Author's Note – Thanks for the motivating reviews everyone! Here's the next chapter.

Chapter 5 – Restricted Access

Tifa and I weren't in her room for more than a minute before there was a knock on the door. I pulled it open, needlessly grabbing Apocalypse on the way. Two of Tifa's friends practically trampled me to the ground as they barged in.

"Hey!" I yelled. But they completely ignored me and jumped on the beds, making themselves comfortable. I looked at Tifa. "What the hell's this?"

"What does it look like? Or is it against your rules for me to have my friends over?"

I looked at the time on my cellphone display. It was too early to say it was 'time for bed'. I had nothing, so I decided to let her friends stay, even though I knew I had no say in the matter. They'd out vote me three to one.

What if I wanted to walk around in my boxers and scratch my butt? I could be disgusting and let out a loud belch every five minutes and really make them sick. Maybe they'd go away. I had a feeling none of them would really care what I did.

Tifa turned on the TV and put on a video that one of the other girls brought with her.

It was some kind of spy flick which I might have gotten into if I didn't have to hear their constant 'oohs' and 'aahs' about how cute and hunky the actor was. So I spent the time doing pushups and stomach crunches on the floor…not that I needed it, I just had nothing better to do. But I caught Tifa looking in my direction a number of times and wondered if she wondered if I was doing it to impress her and her friends. So I stopped.

I grabbed my duffle and went in the bathroom to change into my pajamas. If I was back home, I wouldn't be doing this while we had company. But I didn't care about Tifa's friends. If they wanted to ogle me in my sleepwear, then let them.

A few minutes later I came out of the bathroom and dropped my duffle in its usual spot. When I walked to my bed, Sara didn't look like she was going to move. I snapped my fingers to get her attention and motioned with my thumb for her to get off.

Sara gave me a sour look as she slid off and joined Tifa and Jaden on the other bed. "That used to be my bed, you know."

"Well, it ain't anymore." I reclined with my back against the headboard and decided to watch the movie.

Normally I liked watching a good action flick. The more special effects, the better. But this one had way too much sappy shit going on. Everytime the actor kissed the leading lady, Tifa, Sara and Jaden had their eyes glued to the screen. I could have walked passed them in the buff and they wouldn't have noticed. So I'd let out a disgusted snort each time and rolled my eyes. Tifa stopped giving me dirty looks after the fifth time.

When the movie was over a couple of extremely long hours later, Sara and Jaden didn't show any signs of leaving. Tifa and the two of them started talking about things that happened in their classes and I was getting bored with their conversation.

I reached into my duffle and pulled out my mp3 player. After sticking the plugs into my ears and hitting Play, I grabbed my phone and started playing one of the games on it.

What the hell did these girls do to keep themselves entertained around here when there were no classes? There was no exercise room in the building, no video game room, no pool to swim in. Just a three story library with a bazillion books. I needed to find some way to burn off some energy and entertain myself in this place or I'd lose my mind.

About six songs later, I shifted my eyes toward the three girls sitting on the bed next to me. Their clothes were still on. No playful pillow fight. No making out. Yeah, like that would ever happen. Boring! I went back to my game with a smirk.

When I thought I heard my name, I reached down to lower the volume on my mp3. Were they talking about me? I didn't look up at them, but I could distinguish their voices and knew who was saying what.

Sara: "I think he's cute."

Tifa: "Yeah, but that doesn't make up for anything."

Jaden: "Tifa, you said you treated him like shit when you were kids in Nibelheim. No wonder he never came back."

Tifa: "He promised he would."

Jaden: "Maybe he had more important things to do."

Tifa: "Yeah, like kill all the people in Sector Seven when the plate crashed down on them in Midgar."

Sara: "You really think he was responsible for that?"

Tifa: "AVALANCHE was there. He did it."

Jaden: "I heard it was Shinra's fault. Not the new President, but the old one."

Sara: "I like his hair."

Jaden: "His eyes are a little creepy, though. Don't you think, Tifa? Like they can see right through you."

Sara: "And isn't he a little too small to be fighting monsters?"

Jaden: "Yeah, but he must be pretty strong to be lifting those huge swords all the time."

Tifa: "He's nothing special."

Despite the fact they didn't even consider that I might be able to hear them, at least I learned something new. Apparently Tifa and I knew each other when we were kids in Nibelheim and she treated me like shit. When I was fifteen, I left Nibelheim to go to Midgar and join SOLDIER. The only recollection I had of my childhood was being picked on a lot and always getting into fights with the neighborhood boys. So I had no real friends. I didn't remember any girl…at least not someone named Tifa.

There were a lot of gaps in my memories of when I returned to Nibelheim that one time with Zack and Sephiroth. I couldn't even remember how I later came to find my home town in flames or how I got to the reactor to kill Sephiroth. Not knowing used to bother me a lot. But lately it was worse. I found myself thinking really hard about things and all I'd get for my troubles was a major headache.

I snapped my cellphone shut, just to make some noise. Tifa, Sara and Jaden immediately stopped talking as I pulled the plugs out of my ears and glared at them with my creepy eyes. "Don't any of you have homework to do?"

"Nope," all three of them said at the same time.

I tried to appear intimidated but it didn't work. Shit…I wouldn't be able to get rid of Sara and Jaden without using sheer force. Maybe it was better if I didn't hear what they had to say about me. I put the plugs back in my ears and found a loud song to lose myself in.

What if I wanted to break
Laugh it all off in your face
What would you do

"Hey, I love this song," one of them yelled.

I turned the volume up because I could still hear them yapping. Then I noticed they were singing along. And to top it off they were acting out the lines.

What if I wanted to fight
Beg for the rest of my life
What would you do

This was annoying as all hell. I couldn't even enjoy a good song without them ruining it for me.

Look in my eyes
You're killing me, killing me
All I wanted was you

I just stared at them singing off key and laughing at each other. If I wasn't so annoyed by their childishness, I would have been laughing with them. Man, I needed to lighten up and get the pole out of my ass.

One thing I did notice was that I actually liked Tifa's laugh. There was something comforting about it. So if we knew each other when we were kids, why was she so mad at me now? Did I try to kiss her once and she slapped me? Did I stick her in a garbage can on the way to school? Did I trip her so she'd fall in a puddle of mud? What the hell did I do?

Come break me down
Break me down
Break me down
What if I wanted to break

When the song was over they were laughing hysterically.

"Hey, Cloud. What else do you have?"

Since I wasn't going to be able to listen to my music in peace, I took off the plugs and tossed my mp3 player to Jaden. "Don't break it," I warned.

For the next few minutes I watched them scroll through my player and excitedly listen to whatever songs they fancied. They fought over the plugs and laughed like they were twelve.

I was becoming such a wimp. If I didn't find some bad guys to kill soon, these girls would have me in hair ribbons by the weekend.

The next day while Tifa was in her classes, I decided to do alittle of that investigating I committed myself to doing.

The library had a section with some computers. I sat down in front of the one that looked the most advanced. The unit still looked several years old, which got me wondering where all of Shinra's contribution money went if not to buy new equipment. Did it get allocated in some specific way or did Redgrave and her cronies pocket it? I'd have to ask Rufus about it sometime.

But for now my priority was to find out what I could about Tifa Lockhart since Rufus seemed pretty tight-lipped about his half-sister. Come to think of it, I didn't really ask him any questions. And there was a valid reason. He'd talk until the next day and I couldn't guarantee I'd listen to everything and probably miss all the important stuff.

I accessed Shinra's secure site with the Shinra Corp logo and had to smile to myself. A lot of people thought I was dumber than dirt when it came to technology and all I could do was swing a sword. I let them think it because I was the last person they'd blame for accessing restricted information. The only problem now was that I wasn't using an untraceable terminal, which meant I'd probably get a call from Rufus in the next few minutes.

So I needed to work fast.

The technology people at Shinra Corp were such dumb asses. They were so confident no one could bypass their security that they never changed their passcodes. Interesting enough, Professor Hojo's access was never revoked, even though the lunatic who experimented on me was dead. I had gotten his codes awhile back and they still worked.

I searched Tifa's name and a list of hundreds of files appeared. Way too many to scan through in a few minutes. "Shit…this could take a month." And I didn't have a disk or flash drive to dump the data into. There had to be an easier way to get information on Tifa.

Redgrave had files…

I quickly disconnected from Shinra Corp and left the library. A few minutes later I was walking outside around the side of the building in the freezing rain. Bad time for an ice storm.

Redgrave's office was on the first floor, so after counting windows, I found the one that belonged to her. A quick glance inside revealed the room to be empty. I pulled myself up and crouched on the ledge. Using my trusty pocketknife, I dislodged the window lock and lifted the window. Security was definitely not very tight around this place. Any moron could get inside.

I crawled through the window and hopped to the floor. After lowering the window and glancing around, I didn't see any file cabinets. So where did the warden keep her files? I rolled her high-backed chair out and sat in it.

My cellphone rang and I dug it out of my pocket, looking at the display. It was Shinra. Like clockwork. "Strife," I answered.

"I thought you were a lot smarter than that, Cloud."

"Oh, so you do think I'm smart."

"Why are you accessing restricted files?"

"Don't know what you're talking about, Rufus." There were three drawers on either side of the heavy wooden desk. I tried the ones on the right first. The top drawer had some makeup that wouldn't help no matter how much Redgrave put on her face. I almost took one of the candy bars, but thought better because I didn't know where they came from or how long they'd been sitting in the drawer.

"I was told the signal came from the Icicle Village Academy."

"So why would you think it was me?" The middle drawer had a small silver flask full of something strong and a huge ring with a million keys that probably went to every door in the building. If I didn't think Redgrave would miss them, I would have taken the keys.

"Because Professor Hojo is dead and no one at the academy could possibly know his pass codes."

"Well, since you think I did it, then you won't mind if I browse through some files on Tifa." The bottom drawer had a pair of stinky running shoes and a pack of adult diapers. I slammed it shut as fast as I could.

"There isn't anything in Tifa's files you don't already know."

"I don't know anything about her, Rufus, except that you and her have the same mother. Either you give me more or I'll find out some other way." In the top drawer on the left were a set of handcuffs…I didn't even want to know why…and closed the drawer.

"What exactly are you looking to find out?"

I asked the first thing that popped into my mind, just to see how he'd respond. "What's her favorite color?" The middle drawer contained different papers, mostly inventory lists of food and other supplies.

"I don't really think you care about that, Cloud."

"You're right, I don't. But I do wanna know where and when she was born." The bottom drawer was stacked with newspapers from the last few days.

"That's very funny."

"I'm not trying to be funny."

"You really don't know?"

"I wouldn't be asking if I did."

"When I first showed you the picture of Tifa and you didn't recognize her, I thought you were purposely trying to make me think you didn't know her."

"I don't know her." After flipping through some of the newspapers, I found the one that contained the story of me at the Strip Club and I wasn't surprised to see my picture circled in red marker. I also noticed a sentence highlighted in yellow. 'It's a known fact that Strife has been running a delivery service. I'm sure the service delivered to the Northshore Gentleman's Club must have certainly left the girls overjoyed'. Now I understood why Redgrave was pretty upset about me wanting to share a room with Tifa. The reporter who wrote the story made me sound like a sex maniac.

"You grew up together in Nibelheim, Cloud."

"So I keep hearing. Unfortunately your trusty Professor Hojo did a real number on me and now I can't remember things." I closed the drawer and sifted through some things on top of the desk. Aha…my file! I pulled it out from among some others that weren't labeled.

"Professor Hojo was my father's man, not mine."

"Too late to argue about it now. It's done."

"Alright, Cloud. I was eight years old when my father divorced my mother. She moved to Nibelheim and almost immediately married a local there. Tifa was born a year later, on May third."

I made a mental note to remember she'd be nineteen in a couple weeks.

"When our mother died, Tifa's father contacted mine and they worked out a deal to put Tifa through school at the Icicle Village academy. I've only seen her three or four times, but I've talked to her a lot."

"Why is she so pissed at me, like I did something bad to her?"

"I don't know, Cloud. You tell me."

Just then I heard footsteps approaching the door.

"Gotta go!" I shut my phone and only had enough time to shove the file back and duck down before the door swung open. Shit! I quickly crawled under the desk, thankful that I was small enough to fit...even though I was folded like a pretzel. The chair moved and a pair of skinny legs appeared. It was Redgrave. I recognized the butt-ugly shoes. When she sat down, I got an eyeful of something horrible and nearly puked out the pizza I had for lunch. I covered my eyes with both hands and just sat there under the desk, desperately trying to control my gagging.

She picked up the phone and punched the numbers hard, like they were sticky. "Hello, Principle Carter, it's Principle Redgrave…Yes, yes, I'm fine. And you?"

There was no way out from under the desk. I was trapped. I didn't want to raise my head because I didn't want to see something that would give me nightmares for the rest of my life.

"Everything is all set for this Saturday…Yes…I believe we have enough chaperones to control any wandering young adults. We can't have any of what happened last year…Yes, indeed."

What was that smell? Ugh! It was her feet and something else I had no desire to identify.

"Excellent, excellent. I can't say I'm looking forward to this year's entertainment. But alas, they're quite popular in Junon so I'm sure the kids will love them."

Get off the fucking phone already! I need air!

"Alright then. We'll expect the buses to arrive at seven on Saturday night. Good day." She hung up.

I couldn't hold my breath any longer and quietly readjusted my position under the desk to face the other direction, away from Redgrave's lower half. I groaned inside when I heard her pick up the phone again.

"Hutchins, why hasn't Amanda taken these files to the file room? You know I don't like things lying around on my desk where anyone can take them…Well, then do something yourself for a change. Come get these files and put them in the file room now!" She slammed the phone down and got up from her chair.

I waited until her footsteps went around the desk. The door opened and then closed again. I released the breath I had been holding for way too long. "What the fuck…doesn't she bathe?" I crawled out from under the desk and rose to my knees.

My folder was still in the pile. I grabbed it and was about to stick it down my shirt. Then I remembered Hutchins would be coming for the folders to take them to the file room. That's right, she mentioned something about a file room. I'd definitely have to check that out. I took all the papers out of my folder and shoved them down my shirt. Then I grabbed a handful of blank papers, stuck them in my folder and put it back under the others.

Footsteps again. I crawled back under the desk as the door opened.

"Do this, do that. Stupid bitch. One of these days I'll tell her to kiss my ass."

It was Hutchins. He walked up to the desk.

I heard some things being shuffled and then he turned and walked back out. I came out from under the desk and waited a few seconds to make sure no one else planned on coming in. Especially not Redgrave again. I pushed the window open and vaulted through it. Before running off, I remembered to close the window again. The last thing I needed was for Redgrave to find it open and suspect something.

If anyone can guess the song Cloud was listening to, I'll give you a cookie.