Black Parade AU (The album by My Chemical Romance)
A spirit's white hair bobbed above the crowd of dull greys and blacks. The wind blew him up into the dark sky, allowing him a full view of the strange new place he had found himself in almost three days ago. The sky above him was full of storm clouds and thick smog, making it difficult to discern the city-scape beyond, but from what he could see, it was full of jutting spires, and many planes and blimps with faded designs. Below him, a procession of people continued to march on. They were a strange crowd, to say the least. One woman wore a gas mask, along with the form for a mannequin's ball gown. Another two darted about the air above the parade alongside him, twirling batons in their fingers and donning dark black eye masks. Several skeletons wore dark uniforms, complete with military style buttoning made to appear as ribs. Another woman wore a suit of armor, carrying a banner as she rode a horse with similar attire.
It was all very confusing to him, as he could not remember coming here, nor could he remember much of where he had been before. He could not even remember where he had found the wooden staff he twirled in his hands. He looked around for someone to ask what was going on, as he had neglected to do the past three days. Everyone seemed to either be in pain, or to ignore him. The woman with the gas mask seemed like a viable option, so long as he tried to ignore the bomb she cradled against herself. Touching down a few feet from her path, he tapped her shoulder, where she, unlike several skeleton men he had tried to speak with, turned to face him.
"Yes?" Her voice was smooth, but muffled behind the mask.
"Do you know where we are?" He began to fall in step beside her, and she shifted the bomb to her other arm, perhaps because she was tired, or perhaps because she wanted to be accommodating.
"We're in the Black Parade. Are you new?" She looked to the ground where his staff had scratched a second earlier, where fern frost patterns were spreading along the worn concrete. "Ah, I see. You're new." He scratched his head sheepishly.
"Yeah. I'm not quite sure what's going on around here." The marching band music that he had not quite noticed until that moment was diluted by the rhythmic stepping of feet.
"Well, then, I suppose that the first thing you should know is that you're dead." He looked at her incredulously, but she only shrugged. "That's why there are skeletons. Everyone here is dead."
"But I don't want to be dead. I don't want to be dead when I can't even remember dying." She shrugged again.
"I'm sorry. I can only explain, I don't know any of the rules." He sighed before leaping into the wind once more. This wasn't very fun. He felt better, though, when he realized that it was snowing softly through the dark air, the white specks sticking out like stars against the dull background. Looking up silently at the tallest of the man-made spires, a thought echoed in his mind: I want to know how I came to be here. How did I die? The woman hadn't seemed to remember either. Did everyone forget? Looking down, seeing many discarded weapons and instruments and sickly, hunched over people, he wondered if the world they had left in death had really been all that worth remembering. All the same, how could he know if he didn't truly understand what the place he had come from was like? He heard a clock's deep chime somewhere below in the city, but did not try to further narrow the location. He was surprised when the clock chimed thirteen times. Didn't clocks chime only twelve times? One of the women who were flying came up very close to his face, catching him off guard, and causing him to yelp, and nearly fall over.
"What are you doing?" She asked him quizzically. Her hair seemed fly away, and she sounded excited simply to be talking to him. It was strange.
"I'm just trying to figure out what's going on." She giggled at that, a sound like a flute, and smiled, revealing clean, white teeth.
"Everyone says that when they arrive, but no one ever remembers. The best thing to do is move on!" He frowned at that sentiment, but she was patient.
"But doesn't it bother you to not remember, to not know who you were?" She looked thoughtful for a long moment.
"Maybe…but I've never remembered anything in all the time I've been here, and that's nearly 400 years. I think that I should try to have a little fun since worrying won't accomplish anything. You have to let the stuff that bothers you go. I think that's what the parade is about."
"Does everyone think different things?" He saw the wisdom in her words. He was someone who enjoyed having fun, after all.
"Not really. The person who leads us has been here the longest, though, and that's what he thinks. He's probably right. He's right about most things like that." She still looked lost in a memory, possibly of the person who led them, but she was drawn out when he grabbed her hand, pulling her higher into the air, and laughing all the way.
"You're right. I guess I have as long as you've had to think and try to remember!" He called, and she darted forward to race, but soon enough, the third person who played in the wind joined them in the competition, she darted around with a coordination to rival the first's, causing the ice spirit to wonder if perhaps they were sisters.
Once, he thought he saw a glimpse of the man the baton twirler had told him about. He walked at the head of the parade of people, and had a head of hair so bone white that it resembled the moon.
What a strange place this was. For the past few days, he'd been very concerned with remembering what had happened to him. Now, however, he felt the subtle need to let go. A very curious parade.
A/N: If you couldn't tell, the first flying woman was Tooth. The second was Baby Tooth. I thought that Gerard, (who was the white haired man) could be the man in the moon, but those two are kind of a far stretch apart…they are both a little eccentric, right? Yes, I am right. It's an AU. Gerard is Manny if I say he is. The gas mask lady wasn't really anybody…sorry…dropped the ball on that, but I was sort of out of female characters. Hope you liked it! Review with some constructive criticism pretty please! Also, terribly sorry if you're reading Movie Spin Offs, I'll update that as soon as I can!
PS: All the characters I talked about or had RotG people play were all depicted in the album art for the Black Parade. Seriously, look at it…Well, except Gerard…he was on the inside painting, though…