Disclaimer:

We all know I don't own anything from FF7 or square-enix/soft. No characters. No locations. No vehicles. No Chocobo. All I own is myself, and I'm not even sure about that one.

Oh well, at least this story's mine. See, I can see the silver lining to every Cloud... :-p

Sorry, couldn't help that one :-p

Don't upset the Lifestream... I want to share the fun too! Wait for meeeeeeeeeee!

Part 2: Angels don't lie.

It had been a mistake.

He should not have given in. He had so far avoided any contact with AVALANCHE, shunning their various invitations to visit them in their respective homes. For one year, he had not seen any of his one-time companions.

But that didn't mean that he had not heard from them.

Vincent glanced briefly at the screen of his cell phone. Reeve Tuesti's message was cryptic at best; yet, there was an odd feeling of urgency to it. He was intrigued: what did Reeve have to tell him that required a face-to-face meeting?

Especially since the latter's time was precious and limited: the World Restoration Organization he headed was expanding exponentially and needed his full attention. The W.R.O. had started out with a single mission: building new homes, a new town to shelter those left homeless by Meteor.

New homes meant food, electricity, water, and gas. Individual businesses could not meet the demand, and the W.R.O. was soon asked to step in to consolidate those separate start-ups into one conglomerate under its control, finally absorbing it into its own structure. However, as demand grew, they had to devise new ways to bring in the raw materials to maintain and increase production.

From there, the projects had started to build up and W.R.O. had branched into transport infrastructure by building new roads and motorways, flyovers as well as bridges, even implementing a ferry between the continents. Those roads, and specially the ferry, were welcomed by all, for they gave the people a freedom of movement they had lacked in the past. They could now migrate to other towns more easily, visit more of the world.

But the downside of all this freedom had showed up one year ago with the mass kidnapping of the children by the three silver haired brothers: those roads also made it possible for truants and smugglers to operate with impunity from settlement to settlement all over the world. Therefore, and unsurprisingly, the W.R.O. had taken upon itself to regulate passage from one continent to the other after that disaster; it was not enough to give the people liberty of movement, it claimed. They also had to be protected.

The commissioner's solution was to implement volunteer patrols on the main roads between the towns and intersections throughout the world and one could safely say that everything snowballed from there. A poll soon showed that the public felt safer with armed patrols. Indeed, statistics proved that there was less trouble on those roads guarded by armed volunteers. And soon enough, the first groups of civilian volunteers were replaced with trained soldiers.

Hence was born the armed branch of the W.R.O.

From building to security and power supply, the W.R.O. had become structurally like the now defunct Shin-Ra Inc. providing everything the people needed. Was it really a surprise, with the ex-Shin-Ra Head of Urban Development directing everything?

Yet, in so far as Vincent knew, there was no board of Directors, as with the Shin-Ra company, which meant that every major and final decision rested on Tuesti's shoulders. He didn't envy the man; his job as Commissioner was more than full-time and demanded more than any man could give: business savvy, diplomacy, decision-making, analysis, budgeting, planning… it was amazing that he was still sane. Vincent could not see how the man could have time to come to Kalm for the Revival Festival. And if this move was just a Public Relation, stunt, there were no PR points to gain to meet up with him. No one knew who he was, and most regarded him with something akin to fear and suspicion. Many were those who were uneasy in his presence. Which brought Vincent back to his initial question:

What did Reeve want from him?

…Redemption…

The voice that haunted him spoke those words, as softly as the first winter snowflake landing on the palm of his hand. Somewhere deep inside him, something throbbed painfully, clenching in sadness and grief. Vincent didn't think he had a heart anymore; it had been broken beyond repair, and he was less than human now; it could not be put back again.

However, he could still remember cherished memories, remember what it was like to feel with his heart, his soul. Remember his love for her. He alone remembered her now… he alone remembered her soft voice and exquisite beauty. He summoned from days past images of her in Nibelheim, at the spring equinox, laughing. Full of life and passion, open but oddly distant with him at times. Why Lucrecia, why?

"You say you are sorry; but I am the one who is at fault. I am the one who should be saying those words."

And then, as fugitively as it had come, her presence disappeared.

"Redemption. Cloud, Barrett and Cid believe in it and try to find it, each in their own way. Maybe even Tifa, although she doesn't have much to blame herself for in the first place. As for Reeve… Hmm. He was Shin-Ra. Sins… was really the only way to the top."

In fact, Vincent didn't doubt for a second that Reeve Tuesti had had to dirty his hands more than once to get to be Head of his department. Genius, talent and hard work were not enough to get far up the corporate ladder. Maybe W.R.O. and all those sacrifices… were his way to redeem himself. Vincent had never met the man; passing judgement under those circumstances would be foolish.

In any case, their meeting was scheduled in about one hour. He would have the opportunity to test his theory then. Sins. Redemption. Vincent closed his eyes. Everything seemed to revolve around those two concepts. Two nebulous concepts born from humanity's need to provide a moral code; intangible things, and yet both could weight so heavily on one's shoulders, like all the weight of the world.

He knew. He knew so well how sins could crush one under its terrible heaviness, shackling one forever to one's dark past. And redemption… was just a dream. A dream that added mass to the load, for it promised sweet deliverance from sins.

A soft breeze laden with a flowery scent drifted through the open window by the bed. Most of AVALANCHE associated flowers to Aerith, but Vincent knew otherwise. Flowers, for him, would always bring Lucrecia to his mind. His only love… she came to him in the most unexpected moments. She had led him to her real resting place: the cave where he had met her again after thirty years apart, that time with Cloud and the others, but far, far in its dark depths. There, he had sat for days on end, watching her, watching over her, dreaming and wishing…

Part of his mind had scoffed at his decision for it was totally unreasonable and smacked of calf-love. Yet he had been unable to tear himself away from her, that angel in white, lying in repose like a fairy-tale princess of old, until he had received Reeve's message.

…We need to discuss certain matters…

This message had brought him here, in a place where people rejoiced and made merry, socialized with each other, sang and danced and celebrated, when all he wanted was to be alone, far away from everything, with her. In her presence, his sins… didn't matter so much. They were still there, real, but she seemed to assuage the pain he felt inside, the weight of the past, his bone-deep fatigue. Like a soothing hand upon a feverish brow, she made him forget all of his trials, every nightmare, every dream lost. She was there, they were together, and that was all that mattered.

Yes, coming here had been a mistake; he had taken refuge in that hotel room, and he was now alone with his thoughts, his memories, those terrible children of his past. Without her, there was nothing to stop him from falling headlong in the abyss, nothing to make him forget that redemption was not for the likes of him.

"Even you know that I am beyond redemption. My sins are too great, eternity will not be enough for me to redeem them; I cannot be forgiven."

Outside, fireworks tore the inky sky, streaming down to the planet… tears cried by Heaven itself.

Author's notes:

I am sincerely sorry for the long wait... Many things happened at the same time and I'm still busy with them right now. In fact, they don't look like they'll be settled any time soon, but i'll be optimistic and say that one mre week should do it.

Anyway, I have created another story, which will contain much less drabble than in here (well, I hope that you think so too). It's still ff7 fanfic and it's title is : 'Pillars of Destiny'. One word of advice: read the author's notes in the first chapter! there a surprise... ;-)

So back to this chapter; very drabblish yet again, but Vincent is this kind of individual. I am one of those too... if i sit too long without anything to do except watch the ceiling or the stars or anything else... I start thinking, and thinking of certain things... makes me cry. not sob, or wail, or pound anything in anger. Just soundless tears. I don't know if this happens to many of you... but it is this kind of blue feeling that I have tried to recapture here.

Did I succeed? I hope so. It's up to you to tell me...