I dedicate this chapter to Casey Crystal with all my heart. ;)
Chapter 6:
Mysterious Stranger
"All cruelty springs from hard-heartedness and weakness."
~Seneca
He pushed on the front door of the abandoned Shinra building. It creaked as it opened, then slammed shut behind him, sending clouds of dust billowing through the still air. His footsteps echoed as he stepped though the main entrance, sounding thunderous in the oppressive silence. Although it was unlikely he would find his quarry here, he hadn't been able to resist returning to this place, to this shattered remnant of his glorious past.
The elevator door stuck as he waited for it to open. Impatient, he slammed a gloved fist into the door, nodding in satisfaction when it obligingly slid ajar. He stepped inside and pushed the red button marked with a white "70". With slow and jerky movements, the elevator began to rise.
It had all been his. The whole of Midgar, no, the world, had been at his feet. The mere mention of his name had made grown men quake at the knees, lest he find fault with them. Millions feared him.
The elevator door opened he walked out. Fear. He loved the sound of that word, the power it accommodated. The fact that with a mere flick of his finger, he could have anything he desired. Kill anyone he desired.
He'd had it all. Then, because of a spare twist of fate, he'd lost it all.
Hurtling toward him…
Ball of flame, destruction…
What had he done to deserve this?
Burning…
Only trample thousands of lives beneath his feet.
Pain…
It hadn't mattered; they were only ignorant.
Terror…
…Only ignorant?
He snapped out of his reverie. He'd survived, that was the important thing. And now…
The desk loomed before him, the large oak desk he'd known since childhood. Old Man had always sat at it, working on files, talking on the phone, or just looking important. He had always longed for the day when he could sit at that desk, look down at people that way, too.
Father had never let him. "You're too little," or, "This is the President's chair."
One day, when he was five years old, he had come up here on his own, just to look at the desk. Father had been out. It had been just him and the desk. Cautiously, he'd sat in the chair. It felt too good to be true. He, a lowly nobody, was sitting in Daddy's chair, the President's chair! Happily he swung in the swiveling chair, around and around and-
Then the door had burst open. Father had been furious. Fifty lashes with the belt, and "be thankful it isn't more. Now get out of my sight, you miserable brat!"
How he hated that man.
Now he sat again in the chair, running his hands over the bloodstained wood of the desk. Even after Old Man had been killed, he still wouldn't let the workers move the desk. He enjoyed looking at the crimson-soaked oak, knowing what had happened here.
"Isn't it ironic, Father?" he asked aloud. "I'm sitting in the very same chair you died in!" He began to laugh, long and loud, slamming the desktop with mirth. Just the knowledge that he was alive and here, while his father writhed in his grave, was too much. He slammed the desk so hard the wood splintered and dug into his hand, sending new red droplets to splatter onto the wood alongside his father's.
* * * * * *
Tifa grasped Zack's hand as he helped her over the last of the rubble. She stood, brushing her hair out of her eyes and moving out of the way so Aeris could clamber up. Cloud and Nanaki were already waiting some distance away.
They had reached the Shinra building via the same route she, Barret and Cloud had taken before. The climb wasn't as hard as she remembered. Or maybe she had just gotten stronger over the past year.
In more than one way, she mused to herself. The whole terrifying ordeal of Meteor, Sephiroth, Aeris' death and revival and rescuing Marlene had taught her more than she needed to know about hardships.
She could have gotten out of it, she supposed. How often she had considered the possibility of just quitting! Just shout out: "Forget it! I'm not doing it anymore!"
She had gotten so much older, so much more mature, since she left Midgar that first time. Now here she was, back yet again, bent on saving the Planet. Things had changed. Would she go back, if she had the choice? Would she go back to her ignorant life in the slums?
She glanced over at Cloud and smiled. She had always felt affection for him, but it wasn't until recently she truly respected him for the person he was. Not for the world would she go back.
Once had safely cleared the rubble, Zack turned and squinted at the Shinra building, leaning on his Buster Sword. "You think this moldy old building will help us?" he asked. "I'm starting to think Elena was right."
"This 'moldy old building' was once the headquarters of the most powerful corporation in the world," Aeris admonished him. Zack raised one eyebrow and reappraised the building.
"Hm. Well, I guess it'll have to prove its worth to me inside." With that, he hefted the Buster Sword and started toward the entrance. With a rueful smile, Aeris followed, Nanaki trailing some distance behind.
Tifa looked at Cloud. "You know, if Barret was here, he'd make some remark about the stairs." They both remembered the last time they had infiltrated the Shinra building and taken a side entrance, forcing them to climb several stairways. Barret had not enjoyed it.
Cloud chuckled. "At least now we can just walk right in."
"HEY!" Zack called from ahead. "Are you two lovebirds coming or not?"
Tifa felt her cheeks flushed. Cloud simply rolled his eyes. "Come on."
Aeris gave a reassuring smile when she saw Tifa, whispering, "Don't mind Zack. He's always that way." Tifa's flush only deepened. Were her feelings that obvious?
Cloud placed both hands on the door. "It may take a minute to open, since it's been so…" He trailed off the door swung open easily. "….long."
Zack snickered. Aeris looked a bit concerned. "Should that have happened?"
Cloud shrugged. "Maybe more people visit this place than we thought." He looked back at the wire they'd had to climb. "Of course, it's kind of hard to get up here…"
There was a moment of silence, during which Zack shrugged good-naturedly.
"No matter. C'mon, I want to see this place." He strode into the building, followed by Cloud, Nanaki, and lastly Tifa. She had a sudden uneasy feeling about this place.
Inside, nearly everything was covered with dust. Aeris sneezed.
"I'd forgotten how big this place is," she said. "Shall we split up?"
Cloud pondered, then nodded. "Yeah. Me, Red and Aeris'll take the lab. Tifa and Zack, you guys take the top floor, where President Shinra was killed. Those are the only floors likely to have any value. Be careful."
Tifa shook off her uneasy feeling. "Yeah. You guys, too."
She couldn't help but wonder why Cloud wanted to be with Aeris.
Stop it, she told herself. You're being silly. The 'lovebirds' remark got to him, that's all.
By this time they had reached the elevator. Cloud pressed the button, and the door opened.
"I'm surprised this place still has power," Aeris remarked. "After all, it ran on Mako energy, didn't it?"
The elevator slammed shut with a loud bing! And began to rise.
"I don't know," Cloud said. "But we don't have time to debate it. Let's just check this place and get to Nibelheim. After all, Cid's got the airship and we're on foot."
No one said anything after that. The door opened and Nanaki, Cloud, and Aeris walked out.
Zack made small talk as the elevator rose slowly to the top floor. Tifa made suitable noises; "Mm…", "Uh-huh," "Yeah." The truth was, she wasn't paying very much attention.
The door finally slid open on the 69th floor. Tifa led the way out, then turned to face Zack.
"We have to climb the stairs to get to the next floor…" She trailed off as she noticed what he was doing. "What wrong?"
Zack was crouched on the floor, one hands splayed out to support his weight. The other was tracing the patterns of the dust in the floor before him.
"Zack?"
He didn't answer. Tifa came to kneel beside him and saw what he saw what he saw: The imprint of a booted foot that showed up clearly in the thick layer of dust.
Zack's blue eyes were cold as steel. "Someone's been here."
Tifa shook her head. "That's no cause for concern. Maybe people come here often-" Zack cut her off with a shake of his head.
"No way. Look at the contrast between the footprint and the surrounding area. It's recent. Someone's been here, all right." He looked at her piercingly. "Maybe still is."
Tifa bit her lip, not liking this one bit. "Should we come back later?"
Zack shrugged. "Don't see any reason why we should. Come on." He stood up and waited for her to take the lead.
Tifa climbed the stairs to the following floor with rising apprehension. She didn't want to see what was beyond the stairs…
Then she saw.
A figure was hunched over the President's desk; whether resting or simply contemplating she didn't know. Tifa's first impression was sympathy; this person was filled with fatigue, such weary suffering, that he had hardened by the world. A rose, left to the elements of wind and storm, stripped of its petals and gentle fragrance. What was left was harder than rock.
Then he stood, turned to face her, and the thought vanished.
He wasn't that all, at least, it wasn't his height that gave him such imposing authority. It was something else about him; his air, his very demeanor seemed to insist upon obedience. Anything else would be unthinkable.
He wore baggy tan pants and a dark green turtleneck, almost painfully clean. Brown hair, neatly combed. More curious, though, was a dark red pendant he wore on a chain around his throat. It drew the eye almost irresistibly.
And his face…
Tifa caught a fleeting glimpse of blue eyes, stormy blue, like a hurricane at sea. But that was all she caught. Whenever she tried to focus on another part of his face, that red pendant swam into her vision, leaving her with a very foggy idea of what he looked like.
She was concentrating, trying to figure this out, when he spoke.
"You must be that one from AVALANCHE." He crossed over in front of the desk so as to get a better look at her. 'What was you name? Lockheart, wasn't it?"
His voice, too, had a familiar quality she couldn't quite place, making her all the more uneasy. It wasn't that he knew her name; AVALANCHE and its members were well-known. She felt she had heard this man speak before, using that same clear, authoritative tone.
"Yes, that was it. Tifa Lockheart." He gave a nod of satisfaction.
Beside her, Zack crossed his arms. Tifa hadn't even noticed her was there until now. "And you are?" He sounded wary, if not outright suspicious. Tifa could tell he didn't trust this man either.
"Call me Sufur." The man languidly leaned back against the desk.
"What are you doing here?" Zack demanded, not bothering to hide the threat in his voice. Sufur gave them both a cursory glance.
"I could ask you two the same question."
"Look, wise guy," Zack began angrily, but Tifa cut him off.
"Do you know anything about Jenova?" she asked, moving between the two men. "You see, there's a sickness in the city…" She trailed off as Sufur looked at her sharply.
"Jenova? It's here?" He moved closer to her, ignoring Zack's warning glare. "Have you seen it?"
Tifa took an involuntary step backward. "Just evidence that it's here." She felt confused and irritated. She couldn't even get a clear picture of what this guy looked like, and here he was making demands. She looked to Zack for help.
Zack nodded. "Okay, well, if you can't help us, we'll be going now." He and Tifa started toward the exit.
"Wait!"
They turned. "What?" Zack said.
Sufur flicker some hair out of his eyes. The gesture was so familiar it made Tifa blink. For just one second, she could have sworn she'd seen him somewhere before…
"If I accompany you…will I find Jenova?"
Zack started. "Are you suggesting coming with us?"
Sufur shrugged, a cold half-smile creeping across his face. "It would make sense. Jenova us supposed to be an all-powerful being, correct? No matter which of us finds it first, better to face it together."
Zack darted a glance at Tifa. She stood stoically, thinking, for almost a minute. At last she spoke, reluctantly, it seemed.
"I guess we'll make sense. We'll talk to Cloud about it." She jerked her head to the door, indicating Sufur leave first. He did so with a shrug and a small smile. As he left, Zack turned to Tifa, sounding incredulous.
"You don't trust him, do you?"
Tifa stared him in the eye. "Zangan, my teacher, used to have a saying. 'Better to keep trouble on a close rein than let it walk around loose.' If I know anything, that man is Trouble. I would almost rather face Sephiroth again than turn my back on him." So saying, she tuned and followed Sufur.
I'm so original, aren't I? R-U-F-U-S, and S-U-F-U-R! What can I say, I'm bad at names. And I thought Sufur would suffice. BY the way, I am WELL aware that Rufus' hair is not brown. I decided he dyed it (Yes, I know! A crime!) because his regular color would be too tell-tale. Sorry I was so late with this chapter. I'll get better, I promise! Oh, by the way, all those nice people that have been reviewing? I'm giving them a BIG hug! *turns toward reviewers, only to find they are running away screaming* Oh well. Well, if YOU want a big hug, you know what you hafta do! That's right! Dye your hair red and pretend your Reno!
~Lila