Tifa Lockhart

"People have many things pent up inside of themselves. So many things they can never forget. Strange, isn't it?"

- Tifa Lockhart

Tifa Lockhart is one of the main playable characters from the video-game Final Fantasy VII. She is the childhood friend of main protagonist Cloud Strife. Tifa was born in the town of Nibelheim along with Cloud but moved to the city of Midgar years prior to the game. Though she has expert hand to hand training she works mainly as a bar proprietor, this is just a cover however as the bar is the headquarters for the eco-terrorist group known as AVALANCHE. Like all members of AVALANCHE, Tifa has a supreme dislike of the Shinra Power and Electric company and is willing to do nearly anything to loose their hold on the world.

Sector 7
Tifa is first encountered by the player in the slums of Midgar's sector 7 after the first mission to blow up a Shinra Mako plant. Tifa is the owner of the bar "Seventh Heaven" which is used as a rally point for AVALANCHE. Tifa was the contact that refered Cloud to AVALANCHE's leader Barret Wallace. Upon reuniting with AVALANCHE to Seventh Heaven Cloud, unwinds at the bar with Tifa while Barret is doing the same with his daughter, Marlene and the other members, Jessie, Biggs and Wedge each grab drinks while they wait for the next mission. While it is established that Cloud is only in AVALANCHE for the pay and Barret is an environmental radical, Tifa is a member mainly because Shrina is oppressive the common man. Tifa has a secret basement access under a pinball machine in her bar and soon Barret organizes the team for their next mission for their attack on the sector 5 reactor. Cloud will insist on getting payed upfront before the next mission however Barret considers his price too high.Tifa manages to talk Cloud down slightly and Barret to up his payment slightly. Tifa announces she is coming with them to Sector 5's reactor.

Sector 5
AVALANCHE leaves the next day after a night's rest and travel to Sector 5. A security check forces Barret, Cloud and Tifa to jump the train and sneak in on foot while Jessie, Biggs and Wedge dawn disguises to evade Shinra forces. The three make their way through the subway tracks until they reach a power-station, the station leads to some ducts which take Cloud, Tifa and Barret too the Sector 5 Reactor. As with the first reactor, Cloud sets off the bomb but this time the three are met by President Shinra himself, who has flown in to see the terrorists himself. Cloud states that the President should know him as an ex-Soldier, Shinra's military however the President seems not to view Cloud as anything too impressive. Shortly after the confrontation President Shinra summons a massive security bot and ducts away while AVALANCHE deals with the robotic boss. Upon defeating the boss the catwalk is blown apart with it and Cloud is left just barely hanging on. Tifa tries to pull Cloud up but he falls to the lower slums beneath Midgar.

Retuniting with AVALANCHE

Cloud survives the fall thanks to a church roof, a bed of flowers and the nun, Aerith Gainsborough, who tends to his wounds and helps him make his way out of the slums. On their way out of the slums to the crime boss Don Conerio Cloud spies Tifa on the back of one of Don Conerio's transports. Cloud dresses-up as a woman and poses as a prospect for Conerio's prostitutes to sneak inside and meet up with Tifa. Tifa is overjoyed to see Cloud alive and well and greets Aerith as well. The tree make their way out of Don Conrio's manor and into the sewers. Once out of the sewers Tifa Cloud and Aerith cross an abandon train-yard on the edge of Sector 7 and make their way back to Seventh Heaven. Just north of the Sector 7 main district Cloud, Aerith and Tifa here gun shots from above them and see the other members of AVALANCHE fighting on the Sector Seven Pillar, the support beam for the city above. Tifa and Cloud need to go up to help Barret but Tifa asks Aerith to go to her bar and get Marlene to safety in case anything happens, Aerith agrees and Cloud and Tifa go up to save Barret. Along the way Cloud and Tifa find Jessie, Biggs and Wedge all laying dying on the stairs up, urging them go quickly and help Barret before he meets the same fate as them. Barret is on top fighting Reno, a Turk, one of Shinra's most elite agents. Cloud and Barret arrive just in time to back Barret up.

Reno activates a bomb for the Pillar and then engages Barret. Tifa and Cloud in combat. Though Reno is defeated he quickly flees when it looks like he might die. Cloud Barret and Tifa try to stop the countdown but can't. Reno's overseer, Tseng, passes by in a helecopter on his way to Midgar's upper level. Barret attempts to open fire but Cloud and Tifa stop him when they see Aeirth is in the chopper with him. Tseng had been trying to get his hands on Aeirth for Shinra for years and had finally had the chance when she was by herself outside of her home terrirtory. Aerith manages to tell Cloud and Tifa she was able to get Malene to safety but is quickly silenced by a less than obliging Tseng who slaps her mid-sentence. Tseng bids AVALANCHE goodbye and states that losing a section of the city is worth while price to keep AVALANCHE from continuing to blow-up Reactors especially since Shinra can just shift all blame to AVALANCHE for the attack. Tseng makes his get away with Aeirth and Cloud, Tifa and Barret are left to try to find a way off the Pillar and get to safety. Cloud finds a cable to use to swing down into the next sector and the three uses it to escape the Pilalr just moments before the blast.

Shinra HQ

Upon escaping the explostion Barret breaks down in a combination of fury and sorrow and having lost his home, his friends and his daughter. Tifa points out that Aerith had gotten caught because she was taking Marlene to saftey and soon the three go running off to Aerith's mother Elmyra to see if Marlene is there. Sure enough Marlene is safe with Elmyra. Barret thanks Elmyra for keeping his daughter safe and asks her to not only keep watching her but to get out of Midgar while is she can while they go to save Aerith. As Aerith had saved Cloud and Marlene all three remaining embers of AVALANCHE are committed to saving her from Shinra. Cloud makes his way to the Shinra HQ with Barret and Tida right behind him. Eventually they find Aerith in the hands of Shinra's head researcher Professor Hojo. Hojo collected a varetity of rare or one of a kind creatrures including the alien creature known as JENOVA, his most prize specimen, though Aerith appeared to be a close second. Hojo is fascinated by Aerith as the last of a civilization known as Cetra, often called Ancients. Hojo was trying to see how Aeritih faired with the creature he had dubbed Red XIII, a strange wild-cat-like creature that was also the last of it's kind. When Red X III looked like he might kill Aerith Hojo opens the containment untit to try to save her for his research but it is reveealed to be a trick by Red XIII who was only faking his attack to get Hojo concerned enough to let him and Aerith out. Aerith reunites with AVALANCHE and Red XIII asks to escape with them. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith and Red XIII begin makig their way out but are soon ambushed, brought into see President Shinra and soon tossed in holding cells.

After a rest Cloud will awaken to find the cell door is broken. He goes to unlock the other doors. AVALANCHE see blood and dead Shinra personnel everywhere and it is clear something tore the place apart. Leaving their cells soon reveals that JENVOA has escaped. Heading to President Shinra's office reveals that the President is dead, impaled by a sword. Cloud recognizes the sword as only able to be wielded by the legendary super Solider. Sephiroth, menaing Sephiroth had not only freed Jenova but personally killed the President. AVALANCHE finds that the President's son and vice-president, Rufus Shinra, was still alive considered himself the new president. Cloud, Tifa, Barret, Aerith and Red XIII all go to take on Rufus. Rufus soon finds AVALANCHE more than what he was prepared for and leaves via escape helicopter.

The Kalm before the Sephiroth
AVALANCHE escapes Shinra HQ and take them roads out of Midgar altogether. They head north to the small town of Kalm to regroup. While at the Kalm Inn Cloud tells AVALANCHE about his and Tifa's past in Nibelhiem. Cloud had just been assigned to attend to some monster who had broken out in the Nible Reactor and was sent there with small group of Soldiers, including Sephiroth. The team had hired Tifa as a guide up Mount Nible. Though they restored order Sephiroth had found that Shinra was growing monsters inside, monsters grown from the creature JENOVA, Sephiroth knew his mother was named JENOVA and soon realized he was a monsterous humanoid. Sephitoth had broken into Shinra manor in Nibelhiem, former research center of Professor Hojo. Sephiroth had found notes fro Professors Hojo and Gast on the full nature of JENOVA and her spawn and had a mental breakdown, seeing himself not as a monster but a messiah of JENOVA. Sephiroth made his intentions clear by burning down Niblehiem and killing as many people as he could find. When Tifa saw her family and teacher killed she went to find and kill Sephiroth. Even though Cloud knew it was suicide to go up agaisnt Sephiroth he couldn't let TIfa go alone. Cloud's memory fails him as to how he and Tifa had survived the encounter but they had and made their way out of the wreckage of Nibelhiem. Cloud left Soldier and became a mercinary. Tifa left to go fight Shinra in their home city of Midgar and Barret and the others knew the rest of the story.

With Sephiroth alive and well and JENOVA on the lose AVALANCHE's prioritizes going after them instead of Shinra. Tifa is all too happy to make Sephiroth pay as is Cloud, Barret Aerith and Red XIII are in favor of the idea because Sephiroth had proven himself as a one-man army even more dangerous than Shinra. After their stay in Kalm, AVALANCHE begins it's new mission, to find and defeat Sephiroth.

Personality
Tifa is Cloud's closest friend. She is the main love interest for Cloud. It take tremendous effort from the player to get Tifa to be anything but enamored with Cloud. Tifa is a simple mountain girl but all to happy to resort to violence. She has had extensive hand-tohand training from her sensei Zangan. Thoguh Zangan died in the fire at Nibelhiem Tifa has never forgotten the focus and discipline Zangan instilled in her. Though Tifa is very in touch with her emotion she is not a slave to them and can repress and or refocus her anger, sorrow and fear into every single one of her attacks. Even if Cloud chooses Aerith as his love interest Tifa doesn't take it personally and stoically steps aside for the two though she clearly still has feelings for Cloud. If the player takes the romantic options for Tifa completely the two become more than just best friends they are strongly implied to become lovers. In Advent Children and the FFVIII Ultimania, it is confirmed that the two of them become lovers and are currently engaged(evidenced by the rings on their fingers).