The rain that had started shortly before he reached his destination served to accurately match Cloud's current mood. Running through his hair, it tracked its way down his face, almost as if he were crying. Which, of course, he wasn't. Scrubbing it away and blinking rapidly, he pushed through the unkempt bushes and stepped into the clearing that opened up on the other side.

It was a disaster, even after all this time.

Despite how long it had been since he'd first laid eyes on Farstar—all those years ago as a scared, confused child—Cloud could still remember how calm, peaceful, and comforting the village had been. How much like paradise it had felt. Now, all of that was ruined.

The ground had consumed nearly the entire village whole—as if a giant mouth had opened up underneath and taken a massive bite out of it. A few remnants of houses still poked out of the dirt, but whether they were walls or roofs was impossible to tell.

Slowly making his way through the ruins, Cloud ran his hand along one such wooden protrusion. He wondered what had happened to the people who used to live here. There were no signs that anyone else had visited like this, no footprints or other indications that anyone had been here in years. Had the villagers all moved on without looking back? Were any even still alive?

Since he'd been knocked unconscious during Shinra's attack, Cloud didn't know how things had turned out this way—how bad the true extent of the damage was. How many had died. What he did know, was that if he'd only taken half a second to just think—to use his damn brain—then all of this could have been avoided.

He wasn't naive enough to think that he could have single-handedly prevented the war from starting, not when Shinra had been so determined, but he could have spared Aerith's village from this disaster. Apparently, everything had gone horribly wrong after the soldiers had shot a woman in the center of the village—one whose description was uncomfortably close to Aerith's mother.

Cloud desperately hoped the reports were wrong, but even if they weren't, he knew Aerith would never want to see him again, not after everything he'd done. That was fine. He understood. All he could do now was to try and stop this war, to prevent Shinra from ever doing what they'd done here again. It would never be enough, but it kept him going. Otherwise, he'd collapse and end up reverting back to the state he'd been in during the years after his mother's death.

Avalanche had helped with that, giving him a purpose, a drive—a mission. On his own, striking back against Shinra would have been all but impossible. Together, they stood a chance at actually accomplishing something. Now that they'd successfully managed to take down a reactor—even if it had been one of the smaller, less important ones—Shinra wouldn't be able to continue ignoring them. More importantly, the people of Midgar wouldn't.

That was Avalanche's true goal, to open the eyes of the public and make them realize Shinra had been lying to them from the start. They knew that no matter how much damage they caused or how many reactors they crippled, it would never be enough to stop Shinra. The only thing that would accomplish that would be removing their support, causing them to topple once everyone learned the truth.

The rain began to come down harder, driving him to seek shelter under the one structure that was still somewhat intact on the far outskirts of the village.

Aerith's home.

The building still stood, although around half of it had collapsed—exposing a large portion of the interior to the elements. Despite that, Cloud stayed outside. Going in felt like too much of an invasion, even if no one lived there anymore. Besides, standing under the drooping roof outside the front was enough to get him out of the rain which was all he really needed.

By this point, the other members of Avalanche should have made it back to Midgar. He knew they'd be laughing and celebrating, congratulating themselves for a job well done while drinking whatever undoubtedly good drink Tifa had mixed together. It was good. They deserved it.

Just like he deserved this.

How could he not? All it took was one look around to reveal the extent of what he'd done. An entire village, dozens of families, and the girl he'd—Cloud shook his head. It was best not to think of Aerith. Even after all this time, it was one of the most painful of all his wounds.

He had no idea what had happened to her. Where she had gone. What she was up to. He just hoped she was well—that she hadn't gotten swept up in the war in any way. Ideally, she and her parents had moved to another village, far, far away. Taking a deep breath, he closed the door on those thoughts and instead focused back on Avalanche.

With the successful completion of the reactor mission, it was time to start planning for the next. While he would have liked to strike directly at the huge reactor still under construction, Tifa had made it clear that it was far too dangerous. Because the Cetran army was also focusing its efforts on destroying it, Shinra was protecting it with nearly their full military strength.

And then there'd been that machine defending the core. They hadn't heard anything at all about something like that, which was strange enough already. If Shinra had weapons that powerful, why weren't they using them in battle? The obvious answer was that they were too difficult to mass produce, but Cloud wondered if it was more than that. The robot had been completely alone, without any backup—maybe it couldn't tell friend from foe and would just attack anything in its way? It was, at the very least, something they'd have to prepare for on the next mission.

The rain began to peter out, despite the sky remaining grey and overcast. It seemed as good a time as any to head back home, especially since he knew that if he took too much longer then the others would start to worry. That was the last thing he wanted—Cloud hated it when people worried if he was okay.

Of course he was okay. Why wouldn't he be?

Taking one last look at the house, he turned and walked away, knowing he would never see it or anyone who'd lived there again.


By the time Cloud made it back to Midgar, the rain had started up once again. He was already so soaked through as he trudged his way down the streets that he didn't even bother to hurry—it wasn't like he could get any wetter. Before long he rounded the final corner and was greeted by the familiar sight of Seventh Heaven—Tifa's new bar.

She'd rented out the building a year ago and had then immediately gotten to work renovating the place. On the surface, it was just a cozy place to get a drink, when in reality it was actually Avalanche's secret headquarters. Still, the bar aspect had gone far better than Cloud or even Tifa had expected, to the point where she'd just recently been able to officially purchase the place.

Coming to a halt in front of the wooden doors, Cloud could hear the sounds of the celebration that was still raging on from within, even over the noise of the rain pounding on the wooden roof of the bar. He wasn't at all surprised to hear them still going at it, not after what they'd managed to pull off today. It did give him second thoughts, though. If he went inside, he'd just end up raining on their parade. They didn't need that, not when they were clearly still having a good time. No, this had been a mistake, he should have just gone directly home and then told them tomorrow that his side trip had taken longer than expected.

Turning around to do exactly that, he only realized that Tifa's voice had slowly been growing louder right as the doors swung open in front of him and she stepped into view, giving him a surprised look. "Cloud? What in the . . . You're drenched! How long have you been standing out here for?"

And now it was too late. "I just got here," he replied—mostly telling the truth—which was immediately met with a skeptically arched eyebrow. "It's been raining for hours, Tifa. I haven't been here that long."

"Well, then why aren't you inside and out of this rain already? And don't say it's because you didn't want to get the floor wet."

Cloud desperately scrambled to come up with an alternate excuse. "I, um, just thought that, y'know, maybe I should actually . . . go home first and change into some dry clothes! Yeah!"

"Mhm. I see. In that case, I'm making a quick trip back to my place to grab some ingredients I forgot, want to join me?"

Breathing a sigh of relief that she'd believed his explanation, Cloud nodded his head. "Yeah, sure. That sounds good."

Together, they walked down the steps and set off in the direction of their houses. The bar wasn't too far from the neighborhood they lived in, and the rain had turned into more of a drizzle by this point so Tifa wasn't in any danger of joining his soaked state.

"So, how'd your little side quest go?" Tifa asked after a few minutes of silence. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Oh. It was alright, I suppose. Just wanted to check in on something. It's not much of a secret anymore, just the remains of the village I visited as a kid." He smiled bitterly. Presumably, the spell shielding the village had faded once it was abandoned, there was no reason to prevent people from finding it anymore after all.

"I'm sorry things ended up the way they did."

"Not as sorry as I am for being the one to destroy it."

Tifa glanced over at him, a clearly skeptical look on her face. "I feel like I know you pretty well, Cloud, and that doesn't sound like something you'd do."

"Well . . . it wasn't like it was intentional. That doesn't change the fact that I'm still ultimately responsible and everyone who lived there would blame me for it."

"Maybe. Or maybe not. That's for them to decide, I suppose, but you're not being fair to them by assuming you know what they think. It's possible they'd surprise you if you gave them the chance."

Cloud frowned. He found it hard to believe that anyone would be willing to forgive him for what had happened, not when they'd lost their home at the very least. What Tifa had said did make sense, though, and he appreciated the sentiment. They continued walking in silence until Cloud's home came into view a few minutes later.

"Well, here we are," Tifa said. "You should get out of those clothes and dry off. Oh, and Cloud?"

"Yeah?"

"I expect to see you back at Seventh Heaven celebrating when I get back." She was giving him such a serious look that at that moment, Cloud realized she had not, in fact, believed his excuse—likely not even for a second.

He couldn't help but chuckle in response. Tifa had his best interest at heart, and even if he would prefer to just crash at his place and relax, he also knew it was worth hanging out with Avalanche. He already had plenty of good memories from doing exactly that as proof. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be there!" As Cloud threw open his front door and stepped inside, he was surprised at just how much better he felt now than when he'd entered the city.


Now that Cloud's not entirely focused on his mission, we get to see a bit more of his internal state of mind and how he's been putting up a front that everything is okay when it really isn't. While he's functional and getting by, his past actions are clearly weighing heavily over him. His friendship with Tifa has also deepened though, and she's better able to help him move forward than she was as a teen. Pretty short one this time, but we're about to dive into a series of impactful chapters (Aerith is heading back to Midgar after all!). I hope everyone is excited!


Next Chapter: Peace