Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and all its characters, locations, weapons, etc. are all under the rights of SquareEnix. The following story is completely fictional and in no way in conciliation with SquareEnix.

"Please stay quietly in my memories…"

"I will not become a mere memory…"

…

"Mother?"

…

"Welcome back."

It was just twenty-four hours after the defeat of Sephiroth and the elimination of the crippling Geostigma. Again, the twenty-three year old Cloud Strife stood in deep thought by the old buster sword on the edge of the cliff on the edge of the Midgar Plains. Aerith and Zack: Two faces he recalled seeing beside the doors of the Sector 5 Church in Midgar. Two close friends lost on the fields of the battles that have now ended.

"I'll still live for your share," he murmured to the spirits of his old comrades. "And I'm not alone," he whispered into the air.

Cloud stood up and realized it was about time he returned to Edge, where his friends must be waiting after the previous day's exhilaration. He was glad that his left arm was not pulsing with pain anymore from the terrible disease. Cloud shifted the position of the old buster sword back into a vertical position and mounted Fenrir and accelerated back home.

Home, Cloud thought, Since when did I call Seventh Heaven home?

He had no real family. He's never had a family ever since he left Nibelheim approximately a decade ago. But he's had friends that, in a way, substituted as a family. Sensitive thoughts sifted through Cloud's mind. His muscles relaxed as he pushed down on the pedals of his bike and sped back to Edge.