Right Hand of Evil
Chapter 7
oOoOo
"It still puzzles me, though," Cloud began while having lunch with Aerith and their newfound companion, Vincent Valentine.
They also have three other new companions with them: Cait Sith, Cid Highwind and Yuffie Kisaragi. They met all four along the way in their travels to search for answers regarding Sephiroth, ShinRa and Cloud's past. And they were all wondering why ShinRa had drastically changed when Rufus took over. And where was Sephiroth? They had expected him to be after them but they could not find any more trace of him.
At the moment, Cloud and his companions had another stop-over at Costa del Sol before they could take a ship to Junon and then from there head back to Midgar. Barret, Cid and Yuffie were making rounds, observing suspicious behavior, while Cloud ate lunch with Aerith and Vincent. As for Red XIII, he was with them too but he was just sleeping under the table.
"What does Rufus want with your ribbon?" Cloud asked, looking at Aerith's hair and his gaze trailing to her pink ribbon binding her hair in a pony-braid.
"And what's with his injured hand?" Aerith added.
"…and not to mention, this Tifa you're talking about?" Vincent pointed out.
Cloud looked away from them, sighing. "And aren't we supposed to be on the run too? Nobody's arresting us. We reached this place today and the immigration inspected our names and our identities but they did not do anything." He said, crossing his arms.
"Why don't you just surrender that ribbon to Rufus to get it over with? Maybe he'll return Tifa once he gets the ribbon." Vincent suggested before taking a sip of tea.
"For all we know, Rufus could be a sex fiend with a fetish for pink ribbons. I won't let him have Aerith or anything that belongs to her." Cloud said.
"Whatever gave you that idea?" Aerith asked, laughing, while Vincent looked ridiculously at Cloud.
"You all heard about the eccentric rich people right? President ShinRa was weird enough. You remember what we saw in the Queen's Room at the Honeybee Inn, right? Who knows, his son could be as eccentric as he is too." Cloud said.
Aerith thought for a while before shrugging. "Rufus seems to be a nice person. Look at the changes he's been doing to the Planet. Everything isn't running on Mako anymore and from what we've seen in the papers this morning, his new projects are really something people have dreamed of ever since his father's time." She said with an impressed smile on her face.
"I still don't like the sound of it." Cloud replied.
"You really don't trust ShinRa, huh?" Vincent murmured.
"Who trusts ShinRa these days anyway?" Cloud argued.
"You're beginning to sound like Barret." Aerith pointed out.
Cloud was dumbfounded. "I do not. I was just stating the obvious!" he said.
"Cloud, everybody deserves another chance. Rufus could be for real but we're just judging him wrongly." She explained.
"How do you explain the part when he wants your pink ribbon?" Cloud asked.
"Oh yes. I almost forgot about that." Vincent said.
Aerith looked unbelievably at him. "What? Whose side are you on anyway?" she asked.
Vincent shrugged. "Let's just give Rufus your ribbon and we'll see what happens." He suggested.
"Alright." She said, nodding her head slowly.
"No." Cloud said.
Aerith and Vincent were quiet for a few seconds, waiting for Cloud to say something else. But he just remained quiet.
"Excuse me…" somebody arrived at their table. It was a tall big man with a muscular build. He had big dark aviator sunglasses on, completely covering his eyes, he wore a black bonnet and he was garbed in an all-black get-up: black shirt, black trousers, black boots and black trench coat.
The three looked at the man, curious but cautious on who he was. "Yes?" Vincent asked.
"I'm an art collector from Midgar and… I just couldn't help but notice the pinkness of that ribbon you have there on your hair, young lady!" the man told Aerith, touching the ribbon.
Cloud eyed the man curiously. "Do I know you?" he asked. "He's definitely taller than Rufus," he thought to himself.
The man, who was really Sephiroth, kept his cool. "Oh. I don't think so. But maybe you've seen me on the lifestyle section of the papers or the art magazines?" he asked.
Aerith, Cloud and Vincent stared at him in confusion. "The last newspaper I picked up was dated 1967, thank you very much." Vincent pointed out, feeling so suspicious about that person who just approached them from out of the blue.
"I don't think so…" Cloud answered.
Aerith smiled kindly at the man. "I've had this ribbon ever since I was a child. It's my mother's." she said.
"Really? I think it's vintage! I'd like to have it!" Sephiroth said, still speaking with a strange accent, trying to imitate a Wutaian accent.
Aerith's eyes widened. "N…no, I don't think so." She said as she got up and moved away from the man.
"Oh, but I insist. I'm willing to pay whatever amount of money you want just so that I could have that ribbon!" he said as he took a step forward to her. Cloud stood up and stepped forward to him. "She said no." he said sternly.
"What do you need the ribbon for, mister?" Vincent asked.
"Uh… to tie my hair." Sephiroth answered.
They were silent for a few moments before Sephiroth looked up and his eyes widened. "Oh my goodness! It's Weapon!" he cried out, making other people look up at the skies too with Cloud, Aerith and Vincent.
While everybody was looking at the skies, Sephiroth instantly grabbed the pink ribbon off Aerith's hair and ran off.
"HEY!" Aerith pushed Cloud aside and ran after the tall man with an angry look on her face. Cloud went after them, "Aerith!" he called out. Vincent also followed them. "That man is Sephiroth!" he told them in disbelief.
"What?" Cloud asked in awe.
"I knew it…" Aerith thought in annoyance as she continued to run after him, but when she followed him to an alley, he was already gone. She stopped in her tracks to catch her breath. She swallowed hard as she grabbed a handful of her long wavy brown hair. "Ooooooh… that Sephiroth… what does he want with that ribbon anyway?" she asked in annoyance.
"I thought Rufus was the one who wanted the ribbon?" Vincent asked as he and Cloud joined her.
She just shrugged.
Aerith sighed heavily. "Oh well… looks like I have to buy a new one…" she said sadly.
Cloud clenched his fists. "I'll get it back for you, Aerith." He decided.
"What?" she asked.
"You said it was from your mother. It really must be precious to you. I'll just retrieve it…" he answered with a reassuring look on his face.
Aerith thought for a while, taking a deep breath with a worried look on her face. "I don't know what they all want with that ribbon! I mean… it's just a ribbon! Nothing special… except that it came from my mother. Do they think they could find the Promised Land through that?" she shook her head in disbelief.
Vincent thought for a while before stating, "I think I know where he's going…"
oOoOo
Rufus ShinRa got his mobile phone when he heard the sound of the message alert tone. He checked on who sent him the SMS. It was from Sephiroth, saying, "Got it."
Rufus smiled slyly. "He got it." He told Tifa.
"Really?" she asked in disbelief. How could it be so easy for Sephiroth? But then again, it's Sephiroth.
"Well that was fast…" he stated flatly.
She began to get worried. "Rufus, what if he did something bad to her and to the others that's why he was able to retrieve it quickly?" she asked.
"So what if he did something bad to her? The important thing is for us to be able to get back to the future where we came from." He told her.
"Rufus, she's my friend! Of course I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her!" she argued in frustration.
"Well do you want to get stuck here in this period? We're two years older than what we're supposed to be today!" he told her.
"We still look the same way we did two years ago so they shouldn't notice anything." She reminded him.
He looked at her with a scrutinizing look on his face. "Hmm, no. You're bulkier now." He answered.
She gasped in disbelief. "I beg your pardon?" she demanded in annoyance. She could not believe that someone just called her bulky, and in her mind, as a woman, she easily translated it into fat.
"And your chest is smaller." He pointed out before putting his mobile phone away. "Now stop complaining. In no time, we're going to go back to the future." He told her.
"No!" she told him.
He looked at his protesting hand. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.
"Rufus, have you forgotten that we're here for a reason?" she reminded him with a stern look on her face.
He thought for a while. "It's uncertain right now." He told her.
"No it is not." She said.
He looked away and continued to review his marketing plan on his computer screen. "What's on your mind, Tifa?" he asked in an uninterested manner. That didn't stop Tifa. She said, "We have to do something here… to change something so that we could correct something in the future!"
"Something, something, something. What is that something you're talking about? You're not making any sense." He told her in a confused manner.
Before Tifa could answer, Rufus placed his left hand over her head to stop her from talking because he sensed that somebody was ascending the stairs leading to the elevated part of the 70th floor. He gently removed his hand and placed it on top of his desk. He then grabbed the mouse of his PC and minimized the word processor program, then just opened his web browser, clicked on one of his bookmarks about a news channel's website and pretended to be busy with the headlines. Tifa wondered what was going on until she heard someone else's voice saying, "President Rufus,"
Rufus veered his gaze away from the monitor and eyed Hojo curiously. "Professor Hojo, it's a surprise to have you here. I'd assume at this hour you'd be very busy with your scientific research." He said, pretending to sound clueless on Hojo's presence in his office.
"It's about your plan, President Rufus." Hojo pointed out as he approached the desk.
"How did you find it?" Rufus asked. But before Hojo could answer, he proceeded, "Oh by the way, Professor Hojo, have you located a new power source already?"
Hojo clenched his jaw for a moment before speaking up, trying to sound calm. "Not yet, President Rufus." He said.
Rufus raised his eyebrows at him. "And why not?" he asked.
Hojo was quiet, wondering why the President's right hand was under his desk.
Rufus took a deep breath and turned back to the monitor. "We're not running on Mako anymore, you know that. The kind of power to run our electricity right now isn't really stable because we do not have enough sources… at least, for the moment. So we need your Science Department to look for new or additional sources of energy here in the Planet that we could use to provide electricity to the Planet." He explained.
"So that's why the lights are fluctuating today in my lab…" Hojo muttered, rolling his eyes.
Rufus narrowed his eyes at him. "I beg your pardon?" he asked airily.
Hojo cleared his throat. "Sir, Mako is the only thing that I could recommend to you. It's perfect and we've got plenty and it's less expensive!" he told Rufus.
"But it's killing the Planet." Rufus pointed out.
Hojo widened his eyes at him and smiled at Rufus in amazement. "Oh? Hahahaha." He could not help but laugh, surprising Rufus and making Tifa cringe.
"What is funny?" Rufus asked, trying to keep his cool.
Hojo's laughter ceased slowly as he spoke up again, "President Rufus, I am surprised at you. I thought you would be following your father's footsteps!"
Rufus was quiet, trying to keep his cool. "Well, unfortunately, I am far more different from my Old Man…" he began.
"Maybe that's the reason why he had to send you away to Junon when you were still his Vice President." Hojo pointed out.
"Professor Hojo, I do not appreciate you talking to me like that and I would prefer it if you spoke to me with respect." Rufus told him sternly.
Hojo smiled at Rufus. "You are insane, President Rufus. Why would you even want to waste all your time and effort in changing everything your father has ever strived to work for in the past? Have you no respect for his wishes? Are his past efforts in running this Planet not good enough for you?" he asked nonchalantly.
Tifa saw Rufus's left eye twitch and she felt that he was getting warmer. "Oh no… he's angry… but he's keeping it all inside. It's going to be more dangerous that way. Oh dear, I hope he just snaps at that rude man!"
The room was silent for a couple of moments before Rufus's voice echoed across the room. "No." he answered.
Hojo narrowed his eyes on him.
"Unfortunately, no." Rufus repeated before smiling calmly at Hojo. "I'm surprised that you weren't listening when I said that I am far more different from my Old Man. I have respect for his wishes… and I am aware of his past efforts of running Midgar; however, I do not approve of all of them. Now that I am the President, I do not care what his will indicates regarding how I should run Midgar or how I should run this company." He explained with a cold and hard tone.
Tifa realized that she forgot to exhale during Rufus's explanation, so she did at that moment when there was a pause between the two. She was wide-eyed, preferring to listen anyway.
Hojo shrugged and turned away. "Well… if that is the case…" he faced the President once more and approached his desk with a serious look on his face.
Rufus stiffened, but tried to maintain his calm and cool composure. He did not want to let Hojo see that a little Tifa was attached to his right hand! He further hid Tifa under his table between his knees.
Tifa was also nervous, sensing that something bad was going to happen, but she just kept quiet and prayed that everything would be alright. She could feel her own heart racing, and she could also feel Rufus's pulse beating faster.
To Rufus's horror, Hojo brought out a pistol and aimed at his head. "We don't need a president like you." He told Rufus.
Rufus was about to grab his shotgun with his left hand, but before his left was slow compared to his right, and Hojo pulled the trigger.
The gunshot made Tifa cringe and cover her ears.
But Hojo missed.
Rufus was stunned.
Tifa slowly removed her hands from her ears and looked up at Rufus, wondering if he was alright. She could not see any blood and she could not sense any pain from him, however, she saw that he looked surprised—his blue eyes were wide in wonder.
Rufus stared in bewilderment at the silver blade of the Masamune that had penetrated Hojo from behind his lower back, and then it had been withdrawn out of Hojo's body. Hojo then fell forward to the ground, dead.
Sephiroth sighed in relief. "Unfortunately, this guy might come back to life so to make sure…" he repeatedly stabbed Hojo with his Masamune.
Rufus shoved his right hand inside the pocket of his blazer and got up, shocked at this behavior being displayed by Sephiroth. "Bloody hell, stop that!" he cried out as he ran to him, seeing that Hojo's blood was beginning to scatter on the floor.
Sephiroth stopped stabbing Hojo and turned to Rufus with a surprised look on his face. "I was having fun!" he said in exasperation.
"Well I won't be having fun once the Turks and the others ask me about that blood on my floor!" Rufus snapped angrily.
Sephiroth was dumbfounded. "Oh. No harm done. We'll just clean it up…" he began, but he froze when he heard someone shout behind him, "INTRUDER!" followed by another voice saying, "They're right. He is here!"
"Shit." Sephiroth mouthed as he turned around and flashed a friendly smile at the Turks and the SOLDIERs who were there. "Er… hi." He said.
"Drop the weapon or we'll harm you." Tseng commanded.
Sephiroth just dropped his Masamune without any warning to avoid further commotion and bad perception about him.
"Blimey, let me handle this!" Rufus said as he pushed Sephiroth aside. "Alright, it's not what you think. Sephiroth is…"
The Turks were surprised. "President Rufus! You're working with him?" Tseng demanded in shock.
But before Rufus could answer, they all ganged up on Sephiroth. Sephiroth, on the other hand, tried to escape from them without harming them, and Rufus just watched in shock, not knowing what to do to help his friend.
"Rufus, catch!" Sephiroth threw the ribbon at Rufus.
Rufus got it and stared at it in awe before turning back to Sephiroth again with a look of disbelief on his face.
Sephiroth just smiled at him and continued to struggle against the Turks and the SOLDIERs who were trying to hold him down and tie him up.
Rufus then turned his gaze to the direction where the stairs were located… and saw Cloud Strife standing there with Aerith Gainsborough and Vincent Valentine. Rufus eyed them carefully, but maintaining eye contact with Cloud after looking at his two other companions. "They must've followed Sephiroth back here and reported him to the Turks…" he realized before rushing to Sephiroth and tried to help him get away. "I said let me handle this!" he told the Turks.
"No, President Rufus, he's dangerous!" Reno stated flatly.
Sephiroth, feeling enraged and degraded, just pushed everybody away including Rufus, whose face he had accidentally hit with his elbow, knocking him down.
"Ack!" Elena reacted in panic when she saw the President fall down to the ground sideways.
Since he was going to land on his right, he knew he had to protect Tifa, and there was no other way to save her from breaking her bones (and his arm) but to remove her from his pocket.
Everybody was stunned to see the little woman attached onto the President's right wrist.
"…Tifa!" Cloud and Aerith both exclaimed in unison.
"What the--?" Reno was at a loss for words.
Elena's mouth was wide open, not knowing what else to say.
Rude slightly lifted his glasses to get a clearer look at the situation, and his eyes were wide in disbelief.
Tifa all looked at them in shock before turning her gaze to Rufus when she heard him call her name.
They just stared into each other's eyes as they felt the room spinning around them… and the next thing they knew, they were already dizzy and slowly losing consciousness…
oOoOo
When Rufus heard heavy footsteps on a wooden floor somewhere near him and recognized the sound of early morning Midgar rush-hour, he instantly opened his eyes and tried to get up, but he realized that he could not move his legs… only his arms and hands could move.
He looked up at the ceiling and it looked very high from where he was lying and when he scanned the room around him, he realized that everything seemed so big… and that it was not his room anymore. "Oh no…" he thought in worry. He could remember fainting in his office because of an unknown reason, and he could also remember seeing three of the members of AVALANCHE, the Turks and some SOLDIERs… and Sephiroth involved in a struggle. "Maybe AVALANCHE captured me…" he thought to himself in wonder before freezing in shock upon realizing that Tifa was beside him… and that she was very big.
He took a glance at his supposed-legs, but he realized that he was attached to Tifa's right wrist… and that he was topless. "ARGH! Tifa!" he screamed to make her wake up. He was totally panicking.
Tifa instantly opened her eyes and although she still saw some stars in her vision because it took a while for her eyes to adjust to the early morning sunshine in her room, she sat up and looked around. "Rufus? Why? What's going on?" she called out in worry. Then she stiffened when she realized that she was in her bedroom at her bar in Edge. "Where are you, Rufus?" she asked softly.
"I'm right here…" he muttered frustratingly.
She looked down at her right hand and she gasped as she raised him up to her face and stared at him horridly. "Oh my goodness! What happened?" she asked.
"I have no idea!" he answered.
They both jerked and gasped when somebody just started to knock on the door. "Tifa? Are you alright?"
Tifa felt the color drain from her face. "Aerith…" she realized.
"Are we back from where we came from?" Rufus asked.
"I don't know!" she whispered to him.
"Why is she here?" he whispered back.
"I have no idea!" Tifa wailed in panic and confusion.
"Tifa, who are you talking to?" Aerith called out as she opened the door. Tifa instantly lied down again and hid her right hand under her blanket.
Aerith stared at her in wonder. "Is everything alright?" she asked.
Tifa smiled casually at her. "Y…yes. Uhm…" she froze when she saw that Aerith was wearing a very loose pink dress… and her tummy was big. Tifa's smile faded and she slowly sat up while trying to keep her right hand hidden under her blanket. "You're… pregnant?" she asked with a shaky tone. Where is she? Tifa was beginning to get confused. She could remember fainting in Rufus's office when everybody saw that she was attached to his hand, but now it was the other way around: he was attached to her hand now.
Aerith blinked. "Why, yes…" she replied. "Gee. I wonder what's wrong with her…" she was thinking to herself.
"How many months now?" Tifa added.
"7." Aerith replied.
Tifa bit her lower lip before proceeding with another question, "How old am I?" she asked as she looked away with an uncomfortable look on her face.
"You're 22! Tifa, are you alright?" Aerith asked as she approached her, but before she could sit beside Tifa on the bed, she got shooed off.
"No! Stay away!" Tifa said, raising her left hand at Aerith to make her stop.
Aerith moved away with a look of wonder on her kind face, but before she could ask questions, Tifa already had an excuse, "Uh… I don't feel so well… like… I'm going to vomit… so if you don't want to get dirtied…just stay away. And tell the others to stay away too!"
Aerith studied the paleness of Tifa's face. "You do look pale…you're really nauseous?" she asked.
Tifa nodded.
"I'll get a bucket where you could barf. Hang on." Aerith said before going out of the room. "Denzel! Marlene! A little help here!" Tifa and Rufus heard her call out to the two children.
"Okay, we're back here in the time where we really came from; but why am I bloody attached to your hand why is she pregnant?" Rufus demanded from Tifa.
Tifa was speechless as she removed Rufus from her blanket. She was about to cry.
He opened his mouth to say something to calm her down, but he did not know what to say or what to do. He saw her lips trembling and the tears were continuing to fill her brown eyes. He knew that he should stop her or else she could draw more attention to herself… and they might see him too. "Alright, stop that. Why are you crying?" he demanded sternly.
She sniffed and bit her lower lip, unable to speak.
He clenched his fists at her. "Are you crying because you're jealous of Aerith? Because you still love Cloud Strife and…" he demanded continuously.
Tifa saw the angry look on his face and she shook her head immediately, "No! I'm not crying because of that! I'm just… confused!" she answered in exasperation.
"We're both confused so stop complaining." He snapped impatiently, crossing his arms and turning away from her. He did not want her to see that his face was turning red already; however, she could feel his anger and his body heating up because of it.
"But… we're back from where we came from… but we're still attached to each other…" she stated with a trembling tone, but then Denzel and Marlene arrived and she instantly hid her hand under the blanket again.
"Tifa, are you okay?" Denzel asked curiously as he and Marlene approached her.
"Why are you crying?" Marlene asked.
"Aerith told us you're not feeling well." He continued.
"Yes, I'm not feeling well… I think I'm going to vomit…" Tifa pretended to be ready to expel the vomit from her stomach by making a hurling sound in hopes that the two children would move away from her. She could not let them see her hand.
The two children moved away from her.
Cloud entered the room with a disapproving look on his face.
Tifa blinked. "Cloud!" she said in surprise.
"We told you to rest last night but you still insisted on working." He told her.
She just wanted to faint again and maybe when she wakes up later, everything will be alright and Rufus would be away from her. She smiled weakly as she saw the wedding ring on Cloud's left ring finger. "Urgh. When did you and Aerith get married?" she asked, wanting to change the subject.
Cloud blinked, wondering if she was losing her mind.
"Is she suffering from memory loss?" Denzel asked him.
"Why would she even be suffering from memory loss?" Marlene argued, totally disapproving Denzel's theory.
"You don't remember anything?" Cloud asked Tifa.
"Well… I can remember…" she stammered, then clenched her left fist and hit her own head in frustration, deciding not to say anything more. "Oh never mind! I don't know!" she wailed.
Aerith arrived again with a bucket and a towel. "Move over," she told Cloud and the children as she entered the room.
Tifa stopped her, "Just leave it there… I'll… Uhm… I can vomit by myself!" she said weakly.
Not wanting to stress her out, Aerith just obeyed and left the bucket and the towel on top of the dresser. "Come on, let's leave her here for a while…" she told Cloud and the Children. As they exited, Tifa kept her gaze on the wedding ring on Aerith's left ring finger.
As soon as the door closed, Tifa got out of bed and went to her closet and brought out one of her old clothes.
"What are you up to now?" Rufus asked.
"I'm going to make you some clothes." She answered as she got her sewing kit from one of her drawers.
"You have those two kids here. Why not ask if they have dolls and borrow some of their dolls' clothes?" he asked airily.
"Denzel doesn't play with dolls, and all of Marlene's dolls are girls. Do you want to wear dresses?" she asked with a silly smile on her face, imagining Rufus in a dress. She giggled.
He eyed her suspiciously, "Stop imagining it." He snapped.
"Oh. How did you know that I was imagining it?" she asked, trying to sound innocent.
"I've been attached to you for quite some time already and I'm beginning to get used to your behavior. Besides, aren't you aware that whatever you are feeling and how your internal organs are reacting, I can feel them?" he asked.
She blinked before cutting out a pattern from her old shirt. "Well… yes. I could feel your body temperature whenever you're getting warmer or colder… and I could tell if you're nervous or angry or sad too when I was still in your position." She said with a satisfied smile on her face.
Rufus eyed the white fabric that she was holding.
She noticed that he was looking at it so she said, "I know you love white so I'm making you a white shirt." She told him.
He looked at her with a pleased smile on his face. "Well then, thank you, you're too kind." He said bluntly.
Tifa wondered if he was being sarcastic but when she saw his smile, she realized that he was really grateful. "Of course. You're also nice to me when I was attached to your hand. And yeah, we really bonded back then. Haha." She said with a slight blush on her face.
"So if I was unkind to you, you won't make me any clothes?" he asked curiously.
"No, I won't let you get cold… but I'll let you wear the dresses of Marlene's dolls. Teehee!" she giggled.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "Why I never…" he muttered.
"Hold the other end…" Tifa instructed as she handed part of the cloth to Rufus.
Rufus wondered if she could sew with her left hand, but realized that she was having a hard time. Still, he kept his mouth shut and decided not to remark on how slow she was working with her left hand and that she should just stop working. But something about her determination made him think twice about her. He wondered up to what extent could she continue to be nice to him, but remembered that even if he acted like a spoiled brat, she would retaliate at first and then bear with it. In time, he realized that she had learned to accept his behavior and who he really is and that he was the same with her. He was so focused on thinking about Tifa that he did not realize that he was smiling.
Tifa kept on glancing at him, wondering why he was smiling while staring into empty space. She blushed slightly when he realized how handsome he was when he's smiling but she fought the urge to smile too.
"So what now?" she asked, wanting to break the silence, although he did not want to interrupt the moment on when she was swooning over his smile. But she knew that it was no time to swoon over Rufus ShinRa. They both had to work things out so that they could return to normal.
Rufus's smile faded and he bowed down his head. "This is… not really where we came from. It's the future, alright, but it's very different. Aerith is alive… and everything looks… alright." He heard Tifa say.
He looked at her. "I was holding the pink ribbon before we fainted, where is it?" he asked.
Tifa stopped sewing. "…I don't know…" she said.
"Is Aerith's hair tied up?" he asked.
"Yes, it's braided in the usual manner… with… that ribbon." She realized slowly.
Rufus frowned slightly. "So we're back here… but everything's different… and I'm attached to you." He looked away. "You'll have to ask them questions." He instructed.
"About what?" she asked.
"Ask them about Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo if they exist, Geostigma, stuff about Sephiroth, then about me and ShinRa." He answered.
Tifa took a deep breath, frowning, "Alright… but you'll have to assist me." She said.
"Hide me in bandages first after you finish that." he said.
oOoOo
Author's Note: It took long, I know. Sorry. I had to get inspired by other Tifus fics. This is such a long chapter (in Word, it says 10 pages), and I hope it kind of compensates for the lag. But anyway, until next time…