Chapter Text
The roar of Cerberus’ engines slowed to a rumble as Tifa put the bike into park outside of the church. She glanced back at her passenger; Cali was wearing her pink hemet and her eyes were focused on the dilapidated place of worship before them. Knowing Callidora wouldn’t see it, her mother smiled warmly at her.
As they walked towards the entrance of the church together, hand in hand, Tifa glanced back at the bike- a sleek piece of machinery that stood out against the surrounding rubble of Sector 5. A gift from Cloud on their first wedding anniversary, he had insisted upon it after years of giving her riding lessons on Fenrir. As for the name? Her eyes darted towards the decal near the back of the black bike of a three-headed Behemoth.
“It represents our family,” Cloud had explained sheepishly as he held up three fingers to her on the day he had given it to her.
She glanced down at her daughter, the spitting image of Cloud save for her black her, and couldn’t help but agree with her husband’s rather corny explanation.
The heavy wooden doors of the church were shut, but they posed no trouble to Tifa as she shouldered them open. She peered inside, holding a hand out to prevent Cali from stepping forward. Occasionally, a monster from the outskirts of the city would make a nest amongst the pews but this time, thankfully, the coast was clear. Not that she doubted her child’s ability in combat, but better safe than sorry. She lowered her arm, and stepped inside. “Come on,” she called to Cali softly, “it’s safe.”
Cautiously, Cali followed Tifa past the threshold, her eyes widening as she took in the sights of the church. Tifa watched her as her gaze went from the high ceilings, to the broken glass windows, the smashed pews, the black spots on the floor that had long since dried. Tifa frowned as her eyes rested on the stains, memories of the stigma rearing its ugly head.
The sound of Cali’s footsteps quickening to a run brought Tifa back to the present, and she turned her head to see her running towards the flowers in the middle of the building. The Spring of Hope, as the small pool of Geostigma cure had been called in the months following its appearance, had long since dried up. Days after it had dried, lilies were already sprouting where they had been for years beforehand. Nobody knew how they got there, as they hadn’t been replanted. Before long, they agreed it was just the will of the Planet in an attempt to heal itself.
Cali crouched by the flowers, not smelling them but simply staring at them. A slight breeze blew through the hollowed remains of the church, causing the lilies to sway back and forth in a mesmerizing dance. Leaving Callidora to her own devices, Tifa shrugged the backpack she wore off her shoulders and dug through it. Pulling out an old quilt, she silently laid it down on the old wooden floor a foot away from where the flowers bloomed and sat down. She watched her daughter, the light of her life, quietly as she did not wish to disturb her. She smiled when Cali looked over her shoulder and patted the quilt next to her, inviting the 10 year-old to join her. Without a word, Cali walked over and sat next to her mother, legs crossed.
Silence held the air between them as Callidora remained fixated on the lilies. “This was Aerith’s church, wasn’t it?” She finally asked, not moving her gaze. The question was not surprising, but Tifa still felt her heart tighten at the mention of her friend.
Digging back into the backpack, Tifa pulled out a water bottle and took a sip. “Yeah,” she finally replied, “this is where your father first met her.” She glanced at the ceiling and chuckled at the two distinctly man-sized holes that marred it. “This is also where he found Denzel.” The image of the curly-haired boy entered her mind. She made a mental note to call him and check in on him and his studies at university.
“So is this another special place for daddy?” Cali asked further.
“It’s a special place for all of us, I think.” Tifa answered, referencing the rest of Cali’s family. She had grown up around them, and even if she wasn’t related to any of them, the group that had traveled around Gaia together were one big unit who had doted on her her entire life. “We brought you here a few days after you were born.”
Cali finally turned her head and faced her mother. Tifa handed her the water bottle as she cocked her head to the side in curiosity. “Why?” She asked, after taking a large gulp from the bottle.
“We wanted to introduce you to Aerith and Zack.” Tifa’s voice was jovial, despite the sadness that had permeated that day. The Buster Sword surrounded by the flowers that Aerith had spent so many years growing still stood at the back of the church and she found herself staring at the weapon that Cloud so religiously polished and sharpened, even if it was no longer used.
She sighed quietly as she let the memories flood her. It had been Cloud’s idea, and idea that he had suggested weeks before Cali had been born. Tifa had loved it immediately. She could almost still see her husband walking through the building, Callidora swaddled and held close to his chest before kneeling before the sword. “This is Callidora,” he had told Zack, angling the newborn’s face towards the sword. “She looks kinda like you.” He had laughed before jokingly adding, “If you were still here I would probably kick your ass.” Tifa had groaned and slapped the back of his head before laughing.
“Her middle name is Aerith,” Tifa had spoken up as she bent down next to her family. She gently had stroked Callidora’s cheek as she and Cloud exchanged smiles. “Callidora Aerith Lockhart. We wanted you guys to meet her.”
As if in response, the wind had picked up and sent petals flying in the air in a vortex that was anything but natural. Just as soon as it had started, it had died down again. One lone yellow petal had fluttered in the air for a moment and had fallen perfectly on Cali’s forehead, causing the sleeping infant to twitch. In that instant, the family knew that their friends were beyond happy for them.
Cali’s eyes grew to the size of saucers as her mother recounted the story, absolutely enthralled by the tale. “So does that mean they like me?” She asked when Tifa had finished.
She nodded. “That’s how me and Cloud took it.”
Callidora bit her lip. “Maybe that’s why Aerith talks to me in my dreams. ‘Cuz she likes me.”
Tifa laughed. “Maybe.” A pause fell between them before her voice dropped and became serious. “What...what do you know about Aerith?”
Cali’s eyes darted around the church, desperate to avoid her mother’s gaze. She brought her thumb to her mouth and began to idly chew on the nail, causing Tifa to reprimand her for the action. “I know she’s been dead for a long time.” She finally spoke, as she found her mother’s ruby eyes once again. “A scary man killed her, but she tells me I shouldn’t be afraid of him.”
Tifa pushed her hair behind her ear, nodding. She was glad she was the one having this conversation and not Cloud. She loved him more than she could put into words but she could just see the panic in his eyes as he struggled to explain everything to Callidora. He had never been good at having these types of conversations, not with his wife nor with his child. They would talk to her about the details of Aerith’s life together at a later date, but for now she was glad he had asked her to be the one to breach the subject.
“Sephiroth!” Cali suddenly exclaimed. “That was the scary guy’s name. Sephiroth.”
“Right.” Tifa nodded again, forcing a smile. Even the name alone was enough to send a shiver down her spine, but Cali deserved to know about him. “Your daddy killed him. He’s not a threat to anyone anymore.”
“Mmm-hmm.” Cali agreed with a hum. “That’s what Aerith told me too.” She turned her gaze towards the flowers once again. “She seems really nice.”
“Aerith was an amazing person.” Tifa sighed. “She would have loved you.” Zack would have loved her too, but Cloud made sure Cali was already fully aware of that. When they had decided on Aerith being her middle name, Tifa had battled with guilt about it for a long while. Was it fair to name their daughter after a woman she would never meet? A woman who would never get to shower her in the love that she most definitely would have? She smiled to herself as she remembered those feelings of uncertainty dissipating after they brought her to the church for the first time.
“I remember,” Cali’s brow was furrowed as if she was in deep thought, “that the first time I dreamed about her she mentioned that the mako in me made it so she could come visit me. Does she visit daddy too?”
For a sliver of a second, Tifa wondered if Aerith ever did visit Cloud in his dreams but shook the thought of it out of her head immediately. He would have said something if that was the case. “No.” She answered simply.
“It’s ‘cuz I was born with mako in me, right?” Cali looked down at her hand, opening and closing her fist. Tifa nodded again. “Daddy wasn’t born with mako, he just has it in him.” There was a pause, and Tifa dreaded that she would ask how Cloud got the mako in him. There was no way she could explain to her that he was poked and prodded, experimented on and made a living test subject. Not now at least, it would traumatize her. She silently sighed in relief when Cali chose not to push the subject, but her heart sank at the new subject. “I know daddy blamed himself for a long time about Aerith’s death.” She stole a glance with her mother, eyes full of worry before quickly adding. “She didn’t tell me that. It’s just something I know. I… don’t know how though.”
Tifa smiled sadly as she reached over and stroked the long scar that lined the left side of Cali’s face, just shy of her eye. Another thing Cloud still blamed himself for, she was sure of it. “Yeah, your daddy didn’t forgive himself for Aerith’s death for a really long time.” It’s just the kind of person he was- he had always had a hard time letting go and moving on from his own perceived failures. “But he doesn’t anymore. She helped him understand that it wasn’t his fault.”
“She sounds like she was pretty cool.” Cali idly mused.
And she was, Tifa explained to her before launching into a storied explanation of Aerith and how wonderful she was. How they met and how they rescued Cloud from Wall Market (while leaving out any… unnecessary details) which had Cali reeling over with laughter.
“Daddy wore a dress?” She snorted.
“Yeah, and he didn’t look half bad in it either!” Tifa laughed. She elbowed Cali in the side playfully. “I think he’s better at walking in heels than you are.” Callidora responded by making a raspberry with her mouth. “If you wanna ask him about it, I won’t stop you.” Tifa goaded her, causing her to laugh even more. She couldn’t help but stare at the way she threw her head back as she cackled, her heart feeling full of love for this child she was somehow doing an okay job of raising.
Of course, she and Cloud had raised Denzel and Marlene but there was something so beautiful about watching your own flesh and blood grow and learn and become their own self that was impossible to describe. There wasn’t a day that went by where she wasn’t grateful that they had beat the one in one trillion odds and that Callidora was with them.
And she told her more about Aerith, soaking in the look of her daughters face, her questions and comments. Tifa told her about her affinity for flowers, how she was always cracking jokes and how there wasn’t a spell she couldn’t conjure. She told her about her role as the last of the Cetra and to not believe what she learned about the Ancients in school because it was all based on old Shinra textbooks. She told her how full she made their lives full and how gutted everyone, especially her father, was when she was gone but how her death made them more determined than ever to stop Sephiroth. She left out details of course, but she didn’t need to know everything right now. Someday maybe when she was older, but for now this was a good start.
Cali seemed the most interested in the lifestream when Tifa explained it to her. They had learned about it in passing at school but it was still considered a pseudoscience by many scholars, but no, Tifa assured her. It was real and right beneath their feet. She explained how mako came from the lifestream and with mako came inherent knowledge of the Planet as a result of the cycle of life. Aerith was in the lifestream, she explained, but Callidora already knew that.
“So Aerith is inside of me?” She asked, placing an open palm over her heart. She seemed fascinated by the topic and Tifa made a note to look around the house for her old planetology books. Her child was a bookworm and she could absolutely see her pouring over the information within those dusty pages well past her bedtime. A memory of an old teacher telling Tifa that Cali read too much during lessons and didn’t pay attention as a result crept from the back of her mind.
“In a way, yes.” Tifa mimicked her daughter’s movement and placed her own palm over her heart. “She’s inside all of us in a way.”
Concern flashed in Cali’s mako colored eyes as she lowered her hand. “I have a lot to live up to. I don’t think I’ll be able to be as good of a person as she was.”
The woman shook her head, leaning forward to hug her daughter. “You have nothing to live up to.” She explained. “You’re not Aerith, and you don’t have to be Aerith for your daddy and I to love you as much as we do.” She pulled away and looked into Callidora’s eyes. “You’re our perfect miracle.” Despite the fist fights at school, the emotional breakdowns, the tears of frustration that she wasn’t “normal” and her difficulty adjusting to her mako-enhanced strength Tifa meant every word.
Cali leaned into Tifa’s shoulder and wrapped her hand around her mother’s. Tifa’s mind lingered on the word miracle; a word Callidora had heard her entire life. She was a miracle, even if she didn’t know why yet. At ten years-old, there’s no way she was ready to hear the story of how there was “no possible way” Cloud would be able to produce viable sperm because the mako would kill them, but how it happened anyway. She absolutely wasn’t ready to hear about every single obstetrician they had seen recommended termination of the pregnancy because there was “no possible way” Callidora would survive the “all but certain” in-utero mako poisoning and how if she did survive it would be “basically impossible” for her to survive more than a few hours. The fact that Cali was happy, healthy and everything Tifa had ever wanted was nothing short of divine intervention.
“When you were still a baby,” Tifa broke the comfortable silence between the two of them as she recalled the feeling of holding her daughter in her arms, “I used to sing you a song that Aerith sang to me once.” She closed her eyes and recalled the moment many years ago as Aerith quietly sang a song to her as they laid next to each other. She had explained that Elmyra had sang to her, but had never seen stars before so she never quite understood it. Outside of the steel sky of Midgar, it had made so much more sense.
“I don’t remember that at all.”
“Do you want to hear it?” Cali nodded, still leaning on Tifa’s shoulder. Her eyes were straight ahead, looking towards the Buster Sword and lilies. They were still dancing in the breeze, creating waves of yellow and white as they moved in tandem with each other. It was a beautiful and mesmerizing sight.
Tifa lifted her hand and began to stroke Cali’s shoulder length black hair as she lowered her voice and began to sing, the words coming naturally to her despite it being nearly seven years since the last time the lyrics had left her lips.
If you'll be my star
I'll be your sky
You can hide underneath me and come out at night
When I turn jet black, and you show off your light
I live to let you shine
I live to let you shine
Cali sat upright, her eyes sparkling. “That’s so pretty!” She exclaimed. “And you’re soooo good at singing, you should go on a TV show!”
Tifa chuckled and shook her head. “I’m not that good, Callidora.” She brought her finger to Cali’s lips. “It’s also not polite to interrupt someone mid song; I’m not done yet.” She cleared her throat and continued the song, fully embracing the feeling of nostalgia that was washing over her in a volley of waves.
But you can skyrocket away from me
And never come back of you find another galaxy
Far from here
With more room to fly
Just leave me your stardust to remember you by
“Oh,” Cali pouted, “it got really sad. It’s still pretty though.”
“I don’t think it’s sad,” Tifa disagreed with her as her eyes gazed upwards towards the roof again. Through the holes in it, she saw that the sun was starting to set. In the purple twilight that was overtaking Edge, the first of the sky’s millions of stars were beginning to shine through. “I think it’s about loving someone and hoping they grow up to be the best person they can be.” She looked down at Cali, her heart swelling. “I think that’s the perfect song for you. You’re a bright star that is destined for great things.”
Cali blushed, but rolled her eyes. “Mommy, that is the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.” Tifa knew that was her way of saying thank you and didn’t take offense to it as Cali looked up towards the holes her mother had been looking at moments before.
Memories of the water tower flooded her mind’s eyes. “Stars are really important to me and your dad.” She mused aloud. “Your name was almost Stella. Or Estelle. Your daddy and I couldn’t choose.”
“How’d you choose Callidora then?”
“Nanaki suggested it,” she smiled, “it's a traditional name from Cosmo Canyon meaning ‘gift of beauty’.” She leaned forward, placing a small kiss on Cali’s cheek before standing up. “And we immediately thought it was perfect.”
Callidora beamed at her as she stood up as well. “Well I think you guys chose good!” She flashed a thumbs up and placed her other hand on her hip, striking a pose. Tifa reached forward and ruffled her hair.
“Thanks for bringing me here mommy,” Cali whispered a bit shyly. “I feel like… like I understand things a lot more now.” Once again, Tifa found her looking at the lilies before she looked back towards her. “I’ll let Aerith know you and daddy say ‘hi’ next time she visits me.” She smiled again.
Tifa met her smile with her own. “I’d appreciate that.” She was sure Cloud would too.
In a comfortable silence, they folded the quilt they had been sitting on and stuffed it back into the backpack.
As they exited the church, a feeling of calm emanated off the both of them. Tifa glanced back one more time to see the lilies rocking back and forth in the wind, as if to wave goodbye. She waved goodbye back as she closed the building’s door behind her.