By Kristen Gupton-Williams

Tifa followed closely as Tseng led Vincent to the infirmary. Vincent was by now quite drugged, and was losing his grip on the present. His speech was growing slurred but Tifa could clearly make out what he kept saying over and over again. "Tseng, don’t take me to the infirmary…"

Tseng disregarded his brother’s pleas and pulled him forward anyway. Once they reached the door to the infirmary, two of the attending medics hoisted Vincent from Tseng and onto a corner bed. Within an instant, they had restraints placed on Vincent’s arms and legs. Although these seemed redundant with Vincent as tranquilized as he was, Tseng was going to take no chances. Once the medics were out of the way, Tifa came to Vincent’ s bed side, seeing that he was tied down like some sort of wild animal. Tears burned in her eyes as she watched him struggle piteously against the tie downs. He may have been drugged, but he knew what was going on and Tifa couldn’t stand it. She spun and faced Tseng who was hovering behind her. "Let him up! Why the hell do you need to tie him down if you’ve sedated him?"

Tseng reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Now Tifa, you know better than anyone how dangerous Chaos can be."

She knocked his hand from her shoulder violently. "Look at him Tseng! What can he possibly do?"

"Not much in his present state, and I intend to keep him that way." He crossed his arms over his chest, deciding that she was not going to let him off lightly.

"Couldn’t you have at least warned me that you were going to do something like this?" Tifa demanded.

"As close as you are to him, and knowing how terrified he would be do you honestly think that you could have kept it from him?" Tseng retorted sharply.

With all the strength she had, Tifa backhanded him across the face. "You can’t treat him like this!"

Tseng recoiled from the blow and had to steady himself against the wall for a moment. The sting in his cheek was intense. He looked over at Tifa fully expecting her to be apologetic for hitting him. She was not.

She glared at him for a few moments, not feeling bad in the least for what she had done to him, knowing that what he was currently putting Vincent through was much worse. "I don’t want to see you again."

The fact that Tifa was banning him from the infirmary on his own ship struck Tseng as quite gutsy but he knew that for the time being he needed not to push his luck. "Fine, I shall leave you alone for now. Do not try and let him up, Mrs. Valentine or I will throw you in the brig."

To hear Tseng refer to her as Mrs. Valentine let Tifa know exactly how angry he was at her at the moment but truth be told, she couldn’t have cared less. "Get away from us."

He narrowed his eyes at her before turning and walking away. As he left, he addressed the two male medics still present. "Do not allow her to interfere with his restraint. Dr. Arlin will be by in two hours to redose him. If Tifa becomes a problem in anyway, please lock her up."

The string of obscenities that were burning in her throat begged release, but Tifa decided on the better part of valor and held her tongue. In his own mind she knew that Tseng thought he was doing the right thing. It just seemed to her that he acted completely on his own authority regarding Vincent and she would have hoped that as his wife she would have had some say. Her anger was not yet ready to abate and she needed to rebel on some level before she lost her sanity. Tifa bent down close to Vincent. "Are you okay?"

His dazed yet terrified expression clearly revealed that he wasn’t. "What’s going on? What are they doing to me?"

"It’s okay, Vincent." Tifa stroked his hair. "I won’t let anyone hurt you."

"Let me go…" He begged.

"I can’t, Tseng won’t allow it." Tifa got a little closer. "But they know how to get Chaos out of you."

He looked up at her with a small ray of hope. "Really?"

"Yes, and as soon as we get back to the base they are going to do it." She smiled at him.

Vincent closed his eyes and lost consciousness, taking this last bit of news as some measure of relief.

Tifa and Vincent weren’t the only ones present to take note of this information.

***

Tseng stormed onto the bridge of the airship. All of the crewmembers present snapped to attention as he inspected them all. "I’m authorizing conversion."

The helmsman stood up, looking terribly concerned. "Sir, we’ve never tired that with this ship! We don’t know what to expect or if it can even handle it!"

"Look, we need to get back to the base now, I don’t have time for a leisurely two day cruise. If that wreck of an airship that AVALANCHE had seven years back could handle it, then this one can, too." Tseng spat, not wanting to hear the worried arguments of the crewmen.

The helmsman lost all the color in his face as he eyed the lever next to his station clearly marked ‘Emergency’. No one on this airship had ever been aboard a vessel that had gone from propeller to jet power. It was a dangerous maneuver at best, but to have defied Tseng at this moment promised to be a lot worse.

The helmsman hit the intercom. "Emergency stations. Initializing conversion."

Back in the infirmary, Tifa barely paid any heed to the words coming over the speaker but when she saw the two men present sit down and strap in to some jump seats lining the wall, her pulse quickened. She had no idea what was about to happen but decided that maybe belting up into the seat closest to her wasn’t a bad idea.

The helmsman waited for about a minute, which would give most of those aboard a chance to secure themselves before placing his hand on the lever. He closed his eyes and pulled.

The entire airship shook with a violent motion. Everyone could feel the ship suddenly loose altitude as the props were dropped and the jet engines emerged from the hull. Suddenly, the jet engines fired to life and everyone was thrown back into their seats as the ship quickly accelerated.

Tifa immediately knew what had happened as she recalled this sensation from the Highwind. Whatever was prompting Tseng to do this to the ship must be serious. She wondered if it was possible that he was speeding up the ship in order to get back to the base quicker for Vincent’s sake or if something else was going on.

On the bridge, Tseng got up from his seat as the ship’s motion stabilized. He walked over to the helmsman. "Everything all right?"

He looked up at his leader and smiled. "Yes Sir, she’s working just fine. Our new ETA at Costa del Sol is eight hours."

Tseng smiled to himself. If this didn’t prove to Tifa that he actually cared, nothing would.