Lullabies in Soylent Green

Disclaimer – Xenogears is one of the most thought-provoking games produced by Squaresoft. My story is a fan work based on the game and information found in translations of Digicube's Xenogears Perfect Works book.

Author's note – My hope is that this story is deemed plausible by Xenogears fans who read it. It seeks to reconcile some of the nagging little oddities in the game – as opposed to the major, giant plot points which make Xenogears the thought-provoking, mind-breaking adventure that it is. There are two-and-a-half telepathic characters counting Citan as half as one could reason that 'his' telepathy is mostly in response to Cain's and not counting Sigurd because I would classify his ability as more empathetic than telepathic. Why did Midori not communicate much with anyone – but especially her own father who has a remarkable ability to draw out anyone and gain their trust nearly instantaneously? Why did she become slightly more communicative as the game went on? Where did so much of her extremely esoteric knowledge come from? In many ways, she seemed even more in the know that Citan, so it's not likely that delving into his mind was the answer – for example, Midori 'knew' Fei was Id long before Citan proved the matter to his own satisfaction. Some of the in-depth back story canon information in Xenogears comes from the Perfect Works book as do some of my questions – I wonder why it is important to know that Citan had eight older brothers? And why did his entire family fall victim to the 3rd Class level plague, yet he survived? This story seeks to shed some light onto these questions, albeit in a roundabout way.

"Midori!"

It was my fault. I had been so wrapped up in my research that I had forgotten that Yui had gone down to New Lahan to do some shopping and socializing. She liked our home on the top of the mountain, but it could get lonely at times. Particularly for her whenever I am engrossed in research. Shevat had been a bustling and active place when she was younger, so she was used to having many people around. The isolation of my mission to watch over Fei had been hard on her – not that she ever complained, or even mentioned it. But still, I am her husband. Very little escapes my notice, especially about Yui. So, whenever she decides to go to New Lahan to shop for us, I know that part of it is simply her need to be around the hum of ordinary day-to-day life filled with people going about their business. I might be content with my own company when I am caught up in research, and both Yui's company and the presence of our silent Midori otherwise, but I know that Yui needs more contact with society than that.

"Midori! We are looking for you!"

So, it was completely my fault that both of us had to scour the nighttime mountain searching for our daughter. When Yui returned from New Lahan, Midori was nowhere to be found when her bedtime arrived. From the dish and cutlery rinsed and placed in the proper place by the sink (Midori remembers this request of Yui's far more often than I do – I am the one who leaves dirty dishes in the sink), we could tell that Midori had made her dinner of leftovers rather than bother me. Oh, my little, silent daughter, do you not know that it is no bother at all when you approach me for help? It pained me often that Midori still does not speak to me at all, with how often she speaks with her mother and other people, now. She is shy around others, at first, but somehow, they can draw her out. Not that she was very talkative; I had to be very stealthy when I returned to the house to catch even a word in Midori's voice. Yui advised me not to fret, that Midori will begin to talk with me too 'in time' but it has been over a year since...

"Midori, please respond!"

It did not matter if the child never uttered a word in my hearing, if only we found her! I knew that Yui could take care of herself on the mountain; the creatures who lived there are no threat to her, but Midori was still a child, only six years of age. Granted, there was a chance the Hobgobs would not even trouble her, my daughter has telepathy, apparently not born of ether, that gives her sensitivity to others' thoughts, even those of animals, and she possesses the same level-headed sense that her mother does, but...

I called her name again, not expecting to hear a return call. It was most likely that Yui would find her. Perhaps, by calling to her, I was preventing her from responding to Yui's calls, which I could hear faintly in the distance. Perhaps I should have just returned to the house – Midori would not respond to me and perhaps that was making it hard for Yui to find her too...

What was that doing here?! Those should not exist anymore! It looked like a memory cube from Solaris, but it was green. The Gazel Ministry was destroyed, Solaris was destroyed, who would have the technology to make such a thing now?

Wait. As it turned, the full green glow of it washed over...

"MIDORI!" I was frantic. My little daughter, she was in front of the thing! "Midori! Do not go any closer!" I sprinted faster than I have ever moved in my life, trying to reach her before... "Midori! Do not go in there!"

Too late. I stopped, shocked into immobility. My daughter, not listening to me at all, not heeding, perhaps not even able to hear me – she disappeared. She stepped inside. I did not hesitate to run toward the thing and do the same.

I found myself standing on a small platform in what appeared to be an infinite space. Midori, on her own platform, was much closer to a significantly larger one around which myriad screens revolved. The screens all displayed images of my life and Midori's life. While there were images of Gears and battles, most of the images were far more simple, gentle, and even rustic.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"Oh, Hyuga. I hadn't thought you would be sensitive enough to respond to my call, but I am pleased that you did." A tall man suddenly appeared on the central dais.

I shook my head. "I did not sense anything. I merely followed my daughter. Is your call the reason she left home?"

"Yes." The man looked up. A vague, sluggish recognition stirred in my mind at the man's direct gaze.

"What purpose is there in summoning Midori? I will not permit you to harm her!"

"Be at peace, Hyuga. I don't intend to hurt her. There is something I left unfinished, that concerns her, that's all."

"Your voice is familiar." I looked around again. "And this place, that is not a place, is familiar too. It is the mental construct through which Emperor Cain maintained communication with me while I was serving as his Guardian Angel for Solaris."

The man nodded. "And...?"

"But Cain was slain by Kahr. You cannot be..."

The man laughed gently. "I said I had things left undone. Is it so unbelievable that I could reach through the veil of life and death to complete them, after all you've already seen?"

"Bu-but...!"

"Consider me – an interactive etheric recording if that makes you more comfortable."

I cupped my chin and regarded first the man on the platform, Cain, then the slight figure of my daughter so much closer to that entity than I was to her. She hadn't uttered a word and still seemed to be in the daze she'd been in when she entered the memory cube. "What are your intentions toward my daughter? Emperor or no, I will find a way to stop you if..."

Cain made an exasperated sound. "First, I am the Emperor no longer. Second, I have no reason and no wish to harm Midori. In fact, I am here to undo a harm I did to her."

"'Undo a harm'? What do you mean?"

Cain waved a hand and three chairs appeared, one for each of us. "Sit. This might take a while."

I sat, wondering as I did so if I were really 'sitting'. I had always presumed the mental audience chamber was just that, a place of mind, rather than reality.

"You are correct, but you are also wrong," Cain addressed my unspoken thought. "It is a place of mind, but it is also an etheric place. You could say that we three are meeting in a discreet etheric plane. There is no reason we can't make ourselves more 'comfortable' with what appear to be chairs to support what appear to be our bodies as we 'converse' with one another. For the moment, we exist and do not exist at the same time." Cain looked into the distance where the screens revolved around the center dais slowly. "There are painful truths I would reveal to you. I would not willingly cause you pain, but I believe it is needful that you know."

I reflected on all the 'painful truths' I had already assumed. The mortality of Emperor Cain, and the need to hide that very same mortality from the people of Solaris. The unfair caste system of Solaris. The unjust prejudice of Solarians toward the people dwelling on the Earth; the Limiters that prevented humans from achieving their full growth; the Soylent System which made some of the humans mere food sources for the unwitting masses... But also other painful truths that hit far closer to home. The plague that had ripped through the Third Class level of Solaris, in a single, horrific night destroying every member of my family but leaving me untouched, and then, when I was almost no more than a child, still mourning that devastating loss, to be accused of causing that plague, somehow...

After that, learning that every human being on the planet owed his or her very existence to the seemingly mad designs of a master weapon program that had been deemed too awful by its creators to function – that not only the Gears we piloted but our own, innate powers of ether were merely reactions to an energy overflow from a higher-plane being trapped as the power source for that supreme, uncontrollable weapon; that tragedy after tragedy had been inflicted upon entire populations to destabilize their governments for the purpose of Miang's master plan; that it was necessary for two of my friends, Fei and Elly, to have sought their love across multiple lives in their nearly tragic, ever-reincarnating way... What truth could the Emperor – no the being known as Cain – reveal now that could be more startling or awful than any of those?

"It hits closer to home than the latest thoughts to traverse your mind, I'm afraid. And the young one, though she remains silent, she should hear and know it, too," Cain noted, evidently following my thoughts.

I felt alarm at that. Midori – my child, my light against much of the darkness of my actions, I would preserve her...

"It will help her to know the truth, as it will help you, though there will be pain, for you, as well." Cain gathered his thoughts, and continued. "Your mother, Luli, though born in the Third Class, possessed an incredibly high ether potential, so high, in fact, that Krelian had once summoned her to his laboratory to test whether or not she was the anti-type. As you know, she was not, nor was she harmed or traumatized by the testing. Still, the results of those tests gave rise to one of the Gazel Ministry's plans – the R Project."

"'R Project?'" I echoed.

Cain gestured and the screens closest to the dais shifted to show Krelian's laboratory. "Yes. Krelian accelerated one of his programs to comply with the Gazel Ministry's wishes, discovering, extracting and concentrating particular DNA strands culled from 'failed experiments' before they were subject to 're-education' and settled in the Third Class level, or recycling in the Soylent System." Person after person was shown in the lab, giving blood samples, or sometimes, or so I inferred, other tissue samples as they were prone on the examination table while machines worked over them. "Once Krelian had the proper genetic material on hand, your father was summoned to the labs to take part in what he thought was a voluntary drug testing program for which he received significant compensation." My heart ached to see my father in Cain's hyper-realistic etheric recording. It has been years since my family died, and yet, in so many ways, it seemed as if it just happened. After a moment, the screens dimmed, then lit again with general, pastoral images. "I believe your father, Shouka, had plans to make life for his wife more pleasant and comfortable, and perhaps, one day, start a family. A suspiciously set time after each of these visits, your mother would bear a child – why do you think this might be the case?"

My eyes unfocused as gazed into the distance. Theories presented themselves in my mind to be examined and discarded in rapid order until... My eyes widened and I turned my head to stare at Cain's face. I did not want to miss any expression that might pass across it, no matter how slight.

"R Project – the coincidence that R is the first letter of my family's last name was undoubtedly a source of amusement for some of the Ministry, or taken as a 'god given' sign by others..." I began, hoping against hope that he would stop me, and tell me I was wrong.

Cain nodded instead, accurately sensing the direction of my thoughts. "Krelian extracted and refined the DNA strands of each of the surviving Gazel Ministers from their descendants, then used his nanotechnology to treat your father so that those desired strands would engender a genetically pure child of the selected DNA in due course. The R Project was the Replacement Project of the Gazel Ministry, designed to restore them to human bodies – those especially created for that purpose – your brothers. I would never have signed off on such a plan – if I had known. Clones could have been used, if they were so desperate for human form again. I cannot help but wonder if it had been Krelian's idea, perhaps in some way to further his understanding of the inner workings of genetics in our world."

"Was I my father's only son, then?" I shook my head in pain. My father and mother; my grandfather who taught me my first martial arts skills; all of my brothers; they were all gentle and though we had been born into and lived in the Third Class of Solaris, with no hope of ever escaping that near slave-like state, we had been happy. "Or was I, too, one of these genetic replacements?"

"You were not as your brothers, designed to be a genetically suitable replacement body for one of the eight Gazel Ministers who survived the Diabolos Invasion – but neither were you the biological child of your mother's husband."

I sighed deeply, recognizing the tokens of truth on Cain's face, accepting the pain of that truth into the deepest regions of my heart. I had loved my father, and as a child my fondest wish was to be just like him. "Perhaps I was Krelian's own attempt at a child, or maybe one of his 'failures' at generating a replacement." I shook my head against the spiraling, unfolding pain. "I suppose, with Solaris and all her records gone, I will never know."

"Not true. Though it was inconvenient, I had to spend not inconsiderable amounts of time in Krelian's lab myself. A previous attempt to restore the Gazel Ministry left my own biological system compromised, and Krelian's nanotechnology was necessary to extend my lifespan. We may have instituted the religion of the Ethos in the first place, but in and among the falsehoods to elevate the Solarians, and keep the rest of humanity in line, there were threads of truth. I could not die until the Time of the Gospel, so Krelian had to keep my alive until then. Therefore, I am aware of the secret and I will tell you – if you want to hear."

Receptive to Cain's thoughts, the screens lit with scenes from events that I remembered myself; the Emperor addressing the people of Solaris to calm them after the Elru Suppression, cutting the ribbon to officially open the new Arbot Plaza, sitting on the throne during one of the televised 'Emperor Cain's birthday' events. "By that point, the Gazel Ministry had started to treat me with contempt, and my only use to Krelian was as a figurehead to keep the 'ignorant masses' in line." The scenes changed to images of a man, who looked very much like the man on the dais, helping a farmer wrestle a feisty bearcow into a yoke to plow a field. The same man smiled and lifted a newborn high in the air while giving the child a name. Again, the same man sitting in the place of honor in a hall dominated by a long table, before the image of the man morphed into the skull-like mask I knew as the face of Emperor Cain. "Every one had forgotten that I had guided, protected, and ruled the people for ten thousand years. I allowed them to believe I was weaker than I was, and more foolish..."

I nodded. "I, more than anyone other than you, your majesty, know this."

Cain laughed. "That is true." I was fascinated to see the warmth of emotion flow across the man's face. I had only known Cain, even in this etheric space, under his daunting Emperor guise. "We were an irresistible team, you and me. I was seen as a doddering fool well past his prime, and perhaps after so many thousands of years finally losing my grip on my mentality, and you, so intelligent and quick-witted, yet so gentle, so courteous, and eager to please that, even though you were my Guardian Angel, appointed by me, the Gazel Ministry and Krelian held a nearly total implicit trust in you."

"It was effective, to do their bidding from time to time, to help keep you aware of their activities. Or, that is how it seemed to me at the time." I steeled myself against the easy familiarity of being in this place, and speaking with this man, who I had known as Emperor Cain, again. I had almost forgotten that I was here, not by mental invitation of the Emperor to report on a mission, but to save my child from the strange compulsion that had drawn her here. I had to remain wary, for Midori's sake.

Cain's smile seemed a bit sadder and his eyes seemed to plead with me to trust him, and bear with his explanation a bit longer. "It suited our purposes well that you seemed to work for them with the same loyalty you showed to me. I, with my frequent and necessary sessions in Krelian's lab, once he had me hooked up to his nanomachines in whatever configuration he thought would suit for that day, would forget I was there. I would reminisce, during those idle hours, of the long years of my life. In the beginning, when our presence on the world was still new, things were simpler. I could take a wife as any man can, and start a family. It is true that they would die in time – a time that seemed so cruelly fleeting to me, but while I had that wife and that family, life was sweet." The responsive screens showed many scenes, focusing intently, but briefly on individual women's faces, and those of bright-eyed children. It didn't escape my notice that all seemed happy, though I thought that could be because that's how Cain wanted to remember them, rather than the exact reality. "In time, the sheer numbers of the human race ensured their genetic viability, and it became necessary for me to begin to rule humanity, rather than beget. I had been engendered for a purpose and while now I can look back with the hard-won wisdom of thousands of years, at that time my purpose was a burning force within me. I was to help bring about the resurrection of god, that is, the revivification of the Deus weapon system. My role was to keep the replacement pool – that is, humanity – viable, plentiful, and complacent until the time their bodies would be required to become the biological parts demanded by the system."

"I know by the time I was born your purpose had changed. Or rather, your attitude toward your purpose had," I offered.

"More like it had eroded. Time and again I would see humans rise to the point of grasping true greatness, about to slip the bonds of their cruel fate, only to have Miang smash them down again and again," Cain replied.

"The Zeboim Era," I realized.

"That was one of the worst. If humans had achieved space flight –" Cain shook his head. "Miang, perhaps more than any of us, was a slave to her fate, too. It seemed each time she transmigrated whatever humanity from that life that might have begun to erode her purpose would fall away and she would be locked into her role once more. To her, humanity itself was nothing more than a closet of spare parts waiting for the proper time to be used. Perhaps it was because her purpose was different. She never procreated a child, as I did. There is something about holding a newborn, and seeing the limitless possibility in the brightness of a child's eyes that makes one think..."

"...anything is possible," I finished softly.

Cain smiled and nodded. "Of course, you would know." He inclined his head toward Midori. "Once you determined that Fei had not only the strength, but the will to break our cruel fate, I knew it was time to leave the future into the hands of the children, like Midori."

I nodded my head, as this was the realization we had discussed in this very place once before. "Okay, but I still do not understand..."

"Bear with me a little while longer. There is knowledge I have to impart to you, to unburden my soul enough to know that I have completed the tasks of my long life, and have earned the right to move on."

"You did mention a secret you wanted to share..."

"Hyuga, have you never wondered at the telepathy between us?"

Taken aback by the non sequitur I answered, "I assumed it was your doing, to facilitate untraceable communication with me as your covert operative."

Cain nodded. "True, it served in that manner, but that is not why it was there. Telepathy is a very specific ether ability that only appears in our world in the descendants of the first human – that is, me." Cain continued. "Do you understand?"

"I suppose it is possible that I am a descendant in one of your more recent blood-lines, and that is why the telepathy was reliable."

Cain smiled. "Hmm. But the attenuation is far less than you suppose."

"No, Daddy," Midori spoke up for the first time. "He's trying – tell you – he's – your daddy." Midori's shoulders lifted up a little as if she were unsure about something. "I think – not a – normal daddy, though."

I stared agape at my child, then at the Emperor. My thoughts, my very mind, screeched to a halt. "This – this – is ridiculous?!"

"Not at all. While it is possible for me to force a telepathic contact with nearly any human, as there is some genetic connection, it takes a great deal of etheric energy and will, and the result is often not worth the effort – nightmares, or weird compulsions, rather than the decisive and direct action I required. So, throughout the years, when I was still able, I would engender one or more children whenever important events were occurring among the Lambs – that is, the land-dwelling humans, so that I would always have some direct avenue of information in a form and manner that the Gazel Ministry had no clue about." Cain shook his head. "Even from the beginning, I could tell that the Ministry's purpose was different from my own, and I worried that one day they would pit their might against me, and my purpose. So, once I realized that the eight surviving Gazel Ministers had their eight replacement Animus bodies ready and maturing, it seemed prudent to have a spy of my own among them – you. I thought to use the passive telepathic contact that I had with all my direct children to keep an eye on the Ricdeau family, the locus of the R Project, and somehow head off the Gazel Ministry's plans."

"This is unbelievable!" I shook my head.

"Unfortunately, the Gazel Ministry moved into the next stage of their 'R' Project – the removal of the Limiters and the 'psychic cleansing' that would purge the personalities of your brothers to make them suitable vessels, one for each minister as had been determined by the genetic code your father had been primed to deliver to his wife. At that point, I had no choice but to release the plague that devastated the Third Class of Solaris, and destroyed your family."

It seemed as though the shocks couldn't hit any deeper, but each revelation compounded the previous one a hundred-fold. My brothers had been an earlier plan of the Gazel Ministry to revive in proper Animus bodies? My father was not my father, and my mother – my own conception, had taken place in Krelian's lab, through the use of nanomachines?

"The Plague that swept through the Third Class levels and destroyed your family – it was by my order. Your brothers were doomed from the moment of their births – I thought only to slow the Gazel Ministry down so that humankind might advance enough to have a chance to survive the Time of the Gospel." Cain appeared to stare down at his feet when he continued. "In fact I used my superior telepathic abilities to co-opt your will, Hyuga. My own son was my unwitting pawn to release the virus through the system. That is why suspicion attached itself to you before you entered Jugend. It was my will, but you were seen – when you triggered the plague."

"I–" I wished my mind would snap. Or I would go deaf – though that would not have helped, as I was not really 'hearing' anything; we were in an etheric place in telepathic communication. That Emperor Cain was, in fact, my biological father paled next to this horrible revelation. I had maintained my innocence during all the accusations that I had created and released the plague, because I had truly believed myself to be innocent. To find out now that my mother and father, my grandfather, all my brothers, all my neighbors and so many of the 3rd Class citizens had in fact died because of my actions...

"No, Daddy." Midori spoke up again. "You weren't... Not you. Like Fei and – scary Fei inside. Not you!"

"How... How was it only I survived?" I asked in what our telepathic communication rendered into a grief-thickened voice.

There was pain, and warmth, and commiseration in Cain's gentle tone. "My son..." I shook my head violently at the appellation. Cain started again, in an unemotional and factual way at my rejection of the connection between us. "It is because you are my son, genetically. As the first human, with my purpose being to foster the viability of humanity on this planet, the action furthest from my purpose would be the consuming of a human. You inherited your violent soylent allergy from me."

My memory wandered back to the one and only time I tried soylent. My food was a particularly bland and tasteless gray goo my mother made especially for me. She never let me even taste the savory smelling food she prepared for the rest of the family, telling me that she would let me eat it if she could, but I would get very sick if I even tasted it. She did her best to make my gruel enticing, but is was pretty awful. I loved my mother, and always obeyed her. It wasn't until after the plague, when I passed by an illegal marketplace square where someone was selling food that smelled so much like one of my mother's dishes, that I had dared to taste soylent. While the flavor was a revelation of sensory delight, the violent illness that came directly after made me realize why my mother had been so strict with me on the matter of my food. "So, the plague delivery system..." I realized.

"Yes, the plague had been laced into the Soylent System. It was the only way to make certain it stopped the R Project. Krelian had captured Lambs that had the right DNA strands to recreate bodies for the Gazel Ministry. Not only your brothers who were the purified examples of these DNA strands, but the discovered and accessible diluted sources had to be destroyed. Also, I knew that the likelihood of you being caught up in the plague was very remote." I do not know what expression my mind would have placed on my face in my stunned grief and rage, but whatever it would have been, Cain could not hold my gaze. After a moment he asked, "Do you recall when we first met, Hyuga?"

"At my commencement from Jugend Academy. You presided over the ceremony," I answered automatically.

"That was our first meeting in your adult life, but our first meeting was quite a bit earlier. I thought it best to obscure it, at the time, but now, before I move on, all of your memories should be yours. You were still a child, four years in age. The sector doctor diagnosed your vision problems, and applied the standard treatment, with tragic results."

My inner eye opened. The dais with the still-worrisome presence of my daughter, and the still-impossible presence of Emperor Cain dimmed, while released memories flooded my mind and commanded my attention.

Luli held her son across her arms as he arched his back in agony. She held his small arms tightly enough to undoubtedly cause deep bruises, fearful that if the child slipped her grip he would claw his own eyes out. They, and the tissue surrounding them, were swollen to such extremes they were painful to even look at, much less contemplate the pain the child was experiencing.

"I told you he was allergic to soylent!" She accused the doctor, slumping to her knees to enclose and cradle her child against his agony. "Shh, Hyuga, shh! Please, don't struggle so much. I don't want to hurt you, but I can't let you hurt yourself."

"Allow me," a new voice interjected. "What seems to be the problem here?"

The doctor explained everything to the willowy, pale-haired stranger, in aggrieved tones while Luli continued to try to soothe her child. His wild cries has subsided to the convulsively sniffling agony of a child pushed beyond all pain, that touched even the heart of the doctor, but seemed to leave the tall stranger unfazed.

"Bring him."

"That was – Krelian," I wondered aloud. "And I possess a memory in the third person?"

"Adjusted in point of view for your comfort. I would spare you remembering the pain of that ill-fated ocular treatment," Cain replied.

I reflected that Cain was doing his best, despite rocking my world to its very roots, to blunt the pain for me. I could only wish that such solicitous kindness had been given to me when I was a child, so that my family would still be alive today.

"Krelian had you brought to his lab where he used a sedative that has not been developed from soylent to render you mercifully unconscious. He told your mother that he would do what he could to heal your eyes – no promises – but if he were successful you would be returned to your home. Otherwise, you would be recycled. He told your mother to leave, as it was tedious to have civilians in his lab. It took several months to restore your sight. Krelian concerned himself with only the most basic aspect of sight, distance acuity, and didn't worry about your near vision – you were merely a Third Class Citizen after all, and to him at this point, only an experimental subject. He enjoyed the challenge of working around your violent soylent allergy, you see. I met you the very first day you woke in the lab. I constructed this place," Cain extended his arms to indicate the etheric hall. "to help you not fret over being blind those first few months. If you had annoyed Krelian with whining, he would have ended the experiment prematurely, and recycled you – and I wasn't about to let that happen. Teaching you the- the mental discipline to enter this place not only helped ease your fear about being blind, it deepened the telepathic connection between us. I taught you your Arcane ether abilities in this very place." Cain glanced around and smiled. "It is not such a mystery that you 'heard' my call to your daughter and came here, now that I think about it. You helped me to build and maintain it, after all. Perhaps it is due to the actions of Krelian's nanomachines correcting marginal errors that had crept into my unique biology throughout the years, but you are very like my first sons and daughters in your skills – double and triple blessed. But, while those early children of mine were focused and intent upon ruling and subjugating humanity in my name, you were always more concerned with the welfare of people, even down to a personal, one-on-one level. I like to think that might be a reflection of the change that has occurred in me, and perhaps, also because of your earliest interactions with me."

Even as the hidden memories released in my mind, displaying the truth of Cain's words, I steeled myself against feeling any sort of understanding or forgiveness toward him. "So, you created me, and used me, merely as a foil for the Gazel Ministry?" I asked.

"Initially, yes. That was your purpose. But even then, I could tell there was something about you, something special. Created to thwart them, but once the R Project was derailed, that purpose had been fulfilled. I am unlike Krelian, in that I didn't think that was all that you could do. Even if you never 'served' me directly again, there was no reason to destroy you or terminate you." Cain reflected. "When my primary motivation changed, it all became so convoluted. The deepening of my care for the humans in my charge ultimately put me at odds with the master plan for those same humans. The Gazel Ministry – those who remained after those events 500 years ago, I couldn't blame them. I pitied them. In the beginning, when we were still so new, taking our first, few faltering steps on this adopted world – my purpose was to generate, then guide – shepherd – the people so that they could serve as part of the new body of god. Born of 'the Mother' my primary purpose was to be a father. The Gazel Ministry had a unified purpose as their part of the master program to revive god, but each one had an individual area of expertise, as it were. Perhaps, even in that early time, the entity making these decisions was aware that the goal of the Gazel Ministry, to render humans into spare parts for the body of god, and my purpose, to shepherd and guide humans, would ultimately come to cross purposes. Maybe 'the Mother' was supposed to wield a power greater than ours in that crisis to resolve it – there is no way to know how far-reaching that plan was once a third of the Gazel Ministry died."

I started, reminding myself once again of the presence of my daughter. Speaking of death, and poisonings, and the use of the Soylent System, and the horrific human toll the Deus weapon system needed to reactivate itself in front of my child!

"Don't fret. I am not speaking of anything that Midori does not already know about. I am giving her, and you, the perspective to deal with that knowledge, that is all." Cain once again addressed my unspoken thoughts. If I thought it could have done anything, I would have protested the invasion of my mind, but I suspect it wasn't something he could have stopped doing if he wanted to. He went on, "In those early days, the purpose of the Gazel Ministry was to support me. We thirteen, along with the original 'bearers', mortal women as Kadomony was already losing power and cycling down by the time it began to create them, were tasked with populating a hostile world that knew, even from that first day, that we were aliens upon its surface. As humanity gained a foothold, each one of the Gazel Ministers entered into a new phase of their programming more focused and directed toward using the humans we had generated for Deus' purpose. Miang showed up, again and again – different guises but always the same smiling façade hiding her true purpose. Zeboim – with their technological advancement, they could have well achieved spaceflight long before there were enough people – spare parts, to revive god. Therefore, their fledgling wings had to be clipped. Sophia and the Nisan Sect – they were questioning the purpose of people, they were becoming too free-thinking and would not meekly accept their fate of losing their individual lives to bring 'god' forth again. Such was Miang's purpose. She was the gauge of worthiness, and she was pitiless in driving everyone and everything toward her apocalyptic goal."

I nodded, having witnessed that single-mindedness in the destruction evident in the Zeboim Ruins, and the history of the Nisan Sect. Perhaps, in a way, that last act of reining in humanity had been the downfall of Miang's master plan, for killing Sophia had directly contributed to the genesis of both Krelian and Grahf, two of the powerful forces that first helped bring about the Time of the Gospel, but then changed it, helping to bring about an unscripted end to the doom of humanity's fate.

"I don't know when I began to change. I, too, had been designed for this purpose. Perhaps it was the role I had been given, to nurture and protect the human race. In the beginning, it was a challenge, as there were so few of us, but it wasn't onerous. It took a long time for me to become callous to the individual lives of the humans around me. My fate was to live until the Time of the Gospel. Ten thousand years – the weight of that, of the people I had cared for in a personal way dying in their time, but leaving me, still alive, still bound by duty – do you know how many wives and lovers I've buried? How many of my own, direct children have died? I don't either. There came a point it was too much, the number itself had lost any sort of meaning, and only the loneliness and misery remained. The only ones who even vaguely understood were the Gazel Ministry. Poor doomed pawns. Five hundred years ago four of them died fully, leaving their burden upon the rest who remained, and who lived, after a fashion, or rather, didn't die completely. It was then, when they lost their last tenuous contact with what it is to be human that their focus on their mission to resurrect god became so... I don't know. I don't know how to explain it, but it was then that I realized that though we had been born for the same purpose, of the same 'Mother' that we were no longer working for the same goals. I hoped to rekindle that lost humanity in them with Krelian's help and my own unique, never-dying biology, but in the end it wasn't enough. Even the mitochondrial transplants didn't help them to regain their lost bodies – and the donation caused the unthinkable to happen – my own body began to fail. Perhaps that is why I started to change. Mortality, it is a curse to an individual, if death comes too soon, but living forever while everyone else dies around you? That had been my curse. Still, my very being had been programmed before my birth to support and shepherd the human race on this world. It was only the ultimate purpose that stretched so thin for me after so many years – that is, the resurrection of god. It is why I detailed you to the surface, to see if the purpose of the Contact was to destroy the entirety of the human race, or just those destined to form the new body of god. To see if the people untouched by the Time of the Gospel would be able to take care of themselves, instead of relying upon Solaris. I knew, you see, that the Gazel Ministry would be no more after the Time of the Gospel. Krelian, too, who had directed Solaris for so long, I knew he had no desire to survive past the event; I didn't know what power, if any, I would hold after myself, presuming I survived. I was the shepherd, I wasn't destined to be part of the new god as the Gazel were, but Miang... She always evaded my questions about that after-time, no matter what age I asked in, or who she was at the time. She only told me that all would become clear in the proper time."

"I do not know why you feel it is important to impart this information now," I said, still mindful of Midori's silent presence. "All of that is part of the past, now."

"Someone should know the whole of it, before I pass on beyond this plane of existence. And I most especially wanted you to know why it was you who was my Guardian Angel during this critical time," Cain replied.

"If so, why summon my daughter? You didn't even reach out to me initially," I noted.

"True, and I should have. I didn't realize I wanted to explain everything to you until you appeared here. But Midori – I have done a disservice to her, one that was needful at the time, but one I would not burden her with for the rest of her life." Once again, Cain could not maintain my gaze.

"What–what have you done?"

"I had not been able to place any sort of enhanced limiter in you so that the gene for telepathy would not be passed down to your children without exposing you to closer scrutiny from either Krelian or the Gazel Ministry. I didn't want to give your ultimate use for me as my operative away. This is why Midori is so powerfully telepathic. Her telepathy is far stronger than yours. Even as an infant, she routinely backtracked your mental communications with me. I was acutely aware of her still-forming mental presence. As she approached the age for the development of speech, I had to do something. Children do not have an innate capacity to lie, and Midori would not have lied to your or your wife. I couldn't risk her stating something in front of the wrong person that could jeopardize – everything." The images focused on a man bent over an electronics workstation. "I designed and had an artisan craft the ring she wears, and placed a telepathic compulsion on it that she would value it and wear it. While she wore the ring, any attempts to communicate anything she knew about who you really are, anything about me, or any other information she had through telepathic means were blunted. This had the unfortunate but unavoidable side effect of disarraying her attempts at speaking. Midori has always had to concentrate to her utmost to manage two or three word sentences or fragments that made any sense," Cain explained.

I found my gaze riveted to my child. The tension running through her shoulders and down her back mutely informed me that everything Cain said was true. I did my best to quell the rage burning through me that my daughter had been so unjustly tormented, knowing as I did so that my efforts were as naught to these two who could directly sense my very thoughts.

Cain continued. "Midori was aware of the actions of her ring, and she knew it was because of you. In the very black and white world of a child, it was your fault that she had to wear the ring and struggle with these effects. To reconcile her ardent wish to speak and communicate normally with those she cared about around her, and the artificial constraints placed on her preventing that, and her knowledge that it was because of you, and her horror at her knowledge, learned from both me and you of things no human should be aware of – whenever she beheld you, faint images of the horrible things would appear in her view around you."

I felt as if my mind snapped again. I thought what Shevat had done to Fei, freezing him in carbonite, but leaving his mind active, was the worst fate – even worse than being turned into a Wels, or angel, or other replacement part for the Deus weapon system, but this – this horror, this torment, inflicted upon an innocent child – my child...

"Daddy..." Midori's voice was light, but always welcome to my ear. "Listen – more – all..."

Only then did I realize that tears were streaming down my face, and I had clenched my hands into fists so tight my fingernails had inscribed half-moon wounds and drawn blood from the heels of my hands – exactly as they would have in the physical world. I closed my eyes, as I wished I could close my mind, against the unspeakable cruelty. To have had my daughter suffering – suffering! like this for so long, and to not have realized it – I felt a depth of despair that watching as Elly transformed into Miang had not generated in me. That I had not even been aware, that I had not even tried to do anything, the least thing, to help my daughter...

"I couldn't – even after I realized the effect all this was having on her, I couldn't – I didn't think it wise to change my course of action. I did bring my greater and more refined telepathy to bear on Midori to ensure that her visions were distinct from reality – it was the most I dared to do to try to mitigate what had been done. I drew Midori's least favorite color from her mind and used my telepathic gift to adjust her own – so that all her telepathic visions were colored in a monotone green. That way she would not only know at a glance that the vision wasn't part of her proximate reality, but would also hold an aversion to it – I had hoped in this way to spare her looking more closely at things no child should ever behold. Even though her favorite color is green, the tone that you wear, her least favorite is also a shade of green. What I did, suppressing her ability to communicate from fear of what she would reveal, not blunting the knowledge that it was because you were my operative, trying to help in the way I did – all of it... Fitting it was a ring I gave her – my actions, my sins, chasing each other, the one ending where another one started, and doubling back upon themselves – the Urobolus Ring might be what Krelian discovered in Fei and Elly, but I created a disastrous ring of another sort and cursed my own granddaughter with it. Yes, through my actions, Midori was trapped in a condition of holding her proper measure of love for you, knowing you, your heart and mind, and your true, beneficial motivations better than anyone, but not being able to even look at you, or even try to communicate with you, without horror overwhelming her. Her earliest memories of you, when you would wake and pick her up to comfort her out of a nightmare, or read a bedtime story, or sing a lullaby to her to help her go gently to sleep were always colored in soylent green – due to the ring. That is why Midori doesn't try to communicate with you."

I wanted nothing more than to dash over and pick my daughter up, hold her close to my heart, and take both of us away from the horrors of these revelations, but I forced myself still, to listen until the very end, and hope that if I managed to find a way for both of us to leave, I could somehow, in some way do something to help my daughter – even if it meant taking my horror-inducing presence away and never seeing her again.

"I don't believe that will be needed. I felt what I did was necessary. In my long, long life there were many repugnant acts that were necessary – but this one pained me more deeply than all the others. To undo it – I pit the totality of my will against even death for this chance to mitigate the harm I did to my grandchild. She is a fitting heir to the promise," Cain once more replied to my unarticulated thoughts.

"But what can you do? The damage is done, and she has suffered..."

"I am the first human, given an immortal span, or near enough, and gifted with many skills. Her memory could be erased," Cain suggested.

I didn't like that idea. "It would remove the remembrance of the suffering from her conscious mind, but after all I've witnessed and learned about humans minds from Fei..."

"There is that, but, perhaps my power..."

I interrupted him. "Even if you could excise the memories, it would be like taking parts of her life away from her. Oh, my poor child!"

"I could blunt them, leave them there, but adjust the recall vectors so they appear – how did you put it? – like in the third person, so that the awareness of discomfort is there, but the actual experience of it is not," Cain offered.

I shook my head, driven, once more, beyond words, even beyond thought. My mind couldn't grasp the enormity of what had been done, and I couldn't even begin to postulate a remedy.

"Grandfather Cain?" Midori spoke up. I turned my head to stare at my daughter. She considered him her 'grandfather', even after all this?

"Yes, child?" Cain used his most gentle tone to reply.

"I think – I understand – why. Memories – can't hurt. Just..." Midori looked up, and fell quiet again.

Yes. I keep thinking I need to protect her, and I do, even though I've failed, and that I need to solve this and fix this and I have no idea what my daughter needs, but that does the same thing that has already been done to her, does it not? It forces her to accept another overriding her will again. I am her father and it is my duty to protect and help her, and sometimes I do have to override her will, but she is an exceptional child. True, that exceptional nature is what brought this tragedy upon her, but... "Midori, perhaps we need to ask you what you want?" I said softly, suspecting that even as I did so, my exceptional child had just followed my inner epiphany along with me. "We are so very sorry for the pain we have both caused you – what can we do to stop that for you?"

Midori turned, locked her gaze on my eyes, and smiled. It was a true, bright, trusting smile, the likes of which I had never seen aimed my way before, and in a sudden flash of insight I could see the tiny wince around her eyes that told me she was still struggling with the soylent-tinged vision she had been subjected to.

"If I – promise – to talk to – only Mommy and Daddy – about all things – I shouldn't know... Can you – take the – bad green away?" Midori turned and stared up at Cain. I ached with helpless sympathy, again able to see in the tautness of her body how important this simple request was to her. "I can – bear – memories – if green – gone."

"Of course, child." Cain folded his hands together over his heart, closed his eyes, and dropped his head for a long moment. When he lifted his head again, he gestured and the small dais Midori stood on drifted near enough for him to reach out and take her shoulders between his hands. I ramped down on my spurt of alarm at the contact. Perhaps it was that I was there, sharing the etheric space with the two strongest telepaths on the planet (while being the third strongest in my own right) but I could sense the overflowing benevolence Cain held toward Midori as he leaned over and kissed her forehead. Midori's eyes closed and she swayed, which Cain must have expected, as he was already supporting her. After a moment, she found her footing again, and opened her eyes.

She looked at Cain, and a smile wreathed her face. She turned and stared at me. The smile deepened into a delighted grin, and her dais skipped like a stone until it touched the one I was standing on. "Daddy!" Midori dashed over, threw her arms around my waist and hugged tight.

"Midori!" I had never seen my child so exuberant or emotive before. The sparkling, happy bursts of delight that kept brushing up against my mind made me smile, too. I knelt, adjusted Midori's arms to clasp my neck without breaking her embrace, and stood up, lifting my daughter into my arms as I did so.

"The icky green is gone. I can see your face properly, now," Midori whispered in my ear, the most words I had ever heard her string together in a sentence spoken to me at one time. Miraculously, the words continued to flow. "Don't be angry at Grandfather Cain, he didn't mean to do anything bad to me. It just turned out that way."

I wondered if perhaps Midori was 'leaning' on me with her talents, as my anger dissipated instantly.

"I would never do that to you – or to anyone!" Midori pulled back and fixed a sour, reproving glare, so much like one of Yui's, on my face that I had to laugh at the similarity.

"I believe you, daughter. Are you...?" What did I want to ask? Was she happy? I could see her delight for myself, but was it a surface delight, or one that would last? Would her sullen silence descend upon her once more – or worse, would she come to resent the silent years she endured, now that the silence had been lifted?

"No, Hyuga. Midori is a most remarkable child, and I'm not saying that merely because you are her father and I her grandfather. I believe she grasped not only what had been done to her, but why – or came to understand the why in time. She's not sullen, and there is no trace of bitterness or resentment in her. It appears she has already done on her own what I would have done for her – blunted the memories, or rather, blunted the impact of the memories that were so horrifying. Lifting the telepathically-imposed tinge of green from her telepathic abilities seems to have..."

"Seems to have...?" I prodded as Cain petered to a stop.

"I just now realized something about Midori. Her telepathy isn't merely a tool for her to use – it's part of how she sees the world. What I did..." A spasm of horror crossed Cain's face.

"What?"

"I didn't realize the full depth of what I did to her until just now, that's all. It wasn't just the 'forbidden' knowledge that got tinted in that color she doesn't like."

"Hate," Midori supplied. "I hate soylent green!"

"You have telepathy, as does she. You might not use it this way, even I don't, but Midori evidently does. When she looks at you, not only does she hear you, and see you, and feel you if she is touching you – she – we don't have a word or concept for it – she telepaths you as well, or senses you with her telepathy. So, what I did was even more horrible that I was aware – she's always seen you in the color of things forbidden to her. No wonder her speech was so delayed!"

"'s okay," Midori ducked her head and hid her face against my chest. "You didn't know." She lifted her head and fixed her gaze directly on Cain's face. "I forgive you, Grandfather."

"Oh? You sense that, little one?"

"Sense what?" I felt as if I were getting one out of every ten words in a critical conversation. It made me anxious to be behind the curve.

"Yes. It's okay, Daddy. Grandfather needs to know he didn't hurt me, not in any real way, before he can forgive himself – and he needs to forgive himself."

True. Cain was dead. As he said, I could consider this an interactive etheric recording, but I suspected the truth was far simpler, and yet far more complicated than that.

"To advance, you need – absolution?"

"A self-imposed restraint, I'm afraid. But even if it were not there, I would seek to undo the damage I caused Midori – and you."

And there was that. The swath of damage in my own life due to Cain's actions. With all the bombshells I had absorbed, could I forgive Cain? No, could I forgive my father?

The answer was far simpler than I thought, and I arrived at it much faster than I ever would have expected. "I could have wished I had grown up with my brothers instead of at Jugend, and to have lived with my parents and Grandfather far longer. I will always mourn their deaths and hold love and fond memories in my heart, but... If such had happened, I would never have met Yui, fallen in love, and had Midori. I would not have been able to help Fei, and through him, our people. I might have had only a small part in it, but if my life had been different, Deus might well have reconstructed itself and even now be traveling to wreak havoc on other worlds after destroying everyone on ours."

"You are saying you have no regrets?"

I stared for a long moment at the man on the main dais, the one I had called 'Emperor'. "A few. I find a great one is brand new – I regret that I never knew you as my father."

Cain smiled a bit sadly at that. "I find I regret that greatly too, my son."

"As for where we are now – if you need forgiveness from me, the only onus I would lay upon you would be because of what you did to Midori. As she has forgiven you already, if you need to hear it, you have my forgiveness, too."

Cain stared into the distance for a long moment. "Thank you. I must forgive myself, in order to advance from here. Midori's forgiveness, and yours, certainly are necessary for me to even begin to forgive myself for what I have done to both of you." A deeply pensive expression crossed his face. "But that is a struggle I must tend to – one that does not concern you. Even if I can never forgive myself and remain trapped here forever, knowing that each of you is strong enough to move forward, and generous enough to forgive me, that your lives and your destinies are each your own untainted by anything I have done – that gives me contentment. That being said, it is past time for you to take up those lives and destinies, untroubled by the remnant of a very old man..." Cain lifted his hand, in a gesture almost like a benediction.

"Wait," I said. I knelt and placed Midori on her feet on the center of 'her' dais again. "This might be only an etheric place, with no substance other than the tricks our own minds are playing on themselves, but there is one more thing I need to do before I am ready to return. May I approach?"

My answer was my dais moving close enough that I could do what I had never done before, step onto the large central dais. "You have known my entire life, but it is a new revelation to me – and one that comes after your span has come to an end. Still, I find I am not ready to let you go – Father – until I..."

Cain opened his arms, reading my intent and sparing me the articulation of the words. As Cain's arms closed around me, gentle memories of the same embrace, but of my far younger self, bloomed in my mind.

"A child needing comfort from nightmares accepts an embrace from anyone," Cain noted. "Even if that 'anyone' is in reality that child's own father."

"I do regret that I did not know I was your son," I admitted.

Cain gently pushed me away, but maintained his hold on my shoulders, fixing a mild look on my face. "Better that you didn't – you couldn't give yourself away. You would have been actively targeted, if it had been known. Now, I can tell you that I have always been especially proud of you. I'm sorry for what I did to you and Midori. Now that I've been permitted to do what little I can to atone for that damage, it is time for both of you to return."

My awareness of the etheric space faded softly. A gentle night-born breeze teased through my hair. I opened my eyes and realized I was back on the hillside where I had been searching for my daughter. Just as the realization hit, her small hand crept into mine.

"Why, hello there, Midori," I said.

"Daddy," Midori yawned. "I'm so tired. Can we go home now?"

I knelt to take my daughter into my arms again. The small settling motions as she made herself more comfortable in my embrace, and the trust implicit in those actions felt right and for the first time I really felt as if Midori regarded me as her father. "Of course. Your mother will be relieved you have been found."

Midori nodded. I, as I suspected so often before, sensed my daughter wanted to say something. I waited, hoping that the easy volubility she had shown before hadn't been merely an artifact of the effect of the etheric space. "When we get home, Daddy, will you tell me a bedtime story?"

"As you wish, Midori." I wanted to shout for pure joy, and from the bubbling bursts of happiness and mirth evanescing through my mind, Midori felt the same way, too.

"So, there you have it." I folded my hands and looked over my glasses with a deliberately mild expression at some of my closest friends gathered around the table with me after I finished my narrative. Each showed various expressions of surprise or shock. Bartholomew's mouth was actually agape, but his brother Sigurd mimicked my usual pose by cupping his chin and tilting his head as he regarded me with a gentle smirk. Maison, as was his peculiarity, didn't join us at the table, but I could see in the reflection in the mirror how he nodded his head in satisfaction, and smiled in his reserved sort of way. Fei's brown eyes were blank as he appeared to be still absorbing the intricate layers of my story, but I could see the beginnings of a returning sparkle to them. I was most concerned about the last of my friends at this table – Kahran Ramsus. He had been displaced from what he believed to be his destiny once, with catastrophic results, and I most especially did not want to rock his world, or his sense of self that drastically again. Poor Kahr. With what had been done to him, his entire life, it almost seemed as if the world held no place for him, or did not want him. I hoped my next statement would defuse his understandable jump to that conclusion again. "It seems we are kin after a fashion – something like brothers?"

He stared into my eyes at that, the profound blankness of his expression displaying his absolute shock at my statement. Warmth washed into them, first, then understanding, and finally, acceptance with only a trace of self-aware ruefulness. "It begs the question, 'brother' which of us is the older and which the younger?"

"I am sure we can figure it out," I replied, with an airy hand wave.

"Who'd have thought it! Ol' Doc is a prince!" Fei exclaimed.

Trust him to arrive at that conclusion. "Please! Please. Solaris, and all it stood for has passed into history – as well it should. I am as I have always been..." I began.

"Yeah, knowing far more of what's going on than anyone else in the room," Sigurd noted wryly. "At least this time you are sharing the knowledge with us!" Sigurd pushed his chair back from the table so he could stand up. "It's about time we set out. If I don't deliver certain ones of you to your respective ladies, I will never hear the end of it." He left the Gun Room, heading toward the bridge.

"Margie thinks she runs my life!" Bart complained.

"That's because she does," Fei replied. "Elly runs mine. It's not so bad."

"Young one, the sooner you submit to the reality of your situation, the easier it will be on you," I said, unable to prevent myself from needling the 'Pirate Prince'.

"Yeah, yeah," Bart countered. "Just because your daughter's got you wrapped around her little finger doesn't mean I'm in some sort of all-fired hurry to make one of my own!"

The mental image of Midori, sparked by Bart's words, filled me with impossible to contain overflowing washes of love. Evidently, it showed on my face.

"Ah, geez. You've gone and done it again – Doc's gone all gooey!" Fei said in mock-disgust. "Let's go help Sigurd while Doc regains his composure."

The image paused for a long moment on the happy smile on Citan's face. Cain watched as it faded slowly, unwilling to tear his gaze away until the screen returned to a middle sort of gray tone and began its whirling dance in the ether space once more. "Thank you. To be able to undo the damage I did to Midori – and further, to tell my son the entire truth," Cain nodded decisively. "To know that they are all right, and have taken up the threads of their lives once more... The burdens are lifted from my soul. I can pass on without regrets."

Krelian lifted his head from a pensive pose. "Oh, but that doesn't suit me at all. Now that I've done something for you, you must do something for me."

Cain, dead though he was, in this place that wasn't a place felt a spurt of alarm. "B-but..."

Krelian advanced toward him. "You may have completed all you wished to do, but I now hold the bonds of your destiny. You are not free to move on until I grant you leave, and your work isn't completed, yet. Not by a long shot."

Midori flopped onto her stomach on her bed on the Yggdrasil. Her father was with his friends in the Gun Room, and her mother was trading recipes with the women in the communal quarters on the ship so she had a few quiet moments to herself.

Midori gazed into the swirling green depths of the gem of her ring. The green was pure and lovely, entirely unlike the icky soylent green it had been before. She smiled. It was so nice to be able to look into her father's eyes and see his calm and warm regard, rather than the half-viewed and completely terrifying partial images of Solaris' Soylent System. What was even sweeter was how her father would smile gently down at her and listen most attentively when she spoke with him. No one else listened to her as carefully as her dad. It made sense to Midori. Her dad had carried such a burden in his heart that his child didn't love him. The release of the hold of the Soylent System on her mind allowed her to talk with and show her love for her dad properly.

But, her ring. Once, she wanted nothing more than to lose it and get rid of it forever, but now... Grandfather Cain lived in it. She could tell. He asked her, he didn't command it, and didn't force her to obey him, but merely asked that she not tell her dad. She thought this might be a good secret to keep from him for a while. He had been hurt and confused by much of what Grandfather had shared. It would be best for her to let her father come to terms with everything that happened before she shared this new secret with him. From within her ring, Grandfather Cain agreed.

~end~

Author's note –
Xenogears is 'that' game. It's dense, convoluted, mind-bending and just when you think you know what's going on, well, anyone who's played Xenogears knows that's when the game jumps up and smacks that complacency right out of you.

So, your mileage may vary with this story. Yes, Citan is my favorite character. I have always felt a bit sorry for Emperor Cain, and intrigued by Midori. Information gleaned from translations of Perfect Works, particularly about Citan's childhood and pre-game actions just seemed to 'fit' and this story is the result.