A/N: So it's been over a year I hope you're all not preparing to murder me because that would be sad and very unproductive for the future of this story.

How about I just say - oops? BUT HOW. SERIOUSLY. EACH CHAPTER IS ABOUT A PAGE LONG IN MY WORD DOCUMENT. IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO WRITE A PAGE AND POST IT. I LITERALLY JUST SAT DOWN TODAY AND WROTE HALF A PAGE BECAUSE THE OTHER HALF OF THIS CHAPTER WAS ALREADY WRITTEN AND I JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW I CAN BE SO UNBELIEVABLY LAZY THAT IT TAKES ME OVER A YEAR TO WRITE ONE PAGE OF STORY I AM SO SORRY BUT IT'S ALSO SO HILARIOUS I'M GOING TO CRY FROM LAUGHING SO HARD.

Is there actually anyone left reading this?


"Can I talk to you in private please?" Cloud asked, watching his Clone and hoping for the other man to agree without a fuss. He didn't want this to happen in front of Marlene and Denzel. They were frightened enough already without having to hear Cloud argue with himself about life decisions he'd made.

"So you can hide the truth again?" his Clone spoke up, raising his eyebrows challengingly.

Cloud hesitated for a moment, sighing, before replying softly, "I'm not so sure I'm the one trying to hide something this time."

From the side of the room, Tifa quietly collected Marlene and Denzel before steering them from the room. Cloud was glad she had thought to do that as it meant he would be able to speak privately with his Clone even if his Clone didn't want to move somewhere else.

"I've got a question for you," Cloud began slowly. His Clone was still simply staring at him and had not reacted to his previous accusation at all. "If you've been alive since Zack and I escaped, where have you been? Everything that's happened since then... did you witness it? And if you did, why didn't you help?"

"What do you mean?" His Clone frowned in confusion, clenching his hands into fists nervously.

"I mean if you've been watching me ever since you got out, which would explain how you know all about me, then why didn't you ever step in to help the family you claim to love?"

The confusion in his Clone's eyes deepened and the other man looked down at the floor, concentrating hard on something which he was clearly having difficulty understanding. Why hadn't he ever helped? Where had he been hiding? Why had he waited until now to come charging in?

"Until you have an answer for me-" Cloud spoke up again. "-this family is mine. I can't trust you and you've already broken Denzel's heart by giving him the possibility of a cure and then ripping it away from him again."

"But I never meant-"

"I know." Cloud nodded slowly. "You never meant to hurt him so much. You claim to love this family as much as I do but how can you? You've been watching from the outside. I'm the one who loves this family. And if Hojo created you back when we were still at ShinRa, then that means you've only actually met Denzel and Marlene a few days ago."

"That doesn't mean I can't love them!" His Clone stepped closer and clenched his hands into fists by his sides.

"So you've grown attached just by watching? I don't think you understand. You are literally just trying to take my place and become me again. You don't have any kind of personal connection to the kids. They're mine." Cloud folded his arms and lifted his chin slightly. "And now I want you to work at remembering what you've been doing the past few years and why you've waited this long to jump in and save the day."

Cloud stood there a moment, staring at his Clone and allowing his words to sink in before striding past the man and going to the room with Tifa and the kids. He needed to reassure them that everything was going to be alright and he also really needed to speak to Tifa.