Chapter 4

One Disturbance After Another

"I don't think you'll get some if you're slow…" Tifa's voice drifted as she went farther and farther away.

Reno sped after her like a lapdog. Elena and Rude looked at each other and shook their heads. Typical Reno.

"Hey do you have beer too!" he called as he tripped on a rock and fell face-first onto the grass.

Rude and Elena exchanged looks and Tifa snorted as she walked light-footedly away. "Cetra… talk about desperate…" Elena muttered to Rude, who chuckled and offered a hand to Reno.

Reno got up, grass bits stuck in his hair. Looking at the looks of his fellow companions, he said, "Shut up, I'm just hungry," and walked away.

Tifa turned around. "So… how was your visit with the ground? Good… I expect…"

You are such a b---- sometimes, Tifa. Reno thought, struggling to remove the grass from his hair.

-----

After fifteen long minutes, (no one had to be introduced to the ground) they finally stepping in front of Nibelheim. Four men stood at the front entrance, all of them with humongous muscles and none looking too smart. They were each armed with a different weapon.

"Tifa… what business do these people have within our town?" the one with a large mace asked. He looked like he couldn't have an I.Q. higher than a chimp.

Reno was surprised when the man spoke. Wow. He thought. I didn't think he'd be able to process more than one word at a time!

He imagined the man grunting orders at him and nearly sniggered. He kept a straight face. He'd be beaten to a pulp if any of them even had the slightest inkling that he was making fun of them.

"I found them roaming around in the woods. "I'm going to take them over to the jailhouse for examination," she said, she herself looked like she was going to burst into giggles.

The one man with the unusually large broadsword let out a mighty grunt of some sort. Finally, Reno realized that he was saying, "Mmmhhmmm." "Alright. They may enter," he said, sounding very much indeed like a pig.

As soon as the four were out of earshot, Reno burst into a fit of snickers. "You get those… guys for guards? They looked like they can't even pronounce a three syllable word!"

Tifa looked grim. "They are none too bright, but they're big enough to scare most people away. Anyways… they're pretty good at wielding their weapons."

"So do trolls," Reno said, as if that was that. "And their I.Q. isn't much higher than the average dog."

The long brown haired girl said nothing. She began walking towards her house.

People on the street looked their way. Curious of whom the three strangers were, and why they were following Tifa to her house. They all turned away, deciding that they were friends of hers.

Reno looked at the building they were approaching. It was a two-story house and it looked pretty roomy from the outside. The house was painted a light green. It wasn't over decorated like most of the other houses on the block.

"That's your house?" the red haired man asked. "I thought it'd be a tad more morbid."

"Thanks," Tifa said lightly and rummaged through her pockets, looking for the house keys.

She fished them out of her back pocket and inserted the key into the lock. She turned the doorknob and they heard a lock clink open, and she gave a turn on the doorknob. The door opened with a loud creak.

"That door's a bit er… creaky. You need to oil the hinges," Reno commented, which in turn caused Tifa to cast him a look.

She stepped over the threshold. "Well, your house isn't so perfect!" she snapped viciously. "On second thought… you don't even have a house!"

Reno opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a brisk "Shut up, Reno" from both of his other companions. His mouth closed with a snap and was careful not to trip over the high threshold. He was so busy focusing on one foot that the other one tripped and he went tumbling through the doorway.

"Nice, Reno. Real smooth," Elena said, offering a hand.

"Gee thanks," he responded sarcastically, purposely missed her hand and "accidentally" shoving her.

"Cut it out, would you!" Tifa yelled, and looked forward.

Cloud stood by the stairs, watching them intently with amusement dancing in his eyes. "Hey Tifa… what's with the Turks?"

"Yeah well… I found them in the woods while I was on patrol. Could you give them a bite to eat or something? I need to get back to my shift at the bar." Tifa said.

"Hey! You never told me that you guys were living together! Gee! You guy's sure got serious from the last I saw of ya!" Reno exclaimed, getting up off the floor.

The blonde man rolled his eyes. "We aren't together, Reno."

The red haired man snorted. "Hahaha! That's what they all say, but you know what? I know. A man and a woman living together under the same roof means something. And don't say that you're just friends because I know you two are closer than that! Cut the crap and just say that you're together!"

Tifa and Cloud exchanged weird looks. Elena sighed and covered her face. "Reno, you are such an idiot. You, Rude, and I have bunked under the same roof once… it didn't mean that any of us were together."

"Well that was three people!" Reno shot back.

"And you thought the guards were stupid…" the blonde ex-Turk muttered, frustrated and turned away from him. Lifting her eyes to meet Tifa's and Cloud's, she added, "Don't mind him."

Cloud began walking towards the kitchen. "So explain to me why they're here?"

"It's because we quit being Turks. There's no point to it. We were hiding out in the wild… and for what? Nothing. We wanted to do something progressive with our lives for once. For most of our lives, we were just around… doing the dirty jobs. We don't want to do that anymore. We want to have normal lives…" the most silent ex-Turk finally spoke up. "Yeah… it sounds like a load of bulls---… but we really want to do something with our lives for once. I guess… we feel that we owe something to our community… after all we've done to it, you know?"

Cloud began rummaging around in the kitchen. Looking for any edible foods. He finally had the sense to look in the refrigerator and found some cake. He took it out and examined it. "What a touching speech. Since when did you all get so… 'feely' for the community? You should have said it to me back when you killed Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie and when you blew up the Sector 7 Tower! Tell me again… when Zack and I were in the back of that truck… when you shot at me…"

"Hey! That wasn't us! Elena wasn't even an initiate at the time! Rude and I were assigned another mission! It was Jaine and Goard were in the helicopter… and Tseng gave the freakin' order! Don't blame it on us! I did not even have a word in that!" the red haired man said indignantly. "Anyways… can you hurry up with the cake? I'm hungry ya know!"

The man looked at the cake back to the ex-Turks. He got a knife from a drawer and it glinted dangerously along with his blue eyes. "This knife is stainless steel. Slices through tomatoes like its nothing… and for this cake…" he sliced down, it cut through like a professional swimmer in water. "…It goes right through. I've tested it on an apple too…" he grabbed an apple from the marble-tiled counter and stabbed it brutally… and it went through the apple in a matter of seconds. "…I really like this knife and I've been dying to try it on a human. Of course… that would be brutal… but I don't know… I just might use it on people I don't like…"

Reno gulped noisily, his adam's apple bobbed and he quickly looked at the cake. "Umm… can we get to the cake?"

Tifa hid a smile. Cloud had used that act on many people in her bar when they were getting too rowdy. It never failed to work. Every time there was a problem, all Tifa had to say was, "I'm going to get the manager…" people would immediately say that there was no problem and it was all just a misunderstanding.

Cloud's eyes twinkled. "You can have your cake now." He grabbed a plate and stuck the piece of cake on there. He handed it to Reno… along with a spoon.

Reno hungrily tore at it. "Man…"

"Where are your table manners? After all… you're eating like that in front of two ladies? Tsk tsk…" Cloud stabbed down with the knife and it cut through the cake and it stopped right in front of Reno's face.

The ex-Turk whimpered. "Sorry…" he said, chewing and swallowing.

"Tifa… I think you should go down to the bar now," Cloud said, looking up.

The girl sighed and began shuffling away reluctantly, not wanting to miss the fun. But a job was a job. "Curse it…" she sighed and began walking out the front door.

As soon as Tifa was out the door, Cloud's PHS began to ring. Cloud sighed. One disturbance after another… ugh… damn it… what is it now?

He flipped it open. On the screen it said "REEVE". He sighed, pressed the button to talk, and lifted the phone to his ears. "What do you want, Reeve?" he said into the phone.

Reno lifted his head up. "It's Reeve?"

The man ignored the ex-Turk and listened. "Hey, Cloud," Reeve's voice came over the phone; there was a lot of white noise in the background. "I'm sorry about calling you now… but it's urgent—"

"Thing's have been urgent a lot lately, Reeve," Cloud sighed. "Tifa just managed to open a bar and I just got myself a job. Things are finally starting to get back to normal. Can't this urgent business wait?"

There was a long pause. "I'm afraid not, Cloud. You see…" he stopped. "Is there anyone else there?"

Cloud looked at the ex-Turks. Rude nodded, but mouthed 'don't say who' and began shuffling out. "Umm… yeah…"

"Tell them to get out or something. This is top secret."

Reno heard what Reeve had said and snorted. Cloud shot him a warning look and he stopped. The blonde man shooed them away, and they did so.

"Alright… I'm alone. Tell me what's up."

"Listen… Cloud… I'm not sure you'll believe this…"

"After seeing Sephiroth come back from the dead, I'm sure I can believe anything. So cut the crap and tell me, Reeve."

"Sorry. Two weeks ago, two men came to me, carrying a note from their employers. It threatened me if I didn't get out of my position. I've received plenty of these notes and naturally, I told them to get the hell out. Then from my sources, I learned that the men's employers were meeting. I had Cait Sith take up that mission and I learned quite a bit. These two men are planning something, and I'm sure it's not to save the fuzzy little animals of the world. They're trying to hire the Turks. It's all I got before they spotted Cait Sith and I had to make him self-destruct. Those men let me listen in to the entire conversation and they knew that Cait Sith was there the entire time." Reeve said, never hesitating.

Cloud thought about it for a while. "They wanted you to know. So that you'd be suspicious and come looking for them and then they can silence you. I suggest you stay put and try not to do anything stupid. And I have a question if you don't mind."

Reeve was beginning to sound nervous. "Err… what is your question?"

"Why are you telling me about this? What can I do?"

"Well… you're one of the most capable men I have ever met. And last of all, you were the leader of AVALANCHE. You could get them back together and you guys can look into this." Reeve sounded sorry. "Yeah I know you guys are busy… but I'm guessing that these men are up to no good…"

"Alright… I'll try telling the others," he ran his hand through his messy hair and slammed it down on the kitchen table, trying to keep his stress level down. Reeve was going to say something, but he cut him off. "Don't thank me, Reeve. It's up to the rest of AVALANCHE and I'm sure that they aren't all up for it. Barret promised Marlene that he would spend all the time he could with her after Meteor. And Cid… he's rebuilding a rocket, he wants to look beyond what he saw. Some company is funding him for the rocket. Yuffie… Godo's getting her ready to rule and has been forcing her to dance with every male noble that's alive. Red's been stuffing his face in books, hungry for information, trying to finish off Bugenhagen's works. I don't know what happened to Vincent, but I'm sure he's spending every minute at that waterfall where he saw Lucrecia."

Reeve was slow to reply. "I understand if you guys can't do it… and one more thing, Cloud… who are the people in your house? I know it's not Tifa."

Cloud's mouth went dry.