Pain, that was all she felt.

Deep, heart-wrenching pain…

Was it all her fault? Did she push him to do this?

Rain fell and pounded harshly into her back, long black hair sticking to her pale complexion, her dark brown eyes shut tightly.

She ran blindly ahead, the darkness of the night shadowing her movements.

Forcing herself to go faster, farther…

To run away from the source of her pain and anguish.

Her legs were screaming at her to stop but her brain wouldn't allow it. Her heart slammed against her ribcage, pumping blood furiously into her body in a desperate attempt to keep up her pace.

She was Tifa Lockhart. She was known for being strong, an unending source of determination. She was beautiful, smart…

So why didn't he love me?

Tears she had tried so hard to keep down slowly resurfacing, streaming down her face.

Why was she so weak

She should've realized it sooner. Everyone knew it, figured it out before her.

Why didn't she realize it? Why had she made a fool out of herself?

Cloud Strife would never love her. She knew that now.

Years of waiting… Waiting for him…

Waiting for him to realize that she was right there! Right there beside him…

It took today for him to finally realize it.

And it took today for her to realize that he was still in love with Aerith… Even after two years… He still loved her.

She had screamed at him, asked why he still loved her. She was dead for Shinra's sake! And she, Tifa, was here, alive and breathing.

Wasn't she enough? She had asked him then.

He didn't reply… That hurt her more than anything he could ever say.

But all she wanted to be now was dead, to finally succumb to the temptation of death. No more pain, no more suffering, no more waiting.

With her stamina finally run out she fell hard into the unforgiving ground beneath her. Mud covered her from head to foot as she landed. She had barely acknowledged that she was in a forest.

Sobs racked her body as she finally let out the pain she was feeling to the world.

Shouts echoed through the trees.

Tears mingled with rain droplets.

Fists pounded into the mud as if blaming it for her grief.

Screaming out as she cried.

She was breaking. Tifa Lockhart was breaking.

She was unused to this, to the tears, to everything.

She confronted her problems, she didn't runaway from them.

But she couldn't bear to see Cloud's face, to see the pity in those icy blue eyes.

She wanted so badly to blame him! To blame him for making her care for him… for making her love him.

Tifa wanted to scream and curse Aerith for taking his heart with her to her grave and never giving it back.

She was selfish. But she wanted to be selfish, even just this once.

It was all her fault. Both of them were innocent to her plight. She had done this to herself.

She was blinded by her love for Cloud…

Even when he didn't love her…

She loved him… nothing would ever change that.

She would love him until she died. She could never love anyone else.

All she wanted was for him to recognize her…

To see that it was her who helped him through everything he had been through, to see that she was standing right beside him, supporting him all the way.

Her, Tifa Lockhart, his best friend. Not Aerith.

She wanted to see his eyes light up whenever she called him, not to see it darken with disappointment when she wasn't the one he wanted to see.

Even one single acknowledgement from him would've sufficed. Why couldn't he do that for her?

Wasn't she important to him?

Her red-rimmed eyes snapped open when reality poured over her like a bucket of ice-cold water.

He hadn't run after her…