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CHAPTER 1:

SANGUINE SYMBOL

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Author's Notes: The music for this Chapter is, in order of scene: 'Antipyretic,' from the FINAL FANTASY TACTICS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two, and afterwards 'Cuddle,' from STAR OCEAN: THE SECOND STORY. Both of these pieces can be found on Zophar's Domain.


Erys gazed up at the towering figure that had once been President Jie Revorse, and that was now a resplendent pale gray and white robe garbed grotesque shell of the superhuman he had once been, twin giant blocky and bony pale wings of scintillating gold unfurled from his back and spreading their pinions to both sides within the confines of rectangular transparent command center and observation post they'd located Jie in.

Those weren't her wings.

This wasn't her.

She could feel for, and understand, Asmodeus and Jie without, or becoming, or agreeing with, them.

She wasn't this paranoid unfeeling anathema.

She didn't need to be frightened any longer.

Not with Ioshua and Master Vyanewether and Roddick and Millie with her.

All she needed to do was atone for her sins, and end this in peace, and not war, and she would at last be able to genuinely move on.

"Isn't it just wonderful that Sarah was saved?"

Pain seared away everything, and her vision appeared to be dancing with innumerable motes of a kaleidoscope of glimmering shades twirling through a reality that was now entirely opaque.

Erys' uncertainty as to where the voice had come from; why it sounded familiar, as though partially covered; and whether the voice was talking about her Aunt, disappeared as she realized she couldn't see Ioshua, or Roddick, or Millie, or any of the others, anywhere around her.

The only glow in the darkness was from dimming twinkles where Welch had been standing.

"Every single member of the Black Tribe was slaughtered, right in the place we saved her."

Blinding terror of a different kind drowned out anything at the reference to the clan of nomads who another sect serving Asmodeus, and his faction of the Revorse Plan party, had all but exterminated mere years before, and Erys' initial assignments to finish off the scant survivors.

No!

Isohua!

Master Vyanewether!

Roddick!

Millie!

Ronyx!

Ilia!

Don't make me remember!

"Do you understand now, Edge?"

Edge?

Hadn't she heard that name from Aunt Sarah, before Argosy had kidnapped her?

"In this universe, there will always be those you cannot save. People whose names will remain unknown to us forever.

"So I will create the universe anew. I will create a universe in which even those whose lives and faces we do not know will find happiness. I entreat you all… do not interfere with me again.

"And one more thing.

"Never use the name 'Faize' to refer to me again."

Shock tore up Erys' spine.

"This is your niece and nephew?"

Violet eyes looked down at Brother, and Erys herself, beneath short hair as green as the trees Ioshua had last admitted she was old enough he could teach her to learn how to wing and dart her way between branches of, filled with kindness, but a tired and regretful fatigue that were as familiar to Erys as the mirror she could still barely justify looking into whenever she needed assistance to look herself over for injuries.

That was a name she knew very well.

She could never forget Uncle Faize.

"It is time for evolution to continue."

"Earth!"

"How did it get so close?"

Any and all awareness was nothing more than the silence of the frigid vacuum that was itself now almost obfuscated by tears.

"I'm sorry, Brother, Roddick!" Erys cried.

"But this time, I need to be the one to save you two!"

"No, Faize!" she shrieked into the darkness.

"I'm the one you want!

"I cut them down, even when they begged me to spare them!

"If you want someone to fault, take it out on me!

"However Jie bought you, don't follow me down the path I took when I slaughtered the last of them any farther!"

Erys could almost believe she'd heard Jie say something in surprise, but then the lights had returned, and she was standing in front of a black armored figure with a wide partially crimson broadsword in his right hand, who was wearing a cloak in the style of the Black Tribe, on an almost square dais with metal blocks traced with crimson patterns surrounding her at various heights, lava on three sides, and closed double doors behind her as the sole opening out of surrounding metallic walls.

Between them, to Erys' right, a woman with short pink hair styled similar to Welch's, and opaque Sunglasses with rims in the fancy style of a rich person who liked reclining at a resort, or on an estate, stood in clothes similar to the suits the maintenance personnel of the Calnus had worn.

The woman's lips twisted.

"You piggybacked on my signal through your ties to the Mirror of Incarnation firewall," the mysterious female humanoid commented in irritation with a voice that was at once so familiar Erys would have assumed this person was Welch, if not for her hair color, and the entitled dignity of aristocracy in the inflections of her voice.

Faize

whatever Jie had convinced him to call himself, Erys refused to call her uncle any other name

shifted to heft his sword into a neutral combat stance midway between both of them, holding it with so much effortless ease Erys' experience with Argosy, Asmodeus, and Jie in his ordinary form could tell her, whatever the foster uncle of her childhood had now become, he was no far more than a typical human himself.

Reflection after recollection of evasions and neutral comments Erys could recall Sarah saying, but Ioshua had never been able to place any more than Erys could, filled Erys' reminiscence.

Erys couldn't breathe, and the recognition of the abandonment and betrayal seared with such serrated coils all throughout her self and existence she needed to refuse to violently retch.

Or, was it humanoid?

Tears obscured her eyes for a different reason.

Aunt Sarah had known.

All along.

Aunt Sarah could have stopped everything Ioshua had gone through, and Roddick and Millie and Ronyx and Ilia and all the others, every solitary last single sin Erys had committed, yet Erys' aunt had held her tongue, abided by Ronyx's revered UP3, and due to this, Erys herself had become the agent that had broken the lives of most of her Featherfolk tribe, her parents, and Ioshua himself.

"Don't you think it's about time they received a taste of their own medicine?"

No!

She wasn't an assassin!

She wasn't a murderer!

She wasn't Jie, or Asmodeus!

And she wouldn't let them do to Uncle Faize what they had to her.

"That's a Roakian Muah relic, or you may know them as the Old Race," Erys interjected.

Faize shifted his head to her, but it was totally concealed behind the opaque night visor of a helmet with a web of cracks over its right side, and his stance was unreadable.

"I don't know what members of the Black Tribe you want to avenge, but I recently deserted Asmodeus myself; before that, I was the assassin who completed Asmodeus' genocide of the tribe, and finished off what was left of them with my own hands and Symbology, even as they begged me to spare them, and for all I know that includes the tribespeople you want to see vindicated."

Faize stiffened violently, and now he was clutching the hilt of his broadsword, so tightly Erys wasn't sure whether or not it would break under the inhumane power of his grip.

"If you'll agree to stand down with whatever you're attempting to do to Earth, I'll surrender to your judgment unconditionally, even if that means unwilling public service under whatever law you believe in, execution where I stand right now, or torture that may or may not lead up to execution or public service."

Faize shifted slightly.

"For crying out loud, peoplez, all I'm attempting to do here is just Copy and Paste two data spikes, not two Kevins."

However, there was now something very uneasy, and uncertain, in the woman's voice.

"I really should have opted for my own easy way out, and just Downloaded the real Bhold'or out of D.U.M.A," that unease was now gone, replaced by a desperate set determination.

"Can the two of you please just wait until I'm gone and done, and then toodle off, literally?

"As for you, Apostle of Creation, I have no preference over Edge's idea of a better civilization, or yours, but so you go into this with open eyes, you really are onto something with your idea of how to found a better society for the Eldarians and Earthings.

"Vengeance on Erys won't solve anything."

Erys barely remembered to suppress the urge to wince.

"If you don't follow your path through to the end, their deaths will still end up in vain, and the new society Edge believes in will just turn into this.

"You've seen beyond the barrier of the Missing Procedure's evolution, so let me give you a glimpse at what Edge's concept of it will bring about, if you're not willing to do what needs to be done.

"I don't care which path you take, in all honesty, just as long as my own friends are kept safe.

"But you need to understand the destiny beyond the barriers of evolution with open eyes, or you will be putting the finishing touches on another Kevin."

Voices sounded from nowhere.

"The half-wit with the p-tty mouth is making another empty threat! I'm so scared!"

"You waste of Federation space! You'll pay for that remark! Vorstni! Wipe these filthy chimps out!

"Hey, what's going on up there, Vortstni!? Vorstni!"

"Vorstni here. Three Federation ships have entered this sector. They have their shields enabled and are preparing to engage. We cannot offer any support at the moment."

"Wait, what was that!?"

"I have bad news, sir. We've detected transport signals emanating from the enemy starships."

"Impossible!"

"How the tables have turned."

"You d-mned cheaters!"

"Who violated protocol first? Oh, that's right. You."

"You unbearable little- Relia belongs to us! Give her up!"

"Miki, hold onto Relia!"

"Will do!"

"What are you doing here on Faykreed!?"

"That's my line, you simpletons!"

"If you keep this up, we'll all be going to war."

"Isn't that exactly what a jingoist group like yours wants, you stream of p-ss!?"

Erys wasn't either of the people talking.

She understood, and empathized, but the sole speakers she agreed with were the two who sounded so protective of whoever Relia was.

She wasn't Asmodeus.

She wasn't Jie.

"You fail to understand a thing. Curtis is the one who turned his back on the Federation. Now most of the Pangalactic Federation forces serve under our Sovereign. You might even say the Federation is the centralist Scorpium. We will wield the military might of our Sovereign and the Scorpium to expand our reach from here on. Such is the path to glory for the Federation – for all life in the galaxy!"

"If you spew anymore cr-p into my ears, I'm gonna' need a plunger."

"What was that?"

"I normally don't give a sh-t about the Federation… but I'll be d-mned if you think I'm gonna' let you guys run amok and trample over other people's lives. As a Verguldian, there's no way I'm going to let any of that happen."

"Hmph, how dare a hooligan from some backwater planet mock the will of our Sovereign? Prostrate yourselves before the power His Excellency has bestowed upon me!"

"Spoken like a real infomercial scuzzball. Consider this payback for what you did to the Ydas!"

"Poor Marielle! If only you had undergone integration, you could have joined the Astoria crew under the Sovereign!"

"You've lost your mind! I would rather die than end up like you!"

"That can be arranged! Here ends the Kenny family line!"

Erys didn't know whether the voices had stopped sounding.

Because she didn't know whether she was even aware of anything, or standing in the middle of a deranged feverish hallucination, or hovering with or without her Featherfolk wings, or even lacking awareness or perception of its absence of or possible potentials.

She had no way to tell if those were tears clearing anything and neverwhere as anything that was gone had never there left, Ioshua or Mom and Dad or Master Vyanewether or Roddick, or Roak or Earth or Fargett or the Calnus, or was it the fragmented mirror of the glass of one of the spheres she'd wielded when she'd pretended to be Mavelle.

She had no way of knowing if it was possible to see into the future without traveling there, but after Millie's and Roddick's recklessness had kept them from raising their guards when the Fargettians had located Asmodeus in the Space-Time Laboratory, Erys knew what it meant if this mysterious woman could honestly do that.

Moving forward to a brighter tomorrow?

That was, eternally distant light years than the observable universe extended, the most sadistic jest of all.

"The only option you have left is complete, unconditional surrender."

"Like h-ll we do! We'll never surrender to the likes of you!"

"If that's what you want to do, I promise I'll do all I can to help, Ioshua."

"Quit it, please!"

"Shut up and move! My life's mission was to save my sister! She was all I had to live for! And now you're telling me just to leave Erys like this!? My own flesh and blood! Well, you can go to h-ll! I'm gonna' save my sister, and I'll sacrifice everything I've got to do it!"

"Wait, Ioshua! Erys… She's… she's me. My brother, I am Erys."

No.

Not this time.

Ioshua and Roddick hadn't given up.

And Sarah wasn't the sole relative Erys had left.

Reality was there, and Erys confronted the faceplate of Faize's helmet directly.

Then she spread her arms wide, and closed her eyes.

"I know what you're going through, so, in the face of evidence like what you were just shown, if I can't convince you to back down with what I've already said, I most likely have no other terms to negotiate with.

"But whether Sarah is my enemy, or not, and you remember it, or not, we've met, before.

"You're as much family as she is, and I'm not going to leave you like this.

"Whatever choice you make, my offer remains, in payment of my debt to the Black Tribe, and you."

The mysterious woman sighed in exasperation.

"Your choice has already been etched.

"Now you are outta' here."

The sensation of metal beneath her feet vanished.

Faize's voice sounded, still distorted by his mask, but now sharp and furious.

"No, I am, not whatever Grigori, or nonsensical desiccated contrivance, you're attempting to harvest from me!"

The woman inhaled harshly, and now there was true horror in her voice.

Then there was familiar glass beneath Erys' feet.

She opened her eyes.

To see Jie Revorse, once more in his human form, but clad in the bracelets and kilt he'd given himself when he'd morphed, standing in front of them with binders around his hands, Roddick at his side with his Force Sword beam extended and at Jie's neck, Ashlay mirroring Roddick on Jie's opposite side.

Ronyx was talking into his communicator.


Erys' mouth dropped open.

Tears were now in her eyes for a different reason, and she was aware she was grinning so widely her face ached so much the tears falling down it stung.

Even Welch's lack of presence, and whatever tie it may have to the woman who had reminded Erys of her, meant nothing to her now.

They'd actually done it?

They'd negotiated a settlement, or surrender terms, with Jie?

While she'd protected them?

Ronyx stiffened to ramrod parade rest, and he hung up his communicator.

"Admiral Bays accepts your terms of surrender, and will grant your request for asylum from Yvena's faction, her sympathizers, and any remaining sympathizers with Asmodeus' faction still alive within what you name the Daemonium, or elsewhere.

"However, once we've turned you over to a full Alliance contingent, I'll no longer be able to oversee you, or how matters progress.

"I was given a direct order, not to negotiate with you, but to assassinate you, and I disobeyed them to attempt to negotiate.

"Admiral Bays was able to overlook my breach of the Underdeveloped Planetary Preservation Pact, but this was a second offense. And this time, had matters gone awry, it would have resulted in a full scale intergalactic war."

Erys became aware she was now on her knees.

Ilia stepped back, recoiling, the blood draining from her face, as though she'd been violently struck.

Ioshua ran to Erys' side, with Millie behind him, and within seconds, Ioshua was squeezing her right shoulder, and Millie her left.

Roddick clenched his free hand so tightly the nails of his palm would very likely have drawn blood if they weren't gloved.

noway

nonononononononononononononononono

nonowaynononono

nopleasepleasenopleasepleasenononopleasepleaseno

I

Mavelle

didn't

becoming

once again

was supposed to safekeep

Ioshua

Master Vaynewether

Roddick

Millie

Ronyx

Ilia

at the warm hearth of a home

was supposed to make their dreams come true

gave it back to them

got it back

nonononoway

noplease

"After you're turned over to Admiral Bays, I am to be prosecuted before a military tribunal to the fullest extent of Terran Alliance law, up to, and including, summary dishonorable discharge."

.

"So, please, promise me that you will give her a life without war, and there will be no mobile suits or knives or anything else to do with death! Take her back to a world with kindness, a world with warmth!"-Shinn Asuka

GUNDAM SEED DESTINY:

Phase 30: A FLEETING DREAM