timey_wimey | [RL with Yunalesca and Q later on

For someone who usually wears so little, she was wearing modest clothes to hide her belly. Visible black veins could be seen on her arm, her neck and her chest.

Ten's frowned deepened as he went towards the bed, taking note of the black veins.

"I'm going to have to look inside your mind, alright? I promise I won't look at anything you want private. Just iamgine a closed door, I won't look," he reassured her. He moved until he was crouching with his face at the same height as Yunalesca's, hands waiting to move to the side of her head, but waiting for a sign that it was okay for him to do that.

Yunalesca gave a small nod- anything to stop the nightmares and actually sleep.

Ten placed his hands either side of Yunalesca's head and closed his eyes while he slipped into her mind.

((Ok, the ball's in your court now - what does Ten see? 8D))

Yunalesca's nightmare is bizzare. Ten can see her running through a dark corridor within a high tower as blasts hit the surrounding places. She always stops and pauses, taking in the sight on a great monster. When she finally reaches the top of the staircase she finds two figures fighting each other- one is Kadaj and the other is Sephiroth. She lets out a scream as Sephiroth impales his younger self. Yunalesca bolts up-- she cannot stand seeing the end of the dream again, and again.

Ten flinched slightly at the dream. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." he murmured. Closing his eyes again, he attempted to bury the dreams as much as he could, telling Yunalesca what he was doing in a stream of quiet words. "I can't remove the dream completely, it's too powerful for that, so I'm going to have to hide it. Hopefully it shouldn't bother you as much if I do this, but you never know... Have you got any idea what could have caused this, any at all?"

She nodded, her eyes pleading with him just to let her have some rest.

"She has become infested."

Q appeared silently - it seemed as if he had been there all along. He was draped across the bed behind Yunalesca, legs crossed, leaning on his elbows.

"The Spiral Mistress is infected with JENOVA," he said matter-of-factly. "As well as the cells of that cancerous tumor's disgusting progeny," he added with a dangerous hiss. "If the infection is not removed, she will die."

He looked Ten over. "It was noble of you to tend to her, Time Lord, but the most you could do is ease her suffering. This isn't exactly your kind's strong point, hmm?"

He gazed at Yunalesca with an unreadable expression. "I hardly need to ask your permission to do anything at this point, do I."

Yunalesca's hands went instinctively to her stomach, clutching it tightly. Regardless of what her health was, the strange maternal instinct (or the most selfish instinct of protecting what was rightfully hers) taking over her. She didn't look at Q because she knew that he already knew that if she was cured, the baby would die.

". . . just give me peace for one night." She said icily, her mood sour.

Q sat up slowly and glanced at Yunalesca's stomach. His expression was, for once, serious.

"...You would sacrifice your life for the life of the child?"

She nodded gravely. A high price to pay, but her baby . . . was hers.

Ten started a little when Q appeared, breaking his contact with Yunalesca's mind. He followed the following exchange with a deepening frown, but igonored the slight to his people - after all, he knew that they had never been perfect. Although he disliked the idea of Yunalesca dying...

"Well of course, that's her child we're talking about! Have you never had children, Q, don't you understand about that need to protect?" He turned from Q in disgust.

"There must be some way we can work round this. There's got to be."

Q sounded exasperated. "There is no other way! You of all beings should know how harsh The Laws can be!"

He slid off the bed and began to pace around the room. "As much as it pains me to admit, JENOVA is not a normal virus. Her cells have integrated themselves completely - for lack of a better phrase, body and soul. My parenthood is irrelevant. There's a difference between protecting your offspring and throwing your life away! Yunalesca..." He gently clasped her shoulders and bent down to face her. "...It's not worth it. You can always conceive another child, but there will never be another one of you!"

Yunalesca shook her head violently. There would be no other time, she didn't want to lose her baby that she had grown so attached to. "Death is irrelevant Q. You of all people should know that. This baby represents more than just a life within me."

Ten bit his lip in frustration, because Q was right. He DID know how harsh The Laws were, though he would rather give away his remaining regenerations than admit that to Q. But in the end, his choice was with free will.

So instead he just said "Everything has it's time and everything dies..." He looked at Yunalesca sharply. "Yunalesca. Are you sure that this is what you want?"

Yunalesca pursed her lips, "I have been dead for a thousand years and more. I just . . . want to sleep."

Q let go of Yunalesca's shoulders and stood back up. He was oddly silent for a long time.

"...I can give you a peace greater than death," he murmured, "if that is what you desire. But then what? Who will raise the child in your absence? Kadaj? JENOVA? We've seen how good of a mother she can be. The child will die, and your death will have been meaningless."

Ten spoke up at this. "Maybe... someone else she knows? There must be someone, I mean, there's plenty of people on this community - thing. Only if you go through with this, that is," he added, almost as an afterthought.

Yunalesca pondered for a moment as she felt a little hand press against her from the inside.

"Kadaj would make a wonderful father." She murmured, her gaze falling to the floor, "Surely Sephiroth would be able to make sure it learned to protect itself- hardly nurturing but still she would be safe. If there was a problem Father himself may take her in."

Frustration had been building inside Q, listening to the two of them talk like this. That the idea was even being entertained was ridiculous - he had a son, and for all the trouble the boy caused, Q loved him - but to give up existence for his life?

He cursed loudly in some alien tongue. It sounded more like metal scraping than anything human.

"That's enough! No," he fumed, "I won't do it. I won't kill you, and believe me, death is a pale word for what I could do. If you want to lay down and die - if you want to kill yourself, out of ennui or guilt or whatever drives your loathing for your own form -"

He turned to Ten with a fire in his eyes. "...Then let him do it. Certainly you've had plenty of experience to grow accustomed to mercy killings, hm? I'm not the type."

[RL with Yunalesca and Q later on - Zanarkand]

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