Another one bites the dust.

The black triple-headed beast in my hand coughed up another hairball. The soldier to my left was no more.

Another one bites the dust.

Before the other could shoulder his highly inferior, military grade piece, or even blink or scream "Shit!", for that matter, right hand exploded up. That was nothing compared to the explosion of the gun in my hand, and the subsequent explosion of my rival's head.

And another one gone, and another one gone.

My hand had already holstered Cerberus, and dove into my red shroud of a cloak. As the door before me exploded outward, my hand mimicked it. The newer anonymous soldiers inside the room were surprised to find that the amazingly large automatic weapon in my hand did make house calls.

Another one bites the dust.

As they died, I noticed that one man had hidden behind the table just inside. The weapon dropped from his stiffened hands.

My curt nod of approval was lost on him.

As I approached, I saw it was actually a young boy. Probably conscripted at a young age. Stolen from his family. To fight a war that wasn't necessary.

I banished my toys to their caves, and opened my hands in a gesture of conversation.

"Child. How old might you be?" My gruff, voice, oddly enough, seemed to calm him, not scare him.

"I'm 19… sir…"

"I was like that once. Forced against your will into this business?"

Knowing the context, he lowered his head, and lifted it up again.

"Same here. Our lives are quite alike, yours and mine. Stolen from parents who could care less, being dead. Forced to serve. Tampered with, mentally and physically."

His eyelid, on the left side of his face, just under the invisible patch of hair, a lock he surely would have been granted if he were free, twitched.

"They can hear us talk. They will kill you. And me, too… Fucking... bastards.." The boy shuddered at his realization.

"I not at all." I replied. "They won't kill you."

He looked hopeful.

"This is where our similarities end. I will live."

BANG.

Cerberus took another meal. There was no choice, really. Just one of the problems in the world. Problems I needed to cure. For the sake of those who were good. Like the child. Like me…

And, speaking of curing…

Hey, I'm gonna get you too.

There was my man. The core of this cancer. He already knew I had arrived. The blood from over half of his guardians on my clothes didn't seem to phase him.

He, of course, had already prepared himself a barricade of a few more meatbags. Cannon fodder.

"Hello, Vincent Valentine. It's been a while." The man was Rufus Shin-Ra. Not who we all knew back then. Now a robotic shell, with no heart. He'd lost it when he betrayed us, revealing himself as the brains behind the Deep Ground operations, and in half a year most of us were dead. Minus me and Red XIII.

Rufus had then proceeded to plunge the world under his control, in the rest of the year. The remainder of Avalanche had been the only hope for everyone, and one by one they slipped away. Cloud and Tifa at last were taken by age. I, being immortal, was burdened with even more work, as was Red, my last true companion. Surely, there were others that I had befriended, young bloods of this age, but they had been taken, too. In our darkest hour, I was taxed with beginning the last strike. The one to give us peace, or to not do so.

Before the first guard could take a step, I was there, leaping across several meters. The first guard went out with a golden claw ripping into his face, the second-

The second exploded.

As I floated through nothingness, the in between, I guessed that they had been equipped with explosive devices. That one had probably been detonated by my quarry. The ringmaster Himself. And then he sidled up to me, his trademark shotgun in hand. With that, my savaged body was ripped apart, my pained sigh silenced, though he he made it so Ithe next few moments would be those of torture. He probably got a kick out of it.

No, no! I couldn't die. There was too much... too much left to accomplish. They had destroyed everything one could love. The innocent had to be saved! I needed to help them! But, what for these trivial requests. Death stops for no one. I was gone. And with the last seconds of my existence on the earth, I realized the sheer irony of my quest. Everyone would be saved. Everyone who opposed Neo Shin-Ra empire, everyone who was forced to be with it. All by the gun or the bomb. Just as I had been saved, forty-eight seconds ago. Had I a corporeal mouth, I would have laughed.

Another one bites the dust.