Geno Dome - 2300 A.D.
Marle looked down at the three cards in her hand and grinned triumphantly.
«Ten points!» she cried, scooping every card from the floor.
«Again?» Lucca sighed, «I shouldn't have taught you this stupid game...»
«It's fun!» the other girl giggled.
«Not for me, since I'm losing!»
«AAAIIIEEEOOOUUU...» Robo screamed, darting past them in the corridor. He was surrounded by a flickering blue aura, small bolts of lightning were forming between his arms and legs. But before he could reach the pod he was aiming for, the electricity had already discharged, the dizzying light faded.
He stopped silently. If a robot could have looked crestfallen and embarrassed, he would have been that one.
«Too bad» he said evenly «I was so close this time»
He turned around smoothly and left.
The companions had hardly noticed him. That scene had repeated so often in that past hour that Crono had slumped in a corner and fallen asleep, Ayla was running around doing gymnastics and climbing the walls, Glenn and Magus were sitting close to each other staring gloomily at opposite directions while Marle and Lucca had started a game of cards.
Indeed, they were stuck in front of that locked door which could be opened only by a robot stepping onto a nearby pod -after having charged itself with electricity in a special cabin. Unfortunately, the cabin was far away and the energy dissipated quickly, although Robo tried to run at maximum speed.
A really boring afternoon.
«I have a theory about the gates» Lucca said, shuffling the cards and dealing them again.
She quicky corrected herself.
«Well...not really a in a scientific sense, just...a feeling. I don't think it's Lavos that creates them»
«No?» Marle asked in surprise.
«He's surely related to the gates someway, but...I don't know how to explain my thoughts. It's like...like I went to the past to save my mother»
None of the two girls was paying much attention to the cards anymore.
«I was wondering...» the princess said «How can you remember your mother being wounded...it has never happened! All your life should have been different, and...»
Marle was a lot smarter than her appearance could suggest. Just because she liked jumping in the air like a little girl and screaming a lot when happy -it didn't mean she had a six-years-old's mind. Meeting Lucca's gaze, she felt she could understand the gist of the young scientist's thoughts.
Lucca was nodding.
«My life had been different, but not too much...I can remember both realities, and the one in which my mother was maimed is now like a very bad nightmare...What I was trying to say was: my life couldn't change too much. When I was a child...»
She stopped in midsentence, frozen by another disquieting feeling. The smiling, kind face of her cousin Megara had surfaced in her memoryIt was usually a nice memory, but not this time –now, for a brief, horrible instant, Lucca felt there could be a reality in which Megara didn't exist, and it was a lot worse than the reality in which her mother was crippled, because
Robo's screaming deafened everybody for a couple of seconds. But none among the companions bothered to look up at him. There was nothing to be seen except a sad robot in front of a still closed metallic door. Robo left again, this time without a word.
«When I was a child, I hated science! I was jealous of all those machines my father favored over his own daughter...over me. But, after the accident...I felt so guilty for not having been able to stop that device that I decided to study and learn...so that nobody would suffer again for my ignorance»
She stopped, her voice unsteady. But she recovered fast, smiling again. It had never happened, she reminded herself.
«Well, now the accident hasn't occurred and I've made the same decision for apparently different reasons. The point is: had I never became a scientist, we couldn't have been here, none of us! So...»
«...you couldn't have saved your mother. Yeah, classic time paradox and all! Whatever change we believe to have done to the past...reality will rearrange itself around so that the major facts still have to happen!» Marle enthusiastically exclaimed.
Lucca considered that for a long moment, then she slowly nodded.
«I'd have used more complicated words, but...yes, something like that. If with major facts you mean all the events that have brought us to time travelling, yes. Either this way, or...we are just deluding ourselves, because we aren't allowed to make too many changes»
Marle frowned.
«I can't see the connection with your talk about gates»
The other girl shrugged. But Marle, after a few moments of uncertainty, understood.
«It means that...if the presence of Lavos in each time period creates the gates, we can't kill it...because we need the gates to reach that monster!» she said, shocked.
Lucca smiled.
«I prefer to reason the other way around»
The gust of wind produced by a robot-shaped missile darting in the corridor nearly threw the girls on the floor. Recovering, however, they heard a and a metallic shriek -the robotic equivalent of a cry of joy.
***
Ozzie's Fort - 600 A.D.
«Thank you for staying, Auree» Flea whispered, trying to control his trembling voice.
«Did you really think I could run away?» she asked in a melancholy tone.
«Haven't you been tempted?»
Of course she had been. When the slaves' rebellion had broken out, one of her previous fellow-workers had urged her to flee. She had considered the thought for some seconds, because running suddenly away is a natural human instinct. But then she had promptly acknowledged the situation.
What do you want from me?, she had asked sternly, You, my fellow humans...you have humiliated me every day of my life, your hypocrisy has killed my mother. Even in disgrace, we are always fighting each other, attempting to crush the weaker ones...I had to be enslaved before feeling appreciated, respected...and loved. And you, who can't understand anything of this, call me a lost woman, even you, Yulanna. You haven't seen him sleeping, looking so innocent and frail. There was no need to strive so hard to seduce me, I'd have easily fallen into his bed the first day and he knew. But he cares about my feelings...unlike you...Who's actually the monster, then? Are you now sincerely expecting I will come with you? Where? Why? To be the redeemed sinner, barely tolerated by other people? They'll forgive you, Yulanna, saying you just had to save your life. They won't forgive me, knowing I really did it for love, and I will never regret it.
Well, Auree wasn't positive she had actually told all this to Yulanna. Perhaps she had only thought it, scowling at the other woman until that one had left, scared.
Now Flea was sitting on his throne, and Auree on his knees like a child. She felt reasonably sure to have done the right thing.
He had turned his head away to hide his expression, but she had already noticed there were tears in his eyes, and mascara had slightly stained the rims of his eyes.
He sniffed and cleared his throat. Then he faced her with a brittle smile.
«You're so precious to me...how stupid I've been not telling you before»
«There was no need, I knew it»
He sighed heavily.
«I know that at first I can seem frivolous and shallow...it's just that I'm always trying to see the bright side of life»
«You're a good-natured person»
«I've had some bad experiences, you know»
«You told me»
«I don't like brooding...worrying about things...But I must admit my sentimental life, until now, has been a disastrous one. I didn't want to speak about it...»
Auree raised a hand and gently caressed his cheek. They had been lovers for a while, now, but she seldom dared spontaneous gestures like that one, defying her extreme shyness.
He seemed to appreciate it.
«If you count from our first kiss...our love story is almost two months old» he said, «This is the longest relationship I ever had. You know...it has never been easy for me to find a partner. Most of female Mystics are...er...aesthetically disadvantaged»
She nodded.
«I remember...humanoid Mystics are a small group»
«Yes. But it's not for that reason...Since my boyhood I've met many interesting girls. But...they resist for three, four, sometimes five weeks and then...they always ask me to stop acting like this. My...habit...repels women. They tolerate it for a while, believing it's some kind of joke and expecting I will put it aside sooner or later. Oh, Auree, I'm not acting, I'm sorry. I am just like this, I've always been. I can't change»
«You don't have to!» she said vehemently «Nobody should be asked to change his personality to please other people. Some mutual adjustments may be necessary, but if you truly love someone, you've got to accept and respect him or her...There's no love without respect»
«I tend to agree»
«After all, you're not hurting anyone and...»
Her voice faded; Auree feeling doubtful.
«I suppose» she continued meekly «you're referring to your...uhm...preference for female clothes...»
His eyes widened.
«These are not clothes!» he protested, fluttering his long eyelashes «These are just elegant and stylish clothes, that emphasise my beauty! There's a big difference...»
«Flea» she sighed, «You're currently wearing a woman undergarment you don't need at all»
«My idea of what a beautiful figure should be includes breasts, and...»
He lowered his gaze with a weak, embarrassed smile.
«Well...I just like it. What's wrong?»
«Nothing»
They exchanged a quick glance, and then he kissed her.
«Flea...when you say you've always been like this, do you mean reallyalways? From childhood?»
«Yes...I'm born with this body, you know»
«And your mother...agreed?»
«She was an open-minded, intelligent woman. Who did decide that males should dress like this and females like that? Why? It's sexism, that's what it is»
She giggled. She was trying to figure out what this kind of speech could have caused in that bigot human society she had known. But she had a question left.
«Did you ever...dream to be...a girl?»
«Me? No! I just wanted to be beautiful like my mother»
He blinked slowly, suddenly confused.
«Oh, my...I think that was my mother!»
Auree coughed.
«Ehm...sure I'm not too heavy?»
«You're a feather, darling»
Feather?
He enlightened.
«Yes! Let's go!» he erupted brightly.
Auree stood up.
«Where?»
«I've a gift for you!»
«Another one? Oh...»
Auree had dreaded that Flea's attitude toward her could change after she had given him...everything, but her fears had proved wrong. Flea's gentleness and generosity had lasted utterly unchanged. This was comforting. But slightly embarrassing as well. She had begun to feel confused by the amount of gifts she was receiving.
There had been the Wonder Razor, which could keep her legs smooth for a very long time. There had been a ring with a sapphire...currently at the jeweller's workshop because it needed to be adjusted for Auree's lean finger. There had been a sort of sweet syrup -well, not exactly a gift, but a medicine to avoid that kind of accidents that could seriously embarrass an unmarried woman...And, above all, there had been books. Loads of them.
«You shouldn't overwhelm me with tons of gifts...»
«What's the point of being rich and powerful, then? But...this one isn't an object. I have an idea...come!»
He dragged her out of the throne room.
---
(ahh...the Wonder Razor! how useful! ^__^)