Unexpected

Cloud looked around a bit. The shacks with their metal-roofs reflected the sunlight and warmed the area way more than anyone had thought, but in winter this kind of heating wouldn’t work and winter would come. So much to do and yet where should they start? Cloud shook his head. “This isn’t good – once the storms in fall are coming, half of these shacks will be blown away.” The worry in his voice was more than evident.

 Cloud nodded darkly, turned around and in that moment a flash of copper passed him by and the former Infantry-soldier reacted in the blink of an eye. He reached out for the elbow of the woman and turned her around, that she faced him… and time froze. The two stared at each other – both with a look of surprise and shock on their faces. After a few more seconds Cloud spoke. “Cissnei?” he asked carefully. “It is you, isn’t it?”

 The woman stared at him. “Cloud? How is this possible? How can you even remember me?” she asked and her voice wavered.

A look of pain, sorrow and remorse appeared on Clouds face but was replaced by one of resignation in an instant. “Mako-poisioning is something really strange,” he said with a sigh and let go of Cissnei’s elbow. “Your body and your consciousness are completely drowned by the Mako. You can’t think, you can’t move… nothing. But your subconscious tries to make up for everything and starts to behave like a video-camera… and your head is the tape.” Cloud stopped for a moment. “Everything is recorded into your head and then, years later when you’ve come to rest, when your mind is no longer shrouded by worry… the nightmares come and in those nightmares the memories you thought you didn’t have come back with full force. Night after night you remember and the pieces start to fall into place.” Cloud stopped for a moment but then a sad smile appeared on this face. “I never had the chance to thank you though. You already had us that day and yet you let us go. You probably saved our lives.”

 Cissnei shook her head. “Maybe I shouldn’t have let you go… maybe Zack would be still alive then.”

Tifa made a step forward and put her hand on Cissnei’s shoulder. She and Cissnei had never met, but she knew enough from what Cloud and what he had told her. “You did what you think is right and on top of that: I have to thank you too. If you hadn’t let them go… maybe I would have never found Cloud again. And you can’t know if the decision you made was wrong or right. Maybe they would have been imprisoned again if you had brought them back, maybe not. Don’t regret what you did – living in regret isn’t living at all!”

After a long moment of silence Cissnei looked at Tifa with a soft smile. “Are you speaking out of experience?”