DISCLAIMER: Final Fantasy VII and its characters are wholly the properties of Square Enix. This story is written purely for entertainment and not profit.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Head's up, because there is a scene in the second half of this chapter that may be difficult to read. Nothing explicit happens, since this story is rated T and not M, but consider this my word of caution to you. Now, onward to Chapter 13.

Healing of the Heart

Written by daBOSSz

Chapter 13

The next two weeks brought about an unusual sense of routine for everyone at Seventh Heaven. Cloud and Tifa would get up bright and early to train, and once their sessions ended, Marlene and Denzel would be rolling out of their beds to prepare for school. Cloud took them on Fenrir when he could, and the children would almost always walk back home unless Cloud finished his deliveries early or had a break that corresponded with their afternoon dismissal time.

Everyone was present again the following Monday to watch Tifa sweep her way through yet another gauntlet. Even Yuffie and Barret were in attendance, having made their way from Wutai and Corel to Edge on official WRO business. Shortly after, Reeve had informed everyone that the WRO had found what it believed was the cause of the unusual elfadunk attack as well as the explanation for the increased aggressiveness among many of the eastern continent's creatures, but additional testing would need to be completed before the organization could confirm their findings with full confidence.

Tifa would return to Battle Square East the following Monday and dominate the gauntlet for the third straight week. This time, Andrea Rhodea had been in attendance, and the former Honeybee Inn owner had made sure to congratulate Tifa in person on all her success after the fights were over. He complimented her on her captivating grace and elegance in battle and reminded her that his offer to join him on stage one day, made after she had beaten him in a pull-up challenge two years ago, was still on the table.

Unfortunately for Tifa, no amount of restored confidence was enough to dispel her nightmares. They were not frequent, but on more than a few occasions during those weeks, she found her dreams haunted by the Sector 7 plate collapse. Each iteration would play out slightly differently, but the wails of all the souls who failed to survive that night seemed to never leave her alone.

Still though, for the sake of her family, Tifa continued to put on her brave face any time they were around. She certainly could not talk about her nightmares in front of Marlene and Denzel, and she was too appreciative of Cloud for his efforts in helping her regain her edge in combat to burden him with such troubles. Plus, it was not as if he had any solutions for what she was dreaming about; Cloud was helpful in so many ways, but even she knew that his abilities did not extend to oneirology.

Yes, these nightmares were something that Tifa needed to resolve on her own, and she would have to call on some prior experience to help her do so.

"Tifa! Tifa, my dear!"

The concerned, soothing sound of an aging voice awakened Tifa, and she opened her eyes to see Marle's gentle expression staring at her.

"What…what happened?" Tifa asked with a quiver.

"You must've been having a bad dream," Marle answered her. "You were shaking and crying pretty violently, so much that you kicked the covers to the floor."

Tifa looked around and confirmed that she indeed had done what Marle just informed her of.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Marle offered.

Tifa hesitated while her breathing gradually returned to normal, trying to recall the details of her nightmare. Ever since she had awakened in Midgar to find herself under Marle's care, the burning of Nibelheim had plagued her dreams more often than not, never offering her the opportunity to put that day of horror behind her. She had just experienced yet another session of the events while she slept, and unlike the physical threats to the area that she could defend with her combat skills, frequency did not make her nightmares easier to deal with.

She was now sixteen, having been in Midgar for almost a whole year. Fortune had blessed her when Master Zangan had left her with Marle, and the sweet lady had quickly become family for her. She had told Marle about this nightmare on numerous occasions before, and she had received the same soothing comforting gestures in return each time: Marle would hold and rock her, assuring her that it would be all right and that she was strong enough to overcome whatever haunting horrors she still could not shake off.

Yet for Tifa, it was no longer enough to only accept comfort and assurance. She wanted a solution. She wanted something that could remedy the terror of that day, and the only answer her sixteen-year-old mind could conjure up at the moment was revenge. She may have declared her hatred toward both SOLDIER and Shinra when she had found her father dead, but she had yet to act on her desires for retaliation.

"No," she finally gave Marle a response, shaking her head while she did so. "I think I need some time alone."

There was a pause while Marle contemplated her words.

"All right, dear," she agreed. "If you need me, you know I'm always here."

Marle left her room seconds later. Tifa was sure Marle would understand her yearning for such a solution, but at the moment, she was not ready to discuss it with anyone. She promised herself that, when and if the time was right, she would let Marle know, but without even a plan to begin executing, now was not that time.

As she made the promise to herself, her mind inevitably wandered to another promise that she was still holding near and dear to her. She wondered yet again what happened to Cloud and why she still had not heard from him in three years. He was not present to rescue her when Nibelheim was burned, and while she had hoped to catch him in Midgar after her arrival—even continuing to check the news for any mention of him—there was still no word or sign of his presence.

Tifa sighed as she thought about him. Although she was disappointed that he had not appeared in her hours of need thus far, she found herself unable to hold those moments against him as though he had broken his promise. Instead, she considered them missed opportunities, and her teenage heart was still holding onto the hope that he would reemerge one day to show that he meant what he had promised her that night on the water tower.

Costa del Sol was not the same lively town that Cloud remembered from his previous visit. Geostigma had hit the town rather hard, driving many tourists away, and it was just beginning to recover. Supplies continued to be ferried in, and as word spread that Strife Delivery Service was back in business, Cloud had finally received his first assignment on the western continent since his own recovery from the disease. This would also be the first time that he would be away from Seventh Heaven for multiple nights since then; thankfully, he still owned the villa he had purchased during his travels to save the planet, so he could at least save some money on lodging.

A part of Cloud still wondered why he had bought the villa in the first place. It was a rather impulsive decision that could have easily backfired, especially considering that he had purchased a home and not just another product he could return for a refund. In the two years since Meteorfall, the facility had sat mostly neglected while he and his family tried to rebuild their lives; it would not be until Cloud started his business and returned to Costa del Sol for a few deliveries that he would visit it once again, but Geostigma interrupted any thoughts he may have had regarding the building. Now that the chaos of the previous years seemed to be in the past, Cloud was finding it strange to accept the reality that he actually owned a fully-paid-off home in a tropical seaside vacation town with no plans for what to do with it.

A brief respite from his deliveries offered him a chance to think through some possibilities as he lay on the sofa inside his villa. His gut instinct told him to sell the property, seeing as how that could provide quite a bit of financial security for his family back in Edge, but given the current state of Costa del Sol and the planet as a whole, he would likely not receive anywhere close to the most ideal offers. He thought about renting the place out, but with him living on the other side of the world, overseeing any of his tenants' activities would be nearly impossible (not to mention he had no experiences with being a property landlord). After some thought, he finally decided that he would keep the property as is and maintain it to the best of his capabilities whenever he visited, but he would bring Tifa and the children on vacation to Costa del Sol when the time was right.

He smiled to himself as his mind wandered to Tifa again. Her participation in the arena gauntlets had indeed restored some of the confidence that she had lost. She had become noticeably more intense during their training sessions each morning, and he could see the familiar fire burning brighter every day, the same fire that she once possessed during their travels to save the world. He wanted to feel satisfied over her improvement as a result of his encouragement, but he was more relieved than anything that he had not made another mistake and exacerbated the situation.

Still though, Cloud could sense that there was something else troubling Tifa that remained unresolved. He could not pinpoint exactly what it was, and he hesitated to ask her out of concern that it could unravel whatever confidence she had successfully built up, but he could read it in some of her day-to-day conduct. Tifa was always good at keeping her true emotions hidden in order to shield those around her from her burdens, but Cloud had known her both long and well enough to spot when she was withholding such feelings.

Cloud had now learned from his experience with Geostigma that it behooved Tifa to share her troubles with someone trustworthy before the lingering effects started spiraling out of control, but he also knew that pressing her would be the wrong move to make. Additionally, if he was honest with himself, he still could not be certain that the person she should share her troubles with was him, seeing as how it would not be fair to ask her to do so when he had tried to keep his Geostigma condition from her. As relatively well as events had been playing out since he was cured, he still felt that he needed to do more to prove to her that he could be fully trusted again before he could even think about urging her to be completely open with him.

Checking his phone, Cloud noticed that he was nearing the time for his next delivery. He put his thoughts into the back of his mind, got up from the sofa, and returned outside into the Costa del Sol afternoon to resume his work.

Business at Seventh Heaven seemed to have picked up ever since word started to spread that Tifa was fighting weekly at Battle Square East. Even nights when she was not usually too busy were starting to see more customers, and while tonight was not as unexpectedly packed as it had been weeks ago when the Turks suddenly showed up, it was still fairly busy. Marlene and Denzel, having finished their homework, were performing their regular helpful duties at the tables.

Discussions about her battles inevitably came up frequently. Tifa was thankful for her patient nature; she could imagine how annoyed another individual would become from having to talk about the same topic repeatedly—albeit with different people—but she fully understood the curiosity of her patrons. Although she would never consider herself the best at handling praise, Tifa would be lying if she said that the increased regularity of admiration for her combat skills among her bar visitors did not continue to restore her own confidence in her abilities.

"I have to say, Tifa, I didn't know you could fight like that," one of her regulars had just remarked as he was paying his gil at the register. "I've heard about your skills from those who saw you while you were saving the world, but it's a whole different experience to see them for myself."

"Thanks," Tifa responded with the same smile she gave all her customers. "I'm just trying to keep them sharp."

The guest received his change and said his partings, but as he opened the door and left, Tifa had to do a double take before recognizing the faces that walked in immediately afterward.

"Heyo! There's our champ!" came the new arrival's semi-high-pitched booming voice, hailing her from the entrance while attracting the entire bar's attention. "We finally found your place!"

Kotch walked in with Scotch closely behind; the latter was giving smug smirks to every patron he made eye contact with. Internally, Tifa grimaced a bit at the annoyance they had already caused upon entry. Unlike the Turks, who at least had some respect for the other patrons, these two had shown within seconds that their level of decency was nowhere near as high.

The pair headed straight for the bar area and sat at the stools directly in front of her. Tifa gave Marlene and Denzel a quick look and nodded, silently signaling to them that they should continue as usual. She knew the children recognized the visitors' faces from their trips to Battle Square East, and she knew that they could sense her exasperation at the duo's presence, but as irritating as Scotch and Kotch could be, Tifa also knew that they did not pose any risk to the children.

"What's good, beautiful?" Kotch greeted upon sitting down, not even bothering to lower the volume of his voice. "We thought we'd finally pay you a visit. You've certainly been an asset for us."

"Thanks, glad to help," Tifa replied, trying to hide her annoyance.

"Recommend anything?" Scotch asked. "I'm in the mood for something hard and bitter."

"Give me your house special," Kotch followed.

"Coming right up," Tifa responded with an enthusiastic façade.

She mixed their drinks and served them within a minute, then quickly turned her attention to another customer's gil payment that Denzel had brought her. Unfortunately, Scotch and Kotch made sure neither her nor the bar would forget that they were present.

"So, where's the mister?" Kotch questioned, still loud as ever.

"Away on business," Tifa gave him a deadpan answer, never taking her eyes off the other customer's bill.

"He does that often?" Scotch followed.

"Occasionally," Tifa replied, placing the guest's change on the tray. "Denzel!"

Denzel came and took the tray back to the table. Just as he left, Marlene came up and handed Tifa a list of another table's orders. Tifa read the list, noticing it contained three dishes that she had to prepare.

"I'm needed in the kitchen," she informed Scotch and Kotch. "You two want anything else before I go in?"

"Boy, you just don't stop, do you?" Kotch answered. "Nah, we're good."

As if to prove they were not bluffing, Scotch took out some gil and handed it to Tifa.

"Keep the change," he remarked.

"Thanks," Tifa responded. "Denzel, I'm going into the kitchen."

"Okay," came the boy's voice, instinctively knowing to take her place behind the bar as she made her way through the door.

Cooking the customers' dishes provided Tifa with the distraction she wanted. Based on experience, she knew Scotch's and Kotch's boundaries for conversation were far beyond her other patrons', and she was never in any mood to engage either of them in any sort of in-depth talks. During her past two trips to fight in the colosseum, they had asked her some questions that most people would find borderline uncomfortable. She hoped they were at least decent enough to not try to push their luck with a child such as Denzel, but even if they were not, she trusted Denzel to divulge nothing to them.

By the time she had finished and left the kitchen, Scotch and Kotch were gone, leaving nothing but their empty glasses behind. Much to Tifa's relief, Denzel let her know that, beyond being shocked at him working behind the counter at a bar, the duo said nothing else and took off upon finishing their drinks.

"The leftovers are all yours," Don Corneo declared while guiding Cloud away, triggering a loud cheer from the others present in the room.

"Hell yeah!" Kotch exclaimed above them. "Okay ladies, y'all coming with me."

Tifa gave Aerith a quick glance. No words were exchanged as the two of them followed Kotch back out of the Don's room, but she could read her new companion's eyes. They would only have to play their little game for a little longer before they could take control of the situation and get the answers they had come for. Tifa was not certain exactly how competent Aerith was as a fighter, but if both she and Cloud had successfully infiltrated the manor, then Tifa could be confident that Aerith possessed decent survival skills in at least some capacity.

"Ayo, fellas, we've got guests!" Kotch announced, swinging the doors open to the side room. "And y'all got first crack at 'entertaining' them!"

Tifa and Aerith stepped through in front of Kotch and stood still. Four now-familiar disgusting faces of Corneo's lackeys, including Scotch, stood glaring at them. A few "oohs" and "yeahs" could be heard while they looked at her and Aerith with hungry expressions.

"Courtesy of the ever-generous Don Corneo himself!" Kotch continued. "Never forget—the don provides!"

"Yeah!" Scotch pointed back at Kotch as the latter backed out and the swinging doors closed.

"COR-NE-O!" the other lackeys all cheered.

Tifa exhaled a small groan of repugnance at their display, mentally mapping out how best to strike at them.

"So, ladies," Scotch spoke, taking a few steps forward toward Tifa. "Ready to…get to it?"

"Yeah…I guess I'm good to go whenever," Aerith answered, still smoothly playing the role of an innocent damsel. "How 'bout you, Tifa?"

Tifa rescanned the room with her eyes.

"Hmm…four guys between us…" she observed aloud. "Okay. Let's not keep Cloud waiting."

"Right," Aerith affirmed.

"Yeah, 'right' indeed," Scotch responded.

A sharp pain hit the back of Tifa's head, and before she was even aware that she had been struck from behind, she had already fallen forward into someone's grasp.

"I got her arms!" came the voice of the man who now held her, quickly shifting his hands to clutch her wrists.

"I got her legs!" came another voice, and Tifa felt her ankles grabbed tightly.

The next few seconds were chaotic, and Tifa had no idea what was transpiring as she was still trying to recover from the hit. When she finally regained her full sense of awareness, she found herself on her back, pinned to the floor with all four of her limbs held down, and completely restrained by the hands of the lackeys.

"Thought you could pull a quick one on us, hmm?" Kotch appeared in front of her, holding a wooden plank in each hand. Tifa did not need to put two and two together to realize that he was the one who had struck her.

"Aerith!" Tifa shouted.

"Tifa!" she heard her partner scream back.

Tifa looked to her right to see the girl in the red dress pinned down in the same position. Instinctively, she started struggling as fiercely as she could to free herself from her captors' grasps, but they had her limbs suffocated against the floor.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere, beautiful," Scotch remarked from above her, pulling out some rope and wrapping it around her wrists. "We know what you're up to, and we know what you already realize."

"Yeah, that's right," Kotch taunted. "You already know the plate's coming down. We can't have you running back to Sector 7 trying to be a hero now, can we?"

Tifa gave him a look of fury over the revelation. She continued to struggle while Scotch finished binding her wrists, but she was making no progress to shake herself free.

"Let me go, you jackasses!" she shouted as she fought to no avail. "Aerith!"

"Tifa!" Aerith screamed again, and Tifa could see from the corner of her eyes that the lackeys had already bound her partner's wrists as well.

"Hey, you should be thanking us," Scotch goaded. "We're keeping you here so you won't witness the Sector 7 plate drop."

"Yeah, we're saving you from trauma that'll haunt you forever," Kotch followed, kneeling down and slapping her upper right leg. "Now you're going to give us our reward."

The lackey who had been pinning her legs down pried them apart. Tifa tried to lift one leg to kick him, but she had used up so much energy fighting to free herself that she found she had almost no control of her legs anymore. Kotch, seeing her weakened state, quickly stepped over her right leg and positioned himself in between her thighs, running his hands upward.

"Tifa!" she heard Aerith cry out for a third time. "Help me!"

"No!" Tifa shouted. "Aerith! Cloud!"

"No!" Tifa cried out, leaping awake while gasping for air. It took a few seconds before she registered the red "4:05 am" staring back at her as the text on her alarm clock, and she lay back down atop her pillow.

She stayed quiet for a minute or two to make sure that she had not awakened the children, and when there was no knock at her door, she finally found the resolve to gather her thoughts about her most recent nightmare.

It was another false event that she did not understand. What made this one unusual was that, as far back as she could remember, she never dreamed about the fear of being trapped in this type of vulnerable position. Why did she have it tonight for the first time? Was it because of Scotch's and Kotch's presence at her bar? The last time the Turks visited, she had been haunted by a nightmare about their fight atop the Sector 7 plate that also played out falsely; was this one connected to that one? If so, how? Was this dream a one-time occurrence, or would it be frequent?

Similar to the previous instances in which she had been stirred awake by a nightmare, the questions would not stop swirling in Tifa's head. She had yet to figure out the reasons behind her ongoing dreams of the Sector 7 plate collapse, and now she had to try and understand this new one as well.

Tifa felt frustrated. She felt frustrated at the lack of answers for her continued nightmares. She felt frustrated at not knowing how and where to find answers, even as she silently pleaded for them regularly. She felt frustrated that these dreams always seemed to terrorize her while there was nobody but the children around, depriving her of the chance to speak to anyone, but she knew that even if someone as close as Cloud was around, she would hesitate to reveal them due to her reserved personality, which simply added to her frustration even more.

Exhausted from the confusion, Tifa finally managed to somehow fall back asleep.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I hope that wasn't too uncomfortable to read. It certainly wasn't easy to write; it took several revisions before I felt it was acceptable to finalize.

Thank you for staying patient while I continue working on this story. As always, please feel free to leave me your feedback. Until next chapter!