Chapter 4

Tifa was stood behind the bar of Seventh Heaven. It had just closed for the night. All around there were empty glasses sat on tables, chairs out of place, torn beer mats littering the floor. Surprisingly Tifa didn't mind this part of the job though. It always gave her time to think, reflect on things and on life in general. She began happily humming to herself as she walked round the empty bar straightening up chairs and tables, stacking glasses on the bar to be washed, emptying the ashtrays and sweeping down the floor. Tifa nodded to herself in satisfaction as she surveyed the place. Everything was back in its place all neat and tidy. The tables gleamed, the floor was spotless and, Tifa turned around and was confronted by disheartening sight. The bar had a mountain of glasses to be washed piled high on it. It was a few hours later when Tifa was polishing up the last glass to a sparkling shine when she heard a sound that turned her blood to ice. The glass in her hands slipped from her grasp and shattered onto the bar floor. Thousands of tiny glistening shards spread their way out across the once clean shining floor in a beautiful pattern, almost like a sprinkling of diamond dust in the light. Tifa glanced down at the destruction, then up to the ceiling, trying to stare through the timber and plaster to the room above. For from upstairs had come the anguished cry of Cloud. Tifa had never heard Cloud sound so terrified, so vulnerable. It just wasn't Cloud. Even when he was suffering he exuded a cool exterior. Ok he ran away from his problems in the past, but that was so he could brood alone, to save others feelings. Stupid and stubborn, though his actions may have been, it still showing a kind of strength, one that his cry had just betrayed. Tifa walked away from the broken glass and headed straight up to Clouds room, she had to make sure he was ok. It scared her, usually it was his daft nobility that had her worried, not his inability to cope with something. This was new territory…

Slowly opening the door to Clouds room just enough to let a slither of light shine through from the hallway, she let her eyes adjust to the darkness inside. At first all she could see was the dust floating in the air highlighted by the ray of light busting into the darkness of Clouds room. Then shapes began to form within the room. A chair, a table, a bed. From the shape of the large dark mass on top of the latter, Tifa could only conclude that Cloud was curled up into the foetal position. Tifa pushed on and opened the door some more; enough to allowed her slender nubile body through. She stepped forward towards the mass of blankets and Cloud, stepping onto a loose floorboard as she did. The squeak of the boards echoed loudly in the room. Tifa cursed to herself and proceeded over to where Cloud lay. As she got closer she could make out his features. His blue glowing eyes were staring into the empty space of nothingness.

"Cloud?" Tifa enquired. His eye flicked over to the direction in which the voice had come from. It took a few seconds for his focus and attention to align and for him to formulate who was there.

"Tifa? What's wrong? Has something happened?" he said trying to conceal the true emotions his latest dream had caused within him. He looked at her; even in the darkness he could see concern and a hint of fear in her eyes. He knew at that moment that he must have cried out loud and not just in his dream. "… Just another dream Tif don't worry about it. I'll drop off again soon." Cloud said as nonchalantly as he could. He hoped that it would be enough to sate Tifa. But he knew deep down that it wouldn't be.

"Tell me about it Cloud. It might help. I heard you. I know this one was worse than the rest. I've never heard you cry out like that. Please." Tifa pleaded with him. Hoping that he would open up and she wouldn't have to fight with him for the next ten minutes getting him to cave in.

"I'm just losing my mind" he replied to her. A half mocking half serious smile on his face. Tifa just stared at him. Her deep brown eyes boring into his mako fuelled ones. Cloud closed his eyes and sighed he knew she wouldn't give up. " It was like all the others, watching back an event unfolding, yet something being different, something worse. They seem so real, but at the same time I get the feeling that I know its not how it's supposed to happen." Cloud opened his eyes again and looked at Tifa, he had never told her what his dreams entailed only that he'd had some nightmares. He had never been the one for going to much detail when it came to personal matters. Tifa was staring at him, searching his face for answers. Cloud retold the events of his previous dreams, with each passing word Tifa's eyes opened wider and wider. Cloud was in the middle of telling her about the dream at the well. "Then you burst out laughing at me and.." Tifa cut him off by pouncing onto him and hugging him.

"You know that I would never laugh at anything you wanted to do Cloud. You're one of the strongest people I know. I know you would succeed at anything you wanted to do" Cloud shifted his position in bed and sat up right.

"I know." He half smiled. "It's just how my dream played out. Anyway.."

Cloud finished retelling the well dream. Tifa sat there in silence for a moment contemplating the meaning or reasoning behind the dreams. " Cloud, what happened tonight?" Tifa said as she crossed her legs, her skirt riding slightly higher up her thighs as she sat upright on Clouds bed.

"It was when we were… when we were in the forgotten city." Cloud started. "Everything was exactly the same, the crystalline staircase down to the capital, the white marble stepping stones leading to the alter. She was there, knelt at there. Praying." Cloud paused. Tifa knew it would be difficult for him to have had to relive the moment Aeris was murdered in front of his eyes and waited patiently. "Well you know what happened." Tifa furled her brow in confusion.

"Its that why you cried out? I thought you said there was always something different that happened?" Cloud looked Tifa directly in the eyes.

"It was different, the reason I cried out was because, it wasn't Sephiroth who fell from above and killed her… It was me."

Sorry it took so long to get round to posting up this chapter. i'm halfway through the next one already and i'll try and get it up before Christmas but you know what its like at this time of the year!.

As always read/review etc. Thanks and if i dont get the next chapt out before have a Happy Christmas!