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: If you've been reading this story from the beginning and have gotten this far, I seriously can't thank you enough for hanging onto it. Please don't ever hesitate to tell me how you feel about it, because I always appreciate your words. Okay, Chapter 16 time!

Healing of the Heart

Written by daBOSSz

Chapter 16

The last guest from the noon rush was out the door by mid-afternoon, and Tifa foresaw no more guests for the remainder of the day. Her patrons knew that, as it had been for the past three weeks, she was scheduled to fight at Battle Square East that evening, and like the past three Mondays, she anticipated that a good number of them would attend. Andrea had already called her earlier in the day to inform her that the colosseum was expecting a record turnout that night, much of it due to her defeat of the zolom two days ago.

Tifa did not feel any pressure with a larger crowd. She was not out to satisfy anyone other than herself, so while giving them a solid showing might be a priority for the arena organizers, her main focus was and always would be on battling to win.

As she focused on cleaning a glass though, the bar door unexpectedly opened, and before she could turn around, a loud and familiar voice echoed throughout the facility.

"Looks like we came at the right time. Still open?"

Tifa had to stifle a groan. While she did not mind their presence, she would prefer to tidy the bar up and squeeze in one final warm-up session before her fight. With no one else around though, she would have no excuse but to engage in conversation with them.

"I was about to close up and train," she answered honestly, not turning to face her interrupters while hoping they would get the message.

"Well, we need a drink," came his response, and she heard the dropping of quite a chunk of gil on the counter. "Keep the change as always."

She set the glass down and finally looked at her visitors briefly, just long enough to collect the gil and place it in the cash register. She might still hold some ambiguous feelings toward them, but few (if any) of her patrons pre-paid and tipped the way they did.

"What'll it be?" she asked, unable to prevent herself from feeling slightly annoyed while fully keeping that sentiment hidden.

"What do you think, toots?" Reno fired back, never taking his eyes off her. "You know our usual: give us your hardest spritzers."

Rude merely mumbled in agreement. Tifa internally sighed at being reminded of how some habits never change, then went to work making their drinks.

"You've become quite a popular figure in the last two days," Reno commented after a slight pause. "Can't say I'm surprised you did it, but still impressive that you took down the zolom solo."

"I do what I can," Tifa acknowledged, serving the two their spritzers.

"What do you know about the attacks so far?" Reno continued, not missing a beat before taking a sip. "What's Reeve told you already?"

"No more than what he's told the public," Tifa answered, trying to sound neutral but convincing. The last conclusion she wanted them to draw was to think that she was hiding something. "They may have found the cause, but need more time and testing."

"Not so easy or fast without Shinra's expansive resources," Rude remarked rather indifferently.

Someone like Barret might have responded to such a statement with fury, but Tifa remained composed and unfazed. She could hear Rude's tone perfectly, and she knew it was nothing more than an assertion of observance rather than an intent to provoke.

"What about you, though?" Reno asked, aiming to come across as genuinely concerning. "How've you held up in general?"

"I'm all right," Tifa said rather flatly, giving him the only answer that fit.

The two Turks drank another mouthful, providing the bar with a brief pause.

"Look, I get that our history is complicated," Reno admitted. "But we really do care how you all are doing. I hope you know this."

"Thanks," Tifa replied. She wanted to add "I think," but decided against it, even if she still found his words difficult to accept.

I was not that she did not want to forgive them. After all, Shinra was finished, both her family and the world were in the midst of their long-term healing, and they had tried to do quite a bit of good for her and those she cared about. Ideally, Tifa would love for nothing more than to put all the haunting memories from her past completely behind her. However, despite any progress made, Tifa knew that not enough time had passed for the wounds that the Turks had opened to fully close, and should her relationship with them move past the stage of limbo, both sides would need to put further distance between themselves and their troubled pasts, distance that could only be achieved with the passing of additional time.

The Turks seemed to have sensed her sentiments as well, finishing their drinks in silence and giving her space to clean the bar up instead of aiming to continue the conversation. Tifa did catch Rude glancing her way a few times with a familiar look of affection though, well aware of the crush he had on her that had yet to change. If nothing more, she hoped to find enough courtesy within her sooner rather than later to at least thank him for being gentlemanly enough not to openly pursue her.

Once the duo finished their drinks, they said their goodbyes and departed, leaving Tifa to finally begin her pre-battle preparations.

Cloud felt frustrated. There simply was no other way to put it. He was just plain frustrated as he hung up his phone, having had to deliver the bad news to Tifa: that he would not be able to make it home to watch her fight that evening, and that he had no idea when he would be able to get back.

A storm had formed above the ocean between the two continents in the morning. Weather reports initially stated that it would pass by early afternoon, but early afternoon soon turned into late afternoon with no change in sight. The storm forced all ferry services between Costa del Sol and Junon to temporarily suspend operations, trapping Cloud on the Western Continent to wait it out at the docks. He thought about resting at his villa, but opted against it for fear of missing the first service resumption announcement.

Even if the weather had played out according to what was predicted, Cloud would have needed to make a mad dash home to arrive on time for Tifa's battle, but the delay meant that such a feat would now be impossible to accomplish. Despite the unfavorable odds, he still held out hope for much of the afternoon that he would somehow pull through, but as the orange hues started replacing the blue ones in the sky, reality finally caught up to him, forcing him to accept defeat. Part of him wanted to avoid calling Tifa and telling her about his situation for fear of disappointing her, but the part of him that vowed to stay consistent in keeping her updated won out, and he decided it that would be better to let her know in advance than for her to still be worried about his well-being when she was ready to leave for her battle.

Still though, the familiar feeling of guilt—the same feeling that he had been trying so hard to prevent from weighing him down—manifested itself yet again. He knew this was not his fault, since by no means did he control the weather, but even so, questions about why he had chosen to travel so far for these deliveries over the weekend began running through his mind. Perhaps if he had been smarter about his decisions and accepted deliveries that were closer to home, he would not find himself stuck in such a beleaguering situation. Sure, Tifa was her usual considerate self over the phone just now, and she would remain equally as understanding once he returned home with a sincere apology for his absence, but none of that would change the fact that he was letting her down tonight despite whatever had been and would be said.

The jingle of the port's intercom came on, granting Cloud a sliver of hope that there would be some good news.

"Buenas tardes, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for your patience," the calm Costa-del-Sol-accented voice spoke over the speakers. "Unfortunately, at this time, the storm has still yet to pass enough for the ferries to resume operating. We ask that you remain patient while we continue waiting for this weather to pass, and we apologize again for the delay."

Utter discontent permeated the air as frustrated passengers let out another collective groan. Cloud joined in, unable to believe that he had been fooled once more into thinking the announcement would be different this time.

He re-entertained the idea of returning to his villa but dismissed it quickly. He had been away from Seventh Heaven long enough, and he did not care how much more time he would need to wait; he was hellbent on catching the first available ferry to Junon.

Tifa was panting rapidly. Somehow, in some unbelievable manner, she had managed to survive her trial of endurance against the tonberry. It was the last enemy she had hoped to draw for her penultimate battle, but luck had not been on her side when the deceptive creature suddenly showed itself in the arena. The battle was not necessarily difficult, since she used her agility to easily dodge most of its attacks, but it just kept dragging with seemingly no end in sight. Now, after the lengthy torture test, Tifa stood victorious but felt almost completely beaten.

Tonight's battles had not gone as planned, and the issues started before her first challenge even began. For some odd reason, Scotch and Kotch had seemed to be exceedingly flirtatious with her. Under normal circumstances, Tifa could have easily tuned them out—after all, she was flirted with routinely by patrons at Seventh Heaven who did not know any better—but for whatever reason, she found it difficult to block their increasingly suggestive comments tonight. By the time her first foes appeared in the ring, she felt bothered enough by what they were saying that she actually lost her focus before landing her first punch. Thankfully, the garuda only drained some of her magic and not her health, but it was highly uncharacteristic for her to require such a simple creature to finally tune her into a state of combat.

No matter what the reason was for her shortage of focus, she could not concentrate on uncovering it during the heat of battle. Still, despite attempting to push it aside, it was affecting her to some degree, and it resulted in a less-than-ideal performance through her first six rounds. Then, as misfortune would have it, she found herself facing a tonberry in the seventh.

Now, with handicaps having taken away all her advantages—materia, items, and equipment—and much of her energy used up, all Tifa could hope for was a favorable matchup for her to defeat with nothing more than her kicks and punches.

Her hopes were dashed when the hideous green and pink colors of a ho-chu materialized in front of her, and Tifa could only wish that the handicaps had not negated the effects of her ribbon prior to an earlier battle. Being vulnerable to its paralysis and sleep effects while holding onto her last remaining bit of energy was not a winning combination. Additionally, she had no experience fighting this monster, having only witnessed Cloud duke with it at the Gold Saucer.

As the battle began, the ho-chu's tentacle launched a whip sting attack immediately at Tifa. She flipped to her left to dodge it, and she quickly observed that it was slow to turn its body to follow her movement. Unfortunately, with her own strength at significantly less than one hundred percent, she was not fast enough to avoid its second whip sting. The follow-up attack struck her in the soleus, sending her tumbling and afflicting her with a temporary paralysis.

Tifa could do nothing while the ho-chu started creeping closer to her. Luckily, the paralysis wore off once the creature was in range to strike, and she managed to roll aside while it attempted to whip her for a third time. Navigating through gaps underneath the beast, Tifa positioned herself behind the creature and slammed it with as many kicks and punches as she could muster at the moment. It was successful in slightly wearing the beast down, but with her own fatigue kicking in, she did not have enough strength to dodge a long tentacle that reached behind its back and interrupted her in the middle of a combo attack. A second tentacle grabbed her and threw her back in front to face the ho-chu's massive jaw, and before Tifa could pick herself up, the greenish mist of its big pollen attack came out of its mouth and started filling her surroundings.

Too worn out to outmaneuver its murky haze, Tifa inadvertently inhaled a whiff and found her consciousness fading. Her last recollection was being hit by yet another whip sting before the combination of exhaustion and the effects of the ho-chu's attacks succeeded in knocking her out.

When she awakened, she was being tended to by Andrea Rhodea, who cast esuna on her using a heal materia to bring her back. It was not until she fully regained her consciousness that Tifa realized she had lost the battle. Frustrated with herself, she thanked Andrea and headed back to Seventh Heaven in silence, not even able to put on her trademark smile to assure Marlene and Denzel that she was all right.

She went through her usual motions that night of putting both children to bed, but she could not hide her disappointment from them. This was the first time that both of them had witnessed her lose in combat, and even though her effort was by no means lacking, she still felt as though she had let them down by not giving them her best. Despite all of this, they asked her no questions about the battle, and while she could easily tell that they were curious, she also knew that they understood there would be a better time to do so.

"Papa!"

Tifa heard herself utter out before her head pulled back and her eyes opened to witness the body of her father, bleeding and devoid of life.

No, not again! Not this again!

It was a recurring nightmare that was, unfortunately, as familiar to her as her combat moves. She had been tortured by this moment so frequently in her dreams that she was now fully conscious of it whenever it occurred, and yet, even after all these years, there was still nothing she could do to divert her thoughts elsewhere.

"Sephiroth…SOLDIERs…mako…Shinra…" she heard herself say, placing her head back atop her father. "I'm sick of this! I'm sick of all of this!"

Still whimpering from the fresh tears that she had just shed, Tifa forced herself back up and grabbed the masamune blade that was still wet with her father's blood.

"I hate them all!" she declared.

She entered the next room in the reactor, sword in hand and ready to exert her revenge. The flowing silver hair of her father's murderer greeted her at the top of the stairs. Devoid of all thought and driven only by anger, Tifa raced up the steps, hellbent on cutting him down.

"Sephiroth!" she shouted as she charged. "How dare you kill my father and everyone in the village!"

She swung the blade immediately upon reaching the top, expecting it to make contact. Instead, she felt him grab the blade where her hands were and hoist her into the air with only one arm. Caught off guard and just now realizing how her judgment was completely clouded by her fury, her stunned eyes met his glowing green ones. Unlike what she had witnessed before, his eyes were now devoid of all sympathy, and in one effortless motion, he grabbed the sword and slashed her directly across her front, sending her tumbling back down the stairs.

The pain was unbearable. She did not know if she was bleeding or where she was injured, but she struggled to move. She lay there for what felt like days, fighting to stay alert.

"Tifa! Tifa!" came Zack's voice, slightly stirring her awake. "Sephiroth did this, didn't he?"

She opened her eyes to see that his were filled with sincere concern. Her body was crying for help, but her mind was still too overcome with rage over what she had just witnessed. She knew it was probably not the best decision to make at the moment, but her seething anger won out, and she turned her eyes away from him.

"I hate you!" she declared to him. "I hate Shinra! I hate SOLDIER! I hate you all!"

She started fading away again after making her proclamation. Zack said a few words, but she could no longer hear him clearly. As she lost herself to her blackout, her last thoughts were of Cloud's promise.

She began regaining consciousness some time later, sensing a pair of arms picking her up and moving her a short distance away. Her eyes slowly opened when she felt a hand gently brush against her face. The glow of the mako reactor still remained, and she gradually started visually piecing together the figure that was now in front of her. He seemed to be in a regular infantry's uniform, and his hazel eyes and brown hair blended with the reactor's dimness…

Wait, what?

Still in her dream state, Tifa's eyes snapped open suddenly and was greeted by a familiar face. It simply was not the face she expected to see.

"Tifa? Are you okay?" the figure spoke.

"Wel?!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah," he said. "I followed Zack up after I heard that you chased Sephiroth here."

"Wait, you're an infantryman?" Tifa asked, still confused.

A few seconds of silence followed as Wel gave her a puzzled stare.

"Tifa, you must've hit your head pretty hard," he answered. "We've been talking every day since I came with SOLDIER back to Nibelheim."

"What? No!" Tifa found herself uttering before she could stop. "Why are you here? Where's Cloud?"

Wel looked like he had been completely floored.

"Cloud?" he asked, now more puzzled than before. "Why would he be here? What does Cloud have to do with any of this?"

Tifa's head was swirling again, but this time, it was not from Sephiroth's attack.

"No, no, this is all wrong!" she asserted. "You're not supposed to be here! Cloud promised! Cloud's the one who should be here!"

"Tifa!" Wel grabbed her, and Tifa felt none of the gentleness that she was familiar with from Cloud. "Tifa, listen! You probably hit your head hard. Cloud's not here. I don't know where he is or why you expect him to be here, but he's not here. I am. Now come on, I need to get you some help to treat your wounds."

"No!" Tifa was now fully conscious and shouting. "No! It shouldn't be you! It should be Cloud! Cloud, you promised! Cloud, where are you? Cloud, help me!"

"Tifa!" Wel called out again. "Tifa, snap out of it! Tifa!"

"Tifa! Tifa, snap out of it!"

"No!" Tifa heard herself cry as she bolted awake, gasping uncontrollably.

"Tifa…" a now-welcoming voice called her name. "Are you okay?"

She turned to her side and saw the lock of blond spikes and gentle mako-infused eyes that she adored. Still torn between her nightmare and reality, she had to reach up and run her fingers along his face and through his hair to convince herself that she had returned to the realm of the latter.

"Cloud!" she half-shouted and half-sighed, throwing her arms around him.

"Yeah, it's me," he responded, slowly wrapping his arms around her. "I'm here."

"Thank you, thank you," she found herself saying, unsure of why.

"You must have been having quite a bad dream," he reasoned. "I heard you calling out my name right as I was done showering."

On his explanation, Tifa was finally alerted to his attire, and she noticed that he was dressed in nothing but a tank top and boxers. Suddenly embarrassed, she released him and tilted her head to the side, hoping he would not make out the redness in her cheeks under the dimness of the bedroom.

"When…when did you get back?" she said, still a bit trembled.

"Not too long ago," he answered. "I jumped in the shower when I got home and was about to go to bed when I heard you. You were shaking pretty violently."

Tifa's eyes shifted to her alarm clock and was greeted by the red 3:45 AM text. She did not anticipate his return after he had informed her of the ferry's indefinite delay, but she could not be more thankful that he had chosen to do so instead of spending another night away.

"Glad you made it back," she spoke with sincerity in a much calmer tone, and he reacted with a smile.

"Are…are you okay now?" he asked, still filled with concern in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm all right. It was…" she hesitated slightly as she answered, unsure of just how much she wanted to explain. "…just a dream."

Cloud nodded in response, trusting her answer.

"We can talk about it more in the morning," he said. "Let's get some sleep for now."

As he started getting up though, Tifa grabbed him. It was an impulsive move that slightly shocked him, but after everything that she had experienced throughout the day, she felt as though she could not stand the sight of him walking away.

"Cloud," she paused for a moment after saying his name.

"Yeah, Tifa?" he replied, purely curious.

She knew what she wanted, but she just did not know how best to ask him. After thinking it through, she decided to simply speak from her heart.

"Um…could you…stay with me tonight?" she finally uttered. "I'd just…like that…very much."

He gave her a questioning look, but she could read from his eyes that it was his way of asking if she was certain of this invitation rather than a sign of reluctance. She responded silently as well, trying to show him with her eyes that there was no indecisiveness in her request.

"Of course," he agreed. "Anything you need, Tifa."

Internally breathing a sigh of relief at his acceptance, she scooted over and made room for him. He climbed in, and as soon as he had lain on his back, she moved herself beside him so that her head was wedged under his chin and atop the front of his shoulder. He responded in kind, hooking his arm around her waist while reaching over with his other arm to pull the covers over them.

"Thank you, Cloud," she murmured, finding herself relaxing back into her state of sleep. "Good night."

"Good night, Tifa," he responded.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Sixteen chapters down, but more to go. How is the story moving along for you? If you have questions, please let me know. Any major questions related to the plot will be answered in future chapters (I'd be a very poor writer if they weren't).

As always, I thank you all for being patient with me while I release new chapters. I know I'm not consistent in my length of time between releases due to the way my schedule works, but rest assured that this story will be written in its entirety, no matter how long it takes.

Until next time!