after her mother died, an eight-year-old tifa lockhart promised herself she would become an astronaut. her mother always said she could reach for the stars, so she darn well was going to at least try. there was only one problem: she was a farmer's daughter living in a backwater town on a planet no one cared about. all tifa could do was keep dreaming, watching the stars atop of the old water tower alone until her dad would yell at her to come to bed. that was her mundane life year after year because nothing ever happened in nibelheim - at least not until master zangan showed up when she was thirteen. he was a huge, larger than life man who most importantly said the one tifa never knew she always needed to hear: that she had potential.
❛ you have the physique of a fighter young lady ! ’ he had boldly - and rather loudly - declared.
❛ um. i think i just have the physique of a farmer sir... ’ was her uncertain, dry response.
zangan revealed himself to be a traveling instructor, exploring different systems to grow stronger while also searching for student's worthy of his teachings. it sounded a bit too good to be true at first to tifa but after a little convincing, she spoke with her father and soon became one of zangan's newest disciples. it had been a bit boring to the young teen at first - instead of the swift kicks and majestic displays of strength zangan had showed off when first meeting her, tifa was limited to learning stretches in order to instill the 'foundation of strength' zangan claimed his harder techniques required. still, tifa kept at it and read through book one until she knew it like the back of her hand.
her commitment impressed zangan, so much so that he talked her father into becoming a sparring partner for her whenever zangan was off-world. nervous but supporting of his daughter's passions, brian lockhart bore his daughter's punches for an hour three times a week as she began to dive into the techniques of book two. there eventually came a day when she had to train alone due to her dad being busy - an emergency townhall called after someone came screaming from the farms, claiming to see a monster that looked strangely shaped like a man. she was nearly about to call it a day when cloud strife, the boy next door who annoyingly always ignored her, asked if he could join. he was the only boy in town that hadn't left the city for greater things and considering the way his eyes shyly darted away from her own, tifa was stupidly beginning to understand why.
from then on, the young pair were rarely seen without each other. even with her dreams of space becoming an increasingly distant memory, tifa was happy. when not training, she was starting to learn a bit about mechanics from cloud as they worked on his secret project together: repairing an abandon hoverbike he had found. her father ( reluctantly ) approved of her and cloud while his mother, who was always cheery and supportive, claimed ' she always had a hunch ' about them. zangan was pleased as long as it didn't interfere with her training and even tried to recruit cloud - much to the boy's annoyance and her amusement.
most importantly thought was zangan saying she was close to being ready for the contents of book three!
a few weeks shy of her fifteen birthday, tifa and cloud decided to go explore deeper into the caves of mt. nibel once the bike had been 'fixed'. and by fixed, the hoverbike was loud, dingy, and the exhaust blew out tons of smoke, but it got them where they needed to go. usually. it was mostly a trip out of boredom but tifa had also been itching to fight against something that wouldn't hold back. what they hadn't expect to find, however, was twisted, mutations of the local wolves and stinger bees they had grown up hearing about within its depths. terrified, the two booked it back home on cloud's bike and despite the heated lecture the pair received from both of their parents, their findings weren't taken lightly. concerns about unknown monsters descending from the mountains to ruin their crops ( or do something even worse ) soon spread across their small village like wildfire.
in attempt to ease the growing hysteria, the mayor filed a request for assistance from the space forces - but no one ever came. everyone in town knew the unspoken truth: they didn't bother with planets like sentinel iii and especially not with small, insignificant villages like their own.
❛ i don't like it. ’ cloud said one day, a frown set on his face while his furrowed brow dripped with sweat. they were in the process of loading up the summer harvests to be shipped out into the city the next day. ❛ something else is in those caves tifa. something dangerous. ’
deep down tifa knew he was right...but she didn't know what to say or do. they had called for help, and no one answered. all they could do was carry on as they always had...because that was the type of townsfolk they had been raised to be: ' welcome to nibelheim! population: thirty-seven. smile, even when you're drowning, that's our motto! '
as monster sightings became more and more frequent, participation in the village's neighborhood watch was soon mandatory for all able-bodied adults. to help out, cloud and tifa would often go patrolling in the morning during the days they didn't have to help tend the farms. there was still a lingering unease around town but with no actual incidents or attacks, things were starting to settle back to normal.
tifa's sixteen when a bright, dazzling star shoots across the night sky while her and cloud were on a 'date': which consisted of cuddling and holding hands atop the old but faithful water tower. she remembers making a wish or well...wishes after seeing it: i wish that zangan stops handholding me and gives me book three already. and that dad stays as healthy as he can. oh! and that cloud and i can go on that small trip to locust we've been saving up for next year. also, that winter this year isn't too harsh and-
later, tifa would wish they had never seen that star all.
it is a man, pale and otherworldly, instead of a star that descends upon their quiet, unassuming village a day later. he's dressed almost entirely in black and easily towers over them all when he asks for their mayor. ❛ i have traveled here on behalf of the space forces after headquarters received your transmission. your village requested aid against local fiends? ’ he asked once mayor zander finally shuffled out of his office. his voice was smooth, confident, and most of all, annoyingly polite. something in her screamed not to trust this man. the space forces had never cared about them before, so why come now?
but tifa doesn't voice her thoughts because she wasn't raised like that. it wouldn't be...well, the 'polite' thing to do.
she's filled with a sense of dread as the others in town crowd around him in awe, children giggling and waving at the man from atop their parent's shoulders. even cloud, the first to usually stay back and avoid being close to others, was pushing himself to the front of the group in order to admire a space force member in person. the stranger - who they had quickly come to know as sephiroth - seemed to sense her unease and to be fair, she stuck out like a sore thumb compared to everyone else: standing off to the side, cowboy hat shadowing her face as she tried to keep from frowning.
sephiroth's unnaturally bright eyes pierced straight into her while he smiled - almost as if challenging her to speak against him.
during the first, and only, time she goes to law enforcement about what happened that terrible day, tifa remembers being interrupted with a scoff before the story had barely even begun, ' you all didn't think to see his credentials? ' when tifa just stared at him, taken aback by the condescension, the man just sighs and indifferently types something into her report in response. ' it was probably just a pirate raid. ' tifa can hear the unspoken 'stupid backwater hicks' on the officer's tongue.
before dawn had cracked the next day, the mayor, despite her father's protests, instructed her and cloud to lead sephiroth deep enough into the caves where they had first seen those abominations. the trio never got that far though - barely past where nibel wolves and their packs resided before the man suddenly spoke up. ❛ i will go forward from here alone. you two return back to your home. ’ cloud was disappointed and tried to argue against the decision but tifa took it as an opening, quickly wishing sephiroth safety and pulling her boyfriend away by his arm.
they reported back to mayor zander who, while a bit perplexed, figured working alone was ' just how those big timers out there operated! '. a little before noon, the women of the village would start setting up a large lunch in the center of town in celebration of sephiroth's arrival - but the man of the hour hadn't returned from the mountains even after noon. a quiet restlessness began to spread across the village by two, but no one dared voice it. they all kept smiling, joking as they packed leftovers, even when dusk came and sephiroth still hadn't descended from the mountains. a bit rattled by it all, tifa brushed off cloud's suggestion to go for a walk in the evening. she took a long shower to unwind and wash the tension away before taking a nap.
if only everything she would witness that night had been a terrible dream...
her restful sleep is broken by screaming and smoke pouring into her partially open window. she fell out of her bed, stumbling and coughing her way through the dark towards the door. ' pumpkin! where are you? ' tifa could hear her dad's voice from downstairs but it was so hard to see anything. the sound of footsteps storming up the stairs followed after before she felt the familiar warmth of her father pulling her in close and carrying her out to safety...only for her to see the village she had known all her life now burning down around them.
the source of the destruction was sephiroth, his blade easily cutting through men and women alike, showing no discrimination between young and old as they tried to run from their lives. tifa could only watch in horror, latching onto her father for dear life as children she once babysat were slaughtered in front of her eyes. mayor zander and a few other surviving men quickly began to circle sephiroth in order to put him down. pitchforks, guns, and rusted battle droids were being deployed against a man that seemed almost inhuman in strength.
her master, zangan, could be heard shouting against the roaring flames - calling zander a ' stupid fool ' for not being focused on his people while he rushed towards the village entrance. the monk quickly sidestepped burning rubble from the houses that had begun to fall apart, even while holding an elderly woman in his arms and some of her terrified neighbors trailed close behind him for protection. it's cloud's screams for his mother that snapped tifa out of dissociating though, causing her to push herself out of her father's arms in spite of his protests.
❛ go help the others with zangan, dad! i'll meet you over by the waterfall! ’ brian looked like he wanted to protest her decision but only nodded and took off to help anyone else trapped.
cloud was trying to kick down at his front door when she rushed over to help him. as he kicked, she punched against it using her worn-out leather gloves. she ignored the pain of hitting against solid wood in order to pour all of her strength into saving ms. strife, the woman who had taught tifa how to cook and bake after her mother died. a woman was always so sweet and kind - even when the village shunned her and her son because she once dared to have bigger dreams beyond nibelheim. she didn't want to lose another mom again, so she kept hitting the door with a flurry of punches despite what little of a dent they were making.
the last words she ever heard from claudia was when she's begging both of them to run away and survive before the burning house collapsed on itself.
the force of it sends them both back and things became blurry again after that: cloud completely shuts down - so tifa has to act for them. she swung one of his arms over her shoulder and carries them out of the burning village to the waterfall north of town to hide. there they wait but with tifa growing increasingly more restless the more time passed, and her father still hadn't made it up to meet them.
during the worst of her illness, tifa would lay in bed with her mother whenever she could - unaware of how little time she had left with her. one day thea had suddenly told tifa to be brave for herself and for father if she was ever gone.
tifa hadn't understood then but maybe...moments like this was what her mother meant.
❛ cloud? can you hear me? ’ nothing. his eyes were blank and only staring at the ground. ❛ i'm going to go find my dad but i'll be back, okay? ’ tifa squeezed his hand, knowing she wouldn't get a response but hoping it reached some part of him anyway. she's tired, exhausted, and probably suffering from smoke inhalation but tifa sprinted like hell back home despite how scared she was, nearly falling and twisting her ankle in the process. she's shouting for her dad in between panting to catch her breath when finally making it back into town; tifa tries to avoid looking at the dead bodies littered everywhere before freezing in her tracks.
❛ why? what have we done to you? ’ her father had his hands up, defenseless, while still trying to plead with and understand a murderer. the nibelheim way to the end.
❛ because, ’ sephiroth, if that was even his true name, seemingly decided to deem the man with an answer. ❛ you all have no place in the new galaxy mother and i are building. ’
for a brief second, brian made eye contact with his daughter and his eyes instantly widen with fear. his mouth moved to speak - right before sephiroth ruthlessly slit his throat. nothing but a bloody gargle comes out of her dad's mouth.
father and daughter fell to the ground in union, tifa's heartbroken scream echoing across this night from hell. sephiroth doesn't bother acknowledging it, his back turned to her while his attention is drawn to something he had been carefully carrying this whole time: it looked like a mix between a monstruous abomination and a woman's head. his relentless, apathetic slaughter of them all now on hold and he tenderly lifted the 'head' up to...speak to it. he nods once before it disappears in a mist then steps over her father's dead body like it isn't even there. dropping his sword, sephiroth continues to walk straight through the flames and out of the village as if he's going on a casual stroll.
tifa crawled towards her father's lifeless body and her small fists latched onto his leather rancher vest. it was his favorite and what he wore when he wanted to look nice. all she could do was bury her face in his chest - well aware of how its familiar warmth was slowly beginning to fade while she sobbed. she mourned her father and everything she had ever known until that sadness started to quickly fade and grow into something else - hate. glancing up, tifa looked over at the sword her father's murderer had left behind through her tears. slowly, she reached out to it and grabbed its hilt before forcing herself to stand. from then on, all tifa felt was rage.
when tifa lockhart wakes up again, she's in a hospital and very, very far from home.
' zangan left you with me as a favor. i won't lie: you were in pretty bad shape for a while missy. but you'll make it. i made sure of that. ' a broken sternum and a fractured spine that need to be reinforced with artificial bone and metal wiring is what tifa's told she came in with. the one who had saved her life was an older man that introduced himself as doctor sheiran. he was friendly and kind but couldn't answer any the questions that matter to her.
where was her father's body? did he get a proper burial?
❛ no! it's you that doesn't understand! he can't properly pass mt. nibel if he doesn't get a proper burial like mama did! ' tifa had screamed at dr. sheiran as she angrily snatched iv lines out of her arms and shoved away a nurse trying to gently guide her back onto the bed. ❛ i have to go home! if i don't bury him, who will?! i-i- ' tifa fell back onto the bed and buried her face in her hands before breaking out into hysterical sobs.
where's cloud? is he safe? what happened to her village? its people?
while she recovered, tifa stewed in her anger - the pain radiating in her chest a constant reminder of what she lost. it would simmer when she would flip through the old TV mounted in the patient area every morning and evening, listening intently for any mention of the destruction of nibelheim or sephiroth. every day it was the same: nothing. it was as if....nibelheim didn't even exist here - didn't matter. in a way, she figured it never had.
where was zangan and why the fuck did he just leave her here by herself?
dr. sheiran would often come and eat dinner with her, telling her stories about his past and how he ended up where he was now. tifa was beginning to learn that she was keeping him company just as much as he was for her. it was through these conversations that tifa ended up learning about his ties to zangan. ❛ wait, you mean you choose to live here? ' tifa asked in disbelief which earned her a chuckle from the good doctor before his tone turned slightly more somber. ❛ well my dear, there are worst things out there than boredom. ' tifa thinks back on the shooting star she saw and the terror that had come along with it before nodding in agreement and focusing on her food.
later when tifa's starts doing well enough to try walking again, a woman named marle ends up staying at the clinic after her own surgery. she's talkative and obviously a tad bit lonely but tifa admittedly enjoys her company over the new few weeks. it was a nice distraction and beat sitting in a bed alone replaying the worst night of her life on repeat. the morning that marle is discharged, she finally asked tifa about why the girl never had visitors and so tifa told her the truth: she had no one...at least not anymore.
the old woman frowned, made an audible ' tsk ' sound, and muttered something about ' how that wouldn't do ' before scribbling her number on the back of a piece of paper she dug out of her purse.
❛ well i'll start to visit you then and when you're discharged, call me won't you? i run a complex on the edge of the city - stargazer heights. ’ marle said with fierce pride. ❛ it's not one of those fancy high-rises in the city but it'll get you on your feet. will even give you a discount on the rent. ’
later when tifa takes a closer look at the slip of paper left behind does she realize it's actually a business card - just a rather...shoddy looking one. ' starwind and hawking: we'll take any job as long as you've got the cash ! ' was handwritten across it with a number hastily added at the bottom. there was a thick line under 'any' to drive the point home. it came off...desperate but tifa stared at it for a long time anyway before making a rash decision: pushing herself off the bed, she used her walker to help get to the reception area. the clinic was closed for the day and doctor sheiran had mentioned needing to go run some errands for a few hours.
good, she needed to do this in private.
tifa carefully typed out the number on the 'card' - still too acquainted with the older ( and vastly outdated ) tech from back home. she waited impatiently while the call connected and a voice that barely sounded older than her answered from the other end.
❛ starwind and hawking enterprises, what can i do for ya? ’
she hesitates for a second, debating her ask before clenching her fists and speaking to the stranger, ❛ your...card said you take any job right? how much is it to find and kill someone then? ’
this started off as a verse opener but i ended up wanting to touch on nibelheim's culture and how that shapes her just as much as the trauma of the nibelheim incident does. ex. see: how tifa acts as a teen, she's stubborn, a lot more confident and well assured of herself ( see the first 30 seconds of this video alone lol ). vs tifa as an adult where's more self-conscious and has a low opinion of herself ( :'( ) as you can see here.
i also wanted to show her anger over nibelheim because i feel it's been watered down in the remake series ( virgin 'i'm sick of this' from remake/rebirth vs chad 'i hate them all!' from the OG ). i also don't really like the reason traces of two pasts had her join AVALANCE ( it felt more because of becoming friends with jessie, biggs, and wedge / 'vibes' rather than out of revenge like she said she did in case of tifa ).
outlaw star stuff: this verse shares the same common lore with aeris' own verse. a lot of tifa's backstory expanded in a trace of two pasts is 'canon' here / just expanded on changed because of what i mentioned above. the major differences being that i. she is not from gaia and ii. the equivalent of the nibelheim incident happens around a year after sephiroth's succumbed to jenova when she's 16 instead of 15. he discovers a portion of jenova's body during a mission to shinra's space station resulting in [insert scene from a space horror movie] before disappearing into the galaxy in search for her remaining pieces.
i felt like since this isn't just limited to 'one' planet like in the game, jenova having parts spread out which looking for the galatic leyline would make more sense. one of those pieces, unfortunately, ended up nibelheim. because nibelheim is always doomed. i left whether cloud is dead or not intentionally vague in case i wanted to do something with that loose end later(tm). probably not an eco-terrorist but i feel like her being just a bartender doesn't feel right. we'll see.
