Author's Prologue: Thank you so much for the reviews! I'm so glad that even after this was dormant for so long I still get surprise reviews on my e-mail. Thank you, by the way to A Morning Star who taught me a little something about motorcycles. In hindsight I should've researched what it was called. :D

I've been so busy with just about everything: Football, law, foreign languages, editing TV commercials... I have this Strategic Management class which took over my life and made itself an unofficial major subject. My prof is like this guy who likes to play intimidating mind games with people and so I wrote like 70 pages of pure meat for a case study just so I could meet his challenge. The feedback was worth those sleepless nights, especially coming from him! You see, my prof's a nice guy, he just likes belittling undergrads who come from my course and others similar to it. ^.^;

I wrote this story on my 5-hour break in our school Conservatory, because I wanted to rest what was left of my brains from this crazy term I have as a senior. I'm doing my thesis and dissertation next term (A few months from now! And I say term because I belong to a system called TRIMESTRAL...) so I'm probably going to finish this soon. Then again if I don't finish it, our thesis is supposed to be written within a month... (Crazy, I know.) So we'll see. Just rest assured I won't drop this without an ending.

Forgive me if there are some flaws, grammar errors, typo errors, the usual bad stuff. I hope it doesn't take away from the story. (If my earlier readers still even remember the previous chapters, cause I certainly had to reread!) The bad thing about being on hiatus in relation to writing stuff like this is forgetting the twists in the plot. D:

Thanks for taking time to read my rant, I mean, notes. ;D

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE RUNAROUND

Here he was again.

He watched the golden liquid swirl as he tilted his wine glass about. It had been exactly two weeks and three days since the search began for the phantoms who kidnapped the children. The same phantoms that stole Materias from shops, leaving only a footprint that lead to a dead end.

He set down his glass and watched the black-haired beauty tend the bar. She had been silent, contemplative, but mostly she had been ignoring his presence as best she can. When he ordered his favorite glass of wine, she had scowled. He remembers the more poisonous looks she used to throw him in the past.

The front door banged and Yuffie bounded in, "Tifa!" she said in between heaves of breath, "We found Cloud! Or… wait… I mean traces! Traces of Cloud."

Rufus looked from one girl to another. Tifa's brows raised but nothing else in her posture had changed. She continued polishing her glass.

"Tifa?" Yuffie asked, suddenly looking unsure of her good news.

Tifa sighed for what seemed like a long time, "I had thought…" she began, selecting her words carefully. She set down the glass, "Truth be told, I care more about the children than anything else."

"Okay… But don't you want to find out at least where he's been all this time?" Yuffie asked, looking worriedly at her friend.

Tifa shrugged, "Not really." She hooked the glass over her head, "He's a big boy."

"Well I'll tell you anyway. Remember that guy you told me about, with the cap?"

"Is this the guy who was near the Materia shop with the footprint?" Rufus Shinra chimed in.

"Yes, that one! Well it seems people have been a bit restless seeing him walking around. No one knows who he is. I repeat," Yuffie put her finger in the air and shook it for emphasis, "NO ONE." She slid into a stool beside Shinra, "So anyway, Vincent followed him around one day and bam! He found the apartment."

"Apartment?" Tifa echoed.

"Yes! He was right under our noses all this time! He rented a cheap apartment in the city square. And I mean really cheap. I almost fainted because of the smell! This apartment is in a really bad state…"

"How did you find out it was him?" Rufus asked, a bit impatiently.

"Okay, okay! I was getting to that part! Geez…" Yuffie tossed her head indignantly, "His stuff was there. His old clothes with the silver lion-head? Stashed under the bed," she made a gesture that looked as if she were inserting something beneath a blanket.

"Well I suppose now he knows you've been there," Tifa said flatly.

"Vincent's there. Just waiting,"

"I don't think he'll go back there. He may be a lot of things, but he's not stupid," Tifa told them, "At least not often."

"Oh, Tif…" Yuffie said in a small voice, "We'll get him to come back…"

"I don't need him to come back! I just want to know if the kids are fine!"

The shrillness with which Tifa said these words surprised even herself. Every face in Seventh Heaven turned to look at her, a sort of sympathy mixed in with some people's drunkedness.

"I'm sorry," Tifa put her head in her hands, "Sometimes I think I'm going crazy. I go upstairs and see those drawings Marlene and Denzel did of our family…" her voice turned smaller, "I feel like such a failure. I can't even look Barrett in the eye. Barrett has made a mistake leaving them to me…"

Rufus put a hand to her shoulder, "You did all you could. They shot you, remember? No on has blamed you for their disappearance, Tifa. You did all you could."

Tifa took a deep breath. She sucked in all the disappointment and the tears, adding up to the tightening feeling to her chest, "I've had enough of this."

"What do you mean?" Rufus asked as he took back his hand.

"This! YOU! I mean, you come in here everyday without any news. I feel like everything's a mind-game with you, and that I will never get answers!" Tifa's feelings of resentment with this blonde man sitting in her bar came back to her in a familiar jolt.

"We've been working on it. I assure you," Rufus raised his hands, in mock surprise and defeat, "But you haven't answered me regarding my offer…"

"This is what it's about isn't it? Either I take your offer and find out the progress on this case, or I don't take your offer and stay in the dark. I hit it right on the nail, didn't I?" Tifa's voice had become low and venomous.

"Perhaps…"

"Damnit! FINE! I take your stupid offer!"

"Now, now. I don't want you to make rash decisions. You realize you would have to leave this…" Rufus waved his hands in the air, "… charming place in someone else's hands. Because you're going to be very busy. You are going to be one of the best Turks I ever had, I'm sure."

"WHAT? Wait a second. Tifa is not a Turk, she's one of us!" Yuffie said, wanting to get into the middle of things.

"I've thought this through. I always knew this was your intention. I always knew you were going to find a way to get what you want. And you act surprised when you find out how so many people hate you. It's too late to change, Shinra. You have been evil all your life. Small acts of kindness cannot mask what you really are."

Tifa threw her towel onto the sink and ducked underneath the counter.

"Hey, where are you going?" Yuffie stood up as Tifa approached the stairs.

"To call for someone to take over while I'm gone. The sooner I find the kids, the sooner I get rid of this… This hateful man!"

Tifa took the first three steps before spinning back round and marching down the stairs. She stood at the bottom, staring intently at Rufus Shinra's direction, "I want a deal."

"I'm listening…" Shinra answered quietly.

"When we solve this case, I will no longer be a part of your stupid army."

Shinra seemed to ponder this, "I'll tell you what. You have the option to leave, but don't write this job out just yet. You may find it is to your… liking."

Tifa's lips drew back in disgust at this man who she hated and yet tolerated for days and days in this place that was her home, "I seriously doubt that."

In the following days, Tifa had seen less and less of her home above Seventh Heaven, the Turks had been working in separate areas, trying to gather more information. Tifa did not wear the pretentious suits that Tseng and the others did. This was her only form of protest. She was convinced that Shinra had blackmailed her to do his bidding.

But in truth, being a Turk has allowed her to have access to all information. It allowed her to find possible angles, develop several theories on the possible motives behind all these kidnappings.

She came across the folder called "The Phantom Cases" quite by accident.

Here was a wealth of information about the missing Materias, complete with the number and kinds of Materias stolen, along with the exact addresses of the Materia shops that were hit.

On another folder called "Profiles" she saw the names of Denzel of Marlene, along with a dozen other names. She clicked one open randomly and recognized the face on the photo as the wife of one of her patrons in Seventh Heaven.

The file had information on her name, her age, the names of her spouse and children, of her work place, and her last known sighting…

This was a list of the people who had disappeared. There wasn't just two, but over a dozen people who were suspected of disappearing by the hands of the "Phantoms". And all this time, Shinra had been keeping this secret from them. The man was intolerable, but this changes things.

Tifa first had the suspicion that this was the same as before, of the kidnappings of children with Geostigma. She had began to fear the worst, that this had another connection to Genova. But looking through the profiles of the missing people, some were old, aged over 50, some were kids coming into their teenage years. There did not seem to be a pattern that she could observe or flesh out.

"I was waiting for you to find those files," Tifa almost jumped out of her skin at the drawling voice. She was too absorbed on the screen to notice Shinra's entrance.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" she turned and asked him.

"It comes with the job," he said with a smirk.

"I said enough with the mind games! What else do I have to know?" Tifa had stood up.

"Everything's there, dear Tifa," Shinra said as Tifa cringed at the word 'dear'. Shinra glanced at his watched, "But first, I think you should have something to eat. Tseng tells me you've been here all morning, and it's almost a quarter to three."

"I don't need you sympathy. A little hunger is a small price to pay for information like this. We have to act on this fast. Have you?" the urgency in Tifa's voice was building up.

"Of course. I've sent some people on the lookout for any rumors of disappearances. In the meantime, I suggest you check the interview files we did for the family members of the victims."

Victims, he had said.

Tifa's face turned pale. That word did not bode well in this room.

"I'll have some food sent up for you. You must not overwork yourself," Rufus said, noting her change in color.

"So you finally decided to show up," Vincent said from the shadows in the hallway.

"I started having pity on you, knowing you had to tolerate the stench waiting for me after all these days," Cloud answered, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"That's enough hiding and seeking Cloud. Things are… changing."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You may think you've been gone a short while, but it's felt like years. People are changing."

"I don't need your puzzles right now, Vincent," Cloud said as he walked passed the red-caped figure in the dark.

"We both know you came here expecting to see me. You need to come back if you know what's good for you."

Cloud clutched the doorknob tightly, "Thanks for the advice but I've been trying to find the kids and I think I've gotten more clues than you all have…"

"That's not what I'm talking about."

Cloud became loss in the silence of his nonexistent neighbors. He was the only one who lived in this godforsaken excuse of an apartment, the hallways grimy with plaster and rain. He thought about his home above Seventh Heaven. It was small and humble, but it had always felt warm. It had always welcomed him.

"Tifa."

"Rufus Shinra is changing things," Vincent said.

"What do you mean?" Cloud's voice was suddenly alarmed. He remembered the visits Shinra paid to the Seventh Heaven, it had turned into a daily thing now. And every day it seemed his smirk got bigger as he exited the place. Every day Cloud felt like he was losing something, little by little, "Shinra is interested in Tifa? Is that what you're seriously telling me?"

"You'd have to come back to find out. This is the last time I will seek you out."

The last words weighed heavily in the air. Cloud knew that Vincent was gone. He turned to his door and kicked it apart, forgetting that just a moment ago he had been holding a doorknob in his hand.

Author's Notes: Saving you from further pains at reading about my rants. As always, read and review! :)