Sin Harvest: Endgame

"I can't let it end like this… What about all the time I spent traveling with Cloud and everyone else, fighting Jenova and Sephiroth? Those experiences with them I can't erase from my mind, just as well I can't erase my sins, even if I should succumb to Jenova in return for her promise to rid me of pain, I can't… I can't let Jenova…and Sephiroth get away with this…"

Vincent took a very brief moment to unwrap his mutated arm. The veins pulsed with his polluted blood. There was ache where Chaos crawled higher up his arm, slowly but surely growing ever more powerful. His time left as a human was fast fading away. There were only two options remaining for him to choose, and regardless of whichever he selected, either possessed the same outcome.

Vincent, help the Planet. It may seem like it's too late but there are still survivors out there that need a home, this Planet, to continue on in. So, please…

"Cloud, if that really is you… When we fought Sephiroth together, you gave me the tiniest glimmer of hope to hang on to, for anything. So, with my last ounce of strength and humanity… I hope that what I do now may help the Planet see this through…"

Vincent splayed his wings and took to the sky rampant with the energy of the emerald pillar, this strange incarnation of what he now knew to be Jenova and Sephiroth. Flying past the wriggling tendrils at an amazing speed, he sped for the core sphere. It palpitated as a heart would, accompanied by even a heartbeat so hollow and inhuman. And as he neared the sphere, a figure came into view beyond the bright green light. It was like a fetus, several pairs of massive white wings dipped in night bowed over it as to protect. This could only be Sephiroth, guarded by the great summoned creature of Safer that he once fought and vanquished by Cloud's side.

"Sephiroth…" Vincent sought to break through the pulsating orb round the fetal Safer Sephiroth, charged with his Chaotic limb. The light of the second entity intensified and the pillar narrowed, but only slightly. But it was enough. His arm cracked part of the womblike encasing Sephiroth and out oozed liquid thick as blood but fulgurant as a white star. Abruptly, he was pulled in by some force, a force he easily recognized as Jenova's. Safer Sephiroth's wings spanned over him, obstructing the way Vincent came into the womb.

Vincent, be mine as you were destined to be. My tool.

"You've already killed me; it's too late for any of that now. But I'm not going alone. For everything you'd done, I will take you down myself, with my own hands."

But your hands are no longer your own. They are mine to use. Just look.

"But I am conscious, still. And now…" Vincent lunged for the sheltered body of Sephiroth that unfolded as he came closer. Safer Sephiroth's dark seventh wing spread from his right arm and shot at his assailant, tearing through his stomach. But Vincent did not relent. His hands closed around Sephiroth's neck and squeezed as hard as he could. The pale radiant face flickered with a life he was sure was present, and just as vulnerable as any human's. Vincent's claws oddly drew blood, which shocked him.

"Vincent…"

"What?" he gasped. The figure of Safer Sephiroth faded to some degree, where beneath it laid another. His heart nearly stopped.

"Vincent, I love you…"

"No. Is that you? What have I…?" His grip around the neck faltered as he gazed into the face of what looked so like Lucrecia. The large green eyes, the full rosy lips and apple cheeks, the cascade of flowing ginger hair that outlined her beautiful face. And he was strangling the life out of that. He couldn't believe his own eyes, his own actions.

"Vincent. I love you, I always loved you. Hojo may have had my body but you will always have my heart, so stop this. Stop this and you and I can go off to paradise together, just the two of us where no one can ever hope to find us. So please, Vincent, stop…"

"I…"

Don't listen to her! That's just Jenova trying to trick you! You can do it, you can help end it right here! Just a little bit more…

"Jenova… You've used Lucrecia and Sephiroth long enough. No more. This is the end for you, at last…" Vincent pressed harder on the throat between his fingers. The image of Lucrecia struggled for breath, reaching for his hands in hopes of prying them off, to no avail.

"I'm so sorry, Vincent…"

"…"

"I'm sorry that we can't be together, even though you killed me. I'm sorry…"

Thus did her image vanish to be replaced by Sephiroth, blood trickling down from the corner of his lips. He beamed a final grin at Vincent.

"Killed me once again…have you? Heh…how humiliating…but…"

"Goodbye, Sephiroth. It's time for you to rest, for eternity this time. And I…"

The light of the other entity fused with that of the emerald pillar, kindling its explosive energy, causing it to explode in a spray of a billion stars. The wisps of light fell like snow all over the Planet, setting the darkened sky alight, adorning the crumbled mountains and parched hills, brightening the ruined cities, igniting the murky oceans and seas, inspiriting the charcoal forests, making the deserts all a glimmer. Everything seemed alive.

Except…

--

Vincent laid in a green meadow, the sun shining down intensely on his closed eyelids. He frowned then steadily opened his eyes onto the bright flaming disc in the clear azure sky. It was a magnificent day, it all seemed. Then he heard laughter, the laughter of a child. A shadow whisked quickly by his head, varicolored flower petals floated into the air on the breeze succeeding the shadow. He saw the child, a little elfin thing of a child leaping here and there and running in circles. The child looked so familiar to him. Then he heard something which confirmed his thoughts:

"Sephiroth! Wait for me!" a woman's voice called to the boy that was undoubtedly Sephiroth. He was a fairy tale creature here in this meadow, a gray haired cherub trying to fly without wings. And here came his mother. Lucrecia. In a simple yet elegant white gown, she hastily followed behind the boy as he frolicked among the green grass and field of red and gold and purple and light blue blossoms.

Is this paradise? Vincent reflected inwardly, all the while lying there watching the mother and son prance in this meadow.

Lucrecia turned his way and lent a delicate hand out in his direction. "Vincent, come with us…"

Such lovely little hands she had. He loved to feel her hands on his arm or his face, those silky digits accidentally brush his lips or weave along his back. Those hands, how he missed them so. Hands forged of soothing light. His long dreamt hand of light…that he couldn't reach.

Because he couldn't move his arm, he couldn't move anything at all.

"Vincent, come, get up. I know you can do it," she said in that soft, gentle voice of hers.

He tried to shake his head but it was impossible.

"Come on, try. Just try. You can do it."

"Lu…crecia…" Vincent murmured. He labored to raise his arm. He sensed his fingers move, then his hand, soon his entire arm. He reached out for Lucrecia but she was much too far away. "I can't reach…"

"Just come to me, Vincent. Come…"

"Mother," the child Sephiroth sounded. It was almost bizarre to hear him say that when it was directed towards Lucrecia, his actual mother and not the devil Jenova, that Hojo had tricked him into thinking was his mother.

"Vincent, just do it. Just come to me…"

"I'm sorry…I can't reach."

"You have to let go, then. Let go of it all."

"Let go? Of what?"

"Let go of all the guilt, all the sadness, all the pain, all of it. Then you can come."

"…I can't…"

"You're the only one stopping yourself. You keep yourself from everything else because of your sadness. You've made your prison and refuse to free yourself. That's what sadness is. A prison that people make for themselves, that only they can break out of if they just try. It's as simple as that. So, Vincent, will you let go of it all?"

"…I'm sorry, Lucrecia…" he muttered sadly.

"What holds you back?"

"I…always blamed myself for not being able to save you from Hojo, and Sephiroth, and until I atone, I can only suffer. But my time has ended without my having repented for my sins. And so they will go to the grave with me…"

"Vincent, my poor Vincent. I died with my sins but I have found peace in this afterlife. After realizing that my own sadness kept me anchored in that state trapped between the realm of the living and the dead, I decided to let it all slip away. And I was free. And this Sephiroth who stands beside me is the true Sephiroth, completely devoid of Jenova and Hojo's influence, the child that was supposed to live but died in my womb the moment the cells entered his unborn body. His memory of all that pain may be gone but at least he's free. Why can't you be like him, like us? Forget it all and stay here, with us."

She smiled and offered her hand a tad more persistently.

"It's…" Vincent sighed deeply and went on in a quiet voice, "it's not that easy for me. I've spent so many years feeling pain and guilt, I've forgotten how it's felt to…to be happy, and so it's the only thing I know. I don't want to be empty. Why continue on with no pain when there's no happiness to replace it? I'd rather feel something, anything, than nothing at all. So I just can't…"

"Vincent."

A dusty gale overwhelmed the lush green meadow, tossing Lucrecia and Sephiroth's hair to the wind. But her hand did not yield in her invitation to this heaven;y field of flowers and sunshine. Her hand shone through the dust, her hand of light. Vincent tried yet again to take it but she was too far away. The sandy gust became heavier, hindering his sight of Lucrecia's face, blotting out her willowy form totally.

"Vincent…"

The meadow was gone, abandoning him to the reality of the present. The present where Vincent's broken body lay in a pool of blood on the scarred barren earth. The tiny stars fell even then, collecting on his face and on his eyelids with an unwonted coolness that he found comforting. Sound was hollow and distant in his ears. The air was warm and smelling cleaner with each little breath that he took. Then he noticed a radiance come near, shaped like a man. He could hardly focus his eyes upon it as it bent over him.

"Vincent…" the radiance susurrated in his ears. "The Planet says thanks for doing what you did to help save it. That was really brave."

"…mnh," Vincent grunted silently. "I saw Lucrecia but I couldn't go to her. I couldn't let go of the pain. What a worthless and despicable man I am. To go like this…"

"Vincent. You could have gone to her. Why didn't you?" the radiance asked. He coughed, blood bubbled over his pallid lips.

"I just…" A single tear materialized in the corner of his eye, sparkling like a long lost jewel finally uncovered. "I don't know anymore. I…"

"You can't at least stay and watch the Planet recover? It may take years to come to heal from this, but it's nothing like the Crater. And the people still alive, this will be their toughest challenge. They'll need someone strong to see them through this or they might not make it at all. Won't you give them that much?"

Vincent cracked a brittle smile that crumbled just as quickly as it had appeared. "Thank you for…your belief that I could be that someone to…help the surviving races but… I died a long time ago. I'm useless now, have been useless ever since. I just want to rest…"

"You were a good man, Vincent. You'll be missed," said the radiance.

"No… I wasn't…" That single tear slid down his dirty, bloody cheek, clinging to the soft edge of his jaw then falling to the burnt earth under him, absorbed by the starving and injured soil. "No, Cloud… I won't…"

--

Nanaki left the abandoned underground Shinra compound, where he had managed to get in most of the people of Junon and of the small fishing village below. After the emerald rainfall that well nigh came close to collapsing Junon on the fishing village, Nanaki searched for a way to get home. Fortunately, one of his friends maintained a hydroplane in the compound and obliged to escort him over to the next continent. It took some number of days for them to arrive at what was left of Costa del Sol. From there on, Nanaki traveled alone to Cosmo Canyon. He saw how harsh and desolate the land was, with no grass, charred standing sticks for trees.

He stopped. A white and pale green light ascended into the sky adjacent a giant crater in the ground that extended over twenty miles in diameter, dispersing into a starburst of sparkles then nothing. Nanaki came down to where the light disappeared. He kept on trotting until he caught sight of a mass in a black pit. The closer he got, the more distinguishable the mass became from anything he thought it could have been. It was human, not only that but it was…

Vincent.

"Vincent?! Vincent!" He broke into a full gallop, stopped just short of a couple feet from his body. He stared down at his motionless form, examined every inch. The black wings curling up like leaves deprived of water under the blazing sun. The gaping wound in his stomach. His arms calmly crossed over his still chest. His pale face and his pale lips slightly parted with traces of blood on them. His closed eyes and dark lashes garnished with tiny wisps of incandescence. "Vincent…"

Nanaki nudged him with his paw but he didn't respond.

"Vincent, you can't be…?" He worked his paw to open one of Vincent's eyelids. His eye didn't even so much as twitch, his pupil not even dilate. Nanaki tried to rouse him another time by nudging him hard with his muzzle. "Vincent. Vincent, wake up. Wake up, Vincent… No. you can't be gone… You were my last, my last…friend. And now you're gone. I never wanted to outlive all my friends.

"Why can life be such a ruthless thing? Why did I have to have longevity like this? Vincent, I'm sorry. And to see you this way, it hurts my heart…

"Vincent, you probably never thought this but I cared. Whether you lived or died, I cared. I can't forget the times we spent together. You might've hardly talked to us but that was okay. It was only that we were together. Friends through thick and thin. And now you're gone, gone like a breeze on a spring day. But don't you worry. You won't be forgotten. I'll carry on your memory, just like I carry on the memories of the others. Each breeze is different, sometimes small and insignificant, at others large and bold, and yet others quiet but strong, the list goes on and on. Humans are but such breezes, so uneventful in the grand scheme of things, but fascinating and unique and of the essence to those individuals whom they touch.

"Goodbye, Vincent…"