Sins of the Fathers- Chapter three
By Pavana Lachrimae
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If Squaresoft was mine, would I be writing fanfic? .
Teaser: Six years after the final defeat of Sin, a young part-guado girl named Darra seeks out the only remaining link to her parentage in a last attempt to find out who she is. But when the truth finally surfaces, will she really want to know? Seymour x ?. Lots of twists. Not a sue, and if you read it, you'll see why ;) …
A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! - Unfortunately, I think I'm going to disappoint quite a few people with this chapter. It's… well, read and see. Again, criticism is welcome.
P.S: Argh! For some reason, the formatting on here just won't listen to me today, so I've put –x- where the section breaks are supposed to be. Sorry about that.
-x-
It was a well-hidden pregnancy. None of us even considered the possibility until it was five months along and too obvious for us to ignore. Even then, we may not even have realised had I not walked into the bedroom inadvertently that day, spotted the painful binds that had concealed a swollen stomach for so long wound half-around the hand of their frightened owner.
How terrifying it must be, to have all those changes take place in your body and never know why. Perhaps even Darra's mother did not realise- perhaps it was done simply out of vanity, and perhaps no thought had been given to the bouts of sickness or the strange developments that occur in a guado woman's body when she was about to give birth. Given the circumstances, I would not be surprised.
When we found out, none of us expected the baby to live.
But she did. Despite everything, Darra lived. It may have been Seymour's human side that saved her- though it may as well have been Seymour's human side that caused the problem in the first place. We would never know.
-x-
''Summoner Yuna is far too young to be your mother, Darra. You forget she was only seventeen when she defeated Sin. You would have been- how old then? Eleven? ''
''Ten. '' Darra pulled her sleeves over her fingers unconsciously. ''I was ten years old. My mother was… one of the last people it killed. ''
''I see. '' There was a moment's pause before I carried on. ''Seymour was… very young when you were born. Only eighteen. Yuna was far too young then to even have met him… and even if she had, I doubt…''
I trailed off, trying to ignore the girl's harsh, expectant gaze. She wants to know, I had to keep telling myself, but all the while I could not help wonder whether, after I had told her everything there was to tell, she would not want to forget.
''You have to remember that guado are very different from… from humans. What I'm about to tell you, you may find hard to understand, but it is true. Seymour had… a very rare genetic disorder…''
-x-
One of my earliest memories of Seymour, before he and his mother were sent to Baaj. I was very small- seven or eight years old, and in my haste my mother had forgotten to ensure I did not follow her on the way to Jyscal's office. She had been in the middle of brushing my hair when the alarm was raised; I, hairbrush in tow and eager for her to finish my plait, had tottered after her, making my way almost unnoticed through the corridors of the mansion as I had done many times before.
They had already lifted him up onto the desk, and he lay there now, his small form jerking in a series of desperate convulsions as the servants struggled to placate him. They were almost driven to panic by the severity of his coughing and the strangled choking sounds he was making, too frightening and too harsh to be coming from a child so small. In the distance I could hear my mother's voice, sterner than she had ever spoken to me.
''…closing up. Somebody get me a tube, orsomething, hurry!''
''…will not allow you to operate without an anaesthetic…'' Another servant. My mother's voice again, more urgent.
''…no choice. He'll stop breathing if we don't do something now…''
She had a scalpel in her hand. I had not noticed it before. Yet now, she brandished it with an almost inhuman determination. It scared me. But what scared me even more is the image that haunts me in my dreams even now; the moment before I backed out of the door again in terror, the moment she brought the blade down against Seymour's neck and positioned it, ready to make the incision.
-x-
''I don't understand. What does that have to do with anything? Are you saying I'm sick? ''
''No. Even if you did carry the gene, it wouldn't matter now. '' I stood up, headed over towards the curtains. ''It wouldn't affect you. And even if you did manage to pass it on, the chances of it happening again are infinitesimal…''
''The chances of what happening? ''
I drew the curtains open, and gave a long, low sigh.
''I was once told to keep this a secret all my life, '' I said. ''But I suppose it hardly matters anymore. After all, what power does the Guado government have to stop me now? And Maester Seymour is long dead. Yevon is long dead. What purpose would it serve, now, to keep this under wraps? ''
Darra was silent in the background; waiting. I took a deep breath.
''We never knew who your father was. ''
''What?! '' Behind me, I could hear her stand up. ''You just told me Seymour was my father! I don't understand! What is this, some kind of sick joke? ''
''Calm down, Darra. I said you got your guado side from Seymour. I did not say he was your father. We never knew who your father was- Seymour never told us. Perhaps even he didn't know. ''
Darra listened wordlessly. I wanted her to say something, anything. I didn't dare turn round. When I spoke again, my voice was quiet.
''As I said, Darra. A rare genetic disorder. A million in one chance. ''
Suddenly it seemed as if the only thing in the world was the silence between us. I could have heard a pin drop, could have heard the girl's sharp intake of breath as she pressed her hand to her lips and stared at me, not knowing whether to believe me or disbelieve me or turn and run and never come back.
''No…''
-x-
Years later, when I was an adult and the tracheotomy scar and the pain had long faded from Seymour's neck, I would see that moment again in his eyes, and know it had haunted him as much as it had me.
-x-
A/N: Ahem. Well. I've been trying to keep this story relatively feasible- as I said, this is sort of an experiment for me- and, again, criticism is welcome, but if you flame me on the basis of the subject matter alone, I'll ignore it. I don't like this sort of fic as a rule, and I've tried to make mine as realistic as I can. I hope I've succeeded, but obviously I need all the help I can get. Hint hint!