Chapter 4

"You can't get married. She already has a husband."

This time it was Tifa's turn to cry out in alarm. "What do you mean I already have a husband. I have no memory of such a thing!"

Exasperated, as if this was a common occurrence, the secretary swung her monitor around so the two could get a quick glimpse of the certificate on the screen before it was moved out of view once more. "It looks like-" the woman started before being cut off by an explosion that rocked the Shinra building. Tifa felt an arm wrap around her waist to help steady her, while her hands shot to the desk to do the same thing. Once the shaking subsided, everyone righted themselves, just before a building wide alarm went off. Tifa's heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach at this, and was only wound up even more when a call came through the phone intercom on the secretary's desk.

The pillar of Sector 7 has fallen, I repeat, the pillar of Sector 7 has fallen!

"What. . .what does that mean?" Tifa asked in dread, taking a step back in fear for her friends and family.

"It means," another woman said as she strode up to the desk, a folder of documents in hand, "that the maintenance crews and their Turks bodyguard went out to the pillar this morning for weekly maintenance, AVALANCHE found out and tried to kill them all. Afterwards, one of them set a bomb up and destroyed the pillar. That shaking you heard, unfortunately, was hundreds of people of both the upper plate and the slums losing their lives to the plate falling."

"Head Secretary Kiani!" the woman at the desk exclaimed as she shot to her feet, giving a slight bow. "What are you doing down here?" The woman named Kiani handed the folder off to the secretary that addressed her.

"Giving you these. I need them given to the Mayor, and since he refuses to see me anymore, I need you to take it to him instead." Turning her attention to Corneo and Tifa, she rose an eyebrow. "I can finish up here for you, if you'd like."

"B-but Kiani, the plate-!"

"I know full well about it and there is nothing we can do about it. The terrorists struck, knowing they could cause damage to the lives and property of the city, and all we can do is go about our days knowing that cleanup crews are already working on finding survivors and that we have a unit of Soldiers 3rd Class helping with evac. Now go," the head secretary ordered, thrusting the file into the other woman's arms.

All the while Kiani was talking, Tifa's mind was whirling. AVALANCHE had attacked the pillar? Was the victory over Shinra really worth the loss of an entire district? Of their hideout? Of their home?

Her home.

She had no home now. Tifa's face went ashen as she realized she had nowhere to go.

"Miss? Miss, are you alright?" Kiani asked the brunette as she took the now vacated seat behind the computer. Taking a quick look at the screen, the secretary's eyes focused back on the woman in front of her. "I take it you're Tifa?" The brunette nodded, looking like she was in great shock.

"I'm homeless now. . .I don't have anywhere else to go. . ." she murmured, more to herself than anyone else.

"I could always contact your husband for you. To see if he's alright. I take it your home was in Sector 7? You are very lucky to have been out of there at this time of the day. Who is your husband? I can't make out this signature." Kiani was speaking normally, but to Tifa, she was going a thousand meters per second.

"I. . .I don't know who my husband is. I don't remember anything about it," she admitted. At this point, Corneo took over the conversation. Or at least tried.

"Well, if she doesn't remember her husband, or the event itself, she probably got taken advantage of. As my wife, I'd never let anything happen to her, let alone let her be separated from me," he boasted, earning a glare from Kiani.

"Well, she's not your wife, she's someone else's. Now we just need to figure out who he is so we can contact him," Kiani commented before turning back to Tifa, her expression softening. "Let me print off your marriage certificate. Perhaps seeing the signature might jog your memory, or something." Clicking a few buttons, Kiani had the printer working, but it was going slow.

Tifa could feel herself nodding, but a panic settled over her senses. This was just too much. A husband she didn't remember, a home destroyed.

She needed air.

With a quickly stated, "I. . .I need fresh air. I gotta get out of here. . ." Tifa was running down the stairs and out the doors, her head held in her hands as she tried to calm herself down.

"H-hey!" Corneo called after her as she fled. He started to go after her, but then stopped after a few steps when a cute tour guide passed him as she led a group of gawkers to the designated safe area until the alarms turned off.

Kiani waited long enough for the certificate to print before grabbing it off of the printer and following Tifa out of the building, leaving Corneo to prey on any cute woman in the near vicinity, his attention on Tifa fully lost during her panic attack.

Kiani found Tifa sitting on the steps with her head in her hands. Sitting next to her, Kiani rubbed the brunette's back in the attempt to help her calm down.

"Ma'am, are you alright?" she asked, somewhat uncertain how to proceed from here. Neither woman noticed Don Corneo approach them from behind to listen in.

"I'm homeless. The only family and home that I had was back in Sector 7," Tifa cried, everything hitting her all at once. She should have had Jessie come with her. At least she could have saved one life from the monstrosity of their group. How could Barret have sanctioned this? People lost their lives because of this!

"Well, your family isn't all dead. You still have your husband," Kiani said reassuringly, thrusting her marriage certificate into her hands. Tifa glanced down at the piece of paper and felt nothing.

"I don't even know this so-called husband. How do I know if this is real or not?" She had run out of tears, but the agony in her heart was still there. She had lost her home a second time in five years, and it hurt so much.

"We can always assist you with finding him. It might take a while to go through our records of every married man, but we can see who's signature fits the one on the certificate," Kiani offered.

"Why not put together a contest of sorts?" Corneo asked, revealing himself as he offered his opinion. Tifa jumped, but Kiani kept her cool, used to people popping out of the woodwork. "Tifa can spend the night in her room at my mansion in Sector 6 until we can find her husband. Then I can challenge him for her hand. If he doesn't show up, we might have to think of the possibility that he died when the plate fell."

In her distraught state, Tifa could only agree. She had little money, so free room and board for however long she needed it was a blessing. Of course, she could have fought against the monsters in the causeway between Sectors 5 and 6, but she was not in the right mental state to do anything at the moment.

"I can organize an event for tomorrow," Kiani offered. "Set out a news bulletin for the event for all men who think they may be married to you. We'll need to take a pretty picture of you, post it with the news bulletin and hope for a good turn out. This would actually be a good event to get everyone's minds off of the plate dropping." Hope blossomed in Tifa's bosom at Kiani's words. There was, of course, dread, but there was hope too. She may have lost everything, but she might gain something too. She didn't even know if there was anything left of AVALANCHE. Hopefully Cloud had still been with his girlfriend away from Sector 7, and was alive. But Barret? Tifa was so mad at Barret for going through with this. What right had he to dictate which innocents lived and died?! Her only hope was that Marlene was safe, and that Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge were alive.

"Do it," Tifa stated, her resolve hardening as she straightened, Kiani's arm slipping from her back. "I want to know who it is, and why I don't remember anything. I want answers, and a semblance of normalcy."

Kiani stood and helped Tifa up. "I'll get started on that," Kiani commented before brushing herself, then Tifa off. "We'll get that official picture taken of you. Do you have any other clothes?" she asked, looking at the day old blue dress Tifa still had on. The barmaid shook her head, a frown appearing on her face.

"No, everything I had was back at my home," she explained. Kiani pulled out her phone and made a note on it before turning to Corneo.

"Since you're wanting to marry her, are you willing to pay for a new wardrobe for her?" Kiani asked, getting into her business mode. The Don nodded.

"Whatever she needs, I can provide. Money is no objection to me," he offered, and Tifa took a deep breath to further calm herself.

"Let's get this over with," Tifa then said. She knew she had to get her life back on track, and seeing what she was left with would be a great way to start.

The trio had gone back into Shinra long enough to take a professional grade photo of her for the event announcement, and by the time Corneo had finished paying for Tifa's new wardrobe and they had come back to his mansion, the day was coming to an end and the event had been announced. They had to be back at the Shinra building by 8 tomorrow to be ready for the event to begin at 9. All eligible men would arrive and be filtered through tables of papers. They all had to fill one out and then sign their name at the bottom. While Tifa would be standing on the platform to be a visible remind of why there were there, there would be workers being paid overtime to check the signature against the one on the marriage certificate. Truthfully, they only needed the signature, but the men applying didn't need to know that.

With the security of a door lock that only she had the key to, Tifa had a fitful night of tossing and turning, her mind running through all the possibilities of who her husband could be, and what he would be like. Would he be kind, or hardworking? Was he old or just around her age? The anticipation of knowing kept her awake until the wee hours of the morning, where her exhaustion carried her to sleep.

A/N: Welp, here's the 4th chapter! We're almost there in figuring out who Tifa's husband is! :D I'm loving all of your guesses, but for those of you wondering, no, Cloud is not her husband. I've never really like that pairing, and I won't start now, haha.

I want to thank all of you for reviewing and favoriting and following this story. It truly means a lot to me that you guys like this enough to stick with it. Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! :D

Until next time my Lovelies! *kissy smooching sounds*

~Ikuni