Uploaded February 2020 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago

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For CapnRaye's Roll For Initiative challenge. It's all about creating new stories through editing - so a good excuse for me to force myself to branch out with AUs and crossovers again.

My first challenge was to use the theme of rebirth and to incorporate the prompts "I didn’t meet them until the day they died" and "don't leave without telling me" somewhere in the plot. They're actually used during the video itself!

Plot:
A pair of soulmates are reborn every generation following a deal one of them made with the god of time, Cronos. They are able to recognise each other immediately when they meet, but it's finding each other in the first place that's tricky - and how long they have left. Each time they encounter one another, one has a vision of when the other will die. They know exactly how much time they'll have together.

When Noel and Zack finally meet, Noel is shown a vision of Zack dying that same day. With their last incarnations (Aya and Rem) also having had their time together cut short, they struggle with knowing how little time they have left. When Zack does die (which they both know is unavoidable), a grieving Noel confronts Cronos, demanding better for them both. Instead of waiting out the rest of his natural lifespan, he asks to die quickly so that they can start the next cycle.

Cronos grants that wish.

The pair finally meet again as Serah and Yuna. They're relieved to see each other, hoping that this cycle is kinder to them than the last. Serah gets the vision of the future.

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AND WHO KNOWS HOW LONG THEY HAVE? Aren't I cruel?
The due date for this is tomorrow, so I'm kind of unintentionally uploading the most miserable video possible on Valentine's. It has a potentially-happy ending, at least?

Song: Elephants - Rachael Yamagata