Ah. There it as again. Cloud thinking too much. Zack placed a hand on the kid's head, giving those blonde spikes a ruffle. Again, it didn't matter about this Zack or that Zack - this Cloud or that Cloud. All he saw was someone dealing with things that they shouldn't have to. All that Zack cared about was helping out in what way he could, if he could.

"I wouldn't put too much weight on that," he shrugged. "What's really weird to think about is the fact that the Cloud I know is older than me now. How messed up is that?"

He didn't know if this Cloud knew that he didn't survive, but it didn't matter. Numbers were numbers. Time was lost and they wouldn't get it back.

"All this means is that we both have a lot of lost time to make up for. No big."