New Chapter, sorry for the lateness. I will try to update the chapters more frequently now^^ Many thanks to our reviewers who keep reminding me XD

Chapter 12

Rufus awaited his underling's arrival impatiently. Tseng was not late, he hadn't been since that one time a few weeks ago. But he was changing. At least Rufus thought so. He couldn't even say what exactly it was, that made him feel estranged from the Wutainese man, but he greatly disliked it. It was annoying, unsettling. When Tseng finally entered the office at the topfloor he looked as neat as ever, but Rufus was cranky already. "Took you long enough."

"My apologies, sir," Tseng replied, unfazed, "I was on my lunch break. What do you have for me?" He had moved the conversation to just business once more. He had once tried to speak to Rufus about personal things, what went on in the blond's life, what his hopes and dreams were because then, they had been but mere boys. Rufus hadn't seemed interested in the least and Tseng had given up. As he got older too, he had realized very clearly that he and Rufus were not really friends, that, although that playmates was how their parents described the arrangement, that is not how Mr. Shinra meant it and not what Rufus seemed to understand either. Eventually, Tseng accepted their lack of friendship with grace but he had inwardly become very jaded and alone.

Rufus got up from behind his desk, walking towards the man. Dusty sunlight fell into the room from the window behind Rufus. The sun had started to go down. Rufus got closer, close enough to invade Tseng's personal space. "You seem in a good mood today," he observed, the left corner of his lips twitching up into a half smile that didn't reach his steely blue eyes. His nostrils flared a bit. Tseng smelled... different. Musky underneath his Eau de Toilette. Rufus greatly disliked the smell.

"I am actually, it's getting warmer out..." Tseng answered. "Is that alright with you, sir?" He stood his ground but his heart picked up pace when he could almost feel Rufus sniffing him.

"Sure, why wouldn't it be? I like my subordinates to be happy." Rufus smirked, finally retreating. Tseng remained so damn stoic, always. Rufus didn't like that either; he was a control freak, he played with humans as if they were his puppets, but he could hardly figure out what Tseng was thinking. Well, he would punish the man his way. Still smiling, Rufus turned to the elevator that lead directly into his office. "I have a job for you. Follow me." He knew how much Tseng hated this particular kind of job and he would take some delight in ruining Tseng's mood.

Tseng did as he was told. They rode down to the basement, the place that the dark man didn't like going most of all. He only hoped he would never end up down here in the capacity that others did. Following Rufus into a room that contained a locked restaurant freezer, which Tseng paid the police plenty of good Shinra money not to ask questions about, he looked down at the man seated at the table. He had never laid eyes on this man before, which was highly unusual because he generally knew everyone who had crossed his blond employer.

"Who is this?" he asked carefully.

"A former client," Rufus replied arrogantly, slowly walking around the chair the man was tied to. "He owes me a significant amount of money. Of course he is broke, or so he says. But a reliable source just let me know that there are actually still capacities hidden, and I want to know where and how much."

His voice turned grave and threatening as he finished, giving the chair a kick. The man was gagged, but he whimpered. Thick droplets of sweat ran from his forehead.

Steeling himself inwardly, for it would not do to show any feeling in this situation despite the multitude of it wishing to bubble to the surface, Tseng's face became as hard as stone. He didn't need to know what this person's purpose was, to him, this was not a person at all. It was all a dream. Stepping forward, he grabbed a handful of the man's short brown hair, which was wet with perspiration, he forced the man's head forward roughly so that it knocked against the table in front of him.

"So you have been holding out on my employer, hm?" he asked coldly but it was more of a harsh statement than a question. "If you value your life and your limbs intact, you will tell us what we want to know." Another hard smack of the man's face to the table resounded through the spartan, dirty room. Pulling the man's head back, Tseng invaded the captive client's personal space, glaring down into those frightened doe-brown eyes.

"The money, where are you hiding it?"

"I suggest you remove his gag, so he has a chance to answer," Rufus pointed out wryly, leaning casually against a wall, lighting a cigarette and watching them. He intended to be here the entire time; he knew that it unnerved Tseng. Their captive's eyes were round as saucers, from fear and panic.

As Tseng removed the gag, he spluttered, "Th-th-there's no money!"

The truth was that Rufus being here made him downright nervous so Tseng had to go on pretending like he had everything under control but the fact was, he had forgotten something vitally important. It hadn't really mattered, the client was still at the point where he was lying. With another two punishing knocks to the man's nose, the dark assassin gritted his teeth, trying his best to ignore Rufus for now.

"I will ask you one more time and then I become serious," he replied to that ironically as if this were simply playtime. Unfortunately for the victim, it was, but he would rue the day that he ever crossed the Shinra Corporation, especially Rufus Shinra himself for that matter. "Where is it?" Blood began to trickle in crimson streams down that wet face, pink with the flush of tears, panic and exertion.

As the blood was running down his throat the man had difficulties to answer. He was in pain, coughing and trying to get the blood out of his mouth. "Don't... know... please!" His eyes frantically darted back and forth, from Rufu ShinRa who coolly looked down on him to his tormentor whose hand was wet with the man's blood.

Tseng was taken aback but his face didn't show it. Oftentimes a debtor would be this frightened and still persist in lying, but the dark man had inflicted enough of this torture to have an intense feeling that this man was telling the truth... or perhaps he was just an amazingly talented actor. Only one real way to find out... keep going.

"Lying will not serve you here. You must give us the truth for your own sake," he almost implored the man as he held out his hand to one of two large thugs who stood mutely against the wall behind him. The man had a large box and had already removed some heavy duty gardening shears from it, strong enough to cut small branches. Before turning back to the bound man, Tseng closed his eyes, bracing himself but his face remained stony and cruel. When he came up to the man again, he reached down to grasp hold of a meaty pinky finger, complete with a gold banded ruby ring, which the man may not need anymore after today...

Pulling the pinky hard apart from the others that sheltered it, he poised the shears to where they already began to cut sharply into the flesh that had gone white from loss of blood flow. Tseng did not hesitate, only closed his fist, slicing clean through the soft digit and then through stiff bone. There was hardly a sound to be heard as the pinky hit the floor and rolled to the opposite side of a bloody knuckle.

"How's your memory?" Tseng asked soberly, completely detached and inhuman now.

There was a moment of utter silence in which the man stared at his cut off finger where blood spurted onto the table and floor in little gushes. Then he started moaning, his head falling back, his eyes rolling as he was close to falling unconscious. A brutal slap to the face made him come back, screaming with pain. His whole body was trembling and he reeked of fear and urine as he had pissed himself. "I don't know, I don't fucking know! There's no money, I swear!"

Tseng believed him. He had tortured many and all this would accomplish was a disembodied man in the end. Urgently, he turned to his employer. "Sir, a moment if you please." It was always possible to let him go now and simply drop in to appropriate the funds by force later, even keep him under heavy surveillance so that the poor bastard couldn't run...

Rufus blew out some smoke and stepped outside, looking unimpressed. "What is it? You need sharper tools?"

"This man doesn't know anything," Tseng replied as calmly as possible. "If we release him, then we can have him followed and intercept all of that money back for you as soon as he comes by it." He gave a small bow as well, to show his master that it was very important to the dark man but that it was not meant to overstep the Wutaian's place and tell his boss what to do.

Rufus' eyes narrowed. He didn't want to stop yet, he enjoyed the show and he wanted Tseng to suffer just a bit longer. The man's stony expression spoke volumes, Tseng didn't enjoy this one bit. But the clever bastard had provided Rufus with an option that was hard to ignore. Rufus had no plausible reason to continue now and thus he threw his cigarette to the ground, stepping on it with his boot and suffocating it.

"Finish him off." It was an icy order and Rufus only gave it because he knew that Tseng hated killing people just as much. Maybe the exotic Wutaian had hoped that the victim would get out of this with only one finger short but Rufus wouldn't have it.

"And if I refuse?" Tseng asked with fists clenched. He did not want to keep going. The usual lot were deviants and thieves and the dark man could stomach it but this man was not, at least not in this case and Tseng knew next to nothing about him, which as much as he thought would make it easier, did not…

Rufus was surprised. Something about Tseng had changed indeed. He had never refused before. Ever.

"Well, then you can turn the gun on yourself, I suppose," he finally replied, estranged. He did look slightly startled still, but the it turned into anger.

If Tseng hadn't met his flower, then there would be no question of his doing just that. He found most of the time, he could live with being a tool for the blond's twisted whims. Until it came to moments like these…

"And if I don't?" he tested willfully, wanting to see what it would earn him. Rufus had never beaten him before and now, Daddy Shinra was all but retired. Tseng had never disobeyed before and if he did, what would happen?

"What are you, a petulant five year old who doesn't want to go to bed yet?" Rufus snapped aggressively. Then he reached into his suit, summoning a gun on his own, pressing it against Tseng's forehead and cocking the safety. "Go ahead. Disobey me. You think you are irreplaceable? Try me. I don't care a damn about you and your antics and I am fed up with your little games. This is your last chance. Take it or die here in the gutter whence you came from."

Tseng had no doubts that whether it was just because of his foul mood or that Tseng was challenging him, clearly ignoring his place now, that the blond would indeed kill him… On any other day such as this, he might actually welcome death, but now… Now that he had touched his flower… there was no way he could leave this life… Yazoo made everything a little bit better.

"I will… do as you ask… sir," he replied but remained perfectly still. Rufus' finger was on the trigger and he could feel the energy and malice practically oozing off of the cold barrel. He didn't want to take the blond off guard when his own life was at stake.

"Good," Rufus said gravely, leaving the gun there for just a second lnger, before withdrawing it. "Go and do your job." He was tempted to ask the man what the hell was wrong with him, but he didn't. If he showed any weakness now, he would lose his authority. Besides they were no feel-good institution.*

Tseng gave a small bow before he opened the door to walk back in that filthy farce of a basement, pulling it quietly closed behind him. Staring at the victim, stoney-faced, Tseng walked slowly forward, reaching under his arm to pull forth his hidden piece. It was pointless to threaten or torture anymore… His eyes were mysteriously vacant and the man before him screamed.

"No! NO, PLEASE!"

Rufus heard the man scream and then there was the small sound of a gunshot, muffled by the thick walls and a silencer.

Afterwards it was eerily quiet. Rufus clenched his jaws and turned around to leave. The feeling of thriumph was bitter this time; he had gotten his will, pushed it through but he didn't feel any victory. On the contrary he felt that he had lost something.

Tseng stood there over the blood-soaked body. One of the thugs that stood there as backup muttered, "Ya want, we shud dispose of him now, Boss?" If Tseng had found mafia movies entertaining, he would have realized that this was said in classic thug fashion. Rufus did love his token thugs but for some reason, throwing Tseng in the mix was the most crucial element of all to this twisted formula.

"Yes, please do. The usual place, Marco, and see that this mess is cleaned up," he replied coldly as he tried not to follow the urge to watch the smoke rising from the barrel of his gun. His stomach felt like dead weight, the only thing assuring him he lived. He had to get out of here… Turning, he silently left the cell, heading for the only particular place he felt he could go for comfort…

tbc?