Empyrean Rose
by Capella A. Morningside

I: Taki: Aurora Borealis

He'd pick at them, he couldn't help it, though it left bleeding sores that wouldn't heal for days on end. Now he was thankful his nervous breakdown hadn't forced him into the timid habit that many develop of biting one's nails. He needed them now, more than ever. Scratching at first, watching the skin go red, feeling the minuscule insect crawling and twitching disgustingly beneath the thin layers, then digging, digging until the blood came. With little red trails creeping down his skin he'd reach beneath, ignoring the stinging pain, in a vain attempt to capture one of his tiny tormentors before it burrowed deeper into his flesh and got away. He never won these battles, or ever really came close, but Taki wished deeply for the day he would reach into his self-inflicted wounds and pull out at least one of the countless and squeeze it between his fingers, watching as it writhed and kicked its legs about in agony before finally becoming a shapeless mass of innards and exoskeleton.

It was a disease, one that had been with him since his dreams had been shattered like an expensive vase on the floor. Everything he'd tried to hold onto, protect, had been taken away from him. It had happened in an instant, or it had taken a hundred years, he had lost track of how long he'd been staring into those bright headlights... long enough to blind him permanently, if nothing else.

He'd listened to the cheerful voice of Seguchi Tohma and its final curse to him enough times in his own head to make him deaf...

Felt the meant-to-be reassuring pats and embraces of Ken-chan and Ma-kun enough times to make him numb...

Gradually he lost the memory of what he'd been trying to achieve, forgetting the dream that had taken him as far as it had, with all these things assaulting his senses until he felt as if he were under a potent anesthesia, and all he craved anymore was to feel again.

He had once been a man that had a love for diamonds, but now a different kind of crystal would hold his gaze, enchant him, make or break him. Translucent, the sight of everything through them becoming multiple and distorted, the crystals had become his closest and most intimate friend. It wouldn't ever leave him, always waiting there to pick him up again when the crashes came...

The beautiful, delicate jewel that was holding his life together like patchwork on an old quilt...

A brilliant treasure not made of stone...

The magnificent, healing, crystalline wonder that alleviated the ache of his bleeding, broken angel's wings...

Yet sadly it was beyond its power to permit him to fly again.

Being flightless had not, however, prevented him from becoming something more. His hopes destroyed, his dreams shattered into a thousand vitreous pieces (which re-entered his body few at a time through a flame, leaving behind only thin smoky fog), all clouded vision had been removed from his eyes. Now he was able to see, truly see...

If only he'd had the sight earlier he may have been able to save his wings...

Able to see the true forms of the harpies that threw him down from the heavens, their long, bony hands reaching, grabbing, snapping in twain the bones of the divine appendages...

But it didn't matter anymore. He no longer feared them and their sharpened claws. Even though he was no longer in their reach, Taki knew if he even stepped back into their realm he'd not be afraid, rather, they would fear him as one fears the sight of someone thought to be dead by all rights. And he might as well be dead, to them, to all... because the Taki Aizawa they had once known, took advantage of and ignored had become something extraordinary.

His sight could destroy them, if he wanted it to. But he had a much better idea than that.

He would exterminate the plague of the realm that had once been his to conquer...

And maybe, just maybe, he thought, I'll be able to mend my wings.


Author's Note: Well, welcome to the incredibly disturbing beginning of Empyrean Rose. I guarantee it won't all be like this, so don't let me scare you away completely... only the two chapters at the beginning that are Taki-centric, the rest use other perspectives. This particular chapter is as bad as it gets.

Also, welcome to the world of crystal meth and what it does to people. Methamphetamine is the most addictive and the most destructive drug out there, folks, not pretty stuff. The picking at the skin in the first paragraph is what's called 'crank bugs', an effect the drug has on your nervous system to make you think there are bugs crawling under your skin, gross! The dependency and delusional factor are equally nasty.

Additional notes: The chapter title is in accordance with the 'theme', if you will, of the chapters that will be in Taki's perspective. The theme is cosmos.

Well, I hope you enjoyed, or rather, didn't enjoy it, but found it intriguing enough to go on and maybe even leave a review.