A/N: This is AU and includes darker elements. To answer a question about Cloud's appearance in the previous chapter, he may appear now and then, but I have no plans of making him a major player in this fic. Unless I decide to give him to Hojo. Until then, he's sorta the good angel sitting on Tifa's shoulder and shaking his head at Tifa being lured to the dark side. Will that happen? Well, that just remains to be seen.

Enjoy.

fm

XI

Tifa slid into one side of the booth as Reno slouched into the seat across from her. A weary-eyed waitress plunked two menus down on the table between them, and asked if they wanted anything to drink.

"Coffee," Reno muttered. "Keep it coming." He glanced at Tifa. "You?"

"Same."

He picked up a menu and started flipping through the glossy pages. Tifa left hers sitting at the edge of the table. After a few seconds, Reno slapped his back down and nodded at the two menus.

"You should eat something."

"I don't feel like eating."

"Yeah. But you should. Trust me."

Trust him? She had no choice at this point. She was too far out of her element to do otherwise.

"Why did you ask me to do this with you?"

He didn't answer her question. Instead, he pushed a menu in front of her.

"Pick something. We'll talk later. After it's done."

After it's done? Tifa had thought they were done. How much more could they do? She opened the menu and looked over her options while her mind wandered back to the beginning of this nightmare.

Reno hadn't wasted any time once they were on the bike, but Tifa had no way of knowing if it was because he was in a hurry or if this was the way he normally drove. She did notice that stop signs and lights became mere suggestions, and she had her arms wrapped tightly around him by the second intersection, as if holding on tighter would save her if something barreled into them. Reno didn't complain and from the expression she caught from his profile on occasion, he seemed too intensely preoccupied to be bothered with where she put her arms.

They passed through the gates of Shinra Headquarters and made a beeline to a parking garage on the roof where he pulled the motorcycle into a parking spot and shut down the engine. Tifa stepped off immediately, conscious of the rush he seemed to be in.

"Which direction?" She wanted to avoid feeling like a burden. Reno pointed at the helicopter sitting silent in the center of the lot.

"We're not there yet, yo. We can't do this with a motorcycle." He opened the door for Tifa, giving her an arm up into the chopper and strapping her into the passenger seat. He climbed into the pilots seat and did the same for himself, put on a headset and handed her another set, flipped some switches, and fired up the engine.

Tifa sat very still in her seat, trying not to distract Reno from flying the chopper. She hadn't thought him old enough to drive, and now here she was, sitting beside him as he sped them through the pre-dawn darkness out of Edge.

"Can I ask where we're going?" They had been flying a straight line for a few minutes now, and Tifa thought it was safe to ask, but from Reno's stillness, she also thought he might not answer the question.

"Hojo's."

What? WHAT? Tifa turned against the seatbelt to confront Reno. "What do you mean, Hojo's? His house?"

"Sort of. It's a house he uses. Shinra actually owns it. We've got about fifty miles to go." It didn't matter how far they had to go. Tifa was horrified.

"Can I ask why we're going there?" She could hear the panic edging into her voice.

"We need to pick someone up."

"Hojo?"

Reno rolled his eyes ending in a glance at her. "No. Hojo won't even be there, or if he is, we won't see him."

"So who are we picking up?"

"Tseng."

Huh? Why did Reno need her to go with him to pick up Tseng? This just wasn't making any sense, and she said so.

"Tseng may be...injured. I'm pretty sure he is."

"So, why doesn't..."

"You really aren't good at just following orders, are you?" He banked the helicopter suddenly, and Tifa clung to her seat thinking he had done it on purpose to distract her. Then she saw the house. What an understatement that was. It was a massive structure with walls of glass stretched out against a stone hillside, and Tifa couldn't tell the depth of the structure. Reno put the chopper down on a helipad, and shut the engines down. She managed to get the belts off and climbed out, following him to the front door where he punched a code into the keypad. The door swung open and she followed him, nearly at a run, into the interior of the house. What they hell could be so wrong with Tseng that would have Reno acting like this? Tifa slowed, trailing behind, not sure she wanted to know.

How right she had been.

Despite his head start, she found him waiting as she followed him around a corner. He was standing in front of a door a few feet down the hall with his hand on the doorknob. He glanced at her, but wouldn't hold her gaze.

"Wait here for a minute. I don't know how bad this is." He hesitated before opening the door and disappearing, the door closing softly behind him.

"Holy Hell," Tifa muttered. "What the fuck?" There were no options now. She was in this for the long haul. She had let Reno roust her out of her apartment at some heinous hour in the morning, put her in a helicopter and fly her to the middle of nowhere. It was not like she could simply turn and walk away. She had accepted a mission, and she wasn't even a Turk. She could just imagine Cloud refusing to look at her while he muttered "I told you so", and what could she say. Not even twenty four hours later, and everything he had warned her about had come to fruition.

She really was going to have to get better at setting boundaries.

The sound of movement around the corner caught her attention. Retracing her steps back through the house, she walked into the entry vestibule just as Hojo appeared from another direction. She flinched. He leered.

"Well, what do we have here?" He slowly bent to let the bag he was carrying slip to the floor, never taking his eyes off Tifa. "I did not expect such an exquisite specimen." She backed away as he advanced, leering in a way she remembered all to well, and snagged her by the wrist, abruptly pulling her closer.

"A bit of extra fun tonight. You'll be like dessert." Tifa struggled, but he was deceptively strong, his arms banding around her to hold tight, keeping her arms pinned at her sides. He lowered his face to hers and she turned away, but that put his mouth right next to her ear. "Struggle. Fight me. I love it when they fight." That sent a starburst of panic through her body and it was everything she could do to think past it. Focus, that was what she needed. Stay focused and don't give him what he wants. But then his attention shifted over her shoulder and he became very still. "You," he spit the word out.

"Yeah, it's me old man. You really fucked up this time, yo."

"Oh, come now," murmured the Professor. "You're not really going to shoot me." It was the first indication Tifa had that a weapon had come into play. Turning her head to the side, she caught sight of the gun outstretched in Reno's hand and the tension she had been feeling in the center of her chest wound up a notch.

"Don't tempt me, yo. Just let her go and get out while you still can."

The tension in his arms released slowly, and as soon as Tifa thought she could get away with it, she twisted the rest of way to freedom, making sure she was out of reach. Although he took one step back, Hojo looked like he was still considering his odds. He studied Reno, the expression on his face, the gun in his hand, his posture; then he studied Tifa.

"I don't believe you, Reno. You may be a bit of a...wild card, shall we say, but even you wouldn't do anything so drastic with a witness." He stared at Tifa, his eyes twinkling.

Egads. That was the end of Tifa's patience for the night, and Hojo was already at the top of the list of people she would rather not see again, and now he was expecting her to be his ally? Not in this lifetime.

"I hope you're not relying on me," she turned innocent eyes to him. "I'm with him." She turned, nodding back at Reno and using the opportunity to make sure she wasn't in his line of fire. She didn't think Reno would go through with it, but at this point she would cheer if he did.

The twinkle that had lit Hojo's eyes dimmed immediately and he drew back, retreating to pick up his bag. One glance back at the two of them, but not another word, he slammed the door behind him on his way out.

"Well, that was something," Tifa stated. When Reno didn't respond, she turned to find him staring at her with an expression she couldn't quite read. He broke the silence as he holstered the gun.

"Come on. I need your help."

He led her back through the house, and she followed him into the room. She could see it was a bedroom immediately, the corner of the bed and the dressers visible around Reno's shoulder, and it was as opulent as the rest of the house. As he circled around the edge of the king size bed, Tifa saw the reason he needed her help, but couldn't react at first because it didn't make any sense to her.

Tseng was curled up on the bed, a sheet carelessly thrown over him covering him to his waist.

"Get his clothes," Reno vaguely pointed to a chair in the far corner and Tifa did as she was told, finding only the jacket neatly folded and the tie hanging over it. Scanning around, she found his pants on the floor, closer to the bed, but there was no sign of his shirt or his belt. Oh well, that was no big deal, was it?

She spun to give Reno the clothes and froze, all thoughts of the errant belt and shirt draining away in a cold wash of horror. Reno had managed to get Tseng to the edge of the bed, and Tifa could finally see why they were here.

Tseng's back was a series of long, angry red welts that crossed randomly and bled in a few places. He hissed as Reno held him upright, and as Tifa circled the bed, she saw the welts extended at least along his ribs and possibly further, but Tifa couldn't see past Reno's jacket. Tseng's head hung down, the long veil of hair, now straggly and tangled, hiding his face. Reno held his hand out blindly for whatever piece of clothing Tifa handed him.

"I don't know where his..." The words died in her throat as she spotted the shirt, or what was left of it, mixed in with the sheets on the bed. The shirt was shredded, completely useless. Both the shirt and the sheets were spotted with blood.

Crap. It just kept getting worse.

Her mind finally shifted into survival mode, just fully realizing that they needed to get him out of here, and possibly find him medical help. What difference did a stupid shirt make. Without another word, she handed the jacket to Reno. Tseng made a strangled, pained noise as Reno maneuvered him so he could hold him with one arm while pulling the jacket on with the other. Tifa swallowed her revulsion, dropping the rest of the clothes on the bed within reach.

"Here. You hold him, I'll get that on him." Reno didn't protest, letting her take over fighting with the jacket and Tseng's limp arms, and she managed to get his arms into the sleeves. She let Reno take over and get the pants over Tseng's feet. Then Reno lifted him off the bed, and Tifa managed to avert her eyes as she pulled the pants up over Tseng's slim hips, biting her lip as he whimpered, and then cried out in pain as Reno set him back on the edge of the bed and let his body fall back. They managed to get his shoes on him and Reno shuffled him out of the room, returning a few seconds later to find Tifa staring in disbelief at the bed.

There was more blood than she had thought, and she couldn't wrap her mind around what had happened here. Reno didn't spare her a glance as he bustled around the bed, stripping the bloody sheets completely off, including the remnants of Tseng's clothes with them. He added the few articles of underclothes that were lying around on the floor to the ball of material and headed for the door.

"Grab his belt and gun, and we're out of here," he ordered before disappearing.

Belt? Gun? What? Tifa felt a numb shock settling in, and had to work to think past it. Belt and gun. Aha. The gun was hanging from the arm of the chair his jacket had been folded on. She went to claim it, thinking the belt might be with it, but no; it was a shoulder holster, no belt necessary. So where...she searched the room quickly and finally found it hanging over the headboard. In her hurry to get out of the room and far away from what happened in it, she reached the door before she looked down at the belt and realized that it was just about the width of the welts on Tseng's back. Her stomach clenched in a hard knot.

She found Reno in the living area they had crossed through on the way in. He had built a raging fire in the stone fireplace that took up nearly an entire wall, and Tifa knew that was how he had disposed of the sheets. She joined him in staring at the flames.

"What now?"

Her question broke him from his reverie. "You got his gun and belt?" She held up the items in question. "Then we're outta here, yo. I gotta get him to a doctor." He was already moving, gingerly helping Tseng from the couch and half leading him, half carrying him toward the door.

"What about the fire? Is it safe to leave it burning like this?"

"Fuck it. Let it burn the place down."

Taking one last look into the flames, Tifa shrugged. If Reno worried about it, why should she? Besides, she happened to agree with him. Let it burn.