[A/N: 3/50 of the 50Shuffle Challenge! ^^ This time to 'The End of Everything' by Trivium (sure, it's just a little one-minute instrumental thingy, but it came up :3) Enjoy!]
The End of Everything
The phone sat deathly still, patently refusing to ring. Though he stared at it so hard there surely should have been acrid holes fizzing in the sleek device, it remained as smooth and glossy as always, unmarked by fingerprints, mocking him with its silence.
The lights in the apartment were down, the only illumination being soft moonlight shivering through cracks in the blinds. He had not turned the illumination off; the darkness had simply crept over him like a cool cloak, and he had not the energy nor incentive to stir and dispel it with fluorescent incandescence. He could see well enough in the dark with his slit-pupilled mako-enhanced eyes to not really need light at all; and the object he wanted to react remained dark and unresponsive to his silent pleas.
Ring!
Light up!
Nameless gods above, do something!
He made to reach towards the phone, meaning to dial the number he so wanted and dreaded appearing on the screen, but at the last moment stopped himself, hand hovering over the table. No. He wouldn't be the weak one here, he wouldn't give in. It had only been – he checked the clock on the wall with a flick of his eyes – seven hours since he and Angeal had been called to Lazard's office, told with a regretting sigh that – that –
"Genesis has deserted, taking his force of Second and Third-Classes with him."
A pitying glance at Sephiroth, who had staggered with the hideous revelation;
"You can take the rest of the day off."
He had not even been able to voice his thanks or his agony, simply stumbling from the room back to his apartment where he had collapsed at the table, and where he had stayed all this time. His mind was frozen with horror, only one thought floating above the icy tundra of the others; he had to talk to Genesis.
He had to know why the other had chosen to leave him, the company he had so devoted his life to, and his home. Why he had torn this gaping hole in Sephiroth's chest; why he had reduced the General to less than a living being, a shadow of a ghost cast adrift in the cruelty of abandonment,
He shook his head, ridiculing himself for false pride. Look at him; wasting a whole day without even twitching a muscle, immobilised by his dependence on the contact that somehow he knew wasn't going to come. Who was he to talk about staying strong, not giving in? Three words – three words was all it had taken to break him, shatter him into thousands of burning pieces. So what was stopping him from making the first move? What was really stopping him from completing the destruction his weakness had wrought on him?
Decision made, he grabbed the phone and flipped it open, ignoring the picture set as the wallpaper – a haunting reminder of happier times – and with trembling fingers stabbed in the number he had memorised and etched into his mind. Still shaking a little, he raised the phone to his ear and waited for the buzz to resolve itself into rings.
It did, and he sighed a little; at least he had his phone on – though the question of whether he would answer or not remained,
Just as the rings were going to switch to voicemail, there was a click as it was answered – yet no one spoke. If it was Genesis on the other end, Sephiroth knew he would know who was calling – by caller ID, if nothing more personal.
"… Genesis?" he asked tentatively when there was no greeting. He could hear faint breathing through the speaker with his enhanced hearing, and something inside told him without doubt that it was who he wanted to talk to. Damn it, how many times had he heard that breathing shallow and fast in passion or deep and slow in sleep?
"Gen?"
Still no answer, but he could still hear the breathing and decided to carry on regardless.
"I know you're there, but you don't have to speak… just listen, please. All I want to know is…" He paused, trying to pick the words to express what he wanted to ask. "Why have you done this? I know… I know the ShinRa aren't the most wonderful people in the world, but they're who we – you – have pledged loyalty to, no matter what. How can you simply throw all that away?
"But, even if you do have a reason for that… how… why did you leave me?" He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I know we were rivals, and I know, believe it or not, how that felt for you – but I never meant to hurt you like that, you know? I couldn't hurt you without… destroying myself.
"I don't know if you can believe me, but I don't know how to put it in a way that can persuade you. Gen… I want you to come back. I need you to come back, or I'm going to break. You're everything to me…"
He tailed off, thinking how ridiculous that truth would sound to sceptical ears.
"Please, just tell me where you are… ask me to join you." That stupid pride again, trapping him like a vice. "I'll come wherever you call me, just know that. And, Gen…" The words stuck in his throat.
"Gen, I lo-"
There was a beep and a mechanical female voice cut in.
"Call ended by other party at twenty-one thirty-four."
The phone dropped from nerveless fingers and cracked as it fell to the ground, but he didn't notice, nor the silent tears that trickled from unblinking eyes. In that single moment, that single dehumanised beep, his world had ended.
It was the beginning of the end of everything.