"Tifa?" Cloud rounded the corner, horror in his eyes.
"Cloud!" Tifa had tears streaming down her face and she pushed past the children, throwing herself into his arms. "They said- they said-" Her body shook as she cried, and Cloud held onto her tightly.
"It's okay. No one's going to hurt you." Cloud said quietly. He shifted so he was hugging her with one arm and reached out to pull the children close as well. They gladly moved in.
"What happened?" Tifa asked shakily.
"I don't think you want to know." Cloud muttered.
"Tell me." Tifa ordered. Cloud sighed but nodded slowly.
"It was a turk. They came up to the back door and took out Renee and Ben." he explained.
"So they're really..." Tifa swallowed.
"Yeah." Cloud answered so she wouldn't have to finish her sentence. Tifa reached over to put an arm around Denzel again, hugging him tightly once more.
"Why? Why would anyone want to kill them?" Tifa asked, tears still running down her cheeks.
Cloud stayed quiet for a while. He was thinking through everything that had happened and that he had found out. How could Renee and Ben have thought he was their son?
"How could they do this to us? Give our son away like some pet..."
What did they mean by giving him away? He hadn't been given to anyone... had he? Were they talking about how he was sent to the orphanage? Or were they talking about something else?
"They thought I was their son." Cloud mumbled.
"What?" Tifa turned her head to look up at him, confused.
"I heard them talking about it." Cloud explained. "But I don't understand. My parents died in a car crash."
"We'll figure everything out, okay?" Tifa said. Cloud suddenly frowned.
"Where's Reno?" he asked.
"He left. He's been acting really weird lately." Tifa told him.
"Weird how?" Cloud asked sharply.
"Well, when I told him Renee and Ben's names..." Tifa froze and her grip tightened on Cloud and Denzel. "He acted really freaked out! And then when I told him you were here he went weird again too, and just when we heard the gunshots he yelled at me and oh gosh Cloud he can't have been involved!" Tifa buried her head against his chest and cried some more, and Cloud tried to calm her down by rubbing her back.
"What happened to the bad guy?" Marlene asked quietly.
"He's dead." Cloud replied.
"You killed him?" Tifa asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. Cloud slowly shook his head.
"He shot himself." he whispered.
"Oh." Tifa looked down again, closing her eyes.
"C'mon." Cloud said, moving back and causing the huddling group to slowly come apart from each other. "Tifa, can you take them out somewhere for a bit? I need to..." he looked over his shoulder and trailed off, hoping she'd understand.
"Sure." Tifa said quietly, putting a hand on each child's shoulder and steering them out the door. "Wanna buy an ice cream, kids?" she asked. They mumbled 'yes's' and Cloud was left alone in the house.
~~*~~
"Sir, Cloud Strife is still alive." Rude reported.
"What!?" Rufus yelled, livid. "Where's Max? I'll kill him!"
"He's dead, sir. Pulled the trigger on himself." Rude explained.
"I see. Obviously he knew that would have been a nicer death than what he would have gotten from me." Rufus sighed, upset.
"Of course." Reno muttered.
"Silence." Rufus snapped.
"Your Royal Pain-in-the-butt, I'll speak when I feel like it." Reno replied with a roll of his eyes. "You see, Rude and I are now your only living followers and there is no way Rude would kill me. Besides, then you'd only have one."
Rude shifted uncomfortably.
"Wonderful point, Reno." Rufus said. "Rude, I think I'd like you to go finish the job, and include Tifa Lockhart on your hit-list. Why don't we just kill the kids too? Do you like the sound of that Reno?"
"Go die." Reno spat angrily.
"I thought so." Rufus replied smugly.
"Uh, excuse me sir," Rude cleared his throat. "Should I scrap that last mission?"
"Oh, yes." Rufus said, waving a hand absent-mindedly.
"Your Royal Highness, do I have permission to go to the bathroom unattended?" Reno asked, turning and giving Rufus a patronising look. Rufus looked over at him and raised an eyebrow.
"Reno, you don't need to ask for that." he said, sounding slightly disgusted.
"Why, thank you your highness!" Reno got up, mock bowed, and left the room.
~~*~~
"Tifa? You guys can come back now if you want." Cloud spoke into his mobile phone, amazed he actually had Tifa's number. No wonder she'd been so mad at him before, having his phone off meant he never even would've known when she tried to call him.
"Thanks, Cloud. Really, I don't know what I would've..." Tifa trailed off, but Cloud understood.
"Then I'll see you guys soon. Maybe we'll all be able to get some sleep." Cloud waited as Tifa replied, agreeing and saying goodbye. He then mumbled a 'bye' as well and hung up.
Turning around, he tensed and immediately reached for his sword which was now on his back. He had gone back to the church quickly to get one off Zack and felt much better now that he had a weapon.
"Relax, I'm not gonna hurt you." Reno said, raising his hands up in defence.
"Who are you working for?" Cloud snapped angrily.
"No one, not any more." Reno lowered his hands and sighed. "Boy do I love bathroom windows." Cloud raised an eyebrow.
"Then you must be here to tell me what's going on." he said, ignoring Reno's last comment. "What do you know about Renee and Ben? And why were they wanted dead?"
"You don't know?" Reno asked, his eyes widening.
"Obviously not Reno! Now tell me!" Cloud narrowed his eyes in annoyance.
"Okay, okay. Well, Renee and Ben are kind of like... your parents." Reno explained slowly, shrugging slightly to himself. "When you were like, two? Three? They were sent on a mission to investigate Professor Hojo. The records say they died, but when I accessed the 'top secret information' section I found out a lot more.
"It said that when you were born you were given to another couple and Professor Hojo performed some experiments on you. It agreed that your parents went on the mission to investigate Hojo, but it didn't say that they died. It only said that they disappeared. It also said that the reason you were given away was because they had different views on ShinRa and especially what Hojo was doing. I guess it was just to spite them that they let Hojo do stuff to you." Reno finished and winced slightly at Cloud's look of absolute disbelief.
"Are you saying that the parents I remember aren't my real parents?" he asked slowly.
"Uh, yeah I guess so." Reno scratched his head nervously.
"And I had experiments done on me when I was little? What did they do?"
"I don't know. I couldn't access the details for the experiments. It was asking for some sort of password or something." Reno shrugged. Cloud was silent for a moment, thinking over everything Reno had just told him.
"Okay, so why were they wanted dead?" Cloud asked again.
"They found out something about Hojo that no one was supposed to know." Reno frowned slightly. "I'm not sure, I think they knew too much or something."
"And who wants them dead?"
"Uh," Reno stopped and looked down, his face showing the battle going on within him.
"Reno, you made that decision when you came here." Cloud said gently. Reno took a deep breath and looked up at him again, nodding.
"Rufus Shinra. He survived."
"I see. And you were working for him before?" Cloud asked just to double check.
"Well, yeah." Reno avoided Cloud's eyes, looking guilty. "But now it's just him and Rude. There was Max, but you know what happened to him." Reno gestured towards the back yard. Cloud nodded slowly, and then turned his head towards the door as he heard voices.
"I don't think you should let her see you straight away." Cloud had lowered his voice to a whisper, and he took his hand off his sword.
"You're probably right." Reno sighed and turned to go to another room in the house. Cloud walked over and opened the door to let Tifa, Marlene and Denzel inside.