Chapter 31. December 13 (PM), εуλ0007
The sun, still high in the sky on its downward path, making its full arc uninterrupted here above the plate. How long had it been since she'd seen sun this way? Tifa asked herself.
It was near-blinding to her unpracticed eyes, but not enough to avoid the sight she really didn't want to see.
Climbing above the plate had brought a different sort of light as well. Topsiders, their hopes, dreams, even lives crushed as recklessly as those of the slum citizens below; gathered in front of the frames of buildings barely standing, one crumbling a landslide down its front just as they'd walked by. They fumbled their way upwards through those fragile skeletons of the ruined sector, precariously riding on the layers of those entombed below. Apartment buildings scattered like candy, the plate as cracked as a dish smashed on the floor…. Beyond the walls dividing the sectors, the other parts of Midgar lay intact as if all of Sector Seven's cries had gone unheard.
And every bit of it broke Tifa's heart.
She froze the wreckage of Sector Seven in her mind, but the slippery thread of anger wouldn't wrap around it. It was only sadness that she held in her hand.
Despite his admonitions to keep on mission, Cloud's eyes kept traveling to Tifa, thinking of the late hours of the night before, she turning to him in grief and pain as suddenly it all washed out, he standing helpless to stop the tide. Nothing to offer but... himself. Why had she turned to HIM?
What was she trying to tell me? That was what Leslie had asked Tifa. With a start, Cloud had realized he was wondering the same – all those years since the promise – wishing he had scratched its surface further, hoping there was more below. His fourteen-year-old self, barely more than a child – too frightened that Tifa's emotions might not match his own.
And when Tifa had replied, We'll meet again, something clicked for Cloud – something he had started to truly feel in his soul only the night before. Inside a mirrored thought, a piece of the puzzle that was Tifa, something he hadn't known was missing until it was filled.
Barret's grudging apology after- it had been a backwards slap to begin, followed by the big man's grudging admission he'd been wrong about Cloud, finishing by offering the olive branch of respect. Despite himself, Cloud felt his confidence boot by the other man's acknowledgement, the willingness to set aside his former prejudices.
But ever more valuable was Tifa's few words, spoken with sparkling eyes. "You're really a pretty nice guy…"
Somehow, he'd managed to prove himself, and it wasn't in the way he had expected. Yet his buoyancy still bore a hole he couldn't identify at first…
Jessie, he realized – that extra bit he couldn't shake. Anchoring the tragedy of the plate with yet another rope. She'd said her parents lived on this section of the upper plate. Had they made it? Survived, only to realize their daughter was dead? Unlike Tifa, he hadn't been able to shed a tear, his one-track mind already traveling to the conflict ahead – but her dying eyes haunted him nevertheless.
Was Tifa thinking of Jessie too? How was she taking it? He stayed near her, just in case the loss reared its ugly face to her in a moment of urgency.
But Tifa showed no less dedication as they made their way further up; if anything, she was less distracted than he. Fighting, running from Shinra's forces, meandering through the shell of a collapsed tower – a hundred, two hundred meters up. A staircase spiraled around the turret before them, Cloud flowing up the curve with the others following close. But, as they neared the building's flattened top, other worries gripped him fiercely with their sharpened claws.
The panorama opened up before them. Tifa stopped. "Cloud…" she trailed off, eyes mesmerized by the view of the wreckage, visible in full from their high vantage point.
He turned, wind ruffling his hair in the breeze, the fresh air a welcome change – looking to where Tifa stood, her shining hair softly waving in the setting sun.
For the longest splinters of seconds, all she did was stare.
The warmth of Cloud's arms around her, she could still feel like a ghost – that moment where she surrendered, relinquishing her sadness to him, a part of herself that was now theirs to share.
And now, here with him by her side – Despite all the churnings of her soul, she realized – she was not afraid.
On her right, Barret's cool solidity, contrasting the symmetric role of the two men in her life; and beyond out there, somewhere safe, there was Marlene, tying them all together.
"Don't you EVER forget this view," Barret finally broke the silence, anger subdued into solemnity.
She tried for the same, not to let the bitter enter her words. "I wish I ever could." She paused, silent, desolate.
Barret's tone further modulated. "We'll build a new bar," he said gently.
"Yeah…" she replied, morose, eyes full of a pain Cloud could never hope to reverse. "We will." But as she looked back towards Cloud, sending him to pieces as only she could – he realized that despite all that had happened, she could still find a bright spark within.
"You'll help, won't you?" she asked him with her heart and eyes, the intensity near-impossible to bear. He averted his gaze, knowing she could see pain in there too, as he pulled a couple steps away, thinking.
He felt the temptation of running, weighed down by the simple fact of her eyes… but like a tug on a line, the promise pulled him back. He stopped.
"For a price" – he gave a nod – and for a moment, Tifa saw that aloof façade he struggled so hard to maintain – But she could see beyond it, and smiled a simple disarmament; before he could fake it again, she glimpsed the same in his eyes, the invisible smile within.
It wasn't a price. It was a promise. A promise he would be there… once he hadn't been, but now he was making up for it, time and time again.
She knew – he'd keep his promise.
We'll meet again.
With that thought the shining star to guide her, together they grappled to the next platform above, a sharply slanted slope – and suddenly a monstrous mech they'd spied earlier lurched up to face them, hovering in the air with its central laser gun staring them down like a single Cyclops eye.
Frozen in shock, Cloud's voice finally broke the spell. "RUN!" he shouted –
Urgency drove them up the slanted slope, a hail of bullets raining down where they fled without cover – with a giant leap to ever more higher ground, they struggled to their goal, so close, one level more above –
Nowhere to run. Shinra's weapon rose to meet them, the only remaining obstacle between them and the top.
Cloud readied his weapon, knowing both Tifa and Barret had his back – and realized, to his surprise, he trusted both the same. How far their team had come…
Fluid as a dream, they worked together to take the robot down, until it retaliated with another spray of bullets. They dodged, leaping to another platform as Cloud found himself separated by a gap from the others, they all balanced on perilous, narrow protruding beams.
Across the gap, he saw the ground fall out from Under Tifa's feet, and as she slammed back down, she was already sliding –
Without thought, he shot the grappling gun to a support as he heard her call his name, launching himself into empty space, scooping both his allies off the broken beam and swinging them back up to safety.
And STILL she wasn't ready to give up. They had barely tumbled back to a solid surface before she leapt back to her feet, rejoining the fight as if she hadn't been dangling in the air only moments before – lasers, launchers, nothing fazed her, until it finally tumbled to the unstable surface beneath them.
Cautiously approaching the damaged mech, a memory of the Airbuster itching him, and it blinked once, twice –
He barely had time to curse before the explosion, and the ground was breaking into squared metal boulders beneath them, crashing to the rubble below – he slid down towards her with horror, seeing her sail over the edge…
He leapt into the air without hesitation, one arm whipping around her waist with SOLDIER-precise aim, in the same instant the grappling gun out and shot secured above. As it reeled them briskly upwards, Barret rolled over the edge as well; Tifa's free arm shot her own gun to his plummeting figure, and with an amazement of luck he caught the end. The motors' force whipped the two of them up and onto solid ground, and without a thought, Tifa whirled around, Cloud grabbing her to help pull Barret up as well, their combined strength finally flinging the large man over their heads and tumbling Tifa backwards onto her rear.
Shock crossed her face as she realized –
- they were all alive.
And before she even knew she'd fallen, there was Cloud, offering his hand, bringing her right back up again.
She, in turn, helped Barret to his feet, more for emotional support than any need the man had for her strength. Turning as one, they saw Cloud staring up and ahead.
Like a monster creeping up from the dark, the tower loomed before him, running chills up and down Cloud's spine. One man versus a giant. The weight of the Buster Sword at his back seemed to be the only thing holding him up; he reached to grab onto the familiar hilt for courage.
But even more than that, the footsteps of Tifa and Barret clanging on the grated surface behind him reminded him he was not alone.
His eyes trailed involuntarily up the façade, pausing at the very top. A prison, he thought. For Aerith that was certain – and who knows how many else – the employees, the city's population, all slaves to Shinra in one way or another. The mood was only heightened but the sun gone now below the horizon to the west, the tower ever more ominous with the missing daylight.
And Cloud felt it calling to him.
Author's Note: As promised, here it is! I usually hate those "sorry it's been so long since I posted" author notes, but in this case there were extenuating circumstances (medical, NOT Covid-related). I expect to be on back on track as before…