Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 and all that's associated with it are not mine but Squaresoft/Square Enix's.

CHAPTER 5

Awakening

Stop it… Please! Stop! I can't take it anymore! I'll do it! Haven't I said that I'll do it? Please! I'll do anything! Just make it stop! Stop haunting me! Stop hurting me! It's my fault, I know! I shouldn't have done this! I shouldn't have tried to… Now everything's going to repeat itself… Again… Because of me! No! Please!

I'll kill him! I promise I will! He's not going to her! I'll stop him! I'll kill him!

Sephiroth will not return to the planet to destroy it! I'll kill him first! I promise I will!

Sephiroth will not return to Jenova…

The Jenova that I… that I…

I… I… I'm… Sorry… Forgive me… Please… Forgi… Forgive me…

Tifa.

--- --- --- --- ---

Okay… Get up… No, not get up… Get up… Not get up… Get up… Not get up… sigh… Rufus tried to weigh down his choices whether he would get up from the bed since he thought he was already fine enough not to lie down all day, or not to get up since he thought he decided to become lazy this day. After a while though, he stretched his arms on either side of him and proceeded to push himself up from the cool comfort of the bed.

Then, as he had already pushed himself about 30 degrees upright from his lying position, some annoying brat decided to make enough noise stomping his feet against the wooden floor as he ran that made Rufus' head spin and naturally, made his blood boil. Stupid brat! I'll strangle him! Yes, I will! I'll strangle that brat!! Just wait 'til I get you! I'll wrap my hands around your puny little neck and crush your throat as if it were a can of soda. Then I'll happily listen to you as you drown in your own… Then suddenly, his arms gave way and he fell back against the bed. Great. Just great... sigh… And a good morning to you too, Rufus Shinra.

--- --- --- --- ---

"Bye, mom!" Rios said quickly as he ran out from Tifa's room, grabbed his lunch, and went out of the door in a flash.

"Hey, wait you!" Tifa called out as she stuck out her head from the fridge and saw Rios disappear when the front door closed. "Great. You didn't take your breakfast again," she said dryly. She then went back to her task of cleaning out the glacier that was blocking the freezer of the fridge. She grabbed an ice pick and started stabbing on it like crazy. She was making enough noise that she didn't notice the door to Rios' room open and a disheveled-looking blond-haired man stepped out of it slowly, walking like a zombie. When he saw Tifa grunting because of what she's so concentrated on doing, he just stood there staring at her, not minding how numb his legs were. He tried to speak but every time he did, Tifa interrupted him with another grunt.

After a while of just standing there, Rufus finally gave in to the numb turned pain that was bugging his legs. "Excuse me!" he said aloud, loud enough for Tifa to hear him, stop what she's doing, and stare at him as if she's looking at a ghost.

Rufus stared back at her. I'm getting tired of staring contests. "Uh…" he began when Tifa suddenly dropped her ice pick and went immediately to him. By the time she reached him, Rufus' knees gave in sending him sliding down the floor. Okay… This is embarrassing.

"Why are you up? You're not okay yet," Tifa said to him in an annoyed tone.

"Try lying down for god knows how long and see what it does to your head, not to mention your pride," Rufus replied in an equally annoyed tone.

Tifa ignored him and proceeded with helping him up. She was actually having a difficult time of it, Rufus noticed; as she was grunting like she was grunting with the ice pick a while before. After a couple of pushes and pulls, Tifa managed to let Rufus up. No thanks to you, she thought when she realized he was probably putting all his weight on her as he was not helping himself up. She dragged him over to the couch and purposely pushed him roughly into it.

"Hey!" Rufus complained when he landed on his hip, and then rolled over like a useless sack. "Take it easy, will you?"

Tifa grinned evilly at him, and left him to push himself in a comfortable way against the couch. She went over to the kitchen and prepared her guest a nice warm cup of cocoa. Meanwhile, Rufus managed to get himself comfortable and sat quietly on the couch, wondering what Tifa was doing. He had heard that boy Rios fumbling and running out earlier, which made his head hurt because of the fuss the boy purposely did just to spite him.

Rufus scanned the meager living room as his cool blue eyes roamed all over. His eyes wandered wherever until they rested on a group of pictures that were arranged nicely on top of a hardwood side table. From where he was seated, he could clearly see the smiling face portrayed on the pictures, not only because the living room was so small five people would have trouble roaming about, but also because the smiles of the people in the pictures were so big that he thought he could be able to see it if he were standing a thousand miles back.

Let's see… Rufus squinted a bit trying to think whether he knew the faces or not. He looked at a picture with a man in it and on his lap was a little girl with her hair on pigtails. Oh yeah… That's that big large man named Barret Wallace. I almost killed him, heh! And that little girl… Guess not so little anymore. What was her name, again? I ordered her to be kidnapped. Huh? Oh well… Then his vision shifted on another picture portraying a long-black-haired man wearing some heavy red suit standing like a freaking stoic on the side, looking as if he had no care in the world, as two silly-looking women in skimpy outfits tried to run over to whomever was taking the picture, their faces laughing and filling up most of the picture. Valentine… Oh yeah… Old man's Turk turned… something else… And… Who the hell?! Oh well… whatever… Then the other one must be Lockheart… Uh-huh… Great… AVALANCHE pictures. Rufus snorted and shifted to another picture. The third showed Tifa with her arms around Red XIII and Cait Sith who were standing on either side of her. She was smiling as Red was raising both his paws against the camera and Cait Sith was doing what he always does – the mog standing there smiling a little while Cait raising an arm in a "Charge!" manner. Hmmm… Yeah! That's Hojo's experiment! I remember him… He he he… Reeve… Well, wonder the hell happened to him? Reno… Hey, where's Reno?! Since he realized he couldn't any thing about the red-haired Turk yet, Rufus shrugged him off his thoughts and looked at another picture. Cloud Strife… Rufus frowned as he looked at a very familiar face smiling…with no two front teeth? What the…

"That's my son," Rufus thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Tifa spoke up, standing against the side of the couch, a steaming cup of fragrant hot cocoa clutched lightly in her right hand. She stretched her hand with the cup towards Rufus, handing him the hot drink.

"Thanks," Rufus croaked accepting the cup. Oooh, hot! He held the cup with both hands and set it under his face. He sipped on it slowly, and as the hot sweet liquid ran down his throat, he gave a satisfied smile and watched Tifa as she nodded her head and sat down on one of seats beside the couch. She then stared at him. He stared back. They had another staring contest… Until Tifa broke away a long moment afterwards. She turned her head to where Rufus had been looking at a while before – at Rios' picture.

"My name is Tifa Lockheart," she said not looking at him.

I already know that. Rufus kept silent as he looked at Tifa's profile.

"My name is Ru… Wraith Shin," Rufus answered when she didn't say anything else after a while.

At the mention of an unexpected name to her, Tifa turned her head at him and tilted her head. "Wraith Shin?"

"Yes," Rufus replied and continued to sip on his drink. Tifa returned her attention to the pictures again and stayed quiet.

"So where's Rios' father, Tifa?" Rufus asked, trying to break up the deafening noise with the first thing that came up on his mind.

Tifa suddenly stood up and walked over to the side table. She reached out to it and picked up the picture, the one with Rios in it, gently. She placed it a little distance from her face and stared at it, as if she hadn't seen the picture in a long time. "Gone," she said in a bare whisper.

Gone?... Dead?... Strife's dead?

"Uh… Could you elaborate more on that? He's dead? That is… If you don't mind…"

"Well, I do," Tifa placed the picture back on the table and turned to him, "…sorry."

Rufus raised an eyebrow at her and shook his head. "Uh… No problem, I guess. Not my business."

After another moment of silence between them, Tifa finally spoke up, "So… R.. Wraith Shin… What are your immediate plans after you learn to walk?"

Very funny, Lockheart. Very funny.

Rufus raised an eyebrow at her and then shrugged. "Go back to Midgar, I suppose."

"Midgar? You sti… You live in Midgar?" Tifa asked with more surprise in her voice than she could hide.

"Is that so impossible?" Rufus asked back at her noticing the shock, "Midgar's now on becoming the power it once was, you know. A lot of development has been going on there now. But no, I don't live in Midgar. I live in Junon."

"I see. Well, yeah… I've heard Midgar's been undergoing some major rehab. I just hope it doesn't return to its former self shutting out poor people like it did before, you know. It was mean as it was disgusting. It deserved being destroyed like that," At the back of her head, Tifa berated herself for telling him what's on her mind. He is Rufus Shinra, even though he tried to hide it like he was doing at the moment. Thinking of that though, she wondered why the man tried to hide his true identity in the first place. Did he think that she was stupid enough not to recognize her once enemy?

Oh Teef, give the guy a break. He was throwing fits like a kid days before. He looked even worse than Rios, she told herself mentally. Thinking about that though sent small giggles to escape her lips.

Rufus raised one eyebrow at her, asking himself what was so funny with what she said a while ago, when she was still in a huff against the old Shinra. Weird girl. She's probably hungry or something. With that, he shifted his gaze at her lips. He smirked out of the blue, caught himself doing just that, and scolded himself. She could KILL you, and you unable to do anything about it since your legs don't like you at the moment. Rufus shook his head and recalled what she had been saying a while before.

"Probably not… 'Coz I'm heading the development… And Shincorp's going to take over the place," Rufus mumbled, trying to sound angry at what she just said just to hide his thoughts. Tifa forced a smile on her lips, ignoring the coldness in his voice.

Rufus handed her the cup once he finished up gulping every hot stuff he could. Tifa accepted the cup and without saying anything, only plastering that painful smile on her face, and she went over to the kitchen and washed it.

--- --- --- --- ---

As Tifa strode over to the kitchen, leaving the silent Rufus visible against the window of the house that overlooked the Shinra mansion, a familiar figure that had been looking at the rather weird scene shifted his attention to the fat guy who was blubbering something to him a while before. He hadn't really noticed that the poor man had been trying to get his attention, yet he was too preoccupied; for that though, he felt sorry for him. But then again, there were so much more interesting things to look at than a talking Heidegger, such as that scene that occurred between a comrade and her, shall we say, revived enemy, over at the house that seemed too small for the latter. Vincent Valentine sighed deeply and stared at Heidegger as the man's face turned a strange hue as he looked straight at Vincent's ruby gaze.

"J…Just as I was saying…" Heidegger continued after clearing his throat when he seemed to choke on his saliva as Vincent looked at him funny, "the winds of Mt. Nibel have changed. Underground activity has made itself manifest through the constant rumblings that do not seem to point us anywhere. Monsters tripled tenfold. And it would seem that they not only come from the deepest recesses that the mountain has, yet they also come from the plains beyond the mountains. Something is attracting them up there. It was a good thing, really, that we were able to build those barricades before they run us over!"

"And you're saying that all this is because of the Mako reactor up there?" Vincent asked in flat tone.

"Well…" Heidegger fidgeted with the lapels of his suit before answering, "what else could it be then?"

"Then why didn't you check it out firsthand?"

"The passageway to the reactor had been obliterated after shutting down the reactor completely," Reeve butted in when Heidegger seemed to freeze on the spot where he was standing, staring at Vincent, "Actually, it's rather impossible for the reactor to work, when I think of it though… Its generators have been taken out. The whole thing's nothing but an empty shell! Unless of course, someone shipped some great loads of generators up there, which of course, is another impossibility since the only clear way through the mountains is through here. We would be able to notice it if that happened."

Vincent nodded and turned his head to look out the window again. He looked at Tifa's house again and found her marching over to where Rufus was still seated and telling him something that Rufus scowled at. She helped him stand up and pushed him inside her son's room, then closed the door behind her. After a moment's silence, Vincent spoke, "So all we can do now is wait… And try to get through to the reactor…"

"Seems so," Reeve replied.

Vincent sighed again and turned his gaze at the domineering mountains that surrounded the growing town of Nibelheim. In a deep part of his mind, he knew something, but then again, he was not sure. He can never be sure. He could only sigh. However, he could hear himself say,

Cloud… What have you gotten yourself into this time?

- End of Chapter -

A/N

Yey! Finished the chapter!! Not much action though… Just made other characters appear… And added some stuff! Wow, thanks to those who reviewed! I'm really happy… Really, thanks a bunch! You guys are the greatest!

And oh... Is it Lockheart or Lockhart? Keeps confusing me :)

Valen Locke