Cloud listens. It's a lot to put on anyone's shoulders, he gets that. Because he's been there himself with the entire world waiting on his move. But it was never in the way Sephiroth has it. Cloud did so much of what he did because he had to. There wasn't a lot of choice so much as a drive always forward. It made things easier in a way because with so much out of his control, all he had to concentrate on was reacting. Planning ahead of time, going over the options carefully, weighing possibilities... it was never really a choice, or chance. Sephiroth though is confronted with the options and the choices and he's got plenty of time to think of the ramifications.
Cloud doesn't envy him.
"I don't remember Angeal burning down villages." It's less a comparison and more a measure of what he considers 'too dangerous to live'. He doesn't remember much about Angeal in honesty, fragmented Zack memories so tinted with emotion it's hard to tell what was real and even more hazy vague rumors and a terrifying looming shadow he sometimes thinks he probably imagined from his own foggy Shinra days. "Zack didn't think so."
In the end, Zack's opinion is good enough for Cloud.
"We're not monsters. No matter what's been done to us, who we have inside, we're not monsters. We only become monsters once we give in. Once we forget that we're supposed to protect and we start to destroy." His voice drops but it still somehow carries over the wind. "We only lose when we give up."
The bike hasn't traveled nearly far enough but somehow, with the logic of a dream, the mountain that Fort Condor is built on comes into view over the horizon. Cloud's voice isn't hard or angry. He can't feel either for the child - or the man - behind him on the bike. There is a monster he still hates even if that's starting to lose it's intensity now that the monster's gone, again, and Cloud knows it's something he can defeat. As many times as he needs to. But that monster isn't the person behind him. Not yet and perhaps not ever. They're not friends and they never will be. But he can still find he's starting to care what happens to the Sephiroth in his dreams. So his voice is surprisingly gentle as he states:
no subject
Cloud doesn't envy him.
"I don't remember Angeal burning down villages." It's less a comparison and more a measure of what he considers 'too dangerous to live'. He doesn't remember much about Angeal in honesty, fragmented Zack memories so tinted with emotion it's hard to tell what was real and even more hazy vague rumors and a terrifying looming shadow he sometimes thinks he probably imagined from his own foggy Shinra days. "Zack didn't think so."
In the end, Zack's opinion is good enough for Cloud.
"We're not monsters. No matter what's been done to us, who we have inside, we're not monsters. We only become monsters once we give in. Once we forget that we're supposed to protect and we start to destroy." His voice drops but it still somehow carries over the wind. "We only lose when we give up."
The bike hasn't traveled nearly far enough but somehow, with the logic of a dream, the mountain that Fort Condor is built on comes into view over the horizon. Cloud's voice isn't hard or angry. He can't feel either for the child - or the man - behind him on the bike. There is a monster he still hates even if that's starting to lose it's intensity now that the monster's gone, again, and Cloud knows it's something he can defeat. As many times as he needs to. But that monster isn't the person behind him. Not yet and perhaps not ever. They're not friends and they never will be. But he can still find he's starting to care what happens to the Sephiroth in his dreams. So his voice is surprisingly gentle as he states:
"Then don't make me have to kill you."