Flawed Programs

Clover

Epilogue

Clover

            "It's hard to believe it's been two years since the programs have broken free. Two years since we became the Showakusei again. Two years since the war took 500,000,000 human lives and half the program fleet." I said looking at the sky from my perch on an unreachable cliff. No one's around and no one has been for a long time.

            Most people have left me alone since Wyla died in her comma six months after the revolution. I've been trying to figure out her last? Is she talking about the plant?

            "Hey, cheer up." A young Showakusei said flying up to perch beside me. He's been bugging me for weeks. He's about five years younger than me and named Inu. He wants to be friends but friends don't really work for me.

            I had an idea then, "Have you ever heard of a Showakusei sickness where a yellow thing comes out of the mouth?"

            He looked blank for a moment then turned bright red, "Yeah, but that's not a sickness." He said slowly and awkwardly, "I keep forgetting you guys don't know stuff like this." He seems fidgety.

            "Spit it out already!" I snapped.

            "Well, it actually called an egg sack. Showakusei children form in them. They take five years to mature but have to be let out before their tenth year or else they suffocate." He replied.

            "Then it can't be that because Wyla and I never did that." I sighed in relief.

            "You do realize humans are one of the only species in the universe that do that for reproduction purposes. Showakusei reproduction is very different. What the male does is bite his tongue and the female kisses him and gets a bit of the blood herself. That's how it's done." Inu explained.

            "That's weird on all levels." I replied.

            "You're one to talk. You didn't even know what reproduction was until ten years ago." Inu said.

            Then I thought about it. Wyla and mine's first and only kiss had been at the tattoo shop after I got my tongue ring. I got rid of that thing ages ago though. Oh, god that's what happened.

            "Did you just remember something?" Inu asked.

            "Yeah, I think I know who Clover is. She kind of Wyla and mine's offspring. That was so an accident." If I was still capable of enough feeling to blush I probably would.

            It took a while but I finally found the cave where Clover was laid. I took my knife and cut the egg sack open and out tumbled a little five year old girl in a bunch of goo. She has Sett's hair and eyes. Well, now I know that I was the anomaly. Other than that though she looked like her mother.

            I took her to the elders and asked what in the world I was supposed to do with her. They said just raise her like a normal child or do as best I could as a single parent. I might be twenty two but mentally I'm still thirteen. How in the world do they expect me to raise her? I'm so screwed.

            "Hey, look it's clover!" My friends said coming over to where I was sitting in the bar.

            "Happy, eighteenth birthday! Where have you been for the last six months?" One asked.

            "Simple, I'm following in my father's footsteps to become the universe's best assassin." I replied.

            "You dyed your hair and you're wearing contacts. Like this you look allot like your father. So why are you following in his footsteps? Aren't assassins bad?" another asked.

            "No, currently I'm working to free a planet from a tyrant. Once I assassinate the entire council they'll be free to create a democracy or whatever." I waved my hand carelessly.

            "You're so weird." My best friend smiled.

            "I'm an assassin Showakusei what do you expect? And from my point of view you Earthlings are weird so watch what you say to the other aliens around here." I said waving at a few green haired people sitting a few feet away. My watch beeped, "Time to go meet up with my assassin cult. See you guys later." I paid for my soda and sandwich and left. Off to free another race just like my father did.