First I would like to thank Kit and CWolf2 for the reviews. CWolf2, I will work on the chapter length and trust me, the last chapter was important to the storyline. Suffice to say, Dr. Jones will be appearing again. Just bear with me please.

Now, on to the story. No, I'm not saying the disclaimer as a sign of protest. You all know what the deal is and I don't think it's right that it must be shoved in my face. So there. Humph.

Chapter3: First Mission

Tifa let out a small breath and lifted her Peacemaker. Her side ached slightly from yesterday's events with Reno and she still felt a little stiff from the tightness of the bandages but she wasn't really thinking about that. Her left eye closed and she carefully took aim, trying to align the barrel of the gun to the targets heart.

She squeezed the trigger and it fired off six shots, one after another. Slamming the button of the target's pulley, she took a closer look at it to see that she had hit all six times but not a single one were in the chest region that she had been hoping for.

"Damn," she whispered before she heard the heavy steel door slide open and then close slowly on the frame. Turning, she saw a man that could only be a Turk because of the blue suit he wore. His sunglasses were planted over his eyes even though the room was fairly dark from the dim lights, and his head was completely bare. It was hard to tell but she assumed he shaved from the fact that he didn't look old by any means.

He turned his head and looked at her, at least, she guessed he looked at her. He said nothing, but walked up to and then right past her to look at her target. She swirled around to see him taking it down and attaching a new one.

"You've never shot a gun before?"

"Huh?" she asked. His voice was deep, and she thought it fit him pretty well. "I have... but I'm no good at it. The army just threw a machine gun at me and told me to get to work. I've never been taught how to handle a pistol. I suppose Reno'll teach me."

"Reno is with Tseng briefing him on your interactions with him. He says he likes you."

This man sounded so indifferent about this that he could have been discussing the weather. She wasn't even sure how she could respond.

"That's nice to know," she said, feeling immediately like a fool for sounding like such an idiot.

"Reload your weapon," he told her. She did so and he took it, aimed, and fired. The target looked as if he had simply taken a big stone and hurled it at it, catching it right in the middle of it's chest. It was quite impressive.

"Your weapon seems to be working properly. Show me how you aim."

He handed the gun back to her and she put six more bullets into it. She raised it and once again squeezed her left eye shut.

"Leave both eyes open. You'll only limit your view."

She nodded and opened her eye. Steadying her breathing as she had been instructed by Reno to do yesterday, she carefully tried to aim correctly. A hand rested on hers and she looked up at her helper curiously. He gently coaxed her to lower her gun slightly as he stepped behind her, she guessed trying to see the gun's tip for her point of view.

"Your aim's too high," he said and then pulled away.

He was right. Now that her gun was lower she could see the chest over it's barrel and not be staring at the neck. She paused a moment more to see if he would fix any other mistakes but he simply stood there with his arms crossed, patiently waiting for her to shoot.

Six loud shots fired into the air and she once again awaited her target. When it finally reached her she almost cried. Three marks were in the left shoulder, two were in the neck, and one had actually hit the heart. It wasn't perfect but it had definitely been better than her previous tries.

"Thanks," she said as she turned to face him. He simply shrugged. "I'm Tifa by the way. But I'm sure you already know that." She extended her hand to shake his.

He just stood stock-still and looked at her. She almost lowered her hand until he took it in his own.

"Rude," he said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be," she said before his meaning got across. "Oh. Right."

She quickly dropped her hand and mentally cursed herself. She was being a total moron... in front of a superior no less. What was wrong with her?

Suddenly the door opened again and Reno stepped into the room. He saw the two and grinned, but then again, he always did that.

"Ah, I see you two have met already. Rude, don't go shredding her psyche already. She's only been here a day," he said jokingly. "Tif, come on. We've got a mission lined up for you."

"Roger," she said and followed him out.

"Whatever he did, don't worry about it, okay?" Reno said as he pulled her aside.

"What?" She asked confused.

"Rude, he's pretty quiet. No doubt he bothers you, or am I wrong?"

She shrugged. "A little. I'm not sure what he thinks of me."

"No one knows what he's thinking. But don't get upset or anything, he opens up pretty well once you get to know him, especially if you're a fellow Turk. Besides, you've got a mission to take care off."

"What kind of mission are we going on, anyway?" she asked.

"Nothing too difficult. Just some grunt work that a few soldiers would take care of if we didn't have you to train. There's a man named Andrew Bloir," he handed her a file with the ShinRa logo on it and as she flipped though it he continued. "He works for ShinRa but lately a few important things have been going missing from a department he works in. After some investigation, we found out he's been slipping some things to the black market. Usually we wouldn't mind, since President ShinRa usually is the one ordering the things to be sold as the items go for a better price with the mob and so forth, but we've found out that this guy is just getting greedy and keeping the money to himself. Our orders are to go and capture him alive."

"Why not just kill him?" she asked without any qualm. It didn't sound as if this man was going to be living long for what he did. And besides, she was a former soldier; she could deal with getting some blood on her hands if needed be.

"Public trail and execution. It's all staged but it makes the public feel better and we get to pin all the other black market deals that have been going on lately on him as well," he explained. "ShinRa likes stuff to appear clean, no matter how much extra work it creates for us."

"Killing him now would be merciful," she said softly.

"The old man aint exactly a saint. We just follow orders."

"I know."

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Andrew's place was a mess. He lived in Sector 4 of the slums and it looked as if the guy had already been hauled into custody judging from how trashed it was. Reno pulled out his Electro-mag Rod and proceeded down the hallway of the small apartment.

"Who's there?" called a voice. An unshaven man came to the end of the hallway with a small pistol. Tifa at first thought that had he somehow found out that they were after him, but the surprise on his face told her otherwise. No doubt he had simply thought he was dealing with looters. "Oh shit, the Turks!"

"You know why we're here Andrew. Come along quietly and we won't break any bones," Reno told him calmly.

"No way!" he yelled and raised his gun.

Tifa was faster though. She dodged the bullet aimed at her head and grabbed the man's hand, forcing him to drop his gun, and slammed him against the wall while twisting his arm behind his back. His cries of pain echoed in the hallway as Reno walked over and picked up the gun. He put it right next to the man's head while Tifa prevented him from escaping.

"If you want your brains splattered on the walls then keep it up," he said. The struggling stopped immediately. "Good, now why don't you come outside and let the guards take you back to ShinRa?"

Three soldiers in blue uniforms walked in and Tifa noted that they had conveniently made it inside once all the work was done. She shoved the condemned man to them and they handcuffed him and led him outside.

"Good work," Reno told her and strapped his weapon back to his belt.

"You were never going to use that thing, were you?" she asked.

He shook his head. "It was just a threat. I'm back up for you; you're the one who's supposed to do the work. But you did fine. Let's get back to the ShinRa building. We need to make an official report to Tseng about the mission and once we're off duty I'll buy you a drink."

"I'm underage," she told him. In the slums that kind of thing didn't matter, as long as you had the money to pay nobody cared, but she was sure things were different on the Plate.

"Don't worry, you're a Turk. No one is going to say anything."

She considered it for a moment. Hanging out with ShinRa employees on her off time didn't sound like something she'd enjoy doing, but on the other hand the better she got on with a Reno the easier things got on her.

"I'll think about it," she said. "Right now we need to get back to headquarters and brief Tseng."

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"Was there any recovery of what was stolen?" Tseng asked from his desk as he looked over a few papers.

"No sir, the programs are still missing," Reno informed his superior. Tifa, who was next to him, let her eyes stray towards him for a moment. He was actually standing up straight for once and his smirk was nowhere in sight.

'Very professional when he wants to be,' she thought before something hit her. "Wait, programming? What programming?"

Tseng looked up at her and frowned.

"Did Reno brief you on the mission?" he asked.

"Only on the required capture of Andrew Bloir," she replied.

"Then that's all you need to know. Reno was to take care of the rest of the mission, which included the recovery of any missing items before they went onto black market. Such things are still beyond your skill," he told her.

'A.K.A. you still don't trust me yet, you corporate asshole,' she thought but simply gave a nod and an "I understand sir" response.

"Reno, see if you can track down where the stolen items could have gone. I want them returned as soon as possible. You're dismissed, the both of you."

The two nodded and left. Reno immediately got back into his nonchalant stance and pulled out a cigarette.

"Guess I'll be off then. Why don't you head home? I'll pick you up later for those drinks I promised."

Tifa almost said she wasn't interested but changed her mind. If she wasn't suppose to know about something then getting Reno drunk enough to tell her about it sounded good enough to her. Besides, what could it hurt? She nodded her head with a smile.

"Alright fine, sounds like fun. Pick me up when you get off of work."

"Will do Tif," he said, gave a mock salute, and walked away.

Her smile faded. This was going to be a long night, she could tell. Reno was definitely going to be tough to crack.

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All right, there it is. Still slow but things are going to pick up VERY soon, I promise. I know this chapter was also on the short side but the next chapter will be longer. Lot's of stuff going on right now, so I'm busy but I'm trying very hard to keep this thing rolling and not let it die. Luckily, I've got Nando to nudge me if I take too long. He's great, read his stuff.

Also, I proofread this chapter and I realized that it looks like Reno is hitting on Tifa. THAT ISN'T HAPPENING! I'm not making a Reno/Tifa/Rude love triangle here even though it may look that way. He's being friendly because she's a decent Turk, not because he wants to get her in bed. Just so there's no confusion and so I don't get people telling me whether they want her with Reno or Rude.

I don't own FF7. Squaresoft does. While you were reading this chapter some nice men in blue suits informed me that if I didn't do my disclaimer on purpose that they were to take me out, and not on a date either. And my morals didn't die, I just figured that if I die then I can't make more chapters and you readers would all be sad. So giving up and putting up a disclaimer was not at all selfish, I did it for you.

Review or the nice blue suit men might come after you too.