Tifa escorts the last customer of the day outside as she closes the bar. She’s slightly worried about the lack of adequate electricity and water and asks if anyone else is around. Marlene shows up and asks her to be quiet as Denzel is sleeping. Evidently, this takes place JUST before the movie. Marlene senses somethings wrong with Tifa and asks if she feels lonely. Marlene reminds her that she's not going anywhere. Marlene is a very mature child, but I guess being a barmaid at six will do that to a girl. Tifa thinks to herself that she considers Marlene to be her daughter. Eventually, the topic of Cloud is brought up, and Tifa starts to feel guilty.
We go into a quick detail about the day Meteor fell. Tifa states that she wished everything could be washed away. Her old life, in particular. She joined an eco-terrorist group that accidentally killed so many people with a bomb they never expected to have much power. It was only supposed to blow up the reactor, not the surrounding area, and the ramifications of that were tremendous. To counter Avalanche, Shinra dropped an entire town just to get rid of them. From that event, Tifa’s experience after the Nibelheim Incident, to losing Aerith, and gaining friends, she always thought she was in the right. Because it all started a personal revenge quest, though, it makes her uneasy continuing to live. All these people died for her to get vengeance. Cloud, however, has no such issues as he smiled while looking up at the sky that night on the Highwind. Cloud smiled because he knew he could live again. Everyone could start a new life, and he promises to always be with Tifa.
Before returning to Midgar, the group retreaded some of the places they’ve been. The first stop was to see Aerith. She notes that even though Aerith died, she couldn’t grieve. That sadness was turned into anger and hate. I’m taking a terrible shot-in-the-dark here, but I wonder if there was some rivals-in-love thing here? Where, maybe, Tifa was slightly relieved that she had no one to fight over Cloud with? Probably in a, “not like this” type of scenario, but leave a pin in this, and I’ll finish it later. Regardless of how she felt at the time, Tifa begins to cry now. “The tears wouldn’t stop.”
The story then talks about how the party split up after Meteor. Vincent left as though it were no big deal. Yuffie protested, but who cares about Yuffie? The original Avalanche then separated from everyone else and went to Coral, Barrett's hometown. They then went to Nibelheim where Cloud got uneasy. They finally went to Kalm to meet up with Marlene, who was being cared for by Aerith’s mom, Elmyra. Cloud and Barrett apologized to her for being unable to save her daughter, but she said there was no need, as they did all they could. Tifa wondered if that was true. Put another pin here.
After staying in Kalm for a while, Cloud decides it's time to end their, "suspended reality", and start their lives again. To do so, they all went to the ruined Midgar. Tifa once more felt guilty about wanting everything to be washed away. She shared these feelings with the group, all of whom understood her. Barrett responded, "Since that's the case, we'll live on. We'll live on until we pay back our sins. It's the only way.” Cloud said that this isn’t the Tifa he knows but promises to stay around until he reminds her of the real Tifa. It’s a good callback to when Tifa did the same for Cloud.
The three started working around Midgar, gathering information, scraping parts, etc., until one day, Barrett came back with wine, fruit, and a heater. They got drunk and decided to reopen the bar. Tifa was unsure of this since it would just be going back to their old lives, the one she wanted to wash away. All the people they helped, helped back in kind until they started thinking of a name. Marlene suggested Seventh Heaven, which, once again, made Tifa uneasy. It was another reminder of her past, however, it held no such weight for the child. Marlene suggested it because she wanted to have fun again. It was a place where she had fun and where she, Barrett, Tifa, Cloud, and her friends were. It was a happy memory. Tifa acquiesced and named it Seventh Heaven.
Opening day was a massive success. So, it turns out alcohol is a high demand recourse. Shocking! They also sold juice for the kids because they wanted to create a place where everyone felt like they belonged. At the end of the first week, though, Barrett decided to go on a journey...
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