Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Running out of Time ❯ Ending 1: Free ( Chapter 11 )

Okay, guys, this is it. The last chapter. Well, the FIRST last chapter. This is the tear-jerker version. Read it and review, and I'll post the happy ending. It IS sad, so be nice. I don't like the idea of being murdered; that'll make it kinda hard to write the HAPPY version…

 

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Disclaimer: FFVII belongs to Square-Enix. The plot bunny I have dubbed Fluffy, however, is ALLLL MINE!!!!!

 

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Running out of Time: Final Chapter.

 

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“Why don't you ask Aerith?”

 

Cloud blinked. He blinked again. Then, he smiled. Silently echoing Tifa's question of WHY, oh great holy Alexander WHY hadn't they thought of that at the beginning of this whole mess, he closed his eyes and projected his thoughts.

 

Aerith. I need you. I need help. Can you hear me?

 

He waited as the minutes went by. Finally, the light in the room seemed to condense into the form of the young Cetra. With a sad smile, Aerith opened her eyes to stand before them, an angel, she seemed, amongst the flowers. But only Cloud could see or hear her.

 

“Oh, Cloud…” she whispered. “Vincent… I'm so sorry.”

 

Cloud stepped forward, a painfully hopeful gleam in his eyes. “Aerith… is there was way to save Vincent? Can't you do something?”

 

Aerith gave Cloud the most heartbroken smile he'd ever seen. “Oh, Cloud… Chaos has returned to Gaia… there's nothing I can do about it. I can't break the rules. Even for a friend…” were it not for the fact that Cloud could feel the most abject sorrow radiating from the flowergirl, he would have screamed.

 

“What rules? Who cares about rules! They can be broken! Can't you make an exception? It's not his time, yet! Aerith…”

 

Aerith just shook her head sadly. “Nobody can break the laws of nature. Not even me. I'm sorry. Tell Vincent that I'm glad he thought my flowers were helpful. I'm sorry I can't help.”

 

Cloud shut his eyes tightly against the tears that threatened to leak out. He felt a sudden coolness and opened his eyes to see that Aerith had stepped forward to give him a ghostly embrace.

 

“Don't worry, I'll take good care of him when it is time… Goodbye, Cloud.”

 

Aerith faded, but Cloud remained rooted to the spot. Slowly, he sank to his knees, his mind blank in the face of his powerful denial. Even though she and Vincent already knew the answer, Tifa felt that she had to ask.

 

“What… did she say?”

 

She could barely hear Cloud's whispered reply. “She couldn't help. There's nothing that can be done.”

 

Tifa swallowed down her tears; she needed to be strong for Cloud and Vincent's sake. “Then I guess it's time to break the news, isn't it? Vincent? What do you want us to do?” Tifa was proud that her voice didn't even waver as she spoke.

 

Vincent found that he had been drifting off again. Shaking his head clear, he didn't even look up as he answered. After all, he couldn't be sure that he'd be looking at Tifa, anyway. “… I want to get out of here. Out of Edge. There's a spot I used to go to on the outskirts of Midgar… overlooking the city. By the sword.” Cloud knew that Vincent meant. Zack's grave. The view from the cliff was spectacular. In the few years since the clone incident, the landscape sprawling below had become green and alive, and the sunsets were breathtaking when viewed from the location. Cloud realized Vincent wasn't done. “I'd like… to go there. The others can come if they have anything to say, I suppose…”

 

Tifa nodded. “Vincent… what about the kids? Marlene will be…”

 

Vincent smiled. “Tell her… that I went to stay with Aerith. A long-term visit to see the flower-girl. She'll know it means, but I think she'll be able to accept it.”

 

Tifa nodded again before turning to go. Hesitating, she left with one last whispered sentence. “I'll gather everyone up. You guys should get going.”

 

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By the time Cloud had gathered everything up, Vincent was trembling with the pain again. There was just one thing left. “What do you want me to do with the Protomateria?”

 

Vincent thought about it for a moment. He smiled as an idea came to him. “Keep it. Or, if it's too painful of a reminder, you can give it to Yuffie… it's the one materia she never could steal from me.”

 

Cloud shook his head. “I… I'll keep it. What about the claw?”

 

Vincent frowned thoughtfully. “…Help me reattach it. I'll need two hands to hold on to you for the drive. We'll leave it on, after that. I don't like being crippled…”

 

Cloud sighed. Vincent would know best, he supposed. He pulled the metal monstrosity out of the items bag and squatted down next to the gunman. Vincent held out his arm.

 

“There's a mechanism in the port that connects the nerve to the wires so I have full control over the hand. It requires a twist to release, but you only need to insert it into the metal socket to reattach it. It's actually very clever, as far as the locking mechanism goes. Though the design is somewhat awkward…” He trailed off with a chuckle. The thing was better suited as a can opener than as an appendage. But it had its uses.

 

Cloud carefully lined up the connecting pieces and snapped them together. He hadn't been prepared for the gunman's reaction, though. Vincent tried to bite back a pained scream that came out as a muffle moan; the metal limb jerked away from Cloud of its own volition, gouging a bloody gash on the blonde's arm. Vincent flinched at Cloud's startled yelp.

 

“Sorry…”

 

Cloud shrugged. “It's all right; it'll heal. I just wasn't expecting that. It doesn't hurt too bad; it's not that deep.”

 

Vincent grunted. He was still upset that he had injured the blonde at all. Cloud helped Vincent carefully stand and led the gunman cautiously out of the church and to the waiting Fenrir.

 

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Cloud kept silent all the way to the cliff, deciding not to mention that the claw was cutting into the skin of his waist. He didn't really mind, if it meant that Vincent wasn't going to fall off. Approaching the cliff, he slowed down until they rolled to a stop, the Fenrir's roar quieted to a muted purr.

 

After a murmured “we're here,” Cloud gently lifted Vincent off of the bike and propped the gunman up against a tree that had, for some reason, managed to sprout up and grow rather tall in a scant handful of years. It was about as close to the cliff edge as it could get without being too close for a person to relax against it comfortably. Maybe whatever substance that was responsible for creating the monsters that had suddenly appeared in droves was also responsible for growing monster trees. Cloud grabbed the bag of items and positioned himself at the gunman's side. The trunk was wide enough for both of them to lean against it without having to sit uncomfortably close.

 

…He really needed to remember to tell Reeve about it later; they should investigate what WAS making monsters and freak plants appear where none had been before. It should take decades for a tree to get this big, not a paltry five years.

 

He sighed. No use in thinking about it now. There were more important things to be thinking about. Like Vincent. He reached to dig a potion out of the bag, bottles clinking noisily. But the gunman reached over to touch Cloud's arm.

 

“Don't bother. They aren't doing any good anymore. Besides, if there's no hope for recovery, why drag the process out? And after a while, I stop noticing the pain, anyway…”

 

Cloud brushed away a solitary tear and tossed the bag roughly aside. He thought he heard a bottle crack, but he didn't really care. They were useless, now, anyway.

 

Vincent sighed softly before speaking again. “Even if I can't see it, I can feel the difference out here. The air is cleaner. Warmer. I can picture this place so perfectly in my mind that it doesn't really matter, anyway… Sometimes, I'd come up here to think,” he murmured, “and I'd see that you had left fresh flowers… there… from the church.”

 

Cloud closed his eyes, remembering something he'd wanted to say earlier but had forgotten. “Aerith says you're welcome. About the flowers. She's glad they helped. And… she says she'll take care of you when… you know.” Vincent nodded wordlessly. They sat in comfortable silence for an hour or so until Cloud heard the muted roar of the Shera's engines. Tifa must have called Cid first and pulled everyone on the airship to bring them. It was the fastest way, he supposed. Sure enough, there it was, a shining silver speck that was quickly growing larger as it approached. Cloud didn't even look up as it went overhead to land some distance away behind them. After a few minutes, he heard hurried footsteps approach.

 

“Cloud! Vincent! I brought everybody! I even dragged Reeve here!” Tifa called as she came up to stand awkwardly off to the side.

 

One by one, they all came up the hill. Yuffie, Cid, Barret, Nanaki, Reeve, and Marlene had all come. Cloud turned to look at Tifa and gesture to Vincent's eyes before shaking his head. With a small gasp, Tifa nodded, and walked quickly over to whisper a warning to the others about this sudden negative development. Looking appropriately horrified, they all turned to look at the seated pair with a new level of respect and depression.

 

---

 

Each of them came up to pay their respects in their own way. Yuffie clung to Vincent and sobbed for a good ten minutes, expressing everything from apologies for stealing his materia to threatening him with never speaking to him again if he died. With a twisted smile, he just held onto the girl until she'd cried herself out. With a sniffle, she muttered a goodbye before running back to the Shera where she could cry without embarrassing herself in front of the other group members.

 

---

 

Barret was content to give a gruff “I'll miss ya, you damn vamp. Give Aerith a hello for me,” before walking away to stand off to the side awkwardly, staring at the city of Edge with a faraway look in his eyes. After a while, he shook his head and walked back to the ship with a curse.

 

---

 

At first, Cid cursed colorfully and stomped off. But, after a few minutes, he turned back with another bout of elaborate swearing to speak awkwardly.

 

“Vince… I… I'll miss ya, dammit! We all will. You're… a part of the family, you know?” He shifted uncomfortably. “Ah, @#$% it, I was never any good at this shit…”

 

Vincent chuckled. “We had some good times. Good memories. It's all right,” he murmured weakly. Cid just cursed and stormed back to his airship. But Cloud hadn't missed the tears on the older man's face. Cid was profoundly upset. Everyone dealt with grief in their own way.

 

---

 

Reeve came over and leaned against the tree, silent. But, after a while, he and Vincent began talking about old times as though nothing was out of the ordinary. By the time he had run out of things to say, Vincent seemed to have relaxed significantly. Wiping his eyes brusquely, Reeve whispered a choked farewell and walked away.

 

---

 

Marlene raced forward and threw herself (carefully- Tifa had warned her that Vincent was hurting) into Vincent's arms, crying unashamedly. “Why? Why do you have to leave?” Vincent raised the human hand to stroke her hair gently, soothingly.

 

“Because it's time for me to go. Don't worry,” he murmured. “I'll be with Aerith. Remember her?” Marlene nodded against the red fabric, sniffling. “I'm going to visit her. You'll see me again,” he whispered.

 

Marlene looked up, hopeful. “When?”

 

Vincent smiled convincingly. “In a very long time. When you see Aerith, you'll see me. Nobody goes away forever; they just go back to the lifestream,” he tried to sound reassuring. It seemed to work. Marlene, after all, was a rather precocious little girl. Curling up against Vincent, they simply sat for a while. Eventually, her breathing evened out in sleep and Tifa picked her up gently to take her back to the ship before returning to Vincent's side.

 

---

 

Nanaki contented himself with lying beside Vincent, like the faithful canine he so closely resembled. Vincent rested his human hand on the fire-wolf's head, idly scratching the itchy spot behind one ear. Even though Nanaki wasn't an animal, he still shared the same problems that came with walking on four legs and being somewhat lacking in the hands department. Twitching his tail, he finally spoke into the comfortable silence.

 

“I would like to stay, if that is all right with you, Vincent. After all, you and I have much in common.”

 

Both knew that they preferred each other's company to most of the other AVALANCHE members. They both knew that silence made better conversation than mindless chatter, and both had been victims of Hojo's demented experimentation. Vincent nodded, taking some small measure of comfort in Nanaki's presence.

 

---

 

Tifa also opted to remain with Vincent, saying that she had closed the bar for the next few days in light of the recent downward spiral of events. The four of them sat in companionable silence as the evening gave way to night.

 

---

 

For the next day, neither Nanaki nor Tifa could be persuaded to leave, so they spent the morning just talking. The idle conversation turned into reminiscing about memorable moments in the past. Vincent was oddly comforted by the leisurely conversation. It drew his mind away from more depressing trains of thought.

 

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As the end of the day neared, Cloud didn't bother hiding his grief any longer, or his need to be close to the gunman. Vincent was having trouble sitting upright, anyway, so Cloud shifted so that he was sitting behind Vincent, the gunman leaning comfortably back to rest against Cloud's chest. It was odd, but Cloud couldn't really recall a time where he'd felt so peaceful, despite his sorrow. After a while, he looked up with a gasp to see the form of Aerith standing silhouetted before him. She smiled.

 

“I wanted to be here. And that's not all. Look, Cloud.” And she pointed to the rusty Buster Sword embedded in the earth off to his left. There, leaning against the sword was…

 

“Zack?”

 

The deceased SOLDIER smiled and walked over to join Aerith. When Tifa gave a startled gasp, echoed closely by Nanaki's, Cloud realized that they, too, could see the spectral figures. Aerith walked over to stand next to Tifa at Cloud's left. Zack came over to sit beside Cloud.

 

“Hey, friend,” he whispered, violet eyes overly-bright. “We decided that we wanted to be here for you. We're… kinda bending the rules a little, but you need us.” He laid a ghostly hand on Cloud's shoulder. “I'm sorry, Vincent. But, when you're… well, we're here to see you off. You know, cause you're a friend, even if I never got to meet you before I got killed. Any friend of Cloud is a friend of mine, right buddy?” Cloud responded with a trembling smile.

 

Vincent whispered a barely-audible thanks. The pain had been taken over by numbness, at this point, and a lethargy that seemed to fill his limbs with lead to the point that he couldn't muster enough strength to do more than twitch his fingers. He was so tired. He could tell by the coolness in the air that it was around sunset…

 

“Cloud… describe the sunset for me, will you?” He whispered. Swallowing around the lump in his throat, the blonde complied hoarsely.

 

“It's mostly gone, but earlier… it was more golden than I've seen in a while. Must be the clear air. Like the color of the sun before it gets too high in the sky in the morning in winter. Gold and orange. And now… Now it's mostly violet… but it was red like blood just a minute ago.”

 

Vincent gave a weak chuckle. “How appropriate.” He closed his eyes for the last time. “A fitting tribute… a fitting tribute.” He sighed. Finally, the pain had disappeared altogether. His breathing eased. Cloud reached down to stroke the gunman's cheek, knowing that Vincent found the contact reassuring, his sense of sight no longer allowing him to see Cloud's emotions or reactions by watching his face. Vincent barely felt the touch, though. His mind had begun to wander. If this was what death had felt like the first time, he wouldn't have minded so much. For the first time since that day thirty-five years ago, he felt extraordinarily peaceful. At last, after all these years, he could finally rest. With a final sigh, he relaxed into Cloud's arms.

 

“…Vincent?”

 

But the gunman was already gone.

 

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For a moment, Cloud was treated to the bizarre double-image of Vincent both laying motionless in his arms and rising to his feet. With a final ghostly embrace, Zack and then Aerith rose to stand beside what Cloud realized to be Vincent's spirit.

 

“Thank you, Cloud,” he said with a smile. This Vincent was strong, free of pain, and free of the weight of the sins he had carried for so long. And in that instant Cloud knew that this was what Vincent wanted. As Cloud watched, the three figures slowly seemed to blur out of focus, until he blinked and they were gone.

 

Tears coursing down his face unchecked, Cloud bowed his head, cradling Vincent's still form against him as the crimson and violet sky slowly faded into twilight.

 

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Everybody knows so well

 

What's written on the Doomsday Bell.

 

Our fates are sealed by our own hand;

 

So let the dirge ring through this stifled land.

 

---

 

No sacred hand to carve into your stone;

 

Those words may be graven by your hand alone.

 

A ghosted whisper of burning hope;

 

A path concealed by the lines you wrote.

 

---

 

You search for what cannot be found

 

As your footsteps echo on hallowed ground.

 

A prayer uttered to stagnant air,

 

The truth, the lies, your life laid bare.

 

---

 

Behind closed eyes we can truly see

 

The fraying rope of our destiny;

 

The path will find you in this cheerless land,

 

The stillborn questions entombed in sand.

 

---

 

Trapped in this city of steel and lies,

 

You have no worth but what death buys.

 

Strive to secure your own damnation;

 

Your blood and tears are the only salvation.

 

---

 

Tears of joy and tears of pain,

 

A sea of tears with nothing gained.

 

But when all is lost to death and shame,

 

The tears alone are what remain.

 

---

 

Requiem loosed on static air;

 

Doom's bell rings the warning knell.

 

Come, Destruction, thy name is Ruin,

 

To wake me from this endless Hell.

 

---

 

Owari.

 

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That last bit… was… I dunno. An “Ode to Vincent,” maybe. I DID write it with him in mind. Half of it was inspired by a song that was playing on the radio that has absolutely NOTHING to do with these words, as it was CHEERFUL. I just had the melody stuck in my head, then I changed it a bit and got this… idea. For words. After coming up with the first two lines, I decided that I might as well write more. Then I thought, “Hmmm… this reminds me vaguely of Vincent,” and I wrote the rest of it. So, whatever. Absolutely spontaneous creative poetry/song lyrics. But they work, ne?

 

This is the end of Running out of Time. To placate those of you who are aching for a somewhat happier closure, I will be posting an alternate ending soon. But I need to work on it a bit. I want it to live up to this one. It has to be just as good if it's going to be worthy as an ending to this tragic tale. Read and review to speed up the writing process, you guys! By the way, none of these chapters have been beta'ed. I guess it's a perk of being a little OCD about grammar… anywho, I just wanted to point it out. Yes, I am bragging. Sorry. But, my writing must not be TOO painful, otherwise you guys would have complained, right? Which means that this experiment to decide whether or not I need a beta was successful. I can write well enough on my own, I guess…

 

Keep your eyes out; the happy ending is coming very soon!