Hawke closed her eyes, breathed in deep, and relished the sensation of racing across the desert. Until the buggy made a coughing noise, the smell of smoke tickled her nose, and they were racing no more.

She cracked open an eye. Genesis was glaring at a stream of black smoke pouring from the hood. Perhaps if he glared hard enough it would go away. She grinned.

"How far are we from Cosmo?"

"Half a day's march," he replied. "At a SOLDIER's pace."

The buggy slowed to a stop.

"I don't march, I sashay."

He smiled despite himself and reached for the door. "Then it's a full day away."

They climbed out and he popped the hood. She looked over his shoulder at the smoking innards of the buggy. She didn't know anything about combustion engines, but was fairly certain they weren't meant to actually combust. It stank like a tire fire.

She pulled their packs from the buggy's back. Genesis tried to apologise for the breakdown but she waved it away. They had sufficient supplies and she'd been walking all her life. It was a familiar comfort to set out on her own two feet. Without the shadow of Midgar looming over them she felt in fine spirits and prepared to put up with just about anything.

Cosmo Canyon's secrets beckoned.

The sun was halfway down from its zenith as they slung on their packs and faced the wind. Heat waves danced upon the horizon and the shadow of the rocky buttes grew longer against the plains.

They had been walking for a couple of hours when Genesis paused. He had long since stuffed his jacket into his pack and wore only a black sleeveless shirt. He brought his left hand up to his brow with a look of concentration, then threw the hand out to his side. His wing exploded from his back with the movement

"What are you doing?" Hawke plucked a downy black feather from her hair.

"I don't get many opportunities to stretch it out without fear of an audience," he replied, and started walking again, rolling his shoulders out.

The wing looked healthier than it had the first time he called on it, strong and with good coverage of silky black feathers. It still lacked strength though: the longest feathers dragged along the rocky ground. He bunched up his shoulder with a look of concentration, and it rose slightly, folding in close to his back. He extended it out again, stretching it to its full length.

It was huge. It looked less unnatural on his back in the rocky, red wastes of the desert than it had in the tight confines of his apartment. The inky feathers soaked up the sun and ruffled in the breeze. She privately decided it suited him.

He repeated the exercise as they walked, stretching it out and folding it in, in groups of twenty. He panted and sweated under the scorching sun.

"You're going to get heatstroke," Hawke said. There was no way she could carry him if he passed out.

"Please, what do you think 'enhanced' means?"

"Arrogant?"

He smirked, the expression only slightly strained. "Is it arrogance if it's justified?"

"Yes."

He sniffed and tossed his hair back.

She laughed.

After a time he stretched it out and experimented with leaping up and flapping. There was much stumbling and muttered curses as he figured it out. She gracefully pretended not to see the more embarrassing episodes.

"I was wondering," he said, holding the bridge of the wing in his hands and examining the way the tendons moved. "What's the difference between a Blight and the Blight?"

"Hm? The Blight, or the taint, is the disease itself." She adjusted the two backpacks stacked on her back. They both had a floating spell on them so were more bulky than heavy. "A Blight is what we call the wars that start when an archdemon is infected. Those are the old gods, sleeping deep in the earth. Every couple of hundred years or so the infected hordes find another one, infect it, and it takes control of the horde to lead an assault on the surface."

He leapt up with a powerful flap and caught the breeze, gliding about four meters above the ground.

"It sounds like the stuff of legend," he called down.

"I was twenty when the Fifth Blight struck," she said. She watched his shadow shrink, grow, and distort along the rocks. "I fought in the first major battle."

"Did you?"

"The king came calling." She shrugged. "I was patriotic once."

He landed at her side with an awkward flap. "Did you see the archdemon?"

"No, it didn't surface until the last battle, a year later. I had already fled with my family to Kirkwall by then."

"It took an entire year to quell it?"

"The First Blight took nearly two centuries," he replied. "It turns out only Grey Wardens can kill an archdemon, but they didn't exist yet. It took a hundred and eighty something years of failing to kill the Maker-damned thing until someone figured it out and invented them."

"The more I hear, the more I am surprised to hear Thedas has any living occupants at all."

"We are an enduring lot, you have to give us that," she said with a grin.

"Has Mythal been infected yet?"

She paused. "What?"

"You said the archdemons are the old gods."

"Oh, not those old gods, this is a different batch. The young guns next to Mythal's ancient elvhen."

"For planet's sake." He leapt up again, catching another gust of wind. "How many pantheons of nightmares are there?"

"Too many."

He made a noise of agreement from somewhere she couldn't see against the glare of the sinking sun. She held a hand up to her eyes.

"What happens if one of the Elven gods gets infected then?"

"I have no idea." She hesitated midstep. It had never actually occurred to her before. She shrugged and kept going. "Nothing good, probably."

The cloudless sky turned from brilliant blue to gold to burning red.

Genesis banished his wing and they made camp nestled into the side of a hill, sheltered from the wind and with a good vantage point over the surrounding landscape. She gave him a cursory and probably unnecessary healing of his back. It hadn't bounced back from the strain as much as she had expected. She made a mental note to keep an eye on his healing rate.

Night came on quickly. The stars lit up one by one, until the entire sky was blazing with them.

Hawke sat on a rock, sealing away the rubbish from their dinner so as to not attract any animals. The temperature had dropped but she was still comfortable. The surroundings had turned silvery blue in the dark. It reminded her so much of the Western Approach. It made her wistful with a confused nostalgia. She did not miss the quillbacks and darkspawn this desert lacked, or the venatori, or the traitor Grey wardens.

She was, in fact, having an unreservedly nice time.

Genesis checked their location on a GPS, then tossed the blocky beeping machine aside and looked to the stars and his watch instead.

Isabella had tried to explain to her how you could find your location by the stars, confusing Hawke to no end. Of course, she had used a sextant and a book of logarithms, not a watch.

Genesis stood commanding out on a ledge, his expression focused and critical as he double checked his working. He was so meticulous and clever. The moon was only a wedge in the sky, but the stars were out in full force, shining silver on his face. His eyes glowed soft blue in the dark and the wind made his coat flap and whip around him.

Her heart arched just looking at him.

She forced her eyes away.

She had once promised herself to stop carving her heart out for people who didn't ask her to, who were only going to ask her to clean up the mess.

Maybe it wouldn't go that way. Maybe he would take it, be gentle with it, and hold it close.

Or maybe he would notice the state it was in. It wasn't of any use, and he hadn't asked for it. She didn't think she could handle another 'you're not going to bring feelings into this, are you?'

She remembered Fenris backing away from her, a wounded look in his eyes and his hands raised to ward her off.

No. She was not going to be the friend who made everything weird again. Maker knew they had enough problems already.

She turned her eyes skyward and found her favourite constellation out of habit, ever reliable Draconis, who would never make things weird. He'd probably incinerate anyone who tried.

She furrowed her brow.

"We have the same constellations," she murmured.

"Do we?" He looked back at her, then up again in interest. "Of course."

"Look, that's Fervanis," she said, pointing.

He rolled his sleeve back down over his watch. "Which one?

She got up and joined him on the ledge, pointing it out. He put his head next to hers to look along her arm. She felt his body warmth against her.

"The cluster to the right and below the dragon? We call it Ultros."

"What does it mean?" she asked, her voice hushed at the proximity.

"It's an evil octopus from old folk tales."

She frowned at him and looked up at the stars for an explanation. "An octopus? How is it an octopus!"

"It's got eight tentacles, what else would it be?"

"It's clearly a tree. Fervanis is old arcanum for oak."

"It looks nothing like a tree! Where's its trunk?"

"Those six stars in the middle."

"Those are Ultros' fangs."

"Fangs?" She laughed and headed back to where the sleeping bags were set up. "Your octopus are as messed up as your stars."

He took exception to that.

They lay down side by side, looking up at the stars, and bickered for hours.


Genesis was an early riser.

Hawke knew this. Never before had she so resented it.

"Come on, get up. I intend to arrive today, not next Tuesday."

"The sun's not up yet!"

"And our water rations demand we get there before the hottest part of the day."

Hawke grumbled extensively but could in fact see the logic to it. They set out across the silvery rock, spooking scorpions and hyenas.

The path widened and grew more distinct. The worn down ruts of cart wheels marked the way, alongside increasingly regular deposits of chocobo and goat droppings. They followed the trail through a tight winding gully, flanked by cliffs on both sides.

The sun returned, scorching and hotter than the day before. It's golden rays touched upon the dome of an observatory, high up upon the tallest butte. It glistened with glass. The gully turned a corner and the rest of the village came into view, a spike of rock adorned with windmills and awnings all at different levels. There was no Mako here, no green glow of a reactor. Ladders and steep staircases trailed up the sheer rock face to reach the village perched at the very top.

They paused for a moment to soak it in. Then the urgency of the final straight hit, and they plunged ahead, climbing the ladders with renewed energy.

A great ruckus of noise greeted them before they even reached the top. The village, according to Genesis, was a shared communal home for all the nomadic clans that lived around the Cosmo deserts. The shrieks of excited children and the warks of chocobos drifted on the air. To the side of the stairs a platform on a surprisingly complex pulley system was lowering those who looked as though they couldn't handle the stairs down to the gully floor and sturdy wagons covered with cloth woven with complex patterns in vibrant colours.

The path started to trickle with people and they had to stick to the side to let them pass. They were brightly dressed and occasionally leading herds of goats behind tall and lean chocobos in red and purple.

The departing caravan had thinned out by the time they made it to the top, roughly mid morning. The multilayered village felt quiet and suddenly empty.

The guard at the wide open gate was sitting and chatting with the people operating the pulley system.

They were surprised to see visitors, but welcomed them in with few questions. Hawke and Genesis traded a look. They had expected to have to prove they weren't here on Shinra's orders, weren't harbouring ill intent. The lack of fear was... inspiring. Hawke had been getting a Dalish-esque impression of them, but evidently that was inaccurate.

They were pointed in the direction of visitor lodgings and told to introduce themselves to an elder when they were settled in.

They rented two rooms and cleaned up. The heat of the day was starting to get unbearable, and it was a relief to dunk her head under a cold shower spout.

The two of them regrouped, no longer stinking of stale sweat, and went to go find an elder.

Elder Bugenhagen found them.

He was a tiny old man, skinny and frail, a bald head and a long wispy beard. He peered out from under wiry eyebrows at them.

He floated into the communal room they were in on a floating ball of green crystal. Hawke looked suspiciously at it, and the gap between it and the floor.

The ball looked crystalline, similar to materia, but it wasn't one. The crystal itself wasn't magic at all, but there was magic all around him just the same. She narrowed her eyes.

"And what brings you to our little rock, hn?"

"We want to learn about the planet," Genesis said.

"Eh?" The wire brush eyebrows bristled as he looked Genesis over carefully. "Since when does Shinra ask others about the planet?"

"We're not here on Shinra's behalf."

"If there were answers in Midgar that's where we would be," Hawke added.

"Hn." Bugenhagen turned his thoughtful look on Hawke. She felt magic brush very lightly over her.

She raised a hand and the canteen she had put on the table rose up to her hand. She kept eye contact as she took a sip.

He laughed, a deep and odd chuckle in his throat, and floated closer towards her.

"What are you, miss? A Cetra? I knew one once, but I haven't heard from her since in so long."

She shook her head. "I'm… searching for answers."

"Hn, aren't we all?" He glanced between them again, muttering to himself, and then turned and floated away again, out the door he had come in through.

Hawke and Genesis shared a baffled look.

Bugenhagen stuck his head back in through the door. "Well, come on!"

They startled and followed after him.

He led the way through the village, up several ladders and staircases, to the observatory on the very highest level. Hawke looked up at the round dome. Hadn't they come here for the libraries? They had passed them already, she saw the entrance on a lower level, the books were kept deep inside the rock.

The entrance was a tin-roofed shed. Inside, after she had grown accustomed to the comparative dark, was a bare bones version of the kind of technology she associated with Shinra. It was missing all the pretty finishes, the chrome and glowing touch screens, but it looked no less complex.

Bugenhagen led them to a platform beneath the hollow dome itself. Above them the walls looked like the same tiling she had seen inside SR VR rooms, but with nine concentric red rings hanging in the centre. The planets?

Bugenhagen waited on the circular platform.

Genesis looked up at the hollow dome then back at her with a look she couldn't decipher. He had gone curiously quiet over the last hour.

"After you," he said, gesturing. "This is your research mission."

She raised an eyebrow and stepped onto the wide platform that did not require they enter one at a time.

Bugehagen flipped a switch and the platform lifted them up into the dome. The VR activated and a holographic version of the solar system light up around them, all the planets spinning in a graceful dance around the sun.

Bugenhagen began a speech on the connection between life on Gaia and the Lifestream, the same set of beliefs Aerith held to. Hawke watched the glowing representation of spirit energy rise up and sink into the planet in a hazy mist.

Her eyes saw through it to the neighbouring planet, spinning by behind it.

"Stop!" she said.

"What? What?" Bugenhagen said, completely thrown.

Hawke walked through Gaia, her heart seizing. She stopped in front of a glowing, slightly blurry representation of landmasses she had known her entire life. She stared at it.

"The planet Sukra, our nearest neighbour," Bugenhagen said, sounding a little put out at the interruption but adapting. He flipped a different switch and the presentation paused, all the planets holding still.

"Hawke…" Genesis said quietly.

"Do you have some knowledge of astronomy, miss?"

Hawke swallowed thickly. "Your model is wrong. There should be a second moon."

"Very good, most people don't pick on that. I only programmed in the larger satellites to preserve processing power. Did you know Ormazd has over 60 moons?"

She lifted a hand, trailing a finger over the rugged brown continent.

"This is Thedas," she said weakly.

She left the VR area in a daze, ignoring everyone's calls.

She found herself out on a balcony, under a brutally hot sun, assaulted by a wind just as hot. A planet not her own stretched out so far beneath her feet. Her mind caught up with the reality of it all.

"Hawke," Genesis said behind her, a hand on her shoulder.

"You weren't surprised."

The silence lasted a damning amount of time. The hand withdrew.

"I knew."

"You knew." She nodded. "And you left me in the dark."

He gave a frustrated sigh. "Hawke, what difference does it really make?"

"What difference-" She whirled on him. "You kept my home from me!"

"It's still out of reach. This changes nothing."

"You let me wonder if I was crazy, if I dreamed up my own friends and family when you knew."

"They hate you!" he burst out, stalking forward until they were both on the balcony.

"That's not the point!"

"You're a second class citizen to a world that has put a price on your head! It doesn't want you, doesn't need you."

"Maybe I need them," she said, baring her teeth.

"You have nothing to go back to! Stop fooling yourself, here you can have anything-"

She fell still, cold bitter fury spreading through her bloodstream.

"Here you need me."

He stopped short.

"I brought you this far," he hedged.

"Now that you think you're in the clear. I suppose if Aerith doesn't work out you'll bury whatever else you're sitting on." She clenched her jaw and lowered her voice. "Maybe you can have the Turks bring me in and get your healing on command."

He recoiled. Anger flooded out the hurt on his face. "I did everything I could for you-"

"No you didn't."

"-Nothing will change the fact that you're delusional and all your friends are either dead because of you or glad to be rid of you."

She slammed a fistfull of magic into his stomach. The kinetic blast exploded and threw him backwards off the balcony.

Hawke blinked, shocked at her own outburst.

"Oh shit."

She looked over the edge, then leaned back just in time to dodge the fireball swinging back up at her.

"Son of a-" She bared her teeth and leapt up onto the railing, lightning crackling in her hands and curses on her tongue.

Genesis stood on the dented tin roof on the level below, fuming and glowing red.

"Ma!" a squeaky voice called out. "There's a man on Bugenhagen's roof!"

They both paused and looked down. A little boy was staring up at Genesis, his head sticking out of the building he stood on top of.

They made grudging eye contact. Hawke lowered her hands, the electricity cutting out. He stopped glowing.

She turned away and retreated back into the dark indoors.


A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews and constructive criticism are welcome. I've been having some difficulty with this website lately, the interface isn't loading for me and I don't know if interest in this story suddenly dropped off or some other technical issue, but my analytics have dropped to zero with no warning. I'm intending to keep posting here, but if the technical difficulties grow too severe, you can find me and my stories under the same names on Ao3.

Next Time: Twin Planets