ShinRa

By: Quistis & Xu

Disclaimer: We don't own anything but our minds and our own sanities.

Authors' Notes: This is the Sequel to "Diary of the First Lady" by General Quistis.

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Chapter 8: In the Train to Nibelheim

Tifa continued to walk briskly until she finally arrived at the train station. She pulled out a couple of Gil and headed over to the ticket booth, but she stopped when a young man with brownish hair and blue eyes approached her. "Excuse me, ma'am, do you have change for 500? I'm supposed to go to Nibelheim to fetch more of my things…" he said.

Tifa examined the boy. "Nibelheim? Well… I'm heading there myself. What's your name?" she asked.

"Cliff… I'm really from Nibelheim but my parents decided to move in here. I traveled with them plus their friend. I kinda left some of my stuff back there." he explained with a sheepish look on his face.

Tifa nodded and smiled gently. "I see… your parents are Cloud and Aerith?" she asked.

Cliff was stunned. "Yeah, how did you know?" he asked as she flipped his hair.

"Well… they're my friends, you see. Anyway, if you'd like to, you can travel with me. I'll pay for our tickets." She told him with a kind smile on her face.

Cliff nodded and chuckled. "Okay, Ma'am… you must be Tifa Lockheart." He said.

"It's actually Tifa Lockheart-ShinRa… Anyway, let's get going. We wouldn't wanna miss the next train." She said as she led the way and pulled out more money as they headed for the ticket booth. "Two for Nibelheim please. First Class." She told the man behind the ticket booth.

The man smiled at her and nodded, then handed her 2 First Class tickets. "Here you go." He said.

Tifa got the tickets and nodded at the man as thanks with a cold look on her face.

"You sure look so familiar…" the man said with a weak smile on his face.

Tifa's eyes narrowed on him as she gazed at him coldly.

The man just smiled at her. "Well, I remember the First Lady because of you… but who cares… she's dead, I guess." He explained.

"Maybe she is alive and she's just plotting revenge because the officers of her husband had treated her like shit when she's still the First Lady of ShinRa." She said with a sarcastic look on her face before she walked away. "Let's go, Cliff," she summoned.

Cliff eyed the man with an apologetic look before he proceeded after Tifa. "Are okay, Mrs. ShinRa?" he asked.

Tifa covered her face for a few seconds before she got aboard the train. "Yes, I'm okay." She explained.

As soon as they got to their seats, the train began to move. A man approached them to gather their tickets, and after doing so, Cliff spoke up with a kind smile on his face. "Mrs. ShinRa, where exactly in Nibelheim are you going?"

Tifa did not look at him but she just looked outside the window, observing the darkness of the tunnel. "The cemetery… I haven't visited the grave of my husband for 17 years already… I just want to go there for a while so that I could ease my sadness for even a little… by the way, why are you calling me 'Mrs. ShinRa'?" she asked before she turned back to Cliff with a blank look on her face.

"Isn't that your surname? I can't call you 'Miss Lockheart', because obviously, you are a married woman already… at least that's what my mom and dad had told me…" he explained before he turned his gaze to the magazine resting on the coffee table before them. He got it and flipped through the pages. "Everyone thought that you were dead already, but fortunately, we were able to trace where you are because of…" he trailed off when he remembered something. "Shit… I almost said the name…" he thought angrily to himself.

Tifa fixed her eyes on him. "Because of who?" she asked inquiringly with a demanding tone. She began to feel nervous. "Somebody knows who I am… somebody whom I don't even know…" she thought silently.

Cliff just faked a smile. "Sorry… I stopped talking because… I saw her picture." He said while showing her the picture of Tiffany ShinRa from one of the magazine pages. An article was written about her life and her family. Tifa even saw the question, "Did her mother really leave her behind?" and it made her frown. "How dare they write this…" she thought angrily as she bit her lip. She looked away and crossed her arms. "Well then, who was the person?" she asked.

"What person?" Cliff asked as he placed the magazine beside him.

Tifa turned to him with a silly smile on her face. "You just saw the picture of President Tiffany ShinRa and you lost your thoughts already…" she said teasingly.

Cliff raised an eyebrow and chuckled lightly as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Well… hehehe… not really but… she's really a pretty girl, you know…" he said, then he froze when he realized that he was talking to the mother of Tiffany ShinRa. His eyes grew wide in shock and so he just looked away while clearing his throat. He just shoved his hands inside his pockets uneasily which made Tifa giggle. "He's a mixture of Aerith and Cloud…" she realized silently as she covered her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud.

"Anyway, you can meet her anytime… if you'd care to join SOLDIER or ShinRa's executives. I'm sure your parents trained you well," she told him reassuringly.

"My father does not want me to join SOLDIER but he said that it's okay if I can join the executives… if I am competent enough…" he replied.

Tifa nodded. "You sound competent… though ShinRa is a big shark tank, I have to warn you though…" she stopped when a haggard-looking man with long red hair entered the First Class section. Her eyes grew wide in astonishment the moment she was able to recognize who he was. "Reno…" she thought silently as she tried her best to avoid gaping at him in disbelief.

The man who ruined her life…

The man who tried to separate her from her Rufus and Tiffany…

…and he succeeded.

She felt as if her blood was boiling at the sight of him, so she just looked away. She heard him say to the security guard, "There are no more seats?"

"I'm sorry sir. First Class has limited seats. You can just share a booth with others." The security guard replied.

Reno sneered before proceeding, searching for seats.

Cliff gazed around, noticing that all the booths had four or five persons occupying it, except for theirs. He identified the uneasiness from Tifa's eyes, so he just decided to lie down on his couch and pretended to be asleep. Tifa wondered if she should do the same, but she did not want to appear suspicious, so she just sat still; she could feel her own heart pounding against her chest. She clasped her hands tightly together as she stiffened when she heard his footsteps coming closer. She turned her gaze to the coffee table before she reached for her purse and pulled out some shades. After wearing them, she turned her gaze to the window and placed her purse beside her, deciding that she needed to fill the empty spaces within her couch. "Damn it… can't he just sit on the floor or just stand up near the door? Hey, why didn't the guard seize him? Don't they know that he's a very dangerous man? He tried to kill me! Oh darn, they don't know… they don't know because he's a clever man and he even blackmailed me… damn him…telling lies to Tiffany…" angry thoughts were whirling around her head until Reno finally came to her with a sly smile on his face. "Hi, miss," he greeted suavely while eyeing her clothing which consisted of a maroon blazer, a long maroon skirt, black leather boots, white gloves, a maroon hat with a white ribbon and a white collared blouse. For him, she looked rather sophisticated. Tifa turned her head to his direction, keeping her eyes on him. Reno was a little disappointed that her glasses were so dark that he could not see her eyes through them, "She must be very lovely without those," he thought quietly as his smile widened, but she frowned in return.

"May I share your seat?" he asked coolly.

Tifa knew that if she refused, he would just be stubborn enough to force her to move so that he could sit down beside her. "Choose, Tifa…either wake up Cliff and make this goofball sit beside him facing you, or make him sit down beside you and he won't make out your features too well if he sees your side view much often…" she thought quietly before she moved to her right, close enough to the window.

Reno nodded his head. "Thanks," he said before he sat down and leaned backward. He turned to Cliff and then back to Tifa. "Is he your son?" he asked.

Tifa just shook her head but she kept her eyes on the coffee table.

"Are you single?" he asked with a suave tone.

Tifa continued to fight the urge to punch his nose. "Oh no, I'm already married to Rufus ShinRa, the most powerful man on earth!" she would like to say that to him, but she stopped herself and just shook her head.

Reno's smile faded and it was replaced by a disappointed look. "I see…" he said softly before he moved closer. "Well, where's your husband?" And he turned to Cliff. "Is he your husband?" he asked.

Tifa raised an eyebrow and shook her head frantically.

"Well then, where is your husband?" he asked.

"Shit to his face… can't he stop asking questions?" she thought angrily before she muttered with a low voice, "He's dead and rotting in the ground. I'm off to Nibelheim to visit his grave, now shut up. I want to concentrate. I'm trying to get over my sadness. He's everything I ever had…"

Reno was stunned, then he cleared his throat after a few seconds of silence. He scratched his head. "Well… I think it's really about time that you forget him… how long has he been dead?" he asked.

"Seventeen years…" she said, trying to keep her voice in low monotone so that he would not recognize her through it.

He was quiet for a while but he spoke up again. "Really now… but… do you have any children?" he asked.

"We have a daughter… but if it weren't for this man who ruined my life, she'd still be here with me… unfortunately, she's living in a big castle and that man who's an ogre is taking care of her and telling her lies about me, her mother." She explained through clenched teeth.

Reno was silent. "Gee… sorry for that…" he said with a sad look on his face.

"Sorry my ass! How insensitive can you get?! That ogre is you!" she thought angrily as she clenched her fists. She just bowed down her head as she felt her whole head throbbing in pulsating pain due to unexpressed anger. "I wonder when this train will arrive at Nibelheim…" she thought miserably. "And what's this dork doing here? Isn't he supposed to be in ShinRa, guarding the place while Tiffany isn't around?" she thought quietly as she turned her gaze to the window and the moment she did so, she immediately saw Reno's reflection. He was holding a bunch of blank checks with Tiffany ShinRa's signatures. She recognized those as salary checks, but she began to wonder as she looked at it. "How come they're blank… and from what I could recall, I think the ShinRa employees' and the Turks' salaries come at the end of each month… it's only the second week…" she thought silently as she frowned. "… nah, maybe those are his past checks… but why the hell are they blank?!" she thought in total curiosity, but she did not ask any more questions.