Start Date: October 30, 2022

Windwillow

Final Fantasy VII Gaiden

Bound for Midgar

Putting Nibelheim behind them, Zangan and Tifa navigated the rest of the western continent to get to Midgar. After receiving help from the folks at Cosmo Canyon and a chance encounter with a younger Dyne, the pair reached the Mythril Mines and Zangan was forced to bid farewell to his long time partner Fujioka. With one continent out of the way, it's through the eastern continent to finish the journey.

Chapter Three: Finding Heaven

Scene One

The parting of Zangan and Fujioka was rough for the both of them. When he undid his chocobo's harness for a final time and lifted Tifa onto his back Zangan looked deeply into his friend's eyes and smiled, then nodded. Fujioka let our a cheerful chirp, bowed his head, and hesitantly stepped away before turning and running into the wild. Zangan quietly turned to the cave and slowly entered its shadowy interior, his heart quaking at having lost his closest friend. All he could hope was that Fujioka could find happiness in the wild...

His trip through the Mythril Mines was uneventful until a pair of Madouges barred his path. He laid Tifa down carefully behind a rock and turned to the flail wielding monsters with a look of fury. There was no way they would take her from him now, after all he'd sacrificed. Taking one step he slowly transitioned into a series of steps, hardened his fists, and blasted the first Madouge into pieces with a single, brutal punch. The second spun its weapon high above its headless torso, kicking up a vast amount of wind pressure, but Zangan reared back and drove his arm through the monster. As the Madouge's body literally crumbled to pieces, Zangan's senses alerted him to more danger.

Several undulating serpents, known as Crawlers, slithered their way towards the defenseless Tifa. Zangan's foot literally broke open part of the ground as he zoomed past Tifa and put himself in between her and the monsters, sliding to a stop with his fists put up in a fighting stance. Seemingly intimidated at first, the Crawlers nevertheless lunged towards the pair. Zangan drew one arm back and hardened it, then thrust it forward. The resulting wind pressure was enough to rip the monsters to shreds, their innards splattering the walls of the cave. He took in a deep breath before Zangan turned back to Tifa. While on his way a large crab monster - twice his size - known as a Castanets reared up from behind him.

"Just get out of my face, you monster!" Zangan screamed as he clapped his hands together, causing a massive wave of fire that engulfed both of his arms. The flames intensified into a large sphere, became encased in the deep darkness of his hardened fingers, and he turned around and slung it at the beast. "I am not in the mood to screw with you!" he snarled as the fireball became hardened by his will power to create what looked almost like a large sphere of magma, which blasted the Castanets from its shell and burned it alive. The Castanets' body dissolved in a pillar of fire and Zangan again took Tifa in his arms and exited the Mines.

Upon exiting the Mythril Mines, Zangan and Tifa found themselves in a wide expanse of marshland, the Mythril Marshes were the Midgardsormr hunted. One of the reasons Zangan had wanted to keep Fujioka was because he knew of the Marshes, and that only chocobos could safely cross it. Now greeted by the wide wasteland they'd have to cross, Zangan took the time to unpack his supplies in front of the swamp and set up camp. At least here they were relatively safe.

Zangan erected the tent he'd gotten from Cosmo Canyon and propped it up against a large tree in the center of the area. Five years later it would be ripped clean of foliage and used to impale the mighty beast that roamed the marshlands, but then it was a sort of safe haven for travelers to rest under before either entering the Mythril Mines or setting out through the Mythril Swamp. Assembling a bit of kindling, he blasted it with a pulse of flame to create a camp site for Tifa and himself to spend the night.

Here the gloom and darkness of Midgar was not yet in sight, and the stars in the sky were still clearly visible. While sitting around the fire with Tifa, who was inside the tent, Zangan stared into the flames, paying close attention to each flickering ember. It really was quite calming. He took in a deep breath and exhaled, a tiny bit of air causing the fire to intensify for a moment. They'd come a long, long way to get there, and the voyage had drained him both physically and mentally. He could already feel a slight cough coming on as the time passed, and his mighty muscles had begun to ache. The weight of his age was further burdened with his great responsibility to Tifa, and throughout the journey he'd slowly begun to deteriorate, but he had resolved to take Tifa to safety in Midgar.

"Hey, Tifa... I know you aren't awake, but can we talk for a bit? I believe you can keep all this stuff a secret, right?" asked Zangan as he sat Indian style before the fire, turning his head to a silent Tifa inside her tent. "I think it's been a couple months since we left Nibelheim, but doesn't it feel so much longer?" he pondered as he scratched his head. "Through all of it you haven't said a word, and the only interaction I've had with you is to feed and water you, but I believe we've grown closer. I've carried you, held you, stared into your closed eyes, and through it all I feel like we've been talking to each other... Strange, right? I mean, I've never been closer to any of my students..."

I never had a wife or child, devoting my life to the martial arts I'd learned from Old Man Duncan some forty, fifty years ago... Over a hundred students later, not a single one of them could master Final Heaven... None of them would have ever been ready...

"Sure, a few of my students could control their aura competently, and many of them could produce shock waves from their limbs," he chuckled, "but I never found anyone I could trust to pass down Duncan's final Blitz. The first time I saw him do it, the world lost a nice, little old wooden house... and I never wanted to show anyone else the level of power that grand mastery could invoke..." sighed Zangan sadly, his sight fading into the fire. "Frankly, it frightened me... I never thought a person could wield that much raw power..."

Old Man Duncan vaporized that dilapidated house, the one he'd trained me in and that he'd deemed no longer necessary. When he saw that I was ready to accept the ramifications of the power he'd taught me... Prepared to temper that power with mercy and focus... He showed me the zenith of the power I'd sought all my life. I was never prouder, and I'd like to think he felt the same way. He was like a father to me, something I hadn't had while I was growing up.

"A year later, Old Man Duncan was done in by his own son Vargas..." sighed Zangan sadly, his eyes closing tightly in pain. "Sneaked up at on him at night and slit his throat because he hadn't been the one chosen to succeed the old man... I confronted the scoundrel, accused him of patricide. To the end he mocked his father, and myself..." Zangan growled, clenching his fist tightly. "Each insult delivered by my master's murderer, his own son no less, stoked my fire, until at last I slaughtered him with my own two hands. Once I'd done so, I realized that I'd betrayed Duncan's last wish, and fell victim to my own emotions... I'd shamed myself..."

I buried you both together, right next to your dear wife, the one you'd devoted your life to, and when she'd died you sought something greater than grief... You found dedication, pride, passion, and love, love for your son and pride in all your students... Myself included...

"And I violated that pride when I murdered Vargas!" Zangan growled as he clenched his fist tight enough to draw blood. Allowing the liquid to drip down his palm, he slowly licked it from his wrist and spat it to the side. "I learned the hard way what he'd taught me, what I'd forgotten in my anger. That's when I promised I'd never use that technique..." he sighed, turning to a still unconscious Tifa. "But maybe... just maybe... you'll be pure enough to put it to good use. Someday, I want to teach it to you... When I can see your soul is clear enough to see through to the core..."

You gave me the joy that Duncan had with his family. And I will never, ever forget what you've given me, Tifa... Not till my dying day...

Through the crackling of the fire, Zangan heard a slight noise and whirled around to its source. He found Tifa snoring, something she hadn't done since before Sephiroth severed her heart and ruined her life. Even after all she'd been through, she still had the gall to fall asleep while her teacher was talking. A warm smile crossed Zangan's face, as did a tear that he wiped away, before he leaned back against the tree and drifted off to sleep.

You're my family, Tifa... Like the love he gave me, I give it to you...

Scene Two

As the morning dawned, so too did the journey began anew. Zangan packed up his supplies and took a drink from his water bottle, also pausing to give Tifa a little bit of liquid to tide her over until they reached the next checkpoint. After extinguishing the dying embers of the camp fire, he lifted Tifa onto his back and began to quietly enter the Mythril Marshes. Stealth and a little bit of luck were what they needed, though a little protection from someone up above would have also been welcome.

Silently, slowly, the two of them navigated the marsh in relative comfort, without the danger of being attacked by monsters. In fact, there were no monsters in the Mythril Marshes. They'd all been hunted to extinction by the Midgardsormr. In some cases they'd found small oases to rest as well, easing the difficulty of their journey. Their travels continued smoothly as they finally reached the end of the Marshes and saw a lone ranch in the distance with chocobos grazing in the pasture.

The smile that crossed Zangan's face was quickly fouled as the earth began to tremble. Breaking into a full sprint he carried Tifa through the marsh until they'd nearly cleared it, but by then the source of the trembling - the Midgardsormr that had been tracking them - had broken from the swampy ground to its full, monstrous size. The Midgardsormr was easily a hundred feet long and dozens of feet high, a natural predator that had conquered nature as its own personal hunting ground, and now it licked its lips as the beast glared at Zangan and Tifa.

"You'll take her over my cold, dead body, you monster!" Zangan hissed, whirling about to meet the Midgardsormr with rage in his eyes. He gingerly removed Tifa from his back and laid her gently into the marshes, rising to meet the hissing monstrosity, man versus monster. There was to be no mercy. "I've never used it before... I never thought I had the right to..." he snarled as he lowered his eyes, turning them to his sleeping student. "But now, for the first time in my life... I'll show you Hell..."

Zangan hardened his fingers and tightened them into a fist. Slowly, he extended each digit until his palm was fully open, and a stillness filled his being as he slowly shut his eyes. His fingers started to glow with all the colors of the rainbow, a blinding light coating his entire hand. Soon the light condensed into a small sphere that he gripped as if it were a baseball, coated in multicolored light with sparks of black electricity crackling around the orb. The veins on his wrist thickened in intensity as the muscles of his right arm began to flex wildly from the intensity of the energy he was manipulating. Waiting no longer, the Midgardsormr let out an unholy roar and began to slither towards Zangan and Tifa, ready to consume them with its venomous fangs. As it continued to undulate it began to come closer and closer, and the orb Zangan held grew in density and began to be consumed with white lightning that danced with the dark electricity. Finally, the Midgardsormr lunged at Zangan with its fangs outstretched, maw stretched open wide to consume him.

It was given no such opportunity. Dashing through the swampland, Zangan paused briefly before leaping forward with his right arm stretched back. The Midgardsormr's fangs briefly enveloped Zangan, almost closing in to swallow him whole, but when the martial artist slammed his shining fingers into the roof of its mouth the entire beast stopped cold, as if frozen in time. Zangan's attack was absorbed into the Midgardsormr's head, which was engulfed in multicolored light that began to coat the beast's entire body in a sheen of clear white. Zangan tightened his fingers and cracked open the sphere he held, and a titanic column of energy, laced with lightning bolts and pulses of pure energy, quickly shot through the Midgardsormr's body and engulfed it in in white light that vaporized it in a silent explosion that upended the surrounding area and turned it into a massive crater. Somehow the crater was focused on the Midgardsormr itself, with none of the energy leaving the area it inhabited, and as Zangan closed his fist the monster was completely wiped off the face of the Planet in what looked like a nuclear explosion that dissolved the marsh around the beast and rent it asunder until there was only a gaping hole in the earth.

As he nimbly landed in the decimated terrain, Zangan's fingers released a huge gust of steam and fire before it died down and dissolved completely. He took in a deep breath and flexed his aching arm, using his Cure materia to lessen the impact that the attack had taken on his body. The effect was many times more powerful than any normal human could handle, and was condensed enough that little damage was dealt to his arm, at least in comparison to what untrained efforts could create. But even so, it left a steaming burn on his arm that gave him significant discomfort and would remain sore for hours because of the exceptional power he'd called upon, for to rend heaven wrought hell on the mortal body.

"Ugh, damn..." gasped Zangan, gripping his burning fingers. The aftereffects were quickly dispersed by way of his extensive training, though. He took in a deep breath and waved his arm around to cool it before turning back to a still sleeping Tifa. "I... really pray you never have to do this, Tifa... It's really only sheer willpower that's keeping my body from breaking down... and that kind of determination only comes from the desire to protect someone..." he sighed with a heavy heart. "I think you'll find someone you love that much one day... and I pray I can walk you down the aisle with him..."

Scene Three

With the incident of the Midgardsormr resolved, Zangan resumed carrying Tifa across the plains towards the chocobo ranch several meters away. Along the way, though exhausted from using Final Heaven, Zangan's aura intimidated away a number of monsters who then thought better of engaging the martial artist and his ward. By the time Zangan and Tifa made it to the ranch, he was on the verge of collapse. And when he got there, he did collapse. The darkness took hold of him, and the last thing he saw was an oncoming pair of boots before passing out.

Ugh, dammit... Did I make it to the ranch? Is Tifa okay?

"You scared us something fierce, man."

Zangan shot straight up in bed, surprising Choco Bill and nearly sending him backwards with a heart attack. His eyes darting wildly, Zangan quickly located Tifa, asleep on a couch on the other end of Choco Bill's living room. He breathed a haggard sigh of relief, slowly staggering from where he'd been laying.

"Holy hell!" shrieked Choco Bill as he skittered back on the floor to grab his shotgun. He managed to stand and aim the weapon at Zangan, but quickly lowered it and wiped the sweat from his brow. "Well, you're awake. 'Bout time, too..." sighed the rancher, laying the shotgun on the table and pulling up a chair. "You've been out for three days, dude."

"How is the girl?" asked Zangan quietly, holding his aching head in his hands as he shook off his fatigue. He turned his eyes to Tifa and, relieved, fell back on the bed flat on his back. "Well, I... I don't know how to thank you for your kindness, sir..." Zangan muttered as he dragged himself to a sitting position. "I'm sorry that I can't offer anything to repay your kindness..."

"D-Don't sweat it!" Choco Bill sighed with relief. For a minute he'd thought he'd have to fight the man right after saving him, and judging by Zangan's muscles he wasn't likely to win. "A-A-Anyway, I've been looking after you and the little lass for the last three days. I couldn't very well let a dying man and a half-dead teenager die on my watch! When you first got here, I couldn't believe you had come from the Mythril Marshes... To escape the Midgardsormr, you'd have to have the devil's luck and most likely a contract with the old fellow..."

As he rose, Zangan kept his eyes almost exclusively on Tifa. He staggered a bit at first, but managed to get to her side and crouched down. Softly caressing her hair he smiled as she flinched a bit, proof she was still in there somewhere. Zangan breathed a haggard sigh of relief and turned to Choco Bill with a smile. He'd found a savior in a county bumpkin that had just aimed a shotgun at his head.

"I'm grateful you saved us, sir..." Zangan sighed, brushing Tifa's hair out of her face. He managed to rise and extended his hand to Choco Bill. "We need to get to Midgar as soon as possible. Could you supply us with a chocobo? My gratitude is already great and I hate to ask any more of you, but to help me get Tifa to the city would be doing God's work... Can you help us?"

"Aye, aye! Sure thing!" trilled Choco Bill as he shook Zangan's hand. "The cost for one chocobo is fifty thousand Gil. Now, for the bargain price of-" Choco Bill shrieked as Zangan's handshake tightened into a vice grip that nearly cut off his circulation, a look of fright forming in his eyes as Zangan stared back at him with a very different expression than what he'd had just a few moments earlier. "Or not. It's on the house!" he squeaked. "Pleasure doing business with you!"

Scene Four

With the chocobo provided by Choco Bill (acquired effectively at gunpoint), Zangan and Tifa crossed the Midgar wastelands without being attacked. While Giovanni's group considered mugging them, they decided against it for two reasons: One, they had nothing to offer. Two, the Rockets had the feeling that they'd be ground into an unrecognizable pulp if they tried to fight someone with his muscles. So, they exempted the two from being robbed.

At last at the gates to Midgar, Zangan staggered from the chocobo he'd received, who promptly turned and ran back to its master, relieved to be free of Zangan's brutal command. They'd been on a forced march for several days, and it had been forced to scale cliffs and navigate narrow passageways under threat of physical harm, so it was quite pleased to be rid of the two. Zangan breathed a heavy sigh and laid Tifa against the wall of the city before dropping to his knees from exhaustion.

Ugh, God damn... Every crack and crevice on my body hurts like the devil... I've never been this sore in my life, even after Duncan's training...

Staggering to his feet Zangan guided himself to the gate, where he fell against it and barely caught himself from falling. He began to bang on the wall, asking to be let in. There was no response, so he continued to bang. Five minutes later he broke the gate down with a single punch and entered the city slums, nearly at the end of his physical limits but still forcing his body to move. He'd crossed the ocean and half the world to get there, and damned if he wasn't going to get her the help she needed.

He managed to navigate the Sector Seven slums and made his way, literally begging, to a hospital on the top of the Plate. There he finally made it to a surgeon and implored that they save Tifa. Reluctantly, they agreed. After several hours of intense surgery, her near-fatal wound was finally healed and the massive scar Sephiroth left was restored via plastic surgery. The doctor delivered Tifa to him, gave him the bill, and lost a dozen teeth when Zangan fled from the hospital. While he didn't want to do so, like Bugenhagen had said, he had no other way to pay and he truly would do anything - even this - to save his student.

She first opened her eyes in a tattered bed in the Sector Seven slums several days later. While every bit of her body was sore, she somehow didn't feel like she'd been torn in half, the last sensation she'd felt. Though she desperately tried to remember what happened, and sorrowfully remembered that Cloud had failed his promise, Tifa lifted herself from her bed with a haggard breath. The first thing she saw was her master Zangan, smiling down at her. She cracked a feeble smile and clutched her bandaged shoulder in pain.

"Ow!" she croaked. "Mother-" Zangan's hand clapped hard over Tifa's mouth, fiercely restraining her from speaking any further. After a little bit of struggling, Zangan finally relented and Tifa managed to force herself upright. She carefully took inventory of every part of her body and, finding that everything was still intact, fell back down on her back again, breathed a hard sigh, and smiled with a little more oomph. "Good morning, Master..." she rasped weakly.

"Good morning, sleepyhead!" Zangan laughed, surpressing a cough. The extensive travel had damaged his body considerably, and the pain was only just beginning to spread. "It took you long enough to wake up!" he chided lightly. "After all this time, you really had me worried, honey. I'd appreciate it if you never did that again!"

With a laugh, Tifa shut her eyes briefly, slowly opening them upon further thought. There was some sort of... gap... between being slashed by Sephiroth and waking up in Midgar. She had no memory of what Zangan had gone through to bring her to Midgar, and didn't recall his words to her at the end of the Mythril Mines. To her, the last thing she remembered was Sephiroth leering down at her at the Mako reactor.

"H-Hey... Hey!" coughed Tifa, holding her aching head. She turned to Zangan with a look of sincere confusion, trying to discern the answers she sought from her master's eyes. "What happened to me? How did I get here? What-" Zangan's embrace silenced her immediately. As she lifted her eyes to meet them, she watched her master's eyes slowly tear up. "How long have I been out?" hacked Tifa. Zangan smiled warmly, desperately embraced Tifa's body, and offered no response. "What are you-" she gasped. "What just-"

"Hush, child..." chided Zangan, eyes tearing up as he embraced her with all the might left in his body. After everything that had happened, everything they'd been through together, she only needed to know one thing. "You're home, now, Tifa... Our home, together..." he croaked weakly.

Scene Five

Their long journey at an end, master and student settled in to the Sector Seven slums to create a new life for themselves. Given that he was a wanted man atop the Plate, Zangan was forced to keep a low profile in the slums, performing odd jobs to earn enough money to keep the two afloat. In some cases he acted as a bodyguard, other times a bouncer, but never again compromised his values as a martial artist. Eventually, he established a small dojo and began training a handful of students.

As the years passed, Tifa matured and became a vibrant young woman, devoid of the past horrors she'd endured in Nibelheim. Her body, fully repaired, showed no signs of the near lethal damage she'd been dealt by Sephiroth. There were no scars or after effects from the flawlessly performed surgery, and as time passed what was once baby fat hardened into pure muscle. In her spare time between sparring sessions, she learned how to cook and became an amateur mixologist. Some of her part time jobs involved cooking and cleaning, and eventually she managed to gather together enough money to form her own bar, Seventh Heaven, in the Sector Seven slums, where she doubled as the bouncer. Her fiery nature made hiring one unnecessary.

Zangan continued to train Tifa as best he could. Still, the damage that he had accumulated on his journey to Midgar left lasting health problems that plagued him for the rest of his life. His lungs became weak, his muscles sore, and eventually he was forced to retire from working altogether and become a full time martial arts teacher. Gradually he gained and lost students, many times because he was so strict a mentor, until finally only Tifa remained under his tutelage.

When asked about what he'd gone through to bring her to Midgar, Zangan would quickly change the subject, and when Tifa pressed him he replied by poking her in the gut with two fingers and chastised her for slacking off in her training. Eventually her training advanced to the level where she was taught how to create shock waves from her body parts, and was trained in grappling, boxing, and kickboxing among other disciplines. On several occasions he'd dropped hints of his more advanced techniques - hardening, the Aura Bolt, and other things he thought she wasn't ready for. While he briefly mentioned Final Heaven, Zangan changed the subject even faster, refusing to say anything further. After having tormented his body by performing it once, he had no desire to inflict that same pain on his ward.

Gradually, as Tifa's training continued, Zangan become progressively weaker and weaker, often subject to fits of coughing and long bouts of illness. He quickly dismissed her concerns, often ordering her to perform stunts of training that she insisted she couldn't do. When she pulled it off, she celebrated rather... inappropriately... and was scolded by Zangan for it. He ground the ideas of discipline and modesty into her, and warned her of falling for men who were out to exploit her. That turned out mostly unnecessary judging by the amount of dubious suitors who'd walked away beaten half to death, and all he could do was laugh.

His final moments with her lasted for only a few minutes before he'd asked her to leave him alone, something she did only reluctantly. As he drifted in and out of consciousness, he relived the trials that they'd gone through since leaving Midgar, fondly remembering falling asleep next to the comatose child. Even without reacting to her surroundings, Tifa had provided enough comfort to him by simply laying next to him. The journey was worth the cost, and in his last breaths his mind turned back to that night in the Mythril Marshes, and what he'd said to her. And when she began to snore, he recalled, she'd sounded so peaceful, even after everything she'd endured. Slowly, steadily, his breath began to wane until only a final gasp remained.

I'm sorry that I won't see you fall in love... and that I won't walk you down the aisle one day. But... you know... All those times I spent with you... They made me happier than I ever have. I love you, Tifa... Be well...

And so he drifted off to eternal slumber, never to awake. When Tifa discovered him she bawled and sobbed uncontrollably, clutched his body desperately in an attempt to wake him up. The one thing she'd never realized was that he died with a smile on his face, not a tear nor a grimace. Through the times he'd spent with her, he'd found his own, final heaven.

Author's Notes

All of this was previously one chapter with Chapter Two, like I said last chapter. But I'll go into a bit more detail in this third chapter than I did with the original notes. Not that the original notes weren't too relevant to finishing the fic - there were just two paragraphs in the notes that applied to this, the rest going to Chapter Two. From there it kind of expanded into another chapter, so I split it up and made Chapter Three. One of the main reasons I split it up was actually so I could use the title for this chapter... Seemed fitting to end with that name.

Zangan's monologue was the highlight for me. I tried my best to make it impactful and kind of cement his history a bit. The basic concept is borrowed from Final Fantasy VI, and Sabin's backstory with his master who shares the name of Zangan's. I completely pulled it out of my ass that it connected like that, but at least it kind of sets up Zangan's back story a bit. Otherwise he's just "old master dude", so hopefully it made him more of his own character.

Writing the Final Heaven attack was fun. The original idea came from Chapter Thirty of the main fic, where Cloud fuses his Bolt and Fire materia to create a nuclear reaction that nearly takes his arm out, and that part was totally improvised. My original notes weren't really focusing on that unknowingly set up for Final Heaven. My intent is to have Tifa use her version at some point in part three, Destruction or Deliverance, which comes after The World Beyond which I'm presently writing and which you may already be reading. The first idea I had ended up like the Sand Worm fight; it was too big for the enemy I was going to use it on. I'm hoping unleashing Armageddon on the new target will be a bit more satisfying. I want to make said target wish she was never born.

The Choco Bill segment wasn't in the notes at all. Bringing him back was mostly to have Zangan beat him up. Not much else to say... Maybe a bit of Zangan ended up rubbing off on Tifa?

Then we come to the final bit in Midgar. Tifa's bit with Zangan clapping his hand over her mouth was spur of the moment but it felt right, rounding out the running joke she uses on everyone else. From there on it was just cleanup, but the final paragraph convinced me to make a new chapter just so I could name it "Finding Heaven."

Other than that, the piece is what it is. This was a nice little diversion from the main story for me to write, and compared to FFIV it was about the right length for me to take a break from working for. As of the writing of these author's notes, 10/30/22, I hadn't started the notes for Cosmo Canyon yet, but earlier today (11/2/22) I finished them. I'd like to think I threw in a few surprises and twists in the arc that were never included in the game, and look forward to hopefully showing you some things that Square Enix never intended to be canon... but it's cool, so I want to do it.

A couple scenes with Aerith ought to be entertaining, and of course Yuffie will provide some comic relief. Besides that, I'll expand on Red XIII's new weapon and return to the concept of Materia Fusion, plus a tiny addition of Materia Infusion that I again pulled out of nowhere. Beyond that we have Nibelheim and the introduction of Vincent... so it'll be havoc trying to do it all justice and put my own stamp on it as well. I still haven't hammered out some parts of Vincent, honestly... He's quite a problem to put my finger on, but I'll figure something out.

I hope you enjoyed hearing a story never before told. With all the effort Zangan put into reviving Tifa, he deserved his moment in the sun, even if just for three chapters by a solitary, unknown author. Maybe he even became a deeper person altogether, or maybe it was just a story that no one told because no one thought to or needed to. I'm leaving that decision up to you guys. Peace out.