A pair of azure eyes stares blankly out into a world of laughter and joy. Cloud Strife watches the sights of the Gold Saucer out of the small gondola window. The people out there have a reason to be happy. Meteor did not destroy the world; there is much to celebrate. So why does he feel empty? He recalls seeing Sephiroth's face for the last time. He recalls the satisfaction of unleashing Omnislash… and the finality of Sephiroth's bloodied body after Cloud had killed him. And after the cave started to collapse, he recalls a dainty hand reaching for him and a pair of emerald eyes…

"You were there, weren't you?" He whispers. The memory of her reaching for him from the depths of Northern Cave brings back another. It was in this very cart where she confessed to be seeking him. He had been too foolish to understand then, too captured by her beauty to understand the meaning behind her words.

"You thought I was Zack…" He missed Zack, and understood now what Aeris had wanted him to be. But he wasn't her Zack… he was Cloud, and she had wanted to know him...had wanted to meet Cloud.

Cloud looks out of the window to be met with the sight of a brightly lit roller coaster. Howls of laughter erupt around him as the gondola cart loops its way around the track. He stares as the cart almost dips into the water, but this time, no warm hand reaches for his. The cruel scent of Camellias invades his nostrils, and he violently pulls away from the window. There is something missing in that scent.

'What am I doing here?' Cloud wonders. Did he somehow think that she would meet him here? That just by revisiting the memory of their closest time together, the Life stream would spit her out? He's fooling himself by thinking even for a second that she was his to have; especially after he failed her.

Guilt clutches his heart in an icy grip as the gondola cart makes its way downward. "I let you die…" It is so clear to him now. The memory of her eyes never leaves him. Those trusting emerald eyes, that even until the last moment gazed so affectionately at him. The knowledge of death so evident; she had known she was walking to her death by running off into the forgotten city.

Cloud hangs his head as he feels tears burn his eyes. He had failed her as a bodyguard, and he had failed her as a friend.

Most of all, he failed to be capable of loving her. Sins of this magnitude were not forgiver so easily, and Cloud did not find himself worthy of trying.

~Fin~