CHAPTER XXVII

Reno sat in his kitchen, the chair he was perched upon tilted precariously backward, his feet propped up on the table, a smoldering cigarette dangling from his lips and a paper strewn haphazardly across his legs and the table in front of him. He wasn't really reading it. There wasn't much of interest in there. The mayor of Junon announcing a crack down on crime, an article about air pollution, a murder over in the harbor district. Same old shit.

He'd been checking the paper every day, looking to see if there would be any word of their little break in at Psi Co. but he'd seen nothing, not a word of it. Apparently Psi Co didn't want anyone to know about their little incursion and was very good at covering it up. Not that he didn't blame them.

No, there was nothing of interest in the paper, as usual. He'd already read the funnies. He wasn't reading anymore and instead had been amusing himself by taking his cigarette and burning holes in the paper wherever there was a picture of someone's face. Amusing too, to think that if someone happened to find this paper after he discarded it, they'd think it was the work of someone with a serious psychological problem.

And maybe they'd be right.

He glanced over at the clock on the small desk in the room. It was just after ten. Normally way to early for him to be up but for some reason here he was. He had woken up at about eight this morning and no matter how hard he tried his body had refused to go back to sleep.

Too much on his mind, that was the problem. He wasn't the type to worry about things, never had been. He'd always had complete confidence in himself, confidence that he could handle anything, that no matter what went wrong, no matter how tight a spot he got himself into, he'd be able to use his charm and guile to slip out of it. He'd felt that way all his life and up to this point it had held true. Sure, he'd had his setbacks. Things had been tough more than once, but he'd always managed, he'd always survived. The situation he was in now was no different.

Or so he kept telling himself, yet something inside kept nagging at him. A little voice inside him was telling him that maybe this time he was in more trouble than his not inconsiderable charm could get him out of. He didn't like that. He wished the little voice would just shut the hell up.

His didn't think, however, that his own problems had caused him to toss and turn in bed all night last night and to get up so early. That wasn't it. That wasn't it at all. There was something else that was troubling him.

Tifa, of course.

He couldn't believe what she had planned on doing. He couldn't believe she'd do something like that. What the hell had she been thinking? How many times had he told her he'd take care of this little problem himself, but no, she had to interfere, she had to come up with her own solution. And what a solution! She'd sure surprised him there, he'd give her that. He never thought she'd do something like that for any reason, much less to help him out.

Which just screwed with his mind even more. Why would she do something like that for him? She wasn't a stripper, it wasn't in her nature. She'd never done anything like that before, never even contemplated it. So why now, why for him?

He realized he was drawing conclusions here that he couldn't be sure of. She wasn't a stripper, but that didn't mean she hadn't thought about it. He had no idea what she really thought of the idea. From what he knew about her, he thought she would never even think about doing something like that and he had thought he knew her pretty well. Now he wasn't so sure. He had to admit he had this picture of her as being a naive innocent but she wasn't. Sure she was kind, too kind for her own good but she'd been around. She worked in a strip joint, she had a kid, as she had pointed out herself, she wasn't exactly Miss. Innocence.

Yet that was the image he had in his head of her and he couldn't seem to shake it.

In any case, she might not be as innocent as he wanted to think but it still wasn't in her nature to be a stripper. He knew her well enough to be sure of that.

Which still left him with the question of why she had been willing to do it now.

All this time, after he had realized he'd fallen in love with her, he'd thought it was a one way street. He'd known she kind of liked him, but as far as he could tell that was the extent of it. He'd thought she was willing to be friends because, well, because she was a nice person. Now...

Now he didn't know what to think. You don't do what she had planned on doing because you thought someone was okay. You don't throw away all your values to help someone who you don't really care about. Care a lot about.

He thought all this time he could read Tifa pretty well, but he had to admit these last few moves by her left him questioning that assumption. It seemed almost beyond belief to him, he didn't dare let himself think it, but, could it be, was it even remotely possible that she cared about him to, that she...

He dismissed the thought with a sudden jerk of his head. Or tried to. They'd been enemies for a long time. He'd killed her friends. They were completely incompatible. She could never love a man like him. There was just no way it could ever work out. It was impossible.

He'd gone through all this more than once already. He knew all the arguments against them becoming... against them forming...

Becoming what? Forming what? He didn't know, having a relationship, settling down, getting married? He'd thought there was no chance of that, he still didn't and yet...

Yet, he realized, no matter how crazy it sounded he couldn't keep his mind from entertaining that possibility. If she didn't care about him, if she didn't like him a lot more than he thought, then why would she have done what she did?

The jangling of the phone on the desk behind him made him jerk, almost causing his well balanced chair to tip and send him backwards onto the floor, which is exactly where most of his paper ended up.

Deciding it was a lost cause he dumped what remained of the paper onto the floor, then nimbly got to his feet. Walking over to the phone, he picked up the receiver.

"Talk to me."

A momentary pause.

"Hi Reno." Tifa's familiar voice came to him.

"Hey."

He couldn't help but glance at the clock again. It was only a few minutes past where it had been when he had last looked. What the hell was she calling him so early for? He was usually in bed at this time and she knew that. For that matter, what the hell was she calling him for at all?

"Umm, how are you?"

"Fine," he replied. Obviously not what she had called to discuss. "You?"

"I'm okay, but...umm, I need a favor."

"A favor eh?" he replied. This was a first. "What might that be?"

"I need to know if you can baby sit for Karisa later."

"Huh?"

"Baby sit. Later when I go to work. Priscilla called me this morning and she's sick and she can't make it today. I've tried for the last hour to find someone else but no one is available. I'm really in a bind here. I guess I could call in sick but I don't really want to do that since I just got back and all."

Reno wasn't sure what to say. Man, she was just full of surprises lately. He would have never expected her to ask to watch Karisa. He didn't think she trusted him that much.

"Why me?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Why not?" she replied.

"I'm not exactly Mr. Comfortable when it comes to children."

"Oh stop, you're fine with her, I can tell," Tifa replied. "You're a lot better with kids than you let on."

"Yeah well maybe," he muttered, sounding slightly befuddled as indeed he was. It still seemed like an odd thing for her to ask him but he couldn't help but feel... well, sort of good actually, that Tifa would trust him with her child. She seemed pretty protective of her daughter, naturally, and obviously wouldn't ask just anyone to do something like that. He had been worried that whatever relationship they had, and he still couldn't figure out exactly what relationship the did have, would have deteriorated because of what he had done the other day. Perhaps she really was willing to forgive and forget.

"Well?"

He realized he had been pondering for so long he hadn't yet answered her.

"I don't know," he said slowly, not because he didn't, but because he was a bit curious just how badly she really wanted him to do this.

"Oh come on Reno, I don't have anyone else to turn to. Please?"

He briefly considered dragging it out further, but then decided it might be best not to push his luck. He didn't know how much leeway he had here.

"All right."

"You will?"

"I said all right, didn't I?"

"Okay, thanks. Can you come by around three?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Great, you're a lifesaver."

"And don't your forget it."

"All right, see you then."

"Yeah."

"Bye."

"See ya."

Reno placed his own phone back on the receiver after he heard her hang up. He stood there for some time pondering this new development. It still seemed a bit odd to him, her asking him to babysit after all this time, out of the blue like that, or so it seemed to him. It seemed especially odd that she had asked the very day she was supposed to have danced at the Halo & Horns. If she was a devious person, he would suspect her of trying to get him out of the way. If she wasn't planning on keeping her word and wanted to make sure he didn't show up, this would be a good way to do that, now wouldn't it?

He walked over to his couch and flopped down on it. Yeah it would, just the kind of thing a devious person would come up with.

Only Tifa wasn't a devious person. She was annoyingly honest in fact, too honest for her own good. If it was almost anyone else, he would suspect them of lying, but he just couldn't see her doing that. He knew her too well. It had to just be a coincidence.


Tifa felt an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach when she heard the knock at her door. Actually she had had an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach since she had gotten up this morning, but the knock just made it that much more evident. She glanced over at the clock and saw it was just after three. Reno was surprising close to on time.

She walked over to the door and opened it up.

"C'mon in," she said, quickly turning away and walking back inside, to the hallway and then into the bathroom as Reno strolled in.

"Make yourself at home," she said loud enough for him to hear. Not really anything she had to say, she knew him well enough to know that would be exactly what he was doing regardless. She looked at herself closely in the mirror, checking to see if her face or her manners betrayed any of her nervousness. It didn't seem to to her, but that didn't mean Reno wouldn't pick up on some subtle clue. She wasn't good at lying. She knew he knew that as well as she did. She stood there in front of the mirror for a long time, afraid to go out there and face him, afraid he would see right through her, afraid as soon as she opened her mouth, as soon as he saw the look on her face, that he would divine the truth.

But she couldn't stand there forever. There was nothing to do now but get this over with. Get the whole night over with. The sooner that happened, the sooner she could put it behind her.

She took a deep breath, straightened her blouse, then walked back out into the living room.

"There's food in the fridge. Karisa is playing in her room. She needs to eat dinner later but should be good after that," she said, pulling open the closet door and getting her coat. "She should go to bed about eight, a little later if you want. My number is by the phone if you have any problems."

Reno was sitting on the couch.

"All righty," he said.

She saw him looking at her and turned away as she put on her coat, pulling gloves out of the pocket, then she walked quickly to the door. She stopped there, turning to look at him, knowing that if she blew out the door this quick he'd be suspicious.

"I should be back around two. Take anything you want to eat but, umm, no drinking, okay?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied. He could understand the question, even though he hadn't planned on doing any.

"All right, I'll see you later," she said.

She turned away, quickly exiting her apartment. As soon as the door was closed behind her she let out a sigh of relief. Reno had seemed perfectly at ease, and didn't look like he suspected anything, nor had he questioned her as she was afraid he might have done. It looked like she had gotten out of the house without his suspecting anything.

As she walked down the street though, she didn't feel much better. She didn't want to lie, but she didn't know what else to do. Reno needed the gil and it didn't look like he had any plan to get it himself, not legally anyway, and at least what she was doing was that, legal. No one would end up in jail if she danced at the Halo & Horns tonight.

She made her way quickly down the street. She wasn't sure if she was being stupid or not. She wasn't sure if she should have just told him the truth, or better yet, just gone along with what she had promised. She hated lying. She hated the way it made her feel inside. She hated the fact that she felt as if everyone she lied to could see right through her. She hated the fact that Reno had put her in the position to have to lie to begin with. Her life had been screwed up for a long time now but she had always been honest with herself and those around her. She had never had to worry about being deceitful. Was this Reno's fault? Was he somehow dragging her down to his level? Maybe, but that seemed hard to justify. After all, it was him she was lying to. She was no saint, she had told him that right from the beginning. She was just as capable of cheating and lying as the next person. Maybe this was a part of her that had always been there, she just hadn't been willing to face it. She kept telling herself that at least she was lying for a good cause, at least she was doing it to help someone else, but she wasn't sure how much of a difference, if any, that made.

Maybe, maybe, maybe. She could question and second guess herself all she wanted and it wouldn't do a bit of good. For better or worse she was set upon her course now. It was too late to turn back. Well, maybe not but it sure seemed like it. She'd already brought Reno in to baby sit, she had already told Bernard she would dance. Everything was in place. She couldn't back out now.

Could she?

It would be a mess yes, but not the end of the world. At least she didn't think so. Bernard would understand. Reno would find the money somehow. He was good that way, when it came down to it. Rude would lend it to him, or he'd find someone else to hustle. The man was a survivor.

Or...

Or there would be a riot at the Halo & Horns when the people were told she was chickening out. The place would be wrecked. Bernard would fire her. Both she and Reno would end up out on the street.

Best case, worse case, or maybe something in between. She didn't know, she didn't know what to do anymore. The tide was flowing around her, sweeping her off to a place she had never been, a place she didn't want to go, and yet she felt helpless to fight against it.

She looked up and saw that the Halo & Horns was just down the block now. It hadn't taken her long to get here. Seemed just a moment ago she had stepped out of her door. Funny how that worked, how time seemed to go faster the more you didn't want it to. Some evil joke of the gods.

She again hesitated when she reached the door, fighting the urge to turn around, to run home as fast as she could. Run home where she was safe. She couldn't hide from this though, she couldn't run. She wasn't going to be like Reno. She was going to face this and do whatever she had to do.

Everything seemed slightly different when she walked inside. The smell of ammonia stronger than usual, the music louder, the glare from the lights over the dance floor exceptionally bright. Was anything really different, or had she just not noticed any of this before. Or perhaps her senses were just on edge, knowing what she was going to do tonight.

If the place seemed different the people seemed even more so, and in this case, she didn't think it was just her. Caraca hardly said a word to her as she stepped beside him behind the bar, though he didn't avoid her like Alicia had been doing. Alicia in fact, hadn't spoken a word to her since they had all found out she was going to dance. In a way Tifa couldn't blame her. After all, all this time Tifa had resisted the idea, had said it would never happen and now all of a sudden she'd changed her mind. She knew Alicia felt threatened by that, even though Tifa knew she had no reason to be. Tifa wasn't after her job. She was only in this to get Reno his money and that was it, she would never do it again. Still, she had said she never would and now she was. Given that, Alicia had no reason to believe she would stop here. Oh well, maybe they could patch things up once it was all over.

The other girls seemed to be treating her differently as well. She couldn't really explain how. They seemed a bit more... standoffish than they had always been. She didn't know why. Perhaps they felt threatened too? Tifa was no psychologist. There was nothing she could do about it anyway. Except for Delphine, she wasn't really all that close to any of them anyway.

Delphine on the other hand, was the only one who seemed to not be rattled by this, the only one who treated her just the way she always had. She hadn't said anything to her friend, but she would have to thank her for that.

Even the customers were different, and that, in a way, was the worst part. She'd always gotten the hungry looks, the come on's from some of them, but it usually wasn't all that many of them. Most people were there just to have a drink and check out the girls who were dancing, but tonight, tonight it seemed like every man she looked at had that same wolfish expression on his face when he looked at her. Eventually she found herself not even looking at the people she was serving.

It didn't take long for the place to get busy. They always got a crowd on Friday night, but pretty soon it became obvious that this was no ordinary Friday night crowd. Soon the place was jam packed, the people sardined in wall to wall. And that, of course, didn't make Tifa fell any better. Her stomach had been in a knot all day, and the later it got the worse the feeling became.

The later it got the more she also deliberately avoided looking at the time. It was busy, so in a way that helped. She didn't have time to think about much except taking orders and making drinks. It kept her from clock watching but on the other hand, it made the time go faster as well. Then again, maybe if she just kept on making drinks no one would notice the time, maybe she would turn around and it would be time to close. Maybe everyone would just forget about what she had said she would do.

Okay, so yeah, she knew she was just fantasizing, but hey, that was pretty much all she had to cling to at this point.

Unfortunately she didn't get to cling to it for very long. She felt a tap on her shoulder and when she turned she saw Delphine standing behind her.

"It's time to get ready," the younger girl announced.

Tifa nodded numbly. She was tempted to look at the clock once more, just to make sure. Maybe Delphine was a little off, maybe her watch was fast.

Yeah, and maybe she could just wave a magic wand, and everything would be better.

Chewing her lower lip, she started after Delphine, but was halted by Caraca, who came up suddenly beside her. For a moment he just looked at her as she stood there, waiting for him to say something as he, from the look on his face, obviously wanted to do.

"Don't do it."

She just stood there for a long time. The look on his face, she'd never seen that look before. He'd always been an even keeled guy, even when he was taking a beating he'd never shown much emotion. The look on his face now though, well, he looked upset, really upset. She stood there just looking at him, not knowing what to say. What could she say? That she didn't want to? That she would do practically anything to get out of this? Did it really matter anyway, how he felt, or her? She couldn't just change her mind, she just couldn't.

Eventually she gave him a forced smile that she hoped would somehow reassure him, then turned away without saying a word.


It was cold out. Uncomfortable. Well, freezing really. A night where no one would be outdoors unless it was absolutely necessary, a night when few people would be wandering the streets, a night where, in other words, there would be few people around to act as witnesses.

Drax strode silently down the street. He liked it cold. He liked it uncomfortable. It gave the night an edge, gave life some bite, kept his senses alert. He liked to go where no one else wanted to. While everyone else was afraid of the cold, shunned it, he embraced it. He embraced anything that was dark and dangerous, and this night, here in Junon, certainly was that.

Cars occasionally passed by, their lights flashing on him momentarily, a dark figure stalking down the street. Rarely he would see others walking the street. A lone figure here and there, hurrying off to wherever they were headed. Someplace warm, no doubt. He saw a couple ahead at the corner, off to the side under a canopy, their arms around each other. A young couple, basking in each others warmth, apparently. They at least did not seem concerned with the cold. He slowed, picturing himself slipping out his sword that he had concealed beneath his coat and impaling them both in one swift thrust as he walked by. They would die without even knowing what hit them, impaled together, linked in death as they seemed to so desperately want to be in life, their blood mingling together.

How romantic.

But no, he thought as he moved on, he didn't have time to play. He had a job to do. He couldn't get distracted.

Besides, there would be more than enough death to satisfy him, before the night was through.

He made a right turn at the corner. He was in a residential section of the city, single family houses lining the left side of the street, a row or apartment complexes and rented homes on his right.

He walked down the street, taking his time, in no rush. The night was young and he was nothing if not methodical. He liked to think that his patience was one of reasons he was so good at his job. He actually liked the planning, gathering the information, all the tedious investigation and snooping, almost as much as the hunt itself. It was all part of a whole, a painting that starts out as a blank canvas, and slowly, carefully, brush stroke by brush stroke, a picture begins to form. No one brush stroke makes the painting, no one stroke is any more or less important than any other, none by themselves is more than what it is, a simple brush stroke, but somewhere along the line they all come together to form something much greater than their individual parts and suddenly you look up and you have a masterpiece in front of you.

That's what it was like to him. All the parts were equally important, even the legwork was part of it, it all built together, the suspense slowly building, until...

Until tonight.

He stopped. His target was in plain view now. A small, non descript apartment building set in the middle of the street. Nothing about it stood out, nothing about it set it apart from the rest of the buildings that lined the street alongside it. Nothing about it gave away the fact that it was the residence of Tifa Lockheart.

For a long time he just stood there, immobile. He would have liked to have taken longer. He would have liked to have dropped more subtle hints, like when he had stopped off at the Halo & Horns. It was part of the fun, part of the fun to have his target begin to suspect he was being stalked, that someone was out there after them, just waiting for the right moment to strike. It was always best when his target knew just what was going to happen, knew they were going to die and that there was nothing they could do about it. There was nothing like it, nothing like being face to face with them right at the end, when they knew it was all over.

There was still time for that, of course. He would have liked to play a bit more, but the President of Psi Co wanted people dead, and he wanted them dead now and Drax hadn't gotten as far in the organization as he had by making the President wait.

He walked slowly past the apartment, looking it over casually as he walked. Tifa wasn't there. She was at work. He had three targets, Tifa, Reno and Rude. The President would be satisifed with that, but he wouldn't. No, he never did things in a conventional manner. You didn't make a name for yourself that way. No, he always had to embellish. It was part of the fun, and one of the reasons people took notice of you.

No, simply killing those three would be no fun at all. Lockheart was gone. There was no one here except her babysitter and a small child.

Drax knew what they had done. The child had gotten Meteor Fever. They'd broken into Psi Co headquarters to get the cure. That was their whole purpose in doing what they had done, to save the kid.

What a shame if something happened to the kid now.

He almost had to laugh at that. It was so perfect. They had snuck into Psi Co to save the child and now, now it was the perfect revenge to take the child away. Killing Tifa wasn't enough, that wouldn't hurt them enough. The child was cured now, they would think she was safe. It was over. The Lockheart girl would come home, home to her child, thinking the kid was safe in bed, would come in and find...

Find that the kid wasn't so safe after all.

He just wished he could be there to see the look on her face.

He supposed he could, but if he did, he'd have to kill her then too. It was too soon for that. He wanted to savor it, wanted to give her a few days to suffer, to realize how futile it was to go up against a company like Psi Co, to give her time to realize just what a mistake she had made, to let her wallow in her misery. Who knows, when he finally came for her, she might let him take her willingly.

The babysitter, of course, was in there too, but whoever it was, they were irrelevant. They would die quickly and, probably, without any clue as to why. He licked his lips with anticipation. That was part of the fun as well. It promised to be a very good night, a very good night indeed.

Moving like the shadow he believed himself to be, he made his way toward the apartment.


I have to be strong.

That was what Tifa thought as she stood in the dressing room at the Halo & Horns, looking at herself in the mirror.

The dressing room was usually packed, people running back and forth, getting costumes, putting on costumes, taking them off. Right now however, it was empty except for her. She was grateful for that. She didn't want anyone around. She looked down at the flimsy outfit she wore. She didn't want anyone to see her like this.

Which was a funny thing to think, considering she was about to go outside and parade like this in front of all those people...

She had to rip that thought out of her mind. And she did so, though with considerable difficulty. She couldn't think like that. She couldn't think at all. If she did, she'd never be able to go through with this. Soon it would be over, soon it would be all over and then everything would go back to normal.

But would it really? Did she really think she could forget about this, or that anyone else would? She couldn't help but think she was crossing a threshold tonight, a threshold that, once crossed, she could never return from. If she did this she had a feeling that no one, not her friends, not anyone in the bar, not even the customers who came in, people she didn't even know, would ever look at her again in the same way.

Why was she doing this, again?

Was this worth it? For Reno? Would he appreciate it? Obviously not, seeing how adamantly against it he had been. She was doing it for him and she suspected all she would get in return was scorn.

So why bother?

It was a question that was impossible for her to answer. She felt caught up in events beyond her control. She had told Bernard she would do it. She was here, the crowd was here, waiting for her. It was too late to turn back now.

She kept telling herself that and yet she wasn't sure if she believed it. She had set these events in motion and now, well, sometimes it was just easier to go along than to fight against things. She would feel like a fool if she backed out now.

She was ready, her outfit was on. She could hear the music outside. She knew Lasonya was on the dance floor, doing her routine. Her turn was next.

It was funny. She was a brave person. She knew she was. She'd proved it more than once in battle. She could face fear, had done it plenty of times in the past. So why was she standing here now, like a scared rabbit, terrified to go out there, terrified to say that she couldn't?

She slowly walked over to the curtain that separated the dressing room from the main bar, parting it slightly to peer out. The dance floor was just outside and she could see Lasonya doing her thing, and beyond her...

The place was jam packed. She'd never seen it so crowded. There was no room at all, no room for the people even to move.

Abruptly she turned away, feeling her hands trembling as she lowered them, her stomach so tight she could barely breath. She realized, after the fact, that it hadn't been a good idea to look out there.

And yet, soon she would be walking out there. If she didn't get a hold of herself, there was no way she could go through with this.

She wasn't cut out for this sort of thing. She'd known it from the very beginning. She'd tried to convince herself otherwise but that wasn't going to work. She'd known since Delphine had asked her to practice, and how uptight and embarrassed she had been. She couldn't be like her friend, she couldn't go out there and just dance, and just get lost in the music, in the moment. She wasn't an entertainer of any kind. It would have been difficult for her to go out there and stand in front of that group even with her clothes on. To do this, to take them off in front of all those men, it was impossible. It wouldn't do them any good for her to go out there and freeze up, to stand there like a deer lost in the headlights, or worse, to throw up. That would be worse than chickening out.

How had it come to this, she couldn't help but wonder. Her life hadn't been great but it had been on an even keel. Everything had been okay until she had met Reno.

She realized that wasn't fair. Her life might have seemed fine, but she had been dangling on the edge of a precipice. It wasn't Reno's fault that Karisa had gotten Meteor Fever and if it hadn't been for Reno, she might never have found out the truth about Brent.

No, this wasn't Reno's fault, much as she might want to blame him. He hadn't screwed up her life, he hadn't asked her to do this. It was her own decision. Everything she'd done had been her own decision and now she just had to live with the consequences.

And she was trying her hardest to do that. Now, however, she didn't think it was possible. The faces of the men out their, she couldn't get them out of her head. Hard as she tried not to, she couldn't help but picture them looking at her, leering at her.

Her whole body was trembling now. She felt physically sick. If she claimed to be sick, would anyone believe her, or was she just kidding herself, or making herself sick, more likely. In any case, he courage was failing her. She couldn't go out there. She just couldn't. It was impossible.

The curtain being jerked aside as someone came in made her jump. She spun around to see Delphine had entered the room and now stood right beside her. At the same time she realized, almost without thought, that the music outside had stopped.

She opened her mouth to tell Delphine how she felt, and at the same time her friend clamped a hand on her shoulder.

"You're on!"