Promises of Loyalty

Notes: Imagine a 3 year and 21 day gap between the last chapter and now. There, now you've experienced this fic in its reality, lol. Yes, I posted chapter 4 on March 4th of 2004 and am writing chapter 5 on March 25 of 2007. Time flies. I will only say one thing in my defense and that is that I started college in fall of 2004. Take that as you will. On with the show!

Chapter 5 - Hey Bartender
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The past month had probably been one of the most awkward months of Tifa's life. She had suddenly returned to Seventh Heaven unscathed, refused to divulge the full extent of her time spent in the ShinRa detention facilities, and wouldn't speak of the terms of her release. Biggs and Wedge chalked it up to women and left well enough alone, but Jesse and Barret, who had become like siblings to Tifa since they all banded together, were less than passive about her half-assed story. For days Barret questioned her, first angry that she wouldn't give him any new information about the ShinRa operations, or even about her interactions with their personnel. As the days wore on, and he noticed her evasiveness, as well as her aloof attitude toward the whole crew, he became more worried that something serious had happened to the young martial artist, and tried to talk it out of her with a more concerned slant to his questioning.

None of it worked on Tifa, however, as she had already hardened her heart to her circle of friends. No friends would abandon their own like they had with her. Just as Zack had predicted, they had all escaped unharmed when they found the communication link to Tifa had been broken. The mission was aborted and they all returned safely, where Barret swore they had been formulating a rescue plan until Tifa had turned up, apparently her own savior. The story didn't sit well, especially since it had first came from the lips of the enemy...the very lips that had done such wicked things to her during the 'negotiations' of her release.

She remained a member of AVALANCHE in name only for the time being. The underground rooms were still home base for planning and recon, but she refused to take further active roles, citing that she needed a break after being involved as she was during the last mission. Things were tense in the small bar, Tifa kept mostly above ground, tending to the actual business, which brought in all the more customers now that she was a regular bartender again. The rest of the crew kept mostly below, planning, building, hacking, and whatever else they needed to do as they furthered their plans of overthrowing the ShinRa Corporation.

It was a late night on a Wednesday when Tifa found herself alone in the bar doing cleanup. While Jesse or Wedge usually helped her with the night breakdown, they were out with Barrett on a recon mission while Biggs was oddly enough out on a date. Marlene was off at a friend's house sleeping over, which left all the dishes, mopping, and inventory to Tifa. Lucky for her, Wednesday nights were usually pretty dead, and getting the last call group to shuffle out of the doors at 2AM proved to be easier with a threatening glare and the brandish of her citrus knife from behind the counter.

Her back was to the door as she dried dishes, the only sound came from the clanking of glasses as they were placed back in their racks, and the quiet hum of the refrigeration systems. The near silence was suddenly punctuated by an annoying squeak as one of the bar stools became occupied. Tifa whirled around in time to see a hand snake over the top of the counter, gripping the nearest bottle and bringing it up to be examined. The hood of the person's jacket hid their face as they replaced the bottle and grabbed another. Apparently satisfied with the bourbon in their hand, the figure drank deeply from the bottle before setting it down roughly on the counter and letting out a contented grunt. "Top grade stuff you've got here. By the way, the front door was locked, had to find another way in." The hooded figure jerked its head toward the back window, which had been expertly pried open but unbroken in the process, allowing them to slip in quietly and take her by surprise.

She let the towel in her hands drop to the floor with a wet slap. From beneath the hood she could see the same cock-sure grin from a month ago, along with the matching mako-green eyes. Tifa stalked over and tugged the hood off his head, revealing that same spiky black hair from that fateful night. The same hair she had ended up fisting in pleasure rather than in the rage she should have been harboring. Their eyes met for a second, his teasing, hers confused and slightly scared. Suddenly, her anger came flooding back from that night, the anger of the humiliation, the submission, and mostly anger at how she had actually come to ENJOY it at the end. She grabbed the bottle and shoved it back under the counter. "What are you doing here?" she questioned, hand already reaching for the citrus knife.

Before she could pick the blade up, Zack slid his right arm around her shoulders, pulling her hand away from the knife. "Aww, why to see you of course! Haven't you missed me? I've been away on assignment and I haven't had the chance to come visit since our last...encounter," he smirked at the words and leaned his free hand back down under the counter to take possession of his bottle again.

Her hands reacted quickly, the free one slapping his arm off of hers and the other picking up the knife, slamming it down into the counter between his chest and the bottle he was drawing near to him. Stopped in mid-motion, Zack allowed the bourbon to rest back on the counter as he looked at her grip on the handle, knuckles turning white in frustration.

"Just back here to humiliate me, are you? I thought I was rid of you after you forced me to submit last time." She cracked the knuckles on her free hand, "This time we're on equal footing. You may have your fancy ShinRa technology, but we're on my turf and you're not taking me by surprise this time. So state your business and leave...and I'll make you do so by force if I have to."

He laughed a little in nervous shock, "Hey babe, I didn't come to pick another fight with you. I just came to see you on more friendly terms. I know we got off on a bad foot, so I wanted to come by and see you in a less hostile environment, see if maybe we can talk some things out...although with your little knife trick here, I don't think I'll be getting the less hostile, will I?"

She took a swing at him from behind the counter, but he tilted back, avoiding it easily, but also tipping his stool over in the process. As he sprawled to the floor, Tifa took this as an opportunity to jump up on the counter and come down at him with a heel aimed as his shoulder she had injured during their first encounter. He rolled to the side and swept his leg out low, intending to catch her ankles but catching the adjacent stool as well. Tifa leapt out of the way of the oncoming stool, which allowed Zack time to get up and regain his footing.

"Ugh, do you always have to listen with your fists?! I just wanna talk!" he yelled as the bottle he had been drinking from earlier was tossed at his head, sending bourbon and glass splattering all over the wall. He jumped forward, catching one of her wrists in his grasp, but she whirled around and struck him sharply in the jaw. He recoiled back from the hit and unstrapped his sword, swinging it around and intending on stopping it inches from her neck. Tifa, however, had other plans and swung down to avoid it, planting her palms on the hardwood floor and swiping her leg out toward his ankles, knocking him off balance and causing the sword to clatter to the ground.

Zack caught himself bent over backward on his palms and flipped his legs up over him to land in a crouching position. As she shifted her weight back onto her legs and went to stand, he held out an opened hand as the materia on his bracelet began to glow. An ethereal face of a clock appeared between them, the hands spinning wildly until they suddenly came to a halt. At that same moment, Tifa froze in her movement, still crouched on the ground, still as a stone statue. He sighed, standing up and repositioning himself at a bar stool.

"Well, now that you're stuck there for, oh five minutes, perhaps you could listen then?" She was rendered motionless to the ground, her gold-amber eyes glaring up at him in frustration. "Oh good," he chuckled, "I thought you might. Stop me if you've heard this one...but there's this cute little tale about a young village guide and a recently promoted SOLDIER..."

The story he told was all too familiar to Tifa's ears, with one fundamental difference. As Zack reiterated the fateful events of the day of the attack on the Mt. Nibel reactor, there was a new character added to the story, and a very major player omitted. His version told the same story as the one in her memory, except in the place of her savior and childhood friend, Cloud, there stood Zack, the proud hero of Nibelheim who saved her from Sephiroth as she blacked out from the sword wound he had inflicted upon her.

As the tale neared its end, Tifa's muscles seemed to start to untense slowly and she could tell the materia-induced stiffness was starting to wear off. Her scowl remained in place, as to not let him know she was soon to be mobile again until she was sure her limbs would react. As he finished his explanation, she finally spoke, "You expect me to believe that some random SOLDIER like you saved me in place of my childhood friend? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not that easy to bullshit." She launched herself at him once more, knocking him off the bar stool and on to his back, pinning him to the ground as she straddled his hips, wrapping her hands around his throat in anticipation of choking away his consciousness.

"Well I know it's kind of hard to swal---urk!" His voice was cut off as her hands closed off his airway, cutting off whatever smartass remark was to roll off his tongue next. Her expression showed confusion and anger as she stared down into his eyes which stayed locked onto hers in concentration. The materia on his bracelet glowed a light green as he activated his Exit materia. The braceleted arm gripped her wrists as Zack cast the Remove spell on her. Suddenly, an invisible force released Tifa's hands from his wrists and sent her body floating up off of his, releasing her hold and rendering her immobile long enough for him to get back on his feet. Zack lunged forward, snatching his sword back up off the floor and jumping onto a nearby table.

Her boots barely scraped against the floor as she fought the unnatural force holding her back until she could regain her footing. Having stopped expecting anything normal from her encounters with this particular SOLDIER, she ignored the odd sensations induced by the materia-assisted removal and held her arms up in a defensive pose. With the sword back in his hands, she anticipated a frontal blow that would be easily blocked with her mythril armguards.

Zack chuckled, "Still as feisty as ever from our last fight, hm? You know if you weren't so pigheaded all the time, we wouldn't have to go through you landing on your back at the end of every encounter...and you can read into that however you like." His lips curved into an innocent smile as his boot hooked into one of the chairs next to the table. He swung his foot upward, causing it to fly in her direction. Tifa dodged the projectile easily, having expected some sort of frontal attack, but failed to anticipate the burst of flames that shot forth from his outstretched arm.

He jumped to the next table, the old wood creaking under his weight as he let off another jet of flames just near enough to singe her hair a bit. He wasn't aiming to scorch her at all, merely maneuvering her in the directions he wanted her to go. Tifa skidded to the side to avoid another column of flame when she caught the side of the bar with her hip. She slumped over it momentarily, sucking in a breath through gritted teeth and praying she hadn't broken any ribs when another spurt of flames licked through the air toward her. She rolled to the side and the fire caught on the alcohol-soaked wood, starting a small section of the counter ablaze.

"Are you trying to kill us both by burning my bar down?!" she yelled, sending one fist toward his abdomen as the other hand grabbed for the materia bracelet.

"Well maybe if you see that I'm willing to risk both of us for you to know the truth, you might listen for once...see if I leave you a tip!" He blocked the punch easily by flipping the sword up into a defensive position across his chest. The force of the blow caused the sword to vibrate, distracting him as his materia bracelet was snatched off. He cursed under his breath, turning the sword to the flat edge and using it to shove her back into a wall.

Tifa flipped back with the momentum from the sword, the materia bracelet flying from her hand and landing across the room. She planted her feet at the base of the wall and halted her movement, standing upright and raising her fists to guard as she analyzed the situation. "The only risk here is you burning us alive! You have a sick way of picking up girls...lying and arson won't get you anywhere." Her taunt finished, she ran toward him once more, sliding to his side with her other leg aimed for the same knee she had injured in their first battle, praying it still showed some signs of weakness.

The kick managed to knock his leg out from under him, but not do any real damage as he caught his fall with the palms of his hands and slammed his feet back on the surface. The force of his landing caused two of the legs to give out, slanting the top forward and Zack with it. He rolled off, jumping toward the bar and landing on the edge of the small fire which was still smoldering. Having stopped his movement successfully and regained control, he stood and twirled his sword around in mock fanfare, giving her a triumphant pose. His victory stance turned into a flailing of arms and legs as the damaged bar top gave way under his weight, sending his body crashing down through the bar and the flooring below it.

She looked down into the hole that had suddenly appeared in the middle of her bar and let out an exasperated sigh. Jumping down into the room below, Tifa landed next to their conference table and studied the pile of smoldering wood and SOLDIER that laid upon it.

"Get a softer table..." he mumbled, pushing the splintered boards off his body. He eyed her cautiously before rolling off, taking a moment to shake the dust and soot from his hair as he studied where he had landed. The planning room they were standing in was covered in maps of Midgar, reactor blueprints, and other strategy posters. A dusty computer stood in one corner with a shabby couch lining the opposite wall. The conference table stood in the midst of it all, now covered in pieces of the bar above, but Zack ignored all of it as he came to study a small framed picture sitting near the computer.

He picked it up and grinned appreciatively, "Hey now, why isn't this your standard bartender uniform, huh? You'd get even better tips if you served me a drink dressed like THAT!" He held up the photo in question, which was taken during a beach trip a few years ago. Tifa was sporting a tight yellow bikini and leaning over slightly as she helped Marlene and Wedge with a sand castle, innocent enough unless viewed by someone like Zack.

Stalking over, she snatched the picture frame from his hands and slammed it down on the table, then grabbed his shirt in his hands and jerked him forward. "You come in here wanting me to LISTEN to your asinine stories and end up trashing my bar, nearly burning us alive, and now creating a hole in my floor. Your little smart-ass remarks and lies are really getting on my nerves."

Not letting the grin falter for a second, he swept her feet out from under her, causing them both to land on the couch. "I told you that I came here to tell you the truth about how we know each other." She landed on his lap with a startled gasp, then wiggled off onto the couch next to him. He leaned back and placed his arms behind his head, "Now that we're more comfortable, and out of mortal danger, maybe you'll listen this time, hm?"

Letting it all sink in for a moment, Tifa rationalized that she was seated next to a class A SOLDIER who had just survived a lengthy fist-fight and fell through a flaming bartop with barely a scratch. This was a man that she was never going to win against in a one-on-one, even with his materia advantage removed. Declaring a silent defeat, she folded her arms over her chest and tucked her legs to her side, scowling at him defiantly. "Fine, you get one more chance to convince me why I shouldn't just call the Midgar police and get your ass thrown out of here."

His tale was told once more, in more detail than before. He was spot-on about everything from that day Tifa had guided two SOLDIERs and a guard up Mt. Nibel, except for one major flaw: the replacement of Cloud with Zack. It was impossible in her mind; who else from ShinRa would come and request her as their guide?

Smirking, she responded, "So again, you're telling me that my memories of that day were really of you saving me, and that I'm delusional and in denial, remembering Cloud instead? And yet you have NO proof..." In her head, she was triumphantly jumping up and down, having challenged him to provide something she knew he couldn't have. Her inner celebration was cut short as he fished his wallet out from his pocket and produced a picture, which he handed over.

She looked down at the worn paper and saw her very image of two years ago staring back at her. To her left stood Sephiroth, the monster who had turned a simple trek up the mountain into a fiery bloodbath that nearly destroyed Tifa's life. To her right, stood the very man now seated next to her, instead of her familiar blonde friend. Zack could see her confusion and knew he had hit her right this time. Having set up the first visual, he prepared for the knockout. "If you want some REAL tangible proof, you're gonna have to check my right side, but be gentile, will ya?"

Tifa quirked an eyebrow at him before leaning over and slowly lifting the side of his shirt to expose a long white scar running along his side. Her other hand immediately flew to her own torso which bared a matching mark, no doubt from the very same sword wielded by the silver-haired maniac that had turned their lives upside-down that day. Zack pulled his shirt back down and ran his hands through his hair, sighing in exhaustion and slight frustration. "Told you. Now do you believe me?"

Confusion had set in and despair was soon to follow as she clutched the photograph in her hands. Two years after that incident had been spent believing that Cloud was her knight in shining armor, having single handedly saved her and drove off Sephiroth. Suddenly, all that nostalgia and hope was crushed with a simple image and a pair of scars. The tears stung at her eyes but she blinked them back. The hurt was painted across her face and Zack's expression softened.

"Look, I didn't come here to anger you...I just wanted to see you again, let you know the truth. It was all in the past, Sephiroth's been missing for years, and we're both still alive. So it didn't turn out as bad as it could have, right?"

She glared up at him, "My father died that night, my home village was nearly destroyed, and I almost lost my life...and it didn't turn out that bad?! You come here and make me remember all this, take away the one comforting thought, that Cloud had fulfilled his promise to save me, and you expect me not to be angry!? I've spent two years falling further in love with the man I thought rescued me, and now I come to find out it's a stranger who forced me into bed with him!" The fury seemed to radiate off her in waves, rendering her even unable to strike back at him. Before she could react any further, he turned toward her and leaded in, planting an arm on either side of her head against the couch arm and boxing her in.

"I gave you a CHOICE. I would never force a lady into my bed. We both got what we wanted and we agreed to the terms, and from what I remember you LIKED it. Now's the time for you to stop living in false hope and look at what kind of life you're living here. I don't think that 15-year-old girl I met that day ever had dreams of being an eco-terrorist running a bar as her cover." His voice had taken on a serious, fearful tone as he tried to bring her back to rational thought. Their matching glares were inches from each other, neither one breaking their resolve, until suddenly something in Tifa's mind snapped.

All the memories, the denial she had lived in for years, the hope and the pain, the longing for her promise...it all got thrown around in her head like a tornado. Her rational thought was gone, her world upside down, and with no control over her own jumbled thoughts, she did the only clear thing standing out in her mind: she leaned in and kissed him.
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To be continued in Chapter 6 - Feel the Frustration