Chapter Twelve: Tea, Sympathy, and Saki's Secret
Kizna and Erts drove down Porto Amarelo Road, descending into the lower city.
They looked at each other, without saying a word. The drive continued, in silence, until she pulled up to 2217 Malmsey Street. "Could you come with me?" she asked Erts. "I'd like a hand." He nodded, and followed, as she opened the door.
Kizna turned on a light, then headed upstairs. "Hey, Erts," she asked, "are there any apartments in your area?"
Erts followed her up, pausing at the door to her room. "I think there's a studio available. Want me to get the address?"
Kizna found an overnight bag, and began packing. "I'd like that. Thanks." She opened the drawers and put in lingerie. "Can I let you in on a little secret?"
"If you like." He glanced down the hall, as she packed a dress, trousers, and a button-down tunic.
"I'd been having serious second thoughts about getting married for a while. Oh, I was thrilled when he proposed, and I was looking forward to the day. But I couldn't help but wonder why."
"Why didn't you say no to the proposal?"
Kizna closed her bag, sitting on the bed. Erts walked in, sitting next to her. "If you'd rather not answer, I don't mind."
She looked at him, and said, "I don't know why."
He took her hand. "It's okay."
Kizna got up, bag in hand; Erts followed her out, waiting for her to lock the door.
She threw the bag into the back seat, and the two drove away. I'd love to take an endless drive: no sleep, no stops, no looking back. Not that I could pull off the feat. If I didn't get sleepy, I'd get hungry. And even if I could go without food or sleep, I'd be here at journey's end.
At Silver Drive and Malmsey, she made a right turn, driving until she reached a row of refurbished warehouses and showrooms: the South River district. Kizna pulled up to a warehouse, converted into apartment space, and dropped Erts at the entrance.
"Like I said, call me if you need anything," he said, giving her a smile.
"I will," she replied. Once Erts had gone inside, Kizna drove along Silver to Yadira Avenue, making a left turn. Five minutes later, she stopped, parking in front of a grey house with a gabled roof and a stone garden. Please be here, please don't tell me you're busy. I don't know where else I can turn. She walked to the door, bag in hand, and knocked. Mother Kannon, let Saki answer the door. The locks turned, as the door opened.
Saki Mimori-Fortran stood in the doorway, wearing a plum, angel-sleeved tunic, with matching leggings. She had let her hair grow, and wore it in a single braid. "Come in," she said.
A green sectional sofa dominated the living room, with a high-end entertainment center. A few portraits of Clay and Saki hung on the wall. Reprinted books of Stephen Hawking, Hokusai's views of Mount Fuji, and Anton Corbijn sprawled across a Lucite coffee table, draped in curry-toned silk. Saki took the bag, setting it by the stairwell, and ushered Kizna into the kitchen.
Chrome and blond wood paneling dominated the kitchen: a brushed-metal refrigerator gleamed. Two ovens shared space with a six-burner stove and indoor grill. Stools ranged around the kitchen island; when the Fortrans entertained, everyone ate in the kitchen. Kizna sat, looking at a teal placemat, while Saki placed a kettle on the stove. "Hope you don't mind decaffeinated Earl Grey," she said. "Soon as he found out I was expecting, Clay threw out the coffee. Of course, I still crave triple-shot breves. I just have to brush my teeth before I get in."
Kizna snapped her head up. "Sorry. I'm kind of distracted. You said he tried to take you off coffee? Why not just get decaf?"
"That's what I said. Oh well, it's not like he foregoes his shot of espresso at work."
"How is he doing, by the way?"
"Same as ever. Everything's 'very interesting.' He spends hours on the computer in his home office. When he's at the Labs, he has to see how the latest projects are going. And then there's childbirth."
"You think he'll pass out in the delivery room?"
Saki laughed. "If he does, I'll leap out of the stirrups and make him open his eyes. I've already told him he can forget about sex if he wusses out while I'm bringing his babies into the world. No, I think we'll be all right. If only I could convince these rugrats," she gestured to her belly, "to stop kicking so damned hard. You'd think I was giving birth to a couple of little Zero clones!"
Kizna snickered at the image of miniature Zeros scurrying through the kitchen, spilling milk, breaking eggs, scattering flour across the counters.
"I think I know why you're here," Saki said, as she grabbed a seat next to her friend. "It's about the engagement. You broke it off." She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "You got the shock of your life when Hiead Gner turned up at your house."
Kizna looked at Saki. "You could say that, yeah. How many dead people sit in your kitchen drinking coffee?"
"I see what you're saying, Kitkat." It must have cut you up.
"Thing is, the two of them were so---on a wavelength. I half-expected one would start the other's sentences."
"That is an eerie phenom, dear. I gather Zero saw him first."
"They saw each other yesterday, when that student died. Knowing Zero, they had dinner at the house, then went off to the wake, and probably joined Garu and Rio in the usual post-wake ritual."
"Four guys at midnight breakfast. Oh boy. Bet they had a lot to talk about."
"Couldn't tell you if they did. I got home around 12:30. They must have come in later."
"Have they, well, slept together?"
"You mean did they do the deed? No. And they probably won't, at least for a while. Not ruling out any sort of physical contact. But I think they'll wait before they go to full-on lovemaking." Kizna paused. "I just wondered, where's Clay?"
"Oh, he's upstairs, probably in one of the tech chatrooms. If he comes down, he'll make a beeline for the fridge, snag a pint of peanut butter cup ice cream, and head back up. He gets a bit wrapped up sometimes, and---"
"And what, honey lamb?" a voice interrupted. Kizna and Saki looked at a tall man, with shoulder-length, amber-brown hair and caramel eyes, wearing a long-sleeved, black t-shirt and blue jeans. A pair of narrow glasses rested on his face, which gave Clay Cliff Fortran the look of a beatnik poet. "Are you all right, girl?"
Kizna looked at Saki, who answered, "Hon, you'd better sit down for this one."
He sat next to his wife, draping an arm over her shoulder. "What happened?"
Kizna took a deep breath. Try not to freak out. Bit late for that advice; I've gone past freaked out, to wigging, in 60 seconds. "Hiead Gner is alive, well, and here in Red River City. Zero saw him yesterday." She paused, then added, "And the engagement is off. I'll move out for good in a couple of weeks."
Clay paled. Alive? Hiead? Oh no, no, no, cannot be, not if Ikhny carried out her instructions to the letter. "How, in the name of all that's holy, can a Pilot who died in battle return to the living?"
Saki cleared her throat. "Maybe I should tell you both how that happened. I'll start at the start. Not long after Hiead and Zero ascended, the final touches were being put on what the Directors at GOA called Project Omega. It had the full approval of Teela, Kuro, and Clay." She paused a moment. "VICTIM was moving in. The mothership was on its way. The choice, as those higher up saw it, was to continue fighting, lose thousands of lives, and possibly jeopardize Zion---or to send a Pilot out, as a decoy, on a suicide mission. The Pilot had to have a near-infinite amount of EX, and no Atmic whatsoever. In short, he had to be a Zenoah. He also had to be someone with no family and no attachments to anyone."
Kizna's hands curled into fists, and she shook. What in bleeding hell? "Continue," she said, her voice crisp and a little furious.
Saki gave the cat-eared woman a sad look. Yes, you have every right to be pissed off with us now. "Since he was on his own, and he was considered an excitable individual, the decision was made that Hiead would serve as a decoy. Ikhny received instructions to cut all lines of communication between his Ingrid and that of the others. She would place a homing chip in the mainframe, which would draw fire from VICTIM, and distract them from Zero, who could then take out the mothership, and give the upper to the Pilots. Hiead, being without communication and surrounded by hostile forces, would die, seemingly a casualty of battle, and receive posthumous recognition."
"Did Ikhny know every detail?"
"No," Clay interjected, "just those pertinent to her work. We had to use leverage to persuade her to sign on."
"Leverage? What kind of leverage did you use on her?"
Clay gave her an uneasy glance. "We sat her down, and showed her footage from her days as a Candidate. More to the point, the footage of her sabotaging your partner's Pro-Ing. We would have preferred her willing cooperation, but she balked at that."
"You blackmailed her. You fucking blackmailed Ikhny Allecto." Kizna's voice grew sharper. "You had no right. Not with her life."
"We were at war," Clay replied. "One must anticipate collateral damage."
"That's all she was to you, Fortran? Collateral damage? She was my best friend, and my koishii. I swore to myself I would never let anything happen to her, especially after that incident. And after the Final Battle, I watched her sink into despondency, and I tried, tried to keep her from letting go. And I couldn't stop her from shooting herself. I couldn't save her!" Kizna's voice was ragged with tears. "Do you have any idea what it is to see the one you love lying on the floor, in her own blood? To feel her grow cold, and smell what the body voided? I begged her to come back! I pleaded for Mother Kali to end my life! And I had to check myself into a Borstal so I wouldn't hurt myself." She broke down, sobbing at the counter.
"Wait," Saki said, "there was more to the story. After Ikhny received her orders, I met with her, and gave her another set of instructions. She installed a pod in Hiead's Ingrid, which would shield him from enemy fire, and send him to Zion. Once there, he would contact her, and she would arrange for a meeting with Zero. Clay thought it was obsession, folie à deux. But I knew, well as anyone, that they were together, in every sense of the word. I hoped that I could keep them together. But Omega, and my plan, both went wrong. VICTIM had no intention of taking the bait---you saw them go after Zero. If Hiead hadn't stepped in, and provoked their fire, both Pilots would be dead. As for my plan, Hiead never contacted Ikhny. So the only conclusion was that he'd really been killed." Saki's eyes welled up. "I am so sorry, Kizna. We both are."
"I think I had better go," Kizna said, getting up. "I think it would be for the best if we didn't talk for a while. And you both owe Zero---and Hiead---a major apology, and I can't guarantee that either one will forgive you. Frankly, I'm not so sure I want to forgive you."
She walked back to the entrance, retrieving her bag. Clay and Saki followed her. "We never meant to hurt you. Any of you," Saki said. "Try to believe that, please."
Kizna gave them a long look. "I do, Saki. But I still feel betrayed. You two have no idea. If it's all right with you, I would rather wait a few weeks before we sit down to talk. And as for you, Clay, you owe both Hiead and Zero the truth. Goodnight." She walked through the door, and got back in the car. Once she pulled away, she drove back to Erts' apartment building, parked, and buzzed him on the intercom.
"Erts? It's Kizna. Does your offer still stand?"
Erts' voice crackled over the speaker: "Come on up, and we'll talk." The front door rang, clicking open. Kizna walked inside.
Author's Notes
Thank you everyone for your great patience with the last chapter. It does kind of feel like something from a David Lynch movie.
The South River district of Red River City is like, say, the Design District of Miami---commercial space that's been revamped, with apartments, galleries, and a freeform sort of nightlife.
UE: yes, indeed, tovarishch, rings are very versatile things! I know that Hiead (and the others) were getting OOC; I think that funerals tend to bring out quirks, idiosyncrasies, and the like. Still, I'll try not to get too precious with the characters. KLMeri: thanks for the wait. I know that the chapter was hardly a sweet, light thing. I promise, things will resolve well between the Fortrans and the others. Right now, however, there's tension and more to come. D-chan: Was looking at packages of chocolate this morning. Although most of the drinking chocolate bars (like Menier and Sol) call for milk, the old practice was to put it in a special pot, and use boiling hot water.
Coming soon: Roose and Yamagi have a bit of a chat with the boys. What happens when the talk turns to the Shadowcatchers? Hiead gets down to investigation---and what he finds isn't pretty. Kizna and Erts sit down to talk. And when the gang does get together for the dinner party, sparks will fly. Stay tuned.
I look forward to feedback, comments, critique, praise, and flames. Do drop a line! And as always, thank you ever so!
Antoinette (poetisa)
P.S. I've started in on the prequel to this drama. "Entertaining Angels" follows the years between Curriculum 11 and the Last Battle. Please do let me know what you think. Thanks, and hasta la proxima.
Kizna and Erts drove down Porto Amarelo Road, descending into the lower city.
They looked at each other, without saying a word. The drive continued, in silence, until she pulled up to 2217 Malmsey Street. "Could you come with me?" she asked Erts. "I'd like a hand." He nodded, and followed, as she opened the door.
Kizna turned on a light, then headed upstairs. "Hey, Erts," she asked, "are there any apartments in your area?"
Erts followed her up, pausing at the door to her room. "I think there's a studio available. Want me to get the address?"
Kizna found an overnight bag, and began packing. "I'd like that. Thanks." She opened the drawers and put in lingerie. "Can I let you in on a little secret?"
"If you like." He glanced down the hall, as she packed a dress, trousers, and a button-down tunic.
"I'd been having serious second thoughts about getting married for a while. Oh, I was thrilled when he proposed, and I was looking forward to the day. But I couldn't help but wonder why."
"Why didn't you say no to the proposal?"
Kizna closed her bag, sitting on the bed. Erts walked in, sitting next to her. "If you'd rather not answer, I don't mind."
She looked at him, and said, "I don't know why."
He took her hand. "It's okay."
Kizna got up, bag in hand; Erts followed her out, waiting for her to lock the door.
She threw the bag into the back seat, and the two drove away. I'd love to take an endless drive: no sleep, no stops, no looking back. Not that I could pull off the feat. If I didn't get sleepy, I'd get hungry. And even if I could go without food or sleep, I'd be here at journey's end.
At Silver Drive and Malmsey, she made a right turn, driving until she reached a row of refurbished warehouses and showrooms: the South River district. Kizna pulled up to a warehouse, converted into apartment space, and dropped Erts at the entrance.
"Like I said, call me if you need anything," he said, giving her a smile.
"I will," she replied. Once Erts had gone inside, Kizna drove along Silver to Yadira Avenue, making a left turn. Five minutes later, she stopped, parking in front of a grey house with a gabled roof and a stone garden. Please be here, please don't tell me you're busy. I don't know where else I can turn. She walked to the door, bag in hand, and knocked. Mother Kannon, let Saki answer the door. The locks turned, as the door opened.
Saki Mimori-Fortran stood in the doorway, wearing a plum, angel-sleeved tunic, with matching leggings. She had let her hair grow, and wore it in a single braid. "Come in," she said.
A green sectional sofa dominated the living room, with a high-end entertainment center. A few portraits of Clay and Saki hung on the wall. Reprinted books of Stephen Hawking, Hokusai's views of Mount Fuji, and Anton Corbijn sprawled across a Lucite coffee table, draped in curry-toned silk. Saki took the bag, setting it by the stairwell, and ushered Kizna into the kitchen.
Chrome and blond wood paneling dominated the kitchen: a brushed-metal refrigerator gleamed. Two ovens shared space with a six-burner stove and indoor grill. Stools ranged around the kitchen island; when the Fortrans entertained, everyone ate in the kitchen. Kizna sat, looking at a teal placemat, while Saki placed a kettle on the stove. "Hope you don't mind decaffeinated Earl Grey," she said. "Soon as he found out I was expecting, Clay threw out the coffee. Of course, I still crave triple-shot breves. I just have to brush my teeth before I get in."
Kizna snapped her head up. "Sorry. I'm kind of distracted. You said he tried to take you off coffee? Why not just get decaf?"
"That's what I said. Oh well, it's not like he foregoes his shot of espresso at work."
"How is he doing, by the way?"
"Same as ever. Everything's 'very interesting.' He spends hours on the computer in his home office. When he's at the Labs, he has to see how the latest projects are going. And then there's childbirth."
"You think he'll pass out in the delivery room?"
Saki laughed. "If he does, I'll leap out of the stirrups and make him open his eyes. I've already told him he can forget about sex if he wusses out while I'm bringing his babies into the world. No, I think we'll be all right. If only I could convince these rugrats," she gestured to her belly, "to stop kicking so damned hard. You'd think I was giving birth to a couple of little Zero clones!"
Kizna snickered at the image of miniature Zeros scurrying through the kitchen, spilling milk, breaking eggs, scattering flour across the counters.
"I think I know why you're here," Saki said, as she grabbed a seat next to her friend. "It's about the engagement. You broke it off." She spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "You got the shock of your life when Hiead Gner turned up at your house."
Kizna looked at Saki. "You could say that, yeah. How many dead people sit in your kitchen drinking coffee?"
"I see what you're saying, Kitkat." It must have cut you up.
"Thing is, the two of them were so---on a wavelength. I half-expected one would start the other's sentences."
"That is an eerie phenom, dear. I gather Zero saw him first."
"They saw each other yesterday, when that student died. Knowing Zero, they had dinner at the house, then went off to the wake, and probably joined Garu and Rio in the usual post-wake ritual."
"Four guys at midnight breakfast. Oh boy. Bet they had a lot to talk about."
"Couldn't tell you if they did. I got home around 12:30. They must have come in later."
"Have they, well, slept together?"
"You mean did they do the deed? No. And they probably won't, at least for a while. Not ruling out any sort of physical contact. But I think they'll wait before they go to full-on lovemaking." Kizna paused. "I just wondered, where's Clay?"
"Oh, he's upstairs, probably in one of the tech chatrooms. If he comes down, he'll make a beeline for the fridge, snag a pint of peanut butter cup ice cream, and head back up. He gets a bit wrapped up sometimes, and---"
"And what, honey lamb?" a voice interrupted. Kizna and Saki looked at a tall man, with shoulder-length, amber-brown hair and caramel eyes, wearing a long-sleeved, black t-shirt and blue jeans. A pair of narrow glasses rested on his face, which gave Clay Cliff Fortran the look of a beatnik poet. "Are you all right, girl?"
Kizna looked at Saki, who answered, "Hon, you'd better sit down for this one."
He sat next to his wife, draping an arm over her shoulder. "What happened?"
Kizna took a deep breath. Try not to freak out. Bit late for that advice; I've gone past freaked out, to wigging, in 60 seconds. "Hiead Gner is alive, well, and here in Red River City. Zero saw him yesterday." She paused, then added, "And the engagement is off. I'll move out for good in a couple of weeks."
Clay paled. Alive? Hiead? Oh no, no, no, cannot be, not if Ikhny carried out her instructions to the letter. "How, in the name of all that's holy, can a Pilot who died in battle return to the living?"
Saki cleared her throat. "Maybe I should tell you both how that happened. I'll start at the start. Not long after Hiead and Zero ascended, the final touches were being put on what the Directors at GOA called Project Omega. It had the full approval of Teela, Kuro, and Clay." She paused a moment. "VICTIM was moving in. The mothership was on its way. The choice, as those higher up saw it, was to continue fighting, lose thousands of lives, and possibly jeopardize Zion---or to send a Pilot out, as a decoy, on a suicide mission. The Pilot had to have a near-infinite amount of EX, and no Atmic whatsoever. In short, he had to be a Zenoah. He also had to be someone with no family and no attachments to anyone."
Kizna's hands curled into fists, and she shook. What in bleeding hell? "Continue," she said, her voice crisp and a little furious.
Saki gave the cat-eared woman a sad look. Yes, you have every right to be pissed off with us now. "Since he was on his own, and he was considered an excitable individual, the decision was made that Hiead would serve as a decoy. Ikhny received instructions to cut all lines of communication between his Ingrid and that of the others. She would place a homing chip in the mainframe, which would draw fire from VICTIM, and distract them from Zero, who could then take out the mothership, and give the upper to the Pilots. Hiead, being without communication and surrounded by hostile forces, would die, seemingly a casualty of battle, and receive posthumous recognition."
"Did Ikhny know every detail?"
"No," Clay interjected, "just those pertinent to her work. We had to use leverage to persuade her to sign on."
"Leverage? What kind of leverage did you use on her?"
Clay gave her an uneasy glance. "We sat her down, and showed her footage from her days as a Candidate. More to the point, the footage of her sabotaging your partner's Pro-Ing. We would have preferred her willing cooperation, but she balked at that."
"You blackmailed her. You fucking blackmailed Ikhny Allecto." Kizna's voice grew sharper. "You had no right. Not with her life."
"We were at war," Clay replied. "One must anticipate collateral damage."
"That's all she was to you, Fortran? Collateral damage? She was my best friend, and my koishii. I swore to myself I would never let anything happen to her, especially after that incident. And after the Final Battle, I watched her sink into despondency, and I tried, tried to keep her from letting go. And I couldn't stop her from shooting herself. I couldn't save her!" Kizna's voice was ragged with tears. "Do you have any idea what it is to see the one you love lying on the floor, in her own blood? To feel her grow cold, and smell what the body voided? I begged her to come back! I pleaded for Mother Kali to end my life! And I had to check myself into a Borstal so I wouldn't hurt myself." She broke down, sobbing at the counter.
"Wait," Saki said, "there was more to the story. After Ikhny received her orders, I met with her, and gave her another set of instructions. She installed a pod in Hiead's Ingrid, which would shield him from enemy fire, and send him to Zion. Once there, he would contact her, and she would arrange for a meeting with Zero. Clay thought it was obsession, folie à deux. But I knew, well as anyone, that they were together, in every sense of the word. I hoped that I could keep them together. But Omega, and my plan, both went wrong. VICTIM had no intention of taking the bait---you saw them go after Zero. If Hiead hadn't stepped in, and provoked their fire, both Pilots would be dead. As for my plan, Hiead never contacted Ikhny. So the only conclusion was that he'd really been killed." Saki's eyes welled up. "I am so sorry, Kizna. We both are."
"I think I had better go," Kizna said, getting up. "I think it would be for the best if we didn't talk for a while. And you both owe Zero---and Hiead---a major apology, and I can't guarantee that either one will forgive you. Frankly, I'm not so sure I want to forgive you."
She walked back to the entrance, retrieving her bag. Clay and Saki followed her. "We never meant to hurt you. Any of you," Saki said. "Try to believe that, please."
Kizna gave them a long look. "I do, Saki. But I still feel betrayed. You two have no idea. If it's all right with you, I would rather wait a few weeks before we sit down to talk. And as for you, Clay, you owe both Hiead and Zero the truth. Goodnight." She walked through the door, and got back in the car. Once she pulled away, she drove back to Erts' apartment building, parked, and buzzed him on the intercom.
"Erts? It's Kizna. Does your offer still stand?"
Erts' voice crackled over the speaker: "Come on up, and we'll talk." The front door rang, clicking open. Kizna walked inside.
Author's Notes
Thank you everyone for your great patience with the last chapter. It does kind of feel like something from a David Lynch movie.
The South River district of Red River City is like, say, the Design District of Miami---commercial space that's been revamped, with apartments, galleries, and a freeform sort of nightlife.
UE: yes, indeed, tovarishch, rings are very versatile things! I know that Hiead (and the others) were getting OOC; I think that funerals tend to bring out quirks, idiosyncrasies, and the like. Still, I'll try not to get too precious with the characters. KLMeri: thanks for the wait. I know that the chapter was hardly a sweet, light thing. I promise, things will resolve well between the Fortrans and the others. Right now, however, there's tension and more to come. D-chan: Was looking at packages of chocolate this morning. Although most of the drinking chocolate bars (like Menier and Sol) call for milk, the old practice was to put it in a special pot, and use boiling hot water.
Coming soon: Roose and Yamagi have a bit of a chat with the boys. What happens when the talk turns to the Shadowcatchers? Hiead gets down to investigation---and what he finds isn't pretty. Kizna and Erts sit down to talk. And when the gang does get together for the dinner party, sparks will fly. Stay tuned.
I look forward to feedback, comments, critique, praise, and flames. Do drop a line! And as always, thank you ever so!
Antoinette (poetisa)
P.S. I've started in on the prequel to this drama. "Entertaining Angels" follows the years between Curriculum 11 and the Last Battle. Please do let me know what you think. Thanks, and hasta la proxima.