Disclaimer: I own no rights to Final Fantasy 7 or it's characters.

Summary: Takes place not long after Aeris dies, but what if instead of continuing the fight for the planet, Cloud almost gives up on life to wallow in misery?

AN: Slight or major OOC content, you decide how much.

Resurrection

There was a knock on the door but the occupant didn't respond. The person doing the knocking tried again, but to no avail. This person was none other then Tifa Lockheart, Cloud's childhood friend, the very person within the room that she has been trying to get into.

"Cloud, c'mon, you have to get over her sometime."

"No I don't. Now, go away!" came the muffled response

"No, now let me in!" Tifa said, for she desired to help him to get over Aeris, but he didn't let anyone get anywhere near him, especially her.

He just lay on his bed, door locked, drapes closed completely, blocking out all manner of light, not caring about who came by trying to help him. He just lay there, thinking about…her. It seemed to everyone else like he never did anything at all anymore –which was true- but when your thoughts consist of only one person who had brought you out of your dark place, the dark world that had imprisoned you for so long you almost forgot what living was really like, and then to have it all stripped away…well, to say the least, throws your world out the window, or at least the world that you knew.

Ever since that day, Cloud had done nothing but lay in his bed, in some backwater city. Sephiroth was still at large, but did he care? No. Meteor was still going to strike, but did he care? No. The world as they knew it, was going to be destroyed, but did he care. No.

His whole reason for living had been stripped away from him as quickly as it had been given to him. If he had no reason to live, why should anybody else? He found many things wrong with that question, but he let it go, as it seemed like the world rested on his shoulders because the planet and everything else on it needed him to survive.

Well, if he was going to save the world, he was going to need something to look forward to, someone to share the rest of his life with, and he had lost her. Gone was his strength, his resolve, his will to live. His very living presence in the bed that he was in was a total hell for him.

The memories of her seemed to haunt his every conscious and unconscious moment, giving him extreme agony, misery, and his own personal level of hell, as if the devil was staring him right in eyes and stabbing him with his red, pointed pitchfork.

As Tifa continued to beat on his door, he couldn't hear it, he was too busy hating himself for not being strong enough to reach her in time and save her, and hating Sephiroth for raining in from above with his sword, and stabbing her, and too busy wallowing in misery of all stages.

----------------------

Tifa growled in frustration as she gave up on the door and slumped against it, trying to regain her lost breath from yelling, and trying to break the door down.

"Damn it, Cloud, why did you have to go and do this of all things?" Tifa questioned, obviously not expecting - nor getting – an answer, she decided to give up for the day, and headed back to her own room of the hotel they were in.

Unknown to her, however, she had someone watching her, and this person was watching Cloud as well, and wished she could take pity on him. She couldn't however, as she had no physical body anymore.

"Are you sure I can't go back?" the watcher asked.

"I'm sorry, but there's just no way" a voice answered.

"But you see how much he's suffering, and-"

"Anyone thing could be making him suffer, and-" however, the voice was interrupted as Cloud called out for Aeris.

"Okay, okay, you were right."

"So?" Aeris asked.

"Alright, but you'll have to be more careful with this body, you won't get another one, which means no more self-sacrifices."

"Yes, mom." was all Aeris could say before she disappeared.

"Goodbye, Aeris" Ifalna said. "I hope you take good care of him" was all she said before her daughter disappeared completely from sight.

---------------------

"Aeris…Aeris…"he said as he continued to cry into his pillow. He didn't hear someone knocking softly on his door, until they cried out, "Cloud, open the door."

He didn't believe what he was hearing, he thought that it was only a figment of his painfully scarred imagination playing a trick on him, then he heard it again. He ran to the door, and slammed it open, almost not believing his eyes, as standing before him was the very thing he was just crying for.

"Cloud, I am really here" she said to him. His eyes widened, as he stared at her, until he rushed forward and embraced her and buried himself in her chest and did nothing but cry.

After several minutes, she led him back inside his room, and closed the door. She then led him to the bed, and sat down on it, allowing himself to be led by her. After several minutes, he finally said something, "You're really here?"

"Yes."

"A-and you're not going to disappear?"

"I promise" and with that he pulled back and wrapped his arms around her neck and pulled her into a long, passionate kiss. After several minutes, they reluctantly parted for much needed air. And he pulled her into another embrace.

He then whispered in her ear, "I love you, Aeris, and I never want to part from you again."

"I love you too, Cloud" she said as he slipped into unconsciousness.