Chapter X | The Water of Healing

IT WAS RAINING STARLIGHT.

Each droplet of water glistened and shone where it fell, silver and white.

"What's... happening?" Alya whispered, her voice hitching with another wave of pain. Even as she felt her body breaking, she couldn't take her eyes off the window, watching the strange rain as it fell from the cloudless sky.

Vincent didn't move, keeping his eyes on her.

"It's raining," he said, absently, keeping his hand on her cheek, as if somehow it was the only thing keeping her there, keeping her with him.

"But look at it. It's... glowing. Like s-starlight."

Vincent finally dragged his eyes away from her to look outside, and realised that she was right.

It was raining starlight, silver and bright.

He stared harder.

"The... lifestream?" He breathed, and his own eyes widened at the wonder of it. There was only one person he knew of who could be capable of something like this. "Aerith..."

"Hm?"

"Let's go outside," Vincent said suddenly, helping Alya to her feet. She swayed, unsteady on her feet, reaching for him.

"It hurts," she whispered, her voice thinned with strain. "It hurts... so much." Tears beaded the corners of her eyes, but she blinked them away, gritting her teeth as she forced herself to breathe slowly, to breathe through the pain.

Vincent watched her, helpless. All he could do was hold her, and pray they still had time. He'd known this was going to happen eventually, had always known that she would one day leave him. But why did it have to be so soon?

Outside, people were laughing.

Children danced beneath the rain, laughing as they held their arms out, and Vincent realised it was curing them. Their stigma wounds were disappearing. Their bodies were healing beneath the lifestream's touch.

The work of the Ancients, Vincent thought to himself. She's still up there, watching over us after all this time.

He turned to the woman next to him, still slumped over, breathing raggedly. The dark bruises on her skin were still there.

"Please hold on," he whispered, tightening his fingers around her arm. He could feel her fading away, like stardust on the wind.

She moaned quietly, shifting her head to look at him, and as she took another step forward her legs gave way.

He caught her quickly, pulling her to him. "Come on, stay with me," he said, his voice low and desperate.

He looked up at the sky, blinking rain out of his eyes, feeling it slide softly over his face. But why wasn't it working? Why wasn't the lifestream curing her too? Was she too sick, too far gone?

Vincent was starting to panic. He could feel the chaos beating inside him, all caught up in his emotions, all those tangled threads, pulling tighter, all those thorns of his past, biting deeper.

He lifted her into his arms and kept walking, saying her name over and over to wake her up, just like she had done for him.

There had to be something he could do! They were so close. The rain - the lifestream - Aerith's gift. Why wasn't it working? Why wasn't she getting better?

He felt a hand, small and hesitant, tugging on his cloak, and Vincent looked down.

The young flower girl from before stared up at him with wide brown eyes, a flower in her hair and a smile on her lips and raindrops glistening on her skin. "Hello mister," she said, and her voice tinkled like bells.

"You again," he said quietly.

The girl swung her basket of flowers, her eyes dropping down to Alya's crumpled form. Her chest rose and fell faintly. "The church," she told him. "You need to take her to the spring in the church of the flower girl."

The flower girl - did she mean Aerith?

The girl let go of his cloak and stepped back, and he gave her a tentative smile. "Thank you," he whispered, and then he ran.

"Mnm," Alya groaned quietly as Vincent moved as carefully as he could through the ruins of the Midgar slums. She tugged weakly at his cloak, but he didn't slow. He was almost there, at the church in Sector 5. Aerith's church.

"Hang in there," he said. "Please hang in there."

"Where... where are... we going?"

"There's a church," he murmured. "And a spring of lifestream. It... should heal you." It has to heal you. "We're almost there."

She tipped her chin up to look at him, silver rain sliding down over her skin, beading in her hair, making her glow.

"W-wait," she said suddenly, just as the church rose into view over the ruins. He could hear voices, and laughter, and his panic started to abate. He was here. They'd made it. "Wait," she said again, her voice gaining strength, and Vincent stopped outside the church. "I want to... walk in myself."

Vincent hesitated, and for a moment he held her tighter. She nodded, looking up at him with a smile like a thousand stars. "I'll be fine. I can... I can do this."

He set her down slowly, keeping a hand on her shoulder as she steadied herself on her feet, breathing deeply. "I'm okay." He let go, and she began to walk, confident in the knowledge that he would be there to catch her if she fell.

Alya walked through the church's broken doors, her hands hanging loosely by her sides, her face calm and smiling.

She's brave, he thought quietly as he walked behind her. Braver than I ever was.

Maybe I can learn to be as brave as her.

Inside were all of Vincent's friends. Friends from his not-so-distant past. Friends who he would not yet leave behind. Even if he'd never truly felt like he could be part of what they had, they were still there, waiting for him. They hadn't left him yet.

They smiled at him as he passed, and he nodded in return.

Cloud was already in the water, with the other sick children, and even he managed a quiet smile when he saw them, an unlikely pair.

Alya paused at the water's edge. There wasn't a tremor in her body, and she kept herself standing tall.

Then she looked back, and her eyes found his as she held her hand out towards him.

We've made it, her eyes seemed to say.

Despite his misgivings and her sorrow, they'd gotten this far together.

Vincent could feel the others watching him, but he could only look at her, waiting for him so patiently. He stepped forward and slid his hand into hers, and they stepped into the water together.

"It's... cold," Alya said as the water reached her waist, sparkling silver and blue, reflecting in her eyes. "Somehow I thought it... would be warm." She laughed quietly, and then she began to glow. The stigma marks on her arms and neck shone silver, and then faded, like a trail of stardust fading into the night sky.

Vincent felt something stir in his chest, a flower unfurling it's petals in bloom. She was going to be okay. She wasn't going to leave him just yet.

She looked at him, still smiling, and he couldn't look away. "Thank you," she said, reaching for him again. When her fingers found his, he held on tight.

"We both made a promise, to move on," she reminded him. "So let's do it together."

Vincent smiled.

Together.

[ E N D ]

Ahh I'm sorry the ending is a bit cringey. I'm feeling soft okay haha. I hope it wasn't too fast-paced either; it is quite a short book, so I hope things didn't seem too rushed >.<

Thank you so so much to everyone who read this and left me votes/comments. I'm really grateful for all of you! I'd love to write some more FF stories in the future (maybe even finish Infernal Devices one day lol) so please keep an eye out for them!

See you next time,
Kupo!