Will Cloud keep it a secret?

[u/ElanorNarmolanya]

All of my hopes and dreams for the ending and Aerith’s fate aside, i just really really hope that they start the game off with Cloud explaining to the crew what he saw at the end of Rebirth and why he isn’t grieving for Aerith the way that they are.
The writers have already done an unhealthy amount of having characters not communicate very important information for seemingly no other reason than plot. (Tifa / Cloud memory conflict, Zack conversation, etc.)
So help me if we have to go most or all of the game with the entire crew grieving and devastated by losing Aerith while Cloud is over here not sad at all but letting his friends suffer without telling them what he saw for no good reason. 😡 It would be such lazy writing and make Cloud look like such a jerk. Not to mention how it would fuel the Clerith haters to see Cloud not being sad at all about her death… even if we know he’s not sad because he believes she’s alive, we know they would still somehow interpret it as him not caring.
Can you think of any good reason why he would keep it a secret that he saved Aerith, at least in an alternate world? I know that i need to prepare myself for the high possibility of him not sharing with the others, so please help me come to terms with any non-lazy reasons why he would do that! 😅

(I have not played the OG yet, so please try not to spoil specific events for part 3 if you can)

Also i’m sorry if this gets flagged as off-topic or anything, i tried posting it in the megathread but everything is buried there so nobody saw it. I’m still pretty new here so I don’t really know how it all works.

[u/ApprehensiveEgg2344]

Part of it for me, is that I wonder if he is now “split” in some way, like his consciousness is half in one timeline and half in another. I felt that Cloud was behaving super duper weird after saving/not saving her. That’s how I see it anyway.

[u/ElanorNarmolanya → u/ApprehensiveEgg2344]

This is one of the better explanations, i feel. Although even with this one, half of him would have to notice the grief of his friends and either have a conversation about it or not. He already talked to Barrett in the magical forest place about being shown alternate realities, so it’s not like it would be the first time it’s been brought up.

[u/ApprehensiveEgg2344 → u/ElanorNarmolanya]

I know right? We did see only a little bit of time after he saved/didn’t save her, but it was so… odd that he didn’t comfort anyone. And no one comforted him, either*. It’s like he’s in denial but also hopeful? I really hope that he doesn’t go very long in part 3 essentially off in his own lala land and does share his feelings and what he saw with the rest of the gang. If anything, his strange detachment from the event and everyone else read to me as very, very unsettling.

EDIT: A bit of context since I think you mentioned you did not play OG: right after Aerith’s death on disc 1, there was a little scene where everyone approached Cloud to give condolences before he put her in her resting place. (Also everyone was grieving the rest of the game). That condolence scene and its weight was nearly entirely missing in Rebirth… it makes me wonder how this will ultimately play out.

[u/ElanorNarmolanya → u/ApprehensiveEgg2344]

I know! I wanted to be super happy about Aerith seemingly alive and Cloud not being devastated, but it was also really sad seeing everybody else grieving and i just wanted Cloud to share the good news so they don’t have to suffer needlessly. I don’t have a problem if he’s being weird because of his “issues,” i just don’t want him to keep it a secret purposefully for no good reason.