"Tifa!" Her father's voice in the swirling chaos of the flames. Night had fallen, the town lit up by bursts of fire.
"Father!" Panic; people fleeing from their homes as the roofs caught fire, others pounding on doors, frantic for a response from within. And of the culprit for the fire, not a trace. "What happened?"
"Sephiroth-" He cut off. "I need you to get the people out of town."
She frowned. "What about you?"
"I intend to settle things with the SOLDIERs. With Sephiroth-"
"Father, no. He's-"
He pulled back. "Please. Stay safe. Get the people to safety. Save the town." He span on his heel and ran towards Mount Nibel. The desire to follow, to stop him, to protest and keep him safe. Return the favour, the one he enforced everyday since her ill-advised attempt to cross the mountain peak. He found her, huddled in the doorway of the Mako reactor unable to continue.
But there was more to it. She was his deputy, assisting in his marginal duties as mayor of the town as she grew up. And perhaps might have replaced him – might still if the town survived the night. Desperate to follow but she had orders and duties. She could not do this alone.
The roof of the Strife house was burning. Had Dala already evacuated? Cloud nowhere in sight. The once lonely child who opened up in his teenage years when near everyone else their age left for the bright lights and big city. He remained to care for his ailing, bed-bound mother.
Best to check. Tifa raced across the square; the Strife's front door swung open. "Cloud!"
"Tifa?" A distant voice inside, past flame and smoke. Time surged past in torrents. "Please. My mother, she's-"
The heat prickling her skin, shirt drawn up over her mouth. A few timbers had fallen from the roof and scorched the carpets, other flames growing, eating away at the interior. A figure in the dim, smoky light, bent over something. Cloud Strife was shielding his mother's body with his own. She lay in bed unmoving. Too late? "Cloud-"
"She's okay. She's okay."
Tifa crouched beside the bed. Dala still had a pulse, but the smoke wouldn't be doing her any good. "We need to get her outside." Cloud nodded. Between them, they managed to manoeuvre Dala through the building and out into the street. Other inhabitants of Nibelheim panicked in the square, several clambering up the water tower to fill ineffectual buckets. Another check of Dala. Still breathing. "Stay with her, I need to get someone to look after her. Then we're going to check on everyone else."
She strode into the centre of the town. "People of Nibelheim! I need you to remain calm. Doctor Alphys I need you to check Mrs. Strife for me and then stay close for any other emergencies. Anyone else with medical training or knowledge, please let me know. Everyone else – move out of the town and past the gates."
Training and substituting for her father on occasion gave her words the weight they needed. Alphys forced her way through the crowd; it took a few more urges from Tifa to get the townsfolk moving. Cloud breathed a sigh of relief at news Dala had some smoke inhalation but was otherwise fine. "Good." She cursed. "We need to get her away from the buildings." She waved over a number of farmhands; one charged with getting Dala to the others, the other (Undyne) pressed to join Cloud and Alphys.
The first blazed and already too much time seemed to have evaporated. Interiors of homes filled with flames. The hopelessness did not stop them. Undyne forced the doors; Cloud and Tifa calling out to anyone who might be inside. In some houses they were lucky; others less so. No time to stop and mourn, or worry about Father's fate at the top of Mount Nibel.
"Cloud? I need you to get anything you can to help people stay warm from the store and the hotel. It's getting cold." He nodded and sprinted away. "Anywhere left?"
"Shinra mansion but-" Alphys gestured towards it. "Should have been no one in there but the SOLDIERs-"
Already the word was jarring. What had possessed Sephiroth, the Sephiroth, to plunge their town into flames. Still no sign of Father. No choices though. "Okay. Let's help Cloud get some supplies from the store."
Undyne cast about "What about after?"
"After, we see if we have a town left." She bit her lip. "And we might need to choose; hike down to Cosmo Canyon – or take refuge in the Shinra mansion."
Alphys shivered from something other than cold. "Definitely don't want that."
"But I don't want to force everyone to walk all that way." Tifa shook her head.
The fires raged for hours after; all too clear the town was beyond saving. No time to think about how difficult everything would be. How little anyone wanted to live within the walls of the Shinra mansion but the alternative was almost as unpleasant. She guided her group to distribute blankets, waterproofs, the few tents and food to the soot-blackened former residents of Nibelheim.
The first burnt out in the early hours of the morning leaving them with scant torches and moonlight. No sign of movement on the path to Mount Nibel. Neither her father, nor Sephiroth, nor Zack came back from the peak. Exhaustion eventually forced Tifa to stop moving. She slumped beside Cloud watching nervously over Dala. She rested her head on his shoulder and awoke with the dawn. Still resting against Cloud's shoulder – and at some point, someone draped a blanket around them both.