Ellis blinked, shaking herself out of the trance she had been in. A brief moment of confusion crossed her face, had that dream been real? Had she only imagined Rezo appearing before her, asking her to make another clone? She shook her head, as if that would chase the fog from her mind. The fog closed in.
A clear moment. She was standing by the door, the bottle with Rezo's hair in it lying in her open hand, her other hand reaching for the door handle. Wait ... when had she added a strand of Koppii's hair? Her mind went back under.
She was standing in the great hall, looking at a tuft of familiar metallic, violet hair which was stuck in a crack in the wall. The wall itself looked like some one had hit it head first, which would explain why Zel's hair was stuck in it. She had a vague memory of something like that happening .... although now, she couldn't really think of anything at all. She wondered briefly why she was removing one of those hairs to add to the bottle before her mind phased back out.
Ellis blinked, becoming full aware of where she was. She was in the Cloning Machine's room, deep underneath the manor. But when had she activated it? And with what? Vague memories of the trip down to the room filtered through her mind. Obviously, she had used those hairs to start the machine. But why one hair from Rezo, one from Koppii, and One from Zelgadis? She glanced towards the receptor slot, where she had to have put the hairs to start the machine. That glance turned into a stare. Not at the receptor slot, but at the overturned bottle nearby. Somehow, a random turn had knocked the bottle over, and some of it's contents had landed in the slot. She read what was on the side over and over, the words slowly settling into her mind. "Assorted Dragon Feathers"
It had been three days since the two groups had met on the side of the lake, and already problems were beginning to develop. Currently about just where to go first.
"Well, my Mitama says that there are Aragami off that way." Momiji gestured to the north-west, where a rather large mountain range began. "They're fairly close to us, or else I wouldn't be able to sense them."
"The family estates are off that way, on the other side of the range." Elkin gestured to the north, and a little east. "The pass through the mountains is a bit farther east, but it's also the only way to get to the other side."
"Well it seems we have two choices, either head directly for the estates, or detour and check out the Aragami presence." Kunikida rested his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful.
Before anyone could respond, Xeros dropped a frog down Firia's dress, causing her to scream. The frog was eventually removed, with the help of Takeuchi and Koume. The general free-for-all that followed was another disaster, which only ended when Elkin ate the frog.
Ellis's head jerked up from where she was dozing in a chair. What had that sound been? She glanced towards the machine, which was whirring quietly as it worked. No, it hadn't been from there, even though the clone was almost finished. It - no, he - would be ready to emerge soon. In less than an hour. She shook her head. There was no way the clone could have made any noise, the vocal cords were among the last things to develop, and wouldn't be capable of making sound for another half-hour. It wasn't possible for her to have heard it say her name, she couldn't have ... could she?
Lina watched silently, a look of utter disgust on her face, as Elkin perched on a boulder, eating a raw fish while he quickly sketched out a map of the local area. She looked towards Zelgadis, who was standing at his usual spot to her left. "Is he always that way?"
"As I said before he's not very particular about what he eats is raw or cooked, or which form he eats it in. Not even Mother has been able to break that habit of his." Zel was about to say more, but before a single word left his mouth, Elkin looked up and started waving everybody over to look at the map.
Elkin began going over the current possibilities, waving the remains of the fish around to illustrate his points. "Ok, first, we have a tentative Aragami presence here, somewhere in or around Rezo's tower, which is worrisome in and of itself. Second, we have Titavi at the manor here, waiting for Zel and I to come home for birth of the munchkins she's currently carrying. And third, over here in Bunivis Port, we have Firia's shop. Where Arisu and Jiras are watching over Firia's ward, Valtiera. By the way, how long until the little guy hatches?"
Firia looked nervous, biting her upper lip as she replied. "Less than a week. I have to go back there."
Matsudaira blinked, looking confused. "Until he hatches? Could you please explain?"
"Valtiera is a dragon, still inside his egg."
"But then how do you know that a male is going to hatch from the egg?"
"Umm ... It's a rather long story .... "
The process was done. Ellis waited, nervous and tense, wondering why in the world she had done this. Would this clone come to hate her too, when she was unable to keep from comparing him to the real Rezo? Would he too try to kill her? She knew however, that this clone would be highly unique, as the hair had not all been of one person and she had no idea how the dragon scales would affect the mix. As she watched, the machine began to power down, lights blinking a few time before turning off, the steady purr of the machinery growing softer before finally trickling off into silence. There was the faint whirr from the lock on the door of the developing chamber, and then silence completely claimed the room, except for the faint rasp of her breathing, fast and jagged, in contrast with the slow, steady intake of air she could hear the from the clone.
Small trickles of fear raced up and down her spine, and yet she was rooted to where she stood. She knew she should go open the door, the clone would be too physically disorientated to open the door on it's own, and yet, she could only stand in this one spot by the door of the room. However, this inability to move only lasted as long as the few seconds before the clone opened the door to the chamber and stepped out, stumbling a little, but .... on it's own. As she backed away towards the door, she watched him lean on a nearby table, testing his balance. She could hear him muttering under his breath. Ellis couldn't help but notice that yes, this clone was definitely male, unlike poor Koppii, who unfortunately had a few mutations in that regard ... She also noticed that the clone had wings ... large, deep green, banded with black and gold, dragon wings.
"Ahh!!" Ellis landed with a splat on the ground, the inoffensive chair that she had tripped over falling with a clatter to the side, attracting the clone's attention with the noise and her faint gasp.
A smile spread slowly across the clone's face, not cruel, as Koppii's had been, but neither was it as reassuringly calm as Rezo's had been. "Greetings, Ellis. How long has it been since my death?"
She froze, shaking like a leaf in the wind, in mid-scramble to the door. The voice was identical to Rezo, except ... Except Rezo had never had an echo to his voice, as if he was speaking with more than one throat! The only thing Ellis could do was shake her head mutely, her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth in fear.
"Come now, Ellis, surely I am not so fearful. Admittably, my body is now quite different from what it was in my first life, but without your help, I would not be alive now." He sighed softly when she froze utterly, not a single muscle moving. "It seems that I am that fearsome. I apologize, Ellis, for forcing you to start the cloning process, but I must make amends for what I did while alive the first time. You see, that is how I know your name, for I remember ... all ... of what I did, even what I did while under Shabranigdo's control." He seemed to gaze off into the distance for a while, regret and grief etched deeply upon his face, before, to Ellis's complete surprise, his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell down in a complete faint.
It was some time, almost a half-hour, before she gathered enough of her scattered wits to begin to think, and another half-hour before she picked herself off the floor. Unsure of what to really do, and yet she still lugged his unconscious body, much heavier than before, heavier than it should be, even in taking the wings as additional weight. This minor fact repeated in her head, over and over, helping her keep some manner of calm while she tucked him into one of the spare bedrooms that still was intact, then locked herself into her room. Where she cried for three hours straight before falling asleep due to sheer exhaustion from her state of high nerves.