Under that same vermilion crescent, Tifa stood leaning against the water tower, she slid past forth gracefully
like one of Midgar's finest ballerinas, the former enticement of this hold of angsty teenage dreams, now seemed like a
cold mockery of what had the bastion of her private dreams and hopes, something that she neglected in childhood, idled
away with Cloud for years, reclaimed as a expectant bride, and reconciled as a melancholy mother. She thought," Was it
this one night that Cloud came to put this all behind that led to this derailment."
"Hey Tifa."
" Hey Cloud."
" Sorry about Sephiroth. How are you and Ume doing? "
" She's doing ok, she put on more weight, got her shots. "
" Ok, yeah well, the offer is still on the table if you want to be my roomie. "
" I appreciate that but Dad needs me now since the ranch has more business, and he wants to see Ume."
" Tifa, you don't have to live just for her and Sephiroth's memory. My mom did and well..? "
" Cloud, your mom made you the center of her world. She feels you deserve better. She went around town saying I slept with
every soldier under Sephiroth, even Zach! She even asked Zach if Aeris had a sister for you. She wasn't nice about Dad too
..She said he fed the chocoboes bad feed bought from slum stores. She even told Zangan I was only practicing to attract
him. My sensei! Maybe, it's just her words, not yours You still live with her and you told me she treats you like a tot.
Just the last time you told you left for Soldier, you actually quit. Zach said you lost Fenrir too? "
Cloud shuffled his boots, agitated so small dust bunnies rose in the cold evening sky. He inwardly cursed Zach's too
over zealous tendency to share certain private affairs too openly with those he trusted, even the former General. Cloud
looked over at Tifa as the moonlight washed her face in soft, shimmering light, making her seem ethereal. Tifa wore a
comfortable practical kimono, Cloud could see Sephiroth's pendant of a drifting feather, with several jagged links of
materia balls attached to her plum blossom obi. Cloud gulped down at partiulcar nuance of devotion, recalling she had worn
something with a downy plume after she exited Shinra Manor, bloody and quiet.
" Hey Tifa, if something terrible did happen to you from any soldier, you can still file it with Shinra."
" Cloud, you should leave this town, travel Gaia to gain more to satisfy you. I realize I am needed here. That's ok too."
" Yeah. well I am actually. Zach got me a lease to his old place, and a friend is going to help me jumpstart a delivery
business. This town is too haunted by Sephiroth's memory."
Tifa looked over quickly to Cloud. She wondered if he simply had the same lack of tact that Claudia had or she was
accustomed to Sephiroth's sophisticated silence, being he was a man of few words. While it took months of coaxing him to
relax Sephiroth to enjoy easy conversation, Tifa also gained the art of polished refinement with a man of his means. With
her dad Brian, Sephiroth had friendly, intelligent swaps of knowledge and solutions from chocoboes, soil, mako poison, to
Mt. Nibel's mako fountains. Cloud had sighted a tall form that emerged from the shadows. Tifa was too immersed with Ume's
future without her father as she tried to answer Cloud without exploding over the implication Sephiroth violated her.
" Excuse me yo, I was gonna ask the missus about that.."
" Reno! Aeris isn't seeing Ume so no I didn't see her."
" Well, don't take it too personal, Ume being part of uh, Sephiroth's legacy, we had questions..and yeah, a report can be
filed for your incident or "
Tifa looked over at Cloud with a burning glare of intense resentment. She shifted her gaze to Reno's partner, Rudo. He
adjusted his gloves tidily and continued the converation. He then adjusted his shades to take in Sephiroth's bride.
" Well you know Reno, Miss Lockheart. I am Rudo. Just meant to say Sephiroth's remains are missing. Ume does have his
Jenova along with.."
" Of course she does! Everything here has some of it! Your damn reactors leaked it in the soil, water, food! Sephiroth had
to mop your mess! I filed Ume's bloodwork with Dirctor Lazard! So go ask him!
Tifa answered this hotly with tears, running down her cheeks. She had filed and answered questionnaires with the Shinra
various departments. She paused as she saw a black, glossy feather sail down at her feet. Tifa half stifled a sob, a cry,
and anger as she felt maternal instinct her daughter's life maybe in danger. Before sprinting wildly headfirst to her
home, she regarded Cloud, Reno, and Rudo with withering annoyance.
" Tell this to Shinra, and to Claudia. We were each other's first loves, all consensual, all incomparable! "
" Yo, too much FYI, she didn't even hear us out. Lazard asked us to check ;no death threats since drifting feather art all
over the slums for Sephiroth. Ain't no soldier buying Genesis's versions of Shinra. "
A loud explosion was heard near the watertower so that it blew apart into fiery, wooden shards falling to ash as a
thud was heard from all three men. They all lifted their heads warily, alarmed about the last encounter from the Ultima
Weapon. Reno and Rudo looked over to see a winged body in a dark red trenchcoat drop down by them, closing a white, thin
copy of Loveless, as Genesis recited," When the war of the beasts brings about world's end, the goddess descenrds from the
sky.." Reno and Rudo took careful aim as they began to fire at the Genesis copy. Cloud looked over to see Claudia arise by
a broken pillar. Reno and Rudo looked at each other with an equal understanding to head over to helicopter to finish the
clone, and ran quickly as they noted Claudia was walking with Cloud furthur into the town square.
" Yo, she looks ok. Soldier boy got it. Let's follow that clone case more around, yo. "
" Mom! You saw that yourself! You heard Tifa too! She isn't the town pump! Aeris isn't here at all, and she's Zach's! "
" I warned you Tifa is nothing but trouble! She knew a hotshot like Sephiroth brought everything Shinra with him. I
won't put it past her if that's what stalled your career and you lost Fenrir. You promised you would quit seeing her for
good. Instead, you still meet up with her like a lovesick teenager! She never cared about you Cloud! She is like her dad!
Out to make a quick gil, and who gets slammed with the debt is just the bottomline. Girls like her get theirs from men
like Don Coreno! Why, I'd search every planet for you for a girl like Aeris! Please quit wasting your time on a loose.
camp follower like Tifa! Please! I will be fine by myself. I don't want you wasting your life helping her to raise
Sephiroth's mistake! "
" I need to be alone to think it all through, please. I am 18 now..I saw she's isn't over Sephiroth and I need time to get
over her too. I didn't like her dad calling you a crazy loser of a slum bastard. I get how he made life hard for you and
he's the only dad figure Ume has. Mom think about it. Tifa knew Sephiroth was married to Soldier, whether she likes it or
not. I am not going to wish harm on her or Ume. She wasn't raped by him like some said."
Cloud watched Claudia stalk away to their solid, typical Nibelheim cottage. He sighed, bent over, and ran his arms
over his torso. He held himself as he walked about in a circle, exhaling and inhaling slowly, trying to clear his head and
formulate of what was true and was rumor. He didn't like his mother being labled a lunatic, a stalker, or seeing her
turned away from certain businesses that the Lockhearts owned or much less patronized. Cloud weighed in on what the Turks
just happened to be by the water tower this evening. If Aeris was really in danger, Tseng would be here to bring in
additional Turks. Cloud recalled what he heard about Sephiroth's remains being missing for months or he was dead. Shinra
confirmed that a million times over, he admitted to himself. The reality was Cloud had heard from Zach that the Soldier
program changed on Sephiroth's conception, birth, training, and growth. He was a child prodigy that changed the winds of
war as he entered Wutai at the tender age of 12, and had bled the Wutaian army so that their very rivers ran blood red
for months. Now a season later, Sephiroth slew a Ultima Weapon and Tifa was seen with him. Most of Gaia only saw him with
his masamune, and quick to capitalize on that success. Shinra ran scores of recruitment posters with the half naked
General, staring mirthlessly with his trophy, his elegant hand sweeping his bangs back. The recruiment numbers swelled
expontentially after his last appearance. No mention of Tifa, her baby, or her dad to any outlet at all. Gaia knew Tifa
as a promising dojo keeper and just as a local guide for Midgar's tourists seeking local monsters. Cloud's hair along his
arms prickled and his militant instincts told him to be more careful. He hunched down to blend in with the stone pillars
of the recently burnt water tower and pondered over that. "The Turks sure must pull weight if not even a single Soldier
like Zach wasn't there to help the townspeople. If Sephiroth were alive, no way could a Genesis copy make it here for
miles."
" You had some promise, I admit.."
" Sephiroth! "
Sephiroth took in Cloud with an appraisal that was neither favorable or esteemed. He was clad in his black leather
duster, as he strode ahead, looking up at the water tower's damaged structure. Sephiroth picked up a black feather as he
examined it carefully, and then folded in an envelope.
" Give me back Tifa! Aeris said you weren't meant to be here! Ume has Brian as a grandpa! Not Shinra Science! "
" You heard her, all from her own lips. I most certainly will not commit an atrocity for my memory to be sealed for Ume's
as well. I just want an answer for a simple question really. Just a small favor to ask."
" What? "
" Was she really at Don Corneo's that night? I admit I was drunk, shamefully. "
" Well, screw you then. Go ask anyone in Sector 5 .You decide for yourself. You got her knocked up! She can keep secrets is
all I will reveal."
Sephiroth stared at him with a lethal look as if to threaten Cloud on every level. Cloud read those draconian eyes
promised suffering, poverty, pain, misery, and every bleak despair Cloud had sweated out on his missions. Sephiroth raised
his gloved black fist as a portal shimmered with black energy swirling though, and then stepped back as shadowy, howling
beings swept around the General. Sephiroth clenched his right gloved hand as his Masamune appeared, and he sliced through
their throng as Cloud and Sephiroth heard a maelstrom of agony. Sephiroth entered the portal into the familiar home that
Tifa was raised in by Brian. He regarded Tifa coolly as he saw Brian stack dishes and sat down to look at inventory lists
of the ranch. He walked silently past her father as his years of trained stealth paid off at not even the alarm or the
security system had detected his aura that Hojo had perfected with his terminals. Sephiroth made his way down to Tifa's
childhood bedroom. The General had a surge of violent emotions as when he was in the heat of battle. In this battle, he
debated whether it was true she performed as a scanty dancer or a trained fighter at the pleasure houses. He tried to
dislodge the dismal thoughts with ferocious concentration as he pushed her door open. Tifa was typing on her laptop, when
she heard Ume whimper. Sephiroth observed though the door crack as Tifa squinted, and smiled as she held Ume up to the
lamp. Tifa then cradled Ume to feed as she whimpered with hunger, and then Tifa sang softly to her.
" You remind me so much of your papa. His big eyes, that soft voice, and his appetite! He was the reason you were born!
I am sorry so sorry honey that he never got to see you right now! Between us girls, he loved my milk too! "
Sephiroth flushed a bright pink, as his cheeks burned with shame at her admittance. Sephiroth then watched as Ume
smacked her lips. Tifa had rocked her back and forth, burping her to sleep. Tifa curled up, weeping into her pillow
as Ume looked around, snuffling much like her father after a bloody campaign. Sephiroth removed his coat to sit by Tifa
to caress her cheek. Tifa startled, embraced him savagely, careful Ume was safely away on the pillows.
" Sephy! How I wished and wanted this for ages! Look at Ume, she has grown so much! "
"She has, why I think in a few months she will be teething."
Sephiroth leaned forward to hold her in his muscled, strong arms as he rocked her gently, singing a Cetra lullaby to
her. He watched her gurgle at him, trying to catch a strand of his long, silver hair. His face softened as his daughter
recognized him, following him with her emerald eyes, and gave him a happy chortle when he put her in her cradle.
" Where did you hear that song? I never did until now?"
" When I was a small boy, Ilfana would come into my room to sing to me when she heard me cry alone from the pain from
Hojo's injections."
"Ilfana, Aeris's mom? I guess she thought of you as a son? "