• I am...
• Trauma
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• Unite!
• Still Alone
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• poker face
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Voyage

Tifa Lockheart has seen a lot of tragedy in her twenty two years, and she's grown because of it. Her experiences -- both good and bad alike -- have made her who she is today.

All she ever wanted was peace, an ideal not easily met. She tried violence and she paid for it, sometimes sacrificing more than she -- or anyone -- deserved. She lost some of her dearest friends in the fight, including a certain flower merchant whose memory she honors in the pink ribbon tied around her arm.

When Tifa finally had time to collect her thoughts after Meteor, she found that, above all else, she wanted a family. She wanted to love and be loved. Now having fought in a new crisis, she realizes that she may never have the white picket fence and the house in the suburbs, but she does have a successful business, two wonderful foster children, the best friends anyone can ask for, and a Cloud. She may not know exactly what he is -- what they are -- now, but she'll take what she can get. Maybe they seem a little awkward -- a rag-tag group of other families' broken pieces -- but they are all her family, and she wouldn't trade them for the world.

They are a real family.

With the fall of Aeris' holy rain, the children are healed of their dreadful scars and allowed to be children again. Even Cloud is saved from his illness and a fatal gunshot, renewed by the divine pool that has collected in the church. He awakens to find friends and family lining the water's edge, framing Tifa and Denzel at the group's center.

As Cloud approaches to take Denzel -- the last child still afflicted -- into the healing waters, Tifa kneels beside the boy with her arms around him and her signature soft smile of re-assurance. She gently guides him to the edge and passes him on to Cloud, looking on with an expression of motherly serenity. She is finally back in her comfort zone. The sense of family she wanted -- needed -- so desperately has been renewed and is stronger than ever. Cloud is back, alive, well, and warm again. Denzel is safe and about to be cured of that horrible sickness that caused all of them so much pain.

Finally, Tifa doesn't have to put up a front; she doesn't have to lie to herself that everything's all right, because she knows that everything's all right. The pieces have all fallen together, and she is free to move forward with her life. True, she will never be able to erase the horrible scars marring her past, but she has learned to live with them. There are too many wonderful things in her present and future to spend time dwelling in the past.

She knows that Aeris will always be with them; she never fully left. She knows they -- all of the Planet's people -- are taking steps in the right direction now, and that they have her blessings.

When Cloud stands waist-deep in the water, surrounded by splashing children, he scans the delighted crowd and catches Tifa's eye.

She smiles; he does the same.

The last time she had seen his smile, she had thought everything was all right only to be crushed when he did not return from a job. It marked the start of a painful period of worry, stress, and agony in every sense of the word. Now both smiles are full and honest; there is no doubt to mask.

With their smiles, Tifa finally gets her happy ending.

Inspired by Ayumi Hamasaki's "Voyage" (RAINBOW); popular unofficial translation courtesy of Divine Ayu