Iczer-one Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Earth Child ❯ Imposter ( Chapter 32 )

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)

 

 

 

 

 

The defensive field surrounding the C'thuwulf was a strong inversional barrier that could not be penetrated by any ordinary, conventional means. It was permeable by the Iczers and the C'thuwulf themselves, but only because they were attuned to the right frequency for their transits through the subspace channel. Teleporting to and from their city and base was relative childsplay for anyone who was already logged into their relay net. So long as you were a match for the right genetic and energy profile you could come and go freely without triggering the alarms and defensive protocols, but anything that did not meet the right specifications was instantly repelled regardless of the force employed to attempt penetration.

 

Rather a lot like the ultimate in contraceptive protection, an almost infallible shield that would resist even the forces that an enemy such as Big Gold might bring into play, and one very good reason why she had to work through subtlety and misdirection, or by attempting to create a cataclysmic crisis that would either bring the shields down or else cause such widespread property damage that the very foundations underneath the city of New Gamora would destroyed, effectively taking the C'thuwulf base out without actually penetrating their defenses.

 

Diabolical really, and altogether unnecessary. All one needed to do in order to penetrate the C'thuwulf shields was to be a Weaver of energy patterns, one capable of seeing in patterns and manipulating energy fields into whatever form could be intuitively perceived. Such a talent was beyond the capacities of even Big Gold and her ilk, but not beyond the means of one who had been raised to be a Weaver, and with the training that she had just received her powers of manipulation were stronger than they had ever been. All she needed to do was to wait patiently and to observe the comings and goings of various parties, and---when the moment was right---to improvise by duplicating a certain energy pattern so that she could pass harmlessly through the barrier and arrive on the other side with no one the wiser.

 

Thus did Fiber enter the laboratory complex of Gamora base, materializing inside a highly secured chamber where her senses had unerringly guided her, the room containing three bodies laid out on three tables, each of these bodies the subject of a highly intensive series of sensory probes monitoring their bodily functions while maintaining them in a state of relative stasis. They were not within regenerative tubes like normal patients, being of an entirely different biophysical nature, and the fact that they were operational at all was itself something of a minor miracle. In essence they had been terminated and brought back from beyond the grave, repaired in body and purged of all traces of the Gold Virus but still effectively blank slates without their core programming, mere zombies waiting for the command word to be revived at which point they would visit all manner of horror upon their nominal captors.

 

But not if Fiber had anything to say about it! To her these were fellow victims of Gold's evil, the dreaded Sisters of the Comet who had made their names a legend in horror. Each of them had the blood of entire worlds upon their hands, and each was what Neos Gold had made them to be, mere weapons and tools, engines of death and destruction, the sole survivors of their respective worlds…

 

…And soon to be avengers for the legions of the dead whom once upon a time they so casually did murder.

 

Extending her hands towards these three bodies, Fiber caused her namesake to lash out and engulf both the bodies and the monitoring equipment, immediately overriding the C'thuwulf security protocols and all attending monitoring equipment to insure that there would be no interference as she went to work repairing the damage done to those who were as much victims as the young girl she had used to be so very long ago. Each of them had lives that had been stolen from them by their true enemies, and each would now be born again in a baptism of fire that would cleanse the world that was their home.

 

Big Gold would pay for her crimes, and when payment came down the Sisters of the Comet would be there to collect…in spades…!

 

 

 

 

Moments later Nova Kano looked up from her cot, having fallen asleep after exhausting herself with repeated efforts at self-liberation. There was a peculiar disturbance that she was feeling in the space very close to her isolation chamber, and it had a very odd, almost familiar ring to it. She extended her senses and felt something soften and yield in the protective barrier surrounding her, like an opening wedge that she could almost fit a hand through if she pushed a little.

 

“At last,” she murmured to herself as she mentally pushed against the weakening space of the field, sensing that Subspace itself was beckoning to her as she smiled, “Yui-chan…I'm coming for you…”

 

And then she vanished utterly in a haze of pixilation…

 

 

 

 

“Another boring field trip,” Tenma sighed as he stared at the bones of a large dead reptile from the pre-Jurassic era, “You think they could warn us about things like this, but no…they have to make it a surprise, like it was a gift they were giving us or something…”

 

“Now Ten-chan,” Yuki Taro softly chided, “You should know better than to say a thing like that. The Dinosaurs have a lot to teach us about biology and evolution…”

 

“Yeah, like how to go extinct,” Tenma sniffed.

 

“More like how not to go extinct you mean,” Yuki pointed out, “After all, they existed for millions of years, then almost overnight they vanished, and whether it was from a meteor strike or a plague that wiped them out, you can bet they never saw it coming. That tells us a lot about why we ought to be alert about things which could threaten our future survival…”

 

“Maybe,” Tenma said, though at the moment he was not thinking of any meteor strike, a chilling sense coming over him that the fate of humanity could well be a lot closer at hand than any human actually suspected.

 

“Come on, don't be like that,” Yuki urged, “You can't tell me that you can look on something as huge and impressive as this without being even a little bit affected. I always find it so amazing that something this big could have walked the earth so very long ago, and this museum is full of stuff that tells us a lot about the history of this planet.”

 

Tenma eyed the girl beside him, intrigued at the way in which she professed such wry enthusiasm for a bunch of dead fossils. Almost he could feel some of her enthusiasm just by watching the way she went on about these relics. Of course the reference to size mattering…he could not help but wonder what she would think if she were standing next to an Iczer-Robo…

 

“Size don't really matter much,” he said more from rote than from any irony on his part, “It's what you do with it that counts…”

 

“Oh, so are you saying that you'd apply jujitsu to a creature this big and expect him to actually feel it?” Yuki asked with that annoying habit she had of turning a question around at him to suggest a different perspective.

 

“Well…maybe not,” he reluctantly conceded, “But if something like this tripped over its own two feet, its own size would work against it, and it would really hurt when it fell over.”

 

“So, in other words, size does matter,” she smiled, “And the bigger you are the harder it hurts when you fall, right?”

 

“Uh…yeah,” he reluctantly admitted, feeling conflicted once again at the way in which she neatly tied him into verbal knots while looking so damned smug and pretty about it. He didn't know whether he wanted to spank her for that or…or…or…uh---um…whatever…

 

“That's a very good way of combining the philosophy of the martial arts with archeology, don't you think?” she persisted in that super-annoyingly kawaii way she had of rubbing his nose in a point, “And you still insist that this stuff is boring?”

 

“Well…” Tenma rubbed the back of his head as he tried to think of some kind of intelligent answer that didn't sound as if it were well outside the intellectual capacity of the boy he was supposed to be impersonating, “I guess maybe there's some stuff that ain't completely boring…like maybe it's all how you go about approaching it or…something like that.”

 

“Very good,” she nodded her head up and down as though he had just said something enormously important, “So if you really think about it, there is a lot that we can learn by studying the past, such as all the methods of survival that have been tried before, some working out better than other ways, while some only lead to an evolutionary dead end, at which point nature just gives up and tries something all over.”

 

“Nature ain't exactly like a person, you know,” Tenma said stubbornly, “It don't really make mistakes like it could think about what it was doing or stuff…”

 

“And how would you know?” she asked with a twinkling in her eyes, “I was speaking metaphorically, but if you think about it, Nature is like a great intelligent goddess, one who makes mistakes all the time but keeps on trying to learn from her errors in the hopes that she may one day get it just right. Evolution isn't a finished process, you know, it inches along in the hope that there can always be something better…”

 

“Ain't better like a value?” Tenma asked, “Don't really seem like nature cares one way or the other if we survive, like it values people over cows or rates…”

 

“And yet is there any other creature besides human beings who can dream about going to the stars, then build machines to actually do it?” Yuki asked, “Why else would nature endow us with the ability to improve ourselves if we weren't the product of a gradual process of universal self-improvement? Take the martial arts, for example…you can do things other boys your age can only dream about, so why is that if you weren't the end product of countless generations of your ancestors resulting in someone like you? Or is it only your training that makes you someone special?”

 

“Um…both, I guess…” Tenma said as he thought about it, silently conceding that the girl had a very good point about evolution being a continuous process of adaptation and self-improvement. In fact there was a lot about Yuki Taro herself that seemed both superior and special when contrasted with other young girls their own age. She was smart and had a really nice smile, and she was really, really pretty, not at all like her thick-witted and slightly older brother, as if she had gotten all the brains and looks in her family, a fact that made her seem like the superior product of a long line of gradual evolution.

 

Of course, there was one major difference between the gradual course of natural selection and the course of human evolution where he had the inside track and was at a definitely advantage over Yuki and most terrestrial humans. He knew that the human race had been seeded on the Earth nearly a half a million years ago and had---in fact---displaced the early forms of proto-humans that had existed at the time, marrying into the line of Homo Erectus and gradually becoming the dominant life-form on the planet thanks to the advantage afforded by the genetic tampering of their long-distant ancestors…

 

“So, which is it then?” she asked him coyly, “Are you a self-made boy, or is it just good genes that deserve the credit?”

 

“Hah?” he asked, feeling certain this time that she had lost him.

 

“For you being the way you are?” she asked, somehow contriving to move closer to him, so close, in fact, that Tenma could smell the odd perfume-like odor of her body, even as he found himself staring at her face and committing every facet to memory, right down to the genetic level, where he compared her genes to his own in a silent appraisal.

 

“For being…the way I am?” Tenma could not quite figure that part out, even as he made the surprising deduction that her genes were compatible with his own…and why the heck was he thinking about a thing like that all of a sudden?

 

“Sure,” she said, “Smart, strong, good looking, kind…you're a pretty nice guy, when you're not acting like a jerk or reminding me of my brother.”

 

Tenma found himself growing very flush as a confusing wave of contrary emotions washed over his senses, even as he protested, “I ain't nothing like your brother…”

 

“I know,” she smiled more deeply, “Why do you think I like you so much? Honma never thinks as much as you do about someone else's opinions, and he mistakes being strong for his size as an excuse to do whatever he wants, but you're not like that, are you, Ten-chan?”

 

“Ahhh…” he suddenly found himself bereft of the capacity to intelligently answer such a question…but, then again, he always felt lost when he found himself staring into her eyes and marveling that such a quixotic and confusing creature could ever be thought of as `inferior' to any other life-form in his data records. She made him feel so tied-up in knots somehow, and yet---for the life of him---he could not honestly say that it was an entirely unpleasant sensation…

 

He belatedly realized that they were wandering off from the rest of their classmates, falling behind as he gravitated to Yuki's orbit like some wandering comet trapped up in the gravity well of another planetary body. He had become so distracted by the girl's verbal jousting that he had failed to notice until that moment, but…then again…he could not think of another student whom he'd rather wander as lost as this with, like some clueless member of clan Hibiki.

 

He started to point this out to her by saying, “Um…we'd better hurry up if we don't want to get lost from our group…”

 

“Who says that we'll be lost?” she ably countered, leaving him even more confused than ever.

 

“Uh…but…I wouldn't want you getting into any trouble…” he started to say when she turned to him and brought her face in close to his, then planting a kiss on his cheek without warning.

 

“We won't get into any trouble,” she assured him as she murmured into her ear, “But thanks for worrying more about me than about yourself.”

 

Tenma tried to make his mouth work to frame an answer but found he could not form one intelligent syllable to save his artificial life. His internal processors simply refused to work as certain portions of his brain threatened to shut down in rapid order from the sensory overload caused to him by her unexpectedly affectionate gesture. No way had he seen this coming, in fact…he wanted her to do that to him again…and then he blushed the more furiously at the strange intensity that was occurring to his thinking…

 

Only the next instant he was surprised by an angry (and familiar) voice snarling, “YOU GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU DAMNED IMPOSTER! WHAT THE HECK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?”

 

“W-what?” Yuki herself seemed no less surprised as Tenma turned around and found himself being confronted by an onrushing boy who looked exactly like Tenma---correction---WAS THE REAL TENMA (according to the doppelganger's acute sensors)---and, more to the point, was looking highly annoyed for some peculiar reason.

 

“Y-You?” Tenma gasped as he automatically went into defensive mode and dodged a flying kick that would have otherwise nailed him.

 

“Yes, me, you damned imposter!” Tenma declared as he whirled about to confront his lookalike with a series of lightning kicks that forced the other Tenma to dodge and counter, “Who the heck did you think I was? Your evil cousin?”

 

Yuki stared in amazement as the two Tenmas began to fight in earnest while Cologne arrived just a few seconds afterwards, pausing to study the twin combatants with a calculating eye before saying, “Well…so much for subtlety…but this does look to be a rather interesting encounter…”

 

 

 

 

“Oh man,” Troi grinned as she hovered in Subspace while accessing her memories and playing out files that she projected into the air around her, forming monitor-screens that related the quality picture-images in lifelike detail for her decided amusement, “Gotta hand it to ol' Kenny-boy…he sure knows how to take a picture…”

 

The picture files that she had coopted from his website were proving to be quite…educational on their primary subject matter…namely Sakura herself, whom Troi was studying in a series of photos dating back well into her infancy. She was amused at the sight of Sakura's baby pictures, as well as other picks from various stages of her life that were forming a gradual profile in Troi's mind of this curious girl who had become her unexpected partner. It seemed that Ken had been very good at snapping photos of his iinazuke when she was off her guard or in some casual disposition, and it was those unguarded moments that Troi found the most illuminating. There were plenty of compromising pictures in which Sakura had been surprised or photographed in either a fully nude or semi-nude state of undress, (and Troi certainly enjoyed those pics a LOT) yet it was the pictures of Sakura relaxing or being herself that she found by far the most intriguing. Sakura was very photogenic in all her pictures, but in those casual shots her face was relaxed and showed the widest range of emotional expressions.

 

“Oooh yeah…” Troi stretched out her fingers to caress the face she saw displayed in one monitor screen then said, “Baby, you are the tops! I really lucked out when you came into my life, little Cherry Blossom. What a Fox you are…and all mine to boot! Can't wait until the next time I can snag you into my little honey-hole, you gorgeous hunk of woman-flesh…”

 

**TROI!!!**

 

The mental call hit her like a slap to her face, causing Troi to automatically dismiss the picture files, straighten up and cry out, “FREL---I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING…!”

 

**Troi?** the mental voice gushed relief in her direction, **Thank the Kami…where are you? I need you right now!**

 

“So soon?” Troi blinked, then belatedly sensed that her partner had something else in mind other than hanky-panky, so she mentally called back, **I'm on it, Honey-bunch, just sit still and I'll be there in a flash.**

 

One moment later she phased back into the real world, homing in on Sakura's physical coordinates so that she was right beside her partner as she turned and said, “Are you okay? Is it another attack? What's…wrong?”

 

“Troi,” Sakura turned to her, “It's Muku and Rhea…you've got to help me find them!”

 

Troi studied the face of the human girl who was now her partner, seeing yet a new emotional expression that had been absent from many of the photos that Ken had taken, the deep distress of serious worry. At the same time as she registered this she took notice of the others who were with them, finding that Ken and Atros were there, along with the girl named Perm, Yui Hibiki and Yumi Mizuno. She briefly turned her head and gave a curt not to acknowledge their presence, saw the gesture being returned by at least one of the parties, then turned back to Sakura and said in a calmer voice than before, “What happened?”

 

“Muku found out about the others who have become the partners to you Iczers,” Perm answered for her, “It upset her greatly and so she has decided to have a private confrontation with her, one to lay bare the bones of their future relations.”

 

“Huh?” Troi blinked, then, “Oh…I get it…a resolution point. Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, guess in their case it had to be sooner than later…”

 

“You were expecting this to happen?” Ken asked.

 

“Not in so many words as such,” Troi replied, “But I've seen it happen with both of my sisters…sooner or later the partner starts to rebel against the idea that they're bonded to us forever and they get to feeling trapped and cornered. They try to rebel against our linkage and reject us, but…it never lasts for very long. Sooner or later it finally sinks in that we're as much stuck with them as they're stuck with us, which is something you'll have to get used to sooner or later, Sweetheart.”

 

“Oh lovely,” Atros sniffed, “You have no idea how thrilled I am to hear that.”

 

“Ah…excuse me?” Ken asked with a somewhat worried expression.

 

“Are you saying that this partnership thing…that it can't be dissolved once it's been formed?” Yui looked and sounded appalled.

 

“I'm afraid so, or it's as near to permanent as we can figure,” Sakura replied, “Sorry to give you the bad news, you being synchronized and all that, but…”

 

“This is serious!” Sakura insisted, “You can't just dismiss it as something that they'll get over like it was nothing!”

 

“I'm not dismissing it, Honey,” Troi assured her with a very frank look, “I know full well the sort of pain that they'll both be going through, and Rhea-chan's heart could well wind up being broken if your friend says anything that could really hurt her feelings. Not that I'm putting all the blame on Muku-chan, of course…it's perfectly understandable how she could be feeling a bit dazed about getting dragged into all of this, what with the roller-coaster ride that she's been on since the first attack happened. It ain't fair that any of you kids have to be exposed to all of this the way you've been going lately. Heck, I have expect to have you yelling and screaming at me for dragging you into my world almost literally kicking and screaming, not that I'd give up what we've found together for all the world…”

 

“Excuse me,” Ken said with just a touch of frost in his tone, “But we were talking about Muku?”

 

“Right, got it, now let me think a moment here,” Troi ran her fingers through her snowy white hair and frowned in concentration, “I don't feel my niece anywhere close nearby, but I can sense that she's still within about a ten kilometer radius…but she seems to have turned off her internal directional finder, no doubt so she can have privacy with her partner…”

 

“Ten kilometers?” Yumi spoke up.

 

“They were just here a minute ago,” Ken remarked in some surprise.

 

“Ten kilometers in one second is nothing to an Iczer,” Atros revealed, “If I wanted to I could be halfway around to the other side of the planet in less than a heartbeat.”

 

“No…wait…they're getting even farther away than that,” Troi frowned, “I've got a definite impression that they're on the move some somehow, only they're not airborne…that much I can determine…”

 

“On the move?” Sakura blinked, “Wait a moment…I think I know where Muku-chan is…”

 

“So do I,” Perm remarked, “Ever since we were small children, it was her favorite thing to do whenever faced with personal troubles, it would only make sense for her to go there now when confronted with one too many surprises.”

 

“You mean…?” Yumi blinked, “Oboy…that's sure gonna make it hard for us to follow…”

 

“Hard for you, maybe,” Troi looked right at Atros, “But not so hard if we triangulate her position between the both of us. What do you say, kid? Are you up to it?”

 

“I am, Mother,” Atros affirmed, “I stand ready to help find my wayward sister.”

 

“Then I'm going with you,” Sakura volunteered.

 

Troi gave her partner a frank expression and replied, “Don't you have classes in another few minutes?”

 

“Screw class,” Sakura replied, “This is more important!”

 

“Oh well,” Ken rolled his eyes, “So much for my perfect attendance record…”

 

“It is nice of you to volunteer,” Atros smiled at him, “But I'll make better time on my own…and besides…I would not want to be responsible for spoiling your…attendance.”

 

“Then we're coming instead,” Yumi said, “Yui, Perm and me…we're Muku's friends too…”

 

“Sorry guys,” Sakura said as she reached out to take Sakura by the arm, “This is strictly between partners, no hitchhikers along for this ride.”

 

With that they vanished in a hail of pixilation, only to have Sakura find herself once again naked and in the aqueous environment of Troi's Iczer Robo, with Troi's voice communicating with her with a clarity that made it seem almost telepathic.

 

“Where to go, Hon? You're the navigator on this trip.”

 

Sakura tried to relax as she settled in once more to curious role as co-pilot and power source, saying simply, “Where we all liked to play when we were young enough to play hooky from our parents…the Tokyo rail system, where riding in cars is as easy skipping through toll booths together…”

 

 

 

 

Several minutes before this…

 

 

Muku had asked that Rhea take them somewhere to be alone, but it surprised her that the Bioroid would know exactly where to teleport, to a place Muku had often been to when life became too complex or too confusing.

 

The rail car pulled out from the Nerima station and headed due south at an increasing rate of acceleration, gradually hitting its pace within a matter of seconds, which gave Muku sufficient time to grab the nearest handrail in order to support herself, though Rhea hardly seemed troubled at keeping her own footing. The car that they were in was empty, this being the time of the day when commute traffic was reasonably low. There was not another passenger within earshot of the two girls, which meant that they would be afforded the privacy that Muku so desperately needed. What she had to say was not for prying ears, and especially NOT for the ears of her fellow schoolmates.

 

She turned to see Rhea's large and curious eyes turned towards her, the Bioroid having sensed her mood but not the precise thoughts that motivated her partner to have such a troubled mindset. That look of innocent curiosity might have softened Muku's mindset on other occasions, but this time she was too worked up and agitated to calm down at the sight of Rhea's concerned expression. After all the girl before her was at the center of the maelstrom that had become Muku's life, and she was hardly an innocent when it came to the affairs that were driving Muku to such distraction.

 

So rather than wait to frame a more reasonable approach to the matter, Muku plunged right in with a direct, “Why didn't you tell me that my friends were getting bonded to your fellow Iczers?”

 

“I…did not think it was immediately relevant,” Rhea replied, “Events have been happening so rapidly of late that I thought it might be wiser to wait until there was more time…”

 

“Wise?” Muku snapped, “You think it was wise to withhold a thing like this from me? That two of my best friends are now partnered up with both of your alien half-sisters? That Sakura's now bonded to your aunt of all things? I mean…she must be over twenty, for Kami's sakes…”

 

“I am sorry,” Rhea replied, “I did not know how much such things would upset you…”

 

“Upset me?” Muku reacted, “Why on earth would it upset me? Just because my friends have gotten dragged into a war that even I can barely figure out? Just because my life's been in danger from one damned thing right after another since the time I met you? Upset? What have I got to be upset about?”

 

“Ah…well…” Rhea softly murmured, but Muku was not waiting around to hear any explanations.

 

“And the worst thing is that my friends are having SEX with their partners…and right behind my back!” Muku railed at the ceiling, “You'd think maybe Yumi could have mentioned that to me instead of pestering me about whether or not you and me…if we…whatever! And Sakura…what the hell is she thinking keeping a thing like this to herself? Does she had any idea what her parents or gonna say about that damned engagement to Ken and how this is gonna affect that? And Ken…what's his problem anyway? Why is he all of a sudden shacking up with a girl who tried to blow up our whole school not three or four days ago? Has he gone crazy, too?”

 

`Well…as far as I know, they haven't actually had sex together…” Rhea tried explaining in regards to Ken and Atros.

 

Muku was so worked up she did not even bother to ask how she knew what Rhea was going to say next, going on to her next concern, a subject which she had been avoiding until this moment, “And Perm…my Goddess…can you even imagine what she must be thinking about all of this right now? Every time I look at her I can't stop thinking about Gel and Godai. Okay, those two were a real pain and I never really liked them, but they're her twin sister and older brother! How can Perm even stand to look at the rest of us without hating us for what may have happened?”

 

Rhea looked down, “I…know that it must be hard for you, Muku-chan, and they have been in the custody of Big Gold for far too long to hold out any hope…of recovering them alive…but…”

 

“But the fact is,” Muku said, “It's my fault that all of this happened!”

 

Rhea looked up at her with a confused expression, “Excuse me?”

 

“All of it,” Muku declared, “They all got involved with you C'thuwulf on account of me…because they knew me, and because those damned Venomoids probably took them and did who-knows-what to that pair, and now Perm is walking around like a part of her is dead or something, and meanwhile my so-called friends are carrying on like nothing was the matter! They're even partying it up with your relatives, and everyone is having just a grand old time now that Gel and Godai aren't around to bother anybody…”

 

“I hardly think that anyone is as happy as all that to see them…” Rhea tried to be reasonable, but Muku would hear none of it.

 

“All this started because you picked me to be your gods-damned partner,” Muku railed, “If they hadn't been associated with me your enemies wouldn't have picked them out and made them a target. Hell, Yui damned near came close to joining them, but instead she was out joy riding with that maniac Nova! I'm responsible for ruining the lives of my closest and dearest friends, and all because they had to get involved with your siblings and your enemies, so tell me…what am I supposed to do about this to make it all right again?”

 

“Muku-chan,” Rhea insisted, “It is not your fault…”

 

“No?” Muku replied, “Yes it is! Just because I'm supposed to be the one person you can link with, the lives of everyone around me has to be put in danger! No one's safe as long as they have anything to do with me, not my friends, not my classmates, not even my own parents…my parents! My goddess…they think I'm having an affair with some boy in our school! How the hell am I supposed to explain to them about us?”

 

“About…us?” Rhea hesitantly asked.

 

“About…about whatever it is you want…what you want with me,” Muku hesitated, then turned fully to Rhea with a look of entreaty, “What do you want from me, Rhea? What could I possibly give to you that could justify all this grief…?”

 

“I want…I want you to be happy,” Rhea answered.

 

“Well I'm not, in case you didn't notice,” Muku sarcastically responded, “I never asked to be chosen, I never asked for any of this! Why am I so special that you have to bond with me and no one else on the entire planet? What do you expect me to give to you that you can't find somewhere else with one of your own friends down there in New Gamora? Did you scoop me off to sit inside that giant robot of yours because you like the idea of seeing me naked?”

 

“Ah…well…” Rhea colored slightly, much too shy to elaborate on that particular topic.

 

“Yeah, you and everybody else in our high school,” Muku sniffed, “I used to wonder why Ken was always pirating those photos of me and posting them on his site. Sakura I could understand, but why me? Why am I so popular? What is it about me that makes even my friends want to…to have sex with me? I just don't get it!”

 

“It…is not an easy thing to explain,” Rhea said, “You are…who you are…and everyone who sees you knows that you are a special kind of person, Muku-chan. They sense the warmth that you have to offer, the light that is within your soul…”

 

“Yeah?” Muku frowned as she ran fingers through her long, dark tresses, unselfconsciously beautiful in her mounting confusion despite the fact that only Rhea was close enough to clearly see it, “Well, I got news for you…I'm nobody special! I'm not some princess from a hidden, far-away kingdom or some manga-based Idol singer, I'm just me, Muku Dori…I skate for a hobby and practice the martial arts for a living. I'm just a tenth-year high school student who's struggling to get by. I'm not the prettiest girl in our school or even the smartest, I'm just an above-average level athlete and I know a few tricks about using my ki like a weapon…”

 

“You are more than that, Muku-chan, more than you know,” Rhea insisted, “Your friends can sense it, even if you cannot, and it is the light in your soul that has attracted me to you…”

 

“Like a moth to the flame, huh?” Muku huffed, “Well screw that, and screw you! What am I, some damned Kewpie doll that everyone gets to fight about? Why did I ever go along with any of this stuff anyway? I'm just a kid…what do I know about saving the world? I never wanted this! I want my old life back!”

 

“Muku-chan?” Rhea reacted in distress and growing confusion.

 

“This all started because of you, because you picked me to be your partner,” Muku replied, “Well, you want me? Tough! But what gives you the right to follow me around like some kind of lovesick puppy? Is that why you enrolled in my school? So you can now chase me around even when I'm in classes?”

 

Rhea actually flinched from the tone of accusation in her partner's voice, “But…I thought we could be together more often this way…that we wouldn't have to be apart a part of each day…that I could be a part of your world in the daytime as well as the night…”

 

“Why?” Muku asked, “Because you want to screw me? Is that what you call it? Sharing pleasures, like…having sex between two girls, that kind of thing?”

 

“Um…yes,” Rhea confessed in a very small voice, “That is a part of it…but…”

 

“Well, I got new for you, Sister!” Muku flared, “I'm not a lesbian! I like boys, okay? I want to be normal, I don't want to be like some…sex crazed freak…like grandpa Happosai…”

 

“Who?” Rhea blinked, “Um…Muku-chan…?”

 

`STOP CALLING ME MUKU-CHAN!” Muku barked in her face, “You don't know nothing about me! How can you even know what I want…when I don't even know what I want? This whole thing started because you got a silly crush on me, well stop it right now! It's over, I quit!”

 

“Quit?” Rhea was on her feet, shaking like a leaf as she sobbed, “But…but I love you!”

 

“Well I don't love you!” Muku turned away, shaking with emotions that she barely even understood within herself, “I wish I'd never even met you…I wish you'd just go away and leave me alone, like…right now!”

 

“Muku-chan…” Rhea's voice shook and then she vanished in a halo of pixilation.

 

Muku sagged as she grabbed hold of the nearest pole to steady herself. Her face contorted with emotions that she had not shown in front of the Bioroid, but now that she had said the words she was feeling as if something had lifted from her mind, like the red haze of a bubbling rage that had filled her very soul had dissipated like smoke before a cleansing breeze, and without a word she sank down to her knees and felt her body tremble with the force of a withdrawal, leaving her empty inside and without much life or feeling.

 

“Oh…Kami…why did I say all that?” she asked after a long wracking tremble had passed all the way through her body, causing her to beat her head gently against the nearest bench inside the cabin, “Oh Goddess…what have I done…?”

 

Unknown to her a pair of heads poked out from concealment and studied Muku's hapless plight from the far end of the cabin, one murmuring to the other, “Well…she's really gone and done it now…”

 

“Poor Muku,” Sakura softly agreed, though her real sympathies were with her nominal rival, whose current pain she could not even begin to imagine, “No one should have to go through that…”

 

“I've seen it before,” Troi sighed, “Nagisa was just like that when she thought her life was getting way too complicated. Ten years back and the pain still seems as fresh as any memory…”

 

“You're kidding!” Troi responded, “She and your sister look so happy together…”

 

“It wasn't One I was referring to,” Troi replied, “But…never mind…ancient history, Kid. The fact is that Rhea's gonna be hurting something fierce, but that ain't nothing next to what your pal, Muku here, just did to herself blowing off steam like that in one swell foop.”

 

“What do you mean?” Sakura blinked, “She was the one doing all the yelling…”

 

“That's `cause she's just a stupid kid who don't even know her own mind…exactly like I was when I was about that age…relatively speaking,” Troi winced slightly, “She thinks she can turn it off and walk away from the whole deal, and she's just full of delusions. The bond between her and Rhea can't be severed like that…I know. She thought she could make a clean break by getting it all out into the open, but…she's just setting herself up for a real fall farther down the line. Trust me on this, she needs help every bit as much as my Niece.”

 

“Then…what do we do?” Sakura asked.

 

“Ordinarily I'd give them space to work things out for themselves,” Troi replied, “But we don't have that luxury. Big Gold could attack again at any time, and the last thing we need is to be one short in the warrior department. You okay with waiting here and keeping an eye on your friend so she doesn't do anything really stupid…I mean…more stupid than what we just overheard?”

 

“Sure,” Sakura said tersely, seeing Muku dissolve into tears and feeling her own heart get wrenched in her chest as this happened, “I can do that.”

 

“Try and make it look like an accident that you found her,” Troi replied, “I'm going to see what I can do for Rhea-chan…”

 

“Troi?” Sakura asked before the Iczer could make her usual fast exit, “Do you…do you think I'll ever act like that around you?”

 

“Honey,” Troi gave her a crooked smile that was half-amused, half-bitter, “I expect to hear you go off on me at least four or five times in a year, especially when I do something to deserve it, but don't worry, I'm a big girl, I can take it.”

 

And with that she vanished from the rail car, leaving Sakura to softly murmur, “Yeah…but can I take it? I wonder…” and she once again turned her focus upon the quietly sobbing form of her “best friend,” and murmuring softly, “Muku Dori…what have you done…?”

 

 

 

 

“What is it?” Iczer One asked as she and her sister arrived in the laboratory complex.

 

“We've got trouble, Protector,” Sister Grey announced, “A few moments ago I was checking the condition of our captive Sisters of the Comet in their isolation chamber, but when I scanned the room again I discovered the exact same image, which meant that we had a feedback loop that was affecting all the computer sensors and causing them to read only the same initial data listings over and over again. When I overrode the hacking job that had fouled up our base relays I found this…an empty chamber. I'm afraid they are gone…”

 

“Gone?” Iczer Two replied, “What do you mean by `Gone?'”

 

“I mean that they were nowhere to be found, Commander,” Sister Grey replied, “All three of the Sisters have vanished.”

 

“Could they have been spirited out of isolation by a hostile force?” Iczer One asked her.

 

“I don't see how that is possible,” Sister Grey replied, “Whoever did this would have to have the means for bypassing our defensive shields as though blending in with the frequency modulations. If there had been even one iota of dissimilarity our defensive sensors would have notified us of the intrusion. So far as we know, neither Gold nor her agents have the capacity for such near-perfect assimilation…”

 

“As far as you know,” Iczer Two pointed out, “But we have underestimated Big Gold before, and if we do so now, at this critical juncture, then the results could prove disastrous.”

 

“Agreed,” Iczer One noted, “I'm putting Gamora base on immediate full alert with full security protocols to be implemented at level One emergency status. No one goes out or comes into this base without being individually cleared, and that includes Subspace transmissions…”

 

“I believe that the Terrans have a word for this, Sister,” Iczer Two remarked, “It's called closing the barn doors after you've lost all your cattle. I would recommend that we recall our forces and deploy them for war. It would seem that Big Gold is making her move at last, and we had better be at the ready.”

 

“Agreed,” Iczer One nodded, “Have all Iczer-Robos on standby mode and prepped for immediate launch.”

 

“Already done,” Iczer Two acknowledged, “I had our forces mobilized for immediate deployment several hours ago, when we first had a sense that Big Gold was about to attempt something, and Troi took her Iczer Robo from its cradle not fifteen minutes ago, just in case you were thinking to ask.”

 

“That was very insightful of you, Commander,” Sister Grey remarked.

 

“Not really,” Iczer Two replied, “I just anticipated the enemy by allowing myself to recall how Big Gold operates…there is nothing to be proud of in that, nor did it take an inordinate amount of foresight to plan what she is after.”

 

“But why did Troi mobilize her Iczer Unit before this crisis?” Iczer One frowned slightly, “And where are the Sisters of the Comet?”

 

“Sir!” one of the technicians suddenly spoke up in alarm, “I'm afraid we've got an even bigger problem on our hands right now!”

 

“Eh?” Iczer Two looked up as that technician put caused a new image to appear in the air above her console, to which the formidable Commander blanched and softly said, “No…!”

 

“What in the world?” Iczer One turned form the image to stare at the isolation chamber itself, gasping out the words, “She's gone? But…how…?”

 

“I don't understand,” Sister Grey replied, her hands moving over her own command console as she did a number of readings, “We should have detected this sooner…perhaps whatever feedback loop was being fed into the monitors…”

 

“That doesn't matter now,” Iczer Two's tone grew hard, “Nova is gone…and where do you think we may find her?”

 

“She wouldn't go back to Big Gold…would she, Commander?” asked the technician who had made the discovery, one Sister Carnelian.

 

“No,” Iczer One answered for her sister, “That would not be her likely plan, would it?”

 

“You read the same tea leaves as I do, Sister,” Iczer Two said grimly, “My daughter could have only one goal at the present…it's to Furinkan High School that she has likely translocated.”

 

“Uh oh,” Sister Carnelian softly replied, “There's going to be new trouble for the mortals…”

 

“There will be indeed,” Iczer Two frowned darkly, “But nothing compared to what I'll be giving that young lady just as soon as I find her…”

 

 

 

 

Nova Kano smiled as she saw her prey sitting alone by herself in the middle of classes and softly murmured to herself, “Soon, my darling Yui-chan…soon you'll be mine again, and no one will ever separate us again, that I promised…”

 

To which Yui felt a slight chill travel down her spine, but she chalked it up to a slight change in the weather, glancing at where Muku, Sakura, Rhea and Yumi should be and feeling all alone by herself…and wondering why the thought of that was suddenly making her feel so nervous…?

 

Outside of the school building itself---at that very moment---her mother (or one half of her anyway) and her father were hiding around in the bushes waiting for a signal of their own to be sent, at which point they would make their move to gather the children of the Senshi together for a fateful meeting on the eve of the coming twilight…

 

 

 

Continued

 

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