Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Drawn to Battle ( Chapter 20 )

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 once was a young girl who lived in a far away kingdom set on a world very much like the earth and inhabited by an humanoid species. This little girl lived with her father in a magical land where those gifted with the powers of the mind were honored and revered as special, blessed by the Gods and unusually well favored. Her father ran a special kind of shop that made dolls for children to play with, but they were known throughout the kingdom as the possessors of a magic gift that manifested in their clan, for they were Noh Puppeteers, able to animate their own creations and gift them with a lifelike semblance for the purposes of entertainment.

 

As Noh Puppeteers, her father and the little girl could weave the invisible threads of their gift around their wooden creations and cause them to dance and carry about upon a stage, and people would come from all around the kingdom just to watch them put on one of their marvelous performances. Her father was very skilled at moving dolls and props about the stage without the need of a stage hand and was a very gifted storyteller, but the little girl was even more extraordinary in her gifts, able to manipulate dozens of her dolls across the stage and she could make them perform complex movements of song and dance, even perform realistic sword battles and acts of daring that pleased the crowds and was even known to please the King when he ordered that they should give a performance. They had earned the royal seal of approval, and all across the kingdom they were known as the Wondrous Weavers of story enchantment, and the little girl was very happy because she loved her father very much and looked up to him for his kindness and his wisdom.

 

She also had a little brother, and when he was small she used to think of him as a bother, but as he grew up he proved to be just as gifted as her father and the little girl came to adore him as though he were another of her puppets. She would take him on her lap some days (for he was much, much smaller than herself) and tell him what a great man their father was, and then she would teach him how to carve more puppets for their show, and how to animate them, and the little boy learned quickly, for he was a bright lad and very fond of his sister's teachings. One day he would grow to be just like their father, and that made the little girl very happy, for their family would continue to be known as great Noh Puppeteers well into the next generation.

 

Of course they had no mother, for she had died while her brother was still very little, and this made the girl sad sometimes because she missed her mother very much. Ironically she valued her brother even more because he was the one thing of their mother that she had left, other than her looks, which her father said had also come from her mother. Her father used to tell her that their mother was looking down on them from the place where the Gods dwelled, and that she was watching out for them and smiling with pride as she watched her children growing. That made the little girl feel better in some ways, and so she always acted as if her mother was watching her and tried never to do anything that might displease her mother.

 

But then came the day when some very bad people came to visit her father. The little girl---who by now had blossomed into a beautiful young woman---was told by her father to take her brother and go upstairs, but the young woman wanted to know what the strangers were saying and so she stayed close enough in order to overhear their voices. There was something very not nice about these men, and the more they talked in sinister tones the angrier they made her father. He finally got mad enough to order them to leave his shop, which the men did, but not before warning her father that he was making a mistake and that he should have accepted their offer for his business.

 

And then came the night of the fire, the night when the little girl's world ended. She remembered waking up in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke and the hint of fire, and then the screams of her little brother, trapped and helpless in his own room…

 

The images were like a blur from that point on. She remembered trying to get to her brother, the fire getting in her way, and her hands being burned by the flames, her inability to lift a burning beam to free her brother, her father grabbing her and carrying her to safety, and then going back into the building himself to try and find her brother, her screams when the roof caved in behind him…

 

…The hospital where they fitted her out with a new set of hands…the latest in prosthetics, they said, a new kind of science that could replace damaged tissues, only these hands felt strange and mechanical, not natural like wood and certainly not alive. At first her powers refused to return to her, leaving her feeling head-blind and helpless, cut off from everything she had ever known and loved, an orphan whose beauty had been marred by the flames so that she now resembled some twisted monstrosity, not beautiful like her puppets, which had all been burned by the flames…the work of a lifetime…several lifetimes, that of her father and his father before him…

 

…She remembered the clinic that had tried to rehabilitate her mind and body, she remembered the drugs they gave her, the moods and the depression, the loss of her gift and her focus…she remembered withdrawing into her shell, the cocoon she had tried to draw around herself to contain her loss, to shut out the world and to imagine that life was just as it was before the fire, that her father and little brother would be greeting her if she opened her eyes and pretended the whole tragic mess had never happened. She remembered the wellspring of her grief reaching out into the heavens, petitioning her mother…and the silence that greeted her desperate appeal to the gods and the ghosts of her all but extinct family…

 

…And then something answered her…a dark force that was drawn to the wellspring of her misery, impressed with her latent potential and convinced that she could be of use to her cause…in exchange for which she promised her power and a chance to avenge herself on those who had caused her grief. She had gratefully accepted the offer, feeling abandoned by the Gods, not even finding solace in the thoughts of her mother. The being had appeared to her, a demon who was power incarnate and had the means of altering her into something other than human. She gained the power she wanted, then she worked her vengeance upon the landholder that had caused the fires that had killed her father and brother. She remembered exulting in his blood, relishing the carnage of destruction that she had worked on his entire operation and the bodies of all his people. In that moment of exultation Neos had claimed her, filling her being with the love of hate and destruction and purging her memories of her former life and the loss that brought her nothing but pain. In that moment Fiber had been born, the Weaver of Destruction…

 

Fiber started out of her dazed reverie…amazed to think that she could have been dreaming of all of that, having fallen into some kind of a trance that replaced events that she could not have remembered in any other manner. Somehow the Subspace field was affecting her the longer she remained within its folds, and the prolonged stay was causing her to remember things long buried. She now recalled a life long lost, one she could have sworn that she would never willingly relive, of the pain and the remorse that had driven her to the point of madness on that other world…a world that she had actively taken part in destroying, all for the greater glory of Neos, who had taken away her pain and given her a different sort of madness.

 

The madness to kill, to destroy and inflict suffering on those who had done her no wrong, who had committed no other crime but to merely share the same space as everyone else. Instead of confining her rage to those who had done her family such a great injustice she had slaughtered the very people she once delighted in entertaining. The people who used to laugh at her Noh Puppetry were the ones who paid the price for her rampages, the children who used to laugh and buy toys from their shop…all gone…all dead…their laughter stilled forever.

 

“Damn you…Neos!” Fiber balled a prosthetic fist and stared at it as though it were an alien thing. With great deliberation she uncurled it and stared at the claws that she had used to rend flesh and bone with the same ease with which she had torn apart buildings and even heavy armor. Hands that were weapons, not tools, which lacked the finesse of her real hands, long lost, the hands that used to shape and play with the gentle currents of Noh energy when she made her playthings dance for the amusement of others. The joy that once filled her soul had been drowned out by a rage and hatred that many times exceeded her own, and the thought of what she had done in the service of Neos when filled with that hate made her sick to her stomach, as though she would vomit up the almost empty comments…which consisted of nothing more than a half-eaten okonomiyaki.

 

“Neos, you bastard!” she cried out as she balled her other fist, “You gave me power to destroy, but you took from me my humanity, and for that…I CANNOT FORGIVE YOU!!!”

 

“W-Whut…?” Tenma asked as he half awoke from his nap, “Is something wrong…are you all right, lady?”

 

Fiber turned her gaze to see the youth who was her only companion, and for a moment she saw pale blond hair instead of jet black as the youth look up at her. The image of her long-dead brother staring at her with such a questioning expression caused Fiber to take a half-step backward and gasp in disbelief, convinced that the dead truly did return, just like in her father's stories…and then the moment passed and the reality of her present circumstances was returned, along with it a sense of loss and grief that caused her to fall to her knees, the strength all but leached out of her body.

 

“Lady?” Tenma asked more alertly, getting to his feet when he paused to see something that was wholly unexpected…tears flowing from Fiber's eyes as the pain of her memories threatened to drown out all of her other senses.

 

Tenma was many things, a young and innocent son of a chef and a martial arts fighting genius, a gifted progeny and a prodigy of a long and distinguished line of accomplished fighters, but---like his father before him---he bore the Saotome trait of never wanting to see a woman shed tears, especially if he might be the cause behind them.

 

So he was at Fiber's side only a few seconds after discovering that the Bioroid could be so human, putting his arms around her as she reflexively and instinctively hugged him back, murmuring some strange name in his ear that was not his own name, but obviously meant something special to her and was probably the cause for her feeling so sad all of a sudden. He did not know what had triggered her sadness, but he knew he had to do something to help her, to cheer her up, to make it right again somehow…anything but to leave her in such a state where she so plainly needed a friend, and…besides…she smelled nice. He kind of liked this lady, and he did not want to see her in such pain about things that obviously once met something very important.

 

“You okay now?” he asked after a long time in which her sobbing slowly subsided.

 

“Yes…I feel better now,” she sighed, “Thank you, Tetsuo…you always make your sister feel better about her life…”

 

Tenma held the lady for a long time until he felt her shudder again, and then she said, “I mean…Tenma…you're not…Tetsuo…”

 

“No, I'm not,” Tenma smiled lopsidedly, “Sorry about that.”

 

Fiber leg go of the boy and sat back, studying his earnestly concerned features before stretching out a clawed hand to feel along the edge of his jaw, consciously noting the line of his vital centers and the ease with which his artery could be severed. That thought horrified her and she drew the claw away, but Tenma never flinched, and for some strange reason he seemed to be unafraid of her, in spite of the monster she was in her own estimation.

 

“Tenma,” she repeated, “It means…Spiritual Horse, does it not?”

 

“Yeah,” Tenma smiled lopsidedly, “I get kidded a lot about that by my classmates.”

 

“You should never let what others say affect you,” Fiber noted, then realized how much like a sister she sounded and smiled a bit before sighing again, “I've done…questionable things…”

 

“Well duh,” Tenma replied, “You used to be one of the bad guys.”

 

“Used to be?” she raised an eyebrow.

 

“Well, monsters don't cry, or at least they don't feel bad about what they do, right?” Tenma asked, “And you're starting to figure out why it's wrong to hurt people…”

 

“It is wrong…” Fiber could not keep a trembling out of her voice as she added, “There was a time when I would not have harmed an insect…Insect…” she thought a moment, “She used to be a scientist…what you might call an entomologist, she…loved to study small life forms…and Bigro…she was also a scientist, one who sought to preserve the wildlife of her home planet against the exploitation of those who thought more of profit than preservation. She experimented with animal extracts to find a way to make herself more like the animals she studied…Neos found her, just as she found me…and Insect. Golem…she was an engineer…I remember now…I was there when they were recruited, when they…were converted…like me…”

 

“And she made you forget about all that stuff?” Tenma asked, “About who you were before she made you robots?”

 

“Bioroids,” Fiber corrected, but then she thought a moment and said, “No, you are right…we were little better than robots, mindless machines doing the bidding of the one who had overwritten our programming. I'm remembering because the Subspace field is doing something to reverse the process…it is allowing me to remember…”

 

“So…you were a person before she turned you into a bad guy,” Tenma smiled, “I was right about you, you're really not a bad person.”

 

“No…I'm not…and you were right,” Fiber sighed, “But…you're wrong about one thing…I am still a monster.”

 

Tenma scratched the back of his head. Obviously this was going to be a lot tougher than he thought. He tried to think of something to say, but all he could think of was, “Then…I guess you need to do something about that. You can be a monster and still be a person, right? Then you just have to work on being more human. If you can live with what you are, then you're not the thing that this Neos character tried to make you into. You can make your own rules, and maybe you can become something better…”

 

“Better than what I am?” Fiber asked, “I wish that I could believe that…”

 

“Well, why not?” Tenma asked, “You said Subspace is making it possible for you to recover your humanity, right? Well…why can't you use it to make yourself into a better Bioroid…or whatever you want to be? It's just a matter of having enough focus, you said so yourself.”

 

“Yes…I did, didn't I?” Fiber said with a hint of wonder in her voice, “I've taken so many lives…I've devastated entire planets…I…I can't forgive myself for what I've become…but…perhaps I don't have to be that sort of monster any more…perhaps I can find another way to live…just as any form of life must grow and change or perish.”

 

“I guess so,” Tenma shrugged, “Change is what life's all about, or so my Pop always says…”

 

“And you,” Fiber looked at the boy with new respect, “You can grow and become far more than you are now…with a bit more training. You have an unusually high degree of control over the Subspace Ethernet…perhaps we can use that to our advantage…”

 

“Yeah?” Tenma brightened up, “You can teach me stuff that'll make me an even better fighter?”

 

“More than just a fighter,” Fiber waved a finger, “I can show you how to do an art that's been lost for years…Noh Puppetry…and I think you are just the sort of promising lad who would take to this art like a true professional Weaver.”

 

“A weaver?” Tenma blinked, “You mean…like knitting stuff and making baskets and stuff? Aw, that sounds like work for women…”

 

“Something more than that,” Fiber replied, “And you shouldn't underestimate what women can do,” she said as she flexed her claws, knowing that they would more than adequately convey her meaning.

 

“Ah…all right,” Tenma subsided, “If you think it could be important, lady.”

 

Fiber smiled, knowing well that she had just undertaken an apprentice, one who could well carry on the lost art of her clan and use it to prove something important…to both her and to Neos. That lesson, namely, that one should never underestimate the human factor or what one could do with enough training and imagination…and maybe one day very soon, Neos would see the results for herself…and learn the true meaning of terror when she felt Fiber's vengeance at the hands of her able apprentice…

 

 

 

 

“Man, this place is something else,” Muku sighed as she enjoyed a long-delayed soaking in the onsen, “Your people do know how to live, Rhea-chan…”

 

“I'm glad that you approve of the conditions here, Muku-chan,” Rhea replied as she soaked beside her partner, “My parents have worked hard to create as pleasant a living environment as can closely approximate the climate of the lost C'thuwulf homeworld.”

 

“So much greenery,” Muku admired, “Are these plants also native to your world?”

 

“Actually, many are hybrids adapted to grow in the Earth's environment,” Rhea replied, “We don't want to upset the natural balance of the planet's ecosystem by introducing forms of life that might displace the native vegetation. There has been some discussion among your people that the C'thuwulf variations might upset the fragile stability of natural life here, so we have sought to blend native species with elements of some of the plant samples that were carried in the C'thuwulf mother vessel. We have also recruited dying or endangered species from the Earth to graft into them hardier traits that could insure their continuing survival. Similarly, we are making available to the Earth governments new forms of technology and energy generation that could slow the production of greenhouse pollutants and help stave off the loss of this world's protective ozone layer. We have to work slowly and incrementally on that field so as not to betray our existence to the general public, which…certain agencies would prefer not to have happen prematurely…”

 

“You mean like those guys in black we met last night?” Muku shivered a bit before adding, “They were creepy…”

 

“I know,” Rhea agreed, “I feel the same way every time I see them. The MIB works to cover up all traces of extraterrestrial existence where they deem it necessary, and---had they wished it---they might have blanked out your memories of what you have seen and experienced to date, if not for my Godfather…”

 

“That Straker guy?” Muku asked.

 

“He heads an agency that works to protect the Earth from hostile alien encounters,” Rhea replied, “And he considers the C'thuwulf to be valuable allies, so he no doubt made sure that the MIB people did not act prematurely.”

 

“So, why am I so special that I have to be the one everybody has to pick on?” Muku sighed.

 

“You are special to me, Muku-chan,” Rhea replied, “And…I would hope that I am not…picking on you, as you put it…”

 

“I didn't mean you, Honey,” Muku smiled in as reassuring a manner as she could manage, “I just…oh, hey! Rini-chan!” she gasped as she saw the pink-haired Senshi girl appear on the patio area wearing nothing but a bath towel.

 

“Muku-chan?” Rini replied, her eyes going from Muku to Rhea before she asked, “Soo…did you have an interesting night?”

 

“Huh?” Muku blinked, “What's that supposed to mean?”

 

“Nothing,” Rini sighed, going over to one of the benches before removing her bath towel and setting out her toiletries and wash basin, which were obviously C'thuwulf provided, “I just had…a very interesting night myself…and so did the others.”

 

“Oh?” Muku arched both eyebrows with a questioning expression, “And…how do you feel now?”

 

Rini paused in the act of putting up her hair, unselfconsciously showing off her excellent body to full view with both arms raised to give her perky breasts a languorous stretching, “Oddly enough…I feel rather good…better than I would have believed, all things being considered. I think…I understand something about myself a little better now that I'd never even suspected before, such as why I've always felt attracted to both sexes…I just never could admit it to myself before now. I only wonder how Masamori will feel when he finds out…”

 

“Oh, there is a good chance that he will understand,” Rhea spoke up, “Young human males are quite adaptable, and many find the attraction of two women for one another to be a stimulating experience…”

 

“And how would you know that?” Muku asked with another raised eyebrow.

 

“My Aunt Troi tells me about these things,” Rhea answered directly, “She has many times entertained a boyfriend by making pleasures with a girlfriend before his eyes…she says that she has never failed to get an erection out of them through vigorous sex-play.”

 

“Your aunt sounds like a very interesting lady,” Rini noted with an arched tone before filling her basin full of water and beginning to scrub her body off with a soapy solution.

 

“Would you like for me to summon an attendant?” Rhea asked, “You don't have to scrub yourself alone if you don't want to.”

 

Rini paused to give Rhea a sardonic look, then smiled and said, “The idea is rather tempting, but…I have to get ready for school now, and Nami-chan had promised to take me to Jubaan when I finish bathing.”

 

“Nami-chan?” Muku raised her other eyebrow.

 

“It's…a long story,” Rini's smile took on a more lopsided tilt, only to frown again as a new sound penetrated the clearing, coming from some nearby bushes, which prompted her to say, “What in the name of Mom's Scepter?”

 

“That sounds like…Yumi?” Muku blinked.

 

“It is,” Rhea replied, pausing to listen a moment more to the grunts, groans, moans and other noises that could be discerned before adding, “I believe Aunt Salmon is still with her.”

 

“What?” Rini blinked, “They're still at it? I thought they would have gotten some sleep by now…”

 

Muku paused a moment, then raised her voice and said, “Yumi-chan?”

 

There was a brief pause as the noises subsided, then Yumi popped her head up from the bushes and said, “You rang, Muku-chan?”

 

“What are you doing?” Muku wondered, “We have to get ready for school!”

 

“We still have another hour and a half,” Yumi responded as another head popped up beside her, smiling with a grin that would have done justice to a Cheshire, “And besides…I was just getting my breakfast.”

 

“Breakfast?” Muku replied.

 

Now it was Yumi's turn to wear the grin, “Oh yeah the best kind, a liquid lunch, ala Salmon. Hey, did you know these C'thuwulf girls can lactate on command?”

 

“They can?” Rini sounded more than a little shocked at this revelation.

 

“They sure do!” Yumi grinned all the mover, then moved her naked body up behind the equally naked body of the pinkish-haired C'thuwulf, who giggled quite girlishly as Yumi took her breasts in both hands and began to kneed them, a moment later causing a thin trickle of milky substance to begin flowing from her nipples, “Neat, huh? And they taste terrific!”

 

Muku sat where she was with a nonplussed expression, then she hesitantly asked Rhea, “Can you…?”

 

“Yes,” Rhea automatically replied, “There is a method we know for stimulating the hormones that produce lactation…”

 

“That's…more than I can handle at the moment, thank you,” Muku pleaded.

 

Rini was no less stunned by this news, but then she took on a more thoughtful expression and said, “So that's what she meant when she said that this was the land of flowing milk and honey…”

 

“Oh yeah,” Yumi said, flicking her tongue over one of Salmon's breasts to lap up some of the cream, and much to the other girl's obvious approval, “I guarantee that, guys! Just try it for yourself, you'll love it!”

 

“Maybe…some other time,” Rini said with a look of disquiet, as if mulling over the suggestion.

 

“Suit yourself,” Yumi gazed adoringly into the eyes of the other girl in her arms, but then she reluctantly turned away and said, “What about you, Muku-chan? Did you have a nice time with Rhea-chan?”

 

“Ah…well…” Muku responded with a sheepish expression.

 

“You did do it with her, right?” Yumi frowned, “Don't tell me you're still a virgin?”

 

“Ah…well…I didn't…think it was appropriate to…well…not at this time…” Muku stammered.

 

“When will be a good time for you?” Rini asked, more puzzled than exasperated.

 

“Well…” Muku found that she actually had to pause to think about that one.

 

“So, where did you spend the night if you weren't with miss Sex-pot here, huh?” Yumi challenged.

 

“Oh, Muku-chan was with me the whole night,” Rhea answered.

 

“With you?” Rini asked.

 

“But nothing happened!” Muku hastily insisted.

 

“Yes,” Rhea replied, “We only slept together.”

 

“WHAT???” both Rini and Yumi said in chorus.

 

“In the same bed, but…we didn't…do…whatever,” Muku assured.

 

“In other words you slept with your clothes on, huh?” Yumi arched her eyebrow.

 

“Oh no,” Rhea replied, “We were without clothing the whole time.”

 

“You were naked together?” Rini's pink eyebrows arched primly.

 

“But we didn't do anything!” Muku insisted.

 

“With your clothes off…and laying next to Miss Sunshine here?” Yumi's skepticism was peaking.

 

“We were only sharing warmth,” Rhea replied, “I took Muku-chan's clothing off so that we could both be comfortable together.”

 

“GAH---!” Muku whirled to wave her hands placatingly at her friends, “I passed out as soon as I was in bed, honest guys! I didn't do anything with her…”

 

“Sounds like a lot of things you didn't do,” Yumi snorted, “Stuff I sure as heck would have done if I was in your position.”

 

“But I'm not that kind of girl!” Muku tried to assure them.

 

“Oh, and what kind of girl is that?” Rini asked a bit more archly, “Are you saying we **are** `those' kinds of girls, Muku-chan?”

 

“Huh?” Muku blinked, “No---I mean---!”

 

“Trying to pretend you're better than us because we accepted the hospitality here?” Yumi sniffed, taking Salmon by the hand and saying, “I think we should go off somewhere by ourselves, Honey-pie. It's obvious that some people here think they're too good to associate with the likes of we common riff-raff.”

 

“That's not what I was saying!” Muku declared as Yumi got up and took her new girlfriend by the hand to lead her off.

 

“What are you saying then?” Rini asked, finishing up on washing herself off with the basin, then moving to slip into the warm water of the onsen. She waded out until she was near enough to Muku and Rhea that she didn't need to raise her voice before saying, “Ignore her, she's just having fun with you. So…is it really true that you decided to remain a virgin?”

 

“For now…” Muku grudgingly conceded, all too aware of the eyes of Rhea upon her.

 

“Take my advice…don't wait too long,” Rini counseled, “You've got a friend here who obviously means a lot to you, and she feels about you the same way. Don't let what you have get away from you out of some misguided notion about `saving yourself' for your wedding night…it might never happen.”

 

“You…really did enjoy it?”

 

Rini just smiled before responding, “Let's just say I won't be crying rape anytime soon…and I finally understand why some of my aunts behave the way I do. Of course, I wasn't the only one who seemed to be getting into it…where are Yui and Sakura?”

 

“I don't know,” Muku replied, “I thought you'd know.”

 

“We…kind of drifted apart around midnight,” Rini said with a sheepish smile that was calculated to again raise both of Muku's eyebrows, “Yumi seems to have made out all right, so I guess the same holds true for Sakura…while Yui…who knows where she wandered off this time? In a complex this size she could be anywhere…”

 

“Oh, I am certain that Trout would have stayed with her to see she did not get into any trouble,” Rhea replied, “In fact I'm sure they are doing quite well and will be seeing you again when you get to school, Muku-chan.”

 

“I hope so, but that would be a first,” Muku smiled, “Yui has trouble making attendance rolls, so she...has a kind of flexible schedule and does a lot of her school work at home...you get used to these things when you hang out with a Hibiki...”

 

 

 

 

About this point in her day Yui would normally be saying something like, “Where am I this time?” but instead she had a perfectly good idea where she was, having been guided to this point by her nominal companion of the evening, the crimson haired C'thuwulf named Trout, who was playing helpful tour guide at the moment.

 

“This is a bathroom?” Yui asked, having been directed here upon awakening with a full bladder.

 

“Well, kind of,” Trout replied, “Think of this more as a biological needs full service station, what we C'thuwulf use to maintain full cleanliness and hygiene.”

 

“So…how does it work?” Yui asked as she stared at the pristine room with a row of circles lined up along one wall, and another row of mirrors before what looked like a row of sinks lining another wall, all highly polished and organic looking with no right angles to speak of.

 

“Just walk up to one of the circles and stand there, the rest is automatic,” the pink haired Trout replied.

 

Yui did as she was instructed, conscientious of the fact that her nocturnal companion was watching her move with undisguised and undiminished interest since Yui was naked, having awaken in that condition. She had meant to ask for her clothing, but the urge to relieve herself had taken precedence over everything, and Trout had insisted that clothing would be unnecessary, even an obstacle to this end, so Yui had allowed herself to be guided to these communal urinals, much though they did not look anything like urinals, at least to Yui's rather extensive and cosmopolitan definition of a privy.

 

In truth Yui was feeling naked and exposed on a level that she had never previously known before, as out of her depth as she had ever been in her young life, and not just because of what she and the pink haired C'thuwulf had shared the previous evening. Knowing that her companion was unapologetically ogling and admiring her nude body was like being left totally exposed and vulnerable in ways she had never allowed herself to be before, and not just because of what she had discovered within herself while submitting to the charms of another woman.

 

She was about to ask what she needed to do when she glanced down at the circle upon which she stood and saw it begin to glow as though registering her presence. Before she could ask what was about to occur a cylinder rose up from the floor to encircle her, even as another half descended from the ceiling, the two halves meeting around shoulder level and forming a perfect seal that did not even appear to form a line to mark its existence.

 

Yui was going to ask what was happening when the cylinder began to fill with a fluid that smelled oddly like a broth in a soup mixture, and before Yui could even gasp an exclamation she found herself totally immersed in the broth, gasping reflexively for breath as she had not even had time to hold one.

 

“Just relax and go limp,” Trout's voice amazingly came through the clear liquid, “You can breathe in there, that's an oxygenated fluid. It's meant to enter your body and it will clean you out, flushing away any impurities build up inside your system.”

 

“Oh?” Yui asked, and was amazed to find that she was breathing perfectly normally. She watched in amazement as Trout unhesitatingly stepped up to another circle and was soon contained in another cylinder full of the chemical batch. Trout seemed relaxed and totally at ease as she floated within the broth, her body as limp as it was supple.

 

Yui wondered what was going on here when she felt a pulse passing through her, and then the muscles in her bladder began to relax on their own and she felt her own body going limp as both fluid and solid waste mater was ejected. The fluid circulated to rapidly flush the impurities away, and this process continued even as more fluid and body mass was ejected from system and removed from the cylinder, leaving her floating in a pure aqueous solution that flowed throughout her body.

 

Then the process reversed itself and she felt the fluids being ejected from her lungs and bladder. The fluid was sucked away, leaving the cylinder bone dry. Warm air then flowed around her body, drying out her hair and body in seconds. No sooner was this process done then the cylinder divided back into halves and withdrew once more into the floor and ceiling.

 

“There we go,” Trout smiled as she emerged from her own capsule, “That wasn't so hard on you, was it? And I'll bet you feel all tingly all over and as fresh as a spring daisy.”

 

“W-What was that?” Yui blinked.

 

“A specialized kind of Revitalizer,” Trout explained, “Your body was scanned and monitored while you stood within the tube and your personal needs were evaluated and determined. It only took a minute and a half, but the process will leave you feeling fit to go for many hours yet to come…much more sanitary and efficient than squatting down over one of your Earth benjos…and believe me, I've tried them! What the heck do you people do with all the tampons and toilet paper?”

 

“Um…well…” Yui reluctantly conceded, “I suppose that does make sense…if you're an alien…”

 

“Hey, I may be C'thuwulf, but I was born right here on Earth,” Trout smiled, “I'm one of the new generation of my people, and the Earth is as much my home as it is yours. My parents may come from outer space, but I work right here on Earth to help with the integration program that's bringing our people closer together.”

 

“Oh…sorry, I didn't mean any offense…” Yui apologized.

 

“That's all right,” Trout said as she slipped an arm around Yui's waist, “I'm not offended, and I think you're very cute the way you're trying to understand us. Tell me, do other Earth natives have cute little fangs like those, or are they to better enable you to bite me?”

 

“Bite you?” Yui blinked.

 

“Like one of those blood drinkers we hear about…Vampires, I think you call them,” Trout smiled, “Do you want to bite me? I wouldn't mind it from you, really.”

 

“Um…no…I'm not a vampire,” Yui replied, “I have…Oni ancestry…on my father's side…”

 

“Oni?” Trout lifted an eyebrow and then stood on her tiptoes as she seemed to be trying to peer over Yui's head.

 

“What are you doing?” Yui asked.

 

“I thought Oni had cute little horns and green hair?” Trout inclined her head, “Guess maybe it skips a few generations…oh well. You never can tell with hybrids.”

 

“Hybrids?” Yui repeated.

 

“Never mind, poor joke,” Trout moved in to snuggle her nude body even closer to Yui's deliberately rubbing her nipples against those of the other girl, which caused a predictable reaction in Yui's own body, “We geneticists have a way of looking at these things that most people find kind of eccentric, so you'll have to forgive me if I'm curious about you, hot stuff.”

 

Yui swallowed thickly even as she fought the urge to move away from the other girl, to make apologies that this was not the time or place for any more such mischief. One would think a passionate night of extraordinarily athletic lovemaking would have satisfied the pink haired girl, but Yui was discovering that such insatiable appetites were definitely contagious. She swallowed thickly as she felt her body reacting with the definite signs of arousal, confirmation that she was, indeed, sexually oriented in such a way, for all her profuse denial of this fact on many a prior occasion.

 

“You're a geneticist?” Yui asked, then coughed as her voice sounded strange in her own hearing.

 

“It's my job,” Trout replied, “I work under the authority of Chief Scientist Grey, and I'm very good at data analysis of both the human and C'thuwulf genomes. Did you know that there is a 99.9997% genetic compatibility factor between our two peoples? That cinches the theory that we share a common ancestry, at least as far as I'm concerned. It also kind of makes the question of ancestry a moot point…not that I'd mind having the chance to study your genes under a closer scrutiny, gorgeous.”

 

“Oh…really…?” Yui asked, finding herself somehow bent over backwards with the other girl looming over her as Yui stared up at the face of the other woman.

 

At that moment several more C'thuwulf entered the chamber, chatting away pleasantly about some sort of gossip like perfectly normal schoolgirls from any high school Yui had ever attended. Though her focus was largely centered on Trout, she heard one of the new girls asking her companions, “…Is it true that you're dating that new Earth girl from Accounting…Nami-something?”

 

“Nanami?” another of the trio grinned, “She's terrific! Got a mind like a steel trap, and what a genius for numbers. I swear that girl could turn anything into a profit.”

 

“What about her friend?” another girl asked, “Is she as much of a grabber as I hear on the grapevine?”

 

“Fatora?” the other girl chuckled, “She is SOOO immature…but OOOH, what hands she has…nice and supple, and she definitely knows how to put the moves on you, so you girls better watch your tailbones around her.”

 

“I like her partner, Alielle, a lot better,” the third remarked, “She's cute and cuddly…but why do Earth girls have such odd sounding names?”

 

“You got me there,” the first remarked, “I'd think Lavender would be a much better name for a girl like that…but at least she likes to snuggle.”

 

“Yeah, unlike some Earth girls I could mention,” the third girl chuckled as the trio took their places, “You so much as make a pass at them and they start crying sexual harassment.”

 

All three girls started giggling as their cylinders closed around them, and soon they were immersed within the same type of aqueous solution that Yui had experienced, only now she got to watch the process from the outside, which proved to be a rather illuminating experience, seeing clouds of biomass being shuttled out of their bodies and down through the bottom of the cylinders.

 

“Ah…” Yui asked as she managed to slip out of Trout's looming embrace, “Would you mind telling me…just what these things do with all the waste matter?”

 

“Oh, well…everything around here is recycled for conservation purposes,” Trout explained, “So the expended biomass is converted into its raw constituent elements and fed to the hydroponics recovery department for conversion into plant nutrients, which in turn are used to create wafer cakes and other kinds of food stuffs that we eat around here. It's an entirely organic process and it's rather complicated, but you can take my word for it that everything is wholesome and nutritionally balanced. My people have had countless millennia to streamline and perfect the process, so you can bet anything we serve will make you strong and healthy…”

 

“Which reminds me,” Yui said, “Is there any chance that I could have some breakfast before you send me back to my world?”

 

“You want food, you need only ask?” Trout said winsomely, taking Yui by the hand and guiding her from the place, even as the dark haired girl wondered where next her comely companion would be taking her this time, and whether or not she would be getting back her clothing any time before classes began at Furinkan...or if, maybe, some other kind of diversion was in the works that might take her mind further away from wondering what Muku was up to at that moment, a subject to which she dreaded learning any details, especially if they concerned either Rhea or Sakura, either of which she now actively regarded as her competition…though in exactly what way she had yet to fully discover…

 

 

 

 

Sakura stared at the tube containing the naked form of Troi, wondering what was happening to the Bioroid girl to whom she now felt an inexplicable closeness. Seeing Troi floating motionless like this made Sakura both anxious and uneasy, surprised at the degree of concern that she was expressing towards the girl who had taken her innocence away from her body and opened her eyes to an understanding of herself that she still did not know how to cope with, given that she needed to seriously rethink some of her basic core values.

 

Troi was beautiful, of that she had been aware from the time of their first meeting…was it only a day or two ago? So much had happened and in too short an interval for Sakura to make any sense of the whole transition. By all rights she should have been angry and resentful towards the silver-haired girl for disrupting the orderly pattern of Sakura's life, for first seducing her and then forcing her to take part in a battle the nature for which she had no prior preparation.

 

Why than had Troi come to mean so much to her that Sakura would feel such strain and anxiety, not knowing what was happening to the artificial girl and whether or not she had been successful in achieving a mind-link with Troi's wayward half-Bioroid daughter?

 

She turned her head from Troi's regeneration chamber to the isolation room adjoining the laboratory. There she could see the equally motionless form of Atros floating in an almost identical pod-like chamber, submerged in a breathable solution that maintained vital bodily needs while tubes were attached to naked skin as though lightly probing her in important key places. Sakura recalled what it had been like for her to find herself in such a strange environment, wondering that Troi could take a thing like this for granted, as though it were as natural to her as sleeping on a futon. It brought home again just how alien all of this was to Sakura's way of thinking, and yet now she was a part of that alien world, drawn to it and attached by means far less visible than any tube-like connections. Somehow she knew that Troi was attempting to join minds with the black haired girl, to go inside her own daughter's mind in order to free her from a parasitic presence whose true evil Sakura was only just beginning to grasp.

 

Unknown to her the others in the room were eyeing Sakura with no less concern than the devoted towards Troi herself, the Bioroid's two older sisters sharing concerned expressions as the churned over the implications of the human girl's strange partnership with their silver haired sibling. Troi was such a wild and independent spirit at times that even Iczer One had trouble relating to her nature, while this Sakura struck both senior Iczers as a more restrained and disciplined sort of character, one given to violent outbursts of temper but who otherwise could maintain a cool regard in battle, in many respects the opposite of Troi herself…and yet those very differences seemed to be blending together in the curious alchemy known to the C'thuwulf as Synchronization.

 

As if to confirm their suspicions, Sister Grey---Troi's biological mother---reported in a low murmur, “Synchronization levels at ninety-eight-point-three and rising…”

 

“Incredible,” Iczer One softly murmured, “To be able to flexibly match synchronization levels without even being aware of it…”

 

“I'm more worried about what I'm going to tell her father,” Iczer Two murmured back at the same level, “How can I face my old sensei again and tell him that his daughter is now bonded to my little sister? How do I explain it to her mother…or to Sakura herself? She can't know what she's getting herself into…she's just a child by human standards…”

 

“So was I when I first met you, Duella” Sayoko noted back, “And Nagisa was hardly a month older the first time she synchronized with Unas.”

 

Both Iczers winced at the new nicknames that had been bestowed upon them by their own partners, but they were sage enough not to voice any complaints aloud as they continued their vigil, lending silent support to Troi, who was even then engaged in a battle the likes of which they could scarcely even imagine, though against the spirit of Big Gold they knew that every advantage that could be afforded to Troi had to be extended if she were to have any kind of success in accessing Atros, the child Troi had not even known that she had until mere hours ago, and yet for whom she was now willing to risk everything, her life and sanity, her very existence.

 

For such a noble endeavor they could only stand back and witness events as they unfolded within the battleground of the mind of Atros, that and silently pray to the spirit of all Creation, the ancient mother of their long-lost homeworld whose spirit lived on in her children, and whom the C'thuwulf collectively knew only as “The Mother,” lost to the annals of time but cherished just the same and never forgotten. Only She could help Troi now…only She and an untrained partner who hardly even seemed to be aware of the curious destiny that fate had anointed upon her breast. And so the senior Iczers watched and waited in silence, sharing the warm sentiments that their partners were radiating in the hopes that Troi somehow knew that others cared for her and were wishing her the best as she went one-on-one with the lethal virus that had destroyed their cherished homeworld…

 

 

 

 

Troi opened her eyes and stared around at the unfamiliar surroundings, and then she huffed a little and said, “Figures…I'm in the gray matter already but there's nobody home. It's as barren as the subspace field here when nobody's bothered to tidy up in a while.”

 

“That may be so, child,” she heard the voice of Grey speaking into her mind via their own private connection, “But proceed with caution just the same, and don't trust to any appearances. The same rules apply here as they do in Subspace…”

 

“Right,” Troi acknowledged, “In other worlds what you take with you is what you see in this place…it's all a product of the will and imagination, right?”

 

“Partially so,” Grey assured, “But there is a will at work here which is consummately evil. Don't underestimate the power that Gold can wield in her thought-form state, and remember…what you believe can affect you physically…if you take damage here and believe it, then a sympathetic reaction may be registered on your own body…”

 

“Swell,” Troi replied, glancing around at the vast gray plain with a rosy sky overhead that her mind constructed as a relative concept, “Well, if nothing's real here but what I believe in, then I'll just have to disbelieve anything Gold tries to use against me.”

 

“It's not that simple, child, as you well know,” Grey assured, “Objects in Subspace only have as much reality as we invest in them through our subconscious, but now you are in an environment where the subconscious will is an absolute fixture, and Gold has had far more time to adjust herself to this particular environment. You will be playing by her rules on her home field, as the Earthers would say…”

 

“Got it, Mom,” Troi replied, “I'm not exactly a rookie here, so just let me figure out what's…”

 

The sound of childish laughter caused her to break off in mid-thought as she turned to see a pair of diminutive forms running happily up a trail that had not been thee before, two young girls rough six years of age, one looking much like Troi had been when first released from her incubator, while the second…

 

Was a six-year-old Atros!

 

Troi opened her mouth to say something but found that nothing would come out, nor could she make a motion to intercept the two laughing children as they went running by, playing a game of tag and behaving just like regular Earth children. Troi watched them pass with a disquieted expression, reminded all too visibly of what she had been like when she was that relative age…ages ago by her frame of thought, but still vividly remembered.

 

“Troi?”

 

“Yeah Mom,” Troi numbly replied, “That was…weird…”

 

“In what way?”

 

“I just saw myself as a kid…playing tag with Atros,” she explained, “Almost like we were best buddies…”

 

“That may be how she imagines you in her subconscious,” Grey replied, “Atros was revived with partial memory of the time when you became friends, just prior to her death. Gold has overlaid her own false persona on top of those memories, but surely some fragment of the Atros you knew is in there…”

 

“I gotcha,” Troi blinked, “So maybe my kid still thinks of us that way, only the part that's in control still wants to kill me.”

 

“More than that,” Grey said, “Atros is, effectively, a child in every sense…she was created from your imprint, but she lacks your full memories and awareness of what it means to be human.”

 

“Excuse me?” Troi blinked, “Care to run that by me again?”

 

“When I chose to create you from my seed and the Iczerio,” Grey elaborated, “I did not hatch you full-formed, the way Gold created Iczer Two. I could have made you full adult at the start of your self-awareness, programmed into you a semblance of your sister's general knowledge…but instead I opted to have you grow and develop as a child…as an Earth child. I wanted you to have the experience of growing up like an infant who gains knowledge and awareness as you matured and developed. You have gained an insight to life that neither of your sisters have never known simply because you have grown from child to adulthood like a human. That means you have an almost human perspective, and against that Atros can have no relative basis…”

 

“I get it,” Troi replied, “So, she may act like an adult but she's still got a kid inside her…only why does that sound so much like the way Two usually describes me?”

 

“Pay no need to any sisterly rivalry that may pass between you two,” Grey replied, “She loves you well, and both of you know it. She was born an adult and can never know the world from a child's perspective, but Atros is a different case, and without Gold's programming…”

 

“Yeah, I copy,” Troi replied, “So…maybe that's how I'll be able to tell them apart in here…only if I see any white rabbits with stop watches, I'm leaving.”

 

Grey's soft chuckle was heard resonating in her mind, “You see? You understand such things because you enjoyed human stories when you were little. One and Two might not so quickly get the reference, while Atros…and even Gold…”

 

“Are stuck without a clue, huh?” Troi smiled, “I can work with that…”

 

All at once she sensed a presence passing over her, and instinctively she reacted to a perceived attack that was already being launched before she had time to fully turn and confront her opponent. Troi felt the slash against her side as it seemed to go right through her battle armor like a hot knife through butter, but---fortunately---the claw-slash did nothing more than grace her rib-cage.

 

“YEEOUCH!” she cried as she fell into a defensive crouch, “What the frel was that???”

 

“Troi?” her mother inquired with a genuine tone of alarm.

 

“I'm okay,” Troi replied, “Sucker just winged me a bit…hardly even felt her move…she must be using some kind of stealth attack mode…”

 

All at once she felt the attack come again, but this time she was ready to dodge it, vaulting backwards into a handspring before righting herself and falling into a battle stance. Unfortunately her feet appeared to land on something soft and yielding, which trapped her up by her ankles. She had only just begun to react to this when something else rose up from behind her and ensnared her arms, pinning them as she fought to free herself from the entrapment of an inky black mass that seemed to be composed of nothing but protoplasm and tendrils.

 

“Hey---LEGGO!” she cried as she struggled in vain to break free of their embrace.

 

A shape took form from the dark morass before her and then Troi looked up in dismay as she saw the face of Neos Gold rearing up in front of her, large as life and twice as nasty.

 

“WELCOME, ICZER THREE…WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE!” the marked form crowed as she extended claws as sharp as scythe blades.

 

“Oh shit…” Troi went round eyed as she saw the claws rear back to deliver a blow that could not be avoided…

 

 

 

 

Sakura gave a start as she saw Troi's body spasm unexpectedly, and then all at once there were rust colored clouds leaking from her side as a series of reddish claw-marks raked the Iczer's hide just below her left breast, leaving dark orange stripes that looked deep and brutal.

 

“What's happening to her?” Sakura asked in dismay, feeling almost as though those claw marks had taken a bite into her own skin in sympathetic echo.

 

“Troi is experiencing an attack in the virtual frame of Atros's mind,” Iczer One replied with no little hint of anxiety in her own voice.

 

“The fool is feeling it as if it were a real attack and causing a feedback that's being extended to her real body,” Iczer Two said more grimly, “Judging by the angle of those marks, I'd say she just missed being eviscerated…”

 

“This is bad,” Nagisa said in worried tones, “If Gold is getting to her this early on in the probing…”

 

“Yeah, imagine what could happen to her if they really go at it?” Sayoko winced, “Poor Troi…”

 

“The wound it healing itself,” Grey reported calmly, “But…I fear Troi may have underestimated Gold's treachery and cunning. She seems to be holding her own for now, but if the regenerator wasn't maintaining her vital signs at stable levels…”

 

All at once Troi rocked back in the tube, her body flexing backwards as another stripe appeared, this time slashing downward across her belly. Her limbs reflexively spasmed again as more bright ochre fluid began to fill the tube, quickly shuttled away as if the particles were being magnetically drawn out of the chamber, even as those brownish stripes began to disappear like magic, only to have fresh claw marks appear about her arms and shoulders.

 

“Hold on!” Sakura pressed her hands and body up against the tube as she shouted, “Don't let her get to you! Fight it!”

 

All at once Troi's body began to relax once again as a faint golden halo appeared around it, magnified by the bio-fluid. The stripes disappeared and all other outward signs returned to normal, though to all appearances Troi appeared to be once more in a coma…only now Sakura could feel her struggling inside against her invisible adversary.

 

“Vital signs are stable,” Grey reported, “But she is manifesting what---in a human---would be an unusually high adrenaline surge, and by all indications she is manifesting a high level of combat readiness.”

 

“Troi must be in hell in there,” Nagisa said.

 

“Gold's really doing a number on her,” Sayoko agreed, “Isn't there anything we can do to help?”

 

“We can't help her,” Iczer Two said grimly, nodding to Sakura, “But she apparently is. Her Synch levels are now well over the ninety-nine percent mark…”

 

Sakura blinked as she heard those words, then turned and said, “Is there anyway I can get inside there with her?”

 

“What?” Iczer One responded.

 

“I want to know if I can get hooked up like Troi,” Sakura repeated, “She needs me, I can feel it…she's all alone in there, and that Gold monster is attacking her from multiple levels…”

 

“And what do you think it is that you can do about it?” Iczer Two replied, “The battlefield is one of the mind and imagination, in which you are not qualified nor trained to handle…”

 

“I'm a Saotome,” Sakura said firmly, “I can handle anything…with a little practice! Besides, I'm already in there…I can feel everything that bastard is doing to her! I can't wait out here doing nothing, I'll go crazy!”

 

“You're doing everything you can do just to remain where you are,” Nagisa said reassuringly, “I know how hard it is to wait on the sidelines, believe me, but if you want Troi to come out of there alive, you're going to have to remain here and serve as her anchor…”

 

“Screw that!” Sakura snapped, “Are you gonna let me in there or what?”

 

Two shook her head, “I cannot authorize something as irresponsible as that. Troi is risking herself by being in direct contact with the Gold Virus, and there is every chance the feed between them might leave her vulnerable to being taken over…”

 

“But still…if that were to happen, then it might affect Sakura indirectly,” One noted somberly, “The risk is great either way…I don't see how we can deny her this…she and Troi have achieved almost perfect Synchronization.”

 

“A partner is a partner, right?” Sayoko asked, “To the bitter end, come hell or high water.”

 

“We may as well let her try,” Nagisa decided, “I know that, if I were in her place, I would never be able to stand by and watch you go through such agonies, Ichan.”

 

“Nor I you,” One nodded softly before turning to Two, “What is your verdict, Sister?”

 

“My opinion remains unchanged,” Two replied, “It is reckless and could cost both of them their lives. If Gold were to take her over, Troi would have no chance whatsoever…”

 

“But you're gonna let her do it anyway, right?” Sayoko smiled confidently.

 

Two sighed as she glanced down, “I will never be able to face your father again if you do this and do not come back alive…”

 

“You've got a choice of facing him later or facing me now,” Sakura said in a tone like flint, “What'll it be…Sugar?”

 

Two turned to Grey and asked, “Your opinion, Doctor?”

 

“If it can save Troi and Atros…then it is worth any risk,” Grey replied, “But…child…you may think you know what you're getting into, but you have no idea of the type of environment you face…”

 

“I face challenges every day and I've never backed down from any fight,” Sakura said with true Saotome stubbornness in her voice, “I'm going in there, and no one had better even think about stopping me.”

 

Grey nodded somberly and said, “I have already prepared a chamber in just such an event. Somehow I had a feeling you would choose to do this, and in my line of work it never pays to discount a possibility. I can have you prepared and ready to merge with the etherstream in around two minutes. Assuming Troi can hold out that long…”

 

“She'd better,” Sakura said curtly, turning a glance towards Troi's cubicle before adding in undertone, “Hold on, Sugar…help's on its way, and you're about to get yourself a shot of one okonomiyaki anti-body. That stupid virus had better clear out of my way before I rip it out of you one molecule at a time.”

 

Somehow no one doubted the word of this particular Saotome, for there was something in her stance and demeanor that suggested that an irresistible resolve had formed, and suddenly Troi's prospects were looking a whole lot better even in the eyes of Iczer Two, who smiled faintly as if seeing the silhouette of another Saotome in the background of this brown haired reflection of her former sensei. Foolish or not, the girl definitely was a warrior at heart, and Two felt a curious sense of pride in that realization, even if she feared the worst for a human girl about to go where even Iczers might fear to travel…

 

 

 

Continued

 

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