Upgrade complete. I hope you all like the more polished version of my fic.
Disclaimer: See chaptire I.
Empty Spiral
Chaptire III
don't tell me why
I'm so near to commit a crime
When I stay alone here in front of you
(I'm here)
Illusion falls when you're not honest about the way I feel
I know I need only your voice
Saving all my words only for you
Forgive me
Saving all my words only for you'
- Lacuna Coil, 'Cold Heritage'
"Hello...father."
Those words hung dry in the air. Max felt his gun slip out of his hand and hit the floor with a resounding ka-chang. Ben and Gwen could only cling to the back of Max's shirt and wonder what the hell this girl was talking about.
"Grandpa, what is she talking about? Who's Weena? What does she have to do with you?" Gwen asked. Eloi laughed again, reveling in the confusion she caused.
"Yes, tell them, father. Tell them of their dear auntie Eloi." Ben was becoming fed up with this girls talking. But he dare not make a move, after being so easily beaten in his alien forms. He then spotted the gun on the floor.
Without a second though, Ben lunged for it. Grabbing it, he took aim at Eloi. But her eyes glowed again, and Ben was wrenched up into the air. Then Gwen was lifted, and they were both promptly thrown out of the whare house.
"So I see their parents never taught them the grace of falling down and staying down." Eloi said. She then made the metal doors shut themselves and lock. Max grabbed a pipe that was on the floor and lunged at her. Still gloating, Eloi was smacked upside the head in her moment of distraction. She crashed to the floor, leaving a flying trail of purple blood in the air.
"Now, tell me who the hell are you?!" Max demanded, not about to take another BS vague answer from this space bitch. Eloi was still, not even moving in breath. Max feared he accidentally killed the girl. That is until her body practically shot up into the air, along with the lavender glow that indicated her use of psychic power.
"Would you like it if I showed you, instead?!"
The lavender hughed light enveloped the whole place, making Max cover his eyes. He then felt a numbing sensation within himself. When he opened his eyes, he found himself standing in an village square. Well, as far as he could tell it was a village. It looked more like it was designed by Dr. Seuss while he was hopped up on anti-depressants. Max scanned the crowd, and saw the familiar face of Weena, the Nomisan woman he had saved over 25 years ago. But this couldn't be right? How the hell did he get on this planet?
"Welcome to my mothers' memories." Elois' voice said from behind him. Max turned to face her.
"You said I was your father? But that isn't possible, Weena and I never even..." he was hesitant to say the rest. He knew he hadn't touched her the way a man touches a woman, so could this girl be lying?
"You need to think a little more quietly. My concentration is wavering right now." Eloi said. Max turned down his internal volume. Eloi pointed to the woman she claimed to be her mother. "Now watch."
Max saw Weena walking down the street, looking a little peecky. It wasn't until she turned a corner that Max could see her belly swollen with pregnacy. Suddenly Max felt his stomach tighten with uncertainty. He was certain they hadn't done anything that would lead to this.
"Not every species has the same methods of reproduction." Eloi said. "When you found my mother in that wreckage, she was only one day away from her Si' Sia Ama, the time when Nomisan females are ripe for child bearing. Do you remember doing anything with her that could have put her in direct contact with you blood or any other sort of bodily fluid?"
Max though hard on that. The only thing that came to mind was that kiss. That one little kiss...
"We had one kiss. But how was that enough to get her pregnant?" Eloi was silent at first, but Max could see her clenched hands trembling with a great emotion that he couldn't fathom.
"It was enough that she was able to acquire enough of you're genetic material to spawn me, so leave it at that!" she practically shouted at him. Eloi then moved to follow her mothers path. Max followed suit.
They passed by diners, shops, places of social interaction. After a few more blocks, they appeared to enter the more seedy side of the village. Max saw Weena enter a hospital looking place, but he wasn't sure. Eloi waved her hand and the alien language that was written on the sign changed to English.
Abortion Clinic.
Max did a double take. He looked to Eloi, but her sour expression told him to say nothing. Max looked back, and saw Weena run out of the clinic, eyes soaked with tears. Chasing her was who Max guessed was the doctor. The doctor was shouting curses at Weena, until he stopped and walked back into the clinic.
Max wanted to run to Weena and take her in his arms, kiss away her tears, tell her that everything would be alright. But he remembered that this was only a mind trip, that he could do nothing to change what had already happened. Eloi walked to her fathers side, looking like she was about to hit him right in the gut.
"What do you have to say, terk'quat?" she said.
"I don't understand? If Weena wanted an abortion, why did the doctor chase her out of the clinic?"
"Because she changed her mind. They Nomisan ways are very different from the human ways. While the concept of abortion maybe taboo in some places of your world, it is very much the norm here."
"So, Weena wanted to abort you and changed her mind. And that's considered wrong here?"
"Women who are with child but have no mate are considered to be soiled by sin. And thus, they are deemed evil by the people. But, if they abort the child and save it from being damned in life, then the woman is free to be accepted once again by her community." Max had to let that sink in for a second.
"And since she decided to keep you... She was hated by her people? And you..."
"I was dubbed 'The Terk'quat Child'. The Child of Sin. The Halfbreed Spawn..." With that, Eloi broke down into a weeping mass of sorrow. Her concentration broken, the village vanished and was replaced by the whare house. Elois' body heaved with each wave of tears, her cries switching form English to nomisan and back again.
Max was flabber-gauhsted. Weither it was some empathic power Eloi had on him or not, Max could feel his soul get heavy with sadness. His own hot tears began flowing, but he refused to break down and cry. Because of his ignorance, his mistake, he had doomed this girl to a life of damnation and misery that she didn't even deserve. All he could to was fall to his knees and embrace the daughter he never knew. Eloi clung to him, soaking his shirt. Max stroked her ivory white hair, wanting to make up for never knowing, never being there when he was needed.
Suddenly, Elois' hands latched onto Max's neck. His breath caught in his throat, trying to find its way to his lungs. Eloi squeezed harder, wanting to strangle her father until his eyes popped out of his skull.
"You think you can suddenly apologize for a lifetime of shame!?" Her dark eyes now glowed red with blood lust. Max could feel asphyxiation coming on. "You never cared about her! You never bothered to find my mother! After all those transmissions she sent you! You never answered one! TERK'QUAT MACH GANCH!!!!"
Maxs' eyes widened with confusion. What transmissions? Eloi sounded like he should know what she was talking about. He tried to speak, but he was 5 seconds away from a black out. Thinking fast, he stuck both sides of her neck with his up-turned hands. Eloi roared with pain. After she realized him, Max took cover, trying to catch his breath.
"What so you mean, 'transmissions'? I never heard from Weena again after she left Earth." Max shouted. Eloi rushed at him like a wild animal. Max side stepped, and she crashed into some milk crates.
"LIAR!!! G'HAKE TERK'QUAT!!! SHE SENT YOU MESSAGE AFTER MESSAGE, AND YOU NEVER RESPONDED. FOR 10 G'HAKED YEARS !"
"Ten years? I retired five years after that night. I wasn't with the Plumbers anymore. I couldn't get transmissions from space any more."
Eloi stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes went blank, looking very much like a toy with dead batteries. Her left eye started to twitch, her mouth moving in a silent argument with her self.
"You were wrong!" / "He's lying!"
"All this time you hated someone who never knew you exsisted." / "He never cared about mother or me!"
"He's all you have left." / "I'll kill him!"
"He's your father." / "I HATE HIM!!!"
Eloi screamed as her powers went out of control. The entire place was bathed in lavender glow as every object that wasn't bolted to the ground began swirling around her like a tornado. Max managed to grab onto something that was bolted down, and he hoped to God that his old hands could keep their grip. Eloi continued her internal battle, not moving except for her mouth that moved a mile a minute. Just then, the door was slammed open, revealing Ben in Diamondhead form.
"Grandpa?!" the craggy voice shouted over the roar of the psychic tornado.
"Ben!" called Max. Ben made his way toward his grandfather, dodging flying crates and hardware. Grabbing Max, Ben trudged out of the place, where Gwen was waiting at the RV. Ben put Max down, only to be tackled by his hysterical grand-daughter.
"It's alright Gwen. We just need to get out of here." Max jumped into the drivers seat, and punched the gas down. As the RV hauled sass down the road, Max looked in the rear-view. The ware house was collapsing, and catching fire. Max shook his head, knowing nothing could live through that sort of thing.
"Grandpa?" Gwen asked. "Who was that girl?" This time, Max couldn't dodge the question.
"A mistake. One I wish I could fix." Gwen left it at that, knowing she couldn't get a straight answer out of her secretive gandfather. Ben, on the other hand, sat at the back of the RV, his mind swimming with questions. All the while, his heart turned cold.