I'm afraid. I didn't... I've thought about it, and all those things... they had to happen that way, or I wouldn't have ever had anything to begin with. If Mom hadn't been killed, Tifa would've just gone back to ignoring me like before... Zack wouldn't have given two shits about me, I'd just be another nameless military grunt... if Denzel's parents hadn't gotten killed, I would have never even met him myself, and he'd probably want nothing to do with me. He's a plate-dweller's kid. Upper-class. We'd never even come within a thousand miles of one another. I wouldn't have gotten to know any of the kids — or Barret, or Cid or — my whole family exists because I'm a selfish coward. If millions of innocent people don't die, if I stay here while entire worlds end around me, then I can't live in my secure little world where everything was perfect. For two years, I lived like that... they were the happiest years of my life. But with all that... it's easy to forget that I spent those two years taking care of kids that I myself made orphans.
...I don't even really deserve a family. Not when I founded it on top of bodies.
This is another problem I have with FFVII time-travel fix-fics. They seem to forget that if Cloud saves the world, he spends the rest of his life as a lonely chump. Then they remember it at the end and come up with some contrived bullshit so he can meet up with the gang and be happy when they don't even have any motivation for being near each other long enough to care about each other like they did in canon. Hell, without the burning of Nibelheim, there wouldn't even be an Avalanche, and everyone dies after Shinra drains the Planet. Good job, ficthor!
MY SOUL IS DARK BUT MY HAIR IS COLORFUL — Brahian Pokémon AlchemistI don't fix the guns, I work on the combat mechs. Sometimes I even control one from the base, so it's like virtual training! It's really cool!
... -flicks the safety off, and tries to hold it differently. He staggers a bit under the weight.-
edited 20th Feb '13 9:15:59 PM by thespacephantom
UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI

They're probably not geth, then.
UN JOUR JE SERAI DE RETOUR PRÈS DE TOI