Helloooo guys! Man, I really need help with my tears I finished the game a week ago but I'm still affected *bawls so hard* TT_TT 'twas beautifully cruel waahh their smiling faces at such a time tore my heart to pieces...why you do this Square Enix TT_TT

But anyway, basically this fic is just to help me with my need of Machina/Ace fics and sort of recuperation from my heart damage due to the ending but I hope you still read this!

THIS SHIP NEEDS SOME LOVE!

Also, I own nothing. The game and it's characters and the songs used are owned by their respective owners (Square Enix and Bump of Chicken for the song Zero)

Well, that's all guys! See you around! Love ya all!
(flies back to my other fandom)

P.S This will be a multi-chaptered fic

Chapter 1 – Too Late

"….my voice, … you?"

'Huh?...where am I?' Greyish green eyes opened as he heard a muffled voice.

"You hear my voice, don't you?"The voice spoke once again, this time loud and clear.

'Dr. Arecia?...' He squinted his eyes to try and see clearly but his efforts were for naught. All he can see was the blurry tunnel vision-like image of the doctor standing in front of him.

He felt constricted. He can't move his body at all, it feels like he was frozen and his arms were heavy.

"Please tell me all about yourselves." Dr. Arecia continued.

'Tell her?, what is she talking about?' Machina wondered.

"Tell me about my children…"

After hearing that from the doctor, everything came back at once. The battle with Rem, how they ended up as crystallized beings with him carrying Rem, how they helped Class 0 with their confrontation with Cid by giving them their powers, how everything ended once and for all.

He doesn't know how Arecia could talk to them but he tried his best to relay to her all that happened. Then light began to shimmer around them.

"I understand. Then you two shall go forth."

Then suddenly a blinding light shrouded them and he felt warmth start to course inside his body. The crystal encasing him and Rem shattered into tiny pieces. Their body materialized and this time they opened their eyes to reality leaving that hollow blurry world they were in.

He looked towards Rem and gave each other a smile.

"The world will change to one where death cannot be forgotten." Dr. Arecia assured them, and they were glad, especially Rem because she had always wished in her heart that people will be able to remember the people whom they were with, shared memories and experienced a lot of things with. At least, this time people can die without the fear of being forgotten and can be remembered with their legacies left behind.

Machina, on the other hand was thinking that now that everything was over, he should go and apologize to Class 0, especially to Ace…, he was mean to him after learning that Ace, was the reason that his brother was called to the front lines. He should not have treated him like that. Ace and the others welcomed him and Rem with open arms and yet all he did was let his selfish judgment cloud over him.

At least this time, he could make up to them.

He and Rem continued to walk towards the end of the hall and get out of Pandemonium, but Arecia called out to them once more.

"So please, I ask that you remember my children."

His eyes widened at the realization of what that statement applied and he whipped his head towards Rem and finding out that she was looking back at him with same wide eyes.

Bright light glimmered and they disappeared from Pandemonium and found themselves transferred back to Akademeia. They were in the school's lobby near the destroyed great portal. The whole academy was in shambles. Pillars were destroyed and toppled, and parts of the ceiling were gone, sunlight streaming through them. Dead bodies of dominion cadets and tribunes lay almost everywhere, comrades in war gone but not forgotten. A horrible sight indeed but strangely peaceful.

Machina and Rem shook themselves from the stupor they were in and ran towards Class 0's classroom.

"..mai..go no…a..shioto…kieta" A very weak voice hauntingly sang.

Machina pumped his legs and rushed towards the door faster. Why was the hallway so long? Damn it!

"Ace!" Machina shouted as he ran. Rem following him.

"Ka…wa..ri ni i..nori no uta…wo…" Ace's voice quivers, becoming weaker by every second and Machina's heart beat faster with fear.

"No…no,no,no!" Machina sprinted the last few meters to their classroom.

Ace's singing was reduced to broken hums as he felt the last of his energy drain out of him. He felt so weak that he didn't have the energy to flinch when he heard the door slam open. He just stared at its direction, his eyes not really focusing on the blurry bodies that just arrived. He heard a loud gasp and he figured that it was Rem and of course there was Machina.

Ah, Machina.

He had a lot of things he wanted to say to him, apologizing being the top of his list. Right now, not being able to talk to him was his only regret. He was happy, slightly regretful but content. Everyone in the class was with him, holding each other's hands not wanting to let go not even in the face of death.

Rem and Machina were frozen from the sight they saw. Everyone from class 0 laying together, holding hands around a makeshift flag they made from their worn weapons and torn capes. It was as if they were just sleeping, resting from the exhausting fight they had but Machina knew better.

They were gone. Dead.

But there was Ace.

Machina ran towards Ace hoping that he could still be able to do something, anything to keep him alive. He reached for Ace's hand and clasped it in his.

"Ace! Ace please…" Tears were uncontrollably running down his face. "Ace, no, stay with me!"

Machina released Ace's hand in favor of holding his blood-streaked face. Machina held Ace close to him and rested their foreheads together. He looked at his eyes that were running out of light.

"Please, Ace not now, don't leave me…" Machina shamelessly sobs out.

Ace wanted to say something to him. That he was glad that they were there, that he and his siblings were content and happy but he can feel that he needs to go, to that place where the others were waiting for him.

That he loved him.

Ace used all of his remaining strength and raised one hand to cup Machina's face. Machina immediately leaned towards it and placed one hand over it, trying to keep it close to his face.

"Sorry, sorry that I wasn't there when you needed my help -hic- sorry, Ace…I-I love you, that's why d-don't, don't leave me! Please!" Machina begged.

Ace's heart broke at Machina's pleas. He wanted to stay too but his body is giving up. Tears silently ran down his eyes and looked directly at Machina's eyes.

"Thank you." His eyelids are feeling heavy.

"I..love…yo..u" Ace took his last breath and finally closed his eyes and his body became slack.

"Ace?" Machina called with a trembling voice.

"No no no no! Ace!" Machina screamed in agony. He let go of Ace's hand and hugged his body close to him. He cried, bawled, sobbed but there was nothing he could do to bring Ace back. Magic no longer exist in their world. It vanished when Dr. Arecia took the crystals with her.

Machina stayed there clutching Ace's body as he calmed down from crying. He brushed the hair away from Ace's face and kissed his forehead then his lips and muttered a soft "I love you" before gently laying down Ace's body.

He stood up and wiped the tears from his face and turned back to Rem who just kept quiet at the scene displayed before her. Giving her respects to her fallen friends. The two of them stood together and looked at their friends when a breeze came by and the card resting beside Ace was blown away. Machina saw it and caught it. He intended to keep it in memory of Ace.