The Dying

12

The female waves that away as if of no consequence. "That's not why I brought you here though. I needed you to have Margaret. I'm sorry you had to go through what you did to have her. If I hadn't needed her to be born so badly then you never would have gotten with child. Yet, I fear if you hadn't gotten with child then Demetri would have continued hurting you until you either died or you got with child.

"I am sorry that I couldn't stop that from happening."

"Who was my mother? Why did she die when she had me?" Those are questions that had been bothering Aurora. She didn't think that she would be answered though.

"When the female that Demetri had chosen died, the humans did their best to make a clone of her. Their cloning abilities hadn't gotten that far along yet, though. Adding in Demetri's DNA actually made the clones fail far more than they would have otherwise.

"I had to take a hand, once they added in the last of his DNA I made sure that the clone would survive and breathed life into her, my life. I was very weak from loss of my daughters here and stretching all the way to Earth was very taxing. It was hard for me to survive long enough to be brought aboard the transport ship. There was no more DNA from Demetri so I extracted the DNA from the body I was using and used it to create you. I was barely able to survive long enough to give birth to you. I held you and named you.

"I named you Aurora for you are a new dawn for my people. If they refuse to change and continue to treat my daughters like they have then I will end my people. You are their last chance, Aurora. You and Margaret are the beginning of my people once more or they will be destroyed."

"You are my mother?" Aurora is shocked and having a hard time accepting those words.

"Far more literal than my other people. You are my direct line. You and Margaret. Technically you are above Marcus in lineage.

"I held you and named you before my strength gave out. I could only watch helplessly as you grew up without a mother. Be even more helpless as Demetri did what he did to you. I did what I could to make sure that it didn't happen again."

"You sent Marcus to me the night I was going to drink the poison."

"Yes, he needs you and Margaret to save my people, our people. They have been so indoctrinated by Demetri that they have forgotten my laws. I need you and Marcus to renew those laws. He couldn't do that with out you and Margaret."

"That's lovely, but that's not why you brought me here." Aurora is getting a very sick feeling or rather a growing of the sick feeling she'd felt since the morning.

The female before her smiles sadly, "No, that's not why I brought you here, but I am happy to be able to talk to you face to face."

"Then why did you bring me?" Aurora can't help the words coming out more than a little hostile, she knows that she won't be liking the words her mother or throne will be telling her.

"The transport that will be here in a couple of weeks will be carrying another female that Marcus will need to help my people. He will need to take her as his mistress at least, although it would be better if she were his wife." Then the female shows Aurora the face of the one that needs to be with Marcus.

"I knew he wouldn't be able to keep his promise. I'll just be one of many after all." Aurora says with tears in her eyes. She feels sick.

"He would rather give up the throne than hurt you that way. You aren't just one of many, Aurora, you are the one. He fell in love with you when he first saw you twenty years ago."

"Yeah, right. You made it so that he will be taking Margaret as his wife now you are informing me that he will have to take this other as well. How many others will he be required to take?" By now there are tears falling down her face.

"You created me. You created me to save your people. You seem to have forgotten something, I have feelings too. You've allowed me to suffer and I finally found something, someone outside of my daughter that brings me happiness and now you are telling me that I not only have to share with my daughter but with another. With how many others will I have to share him with?" Aurora demands.

"That will depend on you and him. There are others that I would like him to take, but they aren't necessary like she is." The female says hesitantly and cringes at Aurora's bitter cackle.

"Right. Like what I want has any importance. I am nothing more than a pawn in your games to save your people. I have no other importance to you than that. I always wondered growing up what my mother would have been like. I was always so envious of the children on the ship that had loving mothers that cared for them. I always thought my mother would have been like that with me.

"I wish I didn't know the truth. You never wanted me except for the purpose of saving your people. Margaret was conceived for that purpose. Our wants, our needs have no importance as long as we save your precious people."

"That's not true, Aurora. I do love you, I'm so proud of you, of how strong you are, of the person you've become."

"All you see is how I can help the jack ass males straighten up and treat your daughters right. That's what you see."

"I-" The female stops what she was going to say and listens attentively. "That's not true. I wish I could talk to you longer and convince you just how much I do love you but time is against us. You have been here too long and must return now before harm comes to you or your children. Just know, Aurora you mean as much to me as any of them, more actually."

Aurora only scoffs as she is once more captured by the darkness that had brought her to the garden.

"Aurora, love, please wake up." Marcus pleads with her as he sits by her side caressing her face with one hand while holding her hand with his other hand.

"Why isn't she waking up, Emmett?" Marcus demands without taking his eyes off Aurora.

"There is nothing physically wrong with her Marcus. I don't know why she isn't waking up, nor do I know why she collapsed." Emmett is sick that he can't do more for his new queen. He hasn't seen his brother this distraught since his mother died after she gave birth to Korban. She lasted long enough to hold him and smile at Marcus. She named him and then gave Korban into Marcus's care.

If Marcus hadn't had Korban to care for Emmett doesn't think his brother would have survived his mother's death.

"Marcus," Aurora whispers out, barely heard.

Emmett relaxes immediately as he sees Marcus focus fully on Aurora and her opened eyes.

"I'll see you at dinner, unless you wish to wait for tomorrow to make the announcements?"

Marcus waits for Aurora to decide what she wishes. "No, I'll be going tonight."

Emmett nods before leaving.