Standard disclaimers apply.

I seem to have caused a few brains to implode with the previous chapter. Sorry about that!

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WHEN YOU WISH UPON A MATERIA
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Ever since Vincent regained his ability to access Chaos' power, he realised that with some concentration, he was able to detect the locations of everything on the planet had some sort of lifestream or lifestream-derived substance in their bodies. He attributed this to Chaos' inherent nature as the planet's hunter. Rather than wonder why he had been saddled with such a responsibility again, however, he was busy being secretly glad.

For it made him well aware that Cloud had flown past Nibelheim and was showing no signs of stopping.

Cloud was like a blindingly bright beacon in his internal locator. He had so much lifestream in him, if Chaos were to activate search-and-hunt mode now, Cloud would most probably be its prime target. That aside, Vincent had to wonder what Cloud's intention was. He knew Cloud had been sincere when he said he wanted to go see his younger self. That could only mean that halfway through the trip, Cloud changed his mind.

It didn't matter much, of course, since Vincent was using his newly acquired internal GPS of everyone on the planet to follow his friend.

Soon, he saw that Cloud had stopped somewhere in the central Wutai continent. It didn't immediately occur to him what Cloud wanted to do there. He simply made sure he was on the same path.

After a while, he could see Leviathan in the distance from where he was above the western edge of the continent. Something didn't quite seem right to him, considering how Cloud had been determined to keep Leviathan's identity under wraps from the general public. To let it appear so conspicuously - and on the Wutai continent at that - was surely a recipe for disaster. Or a PR disaster, at least. Shaking his head, Vincent flapped his wings and sped up.

His internal GPS also told him that the SOLDIERs were behind him. And they hadn't stopped at Nibelheim either. Either they were following him, or Phoenix was using its own internal GPS to detect Cloud's location. Poor Cloud. Did no one respect his privacy anymore, nowadays?

Though, what with the way Leviathan was currently flashing, you didn't really need a GPS to figure out where Cloud was.

As Vincent neared the Wutai continent, all of a sudden, the beacon of light that was Cloud in his internal GPS flickered and disappeared. Caught off-guard, Vincent almost retracted his wings out of sheer surprise. He stopped the instincts from kicking in just in time to make a rather clumsy landing (for him, anyway) on the dry terrain.

Quickly, he scanned the area. Both Cloud and Leviathan were still there, seemingly locked in some kind of silent conversation. He had been so focused on finding Cloud that he had neglected looking at the other indicators of life. To his alarm, he discovered that he couldn't find Leviathan anywhere either, even though he was seeing it hovering in the air. He wanted to attribute it to the fact that summons weren't a part of the planet's ecosystem, but it seemed like a stretch, considering they were contained in materia. They never did complete that research about summons in the future, did they? Now they would never find out for sure.

Cloud was just up ahead, with his back turned. There was a palpable something clinging onto his silhouette, making Vincent somewhat hesitant to approach. He could not put a finger on the cause of this feeling. He was simply afraid.

Afraid, his mind helpfully supplied, of what he might see.

"Are you all right?" asked Vincent, when he had crept ahead enough to be sensed by his friend. There was no answer. Neither did Cloud turn around. "I thought you were going to Nibelheim?" he tried again.

This time, Cloud responded. "I'll be there later," he said, his tone hushed and voice neutral. "I suspect I might not have a choice in that matter, anyway."

Either the moon was very dark tonight, or Vincent's eyes were failing him. Cloud seemed to grow ever so slightly dimmer with every word he uttered. "Have you made your decision?" He didn't know why he wasn't asking about Cloud's growing dimmer instead. Something inside just told him that he shouldn't. Mustn't.

A thoughtful pause later, Cloud answered, "I think I have."

The distant flapping of wings indicated that Phoenix was approaching as well. "Is there anything I can do?" Vincent mumbled, feeling the air growing colder and colder. Something in his heart sank deeper and deeper as well.

Because Cloud had turned around halfway, and Vincent could hardly see the outlines of his features anymore.

"I think it's starting," said Cloud, rather vaguely.

Vincent curbed his internal panic. "The memory merge?" he managed.

"Hmm... maybe that too." Cloud tilted his head upwards to look at what Vincent presumed was Leviathan. Although reluctant to take his eyes off Cloud in case he suddenly vanished (it did seemed like he would), Vincent spared Leviathan a quick glance, just to see if the summon was all right.

It most certainly was not.

When he had looked at them from afar, it seemed like the summon was simply hovering motionlessly in the air above Cloud. Now that he was looking closer at it though, Vincent could see that it wasn't the summon itself that was hovering above Cloud, but a grainy outline of the summon that was slowly dissipating into the cold and heavy Wutaian night air. The summon had not been motionless. It was simply not there anymore.

It wasn't the pompous way summons usually disappeared in, so Vincent had to ask, "Has Leviathan gone back where it came from?"

"It's gone all right," the outline of Cloud nodded slightly, looking up at the disappearing summon, "but whether it went back or not, I have no idea."

"At least Odine's theory has been semi-vindicated, then," Vincent mumbled. "I can't say for sure how the merging happens, but I know you'll keep your sense of self, at least." His sentence was based on the assumption that Cloud had chosen to merge with his younger self, but at the back of his mind, Vincent knew he was forgetting something. What were the conditions for the merge to begin again?

Cloud was still half-turned, though he was now looking at the ground pensively. In time he glanced up at Vincent and asked, "What if I don't get to keep the memories that make me who I am? Either ways, what happens after that? Do I present myself to Hojo to be a test subject so that I get my former life back again? I don't think so, and I don't think you'd allow me to anyway. Yet if I don't," Cloud paused to take a deep breath, "then I'll be leaving you behind eventually, wouldn't I?"

"You don't have to worry about me, Cloud," Vincent reassured, although deep, deep down inside, he was really afraid of losing his longest, closest friend. But between Cloud's happiness and his own, he knew which one he would always choose. "And you shouldn't worry about something that hasn't happened yet, either."

"That is really weighty, coming from you," laughed Cloud. "Hey, you know. Will you still help me if I'm not me anymore?"

"I've told you before, possibly many times, that you will always be you," was Vincent's reply. "And I will keep telling you that as many times as I have to, so yes. I'll help you, even if you don't think you're you anymore. Even if we may not be together all the time, I don't think you'll ever be able to get rid of me from your life now."

Cloud sniggered. "Thanks," he simply said. His face suddenly turned blank, and nothing could be read from his eyes. "I'm holding you to that. As long as you're around, I think we'll be okay."

Vincent had to take a few moments to formulate his reply. "We?"

"Just a gut feeling," Cloud lowered his voice into a conspirational whisper. He didn't elaborate, but kept gazing up at the grainy remains of Leviathan's outline. "I hadn't expected that to happen at all."

Vincent could gather from the context that his friend was referring to the Leviathan that wasn't there anymore. "Did you ever figure out what it stayed on so long for, in the end?"

The flapping of Phoenix' wings had been getting progressively louder all this time, indicating the impending approach of the other entourage, and as Vincent asked that question, the sound of the wings now came along with intermittent gusts of wind. Cloud looked away from Leviathan to the direction of the flapping sounds, and Vincent looked as well. There was probably no need to look, however, for Phoenix shone like a fiery ball of flame in the dark skies, lighting up even the darkened ground beneath it. The summon hovered in the air, making no move to land. After a while, it made a turn and went to perch on a nearby mound. Far enough to give the duo some semblance of privacy, but near enough to listen in if the two SOLDIERs so desired.

It was hard to tell if Cloud or Sephiroth had ordered the bird to do that, so Vincent tried not to think too much about it. Cloud was now looking at him again. "It stayed to grant me my wish," he answered. "A wish I never even knew I had. Now it's gone because it's done what it set out to do, and I'm still not quite sure what wish it was trying to grant me. But I wasn't expecting it to just suddenly... disappear."

Considering everything Vincent had heard from Cloud about what Odin had said in the Dirac Sea some time ago, Vincent wasn't surprised to hear that Leviathan's reluctance to leave had to do with some wish too. "That's what all summons do after finishing their work here, isn't it?"

"Not like this, though," Cloud glanced up at the outline of Leviathan, which was still slowly being chipped away by the cool air. The wind from Phoenix's wings just now hadn't affected it at all. And if Vincent watched closely, he thought he could see the sparkles gravitating towards Cloud, who was looking more washed out than he had been at the outset, when Vincent first found him.

So this time, Vincent felt compelled to ignore the warning bells in his head to ask, "Is there any particular reason why you seem to be fading into the background?"

Cloud looked at Vincent, then down at himself. "Memory merge?" he tried.

"That shouldn't be happening yet, now that I think about it, actually," Vincent's head was starting to clear. His lucidity seemed inversely proportionate to the amount of Leviathan particles floating around in the air. "Your younger self is still in stasis. There is no paradox for the timeline to solve yet."

"You may be right about that," Cloud agreed. The Leviathan sparkles had broken away from forming an outline of the summon's figure and was now dancing around Cloud, sometimes dissolving into him. "Leviathan," Cloud began, "is probably behind this. Truth be told my memories are failing me. I know I should be telling you as much as I can now, but I can't seem to say anything. I can't remember... but I can feel. I can feel myself being pulled towards my younger self. Even if the timeline isn't trying to solve anything at the moment, Leviathan sure is."

"So Leviathan has triggered a merge then," Vincent nodded in understanding. "Being sensitive to your mindscape, I suspect it was able to sense what your decision was before you actually made it, and executed it on your behalf as a way of 'fulfilling your wish'."

"I know you're much smarter than me," Cloud grinned a little, and he suddenly sounded very young. "Maybe you can tell me what my wish is?"

"I'll admit I'm probably a little smarter than you, in the sense than an older person is usually smarter than a younger one," said Vincent, "but I'm no mind-reader. You may have to think about that one yourself."

"Not even a clue?"

It pained Vincent to hear Cloud sounding so small, so he obliged. "A wish is a deeply held desire, a closely cherished dream," Vincent explained, with a soft sigh on the side. "It often manifests itself in one's speech and actions, and may dominate one's thoughts. In my opinion, when you were initially sent back to this time period, your reluctance was a clue. Had you been given any other time period centuries before or after this particular one, would you have been as hesitant? My gut instincts tell me no, but that is question only you can answer for yourself. Is that 'clue' enough for you?"

Cloud laughed, really laughed after hearing that. He finally turned around to face Vincent fully. "So... let me guess. Based on my complaints and ramblings throughout my time here, you think I wish I could change the past?"

Vincent shrugged. "You were so afraid of accidentally doing something, that I believe you must have actually wanted to do something. Purposefully, of course."

"And maybe you're right," Cloud had the most wistful smile on his face. "But you know what? I think, I just wished I could live my life all over again. As a normal kid, with normal friends, and a normal life. And you know what else?"

Vincent didn't, so he waited.

"I still would've lived my way the same way again."

The residues of Leviathan chose this exact time to dissolve all at once into the by-now semi-translucent figure of Cloud. A bright glow obscured Cloud from sight for a quick moment. When the glare went down, Cloud was no longer there.

"Is that your answer, then?" Vincent asked the empty space before him. He gave it two seconds, before turning around with yet another dramatic flip of his cape to face the direction Nibelheim was in. "We'll have to see how well Leviathan helped you on that one."

Off to the side, Phoenix gave off a shrill trill that actually sent pulsating shockwaves through the continent and nearby waters and nearly knocked the unsuspecting Vincent off his feet. The summon flexed its wings upwards and continued to sing loudly into the sky. It was difficult to gauge the theme and mood of the song, for it vacillated between the low thrums of a dirge and the soprano of a victory tune.

Phoenix abruptly ended the song on a high note. It remained still and silent until the echoes of its singing could no longer be heard reverberating through the valleys and canyons of Wutai. With a powerful flap of its wings, it took to the air, circled twice, and flew off east.

Exactly where Nibelheim was.

It was also at this point of time, as Vincent watched the summon flying gracefully away, that he noticed the Cloud beacon in his internal GPS had returned, stronger than ever before. He had somehow managed to reappear in Nibelheim. Where Cloudy was. Of course.

The corners of Vincent's lips curled up into a rare smile.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to shake me off your life, old friend."

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8may2013

hmm... two more chapters to the end... i think? i'm bad at estimating, so just take it as a ballpark figure. :) thanks for reading!