Disclaimer: The characters, events, settings and storyline of Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square-Enix, not me. I know this so please don't sue. I'm just borrowing them. Also, in order to appreciate the full impact of this story, since I can no longer post lyrics, I would recommend listening to "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers. Sankoo!
It had been exactly one year, six months, three days, six hours, nine breaths and fifteen beats of a badly broken heart since he had left. He was a special man, endowed with the privelege of having known not only one, but two beautiful angels in his lifetime. One he had grown with, spent countless hours and shared his hopes and dreams with. In return she gave him her undying faith in all that he was and all that he could be. Thus betwixt this exchange, a bond out of familiarity blossomed under the endless sky, and the angel came to fall deeply in love with this ambitious young man.
Further down the road, when this same man had seemingly captured all his hopes and dreams and kept them in a jar, he stumbled upon the second angel, the one who would save his slowly corrupting soul. She wrapped him in her warm smile and the scent of flowers, with the promise of even more wonderful things to come. He enjoyed her simple soul and the possibility of the world beyond the stars where he declared he would take her. He wanted to return the angel back to the Heavens.
This fancy would come to fruition, but by means that were completely unexpected and not in the same context that the hopeful man played in his mind.
He remembered it clear as day how he had awoken from the premonisive dream sweating and shivering, searching for the tiny flower girl and hoping to find her still within the confines of his safety. When he realized that the dream had been more of an omen than a nightmare, he chased down his crazy angel, only to watch her fall before his own horrified and helpless eyes. He was there to watch as his mortal enemy stuck his sword through the abdomen of the woman he loved as if it were a toothpick entering a tray of freshly-baked brownies.
Cloud had left not long after the meteor incident. He originally had gone back to Nibelheim with the angel with eyes the color of summer's finest merlot, and professed that he loved her so. But after a few months of pointlessly playing at a love he knew he could not truly reciprocate, he owned up to his true feelings and told her that he felt it within his very soul. That he knew that the other angel had not really past beyond his reach. She smiled sadly at him and let him go, wishing him the best in finding that light which had shone so brightly in his eyes.
It was true, in the beginning, she cried until she felt as if her eyes themselves would come out. She bawled endlessly for days and nights, wishing no longer to live. Thinking that if she could not have him, then life itself was not worth living. It was only in her darkest of moments that she found another reason to carry on.
She had stood atop one of the highest precipices on Mount Nibel, sobbing and crying out to no one at all. She had yelled her misery to the wintery winds, and had confessed her every fiber was breaking without her blonde-haired, blue-eyed hero to rescue her. She screamed to the uncaring abyss how it was here and now that she needed him most. It was this instance in which she needed the salvation that he had promised her so long ago. He had not fufilled his childhood promise to her. She had always needed in part to save herself as well. And now that he was the only thing in this world that could save her, he was off, trying to save someone who could no longer even breathe. Someone who was so far beyond salvation, that it was a waste of time. Someone dead. Unlike her, so alive, so still full of life left to save. And where was he now?
That was once upon a time in Tifa Lockheart's book.
It had been exactly one year, six months, three days, six hours, nine breaths and fifteen beats of a badly broken heart before the man she used to love would waltz back into her life, only to find that there was no place left for him.