Disclaimer: I dun own anything! Except, you know, the plot.

Warnings: Foul language, OCs, Almost shounen-ai (nothing serious)

Author Notes (a look at the important ones again):

"Blah" Speech

'Blah' Thoughts

Blah/ Telepathic Speech

OOOOO Scene Change

AAAAA Chapter End

Notes in Which the Author Blabbers on for Lack of Anything Better to do:

Welcome to the third chapter of 'Perpetual Manipulation'! For all of those who are reading this story, thanks for keeping up with it and sorry that it took so long for me to get this chapter out. -- Hit a little speed bump in the writing process.

In other news, I finally found out how to check out the hits my stories are getting, and I was shocked! From the reviews (or rather, lack thereof), I had thought that no one was reading this. But low and behold, there they were! Many hits! Please people, it's important for you all to review! .. It lets me know if I should keep going with a story or stop, so please, I'm begging you, review!

Now that that's done, on with the fic!

Chapter Three

The halls of the 32nd floor of the Shin-Ra tower were mostly empty, this being the private floor of the Turks. Although they had performed dismally against Cloud and the others, most of the old Turks were still around, but their numbers had increased drastically since Midgar and Shin-Ra had come under new rule. It seemed that their new boss preferred quantity over quality.

But, in all honesty, none of this mattered a bit to the red-haired man that now stalked along those hallways, searching, in what seemed like vain, for his comrade Rude. The Shin-Ra building could burn down and kill all but him; it didn't matter, so long as he get his pay check on time and had a steady supply of money to support a lifestyle of his choosing. This lifestyle was, of course, consisting mostly of booze and women.

He was considered sloppy, messy, and rather unprofessional, but Tseng had yet to fire him, and the man could do his job when it really mattered. Sneaking up behind victims? No problem. Blasting a hole in the back of someone's head point-blank with a gun? Sure thing. Reno was, by necessity, one of the best Turks Shin-Ra had to offer, despite his lethargic appearance.

The way he drank almost half of his life away rubbed his boss the wrong way, but in all honesty the leader of the Turks couldn't find a damn way to get rid of the bastard. Nope, Reno was there to stay, and would probably be the one to take charge of the Turks if Tseng ever decided to die or if the man ever quit. And after his boss had survived a nasty encounter with Sephiroth, Reno wasn't entirely sure the man could die, though he seemed close to quitting ever since they had lost Rufus.

It was common knowledge that Tseng had run into Sephiroth and survived, news that had spread like wildfire and had soon engulfed the entire working part of Shin-Ra. The Wutaian man would never tell how he had survived, so legends had been spun; most just random stories that made Tseng smirk in quiet amusement. He would have quickly put a stop to those silly rumors, if there wasn't one problem; he wasn't sure how he had survived either.

The dark-haired man wasn't about to be egotistical enough to claim that he had beaten Sephiroth, for he knew that he would never be able to conquer a feat like that. His only guess was that Sephiroth had decided not to waste time making sure he was dead. After he talked with Cloud and the blond's groupies, he had passed out, only to awaken hours later on a copter with Rufus looking over at him worriedly and Reno, Elena, and Rude trying to get the helicopter to go faster.

Reno had thought about that day a lot ever since Meteor had been destroyed. It seemed a miracle that his boss had lived, a miracle that he couldn't help but be happy about. No matter how different his boss was from him, the man had earned Reno's respect time and time again, and he didn't think that he would be able to follow the commands of any other Turk.

But Tseng wasn't the reason the Turk had come in before his hours started, or why he relentlessly searched through all of the offices. His reason for being at the Shin-Ra building was apparently hiding out somewhere and laughing at the way the red-haired man was searching everywhere for him while cursing under his breath.

"Shit, where the fuck do you run off to anyway?" he mumbled under his breath as he left the last office, now desperately wanting a drink. Reno had spent the entire morning searching, only to find out from one of the new Turks that Rude hadn't been seen all day.

"Hey, Reno! What are you doing here?" asked a puzzled voice from behind him. Turning around with a glare on his face, he looked over at Elena.

"I'm trying to find Rude in this God-forsaken tower! And the fucker isn't even here! Probably called in sick or some other damn bullshit so he could have me looking everywhere for 'em. ." Reno's tone had started off harsh, but dribbled off in the end as he started feeling a bit like a heel for yelling at the blonde Turk.

Elena, on the other hand, was not in the least offended, but she was having a hard time trying not to snicker at her companion's predicament. "I don't think Rude would purposely hide from you, he likes drinking with you too much."

"Yeah, well that bastard's about to lose that privilege," he mumbled, glaring down at his shoes, "The one day I actually have to find him and he's not here. 'Fuckin' making me look bad."

The blonde Turk smiled sympathetically, patting Reno on his shoulder. "I'm sure he'll turn up, and I'm also sure he's not doing this to piss you off or to make you look bad." With that, she gave his shoulder one last squeeze and then went on her way.

"Thanks for all the help!" the red-haired man called after her, his voice dripping with sarcasm and spite. His only answer was the woman laughing at his words. "Fuckin' bitch."

A few hours later, Rude was no where to be found. Reno flopped into a chair; his arms propped over the back of the chair to hang down as he laid back and closed his eyes. How long would he have to be searching for Rude? This wasn't one of the bald man's days off, so he should be right there.

Sighing overdramatically and grabbing a hat from a near-by table, the red head leaned back in his chair, his legs coming up and crossing at the knee while his feet rested on the table in front of him. He grabbed the rim of his hat as he did this, pulling it down over his eyes before interlocking his fingers and laying his now-entwined hands on his stomach.

If anyone was going to do the finding here, he decided briskly, it was going to be Rude.

"Reno?" asked a familiar baritone voice. Frowning immediately in recognition, the red-head lifted up one side of the hat to peer at his bald friend with one bright green eye.

"What the Hell? I've been looking for you all morning and the fucking second I give up looking for you, here you are," he grumbled, taking the hat off and removing his feet from the desk so he could sit up straight. "Nice timing."

"Mmm, it's not my fault you're slacking off all the time."

"I wasn't slacking off, you dick-head!"

Nodding silently and mockingly, the bald man raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend. "Why were you looking for me anyway?"

"Changin' the damn subject on me," Reno mumbled under his breath before replying, "we've been given a new mission by the Bossman."

This perked Rude's interest. "Really? What is it?"

"Remember the escaped clones?"

"Yeah, they sent a scientist out to look for them a few days ago I believe."

"Well, we haven't heard a thing from the bastard, and the people up at the top are starting to sweat," he said, standing up from his chair and shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Understandable. It's only a matter of time before news of the recent escape leaks out to the public, and when it does, it'll be a field day for the press."

Reno nodded curtly, slipping into his Turk frame of mind, "exactly. That's why we're being sent out to find the clones first, and then the scientist."

"We bring them both back?"

"Yeah. By force, if necessary. And the scientist has been marked as 'expendable'."

"Are we to kill him or bring him back?" the other Turk asked, frowning behind his dark sunglasses and crossing his arms over his broad chest.

"Whichever comes first, but if he's told anyone else about his mission, we're to bring only his head back, preferably on a silver platter for Miliky."

They both mulled over their options after that, Reno waiting until Rude asked another question before he went on.

"When are we to leave for this?" the man finally asked, breaking Reno out of his reveries of killing his new Top-Bosswoman.

"As soon as possible. So, taking into consideration the time at the moment, preparations for leaving, re-stocking our inventories, and securing a boat, I'd say by tomorrow afternoon; evening at tops."

Another frown. "Right. If we're going that soon, I'll need to start gathering everything together."

The red-head smirked, "Gotta make sure you've got all the appropriate outfits for diner dates?"

"You never know. . ." was all the bald man said as he turned and began to walk off towards the elevator. "We'll meet in the lobby tomorrow morning, then hit some shops before going over to Junon. That good for you?"

"Yeah, that's fine. Oh, by the way, we're going to Costa del Sol first. That's where Zamdi was headed when he set out."

"Zamdi's the scientist they sent out?"

The red-haired man nodded. "Yup. Well, seeya," he said, turning on his heel and waving his right hand once before pushing in back into his pocket and walking off. Rude sighed; this mission wasn't going to be pleasant. Not that any really were, but going out into the world and searching for six clones of strongest man that ever lived and were more than likely homicidal was not on his list of things to do before he died.

He chuckled; even if it wasn't on his list, it might be the last thing he did before he died.

OOOOO

Tifa sighed as she tucked the last child in; it was almost nine and most of the children had fallen asleep during story time. With nothing else to do and still needing a distraction, the woman had declared an early bed-time and had busied herself with getting all the children ready and clean for a goodnight's sleep. Now, she was a bit exhausted and still on the edge; there was no news from the doctor.

Walking towards the door, she glanced at all the nightlights, making sure that everything was in order for all the kids. Satisfied, she turned around to look at them one last time lovingly before flicking off the lights and walking out, leaving the door open just enough for a sliver of light to creep in and give the younger children a bit of added illumination to chase away the monsters and bad dreams.

Finished with her beloved children, the brunette headed downstairs to where the main lobby was. Sitting down on one of the soft red couches in there, she stared at the door and the sign that read 'Open.' She had closed the Inn earlier in the morning, planning on a day spent relaxing and entertaining her precious children. But the only thing it seemed she had gotten right was closing down; the day had been far from relaxing or entertaining.

Yawning, she stretched out on her back, her hands folding together and resting on her stomach. It had been quite a day. A check list went through her mind, reminding her of anything that she still needed to do. Nothing came up as undone, so she really had nothing to do but wait for the doctors to get finished while thinking about how much she had hurt the poor man.

Tifa couldn't seem to get him out of her mind. It festered and ate away at her, nagging at her and mocking her for making his condition worse in her pathetic attempt to help him. Whenever she managed to get away from thoughts of him, something would end up picking at it again, like a sore, and it would begin it's festering all over again.

Closing her eyes after staring at the ceiling idly for a few minutes, the young woman drifted off into a light, troubled sleep. Catching of memories drifted past her eyes; Cloud; Weapon; Sephiroth, until finally her mind settled on one memory; Aerith's death.

All through the events leading up to her friend's early demise, she had been a bit jealous of the older brunette. How could she have not been? Cloud obviously preferred the gentle flower girl over his childhood friend, and that certainly didn't help. Aerith had saved the young blond, and it seemed the two had become inseparable sometime between their first meeting and when they met up again with Tifa at the Wall Market.

They had even gone on a date just days before Aerith died! Tifa remembered how lonely she had suddenly felt when she heard that Aerith and Cloud were off spending a fun-filled night together. The two were even in the play.

But despite all this, Tifa had grown very close to Aerith. Surprisingly, this bond had even survived fighting over Cloud. The women sometimes even joked about having a 'fight to the death' over Cloud, both getting a good laugh at the thought of Cloud in a dress and the two of them dressed up as knights in shining armor.

When Aerith died, it had devastated them all, and although some people might have thought that it hadn't affected the brunette as much as it had everyone else, she had taken it very hard. It had felt like she had lost not only a good friend, but an elder sister. And seeing Cloud when he had held the woman's limp body in his arms had broken her heart and the numb shock that had grown when she'd first seen Sephiroth's sword slip so easily into the older woman's back.

She remembered jumping up the pillars caught up in a tide of fury only to be distracted by Jenova while Sephiroth, her best friend's killer, slunk off into the shadows, to pay for his crime a later day.

"Miss Lockheart?" asked a questioning female voice, accompanied with a soft poke to Tifa's cheek. The newly-awakened brunette's eyes snapped open and she bolted up to a sitting position, looking over at her attacker.

"Oh, Tiela, wasn't it?" Tifa said as a greeting, yawning and rubbing her right eye with her hand. "I'm sorry; I must've dozed off waiting for you. Is he . . . all right?"

Tiela smiled, reassuring the other woman, "everything will be right as rain. The winged man just needs a bit of bed rest, and seeing as this is an inn, I'm guessing that won't be a problem."

"That's good to hear," she answered, visibly relaxing. "There are a few extra rooms, so he can have one of those."

"Yup! Oh yeah, some blood got all over your bed," Tiela said, "I think it probably soaked through to the mattress, so you'd probably be better off throwing all of your current bedding, along with the mattress, out and getting yourself a new one. Sorry."

Tifa shook her head, "there's no need for you to be sorry; he was bleeding when I first put him in that bed, so it's my fault anyway."

Tiela didn't reply, but frowned a little bit. Tifa noticed this, wondering what was wrong before standing up from the couch. She stretched her arms and shoulders a bit before looking back at the assistant. "Are you, Eeron, and the doctor leaving now?"

"Wha? Oh, yeah, we'll be leaving now, but we'll help you move the man to a room first. He's sleeping now, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem." After a nod of affirmation, Tiela walked back to Tifa's room, the fight right behind her.

As soon as the door opened, both the doctor and Eeron looked up at the two women. "Ah, nice timing. Doctor Uzugami just finished up with our most reluctant patient. It seems even asleep he likes to put up a fight against the people helping him," Eeron said, walking over to the women.

"Thank you so much for helping him," Tifa replied, bowing slightly in a form of gratitude.

"You two help Misses Lockheart carry this man into another room," ordered Uzugami, completely disregarding all the words that had exchanged between Tifa and his assistant. "Ma'am, you do know that this will cost some money, don't you?"

"Yes, of course. We all need to make a living somehow. . . How much will it cost?"

"100 gil."

"That's all? Please, it should be more, I feel like I'm getting away with highway robbery at that price," she said, shocked at how low the price was for such a severe operation.

"That's all I'm going to charge; consider it a favor." With that said, the doctor began to leave. "Eeron, Tiela; you two can just go home, there's no need for you two to come back here."

"Yes, doctor."

"Right-o Uzi!"

Giving his two assistants a warm smile, he walked off in the direction of the lobby, planning on finishing up some paperwork at his office before heading back to his family for the night.

"Well, now that that's taken care of; let's get this guy to a new room!" Tiela said cheerfully, practically running over to still-healing man.

"Wait, he didn't take his payment!" Tifa remembered suddenly, preparing to run after the doctor. She was stopped by Eeron's hand being placed on her shoulder.

"It's all right, you can give me the money and I'll run it over to the doctor once we've moved this guy to a room he can stay in for the night," the red-head assured her before going over and gently grabbing the winged man's legs. Tiela quickly followed suit and grabbed the man's chest.

"One, two, three, heave!" the girl piped, lifting the unidentified man on 'heave' with Eeron. Tifa ran over quickly and hefted up the man's stomach, supporting both of the assistants as they carried him into one of the guest rooms of the inn.

Once they had dropped him off in a new room, Tiela and Eeron prepared take their leave.

"Just call us if you need anymore help with this guy, though I'm pretty sure he'll be a bit calmer now that's he's been healed," Eeron said as Tifa handed him the payment for the doctor. "I'll just run this over to Doctor Uzugami and then head home. You take care."

"Yeah, you too," the brunette replied as the two assistants walked off, waving at them for a moment before going back inside and locking the door. She checked in on the children one more time just to make sure that all of them were still fast asleep. Once satisfied that they would be all right for the night, Tifa headed into one of the spare rooms, only stopping to take off her gloves and shoes before jumping into the comfortable bed and passing out for the night.

OOOOO

"Cloud, what was that noise?" Ian asked, not lowering his voice in the slightest. A heated glare from the blond made him fall silent. Motionlessly he watched as Cloud moved to a crouched position and slowly slunk over to where he had laid his swords.

The dark haired man slowly came to his senses and moved his laptop off his lap, crawling over to where his bag laid. Reaching it, he dug inside, his hand coming out a few moments later with a gun. After quickly checking that it was loaded and taking the safety off, he moved over to where Cloud was crouched in a battle position.

"So I take it we're going to fight whatever comes around that bend?" the scientist whispered, leaning closer to his companion. Cloud only nodded as an answer to his question. Ian sighed. He wasn't good at fighting, and would probably just hold the blond back.

As if sensing Ian's reluctance, Cloud whispered back, "don't worry, I've fought alone in worse conditions; even if you can't help, everything should be fine. More than likely it's just going to be a wandering animal."

"Yeah? Well, I hate to tell you this, but the mountains don't have many friendly animals. The best you could say about them is that the nice animals are only outnumbered by the blood-thirsty by a few hundred," Ian replied, making sure his voice was soft and low.

The blond at his side just smiled and shook his head. "Can't you even be assured of your safety with the 'savior' of the planet at your side?"

"You know, when the news came out two years ago that you had saved the world, I'd have never guessed you'd be self-centered and narcissistic."

"It comes with the gig," Cloud replied before moving his attention back to whatever was coming. As he waited for the thing to come around the bend, the blond hoped that it was just a monster. Anything in this region would be a walk in the park for the young hero, but he had a sinking suspicion that it wasn't any animal waltzing towards them.

OOOOO

Ever since they had escaped from Midgar, the trio of clones had been relying on Kadaj. Because he was the youngest, he was the most refined product the scientists had made, and was therefore stronger than his elder 'brothers'. He was leading his two companions steadily towards the small town of Nibelheim, where he believed their mother lived.

For the past few months, Kadaj had been tortured by the soft whispers of a woman in his mind; the voice always egging him on to escape and to collect her body. She told him how to get to her nearest body part, and assured him that this was all for the best. That it would rid the world of GeoStigma.

Under normal circumstances, the skeptical youth wouldn't have believed a word of it, he would've just accepted that he was going insane. But the voice in his head demanded obedience, and despite his protests, could control what he did every so often. So, in the end, he had given in and broken free of the labs, in search of the woman who called her his mother and had planted the idea of a Reunion in his head.

The Reunion was the only thing he wasn't sure of. What kind of Reunion? What exactly was his mother preparing to gather together? She had said that the Reunion would drag the GeoStigma out of the peoples of the planet, but a large amount of the humans affected by it would have to be gathered.

Sighing, the young clone broke out of his thoughts and looked over at his companions, Yazu and Loz. He had told them what he was looking for and what he was planning to do. Since they were like brothers to him, he had also included the details of the mysterious woman and how she could occasionally control him; use him like a puppet.

Both had exchanged concerned looks with one another, but had promised their younger brother that they would, nonetheless, travel and have faith in him, to the very end of this 'Reunion'. It worried Yazu and Loz that this strange, detached voice could control even the powerful Kadaj, but they were confident that as long as they followed this woman's crazed plan, Kadaj would be all right.

And if it so happened that GeoStigma really was taken from the planet, well it was all for the better? And if a few people died while they were doing this, so be it. Better they die quickly by the edge of a sword or by a bullet through the skull than by the horrible pain of GeoStigma.

The trio was resting on the mountain trail, situated next to a small stream. They'd been traveling straight for a few days now, making sure that they left nothing behind that Shin-Ra could use to track them. It had been quite a long trek on foot, and Kadaj had decided-after being whined at almost ceaselessly by Yazu-that it would be a good time to stop for a while.

They had reached their resting spot a few hours ago, and the threesome was now packing up, refreshed for the moment and ready to traverse the mountainous trail through the dimming twilight and soon the darkness. Just as they started to move out, Kadaj stopped his two brothers, staring down with interest into the stream.

Curious, both Yazu and Loz moved a bit to have a better view of what was floating by. A chocobo feather. Grinning, Loz jumped over to it and plucked the feather out of the water, in the course of which he made quite a bit of racket. He stopped smiling as soon as Kadaj's heated glare fell upon him.

"Cloud, what was that noise?"

The youth's gaze flicked from Loz lightning fast, now fixed upon the bend in the trail. Someone was just around the corner. Frowning at nothing in particular, Kadaj mulled over the words in his mind. Cloud, Cloud. . . For some reason, it seemed as though he should know that name. Almost sensing his brother's distress, Yazu leaned over to whisper in his brother's ear.

"Cloud Strife, savior of the planet." Kadaj shuddered as his brother's soft breath traveled over his ear, the other's lips tantalizingly close.

"Perhaps it's just the name of the chocobo?" he suggested quietly, reigning in all his other thoughts besides what was happening at the moment.

"Do you think we'd be that fortunate? We've had too much good luck as it is to hope that this Cloud person is merely an overgrown bird."

"Still, what are the odds that he would just happen to be in the mountains on this same path?"

"Not very high," Yazu admitted, "unless it isn't just coincidence. What if he just happened to hear about our escape and happened to come to the conclusion that we were traveling through this region."

Kadaj frowned. "I don't think it's very likely that he would come here, of all places, to look for some missing clones. There are plenty of other better-suited hiding places that we would've gone to before the mountains, so why would he think to come here?"

"He may know why we're traveling through these mountains," Yazu replied, eerily calm for having the savior of the planet-and perhaps one of the only men on the planet that could defeat them-just a few feet in front of him.

Kadaj just snorted. "That's highly unlikely. From what she's told me, it's been over 15 years since part of her was trapped in that reactor. Even if he knew about it, Hell, even if he remembered it, there's no way that he could make the connection so soon after our escape."

"So we're to assume that he's out on different business?"

"For the moment, yes, though I doubt that news of our escape has escaped his notice."

"We up for a fight?" Loz asked, tired of remaining quiet during this tense conversation.

A smirk came to Kadaj's face, showing his appreciation for Loz's little interruption. "Hopefully."

AAAAA

.. This chapter was really bad. ;; Some parts of it suck, and I'm sorry 'bout that. I promise the next chapter will be better (and hopefully posted quicker).

And I also promise that the next chapter will have some fighting in it!