Early draft of an idea about Nathan Bristlecone

The old man had raised many points, but the one that April couldn’t move past was her resembling the old man’s mother. “Are we related, sir?”
“Don’t you know who I am?” The old man returned to a setting position. “Didn’t the automatons put a plaque about me on the walls to the paddock extolling all my deeds?”
“The plaque only states that you are the last human alive.” Milos answered gruffly.
“And you, April? Do you not remember anything about me?” The old man placed his hands over his eyes.
“I don’t remember much of anything. If we knew each other in the past, then you are the only one that remembers.” April, now meeting with this man, felt a dislike for him that she couldn’t explain. He seemed to have an arrogance, despite his soft words to them. He obviously knew many things about her, but he didn’t seem eager to enlighten her. For her part, she was going to play as ignorant as possible to draw something out of him. “What is your name, old man?”
This obviously nettled him, but he tried to laugh it off. “To you I must appear very old indeed. Though, despite what you appear to be, you are quite old yourself.”
“What do you mean?” April asked innocently.
“I mean that you were born in 2264, in your father’s lab in a attempt to create a perfect human, free from any restraints and weaknesses. Your father came very close, but in the end, you faced the same weakness everyone faces.”
“What was that?” April turned to face the north star.
“You never recovered from the death of your parents. Your love for them caused you to become despondent and depressed. Despite my best efforts, you eventually attempted to kill yourself.” The old man bowed his head sadly. “It is probably the source of your memory loss, but you couldn’t have known that your ability to heal made it nearly impossible to be killed by something like a fall from a great height. You did hit your head rather hard though.” The old man’s words had triggered a memory for April, but it was dark and blurred by intense fear. She was struggling with someone much stronger than herself, she pulled away and . . . fell.
When she said nothing, the old man continued. “After you fell, I placed you in stasis and tried to care for you, but that didn’t last long. The rise of the automatons a few days later led to Nathan’s overthrow and murder. I was captured by the automatons and they imprisoned me here even though I tried to explain that I was just your uncle.”
April turned to face him. “You’re lying.” Anger and tears marked her expression. Graeme and Milos advanced on the old man.
Turning to April, he spoke calmly, “I am your uncle. Your Uncle John.”
The name meant nothing to her. “I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t tell me the truth, I will return you to the paddock myself.”
“Please not there, not again. They treated me so cruelly.” He began to weep, holding out his hands to placate her doom.
She stepped closer to intimidate him. “My parents were orphans from the war, and they had no remaining family besides each other. You are not my relative.”
“Actually, that is the only thing true I said beside you being suicidal wreck. You stupid little girl. You never really understood what I offered you then and you understand it even less now.” Losing her temper, she rushed the old man and pinned him to the litter.
He cried out, “Fool,” and grabbed her with a strength she had not imagined possible. Within seconds a torrent of healing was flowing through her along with his leeching ability. Her body burned in agony as she started to age. Graeme and Milos attempted to pull her away from the old man, but they continued to fail. All their screaming and yelling brought the attention of the security robots who began to throw themselves at Nathan trying to free April from the grasp of this monster. After ten minutes of fighting, a robot finally decked Nathan hard enough across the temples that his grasp on April was released and she jumped back. Her robes now were several inches too short and she had aged a century in her fight against April. The old man was no longer old, but appeared just a few years older than April.
Shaking off the robots, the freckled and dark-red haired man laughed at his new strength. “That was wonderful, my dear. Care to go another round,” he said as he threw another robot several yards.
“I think not,” Persephone bellowed as she stepped through an Eimi into the battle. She brandished her trident-bolt and charged at the young man. April, Graeme, and Milos, all too stunned to move from the exhaustion they all now felt from being drained, watched in awe as Persephone attempted to kill the young man. But as fast as she was, he was faster, constantly remaining out of her reach and striking out against her with anything that littered the path. After a prolonged battle, the young man realized that he wasn’t going to get the upper hand against her and all the security bots, he sprinted away from them moving at an incredible speed. Persephone gave chase, glowing gold in her rage lighting up the park around them. The waterfalls nearby reflected the light as they both disappeared down the path.
“April! April!” A voice called out to her anxiously in the darkness. She replied, warily, “Over here!”
An automaton rushed forward, the same one that had rescued her from the village when Demeter had appeared. “We have to go,” he said to her.
“Sprocket, right?” She queried weakly as her world started to fade.
“Yes.”
“We’ve really messed things up, haven’t we?” His face seemed so far away now, as if she was falling away from him, further and further into the darkness.
“Nothing that can’t be repaired.” He said as he lifted her up and directed others to do the same for Milos and Graeme.
“Who was he?” She asked, slurring her words. Unconsciousness was just moments away.
“Nathan Bristlecone.” She slipped into a repeating nightmare of falling over and over.Chapter 13

Waking up, April stared into the sky. The first thing she noticed was that the stars had shifted and not just from the passage of time. She recognized instantly Virgo and Leo and when she turned to the south, she saw Cancer. Frustrated at the useless memories that remained from her previous life, she knew that knowing this was important. But she still resented it. Refusing to be grateful at this moment for at least this little clarity, she stood up and found herself wearing robes that barely reached her knees. Just a few hours ago, she had resembled a twelve-year old human. Now, looking down at herself, she saw her large feet sticking out, her hairy ankles, and, to her surprise, she now had breasts and a womanly figure. She couldn’t guess at her real age anymore, at least not without a mirror, but she had skipped right through puberty. Persephone walked over to her and smiled kindly.
“How bad is it, Seph?” she asked.
Persephone seemed please for the first time in dealing with her. “Well besides how hairy you are, we appear the same age now. In fact, we are twins in almost everything besides that scar on your temple.”
April rubbed the scar and felt how long and thick her hair was now. She reached behind her and discovered it reached down past her bottom. Pulling it up, she laughed. “Mom’s hair was this long when she died.”
“I remember too.”
In fact, all of April’s memories were now intact. She remembered her mother and her father, both worried about her as she grew so much slower than they had expected. She remembered her father’s laugh, which started as a snort and then broke into a giggle. Her mother’s beauty came back to her and she realized how much Persephone looked like her. And then she remembered Nathan, her family’s constant running from him trying to stay out of his reach. She remembered her capture, her time spent in his captivity, her constant fighting against his will, and finally the fight between her and him that led to her falling to her death.
Persephone walked up to her and started to glow, lighting up the surrounding area. April realized that she was on the roof of a enormous building inside of a city. “Is this the new Mountblanco?”
“Actually, the citizens have named it Sanctum. They tried to name it after you or me, but Aprilville or Persephopolis don’t roll well of the tongue of a Minotaur.” Something was different about Persephone. She had never tried to make jokes before; her sullen mood had disappeared and she was more like April.
“You built this all in three months? How is that possible?” April was thrilled that the citizens of Mountblanco had found a new home that appeared even more magnificent than their first city.
“Well, many of the minotaurs were proficient engineers. I demonstrated to them some more advanced techniques in building and they were eager students. We have decided not to attract attention by having lights during the night, not until our defenses are fully developed. The city will never be in danger of Demeter again or the other gods. We’ve designed a perimeter that will prevent any Eimi’s from being opened within fifteen miles of the city. Luckily for you, the countermeasure is still days away from being implemented. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to rescue you or the others.”
“How are the others?” April asked concerned about Milos and Graeme for the first time.
“Well, they are doing better than you. Nathan didn’t leech from them, but when he touched them, he caused them to fall instantly asleep. He seems to have some control over their autonomic systems. They woke a few hours ago. You were put through a much deeper trauma, puberty,” she smiled.
“It’s not funny! I released one of the worse mass murderers in history hours from his death and healed him to full health. He’s even younger than I remember him!” April slammed her fist down on the wall and to her surprise, it was crushed under her fist.
“You may have done him a favor, but he ended up making you more dangerous and less likely to be a victim next time. He also unlocked our memories, though I doubt he meant to. By pulling the healing through you like that, something in our memory fell into place. Maybe the memories were just blocked before now instead of just being lost because of the trauma we experienced.”
“So what are we, you and me?” April picked up a block of rubble and crushed it in her hands, feeling the smooth powder between her fingers.
“I still don’t understand it. Until our memories returned, I only remember starting my existence as I am now. I was part of you until your death. You are my human body and I . . . I think I am your soul. No one has existed like us before, dead but unable to die. Or maybe, able to recover physically even from death.”
“Then why take on the mantle and name of Persephone? We didn’t believe in the gods.” April realized how much clearer her vision was now; she could make out details of the edge of the city. Her father had told her that as she grew older she would discover new strengths and skills.
“When I awoke, I found myself in a world completely unlike ours. Its hard to describe really, even for as much knowledge as I’ve gained about other worlds. I was much like I am now, but even more powerful, capable of speaking words and having them appear. Even with all this power, I felt so different. Here, I enjoy using my strength and ability especially in front of others. There, that itch to use powers for personal gain or to intimidate others was gone. That entire corrupt nature we have was gone. I felt at peace, as if I could never come to harm again. Am I explaining myself well?” Persephone raised her hand and the flowering plants on the veranda sprung to full bloom, even at this late hour, growing tall and splendid. “I do this for the pleasure of doing it, because it is good. But another part of me does this for the pleasure of demonstrating my superior power. There in that world, only the first pleasure even existed to me.”
April understood what she meant too well. She had found pleasure in running, just running as fast asa she could. But she also took pleasure in being faster than everyone else. “I understand. But we are all like that.”
“But not in that world,” Persephone remarked with longing. “As I stood up, a young man comes to me, but I could immediately tell he was not young nor was he a man. He was life, more alive and beautiful than I had ever imagined a person could be. (Now that I reflect on it, I must have been this alive and beautiful.) He tells me how glad he is for me to have arrived, but before he can tell me, I sense that I’m not to going to stay. He told me that I was here so that we could talk. He shared that I had become separated from my physical form, even though it was still fully alive and healthy. I essentially existed in two places at once and how it was a remarkable achievement. He then explained I would take the name Persephone and, while I would return to a physical form with its limitations, I would be able to find a way to return and bring my whole self. I think this is why you can access some of my powers and why we can join like we did in fighting Demeter. And while I am angry that Nathan has returned, our ages are much more similar than they were which means we’ll be an even better match for joining.”
April had spent most of Persephone’s recounting twisting her long hair in-between her fingers. “Why didn’t you come for me before now?”
“I did. I looked for you, but I had no memories of who I was or who you were. While you were in stasis, it was as if you no longer existed. I looked for you on hundreds of worlds and then the exile ended on Canaan. I don’t know why, because I had worked hard on avoiding anyone during my time searching for you, I was drawn to this planet. Something told me you would be here. I spent most of my time searching for you on the outskirts of Canaanite civilization. I couldn’t reveal myself to the other gods, not if I wanted to live. I had no idea how to find you until you drew power from me while healing those gorgons. And I must apologize. When I found you and saw a child . . . a child who was impetuous and imprudent, running from one scrape to another, I was disappointed. I expected to find someone my equal and not a human. My expectations and the truth were too far apart.” Persephone sat down at April’s feet and placed her head in April’s lap. “I was wrong about so much, especially about us being equals. We are the same, but fractured.”
April stopped twisting her own hair and ran her hand through Persephone’s hair. In comparison, her own silken hair was dry and brittle. Persephone’s was smoother than the finest cloth, softer than any down she had ever buried her hands in as a child. Pushing down the petty jealousy, she reminded herself that Persephone was posturing herself as a child to her in a mark of humility.
“There is another problem,” April remembered suddenly. “We didn’t find the cure for Bristlecone’s curse.”
Persephone shushed her. “You were never going to find it. I talked to Sprocket about why you were there, hoping he could provide us with answers. He then told me that there never was a cure, that their entire society had spent a century trying to unlock the cure and failed. Only one person could have cured the Canaanites, he said, and they decided releasing him would be no cure at all.”
“We risked so much and achieved nothing.” April repressed screaming into the night at this injustice. “Why did Tau send me there? Did he know that I would release Nathan? That I would nearly be killed?”
“I think your expectations fail to meet the truth. Did he tell you to find the cure? To meet with Nathan?”
“No. He only said it was important to go to Plitzvicka.” April realized that the change to being an adult had effected so much more than her strength. She realized that she could accept easier when she was wrong than when she had been a child.
Persephone raised her head and looked at April in the light of her glow. “In the morning, we will be off on another adventure. I was told by a traveling herd of Centaurs that there is a strange shepherd that attends a flock of golden sheep six hundred kilometers to the south. He appears and disappears in a strange mist that seems to blur their eyes. When I inquired about the age of this story, most said that he had first appeared fifteen years ago when the other gods arrived. I’ve arranged to travel with the herd when they return through here tomorrow. I wouldn’t recommend that you eat another one of your seeds so soon, but considering how much you have grown in the past twelve hours, I can feel how tapped your reserves are.”
April rummaged inside her robes to find the pouch, which was a bit of a struggle as the robes were now exceptionally tight on her. “Why didn’t you bother getting me new clothes?”
“Besides being busy saving your life one more time? Hmm.” Persephone opened an Eimi and beckoned to April to eat the seed. Feeling that she only had one left in her pouch after this one, she ate it slowly. Within seconds, warmth and fullness filled her body. She felt drowsy again as if she had just consumed a large meal. Persephone stepped through and closed the Eimi; April turned to the natural hammock that Persephone had cultivated from the boughs of two apple trees. Within moments, she was asleep.