Chapter Fourteen - Walking the Fence

There comes a time when even the best gamblers need to decide whether or not to go all in or fold. A wiser individual in my shoes would have ducked out of the game well before it even started, as there are no winners at this table - only losers who don't know they've lost yet. Unfortunately, neither Cissnei, nor Jessie for that matter happen to be very good at playing the game and used up all of their best cards a while ago, back when it all mattered.

It's more like walking on a pond of frozen ice now, waiting to fall through and drown. And the sickening thing is that I can't swim if I do end up in the water. No one is going to jump in and save me this time. They never could. Like a fox walking the fence with sleeping hounds on either side of it. One wrong move and all hell breaks loose. But, it is a risk I need to take. I'll walk this damn fence until it kills me, because I'm not sure there are any others who can, or even how to go about getting off of it safely.

It's been four days since I last heard from Tseng. In the Turk pack, that is never a good thing because it usually translates to him having alerted the proper authorities outside of the standard pack and I'm wearing an invisible target on top of the one I already have.

All I can do is bide my time and wait for the repercussions of my most recent crime. But this time, I'm ready for him. I'll fight to the death to ensure that AVALANCHE survives every encounter they have against the Turks, even if it means sparring with the leader himself. I have a right to defend them still.

The PHS rings and shatters the silence of the apartment. I retrieve it almost confidently, a part of me prepared for whatever lies in wait on the other side. If I'm going to survive, then I'm going to have to stop being such a coward and actually fight some of my battles the way they should be fought - with honor and intelligence.

"I take it you already have an idea as to why I am calling you so late, so I'll get right to the point. I need to discuss something with you. It involves AVALANCHE and Strife."

Here we go. It's always the same argument. When will he learn that I am not a Turk anymore? I traded that life for Jessie's when Scarlet tried to kill me.

"Tseng. I'm not interested in talking about them. You know I have nothing to say."

Half expecting him to yell at me over the phone, I cower slightly against the wooden chair.

"I need to discuss this issue with you regardless of whether or not you are interested in dealing with me or not. It involves your current situation."

Tell me something I don't know. Right now I'm one plank between perdition and a fiery end, teetering above the jaws of demon hounds just waiting to tear me apart when I fall.

"Cissnei. Are you listening to me?"

"Yeah. I'm listening."

Whether or not I'm paying much attention though is a different story.

"Is something wrong? You seem a little more distant than usual."

"It's nothing, Tseng." Aside from the fact that I'm going to have to explain just how they got through security and what role I might have played, not to mention the fact that I flat out lied to the leader of the Turks. Yeah. There's nothing going on. Nothing at all.

"I am going to be paying you a visit this morning, say sometime around six o'clock. This is a matter that I cannot discuss over the phone. I trust you'll be there."

"Yeah, I'll be here." It's not like I have any place else to run to. I mean really, even if I did manage to get out of this godforsaken city, where would I go? All I really have to my name are the clothes on my back, and even they are not mine but belong to Reno. I don't even have enough bullets for that pistol to fend off the monsters of the wastelands I would encounter.

I've got to find a way out of this.

The better part of six hours later, there's a knock at my door and true to his word, as usual, there stands the source of my anxiety, this time looking a little more sober than he did last time he paid me a visit.

"Good morning, Cissnei."

I regard him with my typical silence and merely take my seat at the table. It's not as though I don't know the drill. He's more than likely to rake me over the coals once again for what I did about Rufus's inauguration issues.

Only this time, I'm ready for him.

"I am not in the mood to talk, Tseng." I reply, my back to him as he moves to take a seat at the table. Today he's not dealing with Cissnei, but Jessie. And she is not in the mood to deal with the Turks and their sick, twisted senses of humor when it comes to survival and manipulation.

"I figured you wouldn't be." He sits across from me, once against studying me as though I am some sort of livestock he has made a wrong investment in somewhere along the line. I really hate that look. "I have information you will be interested in involving Strife and his band of rebels."

"I'm not interested." He knows I'm lying through my teeth about it. Hell. Any information I can get my hands on can only benefit the people in question who I am trying to protect.

"Sephiroth was aboard that freighter, as was AVALANCHE. You broke the rules, Cissnei."

The fence seems to have come to an end a lot sooner than I could have imagined, the hound perched right there in front of me, ready to knock me into the teeth below.

"They're stupid rules." I reply, still not budging from my stubborn pride as a former member of AVALANCHE. Foxes don't give up when cornered, and this is once again my territory and he is unwelcome.

A hand seizes the collar of the oversized shirt once belonging to Reno, drawing the fabric tight around my throat.

"Look at me when I am talking to you. You need to know this information if you want me to let you here still breathing in this world when I report to Rufus regarding the slip up in Junon. Heidegger wants heads for this one, and if this meeting does not go well, yours is going to be offered. Understood?"

The uncomfortable fabric wears against my flesh tighter, my hand grasping his wrist in a less than subtle effort to convince him to release me.

"Do you understand me?"

I manage to nod, every muscle tense as he releases me and continues to glare.

"I do not know what the hell happened to you all of a sudden, but when I give you an order, I expect you to follow it."

"If you knew what Shinra was planning, you would have let them go yourself," I snap, every card I have thrown down on the table well before I would have liked. Tseng raises an eyebrow at my outburst and I drive my palms against the table, standing up and bristling with frustration.

"Cissnei." The warning falls upon deaf ears, the Turk I once was shining through. I'm done taking orders against my will. I've had enough.

"No. For once, you listen to me, Tseng. That conniving little liar in charge of this godforsaken city is pulling the wool over everyone's eyes damn it. He's planning something big. Really big."

I saw it in the way he looked at the crowd, as though they were insects beneath the soles of his shoes to be trod upon.

Tseng regards me with indifference, allowing me to continue snarling and growling at him.

"Before he boarded the gondola, he asked Heidegger about Highwind's ship being ready for distance flight. You and I both know that thing hasn't flown since the Shinra 26 Rocket Incident, back when it was a prototype."

His eyes blink, taking in the words with the seriousness of a watchdog who has just realized what he is talking to and the consequences.

"You said you wanted information. Well sometimes a 'fox' can see things that the hounds can't. I think you need to take a second look at the man you are protecting before you come criticizing me about breaking some stupid damn rule."

I've definitely gotten his attention. He opens his mouth to say something, but I am quicker, pinning the hound in place with a look that says I am not going to let him escape the fight that easily.

"The world looks a whole hell of a lot different on this side of the fence. You need to get over your goddamn pride, Tseng, and take a second look at what's happening to Shinra. Everything that's happened over the past four years was no 'accident.' Sephiroth's resurrection could not be a coincidence. For Holy's sake, if that man knew Sephiroth and AVALANCHE were on board his freighter, then why did he let them go? He wasn't even upset that the old man was murdered, allowing him to step right in and take over the company while AVALANCHE got away. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if he set up every single one of the Turks."

Tseng ponders my words in a quiet moment, fingers drumming the table just to appear busy. He doesn't have an answer for me.

"Jumping to conclusions-"

"It could have been any one of us the day Zack was murdered. Reno and Rude, but no, the freaking scrambler just happened to end up attacking my radar instead of theirs. Given the fact I would have uncovered the truth of what they did to Zack in his final moments pretty quick with my skills, I was the one that needed to die first. Hell, all three of us could have been killed that night. The fact of the matter is, Tseng, Scarlet deliberately fired on us and caused that crash. Had it been only a few more seconds, both helicopters would have gone down in flames. But they didn't. She only took down mine. And then Sector Seven. If you knew AVALANCHE was hiding out there that often, then why that night the pillar went down? And why Reno? You and I both know they could have sent anyone with a half decent security clearance on what was supposed to be a suicide mission. But they chose Reno."

"I've heard enough," he stands up, not willing to continue the fight. Holy be damned if he kills me or not for this. It needs to be said. If I fall off of the fence, then I'm going down fighting.

"You always told me that the only thing dangerous to a Turk was being isolated in the crosshairs of the enemy. Heidegger is your boss and Scarlet's right-hand man. I'm not the one who is in danger right now, Tseng, you are. He's setting you up. He's setting the entire department up. And once he gets the chance, he's going to isolate you and kill you. And with the Turks out of his way, he'll be able to do as he goddamn pleases. Sector Seven was only the beginning."

For a moment, he merely stares, breaking eye contact for a brief few seconds. It is more than enough to tell me that he is seriously thinking about what I have just told him.

"How confident are you on this?"

I watch him, every memory of seeing that damn smirk on Rufus's face surfacing in my memory.

"Confident enough to say that Rufus is letting AVALANCHE do the dirty work of finding Sephiroth for him. And once he finds out just what they are after, I get the feeling that things are going to change at Shinra, and not in a good way."