Chapter Fourteen: Revelations
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Cloud was supposed to arrive, and she'd greet him, and they'd be together. Then something would happen to burn down the village or something. Or maybe Tifa would tell him herself, and he'd understand. It had almost worked for a bit, but now everyone was staring at her.
"Tifa, what is going on?" asked Cloud.
Tifa Lockhart looked for an answer and realized what she had said could have been awful. People in the outside world were weird and had their own purposes, or so Master Zangan had said. He'd been the one who'd gotten real experience out there.
"Um..." Tifa shifted beneath Cloud's confused gaze. Aerith also was looking extremely disturbed. Sephiroth was expressionless, and he wasn't supposed to be here yet. "Okay, so I guess what I said seems kind of callous and all, but um... you have to keep in mind that none of them are uh...
"Sentient, per se."
"What do you mean?" asked Cloud.
"Look, um, I don't really think that I should be the one to tell you all this," said Tifa. "My mother, the one who bore me, explained it to me before she died. That's why I tried to find her in the mountains..." After Cloud had saved her, it had been so clear that her purpose was to be whatever Cloud wanted her to.
But Dad had always stopped her from seeing him. He'd gotten really defensive.
"What do you mean they aren't sentient, Tifa? I grew up here?!" said Cloud.
Tifa paused and thought about how best to proceed. Eventually, she drank a cup of alcohol down to smooth her nerves. "Well, yes, but um... you weren't exactly sentient in the beginning either, Cloud. None of us were. But you, you are special.
"Um... it's a bit complicated, and I kind of think we ought to go somewhere else for this."
"Where else?" asked Cloud.
"Um... how about home? Your home, I mean," said Tifa. "Though it can be ours if you want." She paused. "You'd better come with me."
As Tifa led them to Cloud's house, she hoped his Mother would be able to help. She'd always had more of a personality than most. She'd had to interact with Cloud and President Shinra. But Cloud broke off suddenly and checked his mailbox.
"...The mailbox," said Cloud, opening and taking many old envelopes. The paper was old and cracked.
"What's wrong?" asked Tifa.
"These are all my old letters. They were delivered, but nobody even picked them up," said Cloud.
Tifa paused, unaware they had been supposed to pick them up. Cloud hadn't mentioned anything about sending letters. He'd left very suddenly. "Well, yes. Nobody here ever leaves Nibelheim. And people passing through don't usually make friends with us. So they never really send us letters at all.
"Mother never figured out how post offices work. She doesn't think like we do."
"How can you not know how a post office works?" asked Aerith.
"Well... we understand the general way it works," said Tifa. "It's just that nobody understood the function. Mother has been trying to figure out out to have us pass for ordinary humans for a long time, but we always stick out."
"I am human, Tifa! We're all human!" said Cloud.
Of course, he thought that. He hadn't been around when Mother had made her revelation. "Um... well physically, yes. Mother can replicate all that pretty easily.
"Though um, she custom-tailored you and me a bit."
"Custom-tailored..." Cloud looked disturbed.
Tifa wanted to hug him and tell him everything was alright. But she knew he was on edge because of her. That hurt worse. She thought about how to answer. "Well, once she figured out you wanted me, she ensured that I grew up to be everything you ever could have wanted. Um... it did work, didn't it? I mean, I'd hate to think all that time training with Master Zangan was wasted..."
"Yes, yes, it worked, but..." Cloud said, obviously not wanting to upset her. "Well, it was too good to be true at first, and now..."
Tifa sighed and remembered all the effort she went into seeming natural. "I was afraid of that.
"Mother tried presenting us as everything a person wanted. But they usually disliked what they wanted when they got it. The really shallow ones sometimes bought into it. But only until they realized there were no strings attached.
"Now come on, your Mom is waiting for us."
Cloud paused. "...Fine, let's... let's see her."
They got to the door, and Tifa hoped she wouldn't screw this up. Mentally nudging Ms. Strife to come to the door, Tifa saw her as she arrived. Tifa had put a lot of effort into this, for what little good it was doing. She was wearing an apron over her orange skirt, and her hair was much like Cloud's. "Oh, Cloud, you're here. I'm making your favorite food; why don't you and your friends just sit down and Tifa can explain things to you."
"You want me to explain..." began Tifa, not sure of herself.
"Well, yes, you're much more important to him than I am," said Ms. Strife. "I think you can handle this." Mother often spoke to them through eachother. Each of them was her vessel in some way or another.
"Thank you!" said Tifa, feeling incredibly nervous about having this kind of responsibility. They led them inside into the table that had been made for today. It had never used to stand here before. Tifa sat down across from Cloud while Aerith sat down beside him.
Was Tifa supposed to be like a sister to him? Or did he want her and Aerith to compete? Or maybe something else. Tifa had read some novels as research. Her glance turned to Sephiroth, who was not supposed to be here.
Mother hadn't told her anything about him coming this soon.
Or was she meant to be ignorant to that so Tifa could react properly? Either way, her focus should be on Cloud. "Okay, so um, do you want me to give the short or long version of this? Like, should I start from the beginning or um..."
"The beginning, please," said Sephiroth. "I'd like to know who this Mother of yours is." Just who did he think he was, acting like he was the hero anyway?
But Cloud seemed to be listening to him anyway, so Tifa guessed he wanted her to do as Sephiroth said. He wasn't into Sephiroth like that, was he? "Right, well, Mother is not from this world. Ages ago, she came to this place and attempted to make contact with the mortals. It was during the reign of King Arthur, actually. And... well... things didn't go well."
"You mean... your Mother was the ancient enemy from the sky?" asked Aerith.
"Mother doesn't think like you or me. She sees base desires and urges and satiates them," said Tifa, remembering what she had been told. "Where she is from, all beings are of one flesh. Every desire is satiated instantaneously, every chemical reaction is timed. Life is a single entity that makes endless communion in all of its aspects.
"There is no individuality there.
"However, despite every desire being fulfilled, Mother was curious of existence beyond herself. And the idea of an existence outside of herself threw her flesh into disarray. She had come to a desire that she could not satiate.
"So, Mother abandoned her flesh and transported herself here."
"She tried to destroy the world," said Cloud. "If it hadn't been for King Arthur..."
Tifa had the feeling they were getting the wrong idea about Mother. "Mother did not understand mortal creatures or individuals. She saw us as extensions of herself and, in her compassion, tried to bring us into her. But, creatures outside of Mother resisted and managed to fight her off. She was nearly killed.
"In the deciding battle, Mother mixed her being with that of another creature. Morgana Le Fay and Mother merged to become a single enemy, and Camelot fell. But Mother herself was killed.
"However, decades ago, Mother awakened again."
"Hold on a second, Tifa," said Cloud. "How is it possible that all flesh could be one? What about evolution?"
"Theoretically speaking, you could have life develop as a single entity. A sort of massive organism of an interconnected system," said Sephiroth. "Aerith, would it be possible for the Planet to develop life without giving it a will of its own?"
"Possible?" asked Aerith. "Yes, I don't see why not. I mean, the Planet could have avoided a lot of problems that way. But I can't see the Planet doing that; it likes other life."
"Mother isn't your planet," said Tifa, feeling a bit offended.
"So what happened when Mother awakened?" asked Cloud.
"Mother's merging with Morgana Le Fay gave her a greater ability to strategize," said Tifa. "Her current avatar is based in Morgana's corpse. And by examining it, she could finally comprehend the idea of individuals. However-"
"I've brought snacks and sodas if anyone wants them," said Ms. Strife, bring out a tray.
"Um, yes, thank you, Mom," said Cloud, who really seemed kind of disturbed.
Tifa guessed the current situation wasn't what he was expecting.
"Don't eat anything," said Aerith quickly.
"We're not going to poison you. This is a reunion," said Tifa, feeling a bit offended. Just who did she think she was? Just because she was Cloud's sort-of girlfriend didn't give her the right to treat Tifa like this. Especially not Ms. Strife; she was one of the more important props. "And anyway, Cloud is already one of us. He just um... well, he doesn't know it yet. Go ahead and eat."
Aerith looked at the food and shifted. "I um... the Planet isn't warning me against this at all."
"Do as you like," said Sephiroth.
"So um, Tifa, you were saying?" asked Cloud, who had now been put off his food.
"Right, well, Mother had a limited ability to think like a lesser creature," said Tifa. "Enough to realize she didn't think of them at all. So, she sent forth herself and began to observe the surrounding areas. She watched how everyone lived from afar, observing them in action.
"Eventually, she decided to try and imitate them.
"So, Mother began to create clones of herself. The first step of the plan was to mentally nudge certain government officials. We needed their cooperation. They decided to do things for their own reasons that helped her move in undetected."
"So she assimilated Nibelheim while I was gone?" asked Cloud.
"No, Cloud. She assimilated Nibelheim years before any of us were born," said Tifa. She was wondering why he'd think that. "It wasn't hard. She's a constant presence in this area, and she was able to subvert the water supply. She seeded herself into the air, into the ground you grow crops from. In a few years had the population under her sway. When Shinra became aware of what was happening, Mother made them decide to observe. They called it an experiment."
"Hojo," said Sephiroth.
Tifa blinked and had a vague affirmative from Mother. "Well, I don't know who that is, but yes."
"Anyway, Mother was not able to subsume the minds of the first generation she controlled. But the second generation was almost completely hers. This brings us to us, the third generation.
"Mother had complete control of them. But... Mother underestimated human society.
"She'd observed how humans operated and assumed she could replicate the process. However, it quickly became apparent that she could not. Humans are very keen on individuality, and her best works ended up in the uncanny valley.
"But Mother was smart, and she improvised.
"Some humans, you see, don't want to have a relationship with people. They just want an object with a pulse and heartbeat they can sleep with. And they don't care if the person isn't acting natural or loves them back."
Tifa mentally nudged Ms. Strife to put a hand on Cloud's shoulder. "That's how I met your Father, dear."
"President Shinra and his associates thought they came here on their own," said Tifa. She was feeling kind of bad about the effect this was having on Cloud. "But they were really here because Mother called them here. Mother could understand President Shinra reasonably well.
"And she gave him Ms. Strife. Dad was also there, and Mother seduced him."
"But why... what was the point of all this?" asked Cloud.
"Mother had moved too fast," said Tifa, speaking through Ms. Strife. "She had complete control. But now she could not spread that control, Cloud. Anyone who met us knew something was off about us. That was why Mother decided to make a new plan.
"Both of us were born deep in Mother's influence. Genetically, we were completely human. But Mother had sway over us behind the physical. She could see through your eyes and observe your emotional reactions, and mine as well.
"You and I are independent of Mother but... not independent.
"She could hide things from us that other people would find obvious and keep us focused on goals she had in mind."
"What goals?!" said Cloud. "Why would you..."
Tifa sighed. He kind of had the wrong idea about this like some evil plan at work. Then again, he was supposed to be the hero. "There was no goal, Cloud. That was the point.
"Mother simply observed us in action so as to gain a greater understanding of humans. You sought the approval of President Shinra. And she used her control over him to push you in the right direction. When my Mom died, she called me to the mountains, and you chose to follow as she hoped you would." Of course, 'Mom' was a fictional entity Mother had been playing, just like Ms. Strife. Though Tifa sometimes liked to imagine she was real in some sense.
"Once you saved me, I didn't need my friends anymore."
Only now had Tifa considered what happened to those three? She'd been very angry that Dad had kept her from seeing Cloud off. He'd been upset that she'd told him her existence was based around him. Dad had some independent will, and he cared about her, so sometimes he quarreled with Mother.
"...So what happens now, exactly?" asked Aerith.
Why did she insist on butting in here, anyway?
"Whatever you want to happen, Cloud," Tifa spoke through Ms. Strife. "Tifa is yours."
"Then why are you telling me this?" asked Cloud.
"Because you asked, obviously. I mean, it seemed kind of a bad note to start our reunion on," said Tifa. "We were kind of hoping to pass over the whole thing but uh...
"I guess that was kind of impractical. We're not that good at infiltration just yet.
"Your Cloud performed exactly as Mother hoped you would and completely exceeded expectations. You wanted me, and now you have me. I can be anything you want me to be, your wife, your slave your-"
"I want you to be a person, Tifa!" said Cloud. "You're not a sex object! I want you for who you are!"
Tifa halted, unsure of how to respond to that. She'd been waiting for Cloud for so long, she'd never anticipated that he'd want her as Tifa. But not as Tifa the childhood friend, but Tifa her own unique entity. Was she blushing?
Tifa found herself unable to meet his eyes. How could she respond in a way that would make Cloud happy? "I... I thought you'd say that. You always did like me as a person.
"Actually, that's why I started training with Master Zangan. I wanted to learn something really cool. I kind of figured you'd be disappointed with me if I was just kind of waiting around for you to show up.
"I also act as a guide to people who want to go up into the mountains." Though there hadn't been a lot of those. Tifa had often had to 'guide' extensions of Mother's own flesh. Dad had encouraged her to do that and stay out of the town.
He'd never been able to leave on his own. Mother wouldn't let him; she needed him to manage the place.
"...Question," said Aerith.
"Yes?" asked Tifa, further annoyed. Why did she keep getting between her and Cloud?
"What's the plan here?" asked Aerith.
"Plan?" asked Tifa.
"You just went to great lengths to describe how this... Mother of yours engineered all this," said Sephiroth. "What is she going to do now? To what end was this all for?"
Tifa shrugged. "I have no idea.
"My reason for living is to be whatever Cloud wants me to be. She told me that as soon as he came back, I was his. We haven't spoken since, not directly. If Mother is done with me, I'm okay with that.
"I don't know if she has a plan of any kind.
"I guess... since you want me to be my own person, I'll try to be that."
Dead silence and Tifa moved Ms. Strife out of the room covertly. Cloud watched her go in horror. "Mother is... is she...
"Is my Mom real?"
"Of course she is," said Tifa. "Mother exists in all of her-"
"No, Claudia Strife!" said Cloud. "The woman who gave birth to me?! She's real, isn't she?"
"Well, um... she has a physical existence, I guess," said Tifa. "I'm not sure what you mean by real. Don't think about it, Cloud. Just... believe whatever you want to believe and-"
"Is she real?! Does she have a mind of her own?!" said Cloud.
Tifa thought very hard about that answer.
"...I don't think so," said Tifa. "I mean... can you ever remember her having a conversation with you? Or talking to someone other than you or President Shinra?"
"But she... she helped me prepare for my journey!" said Cloud. "I mean, she..."
"You asked something of her, and she gave it to you like she was programmed to do," said Tifa. "Like we were all programmed to do, Cloud. Mother used her to help you get what you needed. I mean... I don't have a lot of experience with 'real' people, but... If I decided to try and walk across three continents, my Dad would stop me.
"Or try to.
"I mean, a 'real' parent would have gotten you access to mass transit."
Cloud was leaning forward, clutching his head. Was Tifa becoming the bad guy here? She didn't want to be the bad guy. "Um... Cloud, maybe we should stop talking about this. I... I don't want to hurt you and...
"And well, you aren't in a good way."
Had Tifa screwed this up? She couldn't screw this up. Cloud was her entire life, and all she'd done is tell him the truth! She'd tried to hide it from him!
Aerith, however, put a hand on Cloud's shoulder. "Cloud... don't face it right now. Tifa could be wrong for all you know. In fact, we don't even know if this is the real Tifa."
"I am the real Tifa!" said Tifa. "I'm the person he made his promise to and everything! All I'm trying to do is help you!"
Everyone ignored her.
More dead silence followed. Maybe Tifa should have lied to Cloud. She could have told him that his mother had existed but died or something and had to be replaced. No, that might have made it even worse.
Nobody seemed to know what to say now.
"...Cloud, you mentioned that President Shinra had an office in the manor north of here?" said Sephiroth.
"Yes," said Cloud.
"I think we'd better explore inside," said Sephiroth. "There are other possible explanations for what is happening here. And we can't afford to panic.
"I'm going to arrange for food to be shipped in from outside the town for our use."
No, no, no, this couldn't be the end. Tifa couldn't end up the bad guy or the evil temptress luring Cloud away from his true love. She hadn't done anything wrong! "Did I do something wrong, Cloud? I mean, if I did-"
"You didn't do anything wrong, Tifa," said Cloud, voice choking. "But right now, we need to do some research-"
"I'm coming with you! I didn't wait all this time so you could go away again!" said Tifa in a panic. "Cloud... wherever you go, I want to be with you! I'll be your puppet or anything you want! Just please, don't leave me behind again!"
Cloud shuddered. "...Alright, alright, we can... you can come with us."
"Is that a good idea, Cloud?" asked Aerith.
"Tifa hasn't done anything wrong. No one here has done anything wrong," said Cloud. "Just... let me have her with me, Aerith. I trust her."
Sephiroth spoke.
"...Cloud, a word please," said Sephiroth.
Cloud stood up, unsteadily. "What is it?"
Sephiroth took Cloud outside. Tifa suspected that whatever they were talking about concerned her. So she put her mind into one of the other props. Some of them had very, very, good hearing so as to observe passerbys conversation. "I have a theory as to what 'Mother' might have been trying to achieve. It's conceivable that her goal was the creation of a new species. Possibly with Tifa and you as the progenitors of it."
"President Shinra did say something about breeding a race of gods," said Cloud. "But did he know about this?"
"No, I don't believe he did on a conscious level," said Sephiroth. "There is no one around Nibelheim for miles. Civilization has given this place a wide berth for no apparent reason. In any case, we need to get the obvious problem out of the way."
"I..." Cloud paused. "What are you even talking about-"
"Don't have sex with Tifa Lockhart," said Sephiroth. What? Who was Sephiroth to tell Cloud what he could do with her? Tifa didn't belong to him!
"How can you even be thinking about that at a time like this!" said Cloud. "My entire life... everything I knew... it's a lie-"
"Your life began when you left Nibelheim until I say otherwise," said Sephiroth. "The only thing you've lost is a set of childish fantasies. Don't dwell on it and move forward.
"Be grateful at one time you thought you had a loving family.
"I had Professor Hojo for a legal guardian. And if I can remain composed and professional, you will do as well. This is a military operation now, and you will regain your composure."
"...Yes, sir," said Cloud. "But do you really think I'd-"
"She is an extremely attractive woman who has a clear interest in you," said Sephiroth. "And you have recently gone through a very traumatic set of revelations. Moreover, you would be ill-disposed to say no even without them.
"You will settle your personal issues after the mission is complete. Until then, we are in a perfect replica of your old home town. You don't know or recognize anyone here, and Tifa Lockhart is mentally deranged. Do you understand?"
"But how can I just pretend like-" began Cloud.
"Do you understand?" asked Sephiroth.
"Yes," said Cloud.
"Good," said Sephiroth. "Now, our first priority is containment, followed by information gathering. For all we know, Tifa and everyone else here is under some sort of mind control. Don't do anything rash until after we've done our homework. It's possible Tifa is in no mental condition to understand what is going on around her."
"Right, I uh... I see your point," said Cloud.
"And, I don't approve of keeping her with us," said Sephiroth.
"Sephiroth, you don't understand!" said Cloud. "I was completely devoted to Tifa; I survived all this time through that devotion. The thought of her was what got me through everything I got through.
"All this time, I thought that the Tifa I imagined in my head was just fantasy. I kept telling myself that she probably had forgotten all about me. The best I hoped for is being met at the gate.
"But Sephiroth, the fantasy Tifa I imagined...
"She's real. And if I don't at least keep her around, it could break her.
"And that means I owe her this. I can't send her away, no matter what is going on."
"...Fine," said Sephiroth. "But she is not to sit in on any of our meetings. She will not be briefed on any of our plans. We will assume a hostile force is spying on us through her eyes until proven otherwise.
"I need to call someone about this."
"Didn't Tifa say that 'Mother' was redirecting Shinra away from her?" asked Cloud.
"Of course," said Sephiroth. "But was an unconscious control. There are channels we might be able to reach."
And he made a phone call. "Tseng, this is Sephiroth.
"I have a Code Red containment alert here. I need you to get to Nibelheim and lock the place down. Contain all exit from the town, but keep your troops just out of sight of it. Nobody gets into the town without my word."
Pause.
"I can't tell you that," said Sephiroth.
Silence.
"Don't wait; he'll be compromised if he knows what is going on," said Sephiroth. "This information is sensitive. I have reason to believe someone in the President's inner circle has been compromised. Give them any reason you want to do it, but make sure no one gets out.
"Understand?"
More silence.
"I've told you all I can," said Sephiroth. "The only question is whether you trust my judgment. Something very bad is going down, and I need to investigate. I also need you to do an analysis of the water supply of the nearby towns, as well as of soil samples. Any planes that fly overhead have to be redirected."
Silence.
"Tell the President that it involves the Mako Reactor; he'll understand," said Sephiroth. "Sephiroth out." He hung up and looked to Cloud. "We've got work to do."
This was bad, very, very, bad.
If things kept going like this, Sephiroth might hurt Mother. But... but they might be able to do something about it. No, no, Mother had control of the situation, just like Tifa had control of herself.
She couldn't be the villain here, could she?
Coming into awareness, Tifa saw Aerith looking at her with pity. Something about the way she looked at her told her that Aerith knew far more than she let on. Looking at her face, her eyes gave Tifa chills. She felt a feral hatred and also incredible sadness looking at Aerith.
"Are you alright?" asked Aerith, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I..." Tifa shuddered. "I just wanted to be Cloud's childhood friend."
And then she burst into tears before she could stop herself. Aerith held her in a way Tifa had never experienced before, and the tears poured out.
Everything had gone so wrong.