Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Old Villains Never Truly Die... ( Chapter 11 )

The Earthchild

 

(An Iczer/Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover)

 

Written by

Jim Robert Bader

 

Proofread by

Shiva Barnwell

 

(Inspired by the works of Rumiko Takahashi,

Naoko Takeuchi, Toshihiro Hirano, & Hitoshi Okuda,

with ideas and suggestions by TH Tiger and Johannes Huber)

 

 

 

 

 

There was no time for words, only actions, but time enough for Iczer-Two to summon up her powers, calling forth a powerful battle aura that she turned into flaming fires that dissolved the strands that bound her Iczer, giving her additional time to teleport out of the way of the oncoming projectiles, reappearing directly behind the one who had fired them in the first place.

 

“WHAT?” the self-described Insect, who began to reorient on the changing position of its target.

 

“TOO SLOW!” Iczer-Two declared as she launched a point-blank assault on the enemy Mecha, driving her own armored fist into pseudo-chitinous hide with the fury of a chi-burst, shattering the armor and effectively taking the giant robot out of commission.

 

Iczer-One was only a little bit behind her sister in freeing herself from the entrapment of the golden fibers, slicing through them with an energy blade that she produced from within a gauntlet, then vanishing away before a salvo of heavy weapons fire could strike the place where she had been trapped, appearing once again to the opposing flank of the one who had fired those weapons, the heavily armored Golem.

 

“HOW CAN THIS BE?” Golem cried as she hastily erected her shields just in time to stave off being impaled on a mega-powered beam saber, “YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TELEPORT WITHIN SUBSPACE…!”

 

“OBVIOUSLY YOUR INFORMATION ABOUT US IS BADLY OUT OF DATE,” Iczer-One relayed, falling back into a defensive crouch, “OR ELSE YOU WOULD NOT EXPECT TREACHERY AND SURPRISE TO TAKE THE BOTH OF US DOWN SO EASILY.”

 

“YOU WON'T ESCAPE ME AGAIN!” Fiber cried as she unleashed yet more of her deadly cables, only to find her targets more elusive than ever, appearing and disappearing with a suddenness that seemed, even for an Iczer unit, to become like magic.

 

“I ADVISE YOU TO DESIST IN THIS ENDEAVOR,” Iczer-Two suddenly remarked as Unit Beta appeared directly behind the Mecha commanded by Fiber, “OR I WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS.”

 

In response to this Fiber tried to spin her deadly cables to engulf the offending Iczer from behind, but Two was much too quick for her again and vanished from the target zone, causing those cables to overshoot and ensnare Fiber's own Mecha in their smothering embrace.

 

“Told ya!” Sayoko beamed when she and her partner reappeared in a different location.

 

“Some people never do get it,” Iczer-Two sighed with a smile that was more than faintly ironic.

 

Golem was under assault as Iczer-One's powerful Iczer Alpha launched blow after blow against her shields and armored defenses, pressing her hard and forcing her to give ground. All at once the beast-like Bigro tried to position herself behind Iczer Alpha's blind side in order to come up on her in a rush, intending to trap her enemy within a pincer position that would give her wicket barbed tail a decided advantage.

 

But at the last instant Iczer Alpha moved out of the way of Bigro's lunge and fell into a rapid leg-sweep that knocked the monster's balance centers for a loop, tumbling her into Golem's energy field and diminishing its effectiveness as the two giants struggled to regain their bearings, even as Iczer Alpha righted itself and summoned up her energies for an all-out attack.

 

“FULL POWER, NAGISA-CHAN!” Iczer-One cried out.

 

“Ready Partner!” Nagisa cried as she summoned her energies, harnessing her emotional reserves of anger, outrage, protectiveness and devotion as she charged the giant Iczer's reserves with levels of energy that far surpassed enemy estimates of her potential.

 

Golem and Bigro barely had time to cry out their dismay before they were caught within the blast radius of an obscenely powerful energy burst that engulfed both of their Mecha. For a moment the area in a wide radius before Iczer Alpha was obscured by a blindingly bright inferno, as if a solar flare had been transported to the Earth, bathing everything it touched in searing white energies against which armor and flesh were no match to its cleansing inferno.

 

When at last the flames subsided there were two badly charred and blackened husks in the place where the Mecha had been situated. Even Fiber's unit was badly scorched by the peripheral effect of the overwhelming onslaught, while Iczer-Two---who had wisely situated her Beta unit beyond the reach of the flames---was prompted to comment, “Not too bad, but a little excessive, don't you think, dear sister?”

 

“Not when you consider what they were planning for us and our partners, Two,” Iczer-One replied, “I noticed that you didn't waste any time dealing with the one who had threatened Sayoko.”

 

“Is there any wonder to that?” Iczer-Two replied, “No one threatens Sayoko-chan without paying a high price, and these fools are just as annoying as they were when I faced their leader down during our last encounter.”

 

“Geez, these guys were pathetic!” Sayoko herself remarked, “Did they really give Troi such a hard time fifteen years back?”

 

“Well, she was rather inexperienced at the time…” Iczer-One reluctantly conceded.

 

“Not to mention half-baked, half-done and half-fried,” Iczer-Two sourly noted, “Not that she's improved much in the years since then.”

 

“But you still like her anyway,” Nagisa teased, “And you have to admit that she did pretty good for someone who'd only just been released from her incubator.”

 

“I acknowledge that you both must have been desperate to rely on that unfinished havoc maker against the likes of these losers,” Iczer-Two observed, only to have her focus reorient back towards the ruined hulks with a startled, “Eh?”

 

“Huh?” Sayoko followed her partner's shift in attention and said, “Hey…I'm picking up movement within those wrecked Mecha…”

 

“Is it possible?” Nagisa asked, “Could they have actually survived the destruction of their Mecha?”

 

“It figures,” Sayoko sighed, “Bad Guys never have the sense to quit when they've taken a licking…”

 

“That's funny,” Iczer-Two remarked, “I remember from my time as a villain thinking the same thing about you Heroes. I guess bad pennies really do turn up where you least want them as well…”

 

“Be ready,” Iczer-One cautioned, “They may have taken a beating but that doesn't mean that they are out of the fight just yet.”

 

“That's also in the Union rules,” Nagisa smiled, “I guess we'll just have to give them a double dose of what we showed them the last time.”

 

As these words were spoken the wreckage of the three destroyed Mecha stirred as three very different feminine forms forced their way out of the burned out ruins, emerging into the light, staggering and exhausted looking but otherwise quite intact and ready to do battle.

 

“Damn you all!” Golem snarled, favoring one arm, “You haven't destroyed us yet…”

 

“We live to conquer, and while we live you will not vanquish us again,” Insect rumbled.

 

“You will pay for destroying my lovely X!” Bigro declared, “I curse the day that ever spawned you miserable Iczers!”

 

“Geez, will you put a sock on it already?” Sayoko growled, “Not more of this campy dialogue already, you're giving me an ear-ache!”

 

“I'm with you,” Nagisa agreed, “You guys lure us into a trap, attempt to ambush us, then get your buts royally kicked and it's supposed to be all our fault? Give me a break already!”

 

“We are in complete agreement on this,” Iczer-One affirmed, “You are defeated and overwhelmed with no chance at all for victory. Surrender now and we will allow you to live, but persist on attacking us and you'll be destroyed, just as you were the last time you faced my sisters.”

 

“That I guarantee,” Iczer-Two agreed, “My sister is offering you the only mercy you will find, which is more than you deserve. Refuse her and you will face our combined wrath, and I will be just as stern with you as I was the last time, Golem-san.”

 

“Dammit,” Golem growled, “We need time to recover our strength…”

 

“Shit,” Insect spat, “All our power was spent generating our personal forcefields…we have nothing to attack with…”

 

“We must do something,” Bigro swore, “If not, then the consequences for us will be unthinkable…”

 

“THEY ARE ALREADY UNTHINKABLE, MY WRETCHED EXCUSES FOR SERVANTS!” a thunderous voice announced as a new figure took shape in the air above their heads, “AND YOU HAVE EMBARRASSED ME BEFORE MY MOTHER FOR THE VERY LAST TIME!”

 

“That voice…!” Iczer-One shuddered.

 

“I know that sound well,” Iczer-Two gritted.

 

“Neos?” Nagisa asked in appalled wonder.

 

“What?” Sayoko blinked, “That's Neos?”

 

“No!” Golem cried out as she stared up at the serpentine figure hovering over their heads, “Master Neos! We haven't lost yet! Give us one more chance!”

 

“NO MORE CHANCES FOR YOU THREE,” the booming voice of the figure declared, “THIS WAS YOUR ONE AND ONLY CHANCE TO JUSTIFY MY MOTHER RAISING YOU FROM THE GRAVE, AND NOW IT IS TIME TO CONSIGN YOU WORTHLESS HEAPS BACK TO THE SCRAP HEAP WHERE I FOUND YOU!!!”

 

An energy bolt lanced down from the looming presence that was Neos Gold and engulfed the three cowering Bioroids in its horrible radiance. Iczers One and Two instinctively raised their shields to full and braced their Iczer Robos against the peripheral effect of this onslaught, but then the radiance died, leaving three smoldering corpses lying amid the ashes of their utterly destroyed Mecha.

 

Unseen by anyone else during this matter, a fourth figure picked her way out of the damaged cockpit of her half-destroyed Mecha, placing one hand to her forehead as if to confirm that it was still in an intact condition, only to flinch in dismay as she felt the wave of death washing over her, and she turned her head in time to see a too-familiar glow dying down from the hovering form of a womanly shape connected to the body of a dragon.

 

“No…” she whispered in dismay, “Not again…”

 

“SO I REWARD FAILURE BY DESTROYING DEFECTIVE TRASH SUCH AS THESE!” Neos Gold declared, “IT WAS A MISTAKE EVEN TO RAISE THEM FROM THE DEAD, BUT THEY SERVED THEIR USEFULNESS BY ACTING AS CONVENIENT TARGETS.”

 

“What did that accomplish, Neos?” Iczer-One demanded with obvious loathing in her voice.

 

“It's it obvious enough, Sister?” Iczer-Two growled, “They were never a serious threat to any of us…Neos used them to lure us out so that they could test our powers, the better for her to gauge our relative strength compared with those defective models.”

 

“PRECISELY,” Neos declared, “THEY SHOWED US HOW STRONG YOU BOTH ARE WHEN LINKED WITH YOUR PARTNERS. THIS INFORMATION WILL SERVE US WELL WHEN THE REAL BATTLE SHALL BEGIN. WE WILL NOT UNDERESTIMATE YOU THE NEXT TIME, I ASSURE YOU!”

 

“No…” Fiber gasped in dismay, “Is that all we are to her…all we ever meant…?”

 

“You use your underlings as pawns to determine how strong we are…or how strong you think we are,” Iczer-Two said levelly, “I see that I was right about you all along…you are cold and manipulative as that virus you call your mother…”

 

“ICZER-TWO,” Neos responded, “SUCH INGRATITUDE AS YOU SHOWED ME FOR RESTORING YOU TO LIFE, I CAN HARDLY EXPECT ANY BETTER REGARD FROM YOU NOW, YOU TRAITOR…”

 

“I was never a traitor to you,” Iczer-Two snarled, “I was never on your side to begin with, nor did I ask you to revive me from my sleep, and as for Big Gold herself…!”

 

“That's enough, Sister,” Iczer-One said harshly, “We all know what scum born of scum this gutter trash is…and you were right not to trust her lies before as you can see what the reward is for those who loyally serve her foulness.”

 

“YOU BOTH CAN TALK BIG NOW THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE THE VICTORS,” Neos taunted, `BUT WHEN NEXT WE MEET YOU WILL KNOW REGRET THAT YOU OPPOSED OUR RIGHTEOUS CAUSE! FAREWELL!”

 

With that a blazing light surrounded the form of Neos Gold, and Fiber suddenly shook off her lethargy and vaulted from her ruined Mecha, surrounding herself in protective weaving as she faded out from subspace, just instants before a searing blast disintegrated what was left of her unit.

 

And then Neos was gone, just as suddenly as she had arrived, leaving both Iczers and partners to sort out the aftermath of a very strange encounter.

 

“Well,” Sayoko sighed once again, “At least now we know where those creeps picked it up from.”

 

“I'd say like mother like offspring,” Iczer-Two remarked, “But Big Gold never talked like that. Of course she did have her faults…she snored something awful…”

 

“I'm glad someone is keeping a sense of humor about this,” Nagisa remarked, “But what about those Bioroids? Are we really going to leave them in a place like this?”

 

“Eh?” Iczer-One replied, staring down at the spot where the smoldering remains of Neos Gold's dead henchwomen lay as they had fallen, badly blackened yet still discernable human in their outlines. Iczer-One thought a moment then said, “I see…I think I understand what you are suggesting, Nagisa-chan…”

 

“Eh?” Iczer-Two responded in surprise, “You're not serious, are you, Sister?”

 

“Hoy,” Sayoko sighed, “This is sure turning out to be one of those days, eh, Partner?”

 

The crimson haired Iczer heaved a sign of resignation and replied, “I just know what Troi would say if she were here…”

 

“Another set of strays to bring home,” Iczer-One answered for her, “Perhaps it is a ploy by Neos, but we have to take the chance if it means learning more about our adversaries.”

 

“You know I'm right about this,” Nagisa mused, “And besides…don't you feel just a little bit sorry for them, being betrayed like this by the one they trusted?”

 

“Not particularly,” Iczer-Two answered, “But then again, curiosity always was my weakness, so I guess it's worth the intelligence data we might be able to gather.”

 

“I see reeeeaaaallll trouble coming from this,” Sayoko dissented, but reluctantly agreed to the enterprise, and so they pooled their energies and formed a ring around their fallen foes before teleporting back to central…

 

 

 

 

The news from central command was grim, far worse than even imagined. Captain Reika Solinar stood before the projected image of the Central Guard Command representative and said in a trembling voice, “You…are certain about this? There is no other way?”

 

The other officer shook her head from side to side and said sadly, “There is not. We have gone over the data files time and again and the results are the same each time. We will lose this war if matters continue as they have been. Already we have lost our homeworld and three fifths of our people to the genocide both sides are practicing upon one another. At this rate it will not matter who emerges victorious in the end, both sides will be doomed to mutual extinction.”

 

“But…surely the Admiralty must see this…” Reika plaintively reasoned.

 

“The Admiralty is like the High Command itself,” the other officer replied, “Trapped in the past with no conception of a future without war. They are willing to sacrifice everyone and everything in the name of victory, but the price for their obsession will be our very survival as a race. The High Command is more machine than human now…they live for nothing else but the enemy's total destruction…”

 

“Only we will be destroying ourselves if this plan of theirs goes through,” Reika replied, “Madness!”

 

“That is why you must carry out your new instructions…to insure our race's survival,” the other woman said, “There are elements within the Central Guard who seek to avoid the doom of our people, and they have quietly banded together to insure that we do not completely erase ourselves from the history of this planet, which is why we have selected you, Captain, to carry out this most important of all missions.”

 

“I am ready to do my part,” Reika affirmed, “Tell me what I must do…?”

 

“First of all, you must ignore any commands from the Admiralty directing you to join the main fleet at the rendezvous point where they plan to stage their final battle,” the other woman grimly directed, “You have been assigned a carrier task force nominally for the purpose of scouting out new enemy positions, but in a short while an error will occur in the main data banks of Central changing your status from active to inactive, with an accompanying explanation that you met hostile fire and were totally annihilated, which means that Central will not be after you nor send coded instructions to override your command of this vessel.”

 

“I…understand,” Reika responded soberly, “You wish to erase all trace of our continuing existence.”

 

“Precisely,” her superior acknowledged, “You will then go to the following coordinates and establish a temporary base there. From that point on you will be left to your own recognizance, and we are relying upon you to safeguard the ships within your task force as you search for a suitable planet that will serve as a new homeworld.”

 

“A new…homeworld?” Reika blinked, “Can this be accomplished?”

 

“It can,” the other woman nodded in affirmation, “Every member of your fleet has been carefully selected for their qualified skills in various essential technical and cultural areas that you will need in order to establish a thriving colony. If necessary, you can terraform a planet that you designate suitable for life and convert it into a thriving biosphere, much as we accomplished on Chaos. With the enemy mostly destroyed there will be time enough for you to build back from the ashes of our destruction. Your crew has the genetic diversity needed to create a thriving bionome that will last for generations yet to come…”

 

“Generations yet to come?” Reika stared at the other woman's image in disbelief.

 

“That is the other secret that you are to safeguard,” her superior spoke in tones that conveyed the deep significance of what she was about to reveal, “Before the destruction of homeworld, we had Generators spirited away in the hopes of being able to restart our dwindling population. Those devices are on your ship at this very moment, with the extra materials that you will need to create more just like them. With these Generators you will be able to create new life and perpetuate our species…that is why all hope for the future rests with you and our people, Captain Reika of the Raging Wolf. Do not fail us…for if the rest of our people must face the certain extermination of our kind, at least some of us will die knowing that our race will live on…through you and your progeny for centuries, even millennia into the future!”

 

Reika saluted her superior and said, “I…fully understand what you are saying, Captain Nebulart. It will be as you ask of me…I swear it will be so…I not fail you or the Solnoid people…”

 

 

“Muku-chan…are you feeling any better?”

 

“Eh?” Muku started, coming out of her dream with a suddenness that caused her to blink in dismay, wondering just what she had been thinking a moment ago, and what it all meant, that strange experience of being someone else…a Starship captain serving aboard an alien vessel…

 

“I'm sorry…you were dreaming, Muku-chan,” came Rhea's gentle voice again, “I did not mean to disturb you, but…it was so intense that I wanted to ask you…was this real or something you only now remember?”

 

Muku fully opened her eyes and glanced around, wanting to ask Rhea where she was and why she still seemed to be hearing her inside her head, only when full consciousness dawned upon her she came to the rather startling discovery that she was once again floating in amazingly breathable fluid of before, just as naked as she had been when she lost consciousness, only this time she was not alone and that there were others standing outside of her capsule working with a bewilderingly complex set of controls, and all of them were women wearing strange form-fitting costumes of white and magenta.

 

“Huh?” she blinked as she glanced around, “Where the heck am I…”

 

One of the technicians glanced up then smiled at her and said, “Ah…you're awake at last. I noticed some unusual mental activity, but I took it to be merely a REM state.”

 

“Who…are you?” Muku asked of the surprisingly friendly technician.

 

“I am called Sister Silver,” she replied, “A Medical Technician…and that is Sister Argent. I suppose we are what you might call your doctors…”

 

“Doctors?” Muku blinked, “Am I sick or something?”

 

“No,” the one named Argent replied as she turned away from her own relays, “Merely exhausted, and the Regenerator has taken care of that. We understand you had quite an experience, your first time in actual battle…”

 

“In…battle?” as Muku spoke the words she had a sudden image of the fight between herself, Rhea and the enemy robot, then shuddered in apprehension, “That---that was real…?”

 

“As real as life gets,” Silver replied, “Now, I suppose you'd like to get out of there and get dressed in some suitable clothing, yes?”

 

“Clothing?” Muku reflexively covered herself as best she could with her hands, which seemed to only amuse the two female Med Techs, who'd had more than enough time to “scope her out” anyway, which did little to comfort Muku's strained sense of modesty now.

 

Sister Silver passed a hand over her control console and all at once the capsule drained of fluid, leaving Muku to cough and sputter a moment as she doubled over, seeing to empty her lungs of the last traces of the substance. Silver did something else and the feeling of choking went away, replaced by a surprisingly vigorous sense of well being on Muku's part, leaving her feeling fresh and alive enough to kick major butt, if she had any such aggressive inclinations at the moment.

 

The capsule hatch hissed open and Sister Argent offered Muku a hand, not to mention an armload of fresh garments that she offered to Muku, who reluctantly accepted them as she stepped naked from the capsule. Seeing as there was no handy changing room on hand, she slipped on a rather snug-fitting dress made from some curious polymer substance or other, yet which felt oddly comfortable and came complete with a fresh set of panties and other undergarments.

 

Once dressed in something that was (at least by comparison) appropriately modest, she reached up to feel her hair, only to discover that it was not moist but rather felt luxurious and clean, which had to be yet another weird side-effect caused by that miracle fluid. She next turned to the technicians and asked, “Where is Rhea-chan?”

 

“Your partner?” Argent seemed curiously amused as she passed a hand over the control station once again, and then a hiss of pneumatic pressure being exchanged cause a wide cylinder to slide down and reveal a second capsule, nearly identical to the one Muku had been inhabiting before, and there---hovering in fluid---was a fully naked Rhea, suspended like a specimen in formaldehyde, and yet somehow radiating abundant health through the translucent wall of her capsule.

 

“She's quite well, and almost eighty-three percent recovered,” Silver explained, “She took even worse punishment than you did in the battle, but she's coming along nicely.”

 

Muku stared in perversely fascinated wonder, touching the surprisingly warm capsule with a hand as she gazed at the beautiful form of Rhea Kano, taking in the amazing sight of near-perfect elvish beauty with Rhea seeming to drift in a state of sleep only inches away from Muku's touch as the human girl took in each curve and nuance of her entirely feminine body.

 

“What…is she?” Muku asked after a pause that lasted several very long moments.

 

“A Bioroid, although technically you could call her a hybrid,” someone new replied, “Though I prefer to call her my daughter.”

 

“Who?” Muku half-turned in time to see a shorthaired woman of medium height approach her from the sidelines, a beautiful adult who had curious pink markings around one cheek, like a tattoo or an emblem of some nature.

 

“I'm Kano Nagisa,” she explained with a polite bow, “Cultural Attaché and Human Ambassador to the C'thuwulf people, Advisor to the Protector and co-pilot of the Iczer Robo Alpha…but, if you'd like, I'd much prefer if you would call me…Mother.”

 

“Mother?” Muku blinked, surprised to notice in passing that there was a curious resemblance between this woman and her own mother, Akane.

 

“Well…Mother-in-law, at any event,” Nagisa responded, giving Rhea an affectionate look, “Magnificent, isn't she? The product of a union between two worlds and two very different beings like myself and her mother…”

 

“Um…excuse me?” Muku blinked, “But you just said…?”

 

“That Rhea-chan is a Bioroid, which is a fancy way of saying that she is an Android, though not in the sense that you might be thinking.”

 

“An…Android?” Muku turned an incredulous look upon the floating girl, unable to fully grasp that she was that much removed from a human.

 

“What I mean to say is that my daughter is an artificially created being, the product of an alien science many light-years ahead of our own, but in no sense of the word is she any less of a person. She is not a robot…there are no mechanical bits floating around inside her body. Rhea-chan is as much alive as either you or me, and half of the DNA that comprises her internal makeup comes from me. She is one hundred percent Biorganic…it is just that the chemical compounds that comprise her body are of a somewhat different nature than ordinary human protoplasm.”

 

“You mean…she's alive?” Muku swallowed.

 

“Very much alive,” Nagisa winked, “And fully aware of us at this very moment. She is my daughter in every sense of the word that truly matters…I just didn't have to go through the somewhat messy process of carrying her inside my body for nine months. In other words, she is a half-human hybrid grown as a test tube baby, which is the natural C'thuwulf process.”

 

“C'thuwulf?” Muku swallowed, “What…who are they?”

 

“Ah,” Nagisa chuckled, “That is the question. Come with me and I'll try to answer that one.”

 

Muku reluctantly allowed herself to be drawn away from the side of Rhea, who only seemed to open her eyes to watch them go as Nagisa led the way from the laboratory-like setting. They entered a narrow corridor that was brightly illuminated yet somehow unearthly in nature.

 

“The thing to keep in mind about C'thuwulf technology is that they are as far beyond gears, pulleys, wires, circuits and diodes as we're beyond rubbing two sticks together in order to create a fire,” Nagisa began to explain, “Their technology is mostly organic in nature…they don't need mechanical devices in the sense that we think of such things as advanced. They tend to grow their machines in incubators and shape the DNA structure of whatever they need to suit a given complex set of functions. It's really quite amazing when you study the process, as I have.”

 

“But you're…from Earth?” Muku hesitated.

 

“I'm as much a citizen of the planet as you are,” Nagisa replied as they emerged out into a more brightly illuminated chamber, “But I've lived among the C'thuwulf for the past ten years and consider myself as having dual citizenship...while the C'thuwulf---as you no doubt suspect---are from somewhere else in the galaxy, an alien race---very similar to us---who have evolved on another world, only to immigrate to this planet in order to create the wonders you see before you.”

 

Muku gasped as she stared out of a balcony-like terrace to see a city unfolding before her…a city unlike anything Muku had ever seen in her life, being largely a child of the Tokyo suburbs. The skyline was beautiful in the way that it framed the city's outline in start relief, a beautiful post-sunset with a starscape appearing just over the horizon.

 

“What is…that?” Muku gasped.

 

“New Gamora,” Nagisa replied, “A city I helped to found, based on C'thuwulf technology. The is the Earth base of the C'thuwulf Colonial program, inhabited by close to one million inhabitants, the refugees of their long-lost homeworld.”

 

“A city…filled with aliens…on the Earth?” Muku tried to take it all in but found her mind did not fully grasp the concept, “But…where on Earth…”

 

“Not on the Earth,” Nagisa said, “But under it…or---to be more precise---one mile underneath Tokyo City proper, very close to the Nerima prefecture that is your home province.”

 

“What?” Muku blinked, “But…those stars…the sky…”

 

“Illusions projected against the dome-like ceiling over the place,” Nagisa explained, “Timed to match the actual sky directly over our heads in the real Tokyo. This cavern is huge, and yet the strangest thing is that it existed before the C'thuwulf discovered it ten years ago. No one knows who truly made it, but it is structurally reinforced and as solid as C'thuwulf science can make it…”

 

“And it's been here all this time…ten years?” Muku said in disbelieving tones, “No way!”

 

“I would have said the same thing myself when I first learned about the C'thuwulf,” Nagisa smiled, “But they're not invaders, Senzenen-san. They're here with the full knowledge and support of the Japanese government…”

 

“They are???” Muku whirled to stare at the older woman.

 

“Yes,” Nagisa nodded, “As part of a larger program to fortify the Earth defenses.”

 

“To fortify…the Earth?” Muku repeated slowly, attempting to grasp this particular subject.

 

Nagisa studied the other girl's expression, then smiled warmly and said, “Come with me this way…I can see you need time to reflect on things, and it is an awful lot to absorb at one time. You've had quite a few shocks in a very short interval, and I'm not so jaded these days that I've completely forgotten what that was like when I first met Rhea-chan's mother…”

 

“When you…met…?” Muku head began to whirl again, trying to comprehend this stunning revelation on top of all the others. She found herself going unresisting along with the suggestions of the other woman, and before too long found herself guided to a sauna and hot springs area adjacent to the building that housed all of the technical equipment.

 

When Muku realized where they were she gasped, “An onsen…?”

 

“I find that I always think better when I'm relaxed and in a comfortable environment,” Nagisa smiled as she undid her belt and started to remove her upper top, “Care to join me in a bath? I promise I won't do anything your parents would not approve of.”

 

“Nani?” Muku blinked, then saw the affectionate smile the other woman paid her and nervously replied, “Uh…well…”

 

A few minutes later she found herself stripped down naked and scrubbing the back of the older Nagisa, amazed at how natural it felt to be doing this with a total stranger, just as she might have done with her own mother, and a stranger who had just admitted to being in a relationship with an alien that was altogether…unusual…and more than a little bit disturbing.

 

“Ah, you have good hands,” Nagisa commented, causing Muku to blush for some inexplicable reason, “Rhea-chan chose well…and you remind me so much of myself twenty years ago, when I was but a mere child of fourteen…”

 

“I…you what?” Muku blinked.

 

“Let me tell you a little story,” Nagisa said, “A true one, I assure you…about a young girl, much like yourself, who was on her way to school one day when she encountered a very strange person…a girl…almost a phantom, and looking like something out of a dream. How was I to know then that she would turn out to be the most important person in my life, even more than my own parents.”

 

Muku inhaled a sharp breath, hearing her own situation described to a “T,” but with very disturbing…implications…

 

“Before I knew it I was suddenly involved in overwhelming events the likes of which I could not have imagined,” Nagisa continued, “My friends were attacked and turned into monsters, my parents became twisted things that tried to consume me, and they died because my enemies chose to attack me through them. And then, before I even had time to recover from my grief over their loss, I was drawn into the Iczer Robo and made a part of some battle for which I had absolutely no preparation.”

 

Muku backed away, hearing her situation described with absolute and uncanny perfection…only she reminded herself belatedly that the attacks on her friends and parents had been some sort of an illusion.

 

“I didn't understand what was going on,” Nagisa went on as though unaware of the younger girl's reactions, “There was no time to hear the explanation about how the Earth had been drawn into a war by an evil menace that commanded Venomoids and Voids in a plot to conquer and oppress the very planet I called home. Only one person had the strength and courage to stand up to the menace that her own people had become, and that was my partner…Iczer-One…Rhea's mother.”

 

“Iczer…One?” Muku blinked, then added, “Rhea's…mother…?”

 

“Well, perhaps father would be the more accurate term here,” Nagisa chuckled, “Other significant biological parent would be yet another term, but yes…she and I share a bond that is stronger than life, stronger than death, and together we toppled the evil that was Big Gold and saved the entire planet. Of course this was really in another life, a world parallel to our own, but one I remember as vividly as if it happened last week rather than twenty-odd years in the past. It all changed when Big Gold was defeated…Iczer-One changed it, made it so all those terrible things had never happened, not to us, not to the C'thuwulf and not to my friends and family.”

 

“W-What do you mean…it never happened?” Muku blinked.

 

“I'm not entirely sure I know all the details myself,” Nagisa replied, “I don't think anyone truly does, even Iczer-One. At the time she was operating on a level of existence far beyond anyone's comprehension, and that made things seem easy that would stun the imagination of people such as you and I. All I know is that she did it using my strength to fortify her through the process of Synchronization…”

 

“Synchronization?” Muku repeated, recalling that word from Rhea's earlier employment.

 

“Yes,” Nagisa said, “The total mind and body integration in which a human bonds with an Iczer to achieve levels of power and awareness far beyond that which either of them is capable of individually. An Iczer---before you ask---is a living transducer of spiritual and emotional power, capable to transforming raw emotional and spiritual energies into a force that is indescribable. That is what an Iczer was made for…to bond with a human and become something extraordinary.”

 

“But you're saying that she's still effectively…an android,” Muku hesitated before adding, “Does that mean that they're still…like…a real person?”

 

Nagisa turned around and smiled, giving Muku a friendly look that conveyed much deeper meaning, “My Iczer-One is very much real to me…and so is my daughter. They may have been created by alien science, but they live, breathe love and care for people like you and me, and they bleed for us sometimes, just as Rhea-chan bled for you the first time she defended you against the Venomoid menace.”

 

“Um…” Muku felt ashamed of her own question, yet still she felt compelled to ask, “You talk about her like she's…your wife, or…something strange like that…”

 

“Why is it so strange to you?” Nagisa asked, “I love her as I would a husband. She is my wife, my…partner…in every significant thing that you could expect from a marriage, and after ten years together…”

 

“Ten years?” Muku blurted, “But…you've been…with her for ten years? Then…how old is Rhea?”

 

“A bit…less than that,” Nagisa shrugged, “But she is very mature for her age, I assure you, and we have tried to give her as close to a normal childhood as we could allow, given that she takes so much after her father-mother. We've been a very close family unit since the day that she emerged from her incubation chamber…physically about six or so, but now she is close to sixteen, which makes her physically comparable to your own age group.”

 

“But…she's less than ten years old?” Muku blanched, “You mean I'm seeing someone who's barely old enough to be in grade school?”

 

“Such things don't really compare for her, but I…suppose you could see it that way,” Nagisa conceded, “Is it important?”

 

“Ah…well…” Muku hesitated.

 

Nagisa stood up then reached out a hand to Muku, who reluctantly took it as the older woman guided her to the bench, then insisted she sit while Nagisa took her turn washing the other girl's back.

 

“You're going to have to make up your mind about a few things,” Nagisa said, “If you want to survive what's about to come. I've been where you are now, I know what your options are. It's understandable if you have any reluctance or doubts about being involved in any of this. I certainly never imagined myself being where I am today when I was a young girl like you getting partnered up with an Iczer.”

 

“But…how do you cope with it?” Muku asked as she felt the older woman's soft hands work over her skin, cleansing off difficult-to-reach portions of her body, “The craziness, the insanity of it all…and those monsters…!”

 

“How do you expect me to answer that?” Nagisa countered, “You do what you have to in order to survive. There's not a lot of wiggle room to be had now that the enemy knows about you and what you can do in a battle. You can't run, you can't hide, and the only way you can protect anyone is by standing firm and doing what you can to resist the evil. I've tried the running away and cowering in fear part and I can tell you it definitely bites. The only time I've ever been able to hold my head high is when I've confronted my problems and met them on directly.”

 

“You, Kano-san?” Muku asked.

 

“Oh yes,” Nagisa chuckled, then reached down and picked up the water pail and dumped it over Muku's astonished head as per the traditional methods for ritual cleaning. As Muku began to sputter she refilled the bucket and poured more water over herself, then shook her hair and flexed her arms to revel in the sensation. Setting down her bucket she turned to Muku and said, “Shall we warm ourselves up now? I think you should be relaxed when you hear the rest of what I have to tell you.”

 

“Um…hai,” Muku meekly replied, and soon the both of them were submerged in the hot springs, enjoying the soothing sensation of the mineral-enriched waters.

 

“Now then,” Nagisa began again after a few minutes of soaking in the invigorating richness of the onsen waters, “To answer more of those questions you've yet to ask…the C'thuwulf come from a distant star-system located thousands of light years in another part of this galaxy. Their actual origins are somewhat obscured by myth and legend, but it is basically believed that they are the remnants of a once great star culture that flourished in this part of space close to a half a million years ago, when they first settled on a planet they named C'thuwulf, after a legendary ship said to have carried their ancestors…”

 

“C'thuwulf?” Muku repeated, having a curious stirring of memories summoned up in her dreams, “A half a million years ago…?”

 

“That is believed to be the time of their founding,” Nagisa resumed, “They were the survivors of a great war that raged throughout the galaxy, a war that ended the very civilization that originally spawned them. For half a million years their colony saw many great rises and falls over a history ten times more rich and detailed than even the Earth's recorded history, up until the most recent rise which saw their culture flourish into an era of peace and artistic prosperity unlike anything ever dreamed up in our most utopian fantasies…an amazing achievement when you consider that they have achieved all of this without the contributions of the male of the species…”

 

“Say what?” Muku blinked.

 

“The C'thuwulf,” Nagisa explained, “Are a female-only race…there are no men at all in their society, nor have there ever been throughout the whole of their civilization.”

 

“No men?” Muku blinked again, “But…how can they…?”

 

“Oh, they reproduce through parthenogenesis,” Nagisa answered, “They use gestation tubes as a kind of artificial uterus, and they can grow new citizens to replace their numbers as needed.”

 

“You mean…like cloning?” Muku suggested.

 

“No,” Nagisa replied, “With cloning you sometimes get replication errors, and over time the process of constantly cloning from the same basic matrix leads to a slow and gradual attenuation of the genome. What the C'thuwulf do is combine the genetic material from two distinctive parents to create a child that has half the half the chromosomes of each parents…thus two women become the co-mothers of the child, and the child is raised by them within the loving environment of a stable family unit…”

 

“Say WHAT???” Muku blurted.

 

“That's right,” Nagisa winked at her, “Since there are only women in their society, the C'thuwulf naturally assume that female bonding is the most natural kind in the world. It's taken entirely for granted here, and no one thinks that there is anything wrong about it. For a woman to love another woman is seen as natural, not perverted, while what we humans do with having sex with men is considered unnatural and unwholesome. It really all depends on how you look on things, and from what perspective.”

 

Muku had a flash of the silver haired Troi, then blanched when she remembered the outrageous way the older girl had been flirting with her friends Yui and Sakura.

 

“Have I shocked you already?” Nagisa asked, “I'm sorry…it's just that I've been living among the C'thuwulf for so long that I've come to adopt many of their ways and customs. At one time I would have felt the same way you no doubt do now…that heterosexuality is the only acceptable way in which two people should have a child together. I really cannot blame you if you find the idea of a female-dominant society that reproduces artificially repellant…”

 

“Ah…I didn't say I found it…repellant,” Muku swallowed, “But…I guess it is a little…disturbing…”

 

“Indeed,” Nagisa sighed, sinking down to her neck in the water, “And many C'thuwulf find it just as disturbing that we even have men in our world, which they regard as if they were deformed women, especially having what amounts to an elongated clitoris. There was quite a bit of culture shock in the old days when we were just establishing this colony…more than a few radicals were dead set against having anything to do with the people of Terra. In fact, some had originally been set on conquering our world and imposing their rule upon us…but that came to an end once a consensus was reached. Now we have a rule that allows certain volunteers to travel freely to and from the human world while those who prefer their relative isolation can live here in New Gamora and not feel any pressure from outside."

 

“But why are they here to begin with, Kano-san?” Muku asked, “If they were so advanced on their home planet…”

 

“That…is a truly tragic story,” Nagisa sighed, “As I had implied, their technology is highly advanced, but it also proved to have great weaknesses that made it subject to penetration. An enemy power existing outside of normal time and space…call it a Demon force, if you will…planted its seed in the great Central Computer of their homeworld and corrupted it, opening the way for the Venomoids to penetrate into our region of space. It was the time when Iczer-One lost her first partner…”

 

“Her first…partner?” Muku replied, “She had a partner before you?”

 

Nagisa stared down at the water and looked sad, “She never talks about it, but I pieced the story together a long time ago. Basically, Iczer-One was a prototype of a new form of defensive system, one so advanced that her powers were calculated to be enormous. It was at the height of their prosperity that the C'thuwulf hardly even needed a defensive force, so they chose to invest in her the role of their Protector. Their military had been somewhat resentful about this, but it was agreed to be for the best that their society rely less on warfare for its survival. There were, after all, many other hostile powers in the Universe who could have taken advantage of the C'thuwulf if they totally did away with military force…”

 

“And Iczer-One was their answer?” Muku deduced.

 

“A brilliant one, as it turned out,” Nagisa smiled, “Well beyond anything that her creators had ever envisioned. Iczer-One, you see, is an immensely powerful construct, as well as being a living person with a mind and a conscience. Of course to fully implement her powers she needed to be bonded with another person…a C'thuwulf who was designated to be her partner, from whom she could draw strength and energy when required. But then the disaster struck and the enemy Virus infected their systems…”

 

“But it didn't affect her?” Muku guessed.

 

“Because her link to her partner made Iczer-One, effectively, a fully independent system,” Nagisa noted, “One all but impervious to corruption. She managed to fight off the infection, but at great cost to the C'thuwulf society, and their central computers self-destructed after releasing a prototype symbiont that eventually became known as Big Gold. The Venomoid menaces destroyed most of their world before the infection was halted, but in the war to cleanse their world Iczer-One's original partner died. She carries in her a great sadness ever since this happened, and I know for a fact that her heart was badly broken.”

 

Muku felt something stir within her at this point in the story, not having even met this mysterious construct before, yet somehow imagining what it was like to know such loss and deprivation, “H-How did it happen?”

 

“I'm not too sure of the details,” Nagisa answered soberly, “But I suspect it was the very prosperity of their culture that ultimately doomed her partner. The C'thuwulf had been at peace for so many generations that only their warrior caste even remembered how to fight, and mostly that was done in simulations. Iczer-One's partner had been unable to muster the levels of emotional drive that could have spared them both greater losses…and she didn't have enough of the intuitive will to live that we humans carry within us from our many centuries of struggling for survival. In short she just did not prove adequate to the task for which shortcoming she died…and because she and Iczer-One were soul-bonded, my wife has ever since felt as though a major portion of herself died that day. It's tended to make her a bit overly fanatic about protecting me, her current partner…”

 

“But can an Iczer function without a partner?” Muku asked.

 

“Troi can,” Nagisa replied, “Though she isn't too happy about the fact that she's partnerless, and at one time she had been linked to me as my partner. You see…after Big Gold was destroyed by Iczer-One, she set about seeking to lead the C'thuwulf to a new homeworld, only to discover that Gold had spread more progeny to other worlds, and that these residual programs were proving troublesome amid the civilized worlds they infested. Neos Gold was one of the worst of these virus-spawned copies that Gold had sent to other worlds…a vicious monster responsible for destroying many inhabited star systems and purging entire worlds of all life…she and her four minions, the Sisters of the Comet.”

 

“What happened to them?” Muku asked.

 

“Troi happened,” Nagisa smiled, “Iczer-Three, as she was called at the time, created to be an auxiliary unit to assist Iczer-One in defending the C'thuwulf people. When my partner was injured and exhausted during a fight against Neos, Troi was dispatched to Earth to head off an expected invasion, in spite of the fact that---at the time---Troi had not been fully gestated and was still a relatively young and inexperienced Iczer.”

 

“Troi…that biker girl…a defender of the Earth?” Muku said incredulously.

 

“Don't be too quick to judge her by appearances,” Nagisa winked, “I happen to regard her as a little sister myself, even if only by adoption. When Neos and her cronies launched their attack upon the earth, it was all that the Earth defenders could do to hold their own against those monsters. Mind you, the heroes of Earth put up one heck of a defense, but they might have been overwhelmed had Troi not shown up when she did to put the enemies in their place, one by one defeating the Sisters of the Comet and even Neos Gold herself in the final confrontation…”

 

“And she did this with help from you?” Muku asked.

 

“Oh yes,” Nagisa smiled again, “At the time I was about nineteen, and I had just joined the Self- Defense Force as a Medical technician…a Nurse, if you will…with plans on maybe becoming a doctor. The enemy Bioroid named Fiber overwhelmed the base that I was at and many of our brave soldiers were killed. I was nearly ripped to shreds by Fiber herself when Troi showed up to rescue me, and then we managed to Synchronize together to use her Iczer Robo, Unit Delta, to punish the transgressors. It was then that my memories of the past were partially awakened and I remembered what Iczer-One and I had shared together, and what she had meant to me during our brief time of Synchronization.”

 

“So what happened?” Muku asked, “Why don't I remember anything like this happening…what was it…?”

 

“Fifteen years ago,” Nagisa helpfully replied, “And the answer is that you and everyone else who lived through those terrible days have largely forgotten about it, just as people tend to forget about the most recent appearances of Godzilla or some other giant monster…”

 

“Oh,” Muku blinked, thinking long and hard about that answer.

 

“Of course certain powers-that-be remember these events, even if they have agencies that work full time explaining away and insuring that other people will forget them,” Nagisa continued, “Such as the Men in Black, the MIB force that is charged with supervising alien activities on this planet, or SHIELD, the super-spy agency that deals with international problems of a paranormal nature. If you think about it, hardly anyone even bothers to think about Superman these days as an alien visitor from a far-off planet, any more than they think of Sunfire, our national hero, as a mutant…”

 

“I…think I get the point here,” Muku replied, “Please continue, Lady.”

 

“Please,” Nagisa waved a hand, “Call me Nagisa…you make me sound almost like an old lady, even if I am old enough to be your mother.”

 

“Um…yeah,” Muku conceded.

 

“Anyway,” Nagisa resumed, “Iczer-One and her sisters took their leave of us and went back to the C'thuwulf world ship to resume their quest for a new homeworld, but while they were gone a new menace cropped up that was yet again one of Gold's evil spawn. It became obvious that even having three Iczers wold not be sufficient deterrent to insure the safety of Earth and all other civilized Star Systems that were being similarly threatened, so they created the Iczelion corps and dispatched teams of mini-robos to safeguard these worlds, and one of them found me, just in time to help me fight off the world threat of the evil twins, Chaos and Cross, often called the `Grey Twins.'”

 

“So you got to take part in a war to defend the Earth for the third straight time, huh?” Muku noted.

 

“Yes, and it truly is something to remark about, considering what an unlikely candidate for heroine I made back when I was your age,” Nagisa marveled.

 

“Huh?” Muku responded.

 

“You would not have thought me anything special back then,” Nagisa replied, “I was weak and a bit of a crybaby…I tended to run away from problems and I never thought of myself as an exceptionally brave person. I would cry over minor things and the thought of hurting anyone would have been totally foreign to my nature. I can't even begin to imagine what it was that Iczer-One saw in me when we first bonded…but…somehow, by some strange twist of fate, I turned out to be the only human in the entire world who had the potential of becoming her partner.”

 

“Why just you?” Muku asked, “If Troi could share you with her own sister…”

 

“Good question,” Nagisa replied, “Why me indeed? I only know that I never had any choice about being the one human being who could lend her power to both Iczers. You'd think they might have picked somebody brave, clever and resourceful, not a wimp like I was back then. In fact, after the whole business with Neos I got a bit upset with myself and decided I would try to become a braver person. I started to work out more, and then I took up an interest in wrestling, even considered becoming a profession wrestler after my interest in medicine waned…but for all of that I still cowered like a child when Cross came after me. It was only after being scared out of my wits that I found the courage to stand up for myself and take charge of my own affairs, after Cross nearly killed one of my best friends right in front of my eyes, just to goad me into putting up a better fight with her, of making our fight more…interesting.”

 

“And did it work?” Muku asked.

 

“Better than she was counting on,” Nagisa said, “I got angry…more angry than I'd ever been in my whole life, and then I killed her in battle. I can remember how surprised she looked when it happened, and how shocked I was in knowing I had done that…”

 

“You took a life?” Muku replied, feeling a sympathetic shudder as she read the expression of the other woman.

 

“I terminated a monster,” Nagisa replied, “All of Gold's evil spawn were parasites and monsters, life-takers and destroyers who were bent on universal genocide and conquest. It was when I finally understood that such evil would always need to be opposed that I came to terms with my place as Iczer-One's natural partner. So I contacted her and urged her to return to the Earth, then I negotiated a peace settlement with the world governments to allow the C'thuwulf the right of sanctuary.”

 

“And you helped them to settle on Earth,” Muku finished for her, “That's incredible…and for ten years these aliens have been living in peace besides us?”

 

“Earth is now their home,” Nagisa explained, “And they are sworn to defend it and all the people who live here, Terrans and C'thuwulf alike. It hasn't always been easy, and there was one heck of an adjustment period, but some C'thuwulf have even found that they like Earth society and have fully integrated themselves into Earth culture…”

 

“Like Troi?” Muku asked.

 

“Like Troi,” Nagisa chuckled.

 

“But…you said that she used to be called Iczer-Three,” Muku noted, “And yet you said that there were three Iczers. Is Rhea the third?”

 

“No,” Nagisa replied, “The fourth. Iczer-Two…well…there's quite an interesting story about her, but she's a trusted member of C'thuwulf society these days, partnered to an Earth woman named Sayoko, who is one of my best friends. You'll meet her soon enough if you spend enough time hanging around with my daughter…”

 

“Ah…” Muku found her cheeks flushing crimson for reasons other than the temperature of the water.

 

“You like her, don't you?” Nagisa asked, “My daughter, that is?”

 

“Ah, well…” Muku looked down, uncertain what to say in response to that.

 

Nagisa just smiled, then moved to the edge of the bathing pool and started to climb out, “I think we're soaked enough for now…time to dry ourselves off and get dressed once again. Are you feeling better about yourself, Muku-chan?”

 

“I…guess maybe so,” Muku allowed as she, too, rose up out of the water and accepted the towel that Nagisa passed her way, then at Nagisa's invitation the two of them sat down on a rock and allowed the warm air to dry off their bodies.

 

“The thing you have to keep in mind,” Nagisa said, “Is that Rhea is less experienced in life than you, and she's spent most of her life living here in New Gamora. She's never been among normal human beings, such as yourself, all that much until now, just C'thuwulf and her three aunts, the senior Iczers. She has known all of her life that she would one day find a partner and command an Iczer Robo in the defense of this, her natural homeworld. She is a child of Earth, my Earthchild, if you will…which is why I insisted on giving her a name instead of a mere number designation. Rhea, the ancient Titaness of Earth, seemed like a fitting enough title, and yes…my daughter also thinks of herself as partially human, so it's natural if she has a deep sense of curiosity about you…”

 

“About…me…or about humans?” Muku asked.

 

“About you primarily,” Nagisa answered, “Humans are not all that different from the C'thuwulf…in fact, there is less than one thousandth of a percentage point difference in our chromosomal patterns, that one percent caused by genetic drift and their reliance on artificial means of reproduction, which tends to leave their normal reproductive organs as vestigial as a human appendix. Oh, they can have babies the normal way, of course, and some have…those C'thuwulf who have tried bonding with a man report great success in being mothers, though a few find it rather traumatic to have to gestate a baby inside their own bodies…”

 

“Ah…guess that is kind of…weird…to their way of thinking, huh?” Muku reasoned.

 

“Of course…there is that one drawback that comes from not having exposed Rhea at a young age to human males,” Nagisa sighed, “I've noticed that she tends to be shy with the male half of our species…my fault for insisting she grow up away from too much up-close-and-personal knowledge. I didn't want my child to think of herself as a freak because of the prejudice that some would have regarding her appearance…”

 

“I think I can see what you mean about that,” Muku replied, “And I was…wondering why she got so shy around Ken-san…”

 

“Of course with you the story is entirely different,” Nagisa said wryly, “Rhea-chan not only likes you, but I can tell that she likes you a lot…which is why I feel compelled---as her mother---to ask if your feelings run the same way. After all, I wouldn't want my only daughter to suffer rejection because she might be expecting more out of you than you feel inclined to share…”

 

“Ah…to share?” Muku glanced down at her bare feet and blushed all over.

 

“An Iczer is a partner in all senses of the word,” Nagisa noted, “And Rhea-chan seems quite taken with you, which means she might be inclined to being a bit…obsessive. Don't be too surprised if she gets defensive and overly protective around you, or if she might come to resent anyone else attempting to get too close to you, though I can't imagine Rhea as the jealous type. No doubt it would be your happiness that would be first and foremost in her thoughts, so anything that displeases you is bound to affect her…”

 

“You mean…like…she can read my thoughts and know what I'm feeling?” Muku asked.

 

“You have a psychic link with her,” Nagisa replied, “A mental and emotional bond that can only grow stronger with time, so I feel compelled to warn you that there is another side to being partnered with an Iczer. Your life can never be the same again, and you can never be entirely what some people will call…normal…”

 

“Um, well…my life wasn't too normal to begin with,” Muku started to say, when a shadow fell over her, causing her to look up with a start, at first thinking it was Rhea looking over her, but a closer glance proved that it was most definitely not Rhea.

 

“Ohayo,” this stranger said, “You must be Senzenen Muku Dori.”

 

“Oh!” Muku gasped, nearly getting to her feet as she turned to face the tall blonde-haired woman with the overly large crimson eyes, dressed head to foot in a red-and-black-with gold trim version of Rhea's own battle armor.

 

“Be at peace,” the stranger urged, making a placating gesture with one hand, “I am Iczer-One, Nagisa's partner and co-mother to our Rhea. I didn't mean to startle you just now, but I have been wanting to meet with you since I first learned of your existence.”

 

Muku took her time looking the blonde Iczer up and down, seeing a more statuesque version of Rhea, who had a body like a supermodel and a bustline that was obvious even concealed as it was by her armor. The distinctly elvish features on the lovely face of the golden haired Iczer was like a foretaste of things to come with Rhea, and yet there was something about her…a presence…that made Muku feel as if she were in the company of a major diva. Though at ease and relaxed, there was something about this Iczer-One that suggested a power unimaginable, and given the descriptions that had preceded her arrival, Muku found herself staring in amazement at the Bioroid who was clearly one half of Rhea's biological matrix.

 

“Yeah, she tends to have that affect on you the first time, huh?” Nagisa smiled as though reading Muku's thoughts, even as she sauntered around the boulder they had been sitting on and approached her nominal partner, slipping an arm around her waist and hugging the blonde Iczer with affection, “But trust me, she's a real pussycat when you get to know her better.”

 

“Ah…” Iczer-One replied, and then she colored slightly, a gesture that made her seem more human than before, which further intrigued Muku as she started to comprehend that the android was---strangely enough---very much like a human.

 

“Did you come to inform me about something?” Nagisa asked, her face hovering only inches away from her golden haired companion, even as her smile had a dazzling quality that clearly affected the Iczer.

 

“Um…yes,” Iczer-One replied, “I was hoping you might have time to join me in a meeting with our scientists. Sister Grey believes that she has made an important discovery concerning our enemies and what they might be about.”

 

“You know I'd love to join you, Darling,” Nagisa cooed, “But I also wanted to spend a little more time with our new daughter-in-law…you understand that, don't you?”

 

“Um…of course,” Iczer-One agreed, “I'd enjoy that very much myself, but…”

 

“Oh ah…don't trouble yourselves over me,” Muku said with a nervous chuckle, “I'm sure you've got lots of important things to take care of, and…well…it's getting a bit late, and I should be getting back home to my parents…”

 

“Quite so,” Nagisa nodded, “And I'll bet anything that they're as worried about you as we would be if we were in their place.”

 

“You are free to return to your home at any time,” Iczer-One assured, “But…I do hope that you will be mindful that we have…security considerations to think about regarding the existence of this base and complex…”

 

“Er…I guess I can see that,” Muku conceded, then smiled and said, “Don't worry, I can keep a secret, and it's not like I could tell my friends about this place anyway, not without winding up in the booby hatch…”

 

“That would be the least of your worries,” Iczer-One ominously cautioned, “There are agencies within your own government who even more zealous about preserving our existence than we are, and some of them can be a little too ruthless for my liking.”

 

“But we'll see to it you get home safe and sound anyway,” Nagisa began to say, only to pause as she glanced slightly to the side, “Or…maybe I should say that we know someone who'll be glad to volunteer for that assignment.

 

“Who…?” Muku started to ask when she froze, sensing the familiar presence just instants before Rhea stepped into her line of vision and smiled at her in a semi-shy way.

 

“I'm all better now,” Rhea said, “And fully rested. I'm sorry that I was a bit abrupt with you back there, Muku-chan…I wish there had been more time for me to explain and prepare you…”

 

“Quite so,” Iczer-One smiled, “But events don't always give us enough time to do things the way we would like to pursue them,” and she turned an ironic smile in Nagisa's direction.

 

“Better get yourself dressed, Muku-chan,” Nagisa urged, “And keep the outfit…you'll find it can be both practical and rather handy.”

 

“Er…is there a place somewhere I can change?” Muku asked, feeling strangely reluctant to do so in front of Rhea.

 

“Oh, I know just the place,” Rhea said as she moved in closer and took Muku by one arm, “Your place back in your house…you can change there and not even have to worry about getting by your parents.”

 

“Huh?” Muku started to react, “Wait a minute---“ was all she had time to say before she and Rhea teleported together.

 

“She's growing up so fast,” Iczer-One marveled.

 

“I know,” Nagisa smiled, “Poor Muku.”

 

“She doesn't really have a clue what she's in store for, does she?” Iczer-One remarked.

 

“No better than I did,” Nagisa sighed.

 

“That's what I thought,” her partner nodded, “And that's what makes me so worried.”

 

“For Rhea-chan…or for Muku?” the darker haired Japanese girl wondered.

 

“For both of them,” Iczer-One affirmed, then sighed, “And they say that Earth girls are easy…”

 

“Oh, is that what they say, huh?” Nagisa arched her tone and wiggled her eyebrows in a meaningful manner, suggesting things to the blonde haired Iczer that caused her to flush as red as a raspberry, though tinged with a sad reluctance as they both knew that they had other duties that would keep them both busy for several hours, which---of course---would just make them all the more determined to share the time they each so valued when the lines separating human from Iczer would blur altogether, making them of one mind and flesh in a unity for which no words could be adequate, save only the one contained in the innocuous term, “Partners.”

 

With that thought in mind, Nagisa dressed herself then walked arm-in-arm with her slightly taller companion sharing thoughts together through their link as they went to attend to their all-important meeting…

 

 

 

Continued

 

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