Author Notes: You may find this chapter a shock, but if you read back… well, there have been hints. There have been a lot of hints. Also, you may notice a few things changing with past chapters. I am cleaning the chapters up. As I go through, you will notice the word count and such changing. Don't be alarmed.

Feel free to add me on tumblr. My name is rsasai!

Disclaimer: I, Strange and Intoxicating -rsa-, do not own, think I own, or will ever own Final Fantasy VII or its compilations. I write this because it's fun and I have no life: the end.

Rebirth Five: Corruption

"Mr. President, we have a problem."

Rufus, who had been staring at the papers strewn across the top of his desk, rested his pen down on the paper and crossed his ankles, leaning back in the chair. Rufus sighed and flipped back his hair, feeling the greasiness against his fingers. Oh, if his old man could have seen him now, so untidy and unkept. No doubt he would have gotten himself another long vacation away from Midgar until he was able to properly present himself in front of others. He needed to not be a disappointment as a son. Lazard had always been the perfect son, if not a bastard...

Rufus looked up Raiden and made a gesture with his eyes. Raiden... Raiden, who had been with him for as long as he could remember. Raiden, who was perhaps the only person who had ever seen him bleed or cry...

The Turk's hair was a bit matted and his suit ever-so slightly crumpled. Had it been another day, Rufus would have made a comment about it. Now, though, it seemed pointless. Things were changed, now.

WEAPONS.

"What is it, Raiden?" He couldn't keep the sigh out of his voice, and he frowned when Raiden frowned. The Turk hadn't been happy since the incident in the Northern Cave. Then again, no one had been happy since the Northern Cave. If Rufus didn't know it, he would have assumed that the great red Meteor looming above them was sucking out all of the happiness and joy from the world. In a way, it kind of was what was happening.

"Sir, Turk Jessie has gone missing."

Rufus sighed again. He wished that he had saved his father's liquor for this moment.

He looked around his father's office, even at the seat that had been replaced just for him. The one his father had died on had been burned, and in its place a simple black leather chair. It was the one had had been given by Raiden on his 21st birthday, and still had the shape of Raiden's nails dug into the black leather. He gently placed his own hands over the indents, resting his fingernails in the marks. They were a little smaller than his fingers, but he didn't mind. Raiden always was just a little bigger than he was.

What would his father do?

"Raiden, your orders are shoot to kill. Bring her down. She is a wild animal off her leash, and I already have enough to deal with."

Raiden's face dropped, and Rufus felt like it was a punch to the chest. Yes, Turk loyalty...

"I am sorry, Raiden." He knew his lover did not like the response, but Rufus didn't have the time to coddle the man. His father had made promises to an AVALANCHE member. He was under absolutely no obligation to fulfill his bastard of a father's promise. And her sister had needed to be taken out; supplying the Wutaians with information on the plate structure? Unacceptable.

It was almost ironic, how once upon a time, it had been Rufus sneaking around, giving money to fund AVALANCHE. And now he was here, staring down the barrel of a weapon he all but handed his enemy. In truth, he thought AVALANCHE would take out his old man, making it so much easier to get his power. Yet, here they were. And here he sat, staring at Raiden's drawn mouth.

"You're sorry?" Raiden bit back a laugh-no, that was more of a snarl. Perhaps he had more than one wild animal about to break off their leash. "Don't lie to me, Ruf. It doesn't suit you."

"We have more issues than one errant Turk."

"You are just like your father." The words came like a smack to Rufus's face with an open palm, and he recoiled back as if he were struck. Rufus dug his nails into the leather of his chair.

"Fine. Then I will be like him-"

"Wait, Rufus, fuck-" Raiden interrupted but Rufus stared him down with his ice-chip blue eyes. How dare Raiden, how dare he.

"No. You will kill her now, before she causes a spectacle or finds herself in front of a camera, telling them about the destruction of Sector Seven or something else about my father's schemes."

"You mean your schemes, Rufus," Raiden shot back.

If Rufus's nails could dig any further into the leather, he would be holding the clumps in his hands. He felt his nails bending, but only dug in further. "Then so be it. Have it done, Raiden."

Raiden looked like a god on fire. His eyes were burning, his mouth open and his mouth turned into a snarl. His unruly, dark red hair billowed out around his head. It reminded Rufus of the first time he met Raiden. It had been in Midgar, what seemed like a lifetime ago. His father had, either out of worry or suspicion (Rufus never really guessed which) given his own Turk to Rufus. For protection, his Old Man said as he tapped the butt of his cigar on the ashtray, blowing the smoke into Rufus's face.

And so, the had met in Midgar. Raiden had been wearing a biker jacket, a splash of motor oil on his cheek that he had tried to rub off with no success, and that ridiculous grin that had become home to Rufus over the last ten years. He could remember the way he had jumped down with gangly limbs yet a sense of grace that, to the untrained eye, most would miss.

Rufus never missed it.

And Raiden had been the one to protect him, time and time again. And, if Rufus were honest with himself... his first friend. His first lover.

And now he stood before that man and gave him an order he knew would be carried out. Yet...

"Raiden, I know Turk protocol. Had I been in charge, Cissnei would-" Rufus stopped and let go of chair, the leather squeaking as he released it. "I wouldn't have executed her."

Rufus watched Raiden's face, as the strong mask slowly peeled up. "You've been acting like you wouldn'ta," Raiden finally murmured. He looked down from Rufus and turned to look out the window.

Rufus stood and walked out towards Raiden, tentatively stepping forward. He took his hands, noting how red they were and that yes, two of his nails were broken, and gently reached out and wrapped them around Raiden's waist. This was not something he was used to, but there certainly was a charm to it... Rufus wished there would be more time.

He pulled his head down onto Raiden's shoulder, feeling the red hairs tickling his nose. The two looked out the window, staring out into the red sky.

"Rufus..." Raiden murmured, moving his head a little to the side, allowing Rufus to catch a glimpse of one of his eyes. "I wanted you to know-"

The door opened at that moment and Rufus dropped his arms from Raiden, pulling away quickly as if his skin were burned. The mask snapped back into place and he stared at the intruder.

"Doctor," Rufus stated. "May I help you?"

The doctor looked at him and then to Raiden coolly. "There is work to be done, and I need to have the Mako levels for the Midgar Reactor Zero increased to full capacity. Since the files are gone... we will need to do this by trial and error."

Rufus regarded the doctor. The plans for taking over, using Sephiroth to murder his father and Genesis Rhapsodos to murder Heidegger... all for a bigger goal. This bigger goal.

"Of course, Doctor. Whatever you need, consider it done." Rufus felt that trusting the doctor was a terrible decision, but there were no other options. They were already in this mess, and it wasn't possible to back down. Rufus knew that the doctor had been hiding something, and had sent the Turks out to find the pieces of what was left... 201745. The Tenacity Experiment. And what it left him with was pieces of a history long ago decided, long ago chained to events.

The doctor nodded and left the room with a click of heels, and Rufus wished that there was a way to turn back time.

But it was too late. The cycle was already broken, and now all Rufus could do was hope that Zack Fair and Cloud Strife were still alive.

Tseng woke to a hand on his forehead.

He scrunched up his face and pulled away from the feeling of flesh against flesh. He could feel the burn of his parched throat and the wound on his stomach-it was still knitting back together. Tseng wondered, idly, what organs Sephiroth had pierced when Masamune made its journey through his stomach. There had to be at least his liver, maybe even a kidney.

He slowly opened his eyes to see blonde hair and brown eyes staring down at him. Of course it would be Harter.

"Sir! You're awake!" The woman couldn't conceal her joy, and let out her feelings in a shriek that made Tseng feel like Sephiroth had run him through the head, rather than the stomach.

He tried to say something, but found his throat weak. How long had he been out? And how... how had Aeris saved him?

She always was special... so special.

Tseng found water pressed against his lips a moment later, and he drank greedily, feeling the liquid slide down his throat. It took him a few minutes of drinking to finally feel well enough to talk.

He looked around the room, noting that this was the Shinra Hospital located in Sector 8. The walls were too clean to be Sector Three and the Shinra Medical Center in Headquarters was somewhere no Turk would ever be sent... No one trusted the scientists or their doctors... The whiteness bothered his eyes, but he did notice a small arrangement of flowers. They were bright tulips and daisies-had she come here?

No, that was a ridiculous thought, Tseng surmised as Elena blushed when he noticed the flowers. She said nothing, however, leaving the space open wide with silence.

"Elena," Tseng finally managed, and the woman's cheeks filled with a reddish glow. She leaned closer and closer, until Tseng himself had to pull back. "Get me my phone."

The woman's eyes went wide and she pulled herself out of her own trance, grasping at her pockets wildly. Finally, after a few seconds of fumbling, she pulled out her phone and handed it to Tseng.

He took the phone, having to check himself twice as to not drop it. Finally flipping it open, he tapped in Reno's number.

It only took three rings for Reno to pick up, and only a handful of words to get what he needed.

"Reno, it's Tseng. Report."

Tseng listened to his Second-in-Command connect the dots over the past three weeks-had it really been so long, Tseng had been surprised- and gestured to Elena to open the blinds when Reno had mentioned Meteor. How... This... This was not good.

"And now the President has us all on orders to hunt down Jessie. Sir," Tseng could hear the uncharacteristically somber tone in Reno's voice, and yes... Even before he said anything, Tseng sighed.

"I see." He expected it to happen, especially after the bombing... After the nurse. After Vincent Valentine. After Jamie Heusen. After Cissnei.

It was only a matter of time that the President asked for something, pushed too far. And this was it.

"Sir-I am sorry, sir. I... I gotta... You understand, don'tcha?"

"Reno. Are you sure you are ready for this? If we do this-"

"We? Sir?"

He looked at Elena, whose face lost all the color. She was so easy to read, so very unlike her sister... Oh, what would Elena do?

"Yes, we. Raiden and Larc will handle matters, if they choose not to join us." Tseng did not need Reno to know that Larc would stay because Tseng asked him to. This plan had been put in place long before the Temple, long before Sephiroth, long before even Rufus had become president.

Raiden would only leave Rufus in a body bag.

Turk loyalty.

Tseng knew who was loyal and who was not. It was a misconception that Turks had no loyalties; it was either to the Company or to the Family. And Tseng had known from the beginning, from the moment that President Shinra told him to put the bullet in Cissnei's head with his own gun, that the Family would always win.

His hand shook when he raised it to her temple. She had been strong, so strong. She hadn't even cried. She just stared into his eyes with the grim determination, knowing that she would be avenged.

And he would not break that promise to her now. Even as the doctor took her body away, down into the secret Reactor... Tseng did not want to know what they would do with her body. Her soul was already gone. There was nothing left to save.

"Then you better get ready to run. You sure you wanna come, boss?"

There was the chance that this would go wrong, that it would end with Tseng's brain matter coating the floor. But, as Tseng stared down at the Meteor looming outside his window, he knew it wouldn't matter.

"I will be coming. Reno... be discreet."

There was laughter from the other end, and Tseng knew that the Turk would do exactly what he always did. He wished that he could see it.

Tseng closed the phone and pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at his rookie, foolish Turk. He saw her brown eyes wider than he even imagined they could go, and she looked like she could get ill at any moment. This would not surprise Tseng; he felt a little ill himself.

Years. He had been with Shinra for years. This was his home. He had grown up with Shinra, had lived because of Shinra.

And he had lied and killed and tortured for Shinra.

No, that did not bother him; that was part of the job. It was a part that Tseng was not proud of, but neither was he ashamed. It was his duty, to protect his family.

And it had been, since that day when he watched Cissnei's blood splatter across the President's floor, with that bitch staring at him with her cat green eyes and tapping her heels, that Tseng knew. He needed the Tenacity files, he needed any information that he could get his hands on, and then he needed to leave.

It wasn't safe to be a Turk, but it was even less safe to be of interest to the Scientific Research Department.

They already took three of them.

They weren't getting any more.

Reno slammed his PHS shut and looked around the dinky Junon rooms. He quickly grabbed a black leather bag Zack bought him for his birthday six years before, and chucked in what he thought would be important- some clothes, his materia, and the stack of money he accumulated over the years of being from a dysfunctional home and never expecting stability. His computer and other electronics went into his computer bag, though he made sure to leave his Shinra computer on the desk. This baby was untraceable.

He grabbed his EMR and hooked it to his belt and then looked around the room, then down to himself.

Reno ran his finger over his tie, thumbing the embossed Shinra logo on the surface. He remembered the day that Tseng and Veld had given him his own tie. It was right after training and he had survived. They had even seemed proud of him... it was the first time Reno had ever been proud of himself.

The red and stark white stood out against the black, and after a moment, Reno finally reached up and unknotted the tie and yanked it up and over his head. He held the material for a moment before letting it drop unceremoniously to the floor.

They would know.

He didn't even have to write a letter.

If Reno was completely honest with himself, he had seen the writing on the wall. He stayed because of Tseng, because he was promised that he would be able to find out what happened to Zack... and Jamie.

Jamie.

Something about that had never felt right for Reno, even though they passed it off as an accident. There was no reason why Jamie, sweet Jamie, would have been sent on that stupid mission. It wasn't even a Turk mission; it was supposed to have been a SOLDIER mission. But he had gone, and whatever had happened, Reno found him hours later bleeding from a gaping hole in his side. Reno killed a lot of people over his life, but never had the blood been so permeating. It had stuck to his hands for days. No matter how many times he scrubbed, the blood wouldn't go away.

If he closed his eyes, he could still see that blood.

And Zack...

He had made a promise to Zack, and even if the ex-SOLDIER no longer loved him, Reno wasn't one to break promises. He had also promised Mrs. Fair she would get her baby back, she would be able to hold him and love him, and that was what Reno did. He never would have forgiven himself if Zack had died, if he hadn't been able to save him.

Tseng had let him save him.

That still wasn't something Reno completely understood. At first he thought it had something to do with Aeris, the Ancient he always had the hots for. But... that wasn't quite right.

There was something going on with file 201745. They had been chasing after it for months, but whatever was inside had terrified Cissnei enough for her to destroy every copy... she even carved out a hole in the original files which had infuriated the Science department. Even Hojo had been recalcitrant after the events, anxiously backing up all his files. Reno wasn't privy to know all of the contents, but he knew enough. He knew that if he gave Zack this information, then maybe... just maybe...

Maybe he could help.

He and Raiden had searched the Nibelheim mansion for any hint of the original files, but Cissnei had been one step ahead of them. She was a good Turk-no, she had been a great Turk, and the fact that she had all but wiped the files completely from the face of the planet meant that whatever was in them must have scared her.

Cissnei did not scare easily.

Reno looked around the room. He wished that he could go back to his apartment in Midgar, but there wouldn't be any time and really, there was nothing there for him anymore.

Reno pulled out his phone and pulled up his contact list. He thumbed through the names, all the way down to Rude. He hit the call button, and the phone was answered on the first ring.

"... Yes?"

"Rude, it's time."

He didn't need to say anything else.

"No, you cannot execute them Scarlet-"

Raiden looked at Rufus, who was sitting at his desk with his hand gripped around the phone, his knuckles turning white. Rufus's hair, usually so composed and slicked back, fell around his ears. There was perspiration on his brow and Raiden watched as a droplet of sweat trickled down Rufus's forehead.

"I said no, you impudent bitch. I am the president, not you. Do not dare lecture me on what I will and will not do." Rufus had the cord wrapped around his hand like a noose. "If you do anything without me there, your head will roll, Scarlet," he snarled before slamming the phone down onto the cradle. It forced the phone across the desk and Rufus didn't bat an eye when the entire machine fell off the side.

Scarlet being a bitch wasn't anything new.

"Rufus, do ya want me to get Beast going? We can get to Junon in an hour."

Rufus looked up at him, and Raiden could see the blue bruises under Rufus's eyes. The man looked over to the helipad and nodded, untying the cord from around his wrist. "Yes. Scarlet is being difficult."

Difficult. Raiden snorted. The day that Scarlet was anything other than difficult, Raiden would have a stroke.

He nodded and bent two of his fingers at his head, giving a little salute to his president before heading toward the door to the roof.

The cloying Midgar November air hit Raiden's face, and he had to take a deep breath in, even though the air was choked with Mako. Oh, Shiva, he had dreamed of this kind of freedom when he was a little shit below the plates. He would never forget his first breath of fresh, sweet air...

Raiden jogged to Beast and opened the door, pulling himself through the opening. He looked around the cockpit, eyes darting to-yeah, right there. He grabbed the keys and turned on the switches, feeling his baby roar to life under his legs. Oh, yeah.

Raiden didn't mess with the controls, instead fidgeting with the headpiece for a moment before throwing it down next to him in disgust. This day really couldn't get much worse.

After a minute of sitting, Raiden forced open the door and jumped down. The Midgar wind and Beast blew the cold air down his neck, and Raiden had to bite back a shiver. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention.

It was only after Raiden reached the door, seeing Rufus reflected in the glass, and slid his keycard down that he realized that the hair standing up on the back of his neck was more than just a little cold.

"Took your time, didn't yo-"

He spun around and slammed his body against the door, forcing it shut. He couldn't see Rufus's face, but he knew that Rufus was screaming something to him... the glass was too thick for him to hear the words, but the tone... Rufus, was he scared?

Raiden didn't even have a chance to pull out his weapon before the bullets pierced through him. And, when his back thunked against the glass, Raiden didn't even try to push himself up. Instead, he just looked up at his killer.

Maybe Raiden shouldn't have killed her sister. But, how was he supposed to have known?

Larc knew something was wrong the minute he received the call from Rufus. The man's voice was hoarse and shaking, and Larc could hear something in that voice he had never heard from the President.

Shit.

He ran.

Larc took two steps at a time up to the 70th floor, feeling the stitch at his side and the painful lack of oxygen. The dread only got worse the longer he ran, and Larc knew that today things would be going straight in the tank. This was going up shit's creek without a paddle. They were all going to be fucked over, if the red ball in the sky didn't do it first...

Larc skidded to a halt and stared at the metal door, using the handle as purchase as he took in a few deep breaths. He fumbled in his pocket for his keycard and slammed it against the card reader, the annoying ping! resounding through the otherwise silent room.

His eyes scanned the room and Larc immediately pulled out one of his guns, holding it out before him, finger poised on the trigger. Whatever Rufus had called about left him in a panic-why hadn't it been Raiden?

And then he saw the President, sitting in his chair.

Rufus was covered in blood. The man's white jacket was stained through, his pant legs dripping with it. He had, at some point, ran his hand though his hair and the blood now slicked back some of his hair. One hand loosely held his sawed off shotgun, and the other dangled off the side of the arm rest.

"President!" Larc yelled, and it was as though Rufus could not see him. He just stared forward blankly. A droplet of blood made its way down his sleeve and wrist, finally slipping from his ring finger down to the floor. Another droplet soon met it, and Larc realized from the growing puddle that he had been sitting this way for a while.

Larc could see the president blinking and breathing, but that didn't mean it was safe.

He lifted the gun and looked from Rufus to the ground, following the blood drops. They progressively turned into massive puddles, and then Larc saw him.

Raiden was definitely dead-for how long, Larc wasn't sure. His lips were already turning blue, and the blood on his nose had already begun to congeal. Raiden looked peaceful in death, something he had never been really able to pull off in life.

Larc leaned down and rested two of his fingers on Raiden's exposed throat, though he knew it was mostly for show. To whom, Larc wasn't sure...

Then he spotted her.

Jessie had been a cute girl, enough to get a fair number of looks from other guys. Larc hadn't liked her, though. She reminded him of the slums, the way that everyone wanted something. When he had worked for the Don he had seen girls like her like the never-ending revolving door. He had fucked enough of them to know how slippery and conniving they could be, like a snake.

He hadn't liked that Tseng had gotten himself involved with her, nevermind that she had somehow managed to get herself promoted so quickly. There had been something to that Larc hadn't liked, and most of the other Turks had been just as disgusted. Reno's little prodigy, Tseng had remarked. She was special.

Now, she was just very, very dead.

There was a massive hole through her abdomen where Rufus had point blank shot her, more than once from the shells scattered across the ground. That no doubt would have done the trick, but Rufus had taken it a step further.

Larc pulled his hand away from Raiden's cold throat and slowly walked towards the body, toeing some of the organs ripped out of Jessie's body. Her arms were spread eagle, and all Larc could think of was that Jessie was making her very own gore angels.

This... this was overkill.

No wonder there was so much blood.

Larc flipped open his phone and dialed in Reno's number.

"Reno, this is Larc."

"Yeah, I got eyes. I can see that," the other man responded, and Larc held in the desire to roll his eyes. But here, with his pants soaking up the blood of two Turks, it was definitely not the time.

"Look, Reno... We have a problem."

"Did Tseng call you?"

Larc's throat tightened. Oh.

Shit.

"Reno, no. You need to have Tseng call me right now, this is urgent."

But the other man didn't say anything, and when the line went dead, Larc couldn't even swear at the phone. He couldn't let Rufus know.

He looked back at Jessie's eviscerated corpse and could see what Rufus would do to Tseng.

Larc hit his phone's speed dial and waited for Tseng to pick up, but he knew better. Tseng had already taken apart his phone and had the pieces scattered over Midgar, no doubt. He his the red button and dialed in Elena's number. It was always her job to be with Tseng, and he doubted she would have turned off her phone...

The black-haired Turk could have kissed her when the phone answered, but his jubilation ended when he heard the voice on the other end.

"This is Sebastian."

Larc slowly closed his eyes and counted the names.

Tseng. Reno. Raiden. Larc. Jessie. Sebastian. Alyssa.

Shit.

"Sebastian, we have an issue at HQ."

The man on the other line did not seem fazed by the information, instead settling with a silence.

"Why do you have Harter's phone?" Larc already knew the answer, but... maybe...

"Elena and Tseng have left the Turk Program.. I arrived to find Tseng's hospital bed empty and their belongings in the room. I need to speak with Reno-"

"Reno won't be speaking to anyone."

This gave Sebastian pause. "Then I need to speak to Raiden."

Larc looked down at Raiden's unmoving body and the way the helicopter's rotor blades blew the air against his body. It could have been like Raiden was only peacefully sleeping, the breeze playing through his hair.

"That isn't going to be happening, either."

"Excuse me?"

"We have an issue here at HQ. Raiden is dead... and so is Jessie."

There was shuffling on the other end of the phone, and Larc took the moment to switch the phone in his hand with his gun and wipe some of the perspiration from his forehead with his sleeve.

Tseng. Reno. Raiden.

Larc.

Shit.

"Then Turk protocol-"

Larc cut off Sebastian. "Yes, I know. I need you to get the Turks to Midgar. Tseng, Elena, and Reno can wait. I am putting us on high alert." There was something in his gut that screamed that this was wrong, that this was not his position, but it was. It was.

Shit.

"Have you seen Rude?" That was a stupid question and Larc knew it. Wherever Reno went, Rude would follow.

"No. I think it is safe to say that Rude will not be coming with us."

Fair assumption.

Larc looked at the two dead bodies of the Turks, then back towards Rufus who stil sat at his throne, unmoving.

"Be here by fifteen-hundred. I need you to be discreet. Have Alyssa fall back, I need someone on the ground to watch for news, as well as to keep an eye on the rest of the Shinra Execs."

The line went dead and Larc shakily lowered his hand, hitting the button to end the call.

Shit.

Rufus hadn't changed his clothes.

His entire body could feel Raiden's blood sticking to him like a second skin, and Rufus knew that he would need to clean it off eventually. He needed to do it, soon. The Turks had made quick work of cleaning up the blood and that bitch's insides, but Rufus was still there, still sitting at his desk.

When Cecilia tried to put her hands on Raiden, she found herself on the other side of Rufus's shotgun. And, knowing from her own personal experience how deadly they were (like Jessie's body wasn't obvious enough on its own) she had backed off.

Raiden had at least a good thirty pounds and several inches over Rufus, but that hadn't stopped Rufus from being the one to carry him into the office. He had been the one to lay the Turk down on the ground. And when Ash and Penelope offered to bring the body down to the morgue, he had been the one to order them to get out of his office.

And then he sat again, and watched his dogs leave his office in a row.

Raiden...

Rufus looked down at the body on the floor, and reached to his phone. It wasn't there.

It had only been an hour ago, they had been fighting like they always did.

Rufus stood, feeling the suit creaking and crunching as he got down to his knee and picked up the phone, dialing in the number he was becoming more and more familiar with...

"Yes?"

"I need something. Come to my office. Bring a gurney."

He threw the phone down, not bothering to try and hang it up, and found himself slowly kneeing his way closer to Raiden's body. When his knee his the Turk's leg, Rufus found the strength leave him in one fell swoop, and it took everything in him not to fall over on top of the body. Instead, he fell a little back and found himself sitting on his own shoes. Oh, what his father would say if he could see his son...

Professor Hojo was busy in Junon with the experimentation plans with the WEAPONS and the plan to use some of the Ancient's magic to use to stop Meteor. Rufus wasn't even sure if it would work, but he had given the man all the money he would need. It would keep him out of Midgar, at least for a little while.

Rufus instinctually didn't like Hojo. It was the same way a child was afraid of the dark or the way an animal avoided droves of people. There was something about the Professor that put his teeth on edge. He had known from the very beginning not to trust Hojo, and knew that when the man came knocking that the best thing for Rufus to do was ignore him or just throw whatever he wanted at his feet and make him leave as quickly as possible.

The Doctor was... different. It was difficult for Rufus to really understand. There was something about the Doctor that made Rufus instinctually not want to trust her. She seemed so normal and calm, even contrite. The way she would smile, so unsure of herself... yet her words were always confident. And those eyes...

The Tenacity Experiment. His digging on the Tenacity Experiment, or file #201745, began just after meeting Zack Fair. He had been searching for information on Fair and his cohorts, and when he looked up Strife's file it had been blocked. And, as President of Shinra, nothing should have been blocked.

Yet it was.

And rather than send Hojo, they sent the good Doctor.

And she had known his plans. Of course, she had known. It was her job.

Rufus stared down at Raiden's body. This would be her job, too.

It only took a few minutes, but the minute the door opened and the sound of something rolling on the ground reached Rufus's ears he turned to look at her.

Cat-green eyes met his.

"Fix this."

The Doctor's shoes clicked on the shining marble. She stepped over the blood and leaned forward. The tip of her coat dipped into the blood and when she stood the red liquid dripped onto her heels. She didn't even seem to notice, though Rufus found himself entranced by it.

"How do you think I should fix it?"

Rufus bit back a scream and looked at her face, shakily pushing himself to his feet. "Does it look like I care? Get it done."

"You don't think we have other matters to discuss?"

"No. You have your orders. See it is done."

The Doctor huffed, and for that moment Rufus understood why Hojo stayed clear of his underling and why she secluded herself away in the bowels of Midgar.

No wonder her son was such a monster.

"Fine," the Doctor stated, and Rufus watched as she snapped her fingers and two men in uniforms Rufus had never seen before rushed forward with the gurney. They were not delicate with Raiden's body, and Rufus had to remind himself that Raiden couldn't feel anything.

"I will see to it." Lucrecia Crescent frowned, cat-eyes looking at him with disinterest. "Do you know what happened to my specimen?"

"Strife? No, nothing."

She sighed and then straightened her back and turned on her heel, the two men and the gurney following her. "Let me know when you hear something."

Oh. Well. Considering how much I hate the bitch, I am surprised if anyone didn't see it coming. And you wonder why everyone was so secretive. Lots of stuff happened in this chapter… God, this has been in the works for 9 years. It is nice that it is finally out of my head and on paper.

Now, I know I said this last time, but I really want to hear what you guys have to say. I wanted to thank SakuraDreams, who was the only person to review last chapter. Thank you for bringing me a smile. I would insert a heart here, but I think that ffn would eat it.

Please review!