Author's Note: I split this chapter in two because it's two different points of view. Same time frame, kinda...there's a little bit of time warpage, you'll figure it out a little as you read. Enjoy!

Chapter 21 – Coda Act I

Tifa opened her eyes, and saw that she was no longer in the room; at least as it had previously been. Everything that should have been solid now had lines around it that jiggled like someone wasn't holding the camera steady. She also noticed that the objects in the room, like the forgotten table at the far end, passed through her hands like ghosts. The she saw her own body, slumped onto the floor, holding Vincent's gun in her right hand, and his hand in her left.

I must be dead. There is no other explanation...and I killed him too. I always knew that happy endings were too good to be true...

She saw that Tiveph was still standing, the ethereal blade of the Masamune covered in faint blood. Her vision felt strained, seeing everything in the half light.

Then again, Tiveph was clear as day.

She noticed finally that he didn't look like a machine at all, he kind of reminded her of an old and almost kindly looking Sephiroth. The pale skeletal feel of the machinery lingered, like a double exposed photograph, but the human image was stronger. She finally found the pieces from Chaos's projections...the man from her memory and the man standing before her were one.

His deepening blue eyes finally focused on her. There was no time in this place, and she felt its absence keenly, as he stared at her for undetermined periods.

"Am I dead?" she asked, feeling the hollowness of a voice that didn't sound like her own.

"If you choose to be," he answered, sounding less than beautiful, the enhancement of mechanical speech gone, "You are in between, where the lost souls go."

A groan echoed in this strange world, piercing through the white veiled silence.

"You are lucky, you know," he commented strangely, his physical self inspecting her cast off body, "You have nothing that would prevent you from entering the Lifestream. You could finally rest."

Tifa! Did you pull the trigger?

"What was that?" she asked, feeling the strangeness of the voice, "...Vincent?"

You must hurry!

"Your are still so tied to the living," he observed, still inspecting her form, "It's cruel how you no longer recognize his voice..." His voice in the physical realm was saying strange things, but she could only see the artificial movements of his prosthetic lips.

"Cloud?" she whispered, the breathiness of the word filling up the void. Tiveph nodded, unruly strands of silver hair falling into his blue eyes.

"He has been granted passage into the living," he muttered, the gravel scraping of the syllables making the wavering lines jagged, "Lucrecia has betrayed me. She could always overpower the being I attached to her...Emotions are so frail sometimes."

She would have gasped if she had breath to do so. The pale silhouette of Vincent had risen, his mouth speaking a few words that she could not hear. She would have smirked in response to Tiveph's stone faced horror, etched into every metal and fiber of his physical self.

"He can't die, Tiveph," she said knowingly, the echo filling his eyes, "This is what you and Hojo created...and what will destroy you." He laughed; a lackluster tremble.

"If he destroys my physical form, I will just make a new one..." he sneered, a sandpaper on metal sound, "I will just find your descendants, and use them. The Exulted will rise again, for he cannot die...and when all of your friends are dead, he will have no distractions.

Hurry! Did you pull the trigger...?

Vincent was holding the gun, silent and deadly, like he always tried to be. His left hand was shaking uncontrollably, blurred in her vision.

"I only wanted to give their dreams reality," Tiveph spoke without malice, "They, with their 'Heaven' and their 'Hell'. All he had to do was kill you, this demon I created...and you would have gone running into your beloved's arms."

Vincent stood in suspended animation, for this world had no time, no measure of passing.

"My 'beloved'? You killed him!" she cried like a banshee, the sounds tore and ripped, "You put this 'Emotion' in control...he wasn't right, I felt so confused..." Tiveph's lip curled.

Vincent's hand began shaking again, but his other hand, his gun hand was oddly steady.

"We can still make it happen," he began calmly, "If you choose: Heaven or Hell." He held up his left hand, splitting the image of the room in two. She saw the cockpit of Cid's ship, with an exhausted Cloud slumped over in his seat. His lips were muttering something...

Go! Go...I understand...

She reached her incorporeal hand towards the gun; she felt his warm fingers...

"If you choose Heaven, I can assure you he will meet you there," Tiveph kept his voice from scratching, blue eyes pulsing, "And you will have fulfilled your purpose. You have all the experience and all of the purity necessary."

I should have told you so long ago...

Her body melded in with his own, her eyes matching his, red and cinnamon mingling...

"If you choose Hell, you will meet your demon," Tiveph kept steady, seemingly unaware of her movements, "You will have damned all of humanity in the process. Is his life worth that much?"

I love you...but...go to him...

Their hands, a subtle and steady movement, pulled the trigger.

"I choose the Lifestream," she said defiantly, as the two bullets floated through the air, "I want to save them both."

"Wait for me in the stars..." he whispered, "My dearest...Jenova..."

They met their mark.

The little girl peered over her, tickling her nose with a daisy. Tifa opened her eyes, assaulted by the sunshine in the meadow. The girl giggled, brown hair bouncing as she did so.

"I know you..." Tifa said, smiling widely. The girl handed her the daisy.

"You chose well, granddaughter," the girl whispered in her ear. Tifa gasped, eliciting another giggle from the girl. Then the girl traipsed off towards a woman, whose sparkling green eyes danced.

She opened her eyes, the solid feel of reality sinking in. She sat up quickly, noticing the two fallen figures. She fumbled over to him, unsteady on her feet. She crouched down, pressing her ear on his chest, not feeling the heartbeat...

Author's Note: The voice in the bold italics is Cloud. Yep. Just my interepretation of how he felt, don't kill me Cleris fans. Although, this isn't a Cloti either. Hmm. The "little girl" is from that one little dreamy like sequence Tifa had, as well as Chaos's "projections" about his own life. So, essentially, in my messed up geneology, Lucrecia and Tifa are kinda related (Tifa's grandma is Lucrecia's aunt). Weird, I know, but I felt like it. Ok, this is long enough, get to reading the second part...