Author's Beginning Note Thingy: Yet another chapter. This song is edited too, and the scenario is a new one to me, I hope it comes out well! Read and review.

---

Miles to Go

Cloud stared out the broken stained-glass window at the chapel. He'd taken to sitting here, day after day, watching the outside world absently through the twisted cast-iron bars. There was something different about today... a distant pitter-pattering on the ground, an animalian noise... he saw a black chocobo turning around corners and taking turns on the rubble-filled streets. He sat up a little straighter, and leaned forward to see who was coming. It was Tifa.

The swordsman immediately got up, and ran to the doors of the chapel, just as they opened in front of him. The fighter was standing there, looking up, wide-eyed...

Walk with me, my heart,
the gate is much to spare a place to speak,
and the gardens put to shame the meadow's bloom.

An Eden set apart,
I fancy she herself knew scent as sweet,
I see that patch of lilies from my room.

"How long have you been living here, Cloud?" Tifa asked, keeping pace along side him as the two walked down the center aisle towards the patch of flowers that Aeris had always kept growing.

"A few months." Cloud answered with a shrug. He looked at her apologetically, then cleared his throat as she turned to see him, attempting a slight joke, "It's about time you showed up..."

I'm glad you finally came;
I watched you ride along the path below.
I'm turning from that road,
but even yet, I have so many miles to go.

"I can't go back, Tifa." he said for the countless time.

"Why not?" she pleaded.

I've reconciled my mind,
to living out my life within these walls.
It's not what you had hoped to hear, I know.

But what I hope to find
is better sought within the chapel's halls,
and peace is all that matters to me now.

"I have to stay here and repent... until I've atoned for all my sins." Cloud looked up at the ruined alter past the flowers. "It's a church, that's what these are for anyway, isn't it?"

"You sound like Vincent." she muttered bitterly. The comment made him smirk. "Cloud really..." she began again, her voice softer.

"I know why you're here, Tifa." Cloud said quickly, his tone almost harsh, "It's a useless pursuit."

She drew back, recoiling almost as if struck.

I know you offer love,
but in me now that path is overgrown.
I'm turning from that road,
but even yet, I have so many miles to go.

"It's because of Aeris, isn't it?" she asked, her voice blank of emotion... she couldn't speak ill of the dead, but she couldn't help but be jealous.

Cloud nodded, sighing, "It is..."

I hear she died alone,
surrounded by the stars that shone at night.
And heaven wept until no tears would come.

I swore I would atone
for failing her and shadowing her light
with all the things I did, and should have done.

She left him, swirling around, her long hair flowing behind her as she walked out of the church. Cloud watched her go, knowing that she would likely never come back again... it was the loss of a good friend that made his shoulder slump ever so slightly... but it had to be done... he turned to the alter, vines growing up it's collapsed form... Goodbye, Tifa...

Fare thee well, my love,
I'll watch you ride along the path below.
I'm turning from that road,
but even yet, I have so many miles to go.

Even yet, I have so many miles to go.