Author's Note:

I only wrote this fic cos I love the movie and I am having huge writer's block on my own work related writing.

How I began:
Although I am as fascinated as anyone with the idea of Balem Abrasax having been the maybe lover of his mother, I do not see ANY evidence in the movie to support this idea. I mean, I think when he touched Jupiter on her chin, the emotion we see there is one of fear/ guilt/ regret/anger of having murdered his own mother. It can in no way be construed as a sexual action…. Except by vast extrapolation into realms of probability….

I did a bit of armchair psychology on Mr. Abrasax…. I mean, what kind of a person is he? How does he live? I decided to do a fic about the daily life of the Abrasaxes…. Routine, food, fashion, habits, etc… I believe it will reveal a lot about the interstellar culture which they originate from, thus giving us better understanding of where they all come from.

What's Happening Now:

I did a bit of flashback to explain his past because otherwise his actions subsequently WOULD NOT MAKE ANY SENSE. I kinda see histories as a sort of progression. One action leads a man to do another and another. I personally do not think that Balem himself is insane. In fact, he is quite like many of the villains of our age and time. Potentially brilliant, of high intelligence, driven…. etc… I do think that given the right conditions, all his actions might even appear rational to him as an individual.

I also chose to break off the history/flashback bit into a separate fic which I will work on when inspiration strikes me. This is done so that I can tell his story in the true 3rd person perspective. Reason? Well, in the original story, Balem sees his life through HIS OWN EYES and memories. That is really rather limiting, because, a man is also what others perceive of his actions. Of course, a man might for his own sanity, choose to ignore the opinion of others, but how we see him, and how others see him is what makes him who he is as a character.

Also, it is tremendously bad writing, in my opinion at least, to drag a flashback as long as I have with the original "Days of Eternity" (which will be completely changed). However, I do feel it is impossible to understand Balem Abrasax without understanding his past. One thing is clear to me from the movies. Balem functions and thinks at a higher level than Jupiter, probably because of his many 1000s of years of experience. I do not think he is an easy person to handle and probably might even be a recurring villain if Jupiter Ascending were done as a sci fi series. Also, it does occur to me that, it would likely be quite difficult to really kill such a villain, because any good villain 1000s of years old with equally experienced henchmen (ie. Chicanery and other OCs) would have made all kinds of preparations against final death, especially with the availability of high level of advanced science.

I would have put this fic in a "series" type category with my other Jupiter Ascending fic... BUT... this site does not have that function. The A03 site does have a "Series" function and it has made cataloging and stuff easier.

Glossary of Terms:

1. Medicina (pl. medicinae) – the title equivalent of "medical practitioner" on Earth. I somehow did not think that the title of "doctor" would work in this context. It implies so many things that are not-applicable to the space docs. For one thing, the space docs do not have any form of Hippocratic Oath.'

Links:
Links to "Thereafter…"

The earliest memory Balem Abrasax still retained was the first image he ever saw as a child. His eyes opened, and he saw a blurry image of a woman with dark hair leaning over him.

"He's perfect," she said. As the image was not entirely in focus, her words reached him like voices to a person submerged in water. There were also other voices, but they were vague and distant. This dark haired woman stood over him, with a bright light hanging overhead.

Although he was too young then to know what he saw, Balem knew that that was probably his first image of the facility where he was birthed and that the woman was his mother, Seraphi Abrasax. Like all children born to the Entitled, Balem did not emerge from his mother's womb, but was grown from her DNA and the DNA of his sire, another noble-born human. He spent his first months as an embryo in the amniotic fluid of his birth cylinder. He knew that Entitled women who desired to have children went to a special medical facility where the DNA of both parents were taken and used to create a child. There was a bit of genetic manipulation at this stage to ensure that the child would be free of all genetic defects. After all, to be Entitled was to be free of all disfiguring marks and oddities that were the lot of the Lowborn and the Spliced. All embryos who could not be manipulated into perfection were discarded and ground up to create some of the raw materials that were used in the production of ReGenX. Many embryos might be created from the pairing of the DNA, but only one would ever been chosen to be the child of the couple. The resulting raw materials culled from the discarded DNA and his own umbilical cord would then be handed to the care of the family whose DNA was used to create the embryos. This genetic material would then be deposited into a genetic database which would be used to call up his exact genetic sequencing whenever he needed to rejuvenate his body, to ensure genetic integrity through the ages of his long life.

Soon after he was taken out of the birthing containment unit and was officially "born", Balem stayed for a week or so in the birthing facility where he was carefully monitored by medical machines and checked for illnesses and flaws before his parents took him back. It was not a comfortable week as he was constantly poked and prodded by cold machine appendages as samples were taken from him for testing.

He was only released to his parents when the birthing facility administrators were satisfied he had met the minimum requirements of their quality control. He exactly ten fingers and toes and grey eyes that matched, perfect little ears, a pink nose and a mouth that cried loudly whenever he felt hungry or needed to be cleaned. As far as the administrators were concerned, he was healthy and 100% human without any additional non-human genetic "enhancements."

After about a week in the birthing facility, he was wrapped in a soft, white cotton-like baby wrap of some natural fibre that was monogrammed with the name "Abrasax," and presented to his eager parents. His name was entered into the interstellar database containing the names and records of all beings currently in existence in the civilised worlds of the interstellar commonwealth. A special seal-making bureaucrat stamped out a special seal with his family heraldry and his own personal symbols, usually the date, time and location of his birth and imprinted that seal on the underside of the baby's right forearm. This seal was like his signature. It was linked to all current information pertaining to the child, such as the location of his place of residence, his place as a scion of a particular family and also his status as a member of the Entitled, the noble class of the interstellar commonwealth. This seal would also be used to stamp his approval on all legal decisions made by him in the future. The imprinting also captured a map of his genome which would be used in the future to ascertain his identity.

The child cried a little when the imprinting was done. The feeling of being imprinted resembled the bite of an ant or in fact, many small ants on the same patch of skin.

He slept during his trip back in the transport to his family residence, a vast and magnificent palace by the shores of a lake. This was the first instance that Balem ever felt comfortable. After a week of being constantly prodded by metal appendages, he was happy to curl up in the warmth of his baby wrap. He felt safe in the strong arms that carried him. However, the face that looked down upon him was a blurry image of a man with fiery, red hair.

Soon, this man handed him over to a woman with dark hair and a massive fan of hairpins sticking out from her coifed hair. This was the same woman he had seen some time back in the birthing facility.

Like most Entitled children, his mother handed him over to a nanny the moment that her arms got tired of carrying him and he needed to be fed. His nanny was a deer splice, a woman with similar dark, wavy hair to his mother, dark brown eyes and tanned skin. He was fed with a special formula that was made entirely identical to breast milk. Seraphi did not breast feed him because it was not customary for Entitled women to breast feed their children. Also, she seldom carried him when he was feeding from his bottle because she did not really know how to properly carry a child. He squirmed around quite a bit and she nearly dropped him a few times. Fortunately, he was saved from serious injury by the deep, soft carpets she had installed in his room. Finally, she did not produce any breast milk since she did not actually carry him inside of her.

As a child, Balem did not really like being carried by Seraphi. He frequently sneezed whenever she carried him. There was this smell about her that tickled his nose. Seraphi wore perfume, and at times, that scent was much too strong for Balem. In fact, the first natural scent he recognised was the smell of his deer splice nanny, Amina.

Like most splices, Amina was an indentured servant, that is to say, she was a slave of the Abrasax family. She did not wear any kind of collar like the slaves of old, but instead had a tracking implant that would seek out her location no matter where she was. Splices usually never ran away from their masters or the family that they worked for, so there was no need for any kind of special restraining device or enclosure to prevent them from leaving. Most Entitled families had splices. They were efficient, and bred for the tasks they were designed for, far cheaper to keep and maintain than human labourers and were obedient to a fault.

A splice had no real status in society. They were always placed at the last position when it came to receiing any kind of care or benefit. In a lot of Entitled families, splices were often regarded as nothing more than a sort of possession that could be traded or sold by their human masters. In spite of all of that, most splices preferred to work for their families, loyalty was a trait that was programmed into each splice. And often the loyalty of a splice towards his human master was stronger than the loyalty of humans to each other. Moreover, a family provided the splice with food, shelter and other comforts. And if a splice worked for an important master, his own status would also be higher compared with other splices of the same level.

Moreover, not all splices were genetically equal. Despite massive genetic manipulation, some splices always turned out to be inferior or superior to those of his kind. This difference was most predominantly seen in the lycantant splices, who were bred for roles in the military and security. The difference was less pronounced in deer splices and in other types.

Amina was chosen for her appearance, many Entitled mothers often picked nannies that resembled themselves in one way or another, and for her gentle and nurturing disposition.

She lived in a small room beside Balem's room. When he first arrived, she had a small cot in the same room as his crib. This was so that she could keep an eye on him at all times and take care of the constant napping and feeding that all babies go through in the first few months. She was rather glad to have been given sole charge of the child. Some Entitled children had several nannies, and she knew that sometimes the nannies argued about how to best look after the child they were assigned to. Also, she did not like the idea of having to compete for the favour of her charge with several other splices. She was quite proud of that fact that she was the nanny of Balem Abrasax, the child positioned to be the primary heir of the Abrasax empire. That was something that gave her considerable status in society.

The child grew amazingly fast. He was able to crawl and then walk by the time he was one and a half. Also, he displayed an amazing curiosity regarding his surroundings. He was not allowed to leave the family compound, but he loved being outside and running around in the sun. He would crawl around as soon as he was taken out of his crib after feeding and find a spot of sunlight on a nearby balcony and crawl towards it. His own room overlooked the nearby lake and Amina would often see him looking through the narrow gaps in carved stone banisters of the marble balcony at the cool, blue lake. She screamed when she first saw it, but fortunately for everyone concerned, the gaps were way too narrow and small for even a baby to slip through them.

The first few years of his life were really quite blissful and happy. His always had the company of Amina and Seraphi seldom dropped by to see him because she was preoccupied by the business of the family. In fact, it could be said that she left him in the care of the splice servants until the age of four, when she came back to the residence. The residence itself was on the idyllic and lush planet of Calidan, a green world that was occupied by many Entitled families and used to grow all kinds of exotic plants and flowers.

It was around his fifth birthday when Seraphi decided to drop by for a visit. Amina had him cleaned up and dressed in short tunic and soft pants. She had him rehearse calling out to his mother and father the moment he saw them and to run over and give them a big hug.

Balem remembered waiting for the arrival of his parents in the big marble hall that faced a large landing pad. He was sucking on his thumb, which his nanny immediately made him take out of his mouth the moment she spotted him doing it. He did not have to wait too long because a silvery transport descended from the sky and hovered over the ground of the landing pad. The door opened, and a tall man in dark, silky clothes with long, flowing sleeves stepped out. Balem ran towards the transport trying his best to look for his mother, but instead, the tall man went towards him and picked him up in his strong arms. Although it had been years, he vaguely remembered those same strong arms that carried him in a baby wrap and took him home from the birthing facility.

"Papa!" he cried out joyfully, luxuriating in the bear-like hug of his father.

"My son!" a rich baritone voice responded.

All was well, and Balem basked in the love of his father who spent the afternoon carrying him, and bouncing him around on the knee. It was nearly nightfall and close to his sleeping time before his mother arrived. Balem was yawning and had curled up on his father's lap by the time she walked into his nursery.

"Balem, wake up, your mother's here," the voice of his nanny broke his semi-slumber.

He did not remember much from that first meeting, except that he saw a tall, pale woman with dark hair and many golden hairpins sticking out from her elaborate bun.

She opened her arms to him and he remembered bouncing off his father's lap into her arms. Then it hit him, the sickly scent of her perfume. He wrinkled up his nose and sneezed almost into her face and then he saw her own nose wrinkle up and then she looked like she was going to cry.

"What is that?" she was pointing at something on his face.

Amina hurried forward with a silk handkerchief, as if to wipe a spot from his pinkish skin. She stared at his face in confusion and then his father stared at him, unsure of what Seraphi was pointing at.

"He's spotted!" she burst out in tears. Although it was quite late in the night, they could all see the perfect line of little brown spots that lined the cheek and perfect bump of his little nose.

"I am sure its normal," Amina said. "Most small children have odd spots on their skin in places. They usually grow out of it."

"My son is not a deer splice!" Seraphi protested.

Frankly, Balem was confused about the commotion that his spots had caused. He always had them for as long as he could remember. Feeling worried about all the fuss regarding spots, he curled up tightly against his mother and hugged her as hard as he could. However, she seemed determined to make as big a fuss about the spots as she could and pushed him aside.

He couldn't sleep because of the fuss over his spots. Deep in the night, he hurried over to where Amina kept a small mirror in a drawer, and got it out so he could see his own reflection in the glass by moonlight. He saw the spots and tried to rub them off with a small handkerchief, and then with his little finger. Ultimately, he tried scratching them off but all it did was just cause an awful rash on his skin. By morning, he was so tired that he curled up on the carpeted floor and fell asleep.

He was still sleeping when his parents brought a medicina to look at him. This man was a human, but of comparatively lower rank than the Entitled nobility. The medicina examined him for awhile, and took a blood sample which was fed into a small scanner-type device he had brought with him before handing him back to his parents.

"No, he is not ill. Unfortunately, probably as a result of his genetic sequencing, he is prone to freckling. His skin does not have the kind of sun-protection that most other children have. He will have to stay out of the sun."

This was the first time he saw his mother burst into tears. His father put a hand on her arm to comfort her.

"But these 'freckles' look like age spots," she blubbered.

The researcher inclined his head, "There are similarities, but I assure you, they are a natural condition and is no indication of rapid aging."

"Is it curable?" his sire asked.

"I am sorry to say that this is a matter of genetic sequencing and cannot be reversed."

His father swore angrily, "I will SUE the birthing facility!"

Fortunately, Balem was napping for most of the medical examination, he only woke when the medicina gave his diagnosis. From then on, Amina had thick curtains installed on the windows of his nursery and kept them closed in the day. She never allowed him outside especially when it was a sunny day and rubbed a lot of whitish lotions on his skin to "help protect it."

Unfortunately for Balem, his entire world was thrown into deep shadow. He only came out of the shelter of the rooms in the family residence at night and when he did see his mother, she always looked at him with a scowl on her face. He later discovered, when he was taking a bath, that he had spots too on the rest of his body, even his pale butt. He ultimately had the servants install mirrors in his bathroom so he could examine himself. Also, he made all attending servants leave the bathroom whenever he had a bath. Although it was customary for Entitled to have attendants when taking a bath, Balem preferred to be alone.

Amina tried all kinds of treatments to lighten the spots. She once scrubbed him with lemons and at one point. Over time, he lost the initial tan he had acquired frolicking out in the sun when he was a toddler. He became extremely pale and his freckles started to fade a little.

The next time his mother paid the Abrasax residence a long visit was when Balem was around 8 years old. His freckles had faded somewhat, but still lightly dotted his face and the rest of his body. A few days before she came, Amina packed some bags with his clothes and belongings. They waited in the marble hall adjoining the landing pad on the night his mother was scheduled to arrive. When her transport touched down on the landing pad, the door opened, but his mother did not step out. Amina led him to the transport and as soon as their bags were loaded onto it, the transport took off.

"You are going into space," Amina told him as they were flying through the air. "Your parents are bringing you to a special research facility where they will try to fix your skin condition."

He did not really pay attention to what his nanny was saying, because the thought of going to space was exciting and something that he never thought he would be able to do before he was in his teens. He jumped up to the window and watched as the transport zoomed past a huge city before docking at a space port and he walked out of it and onto a platform that led to his family's vessel.

On the vessel, he would stand by the huge observation window and watch as the planet of Calidan got smaller and smaller the further away they went from it. He loved seeing the big round, blue orb of Calidan from space. It was so large and yet so small at the same time. This was a thing that he loved to do even when he was a multi-millenia old patriarch of his house.

They travelled in this vessel for several days, however, in all that time, he hardly saw his mother. His father came by quite often to see how he was doing and to play with him, but he almost never saw Seraphi until they arrived on Quarere, an ice planet where the research facility was located. When they arrived, the administrators took him away from his family and Amina and put him through days of testing where all kinds of samples were taken from him.

Finally, on the fifth day, Amina came and got him. Terribly exhausted from the entire ordeal of being prodded and poked for days by machines, he had a warm bath and then a good long nap. When he awoke, he dressed and she took him to one of the offices. She held him in her arms, while his parents talked with the medicina in charge of his case.

"Is there nothing that can be done with his skin?" his mother asked.

"Freckles can be lightened by certain chemical products and covered with cosmetics, but to prevent them from forming, he should ideally never be out in the open without some form of sun-protection," the doctor replied. After a short and sad pause, "He began again. There is something else I must tell you, I feel it would be remiss of me if I kept it quiet."

Seraphi covered her face. She was starting to tear again.

"In a genetic analysis of his sequencing," the doctor began, "I discovered that he has an inherited genetic condition. Your son has till now been healthy, has he not?"

"He is a very healthy child!" his father declared.

The doctor lowered his voice a little, trying to make it sound as gentle as he could, "He will develop a chronic nose and throat condition. He was born with weak lungs. This condition will come into effect in the next few years."

"We should have gone to another birthing facility!" his mother was visibly distressed.

"Your majesty," the doctor continued. "I doubt that another birthing facility would have been able to correct his defects. You are quite lucky that he has been born with so few flaws. Genetically speaking, the pairing was not ideal. The chances of genetic abnormality are just too high given both your DNA sequences."

His mother cried so bitterly that Balem broke free from his nanny's arms and ran towards her. He pulled at her skirts and buried his face in the folds of her glittering gown.

The medicina coughed uncomfortably, "There is always a Redo. After all, he is still below the age of being officially Recognised as your heir?"

Despite not knowing what the words meant, Balem remembered the doctor's words keenly. A Redo meant that his parents would scrap him like so much garbage and try again with another child. He would be put to sleep and end up as genetic material stored in a tube which would then be presented to his noble family. Despite his young age, he was intelligent enough to know what it meant.

"No Redo!" he screamed out loudly and repeatedly, holding onto his mother.

He did not remember much about what happened next, except that Amina came over and fell on her knees, and said a few words to Seraphi. After that, his mother held him in her arms and said that they will keep him because he was such a good boy. Then she quickly handed him to his nanny, like he was a contaminant.