Secrets Between Siblings
Mother Gaia, that is what they called her, she was only a girl when she fell for the God of another world.
When the two became one they created a space between the two worlds of Earth and Gaia where the ethereal beings could live and still watch over their respective worlds. Only one being did not agree with her joining with her Husband.
Mother Gaia wandered into the aptly named Garden of Worlds, it was a beautiful place, with its pergolas – vines winding their way around the legs of the structure, their flowers of various shades of pinks and yellow shining in the bright sunlight – the gravel pathway through the pergola that led to the world under her gaze taking her past beds of tulips of varying colours – pinks, yellows, reds, white – and blue bells, snow drops and lupins, hyacinths and hydrangeas all joined together basking in the warmth alongside wispy willow trees, strong oaks and several cherry blossom trees.
Finding her little greenhouse, she entered and stopped to look around. Walkways surrounded large grasses and bamboo, honeysuckle and pansies joined more lupins around the edging of a perfectly manicured square of lawn, walking onto this lawn Mother gazed at the now fully open window that led to Gaia at the centre of the lawn.
She gazed down in time to see her children leaving with the girl from Earth and her friend.
“Do either of you two know how to drive?” The girl – Hermione – asked, this was greeted by two embarrassed chuckles and one fond chuckle from Mother.
“Oh dear, what am I to do with the two of you.” She mused.
“What are we going to do with you four?” The voice of Genesis Rhapsodos sounded beneath Mother’s view. “Come one, get in.” Everyone was chuckling to themselves as the truck drove off.
“Well met, sweet sister.”
Gasping in shock, Mother turned to see the only family she had left; her brother.
“What are you doing here? How did you get in here?” she demanded, reaching for her own bow and quiver.
Uncle raised his arms. “Be at peace, sister dear. I mean no ill will. I simply wished to see your face for the first time in over 2 millennia.”
Relaxing, Mother sat down on the stone bench behind her. “Has it really been that long?” She invited him to sit beside her. She was not afraid, not of him. She knew he was no liar, not to her at least. Why she had reached for her bow in the first place was beyond her.
“Indeed. When last we were together the Cetra had locked away the calamity, JENOVA leaving the world in a disarray, unbelieving and barbaric.” Mother looked her brother in the eyes, his platinum blonde hair so much like her own, his skin had darkened from the years of living in the mortal realm of Gaia.
Scars had now formed as a lasting memory of a fight between him and her Husband, she sported one of her own as she had intercepted the killing blow her Husband had dealt to her brother, insisting that banishment would be better than death.
It had been a fight that had started after her Husband had lost his sister to the mortal man on the world that he watched over, Uncle and herself and been uniting two souls from both Cetra and human races and had succeeded, but it had meant JENOVA almost gained control over Gaia, threatening her life.
Though Uncle sacrificed part of his own divinity to save his sister, it had left her weak, almost human. Her husband had been livid, the trauma of losing his sister returning with a vengeance as did his temper.
The worlds that she and her Husband presided over suffered almost apocalyptic changes to their appearances, their sordid pasts almost forgotten, save for records and hieroglyph, the legends of JENOVA on Mother’s world and Anthony and Cleopatra on Father’s world fell into just that, legend.
Uncle was forever scarred and – to Mother’s despair – no longer welcome in the Realm Between. He was, therefore, banished to wander both of the worlds for the remainder of his long life.
Argument after argument and Mother had never received her wish; to have her brother back beside her.
So how was he here now?
“How were you able to return here?” Mother asked.
Uncle turned away, “not without risk, I can assure you.”
Mother blinked. “You collided the two worlds of Earth and Gaia to come here? Why?”
Uncle gave a sad chuckle, “to fulfil the only wish in my heart.” Uncle took his sister’s hands, “to return to you, Sister Dear.”
Mother felt tears well up. “I understand that living with Him must have been hard on you, that you have come to see things the way he does, that I am an irredeemable wretch who only wishes to harm.” She watched him let go of her hands and stand. “Though I am a wretch, my only crime is that I protected you from something that should have killed you.” He turned back to face her.
“I will not lie to you, Sister Dear, yes, I have a darker intent with both the Witch and the Crimson Commander, but it is simply to restore order to both of the worlds that you love so dearly.”
Mother frowned, “you speak as though you are not the villain of this endeavour. Both the Witch and the Crimson Commander are going to suffer at your hands -”
“- quite the contrary, Sister Dear.” Uncle interrupted. “They are already suffering, one from a growing darkness, the other from the degradation of his cells. But I ask you, who was it that locked the door after your Son and Daughter left to stand beside their chosen champions?”
Mother let out a small noise in surprise. “Was it not you?”
Uncle shook his head, “no. I would never wish the fate that befell me on your children.”
Frowning Mother took note of his accentuations. “My children? You do not speak of my Husband in that sentence, do you Brother of Mine?”
“No,” his eyes darkened, “I do not. That creature has no intention of allowing them back here, he has even placed a curse on the two of them.”
“What?!”
“Look down here with me, please.” Her Brother invited her to the window.
Looking down she saw no difference, “I see nothing.”
“Look closer at your Son. See how he emulates his champion?” Looking closer, Mother saw that Uncle was correct, the two had suddenly gone a deathly shade of white, her Son reached out to his sister who squeezed his hand back in return.
“Genesis? Are you alright?” Hermione had also noticed Genesis’ rigidness.
“I’m aright, just a pain shot up through my spine that’s all.” He reassured.
“You haven’t suffered with that for a while, Genesis.” Spoke Angeal, who was driving.
“Did you notice?” Uncle asked, pulling them both away.
“Yes, Hermione noticed Genesis’s plight only when my Daughter noticed her Brother’s.”
“Precisely. You see, the curse I speak of has bound your Son and Daughter to their chosen champions, whatever the champions feel or have happen to them will also happen to them. Only the bad things, however, it is designed to be a punishment, after all.”
Mother turned her back from her brother and returned to the seat, her beautiful face becoming twisted as she began to openly sob. “Why? Why would he do this?”
She felt arms wrap around her shoulders, leaning into the embrace, Mother sobbed into her Brother’s chest. “He views them only as something that – when disobedient – is expendable.
He knows that the two of you can have more, he may perhaps believe the next ones to be more obedient.”
Mother frowned at these words. “Expendable? They are my children!” She stood up fast, “they are neither expendable nor replaceable! They do no more than what you and I and he and his sister had done two millennia ago!”
Uncle got to his feet, “which is why I am here. The Books of Life that my Niece and Nephew found, they had been kept separate, the two worlds closed and divided, because your Husband wished to keep these two souls apart. You and I both know that two souls who are meant to be together must be together.”
“There is no guarantee of that, the girl has another love interest.” She argued.
“True, but the decision has never been hers to make, whether she will love Genesis Rhapsodos or loath him, she must live in the world that he belongs to rather than her own. Your Husband knows this, which is why he gave her the other love interest.”
“Which is why you had the poor boy harm her?” Mother inquired, she could not be hearing that her Husband was the villain here, she knew it had to be her brother.
“No, the boy harmed her because he had been wearing the Horcrux, I was merely trying to prevent him killing her as your Husband intended.”
This stopped any further argument from Mother.
She remembered that day, clearly. Her Husband had gone to check on the state of Gaia in her stead, but no sooner had he left, the boy began acting strangely.
“This cannot be… you…”
Uncle came and wiped a stray tear from his sister’s face. “I am the villain, that much is true, but not to you. Your children are my enemy until they see things the way you now can. They are too much like him, Sister of Mine.”
“What will you do to them?”
“Nothing. They are, as I have said, your children. They can stand against me, but no harm shall come to them from me.” She watched her brother’s eyes turn serious.
“There is, however, one thing you can do for me.”
Mother smiled, “now how did I know that you would somehow drag me into this?”
The two shared a chuckle. “You must remain silent by his side until such a time as Hermione Granger must choose. The choice she makes will not be when battles have ceased, her choice will have been made long before then. I ask that you allow things to flow naturally once she has made her choice.
I also ask that, once the fires of Genesis’ fight have been extinguished and he comes to you, you deny him. Let him slumber.
In his stead you must walk through the world, healing any and all who come to you, answering the cries of children, doing what you do best. By then your children will have changed beyond recognition, but you must find them. Only then will his hold over both you and Gaia be lost. Only then will they live in peace.”
“You wish for me to treat you as a villain until then?” she asked, not fully understanding the reasoning, what could her brother gain from this?
“Yes, this way your Husband will never know.”
“What will you gain from all of this, Brother of Mine?”
“A happy ending.” This startled Mother as she watched her brother fade away back to the world from which he had come. “Remember, it’s our little secret.”
Mother blinked before returning to the window. She could see the seven were now back in safety, but they now needed to part ways with her Daughter, Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.
Watching them disappear through the door, Mother waited, holding her breath as Genesis rolled his shoulder and announced that he was going down to see Professor Kancheewa.
“I shall do as you ask, Brother of Mine, but first I must see if what you say is the truth.”
To do that, however, she must first find the right items. The tomes I seek are hidden away deep within the library, I never questioned why I was to never venture there, but now I must.
Turning down hall after hall, Mother found herself in the hall of records, where the books of every person on every world that she and her Husband watched over were stored.
Down a set of stairs, deep under the ground however, was a door that held the records of the ethereal beings themselves. Her very own diary was kept down here, filling each day as she lived it, I must remember to pick up my own record on the way out otherwise this little game you have started Brother of Mine will have ended before it has begun. She thought as she opened the door.
Wandering through the tomes of ethereal beings that came before her, she soon found what she had been looking for; her Husband’s Book of Life.
Waving her hand over the book, she thought of what she wanted to know.
I wish to know if you are the true villain in this, or if I am indeed just a pawn of my Brother’s lies.
Finding the page she had to start from, she read in wonder. That wonder soon turned to shock, from shock to complete horror and from horror to despair. “I was just a tool for you after all. You never truly loved me or our children.” Pulling her thoughts together, she shut the book and tucked it under her arm, “there is clearly more about you than I first thought.” Walking out, she also took her own book out of the vault and sealed it up again.
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Uncle shivered, she had done as he had anticipated, now all of the pieces were on the board, they now just needed to be placed. “Doing this from two worlds is a difficult endeavour, I shall have to await the proper time before placing them. Now Sister Dear, we must play the waiting game.”