Tifa sat with Marlene on the stairs, holding the girl in her arms and rocking gently back and forth to try and comfort her. Neither of them spoke, both knowing the truth that there was no cure for geostigma and that Denzel was in a lot of trouble right now. As soon as things had been explained to Cloud he had left as fast as he could and Tifa only hoped he would be able to find them and make things right.

Thinking back on it, Tifa now understood the change that she had seen in 'Cloud' when he had turned back to smile at her as he led Denzel away. She hadn't thought of it before because she had believed it was Cloud, but now that she knew it wasn't she could say that the smile had seemed malicious.

Also, she didn't know why she hadn't thought about it, but when he had first left with Denzel there had been no sound of a motorbike driving away.

Marlene pushing away from her and standing up brought her out of her thoughts and she looked up at the girl, following her gaze to the front door once again.

"Did you hear something?" Tifa asked softly.

"Yes," Marlene whispered. "But it didn't sound good."

Tifa took a deep breath and stood as well, putting an arm around Marlene's shoulders and guiding her down off the stairs.

"Wait here and I'll see if it's him-"

The door opening made Tifa spin around, instinctively shielding Marlene with her body and watching as what appeared to be Cloud walked inside. He had blood on his face and chest and Denzel was holding tightly to one of his hands, but how could Tifa know for sure that it was the real Cloud and not the other one?

"It's me," Cloud said softly. "I... promised you that I'd always come for you when you were in a jam once. We were sitting on a roof-"

Tifa didn't need any more convincing and ran forward from protecting Marlene to hug him tightly, doing her best not to cry but finding it almost impossible. When she pulled away and looked down at Denzel she felt part of her heart tear apart at his look of sadness. Quickly kneeling down, she gave the boy a hug as well.

"I'm so sorry Denzel," Tifa sobbed. "I didn't know."

"I will find a cure." Cloud said softly and firmly from where he stood, looking down at them with such a determined expression that it gave Tifa hope.

"Denzel..." Marlene said quietly, walking towards them. Tifa stood up and stepped away to allow Marlene to come forward and hug him then, and then Tifa and Cloud watched as the two children held onto each other tightly and cried with each other.

"Who was he?" Tifa murmured to Cloud as they stood there. Cloud put an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him, letting out a soft sigh before inhaling the smell of her hair.

"Hojo cloned me," was all he said, but it was enough. Tifa didn't ask about the blood on his clothes or what else had happened out there but she didn't need to. They were closer now, due to an unexpected event, and they both knew that words would not be of much use now.

Cloud held Tifa against himself firmly, not wanting to let go because he knew, he just knew that she would be feeling as upset as the children who continued to cry beside them. If he let her go she would return to looking after herself and he didn't want that, even though he had kept to himself a lot as well, he couldn't let her go on like that.

From that day, he resolved to change.

He would make sure he never overlooked Tifa' feelings ever again and would constantly check to see if she was handling things or not.

He would be the perfect Cloud.

He would be the Cloud that Cloud could never be.

Gently resting his chin on top of Tifa's head, he hugged her against him and couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face.