Improtant: I do not own any of the Final Fantasy rights, I am just borrowing them for your enjoyment.  Squaresoft owns all rights.  I repeat, I do not own any of the Final Fantasy rights.  I am just borrowing them.

FF7-2 Tears of Metal

Fifteen years earlier....

Cloud & Tifa lay under the large, radiant moon on top of the new bar, the 7th Haven. They were dressed in their regular clothes. Cloud with his purple suit & drown soft shoes. Then there was Tifa in her belly shirt and suspenders.

"Tifa", Cloud said staring at the moon, "we have been through a lot together, a real lot". Tifa turned up on her side and replied "yes we have, and I'm glad for it". "I feel the same way, and...well I wanted to know if you would...uh marry me."? Cloud swallowed hard but kept his focus on the moon, it was the only thing that could comfort him right now.

Tifa's mouth dropped open. She wanted him to ask that for such a long time she didn't know if it was real, if he was really saying it. She realized that she would get to be with her love for the rest of her life, she would get to be with Cloud.

Tifa moved closer to Cloud, his spiky blond hair smash in the back from the roof, but it would spring back to life as quickly as it had gone flat. That was one of the many things that she loved about him. She draped her arm over his chest and then placed her head on her arm.

Cloud lifted his head and looked down at her. Brown silky hair, short shirt which exposed part of her back as well of her front, and a nice ass to top it off. These were some of the physical things that he loved about her, but he felt this was about her personality too, she was the best person that he had ever meet. Simply they were meant to be with each other.

"Of course I will marry you", Tifa said as calmly as she could. Cloud knew she was holding back her enjoyment; it was something that she often did. He had learned this & much more about her on their journey together. Cloud sat his head back onto the roof top again and with a smile stare into the heavens.

He had helped Tifa build this new & improved tavern. They had finished a week before but they started a month before that. It was two stories tall which was why he didn't want Tifa up here, she just followed him up here after they closed up for the night.

Cloud raised his right hand & placed it on her side, then started rubbing back and forth. Tifa mover her free hand up and slid her fingers between his, then she rested their hands on her hip. Everything was perfect about this night. The air cool, clean, full of love. Everything was at bliss in the valley.

They both were heavily blushing, but you would have to stare at Cloud to see it, Tifa on the other hand stood out like a sore thumb. Her soft peach cheeks now were the color of a hot coal that hopped out of a raging fire.

Their little town was hidden in a deep pit. The walls were lined with sharp, jagged rocks. The only way out was to climb straight up the side. But it was peaceful there; they even had a small but powerful waterfall. Somehow a small river above the pit was diverted and now flows right into the pit. A large gorge that was made from the water beating the ground now collected the water that fell for at least fifty stories. From all the fresh water that rests in the gorge in addition to the sun that blares down on the quaint, little town a gargantuan array of flowers and crops flourished in the valley. It was really a perfect place to live.

The lovers stare up at the moon, talking of their wedding, of were they will live, and of other marriage related subjects until, out of the corner of his eye Cloud seen a quick flash of light jump from one of the edges over looking the valley. Cloud stopped in the m idle of the sentence about how they would have to build another room for the kids, and glanced at the ledge. All he could see was a black blur quickly sink behind a cluttered bunch of rocks that were around the top of the cliff. He didn't know who or what it was, he just knew that they were coming for him.

"Tifa, go down stairs and get my sword fro me. I will keep watch," Cloud said with a strong but worried voice. She jumped up and ran over to a panel on the roof. She grabbed a latch that almost blended in with the metallic door, gave it a swift tug which pulled it open and jumped down to the second floor.

Clouds attention still on the cliff quickly turned to the sound of a stool falling over and a few glass mugs falling to the floor. Moments later she emerged from the trap door in the roof carrying his sword. Cloud ran over to Tifa and put his hands on her shoulders, then stared deeply into her eyes and said "Tifa, I want you to go down in the cellar and lock your self in, when this is over I will come down and knock three times simultaneously, that is how you will know it is me. Now go".

Tifa stared back into his eyes "no, I am going to stay up here with you and fight, this is my town too," she urged him. "No", Cloud said with a very blunt voice. "You have to go down there, if something happens to you I will never forgive myself, now go." Tifa knew that Cloud was scared, not only for her but for himself too. She understood that she had to go, so she did. She ran toward the trap door and started to climb down the ladder when Cloud yelled "remember three knocks". "Don't worry, I will be fine she yelled back as she slid down the ladder to the second floor and disappeared.

Cloud ran over to the trap door and slammed it shut, and then he grabbed the handle and swiftly ripped if from the door. Cloud looked at the latch in his hand, and then to the two new holes in the door where the latch had been. They were only big enough for a pencil to fit though, but he had to be sure that no one could get in trough the roof. Cloud sat the metal in between the two holes and held his hands out in front of him pointing at the latch.

Suddenly as if a blast of air hit him, his clothes and his spiky blond hair stared to wildly dance back and forth. In front of his hand a red glowing ball formed. His face tightened, his feet slid into a more stable position, and his arm and shoulder muscles bulged. Everything in his body relaxed as soon as he let the ball fly from his hand and hit the latch instantly turning it into bubbling goo of metal. It reminded him of mercury.

Cloud turned to the ridge. A flash of lights disrupted the pleasant night sky above the valley. "Some kind of vehicle" he thought to himself. "This isn't going to be easy", Cloud said to out loud, "but hell is it going to be fun!" Cloud let the swords tip fall down on the roof top as he stared at the edge where he had seen the lights. The swords tip pierced one of the roofs panels next to him, the blade pointing toward the rock wall behind of him, and away from the assumed vehicle that was on the cliff on the other side of the valley.