[For a time, Aerith doesn't respond. She studies him, quiet and somber, and takes in what he says, and what he doesn't say. He doesn't look well, despite his stubbornness, the clipped control in his tone, and she feels that worry again, eating at her.

She doesn't let it overtake her. Fear and worry had never been enough to stop her before, and she wouldn't let it stop her now. If they had a Bond... the idea of it, even knowing he was not the man he would become, it makes her balk. But it would be easier, if she had it now, to allow her emotions to fall as a cloak over his own, soothing them. It would make her more confident in what she was doing, the things she was saying.

It's the truth, is all she knows. She can only hope that's enough, for now.]

No, I don't know what that's like. But I do know what it feels like, to be angry. To feel like you're different, like you don't belong anywhere. To be alone. I know what those kinds of feelings do, if you let them fester.

You're not a monster, Sephiroth. [She sounds so sad.] You don't have to accept that. You've been given a chance to change it. No one's ever given you a chance before, that's all. What Cloud told you, what I'm telling you now... it's just one future. That doesn't mean it's the only one.