One year later...

~Tifa's POV~

"Eh, just give me the usual, babe," Reno waves me off dismissively. I nod and look at his silent partner, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Same," he says flatly. Normally, the Seventh Heaven isn't open until ten a.m., but the Turks are considered friends around here, and so is Avalanche. Who says they can't have special treatment? It's not like I'm asleep at eight, so why does it matter?

"Still wearin that snazzy thing?" Reno gestures to my necklace after taking a sip. I look down at the charm of Cocoon and nod.

"Of course."

"Hmph. Well, he ain't here, and there's always the possibility you're single." I furrow my eyebrows.

"Reno, you'd probably have better luck asking a llama to go out on a date with you."

"No Sweetheart, wasn't asking for me," he drawls, lighting a cigarette much to my annoyance. Even Cid has the decency to go outside. I glance over at his bald friend, who sits silently, paying no attention to us.

"Sorry Rude," I sigh, shaking my head. He pretends not to hear. I hear a slight thump on the stairs and look up to see Cloud stumbling down tiredly. "Good morning, Cloud," I say cheerfully.

He mumbles something back that sounds like "G' mornin'."

"I already have your breakfast plate in the kitchen."

"Thanks," he yawns. Knowing now that Cloud is up, Marlene is sure to run down here any second for her breakfast before school. Sure enough, she appears not even a minute later.

"Hey Reno," she says with a happy smile. He cracks one of those half grins at her, used to the girl coming down every morning. "Are you still sleepy?"

"What?" He furrows his eyebrows.

"Never mind," she smiles and shakes her head. Then she looks at me. "When's the next time Daddy's coming here?"

"I don't know," I shake my head. She nods and grabs her lunch off the counter. Outside, the bus honks loudly, probably waking everyone on the block up along with warning the kids to hurry. "Hey, you didn't eat!"

"Not hungry!" She calls back, rushing out the door. I groan and rub my temples. Second graders.

"You okay?" Cloud raises an eyebrow at me.

"Yeah, yeah," I brush him off. "Just a headache."

"Oh man, Tseng's gonna kill me," Reno sighs, pushing back one loose sleeve to look at his watch. "Cmon Rude. I don't need another pay cut this week."

His partner nods toward us before hurrying out of the building. Poor guy. I turn to look at a very hungry Cloud wolfing down his breakfast. It amazes me how much he eats when he actually does. I swear I would weigh a thousand pounds if I ate that much.

"So what do you plan on doing today?" I finally ask, sitting across from him at the cheap wooden table that resides in the back of the kitchen. He swallows and clears his throat.

"Reeve thinks there might be a monster problem in the lower part of the WRO building." We both know why that means anything. Down in the levels is where our Pulse friends left us. Where there were so many things I needed to say, but I couldn't. That'd be like wishing my life away.

"Have fun with that," I give him a small smile and stretch.

"Why don't you come? The bar doesn't open for another two hours and I might need some help."

"Sounds like a plan. I've been craving a little action."

"Good," he gives me one of those 'barely there' smiles. Aka, a smile that's hardly any bigger than Vincent's was. Speaking of that guy, I haven't seen him since he left Fang last year. "Let's get going then. You have to be back by ten right?"

"Yep," I stand and grab his empty plate, dumping it in sink before grabbing my Premium Heart gloves off the counter. Cloud grabs his Fusion Sword from where it leans against the wall, and absentmindedly lays a hand on the holster-like sheath strapped to his left hip. There rests Lightning's beloved weapon, something she dropped when Hope accidentally sent them back.

Cloud slides onto his bike and waits for me to hold onto him before riding off. On Fenrir, the ride doesn't take more than five minutes, and we're in the elevator before we know it. Cloud reaches into his pocket and tosses me a full Enemy Skill, which I catch with a grateful nod.

"I can already tell something's down here," he wrinkles his nose as we step out of the elevator. A few dead monsters lie around us, fresh blood making the air stink. We don't bother to move the bodies or anything before heading further into the darkness. I trust Cloud's glowing eyes to see any threats as we move through the empty floor. Unnerved by the fact that everything we've seen so far is dead, my blonde friend crouches in front of one of the creatures and presses a gloved finger into a wound.

"Bullet," he announces, standing back up. "And I only know one person that still uses these," he holds up the small piece of metal. I recognize it as what a distant friend used to load his weapon with when we were after Sephiroth.

"Vincent," I whisper. "He's here?"

"Either that, or he left a little bit ago." He turns and continues walking. With no sign of Vince or any beasts still, we go to the very last place to check: the portal room. "Power must be out," Cloud mutters, trying the light switch. Must be; the other room's lights wouldn't work either.

Three more dead Nibel Wolves lie on the floor, bullet wounds through all their heads and such.

"Wouldn't we have heard the gun go off?" I frown, kneeling beside one of the wild dogs.

"Not if he had a really nice silencer," Cloud shakes his head. "But I don't think..." A shuffling sound in the pitch black room makes both of us shut up and snap our heads in the direction of the noise.

"Two o'clock," Cloud barely whispers and I nod, sending a quick Flame Thrower in that direction. The fire ignites and spreads toward the clock position that was named, but all I see is a fluttering shape leaping away from the flames. But I can already tell where they are by the barely there source of light, sending a strong punch in their direction. The person ducks under my swing and quickly catches the next in a gloved hand. I yelp and try to twist my hand away, struggling.

"Tifa," a deep voice says softly. I freeze and blink in surprise.

"Vincent?!"

He releases my fist. Cloud grabs a materia and holds it up like a dim light. Sure enough, the same old Vincent stands before us, now shifting under our disbelieving stares. Cloud then laughs silently and shakes his head.

"I knew it had to be you. What're you doing here?"

"... Reeve called me a while back," he looks down at the floor. "I just received his message today." His voice is rough and deeper than usual with disuse, a sure sight that he went back...

"Where've you been!?" I grin up at him, glad that he didn't disappear forever. His blood red eyes flicker up to mine, but they're not alive like I hoped they'd be. They're full of regret, hurt, self loathing, and a pinch of guilt.

"Atoning."

"Well since you've already taken care of the monsters, we should find out how they got in," Cloud says quickly, pretending that sleeping in a coffin and torturing himself with his thoughts and memories wasn't weird.

"Most likely a hole," Vincent states flatly. "But I must go."

"Why?" I cross my arms. He blinks at me a couple times before turning and staring to walk away.

"At least help me figure out how to get the lights on!" Cloud whines. "I can't figure anything electric out!" Vincent sighs and turns back, walking toward him. While the Vincent fiddles with wires and tries to ignore Cloud breathing down his neck, I stare at the empty portal, wondering what Snow's doing. Suddenly, a clearish green orb drops to the ground and bounces toward the base of the portal's frame. Cloud groans and moves to chase his dropped Fire spell.

"Watch out for that cable!" I call, but he's already tripped. He slams a hand down on the counter nearby to catch himself, grabbing his materia with a sigh of relief.

"Well that was close," he chuckles, standing. I blink at him in confused while Vincent stares at him. Why does he look horrified? Cloud seems to notice his friend's expression too. "Hey Vincent, why are you..." Suddenly, I'm jerked forward into pure white light, stumbling as I fall into Cloud, who stumbles into Vincent. And then I'm out like a light.

~|~|~|~|~

I sit up quickly as soon as my eyes open.

"That was a strange dream," I laugh to myself.

"I don't believe you had any dream," a flat voice says, making me jump as I turn to see Vincent standing in a patch of very green grass, a high plateau behind him. Cloud lays a few feet away from me, curled up into a ball like a cold child who dropped their blanket in the middle of the night.

"Where are we?" I frown. He sighs and shakes his head.

"When Cloud fell, I believe he accidentally hit the portal button."

"You mean we're in Gran Pulse?!" I realize moments later.

"It would seem so," he replies bitterly, as if the idea sickened him. It probably does, considering Fang lives here... Fang! And Snow! And Lightning and Hope and Sazh and Dajh and Vanille! And what's that thing in the distance? A big blue ball on a big blue pillar? My eyes widen and I look down at my necklace. Cocoon.

"We have to go find everyone!" I exclaim standing. Vincent shakes his head.

"You do what you would like. I am going to find a way back."

"But Vincent," I say slowly. "Reeve built the portal in the WRO so that nothing from here could get there... Oh no!" My eyes widen. "Marlene! Who's going to take care to my bar!? What about Barret?! He'll be so worried!"

"This is a nightmare," Vincent murmurs a few moments later, crouching in the grass with his arms crossed.

"We have to find them," I say stubbornly, heading over to Cloud to wake him up. The blonde starts awake the second I touch his arm, mako blue eyes flickering up to mine in a moment of surprise. "Cloud? I think you kinda teleported us to Gran Pulse." He blinks at me for a few seconds before his eyes shut and he falls back to the ground with a quiet thud. "Cloud?!" I shake him, but there's no response. Good job Tifa. You just made the poor guy faint.

When he wakes up again, the surprise is clearly written on his face.

"Wow. I never imagined it being this pretty."

"We've got to go find Lightning and Snow," I say quickly.

"Light's here! I completely forgot!" I wonder how Reeve knew the portal worked.

"What is that?" Vincent says suddenly, nodding toward a glowing stone figure that floats slightly over the ground.

"I don't know," I cock my head to the side. "Let's go check it out," Cloud stands and brushes the dirt off of him. We hurry over to the stone, staring in wonder at spiky orange animals with hooked jaws that glare at us. Gorgonopsid, my mind says. That's what Snow was describing, right? On the stone is carved an image of a woman, a long strand of hair curving down her whole body until it curled slightly at the end just inches above the ground.

"Whoa," I say just over a whisper, reaching out a hand to touch it. The second I do, it flashes, making me jerk my hand back. "What on earth?!"

"I can take you to any waystone in Pulse..." It whispers in a cherubic voice. Cloud and I stare at it wide eyed while Vincent cocks his head to the side. Must be a movement Galian causes. That thing is the most like an animal.

"Where would you like to go?"

"Um... Where can we go?" Cloud asks.

"There are nine locations of which I can take you. Paddraean Archaeopolis, Tsubaddran Highlands, Vallis Media Base Camp, the Northern Highplain, the Twilit Cavern, Sulyya Springs, Taejin's Tower, Oerba, and the Haerii Archaeopolis."

"... Wow," Cloud finally says.

"Archaeopolis... That means, city, right?" I look at Vince. "We should go there. There might be people."

"To the Haerii Archaeopolis then," Cloud shrugs. Without another hushed word, we're lifted a foot or two into the air and vanish.

I marvel at how our skin turns golden and then fades away. It fades back until we're normally colored and on our feet again. When I turn around, I'm treated to the sight of a few white stone buildings and around that lots of houses and shops made of wood and rocks. It looks like maybe fifty people live here. Seventy tops. Those few people move walk around us as if teleportation is a normal thing around here. Probably is, actually. Two little boys, twins, look at us with a teeny bit of interest and nod to each other before running up to us.

"Hey! Are you guys from Oerba or something?" The one on the right asks.

"Those guys dress weird," Rightie adds.

"No," Cloud says slowly, taking note of how Vincent's jaw clenches in reaction to the word. Oerba yun Fang... That must be where she's from.

"Hm," Leftie hums. "What're your names then? I'm Clark."

"And I'm Mark!" Rightie pipes up.

"This is Tifa, that's Vincent, and I'm Cloud," Cloud smiles at them gently. Both of their eyes get huge.

"Dude! So cool!" Clark cheers, fist pumping.

"Snow told us all about you! You're from a different planet, right?" Mark again...

"Yeah, actually," Cloud raises an eyebrow. Snow... "Can you take us to him?"

"Nope, Mama's callin!" Clark grabs his brother's arm and drags him away to a woman standing a little further off. She eyes us suspiciously before ushering her hyper boys inside.

"Great, now how do we find him?" Cloud groans.

"The town is not that big." Vince, could you please sound a little more disinterested? I scan the crowd and my heart stops. Black hat, tan trenchcoat, a giant almost seven feet tall. Beside him stands a boy taller than I remember, silver hair glistening in the sun as it also reflects his bright orange shirt, shoelaces done up sloppily, and greenish pants a little proofed like always. They haven't changed one bit. Both of their backs are to us and they're all the way across the small town, but my feet are already flying over the dirt toward them, toward the brick wall of a man with blonde hair and a prickly face.

"Snow!" I yell. He seems to freeze mid conversation with a man in a green T-shirt and jeans, turning his head to see who called him.

"Tifa?" Icy eyes... Still the same. And before I know it, I'm hugging the man I've misses for a whole thirteen months as if he might disappear if I don't. He always did in my dreams.