Chronicles of Valentine

a/n: Can this be? An actual update? Why yes, by golly, it is! And better late than never, I suppose. I promise I haven't forgotten about this! And I'm determinedly working on the next chapter as we speak.

Thanks to Kuromei, Strawberry Moonlight and Golden Kitsune for reviewing and sticking with me!

There's a minor bit of limeish stuff in here between two men, but you should be used to that by now.

Enjoy the chapter!

Chronicles of Valentine

--June 20, 2040--

I gasped, fingers clenching around the covers as teeth bit on the back of my neck, hard enough to leave a mark but not draw blood. My hair was brushed to the side and hung down beside my face, a curtain of black obscuring my vision to the right. Not that I really needed to see. My eyes were closed, too busy absorbing the sensations.

Lips traveled from the base of my neck and down my spine, occasionally interspersed with flicks of the tongue or the scraping of teeth. Hands on my hips clenched and unclenched as Cloud rhythmically surged inside of me, deeper and harder with each thrust.

Feeling a shaking in my limbs, I spread my knees a bit further on the bed for balance, which encouraged Cloud to go even deeper. Sweet ecstasy burned through my blood, and even the sweat painting my body couldn't distract me from the impending release. I could hear Cloud behind me, breath coming in sharp pants as he fought against his own orgasm.

His hand fumbled around my waist, letting loose his grip on my hip to curl fingers around my erection. His grasp was smooth and warm, the perfect mix of strength. The lack of calluses reminded me all too much of the life we had pretty much left behind, the life of a fighter, a soldier. Neither he nor I had done much fighting in the past five years. And I doubted we would do much more.

A moan stole from my lips as he expertly stroked my shaft, a need building inside of me that I didn't bother to suppress. It curled in my belly, like a churning flame and broke its way free, spilling my release into Cloud's fingers. He groaned as I clenched around him, the hand on my hip tightening in its grip. As pleasure peppered through my senses, I felt on the dimmest edge of them, Cloud spilling himself within me.

And then the two of us tiredly collapsed to the bed, Cloud withdrawing and rolling at the last minute so as not to crush me. He might have been shorter, but Cloud had much more mass than I did. He was not a light man.

Breathing hard, I felt his sweat-sticky skin press against mine as the covers rumpled with the sound of him swiping his hand over the edge. Cloud nosed against my shoulder, pressing a kiss to my bare skin as I let the lingering pulls of orgasm trickle through him. It made my body tingle nicely.

“Should take a bath,” he murmured against my ear, a warm puff of air accompanying the statement.

I made a noncommittal sound, recognizing the necessity of it. “Maybe later,” I replied drowsily. Though the prospect of being clean was enticing, I had been thoroughly exhausted. Perhaps a short nap.

Cloud chuckled, his fingers dancing across the bare skin of my back, skating over scars he had grown so familiar with. “You're starting to sound like an old man.”

“You're not much younger,” I retorted, which was true enough. Cloud was aging more than I, but at least he was aging.

At sixty-one years old, he barely seemed twenty. In fact, he was still carded if we stopped at a bar, at least by those who didn't know his face. He and I didn't much stay in one location, choosing to wander Gaia to distract ourselves. It had quickly proven boring to stay confined to one home. Occasionally, we stopped to see his children and grandchildren. I always maintained a silent presence in the background.

His hand stopped, laying quiescent and warm. “True,” he agreed drowsily, and lapsed into silence, his breath slowly evening. It appeared that he really intended to return to sleep, not that I minded. Though I would be a sticky mess when I woke later.

It was comfortable, I noticed. More than it had right to be. I wouldn't say that Cloud and I had settled into a routine, but we were familiar. We knew what to expect and left it at that. Not to say that we didn't argue, because Cloud was more stubborn than seemed logical at times and often it seemed like I was the only one to carry any common sense. But we got along, and I supposed that was all that mattered.

His breath puffed out in a slower rhythm against my bare cheek, and I considered rolling over for a cigarette. It had become usual for us, to share one after a romp in the sheets. And though I didn't crave the nicotine, I did crave that sense of closeness.

Leaning just a bit, Cloud awake enough to adjust to keep with me, I dropped out a hand and rifled around in the nightstand. Neither he nor I needed to worry about cancer. Whatever cocktail of things Hojo had pumped into us made that sort of death impossible. We were only waiting for our bodies to give out on us. At least Cloud was. He could still die. I worried that I couldn't.

The lighter flicked as I sucked in my first draft, lazily watching the smoke curl towards the ceiling. I idly tossed the lighter off the bed and it landed with a dull thump on a pile of discarded clothing.

Light streamed in from the blinds, spattering a lined pattern across the bed and our bodies. It seemed that it might be a good day. Hot and humid, but clear at least. Peaceful. Not that the world had been anything but. Oh sure there were the occasional minor skirmishes, but an all-out war hadn't occurred. For that, both Cloud and I were grateful.

A hand flopped onto my chest, holding up a hand expectantly. A smile curled at my lips. Not so asleep then.

I took a long drag and handed over the cigarette, watching as my spiky-haired lover lifted his head for a brief puff. There was something incredibly intimate about the sharing of a cigarette, though I couldn't explain exactly why. I watched his lips wrap around the butt of it, his cheeks hollow faintly as he sucked in the nicotine, and more smoke wandered to the ceiling, to be caught by the turning blades of the ceiling fan.

He caught me staring, and smirked. “See something you like?”

I grabbed the cigarette from him; it had been mine in the first place anyways. “Is it still Zack that inspires you to smoke?” I asked, and the question slipped from my lips before I could stop it. I hadn't even been thinking about it, but for some reason, that's what came to mind.

Cloud faltered for a moment, his expression slipping, before blue eyes centered on me once again. “Not anymore,” he admitted, rising and tucking his elbows beneath his upper body, propping himself up.

“Is a few decades really long enough?” The question was for myself as much as him. I pulled the cigarette to my lips, eyes focused on the wall as I considered.

“Sometimes,” Cloud said, and his head hung a little, his own eyes shifting to the side. “It makes things easier.”

In that, I could almost agree. Passing time did not heal wounds, but it gave them time to scar over. The thin, reddened lines would fade. New flesh would spring, but beneath it, the marks would remind. Always reminding. I could never forget Lucrecia.

Cloud's cell phone rang, saving us both from the melancholy silence. Sighing heavily, he rolled away from me and dropped his arm over the side of the bed, rooting around for his PHS. I finished off my cigarette and turned to grind it out in the half-full ashtray.

“Hello?”

Curling up against the pillow, I contemplated a return to sleep as I eavesdropped on Cloud's end of the conversation. This early in the morning, a phone call could only mean one thing. Very bad news of a sort. In our case, that usually meant someone we knew had died. There were so few left, I wondered who it could be.

“Is that so? What do you want from me then?”

A pause.

“I'm no longer in that business.” A longer pause this time. I could tell that Cloud was getting frustrated as he flopped onto his back, a low growl entering his tone.

“I'm finding myself hard pressed to care at all.” He scowled as the person on the other line spoke once more and with an annoyed huff Cloud pulled the cell from his ears and ended the call. He didn't even bother with a goodbye.

I arched a brow. “Good news.”

“In a way.” Cloud tossed the phone to the floor where it hit with a clatter, the battery popping out the back and scattering. I didn't believe he cared too much as he scratched fingers down his chest. “Rufus died.”

Ah, that explained the hostility then. Though why they thought to inform Cloud of his passing, I did not know. We were only loosely connected to ShinRa, bound by the ties Reeve had tried to create with the WRO and Rufus' aid. ShinRa's attempts to make amends for its past mistakes had not managed to completely erase the people's opinion. As a result, it had continued to lose its influence until nothing remained of the former empire but scattered dreams and failed ambition.

“Hmm,” I murmured noncommittally, unabashedly raking my gaze over Cloud's nude form, feeling a stirring in my belly. “How?”

“Does it matter?” Cloud muttered, throwing his head back against the pillow and flattening his trademark spikes. Not even aging could lose their vitality.

I supposed that it didn't.

“And Tseng?”

He was the last of the Turks. Reno had disappeared some years back, vanishing not long after his partner had died in a bombing. Many suspected that he had shacked up in Costa del Sol with some woman. Rufus had allowed his desertion, further spelling ShinRa's doom. He had known that his legacy abandoned him. Perhaps he merely wanted his subordinates to seek their own future.

I could not say. I understood nothing of Rufus' thoughts. He never fully recovered from the Geostigma, forever confined to his wheelchair. And though a relatively attractive man, he was never seen with a female companion. To my knowledge, he bore no heirs. This truly was the end for ShinRa. And like Cloud, I wanted no part in the squabbling that was sure to occur in Rufus' absence.

Cloud shrugged. “No one knows. He vanished.”

“It's probably for the best,” I commented. Tseng deserved his freedom from ShinRa's chains as much as the others. There was nothing left for him after all. Not family, not friends, not companions, not Rufus.

It was almost pathetic, to see the once powerful ShinRa reduced to nothing but land and money to be bickered over. Not that I had any room for pity where ShinRa was concerned. My life, Cloud's life, all of the members of Avalanche. We had all been ruined by the ShinRa family and its same-named corporation. No, there was no such thing as pity in me for ShinRa.

Cloud snorted and rolled back over towards me, his hand flopping out across the bed and landing bare against my side. Fingers danced over my pale skin, tracing the shivers that coated my flesh. The call had made him frisky.

I licked my lips in anticipation, need coiling once more in my belly though by all accounts I should have been exhausted. I had attained my second wind, however, and rolled over, startling Cloud by my abrupt action and pinning him beneath me. Big blue eyes looked up at me, darkened with maturity but nonetheless beautiful.

“Not interested in Rufus' funeral I take it?” Cloud asked, a bit of a mischievous smirk pulling at his lips. All annoyance from the phone call flitted from his expression.

“Not a whit,” I retorted, and leaned down, covering his lips with mine.

He did not protest.

---August 18, 2077--

I stood and watched the tears streak down Cloud's cheek, unable to find the right words to chase them away. For once, rather than hiding at the back of the crowd, I found myself at the forefront of the funeral. Wrapped in layers of black, not unlike Cloud, I watched as he and I buried two of our dearest friends. They had once been children to us, and now, we had surpassed them.

It made little logical sense.

We should have been used to this, he and I, used to watching our friends wither away around us. Used to attending funerals and listening to the grief of those around us. To feeling our numbers dwindle, our companions becoming fewer and fewer. But it didn't get any easier with the passing years, not even for someone like me. It seemed like an incredibly cruel curse, one that we could not break.

In that moment, I was grateful for the relationship that Cloud and I shared. It had lasted the longest out of any I dared create, and though I never quite named it, or put emotion to what we had, it was something I never planned to lose either. He was as much a staple in my life as the Dirge of Cerberus or the memories that were most precious.

We weren't the last. Nanaki was a solid rock beside the both of us, his solemn expression as full of sorrow as Cloud's. I refrained from letting emotion show on my face. Sometimes, I believed that the years had drained it from me.

Almost a hundred years and then more. It was almost enough time to forget about Lucrecia. I wanted to haunt myself with thoughts of her, to keep clinging to memories of her and the guilt that I carry. But a hundred years was a long time. As time passed, so did the memories. I couldn't so much as remember Lucrecia's face anymore though sometimes I heard her laughter in my dreams, fuzzing around the edges.

I heard her talking to me, wondering how long I would hold to her memory. And sometimes, when I looked at Cloud, I knew he asked himself the same thing, for a love he could never admit aloud. Sometimes, we were too much alike.

A hand settled on my shoulder, and it was a credit to my control that I didn't startle in surprise. I lifted my head to find Cloud standing beside me, the look in his reddened, but dry eyes unreadable. He squeezed my shoulder. He had already turned from the graves and the sound of shovel striking through dirt floated to my ears. I must have missed what remained of the service.

“Thank you for coming,” Cloud said as I turned to follow him, Nanaki walking on his other side. The three of us remaining.

First Reeve. And then Barret. Tifa. Cid. Yuffie. Shera some years back, finally rejoining her beloved captain. The Turks. The president of ShinRa, now a defunct company falling apart on the edges. And now Denzel and Marlene, the youngest of us.

I ignored Cloud's gratitude. It was no great capitulation for me. I had wanted to be here, to support him if nothing else. Cloud took each loss much harder than I, probably because he actually faced mortality where I did not. I had long resigned myself to the fact they would all be leaving me behind. Not that I didn't lament their passing, but I wasn't as close to the children as the others. Funny how I still regard them as children.

“We remain,” I commented instead, burrowing my fingers into the deep pockets of my coat as a wind whipped, smelling of rain.

I tipped my head back, looking at gathering rain clouds, heavy and dark as they approached. The storm would be a nasty one. We would have to stay indoors tonight. No camping on the plains for us. I had no wish to wake up under a deluge.

I could feel Cloud's eyes on me. “Ironic, isn't it?” he asked, his feet crunching over fallen leaves. “Most people want immortality.”

“I don't think anyone realizes how lonely that can be,” I returned, breathing deep of the crisp air. In that moment, a raindrop chose to plop right onto my forehead. Cold and wet.

“Even with others, it is lonely,” Nanaki agreed, and I knew he was thinking of Lycana, the female of his kind.

Lycana had been unable to come because her body was burdened with their young. The first child, or litter, or whatnot. Depending on how Nanaki wished to refer them. I knew that he had at least two within her swollen belly, perhaps more. The Sense materia was uncertain as to the absolute number.

I didn't want to remind both of them of the truth. That in all likelihood, I would be the one left alone in the end. Of Avalanche, only I would remain, wandering this green land like a ghost of the past. I had seen so much already. And I was so tired.

I wondered if that were my curse. If Hojo's final revenge against me had been this gift of immortality, now dooming me to a lifetime of evanescent relationships and associations. No matter who I allowed myself to get attached to, they would all leave me in the end. It was a pain time could not quench. I could not move on for it would only happen again.

Not to say that I regretted the time I spent with Reeve. Or the decades I had spent with Cloud, and likely more than that to come. But it was, as always, bittersweet.

We spent the rest in wordless silence, grief a powerful presence. Eventually, Nanaki wandered his own way with a parting, and standing invitation to visit him in Cosmo Canyon. Sometimes we took him up on it. But those times often turned melancholy, so they were few and far between. Besides, it was sickeningly sweet to get in between the marital bliss the two lion-wolves shared – or Iyatokan's as Nanaki had learned to call himself.

“You'd think I would have grown used to this by now,” Cloud finally commented, once we were gone from the press of mourners and we had our dual solitude once more. “It's not like I didn't know it was coming.”

I inclined my head. “That doesn't make it any easier,” I murmured, thinking of my own emotions. I suffered along with Cloud with each loss. It was never easy to be reminded that soon, you would be alone entirely.

His eyes lifted to me, understanding echoing through me. “I know it's worse for you,” he returned sympathetically, and his hand briefly grabbed mine, squeezing comfortingly before releasing it again.

I didn't have a response to that so I kept my silence, swallowing thickly. I let the quiet wash between us, long enough for Cloud to realize that I preferred the subject be dropped.

“What now?” I finally asked because Cloud did not deserve my cold shoulder. It was not his fault that being reminded of my own immortality was the greatest pain that could possibly be inflicted at the moment.

“I don't know. Gold Saucer?”

I dearly hoped he was joking. The theme park had only become larger over the years, spilling into the town of Corel and turning it into a satellite source of amusement. I had not ventured there since I had been forced into the establishment as a result of our journey all those years ago. Turning my head, I lifted a brow in question, red eyes warning.

A faint smile tugged at Cloud's lips. “You might have fun,” he teased, but there was a lingering sadness in his tone.

'Help me forget,' it seemed to say. And well, I understood just a bit. Frivolous. Loud and noisy. Expensive and packed with children and families. Bright and cheerful. Gold Saucer would be the last place either of us wished to go. And maybe, that was why we should dive into the madness. It wasn't as if we could get any crazier.

I sighed, knowing that I would regret my acquiescence. “As you wish.”

The light briefly dancing in his eyes would later make the oppressive headache worth it.

--October 13, 2198--

I held his hand when the last breath left him, easing peacefully out of his body. White hair was short and flat against his head, losing the battle against gravity over the passing years. But blue eyes had never lost their vitality. His skin remained soft beneath my fingertips, though wrinkled with age.

There must have been some cruel deity out there to take Cloud from me on the day of my birth, though I had long ceased celebrating it. More than two-hundred years later and my looks had not changed in the slightest, even while I stood by and watched Cloud age bit by bit, gradually losing his strength and his memory, watching him fall to pieces as he would forget and remember and grieve in endless cycles.

No one remained to grieve but myself and Nanaki. Cloud had his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, his kin of course, but they simply didn't have the connection that Nanaki and I did. They understood his death, they realized it, but to them, Cloud Strife had died a long time ago. With Tifa.

I took care of the arrangements myself. Cloud's last wishes – before he began to lose his grip on reality – danced in the back of my mind. He had been firm and certain, and I had promised to the best of my ability to see them through to the end. For the peace and happiness he had given me for a short time, it was the least I could do.

I tried not to think about returning to a cold, solitary bed once more. I wondered why I continued to bother when I would be left alone all over again.

Nanaki aided me, standing by my side as the orange flames flickered over the aged shell that had become Cloud's body. I knew that Cloud was no longer there, that he had already moved on to the Lifestream, to be with Tifa again. And Aeris. Perhaps even Sephiroth, if the general had even been granted such peace.

I couldn't deny that watching the fire consume made something inside of me tighten in unnameable pain. Reeve had been a blink in the extent of my lifetime. He had been important to me, he had been a comfort and a presence. But Cloud had been so much more. He had been there. We had shared a common grief. He had lasted – for lack of a better word – longer than an instant. Cloud had become ingrained in me.

And now he was gone.

There was a pain inside of me, swelling with each passing moment. It felt like the grief over losing Lucrecia, only much more potent, much more gripping. It wasn't tainted by guilt and regret either, the agony soothed only by a lingering warmth. The feeling of our relationship, cultivated over the span of more than a century.

I was afraid to name it love. But perhaps it might have been that.

True to my word, I restrained from displaying any emotion as I gathered up the ash that remained of Cloud's human shell. I had two small urns with me, of a simple but classy design. Nanaki had brought them. One of the artists in Cosmo Canyon had spent hours at some kiln crafting the urns, making them bold and bright, strong with a curve that inspired a hint of something delicate. Fragile even. Much like Cloud.

I divided his ashes in half, one to each urn, as he had requested. I passed one to Nanaki, trusting the fire-wolf to bear it carefully and well. I had a journey to make.

Nanaki never spoke and for that I was grateful. I was not ready to confront the aftermath of Cloud's loss, even if I had recognized its eventuality. I did not want to admit that I was once again thrust into the world alone, unchanged for all the time that had passed. Even Nanaki had aged, his fur a darker, burnished crimson and his height reaching its pinnacle.

It wouldn't be long before I would be left entirely alone. And that thought caused some innards to twist, my lungs to clamp reflexively. My throat clamped and I hurriedly turned away from Nanaki, not wanting to reveal my weakness.

He watched my exit only long enough to see that I was truly leaving before he loped away, heading for Tifa's burial site. It would be there that he would leave one half of Cloud. And I had somewhere to deliver the other half of him. Divided, as his heart had always been.

That Cloud hadn't left something for me did not anger or upset me. I had what they did not, more of his time and presence. I knew that Cloud held some feelings for me, as I did for him, but were comrades as much as we were lovers. He knew as much as I did, that there were others that came first in our hearts. Others that we could never forget, no matter who followed. I did not lament it because I would not want to replace them.

It was strange. I had always considered solitude a blessing. I enjoyed the silence, surrounded by only my thoughts and my needs. I had never enjoyed crowds, I had never desired the closeness of others. Lucrecia had pierced that wall once before. And then Reeve and Cloud after. But always, I returned to the solitude.

For some reason, the thought of wallowing in loneliness no longer appealed to me. And I wished, once more, that this body of mine would allow death.

It took shorter time than I would have expected, crossing one landmass to the other, passing by cities that were once familiar, but had changed in the passing years. Expanding and shrinking, failing and succeeding. Towns springing up where there had been none, excavation into the planet's vast riches of precious metals and black oil. The earth overtaken by a thick layer of concrete, forests slashed and burned.

It had pained Cloud to see it as much as it had pained myself. As if the world and its citizens had learned nothing of ShinRa's downfall. My words mattered little against it, and so I saved my breath. I picked my battles, fighting only what my guns could defend. Monsters that grew in power, shifted in ferocity. The occasional foolish bandit who expected a man traveling alone to be easy pickings. It amused the demons.

I made it to the northern continent in record time and passed through the abandoned Bone Village. Places where they had dug pockmarked the ground and forgotten instruments of excavating lay rusted and crumbling. I didn't know what happened to the former, zealous residents of the village. Perhaps they merely faded with time, though two centuries was not that long.

The City of the Ancients was cold and silent, as I expected it to be. Some magical aura must keep random strangers from wandering to this place. Even all these years later, this land had not been repopulated. No town rebuilt on the crystal shore, no one bothered the snow-white trees and the shell-shaped homes of the Ancients. No one was there to disturb my silent trek.

He wanted to be with Aeris. That had been one of Cloud's final wishes. He wanted a part of him to lie with her, at the bottom of the crystal pool with the Holy material that had fallen with her. The both of them saving the world in that instant, even as they managed to crack Cloud's fragile heart. I understood the need for this. It was the same as my occasional pilgrimage to Lucrecia's cave, though my visits had grown so scarce in the passing years I almost believed I had forgotten its location.

The lateness of the season practically demanded a chill, yet I did not falter. My thick, dark cloak had served me well over the years, and even now it protected me against an ice-tinged wind. I stood resolute against the breath from the neighboring Icicle mountains, staring at water that had not changed for the passing centuries. Still crystal-clear, I could see to the bottom, to the very depths where a flower-girl who saved the world once upon a time still slept.

Of Aeris I could see nothing, of course. Her body was long gone. But her memory remained. There was a sense of her surrounding this solemn pool, and I could still see, in the back of my mind, the moment Sephiroth's blade had plunged through her body. Her gaze had been full of determination and peace, courage and perhaps even a small amount of fear. She had always been the strongest of us.

From the depths of my cloak emerged the small urn that contained the last I had of Cloud, other than the memories and the belongings we shared. My thumb smoothed over the elegant etching, the porcelain cool in my grasp. It occurred to me that I hadn't said my own goodbyes yet. Not really. I had been too busy taking care of the tasks he had left for me. It struck me that Cloud really was gone.

Sucking in a shuddering breath, I firmed my lips, stepped out of boots and shucked my heavy cloak. Urn in hand, I waded into the water, not as cool as I would have thought. In fact, it was vaguely tepid, as though warmed by some lower fire. I walked to the edge of the underwater shelf, just before the floor dipped into a deep trench that would require swimming. The same where Cloud had stood some two centuries before.

There was a selfish side of me that clung to the urn for just a moment longer than I had right. I knew that Cloud wasn't within it, and that he had since moved on. But a part of me was reluctant to release him. A part of me clung to our relationship, to the feelings that had only deepened with time.

How could I have let myself get so deep to what I knew would have to eventually end, leaving me alone once again? Where had my vaunted common sense been?

My fingers squeezed the urn and I forced myself to lighten my hold. He wasn't mine to keep. I knew this.

Closing my eyes, I released the urn to the water, and refused to watch it slowly sink. I heard the sounds of its descent, the pop-pop of a few bubbles and the distant noise of wind swishing through the trees. That was enough for me. I ignored the feeling of loss that clenched at my heart, trying to drag me down into the depths.

I headed for shore, the warmth of the water swirling around my body and giving me a vague sense of vertigo. It was autumn ushering towards winter; water shouldn't be this warm. Even in this place.

Nanaki had asked me where I planned to go from here. I hadn't had an answer for him. I still didn't. There was nothing left but to return to my wandering, to seeking some sort of answer. Maybe it was time I visited Lucrecia again, where she slept forever cocooned in crystallized Lifestream. But even that wouldn't hold me for long.

Tugging on my boots and returning the cloak to my shoulders didn't quite combat the chill that attacked me. It was childish, but I couldn't look over my shoulders. It felt too much like something was inside my heart, tearing it to pieces.

I didn't want to be alone again and ashamedly, I asked myself why the mako couldn't have lasted longer. Why Cloud couldn't have been built like me. But only for an instant, because as painful and torturous as Hojo's experiments had been, I wouldn't wish them on anyone else.

Cloud's absence from my life was suddenly that much more apparent.

I missed him already.

--April 20, 2275--

The skirmish was brutal. I smelled and tasted blood before I even heard the sounds of warfare, and as I drew closer, the ringing of blade against blade wandered to my ears. Curiosity compelled me to at least consider the situation, these eyes of mine having carefully categorized the shifting of humanity. The history of their actions. It was my only saving grace, to see the fruits of our labor. To see what became of those we risked our lives to save.

Monster against human, or what counted as beast in this day and age. Some of Hojo's experiments had escaped centuries before, and on their own, had multiplied and evolved, their intelligence making them deadly adversaries. Especially once they learned the effectiveness of bladed weapons, even if they couldn't fight on the same level as a human.

The man, for there was only one, seemed to be Wutaiian, though it was difficult to tell from a distance. He was grossly outnumbered, though he seemed to be faring pretty well for himself. More than a few corpses littered the ground, even as half-a-dozen more pressed towards him, hungry for blood.

I sighed to myself. I didn't really want to interfere, but I couldn't just walk away either. If he died, the guilt would weight on my conscious. I could just see the others scolding me if I did. Easier to expend a few shots.

I reached for the Winchester, really the only gun I would need. Taking out Dirge of Cerberus would be overkill. I prepared to fire, mentally planning a course of attack, when the bright flash of some sort of materia spilled across the plains. I blinked in surprise, strong fire pouring from the lone human's fingers and spraying over his opponents.

Materia. Not everyone could use it, and especially not the higher level materia. And if I wasn't mistaken, that was a Fire3. Pretty powerful for an average human to be using. Impressive.

Sliding down the steep incline on my boots, tearing up grass in my wake, I came to a halt at the bottom of the hill. The smoke cleared, giving me view of the battlefield. The solitary Wutaiian's opponents lay in smoldering heaps, and he stood over the last, blade buried in the beast's chest. He breathed heavily, chest heaving as he bled from multiple wounds.

His attractiveness did not escape me, despite the evidence of a rough skirmish. Long brown hair was swept back into a low ponytail to mid-back. Dancing brown eyes had narrowed in anger towards his opponent, and shifted to wary caution as he noticed my presence. Even more fascinating. Rarely could anyone detect my approach. My interest was piqued.

The boy – well, probably an adult, but at this point, pretty much everyone was boy to me – straightened, his hand dangling at his side. Blood dripped from his sword, making him appear threatening despite his vague attempt to do otherwise.

“Fire3?” I questioned by way of introduction, coming to a halt on the rim of the destruction and scattered bodies. “Impressive. Not many can accomplish that.”

He scrubbed the back of one bare arm across the back of his face. “I had a good teacher,” he answered, and his voice was low, husky.

He wore thick trousers, like the sort Cloud preferred during battle, and his sleeveless shirt didn't seem like much protection. But a silver bangle encircled one upper arm, and I recognized the make of it. Pretty powerful for a random stranger. There were only two of those in existence and as far as I knew, we – as in Avalanche – held the monopoly.

I arched a brow. “Oh?” I asked, willing him to elaborate.

With a skillful twirl of my fingers, Winchester was returned to his cradle. I would have no need of the weapon. I was sure my hand-to-hand skills were more than sufficient should this child prove to be an enemy.

He stepped closer, his movements languid and purposeful as he navigated around corpses, sword still dangling at his side. “I doubt you've heard of him,” he commented, a smirk pulling at his lips.

Cheeky little bastard. Were it not for my curiosity, I would turn and leave. But I had to admit I wanted to know why he were capable of such destruction. A part of me wanted to make sure no mad scientists with god complexes and delusions of grandeur were part of the equation.

“Try me.”

He stopped just before me and stuck out his hand, remarkably uncovered in blood. “Shion Kisaragi,” he said by way of answer, and it was only then that I noticed he rivaled me in height, perhaps even a bit taller. “And I already know who you are.”

I looked at his hand and lifted by eyes back to his face. Kisaragi? It was a pretty common surname in Wutai but his manner, his ability to wield materia, it was all pointing to a very potentially annoying situation. And if he already knew who I was...

“Kisaragi?” I repeated, feeling the urge to back away slowly even as I mentally tallied my materia. Luckily, I had nothing of value, though I wasn't too keen on losing any of it.

His smirk widened, brown eyes practically laughing at me as he retracted his hand and dragged it through his hair. “Correct. And you are Vincent Valentine. My grandmother tells me stories about you.”

That pretty much nailed it right there. Of all the luck I had to stumble upon one of Yuffie's kinfolk. No doubt directly descended from her somewhere in there. Though it had been more than two centuries since Yuffie had died.

“What are you doing all the way out here?” I asked, 'here' being defined as the vast plans beyond the Chocobo Ranch, close to Kalm but still far from civilization. I was just wandering, but I wondered at his excuse.

Shion shrugged and dragged out a cleaning cloth, wiping down his blade. “Nothing in particular. Just a little adventure.” A skilled flip of his wrist and the sword returned to its scabbard. An odd weapon choice for a ninja. I said as much.

He looked at me oddly. “Ninjas are dying breeds. Have you not been to Wutai lately? Like say the past few decades or something?”

Admittedly, I had not. With Yuffie gone, there was no reason to venture to that side of the world. I mostly kept to the two main continents, lingering nearest to Cosmo Canyon when I sought the company of intelligent life.

Well, now that my curiosity was sated, and with the knowledge that a potential materia-thief was in reaching distance, I decided it was time to take leave. “I can see that you are more than capable of taking care of yourself,” I responded, and turned away, intent on my original destination. “Enjoy your adventure.”

I thought it a graceful exit. Apparently, Shion's fascination with me had not ended. I heard his footsteps following after me, like a dog trailing its master.

“To be honest, I haven't found much of it yet,” he stated, jogging to catch up to my swift pace. “You wouldn't happen to have any suggestions would you?”

“Not around here,” I muttered, and wondered how I could lose my unwanted tag-a-long. He couldn't have been more than twenty, if that. What fascination was there in a tired old man like myself?

Shion laughed, a loud and almost infectious noise. “I figured that much. Where are you going?”

“Nowhere.”

It was the truth. I had no real destination in mind. I simply wandered. Occasionally I would take up residence in one of the cities, new and old, for a while. But once it became obvious I wasn't aging at all – around fifteen years or so – I left for my own sake. I didn't want to hear the outcries. There were none who knew who I was anymore, other than Nanaki. And apparently Shion. I preferred the anonymity.

“Nowhere sounds pretty interesting to me.”

I stopped mid-stride and whirled towards Shion who yes, was definitely taller than me. It was mildly disconcerting to have to look up to someone. I hadn't had to do that since before Barret died. And for Shion to be Wutaiian, his height was even more fascinating. Then again, part of me was too and I had a good deal of height on me.

“I don't recall inviting you,” I stated, drawing myself up straight and effecting a stern look. Combined with my scarlet eyes, I could be quite intimidating when need be.

Shion barely blinked. “We're going the same direction. So it's not like I'm following you or anything.” His lips pulled into a grin. “At least, not yet.”

And that smirk right there was entirely Yuffie. It seemed some things did get passed down generation after generation.

I supposed that it was easy enough for me to transform and flee Shion, but that would be running away and I was loathe to admit his effect on me. And a part of me that yearned for human contact wanted to latch onto this seemingly fearless kid. It took a pretty courageous man to not flinch in my presence. That or a considerably stupid one. I couldn't tell which Shion was yet. He was Yuffie's relative after all.

I sighed. “Do as you will,” I muttered, and began walking once more, keeping the sun to my back and away from the scent of death and ash.

Shion just grinned all the wider and folded his arms behind his head, easily matching my steady pace. “I plan to. You're quite fascinating, Valentine.”

I grunted, and wondered if my acquiescence in this instance was going to be more trouble than it was worth.

***************

a/n: By my estimates, there are about five more chapters to this, since it's going to be about ten chapters long plus the epilogue. Each chapter has several scenes and is quite lengthy though, so it should prove interesting. This is really fun for me to write, and I'm enjoying it, even if it is quite depressing. It's given me several ideas for original fictions.

Well, I hope you enjoyed it. I'll try not to make you wait so long for the next update. I'm determined to finish up both this and Shattered Children. And thanks for sticking with me. I look forward to your comments!