Tifa slumped down in her chair. A glass of untouched water sat on the table in front of her. She drummed her fingers as she sat thinking about the fight. She had been doing that a lot lately. She could see that scene replay in front of her eyes. It wasn't the actual fight that bothered her, in fact, that part didn't even interest her. It was what happened later, after everything had been cleaned up that intrigued her. She couldn't figure out how they could sit back down and ignore eachother after what had taken place.
Turning her head so that she was looking towards the window, Tifa drifted away from reality, allowing the fight to take place again behind her closed eyelids.
It was perhaps a couple weeks after the fight. Tifa never bothered to keep track of the days anymore. All she knew were when to leave for work, and when to come back. She let her stomach tell her if she was hungry or not. Very often she was not.
There had been no commotion after the fight. Tifa didn't know what she had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't this. Neither Jessie, Biggs, nor Wedge had returned to the bar after that night. Tifa didn't mind, she preferred it if she didn't have to talk to anybody. And if they had returned to the bar, she would certainly have to talk with them. Shinra had neither talked about it on the news, nor had they sent soldiers to the bar. It was as if the whole thing hadn't happened. This was the exact same reaction the customers had had after the fight. They ignored the fact that it had ever taken place. Thinking about it led Tifa to believe that perhaps Shinra and the slums weren't as different as everyone believed.
The more she thought about it, the more it made sense. The people in the bar during the fight had completely ignored that it had ever happened. Shinra was now doing the same thing. The slums hated Shinra, and Shinra hated the slums. The people in both were dirty, lying bastards who couldn't care less about anything but themselves and their money. To survive in either world you HAD to be like that, there was no other way.
Tifa shook her head. No, she thought. The slums and Shinra are very different. I live in the slums! How can I say I have anything in common with them! A thin smile crept across her face. How indeed? Shinra certainly can't say they have anything in common with me.
Loud gunshots from outside brought Tifa out of her thoughts. She got up from the small card table and moved over to the window. Looking down on the scene below, she watched as Shinra troopers piled out of two company vans which had been patrolling the street.
They quickly surrounded the man firing the shots. From her vantage point, Tifa could see that he was big, probably twice as big as the Shinra troopers. It looked like he had a child on his shoulder, though Tifa couldn't be sure. The man was firing his gun like a madman. Strange, Tifa thought, it almost looks as if the bullets are coming from his arm.
They were beginning to draw a crowd now. People gathered around the soldiers, who had formed a large circle. Tifa stood up and left the apartment, deciding to go down and see for herself what all the commotion was about.
As she entered the street and pushed her way through the crowd, Tifa saw that indeed the man had a gun grafted onto his right arm where one's hand would normally be. He towered above the troopers, shooting his gun and showing no sign of surrendering. On the other side of the crowd, Tifa thought she saw Wedge, but he disappeared again before she could be sure.
Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity of hiding behind their shields, the soldiers managed to get the child off his back. This sent him into even more of a fury. Two troopers dragged the girl away while the others closed the gap to block him off.
Tifa quickly looked from the circle of soldiers to the two taking the little girl up the street. She turned her gaze back to the fight. The soldiers were once again hiding behind their shields, yet refusing to let the man out of their circle. Without knowing exactly what she was going to do, Tifa turned and ran in the direction the two troopers had gone in.
It didn't take her long to catch up. The troopers each held an arm, and had succeeded in dragging her further up the street, but the little girl seemed to be fighting them. Tifa chuckled to herself. A miniature version of her father, she thought as she continued to chase the guards.
Tifa saw where they were heading. There was another van parked further up the street. They were probably going to take her to their commander.
Before they reached the van however, Tifa was upon them. She sent one of the guards to the ground with a kick to his spine. His back arched at impact, and he ended up falling face first on the ground. Seeing this, the girl broke away from the other soldier and hid behind a garbage dump in a nearby alley.
Tifa turned to deal with the other trooper. She knocked the gun out of his hand and punched him in the face. By now, the other trooper was crawling over to where he had dropped his gun. Tifa saw him out of the corner of her eye. She moved backwards and stepped on his hand. He drew his arm back and tried to knock her off her feet. Tifa didn't realize what he was doing, and fell backwards, right on top of him. The second soldier took this opportunity to retrieve his dropped gun. Tifa saw what he was doing and clambered over top of the soldier, trying to reach the other gun. She felt something pierce her arm, but paid no attention to it.
They reached the guns at the same time. Shifting her position, Tifa brought hers up to meet the mako gun of the soldier.
They remained like that for what seemed like hours, when really it was probably only a couple of minutes, max. Tifa was crouching on top of the trooper and the guard was standing up, pointing his gun at her.
As the first trooper tried to throw Tifa off his back, the other one laughed.
"I bet you don't even know how to use that thing!" he sneered.
"Would you really like to take that chance?" Tifa replied in a deadly voice.
The trooper succeeded in getting her off. Tifa fell backwards a bit, but maintained her balance and continued to crouch on the ground.
The soldier limped over to his friend. The two of them laughed boisterously at Tifa, who was awkwardly pointing her gun at the troopers.
Further down the street, Tifa could still hear gunshots, which meant the fight was still going on. She was glad, the little girl still had a father.
The girl. Her eyes wandered over the garbage dump where she was hiding. Her face looked surprisingly calm. Tifa guessed she must have seen this kind of thing a lot.
Her eyes returned to the soldiers, still laughing noisily. Tifa could not for the life of her figure out why. What was so funny about having a gun pointed at you? She smiled as she remembered something a friend had said to her once before; "Forget sleep. If I have to die, I want to die laughing."
She fired. The two troopers fell dead in an instant. The little girl winced and shifted her position. Tifa put the gun down and walked over to her. She crouched down so that she was looking her in the eye.
"Hey there, what's your name?" she asked softly.
"Marlene. Who're you?" she asked accusingly.
"I'm Tifa. Why don't you come out from there? It can't smell very nice."
She drew further back behind the dump. "Why should I?"
Tifa couldn't believe what she was hearing. This girl, Marlene, had the body of a six year old, but the attitude of a teenager. "Why would I hurt you?" she asked in her softest voice. "I just saved your life. C'mon, I'll help you find your daddy."
Marlene looked at Tifa doubtfully. "You're not one of those Shinra assholes, are you?"
Tifa's eyes widened, "Where did you learn language like that?"
"That's what my daddy calls them. You promise you'll help me find him?"
"I promise, c'mon." Tifa reached out her hand towards the little girl. Marlene looked at it for a second, then reluctantly took it.
Tifa backed up so that she could get out. She straightened the girls' pink bow, and wiped away a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
Marlene looked at her expectantly. "Well? Lets go!"
Tifa smiled sadly as she took Marlene's hand. They walked slowly down the street toward the crowds. As they walked, Tifa looked down at the little girl in the pink dress. She showed no signs of knowing what her father had gotten himself into. As they continued to walk down the street, no more gunfire was heard.
Loud footsteps thundered up the street. Three other people followed, one of them lagging slightly. "MARLENE!" a loud voice bellowed out.
Marlene looked up and let go of Tifa's hand. "Daddy!"
"Marlene!" both Marlene and her father ran towards eachother. The big man scooped her up easily and swung her around, laughing.
Tifa shook her head, trying to clear the memories of home they brought to her mind. It couldn't be helped. Marlene's cheerful laughing flooded her with good memories. Good at the time. Now, any memory of home was a painful one.
The clock on the mantle struck six. Tifa strained her ear, listening for the footsteps she knew should be coming up the path. Sure enough, she heard her father nearing the house. Opening the door, Tifa ran outside to meet him. He picked her up and swung her around. Max, who was normally lazing by the well, jumped up beside them. Her dad put her down, and Tifa began to chase Max around the yard. Her mother came out and stood on the porch, watching them.
"Okay, that's enough. You're not wearing a coat and it's chilly out."
Tifa grinned and ran in the house. There was a fire going in the living room. Tifa lay down on the floor beside Max and picked up her book. Her dad put another log on the fire. Just like he had done the night Nibelheim burnt down…
Tifa sank to her knees and buried her face in her hands, trying to hold back the tears she knew were coming. She felt a hand touch her shoulder. Looking up, her eyes met those of Marlene's. The young girl was looking at her with a very concerned look on her face.
"Tifa? Are you okay? You look sad."
Lost in her bittersweet memories, Tifa had once again forgotten that she wasn't alone. She looked up at the people standing around her. The big man with the gun arm was there, and so were Biggs, Jessie, and Wedge.
"Yes. I'm fine. I was just reminded of home, that's all." She stood up, wobbling slightly.
"Are you sure?" the big man asked, taking a step closer.
Tifa backed away from him. "Yes, really, I'm fine. I think I'm just going to go home… I mean, back to my apartment." She backed away from them, clutching her right arm.
"You don't look fine. Let me take a look at that arm," Jess said, moving towards her and reaching out.
"No!" Tifa jerked away. "Really, I'm fine. I don't want to be a burden to anybody. I'm alright, please."
"Are you sure you don't want Jess to look at your arm? She's pretty good at that kinda thing." Biggs said.
"No, really, I'm fine. Please, just leave me alone. I want to be alone."
"Alright, but I really think Jess should take a look at your arm."
"No, it's alright, just a scratch. Maybe I'll, I'll see you later. Okay? Bye." She ran past them and down the street.
They all turned and watched her go, shaking their heads. She hadn't gotten very far when she stumbled. Tifa recovered her balance though, and began walking down the street, crossing over at random places and holding her arms out for balance. Finally, she collapsed onto the street.
Jess swore and jogged down the street towards her. The others followed suit.
She rolled Tifa onto her back and examined her right arm. "Poison," she stated grimly.
"How can you tell?" Marlene asked quietly.
Jess dabbed her finger on the wound, getting a bit of blood on it. She held the finger out to Marlene. "See how it has little swirls of green in it? That means she was poisoned by mako. The stuff is very dangerous. Only if you build up a resistance to it over time would you have a chance of surviving a large amount of it in your blood stream. Shinra soldiers carry pens of it, almost. I have a couple back home. Maybe I'll show you how they work later. Right now, we need to get Tifa to a doctor. Does anybody have any antidote with them?"
"I might." Wedge searched his pockets, finally producing a small vial of clear paste.
"These things only work short-term. But it'll do until we get her to a proper doctor." She looked up, "Barret? Can you carry her? There's a small doctor's office a couple blocks away from here," Jess said, dabbing the paste on Tifa's wound.
"Sure." Barret picked the young teenager up easily and followed Jess, Biggs, and Wedge down the street. Marlene ran alongside her father holding Tifa's limp hand.
"Will she be alright?"
"I don't know. All we can do is hope that the mako is retrievable. Down here, we don't have anything better to give her but new antidotes every couple of hours."
"I hope she gets better."
"There's a good chance that she will. I'm curious about that scar though."
"Scar?"
"Yes, the one running across her chest. It looks like the cut was very deep. If she survived that, I'm sure she can pull through this."
"I hope so."
Tifa opened her eyes slowly. Other than a throbbing pain in her arm, she felt rather refreshed. Sitting up, she looked around the room for the people whose voices she had heard, but couldn't find them.
The room itself was surprisingly clean. There was a window by the bed which looked out onto the street. The bed was positioned so that the large metal door was behind her. On the opposite wall, there was a desk with some scattered papers on it. Above the desk were vials of several different medicines, which were carefully arranged on three plain wooden shelves. The lamp on the desk provided the only light in the small office. As she cast her eyes about the room, Tifa noticed another light suspended from the ceiling on the opposite side of the room.
Wanting to stretch her legs, Tifa threw the thin covers off and stood up. She went to walk over to the door, but stubbed her right toe on a chair which sat beside the bed. Crying out in pain, Tifa held her toe and hopped over towards the door.
The three people in the other room heard her yell, and went to check on her. They opened the door just as Tifa reached it. Not expecting the door to open, Tifa crashed right into it and was sent flying to the floor.
"Are you alright?" a man asked, crouching down beside her.
Tifa sat up and put a hand to her head. "Yeah, I'm okay, I think. My head hurts now though."
"I'm sorry about that. We didn't know you were there."
"It's okay. No permanent damage done, I hope." She looked up at Marlene and her father who were standing just inside the door. Still holding her head, Tifa stood up and sat down on the edge of the bed.
"Maybe you should lie down some more," the doctor suggested.
"No, I'm fine." She looked over at Marlene, "What are you two doing here?"
"Marlene was worried 'bout you, and wanted to stay 'till you woke up," the man answered.
"Oh, thanks. But you didn't have to do that."
"Yeah, well, I owe ya one fer savin' Marlene."
"It was no big deal. To tell you the truth, I was afraid you'd gotten yourself killed."
"Nah, Biggs, Jessie an' Wedge helped me out with those soldiers. We didn't really meet. I'm Barret, an' this here's Marlene."
"I'm Tifa."
"Yeah, Marlene told me. Listen, thanks fer savin' her." Turning to the doctor, he said, "Hey doc! How much are all these antidotes gonna cost?"
"500 gil."
"500 gil! That's a rip-off! You only gave her three!"
"Gotta make a living somehow."
Grumbling, Barret stuffed his hand into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. Counting off five hundred, he handed them to the doctor, still complaining about being ripped off.
"You don't have to do that you know," Tifa protested standing up again.
"You saved Marlene, so I'm payin' fer your damn medicine!"
"I can pay for myself."
"Yeah? Where's your money?"
"Well, I don't have any here, but I'm sure my boss will give me a loan or something."
"No. I'm payin' fer your medicine. Listen, Tifa right? Me'n the others have been talkin'. Shinra's destroying the planet with their goddamn mako reactors. It's about time someone did sumthin'. We're all meetin' at The Black Hole. Why don't ya join us?"
"I work at The Black Hole. Something tells me I'll be a little busy. Why are you asking me anyway?"
Barret moved over to where Marlene stood by the door and picked her up. "Ya had to have had a reason to go after those two guards. No one else was. Even if you're working, drop by the table to see what we're talkin' about. Ya might want to get in on it. Say bye to Tifa Marlene," he said, looking up at her.
"Bye Tifa!"
"Bye Marlene."
The two left the room, and walked out into the street. Tifa shook her head, and after thanking the doctor again, left as well. Walking home, Tifa thought about what Barret had said. He'd hinted heavily along the lines of a rebel group. Whatever crazy Shinra-defying plans he had, Tifa vowed to stay out of it. She'd gotten into enough trouble with Shinra already. The last thing she needed was more.