An Angel's Freedom (Final Fantasy VII Fanfiction)

Prologue

It was well into the Winter season as the city of Midgar was covered in a thick blanket of snow. Barely anyone dared to brave the cold as there wasn't a stranger walking in the freezing night. Small shadows in the shape of dots floated over the huge layer of snow that covered the ground as the snowflakes floated towards it. The snow hadn't been cleared off the road yet so no cars could access the area around Seventh Heaven.

Tifa stared out the window of Seventh Heaven with a tired expression gracing her features as she dried a glass that hadn't been wet in the first place. She needed something to keep herself busy seeing as she had no customers because of the snow. The kids had been staying with Barrett for the week so she had no one to talk to or care for. Normally, her customers would keep her company, telling her about their problems in their drunken state and asking random questions about her life. Some tried to flirt with her but she never paid them any mind, just gave them their drink and moved on. She found herself blushing though when a particularly charming customer referred to her as the Princess of the Bar or as Reno had once said during an extremely drunken state 'the First Queen of the Seventh Heaven." It was good to have that kind of company, even though it wasn't the best it was good enough for her. The kids normally did their own thing together, whether it was homework or play, sometimes they liked to cook with her or ask her how Cloud was. She enjoyed their company and she enjoyed Cloud's when he was around. But he never really came home anymore anyway...

She felt tears sting her maroon eyes despite her efforts to fight them back as she thought of her childhood friend. She had given him everything she could offer yet it still wasn't enough and though she kept on telling herself that she accepted the fact, the pain that assaulted her heart every time she thought of it still remained. She couldn't take much more of the pain, the stress... her heart couldn't take much more...

The sound of cracking and glass shattering resounded in her ears and caught her attention. A single tear fell as she turned her eyes downwards. Glass shards lay sprawled around her feet along with a red liquid substance that was dripping from her left hand. She inhaled a sharp breath as she stared at the shards stuck in her palm, not because of the pain but because she'd done it again...

She picked the glass out, ignoring the small pain she felt before looking around the empty bar cautiously. It was stupid really, she knew no one was there, no had been in for the past few nights because of the snow but she couldn't take risks, especially not now. Digging into her back pocket, her hand closed around a small spherical shaped object and she gently took it out. She pressed the master spell materia into her skin hastily and cast cure on her hand, watching as the skin healed quickly. Quicker than it had ever healed before...

Her breathing came faster as her brow creased in worry while she tried to get the materia out of her arm. She shouldn't have tried it, she should've just put it in the materia slot on her glove like any normal person would do but she didn't have them in her back pocket. They were somewhere else in her cluttered house.

Her nimble fingers nervously shook as she tried clawing at the soft skin of her wrist however she halted her movements when she sensed something fall to the floor. She looked down, praying to Aerith that the feather on the floor was just a trick of her mind, but it wasn't. It lay there, almost innocently, with its jet black body and red tips shining in the false light of the room.

Sweat gathered on her forehead as she suddenly felt light-headed and dizzy. She grabbed onto the counter for support, feeling more tears sting her eyes. Her walls were slowly breaking and crumbling to join the feathers now gathering at her feet. Why was this happening now? She had tried so hard, worked so hard to keep control. She had tried to be the perfect girl, pretty, strong, positive and hard-working but above all motherly... but no one, not even Cloud knew the darker side of her. The side she had concealed for seven years, concealed since the day at the reactor...