In all fairness, they could well have done with such a talk at points in the past, not that either of them were one to call out hindsight but perhaps current circumstances could well have been dampened, if not avoided altogether. As Sephiroth settled to the fact that Mary were sat there, the atmosphere did seem to turn into one charged with the knowledge that he'd known for a while it might be only a matter of time before she might have come to discuss certain things with him.

Mary had always been there, throughout a large bulk of Sephiroth's difficulties in the months before Terra had slipped away from them. At the very least, he owed her a little more than the standard brush-off of an explanation that he'd be inclined to dish out to most others.

"I always had strength-" Mary's frown at the small slip of the confidence he always had worn so stubbornly threatened to fracture it once more. Sephiroth's monotone voice in trying to explain now, told a story of a man that wasn't sure he wanted to care anymore.

"-I'd look forwards, to the next objective, the next record to break. I was always good at pushing that bar of excellence; in my training, in my duties. To always improve, and do better. Not once did I break, under pressure from myself or from others."

He blinked away from Mary's face, down towards where his free hand rested in his lap, gingerly moving those bound up fingers. He hadn't only taken a bullet to the shoulder, after all, his fists had met crystal several times before that. Sephiroth chewed on his thoughts for a long moment, idly running the inside corner of his mouth between teeth discreetly; it almost seemed to make him pout.

"I- did all of that myself. I had grown out of being troubled, there was not ever the time."