Was not planning on doing another upload so soon, but what can I say, the Final Fantasy VII remake works keep flowing really smoothly from my fingers for some reason. I haven't had this much ease of writing since I wrote my poly works over in the Siren fandom.
Enjoy
It was a somber affair for all involved.
Not so much for Tifa, she'd only met the man once and remembered little about him, but she truly wished she'd known him better. If a fraction of what Cloud and Aerith told him were true, he must have been someone truly special. A true hero in every sense of the word.
But none of that mattered. Right now, Tifa's sole concern was her lovers and their task. She wouldn't have blamed them if they didn't want her along for this. Again, she didn't really know him. It almost felt… wrong, to be here for this, like she didn't belong.
Regardless of how Tifa felt, Aerith had tears in her eyes when she begged her to come with them. As if the thought of doing this with just her and Cloud was simply too much to bear. Cloud hadn't said a peep, but his eyes, always so much more expressive than the rest of the man, conveyed his own desperation.
Yes, Tifa barely knew the man whose death they mourned, but Tifa was not here for him. She was here for Aerith and Cloud. She was here to be their pillar of strength when they needed her, just as they were to her when she needed it.
As the trio made their way through the forest paths, Tifa grew uneasy by the silence. Any other time the three took a walk-through nature, Aerith would be a total chatterbox, admiring the natural world around her or just talking just for the sake of hearing her lovers answer. Now she was every bit as silent as the dead. Oh, how Tifa longed for her girlfriend's carefree and excited explanations of what this plant was or that one.
Cloud wasn't all that better. While in recent years they managed to get him to open up more and be more talkative, he still was nowhere near Aerith's level. Maybe that was why Aerith talked so much, to make up for Cloud's shortcomings. Now they were both as quiet as Cloud that day he first appeared to Tifa back in Midgar.
Not even the weather would spare them. The skies had been cloudy and overcast for the better part of days now, ever since they decided this needed to be done. Sure, it was fitting for their mission here, but it gave an overall sense of sorrow and melancholy that they already had far too much of. Tifa wished they could have had a bright and cheerful day for this, but their job right now was far from bright or cheerful.
It was almost too much, the silence. Until Tifa reminded herself this was, for all intents and purposes, a three-man funeral procession. That shut her subconscious right up.
"I think…" Aerith began, some of the first words she'd spoke since they left. "This is a good place."
"He would have liked it here." Cloud agreed. "Tifa?"
Tifa pulled herself from her thoughts to look at their surroundings. A small glade, covered in a field of flowers, the same kind Tifa noticed, as the ones that grew in the old church where Aerith met him and Cloud. The flowers were broken only by a small stream that ran through. Tifa was no expert, but she couldn't deny the place had an aura of peaceful calmness to it. It was a fine location. Far enough, but not so far that they could never visit again from their new home. Yes, a fine location, indeed.
Without a word, Tifa handed Cloud one of the shovels she was carrying. A second, she handed off to Aerith without even looking to see if she was going to take it. She did, not that they could have stopped her. The third was left for Tifa herself. Cloud and Aerith would have been within their rights for Tifa not to take part, but they wanted her to do so. They needed her to.
Cloud and Aerith both set their own burdens aside. For Cloud, a long object wrapped in a white shroud, and for Aerith, a backpack she insisted was deeply important for their plans. Cloud and Tifa chose not to pry further.
The hole didn't need to be very deep. There was no body to bury, just what Cloud was carrying, what he had been carrying for many years now. Their work was done quickly, thanks to a combination of soft earth and three people at work.
Cloud could have easily done it himself, but it was only fitting that Aerith helped him lower the bundle into the hole while Tifa stood nearby watching. She wanted to help, but again, it felt wrong for her to do so.
A gust of wind blew through and shifted the shroud, uncovering the familiar handle of the buster sword. Cloud was quick to recover it and tie it down properly.
Tifa had asked Cloud if this was what he truly wanted. Sure, he could get another sword, a better one, even. An exact match if he was so inclined, but he insisted this had to be done. Needed to be done.
'It was never mine.' Cloud had said. 'I just… carried it for a while, along with his hopes and dreams. It's time I lived my own'.
Tifa hadn't needed to hear anymore.
As with the digging, refilling the hole was done in absolute silence. With each shovelful of dirt, the white slowly disappeared from view, and from their lives. The weapon passed down from mentor to student, from friend to friend, the blade that killed Sephiroth and saved the entire world, was buried.
Upon noticing Cloud's shaky breathing, Tifa wasted no time in reaching for his hand and interlacing their fingers. A soft squeeze, one Cloud returned, was the only comfort Tifa could offer that didn't feel hollow and empty.
Finding a large chunk of rock, Cloud moved it over the grave and stepped back for Aerith to perform her next task. Extending her staff, Aerith used her magic to carve two words into the piece as a makeshift headstone.
Zack Fair.
It wasn't enough, nobody had to say that for them all to know it. But it was the best they could do for the man that had such an impact on their lives. He was Aerith's first love, the first person to truly hold the girl's surprisingly fragile heart in his hands until Cloud and Tifa came along to share it between them, and he was the sole reason Cloud survived to this day.
One didn't have to know someone to owe them an unpayable debt.
"I brought something, too." Aerith spoke up, setting the backpack on the now covered grave. "We used to trade letters all the time while he was away. Words of longing, love, what we would do with our future together. Right up until the day he never came back. I've… kept them, all this time. Never felt right to get rid of them, ya know?"
Tifa and Cloud said nothing, but nodded in understanding.
"I think…" Aerith hesitated before stepping away from the backpack, fingers lingering on the edge of the strap until she made herself step away. "I think it's time I did. Tifa? Care to do the honors?"
"If you're sure." Tifa stepped up and raised her hand. She waited to give Aerith the opportunity to stop her, to change her mind and keep her mementos.
Your first love will always be a part of you, or at least Tifa felt that way, Cloud, too. If Aerith wanted to keep the letters from her first boyfriend, they would happily support their girlfriend in doing so. They were not so insecure in their love as to be jealous of a dead man.
This was Aerith's decision to make, and Tifa and Cloud would support her whatever she so chose.
Tifa gave her the chance, but the reconsidering never came. After one last painful nod from Aerith, Tifa snapped her fingers. The backpack and its contents were engulfed by a fira spell and reduced to ash.
Aerith watched, letting out a quiet gasp as the ash vanished with the wind.
Tifa didn't say a word, merely stepped closer to her girlfriend and placed a reassuring arm across her shoulders. The contact lasted for a whole second before Aerith threw herself at Tifa and wrapped her tightly in her arms. Tifa couldn't do anything but return the desperate embrace. Almost immediately, Cloud joined them, wrapping both his girlfriends in his strong arms.
Aerith held it together remarkably well thus far, but Tifa knew it would not last. The girl was strong, but this was an old wound, one that never got the chance to heal properly. It had to be opened and cared for before it could do so, and with this care came agony and suffering.
A sniffle, muffled by Tifa's hair was her first clue Aerith was about to crack. A quiet whimper came next.
"It's okay." Tifa reassured, hand lovingly running through the strands of Aerith's hair. "Just let it all out. This is the time for it. It's alright."
"We got you." Cloud was holding together remarkably better, but he always was better at hiding his emotions. No doubt he was in horrible pain, too, but he would never show it. Not without a lot of encouraging from Tifa and Aerith. Now, Aerith, on the other hand…
The dam suddenly broke, Aerith let loose an awful wail, and the tears began streaming like a tidal wave from the sobbing woman. All the while Tifa whispered tender words of love and reassurance in her girlfriend's ear. Cloud did the same, but he was terrible at it. Far as Tifa was concerned, the fact that he was trying is what was important.
Though Aerith had moved on from Zack years ago, her heart never got the chance to truly mourn for him, to accept his death and move on. She'd spent far too many years distracting herself and putting it from her mind instead of facing it. Now, the bill had come due.
As Tifa had said, this was the time for it.
Tifa lost all track of time as they stood there. Eventually, Aerith calmed down some and was reduced instead to soft sobs and hiccups she tried so desperately to keep in and away from her lovers. Tifa and Cloud allowed her to do no such thing.
"I… I'm… s… sorry…" Aerith attempted to apologize between breaths.
"Shhh." Tifa hushed her, smiling lovingly as she pulled away just enough to look her girlfriend in the eye. "Nothing to be sorry for."
Even filled with freshly shed tears, those emerald orbs were one of the most beautiful sights Tifa had ever had the pleasure of seeing. The added moisture gave them an extra sparkle that made Tifa's heart lurch in her chest.
Aerith managed a smile then, even as she cried. "I love you. I love you both, so much."
"We love you, too." Cloud leaned in to kiss a couple of her tears away.
Their task finished, and what tears that were going to be shed now shed, it was time to go.
The trio began the trek back with Aerith in the middle, arms linked with Cloud and Tifa's. They hardly made it anywhere before all froze in place.
They were not alone.
At some point, a man had joined them, he sat on a nearby fallen tree evidently having been watching them the whole time. Upon noticing he'd been spotted, the man grinned and stood up, dusting off his pants.
"It… it can't be." Cloud's eyes went wider than dinner plates.
Aerith tried to speak, but only a choking sound came out.
He looked exactly as Tifa remembered him. That head of dark spiky hair, a devil-may-care smile, the X shaped scar on his jaw, and finally, the uniform of a SOLDIER. The only thing missing from the picture was the buster sword itself.
Zack didn't say a word, merely stared at the three of them, his grin bright and happy. Tifa could feel an overwhelming sense of joy and tranquility radiating from the man. A glance at her side was enough for Tifa to know Aerith was feeling the same thing she was. Cloud, too.
Zack gave a final salute, followed by a bow, and oddly enough, a blown kiss, as his body slowly dissolved away and disappeared into a small flash of green light.
The light danced about the tree before traveling up it to vanish into the sky above. A sky that Tifa only now noticed was clearing from its dreary grey overcast. Within seconds, the clouds parted and the sun returned, bathing the glade, and the trio, in its warm and comforting rays.
They watched him go, each unable to articulate anything to say about what just happened. It was finally Aerith who broke them from their stupor.
"C'mon." Aerith looked to Tifa and Cloud in turn. Her face, though still streaked with drying tears and her eyes all red and puffy, shone with a new sense of peace and happiness, all increased tenfold in the sunlight. "Let's go home."
Not going to lie, I don't think I did very good here. This idea just came to me yesterday and I hadn't intended on working on it today, let alone finishing it. It just feels like it was rushed and poorly done. Regardless, I hope you all liked it.