Title: standing here (alone)
Rating: PG-13+
Disclaimer: Using a large number of spoons as conductors, I can create a false brain for the Tifa action figure I own, thus alive, Squeenix will have to relinquish the rights to her, and she will be her own person, able to sign her life away to the person who gave it to her!
Summary: It is all they can do to get the children back. Alternate Universe.
Pairings: Tifa/Cloud, Aerith/Zack. Tifa-Centric.
standing here (alone)
prologue
mako
It started with a high-pitched whine, like fireworks flying through the sky over Laurelmas dancers. Marlene rushed outside in excitement, before Tifa could stop her. More and more joined, deployed into the sky. Soon, all that could be heard was the buzzing of the things sailing overhead. Tifa dropped her glass back into the soapy water and ran after Marlene to see what was happening, dishtowel still in her hand.
It ended in chaos.
In a flash, they were all raining down on Midgard. It was as if the very gods had turned on them. The earth shook with violent explosions, and the air filled with noxious gas. There were screams all around. The sky went black, as if someone had cloaked it with buckets of paint and smoke. Nothing could be seen but fire in the distance, bright as the sun come to earth, but unable to shed an ounce of light on the world. Only shouts of panic and the hissing crackle of fire could be heard between each earth-shattering impact. In the chaos, Marlene was lost.
Another explosion, deafeningly close. Tifa shrieked and covered her ears, but she could not be moved. Bodies—people pushed past her, blinded in their flight, trampling anyone in the way. The sidewalks peeled up, and, to her left, a bright green flash brought buildings crumbling to their knees. Lost, people climbed over the rubble and the forming debris, while others dug through it helplessly. "My husband's in there! My husband!" a woman was screaming, but no one noticed her.
"Marlene!"
She pressed the dishrag against her face, trying to shield herself from the chemicals she was inhaling, and called out in horror.
"Marlene!"
The girl was nowhere. Tifa fumbled in the dark, but her groping hands found nothing. The next explosion was so close the earth below her feet quaked, and she was sent sprawling onto ruptured asphalt jutting out at odd angles. Still she called, determined to find her daughter, even as the earth rumbled with the force of giants walking over land and flames were devouring everything around her.
"Marlene!"
Like passing through the eye of a storm, Tifa heard each explosion further and further away. The distance between thunder and lightening slowly increasing.
Author's Note: The idea for this little piece of fanfiction is more than a year old, but, up until recently I have not had the motivation or the time to work on it. Fortunately for it, this ended up being the perfect way for me to practice introducing complicated universes in a fuent manner. I'm a little nervous to be posting it here on FFnet, as this is my first week back after a three year hiatus due to some... negative experiences with the site. Still, here it is, and I hope to update on something approaching a regular basis.
Constructive critisism appreciated.