Disclaimer: Anything that is not mine, is not mine. The games, the characters, they are not mine. The concept of the story is mine, but the elements added that were not originally mine, are definitely not mine. I hope that's enough disclaimer!

Author's Note: So Naya found something she wasn't sure about. Naya flicked her fingers and a few words appeared. Naya now likes the something she wasn't sure about. Scribbleness is now crying with happiness and kissing her feet for saving this chapter! THANK YOU NAYA!

Thank you dear readers and reviewers! You guys don't know how much I really appreciate your encouraging words! I sincerely hope you'll like this chapter!

Three cars Rufus recognized were parked along the driveway of his flat when he returned from his ocular of the town— Heidegger's, Hojo's, and Scarlet's. He narrowed his eyes and reached for his phone then dialled for Tseng, pulling a deep breath.

"Sir."

"I am looking at three cars parked outside."

"They arrived just a few moments ago, Sir," Tseng said regulatedly.

"Unannounced, by the looks of it."

"They claimed to have new updates regarding Sephiroth's whereabouts."

Rufus made an irked sound in his throat. "Do they know…?"

"No, Sir."

"Hm."

"They will wait by your lounge room, Sir."

"Thank you, Tseng," Rufus said before ending the call.

The three stooges were quickly on their feet the moment Rufus paced into the lounge room. He was wearing a hard expression, the displeased kind that simply came out when people found themselves too comfortable that they began doing things they thought they could do.

It was only Heidegger who had the decency to bow in greeting. "Mr. President."

Rufus silently marched to a tall black lounge chair and sat, reclining his elbow against the armrest and nestling a cheek against his fist. He scanned the three with a blasé look. "You have news about Sephiroth?"

"Quite right," Hojo replied. "We believe that he's headed to the North Crater."

Rufus inhaled sharply and sat up. He could feel the hair on the nape of his neck stand.

"It is where the Calamity has lan—"

"I'm aware," Rufus interjected.

"We greatly suggest that we transport you out of Icicle Inn, Mr. President," Scarlet beseeched. "We are expecting an event that will most likely result in another catastrophe, and we are standing near the eye of the storm."

"My men will secure your transit, Sir," Heidegger added.

Rufus glare drifted to him and stared in indignant deliberation. Tifa would surely be going to the North Crater.

Tifa would have to face Sephiroth again.

Sephiroth and the power and malice that lived in the North Crater.

Rufus swiftly rose to his feet and turned around. "No," he said.

Scarlet perked up an eyebrow and Heidegger shifted on his feet.

"Sir?"

Rufus marched to the window and looked upon the paltry sight of the North Crater's peak in the distance. "We are chasing after Sephiroth, are we not?"

"We are, Sir," Heidegger answered.

Rufus lifted a finger and pointed at the North Crater. "And that's where all the mako is supposed to be, is it?"

"A plausible conclusion in theory, though yet to be proven," Hojo replied.

"Then it also has materia."

"Possibly."

Rufus turned around and looked at Scarlet. "The Ancients might have left us with something more potent infused from the natural energy of the Planet. Something that we can use to fight Sephiroth with."

Scarlet nodded to a side. "Quite possibly."

"Then I must see it for myself."

"But, Mr. President! I would strongly advise against you entering the North Crater!" Heidegger contested. "It would stake a great risk at your safety!"

"You want to know what I think?" Rufus shot him a deathly glare. "I think your time and effort are better spent preparing the Highwind for my departure to the North Crater."

Heidegger grimaced and angled himself away from them. Rufus walked closer and scanned him, incensed. "I highly recommend that you leave the deciding to me," he bit with a frigid tone.

The other two executives remained silent as they all watched Heidegger nod curtly and march out of the room.

"I shall accompany you in your visit to the North Crater," Hojo parted and followed Heidegger through the door.

Now left only with Scarlet, Rufus began walking towards his room. "I would expect your company as well. You might need to observe the Crater and find something that would prove useful to us."

"Of course, Mr. President," Scarlet replied. "Might I also have a word with you?"

Rufus stopped on his tracks at the sly tone of Scarlet's request. He turned back around.

Scarlet was already by the couch where her sizable sapphire leather bag was. She slid out a long yellow envelope then craftily strutted towards him.

Rufus eyed the envelope in her hands when she reached it out for him to take. She shook it, urging him to accept it. "I believe these belong to you," she said, smirking. And he hated it, how the smile she had for him was so pompous as if she was ready to squash him under her thumb. He ought to reject it, whatever it was, but he knew he had to take it eventually— either out of curiosity or out of need to confiscate it from her possession.

So he took it. "What is this?"

Scarlet raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Oh, just photos I found. Evidence that would be much compromising to you, dear President."

Rufus' brows furrowed deeper.

"But alas, it was I who found it, effectively securing the secrets of your private life from falling into the wrong hands." She nodded at the envelope. "Why don't you take a look?"

Rufus debated whether or not he should heed the woman's bid or leave it all for later as he devised what to do with the contents at his own time and manner. However, facing the music now was better when the enemy was already right in front of him to deal with.

He flipped the envelope open and drew out about five photos inside. He almost widened his eyes as he stared back at him and Tifa together at the Gold Saucer.

"Forgive my intrusiveness, Mr. President," she said, though there was hardly any remorse. "But I believe that the person you are with in those pictures is a member of AVALANCHE."

He could feel the back of his throat hurt, but he resisted any reaction to subdue it. "So?"

"I would be inclined to assume that there might be something going on between the two of you. Then again, I might be mistaken."

"Then I assure you it's the latter."

"But of course." She sounded patronizing.

"However, I might also be inclined to speculate that you had been stalking me at the time of my own reprieve. Something tells me you are seeing a self-serving edge in all of this, notwithstanding the truth behind it."

Scarlet laughed with her shrilly, vexatious guffaw. "Oh, dear President, you never cease to amuse me!"

Rufus' brows furrowed deeper.

Scarlet started pacing slowly in a line to her side. "I would think nothing of it if I so casually see you with that woman, even if it is in the Gold Saucer. However, I believe that a faction of AVALANCHE had been massacred by the hands of your own Turks over the contents of this envelope." She paused and swiftly turned her heels back to him with a pesky grin. "Which seems to me that these materials are more than what meets the eye. They entail something of great confidentiality, of something more, Mr. President."

Rufus lifted his chin high and pricked an eyebrow. "A truly intuitive observation. But I'm afraid you're wrong. You seem to have spiralled down with the inglorious assumptions of AVALANCHE. Would you like to join them wherever they are now?"

"Why, Mr. President, I wouldn't be here if not for my great intuition, at your service no less!" She said, and chuckled more. "I barely commit mistakes, but I do admit they are unavoidable at times. However,—" she spun her head to the direction of the North Crater through the window, "—your insistence to travel all the way to the North Crater really did ratify my postulation."

Rufus clenched his jaws away from Scarlet's sight.

"You usually sent your Turks to take care of dangerous missions. Your precious bloodline must be protected, after all. This sudden change in your ballgame had me thinking that perhaps my intuition has won again." She turned back to Rufus, her smirk growing wider at his impassioned predisposition. "I can't help but think that you knew she would be there with the SOLDIER and their whole circus, throwing themselves in the line of absolute danger, while you sit pretty here in your small château. And you didn't like the thought of having to wait until they drag her lifeless body down the mountain after whatever it is they will encounter there. You want to do something about it, of course, before your inevitable regret hits you."

"I'm beginning to wonder where you are gathering your inferences regarding my reasons for my decisions. Were they driven by your greed for more power? Vanity? Attention? Ah, it may have been jealousy, then. Has your desperation reached a point where you would think so inferior of me?"

Scarlet's smirk mollified into a hard smile and she squinted at Rufus. "Come now, Mr. President. Are you saying that you think so lowly of her?"

Rufus retaliated with a sneer. "That thought is yours only. The next time you accost me with something as contemptible as this, I will be forced to kick you out of my company in the most disgraceful way possible. Perhaps then you will learn what happens when you underestimate me so appallingly."

"And I will not challenge that, Mr. President."

"You'd be wise not to."

Scarlet chuckled once more against her throat and ambled to the couch where her bag was. "The photos are yours for the keeping, Mr. President. Do whatever you wish with them." She paused just as she held on the knob of the door. "Don't worry if you lost them, though," she called over then flashed him a smirk over her shoulder. "I have my own copies of them safely tucked in my office, just in case."

Rufus huffed an ireful breath once she disappeared through the door and he was left on his own. He threw the envelope and its contents to the floor then raked his fingers through his hair, pulling them tightly to satiate the numbing tingles that rushed up to his head.

She could tell that Cloud was hesitant to reach the crater with Aerith in tow. And Tifa couldn't blame him, especially with the dangerous mission they surprisingly managed to survive in the Forgotten City. Aerith, especially.

"You should have stayed behind," Cloud told her.

"Cloud Strife, if I hear that one more time, there will be hell to pay!" Aerith retorted impatiently.

"Not so scary when you say it," Yuffie jibed in her labored breaths.

"Are we there yet?" Barret asked, already daubed with exasperation, a candid reminiscence of their long climb along the stairwell of Shinra's building.

They stopped when they reached a narrow stone bridge. Thick fog had blurred their vision of what laid beyond, and their only semblance of illumination was lightning that constantly struck the middle of their supposed path.

"Almost," Red replied.

Aerith suddenly fell sullen then clasped her hands together, walking ahead of the group as she stared at the farther end of the bridge. She turned around and eyed Cloud. "Remember that whatever you see there, it's all an illusion."

Cloud frowned. "What?"

"Sephiroth is going to play his tricks on us. On you," she said, nodding at Cloud. She scanned the group. "Where is the black materia?"

"With me," Barret replied sternly.

"Keep it safe, no matter what happens."

"Aerith, just stay here," Cloud implored. "Please."

Aerith did not want to stay. Of course she didn't, not after knowing that Cloud would be walking straight into grounds more dangerous that any they had faced so far. The fear in her eyes that stood brave in the face of death once had told her plenty of the impending menace in their unknown future.

Tifa stepped forward to Cloud's side. Rufus would not like what she was about to do. "I'll go with you."

"So will I," Red said.

Cloud did not debate it, not even when he looked at Tifa with hazy eyes. She responded with a steadfast glance of her own to reassure him that she would be there to brace him to their reality no matter what illusion Sephiroth had up his sleeve. Despite that, she still had her doubts, because the mystery behind Sephiroth's unpredictability had always been unnerving.

The three of them jumped onto the other half of the bridge in sync with the lighting's beat of absence. It was not long after that they realized Sephiroth's new trick, something more potent than what he had pulled on them before.

They found themselves in Nibelheim as it stood undamaged five years ago.

Tifa gasped as she glanced around and spotted her old home inside the town, the sense of longing hampering her own judgement to shield herself from wishing the past had been the present.

"It's an illusion," Cloud reminded her. "It's all made up by Sephiroth. It's not real."

As if on cue, Sephiroth was walking closer to the fence, unheedful of them, while a black-haired SOLDIER with a more cheery face followed behind him. Tifa wrapped her arms around herself, widening her eyes at his apparition— of Zack's.

Cloud did not seem to recognize the man behind Sephiroth. Confusion was cast on his face as he searched the illusion for himself instead. That was when she knew this was no battle they could easily win because the illusion was no hallucination. It was all playing by how she precisely remembered it— every detail, every face, every turning point up until the burning of Nibelheim.

It was as if he had been inside her mind.

"Did Sephiroth do this?" Red asked.

Sephiroth was using her to play his tricks on Cloud, and it was an attack on her too as she watched the flames consume everything she had known one by one. She was reminded of what Shinra had done to her home, to Cloud's, to the peace in their idle life that disappeared without a warning.

"Don't look, Cloud," she pleaded and looked away from the scene. "Close your eyes."

Cloud tried to listen. "It's not real," he told her and himself as the fire grew wilder in her memory.

"It's okay," she tried to coo, but her voice shook. "It's not—"

"But it is," Sephiroth's voice cut her when he suddenly appeared amidst the flames, the clout of the fumes distorting his facade.

Cloud scowled at the towering SOLDIER. "No." He shook his head. "I'm not going to let any of this affect me."

"You won't?" Sephiroth howled with venomous laughter, jibing at Cloud's uncouthness. "This—" he gestured at the fires, the debris, and the cinders of what remained of Nibelheim, "—is the reality. What you know is the illusion."

Tifa was grinding her teeth, her hands clenched into fists, a battle waging inside of her. She wanted to tell Cloud, she knew she must. But the lies in the illusion had done him better than the pain of the truth, and he was about to break under the weight of Sephiroth's influence. She never remembered seeing him there, that day five years ago. That was the truth. She never saw him as a SOLDIER, no proof that he made it to the ranks at all like he promised he would.

She never liked lying, not to Rufus, Cloud, or the rest of her friends, not even to strangers. Lying drops another brick in her stomach that she needed to drag with her as she slept and face when the truth comes back for her.

Sephiroth pounded on Cloud with taunts and jeers as more bodies scattered around them. It strung on her near-feeble thread of sanity, and it won't be long until it breaks Cloud's.

"Cloud…" Tifa reached for his wrist. "Don't listen to him. Cover your ears, close your eyes!"

"But… It's all an illusion, right?" Cloud's face was slowly becoming vacant. He was growing doubtful. "I'm not affected by it. So why are you worried?" he lied.

Her eyebrows drew together as Cloud's gaze flitted around the place. How naive of her to think she could help him when she could not even wake herself up from this nightmare that showed her the painful truth as it did Cloud. Tifa found it too difficult to admit that she had been wrongly justifying her reasons for keeping her secrets— about her history, her friendship, and everything she shared with Rufus. She lied to Cloud and kept everything from him, even the feelings she used to have until they faded away. She hid her own weakness from everyone else because they needed her to be strong. Because she had always reasoned that keeping things was fine and acceptable even when it did not feel right. But a sounder reason morphed into a crippling anxiety when it told her that her secret was a ticking time bomb that would cause a bigger destruction the longer it waited its reveal.

The most repugnant regard of it all that even she refused to confront was that she had been lying to herself about Rufus. The longer she looked around at her own memory, the more she rekindled with her own hatred for Shinra she thought she had buried a long time ago. It still broke her heart as she looked at everything she lost in the hands of his company that left her with almost nothing. Forgiving deemed too hard to be an option. Forgetting was pointless.

Tifa shut her eyes tightly and lowered her head. She admonished herself for thinking of Rufus that way just because his name was anchored to the past cruelties of his company. She was still too broken to understand and too weak to deserve him. Sephiroth had advocated that as they relived their nightmare.

But it was Rufus who planted her back firmly on her feet that night after she bared her self-doubts to him. The way he offered himself wholly to her like that suddenly became a purpotless paradox the more she looked around her past. Because no matter how much she thought of herself to be too broken to mend, Rufus Shinra showed her that she was enough for the world.

I'll take what's left.

The wall she had taken down that night at the Icicle Inn was beginning to stand back up. But she was not going to shield her heart this time— she was shielding Rufus'.

"I'm still the Cloud you grew up with, right?" Cloud beseeched.

Tifa nodded, her eyes still averted from him as she tried to collect herself.

"As long as you remember that, it's all that matters."

What about the past that you remember? Tifa wanted to ask as she lifted her eyes back at Cloud. He was staring right back into her, latching himself on her and their present.

Tifa shook her head. "No, Cloud."

Cloud responded with a pained stare.

"What I think right now won't help," Tifa said, and that was the truth. "What I'm about to say is more important, so listen to me. The Planet needs you. Aerith needs you. And I know how much she means to you, more than anything else on the Planet. More than our memories."

His eyes softened at the mention of Aerith's name.

She gently cupped his face between her palms to steady him. "The past, this past, was long gone. And then you will accept the truths of it when you're ready. What matters is now and everything else that awaits us in the future, everything that we cherish and need to protect. That's our reality now."

"Wha…" Cloud slowly stepped back, freeing himself from Tifa's hands. "What do you mean I will accept the truth when I'm ready?"

Tifa lowered her hands. "It's… hard to explain."

Cloud looked away with a grim look.

"I can't explain it to you right now." What should she tell him? "Just give me more time."

"For what?"

"Cloud, don't blame Tifa," Sephiroth's voice said in false sincerity.

She tried to hold him back as Sephiroth reappeared and called Cloud a "puppet." She tried to stop him from looking at the photo he claimed he was in, only for Zack to be in his place. She tried to bring him back as she watched his own memory fail him more and his denial consume him. He was too far gone in the void of his own fallacy that nothing seemed to hold his sanity together. She pressed her fists to the sides of her head. It was getting into hers, too.

And it seemed like they were free at first, when everything disappeared in a flash of light. She reached her arms out, hoping to hold onto any of her friends as she tried to find them in the blinding flare.

She was still on her feet when they came to, but they were no longer in Nibelheim. They were in a stone cave shrouded with blue crystals emitting glimmer all over the place.

Her gaze was held to a halt when it landed on Rufus.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Scarlet squawked. "It's all materia!"

Rufus watched her with resentment as she strutted ahead of him and scanned the whole place. He rolled his eyes and bent his head up to the large blue crystal held in place right in the middle of what he could only describe as a web of wood.

"The outside is rich with mako energy. The inside is a treasure trove of materia," Rufus detailed. He glanced at Hojo. "Perhaps this is the legendary Promised Land?"

"No such thing," Hojo replied. "It's nothing but a myth, an old wives' tale."

Rufus made an amused sound in his throat. "Not too open-minded, are we? That's why you're stuck being a second-rate scientist."

The ground began to shake before Hojo could say something back to defend his credibility. Rufus bent his knees to steady himself while Scarlet pointed at the crystal walls.

"It's coming from the inside!"

A giant reptilian eye slowly opened then closed from the other end. Rufus' own eyes widened when he realized that it belonged to a creature larger than the cave itself.

"Weapon," Hojo uttered.

Rufus turned his head to the scientist. "Weapon?"

"I didn't believe its existence, I thought it wasn't real," he said.

A legend that had awakened?

"What does that mean?"

"Weapons are monsters created by the Planet." Hojo peered at him under his black round spectacles. "They are summoned when the Planet is in danger. And then they destroy everything."

"How valid is that statement?"

"It was all in Professor Gast's report."

Rufus frowned. "How come I've never seen that report? Where is it?"

Hojo smirked and tapped his temple with his finger. "Here. Right here, Mr. President."

Rufus squinted at the sudden flash of light which seemed to have steadied the ground. And for a moment he thought he was floating, until the flash dissipated and his eyes slowly adjusted to how the place was before. Suddenly there was Tifa, standing among them, along with Cloud and the wolf-like creature with a flaming tail.

Tifa froze when she saw him. She looked dazed, as if she had just awakened from a dream and mistook it for reality. She cast her eyes down and dropped herself, sitting on the ground while she felt the soil with her hands. He wanted to run to her, call her name, and bring her back to him. But they were in a dangerous place surrounded by viperous eyes that he knew the need to watch himself from, so he strenuously turned the other way.

"Where did you come from?!" Scarlet heckled.

"I…" Cloud trailed weakly. He looked worse than Tifa. "I don't know." He slowly turned around, his eyes were empty. "This place is gonna get rough. Leave things to me and get yourselves out of here."

Rufus scoffed. "Leave things to you?" He scanned the place and everyone in it, drifting a beat longer on Tifa before turning back to Cloud. "Do you even know what you are saying?"

Cloud turned to his back. "The Reunion is going to happen."

Hojo perked. "Reunion?" He trudged closer to Cloud and skimmed him with his eyes. "Truly? Fascinating."

Wallace came all of a sudden and Cloud immediately approached him.

"Where's the black materia?" he asked.

"It's still with me," Wallace replied. "It's safe."

Cloud nodded slowly. "Good. I'll take it from here. Give it to me."

"Cloud!" the creature called over. He was the only one who came back with them in intact saneness. "Barret! Don't give it to him!"

The helplessness from the creature's voice had roused Tifa from her trance, her eyes cloaked with agitation.

"Stop!" Rufus bidded.

It happened too quickly, even at Barret's split second of hesitation after hearing their pleas, when Cloud walked away with the black materia in hand.

He looked at everyone, stopping at Tifa. "Sorry. Everyone. I really am."

Hojo chuckled as he watched it all unfold. "This is perfect! It only means my experiment is a success! Who would have thought that a failure would be the key to my success!"

Rufus turned to Hojo with a downturned mouth, disdain taking over his features.

"A failed experiment. That's right." Cloud lifted the black materia in his hand. "Not even a number. You didn't even give me a number."

Cloud was suddenly hurled up to the web of wood. "I wasn't chasing after Sephiroth. I was… summoned by him."

Rufus widened his eyes, a weight crushing in his chest. "Everyone! To the ship!"

He waited until Wallace carried Tifa in his arms and sprinted out before running to the exit with everyone else. Hojo chose to stay behind, most probably held by his own genuine curiosity on how his experiment would turn out. It did not take long before the Weapons from within the walls launched themselves out to fight the threat to the Planet like what Hojo had told them, shaking their ship while they were already high in the sky. He would soon learn that the event was triggered right after Cloud handed the black materia to Sephiroth's remains preserved by mako.

He felt his hair stand to an end.

Tifa opened her eyes at the loud clang of something thick against metal bars. She felt the hard floor beneath pressing against her sore flesh, dark and dim light mixing before her eyes.

"Lockhart," a man called from outside.

She languorously pushed herself up by her arms and heard a shuffling of feet beside her.

Barret had rushed to her and held her by the arm. "Tifa!"

She pressed a palm on her forehead. "How… long was I out?"

"Half a day."

"Lockhart," the man called again.

Barret and Tifa turned over their shoulders at the uniformed Shinra guard standing just beyond the metal bars. Tifa frowned at the realization that they had been thrown in a prison cell. His cell.

"The President wants to see you."

Barret stood on his feet and stomped towards the footman. "She ain't goin' anywhere! An' especially not to him!"

Tifa sprinted after Barret and placed a hand on his arm. "Barret." She squeezed him when he gave her a strained glance. "It's okay."

Barret seemed to have relented from his temper when she offered a genuine smile. Tifa nodded at the footman. "Take me to him."

The man placed a pair of handcuffs around her wrists the moment she was outside of the cell. She tightened her fists and wrinkled her brows together at the reminder that they were the enemies again. And that Rufus had allowed this.

The footman led her along the stretching hallways and an elevator until they reached a door where Rude was standing guard.

"I'll take her from here," he said. The footman made a salute before walking away while Rude opened the door for her and led her inside.

Rufus, whose back was on her and standing behind his desk, turned around from the high windows overseeing the blazing unrest of orange skies and the seas of Junon. Rude promptly removed her handcuffs.

Neither of them said anything as Tifa glanced around the room— plain, bare, and simple, save for the desk and the black couch with a matching coffee table. They were not alone this time with his usual Turks standing by all the entrances, casting an unusually apathetic air.

"This is odd," she said.

Rufus furrowed his brows. "What is?"

Her chest tightened as she hardened her gaze at him. "It feels as if all of it means nothing."

"And what do you mean by that?"

"Waking up in one of your cells. Making my way here with a guard and in handcuffs. You're playing in this secret pretty well. At least tell me my friends are safe."

"They are. Even Strife whom I allowed to join with Aerith in the same cell to recuperate from his own shock." Rufus was letting out shaky breaths in an effort to maintain his composure from her sharp counter. "I thought that was what we had agreed on."

Tifa dipped her chin. "It is." The most recent sight of a burning Nibelheim still etched deeply in her mind and ridiculing her current reality as a delusion. Doubt was still gnawing her inside.

Rufus tossed the photos on his desk. "Take a look. It's about to get worse."

Tifa approached them and gingerly picked one. It was of her and Rufus, taken from a distance as yellow lights hit their faces. It was captured while they were making their way to the dancing lights in Gold Saucer. She looked over the rest of the photos scattered on his desk, deeming them to be the same as the first only taken from different angles and time.

She shot Rufus with fretful eyes. "Who took these?"

"Who took them is no longer a matter of significance." Rufus walked around his desk as he made his way to her side. "What we both should worry about is who gave these to me. They came from Scarlet."

Tifa gasped. Not Scarlet. Not her.

"Scarlet had been lurking around the vicinity since we came back from the North Crater. I needed to keep you and your friends in our underground prison to divert her suspicions." Rufus gently palmed her cheek in his hand and held her in his deep gaze. "I was only able to slip my chance to fetch you as soon as she left for Midgar. We have our own reasons why we should keep it between us, don't we?"

Tifa nodded. "Our mission, your company…" she droned.

"Sephiroth."

He felt her stiffen under his touch at the mention of the name. Rufus frowned. "What did he do to you?"

The flames, the smoke, the screams, down to the smell that day in Nibelheim felt too real just as she had remembered them. Tifa withdrew from him, shedding an inward gaze as she took a few steps back.

Rufus grimaced and restrained himself from walking over to her, understanding her need for space.

"W-we can't let those get out," she stuttered. "It's going to break everyone else apart. I… I can't risk that right now."

"Scarlet has her own copy of those photos and has shown her own intent to take advantage of them."

Tifa faced him again. "What does she want?"

"She is an ambitious woman, too ambitious for her own good. My guess is that she wanted to use them to blackmail me when the need arises and take over a larger control over me and the company. On top of that…" Rufus raised his arm to the window and pointed up. A burning orb shone more brightly and bigger than the rest of the bodies in the heavens. Tifa carefully walked closer, squinting.

"Meteorfall," Rufus said.

Tifa widened her eyes and gasped. She could not focus. Every battle and problem they had right now was crucifying her to a void where her doubts made more sense and fending her from facing the harsher reality— Sephiroth, Nibelheim, Cloud, Meteor…

Rufus.

"It will pose greater problems in our respective missions if those photos get out. It will compromise both your party and my company when the people start to impugn our reliability and mistake it for feebleness. Not to mention the risks in your safety. I've been racking my brain for anything that would push Scarlet away from our plates. Denying seems to do nothing since she has her own copies of those photos."

Reno scoffed loudly, his back leaning laxly on the doorframe of the entrance he had been guarding. "What does Madam Witch want to happen?"

Elena looked over and glared at him to shut his mouth.

Rude cleared his throat. "She wants Tifa out of the picture."

"Like what? Dead?"

Elena stomped her foot. "Reno!"

Tseng darted his eyes to Rufus as if what they just heard was an idea. "Might I suggest a public execution," he said. "It should be able to throw everyone off from this relationship, even Scarlet. Staged, of course."

The flash in Rufus's eyes and his silence told Tifa of his affirmation. The crack she didn't realize was inside her had finally rifted too far apart, no longer knowing where things start and end.

She turned away, her eyes darting around the room in her effort to suppress her tears aching around her eyes. Her voice betrayed her, however, when she asked "Is that what you really plan to do?"

Tseng narrowed his eyes but managed to maintain his formal collectedness. Rufus had lost all will of restraint and reached for Tifa's wrist. Something was wrong.

Tifa peered at his hand lightly clasped on her, eyes already soaked in her tears, and her lips quivering.

"Tifa…"

"Just…" Tifa sobbed. "Just tell me what you really meant to do. Do you—" she tightened her lips before opening them again, "—do want to take me out of the equation?"

Rufus' brows wrinkled at her evident agony, his mind running amok. "What do you mean by that?"

"There's a Meteor about to crash on us, and you're still onto Scarlet," Tifa parried. "And now you're considering pretending to execute us as the only way you can think of pushing her out of our way. Do you expect me to believe that while we sit in your execution chamber when we both know that getting rid of me will be more convenient to you?"

"Of course I'm not going to execute you!" Rufus felt his voice rising. "It won't be real! How—" Rufus rubbed his eyebrows and let out a shaky breath. "How can you even think that way of me? Where's your trust in me?"

Tifa pried her hand from his grasp. "I don't know what to trust anymore."

They could feel the eyes of the Turks bearing on them as the surrounding air grew fiery in their fervid exchange. The pain that overtook Rufus' demeanour stirred Tifa a little back to her senses.

It was no longer about Scarlet or the Meteorfall. The curtains had dropped to reveal something else, something he was not prepared for. Rufus took a step forward. "Talk to me Tifa. Please. What is it?"

"I just want to get this over with."

Rufus narrowed his eyes, his heart skipping a beat. "What?"

"Just tell me what you want to happen. The truth," she came back sternly.

Rufus shook his head, a beast's claws clenching in his chest when he realized what she was doing. "You're shutting me out."

She wished she could. But she would not tell him. She couldn't. Tifa slumped on the floor, feeling herself falling into the crevice of the void as she cried, harder and louder with every tear that she could feel all the air being sapped out of her burning lungs. Too broken to mend, now too mangled in front of the man who could hurt her the most. Yet she could not fight back. She would not even lay a finger.

Rufus knelt beside Tifa then found himself sitting and bending forward to level with her.

"Talk to me," he pleaded.

She did not want to tell him. She wouldn't. But she wished she could. So when he very carefully took her fingers in his hands, she gave in.

"I doubted you," she finally said, her voice still shaking from the sobbing.

Rufus leaned in closer and waited until she met his gaze. "You doubted me," he repeated to deemphasize the statement.

Tifa rubbed her free palm on her wet cheek. "In the North Crater. Sephiroth brought us back to Nibelheim, when it burned five years ago." She shook her head. "I was reminded how angry I was at you, and how much I hated you." She curled her fingers against his, suddenly afraid he would let her go. But he tightened his hold. "I lost everything that day."

"I know."

"But—" she sobbed deeply, "—I believe everything you told me. I held onto them. I just… I…"

Rufus tilted his head when she cast her eyes down.

"I just don't know if they are real," she trailed softly. "Because I know now for certain that you don't deserve my doubts, despite what you told me that night. It didn't make any sense to me. I just don't know if it's love, or hate, or…"

Rufus forced a grin then held her cheek with his other hand, brushing her with his thumb. "It's okay to doubt me." He locked her hand with his when she shook her head and dropped her gaze once more. "I know it's hard for someone like you to be with someone like me. What we have takes tedious work. But I am willing to go through anything if it means convincing you that what we have is real." He gently lifted her chin with his finger so she could see him through his eyes. "I'm real. Whatever happens. Every emotion and feeling I have for you is real. And you are the truest thing I have ever known. You are my truth, Tifa, and I will never hurt you, I swear on my life. And the truth will always matter more than all the doubts and lies in this forsaken Planet. All I want from you is a chance to prove it. If you would only stay with me. Please."

And for the first time since they met again in North Crater, she smiled. Rufus chuckled silently when it appeared, albeit small and brief. But he also knew that minor victory was not enough. Doubt was a strong enemy that threatened to take her from him again.

So he did something daring.

"What would you say if I ask you to marry me?"

Even the Turks, save for Tseng, gasped at his proposal.

Tifa was suddenly sober, her mouth hanging open.

Rufus chuckled again. "I believe it will answer all of our prayers right now. I will share half of Shinra with you and then you will never have to doubt me again."

Tifa was blinking rapidly before narrowing her eyes. "W-what? Th-that's not what I—"

Tseng cleared his throat and approached the two. "If I may."

Rufus craned his neck up to the Turk. "Yes?"

"I believe your marriage will also eliminate any fear regarding the fake execution, should we choose to proceed with it. Ms. Lockhart may name a successor for her share who will have a legal hold of all properties she will gain upon signing the contract."

Tifa shook her head. "That sounds like you're buying my trust."

"No. Not exactly," Rufus said, his grin growing wider. "It's merely a gesture to show you how genuine my intentions are. For you to feel safe with me."

Tifa darted her gaze to Tseng then back to Rufus. "This is too much."

Rufus nodded, loosening his fingers on her. "If you need more time…"

Tifa gripped his hand back in hers. "We don't have much time."

Rufus frowned. "Then…"

"No, it's not like that," she reassured him when his voice wavered. "Marrying you is not a far-off possibility to me. I just… I never imagined getting married for a mission. I want to marry you for the right reason. Not like this."

Rufus nodded slowly. "I understand. You are allowed to say 'no.' You don't have to agree to this. But…" He pointed at the window. "I want you to know now that right there is my truer reason. No one might survive that thing if we fail and let it crash into the Planet. And you have already saved me from falling into the same fate as my father who died a vile man that he was. Allowing me to spend the rest of my days loving you as I please will bring me no greater happiness."

Tifa's eyes widened, suddenly glowing amidst the disbelief it read. "You love me? Really? Do you really?"

Rufus scoffed. "I do." He lifted her hand to his lips, kissed it, then rubbed his thumb along the back of her hand. He hesitated before asking "Do you feel the same way about me?"

She sniffled, still melancholic from her tearful breakdown. His heart beat faster when she nodded then smiled again. "Yeah. I think I do, too."