Chapter 8: The Other Guy
February 16, 0008
The next day, Dirk Downing called a meeting with his seven sons and his political allies. They were assembled in their humongous parlor. They were there for one reason, and one reason alone: to make sure Tifa Strife would never become President of the Western Continent.
"Gentlemen," Downing began, "we have a serious problem. Tifa Strife is running for President of the Western Continent."
There was immediate, disapproving murmur among the men.
"We need to defeat her," Dirk continued. "It would be awful in so many ways."
"Second!" called one of his sons.
"This might sound insensitive," the patriarch continued, "but when Bismarck blew her brains out, I felt a sigh of utter relief. I thought we would be returning to our basic values, which includes male leadership!"
The room cheered.
"And now," Dirk said, "if Tifa Strife is elected president, we will once again be ruled over by women!"
The room grumbled.
"Her place is not the presidency!" Dirk preached. "Her place is the home!"
The men cheered.
"She shouldn't be working on the Western Continent," Dirk continued. "She should be working on breakfast!"
The men cheered again.
"She thinks we don't have a candidate against her!" Dirk accused. "But we do! Jack Balen, everybody!"
Jack Balen stepped forward. He was about six feet tall, with black hair that was combed back, and about thirty-five years old.
"Gentlemen," Jack Balen began, "This morning I filed to run for President of the Western Continent."
The room cheered again.
"As Mayor of Rocket Town," Jack Balen continued, "I have put us on the map. I oversaw construction of Shinra Number Twenty-Six, and, just last week, obtained approval to start construction of our National Space Center."
The room kept cheering.
"We will defeat Tifa Strife this election," announced Balen, "and return the Western Continent to normalcy!"
The room roared.
"But," he said, "I'm already ahead of Mrs. Strife. I have chosen a running mate. Someone I have trusted literally my entire life. My brother, Mr. Sumner Balen!"
The room roared again as Sumner Balen stepped forward. He looked nearly identical to Jack, though his hair was blond.
"Let us all return the Western Continent to traditional values!" Sumner announced.
MEANWHILE….
"I don't believe it," Tifa sighed as she sat in front of her computer.
"I know," Red XIII replied as he sat beside her.
"I knew someone else was bound to run," Cloud muttered. "But I didn't think it would be a sexist bastard like Balen. Goddam Downing puppet!"
"And how did you know Mr. Balen again?" she asked the quadruped.
"He tried to have me…expurgated from Cosmo Canyon," he answered. "He wanted to make it a Homo-sapiens-only town."
"That alone could be used against him," Cloud pointed out. "Not to mention, he's a big homophobe."
"It gets worse than that," Red XIII continued. "I tried to dig up dirt about him."
Cloud and Tifa looked on at the cat in surprise.
"What?" Red XIII asked.
"That just doesn't sound like you," Cloud admitted.
"It was for defensive purposes," Red XIII assured him.
"Fair enough," Cloud said.
"What did you find?" Tifa asked.
"He has connections outside the law," Red XIII informed him.
"So he's corrupt," Tifa deduced. "So were the Shinra."
"This is a little different," Red XIII. "He has the underworld do….jobs for him. Bribery, embezzlement, and everything worse under the sun."
"You're saying he's going to kill me?" Tifa asked. "Or tamper with the votes?"
"You think he'll stop at murder and election rigging?" Red XIII asked. "Here's what I know about him."
LATER…
Tifa sat up in bed, the moon illuminating her shimmering pajamas through the window. Her eyes were wide open, and she had a troubled look on her face.
"Something wrong?" asked the shirtless Cloud once he noticed.
"I think I'm genuinely scared," she lamented.
"Of Jack Balen?" Cloud asked.
"He has his rivals killed," she replied.
"So did Rufus," he pointed out. "So did Sephiroth."
"I did more research," she continued. "Rufus and Sephiroth at least acted out in the open. Jack Balen has the underground do his dirty work. And very stealthily at that."
"What do you mean?"
"Did you know how he got elected Mayor of Rocket Town?" Tifa asked.
Cloud shook his head.
"He was second behind Lauren Gross," she continued. "But guess what? She opened her bedroom door and was shot dead by an M16 whose trigger happened to be wired to the knob."
"How did he break into the mayor's mansion?" Cloud asked.
"There's no mayor's mansion in Rocket Town," Tifa replied. "Mayors there live in their private homes. Then there was Larry Fields."
"Who's Larry Fields?"
"Was," Tifa corrected. "He was a councilman who wanted an investigation of Lauren Gross's death. He was found dead in his bed from a fire scorpion sting. Except there are no fire scorpions in this area. Finally, there's Cory Boggs."
"I head about him," Cloud mention. "Didn't he go to the Translator's Fun House and get himself killed?"
"No," Tifa replied as she shook her head. "But he might as well have. His appliances were reprogrammed to turn on him."
Cloud was silent.
He realized that this was a new kind of enemy, one who was visible yet invisible at the same time.
Tifa, who was normally brave and confident, had every right to be frightened.
Finally, he began to stroke her hair.
Tifa immediately wrapped her arms around Cloud and hugged him tight.
"I'm scared, Cloud," she whispered.
"It's okay," he assured her as he stroked her back through her pajama top. "We can pull out of this tomorrow. They'll leave you alone then."
"No," Tifa dismissed. "I can't pull out."
"You can't?" asked the bewildered Cloud.
"So many people's rights depend on me winning this election," she said as she suddenly got out of bed and walked over to the window, which she stared out of for a couple of minutes. "It's not just about me anymore. If I lose now, the Western Continent becomes one big patriarchal society."
"Tifa," Cloud began.
"There could be snipers hiding in the fields behind our backyard," she said. "Hell, I probably shouldn't be at this window."
She returned to the bed and sat down next to her husband.
"Damn," she muttered as she squeezed his hand. "I'm lucky I have my best friend next to me in case something bothers me in the middle of the night."
She then hugged him more tightly.
Cloud could feel his wife tremble; he had never known her to be frightened in this capacity.
I have to do something, he realized.
"Cloud," she began, "it's possible that I'm going to die. And I want you to be prepared for it."
"Tifa," he whispered, "we'll get through this."
"Will we, Cloud?" she asked. "We've been over this before. The timeline may try to reclaim us."
It would now be a good time to review the "rules" of time travel, according to Tifa. One, if someone travels back in time, everyone else might have premonitions of the future. Two, if someone in the past enters the Lifestream, they will gain full knowledge of the life they were at least supposed to have in the future. Three, if someone cheats death, the premonitions will stop. The fourth and final rule is what Tifa was referring to. Past events can be changed, but the timeline will "fight" to reverse the changes as best it can.
Example here: Aerith Gainsborough was, in the original timeline, killed at the altar when Sephiroth impaled her with his sword. When the timeline was changed, she had premonitions, and used materia to temporarily render herself out of phase with the physical world just as she was stabbed. But, in the end, it only bought her a few extra weeks, because Sephiroth killed for real, this time by throwing her to the ground.
On the other hand, Jessie had also cheated death, and had, so far, not been reclaimed.
Anyway, back to the story.
"And if it does reclaim me," Tifa continued, "I want you to be strong."
Cloud didn't know what to say, and I can't blame him.
I remember this time well. I also had it on my mind. Tobin had also cheated death, and I was well aware that the timeline might try to reclaim him as well.
I remember the despair I felt at the thought of losing him.
Easy come, easy go.
I remember I started living by that when I was a little girl.
Tobin became my husband quite fast.
I realized he might be gone just as fast.
