A stare so cold that it freezes your blood

But you know what’s hidden deep inside

A smile that could never melt a heart

But you know what’s in it for you

While they were walking, Cloud watched over the group as if they were his flock, and to some extent, they were. They had become his family. Smart-aleck Reno and little Ley,

Cloud smiled one of his rare smiles when he saw Ley breaking free from Reno’s hand and pushing forward through the knee-high grass. When she turned, her strawberry blond hair reflected the sunlight in copper strands.

Cloud remembered the day when he had first met her in front of the 7th Heaven. She had then been only one of the many children who had the geostigma but every time he came to visit Tifa and Marlene, she was there, staring at him as if he was some kind of revelation. The other children looked lost and couldn’t care less about what was going on around them but unlike the others, Ley told him one day that she believed that her guardian angel would not let anything happen to her. On that day, he thought she was mad believing in anything like that. But now he knew what Ley had meant. Now he believed in guardian angels as well, for he had two, Aeris and Zack. And now he was sure that he had not failed them, none of them. And now, after Reno found Ley in the ruins of Jenova, Cloud finally understood who her guardian angel had been all along. Reno!

Reno had never mentioned her and Cloud had never asked but he knew that Reno had always been having a thing for beautiful women. But the thought of Reno ever fitting into this scheme had never occurred to him.

And ShinRa had taken both Salyn and Ley. Like himself, Ley seemed to have been poisoned with Mako. Dr. Hojo’s experiments had killed many and left many more cruelly damaged but like Cloud himself, Ley seemed to have recovered pretty well. ‘She is strange, yes, but after all these events, who wasn’t?’ Cloud thought. ‘I was strange, too…I still am…’ After Aeris’ death he had lost the idea of himself completely. He had played a role, he had become someone he wasn’t, someone he couldn’t be. But these dark times were over now. He had finally become who he was supposed to be, who he wanted to be.

He did not know what the people at ShinRa had done to Salyn or Ley or if they had undergone the same experiments as he, Cloud, had. Reno had never mentioned anything like that. But he had seen then changes in the child and he had seen how Reno had reacted when he had first seen her again after the experiments.

Cloud turned backwards and watched Marlene walk hand in hand with Denzel. Both had a sombre smile of their faces. Tifa was close behind them. What Cloud could read on her face made him sad for a moment. He had left her all by herself, she had to watch over the children, had to fight a war that was not hers. And she was still watching over them, over them all. And it had been for them, because of them, that he was finally the man he had always wanted to become. And now he believed in himself. These last 2 years had not been easy but now he understood his purpose. Now he knew why he was here. These people needed him, these people loved him and he loved them. He had fought for them and for himself and right now it felt as if all his suffering had been worth everything.

Barret, Cid and Yuffie were already waiting. Salyn was waiting. Everybody here, everybody who was walking into the sunrise with him, Cloud supposed, had someone else waiting for them. Cloud was the only one who would be alone at the end of this day. But this thought didn’t make him sad at all. He was here with his friends and that was all that mattered.