"…Tifa…" Cloud started speaking while the darkness surrounded them.

"Why don't you love me Cloud?" Tifa asked; her voice was so sad and so angered. This wasn't something she thought she'd ever have to speak to Cloud about.

Two years ago, they defeated Sephiroth in the northern cave, and the planet used the Lifestream as a weapon to destroy meteor, and it left behind the part of Sephiroth that had tainted the Lifestream… the Star-Syndrome, more commonly referred to as "Geostigma." Cloud had it, and Tifa was angry that he caught it, suffered, and left without saying a word, he stopped helping her in the bar and left his office to live with orphans, having his cell phone on at all times incase someone wanted him to make a few deliveries. The children who suffered from Geostigma were missing, and Cloud found Tifa in Aeris' flower bed, very injured… and he too passed out in the church, and awoke in a bed next to her, Denzel and Marlene's twin beds to be exact. Once she woke up, Cloud resisted going after the kids… it was the same place… the same case as he'd lost Aeris… he couldn't do it again.

"Dammit Cloud, answer me!" Tifa yelled at him. She was letting her fists hit the bed over and over again while she was yelling at Cloud.

Cloud looked at her and moved away from her, "Do you know my mother's name?"

Tifa was very confused, very lost by what he just asked, "No… but that's because-"

"Because we never were friends," Cloud interrupted. "You fell in love with me because I was the last boy to leave Nibelhiem. That was all; I was the boy next door to you."

"What does that mean? Of course you meant a lot to me, we were childhood friends… Why Cloud? Why is it that I lost out to a memory? Aeris is gone…"

Cloud turned toward her, his magnetic blue eyes were intensely unhappy with what she had just said. His pupils shifted into Sephiroth's shape, and he collapsed to the floor, clutching his left arm. He gritted his teeth and gasped for air. "Help me…" he whispered in his mind. Tifa was trying to come near him, but a voice beat her to him.

"Go to the kids… I'm waiting for you there."

"Aeris?" Cloud asked, opening his eyes and feeling his pain stop, as instantly as it had come on. Tifa was holding onto his shoulders when he opened his eyes again. He pulled away from her and stood up. His eyes looked down on her, "I wanted to love you, but you cast me aside… Aeris was there for me when I needed her… and saved me from who I was becoming… how could anyone beat that?"

And Cloud left… he and Tifa exchanged glances after that, but they didn't speak to each other. Then Cloud faced Sephiroth the final time, and died shortly after the battle, flowing down, faster and faster, heading toward the ground with his eyes closed. He felt a familiar touch on his forehead, curing his wounds once again like had happened before to rid him of his Geostigma. He'd felt that same strength merge with him so he could defeat Sephiroth before… he spoke the wrong name, but it was the same feeling… "Mother?"

"Again? How many times are you going to call me mother?" Aeris asked loudly and playfully.

"They're fond of you," a male voice next to her spoke.

"I'm very fond of this one too…" Aeris admitted, "Too bad he place isn't here."

"Tough luck Cloud, looks like it's not your time to join us," the male next to Aeris said, and then Cloud awoke, in the church, in the same position he had before, this time in water, and with the children holding him.

Once the Geostigma was gone from the planet, Cloud and Tifa looked at each other again and she smiled at him, telling him with her eyes she was so proud of him. He smiled back slightly, feeling the children tugging on him and howling with excitement to no longer be in pain. Everyone looked so thrilled except for Vincent, who stood solemn all the time. Cloud smiled at everyone, looking through the church at everyone who saw their children no longer suffering.

Then the room grew silent, and everything felt like it was slow motion… there was Aeris, kneeling with some children talking to them. She stood up and turned away, walking out the doorway of the church, next to Zack who was watching her loyally as always.

Cloud stared at her in shock, his face growing more and more surprised while he looked at her. She turned around and looked at him… she was as beautiful as he remembered, her eyes still intense and loving, and her delicate features so elegant and priceless. "You're all right now, aren't you?" Aeris said with a smile and then walked out of the church and into the bright lights where she disappeared with Zack following along behind her.

The next day, Tifa had some flowers in front of a new picture they had took at the church and rested it on Cloud's table next to the previous picture. Cloud looked at the picture behind her. "It looks good there."

Tifa turned around quickly, "Oh! Cloud, you scared me!"

"I do that a lot, do I?" Cloud asked, but his tone was still very neutral.

"Cloud… we need to talk," Tifa told him.

Cloud took a seat and looked at her. "I guess so."

"Cloud…" Tifa started, "I didn't mean to be offensive with what I said about Aeris."

"I know what you meant Tifa," Cloud assured her. "But I need to tell you… I spent these two years hoping that maybe one day something would happen between the two of us, hoping maybe I'd get over Aeris, and stop thinking about her."

"You're never going to stop thinking about her, she was too important to you," Tifa interjected.

Cloud smiled at her, "You're right… very right. No matter how hard I tried, I kept feeling her touch, smelling her hair, feeling her skin… remembering her…" Cloud decided to stop there, he didn't want to hurt Tifa with how much closer he had been with Aeris then he had ever been with Tifa.

Tifa just looked at him, she sighed deeply, "I went to Aeris' hotel room that night… I know she wasn't there, and you weren't in yours either. I know about your date."

Cloud sighed deeply in response, "What else do you know then?"

"I know she spent the night in your hotel room," Tifa told him, but she wasn't sure if she was right or not.

Cloud chuckled slightly, "Must have been someone else… because we ended the night after the date."

Tifa felt bad and she blushed, "I didn't mean to accuse you…"

Cloud shook his head, "Don't even think twice about it Tifa." Cloud stood up and looked at the picture and smiled at it, but something was missing, and those flowers… flowers don't grow in Midgar. Cloud held up the flowers and showed them to Tifa, "Where did you find these?"

Tifa looked at them for a moment, "They just turned up at the bar this morning, they said to put them in your office. It came with a card addressed to you, but I didn't read it."

Cloud came toward her, while she reached into her frontal pockets and handed him the card. He didn't recognize the hand writing. He opened it quietly and quickly and read the contents. "Cloud, it's all over now… can you take a trip and come find me?"

Cloud looked up and looked at Tifa, he moved toward her and seized her rapidly and kissed her cheek and put her down and snatched up his keys to the Fenrir.

"Cloud, what are you doing?" Tifa asked seeing him heading toward the door.

Cloud turned back, putting on his goggles and adjusting them to fit his face and he smiled at her, "I'm going on a vacation. Let me know who needs me and tell them I'll be delivering again next month."

"But where are you going?" Tifa asked, starting to come toward him, still taken aback but him kissing her.

Cloud sighed slightly, "I don't know yet… but I'm going, right now… and I'll be doing deliveries again in a month or so."

Cloud left the bar then and came outside into the bright sun and climbed on his motorcycle and started to head down the open road, listening to music while he was going. He wasn't losing sight of his objective… Aeris was waiting for him… In her words "I'll Come Back When It's Over."