[closed thread]

[waywardwings]

WHO: Zidane and Kuja.
WHAT: Brotherly reunion! (Sorta.)
WHERE: The docks.
WHEN: Shortly after Kuja's arrival.

Comments

[waywardwings]

Zidane delicately unwound his tail from the other Genome's, pretending to be interested in the street more than Kuja's embarrassment. He couldn't help but smile a little at it, though; he'd never seen Kuja flustered like that before.

He noticed they were entering a more familiar area, now, and he was sure it wasn't far to go til they'd reach the apartment. "You say it like I had a choice. I could've, just like I could've ignored you when I realised you were still alive in the Iifa Tree. But I couldn't. I couldn't just leave you there when there was a chance to help you. It's just how I am.

"Look at it like the Black Mages. They did what they were created for, like you. But it doesn't make them any less people. Now they're free, they just want to enjoy what they have, even if they don't always understand life. But they're learning. Me and Vivi... we got lucky. We got away from what we were made for and found our own purposes," Zidane paused, letting what he said sink in before he continued. He looked past Kuja to the fading light of the sky.

"So, even if you did things for the wrong reasons, I guess I have you to thank for me even growing up on Gaia and seeing and doing all I did. And Vivi has you to thank for creating him in the first place. If you don't understand that I just want to help you, then think of it as me repaying those debts."

[de_novo_xiii]

He didn't answer, choosing to mull over his words as they edged closer and closer to the aforementioned apartment. Choice. Something a Genome didn't seem to have, it seemed. Puppets of fate, but where Kuja tasted cruelty, fate had smiled kindly upon his younger brother.

Mortality. An even harder concept to swallow. They had been given no notion about mortality, whilst on Terra. If a Genome malfunctioned, it was disposed of. No one knew death could come for them on its own. It wasn't learning about mortality that had frightened Kuja, it was learning he was a defect that led to his madness.

"You were a really cute baby." Kuja giggled, speaking at last. "And somehow it didn't seem fitting for you to go through what I had to. I had to get you out of there. I wanted to live my life vicariously through you, because I could never escape."