Chapter 2: Acquaintances and Shattered Glass
"And that is how you make a proposition," Barret told the young boy with him, a smile appearing on his face. He turned to the client. "Aint that right? You gonna give gil to rebuild my hometown, right?"
"Y-yes," the shuddering man said, clearly afraid of Barret and the metal arm. In truth, he was only giving money because he was terrified of the big black man with the gun in his arm. Little did he know, Barret always did business this way. That was how he got most of the funds for rebuilding the town that Shin-ra had destroyed.
"Excellent. You can send your check to Seventh Heaven Bar." Barret suddenly turned serious. "And I'll know if you don't follow through. Got it?" The man nodded vigorously, making the burly man smile. "Great! Well, have a good day then."
Walking out of the building in Junon, Denzel was in completely awe. "Barret, you're so cool!" he gushed in a way that only a ten year old boy could. For so long, Cloud had been his hero. Now, however, he was transferring that emotion to Barret, who was so much cooler.
"Aww, shucks kid, it was nuttin," Barret said, clearly flustered and pleased with the praise. "We still got a lot more to do today before we send ya home! Come on!"
Just then, his cell phone went off. But he knew by the tone of it that it wasn't just a friend calling. Cid had set up a system with all their cell phones so that if any of them ever were in trouble, they could send out an SOS to everyone in the gang. Somebody had triggered that alarm.
"Hold on, Denz." Barret dug deep into his pocket until he found the phone. He flipped it open and immediately saw were the distress signal came from. "Sorry kid, days plans got cancelled. There's trouble and we gotta get to your home fast."
"Tifa!!" Yuffie screamed when she saw her friend, who was lying unconscious on the glass-covered floor. "Teef, wake up!" she cried, running over the shards of glass to her best friend. No, she was more of a role model, actually. Tifa always acted as if she were happy, even when life exploded in her face. Even though she never admitted it, Yuffie really looked up to her. And seeing her there, lying on the ground covered in blood....
"What the &!*# is goin on here?!" a voice boomed from the doorway of the bar.
"Cid, help," Yuffie pleaded. "She's hurt....really bad."
"What happened to her?"
Yuffie shook her head. "Don't know. Just got here."
Cid shook his head. "Shera, get in here and help the girl while I make sure whoever did this is gone." The pilot walked in and scanned the whole bar before cautiously heading upstairs, spear in hand. The woman behind him, his new wife Shera, walked in past him and came to Tifa.
"Tifa? Tifa, wake up," Shera requested, her calm voice still having a lot of emotion behind it. There was no response from the bartender. "Tifa..."
"She's still alive," a dark voice said from the other side of the room. "I can sense her heart beating." Yuffie turned at the voice.
"Vinnie!" the ninja cried. "What happened here?" Vincent only shrugged, making Yuffie pout. "Some help you are." She turned back to her friend.
"Tifa, if you can hear me, you need to say something," Shera was saying. "Tifa."
"Nobody upstairs," Cid reported, reentering the room. "Marlene's window was broken though."
Shera nodded faintly. "We probably won't find anything out until Tifa comes out of her stupor. Looks like she really took a beating."
"TIFAAAA!!!" Yuffie screeched, making everyone in the room cover their eyes and mumble curses in protest.
Tifa groaned, subconsciously bringing a hand to her ear. After a moment, she opened her eyes, seeing Yuffie, Shera, and Cid all staring at her in concern. The second she looked at Yuffie's face, she knew who was responsible for waking her. Oh well, her headache was already terrible; even Yuffie's yelling couldn't affect it too much.
"Three men," Tifa reported softly. "One with a knife, one with a gun. The other carried off Marlene....I couldn't stop them," she whispered, eyelids drooping.
"Don't worry none about her, we'll find her. Shera, patch the girl up," Cid ordered, being the most realistic of the group. Tifa needed to be taken care of before they tried to help Marlene.
"You've gotta find Marlene...these guys could kill her so easily," Tifa pleaded quietly, sitting herself up. She grunted, grabbing her shoulder in pain.
"First things first. We gotta sew you up. Then, since you know the most of all of us, we'll sit down and gather information."
Tifa sighed. "Alright. Let's get this over with."
Twenty minutes later, things were running much more smoothly. Cid was hovering around, ordering around everyone to do different specified jobs. Vincent and Yuffie were sweeping up the glass and blood. Nanaki sat with Denzel in the corner, trying to calm the boy's fears. Reeve, who had arrived five minutes earlier, was inspecting the two bullets Shera had gotten out of Tifa. Shera was sewing up the bullet holes and making sure Tifa wouldn't get any infections. Cid stood by and made sure she was doing a good job.
"Good work everyone, but vampire boy, you missed a spot over there."
"Shut it, Cid," Barret muttered, pushing the older man out of his way so he could stand closer to Tifa. Cid had tried to get him and Denzel to do some work right after they walked in the door a minute ago, but Cid was promptly told off by Barret, who was overly concerned for Tifa.
"Barret, would you stop fussing over me? I'm fine," Tifa said, protesting when Barret tried to take the needle away from Shera for the second time.
"Then why are you so pale?! They should be takin better care of ya than that."
"They are taking care of me," Tifa stated softly, careful not to flinch too much when Shera accidently hurt her. "Don't worry, Barret. If they wanted me dead, it would have happened already."
Barret went off to the other side of the room, muttering curses and complaints against Tifa's theory. He hated that she was shot. She was like a sister to him. And of course, since he put himself in the older brother role, it was his job to protect her. Since he hadn't been able to do that earlier, he was going to make up for it by beating the three men to a pulp. Not just for what they did to Tifa, but for the fact they took Marlene. Barret was going to be sure he had the pleasure of killing those fools.
"I have never seen a bullet like these," Reeve was saying to nobody in particular. "They're made to come out easily, but it must have hurt like crazy when they actually pierced the skin."
"You got that right," Tifa mumbled and Shera finished with the last stitch.
"I'll take these back to Shin-ra labs for a look-see," he said, carefully putting them inside a plastic zip-lock bag. The official turned to Vincent and Yuffie, who were just finishing cleaning up. "You two find any clues as two who are men are?"
"Nope," Yuffie said with a sigh. Reeve looked at her for only a brief moment before silently turning to the ex-Turk.
"Absolutely nothing. The masks must have kept all their hair from falling. No way to trace them; no DNA; the only thing we have are the bullets."
Nanaki stirred in the corner. He had been watching everything from a distance, trying to overcome the sense of Déjà-vu he felt. Something about this whole thing just seemed too familiar. "If I had a scent of them, I could try and find them. But we don't even have that, do we?"
"The bullets?"
Nanaki shook his head. "They're too dirty; I'd only be sniffing out Tifa."
"One of them grabbed my ankle," Tifa threw out there. "How about that?"
"It still could be diluted by your scent, but I'll try my best." The animal approached the Tifa slowly, taking his time. Everyone else got out of the way, standing feet away. This was the best chance they had to find Marlene. If it didn't work, then they would be completely without a lead.
Red XIII, or Nanaki to his friends, stopped by Tifa and sniffed the top of her shoes. Then he moved up slightly, sniffing up her calf. Everyone silently watched him back away and smell the area around Tifa. He paced the room a little bit, but eventually he just stopped and shook his head. "The scent is too dim. I can't even tell which way he walked around this room. There's no hope for tracking him outside where the surrounding smells are much stronger."
Everyone sighed, feeling defeated.
"Hello there! Looks like you guys could use a bit of help."
Tifa turned her head toward the doorway, seeing a fiery red haired man standing there. "Reno!"
"Glad to see you too," he said with a smile. "Rufus sent me when he heard Reeve was here. Said he wanted in on the action. Isn't he such a nice fellow?"
Barret mumbled something against that, but nobody was listening. Reno was a Turk. He was probably great at solving mysteries. However, he was alone, which was strange. Where was the man that always traveled with him? His best friend and Tifa's ex-boyfriend?
"Where's Rude?" Tifa asked casually, sitting up on her barstool slightly as she waited for an answer.
"Costa del Sol. He's on vacation. Lucky guy! Wish I could have some time off..." Reno's face fell slightly, and he just went on for a minute mumbling about how unlucky he was and how he wanted a drink, but he wasn't gonna get one here because it was a crime scene and all.... "Anyway, you all just get outta here. I'll--"
"Why the #*#&$ would we do that?" Cid interrupted.
Reno sighed. "So I can get some detective work done here. We have a room set up at the conference hall on the edge of—well, Edge. You guys can go there, gather information and try and fit the pieces together. I'll call you if I find any clues."
Everyone turned to Tifa at that moment. She wasn't sure why at first, but then she realized it was because they weren't sure if she was alright to move. "Let's go," she said simply, rising to her feet as quickly as she could without reinjuring herself. "We gotta do this. We need to find out where they've taken Marlene before it's too late."
There was a moment of silence, the group taking into account the severity of the situation. Tifa was injured, Marlene was gone, and there were no traces of the men who were responsible. Things were not looking good at that moment. "Barret, why don't you check the drawer in the living room; I store some materia there."
"Awight."
"Everyone else can get ready to leave, I'll be back in just a moment," Tifa said, dismissing herself. The clothes she wore now were too tattered and bloody for her to wear the rest of the day. And besides, she wanted something that would cover the glass cuts on her arms and legs. Not waiting for everyone to finally move, Tifa headed upstairs. Her entire body ached with each passing step, but that didn't matter to her. Marlene mattered. Catching the men who took her mattered. Finding out how she knew the one...that mattered.
Tifa sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she entered her bedroom. Already, the tension of the situation was getting to her. She needed to discover the truth before hope completely disappeared from her sight. Maybe Marlene wasn't far out of reach. And maybe, just maybe, the answers were there with her.