"Let's talk this over."

Aeris stared furiously at her reflection. The delicate girl looking back seemed so content, so happy. Well, she was far from it. Everything was gone, yet she remained here. Repeating all the phrases they've exchanged in her mind...

"It's not like we're dead."

She vaguely remembers the dream from last night, how a thin blade ran through her slender body. It was quick. And in her final moments, she had lifted her head to smile at him, only receiving a cold glance in return...

"Was it something I did?"

Aeris frowned a bit, remembering how he dropped through the ceiling, fleeing from something. It gave her a scare, but that was the best thing that's ever happened to her in her life. It seemed so planned out, him and her...

"Was it something you said?"

She erases her frown, growing a soft smile in place of that. She nods a bit, remembering how soft his voice was when he told the stories of his past. Horrifying, terrible stories. Yet he choked out every word, but reluctantly...

"Don't leave me hanging in a city so dead."

Where was he now? Was he, perhaps, still running around, looking for a job? Or, maybe, he settled for something better. Better than a bodyguard. Better than a part of AVALANCHE. Better than the life he led before this...

"Held up so high on such a breakable thread."

Perhaps he had found another girl. Well, it's not like he had to look too far. Tifa. She was perfect. Beautiful, strong, nurturing... Yeah, that's it. He had settled for a life with Tifa. Who knows where he'd be by now...

"You were all the things I thought I knew,"

Did he have any children? Were they married? She had learned the hard way that life's no fairy tale, but their destinies were so entwined in each other's, there's no way anyone could break that. No one... Not her...

"And I thought we could be..."

She must admit that the thought tore her apart. She loved him, in the short amount of time they had spent together. Everything about him. His smile, his voice, the way he covered up the man he truly was...

"You were everything, everything, that I wanted."

Aeris didn't care if he was a monster inside. He had everything she had been searching for. Every night, she'd secretly wish that they could be together, for just a while, before the planet beckons them back...

"We were meant to be, supposed to be, but we lost it..."

A flower girl, an ex-SOLDIER. They weren't the perfect match made in heaven. But how he made her feel, it was better than being rescued, better than watching her flowers bloom, better than anything else...

"All of the memories so close to me, just fade away..."

She smiles a bit sadly at her reflection. She had been fooling herself all along. His heart never belonged to her. But if it were up to her, she would hold him once more... Aeris laughs, shaking her head a bit.

"All this time you were pretending, so much for my happy ending."

Nevermind. It was all over now. Whatever emotions that still lingered, they will die with time. The flowers will die, people will die. They all return to the planet. But the innocent passion they shared briefly, it will only return to her heart, to be shattered again.