The cruel wind whipped around the four, as they watched Tifa's figure disappear away across the wide Shinra estate. She was running as fast as she could towards the mansion, but, by Rufus's hasty calculations, the rest of AVALANCHE wouldn't be there to help him until the job had already been done. Rufus was by himself. So he'd die alone. Again.

Reno's eyes followed her as she ran, his blood-red hair sifting every which way in the salt breeze. "Pretty girl, eh?"

The Gold Weapon said nothing, just shot an angry glance over to Reno. It didn't go unnoticed. Reno and Rude both smirked omnisciently back, with the taller man even chuckling deeply to himself. Leisurely, they turned their attention back to the girl, who had now made it safely inside the mansion, and had disappeared from sight. Rufus wondered distantly if that was the last he'd ever see of her. Would the Planet give him a third chance? He doubted it. So what now?

"So." None of the three seemed to be in a hurry, simply glancing between each other and their former president with indifferent looks on their faces. Rufus finally lowered the shotgun and, cocking it open, dropped the unused shells onto the grass. That being done, he tossed down the gun as well, letting it fall onto the damp ground. "Who sent you?" he asked again, shoving his hands in the pocket of his trenchcoat. "Let me guess ... Domino, right?"

"You got it," Reno grinned, tapping his nose with the tip of his index finger. "And thanks a lot for knowing better than to use that gun of yours. That's pretty good sense."

"I know this game by now," Rufus assured, flashing him his trademark charming smile. "If you want, you can even keep it. I'm probably not going to need it for where I'm going."

"Don't be too sure about that," Reno muttered under his breath. "Ya never know where you're gonna go."

Rufus bowed his head, his red hair falling over his eyes. He squinted down at the grass, watching the world blur as his eyes slowly shut. "I think I know where I'm going," he said softly.

"Relax. Don't worry so much," Reno admonished. "You haven't let us finish."

The ex-president raised his head and turned towards the Turk, lifting one eyebrow questioningly. "That's right. You'd better hurry; AVALANCHE might be here soon. Might as well get it done now."

Reno's smirk widened, as he lifted his nightstick and toyed with it absently. "You're right. Domino sent us. He figured out that this whole 'Scar' persona was a disguise, and so, when the Turks were found prowling around Junon, he called us in and gave us our first job since Shinra tanked."

"To kill your former President," Rufus finished quietly. The two men looked each other in the eyes a moment, before Rufus turned away, gazing out again at his former mansion. "That conniving bastard. How much money was it?"

"Lots. More than you paid for quadruple murders. Stupid man let himself get manipulated. Even gave sixty percent of it in advance."

Rufus nodded slowly, biting his lower lip. His eyebrows raised in thought, as he let out his breath in a weighted sigh. "I was right, wasn't I, then. It was the gil. It always came down to the gil." He glanced over his shoulder, looking to Rude and Elena, who had remained mostly quiet through the whole ordeal. They were standing casually, as though relishing these moments, smirks painted on their faces. Even Elena. The last person Rufus would have thought to give up her ideals just for a coin or two. He turned away, disgusted, shaking his head ruefully. "Figures."

Reno stepped forwards, till he was standing immediately next to Rufus, putting a hand on the ex-president's shoulder. "I think, sir, this is the first and last mission that the Turks will fail."

Pause. Rufus turned his head slowly to regard Reno, looking closely at him to determine where the catch was. But the Turk was in earnest, the glow in his green eyes fervent and honest. "What.....?"

"We're not doing it," Reno promised gravely. "We're taking the money he's already given us, and going on a very well-deserved vacation for a while."

Rufus's jaw dropped in disbelief, his breath coming in short gasps of surprise. "What? You're.... you're not going to? But ..... but why? What's...?"

Elena crossed her arms over her chest, arching an eyebrow loftily. "We're *Turks*, sir. Not mercenaries."

Rufus looked between the three of them, elated and disbelieving. The oppressive defeat that had been hanging over him moments ago dissappeared; he could barely see, he was so taken aback. He stuttered unintelligibly a moment, before his face broke out into a wide smile, the first time any of the three had ever seen a genuine emotion on his face. He shook his head, his shoulders shaking in quiet laughter, passing a hand wearily over his face. "Turks... You're Turks... Oh my Planet. I don't believe this. Where will you go?"

"I was thinking Mideel was nice this time of year," Reno shrugged. "Though Rude is sort of set on Cosmo Canyon. They're very good for fugitives there. And, as soon as Domino gets the Junon forces to stop picking their noses, he'll be after us, don't you worry."

"You're just going to...? Oh my Planet. Reno." The ex-president laughed heartily, reaching forwards and shaking the Turk's ngly. Reno went on, "You and AVALANCHE need to get out of here. Tonight would be ideal. We're going into hiding immediately; you're the last person alive who's ever going to see us in Junon. Domino's going to figure out that something's wrong as soon as we don't report in tomorrow morning."

"So that's why he wanted us to stay an extra week, isn't it," the Weapon realized, flicking back a lock of hair in a way that was reminiscient to the old days. "So you could move in and kill me. That *bastard*!"

"There's no time," Reno insisted, taking the ex-president's elbow. "You need to get in there *now* and tell your friends to get going. It doesn't even matter if you're not ready; you need to go tonight. And hurry."

"Right." Rufus nodded in agreement, then turned towards his mansion. He paused midstep, his shoulders rising and falling in a sigh. Turning, he nodded slowly at the three Turks, each in turn, and once more flicked back the locks of hair that had fallen over his eyes. "Thank you. I won't forget this. If I ever get the chance... I won't forget it."

"We know, sir," Elena voiced simply, cocking her head to one side, a smile playing across her face. "Good luck."

Rufus turned and began to run, towards his mansion where he knew AVALANCHE was probably waiting. He didn't look over his shoulder, or give even so much as a wave. He knew there was no point; already, the Turks would be gone, having faded deep into the night.

Tears streaked down Tifa's face as she grabbed Reeve's arm, the sobs escaping from her in wrenching, choking gasps. The executive, startled and immediately alarmed, caught her as she collapsed into his grip, her long brown hair falling over her face. "Reeve, it's them."

His heart stopped. "Who?"

"Him... Rufus... The Turks... here... Reeve," she choked, reaching desperately for him. "They're here... to kill him... Or to kill us... I... W-We've gotta stop them..."

"Turks!?!" Reeve's mind went blank. He saw nothing but white a few moments, then shook off his panic and forced his heart to keep going, forced himself to think straight. He eased Tifa into a chair, then took off at a mad sprint for the main dining room, where he had seen Cloud last. Behind him, Tifa's sobs rang out heart-wrenchingly, drowning the air with her misery.

Cid placently watched his cigarette glow in the dimming light, enjoying the stars appearing one by one over the horizon. Sunset was behind him, visible mostly on the back lawn, but he wasn't much interested in that. It was all in the stars, glowing high above him in the night, twinkling through the breaths of smoke he blew into the air. He loved the peace of twilight, the hush as night insects and animals were still sleeping, and those damned twittering birds were roosted for the night. Though he would have died before saying so out loud.

He had stretched himself out on the front porch of the mansion, lying on his back and moving only to take the cigarette from his mouth and blow a thin trail of smoke into the night air. There was only the occasional noise of a helicopter echoing from Junon; probably businessmen returning from a long day's work. Suddenly, he became dimly aware of another noise; coming from within the Shinra mansion. Panicked voices. Scuffling. Running. His ears pricked immediately. Something was wrong.

He jumped to his feet, mashing his cigarette under his heel, then threw open the wide front door of the mansion. Striding into the front hallway, he arrived just in time to see Yuffie and Red XIII bound down the stairs, almost crashing directly into him.

"What's going on!?" he bellowed, turning his head to stare around him. The lion-beast and the ninja looked at him with fear in their eyes, their breaths coming quick and shoulders shaking in exertion.

The ninja spoke first. "It's Rufus. The Turks are here," she gasped, before turning tail and running off towards the back exit of the mansion. Red shot Cid a Look, then followed after her, calling hastily over his shoulder, "Grab the Venus Gospel. And hurry!"

Cid remained standing a moment more, only enough time for the news to crash into him like a plane into a side of a mountain. And then he was off and running.

Barret and Cloud were sprawled out in front of the TV, watching the nightly Junon news, as was custom every night since they had arrived. Cloud was on his stomach on the large dining room table, not having even removed his boots. Barret was slouched into a chair next to the television projector, his eyes glazed as he watched the talking heads on the huge-screen TV that hung from the ceiling of this room. Reeve found thm like this when he burst into the room, gasping and panting for breath.

His anxious shouts barely roused them; they simply raised their heads and gave him a confused look when he made a huge commotion upon entering. But at the word "Turks", they lept to their feet, Cloud reaching for his weapon, Barret resting his spare hand on his gun-arm. "What!?!" they gasped in unison.

"The Turks... are here... They have Rufus on the back lawn. We have to hurry," the executive gasped, before turning and running out of the room.

The two AVALANCHE followed quickly, their footsteps clattering loudly through the hallways. They reached the front hallway in time to see Cid run by, grasping the large Venus Gospel in his gloved hand. Cait Sith bounded past on his heels, the small animal's ears flattened against his head. Without even thinking, Cloud and Barret followed, racing ahead of the mechanical mog and cat to the back foyer, where they found the rest of AVALANCHE, with Tifa curled up despondantly in a chair, sobbing quietly.

Cloud drew his sword, eyes blazing. "Where are they," he demanded.

Tifa raised her head slowly, eyes red and bleary. "They're on the outcropping by the ocean. You won't reach them in time," she sniffed, struggling to pull herself to her feet. "Let me come with you."

"Stay here," Cloud commanded, throwing open the door and preparing to charge out into the night. But he promptly crashed into a thin, lanky shape, and almost crashed to the floor in disarray. It was only Tifa's cry that stayed his hand from slashing out at whatever was in his path with his Buster sword; that and the brilliance of the Mako eyes staring down at him.

Rufus.

Tifa sobbed and ran forwards, grabbing Rufus in a tight, desperate embrace. The ex-president didn't move, didn't put his arms back around her, just looked at the girl with an expression of bemusement on his face, and a surprised smirk.

"Rufus... I thought you were dead!" she wept, pounding at him weakly with one fist. "You bastard!!! I thought... I thought you were dead!"

Cid stepped forwards, putting his hand on Tifa's shoulder. The girl broke off, releasing Rufus and backing away sheepishly, wiping her eyes, though her body was still wracked with sobs. The old pilot put on arm protectingly around her, but shot a suspicious glance at the Gold Weapon, his blue eyes sparkling. "What's going on? I thought the Turks were here."

"They were," Rufus said simply, brushing a lock of hair back from his eyes and straigtening his white trench coat. "But not to kill me, it turns out."

Cloud and Barret both raised their weapons at the same instant, in battle position. "What do you mean!?" the huge miner thundered, shifting his aim from Rufus to over the ex-president's shoulder and back again. "You in league wit' em?"

"Not really," he replied, not moving, not even flinching as the two took aim. "They just weren't going to kill me."

"What do you mean?" Tifa sniffed, incredulous. "They were... They were sent by someone to kill you. They said so themselves."

"Domino sent them," Rufus answered quietly, turning his blue eyes on her. "He did indeed send them to kill me. But they refused. They took the money that he offered them and are now going into hiding. They stopped here to warn us: we have to leave tonight."

"Tonight?" Cloud protested. "But is the Airship even ready? We weren't going to leave until next week at *least*. We're completely unprepared. We don't have provisions or anyth-"

"Either that, or Domino is going to come and murder us in our beds," Rufus interrupted harshly. "We go tonight. And we'd better hurry; we don't have much time."

There was a silence amongst the comrades, everyone looking at each other, then looking away silently. Reeve scratched the back of his neck anxiously, chewing his lower lip, reluctant to be the first to voice the reservations of the entire group. "How do we know we can trust the Turks?"

Rufus flashed his former executive a smile, flicking back the hair over his eyes, in a way no one had seen in weeks. "They're the Turks. They're still loyal to Shinra."

Cid coughed gruffly, tapping the butt of the Venus Gospel on the ground to get the group's attention. "So we need the Airship. Look, kids, it's ready to fly, but, the problem is, how do we *get* it? We can't all just walk down there and fly away on it; they'd notice something was up and probably call the guards on us."

Cloud punched a fist into his own open hand, growling angrily. "Wait a minute, what are we doing? This is ridiculous. Just because he comes in saying some crap about the Turks warning him, he expects us to just... just uproot and GO?"

"Do you have any *better* ideas?" Rufus snapped, putting his hands in the air caustically. "It's either we stay here and have Domino kill us all, or we move now! Now, if you don't mind," Rufus added harshly, "we're trying to get something done here."

"Cut this shit out!" Cid hollered, silencing the two quickly. "What do we do about leavin'? We've gotta get the Airship without them noticing, or else we'll never get out. Now we need a plan. Quit bickerin', the both of you, and start trying to think of something!"

Red nodded slowly. "Good point, Cid. Why don't two or three of us sneak down there and fly it back up here? They'd notice, sure, but fewer people would probably cause less of a commotion down there. And, it would give the rest of us more time to pack."

"Alright. Cid's going to have to go, since he's the only one that knows how to fly the thing, but someone has to go with him," Cloud mused, rubbing his chin. "Who's really good at sneaking around?"

Barret, Cait, and Cid all looked at each other, before simultaneously turning their eyes on Yuffie.

"Yuck!" she protested. "You know how much I hate that stupid Airship!!! I'm gonna be sick all over it!!!"

"Too bad. You just need to sneak us down there," Cid snapped, grabbing her arm. "C'mon, we've gotta go now. There's no time. The rest of you guys wait for us to come back, and pack all our stuff in the meantime."

"Do we have enough provisions?" Reeve asked the general concencus. "I mean, enough to last all of us for a while?"

"Raid the storerooms," Rufus shrugged, waving a hand lazily. "I'm not going to need it anymore, and I'd rather not leave anything for that bastard Domino. We should have enough of non-perishables to last us a while, and a few perishables that we haven't used up yet."

Only Tifa said nothing the entire time, hugging her sides and trying hard to hold back her tears. The whole time, Rufus had deftly avoided her gaze, but now he turned away from the gathering, and walked off towards the main part of the mansion. The room, abuzz with planning and calculating, fell silent as Tifa pushed back her long brown hair and followed after him, sniffing back tears. They watched her leave, frowning, flashing each other worried looks. But the time was too pressing for any of that, and they quickly fell back to planning their escape from Junon.

"Rufus..."

He stopped, his back to her, though she could see how his head snapped up when he heard her voice. His shoulders relaxed as though he had forced them to, his voice unnaturally light. "Yes?"

"...Rufus, about what... About what you said back there..." she began, stammering the words out, until all of a sudden he turned to face her, a strange glare in his eye.

"About what? The Turks?" he asked, his voice perhaps a shade harsher than usual. "There's nothing to say."

"No... not that ... Well, yeah, that too..." Tifa's confidence whithered under Rufus's look, and she floundered helplessly for words. "I don't know. Sorry to bother you. Forget it."

"Why don't you go pack," Rufus advised, his voice softening and yet becoming even more reserved. "We don't have much time to get out of here."

"Ok. What about you?"

"Me?" Rufus cocked his head to one side, thinking. His speech became suddenly abstract, his eyes clouding. "I've got to pack too, I suppose. I don't know. My shotgun's still on the lawn. And I've got lots of other things to do." He turned and wandered away, not looking back to Tifa, who could only watch him, nonplussed.

She slumped against the wall, her head swirling, unable to focus her thoughts into any coherant, logical point. What was she expecting? This was Rufus Shinra. Maybe Cloud was right. Maybe this was all a trap. Maybe this had all been a show to get her trust, and now Rufus and the rest of the Turks were going to pounce like wildcats on her, on all of them. Maybe she was just the weak link. Maybe Rufus was just toying with her, ready to break her as soon as she opened herself up enough. Maybe he was wrong. About himself. About her. She didn't know what she was doing; there was too much left unsaid. What was he trying to tell her? What was going on?

"You ok?"

She startled out of her panicked thoughts, too late in realizing that Cait Sith had just ambled up from the AVALANCHE meeting in the other room, probably because Reeve was already in there, discussing with the group. Probably because they saw the way she had chased after Rufus, like a little schoolgirl. The thought made Tifa blush and put a hand wearily to her face.

"Tifa? What's wrong?" Cait queried again, the stuffed animal waddling up on its clumsy paws. "You alright? We all saw the way you scooted outta there, we figured..." He stopped to regard her, scratching his head with one hind paw. "I dunno. Is everything ok?"

"Yeah," she sighed hoarsely. "It's not important. Really, Cait. But... thanks."

"No problem," he purred, licking his lips. "Well, anyway, I'm off to find Vincent. No sense in leaving him behind, anyway. You call me if you want help, ok?"

Tifa nodded, watching as the cat and mog ambled away towards the grand staircase. Before Cait could exit the room, however, he stopped and scratched his head again, peering over his shoulder at the girl. "Hey, while I'm here, I might as well..."

The mog jumped and began to dance, while Cait snapped his fingers to an unheard beat, humming raucously to himself. "Fortune, fortune, fortune," he chirruped, reaching down and pulling a card out of his mog's wide-open mouth. "Maybe this'll cheer you up."

Tifa took the card gratefully, smiling at the cat as he saluted and sauntered away on its stuffed toy. Not until the duo had left did Tifa glance at the card. Reading the words, she wiped the few remaining tears from her eyes, smiling softly and bitterly to herself, then tucked the card into her waistband and followed where her two friends had gone.

She had to pack, after all. There was a long distance to travel tonight. They were leaving Junon, finally.

"Got a cloud sleeping on my tounge
He goes, then it goes
And kiss the violets as they're waking up
'Leave me with your Borneo'
I said, 'Leave me the way I was before'."
-Tori Amos

The above song quote was from "Cloud on my Tounge" by Tori Amos. You should really be familiar with it. Download it from NAPSTER or something. And, while you're at it, get stuff by Kula Shaker. That's right, Kula Shaker. I highly recommend "Tattva" or "Govinda" ... Or perhaps even "Hey Dude" ...... It's good stuff. (You know what I've noticed? The music I listen to really really helps my writing. For instance, I wrote this chapter listening to David Grey's "Babylon" and Ben Folds Five's "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" .... Both very good songs/ CD's. And lots better to write to than, say, Nirvana, or even Britney Spears... yuck.)

The moral of the story? Never mention music to me. As an artist myself, I can TALK YOUR EAR OFF!!! Over and out. Signed, Dark Nation