Author's Note: Wow, sorry it's been so long, but this chapter was held captive at my parent's house in Massachusetts while I'm going to college here in Florida. But I finally rescued it and now I've posted it. Enjoy. If you haven't guessed by now, the chapter titles of this story parallel the chapter titles of Barfly. This, if it ever gets published, will be known as The Dragonfly Parallel. Anyway, this chapter should turn out interesting. That's all I have to say. Review Damn it! Why can't people review? If you like it, say so, if you hate it, say so. It's not that difficult a concept to grasp.
Tifa Lockheart paced back and forth frantically in her office. Each step stretched out her brown hound's-tooth patterned mini skirt that clung to her thighs. She had on a matching jacket and button-up vest with a deep aqua colored dress shirt underneath. Her high-heeled brown boots hugged her legs and reached up to her knees as she pivoted her heel to turn around and continue her pacing.
She couldn't make up her mind whether she should tell her father that he was mistaken. As angry at Cloud as she might be, she couldn't let his life be ruined because of Reno's lie. On the other hand, Reno had already tried to harm her, if she called his bluff he might do something more sinister to her, and Cloud wouldn't be around to save her if he did so. It figured, she finally finds a man that had feelings for her before he even knew who she was, and there just has to be something wrong with him. She had spent years looking for a man that didn't care how much money she had, or that she was the daughter of the most powerful man on the planet, he only cared about her. But of course such a man couldn't be for real, there always had to be a catch.
She was relieved to hear the intercom on her desk buzz, and she rushed to answer it. The voice on the other end was harsh, she recognized her father's tone, and her eyes widened at what he said.
"Tifa, would you be so kind as to bring the plans for the new Reactor into the meeting hall. We have been waiting."
She had forgotten all about the meeting. She knew what the other employees at Shinra thought she did with her time, but she also knew that they were all rumors made up by the workers in their spare time. Fantasies, at best, created to pass the time and indulge in what they could never have. No matter what they thought of her, she knew what her job was. It was true, that she was there somewhat as eye candy to give the investors, almost exclusively men, yet another reason to give President Shinra money. It was a well-known fact that men would do just about anything just to be in the presence of a beautiful woman.
But that was not her only job. As a child she had always had an interest in designing buildings and other structures. Her father noticed her talent and paid good money for her degree. There were very few people in the world that knew that she had gone to college, or that she had graduated at the top of her class for that matter, but it was of little importance to anyone who met her. She could be the smartest person in the world, but no one could ever get past her looks and see her brains.
She rushed out of her office with the cards that had the plans printed on them, cursing herself for letting her personal life interfere with her work. Her father's tone could only mean that she would surely hear about her negligence the first chance that he had a moment.
Her mind had still not focused on what she was about to do when she reached the meeting room. Her face showed an expression of guilt and listlessness as she set up the poster boards with rough drawings of the new reactor to be built in Gonganga as a replacement to the malfunctioning one that current existed.
"Sorry I'm late." She huffed as she scrambled to place the cards. When she had finished setting up, she turned to face the table of twenty businessmen waiting for any word to come out of her perfect lips. "The current reactor will be torn down to make way for our brand new, state-of-the-art Mako generator. It will be far less pollutant and create dozens more jobs in order to jump-start the economy of Gonganga."
"Tifa, can I speak with you?" President Shinra asked once the meeting was over and the conference room was empty. Tifa swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded, preparing for the impending conversation. "What happened this weekend? Why didn't you tell me that one of my employee's harassed you?" Her father questioned, brushing the hair out of her face as he did so.
"Because I thought of the consequences." Tifa answered, hanging her head and looking away from her father's gaze.
"What possible ramifications can come from firing a worthless security guard?" Her father smirked.
Tifa took a deep breathe and closed her eyes before looking her father in the eyes. The only way to get Reno out of the same building as her would be to tell her father the truth, but how sure could she be that she would be safe after she did so?
"Because Cloud isn't the one you should have fired…it was Reno." She said, giving her father a look of deep sincerity. Her father narrowed his eyes and looked for a sign of something other than the truth. He took a step back and shook his head when his daughter's facial expression did not change.
"What do you mean? Didn't that security guard try to harm you?"
"No, Papa. Reno lied. I took Cloud -the security guard- to a party with me. Reno slipped something into my drink, but Cloud kept him away and took me home with him. Cloud only tried to help me…" Tifa trailed…trying to hide her emotions from her father.
How could she be angry with Cloud? Even if he did use Aeris, or get her car smashed up…he saved her. President Shinra continued to shake his head in disbelief, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. He could feel the anger growing in his gut as he clenched his fists and flared his nostrils.
"I will kill that lying son of a bitch!" Her father growled, turning toward the door, stopping just before reaching for the handle. "But I can't. I can't let anyone know that I made a mistake." Tifa looked up at her father with hurt in her eyes. Was her father really going to let Reno go without so much as a slap on the wrist?
"Wha…what do you mean? He tried to rape me and lied to you about it." Tifa spoke softly, not believing what her father had just said.
"Here's what we're going to do. I'll fire Reno for incompetence, but make no mention of what you told me. I can't give that security guard his job back though…it'll be too obvious. Yes…this will work." With that, her father reached for the door handle and left the room.
Tifa stared after him, unsure of what to do. Getting Reno fired was fair justice, but knowing that he was still in the city made her uneasy and unsure of what the consequences would be. She plopped down in one of the armchairs at the table and rested her head on her fist, thinking about the weekend.
About ten minutes later she heard a door slam down the hallway and knew that it could only mean one thing. She felt her body tense as she saw Reno angrily force his way through anyone in his path and he made his way toward the door separating him from her. He stretched out his hands and slammed open the double glass doors between them and slapped Tifa across the face, knocking her out of her chair. Reno reached down and grabbed her by the hair, pulling her up from the ground and causing her to cry out in pain.
"You haven't seen the last of me, Lockheart. You got me fired and ruined my life. When you least expect it, I'll ruin yours. Nobody messes with Reno. No body, not even sniveling daddy's girls like you." He snarled, releasing her hair and letting her fall once again before rushing from the room and out of the building.
Tifa pulled herself up into the chair and rubbed her cheek. Her skin burned with pain and her head was hurting. She tried to fix her hair as best she could and hid her face until she got back to her office where she took out her cosmetic back and applied some makeup to cover up the redness.
Reno's threat was not something she could report. Anything else she did now would just make him angrier and whatever he had in store for her far worse. She wondered where Cloud was, and what had happened to him. She hoped he was alright, but most importantly she worried about her own life. Reno was now an ex-Turk; there was no limit to what he was capable of.
"You're going to be alright, Mr. Strife." A doctor told Cloud as he lay in a hospital bed. "You've suffered a broken nose, a few third degree burns, a broken rib and a collapsed lung. We're going to need to keep you here for a few more days but you'll make a full recovery."
Cloud nodded and watched the doctor leave. His chest was in tremendous pain as he struggled to sit up a little. The beating he had suffered was not something he had expected, and due to the nature of the attack, not one he could even conceive of fighting back with. But Reno had gotten away with what he had done to Tifa. In the back of his mind Cloud could not help but feel a little bitter towards the woman, and some part of him felt that she would get what she deserved by disbelieving him. Without him around, Reno would be free to do as he pleased, as would anyone else, and no one would help her.
A few days later he was released from the hospital and told to take it easy, something he had no choice but to do since he was currently out of a job. And where could he get hired now that President Shinra himself had fired him? No one in their right mind would hire someone personally fired by the most powerful man on the planet.
He got in his car and drove back to his apartment to find an eviction notice posted to the door. Apparently his landlord had found out what had happened and didn't want such a dastardly person living in his building.
He had no job and no place to live. He had no choice but to pack up all of his clothes and set off for a new city. He had no family to move in with since his mother was dead and his father had abandoned him when he was only three years old. His only option was to live in his car until he could find something better.
He drove for days, stopping only to rest and eat, then returning to the road. He didn't know where he was going, all her knew was that he wanted to get as far away from Midgar as possible. The city had done nothing but ruin his life from the beginning, and he couldn't say that he wasn't glad to finally be leaving the metropolis.
Around the time he passed Fort Condor, he began seeing signs for the Junon exit. Three-hundred miles until he reached the "City by the Sea." Billboards passed by flashing advertisements for the Junon ferry service to Costa Del Sol. Cloud couldn't see making a life for himself in the resort town, but Junon offered boat services to the lower coast of the western continent as well.
Gonganga had always sounded like a quaint little town. Perhaps he could start over in a small town like that. From what he had heard Gonganga was devoid of anything that had to do with the name Shinra, the only thing there that belonged to the company was an old destroyed Reactor. It was the perfect place for an ex-Shinra employee to set up a new life.
Cloud pulled his car off to the side of the road for the night. In the morning he would drive the remaining 200 miles to Junon to catch a boat across the ocean. He fell asleep almost instantly, with his arms folded across his chest and his seat leaned back as far as it could go.
"Cloud!" Tifa called, waking him up from his sleep. He sat up, clutching his rib as he suddenly felt pain. He looked out his car window and saw her staring at him in the night sky, the stars behind her sparkling and the moon illuminating her features. She smiled, and reached out to stroke his messy hair. "You were asleep."
"I know…what are you doing here?" Cloud asked, still trying to figure out how and why she found him. This wasn't the type of place she would be traveling to, and certainly not in the middle of the night.
"I had to find you." She stated, giving him a trademark smile. "I wanted to tell you…that I'm sorry. I should have believed you, I wanted to…" Tears formed in her eyes as she stared him deep in the eyes. "I love you so much…" She leaned in through the window to give Cloud a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, grasping at her as if the car door were not in the way. "Hey…" Tifa said, and Cloud pulled back. "Hey…" She said again.
"Hey!" Cloud was awoken from his slumber at the brash tone of a police officer tapping on his window. He jolted up and grabbed the lever to pull his seat up, slamming his chest into the steering wheel and causing the officer to chuckle.
"What's wrong?" Cloud asked, irritated, rolling down the window.
"Sleeping on the side of the road is illegal in these parts. I'll let you off with a warning, but you just better get out of here. And be lucky that I'm in a good mood today. Or maybe it was your dream that made me have a change of heart. Either way, good luck with your lady friend." The policeman said with a roaring laugh as he filled out a warning ticket and let it drop onto Cloud's lap. He walked back to his car and drove away, laughing all the way.
Cloud shook his head to release his embarrassment and started up the car. He sped off towards Junon, cursing himself for having slept so late. Even after what she had said to him…the thing about him being a creep and it being his fault for damaging her car…he couldn't get her out of his head. She had been mistaken, and as cruel as she had been, he couldn't blame her. If he had been in her position he would have done the same, and the fact that him supposedly being with Aeris upset her so much meant that she had to have had some feelings for him.
He arrived in Junon several hours later, in the early hours of the evening, when the sun was setting and the air was cooler. He drove to the drop-off point to leave his car to be shipped to Gonganga. He looked around at the heavily industrialized Ocean Town that surrounded him. There was a large cannon that had been left over from the Wutai war some decades earlier. The cannon was so powerful that it could accurately and effectively target and attack Wutai, even though it was thousands of miles away.
Cloud bought his ticket for Gonganga with the little money he had left and boarded the ship. He sat in a dark seat in the back corner and rested his head against the window, watching the water flow past him as the boat sped off toward Gonganga.
In order to start his new life in Gonganga he had to get Tifa out of his mind. If he couldn't…then it would be much more difficult for him to find a job and get on with his life. He couldn't have her lingering in the back of his head if he wanted to move on.
He quickly slipped off the boat and down to the pick-up to obtain his vehicle and head for Gonganga. It was only a half hour drive or so until he reached the small town from the port. It was such a small town that having a car was more of a hassle than a blessing, and he left it at the nearest parking space.
Cloud still had no idea what he would do with himself now that he was away from Midgar. He took solace in the idea that he was now free of the relentless tyranny of Shinra and its employees, especially Reno.
As he walked down the dirt road toward the center of town, he came across a small bar and decided to stop in for a drink to forget his troubles. He had a seat at the bar and checked his pockets for any gil. He didn't even have enough for one crappy beer, and he lowered his head to the table.
"Hey buddy, you look like you could use a drink." The bartender asked, as he walked over to Cloud's distressed form. Cloud lifted his head and stared at the man in front of him, a man in his early forties, heavy and balding.
"I don't have enough for anything." Cloud apologized. It seemed to not deter the man before him.
"That's okay, it's on the house. You're not from around here are ya?" Cloud shook his head. "Well around here we don't think that a couple of gil should keep ya from anything." The man said with a smile. He turned around to mix Cloud a drink, then slid the glass over to him.
Cloud quietly sipped his drink, not noticing the man in the booth who had been watching him since he entered the bar. The man, who wore a white T-shirt and dark blue work pants, stood up and walked over to sit next to Cloud at the bar. He had long black, spiked hair and intensely deep blue eyes. He continued to stare at Cloud until the blonde noticed and turned to face him.
"Can I help you?" Cloud asked the stranger, noticing an uncanny resemblance between himself and this man. The person next to him just stared for another moment before speaking.
"You're new around here, aren't ya?" The man asked, his voice much deeper than Cloud's.
"Yeah, why?" Cloud asked.
"It's not a difficult town to get to know. What brings you out here? We never get new people way out here."
"I needed to start over." Cloud responded, staring at his drink and clasping it with both hands. The man next to him nodded.
"Was it bad?" The man asked, referring to Cloud's reason for being in such a small town.
"You could say that." Cloud answered, hoping the man would leave him alone.
"Well, this is definitely the town to reinvent yourself, if you wanted to disappear into obscurity." The man continued, "So what happened to make you come out to this desolate place?"
"Forget it, it doesn't matter." Cloud replied, getting a little irritated.
"A woman was involved, huh?" The man prodded, trying to keep Cloud talking.
"None of your business." Cloud stated, his voice a little gruff.
"I'm just trying to make conversation. You came to this town alone, I haven't seen you around which means you haven't been here long, and the first thing you do is go to a bar? Says you don't have any family or anyone here to see. And since this is the first bar in town, I'm judging you've never been here before. I'm just trying to help. The name's Zack." The man said, outstretching his arm. Cloud looked down at Zack's hand, then looked back up at the man. He blinked and turned back to his drink. Zack brought his hand back, a little embarrassed.
"I don't need your help." Cloud grumbled before taking another swig.
"You need a place to stay, and a job. I just so happen to be able to help you out with both of those problems." Zack stated proudly. Cloud turned to face him with an expression of frustration.
"How can you help me?" He asked, a little peeved.
"You can stay at my place until you get on your feet, and they're hiring grunts to help build the new reactor. Now trust me, I hate Shinra as much as the next guy, but work is work and I need money. You in?"
"Why do you hate Shinra?" Cloud questioned.
"I used to be a Soldier, I was out on a mission when those damn Turks double-crossed me, I was sort of exiled here." Zack responded, a look of sheer disgust on his face.
"Yeah, I was a security guard, until those Turks screwed me over too." Cloud added. Zack raised his beer to Cloud, who in turn raised his glass for a toast.
"To being screwed by Shinra, and in turn, building their new reactor to shit." Zack stated with a smile. Cloud smirked and nodded his head.
On his first day in Gonganga, he had already found a new job, a friend, and a place to stay. Unfortunately he was going right back to work for the company that had just ruined his former life, but if Zack was telling the truth, then they could do a second-hand job building the new reactor, and in turn, perhaps, waste that terrible company's money by doing so.
