A/N: For some reason, I like the thought of Cloud going back for Aeris' pink ribbon after it fell off from her braid when she was killed by Sephiroth. I can see him taking comfort from the familiar object as he continued on his quest.
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII Characters and Places belong to Square Enix.
He had gone back into that blasted city late in the night.
Perusing the quiet hallways with the echoing voices of the dead, he imagined her voice amongst them, whispering to him in a language he couldn't understand but a tone that he could. He imagined her leading him towards that place with gentle, guiding hands and little whispers promising him lies.
He hopped along the stone pedestals, keeping a careful balance so that he wouldn't fall into the water below. He walked all the way up to that damned altar, where the floor was beautiful white marble and bleeding red stained in smears and smudges. It reminded him of a canvas that a child had gotten its hands on, smearing red paint onto the pure white to create something only they could understand.
He paused at the top, looking around before he spotted the bright pink ribbon. Walking carefully across the altar, as if afraid it would break if he stepped on it just so, he bent down and picked up the faded, old silk. He rubbed it between gloved fingers, staring at it contemplatively before he nodded to himself and stood. Hopping back down the stone pedestals, staring down at the water that had sucked in the White Materia and the flower girl without so much as a care in the world.
He walked back out of the ghostly hallways, he imagined that her voice was whispering to him that he had more to do, more to see, more to save and more to fail.
And he clutched to that ribbon like a treasured reminder.