Aerith was still sobbing over Tifa's attack on her as Zack gently laid her in their bed. He used a healing materia on Aerith before getting into bed with her and taking her in his arms. As soon as he touched her, she suddenly remembered she was still wearing the outfit that Tifa hated so much. She tore herself from his arms, jumping out of bed and trying to claw it off her. "Get it off! Get it off!" she screamed hysterically.
Zack jumped out of bed too and grabbed her hands to stop her from hurting herself. "Calm down, I'll take it off." he told her, and quickly undressed her.
"What did you do to me?" Aerith ranted at her husband, freeing her hands from his grasp and needing to blame someone. "Why didn't you tell me she wouldn't like the outfit?" Her mind was in a horribly chaotic state, her brainwashed submission to Tifa making her unable to blame the Empress for anything. "I hate you! I hate you!" Aerith punctuated her words by hitting Zack's chest with her small fists. "I hate..." She suddenly collapsed onto the floor. "She hates me!" Aerith started crying again and shaking uncontrollably. How could she live with herself without Tifa's approval? "I didn't mean to make her ashamed of me! I'll never do anything ever again without her permission. I was bad...I'm not good for anything...I'm just a stupid blind whore who doesn't deserve to be loved!" Her voice was full of self-loathing.
"Don't talk like that, you hear me? You know how important you are to her. You just surprised her, that's all, and she's not used to that." Zack said as he held her tightly to comfort her and make sure she wouldn't try to hurt herself. He hated defending Tifa, but there wasn't much he wouldn't do for Aerith, and she truly was innocent of the evil that was Tifa.
"When can I see her again to beg for forgiveness?" Aerith wanted to know. "I need a goodnight kiss from her!" she cried in almost a childlike wail. Aerith couldn't remember the last time she had been forced to endure the pain of not having Tifa's lips promise her a good night.
"I guess you'll just have to make do with me for now." Zack said in a determinedly light tone. "Reno promised you could see her in the morning, remember."
Aerith mentally latched like a barnacle onto that promise. "I'll see her in the morning. I'll see her in the morning. I'll see her in the morning." she kept repeating to herself, rocking back and forth in Zack's arms as he silently cursed both Reno and Tifa for what they did to his beloved wife.
When Aerith finally fell into an exhausted sleep hours later, Zack felt just as wrung out as she must. He hoped she would stay asleep this time. She would start to doze off, only to suddenly wake up and start crying out, either begging for Tifa's forgiveness or ranting about how horrible she must be to deserve Tifa's anger, then wear herself out and go back to sleep. When enough time passed without her waking up again, he quietly left her, locking the door so she couldn't leave and do something drastic if she woke up without him there. He made his way to Reno and Yuffie's room, unlocking the door without waking either of them up. He paused for a moment as he approached the bed, noticing the handcuffs on the nightstand and how they were sleeping so peacefully in each other's arms, the very picture of loving contentment. A twinge of jealously was added to his rage as Reno's eyes popped open, his training alerting him to Zack's presence.
"Don't you know how to knock?" Reno asked him, none too happy to have dropped his guard, wondering if he could excuse it since he and Yuffie wore each other out before sleep overcame them.
"Why didn't you tell me?!" Zack angrily demanded, grabbing Reno out of bed and slamming him into the wall. "You almost got her killed!"
"I didn't think she'd actually push your wife down the stairs. And I said I was sorry." Reno calmly explained, understanding of Zack's feelings since he himself went after Tifa to avenge all the suffering she caused his own wife. "But I knew destroying her mental image of Aerith would open the door to destroying her. There was an illusion materia in the Wutaian treasury that I used to help, making Tifa think she saw dead people. You telling me about Aerith's dream with Sephiroth and Cloud gave me the idea." Reno looked over at the bed, leering at his wife who was rather alarmed by Zack's rage. "I was gonna use the materia for some role-playing, but we'll try that when we get back home." he told Yuffie.
"You really don't get it, do you?" Zack couldn't believe Reno's stupidity. "Aerith can't live without Tifa anymore! She spent most of the night crying her eyes out, begging for Tifa's forgiveness for that damned outfit, blaming herself for everything! Killing Tifa is the same as killing Aerith, you stupid bastard!" Zack had never felt more like murder than he did at that moment.
"Then it's a good thing Tifa is still alive, isn't it?" Reno said.
"What?" Zack stopped his ranting and stared at Reno.
"Follow me." Reno threw some clothes on and gestured for Zack and Yuffie to follow him. She hurriedly dressed and joined them on their way to the dungeon. They stopped in front of what had been Zack's and then Elena's cell, and found Tifa strapped in the chair, seemingly asleep, garbed in lowly prison rags instead of her materia-laden attire. "The healing materia worked almost automatically, and she didn't fall that far cause she landed on the chopper instead of the
ground." Reno's voice turned sour. His plan had two unintended snags, the potentially fatal assault on Aerith, and that bitch having the nerve to save herself by hurting his precious bird. Sure the damage was really just cosmetic, but it was the principle of the thing!
Suddenly Tifa's head shot up and she started laughing maniacally. "You can't fool me…I'd never hurt her! It was always Sephiroth!" She ranted more as she struggled against the restraints, and they left her there, Zack wondering how his wife was going to handle this…if Tifa couldn't forgive her, Aerith would never forgive herself either.
Cora joined them as they were leaving the dungeon, and she wondered briefly why all the guards seemed to be avoiding her since the morning of the Bacchanalia, before she focused on her reason in seeking the guests out. "Sir Reno, what is a Turk?"
"A dead hero." Reno snapped at her, still feeling a twinge of grief mixed with rage after all these years. "They don't exist anymore."