Six

The one night had turned into two days, putting the Council of Blondies with a realm to be responsible for on edge and restless as they await for Iason to break his silence regarding the matter of his return. Raoul had the issue weighing heavily on his mind. Give me tonight... Iason hasn't lived to his promise thus far.

The earlier meeting with the Council had turned into one heated argument as the other Blondies struggled amongst themselves. Chaos was inevitable, as everyone seemed to have a separate opinion but which in the end were aimed towards a similar outcome.

Raoul recalled how Orphe contested, "This madness needs to stop! Iason is completely jeopardizing what we have been striving so hard to restore! He's placed all our plans at a standstill! Even Eos has lost its usefulness."

"What would you want us do? Force our troops into the Tower as if to apprehend a criminal?" Gideon retorted. "This is Iason we're talking about!"

"Iason who's apparently not himself! Someone needs to bring him to his senses."

It was Raoul who had to be the arbiter of sorts once more. "You two, stop that..." They settled, although the quarrel was far from over. Raoul looked at everyone at the table. "Let's give him what he needs for now. At least he has not shut the systems down. We should be thankful that Tanagura has already been stabilized."

"But until when?" Orphe sighed.

Gideon was perhaps just as exhausted as everyone. "Perhaps you can try send him a message. Call him. Tell him to talk with us Raoul..."

But Raoul has tried. He had sent Iason a plethora of messages that the other just had not responded to, making it perhaps the most unnerving. Somehow, despite being the best of friends, Raoul wasn't certain he still had his friend's loyalty or trust any more.

' Iason...please... '

After the meeting, Raoul resigned himself to visiting the office Iason used to occupy, looking out towards the view of the Ocean, wondering if there would be an end to this and asking the same questions everyone had. He would certainly want to know what Jupiter had done to both Master and Pet, and the implications it will have on Tanagura's ancient, seemingly fortified rules. But then again, if he was correct and Iason had become Jupiter, then these may no longer matter. That or things will merely become even more complicated.

' I love him Raoul... ' Love. Iason was and is still in love. Was it the reason why they'd survived the catastrophe and even Jupiter's scorn?

Raoul spent nearly an hour just pacing back and forth, thinking of a million things that could go wrong if Iason finally decided to call it quits. A year of absence. A year spent dreaming in a cocoon and like butterflies emerging suddenly. He could choose to end this madness in a number of ways Raoul might never even figure out. What if he's driven to the edge and finally just...disappears with perhaps the only person Iason might choose over all of Tanagura?

Raoul continued to ponder on these ideas, putting a scientific approach into each thought that crossed his mind although his mind might as well been bordering paranoia. Iason disappeared for a year and cast them all into the shadows. Jupiter died and refused to acknowledge anyone; the one he did he'd wrapped and stored away in Dana Burn, preserving him for the span of time that Tanagura was suffering. Heavy was the burden left. Raoul was without rest from the responsibilities. Iason couldn't possibly be considering passing it all back to him again was he?

His hand fisted. He wanted to believe they can still emerge from all of this. If only he could speak and reason with Iason.

Belatedly Raoul realized a beeping somewhere had chosen to disturb his reverie, and was almost cursing when he reached the switch and turned the comlink on. He was surprised to hear that familiar voice, which, despite its natural cold and coolness, was tinged with a sadness he'd earlier seen at the Tower. It rather surprised Raoul but nonetheless pleased him to finally hear from Iason.

"Raoul, I'm opening Eos. See me in the morning."

A brief message that ended as soon as it began. So this would be the chance he had hoped to persuade the other to come back. But then he had to prepare for it, knowing well how an inappropriate rebuttal could send Iason packing the other way. It needed to be planned, thought of, this might be the only shot he'll have to reason with his friend.

Raoul immediately called the Council, whom each instantly appeared before his eyes as a holographic projection.

"What is it Raoul?" Gideon was first to answer the summons.

"Call an urgent meeting with everyone. There's something we need to discuss."

--

Raoul walked into Eos and was stunned at how silent and desolate the space had become in the span of only two days. Everything was locked up, save for the gate which, as Iason had promised, opened to admit him in, the usual identification process applying. He was greeted by an army of surveillance bots and other Droids that were all part of the Tower's defences which had apparently been activated. They trailed him with guns, before they seemed to have gone on Sleep Mode and allowed his walk up. Jupiter's power, all this.

The Top Level wasn't as he remembered. Everything was centrally gloomier now, the outer shells that used to allow the light of day in shut tight and showing no signs of letting up. Raoul wondered how Iason was doing in this dim light. It wasn't in his nature to brood, or was the change in him so complete that he can be so utterly inflicted now?

"You never respond to any of our messages," Raoul broke the silence when at last he'd found his friend, on one of the massive chairs, looking forward with monitors and screens like a sentry. "Locking yourself away? Is this for good?"

His eyes immediately search for the one being Iason was surely to have beside him. The one being that Iason embraced for, and survived.

"No one has yet answered my question," Iason spoke, breaking his peace, collapsing the screens in front of him into a small dot floating in the air.

"Which is?" Raoul didn't quite follow. Then Iason gestured at the canopied bed perched a half level above them, a space away on its own separate circle, the only portion in the area where the sealed shell of the Tower was left slightly ajar, as if to let the outside in.

Raoul could imagine the bed being shone upon by sunlight, filtered by delicate fabric, then finally figured why all this drama for it. There lay the other. Riki. Iason's Pet and Prince the same, in seemingly eternal sleep.

"Why I am awake. And he is not?" Iason closed his eyes, feeling for his temples. So this was what had occupied him the last few days? It wasn't at all startling though.

Raoul measured his words, "We figured it would take time, but Riki will awaken. It's just a matter of when."

"I made love to him last night." Raoul was still taken aback at the revelation, although of course he knew that for a fact, since then, Iason was the only one of all the Blondies that engaged in making love with his mongrel Pet. His personal touch to Riki's training. "He responded. He came. But never opened his eyes."

So the delay was all because of this? Because his Pet would not wake up? Raoul just was unable to fathom the despair in Iason's voice. He cannot quantify the wretched emotion beneath the other's serene appearance. The other Blondie could only admit it, "This is driving me to madness, and much fear. His body might have remembered me, but what if his consciousness does not?"

Raoul sighed. He walked over to a spot where he could see Iason and where Iason could see him, and where he could look at Riki. His face seemed to have gone younger. He failed to notice it actually, but Jupiter must have likewise turned the clock backwards for the two. The Pet was again an eighteen-year-old youth, with his soft expression even more beautiful than he remembered it to be. Iason as well was considerably younger at a glance, as if he had just stepped out of their Tanaguran office four years ago, to roam Midas and unexpectedly come upon the Mongrel who challenged him so.

Raoul thought that at least he had to comfort his friend, "You need to step out with me tonight," he gently urged, although Iason's reaction betrayed his thoughts immediately. He didn't want to go.

"If leaving Riki worries you, Katze is already downstairs and waiting. If you de-activate the defences for him, I'll have him on his way up to stay with your Pet. I know you trust him. You can leave them sealed here in Eos."

"Katze?" from the looks of it, Iason had not even made contact with the man. "Since when had you been speaking?"

Raoul bowed his head. He sought a moment before admitting what had been inevitable, "Since you disappeared. He told me all about what happened..."