Present Story
This is a summary of the events during the present time of Final Fantasy VII that happen to both Cloud and Tifa. I generalize the parts that aren't so important to their present together, but it's basically just for a basis and understanding of their history throughout the present of the game with my minor opinions mixed in.
When Tifa had met up with Cloud at the train station in Midgar (read past first) she had noticed changes in him, ones that she couldn't quite get out to explain to him. She feared, so she stayed by him and told him about the job at AVALANCHE (the anti-shinra group) so that she could watch over him. Cloud at this point could not remember the truth and mistook a lot of who he was for Zack's storytelling. Though Cloud wasn't himself he took the job at AVALANCHE and went on his first mission to blow up Reactor 7. 7th Heaven After completing the mission with Barret they and the members of AVALANCHE go back to their headquarters which is 7th Heaven, Tifa's bar. There Tifa awaits with Barret's daughter Marlene who she takes care of. When Cloud returns and during this time she questions him more about his past and her relationship with him. She wants him to be okay, but no one yet really knows the past between them both.
She starts off by bringing up the promise between them from childhood years, at this time Cloud has no recollection of it, he seems as if he has forgotten it. Tifa asks him not only for her emotion state but to test him on what he did know and what he did not, considering from the time she met up with him at the train station left he puzzled about what happened, she needed to start somewhere basically. After he does not remember it, she reminds him, but this is the first time the player is introduced to their promise, the innocence of childhood. He shrugged off the notion of the promise since he was not sure what to think, he said that he was not a hero and that he could not keep the promise. And Cloud who also at this time seemed cold to everyone, and unreal to Tifa. She still in a desperate attempt to keep him close to her more or less forced upon him the idea of keeping the promise. So from then on Tifa decided to go with Cloud and Barret on their next mission to Reactor 5. Though no one realizes at this time, Cloud also asks her why she went with them during the train sequence, she holds back and hints partially that she needs to watch over him, though it's not said completely.
This is just the beginning of their present life together. Before Cloud is able to set the reactor a flash of Tifa (in her cowboy outfit) kneeling next to her fallen father and grabbing Sephiroth's sword, as he remembers. This probably occurs considering they were in a reactor similiar to the one back then, and Tifa was with them this time, it triggered part of an event he had trouble remembering everything to. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret then almost complete their mission of blowing up Reactor 5 but before President Shinra shows up and claims as if he knows Cloud as a "traitor" to them, he sends a robot after them. Once destroying the robot, Cloud is left clinging for his life onto a ledge and below is seemingly a void of nothing. Tifa worries for Cloud as she wants to save him, he tells Barret to take care of Tifa and that he'll be okay. It's stressed that there is much more they need to tell each other and Cloud falls below to Sector 5.
There Cloud meets the mysterious Aeris Gainsborough formally for the first time, and saves her life from the Turks who pursue her. Through meeting her he is brought to her house and eventually she takes him to the Wall Market, but before which it is thrown out by Aeris' interaction with Cloud that he is similiar to a boyfriend, first class SOLIDER that she had dated once. This is where the idea of Zack comes into play and how Cloud had resembled Zack through his storytelling and similiarities. Eventually at the Wall Market he finds out that Tifa is there at Don Corneo's mansion. Through this discovery he is determined to "save" her, and through Aeris' idea he dresses up as a girl since that is the only way to get into the mansion undetected.
Once he makes it in he finds out where Tifa is and they reunite. Tifa breaths a sigh of relief that he is safe (and at the same time is surprised at his appearance). It is at this time that she tells him that after Cloud had fallen she had heard rumors about Shinra's plot to blow up the pillar above Sector 7 (where Tifa's bar is and Marlene), so she had to go in disguise (more or less as one of Don's floozies, a "bride" choice for him) to find out more information. Tifa's motivation to stop this from happening leads her into all this, but once again meeting up with Cloud she asks him to go with her to help. Cloud agrees after Don Corneo pulls a lever sending them to the sewers below. Once they make it to the pillar there a lot of gun fire and most of the members of AVALANCHE are wounded in which Cloud asks Aeris to stay behind and take care of them and Tifa realizing the danger asks Aeris to go and get Marlene at the bar while she tries to stop the pillar from falling. Cloud and Tifa both battle their way to the top where Barret is fighting off the enemy.
To sum up the next parts of the game, Cloud and the otheres go to rescue Aeris, and Cloud who felt responsible for Aeris getting caught. They do rescue her, but in the process is caught themselves later. After escaping the prison a trail of blood leads them to find out that Sephiroth has been there and killed off the president Shinra. Cloud stays behind to fight off Rufus, but as they go to take Aeris out of the building both her and Tifa realize someone should stay behind for Cloud, in which Tifa does. As the others make it out of the building Cloud comes down after Rufus gets away and they both run off to escape. Tifa leading the others to a car where they can get away in and Cloud on the big ass motorcycle that makes me wonder why he never kept it...=/ it also makes me wonder how Cloud ever knew how to ride one of those things..oh the magic of game storytelling. From the aftermath they all decide to leave Midgar in greater search of things, their own personal missions.
They first head to calm where Cloud tells the group for the first time his story of how he met up with Sephiroth and what happened in Nibelheim back then. He tells the group that he was in SOLDIER and travelled with Sephiroth, and Tifa was their guide. Cloud finishes telling the story of how he was the one who fought along side with him, and was there when Sephiroth went crazy, though he also finishes that he doesn't exactly remember what happend when he faced off against him. The group is amazed by the story, but Tifa questions him and asks how badly she was cut by Sephiroth back then. "You were pretty bad, I though you wouldn't make it" he tells her. Though there were no words spoken after which, the group continues on.
The next important moment between them happens at the Junon town. When they go to save Priscilla, Cloud falls asleep and his subconscious asks him about why he never got together with Tifa back then to catch up on old times, when he re-visited Nibelheim he doesn't know why, and wakes up want to ask Tifa as she enters the room. He begins to ask her but she says she doesn't know and quickly move their minds onto, and are more involved with the music of the welcoming ceremony of the new president Shinra, Rufus. They all travel to the upper part of Junon, and eventually disguise themselves to fit in with Shinra. There they fight Jenova and learn of the path Sephiroth has taken, which means they were on the right track. After which they wind up in Costa del Sol and find Hojo. The next important moment between Cloud and Tifa doesn't happen until they reach Nibelheim later on. Both are surprised to see that their town is still standing after they both remember it burning down, this is the first time they have been to the town in ages. They find that thier town is filled with people who don't remember anything of it burning. You even find reports of "clones" and such in Tifa's bedroom at this point.
The imporatant aspects of their relationship don't start to actually pick up until disk 2, but even before this there is the "date" scene which only gives you an idea of where Tifa's heart is and what she still can't say to Cloud for many reasons. Cloud is still struggling with himself at this point and at the temple of the ancients losing a lot of his grip on who he is, and what Sephiroth is doing to him. In the process Aeris runs off to the forgotton capital and dies after her prayer for holy. Between this his mind is being played with a lot, confused and full of guilt he continues on and wishes to find out the answers that Aeris was looking for and to find the answers within himself. On disk 2, you eventually make your way to the top where the whirlwind maze is, and the most important aspects of Cloud and Tifa's relationship happen here. Both are confronted with lies and deception, Cloud believing he isn't real and trying to figure his relationship with Tifa out, and Tifa trying understand what is going on. Sephiroth throws ideas into Cloud's head and says Cloud was made up of stories that Tifa talked about. Eventually it breaks him down, and tells Tifa that he hopes she meets the real Cloud again someday. He then winds up giving the black materia to the real Sephiroth and awakens him and in the process summons Meteor.
Cloud is scattered from the rest of the group and Tifa collapses by the force of the awakened Weapons. Though in my impression it isn't only because of that but by the pure overwhelming situation of losing Cloud. The next scene cuts to Tifa remembering the actually reunion between her and Cloud in Midgar and how he didn't remember much of anything that he was suppossed to, and that's why she offered him the job at AVALANCHE so she could watch over him since she didn't know what to do. In her mind she sees Cloud run off into the distance...obviously symbolic of how he is so far mentally and physically from her. She wakes up to find out Cloud is indeed missing, but captured by Shinra along with Barret. At this point they are taken to be executed because the felt a need for someone to take the fall for the summoning of Meteor and who better than AVALANCHE? Tifa is the first to be executed in a very cruel manner, put into a gas chamber and completely at the mercy of Scarlet and her bitchy self.
Luckily, Tifa had gotten a hold of the key's to let her hands go by the guard dropping it on the way out of the chamber. And with the confusion of Weapon attacking the area they were in. Barret tries to get Tifa out of there but understands he needs to find help and seek outside assistance. He runs into Yuffie and Cait Sith who then tries to help Tifa out but nothing works. By some chance, Weapon strikes the top of walls where Tifa was being held and she climbs out, but not before Scarlet and her guards begin to pursue her. Eventually Tifa climbs to the end of the canon (sister ray) and bitch slaps Scarlet and just in time Barret and the others get the Highwind and she jumps onboard. She's safe, but she quickly composes herself as she is now the group leader and realizes and wishes to find Cloud once more which is basically her mission as the leader at this point (see...even when she's given rights as leader of your group her mind is still on Cloud and nothing else..hmhm). It isn't too soon after that she finds a clue in the town Mideel as she bends down to pet a sad dog speaking to it her thoughts of love "you look as if you've lost someone you love, poor thing" she says..but just then she over hears two people talking about someone washing up on their shore who sounds like Cloud.
Tifa then runs into the clinic where she has heard he was and sees him in a comatose type of state. She becomes devastated, finding out by the doctor that he has mako poisoning. She tells the group that she cares for nothing else, vowing to stay by his side, because she still believes in him. The group goes off finding the huge materia which is found out through the spy Cait Sith, that the Shinra is heading to specific towns to get it back. Once they (either do or don't..) recover the huge materia they go to check back up on Tifa who is still taking care of Cloud. There is no change in his condition but not too soon after one of the Weapon's attack Mideel and the ground beneath the town is about to burst of lifestream. The others warn Tifa to get out of there, she tries to take him in the wheelchair, but unfortuantely the two of them don't make it. Within the games context and within the characters context the scene between them that happens next is extremely crucial in that it reveals the truth to everything between Cloud and Tifa, emotionally and there is some kind of resolution. Not only that but it brings them closer together as a couple in that their minds become one.
Tifa finds herself confused and alone, asking for Cloud's help, she is being accused of things she's not sure of. She breaks down and falls into Cloud's subconscious where he is struggling to find himself. Tifa realizes this and decides to guide him through his own mind in hopes that he'll find the answers for himself. If she were to put any ideas into his head of what is right and what was wrong he wouldn't be able to be who he really is. Which is why she says that he has to find the answers for himself when he asks her. Through his mind there are many personal memories about Tifa and ones about himself that involves the past in which Tifa finalls tells him he was not the one who came to Nibelheim back then with Sephiroth. Finding out the promise they had was actually real, and why he decided to join SOLDIER to begin with was purely for Tifa's sake. That the reason Cloud fought a lot was because of the accident the two of them got in when they were younger where they fell off the bridge as a result of Tifa's mourning over her mother's death. But that all along, when she thought Cloud didn't come to Nibelheim back then that he really did, but didn't make it into SOLDIER but still disguised himself and watched over Tifa (^^).
Through these discoveries he was able to find himself and finally come to a resolve. Cloud as a whole now, and Tifa next to him, they hear the voices of their friends and know that they are in the lifestream. They decide to come back to them and float to the top together. Both come crashing through in debris as their friends watch over them and as Tifa tells Barret that she saw the real Cloud.
The group later reunites and they go and continue their mission to find Sephiroth and stop Meteor now. Emotional wise their isn't anything too touching until the highwind scene, the last moment they have together before they go off to the final battle with Sephiroth. In which this scene can be played out as implying they went further physically or just mentally connected. Either way the scene plays out between these two characters as implying that they need only to rely on one another no matter what. Since everyone was given the choice to leave and not come back, to go see their family, neither Cloud nor Tifa had anywhere to turn but to themselves. This in itself speaks on it's own level, not to mention the dialogue between them is very deep and touching. After the two talk they fall asleep on a rock, Tifa sleeping on Cloud's shoulders as the sun rises slowly. They wake up briefly but fall back to sleep because they know their battle lies ahead of them the next day. The two realize no one came back from their group and continue on thinking they will be the only two fighting. They soon realize that the group has actually come back and has started up the ship. Barret and the others butt in and tell them that they saw them (or watched them) together and they both get a little embarrased (=D). The group comes to a resolve about their duties and such and continue on to fight Sephiroth.
Originally Posted by DJZen
Here's the real proof that nothing happened between them.
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