Chapter 36: Remember.
Domino’s POV
A white light blocked everything and then I could hear nothing but the sound of
my own heart, echoing throughout the void.
“Domino? Are you there?” said someone, their words sounding like a whisper.
I’m not here…I can’t be here…I’m dead. Fury killed me, I felt his sword cut my throat, I felt the blood…I’m dead.
I dared to open my eyes, to see what lay beyond.
“You’re awake…I’m so glad. I thought I’d lost you forever.” Said Thunderchild.
I sat up slowly and looked around, we were sitting in the middle of a grassy field on a sunny day, it seemed perfect.
“We’re dead aren’t we?” I asked quietly.
Thunderchild shrugged and sat next to me, putting his arm around my shoulder and giving me a reassuring hug.
“I don’t know what’s happened…Fury cast Desolator shortly after you died…Domino, I’m so sorry.” He said, breaking down into tears.
I turned and kissed him gently on the lips and wiped away his tears with my fingertips.
“Hush…not now my dear…let’s find out where we are and why we’re here.”
He nodded and put his head on my shoulder.
“As long as you’re with me, I don’t care.” He said
My heart swelled with emotion, it had been so long since I’d seen him, seen Him and not Fury. I thought he’d be gone forever.
With a dull thud the horizon went red, I stood up and watched as the shockwave rustled the trees around us.
“What was that?” I asked, Thunderchild stood up too.
“Trouble in paradise?” he asked with a tone of surprise in his voice.
A ball of light appeared in the sky, getting bigger by the second.
“Err…Domino…I…”
Everything went white.
We reappeared in the centre of a very familiar city with metal skyscrapers framing the red sky, it was almost night, the sun was setting in the east, around us people were coming home from work, they obviously hadn’t heard what was happening, the government had got the warning out too late and the evacuations hadn’t been running for long…it was long enough for people to wander the streets with ‘The end is coming’ written across their shirts, these people were scaring those who didn’t know that the end was indeed very much on its way.
Domino looked around herself and frowned.
“Hey I recognise this place…isn’t this Hallis?”
I nodded as a series of fighter craft flew low overhead heading up into the sky, their passing alarming those in the ground even more.
“Yes…on the day the Borg came.”
Domino looked up as more fighter craft and a couple of small destroyers heading skywards, their hulls glinting in the evening light, a couple had black marks across them signifying damage sustained.
“So that means that…somewhere up there is you.”
I nodded
“Yeah…I never did see what happened down on the ground after my ship was disabled…I guess I’m about to find out.”
Around us, old air raid sirens from the Third Global Conflict whirred into life, drowning out the noise of the city around us, people who were walking around began to run and scream. I noticed Domino looking very uneasy.
“Look…perhaps we should get out of here…I mean, if this is real then…”
I shook my head.
“This isn’t real…it’s an illusion.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I shrugged, how could I explain to her what I felt? That I knew that this was almost like an action replay of events. But for what reason?
“How can you be so sure?” she repeated as the sirens fell silent.
“I don’t know…it’s a feeling I have. That what we are seeing is like a film…being played to us.”
“Why?”
I shook my head.
“I don’t know.”
There was a heavy explosion and the top of a skyscraper blossomed into fire, a green ball of light fell out of the sky and hit another skyscraper nearby, blasting the top off it and sending half of it crashing to the ground not too far away, the cloud of dust billowing up and floating quickly towards us. As the dust covered us, it blocked out the sunlight and made the world go dark, I lost sight of Domino but before I did she grabbed my hand and so I knew she was still nearby, all I could hear was explosion after explosion, getting nearer until there was a terrific flash of light and everything went white.
But when the light cleared I saw that we were safe…well, as safe as we could be considering the situation.
We were standing on a hill overlooking Hallis city as it was being destroyed, we could see above in the sky a small star which was raining green balls of fire down upon the city, fires were now burning out of control there. Soon the destruction was complete and all of Hallis burned, it struck my heart to see such destruction…for many years I knew Hallis had been my home…and somewhere in that wreckage lay my mother and sister.
“It was worse than I thought.” Said Domino after a time, the only other sound in the land around us being the explosions in Hallis.
“I know…The Borg were efficient killing machines, I can give them that.” I said bitterly, turning my back on the scene, unable to take any more of it.
We were both silent for some time, she turned away too, unable to look at it anymore.
“So…what are we to do here?”
I shrugged and looked down at the grassy ground.
“Just see where this journey takes us.” I said with a sigh.
There was a rattle of familiar automatic weapons fire behind us and several small explosions, I flinched and blinked as there was another rattle of fire much closer.
“What the…?” I briefly whispered before pushing Domino to the ground and throwing myself on top of her.
As we hit the deck several glowing red lines shot across where we had been standing, I pushed Thunderchild off me and looked around. We were lying on the outskirts of a muddy field which was surrounded by hedges and trees, the sky was a deep blue and the sun shone brightly, it was a lovely day but for the war raging around us, in the distance smoke was rising up and the sound of weapons fire could be heard.
“Now where are we?” I asked
Thunderchild turned around and nodded.
“As I thought…this is Nilstrem. The battle for Nilstrem.”
I looked at him.
“This wasn’t against the Borg…what’s going on?”
He shook his head.
“No, not the Borg…the Renari.”
“The who?”
He sighed, wiping his muddy hands.
“This isn’t really the place for a Terran history lesson so I’ll cut it short. Before Terra was destroyed by the Borg we were fighting a neighbouring planet called Renaria.”
“Uh huh…” I replied not really getting how this related to our situation.
Thunderchild got up slowly into a crouching position and looked around, speaking quietly as he looked around the local area.
“Well…one day a Renari strike force landed
on the Vilus continent and captured a large area, the main target in that area
was the city of
I crouched next to him.
“So why are we here?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t know…”
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
Not helpful my darling I thought.
“I mean…did you do anything here?”
There was a long pause punctuated with gunfire and explosions, a couple of alien looking ships flew low overhead causing Thunderchild to duck.
“Err…yeah…” was the only answer he would give.
“Well what?”
Another three alien ships swooped over and opened fire on something in a field far away which exploded messily.
“I was dropped in here with the rest of the Echo Squadron ground squad…we were split into groups of two and told to inflict as much damage as we could on the enemy…it was a desperate time, it looked as though the Renari were going to take the whole continent. We were behind enemy lines…but somehow we managed to make the bastards withdraw…I still don’t know how.”
“You are fighting here somewhere?” I asked, bewildered at just how many battles my husband had fought.
“Yeah…somewhere…it was my first ground battle…my god I was scared. The transport craft was destroyed as it left us, there was no going back. I thought I was going to die, but something deep inside of me told me that I was safe. Something kept me pulling that trigger, kept me going from kill to kill.”
I think I began to understand.
“A hidden force within you?” I asked
He nodded.
“I think I know why we’re being shown this.” I said
Thunderchild’s POV
I turned to look at her, trying to ignore the battle.
“Oh yeah?”
She nodded and sat down properly.
“We’re seeing events that left a mark on you…the Borg attack…this battle. I think this is like Memoria.”
“Memoria?”
“Yeah, it was a place Zidane and his friends went to before they battled Kuja, it held the memories of everything and everyone, it was a world built out of memories.”
“So...what you saying is, we’re watching events that have made me the person I am?”
“Uh huh.”
The scene in front of us rippled and changed again, to a scene we both recognised instantly, mainly because it had only happened a year ago.
We sat on a small bare earthed hillock in the middle of a ruined city, less than half a mile away there was a small hill and at the top of the hill stood a brown haired woman glowing with power, and climbing up the hill towards her was myself.
“Jara…” I whispered.
“This definitely left a mark on you…in more ways than one.” Said Domino as myself and Jara began fighting in the distance.
“Yeah…it did.” Was all I could muster.
I was forced to sit and relive the painful events of that day, when I was forced to kill my girlfriend, when she repented in the inferno but was consumed by the fire.
“Look…I don’t think I can take this…” I said, as I stood up.
“But we…” Domino began but then stopped, looking very concerned she started walking towards me.
“Thunder…”
The world transformed, and Domino disappeared, lost as the scenery switched to the Discworld and Ankh-Morpork, as I saw my younger self being tortured in the prison cells.
I don’t know where he went but I recognised the area I had appeared in, it was Ankh-Morpork, in some street, I didn’t recognise the street but the sight and smell of the city was unmistakable.
“Thunderchild?!” I called out, the people walking by ignored me, and I knew it was because I wasn’t part of the vision, part of the reality, I would be ignored.
“Thunderchild?!!” I called, walking down the street and looking into the side alleys.
But it was no use, I couldn’t see him anywhere, it was cold and dark, the night sky was overcast and worse still it began raining…the vision was that real that the rain began to soak my clothing.
“Domino.” Said a quiet voice from behind me, I turned and saw him standing behind me, his hair was plastered to his head in the rain and in the darkness his clothing looked darker than it was.
“Thunderchild…there you are.” I said.
He smiled and walked slowly towards me, the smile stayed on his face and he chuckled. I began to notice something strange about him.
“Domino my dear…my dear little genome…I have missed you. Come forward and embrace me.” He said.
I uneasily walked forwards into his open arms.
“Come, do not be scared,” He said “We have had precious little time together thanks to Fury…I want to feel you in my arms again.”
I smiled and walked willingly into his embrace.
“I’ve missed you to-aaaagh!”
There was a terrific pain in my stomach and I doubled over, as I did I noticed a knife stuck deep in my skin, blood oozing out of the wound. I looked back up at him in shock and realised the terrible mistake I had just made.
“Fury…” I coughed as I fell backwards to the ground, the darkness reclaiming me.
“So this is what makes me, me…” I wondered out loud as I walked down the streets of Ankh-Morpork, taking me in the direction of the Mended Drum, a landmark I hoped Domino would head for if she could.
Memories of what had been…it was a puzzling thing.
“Or is this what made me him.” I thought as I turned another street corner.
So much fear, anger and hatred had bubbled within me, still bubbled within me that I knew that Fury had been an almost inevitable occurrence, in essence he was my Yugami. The flip side of the coin, the darkness surrounding the light.
So…what was I?
Was I the rightful Thunderchild?
“Who is the real me? Fury or Thunderchild?” I asked myself as I trudged through the rain. Both of us had done terrible things, had killed many people but for different reasons and different ways.
“What difference is there between us?”
“Plenty.” Replied an echo.
I stopped, that voice had been my own, which was impossible. I turned around.
“Hello Thunderchild.” Said Fury.
I blinked, closing my eyes and shutting out the image for a second, hoping that it would be gone when I opened my eyes again, but it was still there, the black trench coat, the armour, the leather, the large two-handed sword that I knew was called Surrelus, and above all, that damn sneer. That confident sneer that came with knowing that you had the upper hand.
“Fury.” I growled
He smiled and crossed his arms.
“I’m glad that you remember me…we had so much fun together didn’t we?”
“Fury…you murdered dozens, and you would have killed even more.”
He looked subdued for a moment and I wondered if he was about to repent his sins.
“What a pity I didn’t kill more.” He said with a hollow laugh.
I growled and my hand tightened over Draconus’s hilt.
“Draw that blade and not only will I kill you but I will kill her.” He warned.
My eyes narrowed but my hand stayed on the blade.
“Where is Domino?!” I demanded.
Fury smiled and laughed again.
“It’s all very simple Thunderchild, even for you. You just follow the trail I’ve left for you…you can’t miss it, it’s very distinctive. I’ll be waiting…don’t let her down.”
He faded away gently, I swore heavily and swung my sword through his fading shadow but Draconus just cut through air, as the blade swung through on its downward arc I noticed something just behind where he had been standing, something that had been blocked from my vision by his body while we had talked.
Blood.
I walked over to it and dapped my finger in it and tasted it just to be sure, it was blood alright, a trail of it leading up the street and turning away into an alley ahead.
“If you’ve hurt her…” I gently growled, following the trail quickly.
The blood trail lead down the alley and into the wall at the end of it, I looked around but couldn’t see it leading anywhere else.
“Where the hell do you want me to go dammit?!!” I yelled, smashing at the wall with my fists which passed straight through the brickwork which shimmered like water.
“Huh?”
I pulled my fists back from inside the wall and poked at it with Draconus, sure enough the sword blade disappeared into the wall and was able to be pulled freely from it again. I looked down, the blood trail lead right up to the edge of the wall and didn’t once turn away from it, and the only way was forward.
I took a deep breath and stepped forward, I could feel the wall surround me, saw darkness as I passed through it and then found a different world on the other side.
My foot stepped down onto a rocky surface, and I took the opportunity to slowly exhale and look around.
I was standing on the edge of a circular rocky platform which was fairly wide, on the other side of it from me stood Fury, with his back turned to me and looking at the scenery which was very impressive as below us stood the planet Gaia, I could pick out the Mist Continent and the other parts of the green and blue world.
“So small…” said Fury, his voice carrying across to me as though he was standing next to me.
“So insignificant.”
He turned and saw me.
“You made it, I am pleased…perhaps there is hope for you yet Thunderchild…but of course, you have one more obstacle to overcome.”
I sighed.
“What now?”
“Me.”
I walked towards him and he walked towards me, we met in the centre of the platform. A slight wind blew his clothes and mine, the stars twinkled about us.
“We can’t be two people living in one body,” he continued “I don’t like to share my toys, and I’m sure you don’t either.”
“I couldn’t live in the same universe as you, let alone body.” I replied, not caring to hide my obvious hate for him.
“I’m glad we both agree on that. So you must kill me if you want to return to your world.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“This has to be a trick Fury, I’m dead…well, we both are! You went over the top and cast Desolator!”
Fury laughed, throwing his head back and laughing so loud that it echoed throughout the heavens.
“You stupid fool, can’t you see what I’m offering you? The story is not over, our tale is not complete…I’m giving you the chance to write the ending, or I will write it for you. Our destinies have been intertwined ever since my awakening.”
“Well of course, we shared the same body, the same mind.”
Fury nodded and he put an arm on my shoulder, I shrugged it off.
“Come now Thunderchild,” he said “Can’t you see just how alike we truly are? You know that even without the poison, you would have become like this some time…it was your destiny, I just sped up the process.”
“No…I am better than you Fury, I am not a murderer!!”
“Oh Thunderchild, of course you are a murderer, just think of all the Renari you killed, of all the people on the Discworld, of Jara! You killed them all…you’re the murderer!! Murderer!!!” he chanted at me.
I put my hands over my ears.
“Stop it!!!” I yelled, a tear falling from my left eye.
“Awww, what’s the matter?” he mocked me “Does the truth hurt?”
I pulled my hands away from my ears and looked him in the eye.
“I don’t care what I did in the past, sure, I have done some horrible things and I probably will again some time, but I will balance that out by doing good things, I will balance good and evil in myself…just like everyone else has to.”
Now it was Fury turns to be annoyed, as a teacher is when a child gives the wrong answer repeatedly.
“Not if I have anything to say about it, if I defeat you, you will spend the rest of your years imprisoned in your own mind, watching me as I burn Gaia to the ground and enslave the Discworld, killing everyone you hold dear.”
I nodded, seeing what he was putting forward.
“You want to fight me for control of my body.”
“Our body…I have a right to it as much as you do Thunderchild, but I cannot live in it with you in control also, if I win, you give total control to me, if I lose…well, in that case I will not be in a position to define winners terms, but you will get your body back.”
I swung Draconus in front of me.
“Very well.” I said and prepared for battle.
What Fury did next surprised me, he stood up tall and shook his head.
“But…let’s make this a little more challenging.” He said, clicking his finger and making a large hourglass appear on my left, I turned and saw to my horror Domino standing in the top section with the bottom section full of water. She saw me looking and banged her hands on the glass mouthing words which I could not hear, I could see the fear on her face and remembered her intense dislike of water. As Fury clicked his fingers again, the hourglass began to slowly turn over, a few splashes of water making it into Dominos section as she was knocked over. I turned back to Fury who was smiling as he drew Surrelus and prepared himself for battle, warning me that:
“If you fail to defeat me in ten minutes…Domino will drown.”