Chapter 10
A/N: sorry about the last chapter guys…I thought it was a great idea…but maybe not. Saving time isn't always the best way to do something, but I didn't really have anything good written for the parts I kind of just summarized. This chapter too is probably going to be short-ish. Again, sorry. Honestly I'm kind of ready to just be finished with it… mostly so I can go on to the next in the series… I think. (enter long amount of time---later) Sorry, but I think I'm going to skip a lot or mention it briefly…and this will be the last chapter.
At mid-day Va and Tidus came upon a great winged thing, called a zu. They were hard put to stay alive, the battle being more of a challenge than was welcome at that moment, but from out of thin air came Auron to save them. Lulu showed up not long after he did, casting bio to poison the overgrown bird. After that, the party decided to head north, where they ran into Wakka. Eventually, they were all together again, and night was closing in.
"I have good news though!" Rikku announced. Heads ripped in her direction. "But you all have to promise you won't tell ANYONE about it." Naturally everyone agreed. "There is a place we can go that's not far from here…but I can't get there at night."
"What is it?" Tidus asked.
"Home," was the answer. "But like I said, I can't get us there right now…"
"So we're stuck out here in the middle of nowhere," put in Yx.
"Yes," Auron confirmed. "And we'll have to conserve tents." Yx groaned at that; Va almost half-sighed; Vincent nodded faintly, and Harper glanced at him. For a while it had seemed that he had gotten out of whatever ditch he had dug for himself, but then…she wasn't so sure of herself.
The sleeping arrangements were this: Tidus roomed with Wakka; Yuna with Lulu; Yx, Va, and Rikku all somehow fit in one tent; Auron and Kimahri; and finally Vincent and Harper. They had all pulled names out of an empty item bag…and that's what the outcomes were. Everyone thought that maybe, somehow, Vincent and Harper's situation could be changed; but in the end everyone figured it would be fine. After all, they didn't seem like the type to get into any kind of trouble…Though it wasn't a reassuring thing to have them put in their own two cents about how it wasn't a good idea.
But the tents were pitched before night had truly fallen, the temperature plummeted, and people were thankful there were extra blankets. Harper and Vincent set up their sleeping palates close together for warmth during the night and lay down to go to bed.
…Neither could sleep. Vincent was drowning in his ditch again, and Harper somehow knew that. "Vincent?" Harper rolled over. "Are you—"
"No." He was little more than a black lump against the black shadows of the night.
She scooted closer, not wanting to have to raise her voice even a little: the dead desert air carried a sound. Other people weren't insomniacs. "What's the matter?" she asked as she laid a hand on his shoulder.
His human hand came up and brushed hers off, not rudely. "Please. Don't touch me." Through the inches that separated hem, both could feel the others heat. Vincent was warmer than Harper. He rolled to his other side to face her, and put a hand before himself to help balance.
"Did I…" she in turn turned over and lay back down, trying to get him to hold her in a hug-like manner. Vincent seemed distant, faint, when he was in this…depression. Perhaps not on purpose, still…
She felt a hand between her shoulder blades; it was shaking. She was being pushed away. She wanted to be held, to be reassured, yet she was being pushed away by the one person who could do such. "Vin..." Harper's voice cracked.
"Please, don't…" he said as he turned down his covers. There were clinks as he pulled on his metal shoes. "Right now, I can't…"
Harper called on the strength she knew rested in her limbs and stood in front of Vincent with the exit behind her. Her face was an iron mask void of emotion. "If anyone's leaving here, it'll be me." She left unsaid that she had long ago refused to be walked out on, by anyone. Vincent Valentine wasn't the first man to come into her life.
He just looked at her with the same sorrow that was in his eyes as was in his voice. Vincent knew, somehow, exactly what she was doing. He put a hand on her shoulder, moving her easily with a gentle touch, guiding her back the few steps she had taken from her bed-mat. "It's not you. You've done nothing wrong." He knew even before he said it that it was such a clichéd phrase that she probably wouldn't believe it.
He was right. In Harper's mind, those few words only solidified her fears.
But he continued before he left. "Things will be alright."
The door flapped shut behind him. Harper was utterly alone in the tent, and in her heart. As she lay back down to snatch whatever precious, fleeting sleep she could she felt the bedding to her left. Vincent's warmth was still there, but wouldn't be for long, she knew. Harper stared with watery eyes for a long time at that small remnant, then switched her gaze to the door. Her tears burst forth then and she tried futilely to swipe them away with her fingers. More replaced those.
She had wanted to be held, hugged, but she had been pushed away by the one she loved—the only one who could hold, hug, and reassure her.
Harper woke in the morning as the sun came up, and with it the temperature. She didn't remember falling asleep, but knew she had cried her way there. She wasn't ready to let go of the one thing in her life that made even the littlest bit of sense. A small sound behind her startled her. "Waky waky!" It was Yx.
"Ah!" Harper jumped nearly out of her skin. "What are you doing in here!??"
"I was told to wake you up!" Yx explained rapidly.
"Great." She had thought it was Vincent. "I'm coming." Yx left in a hurry to do … something. Harper pried herself from under the covers and began packing up the few belongings. All of Vincent's stuff was gone already.
There were battles at Home which were easily won. Shortly after that mess was cleaned up, Cid—Rikku's uncle—resurrected his airship. (Harper and Vincent shared a brief look that said "Cid Highwind…") On-board they encountered the Evrae. That was a fierce battle that took most of everyone's strength. Then it was on to Bevelle to crash Seymour's wedding plans. Yuna gave everyone a fright when she threw herself over the edge of Bevelle Temple's roof, only to be caught by Valefor. A run-in with Seymour almost proved fatal, until Yuna figured out that casting reflect on Mortibody while attacking Seymour did the trick.
The stay in the Calm Lands, which was actually teeming with enemies, was long and rather uneventful. Tidus decided to collect all the beasties for the monster arena. After that nonsense was over, it was on to Mt. Gagazet. On the way up the pass, the party ran into Biran and Yenke—two Ronso who knew Kimahri, but didn't favor him—and Kimahri ended up in a long battle with the two. The rest of Gagazet was a challenge with four sparks of good: 20,000 Gil, mega-potions, and another sphere—this time from Braska--, and a defending bracer. Night began closing in just as the nomads reached the pass beyond which lay Zanarkand…or what was left of it.
The sharing of tents had ended when Tidus spotted a man on the slope ahead of them. Wantz: O'aka's brother.
"Harper?" She was curled up inside blankets, laying down, wishing she could sleep, when Tidus called for her outside her tent. "Harp, are you in there?"
She was, in a sense, in the tent. Whether or not she was inside her head was a different story. Harper had been trying to cross the void existing between the real world, and the phantom realm Sephiroth and she had spent time together in. It didn't happen.
"Yeah?" She replied, drawing herself together, which was slightly harder than it should have been due to the cold she had picked up. Again.
"Are you sick?" Tidus asked after she tried to muffle a cough.
"Yeah, what do you want, Tidus?" She wanted him to go away, but knew there'd be no such luck. (Pessimistic, is she not?)
There was a pause before he started again. "Well…if you're—"
Harper stuck her head through the tent flap, holding it closed at her throat. "You came over here, asked me if I was in here, and are beating around a bush. What do you want?" She really hated being disturbed lately if there was no real point to it, or if the person who did the disturbing backed out of what they wanted to say before they said it.
"We've noticed that you and Vincent are …"
"On the outs!" Rikku chimed as she appeared behind Tidus. Harper shot her a look. "And we intend to help!"
Harper's gaze turned to Tidus again. "What?" When he looked like he was going to answer… she cut in with "First off, who is this 'we'?"
"Everybody. Even Auron said we should do something," he answered.
"Auron…your reasons being…?"
Then Auron stepped up behind Rikku, who left when she realized he was there. "Yuna, Lulu and I have come to the understanding that you and Vincent aren't getting along well." You could say that…Harper thought. "The three of us have told everyone else, and we all agree: we cannot go into Zanarkand, or further…to battle Sin, if the two of you cannot work together."
"We can work together," Harper protested, albeit futilely.
Auron turned and started walking away, saying only, "Settle it."
Harper got to her feet and rushed past Tidus, still bundled in blankets. "How do you s'pose I do that!? I didn't start it!" All she got was a wave of a hand. "Uhgh." She turned back to go inside again.
"Wakka and I have come up with something…"
"What is it?"
Tidus grinned.
The two of them stood centre stage…but on a cliff…with nine people watching. Vincent had agreed without knowing what was really going on, and Harper…Harper just wanted to hit something. Anything. The rules of the match had been explained. Other than "Don't literally kill your opponent", there were none. Wakka would give the signal when Auron was done explaining to Harper and Vincent why they were sparring. In the end, Vincent stayed, but grudgingly. Wakka gave the signal.
Vincent didn't really know it, but he had pent up rage at something he couldn't identify, so then…out it came in an explosion of electricity which met Harper's hastily thrown up shield. She drew her sword and advanced, covering the distance between them in a single blink. But she only found the golden metal of Vincent's left arm beneath her sword's edge. Retreating only a fraction of a step, she came back in with a diagonal uppercut which Vincent ducked easily. He attacked next with the butt of his empty gun directed at Harper's shoulder. Her sword caught the blow before she spun it out of Vincent's hand, forcing him to draw his own sword. From that point on, blood was drawn just as quickly as the wounds from which it flowed were healed. Vincent had become nearly her match in swordsmanship, but only nearly. Still, at the same time, each managed to lock the others sword with their own, and –after a moment of struggle—the swords sailed away in the direction of their audience. Auron didn't flinch as Harper's katana whistled by his head. The figures out on the cliff in front of him moved at lightning speed as they were forced into hand-to-hand combat. Harper, being smaller than Vincent, maneuvered around him easily and delivered her punches quickly and accurately. Being lighter simply because she was a girl made her faster, even if by a fraction of a second, and gave her the opening she needed to land her knee in his stomach before she slid behind him and planted her foot on his lower back. Despite all this, Vincent was having the same results: whenever he struck, he found his mark and made sure she knew it.
The snow around them had become a mess of tracks and blood and was nearly flattened by their movements. Here and there outside the main battle-ground were depressions in the snow where one of them had flown past the main battle area and landed, only to rush back into the brawl.
They kept at this for at least a half hour. The sun began to sink below the horizon somewhere, but not on the mountain-top. It had vanished behind the peaks ages ago, leaving the camp at the mercy of what light fire could bring.
At the end of the supposed half hour, Harper changed her tactics. She began hitting spots that would sap more energy than a simple punch to the face would. Vincent understood and returned the change in kind. (Little did they know, but during their days with SHINRA, though at different times, they had been trained by the same man.) With this new change in style, the fight was quickly drawing to a close, though one would never be able to tell by their flurried movements that only seemed to increase in speed as their energy decreased. Finally, they both rushed each other, heading for the same pressure-point as the other, and crashed together after each hit the intended mark.
For a moment the group of travelers waited to see who would get up first and claim the match, but when a still amount of time passed and neither did, Wakka and Lulu ran out to the two sprawled figures in the snow. Apparently Vincent had gotten her first, but even as she had been headed toward the oblivion of unconsciousness Harper had made contact as well. Vincent's momentum had laid them both the same way, and his arm was draped over her belly.
"You think this solved anything?" Wakka asked.
"Perhaps," was all Lulu said before calling to Auron for help in moving the two passed out people in the now flattened snow.
She finally got to that nether-place…but not the way she had earlier intended. Once again she had to be unconscious before she could enter that realm. As she had hoped, Sephiroth, her father, was waiting for her.
For a while neither said anything, but then…
"Did you always want to get away from those around you, before…you know…" Harper asked, hugging her knees to her chest.
"Yes," Sephiroth replied, sitting down across from her. "It was that want which led me to the library beneath the SHINRA Estate in Nibelheim. In this case it would be correct to say, 'Like father, like daughter.'"
As much as she hated to admit it, Harper nodded and repeated, "'Like father, like daughter.'"
"You and Valentine really had a time of it." He was referring to the fight.
"Yeah. I'm really starting to wonder why…with Kadaj…"
"Cut him some slack, Harper," Sephiroth mildly chastised. "At the time he did what was right by right, and by you, and—what's more---he was following his heart, which men like him don't often do after the things that happened to him, happen."
She considered his words for a moment as she stared down at the blackness under her that seemed as if it was right there, beneath her, and yet empty…like she could begin to fall at any moment. "How much can you tell me?"
"That depends on the question…" He cocked his head and crossed his ankles. "Ask, and I'll do my best."
Still looking at the nothing/something-ness, Harper asked, "Does this have anything to do with Lucrecia?"
"Lucrecia? No, I think this time it is more a matter of his not trusting himself. It has been a while, to say the least, since he has dealt with a woman in this manner…perhaps he doesn't know how he will react to some things…where his boundaries lay…things of that nature…"
"Yeah, maybe…Or maybe I'm pushing him…?" (A/N: I just bit my tongue…! OWW!)
"Neither of us can really say what's on his mind…: it's his mind. And…" Sephiroth looked to the corners of his eyes as if remembering something. "He's waking up…"
"Time for me to go?"
"Let this run its course…if the two of you last through it, you'll both be the better because of it. Look at Cloud: would he be half the person he is now if he would have given up when opposing me?"
"No…" Harper agreed. "But you know, Strife was acting funny last time I saw him…"
"Hmm…good luck with him then." That was the last thing Sephiroth said before Harper found herself back in her own mind and body, wondering whether he was talking about Cloud, or Vincent.
"….Harper?" It was Vincent, and he was behind her. Harper tried to groan to signal her awareness, but her voice stuck in her throat, making her sound more like a croaking, congested frog. "Are you awake…?"
After clearing her throat, she said, "Yes."
For a while they just laid there, for lying they were.
"Vincent?" Nothing came from beside her. "Will you—"
"It was many things, none of them about you. Most were phantoms of my past, and shadows of a future. Lucrecia…I will never be rid of my feelings for her, but she is gone… Cloud loved Aeris, she died and he loves her still; but he has learned to accept that and has begun to move on; as have I.
"Had I known all this before…I still would have fought for you, but we would not be having this conversation now. I handled the situation badly, and I am sorry for that…
"However, I am not sorry these things have arisen. Had they not, things may have concluded in a different way in the future…To sum it all up—I should have had this all figured out before-hand, but I didn't, and I'm sorry for that. Now I do, and I hope it will save us from future turmoil…
"Either you agree with me in this…or I have misjudged you."
Mentally, Harper applauded herself for staying silent through his explanation. She let the silence hang for a moment before saying, "I do agree…Thank you, Vincent." With that she turned to him, and was mildly surprised to find him close to her, also coming in for a kiss. "So everything's good now?" Harper asked once their brief contact was severed.
Vincent laughed in his almost inaudible way, "Yes."
Harper let out a little squeal of delight before throwing herself at Vincent, only to wrap him in a hug. Once again their lips met in a kiss, this one lasting longer than the last…
But still not long enough. For it seemed just as they began a commotion came from outside.
Both Harper and Vincent tore apart and grabbed for their weapons, which were lying close at hand. They burst from the tent into the full light of day (had they really been out that long?). There, at the edge of the cliff, was what was causing the commotion. And it should have caused one. Seymour was rising above the cliff, lance in hand and ready for use.
What would later be known as Seymour Flux hovered just beyond the cliff edge. Three of the others were already there, but only speaking with the corrupt maester. Everyone else could feel that the battle would erupt with volcanic force shortly. Indeed, just after that very thought left Wakka's thought stream, Seymour thrust his lance toward Auron and missed narrowly. Tidus was KO'd quickly, revived, and replaced immediately to afford him time to fully recover. Still feeling groggy and hoping exertion would help wake him, Vincent jumped at the opening; Harper did so too when Yuna fell out. Wakka took Auron's place, was soon replaced by Lulu. Tidus finally came back in, giving Vincent a short rest. Short because soon after Tidus relieved him, Harper took a blow that KO'd and sent her sprawling backwards. Again Vincent jumped. When finally one of the others fell out, they revived Harper, who joined again against her former companion. Everything was going well, until Seymour decided to again focus on Harper spontaneously...Too spontaneously for her to react.
Her gasp echoed in the silence that wasn't silence, which only Harper and Vincent experienced. For Vincent, the world froze. He didn't see the end of the fight, but he knew they eventually succeeded; the only thing he knew was moving was himself toward Harper, who lay in snow already darkened by her own blood, and was still bleeding when Vincent knelt beside her. The blood-flow was beginning to slow though—she was running out of blood to bleed. Seymour's javelin had lanced through her femoral artery (a wound that normally would have been fixable, were the wounded not already too far gone). Valentine knew Harper was already greatly past that point. Faintly, Vincent wondered how she was even still alive, but more than that he felt she could make it out of this.
Harper's eyes fluttered and opened, though the look in them spoke only of the coming wind of death. That hope Vincent had, however foolish he knew it had been, vanished when he looked into her eyes. He knew, without a doubt, that she was going to go. She was going to return to the Plane--
"Vin—" shook him out of his thought. Harper's eyes fluttered for a moment before she tried to go on, and failed.
"Don't die…" He found himself stuttering slightly. "Harper, I…"
She nodded as best she could and managed a weak, "I know." And against all odds, she pushed herself to sit up and turned to face Vincent, though the pain of the act was dreadfully apparent.
"Harper…"
"Please…just…" She grabbed him by the shoulders with amazing strength for her state and pulled him into a kiss, even as she began to leave.
He felt it happen. Suddenly he was aware of everything, though he had his eyes closed. He felt the glowing orbs of her spirit around him, searching for a route to the Lifestream, he figured; and he felt the other's eyes on him. But mostly he was aware of the single shot he had left in Cerberus.
Vincent got to his feet, pulled out his gun, and stared at it. Wakka. He considered him his only friend in this…Spira. So he turned, Cerberus in hand at his side, and strode toward Wakka. "Take it." He presented the grip to the other. Wakka did as he was asked and watched in horror as Vincent gripped his wrist and leveled the tri-barreled gun on his chest. Together the stood: Vincent broke, having his own weapon aimed at point-blank at his chest; Wakka in silent disbelief. Neither knew or cared what the others were doing. "Shoot, Wakka." Vincent began dropping his guards one by one.
"What?! No way, man—"
Vincent spat a curse. "Shoot, Wakka!"
Wakka's finger twitched out of sheer panic. "No…"
Before Vincent realized it, all walls were down within himself…even the one barring Chaos from having total control over the former Turk.
"If you won't kill him, then I will…"
No one understood.
"I've been waiting for a moment like this for thirty years," the creature growled in explanation.
"Chaos!" Wakka breathed,
Just before Vincent dropped,
Dead, before all of them.
Va was the only one who dared speak, but only after a while of time passed and the red orbs of Vincent (and possibly the creatures held within him) dispersed and disappeared. "What was…"
"Chaos…" Wakka repeated.
He was looking straight into blue eyes. There was the soft crinkling of paper as a piece hit the floor after being dropped, and his own desperate breathing as he slowly came to realize where he was.
Midgar: 7Th Heaven.
Barret.
Tifa.
Red XIII.
Cloud.
Vincent knew the people around him. They knew him. But how had he gotten there? He had died: Chaos had ripped him apart from the inside, but there he was standing in the hall of Tifa's 7Th Heaven.
"Cloud…?" Vincent started, then staggered, the world flipped, and he was staring at the ceiling before darkness embraced him.
A/N: If someone doesn't review, heads are going to roll. Joking, of course…but reviews would be nice! There should be another story coming… hehe…. And another after that…and only one person knows the entire plot! Yay! There is also the slight chance of there being a side story…but I kinda doubt it… if there is, it would take place in … America? in the Darkwatch setting. Whee…but as I said, I doubt it. (I didn't edit this at all….so please please please excuse any errors or reduntantness and/or just random oddball junk.)