The Song of Eternity
Canto 3
The Return of Sephiroth
Verse 10
Recovery
The threat finally vanquished,
The survivors move on.
The two destined for darkness cannot rest,
Only prepare for what will come,
And hope for salvation.
Vincent woke up as the bright sunlight shined in his eyes through the window. He had fallen asleep standing in the corner the night before. He looked over to the kitchen where Shera was moving about, preparing breakfast. He stretched his sore form and walked over and took a seat at the small table. "You're awake," Shera noted as she tended the food on the stove.
"Apparently," Vincent replied as he moved his hand to block the sunlight. He moved away from the wall and stretched his sore muscles. He walked over to the table and took a seat. "Where are the others?" He asked Shera who slid a cup of tea in front of him.
"Around town, they've been mobile for the past few days, unlike you and your friend," Shera explained.
Vincent frowned as he put his tea down. "A few days? How long was I out?" he asked her, wondering if she made a mistake.
"You and the bartender have been out of it for about a week now," Shera explained as she pointed to a lump covered in blankets on the floor. "When we landed here after the battle, you went to the corner, propped yourself up and we haven't been able to snap you out of it since then. Same deal with him, except he just collapsed. Neither of you seemed to be dying, so Cloud just let you be," Shera explained with a shrug.
"Strange," Vincent muttered as he sipped the tea. "Is everyone else okay?"
"Yes, everyone else made it through without any permanent damage," Shera explained before the door opened and Cid came barging in.
"Well, I'll be… Dead man number one is moving around," the pilot joked as he took one of the empty seats at the table. "What the hell was wrong with you anyway?" Cid asked before Shera hit him in the back of the head. "Sorry," Cid said exhaustedly. Vincent raised an eyebrow at the situation. "I promised her that if we made it through all this, I'd cut down on the swearing," Cid explained.
"Never thought I'd see that," Vincent admitted. "I don't know why I slept for so long. It probably has to do with when Chaos and I worked together to beat Sephiroth," Vincent guessed as he thought back to when he killed Sephiroth. "He is dead then?"
"Yeah, your friend there blasted him good," Cid said as he pointed to the lump of blankets on the floor. "Me and Spike went back to check it our yesterday. He's gone, we couldn't even find any parts," Cid explained.
"Good. He deserved better than this. He had been manipulated by Jenova and then whatever it was that Keep was hunting," Vincent said with a sense of peace.
Cloud and Tifa came through the door and looked surprised to see Vincent up. "Morning Vincent," Cloud said as he and Tifa sat down at the table. "You okay? All in one piece?" Cloud asked as he took a cup of coffee from Shera.
"I guess so," Vincent said.
"So what do you plan to do now Vincent? Cloud and I are going to Kalm to open up a bar and a fighting school," Tifa explained.
"I have not thought of it. I need to speak with him, when he wakes up," Vincent motioned at Keep.
"If you don't mind, I want you to take these," Cloud said as he slid a bag of materia across the table. "There's one of each of them in there, so we can duplicate them, should the need arise again. I'll be destroying the rest," Cloud said as Vincent secured the bag on his person.
"I understand," Vincent replied as the door opened and a loud group of people entered the house.
"The foo's awake," Barrett said as he carried Marlene in on his shoulder.
Yuffie limped in along with Nanaki and took a seat in the kitchen. "Nice to see you awake Vincent," Nanaki said as Yuffie complained about her leg.
Reeve came in last followed by the Turks. "Vincent," Reeve nodded as everyone stood around, wondering what to do next.
"So are you all getting ready to go, or what? I have the plane ready and can get you wherever you want to go," Cid asked the assembled group.
"I guess me an' Marlene will be heading back to Corel," Barrett said.
"Wutai, I need a vacation from fighting," Yuffie sighed as she thought about flying.
"Back to Cosmo Canyon," Nanaki nodded.
"If you don't mind, drop us four back at Midgar," Reeve asked, indicating himself and the Turks. "They kinda put me in charge there after Sephiroth died. I just came here to grab these three to give me hand rebuilding."
"I will stay here a bit longer," Vincent replied.
"So will we, a couple more days at least," Cloud answered as well.
"Okay then. We'll see you guys later, I want to get back to Rocket Town, so the plane is leaving now people," Cid said as he shook Cloud and Vincent's hands and left. After everyone said their goodbyes and left, Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent sat there quietly for a bit until they heard the plane leave.
As the plane took off, Cloud spoke to Vincent as Tifa tried to finish cooking the food on the stove. "You want to talk to him too, don't you?" Vincent nodded in response. "When he went to fight Sephiroth in Midgar, I heard some stories about it. Reeve says that something happened, an explosion, the Shinra building is gone now, nothing but a pile of rubble. I want to know what he really is," Cloud finished.
"I don't think he's even asleep," Vincent said as he walked over to the pile of blankets on the floor with Cloud and Tifa behind him. "Get up," Vincent said as he poked at the pile with his boot. The pile stayed limp, refusing to react to his proddings. Vincent frowned and pulled out his Death Penalty and pointed it at the pile.
"Vincent, what are you doing?" Cloud asked as he watched Vincent point the gun at the pile.
"Trust me. He is more than he seems," Vincent explained as the gun clicked loudly throughout the room as around slid into the chamber. "Quit messing around and wake up, there are only three of us left here," Vincent said loudly. When the pile did not react, Vincent fired at where the head should have been.
"What are you doing?" Tifa shouted after he shot.
"Check the body," Vincent replied as Cloud hurriedly threw the blankets off, expecting to find a corpse. As he threw off the last blanket he was greeted by a strange sight. Instead of a bloody corpse, Keep was lying on his back with the bullet between his fingertips, an inch in front of his face. "I told you he was awake," Vincent pointed out as he walked back to the table.
Cloud as Tifa stood back as Keep got to his feet, still caked in dried blood from the battle. Keep looked down at him self and shook his head. He snapped his fingers and the glow from his metal arm erupted outward, cleaned off the blood and repaired his clothes. "Much better," he said as he looked himself over. He walked past Cloud and Tifa and took a seat after grabbing some bacon and eggs from the stove.
Cloud and Tifa grabbed some food and sat down as well. After eating in silence for a bit Vincent decided to speak. "Why did you fake sleeping?"
"I did not wish to speak to them. The less people here, the better," Keep replied. "But you three want to speak with me, so go ahead. What do you want to know?"
"Who are you and what was the deal with Sephiroth?" Cloud asked Keep as he drank some orange juice.
"My name is Travis Starmore. I came here hunting the thing that possessed Sephiroth. It was a special WEAPON, made to invade a host and make it stronger, then take over. Its creator killed my family and most of my world. It would not have stopped until all human life was dead, then it would repopulate the world with genetic clones of its creator's people," he explained.
"What happened to the Shinra building?" Tifa asked.
"It got caught in part of a blast that missed Sephiroth," Keep explained.
"All those people in it died," Cloud said with a bit of sadness.
"I do not care. I would kill everything on this world to get to the WEAPONs," Keep said calmly, silencing Tifa and Cloud.
"In the lifestream your wife and Aeris told me about the song. They said Chaos and I would be free of each other if we stopped Sephiroth. But the demon is still in me!" Vincent shouted as he slammed his claw on the table.
"They said you must stop Garland, not Sephiroth. Garland is the consciousness controlling the WEAPONs I am hunting. They might have told you what you needed to hear to get you to fight Sephiroth and not Chaos. There are still eleven WEAPONs out there for me to hunt down," Keep guessed as he finished up his food.
"Can you hear the song? Can you tell me what it means?" Vincent pleaded with Keep.
"Everyone can hear it, you just have to listen. There are two problems with it though. One is that it can drive you mad before you understand it. And two is that you only hear the song as it pertains to you. The song is a narration of what will probably happen in the future, but it is not exact, it has been wrong before," Keep replied as he laughed at something in his head. "Aeris understood it because she was with the planet. She was probably right though, unless she is the kind of person that would try to manipulate you. In the future of this planet you and Chaos will be free of each other."
"This is getting way to deep," Cloud sighed.
"Tell me about it," Keep agreed as he stood up from the table and stretched. "Well, I need to be going now," he stated as he headed to the door. Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent followed him to the open air in front of the Villa in Costa Del Sol. Keep looked around for a bit as if looking for something.
"What are you waiting for? Do you have a vehicle or something?" Tifa asked as she looked up at the sky.
"Ha, I wish. It might be a lot easier if I did," Keep laughed. "Stand back please," he ordered. After the three of them took a few steps back he traced a circle in the air with his metal hand. As his fingers traced the air a black circle appeared in their path. Once the circle was complete, the inside of it turned black at once. "That's my ride," Keep said as he wiped a drop of blood from his nose.
"Well, thanks for you help. Good luck," Cloud said.
"Don't hurt yourself out there," Tifa added.
Vincent looked into the circle as he talked to Keep. "What is that noise?" He asked Keep as he listened intently to the dull roar coming from within the circle.
"That's the song. This is a hole into the void between worlds, it's where the song comes from," Keep explained. Keep stepped through the circle and turned back around to look at Vincent and the others. "You two, have a nice life," he indicated to Cloud and Tifa. "As for you Valentine, I'll see you later," he finished before the circle closed and he disappeared.