Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. After re-working chapter 12, I had to re-work this one to make it match the changes. Updates are probably going to be coming once or twice a week now. Hope everyone enjoys it. :)
Disclaimer: I own nothing except my laptop and my ridiculous imagination! All else belongs to Square Enix.
Chapter 13: The Morning After
Tifa stretched and yawned before pushing herself into a sitting position. She winced at the tightness in her neck. It was probably something to do with the fact that she had slept one of the most uncomfortable couches on the planet, but the pain was worth not sleeping next to Sephiroth. The events of the previous night came back to her instantly. She shuddered as she remembered the way his hands had felt and the way his lips felt on her skin.
She was startled out of thought when the door to the bedroom opened and Sephiroth strode into the room in just his leather pants, his hair still damp from a recent shower. He paused only briefly when he saw her staring at him but continued moving closer to the sofa without a word. She jumped slightly when he dropped his heavy coat on the back of the sofa. She felt like a deer caught in headlights when his eyes met hers. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at her, the hard glint in them making Tifa wince slightly. He was angry, that much she could tell. She waited as she tried to steel her gaze against his, silently daring him to say anything to her, but he just turned away and walked back into the bedroom.
Tifa sagged slightly against the couch, nervousness twisting her stomach into painful knots. She wished her would just say something or in some way react to the fact that she hadn't spent the night in his bed, but his silence scared her. If he was yelling at her, or even hitting her, she would know what was going on in his head and how to deal with it. His silence was almost worse than anything he could actually do or say to her. She leaned back against the sofa and just closed her eyes. There was no going back now. Her last advantage over Sephiroth was gone and she had nothing left to bargain with for her friends except her life. He had manipulated her into a corner in which she could only give one correct answer to save Vincent and the others. Now what was to stop him going back on his word, if he hadn't already done so?
Sephiroth again broke through her thoughts when he reappeared in the room. He was wearing a different coat than the long one that was still hanging over the back of the sofa. It was a shorter jacket that looked almost identical to the one Loz wore. Instead of making any eye contact with Tifa, he wordlessly took his coat from the back of the sofa and walked over to the door. Once he entered the code to release the locks, he pulled the door open and slammed it behind him as he left.
"Yep," Tifa murmured to herself. "He is definitely pissed."
Genesis quirked an eyebrow when he saw Sephiroth enter the conference room in a short leather jacket. "I do not think I shall ever get used to this new world I find myself in. It constantly strives to surprise me at every turn."
"You're overly wordy today," Sephiroth muttered. "What are you getting at?"
"I can't believe you would ever be caught dead in anything other than your precious long coat," Genesis answered.
"I'm having it cleaned," Sephiroth said impatiently as he sat in the chair facing Genesis.
"Really? And why is that?" he asked.
"Coming home smelling like a fire spell and burnt buildings isn't the best way to incite lust in a woman you are trying to seduce after being the man who burned down her town," Sephiroth said dryly.
"Trouble in paradise?" Genesis asked with a smile.
Sephiroth smiled as he leaned back in his chair. "Not really. It was a little hard going, but she eventually came to terms with the inevitable."
"Please tell me you haven't sunk to raping women," Genesis said as he made a face. "Killing people is one thing, but being a rapist on top of a murderer is just repulsive, Sephiroth."
"I didn't rape anyone, Genesis," he said as he frowned in disgust. "She's just smart enough to know when she's beat."
"She sounds intriguing," Genesis mused. "When do I get to meet her?"
Anger flashed in Sephiroth's eyes at the thought of Genesis being around Tifa, but he had to control himself. He didn't want Genesis to see how jealously he protected Tifa from other men or it would just encourage the red head to flirt shamelessly with Tifa in order to provoke a rise out of him. Genesis may have been gone for a long time, but he didn't appear to have changed all that much.
"I would love nothing more than to keep you away from her indefinitely, but you will have your opportunity when we hold the celebration of our impending union in less than a week," Sephiroth said coolly.
"You bedded her and convinced her to join herself to you for all time despite the fact that you burned down her town?" Genesis asked as he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Impressive, Sephiroth."
"You sound as though you thought it impossible for me to find a woman willing to attach herself to me," Sephiroth said with a laconic smile.
"Oh, I remember the hoards of women eager to claim the honor of bedding the Silver General of ShinRa, Sephiroth," Genesis said with a grin. "But you have chosen to seduce the girl from Nibelheim who has bared the brunt of the cruel edge of your insanity through the destruction of her home and the murder of her father. The fact that you were able to overcome all that is between you is very, as I said before, impressive."
"A compliment from Genesis Rhapsodos, the man who was so obsessively jealous of my fame?" Sephiroth asked mockingly. "This truly is a day we must remember forever."
Genesis just smiled at Sephiroth's mockery. "Jealousy is overrated, my friend. It just gives one wrinkles. I am a new man with a new leash on life."
The two generals were pulled from their conversation when the door slammed against the wall and Hojo stormed in. He glared down at Genesis and then at Sephiroth.
"What is this?" he demanded as he waved a paper in Sephiroth's face.
Sephiroth leaned back in his chair and watched Hojo's display with amusement. "It looks like a memo."
Hojo narrowed his eyes and glared at him. "Of course it is a memo! What I want to know is why it is telling me that I am not receiving any of the captured terrorists as test subjects and why am I not getting Vincent Valentine back? This is outrageous Sephiroth! Your genetic stability is a result of my hard work and experiments…experiments I cannot complete without test subjects!"
"You have the SOLDIERs and infantrymen at your disposal," Sephiroth said dismissively. "Never mind the hoards of prisoners around Gaia! Amuse yourself with them."
"This is all because of that woman!" Hojo snapped as he glared down at Sephiroth. "What did she give you that would make you show mercy to the people who fight to destroy you?"
Sephiroth slowly got to his feet and towered over Hojo. "My orders are my orders, Hojo. They are not to be questioned by you or anyone else! AVALANCHE prisoners are hands-off for now and Vincent Valentine will never be your plaything ever again, is that clear?"
Hojo kept his eyes on Sephiroth, locked in a battle of wills before finally backing down. "Yes, it is clear. She better be worth it, Sephiroth."
Sephiroth watched the irate scientist storm out of the room and only sat down again once the door had been slammed shut. Genesis smiled as he crossed one leg over the other.
"Well, at least some things never change," he said. "Hojo's still as high strung as ever."
Sephiroth nodded. "That is true."
"Why do you keep him around?" Genesis asked with a frown. "He is responsible for everything that has happened to you. Why not just kill him?"
"First of all, he is dead," Sephiroth said with a careless shrug. "You can't kill a robot or a hologram. Second of all, if I had destroyed what was left of him, I would not have been able to restart the SOLDIER program."
"I would have thought you wouldn't want to have SOLDIER around again after everything that we all went through," Genesis pressed.
"While I like to think that I could contain a rebellion against my control over the planet, the fact is my remnants and I couldn't control every part of Gaia by ourselves and the infantry was as pathetic as the army was when we were around the first time," Sephiroth said. "The reality was, I needed SOLDIER again. But don't let my need for Hojo confuse the fact that I will terminate him eventually. It's only a matter of time."
Genesis nodded slowly. "I see. And what may I ask is preventing him from doing anything to the SOLDIERs behind your back? He was creating a whole civilization from my cells behind ShinRa's back. What's to stop him doing that to you?"
"When Kadaj successfully located the last of the Jenova cells, he merged with them in order to bring me back from the Lifestream. There are no more Jenova cells for Hojo to experiment with," Sephiroth explained. "The SOLDIERs created now are just as they were when the program was first launched. They receive the mako protocols and that is it."
"I must say, I expected something…different from you, Sephiroth," Genesis said. "I thought you would be more intent on destroying this world in order to please 'mother'."
Sephiroth smiled derisively. "Something happened to me when I returned. I no longer hear her calls to me. She no longer demands destruction and vengeance. Jenova is finally silent."
Genesis smiled slightly. "Well that is good to hear. If you slipped into madness yet again, I'm sure you would come after me for some silly reason or another and I doubt Miss Lockhart would have anything left she would want to trade for the man who threw you down the well of insanity in the first place."
"Don't worry," Sephiroth said dryly. "She places the responsibility for that all on me and would probably be insulted to think I was trying to push the blame onto the poor innocent man who had only been trying to obtain my help in ending his degradation."
"Me, a poor innocent man?" Genesis mused before smirking. "I think I like her already and I haven't even met her!"
"Have you ever met a girl you didn't like?" Sephiroth asked dryly.
Genesis pretended to think for a moment. "Not that I can think of!"
"I would love nothing more than to sit around here, talking like we did in our early SOLDIER days, but this world doesn't run itself. Yazoo is going to take you over to the WRO headquarters. I removed Reeve as their director due to his ties to AVALANCHE last night. I want you going through all the plans of Midgar and see if you can find a layout of Deepground. I want to find the exit the other members of AVALANCHE must have used to escape. I want to find them and lock them up. Once I have them all, I can kill them."
"I thought Miss Lockhart bought their lives with her…talents last night?" Genesis said with a frown.
"Once they are all captured and she has no hope left on the outside for a rescue, even if I kill her friends, she won't fight me," Sephiroth said. "I'll still have her and I will be rid of AVALANCHE permanently."
"Still very twisted I see," Genesis murmured.
Sephiroth smiled maliciously. "You have no idea."
Vincent watched Reeve pace angrily. "You knew it was only a matter of time before Sephiroth removed you as the director of the WRO."
"I thought I would have more time to destroy any trace of Deepground before they came for me. They'll find the plans and eventually find the tunnel leading to the Wastelands."
Vincent shrugged. "Finding the tunnel will do them no good. Everyone will be gone to the rendezvous point by then and there is nothing to tell them where that is."
"In less than a week, that smug bastard, is going to celebrate his upcoming union to Tifa," Reeve said. "AVALANCHE won't be ready to attack by then."
"No, they won't," Vincent agreed.
"What if he forces her to marry him that night?" Reeve asked. "Then what will she do?"
Vincent looked up at Reeve. "That's what divorce is for," he deadpanned.
Reeve shook his head and rolled his eyes. "That is not funny, Valentine."
"Tifa is a grown woman and has chosen to make the ultimate sacrifice for us all," Vincent said. "We owe it to her to trust her and not worry about her. If we worry for her, our judgment will become clouded and we will make mistakes. If we allow our concern for her to get us killed, Tifa would never forgive herself and she already has too much guilt on her plate."
"You're right," Reeve sighed before finally sitting down on the floor beside Vincent. "So now what?"
"We wait for the sign," Vincent said.
"What sign?" Reeve asked.
"The sign that will indicate the time for attack," Vincent said. "When AVALANCHE is ready, they will attack this ultimate symbol of the empire Sephiroth created and we will be free to fight for freedom again. Until then…we wait."
Tifa was sitting the bed when she heard movement in the main room of Sephiroth's quarters. Her whole body tensed as she listened to heavy footsteps moving around on the other side of the bedroom door. He had been gone for hours and she was hoping it was Loz, not Sephiroth, on the other side of the door. When the door finally swung open, Sephiroth's large frame filled the doorway. His eyes immediately found her and he kept them locked with hers as he slowly entered the room. She didn't want to admit that his attempt to intimidate her was working…but it was. He finally reached the bed and sat down on the edge, finally removing his gaze from hers and staring straight ahead at the wall facing him. He made no attempt to speak or even acknowledge her presence in the room. Finally the oppressive silence that stretched between them was just too much for her to bear any longer.
"You're back," she said, inwardly wincing at her lame statement.
"I wanted to give you a copy of this," he said tightly as he handed her a paper. She took it and read over the memo, her breathing hitched slightly. He still didn't look at her. "I wanted to show you that I kept my promise to you. Your friends are safe from Hojo."
She nodded and looked up at him. "Thank you."
He finally turned and looked over at her. "I do not expect a repeat performance of last night every time we fuck."
Tifa cringed at the purposely crude bluntness of his statement and looked at her hands before again raising her eyes to his. "Sephiroth, I gave you what you wanted."
His eyes flashed angrily. "And I expected you to return to our bed. You agreed to come here and you knew what that meant."
"I am not one of your SOLDIERs or infantrymen that you can just order around!" she protested, finally find a voice for her anger. "Just because I let you use my body for your sick pleasures, that doesn't mean I have to stay next to you once you're done!"
"On the contrary it does," he said in a low voice.
Tifa stared at him. "You torture my friends, hunt them down in spite of our agreement, use my body, and you keep me locked up in this room all damn day and you then expect me sleep next to you? You can't be serious! This quid pro quo thing works both ways, Sephiroth."
Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow as he regarded her stonily. "Alright, if you acquiesce to my demand for you to sleep in this bed with me no matter what goes on between us, what must I give you?"
"More freedom," she said as she folded her arms across her chest. "I want to leave this room when I want and I want to be able to workout whenever I want."
"Will you still accept an escort?" he asked.
"Yes," she said without any hesitation. "And it has to be Loz."
"Why?" Sephiroth asked suspiciously.
"Because when I'm working out, I want to spar and I want to spar with him," Tifa said firmly.
"He'll flatten you," he said with an amused smile. "But the choice is yours. If I grant these requests, will agree to not run to the sofa every night?"
"I want something else," she said as she steeled her nerves for what she assumed would be a sticking point for Sephiroth, but after the previous night she was determined to get her way.
"And what is it?" he asked, curious to hear what more she could possibly demand.
"I want to see Vincent," she said.
"No," he said without hesitation.
"Why not," she demanded.
"Because I said so," he snapped.
"Fine, then I will enjoy sleeping on the sofa…alone!" she said tartly.
Sephiroth clenched his jaw as he stared at her. Her jaw was set and her anger was flaring in her eyes. That was how he wanted her: broken enough to give into him, but not so hopeless that she lost the spark he loved. Compromise was a word he detested and it was a notion he never relied on before in his life before…but drastic times called drastic measures. He pushed himself to his feet and stepped away from the bed.
"You won't be able to see him until tomorrow," he said before turning and glaring at her over his shoulder. "Is that good enough you?"
"No," she said plainly.
"Why not?" he asked angrily.
"Because I want to see him now," she answered.
He narrowed his eyes and turned his body to face her fully. "You see him tomorrow or you won't ever see him. Make you choice."
Tifa weighed her options as she looked at Sephiroth. She was pushing her luck as it was and she had to decide if pushing him even more would destroy the leeway he was already willing to give her or not. She wanted to see Vincent and he was willing to grant it, but on his terms. He still wanted some element of control when giving in to her demands. Could she risk losing what little power she had to negotiate with by letting him dictate the terms of her demand?
"Fine, I will wait until tomorrow," she finally relented. "But it will be first thing in the morning."
He inclined his head curtly before turning to leave the room. He stopped in the doorway and glanced at her over his shoulder. "I will be gone until quite late tonight…but I expect to see you in that bed. I don't care if you are awake or sleeping, but if you are not there, there will be hell to pay and the payment will be taken from your friends!"
Tifa sat on the bed rigidly and watched him leave without another. Once the door to his quarters closed behind him, her body sagged. She had finally won a battle, but she felt little joy at the victory. The battle had been won, but there would be so many more before the war was over.