Chapter 9

The first few days of being Mrs. Shinra was definitely an eye opener for her. While Corneo had the intent of wooing her with his money by taking her on a shopping spree, Rufus brought the designers to them. They had lazed about the penthouse the first day, just relaxing and enjoying each other's company, getting reacquainted with each other, or in the case of Tifa, learning everything she could think of asking about her husband. The second day, however, it seemed their time was planned down to the minute. No doubt by an underpaid secretary who worked herself the bone. Although that thought didn't stay long in Tifa's head, due to finding out the day previous that her husband tended to overpay his staff. In his desire to have loyal employees who enjoy doing their jobs, he actually treated them as human beings and made sure to pay them all a livable wage.

It was shortly before lunch that the designers were brought in and Tifa was measured, swatches of fabric held up to compare against her hair, her skin, and even her eyes in order to find the best fabrics. Soon after lunch, a box arrived at their door, a midnight blue dress in it that, when she put it on, clung to every curve that she had while showing off her legs.

Any doubts she had while looking in the mirror were put to rest when she stepped out into the living room to let Rufus see.

"Beautiful," he had breathed out in amazement, and to her surprise, his eyes had only glanced over her body once before settling on her face.

He was already a keeper.

"The rest of the clothes will be here after dinner, but I did want to go show you the town, if you were willing to venture forth? There is a great shop that I think you would like," he offered, and Tifa was immediately curious to see what kind of a shop it was.

Did her husband really know her or was he going off the fact that she was a woman?

As she put her shoes on, the brunette settled for having to wait. With his arm already out, waiting for her to take it, and her new outfit to flaunt around town, Tifa felt more girly today than she had in the past six or seven years.

Cloud awoke from his stupor with a start. There was a ruckus going on outside his door, and silence reigned for what seemed like an hour before he had the strength to get up off of the cot he had been dropped onto. Limping over to the door, Cloud leaned on it like he always did to catch his breath, but the door to his cell swung open. The blond immediately went down, landing in a pile of blood. He smothered his rising scream, Cloud's eyes widening in horror. He lifted his gaze to lock eyes with a severed head and a strangled scream slipped past his lips. That seemed to wake the others, and noises began to issue from the other cells.

"Cloud? Is that you? What's wrong?" came Aerith's voice from the cell across from his. His tongue struggled against him, but he eventually managed to speak, his knees becoming solid underneath him as he got to his feet.

"My door is open. . ."

"What?" came Red's voice from the left of Aerith.

"I woke up and my door was unlocked. . .one second, let me find the guard's body-"

"What do you mean his body?!" came Aerith's shocked reply. Cloud had to use the wall to walk until he made it to the missing body of the detached head that was in front of his cell. The blond made quick work of the dead guard's pockets and found the ring of keys that held the cell keys on it. Heading to Red's cell first, since it was the closest, he tried every key before the door finally sprang open under his touch. Red was much steadier on his feet than Cloud was, but the blond was gaining strength every moment he was out of the cell.

Aerith was freed next, and they exchanged a brief hug before Cloud moved to Barret's cell. His arms were unchained and his gag ripped out, and the AVALANCHE leader could only growl curses at Hojo and President Shinra for putting them all in there.

"What. . .what happened here?" Aerith asked hesitantly, spotting the blood on both the floor and all over Cloud's side.

"Something must have gone on a rampage here. I don't know how my cell got opened, but I wouldn't put it past the guard to try to feed me to whatever it was that ended up killing him," Cloud replied, looking at the gathered group.

"I am going to go scout ahead," Red mentioned before parting from the group. With his sense of smell and his reflexes, if there was anything out there, he would be able to react and stay alive long enough for them to regroup.

Cloud, Aerith, and Barret gathered together and tried to piece things together.

"Somethin' is obviously roaming around and killing things an' I don' wanna to stay and find out who it's goin' after," Barret commented, crossing his arms. Cloud agreed with him.

"Yeah, I would prefer to not be here if that thing comes back. Let's get going." The group moved as one, Barret bringing up the back and Cloud on point, the two guys keeping Aerith between them. They met Red at the end of the hallway.

"Status report!" he stated, looking very rattled. "Where. Do I. Begin?" he asked completely staccato. He knew it was horrible, but Cloud had to prevent himself from laughing out loud at how Red had talked.

"Give us the quick version," Cloud said, and he saw Red nod before looking over his shoulder down at the path he had just come from.

"It's a massacre out there. A lot of damage was done in little time. I think we need to follow the trail of blood to see if there were any survivors. There was one in the lab, but he mumbled something about Sephiroth before dying," Red reported before turning back to his companions. "Who is Sephiroth?"

Cloud froze at the name of the old Shinra General. Memories of 5 years ago came flashing back at him, and he had to take a steadying breath in order to calm himself.

"He's a madman who destroyed an entire town to get back at Shinra. He destroyed my hometown, and everyone I loved. . ." Cloud trailed off. A moment passed, and he was brought back to his senses when Aerith laid a hand of comfort on his arm. "We need to follow the bloodshed. I want to confront him. He needs to die for his actions."

"Cloud, is that entirely smart?" Aerith asked, concerned at the swift change in the blond. "He sounds strong, and not entirely sane. He could easily kill you!" she protested. Cloud gave her a smirk.

"He can try. I'm much stronger now than I was back then," he said convincingly, and Barret snorted in amusement.

"Hey, we gotcho back, dude. Just don't get fucking killed. We still kind of need ya," the leader of AVALANCHE commented with a chuckle. Cloud joined in the laughter before following Red out of the hallway into Hojo's lab. Finding their weapons quickly enough, the group began following the blood trail leading up the stairs. It truly was a bloodbath. There were bodies everywhere of those unfortunate enough to not get out of the way, lives of the 3rd shifters completely destroyed. Their trek took them to President Shinra's office, where the president himself was lying facedown on his desk, Sephiroth's sword in his back.

A/N: While slightly short, I hope you enjoy! The plot thickens, and already events are showing as different due to Tifa being elsewhere. What more does Rufus Shinra have in store for his wife whom he's been attempting to woo back for 2 years? How will the Shinra Massacre be handled now that there's a set of hands missing from AVALANCHE?

You can't know yet. But tune in next Monday to find out yourselves!

Until Next Time, my Lovelies! MWAH!