A/N: I'm ba~ack! So to celebrate finishing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where people all over the world challenge themselves to write 50,000 words within one month - November) I decided to post this. Well, I had to write it first, haha. But yes, here it is! I hope you enjoy it! And about me saying that reviews make me write faster, then disappearing for a while... it's still true! I just got overcome by NaNoWriMo! ^^;


Cloud awoke on the ground of the forest, blinking his eyes sleepily as he tried to sit up. He did not remember falling asleep, instead the only thing that filled his mind was pain as he remembered Zack's death.

His clone had opened his mind to him and pulled him inside, allowing him to relive Zack's clone's death as well. He breathed out slowly and paused as he sat there, closing his eyes again for a moment.

"I'm sorry," he murmured quietly. "I'm so sorry. If I could have done something... I would have! Don't you understand that? If you really are like me at all, you should know I'm telling the truth! I couldn't do anything for him!"

You didn't even try to fight the effects of the mako poisoning!

"Yes I did!" Cloud shouted, standing up fully now and wishing he could stare in the face of his clone as he spoke. "I couldn't move!"

Then how come I could move more than you when I was in Hojo's lab?

"I don't know..." Cloud sighed and leaned against a tree, still sore from everything that had happened recently. "Maybe it's because you're just a clone. You only feel effects from what happens to me, not the full force. So maybe you only felt some of the mako poisoning effects but weren't weighed down entirely by them."

That's a possibility. Still, you should have tried harder.

This time, Cloud didn't respond right away. Instead, he allowed the words to resound in his head and repeat themselves over and over again. After all, they weren't so different to all the things he'd told himself after Zack's death.

But after a moment, he spoke. "I've always wished for there to be someone else I could blame for Zack's death. I guess you're just glad it wasn't you, right?"

Silence.

"Look," Cloud closed his eyes again and pinched the bridge of his nose. "We got off on the wrong foot. If you had just come to me and asked for help I would have tried to-"

But you never would have given up your family for me, so I had to take it by force.

"That's what I don't understand!" Cloud replied quickly. "How on earth could you do such a thing, telling Denzel you'd found a cure, when you knew it would break him? And if you are me, how do you justify causing so much pain to me when I'm the real one? How could you do all that? Did something else happen to you to make you so bitter about everything?"

It helps that I hate you for not saving Zack.

"But you know I couldn't have done anything for him!"

So what? Maybe I do just want someone to blame for everything! And in a strange way, blaming you is blaming myself!

"Let me come," Cloud whispered suddenly and determinedly. "Let me come to meet you again so that we can talk in person. We can figure this out!"

You don't deserve this family.

"And you do? You're just a clone!" Cloud shouted in frustration, clenching his hands into fists now.

You may love them, but you're too stupid to show it. I have been showing Tifa that I love her, but you always pushed her away!

"I was... I was scared," Cloud mumbled, shocked that his clone was pinpointing all of his problems exactly.

You never spent much time with the kids, either. Why is that? Because you were too busy working on your bike and wallowing in self-pity. It's about time someone came along to wake you up and show you what you were missing.

"If you had lived my life you would have done the same things!" Cloud accused sharply, silencing his clone for a moment. "Because... because you are me. So this- all of this that you're saying is just anger at yourself. You're angry because you don't want to face the knowledge that this could have been you. It is you!"

Shut up.

"And now you're trying to fix it by taking control of the situation. You've imagined me to be the embodiment of every bad trait within you and now you're trying to get rid of it!"

Shut up!

"But it doesn't have to be like this. We can figure something out if you let me speak to you in person."

No.

"Did you honestly think you would be able to keep me here in the forest for the rest of your life? You can't just kill me to get me out of the way because you'll die too, but can you seriously spend the rest of your life weakening me down and keeping me here just so that I don't get in the way of what you want? Soon enough you'll be too tired to keep going-"

I won't.

"-Or I'll get so weak that I die anyway. Then what would happen?"

It won't happen.

"I see. You didn't think about that. Well, I want to help you. So let me come and talk to you in person."

The clone was silent for a while and Cloud silently hoped that he would be able to get through to him and make him see sense.

"Please."