Chapter 4: Birth of Fury
The Invincible had been in flight for almost an hour as we left Alexandria for Mardain Sari, no-one knew what we were to find there but all of the genomes were nervous. Even Yugami’s husband seemed agitated, almost annoyed, he’d spent most of the journey in solitude, my only explanation could be that he was still upset over the second viewing of his past. It must have brought a lot of memories back for him and slammed it home that all the people he knew, the world he loved, was gone forever.
I stood looking into the red glare of the central cannons core, below it the sea passed rapidly, the red was so beautiful, so entrancing that I forgot for a moment that it was a weapon of mass destruction, it reminded me so much of the genome race, ordinary people, most of us beautiful and yet extremely deadly. I thanked Zidane and whatever had driven him to end Garlands madness and bring the genomes to Gaia.
But still, I was worried, for although I am not truly a genome but a forest spirit inhabiting the genomes form, I cared about the other genomes like they were my brothers and sisters…which is really what they are.
What concerned me was the future, I had no idea whether we were capable of sexual reproduction, if not then the genome race would end only a generation after it began.
I knew we had all the organs, but were they able to do the job they were created for in humans? Could Domino or Mikoto ever carry a child?
Looking up I saw that Mikoto had entered the cannon room and stood on the other side of the circular pit which led down into the weapons core.
“Mikoto?” I called to her, beckoning her to come over.
She walked around the pit to me, her blonde tail swishing behind her as she walked purposefully and yet awkwardly, as though something troubled her.
“Are you ok Mikoto?” I asked her
“Yeah…just have bad memories of this ship.” She said, a hand reaching up to flick back a stray piece of blonde hair.
I nodded, it was understandable, she had been with Garland for a long time on this ship.
“Anyway…what did you want Rei?” she asked me, she displayed genuine friendliness as all genomes did to each other, the only exception being Kuja who had tried to kill Zidane several times over because of jealousy.
“I was thinking of the future…of our future.”
Mikoto leaned on the rail surrounding the pit and looked at me
“What about it?”
I turned around and leaned my back on the rail, looking back at her I sighed and said
“Do we have one?”
“You mean…the next generation?”
I nodded, obviously I wasn’t the only one who had been thinking about this.
“Well,” she said “I don’t know the precise genetics of it…Before we lost our home we had always created new genomes through the machine Garland had.”
“But Kuja destroyed that machine along with Branbul.”
She sighed and nodded in agreement
“Yes…curse that stupid genome. He may not have known it at the time, but by destroying Branbul he may well have destroyed our only hope of survival. Even with our extended lifespan I don’t think that we will last beyond this generation. I mean, for a start we don’t have mates.”
“I’m sure one of the other genomes would mate with us, to preserve the species.”
“But would it work? I don’t know if we are capable of that kind of reproduction…I mean, I know I have the organs to carry a child but could I actually do it?”
“Hmmm…”
I turned back to look at the cannons glare, it was a question on all our minds, could the genomes ever have offspring?
I decided I needed to talk to Yugami and Zidane about this, they were the only genomes I knew of who had partners, human partners admittedly, but partners nevertheless.
I found him working at a computer station deep inside the Invincible, ever since he had left me on the bridge of the Invincible had I been looking for him.
Not long after I had felt that hate and anger he had just pulled himself away from me and ran off. I had been looking for him ever since.
“Thunderchild?” I called out to him as I approached, I didn’t want to startle him, he seemed more fraught than ever before.
“What do you want?” came the curt reply, he didn’t even look at me.
“It’s me…Domino.” I tried, reasoning that the only excuse for his curtness was that he didn’t know it was me, I was wrong.
“I know who you are, now what do you want?”
“Err...I…I” I stammered, unable to understand his attitude towards me, I was his wife!
“If you don’t have anything to say I’d rather you left me alone.”
“Now wait a damn minute!” I shouted, my confusion spilling over into anger “I’m your wife, and I do not deserve that kind of attitude from you!”
“I’ll give you any goddamn attitude I like!” came the equally angry reply as he turned to look at me.
“What do you mean by that?”
“I’m fed up of you bossing me around all the time, Thunderchild do this, Thunderchild do that. It’s doing my head in!” He yelled at me, I’d never seen such anger in him before, especially directed at me. It confused me, un-nerved me.
“I never boss you around!” I protested, backing away from him slightly.
“Oh really?! I’m fed up of not being treated as though I’m an equal to you. I’m far superior than you genome! It’s always special power this, magic that isn’t it? Eh, eh? ANSWER ME DAMN YOU!!”
He stormed over to me and grabbed me by the arms shaking me, I looked into his eyes and saw undisguised rage and anger. Then he pushed me away and turned his back on me.
“Now just leave me alone, I want time alone…I need time alone.” He repeated, as though he was confused himself.
I turned and ran away from him, the tears falling from my eyes as I ran down the corridor away from him, why had he behaved like that, why was he so angry at me?
It reminded me too much of the days when Lawrence had lost his temper and had taken it out on me, shouting at me and beating me because I could offer no resistance to his anger. I couldn’t find any resistance to Thunderchilds anger, because he was my husband and I loved him too much to be angry with him.
The question was, did he feel the same way?
Reiganna had been thinking the same thing as me, I was now sure of it. Our existence was limited, our time restricted. It was like a death sentence, a slow and agonising death.
If we couldn’t reproduce then we couldn’t continue to exist.
For once I was slightly scared, I’d never really thought about death before, the end…what came after. Suddenly my mortality seemed only too existent, too fragile.
I recalled the Black Mages, their life spans shorter than my own, their child like minds wondering what happened when they ‘stopped moving’ and now the question had filtered down to me.
I walked down a corridor in the Invincible, the ship didn’t seem that big but the corridors were almost endless, but I knew this ship well, for I had spent most of my life working here with Garland, plotting the destruction of Gaia and the rebirth of Terra. Only when Zidane had arrived, only when he had questioned the ethics of destroying one world to save another, had I began to question my master.
Garland had always been right, I had never questioned him before, if he had told me that fire didn’t burn me I would have believed him. Then, everything changed, that day in Branbul when Zidane had arrived, I remember the confusion on his face as he stared at the strange and yet familiar surroundings of our home world.
Then I remember his anger at Garland, and how Garland had taken away his soul for disobeying him…for a time Zidane became like the other genomes, lost and without direction…and then his friends had come along.
I had never had friends before, never needed them, never knew what they could do for me until I had seen Zidanes friends rally around for him and bring him back to his senses. It was then I knew that Zidane was stronger than Garland…stronger than Kuja…stronger than the darkness of Necron itself, because he had friendship and love.
Good will always prevail over evil.
Yugami’s husband had said that to me once when I asked him whether he thought he could defeat Jara, although at the time he had seemed a little unsure of what he was saying.
I decided to go and speak to Zidane, Reiganna was probably heading for Thunderchild at the moment and since I still didn’t fully understand Yugami’s husband I decided to leave Reiganna to it.
I walked onto the command centre of the Invincible, Zidane was controlling the ship from the platform in the middle of the room.
“Zidane?”
He turned to see how it was who had called his name
“Mikoto? What can I do for you?” he asked, a smile spreading across his face as he saw me.
“Me and Reiganna were just talking,” I said, moving over to him “About the future.”
He frowned at me
“ ‘The future’ What do you mean?”
“Our future.”
He seemed even more confused now, I wondered if I had said the wrong things.
“Hey…I like you loads Mikoto but don’t you know, I’m with Garnet…”
I’d definitely said the wrong thing.
“No, no, no Zidane, no!” I waved my hands in alarm, Zidane looked at me completely confused.
“I didn’t mean our future as in me and you, I meant the future of the genomes.”
Zidane relaxed, and smiled
“Oh, I see now. Sorry, anyway…what about it?”
“Well…is there one?”
He stopped and thought for a moment.
“I don’t see what you mean Mikoto.”
I sighed, this conversation could be more difficult than I thought, maybe I should have gone to talk to Thunderchild.
“Have you and Garnet had sex yet?”
Zidane jumped at the direct question, it was the only way I could have put this across to him.
“That’s none of your business Mikoto!!” he cried at me
I sighed, once again I had said the wrong thing.
“How the hell do I put this? I mean…I…” I tried and failed to find another way to tell Zidane about the conversation Reiganna and I had had.
“You mean you’re not sure if genomes can have children, right?” he said, almost as though he had read my mind.
“Yes.” I confirmed, greatly relieved that I didn’t have to try to explain to him any more.
“I dunno…I mean, we have, err, done it but she’s not pregnant. I, err.” He didn’t know how to continue this awkward conversation.
“You mean you think you’re sterile?” I tried
He shook his head violently
“Oh no, it’s just…we’ve never tried.” He said quickly
“Tried?” I said, confused at what he meant
“At having kids…it’s a little…sudden for us.”
I nodded, I’d never even considered having children, the thought kind of scared me…almost like death. It was an unknown, something I hadn’t been prepared for…something Garland had never prepared me for.
But many things were changing, for all of us our lives would never been the same again, not only had we lost our home world we had also lost our direction. Out of all of us, I think that Yugami was the most settled and even she had some difficulties adapting to a relatively peaceful life, this was, I suppose, why she had joined Tantalus, it still gave her the possibility to go out and be a fighter, a destroyer, something she excelled at…something we all excelled at.
“I understand, I think.” I managed as a response.
A bleeping noise drew Zidanes attention back to the control panel.
“Here comes Mardain Sari. Better go inform the rest of them.” He said before running out of the Control Centre and leaving me alone, no closer to the answer than before.
Walking though the Invincible, I had heard the sound of sobbing. The sound haunted me, the sound of sorrow, of pain. I had to find the source of this upset.
Then I saw her, curled up, her tail around her and her head resting on her knees.
“Yugami?” I asked softly
She looked up at me, the tears making her soft face glisten, her eyes wet with sorrow.
“Yugami,” I said again, taken by surprise at her upset “What’s the matter?”
“It’s Yissan…” she sobbed
“Yissan? What’s he done to you Yugami?” I asked
“He was so angry…so bitter to me.” She replied between floods of tears.
I sat down beside her and put my arm around her, trying to help ease her pain.
“He’s had a bit of an unsettled day Yugami, He’s bound to be a little upset.”
“He wasn’t upset, he was furious.” She cried
“Some people react to sorrow with anger.” I explained to her, sometimes I found Yugami to be almost like a child, she sometimes needed guidance and things explaining to her.
“It was like he hated me…”
“He doesn’t hate you Yugi,” I said, using her shortened name “He loves you…why the hell do you think he married you, why do you think he stood by your side with everything that happened last year? Of course he loves you.”
She looked back up at me, she had stopped crying now but she was still very upset.
“You really think that?” she asked
I nodded, although Thunderchild was still much of a mystery to me, almost like my own home the Twilight Forest, much of that was still a mystery to me, and quite how Thunderchild had managed to communicate so well with the forest had confused me too, since I was part forest spirit I knew how hard it was for ordinary mortals to get that sort of understanding, and yet he had managed it so easily.
I was sure he couldn’t have been that bad to her.
Standing up I offered her my hand which she took and I helped her to her feet. Wiping away the tears from her face with my hands I hugged her and whispered into her ear.
“Now shush Yugami, I need to talk to you and Thunderchild together about something important.”
“Really? What’s that?” she asked me
I was just about to explain to her the conversation Mikoto and I had had when there was the sound of pounding footsteps behind us and Zidane came running around the corner.
“Hey, I err…what’s going on?” he asked, confused at our appearance.
“It’s ok Zidane, just a little domestic disagreement.” I assured him.
He suddenly got very defensive.
“What has he done to you!?” he growled at Domino.
“It’s nothing Zidane,” I said to him again “We’ve sorted it out.”
“He’s hurt you again hasn’t he Domino? When I get my hands on that good for nothing, useless…” he would have gone on had Yugami not broken free from my arms and walked over to Zidane
“Will you stop trying to fight my battles for me! I’m perfectly capable of sorting things out myself! You don’t see me shouting at Garnet all the time, warning her not to hurt you do you?”
“Well…no…but…” he stammered, backing away from Yugamis wrath.
“Then don’t interfere in my business Zidane!”
“I’m only looking out for you, you’re my sister, I care for you Domino.” He said, putting his hands on Yugamis shoulders.
“I know Zidane, and I care for you as you are my brother…but please, cut me some slack here ok? I don’t need you looking over my shoulder all the time, deciding who I should be with and how I should be with them ok?”
Zidane nodded, looking slightly guilty.
“I’m sorry Domino.”
She hugged him, patting his back.
“That’s ok Zidane, It’s nice to know you care.”
I felt it was time to interject here and so spoke up.
“What was it you came to say Zidane?” I asked
“Oh…right, We’ve arrived at Mardain Sari…we’re ready to go down when you are. I’ve just got to find Thunderchild.”
“I wouldn’t worry about him,” I said “I think he’d prefer to be left alone.”
Zidane nodded at me
“Ok, well, then we’d better get going.” He concluded
And so we left for the Control Room where we would teleport down to Mardain Sari.