The Awakening

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FOUR

     After the loss of many tears, she sat and watched him eat as House conjured a feast fitting for their appetite. She smiles as he lifts his crystal bordello filled with the nectar of a century of fine wine to his lips. She looks deeply into his features as he swashed around the liquid to liberate the essence locked within the flavor. In that moment, he was lost in the sensation of extravagance. They ate little, but it was the communion that they wanted to share as they spoke about the past. However, a lingering question remains, resting amidst her thoughts. But she holds onto it, at his beckoning.
     “Lilian’s daughter, Tahlequah, gave birth to twin daughters, Tsinigalis and Wigawanugoi. They were born 10 years ago and have become quite the handful. Michael and Raven have two more children, Lindsey and Wallace. Um, Claira has two children of her own now, Aegina and Adonis. Adonis has a daughter, Agatha. He’s married to a young Atlantean, called Aetna. They are both barely in their twenties and are talking about a second child. And sure enough, Uncle Lucien has to baby-sit once and a while. They keep asking me when I’m going to start having my own children…”
     “And?” Looking with a mock anticipation. The subject of children was an ongoing discussion that has had no resolution. He has had an aversion to fatherhood ever since she first brought up the subject, some 70 years ago.
     “When do I have the time? Besides, with all these children around, I don’t feel I need to have any of my own. We’ve been through this…”
     “But…”
     “You already have your family, and I’m happy with that.”
     “But what about our own children. Yours and mine?”
     “We’ve been through this. Besides, we have lots of time. And on top of that, maybe you should concentrate on your Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. Worry about being something to them.”
     “You have a point.” She offers a lingering smile, a bit on the mischievous side. He recognized the smile. For it is the same one Daemon gets when he’s thought of something a little wicked.
     “What?”
     “You.” Still smiling. “You still can’t bring yourself to talk about it.” There has been so much to flood her mind, and still they focus on the subject of children. “Your aversion to passing on your curse. To not being a parent or a father, because both of yours had abandoned you when you were so young. But you had parents who loved you, raised you into a man. You have that love to share, you just don’t trust it.”
     “It’s not my capacity for love that I doubt.”
     “Really? Then what?”
     “It’s my capacity to be a responsible part of their lives - Of our lives. As a parent I will have a responsibility. Not just to nurture and rear, but to be there, to be an active partner in their development. I take too many risks, too many chances with my own life. I don’t need that to be held over my head, need them to be held over my head or me over theirs. With power comes responsibility and I don’t think its fare for me to thrust that into someone else’s life.
     “But…”
     “There’s no but… There’s only the fact that I would be negligent and selfish in their life. I will not propagate a new cycle just to satiate my own ego. Or yours.”
     “You hold firmly to that anchor.”
     “I hold firmly to that fact. And there’s no denying it. I am responsible to that, and I still cannot take that responsibility. Not for as long as I am who I am.” He sheds a tear in disappointment. She can sense the struggle within him - A struggle that tears at him from within.
     “So, about the Kittani. What’s up with them?” Changing the subject before their conversation turned confrontational. After 50 years of seclusion, of distance, of Torpor, she least wanted to cause a rift of resentment by starting a fight.
     “Shortly after we left you here, Seven picked up a long ranged emission from a fleet of Kittani ships approaching the Milky Way. This was a short-lived fight, after I helped the Borg out in defeating a menace they awoken from Fluidic Space. Along with a new ally, called the First, whom we later called One, we found the weakness of the species known as 8472, which have later been named Githyankees. With my involvement, they learnt of the path back to earth, where they faced off with the Kittani fleet and wiped them out before myself, with the help of One and the Borg, were able to develop and super weapon to destroy the Githyankee fleet. However, they had visited upon the Kittani a vicious defeat. I assembled a fleet and left for Splynncrynth space and continued that pressure until I managed to at least defeat Lord Splynncrynth. Granted, I did not kill him, I did send him cowering off into parts unknown. His departure left a power vacuum in Kittany space where a whole slew of species swept in to take advantage of the Kittany’s apparent weakness. They appealed to me for assistance and I accepted, but with a price. They gladly accepted my terms and we were able to manufacture defences against all who attempted to conquer the Kittani home worlds. They simply traded up and now worship me as their new god – despite my urgings to the contrary.”
     “So, we are starting to check off a lot of the bad guys off of the list.”
     “Yup. But we can check off a lot of the good guys too. So many people were lost over the last 50 years.”
     “Who else?” Concern paints her with a lucid grief.
     “No one has heard from Master Chung in over 25 years. Despite my best efforts and loss of a serious fortune. I am unable to sense him or find him. After Michaela’s disappearance, he vanished, never to be seen or heard from again. He left no word behind. None that I could find anyway.”
     “Then I will step up our efforts.”
     “Its obvious he doesn’t want to be found. Perhaps we should learn to accept that.”
     “But we never finished our training…”
     “That’s our problem. Besides, do we really need to?”
     “I guess not.” She pouts at the loss of her mentor and teacher. She remembers back to the years when they trained, amidst the Buddhists temples in Nepal. She was so young and feral and her master so old and wise. He had been an integral part of her life for longer than she cared to remember and now, he was lost to her and perhaps forever. “Well, you’ve had your plate full…”
     “That’s not even the tip of the iceberg.”
     She laughs, like a quick jab as she looks upon him with endearment. “Where does it start?”
     “Okay… Well, within the first two years of your Torpor, I conquered the earth.”
     “What?”
     “Yeah… But it’s not like that…”
     “I’m sure you pissed a many people off.”
     “I did, and include Joseph. Perhaps he was the most pissed.”
     “What happened?”
     “Well, this was shortly before I left to defeat Splynncrynth in Splugorth space. With the ongoing rash of destruction and military agendas, I decided to put an end to everything and opened up all of my technologies to the free market. I made everything freely available. I offered an open broadcast in every language to our fellow man, and told them that I was monitoring all of their broadcasts and that If they needed assistance, I will help set up their network. I offered them super-computers, programs, electronics, a renewable power storage and generation source, material engineering techniques, equipment, vehicles, weapons, armor, you name it… All free.” He pauses with her look of utter shock. “Don’t worry, none of this has effected Sweatshops profits. In fact, it freed us up for other things. Sweatshop is now on the intergalactic market and is the leading industry in Meta-Spatial Dynamics.”
     “What?” With a playful smile.
     “Wormhole technology, Jump Gate Systems, Quasar Jumping, Black hole generation… you name it. You see… One of the corporations gunning for Kittani space, after the defeat of Lord Splynncrynth, was the Naruni. They waged war against me and paid the ultimate price. Once I defeated the last of them, I assumed control of all of Naruni Enterprises.”
     “You what?”
     “Well, I’ve handed over the production management to the Kittani and Lil helps out – along with Alex and Daemon.”
     “Who’s running things for Sweatshop then?”
     “Lil still is. But I have assigned the position of Fleet Manager to Jones and Gillian is running the Manufacturing levels of Sweatshop. Leaving Lil a lot of time to spend off world and with her family.”
     “Lil has a family?”
     “Yup. She’s fallen in with a young bloke named Colic Baal, a fallen Cosmo Knight. He kicked her ass and she fucked his. He’s been letting her fuck him ever since.”
     “How long?”
     “Well, long enough to parent two daughters, Tempest and Rayne.”
     “My little girl is a mother?”
     “Pretty good one too.”
     “My goddess… I think this Torpor thing is for the birds… I’ve missed out on so much. What about my baby?” Joy swells her eyes with pride as she casts her imagination to her new son in law and grandchildren.
     “No…” He draws out the vowel with a sly smile on his lips. “None legitimate anyways. The same goes for Alex… I’m sure they have little ones out there, but none they are taking credit for.”
     “That’s it… I’m skipping my next big sleep… This bites… Really bits.” Despite walking on the side of jesting, she legitimately feels as though she has abandoned her family. Especially at such a great time of their lives.
     “Well, it’s not something you can stop…”
     “But I’ve missed so much… I miss my babies…” Real tears begin to swell her eyes as she captures her last images of them.
     “Here…” He hands her a small bracelet, made of what looks like pure titanium.
     “What is it?”
     “It was left to you by One. He said to give it to you when you wake…”
     “One?” Wiping the tears from her cheeks. She takes it and allows its weightlessness to hang from her forefingers. “It’s beautiful…”
     “Yeah… One. He’s a fragment from a mechanical god, made up of divine micro nanites that allow him to do anything he wants. He stuck around long enough to help out and left about 15 years ago - to rejoin his collective. He was saddened that he couldn’t meet you, so he told me to give you this. It contains all of his thoughts, memories and emotions. He said, so that you wouldn’t lose the time.” Lucien smiles at the memory. “It can also respond to your thoughts. Try it on…”
     She does with his assistance. Her fingers still tremble from the thoughts of her newest grandchildren and great grandchildren. Lucien calmly helps clasp the fasteners around her wrist and shoots her a quick kiss to her neck before pulling away to watch her expression. Suddenly, the bracelet seems to melt into her skin, meld with her flesh as she reaches for it to pull it away. “What’s it doing?” She panics as her nails pull at nothing.
     “Relax… It’s not doing anything you don’t want it to.”
     “How can I… Wow… this is impressive.” The words titter from her lips, as she turns inward.
     He patiently sits and watches as she continues a conversation with her inner self, where the manifestation of the First appears in communion. He smiles as she explores the deeper facets of her gift and finds the wonders held there in. There are no limitations to what she could manifest with her gift, as she conjures weapons, pieces of armor and a replica of her newest communicator.
     “Wow…” The syllable falls from her lips as she taps the stored emotions sector of the infinite database. “He’s got everything.”
     “Yeah… You can live the memories with him… I know…”
     “This is wondrous. They are so beautiful…”
     “They are your family… Of course they are beautiful.” He smiles as he watches her tear with pride.
     “My baby…” Obviously the images of Lil’s childbirth… She begins to fall into the Lamaze Breathing techniques, instructing her daughter on how to breath as she pushes… She lives through it all, and he watches and waits…
     The highlights of the last 50 years pass behind her eyes as she interacts with the memory. At this point, it didn’t matter that she wasn’t actually there… This was real, it was happening and it began to rewriter her memories. Imprinting emotions into the deepest recesses of her mind, for her to carry forevermore.

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