THANK YOU to you who reviewed! is happy

chapter 2. The surreal chapter. Don't worry, it gets back to normal soon!

...Uh... by 'normal', I mean... aw, never mind.


Part 2 : Educating Tifa

"It got to all of us, didn't it?"

"Tifa..."

Someone was waving a hand in front of her face. The weird thing was that she had her eyes closed, or at least she'd thought she had. She'd thought she was asleep. It had been a relieving experience, to finally shut off from Yuffie's excited whispers about materia, Vincent, the world in general, materia, Cid's funny museum, Tifa's lovelife, materia... altogether making her wonder if it had been such a good idea to give in and say: 'I'll just stay one night, then.'

But now Tifa really wasn't sure what was happening.

She blinked. Although possibly her eyes stayed closed. Very odd, that. Must be a weird sort of dream.

"Tifa!"

"Alright..." she said blurrily, "I'm coming..." She looked up. She'd given up trying to make sense of the sleep/awake front.

"Aeris?" she breathed.

"Hi!"

"...Aeris?"

"Yeah! It's me!" Aeris giggled at the look on Tifa's face.

"But...Aeris!" said Tifa, still more than a little shaken.

"Yes!"

"Oh...OK."

Aeris grinned. "Feels like ages since I've seen you..." She was floating in - something. Butterflies around here. Butterflies, for pity's sake... And flowers. And it worked. It looked right. Beautiful. It was only what she deserved...

"Yeah... more than sixth months anyway..."

"How've you been?" There were slices of moonlight in her hair, and she looked just the same as ever...

Tifa opened her mouth and then shut it again. Not sure. Eventually she settled for "Oh... OK."

"Yeah?"

Tifa shrugged. "Yeah, I'm OK, I guess. Is it a stupid question to ask how you are?"

"Nah, course not. Well, I've been OK too. How's Cloud?"

"Probably OK," Tifa said simply. "In Junon now, I think."

"And you're not?"

"No."

"Why not?"

Now there was a nice simple question...

"I... I don't know... Everyone went their seperate ways..." Except Yuffie and Vincent, she thought suddenly. "I helped clear up Midgar for a bit, Cloud too, but we both got so sick of seeing such a sorry mess every day... It's better there now though, people got out and... yeah. I said I wanted to go off traveling for a bit or something. You know - exploring a la Yuffie, but it didn't turn out that fun really... Oh God, I'm making it sound all morbid and terrible..."

"You should go find him, Tif."

Tifa looked quizzically at the mysteriously floating girl. "I never really know what to say to him... He - misses you, you know."

"Yeah...? Well, you can tell him I miss him too. I miss all of you lot," she smiled again, eyes sparkling, "It was weird, wasn't it? It wasn't that long when we were all together, Saving the World and everything, but it got to all of us, didn't it?"

"I... guess so." I thought so, was what she wanted to say. Except now we've all gone off in different directions because there's a whole lot too many memories tying us up and we want to forget them. Do we? Do I?

"Have you really all lost touch with each other?"

Tifa shook her head. "Not all of us, certainly. It's not as bad as I make it seem. Yuffie and Vincent seem to be sticking together pretty well."

Aeris turned a light somersault in the not-quite-air, laughing. "Oooh, I-have-sinned Valentine and the Yuffster? That's so cool!"

Tifa grinned openly. "Yeah, it is. I dunno just how serious they are really, but - well, they're living the same house. Which happens to be the same house as Cid and Shera."

Aeris whistled. "That's some house!"

"Yeah. Things certainly get... interesting. There's a lot of 'Where's my £ing TEA?' and 'Who the £&£'s got my materia?'"

They two of them stood in the nothingness, remembering old times. Reminiscing? Tifa hadn't exactly expected that.

"Aeris... how come you're here?"

Aeris shrugged, her hair falling about a little too slowly, like it was in water. "Just came to say hi, I guess. I've been trying to get through for a bit, but I couldn't."

"This is really weird. For me, I mean."

"I don't think I've got it all down yet, but it's starting to make sense."

"What is?"

"Everything, I guess."

The only response Tifa was inspired to come up with was: "Oh, OK... And - Aeris... why me? Why did you come to see me?"

Aeris looked confused.

"Oh, not I mind or anything!" Tifa exclaimed. "I'm - I'm really happy I could - see you again... It's just - it doesn't make sense..."

"I wouldn't worry too much. Look, Tifa, I'm also telling you to go find Cloud and talk to him or something. Think of it like a death-bed wish, only a bit too late."

"...Aeris...?"

"Hey, it's OK, I can make jokes about death! It's not disrespectful or anything; I'm dead, remember?"

"No, it's not that... It's just - you really wouldn't mind me finding Cloud and - anything that might happen then?"

"I really wouldn't mind."

"You sure? He... loves you."

Aeris sighed, and a smile crept up on her face. "Look, the way I see it, I'm dead, and he's not. And you're not. And, yeah, I think I loved him, love him, but so do you and - look, it's OK, OK?"

"OK..." said Tifa. "Thanks. Er... have you ever - seen him...? Recently, I mean?"

"I couldn't." Aeris smiled sadly. "Besides, I think it might just freak him out... He'd think he was going crazy, and I couldn't put him through that. You know he's kinda been through a lot..."

Tifa nodded slowly. "Yeah, I got that..." Then she tried to think of something else to say. "What about Zack?" she finally asked.

"Yeah... you know, I miss him a lot... It feels like ages ago, though. Maybe I'll go find him." She looked up to whatever was above eternity. She somersaulted over again. "Yeah... maybe I'll do that," she grinned.

Tifa watched her flying, jumping. "Hey..." she said shyly, "How do you do that flippy thing?"

Aeris leapt lightly over to her and took her non-existant hand in hers. "Here." They jumped through the air, scattering petals and pale wings and fragments of light, and Tifa still didn't understand.

"So..." Tifa wasn't sure if it was possible to be out of breath here, but she thought she was. "Is this what you do now? Are you - are you still here, around the Planet somewhere?"

"I -" Aeris stopped and bit her nonexistant lip. "I don't think I'm meant to tell you that... Trade secrets of the Lifestream and all..." She shrugged. "It doesn't really matter. But - um, I think something else big is going to happen. Big-ish, anyway."

"What?"

"I can't quite tell... It's weird. Whatever. It'll make sense soon. Look," she said again, with emphasis, "Tifa: go get Cloud. Go find him and stop him being all morbid and mopey and make sure he eats his greens and looks both ways when he crosses a road and - and try to make him happy. I know that's a tall order, but can you please try?"

"Y-yeah. Sure."

"I think - I think he might need you pretty soon."

Tifa looked at Aeris suspiciously. "Is that in a rhetorical romantic sense, or is there really going to be another world crisis?" she asked.

"I'm... not sure."

Can dead people lie? Tifa looked carefully at Aeris. "It seems like a pretty major point to me!"

"Yeah, probably..." She shrugged. "But like I said, it will come clear sometime."

"I guess I'll just have to trust you on that one."

"Yeah. Trust someone anyway. Keep on smiling, Tifa. The world'll never get us down."

She grabbed Tifa's hand again and they somersaulted and span and spiraled into the soft vastness of the void beyond the world, dancing free, and the butterflies were brighter all around...


End of chapter 2 :) Wake UP, Tifa! Stay tuned, and all... Oh, and by the way: review, while you're at it?

Chapter 3 is up too because I didn't feel like leaving you floating in the void of nothingness. Isn't that peachy?