Warnings: Character death, men loving men, brief mentions of sex, much angst and so on.
My notes: An entry for the Outer Space contest at Valenwind-Luvers on DeviantART. It wasn't supposed to be this sad, seriously. It was going to be a light and fluffy story but it got out of hand. Well, I hope that someone will enjoy it. And I love Chaos too much to not include him, so he has a major role in this. Pairing is mainly Vincent/Chaos with Cid, with the side-pairing Reeve with Rufus very briefly mentioned. The title is from the Marriage Vows, taken from the phrase "Until Death to us Part".
So much time had passed. Chaos could no longer determinate just how long. Thousands of years? Millions? It was so hard to tell. A lot of time had been spent sleeping, or just unplanned flickering around the Planet. But now the Planet was no more.
After the events of Meteor and all the later happenings, Vincent had been placated. All his questions from his life before the demons had been answered, no pain or remorse remained. He had begun a new life - with his pilot. Vincent was happy, happier than ever before. He and Cid were happy. They traveled the world together in the Highwind and spent time with their friends. In the nights, they held each other tight while they slept, or made love. Yes, it took a couple of years for them both to accept their feelings for each other, but what did that matter? They got 50 wonderful years together before Cid peacefully passed away in his sleep, over 80 years old. A lot of people, including Vincent, had worried about Cid's health considering his smoking habits, but Yuffie had been right; Cid was just too stubborn to let something like that kill him. Instead, he died a calm death in the arms of his beloved. His heart simply stopped beating. Vincent regretted nothing about their relationship. The only thing that pained him slightly was the fact that he never got to grow old and die with his pilot. Instead, he still looked 27 years old and had no end in sight.
It had been hard at first, of course, without Cid by his side. Vincent felt like he didn't belong anywhere. He abandoned the house in Rocket Town which had been their home. He sold the ships - he had no need to material memories. He traveled the world, now alone, for a while. A lot of people dear to him had disappeared already. Cloud disappeared a long time ago, simply walked out of Tifa's bar and was never seen again. They concluded that he probably had taken his own life somewhere, but he was never found. Reeve, one of Vincent's other closest friends, died a couple of years ago as well because of his bad heart, leaving a crushed Rufus Shinra behind. How come everyone who dies leaves someone behind? In the end, Vincent settled in Wutai with their now elderly leader Yuffie for a while. When Yuffie inherited the throne of Wutai they had all been very doubtful, but she had turned out to be a fair and just leader.
More years passed. All those who remained began to die, and soon Marlene was the only friend he had left. Vincent left Wutai after Yuffie's funeral and settled in with Marlene and her children and husband. But her husband feared and despised him, and Vincent ended up feeling like an unwanted house-cat. He left them most of the money he had gotten from selling Cid's things before disappearing without a trace. Now utterly alone, he went to the mountains one day and found a little hidden cave. He settled in there, and fell asleep.
When Vincent awoke, he had no idea how long he had slept. It could have been months, or years. When he did some research, he concluded that it had probably been about 200 years. He thought about tracking down the children of his friends, but decided against it. They didn't need to be weighted down with the memories of the past. And by now, Vincent was just a memory.
Surprisingly, Chaos was a huge support through all this. Vincent had thought his and Cid's relationship would pose a problem, but the old demon had been strangely accepting. And Vincent almost dared to say that the demon actually held some kind of affection for Cid. But it was hard to tell with such an ancient and different being as Chaos. But the demon had helped him through some hard times, and had actually been a good friend when Vincent needed it. After his long slumber Vincent began to lose the energy to live. Chaos coaxed him to go on for a few years, working as a mercenary to protect people from monsters. But then Vincent seemed to have had enough. He began to withdraw inside his own body more and more, leaving his body to be ruled by the demon. Soon, he no longer responded, and the body they shared was left in the hands of Chaos.
A couple of thousand years passed in a blur for the ancient demon who thought such a short time to be very measly. Then, the Planet itself began to decay. This was the true end for it, and one day it fell apart, making all life on it join the Lifestream. Well, all except those who was beyond such things - like Chaos himself. The Lifestream and all the souls it held spread far across the universe, and Chaos followed. He traversed through galaxies, past others, often younger, planets and stars, for an uncountable amount of time. The darkness was soothing to the old demon, and the coldness and isolation welcome.
It would have continued like that forever, his eternal voyage in space, had not something called to him. The Lifestream that had spread after the destruction of the Planet had gone in all directions of space, spreading out and thinning, until it was impossible to track it. And yet, Chaos found a little speck of it, just a small fragment. It was sky blue, unlike the usual green taint of Mako, and looked like the sky of the Planet they had left behind. Chaos cradled the small fragment in his claws as he studied it. Suddenly, he was assaulted with feelings and memories.
The feeling of being spooned from behind by a solid body. The memory of a funeral. The feeling of hearing the man you love laugh. The memory of chapped lips on his. The feeling of fulfillment when being penetrated. The memory of an informal wedding. The feeling of... love.
Something, somewhere, in Chaos responded, and the old demon was surprised to feel Vincent, who had been gone for so long, respond to the fragment. Vincent, who Chaos had not been able to find within himself, and who he had assumed somehow died, emerged in his mind, aching to reach out to the small piece of Lifestream they held in their hands, to join it, but he was unable to take over the body that had once been only his. Chaos tried to communicate with Vincent, like he had been able to do before, but words seemed to be lost on the presence inside his head he was sure must be Vincent. Chaos tried to withdraw inside their body to leave it to Vincent, but after all this time he seemed to be rooted to it and unable to leave it to someone else. He tried to explain, and apologize, to Vincent, but the presence seemed to weaken and eventually faded away completely once more. All that remained was the softly glowing shard in clawed hands.
Chaos chest ached as he clutched the fragment closer to himself in the vast, infinite darkness of space. The ancient demon felt the wetness of a tear trail down his cheek. He didn't know whose sadness it was that he felt, but he held the fragment close to his heart and cried for the lovers who would never again be together.