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Nibelheim is a calm, peaceful town that rests at the base of the Nibel mountains. This is where both Tifa and Cloud were born and raised. As a kid, Tifa was the popular type; she'd always hang out with these three boys and they'd go around laughing at "every single stupid thing": which was only natural, considering they were kids, and kids are supposed to be immature. However, Cloud, who, no matter how much he wanted to play with the other kids, was never allowed in the group, didn't seem to like them much. Coming to the conclusion that he wasn't nor would he ever be like them, he saw them all as idiots.
Still, he'd watch Tifa and her friends from a distance. He liked her and wanted to be noticed by her, but, unfortunately for him, she was always "too busy with her own problems". Though he had never actually been to her room, he knew it well enough, as he'd peek inside as often as he could. He was an anti-social, a loner, so he would just follow her and her friends everywhere, always keeping a distance and never actually trying to approach her (it wasn't as though as he was allowed in the group, anyway).
One fateful day, when she was around seven, Tifa's mother passed away. It was a terrible day for her. Once again and as usual, her friends were with her in her room, but their shallow talking didn't seem to succeed at cheering her up this time, for she was feeling real pain for the first time. One of her friends saw Cloud approaching the house and told the others about it, but Tifa didn't care. She couldn't stand it anymore, she wanted to see her mother again. So she left the house and went to Mt. Nibel, followed by her three fellows and, of course, Cloud.
It was said that nobody had ever made it alive to the other side of the mountains. However, Tifa, willing to see her mother (and believing she could be on the other side), decided to go anyway. But this seemed to be too much for her cowardly friends to take, so they just ran away, leaving her alone to face the danger by herself. On the other hand, Cloud, who had watched it all happen, decided to go after her.
Tifa suddenly missed her step, and Cloud couldn't make it in time to save her. They both fell off the mountain, but if Cloud barely got injured, Tifa, on the other hand, went into a seven days coma, which the former was obviously blamed for, by both himself and everybody else in town, except Tifa herself. He then went completely insane; he'd get into fights "at the drop of a hat", not caring about who it was or the reason he actually did it. This is when he first heard about Sephiroth; The Great Sephiroth. He thought that if he could make it into SOLDIER and become a hero as well, even Tifa would have to notice him. So, one night, he asked her to meet him at the well. She was pretty surprised, and, after waiting for a long time, Cloud was starting to believe she would never show up.
But she did. Cloud announced to her that he was going to leave Nibelheim for Midgar, to join SOLDIER. Tifa asked if he'd be on the newspapers if he did well, and he replied he'd try. She then suggested they could make a promise; whenever she was in trouble, her hero, Cloud, would come and rescue her. He eventually agreed. And this is how 14-year-old Cloud left his humble hometown to go after his dream, not knowing he already had Tifa's heart.
For two long years, Tifa checked the newspaper everyday, hoping Cloud would be on it. She wanted him to come back, and would gladly wait for as long as needed. She started taking piano lessons and learning martial arts. The son of the owner of Nibelheim's General Store even developed a crush on her, but she wanted Cloud. Only Cloud.
However, Cloud never made it into SOLDIER, and was too embarrassed to go back to Nibelheim, afraid that Tifa (and everybody else, as a matter of fact) would laugh at his face. One day, though, Sephiroth and Zack, a First Rank SOLDIER (also Aerith's first boyfriend), had to go check the Nibelheim Reactor due to some malfunctioning. Tifa heard about this, and immediately offered herself to be their guide, hoping Cloud would be with them. And he was, but as an "unnamed guard" (he was the one "taking care" of Tifa outside the Reactor; remember?). She didn't recognize him and he didn't show his true identity to her, so, all along, she never knew he had been there.
Well, after his first visit to the Reactor, Sephiroth decides to research on Jenova and the Cetra. After a long period of time locked in the basement at the ShinRa Mansion doing so, he comes to the (wrong) conclusion that his mother is Jenova, a Cetra, meaning he is the rightful heir of the Planet, and goes mad. He sets the town on fire and heads to the Reactor to go get Jenova, his "Mother", so they can go and find the Cetra's Promised Land together. Tifa, who manages to survive, follows him to the Reactor and goes crazy when she finds her father's dead body laying on the floor next to Sephiroth's sword. She takes the sword and attempts to murder its owner, but he's older, stronger, and way more skilled, and ends up slashing her across the chest, hurting her pretty badly.
Zack then arrives and attempts to kill Sephiroth as well, but once again the "bad guy" wins and Zack, too, gets badly injured. This is when Cloud comes in, extremely mad at Sephiroth for destroying his town, killing his mother, and hurting Tifa. He takes Zack's Buster Sword, follows Sephiroth to the Jenova room, and attacks him. Then, he goes back and takes a dying Tifa out of the way. Sephiroth, who was quite surprised when Cloud attacked him, comes out of the Jenova room as well, and Zack then asks Cloud to murder him. This time around, he actually does so.
A few moments after this all happens, Zangan, Tifa's Martial Arts instructor, who had also followed Sephiroth to the Reactor to murder him, finds Tifa injured and takes her out of the Reactor, continuously casting Cure spells on her. But this won't be enough for her to survive, and he realizes he must take her to a hospital in Midgar: as he put it himself, he "didn't like the city, but there was no way he could let his best student die".
On his way out of the Reactor, Zangan comes across Hojo and some ShinRa soldiers, but, concentrated on Tifa's bad health condition, doesn't give it much thought. So, what happens next to Cloud and Zack, left injured inside the Reactor? In a nutshell, Hojo takes them for some experiments involving Jenova cells infusion at the ShinRa mansion. They later manage to escape, but Cloud is still very weak due to what Hojo has done to him, which leads Zack to take care of him and become his "protector".
Cloud's vegetative condition is so bad, he can't even speak. Zack, willing to bring him back to normal, starts telling him stories about his own life, hoping one time he will react and say something. One day, five years later, ShinRa manages to find them, and Zack dies protecting Cloud. When the soldiers see him (Cloud) and become aware of his condition, they conclude he's probably just another one of Hojo's failed experiments and leave him behind, along with Zack's Buster Sword.
Cloud finally re-gains consciousness, but is still pretty confused: his memories are blurred and so is his mind overall, so he just takes Zack's sword and assumes his identity along with his memories (which he was aware of due to Zack telling him those stories about his life), which get mixed up with his own. One way or another, he makes it to Midgar's station at Sector 7, and Tifa finds him. After a while, she finally recognizes him and asks, "My God, how long has it been...?". This is when Cloud, who has obviously seen Tifa in Nibelheim back when Sephiroth goes mad, says "Five years". However, and as far as Tifa knows, it has been seven years since the last time she has seen him. Worried, and willing to spend more time with him to find out whether this man really is "the" Cloud (since he "knows things he shouldn't know, and doesn't remember things he should remember"), she tells him about the AVALANCHE mission.
And this is where Final Fantasy 7 begins, with Cloud going on a mission to blow up the No.1 Reactor with AVALANCHE. As for the rest, if you want to know how the story ends, simply play the game and beat it. Trust me, it's a lot more fun that way.
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