Fields of overgrown grass sprawled across the horizon as far as the eye could see. The only disturbance to the natural landscape was a paved road which disjointed the east and the west. A breeze pushed the amber-crowned blades of grass in a unison direction. Tethered cotton balls lay lazily in a cyan sky as they recreationally fattened with moisture. Increasingly growing in volume, the sound of a disgruntled motorcycle impeded upon the undisturbed air. The black vehicle swung down the road and continued on into the distance in a flash.

Cloud revved the engine of the Fenrir, curling his firm grip on the handlebars forward until he reached a favorable speed. The throb of incarnate freedom broke over his face with the wind in his hair and an open road before him. He had been riding all day across the empty highway, and the sun was just starting to shift into its pink shade as it approached the ground in the west. After today, he would have about half a day left of traveling until he reached the field. Then maybe the answers would reveal themselves.

Something that Cloud never failed to enjoy about his beloved motorcycle was the clarity it gave to his cluttered thoughts. He could never squander nor be unappreciative of the concern of his friends and family, but being alone every once in a while gave him some cherished time to sort out everything that might be confounding him. The church was his time alone with Aerith. His Fenrir was his time alone with himself, and on this day, it offered him the chance to reflect on the days that forever changed him.

When Barret and Tifa made a combined effort to coerce Cloud into continuing his service to AVALANCHE for a promise of two thousand gil, he had been sure that he wasn't going to get himself too involved. The battle with Airbuster was going to be his last, that is, until a fateful landing brought him crashing through a roof. One thing just led to another. Somehow, he got himself emotionally attached to everything. Maybe it was his hatred for Sephiroth that was exhumed when he saw the masamune standing stiffly through President Shinra's back. Or maybe it was his feelings for ... someone else. Either way, destiny carried him to a destination he never could've imagined the day he agreed to help bomb the mako reactor. All those battles. All those travels. All those moments of fear: when Cait Sith agreed to give his stuffed body in order to get the Black Materia. Everyone was scared for him, especially Aerith. But she always had her ways of cheering people up, even in the darkest of situations...

"Why don't you read our fortunes?" she suggested. She plastered an encouraging smile on her face, her eyes swimming with empathy for their companion-- even though he was a spy. The crowned robot cat hopped up and down on the stuffed moogle's head in response to her optimism.

"Say, that's right... I haven't done it in a while, huh? I'm so excited. Right or wrong, I'm still the same ol' me. Now, what should I predict?" Aerith clapped her hands together in thought. She hurried over to Cloud, and tightly hugged his elbow with her arms.

"Let's see how compatible Cloud and I am!" she said, vivacity in her elated tone. Cloud blushed furiously, but he quickly shook himself free of it. Aerith was just being playful, that was all. She was just trying to clear Cait Sith's doubts. She only thought of them as friends, nothing more. Even though he could've sworn she felt differently on the gondola, he assured himself that Aerith would never think of him that way. Friends. That was all. She was just having fun.

"Okay, here I go!" Cait Sith did his usual fortune-telling dance, waddling himself back and forth as he rhythmically lifted and lowered his paddle-like feet while keeping his heels glued to the ground. "Oh, no... Poor Tifa," he mumbled. "I can't say it. This isn't good." Aerith stubbornly rushed up to Cait Sith in protest.

"No! Tell me! I promise I won't get mad!"

"Is that so? Then I'll tell you. Looks good. You are perfect for each other! Aerith's star and Cloud's star! They show a great future! Cloud, I'll be your matchmaker, your preacher... I'll do whatever you want me to! Just call me when it all happens!" The words replayed on a loop through Cloud's head, and he couldn't break the cycle. Perfect for each other... a great future... Cloud, I'll be your matchmaker... your preacher... He had to stop thinking of these things. 'Friends,' he reminded himself with a quick nod. Why was it that he was even allowing these things to permeate his thoughts? When was it that he even started caring?

At the inception of that journey, he was the blase ex-SOLDIER, Cloud, who was only on the lookout for himself. Yet, before the battle's end, he found himself experiencing the darkest depravity of hatred, the maddening loss of who he was, and the kind of pain you can only fathom when that which is most precious to you is violently taken away, and it was all derivative of his excessive sentimental involvement. Perhaps that was why he always found comfort in a reclusive life where he didn't have to worry about caring too much, but it left him awfully lonely.

It had been a battle of uncertainty, of lost dreams, of last hope against the omnipotent enemy. But Cloud fought it for more than just that. He carried himself through it for a clandestine memory that he kept safe inside his own mind during all the battles. He kept it safe all of that time, and he was afraid of losing it now...? No, he was afraid of losing her. But his memories of Aerith and Aerith herselfas a part of him... were they one in the same?

Cloud pulled over to the side of the road for a moment. The Fenrir purred softly as it awaited Cloud's permission to continue onwards. He looked out at the sunset. The orange and pink colors glowing through the translucent clouds looked much darker than they actually were through the black tint of his sunglasses. So as to appreciate the beauty of the sky better, he pushed his sunglasses up the bridge of his nose, and allowed them to rest atop his head.

He had seen many sunsets during his journey. Some painted the sky bright yellow like it was overcast by the wing of a giant canary bird. Others were purple at the zenith, blending eventually into a thin line of red that outlined the horizon. The sunsets always seemed to match his thoughts during those days. Or maybe it was that seeing the sunset had simply reminded him of his thoughts. Either way, he couldn't help but look at them and remember the journey of hardships that actually, despite the fact that he didn't think about it half as much, started off rather pleasantly.

Cloud's conscious mind retracted from the world of his thoughts when he felt his phone vibrating against his hip as it rang.

..-+-..

"Eat up you two!" Tifa encouraged happily as she placed two plates of dinner in front of Denzel and Marlene. They thanked her as she exited the room for a moment to serve herself. After returning, she sat back down at the wooden table to eat her dinner with the two children. Marlene and Denzel made small conversation about frivolous things. Tifa had been ignoring the thought all day, but as she stared down at her rice, she couldn't help but wonder if Cloud was okay.

"Something wrong, Tifa?" Denzel asked, noticing her sullen gaze.

"Oh! No, I'm okay."

"Cloud will be back soon," Marlene interjected as she granted Tifa a bright smile. Was she really that transparent? Nodding her head, Tifa continued to eat. With her head down, facing her plate, dark strands of her hair continually fell in front of her. After it frustrated her far too much, she retrieved a hair tie from her pocket, and tied her hair back into a loose ponytail.

"Where did Cloud go?" Denzel asked. Marlene chewed her food before answering. Tifa stealthily eavesdropped for any sort of knowledge Marlene might have in regards to Cloud.

"I don't know. But last time, before he left, he was all sad one morning. So I asked him what was wrong, and he said 'Nothing, I just dreamt something that I dreamt once before.' I asked him what it was, and he said that the dream was in a forest, and Aerith was telling him that she was leaving. Then he got dressed, and he left."

"Aerith... what was she like?"

"She was so nice, and she always held me when I was crying. She could make everybody feel better because she was always happy. And she was a lot of fun too. I remember when I first met Sister, I was really scared. She said that Papa and Tifa were fighting, and she needed to take me somewhere safe. She scooped me up, and carried me out of Sector 7. She brought me to her house, and she made me feel a lot better. But then they came for her... I loved Sister."

"Did Cloud?" Denzel asked. At that moment, Tifa jumped up from the table, and abandoned listening to the conversation. She wasn't angry, just distraught. She just needed to talk to Cloud.

Tifa hurried up the steps to her bedroom. Shutting the door behind her, she sat on the bed. The stiff springs of the mattress screeched from under her. She faced the ominous phone sitting on her night table. The phone that always had the other end welcome her with Cloud's answering machine. Taking a moment to think if over once more, she pet the soft blankets dressing her bed. No, she had to go through with this. She would torture herself until she did. Tifa picked up the phone, and dialed Cloud's number before she had a chance to change her mind. Her breathing was short and untamed as she searched the muted ringing for a voice.

"Tifa?" The sound of his voice caught her completely off-guard. She hadn't really thought about what she would say to him, and she certainly hadn't considered that he might actually answer.

"Hi, Cloud. You picked up."

"Yeah. Did you need something?"

"Well, I..." Tifa felt like her heart was convulsing inside her rib cage. "Why did you go?" Cloud's end of the line fell silent. Neither his voice nor breathing penetrated the speaker. "Cloud?"

"I'm still here. Tifa, I..." he paused, making Tifa all the more nervous. "I don't know what to tell you."

"The truth, maybe, for starters. Why did you leave?"

"Because it's hard to know sometimes what's a memory and what's real. I have to go now. Bye, Tifa."

"Bye, Cloud." She heard the affirmative "click" that assured her Cloud had hung up, yet she kept the receiver attached to her ear for a few minutes. After at last putting the phone down, she made her way dismally down the steps. Denzel and Marlene still sat at the table, talking pleasantly.

A loud crashing sound pulsated through the house as Barret bursted through the front door, an oil stained pack flung over his shoulder, looking just as proud and big as he was before he left to find oil fields. Marlene spun around in her chair.

"Papa!" she squealed, leaping up from her seat and into his arms.

"Hey, Marlene," he said lovingly as he dropped his pack on the floor to embrace her with all of his effort. "How's she doin', Tifa?" Barret asked in his deep, croaking voice. Tifa smiled from the stairs and nodded affirmatively. "I'm gonna be home for a few weeks, and I'm only leaving for a couple of days next time. Sorry I was gone all this time."

"It's okay, Papa! I'm just glad you're here now."

"She's missed you a lot," Tifa stated as she brought herself down to the landing. Barret let out a vigorous laugh. He gripped his adoptive daughter beneath her arm pits, and placed her on his shoulders, her slender legs dangling over his chest.

"You're getting so big, Marlene! Denzel! How's it goin', brother?" Denzel had stood up to welcome Barret and was greeted with a hearty slap on the back. Barret laughed hoarsely as Denzel lurched forward from the friendly pat.

"I'm okay. How are the oil fields?" Denzel asked.

"They're doin' great. Pumpin' up enough oil if tha's what ya mean. So, where's that bitch, Cloud?" Tifa's family-reunion happiness dissipated.

"He's out again. He didn't say why," Marlene answered from high up on her throne.

"That damn fool. God knows dats jus' like him too. Disappearin' to who knows where for who knows how long."

"He's just too focused on the past without enough hope for the future," Tifa said.

"Why is that? Why does he always look back when there's plenty for 'im right here?" Barret asked, more as a rhetorical question than one meant to be answered.

"Maybe... what he wants most only exists in his past," she replied almost inaudibly. Maybe it was as simple as that. Having not heard her, the others continued chatting joyfully while Tifa couldn't help but ache from the inconvenient truth.

..-+-..

Cloud lay beneath the blankets by the crackling fire. The trees stood guard in a circle around him, swishing with the wind as they whispered amongst themselves. In the stead of a pillow and a mattress, Cloud used his knapsack and a blanket. Unable to sleep, he stared up between the stars, his hands locked together beneath his head. The world all about him lay cloaked by darkness except for the small aura of yellow light ignited by the dying flames.

The stars looked like little droplets of heaven hanging from the celestial sphere, ready to fall down at any moment. An arm of the Milky Way stretched across the sky, so many stars clustered inside it that it resembled a cloud of dust. A shooting star, a visible spark flying through the night for only a moment, blazed across the sky. 'Aerith would've appreciated the beauty of this,' Cloud thought.

He didn't want to get upset by reminding himself of the ... painful... memories of Aerith. But sometimes he couldn't help remembering them. They just entered his mind and attached themselves to the synapses of his temporal lobe. And that was the case this evening when he couldn't shake himself from thinking about that dream he had of Aerith in the Sleeping Forest, the same dream that had entered his slumber the night before he last left Seventh Heaven to relax in Aerith's church. He really didn't want to remember it. He wanted to be happy, but ever since that dream in which Aerith left...

"Cloud?" her voice echoed. "Can you hear me?" The world faded into a forest. The bent over tree canopies created an arch-shaped roof of leaves over a natural pathway, and a bright light sat at the far end of the woods in the distance. Aerith appeared from behind a tree, just as cheerful as she always was despite what had happened at the Temple of the Ancients. Her pink dress, separated at her upper thighs, stood out between the green-tinted tree trunks.

"Yeah, I hear you. Sorry for what happened," he said. How could he have done that to her? How could he have given the Black Materia to Sephiroth?

"Don't worry about it," she replied curtly. She pushed a lock of her bangs away from her face, and smoothed a fold in the lap of her dress.

"...I can't help it..."

"Oh..." Aerith said. She looked down at her brown boots before her green eyes turned to face him once again. Running up closer to Cloud as if she was excited, she proposed, "Then why don't you REALLY worry about it, and let me handle Sephiroth." The ceiling of leaves and branches allowed a ray of sunshine to peak through the canopies for a moment and descend on Aerith like a spotlight. "And Cloud, you take care of yourself. So you don't have a breakdown, okay?" she said as she clasped her hands behind her back and leaned her front half in a bit. That little gesture she always did that Cloud found irresistible.

"What is this place?" he asked. She rested her hands at her sides, and she allowed for her head to fall back. Closing her eyes, she smiled up at the sunshine gleaming down upon her.

"This place leads to the City of the Ancients. It's called the Sleeping Forest." She looked back at Cloud who was staring at her, curiosity in his intent gaze. "It's only a matter of time before Sephiroth uses Meteor. That's why I'm going to protect it. Only a survivor of the Cetra, like me, can do it." After turning around, Aerith took slow, almost apprehensive, steps towards the light that symbolized the City of the Ancients. She was facing her ancestors, approaching their secrets that she had inherited the key to unlock through half of her blood. Cloud watched Aerith prepare herself for the mental strife of what she knew would be a dangerous journey into the unforeseeable knowledge of the Cetra.

"The secret is just up here. At least it should be... I feel it. It feels like I'm being led by something," Aerith continued. She paused in her steps and looked back at him. Cloud didn't know what to do. Her penetrating stare immobilized him. She gave him one last farewell gift: a tiny smile. The kind of smile that lets you know it's okay to be anxious because it'll all work out in the end. The same promising smile Aerith always devoted to Cloud that had eliminated his anxieties on so many occasions in the past. But he could see the unusual fear in her eyes that she was trying so hard to mask for him, the fear of being endowed with the wisdom of the Ancients and a smaller fear of what would happen if Sephiroth caught up with her. She lifted her left hand, and quickly waved goodbye. She was going to leave. Desperately, Cloud tried to run after her, but his sprinting steps carried him no where.

And before she ran off towards the Forgotten City, intent on completing her genetically-assigned task, she promised him one last thing. A promise that anyone would have made in the same situation. Simple words of reassurance that would haunt him for years to come.

"I'll come back when it's all over."