Chapter 5: My skin was not my own

Rikku awoke, realizing where she was. The sand still stung the bottom of her feet… Wait, where the hell am I? Dante rolled over on a bedroll, a few feet from her own. Roland was sitting, staring into the fire. Rikku recalled the dream. I was running faster than the wind, on an open desert. My feet were bare, and it was night. And my skin was not my own. I was nude, and could not stop. I ran until I found it. The ancient Siech Jokurato. And my skin was not my own. Rikku sighed at the realism.

So, you have had the first of his memories. This one is the most important.

"Reverend Mother?" Rikku says aloud, prompting a glance from Roland.

Yes. This is a memory of Leto the second. It is the beginning of his transformation.

"Transformation?"

Yes. The Golden Path. To destroy Dune and bring economic trade to a standstill. To transform into a sandworm. To be the God-Emperor of Dune.

Rikku sighed again.

You realize that you needn't speak aloud to talk to me? The others will think that you are insane. You should get some sleep. I will not speak to you again until you get some sleep and explain what you are to them. The Reverend Mother was silent.

Rikku awoke to the smell of roasting meat. Dante and Roland talked quietly while sitting around a fire. Rikku stood and walked over to where they sat and muttered a greeting. She sat by the fire, completing the triangle that they made with the fire at their center. Rikku said, "Hey guys? I-I got something to tell you."

Dante looked up with a concerned look and Roland raised an eyebrow.

"I… have memories of my ancestors. The Bene Gesserit." Dante jumped to his feet and stepped back.

"Once, when I was campaigning against the demon underworld, a portal took me to a cave in a desert. On the walls were carved the words 'The Bene Gesserits have destroyed the world.' I didn't know what they were, so I asked around."

"What are they?" Roland questioned, obviously interested.

"Witches." Dante said, lifting Ivory, aiming it at Rikku.

"No! They are… well…"

Help me Reverend Mother. How do I explain it to them? Rikku felt the presence of the Reverend Mother stir within her.

Tell them that we were seers that were prosecuted, just like the Jews.

Jews?

Yes. Ask Dante to explain it.

"Uh, well, they are more like seers that were prosecuted, just like the Jews."

Dante lowered the gun. "How do you know about the Jews?"

"I don't… the presence in my head just told me to tell you that. To ask you about them."

"Well, Judaism is the religion in which they believe in the first half of a great book they used to call the Bible. Jews believed that the second half is untrue. Christians follow it all. Jews were always prosecuted. Egypt. Hitler. Anyway, they are all gone."

Roland looked around confused. "Jews took over our world. They drove out the king and killed all the gunslingers but me." Dante stared at him. "That is impossible… unless they are hiding, waiting for their chance to strike…" Rikku was suddenly in good spirits. "So, no one thinks that I am insane, right?"