Destroyed
~
Epilogue: My Immortal
"The last thing I ever wanted,
Was to look into your eyes.
The last thing I needed,
Was to be covered in lies.
Now one of us haunted,
As over hills the sun does rise."
Original Poetry by Me~
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ No... ~
He took the glove slowly from his hand, her head resting lifeless on his shoulder.
The glove was thrown to the side, and left without care there. His free fingers moved to touch the sugar spun brown of her adorable hair, the lankness caused by sweat and effort of magic. He carressed the cooling skin and the lace of her fine eyelashes and arched eyebrows. He felt the flawless surface over her straight and pretty nose, touched along the hints of freckles that dusted there in light peach shades. He passed over the rose hues of her lips.
"No," he said raggedly, and shut his eyes against tears.
The blood had slowed from the wound, still sticking her dress to his chest.
Aside from him, Yuffie covered her mouth with a trembling hand, ignoring the blood she too had gained from trying to heal Aeris. It smeared over the pallid skin of the ninja girl's face and left a lurid highlight of death. The violet eyes were wide pupilled, lost in a face that had usually been noted for it's jac-o-lantern grin.
He tried pinching her shoulder softly, but nothing would rouse his half gone angel.
"Aeris," he whispered softly, running his hands down her arms and the wincing numbly as his elbow hit something, and a small flat but oblongish object fell out of his coat pocket and onto the floor, skittering away in the green highlights of the blazing fire.
It lay, gleaming purple and black.
~ Her diary. ~
Reaching out with extreme care so he wouldn't dislodge Aeris, with the overcareful movements of someone who was in deep shock, he lifted the small book and studied the name printed over the top of it in gold lettering.
Aeris Gainsborough.
His angel, his foresight and past sight, his future and his uneven path.
Leon manourvered his arms about the still form of Aeris, resting so he could thumb open the diary and look through the many pages. It was beautifully crafted and had obviously cost a fair bit of munny, the pages organically made and still with the homespun touches of rough papermaking. It smelt faintly of cinnamon and the sweet smell of pancake cooking.
Aeris used to love making pancakes.
Something leaked from one eyes, but stoically ignoring it, he read on through the diary, carefully keeping all the words recorded close to his heart.
She had loved to write it appeared, invested a lot of her time in the words written in the book. Poetry and mediums of art, faint sketches of plants and worlds he would never know. A decent artist's rendition of a small cosy village, a few old houses and a couple stood before a doorway waving. Lettered in under the couple was the small phrase, "Zack's parents. I never could bring myself to tell them where Zack had gone, I never saw him in the Promised Land. So much I had wanted to do, and no time left."
He bit a lip and moved through all the other sketches, interspersed with words.
A fantastical sketch that spanned two pages in rich reds and crayoned yellows and browns, painted over to give a real feel of texture. Stone built, hewn from rocks and with a bright light flaring at the centre as if by some fey magic others had forgotten. Under was inked, "Cosmo Canyon, the birthplace of natural thought and home to my faith. May it always stand against the darkness."
A couple of other things slipped out, and looking down he picked them up.
One was a photograph of the group and suddenly he could put faces to those he had only heard of from Yuffie's reminiscing. The faces of the dour Vincent, the bright Cait, the wise Red and towering Barret. The stern Cloud of course, the wild Tifa and the young Ninja, hemming in that of Cid with his arm about a small woman's shoulders.. Aeris.
The picture had been taken infront of some kind of temple, the air about the group glowing almost.
The other was of Aeris and Tifa, both sat on a hillside and take from an angle where one could see Tifa holding onto Aeris as she lifted up a flower in the sunshine for her friend to inspect and beyond them rolled the beautiful landscape.
The last was of Cloud, sat looking pensive with his sword over his legs and a roll of bandaging in one hand as she tied up what had to be yet another scratch. Turning it over, there were the words, "Another bandersnatch, another day," written on the back of the stillframe of life.
Her handwriting.
Her memories.
Swallowing against the lump in his throat, he looked back at the open diary, and in a shaky voice began to read:
"I've never wanted to see a sunrise,
Not as much as I've wanted to see your eyes.
I've dreamt of being held close to you,
Inside a love, warm and true.
I've wished for a life to call my own,
I've wished on stars, far from home.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She rested her hands on her knee, sat on the leeside of the faintly sloping hill and looking down on the fields that stretched far and wide before her. She still wore her pink dress, her heavy gardening boots and the necklace, she still hung onto her pink ribbon and metallic bracelets, her brown hair and wide green eyes.
There were still mudstains running up the sides of her dress from where she had wiped her hands after gardening, she still loved to joke about her trowel and flowers. The field was long, as far as the eyes could see and running to meet the horizon. On the hill where she half sat, admiring the splendour of the afterlife, stood a heavy tree that cast shade over her and the spot where she rested.
A faint haze of colour and from beside her, her friend sat up and into view from the flowers.
"Well is it?"
Aeris tilted her head and looked at Tifa, at her friend's strong profile and plump lips, at the way she unconciously sat so her back wouldn't suffer too much from bad posture and where she picked tufts of grass lazily and twirled them between her fingers with a kind of wild abandon.
"Are you asking me if I *want* to be dead?"
"In a way..nice day, isn't it?"
The ancient ignored the small talk, and carried on relentlessly, "It's always nice here and you know it.. now answer me."
"We've known each other a long time, Aeris, and I've always wanted to ask something, from the heart."
"Anything.."
"Why?"
Taken aback, Aeris took in a lungful of the healthy air, the sweet scents of the flowers and earthy tones of the dirt and grass. There was hardly any breeze and she could swear she was breathing in sunshine. "Why... did I go the first time?"
"Yeah.. you could have been cured, been saved but it was as if you'd..given up."
"I.." It was true. In a fashion. After the spell she had hardly any strength left and the last was taken up trying to tell Cloud that she had managed to contact Holy. There had been nothing left to bolster her dying body.. "I couldn't help it. I didn't want to die. I knew what I was doing was right and had no regrets, all but that I would never see you all again."
"But.."
"No I was scared too. I was scared about dying, where I would end up after it all was over, if the Promised Land really did exist. But it did, a final rest for the Cetra after their long battle with the world. I was given my final rest.."
Tifa looked out as Aeris moved her gaze from her friend and down to her hands, laced carefully over one knee.
"I see. And now..?"
"Now, I'm dead again."
"No, dying," corrected Tifa.
"Dying..?"
~*~
In the background came the soft chimes of piano music, tripping down her senses and turning the world of flowers and grass faded, the sunshine dimming to the room of a hotel where it was empty but for a piano and the man sat at the piano, playing away to himself.
Curious, Aeris got to her feet from where she was sat on the luch carpeted floor, and then dusting down her dirtied work dress, she made her own way across to the man. Closer up she could see he wore black trousers and a dark, navy blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up and open at the neck, the white tie left undone either side of the collar.
It was Cloud.
His fingers lightly danced over the keys, creating this beautiful melody.
"Yes, dying," he said softly, "you're not dead yet."
"Cloud," she said softly, reaching out and finding his face quite solid under her hand. It brought a smile to sad features and gave the planes and angles of a weathered and downtrodden face some hope and light. He looked so handsome when he finally smiled, just for her. "There's so much I wanted to tell you, how long it's been and how hard.. I've come so far."
"I went a long way looking for you, you know. I promised myself that, this time, you had to be given your fair shot at life. Just because the rest of us kept messing up, didn't mean you had."
"Cloud," she began again, shaking her head but his words stopped her.
"No, it's alright. I missed you so much, so very much.." he paused, keys and fingerwork never ceasing, "But I finally realised, I had to let go. Like you did."
"I.. Leon.. you.."
"I understand. I had my chance, and I messed it up. I can't let that hopeless guy do the same now, can I?"
"I don't understand."
He laughed then, a sound she had rarely heard, full of life and so warm. "Aeris.. you don't have to understand."
He seemed so different here. Alive, in place, at peace. All the horror and silence of his life was washed away, was gone and he was made anew as the man he should have been, and deep inside she smiled in relief. Here he could have everything she failed to give him, and her eyes sparkled with the understanding.
"One more time, my Cetra angel.." he looked up at her in the shadows of the dark room, the music softer now. But his eyes never lost their shine, and never lost their love and trust, "is this, really what you want?"
"I want to live," she replied.
He smiled and shut his eyes, "finally."
The room seemed to blur as if moved too fast and she turned on her heel, dizzy and sick and putting hands to her head. From the darkness, slowly stepped a figure she had never imagined to see again. Bathed in pale light and dressed in the coolest of green colours, the same brown hair unbound and the same loving smile.
A hand touched her and in return, she clung onto the last thing she would see here for a long.. long while.
"Then.. find a way, Aeris."
She stiffened.
"Of course, you silly girl. Everything else was.. part of your destiny."
"I did though, I set them free, I prevented the Destruction, I gave them futures.. and peace."
Her mother however, just brushed hair from her daughter face, the light dimming gradually and almost unnoticeably. "Aeris.. Aeris my life and flower.. what about yourself?"
~ What about.. myself..? ~
"I want... to live."
"Then.. find a way, and go back.. go back Aeris.."
Shadows came in, warm and loving and nothing like the hard blackness she had been swamped in before. Lifting her hands, she felt the tears down her cheeks but didn't think she was crying.. the faces of Tifa and Cloud emerged from the shadows, and smiled lovingly at her. Followed by those of her old friends.
Crying, she tried reaching out to them, but they just pointed upwards.
Other faces appeared, whispering and helping..
"Thank you Aeris."
"Gods bless you.."
"Live for us, for what you did."
"Tell Squall I miss him."
"With honour, with might.."
"Pray." "Pray" and "pray..."
So she did..
She prayed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The green blaze flickered behind him and with a yelp he stopped reading as the fire came cascading out like a whisplash and began pouring down onto him and the form he still cradled. Yuffie leapt from the fray, materia scattering everywhere and casting a beautiful, bejewelled radiance.
Holding on, he could feel the fire burn.
It was good, all this burning.
It would make him stronger.
Crying out as the pain built to a crescendo of the power of Creation, it just as suddenly as it had started, stopped.
His eyes looked across at Yuffie, who sat up and pushed her strip of material from her eyes, her materia pouch emtpy. Then she lifted a hand and pointed, swearing excitedly.
Frowning, Leon opened his mouth to reprimand the girl when he felt something stir against his skin. Like butterfly wings, the faint heat of breath on his neck, the fluttering of soft eyelashes and then the sudden coughing as Aeris convulsed against him.
Drawing his arms wonderingly and worriedly about the girl who had died not ten minutes ago, she tried leaning to one side and began coughing up blood and chunks of congealed blood, not caring how she looked.
Nothing would remove his arms, but the smile that lit both his and Yuffie's face when the Key of Power looked up from his hands and into his face was dazzling. She lifted a hand weakly and tapped her diary, "I thought.. I said never to read my diary."
"You're alive," he breathed, too afraid to move incase she turned to smoke, incase he was imagining it.
"I am, aren't I," she lifted her hand in the glow that still surrounded her. The Key of Power, to creation.. to life and truth, but also to death. Power, all her own now. And glowing she smiled at him softly, looking more royal than any princess Leon had ever met. "I found.. *my* way.."
"And what way is that?"
There was nothing left to be said, as the thrice blessed child of power pressed her lips to his.. and began a whole new story...
~*~
(( Thanks to my Readers, thanks to my reviewers.. keep 'em peeled for the next big story, haven't decided yet which it should be, but the list is in my profile. Finally, finished a project! Tell me what you think and maybe if you're nice enough, I'll write a story for you.. All my love, Bhryn. xxx ))
~
Epilogue: My Immortal
"The last thing I ever wanted,
Was to look into your eyes.
The last thing I needed,
Was to be covered in lies.
Now one of us haunted,
As over hills the sun does rise."
Original Poetry by Me~
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~ No... ~
He took the glove slowly from his hand, her head resting lifeless on his shoulder.
The glove was thrown to the side, and left without care there. His free fingers moved to touch the sugar spun brown of her adorable hair, the lankness caused by sweat and effort of magic. He carressed the cooling skin and the lace of her fine eyelashes and arched eyebrows. He felt the flawless surface over her straight and pretty nose, touched along the hints of freckles that dusted there in light peach shades. He passed over the rose hues of her lips.
"No," he said raggedly, and shut his eyes against tears.
The blood had slowed from the wound, still sticking her dress to his chest.
Aside from him, Yuffie covered her mouth with a trembling hand, ignoring the blood she too had gained from trying to heal Aeris. It smeared over the pallid skin of the ninja girl's face and left a lurid highlight of death. The violet eyes were wide pupilled, lost in a face that had usually been noted for it's jac-o-lantern grin.
He tried pinching her shoulder softly, but nothing would rouse his half gone angel.
"Aeris," he whispered softly, running his hands down her arms and the wincing numbly as his elbow hit something, and a small flat but oblongish object fell out of his coat pocket and onto the floor, skittering away in the green highlights of the blazing fire.
It lay, gleaming purple and black.
~ Her diary. ~
Reaching out with extreme care so he wouldn't dislodge Aeris, with the overcareful movements of someone who was in deep shock, he lifted the small book and studied the name printed over the top of it in gold lettering.
Aeris Gainsborough.
His angel, his foresight and past sight, his future and his uneven path.
Leon manourvered his arms about the still form of Aeris, resting so he could thumb open the diary and look through the many pages. It was beautifully crafted and had obviously cost a fair bit of munny, the pages organically made and still with the homespun touches of rough papermaking. It smelt faintly of cinnamon and the sweet smell of pancake cooking.
Aeris used to love making pancakes.
Something leaked from one eyes, but stoically ignoring it, he read on through the diary, carefully keeping all the words recorded close to his heart.
She had loved to write it appeared, invested a lot of her time in the words written in the book. Poetry and mediums of art, faint sketches of plants and worlds he would never know. A decent artist's rendition of a small cosy village, a few old houses and a couple stood before a doorway waving. Lettered in under the couple was the small phrase, "Zack's parents. I never could bring myself to tell them where Zack had gone, I never saw him in the Promised Land. So much I had wanted to do, and no time left."
He bit a lip and moved through all the other sketches, interspersed with words.
A fantastical sketch that spanned two pages in rich reds and crayoned yellows and browns, painted over to give a real feel of texture. Stone built, hewn from rocks and with a bright light flaring at the centre as if by some fey magic others had forgotten. Under was inked, "Cosmo Canyon, the birthplace of natural thought and home to my faith. May it always stand against the darkness."
A couple of other things slipped out, and looking down he picked them up.
One was a photograph of the group and suddenly he could put faces to those he had only heard of from Yuffie's reminiscing. The faces of the dour Vincent, the bright Cait, the wise Red and towering Barret. The stern Cloud of course, the wild Tifa and the young Ninja, hemming in that of Cid with his arm about a small woman's shoulders.. Aeris.
The picture had been taken infront of some kind of temple, the air about the group glowing almost.
The other was of Aeris and Tifa, both sat on a hillside and take from an angle where one could see Tifa holding onto Aeris as she lifted up a flower in the sunshine for her friend to inspect and beyond them rolled the beautiful landscape.
The last was of Cloud, sat looking pensive with his sword over his legs and a roll of bandaging in one hand as she tied up what had to be yet another scratch. Turning it over, there were the words, "Another bandersnatch, another day," written on the back of the stillframe of life.
Her handwriting.
Her memories.
Swallowing against the lump in his throat, he looked back at the open diary, and in a shaky voice began to read:
"I've never wanted to see a sunrise,
Not as much as I've wanted to see your eyes.
I've dreamt of being held close to you,
Inside a love, warm and true.
I've wished for a life to call my own,
I've wished on stars, far from home.."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
She rested her hands on her knee, sat on the leeside of the faintly sloping hill and looking down on the fields that stretched far and wide before her. She still wore her pink dress, her heavy gardening boots and the necklace, she still hung onto her pink ribbon and metallic bracelets, her brown hair and wide green eyes.
There were still mudstains running up the sides of her dress from where she had wiped her hands after gardening, she still loved to joke about her trowel and flowers. The field was long, as far as the eyes could see and running to meet the horizon. On the hill where she half sat, admiring the splendour of the afterlife, stood a heavy tree that cast shade over her and the spot where she rested.
A faint haze of colour and from beside her, her friend sat up and into view from the flowers.
"Well is it?"
Aeris tilted her head and looked at Tifa, at her friend's strong profile and plump lips, at the way she unconciously sat so her back wouldn't suffer too much from bad posture and where she picked tufts of grass lazily and twirled them between her fingers with a kind of wild abandon.
"Are you asking me if I *want* to be dead?"
"In a way..nice day, isn't it?"
The ancient ignored the small talk, and carried on relentlessly, "It's always nice here and you know it.. now answer me."
"We've known each other a long time, Aeris, and I've always wanted to ask something, from the heart."
"Anything.."
"Why?"
Taken aback, Aeris took in a lungful of the healthy air, the sweet scents of the flowers and earthy tones of the dirt and grass. There was hardly any breeze and she could swear she was breathing in sunshine. "Why... did I go the first time?"
"Yeah.. you could have been cured, been saved but it was as if you'd..given up."
"I.." It was true. In a fashion. After the spell she had hardly any strength left and the last was taken up trying to tell Cloud that she had managed to contact Holy. There had been nothing left to bolster her dying body.. "I couldn't help it. I didn't want to die. I knew what I was doing was right and had no regrets, all but that I would never see you all again."
"But.."
"No I was scared too. I was scared about dying, where I would end up after it all was over, if the Promised Land really did exist. But it did, a final rest for the Cetra after their long battle with the world. I was given my final rest.."
Tifa looked out as Aeris moved her gaze from her friend and down to her hands, laced carefully over one knee.
"I see. And now..?"
"Now, I'm dead again."
"No, dying," corrected Tifa.
"Dying..?"
~*~
In the background came the soft chimes of piano music, tripping down her senses and turning the world of flowers and grass faded, the sunshine dimming to the room of a hotel where it was empty but for a piano and the man sat at the piano, playing away to himself.
Curious, Aeris got to her feet from where she was sat on the luch carpeted floor, and then dusting down her dirtied work dress, she made her own way across to the man. Closer up she could see he wore black trousers and a dark, navy blue shirt with the cuffs rolled up and open at the neck, the white tie left undone either side of the collar.
It was Cloud.
His fingers lightly danced over the keys, creating this beautiful melody.
"Yes, dying," he said softly, "you're not dead yet."
"Cloud," she said softly, reaching out and finding his face quite solid under her hand. It brought a smile to sad features and gave the planes and angles of a weathered and downtrodden face some hope and light. He looked so handsome when he finally smiled, just for her. "There's so much I wanted to tell you, how long it's been and how hard.. I've come so far."
"I went a long way looking for you, you know. I promised myself that, this time, you had to be given your fair shot at life. Just because the rest of us kept messing up, didn't mean you had."
"Cloud," she began again, shaking her head but his words stopped her.
"No, it's alright. I missed you so much, so very much.." he paused, keys and fingerwork never ceasing, "But I finally realised, I had to let go. Like you did."
"I.. Leon.. you.."
"I understand. I had my chance, and I messed it up. I can't let that hopeless guy do the same now, can I?"
"I don't understand."
He laughed then, a sound she had rarely heard, full of life and so warm. "Aeris.. you don't have to understand."
He seemed so different here. Alive, in place, at peace. All the horror and silence of his life was washed away, was gone and he was made anew as the man he should have been, and deep inside she smiled in relief. Here he could have everything she failed to give him, and her eyes sparkled with the understanding.
"One more time, my Cetra angel.." he looked up at her in the shadows of the dark room, the music softer now. But his eyes never lost their shine, and never lost their love and trust, "is this, really what you want?"
"I want to live," she replied.
He smiled and shut his eyes, "finally."
The room seemed to blur as if moved too fast and she turned on her heel, dizzy and sick and putting hands to her head. From the darkness, slowly stepped a figure she had never imagined to see again. Bathed in pale light and dressed in the coolest of green colours, the same brown hair unbound and the same loving smile.
A hand touched her and in return, she clung onto the last thing she would see here for a long.. long while.
"Then.. find a way, Aeris."
She stiffened.
"Of course, you silly girl. Everything else was.. part of your destiny."
"I did though, I set them free, I prevented the Destruction, I gave them futures.. and peace."
Her mother however, just brushed hair from her daughter face, the light dimming gradually and almost unnoticeably. "Aeris.. Aeris my life and flower.. what about yourself?"
~ What about.. myself..? ~
"I want... to live."
"Then.. find a way, and go back.. go back Aeris.."
Shadows came in, warm and loving and nothing like the hard blackness she had been swamped in before. Lifting her hands, she felt the tears down her cheeks but didn't think she was crying.. the faces of Tifa and Cloud emerged from the shadows, and smiled lovingly at her. Followed by those of her old friends.
Crying, she tried reaching out to them, but they just pointed upwards.
Other faces appeared, whispering and helping..
"Thank you Aeris."
"Gods bless you.."
"Live for us, for what you did."
"Tell Squall I miss him."
"With honour, with might.."
"Pray." "Pray" and "pray..."
So she did..
She prayed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The green blaze flickered behind him and with a yelp he stopped reading as the fire came cascading out like a whisplash and began pouring down onto him and the form he still cradled. Yuffie leapt from the fray, materia scattering everywhere and casting a beautiful, bejewelled radiance.
Holding on, he could feel the fire burn.
It was good, all this burning.
It would make him stronger.
Crying out as the pain built to a crescendo of the power of Creation, it just as suddenly as it had started, stopped.
His eyes looked across at Yuffie, who sat up and pushed her strip of material from her eyes, her materia pouch emtpy. Then she lifted a hand and pointed, swearing excitedly.
Frowning, Leon opened his mouth to reprimand the girl when he felt something stir against his skin. Like butterfly wings, the faint heat of breath on his neck, the fluttering of soft eyelashes and then the sudden coughing as Aeris convulsed against him.
Drawing his arms wonderingly and worriedly about the girl who had died not ten minutes ago, she tried leaning to one side and began coughing up blood and chunks of congealed blood, not caring how she looked.
Nothing would remove his arms, but the smile that lit both his and Yuffie's face when the Key of Power looked up from his hands and into his face was dazzling. She lifted a hand weakly and tapped her diary, "I thought.. I said never to read my diary."
"You're alive," he breathed, too afraid to move incase she turned to smoke, incase he was imagining it.
"I am, aren't I," she lifted her hand in the glow that still surrounded her. The Key of Power, to creation.. to life and truth, but also to death. Power, all her own now. And glowing she smiled at him softly, looking more royal than any princess Leon had ever met. "I found.. *my* way.."
"And what way is that?"
There was nothing left to be said, as the thrice blessed child of power pressed her lips to his.. and began a whole new story...
~*~
(( Thanks to my Readers, thanks to my reviewers.. keep 'em peeled for the next big story, haven't decided yet which it should be, but the list is in my profile. Finally, finished a project! Tell me what you think and maybe if you're nice enough, I'll write a story for you.. All my love, Bhryn. xxx ))