(Cloud exits the Shinra Mansion. The entire village is consumed in fire; flames and smoke
reaching high into the sky. He runs to
the courtyard. Zangan is tending to an injured person lying on the ground.)
Zangan
"Hey it's you! You're
still sane, right?"
"Then come over here
and help me!"
(Cloud runs to Zangan, leaping over a piece of flaming debris.)
Zangan
"I'll check this house.
You check that one over there!"
(He runs into the house next to the Inn. Cloud speaks to the person on the ground. It's the photographer from before.)
"Hey, Ummm... Am I going to die?"
(A guard is lying on the ground near Tifa's house.)
"Sephi... roth"
(Cloud runs into the house next to Tifa's, his mother's house, then runs out. He shakes his head sadly, then walks to the center of the courtyard. The screen fades to black.)
Cloud
"Terrible..."
"Sephiroth... This
is too terrible..."
(The camera switches to an angle where we can see both the courtyard and the Shinra Mansion. Near the steps leading down to the courtyard stands Sephiroth. Two townspeople rush toward him in an attempt to subdue him. He cuts them down with his sword. FMV sequence. Sephiroth stands in the midst of the flames, an empty expression on his face, then walks away, through the fire, unharmed. A flyby of the Nibel Mountains, past the Mako Reactor. Cloud dashes into the reactor and climbs down to the entrance to the pod room. Tifa is kneeling in front of the door. A long, thin, sword is on the floor nearby. A man lies before her, dead.)
Tifa
"Papa..."
(She leans down to him.)
Tifa
"Sephiroth!?"
(She straightens.)
Tifa
"Sephiroth did this
to you, didn't he!?"
(She slumps forward.)
Tifa
"Sephiroth... SOLDIER...
Mako Reactors... Shinra... Everything!"
(She sits up; then, in fury-)
Tifa
"I hate them all!"
(She stands, picks up the sword, then runs into the pod room. Cloud
follows.)
(Sephiroth stands before the thick steel door at the top of the stairs in the pod room. He places his hands on the door.)
Sephiroth
"Mother, I'm here
to see you. Please, open this door."
(The camera pans downward. We see Tifa, wielding Sephiroth's sword and assuming a fighting stance, at the bottom of the stairs.)
Tifa
"How could you do
that to papa and all the townspeople?"
(She runs up the stairs in a blind fury. She tries to attack Sephiroth, who wrestles the blade away from her with ease. He cuts Tifa down. The sound of his blade echoes as we see Tifa, in slow motion, fly backwards and land, crumpled, at the bottom of the stairs. Cloud runs into the room and stops, in shock. Sephiroth, carrying his sword, turns calmly and walks into Jenova's room. Cloud runs to Tifa and kneels by her.)
Tifa
"...You promised...
You promised that you'd come.... when I was in trouble..."
(Cloud picks up her up, gently, then carefully, tenderly, leans her
against one of the pods. He rushes up the stairs, after Sephiroth.)
phoenixgenesis@game-developer.com
Continue to Part 4 Scene 45