Like a ball of violet fire, Chaos rocketed up into the night sky, past the mint flame of the behemoth that was Omega. In fact, when he reached the summit of his ascent, he placed himself right into its path.

What's he doing...? raced through Cloud's mind, as wide confused eyes locked onto the sight, unable to look away. His heart was racing, his breathing quickened, and Chaos just hung there in midair, like a little marionette carrying out its own destiny at the Planet's whim.

No... he thought, looking up at it, Omega continuing to ascend, No, no, no! This can't happen! Vincent is... Vincent is in there, not just Chaos! That's his body going to die if- and it stopped right there. He'd said it, well, thought it, rather, but even that was bad enough. 'Die'. Vincent was going to die. After so much, and so long, here they were, at the brink of world destruction all over again...

...and the first time it was everyone's lives at stake. The second time it was solely his own, Cloud's, Cloud's life. And he didn't even need to accept the call to battle, but he did so because it was his duty. If he had chosen, he could have run away, left Sephiroth to be dealt with by someone else. He didn't doubt that they could've won...

...but this was different. Chaos and Omega were beings of the planet, born only to enact the parts they'd been assigned eons and eons ago. Vincent was just... along for the ride. The world was going to end, millions of lives would just... cease if someone did not stop it. And this time, that someone was Vincent. And in order to stop it, Vincent needed to die.

And up above, miles above the surface of the planet, Chaos' wings furled, wrapping around itself, and he began to plummet down, down, down towards the soil. Towards Omega. Towards his own sacrifice.

There was an explosion, a white light, and a chill wind sharper and brighter than anything Cloud had ever known. More terrible than drowning in the lifestream, more beautiful than Holy's shield, brighter than the light of the sun, and darker than the depths of the Northern Crater. A flurry of a million different extreme senses that made his mind sting dizzily, and his vision fade as he was flattened out against the ground with the gust of power that shot out and encircled the planet at their collision.

Slowly each one of them scraped their way up to their feet, Yuffie bounding up first, Tifa next, Shelke slowly rising. Cloud got up, standing erect with his head thrown back to see the sky... Cid, Reeve, and Barret followed a moment later. Red XIII hadn't even been knocked over at all.

The daylight glow slowly, slowly faded, the white light falling down like snowflakes, or like a million shooting stars from the moonlit sky. Omega was gone, Chaos was gone. Vincent was gone.

"Vincent..." Yuffie breathed, her eyes darting around the darkness in vain search of him. "Vincent...!"

As if on cue, a new color made itself known among the frost, that same vivid red-violet, drifting down like a fluid flame burning up the chunks of snow that dared come too near. It came slowly, almost reverently. Like the gentle wafting of a red cloak in the breeze, like the leather of a tattered wing, severed and bleeding.

"Vincent." Shelke stoically remarked, her eyes following the flame's descent with just as much rapture as everyone else's.

"No..." Cloud breathed, speaking at last.

"It can't be." Tifa shook her head disbelievingly.

There was a strange sort of feeling in the air. Apprehensive, yet calm... anticlimactic. A huge paradox. It was like birth... like a whole new world had begun, yet some remnant of the old world had, by pure chance alone, managed to make the crossing into this future. But looking around, Cloud could tell he was the only one among his companions who thought so. Already he could see the light of hope dying on their faces. Some had turned away, Tifa and Red, and Barret. They'd already given up on him. Tears were pooling on Yuffie's face, slowly falling over the curve of her high cheek bones. Shelke still looked on in what seemed to be cold indifference... but the swordsman new better. He knew that same look of hers all too well from looking into Vincent's eyes... but one way or another, the feeling all of their expressions conveyed was the same. Loss, sorrow...

"No..." Cloud shook his head quickly, sending his blonde spikes quavering atop his head. Tifa and Yuffie looked up. "I'm going to go find him." he said determinedly, taking a step forward toward the would-be landing sight of the purple fire.

"Cloud!" Yuffie turned to him, voice tear-choked, a mix between complete relief and hope, and complete distress and misery.

"I don't think..." Tifa piped up, glancing over her shoulder slowly, "...that there'll be much left to find."

At her comment, an oppressed hush fell over the entire group. Cid took a nervous drag of his cigarette, and anxiously fiddled with it in his hands after. Another sob came from Yuffie, at the same time that a stubborn, desperate determination took hold on Cloud, and he silently strode forth into the wreckage.

"Cloud!" Tifa called urgently after him, "Cloud, wait!"

But he didn't listen. Only two or three steps out into the winding path of twisted metal that now made up the Midgar streets, he broke into a run and was off like a shot in the dark.

The others watched as he left, did nothing, just watched. They'd all long since learned not to get in Cloud's way if he wanted something. The only thing they underestimated in this case was how much he wanted it...

-

The worst thing about the fall was the anticipation of hitting the ground. Wingless, and broken he fell, unable to do anything to stop himself. Alive, but not for long... and the agonizing moments rushed by like the current of air going past him, too fast, and too slow at the same time. Too fast, because there were so many things he had yet to do, as if he could do them now as he plummeted toward the earth... but either way, there was no time left. Too slow, because he would've much preferred a quick, clean death to this, which gave him the horrible chance to think out all the what ifs.

He saw only the blinding red light glimmering around him, and sometimes when it flickered so that it left some gap above him, he could see the dark sky, and the bright moon... and he almost smiled. As the ground came rushing up behind him, he somehow thought of the bright side: at least he'd saved the world.

Then came the worst part yet. With a clean snap, he hit the cold metal ground. For a moment, he was frozen in shock, eyes wide, arms and legs splayed out in all directions. His head spun, vision painfully fading in and out of blackness from the harsh impact with the floor, neck stinging with whiplash. He couldn't feel anything below the middle of his back, apart from the sensation of some cold liquid spreading and enveloping him.

So... his 'nearly indestructible' body had pulled through again, and in the worst way yet. As he lay there, head thrown back in a direction it shouldn't naturally go, he thought of what would happen now. He'd be stranded here, with his back broken and his neck snapped, and bleed to death while all his companions thought he was already dead from the fall, left, and built up some monument in his honor... but that was far in the future. Nevertheless, he'd probably be here for hours...

Closing his eyes he decided to just wait this out. Wouldn't be long now. Couldn't be much longer. If he was lucky, maybe the dreams would take him.

-

It was not proximity to the glowing red mass that made it's inner shape any more discernable... no normal human could have seen that from within the light. It was mako-cultured eyes that locked on the dark form within as it went falling... but it's descent was too rapid, and he couldn't run that fast. Cloud wasn't even sure what he expected to do, if he could get there in time... catch him? More like break his fall... then they'd both be injured, and then what? While he thought this, the light disappeared behind the twisted metal buildings of Midgar, effectively barring it from his sight.

With a new determination surging through him like a second wind, he picked up his pace and ran, ran full-tilt toward the 'ground zero' of the crash. His boots skidded across the dusty surface of the plate as he came to a halt near what should have been the spot... but he looked around wildly and saw nothing...

...then... something far off, just a tiny glint in the distance caught his eye. Walking quickly forward, he approached the little dangling metal thing...

A fine silver chain was knotted and tangled in itself, and hung over a curved hook torn from a fallen support beam. At the end of it dangled a very familiar little pendant... three fierce animalian heads came out the top, with an extended claw to the left, and wing to the right. The bottom curved down into a pawed foot, with another hanging chain for a tail. It sat there, swinging like a pendulum.

Disbelieving, Cloud's hand darted out and snatched up the little Cerberus, holding it closer to his face, confirming that it was the same one. If this was here... then where was Vincent? He looked up, glancing around, briefly surveying the area before moving on. "Vincent?" he called out, voice quavering with a kind of fear that sounded unnatural to him. "Vincent, where are you? I know you're here!" he tried to convince himself.

He suddenly caught site of something off in the distance, illuminated gently by the poisonous mako glow that fell all around in a circle, but never within the circle... like it had some kind of aversion to the ground within, which the ex-Soldier just realized throbbed with a faint purple... like the fire from the sky.

"Vincent!" his footsteps quickened to a run, and he came crashing through the light accumulation of glowing dust around the circle's edge. Inside, a dark shape lay sprawled against the pavement, a half-burned, half-torn red cloak was twisted around his broken body. One arm was thrown out to the side in a way it probably wasn't supposed to bend, and his neck was twisted painfully so that he couldn't imagine it not being broken. "Oh Shiva, Vincent..." Cloud murmured, kneeling by him, his hands hovering just above the body of his friend... he didn't want to touch, just in case it would cause further injury... but...

Carefully he reached out, and rolled the man over on his back. A sudden, strangled cry escaped his throat, like the stifled, pained squeak of an animal. Tears welled up in his closed eyes, shining through the thick dark lashes, and, pitying, Cloud reached out and brushed them away with careful gloved fingers. The eyes opened.

Their usually powerful and piercing red glow was muted... faded so that it looked like they were bloodshot from crying, and he blinked a few times, as if he couldn't really see what was right there in front of him. And he couldn't... not very well. Everything was blurry, and he'd be damned if he didn't have a crack in his skull giving him this splitting headache, and probably impeding some of his brain functions... like sight... But the bright yellow chocobo-head was all he needed to know the man worriedly leaning over him.

An uncharacteristic smile came to Vincent's lips... but then... he was dying, why should he hide it? "Cloud..."

"Oh Shiva, Vincent..." Cloud repeated, looking him over. The man was... almost irreparably battered, it seemed. Blood was still pouring out of his head, one arm seemed to be both dislocated and broken, ribs were certainly cracked by the jagged way Vincent was breathing, and bones jutted out of his skin in some cases, at odd angles, visible through blood, and pierced leather clothes. "This looks really bad..." he was suddenly very aware of the other man's mortality... sure time couldn't kill him, the one force that inevitably killed everything else, except for Vincent... but battle could just as easily as it could kill any man. He was not immune to that.

The man groaned softly, partially at his own weakness. Ancients, it hurt. It hurt so much... he was so cold... and Cloud was right there, so close, if he could only just...

"Take me..." he slowly became aware of his voice speaking, "...I have to..."

"Shh." Cloud ordered, pressing a finger firmly to Vincent's bloodied lips, "I've got to help you, that comes first."

"Then please..." Vincent insisted, reaching up and grasping Cloud's wrist with his relatively un-damaged claw-hand. He had a promise to keep... promises to other people came before promises to himself. So, Cloud... he thought bitterly, ...you'll have to wait. You might never know... but Shelke... I promised Shelke... "Take me... to Lucrecia's cave..."

-

Cloud watched with creased eyebrows and complete pity in his blue eyes. Vincent was so weak... he'd never seen him this weak, and yet... commanding. How could he deny this man, this man especially, what could in all likelihood be his final wishes, but oh how Cloud wished they wouldn't be.

He slowly reached out, gingerly sliding his arms under the trembling man, and lifting him up off the ground. A few choked cries of pain came from Vincent, but for the most part he could do nothing but lie limply in Cloud's grasp. The swordsman worked the gunman's head onto his shoulder, and was sure to keep it there as he walked back toward his bike, avoiding the rest of the group at all costs.

It wasn't long before Vincent was propped up in front of him, Cloud sitting a little farther back than he normally would on his bike. He reached forward past the semi-conscious man to grip the handlebars and start the machine up. The ex-Turk jumped, startled at the first rumble of the engine, but soon settled back down, head still on the blonde's shoulder.

Cloud took note that his companion had already started to heal... the bloodflow had stopped, something which he was incredibly thankful for, and the protruding bones had seemed to slide back into place. He said nothing about how much his heart hurt after Vincent asked to be taken to Lucrecia... he asked no questions to Vincent, or to himself about why he was doing this? He knew what would happen... Vincent would hole himself up there in that little cave, spiral into depression, and never be seen by anyone again, but... that was what he... wanted. And so they roared off down the road.

-

"Don't think this is over, Valentine." Cloud said hoarsely as he lifted the sleeping Vincent into his arms and off the motorcycle again. The cool mist of the waterfall barring entry to Lucrecia's cave engulfed them for a moment, and then they came out the other side.

He carried the dark gunman over the dirty floor, past the glowing crystals that poked out from all odd angles, right to the very shore of the small spring, bubbling up from the cave earth here, and no doubt heavily mako-poisoned. It was here that he gently lay him down, sighing quietly by his side for a moment before he stood up. The warm glow of the light here gave the cave a peaceful ambience... but even he could feel that every rock was permeated with a deep-seated feeling of loss, mourning, and sorrow... he glanced back down at the sleeping man on the floor. This couldn't be good for him, but...

No questions asked, this is what Vincent wanted. He'd give him one year, though he imagined everybody else would give him much less. Vincent was stubborn, though, he wouldn't leave. One year, and I'll come for you... Cloud thought to himself as he walked back out, making his way to his bike, looking back over his shoulder only once as he left, and resolved himself to stay away despite the longing, ...and on that day you'll leave with me, I swear it.

---

Author's Ending Note Thingy: By god, I've finally finished this chapter... and thus concludes the whole fic! Can you believe it? YAAAY! It's been so long since I've updated anything, I didn't think this would be the first fic I'd do... oh well, hopefully this will spur me into the other fics I have that much more desperately need updating.

Anyway, it's officially concluded, sorry for the out-of-order-ness, Dirge of Cerberus messed up my story... XD I couldn't stand for that, so I added two more chapters right in the center of things. Too bad, deal with it. There's a sequel coming! Not too sure when, but keep your eye out... or put me on author alert! winkwink.