Jupiter looking straight into Balem's eyes "Once I seal this how long do we have before you harvest the earth."
He closed his eyes for a moment and then answered, "I promise you will not see it."
She kept stalling, "how long?"
Balem tries be patient since most people do things he wants instantly, "You knew nothing about harvesting before... why should it matter now." looking down to the sampling station "remember why you are here" Thinking we can always count on the emotional systems of stock animals to take over.
She says "to protect my family." Thinking it over, does he need me to seal it while I'm still alive?
Saying as if it was a normal meeting, "seal it. then you and your family can go home" back to the one true home.
Confused and conflicted between saving her family over later generations on Earth, "if I don't, you can't touch the earth even if you kill me" Really saying it out loud for herself.
Balem smirks internally, It's too late for that little brain to start working now "That planet belongs to me... it is my right." But he lost his patience when she took her seal away from the sheave.
Jupiter thought me and my family is a small sacrifice, "not any more... "
"This isn't a game. I'm not my brother or my sister...," laughing internally at its audacity of being brave now.
Mr Night interrupts that the shield is ruptured and messing with the stock works. Balem turns to look at the disaster unfolding behind him and screams to "seal it now!" to everyone but mostly to Jupiter.
She's unfazed by his screaming and thinks the order is for his goons.
Cain busts in through the sampling laboratory giving Jupiter hope and joy. He came for me. I knew he would.
Seeing Jupiter's face change and give that look she used to give to him to the splice below annoyed Balem even more than the explosions below and the refinery's destruction in the background. He cut her fun by obscuring the floor which earned him Seraphi's anger and he couldn't control his smirk at making her feel angry.
In retaliation Jupiter smashed the sheave which set Balem off grabbing her by the throat almost choking her enough to scare her. But when she hit him between his legs Balem had enough. "Kill her... kill her NOW!" They will bring her back with ReGenX after she's down for a few minutes.
Her trusty friend rescued her not only by placing a portal between the boardroom floor and the laboratory ceiling but by also catching her as she fell. Balem fell down too.
Taking her to a secure place her Kaine gave her a gun. He was about to go back to fight for her and her family till she pulled him back to give him a passionate kiss. Kaine lips were familiar, his reciprocating brought her home. She was relaxed and knew that everything will be alright now that her Kaine is by her side. She then told him, "in case we don't get the chance again."
To which he replied by bringing her chin up with his hands, placing his hand in the back of her head and kissing her with all his life. Caine thought I found you... I found you and I'm never going to let go. Forgive me.
Hiding and seething, Balem saw the entire spectacle. He now understood why it-she defied him. It had nothing to do with Earth or harvests but him the one he was supposed to replace. This time it had a face; the face of a splice. Of course it was a canine splice. He chastised himself for not noticing the albino splice Titus sent to fetch her.
He watched them trying to figure out how to make Kna'ani stop this madness. If he kills her for a few moments Kna'ani will stop to attack him instead of the refinery. Balem grabbed the sharpest object he could find and sneaked up to new Seraphi.
Balem slashed her just enough to get her attention also making her bleed so that Kna'ani will know that she is hurt making him forget his intelligence and come running to kill him giving his saragons an opportunity to kill her companion. She bled and Kna'ani didn't come to her rescue.
She pulled the gun to defend herself.
Yes! Please gun me down, I deserve it! He thought waiting in anticipation. "I know her... You won't pull that trigger" I dare you weak animal. Mother I know you are in there somewhere. Please come back, this is one of the best life and death game we've ever played. His FTL was overheating trying to keep up with him.
Seraphi shot him in the leg and the refinery bowed down to its new owner. The windows in the boardroom exploded things started falling including a column that broke through all floors sending Balem through messed up Grav transportation beams. Jupiter/Seraphi fell through afterwards.
She is there, his mother is there, he thought as he flew through the beam he remembered the only time his mother said sorry and smiled.
"My Sun EVERYTHING is YOURS to do as you please whenever you wish." Smiling and happy over the turn of events Balem said, "Thank you mother" before doing what babies do best. He was eight and his fully human Entitled nursemaid had weaned him at six yet had kept expressing milk to mix into his food.
"As I was telling our king, my forever companion Kna'ani taught me that true loyalty existed in this universe." The queen kept talking as if there had been no argument and talked as if it-her were best friends. "You should be honored that I let you breathe the same air he breathes." Seraphi braided her prince's hair getting it out of their way. Seraphi made the nursemaid, who looks almost like a clone of his mother, get up on pillows so that she could see her son's eyes as gently stroked his back.
Then sighing, "My little prince was so angry at me when he was born that you slapped me and it hurt more than I thought it would." She laughed and then sweetly said "But you calmed down when finally on my chest and where a perfect baby." The queen smiled as she said, "It is a fond memory I have, you and I are one but with separate bodies for the first time. But I was so exhausted that I fell asleep."
Angrily she stated, "Not knowing that they had drugged me as it is usually done to noble females for their comfort, the geneticists and everyone else where waiting for me to lose consciousness that they may take you from me. I decided to let them live, knowing that they only wanted the best for you and that they were anxious for a genetic imprint since I didn't let any machines near us." The queen pretended to cry.
She continued, "I saw the holovid were your nursemaid fought them, but I couldn't blame my guards for not following a non-entitled orders. It took her five hours twenty one minutes and fourteen seconds to convince Lady Nostron Tier 1 and Lady Kepler Tier 2 to get you back to me. Your nursemaid's loyalty has been proven time and time again that I trust my life and yours in her hands."
"She was subject Nine of Nine in an experiment thus the number… My Sun, think about changing it to whatever you want" she commented and commanded because her suggestions are commands.
Balem let go and lifted his head to answer but before he could the queen planted another open mouth kiss and then told him to really think about the name, to put on the seal for his nursemaid, as she moved him to the other side.
She sighed again, "It's been 4,982 since I've uttered these words and you will never hear me say it in public." Almost crying, "I'm sorry Balem… I'm so sorry."
He stopped eating, hugged his mother with all his force and kissed her back. The queen mother cried as she held him in her arms. She sobbed, "I wanted to give you that closeness but you where having none of it when they brought you back to me. You where screaming your little head with the most awful cry I have ever heard in my life. All I wanted was for you to stop crying."
"I'm sorry mother," little Balem cried in his mother's arms.
But she ignored him, "So impatient that you bit me ripping the flesh off making me bleed. I'm sorry I checked out. I'm sorry that when you bit me again on the other side I would have hit you…"
"It's ok mother, I deserved it for being ungrateful" he sobbed.
Crying she still ignored him, "if it wasn't for Novem OfAbrasax taking the hit instead of you. She held you for me and you stopped crying. She says is because you didn't have any energy left but I think she said that to be nice."
"Mother stop… Please stop hurting yourself. You are a wonderful mother. The best mom in the whole universe!" he was afraid that his mother was dying because he had never seen her in this emotional state and kept trying to keep her happy but he was failing.
"I felt like a failure. How can I feed centillion beings and not be able to feed just one. While ReGenX was applied Novem suggested helping machines and everyone was appalled. I didn't want machines or things like fake nipples; I've done all the experimental studies seeding planets to know better."
"I… I… Love you mother. Please stop crying" he cried and kissed her.
But she still kept going, "You are perfect and perfect demands perfection. After a day of trying I couldn't take your screaming anymore and placed you in her care. She knows me better than I know myself and she knew you since your third lunar cycle within me."
"I'm big and strong. Perfect because of you mother," the boy tried a happy proud tone.
But she kept on with her self-deprecating monologue, "We tried many more times but after a planet needed an emergency harvest, I lost myself in our work. I had to help the lives of the many, they matter more than the one especially when the one is being taken care of by the very best."
"I understand mother. Some lives are more important than others. You, My Queen Mother are the highest and most equal of all lives." He said it in her rare dramatic voice.
That earned him a smile, a kiss, and her being happy again, "Living only for you, she has exceeded all our expectations that I'm transferring a planet's title to her. I should have done it sooner so that my baby is fed by an Entitled. Has my baby thought of what name to put on the seal?"
"Kna'ani Abrasax," he answered smiling knowing that it would satisfy both; his mother by using Kna'ani mother's companion name and getting rid of 'Of' in Abrasax in last name for his nursemaid.
"Kna'ani Abrasax will be on the seal my king. And it is the last time I say that I'm sorry I wasn't there for you at the beginning." She kissed him again and said, "I have an eternity to make it up to you."
"There's nothing to be sorry for Mother. I'm the one who owes you for my life."
Coming back to reality Balem is about to port to wherever mother's new recurrence is located when he notices that she's right behind him.
After they fall through the transportation beam in the movie it was too loud for the discussion as they where across from each other and the beam separating them. (This deleted scene comes just after Jupiter and Balem grab a hold of railings after tumbling through the Grav Trough.)
(She climbs out when suddenly a voice [Balem] calls from the dark.) "It doesn't have to end like this."
(Balem is on the other side of the Trough.) "We don't have to do this again. You once believed we would rule this Verse together. It's true. You swore it to me."
(Jupiter flees his screams.) "YOU swore it to ME!"
He let her-it run. Balem will catch up to it later tracking mother's new seal in her arm. His mother would have killed him and never would have run from anything. It is really just an animal or is his mother testing him again? Why won't you make up your mind mother… what do you want from me?
"Momma never told me how to love, to feel, to heal
Momma never set a good example
Momma found everything hard to handle
I've walked alone, broken
Emotionally frozen
Getting it on
Getting it wrong
How do you love someone
Without getting hurt
How do you love someone
Without crawling in the dirt"
How do you love someone by Ashley Tisdale
Next and maybe last chapter: My take on Seraphi and Balem's last fight (well one of six in my head) and the movie's fight.