What Child is This

Part 1 (3129)

A.D. 3129 QUINOX CITY, QUINOX, SOL SYSTEM In the pursuit of her work as a pediatrician, Hakashi Taeruko, MD was possessed of many tools. She stood tall atop three thousand years of accumulated medical knowledge, had access to the finest tools of diagnosis and research, and had been reknowned during her practicing days as one of the most talented general practitioners of pediatrics. Her hot-shot doctor days were years past her, of course. Now, Dr. Hakashi was pleased to do often-neglected but just as necessary work pro-bono: care of the young wards of the state. The doctor's bedside manner endeared her to almost every child she checked up on; she could make them feel at ease, subtly administering tests and drawing samples while talking gaily about whatever subject presented itself at hand. She knew hers was a dying breed on the core worlds, but she took it in stride. With sophisticated artificial intelligences being able to do such things without tiring or looking for living space, flesh-and-blood doctors (as opposed to the more common medical technicians, who interpreted results given to them by impersonal instrumental arrays) were by and large relegated to frontier worlds. Hakashi herself was an old woman, and she largely expected herself to be one of the last wholly human doctors on her home world of Quinox. Dr. Hakashi had seen many things in her day. This, truth be told, was one of the most unusual. She was familiar with most alien physiologies as a matter of training. While the existence of the Serenity line (and their strange, truly magical powers) had made most of the non-human interstellar powers wary, they had not banned their citizens from coming there and observing the majestic splendor of the human civilization. Hakashi had performed regular, routine checkups on at least half a dozen alien species and genotypes in her career, and often stumbled across unwanted hybrid sons and daughters in her orphanage trips, and it seemed as though the current cause of her concern was one of these. It was a little strange for non-human, or partly-human children to be found in a Quinoxian orphanage, but it was not unheard of. This one was perhaps two years old. Very healthy, as far as she could tell-- responsive to all of the sensory tests, no known illnesses, and to all other investigations, a perfectly normal (if abnormally intelligent) little girl. What was unheard of, though, was that even with all of her tools and all of her accumulated expertise, she could not for the life of her discern this child's genetic heritage. In Hakashi's defense, there were a number of things in the girl's biology that were simply impossible. Her chromosones, encoded in a triple-helix pattern (which was in and of itself a feat of genetic engineering that quite frankly blew her mind), contained a mishmash of various traits. Some of the more regular codons the computers could recognize as human, but others were a sort of step to the side-- inexplicably older, somehow cleaner-- and others still were beyond anything she had ever seen before. And that was only the code of her physiology. She had two hearts, both beating in a synchronous rhythm. The rate of oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange in her lungs was astoundingly high; her breath rate was perhaps half that of a human when at rest. Her hearing and vision had both tested out to be at least time-and-a-half that of a comparable human. Compared to all this, the deep, almost navy blue of the girl's hair was a matter of almost tangential interest. The girl's anatomy could not be anything from the present-- she was either a gene-modified child of the future, or she was something older... from unknown old days, when the air was cleaner and the world was newer... Hakashi clicked her tongue self-reprovingly. She was getting superstitious in her old age. There was a reasonable explaination for this, a valid grounding in science-- there had to be. She glanced out the one-way window, looking to the child as one of her assistance distracted her from the tests with a storybook. For all the girl's incessant curiosity, she had initially displayed a distinct dearth of language skills; over the course of the few weeks she had been here, though, she was picking up the language and using the vocabulary of someone twice her age. The caretakers reported that she had easily become the most taxing of all the children amongst all of her peers, and that mostly because she would never shut up. Her parent, or whoever had left her here, had given her the name Soseiko. The computers informed her that the name was derived from an old Japanese word meaning rebirth, a return to life, or regeneration. Hakashi had run a mitochondrial DNA test to see if her mother was on file, just as matter of procedure, and had not been surprised when the computer reported that the DNA was not on file. All in all, when she put the many factors of this girl's brief stay together, Dr. Hakashi did not like what she saw. This was big, whatever it was-- bigger than her, bigger than the orphanage. But if it wasn't... if she was just being paranoid and superstitious... then this child really was in need. Besides, the orphanage was warded against malign spirits as a matter of procedure. Without concrete proof that the child was actually a threat to the others, Hakashi could not in good conscience refuse her shelter. She looked back through the window, observing that Soseiko and the attendant were now having a significant discussion on how hot the Three Bears' porridge had to be before it was too hot to eat, and how cold it had to be before it was unpalatable. The dialogue shifted quickly thereafter to the attendant reluctantly explaining to an insistant Soseiko just what exactly porridge was, and what exactly a bear was. Soseiko decided that she would much rather have pie than porridge, and then insisted that the increasingly harried-looking attendant continue the story. Soseiko was easily the most precocious child she had ever observed. Hakashi only regretted that she would not be able to make a more significant case study out of her. If she could unlock the secrets in that girl's genes, what benefit could she give to the whole of humanity? No, better to keep it quiet. At least for now. If she continued to be as interesting in her later life as she was now, the doctor thought with a wan smile, then she would be leading a very, very interesting life. That, in and of itself, was enough cause for sympathy. </TABLE> Part 2 (3132) AURATOPIA, QUINOX, 3132 "Do you know why you're here, Soseiko?" "Because I'm too smart for my own good," the girl said mournfully, eyes cast downwards. The man sitting at the desk across from her paused for a long moment. She and he had met a few times before, once yearly, when she was old enough to start understand what was going on in the world around her. The orphanarium may have been state-run, but that only meant they had to find administrators with a certain level of compassion. Gods knew these kids needed it. "What gives you that idea, Soseiko?" the man continued, raising an eyebrow. "Everything." Her light brown eyes flicked up from the floor to meet his own gaze before dropping down again. "I'm too smart to play dumb and cute like the other kids when people come," she sighed dejectedly. "I'm never going to get adopted... I'm just going to get shoved into a foster home when I turn ten, and then I'm going to end up just like every other person who comes out of the foster homes." "Now now, you're just being silly." He smiled reassuringly behind his folded hands. "Lots of people come out of the foster homes as perfectly normal, well-adjusted human beings." "Human BEINGS come out of those!" she snapped back at him vehemently. "I'm not normal! I'm better than everyone else and I don't WANT to be better!" Best to change the topic. "You're a very bright girl, Soseiko," he said, offering her a small smile. "People who are looking to adopt like their children to be smart." "Not smarter than THEY are," Soseiko responded, the fight having left her. "And I try to pretend I'm dumb, but then I forget and say something about subquantum particle physics, or history, or nanotech..." She paused and looked back up to his eyes, turning away just as quickly. "I always forget, and they just freeze up and look at me like I'm some sort of freak..." She didn't continue on with the obvious thought-- she was convinced that those thoughts were right. He'd read this in her file, and had prepared himself for that train of disagreement. The caretakers had noticed that as a general rule, Soseiko stuck mostly to the small circle of near-human children at the orphanarium, emerging only to excel in her schoolwork and, occasionally, in the athletics competitions that were held against other private schools. When the girl bothered to compete, she was almost unmatched; the only children who could really stand up against her were the children of the Senshi and Knights, and the few other non-human childran on Quinox who possessed an above-human average stamina. Regardless, it was time to direct this conversation to its intended destination. "Soseiko, do you know what 'ki' is?" he inquired. The girl looked up at this. "'Ki,'" she mused, distractedly. "Noun. Kay Eye. The dispersed bioelectric field as a whole, generated by all living beings with a nervous system and the source of the mystic powers wielded by the Senshi." "Good," he replied, nodding. "I see you've been keeping up with your schoolwork." "Actually, that wasn't in my schoolwork," Soseiko shrugging. He concealed a smile. "Nonetheless. Do you remember those tests we had everyone in your age group take a few months ago?" "The ones where the military guys came in and hooked us up to those weird machines and we had tell them if we felt hot or cold?" How did she know they were military? "That's the one, yes." She nodded after a moment. "Yeah, I remember it. What about it?" "Every few years," he explained, "there are a few mandatory check-ups on all the children on Quinox. The government is always looking for new people, so they look for people with a certain gift and try to get them to join up." The girl nodded emphatically. "The Crystal Imperium is one of the few interplanetary governments to mostly use ki techniques in its soldiers," she said importantly. "When Cooler, King Cold, and Furiza were killed by the Z Fighters a thousand years ago, most of his empire died with them, and nobody's done it since then. A lot of people say that the Senshi powers are just a different way to use of the Changeling fighting style, you know." "Is that so?" "They're sort of right," Soseiko continued absently, brushing a bit of her hair behind her ear, "but the people who say the Senshi are more like Saiya-jins are righter. Senshi have Senshi kids-- everyone knows that, just like saiya-jins who went super saiya-jin had kids that could go super saiya-jin." "Very impressive," he replied, leaning forward. "Where did you learn all of that?" "...history reports," she answered after a sudden pause, abruptly very quiet. There was that look in her eye again, he noted-- the sudden awareness of her difference. It wasn't unusual for children her age to have obscure interests (he personally remembered being fascinated by prehistoric Earth saurians) that they would delve deeply into, absorbing otherwise meaningless bits of trivia in the pursuit of their hobbies. Knowledge of the incredible powers of the saiya-jins was more or less public record. While the bloodline of the species had spread thin over the past thousand years, leaving a remote few of their line with the power to actually achieve that vaunted state, their incredible powers were a known quantity to the Crystal Imperium. But Furiza? He hadn't heard that name since his post-secondary schooling. "The test you took a few months ago," he resumed, "allows the government to see if you would be fit for a place in the higher echelons of the military. They have ways to let normal people serve, of course-- technicians, administrators, medics, engineers-- but they like to have their officers, the people in charge, be capable of defending themselves in a fight." Soseiko looked up to him again, puzzled-- but in that look was a dawning awareness of what he was saying, and why he was saying it. "They want... me?" she said, a flurry of emotions in her voice. "You're not the brightest star they've seen," he said with a small, sage smile, "but you apparently have quite a talent, especially for someone with no formal training. The military is interested in recruiting you for their officer training program." "Really?" She was sitting upright in her chair now, her attention fully corralled. "But why do they want me?" the girl protested, confused. "I'm only nine. I can't fight. I don't even LIKE fighting." He smiled. "You're in good company, then. If you'll remember your history texts, neither did Serenity the Third." The girl flushed and looked away, but he could see the small, self-conscious smile on her face. The comparison to the noblest of the noble lines was an argument from authority, the sort of logical fallacy that she might become aware of in ten years' time; for now, though, it worked masterfully. Now, to seal the deal. "If you agree to go, you'll be with people who are more like yourself," he continued gently. "The military likes to have children that are about your age, so they can train them better for when they get older. You're a little younger than they normally recruit, but you're also smarter than most kids your age. You should be able to pick things up very quickly." She nodded, absorbing this information for a moment, then looked back. "Do I have to go?" she said uncertainly. "No, Soseiko, you don't have to go if you don't want to." A sad smile crossed his expression. "Just the same, though, I would recommend trying it out for a year. I went to military school myself when I was a boy a little older than you; I didn't have the talent like you do, though, so I washed out after a few years. If you don't like it, you can always come back-- though if you stay here, I feel obligated to remind you that you're getting close to the age where we start looking to put you in a foster home." "The foster home," she echoed, making a face. "Yeah... I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?" "You always have a choice, Soseiko," he corrected her. "Remember that. In any case, young lady, you don't have to decide right away. Think about it for a day or two, come to a decision then-- but be sure to think about it. If you don't want to, I'll tell the military you're not interested; if you want to, I suggest packing a suitcase before you tell me or one of your teachers. The military people tend to come very quickly when called, and they do not like having to wait for personal effects to be packed up." He paused, regarding her with an inscrutable look for a moment. "Any questions?" Soseiko shook her head. "That'll be all, then," he announced with a nod. "You may go back to class, now." The girl stood and bowed briefly, taking a few steps back before disappearing out the door and returning to the world she had been raised to. The girl had the potential for strength, he noted with a mental sigh as he returned to the business of administration. He wasn't in a position to see the results of her tests, of course, but he was certainly in a position to know when someone's skills were in demand. Besides, the liason he'd spoken to had been very firm about Soseiko's desirability. In the years since the child's arrival, she had been thoroughly tested. Nobody had managed to find latent psychological programming or unusual psychospiritual trauma, but that only meant that she was untapped potential, and had to be guided before she became dangerous. The poor girl would probably never have a truly normal life, he thought with a twinge of sadness. Hopefully, in the years to come, she would forget she'd ever wanted one. BR> =Part 3 (3136)= ACADEMY OF GALACTIC LEARNING AND STUDY, 3136 The supply closet was a good place to cry. She'd discovered this by accident a few months ago, when one of the older students left it open for longer than they were supposed to. There were no full-time custodians at the Academy; all of the cleaning work was done by the students, some of which cleaned it as part of their regular duties, and others who were assigned it as disciplinary measures. As a result of the regular troublemaking by the older generation of students, the school was more often than not clean as a whistle. You could eat off of the floors without fear of infection (as some students were instructed to do after a particularly unusual violation), and you could see your reflection in the shine of the floors. Not that she was in a position to do so, at the moment. The closet offered a comforting darkness, one where she couldn't see how much of a freak she was. The medical programs had looked her over and given her a clean bill of health, but they didn't really know for sure what she was... how unclean she felt. And this was just the beginning. Nobody really knew what was going on. Not anymore. She knew there was something fundamentally wrong about her, when she didn't need to concentrate to read auras, or manifest her a reiatsu... they said she was talented, but she knew all along she was too talented for this to be true. The teachers meant well, but they couldn't help her. The nice students couldn't stop staring, and the mean ones... well, she was better off hiding. Better off where nobody could see her for the freak she was. It was her personal, inviolate hiding place. In the corner, nobody could see her; if she heard the lock cycle open, she could hold her breath, and nobody would notice her. Even if someone DID decide to look for someone in here, there were a few spell-based stealth techniques she'd spent her free time learning. Here, she was safe from everyone else... and she didn't like to think it, but everyone else was probably safe from her, too. She stifled another sob as she heard the door lock cycling, lapsing into silence as someone cracked the door open. Another cadet stuck her head in the door, the flourescent light of the hallway behind her casting her features into shadow. She averted her eyes, looking away-- people had a tendancy to know when they were being watched, somehow-- and breathed no louder than a mouse might. In defiance of her invisibility and silence, though, the other girl slipped through the door, oriented herself towards the corner she was hiding in, and quietly said one word: "Hello?" She jumped at the other girl's voice, banged her head on the shelf above her, yelped in pain, and then cursed herself for being jumpy. "I KNEW there was someone in here," the other girl said triumphantly, closing the storage closet's door behind her as she squatted down to the other girl's level. "I hate to pry," she said, concerned, "but why are you in here? Don't you have class, or something?" "No," she retorted indignantly, her voice catching in her throat. She paused, coughed, and continued, more quietly, "I'm not doing anything wrong..." "Didn't say you were," the second one replied, apparently content to talk casually in the almost absolute darkness. "'S a good place to hide, though. It's cool, it's dark, nobody really comes here... if I was sad, I might come here, too." Her cheeks burned. How could she have figured it out so quickly? "Go away, please," she said haltingly, turning her face away. "I just... I want to be alone. Please." "Mmm." The other one stood up with a rustle of clothing. "I'm going to turn on the light, okay?" she announced. "No!" she protested sharply. "Don't turn--" A click punctuated her sentence as the overhead lighting ignited, casting the small closet in a bright, pale luminescence. She immediately turned her head back away from the light, eyes shut against the sudden stabbing pain, and squirmed further back into the corner. "Just leave me alone," she moaned. "Please..." "Tell you what," her self-appointed companion declared, sitting back down to level with her. "I'm really bad about being nosy, so unless you tell me why you're crying in a supply closet, I'm going to tell the counselors about you and they'll make SURE to figure out what's going on." "Good luck," she snapped, shooting her a glare from the corner of her eye. "Nobody knows what's wrong with me." "Maybe," the other one replied, a smile flickering briefly over her face. "But hey, y'know? I like to get to know people before I eat their souls. Makes it tastier." "Makes it... wait--" she paused, suddenly very confused, and looked over at the other girl warily. "Eat my soul?" she said dubiously. "No, not really," the other one shrugged, amused. "But I got to see your face. You're the one they're calling Sanjiyan, right?" "My name isn't Sanyjiyan," she answered bitterly, voice cracking as another flood of tears threatend to overcome her. "I just... look like some thing out of those stupid Earth stories. That's all." "Ah," the other girl nodded sagely. "Well, what IS your name?" "...Shasa," she murmured. "My name is Shasa." "Shasa," she repeated, committing the name to memory and extending her hand. "Nice to meet you, Shasa. My name's Soseiko." Shasa turned her eyes to the outstretched hand, glancing from it to the girl's face. "Why are you bothering me?" she asked, finally letting her indignation at being discovered drain away into a more general exhaustion. "Can't you just leave me alone?..." "I could," Soseiko admitted, crossing her legs as she sat down and letting her hand drop down to support her. "But I don't want to. Most of the people in the Academy are royalty, and friends of royalty, you know-- it's a few rare exceptions, people like you and me, where we sort of get... you know, discovered. At random, even. Then, we get brought someplace like here, so they can keep us under watch while we mature into the lovely blossoms of destruction we have the chance to be." The confusion Shasa was feeling must have been evident, because Soseiko scootched closer on her bottom and offered her hand again-- but palm up, wrist held loosely. "Do you know how to take a wrist pulse?" the other girl inquired. "Yeah," Shasa responded, eyeing the outstretched hand warily. "Do it," Soseiko offered. "Humor me. Please?" Reluctantly, the girl edged out of her very comfortable corner and took the proffered hand in her own. A thumb settled on the base of her wrist-- Soseiko gently pushed it over about an inch to the side, an act that drew a raised eyebrow from the pulse-taker-- and paused when she found the beat. "That's... very fast," Shasa noted after a moment, concerned. "Too fast. But you're not sweating, or breathing hard..." "Two hearts," Soseiko replied with a smirk, tapping both sides of her chest with her free hand. "Averages out to about a hundred and seventy beats per minute. I've always been able to read ki patterns, and psychic disturbances, and magical emissions... well, when I knew what I was looking for, I could see them. Also, I've got orange blood-- you wanna see?" "Eww." Sasha dropped the other girl's hand and blanched. "No, I don't want to see your blood," she replied with a tired snort/sigh. "Why are you saying this? What do you want?" "Just letting you know you're not the only freak out there," she answered, rocking back on her haunches. "I mean, I know this's probably really, really weird for you-- I guess I've had it easier, since I look human and all and I've been this way since I was born... but you're not the only one." Slowly, she looked up to the other girl. "You're not... human?" Shasa asked, hesitant. Soseiko smiled crookedly and took a lock of her blue hair in hand. "You don't think they'd let me dye my hair this color, do you?" "I guess not," Shasa responded, frowning. "But I've seen hair color like that before, on normal people..." "Point," the other responded, rolling her eyes. "I'm partly human," she said after a moment. "But only partly. I've got some normal DNA, sure, but it isn't... well, it isn't really a lot, compared to the rest. The docbots don't know what I am, either, y'know, but you don't see me kvetching about it in the darkness." "Well, you still LOOK normal," she said bitterly, eyes narrowing. "People can't see two hearts whenever they look at you, or orange blood, or whatever else you have. I can't get away from it... ever." "Mmm." Soseiko leaned back in. "Yeah, I see how the whole third eye thing'd make that hard. Does it work?" "Does what work?" She tapped the center of her forehead. "That." "Well, yeah... I guess." Shasa sighed. "Not that it really helps..." "I see," the other girl said absently, nodding. "I like your eyes. I always wanted grey eyes when I was a kid... reminds me of rain. Like a cloudy day, full of water and the smell of wet earth. People used to say that if you had a third eye, you're close to enlightenment." Shasa smiled tightly. "Well, I sure don't feel enlightened." "And that's the first sign that there's still hope." Soseiko stood up, grinning, and leaned backward in an arcane sort of stretch. "I've got classes to go to, so I'm going to go ahead and let you sulk some more if you want. If you want to talk later or something, you know my name-- don't be afraid to use it, okay?" "Okay," she responded, nodding, as the other girl reached up to turn the light off and made her exit from the storage closet. Surrounded in the comfort of darkness once again, Shasa tried to fit herself back into her little corner beneath the shelves, willing herself to feel bad again. She was surprised to discover a moment later that she wasn't in the mood for self-pity. She wasn't sure why, to tell the truth; it wasn't like she felt better about her freaky mutant abnormality, or that Soseiko had said anything to help her... save that she thought her eye was pretty. Or, Shasa thought a moment later, her eyes. The one on top was the same misty grey color as the two in her head set where everyone else had them. She'd said that she had pretty eyes. Did she mean it? Was she just talking to fill the gap? Or was the compliment... genuine? Either way, she was too bewildered by the entire exchange to feel unclean, be depressed, or even mope right now. As Shasa squirmed out from her hiding place, she wondered briefly if that hadn't been the other girl's intent the whole time. Part 4 (3140) ACADEMY OF GALACTIC LEARNING AND STUDY, QUINOX, 3140 There were many unusual bits about being a student at the Academy that Soseiko had learned to appreciate for what they were worth. For one, the Royal Family had sent their own children to study here. This was important to Soseiko, mostly because this meant that it assured her that she was getting the best education that she could possibly get. The Royals would certainly want the best for their children, and how could she do anything but benefit from the trickle-down of such attention? The other quirk about the Academy was that sometimes, every once in a while, one of the Royals themselves would supervise one of the classes. Most often, they came to view the upper-level combat courses, scoping out potential recruits for post-secondary conscriptment; every so often, though, they would step into one of the lower-level classes to see the new generation straining to prove themselves. His Highness had chosen a good time to come. Soseiko's class in lom-chi-ki was taught by a man who had created a good way for students to prove themselves-- grading by the ladder. At the beginning of the year, he had randomly ranked the students, and informed them all that the person on the top of the list at the end of the year would automatically receive the highest grade in the class. Once per week, a student could issue a challenge to a person higher on the ladder; if the challenger was victorious, they would bump the loser down a rank and take the place above them. However, if that student lost the challenge, they could not challenge that person again for two weeks... and since a student was only allowed to answer one challenge per week, the challenge of a higher-ranked person always took precedence over that of a lower rank. Soseiko hadn't taken lom-chi-ki classes until the beginning of the year. As a result, she had occupied the bottom rungs of the latter for a long time. Her climb to the top had been slow, but inevitable; her classmates had long been familiar with Soseiko's ability to succeed at something when she put her mind to it, and physical combat was apparently one of those things. It didn't hurt that she was naturally stronger and faster than almost all the other students, and it certainly didn't hurt that the few people who COULD tap into greater power sources were forbidden to do so in ladder matches. The ladder matches were for the perfection of technique, and while weaving spells was certainly an advantage in actual fighting, it did not measure one's raw talent in unarmed fighting. It was a small distinction that Soseiko had learned to exploit. As the first-ranked student in the class, there was nobody for her to challenge-- and as challenges were resolved from the bottom up, she was always the last to fight. Her challenger this week was a boy named Joshua, an Earthan import, who held the third rung of the ladder. Joshua was talented in hand-to-hand fighting, probably owing to his distant Saiyan ancestry, but he wasn't her equal. She was pretty sure that nobody in this class was, really, but she couldn't fault them for that. Joshua was, at the moment, finishing off the match he'd been challenged to. The seventh-ranked student, another boy by the name of Reisashi, was very good when it came to the unarmed portion of the contests; he was limber, loose, and very quick with his hands. Reisashi couldn't convey his speed through weapons, though, and while he was certainly as good (if not a little better) than his current opponent at grappling, Joshua proved to be the dominating fighter in both the blade and bo matches. A strong kiai shout concluded the match, with Joshua's blade poised at Reisashi's gut and with Reisashi's blade too far away to deflect the final match-winning point. Sensei Rokubungi sharply called for a conclusion to the match; Reisashi checked his wild strike, and both combatants separated. Rokubungi barked out another set of commands; the two students bowed first to him, and then to one another. Soseiko smiled to herself, internalizing the pattern of attack Joshua had been using-- and suddenly realizing that the look that he was giving her in return was not the usual scowl with which he regarded everyone else. The expression passed after a moment, his sneer reasserting itself after a moment. If Soseiko didn't hear the sudden intake of breath from the girl sitting aside her, she would have chalked it up to memory. "Oooh," Shana said, gently nudging her peer. "Did you see that?" "See what?" Soseiko replied, attempting to forget what the other girl was talking about. "The way he was looking at you," she whispered, nudging her friend with a bigger grin. "He wasn't straining his face or anything!" "Maybe he forgot to clench," the azure-haired girl responded, rolling her eyes. "I've not seen him ever look at anyone when he wasn't constipated," Shana murmured insistently, giving a single thoughtful nod. "You don't think...?" "HIM? No! No. No way." She had NOT wanted to think about him like that. "Not a chance," Soseiko said in a clipped, emphatic whisper. "He's... y'know... not interested in things that aren't fighting." "He looked almost like a normal person," Shana marvelled. "Wow." She rolled her eyes. "As normal as anyone gets around here." Shana responded with a sharply-placed elbow, and Soseiko accepted it as was her lot. There'd been a lot of change in the other girl since she'd known her; maybe, Soseiko thought, some of it would stick once they parted ways. They were quiet again for some time, even when it came time for Soseiko to take the mat for her match. No words were necessary between the two girls-- their confidence in her victory was absolute. The order of matches this week was set to grapples, staves, and swords. The girl performed a few preliminary stretches, getting her muscles ready for another workout as Joshua emerged from the crowd of students. On a whim, Soseiko looked up between shoulder rolls, trying to catch his eye; when all she could see was the perpetual scowl that was constantly on his face, she could feel a bit of the tension leave her frame. If he really DID like her, she might feel bad about kicking his tail up his hindquarters. The few rounds of grappling were swift and certain. Joshua was measurably stronger than her-- not only because he had ancient Sayian genes, but also because he was a few years older than her, as well as a boy-- but one of the first lessons of lom-chi-ki was that it was not worth the effort to try and lift the mountain. Rather, she put her time in causing an avalanche, bringing the mountain to her. Saiyan genes or not, he still called uncle after she'd applied sufficient force to the elbow lock she quickly applied to him. The next two fights were similarly swift and brutal; while he almost broke her winning streak by hyperextending her shoulder, Soseiko countered this ploy by executing a standing flip, following this up with a leg-sweep and taking him down in the same fluid motion that reset the position of her arm. Rokubungi-sensei's sharp bark concluded that match. Both competetors picked themselves off of the mat, bowing to one another once again as the teacher's assistants quickly supplied a pair of staves. She and he accepted the weapons provided them with another bow, and took positions some feet apart from the other, waiting for the instructor's shout to begin the match. At his call, Soseiko quickly shifted into a defensive stance. Joshua always began a bout with a quick series of offensive strikes, trying to catch his opponent off-guard before they could read his intent and counting on the early victory to demoralize the other fighter. Months and months of watching Joseph fight, though, had ingrained his preferences into her memory. He himself probably wasn't aware he preferred this sort of tactic. Given how big he was, this would have been the proper strategy against anyone who didn't take pains to be observant. She deflected his opening swing and hopped over the follow-up sweep, feinting with her own weapon to his chest; he bought the bluff and brought his staff up to parry an upper-body attack that never came, leaving him open for her to place her weapon between his knees. A sharp push knocked him over. A kiai shout, and a would-be injurious swing, brought a conclusion to the round. One of the teacher's aides marked the point for the girl as they separated. Soseiko watched him more closely this time; examining the inevitable tells that she had picked up on her classmates in the many months. The stance suggested he was going to be more wary this time, ready for her to whip out something technical and tricky to defeat his overwhelming attack. When the match called out, she maintained her own defensive stance for a long moment. They circled one another, each waiting for the other's move; between steps, Soseiko launched herself forward and batted his staff to the side, and laid another swift strike at his neck. By the time Joshua had read her move, it was too late to do anything about it but freeze. Rokubungi nodded severely, signalling that she had earned her second point, and they stepped apart once again. The boy's memory was absurdly short, she marvelled, a small smile creeping across her face as he finally settled into the middle stance-- their last three ladder matches had pretty much exactly like this one was going to. He opened up strong for the first match, overreacted on the second, and then tried to fight her at her own game in the third. Joshua was a powerful fighter, but a tactical genius he wasn't. He wasn't sweating it on the outside, but she'd gotten him unnerved. With both misdirection and sufficient bluffing having defeated the options of total offense and defense, he was going to try and draw her into thinking he'd fallen for another trick-- and then, he would compensate with another blow. She played to him a little longer, feinting and away, giving him openings he knew he wouldn't take, and building the speed between feints-- and when he lowered his guard completely, expecting her to bob away, that was when she struck. The hollow crack of the staff echoed in the otherwise silent room. Her opponent staggered back, surprised by the rapidity of her attack; Rokubungi-sensei barked, "Point!" as the rest of the classroom began applauding lightly. Soseiko couldn't quite erase the victorious smile from her face as she bowed to Rokubungi, then to her opponent, and then performed a more elaborate, Occidental bow to the audience, which only encouraged them to be more energetic in their approval. She relinquished her weapon to the assistants, accepting the bokken they handed her and testing its weight in one hand, already concocting her strategy for the next match. He liked swords, was almost as good with a blade as he was with unarmed combat, and would likely be expecting more of the same... "Do you really have to do all the showboating?" His voice drew her back to the concrete. "No," she admitted with a smirk, resuming a combat stance. "What's the point?" he retorted, his scowl settling deeper and more angrily into his face. "If you're not going to take me seriously, then END it." "I've got you two for three already," Soseiko replied with a shrug and a wink. "I think I'll take the time to enjoy this one." His expression darkened. "So this is... entertaining to you, is it?" "Oh, come off it." She motioned with her weapon to his. "Like you've never gloated before. Are you going to fight, or are you going to jaw at me all day?" "Oh, I'll fight." Joshua brought his bokken up into a high, aggressive stance. "I will MAKE you take me seriously." "Enough!" Rokubungi bellowed. "This match begins!" Both students immediately snapped into memory, bowing first to the older man, and then to one another. A moment later, they had returned to their previous stances, awaiting only their sensei's barked command to begin-- which, a moment later, he gave. They stood apart for a long moment. Soseiko watched him briefly, wondering if he was going to shift stances or if he was going to go ahead and attack. If he voice was any sign, he was either going to go at her aggressively, or he was simply going to concede her the match by permitting her to strike at him and win. But which was it? The girl was so consumed with the decision that she almost missed the brief shimmer of building ki in her opponent. With a furious kiai shout, Joshua crossed the space between them faster than they eye could see and delivered an incredibly powerful stroke upwards, knocking her bokken upwards and out of the way. Her hands stung briefly from the impact, but she squelched the surprised yelp. She couldn't call forth her own ki without a moment's preparation-- she'd never needed to, as ki usage had always been forbidden to use in training against cadets unless properly supervised by someone else. Her weapon was away to where she couldn't use it to defend herself, and she wasn't in a position to dodge whatever he had planned next-- -- so when he merely turned his bokken to deliver a hard blow to its hilt, she was briefly thankful that he hadn't chosen something more potentially dangerous, like her head, or her neck, or her abdomen, or legs, and she continued to be thankful until the pain receptors caught up with her brain. The next few seconds were a flurry of motion that she barely followed. The other students reacted with a gasp, various levels of shock and concern registering amidst them; long before any of those could take action, though, both Rokubungi and the aides were in action, with the latter both disarming Joshua and taking him down to the mat, and the former delivering an atemi strike that would de-synchronize his ki circulation for a time. It was over before it started. "Back to your seats!" Rokubungi said harshly, delivering a swift chopping gesture to the rush of students. They complied meekly, falling back into ranks, and the older man crossed the distance to the kneeling, obviously pained girl. "Show me your hand," he said, tone indicating this was not a request. Reluctantly, Soseiko stopped cradling her hand and let him look at it, making sure to avert her own eyes. If she saw how bad she knew it was, she knew she might lose it. Rokubungi seemed less inclined to react on anything than an intellectual level. "Bones broken," he said matter-of-factly. "Fetch a healer... and the Monitors." The elder student bowed and quickly made her way out the door. Gently, Rokubungi released Soseiko's hand and walked calmly over to the student laying prone on the ground, both arms positioned where their dislocation would be a matter of ease. Joshua, wisely, was not attempting to resist the less-than-gentle ministrations of the more-skilled student sitting on top of his back. "You are aware of the rules of this dojo, cadet," the sensei observed evenly. "Ki expression is forbidden within these walls during ladder matches." Joshua remained stonily silent, facing the wall ahead of him. "The cadet is disqualified for violation of the rules," Rokubungi said dispassionately, straightening and regarding the assembled class. "Furthermore, he is forbidden to issue challenges for the rest of the semester, and this burst of violence will be noted to the appropriate authorities." "No!" Soseiko shouted, staggering to her feet. "I'm not done with him yet! I don't need tow hands to--" "The cadet," her sensei repeated, turning to face her with a severe look, "is disqualified. This match is concluded. Cadet Soseiko is the victor and retains her position." As much as she wanted to press it, she knew the nature of that look. Soseiko took several slow, deep breaths, calming herself and focused her mind on the sharp, stabbing pains in her hand. He'd struck her there to disarm her, not somewhere else where she might have been more injured... what did it mean? The medic arrived moments later and shortly before the two Monitors did, escorting both students to their different destinations. Rokubungi began barking orders as though nothing had happened, and the other students obeyed without question. Soseiko stole a look at her antagonist, trying to discern something, and suddenly realized that he was looking back at her, scowlless... and with a look of regret. But not the regret of being caught, she wondered. The regret of something deeper. It would be something for her to think about while the machines in the hospital re-knit her bones. </TABLE> </HTML> Part 5 (3142) "I'm dreaming," she mused. "You're dreaming!" Joshua echoed, surprised. "How did that happen?" "It does, sometimes," Soseiko answered, looking through him to the clock tower on the other side of the school. It was only late o'clock, much too early for anything but the lifeless mask of Quinox to be turning to the sun. The planet defended itself against hostile minds with its own power, only revealing its moddled steel and purple surface to those who were trusted enough by those who governed the will of the world. "I can see through you," she thought aloud, frowning. "Are these your true colors?" "I show you my face every day," he replied, still confused by her query, and took a step out of himself. Joshua's shell smiled winningly to her before it began crumbling in the stiff breeze, flakes breaking off and blowing into the wind. Soseiko watched it disintegrate and watched herself close her eyes and turn away. "It's hollow," the boy explained, gazing off away from her. "But you already knew that." Her grief would not manifest itself no matter how hard she wanted it to. "I always did," she said sadly. "I hoped, though." "That one of us was real?" he inquired, turning around to face her. Joshua was naked without his shell, now, skin drawn tightly over his already-gaunt frame. "It's convenient," the boy added, frowning. "But it won't last. We're not going to have the miracle romance." "It's not fair," she said stiffly, straightening up and sneaking a glance over her shoulder at his skeletal frame. "Everyone else gets love," the girl added, loosening up a bit. "I don't want to see through it. It's not just chemicals, it shouldn't be, it can't be. I won't let it be." "You don't want to be hollow, either," he agreed, nodded, and took a step towards her. "But you can't escape it. Aren't we the sum of what we are?" Soseiko shook her head fervently. "Life is more than the sum of our parts," she said. "Experience and action makes us what we are, strengthens the soul..." "A dispersed bioelectric pattern generated by the presence of a starseed," he agreed. "Past lives can be determined with an accuracy of no less than eighty percent with the right science. Starseeds germinate and re-germinate in bodies that are like their previous owners, giving them the opportunity to repeat the same mistakes." "We can learn," she retorted stubbornly, hands balling into fists. "We don't have to do what came before. We can learn from experience, become more than what we were..." Joshua tilted his head to the side. "'That which does not kill me makes me breakfast'?" She frowned and shook her head. "Makes me stronger." "Saiyan errors at best," he snorted. "Are you sure you're strong enough to embrace that?" He took another step closer, expression hardening. "Boil you down to your essence. Give you adversity, see where your genes end and your spirit begins." "You're not Joshua," Soseiko said suddenly. "You're something else. You wear his face, and you want to hurt me..." "But who am I?" He advanced another step, expression hardening into an impartial mask. "This is your dream, isn't it?" he inquired, smiling. "Your subconscious. If you really want to be free, you just have to keep yourself in disarray. If you find yourself, you run the risk of losing yourself. Stay unharmonious, stay anonymous. Embrace mediocrity, and you will be too busy being mundane to remember regret." Her eyes narrowed in answer. "I shall not fear," Soseiko replied coldly, her previous uncertainty crystalized into resolution. "Fear is the mind-killer. I will face my fears, and I will let them pass through me. Only I will remain." Joshua took the final step, closing the distance between them. "Hollow," he said casually, reaching out and placing a hand on the center of her chest between her breasts. "What terrifies you is buried within your nature. What you are. What you might become. It is why you embrace their ways like you do, why you push yourself in the ways they tell you to, why you obey them so willingly. You will hide yourself in someone else's will, and there you are sure you will be safe." "I do not fear you," she repeated angrily, but there was a waver in her voice that was not there before. "You do not fear me," he agreed, pushing her gently-- and the image of her uniform cracked, fragmenting and blowing away in the breeze. "You fear yourself. You hate being hollow, but you will not commit yourself to yourself for fear of embracing something terrible." Her controlled demeanor snapped abruptly, emotion coloring her face. "I'm HUMAN!!" Soseiko screamed, momentarily forgetting the flaking-away of her garments. "I've always been human!" "But never entirely human," Joshua said sadly, taking a step back. "There's too much mystery for one person. The you-that-might-be is lurking in your genes, waiting for the right time to come out and hurt people." "It's MY life!" she yelled back at him, hate in her eyes. "I'M in control! These are MY decisions!" There was a strangely very real hurt in Joshua's eyes as he regarded her. "Committment to your own destiny will only bring you pain," he sighed, shaking his head. "Committment to yourself will only give you the room to fall... and from some falls, there is no standing back up. Not as you were. But if you want to see what you are, what lies beneath the face of mankind, all you need to do is behold your facade crumble beneath you." "Lies," she said fiercely. "Illusions. I will not let this dissuade me." Then, she willed herself to wake up. RASHOMAN HOTEL, QUINOX CAPITAL, 3142 The switch from the constructed reality to actual physicality was always a little jarring, but it always served to make sure she was awake. Soseiko opened her eyes, returning to the comforting darkness of her hotel room, and drew a long sigh. She could feel Joshua's pulse through his arm, tapping the slow sort of beat that told her he was asleep. He always had been a deep sleeper-- he probably wouldn't notice if she took a walk. Get out of the room, clear her mind with the night air... avoid thinking about the dream, that as it had gone on, had become progressively less and less dream-like... and perhaps pray that she was right about what she had told herself. If she lingered on the idea, though, it would consume her. This was a vacation; this was supposed to be something happy. Something special. Everyone had a first time, and she supposed she had been lucky that it was with someone she gave two shakes about. But he was so much simpler than she, and not just on the intellectual level. He knew what he was... embraced it, even. Even after those first awkward steps together, made so much more difficult by the flareup of his temper, he'd never quite understood why she was the way she was. He was a Sayian, one could trace his line back to the famous Vegeta (never mind the thousand years of humanity diluting the purity of the line), and that was who and what he aspired to be. He meant well, but he wasn't ready to listen... and she wasn't ready to talk, either. Yes, she thought suddenly. Perhaps praying over the idea would give her a clearer understanding of it. Part 6 (3144) GYANNICHAN NATURE PRESERVE, QUINOX, 3144 It was a pretty big disaster, as disasters went, but it was one that was ultimately going to be contained. Soseiko tried to content herself with this knowledge as she ran through the open plains of her homeworld, making a mad dash for the treeline beyond. Most of their scouting group had scattered in other directions, not anywhere near as tasty a potential treat as herself and the two behind her. "I can BEAT that thing!" Joshua roared, throwing a hateful glare over his shoulder towards their pursuer. "I just need a little more time!" "JOOOOOY!!" the thing behind them howled. "You can't even SEE it!" Shasa screamed back at him, keeping up as best she could. "How can you BEAT it if you can't SEE it?!" Joshua bit back another infuriated roar and pressed onwards, taking another few steps to match his speed with Soseiko's. For all Shasa's unique talents, Soseiko observed absently, the other girl simply was not going to be able to keep this pace up. She just wasn't biologically programmed to do so. She just needed to hold out a little longer, though-- long enough to draw it away from the cities, keep it far away so that someone who had the power could knock their enemy into orbit. The idea that COSPLAY-OR might some day bud off, sending its foul, nigh-indestructible spawn to land on planets across the galaxy, had never occurred to the people in charge. Everyone who had an inkling of history knew that COSPLAY-OR descended to Earth once every ten years, apparently heedless of what measures had been taken to destroy it and seal it away once and for all. Being knocked into a black hole, being sent into a timeless zone, being tossed through a portal several billion years into the future-- none of it had actually forestalled the return. Serenity III had simply grown weary of the efforts and made something of a celebration of the event, knocking the creature back beyond the atmosphere with a burst from the Ginzuishou. Soseiko had even watched the Ceremony of the Repulsion on video feed when she was much younger. But seeing a twenty-foot-tall, four-armed, very hungry monstrosity was much different than seeing one from a distance. It wouldn't have been so bad, if it hadn't mutated somewhat along the way. Now, instead of merely being an indestructible idiot-giant seeking the consumption of all things with spiritual power, it was an indestructible idiot-giant seeking the consumption of all things with spiritual power that could also cloak itself into near-invisibility. All the better to eat things, she supposed, like it had done with-- --no. Don't think about that. Just keep running. Only truly supernatural senses could pick it out of the rich residual ki of Quinox, and only a few had the sensitivity to discern what it was actually doing. Shasa could pick it and its movements out in a heartbeat, but she lacked the fighting power to do anything about it. Joshua had the power, and might even have had the strength to knock this one into low orbit-- but his senses were dulled, barely capable of picking discerning its form even when he concentrated. That left Soseiko as the one stuck somewhere in between-- capable of discerning it, and sometimes its actions, and with just enough personal power to be able to get on its nerves. It had fallen down to them to draw it away from the other students before it recognized them as a food source, and then to pray that the military could catch up to them before it was too late for them. They would fight it at the treeline. Both Shasa and Joseph had chosen to trust her when she called them to her; she wondered if they were ready to trust her unto the point where the half-baked nature of her plans caught up with her. She slowed her pace a bit, letting Shasa catch up and move past her for a moment. Even in the plains, where something so simple as the movement of grass in its wake should have given her a clue to its position, there was no sign of it. She had to squint, focusing her eyes on a higher level, to see the brief flashes of reiatsu that occasionally marked its path... ...there. Close behind them, too close for comfort. Soseiko drew her bokken in a smooth motion-- the only real blade out here for any distance had been her sensei's, and her sensei was in the monster's belly. She didn't doubt that he had gone down fighting as long as he could, but he-- and his weapon-- were now useless to them. "JOOOOOOY!" it bellowed, some thirty feet away from her and closing quickly. Soseiko took up a combat stance, running through the effort of calling forth her ki reserves once again-- she would need them, to fight this thing for any length of time-- and hurled the bokken with all her might towards the monstrosity. The bokken, predictably, splintered with the impact against COSPLAY-OR's hulking frame. The girl sneered, more with irritation than with anything else, and sprang away just as the brute lunged towards her-- crossing the distance between them with a preternatural quickness that belied its size. She ducked narrowly out of the way of a pair of outstretched hands, the monster's palms open as if to swat her from the sky like an insect, and the girl came to her feet in the branches of a strong-bowed Quinoxian elm. Joshua struck out from the foliage the moment she was clear, a golden bullet streaking towards the space that Soseiko had occupied just moments ago. Now distanced from the creature, Soseiko could barely see the thing's presence as Joshua landed a series of hard punches to its abdomen-- and flinched involuntarily as he was knocked to the side by a fist he could not have seen, digging a furrow into the ground. The Saiyan descendant would not be so easily stopped, though. With a savage scream, he burst free of the hole that he'd inadvertantly dug, his blonde hair whipping about in the wind generated by his golden ki aura. He spent a moment fixing the veiled shadow with a hateful, green-eyed stare, and rocketed towards his opponent... through the space it had occupied... and then stopped, realizing it was not there anymore. "BEHIND YOU!" Shasa screamed. Joshua whirled around at her voice, a sphere of ki already building in his hands, but the monster was faster-- smashing him between two massive palms with one pair of arms, and then delivering a crushing overhand strike with its upper arms. Momentarily visible in the dust shower, the beast howled its mournful cry and turned to the other two still in the trees. "Shasa!" Soseiko shouted, turning to the other girl. "Joshua can distract it, but he needs you to see it for him!" Shasa turned to Soseiko, fear evident in her eyes and the tremble of her lip-- but nodded tersely as Joshua burst outwards from the hole and into the fray once again. Dirt and dust showered the area, his ki aura shredding the earth as he emerged and hurled himself at his enemy; after a strained shout from Shasa, he quickly reversed course and dealt COSPLAY-OR a massive punch. Soseiko watched, hope suddenly catching in her chest, as she watched the invulnerable foe dig a divot in the turf, and found it in herself to rejoin the battle. The difference between Soseiko and Joshua was obvious. She was nowhere near his power level; her punches, kicks, and ki strikes were nothing more than pinpricks compared to the sledgehammer blows Joshua could land, but even this was better than sitting on her hands... or trying to run, only to die tired. They only needed to delay it, so that the army could get here. It looked, for a time, like they just might have what it took able to pull it off. As the fight wore on, though, the feeling began to atrophy away. COSPLAY-OR had grown eerily silent as the two of them bobbed about its massive frame, and it was growing increasingly accurate with its defenses. Joshua had not laid another punch like the most recent one-- a dozen blows that would have shattered stone and put a sizeable dent in a foot of steel, but the sheer force of the first REAL blow of the fight had not been replicated. It was moving, adapting to them, predicting his strikes and leaving her needle-jabs undefended. She wanted to punish it for taking her lightly, but the thought was fantasy. She was already going all-out, and it wasn't working-- even if she had the strength to force it into a joint lock, it had six limbs, and it was equally capable with them all. It was focusing on defending itself from Joshua, not moving to attack except to test his own defenses. It was almost as though the beast was waiting for something. An opening? "A FEINT!!" Soseiko screamed, narrowly ducking a flailing arm. "JOSHUA, IT'S A--" --but she was cut off as the arm swung back around, the impact sending her flat into one of the newly-created ditches. The world went fuzzy for a long moment as her brain caught back up with her body. Somewhere in the distance, maybe on another planet entirely, Joshua screamed a furious invective at COSPLAY-OR, channelling a burst of ki and hurling it in the direction Shasa yelled him to guide it. When Soseiko had finally regained her senses and popped her head back out of the trench, she was just in time to see the monster deflect the ki blast... but the sphere of energy was not headed to him, or to her. Shasa had enough time to start to scream, but not enough to dodge as she needed. COSPLAY-OR's victorious roar was enough to drown out anything else that escaped Shasa's lips. It took a moment for Joshua to identify what had happened; as the case was, he screamed and hurled another pair of ki strikes in COSPLAY-OR's direction that simply soared off into the distance. In the next second, he was sent rocketing into the forest by a vicious blow. After a moment's extreme effort, Soseiko managed to wrench her eyes from the path of devastation that Joseph's body was carving through the forest and look to where Shasa had been shouting her directions. There was no sign of the other girl anywhere; she decided to interpret this as a good thing, that Shasa had been thrown clear by the explosion, and not atomized by an errant ki-blast. Shasa had to be alive. If she wasn't... The girl made herself look away and focus her attention on their enemy, concentrating on where it wasn't as much as where it was. Upon her increased scrutiny, COSPLAY-OR became visible once again, the dimmest of shadows in the midday sun; Soseiko bellowed a kiai shout, drawing up her dwindling reserves of energy, and launched herself at the creature. She did not have any illusions about her ability to actually injure it. She could hold her breath for ten minutes at a stretch, run a five-minute mile twice, bring a man to his knees with a coy smile and a wink, but for all of the benefits her body offered her, she was simply not good enough. There was a fundamental absence of power here-- and short of promising her soul to a fell power, she wasn't going to get it. The part of her mind that was not fixiated on distracting COSPLAY-OR was taking some sort of amusement in her current predicament. There were a thousand stories about people dying heroically for the cause, selling their lives dearly in a fight they could not win. Once Soseiko was old enough to appreciate ideals, she had gained a significant respect for the sort of person who could do that sort of thing. Soseiko had wondered if she would end up being the kind of person to lay down her life for others. It was mildly comforting to know that she had that sort of resolve. When COSPLAY-OR finally discerned through her endless series of feints and dodges, she was almost thankful. One moment, she was fighting; the next, she was sprawled on her back, staring blearily up at the purple sky above them. Joshua's reiatsu was still there at the edge of her perception, somewhere, fighting the good fight and fighting it blindly. Soseiko rolled over onto her front and slowly, excruciatingly, pushed herself into an sitting position. The world continued to swim around her, but that was more of a function of her shaken equilibrium than actual world-shaking. She could still see him fighting, swinging wildly at the blank space; his hit and miss ratio was perhaps one to one. Every time he threw a punch that went wide, though, COSPLAY-OR retorted by delivering a terrible blow. Joshua got back up after every hit, but always a little bit slower with every return. And then, when Joshua could no longer sustain his incredible pace, he was caught. Soseiko could see two of its massive hands wrap around the lower half of his body, holding him still; with his energy depleted, Joshua could not react in time to prevent the other two arms from coming together over the top of his body. Then, both pairs of hands twisted in different directions. "NO!!" Soseiko screamed, the sharp snap of bone breaking forcing her to her feet as the monster took its lower hands off of him. The golden nimbus of light faded in a heartbeat as Joshua screamed in agony; the blonde gleam to his hair disappeared, and he was suddenly looking more vulnerable than she had ever seen him. "JOOOOOOY!!" COSPLAY-OR howled triumphantly, shaking Joshua's limp form for a moment before hurling him in her direction. The saiyan spiraled through the air, the force of the throw snapping a tree around his body before he came tumbling to a rest almost at her feet. Soseiko stifled another scream when she saw the number of wounds he had sustained... and how he was even now fighting to stand again. The sight transfixed her for a long moment before she looked back to the advancing COSPLAY-OR. It was apparently intelligent enough to know when it had won, and was now strolling towards their location with no sign of hurry. Slowly, she turned to face it, gazing into its sightless eyes and wondering just what it was thinking. Did it view them as worthy opponents? Did it even view them as opponents at all, or did it simply perceive them as an uncooperative meal? Its maw opened once again, going slack as it loomed over the lot of them. This, it seemed, was to be her end: leaving the world with no more knowledge of who she was, or where she came from, than she had entered it with. She was to remain an enigma, voiceless, powerless, clueless to her own identity... nothing more than a plaque on the wall of the Academy, and a small footnote in genetic research. She barely registered the presence of COSPLAY-OR's massive paw closing about her body, pinning her arms to her sides and hoisting her off of the ground. She was going to die, going to get eaten, and there was nothing she could do about it even if she wanted to. It was going to eat her, and then it was going to eat her boyfriend, and then it was going to eat Shasa, whose only mistake was following them out here so that she could die too (please already be dead, please don't live to see this happen to you)... It couldn't end like this... and, for a moment, it didn't. "'Seiko!" Shasa's voice screamed, snapping the other girl out of her reverie. Soseiko looked to the side, taken entirely by surprise, and realized that COSPLAY-OR had paused as well. Apparently confident that she had gotten their attention, Shasa folded her hands together in a series of seals, her third eye blazing radiantly. "NO!" Soseiko yelled, panicking. "Run, damn you, RUN!!" "The dead star reaches to quench a young light," Shasa sang in a ritualistic monotone, forming the final seal and ignoring her friend's outburst. "That which burns alone burns brightest!" Soseiko watched the girl with mixed awe and horror as a great sphere of flame began to build in her friend's hands. She was alive, thank gods she was alive, but she was throwing her life away in fighting a battle that she could not win... And as Shasa unleashed the column of fire, Soseiko was suddenly struck by the depths of her own hypocracy. She closed her eyes and waited for the rush of heat to pass her by-- only to open them again as a terrifyingly foreign ki aura crackled through her awareness. To Soseiko's dismay, she could quite clearly see the bolt sizzling in the air, simply floating in place. The hand COSPLAY-OR had thrown in front of it was clearly visible, as was the energy radiating out from it and holding the bolt in place. Then, with a low moan, it drew back both hands and slapped at the bolt, reversing its direction. Soseiko found herself screaming, struggling desperately against the immovable force of the hand. The fire was moving faster than Shasa could dodge-- she saw Shasa's eyes widen, and her legs begin to bend in a jump-- but the fire was moving faster, and soon there was a great tunnel of char and ash where her friend had been. The fact that she probably didn't feel it coming was no comfort. It was a long moment before the reality of the situation settled in. Shasa was there a moment ago, and now she wasn't... Shasa had put herself in danger for her, made the mistake of trying to help her a little longer... the mistake of trusting that Soseiko would come up with something that would keep them all alive. Soseiko's hands clenched into fists. What right did she have to throw her life away for the survivor? What gave her the right to try and delay the inevitable? Only then did Soseiko realize the depths of her hypocrasy. Strange, though, that the sudden revelation was not filling her with shame as it probably should have... there was a strange, euphoric clarity here, something that she did not like feeling but was feeling anyway. Anger? No... something cleaner, more pure than mere anger. She looked back to COSPLAY-OR and regarded it dimly, and to her surprise, she could see it regarding her right back. This, though, was not the dead, emotionless stare of an unintelligent predator-- she could see an eagerness in there, an awareness to what its actions meant it knew it was hurting her, and it was doing it on purpose, and Soseiko was finding that the emotion welling within her was making it harder and harder to think so she did what felt natural, and just let go and her world went RED. She was dimly aware that she was no longer trapped by the monster's hand. She was also sure she was moving, somewhere, and moving quickly. Where she was, much less when she was, or if she even WAS at all, was a matter of contention. The one thing she was certain of, though, was that she was awash in her own soul. She could feel herself emanating through every pore, every cell of her body; the rapture she felt in release, the ecstasy of bathing in her own radiance, was overwhelming every other thought and urge she had ever had. In this red world, she was a goddess, touching all points of all times and places at once, and she wondered why she had never understood her true nature before now. But slowly, inexorably, the haze began to fall away from her senses. The effect was much like focusing a microscope onto a drop of water, with the broad outlines of ideas and concepts discernable long before detail was obtained. Time was the first awareness to return to her, and with it came the ability to discern the fact that she was still probably alive. Shapes were beginning to emerge out of the fog-- the terrain had ceased to be featureless, and she was beginning to perceive the directions of up and down... and someone was screaming at the top of their lungs. She was beginning to recognize the details now, and as the euphoria faded away, she found she could now fit them into her memory. She was fighting something that hurt her friends, and was going to hurt her too. She had stopped fighting now, though, which probably meant that she had won-- she wasn't feeling numb like she always did when something really hurt her badly. The voice was familiar, and she could almost name its owner... When Soseiko finally remembered her name, the red haze vanished in a heartbeat. She was still casting her own golden light, though, a high-intensity ki aura that was rolling off of her skin like water. She slowly made herself float to the ground and rubbed her throat, trying fruitlessly to get some of the rawness out, and looked about expectantly. There was no sign of COSPLAY-OR anywhere to be found. Had she won? Soseiko felt her feet touch the ground and gazed about them a moment longer, verifying that her senses were indeed telling her the truth. It was a pleasant, if somewhat unnerving surprise to discover that her initial sweep was accurate; COSPLAY-OR had been defeated, by persons or person unknown. But what of the others? She made herself not think about the other girl-- that could happen later, when she was ready to deal with the dead. There was a potential survivor, and he might need her help. Stepping through the shower of foreign spiritual energy, Soseiko pushed her way through to the treeline to where she remembered Joseph had been. He was alive, thank gods, and he was awake... but he needed help. His back had surely broken; they could fix the bone, mend the nerves, but if he bled out internally before they could get there, then all the science in the world couldn't fix him. She took a step closer and smiled, relieved that they still had a chance, but stopped short when she recognized a strange, almost hurtful blend of awe and horror. "Joshua?" Soseiko murmured, her confusion evident in her own face. "Joshua, what's wrong?" Joshua tried to respond for a moment, jaw working noiselessly; eventually seeing that he wasn't going to be able to answer her with words, simply pointed to his head... and then hers. She mimed his gesture, putting one hand to her head and was more than somewhat startled to feel her hair standing straight upwards, as though she'd had been electrified. Ignoring the chill running through her spine, she took a handful of the keratin and took a long look. "Oh," Soseiko observed coherently, releasing the golden lock of hair to hang there. "Well," she added. "That's odd." And finally, with her weirdness meter finally topped out and her borrowed strength leaving her in a rush, Soseiko decided that passing out would be a valid way to end her day. Part 7 QUORA CONTAINMENT FACILITY, ZONE #33 Subject Name: Soseiko Biotype: Unknown, estimated %33 DNA is human in origin Birthdate: @3127 Known Dangers: Indeterminate biodata, trained ki user and hand-to-hand specialist Assessed Threat Level: Minimal. Changes appear to be purely biological, and subject appears to be thinking under her own power. Is not under the effect of external compulsions, magics, or ki patterns. Currently under observation for potential release. Visitation: Monitored Seals: Physical, Auric, Psychic, Arcane VISITATION TRANSCRIPT TIMESTAMP: 18:03 13/08/3144 CMT Visitor: Joshua Vanslad Known from: fellow student, Galactic Academy of Study and Learning Probable relationship: Friend, ex-lover Notes: First visit from non-school personnel, after subject was cleared for outside contact Transcriber: Maurice Sendaki, ID [classified] VISITOR enters speaking chamber. SUBJECT is faces away from camera until VISITOR sits down, turning chair around backwards before seating himself. Silence, until VISITOR taps the viewing screen with one hand. VISITOR Soseiko? SUBJECT Joshua. VISITOR I... *pause* It's good to see you again. SUBJECT pauses and turns around on her stomach, looking up into the video recorder. SUBJECT Thanks... for caring, I mean. You all fixed up yourself? VISITOR Yeah. Took them long enough... but yeah, I'm about as good as I ever was. *smirk* Stronger, even. SUBJECT Like all of you all are. VISITOR Yeah, like that. They aren't... hurting you, are they? SUBJECT Hurting me? *pause* No, no, they're not hurting me... not aside from the Probulator, anyway. VISITOR *visible shudder* Kami-sama... again? SUBJECT I don't blame them TOO much, I guess... I did sort of give them cause, you know? VISITOR ...yeah, you did. How much of that do you remember? SUBJECT ...nothing. Not until I came down. VISITOR *pause* You should have seen yourself in action, Soseiko. You have always been the more skilled fighter. I am not afraid to admit this, and we both know it to be true-- but to see that skill, that raw physicality, matched with such a power... it was incredible. It was like seeing a goddess stride upon the field, fire and thunder in each hand... SUBJECT's body language indicates shift to uneasiness. VISITOR either ignores or does not see this. VISITOR You and I, we were just like the old guard, in a lot of ways. When I don't tap into myself, you can beat me with some effort-- but when I slick my own ki flow, it isn't even a contest. But now that you can... God, you'll be that much stronger than I am. But... how? How did you go Super-Saiyajin? I mean, you can only do it if you have the right genes for it, and I know those modifications have been illegal for freaking ever. You couldn't have done that... SUBJECT ...but I did, Joshua. VISITOR *pause* Say again? SUBJECT *slowly* The techs were running their samples. My biology before, and after... and... VISITOR And? SUBJECT And... well, I didn't have them before, but now I do. The genes, I mean... VISITOR ...impossible. One does not simply become a Saiyajin because it is convenient. SUBJECT stands. SUBJECT But that's not all, Joshua. You want to see what else I have? SUBJECT puts her hand to her forehead and utilizes internal power to shift flesh and bone. VISITOR gapes when she is done. VISITOR You-- that-- God in heaven, *how*? SUBJECT I... don't know. I don't know. VISITOR That's HER eye. That's SHANA'S eye. SUBJECT *increasingly agitated* I don't know. VISITOR The two of you are totally different. You don't have Sanjiyan powers-- you never did. It's not in your biology at all. How in God's name... SUBJECT *angry* I don't fucking know, Joshua! I don't-- *balls a fist* fucking-- *reaches back* --KNOW!! SUBJECT'S blow to the wall is sufficient to activate the internal wards. VISITOR jumps back at the display of light, and only moves back to the viewscreen when the glow if the wards fades away into darkness. Moment of silence. VISITOR I'm... sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. SUBJECT ...I know. I'm sorry, it's just-- you can't possibly know what this is like, and I know you're trying and I'm trying not to be angry, but it's just SO HARD to remember that... did they tell you? VISITOR Tell me about what? SUBJECT It all works. SUBJECT gestures to the eye in her forehead. SUBJECT I can see just like Shana said she could, if I tried... I was sensitive to that sort of stuff before, but not like she was. They sent a auralogist to diagnose me the other day, and I could SEE him... not just see him, but see THROUGH him... oh Gods, I don't want to think about it... VISITOR Seiko... SUBJECT But I HAVE to. Don't you understand? If I don't get a hold of myself, they'll never let-- *pauses, composes herself* They'll never let me out of here if I can't. I have to tell somebody, somebody who isn't going to write it down on a clipboard and put it in a file. You're... you're the only person who's come. Who's actually concerned about ME. It's... selfish of me, to ask you to do this, but you're the only one. VISITOR ...Seiko, you saved my life. More than that, you're my friend. I know I'm not as good a listener like you always are, but if you think it'll help... SUBJECT I... how do you hold it back, Joshua? VISITOR Hold what back? SUBJECT The anger. The feeling-- no, the knowing, that you're better than everyone else. It's not me-- it can't be. I know I wasn't this way before, but even my own body is strange to me... like I'm wearing someone else's skin, and I can't dig my way out of it to be me again. Momentary silence. VISITOR It's... hard, sometimes. But remembering the blows, remembering the times when you got beaten-- that helps a lot. *smirks* If you think it'd help, I'll beat the tar out of you... SUBJECT *smile* You'd try. VISITOR When you get out, then, we'll have a go at it. Best of three. SUBJECT Three? Best of one'll be all I need. VISITOR Hah! You think you've fully tapped the power of the Saiyajin race just by kicking COSPLAY-OR into the sun? There are subtleties, nuances to the strength, that one so new to their power could not possibly have attained! SUBJECT And since you're about as subtle as a freight train, I guess that makes us even, then, neh? VISITOR ...I would call you an impudent, spiteful little hybrid who couldn't possibly understand the glory of the people, but I suppose that would be somewhat inaccurate. SUBJECT Gawd... *sighs* It's... I just feel good when I start channelling my ki. Or when I start really LOOKING at things with the third eye. Like when I'm on the salvia divinorum, or just plain old stoned, but it goes everywhere... it's like I'm close to transcending myself, becoming something new. VISITOR And... this is bad? SUBJECT *shakes head* I don't know. I wish I did-- if I did, I'd know how to feel about it. If I should avoid it, if it's a dark side, then I could work around it... but what if it isn't? What if it's the next stage in my growth? VISITOR ...and gaining the power of the Super Sayiyajin ISN'T? SUBJECT Well, yeah, but no. It's... I just manifested your power, and I just gained Shana's power... could I get other powers, too? Could I turn myself into a Senshi, if I tried hard enough? And if I could, SHOULD I? Would it be evolution? Or would I be... corrupted, like the Animamates under Galaxia? VISITOR ...I believe I am beginning to see the nature of your dilemna. SUBJECT Yeah. VISITOR Is there... anything I can do to help? SUBJECT ...come back, every once in a while. Okay? And bring other people. It gets SO boring in here... CONCLUDE EXCERPT Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 8 QUORA CONTAINMENT FACILITY, ZONE #23, 3145 "She's amazing." "Yes, amazing." The other sentient in the room nodded, not-quite-respect and not-quite-fear mingling on its inhuman face. It was one of those distinctions that Sakura Xadium Aino had learned to interpret; as often as she spent her time around other races, being able to discern the body language of other cultures had become one of her many unsung skills. "It is not only the ki-moulding that she is top-marks, too," Mragwrath added, its sensory feelers darting about absently in the circulated air. "The larvaling is also top-marks in hand-to-hand and top-marks in marksmanship and top-marks in many of her schoolworks. She is attentive in classes and well-respected by peers. She turns enemy into ally by helping them when they need help. Instructors believe she could command her own ship, maybe even multiple ships of Imperial Fleet." "Bully for her." A small smile crossed Sakura's lips-- she had read the file when they had summoned her, and she found she could empathize with the girl's position. Sakura herself had been a hybrid child, forced to excel in her chosen position or to forever forget her dreams of vengeance. Quinox and the Academy certainly made for a much more forgiving environment than the one she herself had been trained in, but the chance to see a unique life-form survive, and even thrive, in this culture, was somewhat warming to the other woman's hearts. Ever the professional, though, she put those thoughts out of her mind and looked back to the Iirakian scientist. "Hybrid vigor," she mused, nodding. "The daughter of decisively divergent DNA donors is either supremely supernormal or magnificently mundane..." "Sometimes sterile," the iirakian added, almost as an afterthought, and probably not conscious of the consonance it had employed. "We have no reason to test for such yet, but such is not concerning us at this point. You are knowing we are unknowing of her derived ancestry, yes?" "You said as much," she remembered with a nod. "You didn't transmit her DNA files to me, though, and I haven't had the chance to see them since I arrived..." "Choice of Academy Security," Mragwrath chittered. "Not mine. But I think you understand when you see what we have to show you." It turned to one of the viewscreen banks, indicating one of them with a chitinous pincer; it shimmered into life at his approach, depicting a young girl-- cast in the bipedal form so common to sentients in Mutter's Spiral-- dressed in the military uniform of the Galactic Academy, her sapphire blue hair cut short to her shoulders and pinned back with a headband. Her eyes were closed, probably in meditation. "This is live feed from Advanced Traininig room," it said helpfully. "Shielded from outside world because of high-intensity reiatsu expressions. Only senshi-in-training and Knights earn right to use this room for past many years... until larvaling comes, changes everything. You watch, you understand." Sakura glanced from the viewscreen to meet its gaze, noticing the strange eagerness in the other's eyes, and looked back to the screen. Action was conspicuously absent for some several moments; the girl, deep in trance, was murmuring a sutra of some sort, not reacting as the room's lighting subtly cycled through red, green, and blue hues. The feed was not sharp enough for Sakura to be able to discern other things-- the subtle resonances of a heartbeat, or low-level ki dispersion, for example-- but if things were as weird as they had promised, she wouldn't be disappointed. Then, suddenly, all hell broke loose. A quartet of pentagrams abruptly shimmered into existence on each of the walls, flickering with a sickly green light as each of them expelled a cloud of thick, black smoke. From each of these clouds emerged a great black, demonic form: each of them twelve feet tall if they were an inch, and each was shrouded in darkness and thhe a unearthly pale green fire. "Constructs of room," Mragwrath added, sounding quite pleased with itself as the girl snapped to awareness. One of the demons howled hatefully, lunging foward with murder in its smouldering eyes. Eyes still closed, the girl dodged to the side, bending like a reed before the hurricane as its claws passed through the space she had occupied moments before. With a second, rapid movement, she darted back into its reach, lashing out with a series of hard blows... and then, just as quickly, moved to the next demon. "This is first-tier challenge," it added, watching her with poorly-disguised delight as the second evil construct swung at her with a trio of wicked-looking claws. "Before, only advanced students who can channel ki into strikes allowed in, sometimes students who can use incantations. Constructs not affected by normal hand-to-hand." She tilted her head to the side, frowning. "The first-tier challenge is four of those things?" "Is tweaked for her," the iirakian admitted with the cultural equivalent of a shrug. "She get bored of one-on-one warm-up on way to stronger enemies." Sakura nodded after a moment, attention once again returning to the viewer. The girl had already finished off three of them, her uniform spattered in the black blood of her enemies that was more thickly covering her hands and boots. The fourth creature, made wary by the deaths of its peers, was circling the girl, looking for an opportunity to strike. For her part, the girl was still, unmoving, as though she was completely unaware of its presence. Then, in a flash, it leapt towards her-- and she stepped backwards, delivering a savage blow to its throat. In the moment the demon spent staggering back, the girl took another step and delivered a powerful kick to its kneecap; it staggered, stumbled, and then was finally silenced as she delivered an axe kick to its skull. It twitched beneath her foot, spasmed once, and then fell still. "That's not half bad, as far as fighting goes," Sakura observed, a bit of a smirk on her face. Mragwrath's mandibles clicked. "Top-marks yes, but important part is yet to come. Next level now." Another black portal opened with a wrenching noise in the room, spewing forth what appeared to be an android crafted in the form of a naked, genderless human being. The girl registered this new arrival with a raised eyebrow and darted to the side, but the android was far faster than the demonic forms, leaping forward with the sort of speed that Sakura had only associated with a few beings in the universe. "That's a Gero engine, isn't it?" she inquired evenly. "A simulated Gero engine!" Mragwrath said excitedly, bobbing in place. "You see! She can keep up with it, blow for blow, but you know of course that her flesh and thus eventually tires out..." Sakura raised an eyebrow, taking her eyes from the display to give a dubious look to the technician before returning her attention to the screen. "Is this a test of endurance?" she inquired, curious. "Yes, yes, for other student yes!" it responded, sounding pleased. "For her, is just question of how long she chooses to go before she draws weapon." The cryptic nature of the comment only secured her interest further. The girl and the android were trading blows at an incredible pace, their individual forms visible only to the naked eye when one combatant attacked another-- the ki flashing on her end, the nearly one hundred-precent efficient energy of the Gero engine on the other-- and it seemed for a while that, as good as the girl was, that her movements were slowly, and inexorably slowing down... ...but in a moment, as the two of them separated for a brief point of time, her hands flashed to the side, conjuring a beam of light that coalesced into a long, double-edged glaive. Whether the android was surprised, or afraid, or simply amused at this turn of events, its eggshell-smooth face prevented it from demonstrating such emotions. Instead, the android threw itself back into the melee with her-- but it was different now. The weapon she had conjured was fuelling her strength, somehow, and a swipe of the blade against an undefended flank of her opponent drew sparks... and synthetic blood. The reiatsu sensors were pinging insistantly, alerting the two in the room that someone's ki aura was flaring an order of magnitude more powerfully than it had before now. Sakura had enough experience with the Gero engine to know that it couldn't have been the engine-- if it had been the engine, that would have meant it was leaking somehow-- so that left only one person it could have been. She continued to watch, one part of her awareness watching the monitors, and another part of her awareness keeping an eye on the viewscreen. As Mragwrath had predicted, the girl promptly managed to turn the tide of battle in her favor; after apparently choosing to surrender ground to it for a time, she feigned a weakness in her defense, and the android committed itself wholly to exploiting it. The girl's subsequent crosswise strike cleft the construct in twain, and the follow-up strike severed everything but an arm and the upper-left quarter of its torso. Bereft of its engine, the android nonetheless flipped itself to a vaguely-upright position, and reached out with its remaining arm, straining even in defeat to attack its opponent. Sakura wondered how sentient the construct happened to be, as the girl merely crushed its head beneath her foot-- was its aggression merely the result of its programming? Or was that hate she was seeing in its lifeless eyes? Or had she just been spending too much time in the twenty-first century of Earth that she was attaching sentimentality to something with the same creative intelligence as a particularly large rock? "Third level," Mragwrath supplied helpfully, nodding its head as the construct's lifeless body flaked away into the artificial reality from which it had been conjured. The girl turned about to face the third figure materializing in the room, a smile crossing her face as a figure familiar to all three persons manifested. "Vanadine," Sakura observed aloud, looking to the technician with a mildly curious expression. "Measurements taken from scouters and the Lady's own skills," it explained, motioning to a few other monitors as both the student and the faux Vanadine took up fighting positions from across one another. "The Lady very skilled, very resourceful in fight-- but the Lady only human, so we increase construct chi flow by twenty times through Kaiouken simulation to match, exceed output of students in room." "Impressive." Sakura tilted her head to the side, curious. "How much power does this room require to simulate this, if I might ask?" Mragwrath's mandibles parted in something approximating a smile. "Generator takes week to charge, battery charge lasts no more than hour. Zero-point energy experiments come here for field testing." A kiai shout from 'Vanadine,' and the match was on. Sakura's eyes lingered briefly on the monitor before switching to the iirakian administrator. "So how much further does this test go?" "Not much farther," it responded with a multiple-limbed shrug. "Relevant to your interest comes very shortly." So she watched the fight... and waited. The fight was developing rapidly into one of technique; they were both evenly matched in their reiatsu output, and their ki flow gave a slight edge to the student-- but Vanadine, even the snapshot from a hundred years ago that the Academy was basing its version off of, had had hundreds of years of field experience that no classroom could replicate. She was wielding what looked like a mere fencing sabre, but the chi flow doubtlessly made it as strong as, or even stronger than, neo-steel alloys. And if that wasn't enough, seeing the other woman effortlessly weave her telekinetic prowess into the fight was an experience she hadn't had in a long time... especially when she wasn't on the receiving end of such a beating. Sakura was seldom the sort to admire the aesthetics of a duel, and her own style had several points over Lom Chi Ki, but it was definitely one of the more graceful arts she had seen in some time. It was the classic battle between the advanced student and the master: though the student's aura was racing wildly, fuelling her strikes, the techniques and fluidity of Vanadine's shadow were the edge that she needed. Sensing the inappropriateness of her weapon against the much lighter sabre, the student finally whipped the polearm above her head in a circle-- Vanadine swept an arm in the girl's direction, and the telekinetic punch slammed the student clean in the gut, sending her spinning to the ground-- but when the younger rolled to her feet, the weapon in both hands had become a more conventional straight blade. More like a machete, now that she got a closer look at it... And then, Sakura noted the color of the girl's eyes and realized they had not been green when the match started. From there, things did get more interesting. The ki flow meters were pinging, alerting to a sudden and significant change in the girl's internal energies-- which were now very strongly resembling the faux Vanadine's as the girl rejoined the fray. "She's an assimilator," Sakura ventured. "Yes, assimilator, yes!" Mragwrath bobbed excitedly in its seat. "But is not just surface patterns-- is deeper than that. Manual override-- threat level maximum!" The flow of the fight came to an abrupt halt, there. Vanadine lifted two fingers and sent another massive telekinetic thrust in the girl's direction; the student responded by crossing her arms in front of her, the brief shimmer of her own mental shield flickering into visibility as she was knocked twenty, fourty, fifty feet away from her opponent... leaving Vanadine free to utter a war cry, and for her aura to visibly shift to a deep, neon red. "I though you said her ki output was already being strengthened through Kaiouken simulations," the Time Lady observed dryly. "We use simulations as basemark," Mragwrath shrugged. "Then construct layer own Kaiouken on top. First come as surprise to us too." "And the student will able to handle this by copying the second Kaiouken, I imagine?" "Nnh... she could, most likely. But she does not. Final change-- important change--" The iirakian paused, eyes fastened to the displays, and Sakura's own attention was drawn back to the viewscreen depicting the girl. She had loosened her stance, watching the swirl of reiatsu flowing from Vanadine-- and then, almost dismissively, the girl tossed aside her own weapon, which disintegrated back to wherever pocket dimension it had come from. As Vanadine's aura settled to a regular, pulsing crimson, the girl brought her hands together, palms first, bellowed her own deep-throated war cry, And when reality was done warping around the girl, Sakura recognized the crackling golden aura, the shimmering green eyes, and the tell-tale blond hair of the super-saiyajin. Battle was renewed once again, but Sakura already knew what the outcome was going to be. "Two questions," she said, turning to the administrator. "When was the last time she had contact with a saiyajin?" "Two weeks. Saiyajin ex-lover, fellow student, conjugal visit during monitoring stay." She nodded. "And how long has it been since you were all aware of her capabilities?" "Is... funny relating, honest. Larvaling comes from state-hatchery. Very smart, recruited by Academy scouts who look for smart state-hive larva. Very skilled student, very quick study in sciences and killing arts, but never overt assimilation… until trigger event by COSPLAY-OR spawn. Since then-- potential unleashed and constant, though still bound to normal limits of biologicals. Maybe more, in time." "I want everything you have on her. Psychospiritual, medical before and after, psychological examinations..." "Assure you we are that larvaling is of no threat to us yet," Mragwrath chittered. "Is still many tests to run, see what she gains, what she loses, if gains can be reproduced or if is just momentary…" "I'm not sure you understand," Sakura said matter-of-factly. "It's not her that I'm concerned with… it's that she's extremely vulnerable to entities that assimilate of their own nature. If she doesn't learn how to control it, she's going to be a very, very significant threat." "Less credit to our readiness than we deserve." It almost seemed irritated that it was being questioned. "Larvaling is supervised constantly, is being taught methods of sanctification and self-expulgence. Queen will not send her where she will be killed, OR turned. Are many places could be hers, in Navy… and many places where she will not be exposed. Is, perhaps Venus, is jealous she is here first? In our armies where she serves us?" "Venus's interests have nothing to do with this." She tilted her head and frowned incrementally. "I do not speak as the heir of Venus-I am speaking in my experience as a soldier and as a Time Lord. I would be extremely careful how you plan on using her talents, because all it can take is a single misstep…" There was a bit of muffled clicking. "Is fate of all soldiers to misstep and die," it answered, bobbing in its seat, amused or confused-the two emotions ran together in iirakian consciousnesses. "Or are you forgetting this basic idea?" This did not impress her particularly much. Sakura looked back to the viewscreen to see the girl standing triumphantly over the broken, battered body of her opponent… and though the girl was smiling, flush with victory, the Time Lord could see the weariness in her expression. It wasn't the sort of fatigue that came with exertion, though-she had seen this before in others, and in herself, when she had bothered to look in the mirror during her education on Gallifrey. It was the sort of fatigue that one dealt with when they were being forced to submerge their own personality in the wake of the needs, and demands of others… and one that was almost uncomfortably familiar. There was a twinge, deep in the recesses of Sakura's soul, that wanted to comfort her... tell her it was going to be okay, even. After a long moment, she looked back to the iirakian. "What's her name?" "Larvaling was found with the word 'Soseiko' attached to garments," it responded, nodding curtly. "State-hatchery believed it as name, and larvaling has not adopted new name." "Soseiko," she repeated, considering the word for a time. "Genetics data of course will be yours," it added, nodding defentially. "Forgive initial reluctance, please-was pride as researcher and scientist offended. More eyes can help us discern possibilities." "…yes, please, I would appreciate that." She glanced back to the iirakian. "Was there anything else you wished to show me yourself?" "Not of now. Your promptness in showing most highly appreciated, Princess… we will be in touch if we find anything else." Sakura nodded once, looked to the viewscreen again, and wondered why exactly she wanted to tell the student-no, she corrected herself, why she wanted to tell Soseiko that everything was going to be all right. The answer came to her shortly after, as the Time Lady suddenly realized she had seen the cast of Soseiko's face once before. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 9 QUINOX PALACE, 3145 "A pity you only return to us so briefly." Soseiko smiled faintly, eyes flitting from her reflection in the mirror to the person behind her. "Thanks for coming, Joshua." "You do look pretty good in that uniform," he admitted, moving from the doorway to behind her. "Makes me kind of sad I'm not going to see you in it again." She watched his image in the crystal a bit longer before turning around to face him. "I wish I wasn't going, either," Soseiko murmured, eyes cast downward. "But... I can't. Not with you all, not anymore. It isn't right for me to be here." "Everyone keeps SAYING that." His expression twisted with barely-concealed anger. "I know you, 'Seiko. You wanted this more than anything. You could have fought this, if you wanted to... why?" "...why what?" she answered, looking back up to him, quirking an eyebrow. "You should be with us when we graduate." Joshua's lips curled in a sneer, though one not directed at her. "You're the best of us. You should be getting those honors with everyone else... and you're letting them kick you out a month before the ceremony." "It was decided that I didn't have a place in the Navy," Soseiko responded crisply, turning to her dresser to complete the bits and pieces of her dress uniform. "And after they explained everything to me, I thought it through, and I agreed with them." "You LET them convince you," he snarled accusingly. "You could be the greatest fighter the Navy ever sees, and you WASTE your potential when they tell you to go away. What's next? Settling down with some mere MAN and wasting your life whelping the next generation?" "Your concern is appreciated, Joshua," she responded crisply, half of a smirk visible on her lips. "Though, in this circumstance, you probably ought to just shut your cake hole." "You CAN'T let them do this to you!" A distinct growl underscored his words. "This is NOT right, and if you aren't going to fight this, then *I* will fight it FOR--" "You will do NOTHING of the sort." She turned her head long enough to fix him with a glare-- and, to his own surprise, Joshua found himself silenced. "This isn't your fight," Soseiko continued, pulling her hair back and tying it into something approximating a bun. "This isn't a fight at all. Please, for your own sake, don't try and make it into one." Though the intensity in her voice had passed quickly, Joshua was quiet for a long moment after. "Are things so different now?" he said quietly, fists unclenching reluctantly. "Are YOU so different now? Did they take your will to power from you when they had you bottled up? Did they take away from you what made you so great?... or have you just forgotten what you tried to teach us?" She concluded pulling her hair back, letting the ribbon float downward to mingle with her hair, before looking back to him over her shoulder with a faint grin. "I'm not leaving the military, Joshua." "But you shouldn't. It would go against..." He paused, and blinked. "Wait. What was that?" "I'm not leaving the military," she repeated, her grin widening. "I just said that it was decided that my place was not in the Navy." "But-- if you're not in the Navy, how are you still in the military?" She merely grinned again and looked back to the mirror. "Of all the things that've changed in the past year," Soseiko said pleasantly, adjusting her collar and insignia, "one of the few that I'm glad hasn't changed is the fact that you're just adorable when you're confused." Joshua's confusion was instantly replaced with indignity. "A Saiyajin warrior is NOT adorable," he said crossly, folding his arms across his chest. "And you haven't answered my question." "...because I can't, Joshua." Her smile finally faded. "You and I... probably won't have the chance to fight alongside one another in the forces," she said quietly, reaching over and picking a hair from his own uniform and discarding it. "We knew this might happen, when we got out... it's just happening earlier than we thought it might, ne?" "...you're being transferred to another branch," he rumbled, understanding finally dawning on him. "Are you moving to the Knights?" "I wish... I could say. But I can't. Even I don't know for sure. But wherever I go... I want you to do me a favor, Joshua." She looked to the door and gestured lightly, her irises shifting green for a moment as a light telekinetic force pushed it shut. "Wherever I go, whatever I end up doing-- remember me, if you want, but never look for me." "Hmph." Joshua tilted his head to the side skeptically. "And why shouldn't I?" "Because-- because it's going to hard enough, doing what they're going to ask me." She drew a long breath and stepped back. "I have to do this alone. Where I go, nobody can follow... not even you, no matter how much I want it to be different." He was silent as she spoke, face cast in something between anger and an all-too acute awareness. "I will do as you ask," he answered, reluctant. "But I do not do it willingly." Soseiko grinned again and folded her hands behind her back. "I don't care if you fart roses when you do it, as long as you do it... but it does mean a lot to me that you said yes." A brief smirk crossed his expression. "It had better. I do not do favors easily." She nodded and twirled around, looking down at her senior classman's uniform. "So, how do I look?" The cadet across from her gave her an appraising look. "Like the most talented warrior the Imperial Navy ever had the misfortune to exclude from their ranks," he decided. "That's what you look like." "Gods preserve womenfolk everywhere from the silver tongue of the Saiyaijins." Her smile faded into a small frown as she noted the clock's display on the wall. "You've still got a class or two yet to attend before the day's out," Soseiko observed grimly. "It'd be a shame if the Navy lost its second-most talented warrior to the evils of bureaucracy, neh?" "I would hardly use the word 'class' to describe their little meaningless ceremonies," Joshua answered with a smirk, his usual ill-tempered countenance returning. "But I would hate to disappoint my mother after she came all the way from Earth to see me graduate." "Hop to, then." She punched him playfully on the arm. "I've still got papers and stuff to fill out... if I'm out in time for the ceremony tonight, I'll see you there, okay?" He nodded curtly. "Until then, if not after," Joshua responded, turning on one heel and striding out the door. Soseiko waved to him, smiling again, until the door hissed shut behind him. Even still, she waited a long moment, letting his footsteps recede into the distance, before she turned to the corner and took a deep breath. "I'm ready," she announced, with finality. "Not bad." The figure who had been concealed in the shadows stepped forth, the darkness parting around her like a veil. "Though you could have pushed him out earlier than you did," she added, head tilted to the side. Soseiko shook her head. "Better to not cause a stir." "And you probably could have told him a bit less about where you were headed." "Probably," she agreed. "But better to tell him just enough to keep him from looking for me on his own." The woman opposite her considered this for a moment and nodded, thoughtful. "Probably," she observed approvingly. "You're a fairly quick study." "Always have been." Soseiko grinned, folding her hands behind her back. "So how are we getting out of here?" "The same way I got in, actually." Her escort turned and motioned to the shadows in the corner, parting them as though she was lifting a curtain. Behind the shadow... blackness, thick, and total. "I hope you aren't afraid of the dark," she said casually, glancing over her shoulder. "Darkness doesn't scare me," Soseiko answered resolutely. "I'm not afraid." There was a smile from the other woman as she took Soseiko's hand. "Not yet, you aren't," she said knowingly. "You're going to enjoy basic, I can tell you that much." Soseiko grinned again and let herself be led into the darkness, her senses already capturing the mana flow of the gateway for later study... And when the light returned, there was nary a trace that either of them had been there at all. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 10 SAHARA DESERT, EARTH, 3146 If there was one thing that humanity still lacked the initiative to do, it was truly tame their planet on all levels. It had been a major project back in the initial days of the terraforming rush, several centuries ago, but with the development of space stations of significant status (disasters like Citadel notwithstanding) and the opening of entire worlds to terraforming, the project had fallen out of interest. When you went on to consider the ten billion people on Earth, and factored that in with the fact that everywhere that COULD easily be converted to living space HAD been converted to living space, it became relatively obvious that there were few desolate, isolated places left on the face of the planet. Those that did exist were treasured places, but only a very few could enjoy them like this. A fist punched its way out of one of the many dunes, its owner pulling its way out of the sand a moment later. Sakura slapped at her clothing irritably, disloding some (but hardly all) of the sand that had snuck its way inside her garments, and looked in the direction from which she had been sent. In the distance, she could see the shimmer of a ki aura; her opponent, her mentor, her teacher, was waiting for her to pick herself up and come back. Of all the places, Sakura thought darkly, rei.bot-sensei had to choose this one. She bellowed a kiai, and burst forward from the dune in a flurry of motion to meet the miko at her chosen site. The desert in the day did not suit Sakura, really; she wore too many clothes, she wasn't used to the heat, and she also knew these reasons were exactly why rei.bot had chosen this particular part of the world. Besides, the absence of property meant that there wouldn't be any property damage. Just sand, miscellaneous wildlife, and more sand. The scion of Venus closed her eyes and focused her internal reserves, forcing herself to stay at her top despite the growing weariness in her body, and crossed the distance between the two of them in two steps. The dunes shuddered with the renewal of their conflict, each blocked punch scattering a week's worth of accumulated debris. Even an inexpert eye could track the path they were carving across the terrain... though it would have taken an expert eye to spot the person who had been following them. Sakura had noticed their tail the second day in. When she had mentioned it to her sensei, rei.bot merely nodded and instructed her not to pay it heed. The presence had remained throughout their training session-- distant, inobtrusive, but always there at the edge of perception. Some hours later, the fighting had finally worn down for the day. rei.bot had mercifully permitted Sakura some time to rest; the day had been a long one, and while Sakura's Gallifreyan biology permitted her several advantages over other life forms, the ability to instantly banish weariness was not one of them. Sakura had decided she might take a quick catnap for the day's exhaustion-- something in the line of two hours might not be out of the question-- and then she would break out a meal bar before they picked up where they had left off. Except before Sakura was done fixing herself a place to lay down, their shadower decided to approach their campsite. rei.bot had merely looked up from her meditations as the person appeared-- a sliver of darkness against the light, before she stepped into the light shed by the fire. The master of the Iron Soul stood, slowly, and turned to face the new arrival; their tracker stopped in its tracks, and bowed deeply, bending at the waist until she was almost parallel to the ground. "I seek an audience with the master of the Iron Soul," it said deferentially, eyes cast upwards, in a decidely feminine voice. "You are she?" The master nodded once. "i am who you seek," rei.bot answered in a monotone. "what business do you have so far from your home?" "Only a chance to prove myself as worthy of your tutelage, my lady," she answered, voice clear as she shifted to her knees in reverence. rei.bot gestured slightly with one hand. "stand, then, that I may see you." At the command, the stranger rose to her feet, and untied the linen cowl that had been concealing her face and head from the elements. At first glance, the woman seemed like any other human native of the area; her black hair was bobbed off at her jawline, framing a dark-skinned face and the sort of sharp, defined features that were common enough to not quite adhere to local standards. What was most noticable, though, was that the woman had subtly shifted into a very loose stance-- not formal enough to be identifiable as belonging to a particular style, but something that could switch up at a moment's notice. Sakura's glance shifted from the stranger to her master. As ever, rei.bot's gaze was inscrutable, analyzing the woman. "i do not favor those who spy from the shadows," she observed, evenly. "why stay to darkness?" "I apologize if I have insulted you," the woman responded, turning her eyes downward. "I had merely wished to see the strength of the Iron Soul from a distance, before I approached." rei.bot tilted her head to the side, saying nothing. After a moment, the stranger took this as a request to elaborate. "There are many stories of the invincible nature of the Iron Soul discipline," the woman said quietly, trying not to stare and not quite succeeding. "And I have heard that there have been but three students worthy of bearing the name of disciple. I had wondered if this was because of the nature of the teacher or the nature of the students..." She trailed off, gaze shifting to Sakura. "I now know it is not the strength of the teacher that refuses to strain herself by accepting several pupils," the stranger murmured quietly, before looking back to rei.bot, "but the strength of the prospective student that must first be proven before they can begin to handle the burden." "i do not deal with those who have names and faces to prove to others," rei.bot spoke matter-of-factly. "but i will have yours, that i may dissuade you from your self-destruction." The stranger's eyes turned down again. "I am most regretful, my lady," she said apologetically, "but I have foresworn my name to another-- and while they will release it for you to have, should I manage to prove myself worthy of the least significant portion of your tutelage, I cannot give it to you of my own will." "you would walk into a nameless grave for the will of your masters?" She tilted her head to the side, the faintest hint of a smile on her face. "your faith in them is quite strong." There was a long moment of silence. "They have done much to shape me into the person that I am now," the woman admitted, looking down. "It is time I took my growth into my own hands." "they would end your servitude?" "If I proved to be worthy of your attention." She did not look up, but there was a definite smile in her voice. "It would reflect quite well on them to have one of theirs move on to learn from so esteemed a teacher." The wind began to pick up, whistling lowly through the dunes. "you must be tested," rei.bot said calmly. "and remember, aspirant: you must not hold back." The woman nodded once. "How would you test me?" rei.bot's expression hardened, though a small smile underlined her words: "in fire." Sakura began to stand, brushing some of the sand off of her clothing, but she stopped short when rei.bot held a hand up. "Sensei?" she said, momentarily confused. "you are not rested," rei.bot answered matter-of-factly. "and our guest would like to hear the answer tonight." With that, her stance shifted from a hostess's to a warrior's, sandaled feet digging furrows into the sand. "prepare yourself," the master spoke. "A... against you?" Suddenly there was doubt in the woman's eyes. "I had thought I would be fighting your students, that I might prove their--" a dull, wet-sounding, meaty smack-- and then rei.bot was where the woman had been, flexing her fist, and the woman was suddenly a hundred feet away, buried in the sand dune she had been knocked into. The plume of dust that had been most of the dune billowed into the air, visible only as an obfuscation of the stars, as the wind began carrying it away. To her credit, Sakura managed to bite back the immediate question that came to her mind: she had meant to do that, right? The answer came back to her in a massive flood of reiatsu. She teetered on her feet a moment, steeling herself-- she'd felt stronger from rei.bot, but to feel a presence this strong that wasn't a Senshi, and furthermore wasn't familiar to her... ...wait. No. She had seen this presence before. But where? rei.bot herself was unmoved by the flash flood. There was no question that she had predicted this; she merely stood, waiting patiently, as the sand plume began to swirl about, caught in the whirl of this woman's soul. When it cleared some long seconds later, the woman that rei.bot had hit was no longer there; in her place, there was a face and a distinct hair color that answered all of Sakura's unasked questions. "soseiko," rei.bot pronounced. Soseiko smiled briefly and brought her hands together, bowing. "I hadn't thought my name was significant enough to reach ears such as your own," she called back humbly, rising and pulling her hands apart. A span of light trailed between them, that coalesced into the shape of a Japanese-style halberd at her touch a moment later. "I am honored that you know me." At this, Sakura and rei.bot shared a knowing look. Neither of them were privy to the internal workings of the organization they now knew to be her masters, but they were both deep enough in the Imperium's political system to know that the Navy had thrown quite a fit when the Hand of Serenity had exercised its right to claim an individual from the training system. The secret operations division had seldom exercised that ability in the past century or so, but with the way things were shaping up on the outer worlds of the solar system, it was an unsurprising turn of events. When she had seen the girl's hair color, the final piece of that little puzzle had fell into place. Sakura glanced to the girl in the sand crater, then back to rei.bot, wondering: 'are you going to go through with this, knowing what you know now?' The Hand had never quite come to trust rei.bot-- though the organization was still young, compared to the establishments of the Imperial Navy and the government branches, the minds behind the shadows remembered all too well the lessons of yesteryear. If they were sending her to infiltrate the school, to learn something that could be used against her... rei.bot, for her part, merely shifted her stance once again. "are you ready now?" she inquired, almost amused. Soseiko span the naginata and slammed the butt of the weapon into the ground. "You said I wasn't to hold back, right?" she responded coolly. The android's blue eyes gleamed in the darkness. "i promise you this: i will kill you if you do." And, finally, Sakura could see the glint of a familiar smile in Soseiko's lips. "Then I'll do my best not to disappoint." Briefly, she leaned back against an invisible breeze, marshalling some deep reserve... Then the world flashed golden, and the battle began. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 11 DEFENSE PLATFORM SIGMA, EARTH ORBIT, 3164 "Sir?" Lieutenant Sean Baldwin of the Imperial Navy liked his peace. He liked his peace a lot. It was one of the reasons he'd not tried to fight his way out of being assigned to one of the orbital weapons platforms; the work was mostly done by computers, obliterating bits and pieces of space debris when they came too close to Earth. The most excitement he'd had in the past five years of being assigned here was being told to concentrate the platform's anti-naval particle beam on a giant space amoeba which had lingered too close to Earth. There were two other people who worked up here on a regular basis. One of them was demanding his attention. Baldwin glanced up from the holoreader he'd been flipping through, identifying the speaker as Master Chief Petty Officer Marumo Mamimi, the chief maintenance and sensor technician for the station. "I was reading, Marumo," he grumbled, setting the reader to the side and standing. "I hope this is as interesting as Teela O'Malley's scandalous no photos..." "I would think so, sir," she responded, sounding faintly concerned. "Come take a look at this." "Interesting as Teela O'Malley's scandalous no photos? You're lying. Nothing is as interesting as Teela O'Malley's scandalous no holy shit what the hell am I looking at?" "These two patterns showed up on the long-range scouter just now," Marumo observed analytically, tilting her head to the side. "They're on the homeworld, sir-- northern Africa." "That's... impressive." Baldwin stepped back as the third of their party rose from his seat to join them. "I'm fairly sure we were notified about that pattern," he added, tapping the display. "But that's way more than what we were told to expect." "We were expecting a ping that big?" Ensign Xiao Lun glanced to his commanding officer, confusion on his face. "What the hell is out there that can put out that big a ping?" "Stay up here long enough, ensign, and you'll see for yourself." Baldwin clapped the younger man on the shoulder before looking back to the displays. "And the other?" "Isn't registered." Marumo frowned briefly and queued another display. "Requesting permission to arm the plasma array from Central." "Do it. And pray to God that we don't get the order." "But... isn't that what we're here for, sir?" asked Xiao Lun, increasingly concerned. "To use the weapon if we need to?" Baldwin shifted his gaze to the other soul and shook his head. "Son, let me tell you something," he explained patiently. "Do you know who rei.bot is?" "...no sir, I don't." "I'm going to make this real clear to you, now." He pointed at the first image. "rei.bot is, as far as we know, the only other force in the entire galaxy that can stand up to the combined might of the Imperial Navy, the Sailor Senshi, and Queen Serenity herself. And furthermore, rei.bot's on our side. She likes us, God knows why we deserve it." He pointed to the scouter displays, which were still getting readouts of the twin ki signatures. "If she doesn't manage to handle that... whatever it is, we'll be asked to fire. If SHE can't handle it, we are, quite frankly, seriously fucked." The ensign nodded once, the color slowly draining from his face. "Do you think, maybe, it has something to do with the riots on the outer rim?" he suggested hesitantly. "Doesn't really matter, does it??" Baldwin replied dismissively. "It's all the way in here, and they're all the way out there... if we start seeing riots, we'll know, won't we?" "Central has issued a cease-fire order," Marumo interjected. "The other pattern has been identified as non-hostile." "And thank God for that. Well, I'll say this much, Marumo-- you weren't lying." A tiny smile crept on her face. "Of course not, sir." "...that's it?" Xiao Lun looked to the Lieutenant, no less confused now. "You're just going to let this go?" "I don't exactly see what we're supposed to do now, ensign," Baldwin called back, already heading back to his desk. "Watch the displays if you want, but I'm a very busy man and I want to get back to my relaxing." "Have you seen Teela O'Malley's scandalous no photo spread?" Marumo inquired, glancing to Xiao Lun with a quirked eyebrow. "Perhaps that might offer you something to do." "Wait, Teela O'Malley really DOES have a scandalous no photo spread?" the youth asked, all thoughts suddenly forgotten. SAHARA DESERT, EARTH It had been a long time since Soseiko had been in an even match against someone. Months of isolation, testing, training, learning to wield the power she had gained with finesse instead of brute force-- that had been a one-soul game, fighting and willing against a foe that could be switched off at a moment's notice. Really, in the end, who could put up a fight against a Super Saiyajin? She had crossed fists with each of the Quinoxian royal children, single-handedly and simultaneously defeated five of the most skilled students at the academy. In the end, only the Room could offer her something to fight that wouldn't immediately give in to her strength. Her opponent was stronger than anyone she'd ever fought. Faster, too. And the ki packed behind every thrown punch, each and every slight exertion, was exhilirating. It was getting so that Soseiko was being pushed to her limits. She had to start thinking again-- had it been it so long ago that she had to outfight people by analyzing their tactics? One thing was for sure, though: Lom Chi Ki was not a martial art that adapted well to three-dimensional combat. Soseiko laughed like a maniac, bending sideways around a blue sphere of ki rei.bot had hurled in her direction, and dredged up another form from the many she'd been exposed to. Some hundred feet below her, her naginata shimmered before reappearing back into her grip; the young woman brought it up to parry a follow-up flying kick, and swivelled the polearm around so that she had the blade between them. rei.bot paused a moment, obviously sensing the change in her opponent, before she renewed her attack. Soseiko smiled, and with the brief murmur of an incantation, unlocked the mana store she had hidden away. The exchange was brief and brutal, ending with the two of them separated some several yards distant. Expressionless, rei.bot raised a hand to touch her cheek, tracing a finger along the slight cut in her face. Across from her, Soseiko spent a moment catching her breath, the golden aura of her transformation blending eerily with the bright green light being cast off by her spear. "I don't do this lightly," Soseiko called out warningly. "It takes a lot of effort to get all of the energy in here to stay." "one must never fight lightly," rei.bot answered, unimpressed, as she brought her hands together in front of her. "kamehame--" "Son of a--" Soseiko swore, coiling her energy beneath her in a spring to the side-- "HA!" Sakura raised an eyebrow as the massive ball of energy billowed outwards. They were too high up for her to see them very well, but she was pretty sure that the kamehameha wave had hit home. One reiatsu remained, flowing serenely as it always did; the other... well, it was hard to tell where it had gone. No, she amended herself, there it was... falling, and likely to hit the ground. There was enough residual spiritual energy left in the body that the girl wouldn't be killed by the fall... though there wasn't enough left to keep her from getting hurt. She had to restrain herself from going to her aid and catching her before she hit the ground. Memories, unbidden, of a time long past were being insistent that she do something, to try and make up for the time she'd been forced away... but no matter how she considered the issue, the fact remained that the duel was not over. If she interfered now, there was no telling how rei.bot would react to the interruption. Ultimately, Sakura had managed to restrain herself-- not just for her own sake, but for Soseiko's as well. Still, when Soseiko landed limply on the sand some distance away, Sakura decided there wouldn't really be any harm in getting closer. rei.bot came down shortly before Sakura made it to the scene. Soseiko was standing, again, though she was looking decidedly more ragged than she had before. Immediately obvious was that the Super Saiyajin transformation had faltered; the girl was as blue-haired as she'd ever been, her eyes a bright brown. Her breathing was labored, a trickle of orange blood dripped freely from her nose; her hair was matted with blood and sweat, and while she still had one hand on her spear, the weapon was butt-end in the ground, propping her up. If she was aware that the third had come up to meet them, there was no evidence of it in her gaze-- focused, intently, on the ground before her. "It's that easy," she mumbled, shocked. "It can't be. But it is..." "are you ready to concede?" rei.bot inquired evenly. "Not-- not yet," Soseiko rasped, managing to glare at rei.bot. "You think I'm done, don't you?" rei.bot tilted her head. Soseiko paused to cough up and spit out a mouthful of blood onto the sands. "You think it's over," she added, slowly pulling herself upright on her spear (faltering once, as she apparently misjudged the weight she could put on her broken thigh bone). "But it isn't," she said fiercely, assuming something as close to a fighting position as she could on one leg. You're going to have to hit me with something like that again before I'm done." "if that is what you want, then," rei.bot responded evenly. She brought her hands back together. "kame--" "HA ME--," Soseiko bellowed in answer, miming rei.bot's motions-- And in unison, "HA!!" Sakura was just about as surprised about the youth's own Kamehameha as she was to see rei.bot's own mildly startled expression. Then the two conflicting energies collided, and she found herself more concerned with getting to safety... And a moment or three later, Sakura found herself digging her way out of a sand dune for the second time in as many hours. Unbelievably, when she finally managed to poke her head out, she could see that neither of them had moved at all. Both rei.bot and Sachiko were still standing-- the Kamehameha waves having negated one another?-- and though Soseiko was looking increasingly tired, sagging back to support herself on her spear, there was a victorious smile on her face. "curious," rei.bot observed after a moment, brushing some of the sand off of her person. "the kamesennin school, dead for a thousand years no--, yet you know its art?..." Silence from Soseiko, who was apparently mostly concerning herself with breathing and standing upright. "no," the master decided after a moment's analysis. "the flow is untrained. this is not a skill that you have had very long." A glance to Sakura: "it seems as though you were right: she adapts power she sees." Sakura nodded clinically, prying her other leg free of the sand. "A win-win situation for the Hand," she noted, dusting herself off. "If she gets turned down, she sees the Iron Soul for herself, and can utilize some of the techniques. If she gets accepted, she can bring the training back with her." "did your masters think that this deception would go without notice?" A small, measured smile from rei.bot. "or did they warn you that to fail could mean your death?" Soseiko's eyes narrowed. "No, deception," she wheezed. "I want, to study... can learn, quickly... already, so much, I know... isn't... enough." rei.bot's lips turned down in something of a frown. "even were you alone, it is not an issue of desire alone. your spirit is wild; untamed, unready to learn how you would need to. i will not chance that my teachings are misused by one so unsettled." "I, am READY," Soseiko growled, forcing herself to stand. "I, will not, fail..." The frown deepened. "we waste our time here," the master responded, shifting her eyes to Sakura. "are you rested now?" "You know what they'll do when she goes back." Sakura folded her arms behind her back, permitting herself a concerned look. "If she won't learn from you... then there's another they can send her to. Someone who WILL almost certainly teach her." Silence, save for Soseiko's slowly-recovering breathing. "Then you know what I'm going to do." Silence again. Sakura smiled, though there was no pleasure in it, and looked to Soseiko. "When your superiors learn what happened here," the princess of Venus announced, matter-of-factly, "they will ask you to seek out another instructor. When you receive this assignment, please get in contact with me. There is much he and I have to speak about, and a good deal of it involves you." "...yes, m'Lady," Soseiko wheezed, bowing as best she could given her injuries. "As you, wish." "Good." Her gaze strayed to the more grievous of Soseiko's injuries. "Will you be able to leave under your own power?" "Yes, m'Lady." The pained grimace twisted, briefly, into a smirk. "An hour, or so... still some mana, left stored-- might use that, to heal..." "I thought as much." Another smile crossed Sakura's face-- and there was pain in it, an unspoken sorrow, if only for a moment before she looked back to rei.bot. "I'm ready to continue." "good." rei.bot eyed Soseiko, looking for any sign of the will to continue fighting; seeing only injury and dejection, she then nodded to Sakura. "we will resume this training session on Venus," she stated flatly. "where is your TARDIS?" And without so much as a backward glance, Soseiko watched them leave her to bleed in the desert. Though, honestly, she thought with a grin, she'd probably have done the same were she in their shoes. Drawing a long, slow breath, she lowered herself to the sand and laid down on her back, turning her eyes to the stars and wondering what she could have done differently. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 12 BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN, PLUTO ORBIT - 3148 "Events have proceded as you predicted, m'Lady." "I'd be lying if I said I was surprised." Sakura gestured, and the blue-haired woman kneeling before her stood compliantly. "You would do well to remember how to be respectful," the Time Lady said dryly, "but those sorts of formalities won't get you more than scoffed at where we're headed." "As you wish, m'Lady." Soseiko permitted herself a small smile and assumed a subtle parade-rest stance. "Would her Ladyship prefer to be addressed by her given name, then?" "She would, yes." "Sakura-sama, then?" "Sakura will do." Sakura turned back to the window and gazed down at the small world beneath them, bustling with space-borne traffic-- shipments, shuttles, and transports, not to mention the small military task force under Jupiter's command. Soseiko joined her briefly after, remembering having seen something in the newsscans about this. The Navy was making one last stop at a major replenishment stop before it headed out to Genevue Station in the Kuiper Belt, if Soseiko's memory was correct; the place had been overrun with rioters and cultists a few days ago, and the Jovian ships were being deployed to rescue the civilians before they went to cleanse the place. "It's been a while, hasn't it?" Sakura observed thoughtfully, turning back to the other woman. "Have you been kept busy?" Sosdiko nodded quietly in answer, frowning as she glanced down. "More so than I would like, for someone in my position in an ostensible time of peace, " she said quietly. "From what you had said to me when we last met, I had thought I would be redeployed immediately to seek out this second teacher." "They probably couldn't find him right away," Sakura responded, shrugging. "He's been in hiding. He does that every once in a while, when he's not interested in allocating attention to anybody at all... though he certainly chooses ostensibly obvious places to obfuscate himself." "My superiors have hypothesized he prefers to remain somewhat accessible, for whatever reason he may have," Soseiko noted, joining the other woman at the viewport. "Our last information states he can be located on Mount Fuji, near Crystal Tokyo, where he has adopted the alias 'the Old Man of the Mountain.' The local tabloid media has taken this and run with it." "Yama-jii?" A smile briefly crossed Sakura's face. "How fitting." "If you say so, Sakura." Soseiko glanced away from the fleet. "I realize this is probably not my business, but have you had the opportunity to conduct the business you had said you needed to conduct with him?" "I'm afraid not, not. There wasn't the time, as it happens." Another small, faintly amused smile from Soseiko. "A Time Lord without time to spare?" "As the time I needed was yours," Sakura responded wryly, "I felt it wasn' tappropriate to appropriate you against your allegiances, and avoiding the antagonistic attention of authorities overseeing you was admittedly an accurate concern of mine." "Mm." A pause. "They know that I have contacted you in regards to this," Soseiko said after a moment. "I'm aware, yes." Another pause. "You are ready to leave for Earth, I take it?" "Ever since before you arrived." "Then, if you do not mind, shall we be on our way?" "One step ahead of you." Sakura turned to the side and tapped at afew buttons on the wall next to the window panel; a few feet forther to the side, the wall shimmered briefly before opening up into a larger room that was even to Soseiko's relatively inexperienced eyes quite clearly not a part of the battleship they were on. Sakura strolled in without hesitation, as though the place belonged to her; Soseiko followed a moment later, once the novelty was done with. "We could get there through traditional channels," Sakura added off-handedly, moving swiftly towards the central console and starting to flip switches, "but I honestly don't feel like taking the extra time when we can get to the heart of the matter right now-- so to speak." "So to speak?" Soseiko inquired, tilting her head to the side. "It's a long, interesting story that I'm sorry we don't actually have the time for." The door slid shut behind them, and Sakura glanced up from the console with a grin. "Maybe when we're done, if either of us is in the mood for conversation." MOUNT FUJI, NEO-TOKYO, 3148 It was a cold, windy winter in Neo-Tokyo. Most of the people were only peripherally aware of this, safe and secure in their homes and transport units. There were a bold few who went into the outdoors, but they were an ever-diminishing minority-- the few who still thought that playing in the snow was a fun idea, and the few who believed that braving the weather would prove an accurate gauge of their ability to do their normal work. For most, though, and especially now, the idea of visiting Mount Fuji was implausible. The Japanese people, as a general rule, still venerated the great mountain with the same sort of respect they paid to Serenity the Just. Religious pilgrimages were not uncommon, though in recent years, the disruptive presence of the Old Man often made it more difficult for said pilgrims to find their peace. The Old Man of the Mountain was a thorn in the side of the faithful who went to pay homage; though he seemed young and spry of body, there was an incredible weight in his eyes, one that seemed to be the result of seeing more years than any mortal should. A few of the faithful claimed that the Old Man had been sent there by the universe to test the will and perserverance of those who made the journey. Others who had found his apparent madness facilitated their own insight whispered that he was a boddhisava, sent to guide those with pure hearts. Still others whom the Old Man had not been so kind to wondered if he was not some demon who had wrapped himself in mortal flesh to break the will of the faithful. Still, even the most fervent advocates and adherents of the more mythic theories would have agreed that the Old Man would not be on the mountain. The weather was only going to get worse over the next few days, and as the snows began to fall harder and the wind howled more bitterly, few thought there would be any reason for the Old Man to show his head. There would be, after all, no visitors for him to bother. The passenger on the TARDIS smiled faintly to herself, briefly entertaining herself with just how presumptuous the little people could be. As the smooth, shiny door of the monolithic TARDIS slid open, Soseiko followed her superior onto the snows of the mountain. Internally, she could already feel her body adapting to the temperature shift-- adjusting her body fat to insulate her extremities, lowering her temperature a bit, quickening her heart rate to keep the blood flowing, and a number of other minor physiological shifts that would enhance her ability to live here on a more permanent basis. She banished the seeds of these changes with a thought. They would not be here long; the energy her body would use in adapting itself would simply have to be expended all over again when they left. Besides, Soseiko thought, there were other ways to keep warm that were more spiritual in nature. Above the winds, she could hear Sakura's voice. The Princess of Venus, naturally, seemed almost at ease in the wintry weather; the cheer in her voice was evident even over the howling mountain winds. "He should be fairly easy to find!" Sakura was calling. "Look for an encampment-- or failing that, look for a human figure!" This brought a puzzled frown from the other. "Can we not just look for a life signature?" Soseiko hollered back. "It wouldn't be hard to find in these conditions!" "I sincerely doubt it!" Sakura yelled, smiling-- no, grinning widely. "He's had a long time to learn how to avoid getting seen by those sorts of things, and if he wants people to work to find him, he'll make it happen!" "If he can do that, why doesn't he just vanish entirely?" "You said it yourself-- he's a sucker for solicitation!" "Right, then!" Soseiko hollered back, glancing down the mountainside. "Should we split up?" Sakura considered this, then nodded her head. "Don't stray too far, though!" she called. "Check the mountaintop first, then work your way downwards!" Soseiko nodded, then stepped away from the snow beneath her feet and into the air. One of the conveniences of being superhuman, the girl had long ago learned, was that you weren't bound by the limitations of mere gravity. In a moment, she was airborne, climbing into the thinner air of the mountain, and from there she began coordinating her search with Sakura. While the two of them lacked the equipment that a more purely human trek would have required to scale the mountain, neither Soseiko nor Sakura actually needed to get around; Soseiko had sufficient ki control to fly, and Sakura seemed content to merely stride above the snowbanks as though they weren't really there. Despite this, after about an hour's investigation, there was no sign of his presence. There were plenty of traces of his presence. Prints of a traditional wooden sandal, located where the wind wasn't able to cover them up with snow, a discarded wrapper from a people biscuit, even the remnants of a camp were available to mundane searches. As Soseiko began using her other senses to look upon the area, though, she was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable. There was a slick, oily quality to the air here, as though some cosmic machine had broken down and was leaking. "Why isn't he here?" Sakura had wondered when the two of them had concluded their search. "Somewhat strange of him to simply slip so subtly away from a search..." "Do you... think he's avoiding us?" The Time Lady frowned, considering the idea. "Possibly," she decided, "but not plausibly. Perhaps a particular perspective, or probably a more active approach, could be called for in this instance..." "Such as?" "Heeding your earlier idea and sweeping the scene with a sensor suite." She beckoned Soseiko back to the TARDIS, and opened the door. "A little odd of him to outright obfuscate himself," Sakura mused, stepping back inside, "but ostensibly there's some AUGH HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!" In the center of the room, sitting on an important-looking console, was a man that Soseiko recognized as fitting the basic description of the Old Man-- and as the Old Man looked up from the pastry he'd been chewing on, he waved casually to the two of them as they entered. "Through the door," he answered. "It was open, wasn't it?" "No," the Time Lady answered through gritted teeth, "it wasn't." "Oh. Huh. Well, it was open when I got in here." He gestured off-handedly behind the women. "Close the door, would you? It's freaking COLD outside." "We know," Sakura mumbled, motioning Soseiko further inside and sliding the door shut behind them. "How long have you been here?" she inquired, composing herself. "Since about thirty seconds after you first opened the door." He extended the half-eaten nutritional supplement to them. "People biscuit?" "No thanks." She smiled grimly. "I'm afraid I'm not here on a social call, in any case..." "Which is why you're not alone, is it?" The Old Man bit off another hunk of his biscuit and swallowed, nodding. "Why don't you introduce your quiet friend over there to me, so I can append some sort of nomenclature to her?" Sakura nodded, after a brief pause. "You've probably seen his face before," the Time Lady observed aloud, not looking to Soseiko. "And depending on your fiction tastes, you may have seen the name before as well. This is who you seek: the Old Man of the Mountain, alias Yaijinden of the khadi." "Charmed," Yaijinden responded, nodding. "A pleasure to meet you, miss..." And as his gaze shifted over to Soseiko, whatever words he was going to use died in his throat. "You," he murmured darkly. "Yaijinden," Sakura said pleasantly, as though nothing unusual was going on, "I'd like to introduce to you a woman in the service of Queen Serenity the Just. Birthplace unknown, birthdate unknown, raised in an orphanage on Quinox and trained in the Academy of Learning and Study, recipient of the Nova Commendation of Honorable Accord for her role in saving twenty-two classmates from the COSPLAY-OR spawn that landed on Quinox on June 3144 Earth Standard Time, currently in the employ of an unofficial organization dedicated to preserving the safety and security of the Serenity line." Gesturing to the woman to her left, Sakura nodded, smiling wanly as she continued, "It is my pleasure to introduce you to Soseiko." "Sir," Soseiko said quietly, wanting to shrink away from his gaze. Yaijinden hadn't looked away once during the introduction, his piercing gaze boring into her in a way that made her feel distinctly uncomfortable. There was no magic, no psychic phenomena that she could read in his eyes, but there was something oppressive in that stare that was raising her hackles. Instinct was politely, insistently, and loudly demanding she turn and run. But after a moment that seemed like an hour, the khadi looked back to Sakura, suddenly looking much older than before. "What's your game, Time Lady?" he asked, haggard. "Game, Godpop?" Sakura's smile was too tight to be purely genuine. "I don't know what you're talking about." "Cut the coy crap, Sneaky Future Girl," Yaijinden snarled, drawing himself upright. "Why did you bring her here? What do you want out of this?" Sakura's head tilted to the side, almost curious. "Me? Want something? Whatever makes you say that?" "We both know who this is." He snapped off a glance to Soseiko (who was remaining silent) before settling back on Sakura. "Why did you bring her here?" he demanded, sneering. "What are you trying to prove? That despite what happened to her, she's okay? That the universe works despite the way we mortals take things into our own hands?" "Why, you almost sound guilty, Yai!" Sakura's smile widened, though there was no amusement in her eyes. "Though I know that can't be the case. Aren't you the man without regret?" Yaijinden's scowl only etched itself further into his face. "This isn't a social call," he spat, the words leaving his lips like an epithet. "And the last thing I need right now is you toting around that genespawn of yours and holding her over my head as though she was something I'm supposed to feel guilty about!" Soseiko's breath caught in her throat. "Your gene what?" she stammered, twisting to face Sakura... But though the smile faded from Sakura's face, the pointed tone did not. "I seem to remember a bit of help with that little experiment," she said coldly, gaze fastened on Yaijinden. "And I assure you, there are more important things concerning me than who this person used to be." "Oh, REALLY." Now the spiteful smile was on his face. "Please. Do tell." "Excuse me?" Soseiko ventured timidly. "The fact that her gene pattern has appeared again, in nigh exactly the form it did before," Sakura continued, not paying attention to Soseiko, "means that someone has gotten hold of our respective genetic patterns. She was deliberately re-created by someone's hand, and then put where she was, means that there is someone-- or something-- who brought her back." "Right," Yaijinden answered skeptically. "And just why would anyone go to the bother of doing that?" "I don't know." A baleful half-smile found Sakura's face. "I was hoping you would." "You think I'm responsible, don't you?" He jerked his chin in the direction of the third. "That I indulged myself in a little whim. Found something you'd left behind, dragged her soul out of the Cauldron, and abandoned her when I was done." "I never said that," Sakura said mildly. "But here you are, saying exactly that." Yaijinden crossed his hands behind his back, leaning forward. "Why don't you get on with the accusation so I can get on with the categorical denial of any wrongdoings and the subsequent--" He was cut off by the sudden shift, several degrees to one side, in the angle of the floor and the great CLANG that resonated through the TARDIS. Both Sakura and Yaijinden glanced over to the source of the noise, and both saw Soseiko's fist embedded in the floor. Satisfied that she'd acquired their attention, the blue-haired girl straightened herself and bowed in apology to them. "I am not unfamiliar with the idea of staying silent while my elders bicker about some pertinent issue," Soseiko noted, expression and tone resolutely flat. As she straightened, her eyes flickered from Yaijinden to Sakura. "However," she added, "I will not let myself be argued over by the two people who I am suddenly very certain are responsible for the genes that led to my existence..." She paused and frowned. "Unless, of course," Soseiko added, "I am horribly mistaken, and not descended from either of you." Yaijinden quirked an eyebrow, glancing to Sakura. "She didn't know already?" "I was... waiting for the time to be right." There was a long pause from Sakura-- her eyes downward, before she looked back to Soseiko. "I wish that things were that simple," she said quietly. "But it's much more complicated than that." Soseiko smiled, faintly. "It's not that I'm alive. It's that this is not the first time I have been alive." "THAT'S how I know she's ours," Yaijinden proclaimed, nodding approvingly. "And here I was, under the impression that the Academy's been slacking off of late-- but they did a pretty good job with you, neh?" "For what they were equipped to handle," she murmured, coloring slightly and smiling. "The Academy did everything they could for me, in the absence of others." After a moment, Soseiko cleared her throat and looked up to the others. "I suspect that my genesis the first time around was much less of a mystery than it is now?" she asked. The khadi nodded. "Measurably so." "And what concerns the both of you is that I have reappeared, so to speak... woven from whole cloth." "It isn't just that." From the TARIDS console she'd been busying herself with, Sakura finished the data entry and the floor realigned itself to a proper horizontal tilt. As the Time Lady moved to rejoin the others, she gave a baleful glare to the indentation in the floor before settling her attention on Soseiko. "Whoever brought you back here did so knowing fully who you were," she said quietly. "Your name, your hair color, where you were placed... it makes too much sense for this to be mere coincidence." At this, Soseiko blinked. "My hair color?" Yaijinden half-smirked. "When you were first around here, your name was Aoiko-- which, roughly translated, equates to 'Little Blue'." "And it is, with a zero point three percent variation allowable for natural pigmentation differences, identical to my own when I was much younger," Sakura added soberly. "...so it's not only a question of who," Soseiko mused, furrowing her eyebrows in thought, "but why, as well." "Speaking purely from physiology," the khadi said casually, "Sakura is just about as biologically superior to me as you can get. If everything is the same then, you would have about seventy percent of your genes coming from Gallifreyan stock. Another ten, maybe eleven percent from your maternal grandmother, which would make you that much Venusian... and the rest would come from me." Gallifreyan? "That doesn't add up," she responded, glancing to Yaijinden. "Unless I was selectively bred..." He shrugged. "Your mother's genestock is inherently aggressive. I tweaked what I could, but my two chromosones versus your mother's three makes it hard for someone so merely mundane as myself to represent himself properly in your chemical heritage. In any case, unless they're aiming for some sort of weird emotional blackmail, there really isn't any reason to specifically recreate you for ill unless I somehow managed to stumble on some weird combination of genes that would give you superpowers." Then Yaijinden noticed the pause, and the shared look between the two women. "Wow," he said. "I DID, didn't I?" "The Imperial Navy classified me as an assimilator," Soseiko said matter-of-factly, though there was some concern in her expression. "If I see a movement of mana or ki, and have the time to analyze it, I can replicate the end result with ninety-nine percent efficiency on the initial try. Additionally, I can command shifts in my anatomy and physiology, both internal and external, to mime and duplicate life patterns that produce advantage... including those that facilitate spiritual and psychic gains." "...impressive." Yaijinden leaned back and gave Soseiko an appraising look, as though seeing her for the first time again. "Most impressive. There must be some limitations to your power, or some fool would have already ordered you to emulate the structure of validium..." "I am limited to biological forms and powers," Soseiko conceded, bowing her head (Though did Sakura's eyes widen, just a bit, when he finished speaking?). "And there are certain strengths that I cannot emulate-- juxtapositions of the soul to the body, for example-- without subjecting myself directly to the dangers thereof." "You'd be a very desirable soldier against empowered enemies," he observed, smiling darkly. "In fact, you'd be a very desirable soldier, period. I presume that's the role you fill now?" "As Sakura-sama mentioned before me, yes." The word 'mother' came unbidden to her mind, followed shortly by 'father;' she drew a slow breath and dispelled the thoughts, though they went away reluctantly at best. "I serve factions within the Imperium that can put my unique talents where they would best be appreciated." "Which brings me to another relevant point to our conversation, if not to your origin." Having idly strolled his way to the wall, Yaijinden leaned casually against it and offered a small, stinging smile. "We now know why she came to see me," he decided, motioning to the calm, collected Gallifreyan woman standing opposite him. "But as we have since learned, she did not bring you here for the reason you came. You were looking for the Old Man of the Mountain, but what were you going to do when you found him?" "I had heard that the Old Man of the Mountain was a wise and talented instructor in the fighting arts." Soseiko permitted herself a smile and a deferential inclination of her head. "That he was very skilled, and his technique was nigh invincible, but also that he was very discriminating about who he would teach." "You want lessons, then." "Yes, sir." "No." "Please reconsider, sir." "I have nothing to teach you, renewed spawn of mine," Yaijinden replied with a yawn. "I only teach technique to those who have none of their own, and even then I only teach the very fundamentals of fighting. I whet the appetite. Nothing more." "Surely you have some skill in the arts, though." "Oh, certainly. I made it a habit to gleam things from those I've been in contact with... but these things I'm not so sure your masters would want you to know." The khadi smiled again, and there was a sinister gleam to his eyes that brought the oily atmosphere back to Soseiko's senses-- but thicker, darker, more alien... For a brief moment, the air was so dense with it she was certain she was going to drown... "Yaijinden," Sakura's voice said warningly. And then normality reasserted itself with a disconcerting SLRCH. "I could teach you many things," Yaijinden continued, lips curved in a smirk as he watched the blue-haired girl sway on her feet with vertigo. "Stories you would curse yourself for having heard. Secrets most people would rather claw their own eyes out than see. "But these things are not for you to know, girl," he finished, shaking his head. "Not now. If you are fortunate, not ever. There are so very few of us of power who manage to go untouched by the Horrors between and beyond, neh?" This last was directed at Sakura. The Time Lady seemed unfazed by this suggestion; doubtless, Soseiko decided as she dispelled the last of the grogginess, someone in Sakura's esteemed position had already borne witness to a good many horrors. When Sakura spoke, it was with a weary resignation: "You never did answer my question earlier, Godpop." "You never asked one," he replied smoothly, bowing. "Perhaps now you would like to make your accusation?" Sakura Aino drew herself upright, letting a smile crease her face if not her spirit. "Did you seed the second genesis of our child?" she asked, soberly. "It was not my hand or my will that brought her here," Yaijinden answered, shaking his head. "Nor was it that of those who serve me." "A straight answer," Sakura marvelled. "Now I'm actually wondering if you've secreted something sinister up your sleeve..." Her answer was a big, toothy smile. "When haven't I?" The Time Lady reflected on this and nodded once, glancing to Soseiko. "We're done here, then." "We're done," Yaijinden agreed. "We're done?" Soseiko repeated, blinking. She looked to Yaijinden, suddenly realizing she wasn't sure she wanted him to go. She didn't want either of them to go, actually, now that she was thinking about it. An hour ago, she had been a homeless waif raised by the merciful State, a gift from strange fates. She didn't know who she had come from, and she had come to terms with that a long time ago. Now, suddenly, she knew where she was from. She had a birth mother, and a birth father, and she knew who these people were. She knew where, if not why, her power had come into being. Now, all of a sudden, she had family. Real, genuine, honest-to-gods _family._ Soseiko had to fight the impulse to fall to her knees as her energy slipped away from her. These people could have been Mom and Dad for her. They could have been her parents. They could have given her everything her classmates had, the only thing she had ever wanted in her most private daydreams and the only thing she had never let her best friends know she wanted. Not her teachers or the counselors, who would have taken her out of the Academy. Not Joshua, who had always had family and possessed so little understanding of the needs of the heart. Not even Shasa, whom Soseiko had always had to be strong for, whom Soseiko could have talked to about anything but the thing that haunted them both. Perhaps cognizant of the effect he was having on his 'daughter,' Yaijinden nodded to Sakura and turned off towards the door. The plate slid open at his approach, revealing the snow and the cold blustery winds of Mount Fuji; without a word, or so much as a backward glance, he returned to his hermitage... and shortly after, he was somewhere else entirely. The door slid shut behind him with a tone, and then there were two. Soseiko stared blankly after him for a long moment, trying to decide what she was supposed to feel; only when Sakura cleared her throat did Soseiko remember what had brought them here in the first place. For her part, the Time Lady's features were cast over by a pall of regret. "I wish I had known," Sakura said quietly, moving closer. "I only discovered who you were after you first showed your powers, and even then I almost missed the signs." "...what would you have done, if you had known?" Soseiko said, voice cracking despite her attempts to keep it level. "Would you have taken me out of the orphanarium? Out of the Academy? Out of the Hand? And now, now that you DO know-- would you order me released from the Hand even now?" "I don't know." "Then why did you do it?" She levelled a glare at Sakura, lips tightened in a pained, plainative look. "Why do I have to know? What purpose does it serve?" "Nobody is better off not knowing where they come from," Sakura responded resolutely, though the tone of her voice did not match the sorrow in her eyes. "I thought about leaving you in the dark-- I know it would have been easier, and I know you could have gone your entire life without knowing. But it's not you I'm worried about... it's everything else that could go wrong." "...the people who seeded me." "Sometimes, coincidences are happy ones." Sakura shook her head and smiled balefully. "Most of the time, in my business, they lead somewhere entirely different. I'm sorry I have to think like this, Soseiko, but unless I know..." "You... are not the first one to say so." Soseiko managed to turn her eyes downward, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "The Navy's tests are not enough for you, then?" "My eyes go further than theirs. Comes with me being who I am." The smile on Sakura's face faded away, and she took a few steps closer to her 'daughter.' "What about you? What are you going to do, now that you know?" Soseiko was quiet for a long moment. "What CAN I do?" she murmured. "The person who might be my father does not care that I exist, and the person who might be my mother can't afford to care that I exist. What good can come out of pursuing this further?" "I suppose that's a reasonable way of looking at it," Sakura mused, sighing. "Though it won't be that way forever, you know." Soseiko smiled tightly, slowly bringing herself to her feet. "I'll deal with it then, then." "Business as usual?" "Business as usual." "Until something happens." "Until something happens." "If that's what you want." Sakura smiled cheerfully, though she didn't quite manage to pull the emotion off. "I guess that's it, then. Where do you want me to drop you off?" "...nearer the city, if you would." Soseiko drew another slow breath. "I should take some time to calm myself before I report back in... to decide how much of this I should actually repeat." "I don't blame you." The Time Lady returned to the console and began working the controls. "Let's leave Yaijinden to his peace, shall we?" MOUNT FUJI, SUMMIT The sonorous tones of the TARDIS's exit could barely be made out over the howl of the wind. Cross-legged, on the peak of Fujiyama, Yaijinden sat, watching the silver sliver of a machine fade out of his perception-- and then there was only he, wind, the snow, and the rock beneath. With a slow sigh, Yaijinden re-crossed his legs into the lotus, and closed his eyes. The tear froze on his face before it hit the ground. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. Part 13 EARTH, UNDERGROUND - 3148 "You're back." Soseiko had been lying down on her cot, staring at the ceiling, and she had been quite comfortable in the relative quiet. Aside from the noise of the ventilation ducts and the subtle electric hum of the air recycler, there hadn't been much to disturb her moping. Now that there was someone here, though, she was going to have a good deal of difficulty in continuing to mope. Her eyes flicked from the tiles to the woman in the doorway. "Six-five-three," Soseiko acknowledged with a nod. "You weren't expecting me?" "It took us by surprise to hear you had returned," 653 responded, frowning. "Especially so soon after you left..." "The mission went much more quickly than I had anticipated." Soseiko sat up, falling into the mindset she had adopted as an agent of the Hand. Personal identities were verboten to field operatives, in homage to the long tradition of covert operations organizations throughout modern history; individuals went by designated numbers, three digits long, which signified their place with certain branches of the organization. In the space of two heartbeats, Soseiko was 671, servant of Serenity. "I wonder if the Authority expected success," 671 sighed, shaking her head and setting the book she had been reading to one side. "Sending me after two of the most reknowned minds in the arts today..." "Any chance is a chance worth taking," 653 answered with a shrug. "I can come back another time, if you like." 671 shook her head again. "Now is fine. What brings you here?" "Curiosity," the other woman said placidly, stepping inside. "That, and I've been rotated off-duty... it's someone else's turn to watch the Outer children, thank God." "Oh, come. It can't be that bad, can it?" "What it is," 653 grumbled, "is sitting on my arse while the sons and daughters play, and making sure their official bodyguards remain outside of the influence of foreign powers. Aren't there intelligence personnel who... what were you reading?" "Nothing important," 671 responded with a shrug, picking the book back up and holding it so that her comrade could see. "A little light reading, to pass the time." "#suburbansenshi." 653 raised an eyebrow. "You realize that book isn't at all accurate, yes?" "Some history books disagree with that," she said with a small grin, setting it back aside. "It's statistically implausible that that level of strange events could happen in that short time," 653 observed clinically. "Perhaps some of those events were based on historical fact, but I find it difficult to believe that everything happened as depicted in that book." "Why not?" she inquired, increasingly amused. "Just because we don't lead interesting lives doesn't mean people of another time and place can't." 653 frowned. "At best, it's historical fiction. At worst, it's slanderous. I will not stand for the insinuation that the Lady was as degenerate as those so-called 'chat logs' make her out to be." This brought a pause to 671. "You DO realize that people can change," she said, cautiously. "Sometimes it can take time, but it's always possible." "The Lady is above mere 'people,'" 653 said darkly. "And before you mention #suburbansenshi2, don't even bother. That collection is so ridiculously implausible it should be shelved with the rest of the speculative fiction." "All right, all right, I get the point." 671 frowned and shook her head. "Irrationally bitter, much?" "Only at the distortion of history." The other woman sighed at length and shook her head. "Though I suppose the parts where there was resentment by the people of the past directed towards the so-called 'futurespawn' have some merit... I am growing increasingly tired of having to be certain Kaze Miki's bodyguards do not attempt to try something during her visits to the twentieth century." 671 half-smirked. "What would you rather be doing?" she inquired. "Given the opportunity." "Something that allows me to put the skills I spent ten years honing at my grandfather's dojo into use." 653 scowled, clenching a fist and holding it up between the two of them. "Tracking the insurgents, if nothing else," she growled, a nimbus of blue fire coalescing briefly about her hand. "There's a connection out there, I know it." "Connection?" This caught 671's attention. "Between what?" she asked, shifting into a sitting position. "The insurgents," 653 repeated, shooting a resentful look towards 671. "The riots. The cultists. Massive-scale criminal disorder has increased by about seventy-five percent in the outer colonies over the past few years, and it looks like it's going to keep going up." "Ah. Yes, I remember now... I haven't had access to that data until recently." 671 leaned back on her cot, propping herself upright with her hands. "Intelligence hasn't made any headway, then?" she inquired coolly. "Less than they need to, if they expect us to contain it." 653 shook her head and sighed, leaning against the wall. "If things continue to escalate, then we may very well not be able to keep this out of the public eye. God, for the day when they could drop five of us into a nest of conspirators and we could walk out with the satisfaction of a job well done..." "It will come," 671 said calmly, shrugging slightly. "Eventually. And when it does, I think we will all be longing for the times when all we had to do is babysit the babysitters." 653 made a noise of indifference. "Some distant day," she responded noncommittally. "With as much idle use as the sons and daughters of the nobility make of the Time Gate, you'd think we would be permitted to use it ourselves for actual meaningful purposes..." "They... what?" The other woman hesitated a moment, glancing backwards as to see if they were being overheard. "The children of the Princesses and the Knights use the Time Gate," 653 said darkly, the sneer on her face speaking worlds of what she thought about the practice. "And what's more, they use it regularly. For 'sightseeing', and visiting their future family in the past, and other meaningless gestures. It's hard to believe that something so potent as travelling through the fourth dimension can be so trivialized... but there it is." 671 frowned, tilting her head to the side. "Where, and when, are they travelling to?" "I don't know." 653 scrunched her face up, trying to remember. "The early twentieth century, in Tokyo before it became Neo-Tokyo, I think. Queen Matsumi used to spend time there, if my memory is correct, but it doesn't matter where they're going as much as what they're doing. It's just so..." A scowl crossed her face. "So trivial." "Family is not trivial," 671 said quietly. 653 glanced up, noting her peer's suddenly very sober expression. "And you would know what about family?" the other woma inquired evenly. "You hadn't said anything about family to me, 671... in fact, I remember you saying that you had said you were not born to any family but the State's family." "An observation based on experience gleaned from others." 671 smiled humorlessly, though her expression changed only fractionally. "You never know what you're missing until you find yourself without it." "I see." 653 nodded, though she was obviously not convinced. "I'll take your word for it, then." "Whatever you please, 653." She leaned back on her bed, pulling her legs back up to lie down again. "If you get tired of babysitting," 671 said-offhandedly, looking to the ceiling, "Let me know, and I'll see if I can't okay a switch with the higher-ups." "You'd really switch assignments?" 653 tilted her head to the side, the previous matter suddenly forgotten. "But you enjoy the more dangerous work," she said, puzzled. "I've seen you do it myself..." 671 sighed, letting herself show a bit of fatigue. "The last few months have been somewhat trying, I'm afraid. I'd rather do something less intensive than have to take time off altogether." 653 snorted. "You? Tired?" "The psychs know this already," 671 said dismissively, waving a hand. "It'll be their decision, either way." "I see." Her eyes flicked to the clock display. "It's getting late. I should be going..." "So soon?" She sat up on her bed. "Aren't you off-shift?" she asked curiously. "You're the only one of our subsection who shuts herself away when we're not on-duty," 653 responded, the faintest hint of dry amusement in her voice. "You should join us sometime, 671. We won't even bother you about Seven Hours, if that's what bothers you." A smile creased 671's face. "I'll keep that in mind." "That's what you always say." 653 shook her head and smiled ruefully. "See you, then." "Sayonara," 671 echoed, and the other agent left to the sound of the hissing door. Perhaps she was right, Soseiko thought, shedding her other persona as though she were casting off an article of clothing. Perhaps the fact that she was spending so much time alone, making sure she retained a personal spiritual purity, was giving her time and energy to dwell on things that shouldn't be affecting her. Still, it had to have been coincidence that 653 had mentioned the Time Gate when she did. 653 may have been educated in the more revisionist schools of thought, but Soseiko's schooling had not been so narrow. She had read #suburbansenshi: the Untold Story when she was still in the Academy, before the independant critics began to deride the book as a derivative work of satire. Furthermore, Soseiko knew that there was more fact than fancy in #suburbansenshi2... even if its anonymous author had billed it as purely fictitious. She knew that the Princesses were awakened in the twilight of the twentieth century, and while the so-called Inner Senshi had travelled through time and space to the year 2897, the Outer Senshi and several others had spent the intervening centuries in more or less the same fashion, if not in the same general place. Quietly, against her better judgement, Soseiko began working out a plan. It had been years since she had stumbled across the copy of #suburbansenshi2, but there were more than enough details in that dog-eared tome that she knew exactly who had been there... and who was supposed to have been there. If she concealed herself-- and she was a master of obfuscating her identity-- there would perhaps be two people who might recognize her. Even then, she knew ways of hiding in plain sight. As long as she could restrain herself, nobody would notice her. Yes... it could very well be worth the risk. If she could go back to where she had first come from, perhaps she could gather some clues as to who she had been before... and maybe, she might find something that would give her parents reason to trust the coincidence of her return. It would earn her almost certain condemnation from the Hand, perhaps even imprisonment if they found her... ...which was why she was going to have to take every precaution not to get caught until she was ready to come back. IF she wanted to come back. There was enough conflict to suit her until her dying day-- and besides, she was Gallifreyan by blood, and the daughter of the second Princess of Venus. In one sense, she had a RIGHT to travel through time. And by the conclusion of the hour, Soseiko knew what she had to do to secure this right for her own. Disclaimer: All characters presented here are the property of their owners, and are used largely without permission. If the owner of a character used in this subdomain has issues with the way I mime their voice, there's a Contact link you can click on in order to get a hold of me and let me know. People who don't say anything to me get NOTHING changed, your sorrow is pathetic compared to my amusement at your expense, etc etc. </TABLE> </BODY> </HTML>