A/N: I told you I was on a roll! Now don't shoot me!

This came to me last night as I was trying to get to sleep, and it was so damned depressing I had to get it out of my head before I killed myself. Husband was not amused!

In any case, just tell me what you think. I've promised Windform some happier times, so keep an eye out for the next post.

Disclaimer: Not mine, all characters belong to Square Enix and Disney.

At The End of All Things.

"We find a place for what we lose. Although we know that after such a loss the acute stage of mourning will subside, we also know that we shall remain inconsolable and will never find a substitute. No matter what may fill the gap, even if it be filled completely, it nevertheless remains something else".

- Sigmund Freud (1961)

Cloud had failed.

In the darkness of their shared bedroom his lover lay unmoving on their bed, the moonlight silvery and pale as it slid across cotton sheets and sweaty, clammy skin. The fractured and battered chest moved barely inches as breath after ragged breath was pulled into punctured lungs.

Cloud's own chest felt tight with his failure. He dared not move.

His lover's strong hands that had once traced faded scars so tenderly over his body lay heavy like lead against the sheets, the skin around the wrists scuffed and bleeding from chains. And a familiar face that he had woken to so often and fallen asleep beside every night now lay unmoving and waxen.

Cloud could barely see through his shimmering vision, his fists clenching and flexing with his grief, his shoulders shuddering with the weight of his despair.

His heart turned sharply in his chest, winding him, knocking the breath from him.

"Cloud?" Aerith approached him, shutting the door behind them, her voice echoing the hopelessness that Cloud felt when he looked at Leon, so broken and frail on their bed. He could barely get his words out.

"There's nothing you can do?"

He felt her shake her head, the crushing weight in his chest finally defeating him. He stumbled to the bed, kneeling beside it. He dared not touch him. He'd done enough, remembering and reliving those words that Aerith had uttered to him just moments ago, downstairs upon his arrival home.

"I can't save him."

This was his fault.

With shaking hands, Cloud reached out and touched Leon's battered face. His fingertips ever so gently tracing his bruised cheek, flecking away scabs of dried blood. He pushed back his lover's hair, his thumb caressing Leon's clammy brow, his skin chill to the touch.

"Are you sure?" He pleaded, a huge fat tear finally escaping from behind his lashes. His other hand reached out to take Leon's limp, lifeless fingers into his. They were so cold.

"I'm sorry." Aerith choked, her face crumbling from the futility of it all.

Cloud's head was bowed low in defeat and painful grief, his hands trembling with the effort of agony. How long had Sephiroth kept him prisoner? How many days of suffering before Cloud had found him?

Too many, too long.

Cloud pulled himself up onto the bed until he was laying flush next to his broken lover. He cupped Leon's face in his trembling hand and ran the pad of his thumb over chapped lips. Nuzzling his nose into Leon's temple he inhaled deeply, pressing chaste kisses to the abused skin there. He heard the harsh, laboured breaths that the older man struggled to pull into his lungs, the wet sounds echoing in the small room as Leon's lungs slowly filled with blood.

He was drowning.

Cloud's anguished sob shook the two lovers, the intensity of his grief so acute. He pulled Leon's broken body as close to him as he could, curling himself round the taller man, needing to be as close to him as possible in these last few minutes.

He would never get another chance.

He forgot about Aerith watching heartbroken from the door and he forgot about everyone waiting downstairs. He forgot about himself as he lay with Leon, feeling him struggle to hold into life, his skin growing cooler and his breath growing shallower.

"Don't..." He begged a broken whisper, as he sensed the moment drawing near. "Please, don't!"

Nothing.

There was no answer, no sound. Not even the distressing sounds of wet torn breathing.

Leon was gone.

Cloud held him until morning, before kissing him one last time, just to the side of his perfectly arched lips. He rose and stood, looking over the body of the man he had sworn to love and protect. He turned, knowing there was only one place to go; only one person to find.

Sephiroth...