(Okay, *insert standard disclaimer here* I don't own them, okay? In fact, I don't even like Cloud a whole heck of a lot. They'll not be challenged by me. I'd also like to take this moment to point out that this fic is a useless cliché that's hardly worth reading, except that maybe it's a type of abridged version -_-;; I feel the strange need to put it here anyway. It's old, it's awful, and feel free to hit the back button any time you so desire. Maybe go so far as to toss a doggy cookie into my holding cell as you leave ^_~())
The Highwind floated lightly against the silvery night. So easy it was to misunderstand. So easy it was to assume Aeris had given her life for nothing. But standing alone on the deck, Cloud understood her purpose perfectly. She had to return to the planet when she did. Perhaps it was the Planet, and not Jenova, that had sent Sephiroth to the altar. The planet knew and understood that the young Cetra had to die. If she had not been with the lifestream short hours before, Meteor would not have stopped at destroying Midgar. The entire planet would be destroyed by this point had Aeris not brought the life stream to aid the spell of the white materia.
Despite his understanding, Cloud's heart ached over the loss of Aeris. It the planet had been destroyed, he would have been also, and perhaps then he would be with Aeris. A small hope to cling to. And at that it was a large what if, for Meteor was gone now.
Cloud looked longingly at the land, almost a mile below him. It would be so easy to end his life now. But he knew he could not. He knew he loved Aeris, and regardless of the necessity of her death, Cloud felt in his heart that it had been a scar that would never heal. But as much as he loved Aeris, he could not be with her in the lifestream. To die in such a manner would be a coward's answer. He couldn't die out of sorrow. Not after so many had laid down their lives in front of Sephiroth and Meteor. To let himself die now would disrespect those who had lost their lives unwillingly.
Aeris had been chosen by the planet to save it. Out of necessity she had been chosen, for there were no others that could accomplish the task she had been charged with. Her life had been ended so young, so quickly at the hand of Sephiroth, but there was no escaping the past. And there was no changing the inevitable.
The land below was familiar, between Midgar and Kalm. Cloud easily picked out the exact steps he had taken with Aeris when they had first left Midgar. He remembered more than clearly the conversation. He remembered Aeris explaining her fear of leaving the desolate city for the first time she could remember. All as if it had happened just a few minutes ago, not the months which separated those first few steps from where they were now.
Cloud had sworn vengeance against Sephiroth for what he had done to Aeris, and now Sephiroth was dead, he died by Clouds doing. And still, the pain he was so certain would be gone with Sephiroth's death remained sharp and insistent. Cloud should have protected Aeris from the start; instead he had left her to run into the sleeping forest by herself. It had been too late to save her when he finally found her. And Cloud blamed himself for this more than he blamed Sephiroth for killing Aeris.
Cloud unwillingly let a tear slip from his eye. He blinked hard to prevent more from following the first, as he struggle to understand all that had happened. What had happen between then and now? What had happened between his whole life and now? But the answer to that was simple. He had met Aeris. She had changed his life, and changed it again with her departure.
He shook his head violently. He didn't need to think about Aeris. The more he tried to understand the more everything seemed more complicated than it had before. He walked through the doors leading him inside the Highwind. He couldn't let himself sit in memories. He had to look to the future, a future with his friends, with AVALANCHE. After all that had happened, he didn't belong with Aeris, no matter how much love he had for her. His place had already been created with the friends who would stand by him until the end of his own life.