Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7.

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Tifa blinked, stunned as the she stood in the rain. When did it start raining? And where were Cloud and Aerith? She looked around her to get her bearings. She was still at the foot of the Midgar Mountains, still in sight of Midgar in fact; her location had not changed. What had changed was the weather and the fact that she was all alone.

"What happened?" she murmured, panicked, head snapping around wildly. "Cloud! Aerith! Where are you guys?"

No reply.

The sound of rain was broken by a thunk on the wet grass. She bent down to pick up both halves of the Time materia that had fallen out of her glove. She remembered Cloud explaining, "…Damaged materia can't be fixed. It behaves erratically or not at all and it might even blow up on you…"

Tifa frowned. Her first thought was that the Time materia had vaporised Cloud and Aerith but rejected the idea out of hand. It didn't explain the rain. She had the sinking feeling in her stomach that however erratically the Time materia had behaved, it was the reason she was in this predicament now.

Tifa knew that her inaction was due to shock at finding herself in this totally unexpected situation and tried to pull herself together. She needed to get back to her friends. She pulled out her PHS and tried to contact Cloud but could not get an answer, only static. She was looking at the PHS in frustration when she heard Cloud scream.

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Tifa swore as she slipped again on the wet clay as she struggled up the steep trail to where Cloud's scream had originated. What was Cloud doing in the mountains? Were they looking for her there? Her boots bit and scrabbled for purchase as she pushed herself forward. Cloud's voice had been so anguished. . .

As Tifa finally reached a more level grade, the rain stopped and the sun began to shine. Tifa didn't notice all this, however as her carmine eyes took in what appeared to be a battlefield and with the solitary black-clad figure lying in a pool of blood *so much blood!* next to the cliff's edge.

Cloud! Her body was moving forward even before her mind shrieked his name. Oh Gaia, Shinra must have caught them! They killed him and taken Aerith!

The relief and confusion she felt when she saw that the person had black hair, instead of the familiar blonde hair was intense. He was taller and had the same black uniform as Cloud…

I know this person. He was at Nibelheim with Sephiroth five years ago. His name was

"Zack!" she cried aloud, remembering.

This Zack was very different from the confident, earnest SOLDIER that she remembered. He was riddled with more bullet holes than she could count, his SOLDIER uniform shredded and shiny with that particular texture that meant it was soaked through with something more than rainwater. For some reason though, his face had a peaceful smile. She touched his face gently and pulled back with a gasp. He was dead. Dead! It felt like Nibelheim all over again.

Tifa's hands fumbled at her belt pouch for the Cure materia. No, that wouldn't work on dead people; Wasn't there anything else that would help? Her mind suddenly slowed as her fingers brushed against a small silk-wrapped package. Phoenix Downs! She only had three and would he be able to last long enough for her to Cure him? She knew that she could not heal him with all the bullets still in his body.

He gave a ragged, painful gasp, his sky-blue eyes opening wide and unseeing as the power of the Phoenix Down was invoked. Tifa desperately cast Cure again and again, willing his body to heal from the inside out to expel the bullets within him before finishing off the healing process. She ran out of MP thrice and he died twice more before she managed to heal almost all his wounds. Casting Cure continuously was tiring and some incompletely healed wounds still leaked blood sluggishly. She was mildly surprised that he still had blood left to bleed. Reaching into her belt pouch for her last hi-potion, she carefully cradled his head and tried to dribble it into his mouth but trickled out of his slack mouth. Tifa gritted her teeth, tired. He needed to ingest the potion in order to have a chance of surviving and she didn't want to risk him dying again, not when she had nothing left to save him with. She drank a mouthful of the potion and then brought her mouth to his distressingly cool lips. She slowly released the potion bit by bit into his mouth, and gently pinched his nose shut, waiting for Zack to reflexively swallow and releasing his nose when he did so. She could feel his heart starting to beat more strongly and his breathing steady as the potion took effect. She repeated this and just as she released that mouthful, she felt a hand grip her wrist. She released her grip on Zack's nose and looked up into blurry, unfocused glowing eyes.

"Now, you've definitely got to be an angel."

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Tifa watched as Zack flipped himself upright. He held out his hands and looked at them, an incredulous grin breaking out on his face. "So I'm not dead! I'm not dead! Oh yeah!" To Tifa's amazement, he proceeded to do a few quick squats then went smoothly into a series of back flips and cartwheels, laughing at himself as he nearly stumbled on the uneven ground but always recovering smoothly as if he had intended to do it all along, amazingly agile for a recently resurrected man. He turned and looked at Tifa and his smile widened further. "You saved my life, man! Thank you!"

It was impossible not to return his smile. His joy in living was undeniable.

"Hey, you're Zack, right?" she queried tentatively.

"Yups, Zack Fair, ex-SOLDIER first class at your service!" He took a closer look at her and recognition dawned on his face. "Hey, I know you, you're Tifa!" Zack was stunned. Even though he knew that he had spent four years underground in Shinra Mansion, he hadn't really registered the passage of time in the outside world. Seeing Tifa here now, definitely grown up from the last time he had seen her, had suddenly made him realise that yes, four years had indeed passed. "You're alive, too! How did you come to be here?" He frowned suddenly, remembering, looking around. "Where's Cloud?"

Tifa's head snapped up. "You've seen Cloud?"

"You know him? Yeah, he's been with me for the past four years in Nibelheim. Somehow or other, that…"

"What?"

Zack threw a puzzled glance over at Tifa's interruption. "What's wrong?"

"You said, Cloud was with you for the past four years in Nibelheim. But he was with us in Midgar for the past year. Wait, this doesn't make sense." Tifa looked down in confusion and she noticed the empty materia slot in her glove. Her eyes widened. Oh no, what is going on?

"Anyways, I need to look for Cloud and head into Midgar."

"Me too. I need to look for Cloud and Aerith." Tifa muttered distractedly, getting to her feet and brushing at her clothes.

"What?"

It was Tifa's turn to look over at Zack's interruption. "Excuse me?"

Zack's startled blue eyes caught her own. "You know Aerith?"

Tifa blinked. "She sells flowers in the slums. Pretty girl, with brown hair and green eyes."

"And she's with you? Out here?" A slow grin formed over his face. "Well, what do you know. She overcame her fear of the sky, huh?"

Tifa felt shock hit her in between the eyes. Zack was the SOLDIER boyfriend Aerith had been referring to!

Confused, she looked out over the barren plains towards Midgar city. Something about the steel and smoke monstrosity was off. She frowned, trying to see what it was and when she finally registered what was wrong, she felt her heart constrict in her chest and everything whited out.

"…Tifa? Tifa? Are you all right?"

"No, I'm not," Tifa wanted to say but it couldn't get past the lump in her throat. She found herself on her knees, with concerned blue eyes looking into her own. She was leaning against Zack, whose arm around her shoulders was the only thing preventing her face from meeting the same stones who were so enthusiastically making themselves acquainted with her legs.

"Oh good, she opens her eyes. Next time, if you're gonna do that, give a guy some warning, won't you? What happened?"

Tifa looked out at Midgar City and whispered, "Sector 7 is still standing."

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed it.