A/N: Rated M for language and sexual content. Standard disclaimer applies.

Updated 6/16/2020: Edits throughout. Additional scenes of Tifa fretting over Cloud and with the Turks added.

Chapter 3:

Tonight was the night. After his first drink, he would order a second and try to strike up a conversation with the barmaid. But what would he talk about?

Okay, maybe after the second drink. But seriously, what should he talk about? The weather? Cliché. Her favorite music? Lame.

Maybe he needed three drinks.

Think, Rude, think.

All he ever did was think; it was the talking part he was not good at, especially when it came to her.

He had been going to her new bar for nearly a year but had said little more than a few words to her. Most of that was his drink orders. Occasionally he would clear his throat as if he were about to speak, but no words would come.

He knew it was ridiculous. He'd known Tifa Lockhart for years. Okay, not known, as she had been his enemy and refused to speak with him, but known in the sense that they were aware of each other's existence for nearly two years. He should be able to find things to talk to her about, but starting a conversation with "hey remember that time we tried to kill you?" didn't seem like the best way to get on her good side.

He had thought bringing Reno along would calm his nerves, but he quickly found the redhead was still not adept at the whole "wingman" thing. Instead, Reno would find his own woman for the night, without so much as trying to break the ice for Rude.

Flashback…

"Seriously man?" Rude asked after Reno had done this several times.

"What?" the redhead replied nonchalantly, removing a cigarette from its pack and lighting it up after they were out of the bar. A busty woman with fried blonde hair stood next to Reno, hanging on his shoulder and nipping at his earlobe.

"You can't take five minutes to help me out in there?" Rude scowled.

"What do you want me to do? You think she'll respond to me any better than you?"

"Baby, this is borrrring," the woman whined, dramatically stomping her foot like a child. "You said we were going back to your place—" she glared at Rude "—alone."

"Would you give me a minute, yo?" Reno barked at her. The woman quieted down but pouted.

"No, but you're better at this kind of thing than me…" Rude continued.

Reno blew air through his lips and ran his free hand through his hair, taking care to avoid his goggles. "Alright, fine. Tomorrow," he said, pointing a finger at Rude. "I'll help you out but you're gonna owe me and I'm telling you, it's not gonna help."

Present day…

Rude and Reno had been going to the new Seventh Heaven as soon as it opened. Well, not as soon, since Tifa and Cloud hadn't let them in at first. Reno had sworn at them but Rude remained silent, as always. After a couple weeks, however, they were allowed in, begrudgingly. Neither Cloud nor Tifa would look at them, except to hand them their drinks. And the only words spoken to them were to ask what they wanted to drink. Once Tifa learned they would always order the same thing – her most expensive scotch – she stopped saying anything to them at all. She'd just put the drink on the bar in front of them and walk away. If Rude wasn't so hopelessly attracted to her, she wouldn't have deserved a tip.

Rude tried to psych himself up several times a week to no avail. It felt like every time he was ready to talk to her about something other than alcohol, Cloud would appear near her. At first, whenever Rude prepared to say something to Tifa, Cloud would seemingly materialize out of thin air and kiss her, or flirt with her. Rude resigned himself to admiring her from afar or waiting the relationship out.

He wasn't some lovesick puppy, he told himself, he just found Tifa so damn fascinating and different from other women. Other women clawed at the Turks like cats with a ball of yarn. Too many wanted a man with power, and while Reno might take advantage of that, Rude had always wanted something more. He wanted a woman who would challenge him, both physically and mentally.

He always thought he could have a debate with Tifa as long as it wasn't related to Shinra. He hadn't had too many interactions with her, but something about the way she carried herself let him know she would have lots to contribute to a conversation. He, on the other hand, lacked in that department.

Physically, though, he wanted a chance to spar with her one-on-one. Not even in a sexual way, though of course he wanted that, too. They never had a chance to fight alone and really test their skills as Reno and other AVALANCHE members were always there. On top of the pillar, Reno kept putting her in one of his pyramid spells and in Gongaga, the two Turks struggled against Cloud and the lion-dog thing. Not that Barret hadn't been a challenge up on the pillar, but that cat had already proven to them once how difficult he was to fight. Also, the three members of AVALANCHE were well rested when they fought the Turks in Gongaga, instead of just having fought their way through Shinra troops on the Sector 7 support pillar.

Lately, it looked like Rude's patience might pay off. Cloud no longer kissed Tifa or even touched her. The two seemed cold to each other, and about two months ago, Rude stopped seeing Cloud in the bar altogether. At first, he just figured Cloud was taking an odd job or two, but when the weeks stretched into months it seemed impossible that Cloud would be gone that much. Rude's suspicions were confirmed when he saw a tabloid article announcing Cloud and Tifa had a bitter breakup and she was heartbroken. He knew those papers were trash and probably got most of the details wrong, but Cloud was definitely gone.

Tifa's demeanor had changed dramatically during that time as well. When Cloud first stopped flirting with her, she started to lose her spark, unless he was around. Then she'd seem to be overly sweet and flirtatious with Cloud and sometimes other customers for tips. Never with the Turks, though, much to Rude's dismay.

But over the past two months, Tifa's spirits had completely cratered. She barely smiled and when she did it was clearly forced and weak. Her shoulders slumped and she grew pale and a little thinner. She was still beautiful, but it was clear to a Turk that she didn't see herself that way anymore.

It was also clear to the bald Turk that on more than one occasion she would cry in the back storage room. Sometimes he'd catch her returning to the bar with red, puffy eyes and a pink nose. She tried her best to hide it from the customers, and others either didn't seem to notice or didn't bother to ask. When someone would ask – usually something like, "How can someone so beautiful look so sad?" – she'd offer a fake laugh and blame her allergies.

Rude didn't want to ask Tifa about Cloud's absence, as he was astute enough to realize that would be a sore subject. He considered asking Reno for discussion topics but felt his redheaded friend would make a vulgar suggestion that wouldn't be too helpful. Tonight, Rude was actually dreading what Reno might do to "help" him with Tifa. The redhead had no class in these matters, why had he asked for his help in the first place? He should have asked Elena or Tseng to come. Elena hated Tifa, but she liked Rude, so maybe she would have agreed to help. Tseng may have been just as quiet a man as Rude, but who knows, maybe he'd have an idea. Rude was embarrassed enough to ask anyone for help and hated that his coworkers knew about his crush.

The bald man suddenly realized he was right outside Seventh Heaven and still didn't know how to start a conversation with Tifa or what Reno planned to do.

"Earth to Rude," Reno said, tapping his knuckles on his friend's bald head.

Rude realized Reno had been making several attempts to start a conversation, but he had missed all of them.

"Yeah," he said.

"You weren't even listening," Reno said, shaking his head and tossing his cigarette butt on the sidewalk.

The two entered the bar, which had become crowded as more homes were built in Edge and businesses returned to the area. People had gil to spare and steam to let off, and Tifa's bar was well known for good drinks and an attractive, famous bartender.

Rude sat at his usual stool. In the beginning, when there weren't many people in the bar, it wasn't difficult to sit in the same seat night after night. After a while, the Turks would enter and their seats would be taken. The other patrons quickly realized who they were dealing with, and the seats were either ignored or abandoned when they entered.

Reno sat beside him, his eyes wandering around the bar for talent. Tifa served them their regular drinks before they even ordered. As usual, she said nothing to them and spent as little time near them as possible. When she'd turn her attention to other patrons, Rude couldn't help but wish he could come up with a way to make her smile.

"How about her?" Reno asked, tapping Rude on the shoulder with the back of his hand.

Rude shifted in his seat and looked over his shoulder. He didn't see the woman to which Reno was referring but nodded his head and grunted.

"There's not even a woman over there," Reno said. "Geez, you're being thick tonight, even worse than usual."

Rude grunted again to show his dissatisfaction with Reno's tricks.

"Okay, this has gone on long enough," Reno groaned. "I'm going to fix this."

"How?" Rude asked.

Reno ignored him and raised his hand to get Tifa's attention.

"Barmaid, oh barmaid," he called to her, elongating the last word and leaning halfway over the bar and waving his arm frantically.

Tifa glared at him and sucked in her cheeks. She rolled her eyes and started to walk over.

"What?" she asked with a certain amount of venom in her tone. Reno was unscathed.

"That's no way to talk to your two best customers," he said with a grin. Tifa rolled her eyes again.

"What?" Tifa asked again, more forcefully this time.

"When ya gonna let that go, yo?"

"Let it go? Let it go?" Tifa snarled. "You killed my friends in Sector 7. You also tried to kill me and my friends multiple times."

"Yeah but that was back then," Reno said, his tone light and friendly. "We were just following orders."

Rude saw Tifa's eyes widen with rage and her nostrils flare. She looked as though she were trying to set Reno on fire just by staring at him. The redhead didn't notice as he sat back in his seat and casually inspected his fingernails.

"Just – just following orders?" Tifa looked as though she were about to explode. "Get out."

"Whoa, hey," Reno objected, bending his elbows and facing his palms toward Tifa in defense. "We're not like that anymore. We're security now."

His words did not seem to assuage Tifa's anger. While this was not how Rude imagined his discussion with her going, he felt the need to interject.

"We're sorry," he said, letting his shoulders drop and lowering his head.

Tifa couldn't tell due to his sunglasses but his eyes really did show sincerity. She had been about to throw the Turks out no matter what the damage, but she softened. Slightly.

Reno looked at his coworker in shock. Turks don't apologize, certainly not to eco-terrorists.

"Yeah, we're sorry," Reno said, without Rude's sincerity. "Sorry we dropped the plate on Sector 7 after you killed people by blowing up two reactors."

He ended his statement with a grin and held up two fingers for emphasis. Rude looked at him a moment and then shook his head. Tonight was not his night. He got up and began pushing Reno out the door before Tifa could leap over the bar to strangle him, which seemed like her next move.

Outside, Rude shoved Reno so hard the redhead fell on his backside.

"Hey man, what the hell?" Reno asked.

Rude started walking down the street away from the bar. Reno quickly got up and followed.

"You know I'm right," Reno said, defiantly. Rude sighed.

"That doesn't mean you had to say it," Rude replied. Reno was surprised by the amount of words in his friend's sentence. It was the most he had said all day.

Reno placed his hands behind his head and thought for a moment.

"Guess I ruined your chance tonight, huh?"

Rude said nothing.

A week later…

Tifa was polishing the bar forcefully in order to keep from crying again. She had always found cleaning to be cathartic, and she had needed a release recently. She found herself polishing the bar over and over again each day, trying to keep her mind off of her loneliness.

More than two months had passed since Cloud left, and he hadn't so much as called. For the first few weeks, she was depressed but hopeful that he would come walking through that front door any second to apologize and say he had found forgiveness or whatever it was he was really looking for. But as the weeks dragged on, she lost hope. After a few weeks she gathered up the courage to call him, but it went straight to voicemail. Texts went unanswered, as did more phone calls.

After a month – and a lengthy conversation with Marle – she came to the conclusion that it was a breakup.

Flashback…

"Oh, honey, I hate to say this, but it's been a month…" Marle said with downcast eyes, placing her hand over Tifa's as the young brunette cried.

The two met regularly to talk about life and the bar and the orphanage, and Tifa had been going to Marle a lot more after Cloud left. She couldn't count the number of times she had broken down in Marle's arms, feeling like a teenager who had just been dumped for the first time. Tifa knew what Marle was going to say next, but she didn't want to hear it.

"Please. Don't say it," she sobbed from her place hunched over the kitchen table in Marle's home, her face buried in her arms once again. Marle squeezed her arm.

"You're so young and beautiful," the older woman offered instead.

This had essentially the same effect, as it caused Tifa to sob louder. If she were so beautiful, why did Cloud leave? What was wrong with her? These were questions she asked Marle again and again during their visits, and each time Marle would give the same answers: Cloud left because he always had issues, not because of anything she had done or not done, and nothing was wrong with her.

"You could have any man you wanted," Marle said once without thinking.

"There's only one man I want," Tifa said through tears.

Marle hated to see her "adopted" granddaughter this upset. It reminded her of when Master Zangan first brought the girl to Marle's home in Sector 7. Tifa was 15, severely wounded, and traumatized. Zangan had taken her to a doctor to save her life and then to Marle, begging his old friend to care for his most talented young student. Marle, naturally, asked what had happened to the young girl, but Zangan told her he couldn't say because it could put Marle in danger.

Marle took in the girl and nursed her back to health, worrying every day that her injury was too severe and that she would die in Marle's home. But Tifa survived. At first, she was terrified of the Sector 7 slums. Zangan had told her before taking her to Marle's that she couldn't tell anyone where she was from or what had happened to her. Sephiroth had burned Nibelheim but Shinra forced the papers not to report the incident. The company rebuilt the town and hired actors to pretend to be lifelong citizens, and Zangan worried that Shinra would come after anyone who knew the truth.

Tifa was quiet and depressed for a long time after arriving in the slums. Marle eventually got through to her, however, and got Tifa training again. By the time she was 16, Tifa was part of the neighborhood watch and the sector's best fighter. Her wound healed except for a disfiguring gash she was able to hide under her tank top.

Marle knew about heartache, and she knew that Tifa would get through Cloud just as she had gotten through the Nibelheim incident. Still, the older woman knew it would take a long time for Tifa to get past Cloud, as she had told Marle all about him when she was a teenager.

"Cloud will come save me. He promised," teenage Tifa would say sometimes when she was upset or in trouble and Marle was around.

By the time Cloud really did show up, Marle was less than impressed with him. He was nearly as weak as Tifa had been when she first showed up in the slums. But Marle saw the way he looked at Tifa and thought that with some work, he might grow up into a nice man.

She was wrong.

"I know, baby," she said in response to Tifa saying she only wanted Cloud. "But we don't know if he's ever coming back."

Marle had infinite patience. She took care of a dozen orphans and still made time to sit and listen to Tifa cry over the same person day after day without showing any exhaustion or irritation. Tifa herself got sick of crying over Cloud long before Marle showed any indication of the same.

The young woman knew that continuing to think Cloud would come back because of their childhood promise was silly. She had only told him she wanted to experience being rescued by her hero once, and Cloud had more than fulfilled that promise. She couldn't count the number of times during their previous adventure that he saved her from falling after the ground crumbled beneath them or when a fiend had her pinned.

He didn't owe her anything anymore, and maybe that's what this was really all about.

"I need to make lunch for the kids, would you like to help?" Marle asked as Tifa continued to sulk.

The brunette lifted her head a little and nodded with a sniffle. She and Marle made sandwiches for all the children and ate with them. Tifa didn't smile, but she didn't feel like crying anymore after sitting with the children.

Present day…

Tifa started helping Marle regularly with the orphans to take her mind off Cloud. Some days she checked in on Chocobo Sam and the new taxi service he started in Edge. On other days she would train with Jules at his new gym or chat with Andrea. She was also still helping to build Edge most days, but she would have to stop earlier than she used to when Cloud was still around so she could prepare her bar for the evening. She still cried herself to sleep at night, but after two months without Cloud, she was starting to hold it together at work better.

Part of that was the fact that business had picked up considerably since the days when they were so hard up for cash that they allowed the Turks to enter.

The Turks. Tifa stopped cleaning and leaned against the bar. She was still angry at what Reno had said to her. It wasn't so much that he said it or how, but the fact that she had always felt she was really to blame for the plate falling on Sector 7. Her bar was AVALANCHE's base of operations, and if they hadn't blown up those reactors, Shinra wouldn't have come after them and all those people.

Reno had always had this way of tapping into a person's deepest pain. It's probably why he was a Turk, she thought.

Tifa shook her head and scoffed. Neither Reno nor Rude had been back to the bar since that night, and though she missed Rude's generous tips, she didn't miss their presence. The bar was at a point where she didn't need their patronage, but at this point she knew she couldn't just ban them from her business, as much as she would like to.

As if the Gods were listening and wanting to play a trick on her, Tifa heard a knock on the front door to the bar, bringing her back from her thoughts. She strolled over and opened the door to find Rude standing outside in his trademark blue suit and sunglasses.

Tifa tried to close the door but his hand shot out to hold it open.

"I'm here to apologize," he said, bracing the door open with his shoulder. His tone displayed his usual lack of emotion. The bald Turk had realized last week that if he were ever going to turn his crush into anything more, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

"For what?" Tifa asked, still keeping the door partially closed.

"For… everything," Rude said. "For the other night, for Reno, for Sector 7, for everything that happened back then, for Reno."

The corner of Tifa's lip twitched ever so slightly at his last words but quickly faded. She could never forgive the Turks. Still, he was here and apologizing and they had helped people escape Meteor. They also had been good customers up until last week. She was also surprised to hear him put an entire sentence together. She opened the door to give him permission to enter the bar without saying a word. Rude walked straight to his usual stool and sat down. Tifa returned to the other side of the bar.

"You've got to know," Rude said, looking down at the rosewood, "back then, we thought we were doing the right thing."

Tifa said nothing and resumed cleaning. How could he and the other Turks possibly think they were the good guys?

"We worked for Shinra, which provided power for the people," Rude continued. "And AVALANCHE was trying to take that away."

"But Shinra was killing the planet, how can you possibly think you were the good guys?" Tifa asked.

"I never saw myself as a good guy, but I was protecting my employer."

"And Reno?"

"Shinra was everything to Reno."

Tifa sighed. Before she could respond, she and Rude heard shouting outside. People were in distress. Without a second thought she jumped over the bar and ran for the door. Rude was right behind her.

Tifa looked around for the source of the noise. She could hear screaming from around the block and the sound of buildings being smashed. She ran around the corner to find a large elfadunk had found its way this far into town and was panicking. As people ran and screamed it became more agitated and was using its tusks to damage nearby homes.

Tifa had become used to helping cull the monster population as the city was built out. At first, they had to fight back a lot of fiends as they built the city in the open plains, but those attacks seemed to die down once city limits were established. After that, it was rare for a monster to wander into town, but for the past year or so, the attacks had steadily escalated. Tifa was now fighting monsters every day outside her bar or on the way to Marle's or the theater she was now helping to build. This elfadunk was the second attack she faced today.

Tifa ran up to the beast and punched it in the face. It moved to gore her with its tusks, but Rude appeared next to her and caught its attention with an uppercut to the throat. The creature screeched and thrashed wildly. Rude was able to leap out of its way, as the creature seemed fixated on Tifa. She spun around to kick it, but the beast used its tusks to lift her into the air and then shook its head to throw her into the side of a nearby building.

Tifa lifted her head up from the pavement to see a pair of skinny legs standing in front of her. They were wearing fitted blue dress pants. Her eyes slowly looked up and she saw a hand with long, slender fingers extended toward her. She continued to raise her eyes until she realized that Reno stood in front of her, his hand outstretched.

"Need some help?" he asked while sporting his trademark grin.

Tifa knocked his hand away with her own and shook her head.

"Not from you," she said, coldly.

Before she could get up on her own, she watched as Reno moved his right hand to reach out to her once again while his free hand reached for his weapon. Tifa saw every move he made from that point on as if it were moving in slow motion, yet he was not. Her eyes widened as he unhooked his Electro Mag Rod from his belt and brought the weapon up in front of her. He pushed the button to power it up, and Tifa prepared herself for its sting.

Gods, she had always hated that weapon of his. If he wasn't jabbing her with thousands of volts of electricity, he was encasing her in a golden pyramid that also sent thousands of volts of electricity through her body, while also locking her in place, unable to get away. She'd twitch for hours after a fight with the redheaded Turk, cursing his name all the while.

Reno never took his eyes off of Tifa. Once he had brought his weapon up, he stretched it out to his side. The bartender could hear the sound of the weapon colliding with something, and scrunched her eyes closed to avoid the bright sparks.

When she opened her eyes again, Reno was still standing over her. His hand was still reaching for her, but to his side lay the body of the elfadunk.

"Yeah, I think you do," he said with a smirk.

Tifa let out a huff and glared at him, reluctantly accepting his offer to help her up.

Without another word to Reno or Rude, Tifa returned to Seventh Heaven and flipped on the "open" sign. Before the door even closed behind her, the Turks had entered and were heading to their usual seats. She didn't even need to see them enter to know that it was them behind her, the stench of the elfadunk still heavy in the air. She poured them each a glass of scotch and busied herself in the storage room until she heard more customers arrive.

"Hey! Thanks for leavin' me to fight the fiends by myself, partner," Reno scolded after Tifa had left their view.

Rude took a sip of his drink without acknowledging Reno's comment. "Too much for you to handle?" the bald Turk quipped.

"Tch, no, but next time you're gonna disappear on me let me know."

Rude continued to stare straight forward as if something on the liquor shelf was really interesting. "I was making sure we could still drink here," he said, holding his glass in front of his lips.

"Oh, is that what you were doing?"

"Yeah."

"And how did you do that?"

"I apologized to her. For real."

Reno seemed taken aback by Rude's admission, even though he had witnessed the man apologize the week before.

"She'll never forgive us," Reno said after a moment of thought, staring into his drink wistfully.

"Well, I'm gonna keep trying."

By this time a few more customers entered the bar and sat down, prompting Tifa to return from the storage room and start serving. Rude stared into his glass of scotch as usual, again trying to come up with something that might make Tifa smile. Reno spun in his bar stool to look around the room. There were a few pretty women sitting at a table on the opposite wall, but Reno's attention turned to Tifa.

He noticed the change in her just as Rude had, he was a Turk after all. Though it wouldn't take special Turk perception skills to see a woman who was heartbroken. He felt something deep within him as he looked at her tonight, something long kept dormant that seemed to be suddenly clawing at his insides. He took another sip of his drink, having to crane his neck down to his glass as he was leaning back on the bar on his elbows.

Maybe Rude was right about apologizing. The Turks and AVALANCHE weren't enemies anymore, in fact, for the past year-and-a-half or so they'd been working alongside – albeit not literally – to build Edge and keep the fiends at bay. Reno had certainly dropped his animosity toward Tifa during that time, since she was his favorite barkeep. He couldn't say the same of the other members of AVALANCHE. Strife always annoyed him, what with the bipolar way in which he treated Tifa and that giant sword of his. Clearly compensating for something, Reno told himself. Barret was just a big oaf with rage issues. The vampire may have been an ex-Turk but that was before Reno was even born. The ninja was an annoying brat he could do without, the Ancient was dead, the lion dog scratched him too many times. He probably could have gotten along with Cid, since they both smoked and liked to pilot aircraft, but Reno had always hated people that reminded him too much of himself. He also didn't like Reeve personally and would never be caught dead with the little robot cat and moogle.

No, Tifa was the only member of AVALANCHE he could stand, and it wasn't just because of her looks. She always seemed different from the others. Reno had read her file at Shinra, he knew she had just as much – if not more – of a reason to hate Shinra than the rest of that ragtag group of assholes, yet he constantly caught her questioning their actions. It wouldn't make her a good Turk, that's for sure, but it seemed to make her more… moral… than the rest of them.

He could hear Tifa mixing a drink behind him, so he spun around to watch her shake the mixer. She was so much fun to watch. Her back was to him, as she was constantly aware of the distance between them.

Reno took a deep breath. He could do this. For Rude.

"You know, Lockhart, we don't do that Turk shit anymore," he said.

She continued mixing as if she hadn't heard him. Rude turned to his partner, his eyebrows visible above his sunglasses and his mouth slightly agape. Could Reno really be trying to be a decent human being for once?

Tifa opened the shaker and poured a drink before taking it to a woman at the other end of the bar. Reno watched as she offered that fake smile of hers to appear friendly for tips. Tifa then leaned against her hands on the bar and zoned out for a moment. Reno saw her nostril twitch. She was about to take the bait. She flinched in distress before turning to walk back toward the Turks. It was eating at her.

"If you don't do that 'Turk shit' anymore," she accentuated using air quotes, "then why do you still wear those uniforms every day?"

"Because we look damn good in them, babe," he said, leaning back from the bar enough to give her a better view of his chest.

Rude rolled his eyes. Tifa narrowed her eyes and approached the bar, closer than she usually got to them unless she was giving them another drink. She leaned slightly forward and pursed her lips.

"So, all those rumors that Rufus survived are just…" she suggested incredulously, waving a hand dismissively.

She was astute, he had to give her that. The two Turks in front of her took just a split second too long to answer her.

"…rumors," Reno finished her sentence, but the damage was already done. At least he didn't tell her how he and Rude found Rufus two weeks after the calamity in an underground bunker at Shinra headquarters, injured from a fall. He also didn't tell her how they spent the next few months acting as Rufus' bodyguards while he "recovered" at Healen Lodge. And he certainly didn't tell her that Rufus was helping to fund most of the reconstruction and public services. Did she think Reeve was funding all this?

"So, it's true!" she exclaimed, accidentally alerting some patrons to their conversation. She lowered her head and whispered. "He's alive?"

"We didn't say that," Rude interjected quickly.

Tifa stood back up and clicked her tongue. "That bastard," she said, shaking her head. "I knew you all were like cockroaches. You never die. Only good people die." She looked sullen again and returned to her other customers for a while.

"Way to go," Rude said, elbowing Reno in the side.

"I didn't see you lying to her," the redhead retorted.

Rude sneered. Reno was better at lying than this. Rude couldn't lie to Tifa, but Reno shouldn't have had that problem.

When Tifa came back to give them new drinks, Reno tried again.

"Yanno, a lot of bad people died too – Sephiroth, Heidegger, Scarlet, the first president, Hojo," he informed her before she could disappear again.

Tifa appeared to consider his claim and nodded, her face expressionless. At least Reno recognized he worked with terrible people. Could there be redemption for the Turks? The men who dropped the plate on Sector 7? Who kidnapped Aerith? They hadn't put up a fight in Wutai, in fact, they kind of worked together when Don Corneo took Yuffie and Elena. They also let them pass in Midgar as they traveled to the Shinra building for the last time.

But then she thought back to that day on the pillar. How they shot at her and Cloud from the helicopter – how Cloud saved her then, too – and how they attacked them on top of the pillar. Reno jumped from the helicopter trying to attack Cloud before running past him to the main control panel and activating the plate separation sequence. She thought of the stings from his mag rod and how he seemed to keep her in a pyramid the entire fight. For the brief moments she was free, Rude tried to avoid her attacks without hurting her. She definitely thought she was treated differently than the men she was fighting alongside.

Tifa remembered how helpless she felt as she stared at the control panel, knowing that even though the pillar separation hadn't been authorized, she couldn't do anything to stop what Reno had started.

And then the whispers came.

The next thing she knew, she was flung backwards several feet. When she looked up, Rude was standing at the control panel, confirming the sector's fate.

No, she couldn't forgive them. But maybe she could tolerate them now that they weren't so murderous.

Rude watched Tifa clearly battle with something silently. She was visibly angry for a moment before softening when a customer called to her. He sensed she was thinking about him and Reno. If only she knew how badly they didn't want to drop the plate, and how awful they felt about it after.

Flashback…

They were in the helicopter over the train graveyard in Sector 7, cloaked in the darkness of the plate at night, when they received the call they had been dreading.

"Understood," Rude said, ending the call and turning to Reno. "The AVALANCHE mission's been approved. We are to proceed as planned."

"This is bullshit. What the hell are they thinking?" Reno asked, his voice heavy.

"'Threats to public order are to be summarily put down,'" Rude quoted, no hint of emotion in his voice. "This is what we've always done."

"'Summarily put down,'" Reno quoted back, letting his gaze fall to his left to look out the window. Neither man said anything for a moment, each thinking about what they had signed up for. They weren't ones to question their orders, but this mission… "Guess it's a little late to grow a conscience," Reno said with a smirk.

A few minutes later, Tseng gave them the plate separation code – again – as if the two veteran Turks couldn't remember a simple password. It was really happening. He and Rude were really going to become some of Gaia's worst mass murderers.

"Yeah, yeah, of course I do! We can drop the damn thing whenever…" Reno said from the co-pilot's chair of the helicopter. While he considered himself Shinra's best helicopter pilot, he'd gladly give the controls over to Rude if it meant he got to fire the weapons at slum rats. "It's just that…"

The helicopter jerked as members of AVALANCHE shot at them.

"You got a death wish or something?" Reno growled at Rude. "Because I sure as shit don't."

"Reno, what's happening? Do we have a problem?" Tseng asked over the helicopter's communications device.

"Not really. Small arms fire from some local boys trying to defend the pillar," the redhead responded."

"More would-be heroes, huh?" Tseng smirked. "Sending reinforcements. The more players that take the stage, the better."

It was pretty poetic, coming from their usually brusque leader.

"So, that's what we are, huh?" Reno mused as he leaned back into his seat.

"Contact me when the mission is complete," Tseng said, offering no reassurance.

They did their jobs. Reno nearly died supporting his employer, but as he recovered on the General Affairs' auditing department couch, he and his partner couldn't shake their guilt. The pillar had fallen the night before, and they had been rather quiet ever since. Reno had nightmares as he slept in the sick bay. He had escaped – thanks to Rude – before the plate fell, but when he slept he saw the faces of mothers and children as they screamed for their lives. He didn't know anyone in Sector 7 except for the AVALANCHE assholes, yet even some of their faces haunted his dreams.

He shifted uncomfortably on the couch as Tseng filled out paperwork, calm as ever, as if he hadn't just given the order to murder thousands of people.

"You know, Reno," Tseng said suddenly. "I think you might be due for some R&R." At least Tseng was compassionate – to some.

Reno lifted his right arm, which was still in pain from his two fights with Cloud Strife and being caught in the helicopter explosion.

"Nah, I'm good…" he lied, his face still bandaged from his injuries.

Rude, too, had been suffering. Silently, of course.

"What are we going to do about Sector 7?" he asked their leader.

Tseng huffed, unhappy that his two best subordinates seemed to be regretting their work. "'We' are going to do nothing," he said.

"Been thinking. Was all that necessary?" Rude continued.

"Had we refused, someone else would've completed the task," Tseng replied, annoyed. "We have spared that someone the burden of a guilty conscience. Perhaps that will ease yours."

"Yeah… nope," Reno sighed. Tseng couldn't really have thought that would work, could he?

Tseng leaned back in his chair, getting agitated with this conversation. "Let's try another tack then," he said. "They were a sacrifice to balance the scales."

Reno turned his head as best he could, his neck sore. "Say what?"

"After everything we've taken from the planet, we were due to give something back," Tseng offered, returning to his paperwork.

"Do you actually believe that?" Rude asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the table and look at Tseng pointedly from behind his sunglasses.

"Does it matter? Tseng asked.

Before they could discuss further, another call came in. Rufus was back.

Present day…

"We really do regret what happened back then," Rude said when Tifa again returned to their part of the bar. She regarded him darkly, hating the constant drudging up of her past that occurred when the Turks were around. "We really aren't in that sort of business anymore."

Tifa sighed, letting her chest drop as she considered his words. Could she trust a Turk? No. No she could not.

"Well, hey, how about this, then?" Reno piped in. "If you ever hear about us gettin' back into that shit, you can come kick our asses personally. We won't even fight back."

He grinned and smacked Rude on the shoulder as if to indicate for him to agree. Rude responded with a barely discernible nod. He didn't know what Rufus would order them to do, and he didn't much like the idea of agreeing to his own death, even if it was at the hands of Tifa Lockhart.

And then he saw something he never could imagine. Tifa Lockhart smiled at Reno's offer. He didn't think she even realized she was doing it, it seemed so foreign given her past few months.

"I'll hold you to that," she said, almost jokingly. Reno seemed pretty proud of himself.

Tifa finally realized she was smiling and wiped the smirk from her mouth, turning quickly to see if any customers out at the tables needed anything.

It had been the first time she genuinely smiled in about eight months. And it was because of a Turk.

End notes: I am fixing the timeline. At this point in the story, Cloud started withdrawing a year after Meteor. He withdrew for six months before finally leaving. It has been two months since he left now.