Requiem for Vincent

By V.Valentine

Chapter Ten

"Call of Duty"

A/N: Gomen nasai, everyone. Moving into a new house while still keeping up with my job can make me forget that I still have stories out with unfinished endings. But now that I'm settled down again, and it looks like I'm going to be here for a while, it's time to finish these stories. Starting with this one first.

But after that, it's the sequel to Valentine's Day. As always, standard warnings and caveats apply, and please read and review. Now, the conclusion…

With a violent burst of speed, Vincent's hand shot out of the earth, palm and fingers splashed outwards towards the night sky. Franticly, it moved breaking up the dirt that held him down. And soon the first signs of a head came to the surface as his hands grabbed to anything they could latch onto, and hoist him out.

Stopping once he was halfway out, with his lower half still halfway in the grave, Vincent rolled over to his back, his face towards the night sky as the rain fell down onto his face. Breathing heavily in and out, Vincent took the few moments to rest and regain his strength from climbing out. It was then that he attempted to move again, pulling himself out of his own grave completely.

He looked to his headstone. The passage of "Savior of the Planet" was inscribed under his name. Vincent thought he was no Savior. Sephiroth had to be stopped. It was either that, or everyone and everything was going to die at the fall of Meteor. And atonement for what he had done was crucial to him.

Atonement he still needed, and will continue to need.

Looking around the graveyard where he had been buried, Vincent saw numerous weapons lying around his burial plot, instantly recognizable once better attention was paid. And right at the tombstone, was Death Penalty. The best of his arsenal, it had the look of a simple rifle, with the firepower of a Howitzer behind it.

He picked it up experimentally with his good hand. It felt solid. Familiar. It was still in extremely good shape. Holstering it underneath his cape, he looked to his golden claw that was a "replacement" for his left arm by Hojo. But looking at it further, Vincent's eyes widened, as there was a large crack running down the center of the metal. And what was underneath it was even more surprising.

Flesh. Human Flesh.

Rapidly, Vincent started to pull it apart, to send the pieces of the remnant to the ground. And there it was, in perfect and pristine glory, his left arm. Good as new.

Flexing the fingers, and bending it at the elbow, everything was fine. Better than fine.

Smirking slightly, Vincent looked to the sky above him. "It seems you had something to do with this. Thank you, Aeris." He said softly, and even as he did so, the rain above stopped, and the clouds parted, to show a starlit night.

Removing his cloak, he collected the weapons around his grave up and put them inside, wrapping the cloak around them all. It wouldn't be ideal, especially with the Venus Gospel and the Ultima Weapon protruding out. But it'd have to do. He didn't have far to go.

Picking up the "bag" of weapons, Vincent started down the path towards the exit of the graveyard.

Next stop, Gold Saucer.

Emma stirred in her sleep restlessly. She knew she wasn't going to get any sleep, and yet she tried. But it wasn't working.

She opened her eyes, and saw that Jubilee wasn't in the bed next to her. Sitting up quickly, Emma looked around. No Jubilee anywhere in the room. Getting out of bed, Emma slipped on a snow-white silk robe over her nightgown, and walked out of the room.

The Ghost Hotel Lobby was empty, save for the night watchman. Emma quickly walked up to him, with a somewhat panicked look in her eyes. "Excuse me, I'm looking for a young girl, of about seventeen, she has…" Emma started but stopped when the watchman gave her a knowing smile, and pointed towards the lounge of the hotel. Emma turned her head towards the lounge, and saw Jubilee sitting at the piano, playing a song with no one else but the bartender there.

Giving a nod of thanks to the watchman, Emma walked into the entranceway of the lounge, and leaned on the door. She just leaned and watched as Jubilee played songs on the piano. She had always had a gift for it, but she was usually so unfocused that she never had spent much time on her lessons.

Apparently, she had spent more time on her lessons than Emma thought.

At the end of one song, Jubilee started to play the melody to "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. She was playing it almost as if Beethoven had done it himself. And for the faintest of moments, Emma smiled.

Walking up to her, Emma stopped short of the stage with the piano. "He was always very proud of you, Jubilee." Emma stated with a quiet confidence, as Jubilee didn't move an inch, while still continued to furiously play.

"Guess I wasn't good enough to save him then. Stupid powers. I should have paid more attention when I was in class." Jubilee muttered with a dark hint of anger in her voice. At herself, at the world, anything.

"Jubilee, we were up against Apocalypse. It wouldn't have mattered in the slightest if you were there or not. Vincent knew what was going to happen. It's part of life, child." Emma said, as Jubilee abruptly stopped playing, and looked to her.

"Life? Is this the same life that says that we're never going to get to have normal lives because of how we were born? The same life that has us living in fear of our own country coming after us and rounding us up into camps like cattle. Well, fuck life! I could have done something more, we all could have!" Jubilee said, stopping just as fierce as she had started tears erupting from her eyes.

Emma only stood in silence for a moment, reveling in how much Jubilee has grown up since she was first put in charge of her. Without a second thought, Emma went to her and took her into her arms; a cradling comfort was the only thing she could think to give at this moment. "Shhh…I know you're angry. I am too. I miss him dearly. He was the first person to see me as anything other than how the rest of the world sees me. And I loved him so." Emma said, tears starting to come down her cheeks as well.

With what seemed to be like forever, Jubilee quietly wiped her eyes, and looked up to Emma's face. "So what happens next, Frosty? What do we do?" Jubilee said, trying to manage a usual laugh of hers, as Emma ignored the Frosty comment and gave her a small smile, pushing back a strand of Jubilee's obsidian hair behind her ear.

"In the short term, I think we should head back upstairs and try and get some sleep. But in the long run…I have you, and you have me. That's a start." Emma said reassuringly as Jubilee nodded and gave her small smile.

Getting up, the two walked up to their room still holding onto each other. Once reaching their room, Emma opened the door for the two of them and let Jubilee in first before closing the door behind her as entered.

And Vincent was standing there as they both turned around.

Clad in all black, he looked just the same as if nothing had ever happened. His crimson eyes looked to the two of them, and once he saw them both, he gave them a warm smile.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed by now? It's rather late." Vincent said, as Jubilee ran into his arms and almost choked the life out of him, but Vincent gave her a soft smile, running his hand through her hair. "I've missed you so, Jubilee. I'm so sorry for everything that's happened." Vincent said embracing her into his arms.

"Don't you ever do that to us again, you big jerk!" Jubilee said, playfully hitting his shoulder, as Vincent could only nod and smile. "Right, Emma?" Jubilee said, to still see Emma standing at the door, not having moved an inch since she came in.

"Pardon me for a moment, Jubilation." Vincent said softly, as he detached himself from the young girl, and started to walk towards Emma.

"Stop right there. I'm warning you right now, if you're some kind of shape shifter, or an alien, or a clone of my husband, I will punish you until I can no longer breathe… and make your life.." Emma began but soon found herself in the arms of Vincent.

"For a psychic, you really should have known by now. But if you require proof, I'd be more than willing to give it." Vincent said, taking her bare hand into his own, and opening the psychic rapport between the two of them.

With a sharp intake of breath, and a sense of dawning wonder on her face, she let her free hand graze the side of his face. "Love….I …" Emma began but failed, as Vincent smiled and shook his head. "No, dearest, no words. Not for us." Vincent said, then wrapping his arms around her slim waist holding her close to him, and leaning in for a deep and passionate kiss.

It seemed like heaven would then come down to greet them both, the kiss was one of longing, and of unbridled joy of love renewed. When only the need for air got in their way, the kiss broke, and the two lovers looked into each other's eyes. "You're late." Emma said with a playful smile and a joyous laugh, as Vincent grinned and nodded.

"I apologize, but you should have seen the traffic. It was murder." Vincent said, then turning to let Jubilee into their embrace.

"So now we can go home, right? We can put this all behind us?" Jubilee softly questioned as Vincent looked to her.

"We can't go home just yet. We will still be needed here for a while. The Planet is in trouble. And with the threat that's coming, we will all be needed here. And we're going to need some help."

The next morning, the members of Avalanche gathered in the lobby.

"Well, I suppose I should head back to Corel. I got things ta do, an Marlene's waitin' for me." Barret said, as Cid nodded with Shera holding his hand.

"Next rocket ain't going to fucking build it itself. I got nothing but numbskulls working for me." Cid said with a light chuckle, as everyone else slightly laughed.

"Let's not wait until something like this to get together again. Despite our losses we're still Avalanche. I don't want us to separate." Cloud said, as Red XIII nodded and smiled.

"Well said, Cloud. My thoughts exactly." Red XIII said, just as the morning shift person for the Ghost Hotel walked into the lobby.

"Excuse me, is there a…Mr. Strife here?" The Bellman called out as Cloud turned around.

"I'm Cloud Strife. What is it?" Cloud responded, as the Bellman smiled.

"You have some deliveries, sir." The Bellman said, as he motioned towards the back.

"I don't remember ordering anything while I was here. Who sent it?" Cloud asked, as the Bellman shrugged.

"Beats me. They were just left here in the lobby this morning, with a card and a note saying that you'd be here to pick these up. Alright guys, bring them out." The Bellman said, as several members of the hotel staff came out of the back with large objects in their hands.

The Venus Gospel.

The Conformer.

The Premium Heart.

The Missing Score.

The Limited Moon.

The HP Shout.

And the Ultima Weapon.

Cloud stood in shock as the weapons were passed back to their respective owners, with one of the workers gently handling over the Ultima Weapon into his own hands. Smiling softly, the Bellman handed him a small envelope. "Here's the card that came with this. Enjoy."

Holstering the sword on his back quickly, Cloud almost ripped the card in half trying to get the envelope off of it. But once managing to do so, Cloud opened the card, and read what was inside.

And it fell from his hands, dropping to the ground.

Tifa looked to Cloud in shock, as she slowly approached him. "Cloud? What does the card say?" Tifa asked meekly.

"It says, "Thanks, but no thanks"." Vincent said, standing behind them all at the entrance to the hotel, with Emma and Jubilee at his side. "You're going to need those for what we have coming to get us. Besides, I already have a gun." Vincent surmised, looking at now all the shocked members of Avalanche looking to him.

"What? You'd think I was dead or something."

FIN