"Made it easier to convince myself I got the way I am from being in SOLDIER instead of something worse, I guess." Cloud let it pass, for the moment, that he'd essentially thought he was Zack. He'd rather leave that for later. There was enough that he needed to tell Zack that Zack wasn't going to like to hear.
"I ran into Aerith after I feel through her roof." Cloud smiled a little, remembering. "She told me about her first boyfriend. A SOLDIER. Sound familiar?" He wanted Zack to know that Aerith had remembered him. "We got to talking. When Shinra went after her, I couldn't just leave her. After the plate fell, it wasn't safe for her in Midgar anymore. I think she knew, though, that there was something she had to do, some way she needed to help the Planet. She tried to help me, too. Tried, I think, to get through to me and help me remember, right up until she had to leave."