The Song of Eternity
Canto 5 : Darkness
Verse 3
In the end they part ways,
One sleeps and the other leaves to finish his mission.
Vincent stared through the scope on a sniper rifle as he continued to squeeze off shots. He had long ago lost whatever pity and regret he had for the people that he and Starmore had and were killing. He squinted as he stared through the smoke surrounding the burning city. As the last of the people fleeing the city fell, Starmore appeared behind him. "Good, all the cities are destroyed," Starmore said as Vincent stood up. "All I have to do now is hunt down a couple thousand in hiding and wipe out the remains of their civilization so the isolated pockets of barbarians can evolve naturally."
"My job is done then, you can handle the rest of this," Vincent said as he tossed the rifle to the ground. "I want to go now," he said as he stared up in the sky at the stars.
"If that is what you wish," Starmore nodded as he grabbed Vincent and they both were transported to the chamber where Vincent had slept for half a million years. They both looked around, noticing that the entrance Starmore made had collapsed. "What was this place anyway?"
"The Shinra mansion. Nibelheim," Vincent explained as he looked at the dust covering everything. "How long did it take Travis?" he asked, using Starmore's first name.
"Five years, not too bad," Starmore replied as he unerringly kept track of time. "You sure you want to go back to sleep? You could come with me, help me find the rest of the WEAPONs," Starmore said as Vincent opened up the suspended animation chamber.
"You can take care of it. You could have taken care of this by yourself, but I think you were dying to talk to someone," Vincent said as he climbed into the chamber.
"Probably," Starmore replied, frowning.
"You be careful out there, you don't want to lose your humanity," Vincent said as he unhooked some of his guns and laid them in the chamber with him.
"Humanity? I lost that long ago," Starmore said as he looked down at his hand.
"No, you are like me. Everyone we've ever known or cared about is dead, some of them at our own hands. But you still have your humanity, otherwise you would have just killed everyone on this planet," Vincent said, causing Starmore to shake his head.
"Whatever you say," Starmore said without caring as he operated the hibernation chamber's controls. "I have a question before you go down. Do you still hear all four demons?"
"Every day," Vincent replied.
"Strange, the souls within my mind are growing distant," Starmore mused as the chamber's lid closed. "Goodbye Valentine," he said as he watched until Vincent was asleep. "Time to get back to work, maybe we'll meet again." He said before he left the room in a burst of smoke. Vincent was aware of him leaving and let his mind drift away as the darkness claimed him for another 500,000 years.