You used to captivate me by your resonating light, but now I'm bound by the life you left behind. Your face, it haunts my once pleasant dreams. Your voice, it chased away all the sanity in me ...
My Immortal - Evanescence-----
Three days had passed since Sephiroth and the girl had left the ship and arrived on the western continent. They covered considerable distance, maintaining the steady and unrelenting pace he had set. They had left behind the forests and had the plains, which were now lengthening into foothills with the faint promise of the mountains in the distance. As they travelled, he observed that the girl had changed somehow; her countenance had hardened as if she had come to some grim resignation. Had she accepted her inevitable fate? He did not think so. And so he kept an ever watchful eye on her.On the eve of the third day they were not far from the mountains, which in the fading light of the sun were covered in dark blue shadow. He called a halt to their march, and though they had left the forests far behind he led them to a small copse of trees. As he used his materia to bring into life a small fire, the girl passed him silently, wraith-like, to settle at the base of a tree. When he tossed her an evening ration, she caught it and consumed it methodically before turning her gaze to the fire. He settled himself against a tree trunk on the other side of the fire and watched her. He was no longer able to read her face to know what she was thinking, feeling. And her eyes, those remarkably expressive eyes were closed and shuttered. Her change in behaviour was beginning to irritate him.
"Tomorrow I will go to the Golden Saucer and retrieve what I need." He said. She looked at him then, and he could see the question pass in her eyes. She said nothing, however, but nodded her understanding once, slowly."You," he continued, his ire surging at her lack of reaction, "will remain here. Bound. Even were you to escape we both know what the result would be. It will not take me long to get what I need."
She again nodded, and moved her eyes to the fire. He stared at her for a moment before turning his attention to the dancing white flames as well. Later, when her stony expression had softened with sleep, and her breathing was soft and regular, he allowed himself to study her in an attempt to discern what exactly it was about her that he found so fascinating. There was no reason forthcoming. His rage at her previous escape, fueled by finding her with Strife, had not diminished. The fact that he, Sephiroth, the one chosen to lead the Planet to the new era, was plagued by this infatuation, this attraction, was infuriating. Being cruel to her brought a small measure of satisfaction as it was retaliation against her for the way she made him feel. Along with the satisfaction, however, came the remorse, which he constantly fought. There was no explanation for this affliction, and as much as he hated it, it intrigued him all the same. As he studied her, in the pale light of the materia fire, memories rose, unbidden, of her lips so enticing under his, of her soft skin against his. With forcible effort he subdued them, and cast them back into the corner of his memory from whence they came. Frustrated, he rose and stalked off into the night.As dawn broke he returned, carrying with him a length of rope he had appropriated during his midnight sojourn from a nearby homestead. He strode to the girl where she lay, and as his shadow fell over her she awoke with a start. Seeing it was him, her eyes narrowed and her face hardened. He smiled with no small amount of cruelty and crouched before her.
"Hold out your arms." He ordered. Slowly, she did as he asked. He looped the long rope around her wrists several times and secured a knot. He then gestured for her to stand. Once she was on her feet he secure the rope around her neck, tying an intricate knot. The rest of the rope he wrapped around the trunk of the tree she had been leaning against and tied it off tightly. Finished, he turned back to her."If you attempt to remove the rope from your wrists, the rope will tighten around your neck. The more you struggle, the tighter it becomes. I will not be long. Don't," he said with a malicious smirk, "go anywhere."
Satisfied, he gave her a mocking bow before turning and running with his inhuman speed out of the trees and towards the mountains, where Corel and the entrance to the Golden Saucer lay.-----
Aerith stared after Sephiroth long after he had vanished from sight. The rope was uncomfortable and chafed both her neck and wrists. Experimentally, she worked at the bindings on her arms. To true his words, the rope around her neck began to tighten. She let her arms fall limp and turned her eyes again to the direction he had gone, contemplating.Her decision was not a hard one to make. Here and now she could end her journey through this life, and go on to meet her ancestors and bequeath her body to the Planet. It had been a long time since she had bothered to commune with the Planet, and she would not do so now. She was afraid of what it would say about her choice. Resolutely, she set her jaw. This would all end now.
She began to work at the ropes rather violently, rotating her wrists in an effort to loosed the knot. Around her neck the rope tightened as violently, and she shook her head as a gasp escaped her. It was instinct to want to breathe, but she forced instinct down and away as she continued what she was doing. She knew of course that eventually she would pass out, and when that happened her struggles would cease and the noose around her neck would loosen. Therefore she had to devise a method that would keep the rope tightened. She stopped what she was doing and looked up. The thick branches of the tree she was tethered to immediately caught her eye. Without hesitation she moved to the trunk and sought handholds and footholds the best she could. She did not need to climb far; only a couple feet so she could toss her tether up and over one of the branches. It took her several minutes and a few attempts before she was perched, unsteadily, between a split in the trunk.As she stared at the branch she would use to take her own life, tears she could not control fell from her eyes. She fought them, fought the memories and the thoughts that struggled to surface to remind her why she loved life. Taking a deep breath, she swung her wrists in a wide arc. The rope, following the arc, soared up and caught firmly on the branch where it connected to the tree. The line was taut now; were she to step off of her perch she would hang in the air ...
She closed her eyes.I have no other choice, she said silently to herself, to the Planet.
She stepped off the trunk. Her wrists were drawn upright, over her head, and a strangled gasp escaped her as the noose closed with force. She was on tiptoe, the ground touching, barely, her feet, but it wasn't enough. There was no way to undo what she had just done.It was excruciating. Tears of agony as well of sorrow were falling now, dampening the earth around her. Her lungs were laboring painfully to bring in air, and her heart's painful thundering was slowing. Her vision was clouding over, and she closed her eyes. Her body began to convulse from lack of oxygen, a desperate plea for life.
I had no other choice.