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Grey Chronicles
Twenty One
“So I’m looking forward to seeing you again. Be well.” He waited a second. “End message.” The recorder obediently clicked off.
There had been one unanticipated result of his meeting with Lucifer, one that Iain should have seen coming but hadn’t. The members of the satellite harem had almost had a collective meltdown when they’d discovered that a stranger, someone who, according to the Tirsuli clan rules they were trying to live by, was a complete outlander and was corresponding with Iain for the express purpose of getting to know him and possible reproduction. The chorus of complaints had differed in the actual words used but all had been vociferous and angry and they’d essentially boiled down to one thing.
They were insisting he do the same for them.
So the time in the early morning that Iain had been spending working on his magic was now spent listening to and responding to messages from his satellite harem. It would only last until they returned to One and they could spend time with him in person, but still he resented having to give up what little free time he was allowed for socializing. He knew it was making him surly and, at the moment, he didn’t care.
But Ninhursag and several of the others were adamant that this was important and so they insisted he do it. Of course, he wasn’t allowed to give up any of the time he was spending with them, so it was coming out of the precious moments he had for himself. He needed them and none of them, not even Canaan, seemed to understand just how important it was for someone as solitary as he was to actually be solitary. He was beginning to reconsider his stance on time travel if it would give him a chance to be alone.
I did it!
Iain winced as the exuberance Theodora put into the thought went echoing through his head. Of course, her voice reminded him that he was never really alone, that and the quiet presence of Pandora standing out of sight behind him. With his perception he could see the Archangel perfectly well, but he could still ignore her. “What did you do?”
He was reclining in a chair on the veranda of the hotel where they were staying. A tiny Theodora appeared standing on his knee. “I found the station Sukebe built where Shikarou discovered Pythia.”
“It’s more or less a wreck, isn’t it? Even Shikarou gave up on trying to salvage the place.”
She nodded. “Yes, it is, but I can spend the rest of our time here mapping its movements. When we return that’ll let me backtrack and determine where it is in 2008.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be 6 AS?”
She shrugged. “I don’t see a reason to use a dating system that honors the man who murdered countless millions and who made it possible for the Chinese to murder billions more. He has no honor and deserves none from me.”
Iain blinked. “I can’t argue with that logic. 2008 it is.”
“Of course you can’t. My logic is impeccable and irresistible. Just like me.”
“And you’re so humble, too.”
She grinned. “Remember that when I tell you what I’ve done.”
His eyes narrowed. “What?”
“There’s a drone inbound with a cargo for you. Unless you put your clan leader foot down I’m going to insist that you use it.”
He frowned and wriggled the toes on one of the feet in question. “Are you in a position to insist on this?”
“I am. If you don’t use what I’m sending you then I will bombard the region where Sofia’s family lives and kill everything in the area so you don’t have to go there.” Behind him, Pandora stirred but remained silent.
Iain stared blankly at the hologram on his knee as she looked defiantly back at him. “What’s the cargo?”
“It’s weapons.” She folded her arms. “Modern weapons. And before you tell me that teaching the people of this world about using c-fractional orbital bombardment as a weapon could come back to haunt us, remember that we don’t live here, we don’t have property here and they’ll never be all that accurate if they do try to drop rocks on you. And don’t pretend to care about the people at ground zero. You’re planning to go kill them yourself.”
Iain had been about to say just what Theodora outlined and swallowed the words painfully. When he could speak again he sighed. “I’ll look at your weapons. Where?”
“Go to the island where you met with Lucifer. The drone will be waiting there.”
***
Every spot that was close to level appeared to have crops growing on it. Iain recognized cotton, wheat, barley, corn and potatoes, but he had to ask his twee to identify the soybean, sorghum and flax plants. He could see a large herd of kattle being shepherded by a pair of female forms too far away to identify as to type or even if they were pokegirls. The village was downhill from them and far enough away that being discovered was only a remote possibility.
Ninhursag looked at Sofia. “Are you determined to go through with this?”
The Peekabu’s ears flattened. “I am. Iain promised me that I could.”
The Elfqueen looked into her eyes for a long moment. “Then we will help.” She continued as Sofia’s jaw dropped. “We will make sure that nobody escapes and will drive them back to you. If you let them go, that’s on you. We will not kill anyone unless we have no choice in the matter but if we have to fight we will not hold back.” She shifted her head to look at Iain. “Before you ask, I did not order this. I asked for volunteers and everyone volunteered.”
“I didn’t ask.” Iain touched Eirian where she rested on his arm. Do any of you wish to help with this?
Smoke poured off of his body to become the silver Dragoness. “We do, my lord. I will summon the others.” She stepped into a nearby shadow at the edge of a bush and sank into it. A moment later forms jumped out of the same shadow. It was every member of his dead harem with the exception of Emerald, who was on his left forearm. He could see the four Dragonesses along with Julia the human and Ling the Cheetit from the Dark Continent, Matilda the White Tigress from the episode involving Orange stealing military pokegirls from Blue as well as Sorrel the Armsmistress and Natalie the Blazicunt from his encounter with the Vincent McMahon. Since the Slutton he’d acquired from the Indigos was still being prepared, that left one undead pokegirl remaining. She was almost Canaan’s height and solid black except for her glowing white eyes. She was wearing a voluminous hooded black robe that hid everything including her gender, revealing only her white eyes and her jet face and hair.
Towards the end of Iain’s first stay on this world, the TWAU had attacked Kelvin’s Choice through a surrogate universe. Kelvin’s companion legendary, Hild, had sought out Eirian’s aid in destroying the neo-legendaries and all of them had ended up in Iain’s undead harem. Each of the bodies had been processed identically and laid out, but there had been an eruption of magic outside normal parameters. When it was over, only one body had animated, leaving the others as skeletons which Eirian and the others had harvested for spell and magical components.
Aurum and Emerald had done some research which suggested that the reason only one TWAU had come to undeath was because the theory that the TWAU were actually one soul sharing several bodies was actually correct.
Iain had named her Liadan.
He looked them over. “The rules are simple. You’re to intercept anyone running away and drive them back to Sofia. If you are attacked you may defend yourself but no preemptive slaughters. Emerald will remain to protect me.” The undead grinned savagely and split up as he turned to Ninhursag. “It’s pretty much the same with you, but be a little preemptive,” he broke off as the Elfqueen kicked him in the belly. Her foot stopped a centimeter from his clothes. He blinked at her. “What was that for?”
She smiled broadly. “I was checking for your force field of course. I’d never hope to incapacitate you so we could do this while you stayed somewhere safe.”
Iain managed not to roll his eyes as Canaan chuckled. “Yeah right. Go on.” Anyone encased in glowing golden armor was an obvious target, and any male in something like that pretty much screamed “target me first” in a fight. It also made Iain’s preferred place on the battlefield, hidden, pretty much impossible. To get around that before they’d come to this dimension, Dominique, Vanessa and Eve had put their heads together and modified the armor spell so it wasn’t visible when in place.
Somehow, in the process they’d expanded it so it covered all of his gear too, which meant he couldn’t shoot, stab or otherwise attack while the spell was active. Remarkably, fixing that aspect of the spell was proving very difficult, at least according to Dominique. In fact, she suspected that it might not be possible to fix it and keep the spell as useful as it was. Since it was a rather convenient way to keep him from most of the fighting, Iain was beginning to consider insisting that she repeat that statement while under Pandora’s truth spell.
Of course, he’d need to find someone he could trust to put Pandora under the same spell while she answered whether or not Dominique had lied. Or he could learn his own version of the truth spell and begin using it on his family. He was beginning to worry that he was seeing conspiracies everywhere. Then again, his family had shown a definite tendency to plot to keep him safe so he wasn’t sure his paranoia was actually getting out of control.
While waiting for the living and dead harem to reach their posts, Iain and Sofia had been walking down toward the village. With an effort, he dropped the line of thought and focused as they approached the village’s outer edge. It wasn’t really a village, though throughout history this had been how a lot of villages got started. At this point it was more along the lines of a communal farm in which nearly all of whose members were probably related to his Peekabu in one way or another. A half a dozen houses lay in a rough circle with several other buildings inside their protective formation. He could see a mill, presumably pokegirl powered since there were no sails on the building and no millpond was next to it. Smoke rose from two of the buildings, one of which was obviously a smithy and from the design Iain decided that the other was probably a smoker or dryer for crops and meat. A square building with no windows and one entrance was probably a granary or some other food storage.
Sofia was wearing comfortable nondescript clothing that would blend in with the local terrain. The only weapon she had was her khukuri. A small satchel hung from her belt but Iain tried to respect his family’s privacy and hadn’t used his perception to look inside it and see what it might contain. Everyone is in position. Even as his twee informed him, Sofia launched herself forward in a blur, accelerating so quickly that she pelted Iain’s force field with dirt.
She raced in a straight line towards the largest dwelling, her hand dipping into the satchel as she turned to speed by the doorway. She hurled a small object through the entrance as she passed and headed for the next building ahead of her. Behind her there was a flash of light and the building exploded with a force that staggered Iain where he stood. A second later the blast seemed to reverse itself as the building imploded. A huge cloud of smoke climbed skyward and flames began to lick the rubble.
Apparently Theodora gave Sofia some thermobaric grenades, his twee told him in a musing tone. Are you going to let her kill the children too?
Iain shrugged. Eve’s using Canaan to locate people that her abilities say should be saved and evacuating them to Montevideo. She’ll just have to be faster getting them out than Sofia is at killing them.
Are you going to help?
Iain scowled as another house exploded. People were running towards the flaming wreckage of the main house but slowed when the second blast occurred. I can’t fire out of this damned force field, thanks to Dominique and I’m not going to lower it in the middle of this clusterfuck.
I meant are you going to help Eve, but I know now you’re not. You are suddenly more concerned with keeping safe. What has changed?
Mhodvitnar lived a very long time and he was killed by me, someone who has a fraction of his full power and who should have presented no real threat to him. It pointed out just how vulnerable I am. I’m not ready to die so the force field stays up.
An older man came out of the mill and yelled something. Instantly, Sofia changed course and headed towards him. A Pri-Mate threw herself around the man and in front of the Sofia. The charging Peekabu’s thunder attack enveloped both the pri-mate and the man as well as shattering the front walls of the mill and igniting the timbers in the walls. The man was blown into a reddish mist but the Pri-Mate survived and hurled herself at Sofia, bellowing in rage and pain. Her head exploded as from her perch on a hilltop Pandora shot the Pri-Mate with her GAR-15.
Sofia had been dancing sideways to avoid closing with the Pri-Mate and as soon as the fighting type fell she lobbed a grenade inside the mill and shot away on a new path.
Ninhursag put Pandora on sniper duty to protect our sister. Canaan touched his mind. I’m pretty sure that was Sofia’s father.
Iain blinked. How are you monitoring this? You have no line of sight to here.
He could almost picture her amused smile. Vectoring Eve in to pick up good people isn’t that hard so I’m multitasking and looking through the eyes of several of our family, including Sofia. Besides, there are not so many people Eve thinks are salvageable that either of us are very busy.
With the third explosion the people began to scatter as fast as they could. Sofia avoided the handful of pokegirls to focus on the humans first, ripping through them with techniques and her heavy bladed knife.
Iain spun as his perception showed a massive man armed with a sledgehammer sneaking up behind him. Cold washed over his body as the man lunged with surprising speed for his bulk and hit Iain in the head with the hammer. The force field prevented damage but the blow still sent him sprawling backwards. The man’s eyes went wide and he screamed something unintelligible in Spanish before dropping the hammer and running off. He made a dozen steps before his upper chest exploded from Pandora’s shot.
Iain tried to pick up the weapon, but the force field was effectively frictionless and he couldn’t grip it. He stopped suddenly, staring at his arm. It was covered with fine green scales that gleamed in the sunlight. His fingers ended in sharp crystalline green claws large enough that he wasn’t sure he could make a fist without driving them completely through his palm. “What the fuck?”
I am protecting you with my body my lord, Emerald answered without prompting. I have given my strength to you so that many weapons and techniques cannot harm you. We developed a way to do this after you were injured by McMahon’s people so that next time you will be safer.
“Cute. What else have you all learned?”
There is nothing of interest as of yet, my lord. However we are pursuing some potential lines of research and will let you know if something develops. The cold wash came again as the green scales seemed to sink into his skin and vanished. I have removed my protection, my lord. Remember that you can call for it from any of the Dragonesses on your body at any time and it significantly increases your chances of survival.
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Eve appeared beside him. “Sofia told us beforehand that she did not intend to deliberately target any children younger than she was and we’ve been rounding them up. What do you want to do with them?”
The distinctive double thunderclap of a thunderbolt attack washed over them. Iain waited until the echoes started to fade before trying to speak. “We’ve got two choices. The first one is better for them and the second one is better for us.” She was eyeing him suspiciously as he smiled. “No, killing the lot of them isn’t one of the two choices. You wouldn’t accept that.”
“That’s good.”
“We can drop them off with a ranch somewhere on this planet, which would be great for us, or we could give all of them to Lucifer. That would be better for them.”
“How could giving them to Lucy be possibly bad for us?”
Iain watched another house explode and realized that he couldn’t see anyone other than Sofia in sight. The speed and ferocity of his Peekabu’s attack had obviously broken the spirit of pokegirls unused to real combat. Apparently beating up on the occasional feral or recently thresholded pokegirl just didn’t compare to facing a student of April, Pandora and Eve. “Some of them are old enough to remember us and we’ll all be living in relatively close proximity in case someone decides that they want revenge on Sofia or the clan.”
“Oh.” She eyed him for a moment. “How do you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Consider things that we haven’t.”
“I’m the writer. It’s my job.”
“Is this one of your stories?”
Iain laughed softly. “This is my life, Eve, but I can’t stop thinking like a writer. I used to do it at home all of the time. I’d speak lines of dialog for shows a few seconds before the actor said them and I had a nasty tendency to figure out who the bad guy was or what the plot twist was going to be early on in the movie or show. It used to seriously piss my girlfriend off, too.”
Eve gave him a look he hadn’t seen before. “Is she still waiting for you?”
He stared at her for a second. “I’ve been here over a year, you are my wife and you’re worried about an old girlfriend?”
Eve didn’t look away, but her expression did soften. “Maybe. She’s the first human I’ve heard of that you were interested in.”
“Trust me; she was more Jigglyslut than human. For the record, she and I stopped seeing each other long before I ended up here. In addition, it wouldn’t matter. I wasn’t waiting for her and I don’t expect her to wait years for me. Besides,” he shrugged, “she’s not the waiting and pining type of girl. It’s why we broke up in the first place.”
“You were going somewhere and she wasn’t going to wait for you?”
“No, it was more that she didn’t wait for us to break up or for me to go anywhere before she started dating another guy. Since she threw a fit every time I even looked at another woman I didn’t think that was quite fair and I ended our relationship.”
It was Eve’s turn to stare at him. “She chose some other man over you? What is she, retarded?”
He laughed again and was still laughing when he answered her. “I like to think so and we didn’t discuss her reasoning.” He sobered. “She pulled her stunt and I kicked her out of my life. That was some months before I came here.”
“Did you ever see her again?”
He nodded reluctantly. He’d really rather drop the subject entirely, but apparently Eve wasn’t going to be so agreeable. “She came by a couple of times to try to explain that we should get back together. She tried the whole bit about how he didn’t mean anything to her. That made me mad, if only over the fact that I managed to pick someone so stupid as to think that trying to claim she spread her legs for a man who meant nothing to her would make me feel better about what she did. That just meant she was more likely to do it again.” He shrugged. “If she’d wanted an open relationship I’d have given it to her, but I’d have been with other women. The fact that she wanted me to be exclusive while she could do whatever she wanted was the final nail.”
A curious look drifted across Eve’s face. “You’re having sex with other women. Does that mean I can sleep with Lucifer or some of my old lovers if I want to?”
“You can, but if you do it means that I and your other family members are free to sleep with people outside the harem if we wish to.” He shrugged. “It’s pretty complicated in our situation since there are so many people in the group. Do we respect the right of the individual or does the group other than me have precedence? It’s a hard call.”
“Why did you define the group without you?”
“I’m the tamer. In theory I could insist on something and get my way no matter what the group or any other specific individual wants. The fact that I probably wouldn’t do that is irrelevant to the fact that I could if I wanted to. Yeah, you and some of the others would resist if I wanted to do something you found abhorrent, but,” he held out his hands, palm up.
“But we’re pokegirls,” Eve finished for him, “and in the end we want you to be happy more then we want to be happy.”
“More that we’d convince ourselves that we were happy with what made him happy or else we’d leave,” April said as she appeared. “Sofia thinks she’s done killing people and breaking things. Do you want me to assess the butcher’s bill?”
Iain snorted. “Why bother? These people meant nothing to me, I mean us. Gather up the ones we’re taking with us and we’ll give them to Lucifer when she arrives with her people. Tell Ninhursag that she and Pandora can stay behind for a while if she wants to gather plant samples.”
***
The Comito was a troop transport seventy five meters in diameter and a thousand meters long. She could carry a hundred thousand troops comfortably along with all of their equipment and organic support. Her normal crew complement was three hundred personnel or a command AI but for the present situation she was slaved to the Theodora, and both ships had moved to the far side of Luna for the current loading operation.
The Comito was not currently configured for hot insertions, so the place where the fifty capsule launchers and the associated capsules would be housed was set up as unpressurized storage space. For embarkation and peaceful disembarkation she carried ten transports capable of lifting a thousand people at a time as well as a large assortment of smaller parasite craft.
One of those transports was sitting on the beach in front of Iain. It was a bronze cylinder a hundred meters long and forty meters in diameter that rested on a flattened bottom. He’d toured it briefly, but had no urge to poke around in every nook and cranny it possessed. The first element of Lucifer’s argosy was due to arrive within the hour and begin loading for their voyage to their new home.
He twisted his head to look up at Ninhursag where she stood nearby. “I have to ask. What’s the special occasion?”
She smiled. “I’m your guard because I like spending the extra time with you and, for once, I’m not needed for some new maharani emergency.” She looked past him. “Although I’m beginning to wonder if I don’t need to put my maharani hat on and find out what’s wrong with Sofia.”
He turned to look. Sofia was sitting listlessly on a rock and staring out sea with a forlorn expression. She was wearing one of her old bandeau and skirt sets. He frowned and headed for her at a brisk walk. She must have heard his shoes crunching on the coral sand but didn’t move as he sat down beside her. “Would you like to talk about it?”
When she didn’t respond he put his arm around her. She resisted for a moment before letting him pull her against his side. “I do not know why I feel bad. They hurt me a lot and I hated them.” She was silent for a bit before continuing as if there had never been a pause. “But I feel bad about killing them. I see the ones I killed when I close my eyes. They give me nightmares.” She turned slightly to look at his chest. “Do you see the people you killed?”
Iain thought about the place his walks with his Dragonesses sometimes took him, the place where everyone he’d killed waited for him to come by and hoped for the never arriving day where they could get revenge for what he’d done to them. It wasn’t what she was asking about, though. He answered honestly. “They haunt my dreams sometimes. That you feel remorse for what you did shows you’re a decent person inside. It’s a good thing.”
Sofia slithered into his lap and curled up in his arms. “I want to be strong like you.”
“I’m not strong,” he said softly. “If it hurts enough, I scream like everyone else. As for the fact that killing people doesn’t bother me as much as it does you, I assure you that you are going to be all right. It’s a good sign. The fact that it doesn’t bother me like it does you says I’m the one with the problem, not you.”
Her ears flicked uncertainly. “But you are perfect. I am the one who is broken.”
Ninhursag laughed. “No, he’s right for us, dear, but take it from someone a few centuries older than you are when I say that Iain is not perfect.”
“None of us are broken.” Iain tightened his arms around Sofia to get her attention back to him. “But you are better suited to being in society, which is a good thing in our family since we’re a social unit.”
“How do you know this?”
“It’s all in what people want. You wanted justice but were denied it so you settled for revenge. I want revenge and I’m usually not willing to settle for justice.” He grinned. “For the people who define it that way I guess that makes you good and me evil.”
The Peekabu’s ears went flat. “You are not evil,” she stated bluntly. “Eve and Pandora would not be here if you were.”
Iain grinned. “I can’t argue that one.”
“No, you cannot.” She slipped out of his embrace and stood. “Thank you for talking with me. It is good to know that I am not the only one who has nightmares about those I have killed.”
“You’re leaving me?”
She smiled. “April asked me to help her but I told her that I did not feel good and she withdrew her request. Now that I feel better about this I will help her.” She looked down at herself. “Right after I change clothes.”
“Why did you put those on again if you don’t like them?”
“I did not feel I deserved people clothes because of what I’d done. Now I know better.” She turned and raced off.
Iain shook his head. “There goes the pokegirl equivalent of sackcloth and ashes.”
“No, it’s Sofia’s equivalent. The fact that she’s a threshold is why she feels her guilt about killing humans. She was once one of them and was for longer than she has been a Peekabu.”
“I see.” He was silent for several minutes. “I’m not evil.”
Ninhursag looked surprised. “I know that.”
“Mhodvitnar is.”
“Was.”
Iain blinked and glanced at her. “Sorry, was. He was completely selfish and liked hurting people for his own amusement and destroying cultures that he didn’t like just because he didn’t like them. I know that living his life has changed me, but I’m not him and I’m not evil.”
Ninhursag watched the top of his head for a moment. “You say you lived his life. What does that mean?”
“It means that his memories are part of me like mine are. When he hurt someone, I did too. When he murdered on a whim, it was me doing it.” Iain looked at his hand and folded it into a fist. His knuckles whitened. “He was a monster in every sense of the word.” He glanced at her. “Mhodvitnar kept slaves when he could. He’d have done so here eventually too, but killing me was more interesting to him than slaves so he worked on that first. When he did have slaves he’d pick two of them and have them fight to the death for the opportunity to share his bed. If the winner was too badly hurt in the fight, it wouldn’t survive the night with him. Even if it wasn’t too badly damaged if he got bored it might not survive the night anyway.”
“It?”
“Mhodvitnar was about control more than anything else and he didn’t care if he was fucking a man or a woman,” his voice turned grim, “or a boy or a girl. In his eyes there wasn’t much difference between them unless the female was a dwarf. Then he might keep her to see if he could breed a truewizard child of pure blood off of her. It’s a small blessing that he never succeeded. He was to the point of considering cloning himself and raising the child as his own when he came here.”
Ninhursag smirked. “The idea of male parthenogenesis is funny.”
“Nothing is funny about Mhodvitnar.”
“A lot is funny about him. He was pathetic.” The Elfqueen shrugged when he looked up at her. “And since you haven’t made me kill any of the harem in order to share your bed I know you’re not him so stop beating yourself up over things you didn’t do and aren’t going to do.”
“I’m not beating myself up over it. I’m acknowledging that I have to keep alert so I don’t do the things he did that I wouldn’t. At least for a while it’s going to be difficult.”
Ninhursag rested her hand on his shoulder. “We will help you.”
As will I, said his twee. And so will Theodora.
Eirian didn’t say anything, which Iain understood. His undead harem was an extension of his will and if he ordered them to kill his living harem they would without hesitation. The only thing they might balk at was if he ordered them to kill him.
“Thank you,” he said with gratitude filling his voice. “I may just need that help.”
***
“Eve says you arrived on our world with nothing.” Lucifer was standing next to him as they watched people loading supplies onto one of the Comito’s transports. They were at the Redoubt and the Sisterhood personnel were loading the heavy equipment that they wanted to take with them on their move to a new world. “And now, by dint of hard work and perseverance, you have space ships. I’d say you’ve had quite an adventure since coming to my world.”
Iain tried to keep his tone from being caustic. “I’m not particularly fond of that word. It implies I had fun during my time here.”
She shrugged. “While the terminology isn’t important, you were summoned here, overcame adversity and eventually triumphed.”
“I suppose that’s true enough,” he admitted reluctantly. “And now we’re in the fallout phase that nobody ever writes about where the hero is encouraged to find another adventure far, far away from the scene of his triumph.”
“That’s also not true. My sources indicate that Kirabo would have welcomed you on Sanctuary’s new council.”
He snorted. “Only as long as I behaved in ways she approved of. That would only last for a few weeks.”
“That long?” Iain blinked at the amusement in her voice. “I thought at best you’d be a good boy for a day or two.”
“I am the eternal optimist,” he replied loftily.
“I think that’s supposed to be my job,” Eve said from her place behind him. “You’re the negative optimist.” When Lucifer gave her a curious look the Megami-sama smirked. “He’s the one that’s positive that bad things are about to happen to us. I think he makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“There’s the problem,” Iain said softly. “I say we’re going to get fucked over and when it happens it’s somehow my fault because I could see what was obviously going to happen.”
“I have been speaking with members of your family, Iain. Do you wish me to join your clan?”
Iain frowned at the apparent non sequitur. A glance at Eve showed she was a surprised and puzzled as he was. “Do you think that’s something that would give some kind of advantage?”
“It would in dealing with the more militant members of your inner and outer harem. I understand you’ve already received some criticism because of the time you’re spending on me.”
“I suppose that’s true enough, but is it something that you want?”
The first Megami-sama folded her hands in front of her. “I have never had a tamer, Iain. I have had sex with humans but other than James, I have never been bonded.” Her eyes darkened. “Considering that I rebelled against James and then actively opposed him with all of the force I could muster, I have long thought that my bond with him was tenuous at best or, more likely, nonexistent. Logically that would suggest that perhaps I cannot form a real bond with anyone.” She sighed. “But I will become a pokewoman in the future and I can feel the changes beginning already. I will require a man to have more children and I want them. I don’t think I’ve been a bad mother to this point but I want children of two people to have both of their parents. If it means that I have to join your harem in order for that to happen, so be it.” Her eyes narrowed when Iain clapped slowly. “What are you doing?”
“I am applauding the fact that you managed to say quite a lot without ever answering the question that I posed.”
“I did too.” She gave him an annoyed frown. “I said that I’m willing to join your harem.”
“You’re a goal oriented girl, Lucifer, and I know that you will do what you feel needs to be done. I asked if you wanted to join my harem, not if you would.”
“Sometimes you are too perceptive, Iain.” She waited until it became clear he wasn’t going to take the bait. “I don’t know you very well and Eve’s support isn’t exactly unequivocal.”
“She can’t be if she’s going to tell you the truth. I’m not a good person but I have done good things. I’ve also done bad things.”
“Most of them were for good reasons,” Eve interjected.
Lucifer glanced at her and back to him. “What is the worst thing you’ve done?”
Iain frowned. “I’m not sure. You see, I don’t normally see my actions as either good or bad. Most of the way I define them is through the filter that my family provides. I have done things that I regret. Does that help?”
Lucifer thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. What do you regret the most?”
“The first thing that comes to mind is the time I shot a little girl in the head. I had no choice, she’d been infected with Zombabe poison and was past the time she could be cured but I still regret cutting her life short.”
“You’re not being honest, Iain. I can sense the lie.”
He grimaced. “Fine, I regret most of all failing to keep Scheherazade, Montsho, Irena, Hathor and Sable from dying. I should have either saved them or died too. I know Eve’s going to say that there was nothing I could have done, but if I’d charged straight for Mhodvitnar instead of trying to get to the shotgun some of them would still be alive. I made the wrong choice and they paid the price for it, not me, and,” his voice broke. When he resumed, it was a whisper, “and it’s not right they died so I could live.”
“That sentence,” Lucifer said quietly, “while admirable would disqualify you from being a tamer in most leagues.”
Iain’s glance was withering. “You know I don’t give a fuck about what the leagues think about me.”
“I know,” she said in the same contemplative tone, “but I wonder if you care what I think about you. Do you want me to join your harem?”
“You don’t get to turn the question around on me, Lucifer.”
“Actually, I asked first and you turned the question around on me.”
He frowned before abruptly grinning. “You’re right. Now you’re being too perceptive.” His expression turned thoughtful. “You’re pretty enough, but most pokegirls are by nature of their genetics. I don’t know much about your personality but if you can keep Eve’s love for so long you can’t be terrible. But if we are going to have children together I want you to join the harem. Not only will it give you status with the other women in my life, it’ll mean I can use that fact to browbeat Thornies who want to play games when I need to see you and you’re off with them.”
“You do realize that if I am part of your harem it does not mean that the Sisterhood will be at your command, right?”
Iain chuckled. “Me, lead an army of celestial pokegirls? You have given me the good old Megami basic goodness scan, haven’t you?” He continued as she nodded. “I have no illusions about what I am, Lucifer, and I have no illusions that if I did start spouting orders to your troops they’d obey me in the slightest.” He sobered. “Will aligning yourself with me hurt your standing with your forces?”
“That is unlikely. My people are fully aware of who is providing transport to our new world, Iain. For the most part, they like you.” She grimaced. “In the case of certain individuals like Sif, they like you too much.”
His eyes narrowed. “I am not going to become the stud of choice for the Sisterhood.”
“No, you’re not.” Lucifer’s voice was firm. “I wouldn’t stand for that kind of behavior before we had this talk and I’m certainly not going to condone it now when I’m going to be joining your harem.” She glanced at his bodyguard. “And now that you’ve answered my question, I’ll answer yours. Yes, I want to join your harem, although not for the reasons you might expect. I do want you to be the father to any children we might have, but what I’m looking forward to the most is having the woman I love back with me.” She fixed Iain in her gaze. “Eve was not supposed to end up here permanently and, while I’m happy that she’s so happy with you, I miss her.”
Iain’s eyes widened. “Are you doing this for her or for me?”
Lucifer shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll be a good father but your genetic stock isn’t that special. Eve, on the other hand, is the love of my life.”
Iain ruthlessly suppressed the sudden desire to shoot Eve. He knew it wasn’t him that wanted to be so petty and to hurt Lucifer for her words by taking his wife from her. Ok, to be honest it wasn’t him that wanted to kill Eve. The desire to hurt Lucifer, on the other hand, he couldn’t admit was only from Mhodvitnar.
Eve was watching him closely and didn’t relax at his sudden grin. “What is it?”
He shook his head slightly. “That stung. Apparently I still have an ego.” Eve sighed and relaxed.
Lucifer eyed him curiously. “And what are you going to do about what I said?” The challenge in her tone was unmistakable.
Iain’s face set and Eve tensed once more. Then he snorted. “You overstep yourself, Lucifer. You are not so important to me yet that you can expect me to care about what you say.” He started to say something else and broke off.
Lucifer cocked her head. “What were you going to say?”
“It was just mean. I’m trying to avoid that since it feeds a part of me I’m not particularly happy with right now.”
“Please, say it. I will not take offense.”
“I was going to say that I don’t need you.”
Lucifer nodded. “That would have been cruel, and perhaps untrue. I am supplying an army, after all.”
Iain opened his mouth as Eve’s head came around. The Megami-sama managed to speak first and he subsided. “Why are you trying to goad him, Lucy?”
“I am testing his mettle.”
“My mettle is perfectly fine. I’d think that Eve’s reports to you would show that.”
“I am not going to be able to bait you into losing your temper, am I?”
Iain blinked. “Is that your goal?”
“I would like to know what you are like when you’re angry. If I am going to be in your harem I should know.”
Eve took Lucifer by the arm. “I am not going to stand by and watch you do this. Iain has never hurt any of his family.”
“Canaan.”
At his call, the Splice appeared. “You summoned?”
“Lucifer wants to know what I’m like when I’m angry.”
Canaan’s fangs gleamed in her grin. “Scary!”
“I think she wants more detail than that.”
Her eyes lit up. “I get to turn her mind inside out with information on you?”
“Let’s go with not quite that much detail. She still has to be functional when this is all over.”
The Splice pouted briefly, which looked strangely attractive on someone so dangerous. “Very well.” She turned to Lucifer as her antennae uncurled to their full length. “Take my hand. I am going to give you selected memories of times that Iain was angry. You’re probably going to be disappointed, though. Iain is usually quiet when he’s angry. Sometimes he yells at us and he can be terrifying, but he has never laid a hand on any of us. In fact, his self-control towards us is incredible. For outsiders, he’s quiet and then he usually kills them.”
Lucifer didn’t hesitate and reached out to grip Canaan’s lower right fingers tightly. “You’ll have to prove it.”
The Splice took Iain’s hand in her lower left. Does Eve know you’re accepting Lucifer into the harem for her?
Iain’s eyes narrowed. I know you’re a powerful psychic and a genius but didn’t it occur to you that sometimes you shouldn’t pry everywhere?
Considering that you just considered shooting Eve to spite Lucifer, I think I need to look inside every place that exists in your mind. Next time you should just consider shooting Lucifer. I’d be ok with that. Canaan’s antennae twitched. Don’t worry, I won’t tell Eve. I am feeding Lucifer the incident where you were mad over April wanting to stay away from you and the time you were angry at the Officerjenny Teresa for putting you and your harem in danger when you were tasked with rescuing that Blue League agent. Her eyes bugged suddenly. How did Myrna and Saoirse hide their power from me? Those little scamps!
You are to keep that to yourself! Nobody, especially not an outsider, is to know what’s going on with our daughters.
She nodded unconsciously. I will. “Are you ready, Lucifer?”
“I am.” Lucifer gasped suddenly and swayed where she stood. She quickly steadied, staring at Iain. “There are depths to your anger that I haven’t seen since James. Still, you keep a firm grip on it and I now know that any children will be safe with you.” She released Canaan’s hand. “Thank you for being so understanding of my suspicions.”
Iain shrugged. “There is something else you need to know, since you’re a celestial and all that.”
Her eyebrows rose slightly. “Oh?”
“On my visit here I kidnapped four people. They’re currently my prisoners onboard the Theodora.”
Lucifer blinked and heavily sat down on a chunk of driftwood. “This I did not expect to hear. I presume that there is a story behind this that justifies your actions?”
He looked at Eve and shrugged. “I believe so. Are you aware that the Blue League has a program in place to harvest white blood cells from tamer blood samples and use the DNA in them to fertilize the eggs of pokewomen?”
Lucifer shook her head. “I hadn’t, but I can believe it. Blue is determined to do whatever it can to increase the number of humans.”
“Do you know who Monica Chambers is?”
“She’s the last Minister of Defense.” Lucifer smiled grimly. “We’ve met a couple of times. She has no idea who I am, though. Why?”
“I’ve got another question first. Do you know who the Wolf family of Caomh Sith is?”
Lucifer nodded. “I’m familiar with them. Eve went to school there to learn more about them. They disappeared and Eve said they moved to another world.”
“They moved to a world very similar to the one we’re going to. This world has its own version of them, and they’re almost indistinguishable from the ones who were here.”
“I take it there’s a connection?”
“When Monica was a new BLSF recruit, she went to basic training with Jamie Harris Wolf. He impressed her enough that she recently decided to use his stored DNA to have a baby.”
Lucifer frowned. “You said this program was for pokewomen. I take it Monica used her position to get favorable treatment.”
“She did. She also used it to get her alpha, a Ladyien named Camille that she’s forming a delta bond with, pregnant too.” His lips tightened. “With my child. She hid this from me before we left this universe and I discovered it the day I was injured.”
Lucifer gaped at him for several seconds before closing her mouth firmly. She started to speak and paused. Finally she spoke. “I presume that you took all of them because of the delta bond you mentioned?”
He nodded. “I was concerned that separating the two of them might harm Camille and therefore the pregnancy. That and I really didn’t want to punish Camille any more than I had to. I suspect that she was convinced she wanted to do this by Monica, who did so at the urging of the Blue League. They want an author they can raise and therefore control and Monica is unswervingly loyal to Blue so she could have been convinced to volunteer Camille for this. As for Undine and Donna, I didn’t feel it proper to take them away from Monica.”
“What do you intend to do with them?”
“I intend to be a father to the baby Camille is carrying. I’d like them to stay around our property, but I won’t detain them if they want to leave. I will, however, keep an eye on them and drop by to visit on a regular basis. I’ve explained to Monica that going to the Blue League or pretty much anywhere but Texas would most likely result in her being sequestered in a breeding facility and her harem divided up to active tamers. I hope she believes me. Monica also has Undine, a Neo who is a pokewoman and is pregnant as well as a Kung-Ewe named Donna.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“If you’re joining my family you need to know. If you disapprove, I need to know so we can see if we can work this out.”
Canaan glanced at him. “Iain didn’t mention that he almost died during the discovery. April was responsible for his injuries but the fault for the attack lies with the deceit Chambers perpetrated.”
Lucifer looked him up and down. “How badly were you hurt?” When he didn’t answer, she turned to Eve. “How badly was he hurt?”
“His heart was sliced in two by an energy blade and the blade ripped through his torso, finally severing the right arm just below the shoulder joint. April was trying to kill Camille and Iain tried to stop her.”
“Was April punished?”
“She punished herself enough,” Iain said pointedly. “Do you accept what I did to Monica and her harem?”
“What does the Blue League think happened to her?”
“They think I took her and leveled her house. The official report is that her house was attacked by ferals and everyone was carried off.”
Canaan grinned nastily. “The official report ignores the steel pillar we left behind that warned them not to fuck with Kerrik Wolf again.”
Lucifer nodded. “What will you do if Camille is willing to give up the baby after it is born?”
“They’re free to do whatever they want with only a few limitations.”
“And if they want to return to this universe?”
“That’s one of the limitations. It’s difficult but possible to determine the coordinates of a universe by examining the aura of those who have been there and comparing them against those of people who have not. I won’t take the chance that Blue or the assorted legendaries would come to my new home looking for pureblood humans to take.”
Lucifer looked surprised. “You can do that?”
He nodded. “It was part of how we discovered where Kelvin’s Choice had been killed.”
“I can understand you wanting to raise your child yourself and to ensure that it grows up being allowed to make its own choices. I also suspect that doing what you have done in kidnapping these people bothers you more than you’re willing to admit and I respect that too. On top of that, what they have done is unethical and immoral. You will have no trouble from me or the Sisterhood over the fate of Monica and Camille Chambers.” She smiled thinly. “You do realize that it is unlikely that they are the only ones with your seed.”
Iain grimaced. “We are well aware of that, but to pursue it when we’re not sure is just going to provoke trouble with Blue. And if I do find out there are a hundred pokegirls carrying my child, what can I do? Kidnapping them all is impractical. Thanks to the celestials in my harem, killing them all is out of the question. Some of my advisors are suggesting I simply destroy the Blue League but there are a lot of people there who weren’t involved and I’d be zapping them too.” He shrugged. “And the same celestials who would throw a fit if I murdered women carrying my clone would be just as pissed if I tried to destroy the Blue League’s industrial base and major cities.”
Lucifer smiled. “I would be one of them.”
“So it’s best if he doesn’t find out.” Canaan rested a hand gently on his shoulder. “But Monica’s and Camille’s deception was thrown in our face and we feel we have no choice but to act in regards to it.”
Iain sighed, unconsciously rubbing his chest. “I think this subject has been talked to death. Can we talk about something else?”
Lucifer cocked her head. “Is that where you were injured?”
Iain looked down and reddened as he jerked his hand away from his chest. “Yeah. I can’t seem to stop doing that.” He shrugged. “This too shall pass and we were changing the subject. How much longer will it take for your people to finish loading?”
“We’re ahead of schedule,” Lucifer said cheerfully. “I don’t expect it to take more than another day or so. Since this is the last of it, we can leave this world any time after that.”
“That’s good. I’ll leave Eve here with you. I have an” he made air quotes with his fingers, “emergency shopping list from the satellite clan I got this morning. Canaan, Pandora and I are going to go take care of it while this is finishing up.”
“I have one more question,” Lucifer said. “I was wondering why you’re growing a beard.”
Iain chuckled. “I’ve recently stopped shaving, except for my neck. I’ll keep the beard trimmed short, but that’s it.”
“Is this one of those temporary fashion statements that men occasionally go through?”
“Women go through them more than men do,” Iain smiled to take any sting from his words, “and no, it’s not. It’s mainly me being as stubborn as the sea.”
“I don’t understand.”
Iain took Canaan’s closest hand. “I’m sure Eve is just dying to explain to you that I’m being intransigent, so I’ll let her tell it. I’m off to do some shopping.” He nodded to the Splice and they vanished.
***
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
Liadan - Twau
Sorrel - Armsmistress
Natalie - Blazicunt
Slutton
Ranch employees
Daphne - Whorizard
Lynn - Growlie
Chuck - Doggirl
Ryan - Ponytaur
Winifred - Rack (German)
Rosemary - Kitten (Uruguayan)
Allison - Umbrea
Silver - Ponytaur
12 Elves
2 Elfqueens - Dionne & Adrianna
Joyce - Milktit
Lara - Milktit
Lake Employees
Heltu - Wet Queen
6 Wet Elves
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