Lazy Ragdoll Kitty (kittycracknip) wrote in ironman7, @ 2007-08-23 01:16:00 |
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Current mood: | I WROTE SOMETHING!!!! |
Current music: | Terra Naomi - Say It's Possible |
Final Fantasy VII (Tifa, Gen) [Week 1, Prompt 2]
Title: One At A Time
Author: kittycracknip
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Spoilers. My first real ficbit, so be nice :P
Word Count: 520
Summary: “So, what are you gonna do once we get to Midgar?”
She didn’t know what she’d been expecting. The direction her life would take when—if, it had been at the time, and the reality was still sinking in. Survival wasn’t an if anymore—Sephiroth was defeated had been a hazy series of dreams: returning to Midgar to bring Shinra down, watching Marlene grow up, and finding a way to help Cloud sort things out. She hadn’t found time for the details; the previous weeks had been a blur of fighting, death, and one failing plan after another. Making it from one day to the next had been all she could do, all any of them could do under a sky that Meteor was slowly overtaking.
Staring out the window as Barret drove them towards what was left of Midgar, Tifa knew that whatever she’d been expecting, this hadn’t been it. Despite the miles between the truck they’d rented and the city itself, the lower sectors looked eerie and skeletal. The upper level simply wasn’t there anymore. It seemed like that would go a long way in destroying Shinra’s influence, but…
“How did this…” The fighter trailed off, shocked at how unfamiliar the cityscape looked against the surrounding wasteland. She was still letting her eyes take in the ruins of Midgar as the twisted framework of what used to be skyscrapers continued spread out over the horizon, Was all this a result of their battle with Jenova’s forces?
“Holy,” Cloud answered, shifting uncomfortably against the opposite window. “It backfired completely. I really thought it’d save everything. I didn’t know-“
“’course you didn’t,” interjected Barret, as determined as ever to see things in black and white. “So don’t you go blaming yourself. Never could keep Midgar down; the survivors are already setting up new places on the outskirts. We’re starting over now, hear?”
Starting over? As obvious as the concept seemed, it felt new to her.
“…yes. Yes, that’s right. Whatever you want to do,” she agreed, unable to do anything else when faced with how pleasant the idea sounded. He was free now. They all were; nothing was forcing them to let their past sins weigh them down in the present. She turned towards Mako eyes, watching them blink as if the idea was just as foreign to Cloud as it had seemed to her. The fighter smiled, feeling her confidence grow as the blond began to return the expression.
“So, what are you gonna do once we get to Midgar?”
It was meant only as an innocent question, but her rare burst of giddiness left her all at once as her friend’s expression crumpled, undoubtedly seeing some lingering ghost in her face. Tifa bit her lip, turning back towards the window. Of course things couldn't be so simple, not like when they were children. They'd both gone through too much, grown up too quickly. She knew that.
It’s okay. We just have a lot to work through, that's all.
We’ll pick up the pieces. One at a time.