An AU Kuja fic, shonen-ai, language
*****
*****
Air surrounded him, buffeting his face and chest, threatening to rip his jacket off his body, his weapon from his hands. Laro blinked back the tears his eyes were producing in self-defense, and tried to figure out what had just happened. He remembered the long, windy trip over the sea, he and his companions hunched down against the deck of the hover-plate to try and avoid being blown off as it flew. He remembered shaking Finlay's hand in farewell as she and the other human delegates waited next to the young Queen. The metal platform he had been bid to stand on had echoed oddly beneath his feet, even the Mentor at his side seemed uncomfortable, bracing for the unknown. Then there was a whining sound, a loud complaint of straining technology filling the air. Arcs of electricity had surrounded them, blocking the world from view with weird twisting light.
Then there was nothing, a weird empty moment where everything recognizable was suddenly gone.
He hadn't felt alone in the darkness. There had been something there with him, a presence filled with incredible understanding, and compassion. Laro remembered closing his eyes and drinking in the comforting feeling, daring to allow himself to relax for the first time in weeks. It lifted the exhaustion from his mind, eased the ache in his leg, and then it too was gone, snatched away in a second burst of light, and a roar of wind.
He was falling.
Laro gasped in amazement, sound snatched from his lips by the wind. Beneath him was a wide expanse of sparkling blue. The color so pure and perfect it almost took his breath away. Plunging downwards in a way fit to make him giddy, he had the brief clarity to compare the shade of color to Masa's eyes, then the reality of his situation sunk in.
He was mid-air, and rapidly falling.
The ocean's surface beckoned him down.
// At least I'm not /that/ high up… maybe four hundred feet? //
High enough to have time to contemplate how much hitting the water would hurt, low enough that he'd probably survive the landing long enough to feel the pain. If he didn't knock himself out and drown on impact that was.
// It's just like how Masa arrived on our world! // He tried to focus on the area beneath him. // Except this time the weather is better. //
Tumbling through the air as he dropped, he was distracted from imminent disaster by the sight of a large green, brown, and white mass off to his left a little ways. Trying to orient himself in the air, he caught another glimpse. His brain processed the flash of scenery as land, coast, City, in roughly that order.
It was a rather big city.
The tiny corner of Laro's mind that wasn't pressingly occupied with worrying about imminent impact decided it was rather impressed by it.
He raised his free arm up over his face, curling his body into a fetal ball and getting ready to let go of his spear before he crashed.
// Don't want to break my arm by holding onto it after I hit the water. //
Laro wondered why that particular peril was the one he was most worried about as the smell of seawater filled his nose. Wincing, he could do nothing more than brace for the splash.
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Everyone had taken to talking in a hush around Kuja's bedside. Laro accepted the tea offered to him with a whispered, "Thank you," and then wondered why he bothered. It wasn't like Masa was going to wake up and complain about the noise. Sipping the hot fluid, he gingerly shifted his leg, cast itching against his skin, and reached out with his free hand to cover Masa's cool fingers.
The mage looked at peace at the moment. He had little doubt that it was because Masa's 'sleep' was far closer to a true coma than to any actual restful state. Held together with little more than stubborn pride on behalf of Doctor Ing, and the newly trained magical efforts of half a dozen former soldiers, Kuja hovered in an odd sort of trance. He was neither able to recover, nor allowed to grow worse so long as others kept vigil around him. With the alien army generally obliterated, most people were willing to consider the elaborate life prolonging measures to be worth it. It was hard to deny anything to the man who had just saved the world. How the man /himself/ felt about the situation however, was a complete mystery. Too drained of life to do more than silently watch those around him between day-long naps, Kuja seemed resigned to his fate.
Not for the first time in the week since Masa's victory, Laro wondered if maybe he had made the wrong decision after all. Gerrick's words haunted him, blurring into a vicious cycle until all he could hear was the faint cry of 'selfish' echoing in the back of his mind. It was with him when he woke up, and had kept him company during the long hours sitting beside Kuja's bed.
"Am I selfish, kitten? I don't know anymore."
He squeezed the limp fingers gently, trying hard not to bruise the translucent skin, but wanting to offer some warmth just the same.
Kuja's face was partly obscured by an ugly-but-functional set of canvas hoses. Designed to pipe a specially enriched sort of air for the man to breathe, they were Ing's current pride and joy. The doctor called it a masterpiece of old technology being reapplied now that engineers were no longer dedicated solely to building war machines. Somewhere downstairs there was a small motor and some other apparatus that created the flow of air. Laro had watched it all being set up but still didn't understand exactly what was so special about it. All he knew was that any sort of open flame was expressly forbidden within several yards of Kuja's door, and that somehow it /was/ helping his lover breath a little easier.
Too stupid to help, to stubborn to leave, Laro sat and worried, cradling one of Masa's tiny hands in his, trying to interpret the tired looks the mage gave him when he found the strength to stay awake. Any particular allegiance he had felt to his army had crumpled as soon as he had discovered Kuja among the ruins. Ibat and Gerrick seemed to have things in hand, completing the mop-up and securing a growing perimeter of human-controlled land. They met minimal resistance, their reports still sharing a rather bemused tone about the whole situation. After thirty years of fighting, it still seemed strange to realize that it was over.
"Well, kitten, I can give you the latest news, if nothing else. Yeah?"
He shifted so he could lean against the mattress a little, as close as he dared to get to the delicate body propped against the pillows. "The alien ship has definitely landed somewhere, although whether it crashed into the ocean or made it to the southern continent, it's impossible to say. They haven't found the Mentor yet either. Who knows, maybe it thinks it can hatch more eggs and get the better of us again. Ibat is mounting an expedition to the south to investigate what's left along the coast. Gerrick is taking his men across the middle of the wasteland to see if there's anything salvageable from some of the larger ruins. It's weird to think that there used to be a whole country there, in the desert."
Laro shook his head. "But that was before it was a desert. Years ago now. Probably he'll find nothing but rubble and bones, but they think it's worth a chance."
He didn't know why he was talking about Gerrick. He didn't even want to think about him. It only served to remind him of Kuja's weakness, his own cowardice, and the grim certainty that his lover was suffering needlessly. Selfish, he wondered if it was true. No one else had called him that. No one had questioned the rightness of keeping Masa's failing body alive against all natural flow.
Then again, he morbidly thought, they were the same people who were so blinded by their hero worship of him years ago that they would have happily thrown him back to the front after his imprisonment among the aliens, if his body had been able to bear the strain. The ethical rightness of forcing a man to fight who couldn't even sleep three hours without nightmares had never occurred to them. Laro shook his head. Ing at least wouldn't allow blind faith to sway him. He hadn't before, he wouldn't now. If the doctor truly felt there was no hope, surely he'd say something.
// Wouldn't he? //
Sitting with only his questions to keep him company, Laro paid no attention as people shuffled in and out of the quiet little room. Ignoring the castle and city around him in favor of one slim-fingered hand, and the life he wished he could impart into it.
"Sir?" A young soldier cleared his throat softly from his position by the door.
"What is it?"
"There's an urgent message from the front, great kai. Duke Riquoi requests your presence in the state room immediately."
Laro considered his options for a long moment, not particularly caring about how his delay caused the younger man to shuffle his feet nervously. Masa didn't stir however, and probably wouldn't for several hours yet. There was time, if he felt like it, to go see what the politicians wanted. Reaching for his cane with a sigh, Laro stood tentatively on his half-healed leg and waved that the officer should precede him out of the room. It would take another visit or two with the newly-trained healers before their fledgling magic would finish knitting the bones together.
*****
Ibat stared at the dead husk of a drone a while before nudging it thoughtfully with his boot. This one hadn't died from the bombardment, or from any other conventional weapon. Scorched, surely, but otherwise unmarked; it had died of natural causes.
"Dehydration?" He looked to his officers for confirmation. One of them nodded, equally curious about the unusual corpse.
It was the third such body they had found so far that morning. The drones had apparently trundled their way along until they could go no further, dropping in their tracks rather than deviate from their course. Ibat climbed back into his truck and frowned as he waved the convoy ahead. As worrisome as the aliens were when alive, he found the idea of them death-marching towards the shore to be even more disturbing. He leaned forwards to tap his radio-man on the shoulder. "Tell the scout units, not to kill anything, if they find one still alive. I don't think whatever is left out here will give us too much trouble."
"Sir?"
"I'm just thinking, what if they're walking themselves to death because of us?" Speaking more to himself than to the other riders in the vehicle, the old general slouched back into his seat. "Are they even smart enough to fear their deaths? Or is this some sort of automatic response they have once their leaders are gone?"
"I don't know sir." Confused, his officer stared back at him. "They're bugs, what does it matter?"
"I'm not sure yet that it does." Ibat replied, chewing on his mustache. "I just don't want to rule out the possibility that it might. That's all."
"Yes sir."
"Sir!" A second vehicle raced back down the path, dodging the convoy as it swerved to pull up along side him. "We've found it, sir. Decided it was too risky to use radios, since we're almost right on top of it, so we doubled back to get you instead."
"Found it?" Ibat confirmed, sitting up abruptly. "Tell all units to stop and fan out immediately. I want a nice quiet setup, no itchy trigger fingers." Looking back at the scout, he rubbed his chin. "Where is it, precisely?"
"The ruined Tower, sir. On the other side of the valley. It's sorta huddled at the center of the rocks. We think it has a shard."
"Any sign of aggression?"
The officer shook his head, fidgeting with his goggles in his hands. "No sir, it was just sitting there." Hesitantly he shrugged, "It looks sorta tired, I think."
"Tired?"
"Hard to say, sir, but yes."
"Interesting." Ibat rubbed his face again, wondering what his plan would be. A glance to his left gave him just the person he wanted to see. "Sergeant, dig through our supplies and find me some water, some sugar, and the large net."
"Yes sir." The man was too disciplined to show his surprise at the request, saluting and disappearing back into the mass of vehicles stretched out behind him. Ibat hopped out of his jeep, taking a moment to stretch his tired muscles.
"Well gentlemen, who feels like going for a walk?"
*****
Laro didn't know what was more alarming, the news that the alien general had been found, or the fact that Ibat had gotten the hair-brained idea of trying to capture it and had sent it home as a souvenir. The old man had apparently deduced some way of restraining and feeding the Mentor long enough for it to arrive safely, but what the council, and what /he/, dearly wanted to know was what they were supposed to do with the two-and-a half-meter tall bug when it arrived.
Having it executed on the spot for war-crimes seemed a popular idea. Laro wasn't sure he disagreed. Finlay and the other more levelheaded members of court were all for trying to communicate with it, learn what they could from the surviving alien intelligence. The only thing Laro really wanted to ask about was where were the others, and if they were still planning to fight. He didn't want to be called back to the field for a third time if he could help it, but he didn't see how listening to an alien bug hiss and click at him would provide the answers he wanted.
Still, it looked as though the Dean was to get her wish. The Mentor would be property of the college until it died, or they got bored and vivisected it for further study. Hobbling back through the halls to the quiet hospital wing, he tried to convince himself that he wouldn't take any further part in the alien's affairs.
*****
"What do you mean it's not secured?!" Clay's summons home had been abrupt, forcing him to turn over command to his officers and endure a hellish drive back across the flatlands to the capital. The news waiting for him when he got there almost made his suffering worth the effort. An alien general arriving as prisoner of war, and /he/ was nominally responsible for the duration of its stay?
It was unthinkable.
Clay immediately saw why they had called him back. It wasn't exactly a task he would have trusted General Nazer with, even if the man had been willing to volunteer for the duty. Still, three days was hardly enough time to get himself dusted off from his trip, much less prepare for an undertaking of this magnitude. The security issues alone left him with a prolonged headache. There were problems in making sure the alien had no access to innocent bystanders. There were further problems in making sure that not-so-innocent bystanders didn't have access to the alien.
The news that the large bug had apparently been traveling across country with its escort completely unfettered, playing its part as tamely as a lamb, only added an additional measure of surrealism to the whole affair.
// Treating a Selwe as a high-security 'guest' of the state? Oh, great, as if I wasn't on Nazer's shit-list already. Now I'll be labeled a bug-lover as well. //
He still wasn't entirely sure what Kuja had put in his written-instructions to the man before they had departed to take on the army. There must have been multiple letters in fact, because both the Duke and Dean Finlay had commented in passing about them when debriefing him. Apparently the mage's powers of persuasion were just as potent in text as they were in his speech because while Nazer-kai still /looked/ murder at him when he walked by, he didn't act on the impulse. Everyone else, surprisingly, had even gone so far as to congratulate him for choosing correctly in the face of adversity. Given that Clay had expected to be accused of treason and gross negligence upon returning to the army with Kuja barely breathing in the back of his jeep, he felt that so far things had gone rather well.
He didn't kid himself into thinking that he was free and clear however. One misstep and those carefully balanced opinions about him would waiver again, leaving him facing an angry mob. He had immediately opted for a return to the field when his chance had come, determined to keep his head down and not do anything controversial. The only problem was that now he was back in the city, about to do something very controversial indeed.
// Babysitting an alien. May god have mercy. I might as well paint a target on my chest. //
Standing on the empty road outside the capital, he watched as the distant convoy rumbled closer. A custom-built, armored car rolled along in the center of the group.
He waved them to a halt and followed his escort around to the back of the bulky vehicle, trying to conceal his nerves at the casual way the young man opened the double doors to let him get a closer look. Bedded down on straw and blankets for the ride, an enormous inky green-black insect lifted its head as if interested in his arrival. Clay found it hard to tell if he was the focus of the alien's attentions. Its face, dominated by large compound eyes and a complex set of mandibles, wasn't expressive by any standards.
"See? It's really docile." Whistling as if to a dog, the security officer produced an apple from his bag and rolled it along the straw floor until it came to a stop against one of the massively-armored forearms. Given that the bug had six limbs in total, Clay wondered if it was correct to call any of them arms at all. It seemed to make sense however when he watched the way the creature shifted its weight and picked up the shiny fruit. Its three-fingered 'hand' moved delicately despite the claws, and once the offering was inspected, the alien seemed happy to settle down and eat.
"What else do you feed it?" Clay felt morbidly curious, reminded of grasshoppers as he watched the mandibles carve into the soft fruit.
His grim tone made the more experienced officer laugh. "Fruit mostly, some refined sugar, a lot of water-soaked bread. We've been offering it a bit of everything, and letting it figure out what it does and doesn't like."
"Fun." Clay replied. "Are those wings still functional?"
"Probably. It hasn't seemed all that interested in trying to use them though." The man pointed to the lump in the back half of the truck. "The only time it gets fussy at all is if you try and take its Shard away. It won't let the crystal out of its sight."
Remembering how Kuja had been much the same towards the end of his stay with the army, Clay couldn't say he was surprised. Everything seemed tied back to the crystals in the end. Information, power, whatever it was they provided, the Selwe seemed lost without it. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and nodded at his men to close the door softly on their new guest. "Right. I'll keep that in mind. Bug requires its pet-rock in order to be well behaved. Anything else?"
"That's about it." The soldier shrugged, copying his movement. "Oh, wait, one more thing! I almost forgot. It can talk!"
"Excuse me?!"
"Not much!" The soldier held up his hands defensively at the alarmed look on Clay's face. "I mean, we think it was trying to speak to us a few times, in the last couple of days. It hisses a lot at the crystal, but then randomly it came right up to Lt. Peters two nights ago and almost sounded like it was saying something."
Clay refused to shout again, forcing himself to be calm as possible given the unwanted surprise of the afternoon. "And what exactly do you think it was saying?"
"Well, the way the lieutenant tells it, sir, the bug was trying to say 'Kuja'."
"Oh."
Somehow, Clay realized, it all made perfect sense.
*****
Laro had ignored summons when the 'envoy' had arrived, had tried hard to put the whole idea of the alien's existence from his mind. It had been a little surprising how successfully he had avoided having to participate in the odd pantomime that the Dean and her colleagues were attempting with the insect-like creature. The rumors that it could speak seemed sadly exaggerated, the sum and total of its vocabulary was one alarming word. As to what its daily discourse was with its shard consisted of, no one could decipher. Worried about Kuja's fragile health, he had refused to allow any news of the creature's arrival to intrude on the mage's quiet sanctuary.
It was therefore just one last grim betrayal when he limped into Masa's room a few days later and found a small committee's worth of people surrounding the bed. The large alien, clutching its shard to what passed for its chest, wasn't uniquely familiar, but its appearance was close enough to the ones Laro had encountered before to make him recoil in alarm.
"What the hell is that thing doing here?" He looked around, noting that very few dared to look him in the eye. "What the hell are any of you doing here? Go conduct your experiments in the labs!"
"We thought it best, to see how the alien would react to actually seeing Kuja." The elderly duke alone stood firm under his glare. "It seems our guest is most single-minded about things, and it is possible, that Mr. Kuja might respond to the shard as he has in the past."
"Enough." Laro shook his head in disbelief. "Do you plan to use Masa until there is nothing left at all? Why can't you just leave him be?"
"Do you think that's what he wants?"
Wishing he could hit the old man wouldn't accomplish anything. Just being in the same room as the spindly alien made his flesh crawl, the idea of allowing it to get close enough to harm Masa in any way was monstrous. Looking around for allies, he found Ing among the crowd. "You would allow this?"
"At this point?" The doctor shrugged gently. "We can prolong his life, but what next? If contact with the aliens can help us, then it should be attempted. Kuja wanted the war to end, Nazer. I believe that if he can help us to communicate with them at last, then he will feel it worth the effort."
"We won't let anything happen to Mr. Kuja, general." Laro stared in disbelief at the source of the comment. Gerrick stood next to the hard-shelled Selwe intruder, the pair of them equally unwelcome in their own ways. It was futile. He could disagree all he wanted, but in the end, he and Masa were both at their mercy. Cursing his uselessness, Laro slouched against the wall and held his tongue. Where Kuja was involved, it seemed he never anything but in the way.
The large insect - silent through their frantic arguments- stepped forward as a path was cleared to the bed. Its movements were almost dainty. Seeming to know exactly what was expected, it placed the large chunk of crystal on the bed next to Kuja's exposed hand, nudging it closer. The milky stone cracked with energy on contact with the mage's skin. Ceasing all movement, the Selwe stood frozen in place, bathed in the strange lights along with the rest of the room.
Laro watched Kuja's face closely, hoping he'd notice any sign of distress before the damage could be done. He was the first to note therefore, when the man's eyes opened, obviously surprised. Looking down at his hand, and then up at the alien at his side, Kuja frowned slightly, lips moving as if to speak to his unlikely petitioner. For a moment, Laro swore he could hear a whispered question, and then jumped to realize that he /was/ hearing a voice after all.
"… Fascinating." The breathy voice was coming from the alien, but the inflection was familiar.
"Masa?" He stood up a little, moving closer. "Is that you?"
"Yes, for the moment." The insect was still oddly frozen, its mandibles moving to form the incongruously human speech. "Our Mentor is being kind enough to allow me to borrow his voice a while in exchange for a portion of my fluency."
The others stepped forwards, questions piling over each other, but the Mentor hissed loudly. Resuming its whispering once it was quiet enough to do so; it conveyed Masa's words again. "One at a time. This isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. My stamina is limited."
"Sorry." Dean Finlay apologized for the others. "Can you understand the alien's thoughts? Can you ask it about the others? Are there more Selwe still alive?"
"Yes." Kuja's whisper was almost thoughtful as he communed with the Shard. "And yes. Although it seems they have had some difficulties. The ship landed successfully, but their Queen is dead."
"Dead?" Gerrick spoke up, curious. "That's good isn't it? They'll be weak without a leader."
"No, there is a new Queen. Hives always have a few spares." Kuja disagreed. "It seems that the old queen's death was ritualistic. She took her own life after her defeat. This way honor is satisfied, and the new Queen can offer surrender without shame."
Laro felt his lover's disappointment, and wondered at it. Surely it didn't matter whether one more alien was dead or not after the destruction dealt to both sides. "You can speak with her?"
"Yes. The crystals are still intact in a few places. Not strong enough to sustain the Net, but still good for transmission."
"What is her intention?"
"Survival." The mentor's whisper faded as Kuja was distracted once more. "She seems upset that I am not well enough to allow my accepting her surrender in person."
The voice might be coming from another, but the eyes that focused on Laro were very much Masa's. "Please stop killing the drones. She would like to send a vessel to retrieve her remaining soldiers. They will be evacuated back to her hive on the southern continent."
"Will they stay there?" He hated to ask the blunt question.
"She gives her word." Masa offered a tired smile. "She can be trusted in this." Shifting his eyes to the alien, the mage focused his thoughts again on a distant conversation. "The Queen wishes to send us another one such as this, to be my voice until I am well again. I have explained that the gesture is unnecessary, but she is quite determined. She asks that her servant be allowed to arrive unharmed."
"We'll do our best." Gerrick murmured, looking doubtful.
"That's all I can ask." The mentor's whisper faded again. This time Kuja closed his eyes as well. "I'm so tired."
Moving jerkily, as if stiff from standing still so long, the alien suddenly came back to life. It lifted the shard free of the sheets and shuffled back a little.
"Hey!" Gerrick complained. "We were still talking to him!"
"He is too tired to communicate." The words were clear, but the tone was far more mechanical than before. Laro blinked, feeling the difference immediately. The Selwe continued to back away from the bed until it resumed its previous position in the corner of the room. "He asked to be allowed rest until his attention is required again."
Massive compound eyes studied the room at large. "He asks that only the one called Laro stay. He said the rest of you are unnecessary."
"When did you get so chatty?" Gerrick looked up at his some-time prisoner in amazement.
"Kuja was able to teach us a portion of your language when he borrowed my voice."
"Neat trick." The dean mused as she stuck an unlit cigar in her mouth to chew on. "Does it work both ways?"
Considering her question, the insect managed to look confused. "I do not think you have the correct anatomy for our language."
"Hmmm." She glanced down at the bed. "Well it seems we've been dismissed. Shall we take this out side, gentlemen and bug? I for one would like to smoke."
Claiming his chair as the others filed out, Laro shook his head, not interested in hearing anymore. If Masa wanted him to keep him company, it was the least he could do. The silence that stretched through the afternoon was soothing after the shocks of the morning. It gave him plenty of time to think as he watched the sunlight fade with the hours. He wondered what the aliens were thinking. It seemed strange that they were the ones making the most aggressive overtures for a treaty. He was glad they were. Human technology wasn't good enough to get any sort of message across the ocean in a timely manner. Sailing a ship to the south continent and back would have taken months. Laro couldn't imagine waiting that long to find out if the war was over or merely just delayed. Still, he wondered if they really intended to stay quietly where they were.
// Masa must have had one hell of a conversation with them, to get them to change their mind like that. //
"So it is to be peace after all?" He mused aloud, watching as Masa slept. "Just like that." Considering how it had all come to pass, Laro acknowledged that it wasn't like the aliens had much of a choice. Kuja had effectively leveled the playing field, both literally and metaphorically.
// All part of his plan, I wonder. But what now? Was this part of his plan too? //
"I wish I knew why." Laro murmured, feeling drained of hope. "I'll stay with you as long as you want me, but I wish I knew why you are always so willing to sacrifice yourself."
Looking at his hands, he found words for something he had been feeling every since finding Kuja after the Digger's attack. "You can manage to take care of everyone, but never yourself. It hurts, you know? It hurts that we can never help you in return."
Looking up he was surprised to see that Masa's eyes were open a fraction, watching him sadly. He didn't need to hear a voice to guess the man's answer to his complaint. "But you don't want us to help you, do you. You feel you deserve this?" Angry, furious really, he looked away before he gave into the urge to shake the limp body until the mage came to his senses. "Idiot. Play martyr if that's what you want, but I still haven't given up."
There was no reply to his declaration. Even if Masa had wanted to, he lacked the strength to speak. Blue eyes closed again, shutting him out as the man drifted once more.
*****
The first time Clay had heard the outrageous idea he had laughed aloud. Even on the second try, he fought the urge to chuckle at the absurdity of it all. The fact that most of the doctors and now /two/ aliens were discussing it as a serious possibility only made it more bizarre. How Ing had coaxed the reluctant Nazer away from his lover's deathbed long enough to sit in on this latest meeting was a wonder, but the man's stunned expression was well worth it.
"The Selwe have a very interesting proposal concerning out Mr. Kuja," the dean began.
Nazer looked blankly at the pair of insects. "They do?"
"It is an unusual option, but one I feel might be worth the danger, especially considering that nothing we have tried seems to be working."
"What exactly do they want to do?" The general looked grimly curious.
"Well, if the cure to Mr. Kuja's illness can't be found here. They propose that we might have better luck investigating it at its source." Dean Finlay sat back meditatively. "They feel confident that they have the technology to be able to retrace Kuja's path to this world, and send an expedition to that place, but only a very small one."
The dark man digested the information slowly. Clay couldn't blame him. Up until the aliens had arrived, no one had ever considered that there might be other worlds with life on them. Now they were being told they too could cross between the stars? It was preposterous.
"How? In a ship?" Nazer frowned. "Even if they could, how would they know what to look for when the arrived at his home-world? How long would it take? Why would they even want to bother?"
The newer arrival of the two heart-faced insects spoke up first. "It is imperative that Kuja survive."
"Without Kuja, surrender is meaningless." The original envoy whispered in agreement.
"We cannot accept defeat to one who is dead." The smaller insect continued. "If you were a hive, then we could surrender to the successor, but Kuja is an individual, therefore he is the only acceptable candidate. We do not want war to continue, we wish to surrender, therefore Kuja must survive long enough to personally accept the Queen's proposal."
"What if Kuja simply names a successor?" One of the many doctors countered, "Wouldn't that be enough?"
"We have never surrendered to an individual before." The soft-spoken alien shook its head in very human gesture. Their ability to learn was remarkable. "The Queen is worried about setting a good precedent."
"But still, if the mission to find a cure fails-"
"If there is no alternative, the Queen will accept an alternate candidate of equal standing. Do you have one prepared?"
Clay smothered another chuckle at the alarmed looks the others shared. Nazer also seemed to be smiling humorlessly at the question. "It will be difficult to find someone like Kuja."
"Exactly." The insect hissed with worry. "Kuja, while fighting for you, was not one of you. He is from elsewhere, like us. The question of surrender becomes complex."
"He was one of us." Nazer disagreed quietly. "Where ever he came from, he never had any intention of going back." Sighing, the general leaned forwards, resting his elbows on his knees. "We will find an acceptable substitute if we must. But I too would prefer that Kuja be able to accept your offer in person."
"We propose a joint-expedition." The aliens shared a look and nodded before continuing. "It would require you to select a scout to travel to our mothership, and from there be transported off-world."
"Just one?" The dean confirmed, startled by the new piece of information. "I thought we'd be sending a group!"
"The inter-space transport can only carry two." Gesturing with one of its hands, the alien general hushed them all. "It is a special technology meant for use by Queen and consort when escape is only option. If travel is successful, it will be instantaneous."
"Oh."
"Failure would also be instantaneous." The insect offered unhelpfully.
Wrinkling her nose, Finlay considered their odds. "How would they return, if they were successful?"
"That we do not know." The aliens shifted uncomfortably. "It is assumed that they will discover the means that Kuja was first deposited here, and reproduce it as soon as possible."
Nazer's smile lost some of its bitterness, genuinely entertained by the suicidal proposal. "Sounds like the possibilities are either: get killed trying to go, get stranded when you get there, or actually succeed. Honestly odds like that aren't so bad." Turning to the insects, he frowned. "Can the transport be used more than once? Can we send another team if the first one fails?"
"Negative. One transmission only."
He nodded slowly. "Then one team is what we will send. I assume one of you two will stay with Kuja, the other will come with me?"
"Nazer-kai?!" Doctor Ing got there first, but the others were just as loud. Clay, not really caring if the man threw his life away or not, quickly sorted the pros and cons and found the answer surprising.
"He's right. He should be the one to go." Someday, he decided, he'd either become accustomed to being stared at as if mentally unsound, or learn to keep his mouth shut. Shrugging he gestured at the scarred general. "Who among us knows more about Kuja than he does? If anyone is going to have a chance trying to track down a cure, it'll be him."
"It's not like I'm doing anything important here, after all." Nazer's tired comment drew attention back towards himself. "In this at least, let me be of use to Masa."
"And who will stay with him when you are gone?" Anne spoke up softly from where she stood at the back of the group, all hidden by her coworkers. "He needs you here."
"He can't even speak to me. Better that one of the Queen's envoys keep him company, they at least can share his thoughts." The soldier stood up slowly, and to Clay's amazement, nodded differentially in his direction. "I'm going. General Gerrick is right, if I survive the trip, I have a hunch I know what I am looking for."
"We should leave immediately." The mentor shifted until it was standing as well. "The Queen is concerned about how long Kuja can be sustained at his current level."
Nazer glanced up at the isolated wing of the hospital, and back to his unlikely allies. "I'll need to know what I can take with me. And I'll need one of you to come with me when I tell Masa. There are some questions he's going to have to answer, whether he wants to or not."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A shadow covered him as he fell. The almost-mechanical sound of buzzing wings drowned out the roar of the wind. Laro looked up just in time for a pair of massive claw-like feet to reach down and catch him by the back of his uniform, digging deep into the leathers and scratching the skin beneath. It wasn't a painless process, but he had no complaints. His luck, and his jacket, held under the sudden stress, and he whooped with joy as his fall was transformed into a clumsy swoop and then wobbling flight. Carried like a limp bit of prey, he dangled a few precious feet above the tops of the waves and thanked his ancestors for looking out for him even when he was worlds away from home.
"You weigh more than expected." The whispery comment from above was distinctly grumpy.
Laro squelched the urge to tell his rescuer off until they were safely on shore. "Sorry." Still twisting somewhat in the wind as he dangled, he was able to catch some new glimpses of the coast they were laboriously approaching. Their flight path was slowly losing altitude with every yard they progressed.
"I cannot swim, Laro."
The creature had a point. As nice as the save had been, he didn't want his only ally to pay for it with his life. Laro tucked his legs up to keep from trailing his feet in the water.
"If you drop me, can you make it to land?"
"Yes. But-"
"Think you can carry my spear for me? I'll catch up in a few."
"But, the water-"
Laro shook his head. "I can swim. Drop me, I'll be all right."
No sooner than the words left his lips, the grip on the back of his coat was gone. He plunged into shockingly cold water and came up sputtering and flailing, trying to keep a hand on his weapon despite the suction of the water against his gear. The shadow flitted overhead again, moving like a seriously oversized bumblebee. "Spear?"
Still coughing to clear the water from his lungs, he treaded water and held his weapon aloft so it could be claimed by the airborne anomaly.
"I will look for you on shore."
"City." He managed one word between clearing the salt out of his nose and lungs. Laro waved vaguely at the white blur in the distance.
"I go." Not mentioning if he understood the direction or not, Laro's companion ponderously buzzed off into the distance. The creature's outline blending with the dark greens of the distant shore as it zipped above the waves.
He treaded water a moment longer as he got his bearings, and then started the tedious process of swimming to shore.
// Well, I've /arrived/ at any rate. Now to see if I can actually accomplish anything… //
*****
*****
--Lunar
Relocating across country really takes a bite out of the writing schedule. So does Bit Torrent. I really need to wrap this bad-boy up.
And now, for your viewing pleasure, a completely random bit of humor generated by my impatience in writing the next two chapters:
Kuja: Since I single-handedly defeated them the aliens have bestowed on me their highest honor.... I am now an 'honorary Queen.'
Zidane: *howls with laughter*
Kuja: Shut up.
Zidane: You were already there.
Kuja: ...
Zidane: Even ALIENS realize you're a complete fruit
Kuja: Shut up.
Zidane: now why didn't *we* think of that...
Kuja: Shut up!
Zidane: I wonder if Garnet would mind...
Kuja: I should have destroyed you.
Zidane: You could have her spare tiara, she never wears it...
Kuja: Mrrrrr (POUNCE!)
Zidane: OW! (BRAWL!)
-END-