean, if Hojo wants to stay a free man, why would he be in the first place we would look for him?"

"I was actually betting on him being in Deepground. There's still a lot of shit down there that we haven't cleaned up. Labs full of equipment, computers, other junk." Reno straightened the goggles perched precariously on his head. "But Nibelheim? You're right," he said to Tifa, "it's too obvious."

"The President informed us you were here." Rude stared at Cloud, or at least in his general direction. Tifa couldn't tell where the Turk's eyes actually rested as he spoke. "He requests your assistance with the situation."

"I'm going to call Reeve. We can't just run around blind, not keeping in touch with each other. If Hojo is in Nibelheim, we'll get him. But we need to work together," Cloud answered firmly. He'd taken on that calm, slightly cocky tone that Tifa knew so well from their time spent chasing Sephiroth. He was reverting to leader-mode. It was a welcome relief to see him take up the cause and begin to form plans. "You didn't see Sephiroth, did you?" he asked Rude gravely.

"No."

Cloud glanced at Reno, but the Turk shook his head. "Nope. Haven't heard a whisper about him. Not even a sighting since the reports from Bone Village."

Tifa pointedly ignored Vincent as he stared at her, his crimson eyes burning holes into the side of her heard. "He's got nothing to do with Hojo," she said. "At the moment."

Cloud scratched his head. "It's just... I don't like it. I feel like... like he's closer than I think. Like he's right behind me, and I just can't see him. And I think he does have something to do with Hojo. I think there's a connection there, Tifa. I know there is."

"What I don't get," Reno got to his feet and began to pace back and forth, "is how the hell Hojo is alive. I thought you took care of him," he said to Vincent. "I thought he was dead. Problem solved. Why the hell can't these people just stay dead?"

Tifa finally felt useful. This she could answer. She jumped in. "Jenova. Hojo is alive because he's fused his subconscious with Jenova. He can control Jenova cells in others' bodies. He used that ability to take over a... a host, I guess you would call it. So killing him won't do any good in the long run. It'll just postpone the problem."

"Listen to her," Reno commented to his partner. "Miss expert-on-the-subject. What did Sephiroth do, give you a lecture while he was dragging you around up north?"

"Shut up," Cloud said shortly. "Leave her alone."

"It's okay, Cloud." She touched his shoulder. "And no, he didn't give me a lecture, Reno. But he did share his opinion on the subject."

"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Cloud asked her, frowning. "Damn, Tifa, I just spent days going through research papers and reports and figures and..."

"Sorry," she said, holding up a hand to stop him midsentence, "but I had a lot on my plate."

"Got it all cleared up, though? Nice full stomach?" Reno asked. He was recovering his usual spritely attitude, much to Tifa's relief. She knew things had to be bad when Reno wasn't being a wiseass.

"You could say that," she said carefully, aware of Vincent's continual scrutiny.

"So what are we going to do?" Cloud asked her. "If killing Hojo won't do any good, what are we going to do?"

"We need to find a way to disperse him into the lifestream. How, I don't know," she answered, glad to steer the conversation away from Sephiroth. "Jenova is like a virus. If there are any traces of it left, Hojo can keep himself intact, even if we destroy the body he's in right now. He'll just infect another body."

"Sephiroth can do the same, can't he?" Cloud crossed his arms. "I wonder..."

"No. You wouldn't be capable of the same thing. There are only a minimal amount of Jenova cells in your body," Vincent said, finally freeing his eyes from Tifa to look at Cloud. She felt as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, being released from his searching stare.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing out on something?" Cloud asked, scratching the back of his neck. He glanced between Tifa and Vincent, his eyes taking on a suspicious gleam. "You two seem pretty well-informed about things."

Tifa opened her mouth, ready to lie, but the sound of footsteps coming from outside made her blood run cold. She felt as though she'd just been dunked in ice-water. He wouldn't... he was smarter than that... and hopefully, so was Genesis...

Cid Highwind burst into the room. "What the $#$#$ hell is going on! Nobody thought to wake me up?" His eyes went from Cloud, to Tifa, to the Turks, and he narrowed his eyes. "What are you two doing here?" There was no mistaking the distaste in his voice when he addressed Reno and Rude.

"Nice to see you too," Reno answered dryly.

"Where're your bodyguards, Tifa?" Cid asked, scanning the room. "Did they take off on ya? Cause a ruckus? I knew that ##$% lunatic was up to something. I knew it. No offense, kid, but I knew this was gonna happen."

"Cid," she warned, trying to convey to him that now would be a good time to shut up.

He ignored the verbal cue and the look in her eyes. "Goddamn, somebody better give me an explanation before I lose my shit. What did those ##$# ex-SOLDIERs get up to? What did they do? Are we going after them?"

"Cid," Vincent said sharply.

"What? Ex-SOLDIERs? Bodyguards? Lunatic? Cid, what are you talking about?" Cloud's voice took on a slightly panicked tone. He stepped toward the pilot, cornering him.

Cid finally clued in, but the damage had been done. Tifa put her head in her hands, too distressed to look at her childhood friend. "Uhh..." Cid stuttered, taking a step away from Cloud, pressing his back flat against the wooden door. He looked like a caged animal, shifting his weight from one leg to the other.

"I knew it," Cloud breathed. "Something's going on here. I knew it. Tifa..."

She could not look at him. As positive as she was that Sephiroth had become the least of their concerns, she could not deny the fact that she'd betrayed her childhood friend by forgiving the man that they'd hated together for so long. Hating Sephiroth had been common ground for them. Safe, stable, common ground. But now they couldn't even share that. Because she couldn't hate Sephiroth anymore. Not even for Cloud.

"Tifa, look at me, damn it."

She shook her head. Cloud cursed and kicked a nearby chair, busting the leg and sending the piece of furniture skittering across the floor.

"What's all this?" Reno demanded. "What about ex-SOLDIERs?"

Cid babbled something about being left out of the loop, unleashing a volley of unintelligible curses.

"Enough," Vincent said loudly, and everyone fell silent. Nobody breathed. Nobody in the room had ever heard Vincent Valentine raise his voice to that decibel before. "Cloud, Tifa has been through a very emotional ordeal this week. Show some compassion. She is your childhood friend, and you know she would never intentionally hurt you. Cid, you fool, don't blame us for not wanting to disturb your slumber."

"Who're you #$%#$ calling a fool?" Cid snapped.

"I can't believe you would hide something from me," Cloud muttered to her. "Tifa, you never hide things from me..."

"You're one to talk about hiding things," she answered waspishly, finally lowering her hands to glare at the blond man in front of her. "Don't you dare accuse me of not being forthcoming enough! You never tell me what's going on in your life."

"Sephiroth." He uttered the name like it was a curse. "This is about Sephiroth. You know where he is, don't you?"

"Hold on," Reno butted in. "Just hold on. I have a question."

Tifa turned to him. "What?"

"Did you try calling me after we left your bar the other day?"

She shook her head, perplexed. "No. Why would I call you?"

"Well, somebody called me from your cell phone." Reno scratched his head, pulled out his own cell phone, and flipped it open. He handed it to her. She looked down at the screen. Third from the top, he'd received a call from "Hot Bartender."

"Hot bartender?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Hey, don't feel bad. Rude's listed under 'Mr. Sunglasses,' and to be fair, you are a hot bartender."

"Tifa, you'd better tell me what's going on," Cloud interrupted, sending the redhead a cutting glare. "I don't care about the Turks visiting you and I don't care who's been using your phone. I just want to know where Sephiroth is. Tell me."

She reflected on the fact that she'd developed the ability to not get drawn into an argument with him. Where had that come from? Usually she couldn't help but get involved where Cloud was concerned. She took every opportunity she could to talk to him. But right now she wanted nothing more than to shut him out, ignore him completely. The butterfly feeling she'd often gotten when talking to him was conspicuously absent. "Well," she said to Reno, "it wasn't me calling you. Why does it matter?"

She'd fallen into one of his frequently set-up traps. She could tell by the wicked gleam in his aqua eyes. "Just wondered if you'd finally seen the light, honey. I thought maybe you were finally taking me up on that dinner and a movie offer."

"Tifa doesn't like it when you call her honey, Turk."

Tifa flinched. She didn't have to turn around to know who was standing behind her. She recognized that grandiose voice. "Genesis," she said.

"Good morning to you," he answered courteously.

Cloud threw an arm around Tifa and yanked her away from Genesis rather roughly, drawing his sword and planting his feet firmly on the ground, ready to lunge. "Who are you?"

"I seemed to have overslept. Though the morrow..."

Tifa took a leaf out of Sephiroth's book and cut the man's recitation short. "Genesis, now really isn't a good time to recite poetry," she said, facing him. He looked rumpled and warm, like he'd just woken from a nap in the sun. He shrugged his broad shoulders and drew his own sword, nodding at Cloud.

"I wouldn't do that," he said idly. "Really, Cloud, you never officially made it into SOLDIER. What chance do you have against me?"

"Genesis? Genesis Rhapsodos?" Cloud asked, narrowing his eyes. His hands tightened their grip on his sword.

"Genesis Rhapsodos," Reno said. He didn't bother masking his amazement. "You're alive."

"Well-spotted." Genesis kept his eyes glued to Cloud. "Go on, pup. Show me your best."

Tifa placed herself firmly between the two men, giving them both warning glares. "Put those away," she said. "Please."

"You knew about him." Cloud directed the statement at Vincent. His eyes flickered to the unsurprised Cid and Nanaki. "All of you knew? And nobody thought to tell me? What else do I not know about?"

"Oh boy," Cid muttered, scratching his head.

"I didn't know," Reno offered.

"Neither did I," Rude added.

"Great. I've been relegated to the same level as the Turks," Cloud muttered. "And who are you calling a pup?" he asked Genesis.

"If you possessed an ounce of intelligence, you would notice that your companions do not see me as a threat. Therefore, neither should you. Unless, of course, you don't trust your friends."

"Genesis, can you... be quiet, for a minute?" Tifa asked. She had a feeling she was asking a bit too much from him- he liked to talk, enjoyed having everyone's attention. And she hardly expected him to bow to her demands the way Sephiroth did, but she didn't need him purposefully riling Cloud up when she was trying to keep her childhood friend calm.

"You're getting as bad as yon General," he answered with a lopsided grin. "Ordering me around, telling me to shut up. By the way, Reno, I would truly advise against flirting with Tifa. It may end badly for you."

Tifa groaned. She hadn't expected him to heed her. But she hadn't expected him to make things worse, either. "Genesis..."

"The proverbial cat is out of the bag, so frankly I see no reason to continue this little charade. He will find out eventually, Tifa. That is why we are here. And seeing as how it's 3:30 AM, we may as well get an early start. Go ahead. Tell him." Genesis lowered his sword, clearly judging Cloud to be a very minor threat.

"Tell me," Cloud agreed. Unlike Genesis, he kept his sword raised.

Tifa buried her head in her hands once more. She'd been preparing for this moment since Vincent had called Cid in Edge and requested that he bring them here, and yet she had no idea where to begin. She had no idea what to say. Her cheeks burned against her palms, and she knew a bright pink blush had crept into her face. "I hate you," she muttered into her hands. "Genesis, I really hate you right now."

As if on cue, Vincent and Nanaki stood behind Cloud. To him it might have looked like a show of support. Tifa knew better. They were preparing to stop him, lest he decide to attack Genesis or even Tifa herself. "Okay," she muttered, taking a shaky breath and releasing it slowly. "Here it goes. Cloud... after you left Edge, I got a visitor."

"Visitor?"

"Sephiroth."

Cloud lowered his sword, not because he'd decided Genesis meant no harm, but out of shock. The tension in the air was suffocating. "He... he was in our apartment?"

"Yeah. He... came to check up on me, I guess. To make sure I was safe."

"No way." Cloud waved a finger at her. "Tifa, Sephiroth wouldn't care if you were safe or not. Is that what he said? He was just checking up on you?"

"That's what he said," Tifa agreed. Unconsciously she began to pace back and forth. She stopped in front of Genesis and searched his face, unsure what she was looking for. Support, maybe. Reassurance that she could get through this, that she wouldn't have a meltdown by the end of it.

Genesis reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "Go on."

She continued pacing. "It's crazy, and I know that. I know what it looks like, I know how it sounds... but Cloud, Sephiroth had good intentions when he showed up in Edge. He just wanted to talk. And he did talk. We talked. About what he did, and why. And I... I liked talking to Sephiroth. He's really not what you would expect. He's... he's a human being, deep down. Oh, he's a bit unstable," she said quickly, when Cloud opened his mouth to argue, "mentally. But he has a heart. A good heart. We've become really close, Cloud. Sephiroth and I... we're friends. I trust him. I won't ever forget what he did, but I do forgive him. I'm not asking you to do the same. I'm just asking you to trust me. Trust my judgement, Cloud. I know I'm asking too much. But you have to trust me."

Cloud stared at her. Reno and Rude stared at her. Vincent, Cid, and Nanaki stared at her as well. Genesis clapped his hands together, breaking the utter silence that had descended on all of them. "What a wonderful speech," he said. "Very moving."

"Friends." Cloud's eyebrows went up. "Friends, Tifa. You're friends with Sephiroth." His voice took on a slightly hysterical tone that put her even more on edge. He raked a hand through his wild, unkempt hair. "Sephiroth doesn't have friends."

"I beg to differ," Genesis said coolly. "Sephiroth has at least two friends in this room. Possibly three." His eyes moved to Vincent before returning to Cloud.

"He destroyed our home, Tifa. He killed your father, he killed my mother, he almost killed you..."

"I told you I haven't forgotten what he's done," she interrupted. "But Cloud... he wasn't himself when he did those things."

"Don't tell me he didn't know what he was doing! He knew exactly what..."

"He did know what he was doing. I'm not saying he didn't. But you knew what you were doing when you handed Sephiroth the Black Materia, didn't you?"

He turned away from her, disgust written across his face. "Jesus, Tifa. He was manipulating me. And now he's manipulating you. Don't you see?"

"He is not manipulating me." It came out harsher than she meant, but the accusation riled Tifa more than she cared to admit. She wasn't sure what bothered her more- the suggestion that Sephiroth was up to no good, or the suggestion that she'd fallen into a trap. She took a deep breath to calm herself, then decided it would be more prudent to defend her actions than Sephiroth's. "I'm not an idiot, Cloud. It's not like he snapped his fingers and suddenly I forgave him. It's not like that at all. I've questioned my sanity more in the past week or so than I have all my life. I looked for reasons to hate him. I tried really hard not to believe him. I kept telling myself he was manipulating me, he was using me, he was lying to me. But it got to a point where I was lying to myself, trying to convince myself that he was the same monster that burned my hometown to the ground, that killed my father, that cut me open."

Cloud opened his mouth, but she continued, ignoring his protest.

"It didn't happen overnight. I didn't forgive him on the spot. But he saved my life, twice. He kept me alive. If it wasn't for Sephiroth, I would either be dead... or worse than dead. And besides all that..." she couldn't stop the smile that spread across her face, "he's actually pretty likeable."

"You're out of your mind," Cloud said. He sounded too calm, given the situation. Tifa began to mentally prepare herself for the meltdown she knew he was about to have. "He's here, isn't he? He's somewhere in Cosmo Canyon." He raised his sword, his mako eyes swirling with hate and an almost eager anticipation.

She held her ground.

"Move."

She shook her head." No."

"Tifa. Move."

"No."

"Get out of my way!"

Tifa didn't move. Cloud stared at her stubbornly, and she stared back at him, feeling oddly trapped in his vivid blue eyes. His gaze shifted to somewhere over her shoulder, and he jerked back, those swirling mako eyes widening with recognition and shock. She didn't have to turn around to know who had just stepped into the room. She could feel the subtle shift in the air that announced his presence, could smell metal and smoke, something else...

"Cloud."

His voice still sent a shiver up her spine.