Reno tells his cab driver to stop in front of Vincent's and Yuffie's house when the cab reaches the destination. Reno gives the driver a stack of money, not really counting it, and quickly gets out of the cab. The cab driver has a surprised look on his face when Reno leaves, but doesn't try to return the money to the younger man.
"I shouldn't have to work for two weeks." The driver honks his horn and drove off.
Reno swings his bag over his shoulder and knocks on the door. A few moments later Yuffie appears from behind the door.
"Hey Yuff. Sephiroth made it here yet?"
"Yeah but he stepped out a few minutes ago. Come in."
Yuffie steps aside so Reno could come into the house. She closes the door behind them and Reno takes a moment to look at the home. It is big on the outside and even bigger in the inside. Reno notices pictures from her and Vincent's childhood spread throughout the living room. It is a very homey touch to the home, considering Vincent and Yuffie had relocated to Nibelheim a few short months ago. He didn't expect them to settle in so well.
"It's the closet thing to home since we've left Wutai." Yuffie speaks as if she's reading Reno's mind.
The red-haired man turns to his brunette friend. "It's a really nice home. I haven't seen the rest of it and I can tell it's beautiful."
"Thanks." Yuffie gives Reno a small smile. "Come in the kitchen. Vincent is waiting for us there."
No smart comments? Man, this did turn for the worst. Reno thought as he follows Yuffie to the kitchen. Vincent sits at the island with four glasses filled with brandy. Sighing, Reno drops his bag and grabs a glass.
"How bad is it?" Vincent asks Reno as Reno takes a sip of his brandy.
Reno scrunches his face a little. "Ooh! This is the strong stuff." Reno paused for a brief moment to take another small sip and sits down across from Vincent and Yuffie, with Yuffie sitting next to Vincent, but directly across from Reno. "It's bad on my end. Elena was dead when I arrived at the hotel. How did Genesis shake the two of you?"
Both Vincent and Yuffie remained silent. Reno quirks his eyebrow when he feels the tension between the two of them. "I got too comfortable..." Vincent speaks his usual monotone voice, but barely audible.
"We got too comfortable." Yuffie corrects. "I'm not letting you take the fall for this." Yuffie notices Reno's confusion and cuts him off before he could say anything.
"Like I told you at the entrance, this is the closest thing we've had to calling a home. We adjusted to Nibelheim well….maybe a little too well. Vincent and I met some people and-
"You've….you've met someone?" Reno couldn't mask the hurt in his voice.
"It isn't like that, Reno." Yuffie reassures him. "I was using him to get more information on the town. Vincent is the one who truly met someone."
"It's too early to say." Vincent intervenes.
Yuffie frowns at her platonic brother. "Are you serious right now? This is Reno we're talking to! Besides, I see the way the two of you look at each other. A blind person can tell something is going on between the two of you. Not to mention the two of you were kissing earlier today."
Before Vincent could respond, Sephiroth walks into the house. He enters the kitchen with three pair of eyes set on him. Sephiroth takes a deep breath and faces Vincent. He has known Vincent for a very long time, and even considers Vincent a good friend. The silver-haired man isn't sure how to handle the news that he's dating his longtime friend. It is nothing against Vincent personally. In fact, he thinks the two of them would make an excellent pair, but he has to be sure that Vincent's intentions with her are true.
"How far does your relationship with Tifa goes?" Sephiroth asks in a firm tone.
Reno and Yuffie looks at each other while Vincent gets up from his chair and approaches Sephiroth to stand in front of him. Sephiroth nor Vincent backs down. From the tone in Sephiroth's voice, Vincent knew that this is a matter between the two of them. Reno and Yuffie makes sure not to make a sound. Yuffie quietly sips her brandy and Reno did the same. The duo never took their eyes off of Vincent and Sephiroth.
"The day after Yuffie and I moved here, I went out to the market place. She offered me a peach and we made small talk. A few days later it was raining rather harshly one day and she got caught in the storm. She showed up at the doorstep freezing. She stayed over a night."
Vincent pauses to see if Sephiroth would respond. When his emerald eyes asks Vincent to continue, he did. "Shortly after that I saw her at her job talking to Genesis, and I wanted to see what she knew about Genesis over dinner. From that night….we hung out and…." Vincent cuts his sentence short as he takes a deep breath, trying to find his words. "….I've grown very fond of her."
The world's sharpest knife couldn't cut through all the tension in the kitchen. Reno tries his best to pour himself another drink quietly. Yuffie motions for him to pour her one as well. She never took her eyes off of Sephiroth and Vincent. Sephiroth's expression is mixed with sternness and softness. His emerald eyes glows brightly as he starts to form his questions inside his head.
"Does she know about our operation?" Sephiroth finally speaks.
Vincent shakes his head. "She doesn't even know my first name." Vincent pauses for a moment and then the realization hit him. "Tifa is the one whom you began the entire operation for."
It isn't a question; it is a statement. Yuffie couldn't help but let her audible gasp leave her body. Reno's eyes widens as he impatiently waits for Sephiroth's response. Sephiroth walks over to where Yuffie and Reno are sitting and grabs the unoccupied glass of brandy.
"That would be correct." Sephiroth answers as he takes a small swig. "Brought out the strong stuff, huh Valentine?"
**Ten Years Ago**
Sephiroth have became Tifa's personal guardian since Tifa's mother, Lorraine, was found dead in a grocery store. His friend, Tifa, had completely shut down. Her grades haven't slipped completely but her participation in class were nonexistent. The silver-haired teenager did his best to protect his friend. If anyone looked as if they were going to ask Tifa a question, he would quickly jump in and pull Tifa right along with him. Every day he would escort her to her class, making himself late in the process but it was for a great cause. He wanted to take away all the pain Tifa was experiencing and put it into his body. He hated to see his friend anguish over her mother's death.
It has been four weeks since the murder and the police couldn't find a single lead. Two weeks into the investigation, Sephiroth took matters into his own hands and did his personal reconnaissance. He couldn't stand to look at Tifa or Russell with such pain in them any longer. The Lockharts were great people, and treated him like he was their own child. He would do anything for them….anything.
Sephiroth was listening to a recording of himself as he jotted down a few notes on a notepad. He finished up a sentence when he heard a soft knock on his door. He turned off the recording and shoved the tape recorder and notes under his pillow. Frowning at the door, he told whomever it was to come inside. He knew it couldn't be his parents because both of them were at work. He was surprised to see Tifa on the other end. She held a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting in her right hand. Sephiroth couldn't help but smile as he waved for Tifa to come inside his room. She ran up to him and gave him a big hug.
"It's so good to see you outside of school." Sephiroth broke away from the embrace and took a good look at his friend. She still cried at night and there were some blackness under eyes, but nowhere near as bad when they first heard the news.
"It's good to see you as well." She meant that. It was refreshing to see her friend without being surrounded by people at school. She carefully brought the cupcake from around Sephiroth's back and made sure not to get any icing on his clothes.
"You know red velvet is my favorite." He took the sweet from her hand. "What's the occasion?"
"For being an awesome friend." She couldn't help but smile when he shoved half of the cupcake in his mouth. "You might wanna get some milk."
Sephiroth nodded. "Yeah you're right. I'll be back."
Tifa couldn't help but laugh as Sephiroth smacked his lips and licked away any remaining icing on his lips. She sat down on his bed and sighed as she felt her body relax a little. It had been a rough few weeks for her. If it wasn't for her Papa or Sephiroth, she wouldn't be able to get over this bump. Her mom was just doing a typical routine: shopping in the town's grocery store picking up dinner. Some random drunk decided to hold up the meat department, and when Lorraine refuse to give up any money, the man shot and killed her point blank. Even with witnesses and several cameras, police still had a cold trail.
It bothered Tifa to no end, but as the days go by, the pain eases a little easier. Tifa placed her head on the pillow and felt something under it. She lifted the pillow and saw the notepad Sephiroth was writing on and the tape recorder.
"You weren't suppose to see that." Tifa jumped when she heard Sephiroth's voice. He drank half of his glass of milk as he shoved the rest of his cupcake in his mouth. Tifa placed the pillow back on the bed and got up from it.
"What is it?" Tifa asked but she already knew the answer. She had to hear it from the horse's mouth.
"Notes about Lorraine." Sephiroth spoke as he swallowed the cupcake. "The police is taking too long. Four weeks and nothing. I've started my own investigation two weeks ago."
Tifa was silent for a moment. Sephiroth walked over to his bed and sat down. He pulled the tape recorder and notepad from under his pillow and continued to jot down some more notes.
"Are you going to go to the police?" Tifa finally spoke.
Sephiroth stopped writing for a brief moment. "Of course. This guy needs to be off the streets."
Again, Tifa remained silent. Her weird behavior made Sephiroth very suspicious. He understood that she was going through a tough time, but Tifa had always expressed how she felt on situations, especially when situations hit close to home.
"What's up with you?"
Tifa broke out of her daze and looked him in the eyes. "I need you to do something for me."
"Okay….what is it?"
"Meet me at this address in an hour." She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Without another word, she left Sephiroth's room. He sat on his bed and recounted the way Tifa's voice sounded and her body language. Like him, Tifa was a very headstrong teenager. Sephiroth had known her since the age of five and it was safe to say he could tell when something wasn't right with her. Her face cracked when the detectives came by her house and told her and Russell that there were no new leads. It was the most devastating news the two could get on such a day; it was the day of Lorraine's funeral and family and friends were at the house after Lorraine's burial.
Unbeknownst to Tifa, Sephiroth watched her carefully. She would distant herself from everything and everyone, including him from time to time. He opened up the piece of paper and saw the address. He grabbed his laptop from the desk and typed the address in the search bar. He frowned when there was no photo. He began typing swiftly away on the keyboard to try to find a live feed from a satellite in space. He smiled when he found what he was looking for. The address was an apartment building that was about 25 minutes away from the grocery store where Lorraine was killed.
The emerald-eyes shot opened when he realized what Tifa was doing. He quickly jumped up from the bed and snatched his clothing and changed into an all black jump suit his parents bought him last Christmas. The clock on his desk read 7:30 and he only had 30 minutes to meet Tifa at the address. He ran down the stairs while hoping around trying to put on his shoes. Running into the kitchen, he grabbed a pen to write a small note on the refrigerator for his parents whenever they came home. All he had to do was say he was out with Tifa to cheer her up and his parents wouldn't think twice about it. He turned on his heel to go out the front door but then stopped for a split moment. He slowly turned around and opened one of the cupboards. After fidgeting around for a few moments, he found a sharp steak knife. The knife shook slightly as he tucked it away in his pocket. He was nervous but he couldn't back away from his decision now. It was much too late for second guessing. He turned and left his home.
Sephiroth arrived at the apartment complex ten minutes later than expected. He kept his head low and avoided as much people as he could. Tifa was under a street light across from the complex.
"Hey Tif." Sephiroth's silky voice startled her.
"I was beginning to think you weren't going to show up. You're ten minutes late."
"I walked here. Didn't want to draw too much attention."
"And you walking through town dressed in all black with your head hung low isn't suspicious?"
Sephiroth snorted. "Never mind my tardiness. How did you figure out the address?"
"The bastard came to mom's candle light." Tifa didn't bother to mask the disgust in her voice. "He left a sorry-looking card behind. He just seemed so shady."
Sephiroth frowned. "How do you know if this man is the right guy?"
"This man is a sexual predator." Tifa eyes began to swell with tears. "He stupidly signed the card with his first name. He just gave off a creepy vibe so that night I followed him all the way here."
Sephiroth recounted the events the night of the candle light. Tifa did indeed disappear for a while without Russell or anyone else noticing. Sephiroth didn't even notice it until some friends from school had asked about her whereabouts. That's when Tifa's behavior had shifted. He didn't realize that his friend was doing her own investigation at the time.
"Then I looked up his first name and noticed he was on the sex offender registry." Tifa continued. "Now, I know what you're thinking 'Anyone can get on that list for a prostitution charge' but no. This is different. I then searched for recent rapes in the area and none of them were Nibelheim, but there were multiple in Rocket Town."
Sephiroth eye's widened. "You went all the way to Rocket Town? Tifa, are you insane?!"
"Keep your voice down!" Tifa shushed her friend so they wouldn't draw any unwanted attention. Thankfully no one caught on to their conversation. "I skipped school a few days. No biggie. Anyways, I managed to take a picture with my camera, and got in contact with one of the victims. I showed her the picture and she broke down."
"And this woman didn't think to call the police? Did she even wonder why you were questioning her about something so traumatic?" Sephiroth questioned.
"I told her what happened to my mom and she broke." Tifa sighed. "It was a low blow, I know, but I needed information. The cops in Nibelheim aren't built to take on murders. She said the man threatened to kill her if she told the police what had happened."
"But Lorraine wasn't raped. She was shot in the face." Sephiroth's words stung Tifa's heart. How he wished he would've worded that better before the sentence was shot out. "I'm sorry Tif. I didn't mean it like that."
"She was raped." Tifa finally spoke after moments of silence went by.
Sephiroth frowned. "What? That wasn't in the report."
"Because my dad didn't want the public to know that gruesome part. A lot of people in this town knew my mom, and dad refused to let the rape be a part of folks minds whenever they thought of her. The murder was bad enough."
"I see." Sephiroth paused for a moment as a few people walked by. "So how do you know if he's the one who did this to Lorraine?"
"We break in and look for evidence. A serial rapist gotta have trophies, right?"
"You watch way too many crime shows and movies."
"Come on. We've wasted enough time as it is." She waved for him to follow her.
If her personal reconnaissance proved accurate, the man in question should be home by 8:30. It was 8:15 and time was running out. The pair of teenagers went around the back of the complex and up the fire escape, making sure to stay out of anyone's vision. Once they reached the third floor, Tifa opened the window and climbed inside the building with Sephiroth right behind her.
"This town is so trusting." Sephiroth whispered as the two began to slowly walk down the hall.
"Says the guy who always leaves his front door unlock." Tifa snorted. "How do you think I got into your house?"
"This is the apartment." Sephiroth completely ignored Tifa's smart comment. Tifa looked around for a brief moment before pulling out a lockpick and picked away at the lock before it clicked open and she slowly opened the door.
"You sure my front door wasn't locked?" Sephiroth questioned as he quirked his eyebrow.
"Maybe, maybe not. I'll never tell."
Times like these was when Tifa really appreciated Sephiroth's friendship. Here they were, the two of them, breaking into some random man's apartment and they were making light banter. There wasn't a friend better than Sephiroth. Sephiroth closed the door behind them and immediately the two searched the apartment.
The apartment reeked of a common criminal. There was no organization in the kitchen nor the living room. There was a small box TV and a folding chair in the living room with several carry out containers thrown about on the floor. Sephiroth glanced at the dishes and noticed the filth in the sink. The dishes looked as though they haven't been cleaned in weeks. Bugs were beginning to roam the counters and several magazine were thrown onto the small dining table that sat in the corner of the kitchen.
"Let's hurry up and get the hell out of here." Sephiroth frowned at the filth.
"I'm already ahead of you." Tifa called out from the back of the apartment.
Sephiroth heard the pain return in her voice and quickly ran in the direction where he heard her voice. His heart dropped at what he saw. There were several newspaper clippings of rape victims tapped on the bedroom wall. The bastard had the nerve to have an organization to it. There were nine women in total, including Lorraine. The psycho placed a picture of the woman first with several news clippings following the picture. Each woman had their own space between the walls of the bedroom. Tifa's heart broke into two when she saw her mother smiling at her. She went over to the clipping and gingerly caressed it as if her mother was really in front of her. Sephiroth looked down in disgust. How could the police miss this guy? Was this man so average that he never showed up on their radar?
Sephiroth's thoughts were interrupted when Tifa began tearing the clippings away from the wall. She first started to tear her mother and then she went to the other women. These women deserved respect. They didn't deserved to be memorialized for this sick man's fantasy. Sephiroth made no effort to stop her. He wanted her to let out that frustration.
"This is definitely the guy." Tifa finally spoke as she ripped the last article from the wall.
Sephiroth didn't say anything; he simply nodded. The sound of keys echoed in the apartment as the new visitor closed and locked the door. Sephiroth placed his finger over Tifa's lips. Trust me. Sephiroth whispered and slowly backed away and retreated into the closet, leaving Tifa by herself. At first, she began to panic. Her plan was to break into the apartment and get some sort of evidence to take to the police, even if that meant getting into legal trouble herself. Breaking into someone's home was a serious offense, but if it meant bringing her mother's rapist and killer to justice then so be it.
She didn't have a plan B. She frantically looked around to see if she run into another room but it was too late. She completely forgot about the articles that she ripped away from the wall, and her moving around alerted the man that was now standing in the doorway.
"You're Lorraine's daughter." The man smirked, exposing his yellow teeth. There were a few missing as well. "What are you doing here?"
Tifa couldn't respond. She was frozen in place and her voice was completely gone. The man walked closer towards her. "I'm Harold. What's your name?"
Tears began to roll down her face. Please do something now, Sephiroth! A punch or a blow to the head from behind would be nice. Tifa responded by finally moving back a little until she hit the wall. Harold was still a few feet away from her.
"Don't wanna talk huh? I like them when they're quiet. Your mom was just too beautiful to pass up. I saw her go inside the grocery store and I knew I had to have her. So I went around the back and posed as a butcher. I waited for her to go to the meat department and the rest is history."
Without thinking much, Tifa ran towards the doorway but was caught by Harold. His horrid breath made her tear up even more as he pushed up against her. Tifa knew it was a stupid thing to do, but she needed to get out of there now. Before Harold could do or say anything else, Sephiroth burst from the closet and smacked Harold's head in with a vase. The vase smashed into pieces and glass went everywhere. Sephiroth stomped on Harold's cock and pulled his rather large body up and onto the bed.
"You're fucking with the wrong girl, buddy."
Tifa had never seen Sephiroth so pissed before. She was too scared to do anything. Harold laughed as he looked over to Sephiroth. "What a pretty boy. Came to rescue your little girlfriend? What are you gonna do, huh?!"
Sephiroth's emerald orbs shot daggers into Harold as he reached into his pocket and pulled out the steak knife he brought from his home. Tifa gasped and she clasped her hands over her mouth. She also noticed that Sephiroth were now wearing black leather gloves. Harold couldn't help but cackle.
"What are you? Fifteen? Sixteen? You don't have the balls, kid?"
Sephiroth stepped a little closer to Harold. "Oh really?"
Harold's eyes shot wide open as Sephiroth shoved the blade into his trachea. He swiftly withdrew the blade and watch Harold gasp for air as blood began to run down his neck and onto his bed and clothes. Sephiroth gave Harold a smug look as he took his final breath. Satisfied with his deed, Sephiroth turned and faced Tifa, whom was still shaken by the whole ordeal. Blood slowly tricked down the knife.
"If you report me I won't blame you."
"Report you?" Tifa manged to say, though her throat was dry.
"I need you to leave now. Don't worry about me. I'll rid this place of any evidence we may have left here." When Tifa didn't budge, Sephiroth tossed the knife on Harold's corpse, got closer to Tifa, and knelled in front of her. "I'll handle things from here. Just go. Go and don't turn your head to look back. If it should come to it, I'll take the fall."
Scared still, Tifa got up from the floor and looked at her friend and hugged him tightly. She released him and thank him before running off. Sephiroth smirked at his friend and looked over to Harold's body laying limp on the bed with blood now seeping on the floor.
"It was a hell of a clean up." Sephiroth finishes his story as he places his glass on the counter. "From that day I knew I had to be a vigilante for the hurt. I spent hours in that hellhole and left when I was satisfied. Because I skipped a few grades in high school, I graduated that summer and went off to college. Though I haven't seen Tifa, we kept in touch with each other by sending letters and a few random photos of each other here and there."
"And that's where you met us." Reno speaks as he takes a sip of his brandy.
Sephiroth turns to Reno and nods. "And here we are eight years later."
"Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Yuffie asks.
"Tifa is my friend, and I will protect her at all costs. I didn't want you guys to know about certain aspects of my personal life, but as recent events have shown me, life is too short. The four of us need to have a normal life."
Dead silence. When Reno, Vincent, and Yuffie met Sephiroth at the University of Junon, they were all friends. Of course Sephiroth didn't tell the trio about him killing a man to ease his friend's pain. That was a secret he thought he would take to the grave, with only Tifa and Gaia knowing the truth. Their paths crossed whenever they went to class together. Reno and Sephiroth shared a bio chemistry class together. Vincent, Yuffie, and Sephiroth shared an economics class together. They all shared advanced physics with one another. Sephiroth cringed at the thought of the four of them burning the midnight oil in Sephiroth's dorm for that class. How he hated that class.
Two years since he murdered Harold, and the police didn't connect anything to him or Tifa and that was music to his ears. Though it was quite sloppy, Sephiroth honestly thought the only reason why he got away with it was because Harold was a low life and the police didn't want to waste taxpayers hard earned dollars on a serial rapist. From then on, Sephiroth vowed to be more careful whenever he killed again. He was so preoccupied with classes that he didn't think about murdering anyone until six women were attacked on campus by one of the campus security guards.
Yuffie would've been girl number seven if it hadn't been for Vincent, Reno, and Sephiroth intervening. Sephiroth could never forget how Yuffie stomped on the guard and spat on him when her three friends managed to get the guard away from her. The three men beat the security guard to death and they all looked at each other. Normal college students would've yelled 'Oh Gaia!' or 'What have we done?!' but instead the four of them decided to kick the creep into the ocean. Whether or not his body was discovered didn't matter to the four of them. All they knew was that the monster wouldn't be hurting anyone anymore.
Sephiroth cleaned the scene without a trace and as the days rolled by, no one on campus seemed to noticed that the security guard went missing. The girls on campus were starting to be more free and roam the campus a little after dark without feeling the need to look over their shoulder. Two weeks after the murder, Sephiroth came clean about how he killed Harold. His three friends embraced him and told their previous murder stories, and together, the four formed a deadly bond and were close to each other since. It's terrible - quite morbid, in fact - that the four of them bonded over killing people, and none of them seem fazed by it.
"Vincent, I don't mind your involvement with Tifa, but do take care of her." Sephiroth breaks the silence.
"You have my word, Sephiroth." Vincent replies. "No harm will come to her."
"First thing's first: we need to get her over here now and tell her everything." Yuffie chimes in.
"Are you serious?" Reno frowns. "She may be a friend of Sephiroth but she's not going to be so accepting of us three." Reno points to himself, Vincent, and Yuffie. "Especially Vincent. The guy she's falling for kills people. I mean come one, Yuff."
"If I even have a shot at her heart then I have no choice." Vincent steps in. "Besides, she's playing a very dangerous cat and mouse game with Genesis. We have no choice."
"Spoken like a true man." Sephiroth reaches into his phone and dials Tifa's number. "You should take notes, Reno."
Sephiroth smirks at Reno as he walks away from the kitchen to take care of his phone call. Reno, who is still frowning, looks away from Sephiroth's back and looks at Vincent. "The hell is he talking about?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Vincent's eyes darts to Yuffie before retreating away from the kitchen as well. With Yuffie and Reno left alone, he couldn't help but sigh. Yuffie slowly turns her head to Reno. He looks back at her and nervously scratches the back of his head.
"They're right. We do need to talk." Yuffie feels that it's time. They've danced around the matter far too long.
"After we tell Tifa everything, we can talk."