Her Sweetest Revenge

By: Riquisel Yutifae

=Fifth=

            Rufus glared furiously at the three empty seats before him. "Where are those three?" he demanded rather gruffly. His hair still looked ruffled and his inner coat was not yet pressed. Tifa could tell that he slept really late and could not wake up early and when he woke up, it was already five minutes before 3:00… the time for the meeting.

Rufus brushed back his hair with his right hand while his left hand held a few documents.

"Well, they cannot make it, sir. They have diarrhea." Reeve explained.

Rufus raised his eyebrows. "What?" he demanded.

"Didn't you see the note in your office, sir?" Reeve asked.

"Didn't pass by my office. I went straight here," Rufus raked his fingers through his hair repetitively as if meaning to comb it back so that his blonde locks wouldn't fall onto his eyes therefore blocking his vision. "Tsk." He reacted, realizing that he forgot to use gel again.

Tifa bit her lower lip to stop herself from giggling because somehow, she thought Rufus looked so cute whenever he gets annoyed. "Umph…" she pressed her lips together and turned away from Rufus, her cheeks forming a slight blush.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "Anything funny, Miss Lockheart?" he asked rather sarcastically.

Tifa eyed Sephiroth rather cautiously.

Rufus stared at the two.

Tifa shook her head. "N…nothing," she replied.

Sephiroth just turned to Rufus with a blank look on his face.

"Why the hell do those lazy oafs have diarrhea? Are you sure they're not faking it?" Rufus asked, turning back to Reeve with an impatient look on his face.

"I cannot even come near their rooms in the infirmary, sir, they stink! They're being treated by the doctor and the nurse there to avoid dehydration. I don't even know how they got it because we all had the same dinner last night." Reeve explained with a weak smile on his face.

"Oh well, never mind… the meeting is now in session." Rufus began before he proceeded to discuss several things relevant to the new developments for ShinRa and for the whole of Midgar.

Then came the part wherein Rufus was asking for any progress from the different departments of ShinRa. "Lucrecia?" he asked, turning to the scientist.

She smiled sweetly at Rufus before replying, "Just doing revisions of formulas and continuing some of the non-destructive experiments of Hojo… if only I could understand his handwriting."

"I see. What about the old files that I was telling you about?" he asked her.

"Which one?" she asked.

"MAKO and JENOVA." He replied.

She thought for a while before replying, "Hid them."

Rufus nodded before turning to Reeve. "And for the Urban Development Department?" he asked.

"Still fixing bad roads and building a townhouse and a big apartment for the homeless in the slums just like what you ordered, sir. The rest of Midgar is fine." Reeve explained with a determined look on his face.

"Sephiroth," Rufus turned to the silver-haired guy seated facing Tifa.

He turned to Rufus. "Turks are okay… except that last night, they thought that it was their free day." He explained with a serious look on his face.

"What? How come?" Rufus asked in disbelief.

"I don't know. Maybe someone tricked them." Sephiroth replied with a sarcastic and hinting tone before turning to Tifa.

She just frowned at him. She wanted to kick his shin for saying that, but the table was too wide for her feet to reach him. He made a face at her before turning back to Rufus. "Oh yeah, and since the Weapons Department, Space Development and Peace Keepings are not here, our dear Vice President is here to represent them too." He said with a sarcastic glint in his eye.

Rufus turned to Tifa with a serious look on his face. She had expected him to smile at her, but he did not. It made her feel nervous all of a sudden.

"Uhm… for the Weapons Department… I'm suggesting that… we build a weapon as powerful as the Diamond Weapon. It will be useful for us especially if we go into battle! And… the reconstruction of the Sister Ray should be disregarded because there's no point in reconstructing such a useless weapon…"

"How did you know that it's such a useless weapon? Have you seen it work before?" Sephiroth asked probingly.

She clenched her fist. "No, I haven't, but judging from the name, it sounds… bad. Anyway," she turned back to Rufus with a calm smile on her face, "for the Space Development Department, I think we should hire more scientists for this department because Palmer cannot really work alone especially since this is the age of technology and space travel is beginning to get in demand. We can also use this as a means for gaining more profit for our Company, offering people a ride going to outer space and touring them around!"

Rufus nodded his head and little by little, his lips were already beginning to form a smile. "Yes, go on," he urged her.

She nodded her head and took a deep breath before proceeding, "And finally, for the Peace Keepings, I would like to suggest that…"

"We send out several Soldiers to investigate within Midgar's premises to see if there are still rebels lurking around… especially AVALANCHE." Sephiroth cut her off.

"NO!" Tifa protested, pounding on the table with her fist. "Will you stop interrupting me?" she demanded.

He just smiled nastily at her. "Yes, Miss Lockheart." He said.

Rufus frowned at the two of them. "What's the matter with you?" he asked calmly.

"I'll excuse myself for a while, I need to check on something," Sephiroth got up and left the room with a malicious smile on his face.

"Shit…" Tifa thought silently. "The big guy's beginning to suspect something…"

"Tifa," Rufus called her attention.

She turned back to her with a sweet smile on her face. "Yes, President Rufus?" she asked.

"Go on," he urged her with a smile on his face.

She sighed heavily. She did not really know what to say about the Peace Keeping Division. "I… uhm…" she stammered.

Lucrecia and Reeve were eyeing the way Rufus was staring at Tifa. His gaze seemed to have a dreamy expression despite his stiff facial expression.

Tifa scratched her head. "Give the members of SOLDIER a higher salary every month." She said.

"And why is that?" he asked her.

"Because… because some of them might have come from far away places… who knows, it could be a poverty-stricken country or something and they're the only ones working for a living for their families. Some of them send their salary back to their homes so that their parents could have it and would only leave a few for themselves. Maybe you should also add benefits for them like insurances and holiday bonuses…" she explained.

Silence.

Rufus nodded his head before he began to write some notes on his notepad. After nearly 15 minutes, he stopped writing and turned to face her again. "Well, those were very good suggestions, Miss Lockheart," he remarked with a slight smile on his face.

Her eyes widened in shock. "Wh…what?" she asked in disbelief. "Damn, everything that I have just mentioned is supposed to sound lame for Rufus! He hates charity! He is supposed to be inconsiderate! He's supposed to be concerned about his money! Everything I mentioned to him will cost him big amounts of money!" she thought silently with a frantic look on her face.

"Congratulations, Miss Lockheart," Reeve said proudly.

Lucrecia just winked at Tifa. "Good job," she said.

Tifa still had this stunned look on her face even after Rufus had dismissed them. Reeve and Lucrecia left the room, leaving the two of them inside.

Rufus got up from his seat. "Are you alright?" he asked with a slight frown on his face as he studied the look on Tifa's face.

She swallowed hard as she looked down. "He did change…" she thought silently. "He's not the same selfish guy we've all known before Meteor." She thought silently before she placed her hands on her lap.

He offered her his hand. "You look pale. Are you sick?" he asked.

"Damn… mustn't let this get to me. Who knows, this is just one of his political agendas so that people will like him and he'll develop more positive charisma. Hmf…" Tifa got up on her own after rethinking silently and took Rufus's hand with a sweet smile on her face. "Back to the plan, Tifa," she told herself silently. "No, I'm fine, Rufus," she said sweetly.

Rufus let go of her hand and turned back to the papers he left on the table. "I'd like to talk to you in my office. You wait for me there, I'll just gather these." He instructed rather stiffly.

"Sure," she told him before she headed for the door, but she stopped upon hearing Scarlet's voice echoing from the hallway, "Kyah! I don't trust that girl! I gave her my marketing plan and I don't know if she read it. She must've changed it or something and said something else to President Rufus!"

"But Scarlet, aren't you supposed to be sick?" Sephiroth asked with an impatient tone.

"Kyah! I am. I just want to check!" she replied.

Tifa suddenly had an idea. She went back to Rufus.

He turned to her with a curious look on his face. "What's wrong? I thought I already told you to wait for me in my office?" he asked.

She didn't say anything; she just pushed him onto his chair, forcing him to sit down.

"What the… what are you doing?" he demanded with stunned look on his face.

To his amazement, she sat down on his lap and straddled him, moving closer to him as she embraced him.

When she heard the door open, she leaned further forward and gave Rufus a long passionate kiss.

"KYAH?!?!?"

Sephiroth froze upon the scenario. "?!" was all he could think of in his thoughts before he turned away.

"KYAH!!!!! PRESIDENT RUFUS, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Scarlet screeched as she marched over to Rufus and Tifa, the pain in her own stomach suddenly disappearing due to too much of adrenaline and anger.

Tifa acted surprised upon seeing Scarlet and got up from the stunned Rufus ShinRa.

"You slut!" Scarlet slapped her face.

Rufus snapped back into his senses when he heard and saw what Scarlet had said and done to Tifa. He instantly got up and pulled out his shotgun, aiming at the back of her head. Scarlet moved backward, away from Tifa who was ready to defend herself, unaware of the shotgun behind her and stopped when she felt the cold metal against her head.

"Rufus," Sephiroth began, going to them.

Rufus sneered at Scarlet, "What did you just do, Scarlet?"

"Kyahahaha…" nervous laughter. "Erh… Kyahahaha… I just…" she couldn't go on.

Tifa suddenly couldn't move. "Is he going to shoot her just because she hurt me?" she thought silently as she stared at the scene with wide eyes.

"Rufus, calm down," Sephiroth began.

"Stay back, Sephiroth, let me take care of this," Rufus said calmly before turning back to Scarlet with a cold look on his face. "I thought you're sick? How come you're here?" he asked.

"Kyah… I…"

"You're faking it." He told her.

"No, sir, I…" she stammered.

"Silence!" he growled, making Tifa and Scarlet jerk because he sounded really angry and scary. Sephiroth just leaned back against one of the chairs and crossed his arms like nothing else meant to him.

Rufus put down his shot gun so that Scarlet could face him.

The older woman had this terrified look on her face. "President Rufus, I… I don't understand! Why is she… why is she… Why did you allow her to… to do that to you?!" she snapped at him.

"Why, you're jealous because I wouldn't let you do that to me?" Rufus asked.

Sephiroth snickered.

Scarlet fell silent. She was being mocked again. "No, Sir… I…" she stammered.

Rufus flipped his hair. "I can do whatever I want to do, Scarlet. You have no authority to tell me what I should do or what I should think of, especially what kind of girl I would like to have… because it will never be you," he told her.

Ouch.

Scarlet clenched her fists.

"Uh-oh… the more this woman's gonna hate me…" Tifa thought silently.

Scarlet sneered at Tifa before turning back to Rufus. "Why, President Rufus? Don't tell me you like this girl?" she demanded.

Rufus just kept quiet and turned to Sephiroth.

Sephiroth just stared back at him with a cold look on his face.

Rufus turned back to Scarlet. "You're suspended for a month." He told her coldly before he walked to the door.

Scarlet clenched her fists. She was near hysteria already and she didn't stop herself, "KYAH! President Rufus!!! I can't believe you! What did you actually see in her?! She's a bitch! She's a slut! She's stupid and she is ugly! All she has is that body of hers, dammit!" she screeched hysterically as she went after Rufus.

Tifa twitched upon hearing those nasty remarks about her, but her attention got diverted to Sephiroth when she noticed him laughing to himself.

"Mwahahahahahahahaha,"

She raised an eyebrow at him, feeling a little ridiculous. "I think he's really insane…" she thought silently before she just decided to walk away and leave him there.

But she hid in one corner of the hallway and waited for Sephiroth to leave. When he did so, she followed him secretly from behind.

Sephiroth proceeded to the stairs, unaware that someone was following him. He was still laughing and the laughter was beginning to tick her off.

Finally, Sephiroth came to a room in a secluded area of the building where nobody ever goes… it was supposed to be the area for the guest rooms.

"This is not where his room is located," she thought silently as she watched him pull out a card key from his pocket.

Tifa watched silently as he swiped it through the small machine on the wall and the door opened. He stepped inside. Tifa heard him say out loud, "Hey, Aerith, guess what happened back there! It's so hilarious! Mwahahahahahahahaha!" And he closed the door.

Tifa's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in disbelief. "Aerith?!"

She did not know what to do at first. "Wh…what the…" and she wanted to make sure, so she approached the door and then listened to the conversation from inside.

"You know that Scarlet, right?" Sephiroth asked.

"Yeah, why?" a somewhat timid voice replied.

Tifa gasped lightly, recognizing the voice. "It's Aerith… but what is she doing here?" she asked herself silently as she covered her mouth with her trembling hand. She felt so overjoyed and confused at the same time.

She did not listen anymore, she just left and proceeded to Rufus's office, remembering that she was supposed to meet him there because he wanted to talk to her.