Cloud and Tifa discover a mysterious materia. Its properties are unknown, and at first they believe that it is useless, that is until upon touching the glowing orb, it sends Tifa thirty-five years into the past before the events that led to the world crisis they faced in FF7. There she meets Vincent and must try to convince him that she is from another time and that he is the key to stopping a terrible tragedy. With her knowledge of the future, will she be able to prevent the experiments that lead to Sephiroth destroying her hometown? And if she does, how will that affect the future that she knows? Will she ever be able to return to her own time?
A/N: Ugh! I really wish had a warning that said that the document manager only accepted 250 characters (with spaces) in the summary box before allowing me to put up my nice long summary, only for half of it to disappear when my story gets posted :-( It's a real bitch to have to go back in and reformat everything to just the way I like it.
I've realized that even though I never start out to write M-rated stories they always turn out that way, so even though this one isn't really one right now, I'm going to go ahead and give it an M rating just to be safe.
As a point of reference, I've set 1997 as the year the events of FF7 take place. Tifa finds Cloud at the Midgar train station in about August of 1997 and the Lifestream stop Meteor in about May of 1998.
Disclaimer: FF7 isn't mine.
August 8, 2001
Tifa sneezed as she set down a dusty box. She and Cloud had been going through piles and piles of junk all day as they cleaned out the basement of the new shop they had purchased in Nibelheim. That was until Cloud had gotten a call and had to take off in order to pick up supplies. It was only midmorning, and she already felt sweaty and irritated. She wished that she had taken up Cloud's offer to go with him, but her fastidiousness would not allow her to leave with the basement in such utter chaos.
It had been three years since Meteor was defeated. All of the members of AVALANCHE had become celebrities, and wherever they went they were met with gratitude and festivities. Barrett had returned to Corel with his daughter Marlene and they began to rebuild the suffering economy of the town. Yuffie was in Wutai, helping her father bring back dignity to the once proud nation. Cid had gone back to Rocket Town where he'd finally asked Shera to marry him. Even though his dream of going into outer space had been realized, he still had big plans for a space program, and was trying to get funding to build another rocket. Cait Sith was in the Edge with his owner and operator, Reeve, who was trying to help the refugees from Midgar create a new place to live outside of the ruined city. Nanaki had returned to Cosmo Canyon where he served as protector and continued his studies of the Planet. Since Tifa and Cloud had no home to return to, at first they wandered around the world trying to help people any way they could, by helping erect houses, or planting crops, but mostly as hunters since the monsters produced by the effects of Mako had not yet been eradicated.
Eventually, though, they got tired of their nomadic lifestyle. Tifa yearned to put down some roots, and Cloud was helpless not to give her whatever she wanted. So on a whim they returned to Nibelheim and were surprised to find out that a lot had developed in the two years since they had last visited the town that had been the center of a huge Shinra cover-up. With the Shinra Company gone, it gave more people safe access to settle in the town other than the paid employees who had kept up the façade that Shinra had wanted to perpetuate in order to keep its dirty secrets. With more people, came more business, and more business meant more buildings. The small town was bursting at the seams with growth. It made Cloud and Tifa both happy and nostalgic at the same time. They were glad to see that their hometown was recovering from the blow it had been dealt, and yet at the same time it was not the home they grew up in. None of the people were the same, and even though most of the buildings were exact replicas of the ones they had known in their childhood, they knew that they were not the same. The new residents were very welcoming, however, and when the town mayor offered them the use of any building or home that they wanted as a show of gratitude for all they had done to save the Planet, neither Cloud or Tifa could refuse. The pair chose the weapons shop, which also had an apartment above it, where they decided that they would not only collect and trade weapons but the materia to equip them with as well. They chose it partly because they had not been comfortable with the idea of putting anyone out of their home or business in order to accommodate the mayor's grand gesture even though the people in the town had eagerly agreed with it, and the weapon's shop had been one of the only few buildings still unoccupied. It was in the perfect location right in the center of the town in front of the old well. It also seemed to be a good fit for them since in their travels they had collected many weapons and materia.
It had only taken them a few days to get the showroom cleared and opened for business. The former owner had sold flowers, so they had to import glass display cases, and get rid of a lot of vases and old mildewed silk flowers, as well as some that had been hung up to dry. But they still had a bit of cleaning up to do, in the back supply room and office, and downstairs in the basement, which was why Tifa was down there going through boxes of abandoned equipment that the old owner had left when a customer came in. They didn't get very many customers yet, so she felt safe enough to work downstairs even with the shop open. A bell on the door let her know that she needed to head back up the stairs.
A tall, lanky dark haired man was staring at materia inside one of the glass counters. His clothing was kind of odd. It was not in any kind of style she was familiar with, and she couldn't make out what kind of material it was made out of. But as out of place as it made him look, it did fit him attractively.
"Can I help you?" she asked, coming up next to him.
He looked up startled, and then stared at her in unmitigated wonder. "Ka—Tifa…"
Slightly taken aback, she asked, "Do I know you?"
Realizing that he was staring, the stranger shook himself as if to ward of something and then smiled sadly at her. "No you don't…even if I wish it weren't so."
After years as a bartender she had developed a low tolerance for come-ons. "I'm sorry, mister, but if you're trying to hit on me I have to inform you that I'm already taken."
The stranger looked scandalized. "I was not trying to hit on you! Why that would be—that would be—"
"Indecent? Forward? Ridiculous?"
"Yes, yes! Exactly."
"Thanks…I think." Looking at the stranger, something seemed vaguely familiar about him. It was something about his eyes, which were a warm brown with specks of red, and how strands of his dark hair fell in his face despite his having tied it back in a ponytail. It reminded her of—but alas, it wasn't and there was no use in thinking about it. "So, if you're not here to hit on me, what can I help you with? I'm not as familiar with all the weapons as Cloud is, but I think I can steer you in the right direction, at least until he gets back."
"I'm not interested in weapons. I wanted to trade some materia with you."
"I can definitely help you with that!" she exclaimed excitedly. "What have you got?"
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather drawstring sack. Opening the bag, he spilled out the small glowing orbs that were unmistakably materia. Picking out a green one, he set it on the counter and pushed it towards her for examination. It appeared to be an ordinary magic materia, only it didn't have any of the normal markings for fire, lightening, ice, etc. It seemed most closely related to a time materia, only that was off, too. Whatever it was, it appeared to be fully mastered. "Do you know what it is?" Tifa asked.
"No." He got a mysterious look on his face and didn't seem inclined to say more. Tifa wasn't sure if she believed him.
"Well, if you can't tell me what it does, I can't give you a very good deal on it."
"That's all right. I'll take whatever you can give me."
"Are you sure you don't know what it does? You seem awfully nonchalant about giving away a fully mastered materia."
"Yes."
Tifa figured that even if he did know what it was, it couldn't have been anything very powerful, or else he wouldn't be so willing to trade it cheaply. "All right then, I'll give you a fire or ice. Cloud recently mastered both so we have two newly birthed materia."
"I'll take the ice."
Tifa went into the back of the shop to retrieve the materia. When she returned she handed it to the young man who put it in his sack. "Thanks for the business, and come back anytime!" she told him, dismissing him so that she could go back to cleaning.
The man nodded, and then began to walk out of the shop. But he lingered. When he got to the doorway, he turned around. "Was there something else you wanted?"
The young man hesitated. It was clear that there was something more he wanted to say, but couldn't get it out. In that moment, he reminded her of herself at that age, and her own shyness, and her heart went out to him. Despite his height, he was obviously very young. She felt bad for the way she had almost bit his head off earlier. She smiled warmly at him. "It's okay, I didn't mean to sound so agitated earlier, it's just been a long, hot day."
The young man shook his head. "There's no need to apologize. I realize you weren't expecting me…could never expect what this means to me…but I just want you to know…you're as beautiful as I thought you would be." Then he quickly exited. Startled, Tifa watched his retreating figure. Again she was reminded of someone else, and had the eerie feeling that she knew him.
Cloud returned home a few hours later, rolling in several large boxes on a cart. "Tifa! You have to come look at this stuff. It's amazing!" he yelled by way of greeting.
Tifa was still toiling in the basement, and welcomed the break from work that Cloud's return would give her. Curious about what could get Cloud so wound up, she climbed the basement stairs asking, "What is it?" as she walked into the main showroom.
"Swords!" he exclaimed. As he grabbed a tool to open one of the boxes with, Tifa couldn't help but smile at his excitement. She loved seeing him so happy and relaxed. For too long he had been wracked with guilt, and insecure about who he was and what his purpose was. But Tifa had stood patiently by him, supporting him and loving him, and three months ago he had asked her to marry him. It had been a spur of the moment thing, and so he did not have a ring, but she knew what was in his heart and that was all that mattered. She didn't care if they ever got formally married, as long as she was with him.
When he'd gotten the box open, he pulled out a smaller black leather case. He handed it to her, telling her to open it. It was a dagger with the figure of a CLOUDY wolf welded into the handle. He grinned proudly at her gasp of appreciation.
"This is beautiful, Cloud."
"And you'll never guess who made it!"
Tifa giggled at his enthusiasm. "Who made it Cloud?"
"Hephaestus! Can you believe it? I now own a real honest-to-Odin Hephaestian blade!"
"Aren't they incredibly rare?"
"There were only 47 daggers made, according to legend."
"How do you know it's authentic?"
"I'll show you," he said pulling the dagger out of the case. "Where is your fire materia?" Tifa turned away from Cloud, walking into the supply room at the back of the building to retrieve her fire materia. As she reached for the fire materia, she spotted the new time-like materia she had traded for earlier. She decided to grab that one as well to ask Cloud what he thought it was. Returning to the main room, she lifted the hand holding the fire to give to Cloud, only for him to shake his head. "No, you hold it."
Doing as he asked she held it in her open palm so that he could see it. Then Cloud lowered the blade of the dagger next to it. As the dagger got closer and closer to the stone, both the orb and the blade began to glow brightly, becoming brighter and brighter as the blade got nearer. Suddenly when the blade touched the materia the dagger burst into flame shooting out the fiery shape of a chocobo.
"Ooh!" Tifa exclaimed.
"If it wasn't a true Hephaestian dagger, it wouldn't do that."
"That's amazing. He must have been a great blacksmith."
Cloud's eyes widened in consternation. "Not just a 'great' blacksmith. The best!" He feigned irritation at her ignorance, but the happy glint in his eye told Tifa that he was not really upset. "I can't believe I now own a true Hephaestian dagger! I'm never gonna trade this sucker."
"How am I ever going to pick out a birthday present to top this?" Tifa questioned, sounding exasperated.
At that Cloud gave up all pretense of seeming upset, and looked up at her quite seriously. "You agreed to marry me. What more could I want?"
Tifa blushed with happiness.
"You know, Hephaestus is famous for more than just making daggers and swords."
"Oh, really?" Tifa asked playfully.
"Mmm-hmm," Cloud murmured as he reached into his pocket. "There's something I've been meaning to give you. But it's taken me forever to find exactly what I was looking for." When he withdrew his hand from his pocket he was holding a smaller velvet box. Tifa's heart leapt into her throat at the sight of it. Cloud opened it revealing a platinum ring setting with a large ruby centerstone and intricate double chocobo motif on the sides. "Another thing Hephaestus is famous for is his rings. This is one of a kind," he told her as, taking the ring out of the box, he took her left hand into his own where he slipped the ring onto her finger. "I wanted a ruby to match your eyes."
"Oh, Cloud! It's beautiful!" Tifa exclaimed. And then she promptly burst into tears.
Cloud looked dismayed. "I'm sorry! If you want a diamond, I'll get you a diamond…it's just that when I saw this, I immediately thought of you."
"It's not that." She sniffled. "It's just that I didn't realize how much I wanted to get married until just now. I told myself that I would be satisfied if we never got married, just as long as I was with you, even after you asked me to marry you. And there was I time that I had given up hope that even that would be possible. But you giving me this ring…it just makes it so real, you know?"
"I do know. I'm sorry I didn't do this earlier. And I can't tell you how sorry I am for ever making you think I didn't want to spend the rest of my life with you. I have been in love with you since we were kids, and I've been such an idiot to wait this long to finally make you mine."
"I don't mind. I would have waited a lot longer for you if I had to. I love you, too. So much." She leaned in to kiss him, dragging her mouth over his hotly.
She didn't stop with a single kiss, but pulled him into the back room with her, where she shoved her hands underneath his shirt and made him drop his pants.
Their bodies already sticky with the sweat of pleasurable exertion, they decided that they might as well close up the shop and finish cleaning the basement. Since Tifa had already done most of the grunt work, with the two of them, they managed to straighten up and organize it in no time.
With that task done, they had nothing to do but bask in the happiness of a new engagement. After making love again in the shower, and then actually cleaning themselves, they decided to do nothing but lounge around lazily on the couch in the living room of their apartment on top of the shop. Tifa could not stop staring at her ring, and Cloud could not stop staring at her staring at her ring. "Just wait until I tell Yuffie!" she exclaimed leaning against him contentedly.
Cloud smirked. "I'm sure she'll make some sarcastic comment about why it took so long."
"That's true. But she always seemed confident that you would ask me, even when I wasn't so sure. Now I really don't know what to get you for your birthday, and it's only a couple of days away."
"You haven't gotten anything already? That isn't like you. You normally have everyone's birthday presents ready for them after Winter Festival!"
"That's because the best sales are right after Winter Festival!"
"I know. I'm really disappointed in you…" Cloud joked. "Hey! Why don't I tell Yuffie what I really want, and then you can ask her, and then I can still act surprised when you get it for me."
Tifa smirked. "We'll see." It was true enough that she hadn't gotten a present for Cloud, but what she had in mind was even better. She had planned a surprise party for him, and all the former Avalanche teammates were supposed to be there. Except for those who had fallen in battle. Reflecting on Cloud's words, she wondered, "You didn't ask Yuffie for any advice on what ring to buy me did you?"
Cloud looked guilty.
"Hey, I thought you picked it out!"
"I did. But I kind of asked her what she thought you would like. And we even picked out this other ring. But I still didn't think it was the right one. And then when I saw this one, I remembered how much you like chocobos…"
"I must say, you did good." She grinned. "Hey, will my ring burst into flame too, if it touches a fire materia?"
"Yes, it should, but don't worry, it won't set you on fire or anything. It's magical fire that doesn't burn."
"That's good—oh, that reminds me," she said, pushing away from the circle of Cloud's warm arms to go retrieve the mystery materia she had traded for today. Bringing it back, she handed it to Cloud. "What do you make of this? Some guy traded it in."
Taking it in his hands, he examined it carefully, turning it upside down and viewing the way it captured and distorted the light. "Hmm…it looks kind of like a time materia. But not quite."
"That's what I thought. I haven't tried to use its magic yet, though."
"We might as well try it now, to figure out what it does." Getting up to retrieve his Buster Sword from the shelf where he kept it in his office, he inserted the materia into one of the slots. Since he was unsure of the materia's magical properties he thought it would be safest to test outside. Tifa followed him. In the backyard there was an empty area far enough away from the building that he thought nothing would get harmed if for some reason the materia had some destructive capabilities. Facing the sword away from the house and Tifa who stood behind him, he touched the orb on his weapon and recited a basic casting spell. Nothing happened. He repeated it, and when still nothing happened, he tried a more advanced spell. Still nothing. He kept increasing the difficulty of the spell until he had exhausted his repertoire of spells.
Tifa felt tremendously disappointed. In one of her first transactions at the shop she had managed to buy a dud materia. "I'm sorry Cloud. I shouldn't have traded that materia without knowing if it worked or not. At least I didn't give away a fully mastered one, too!"
"It's all right, Tifa. I probably would have traded it too. It's obviously very rare. Maybe old too, and that's why none of my spells are working. I bet if I do some research I should be able to figure out what it is. It should be interesting."
"Yeah, I guess you're right."
"You didn't by any chance happen to get the guy's name did you? If we could find him, maybe he could give us some more information about it."
"No, I didn't. I did ask him about the materia, however. I kind of got the feeling that he knew more about it than he was letting on, though. You should have seen this guy, Cloud. He looked just like Vincent." Thinking over her encounter with the young man, she recalled feeling uneasy at his looks and his reticence to answer her questions, but having a strange sense of familiarity as well.
"Vincent? Really? You know, I thought I saw a guy who looked like him as well. He gave me this funny look, as if he wanted to come up and say 'hi,' but he didn't. One moment he was there, and I must have turned my head or something, but the next second he was gone. Isn't that crazy?"
"Yeah." But the more she thought about the young man who reminded her so much of Vincent and his mystery materia, the more she began to feel uneasy.
Tifa managed to forget about the strange young man in the days that followed as she hurried about making final preparations for Cloud's birthday party. Cloud had indeed told Yuffie what he wanted, so Tifa had gone out in search of the best price for the new tricked out P900iv PHS that he had requested. Even though Tifa and Cloud had made their fortune during their travels, Tifa could still remember the days that she had gone hungry in the slums as if they were not that far away. Despite her generous and giving heart, she did not like to pay more for something if she could find a better deal. It was a habit learned by necessity.
The day of Cloud's birthday arrived, and she had only been able to find one place that still had the damned thing since all of the reasonably priced stores had run out of it. Giving it up as a lost cause, she resigned herself to purchasing the entirely overpriced phone. Cloud and I are gillionaires, she reminded herself. And this is nothing compared to what I spent on the party. The party was going to take place in the Guinan ballroom at the newly renovated Nibelheim Inn, where Tifa had arranged for all of the AVALANCHE members to have suites. She had also invited most of the residents of Nibelheim, who had all at one time or another expressed their thanks to both her and Cloud. She had spared no expense to have a caterer prepare all of Cloud's favorite foods, and there would be a live band. But she had made the large seven-layer cake herself from scratch, knowing how much Cloud loved her secret recipe double fudge chocolate cake. That had been quite a task since she had to sneak out of the shop and enlist the aid of her friend Gerard the baker to let her use his kitchens. But he was more than happy to oblige.
She decided to stop by Sharp Image on her way to the airport to pick up Yuffie, since it was on her way. After helping Yuffie get settled in her room, she took a peak at the ballroom and was very pleased with all the decorations that had been set up. There were balloons and streamers scattered about the room, all the color of Cloud's eyes. She knew that he would find everything too extravagant, but she also knew that this party was as much for AVALANCHE and all the other guests as it was for him, and she wanted everyone to have a good time. Struggling to rebuild after such catastrophic events had not been easy, but after three years, it seemed that they had been making good progress and deserved to celebrate. Satisfied with the way everything looked, Tifa returned to the weapons shop in order to get dressed.
Tifa had told Cloud that she wanted to take him some place nice for dinner in order to get him to dress up more than usual. She herself had picked out something special for the evening. It was a sleeveless, low-cut cornflower blue cotton sundress that came down to the middle of her thigh and had a bodice that hugged her curves alluringly. It was almost like the one she used to wear long ago when she and Cloud were children. The last time she had worn that dress was when she had asked Cloud to promise her that he would come save her if she ever needed a hero. The second she saw the dress in the store window she had thought of the one from before, and knew that she had to have it. Even though Shinra had been very thorough in its reconstruction of the town, there were some things that once destroyed by the fire, had never been replaced. Her dress was one of those things.
Once home, she showered quickly, and then took her time drying and styling her hair, and getting dressed. She normally didn't bother with her appearance, Cloud never seemed to care one way or the other, and they were always so busy with the store, and before that with the reconstruction of some town or other that it didn't matter what she looked like. However, she thought she could afford to spend time dallying on her appearance today. And Cloud always seemed to appreciate it when she dressed up, if his slack-jawed gaping was any indication.
Her hair was as long and thick as ever. She had never once in her life cut her hair, only trimming it to help it stay healthy. It was her most prized feature. It had reminded her father of her mother, and since they were both dead, not cutting it was her way of honoring their memory. She also realized the kind of power it could hold over a man. She knew the way they would look at it as it fell in waves down her back that they were imagining how it would feel if they could run their hands through it, or how it would look splayed and rumpled across their pillow. It gave her a feeling of power and she would occasionally wield it in order to get what she wanted from Cloud. It was subtle, and yet very effective the way she could touch him without touching him with a few strands of hair. But he had the same power over her with his expressive eyes, those deep blue orbs that glowed with the power of Mako and the feelings in his heart. All it took was a single glance, a bright glare, a chilling stare and she could tell exactly what he wanted, and she would always be quick and ready to oblige. That was how much she loved him.
It took Tifa forever to dry her hair, but when she finished, she brushed it until is shone and then let is simply hang down past her shoulders to a little bit bellow her knees. She usually wore it in a fishtail in order to keep it relatively out of her way, but she knew that Cloud liked it best when it was loose and wavy.
Her make up was applied sparingly; she was lucky to have been blessed with good skin that did not need much for enhancements. She sprayed on a little perfume; Enticing it was called. Then she put on the light dress and a pair of comfortable slippers. They were pretty and delicate looking, but they matched perfectly with the dress, and she could not stand the idea of wearing heels. Heels were such impractical shoes. One could not walk, or run, or fight in them. One could definitely not dance, and Tifa planned on doing a lot of dancing tonight, even if her partner had two left feet, which always amazed her since Cloud was always so graceful in battle.
When Tifa finished dressing, she went downstairs to wait on Cloud who had gone on an errand to visit a customer who had gotten too sick to come to the shop himself, and tell him all about the latest stock he had added to his inventory. He was a boy of about ten who, until he had gotten sick, had come to the shop loyally every Tuesday when Cloud would get a new shipment in. Now he had a serious disease that there seemed to be no cure for. Many other children around the world had somehow contracted the mysterious illness, and an alarming amount of them were dying from it. Everyone hoped that a cure for it would soon be found.
It was while she was waiting for Cloud to return that Tifa noticed a shrill sound like a long protracted scream. At first she thought it was a cat trapped somewhere inside the building getting tortured; that was how irritating the sound was. Then she realized that it couldn't be a cat because even cats weren't that annoying.
She stood up and walked towards the case where the sound seemed to be coming from and discovered that the strange materia she had gotten from the young dark-haired man was beginning to glow and giving of high intermitted…shrieks. The closer she got, the louder it sounded until it was almost unbearable. She made the mistake of touching it in order to see if she could somehow get it to stop. That only made it scream louder, and more terribly than before. She thought her ear drums might burst, and her vision went dark, as if a cold, damp blanket had been thrown over her, blinding her, and weighing her down. She suddenly felt dizzy, as if she were being spun in a million directions all at once. Then she felt herself falling as if the ground beneath her had suddenly vanished. She had felt the sudden terror of such weightlessness once before in her life. When she was a girl and her mother had just died, she'd scoured the Nibel mountains on the off chance that her mother might be waiting for her there just like in the tales she'd heard about how the ghosts of loved ones went into the mountains when they died. She'd tried to take an old bridge across the gigantic crack in the ground and the rope broke, sending her plummeting into darkness. She didn't remember hitting the ground when she was a girl, but she just as suddenly as she seemed to be falling, she suddenly felt the earth rush up to greet her, knocking the breath out of her.
She must have fainted—or maybe she didn't, she couldn't tell—but when she finally came to again she found herself lying in the middle of the floor clutching the green materia. She sat up, and the blood drained from her face. She felt her gorge rise in her throat and closed her eyes tightly in order to keep from vomiting. She breathed in quick shallow gasps until her heart rate began to slow down. Then she chanced opening her eyes. "What the hell happened?" She might have meant what had happened to her physically that had incapacitated her, but she was also confused about the room that looked so familiar, but at the same time was very different.
All the display cases were gone. That was the first thing she noticed. But she didn't think she had been robbed because the displays were replaced by comfortable looking furniture. She began to think that perhaps the room hadn't changed, but that she had been transported to a different building altogether. But the dimensions were exactly the same. Setting the materia down onto the floor, she got up on wobbly legs and saw all the evidence that identified the building as the one she and Cloud had bought a couple of weeks ago. She was in the main room, and there was a door leading to a back room in exactly the same place, as well as another door on the side that she could tell led to a staircase that would take her upstairs to what she knew would be a two bedroom apartment with a bath and a half, full kitchen, and open living area.
She began to worry at the strangeness, and wished more than anything that Cloud would hurry up and return soon. Then she remembered that he had his cell phone on him, so she might as well try to give him a call. She went into the back room that she and Cloud had turned into an office fully equipped with a telephone and fax machine, and actually could not be surprised when she found that those items too were missing, as well as the desk cluttered with paper and the boxes of supplies that they had yet to unpack and arrange. Getting more and more unnerved, she decided to head out to ask any of her neighbors if they had seen anything strange.
Outside was even more disorienting than everything inside had been. The sign hanging above the door of her building said "Furniture Shop" not "Strife-Lockhart Weapons and Materia Shop." In front of her was the well where she and Cloud had met before he went off to SOLDIER, but it didn't look old anymore. Even though the well had been recreated just like everything else that had burnt down in the town, Shinra had taken pains to make it seem authentic and old. The one in front of her looked brand new. It was like she had stepped into one of the black and white photographs she had seen of Nibelheim in the library. The cars in the street were old fashioned and there were even carriages being pulled by chocobos sharing the street. She was overwhelmed by the sent of them, and the smell of rotting garbage that littered the roadways. In the alley next to the shop she could have sworn that she saw a rat sneaking off into a dark corner. She shuddered as it brought back unpleasant memories of the squalor and filth she had become accustomed to when she lived in the Midgar slums.
Not recognizing anybody, she started walking around the circle in the hopes that she might finally see someone she knew. Most people didn't pay any attention to her, but some openly stared at her like she had the word "adulterer" written across her forehead in huge scarlet letters. It was a very unnerving feeling and she hurried to get away from those condemning eyes. Before she knew it she was standing in front of the Shinra mansion, which was just as changed as everything else in town seemed to be. Instead of being worn down and dilapidated it looked well-taken care of. It didn't look quite new the way the well had been. The well seemed like it had not been in use very long, but the house definitely seemed like it was put to use. In fact a group of people had just gone inside of it, which struck Tifa as very odd. Even though the incident had taken place almost ten years ago, nobody ever went inside the mansion. The townspeople felt it was haunted, and in many ways it was filled with the ghosts of all those who had died in Nibelheim. Not recognizing anyone in that group either, she was about to turn around to head back into town when she saw Cloud coming towards her from the path that led to Mt. Nibel.
"Cloud!" Tifa yelled, running towards him and launching herself in his arms. "Something's different. I don't know what it is, but everything about this place is different," she began, rambling. "I'm beginning to wonder if we should have come back—"
"Pardon me, ma'am, but I would be much obliged if you would let go of me," a strange voice requested of Tifa.
"Cloud?" The man had the same eyes, though without the Mako glow, and the same bright yellow hair, only it was much longer and tied back with a leather thong. Looking at him more thoroughly, she didn't know how she had confused this man with Cloud, other than that she simply wished it were him. He could have been Cloud's brother, though, they were so similar in appearance.
"Who is that?"
"You're not Cloud," she stated slowly and confusedly. "But you look just like—"
"Why are you in such a state of undress?" the stranger asked, his eyes staring hard at the exposed skin of her bosom, and then drifting down her rounded curves, to the modest hem of her dress that stopped mid-thigh. She wasn't really underdressed considering how she used to wear much shorter skirts, and much tighter t-shirts. She felt a shiver run through her at the intimate way he was looking at her. His resemblance to Cloud was so striking she felt her body automatically respond despite herself. "Are you in need of a companion?" As he drawled out the last word he stepped towards her, and laid a hand on her thigh. Her breath caught in surprise, and her eyes locked onto his blue ones. His other hand went to her waist, and then they both drifted upwards, one slipping underneath her skirt to caress the soft skin of her inner thigh, and the other one tickled her rib and barely came into contact with the underside of her full breast. Tifa was shocked into immobility. He leaned in ever more closely to whisper, "You're a very pretty girl…with the softest skin…how much do you want?"
Tifa's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"
"How much do you want for your services?"
"I'm not that kind of girl," she said, pushing him away.
But the stranger would not be deterred. He shoved his hand underneath her skirt once again. "You sure as hell look like one, what with you prancing around here half naked, and letting me feel you up!"
"I did no such thing!"
"Why else would you let a random stranger touch you like this?" he asked as he grabbed her behind and squeezed a breast.
"Let go of me!" she yelled, as she once again pushed him away more forcefully.
When she tried to get away from him, he grabbed her arm. "Hey, don't get mad at me. You're the one who's a fucking cocktease!"
"I am not!" she exclaimed as she wrenched her arm free. He tried to grab her again, this time by both arms, but she blocked him, and then kicked him in the thigh aiming for his groin, but he neatly managed to turn his body away from her real target. Then she spun around and took off for the woods running as fast as she could.
She didn't have any direction in mind; she only knew that she had to get as far away from the Cloud look-alike as possible. She ran and ran until she felt her lungs burning in her chest. She slowed to a walk, and then stopped to lean against a tree as her mind raced. Could it be? Even though she was certain that the Cloud she knew and loved was the same boy she had spent her childhood with, perhaps Hojo had been successful in his cloning experiments. Perhaps Sephiroth had not been completely bluffing when he had taunted Cloud. But if that were true, what was he doing there in Nibelheim? And were there more?
But the question of the man who looked like Cloud, but was so obviously not him only raised more questions. Like why was everything at once so familiar and yet different? She was sure that she was in Nibelheim, and yet everything was different. Everything looked newer, and younger.
The more immediate question was, however, where was she. As a child she had roamed the woods and mountains around her hometown, and they were as familiar to her as her own face. But these woods were unfamiliar. The foliage was younger, thicker, greener. Even the geology of the rocks was different. She couldn't find a single landmark that looked familiar to her. And evening was beginning to fall. As the sunlight began to disappear she realized just how much danger she was in.
She was alone, in an unfamiliar wood. She didn't have her PHS with her in order to try to contact someone with. Nor did she have her fighting gloves, armor, or any materia to protect herself with. She wished that she hadn't left the strange green magic materia in the furniture shop. Even if she didn't know what it was, it might eventually be of some use to her. Most of the monsters had been eradicated, but one never knew. And even if there weren't any monsters, the natural forest creatures could still be dangerous, if one did not know how to avoid them.
Tifa tried not to cry thinking about how stupid she had been to run off so heedlessly. She tried to reassure herself with the thought that Cloud was surely getting worried about her since she was supposed to be waiting for him at their shop. When she wasn't there like she was supposed to be, he would come to look for her. Until then she could try to retrace her steps. The only problem with that was that she could end up walking deeper into the forest and even more out of range of Cloud's rescue. She surely couldn't stay in the middle of the forest exposed to all elements, though. She wasn't sure how long she would be out there, even though she was positive that Cloud would come to her rescue. He always did.
So, determined to find some shelter, she set off into the woods. She walked toward the mountain in front of her reasoning that the area around her home could not have changed too much and that the caves that the area was known for would still be there. As she walked deeper into the forest she realized that some things were becoming more familiar to her. Straight ahead there was a thousand year old tree, the oldest in the woods she was sure. And if that tree was still there, then it meant the Mt. Nibel reactor was nearby. She would surely find shelter there, even though the idea of going back to the place where all her nightmares began made her shudder with dread. Since she and Cloud had moved back to Nibelheim, they had never gone to visit the old defunct reactor.
But when she got to the crevasse near the base of the mountain there was no bridge for her to cross in order to get to the other side. It wasn't even as if the bridge had broken, like it had been prone to do, as when it had put her in a coma for seven days, or when she had led Sephiroth, Zack and Cloud across. It didn't even seem as if a bridge had ever been built there.
Confusion set in along with the darkness. And having run out of ideas, she just decided to sit down where she was and wait. Even though it was August, in the higher elevation of the mountains the air got very cool when night fell. Tifa shivered in her light dress and let her tears fall unbidden. Something strange had happened that she couldn't explain, and she was lost and alone. She missed Cloud, and wanted more than anything to be at home wrapped in his arms.
In her misery she didn't hear the pounding of chocobo feet until they were almost upon her.
"Whoa!" a voice shouted as the chocobo reared up in order to avoid trampling over Tifa.
Another rider stopped right beside her.
"What in 'ell are ya doin' 'ere? Don't you know that ladies are in danger this time o' night out in the woods?"
"Are you sure she's a lady? She ain't got no clothes on!" the other exclaimed.
"I most certainly am a lady!" said Tifa, standing up. She was getting tired of people insinuating that she was a prostitute.
"Well, it's no matter. As she's a seen us, we'll have to take her wi' us."
"What!" Tifa exclaimed as the man on the chocobo closest to her grabbed her by the arm and threw her over his lap. "Let me go!" Not expecting a fight from her, the man had let her go, so she launched herself off of the chocobo to land in heap on the ground. Then she immediately got up and began running back into the forest.
"Shit!" her would-be captor exclaimed. Then spurring his chocobo into action, he rode after her. It didn't take long for him to catch up to her, and this time as he reached down to grab her, he planned to incapacitate her. He struck out a fist to knock her out, but she easily dodged him. Then after he galloped past her she ran behind him and jumped onto the back of the chocobo, wrapping her arms around his neck to choke him. In order to get her off his back, he threw all of his weight to the side and they went tumbling to the ground. They landed on their sides and Tifa had the wind knocked out of her. She rolled onto her back and then kicked up into fighting position as the man turned around.
"We wasn't goin' ta hurt ya, ye wee 'ellcat. But I certainly am now," the man growled. Then he lunged for her.
Tifa was ready for him. She blocked his fist and then using his forward motion she twisted and sent him sprawling to the ground. She immediately followed up with kick to the head, but he caught her foot and knocked her to the ground. Rolling after her, he tried to punch her, but she blocked him again and rolled away. When she was far enough away, she got up and saw that he had gotten up as well. She returned to her fighting stance with her fists up, and legs braced apart. Then they began circling each other. Suddenly, he charged, but his big size made him slow. She easily dodged him, and as he went by she elbowed his kidney.
"You bitch!" he shrieked. He was so blinded by his anger that he had left his entire body open to attack.
Tifa smirked. He was going down. Then she launched at him with a barrage of hits, punching him in the face, chest, sides, and then a roundhouse kick snapped his head to the side and he went down heavily. She approached him cautiously to make sure that he was unconscious. Then she turned around to look for his chocobo.
She found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.
"I'll thank you, miss, to step away from that body."
Tifa's fists and feet were fast as lightning, but were still no match for the speed of a bullet. She slowly backed away.
The sun was hidden behind the mountain, but a red gold light still filtered through the trees. A bright full moon also showed in the distance. In the relative darkness all she saw was a shadowy figure with a pale face.
She stood there silently as he bent down to check the man's pulse, gun still leveled evenly on her. He pulled out some handcuffs, and tried to put them on the man, but found it difficult to do one-handed. After struggling for a few moments, he cursed and then stood up. "All right, miss," he said startling her. She was struck by how familiar his voice seemed. "I do not know who you are, but you just made my job a little easier by incapacitating this man. What I need you to do now is handcuff him." He waved the gun at her for emphasis. Tifa immediately knelt down to do as he asked. As she set to her task she tried to think about who his voice reminded her of. It was deep and resonant in a way that few people were, but it was mostly the way he said things. The way he called her "miss," so respectful and yet mocking at the same time. She only knew one person who called her "miss." The others are waiting for you, Miss Lockhart. Your hair has come undone, Miss Lockhart. Are you all right, Miss Lockhart? Even though she insisted he call her Tifa. She thought he did it on purpose just to piss her off.
When she finished, she looked up and was astonished when she got a clear view of his face.
"Vincent?" Tifa gasped in shock. She fell back right on her rear end and began to shake her head fervently. "But…you're dead! I saw you die!"
"Do I know you?" he asked, puzzled by her reaction.
"Something's wrong. Very wrong. First this guy that looks like Cloud tries to assault me, then I get lost in the Nibel mountains, which is impossible because I spent almost my whole life exploring these mountains! And now you've come back from the dead. I must be dreaming." She began to shiver. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!" she whispered to herself. Then she pinched herself. "Ow!" It was too painful not to be real…but then how could any of this be?
"Miss, are you all right?" the man asked, lowering his weapon, and reaching out to try to calm her.
Tifa looked up, startled out of her daze by his words. It was then that she noticed that while he surely looked like her Vincent, there was also something different about him. His hair no longer hung past his shoulders in disheveled waves, but was cut to about chin-length with unkempt bangs. He was wearing a dark suit with a startling white shirt that contrasted with her recollection of him in a long red tattered cloak that covered his face half the time. She could see his jaw clearly, and lips that pleasingly weren't too thin, or too full. He'd put his left hand on her shoulder comfortingly, and she was surprised to see that instead of a mythril-plated claw with sharp talons, there were long shapely fingers. Most startlingly different about him, though, were his eyes. Instead of the eerie glow that marked him as an experiment of Hojo's as she'd been used to seeing, his eyes were the warm color of brandy. Taking all these differences into account, she tried not to think about what her mind was telling her.
"Vincent, would you be so kind as to tell me the date?"
"First, I'd like to know how you know my name," he demanded.
"Just tell me the goddamned date!" she shrieked hysterically.
Sensing that it would just be easiest if he appeased her, he told her. "It's August 11th." Cloud's birthday.
"No, I mean the year."
If he thought it was an odd question, he didn't say anything. "It's 1963."
Tifa thought she might be ill.
