Chapter Five:"Fall of Reason"
Squall watched Reason choke on nothingness, as the words slipped out of her wound. As she rested on the plane of nothingness, Ayreona got to her side, and made floor materialise under her, to give her a space to choke on. Squall noticed that, Reason had been weak from the start. As she struggled to keep the words from spilling out of her wound and taking her life away, her scared gaze turned to Squall.
Her beautiful, white-and-black eyes; two colourful orbs were gazing into the soul of Squall Leonhart, making him feel as if something in him was dying with her... More than one thing was screaming for him to go to her help.
But then, Squall sensed a second set of eyes onto him. It was Ayreona; she was watching his every move. He couldn't move, although he felt Reason scream inside his head;
"WHY WON'T YOU DO ANYTHING,
DO YOU TAKE JOY IN MY SUFFERING?
WHY WON'T YOU DO SOMETHING
DID YOU NOT LIKE WHAT I'M OFFERRING?"
Squall tried to crawl away, he was trying to back away from the scene of her death. She was struggling, desperate to stay alive, but all Squall could hear was the words spilling out of her wound, and calling out to her.
"THE MIRROR
THE WALL
PUNCH IT!!!
TAKE THE PAIN
TIME
CLOCKS
PERFECTION
SEE THE GHOST
SPEAK TO IT
PUSH IT
YOU PUSH IT
TOUCH IT
SCRUB IT
RAPE IT
TAKE IT
THE MIRROR
THE WALL
PUNCH IT!!!
TAKE THE PAIN
YOU HAVE TO!!!"
"STOP IT, STOP THIS INFERNAL RACKET!!! I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!"
"You are a fool," Fear said, "For trying to shake it!"
"And so are you," Pain insisted, "For trying to forsake it!"
"SILENCE!!!" Ayreona shouted, and as Reason laid lifeless at her feet, she turned her palms towards them, with her fingers curling up... But not to a fist.
Squall felt the silence crawl into the chaotic cacophony of emptyness, and saw Ayreona take a step forwards, and to him. She passed over the dead body of Reason, and then, approached Squall. Squall watched the floor disappear, and then, watched Reason start to fade into infinity; she was falling towards a direction Squall couldn't analyse. Squall was still trying to balance the directionless state...
...All his efforts were in vain when Ayreona stood over him. He felt a carpet appear underneath him, and managed to observe the shadow in front of him. He could make out the shape of stilletto heels, which rose and then, pressed against his chest as he laid on his back.
"Look up to my face, not to my feet
Watch me smile over your gentle defeat
And see the sentiment arise till it reaches alpha
Only then, you will find your way to omega!"
Squall couldn't reply, he was still trying to balance his world. There was no room for understanding.
Ayreona turned to the others, and questioned tham;
"What have you brought to me; a weakling?
He's crawling; I haven't heard him speaking!"
Squall heard no reply. All he could register was Ayreona's words about him being a weakling.
"I am not weak! I am stronger!"
"Oh shut up!" Ayreona snapped, "Your soul couldn'tve gotten longer!
It's thin; thinner then I have stretched it,
Why are you in this place; to kiss the wretched?"
Squall was still deaf, he couldn't hear her. Then, he felt something move in between him and Ayreona again, and felt numerous hands grab him, and drag him off.
"Why am I drifting once again?" Squall demanded
"The answers lie deep within." Fear replied.
"Who is standing between me and her?"Squall demanded again.
"Pain is preventing the new murder." Love replied, taking him away from Ayreona.
"Can she not harm Pain, like she did to Reason?"
"No," Sorrow replied, "She cannot release him,
For she needs him; she cannot act with treason."
Squall felt himself be raised to his feet. He felt the infinity underneath them move, as he was assisted to run towards somewhere he couldn't see or know... He was just running blind. He felt Fear, Sorrow, Love and Pain by his side.
"Help me get away from this wicked witch!" Squall begged them.
"Why? After all, you've fed her rich..." Pain replied.
"And you got her wounds cross-stitched..." Sorrow added.
"You are now a round sphere inside which-" Love started when Fear interrupted her;
"You wished to kill this smiling bitch!"
Squall could feel her breathing down their necks... She was slow, she was sure, she was sincere in her advance towards them. Ayreona was coming out in the open, and The Illumination Hotel came with her.
"Why won't you let me be illuminated!?" Squall demanded.
"Because you aren't ready to be decapitated
Or intensly, violently sedated
To witness the sight to which you were fated!" Fear explained.
Squall accepted this for a fact for now, and let them be his guide. He couldn't see the floor underneath his feet, and he was counting on the guidance of his feelings.
"DON'T COUNT ON US!!!
IF YOU DO-
YOU MISPLACE YOUR TRUST!!!" Rage shouted, and pushed Squall from the back. Squall felt himself be released from the hands of the others, and felt himself fall. While expecting to hit the floor, he felt the horrible sense of not hitting anything and just taking the fall.
As he felt the bottom drop from beneath him, he heard the vortex spin around him. He started to spin. He couldn't dare open up his eyes, because he knew that the colourful void around him would make him sick.
As he fell, he felt the presence of Pain and Sorrow nearby him. They embraced him, and stopped him from spinning on and on. Squall knew they couldn't stop his fall, though.
"Have you no control over this incident?" Pain demanded
"Not even a small, hopeless percent?" Sorrow demanded.
"My influence doesn't exist here!" Squall replied.
"Why do you condemn yourself with rules?" Pain demanded,
"Why do you talk smart and act like a fool?" Sorrow demanded
"It's all I can trust in fear!" Squall replied.
He felt his fall come to a halt, and then, he felt that he was slipping away once again. Accepting his situation, he muttered his goodbye to the void, and got ready to face the fall one more time. Acceptance had pushed him over the edge.
Suddenly, Squall felt a deep fire burn inside of him; this fire longed to stay alive while he was letting go.
"Don't let me go
You love me so
I can sense it in the scream on your throat
Don't get me wrong
I just, long
For your mind to call me, so that we can gloat!"
"This voice belongs to my Desire..." Squall said to himself.
"And so that's whom I am; I am the inner fire,
I can take you higher,
Rise you...
Only if you let me get through!"
"Save me, I know nothing else will!" Squallbegged of her.
"Don't speak like you think of this as a thrill!" Desire snapped.
Squall just wished for a pair of warm arms to surround him, and take the cold off his skin; he had only found enough time to think about the irony of it all.
And just then, he felt a pair of electric arms surround him. He came to feel that her arms were charged with red electricity that surrounded him and made him scream his lungs off in pain. The echoes of the scream returned to him as bits and pieces of words.
Squall felt the fall cease, and his body fell into Desire's arms with all it's weight. Squall felt the currents sweep through him, and felt himself start to lose conscience.
Thank Hyne...
Squall passed out, and his body grew limp in Desire's arms. Desire stood inside the maelstrom and observed his peaceful, sleeping face.
"How sweet he sleeps...
It's like he never weeps." Desire observed.
"He does weep..." Sorrow refused, as Deusapolis materialised around them,
"He just does not know when I am steep,
And when this pain will have him reaped."
They all gathered on top of Squall, and observed him as he slept. They exchanged stares, and then, they all sang together for him.
"And there he lies; a father to us all
Lying as if he died; after his fall
Is he desentesized? Why does he crawl?
He gave us life...
And in return we will help him keep himself whole..."
Author's Notes: So far, Squall encountered the worst thing that exists inside Deusapolis. And as for those whom have rescued him... They cannot help him stay as a whole. Eventually what's whole will fall apart.Reviews are pretty much welcomed as much as the flames. "Mind Fields" will continue, ladies and gentlemen. On a minor note, I just found out today, that one of the finest examples of the meloldic death metal genre, SOILWORK (yes I do think it's over At The Gates, In Flames and/or Dark Tranquility!)has a song named "Mindfields" in their "Natural Born Chaos" album...