Blessings of Eos
Chapter 7
Disclaimer: Own this story, but not Final Fantasy.
Aerith continued to dry heave after any possible contents of Her stomach had long left. Gloved hands held Her hair back, and passed water to Her. Sipping and spitting out water several times, She leaned back into a familiar chest as She started to drink the water. Arms hugged Her from behind, much as She had once done lifetimes ago. "Thank you…but you're gone. Long gone." She said, the memory of Zack disappearing.
This tended to happen when She entered the Lifestream after speaking of those closest to Her. Elmyra and Ifalna would turn out randomly, usually when She needed comfort, but the others only showed up after She talked of them. They never spoke. She didn't know if they didn't speak because of a limit to the memory ghosts or because She couldn't bring Herself to hear their voices again. She didn't really want to know either.
Stomach calm, She turned back to the files that had caused such a reaction. The magitek trooper process. She had known the basics, with the slow infection inspired by the Corrupted's own slow corruption, but these were detailed records. They would randomly kill a unit, at various stages of infection, to autopsy it and study the results. They had even discovered a way to autopsy a unit after the transformation was complete. Well, autopsy wasn't quite the word to use. Dissection was closest to what the scientists did, but in truth…
She could have spent Her existence without knowing the exact way to disable a trooper in order to poke at the insides, thank you very much. It reminded Her of another scientist, at least in terms of horror.
Most of what was written would never apply to Prompto; requiring either a higher infection rate or more prolonged exposure. But there was still a couple items of concern.
Up until now She had never considered how photography was a way of shooting things without killing them. His infection rate was low enough that any 'itchy trigger finger' he experienced could be soothed with his photography. Time would reduce this further as the infection rate decreased. While it was something of a concern, She was more worried about the other item.
His memory. Between the genetic manipulation of his healing and the enhanced senses from the infection, he would remember more, especially from an earlier age. Even if those memories manifested mainly in dreams…there was a flash, an image of a question. How much do you remember?
The answer. Too much.
Aerith hoped that this trip across Lucis made enough happy memories to help combat the others. A wise, very quirky man She had once encountered had described life as a pile of good things and a pile of bad things. The good may not always counteract the bad, but the bad doesn't taint the good either.
In the morning She would have to examine the calendar. There wasn't a sense of urgency, so there should be time to detour to Galdin Quay for a day at the beach, before doubling back through Longwythe up to Hammerhead and the first of the Crown City checkpoints.
She sighed as Her Church faded away, leaving just Her field of flowers. They hadn't had a name when She tended them in life, but here they were called Eos blooms. Flopping down, eagle spread on what passed for ground, She stared up at the infinite mist above.
With every new discovery regarding Prompto and the specifics of the magitek trooper process, She grew more and more attached to him. It would be very, very hard to walk away at the last checkpoint. She cared for every child She had helped, and the partings had been hard, but Prompto was on a different level.
Maybe there was more to that distant Chance She had seen that first night then She realized.
Feeling the draw back to Her body as the post woke, She set aside Her concerns, preparing to face the day with a progressively hyper five year old.
"Let's see…" She tapped Her finger against the calendar, Prompto standing on a chair next to Her as they examined the month of May. "If we leave at first light tomorrow, we'll make Longwythe with enough time to grab a ride with the mail truck to Galdin Quay. One day at the beach, traveling back through Longwythe the following day, and reaching Hammerhead after that…we'll reach the Crown City on May 13th. May 16th on the outside." Her finger twitched as it touched the square labeled 'May 16'. Something would happen on that day, at some point in the future.
"Crown City? I thought we were going to Insomnia?" Prompto, having never heard of Insomnia referred to as such, asked.
"People call Insomnia 'the Crown City' because that's where the royal family lives. That's the family that rules Lucis, and has for centuries. The current king is King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, and when he dies, his son Prince Noctis will become King Noctis Lucis Caelum CXIV. The numbers at the end of their names signify what number king they are. So there have been one hundred thirteen kings of Lucis." Aerith explained, nibbling on a biscuit left over from breakfast.
How Myra managed chocobo-shaped biscuits and scrambled eggs She'll never know, but Prompto was loving them.
"So what's a beach?" Prompto asked as they walked over to the hatchery to meet the clutch that had hatched late last night.
"It's on the coast, like Caem, but it's a gentler edge between the land and the sea, than at Caem, with sand instead of raised coral reefs. The ferries to Accordo runs from there, and there's a great restaurant and hotel right on the dock."
"Is a hotel like a motel?" Last night's chicks were mingling with the honey-colored chick and its nestmates outside the building.
"It's basically the same thing, except a hotel costs more because the rooms have better furnishings. Coctuna, the owner, cooks all the food at the restaurant, and her seafood dishes are the best in Eos." Opal's chicks had joined them, and once again She lost him in a pile of chicks.
"…Eos?" The smallest of last night's clutch, with a color that reminded Her of lemons, seemed to like Prompto the best.
"'Eos' is the name of the Planet. The name comes from the goddess of the dawn, Eos, who brought the first dawn to humanity after humans were created from Etro's blood. She nurtured them as Her children, so sometimes She is called the Dawn Mother." The chick She was calling Daffodil in Her head had claimed a prime spot in Her lap, as it's honey-colored nestmate tried to bully the smallest chick out of Prompto's lap.
A discrete word to Myra and Cassie meant that the two of them were developing yesterday's film in Cassie's dark room, while Chrissy prepared the scrap book. There would be enough time for Cassie to show off her dark room once they finished before dinner, after which they would give Prompto the book.
A loud kweh startled Her as the smallest chick kicked the honey-colored one off of Prompto's lap, knocking down a couple other chicks. As Prompto blinked in confusion, Opal, with Wiz on her back, appeared with a kweh.
"Well, I've never seen a chocobo that young pull off a chocobo kick." He commented, getting off Opal to examine honey chick for injuries.
"Chocobo kick?" Opal started her grooming of Prompto. She had noticed that she seemed to groom him a lot, even though She wasn't sure why.
"It's how chocobos attack things that attack them. One island had a whole force of trained combat chocobos, with mounted soldiers. Not that it helped, when the Empire bombed the island into the ocean." Wiz told him, satisfied that the honey chick wasn't hurt beyond bruises.
Prompto eyed the smallest chick nervously. "…it's not gonna attack me, right?"
"Nah, it just didn't want to give up its spot to this guy here." Wiz assured him.
"Opal seems to be grooming Prompto a lot. Do you know why?" Aerith asked, as Opal moved onto the other chicks.
"Might just be a nervous tick, but she hasn't done anything like that before."
"He did scream the first time she tried to, since he thought she was going to eat him," She admitted, as Prompto calmed the two feuding chicks by lavishing attention on them equally.
Wiz just shook his head. "I got nothin'."
Shrugging, She asked, "So have you learned anything about her new ability?"
"Well, she can activate it at will. Shouldn't be too hard to get her to do it on command." He admitted.
She had been observing Prompto with Her Sight all morning, but if he was practicing taking the glass up and down, She couldn't tell. Prompto started to dig out of the chick mob as Myra rang the bell for lunch.
Once lunch had passed, She decided to see if he knew how to write. His letters turned out legible, but he didn't seem very comfortable holding the pencil. Gently correcting his grip, he found writing easier. With a discreet nod from Myra, She told him, "Once you finish copying this line, Cassie is free to show you where she develops the photos."
She couldn't help smiling as his tongue peeked out of his mouth as he concentrated on copying the line She had written. "Done!" He exclaimed, tossing down the pencil.
"Very good!" Myra complimented him, Aerith echoing the compliment. He didn't blush as much as he had with earlier compliments as he pulled Her out of Her chair and out the door.
As Cassie showed Prompto the process of turning film into photographs, She examined the scrap book Chrissy had compiled. Aside from the pictures of the two of them, there were also pictures of the various chocobos, Wiz and his family, and a small map of the region with the post clearly marked and a list of destinations and their directions starting from the post. "This is really great Chrissy." She told her, as the bespectacled girl blushed.
"Thanks Miss Aerith. I hope he likes it." She answered. Chrissy tended to be more comfortable around animals then people, but she felt a special bond with Aerith, ever since Aerith saved her from a close encounter with an Iron Giant when she was little, having been following one of her kittens at dusk and leaving the boundaries of the post.
"He definitely will. Are you still going to take that correspondence course, the biology one through the Insomnia Royal University?"
Chrissy nodded. "I just got the acceptance letter with the last mail. They were really impressed with my paper on chocobo mating. I'd love to attend in person, but it's too far from the post to consider."
"Well good luck." She said as Prompto ran over to Her, to show off the photo he had just developed.
It turned out to be the shot Opal had ruined, resulting in a distorted mass of colors, with Opal in the upper right corner of the photo. "Don't worry, I've had plenty of shots that were messed up. Plus it's really interesting to look at." Cassie reassured him when he expressed worry over the quality.
Myra surprised everyone with a chocobo shaped chocolate cake once the dinner dishes were cleared away. "I never realized just how many things you can make in the shape of chocobos." Aerith commented as Prompto tried to sneak bites off the cake while Myra grabbed the cake getter.
He wasn't actually being sneaky, but everyone by mutual agreement had pretended to not see. "It just takes practice." Myra demurred as she started serving the cake.
Prompto hugged on tight to Chrissy when she gave him the book, her turning bright red. Then it was Aerith's turn to hug her when She was surprised with Her own copy of the book. "Too bad we have to leave in the morning." Prompto said as She washed his hair in the bath.
"You'll be back one day. Until then, you'll have the book and the memories." Given the near purr he was emitting, maybe flaring Her aura, being pure Life energy, was encouraging the inserted couerl DNA to take root.
She went over the information about the Sight again as She prodded him into brushing his teeth, something She had neglected previous nights, but more pressing tonight given the cake. "Are you going to do that thing again tonight?" He asked as She tucked him.
"Well, I think your Sight has been strengthened as much as it can, since you can See the aura of the plants and ground. Now it's a matter of experience gained through age. So no light show tonight." She sat down on the side of the bed. "Last night I went over information about the magitek trooper process. I couldn't bring Myself to read it right after your medical file, but I had to read it sooner or later."
His face was solemn. "Is it bad?"
"Very bad. Most of what I learned you won't have to worry about." Honesty felt like the best way to go with this discussion.
"But there is stuff to worry about." Prompto idly played with the fringe of the knit throw on top of the bed.
She nodded. "Have you felt an urge to shoot? Like if you had a gun, you would shoot something?"
He nodded. "Yeah. I haven't really felt the urge like that since you saved me, but…when I see something…I don't have to think about what would be kill areas. I just know. It felt better when I had the camera in my hands, but…I'm scared about what will happen after we get to Insomnia. I don't want to kill things…yet sometimes…it feels as easy as breathing."
"As your exposure to the Scourge, the blackness, increased, what can best be called a 'killer instinct' increased as well. Your infection rate is fifteen percent, and it will only get lower the more sun you get and the more time passes between your last exposure. At that rate, the urge is as you described. Guns are illegal for private citizens in Insomnia, and with a camera, that should soothe the urge when it hits."
"…will it ever go away?"
"It will get better, but…I can't say whether it will go away completely." She turned and started to rub slow circles on his back. "Should the time come, when something attacks and it's a choice between life and death…it will help you survive."
She turned his head up to meet Her eyes. "Please don't worry. As long as having the urge bothers you, you will be fine. It's when the urge stops bothering you, and the fact that you could easily kill doesn't cause pain, that you need to worry. This doesn't mean that you've accepted that you have the urge and can kill easily. It means that you've embraced it; that it makes you happy."
He bit his lip. "…so, as long as the idea of easily killing something bothers me, I'll…be okay?"
"It doesn't have to be a conscious thought of 'this bothers me', it can just be a feeling in your stomach, an uneasiness that lingers should you be put in a position to fight. Militaries seek to nurture a killer instinct in the soldiers, so that those soldiers can accept what doing their job may mean. And as I've said, it will get better as the infection rate decreases." She fervently hoped he believed Her.
He nodded, swallowing hard. "Did you find anything else? That may cause problems?" He asked, curling in Her lap as She continued to rub his back.
"Part of what was done that's not completely related to the blackness is your memory. Before you were born, the scientists increased how well your body heals from being hurt. You know how you broke your leg?" She felt his nod against Her chest. "Should someone see a picture of the bones in your leg, they wouldn't know you had broken it. How this relates to your memory is in the toughness of the cells responsible for memory. It makes the connections between the cells less resistant to falling away. The blackness increased how well you see and hear things. Between the two things, you'll remember more things from an earlier age. My earliest memory was when I was three, but it's not a solid memory, but more like an image. So for you, remembering something from when you were three when you're twenty…it will be a solid memory." She paused here.
"Why would remembering clearly what happened when I was three when I'm older worry you?" Prompto asked, a hand fisted in Her jacket.
"I'm worried that being able to clearly remember what happened before I came for you will make it harder for you live your life fully. The experiences you had back there…since they aren't good, I'm worried you won't be able to…move past what happened, that those will darken future happy times." Aerith admitted.
"So you're worried that I'll just be alive and not actually living?" He looked up at Her.
"Yeah."
"Well, it seems like you're giving me happy times now, before you have to leave me. So even if I don't have a great life, I'll have good memories that I'll be able to remember more clearly. Plus," He said brightly. "I'll have meeting you again to look forward to, so I should at least try to make more good memories so I'll have plenty of stories to share!"
She giggled. She hoped that his spirit stayed bright, regardless of the storms to come. "Well, I think I owe you a story tonight before you go to sleep. So let's get settled again!"
Eager for a story, Prompto quickly complied. "Hmm…tonight will be about the Great Ninja Yuffie. A ninja is a fighter that specializes in being fast and sneaky. They might not be able to knock someone out with one punch, but with their secret techniques, they could make an enemy attack illusions while they sneak past to their real goal." He looked very excited about the idea of a fighter who didn't need to fight at all. "Yuffie was from a long line of ninja, and started learning the secret techniques as soon as she was old enough. But when she was young, and rightfully still an apprentice, war came to her home…"
As Aerith told of Yuffie's Epic Trek of Greatness (Yuffie's own term for her travels when she had told the stories to her children), she started to think that maybe it was too much of an action-packed story for bedtime, as he didn't show a hint of tiredness. "…In the end, she returned home with chests full of treasures that had been stolen from her homeland that she had stolen back. Yuffie surprised everyone by marrying a former enemy, Tseng, and settling into the role of a proper ruler. But it was all an act, because she kept up her skills, and once her children were old enough, she started to teach them as she had been taught, continuing the traditions into the future."
He asked, "Is that it?"
"Of course that's it; it's been twenty minutes." She answered.
He groaned. "But hearing that she taught her children what she knew means that there's got to be more to the story!"
"Well, it was the story of the Great Ninja Yuffie, not the story of the Great Ninja Zaku and Ari." She retorted.
That got her a pout. "What about another one of your friends?" He asked, as She had described Her own adventures with Yuffie in the story.
She rested Her head on Her chin, considering Her choices. Mentally flipping through them, She choose. "Cid, from the time he was your age, dreamed of flying the skies, reaching beyond the clouds and horizon, to maybe even, one day, reach beyond the Planet and touch the stars…"
"…He touched the stars, and, seeing the Planet from space, realized truly how important the fight really was. He had joined in to get back at Shinra for denying his dream, but wound up finding reasons far more important, and realized the value of the woman who had devoted herself to him, no matter the abuse he heaped on her. After the journey, Cid now devoted himself to Shera, and their common dream of airships that anyone would be able to travel on." Prompto was curled up into a ball on his side, hugging on a spare pillow. Aerith gently shut the door behind Her as She left to take a bath of Her own.
She ran into Wiz right outside the room. "I called Coctuna to let her know you'd be stopping by and to save a room for ya." He informed Her.
"Thank you. You know you didn't have to." She answered.
"That's why I do it, why all of us do it." 'All of us' referring to the shop keepers and restaurant owners and motel staff of Eos. "You know we all know, not just Cid and me and my family."
"I never expected otherwise, even if I only confirm it if asked directly."
"Which is why they don't ask, because for whatever reasons you've stayed out of sight, and we all respect that. But there has been the question of why you've ignored the forest for the trees, as it were."
She was quiet for a long time. "…I'm scared. There is so much power in the Lifestream, far more than the Astrals could ever bring to bear even together. I've watched countless people lose themselves to a greater power, becoming the very thing they had once fought against, treating people like pawns and forgetting they had once been no different. I'm scared of giving in, scared of letting Myself embrace the Lifestream fully, scared of losing Myself and forgetting that in the struggles of gods and great powers it is the little people who suffer the most, from people barely touched by it to those singled out to bear great sacrifices. I…I don't want to forget them…" She trailed off, tears beginning to fail.
Wiz pulled Her into a hug, and She cried into his shoulder, much as he had done into Her shoulder forty years ago after watching everything he had known, and his family's legacy of the last four generations go up in flames.
When all was said and done, there was that part of Her that was still a scared little girl, hearing voices only She alone could hear after the death of Her first mother. The young woman who sacrificed Herself to call down a great power, only to watch Her loved ones fade away while She remained. The Lady who opened Her eyes to every new world, wondering if this would be the world where She would finally fade away to join them.
Wiz raised his head to meet Prompto's eyes as he peeked out through the door, having witnessed this. The look was enough to send him back to bed.
Pulling away as the tears dried up, She apologized. "I'm sorry…it's all wet now." Wiping Her eyes.
"It all dries in the end." He answered, echoing what She had told him when he had said much the same thing. "Besides, a pretty Lady clinging to me? How could I resist?"
She lightly smacked his chest in rebuke. "You old flirt. What would Myra say?"
"Myra would say he has enough pretty ladies to cling to him." Myra answered as she entered the hallway.
Wiz just looked sheepish as he followed her into their bedroom, leaving Her to take Her bath.
Returning to the guest room, She curled around Prompto, him latching on much as he had the previous nights. She kissed his forehead good night, and he raised his head to look at Her. With that look She knew he had seen, and She pulled him closer. "You'd never forget, because it bothers you too much, like how what I can do bothers me too much to lose myself." He whispered.
"That may be true, but…" She didn't continue.
"…you don't have to keep telling me their stories." He told Her.
"…I like telling them, because when I tell them they live again, if only for a short while." She answered, closing Her eyes.
Maybe it was finally admitting Her fears out loud, but when Yuffie and Cid joined Her in the field, they spoke. Zack joined them, and they traded stories, laughing together much as they once had, worlds ago.
Yeah…the characters have totally hijacked everything.
