Aleisa slowly opened her eyes before blinking several times. It was difficult to see who was hovered above her and she wondered of her surroundings. A bright blue illuminated in all directions of both her primary and perifial vision. She saw a dark figure hover above her and she was frightened for a moment, until he eyes adjusted to her surroundings and she saw Sora's friendly face.
"Sora?" she whispered.
"You okay, Aleisa?" Sora asked.
"What happened?"
He smiled. "You're afraid of heights, aren't you? That's what Zidane assumed when you fell into Terra unconcious."
"I was unconcious?" Aleisa asked quietly.
"Don't worry, there's no aftereffects happening. Not that we've noticed," he added.
"This is Terra?" she asked as she sat up. She noticed many faces that looked much like Zidane. All were blonde, both the girls and boys, and had unique tails. "They look like.."
"Zidane, I know," Sora said. "He told me to wait here with you. He wanted to show me something."
By this time, Zidane reentered the small room where several beds were lined against the wall. Behind him was a girl slightly shorter than he, blonde hair and blue eyes, with a pink tanktop and a pearl skirt. She stood in the doorway shyly.
"This is Mikoto," he explained. "She's a genome, like me."
"Gemome?" Sora questioned. "Is this your birth planet?"
Mikoto nodded. "He denies his birthplace."
Zidane scratched his head and looked back to Sora. "The genomes of Terra have lived in isolation for many years, and find their existence meaningless."
"Our existence is-" Mikoto started.
"Ah, ah, ah," Zidane said, shaking his index finger, "you don't put yourself down like that again, remember? Kuja and Garland only made you feel your feelings of unbelongment."
Mikoto looked down to the ground, her face still rather sad looking. She forced a smile. "I am sorry. I am trying, as you may know."
Zidane laughed. "You still sound as dull as Garnet when I first met her. Act more casual like me."
"If only I were as precious as you," she replied.
Sora looked back and forth between them and scratched his head. "Erm?"
Zidane looked to Sora and yelped. "Eeks, sorry, kid. Forgot you were here."
"Er, don't worry about it. It happens often," Sora said.
"People often forget us, as well," Mikoto said.
Zidane sighed and turned to Mikoto. He smiled and patted her on the head. "My sweet, sweet sister."
"She's your sister?" Sora asked.
"More or less, yeah," Zidane explained. "I am a genome of this planet. We are the same, as the other people here are my sisters and brothers. You don't think we all look the same?"
"Why do you look so sad?" Sora asked Mikoto. She refused to answer.
"There was a dictator here named Garland. He thought of them as just all empty vessals and made them question their existence far more than one should. Sure, it's okay to question your origins. One learns of himself more this way, but the way he did-"
"Kairi," Sora whispered.
"Kairi?" Zidane asked.
"Sometimes, she questions her existence. I wonder if she'll even be there when I return?"
Aleisa sat there in silence, dumbfounded and unsure what to say. She had opened her mouth several times to reply, but when Sora mentioned Kairi, she figured she shouldn't. She had already made a fool of herself in front of the Queen of Alexandria by being jealous of her. She turned her gaze away from them all.
"Can we go now?" Aleisa asked.
Sora quickly gazed to Aleisa and smiled. "You feel up to it?"
She didn't return the smile and simply nodded. "Yeah, whatever." She stood and quickly swept past Mikoto and out the door. She waited outside of the room and called after Sora impatiently "Are you coming or what?"
Sora smiled nervously and bowed to Mikoto. "Sorry we gotta leave you so soon."
Mikoto looked to him strangely and giggled. "No need to bow. Just because you are of an alien planet does not mean to need to act so formal."
Zidane's eye twitched. "Her lack in bad English still hurts my ears."
Sora laughed and quickly departed outside of the room before Aleisa became angrier.
"Ready?" Sora asked her nicely.
Aleisa rolled her eyes and followed a glowing path from the shops. "I've been ready. Let's go."
"I'll show you around," Zidane said, accompanying Sora from the small city and to a glowing mirror at the city's entrance. They stepped within inches of the portal and were pulled inward by gravity. They walked a short path forward to a spider web of a portal which preluded the same effect. Aleisa was glad that there were no more glowing blue lights.
"Glad that's over," she said as she stepped forward into a room filled with scrap machinery and weapons that were embroided into the ground. "Or not," she quickly corrected.
"This is Pandemonium," Zidane explained. "This was where Garland's hideaway was and he watched me on both Gaia and Terra. He wanted to turn me into a mindless Genome for fighting and destruction, just as he hoped to turn the others into."
"Are you calling them mindless?" Sora asked.
Zidane quickly shook his head. "No, they're not mindless. They are very intelligent, but lack fighting skills and the ability to perform Trance, a state of the body where emotions run high and cause a high adreneline rush during battle." Zidane shook his head. "My brother, Kuja, had the similar strength that I possess, but he only wanted to use it to kill everything in sight. That was what we were born for."
"What was that?" Sora asked.
"Destruction. That's why he called us mindless Genomes," Zidane added quietly. "He called us mindless killing machines because we were created to kill the people of Gaia. The people of Gaia were wasting our homeland away because the population of a corresponding planet must be less than or equal to the population of the primary planet."
"English?" Aleisa asked, annoyed.
"In other words, there were too many people on Gaia and they were sucking the life force from it, and thusly, sucking the life from Terra. That's why this planet looks so distraunt because the life is being sucked from it as we speak. We want to move the people from here, but they insist to live here, where they were born. It's a little difficult to convince them that they have meaning, seeing as they were put down and shamed all their lives, and they see me as such a great person."
Aleisa moved forward onto the scraped, rusted, machine path. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Moving on." She looked back to them. "We gotta get to Destiny's Island, don't we? Gotta find your friend, Sora!" She looked forward once more and ran ahead. Zidane blinked.
"She's changed since when I first met her." He looked to Sora. "You catching on to what's wrong with her, right?"
Sora scratched his head. "Uhm?"
Zidane sighed and threw up his arms in surrender. "Ah, you'll figure it out eventually." He ran ahead to catch up with Aleisa.
"Figure what out..?" Sora asked himself.