LIMIT BREAK

Pairing: Cloud x Tifa

Timeline: Post-Advent Children


PROLOGUE

The threat of the deadly Geostigma virus is gone. Cloud and his comrades managed to defeat the second coming of Sephiroth once and for all. With the One-Winged Angel's death, Gaea's Lifestream was cleansed of the darkness from his evil soul. To help preserve Gaea's severely damaged lifeforce, The Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, now led by Reeve, have rebranded and demolished all of their Lifestream leeching mako reactors to make room for new renewable energy infrastructure. The planet is saved once more and our heroes are finally free to live a normal, decent life…

...Or at least try.


CHAPTER I:

CRADLE TO THE GRAVE

7th Heaven, Edge - 1:45 AM

It was a cold and quiet night. Cloud was inside his office tiredly auditing the ledgers of his delivery service as well as the bar's. The tedious nature of checking spreadsheets and signing here and initial there made Cloud's eyelids heavy. It was a mind numbing chore, but it was necessary for if not properly done, 7th Heaven and Strife Delivery Service would sink and Cloud and his makeshift family consisting of Tifa, Marlene and Denzel would be without a home. Cloud Strife would die before he let that happen to the ones he loved.

Meanwhile downstairs, Tifa was at the bar escorting the last of the lingering patrons outside. The last group to leave were three young men in business attire. A man in the group slurred in protest, "Come on lady, we haven't even caught a buzz yet!" Tifa, already annoyed at the drunks, retorts, "Last call is at 1 a.m. every night. I serve you a second after and we lose our liquor license. Please leave." The young man scoffs at the busty barmaid before him and says, "Pfft. Whatever, bitch." Tifa could feel her blood begin to boil. Her face as hot as the fire on Red XIII's tail. "Excuse me?!" Tifa asked, clearly appalled. She began to clench her right hand into a fist to strike the man after his disrespectful comment, but before she could swing she felt an ice cold hand firmly grab her wrist.

In her peripheral vision, Tifa saw a glint of gold. She turned her head slightly to see what grabbed her and she saw a familiar golden gauntlet. "Vincent? What are you doing here?" Tifa asked with sincere confusion in her voice. The crimson clad man released her hand and steps in front of her. Another man in the group drunkenly interjects, "What are you her bodyguard or something?" They all laugh. Without saying a word, Vincent reaches in his cloak and pulls out a black, polished .44 caliber Desert Eagle and sticks the barrel inside the first man's mouth. "I believe you owe the lady an apology." Vincent said calmly.

The other two in the group screamed and ran as soon as they saw the gun get drawn. Now paralyzed with fear, the man with Vincent's .44 lodged in his mouth had trouble finding his words. "I-I'm… I'm Sorry!" His exclaim was muffled due to the cold, hard steel obstructing his voice. Vincent, not once changing his stone-faced demeanor says, "Don't say it to me. Say it to her." Vincent takes one step to his side while still aiming his high powered pistol down the terrified man's throat and before him stood Tifa, hands on her hip and a smirk on her face. Muffled, the man again says, "I'm sorry." Tifa, feeling a little petty since this drunk asshole decided to ruin her night sarcastically asked, "Come again? I didn't quite catch that." Vincent pulls the gun out of the man's mouth slowly and now with an unobstructed, but shaky, panicked voice he says, "I'm sorry." Not being satisfied with his apology and still feeling extremely petty she replies, "Whatever, bitch." The man turned his gaze to Vincent, his expression pleading for them to let him go. Vincent holsters his piece and sternly says, "Get the fuck out of here kid and don't go telling people what just happened." The man instantly sobered up after this altercation and immediately runs away from the scene after nodding in agreement.

"I could've handled them you know." Tifa proudly states while motioning for Vincent to follow her inside. "I wasn't protecting you." Vincent replies while following Tifa. "I was protecting your business." Perplexed, Tifa asks, "How so?" Vincent explains, "Do you think people will want to come drink here if they found out the owner is beating customers up?" The beautiful, young woman remained silent as she bussed the remaining tables.

Tifa was beyond stressed out. Her mind a whirlpool of emotions. She was strong, smart and resilient, but everyone has a limit and it was only a matter of time before she breaks. Vincent, having a keen sense of empathy, breaks the silence and says, "So Cloud tells me business has been very slow lately." Tifa, now wiping down the bar, pulls out 2 glasses and pours some whisky in both cups and replies, "Sure is. We're upside-down on profits this month. The damage Kadaj's Bahamut caused turned Edge into a ghost town. The only people that come out to drink are Shinra employees who are here for reconstruction." Tifa hands the vampire-like man one of the glasses and they share a toast before sipping. Vincent sips slowly while our heroine takes the whole thing down in one gulp. No chase, no face.

"Let me grab Cloud for you upstairs. Hopefully he's still up." She says while making her way to the stairs. "Actually, I came here for you." Vincent replies stopping Tifa dead in her tracks. "For me? Well what can I do for you, Vin?" She asks. "I was at the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim earlier today looking around for one of Lucrecia's journals I had left in the basement. Turns out I wasn't the only one there." A bewildered Tifa unconsciously raises an eyebrow at the raven haired man's story so far. "I ran into Reeve wandering around with a bunch of Shin-Ra bigwigs. He told me Rufus Shinra stepped down as president and appointed him CEO of the company, but I digress." Vincent explained while pulling out an unsealed envelope. "He told me to give it to you." Vincent said as he handed Tifa the envelope. "Don't worry, I didn't read it." Tifa had a puzzled look on her face as she thoroughly inspected the envelope. The outside of it read:


SHIN-RA RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANY

SECTOR 0, MIDGAR

REEVE TUESTI

Ms. Tifa Lockheart


Inside the envelope was a single piece of paper folded up neatly with a perforated lower section. The letter read:


Dear Ms. Lockheart,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am very pleased to inform you about the new direction our company is headed after Mr. Rufus Shinra's departure from the company. Before he left me his seat as the new C.E.O. of Shin-Ra Electric Power Company, he had but one stipulation on our contractual agreement: Preserve the Lifestream. After contracting the Geostigma virus, Mr. Shinra felt he only had himself and his beloved company to blame. The guilt was too much to bare and he felt that he needed to repent for the sins of his fathers before him.

As new C.E.O. of Shin-Ra, my first action of business is a rebranding of the company. We will keep the name out of respect for Mr. Shinra, but instead of extracting precious mako from our gravely wounded Gaea we will be transitioning to renewable energy sources such as wind power, solar power and hydrogen.

I know how you feel about our company, Tifa. I can only imagine the pain and suffering we have caused you and your village on that one fateful day. That is why I write to you now. The new Shin-Ra Renewable Energy Company, led by myself, is dedicated to right our wrongs and make sure we don't make the same mistakes twice from its new cradle to its eventual grave.

Attached to the bottom of this letter you will find a check signed personally by me. Consider it a reparation for past sins.

We will reveal the true history of Nibelheim to the public. People need to know what happened here.

Sincerely,

Reeve Tuesti

Shin-Ra Renewable Energy Company C.E.O.


With tears slowly beginning to form from the corner of her ruby-colored eyes after remembering the death of her father and ultimately her hometown, Tifa unfolds the perforated bottom section and revealed the check Reeve had mentioned in his letter. She takes a long, hard look at the number written down and a wide-eyed expression of disbelief immediately sets on her beautiful face. Tifa was overwhelmed. She dropped to her knees simultaneously with the letter and her tears started to flow like a dam that had been breached. "Tifa? What's wrong?" Vincent asked while kneeling down to her level to lend a comforting hand on her shoulder. She was unresponsive. Still kneeling, Vincent picks up the letter to see what the cause of his friend's tears were. He quickly skimmed through the body of words and looked at the check on the bottom. "Holy shit. That's a lot of 0's." He thought to himself.

Tifa, hands in her eyes weeping quietly to herself, sat still on the cold, hard linoleum floor. Vincent, wanting Tifa to have this moment for herself, carefully puts the letter back into the envelope and sets it on the floor to her side. "You'll want to keep this somewhere safe." He said. "Take care, Tifa. Send Cloud and the children my regards." Vincent stands back up to his feet to leave. As he makes his way out of 7th Heaven he hears Tifa calling out to him and he turns to face her. "Vincent… Thank you." She says softly. The mysterious gunman gives her a gentle nod before vanishing into thin air like a crimson wraith.

Tifa wipes the remaining tears from her face and gathers herself. She hasn't cried like that since Sephiroth killed her father and turned her and Cloud's village into ashes, although these tears were a bit different. It felt good to cry. Releasing all the pent up stress and sadness out of her psyche was almost liberating. Our heroine picks up the letter from the floor and walks behind the bartop where they keep the safe. She inputs the combination 12-07-00, the date in which Cloud made a promise to Tifa at the Nibelheim Well, and she stashes the letter and check inside. Tifa couldn't help but smile. She thought about that night at the well and everything else her and Cloud has been through together. Things finally seem to be going right for once.

Tifa quietly makes her way up the stairs treading softly so the wood floors wouldn't creak. She knew how light of a sleeper Marlene was and she didn't want to wake her from her slumber. As Tifa made her way through the hallway she saw the light from inside Cloud's office illuminating through the bottom crack of the door. She slowly turns the knob to avoid any unnecessary noise and opens the door just enough for her to squeeze through. "Cloud?" She whispers. He was sitting on his chair at his desk, head down in a pile of papers. Tifa walks next to him to see his face. Cloud was knocked out cold even drooling a little on some paperwork. Tifa gently brushes her hand through his blonde spikes and eventually moves her hand down to cup the side of his face. "You've been working so hard for this family, Cloud." She thought to herself. "I just wish you'd let me love you… like a real wife would."

Tifa decided to wait until morning after the kids had gone to school to tell Cloud about acquiring her massive fortune. She rubs her gloved hand up the length of Cloud's back and whispers in his ear, "Cloud... Wake up, Cloudy." He slowly opens his eyes and sees a smiling Tifa before him. "Teef?" He says groggily. "Come on blue eyes. Let's go to bed." Tifa says while gently grabbing his hand. He gets up and tiredly follows her lead into their room. She lays him down on his bed and puts the covers over him. "I'm sorry, Tifa." Cloud says with closed eyes. "I've just been so tired lately." She takes a seat at the end of his bed next to his feet and shakes her head. "It's okay." She says. "The kids and I appreciate the hard work you've been doing for us. We… we love you." To her disappointment, there was no response from our hero. He was already fast asleep. Tifa sighs to herself.

She carefully gets up and walks to her bed a few feet from Cloud's and takes off her boots. She lays down and faces the sleeping swordsman turned courier in front of her. Even with the large sum of money Tifa had just received from Reeve and the truth about her past and her annihilated town soon to be revealed to the public, she was still unsatisfied. The only thing Tifa ever longed for was the reciprocated love of her childhood friend and now business partner, Cloud, but breaking down his walls remained a difficult task even for a drop dead gorgeous woman such as herself and she was the closest person to him. Before she closes her ruby red eyes she quietly says to herself, "Sweet dreams, Cloudy."