Hello this is my first fan fiction I don't know if you will like it but if you do comment and tell me if I should continue it.

Chapter One

How?

The door opened.

Marlene looked up from her place sitting at the bar, to see Cloud wearing a smile. She stared at him for a moment. He hadn't smiled like that in all the time she'd known him. Especially not after...she...died. Smiling brightly, Marlene walked over to him, tugging his sleeve to get his attention, chatting animatedly.

Tifa frowned, hearing Marlene speaking to someone. Setting down the towel she had been using, Tifa peered around the door, to see Marlene's companion to be none other than Cloud. The look on his face made her pause and look at him curiously, eyebrows furrowed.

This was how she had hoped he would look when it was all over. But he hadn't, all he thought about was Aerith, and how she was gone. The fact that he looked this way scared Tifa a little, for it was not like him at all.

"Cloud..." Tifa said, walking over to him. "Are you...okay?" She asked her question carefully. If he was happy, well, she didn't want to stop him.

"Yeah, Teef. I'm fine." Cloud looked surprised. "Why?"

"Well..." Tifa fumbled for a moment. How was she to explain that she was worried by his happiness? "It's just, you haven't really been happy, since Aerith..." She stopped at the look on his face. For a moment it broke, and his eyes looked impossibly sad. But then he blinked, and his expression took on confusion. The words that came from him next made her heart stop.

"Who's Aerith?"

((()))

That night while Cloud was asleep, the rest of the members of AVALANCHE gathered. Tifa had frantically called them earlier that day with the simple message: Something is wrong with Cloud.

Once the situation had been explained, everyone had begun arguing. Tifa found herself being the only one who wasn't. She thought that if he was happy, they should just let it be. Then Vincent, who had been silent, spoke for the first time, making everyone stop mid-rant.

"Did any of you consider that maybe the reason he is acting this way, is because of how much it hurt? " He paused, standing from his usual place by the shadows. When no one spoke, he continued. "It is not easy to hurt that much, to feel that guilty. Would you want feel that way for the rest of your life? He once wanted to have his 'sins' forgiven, as I did. When they were, he was still in pain. In many ways, he was dying. His subconscious may have acted, to save his life. But this is wrong." Vincent looked around at them all, settling his gaze on Tifa as he continued. "He once said that he didn't 'remember' Aerith, because he couldn't forget. To forget her, after all that she did, and all that she was to him, is an even greater sin. We must make him remember, convince his conscious that he does not need to forget her, to be happy." It was the longest thing he had ever said to them.

Tifa looked away.

((()))

The rest of AVALANCHE stayed for a few days, each trying different ways to get Cloud to remember. Nothing seemed to work, and their attempts seemed to only confuse him more. Tifa was the least active participant in these attempts. Though she wouldn't say it out loud, a part of her didn't want him to remember. Maybe, if he was happy, and didn't have to always think of Aerith, Tifa could be with him. They could be together- be a family. She knew it was selfish, but she couldn't stop thinking it. Maybe tonight, she could talk to him, tell him how she felt...Maybe, if he really had forgotten-

"Tifa!" Yuffie cried, running through the door and cutting off the woman's thoughts. "Cloud is gone!"

"What!?" Tifa screamed, dropping the glass she was holding.

"We can't find him anywhere!" Yuffe said.

It turned out that Yuffie had found something that had elicited a response from him- pictures. There were very few, but after seeing some photographs, Cloud's attention had been captured. He had stared at the pictures, a strange, frustrated look on his face, as though the memory sat at the edges of his mind. Happy, Yuffie had gone to find more photos, only to find both Cloud and his motorbike gone when she returned.

If he was starting to remember...well, then Tifa thought there was only one place he would go: the forgotten city.

((()))

Cloud stopped his bike at the pool of the lifestream. He looked into the water and felt silent tears leak down his face at the sight. Why was he so sad? He didn't understand. But he felt a strange ripping in his heart, and he clutched at it with one hand. Shaking, he stared at the pool as a vision of himself slowly lowering a beautiful girl into the water came over his eyes.

He gasped. It all came back to him. How could he have forgotten her? He sank to his knees, sobbing as he had the day that he had lost her.

"Don't cry. It will all be okay."

A voice came, one that only tormented him more. The same voice sighed there were quiet footsteps a little ways away. He looked up only to see a girl with long, flowing, light brown hair, a red jacket, pink dress, and a long staff walking away from the other side of the pool. He gasped as she walked away, unable to move as she disappeared. He ran to his bike and drove away. He got a hold of himself as he pulled up to Tifa's bar. He walked in saying: "I saw her!"

"Who?" Tifa asked though, she did not need to.

"Aerith!" he said.

"...But how?" Tifa whispered, feeling tears prick her eyes. She blinked them back.

"I don't know."

Later they gathered the others and Cloud told that he saw Aerith at the forgotten city. They were all silent. Cloud frowned at them all, not understanding why they were looking at him the way they were.

"Cloud?" Yuffe said in a very quiet voice. Cloud turned to look at her. "Are you sure you saw her?"

"Yes!" he all but screamed.

"I mean, are you sure she was really there, and that you didn't just imagine her?." Her voice was still quiet. Cloud glared in response.

"Never mind." Yuffe muttered, crossing her arms.

Then Cloud understood why they were staring at him that way. They thought he had just imagined her there, and that she was not real.

"You don't beleive me, do you." It was not a question. Yuffe tried again.

"Cloud no one can come back from the dead. Not even her."

"How do we know what she can do? Maybe you couldn't do it but maybe she can! Unless you are saying she never died." His voice was fierce and bitter. No one spoke, and Tifa knew he was breaking again as the silence continued. If no one would believe him then how could he believe himself? If he broke again, he would never be happy.

"I believe you." Tifa spoke those three words but what she really meant was 'I love you.'

((()))

Aerith had seen a boy kneeling at the pool at the forgotten city. He was crying. She did not know why but she did not like him crying.

She had spoken to him- "Don't cry. It will be okay." – but that had only seemed to make it worse. Sighing, she got up and walked away, deciding to go around to talk to him. But when she got there he was gone.

Following the tire tracks from his bike, she reached a city called Midgar. While walking around, she decided to get some new clothing. A dress would not be very easy to fight in if it was necessary. She had money so she got pants, a pink tank top, and daggers. She knew that she had to keep her identity a secret if she wanted to live. It was of the utmost importance. So she needed the daggers, just in case, even though she knew little about using them. Most of the places to stay didn't seem suitable.

But a bar called Seventh Heaven caught her eye.

((()))

Everyone was staring at Tifa in surprise at what she had said. Then Cloud face showed relief and he really truly smiled at her. Tifa felt herself blushing, heart rising- despite the fact that her mind told her that the simple gesture meant nothing.

The door to Tifa's bar opened. A girl with long light brown hair, a pink tank top, pants, and bright green eyes walked through the door.

Even with different clothing, and her hair down there was no denying that it was Aerith.

((()))

Aerith felt as though she had just walked in on something. Embarrassed, she began to walk away, noticing the boy that she had seen kneeling at the lifestream pool. Aerith smiled at him, and laughed at his shocked expression.

"Can I stay here tonight? I don't have anywhere else to go." She asked, not sure whom to talk to.

"Aerith?" asked a girl in black leather who was very pretty.

It was Aerith's turn to look shocked- how did they know who she was? She changed her expression from shock to anger. Aerith drew her daggers and crouched ready to fight. It was bad if they knew her name, but she still thought: 'I will not hurt the boy.' Then she started to attack but he stood in front and she was unable to move to hurt him.

"Aerith what happened to you?" he asked. She did not know what he meant. She did not know him, did she? She stood up and let her knives fall. What had happened? How did they know her? It was too much, all the swirling and vague memories. Aerith fainted.

((()))

Cloud jumped to catch Aerith as she fell, dropping to his knees.

No, not again...I won't lose her!