Chapter 30. December 12 (PM) - December 13 (AM), εуλ0007

He watched.

As Tifa ran for the console, she was suddenly backhanded by Reno and crumpled to the ground. Her plaintive cry had barely left the air before he was running to her, in one motion scooping her to sitting, his stomach dropping as she visibly winced. She fighting to stay alert, pulling herself up to a console that gave her no hope, only the deadly warning: SEPARATION IMMINENT. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.

He waited.

The helicopter bearing Aerith and the Turks swept away; Tifa could only watch it go. Debris larger and larger fell; Tifa swirled and ran to the opposite edge. Kneeling and staring down into the doomed sector far below, leaning over the edge in shock, deaf to the chaos all around. Cloud wished he could hold her, comfort her, but sirens desperately there wasn't time.

Action, that he knew. Yanking her arm, he jerked her forward with all of his strength, for once carless of whether or not he hurt her. Dragging her first behind him, then half-hurling her forward with an arm around her shoulders propelling her forward, they ran as one to the opposite side of the pillar, dodging fires now spurting from live wires everywhere, Barret shouting for them as he grabbed a pulley above him. They leapt as one, clinging to each other and riding the wire out just as the final alarm blared and they heard the piercing whine of metal tearing from metal, rising death and debris that missed them by the narrowest of margins as they careened away from the disaster.

Now he could only stare, having arranged her in comfort, placing one of her arms under her head, resting in some semblance of sleep. Relieved the worst danger was over, he hadn't realized afraid he'd been, until she began to stir.

It took a moment for Tifa's vision to come into focus, and Cloud's face was the first thing that resolved – a welcome way to wake up. Less so… what else she saw around her.

Rubble. Fires. Dusk-lit destruction already tickled by the fingers of dawn. All around, smoldering wreckage of what had just yesterday been her home.

Her home…

Behind her, Barret punched solid rock with his still-human fist – as if he could somehow bring their friends out of the wreckage and back to life. He screamed in frustration, shouting the names of the deceased to wind and dust.

Still woozy, Tifa began to pull herself up with difficulty, Cloud clapping a concerned hand under her elbow to help her rise. Idly, she realized they were in the same playground just outside the Sector Seven gate, where dressed up in a chocobo carriage, she'd passed by Aerith and Cloud – when? Hours, a day?

A lifetime ago. A lifetime that would never be the same.

In the not-too-far distance, she could hear the last refugees climbing out of the underground; she couldn't bear to face them. Instead she looked from Cloud to Barret and back again. Last remnants of her lives both old and new, the rest ashes and crushed rock monoliths – but at least they were alive. How many others were not?

Jessie's words echoed.

"MARLENE!" Barret cried out, pounding futilely on the debris.

Giving him a moment to calm, Tifa walked over to him slow, ashamed, as Barret's anger tapered into dry-heaved sobs. She placed one small hand on his back in comfort. "Barret… she's safe," she said softly.

Barret's heaving breaths abruptly stopped as he turned to her voice. "Are you sure?" he asked, panicked. "How do you know?"

"Aerith –that was the girl in the helicopter. She came back with us – she's the one I asked to get Marlene. That's what she was calling out to me – that Marlene was safe," Tifa emphasized. "SAFE, Barret, safe."

"That girl?" Barret slumped. "And she got caught by Shinra… Just another thing to hold against Shinra. We gotta make them pay."

Tifa only hung her head. "Yeah…"

He looked at Tifa. "Ain't that right?"

She remained quiet for a long moment. "I'm just… not sure of my feelings. Not anymore." I got so fired up, and didn't think through the consequences. And look at the results. Sectors One, Eight, Five, Seven… she owed them all.

"Hold onto this anger," Barret said gently, but still Tifa's expression drooped, she drenched in regret for their lost friends. He looked at her familiarly, tenderly, she suddenly seeming small and frail next to his bulk. "They've returned to the Planet," he told her solemnly. "We carry that weight."

Cloud was left watching from afar as Barret pulled Tifa into a brotherly hug, forming a circle that he couldn't be part of. As he watched from a polite distance, he found his respect for the other man growing – the man who had been there for Tifa all the time, sending him a belated thanks. Where have I been? The fact that he didn't know didn't seem to matter – Barret left to do the job that he'd promised to do. Why wasn't it him? As always, those questions left him unheard at best, another striking headache at worst. This, it seemed, was one of the better times.

Failing to be there for Tifa, now once again. Aerith, another failure just on the heels of Tifa – hadn't he promised to be her bodyguard? Dumped her on Tifa, his other responsibility, no matter the need on the pillar. Split choices. Tifa. Aerith.

Never any one right answer…

He let Barret's arm drop, and Tifa pull away slightly, before he finally spoke. "I should have put my foot down harder." It's my fault…

"We might not have made it back in time without her," Tifa reminded him – but he was already turning to leave, led by a pull he couldn't quite identify, even as he was sure he knew where it was leading him. He mused. I might not have even made it TO you without her, Tifa. Grateful and guilty all at once.

"And where do you think YOU'RE going? Barret shouted after him.

"Hopefully, to Marlene," he called behind him, neither turning nor slowing. "Otherwise, I have some news to break to Aerith's mother."

Cloud ran smoothly forward, even as he tried to tell himself he wasn't as worried as the others – but still, Barret kept pushing faster, faster to the edge of Sector Five, as the sun began to prickle its shanty rooftops, barreling through alleys barely wider than he was, held back by the mere fact that only Cloud knew where they were going. Finally, when they turned towards the shady lane towards the house Cloud had just left a sunset before, Barret couldn't be stopped, shoving Cloud, even pushing aside Tifa, desperate with worry and eagerness. Cloud and Tifa ran behind, catching up just as Barret slammed through the door, ELmyra screaming as he frightened her half to death, roaring, "MARLENE! Is she here?"

"Barret!" Cloud and Tifa cried as one, and Elmyra's head snapped over to the sound of their voices, tension dropping from her shoulders as she recognized Cloud, sword and all. She turned back to the man who had tanked through her front door so abruptly.

Suitably abashed, Barret cleared his throat and began again. "Pardon me, ma'am," he said, substantially more calmly. "Marlene… she's my daughter. Is she here?"

Elmyra took her measure of this man, Barret. Another neglectful father, she thought angrily, her emotions irrationally lashing out at memories of Zack. She was supposed to be far away from Shinra! How did she get to – nevermind. "And you left her all alone! A child! If it wasn't for Aerith she would have been killed!"

"I know," Barret hung his head in shame; Elmyra's eyes hovered on him in maternal disapproval. "Thought I was doing the right thing, defending the plate. Didn't really think Shinra would do it. I… didn't think," he admitted.

Elmyra just sniffed. "Whatever. She's in the first room upstairs. Go be a proper dad."

Barret nodded, taking the stairs with obvious restraint, now so close to his daughter. Tifa turned to Cloud. "I want to see her too," she said, obviously relieved; Cloud nodded as he followed her, feeling… unexpectedly, jealousy.

Barret and Tifa. Barret and Marlene. It left Cloud feeling envious and craving – something . Leave and never look back, he thought that had been the answer. But might it not be nicer to have something to come home too… He turned to Tifa. She, too, had things she couldn't leave behind. Ties that held her together. What did he have?

Keeping promises. That was a reason to come back.

Promises and mako were what he was made of…

Tifa gently stopped him at Aerith's door, leaving Barret a modicum of privacy while they watched from the sidelines. Barret gushed and cooed over his most precious one, his hulking form nothing but a teddy bear underneath, his love for his daughter openly flowing.

At Cloud's side, Tifa looked at the girl, her eyes filling with the same love, emotion radiating from her; smiling, happy, she placed a finger to her lips, telling him to let the scene play out before them. For her sake – he was grateful that even amongst all this tragedy, she could still hang onto and treasure the family she had created – the most precious things saved, but he feared for when the rest of the loss hit her.

Leaving Barret to his daughter, Tifa and Cloud crept carefully back downstairs to a waiting Elmyra. Cloud's eyes met hers. A moment of acknowledgement – she already knew.

"Shinra has my daughter," she sighed, resigned and weary. "The Turks came here. She went with them… in exchange for Marlene's safety."

Tifa shifted uncomfortably. Feeling ever more guilty and depressed, she stepped forward uncomfortably. "This is all my fault," she began awkwardly. "I'm – "

"Tifa," ELmyra finished for her. "Marlene told me about you." She absorbed her first impression of the closest thing the Planet had given Marlene to a mother, and she found that impression… favorable.

Tifa took a deep breath. Elmyra, Aerith's mom, looking at her with warmth and welcome. It made saying what she had to say next all that much harder. I just had to go running up the pillar, didn't I? "I was the one who asked her to go get Marlene."

"Don't say that," Elmyra soothed. Tifa, you've done more good than harm, if you only knew… A revelation for another day. She sized up Tifa, woman to woman – gentle, kind. So was that Barret, as much as he might seem otherwise, all the concern she would expect from a natural father. Marlene, surrounded by good people; even Cloud, she hesitantly included in her thoughts, now more than ever feeling she'd judged the ex-SOLDIER too harshly.

The price of strength. Cloud. Zack. Roads taken they could never turn back from… she wished there was another way, that the road could end in happiness not heartache. If only experience had not shown her different.

Still… she was more glad than she could say Marlene had found herself among these people, wondering collectively about this strange surrogate family that Marlene had found herself in. Maybe, in the end, she was exactly where she needed to be. She hoped she'd have a chance to get to know them better… but that was for a later day. There were more urgent matters at the moment.

Emotional weariness caught up to her full force, and all energy drained from her as she sank to the table. "It was only a matter of time before she ended up back with them." And a series of coincidences no one could have predicted. "She made her own choice – she's always been like that. No changing her mind once she's made a decision."

She looked squarely at each of the three in turn, wondering if she was making the right choice. A dangerous choice. "If Aerith is going to be involved in your business… then I suppose it's only fair that you be trusted with hers," she began. "Aerith… is an Ancient. Possibly the last one alive."

An Ancient. Cloud flinched involuntarily as Elmyra began. He was more and more amazed as the tale unfolded, somehow familiar, resonating with him. Barret sidled in as Elmyra spoke, Cloud hearing only a small scuff behind him to mark Barret's entry. The three of them listened in rapt attention; to Cloud, it was all becoming clear. Aerith, denying why the Turks were after her, in order to hide her background from someone she'd only just met; Cloud could hardly blame her.

Elmyra had barely finished the story, but Cloud had already made his decision. "I'll go after her," he stated, determined. "She's calling to me. I can feel it." He could, he realized; that strange resonance that kept echoing with ancient memories he couldn't name.

Besides, he owed it to her. She hadn't known what she was getting herself into; he still barely knew himself.

"We'll all go." Tifa turned to Cloud. "I've been a part of this much longer than you have. You can't leave me out of this." An exchange of looks, the meaning that passed between them clear. No leaving her behind – he understood. Once again he thought of how Tifa had changed so much into THIS Tifa, yet still, the core of her he'd known as a child, inviolable underneath. How could she do that when HE felt so different?

Elmyra's eyelids dropped. She was too tired to argue with them; she couldn't take any more tonight. "Are you really going to try and get Aerith back?" she asked wearily. "Out of the Shinra building and everything?" She felt a tensed coil, fear lacing up and down her spine, and her words came out choked. "I- I can't lose her too. I don't know what I'd do…"

"We will," Cloud responded firmly. And as she saw their mirrored, determined stances, she knew they would, and her gratitude for these people increased even further. "Stay. Leave tomorrow instead." Elmyra glanced to the sun outside, just beginning to crest the cliffs that surrounded her house, allowing its rays for a few magical hours focused fully on the garden. It was like seeing Aerith's bright smile covering the outside. "How long have you been without sleep, anyway? You can't go without forever. I imagine you're due for a full night and then some."

Tifa was the first to open her mouth, thought they all looked ready to speak. Elmyra shushed them hastily. "I'm worried, but it's no use if you try to get her back while you're exhausted. She's as safe as she can be under the circumstances." Elmyra chucked bitterly, shaking her head as she slumped even closer to the table. "She's too… valuable for them to waste."

Cloud saw Tifa nod, her weariness reflecting Elmyra's; he placed three fingers gently on her back, turning her towards the stairs that Barret was already ascending. He exchanged a long look with Elmyra, and saw perhaps the first real sign of approval from her. Perhaps he could find his way into the good graces of Aerith's mother yet.

Somehow, that seemed important.

Tifa curled against Marlene, hoping the girl's deep sleep would somehow transmit to her as well, but even as tired and emotionally drained as she felt, slumber eluded her. Nighttime outside – she'd been asleep for a few precious hours at least, crashing out while the sun was still high above the plate.

Turning, she looked towards the window – and then it caught her eye. The single bloom, its yellow color now silver-white in the light of the full moon, the moon shining on the garden just as the sun had earlier, bathing it in soft cool light. Alone, in a vase on the desk, looking rumpled but sturdy – Nothing to distinguish it from any of the other identical yellow flowers outside, but somehow she knew - Marlene had managed to bring it all the way from Sector Seven. The flower she got from Cloud.

The one blossom, all that was left of the bar. Her bar. Now, with the urgency over, everyone either saved or deceased… now, she had a few minutes for it all to sink in, and suddenly she was mourning her entire life. Her NEW life, the one she had to build up from scratch the last five years.

And now it was gone too.

Suddenly, the room's air felt constricting, like a tight band of iron against her chest; she felt she could barely breathe. She got to her feet, sliding on her boots quietly, and with a glance at Marlene, checking if she was still sound asleep, she gently opened the door.

Cloud came awake with a jolt, years of trained military service bringing him to full awareness in an instant. Soft thuds, footsteps going down the stairs. The front door downstairs opened quietly with a click, and his sharpened hearing followed the sound as it tramped lightly into the garden.

Throwing his sword over his shoulders more out of habit than any real need, he stepped into the hallway to see the other bedroom door ajar.

As if he didn't already know who he was looking for.

Impulsively, he climbed first upwards to the top story, and the garden view he'd seen before – but not at night. This kind of beauty here in Midgar… crowned by the vision of Tifa there on the rise of a hillock in the center of his view, the streetlamp beside her giving her the ethereal halo of an angel.

In the middle of the carpet of yellow flowers, Tifa felt the night air crisp on her skin. Up the path, the crunch of boots she'd expected, approaching. She hadn't seen him exit the house. Part of her wanted him to follow… part of her didn't. The latter, the part of her still so confused about who he was and how she felt. Someone she'd know all her childhood, and…

…it's hard sometimes being old friends…

"Can't sleep?" he asked, closing in behind her.

"No." She turned. "Sorry to wake you."

…having those memories and expectations to weigh someone against… She had found him again, and for that she was grateful… but in so many ways, she still didn't know WHO he was. How much of him was the boy she knew.

"What brought you out here?" he asked.

…timing is everything…

Time, so fragile, and she didn't want to waste it – today had shown so well how things could be taken from you in an instant. She was only starting to realize how much she needed him. Part of her needing, wondering, almost ready to say it…

But now… she found herself staring at him, the one thing from her lost hometown that had come back to her, and now all she had HIM, all over again. The last remains of Nibelheim, and somehow, against all odds, he was here –

- and the memories, the tears, everything she was fighting back, came crashing down with all the force of the shattering plate, and she couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I'm thinking about… reunions." Barret and Marlene. She and Cloud. "What you have to hang onto when everything else is gone… dead and buried…"

She faced him fully now; he saw her tearing up, fist automatically clenching in frustration, for a sword he wasn't holding to fight something that couldn't be fought. "Like the bar… our home… and everything else…"

Just a few words. Hesitant, scared, but oh, she needed him now, and she took a few cautious steps forward, closing the gap that had been hanging between them. She opened her mouth, but found her head falling on his shoulder as she heard his sharp exhale; and the withheld sobs began in earnest. "They took everything from us… again…" she squeezed out before sobs wracked her body in full, the comfort of his silent solidity the only thing holding her up.

Tears wanted to come to his own eyes too; but he could find none. Her hands reached from him, fisting handfuls in his sweater as if there was nothing left to hold onto, as if he too would disappear if she let go. He felt so powerless. Helpless to stop her tears. Couldn't stop Nibelheim. Couldn't stop the plate. Couldn't save Biggs and Jessie.

Why did seeing her cry feel like the biggest failure of all?

Beyond, the moon glinted on gently flowing water, giving it an aqua-lunar tint. Not unlike Mako, he thought, not unlike the substance blazing through his own eyes. The same, only different. Beneath him, the flowers – Fragile, yet resilient. So like the woman before him – she had changed so much, made herself a new life, and here she was, broken once again -

The warmth of her fingers burning through his sweater, close, so close… closer than he'd ever been to her, and it frightened, terrified him, but… his arms inched forwards awkwardly as if from their own accord and…

In an instant, he threw his arms around her, pulling her tight and hard to himself, setting his chin on her shoulder, enclosing her fully in the embrace. The leather of his gloves separating his skin from hers seemed very thin, even the brush of his bare arms above against hers enough to send his heart to pounding. But overwhelming it all he felt tenderness, cheek furtively brushing her hair as she sobbed into his shoulder, and for that moment it was just she and him, survivors reunited.

He was her home, he realized with a start, as she cried loudly into his chest, shoulders shaking. Her history. Deep inside himself, he made another promise. I'll be your home, somehow. You'll have me… if you'll have me.

Promises that tied him even when unspoken, chains of the heart stronger than any other.

"Cloud," she whispered, strained.

"Hmm?" he murmured into her hair.

"Cloud, you're hurting me – " and he realized how fiercely he had been clinging to her, heedless of his SOLDIER strength. He practically leapt back, letting go abruptly - wishing he hadn't as they separated and it was too late to take the moment back.

She wiped her eyes. She'd tried so hard to hold onto anger, but sadness got the better of her in the end, didn't it? It made her feel silly, ashamed. "It's stupid. I know that crying is a waste of time."

He faced her square, softness in those strange glowing eyes of his, color matching the reflected pool below. "That's not true."

He wanted so badly to share what she was feeling. Experience it together. But the numbness still crept over him, leaving him wanting so desperately to feel, emotion something that seemed to be mired in the depths of those missing memories. One more thing keeping him from understanding who he was.

She smiled then, just the barest hint of one, but it was enough, as she looked at him with those wide sienna eyes. "Thank you," she said, and he did feel the warmth in those two words, washing the night's chill from his body as the two of them stood there, nothing but a moment alone at last.

High in the tower prison that was the Shinra building, Aerith drifted in and out of sleep. Her home for the moment was a glass capsule, a stool inside and nothing else, keeping her in the stasis of boredom until Hojo came to inspect his prized specimen. She wondered if, when her mother came back crying every night after Aerith, alone, had been crying all day, if this was what her mother had endured.

She wondered if she was going to find out.

Devoid of more comfortable accommodations, she made the best of what she had. The tube's environment, too sterile to connect with the Planet; lacking her usual foci, sleep was her one chance.

She reached out with her mind over tracks of dreams, for a while he awake and missing from her view. But with time – what else did she have BUT time? – and patience, she found the vibrant star she sought, a familiar signature that she'd hoped, even expected to find – and sure enough, with the help of the Planet, she touched his tumultuous soul.

Nevertheless, she was relieved. Waiting patiently in the simulacrum of her own garden created through the Planet – the wave of homesickness hit her, wondering if she would see it again, but she pushed it roughly down – she knelt, watched as Cloud's own dream self made its way along the path towards her.

He confused, disoriented, understandably so. "How is this possible… is this a dream?" he asked, looking around in bewilderment. The image of her garden enclosed them both now, the yellow flowers reflecting the buffer that held them there.

Yes, she thought. No. A dream that couldn't be reality. Her emotions, raw, vulnerable with specters of what could be, what she found herself wishing could be, despite herself – when there were so many reasons why it could not.

"What do you think?" she asked, wondering if her soul reflected her own right now. What hidden wishes of his own might lie within. "You tell me."

He didn't have an answer for her, but… dream or not, was it any less real? If he could see her here… Well. Maybe they could reach her in time… the splash of hope he needed. "I'm worried about you."

"Are you?" Her expression, uncommitted surprise, giving him little inclination what she thought of that.

He flinched. "Of course I am." Most of the time, he felt just so purely numb – but worry, fear, these he recognized. The drive to protect moved him when nothing else could – the part of himself he could be sure of.

So many painful reminders, she thought. Every time he looked at him, even down to the way he stood before her now, hands on hips, confident, even cocky; a cover for the muddled man underneath. Reunion, but only with a memory. Marlene… bringing up so much else for her, claws of desire desperate for someone to latch onto. A tempting attempt to bring it all back. She could let herself fall so easily… but that would be nothing but a fairy tale. And she'd learned the hard way that those didn't come true.

She looked up above at the glimmers of Lifestream waving in the sky, the Planet's thread that held her here for this ephemeral moment. Her hands joined together in gratitude.

Zack. Marlene. Her lost Promised Land.

She felt him behind her, the two of them in tandem, staring at the imaged river of life above. "Is that…" he asked in surprise.

It is, she answered silently. But you already know, don't you? "We have to make the most of the time we have." Bare moments with Marlene, each one golden. "To live our lives the way we want to live." A luxury of timing, when time was the most precious thing of all. "Every minute… every moment matters."

"I'll remember that." He knew that all too well. So many moments he'd lost in that blur of missing memories that still tormented him; now every experience, every FEELING was to be treasured – yet he couldn't begin to make sense of what he was feeling right now. "You need to embrace this moment, right?"

She did. If only she could be sure what that embrace might entail. Things that were uniquely CLOUD… Tense where Zack was talkative. Grudging where Zack was always ready to help. But then again, she wasn't the same either, a faded version of herself to match his empty spaces.

I'm searching for you…

She felt something. But was that enough to call it love? She needed to see it through, find it out, but she was scared… it would be so easy for HER to fall… and there was Tifa… but whatever it was, like it or not, it was there.

For that much, for what he'd brought her, she gave thanks.

He took in her image, freezing it in time on this hill, remembrance of Tifa's skin brushing his, she enclosed in his arms… The promise. A promise to a friend that was harder than he expected. Something that he couldn't wish away, even though it tormented him, every tear of hers another failure. Not much of a hero for her I turned out to be.

Aerith drew him in with possibilities… a clean slate. Failure no more. No burden of expectations or commitments. A chance to be a hero.

The Buster Sword leaned heavily on his shoulders, as if pushing him forward with the weight of its burdens.

That sword. An object of her memories, leading her back in time; she let her head hang, staring at her boots among the flowers. With the past echoing in her mind, she looked him straight in the eyes. "Cloud," she began, awkward – reluctant. For more reasons than one. "Whatever happens," she continued, staring into those mako eyes of her memories, "you can't fall in love with me."

He gasped as if she'd struck him; and her heart dropped, knowing the truth. He'd fall. Not completely, but just enough to twist things in confusion. Tifa. Even as she cared so deeply, the other woman had her own weaknesses, her own blindness, things Aerith could see from a fresh perspective. Herself. Cloud. He didn't know – didn't know HOW to love, even as he desperately wanted to. She needed to teach him how to love. Marlene, the invisible fourth party. Without costing him love?

How on the Planet could this ever work out for them all? When was love ever simple? She reached out to touch his face, worry littering the landscape of her own emotions. "Because even if you think you have… it's not real."

The touch, forced false feeling – and as he tried to grab her hand in return, the sensation faded from her control, and his own glove waved through disappearing stars that had begun to ripple out of her. The Planet's way of saying, this would have to be enough, time was almost up; as she stepped away, frustration crossed his face.

"Do I get a say in all this?" He wanted so badly whatever he had just felt. The need to be needed. The feeling of FEELING something, leaving behind a dead vacancy, he hollow once again.

"It's almost morning," she said, as much to the sky as to him. She turned to face him one last time.

"I'm coming for you," he burst out, the force of another promise.

She looked at him with warm affection and sorrow, even shades of pity for the difficult path she knew he'd face; uncertain she could make it any easier. "If that's what you want… then thank you."

She left him with that, as the hillside faded away, along with green-mirrored eyes.

Elmyra sent them off with warmth, Cloud grateful for the relieved tension, the woman now… accepting… of him. It was a start.

Barret thanked Elmyra politely, now all gentleman. "I hate to intrude further," he began," but do you think you could keep Marlene for a while? This seems like the safest place for her to be."

ELmyra smiled. "I'd be happy to. In fact, I was already planning on it."

"DADDY!" came the voice upstairs, as a frantic Marlene ran down, desperate to get between them and the door. "Daddy! Are you going?"

Barret sighed in reluctance; whatever they faced next, it couldn't be harder than this. "He squatted down to look his daughter in the eyes; searching for the words to explain to a four-year-old a WHY she was so afraid of. "You see, honey, there's these bad people trying to hurt the Planet…"

He whisked her onto his shoulder with his good arm, Marlene's eyes, that so often seemed wise beyond her years, taking it all in. "…and that girl who brought you back. We have to help her too."

"That girl…" Marlene considered. "She was kinda…" She was… she didn't know. The magic things she had shown her. That girl felt like… like… like Tifa, a bit? Not just Tifa. Like her dad, too. Like… home.

"You should help her," she told her daddy, and he nodded as he set her down. Slowly, all five of them trudged outside, the morning sun blaring.

"Promise you'll come back?" Marlene said insistently; Barret looked at her, knowing he would make sure he did. "I promise," he replied.

Marlene thought for a moment. "Okay, then. You can go." Barret chuckled, and Elmyra drew Marlene gently to her with one hand, as they watched the others go.

And they were out of sight beyond the bend, leaving ELmyra and Marlene to look at the flower garden, now silent and peaceful once again. The older woman turned to the child. "Well, now it's just the two of us and the flowers.

"We'll watch them together," Marlene replied. Inside, to the flower lady, she added, I promise.