Thanks to kelleyj17 for helping me smooth out this chapter.
A young man was staring at her from the doorway. He reminded Tifa of Zack, but instead of deep indigo eyes staring at her with an unearthly glow and a healthy helping of cockiness, these were a vibrant green and filled with growing confusion. He rubbed the back of his head, then glanced down at Nanaki. "Eh?" He looked back into the house for several long moments before turning back towards them.
Tifa tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Hi, um...We're looking for two people, named Cloud and Yuffie," she began slowly. "Are they here?"
"O-oh. Uh—"
A hand grasped the stranger's shoulder and he weakly looked to his side. He quickly moved away from the door, and Cloud's visage appeared moments later. His eyes widened as he looked upon her and Nanaki, his mouth parting a little and his other hand limply holding a grilled fish. Tifa's ruby eyes brightened and she took a step closer.
"Cloud!"
She hadn't seen him in two days, and she was glad he wasn't injured in some remote location, or dead by the side of the road. He was here, where ever here was, and they would just have to find a way to get home to the kids before they noticed her absence, too. Despite how uncertain she felt about Cloud and the village he found himself in, she flashed him a smile to show she wasn't angry with him.
"T-Tifa..." He stood there, gobsmacked, looking her up and down. She smiled tiredly at him even as she shivered. She tilted her head to the side slightly, studying him back. His hair was in absolute disarray and his jaw was growing short, dark gold scruff. His gaze went to Nanaki, then his eyes moved to the side. "Uhhh..."
He didn't sound happy to see her. That put a damper on their reunion, she thought.
Tifa frowned, and waved her hand in front of Cloud to get his attention. "Cloud?" His eyes snapped back to hers. He was looking as lost as ever. "Where are we?"
Cloud turned his head to look behind him, then turned back and grabbed Tifa's arm. "L-let's get you cleaned up!"
That was sudden. Tifa would have preferred an explanation, but glancing at her muddy chest she decided that perhaps cleaning up would be best first. She had found Cloud, and he could explain what was going on. She hoped.
As he pulled her inside, she looked about wildly at all the faces staring at her. There was a young girl with sandy hair looking at her with a puzzled expression, and a woman with dirty blonde hair looking between her and the door. Tifa's eyes traveled to a tall man sitting on the floor with a familiar red cape, draped upon the head of a familiar young ninja. "Yuffie? Vincent?"
"Welcome to the party," Yuffie grumbled beneath Vincent's cape.
The raven haired man sighed, then gave a greeting nod to Tifa. "It's nice to see you after such a long time. I just wish it was under better circumstances," he said lowly.
"...Better circumstances?" Her eyes snapped towards Nanaki. No, he was bigger and greyer, but there was the "XIII" tattoo and that familiar, single ocher eye. She stopped and stared, eyeing the two cubs flanking him.
At least they were, until they saw the younger Nanaki warily enter, and then they charged towards him with abandon. "Grandpa?"
"...What?" Young Nanaki's eye looked back and forth between the two cubs anxiously.
Tifa slipped out of Cloud's hand and motioned towards the group. "What's going on?" Unease was beginning to twist her gut. Why were there two Nanakis, and what was Vincent doing here? Who were these people they had shacked up with?
Young Nanaki was sniffing at the cubs, then stared at his older counterpart, who was giving the same look back. After several tense moments, young Nanaki proved to Tifa and Yuffie that Cid's mouth and occasionally Barret's and Cloud's had influenced his vocabulary. "...Holy shit."
"Indeed," older Nanaki said quietly. Vincent looked uncomfortably between the two as Yuffie looked on, no one certain if she wanted to laugh or scream.
Cloud took Tifa's hand again. "I'll tell you," he began as he pulled her towards the back. "Just...let me help clean you up first."
He finally got her to the backyard and she looked about at the basin, the chicken coop and walls that barely hid them. Cloud motioned towards her clothing with his fish. "We can wash those, and um, let me ask Vesta about getting some hot water..." He started to go back into the house.
"Who is Vesta?"
He turned his head to look at her, his eyes still full of bewilderment. "M-my descendant." He squeezed his fist, then went back inside.
Tifa was floored. They were in the future? How far? There were so many questions that poured themselves into her mind. But then his words hit her: They were his descendants. She rubbed her belly. What about this one? Did it survive? Maybe it didn't. Or maybe they didn't make it as a couple, and she had to go her own way.
She sat on the edge of the basin, her head in her hands. She rubbed her mud-crusted locks as she mulled over everything, always coming back to that little line. Cloud had had kids, but what if it wasn't with her?
"Hey. We had some water that was gonna be boiled for porridge, it should be the right temperature for you to take a bath in," Cloud said next to her. She looked up as he carefully dumped a cauldron's worth of hot water into the basin. He disappeared into the house again, then returned to her side. He held out his hand. "I'll wash your clothes, Tifa."
Tifa looked around. This was not a good place to take a bath. She held her hands on her arms as her shoulders shuddered from a chill breeze, and she shook her head. "This isn't exactly private."
He sighed. "I know, but you kinda get used to it. No one in the village bothered us when we bathed." She still wasn't budging, and he scratched the back of his head. "I'll stand guard, alright?"
She fidgeted and looked at the steaming water. She really needed to clean up, it was just so exposed! Resigning after a few more hesitant moments, she stripped while watching beyond the wall, then quickly sat in the basin. The warm water felt wonderful on her aching body and she sighed contentedly as she closed her eyes.
Tifa poured some of the water on her head, then began washing the mud off of her face. Soon she heard a familiar noise, and slowly opened her eyes. Cloud was using a wash board on her clothing. She cleared her throat and he looked back at her nervously. "You have a lot of explaining to do," she said as her mind returned to the present and the past.
He nodded, then squeezed the water out of her shirt. Cloud stood up and hung it on a rope holding other articles of clothing. "Yuffie and I were at the church. We were talking, and when we turned to leave...it was like a gust of wind pushed us into the pool." He sat back down and began washing more of her clothing. "And now, we're in the future."
Tifa thought back to her time at the church. Aerith tried warning her to leave. Her eyes traveled about the area in front of her, and she eventually looked up at what really must be the Shinra tower. "What happened?" she whispered. "This looks like the distant past."
"We're five hundred years into the future," Cloud responded flatly. He glanced her way and noticed the look of shock on her face.
"F-five hundred years? But why is everything so..." Tifa looked about her, then eyed the coop on the far side of the yard. A chicken was staring at her wide eyed with its mouth agape. She stared back at it witheringly, then turned her head to look at Cloud again. "...Primitive?"
He sighed. "After Deepground, the Planet created new Weapons out of a guy named Genesis, and Weiss. I guess you didn't know Genesis...He was a First Class Soldier, like Sephiroth. I saw him a few times when I worked for Shinra." He paused to again put more clothing on the line. "The Planet turned them into Weapons, and when we were around sixty, one of them attacked Edge. We...we died," he said quietly.
"We died from a Weapon attack? It destroyed Edge, didn't it?"
Cloud nodded. "Yep. Junon was attacked, but it apparently survived as a human settlement. Corel is uninhabitable because of the coal mine fires." He slapped out Tifa's shorts and examined it for any more mud particles. "The Planet wasn't looking to kill off humans, just our technology. So, it destroyed our cities and energy supplies. That's why everything is so backwater now."
Tifa held a hand to her chest and looked at her reflection in the water. The Planet they saved ended up killing them and ruining any progress humanity had made. It was a bitter feeling, almost as bitter as the feeling that she might not have any descendants of her own. She set her jaw and huffed through her nose, then tilted her head upward towards the sky. "And why are we here?" she whispered.
"We were sent back to save this future from Jenova. I don't know how Minerva, the one that sent us back, missed Jenova of all things," he said with an irritated growl, "but I'm gonna have to fix it so we can go home."
Tifa was trying to soak everything in, and she crouched at the basin's edge on her knees, her wet hair covering her back and her head resting on her arms. "You're not doing it alone," she stated quietly.
"I know. Yuffie, Vincent, Corent and Dilys...and uh, two Nanakis," he said as he hung up her panties. Cloud stood and walked to the basin, put a towel that he had fetched from the clothes line on the edge, then sat on the ground next to it, looking out towards the treeline.
"And me, too," Tifa responded tersely.
He turned around to look at her, and shook his head. "I-I don't want you to come with us."
She narrowed her eyes. "Excuse me?"
"Teef, just stay here and watch Vesta and the cubs. You shouldn't have been involved anyway," he mumbled as he turned his head away.
"And why not?" she asked sharply.
Tifa saw him fidgeting in place. He was probably trying to come up with the words to explain, and despite her growing agitation she patiently waited. For all she knew, he might actually have a good reason, something she hadn't thought of or a particular danger in the future. "I...I don't think you're in fighting shape anymore, Teef."
Her jaw went slack. "You what?"
"I mean I know you practice in the garage, and I spar with you, but I mean...when was the last time you fought a monster?" She was silent, and he continued after a pause. "Or the last time you had to hike for miles upon miles? I don't want you to have to go through all of that again."
"I can handle it," she said curtly.
Cloud looked back and into her eyes. He sucked in a breath. "I don't want you to handle it, I want you to stay some place safe," he said firmly.
She was beginning to seethe now. "I went through all this trouble to look for you," she hissed, "and you're gonna treat me like this?!" She could feel her heart pounding in her head.
He heaved a sigh. "I don't think—"
"You aren't thinking, you're right!" She pulled herself up out of the water and grabbed the towel to wrap around her. "You can't stop me from coming, Cloud Strife!"
Cloud groaned and covered his face with his hand. "Please..."
She shook her head. "I can't believe you." Tifa began to dry herself off, then looked up as that young woman with blonde hair and amber eyes came out of the house, holding a small pile of clothing. Tifa raised a brow at her.
"Ah, M-my name is Dilys," she said with a small head bow. "You needed some clothing?" Dilys asked weakly.
Tifa left the basin, approached Dilys, and gently took the pile after making sure the towel wouldn't fall off of her. "Thank you," she said sharply. She looked down at Cloud. "I'd like some privacy right now, please."
He bit his lip but nodded, standing up and leaving with Dilys. As soon as he left Tifa let out a huff and put her back to the stone of the cottage, sliding down to sit. This was a miserable thing to discover. The Planet had blotted out any hope of human advancement, and decided to drag Cloud, Yuffie, Nanaki and her into the future to slay a revived Jenova. The cherry on top was Cloud acting like a chauvinistic jackass towards her.
He thought she wasn't capable anymore? Tifa cracked her knuckles and stood up. She would show him she was more than capable.
Denzel unlocked the door to the bar and let Marlene in. It was quiet but for their footsteps on the floor and the ceiling fans above their heads. There was a little light from the dusk outside, and Marlene went to the light switch to brighten up the counter.
There was a note with Tifa's handwriting laying on the smooth stone of the counter, in plain black ink.
Dear Denzel and Marlene,
If I'm not home before eight, there's a casserole ready to put in the oven. I put the directions on it just in case I was late. Nanaki will be staying the night, and I already have the guest bed ready for him. Call if you need anything!
Love, Tifa
Denzel looked at the wall clock; it was eight-thirty. They had gotten home a bit late themselves, it seemed. He looked down and saw Marlene preheating the oven already. He scratched his cheek, then went over to the sink to wash his hands. "Do you think we should call Tifa?"
Marlene nodded before dunking her hands in the stream of water. She sudded her hands up and took a passing glance at Denzel. "Yeah. I wanna know if they found any clues."
"Yeah."
Denzel dried his hands off and walked upstairs to Cloud's office. He picked up the phone that lay nestled between photos and receipts, and dialed Tifa's number.
It immediately went to voicemail.
He tried a few more times, unease and anxiety growing in his heart. Tifa said Cloud's phone was doing the same thing. Now Tifa's phone, too. Was she okay? What if Cloud and Tifa were tired of raising them and this was just a scheme to rid themselves of two orphans—
"Denzel? Did you call Tifa?" Denzel turned his head to the side to see Marlene peeking from the doorway.
He hesitantly nodded. "It-it went to voicemail. I called a couple of times and it didn't ring at all."
She bit her lip. "Can you call my Dad?"
"I don't know his number, Marlene."
She walked over and took the phone from him. "I'll do it, don't worry." Marlene dialed Barret, and after a few rings his booming voice greeted her.
"Yo! Tifa? Cloud?"
"Daddy!"
She heard him grunt in surprise, then his voice softened. "Hey, baby girl. How you doin'?"
Her eyes looked about before beginning. "We can get a hold of Tifa," she admitted.
"Where'd she go?"
"She went with Nanaki to look for Cloud," Marlene explained. "They aren't back yet."
"Hm. Lemme try'n get a hold of those two. She wouldn't be out this long with you two around."
The two children waited several minutes as Barret hung up and tried Tifa's and Nanaki's numbers. The office phone rang again, and Marlene picked it up again. "Did you get them?" she asked hopefully.
"Naw. Look baby girl, I'm gonna drive down to Edge. If she don't show up tonight, you think you two'll be alright alone for the night?"
Marlene pursed her lips, then nodded as she ignored the worry growing in her chest. "We'll be alright, Daddy."
"Okay. I'm gonna call some of our friends an' see if they can help. You two be good, I'll be there by morning."
"Thanks, Daddy. I love you."
"I love you too, Marlene. Keep an ear out for the phone." Click.
She sighed and hung the phone up. Denzel put a hand on her shoulder. "What did he say?"
She turned around with a sad expression on her face. "He'll be here in the morning, and he was gonna call everyone to let them know Tifa and Nanaki were missing, too." She looked at the phone, then Denzel again. "Daddy said to listen for the phone, too."
Denzel groaned and put his hands in his pockets. They were going to have to fend for themselves for a night, not a difficult thing to do, but he couldn't stop wondering and worrying about his lost guardians. He didn't want to lose loved ones. Not again.