The captain of the guards moved the privacy curtain aside and shoved Zack next to the bed. "Here is the man you wanted, Lady Tifa."
"Thank you, Barret. Was he alone?" Tifa asked him.
"No, he came here with his cousin." Barret replied.
"Interesting…in five minutes, fetch me the cousin as well." she ordered him.
"Yes, Lady Tifa." Barret departed to find the cousin and keep an eye on him until the five minutes were up. He flexed his new prosthetic hand, having been ordered to replace his gun arm when he became captain of the guards. His new prosthetic was still weaponized though, as a flamethrower. The only problem was that he had to keep the small fuel tank in his arm full at all times, and it only worked for short periods of time, but when you could shoot flames out of your hand, you didn't need much time to win a fight anyway.
Zack listened to the exchange, feeling the dread in his stomach growing. He felt like he had just been sent to the principal's office, in a school where corporal and capital punishment were forms of entertainment. And being this close to Tifa as she lay propped up in the bed, she was so different from the girl he remembered…she may have grown up into a beautiful woman, but there was something chilling lurking under her attractive surface. And her beauty was slightly marred by how strained she seemed right now, and the bruises on her neck might have something to do with it. They were in the shape of a large hand with somewhat slender fingers. Who was beating her? Was that why she seemed to have no humanity anymore?
"Get on the bed." she commanded him.
"Excuse me?" That was the last thing Zack had expected her to say, but he cautiously sat on the very edge of the bed, trying to figure a way to get away from her without arousing suspicion.
"It's been a long time since I've had an unwilling bedmate." Tifa smiled in a way that made Zack feel like he had just turned into a giant bullseye. "Now strip and mount me." she ordered him, her smile fading into a warning frown.
"I don't think…" Zack started to say when Tifa suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the sunglasses off his face.
"I knew it was you! Only the honorable Zack Fair would have to be told repeatedly to get into bed with me." Tifa spat out the word honorable and her face turned ugly as she backhanded him with all her might. "How dare you show up here, still the same, while the rest of us had to…how dare you!" she ranted at him, her voice full of venomed madness. "I should summon the guards right now…those mako eyes alone are enough reason to have you executed!" Tifa finally calmed down just as Reno appeared, shoved in by Barret. "That will be all for now, Captain. Go enjoy yourself with the centerpiece." Tifa wanted to get rid of him before he saw Zack's eyes.
"Thank you, Lady Tifa." Barret bowed his head briefly before heading to the stage.
"Now, I was just about to tell your cousin here that I have no interest in having either of you executed yet. I think we can help each other, since we probably all want the same thing…a regime change." Tifa stared hard at Reno, trying to place him. He looked almost familiar, but not quite. "Who are you?" she asked him.
"Call me Slick." he retorted, not at all trusting of her help. "You've already met my cousin Carson."
"You can't be First Class, they're all dead, or at least all but two. So if you want my help, you'll tell me who you are." Tifa snapped at him. "It really doesn't matter to me if you live or die, after all I don't need your help." Tifa pointed out while she and Reno just glared at each other until Zack spoke up.
"He's the last of the Turks." Zack admitted.
"So that's why…" Tifa said, remembering that day.
Tifa kept her face expressionless as she surveyed the carnage. She checked the bodies of the Turks still intact for vital signs. Her life was nothing but death and destruction now, and she was becoming used to it, especially once her barren state was discovered. Tifa considered it a double-edged sword, she felt blessed to not bring a child into ugliness surrounding her now, while at the same time feeling like she was also being punished for what she had become, and she involuntarily shuddered at the punishment Sephiroth with Cloud's help had already put her through. She approached the scene of the explosion and the two stacked bodies. The man on top turned his head to look at her as she stepped up to them.
"He's dead too." Rude told Tifa. "You don't have to check him. See?" Rude grabbed one of Reno's arms, lifting it up and dropping it, glad Reno's unconscious state made him suitably limp.
Tifa stared at Rude for a few moments before looking to see if Sephiroth or Cloud was watching her, then shrugged. "Fine, but you still have to die."
"I know." Rude said. "Just please leave his body alone."
"I will." Tifa promised as she picked up a sharp piece of metal shrapnel off the ground and crudely slit Rude's throat, almost enjoying it as the start of her sometimes not-so-subtle rebellion against Sephiroth's orders.
"You!" Reno nearly shouted as he shot forward, pinning Tifa down onto the bed and starting to strangle her. "I could kill you for that alone." Reno snapped at her, thinking of how he only survived after that day by breaking into all the Turks' residences, including his own, and stealing whatever money and valuables he could find to change his appearance and live off of until he could avenge them. He died a second death having to rob their graves, so to speak, and a dozen more times since that day.
"You won't kill me though, because of what I can offer you." Tifa calmly replied when Zack pulled Reno off her enough for her to speak again.
"That's not why I won't kill you." Reno said when Tifa had finished explaining her offer. "It's because you're already dead…you're nothing but a rotting corpse." Reno sneered at her as he turned to Zack. "Come on, let's get Yuffie and get out of here." He pushed opened the curtain for Zack to leave first. "We'll find Aerith for you later, if she's still alive."
Tifa felt something snap inside her when Reno said Aerith's name, and she launched herself off the bed, tackling Zack, and they rolled on the floor til they collided with the stage. "No! You can't have her!" Tifa screamed at Zack as she started hitting him repeatedly.
"Here's the girl, my Lord." Cloud told Sephiroth. "She's still alive, but her eyes are bleeding. Shall I kill her now?"
"I've got a better idea for her, if she lives." Tifa interrupted, looking at the injured girl. "If she really is an Ancient, she could breed with Cloud, and his children would be Ancients as well."
"That is worth keeping her alive for." Sephiroth agreed.
"But I think it would be best if she volunteered to do it, in case she could cause herself to lose the babies." Tifa continued.
"And why would she want to turn herself into a brood mare?" Sephiroth questioned her.
"Because she'll want to please her caretaker." Tifa smiled sweetly.
"Very well." Sephiroth nodded. "See to it…but she'll be your responsibility, so if she fails, so do you, and you will have suffer her atonement as well as your own, understand?"
"Yes, my Lord. I will not fail!" Tifa swore, and she found a first aid kit, gently cleaning the blood off Aerith's face. The girl was unconscious, which made it easier. And she looked so fragile that Tifa didn't foresee any trouble with breaking her, but she was going to do it carefully, making sure she'd end up with someone as devoted to her as Cloud was to Sephiroth. "You hear that?" Tifa asked her. "You're mine now, and you always will be!"