The Song of Eternity
Canto 10 : The Gift
Verse 2 : Vincent Valentine
Second chances,
Third chances,
Fourth and fifth ones even.
There comes a time when you know
You are on your last one.
Vincent waited in the kitchen at Four Freedoms Plaza as Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm cooked up breakfast in a most unorthodox way.
"Cut it out ya damn matchstick, you're gonna burn the food," Grimm yelled at his friend who was making flames dance across the skillet. "Just keep the flames going under the pan," he shouted.
"Fine, I remember when you used to be fun Ben," Johnny laughed as he sat down by Vincent, keeping one hand pointing at the pan to cook the scrambled eggs.
"Wouldn't it be easier to actually use the stove," Vincent asked them.
"Where's the fun in that?" Ben laughed as he kept cooking.
"So what's the deal, you were out talking with the Avengers and Reed all day yesterday, leaving me and Ben here to watch after Franklin. There was some news about a battle up in Bayville last week, but Stone blacked out the media pretty quick," Johnny asked him.
"A couple interesting developments," Vincent explained as he sipped his coffee. "It turns out that Logan, Pyro, Chaos, and Wanda were all taken by Apocalypse and brainwashed into his 'four horsemen'. To make a long story short, they attacked the school with some more cloned Dark Riders and took Rogue and Cole to Egypt. We followed them by tracking Cole's void field and attacked Apocalypse's stronghold, subduing Logan and the others, but Apocalypse escaped into a portal, taking Rogue with him. Cole was in pretty bad shape after being tortured a little by Chaos and Logan, but used his power to recreate the portal and keep it open long enough to grab Rogue and send Apocalypse back through it," Vincent told them.
"All that happened last week?" Johnny asked him.
"Thursday and Friday, but things got bizarre after we had rescued Rogue. Four people appeared, they were Cole, myself, Logan, and Chaos from a few month in the future, but no one really knew that until they revealed themselves, which was after they sent Logan, Chaos, Cole, and I away participate in a battle between Order and Chaos on another planet and dimension," Vincent explained.
"Who's'a'what now?" Ben exclaimed.
"Cosmic battle, rather not talk about it. It is over now anyway. The important thing is that we were each given what is supposed to make us happiest in life, whether we knew what it was or not. Damon got his old body from before he became Chaos back. Logan got Xavier brought back to life, which is what I'm here to help clear up. I got the complete removal of Jenova and Mako from my body, reverting me to the man I was before I started working for ShinRa. And Cole…, he finally got down to the point where there's only 1 mind left in his head," Vincent explained.
"So they can just bring people back to life like that?" Ben asked him.
"No, they explained it to Cole, the person's spirit can't have moved on already, so you need to revived in a period of 1 day to maybe few years," Vincent told them.
"Nothing we can really do with that info anyway, since I'm guessing no mortal has those powers," Johnny shrugged.
"Okay, the eggs are done, you better eat quick Valentine if you want to make your meeting with Strange," Ben reminded him as the three of them ate their breakfast.
Later Vincent pulled his car up to the familiar mansion and walked to the front door. "You're a little late," Strange told him as he opened the door before Vincent could knock. "So I gather whatever it was that Eternity, Infinity, and the other celestial beings took you for ended fine?" Strange asked as he led Vincent down the hallway.
"More or less, how did you know about that?" Vincent asked him.
"With the amount of arcane objects I have, I get a general idea when big things are going on, even when I can't find out exactly what is happening," Strange explained. He stopped in a library and shrugged. "But that is neither here nor there, what can I help you with?"
"When we first met, you took me to the lifestream. I need to go back to talk to someone," Vincent told him.
"The woman, Aeris? You think she is still there?" Strange asked as he retrieved the Eye of Agamotto from a secret panel in the wall.
"I don't know, but I need to be sure," Vincent replied as Strange created a yellow glow over the two of them. When the glow disappeared Vincent and Strange were alone in the empty void of the lifestream.
"Vincent, I had a feeling you would come back," Aeris said as she appeared in front of Vincent. "I can take it from here Stephan, you can go," she told Strange who disappeared immediately. "So, what is on your mind Vincent?" she asked him.
"How did you know that Chaos and I would be separated?" he asked her.
"Why are you asking me this, you could always ask Cole, he understands as well as I do," Aeris chuckled as she walked away and motioned for Vincent to follow her. She snapped her fingers and the surrounding immediately changed to a breezy green meadow.
"There is an understanding in the house that we do not talk about things like that with each other," Vincent told her.
"Okay, I can respect that," she told him. "How did I know? All I did was listen to the 'Song of Eternity' as Travis Starmore once called it," she told him as she sat down on the grass.
"What does it tell you?"
"It tells me about whoever I try to think about since I am dead. What you want to know is, what is it telling you. It is guesswork at best Vincent. You'll understand it once it happens, but even Starmore did not understand everything that it said," she explained.
"Why do I hear it now?" Vincent asked as he sat down beside her.
"If you've been near death enough, then it just happens to people, most go a little mad if they try to understand it, so they try to ignore it. I'm guessing it was pretty bad out there, when you and Chaos merged again to fight Sephiroth," she said as she looked at him.
"Yeah, I had to kill my own son again," Vincent looked down at the grass.
"Don't worry, it wasn't really him, just a puppet used by Chaos and Order for their games," she soothed him.
"I know, but he almost killed me. I don't like having done what I have done," he muttered.
"Cheer up a little Vincent. You are alive, free of Jenova cells, Mako infusions, and demons. You can start to live a normal life. Your mind will finally start to let go of the things that you did in the past now that all the Mako is out of your system. The Mako poisoning was what really made you so moody and morbid all the time in Avalanche, making you obsess about Lucretia and all," Aeris told him.
"There comes a time when you know you are on your last one," Vincent chuckled.
"See, like I told you, don't worry about the words of the song, just the feeling that accompanies it," Aeris patted him on the shoulder.
"Why are you still here? In the empty lifestream and all," Vincent asked her.
"I stayed behind to watch over you, Elena, and Damon. I knew things would get strange for you three after Meteor, so I wanted to make sure you all did okay," she smiled. "Time passes much faster here for me, the times that you were all in stasis went by in an instant. Once you three live out your natural lives I'm going to move on, but until then you can come and talk to me whenever you want," she told him.
"What time is it now? I need to be somewhere at 5," Vincent said with a bit of panic.
"Don't worry, time has been moving normal with you in here," Aeris laughed. "I wouldn't let you miss tonight for the world," she added.
"How do you know about it already? We didn't even know about it until a few days ago," Vincent asked her.
"There isn't much to do here Vincent. That little town of yours is a very interesting place so I look in every now and then. Time for you to get going, break a leg," she laughed as Vincent faded from the lifestream.