Chapter Text
The inclusion of a new tree had caused some noticeable changes to the biome. Grace had always had a tree, one made from xenonite was placed next to his home on top of the cliff and had stood there, with twisted dead branches, for a few earth years.
Now, that tree had been removed one night and a new tree grew in its place.
One that was very much alive, with a thick trunk and branches that carried a reddish hue to them. The tree had moved through the yearly life cycle quickly. For a week it had tiny reddish clusters of flowers, followed quickly by three days of a green canopy of leaves. It was the week of the fall season that Grace looked forward to the most.
The green leaves would turn shades of orange and red to give a spectacle just for him. He was the only human on Erid and was therefore the only inhabitant of the planet that could see the beautiful colours. Grace sat on the decking that now adjoined his home and sipped his morning coffee while he watched the tree.
The laptop made a happy noise on the table next to him and he reluctantly turned his attention to it. The computer had finished modelling the projected lifespans based on the data that Adrian had kindly provided. The model confirmed what he and the biodome team knew to be true. The cycles of the tree were growing longer.
Not that he was too worried, he was already seeing a wrinkle or two under his eyes and several grey hairs had begun to appear in his eyebrows and hair. Grace was getting older and when the computer predicted a cycle of about a year, he would be too old to shuffle out on the deck under his own volition.
A cycle of more than a year would be decades in the future. Still, it helped to have something visual to show Simon, once he had completed his winter morph back into human form. Well, as human as Simon ever got, with his mutations. Grace had heard the tale, the way Simon had stood in the presence of an ignorant god and had been unmade and then remade under the eye.
The tale was bizarre and fantastical. But then, so was Grace's. From a human of Earth perspective, Grace had travelled to a far galaxy and met an intelligent alien species. Something no other human had done. Who was he to say what was real and what was fiction.
A single leaf fluttered to the ground and brought his attention out from his reverie. He felt a thrill of excitement shiver along his spine. Stooping to pick up the leaf, Grace twirled it between two fingers, the large frond twisted and bent in his touch, “Are you giving me a gift, My Love?” Grace asked as he gazed up into the crimson canopy above him.
The wind whipped around him and two more leaves fell to the ground, Grace dutifully picked them up with a soft laugh on his lips, “My Love, you are too generous,” as he stood back up he spotted the reason for the extra leaves. Adrian was making their way over the ground, followed closely by Rocky, their xenonite suits reflecting the morning's sunlight.
Grace lifted a hand in greeting and he heard their chimes on the wind. He had once asked Adrian if they were surprised when Simon became a tree in the separate biome, however he wasn't sure Adrian had the word surprised in their lexicon. They had answered that there had suddenly arrived a new tree in the biome and it had cycled through the seasons in a single day. Adrian had been there when Simon had become himself again and the answer had been found.
“Have you spoken to him?” Rocky bounded up and collided gently with Grace's shins, his song was upbeat today.
“Hi Rocky, hi Adrian. No, I haven't been in yet,” Grace replied as he glanced fondly at the trunk of the maple, “I have so much to do.”
“More important than your mate?” Rocky always knew how to cut right to the point.
“No,” Grace said in agreement, “Nothing is more important.”
Rocky moved to stand next to Adrian as they stood to the side. The message was clear.
Grace nodded and gave the two extra leaves to them, he kept the first one for himself and he approached the trunk. The bark rippled under the palm of his hand, transforming back into individual roots and branches that slid to the side. A Grace sized entrance opened in the trunk and he stepped inside.
The trunk closed behind him, the branches knitted back together, protection. Not from Grace or any of the Eridians, no one would cause any harm to the tree. The trunk closed to keep out the elements, the salt air, the cool wind, the sand that was carried on the breeze.
Grace was pressed forwards by the roots, they twisted around and lifted him gently into a sitting position with his feet just off the ground. He was carried through the width of the trunk, an impossible width, if one assumed the outside was the same as the inside. Easier on the mind if Grace thought of it as an optical illusion.
He was brought to a space the size of the bedroom in the house. Grace could give measurements but the room always changed each cycle. Sometimes it was the size of the living room, one time he stood in a space the size of their whole biome.
Suspended in the center was a twisted mass of blood red roots that emerged from the ground and stretched upwards and were lost to the eye. The roots were of various thicknesses, the larger ones as thick as a fist pulsed with the blood they carried within them. In the middle of the twisted mass beat Simon's heart. The only part of him that remained human. The huge organ that circulated the blood within the roots. The rhythmic pulse pressed against Grace's chest and filled his ears.
“Hello Love,” Grace said softly and he slowly stepped towards the heart, “Are you ready to come home?”
Roots followed his steps, each one lifting its narrow tip to watch him walk past. They seemed to carry an intelligence as they traced his movements. One trip or sudden flinch and they would attack.
Grace stood before the heart and rested a palm on the left ventricle, it moved under his touch, “You have to let me in,” he whispered to the organ, “I don't know where to find you.”
Warmth coiled around his ankles and wrist in answer as roots writhed and snaked their way up his limbs. Grace took his hand away from the heart and held it out to a waiting root, which wrapped around his skin and joined the other three.
His body was lifted upwards, suspended just at the auricles, he closed his eyes and concentrated on the roots touching him. Willing himself into them.
When he next opened his eyes, Grace was sitting in a familiar classroom. A science classroom, empty benches and empty seats. A model of the solar system was suspended from the ceiling. The largest planet, Jupiter, had been made from a paper lampshade from IKEA and painted in vibrant oranges and a swirl pattern. It was his classroom. From Earth. An Earth that no longer existed.
A knock at the door made him startle and a familiar figure strode inside, “Knock, knock,” Director Stratt said as she walked in.
“Who's there?” Grace asked as he remembered the moment his life changed.
“Not good at jokes,” Stratt said as she stopped in front of him.
“You're not real. This is a memory, one of my memories. Why have you brought me into a memory?”
Memory Stratt looked baffled and then confused. She opened her mouth to say something and then she stood completely still. “Is that her?” Simon asked as he stepped out from behind Stratt to stare at her from the side. It was an odd effect, one moment he was there, in his black shirt and grey sweatpants. Hair pulled back in a half bun at the back of his head. A head that was tilted to one side in curiosity.
“Yes,” Grace said with a warm smile, “That's her.”
“She doesn't look that intimidating.”
“Oh, believe me, she is. Or was? Hmm, if anyone could find a way to live forever, it would be Eva Stratt,” Grace said with a chuckle.
Simon walked around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. He paused at the basket of balls and picked up the Earth one with a little noise of surprise, “Oh, I know this one.”
“It's the one that now sits on my desk, in the study. Do you remember the study?”
Simon tossed the small knitted Earth up and caught it in his hand, “I want to explore here a little more. What happens after this?”
“She pulls my paper out of her bag.”
Stratt flickered and then unpaused, she went through the motions that Grace had revisited in his dreams hundreds of times. He was now standing and putting books and folders into his backpack. Stratt picked up the same Earth bean bag and sniffed it. She paused again, still mid sniff.
“You're uncomfortable.”
“Yes, I don't want to be in my memories, can we go into yours?”
Simon appeared next to him, “You didn't like my memories, you called them vicious and cruel,” his voice was flat.
“I don't remember.”
“You asked not to.”
“Can you show me a safe part?” Grace asked in curiosity.
The classroom vanished, Grace felt no movement nor did he see any changes. It was his classroom and then somewhere else. A smaller space, cylindrical and made almost entirely from metal. Red and rusted panels with piping above and to the side of him. Grace felt claustrophobic as he looked around. The air was thick with a humid heat. He stood near a button the size of a letterbox, the only illumination in the small space, and on the wall opposite him was a rectangular screen.
A hand pressed the button on the wall and the screen flashed a blindingly white light accompanied by an electrical buzz. Grace tried to blink away the spots in his vision as he came face to face with Simon. Grace saw bandages on Simon's arms, they stood out white against the green of his tunic. There was blood seeping into the bandages, near his inner arms and a few bloody marks on his face. Grace looked upon Simon as he originally was. Two arms and a face unmarked by teeth. He was handsome, Grace barely recognised the man that he would grow to love.
Memory Simon walked to the other end of the cylinder and sat on a seat. Grace heard the clicks of instrumentation and he felt the space move beneath his feet.
“You're on a submarine.” Grace said. He heard the water noises surrounding him as the vehicle made its way forwards.
The screen flashed white again, Grace had pressed the button. An image slowly faded onto the screen, black and white shapes. He stared at the image until it vanished and he pressed the button again, “What were you taking pictures of?” he asked the dark part of the sub behind him, hoping His Simon would answer.
His attention moved from button and screen to the control console that Memory Simon sat at. Simple switches and rotational handles below the two numbers that showed the sub’s current location. “Simple but effective.” Grace remarked softly while pressing his finger against the warm metal. Memory Simon was studying a map that he had folded out onto the console, his finger traced a path and ended at an X.
He pressed the button again and waggled his hands while he stared at the image, adjusting for where he would need to turn next. Returning to the console to adjust the heading with the rotating switches. The sub vibrated and shuddered as he moved a lever upwards. Something beneath their feet made a loud bang and the sub stopped moving, “Well, that's a problem,” Memory Simon said in a tired voice. He bent to pick up the map and traced his finger across the surface, “I did everything I could and you did too,” he said to the map as he tapped the finger on the X.
Grace leaned over the console to look at the map, “Also,” Memory Simon said, “Why are you still here?” his head snapped up and stared straight at Grace. Who stumbled back against the pipes behind him in shock, “You can see me?” he squeaked from the tanglement of the pipes.
“Of course I can fucking see you, you've been up in my face the last few minutes,” Simon waved a hand over his face to show how close Grace had been. “What's your deal anyway? You've not tormented me yet.”
“Okay, okay,” Grace said brushing himself down, “I'd like to leave now, please?” he spoke to the ceiling of the sub while he pleaded.
Simon scoffed and muttered, “Yeah, I'd like you to leave now too.”
Grace received no answer, His Simon didn't walk out from a shadow and the Memory Simon continued to move about.
“Simon?” Grace pleaded to the empty parts of the sub, “Please my Love?” A hand grabbed his shoulder and shoved Grace hard against a wall panel, he groaned in pain.
“How the fuck do you know my name?! Are you COI or Eden?” the hand shoved him again, “Tell me!”
“I'm neither!” Grace yelled at the angry face in front of him, “I'm not here, these are memories, you're a memory.”
Simon stepped back in confusion, he shook his head to clear it, blinking his eyes and staring at Grace, “Who are you?”
“I'm Grace, Ryland Grace and I love you, or I love who you become.”
Simon raised his left fist and Grace saw something dangling when it caught the light, “Look! The seed, it's you.” He grabbed the pendant and held it up in his fingers, “It's you, the tree, you become the tree.”
It was then that Grace spotted something curled up in Simon's left fist, something small and blue, “Oh no,” he said as his stomach dropped, “Simon?” he asked as he tapped the fist and the fingers uncurled.
Grace saw the small blue and green ball of the Earth and a sob of panic came from his throat, there was no Simon waiting in the darkness to save him, there was only one Simon.
“Are we trapped in here?” Grace asked, he snatched the ball from Simon’s hand and placed it in the pocket of his cardigan.
“They welded me in, so yeah, I think we're pretty stuck in here.” Simon returned to the seat with a scoff in his voice.
Panic rose in his throat and brought bile along with it. Grace swallowed and felt the acrid sting painfully hit the soft part of his mouth. He instantly began to cough and wheeze, dropping to his hands and knees when the enormity of the situation gripped him. “You said this was a safe part.” Grace moaned into the floor.
The sub shuddered and lurched to one side, Grace and Simon were thrown around inside. They both landed heavily against some part of the sub, Simon into the wall panel, Grace into the back of the sub. “What was that?!” Grace heard his voice hit a squeak when the terror he felt in his chest gripped his throat tight. It squeezed the air from his lungs.
“Come and see,” a low voice said and a hand reached for Grace. A wooden hand, a familiar hand. Memory Simon was screaming at the ceiling of the sub while His Simon helped Grace to his feet and led him to the screen.
“Do you want to see?” Simon asked softly, he stood behind Grace, arms around his waist and chin pressed against his shoulder.
“See, what?” his voice was shakier than he wanted it to be, Grace shivered and pressed into Simon, seeking warmth. There was no answer, only a compulsion to press the button. “I don’t want to.” Grace said petulantly. The air vibrated with an electrical hum, it buzzed thickly in his ears. He felt a strong urge to reach out a shaking hand and his fingertips brushed against the button that illuminated the darkness. The flash went off, the sound of a picture being taken, Grace blinked in the brightness.
He looked at the image, the black and white shapes and he felt his knees buckle. He let out a sob of terror. He stared at the teeth, thin and sharp and far too many. He stared into two dark voids for eyes and felt his body grow weak, he fell back against Simon's arms.
The image on the screen faded and the garden surrounded them. The familiar chimes of Rocky and Adrian were music to his ears. Grace let out a half sob of relief, the nightmare was over. A hand brushed over the top of his head, “Hush Love, it’s over. Nothing can hurt you in a memory,” Simon’s low voice hummed in his ear with warm breath over his cheek.
“Wh-wh-what was that?” Grace stammered, trying to swallow his heart back down into its usual spot.
“The monster in the blood,” came the response, which made no sense to Grace. He frowned at the answer. He heard a soft sigh in his ear, “We will stay in your memories next time.”
Simon led Grace into the home, supporting while Grace took wobbly steps. He felt his knees buckle with each movement and his thighs refused to bear his weight.
Rocky followed closely, his questions and cries for answers going unnoticed, Adrian following their mate, singing a gentle harmony to soothe him.
Grace was gently lowered to the couch, Rocky immediately clambering up and joining him. The pair snuggling together, arms and limbs wrapped around each other, Grace leaned on the top of Rocky's suit. He watched over the top of his glasses while Simon ran water into the kettle and set out two cups, dropping some coffee into the bottom of each of them. The scene was domestic, heart warming and calm. Apart from the dozen or so roots which hovered and moved around behind Simon's back. One root slid its tip inside a cupboard, as if searching for something.
Another root rose to peer over Simon's shoulder, watching the drink making with interest, the tip followed the movements of his hands.
Grace knew that two of the roots were watching him, they stayed still with their attention on him, he tilted his head and they swayed a little to follow.
“Was that the creature that made you?” Grace asked his question over the top of Rocky's soothing melody.
“No, but it was made by the same One.”
The water in the kettle began to make a noise. Another soothing sound in the living room of the home.
“What was it?” Grace recalled the dark orbs where eyes would sit and he let out a small shudder. Rocky adjusted his position and hummed his distress. The two roots that were focused on Grace shifted a little, they turned to a third root that joined them.
“Are they having a conversation?”
The water in the kettle boiled, sending steam out of the spout and into the air. Simon picked up the kettle and poured hot water into both cups.
“I wasn't the first down there,” Simon began to speak while bringing the two cups over to the couch. He held one towards Grace, handle towards the scientist. Who took the mug and blew a cooling breath over the surface before taking a sip.
The warmth of the coffee slid down his throat and settled in his stomach, Grace felt the taste of the brew vitalise him.
“The creature was formed from those before.” Simon finished his sentence, he sat in front of Grace, there was no couch there but somehow he sat and reclined in a seat.
“Scientists and researchers,” Adrian chimed softly, they felt an empathetic bond with those who had been too curious and had lost their humanity in the blood ocean.
Simon acknowledged their words with a soft nod, he took a sip of coffee, his eyes watching Grace over the rim of the mug.
“Friend Grace is calmer this time,” Rocky chimed, choosing his words carefully, “Perhaps this time.”
Simon lowered his mug, earthen eyes watched Grace carefully, roots hovered behind him, their tips shyly peeking out from over his shoulders. There was an expectant air in the room. Grace blinked in thought and glanced at all three others.
Grace felt a small knot tie in his stomach, “What cycle is this?” he asked hesitantly.
“Twelve.”
The knot pulled his stomach down, Grace felt his legs fall away from him and the world narrowed in his vision, “You've taken memories from me?”
“No, never Love, I've never taken anything from you.”
“I don't remember!” Grace yelled in the small space, no one reacted. Only the roots slid behind Simon, they knew there was no danger but did not want to be a part of the yelling. Grace was panting his breath, nostrils flaring at the indignation and rage he felt. How dare they! How dare they after everything he went through? How-
“You can remember,” Simon's quiet voice broke through the spiral of thoughts inside Grace and he found he could remember.
Those first three times when he had asked to be let into Simon's world, he had thrown up upon returning and had spent time in the medical unit. Two more times he had the shakes so bad the only thing he could do was to crawl under the blankets on the bed and curl up in the dark. Rocky and Simon had taken turns those times to sit with him and soothe the terror. He remembered the times that he had begged Simon to take the images from him, to remove them. Grace also remembered the anger he had felt, each time he sat on the couch and drank coffee and discovered the truth.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, Grace returned the curious stare from Simon. They sat for a moment, all four silently watching and waiting.
“What were you looking for?” Grace finally asked.
“Hope.” Simon replied and took another sip of coffee, the roots returned to hover over his shoulders.
“Did you find it?” Grace dipped his gaze to his cup.
He heard the half smile in Simon's reply, “I did, yes.”
“Twelve cycles.”
“Mhmm.”
Grace blew out a long exhale, his memories were sorting themselves out into order in his mind. The range of emotions setting themselves out in sequence, terror, denial, anger, bargaining and many more. Grace felt a new emotion settle over the top, like a warm blanket, acceptance.
“Your cycles are growing in length.”
“Oh? Tell me.”
Grace began to explain about his data and the conclusions he had drawn. Adrian chimed in when appropriate. Soon, the home settled into a normal calm atmosphere which would be followed by laughter. The peaceful normalcy of Erid returning once more to the biome.