Tears fall like shooting stars

She sat alone at the well, staring into the heavens above. The night sky was a blanket of stars which covered and separated Nibelheim from the rest of the world.

Tifa was the only occupant of the isolated village.

Alone.

Tifa let out a short harsh laugh. Whatever she did, she always ended up alone. No matter what happened, those she loved would disappear before her very eyes.

Strictly speaking, she wasn’t entirely on her own. The friends she still had contact with were constantly offering her the chance of a new home.

She could have gone to Barret in Corel, Red in Cosmo Canyon, or even accepted the offer to stay with Cid in Rocket town. But they were offering her charity, and Tifa would not allow herself to become dependant on others. She had made that mistake before.

"Whenever I’m in trouble, my hero will come and rescue me."

That promise had been made on this well, under the same starry sky. How many of those stars, she wondered, were there that night seven years ago. How many had fallen from the heavens to conceal the past and seal the future from its sordid memories.

Tifa’s eye followed a lone shooting star trail across the sky. Who else could see that star? Could others gazing into the night see that same star fall from its place in the heavens. Could Red see it? Or Vincent? Or Cloud?

Cloud

The name came in a soft whisper on her lips

Cloud

She cried his name out loud. The tears choked her. Her throat was as dry as her cheeks were wet with tears.

Cloud

He wasn’t there. She needed him, and he wasn’t there. She didn’t know where he was. Or why. Would he be thinking of her? Unlikely. His heart and thoughts would be dedicated to another. The planet’s savoir, the last Cetra, the flower girl,

Aeris Gainsborough.

Tifa was second best. Always had been, always will be. But Tifa could feel no jealousy or hatred towards Aeris. Cloud would have gone anyway, such was Tifa’s luck. Cloud had moved on, and now it was time for Tifa to do the same.

At the gate to the town, she turned to look one last time at the town called Nibelheim. It wasn’t her Nibelheim, though. For that to be so she would have to torch it, till it resembled the charred remains of its former self. Till it was as desolate and empty as Tifa’s dreams. That was her Nibelheim, not this one. This was just another lie. One that Tifa could walk away from, into the open fields surrounding her.

Tifa sat on the soft grass and watched the shooting star continue it’s journey, rolling slowly across the face of the sky, leaving a silvery trail as its only reminder of existence.

The single teardrop rolled slowly down Tifa’s cheek, leaving a silvery trail in it’s wake.

This was Tifa’s new world. One at peace and free of bloodshed. Where life was a gift few could truly hope to grasp fully, and where tears fell like shooting stars