"The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them."

Lois McMaster Bujold

Cloud woke up abruptly and jumped to his feet so fast, his head spun. He grabbed his head and sunk back onto the bed as he remembered where he was. I hate waking up in a strange place...he thought grouchily. Slowly he examined the dark room to discover he was alone. Feeling a bit embarassed for being the last one up, he hauled himself to his feet and pushed open the door gently.

Barret, Marlene, and three men sat at a table. Barret was immersed in conversation with the three men with Marlene bouncing on his lap. They all turned towards him as they heard the gentle click of the door as it closed. Marlene bounded off her fathers lap and latched herself around his legs.

"Cloud! Cloud!" she sang happily. "There's a big bird on top of here! Did you see?"

Cloud smiled and detached her a bit akwardly. "Hello Marlene, yes I've seen the bird."

She smiled adoringly up at him and opened her mouth with the intention of chattering non-stop, but her father interrupted her.

"Marlene, leave Cloud alone." he said amusedly. "He jus' woke up. He don't need you botherin' him."

Cheerfully, she scampered back over to her father's lap. The three men laughed as the little girl began bouncing on his lap again. At least someone's having fun...Cloud thought. He turned his gaze away from the table and searched the room. It had clearly just become dark. The little room was lit by candles, but was missing someone...

"Where's-" Cloud began.

"Tifa's outside." Barret answered before he finished.

Cloud nodded and then turned towards the ladder to go talk but Barret stopped him.

"There's a bathroom if you wanna git cleaned up..." he said pointedly.

Cloud felt midly offended. "I don't smell ba-" he began.

But then, a bit sheepishly, he remembered that he hadn't bathed for...well a long time.

"Yea...okay." he grumbled.

The man who had let them enter the night before stood up. "Here, I'll show you where it is."

Gratefully, Cloud followed him.

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Tifa tilted her head back and looked up at the gloriously clear sky. She drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. The night was chilly, and she could feel goosebumps forming on her legs and arms. Her hair was still damp from her bath and she shivered against the breeze but she disregarded it. She felt truly at peace in two places...under the stars...and with Cloud.

The familiar constellations twinkled down on her and she closed her eyes briefly, completely trusting that they would still be there when she opened her eyes. This is the same sky from seven years ago that night at the well...and from the night Nibelheim burnt down... She opened her eyes to look at the stars again. These stars saw my mother die...they saw Papa die...they saw Aeris die...they've seen every bit of my life, every bruise, every scrape. She shook her head to clear her mind of such depressing thoughts. Why am I thinking like this? She found it hard to cheer herself up.

Her thinking was interrupted by soft footsteps. She closed her eyes, already knowing who it was.

"Hey," she whispered as he sat down with a muffled thump.

"Hey," he said softly. "What are you doing out here?"

"Thinking..." she replied briefly.

He examined her closely in the starlight. She too, must have cleaned up. Her long dark hair was wet and like him, was looking a bit uncomfortable in her ragged clothes. Her eyes were closed and she looked...sad. Cloud frowned.

"What's wrong?" he said softly.

She opened her eyes but avoided his gaze.

"Nothing..." she muttered. "I just..."

Tifa sighed helplessly and fell backwards so she was looking straight up at the sky. A second later, Cloud laid next to her and turned his face towards her.

"You know you can tell me." he told her gently.

She continued to gaze at the stars and sighed again.

"I guess..." she began. "I just thought everything would be over after the fight with Sephiroth. I think that's the only thing that kept me going...the conviction that after that, the fighting would all end. But now...I'm not so sure it will."

Cloud sighed. "I know what you mean. Sometimes it feels like it will never end."

They fell back into silence. Cloud couldn't suppress the feeling that Tifa wasn't telling him everything.

"Is that all?" he asked softly.

She sat back up and drew her knees to her chest.

"I had a bad dream last night." she admitted faintly.

He sat up too and gently turned her face towards him, forcing her to meet his gaze.

"What about?" he asked gently.

Her voice reminded Cloud of a small child's as she replied, "My Papa...that night five years ago."

Cloud's face pinched immediately. He had been haunted by his own version of the nightmare for countless nights. His mother laying dead on the floor of their home...Tifa lying bleeding on the floor in the reactor.

"It's just..." Tifa began shakily. "We've already lost so much. What more can they take from us? Don't we deserve to try and regain what we lost?"

It took him a minute to realize she was crying. With a painful lurch in his chest, he pulled her close. She hid her face in the crook of his neck and he could feel the dampness of her tears. With a tenderness that usually didn't come naturally to him, he stroked her long, dark hair. Her skin felt stone cold as she slid her arms up around his neck, and her whole body was shivering.

"It'll be okay Tifa..." he whispered, pulling her closer to warm her.

"For us maybe..." she said, her lips brushing his skin as she replied. "But for Papa...for your mother...for Aeris...and for everyone who died in the fire yesterday..."

Pain flashed through his heart at this. His arms tightened around Tifa who was now all but sitting in his lap.

"It's too late for all of them..." he said quietly. " But it's not too late for us Tifa. We still have a chance to set everything right for them, since they can't do it themselves...They'd want us to be happy."

"You're right..." Tifa whispered.

They sat in silence, Cloud's arms wrapped around Tifa, as if trying to protect her from the world, and the harsh truth that some people never got their second chance. Like...Aeris. A sigh escaped Cloud as he thought of their friend who had died to save them. They had known her for such a short amount of time but she had made such an impact on all of their lives.

"I miss her." Tifa said softly.

"I know you do." he said, resting his cheek atop her hair. "We all do."

"I don't understand..." she said breathily. "Why does all this hurt just as bad as it did five years ago?"

Cloud pulled her away slightly so he could look her in the eye.

"Because you have a big heart." he told her seriously.

She ducked her head back into his shoulders and tightened her grip around his neck. But against his skin, finally, he felt her smile.

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Rude examined the intimate scene a bit uncomfortably. Scratching his head, he turned away and slipped back into the dark before they could notice them. He mounted his chocobo and began heading back to Reno and Elena. With one hand, he grabbed his PHS and dialed Reno's number.

"Reno here..." the voice on the phone drawled lazily.

"...This is Rude..." he replied.

"Heeyy..." the voice immediately became more interested. "Elena! Come here, Rude's on the phone. So did you find anything?"

Rude cleared his throat. "...I found Cloud."

"Yes!" Reno yelled. "Well where is he then?"

"...Fort Condor."

"How do you know? Surely the idiot wasn't frolicking around outside the fort." Reno snickered.

Rude winced at the thought of Cloud frolicking. "...No...he was on top of the tower."

"Hmm..." Reno mused. "Was he alone?"

"...The Lockheart woman was with him."

Rude heard Reno cackle across the phoneline. "Excellent...there's one million five hundred thousand gil in the sack! And better that it's that Tifa chick...he's making this all too easy for us."

"..." said Rude.

"Yea..well..." Reno said sounding less sure now. "Just get back so we can get this over with."

Rude clicked off the PHS and sped up his chocobo. He, too, wanted this over with quickly.