'I love you, Tifa.' Cloud's dying thoughts echoed throughout his head, until he saw the Promised Land. Aerith stood there, Zack right next to her.

Cloud slowly walked up to Aerith. "Aerith?" he asked, still wondering if this was a near death experience.

"Hey, Cloud." she replied.

Zack said hello with a nougie to the spiky one. "Great to see ya, Cloud!" he said.

Cloud sighed unhappily. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Cloud then replied, "Even here is hell without Tifa. She was my purpose of existance." Aerith yelled from afar, yet still sounding gentle as ever,

"You can at least see her through this."

A small crystal ball rolled towards him. "How?" asked Cloud. Aerith didn't reply, but Zack did.

"I'll show you. Sit over here on this chair."

Cloud sat as he was told, and Zack said a few strange things onto the crystal ball, and finally Cloud could see. Tifa wept over the corpse of Cloud, Vincent trying to cheer her up unsuccessfully, Grom just stood there. These sights, to Cloud, were even worse than death. He watched his girlfriend weep, and started crying himself. Zack apparently understood and left Cloud to himself.

"Cloud! Waaaaaaaaaah!" Tifa wept over Cloud's dead body. Tears fell from her cheeks onto Cloud. "Why'd you have to die? Waaaaaaaaaaah!"

Vincent tried to comfort her, but realized at the same time, that he'd never even remotely been in this predicament. He'd always remained stoic when someone broke down, and had nothing to say. So he kneeled down with her, and patted her back gently.

"There there, Tifa," Words streamed from his mouth. "It's gonna be alright. Cloud's gone to a better place." Where the fuck was this coming from?

"Thanks, Vincent. You're a friend." Tifa had almost stopped crying. And then, a very, VERY rare moment happened.

Vincent shed a tear.

He'd cried before, but never, ever, has he cried tears. 'A tear shed,' The voice was talking again. 'for those lost.'

'Thanks for helping me with that situation.' Vincent mentally said. Then, he added, 'Who or what are you?' The voice was silent.

'Probably the Chaos gene.' He did something else that was very, very rare.

He merely assumed something.

"Yo, Cloud?" caringly asked Zack after 5 minutes. Cloud had stopped weeping, but was still in a depressed state. He assumed the worst, about all situations, this one being no exception. "Cloud?" Zack asked again.

"What do you want?" Cloud's voice seemed as stoic and vacant as ever.

"What's wrong? And if you say nothing, I'll know you're lying."

"It's... Tifa."

"What about her?"

"She's crying over my death. I wouldn't wish my fate on a dog. Vincent is cheering her up, and I fear that he'll steal Tifa away from me. Then, I will have absolutely no existance for life."

Zack stopped for a second, then replied, "There's no way Tifa would leave you for him."

"Nah, he's 'cool'."

"Tifa doesn't think so, she thinks of him as just a friend."

"Yeah, I guess she does..."

"And Tifa's been loyal to you ever since she met other people including... me."

"Yes, you are right. I have no reason to be worrying about that. But my death may have a sort of ripple effect. Something's gonna happen, and there'll be no Cloud Strife to save the world."

Zack sighed. "I guess you're right there."

"Dinnertime!" Aerith yelled.

'Damn, Aerith does know how to cook.' thought the ex-SOLDIER as they ran to the Promised Land House that they had.

But ah, on Earth, the plot thickens.

R&R