The next morning, Marina found her parents happily greeting her from outside her room. She ran out to hug them, and they welcomed her back with loving arms. With tears in her eyes, Marina apologized.

"I'm sorry, Mama! Papa!" she said. "I'm sorry…!"

"It's alright, dear," her mother reassured. "What matters most is that you are safe. Come on, breakfast is ready."

"We'll also talk to the manager about the debt," her father followed. "He'll understand that you were under the influence of Var."

"Mama…! Papa!" Marina sobbed and tightened her embrace on her parents. "Thank you!"

They then went down to have breakfast. Marina felt like a heavy weight on her chest has lifted.

The past week since she had picked up the pamphlet, Marina had been training. She ran around the park near her house and had voice lessons every after jog. She watched some videos of voice lessons and simply followed them. She had no judge for how she did in those lessons, but she was confident she was doing well. She has also done research on Walkure as well as listened to their songs to give each track a shot.

Marina also danced. As a kid, she loved dancing to her favorite songs, and she polished them growing up. Since she got some activity as a factory worker, her dance skills albeit self-proclaimed have not rusted just yet. She danced at the grass area in the park, timing her steps mentally to the music. Some way or another, she managed to attract a crowd every time. With the ten million debt in mind, she was ready to work out a sweat every single day.

She only thought of winning that audition, and nothing else. She thought of the rewards as she walked to and from the park. Losing was not an option. She had to win this. Her parents were there to cheer her on, and it was in her best interest to not fail in their name either. She attached the letter to an activity board in her room to always remind herself of the debt she had to pay off, the damage she alone had caused.

The issue about the factory still haunted her every night, and the thought of her hurting someone without her control was scary. However, she would remember that she had a chance to redeem herself and live once more, as a wiser person.

Marina looked up at the stars. This audition was her one shot at achieving something in her life, her one way ticket out of this boring, however messy life she made for herself. She no longer wanted to stay human. She threw it all away when she decided to take the auditions.

At that time, she wanted to reach for the stars, the idols she looked up to back in that riot. She wanted to become a star, the idol she wanted to become. She wanted to become a goddess.

The day of the auditions came, and Marina came to the venue in her peak condition. She slept plentifully, warmed up the morning she woke up, and went to the venue early. Marina did not want to show a tardy idol before an audience. Like she usually would, Marina put on her favorite blue hoodie along with its paired jogging pants.

In front of her were three pretty girls who looked the part, chatting amongst themselves like a group of friends that have been together for a long time. They were few, but they seemed happy nonetheless. Marina smiled sadly, as she never really had close enough friends to invite for auditions like these. Maybe this was the right time to make some.

Just when Marina thought to approach the group, however, they found Marina first, and started shifting themselves away.

"Hey, she looks like the one in the news the other day, no?" one girl whispered.

"Yeah, she does look like it," another girl replied in the same fashion. To this, the third girl brought out her phone to compare.

"The similarities are too uncanny. She IS the girl in the news…!" the third girl concluded. "Why is she here…?"

"Don't tell me she's here to take the auditions…" the first girl suspected, her face folding to a grimace, then sneered. "She's taking it to pay off the debt she made herself, I'm betting."

"Oh, poor girl! She must be really desperate to pay if off by becoming an idol," the second one, following the first girl's suit and made the same face, circulated the conversation.

"She doesn't look the part anyways," the third girl added. "She'd probably get dropped first thing in the auditions."

That was when the word got to the other girls.

"They said those with past criminal records do get kicked out immediately."

"What is she doing here then? Did she even read the guidelines?"

"She should drop out here and now."

At first, Marina did not dare listen. She closed her eyes and calmed herself down. She could not let mere words get to her after all this time she spent training and putting herself back together.

"Yeah, she should know her place."

"She's just in for the money. Poor girl has to pay off some debt."

Oh, how desperate she must be…"

"That's not how an idol should think, really."

Marina was fidgeting in her place. The pressure from the auditions plus the words these other girls were saying made her shiver. The breeze of the morning wind became colder.

"After hurting one of them? Shameless of you to still show your face."

"If you're in it for the money then you should just work regularly for it."

"Drop out already and save us the trouble of one more rival."

"It's not like you're worth their attention anyway."

"It's not like you'll redeem yourself just by being an idol."

At this point, the words were already getting to Marina, and she cupped her ears to block the noise, but they just kept slipping through her fingers.

"Drop out already!"

"Drop out…"

"Drop out…"

"Drop out…"

Marina's knees buckled and she collapsed there, her breath rough and her eyesight starting to get blurry.

After all this time?!

"Honestly, you should just quit-!"

Suddenly, a loud beep echoed outside the venue and the double doors spread open, revealing the lobby of the center of operations in the planet. All the girls stood straight besides Marina, who was curled into a fetal position. Her veins were showing on the back of her hand, ready to explode at any second. Her eyes were almost blank.

Marina looked up to meet eyes with a woman in an office uniform. She looked oddly familiar to Marina, but she could not make out the name. Whether she forgot or not was beyond her, but it was easy to identify her red shoulder-length hair, purple eyes and mature features of a woman.

"Good morning, everyone! I take it you're all here for the audition, yes? Come on in and wait for the captain to arrive. In the meanwhile, I invite you all to a hot beverage while waiting. Follow me." And everybody followed suit, lining up perfectly as they took in the footsteps of the woman that greeted them. All except Marina, who has barely just recovered from what seemed like the verge of a mental breakdown. She rubbed her eyes and blinked back her vision only to find out she was the only one left outside. She then felt a pat on her back, raising an alarm. She bolted up and then away from the person in question.

Judging by the figure, it was a girl, probably her age or younger, who was unidentifiable because she was hooded. Beyond the shadows of the hood, however, showed a bright smile in contrast to Marina's frown.

"Are you alright?" the girl went ahead and asked, her face turning to concern as she approached Marina slowly. "I'm sorry, I might've surprised you there. You're being left behind, you know?"

Marina's eyes widened, but then turned back to her dead eyes just as fast. "But I… The other girls were right. I'm just here to pay off my debt. I don't think I deserve to even face the group after what I've done. Surely they wouldn't welcome a criminal too. I..."

The hooded girl stared at her. "Are you really going to end it short? You haven't even tried."

"B-But I…"

"You don't seem to be a criminal if you were being controlled against your will."

"Eh...?"

"Whether or not you're actually born a criminal doesn't matter. I saw the news. It's the Var, right?" the girl explained. "I hear it turned people to mindless zombies, wrecking things here and there. Sure, you may have broken things for the most part, but you yourself would not have wanted to do it yourself, no?"

"I-I don't… I just… wanna work…"

"Then it wasn't your fault. The others may have put the blame on you, but you yourself know you're not the same girl as the one yesterday, no?"

Marina took a closer look at the girl. Due to the sun just about rising, the lights overtook and covered the girl's face in the shadows. Marina stood up to face the girl properly, and nodded without having to say a single word. She turned to the gates and slapped both her cheeks before trudging in. The hooded girl looked at Marina as she disappeared into the edifice.

After Marina was out of sight, a man with blue hair came in from behind the hooded girl. "Was this really okay? If anyone found out, the others will think we're biased and shady, ya know?" he said.

The hooded girl giggled and took of her hood, which revealed a curly orange-haired girl with a heart-shaped sort of horn on her head. The inner part of her hair was a lighter share of orange. She wore apple green eyes and a fair nose bridge.

"What can I say? I used to be somewhat like her, so I should be making her feel the same way I did, right?" she said and turned around to meet the guy before kissing him on the cheek as a greeting. "Besides, we have shady members with us too, no? Not only that, we'll need someone strong enough to take in a disaster like that. She's the only one I can see who has experienced and lived through it." She smiled sadly, and looked at her hand, which has been growing scale-like skin the past few days, and has now started taking over her wrist. "I'll need a direct replacement soon too. Someone who can live longer than I can."

As Marina entered the assigned room for the auditions, someone who was waiting by the door gave her an intercom, signaling Marina to wear them. The latter doubted the person at first, but wore the intercom anyway, and it fit snugly over her ear.

Marina was sat at the very back of the room. She was still anxious about the trash talk from earlier, so she wanted to lay low. Her knees were still shaky, her breath was ragged, and she felt colder than everyone else. The air conditioning only made it worse.

The other girls were chatting about how their practices went, all the while stealing crooked glances at Marina. The thought of a supposed criminal auditioning to sing alongside the girls she attempted to kill was unthinkable. They would click their tongues but ignore her right after and continue with their chitchat. Marina did not bother to look at them.

The automatic door on the left hand side of the room slid open, and came in a green gigantic humanoid male wearing what seemed like a captain's outfit. His height was enough so that he had to duck to get through the door. At first glance, he would seem like a typical green monster you would see on a Halloween night, but Marina knew right away he was the captain of the Macross Elysion, the very fortress that possesses Walkure in their ranks. He was Ernest Johnson, half-Zentradi half-human. Marina's eyes shone after finally seeing him personally.

The other girls, however, did not. They yelled and screamed, in either surprise or fear. The very presence of the captain made the girls in the front row push their own chairs back.

"A monster!"

"We're gonna die!"

"Get away from me!"

"Eeeep!"

Ernest sighed in exasperation. "When is anybody gonna get used to me? Was facilitating this year's auditions a bad idea too?" He then looked at the girls in disappointment, scaring anyone in his line of sight. When he found Marina looking at him intensely, Ernest turned his frown to a grin, then muttered to himself. "Looks like I have a favorite."

He then cleared his throat. "Everybody, I would like to thank all of you for coming to our auditions," he started formally, looking around once again. "You are all three hundred and twenty-eight in total, according to my records. I am the captain of the Macross Elysion, Ernest Johnson. We look forward to observing the best of your abilities. I don't want to waste time with the formalities, so let me get to the point.

"This year's auditions will be different than the one we arranged that resulted in our fifth member's recruitment. To ensure that we will not fail in upcoming emergencies, we will have you risk even your own life." Ernest then took another good look at his candidates before continuing. "We might even have you die right here and now. If you don't want that, you may leave the room."

The girls shook in outright fear. One of them stood up abruptly.

"Wait! This isn't right! Nobody told us we'd be putting our lives on the line just to earn a spot!" she spoke.

"Good food for thought there, young one," Ernest admitted. "But if you thought Walkure was just an idol group that sings and dances in frilly and bright outfits, the door is open. We don't accept people that are not aware of what Walkure really does."

The girl was silent, but she made her way towards the exit, albeit with heavy footsteps. Soon enough, other girls exited the room, which shaved the umber to around half the original number.

As the last girl exited, a woman in uniform came in, looking back at the line of girls that left behind her. Her red hair was her defining feature, and her blue eyes were fairly visible from afar. Just from the looks, Marina could recognize her.

She was Kaname Buccaneer, one of Walkure's members; the one she attempted to murder with a glass shard.

Her body suddenly seemed heavy from the gravity she brought on herself. She felt like she could just drill through the floor and just fall into space right then. She bowed her head to not attract attention.

Kaname caught sight of Marina, and smiled pitifully. Marina could not see this. Kaname then turned towards the captain.

"What did you say towards the girls this time? You made so many drop out, and it's not even the start of the auditions yet!" she scolded, looking fairly annoyed at the green man in standing right beside her.

"What do you mean?! I merely said Walkure wasn't all fun and games!" Ernest defended himself.

"Weren't you just saying we were supposed to die right here and now a while ago?!" was what the other girls thought.

To this, Kaname sighed and apologetically looked at whoever remained in the room. "I commend your bravery, girls. The captain likes to make hyperboles considering his big personality."

And body, Marina added in her thoughts.

"But what the captain said is right," Kaname continued. "Walkure won't be so kind as to let you prancing around in uniform while the universe is in constant threat. Not only will you be a member of an idol group, but you will also coordinate with us in defending the universe, not only for ourselves, but also the people around us as well.

"Even now, some reports claim a new enemy has appeared and is a much greater threat than what happened with the Windermereans, and we don't want to experience the same thing again. To prevent that from happening, we have concluded that we need a stronger force, a voice that can help us reach out to galaxies further than what we can reach as of the moment.

"This will not be a threat, but more like a vision we must all have in this audition. The universe rests on how well you handle your own body. That would be all from me," Kaname finished her speech.

After that, several gulps were heard. This feeling of uneasiness was nothing new to someone like Marina, but not only was her redemption on the line, but the universe as well. The pressure grew on Marina even stronger than before.

I have been a victim of the Var. I did horrible things not only to Kaname-san, but to the others as well. If I give them a half-baked performance right after I decided I wanted to become an idol, I would fail even as dead weight. I need to pass this audition. No matter what. Marina thought to herself.

"Now that you all have a clear view of the situation at hand, I guess that signals the start of the auditions," Ernest cut the silence off. "This is merely one test for us to evaluate your singing, dancing, as well as your very person.

"The rules are simple. Whatever you do, don't ever stop singing and dancing. Also, don't die."

"What?"

As if on cue, the ground below them opened, revealing nothing but a vast ocean. The breeze blew up on them, but they did not fall.

In reaction to this, some girls panicked on their seats. Some stood up. But all of them screamed, save Kaname, Ernest, and Marina, who froze on her seat as she processed the last condition of the audition.

"Don't die."

Then they fell. All of the girls who were in that room, falling straight down towards terrifyingly deep waters.

"Well, that's the main objective, but I'll explain in full detail," Kaname shouted through their intercoms against the roar of the wind. She tried, but her voice would not reach the girls at all. They were all panicking. But that did not stop her. "You will use your song to call on a platform we'll be releasing once they hear your voices against this wind, even as you fall. After you prevent your fall, well… danger awaits, so you will use your dance and body control to evade them. As for how we evaluate your person, well… just do your best, yeah?" She then gave a sad smile and waved at them from the Elysion.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" the girls screamed as they reached out to thin air in hopes it would save them from their fall.

Marina definitely has went skydiving before. She was an adventurous girl who has always loved to try new things. Being an idol was no different. But this time, she was skydiving indeed. Except she didn't have any parachute to secure her fall.

The feeling of falling, unsure whether you come out alive or dead. Marina knew crashing to waters would be as painful as falling into concrete. From about 30 kilometers before sea level, falling would spell certain death. Anyone faced with this situation would be saying their final prayers as they were being pulled downwards.

Marina viewed it all in slow motion. It was as if time froze. The girl who talked smack about her were screaming for dear life. Kaname and the captain looking down upon them, examining their every move. The platforms were nowhere in sight.

That's right, Marina thought. I have to sing to call on my platform. But to what extent does the voice quality have to be? In this wind, I don't think I can get a decent voice out. And the "dangers" Kaname-san talked about; considering my environment, I think they'll come from either the sea or the air. There's no doubting it. Do I have to dance? They only said I have to evade them to pass. And what's with the person they're talking about? I don't get it! I don't get anything they say at all! Is this really how they do it?!

The back of her mind said this was all an elaborate plan to kill her and get rid of the girl who hurt an idol. Her heart was beating fast, not out of fear, but of anger and frustration. She couldn't care less about dying anymore. She has already had that thought ever since that night. Dying was the least of her worries. Leaving her parents and betraying the trust of people who believed her weren't.

This was merely an audition for a group that fights large battles like Walkure. She realized how dangerous everyday looks like for them. And they sang and danced like idols while walking side by side with death?

If she could not prove herself right then, she would just be a piece of trash about to get disposed.

With her back facing the waters, she twisted her body and resisted the winds to slap herself across the face.

I can do this! My parents, and that girl who cheered for me, I cannot betray their expectations! I have come this far, eaten by my own despair, so who am I to give up on the goal I promised myself I'd achieve?!

She twisted her body once more, facing the ship that carried, then dropped her. She opened her lips and, with one deep breath, started singing.

Tatoeba togireta sora ga mieta nara
Furueru boku no koe ga kikoeru no nara
Barabara ni kudakeru hodo maiagare
Hikisakareta kioku no hate naki tsubasa

Ano hi katariatta koto
Itsumo waraiaeta koto
Yomigaeru hi made tachiagaru dake

Marina knew nothing about love, and had no idea about how she even came up with singing a love song that Walkure themselves performed; however, she was so fixated on singing that she ceased to care about what song she chose to sing. As long as she was singing, it was fine. If she was singing, she would sing excellently.

Don't forget your vocal lessons now! She steeled herself before continuing.

Kowashite motto motto boku o kanjite
Soko ni soko ni kimi wa imasu ka
Senjou ni saku inochi yo moero moero

Koroshite isso isso kuchihateru nara
Tagire tagire hametsu no hate ni
Kiseki o yobisamase tozasareta sora e

As she finished the chorus, the platform everybody was waiting for appeared from the side of the ship and glided towards where Marina was.

She was a few more kilometres before reaching the waters, and that distance is closing. She wanted that platform to go faster.

"My voice, reach the stars!"

Marina shouted as she saw light gathering around her, as if to consume her.