Chapter 4

When Rhett finally made it to Tseng, he was pacing in a tight circle. Rhett watched him for a moment before patting himself down and pulling out his pack of cigarettes.

"Here I think you need these more than I do."

Tseng eyed them for a moment before looking at Rhett, "How can you stay so calm? What if they killed him?"

Rhett shook his head and lit a cigarette casually, "They won't kill him, they want compensation for him."

"How can you be so sure?"

He looked up at the sky, "Because I've been in this situation three times before this, it's something you gotta expect when you work for Shinra," as he began walking he reached in his coat pocket and took out a picture giving it to Tseng.

It was the picture of a boy, couldn't have been any older than Rufus. He had bright red hair and the same devious grin that was usually plastered on Rhett's face. Tseng looked over at Rhett who was calm and serious for once in his life.

"The first time was when he was six. He was playing with a group of kids at the park. He was picked out of the crowd and swiped up. I was a nervous wreck, and I searched for two days straight before finding him. I beat the crap out of all of them and found out that they only did it because I was working for Shinra. They figured they'd get Gil out of me."

Tseng followed silently for a few minutes then looked around, "You seem to know your way well around here."

"Yeah I grew up on these streets, I know most of the gangs, in fact, I used to belong to one of them. But one day when I was fifteen I tried mugging this kid and he ended up beating the crap out of me. Eventually we became best friends, he changed my life, you know him. Randy?"

"Oh, so you've known him most of your life?"

"Yeah our kids play together all the time, he stopped a brief moment to get his bearings straight, "We got a few places to stop. I just hope we get there before they try to break him."

Tseng paused looking up at the sky, "Rufus, where the hell are you?"

Rufus sat pushed into the corner as far he could go, trying to get away from them as much as possible, but with bound hands and being slightly confused it's all he could do. The men were slowly surrounding him. They all had a sinister grin on their face except the man that had planted the suggestion, he was leaning on the wall glaring at Rufus. He was pulled quickly to his feet by the rope binding his arms. The large man pushed him towards the scar-covered man who put his knife close to Rufus' face.

"While you sit in your plush environment with your overly rich father, we suffer and fight to survive every day. Not once has Shinra offered to help any of us."

Rufus remained quite as the man glared, he knew of the problems the people had with Shinra, however most stayed quiet out of fear of being killed. The only people that truly supported Shinra were the people that were very well off. There was more to this man than what he showed, "You worked for Shinra?" he remained outwardly calm.

The man ran his knife slowly over Rufus' chest, easily ripping through the fabric and leaving a light red mark, "I was a guard for twenty-five fucking years. I was falsely accused of stealing Gil and to punish me they killed my family and I was jailed and tortured."

Rufus winced at the stinging sensation, he wondered if Tseng would even come to get him. Did he even care? Or would he just leave it up to his father?

The man, noticing that he'd lost Rufus' attention, poked the knife under his chin causing the child to jolt back to attention and return an evil glare. The man spit on him and looked at the larger man, "he's yours boss, looking at him makes me sick,"

Boss walked over to Rufus popping his knuckles and grinning, "Don't think that we'll go easy on you're because you're a child."

After the beating started it felt as though it would never stop, they continued yelling obscenities. He didn't cry he merely took the beating as though it was his father. He would rather not have his father see this side of the people. Surely his father would secretly kill all those that opposed Shinra and that would lead to a massacre. As Boss brought his knee into Rufus' stomach he could feel a few ribs bust. They backed off from him a little as he coughed up a bit of blood. The beat was, fortunately for Rufus, cut short when someone whom he'd never seen ran up the stairs and into the room.

"Shit the Turks are here, scatter!"

Unfortunately, their informant was a bit to late and the man went collapsing to the ground. Rhett stepped over, or rather on the man, as he passed looking at the group. Tseng followed in him into the room his gaze automatically dropping to Rufus that was on his knees looking up at them bruised, confused, and bloody. Tseng glared at the men, the room suddenly became very dry static crackled through the air. The gang looking around briefly before being electrocuted by mysteriously appearing lightening. Their charred bodies falling to the ground occasionally twitching with electricity. Tseng dashed to Rufus quickly untying his arms and picking him up. Rhett cautiously crouched by the bodies, quickly moving back as a bolt tried to go for him.

"Overkill much?" he went the long way around the corpses.

Rufus looked at them trying to smile but failed, "You came..."

They both nodded and just before Rufus passed out he felt Tseng lightly pull him into a hug. Rufus cuddled into him as much as he could without being in pain and let himself slip into unconsciousness.

After Note: Yay! Finally, this chapter was like constipation for the mind. I wanted to get this out so bad but I didn't know where to go with it. I know it's shorter than the others but the other chapters will be longer. I've got the outlines done for the next three. Best thing that came out of my insomnia! I know there's gonna be errors in this one, I'll re-read it much later after celebrating. Again -bows- I am sorry this one took so long. I actually had to listen to the soundtrack and replay some of the game to get into the FF7 spirit to do this chapter. If it sucks...don't worry! The next few will be much better.