Dusk To Dawn

Epilogue: Dawn

From Midnight…

Are you sure you still don't know, Tifa Lockhart? Or are you just in denial?

No, she didn't know. She wasn't in denial.

There has to be a reason for Cloud to bring up Kadaj. He could've told you that message about different sides to a person without using Kadaj's example specifically.

Cloud was just making a point. Just using the best example he could think of at that moment. That was all.

You know what Kadaj was… Tifa Lockhart. You definitely knew what – who – he could, and eventually did, turn into.

No. It couldn't be!!

"Tifa… I do love you. Even after you find out who he is… please believe me. I don't usually think about him… not in a long while… I really do love you."

"I know, I believe you… But who… Cloud…? Who?"

She saw him take a long, deep breath and let it out slowly. Then he turned to fix his brilliant glowing blue eyes on her steadfastly, as his mouth slowly formed a word, a name…

"…Sephiroth…"

It felt like time had stopped moving, and that everything everywhere had halted to hear that singular word that came out of Cloud's lips. The moment was so long, so drawn out, that Tifa could've sworn that the faint echoes from Cloud's voice that spoke that name was still echoing around her… all around her… over and over again.

Sephiroth.

The Sephiroth. The former General of the ShinRa army. JENOVA's child. Call him what you will.

She couldn't get it around her mind. It just wouldn't go down straight. Maybe she was refusing to do so… but she just… just couldn't. Cloud couldn't be serious. He just couldn't be. Of all… of all the people to love, and to be so deeply in love with… it had to be… Sephiroth?! The man who had wanted the destruction of the Planet. The man who had killed Aerith. The man who had set the disaster of Meteor upon them all.

Different sides. Yes. She had seen them in Sephiroth too: from insane psychopath to cruelly homicidal murderer. Different sides…? Oh yeah, the man had them. He had all sorts of sides to him, but none… none of them was ever any good.

"Ti… Tifa?" came Cloud's hesitant and unsure voice. It was as if he was afraid to startle her out of the daze she had fallen into… which probably was the case.

"Cloud… you… you're lying, aren't you? You… you're lying! Right!?"

But even before Cloud had given her an answer to that frantic question, Tifa already knew the truth. No. Cloud hadn't been lying. He wouldn't have… She had said it before that Cloud was honest. He never lied about his abilities, what he could or could not do – or say for the matter. He ran, yes. But that was because he knew or thought that he couldn't do something and he was afraid about it. He was still honest to himself. So why would Cloud stop now? And even if he were joking, he'd never have mentioned… Sephiroth. That was one person whom you could never, ever joke about.

Also, Cloud was one of the most sensitive people that she had ever had the pleasure to know. He didn't show it much, but he knew whenever something was wrong, when to push or retreat and what would hurt someone… and he had tried to make her give up on finding out the truth. She had just ignored his intentions and plowed on relentlessly.

What a thing she had uncovered in the end.

"No Tifa, I'm not. Not about this, never about this…"

Had Tifa been standing up, she would've staggered backwards and fallen to the floor. She knew her legs wouldn't be able to hold her upright even if she decided to up and leave at this very moment. Cloud was trying his best to think of something to say to her, she could tell. He was probably expecting the worst reaction from her. Because, really, how would you react if your lover told you that he'd once loved someone whom you thought was your common enemy? If anyone from their group of friends heard about this, they'd flip out too.

What should she say to that? It shocked her, it angered her and it most definitely hurt her to hear Cloud say that. However, she had been sufficiently warned and that she had even said… even said that if Cloud loved that particular someone so much then he couldn't be all that evil. She had said that to him and no wonder Cloud didn't sound like he believed her. Because he knew just how much she had hated Sephiroth for destroying their hometown and killing her father… and how much she still hated the silver-haired man. Just because the man was dead, it didn't mean that her hatred had died altogether.

"…Tifa, I… I'm so sorry. I'm really, really sorry… You… probably hate me now too… But I… I'm just so sorry!"

"…I-It isn't your fault Cloud… I asked… and you told me… even though you hadn't wanted to… and knew I… I… wouldn't have… taken it well…" Tifa said unsteadily, unsure if she was really the one saying those words. Her brain hadn't really taken to functioning very properly… When had Cloud sat up anyway?

The answer didn't seem to have made Cloud any less anxious as he suddenly stood up, with all the intention of walking off in his posture. "I should go… Don't… stay out too long, Tifa… You might catch a cold…"

Before she knew it, her hand had reached out – lightning fast – to grasp his, stopping him from walking away. "Where are you going to go?"

"Somewhere… Anywhere… I don't know…" was Cloud's uncertain reply, but he made no move to shake her hand away from his.

"Stay, Cloud. Stay. Please?"

He seemed to deliberate, to consider his actions. No doubt that Cloud thought that leaving her now would be for the best. He had dropped a bombshell on her, and it was one that would probably be too hard to accept by anyone who had gone through the horror that was Meteor and trying to stop Sephiroth. But Tifa would not let him walk away from her again. She was upset, yes. But if she let him go now, she wasn't sure if she'd ever see him again. Cloud might think that it would for the best if they never saw each other again, and as hurt as she was by the revelation, Tifa didn't think she could survive a blow such as that.

Finally, Cloud answered her, voice full of doubt and uncertainty, "Tifa… I don't understand… Why do you want me to stay?"

"Because I don't think I can stand seeing you walk away for… possibly… forever. And… and… this might sound, I don't know… weird at the moment, but I want to know… Why him, Cloud?"

Yes, that was the question in her mind. Because whatever she had known about Sephiroth would never have placed him in her good books. Not in a million and one years. Probably even more too. True, she had heard that before Nibelheim, Sephiroth was sane and everyone knew him as the great General and the Wutai war hero. But that was nothing compared to a zillion things she could name about the atrocities he had committed.

"…You ask the most difficult questions…"

"Thank you, I try to…" she joked in an attempt to lift the mood.

Cloud slowly sat back down, still maintaining a certain distance from her that was probably deliberate. He wasn't very comfortable about the situation, although it seemed that he wanted to get the secret about Sephiroth off his chest some time now. Maybe that was why he had told Reno, drunk or not.

"Why him…? I'm not sure if you'll understand, Tifa… But I know two different versions of Sephiroth – the one whom we all fought against and the one, whom I believe only Zack and I knew. The Sephiroth I loved was the one before Nibelheim… however; it didn't make facing the psychotic shell of that same man any easier…"

"You hid everything so well, Cloud. I don't think anyone would've even guessed that you… you… loved him…"

"You forgot that I happened to be adopting Zack's personality for most of the time then, Tifa, and as far as I knew, Zack only had a platonic relationship with Sephiroth. I was pretty confused in the beginning when I learned of Sephiroth's return, until some of the memories began sorting itself out to tell me something about the Sephiroth I used to know, even before you helped me piece together the majority of my memories… and well, sometimes what the heart remembers lasts even if the mind doesn't. But I'm digressing, somewhat, from your original question."

"The Sephiroth from my days as a recruit in SOLDIER was different from the enemy we had faced. He was, undoubtedly, just as powerful as before, but the similarities ended there. Many people thought he was sculpted from ice because of his constant stoic expression and demeanor… In a way, it wasn't that much different from the other version of him. But never… Never have I witnessed the sadistic, gleeful gleam in his eyes during those days in SOLDIER. It was how I knew that it wasn't really Sephiroth whom I was facing, but someone, no something, that was using the image of him to act out its will."

"JENOVA…"

"Yes," Cloud confirmed before continuing, "Sephiroth, despite being ShinRa's best SOLDIER and the Wutai war hero, he wasn't arrogant. Sure, he had his pride and all, but they were all justifiable and he never deliberately flaunted his power just because he could do it. In all actuality, Sephiroth didn't like being in the spotlight, but he couldn't avoid it. Because of all that attention on him, it inadvertently isolated him from everyone except, as far as I know, Zack… and he was the one who introduced me to Sephiroth."

Tifa didn't know if she should be surprised at that. What she knew about Zack told her that he was a fun-loving person who had the mentality that the more friends, the merrier. Something that he probably felt would apply to everyone else too. But she didn't comment as Cloud continued after the brief pause.

"Zack knew that I admired Sephiroth from about as soon as we became friends. I didn't even tell him anything, nor did I know that he knew about it until he decided to confirm it with me one day. I'm not very sure why Zack would think it was a good idea to introduce me to Sephiroth; it didn't make sense then – I was a cadet and Sephiroth was The General. But I think… I think it was because he saw some similarities in us. I didn't have many friends, mostly because of my shyness and that the boys tended to ostracize people who appeared to be 'different' in any form of the word. Sephiroth, like I said earlier, was isolated from having much company due to his status. So I guess that was why Zack decided that he'd introduce us to each other. Guess he figured that we'd hit off or something… I'm not sure if he forgot the fact that I there was one huge difference between us that made everything a lot more difficult, or that he just thought that it wasn't of consequence right from the beginning."

"I'm guessing that to you at least, it was."

"Oh, definitely. Zack didn't even tell me that he was going to take me to meet Sephiroth. He just dragged me out of my dorm without an explanation to why he was taking me out late at night and why he was heading for the ballrooms of the complex when everyone knew that there was a function for the higher ups going on there. When I had finally gotten the answer out of him, we were already on the floor that housed the ballrooms. I don't think I've ever been freaked out more than that time." Cloud finished talking with a wry smile on his face, most likely thinking back to how he had acted at that time.

"So what happened?" Tifa prompted, a little shocked to find herself genuinely interested in knowing more… As if Sephiroth – or the image of him as Cloud told her – had never committed the atrocities that he had.

Cloud let out a short chuckle, sounding truly amused at that particular memory. Something that Tifa knew didn't happen very often if Cloud's constant reluctance to talk about his past was any indication. "Well, it was too late to actually turn back, not that I didn't try to. But I couldn't leave without Zack, cause I'd be in big trouble if that was the case… and since I couldn't drag Zack back unlike what he did with me, I had to go ahead with his hair-brained scheme. Which surprisingly, turned out okay. Somehow, Zack had managed to convince Sephiroth to leave early. So when the ballroom was in view, I could see Sephiroth outside, leaning against one of marble pillars. If Zack telling me that I was going to meet Sephiroth wasn't enough to freak me out, actually seeing him in flesh and out of uniform…" he trailed off, highly likely to be lost for descriptive words from that faraway, almost dazed look Tifa could see in his eyes. He was probably imagining that scene all over again.

"If you said that the whole thing turned out okay… I don't think you fainted, right?" she couldn't help but tease him a little due to his expression, her brown eyes sparkling with mirth under the moonlight.

"Tifa!" Cloud protested indignantly, before laughing softly at her words. "No, no. I definitely didn't do that."

"Hmm… then what did you do?"

"Well…"

They stayed outside the whole night; where she continued to listen to Cloud relate his story of him and Sephiroth. Tifa realized that it had been a very long time since she had seen Cloud so relaxed and at ease. So much so that they could actually banter and tease each other. To think that the key to that sort of openness from the blond was actually Sephiroth, a man whom she had earlier thought Cloud hated, only to be proven otherwise in the span of the starlit night.

Not too long ago, Cloud had fallen silent, his long reminiscence coming to an end. Tifa had taken the opportunity to move closer to the blond, leaning against him to show that after all he had told her, had finally trusted her enough with that secret, she didn't really hold it against him anymore. It was true that she would never know the Sephiroth that Cloud had described to her. Even the short time she had met the man before he went insane at Nibelheim did not seem like the person Cloud loved so wholeheartedly. However, it was enough for her to concede that Sephiroth could not have been bad right from the very beginning and whatever happened with JENOVA, the man himself probably couldn't even prevent it. Because if you found out that you were a result of an experiment… things didn't tend to go over very well.

But it seemed that Cloud still wasn't so sure that she was all right with it. Their companionable silence was broken by his soft, questioning voice. "Tifa… Are you really okay with what I've told you?"

Angling her head so she could look at Cloud's eyes while still resting her head on his shoulder, Tifa replied with a gentle smile, "I will admit that I will never personally know how Sephiroth was like before JENOVA activated her control over him. But with all I've heard Cloud, I'm beginning to get just an inkling of how he could've been. I don't hate you for it Cloud. I really don't."

Cloud still looked like he had his doubts, but she quickly cut him off before he could say anything more along those lines. "Idiot," she muttered affectionately with a tint of exasperation to her voice. Then Tifa moved in to kiss him full on the lips. A few moments later, Cloud wrapped his arms around her and responded to the kiss ardently.

At that instant, the first rays of sunlight finally broke through the horizon.

That's the end of the whole story! However, the series itself, which I'm dubbing as "Between Worlds" (includes Memory Of Wings too), hasn't completely ended. I'm planning a one-shot about Cloud and Reno's meeting in the pub from Reno's POV as well as a one-shot Rufus POV, which will not be as focused on this storyline cause it's doubling as my first Rufus/Reno story.

Personally, I wonder if Tifa's acceptance was a little too fast. But I wanted a relatively happy ending without it dragging on for too long, so I guess I had to compromise. If anyone wants to know why I didn't finish relating Sephiroth and Cloud's first meeting, it was partially cause the epilogue would've been too long (long fics aren't a crime, butI like my chapters to be of similar file size) and that I wasn't sure of how Cloud would've reacted too. But I'll be thinking about it and maybe post up an omake. If anyone has ideas, they're greatly appreciated!

Hope you've enjoyed the read!

carzla