Chapter Nine: Plots and Plans
We slept in that cave for the night, my energy spent trying to get the Ash and Team Rocket back to their correct world.
My dreams were filled with Lawrence and that strange man, what were they doing, what was Lawrence doing? The cloaked figure had seemed more in charge than Lawrence which seemed odd for Lawrence played second in command to no-one.
And Thunderchild, he came into my dreams again, and again he wouldn’t let me near him, claiming that I had pushed him away, I must have cried in my sleep for when I awoke my face was wet from the tears. I noticed that Alex was still asleep and so quietly dried my face with my top and went back to examining the portal, it was still showing the desert canyons but something had changed, the sky was filled with flying creatures of all sorts and far off in the distance I could see a large amount of monsters approaching.
Where the hell is this place? I thought
The portal network could go to many worlds and many places I knew, it could go to somewhere on Gaia, somewhere on Terra or somewhere on the other side of the galaxy!
I focused my mind on changing the portals destination, it seemed slightly easier now whether it was because whoever was controlling the portal before had stopped or whether it was because I had rested I didn’t know.
The scene shown through the portal flickered and changed again, this time showing a snowy mountain side, I could see footprints in the snow near the portal but other than that there seemed to be no signs of life nearby.
“Any luck?” asked Alex standing beside me, I flinched slightly in surprise, I hadn’t even heard her get up!
I shook my head
“Not yet, I’ve only just started, it’s like looking for a planetary needle in a galactic haystack.”
She nodded
“Well, there’s no hurry to get it done. Take your time.”
I smiled and patted her on the back
“Thanks Alex.”
She smiled back and then turned around
“I’ll go find us some breakfast.”
“Ok, take care.” I replied before getting back to work on the portal.
I awoke after spending the first night in our new home, there wasn’t much to be said for it really, stone walls, stone floors, it wasn’t as grand as I had had hopes for but as Fury said, we had a clean pallet to work from and help to do it.
I was impressed by the amount of monsters and creatures which had arrived last night, and as I went to bed even more were streaming into the clearing outside the castle, there was no other word really for this place.
Fury had called it a museum but I had seen no exhibits in sight.
After I got dressed I went outside into the corridor and walked straight into a genome coming the other way.
“Ilvian?” I asked but the genome was quite clearly not him, he had golden hair for one thing.
“I’m sorry, I am not him.” Replied the genome with a faraway look in his eyes
“Oh, right, thank you.” I replied before setting off down the corridor leaving the soulless drone behind.
I hadn’t gone far before I heard Ilvians voice shout from behind me
“Rhiana!! There you are, you should come and see this, this place is remarkable!”
I blinked and gave him an odd look
“Ilvian, are you crazy? It’s cold, drafty, there’s no decoration to speak of and the corridors smell! What’s remarkable about it?”
He, in turn, shot me a look that suggested that I was the crazy one before continuing
“Yeah, whatever…look, just come and see this!” he shouted, nearly bouncing up and down in uncontained excitement
I relented and let him drag me down the corridor, back the way I had come until we reached the main hallway, the spiral pattern of purple on yellow stained glass providing the illumination that the small glowing lights dotted here and there couldn’t quite maintain.
“Well?” I asked him, clearly unimpressed.
“This way!” he said, leading me off to the left
We emerged in a large room with two levels, but what caught my attention most was the planet in the middle, it had to be a hologram but it looked so real.
“What is that?” I asked, a little out of breath
“It’s a holographic projection of Gaia, and an extremely accurate one too, thanks to the Satellites in orbit of this planet.” Said Fury from his position close to the hologram.
“Satellites?” I asked, unfamiliar with the term
“Yes, little machines which watch, that’s all they do, they sit there and watch everything and show me. Let me give you an example.”
The holographic planet faded and was replaced by a top down view of a large city, little objects moved around the view and clouds obscured some areas.
“Damn clouds,” muttered Fury “Computer, remove clouds!”
The clouds faded to provide a less restricted view of the city.
“Where is this?” asked Ilvian as he walked closer to the holographic city, his face betraying his awe.
“It’s Lindblum, look you can see the airships…” said Fury as the city view faded and was replaced by a closer view, Fury was right, you could see the little airships moving around, and tiny dots in the streets that must be…
“Those dots are people?” I asked
Fury nodded
“Yes, the satellites can zoom in a bit further but not much. It’s enough though…from here I can see anywhere on Gaia and know what’s happening as it happens.”
“That’s pretty impressive.” I said, still a little overawed by the power this gave Fury, before hand I viewed him as a madman, now he was a powerful madman and a powerful madman was dangerous, I was once again thankful that I was on his side.
“Where’s Lawrence?” asked Ilvian
Furys lip curled up slightly in disgust.
“Him? I don’t know, he went off somewhere to fiddle with things. He’s doing something with the genomes so if I were you I’d keep out of the way unless you want to be his guinea pigs.”
Ilvian looked thoughtful as he ran his fingers over his scars which marred one side of his face.
“I wonder if Lawrence could do something about my wounds…” he said
Fury walked over to Ilvian and studied the wounds as if seeing them for the first time.
“How did you get these?” he asked
Ilvian hung his head, I knew that bad memories were being brought back by the question
“When the silver types were being discarded, my master chose to kill me instead of turning me out, like Rhianas did. He did this to me…”
“Your master?”
Ilvian nodded
“Yes, Garland.”
Fury shuddered slightly, I judged he knew of Garland to betray a reaction like that
“Well Ilvian, I think I could probably do something about that, come with me.”
Fury lead Ilvian out of the room with his arm around my step-brothers shoulders, I didn’t know what Fury had in mind for him, but there was nothing I could do against someone as powerful and as mad as him.
“I hope you know what you’re doing Rhiana…” I softly muttered to myself.
I had spent a troubled night trying to explain Kujas past to him, Mikoto hadn’t helped at all, in fact I hadn’t seen the genome all night and I was beginning to worry about her.
Kuja seemed to have taken the story of his past better than I thought, although he had been very quiet ever since I told him and hadn’t eaten any of the food I had brought him.
So I had left him to think by himself and walked down further into Dali to the tavern by the windmill, there was a quiet murmur inside as the customers talked to each other but when I entered everyone fell silent and looked at me.
Feeling uneasy at the gaze of so many people, my solitary life in the Twilight Forest hadn’t prepared me for this, I nearly walked back out again but controlled my emotions and walked over to the bar and sat down.
The bartender made an obvious show of ignoring me, but I expected that, after all I was bred to destroy this world, it was quite right to assume the inhabitants of it might not view me in that favourable a light.
Someone sat down next to me, when I turned to look I saw that it was a farmer of some sort, his clothes dirty and muddy and several of his teeth missing, he seemed slightly drunk.
“Yer know,” he slurred “We don’t like your type here.”
I raised an eyebrow but betrayed no other emotion.
“Really? And what would ‘my type’ be?” I asked calmly
“You know, you bloody genomes, nothing but trouble…all of yer!”
“Is that why you have one as the local king?” I asked
“Ha, him, he’s no different to the rest of them!” muttered the drunkard, as he banged his empty glass on the bar
“Now then Ralph, let’s not be having trouble from you.” Said the bartender as she refilled his glass
“And tha’s another thin’ yer never see any o’ you guys have emotions! Bunch of soul less idiots the lot o’ yer!”
I smirked slightly
“At least we don’t get drunk out of our heads like you humans.” I replied
“At leash we don’ get drunk like you humansh,” he repeated drunkenly “Ha, lishten to that superior crap, ‘round here genome yoush one of us, no superiornessh here!”
I snorted with laughter, finding the fact that here was I, a forest spirit with extremely devastating powers at my disposal getting a lecture on superiority by a drunken farmer. Only on Gaia could this take place I thought
“Whas so funny genome?!” he asked, getting angry at me
“Just the circumstances, anyway, I bore of this conversation, leave me alone.” I replied, starting to lose my patience with his narrow mindedness, I’d had a difficult enough day already.
“I’ll leave you alone alright!!” he roared swinging a badly aimed fist at me, in a flash I was off my stool and ducking out of the way, his fist hit the bar instead of me causing him to swear in pain.
“I warn you Mr Farmer, you’re not messing with any ordinary genome…” I tried warning him
“Rubbish, you’re all the bloody same!” he replied
I sighed inwardly, I knew that I would have to betray some of my power to stop this man from attacking me, swirling around on the spot I enchanted a sleeping spell which sounded like the leaves of the forest sighing on a summers breeze, the drunkard swung at me again but only half-heartedly this time and suddenly he fell asleep, collapsing on the floor in a snoring heap.
There was a silence in the bar, and then someone started clapping, I looked up to see the barmaid smiling and clapping her hands.
“He had that coming!” she said, as I walked over to the bar the general murmur returned and the barmaid pressing a beverage into my hands saying “Here, they’re on the house from now on, you did me a big favour there…hopefully he’ll stay sober from now on.”
I smiled and sipped some of the beverage, tasting its sweet and sharp liquid.
Hmm, so this is alcohol I thought I could get to like this…
“There, I think that should do it.” I said, relaxing from my tensed position.
Alex peered at the portal
“That is Ankh-Morpork?” she asked with some disgust in her voice, following her gaze I could see a squalid run down city with a smog like atmosphere.
“Yep, that’s it.” I confirmed, it looked just like the Ankh-Morpork I visited not so long ago, only last time most of it was on fire as a result of Jara Gedyens wrath.
“It’s a lot more…”
“Run down than you imagined?”
Alex nodded and frowned at the image in the portal
“Oh well, takes all sorts to make a world.” She said
I nodded in return and let out a relaxed breath of air.
“So…are you ready?” I asked, picking up my bag and securing my leather pouch to my belt.
Alex picked up her belongings and nodded
“Then lets go.” I said as I stepped through the portal and onto another world.
Surprisingly there had been no pain, the whole operation was remarkably painless and I had slept through most of it, Fury assuring me that when I awoke I would be a different genome.
I looked around, Fury was standing beside me with a large smile on his face, he handed me a mirror, with a start I realised I could see properly with both eyes, for years I had been accustomed to only seeing correctly with one eye. Looking into the mirror I could see that the wounded part of my face had been replaced with metal sheeting and that my new eye was a dark red against a black eyeball. For a moment I was scared of myself.
“What have you done?” I asked, my voice trembling slightly
“Brilliant isn’t it? I doubt Lawrence could have done better himself.” Replied Fury
I slammed the mirror down on the side of the table which I lay on, breaking it in the process, even my hand felt different, I looked down at it to see a metallic hand which repeated the signals I gave it, for a minute I sat watching the hand, flexing it, turning it into a fist and relaxing it.
“I’m part machine…” I stated.
“It’s better Ilvian, now you are…reborn, complete with all the physical skills you were given at creation, plus some more I added in.” Fury insisted
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and looking down I saw a mechanical boot covering my right foot.
“I’m…part machine…” I muttered softly
“You’re better Ilvian…much better now.”
I ran a hand over the mechanical side of my face and over the wires that ran into my body from the back of my head, even my silver hair was gone from this side of my head.
“Don’t worry about the hair, it’ll grow back.” Said Fury, as if sensing my concern.
I stood up, sure enough I felt a lot more stable and aware of my surroundings, I tried walking over to the other side of the darkened room, it was awkward with my new foot but I could see myself getting used to it very quickly.
“It’s…incredible.” I almost whispered in awe
“See, I told you you’d like it!” cried Fury, clapping his hands in glee.
There was a shocked intake of breath from behind me
“OH MY GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!!” yelled the voice of Rhiana from behind me
“I’ve made him whole again.” Stated Fury
“You’ve turned him into a machine you bastard!” She shouted before running down to me and hugging me
“Oh Ilvian, what has he done?!” she wailed at me
“It’s ok Rhiana, honestly it is! I like this, it’s like everything with Garland never happened, that I’m normal again.”
She gazed at me in amazement
“Ilvian, you’re part machine!”
“Appearances do not matter Rhiana, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.” I assured her
“Well said Ilvian!” said Fury from behind us.
Rhiana turned on him and shouted at him
“And what do you get out of all this, what’s your master plan then Fury!? You’ve dragged us along this far and transformed my brother into some Borg like machine.”
I could see Fury visibly flinch at the mention of the Borg, I did not know why, another mystery from our new leader.
Fury turned his back on us and began to walk up the stairs and out of the room, his cloak dragging on the stairs behind him.
“You at least owe us this!!” shouted Rhiana
“I owe you nothing genome,” spat Fury as he turned around at the top of the stairs “But, my plan? My plan is to sow the seeds of chaos, and when the disorganisation ripens I will rise amongst the nations leaders and take their countries away from them and there will be nothing they can do to stop me…This world is mine!”
With that he turned his back on us again and slammed the door shut on the way out.
After he left I looked at Rhiana who hugged me tightly
“Oh Ilvian, I’m scared…what have we gotten ourselves into.” She said
“The plans of a mad man…” said a voice from the shadows, as I turned to find the speaker of the voice, Lawrence stepped out from the darkness.
“How long have you been there?” I asked
“Long enough, honestly, the fool, meddling in genome physiology,” he looked me up and down “I could have done a much better job.” He concluded
“Then why didn’t you do something?” asked Rhiana
Lawrence shrugged
“You never asked, besides Fury volunteered and I didn’t want to get in his way.”
“Are you scared of him too?” I asked
Lawrence snorted and shook his head
“No, I’m scared of no-one, I merely tolerate Fury since he will allow me to accomplish my greater plans.”
“Which are?”
Lawrence winked at us and tapped the side of his nose
“You’ll find out soon, there’s not long to go now.”
The door to the room opened quickly, slamming into the wall
“Lawrence, there you are! Come on, I need your help in reactivating the defence network!” commanded Fury as he saw Lawrence talking to us.
Lawrence smiled at us and then followed Fury out of the room, gently closing the door on his way out.
“Hmph, I dunno which one I trust the less, him or Fury.” I muttered
“I don’t know Ilvian,” said Rhiana “Lawrence seems to be more honest.”
I shook my head and rubbed my biological eye.
“I’m tired after all that, I’m going to take a lie down.” I said to Rhiana as I stood up and walked to the door, my tail helping me keep my uncertain balance.
Rhiana nodded at me and said softly
“Sleep well…my brother.”
I blinked at her calling me her brother but I was too tired to comment and so I left the room without saying anything back to her.