I love this story. You captured Cissnei's hidden thoughts and feelings so well. :)

I knew what I was getting myself into when reading the summary, but this was still heartbreaking. I always did get the feeling that Zack liked her as more than a friend, but he honestly loved Aerith more. Anyway, this was a wonderful read, and I was glad to see that Cissnei laid Zack to rest and helped Cloud. It rather fits with those moments missing between Crisis Core and the original game. Great story overall.

This story is painfully beautiful. You've captured Cissnei's emotions really well. I was crying while reading this. Well done!

In the end everobody is human...

Love this chapter. I could totally feel Cissnei's pain of losing someone so dear :'(

Cissnei / cloud sounds cool.. but would be cool if started as Cissnei/cloud then cloud realised tifa was the one he loves but she's dating someone else who realises it's Cissnei he loves so the couples split Cissnei/tifa feels down and depressed but cloud/? Tell Cissnei/tifa their feelings it takes a while but they end up as happy couples.. maybe Rufus/Cissnei.. how Rufus/tifa start as a pairing well he has changed as tifa is feeling lonesome in acc..

Nice retelling of the Zack final battle / dying scene..

I just love what you did with the DMW here. That was my favourite part of Crisis Core. It was almost an epiphany for me, to see the game mechanics being transformed into a means for exploring how it might feel to die. For me it was the biggest stroke of genius in the entire game.

I also like how he gradually retreats from reality into the memories. At first, he's well aware that they are memories and is annoyed at them; well, who wouldn't be annoyed at having to remember Genesis? But gradually they become so real that he can't distinguish them from reality. I like how you made up a new memory for each one. They all rang true.

The Cissnei one was my favourite. "Lucky" Cissnei! Not so lucky, though, really. I loved that tiny glimpse of her already falling for Zack's magic, allowing him to come closer than she allowed most people to come, allowing him literally to touch her.

This is a really lovely story. I eagerly await the next chapter. Poor Cissnei, I hope she finds strength to do more than just survive. I hope she makes a life worth living for herself.

Cissnei is one of my favourite characters in the world of FFVII fanfiction. In-game, she's really just a sketch of a character, a suggestion of possibilities - and I really love how you've developed her possibilities into such a rounded and empathetic character who's almost the anti-thesis of a Mary-Sue. She's tough, strong, determined, cruel, kind, lonely, poignant. "Before them, she had no one. After them there will be no one." The implication here that nothing is forever, that even her home with the Turks is impermanent, and that she faces a future lonelier than the life she has now, is really painful. It;s further exacerbated by our awareness that her time in Gongaga has been, in its own way, happy: she has been accepted as an almost-member of Zack's family, and been able to pretend for a while that she is "normal people". She never once rebels against the reality that Zack doesn't love her, but accepts the situation as inevitable; it is not her fate, not her nature, to be loved.

I also loved this line: "He's not really talking to her either. They're both disconnected, bouncing ideas off each other." That's exactly the sense of her I got from playing the game.

I feel as if her story cannot turn out well. But she'll endure it.
Your writing is lovely.

This was amazing! I love a good Zack/Cissnei fanfic, I think they make a good couple. Can't wait for the next chapter!

this is well written. would like more story more flashbacks of their time together.

This is a wonderful story. I love how sad it is. I feel so bad for Cissnei. She just lied there and pretended not to feel hurt and that bad Zack left her. Beaitufully done.

This is cool. A robe shot or to be continued?