Eighth chapter up and I'm so proud. As you can probably see we are starting to reach the climax. Don't cry now, we all knew that it was going to happen. Don't worry, I still have a little more to write but now the story is more obvious (at least I hope it is) than what it used to be. To be honest, I was planning for there to be a lot less than this. It was intended to be a five-chapter story like my last multi-chapter but it sort of ballooned out of control with Aries and the dates but I'm happy with the product all the same. It seems more real this way.
Oh, and I finally saw the Advent Children movie that I've been waiting to see for more than a year now. It was sweet. There was slight Turk bashing (Reno and Rude shouldn't be comic relief), which I didn't like much, but they still managed to kick some butt so it was still cool. Nice plot and Rufus ShinRa was pretty awesome too.
Anywho, enjoy the fic.
Chapter 8: Starting to Hurt Again
Heavy thumps sounded as Tifa ascended the stair of the Nibleheim reactor. The Masamune was clutched tightly in her hands but even with her strength she could barely lift it. It didn't matter, Sephiroth had no weapon and his back was to her. She would get him. Her hatred for him and everything he stood for burned in her stomach painfully and it made her want to hurt him. Him and everything else close to ShinRa.
"How could you do this to Papa and the towns folk?" she cried out angrily. She didn't even bother to hide the fact that she was approaching him. She knew he could hear her coming.
She reached him and brought up the sword with all the strength she had and prepared to slash it down upon him. Him, the horrible SOILDER that had destroyed her town. But he turned around at the last second and when he did, it was not Sephiroth. She gasped as she saw Rude standing before her, with a gun in his hand that he used to shoot her in the stomach. The impact of the bullet made her drop the sword she had been holding and she fell from the stairs. She hit the ground and a shock of pain ran throughout her entire body.
"NO!" Tifa screamed as she shot up straight in her bed. She choked in air quickly, nearing hyperventilating. Air seemed to want to burst out of her lungs and she had to try hard to keep herself from killing herself. Eventually she was able to calm down as she slowly rocked herself in her bed. Cold tears ran down her steaming face as choked sobs racked her body. She didn't know why she was crying, there was too much to distinguish from. Too much was running in her mind right now, threatening to tear her apart. Everything seemed to want to crush her.
The banging on her door didn't even matter to her. She wanted to just stay in her bed and wish all her problems away. She heard it being busted into but she still didn't care. It wasn't until Reno rushed into her room, worry all over his face that she looked up.
"Tifa, what's wrong? I heard you scream!" He didn't seem to realize immediately that she was still in bed, and that the only problem was that she was crying. He must have been worried; he never called her by her correct name. "Tif'… are you okay?"
She shook her head and broke down again, her weeping no longer even attempted to be stifled. He approached her slowly and sat on the bed. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close, making soothing noises into her ear. She just let him hold her as she cried, damning him for daring to be so near when it was his company that had caused all of her problems but at the same time so happy that some one actually cared enough about her to try and see her through her hardship.
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"Yeah, we'll be in work in a while. Tifa just had some trouble waking up… You sure?… Okay, we'll do that then."
Tifa dressed slowly as Reno talked on the phone to Tseng. She was in no rush. For once since this whole infiltration ordeal began, she didn't care about hurrying to work to be impressive. It turned out that she had slept through her alarm and Reno had been on his way to pick her up. But it hardly mattered. She was too busy thinking about her dream.
The dream of Sephiroth wasn't too big of a deal. It had happened so many times that she had gotten use to it. But she had never dreamt of Rude before. She knew what it must mean though. She had started to forget that Rude was part of ShinRa and was starting to get comfortable around him. It was too dangerous. If she ever allowed herself to get to close to him, it could leave her vulnerable. He might find out about her plan, or worse, kill her when he did. She could almost still feel the throb in her stomach from the 'gun wound'.
"Why am I doing this to myself?" she asked herself softly. "I know this will never work but I still can't forget about him."
"Tif'?" Reno asked as he poked his head into her room. "You want something to eat before we go?"
"No," she said. She wouldn't be able to eat even if she wanted to. Her stomach was too upset. "What are we doing today?"
He walked into her room and leaned against the wall. "Gonna try talking to Bloir. Tseng is hoping that we can try to muscle at least a name out of him. We don't have anything else to go on so it's all we can do for now." He scoffed and kicked at her carpet slightly. "You know what I don't get? How the hell did this whole thing happen? Whoever we're looking for needed to know that Bloir was willing to sell out ShinRa in advance. They couldn't have just asked security guards randomly and got lucky with Bloir. We would have heard something from the others."
"They?" Tifa asked.
"Tseng figured something like this is a multi-party job. No one person is this good. Of course we have no proof, but it makes more sense to think that than it's just one single mastermind. But we won't know anything for sure until we can get some info."
She nodded. "I see."
"Tif', what's wrong?" he asked her abruptly.
"Nothing," she replied while avoiding his gaze. "We have to get to work soon. Tseng might be upset if we're too late."
"Is it about-"
"It's nothing!" she snapped at him and walked out of her apartment, leaving him to follow.
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"Who's behind this?" Reno asked for what seemed like the seventieth time. He paced the small room where Mr. Bloir sat in a small chair, handcuffed and looking much worse than when Tifa had last seen him. But despite the bruises and cuts on his face, he still said nothing.
"He's not going to talk," Tifa said after Reno kicked the man in the stomach. It took every bit of will power not to try to stop him. She had never seen him act so… brutal. There was no sign of a smile, no joking, nothing that resembled the man she thought she had come to know. There was only an unfeeling Turk in front of her and the sight nearly made her sick. And worse of all, it only reminded her of her dream and what she would face when she eventually crossed them.
"What do you suggest?" he asked her.
Tifa sighed. She had no choice; she would have to risk exposure sooner or later. She only hoped what she was planning would work. "Let me talk to him alone."
Reno gave her a strange look. "What?"
"Just trust me, okay?"
He seemed to look disappointed for a moment but she chalked it up to the bad lighting. "Okay. I'll be outside."
She waited a few moments after the door had closed before turning to Mr. Bloir.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
He gave her a grunt in reply.
Walking up to him, she knelt down to her knees in front of him and put a hand on his leg. He lifted his head a little and looked confused.
"I don't have long, okay?" she told him in a hushed whisper. "If you help me, than I can help you. I don't want ShinRa around anymore either. If you tell me who sent you then I can find him and help him take down ShinRa. I've taken a place as a Turk. Getting to the President is easy for me. And I promise that I'll get you out of here alive too."
"Why should I believe you? You were just told to say this," he accused her.
"I lost my father a long time ago," she told him calmly. "I've wanted to destroy ShinRa ever since. If you won't help me than I understand. You have no reason to trust me. But I want you to know that I understand how you must feel. It hurts so much. I don't know why you decided to do this. It couldn't have been for the money. You knew that you'd be caught, I could tell from the moment you come out with that gun. You didn't sell ShinRa out, you wanted them to pay. If you don't tell me who is behind this then I can find another way, but what you tell me could help us both so much."
"Very sad," he remarked coldly. "But you can't seriously expect me to believe that crap. You ShinRa scum are all the same, willing to say or do anything to get what you want. You actually thought that you just tell me that sob story and what, I'd just feel all sorry for you and tell you everything?"
His remark took Tifa by surprise. "No, I really want to help you."
He gave a small laugh and just shook his head. "Please, just because you caught me doesn't make me stupid. And where was your oh wonderful compassion when you were first sent to capture me? Think it was fine for me to die when I didn't have anything to offer you?"
The hatred in his eyes made Tifa take a small step back. It looked so angry and hurt, like a rabid animal that was about to be put down, giving it's last glares at it's master. She knew the look, and the feelings behind it. She had given that glare before; she had thought those things that he had said. He thought of her as a dog of ShinRa, just someone that did what they were told no matter who it hurt or what damage it caused for they're own selfish reasons.
And it sickened her to know that in some way, he was right.
She fled the room in a brisk walk and saw that Reno was sprawled across a chair, waiting for her and playing around with his Electro-Mag stick.
"So?" he asked.
She tried to talk but her mouth was too dry to say anything. Instead she shook her head to signify that fact that Andrew Bloir hadn't given up anything more to her than he had to Reno. Her stomach was giving an unpleasant throb and she was a having a hard time ignoring the pain. Brown eyes went wide as she suddenly clamped her hand to her mouth but she couldn't stop herself from losing her stomach's contents. Her knees buckled and she collapsed. The world's lighting dimmed rapidly and she could just barely hear Reno's voice calling out her name in shock
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"This just doesn't feel right."
"We don't have a choice in the matter."
"But Rude, we both know this is wrong. I mean, I thought you loved her for Christ's sake! Don't you care at all?"
"Did I ever say that?"
"Oh come off it! It's so obvious!"
"Uhg," Tifa moaned as she woke up. She saw Reno and Rude whirl around to face her. "What happened?"
"You collapsed at work so we took you home," Reno answered.
Glancing around, she saw that she was indeed lying on her own bed in her own apartment. But something seemed off.
"Rude, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with the president?" she asked.
Suddenly Rude seemed a little uncomfortable and looked away.
"Tseng's taking care of it," Reno explained. "He said we should take you home so you could rest. Obviously stress is starting to get to you. Don't worry, it was pretty much expected. You weren't supposed to be put in a mission like this 'till we could break you in a little."
She nodded slightly before a small pain in her head made her stop.
"Thanks guys."
"No biggie. You're gonna get a house call from Dr. Jones in a bit. He has some patients to take care of before he can get here but you'll see him soon. Want us to stick around 'till he shows?"
Fingers slightly traced her stomach and she shook her head.
"I'm fine."
"Alright. Well, bye." He walked out of the room but not before shooting Rude an expectant look.
"Tifa," Rude said softly. "Are you okay?"
She nodded her head.
"Reno said you had a nightmare."
"Reno should mind his own business," she snapped back.
He didn't reply. It didn't matter. She honestly didn't care any more. "Please get out."
"What?"
"Get out," she repeated, more forcefully this time. "I want to be alone."
He nodded and left silently.
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It didn't take long for Dr. Jones to show up, like Reno had said. Tifa was in her dining room by then, drinking some tea. She called out that he could let himself in when she heard a knock and the next thing she knew was that he was sitting next to her, sipping on a cup as well.
"So how do you feel?" he asked her.
"Tired."
"Fever? I was told you threw up."
"Don't think so."
"Open."
She obeyed and the doctor stuck a thermometer from his leather bag in her mouth. It beeped a few moments later and confirmed what Tifa said was true.
"Normal. That's a good sign."
"I'm not sick. Just a little stressed," she said.
"And why is that?" he asked.
"Don't want to talk about it."
"Than how can I treat you? Don't worry. Whatever is bothering you, I'll keep in the strictest confidence." He gave her a reassuring smile and she just barely reframed from snorting. "Miss Lockheart, I promise, you're health means everything to me. I will not say anything to anyone if you don't wish it."
Tifa looked over at him for the first time. She had never told anyone what had happened at Nibleheim. But the sincere look in his eyes made Tifa want to talk. And so she told him everything. How Cloud had never come back to her, and how when Sephiroth came he eventually killed just about everyone for seemingly no reason, and even how angry she had been when ShinRa came to cover it all up. She told him everything but her plan to take down the company and he just sat there, listening to her silently.
"So now you don't know where your loyalties lie?" he asked her when she was finished. "I can more than understand that. This is a confusing problem. So, will you choose ShinRa or revenge?"
"What?" she asked him, slightly startled.
"My dear, I apologize, but after what you just told me it's painfully obvious that you don't like the company. Why else would you work for it if not to get on the inside in order to do something about it?"
She gaped at him like a fish. Had it been that obvious? And would his promise not to tell still hold now that he knew about her desire to take down the company.
"I'll keep my promise," he told her, somehow able to read her emotions and thoughts like a book. "It wouldn't be right of me to break my promise just because what you have told me does affect ShinRa. I'm a doctor, not a Turk a member or of SOILDIER. Besides, if I did tell ShinRa, than I would be rather the hypocritical of me, now wouldn't it?"
"What?" she asked, not completely understanding.
"Why Miss Lockheart, who do you think was the one who arranged the assassination in the first place?"
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Oh my God, I bet no one saw that coming. I tried to drop some hints while typing the story but every time I tried I made it way too obvious. (I'm not all that good at mysteries.)
I want to say that I'm sorry for this chapter, it got so angsty whenever I tried to write it. This is actually very tame compared to my first attempt. I didn't like it that much but I wanted to show that Tifa was still having this struggle about Rude. I hope it wasn't too bad.
Please review to let me know your thoughts.
