This one began a long time ago, when I first saw the _Blue Sonnet_ anime. Of course, I didn't begin writing right away . . . Based off only the anime, and changing that in the middle of the fourth episode . . . - I glance down at the sleeping girl in my arms, fighting the urge to stroke her soft brown hair, wondering how I got so lucky, and when it will fall apart this time. I let myself brood a moment on what brought us together. Trying to kill a girl isn't the best way to start a relationship, but that's what happened. I found I couldn't do it, then found that I couldn't let them put her through what they planned, even though, at the time, it wouldn't have bothered me much, had it been me they were doing it to. But she's different. She was more different then, and I could tell that she was utterly appalled by Talon's plan to breed her. I don't think that would have been enough to make me help her, if it weren't that I have had my body taken, used, against my will. Time and circuitry dulled the pain, but I couldn't let them do that to her. So I didn't. I broke her out, and we avoided them for a few weeks, while I tried to teach her what I'd learned the hard way. She didn't understand, and I didn't want to tell her plainly. `Why do I need to know how to rip things apart with my powers?' she'd finally asked, bluntly. `Because if you can rip what you want to apart, you're safe. A gang with knives,' a burning pain flows down my back, and I gasp, `A gang with knives is a big danger if you don't know how to destroy what you want. Otherwise all you can do is pull your bloody clothes back together and limp home, if they don't kill you after, or during, their "fun,"' I fight my speeding breath back down, `Or you can kill them, scattering their bloody bits,' I pause, calming myself, `Control is paramount.' `It happened to you,' she says, softly. Something in her eyes. I nod, the pain in my back changing. She gathers me in her arms, and presses her lips to my cheek, `It'll be OK.' The burning flares brighter, and I almost think I can smell smoke. My eyes start to water, then everything goes black. She says I passed out, and I did smell smoke, my emotional circuits overloading, burning through my back. She doesn't know what she did, just that `Everything went red, and I had to fix you. So I did.' Her bout of psychic surgery left my cyborg parts changed almost beyond recognition. They still work as expected, all but the emotional circuits. Diagnostics show them as fine, but they aren't there anymore. Three days after her fix, the diagnostics showed something odd. I dismissed it as a sensor glitch. After three weeks, I acknowledged it as being real. I am pregnant. So, we would find out, is Lan. She took my pregnancy much harder than her own. `You're pregnant.' `Yes.' `Who?' `Who what?' `Who's the father?' `I'm three weeks pregnant.' She pondered a moment, `So you found someone while we were traveling? Did I meet him?' I started to shake my head before she finishes the first question, `I've not had sex with anyone since before Talon took me in. Talon had me sterilized.' `What? But you're their greatest esper-cyborg! Surely they'd want to preserve your genes, what with the effort they went to to try and take mine.' `They froze a few dozen ova first. They didn't want to risk me, they said.' `Risk you to childbirth? Attachment to your children? Being slowed down by pregnancy?' I shook my head, `I don't know. I found out about it afterwards, like most of my cyberware.' `How horrible,' she stroked my cheek with her hand, the other tangled in my hair, so close. `I didn't really think about it. It was so much nicer than where I'd been,' that still bites, hard, but it is fading, under her light. `So who's the father?' `The timing is such that there's only one canidate.' `Who is he?' `She,' she looked puzzled, `You. She, the baby, is either ours, or you made her, triggered parthenogenesis in me.' `Parthenogenesis?' she asked, shifting into my lap, her arms holding me tightly, her face curled against my shoulder. `Asexual reproduction, where a female quickens one of her own ova, producing a geneticly identical daughter. Certain lizards reproduce like that.' `Oh? So the mommy lizard just decides to have baby lizards, and she does?' `No, two of the lizards have sex, and one or both of them fertilize eggs, and hatch baby lizards.' `Wow,' she pulled back, suddenly smiling, `So the baby will be a daughter, either way?' I nodded. `And she'll either be just like you, or like the both of us?' eagerness filled her voice. I nodded again, `Exactly.' `Wow,' she burbled, then leaned forward and kissed me. It was soft, and firm, and her teeth banged into mine. I felt like I was going to melt, or die, or scream. My hands wound into her hair of their own accord. I revel in that memory, my first real kiss, the first one that I didn't try to fight off, that wasn't some . . . I shake my head sharply. I'll need to be able to deal with my past, what I was, but I don't want to right now. I suddenly miss being able to gather her into my arms without our bellies getting in the way. Miss being able to sleep spooned against her, my hand cupping the slight swell of her belly. I shift, trying to get comfortable, and press my face to her hair. Later, weeks later, we found out she is pregnant, too. The midwife we talked with is pretty sure she concieved very close to the same time I did, which reduced her fears that Talon had succeeded in their attempt to breed her to some unknown, possibly dead, scientist. That night, she zipped our sleeping bags together, and had kissed me so many times that my head was spinning. `We're having each other's baby,' she said, and kissed me again, `I want to make love to my baby's father,' little kisses along my jaw, `May I?' My body went rigid, my hands stopped stroking her hair, then it was like I was an old piece of meat, curling up as it dries in the sun. `We don't have to,' she told me, and brushed soft knuckles over my cheek, `You're just so lovely, and I like you so much, and you saved me from Talon. I just want to try and show you how I feel.' `You do show me already,' I told her, `You don't need to do that.' `I want to,' she said, gentle fingers cupping my breast. `Go ahead,' I told her, and prepared myself. `You're so tense,' she touched me softly, stroking my sides, rubbing small circles across my belly, `This won't work if you're so tense.' I shook my head, `I wouldn't know.' `Shh,' she said, softly, something that felt very like fear in her voice, `Let me try something, OK?' `Anything.' `Let me know if anything hurts, or I scare you, OK?' she said, her hands cupping my face. `Right.' She just stared into my eyes for a long moment, then nodded, `Lay on your belly.' Her hands are so soft, I almost didn't feel them as she traced my muscles, both the small natural ones, and the thicker myomer Talon implanted. After a few minutes she shifted, straddling my butt, her touch firmer, working over the thick muscles of my shoulders and neck. A strange lastitude seemed to flow from her hands, into my muscles, which would fight a moment, then relax. By the time she'd worked her way down my spine enough that she shifted position, down to straddle my thighs, I could barely feel what she was doing, I was so far gone in the lovely tiredness of it. Even the touch of her hands on my butt wasn't enough to get more than a mild protest out of me, `No, don't,' muttered softly, in English. Her hands stopped moving, `What did you say?' she asked, softly. `Please don't touch me there,' I repeated in Japanese, then yawned, my eyes still closed, my body limper than I could ever remember it. `OK,' she kissed me between the shoulder blades, soft hair trailing over my skin. I shiver at the memory of it, that first flash of arousal, dulled by fatigue and near-sleep, but still recognizable. She'd continued, `Go to sleep, we need to keep going tomorrow.' `Good night,' I'd told her, my voice distorted by drowsyness. `Good night,' she'd told me, a smile in her voice, `I really like you, Sonnet,' and she'd slipped off of me, cuddling up to my side, her breast soft against my back, her arm warm where she'd wrapped it around my waist. During the day, we walked on, through the wildernes of Hokkaido, going nowhere, just hiding away while we waited for Talon to stop searching. She'd been touching me more, but that day. She wouldn't let me go, kept stopping us to kiss me. It was nice, but a little nerve-wracking, especially since I kept hearing helicopters. At 1633 we found a nice cave, and she dragged me deep into the back of it, into the deepest darkness I'd ever seen. I, despite my enhanced sight, could see nothing. Lan bustled about like it was broad daylight, setting up camp, then leading me over to the sleeping bags. `Here, go ahead, I don't mind,' she had a smile in her voice. `What do you mean?' `You might as well be comfortable as you watch me do all the work.' `I'm not,' I told her, sitting down on the sleeping bags. `Comfortable?' she'd asked. `Watching you. I can't see a thing in here.' She sat down suddenly, and I could hear her hand move in front of my face, feel the breeze of its passage. I stiffened when she gathered me into a hug, then forced myself to relax. She rubbed my shoulders, then lay back, pulled me on top of her, and whispered in my ears, `Its nice.' `What?' I'd asked. `Having you, having enough rock over our heads that we won't have to worry about Talon for a little while, knowing that there is something I can do that you can't.' `You can do a lot of things that I can't,' I told her. `And so can you,' and she'd kissed me again, stroking my butt. Somehow, this way, it wasn't scary. It felt -- nice. No flashbacks. The moment I'd thought that, one hit, and I jerked away, cowering. `Oh no,' she'd been at my side before I felt her move, hugging me gently against her, `Why didn't you tell me?' Warm wetness dripped down my forehead, then down my cheek, and I touched it in surprise. `That I'm a murdering monster?' I forced a little laugh. `That you'd been hurt like that,' she laid back again, and I curled up against her, her hand in my hair, the other rubbing my arm softly. `I try not to remember it myself.' `That doesn't seem to be working,' she said, `it seems that it's permeating everything you do. Tell me what you can, OK?' I touched her face, only slightly surprised to find tears there. I didn't say anything, and eventually we fell asleep without dinner. The next morning she asked me to stay, and went hunting. Just when I was starting to get really worried, she returned, bloody-faced, red stains on her shirt and jeans, the cooling carcass of a deer over her shoulders. She laid it down in the front of the cave, in front of me, and smiled a red-stained smile at me. I must have shown my shock somehow. `Recently I found out that I was raised by wolves, for a while, when I was a little girl. It was amazingly easy to remember what I needed to,' she said, laying a bloody hand on my cheek, then stretched up to kiss me. Her mouth had the salt/iron/copper taste of blood. I spent the next fifteen minutes, collapsed on my butt, watching as she efficiently ripped the deer to pieces, using her powers to cut the meat into strips, which she laid over branches she gathered from outside. Once there was nothing left but bones and a few pieces of meat laid on the hide, she brought over something dark and almost shapeless, big as her clenched fists. `Here, eat,' she smiled, and handed me the bloody bit of meat. I took it gingerly, and wondered where the squeemish Japanese schoolgirl I remembered disappeared to. `What is it?' `The heart. My favorite part, even though it is a little tough,' she grinned, blood still on her face, staining her hands to her elbows, all of her shirt, most of her jeans. I just said the first thing that came to mind, `Aren't wolves, well, a bit neater about their kills?' not looking at the deer's heart in my hands. `Yes, but they don't haul them away to process, either.' `What about your face?' `Oh, one of the other wolves would have licked off the places I can't,' and she'd smiled, `Would you?' Suddenly the heart in my hands wasn't as unbearable as before, and I took a big bite out of it, or I'd tried. It was tough, like an old tire, or so I'd thought at the time. Lan had laughed, a sweet, soft sound, and held my hands, `Smaller bites,' and she'd pulled my hands closer to her, taking a bite of the heart from between the impressions left by my teeth, ripped it free with a twist of her head. She barely chewed it before swallowing. `Mmm,' she hummed, a smile on her face, `Happy times.' Her gaze locked with mine, and she kissed me again. When she broke the kiss I brought the heart up and tried again, tore a bite free. It wasn't as hard the second time, and I chewed it into submission before swallowing. She brought it to her lips, and I realized that she hadn't let go of my hands. Her bloody face seemed almost dainty as she ripped another bite out of the heart, and swallowed it. `Chewing just makes your jaw hurt. Don't take too big of a bite, and it'll be fine.' I tried to follow her example, ripped a bit loose, and tried to swallow it. It wouldn't go, triggering my gag reflex. I chewed it a couple times, then tried again. It went down. Lan smiled, kissed me again, briefly, tongue flickering over my lips, then pulled back and ripped another bite from the heart. `When I was twelve,' I started, then realized what I was going to say. I ripped another bite from the heart, chewed while Lan watched, finally swallowing. Lan ripped a bite free, and swallowed it. `I went for groceries. Mom'd been ill, and had seemed to be getting better,' I ripped another bite loose, chew it a few times, and swallow the bloody chunk. Lan shifted our fingers on the diminished heart, and ripped a bite free, swallowed it with the same little tilt of her head as before. `It was just past dark, and I had spent most of the month's money on food. It wasn't much,' I licked her fingers, comforted somehow by the touch, then ripped another bite from the hunk of meat. I chewed it slowly, not wanting to continue. When I swallowed, she took another bite, then rearranged the heart in our hands, less than half of it left. `The gang was new, or hunting out of their territory,' I leaned forward, kissed her on the cheek, licked at the blood. Pulled back, looked at her smile, and ripped another bite free. She took a bite while I was still chewing. We swallowed at the same time, and her eyes twinkled at me. `It was quick. They struck without taunting, hit me in the head, cut my pants off,' I ducked my head. She pressed her bloody cheek to mine, `You survived. That's what's important. Remember that,' she pulled back, looked me in the eyes, `Are any of them alive?' `I don't know,' I said, and ripped another bite free. There was not much left, maybe five more bites. `I want to. If they are, they will wish they weren't when I'm done with them,' and she smiled at me, a rather fierce smile, then ripped a bite free. `They took turns, then ran,' I ripped another bite free. Her fingers squeezed tighter about mine, and she took another bite. `I was still there in the morning when the cops found me,' I grabbed the last of the heart, and tried to rip it in two. It slipped through my fingers. Lan twined her fingers through mine, and grabbed the other end of the heart in her teeth. I felt more than saw her smile around it, then we slowly twisted, ripping the last piece in two. I swallowed, `They had me in "protective custody" for most of a week. When I got out . . . ' I stopped, unable to continue. She tucked my head under her bloody chin, `When you got out.' `Mom had died. Cancer. Just gone, like that,' and I let myself relax into Lan's arms, and she'd held me tight. Lan carried me into the back of the cave, and held me, curled up around me, her hands stroking my hair, until I fell asleep. The next morning she was looking at her strips of meat, a concerned expression on her face. `What's wrong?' I ask her. `I'm not sure if this is drying or not,' she said, `The air is so wet,' she takes one thin strip of the still flexible meat, and eats it. `Isn't jerky normally smoked?' `Is it? I've never tried this before. With the wolves, it was eat it raw, and preferably still warm. After that, I just bought it at the store and kept it in the fridge.' `I think so. All the packages talk about hickory or mesquite smoke, anyway.' `Hmm. Then I guess we'd better find another cave to smoke it in, then.' The blood had dried on her, and most of it had flaked off her skin, but her clothes were stiff and stained a deep brown. They almost made a crinkling noise as we walked, looking for a new cave. Finally we found one, and, while we were gathering wood, a pond in one of the streams, where a waterfall fell. With a happy shriek she dove in, and I realized she hadn't been wearing her shoes. I watched her splash about, shedding her clothes, her bare toes flashing into the air as she wiggled. `Are you going to join me?' `Is the water cold?' I asked, trepidation in my voice. `Absolutely frigid,' she told me. I sit down, unlace my boots, and pulled my feet free. She climbed out to help, and I let her, her fingers warm as they unbutton my flannel shirt. I'd gotten my socks off by the time she finished, and pulled the fly of my jeans open with a single tug. Almost before I realized it I was bare to the cool summer morning, and she was pulling me towards the water, cool droplets tracing chilling paths down my body from hers. The water almost made me scream. I stood, shivering, the water up to my neck. `How's it feel?' she'd asked, her warm body suddenly brushing mine, a fleeting softness. `Wonderful,' I'd answered, before I even had a chance to think. `Good!' and she swept my hair off my neck, and kissed the back of it, her hands creeping around to cup my breasts. The water suddenly wasn't so cold, but my nipples were still hard, and I was still shivering, but for an entirely different reason. `Remember,' she'd whispered, her lips almost brushing my ear, `you can tell me to stop any time, and I will.' `I remember,' I told her, her belly warm against my back, her breasts pressing softly into my shoulders, her pubic hair a strange, almost tickly feeling against my butt. She carressed my breasts for a long time, kissing me on the neck, shoulder, jaw, on my lips when I twisted my head around far enough. An unfamiliar but quite, academically, identifiable need was filling my body, my soul, and she could feel it. One of her hands trailed down, over my belly, around my navel, then down through my pubic hair, scratched lightly. I'd wondered why Talon let me keep it, when they'd permanently removed the rest of my body hair. I don't think it was so that I could enjoy the experience of the short hairs pulling nearly free as she drags her fingernails over them, but that is still a lovely feeling. I shuddered, my hips reaching for her fingers, and eventually she relented, her fingers continuing downward. Her touch was so gentle. My terror was not. She felt it, somehow, and just held me, her hand not moving, just barely cupping me, whispered soothing nonsense in my ear. The overwhelming terror faded, leaving me shivering in her arms again. This time it was just the cold water. A moment later she was shivering too, and I turned around in her arms. Her lips were blue, and her face was paler than I'd ever seen it, or have since. `I think it is time to get out,' I smiled at her. `I still need to wash my clothes,' she told me, her teeth starting to chatter as she finished. So we washed her clothes, and I washed my socks, then we climbed out and lay on a rock in the sun. The air was still and warm, and I found myself watching her, admiring her. For what felt like a very long time, while I watched her, I wondered what the strange twitchyness, unease, wierdness I was feeling was. She stretched, hands interlocked over her head, small breasts rising as her back arched, and I finally realized what it was. I wanted to touch her. Touch her like she wanted to touch me. And, best of all, the thought didn't scare me, unlike the faint tension that the thought of her hands on my breast brought, or the unease of her hand between my legs, or the outright terror thinking about her body on top of mine elicited. I wiggled over to her, `May I touch you?' `Anytime,' she smiled. I smiled too, and my hand swirled spirals on her belly, up towards her ribs. She jerked, and a half-giggle escaped. `What was that?' `That tickled,' she said. `Wow,' I was delighted, and spent at least five minutes finding the limits of that ticklish spot, trailing my nails along her skin, leaving faint pinker lines on her pale belly. I glanced up from my absorbing task, and she was smiling at me, her brown eyes dark, deep. My hand cupped her breast, her nipple firm against my palm, and I kissed her, probing her mouth with my tongue. I'm not sure which of us initiated it, but we ended up on our sides, her thigh was between mine, and somehow I wasn't scared. I pulled her close, loving the feel of her wetness against my thigh, the impossibly lovely feel of her thigh pressed against my tenderest flesh. My hand was on her butt, pulling her to me, and my hips were rocking softly, without any input on my part. It was the most wonderful thing I'd ever felt. And it kept getting better. She kept making these lovely little gasps, and moans, and they'd build, and build, then she'd screamed, shuddering and clutching at me. Only the fact that she kept eye contact with me the whole time kept me from worrying the first time it happened. She'd cuddled close to me after that, for a few moments, then a smile had covered her face, as I continued to rub against her. Her smile faded, after a little while, replaced by the same intense look she'd had before she'd orgasmed. Just because it had never happened to me didn't mean I didn't know what it was. She came three more times when suddenly, almost without warning, my orgasm washed over me. I gasped at the intensity of it, the overwhelming flood of her emotions as my barriers collapsed, just for a little while. I shuddered, sucked shaky breath through my teeth, drowned in the depth of her, in the wonder of having someone who . . . I couldn't identify the emotion for a long time, as I stared at her, dazed, stroking her hair softly. It wasn't need, it wasn't just enjoyment of my company, it wasn't just desire for my body, or apreciation of my abilities. I stopped trying to figure out what it was, and the answer came to me from my studies, rather than experience. She loved me. I could remember that my mother had loved me, but . . . that hadn't felt real for a long time. Suddenly that did, too. I rolled her onto her back, and pressed my face against the crook of her neck, and cried for a long time. - A few weeks later, on the outskirts of Sapporo, Talon found us. Not a large group, just a couple helicopters, but we both knew when they radioed in. `Stupid bastards,' I smiled, rather grimly. `What do you mean?' `They built my tranceivers to crack comsec, including theirs,' I squeezed her hand, `And they're still using the old radios.' `Can't anyone just listen in, anyway?' `No, it's enciphered,' she looked me a question, `Scrambled to prevent other people from hearing it. Without the proper hardware, and knowing the current key,' another cute little question, `A string of characters, to tell the hardware how to scramble the data, and the other side how to unscramble it,' she nodded, `Or very specialized hardware, it is impossible to decipher.' Her hand traced up my back, `And you have the very specialized hardware. What are they saying? I know it's bad, but . . . ' `They're going to come down low, and try to trank us, then haul us back.' `Can you talk to them?' `If they've forgotten that I can listen to their conversations, I don't want to remind them.' She nodded, `Right.' A flare of power bellied out from her, her hair swept up, her eyes turned red, and her feet left the ground as she glared up at the helicopters. `YOU!' her voice boomed, `TALON MINIONS! FLEE NOW, WHILE YOU STILL HAVE YOUR LIVES!' Their radio traffic disolved into chaos. After a few minutes it calmed, and the pilots took their orders. `They're coming.' `No,' her voice was still hard, still louder than it should be, but no longer that awesome boom, `They are dead, they just don't know it yet.' She turned, facing the approaching helicopters, and both bloomed into balls of fire, then fell into the trees. Her aura hadn't even flickered. She looked at the dying fires, then her aura faded away, `Let's go.' I spared a final glance for the dead, and let her lead me on. - `Where are we going?' I asked that night, looking at the glow of Sapporo, just over the horizon. `Talon has a research center in Sapporo. We,' she suddenly turned to me, `I never asked, did I?' she pulled me into her lap, resting one hand on my belly. `Asked what?' `What do you want to do?' she let her chin rest against my shoulder a moment, `Do we hide, attempt to live as normal girls, while Talon continues to do horrible things to people, or do we stop them?' The biggest, sociopathic, part of me said hide, who cares for the rest of the world, it never cared for me. The part of me that loves Lan said hide, don't let anything hurt her. The paranoid sociopathic minority said take them out, or we'll never be safe. The practical part said take them out, or they'll find us, even if we hide, and then they'll hurt Lan. That tipped the balance, `We should stop them, destroy their organization, kill their leaders.' `Not just that,' Lan said, `Steal their followers, corrupt their agenda, co-opt their symbols.' `OK. How do we do that?' `I was going to start by breaking into this research facility, mind-raping a few of the higher-ups, stealing anything valuable, copying all the information they have on other facilities, rescuing any test-subjects we can, then chasing all the underlings out before blowing the place up.' `The Sapporo site is for giant combat robot testing. Nuclear powered, highly illeagal. I say we finger them to the Japanese government, and lead the police in. Talon relies heavily on secrecy for its survival. Once we blow their cover,' I smiled, suddenly, thinking about it, `Once we blow their cover the governments of the world will be fighting over the chance to rip them to pieces that they can study.' `Merkus,' she said, her head pillowed on my breast. I blinked, then nodded, rubbing my cheek against the top of her head, `OK, so we need to kill a few of them first.' `So we're going with my plan?' `Yes,' a memory surfaced, and I smiled, `One of their projects was a smallish giant robot, for use by an esper-cyborg.' `Oh?' she pulled my face around, kissed me under my chin. *Mmm* `Yes. Teleport-capable, or something like that, well-armored, equiped with some sort of directed-energy weapon.' `We'll need to steal that, then,' her lips trailed up, and she licked my cheek. I shivered, not pleasantly. She just held me a little while, then pulled me down on top of her, and licked me again. Much nicer, that time. - `Development on the esper-cyborg unit has been suspended,' Lan told me, holding the director almost gently with one hand, `Since their esper-cyborg had run off. It is mostly complete, but they're still looking for something better than pulse-caps,' she paused, `Oh, pulse-rated capacitors, to power the gate and the mass-driver. As it stands, there's only enough power to gate if all the caps are full,' she paused, again, `Oh, there's a few extra, since they like to blow up, so one can fire the driver a couple times and still gate. With the whole mess running, it'll take minutes to recharge the caps enough for one shot.' `That's not good,' I told her, `What are we going to do with him?' `I've raped him, so the done thing is to murder him now,' Lan said, `Unless you have a better idea?' The man in her grasp gibbered a little. `I can't think of one.' `He thinks that he's just a guy who got to play with really cool toys, and isn't involved in the horrible things that the rest of Talon is rumored to get up to, and so I should just chain him to a tree, which would keep him out of the way until after we did whatever we're gonna do.' `If that's what you want to do, do it.' The man slammed, almost gently, into a tree, and long strips of steel ripped off the car, wrapping around both, the jagged edges cutting lightly into his skin. He whimpered pitifully, his eyes wide and scared, and tears dripped down his face, while blood dripped over his bonds. The rest of the mercedes was torn to shreds, and scattered, leaving nothing but a small puddle of gasoline and oil to mark the spot where it was. `You're a strong guy,' Lan smiled at the director, `You should be able to work your way out of that in a few days, and get back to the road. Someone should find you there.' He nodded, still crying. - Suddenly Lan's hand tightened on the man's throat, and he tried to gasp around his crushed windpipe. No sound came out as he gulped like a fish, clawing at her hands and trying to kick. A few moments after he stops moving she drops him to the floor. `That's the last of them,' Lan said, looking at the corpse, `He was experimenting with biological control systems. Using people he lured into the country with offers of work.' `I'm guessing his experiments were fatal?' `One of his victims might be salvageable, but she'll never be normal,' she kicked the body, breaking ribs. `How bad?' `Nothing of her is left but her brain and a few organs, all packed into a convienient backpack-sized unit.' `Is she sane?' `He thought so, but we'll find out when we get there.' - The lock broke when I hit it. Lan has it all, fine control for delicate work, minor electrical control for untraceable destruction, and much more powerful gross manipulation control, but I can still hold my own against most foes. This door proved no exception, ripping out along with a good chunk the wall around it. `I thought you were going to enter a code or something,' Lan said, her swept-up hair forming a kind of devil's halo about her face. `I just wanted to break something.' She smiled sweetly, and I just about melted right there, then shook my head. `Lets go,' and I led the way inside. - `Are you sure about this?' I asked the girl, Shaala. `Yes. I'll come with you,' there was something fierce in her synthesized voice. `What'd she say,' Lan said, dropping down from where she'd been doing something inside the ECCS. `She wants to come with,' I looked up at the hulking battlesuit, two and a half meters tall. Almost big enough that you'd expect a normal pilot. `Good, we could use the help. Anything special needed?' `No, just fifty-cal ammo, sugar, water, and the occasional dose of vegitable puree. I'm not quite as special-needs as I could be,' her voice quirked up, `They lost one of the other girls in the field because they couldn't get her the ATP solution she needed, so they let me keep my guts. Well, some of them, anyway.' `That's horrible!' Lan said, reaching up to lay a protective hand on the suit's belly, where what's left of Shaala is mounted. `The ad said it'd be a job I'd never forget,' her voice quirked, and something that was almost a laugh followed the words. `You ready?' she asked. Shaala nodded, moving her entire torso to do so. `Yes,' I told her. `Climb in, I'll be up in a second,' and she ran over to the detonator, watching me, her hand over the arming button. I climb up, and check the seat she'd crammed in behind the pilot's. It was obvious she'd modified it, and some sharp bits of metal could still be seen, but nothing one could catch on in normal use. She'd somehow used her powers to weld it, and her seat belts, into place. My seat had also been cut, more carefully than hers, to allow her legs room. I slipped on the control vest, cinched it tight, then pressed and held the button to bring the beast on-line. Much like the attack-helicopter simulator I'd been trained on, the systems appear to suddenly sprout from my body, as if I'd grown a new head, new eyes, new arms, new legs, a new mass-driver tucked down behind one shoulder. Binding a humanoid form is less strange-feeling than binding an attack helicopter, but not by much. `Ready,' I said over my speakers. `Good!,' Lan called, then hit the button. I put a hand down, and let her climb on, before lifting her to my chest. I blinked, fighting vertigo a moment as she crawled past, climbing into her seat. Her buckles made a reasuring *snick* as they fastened, and I buckled myself in. Her knees, I distractedly noticed, were on either side of my hips, with her inner thighs pressed lightly to my waist. `Comfortable?' `No,' she told me. `Re-openning gate,' I said, Shaala a negligable weight on my back, and twisted just so. A warm, almost hot feeling of discharging capacitors, and a dark space appeared before me. I stepped through onto sand, outside the facility where I was rebuilt. Doctor Merkus was there, when we hit the Sapporo facility. Unless someone got an alarm off, he would still be there. I dropped to my knees, and shifted the motive systems to standby, a bright whine telling me the caps were recharging fast. I twisted around, `You OK?' Lan smiled, `Shaala's on guard. Nothing is showing yet, but she is very eager to begin.' `Merkus's work is what allowed her to be made,' I reminded her. `But if he hadn't fucked you over, we'd never have met,' she tangled her fingers in my hair, `So even the nastiest things have some utility.' The whine died, and I brought the motive systems back on line. `Security just got the alarm,' Lan told me, `They're going on alert.' `Good,' I let the radio come up, with Shaala's comsec, `We're going in. Watch the left.' `Roger,' she replied, `I've got it,' and she fell in on the left side, slightly behind me, away from the mass driver's line of fire. Just before we would have crested the final rise, I paused, and brought the mass-driver up. The spades extended, digging into the loose dirt as the heavy device swung around. The facility dropped into wireframe, and I painted my targets, the magazine, where they kept the ammo, and the armsroom, where most of the personnel would be clustered, drawing their weapons. *KRRAACK* *KRRAACK* *BOOM* *BOOM* The high explosive shells blew before the echos of their firing died. Flame and smoke poured from the building, mostly from where the magazine used to be. A few seconds pause to let the spades retract, and the mass driver to swing back out of the way, and then we went charging over the hill. A few of the gaurds tried to stop us. We ignored the ones with small arms. I splattered the guy with the LAW, without even taking the time to try and be subtle about it. Just goosh, bits of human splashing about. That freaked everyone enough that they broke and ran. Almost everyone, I'd realized, as Shaala hit someone with a burst of .50 rounds. He was almost as damaged as the guy I'd killed, but only just as dead. `Merkus,' Lan told me, `Helicopter, loading something.' The mass driver snapped up, a clip of lighter rounds mounted this time, and the lasers glittered off the helicopter, off to one side of the facility. *KRACK* The tungsten-steel penetrator blew though the helicopter's main hub, which came apart relatively quietly. Little puffs of dust rose, about halfway there, where the polyethelene sabot hit the ground, followed by more as the shattered bits of rotor and hub landed all around the helicoptor's twitching form. A moment's thought, and the lasers came to rest on Merkus, who didn't have the sense to dodge. *KRACK* I left the mass driver up as we jogged over, to see just what he was loading up. `That was him, right?' `That was Merkus,' Lan said, `Splat!' she giggled. `Are you OK?' `No,' she reached forward and tangled her fingers in my hair again, `But this needs to be done. I'll fall apart later.' `Love you,' I told her. `Same. Trouble,' pause, twitch of her aura, `Not anymore.' I dropped to one knee next to the large metal box Merkus had, and rested my knuckles on the ground. I cracked the armor open, and tapped the controls with my pair of small arms. `That's kinda cool.' `Hmm?' I'd asked, shifting my cameras to look at the screen from a slightly different angle. `The arms and eyes,' Lan said, `Does it get confusing?' `Yes, but mild electroshock tought me how to focus through it.' Brief touch of fingers to my neck, and I stared at the readout. `What is it? Something alive, but beyond that, it's too unconsious to tell.' `Esper-Cyborg,' Shaala said, `but why is it in a box?' `Because she's just been integrated. She hasn't been trained yet, or even,' I navigated up the menu a little, then down again, `had the chance to heal fully.' Shaala turned to the helicopter, and told the gibbering pilot, `Run.' He took off, scrambling out of the wreck on all fours, then dashing off over the sand. `Almost no-one left inside, and they're burning their backups right now.' `Hmm,' navigated the menu up a little more, then over, and then down, `Merkus copied everything this morning. Knowing him, it's everyone's work.' `Anyone bright enough to make up for being evil here?' I groped awkwardly over the few minds remaining, `Not here. Six more that I can think of, and two of 'em are lawyers.' `Put 'em up against the wall,' Lan quoted softly, and rubbed my side. `They should all be at the Washington facility. That's going to be the most fun, I think.' `Yes,' Shaala said, `Recharge?' `Yes. Let's take the girl home, then attack at dawn.' `They'll likely be expecting that. Do we know where they live?' `No, just where they work.' `Can we gate into the facility?' `We should be able to. The gate is new tech, and still top-secret.' `Two-thirty in the afternoon. They should be back from lunch by then, and they will have calmed down a little by then.' `OK.' I waved for Shaala to follow me, and started back the way we came. - I opened the hatch, and climbed out, cought Lan as she almost fell out, `You OK?' I asked. `Legs are asleep. Lost my grip, too,' she snuggled close, and let me carry her out of our smoking-cave, where we'd placed our new esper-cyborg, and hidden the power armor, as best we could, anyway. `Shaala?' `Asleep in our cave, remember?' `Oh, right,' she kissed at my fingers as I brushed her hair out of her face, her sleepy brown eyes blinking at me. - `Time to wake up,' Shaala shook our bedding lightly, her hulking form barely visible in the light of her operating indicators. `Tired,' Lan complained, wiggling her face against my neck. `If we wait too long they'll figure out we want them, and run.' `How do we know they haven't already?' `We don't. We just have to hope.' `What are we going to do about the esper-cyborg?' `I've rigged a distress beacon on a timer. It'll go off tomorrow if we're not back,' Shaala said. `Good,' Lan said decisively, rolling over, then wiggling out of our joined sleeping bags. She grabbed a canteen from our gear, a toothbrush, and her hairbrush, and I smiled while I listened to her get ready. I gathered my braided hair, and curled it into a bun, then we all trucked outside into the night. Climbing back into the power armor was more difficult than climbing out had been, due to the fact that I'd had to crawl into the cave on hands and knees in order to get it to fit. We managed it, eventually, after a few iterations of Lan falling on top of me. `Where's the beacon?' Lan asked, once we were out. `Over there,' Shaala pointed, and I could barely discern the rounded camoflage shape. `OK, let's go.' `Ready?' I ask Shaala. `Loaded and ready,' she replied. `Opening,' I called. A moment later we stepped through into the atrium of the Washington facility. I swung the mass driver around, and blatently cracked their infosystems. A moment's thought, and the motive systems were on standby, the caps whining as they charged. `All six clocked in this morning. Their rooms are,' I called the wireframe up on the display, and painted them, `here.' `Persons matching their thermographs are,' I let the data sprawl over the screens, eighteen people throughout the building, `And security will be here in five minutes.' `Call their pictures up,' Lan told me. Six pictures appear to frame the wireframe of the building. Lan's aura flared, and seven of the figures fall over, `Two of them were too similar to the picture to tell. Let's run.' `How dead are they?' `I ripped their hearts in twain. Very dead.' `Good,' Shaala said, a little vengefully. The caps finished whining, and I opened the gate back. - `How long until we can wake our friend?' Lan asked, draped over my shoulders as I poke at the menus. `A few days,' I told her, `I just need to check if there's anyone we missed, anyone important.' `OK,' she'd said, laying her head on my shoulder, her hands loose on my belly. After a while I'd realized she was asleep. - I'd been sitting all morning, watching Shaala and Lan try to juggle. My face was aching, and I couldn't figure out why. I frowned, and nibbled on a knuckle, and then Lan laughed, and I looked up to see she'd dropped her rocks again, and was holding them in the air with her power. I realized I was smiling, and that was why. - The woman woke, confusion on her face, blinking. `What? Where is this?' she asked, `Heaven?' Lan smiled at her, `Not quite. Hokkaido, about fourty miles out of Sapporo. `Then why can I see?' she paused, `Or speak?' `Because Talon made you into an esper-cyborg,' I told her, `Yuri-san.' `Talon!?' her eyes went wide, and I could feel her terror. `We rescued you,' Lan said, `Talon is unlikely to last much longer.' `My daughter?' Yuri asked. `No record. You were the only one captured,' I told her, `And they did not recover any bodies.' `So she may be,' Yuri looked troubled. `Safe,' Lan said, softly. `Safe,' Yuri nodded, but was not convinced. - Our party was gathered, Shaala on my back, Lan seated behind me, Yuri perched on my left shoulder. `Opening,' I said, and opened the gate. We emerged on the crushed gravel of the walk facing one of the ponds on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. Shaala dropped to the ground, turning slowly to see the beautifully manicured gardens and buildings, both ancient and new. Yuri stood, her hand resting on my head. The caps whine, motive systems on standby while we waited for the guards to panic, and come rushing out to confront us. Instead, a small old man came out, who I didn't recognize. `That's the Emporor,' Lan said, then vanished from behind me, and I remembered that she can teleport. She reappeared in front of me, hair stained red by her power, in the shiny little skirt, knee high boots and long-sleeved top that manifest when she's let the power loose. I brought the motive systems back up. The old man smiled at her, and bowed. Lan bowed back. `I'd thought the old blood was all gone,' he started, `diluted to the point where it might as well not exist. It's so strong, in all four of you,' he turned to look behind him, at someone I could not see, `It's all right,' he yelled, `They're family.' And somehow it was. - Within days he'd made Lan his heir, displacing his son Akihito. Akihito seemed almost relieved. Hirohito's reaction to me . . . When Lan introduced me, before I'd climbed out of the ECCS, he'd asked her, `Your consort?' Lan had blushed, stammered, then smiled, `Yes.' `Good. Both of you are so strong, and so different. Your children will be,' he paused, `Wonderful.' `What?' Lan had asked. `You do know you're pregnant, right? Both of you?' `Y-Yes,' Lan answered, `How do you know?' `I can sense power, and sometimes, just a little, the future. Not very useful, but it's all that was left to the Imperial family. But not anymore,' and he'd smiled. Lan fainted when, two days later, he told her, `The ceremony has been scheduled. You will be appointed as my heir the day after tommorow.' I was so startled I almost didn't catch her. `And the wedding for next week,' he'd smiled. `Wedding?' `To Lan, of course. It wouldn't do for the Emperor's consort not to be married to her.' I sat down rather quickly, and cuddled Lan close, staring at him. - A week isn't enough time learn the full intracacy of a Shinto wedding ceremony, but I didn't do too badly. The anime version, which was televised, smoothed out both places where I'd really bobbled. The raids on Talon facilities went smoother, the ECCS repainted in JGSDF colors, and backed by hundreds of troops, with jeeps and helicopters. Lan easily scared anyone foolish enough to try and resist out of that notion. I kept just wanting to hug her, kiss her, when she was all glowing red aura and swept-up hair. Days after the wedding, Lan's brother, Kiryuu-sensei, Yuri's daughter, and RX-606 showed up. `Lan-sama,' one of the servants announced. `Yes?' she'd asked, annoyance coloring her tone as she continued to braid my hair. `You have visitors,' he'd said, still outside the shoji. `Who?' she tied my hair off, and stepped back. `Your little brother, guardian, and some friends. I believe they have Yuri-sama's daughter, as well.' `On our way,' she stepped around, and reached down to help me up. I let her, smiling, leaning in to kiss her. She nuzzles into my neck, and I let my cheek rest against her hair. - Yuri was so happy, even though the girl stared for a long time before believing it was her. - Days later, I found out why Hirohito overrode the guards, when Lan said she wouldn't stand for it. I noticed the assasin when I heard the *CRACK* of a close-range gunshot. I dove for Lan, and was set lightly on my feet again, even as Lan's fingers close about the assasin's throat. He was gibbering in fear, his toes barely touching the ground as he scrabbled at her fingers. `Look,' she said, `Tell Matsuhiro that he should give up. If he doesn't, I'll be annoyed. If any of my friends or family are hurt,' she smiled, eyes glowing red, hair swept up, red aura glittering around us, `There won't be much left, of the shooter, of his family, of anyone who knew of the plot. Go, and let them know.' She set the man down, let him fall to his knees, and walked on, reverting to just another girl, about five months pregnant, with another girl on her arm. - A fluttery movement startles me, and I drop my hand to Lan's belly in time to feel her kick again. just before the twins start. I smile, suprised yet again, by how that makes me feel, the flooding warmth of her love, of the strange love I feel for these little lumps of barely-differentiated flesh, not yet people, but with such potential. I snuggle down against my wonderful Lan, and sleep. --- log: 2002/Oct/5: finally started. 2002/Nov/27: continued 2002/Nov/30: continued, with a rather intimate dinner. ^_^ 2002/Dec/28: continued. I actually wrote a sex scene. Wow. It's been almost a year . . . 2003/Apr/12: more. Need to talk about Lan's change, somewhere. 2003/Apr/14: More. Even bloodier than before. I think I may want to throw in more frame, to try and make things a little less disjointed. 2003/May/30: Tiny edit 2003/Sep/6: Added more, edits 2003/Sep/7: little bit more, I think this part is finally finished.