Right Hand of Evil
By generalquistis
Chapter Four
oOoOo
It was Cloud's party.
Rufus turned around to face them with a stern look on his face. "Blimey. Your friends are here, Tifa. And there's Aerith." He muttered with a voice audible enough for Tifa to hear while trying to look serious. Cloud and his gang were of a safe distance from him so he could move his lips slightly to speak to her.
"Don't harass Aerith, if that's what you're thinking." Tifa warned him.
"I won't harass her. I just need her ribbon." Rufus told her before turning to Barret who demanded from him, "Where is Tifa?"
Before Rufus could think of an answer, Palmer came rushing in. "Gee. Just like before…" he thought silently to himself.
"Sir! Sephiroth was here! He killed your father!" Palmer announced.
"I know. That's why I'm out here and I chased him." Rufus fibbed, and he sounded convincing.
"Alright, man, enough with the chitchat, where is Tifa?" Barret asked.
Rufus turned to them with a clueless look on his face. "How did you escape from prison?" he asked.
"Duh. Sephiroth freed them." Tifa told him in a voice audible enough for only Rufus to hear. He moved his wrist so that she would hit against his hip bone. "Ow! That bloody hurt!" she reacted.
Silence.
"Who was that?" Palmer asked, looking around.
"Must be a bee. Anyway, scoot. I'll take over from here." Rufus said.
Palmer turned around to leave but Rufus called for him again, "Palmer,"
Palmer turned to face him. "Yes, sir?" he asked.
Rufus had a stiff look on his face. "…Send… my father's body to the mortuary. Get him the most expensive but exquisitely-designed coffin. I want him buried in the cemetery in… Kalm." He instructed.
Palmer looked at him in disbelief. He and the other executives knew that Rufus despised his father, but he seemed different this time. Palmer turned to Rufus's right arm. "And why is he hiding his hand in his pocket?" he wondered before shrugging. "Yes sir." And he left.
Rufus turned his attention back to AVALANCHE. "You were saying?" he asked, still keeping up his act.
"We're wondering where Tifa is. We know she's with you. We heard you conversing moments ago." Cloud told him.
Rufus suddenly remembered that he and Cloud would be having a battle later on, and then he felt ready for it, but then he remembered he was right-handed… "Damn…" he muttered to himself. "She's not with me. Whoever she is…" Rufus answered, rolling his eyes. He flipped his hair with his left hand. "And why would she even be with me? She's one of you… filthy people! Not my type of crowd. I would not even hang out with her even if she was the last woman on earth." He said coolly.
Silence.
He felt her bite his skin along with the cloth. "Argh!" Rufus's mind was screaming in slight pain although he just kept still and maintained an expressionless look on his face.
"How dare he insult them!" she was thinking in annoyance.
"I have to go now. I can't provoke them. I can't hold my shotgun properly with my left…" he thought to himself before shrugging, "Would you mind introducing yourselves to me first before I tell you where Tifa is?" he asked coolly.
"…so you know where she is?" Aerith asked.
Cloud was quite hesitant before telling Rufus, "Cloud Strife. Ex-SOLDIER. First Class."
"A flower girl from the slums." Aerith said.
"A research specimen." Red XIII chimed in.
"I'm from AVALANCHE." Barret said.
Rufus began to recall the order of answers from then and now. "Quite different…" he was thinking.
Silence.
And AVALANCHE found themselves just staring at Rufus and Rufus staring back at them as if waiting for them to say something else.
But the silence continued on for more minutes… until Rufus said, "…what a crew."
"Gee. I guess Rufus forgot his lines…" Tifa thought to herself, rolling her eyes as she struggled to wrap herself up with the bandages again.
"Okay, where is Tifa?" Aerith asked Rufus.
Rufus just smiled calmly at her, "Nothing to worry about, she's in good hands." And he turned away. "Just like Midgar at this moment. Now that I am President, it's going to be in good hands too." he said, trying to sound convincing.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Do you want to hear my inauguration speech?" Rufus asked, recalling from before that he cited the speech to AVALANCHE the first time he met them.
No answer.
"Very well, I'll let you hear my inauguration speech." He told them. With that, he began: "…Old Man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working…"
And he stopped.
He forgot his lines.
Tifa tapped him. He brought out his right hand that was wrapped with bandages and held it close to his face as if looking at it. "You work at ShinRa, you get your pay." She told him in a whisper audible enough for only himself to hear.
Rufus wondered how Tifa could have possibly memorized the speech… but he continued nevertheless with her help this time: "You work at ShinRa, you get your pay…" he continued out loud.
"uhm… It looked perfect… on the… inside…" Tifa said softly.
"It looked perfect on the… inside?" Rufus repeated, but he sounded unsure
"Blimey, it's outside!" Tifa told him, realizing her mistake.
Rufus's ears turned red. He hated making mistakes… and now Tifa made him look like an idiot in front of her friends. "I meant, outside…" he corrected, trying to sound dignified while trying his best to keep his patience.
Silence.
"…uh… I forgot the rest of it." Tifa said sheepishly.
Rufus rolled his eyes.
"Oh! You forgot to approach each and every single one of them!" she told him.
Rufus clenched his left fist, trying his best not to speak to her so that they wouldn't become suspicious. He recalled from before that he approached AVALANCHE while citing his speech. Coolly, he turned around to face AVALANCHE once more with a faint smile on his face. "…whatever. I'll just say whatever comes out from my mind…" he thought to himself before saying, "But I'll do things differently. I'll control the world with…"
"DON'T SAY FEAR!" Tifa told him.
Silence.
"What happened to your hand?" Aerith asked, noticing that he has been staring at it for quite some time already.
Silence.
Rufus cleared his throat. "Alright. I'll go straight to business…" he approached Aerith with a cold look on his face as he shoved Tifa back inside the pocket of his blazer. "I want you to give me your ribbon." He told her.
Aerith and the rest of AVALANCHE were surprised upon the command.
"Say what?" Barret asked in confusion.
"What do you need it for?" Aerith asked, raising her eyebrows.
"Tifa's asking for it too. What's going on?" Cloud asked, eyeing Rufus suspiciously.
"Damn, I knew it! That foo' Tifa's been workin' wit dis foo' all along!" Barret told them while eyeing Rufus with an angered look on his face.
"I'm giving you a deal: give me your ribbon and I'll stop all activities regarding the reactors and I shall cooperate with you." Rufus said, ignoring what Barret had declared.
Aerith shook her head and took a step away from Rufus. "No! Why should I?" she asked, thinking that if she gave it away, Rufus might have another bad plan with it.
"What are you going to do with the ribbon?" Cloud asked Rufus.
"Surely you wouldn't tie your hair with it?" Aerith asked, looking suspiciously at Rufus.
"No. I just need it. I cannot tell you the reason but if you do not give that ribbon to me, you will never ever see Tifa again!" Rufus told them.
"Bad move, Rufus." Tifa thought to himself.
Silence.
"What have you done to Tifa?" Aerith asked with a confused look on her face.
Rufus was beginning to lose his temper. "Just give me the bloody ribbon and you can leave!" he told them harshly through his clenched jaw.
Cloud stepped forward in between Aerith and Rufus, facing him with a serious look on his face. "You don't talk to Aerith that way." He told him with a threatening but serious tone.
Rufus narrowed his eyes at Cloud. "Oh yes. I forgot. Sorry." He turned to Aerith again. "Miss Gainsborough, would you be a darling and give to me your hair ribbon?" he asked with a rather sarcastic air.
"Blimey! What is he doing?" Tifa was thinking in panic.
"What do you need it for anyway, foo'?" Barret asked.
Red XIII approached Rufus when he wasn't looking and began sniffing his right hand that was inside his pocket. Red XIII was taken aback and he moved away. "Tifa!" he exclaimed.
"Huh?" Barret, Cloud and Aerith all turned to him.
Silence.
"I can smell Tifa in his clothes… and on him… all over him…" Red XIII declared.
Silence.
"That sounded wrong…" Rufus and Tifa were both thinking in disgust.
"Awright, foo' what did you do to Tifa?" Barret demanded, pushing Cloud and Aerith aside and he faced Rufus, his height towering over him.
Rufus looked up at him with a cool expression on his face.
"How do you explain the smell of Tifa all over ya, foo'? What did you do to her?" Barret asked with a threatening look on his face.
"We went to bed together that's why I smell like her." Rufus muttered.
"What?" Aerith gasped.
"But not in the way you're thinking, mind you. I can't move away from her because… she's attached to me." Rufus continued.
Silence.
"So she's somethin' special to you now, eh? Where is she?" Barret asked.
"No she's not. Will you please just give me the ribbon so that Tifa and I can finally have peace of mind?" Rufus said.
"Not until you tell us where Tifa is, foo'!" Barret shoved him.
Rufus almost fell backwards but he was able to maintain his balance. "Tifa, I'm losing my temper…" he muttered to her as he brought out his hand again.
"Whatever you do, don't give in! You're gonna get into trouble if you do. Remember I'm still your hand!" she told him.
Rufus frowned, his facial expression stiffening as he turned back to Barret. "It looks like you're initiating a battle with me?" he asked.
"Well damn right, we are! We're not leaving without a fair fight!" Barret told him as he shoved Cloud forward, as if telling him to fight Rufus.
"What for? There's nothing to argue about?" Rufus told him, trying to sound innocent.
"I don't think it's fair for him because his right hand is injured." Aerith told Cloud.
Cloud looked at Rufus's right hand suspiciously, then he looked at Rufus's facial expression. Cloud wondered why Rufus's eyes seemed to give him the impression that he's feeling restless regarding the situation. "Or maybe he's afraid to fight me?" he thought to himself.
Rufus studied the looks on their faces before shrugging. "Well I guess we won't become friends…" he said rather coldly before he turned away from them and signaled for the chopper to come down and bring out its ladder to him.
Cloud ran after him, ready to attack from behind. He did not listen to Aerith even when she told him not to.
Rufus could sense Cloud from behind him and he turned around to face him again with a serious look on his face, this time, he brought out his bandaged right hand and pointed it towards Cloud.
Cloud stopped in his tracks, staring at Rufus and his "injured" hand.
"Take another step and I'll make sure Tifa gets hurt. I'm warning you, Cloud Strife. You hurt me and you hurt her too." Rufus warned with a threatening look on his face.
Barret, Aerith, Cloud and Red XIII were not sure what Rufus had meant by that but they knew they could not attack further.
Rufus used his left hand to get some keys from his pocket and he approached Cloud Strife again. "I mean no harm to you or to your party… but for now I won't stop SOLDIER from chasing you." He handed the keys to him discreetly. Cloud frowned, wondering what was going on in Rufus's mind.
"Garage." Rufus murmured before moving away from him in a swift but graceful motion and headed back to the chopper.
Cloud stared at the keys on his hand as the others watched Rufus hold onto the ladder with his left hand. They were quiet as the chopper further ascended into the dark skies of Midgar and disappeared into the clouds.
Cloud turned back to Aerith, Barret and Red XIII with a concerned look on his face.
"What did he tell you?" Aerith asked with a worried look on her face.
Cloud motioned for them to run. "Let's get out of here. Fast." He instructed.
oOoOo
"Where to, sir?" the pilot asked.
Rufus's thoughts were interrupted by the question. "…Junon." He decided. Then he turned to his bandaged "hand", unwound the bandages a little and looked at Tifa. He took this as an opportunity because he was the only one in the backseat of the chopper and the others were seated in the front.
But she was not even looking at him. She had a miserable look on her face as she sighed heavily.
He sighed too, leaning his head back on the back rest of his seat as he gazed outside. "What to do… what to do…" he was thinking to himself. He reflected upon tactics on how he could somehow get the ribbon from Aerith's hair and how he could return Tifa to AVALANCHE without anybody suspecting that they were really together once she separates from him. He began to think about what he was going to do with himself and what his father had left behind for him.
"Didn't you swear to be little bit nicer now?" his conscience was nagging him.
And speaking of his father…
Rufus reached for his left blazer pocket to check for his mobile phone, but he felt crumpled paper inside instead. He frowned as he slowly pulled it out, revealing to himself and to Tifa the crumpled letter from his father.
Rufus could recall what was written there and he could not help but feel angry at himself. Tifa looked up at him when he did not know it. His lips curled into a scornful pout as his blue eyes glistened slightly in tears that he was trying his best to prevent from falling. Tifa just observed the hurtful look on his face, surprised upon his sudden display of vulnerability when he thought nobody was looking.
As soon as they arrived in Junon, Rufus went straight to his office in the ShinRa HQ there, sat down on his chair facing his computer with the crumpled paper still within his clenched left fist. He loosened his grip on the crumpled letter and just placed it on his table with a cold look on his face, but his eyes still expressed too much sadness and disappointment.
Tifa felt her heart sink. She could feel his misery and her hands suddenly felt cold. She smiled bitterly at him. "It's alright to cry, Rufus. I won't tell anyone..." She began.
Rufus swallowed a choke as he looked at the crumpled paper on his desk.
"I promise…" he heard her continue.
He breathed in. "Don't make promises you don't intend to keep." He muttered stiffly as he still stubbornly tried to prevent his tears from falling. But he was unsuccessful. He just covered his face with his left hand, trying his best to stifle his sob.
She just bowed down her head. "But I do." She said softly.
She listened to his soft cries. She was glad he finally gave in, but she was still worried about what's going on in his mind. "You loved your father." She told him softly.
He did not respond and he just wiped his tears away. He removed his hand from his face and just stared into empty space. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "He was a bastard… but my mother loved him." He muttered with a stiff tone.
They were quiet for a while. Tifa knew that Rufus just doesn't want to admit how he really feels inside so she just kept her thoughts to herself. After all, he just lost his father.
"What about you?" he asked stiffly.
Tifa looked up at him. "Huh?" she responded in wonder.
"Where's your father?" he asked, wanting to maneuver the subject from his father to her father. At least he could forget about his own father for a while by focusing on Tifa's life. He had been thinking that he should care to get to know Tifa a little more better since they are going to be stuck together for quite a while… and he would like to start with her family background.
"…he's… dead." She responded softly.
"Really? How did he die?" he asked.
"He… got killed." she did not specify anymore who did it and when it happened.
"Just like mine." Rufus realized, sighing heavily before switching on his PC.
Tifa wondered why he suddenly switched on his PC.
"Well, back to work. I have to rewrite my inauguration speech." Rufus told her as he waited for his PC to boot.
Tifa was just quiet. Rufus could not face his fears so he just runs away from them by immersing himself in work, she realized.
"Where were you born?" he asked.
She was surprised with his question. "…Nibelheim." She replied.
"Birthday?" he asked.
"…May 3." She replied, wondering what he was up to. "And you?" she asked, deeming it unfair for him to be knowing a lot of things about her but she does not know a lot about him.
Rufus smiled slightly at her eagerness to keep the conversation going. "My mother was from Nibelheim. I was born here in Junon. January 15. I'm as old as Cloud… but I'm older by seven months." He explained.
She was quiet for a while, recalling that Cloud, from where she and Rufus came from, is already dead. She just smiled bitterly. "Well… I'm 22." She said. "But where we are right now is like, two years prior to where we come from." She continued.
"…so that makes you 20 here and I'm back to being 21." He said as he began to type with his left hand. "This is going to take a while… typing with one hand…" he muttered miserably. But he went on with his typing.
"But we're still 23 and 22, right?" she asked, blinking.
"Well yes. But since we're here, we don't tell people we're 23 and 22. We tell them that we're 21 and 20." He pointed out.
She thought for a while, "Oh, alright." She said, getting his point.
She watched him as he typed his speech. "You like to make speeches just like your father, huh?" she asked with a smile on her face.
"I'm better." He said proudly.
She raised an eyebrow. "Hmf. Really now?" she asked, meaning to tease him.
"Are you challenging me?" he demanded with an impatient look on his face.
She giggled. "Tell me why you gave the keys to Cloud." She told him.
He stopped typing and looked at her.
She just looked up at him with her wide brown eyes while he stared back at her coldly. But she was unaffected by this. He looked at the monitor. "Silly. You're attached to my hand. I couldn't have given it to you." He told her. And he smiled slightly.
She blinked and looked away for a while, thinking things through before looking up at Rufus again. "Why did you give me the keys back then?" she asked softly.
"Old Man tried to control the world with money. It seems to have been working…" Rufus cited as he approached Tifa and he discreetly handed her some keys to some sort of vehicles.
Tifa wondered why. They did not even know each other. But before she could react, she stifled herself as he moved away from her and made his way to Aerith.
Rufus began to type again. "Because I'm not as mean as you thought I was." He told her simply.
She was quiet, feeling guilty upon her former thoughts that she hated ShinRa and everything involved in it. Now that she's with Rufus, she was beginning to feel that he isn't whom she had thought he was. He was beginning to seem different from what other people had told her about him and from what she had observed on him from before.
"Well… I do hope that this could be a beginning of something wonderful for both of us if we're going to become friends…" Tifa decided to herself.
Rufus just continued to type. "Whoever said we're going to become friends?" he asked harshly.
She just frowned at him, crossing her arms. "Well then I hope you did not intend to have those keys thrown in the gas chamber to torture me before I could escape!" she said sarcastically before turning her gaze away from him, her lips forming an annoyed pout.
Rufus just kept on typing in silence, refusing to tell Tifa about the keys that were thrown to her in the gas chamber but were beyond her reach so she had to pull them towards her with her feet…
But he was smiling slyly.
oOoOo
to be continued…