Darkness, lifelessness, a total lack of sound. These things would narrowly be true if not for the tossing existence of one lone entity. Elise tossed and turned in her bed, covers undone. She flopped about in pajamas, decorated in floral of the tropics, something provided directly by the Tribe itself.
A digital clock sat on a small stand, numbers lit light green, four-thirty. Another toss and another turn, a pillow held tight to her by both hands. A pained expression, teeth gritted, a sweat washing over her.
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“Elise!” a frightened girl screamed out, drowned out by the sound of splashing.
Dripping, dripping, spatter and a thud. A body toppled over with its head spilling, hair flowing away in the wind. Two figures stood in utter shock, their bodies shaken, while a third stood behind where the fallen had been cut down.
“Destiny!” one of the two shouted before charging forward.
“Thomas no!” the last shouted rushing after the other.
“DIE YOU BASTARD DIE!”
The one- Thomas- jumped, flying through the air with claws out, teeth turning jagged and sharp with a snarl. The lone third simply smirked and disappeared. Both looked in shock before the sound of ripping fabric and crackling bone filtered into the area. The third stood beside Thomas with their arm into his torso and out his back, ripping with it beating organs and broken bone.
“Thomas!”
The third stood, waving brown hair spattered in blood, glowing amber eyes staring back at Elise, mouth hung back in a wide spread grin baring his teeth. A low growl emerged from the individual in that moment as Elise stumbled away.
“N-no!” she cried out.
“D-d-damn weak… sister-” a low groan echoed out followed by another set of thuds.
Elise turned round quickly, eyes wide and totally amet with despair. There they laid, Rusty and Britt both. The former lay with his right arm ripped apart and throat ripped out, blood spilling from both wounds, washing his torso and his face. The latter lay with a caved in skull, the top half completely smashed.
Azala stood well over both corpses, snorting out smoke with eyes blackened and a mouth mostly shut short of a few visible teeth. Behind Azala lay many more, many in the robes of the Tribe. Dozens of bodies strung about with a single figure in the middle, blood dripping from their blade. Their back to her, visible only was the black hair as it flowed upon the winds carrying the stench of iron-rich blood and decay.
Fire swept outward, passing over Caldori’s slain body, the sound of echoing footsteps present. Multiple in black robes and red stars marched through the rising flames, all shadowy and blackened out with few distinguishing features. Then… there came Leon, walking forward ever so casually, a mop of blackness in his right hand, blowing hair.
A head, dripping blood still, face visible revealing wrinkles and green eyes rolled into the back of their head mostly, only a small hint of cornea visible.
“Holly!”
Finally, a figure of white rose up, stretching out of the ground before her. White with a strange symbol upon the jacket, hooded, and masked. A lone sapphire blue eye stared back as the figure grew tall, two meters, three meters, five meters, seven meters. She fell backwards onto her rear, slowly pushing away with her hands, crawling backwards hyperventilating.
Slowly the white figure reached forward, their hand reaching out for Elise.347Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSpagjZWQ3F
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“GYAHHHE-!” she croaked, launching up.
She breathed heavily, right arm rising up, right hand to her face. Swear poured off of her as her breathing exploded. In and out, in and out, multiple times a second. Time passed as she sat there in a red shirt and black sweat pants. Her head turned slowly as her breathing decreased, two in the morning on the clock.
A low groan left her as she placed her palm firmly to her face, eyes drawn shut only shortly.
Water splashed not more than a minute later. Now before the sink, she looked down into the water as both hands moved in, cupping, and then splashed it right back into her. Twice, thrice, and a fourth after. Her breathing continued, nowhere near as severe as it was before. Still, her skin crawled, shaken.
“Nothing will ever change,” the voice of Toby rang in her head.
“You’re pathetic, a disgrace to this clan!” came the shout of Azala.
“This brat is supposed to join us? Tch- she’s going to muddy our mission Holly!” was the bark of Wesley.
“Tch- shut up,” she growled back, hands grasping the sink firmly.
“But it’s true,” a female voice echoed, higher in pitch than Elise’s, monotone at that, “After all-”
It went on, and slowly she looked up. Inch by inch she brought her head up, looking from down to up. Finally as she stared ahead, her eyes popped. Looking back at her in the mirror was herself, coated in blood, hair drawn black, eyes glowing red, bodies piled up around her.
“I am you.”
Bones poured from the mirror and into the sink as the water turned red and thick. The real Elise stumbled back, kicking bones behind her. Looking around, she froze up more. Bodies lay all around- the Ghoul whom she had slain before during the raid, of Kensa- the Vampire whom she had sentenced to death by capturing for the priests. Many more bodies lay around her, some unrecognizable, others painfully so.
Then with another turn, there lay Sacho, there lay Elen, there lay both Thomas and Destiny.
“Take it from me, we’re good at piling up bodies. And that is the truth. Every time you try to help someone, you fail someone. You either let them die, or you lead them to die, or you kill them yourself. We’re a monster Elise- that is our reality.”
“NO!” Elise yelled, raising Sephiroth and swinging before herself.
The mirror split itself in half, the distorted image of a demonized Elise disappearing along with the bodies in an instant… however-
The glass split, blood sent pouring out and into the room, a total flood that quickly consumed the room. Cuts appeared all around Elise as the blood level drained. Cracks began to emerge as the level dropped, shaking her up as she stepped back. All at once, Sephiroth was gone, and now cracks had begun to spread across her own body.
She looked to the back of her right arm, then held her left hand to her face. Splits and cracks were spreading everywhere as the mirror continued to chip and break. Finally, it shattered, and as it did a layer shattered way from Elise with blood sent splattering along the walls. A loud crash filled the room, as the room then departed.
The floor collapsed and the walls shattered, sending Elise flying down into a black abyss of eternal nothingness. No color, no light, just abyss. She let off a scream as she fell.347Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVmOs4Bt1mU
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Her eyes shot open, red. Her skin, pale as can be, dripping with sweat. A subtle glance around the room, then to the clock. Four forty-three. A low groaning sigh as her feet touched the ground and she shifted up onto them. Groggy, tired, exhausted, wasted, any word realistically would work for her as she stood there drained.
Slow, so very slow, each step taking seconds to complete. She moved from the side of the bed into the bathroom area, arm raising up slow to tap on the lights. As done in her dream, she splashed water right into her face. One splash, two splashes, three. After a fifth splash her head tilted.
“Sigh What is wrong with me?” she murmured.
She gradually looked up and stared straight into the mirror. Nothing out of the ordinary, other than that she appeared to be shot. Tired eyes, a drooping face, hair a mess. A slow shake of her head and she turned back towards her bed, her emerald glow now more of a dark green that was fading.
“This place has a hot spring if I remember right…”347Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3gYNDFEliY
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Streaming water, a trickle compared to a roar, flowing like a stream. Rocks placed all around a decent sized body of water, just over nine meters in size. Water flowed on in, while fake plants and bamboo stood everywhere. High up top a large projection ceiling displayed a full moon, cloudy sky. In many ways, it was like a high tech Onsen, only entirely man-made with a non-traditional heating element.
The water gave way with a mild splash as Elise lowered herself into it, a black bathing suit on, simple as can be. Her lower legs submerged slow as she sighed, slowly submerging bit by bit until sitting down with her shoulders and head sticking out. Her hair floated at the top while she leaned back against the rocks, allowing her body to then go limp, arms floating upwards. Just the sounds of the water flowing into the body of water, a slight shifting of the bamboo and fake plants.
A slight murmur of pleasure left her as she sunk deeper, blowing bubbles with a breath of exasperation leaving her, “{This… this is nice.}”
A figure emerged from the mist drifting off of the water. Water did not splash as the man got in, though the water certainly affected him as his body formed up from the mist. She looked over, emerging slightly from the water just so that it rested beneath her chin. Finally the figure took full form, that form being Sephiroth’s.
He hung back in the water with a towel over his red-orange hair, swim trunks being the only thing he wore.
“Back to being young and attractive as Caldi puts it?” she asked out loud.
“Hmph,” he grunted in response not batting an eye, “I do what I want.”
All at once his appearance changed, shrinking in fact. In the blink of an eye her sword’s projection had transitioned, becoming a young child floating on their back. His hair now was straight gold and his eyes a blazing ruby-crossed-flame.
“And now childlike. I guess that reflects your personality at least,” she said with a slight bit of chirp and giggle.
“Bite me. No, really, bite me. Break your damn teeth on my steel,” Sephiroth grumbled back.
“Right right,” she sighed while leaning back further into the water.
It was just the two of them, water streaming in with steam rising, and then water draining through small drains in the bottom of the man-made spring. A clunk came from bamboo hitting the ground but it was short lived. She looked down, then back up over to her weapon’s humanoid form.
“Yesssss?” he asked.
“Sephiroth, do you even need to ask?”
“I don’t constantly read your mind or thoughts Elise, just as the one called God doesn’t… or at least God shouldn’t.”
“Hmph… fine fine,” she murmured low, “You’re supposed to be a teacher, that’s what Holly said. So… am I making the right choices?”
“What you do is your own choice Elise. I can’t make decisions for you.”
Her eyes darted and her head turned a bit, the water splashing only a tad as she did so, “You could at least give me your input.”
“What is bringing this about, the interaction with the Frost Clan leaders I’m guessing,” he grumbled back with eyes shut.
Even still, he drifted on his back, legs out, arms crossed behind his head so that the latter may rest on the former.
“Back when- back when I was with Vulfax. I- no, it was just Hell; but I put up with it. I always wanted to do my best, to help my friends, to… to protect them… even if I didn’t want to actually fight.”
She sighed, pausing for a moment as her lids shut, exhaling in the process. Slowly, they drifted again, allowing her to look down at the quivering steamy water.
“I don’t regret becoming a fighter, I really don’t. I just- I question who I am fighting for.”
“Hoh?” Sephiroth called.
“I wanted to fight for those I cared about- yet in the end, they died because of the war… because I wasn’t strong enough. I honestly wanted to stop what happened to us from happening to anyone else… but at the same time, I question the path I have taken.”
“In what way?” Sephiroth asked, opening his eyes and turning his head to the left to look at her.
“I still had some of my friends, even some new friends. But ever since I started working with the Tribe- I’ve just felt anger,” she murmured as her hair drooped in front of her face, “They use people. They’re just like Azala and honestly even the Hive, if not worse. I know they aren’t all that way but- I just don’t know what to do.”
“Elise...” Sephiroth murmured, sighing after.
His eyes closed for a brief moment as his head turned back around, looking up at the moon and clouds.
“You have an incredible heart. You actually give a damn about people, and about doing what is right. However, you are allowing the expectations and demands of this order misguide you. Even in your bouts of anger, you’ve never once wanted to kill senselessly. You’re haunted with the fact that you’ve killed and caused people to die for seemingly no reason. The Ghouls, Kensa, hell- even blindly trusting your superiors which has gotten people on your team killed. Still, you’ve followed your own path, rough as it may have become.”
“If it’s to protect someone precious to me, or for the greater good, I know I should. Kensa bothers me; but for what I did to those Ghouls. Honestly even just seeing the Tribe’s politics at work. They’d rather let their own allies die if it meant preserving their resources to protect their own interests.”
Her own arms rested behind her head as she now also looked up at the clouded moon. Leaning back, eyes full, she stared upwards, sighing.
“I dunno Sephiroth. I just feel like I’m stuck in a loop and I don’t like it. While this might be for justice of some sort, I feel like nothing has changed. Six months serving another Vulfax under Azala, even though it’s different.”
Her mind flashed back to a time, a time where she sat before the patio-area with Lucy.
“Living is overcoming obstacles before you that make your life hell, triumphing with a genuine smile as you pass task after task. Given a normal life, you would not have met those who have become so dear to you. You would not have the experiences you currently have. Cruel as it was, Holly made you a fine individual with a goal in mind, your true calling that is one for the better.”
-
“Those who truly embrace themselves and what they have faced will always triumph over those who wish to tear them down.”
-
“Destiny has given you a chance to do some real good for the world. Who knows, you could be one of the big change makers in the near future. Either way you look at it, the Tribe needs more fighters for what is to come, and so far you seem perfect for the job.
-
Her mind flashed back to what lay before her, still staring upwards, “I feel like the Tribe is… mmm. It hurts, it really does. But if I just give up, will any of it even really change?”
-
“Life is what you make it, luv,” the voice of Holly flashed before her mind.
-
“The choice is yours, young master,” Sephiroth murmured, “If you leave now, things may never change. Just like with Vulfax. They would have destroyed themselves had you not returned to stand your ground.”
Her mind then took her aback once more. Thoughts drifted slow, of Mark, of David and Milly, of Scott and Drake, of Zoey, of Samantha, of her brothers, and of Vulper. Her mind flooded back to the clan as a whole, all of it together after the Battle of Vulfax Valley.
“I suppose… I shouldn’t bow out just yet then. I’m just terrified of going into battle with another squad, a chaotic one. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone else dying, never again.”
Thoughts of Sacho, of Elen, of Destiny and Thomas, they all flooded her immediately. Of Baskel, of Dauntless, of David and Milly nearly, of Domino Squadron nearly.
“You can’t control everything. Things happen, often without reason. What you can do is become stronger, to tip the scale. Fight on with others by your side. Once you fight alone, you’ve lost everything.”
A slight smile opened up on her face as she continued to look up at the sky, “Yeah… Sephiroth?”
“Hmm? What?”
“We’re going to have to work harder, aren’t we?”
“Heh- maybe so young master, maybe so.”
“Then it’s decided,” she announced, her arms pulling away from behind her, hands clapping in front of her, “We’re going to have to work harder and make sure that whatever happens next is for the better. If it means trying to change the Tribe and those in it- then I can’t give up now when I’ve barely begun.”
“Heh,” Sephiroth chuckled, the color of his form fading, the form itself now becoming transparent, “That’s the spirit.”
As Sephiroth faded out, Elise was left alone in the waters, staring up at the projected moon, a flame growing within her eyes. Once more, the bamboo clanked on the ground nearby, while the subtle flow of water continued as it had.
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