"You know, you have taken her death lightly." Sephiroth said.

"Hmm, thought you'd be gone now. You can still speak, from wherever you are?" Cloud asked the voice that trailed in his mind.

"Oh yes. But it takes a lot of strength. Like the strength it took for you to ungratefully murder me!" He shouted.

Ten years. I murdered him ten years ago.

"What the . . . I didn't murder you!" Cloud yelled in his mind.

"Wake up!"

Cloud arose in his bed. Costa de Sol, the world's last stronghold.

Stronghold wasn't the right word, it was just a . . . hold.

Dark times had fallen upon the Planet. Heidegger was now president of Shinra. Since Midgar was heavily damaged by Meteor the capital had been moved to Junon. Sadly, Reeve, who Cloud thought had changed, was now the vice president.

The money, it was probably for the money. Cloud thought.

Palmer, Scarlet, Rufus, and even the Turks died in Meteor's onslaught. Cloud looked at the wall, he had kept the newspaper that announced their deaths.

Next to the newspaper he saw the pictures, pictures of each one of the former group mates. He'd arranged them into three rows. The top: allies, the middle: traitors, and the bottom: dead. There were three on top, two in the middle, and three on the bottom.

Yuffie, Cid, and Nanaki, the only ones left. He'd thought of putting Yuffie's picture on the bottom row. Wutai was now next in line for the Shinra capital. If something happened to Junon, Wutai would then be home of Shinra Inc. He hadn't seen or heard from Yuffie in four years. And that was when . . .

Cid now was living in space aboard Highwind Station, studying life on other worlds.

Nanaki, or Red XIII, was now searching the world for material on the Cetra. Cloud saw him once last year. He wondered how he survived moving around. In this time you stayed put, and moved when attacked.

In the second row, Reeve, or Cait Sith the robotic doll, was now Shinra's vice president. The other person Cloud would have never suspected . . .

Then on the bottom row was Aeris Gainsborough, his love. In these ten years he'd assured himself of that. But, all that's well is lost. She had died; he had lost her, end of story.

You know, you have taken her death lightly.

"Yes Sephiroth, I did. I had to. Otherwise I'd be a weeping miser," he said to Sephiroth in the beyond.

The next picture: Tifa Lockheart. Tifa lost her life four years ago, at the war's peak. Along with her was Barret Wallace, who died trying to save her.