He thought it would be easier the third time around, but it wasn't.

Sephiroth.

Cloud had killed this man, his once-hero, for the third time today. It wasn't easy. Sephiroth was, even at Cloud's current level, still just an incredible opponent. Perfect, Hojo had called him. Cloud found it hard to disagree with the lunatic.

Sephiroth was perfect.

Still, Cloud always defeated him. Three gaia-forsaken times, he'd beaten this man. How? He was good, yes, but Sephiroth was quicker, stronger, had better range..yet Cloud ALWAYS won. Tifa said it was because good always beat evil, but Cloud wasn't so sure about that.

Sephiroth hadn't always been like this, he wasn't always crazy. Maybe there was still something there, a part of the man he once was, buried beneath the surface? A part that would stall the crazy Sephiroth, and give Cloud the opportunity to take his strike?

Cloud thought on this, hopefully. He truly wanted to believe it, that maybe the man he'd idolized for most of his young life had once been a good man, and not have always been the monster he had become.

That once, Sephiroth had truly been a hero.

At that, he thought of Zack, and Aerith. Hot liquid built up and splilt forth from his unnaturally blue eyes, and dripped down his filthy face.

He had seen them, in the church. As perfect and bright as he remembered them. They had been there, Aerith bent down speaking to one of the children, and Zack, leaning lazily against the frame of the front door of the church. They both looked to him, all smiles and waves. Cloud had been shocked. He'd wanted to reach out to them, hug them both tightly. But before he could do any such thing they were gone with a smile and a wave, through the sun-lit church door.

Cloud wanted to go with them. He longed to be with his friends again, to see again all those who had been lost in the fight against Sephiroth. He wanted to rest, finally, within the gentle embrace of the lifestream.

Cloud chuckled through his tears, knowing better. He would never be able to rest, not ever. Who knew if Sephiroth would once again find a way back to the world of the living? Would he be able to live with himself if the man did find a way back, and with no one to stop him, killed every living thing on gaia? Could Cloud sit there, and watch, unable to stop anything?

No, no he could not. It would be like watching Zack die all over again. Like finding his mother dead and his whole town burning. It would be like watching Sephiroth run Aerith through with Masamune, all over again. He just couldn't.

So, Cloud would live. He would live, and fight, until he could be completely sure Sephiroth would never return.

Then, he would rest.

For now though, he would cry. He would cry for Aerith, and for Zack. He would cry for all that died in the war, and he would cry for all those who had been left alone because of said war. He would cry for those that suffered at the hands of Hojo, experiemented on for the "Advancement of Science."

Last, but not least, he would cry for Sephiroth. A man who was lied to about who he was and where he came from, the greatest victim of the JENOVA project. A man who had everything and nothing, and lost it all to lies and deceit. In comparison to Sephiroth, Cloud felt almost lucky.

When Cloud had gotten mako poisoning from all the experiments Hojo had put him through, he'd had Zack. When he'd been forced to give Sephiroth the black materia, he'd had his party there to support him afterward. When he'd for a second time gotten mako poisoning and washed up at mideel, Tifa had been there to help him. All along the way, Cloud had people, had friends. He'd had his mother, too.

Who had Sephiroth had?

Hojo? The man was a monster, to do such things to his own son. Genesis? The man had completely lost his mind, and had been incredibly hateful towards the silver general. Angeal? Zack was forced to kill him, which had left a terrible mark on the dark-haired man's soul. Zack was there to help him, but in all honesty they really didn't know each other, did they? So what could Zack have really done?

Nothing.

Sephiroth had been all alone. No mother, no father, no friends. There was no one on his side, no one to really pull him back from the edge. Most people didn't really treat him like a human being. He was Sephiroth, the demon of wutai, great general of the Shinra army. He was a war machine, not a human. No wonder he'd gone insane. Enough alienation and misinformation could drive anyone to insanity.

So that is why Cloud decided he would also cry for Sephiroth, because truthfully, there was no one else that would.