Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 or FF13.
Immortality; Tifa choked at the thought. Impossible. Her mind rushed to comprehend the consequences, but that too was impossible. While some would prostrate themselves and beg for this... gift, others would turn and flee. Yet here she was, standing as still as a petrified statue in the wake of this offer. It was utterly and completely mad. "I-Immortal?" Tifa stammered, voice quivering with shock, "That's i-impossible." Shaking her head fiercely, she repeated it to convince herself of that supposed fact, "It's impossible."
"Not impossible." Lightning promptly refuted, tone edgy and sharp, "If you agree, you'll not only be immortal, you'll inherit a fraction of my strength, but in exchange, you'll be my eternal guardian."
"B-But Caius-"
"He had the previous Etro's. Not mine. Now tell me, do you want it or not?"
Not only was this mad, but it was ridiculous. It was unfair. Tifa bit her lip at the unexpected bomb Lightning had suddenly dropped, and above that she was demanding an answer as if choosing to become an immortal was something to be so carelessly considered. "Impossible." Staggering back, Tifa braced herself against the fireplace and glared at Lightning, "No. Just... no! What are you - Do you even realize what you're asking of me?"
"No?" Lightning repeated her answer lowly, seemingly seeking confirmation.
"Of course not!" Tifa yelled, "W-What about Cloud? Aerith? What about my friends, my family!" Her thoughts raced, leaving her flustered and angry. Very angry. "You'd think that I would want to watch everyone that has ever meant anything to me die?! You'd think I'd want that?! It's not fair! Why would you ask me this! I would have to give up-"
"Everything." Lightning interrupted, voice finally cracking with frustration and anger, "Fair?! The world is unfair! And it will always be! You think I want this? I think I want to be Etro? I had no choice. It was a role I was forced into! It was either this or seeing my world destroyed! What's wrong for wanting to be with my sister!? To live a normal life! I made this choice! I made the sacrifice!"
"You can't expect-"
"Enough!" Something within Lightning had lashed free then, eyes blazing with a brilliant turquoise before shadows exploded from her feet. Darkness swept across the room, brutally smothering the fire and erasing all.
Tifa watched in horror when black tendrils started latching onto her, "What are you- STOP!" Her feet were swept off the ground as the darkness completely engulfed her. Color fades, life disappears, and time ceases to exist. It was like she was floating. Limbless, just as an essence. She could see nothing and feel nothing. Something touched her; a cold caress against her cheek as if to tell Tifa that it was alright. Her eyes peaked open and in the distance, she could see a light in the dark abyss. "Where... am I?" Her voice echoed in the endless expanse.
"Last words?"
Tifa jumped when she heard Lightning's voice resound. Whipping around to face the direction, Tifa froze when the light swirled and grew, projecting an image much like what she had remembered the Oracle Drives doing. The image hissed, fuzzing as it played broken scenes like a faulty tape on rewind. She had caught glimpses of herself, of Cloud, and the long abandoned city of Midgar in all of its past SHINRA glory. "Lightning?"
"I can let go of the Purge, of Serah and Snow... After this, Jihl's last mission will be accomplished. You do what you need to do, and this time, I'll wait for you."
These words struck Tifa like a bolt straight into her heart, and panic, pain, yet inexplicable happiness surged forth. She recognized these words, she knew who had whispered them into her ear back then, and she knew what came next:
"I promise."
It was the promise she had held so dearly. Light was a person of her word, so Tifa had thought that this meant that she could finally have a normal life and spend it with the people she loved. "Light!" Tifa screamed, frantically running towards the images shown but never moving forward. "Light-"
"Last words?"
Her feet stopped, watching in horror as the image started to clear but it had never been a night of much clarity, even in Tifa's own memory. The dark forest loomed over them, but the blazing flames of the burning transport rose high above into the night sky, yet the light would never penetrate the thick shadows. It was the night were everything was taken from her. Dread welled into an insufferable pit in her gut, a source for eternal hopelessness when she could finally see the context in which those words were said. She could do nothing but watch the final moments that belonged to her Light.
It was unfair, but life was unfair. Light had fought so hard against her burdens and guilt, won against her demons, only to be murdered. Two silhouettes could be seen, one kneeling before the other, and Tifa felt her heart constrict at the inevitable. A gun lifted and pressed against her forehead.
"Last words?"
Again it resounded, that voice low and almost... sympathetic. Or was it pity? Tifa didn't have the heart to determine that. There was a shift in the figure kneeling, head turning up in defiance and strength even when facing death.
"Love her for me."
They were Light's last words. Clamping her eyes shut, Tifa tried to suppress the tears that welled up, only to gasp in pain at the constriction in her chest. Throwing her head up, she desperately tried to contain herself, hide behind that mask that Lightning had effortlessly ripped apart. All of her fake smiles, and false words of acceptance to all that has happened meant nothing to her, and Tifa knew that it meant nothing to Cloud and all of her other friends who had been concerned for her all this time. Lightning wouldn't want to see her like this, Light wouldn't want this. Those last words were a proclamation of love just as much as a quiet farewell. Even if it was never meant for Tifa, she could still find Light's concern hovering in what was unspoken but heard: she wanted Tifa to move on because she could no longer be there.
She willed her feet onwards, taking small steps first. Walking closer and closer to the memory until she could reach out but her hand drifted through it. No - she can't change the past. With a wry chuckle, Tifa turned her back to it. She could only imagine how disappointed with her Light would be. As if everything had just been waiting for her to come to terms with herself, the darkness started to swirl. Speckles of light started penetrating the darkness and soon littered the sky like a star-speckled pathway until Tifa truly realized that she was standing amongst the stars. Lifting herself in awe, the fighter froze when she saw the planet floating not too far away.
It was mesmerizing.
The endless blue ocean, the swirling wisps and puffs of white clouds, and the stars that hovered above like fireflies; it gave Tifa a sensation of peace. She couldn't hear herself breathe, not her own footsteps, not even her own turmoiling thoughts that had been storming through her mind just minutes ago. Here she was, looking down at the world as if she were a star. Now she finally realizes that the starry night in Nibelheim she had looked upon with Cloud when they had made their promise to each other couldn't have been anymore insignificant. "Entranced?" Like a razor to paper, Lightning's voice had shredded through her lost thoughts and entrenched her back into reality.
"Where are-" Tifa started, flinging around to see the woman who shared the same face as her love. What she saw though, wasn't Lightning; at least not in her entirety. Gold; the color of power, of wealth, and status, black; the color of evil, and white; the color of purity. Before her descended what neither looked entirely human nor monster, neither good nor bad, but if Tifa had to choose one, she would choose a Devil of a Goddess. She sat there so effortlessly and confidently on her invisible throne, golden armored legs crossed while her clawed hands rested gracefully on her knees. It was the face that troubled Tifa the most. The white mask, the unsettling pupil that seemed to glow in perpetual darkness as if her eye had been gauged out, and the demonic horn that sprung from her forehead to wrap towards the back, blotched nearly all of the right half of Lightning's face. It felt so horribly deformed in her eyes.
"You humans are... rather volatile." She stated almost flippantly, "Emotions rule before reason. Such foolishness." Tifa kept her mouth shut and stood there as stiff as a statue. The Goddess lifted her hand and passed her fingers across her temple, tapping it lightly, "Perhaps you have realized it already for it is obvious, but I am Etro."
Etro, the Goddess. Finding her feet rooted in place, Tifa glanced around again before darting back to the ethereal being, "What do you...?"
A graceful eyebrow rose from her sole visible eye, "Do not worry, you are safe here. Cosmogenesis. Beyond time and out of the Lifestream's reach, this is my realm, my sanctuary. I do not make a habit in meddling with human affairs, however, I saw fit to... interfere in my other self's dealings with you specifically."
"W-What?" Tifa asked confusedly. As far as she knew, Etro was Lightning, there was nothing to distinguish between them.
"Lightning, I'm afraid is becoming more human with every passing day. Her temperaments are no longer as carefully controlled, her emotions run wild beneath her stoic façade... I had expected this however, the 'Lightning' that you knew is certainly making things harder when it comes to you." Removing herself from her invisible throne, the Goddess slowly descended towards her, heels clicking on non-existent stairs, "Lightning and I are like two sides of a coin, two faces, but one body. I am the calm, and she is the storm. I brought you here before Lightning would say something she would regret, so I ask of you to allow me to explain the situation."
"So... you want to talk." Tifa said uncertainly, still eying the Goddess with trepidation.
"Talk? I suppose." The blue eye seemingly grew distant then as an expression of absolute boredom crossed Etro's face, "Our soul is still... horribly incomplete. Broken, shattered, the pieces are there but unfinished. That is... of course, all according to plan. We have left it like this purposefully, however I had not anticipated such... a disparity in our dealings with you."
"M-Me?"
"I know of you Tifa Lockhart, and I assure you that I have no emotional attachment to you, nor Serah, nor any of your friends or foes. Immortality is but a passing muse of mine, time is irrelevant, and death is merely another inevitable occurrence, much like life. Though these thoughts may distress you, they are like dust upon my palm, only there for me to brush away. You... are not important." Etro breathed, eyes penetrating as she stared down at the planet floating idly, "Not anymore important than any other life. I hold you all equal; you, Cloud, Rufus... and even Sephiroth. In hindsight I believe Bhunivelze's power I had inherited had given me a certain indifference towards human nature, the same indifference that he had expressed. However, do not confuse my sentiments as antipathy, after all, I was borne from a human myself." She paused before holding her hand up once again, cradling the world in her palm, "It is my wish to save this planet, and in order to do so I need a guardian." Etro glanced back at her, watching her past the deathless mask, "Hope will offer me his life out of respect, Caius would do so out of guilt, and... so has Aerith out of friendship."
"Aerith? Tifa breathed with disbelief, "But what about Cloud?"
"That is for herself to come to terms with. I have asked you, no - Lightning has asked you out of duty. However, that in itself is a dilemma. Lightning's frustration and hostility stems from her hardened belief that immortality is truly a curse. Perhaps her harsh words towards you are a form of protection, as if to stop you from making a decision placed solely on the feelings you have for the fragment."
"Then what about you?"
"It does not matter who my guardian is, I personally have no qualms as long as I know I can trust that individual. You would be a preference only to satisfy my other self. I do not need you."
"Your... other self?"
"You've noticed haven't you? Lightning's impatience? The longer we stall, the greater the strain on our soul. I am the Goddess charged with watching over the Gate, and I am satisfied with that. Lightning though, she wants more, desires more out of her life. We are two sides in balance, however the longer we remain separated, the more frail we become. That is why we have become like this: like two entirely different people."
"Then why are doing this? Keeping your s-soul separated?" Tifa spluttered.
"That is not for me to divulge. Not yet."
"But the weaker you are, Sephiroth will-"
"It is tempting isn't it?" Etro asked, "To overthrow the weakened Goddess and take her throne. To become God himself. He will seek me out."
"You're saying that's what Sephiroth wants?" Tifa asked.
"He cannot reach me here though." She continued, ignoring Tifa's question, "And neither can the Lifestream. If you were to die here... then your soul will wither and rot for eternity until you cease to exist. You will not return to the Lifestream, and your soul will not be saved." Tifa's chest tightened with fear at Etro's words that were said so simply, void of the heaviness the words themselves carried. "I brought you here to bring about an end. Lightning has asked you inherit my heart, and I will give it to you only if you so wish. However, this is not a decision to be made without the proper consideration. For your own sanity and hers. The choice is yours and if you should refuse, do not feel burdened because there are others who will be willing to take up this responsibility."
"I..."
"You saw it didn't you? The memory that I had shown you? I am not omniscient, but I believe... that was what you sought for all this time? Closure?"
"Closure?" Tifa repeated numbly before shaking her head, "No, I..."
"As long as you know the truth now."
Words escaped her so Tifa simply stood there darting her eyes to the floating gear she was standing on that she had only noticed now. "You cannot change the past," Etro whispered, "but you can change the future."
"The future?"
There was a hint of a smile, Tifa's breath caught when she saw the hint of a smirk on the Goddess' face before everything around her started to blur and dim again. "I will return you to your inn now."
"Wait!"
"Be patient with Lightning, for she is also the one you love so dearly. She is there waiting for you just as she promised."
"Wait!" Tifa yelled, but it was too late. Her surroundings whipped around her suddenly like a tornado and colors erupted from the darkness, erasing the stars. She could see nothing and feel nothing again. Only when Tifa had thought of her feet as a passing thought did her mind jolt as if someone had passed an electric shock through her entire nervous system. Her eyes flashed open, instantly letting the abrasive light flood in, and with a harsh gasp of air, Tifa bolted right up to find herself in her room at the inn again nestled in the cushions she had placed around her. "Lightning!" Staggering up onto her feet, she took a quick look around the room to find the pinkette missing. Gathering her clothes, Tifa swiftly changed. She had to speak with Lightning again, even if she didn't know what she was going to say. Yanking the door open, Tifa nearly crashed into a flustered Aerith that appeared as if she was just about to knock.
There we are! Hopefully this chapter explains the previous one and what's happening so far a little better.