Under the Guiltless Sun
Volume II of the 'Sun' series
The House That Nobody Lives In
(As written and sung by Vincent Valentine on classical guitar)
There is a house in my heart
That nobody lives in
Nobody at all.
It withstands the cold nights,
The bloodlusting vampires,
And the lack of light
But it can't withstand your words
Your senseless acts of forgetfulness
And these lonely dreams of love
The house that nobody lives in
Lives in my soul
It lives beside the hole,
That weeps all the blood from my veins
...And I try to contain,
This despair that I disdain,
And I try!
I...
Try...
Not to cry.
You say you will
But you don't.
You say that you will try,
But you can't.
And it's this house that we live in that suffers most.
This house that you and I met and grew.
This house that our relationship
Drew.
It's this house that nobody lives in,
That weeps a thousand oceans more,
It's this house that nobody lives in,
That bleeds a thousand lonely score,
It's this house,
That nobody lives in,
That doesn't turn on the light,
To the empty outside night.
~
Far in the distance of the North, energy, Jenova cells, and the remains of Aeris were being gathered by creatures unspeakable.
They were going to re-create a Sephiroth clone.
But not just any sort of Sephiroth clone.
It would have Aeris' DNA and RNA as well.
It would be like them; a monster. Powerful. Wise. A Cetra descendent.
They lacked Sephiroth's real cells- but Jenova would do.
Monsters were underrated by the human race. These creatures have been upon the Earth as long as insects; they had been here much longer than humans. They were by far more sophisticated and complex than human society.
The creature that they would create would level the playing field- or so they hoped.
Monsters have learned to exist in not only the material world like humans- but in the dream world- the world of children's nightmares, the spirit world where daemons inhabit, and heaven.
By the grace of their gods they hoped to create their Messiah. They knew of Aeris long before she was even born. The monsters of this Earth knew well of her powers long before she died.
They wanted her, or parts of her, to be theirs.
They would travel to the Promised Land to find her body.
They already had Jenova. They stored Jenova in the Shin-Ra basement for a while until a man named Ray, an explorer and entrepreneur, had partially uncovered their plan.
He was one of the few humans whom knew about the monster secret culture.
They quickly removed Jenova before the found it indefinitely.
It was true that there were some uncultured, beastly monsters without much of a brain in their skull- but there were plenty that are for more sophisticated, intelligent, and learned than even the highest human college graduate.
Some of these creatures are thousands of years old.
Such monsters like this were vampires.
"I don't care. I don't see how YOU care. They are humans, not even Cetra descendent- they mean nothing, Eve. Let them come. They won't find us. And they won't even fathom what we are about to do. This is far greater and far more controlled than their petty Sephiroth project. The one called Gast, I give him credit, he was a brilliant scientist, he created many things, he created Sephiroth, but we creatures have many things up on him in our favor. For one, years. YEARS. We are far older and more knowledgeable on the areas of cloning. I scoff at the fact that you fear that the human called 'Ray' will find us."
"There are more than Ray now. You don't understand. Our lookout sentries saw them, heard them, they are coming to the Promised Land. They saw the lightening and are following it."
The creature gestured his delicate hand at Eve, and raised a long eyebrow, "You are amusing me. Just how many ARE there coming, and WHERE are they now?"
"They were in a car. A spy overheard them in the city. They still are in the city. They were chasing the lighting."
"Let them case it. No human can keep up with Blitz Sprites. I still want to find out WHO let them out in the first place. That was the worst mistake ANYONE had ever made- letting them accidentally out on their own."
"It was a halfling that let the lightening sprites out. And he was severely punished, sir."
"Good." The man stood, and folded his hands behind his back. He walked forward in a fluid, dance-like movement, as if his feet did not touch the cold ground at all.
The two vampire-like creatures, (the woman, Eve, as she was called, was only half vampire,) stood in the damn underground laboratory. Around them were hundreds of neon green tubes filled with fluid. They emitted a sick, yellowish glow that reflected off of Eve's paler-than-seashell face.
Eve's eyes were wide, round and large. They were like two huge tulip blossoms turned on their side upon her moon countenance; but they were the color of smooth honey-fanned with lashes the color of sand. Her hair was short cropped and blonde. Her lips were a soft pink. She wore an outfit entirely made of skinned cobras.
"Why are you so cold to me today, Tel?" She let a serpentine smile slither up her face. Then, she rested her nails upon her lips.
She pulled a chair out from under a knee-hole of a desk, and rested her boot upon the seat's edge.
She wore fish-net stockings that crawled up and captured her thick white thighs.
"First off, don't call me 'Tel.' And who said I was being cold?" He turned to her.
The man's skin was as black as a wet stone. His long narrow eyes, too, were simply two wide and shiny almond shapes in his head.
He had eyes as endless as an eagle's.
His hair fell down his back in a waterfall of darkness.
Round were his lips, but they were also the color of obsidian.
He wore a simple white shirt and a long, knit, black sweater over it.
He also wore simple blue jeans and a belt.
"You are. And I'm not calling you that stupid name everyone else calls you." Eve dropped her foot off the chair and approached him. "I know better." She whispered as she wrapped her arms about his neck. He didn't reply or respond.
"I HATE your eyes. I can never tell if your looking and paying attention to me or not! Or even LISTENING! God! Look at you..." She laid her head upon the crevasse between his neck and shoulder. Then, she inhaled a deep, long breath. "But your eyes are like two patches of night's sky. Do you remember what everyone called you when we first met?" She asked softly.
He lowered his face, letting his coal black hair fall in front of his face. It dangled, playing spider legged shadows upon his features. The sodium light from the tubes wove images upon the wall.
"We have had so many names. We live so long, we have to make so many identities. I have been everyone. Now, I wish to be no one at all. That's why you can't call me 'Tel' anymore. I am no longer he, Eve. I do not call you, 'Lillith,' now do I?"
"No, you don't." She pressed her face into him. Her voice was muffled into his shirt.
"Today, I am Stygian. Yesterday, I was 'Teleute.' Tomorrow, who knows?! I may call myself, 'Orpheus' or even, 'Charron!'" He looked down at her seriously.
She was laughing. His shirt kept her muffled.
"Why are you laughing at me?"
Her body shook violently. She slowly rose her achromanticistic face,
"You pick the STUPIDEST names! Why don't you pick something normal, like, Pete, or something, like the other vampires!?"
Stygian pushed her forcefully away. He lowered his face; inclemency in his eyes rose in raging ice.
"I am one of the OLDEST! I am not a young, impudent fool like yourself. You slut. I am knowledgeable and well versed in all forms of ancient and modern wisdom on this planet. Names have MEANING. Names have POWER. I, unlike you and those like you, choose my names CAREFULLY. Sephiroth was named Sephiroth for a REASON!" His voice reverberated off the glass tubes in the otherwise silent lab.
"You.. you black freak!" Eve's lips parted and trembled with fear. She was, for a damphire, very, very young.
"You are no longer welcome in his lab, Eve. Just. Go." He lifted his long finger and pointed to the door behind him.
"Your kicking me off of the research team?" She asked while grabbing her jacket off of a lab table.
"Yes. Just. Go. I don't want to see your face anymore." He pushed his long, black hair behind his shoulder carelessly.
"Your so fucking dramatic. Fucking drama queen. I should have never gotten sexually involved with you. I knew something like this would happen." She hissed as she took her purse off of a hook. "Shit like this happened to every other fucking girl you got involved with. You can't even keep a relationship. Fucking. You fucking man-whore. You sleep with them, and then kick them off of your research team. Fine! I don't want to be a part of the project anymore, anyway! Good luck replacing a genome specialist like ME! You won't find one as competent as I am, Dr. Stygian!" She approached the door and swung it open so harshly, it left a dent on the wall.
"Eve! Listen! Just listen for one SECOND!" Dr. Stygian turned to and spoke softly, "Listen, I'm sorry for calling you a slut. I KNOW that you're a smart woman. Your one of the smartest women I have EVER known. And I do want you on the team- I... I take it back. I think we NEED you. Look." Stygian turned, and pointed to one of the neon colored tubes that noiselessly listened to their every word.
In each and every one of the tubes, a human fetus bobbed up and down, suspended in the liquid.
"They are growing. The Aeris/Jenova clones are growing. Only one of them will grow to full size."
"Jesus. They are." Eve dropped her purse onto the floor. The laboratory door began to slide shut, but her purse blocked it from closing.
"Look at this one. It seems to be growing at a terrific rate! Holy cow. I have never seen anything like this, Dr. Stygian, could you send this one out onto a smaller tube, or even a peetree dish? That might work. I want to get a better look at it's cellular structure to make sure it's still stabilizing well." Eve slid out a pair of small silver spectacles from her jacket pocket and slid them onto her face.
Dr. Stygian nodded and went to the control panel in the back corner. He tapped a few keys quickly and skillfully. As he did so, one of the fetus in the tubes shut upwards, slid through a long tubular canal, and landed into a much smaller test tube.
Eve took the smaller tube, and inspected it carefully. The liquid that the infant floated in was clear like water.
"Well, at this rate, in a few moment this child won't fit in the tube. I don't have a lot of time." She said as she swiftly slid the tube under a specialized microscope. She turned the scope on, and inspected it carefully.
When she looked into the eyepiece, she saw millions of round-blob like cell structures, dancing, dividing, and looking very fine and alive indeed.
"Stygian. You won't believe this. I think we have THE ONE! This is the Aeris with Jenova cells that might grow up to adult size. This is so fucking fascinating. Come take a look at it. The cells are performing mitosis perfectly. No mutations! I got to put it back into the larger tube before it gets too cramped. Stygian! ... Stygian?"
As Eve removed the tube from the microscope, she turned and looked at Dr. Stygian.
There in the corner, the dark Dr. Stygian was huddled. He clutched the control panel with slippery, sweaty hands.
His breath was short.
Eve turned and placed the small tube with the growing creature into the shoot- which took the fetus back into the larger, yellowish tubes beside the others.
"It's interesting. Sephiroth, too, grew at a fantastic rate due to the Jenova cells. And all you can do is huddle in the corner and tremble. Well, that's a sensible attitude to have. We have no idea what this person we are growing is going to be like. With the Aeris cells, what if she/he is going to... be on the human side? What if it's disposition to empathize with it's humanity?"
Dr. Stygian slowly began to regain himself. "Don't ask philosophical questions. None of them have answers. The child will be raised properly. Nature verses nurture. Nurture tends to win. Plus, the child will know the history of it's people. He/she will know that it was the humans who took the Earth from the Cetra so many thousands of years ago. It was the humans who took it from us creatures, as well! We lived in harmony with the Cetra- with nature. Humans must conquer nature. They must destroy everything! We are just taking back what is rightfully ours.
"Aeris, that Cetra, was an idiot. Why she betrayed her people and sided with the humans, I will never know. We are doing what's right. We are bringing her back to give her another chance, to rectify herself- sort to speak.
But, she was so powerful. Strange one would think the bloodline would have been tainted when she was born from so much in-breeding with the humans. But she was one of the most powerful Cetra to ever live! That's why it's HER we are cloning.
"Sephiroth was the greatest thing to ever come about. Odd, that it took a human mind to bring about. Sad, really."
Eve looked at him, then to the large test tube before her.
"You have given this a lot of thought." She said while pushing up her silver glasses. Then, she pulled down her snake-skin dress, as it was riding up her thighs.
He glanced at her, and clutched his chest. He still breathed hoarsely.
"Yes. I have. I've given this a lot of my time, blood, sweat, and energy, too. Come, Eve, let us find a stupid human and drink. I'm... getting weak."
~
Rude drove and he drove. Then, he stopped.
"What's the hold up?" Tseng woke himself and asked with a tinge of irritation in his voice.
Rude didn't reply as he set the cab in park beside the street curb.
Tseng glanced out the back window.
They were parked outside a dirty, tiered looking pub. It's roof was slightly sunken in, and the garbage that was scattered on the sidewalk in front of the building was nearly as numerous as the rats that dashed two-and-fro.
Slanted gray shadows and filth colored the faded wood on the building. The pub looked something like a rotten piece of dark fruit, for the peeling paint curled off it's face.
"I need to drink to drive." Rude said in a monotone voice as he slammed the driver's side door.
"What! Don't drink and drive! Rude! Get back here! Numbnuts! God!" Tseng leapt out of the cab and followed him inside.
Tseng was immediately hit by the three pungent smells of cigar smoke, fat man sweat, and cheap piss yellow beer.
And the sound of country kareoke was the strongest sound.
A sad overweight cowboy in a goatee and black hat sang with a thick, Southern twang on a neon pink stage.
Beer advertisement, cut-out stars on a string, and bad lighting hung above him.
A half a dozen men sat on barstools at the counter completely ignored him.
A waitress with big, bleach blonde hair passed a red lipped smile at the sweaty young man on stage.
"...Please don't take my sunshine away. I'll always love you, and make you happy, if you will only stay the same. But if you leave me, and love another, you will regret it all someday. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away. You told me once dear, you really love me, and no one could come between, but now you left me to love another, you have shattered all of my dreams. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray, you never know dear, how much I love you, so please don't take my sunshine away. In all my dreams, dear, you always seem to leave me, when I awake, my cold heart pains, so why don't you come back, and make me happy, I will forgive dear, take all the blame. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away."
(You Are My Sunshine. Traditional.)
Tseng felt odd here. He was in a suit jacket and clean cut tie, and his butt-crack didn't rise above his blue jeans.
He glanced around for Rude.
He didn't see him.
Maybe he headed strait for the men's room.
As the song ended, (thankfully) the large man in the cowboy hat waddled off the stage, kicking up some of the neon pink cloth that covered the wooden stage planks.
Another man in a flannel shirt ambled on, clearing his wide throat to warble out another good-ol'-country-tune.
Tseng headed for the men's room.
"Oh... death, I reckon you stalk. Oh... oh! Death, it's you I know, though I can't see, please just go and leave me be! Oh, death, your ice cold hand, and old bone white face, it's like something familiar that I can't place. Oh, death, oh death! Down that river Styx, though no one can tell, I know that river leads to hell!"
(A Vincent Valentine original. Phoenix Down records, 2002. Inspired by the song, 'Oh Death' by Ralph Stanley on the 'O brother, Where Art Thou?' Soundtrack)
Tseng glanced over his shoulder as the older man in the flannel shirt began to sing. He was singing without backup music. It was just his syrup, leather voice and the microphone.
His ancient, cracking voice haunted him.
"Oh, death. Oh, my lord and death! Don't do this to me! Don't let me die and send me to hell, I know that I have not lived my life well. I know that if I die, no one would be there to hear me cry! Oh, lord, I plead for my life, just let me live one more day o' strife. Oh... death, Oh, my dark death... The shadow is upon me, please don't let me die and hear my plea."
As the older man sang, the bar fell silent. Tseng stood there in the hall between the bar and the bathroom. He stood and listened.
He looked to the older man on stage.
One thing was obvious; the old man in the flannel shirt and black cowboy hat was blind. Something about his throaty, wise, Southern accent that vibrated the floors as he sang crawled up his spine and chilled his neck with a kiss.
His old, bass, dying, voice.
The old man on stage had very few teeth, and around that toothless mouth was a ring of cracked lips. His milk blue eyes sat fixed on Tseng's young, scarred face. His bones shook, his skin was a maple brown and looked like map for long, snaky blue rivers, for his veins crawled up and down and all around his bony hands that clamped around the microphone.
"Fine. You win. I'll take your hand, just don't let me fall, please let me stand. Oh. Death, my Savior comes, down this river to where I'm from. Oh, oh death, together we die, but I will fall instead of fly. O... death. Oh... death... oh death, we die."
Then, the old man weakly walked away.
Tseng turned away, wondering why he felt so deeply disturbed.
As he turned to walk into the bathroom, the door opened.
Another young man existed the bathroom as Tseng tried to make his way in.
"Excuse me." The young man with dark red hair mumbled.
"Reno?" Tseng asked as he pushed himself up against the wall, letting the red hared man pass.
The young man with red hair stopped, and turned around. He cocked his head to the side. The young man had a narrow face lightly brushed with experience, and narrow, thin green eyes.
"Do I know you?" The fair man asked as he crumbled his wet hands on his blue shirt-tails.
"Tseng. I was an ex-Turk. I came here with Rude, you do remember us don't you?" Tseng brushed a lock of his long black hair behind his thin-framed shoulder. He took a small step forward.
"It IS you. Stop playing fucking mind-games with me, Reno. I'd know that face anywhere." Tseng coiled his arms defiantly about his chest.
"I don't know what your talking about." Reno turned his back to Tseng and began to walk back into the bar.
"Your coming with me weather you like it or not, Reno. You don't belong in this hill-billy dump." As Tseng spoke, several large men with cowboy hats turned to look at him. The look on their face was like that of a dormant bull who was slowly waking up.
Tseng placed his hand upon Reno's shoulder.
Reno shrugged it off and muttered bitterly, "You better not say shit like that around these places. They will kick your bony ass so hard, you will be eating your own colon, Tseng."
"So you do remember your old boss, you ass-hole." Tseng snapped as they both scrambled up upon a barstool side-by-side.
"Listen Tseng, it's cool that your alive and all, but I don't want nuthin' to do with you, Rude, and Elena. The Turks are over and I have new fish to fry in my life. I don't have to follow you, or your stupid orders anymore. I'm done with the Shin-Ra and the Turks. You here me? I'm... PERMENENTLY off duty. I've got a new life, you know? Your as good as dead to me when that Temple fell on ya. God knows how you survived." As Reno spoke somberly, he cracked open a bar peanut.
"Reno, I NEED you. Me 'n Rude need your help..."
"Yeah, you need help all right, but just not mine." Reno passed Tseng a cold glance as he shoved the peanut in-between his tight lips. "Rude is a crazy mother fucker, too. Lord knows what he's doin'. I'm not surprised if he's been a professional hit-man or something the last couple of years."
"Since when did you become so soft, you pussy?" Tseng grabbed a bar peanut as he replied like a chain-whip.
Reno didn't answer. He ordered a beer.
"Is that what's happened to you? You become a soft pussy? Just what's so new and important in your life that you can't help and old friend, huh? Maybe I should ask Elena. Sounds like even she's got more balls than you right now. Know where I can find her, you got her number?"
The bar's pale light bounced off the hundreds off alcohol bottles behind the counter. A long mirror reflected Tseng's and Reno's pale and aging complexions. Reno watched Tseng's counter-part in the mirror instead of him directly.
"Yeah, I got her number." The waitress slid Reno his beer. He caught it and took a long pull. "And it's none of your business what I've been up to these last, five, six years."
"I can take a guess." Tseng pointed to the beer bottle with his brown eyes.
"NO! For your information, after you left, me and Elena hit it off. See, she probably wouldn't want to be hearing from either of us right now. Seeing as you died and I dumped her. Everyone thinks your dead, Tseng." There was a long pause. Reno drank his beer.
"You know who else is dead?" Tseng asked. Reno lifted his chin and looked into Tseng's dark-bullet eyes.
"Reeve. I fuckin' shot the basterd. It was my whole reason for living. I shot him. I got him back for everything he did to me. I lost my arm, Reno. When the temple fell. I can't move it. Total nerve damage." Tseng lifted his limp, left arm.
"Congratulations on your revenge. Piss off, Tseng. Let you and Rude conduct your little adventure by yourself." Reno finished his beer and ordered another.
"Listen, what if I made it worth your while?" Tseng leaned in on the bar counter.
"I'm listening." Reno replied as he dropped his eyes and fiddled with his empty beer bottle.
"You always liked that little brunette number, didn't you? Tina, something like that. Cloud's girlfriend."
Reno didn't answer. He simply listened.
"I know where she is. I promise. One date with her. I know where to find her. You can ask her yourself." Tseng grinned.
"You can't do that. She's not interested. That's impossible. She's always hated me, plus, she probably doesn't even remember us."
"Maybe if you cleaned yourself up a little she will remember you. Maybe even like you if you put on your charms, man, so, what do you say?" Tseng held out his hand.
Reno looked at it, hesitated, then shook it. "Fine," He said. "But only if you call Elena. Tell her your not dead. I want it all or none on your stupid fucking adventure. I miss the Turks. A reunion. Or something. Fuck. I don't have anyone. I got nuthin' to loose."
"Deal." Tseng said.
As they finished shaking hands, Rude exited the bathroom. He was rubbings his hands on a while piece of paper-towel.
He looked up, smiled, and adjusted his tie.
The three ex-Turks existed the country bar, and headed for the yellow cab parked outside.
Volume II of the 'Sun' series
The House That Nobody Lives In
(As written and sung by Vincent Valentine on classical guitar)
There is a house in my heart
That nobody lives in
Nobody at all.
It withstands the cold nights,
The bloodlusting vampires,
And the lack of light
But it can't withstand your words
Your senseless acts of forgetfulness
And these lonely dreams of love
The house that nobody lives in
Lives in my soul
It lives beside the hole,
That weeps all the blood from my veins
...And I try to contain,
This despair that I disdain,
And I try!
I...
Try...
Not to cry.
You say you will
But you don't.
You say that you will try,
But you can't.
And it's this house that we live in that suffers most.
This house that you and I met and grew.
This house that our relationship
Drew.
It's this house that nobody lives in,
That weeps a thousand oceans more,
It's this house that nobody lives in,
That bleeds a thousand lonely score,
It's this house,
That nobody lives in,
That doesn't turn on the light,
To the empty outside night.
~
Far in the distance of the North, energy, Jenova cells, and the remains of Aeris were being gathered by creatures unspeakable.
They were going to re-create a Sephiroth clone.
But not just any sort of Sephiroth clone.
It would have Aeris' DNA and RNA as well.
It would be like them; a monster. Powerful. Wise. A Cetra descendent.
They lacked Sephiroth's real cells- but Jenova would do.
Monsters were underrated by the human race. These creatures have been upon the Earth as long as insects; they had been here much longer than humans. They were by far more sophisticated and complex than human society.
The creature that they would create would level the playing field- or so they hoped.
Monsters have learned to exist in not only the material world like humans- but in the dream world- the world of children's nightmares, the spirit world where daemons inhabit, and heaven.
By the grace of their gods they hoped to create their Messiah. They knew of Aeris long before she was even born. The monsters of this Earth knew well of her powers long before she died.
They wanted her, or parts of her, to be theirs.
They would travel to the Promised Land to find her body.
They already had Jenova. They stored Jenova in the Shin-Ra basement for a while until a man named Ray, an explorer and entrepreneur, had partially uncovered their plan.
He was one of the few humans whom knew about the monster secret culture.
They quickly removed Jenova before the found it indefinitely.
It was true that there were some uncultured, beastly monsters without much of a brain in their skull- but there were plenty that are for more sophisticated, intelligent, and learned than even the highest human college graduate.
Some of these creatures are thousands of years old.
Such monsters like this were vampires.
"I don't care. I don't see how YOU care. They are humans, not even Cetra descendent- they mean nothing, Eve. Let them come. They won't find us. And they won't even fathom what we are about to do. This is far greater and far more controlled than their petty Sephiroth project. The one called Gast, I give him credit, he was a brilliant scientist, he created many things, he created Sephiroth, but we creatures have many things up on him in our favor. For one, years. YEARS. We are far older and more knowledgeable on the areas of cloning. I scoff at the fact that you fear that the human called 'Ray' will find us."
"There are more than Ray now. You don't understand. Our lookout sentries saw them, heard them, they are coming to the Promised Land. They saw the lightening and are following it."
The creature gestured his delicate hand at Eve, and raised a long eyebrow, "You are amusing me. Just how many ARE there coming, and WHERE are they now?"
"They were in a car. A spy overheard them in the city. They still are in the city. They were chasing the lighting."
"Let them case it. No human can keep up with Blitz Sprites. I still want to find out WHO let them out in the first place. That was the worst mistake ANYONE had ever made- letting them accidentally out on their own."
"It was a halfling that let the lightening sprites out. And he was severely punished, sir."
"Good." The man stood, and folded his hands behind his back. He walked forward in a fluid, dance-like movement, as if his feet did not touch the cold ground at all.
The two vampire-like creatures, (the woman, Eve, as she was called, was only half vampire,) stood in the damn underground laboratory. Around them were hundreds of neon green tubes filled with fluid. They emitted a sick, yellowish glow that reflected off of Eve's paler-than-seashell face.
Eve's eyes were wide, round and large. They were like two huge tulip blossoms turned on their side upon her moon countenance; but they were the color of smooth honey-fanned with lashes the color of sand. Her hair was short cropped and blonde. Her lips were a soft pink. She wore an outfit entirely made of skinned cobras.
"Why are you so cold to me today, Tel?" She let a serpentine smile slither up her face. Then, she rested her nails upon her lips.
She pulled a chair out from under a knee-hole of a desk, and rested her boot upon the seat's edge.
She wore fish-net stockings that crawled up and captured her thick white thighs.
"First off, don't call me 'Tel.' And who said I was being cold?" He turned to her.
The man's skin was as black as a wet stone. His long narrow eyes, too, were simply two wide and shiny almond shapes in his head.
He had eyes as endless as an eagle's.
His hair fell down his back in a waterfall of darkness.
Round were his lips, but they were also the color of obsidian.
He wore a simple white shirt and a long, knit, black sweater over it.
He also wore simple blue jeans and a belt.
"You are. And I'm not calling you that stupid name everyone else calls you." Eve dropped her foot off the chair and approached him. "I know better." She whispered as she wrapped her arms about his neck. He didn't reply or respond.
"I HATE your eyes. I can never tell if your looking and paying attention to me or not! Or even LISTENING! God! Look at you..." She laid her head upon the crevasse between his neck and shoulder. Then, she inhaled a deep, long breath. "But your eyes are like two patches of night's sky. Do you remember what everyone called you when we first met?" She asked softly.
He lowered his face, letting his coal black hair fall in front of his face. It dangled, playing spider legged shadows upon his features. The sodium light from the tubes wove images upon the wall.
"We have had so many names. We live so long, we have to make so many identities. I have been everyone. Now, I wish to be no one at all. That's why you can't call me 'Tel' anymore. I am no longer he, Eve. I do not call you, 'Lillith,' now do I?"
"No, you don't." She pressed her face into him. Her voice was muffled into his shirt.
"Today, I am Stygian. Yesterday, I was 'Teleute.' Tomorrow, who knows?! I may call myself, 'Orpheus' or even, 'Charron!'" He looked down at her seriously.
She was laughing. His shirt kept her muffled.
"Why are you laughing at me?"
Her body shook violently. She slowly rose her achromanticistic face,
"You pick the STUPIDEST names! Why don't you pick something normal, like, Pete, or something, like the other vampires!?"
Stygian pushed her forcefully away. He lowered his face; inclemency in his eyes rose in raging ice.
"I am one of the OLDEST! I am not a young, impudent fool like yourself. You slut. I am knowledgeable and well versed in all forms of ancient and modern wisdom on this planet. Names have MEANING. Names have POWER. I, unlike you and those like you, choose my names CAREFULLY. Sephiroth was named Sephiroth for a REASON!" His voice reverberated off the glass tubes in the otherwise silent lab.
"You.. you black freak!" Eve's lips parted and trembled with fear. She was, for a damphire, very, very young.
"You are no longer welcome in his lab, Eve. Just. Go." He lifted his long finger and pointed to the door behind him.
"Your kicking me off of the research team?" She asked while grabbing her jacket off of a lab table.
"Yes. Just. Go. I don't want to see your face anymore." He pushed his long, black hair behind his shoulder carelessly.
"Your so fucking dramatic. Fucking drama queen. I should have never gotten sexually involved with you. I knew something like this would happen." She hissed as she took her purse off of a hook. "Shit like this happened to every other fucking girl you got involved with. You can't even keep a relationship. Fucking. You fucking man-whore. You sleep with them, and then kick them off of your research team. Fine! I don't want to be a part of the project anymore, anyway! Good luck replacing a genome specialist like ME! You won't find one as competent as I am, Dr. Stygian!" She approached the door and swung it open so harshly, it left a dent on the wall.
"Eve! Listen! Just listen for one SECOND!" Dr. Stygian turned to and spoke softly, "Listen, I'm sorry for calling you a slut. I KNOW that you're a smart woman. Your one of the smartest women I have EVER known. And I do want you on the team- I... I take it back. I think we NEED you. Look." Stygian turned, and pointed to one of the neon colored tubes that noiselessly listened to their every word.
In each and every one of the tubes, a human fetus bobbed up and down, suspended in the liquid.
"They are growing. The Aeris/Jenova clones are growing. Only one of them will grow to full size."
"Jesus. They are." Eve dropped her purse onto the floor. The laboratory door began to slide shut, but her purse blocked it from closing.
"Look at this one. It seems to be growing at a terrific rate! Holy cow. I have never seen anything like this, Dr. Stygian, could you send this one out onto a smaller tube, or even a peetree dish? That might work. I want to get a better look at it's cellular structure to make sure it's still stabilizing well." Eve slid out a pair of small silver spectacles from her jacket pocket and slid them onto her face.
Dr. Stygian nodded and went to the control panel in the back corner. He tapped a few keys quickly and skillfully. As he did so, one of the fetus in the tubes shut upwards, slid through a long tubular canal, and landed into a much smaller test tube.
Eve took the smaller tube, and inspected it carefully. The liquid that the infant floated in was clear like water.
"Well, at this rate, in a few moment this child won't fit in the tube. I don't have a lot of time." She said as she swiftly slid the tube under a specialized microscope. She turned the scope on, and inspected it carefully.
When she looked into the eyepiece, she saw millions of round-blob like cell structures, dancing, dividing, and looking very fine and alive indeed.
"Stygian. You won't believe this. I think we have THE ONE! This is the Aeris with Jenova cells that might grow up to adult size. This is so fucking fascinating. Come take a look at it. The cells are performing mitosis perfectly. No mutations! I got to put it back into the larger tube before it gets too cramped. Stygian! ... Stygian?"
As Eve removed the tube from the microscope, she turned and looked at Dr. Stygian.
There in the corner, the dark Dr. Stygian was huddled. He clutched the control panel with slippery, sweaty hands.
His breath was short.
Eve turned and placed the small tube with the growing creature into the shoot- which took the fetus back into the larger, yellowish tubes beside the others.
"It's interesting. Sephiroth, too, grew at a fantastic rate due to the Jenova cells. And all you can do is huddle in the corner and tremble. Well, that's a sensible attitude to have. We have no idea what this person we are growing is going to be like. With the Aeris cells, what if she/he is going to... be on the human side? What if it's disposition to empathize with it's humanity?"
Dr. Stygian slowly began to regain himself. "Don't ask philosophical questions. None of them have answers. The child will be raised properly. Nature verses nurture. Nurture tends to win. Plus, the child will know the history of it's people. He/she will know that it was the humans who took the Earth from the Cetra so many thousands of years ago. It was the humans who took it from us creatures, as well! We lived in harmony with the Cetra- with nature. Humans must conquer nature. They must destroy everything! We are just taking back what is rightfully ours.
"Aeris, that Cetra, was an idiot. Why she betrayed her people and sided with the humans, I will never know. We are doing what's right. We are bringing her back to give her another chance, to rectify herself- sort to speak.
But, she was so powerful. Strange one would think the bloodline would have been tainted when she was born from so much in-breeding with the humans. But she was one of the most powerful Cetra to ever live! That's why it's HER we are cloning.
"Sephiroth was the greatest thing to ever come about. Odd, that it took a human mind to bring about. Sad, really."
Eve looked at him, then to the large test tube before her.
"You have given this a lot of thought." She said while pushing up her silver glasses. Then, she pulled down her snake-skin dress, as it was riding up her thighs.
He glanced at her, and clutched his chest. He still breathed hoarsely.
"Yes. I have. I've given this a lot of my time, blood, sweat, and energy, too. Come, Eve, let us find a stupid human and drink. I'm... getting weak."
~
Rude drove and he drove. Then, he stopped.
"What's the hold up?" Tseng woke himself and asked with a tinge of irritation in his voice.
Rude didn't reply as he set the cab in park beside the street curb.
Tseng glanced out the back window.
They were parked outside a dirty, tiered looking pub. It's roof was slightly sunken in, and the garbage that was scattered on the sidewalk in front of the building was nearly as numerous as the rats that dashed two-and-fro.
Slanted gray shadows and filth colored the faded wood on the building. The pub looked something like a rotten piece of dark fruit, for the peeling paint curled off it's face.
"I need to drink to drive." Rude said in a monotone voice as he slammed the driver's side door.
"What! Don't drink and drive! Rude! Get back here! Numbnuts! God!" Tseng leapt out of the cab and followed him inside.
Tseng was immediately hit by the three pungent smells of cigar smoke, fat man sweat, and cheap piss yellow beer.
And the sound of country kareoke was the strongest sound.
A sad overweight cowboy in a goatee and black hat sang with a thick, Southern twang on a neon pink stage.
Beer advertisement, cut-out stars on a string, and bad lighting hung above him.
A half a dozen men sat on barstools at the counter completely ignored him.
A waitress with big, bleach blonde hair passed a red lipped smile at the sweaty young man on stage.
"...Please don't take my sunshine away. I'll always love you, and make you happy, if you will only stay the same. But if you leave me, and love another, you will regret it all someday. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are gray, you never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away. You told me once dear, you really love me, and no one could come between, but now you left me to love another, you have shattered all of my dreams. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray, you never know dear, how much I love you, so please don't take my sunshine away. In all my dreams, dear, you always seem to leave me, when I awake, my cold heart pains, so why don't you come back, and make me happy, I will forgive dear, take all the blame. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you never know dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away."
(You Are My Sunshine. Traditional.)
Tseng felt odd here. He was in a suit jacket and clean cut tie, and his butt-crack didn't rise above his blue jeans.
He glanced around for Rude.
He didn't see him.
Maybe he headed strait for the men's room.
As the song ended, (thankfully) the large man in the cowboy hat waddled off the stage, kicking up some of the neon pink cloth that covered the wooden stage planks.
Another man in a flannel shirt ambled on, clearing his wide throat to warble out another good-ol'-country-tune.
Tseng headed for the men's room.
"Oh... death, I reckon you stalk. Oh... oh! Death, it's you I know, though I can't see, please just go and leave me be! Oh, death, your ice cold hand, and old bone white face, it's like something familiar that I can't place. Oh, death, oh death! Down that river Styx, though no one can tell, I know that river leads to hell!"
(A Vincent Valentine original. Phoenix Down records, 2002. Inspired by the song, 'Oh Death' by Ralph Stanley on the 'O brother, Where Art Thou?' Soundtrack)
Tseng glanced over his shoulder as the older man in the flannel shirt began to sing. He was singing without backup music. It was just his syrup, leather voice and the microphone.
His ancient, cracking voice haunted him.
"Oh, death. Oh, my lord and death! Don't do this to me! Don't let me die and send me to hell, I know that I have not lived my life well. I know that if I die, no one would be there to hear me cry! Oh, lord, I plead for my life, just let me live one more day o' strife. Oh... death, Oh, my dark death... The shadow is upon me, please don't let me die and hear my plea."
As the older man sang, the bar fell silent. Tseng stood there in the hall between the bar and the bathroom. He stood and listened.
He looked to the older man on stage.
One thing was obvious; the old man in the flannel shirt and black cowboy hat was blind. Something about his throaty, wise, Southern accent that vibrated the floors as he sang crawled up his spine and chilled his neck with a kiss.
His old, bass, dying, voice.
The old man on stage had very few teeth, and around that toothless mouth was a ring of cracked lips. His milk blue eyes sat fixed on Tseng's young, scarred face. His bones shook, his skin was a maple brown and looked like map for long, snaky blue rivers, for his veins crawled up and down and all around his bony hands that clamped around the microphone.
"Fine. You win. I'll take your hand, just don't let me fall, please let me stand. Oh. Death, my Savior comes, down this river to where I'm from. Oh, oh death, together we die, but I will fall instead of fly. O... death. Oh... death... oh death, we die."
Then, the old man weakly walked away.
Tseng turned away, wondering why he felt so deeply disturbed.
As he turned to walk into the bathroom, the door opened.
Another young man existed the bathroom as Tseng tried to make his way in.
"Excuse me." The young man with dark red hair mumbled.
"Reno?" Tseng asked as he pushed himself up against the wall, letting the red hared man pass.
The young man with red hair stopped, and turned around. He cocked his head to the side. The young man had a narrow face lightly brushed with experience, and narrow, thin green eyes.
"Do I know you?" The fair man asked as he crumbled his wet hands on his blue shirt-tails.
"Tseng. I was an ex-Turk. I came here with Rude, you do remember us don't you?" Tseng brushed a lock of his long black hair behind his thin-framed shoulder. He took a small step forward.
"It IS you. Stop playing fucking mind-games with me, Reno. I'd know that face anywhere." Tseng coiled his arms defiantly about his chest.
"I don't know what your talking about." Reno turned his back to Tseng and began to walk back into the bar.
"Your coming with me weather you like it or not, Reno. You don't belong in this hill-billy dump." As Tseng spoke, several large men with cowboy hats turned to look at him. The look on their face was like that of a dormant bull who was slowly waking up.
Tseng placed his hand upon Reno's shoulder.
Reno shrugged it off and muttered bitterly, "You better not say shit like that around these places. They will kick your bony ass so hard, you will be eating your own colon, Tseng."
"So you do remember your old boss, you ass-hole." Tseng snapped as they both scrambled up upon a barstool side-by-side.
"Listen Tseng, it's cool that your alive and all, but I don't want nuthin' to do with you, Rude, and Elena. The Turks are over and I have new fish to fry in my life. I don't have to follow you, or your stupid orders anymore. I'm done with the Shin-Ra and the Turks. You here me? I'm... PERMENENTLY off duty. I've got a new life, you know? Your as good as dead to me when that Temple fell on ya. God knows how you survived." As Reno spoke somberly, he cracked open a bar peanut.
"Reno, I NEED you. Me 'n Rude need your help..."
"Yeah, you need help all right, but just not mine." Reno passed Tseng a cold glance as he shoved the peanut in-between his tight lips. "Rude is a crazy mother fucker, too. Lord knows what he's doin'. I'm not surprised if he's been a professional hit-man or something the last couple of years."
"Since when did you become so soft, you pussy?" Tseng grabbed a bar peanut as he replied like a chain-whip.
Reno didn't answer. He ordered a beer.
"Is that what's happened to you? You become a soft pussy? Just what's so new and important in your life that you can't help and old friend, huh? Maybe I should ask Elena. Sounds like even she's got more balls than you right now. Know where I can find her, you got her number?"
The bar's pale light bounced off the hundreds off alcohol bottles behind the counter. A long mirror reflected Tseng's and Reno's pale and aging complexions. Reno watched Tseng's counter-part in the mirror instead of him directly.
"Yeah, I got her number." The waitress slid Reno his beer. He caught it and took a long pull. "And it's none of your business what I've been up to these last, five, six years."
"I can take a guess." Tseng pointed to the beer bottle with his brown eyes.
"NO! For your information, after you left, me and Elena hit it off. See, she probably wouldn't want to be hearing from either of us right now. Seeing as you died and I dumped her. Everyone thinks your dead, Tseng." There was a long pause. Reno drank his beer.
"You know who else is dead?" Tseng asked. Reno lifted his chin and looked into Tseng's dark-bullet eyes.
"Reeve. I fuckin' shot the basterd. It was my whole reason for living. I shot him. I got him back for everything he did to me. I lost my arm, Reno. When the temple fell. I can't move it. Total nerve damage." Tseng lifted his limp, left arm.
"Congratulations on your revenge. Piss off, Tseng. Let you and Rude conduct your little adventure by yourself." Reno finished his beer and ordered another.
"Listen, what if I made it worth your while?" Tseng leaned in on the bar counter.
"I'm listening." Reno replied as he dropped his eyes and fiddled with his empty beer bottle.
"You always liked that little brunette number, didn't you? Tina, something like that. Cloud's girlfriend."
Reno didn't answer. He simply listened.
"I know where she is. I promise. One date with her. I know where to find her. You can ask her yourself." Tseng grinned.
"You can't do that. She's not interested. That's impossible. She's always hated me, plus, she probably doesn't even remember us."
"Maybe if you cleaned yourself up a little she will remember you. Maybe even like you if you put on your charms, man, so, what do you say?" Tseng held out his hand.
Reno looked at it, hesitated, then shook it. "Fine," He said. "But only if you call Elena. Tell her your not dead. I want it all or none on your stupid fucking adventure. I miss the Turks. A reunion. Or something. Fuck. I don't have anyone. I got nuthin' to loose."
"Deal." Tseng said.
As they finished shaking hands, Rude exited the bathroom. He was rubbings his hands on a while piece of paper-towel.
He looked up, smiled, and adjusted his tie.
The three ex-Turks existed the country bar, and headed for the yellow cab parked outside.