Through Rose-Colored Glass
Title: Through Rose-Colored Glass
Part: 4/?
Rating: PG-13 (subject to change in future)
Pairings: Aeris/Sephiroth
Summary: Sephiroth contemplates freedom....
Being in SOLDIER kept Sephiroth busy enough but he found much of his time occupied with paperwork; meaningless, boring paperwork. It was dull and monogamous but Sephiroth completed his tasks without complaint. He was a well-trained dog, he thought with some self-deprecation. Sephiroth did without fail everything that Shinra asked of him and he did it with deadly efficiency. He almost never questioned why and almost never strayed from the Shinra HQ, where the SOLDIER's quarters were located. No one had told him he had to stay there - they just merely said, “And here is your living quarters.”
No one asked him if he liked it, no one told him to stay there. But in all honesty, Sephiroth had nowhere else to go. There was no family waiting for him beyond Shinra Inc. There was no warm, loving embrace for him. These things were his childish fantasies which had he stomped out many long years ago. Those feelings of want allowed for people to abuse him, to control him. A bitter laugh escaped his lips. Despite the fact that he had long given up hope, he was still being controlled by someone other than himself.
God, he hated Shinra. He could never escape this damned, metal prison and glass cages.
Suddenly, an image of pink flashed through his mind. He could clearly see her, that flower girl who annoyed him with her innocent face. She smiled at him - and not just any smile but a true, genuine smile and Sephiroth wondered how any one in the slums could smile. For a moment, just a moment, Sephiroth wondered if the flower girl felt the chains of captivity the way he did. Did she ever cry about anything? Follow rules she hated? Did she bow down and accept a fate she could not change?
Was the flower girl free? Hardly, he thought pessimistically. No one was free from the prison of Midgar, from the slave masters of Shinra. In this giant, fucked up world, everyone was a prisoner. Even the little flower girl, who seemed so desperate that day she reached out to him... even something that innocent looking held onto to traces of sadness. She was not free... no freer than he himself.
"Freedom," Sephiroth whispered. The word tasted like a sweet ambrosia on his lips, something he could become absolutely drunk off of.
And so, when Scarlet walked in, dressed in the skimpiest red dress he'd ever seen on a woman, her face caked with make-up and her bleach blonde hair piled on top of her head, Sephiroth did something differently. He stood up and that in itself made Scarlet pause. Sephiroth never stood up when she entered a room or for anyone save President Shinra but she didn't think much of it. She was carrying a stack of files and set them on his desk. "Finish these reports, yeah?"
"No."
Scarlet took a step back, the surprise evident on her face. Sephiroth always accepted orders when it came from someone above him and Scarlet, as an executive member of Shinra, definitely outranked him by far. Not only that, but Sephiroth was a yes-man. He was trained to completely obey all orders from any Shinra executive and when orders conflicted, he was to follow the direct order of President Shinra himself. Or at least, that's what Hojo said and the man was hardly ever wrong. So, Sephiroth's blatant refusal made her pause.
"No?" she repeated dumbly.
“No.”
She was at a loss, not knowing what to do. Sephiroth decided then and there that he liked the way it felt. He liked the way his tongue touched the roof of his mouth and then fell down as he uttered the word 'no.' He felt a surge of power shift through him, as if he finally had some control over his destiny. No was a very good word, indeed, and Sephiroth wanted to keep this feeling flowing in him for as long as possible. It wasn't true freedom but it came damn close to it; chosing his own path, making his own decision.
But would Shinra respect his decisions? Would they seriously take into consideration what he said or would they only let him think he was in control?
Masamune, Sephiroth's sword, hung on the wall behind him. He reached for it, rather slowly. At least, to Scarlet, it seemed like slow motion. But then all of a sudden, as if someone had suddenly pressed the fast forward button on the remote control, she found herself at the end of Sephiroth's sword. She gulped a bit, not sure how to handle the situation because Sephiroth had never snapped so suddenly, not without warning and most certainly never over a stack of paperwork. "Okay. So, I'll get someone else to do the paperwork. No need to overreact."
"Really?" Sephiroth asked, pressing his sharp blade just a fraction harder against her throat so that it drew blood.
Scarlet's eyes grew larger. "Is there something bothering you, Sephiroth? Maybe you're overworked, needing a vacation. Put your weapon down and I'll forget about this, mention to President Shinra you need some time off."
Time off equaled time in Hojo's lab. "No," he told Scarlet, who was starting to tremble slightly. Under the weight of Sephiroth's emerald glare, Scarlet was beginning to realize that she was powerless against him, at least physically. She didn't dare use her feminine wiles against Sephiroth - the entire Shinra corporation knew the man was immune to the female anatomy. There was nothing left for her to do other than to appeal Sephiroth's mercy and by the gods, she wondered if any existed behind the green fire burning brightly in his eyes.
Was this it? Was her pathetic life going to end before she'd even had her first sip of morning coffee?
Scarlet refused to close her eyes. She couldn't have even if she wanted too. Being at the sharp end of Sephiroth's blade was like passing by a tragic, car accident. You didn't really want to see anyone laying dead on the road but you looked just because some morbid curiousity inside of you wouldn't allow you to turn your head. You just had to see with your own eyes in order to confirm the truth which you already knew.
Scarlet took a deep breath, trying to decide if a good verbal slashing would help rectify the situation. But one look into those eyes, those fucking, accusing green eyes that bore into her very soul, and she realized that she didn't want Sephiroth to kill her - because death by him wouldn't be an ordinary death; but rather a divine justice being dispensed by some dark, cosmic entity. Sephiroth would strip her naked and lay all her sins out in front of her. He would make her acknowledge that she was nothing more than putrid filth infecting the Planet. Sephiroth would make her realize that she was never connected to anyone, that she was alone, and that she was really nothing squirming before his great might. How the fuck could someone whom she spent years degrading suddenly make her feel worthless? Where did this new presence emmanating from him come from? Why did she feel more human in his presence?
If Scarlet had to die, she wanted someone else to kill her, someone that was mad with rage or passion. Murders were not supposed to be cold and methodical. Murders were done in fits of raging emotions, they were done in the heat of the moment. Murders were committed when everything finally reached its climax; when all that pent up hate and resentment came bursting out in a violent array of colors.
But this - standing before Sephiroth with his sword pressed against her throat - it was wrong. There was only cold detachment, as if she was merely another object in his way to be cut down and discarded. She no longer was a human being with feelings and ambitions and desires. She was not a living, breathing person standing before him; no, she was his prey, an animal that was to be hunted and gutted, left to die all alone with no one there to witness her moments of humanity. It was so damn lonely and miserable being in that room with Sephiroth, with nothing but those glaring eyes and the tip of his gigantic sword itching to taste her blood.
With Sephiroth, she felt his coldness seep into her bones, felt this aching in her heart and knew - no, really knew what it meant to be all alone. There was no hope in Sephiroth's eyes, no justification, no satisfication; absolutely nothing but that accusing glare. And she no longer wanted to die by his hands. Tears slipped down her cheeks but fear had gripped her vocal chords. Sephiroth was really going to kill her... kill her because he didn't want to do the fucking paperwork. It was ridiculous; she'd survived life on the streets only to die because of paperwork. She'd prostituted herself out, stripped, took beatings from men she didn't love all in the name of surviving. But to die, unloved and alone in a small, Shinra office tucked away in the corner of the building over fucking paperwork, Scarlet did the worst thing ever: she laughed.
Sephiroth quickly raised his legged and with one powerful kick, sent Scarlet wheeling backwards, through the metal doors and hitting the wall opposite of his office. The force of Sephiroth's kick caused her insides to explode. The contents of her stomach came up but it was all blood. The crack of her head hitting the wall with a sickening thud disoriented her. She struggled for a moment, trying to crawl but her entire body was wracked with intense, near blinding pain. She blinked rapidly a couple of times and all she could she was black, leather boots ever so slowly approaching her. There was a glint of sliver and then a burning sensation in her abdomen. She had expected pain, indescribable pain, but Scarlet was more surprised that it burned more than hurt. It was as if her body had been set on fire and she could find no release from the eternal fire licking at her innards.
Sephiroth's divine punishment; she would burn eternally in his fire, his agonizing fire that no amount of ice and water could cool. It burned, by God, it burned and tormented her. It left her a screaming heap of entrails and blood. She wasn't human anymore; she was less than the scum of the earth.
Scarlet's screams reverberated throughout the entire building and other employees stood, watched in fear as Sephiroth gutted Scarlet. What should they do? What were they supposed to do?
“No, Scarlet,” Sephiroth said, before pulling his sword from her stomach. She watched with horror as her own blood dripped slowly from the tip of his blood and he walked away, casually, causally! As if he hadn't just run her through like a worthless dog. It was then that she understood the meaning of no. It wasn't that Sephiroth didn't want to do the paperwork; no, that wasn't it. Sephiroth was finally exerting his authority; making it known to the world that he would no longer be pushed around, no longer viewed as worthless when it was Sephiroth's strength that made the world tremble in fear. And it was an effective method because there's nothing like a few broken ribs, internal bleeding, and being gutted through the stomach to make people respect you.
And she just happened to be the unlucky fool in the wrong place at the wrong time.