"He's the same as he was last week." Angeal does not consider that being okay, but it was ... stable. "Healthy enough by all accounts, just ... not the same man I've known half my life. Doesn't stop me from worrying though." That's an easy admittance to make, Angeal worried constantly about everyone, probably where all the wrinkles came from, if he wasn't simply aging abnormally fast. "..There do seem to be certain themes from Wardens." It's all the same job.

Cloud was on that list of people to worry about, whether he wanted to be or not. "While I left for Genesis it was also my hope to bring him back. I didn't intend to stay AWOL for long. And then ... things got out of hand. Although every SOLDIER is equal to a platoon of normal troops, we work best in groups. And Sephiroth, Genesis and I .. there wasn't much we couldn't accomplish together." Sure they were sent on separate missions all the time, but unified? "But we let our focus on ourselves blind us. And we went our separate ways, and we died. One by one."

He drains his glass in one long swig before setting it on the old wood magazine table. "I already know what focusing on myself gets."