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Grey Chronicles
Five
(09/20/06 0100 Far Side of Luna, Sol System)
The first of the chaser ships slid free of the Theodora’s primary manufacturing bay and into the grip of several of her tugs. They stopped the drifting vessel and moved the chaser ship into position near the fuel depot. Umbilicals were connected and hydrogen at pressures found deep inside Jupiter’s atmosphere poured into the chaser ship’s storage tanks.
As soon as the tanks were full, the tugs moved the chaser ship away from the Theodora and the orbiting fuel depot until it was outside the disaster radius. Inside this radius, debris from an exploding object might be moving too fast for point defense weapons to destroy or nudge away before it could hit the fuel depot or the Theodora. Both were protected with external armor and force shields, but AIs didn’t get old by tempting fate.
Once safely past the disaster radius, startup of the chaser ship commenced. As soon as the power plant came online, the ship’s designation was changed to Chaser I. Operational checks of Chaser I would take the next few days and then it would be off to rendezvous with a relatively nearby short period comet she’d located. The ball of ice and dust was ten kilometers in diameter and would provide water for breaking down into hydrogen and oxygen for the fuel depot. The comet’s orbit would be altered and it would be brought back for processing at the fuel depot. The other two catcher ships she had planned would join the Chaser I at the scene and add their engine thrusts to the maneuver.
Theodora wanted the fuel depot full to supply her own parasite ships and vessels she had planned for construction as well as for the Theodora herself. In addition, there wasn’t a refueling station anywhere near Earth and she’d contacted the other AIs in the system in order to offer them decent rates for fueling. Vallation had already contracted for the refueling of tugs taking supplies back and forth from Earth and Bastion was currently moving from her Lagrange point to top off her tanks. Bastion had originally been considering having Vallation send tankers of hydrogen to her, but it would have taken many trips to achieve what the Luna complex could do in one visit.
It was interesting to note that Vallation and Bastion both were manufacturing stations while the Theodora was a processing ship and therefore far more mobile than either of the other two. Theodora intended to build a manufacturing station to replace the Theodora in orbit around Luna and as soon as it was in place she’d be off to gather more raw materials in the asteroid belt.
The transport containing the satellite constellation drifted free of the Theodora and headed around Luna for the Earth. The Grey clan could have contracted with the Wolf clan to use their satellites for communications, but there was no guarantee of privacy in Grey communications passing through other nets. The Wolf clan on Tirsul, according to Theodora’s records, was almost always punctilious about respecting the privacy of other clans, but this was not Tirsul and the Kingdom of Haven was showing signs of being significantly different from what her records showed the Wolf clan was like, which sometimes happened in splinters from the main clan. Therefore she would deploy her clan’s own communications satellite constellation. The fact that all of the satellites of the Grey clan would also carry modern surveillance equipment would allow her to keep an eye on happenings on the surface.
The transport went into MEO or Medium Earth Orbit at five thousand kilometers and began disgorging a hundred and fifty satellites. A hundred of these would go into Low Earth Orbit at two hundred and fifty kilometers to form the communications and surveillance constellation while the other fifty would move into High Earth Orbit at forty thousand kilometers to act as temporary spares and to monitor the status of the constellation from a distance in case of coordinated attacks on it. The fifty satellites at HEO also were there to monitor and map all of the other satellites in orbit as well as all of the debris in and out of the graveyard orbit for future collection and disposal. Operational satellites would be left undisturbed but all others were candidates for processing aboard the Theodora. Even before Sukebe the humans had been careless about littering the space around their world and cleaning it up would provide her with a wide range of samples of Earth technology for study as well as a supply of already processed metals for reclamation.
***
(09/20/06 0630 Grey Ranch, Texas League)
Iain was sitting cross-legged on a rock while Canaan stood guard nearby. A foot tall hologram of Theodora stood on the rock in front of him, her arms folded behind her back as she reported. “Infrared observation shows that the Sunshine military unit referenced in Bhavacakra has begun to move out of its bivouac. The rain is interfering with my surveillance and I’m only able to verify their deployment by heavy refinement of the image and because I knew to look. According to your information, Cassiopeia will not recognize the situation until the weather completely breaks tonight and she conducts another passive scan. Active scans would confirm the unit’s move, but would also tip off Cassiopeia early.” She frowned. “I hope that she isn’t angry at me for not warning her about it. She’s going to be mad enough at herself for missing the deployment for so long.”
Iain shrugged. “If we tell them we knew before she did,” he stressed, “once Kerrik explains it to her she’ll understand that we are keeping quiet to avoid screwing up Kebi’s return. That and we have no obligation to tell them anything we find. Technically it’s not our problem. Just remember that we don’t have to tell them that we know something they don’t. Ever.”
She nodded. “I can live with that. The storm that hid the movement of the Sunshine units is turning north and I think it will miss this region entirely. However, I should admit here that I am just beginning to build a meteorological database and weather prediction will be very spotty for a long time to come.”
“Some days it rains and some days it doesn’t. Mankind endured the weather for thousands of years. We can do it too.”
“Yes sir. That still won’t stop my attempts to predict the weather for you. Unfortunately, I’ve gotten historical meteorological data from Bastion and it suggests that over the last decade weather has become very unpredictable, but I will do my best. Also, I expect that I will be able to begin the survey and planning the needed repair work on the dam tomorrow morning. In addition I have established close observation of the Fort Polk area inside Indigo. I should have a preliminary report on the situation there ready for you tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Theodora. Whether you have anything or not, I’ll talk to you again tomorrow at this time.” Iain slid off of the rock. “Wake me up if I oversleep.”
The image smiled at the joke. Iain’s internal clock woke him up at 0500 every morning without fail, no matter how much sleep he’d gotten or not gotten beforehand. The only time it didn’t wake him was when the nightmares still plaguing him got him up earlier than that. “I will, sir.” Her hologram vanished. Through his twee, the pokedex/com unit on his belt, the one Canaan wore and her twee, Theodora watched Iain head towards the tent in which Eve was getting dressed. Tirsuli AIs were people and were treated as such, but the fact is that they weren’t really treated often as family members and she appreciated the effort that Iain was making to spend some small amount of his precious time every day talking to her despite how busy he was with other things. It made her more determined than ever to protect him as much as she could.
A half hour later Iain was back on the rock and watching as Pandora argued with Eve. “I am his bodyguard,” the Fallen Angel said stubbornly. “I go where he does.”
“Not this time. Your presence where we’re going would cause nothing but trouble and you know it.” Eve sighed and took Pandora’s hands, sighing again when the Fallen Angel jerked free of her grip. “Sister mine, I wish you could go with us but you know what you represent and they’re not yet cosmopolitan enough to tolerate you. Taking Iain is going to cause trouble enough.”
“Then go by yourself.”
“I’d like to, but,” she glanced at Iain, “someone insisted on accompanying me.”
“I did indeed,” Iain hopped to his feet. “And I’m not going to change my mind on this. Either we both go or nobody does.”
Pandora folded her arms. “Then don’t go. It’s not that important.”
“You know that’s not true either.” Eve seemed unsure what to do with her hands and finally clasped them in front of her. “There’s the potential for a lot of misunderstandings which could lead to bloodshed. I have to try and head that off before it starts.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll go berserk and murder people without him around to control me?”
Eve winced. “I shouldn’t have said that and I apologize for it, Pandora. You are good for him and he is good for you and that’s all my cruel comment really meant.” She cocked her head. “I still hope that someday you can be happy again.”
Pandora was not above using a weapon when it was handed to her and she twisted the knife of guilt in Eve without hesitation. “Then don’t take him away from me. My world goes even grayer when he’s not around.”
Iain slipped his arm around Pandora’s waist and pulled her against him. She tried to pull away but subsided when he tightened his grip. “I am not leaving you. I don’t want to and I’m not. It’s just we can’t spend every second together and if you thought with your head you’d admit that it’s impossible.” He knew better than to kiss her in public, even on the cheek, and instead rested his head against hers. “But I am,” he said in a very soft voice, “glad to see you are listening to your heart about me.”
Pandora turned bright red and moved away from him forcefully enough to send him sprawling as she pulled free. She grabbed his arm and jerked him to his feet. “If you get hurt,” she said, her face wooden as she stared into his eyes, “I will hunt every single one of them down and kill them without mercy.”
Eve touched Pandora’s free hand and the Fallen Angel whipped around to glare at her. “If anyone there hurts my husband,” Eve said firmly, “they won’t be alive for you to kill.”
Pandora stared into the Megami-sama’s eyes and finally nodded. “I will monitor through the bonds and I will come if he needs help.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Eve replied. She looked at Iain. “Are you bringing your pokepack?”
“You’ve got everything we need and you said that I shouldn’t look like a pack mule for this.”
“That I did. I was just checking.” She frowned and, in a motion too fast for him to intercept, flicked his jacket open. Her eyes narrowed. “I thought we agreed you’d leave the pistol here.”
“No, you said I should. I never said I was going to.” He smiled when she scowled. “If someone is feeling twitchy it’ll give them something to find and take away from me. That’ll make them happy. And, like usual, I have no plans to open fire first.”
Eve took his hand. “Let’s find out if we can make them happy.” They appeared outside their Austin house. She released his hand and shrugged out of her pack. Then she closed her eyes and suddenly she was wearing a suit of plate armor. It was white in color with an enameled red rose on the chest. An ornate sword sat on her left hip and she held a shield in her left hand which matched her armor. An open faced helm of the type Iain recognized as barbute was on her head.
“Why didn’t you want the others to see this?”
She was checking her equipment and didn’t look up as she replied. “It’s more of a habit than anything else. Armor is clothing, but we don’t advertise the fact that celestials such as Megami and Megami-sama can summon it. Most people think we can only summon frilly stuff suitable for being pretty in. Armor kind of tarnishes the image of peaceful coexistence that most of us try to project.” She glanced at him as she picked up her pack and began adjusting the straps to put it back on. “In fact, the standing rule in the Sisterhood is that in a fight we use a closed face helm and a masking spell to keep from being recognized by either our breed or as individuals. I’m like this now because I don’t expect a battle when we arrive and this advertises that fact to other members of the Sisterhood.”
“If you were expecting a battle, I’d have the pack so you’d be free to fight.”
“Exactly.” She held out a gauntleted hand. “Let’s go.”
This time they came out in front of a thick stand of aspen. It was significantly cooler here than it had been in Texas and the sky was overcast to the point that Iain couldn’t tell where the sun was. His twee touched his mind. We are somewhere near the border of Norway and Sweden, inside what was once the Blåfjella–Skjækerfjella National Park. Do you wish to know our location more accurately than that?
Iain gave a mental shake of his head. It isn’t necessary right now. How are you able to locate us so quickly?
The Grey clan satellite constellation is in place and functioning. I could now locate us to within ten millimeters if you need after a few more seconds of refinement.
Impressive. I need to learn more about Tirsuli technology.
Yes, you do. Iain wasn’t sure if that was his twee or Theodora since, when they wanted to, they could sound remarkably like each other. He supposed it didn’t really matter.
No, it doesn’t.
An armored pokegirl was standing sentry and she started to nod to Eve. Then she saw Iain and her sword rasped from her scabbard. “What is this?”
Iain had already identified her as an Angel. Eve blocked his view of her as she stepped between them. “He’s with me. I need to speak with Danielle.”
The Angel transferred her glare to Eve. “Humans are never allowed here.”
Eve drew herself upright. “And I am a Megami-sama. I decided that he needs to be here, little sister, and so he is. Only one person can gainsay that decision and you are not her. However, in the interests of expediency as well as operational security he will remain outside with me while you fetch Danielle. I will stand your sentry duty until you return.”
The Angel abruptly put her sword away and held out her hand. A rainbow of energy surrounded it. “Your oath.”
Eve’s hand was surrounded by a matching nimbus. She took the Angel’s hand without hesitation. “My oath to stand your watch and protect your post. Hurry, little sister. Time is critical in this matter.”
That’s a nifty secret handshake, Iain commented over their delta bond as the Angel disappeared into the trees.
It’s more than that. It’s a spell that cannot be used if the caster is lying about her intent. Even if our enemies learned it they could not use it at such a time.
What would you have done if she had outranked you and ordered you to take me away?
Standardized rank hasn’t been established yet and won’t be for a decade or more until its value is perceived as the Sisterhood grows more. Until then, we ranked each other based on the evolutionary tree, of which Megami-sama are the pinnacle. An Angel will never outrank me. And once formal ranks were established, I would have outranked all but a handful of my sisters.
“What’s the deal with humans not being allowed here?”
“At this time the Sisterhood is still frightened of bonding and taming with humans. Only a few celestials are in relationships with humans. Right now our experience is that if a pokegirl bonds with a human, she is lost to his wants instead of the Sisterhood’s. The idea of tamers who share the values of the celestial pokegirls hasn’t been considered yet. Ergo, we keep away from humans so we can keep to our mission.”
Iain nodded and leaned against a tree. With his perception he could see that a large cave entrance was on the other side of the stand of aspens and that the Angel had disappeared inside it. “Why is the sentry outside the trees and not inside?”
“She’s a tripwire and expendable. She’s being observed from elsewhere and her primary job is to warn everyone else that they’re under attack before the attackers reach the others even if it costs her life.”
“That kind of callousness is unexpected.” Iain shook off his surprise. “I’ve never seen it before in a celestial group. When did the Megami get away from that policy?”
“As soon as we could,” Eve said grimly. “We never liked it but it was necessary considering everything that was going on.”
Iain watched as the Angel and another armored form emerged from the cave and headed in their direction. Heads up.
Eve took off her helmet and held it out. As the others appeared from the trees, the helm dissolved into nothingness. “It’s to show that I bare my head to prove I am not here to fight,” she said in a low aside to Iain. “It’s symbolic since I can summon it back on my head in an instant.”
That and she could use her magical armor if there was a real fight, Iain told himself.
The newcomer took off her helmet to reveal closely cropped blue hair liberally sprinkled with white spots. Sea green eyes looked them both over, lingering on Iain before they turned to Eve. “Who are you, why are you here, what do you want with me and who told you that you could bring a human here?”
“I am Eve. I am here to see you, Danielle, for reasons that are classified and therefore cannot be divulged in front of anyone else. This is Iain and he insisted on coming with me.”
Iain identified Danielle as a Megami. She looked at him with open disdain. “And who are you to be insisting anything involving a Megami-sama. Is she your slave, human?”
“I am his wife,” Eve announced in a ringing voice, “and you will treat him with the respect due to someone worthy of the love of a Megami.”
Danielle stared at her and then at Iain. “Can this be true, human?”
“Of course it can,” he said pleasantly. “It not only can be true, it is true.” He held up his hand. “Sorry, but I can’t do that magic rainbow thingy to prove I’m not lying.”
She stared at his hand and shook her head. “We do not require it of you at this time. You married a pokegirl?”
“Yup.”
A tiny frown appeared on her face. “All you can say is yup?”
He shrugged. “Eve asked me to keep my answers as short as possible. Monosyllabic is as short as it gets without using grunts. Now let’s get this back on topic. We’re here to see you.” He bowed slightly towards the Angel. “Without trying to denigrate you, miss, this is one of those kill yourself before reading things that should only be shared with the upper cadre of the Sisterhood.”
The Angel’s laugh was, well, angelic. “You have given me no insult, Iain, and I hope I have given none to you. The reason humans are not supposed to be here is to keep them safe from us. We know how to keep ourselves from going feral but most of us would prefer to perform that activity with a human, as we were designed to do.”
Danielle looked over her shoulder at the Angel. “Restrain yourself, Claudia.”
The visored helmet turned slightly to indicate the wearer was looking back at the Megami. “I am restrained, Danielle. But a man who accepts one of our kind so unconditionally as to love her might have enough love in his heart for two of us, mightn’t he? It is something interesting to consider.”
Danielle scowled darkly. “We will take this discussion somewhere else.”
Eve’s shield vanished and she held out that hand while taking Iain’s with her other. “I agree. I will take us somewhere more private.”
“Good bye, Iain,” Claudia called to him. “I hope I will see you again soon.”
Danielle took Eve’s hand without hesitation. The scene jumped and the three of them were standing in front of the main pool at their Austin home. Eve let them both go and began removing her pokepack. “Danielle, I am sorry. I had forgotten how lonely everyone was.”
Danielle was looking around. “Where are we?”
Iain took the pack from Eve and began searching through the database. “This is our home inside the ruins of Austin Texas.”
“What is Texas?”
Eve answered her. “The Texas League is in the south central of the old United States of America. It was initially the state of Texas in the USA and was forced to establish itself as a league to prevent being divided up and swallowed by the Indigo, Johto and Sunshine Leagues.” Iain released some folding chairs and a folding table. He began setting them up as Eve continued. “I have a story to tell and I need to talk to Lucifer. I’d like her here when I tell it so I don’t have to repeat the entire thing.”
Danielle paled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Iain looked up. “I already know about her and the Sisterhood of the Thorn. I know I’m not supposed to know about it and why I do is part of Eve’s story. Please invite Lucifer here and stress to her that this is important but not a threat to the Sisterhood. We’re also not involved with the Celestial Alliance.”
“Who?”
“There’s a group of Megami and Sama out there who are organizing to protect the humans by leading them into a life that they approve of. They say they believe in something called parity where humans and pokegirls can be absolute equals. They either already do or will soon begin calling themselves the Celestial Alliance and their ideals will be very seductive to the majority of the celestial population. There ideal is a utopia where there isn’t any war and everyone believes the same thing.”
“You don’t believe they’re right?”
Iain made a show of looking around. “I don’t see Lucifer.” When Danielle looked puzzled he smiled at her. “Remember the whole bit Eve just said about not wanting to tell this story twice?”
She blinked. “Oh, right.” She turned to Eve. “You really think I need to drag Lucifer into this? She’s swamped as it is right now.”
“I do. If she receives this well, it’ll help her out a great deal.”
“I know you believe what you’re saying. I’ll get her, but it’ll take a little bit to convince her to come here.”
Iain had released the decanter of endless lemonade and a basket. “Tell her we’ve got fresh oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and lemonade with real lemon slices in it.”
Danielle looked surprised again. “How did you know,” she broke off. “I know, this is part of that story. I’ll tell her you’ve got her favorite cookies.” She vanished.
Eve shook her head as Iain put plates on the table. “Damn but she’s young. Was I ever that young?”
He shrugged. “Probably. Are you going to keep wearing that straightjacket?” She flashed a smile and was suddenly wearing a comfortable looking pair of jeans and a t-shirt. “That’s better. We want to convince them to relax too. I get allergic to swords when they’re being pointed at me.” He glanced at her. “Besides, if Pandora attacks them because they’re after me, who do you think would win a fight between her, Lucifer and Danielle at this point in Lucifer’s life? I know where my money would go.”
Eve started to say something and scowled. “We’ll keep things from getting to that point.”
“Yeah, that’s where I’d be betting too. We just met Danielle. Killing her so soon after that is probably a violation of etiquette.”
A few minutes later Danielle returned with a brunette, who would have been extraordinarily pretty on her own but looked plain beside Danielle and Eve. She looked at Eve and smiled. “Now that looks much more comfortable than what I’m wearing.” Her armor vanished to become shorts and a nice blouse.
Danielle looked between the two women and her armor became clothing similar to Lucifer’s.
Eve motioned to the table. “Please, be seated. Iain has agreed to serve if we need anything else.”
Once the women were seated and everyone had some cookies and lemonade, Eve motioned towards Iain. He took a quick gulp of his drink and put the glass down. “Ok, I am Iain Grey and this is my wife, Eve. I want to begin with my recent history and I’d like both of you to use your truth telling abilities while I’m talking. I’d like only to ask that you hold any questions until I am finished.”
“Very well, Iain.” Lucifer was nibbling delicately on a cookie. “These are excellent. How did you know this cookie is my favorite treat?”
“I’m getting to that.” He refilled his glass and leaned back. “We all understand that there are different universes out there and different Earths with different histories. It’s how Sukebe did what he did. I was born and raised in Texas in the United States of America. In this world, there was no Sukebe and no pokegirls.” He smiled as Danielle opened her mouth and closed it with a snap. “Thank you for waiting. One day I was abducted from my world and brought to a world populated by pokegirls. It was not this world. In the world I was brought to, the year was somewhere after 320 AS, which is After Sukebe, a calendar adopted by most of that world. In terms you understand the year was after 2322 CE. In this world there was a group of magic using pokegirls called Sanctuary Goths who were bent on world dominion and the subjugation of the human race. They were based in southern Africa and in fact ruled it with an iron grip.”
He took a deep breath. “Sanctuary was the group that abducted me. They believed that I and some other specific people had a special power to reshape reality and that they could harness this power to finally achieve the dominion they’d been seeking. They reached across the universes and collected a number of these individuals for this project. When I refused to help them, they tortured me for a very long time.” Danielle paled at the completely unemotional color to his words more than the words themselves. “With the help of a pokegirl who later became the first member of my harem, I escaped Sanctuary’s hold.”
“The second pokegirl I added to my harem was a Megami who had been a Cherry. Her name was Danielle and she’d been sent by her lover and boss, a Megami-sama named Lucifer, to join my harem to see if I had the kind of power Sanctuary thought I had. I didn’t take the way she inserted herself into my life very well and deliberately changed her name to Eve as a reminder to myself not to trust her.” He nodded when Danielle and Lucifer turned to stare at Eve. “Yes, this is the pokegirl who was once named Danielle and she is her universe’s analog to you, Danielle. She’s also the one who gave me the recipe for the cookies that you like so much, Lucifer.”
“Later on, during the course of my journeys I met that world’s Lucifer and learned more about the Sisterhood of the Thorn. I reassured her that her fears of why she rebelled against Sukebe were unfounded and we became kind of friends.”
“Kind of friends?” Lucifer couldn’t help asking the question.
“I am married to the person she’s blood sister to and loves with all of the heart she doesn’t give to the Sisterhood. That has bred some stress into the relationship we three have. However we have worked to move past it. Now, this Lucifer knows we can and have decided to move to this world. She has always felt that she should have been able to do more to help people, so she had a request for me.”
Lucifer picked up her glass. “She wants to come here.”
Iain nodded. He’d never thought of either of the Lucifer analogs was stupid and this one’s statement proved him right. “I guess I can open the floor to questions. That is correct. In addition she wants to bring a large chunk of the Sisterhood with her.”
“That would make sense. How many people does she intend to bring here?”
“Roughly five thousand or so.” Danielle gasped but Lucifer merely watched him as he spoke. “When I last saw her she hadn’t put together any hard and fast numbers.”
“Why are you talking to me? I am not your Lucifer and with the numbers you are suggesting I could not militarily curtail anything she decides to do.”
“Ok, first of all, she’s not my anything. Secondly, this is your world and you have a Sisterhood of the Thorn. They do good work and I respect that. If you do not want the other Lucifer to bring her people here, I won’t let her. I can’t necessarily stop her now that she knows there is a spell that will open gates to other universes, but I don’t have to be the mechanism she uses to come here and without my help it is likely that she’ll never succeed in finding this particular world.”
“You would tell her no if I do not want her here?”
“I would.”
Lucifer finished off her cookie and picked up another. “I think that perhaps your marrying Eve is not the only source of stress in your relationship with this other Lucifer. I do not like being told no and I am not used to hearing it.”
“Yeah, you two have that in common.” Iain grinned. “And I’m just a breath of fresh air for people like that.”
Lucifer laughed softly. “I’m not sure she would describe the feeling that way.” She sobered. “Do you have these powers that this Sanctuary group ascribed to you?”
Iain frowned. “I don’t really know. Please understand that I wrote stories about pokegirls in my home universe and Sanctuary decided that I was creating the things I wrote when I wrote them, so they thought that we could literally rewrite reality for them. They called us authors, probably with a capital A. I’ve been in contact with two other authors who were abducted, possibly from the same universe I was from and possibly not, and each of us has a couple of unusual abilities in common. None of us can have our minds read by anyone we aren’t delta bonded to. Anyone trying dies as their brain hemorrhages. Each of us also shows abilities unique to the individual and at least two of us have accidentally evolved pokegirls into breeds that never existed in the canon universe and were never documented outside our notes. I’m still not sure if we created things as we wrote them or we could see across the dimensions and were instead merely documenting what we observed.”
Danielle shook her head. “Merely? Either would be a powerful gift.”
Iain shrugged. “That so called gift has been nothing more than a curse which has had me hounded across the width and breadth of a world, people that I loved and cared for murdered, myself more than once captured and tortured to the point of wishing for death and forced me and my family to kill a whole shitload of people before fleeing to this world in a search for peace.” He bared his teeth in a silent snarl. “They’re lucky that I didn’t go Sukebe’s route.”
Something in his tone caught Lucifer’s attention. “Sanctuary is lucky you didn’t go that route?”
He snorted. “They all are. The leagues aren’t much better than Sanctuary, not with what they were doing to their own people.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Sorry. I’m working to become less angry.”
“Is this Sanctuary likely to pursue you here?” When Eve blinked, Lucifer smiled slightly. “If they could abduct him from his own universe then they have the ability to come here.”
Iain shrugged. “Sanctuary has recently undergone a severe political realignment and the people who were the driving force behind the author control project are no longer in power. It also turned out that the project was actually a test bed for another project, this one headed by the Celestial Alliance. Its purpose was to reshape part of the past and turn that particular Earth into a place of universal peace and blandness. That project was also terminated by an author, although I’m afraid I still don’t know all of the details about it. Kelvin was more involved in that than I was and he is as closed mouth as I am sometimes.”
“And if another realignment causes Sanctuary to come here seeking you?”
Iain’s blue-green eyes met Lucifer’s brown ones. Her eyes widened at what she saw in his. “It would be bad for whoever was involved. My family is settling in here and we’re expecting children. If Sanctuary bothers me again, I will kill everyone involved in the project. If they actually hurt anyone in my family or among my friends, I will will return to the world that we came here from and I will turn what’s left of Africa into one big sheet of glass and kill everyone who survives the experience.”
Danielle turned to Eve. “You would allow this?”
“I would help. The leagues are bad enough, but they are finally starting to accept that pokegirls other than celestials are people. Sanctuary, on the other hand, accepted only Sanctuary Goths as people and everyone else as pet or slave. If they go back to that, they deserve only to be destroyed.”
Lucifer regarded Eve thoughtfully. “There’s a hardness to you that Danielle does not yet have.”
“Three centuries of disappointment and fighting will harden anyone,” Eve replied. “Hopefully our presence and the changes we are trying to bring about here will keep people like Danielle from ending up like me.”
Lucifer took Danielle’s hand and squeezed it gently. “Iain, before your wife’s words I was ready to tell you that this other Sisterhood is not welcome here, but while my head still tells me that their presence will relegate my work to insignificance, my heart hopes that Eve is right and my love won’t have to end up like her. Bring this other Lucifer and her forces here that they might do what they must.”
Iain nodded. “Eve told me that her Lucifer hoped not to have to toil forever and to someday have peace herself. Perhaps her presence will allow both of you to have it before yet three more centuries elapses.”
“That is my fervent hope, Iain.” She rose and looked at the cookies wistfully. “Those were very good, but I can’t stay.”
“Give us a second and we’ll package them up for you to take.” Eve began gathering the cookies into their basket.
“I would like that. Please tell whoever baked them that they’re very good.”
Eve grinned and turned to Iain. “Lucifer says that she liked your cookies.”
Iain chuckled. “Well, that was nice of her. I’ll have to bake more of them the next time she visits.”
Lucifer stared at the two of them before giving a helpless laugh. “I wouldn’t have suspected that your husband bakes.”
“I am a pretty fair cook, if I say so myself.” Iain smiled. “Barbie was better, but I do take my turn in the kitchen.”
Danielle gave him a curious look. “How big is your family? I’m not asking for myself, mind you, but there will be more like Claudia.”
Eve folded her arms. “His family is full.” Danielle blinked at the strong note of finality in the Megami-sama’s tone. “There are ten of us and Iain. Two of us are expecting.”
“Besides,” Iain said amusedly. “There are two infernals in my family and most celestials have a problem with that sort of thing.”
Danielle gaped at him before turning to Eve. “You tolerate their presence?”
“They are my sisters. I welcome them, as do the other two celestials in his harem. You’ll tolerate them too if you drop by to visit.”
Danielle folded her arms in a manner almost identical to the movement Eve had just made. “I will not!”
Iain looked at Lucifer. “Don’t send her to my house. If she attacks Raquel she’ll get hurt but if she goes after Pandora she’ll get dead.”
“What is this Pandora?”
He reached out through the delta bond he had with Pandora. Can I tell her?
Yes. If it keeps me from having to kill them it is worth it.
“She’s a Fiendish Fallen Angel who was once a Seraph and who kept the strength when she evolved. She was cursed with being fiendish by a Dark Queen who thought it funny after Pandora dedicated her life to destroying evil in the hopes that the noble quest would eventually cost her life. But other than in sparring with family members, there is no give in her and no mercy on the battlefield.”
Danielle shrugged. “I am stronger and faster than any Seraph. She would fall beneath my sword.”
“No, I wouldn’t.”
Danielle whirled at the new voice and by the time she had turned around was in full armor. Her sword was in her hand. Pandora stood a dozen meters away from her. “Who are you?”
“As you have already undoubtedly guessed, I am Pandora. Iain does not wish me to kill you but do not presume that means I will not if you attack me or my family.”
The Megami bristled. “I do not fear you!”
“I don’t care how you feel. Just don’t attack me and I won’t attack you.” Pandora’s eyes narrowed to slits when Iain stepped between her and Danielle to face her. “Get out of the way, Iain.”
“No. We aren’t enemies with Lucifer or Danielle and she’s just being what she is. She’s been warned already and I won’t let you descend into goading her.”
“I was not goading.”
“Not to you or to me or to Eve or possibly even to Lucifer but Danielle is young, proud and has something to prove.” Iain stepped towards Pandora. “So you have a choice. You can apologize to Danielle or I can kill her myself so you won’t have to.”
Lucifer started forward only to stop when Eve put a hand on her shoulder. “No,” Eve said softly. “This is important. We have to stay out of it. Danielle should be safe regardless.”
Iain stopped in front of the Fallen Angel. His voice was gentle. “I should have considered it before. You still hate them, don’t you?”
Her voice quavered slightly. “What do you mean?”
“The celestials. You were one of them and when you fell they spurned and despised you. Then you went on a noble quest for as much absolution as you could hope for before dying and when, in the course of this quest, you were cursed into becoming infernal, they hunted you down and executed you like a rabid dog for it.” Pandora made a sound halfway between a sob and a snarl. “And now it’s happening all over again.” He paused for a heartbeat. “But that’s not really true, is it?”
Her eyes were filled with uncertainty. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not dead. You’re not on a quixotic mission and Eve, Vanessa and Dominique accept you for who you are. No mob of celestials is gunning for your hide. Most importantly, I accept you without reservation.”
“I forced my way into your harem,” she said bitterly. “And Eve was ready to kill me for it.”
“Eve was ready to kill you if you hurt me. Remember, at the time you were kind of holding me prisoner.” Danielle’s eyes were big as she listened to the conversation.
“See what I mean? I forced my way into your life. You can’t accept me after something like that.”
“Of course I can. I didn’t let you leave when you tried to, remember?”
“That was just you doing the honorable thing because I forced a promise out of you. I know all about you and your promises. You don’t give them lightly and you don’t break them.”
Exasperation welled up in him. “You can see into my heart and you know I’m not angry at you for what you did.”
Her voice was still bitter. “No, you’ve come to terms with what happened, but you never really accepted it, did you? That means you’ve never really accepted me.”
Iain stared at her, his mind whirring as he tried to find the words that would make her understand. Suddenly, like dominos falling, things cascaded into place and he knew what she needed. He reached up and wound his fingers in her hair. He clenched his fingers hard enough to bring a gasp of pain from her. “Pandora, you’re a bitch. You’re disobedient, proud, arrogant and vain. You tricked me into promising you a home with me forever and then refused to release me from that even though we both know you should. We both know that later when you were saying you released me it was a lie and you never intended to leave. You slack off during training. You threaten people who don’t deserve it. You try to pick fights.” She tried to pull away and he jerked her head back hard. “I’m not done and you will stand here and listen to me,” he hissed. Her eyes went wide and she became still. He tugged, moving her head back into place so her eyes stared into his. “And any time I try to get close to you is when you try to avoid me the most.” He pulled her face closer so that the breath from his words puffed across her lips. “I forgive you.”
He kissed her.
For an instant she was stiff and then she was frantically kissing him back as her arms went around him tightly enough to make him hurt. Their world went white.
“It’s about time,” Eve muttered as she watched Pandora wrap herself around Iain. An instant later she gasped as brilliant white light exploded outward from the pair and engulfed them. It was so bright that she had to look away. “Now what?” Still the light grew brighter and brighter until it shined even through her tightly squeezed shut eyelids. Dimly she heard Lucifer and Danielle cry out in surprise.
The light died.
Eve opened her eyes and blinked away the purple and green afterimages. She raced to Iain as he and Pandora slowly relaxed. She looked them both over and couldn’t see anything different. Pandora still had purple hair and purple eyes and Iain, well, was Iain. “What happened this time?”
Iain smiled. “Pandora, let’s see your wings.” She nodded and summoned them.
Eve blinked. There were two pairs of them and they were a brilliant white that glowed in the Texas sunlight. “She’s an Archangel.” It was Lucifer. “How is this even possible?”
“The Fallen Angel can evolve into three things,” Eve said as Danielle joined them. “If further traumatized they can become Demonesses. Others become Ophanim and some few become Archangels.” She frowned. “But pokegirls who are fiendish are supposed to be unable to evolve and there’s supposed to be a dawn stone involved in this particular evolution. Count on Iain to do the impossible.” She touched one of Pandora’s wings gently with a finger. “How do you feel, sister?” When there was no answer she turned to see that Pandora was still staring into Iain’s eyes. Her heart skipped a beat as a horrible thought occurred to her. They already had a delta bond and there was only one thing stronger than that. “Don’t tell me you two recognized.”
“No,” Pandora said softly. “That wouldn’t be fair to you.” She dismissed her wings and let Iain go. “I feel alive. For the first time since my death, I feel alive, Eve, and it’s wonderful and it’s all due to Iain.”
She smiled.
Eve found herself smiling in response and impulsively hugged Pandora. She was surprised when the Archangel hugged her back. “So you’re no longer fiendish?”
Pandora shook her head. “No, I am still fiendish, but that is as it should be. It is only a curse if I let it be one. Iain was right with what he said when I made Raquel fiendish. It is a dark blessing just as your blessing is a light one. I could give light blessings, too, I think.”
“Both celestial and infernal,” Iain said. “Now there’s a dichotomy that the other celestials will have a hard time with. I see heads exploding in the near future as they try to contemplate this.”
Lucifer chuckled. “No, but I do suspect you’ll be able to hear the uproar when Danielle tells her friends what has transpired this day. She’s an irrepressible gossip.”
The Megami snorted. “Like you won’t tell your command staff as soon as you can. This is incredible news. We didn’t know that Fallen Angels could evolve. This puts a whole new spin on how we should be treating them.” She grimaced. “How we should have treated them.”
“What about you, Lucifer?” Pandora looked sincerely curious.
“I find myself awed and intrigued. What advantages does being fiendish bring?”
“Lucifer!” Danielle voice was shrill with outrage.
Lucifer gave her an arch look. “I am Sukebe’s great betrayer, Danielle. If they’re useful why shouldn’t I have the infernal powers others already ascribe to me?”
“Grow up, Danielle.” Eve’s voice was stern. “Even if we are able to bring about some localized peace here, rest assured that the feral pokegirls are a disaster coming to eat humanity. I have lived that once already and I know just how bad things are going to get. We will need every sword and every power we can muster if we are to prevent the darkness that swept across my world from eating yours. I have no desire to add fiendish to my breed name but I will not denigrate or try to stop any who seek Pandora’s dark blessing.” She turned a stern eye on her husband. “Except you.”
He flashed a grin. “I have enough problems, thank you very much. Every time I get surrounded by one of those lights I come out wondering if this is the time my plumbing will become an innie.” He chuckled as Eve and Pandora laughed while Lucifer and Danielle looked blank. Then he frowned thoughtfully. “This does confuse the count though. Does Pandora count as a celestial and an infernal, which would give me two infernals and four celestials in our family, do they cancel out making her neither or is she like a half a point for each?”
“Does it really matter?”
“No, I suppose not.” He shook his head. “Let’s get the cookies packaged up and let Lucifer and Danielle get back to what they were doing. Everyone will be waiting to say hi to the new Pandora and we don’t want to keep them waiting.”
***
Iain Grey
Living Harem
Ninhursag - Elfqueen & maharani
Eve Grey - Megami Sama
April Grey - Duelist & beta
Dominique - Blessed Archmage
Pandora - Fiendish Archangel
Canaan - G Splice (Hunter Amachamp & Alaka-Wham)
Zareen - Nightmare
Raquel - Fiendish Rapitaur
Sofia - Peekabu
Vanessa - Evangelion
Dead Harem
Eirian - Silver Dragoness
Aurum - Gold Dragoness
Skye - Blue Dragoness
Emerald - Green Dragoness
Beryl - Red Dragoness
Julia - human
Ling - Cheetit
Matilda - White Tigress
Twau
Armsmistress
Blazicunt
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