Author's Note – Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out. I broke my ankle early last week and between the pain meds I'm taking and working 12 hours a day since Monday, I had no desire to even turn on my laptop.

I've altered some parts of the past. Also, the present story in this chapter is nice and long. So enjoy!

Chapter 21

Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere – the present

Cloud and I came to a large river just as it began to get dark. It was at least a hundred feet across to the other side.

My attention was quickly drawn to a nearby small hut. I wondered if it belonged to Jamal. The leopard man had vanished all of a sudden. Cloud tracked him to this point.

I looked around and called out. "Jamal?!"

The only response I received was the loud cawing of a colorful parrot in a tree.

Cloud growled and headed for the hut. He clawed at the flimsy straw-covered door until he managed to get it open.

I followed him inside and found a banquet of raw meat in one pile and fresh fruit in another. Cloud tore into the meat while I dug into the fruit. I was getting a little disgusted at the way Cloud was eating the raw meat. But he was in leopard form. If he had been human he wouldn't have touched the meat unless it was cooked. How many days had it been since we ate a decent meal?

After we ate, I inspected the inside of the hut and came across a neatly folded pair of trousers. I shook them loose and looked at Cloud. "Cloud, these might fit you."

He was licking his paws and looked up at me. The next thing I knew, he began to change…becoming human again. He shivered for a few seconds as he walked over to me.

I watched as he slid into the trousers. "It only took you half the time to shapeshift."

"Really?" he rhetorically asked. The trousers were actually three sizes too big and he held them away from his waist. "Both of us could fit in these."

"Sorry, I forgot to grab your boxers again."

He walked to the straw covered wall and pulled on a vine. It broke from the rest of them. Then he threaded the vine through the belt loops at the front of the trousers and tied them tightly. "That should hold them." Cloud abruptly spun toward the door and backed up against me.

I peered over his shoulder just as Jamal walked into the hut, wearing swim trunks and carrying an armload of bananas.

"I'm glad you decided to trust me by shifting back to human form," Jamal directed at Cloud.

"Who says I trust you?" Cloud replied casually.

"I apologize for giving you the impression that I wanted to attack you. I realize you were trying to protect your mate."

Cloud gave a small shrug. "Apology accepted." When Jamal reached his hand out, Cloud stared at it for a moment, still guarded. Then he reached out to shake it.

Jamal motioned to the trousers Cloud had borrowed. "Sorry, that's the only size I have."

"They'll do."

Cloud and I sat down on the ground and ate the bananas Jamal handed to us.

"So how long have you been part leopard?" Jamal asked Cloud.

"I don't know. A week, maybe two? We sort of lost track of time after awhile."

"Yeah, it's like that here. One day blends into another until you just don't know how old you really are. I think I've been here for about a year, but it might actually be two."

"How did you happen to find yourself on this island?" I asked.

"I was part of an expedition sent to research the wildlife. I got separated from the group and ended up getting captured by the Tiki natives. They made me drink something that turned me into a leopard after awhile. A couple weeks later they turned me loose. Can't figure out why though." He scratched his head. "There was a man among them. He wasn't one of the natives. He seemed to be in charge of everything."

"Professor Hojo…" Cloud mumbled.

"You know him?"

"He used to work for Shinra Corp. And yeah, you could say I know him. We've had some run ins in the past. I can't seem to get away from the guy no matter where I go."

We ate the bananas, silence falling around us for a few minutes.

"By the way, this isn't really an island," Jamal said. "That river out there, it separates us from the mainland."

"What mainland is that?" Cloud asked.

"Icicle Area."

"Why do you continue to stay here? Why don't you want to go home?"

Jamal stared at the ground for a moment before responding. "I tried to go home many times, but the rainforest called out to me. So I came back each time."

I frowned at Jamal. "I don't understand."

Jamal turned back to Cloud. "If you leave here, the rainforest will call out to you…just like it did to me. And now I can't go back home"

Cloud shook his head. "I have a life back home." He reached for my hand. "We have a life there."

I smiled at Cloud, but Jamal's next statement gave me an uneasy feeling.

"I had a life, too. My wife and three small children. I left them behind. I left everything behind. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters but the call of the rainforest."

I shivered beside Cloud and wrapped my arm around his. He glanced at me, probably seeing the look of concern in my eyes. He had left home many times, but he always came back.

Cloud turned back to Jamal. "You mentioned you found a way out."

"There's a rope bridge that crosses the river. But it hasn't been used in awhile. It may not even be there anymore."

"We'll take our chances. How far away is it from here?"

"If you follow the river, it's about a day's walk."

Cloud turned to me again. "We'll head out in the morning."

We talked for awhile longer before Jamal offered us the use of his hut, saying he would sleep in one of the trees for the night. Cloud and I made ourselves comfortable on a fur rug in a corner of the hut, but I knew he wouldn't sleep very soundly. He still had his doubts about Jamal.

When morning came, Jamal shared his food with us once again before Cloud and I set out along the river. The humidity was intolerable as usual, but even worse were the mosquitoes near the water's edge. They were mercilessly stinging us at every opportunity.

On the other side of the river, I didn't see any trees. It was just a seamless rock face, at least forty feet high. Cloud and I had thought about swimming across the river, but there didn't seem to be a way to climb the smooth stone wall on the other side.

Sometime later, we made our way through a grove of shorter trees where the roots had grown above the ground. Cloud froze and spun around in the direction we had come. He didn't seem tense and I quickly figured out why.

Jamal appeared from behind the trees, wearing a simple loincloth. When Cloud looked at him questioningly, Jamal gave us a brief smile. "I thought maybe you might want some help finding that rope bridge. If you miss it, you'll likely wander along this river for the next ten years."

Cloud and I looked at each other. Then he turned back to Jamal. "We could use the help."

Jamal grinned and proceeded to take the lead. Cloud took my hand and we followed behind him.

It was dark when Jamal found the elusive rope bridge. "There it is."

I stared at it in disbelief. "That's a rope bridge?" To me, it looked like someone wrapped a bunch of vines together, strung them up so they looked like a ladder and somehow managed to get the ends tied down on either side of the river's banks. The side on the other end drifted upward to a cliff. But the rope bridge itself just looked like part of the landscape.

I glanced up and down along the bank as far as my eyes could see in the darkness and the dense fog drifting above the river. There just had to be another way across. This was the narrowest I'd seen the river to be. "Can't we just swim across to the other side? It's not that far."

Jamal shook his head. "You don't want to do that. The river's infested with piranha. Of the most fierce kind you'll ever come across. I once saw an ape fall into the water and in a matter of seconds, it's dead carcass floated to the surface, completely stripped of its flesh."

Cloud turned to the rope bridge, his hands on his hips, more than likely contemplating how we were going to get across.

For some reason the thought of crawling on my hands and knees on the vines made my stomach twist into knots. Something about the rope bridge reminded me of the time on Mt Nibel when Cloud and I had fallen near the bridge. We had been so young back then. The same fear crept up my spine. Now there was the added knowledge that hundreds of hungry, ferocious fish would be waiting for me to step wrong.

"Okay, this is how it's gonna happen," said Cloud, turning to me. "I'm gonna go across first, to test the strength of the vines. When I get to the other side, Tifa, I want you to start heading across." He obviously sensed my uneasiness because he walked up to me and ran his hands up and down over my arms.

I stared wide-eyed at the rope bridge and shook my head. "I don't think I can do it."

"I know what you're thinking, Tifa and I'm scared, too. But we gotta get across this bridge."

I looked up at him, knowing he wasn't scared at all. "Maybe we can just stay here. It's not so bad. So what if we don't have a toilet or a microwave oven or ice cold beer."

Cloud smiled and cupped my chin with his hand. "You don't wanna stay here just as much as I don't. I know you."

As much as the sight of his smile pleased me, I closed my eyes, trying to shake the images of seeing him fall into the water and witnessing the piranha eating him alive. Then came the image of me falling into the water and seeing the jagged teeth before they ate out my eyes.

"Hey, look at me," I heard him say.

I opened my eyes again and looked into his glowing blue ones.

"You can do this. I know you can. Are you with me?"

I nodded with uncertainty. Then I walked with him to where Jamal stood patiently near the rope bridge.

Cloud reached his hand out to him. "Thanks for your help, Jamal. Maybe we'll run into each other again someday."

Jamal shook Cloud's hand. "Perhaps we will, my friend."

Then Cloud leaned over and kissed me on the lips. "I'll see you on the other side."

My hand automatically went to my chest as I watched him hop up on the vines.

Cloud bounced on them initially, to test their strength. Then he dropped down on all fours and began to crawl forward. I was afraid to breathe for fear that it might distract him and he'll fall. But he seemed sure-footed and paused only once to look back in my direction.

A few minutes later he made it across to the other side. He stood up and waved. "Come on, Tifa! If it can hold my weight, it'll hold yours! It's just like climbing a ladder!"

I turned to Jamal. "Well, I guess this is it."

"Tell him to beware the calling of the rainforest."

"Is it that bad?"

"He'll go through the change and might not be able to come out of it. He'll need you."

"Thanks, Jamal. Take care of yourself."

"You, too."

I turned to the vines and followed them with my eyes all the way upward to the cliff on the other side where Cloud was standing. It hadn't seemed so far when I first saw the bridge. But now it seemed like it was a hundred miles away. I hopped up on the vines just as Cloud had done. They seemed pretty sturdy. Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad after all.

As I started up, the going was fairly easy. But the minute I was out from the cover of the trees, I could feel a strong gust of wind from the current moving the river along. My hands grabbed hold of the vines on either side of the man-made ladder and I used the rungs between to support my feet. The cliff had to be a good hundred feet above the water's edge. Up at the top of the cliff was Cloud, crouching near the vines, waiting for me to reach him.

My eyes drifted down to the water below me. From this height I could actually see the shapes of the fish swimming in the dark water. There were literally thousands of piranha in the water and they were a lot bigger than I thought they would be.

"Tifa, don't look down," Cloud called out. "Just keep moving."

I forced my gaze away from the water and trained my eyes up ahead. Several steps later I was closer to the other side. Another forty feet. Almost there…

Just then an incredibly strong gust of wind shook the vines and I lost my footing. Before I realized what happened, I found myself dangling over the side of the vines, hanging from one hand. A scream came out of my lungs.

"No!"

The shout came from Cloud, even though I couldn't see him because I was now facing the bank where Jamal was standing. The black man suddenly started climbing up the ladder after me.

"No, Jamal!" yelled Cloud.

I tried to grab hold of the vine with my other hand, but for some reason it kept slipping off. That's when I felt the rain pelting my face. A gust of wind hadn't hit me. It was the force of the rain. Under the canopy of trees, I hadn't felt it's full force. But out in the open, dangling over the river, it felt like someone shooting needles into me with a shotgun.

"Motherfucking rain!" Cloud was cursing up a storm somewhere above me.

I wondered why I was so concerned about what he was feeling and not the fact that the only finger that remained holding me up on the vine was slowly beginning to slide open.

Then something grabbed me by the wrist. I looked up, my vision blurred by the thick raindrops. Kneeling on top of the vines, Jamal reached down to grab my other hand. In one quick movement, he hoisted me up like a sack of potatoes.

"Come on, Tifa, move!" yelled Cloud.

I shook the cobwebs out of my head and started to crawl forward again. But my hands kept slipping and I nearly toppled over again. Why wasn't Jamal having a problem gripping the vine?

Jamal came up behind me. "Keep moving, Tifa. I won't let you fall."

I glanced at his hands and noticed his hands had turned to paws and his claws were digging into the vines to keep them from slipping. With the security of Jamal behind me, I moved forward again, taking one rung at a time.

Fifteen more feet to go.

Through the loud sound of the thunder and pouring rain, another sound reached my ears…the sound of splitting vines behind me…followed by a plummeting drop that sent my stomach into my throat. My arm instinctly wrapped around one of the ladder rungs and I waited for the inevitable drop to the surface of the water below and the flesh-eating piranha. But instead I slammed into the side of the cliff. My right knee erupted in pain when it impacted the hard surface.

But my only thought was Jamal. Had he fallen into the water? Holding the ladder vines tightly, I snuck a peak over my shoulder. The rest of the rope ladder had fallen into the water and Jamal was nowhere in sight.

"Tifa!"

I raised my face upward, seeing Cloud hanging over the side of the cliff, his hand stretched out to me. The look of fear and terror on his face was unmistakable.

"Come on, you can do it!"

No, I wouldn't let him risk his life for me. I clenched my teeth and climbed up the rope ladder with determination. When I nearly reached the top, Cloud grabbed my arms and hauled me up over the side of the cliff.

He crushed me in his arms as I suddenly started wailing hysterically. "It's okay. You're safe," he whispered in my ear.

"No! It's all my fault!" I was gasping for air, unable to catch my breath, feeling as if my heart was about to explode in my chest. I was glad to be alive, glad that Cloud was alive, but so grief-stricken over Jamal. He risked his life and died because of me. If I hadn't panicked and slipped, he wouldn't have gone after me on the vines. "He's gone!"

"No, Tifa, look," Cloud said and pointed to the other side of the river.

I pushed the wet hair out of my eyes and in the darkness I could make out a man waving his arm. It was Jamal. He was alive. Somehow he had managed to swim back to shore. I imagined he probably had a few nibbles from the piranha, but maybe the river was moving too fast for any of them to take a bite out of him.

I raised my arm and waved back to him. "Thank you!" But I was sure he couldn't hear me over the sound of the rain.

Jamal gave one final wave before he disappeared into the rainforest.

As I turned back to Cloud, he put his hands on my face. "Damn, I thought I was gonna lose you." He hugged me tightly again.

After several minutes, we stood up and I went right back down, forgetting about my injured knee. When I looked down, I noticed it was bloody.

"Shit…" Cloud mumbled. He crouched in front of me and gently felt around my kneecap.

I bit my lower lip, trying to hide the pain.

"I can't really tell if anything's broken," he finally said.

"Just leave me here, Cloud. I'll only slow you down."

"Are you crazy? I'm not leaving you here."

"You can find help and come back for me."

"No way. I'm not leaving you here alone. We'll just rest here until morning. Then we'll both keep moving. I'll carry you if I have to." He sat down next to me and put an arm around my shoulder.

I leaned into his chest. Despite the heat and humidity amidst the falling rain, I shivered and my teeth rattled noisily together. It seemed as if neither of us were ever going to catch a break. All of our lives had been spent in some kind of peril.

Was this the way our future together would continue to be?

THE LIFESTREAM – the past

When I woke up, I found myself in a strange place. It was a round platform that branched off in three directions. Even stranger than that was the fact that at each of the paths sat Cloud…three of him.

And when I looked up, I saw another Cloud floating aimlessly above me. "Cloud? What's going on? Where are we?"

I realized I was no longer in Mideel. The last thing I remembered was Cloud and I falling into the Lifestream. So what was I seeing now in this surreal environment? Why were their four Clouds?

One of the paths led to what looked like Nibelheim.

I looked up at the floating Cloud. "Is this your...subconsciousness?" I guessed. "You're searching for yourself, aren't you, Cloud? Well, I want to help, too." I glanced at the three different paths. "But...where do we start...?" I decided to walk toward the path to Nibelheim.

As I approached, the first Cloud stood up and turned to me. He looked down timidly. "The gates of Nibelheim. Five years ago, Sephiroth passed through these gates. And...that's how it all started."

Not too long ago, Sephiroth told Cloud that his life in Nibelheim had all been delusions that came from my memories. Instead he had been created in a laboratory by Professor Hojo. I needed to prove to Cloud that he had been in Nibelheim and that we grew up together. I couldn't have made it all up in my head.

I rushed forward. "Look, Cloud! There's the well. Remember the well where we used to always sit and talk?" I pointed to the left. "That's Gramps' Inn, too. We used to make fun of the people that stayed there. And, look, Cloud. The only truck in town. It's been here since we were kids. This is the Nibelheim you remember, right? It's the same as my Nibelheim. That's why this place is...our Nibelheim."

Cloud suddenly appeared in front of me near the truck.

I nearly jumped, but recovered quickly as I remembered this wasn't real.

Sephiroth appeared on the path to Nibelheim, followed by two men in the familiar blue Shinra guard uniforms.

I turned to Cloud. "Five years ago, two men from SOLDIER came. Sephiroth and someone else. I saw Sephiroth for the very first time. I remember feeling a foreboding about him."

Cloud stepped between the two Shinra guards and faced Sephiroth.

I stared at the scene in front of me and knew this wasn't how I remembered it to be. "No, Cloud. This isn't how it happened. I've been hiding it for too long, afraid that if I told you...something terrible would happen. But, I'm not going to hide anything anymore. You weren't here, Cloud. You didn't come to Nibelheim five years ago. I...waited for you. But…you never came. The two that came were Sephiroth and…"

Before I could say his name, Zack Fair suddenly appeared and stood in the same spot where Cloud stood.

Cloud moved several steps away and pointed at the dark-haired young man. "You mean that SOLDIER who came with Sephiroth wasn't...me?"

I slowly shook my head. "I don't know what to say. You were so convinced that it was you…I…I didn't know how to react. I wanted to believe you more than anything. But I knew it didn't happen the way you told everyone."

Cloud shook his head and became unresponsive after that.

I grew concerned and decided to take another path. After walking back to the center platform, I walked along the second path and the second Cloud turned to me.

"That starry night at the well..." he said. "And our promise later that night. What if the memory was just a lie?"

The scene shifted and I found myself in the middle of my bedroom. A younger Cloud was lying on my bed while a younger version of myself was removing jewelry in front of the dresser.

I turned to the second Cloud. "This wasn't a lie, Cloud. I remember it all. Don't you?"

The second Cloud looked timidly at me.

I frowned. "We talked at the well. You told me you were going to the SOLDIER academy in the morning. I didn't understand why you wanted to go."

"I was tired of being pushed around or ignored. I wanted to be noticed. I thought if I got stronger I could get someone to notice me."

I felt a tinge of jealousy all of a sudden. Did Cloud have a crush on someone else back when we were younger? "Someone to notice you? Who?"

His eyes met mine. "You..."

"But…Cloud? I did notice you. Remember at Loren's party?"

"Tommy started picking on me."

"Yes, but before that."

He bit his lower lip and looked down with a frown, as if he was trying hard to remember. "I…I kissed you?"

"That's right!" I said enthusiastically. "Then we left and came here…to my room." I watched my younger self move to the bed and hop up on the young Cloud. They started to kiss rather passionately, making me blush, but I smiled. "I wanted to do more, but you were trying to be the level-headed one."

"I remember it. I spent the night, too."

"And you were a perfect gentleman."

As the second Cloud continued to watch our two younger selves on the bed, I walked back along the path to the platform.

There was still one more path. I followed it and approached the third Cloud. The path was covered in snow and I immediately recognized it as leading to Mt Nibel.

Two men rushed passed me. One of them was Professor Zangan and the other was my father. The sight of him quickly brought tears to my eyes and I began to follow him. "Papa!"

I stopped in my tracks when we came to another path below the frozen bridge. Lying on the ice were two even younger versions of me and Cloud. This was when we fell off the cliff. The young Cloud regained consciousness and began to stand up just as Zangan and Papa reached us.

Papa grabbed Cloud's arm. "Cloud! Why'd you bring Tifa here?!" He pushed Cloud aside and crouched beside me.

"Is she alive?" asked Zangan.

"Alive, but not responding. We have to get her to the hospital quickly." Papa picked me up and started to carry me away, his eyes glaring at Cloud. "What the hell's the matter with you? What if she dies?"

The young Cloud began to follow.

Papa whirled around. "You stay away from Tifa! I don't ever want to see you near her again. Do you understand?!"

I watched my father carry me away, with Zangan at his heels. Then I turned to the young Cloud. He hung his head down and then dropped to his knees, covering his face with his hands. Out of pure instinct, I ran over to hug him, to stop him from crying. But my arms passed through him as if I was a ghost…or he was…

The third Cloud came up beside me. "You were in a coma for seven days. We all thought you wouldn't make it. If only I could've saved you. I was so angry. Angry at myself for my weakness."

I stood up and turned to him. "But I recovered, Cloud. Everything was all right. You remember that part, don't you?"

He nodded.

"If we're both remembering this, then you have to know you weren't created five years ago. My childhood memories of you weren't all made up!"

The third Cloud snapped his fingers. "Maybe the truth lies in the reactor. The reactor of five years ago! Maybe I'll get the rest of my memories back in there."

I followed the third Cloud back along the path to the center platform and to the path leading to Nibelheim. We both headed for the reactor, but didn't have to run very far. The scenery around us dissolved and was replaced by the interior of the reactor.

My feet froze as I stared up the all too familiar stairway inside. I watched in horror as Sephiroth slashed his sword across my torso and in what looked like slow motion, my younger self toppled down the stairs.

Cloud stood beside me, watching the same scene. He looked to the top of the stairs where Sephiroth turned and entered the room on the other side.

Just then Zack rushed in, his buster sword in hand.

I watched the expression on Cloud's face.

"Za…Zac…k…Zack?" he stammered.

"You remembered!"

We both watched Zack bolt up the stairs and after he entered the room Sephiroth had disappeared to, we heard the sound of clashing steel. They were fighting.

I turned to Cloud. "It was Zack who came to Nibelheim with Sephiroth. But…where were you, Cloud? Did you...see it all?"

Zack came flying out of the other room and he landed hard on one of the pods lined up in rows inside the reactor.

"I saw...everything..." Cloud mumbled.

Someone else appeared at that moment. It was the surviving Shinra guard in the blue uniform. He took Zack's sword and ran into the other room.

The scene around us changed again. We were now in the second room where Sephiroth was staring up at a huge, water-filled tube containing a hideous creature connected to dozens of hoses.

The Shinra guard rushed forward and Sephiroth turned to face him, the guard plunged the buster sword into Sephiroth's stomach.

Sephiroth stumbled. "Who...who are you?"

The Shinra guard took several steps back. "Mom...Tifa...my town...give it back! I had so much respect for you! I admired you!"

I instantly recognized the voice. "Cloud?"

The guard turned and walked away from Sephiroth. Then he momentarily stopped to take off his masked helmet. It was Cloud.

"So that's what happened," I whispered more to myself than to Cloud. "You were there. You were watching me."

The scene changed to the interior of a truck. Sephiroth was seated on a crate near the front. Cloud was sitting on another crate closer to the back.

Zack was pacing up and down the small space. "Hey Cloud. If you're feeling sick, why don't you take a tranquilizer?"

The Cloud standing beside me pointed to the Cloud sitting on the crate. "Yeah...This is...me."

"But why did you hide from me?"

"I...never made it as a SOLDIER. I told everyone I was going to make it, but...I was just a Shinra grunt. I was so embarrassed. I didn't want anybody to see me."

The scene changed again into the interior of the reactor.

"I saw you in here…or at the time I thought you were just a hallucination. Because I wanted to see you so badly. But you really were here, weren't you?"

"Sorry I didn't get to you...fast enough...to stop Sephiroth from hurting you."

I reached for his hand and held it. "It's all right, Cloud."

Sephiroth appeared at the top of the stairs. In his left hand he held the severed head of the creature named Jenova. After he walked away, the young Cloud followed him.

"Sephiroth!"

I nearly ran forward when Sephiroth plunged his sword into Cloud's chest.

"Don't...push...your luck..." Sephiroth uttered with a sneer. He raised his sword, lifting Cloud three feet off the ground.

"Cloud!" I yelled, but I knew he couldn't hear me.

Cloud suddenly yanked Sephiroth's sword from his stomach and shoved Sephiroth into the chasm of the reactor.

The scene changed yet again and the hand I had been holding disintegrated in my grip. When I glanced around, the three Clouds merged into one. Then the floating Cloud gradually drifted down until he also merged with the others. The merged Cloud collapsed on the ground.

I rushed forward. "Cloud!"

He slowly opened his eyes and looked groggily at me. "Uh...Tifa..."

"Is it really you, Cloud?"

He gave me a half smile, still a bit out of it. "Yeah...Tifa. We finally meet again, huh?"

I shook him roughly. How could he joke at a time like this? "You stupid jerk! You had me worried sick!"

Cloud reached a hand up to his head. "I think I'm gonna be sick…" He pulled away from me and stood up.

"Are you sure you're all right?"

"Voices…in my head..."

"It's the Lifestream. Let's go back, Cloud. Back to the others..."

He nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. Let's go..."

MIDEEL – the past

When I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I was staring up at Barret.

"You alright!?" he asked with a scowl of concern on his face.

I slowly raised myself up. The first thing on my mind was Cloud. "Where is he?!"

"Don't worry about him. He's a tough one."

I turned to where Barret was looking and saw Cloud sitting at the edge of the bank, staring blankly at the water. "Barret, I was in the Lifestream. I saw the real Cloud. I mean, I didn't really find him. He sort of found himself on his own..."

Barret shrugged uneasily. "I…I shouldn't have doubted him."

"People have so many things locked up inside of themselves. They don't even realize…and they forget so many things. Strange isn't it...?" I felt a buzzing in my head and my vision blurred.

"Tifa," yelled Barret. "Snap out of it! Tifa!"

I passed out again.

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