Yes, I am alive. I am so sorry! I had an awful case of writer's block for this fic and a really good idea for an ffX-2 fic. Now finally when I'm on the thirteenth chapter of that fic I have ideas flowing again for this one! This chapter isn't very long but the next one is (already written but I just have to type it up, same with the one after that, lol). I will make no promises about regular updates but I am gonna try.

Before I let you read just wanna advertise for a friend. He's written this really good ff9 fic and no ones reviewing it even when its good! It has everything, action, romance, humour. Please go and read! It's Neo Genesis Project by DarkMessenger-2005.

Anyway here we go! His chapter has a bit of everyone and includes some more explanations and Reason's past. Hope you like! It might not be great though cause I wrote it when I was sick.

Chapter twenty three: Mikoto vs. Reason

A single lamp was all that kept the crowding darkness at bay. Reason sat in his and Meaning's old room alone. He felt nothing over the loneliness, the threatening darkness. He did not care at all. So this was how it was when you had no emotion. You didn't dwell on memories, you didn't become effected by what was happening around you. You just didn't care, couldn't care.

Sounds awful to meMikoto muttered as she saw the thoughts and memories. Justice groaned at her and decided his memories were better then her mood.

"What's with you?" He asked raising Mikoto's eyebrow.

I'm stuck with you that's what! She growled, Justice groaned again and buried his face in the pillow. Unfortunately Mikoto was in his head and her complaints couldn't be blocked out. Pain shot through him as another growth spurt happened. He hated being in a girl's body, especially when a hormonal woman was sharing his mind. I am going to kill Zidane when we rescue him! And on and on she went! It was a nightmare! No wonder parents dreaded the teenage years. Now he was beginning to understand why he got stuck with the only girl. God help he understood. Are you even listening?

"Can we go back to the memory now?" He asked hopefully feeling an inner glare directed at him. "Aw, come on. You know you can't live without me." Reason teased.

Literally Mikoto muttered but with a less grumpy tone in her voice. You know, for a skichzo maniac you seen okay.

"Thanks Mikoto, for a creation you're okay too. Now let's get this over with so your body can finish growing quicker."

Aaww! Is little Reason embarrassed about a woman's body? Reason felt their face blush but didn't answer the taunting voice. Fair enough, but hopefully I won't end up being such a twenty year old grump like you.

Ipsen gazed at the party with a warm smile on his face.

"I've been waiting for you." He said softly. Dagger just nodded silently. "It is good to see a royal descendant Queen Garnet. Courage has done a good job watching out for you."

"Courage? He was Alexander wasn't he?" Dagger asked as she looked down at her hands.

"He still is. He did not die that day in Alexandria, merely entrapped so he couldn't help you any longer. And now most of the others are in a similar position."

"Most?"

"There is one that remains umharmed, one who stays close to Reason."

"Justice." Kuja corrected. Ipsen just smiled knowingly and shook his head.

"He is Justice no longer. He has found his other self by sharing the soul of another. This is what happened to you, is it not? Once the trance was used up you could feel that soul again, it is why you became the brother you once was." Everyone looked at Kuja who just shrugged, offering no explanation. "Like you, Reason can now hear that soul within his head, Justice will soon be no more within him."

"But what about Garland? He still has Zidane even if Justice doesn't." Dagger interrupted.

"And it is the reason we must now leave for Madain Sari. But I cannot teleport you yet, we have time to collect one of the eidolons near by if we do so quickly. It may be the only chance we get to do so."

"Where is it?" Eiko asked impatiently.

"Oeilvert."

The small Terran moogle watched as the female genome body continued to mature into adulthood. She quickly grabbed a blanket and draped it over the woman as the clothes began to rip.

The moogle didn't say anything, didn't respond to the nosy Chimomo who'd come to bug her. She instead grabbed another pink blanket and an old sewing kit, beginning to work on a new outfit. Hopefully she would be able to have it ready for when the body stopped growing at twenty.

The newly renamed Justice stood in front of the remaining council members with a blank face. Only one face contained any hint of emotion and she was smiling proudly at the newly bound leader.

"The rebellion group of Terra has taken out most of our army." One blank face said. "We do not have time to form another and attack Gaia. We must find a way to gain more time."

"To stop time isn't going to be easy." Justice told them calmly. "But before we concentrate on that there is something to show you." He held up the designs Meaning had been hiding for so long. The blank gazes just blinked stupidly.

"What is it sweetie?" Foresight asked with a huge grin on her face.

"It is a design Meaning did. This is a ship that can control the cycle of souls itself; it will give us power over the afterlife." If Justice could have felt any emotion he would have been dancing with joy at the discovery. Luckily for Foresight, who had been unfortunate enough to witness Reason dance a few years ago, this wasn't the case.

"And why is this more important than ensuring our survival?" A blank face asked.

"Because with this ship we can control the Gaia cycle as well as our own, we can disrupt it. We can cause their souls to die out within a matter of years."

"How?" Foresight asked beginning to feel the future possibilities change greatly.

"Those who come through or are born we can prevent from returning to the planet and being reborn. Those who are on the planet will begin to feel the effect; their souls will try to return to the cycle in order to help restore it. Their bodies will fall ill and then die just so the soul can return. This is when we can programme the ship to collect their souls, rearrange them, break them and corrupt them before releasing them back into the cycle. It will cause them to be reborn as monsters or just appear as mist substance containing broken parts of what their souls once were."

"And how long will it take?" Would it affect Terran souls once we got onto their planet?"

"It will take me one year to build and five years for the process to be completed. It will not affect our souls in any way since we are in a different cycle to them no matter what planet we live on."

"That's too long, we only have two years left." The blank face stated.

"I have found a way to break the seal into Gaia from our side. The process would have begun to take affect by the time we must leave Terra. I will be able to complete my work on the time stop before the planet dies out, that way we will be able to one day return once the chaos has been reigned onto Gaia. The disruption of the cycle is the precise chaos we need to begin the consumption of Gaia process. All we must do is wait on the uninhabited continent where Ipsen once reigned until the process is completed. Then Terra can consume Gaia and continue on as it rightly should."

"An entire world's population will not be able to stay on one continent. How shall we choose?"

"Scientists, doctors, teachers." Foresight butted in with a frustrated sigh. "The important people! I want you to make a list of 500,000 people. That should be enough for us to rebuild our world on." The blank faces left the room quickly and Foresight turned to face Justice.

Please, I've had enough Mikoto complained. I can't believe you came up with that plan! Thankfully it didn't work. Reason smiled knowingly at that.

"I knew that Mikoto, it was never meant to work."

What?

"Did you really think that after being cut off from emotions I couldn't see how Foresight had manipulated me? I wanted her out of the way so I could be the real leader of Terran instead of a puppet."

But the mist...

"Yes, that was my doing. I had to keep the cycle disruption in effect for as long as Foresight was alive. It wouldn't have been convincing if I'd stopped it, but if it means any sort of redemption the only souls affected were those already in the cycle."

So that rubbish about the souls forcing their bodies to die so they could return to the cycle was a lie. She stated rather than asked.

"Yes, obviously it must have been a convincing one if Foresight fell for it."

But couldn't she see the future and realise what you were doing...which was what exactly? She suddenly demanded.

"Foresight could only see into the near future most of the time so all she would have seen was the disruption of the cycle. Later on...I don't know how she didn't see, I guess I had a guardian angel."

Or moogle Mikoto laughed warmly. But that doesn't explain why? Why would that cause you to fall out from under her control?

"Persistent aren't we." Reason teased.

Reason. She said dangerously. He sighed slightly but still couldn't stop a smile settle on their features.

"I would be out of her control because she would die with the rest of Terra stupid." He said with a smirk.

I still don't understand.

"I know; that's because your mind is too innocent to comprehend my evil intentions." He said fondly. "You see, the disruption of the cycle wasn't always a bad thing, when some of the souls separated and joined with other parts they wouldn't always become mist. Sometimes if they were strong enough they would instead form into a species."

A monster.

"In some cases yes, but also Burmecians were born, hippo people, red mages. The souls all mixed together and helped to begin a new leap in Gaia's evolutionary cycle."

But why did you want this?

"There was a specific species created that I helped design especially so they could easily be corrupted by the genomes I was planning to create using Meaning's notes. A blue, elephant like creature who I made sure was born into the royal family. But I knew it would take a while for one of their kind to be granted the power of the throne even when born into the royal family. That would only happen once they had no other choice in the matter. So I created Garland and told him to wait until one was in power before he created the first angel of death. As it turned out he began to make Kuja when one is the Queen and the King was still alive. Once the destructive soul saw to this death the creature was easy enough to corrupt and cause chaos on Gaia to reign."

But that didn't work either.

"Yes, I know that." Reason grumbled in annoyance. "But at the time I thought it would work!"

So, you're saying you wanted Terra to kill its people, including you. But because you were going to build Garland and the Invincible you knew once the time was right he could just find your souls and put them into the genome's body.

"Yes."

Good plan, in a psycho sort of way.

"Thank you." He smirked.

But all those people...

"Mikoto, I didn't have emotions back then. I...I didn't have guilt or a conscience. I'm not immoral, I was just Amoral. Please understand that."

Why do you care what I think? She asked teasingly.

"Because you are the first person to really know me, to know I did it on purpose."

If you got rid of that bitch I can see why you did it. She killed so many just to get her own way. Reason smiled happily noticing that his moogle was holding up a finished baggy pink dress. Reason frowned in confusion, glanced under the blanket and blushed.

"I think the process is almost finished." He stuttered while trying to ignore Mikoto's laughing in his head.

Yes, you explaining what happened has caused our body to finish its growth spurt. Now all that's left is to see the actual memories themselves. Reason just nodded his agreement as he pulled the dress on, noticing the red blisters now covering their body.

"We've shared mind and soul, now I think we're about to share my death again." He whispered before collapsing onto the floor.

"But won't she die kupo?" Monotose asked. Zidane shook his head as he sat cross legged on the floor.

"Ipsen should be here soon, he'll heal her and separate them."

"But won't he be evil again?" Zidane just shrugged.

"Depends on how much he's shared with Mikoto and whether he wants to be like his family." The moogle flew into the air confused while Zidane watched silently. He sighed and glanced down at his now fully grown tail. "I hope they get here soon, Garland will be coming to take me to Terra at any moment. Then it will be too late to stop his plan."

"Kupo, don't be negative! At least Reason is now, Kupo, here to help if that happens."

"Yeah I'm glad he can help. But it still could end up being too late."