Chapter 3: I fell into yesterday.
Disclaimer: I own NOTHING!
Tifa stopped and stared at the town. God, she didn't feel like going back just yet. Turning, she faced the path to the Nibelheim mountains. They called to her. She needed somewhere quiet to think. To sort out her thoughts before she faced the townspeople's questions. It was still early anyway. Making her decision she moved quickly up the path, leaving the town behind her.
It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining down and she wandered the well worn mountain trails randomly, simply enjoying being up here again. She'd felt like she'd been slowly suffocating for the last year, staying in one place all on her own with nothing to do, no PURPOSE. Yep. Definitely suffocating.
She wasn't travelling the world anymore, there was no great evil to fight. Trying to settle down and get on with her life after all that seemed impossible back then. In fact, it still seemed impossible now.
The cool wind that stirred her long, chocolate brown hair made her feel like she could breathe again. She smiled, her face lighting up. She hadn't felt so refreshed, so at ease since before Cloud had left.
Cloud.. Her step faltered as she felt an invisible fist clench her heart. He'd gone. He'd left her. Alone. She kicked a stone viciously. Well why not? Why would he stay with me when he could go search for beautiful, mysterious Aeris. His love. And I was stupid enough to not see it coming. I thought.. I thought he was happy.
After the final battle with Sephiroth he'd come back to Nibelheim with her. He'd seemed content, everything had been going great and she'd finally gotten up the courage to try and move their relationship to the next level when he'd gone. He'd said he couldn't stay here without her, he'd needed to find Aeris. She half-wished there had been harsh words so she could at least hate him. But no, there had just been the need to see her, the aching honesty in his eyes when he spoke of her and told her why he couldn't stay.
And that had been that. God, she was positive he'd known how she felt. That was probably a factor in his going, his way of letting her down gently, without a confrontation.
She couldn't blame him really, she'd have done it that way too. Better to be "friends" and to try and ignore her unrequited feelings.
She looked up at the entrance to the caves. While musing on the past her feet had brought her here. She paused for a moment then continued in. She needed somewhere quiet to think and she knew just where to go.
~
She bent down and trailed her hand through the mako fountain, thinking back to the last time she'd done that...
~
Tifa bent down, running her fingers through the cool water.
"Magic... a mysterious power..." murmured Cloud. He looked up in confusion as Sephiroth started to laugh. " Did I say somethin' funny?"
Sephiroth shook his head. "A man once told me never to use unscientific terms like 'mysterious power'! It shouldn't even be called 'magic'! I still remember how angry he was."
" Who was that?"
Sephiroth scowled in displeasure. "Hojo of Shinra, Inc.... An inexperienced man assigned to take over the work of a great scientist. He was a walking mass of complexes."
Standing up, Tifa looked down at the fountain. "A Mako fountain... So this is where the knowledge of the Ancients is."
~
She closed her eyes.
Sephiroth.
She still couldn't get her head around him being alive. Cloud killed him! ... Didn't he? Ugh, this is all so confusing!
And why didn't he kill me?
He had me, and he knew it. And he let me walk away. Just like that.
But earlier, he was a stranger wearing a madman's face.
No... not a stranger, like he was when he first came to Nibelheim. A little cold, yeah, silent and dangerous, always, but not evil, not a monster. I'd have never thought him capable of murdering helpless people in cold blood! And taking pleasure in it! Like he did, barely 48 hours after I'd met him. How could someone change so completely in that short space of time? How could he go from being civil to murdering them all? Murdering her father.
The hurt was still there, still fresh after all this time. Oh papa..
She was there again, destined to relive it over and over.
~
She ran to her father, cradling his lifeless body in her arms.
" Papa... Sephiroth!? Did Sephiroth do this to you?" She could feel the tears welling up inside her.
" Sephiroth... SOLDIER... Mako Reactor... Shinra... I hate them all!"
Seeing a sword nearby she snatched it up.
Sephiroth.
Frightening rage ran through her, intoxicating her. She screamed and ran up the stairs after him. She swung at him clumsily and he turned, disarming her easily. Her terrified gaze met his cold, alien green eyes. Time seemed to stop. Staring into his eyes that moment turned into an eternity, broken suddenly by the burning pain in her chest, the force of his attack sending her careening backwards.
~
His eyes.. What she'd seen there scared her to the depths of her soul. There was no feeling. There was no one home. Sephiroth had gone and a demon had taken his place.
In the mansion though, the stranger she'd met 5 years ago was back. Not the man who'd murdered her father, murdered Aeris. No… not him at all. As much as she tried she couldn't blame him for those deaths. Not anymore.
*
Such revelations.. While understood by no one.
When the new actor stole the show, who questioned his grace?
*
She understood now.
Author's note: I didn't change much here either.
