The Enemy of My Enemy
Chapter Five: Where You Belong
Music. There was music. Someone…was singing. He knew the song…almost by heart, he knew it. It drew him from the depths of his sleep and up into himself again. And slowly, as though for the first time, Genis opened his eyes.
It was dark. Shadows of tree branches shifted above him with light rustling and swishing, and through their leafy canopy shone the thousands of stars. He blinked, and listened to the music again, noticed the sounds of other people asleep around him, noticed that he was covered with a blanket and the dying embers of a fire smoldered nearby.
As slowly and quietly as he could, Genis pushed himself up so he was sitting. He closed his eyes again, against the dizziness, and when he opened them saw he was wearing his old clothes and shoes, and his old kendama rested a few feet away, and his old friends were sleeping in a circle around the fire. Only Colette was missing, but when he looked away from the fire he saw her, out away from the trees, on a small ledge. She was singing softly.
She stopped suddenly, and turned to look behind her. Seeing Genis awake, she smiled her cheerful smile and waved at him. Unsteadily, feeling like he would fall over with every step, he made his way over to sit beside her. She smiled at him again, then returned to her singing.
"Colette?" Genis asked softly, afraid to speak even to her. He had tried to kill her…to kill all of them. That was unforgivable.
"Yes Genis?" Colette answered in a bright voice. Genis sighed.
"I…do you think…are they angry? Are you angry?"
"I'm not angry, Genis! I know you didn't really mean it."
"That's just it, though. At the time…I really did."
"But you don't anymore, and you're back again, and that's what matters," Colette insisted. "Don't you hear what Lloyd's always saying? No matter what you become, you're still you inside. I'm still Colette despite becoming an angel, and you're still Genis."
"Well…well what about Raine? She must be so mad at me."
"No, I don't think she's mad either. She felt horrible when you disappeared. Kratos had a black eye and everything." Colette laughed at the memory, and Genis tried to smile, too, envisioning the strong mercenary with one eye bruised from Raine's blow. "I think she's just glad you're back."
"I know I've missed a lot of your journey…haven't I?"
"I guess so. I've…I've released two more seals. There's just one more, and then I get to go to the Tower of Salvation and…and become an angel."
"You'll make a great angel, Colette," Genis reassured her. "You're kind to everyone. No matter who they are or what they look like…or even if they threaten your life."
"Look! The sun's coming up!" Colette said excitedly. And indeed, over the horizon there appeared a soft orange glow, and they watched the sunrise in silence. It was beautiful; brilliant and golden, and the air itself seemed to sing with the majesty of it.
"Aww, Dad, five more minutes," Lloyd mumbled, rolling over. Sheena groaned and pulled her blanket over her head against the light, and Genis would have laughed, if the lightness of laughter had been in him. Colette started to softly sing again, and this time Genis hummed along with her.
The sun rose higher, forcing Sheena to roll away from its glare, blanket still firmly planted over her face. Raine made soft mumbling noises and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Rising as soundlessly and fluidly as if he hadn't even been there a moment before, Kratos walked over to Lloyd and crouched, shaking the boy's shoulder.
"I said…five minutes Dad…I cut the wood yesterday…" Genis and Colette had turned around by then, and Genis caught the look, a mixture of surprise, embarrassment and confusion, that crossed the mercenary's usually stoic face. It was gone in a matter of seconds, though, and he stood again and crossed his arms.
"Get up, Lloyd."
Lloyd's eyes snapped open and widened instantly at the sound of Kratos' voice, and he was halfway to standing before he remembered anything about the previous day.
"Ugh. Good morning to you too," he grumbled in Kratos' general direction, still hovering between kneeling and standing. "Does it always have to be sunrise?"
"He thinks it's convenient," Sheena mumbled, throwing her blanket away from her. "You'd better be glad I'm a morning person."
"You mean under the circumstances, or just all the time?" Lloyd joked, and was rewarded by a spell card barrage aimed at his face. "Hey!"
"Leave him be," Raine chided lightly. "He's already a few stones short of a ruin, he doesn't need to be hit in the head."
Colette walked soundlessly over to them, seeming almost to float. They all turned her way, smiling—with the exception of Kratos, who looked, as always, simply pensive—and Genis watched the smiles fade to shock when they saw him behind her.
"…Genis!" Lloyd said excitedly, beaming. "Hey, you don't look so bad now! You wouldn't have believed the mess you were yesterdayAGH!" Lloyd was cut off by the heel of Raine's boot stomping down on his fingers. "Professor!"
"Genis," Raine said, her voice equal parts excitement and concern. Genis looked down at the ground, his face turning red with shame and embarrassment. He'd tried to kill his own sister! His best friends!
Without warning, his sister's strong arms were around him, though lightly, as though she were afraid to hold too tight. Genis wasn't sure if that made it worse or better. He felt the effects of his actions now as clearly as he knew he should have all along.
He had joined the enemy.
He had become a Desian, a force of evil. A murderer.
He had destroyed an entire city.
He had tried to kill his only friends, and his last remaining family.
He had gone against everything he knew of right and good. Everything he knew of fairness and justice.
"Justice…I hate that word…"
So do I, Lloyd. I mean…what kind of justice is this? The people of Luin are imprisoned, Elysia's dead—Elysia! She knew, didn't she? In the end…she figured it out, before I ever could. I'm such a child…
"It's alright, Genis," Raine said quietly, stroking her brother's hair. Genis realized he was sobbing. Part of him felt the embarrassment of this, but a larger part felt an emerging hope. Maybe they didn't hate him. Maybe they could forgive him.
Would you forgive a Desian?
Genis searched within himself for the answer to that question. Just a few weeks ago, he had known a clear-cut, defined answer to that question—an emphatic no. He had known and believed in a precise line diving good and evil, light and dark.
Now there was no line. There was the light, and the dark, and between them a mix of steely gray and misty grey, color that faded into each respective area, blending seamlessly. There was no longer any true division.
We do what they do. We cry, and laugh, and make jokes, and eat, and have families. We live. We die.
Genis had stopped crying, though he thought he might start again if he was provoked into speaking. He understood now, with a clarity seldom ever given to someone so young. A clarity present in everyone, he now saw, but kept hidden under false fears and anger. And hatred.
We live. We die.
So do they.
"I…" Genis began, but Raine's tightening embrace made him stop, made him consider what he had been about to say. He sighed softly, and then continued. "I know I did something wrong. I've been stupid. I can't possibly apologize enough for the things I've done…so I'm not going to try. I just hope you can forgive me."
He knew what they would say, of course. They'd say he'd only done what he had to do, that it was necessary for him to survive, that he hadn't meant it. And that would make him angry. He had meant it, with all his heart and soul. He had made a true and honest choice, not entirely based upon survival.
"It was wrong," agreed Kratos, the only one not struck silent by Genis' words. "It was a hard decision, but you carry the burden of that decision upon yourself." Genis nodded slowly, and felt Raine tense. She was going to yell at the mercenary, tell him he was being too harsh. But Kratos continued before Raine had the chance.
"In admitting you were wrong…that you made a mistake…you have proven that you fully realize the consequences of your actions." Kratos paused then, as though debating with himself, and added, in a rare moment of emotion, "Of course we forgive you."
"Do you forgive us?" Raine asked quietly, letting go of Genis but keeping her hands on his shoulders. "We were wrong, too. All of us."
Genis felt like smiling. He really did, but he couldn't quite bring himself to it. A heaviness still weighed on his heart, but it had nothing to do with the answer to Raine's question.
"Of course I forgive you," he said softly. "I…I couldn't ever hold anything against you." Any of you, he added silently, though he knew they all heard the meaning in his words anyway.
"Well…good," Raine said. "If…if you feel up to it, we'll head back to Asgard today. We didn't want to go too far before, because of how badly injured you were."
"I'm fine," Genis half-whispered, shrugging a little. Raine smiled and nodded, and then turned her best scholarly gaze on Lloyd.
"Pack up and let's go," she said curtly.
"That's Professor Raine for you," Lloyd muttered to Colette, who had knelt to help him pack their camping items. "Always ready to visit some ancient ruin, but a whole city built on them? She'll be saying things like 'marvelous' for weeks!" Colette giggled, and Lloyd grinned at her.
Packed and ready, the six of them started out in the direction that Lloyd promised was the correct one, this time, though he walked so far ahead of the rest of them it was hard to tell if he really knew. Colette was close behind him, seeming lost in either thought or dream.
Raine came next, mumbling to herself. Genis highly suspected it was about ruins, or archaeology, or her newest favorite, magitechnology. Well…it had been her newest favorite, about a month ago. There was no telling now.
Sheena brought up the rear, studying her spell cards with focused intensity. Tinted blue—to represent water, Genis guessed—the cards were arrayed in a fan shape. He hadn't had this thought for more than two seconds before the assassin began to fan herself with her spread weapons.
Which left Genis in the mildly uncomfortable position of walking next to, and slightly behind, Kratos. He recalled asking someone what he had Kratos had in common, that could separate them from the others, and he also recalled, with a touch of bitterness, not getting an answer. But maybe…he could ask now, in the waking world.
"Kratos?" he ventured. The mercenary was silent. For a long moment, Genis didn't even think the man had heard him.
"Yes?"
"Uh…is there…was there ever something you did…that you regretted?"
Kratos looked back at him with a dark frown. Genis paled, almost flinching under the glare, but he didn't try to amend his question.
"Many things," Kratos finally said, waving one hand in an attempt to disperse the answer. "Some more than others. Once…once I did something for which I cannot be forgiven."
Genis was silent. That couldn't be it, he decided. Lloyd had done something 'unforgivable' in Iselia, and Sheena certainly had acted like she was running from some act of past days. He was honestly startled when Kratos kept talking.
"I made a mistake I could not admit making, to myself…or to those with whom I was…close. You are able to admit your faults. That is…admirable."
A compliment? I thought I was…only in the way? "I…thanks," Genis settled on, looking away, out over the horizon. "I guess I've missed a lot of what's going on, haven't I?"
"The Chosen is nearly finished with her Journey of Regeneration," Kratos supplied, fixing his gaze, too, on the distant mountains. "There appears to be one final seal before the Tower of Salvation."
"Wow. She's almost an angel now," Genis whispered, looking ahead of him to the smiling girl who now walked with Lloyd. "I wonder if she's still clumsy."
"Yes," Kratos said quickly, so quickly Genis almost missed it, and when the young mage looked at him, the mercenary had a hint of a smile on his face. Genis felt a smile within him, but he still couldn't bring himself to the action.
The remainder of the walk was decidedly silent. Genis got the feeling that Sheena and Lloyd were uncomfortable about being around him, and besides that, Colette and Lloyd were walking with one another. He wouldn't disrupt that, even if they were his closest—and only—friends.
Kratos had fallen silent again, as was his preference, and Genis sighed and quickened his pace, so he walked between Kratos and Raine, but with no one. He enjoyed and at the same time hated the chance to be alone. The part of him that still recalled an endless night of fear and confusion wanted to be with someone, anyone who might move his mind from the images. But another part of him, the greater part, simply wanted peace with himself.
The sun was just past noon as they entered Asgard. The people of the city recognized Raine and the others and welcomed them, and they treated Genis kindly. He had an almost overwhelming urge to tell the people everything, to tell them all the things he had done, to tell them to stop being so nice.
He didn't, though, partially because he was exhausted and partially because, despite wanting to, he really didn't want to. All Genis really wanted to do was sleep. The six of them paid for rooms in the Cool Breeze Inn, and Genis immediately fell onto one of the two beds in his, noting absently its well-used softness.
"Hungry?" Lloyd asked, sticking his head in the doorway. "Colette made lunch, it's downstairs."
"No thanks, Lloyd. I'm just…not hungry," Genis said apologetically, and Lloyd shrugged to no one and turned to practically fly back down the stairs toward the food. "Some things never change," Genis remarked to the ceiling.
He stared upward silently for about another five seconds. Then he slept, but it was the deep and silent sleep of one who sleeps for more than the sake of it. At various times, someone would appear in the doorway and glance at the little mage, and then nod or shrug or smile and rejoin the others downstairs.
When Genis woke again, twilight drifted in through the open window. The night air smelled cool and refreshing, and succeeded in waking him up faster than he'd have been able to on his own. He rolled out of bed and stood quietly, but Raine's bed was empty.
Slowly, and almost hesitantly, he headed out of the room and down the stairs. A glance toward the inn's common room showed Lloyd, Colette and Sheena sitting around a table, playing some kind of game with her spell cards. Kratos stood against the far wall, arms crossed and head down. Raine was nowhere to be seen.
It's a city of ruins, his mind told him. She'll be out there looking at it, not in here playing with Sheena's weapons. So, as quietly as he had come down, Genis left the inn. He didn't know the layout of Asgard except what he'd seen on the way in, but he'd heard conversations from the Desians about the large stone ruin here, marked as an altar of the Summon Spirit of Wind.
Climbing the stairs that he was directed to by a man selling vegetables, he soon came to the giant stone slab, almost as tall as he was. Reaching up and grabbing the edge, he pulled himself onto the stone, staring down at the symbols carven on it for a moment before shifting his gaze to the woman sitting on the far side, her back to him, her legs over the far edge.
Hearing his climb, Raine looked back over her shoulder and smiled at Genis, motioning for him to sit with her. He did, as quietly as he could, and Raine turned her azure gaze back to the sky.
"When I was about your age," she said quietly, distantly, "I suddenly found myself alone, save for you, in a difficult situation. I had no one to turn to, and nothing to use to help either of us. And I had a dream, on one of those first nights. In it, I met a young boy who liked to look up at the stars.
"He told me about how he had gone to a village and pretended to be a full elf, so no one would suspect him. I thought it was a marvelous idea, and I started using it wherever we went. I was amazed at how well it worked out, in Iselia. We had…everything we wanted. You made friends, I started teaching.
"Genis…about a month ago, I thought I'd lost the only thing that really meant something to me. You're the only family I have…and to lose you would be unbearable. I…I don't care what you think you're guilty of or what crimes you think you've committed, Genis. None of them matter. Not to me, and not to the others.
"We're just glad you're home. With us. Where you belong."
Where I…belong…Genis looked up at his sister, at her tears, and realized he was shedding his own, and he smiled. Raine hugged him fiercely, and then let him go.
"Did Kratos really have a black eye?" he asked, and Raine grinned devilishly.
"It matched his clothes quite nicely, I should think." Genis laughed—how good it felt, laughter—and then sighed, feeling his inner self settle once again. He was now where he needed to be, had needed to be all along. He just hadn't known it.
Raine got up then, brushing imagined dust from her clothes. "Are you coming? You slept most of the day."
"I think I'm going to stay here for a bit," he said, looking up to the stars again. "I'm not tired just yet."
"Alright, but be back before it gets completely dark," Raine advised, and then jumped lightly off the slab and descended the stairs. Genis, left alone, looked up with wonder and new appreciation at the midnight-blue sky, sprinkled with silver stars.
"There are people who can't see this. They don't get to see sunlight or starlight or rain or snow. Someday…I'm going to free those people. All of those people."
'Is that a promise, Genis Sage?' Gasping, Genis stood and turned around. There in the center of the stone altar, hovering just a few inches above it, was the woman from his dreams. Soft golden wings extended from her back, and her eyes showed still the depths of the infinite.
"You…you're here? In the waking world? …Or am I asleep?"
'No. I can, on occasion, appear in this world. If the occasion is…special enough.'
"You're not the Summon Spirit of Wind, are you?"
'Me? Goodness no! Sylph is embodied in three parts, not just one. I'm not the Sylph.'
"Well then who are you? You've never told me."
'Have you asked?' Before Genis could answer, her form seemed to solidify, and as her feet touched the stone, she walked toward him, speaking for the first time with a true voice. "I am Phia, Summon Spirit of Dreams. Tell me, Genis. Are your brave words a promise?"
"To free the people who can't…can't see things like this? …Yes. They are a promise."
Phia smiled and put a hand on Genis' shoulder. He blinked, and within that short span was back amidst the multitude of people with light at their core. He saw that he stood now between Raine and a formerly empty space. Looking up, he saw Kratos there, and almost smiled. But part of his mind seemed to be registering something that the rest of it swore wasn't there.
'Go on, Genis,' said Phia in her silent voice, laughing again the sound of windchimes. 'Take your place among the spirits. You have earned it.'
Smiling fully now, Genis closed his eyes and brought his hands together over his heart. He felt his feet rise from the ground and the air support him, and a light began to glow softly from beneath his hands. Within moments, he was as the rest of them, silent and golden.
Phia smiled, and the figure that appeared behind her was smiling as well.
Is this how it was supposed to end? he asked. Phia shook her head.
'No, but the end is far from here. You will see. I promise.'
000
Genis awoke in his bed at the Inn, sunlight streaming onto his face. Raine was already awake and busy packing, and he rose as quickly as he could, feeling full of more energy than he could possibly handle.
"Ready to go to Hima?" Raine asked. Genis had no idea what or where Hima was, but he nodded anyway. He would go anywhere they asked, he knew, as long as they would uphold his request. He waited until breakfast—Sheena had made omelets—when everyone was together. Here he presented his request.
"Show mercy to the Desians."
"What?" Lloyd asked. Colette dropped her fork, and Sheena frowned angrily.
"I mean it. Next time we encounter them…be kinder. They're…they're just like you are. I mean, they work for evil purposes, yeah, I know that. They killed Marble, and your mom Lloyd, and many other humans…but killing them back…it's wrong, this killing.
"Look…I know the Desians are evil, and they're half-elves. But…but they're half-human, too. That's important. It makes them like me…and like you. …Please."
Genis sighed, trailing off. He didn't know what else to say, to explain himself. He had said all he could offer.
The others all looked at one another, startled, and yet in their eyes was the seed of realization. "Okay," Lloyd said finally, and the rest of them nodded, with the exception of Kratos. Genis frowned at the mercenary—he was certain he had seen something, something amiss with the man in his dreams…but no. It was only a dream, after all.
Genis smiled, then, looking at them all. Things weren't the same as they had been before—he doubted they ever would be again. But he was back among allies, and better yet, among friends.
"Then let's go to Hima. Together."
Epilogue
The dragons dropped them in front of the Tower of Salvation. Together, Lloyd, Raine, Sheena and Genis climbed the stairs. The door was open, and Colette was already within, kneeling before what looked like another locked seal.
"It's finally over," Lloyd said, sounding weary and tired. "Colette's finally going to regenerate the world."
Genis looked at the angel girl kneeling before this final seal, and then out at the unfathomable dimensions of the inside of the Tower of Salvation. The world would be regenerated...and things would be at peace.
Well? Was it a fitting end? I sure hope so—it felt right, so I like it, of course. Now…I won't make any promises…but I'm going to attempt a sequel to this.
And with that…until next time!!
--Vilya
