A Spectroscope-
Chapter 3: Siren Suicide
Author's email- shatteredakira@yahoo.com
Author's webpage: http://www.hypercrescendo.net
Archive-able?: Yes, only if you email me first.
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Long ago, when the Planet wanted to communicate with someone, all It had to do was call out to Its small nation of ex Star-Drifting caretakers. When someone was stressed and wanted to be left alone, It would gladly close the link between It and the Child, for it still had others to talk to. To have someone listen and listen to someone. The Planet rejoiced in such simple matters ever since the Cetra, children of a Dead Star, came to It for a home and bonded with the Planet.
Now, It only had Aerith. Greedily and fiercely protective, It clung to Its child last child, always there in her mind and meddling Its Song with her essence and being. The Planet wanted to experience everything with the youngest last Daughter, from pain to joy, and wanted her to experience Its pains and joys as well. It would never truly share her completely with the humans, even if they were Its true children, and never would let her go. Even if Aerith wanted It to. Because, if she was gone, who would listen? Who would talk to the Planet? Who would sing to simplest of creations to the greatest, just to bring them joy?
No one would.
The last daughter was the Planet's. It relished the bond on all levels, from the Collective Consciousness of the Life Stream to the more singular mind of Heart of the World, the Yggdrasil. Even the singer knew she was the Planet's favorite since she was a child and chastised It for showing such acute favoritism.
The Planet didn't care about that, no, right now It cared about the songs the Song Weaver wove before the crowd. It, They, felt the power radiated from angelic siren's voice that covered all like a mother's embrace, bringing back old dreams and stirring hope in the most dead-soul people. Aerith's voice was like gentle, expert fingers playing the guitar strings of one's heart. Even that he could feel it.
Though he was not held in a maddening thrall like the crowd as they shouted and sang along as they surrender and submerged themselves, Sephiroth did, however, feel himself being pulled with every word that escaped those coral color lips. It was if, for the first time, Sephiroth could relate to something. As if he could touch somewhere with someone on equal bases. His icy teal eyes narrowed as the girl finished her current song.
What secret is that you hide, girl? He wondered briefly as the crowd and Zack let loose a deafening scream. Are you as scarred as me? Do you find yourself wandering the razor edge of life, wondering what it would be like just to fall off it? How is it that you can face what you face, day in and day out?
The finale of the show was beginning and he confessed, to the dark gaping hole in his being, that he didn't want it to end. He didn't want her stop doing what she was doing to him- because, when she did, he be alone again. Slowly, despite all that, Sephiroth felt his eyes drawn towards her lips as the guitar hit the 'signal note'.
"They say freak," Her voice came out low and raspy, almost breathless, as she closed her eyes in demure passion. "When your singled out ... The red... Though it filters through."
Her knowing emerald eyes flew open and swept the audience, but for one thunderous moment met his own gaze and held it, "So lay down... The threat is real. When his sight... Goes red again.."
She broke the visual connection between them as she sang softer with the words of "Seeing red again... Seeing Red again...
"This change... He won't contain," Aerith's tone was almost mocking, but soon took on a more somber note, "Slip away... To clear your mind."
Emerald eyes weighed every audience member with that statement.
"When asked- What made it show?" Her beautiful face contorted with a personal pain, "The truth... He can't send to most..."
Eyes turned away from the crowd shyly as she sang the next verse as several band members added their voices to hers, "So lay down... The threat is real. When his sight... Goes red again..."
The lead guitarist locked with the Diva's as she fell silent and allowed the instruments do their own part to the music, the message, she sang of.
In that moment, Sephiroth realized he never seen another forlorn person among a crowd who truly loved them until now. He watched her through eyes that mirrored her own isolation. Yes, he knew the red she sang of.
An inaudible sigh escaped her lips, as she readied herself and lifted her voice with renewed passion.
"So lay down... The threat is real. When his sight... Goes red again.."
She repeated that statement which many related to before screaming her chant of, "Seeing Red again..."
Aerith stopped on the final wail of 'red', her frantic composure that she took vanishing. Fervent emerald orbs fell upon Sephiroth again as she conclude in a soft song of, "They say freak... When your singled out... The red... It filters through..."
As she finished her song with words still dying upon her lips, the lights played long her figure, Sephiroth swore he could see angel wings cascading like beams of light from her back stained with that red. Her arms opened wide, but bloody with razor blade caresses with that red. A vision of being singled out with that red. A vision of a siren suicide.
He blinked and began to became lost within the crowd as they serged up and screamed with such deafening tones, he bet even President Shinra could hear them from the top floor of the Shinra Building.
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The show was over and Aerith Gainsborough lounged in her dressing room chair in a rumpled mess. Her chestnut hair was falling out of her french braid and her bangs were plastered to her face by sweat, her grey-pink-white commando pants were giving her a wedgie in position she held, but the exhilaration that raced through her blood like a drug made it that she couldn't careless about all that.
Even the Planet was singing in content, instead of drowning her in Its pain. Thus, explaining in full why Aerith was feeling so content and almost happy at this moment.
"Oh, Aerith-chan~~!" A sang a youthful voice from behind her door before it flung open and revealed a sixteen years old girl dressed in tan cargos and a halter top with the words "SPOONY U" written on it with black marker.
"Hello, Yuffie, what can I do for you?" Warily inquired the lead singer as she watch her lead guitarist bound across and the room and practically leap into her lap.
"Take me with you tonight," Commanded the girl, skipping her usual routine of pleading and begging.
"Eh?"
Scoffing at her older friend's confused expression, the Watuian ranted on, "I know you're going out with Zack and one of his friends in a few, so I think I should come a long with you to watch your back. Not to mention Midgar seems to be getting rougher and as your bodyguard, I should come anyway... even without a second guy joining ye tonight. Ya know, to guard and stuff. Imagine what my dad would say! A lady such as your self..."
"Yuffie." Interrupted the Cetra, "hush now. Yes, you can come. And, I'm sure the other mystery fellow that is coming has nothing to do with it."
The other female looked a bit sheepish before leaping to her feet and exclaiming, "of course! It's just like my old man use to say: 'Sono kaeru o nameru na. Genkaku o okosaseru'!"
"'Do not lick that frog. It is hallucinogenic'?" Aerith arched an eyebrow, amused by the other girl.
"Er.... Caught." Yuffie laughed. "Forgot you know Watuian."
"Uh-...huh." Aerith gave her friend a pointed, somber look. "Do not embarrass me, please, Yuffie. Zack mention that this friend is a bit... antisocial and he wants him to meet me for a reason."
"Aye, 'Rith. I won't do anything too silly at that party tonight." Yuffie rolled her dark brown eyes. "Anyhow, question for you first off before I promise anything else..."
"Yes?"
With a shy look, the girl asked, "Are you and Zack a thing? I've been wondering, ya know. You've been hanging out with him more then any other non-band member, so the we're kind of curious..."
Shifting her weight, Aerith thought for a moment, before responding softly, "We're just friends, hun. I like him, love him like a brother, but I could never really..." A soft sigh. "There could never be a true relationship between us because of extreme differences."
"Rith-chan, you'll find your someone. I don't care if you think you're the last, you're find your other out there." The Guitarist's voice was serious for once as was the look the girl gave her elder. "I know you hide a lot from everyone, hell, even me, but you'll find someone."
Aerith merely gave a small sad smile, before turning away. Slowly, she let her hair down and picked up her brush from the vanity. "Perhaps. Yuffie, would you mind doing my hair? You do excellent braid that somehow manages the wild nights. Heh. I'd like to look a wee-bit freshen up before we meet with them in a few..."
"Say no more! Yuffie, the guru of hair-dom, shall give you a look to knock 'em dead!" The girl took the brush and began her master piece.
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"So, whatca think of 'em?" Asked Lieutenant Zack Buster. "Pretty good, huh?"
"Better then I expect," admitted the General. "She is quite enchanting creature."
"Yes, I told you Aerith was one of those special people." Zack's voice held undisguised affection from his comrade. "She's gonna go with us to an underground Party."
This was surprising to hear for Sephiroth, "Won't her fans just mob her and bother her- and us- for the entire night?"
Grinning cheekily, the black hair man retorted, "they're obsessive, but their polite. They give her room, just hearing her sing is personal enough with them. Not to mention, the guitarist made into the news for breaking a guy's arm for getting a wee-bit personal then most fans with them on more then one occasion. Since then, I think, the fans learned the musicians need space, too."
Sephiroth snorted at that. "Where do we meet them?"
"Dressing rooms in ten. Aerith needs to freshen up before she socializes with us needy mofos."
Wisely, the older of the friends did not comment on the younger's own fixation on the singer. He hope, for his and the singer's sake, that the guitarist of ill-repute would come along with them. Just so didn't have to deal with the puppy-love adoration that was burning in Zack's dark chocolate eyes. Sephiroth disliked this side of Zack, but as a friend, he was tolerating it as much as he could. Though, as tactful as the famous SOLDIER was, he doubt he could hold out for the entire night.