Disclaimer: I do not own Dissidia:FF, FFVII, or any related aspects, which belong to their respective owners. No money made.

Summary: Thanks to an inconsistency between universes, the Warrior of Light knows what Cloud Strife left behind. Unfortunately, Cloud himself doesn't.

Rating: T

Warnings: Minor language.

[Dissidia:FF/FFVII] Things Forgotten [Tifa/Cloud, Warrior of Light/Tifa]

I fell down the metaphorical rabbit-hole.

Pathetic, yes. Strange, even more so. But there was much I did not understand about this world and one more piece of broken logic would not harm me.

There were no physics here, no laws of gravity or momentum. So I suppose, in a way, I should not have been surprised when I found myself in utter darkness, and then…

Light.

And spelling out a number, no less. I blinked several times to ensure my eyesight was not failing me.

VII.

Roman numerals, clear as day, spelled out the number seven.

Now, believe me when I say that I was confused. Beyond confused, in fact. I was baffled that one second I was fighting a manikin that resembled my comrade, Cloud Strife, and the next I was tumbling quite ungracefully down some dark vertical tunnel.

I beg of you to stay with me here, for there is much that will make me sound quite mad and much that will make me sound quite sane.

I fell down the metaphorical rabbit-hole.

I was very confused.

I opened my eyes then was forced to close them again from daylight, and realized at once that I was quite unaccustomed to my surroundings. I struggled to form coherent thoughts.

I am on a bed.

I am alone. I am not wounded.

I am not in immediate danger. I fell, somewhere. I landed.

Here?

VII.

VII. What could it have meant? I slowly, ever so slowly opened my eyes and sat up. There was some foreign pain in my lower back, harsh and sudden. I groaned, slumped back.

"Ah, he's awake! Tifa~!" I snapped to attention.

A child's voice. A young girl. She peered at me from behind the doorframe, nervously looking at me. Light brown hair tied with a pink ribbon. A simple dress. Large, inquiring eyes. Short stature, but stood tall and looked up rather than down.

"Calm down, Marlene. I'm coming." A soft, soothing voice. Female. Mature.

Marlene is the child. Tifa is a woman.

Who are these people?

"Tifa, it seems like he's in pain! I wonder if he understands us?"

And in the doorframe, a young woman appeared.

"Don't be so excited, Marlene. You'll disturb him." She turned to me, walked to my bedside.

Soft creaking of leather as she pulled a chair to the bed and sat on it. Long black hair was tucked behind an ear only to fall forward again. I noticed teardrop-shaped earrings. She was slender but muscled, her body and face contradicting with confidence and a severe lack of. Her eyes met mine, a dark brown, slightly reddish.

"Hello. Do you… understand me?"

I tried to sit up, decided otherwise, nodded instead. "…Yes."

"My name is Tifa Lockhart. What's yours?"

"I am the Warrior of Light."

"That is your name? Not just your title?"

"It is what I am called."

She seemed to consider this.

"Alright. May I call you Light? Or just Warrior?"

"I do not mind."

"Alright, then."

There was a moment of silence. Tifa Lockhart shifted in her chair. Marlene hovered outside the doorway, still refusing to come in.

I noticed my lack of armor. It felt odd to be without my horned helmet above all else.

"Excuse me, Tifa Lockhart…"

"Oh, just Tifa is fine, you know!" She seemed embarrassed.

"Tifa… where is this place?"

She smiled. "You're in the guest room of the living space above Seventh Heaven. It's a bar currently run by myself and…" she paused, looked at her hands folded in her lap, "a childhood friend of mine."

Seventh Heaven? A bar? Such an odd place to just arrive at-

Seventh?

VII?

"How did I arrive here? Was I… found outside of this residence?"

She nodded. "Literally, right outside of my doorstep. You didn't seem conscious. I dragged you in here. A friend of mine helped me. You were wearing so much armor; I think he had a hard time…" She laughed, ever so slightly, like music falling from her lips. "Oh! That's right, Marlene, please fetch Vincent to help bring all of Light's armor here!"

Marlene nodded and rushed out. I heard the thumping of her small feet trekking down a staircase.

"I hope you're not angry. I had your armor removed and cleaned. I didn't want you to sleep in that; I was worried you'd be uncomfortable."

"Thank you. I appreciate it. Vincent is the friend who owns this bar with you?"

"Ah- no, no. He's another friend. The friend I spoke of earlier…" there it was, the hesitation again, "I haven't seen him for some time. It's not important."

It surely doesn't sound that way. But, it was not in my right to pry.

She looked back up at me. "Are you feeling alright, though? Are you hungry? Tired?"

I felt fine, actually, with the exception of… "There… is some pain, in my back. Other than that I feel well."

She blinked. "I see. Well…" a smile, now, faint but radiant, "You basically fell from the sky. There were customers looking out the window when you, um, descended. I thought it was just drunk babbling until I heard the crash."

"I hope my fall was not too much of a disturbance."

"You're apologizing for something like that?" She giggled. "Really, it was nothing so terrible. Well, I mean, I was worried about injuries and such but when I ran out to see what had happened… I thought you were an angel. It sounds silly, though, doesn't it?"

"No, no, I thought so too! He sparkled, didn't he, Vincent? And he was so shiny too!" Marlene and a tall, raven-haired man, "Vincent," came into the room. Vincent nodded absentmindedly and placed several pieces of armor onto a table by Tifa's chair. His long, red cloak billowed behind him. He glanced at me and I saw red, red demonic eyes that intimidated and fascinated all at once.

He didn't seem hostile, though. "It's good to know you've woken," he said softly, almost a whisper. He turned. "Tifa, is there anything else you need?"

"Ah! Um, Vincent, do you maybe have cure materia?"

Materia? She placed the word "cure" in front of it, so perhaps it is a potion of some kind?

He nodded, reached behind him, between his torso and cape. I noticed that he had a metal claw on one hand and forearm. A weapon, perhaps. "Here."

But that's-

"A crystal?! It looks almost exactly like Cloud's-" Ah, but I am babbling, they would not know-

Tifa stood from her chair, placed a hand over each of my upper arms and leaned forward. "You know Cloud?! Cloud Strife?! How do you know him?"

"He is a fellow Warrior of Cosmos…!"

"Warrior? Of Cosmos? Who- What- Where is he, do you know?"

"He is in the world I came from."

"What the hell is he doing there?!" She seemed near tears now.

"He is to aid us in the war against Chaos; his personal battle is against Sephiroth-"

"SEPHIROTH?!" Tifa was half-screaming now and Vincent was now at full alert. He swiftly strode to her and placed an arm around her gently, lowering her back to the chair.

"Marlene, go downstairs and help Denzel with cleaning the kitchen." She obeyed him without question, sending a last look at Tifa's shivering form before rushing out the room.

"Why... I don't understand him! How could he- how could-" She hiccupped with sobs and Vincent patted her back soothingly, looking awkward. "I can't believe that man! How could he?! He always-" more sobs, "he always does this! Always!"

What is going on here?

I was very confused.

I rather liked her.

When she'd calmed down she'd profusely apologized for "demolishing my personal space," as she put it, and took the materia from Vincent, asking me to please try my best to turn over onto my stomach.

"Cloud Strife and I were childhood lovers." She parted my hair and activated the materia, its glow sending pleasurable waves of magic down my spine.

"…Ah. I see." So it's a matter of love, then.

"But, he changed. He loved another woman. She was murdered… by Sephiroth. He was never the same after that. He never-" she paused, I felt her hands shaking on my bare skin, the glow of the materia dwindling, "-he didn't care for me the way he had before. He would leave, for weeks, months, at a time."

"…I see."

"I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't be pouring my complaints onto you but-" her hands shook more fiercely, "-I haven't seen him, heard from him, haven't spoken to him in almost a year! His room, it's dusty and unused- I haven't had the heart to clean it- let alone empty it-"

"Tifa."

She stopped, looked at me. I had turned my head to the side, could barely see her face from the corner of my eye. "I want you to know that Cloud was not brought to the world I was in out of his own will. He was summoned there by the Goddess Cosmos. But he has a purpose. He has a duty to perform. That world needs him."

She was silent, resumed using the materia on my back again. "I understand. I accept that. I just don't want to, though-" her voice cracked, "it's hard. It's hard for me. But there's nothing…" She sighed. "When will your war be over?"

I chose the words carefully. "I do not know. Time passes differently here. An eternity is an hour. A lifetime is a day. I do not know. I am sorry."

"It's alright. It's not your fault." She finished, leaving my body tingling, reluctant to function without the soft glow of magic. "May I ask you a favor?"

"I am in your debt. Whatever you ask, I will try to accomplish."

She hesitated again. "You… you are probably going back to your world, aren't you?"

I'd thought about this, actually. It seemed as though the second I arrived here I knew I would also be going back. And it is not a matter of time. I have something that I need to do here.

There is a purpose.

"I am."

"Then… I need to ask you for this one thing."

"I am listening."

"Please…" she breathed, swallowed, "tell Cloud I miss him. Tell him I'm waiting for him. Tell him…" she nearly laughed. "Tell him he'd better get his chocobo-haired ass back here as soon as he can. And tell him…"

She stopped, a tear rolling down her face.

Before I'd realized it, my hand was on her cheek wiping it off.

"Please tell him I love him."

"I understand."

I will be going back to my world shortly. I can feel it.

I went to equip my armor from where it lay on the table.

"Tifa…"

This rift in between worlds…

"Yes?"

"There is a chance…"

Broken logic…

"…a chance that when I return to my world, I will remember nothing of this one."

She was silent.

My time here is running short.

"Light…"

"Yes?"

I turned towards her, away from the table.

She rushed to me, hugged me. Held me.

Yes, I know.

"I hope you will at least remember this." Her voice, muffled by my cape and armor.

"I hope so too."

It's time…

"Tifa… what significance does the number seven hold to you?"

"What?"

She must have realized then that she was no longer holding on to anything. She must have heard some clock chiming, chiming, outside, seven times. I wonder, looking back on the bizarre and abrupt disappearance of myself from her world, I wonder,

Did she cry when I left?

And I was falling again.

It was a shame.

I rather liked her.

I realized that such a thing was not meant to be.

I'd fallen and landed again. Significantly less pain, this time. I wondered why. Perhaps it was because I now had a purpose.

Her message-

If only temporarily.

As I said before, I cannot explain this. I cannot explain how I traveled from one universe to another- the universe of Cloud Strife, no less, a man I barely knew.

In any case, I landed.

And I ran.

I am running for those brown-red eyes, for the black hair and soft smile-

I ran to find Cloud- who, at this time, was probably traveling with Tina and the Onion Knight- and I did, indeed find all three of them. I asked to speak with Cloud alone.

Tina and the Onion Knight looked worried, and I sympathized with them. I must have looked terribly distraught.

But not as distraught as she. All the sorrow in the world, compiled into that one young woman, just a girl-

But I stared into Cloud's eyes, blue and green and bright and questioning and I said, softly,

"There is a woman named Tifa Lockhart who loves you."

And you'd be a fool to not love her back.

He looked back at me, shook his head, stared at his feet.

"I can't remember."

I realized that such a thing was not meant to be.

I fell down the metaphorical rabbit-hole.

I would not mind going back.

[A/N] I should be working on my other in-progress fics but I wrote this instead. : D

Inspired by a picture I saw somewhere. I think it was pixiv. I'm not quite sure. Anyway, it was WoL/AC!Tifa and I thought, y'know, I wonder how they'd interact if they actually met? Hence this. If you squint really, really, hard you can see Vincent/Tifa, but I didn't think it was implied enough to be mentioned as a pairing. Anyway...

My first crossover fic~ Be proud of me! : D

Thank you very much for reading.