Final Fantasy VII: Redemption Chapter 10
By Aujang Abadi
How it moved. It was not merely the action of movement that propelled it, no, it was the essence of movement, of some giant, unseen force that only the Great can comprehend, yet is so powerful to capture even the small with its sheer beauty. Yuffie stared in awe, at the magnificent, living, shifting being that was the Lifestream.
She floated gently, carried in its powerful grasp, towards a destination unbeknownst. Her eyes glazed over, and in a realm between consciousness and lethargy did she move. A silent, pulsating hymn reached her ears, the music of the planet. She smiled, and felt herself slip into the Whole, the mass that she had never known before but now so badly needed.
Her senses sprang to life, absorbing anything and everything around her. The whole was contaminated! She could feel it pull at her, and stain part of her body, stain part of her soul. She wept tears of agony for the pain the planet felt from this deadly aggressor, this destroyer of reality. But the whole called to her. It needed her.
"Vincent? Vincent, where are you?" Her voice echoed without a sound, her lips never moving, yet something heard her. The contamination shifted, it sensed. Fear washed over the whole, from the form of contamination, from JENOVA. It sensed its own brood.
Vincent's still form materialized, his demonic countenance replaced by starkly human features. Yuffie could not help but smile: here, only essences reflected. Vincent was beautiful, the days of his youth and his innocence etched upon his single, now merging with the whole. Yet the contamination was seen in his eyes, making him old at the same time, a horrible enigma that Yuffie felt acutely. The planet called to him, beseeching his aid.
"Yuffie... help me..." They were beside one another, his hand outstretched and suddenly filled with hers. "Such... power. I must... concentrate."
The power of mere words in this realm of the unspoken! Yuffie nodded, and the Lifestream rejoiced, the planet's hymn grew louder. JENOVA writhed inside of the whole, snaking out, desperately trying to contaminate, to alleviate its own futility. The musk of its terror filled the world.
Vincent spread his arms wide, baring his chest towards the contamination, revealing the source of his own. His heartbeat echoed in the pulse of JENOVA, their shared life tying them together in a perversely symbiotic relationship. But now the victim turned victimizer, as Vincent's eyes narrowed. The contamination was to be eliminated.
"JENOVA... come to me... make me whole." Lines of clear blue energy suddenly joined the two forces, and then the struggle began. The Lifestream moved rapidly now, repeating the intense beat of the battle of will. JENOVA thrashed, refusing to be absorbed by its own breed, unwilling to eliminate its foothold in the existence. Vincent's face twisted with the pain.
"Yuffie... help me." Vincent squeezed her hand, and then Yuffie was around JENOVA. She looked to Vincent, the energy around him making him appear almost holy. His words echoed in her mind.
Redemption... Yuffie drew back, and struck JENOVA, boring deep into the disease's center. She struck again, and again, until the whole ran thick with the lifeblood of the sickness. Horrid screams filled Yuffie's mind, blowing her back, an aeon of distance. She reeled from the impact.
Suddenly, a flash of gold split through the Lifestream, and then Yuffie was upon JENOVA once more, tearing into it. She wondered at her newfound strength, not quite understanding, but cherishing its existence.
"No... Yuffie, you need to command it... force it, into me." She looked up, at Vincent's torn body, split in two by his purity and his infection. His single glimmered weakly, the force of the impact looked as though it could kill him. She shook her head, filling the whole with her concern. "Yuffie, there is no middle ground... must destroy it, at any cost!" Tears filled her eyes, spilling over her face. She nodded, unable to control her grief, and began exerting the Lifestream.
JENOVA shrieked in protest as it was driven forth from its grasp, propelled by the planet itself, and shot into Vincent, filling him, merging his single once more, and then snuffing it out. Yuffie wept as Vincent's form slowly disappeared, his last bit of energy spent on gently wiping away her tears.
* * * * *
The stillness of the chamber was overwhelming, but Vincent's breaths came naturally, easily. He laid across the nether, his eyes opening slowly, staring up into his vortex. His beginning.
A dark shroud escaped the vortex of time, hovering next to him, slowly forming into a figure he'd become very familiar with.
"Hello again, old friend." Vincent smiled as he spoke. "Life has been a little less interesting without you as my constant companion. But it is to be expected."
The figure nodded, and extended its hand towards Vincent. The air hung silent for a moment. Vincent sighed, and shook his head.
"No, it doesn't look like I will join you. It is not yet my time... I have one, last thing to finish. Forgive me." Vincent sat up, his dark hair spilling over his features. The shroud nodded once more, and turned.
Vincent laid back, and closed his eyes again. When he awoke, he was alive.
.