Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had sat quietly beneath her bed for days in the dark, dusty corner into which it had rolled. Aree had set it down carelessly, nudged it with a toe, and forgotten the tacky little thing the very moment it had passed the charcoal-colored dust ruffle. What use did an agent of the Negaverse have for garish nicknacks? It had been eclipsed by discarded socks, jarred as the girl threw her exhausted frame down on the bed night after night. Kept company only by dust bunnies and discarded wrappers, it very well might have stayed there forever if not for a lonely winter evening.

Only when it came to mind again that night, suddenly and inexplicably but with all the force of a speeding train, had her curiosity pulled it out with the assistance of a coat hanger.

Such a simple little thing, it was. Aree's hands explored the glass like greedy ants on a globe of spun sugar, and the effort was rewarded with the discovery of the small wind-up knob. A few turns, a sad song, and a renewal of a childlike wonder that she had thought lost to the dark beast that lurked inside her. The one that called itself Tanzanite. Yet not even that hungry, evil force could snatch away the simple peace the melody brought her, nor could it seem to remove the empty sadness that followed in it's wake.

Her fingers were red from turning the key by the time she fell asleep, thumb and index finger raw with the effort of hours. The comfort it brought her was overpowered only by the sadness it left, and only sleep brought her relief from the sorrow as the twirling figure and her soft, simple melody finally carried the troubled girl away into the nightmares that inevitably waited.



She wanted more.

The Imperium store had them readily available, but the calling of the Negaverse had always torn Aree away before she could try for another. She had only the one. The one fragile little thing. Night after night she had sat upon her lonely, simple sofa in the apartment that had once belonged to Ursula. A friend now lost to the same Dark Kingdom to which she had sworn her life. She twisted the key and cupped the tiny, precious thing to an ear, eyes wide in fascination. The music filled her mind and soothed her soul, and she found herself thinking of the tune whenever she was away. Often enough Aree considered slipping the object into her purse to keep it close, but the idea of breaking it seemed somehow... unimaginable.

Such a fragile, perfect little thing.

No, no, she would tell herself, and set it back upon the shelf. It was safer there. Keeping it safe, after all, was most important, for it was all that she was not; beautiful and simple and soothing. It reminded her of what might have been had Charonite never found her, had she never tested Kunzite's wrath, had the world never been such a dark and dismal and hopeless place.

What had started as a soothing inner peace had become a longing. It had become a need. Aree could not help but hum the song as she walked the snowy streets of Destiny City, and only the day before she had lost hours to her thoughts of the silly glass ball and it's magical twirling figure.



Then, they came.

They danced on the wind with all the grace and beauty of the snowflakes themselves, and the never-wistful Aree Cadence found herself wishing she could be like that. Light, carefree, without the heavy burden of a corrupted soul or the constant presence of a mind that was never fully her own. Long after they were gone, a misty silhouette in the storm, she sat with a cheek to her window and her eyes wide, hoping for just a glimpse.

What were they?

Why were they here?

Without realizing, her hand was reaching for the snowglobe, and gingerly stole it from the small end table she'd purchased specifically for her little treasure. She held it gingerly, wound the key, and let the melody steal her thoughts away to a more peaceful place. It was fast becoming an addiction, something which soothed the angry, murderous soul inside of her and quelled the rage she had become so used to living with. Her smile was more genuine those days, her laughter just slightly more convincing. Her sighs were no longer condescending but wistful. She dreamed of.. what did she dream of?

Aree couldn't have said, but as she fell asleep once again with her little snowglobe cradled to her ear, she did not fear what lie on the other side of the darkness.



The voice.

It had stolen away her focus as easily as the melody that had preceded it. She was failing in her tasks as a Captain, letting energy slip between her fingers and witnesses vanish into Destiny City's dark and numerous alleys. More than once she had returned empty-handed to the Negaverse, with neither energy nor information to provide to the superiors who waited. Her thoughts were sluggish, her brilliant plans left unfulfilled. It was maddening and obsessive, and not even Tanzanite could shake the memory of the voice she knew she'd heard or the face she knew she'd seen.

Sleep had both overwhelmed and eluded her. She awoke exhausted, forgot to eat, forgot to leave her apartment entirely on some days. What had began as a simple desire to hear the melody had become nothing short of obsession, a desperate need to hear that voice. There had been something there. A hope. A promise. Some way for her to regain all that she had lost. Aree had sought it desperately while Tanzanite evaded that maddening tune. Two halves at war, for only the darker side knew what waited them if they continued to fail. She began to stay far from her tiny apartment, far from the small table where the cursed thing rest.

No Captain could stay powered up forever, though, and her human half inevitable dragged her back to the tiny, swirling figure's enchanting grasp. She was spending more and more time in her human skin, away from the Negaverse, away from Beryl, away from anyone and anything that might pull her from the dreamworld that the glass bauble had created for her. Her skin was regaining color, her eyes were brighter, and what time she spent awake she found more and more control over the impulses that had driven her to the Negaverse so long ago.

She was... happy.



Get rid of it, the voice hissed in her head, the nails-on-chalkboard tone that she associated with her unruly arm. It raked across her thoughts and left behind it a wake of pain, like a searing iron dragged across her scalp.

“It's mine,” Aree said aloud. She sat cross-legged on her bathroom floor, lit only by the sickly orange light that flooded in from the streetlight outside. The last of the simple notes rang off the tile. From the full-length mirror, Tanzanite stared angrily out at the girl she once had been. Her brows were drawn down over dead grey eyes, her lips twisted in a scowl. Aree clutched the thing to her chest as the pain lit up her vision with a haze of white, toppling her into the fetal position. She curled her entire body around the tiny globe.

It's distracting us.

“It's helping me,” she whispered, staring at her alter-ego in the dimly lit mirror. Her gaze was pleading, her expression desperate. Couldn't she see how much better off they were now? How happy they could be? That girl was going to come.

“She will be here soon,” Aree murmured, and for the first time in many months, there was hope in her voice.

You're failing your Queen. Her reflection's lips moved in sync with the arm's sinister voice, and the youma arm pressed against the glass.

“I don't need her anymore,” Aree snapped, angry and fearful as her shaking hands wound the key. Her thumb was bleeding, her index finger blistered from hours and hours spent turning the now blood-covered key.

One turn, and she could feel Tanzanite tearing away at her insides. Her stomach knotted and her body convulsed, and the stinging scent of bile filed her sinuses.

You will always need her, her reflection hissed as the glass began to splinter away from the curled claws. The teeth of the youma's mouth gnashed behind the glass, the snakelike tongue thrashing behind it.

“I don't,” she sobbed. “The girl. The girl will be here. She can help.”

Two turns. If Tanzanite could only hear the song, she would see. They had to see. There was hope, wasn't there? In her dreams, both day and night, she had felt certain of that fact. That no matter what, there was always hope.

Hope? The laughter was low, a slow and calculated sound that held no mirth. No joy. Only the absolute certainty of her own assertion, There is no hope for you.

Aree could feel her fingernails even as they splintered, as the claws of the youma's arm ripped through her human skin and struggled to steal her precious gift away. Her only little snowglobe, fragile as the girl who held onto it for dear life. The mirror shattered, and Tanzanite's wicked claws reached out for her tiny, singular beacon of hope.

“Please...” Her back arched and the wicked, twisted spines ripped through the skin of her shoulder, the youma arm jumping to life as her resolve shattered.

Three turns, and no sooner had the first of the notes filled the bathroom than the youma arm ripped fully through her skin and snatched the thing away.

“No, no, no,” Aree struggled, her still-human hand grappling with the thing. It was a hopeless endeavor, for what teenage girl could possibly stand against the power of the Negaverse. A sob tore from her throat as the mouth opened wide, swallowing the twirling figure and her magical melody down into an abyss of serrated teeth.

For a moment, the melody echoed inside of her, and Aree held onto that faint spark of hope that perhaps the girl inside had been too strong. Perhaps the owner of the voice had come just soon enough. Soon enough to save her. It was only a moment, before her body lit up with the sorrow and pain of a sickening crunch.