7. Darkness closing in...

AN; This chapter was sponsored by Tishanna, Lady Nephenee Ranulf, Tirnam'Bas, turtlerad17, Kit Thespian, Emerald drake, Shinz and Megami Murasaki!

Shera smiled awkwardly to the nurse who took the final blood sample, folding her hands in her lap after the cotton was pressed to the wound in her arm. Cid had withheld most of the information when he'd somewhat explained why she had to come to Midgar, but she knew it had something to do with the Jenova cells in his body. The virus that Hojo had injected into him to save him from the virus created by Jinrei.

The door was slammed open and the pilot she'd just been thinking about came stomping into the room. He wouldn't meet her eyes as he halted beside her. He hadn't met her eyes for weeks now. Not for real. "I gotta take the gang to the creepy place where Sephiroth tends to ram a sword through Aeris..."

Blinking surprised, Shera tried to contain her worry. "The Cetra Capital? Why?"

"Dunnow." Cid crossed his arms tensely. "Flower girl had some dream, apparently. I'm just the pilot. I fly where they tell me."

The brunette fought against the urge to reach out and touch his arm. "I see..." Despite that he was standing right beside her, within reach, it felt like the Captain was miles away. "Please be careful, Captain..."

Cid exhaled sharply and tensed even worse. "Did they... The test...?"

Shera shook her head. "They just took the final blood sample now. The results wouldn't be clear until tomorrow. At best." She hesitated. "Cid...?"

He made a grumbling sound.

"What's really going on? Why am I here?" Shera stared at her fingers nervously fidgeting with each other. "I know you said Hojo wanted to make sure I was alright, but..."

Cid swallowed hard. Didn't reply.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Shera sighed. She hadn't really expected an answer either. Just as she opened her eyes again, Shera saw Cid's hand gently place itself over both of hers. She trembled weakly, so endlessly grateful for the simple touch.

"The men who took Zefiris... They're after anyone with Jenova cells..." Cid's voice was unusually calm. Almost gentle. "Hojo said that because of the cells in me, that you... That the... He just wanted to make sure that you ain't got any of Jenova in you, okay?"

Shera smiled faintly, nodding, but not meeting his eyes. She knew if she raised her gaze, he would retreat. Like he saw something in her eyes that wasn't there. Something that frightened him. "Thank you..."

A careful squeeze of her hands. "Ya always worry too much, Shera..." Cid reached out his free hand and stroke a brown lock of her hair behind her ear with a feather like touch.

Laughing softly, Shera leaned against his touch. "I know..." She couldn't get herself to point out the fact that she had to worry that much, simply because he never worried enough! "Will you be gone long?"

"Doubt it," Cid replied in a sigh. "Even if there is something in Aeris' dream, it can't take too long. Not like we're going on a social visit."

"And... You will be careful, right?" Shera turned her hands and clutched his lone hand covering them. "Right, Captain?"

Cid nodded, finding it almost impossible to speak. "Of course. Ain't nothing big and bad enough to finish of me, ya know!"

Shera knew of several things capable of taking her Cid away from her forever, but she feared most that it was her own condition that was the most worthy candidate of them all. How was it possible that things had turned out like this? Why couldn't she just ask him to talk to her? Really talk to her. And why couldn't he just tell her, without her having to ask? She was repeatedly accused of being intelligent, but this was beyond her. The answers was within Cid Highwind, and it didn't look like he was going to give them to her. Instead, they were both slowly suffocating. "I just... You will come back to me, right?" There was a painfully frail vulnerability to her voice.

The pilot flinched visibly and he failed at a smile. "If I ever decide to run off on ya, it wont be with Sephiroth and Hojo, ok? You just try to relax and I'll be back soon."

Shera finally gazed over at him, as the blonde was just about running out of the room. Her vision was blurry due to the tears welling up, but she could easily see the tension radiating from Cid. It was like he couldn't get away from her fast enough. It hurt so much to see him like this! Why wouldn't he let her help him?

Cid hastily stomped down the hallway, clenching and unclenching his fists as he tried to calm his breathing. It was stupid! Him getting all messed up like this... It was stupid! Shaking his head, the pilot tried to focus on the mission in front of him. The Highwind was waiting, ready to bring him home to the sky.

The Lost City was tranquil as always, covered in the eerie light of pureness. The abandoned buildings gazing emptily at the intruders stepping out of the Highwind that had just landed. The people exiting the airship was gazing around with mystified awe, with only Sephiroth and Hojo showing signs of discomfort at their whereabouts.

Holding Zefiris close, Aeris was the first to approach the crystal clear water and she watched impassively as the light suddenly began to flicker. Ignoring the small crowd gathering behind her, the flower girl kept her eyes on the shapes appearing on the water. Her parents.

Gasping softly, Ifalna took a step towards them, aching to see her grandchild for the first time. "You brought her...!"

Aeris turned slightly, shielding the child with her own body. "Don't." She saw the confusion on both her parents faces, but forced her heart to remain indifferent. "I want you to answer my questions..."

"But, baby, I..." Ifalna began, but Gast placed a hand on her shoulder to silence her. The previous scientist had scanned the people following his daughter, but was now focusing on the half-Cetra with a signal for her to ask away.

Swallowing hard, Aeris turned to face them completely again. "First, I need to know... They got Vincent with them, don't they?" She heard the others startled reactions, but didn't flinch. "I saw... Chaos. In my dream. It's free, isn't it?"

Gast nodded. "It's true. Jenova's creation found the demon's true name. It obeys him now."

Aeris closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. "What does Kadaj want with Hojo?"

Ifalna tried to speak, but Gast interfered again. "We don't know." A brief glance at the man in question, who was nothing less than glaring hatefully at the two specters. "But I suspect that she is out to recruit the one who accomplished so much in her name. Hojo is the one who has served her better than anyone else."

"Don't you DARE judge me," Hojo's voice suddenly sneered with so much hatred that it made Aeris start away from him as he stepped up beside her. "Don't you dare, you cowardly bastard!" His eyes was now almost pure gold, seething with fury. "You have no right, Gast. Not you." There was baring of teeth more than a smile. "You had no trouble experimenting on my child, did you? You preformed all those tests on my child, easing your guilt with kind words to him, but when your Cetra came to expect your own child... You ran."

Gast lifted his chin slightly, eyes flickering with pain. "There was nothing I could do for Sephiroth. You gave him to our... to ShinRa's research. It was your choice. Not mine."

Chuckling a venomous laugh, Hojo shook his head. "Is that what you keep telling yourself?" His eyes narrowed. "You knew. YOU KNEW!" The accusation was screamed loud enough for it to echo several times, hammering the anger at Gast as Hojo forced himself calm again. "You knew something was wrong. With me. With Lucrecia. But you didn't do anything. Nothing! You just looked away." Now there was clear disgust in Hojo's eyes. "You were good at that, I remember. You were the expert at looking the other way. But then... Ifalna told you about her being pregnant. And there was no way you were going to experiment on YOUR child, right?" He clutched his hands into tight fists, failing to see Sephiroth gazing with disbelief at the Gast he'd always worshipped. "Because YOUR child... She was special. She was innocent."

Stuttering something, Gast failed to meet both Sephiroth's and Aeris' eyes. "I couldn't... It wasn't..."

"Like Sephiroth wasn't innocent? Like he had done something to deserve your lack of protecting him as well?" Hojo persisted, trembling with the urge to rip the ghostly image of his previous mentor to pieces. "Jenova poisoned me and Lucrecia. And you let it happen. You just looked the other way." A choked laugh. "No wonder I had to hunt you down and shoot you like the fiend you are!" Eerie eyes shot over to glare at Ifalna. "And you...! You can just pity someone who actually give a damn!"

Ifalna managed a faint smile, wrapping her arms around herself. "I remember the last time I saw you..."

Hojo tensed even worse, just about growling. "Shut up."

"You thought I wouldn't remember?" Ifalna tilted her head slightly, her kind eyes resting gently on him. "I was dying, but I remember..."

"Shut up, I said!" Hojo took a step away.

The female specter came a little closer, her smile never fading. "I remember how you left the door unlocked to my cell, Hojo... I remember how you let me escape."

A throbbing head ache was threatening to make Hojo pass out, so he clutched his head hard. He remembered too. In a moment of weakness, a moment of sanity, he'd given her the chance to escape. Given her the chance to make sure that her child didn't suffer the same fate as his. It was one of the few memories he had from back then. "Then you remember a dream. Like I would let my precious specimen go? Heh, I must have miscalculated the drugs they used on you!" Hojo turned away, feeling so tired by now that he could simply collapse into a heap of anger issues. "You called your offspring here. Don't waste her time."

Almost dizzy by what had been revealed, Aeris finally managed to take her eyes away from Hojo and sent her father a horrified look. She was supposed to have shared Sephiroth's fate? Her father had tried to save her, but abandoned the silver haired child to his fate? The only reason for her freedom, and Sephiroth's horror of a childhood, was Gast's DNA in her? "I don't..."

Gast came closer as well, desperate to remove that look from his daughters face. "Aeris, please... You have to understand...!"

Aeris shook her head. "No..." She clutched Zefiris close again. "Why did you call me here? Why did you tell me to bring Zefiris?"

"Baby, we're your parents," Ifalna said in a soft voice. "We love you!"

"I love you too," Aeris whispered and took a step away. "But I don't trust you...!"

A moment of silence, then Gast forced himself to speak. "Jenova is gathering the cells she left in this world. Your last battle injured her to the brink of death, so she needs to gather her cells. Everyone having the Jenova cells within them is open targets for retrieval." He paused briefly. "That includes you, Aeris, and Zefiris."

"We asked you to come here so we could help you," Ifalna explained. "The Cetra cells within your body is capable of defeating the Jenova cells with a little help from us."

Aeris frowned slightly. "Can't you do that with everyone?"

"Sadly, the Cetra cells do not function like the Jenova virus," Gast declared silently and gazed down. "The human body would only reject any Cetra cells, while the Jenova virus will mutate to infect the host. You and Zefiris have dormant Cetra cells in you. If we activate them, they will destroy the Jenova cells."

Glancing over at Sephiroth and Cid, Aeris blinked confused. "But there has to be some way to remove the Jenova cells from them as well?"

"I'm sorry, baby," Ifalna gazed down as well. "We've never been able to find a cure for the Jenova virus. The mutations only end when the body ceases to function."

"I don't believe that!" Aeris exclaimed, feeling her frustration tear at her. "There has to be some way...!" Her rant was interrupted as a hand landed gently on her shoulder and she gazed hastily over, only to meet Sephiroth's eerily calm eyes.

Giving a faint smile, the silver haired man nodded towards the lake. "Let them do their thing." He didn't let her object a second time. "We'll deal with what to do with us mere mortals later, but this way will make sure that at least you and Zefy are safe."

At that moment, Aeris wanted to slap Sephiroth for merely thinking about her and their daughter, using logic against her, and not caring that she would die anyway if anything happened to him. Her shoulders slumped in defeat, and the flower girl nodded. "For Zefiris' sake..."

Everyone watched as Aeris slowly waded into the lake, still holding her daughter close, and Ifalna moved over to whisper a few words to the half-Cetra. The reply seemed to sadden the female specter, and a moment later; Aeris returned to the people waiting for her. She wouldn't meet Sephiroth's eyes or glance back at the lone figure of her father. "Let's go."

"That's it?" Rufus asked, having almost expected a light from above or some chanting at least!

"That's it." Aeris declared quietly, walking towards the airship. "We'd better return to Midgar."

Cid opened his mouth to demand an explanation, but Sephiroth shook his head at the pilot, then followed the flower girl. He knew Aeris had hoped there would be a cure for them all here in the Cetra capital, instead she had received a truth about her father that she'd been happier not knowing and confirmation that the Cetra truly only cared for their own. Sephiroth could feel how the usually so optimistic Aeris was now heavily weighed down by dark thoughts. Then the world began to twist and turn in front of him.

Barret reached out his human arm when Sephiroth suddenly stumbled, and a good grip on his neck was the only thing that prevented the silver haired man from crashing to his knees. "Hey, you ok?"

Shrugging free, Sephiroth drew a deep breath, trying to fight off whatever seemed to want to suck him into darkness. "Yeah. Sure. Stumbled. Thanks." He hurried after Aeris before anyone else noticed, wondering why he had for a moment remembered being in the Northern Crater with Yazoo and Loz...

"Man, I can't believe this!" Reno whined out loud, flinging out his arms. "I mean, here we are; Turks! The biggest, coolest, scariest tough guys in Midgar! Ready to slit throats at the command of our President, and remove every obstacle in his way, reaching for world domination! And what are we doing?"

Rude sent him a blank look covered by his sun glasses.

"Baby sitting!" The red head exclaimed even louder, pointing at the puzzled Raito gazing at him while colouring on the wall with a crayon.

"Orders." Rude finally muttered as Reno kept staring at him.

Scoffing, Reno crossed his arms with a sullen look. "And if you were ordered to put on a pink tutu and dance around in Midgar, would you do that too?" He cut a face. "Wait. Don't answer that. I really don't wanna know."

Rude complied and didn't answer, merely returned to folding clothes.

Reno paced for a few more minutes, then came to a halt again to start complaining anew. "But this really sucks, man! There's our President, out among the crazies, and what does he do? He leaves his precious bodyguards behind! What kinda messed up logic is that?"

Slowly placing neatly folded clothing upon his already impressive pile, Rude stroke a meditative hand over it. He knew Reno was worried about Rufus. In the past, he always had to worry about his partner's explosive temper, but lately it had seemed that he'd started getting it under control, but that was until lately. Up until Rufus had began pushing his luck, ever since the doctors told him to take it easy after the incident where Sephiroth saved his life.

"He just said that he wanted us to stay with the brats, and that he wasn't going alone!" Reno daintily stepped over Elena, where she had fallen into an exhausted sleep on the floor, covered by the ShinRa twins, and stalked over to the window. "Like them AVALANCHE morons knows how to keep the President alive? They're not loyal like us!"

Rude finally glanced over. "Tifa wont let any harm come to him."

Like always, Rude's calm voice had some soothing effect on Reno, but he couldn't help how his shoulders was iron tense and his knuckles white from clutching his fists painfully hard. "She wasn't there when the helicopter exploded, or when the building fell on him, was she now?"

By not always speaking, but observing, Rude learned how to read people. He could tell the reason behind their words, and find the words they didn't say but needed to be said. The Turk didn't have to use more than a fraction of this skill to know that Reno was blaming himself for not being there for Rufus, not Tifa, and a deep fear was lodged in him that one day it would be too late. Being a Turk was all that he had. Well, that and... A glance at the sleeping blonde, and Rude sighed. He could have used some of her feminine mind games she tended to play on Reno. "He's the boss, Reno. We follow his orders."

"Even when he's acting like an idiot?" Reno snapped angrily, not turning to face his partner.

Smiling faintly, Rude barely withheld the urge to declare that it was probably something that ran in the family. Reno didn't like it when he mentioned his blood relation to Rufus ShinRa. He probably suspected that Rude knew how much his cousin mattered to him, the only family that had actually cared for the troubled red-head. "Yes."

Reno snorted, but the simple answer seemed to take away his fighting spirit. Rude was right, and Reno knew it. There was nothing they could do. Rufus gave an order, and as Turks, they had to obey it. "He wouldn't have put Tseng to baby sit kids..."

Now there was a tinge of resignation in Reno's voice, and Rude closed his eyes briefly. The former leader of the Turks would forever be a ghost over Reno's shoulder. Instead of focusing on how to do things his way, Reno had a bad habit of thinking about Tseng would have done. It seemed as if Reno could only rely on his anger and how to take a life to be his best qualities. "True." Rude added a shrug. "Because he would have killed the children within ten minutes. Five, if they touched his hair."

Feeling Rude's gaze on him, Reno tried, but lost, against the urge to laugh. Turning to glance back at his Turk partner, the red head grinned. "I'm still pissed, yo!"

Rude nodded. "Of course."

Reno wandered over to pick up Raito. "We're Turks! Assassins for hire! Not baby-sitters!"

Picking up his pile of clothes, Rude moved over to place them in the closet. "Indeed."

Hoisting the blonde child, Reno met the deep blue eyes that reflected the lost Strife in them. "What do ya say, kid? Wanna help uncle Reno kick the President's ass later?"

Kadaj heard Yazoo calling his name from far away. Like in a dream. Slowly he realised that he wasn't dreaming, that there was a tone of fear in his brother's voice, and his mind slowly became filled with pain. What was going on? The last thing he remembered was being on his motorcycle, followed by Loz and Yazoo, when suddenly the world had began to twist and turn in front of his eyes.

"Kadaj! Come on!" This time it was Loz. He sounded on the verge of starting to cry again.

Trying so hard to open his eyes, Kadaj heard Yazoo telling Loz to keep his act together, and that crying wouldn't solve a damn thing! Typical. Yazoo was about as sensitive as a rock. And yet he was the one Loz sought out to get comfort after his nightmares.

"Kadaj?" Yazoo again, and someone was gently shaking him.

A weak groan, and Kadaj finally felt himself return to life. The light hurt his eyes for a moment, but he caught the relieved looks on his brothers and allowed them to help him sit up. "What... happened?"

Loz had an almost painful grip on his upper arm. "You fell!"

Yazoo kept studying his face carefully. "You passed out, or something, and lost control over your bike. You've been out for hours."

"Hours?" Kadaj tried to remember, but everything had just turned black, like someone had switched off the light. Wait. Kadaj tensed slightly and frowned. He did remember something. He remembered a brightly coloured bag containing sweets. He remembered the half-Cetra in a green winter jacket. He remembered... Sephiroth's past.

"You ok?" Yazoo tilted his head, searching Kadaj's eyes. "You got hurt pretty bad."

Nodding, Kadaj made sign for them to help him up and swayed slightly to regain his balance. "It was... Mother's will."

"It's happening." Chaos' voice suddenly slithered into the conversation, like an unwelcome guest.

Kadaj laughed silently, not sure why a tinge of fear was threatening to choke him. "Yes, demon. It is." He didn't have to turn around to know that the demon was hovering behind him, and that it could smell the change in him. Why did it scare him, if it was Mother's will? A tiny voice screamed inside Kadaj that it was because he wanted to live!

Yazoo frowned, but remained silent, unlike Loz who started to voice his relief at seeing Kadaj alright again.

Barely listening, Kadaj gazed into the distance with an uneasy feeling. The change had begun. He should be happy. Instead, there was this lump in his stomach and fear lurking at the corners of his mind. He didn't like being afraid. He had to do what Mother wished. And she wanted Sephiroth. Even if it meant that she didn't love Kadaj as much as Sephiroth, he had to make her happy. Mother's will came above everything.

It was in moments like this that Yazoo felt like reaching out to touch Kadaj's shoulder. In these rare moments, he wanted his younger brother to talk to him. Look at him with the eyes of an innocent teenager, and not the maniacal look of a soldier. Yazoo knew it was more and more seldom that he got to see these looks on Kadaj, and he was almost relieved to see a taint of uncertainty and fear in him. What good was it to follow Mother's will, if it would cost him his brother? Yazoo didn't know Jenova, hadn't seen her or talked to her, never hugged her or felt her fists in anger, but Kadaj was real to him. Kadaj was his brother.

Loz gazed from one to the other, giving Chaos a nervous smile, then cleared his throat. "So, uh... What now?"

Like snapping out of a dream, Kadaj glanced back at them. "Our goal is closer. Mother is very pleased."

Loz grinned happily, while Yazoo merely tilted his head with an expressionless face.

"We're going to the Lost City," Kadaj stated, returning to his normal self as the seconds passed.

Yazoo frowned again. "The Cetra capital? Why?"

Kadaj got a mean look. "They think they can interfere in our mission and get away with it? They have to be taught a lesson!"

Walking over to their motorcycles, Yazoo felt the unease spread through him once more. He ignored Loz trying to make sure that Kadaj was really in shape to be riding again so soon after his collapse, and wondered if Kadaj meant to start a war against all Cetra. And if that would include Aeris.

Yazoo did not want to know why that thought troubled him.

Back in Midgar, Aeris gazed emptily out of the window, showing no reaction when Sephiroth stepped up beside her. "Someone has to tell Rain."

Nodding, Sephiroth didn't take his worried eyes off the half-Cetra. "Barret is on his way to her now. Said he would deal with it. It's not something you tell over the PHS, right?"

Aeris didn't reply.

A moment passed, then Sephiroth sighed and closed his eyes. "You can't let it get to you. You worry too much."

"And what would I be worrying too much about then?" Aeris asked, with a rare amount of snark in her voice. "Would that be the fact that I just made my own life safe, while you and the others are still in danger? Or the fact that my father decided I was more worth than you, because I carry his precious genes, so he abandoned the man I love to a childhood of horrors? I can list up more, so feel free to make this a multiple choice!"

Placing his hands on her shoulders and forcing her to turn and face him, Sephiroth held her gaze sternly. "Now you listen to me, girl. With you and Zefiris safe, that's two more safe from Jenova. What good would it do with you in danger as well, except to soothe your ego by thinking that you should suffer with me. Noble, but stupid, Aeris." He ignored the shocked and offended look on her face. "As for your father's choice... That's what it was; Gast's choice. It didn't have anything to do with you. And it's in the past. We can't change that. We just have to live with it."

Aeris' eyes filled with tears. "I should have been there with you... Maybe if I had, then you wouldn't have been so lonely... It wouldn't have been so horrible if you had someone to share the horror with..."

Sephiroth smiled faintly, stroking a lock of her hair away with a loving touch. "The horror was worth it if it meant that you were safe, Aeris. I would never want anyone to go through what I did. Never." He then winked at her. "And I doubt we would have had much in common. Imagine what Hojo could have done if he had pictures of you braiding my hair as a kid!"

Giggling silently, Aeris merely placed her arms around him and hugged him tight. "Have I mentioned that I love you lately?"

Sephiroth hummed thoughtfully, placing his own arms around her and savoured the smell of flowers. "You stand free to mention it at any moment."

The flower girl closed her eyes and absorbed the strength in his mere presence. His firm presence in her arms. Her safety in his arms. He offered her a light in the darkness, and she couldn't help herself but to accept. "How's Hojo?"

Opening his eyes with a start, like someone had dragged their nails across a chalkboard, Sephiroth snorted surprised. "What?"

Aeris leaned back to gaze up at him with a patient look. "The trip to the Lost City really shook him up. I think it was pretty hard for him to face his past again."

"Really?" Sephiroth mused, playing with the end of her braid. "That guy seems to be pretty unmovable, you know. I doubt anything fazes him."

"You're wrong," Aeris stated. "Hojo is one of the few who suffers from his past as badly as you do. Maybe even worse." She saw the doubt in the reptile eyes. "He keeps blaming himself for failing you, your mother, and everyone he ever cared about." The words 'care about' seemed to make Sephiroth even more puzzled. Like the concept of Hojo being able to care about anything was completely foreign to him. "Did you know that he defied the Cetra to stay with us during my labour?"

Sephiroth slowly shook his head. "No, I... But he's always mean!"

"He wants the world to hate him, like he hates himself," Aeris explained silently. "He doesn't think he deserves forgiveness."

Sephiroth clenched his jaw. "Maybe he doesn't?"

Aeris smiled sadly. "You felt the same way once, remember? And I do believe that he regrets his past as much as you did." She absently played with the straps on his armour. "If things had been different, and Jenova's hold over you hadn't been broken, you might have shared his fate. Hojo's curse was that he didn't have someone strong enough to stop him before it was too late..."

Sephiroth sighed, the bitter taste of defeat spreading through him. "I know..." He sighed. "I've known all along."

Stroking his arm reassuringly, Aeris leaned up to steal a light kiss. "Maybe it's time Hojo has suffered enough? You think you're strong enough to fight him?"

"I told him showing that picture meant war," Sephiroth grinned weakly. "But I'll be honest, this is one fight I'm not looking forward to."

A light shake of the small object, and two pills tumbled out into Rufus' awaiting hand. The ShinRa president sighed and hesitated only briefly before tossing the painkillers into his mouth and chased them down with a sip of water. His back was aching infernally since that trip to the Lost City. Shots of pain traveled down his spine and legs. A constant throbbing, only interrupted by the occasional jab of starting agony if he did a sudden turn or something.

There were days when the pain was gone, when he felt like his old self, but then there was the bad days.

Like this one.

"Hey, I wanna talk to you!"

Rufus closed his eyes, slipping the pills back into his pocket, feeling anything but up to the well-meaning abuse he was going to receive from his cousin. Reno had been acting like a second shadow to Rufus ever since he'd gotten hurt during the fight against Jinrei. "What?"

Reno stomped over to stand in front of the desk, waiting until Rufus turned to face him, before sticking his chin out. "I'm not your kids' nanny, yo!"

Absently rubbing two fingers to his temples, Rufus wondered briefly if he was coming down with a Reno-headache again. The guy had a nasty habit of storming into his office and speaking his mind. The headaches always followed such a scene. "I am aware of that, Reno. It was an emergency."

Reno glared for a moment, then shifted uneasily. "You look like shit."

"Why, thank you," Rufus managed an obviously fake smile as he flicked his hair back. "You certainly know how to charm your employer."

This time, Reno scowled. "You didn't have to go to the Lost place, Rufus. They didn't need you there, and still you had to butt in. And now you're hurting, right?"

Rufus clenched his jaw, hating it when he was wrong and Reno was right. Especially if it was Reno. "I'm fine." The words came out through gritted teeth in pure anger.

"Fine, my ass," Reno scoffed and sat down on the edge of the desk. "You gotta stop this crazy act of yours, Rufus. Or you're gonna end up in that wheelchair permanently. That what you want?"

The thought sent a shiver of dread through Rufus, and he tensed defensively. "Crazy act?"

Reno gesticulated faintly. "You know... All this running around, jumping, climbing trees stuff. The doctors said you'd be fine eventually. But not if you keep this up, yo." A small hesitation. "It's okay that you got hurt. Cloud and his gang stuck me in a hospital for ages, remember? No one expects you to be some Sephiroth, yo."

Flinching like Reno had struck him right across his face, Rufus' eyes narrowed and he drew a slow breath. "Get up."

"What?" Reno glanced up from studying his nails.

Rufus stared furiously at the red head. "You're sitting on my desk, Turk. Get. Up." He saw the wariness enter Reno's eyes as he slowly raised his lanky form and measured the other man. "Do I have to remind you that you're still my employee? That you work for me? That I am your superior?"

Placing his hands on the desk, leaning forward, Reno pierced his cousin with a deadly gaze that would send most men cowering. "Obviously." There was a dangerous calm over the paid murderer that would have caused Rude to frown and Elena to jump to his side. It was the calm that revealed the raw violence just underneath Reno's skin.

"What I do with my life is my business," Rufus declared icily. "Stay out of it, Turk. You're paid to do what you're told, not to interfere where you're not wanted."

Reno smiled like a razor blade, leaning even closer. "In that case... You may take the money you're paying me, and shove it. Sir."

Nausea. Rufus could feel it spread through him as he watched his cousin walk out of the office and silently close the door behind him. He had to struggle against the urge to call him back. To apologize. To tell him that he understood that Reno was just concerned. That he appreciated it, but he would be fine. Swallowing hard, Rufus sank down into his chair and stared emptily ahed.

Reno couldn't quit, could he?

Pulling his hands through his hair, Rufus exhaled painfully. Why had he gotten so angry? There was no reason for him to pull rank, knowing it was the worst thing he could do to Reno because of his past. Because of the reason Reno became a Turk. Rufus knew, and he'd used it to avoid having to admit that his father still had a hold on him from beyond the grave.

Rufus had hurt a person who actually cared about him because Rufus' father had taught him that ShinRa's do not bleed. Do not cry. And do not show any kind of weakness.

There was a loud crash as everything was swept off a desk in anger.

Then there was silence, and loneliness.

AN; As always, huge thanks to you people who took the time to read and review, for your support in my writing and your patience for the updates! You are the reason why this story just keeps going! This time I haven't had time to reply to every review, and I'm truly sorry for that, but I hope that you'll forgive me when I say that I spent the time writing this chapter instead so it would actually get updated this month! I just hope you all like!