Redemption

Summery: Siegfried left his old band to try and start a new life. Upon finding out he'll never be able to get music out of his system he now starts a new band with a new look and new gear. But how long will it be until his old band comes back to haunt him?

Disclaimer: I do not own Soul Calibur and never will.

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Chapter 4: The Other Sister

When Siegfried woke up the next morning… He didn't expect to hear an acoustic guitar being played. When he saw Yun-seong already dressed in a pair of jean shorts, sitting in on of the kitchen chairs and a white t-shirt finger picking a black colored Dean Performer E acoustic-electric guitar.

"You play Dean Acoustics?" Siegfried asked sitting up from his couch.

"Huh?" Yun-seong said just noticing Siegfried and ending the song he was playing. "Yeah, I saw The Azure Knight play a Dean with Nightmare recently and he sounded amazing." Siegfried was amazed to hear that Yun-seong actually saw him in Nightmare as the Azure Knight, but he's not going to tell him that it was him. "I just wish he didn't beer bomb the crowd the night that I went."

"That must've sucked." Siegfried said remembering that he did that. One of the many things he wished he didn't do.

"Yeah, well anyways, Dean was my first pick for guitars, but I liked the Schecter Tempest more that all the Deans I tried." Yun-seong explained. "Although, this acoustic is awesome."

"I see…" Siegfried said plainly. He never tried Dean's acoustic guitars; in fact he didn't even have a certain main brand of choice. He just grabbed whatever lefty he could find. "I'm going to go get ready for the day. You can have breakfast or something, the cereals in the top left shelf."

"Thanks." Yun-seong said standing up. "Oh, and thanks for letting me stay here."

"Don't mention it." Siegfried said grabbing some clothes from his dresser. "Just as long as you don't mind sleeping on the floor for now." Well, they couldn't even afford a bed for Siegfried yet, so he had to sleep on the floor for the time being. It was either that or the bath tub, which was exactly where Siegfried was going.

-

Siegfried came out of the shower in his usual clothing, torn jeans with a white t-shirt shirt. Come to think of it, he had a lot of plain t-shirts. It wasn't a problem; he just liked to keep things simple.

Anyways, he saw Yun-seong in the kitchen just eating what looked liked some kind of frosted cereal. Come to think of it, wasn't that Hilde's favorite?

"Wow that was fast." Yun-seong said amazed by Siegfried's showering time.

"I don't need much time to shower." He said calmly. He didn't need as much time as he did before now that his hair is shorter than it was when he was Nightmare that was for sure. "Anyways, you up for a jam session after breakfast? I need a rhythm section for a riff that I came up with."

"Sure." Yun-seong said eating the cereal that was in his bowl. "But I'm still surprised you guys accepted me into your band."

Siegfried just smiled and grabbed a box of corn flakes from the cabinet. "Well, we're not looking for perfection. We're not even underground yet after all. Why are you shocked?" Siegfried thought of this as an interesting subject for breakfast.

"Well, people I know said that I wasn't ready for a band." Yun-seong said looking back at old memories. "Even Hwang said I wasn't ready. They said I was too mediocre."

"What did they expect a band wants, another Slash, or maybe the next Jimmy Page?" Siegfried asked in confusion. "No one is perfect. Back in my old band, I was always behind the other members in terms of skill, but I was always trying to improve and I did thanks to practicing and playing with the other members." Siegfried said sitting down at the table, trying to make a point. "You have limits by yourself, but you can always improve when you've got someone to pick up something from."

"You've got a point." Yun-seong said looking right at him with a straight face. "You're a pretty cool guy, Siegfried."

"Thanks." Siegfried said taking the milk that was on the table and pouring some into his bowl. "Just keep that in mind, no one is perfect. Heck, Hilde is a good bassist, but not the best. We're all going to try to improve."

-

After breakfast, as they were playing… Siegfried was enjoying every minute they were playing, but Yun-seong noticed something about Siegfried's style that was very familiar to him. So familiar, he heard something like it before. Yun-seong even stopped playing to listen to Siegfried's guitar style.

"Is something wrong?" Siegfried said to Yun-seong noticing that he wasn't playing his guitar and stopped playing his own.

"No, it's just that I noticed your style sounds familiar to me." Yun-seong said to Siegfried also thinking about where he heard that guitar style before.

Siegfried knew from this morning that Yun-seong went to a Nightmare concert, but how could he notice familiarity so soon? He changed gear, he doesn't have a whammy bar on his guitar… how did he notice something? "Like who?" He had to ask just to make sure it wasn't from his time in Nightmare or just from one of his influences.

"You sound kind of like the Azure Knight from Nightmare." Yun-seong said looking straight at Siegfried.

'He knows. I bet he knows…' Siegfried thought getting ready to confess.

"You too must have the same influences or something," Yun-seong said smiling. "Because the Azure Knight never played a baritone." He said referring to Siegfried's guitar.

Well, Siegfried wasn't going to tell him that he was the Azure Knight, at least not yet. "Probably, although I've never met the guy." He said with a quiet sigh of relief.

"Consider yourself lucky." Yun-seong said remembering the Nightmare concert he went to. "Anyways, lets work on that song of yours until lunch, it sounds really good."

"Sounds like a deal to me." Siegfried said with a smile. He was relieved that Yun-seong didn't recognize him, but he still hasn't forgotten the problem they faced. They still needed to find a vocalist.

-

It has reached noon time… And just like Siegfried told Sophitia the day before, he went to her diner for lunch. Well, him and Yun-seong; he wasn't going to leave his co-guitarist alone for lunch. Especially with the fact that the only food in the apartment was either frozen food or left over take-out.

When they entered the small diner, they saw a bunch of stools lined up to a bar and a few straight tables up against the wall. Siegfried didn't expect anything big; since Sophitia told him she recently opened this place.

Since no one came up to walk them to a table, they just walked over to the bar a grabbed two random stools next to each other. Aside from them, there weren't that many people at the diner, but it was a Monday and people don't really have the time to stop and have a decent meal on the first business day of the week.

What ever, less people meant less time to wait for their food. So, they grabbed their menus from behind some ketchup bottles and took a look at what was available.

"Welcome to Alexandra's!" Said the waitress that neither of them were looking at when she first spoke.

When they looked up they saw that she was younger than Siegfried but older than Yun-seong. She had medium length blonde hair that went a little passed her jaw bone that was straight cut and had straight cut bangs to go with the rest of her hair cut. As for her clothes, she was wearing a white apron over a light blue long sleeve shirt and a pair of blue jeans. Siegfried noticed something familiar about her, but he hasn't really seen her anywhere before.

"I'm Cassandra and I'll be your waitress today." She said smiling at both of them. "Are you two ready to order?"

"Um, we'll just start with some drinks for now." Siegfried said looking back at the menu. "But besides that we still need a minute to look over the menu some more." There wasn't too much to choose from, but he knew Sophitia's cooking was good and wanted to choose the right thing.

"Okay, so what will it be for drinks?" Cassandra asked with her pen and paper ready.

What was it about this waitress that was familiar to Siegfried? She couldn't have been in any of his classes, she looked younger than him and he dropped out his freshman year of high school. "I'll just have water." He said still thinking about her and how familiar she looked. Seriously it was giving him a headache.

"I'll have a Dr. Pepper." Yun-seong said still looking at the menu. He himself was getting excited just looking at the names of the food.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention this before," Siegfried said about to bring up his last meeting with Sophitia. "Your boss, Sophitia recommended that I come here yesterday…"

"Oh, you're Siegfried." She said with a smile. "Yes, my sister did mention you." Sister?! Sophitia's her sister? "We can't give you too much of a discount, but you won't pay full price." She said walking away into the back room which looked like the kitchen.

Well, that explained why she looked familiar. She was Sophitia's sister, now that that is off his mind he can finally think about his problem involving the band. "Now Yun-seong, how do you think we can handle this vocalist problem?" He said turning to the young man next to him who was done looking at his menu.

"Well, I could make a few calls to some people at the orphanage and see if they would like to try out, but they are all under-age." Yun-seong said wondering if the age thing could be a problem or not.

"Age wouldn't be a problem if not for Hilde." Siegfried said shutting his eyes. He didn't want to blame his best friend, but rumors due cause band break ups. "A rumor could cause a big problem if we had an under-age vocalist, since we're all older and none of us are related to him or her."

"Good point," Yun-seong said nodding his head. He never did think of it like that. "Well, we have until Wednesday right?" He needed to be sure just in case.

"Yes, that's when Kilik expects us as a full band." Siegfried said calmly. "But, just like on that American Idol or whatever show, there are people who can sing, and people who think they can. So, finding a vocalist can be one of the hardest and longest things to do."

Just when he said that, Cassandra walked up to them with their drinks. "Here you guys go." She told them with a slight smile and also with a curious look. "And I couldn't help but over hear that you two are in a band and looking for a vocalist?"

"Well… You can say that." Siegfried said wondering if what they had right now was a band.

"Forgive me for intruding, but what genre is it, what sound are you going for?" She said with full curiosity and leaning on the bar table.

"Well… It's kind of like Staind, Flyleaf…" Yun-seong said just naming bands. "All in all, it's like Alternative Hardcore Rock. Just lots of distortion, but not as much as Metal."

"I see…" She said at first sounding a little disappointed. "Can I try out?" She asked with excitement.

"What?!" They both asked at the same time. Neither of them saw that coming. At first it sounded like she lost interest and them she sounded excited.

"Please? I love Flyleaf music; I've seen them live twice." Cassandra said obviously just making an excuse, but he highly doubted that that was her real reason.

"That's nice, but why do you want to be involved with someone you don't even know?" Siegfried felt the need to ask this question, because she looked like a good girl, while Yun-seong and he looked more liked high school stoners. Even though Siegfried never did drugs; he only drank. Not that that's anything to brag about.

"Well, can I tell you at the try out?" She asked them blushing from embarrassment. "It's a little too personal to tell you guys here."

"No problem." Siegfried replied understanding where she was coming from. Some things just had to be kept out of the public ear. "What time does your shift end?"

Cassandra face lit up hearing that they were going to give her a chance. "Oh, my shift ends at four." She said with excitement.

"Hm… And Hilde won't be home until five…" Siegfried muttered to himself. "Okay…" He said turning his attention to Cassandra. "Could you show up at around five thirty?"

"Yes!" She said still full of excitement and handing him a piece of paper and a pen. "Please give me your address, so I'll know where to go."

"Okay…" He said writing down the address to the apartment complex and his apartment number. While he was doing that, he thought of her excitement and how it reminded him of how Sophitia was back when went on her first date. How could she be so excited over something so different?

Anyways, he finished writing down the address and apartment number and handed her the piece of paper. "This is the address to the apartment building, and this is our apartment number." He said pointing to both of them.

"Oh, okay." She said understanding what he was saying easily. "But, I'll still need to take your order." She said reminding them that she was their waitress. "Sophitia's sister or not, if I'm not doing my job, I'll get fired."

"Oh, right…" Siegfried said looking back at the menu. He wasn't all that excited about the food anymore. If Cassandra could sing in any way like her sister, then she could be exactly what they needed.

-

As the day passed by Siegfried never got over his excitement that they could've possibly found someone in so short of time, but when they told Hilde, she wasn't so excited…

"So you just told this girl, who might have no music background at all, that she can just try out?" She said with no enthusiasm at all.

"Well, hey if she doesn't work we'll need to spend the next two days looking for a vocalist and that is not an easy task." Siegfried said letting her know about the problem that they were still facing. "Unless you know someone else, this is our best shot."

Hilde didn't know anyone else, so Siegfried really did have a point. "Well, you are right…" Hilde said shrugging her shoulders.

"For some reason he always is." Yun-seong said interrupting her while going through on of the cabinets. "At least when it comes to band related things." He said removing his head from the cabinet with a bag of chips that he was looking for. "It's like he has experience in this area."

Seeing Siegfried turn and look away, Hilde could tell he wasn't ready to tell them about his past. "Well, that's one way to put it, but it's rather personal." She said not trying to get Yun-seong to bring up any more questions.

"That's fair enough." Yun-seong said eating some of the potato chips he took from the cabinet. "But, hey when is she getting here anyways?"

"In about ten minutes," Siegfried said looking at the microwave clock. "But who knows? She might get here earlier."

Just then, there was a knock on the front door as if they were expecting it, but could it really be her? As Siegfried answered the door he saw that is was Cassandra, wearing what she was wearing earlier, just without the apron.

"Hey, am I too early?" She asked with a little concern in her voice. "I had nothing else to do and was just in the area." She was actually on the exact same street as the apartment complex returning home from running an errand for Sophitia and just saw it and figured that that was a good time to have her try out.

"Not at all, it's better to be early than late." Siegfried said with a slight smile and stood away from the doorway to welcome her into his home. "Please come in and we'll get started."

"Thank you." She said walking into the apartment and looking around seeing Yun-seong again, except with a bag of chips, and red head girl that wasn't there before. "Wait! You weren't with them at lunch today." She said pointed at Hilde.

"No, I was working." Hilde said to the blonde girl Siegfried told her was named Cassandra. She seemed nice enough, but didn't really have the rock attitude. "I didn't get out for lunch today because I was switching my shift."

'Really?' Siegfried thought to himself. She didn't even come home for lunch. Then again, it was probably because she could get the same exact thing at the restaurant they ordered it from. "Anyways, let's begin." Siegfried said leading her over to his couch. Seeing her gracefully sit down assured him that she did seem comfortable. He grabbed a chair from the kitchen counter and sat across from her. "Alright, I just have a few simple questions for you and then we'll here what you can do, okay?" He figured that was the best way, since that was how everyone else got in.

"Okay…" She said leaning forward with a little excitement.

"First of all, what is your music background?" Siegfried asked. Yun-seong instantly noticed from the other room that those were the same type he asked him.

"I started singing in the school chorus in middle school, both in background and as a soloist." Cassandra said with enthusiasm about her life. "In High School, I was introduced to rock music thanks to some friends who thought that my voice would work better for that genre than the classical or pop music that we were singing in chorus."

"Sounds like this friend of yours really had faith in your voice." Siegfried said interrupting her story.

"Yes, you can say that." Cassandra said just realizing that moment. "Anyways, I quit chorus and started doing private music study since then." She said ending her story.

"I see…" Siegfried said almost understanding her story, but if it was all true she just might be as good if not better than what he originally wanted. "What about a mic or sound system? Do you own anything like that?"

"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get anything like that, because I live with Sophitia and I don't want to get on to bother her family or anything." Cassandra said shrugging her shoulders.

"Well, that's sad." Hilde said rudely. "You're in your twenty's and you live with your sister."

"Hilde!!" Siegfried said almost barking at her. She was his best friend but she could really doesn't think sometimes.

"No, she's right." Cassandra said still smiling, but with a hint of sadness in her voice. "It is pathetic."

What? Something wasn't right with this picture. She was actually agreeing with that. Siegfried had made some bad choices in his live, really bad choices, but he also knew when to help make a good one. "Please, Cassandra. Just ignore Hilde and we'll go on with the interview." He knew he wanted to help this girl, and if giving her a chance would help her, then it is what he wants to do. "Last question, why do you want to get involved with this world?" With that question, everyone in was stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

"Well," She stopped smiling at just looked right at Siegfried. "All my life I've been compared to my Sophitia, like I was the other sister, the inferior one. My parent would often say, 'Why didn't you go to college like Sophitia?' or 'Why don't you go on a mission like you sister did? You'll be a better person.' It drove me to the point where I was forced to leave me parents and actually live with my sister. Now I'm working for her. It's like I really did turn into the 'other' sister."

Hearing this story made everyone think again about there own lives and Hilde want to take back her rude comment from earlier, because she never experienced anything like that. She was actually a little spoiled by her father growing up.

Yun-seong of course was an orphan and this gave him a whole new view of family, their can be both good parents that he used to dream of and bad ones like Cassandra just described.

And Siegfried was almost thankful to be disowned by his parents, because he now knows that he could've experienced something a lot worse than what he went through.

"This is the only thing she doesn't have." She said with tears starting to swell in her eyes. "If this is the only ticket out of her shadow. I'll take it."

"Cassandra…" Siegfried said quietly. "What you went through is indeed something no one deserves, and it will in no way affect our judgment towards you." He said bringing up the try out. "You do deserve a chance to do whatever you want, and we'll give you that chance." His words made her smile with joy at him. "Please, take a minute to calm down, and we'll find you a song to sing, okay?"

"Okay…" She said nodding, and to everyone's surprise leaned forward and hugged Siegfried. "Thank you, so much."

"Um…" He didn't really know what do at that point. He wasn't having any flashbacks of his past experience with Sophitia or any other girl. So, he just slowly separated himself from her and stood from his seat. "I'll get you some water to help clear your voice."

"Thanks." She said no longer shaken from telling them about her past with her parents.

As he walked to the kitchen he thought about Cassandra and everyone else involved in the band. The only person that won't get a lot of help from this band would be Hilde. If Cassandra really was a good vocalist this could be a little more than just redemption for himself, but also his way of helping someone else.

End of Chapter 4

-

Author's Note: That is the worst cliffhanger ever!!! I was postponing this trying to think of a song for Cassandra to sing and make the chapter longer, but I just thought, screw it I'll make it shorter and save it for later. I still don't have a song, so I need some help. I'm open to anything melodic or a ballad, not just a Hardcore Rock song. I can whatever anyone's got that I like. Please, help me out.