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CHAPTER FIVE - ULTIMATUM

'Lately I've been skeptical ... Silent when I would used to speak ... Distant from all around me who witness me fail and become weak ... Life is overwhelming ... Heavy is the head that wears the crown ... I'd love to be the one to disappoint you when I don't fall down ... But you don't understand when I'm attempting to explain ... because you know it all ... and I guess things will never change ... but you might need my hand when falling in your hole ... Your disposition I'll remember when I'm letting go of ... you and me we're through and ... rearranged ... It seems that your not satisfied ... There's too much on your mind ... So you leave and I can't believe all the bullshit that I find... You're no good for me ... Thank God its over ... You make believe that nothing is wrong until you're cryin' ... You make believe life is so long until you're dyin' ... You make believe that nothing is wrong until you're cryin' … (Limp Bizkit: 'Rearranged')

Mayor's Tent. Shantytown. Afternoon.

Tifa burst into the tent that was serving as Reeve's temporary office during the clean-up efforts.

"I cannot work with him. He is stubborn, mean, and impossible." She blurted out angrily, her face red with rage from the latest confrontation with Reno. "He won't let go of the past and continues to insist on blaming me for the destruction of Midgar. Put me in charge somewhere else. Sector Two, Wall Market, the Shinra building, anywhere but where Reno is!"

"I'm not working with that rebel bitch anymore!" Reno stormed into the tent. "She's impossible, rude, and insists on blaming me for the destruction of Midgar."

"Do you insist on following me everywhere I go?" Tifa demanded of Reno. "Even into the office of the mayor?"

"When your only purpose for being here is to bitch and run my good name further through the fucking mud, yes." He lounged against a tall cabinet that had been moved into the tent to hold files and supplies.

Tifa snorted. "You don't have a good name, Reno!"

Reeve looked up calmly, trying to keep them both from seeing the bemused expression on his face. The stack of sketches and reports that he had been sifting through were momentarily forgotten. Although he was getting tired of being the parent that had to mediate their fights, he was glad to see a passion for something in both of them. He'd watched, through the eyes of Cait Sith, Tifa's increasing despondence over Cloud; and in all his time with Shinra, he'd never seen Reno show any passion for anything, even the large amounts of gil Shinra paid to the Turks for jobs well done.

If they both would only channel that passion into working harder to rebuilding Midgar and forget about squabbling over the past, it would make things so much more bearable for everyone. He'd received countless reports and complaints of their bitter arguments from the work crews through Rude and Elena. Maybe now was the time to force them to reach a truce.

"Tifa. Reno." He looked from one to the other, choosing his words carefully. "There is a long journey of rebuilding ahead of us. I would greatly appreciate it if you could both put your differences behind you. I am not reassigning either one of you. You either work together or you kill one another."

"Don't give me that choice," Reno muttered under his breath.

Tifa gave Reno a quick once-over and flexed her fingers, encased in her fighter's gloves. "I'd mop the floor with you, coward."

Reno's eyes flashed in challenge as he moved away from the cabinet and got in her face, staring her eye to eye, nose to nose. He'd never intentionally hurt a woman physically, and he wasn't about to start now, even though she was pushing him closer and closer to the edge. Even in their battle on the plate, he'd tried to avoid hitting her, instead focusing on pulverizing Strife and Wallace. Despite that, he wasn't going to tell her that he would hate himself if he ever laid a hand on any woman, including her high-and-mightiness.

"I'd like to see you try, Ms. High and Mighty." He whipped out his electro-mag rod and took a defensive stance. He hissed at her, too low for Reeve to hear, "I may have fucked you once, but I'm not above killing you now." Even before the words had escaped from his lips, he felt her icy gaze on him, and knew that he'd live to regret them. Maybe.

"Stop!" Reeve's voice punctured the air, stopping both combatants before they could begin their fight. He stepped between them. "I will not have two of my best people at each others' throats over this. The past is in the past. Shinra is dead. The old Midgar is dead."

Reeve turned from one to the other and with a look that neither one of them had ever seen on Reeve's face before he laid it all out before them.

"You two will work together. You will put these differences behind you. If you continue to squabble, I will put both of you in charge of cleaning up the old Shinra building."

Tifa shuddered at both Reno's last words and at the thought of returning to the horrors that she was certain now roamed in the toppled remains of the old Shinra building. With the building in shambles and the containment safeties in Professor Hojo's former lab presumably destroyed, she hated to even think about what horrific creatures might now be roaming both the remains of the actual building and the surrounding area.

Reno noticed her shudder and smirked. "Ms. High and Mighty can't fight without her friends and her materia?" He was back to his usual sarcastic self, knowing he was under the protection of Reeve and that if she tried to kill him now, they'd end up in the Shinra building together, and it was quite obvious that she didn't want that to happen.

"You never faced the Mako and Jenova enhanced demons Hojo created and unleashed." Tifa shivered, remembering some of the grotesquely mutilated creatures Avalanche encountered during their mission. "But I could still kick your scrawny ass any day, Reno."

Reno scoffed at her. "I encountered that freak Valentine that you insisted on traveling with. He should've been kept in his coffin as Hojo intended."

"Go to Hell, Reno." She shot back as she turned and walked out, straightening her back to hide the fact that she was shaking, not from fear, but from the sensory overload that his nearness to her a few minutes before had generated. And from the hateful words that had cut her straight to her heart.

Reno shrugged as she departed, apparently not affected at being close to her. Trying to look at his backside, he turned to Reeve. "My ass isn't really scrawny, is it?"