Gaia The Last Immortal

 

 

 

Prologue

 

As the Dragonkin fleet came forth from the Ethereal Gate into this untouched universe, they saw a new frontier, a perfect place to start their grand experiment. No solar systems no planets, no life of any kind, no matter. It was perfect for my peoples experiment. Now it was time for them to learn how corporeal beings live, grow, give birth and die.

I was also part of this grand experiment, my Mother and Ala-Mother (other mother) wanted to see what it was like to give birth like corporeal beings. So I was born, but in the end I was a disappointment, for one thing I had emotions.

When I became 12 uls old, they told me to create some sort of life. There was one rule, do not create a life form that had the potential to become like us. I knew that no matter what I did or did not do, my people will never accept me.

In the end I decided not to abide by that rule and created humanoids, ones like me, ones with emotions. My people were not pleased, though they still used them in the grand experiment. They used the 30 humanoids I first created to produce many other types of humanoid; they added other lifeform aspects to them.

They were only lab rats and are swept aside when no longer needed. I grew tired of seeing the beings I created tortured, dissected, and forced to do many horrific acts. So, I stood up against my people, I let them know enough is enough. The altercation went on for days from Dragonkin concept of time but for humanoids; it was millions of years. In the end, I had to make a deal with my people.

My punishment for going against the wishes of my people was never to leave this universe and partake in what the multi-verse has to offer. I must stay here, in this tiny universe to watch over and maintain the balance of all within.

For the last 100 human years, I have been fighting in the Gombi war. After the defeat of the Haruushnic, I helped rebuild and create a new Galactic Federation composed of five galaxies, with me as their new Empress.

(Meeting Gaia for the first time she appears to be a beautiful 15-year-old girl; She is soft-spoken unless angered the sight of her is almost hypnotic.)

Avalon’s AI Ruuha asks me, “Now that the war with the Haruushnic is over, what will you do next?”

I talked about what they have accomplished, “It has been a long and brutal conflict with the Haruushnic; they are a relentless reptile species, so, so very aggressive.

Ruuha goes on, "Many died on both sides, and hopefully, they do not do this again.

“With all the hard work and perseverance of everyone, the Galactic Federation survived, and now they have a sense of peace.”

Ruuha looks at me with concern. "You look so tired mistress, for the last 120 years, you had to intervene in countless conflicts across these five galaxies. Is it not a good time to take a break?"

“I have kept many species from wiping each other out.” Looking at her hands, she goes on. “So much blood is now on my hands, more than I ever expected to have. Now that it was all over I just want to go home; it has been over 400 years since I saw the place of my birth.”

“You have been traveling the universe making sure the humans do not become problematic.”

Yes, I rebelled against my people for the sake of all humans, but I wonder if it was the right thing to do. I never thought I would have to kill so many people. Now that the Gombi war is over, I am a tired and want to rest, but where?

“Taking a break, with all that had been going on, was not a choice I could have considered.”

“It is time to go home,” I said sadly.

“You have not been to Earth in over 400 years. It would be nice to see it again.” Ruuha, the ships AI said.

“Uh what Oh, right it has been over 400 years.”

I tell Ruuha, “Set a course for Earth.” 

"It is time to go home, hoping to take a long-deserved vacation."

With the FTL drive at full power, the Avalon takes four days to get to earth. For me time has little meaning, but for humanoids unlike those of Earth, many changes have transpired. To my surprise, humans have changed, but not for the better.

 

 

  

Chapter One

Path of Redemption

 

 

The people of Earth have become prejudicial, hateful, and destructive; a small group of them gained the ability to manipulate mana; they call it magic. While they are the minority, these magic users, use their magic to control everyone and everything. Most humans cannot manipulate mana; Even though this class was the majority, magic users would not accept them as equals.

Now on the verge of leaving their solar system, they have become a threat to themselves and other races in the galaxy. Once more I must intervene; to keep my birthplace and the people I care so much for, from falling into oblivion.

Another war another fight, this is all I have known since I received guardianship of this universe.

I gave up everything for all the humans, in the hope they would grow, and work together.

Humans from Earth are not the only ones to find new ways to hate; all corporeal beings seem to have this trait. I have been traveling all over the universe squashing violent outburst, bringing peace, then within a few centuries they forget and it starts all over. But I still have faith that humans are able to become united and work together, they are still quite young.

With my head down, hands on my hips, I now begin to cry. “So, it seems there will be no vacation.”

“If humans cannot leave primitive prejudices behind them; they will pay a high price for their ignorance.”

Ruuha adds. “The other inhabitants of the universe will not accept their intolerances.”

My biggest worry is that the chaos they spread will bring my people back.

“If they infect the rest of the universe with their ideas and hate, the conflict will increase and my people will have no choice but to come back.”

“They will say I cannot maintain order, and consider humanity a plague upon it, purging the universe of them.”

“As you have always said mistress, humanoids need to mature more before we judge them with such harsh consequences.”

I sat in my chair aboard the Avalon, pondering what I should do next.

The people that controlled the governments used magic. The stronger your ability was, the higher your status.

“I could just strip them of their magic.” I thought to myself.

However, if I did that, they would find a new way to hate.

The last time I was on Earth, human prejudice was bad enough; now it seemed to have increased a hundredfold. Gaia contemplated how to stop prejudice in a life form that finds new ways to hate every day.

To me, this was reprehensible; “Many of the most knowledgeable people on Earth did not use sorcery, why treat them so punitively.”

I spent days scanning the Earth, finally coming across Sanyo Academy of magic and technology, humans here treated each other without discrimination. The school is in Hiroshima, one of Japan’s largest cities.

A city of almost 3 million people there was a place that magic and non-magic users coexisted. They still had their problems, but their overall system of equality that focused on both magic and intellect worked.

“This will be a good place to start; I need to learn how this small group could get along so well, among so many that hated one other.”

“This amazing group, they can work together. What is their secret, and how can I use it to infect the rest of them?”

Now, I need to discover how the humans at Sanyo do it. I have no wish to harm them; if the rest of the universe ends up consumed with their hate, I cannot risk this.

“I need identification made and register me at Sanyo academy.”

Ruuha the ships AI and second in command, “Yes, empress, I will get right on it.”

I was both excited and nervous about going to school; I never took part in something like this. The main problem for me is getting close to humans.

I, unlike my people have emotions, and they caused me much grief; my problem is I become friendly to the beings I am around and it ends up causes me great pain.

I cannot avoid emotional attachments to the other students; ultimately, I will make friends. Once again, I will have to watch the people I love, live out their brief lives, and die.

I need to discover exactly how Sanyo students and staff are so different and if I can use it to affect change in the other humans. The pain that will come, I know it will be worth it if I can save the people of Earth.

After Ruuha finished the paperwork, I put on the new school uniform she replicated.

I look in the mirror. “I make this look so cute,” giggling as I rock back and forth on my feet.

I walk to the transporter room; as I inter the room, I look at a circlet pad 6 feet across.

I begin to sigh as I walked onto the pad, a light flickers in waves toward the center, I start to pulsate as if electrified, and the surrounding area sparkles as if it is snowing.

I had chosen a deserted area in a park to materialize in, there are many sakura trees in fool bloom, and the grass is green and well maintained. All this brought back nostalgic memories of when I once lived on Earth. 

“I am home,” I said loudly.

After the nostalgia wore off, “It is time to go to work.” I said, and as I got closer to Sanyo I witnessed many appalling acts of ill-treatment toward non-magic users. Even with all the conflict, they maintained the city and the streets very well, hell everything was clean.

The main thing I noticed besides the pushing around the non-magic users; everyone looked depressed both sides, people keep their head down, no one even looks at one another.

As I walk further not trying to bring attention to myself, two men walked up to me, one was snapping his fingers and flame flickered from them. The other male had a field of energy flowing from his body. Both men are wearing blue jeans and white dress shirts with a strange crest on them.

The man with the flaming fingers scoffing, tells me, “Hey little girl, looking for a good time.” and starts laughing as he walks around me.

I cringed at what the simple-minded men were thinking; their intentions are no good.

Angrily I looked right at them and with a sadistic Laugh replies “It would be in your best interests to go away, or even better, run.”

They both laughed profusely. “We sense no magic coming from you, so what do you assume you will do?”

This angered me to the point I lost control, and before they could say or do anything, both men were on the ground bleeding and burned.

She walked over to them with fire protruding from her eyes, and her hair appeared to be crimson flames.

“Magic is only the first step of ethereal flow, even if you lived a millennium your puny abilities are no match for me.”

As the two men watched me walk away, they thought to themselves, who or what I was, and how this happened. Harassed by men in the first few moments on Earth, I considered if there is any real hope for humanity, especially men.

“Even if changing the mindset of the human’s is possible, will they stay the course not reverting to their primitive desires?” she thought to herself.

I took a deep breath as I continued to the academy.

“Giving up hope is not an option there are good people still,” she tells herself.

Disgusted with what I have seen so far, I approached the school’s large rot-iron gate entrance; I casually looked around it was a nice-looking academy.

While I started toward the gates, two men and females were yelling profanity at the students. The magic users are traitors, nomus lovers, and many others. Most of the words had no meaning to me; slang was hard to understand. The non-magic users had to deal with the worse of the insults.

They were only using words so far so I did not wish to be too aggressive. Therefore, I walked toward the gate looks at the three and said in a nice calm voice, still pissed about the last encounter.

“Here is some advice, leave; it is for your own well-being.”

I reach into their minds and cause them to perceive dread and fear when they look at me, with that; they move away in fear. I did feel good I did not need to hurt anyone.

“Can we avoid violence to get people to treat each other with respect? Will I end up forcing the issue? Even if I force them to, it will not last, forcing builds resentment, and I need for them to do this on their own.”

Finally, I enter the school. As I walked through the double steal doors; I glanced at a sign on the wall; it has an arrow that, pointing to the administration’s office.

I shook my head and started down the long hall; I passed an area with eight rows of lockers then I came to a large wooden door with a window. Across the window, it says the admin office and has the hours of operation on it.

Walking right in, I say, “Hi, my name is Gaia. I am here to sign in.”

The receptionist looked up from her desk, “Happy to have you, all your paperwork is in order just sign in here and I will get the class representative to show you around.”

A few minutes later, a young girl walks through the office door, slender body, and silver hair with thin red streaks running down it. My heart started to pound, I found it hard to breathe, and I know I feel something for this girl. I was glad this cute young woman was showing me around and wanted to learn much more about her.

The young woman walks up to Gaia and introduces herself.

“My Name is Takami Yoshiro, and I am a second-year, let’s show you around the school.”

“I put myself in your hands.”

Takami gives a smile. “Your name is Gaia, but may I ask what your surname is?”

I look right into her lovely green eyes. “My full name is Gaia Mitera-GI. (Gaia, Mother Earth, is the name used by the Greeks) please just call me Gaia.”

Takami looked over at the women at the front desk; “I will now take Gaia and show her around.”

Then she says to me, “It is difficult to transfer into this academy in the middle of term, the exam is quite difficult. I am happy to meet you, and please, call me Takami.”

She takes in a deep breath and gives a little bow, waves toward the door. “Now where do we start?”

We walk into the hall and Takami points to the lockers told her that student lockers are in five areas around the campus. She glances at her paperwork and then tells me, “Your locker is in section B. We will start there.”

As we start toward locker area B I smile and thanks to her.

“It is great to meet you and thanks for being my guide.”

Takami gave a little giggle, “this is the fun part of being a rep I can meet new people and make new friends. What brought you to our academy?”

She asks me, “Well for one, it is the only one that accepts magic and non-magic users.”

Takami, “you do not have to tell me but which are you?”

I explain to her, “Before I tell you. Let me ask you, mages use incantation and devises to use their abilities. What would you call someone who does not need incantations or a device to use theirs?”

Takami tilted her head and said, “Not sure what to say, is it even possible?”

I looked around after reaching the locker area; all the students were in class and the area had no one in it.

“Takami there is much you and all humans do not understand about the universe.”

As I said this, I started to glow with an intense crimson aura and raised 1m into the air.

“This is the power that all human women will have one day but only if the people of this world can get along and survive.”

Takami looked at me with surprise. “Who or what are you?”

I, tell her with a calm and soothing voice, “I told you who I am. I am the same Gaia from your mythology; the same one that you humans built Temples to in ancient times.”

Takami a little afraid stepped back, with fear emanating in her voice, “Are you here to set yourself up as a GOD?”

I laugh a little look into her eyes and say in a soft voice. “Sorry, no Takami, we never wanted to be GODs. Dragonkin are from another universe.” I explains how my people come here and of the multi-verse.

I told her the truth of their existence about how humanity and the rest of the universe was just an experiment. I also told Takami about my people and of the ethereal flow the life energy of the multi-verse.

When my people came here, there was nothing, no planets or suns, nothing. The only thing was ethereal energy, the energy that connects all matter, living on non-living. I told her about being just like them; I was just a part of the grand experiment.

My mother and Alma (other mother) wanted to see what it was like to give birth as corporeal beings do. I was the only child born to the leaders of my people and the last. To my people, I was a failure a broken being with emotions.

The last thing I told Takami was that I started a war with my people, and I made a deal with them. I will never leave this universe and I will not let the humanoids become a problem, and they will not come back.

I explain to her, “Dragonkin are not GODs just an advanced being that lives on a higher plane, one that she hopes humans will one day meet.”

I reach out my hand toward Takami and ask if she would help me save the people of Earth from themselves.

I continue with the explanation, “If humanity cannot reconcile their Pedy differences and change humanities biases and superiority ideas. My people will return and wipe out the population.”

I pleaded with Takami. “I need help from good humans that want peace. I do not want to do this, but some people will get hurt.”

Takami reached for my hand. “This world is in trouble. If things do not change, we are all doomed. If you are here to help us, you will have my full cooperation. What will I need to do?”

I give her the rundown. “You can use magic, which is good. You and others that join us will need to be taught how to use the flow; they need not use magic, but only women can use it.”

“Why can it only be women?”

“Men cannot use the flow it will kill them in an instance.”

Takami expresses to Gaia “since the sun is out, and it’s warm; let’s first go outside to see the campus. You can go over the plan. I am sure you have.”

“I chose this school for their tolerance toward each other and being that it is full of young people who can train to use the flow. They do not cloud their minds with a preconception of magic and the flow.”

I let Takami know about my ideas, and that I wanted to start a club that will focus on using the power of the ethereal flow.

I stopped to face Takami, reached down, and took her right hand telling her to open it up. I put her hand palm up looked into Takami’s eyes and told her to close them.

“Now take deep breaths and feel the surrounding energy, then open yourself to the energy from within you. Open yourself to the sensation of your inner energy and the motion of the energy that surrounds us.”

“In your mind picture a blue flame flickering above your palm, open your eyes.”

To Takami’s surprise, there was a small blue flame above her hand but it vanished almost when she saw it.

I let her know, “that happens as soon as you lose focus, with this power it is visualization and focus that allows you to control the elements. The power I will teach you is all about visualizing what you want to happen.”

 

 

  

Chapter 2

The Power within one’s self

 

I receive so much enjoyment from just walking around with Takami, I have not been able to just hang out with someone and enjoy myself. As I am thinking this we walk outside down a cement sidewalk to a well maintained sports field, looking closely it is where the students played soccer and part of it has a baseball field. How nice, I may not understand the games because I have never played them, but they do look like they would be fun. From nowhere we both hear a scream.

Takami and I look at each other smile, because we both know what each of us are thinking. We start running full speed toward the screaming. As we get close enough we see five men wearing school uniforms from some other school. The boys are assaulting a young woman and a boy from Sanyo Academy.

Takami, she is quick to act, freaking out shrieking “Stop this!”

As she uses an incantation, Takami releases an energy bolt that hits the ground in front of one of the attacking students.

They looked up at us and the tallest of them points, “you nomu lovers, mind your own business or we will do the same to you.”

Takami yells, “This is our business.”

The taller man chanted an incantation of his own releasing a wind blast that hits Takami in the chest, knocking her 5m back and then on to the ground.

As I witnessed the attack on Takami and her lying on the ground, without thinking I yelled out, “Keep your hands off her.”

Sensing the rage inside me build up once more, my hair turns crimson red. (Anyone looking at me would think my hair was on fire.) I launched four bolts of plasma energy, hitting four of the aggressors, leaving the one that hurt Taka for last. Two of them flew back 10m and receive second-degree burns; it knocked the other two back 5m, and all of them lie there twitching.

I moved toward the man that hurt Takami, my hand and arm glowing with crimson flames. “I will make sure you regret ever-hurting Takami my new friend.” I created a flaming sword and as I was about to engage the man.

Takami shouts, “Stop, they had enough. Everyone is ok now.” 

I stop my attack, and the flames dissipated. I thought to herself, what are these feelings and why now? My chest was feeling tight, and all I could think about was if Takami was OK.

The girl and boy looked at me with surprise and disbelief; “she did not chant any incantation.” They both said in unison.

“Takami are you OK.”

Then I walked over to the other two students and made sure they were both OK. After checking on them over they seemed fine; I went ahead and healed their superficial wounds and then walked over to the male students and asked them. “Why are you harassing the people here?”

One of the male students answered in fear, “They support nomus here.”

My eyes start to glow crimson, I can scarcely control my rage, “What is a nomu?”

The feeling of rage at seeing Takami knocked to the ground; I wanted to show them no mercy, but Takami asked me not to hurt them.

Takami walks over to me, puts her hand on my shoulder and says, “We need to show people we are not like them.”

I look directly at them, “So you figure, because you can use magic, gives you the right to push others around?”

The taller boy says as he helps pick his friends off the ground, “They are nomu; they need to respect their betters.”

I laughed sarcastically at them. “You are all arrogant, assuming you are any ones better; and people with power should help those without not bully or force your will on them.”

“You fools have seen what I can do, and that does not scratch the surface of my power, so let this be a warning to you all.”

“If you ever come back here or harm any of my friends; this is your one and only warning, you will not walk away next time.”

I look at them as they limp off, smile, “OK, limp away next time.” Takami, the other two and I start laughing.  

“Oh, you five; one more thing, since you like nomu’s so much, welcome to their world.”

I contemplated, just now I stripped them of their abilities, but it will do nothing to change them; they will just find something else to hate, but it will keep them out of my hair for now.

I Thought to myself, “They really need to thank Takami; she did saved their worthless lives.”

(The boys were in total shock over what had just befallen them. All of them knew they had no chance against her; they started walking away as fast as their wounded bodies would allow. One of them looks over to the taller man and tells him, “I cannot get my healing spell to work.” At that moment, they realize what the women that just kicked their asses meant by what she said, welcoming them to the world of numus.)

I walk over the boy and girl, smiling as I help them get up, and I take the opportunity to introduce myself. 

The young woman looks at me and smiles, “Thank you both for the help, my name is Mia Tobiaski, and this is my twin brother Hitora Tobiaski.” 

(Mia Tobiaski is a 15-year-old female, short black hair that sparkled in the sunlight. Hitora is a tall boy, with short brown hair and a baby-face.)

Hitora looks at me with ow a stricken face. “What did you do, there was no incantation when you attacked?”

“What you call magic is a primitive power it is a start to what will come? Magic is a power that comes from outside one’s self; the power I used come from within.”

The conversation goes on for another half hour. I learn that Mia can use magic, but Hitora has no affinity with it. The twins are also in the same class as me.

Though I was angered by the acts of the students, I did not hate them; I had pity for them. 

Takami looked at me with such sad eyes, “Most of the students in this school get along, but as you can see that other schools do not tolerate us. People come here to assert their so-called superiority all the time.”

We discuss how humans have always found a way to hate throughout history. Humans get over one prejudice and adopt another, that it is a never-ending cycle. 

I looked at each of them one by one and then asked everyone, “Can humans stop hating each other, and will they ever see that their differences are a benefit to each other and their society?”

The four of us brush ourselves off and headed to our first class; I gave them something to think about now.

Right before we get to the doors that lead into the school, I ask them. “Do the three of you have time after school to show me around town?”

Hitora looks at us and says. “That sounds fun, but unfortunately I have a date. So it will have to be the two of you.”

Mia and Takami start to laugh, “That does sound like fun, let’s make it a girl’s time out.”

As Mia, Hitora and I walk into their classroom, right away, all the male students gawk at me, the perversion in their irritate me.

I can read the thoughts of humans as they appear, and sometimes, I wish so much I could not. Two of the male’s thoughts were so bad I wanted to toss them through the window. Instead, I gave them the worst headache they ever had (it lasted them 6h).

The teacher looked over at me and asked if I would introduce myself.

I told everyone that I have been traveling from place to place for a very long time, not giving any details. There were many questions, and I answered them the best I could without telling them who I really am. Then I was assigned a seat, and the teacher started the class.

As the school days go on, I reach up and stretch thinking, human classes are so boring, and excessively easy. Most of the stuff that is taught here I had already learned when I was around four uls. (Dragonkin age 4)

I do like PE, human sports are definitely fun, and we Dragonkin did not have anything like it; unless you can count combat training. I do need to be careful though. I am faster and stronger than humans, and I do not wish to hurt any of them. I do think I might have gone a little overboard, as I giggle a little.

(Gaia may have lived 100s of billions of years, she is 15-year-old in Dragonkin time; they mature slower than humans do so their concept of time is different, her maturity is the same as a 15-year-old human.)

Mia being a sports nut watched me closely; her competitiveness got the best of her, so she challenges me. Mia is one of the best women in sports and is better than most of the men at the school. I knew what she was pondering and invited her to compete with me. I do not want to bring too much attention to myself, so I held back trying to stay at Mia’s level.

After it was all over, Mia and I seemed well matched at sports, and I did have a lot of fun. The both of us smiled at each other laughing and we hug each other. Mia stuck her fist out for the old fist bump; I had no idea what she wanted. Takami came over to show me what to do, and then we all headed to the last class for the day.

As the last class of the day ends; a loud bell rings, and the students rise to their feet start talking to each other and move toward the door.

Mia looks at me. “I did have my baseball club to go to, but we have an interesting new student to show around town.” 

Mia and I look over to the door to the classroom and standing there looking at us leaning against the doorjamb was Takami. 

Takami smiling as she stands there says, “Well you two going to stand there all day, or are we going to take a tour of our town.” 

Mia, Hitora, Takami and I head to the exit of the school, Hitora tells us he is off to his date and will see us after. Hitora then waves to everyone and says, “I’m off and I think we all have questions that we would like answered later,” looking at me with a smile. 

I wave goodbye, smiled and let him know that someone will pick them up after the movie to bring them to where we are. Then the three of us go off to explore, while Hitora heads to his date.

I looked at Mia and Takami and ask them. “What is a date?” 

The two girls look at each other and then at me with a strange expression. 

Mia laughs a little and then asks, “Never been out anywhere with a boy you are friends with or involved.” 

Takami also laughing at me says, “I guess it is understandable with your circumstance.” 

Mia looks over at Takami, tilts her head to the right side and asks, “Circumstance, what you mean by that?”

“Well, let’s see, I will answer that with a question but first I want to ask you one first. When you look up into the night sky and see all them beautiful stars, what do you think is out there or do you think life only exist here on earth?”

Mia looks at me with a puzzled expression, “Well, I do believe we are not alone in the universe, if that is what you are asking.”

I laugh a little and tell her. “That makes it much easier; and to answer your question, I have never thought about romance. I would however rather spend time with other females than males. I know nothing about love, no one taught me about it. The place and the people were I grew up, love has no meaning.”

Mia tries to grasp what I have said and explains dating the best she can. She suggests that they head to the Gokoku Shrine, where she could show me the local history of the prefect. In addition, we can look at the wall of romantic wishes; it might help. 

Takami smiles as she puts her arms around Mia’s neck from behind, “Mia is also one of our local shrine madden here.”

“Well shrine maidens and priestesses I do understand.” 

I giggled and smiles at them. “Hum, this sounds like fun, do I get to see you both dressed up as shrine maidens.” 

Takami’s heart pounds with excitement when I asked; she touches her chest, embarrassed on how she reacts to what I said. Knowing that she is attracted to me, but felt it was wrong because she is a girl too.

The three of us ran across multiple protests on our way to the shrine and most were negative toward non-magic users, and some were for the negative treatment aimed at them. 

Mia and Takami look at each other and both say, “This is getting out of hand.” 

“Why do people allow this to go on, the people whom go to the school get along just fine? That shows humanity can do it, they can achieve some sort of cohesion.”

In the distance we looked out and saw the sun going down. It looked so beautiful with the orange glow coming over the top of all the tall buildings. For a high-tech city, using vegetation of all kinds to hide the fact it was all artificial is quite nice. Long vines hung everywhere; flower gardens were on every rooftop.

Trees lined the sidewalks. As they enter the shrine, I remember when humans-built them in my name. I never understood the mythology of my origin; never giving birth myself to them, I had many children called the Titans, and how humans thought my body made up the earth. All this does not bother me at all, it is quite fascinating.

To enter the shrine, you had to go through two giant arches; it rather reminded me of the Transit Gate aboard my ship. After the gates was a long path to a beautifully kept courtyard. The courtyard looks just like the one at school, but with a Koi pond, turtles also lived within it. The main temple was two stories high; building he is built in the traditional style. 

The girls showed me how the shrine operated and people performed their prayers. Humans have some interesting customs. The girls then took me to the wall of romantic wishes; people have hung small wooden slats on the wall with their desires on them. This was so fascinating; humans have so much potential for love.

Takami and Mia show me to a bench and ask if I can wait here; I sit down and they leave, after some time they come out dressed in the maiden’s outfits, and then they surprise me with Shanshan Odori dance. (Shanshan Dance is done with an umbrella as a ritual asking for rain.)

The two girls had soft featured faces and with the setting sun hitting them, they seemed to have a glowing aura around them it made them look so beautiful my heart skipped a beat. 

I clapped and said, “Thank you, you danced and looked so beautiful. You looked like two goddesses dancing in the sunlight.” 

I waved my hand and the clouds fill the sky and the rain comes down. “WOW, your dance was spectacular, and it rained.”

Both girls’ cheeks flushed as they smiled.

Takami looks at me with a grin, “Thank you for making it rain, but you might want it to stop Hitora is on his date.” 

“Oops” I snap my fingers and the rain stops the last of the day's sun comes back out. 

Mia with a surprised look on her face asks, “How did you do that?” 

“I will tell you everything when we all get together later, so for now, let’s have some fun.”

 

  

 

Chapter 3

Romance is in the Air

 

This was Hitora only day off from Kenjutsu club this week, (Kenjutsu the old style of Kendo) so he wanted to make the date with his girlfriend Suzuka special. On his back is his bokken, he goes nowhere without it. He is a good-looking boy, with Shoulder-length black hair, dark eyes and a light 4cm scar running down his left cheek.

He was the stereotype male jock dumb as a rock in academics. Hitora could not get A-grade if the answers were right in front of him; put him in a fight he was amazing.

After school was over he headed to the train station, he wanted to get downtown to meet his girlfriend for their movie date early. It was a nice sunny day he was glad it was the season for Sakura blooms. All this with Sakura trees blooming, makes this date so romantic he thought to himself.

He says to himself, I will do my best to make her happy. He truly loves her and hopes they will be together for life.

As Hitora gets closer to the train station, he hears a loud commotion from the same direction. Being who he is, he starts moving faster toward the station, as he gets into visual rang he takes out his bokken, still in its cloth case. He thought it would be a good idea to be ready.

As he gets close enough to see what is going on, there is a large group of magic-users assaulting a bunch of non-magic-users. The non-magic users are getting the holy crap beat out of them. Hitora having just heart; without a thought of his own safety, dashes over de-sheathing his bokken and yells out “stop you freaks.” 

Three of the mages look at him and start running in his direction, and the one in the lead yell. “You want some of this to punk.”

Using a skill Hitora has developed he calls the quick dash; all at once he uses it and gets into hand to hand range before they had time to do anything. Hitora hits the first two knocking them out with his elite swordplay, the next one he gripped his forearm then slamming the hilt of his bokken into the celiac plexus, then all at once throwing him into a parked car.

As Hitora gets ready to fight again, he hears a voice say, “Good job Hitora now it is my turn.” 

The sky rumbles clouds move in starts raining, and then a loud thunderclap sounded off and everyone seeing a large ball of electrical energy comes down upon them. As the ball of energy hits the ground, it explodes into a bright blue light, knocking everyone to the ground and causing the aggressors to fall unconscious. (This all happens at the same time Gaia made it rain for the girls.)

He picks himself up off the ground then walks through the crowd looking for injured people, thinking of the voice he heard before the energy discharge; it sounded familiar to him. After he makes sure everyone is OK he heads to the theater.

Hitora gets to the theater; he looks at his girlfriend standing in front of the theater. He walks up to her and gently puts his arm around her neck and cries as he tells her everything. She reciprocates by putting her arms around him telling Hitora that she loves him so much, saying, “it will be Ok you will be fine now.”

 As he talks to her sobbing, “Why are things like this Suzuka? People that have power use it to bully others to make themselves feel superior.” 

The young women listened attentively to what happened to him while they waited to get into the movie. She thought about the new girl Gaia and the strange thing she can do, and about the energy ball that stunned the people attacking the group of non-magic-user. 

When they got into the theater, she says to Hitora, “that women Gaia did it, stunned the men.” 

Hitora hugs Suzuka and says, “I think so too Suzuka, and I now have a lot more questions for her.”

Suzuka and Hitora finely get into the movie, they both sit down and Suzuka snuggles up against Hitora and says to him quietly, “She sounds interesting and I have some questions as well.”

Hitora and Suzuka watch the movie but could not enjoy it; they kept thinking about Gaia and who she may be and what she is doing here. After the movie was over Hitora and his girlfriend walk out of the theater, neither of them remembers much about the movie.

He had told her all about Gaia and the strange things that have happened. As they get closer to the curb, a bright light builds up around them and they hear a humming sound that keeps building up. Within seconds Hitora and Suzuka transport to the Rokui. 

At the same time Hitora and his girlfriend reach the curb I go over to the girls and ask them, “Are you ready for the answers you seek?” 

Around us bright light builds and the same humming sound and in a flash we are transported to the Rokui as well.

The light flashes bright and all at once go away. They all open their eyes and see they are in a room, 10.6m by 12.19m and 3.5m high, 

First thing, they say is, “Where are we.” 

I tell them, “This is the Dragonkin intergalactic frigate Rokui we will now be heading to the Avalon, my home and starship. I brought you here to tell you everything and that I need your help to save your people from self-annihilation.”

I tell them the same thing I tolled to Takami, after a few minutes they seem to relax a little. 

Hitora, “So this is how you can do the things you do, it was you that protected me and the others at the station.” 

“Yes, Takami and Mia had just finished a Shanshan Dance, which made a good opportunity to cause the clouds and drop the plasma ball in the area. Before we get to Avalon my capital ship, think about my name and your mythology. I am the same Gaia from your Greek mythos, except for me being Gaia the rest you humans made up.” 

I ask them to follow me to the bridge. As we head to a door and when we get close; it slides open on its own. When we inter the hallway we turn to the right, along the corridor are doorways with writing that almost looks like Japanese. I stop at a door and wave my hand over a pad on the right side, it lights up and the door opens. As I walk through the doorway, I look back and waves for them to enter.

We walk into what seems to be a room about 3m by 3m maybe a little bigger. I tell the computer to take us to our destination, to them it is a strange but hypnotic language and the small room hums, moments later the door opens to a large area.

“Dragonkin are only female and do not need men, children are conceived between two women. My people find men appalling and of no use, but Hitora do not worry you are different than most men you do not seek power for yourself; you want to protect the people you care about. So, I will give you a chance. By the way Hitora you are the first living male ever aloud on my ship.”

Takami looks at me with ow, “You are saying you are the Gaia from our mythology, and then you are a GOD?

“Yes and No, my people created all matter within this universe and I created the first 30 humanoids, and all others humanoids in the universe come from them. But no, we are not GODs; we are a scientist.”

I tell them. “Dragonkin technology is far beyond anything they can conceive in their wildest dreams. With our technology and our ability to control ethereal flow we created everything. Like your magic that taps into the ethereal flow the source of all things; the power we wield directly connects use to it. That is how we could create all mater with in this universe.”

“Dragonkin are a curious race many of my people became corporeal, so we could interact and learn more about corporeal beings.”

My people spent a lot of time choosing the best universe to start their experiment; they needed one void of any matter but ethereal flow.

“I was also the first child born in this universe.”

I tell how pleased my parents were to have the first child, since no Dragonkin had ever been born this way. They may have been pleased with their act; but my birth was nothing more than a part of the grand experiment. My people have no true emotions; they are unable to feel happy, sad, hate or even love.

I was born with a corporeal body but able to take non-corporeal form and as the name declares, Dragonkin, I am able to take the form of a Golden dragon. I also have emotion but lack the ability to control them sometimes. Having emotions did not go well with my people; they saw this as a weakness and tended not to have anything to do with me.

At that moment, three tall robotic humanoids come in the room, pushing carts with food and drinks on them.

“On my 12th birthday, my parents told me to create a life-form. One rule; the life-forms must not have the potential to reach their level of existence. I did not listen, and that is why humans are alive today. As the experiment went on, I felt bad for the humanoids, for being part of an experiment that killed so many of them. I argued about this with my parents over and over again.”

“In the end I decided to fight for the freedom of all humanoids in the universe.”

“I knew that my people would never accept me, and that I would always be alone even among my own race. I do not regret my decision overall, but sometimes I ponder if it was the right one.”  

Mia looked puzzled, “What do you mean if it was the right one?”

“I know it was; but if I had let them stay in control, what is happening to your people now would not be going on. Since I did you have the choice to help each other or destroy each other.”

“There was a long standoff; in the end I made a deal with them and my people left this universe, never to return. I had to take responsible for all that live here and their actions. So now I can never leave this universe. I will never be able to travel the multi-verse, I must watch you all live, grow old and die. They told me this is my punishment, and if my dear humans become a danger to the multi-vers, they would be back to deal with it.”

For a few moments, they look at each other.

Hitora ask, “Why are you here with us, are you here for fun?”

“No, not for fun; I wish it was at first that is why I did come here. But when I got here I seen what your people are doing, and now my vacation turned into; stop the humans from Earth from destroying themselves.”

“You see it going on everywhere, the increasing violence. You are on the verge of self-annihilation, mages with their magic and non-magic users with new technology to counteract the magic.”

Suzuka with a sad look on her face says, “I do not understand why you would bother with our problems, would it not be easier to let us destroy ourselves.”

“Yes, it would be simpler to just let you destroy yourselves.”

I convey to them, “your people have put an outpost on Mars; soon humans will go into the universe. As they are now, what will happen if humans make it beyond your solar system? If I destroys you or let you kill yourselves, my life would be a failure and prove my people right; that I was wrong to create the humans.”

Mia with a terrified look on her face says, “This is no good, either we die or we start a war will never recover from.” 

It is late and time to get you all home; we will pick this up tomorrow. You have a lot to think about, but you will need to choose. Ether you will try and save mankind or sit on the sideline to see what happens. You do have a choice though; one if you fail at least you can say you did what you could, the other is on you. They all head back to earth, to their homes, all but Suzuka.

“I will send you home in a minute, but I have one question for you.”

Suzuka looked at me with wonder, “how can I help you?”

(Suzuka is about 1.46m tall, looks like she is 11 even though she is 16.)

I walked over to her, smiled as I put my right hand on her left shoulder, “You are trained as a Tsukai.”

Suzuka gave me a strange look as she says, “I guess with all this you would know that, but yes. My mother raised me as Tsukai-ban once messenger now we become more like infiltrators. All Tsukai-ban are female and most use magic, there are some that do not but they tend to do the clerical work.”

“Sorry I did not mean to surprise you,” I walked over to her and gave her a loving hug, “I am glad you have those skills, and I have someone I would like you to meat.” I send for Mako, and as she walks in Suzuka sees her long black tail and her cute black furry ears.

Suzuka looks wide eyed at her, “So cute.”

“This is Mako she is a Katharian, she is also the head of the royal guard. If you agree to help me I want her to train you in our fighting stile and weapons, and I also would like you to meat Hatheri she will be partnered up with you.”

Suzuka looks at us and says, “This will be interesting.” She looks at Mako, “Can I please touch your tail?”

Mako blushes a little and slowly says, “OK, never been ask that before but I do not mind.”

Suzuka walks over to Mako, then slowly reaches out and lightly holds her tail, then starts slowly brings her hands down the length of it. Mako makes a sound that sounds almost sexual and arches her back, and her ears stiffen up a little. “Mako, I am sorry but I love your tail so much and you look so cute.”

Mako breathing hard says, “No problem but if you keep this up you will need to take responsibility for it.”

Suzuka lets go real fast and starts to laugh we all join in. Mako gives Suzuka a hug and lets her know she is not upset, but it was the first time she has experienced that sensation and it was not a bad one.

As Suzuka gets ready to go she tells me, “I do not know what everyone will say, but for me I look forward to working with you Mako.” Then I send her home and get ready for tomorrow.

 

   

Chapter 4

A New Club

 

As I open my eyes, I look at the ceiling of my room aboard the ship. I slowly sit up stretching my arms toward the ceiling and yawning at the same time. I had a good night sleep that is for sure, even though I have no need for it, it made me feel more human. As I get out of bed, I walk over to my sink and clean up. I then walk over to the hook on the wall that holds my uniform pull it down and gets dressed.

I decide to use a slip stream transport to get to Earth. (A slipstream is a small ship that holds up to 15 people, metallic black, rounded in the rear and comes to a point in the front.) My pilot is a young and extremely feisty Katharian named Uzo she has Reddish fur with black-tipped cat ears and a black tipped long tail, her race mostly look like humans but with feline accents.

Uzo is the best pilot I have; she is what the Humans on Earth call a hotshot or Ace of Aces. She loves anything fast, and has made herself a replica of human leather bicker jacket that has a Bald Eagle on the back. I do not mind that she wears it, as long as she is wearing her uniform under it.

I looked over at Uzo. “Now, Uzo let’s get there in one piece, please.”

Uzo grunts. “Hey, I am a good pilot and have not crashed in a long time.”

I laughed at the thought of what she said, “Then it is about time for another crash, oh crap. Just keep it under 120 km/s you little speed demon, and on the way back let’s not freak out the Earthlings too bad.”

Uzo activates a jump gate, slowly moves the ship into the event horizon and whoosh within 3 minutes it open again, we exit and there in front of us is the Earth. She puts up the cloaking shield and slowly enters the Earth atmosphere. Reentry to an atmosphere is rough no matter what, and the ship shakes profusely. The ship levels off and after a while the shaking subsides.

Uzo “We are preparing to land.” They approach the warehouse district; one of the larger building’s roofs opens, Uzo lands the ship inside of it.

I tell Uzo that she will need to have a vehicle pick them up after school gets out, and then they will leave to the Avalon right away. As I walk outside there in front of me is a stretched limo. Uzo walks over and opens the door for me, I thank her as I get in. I tell the female driver to drop me off at Sanyo Academy.

The limo driver looks through the mirror, “Ok miss, and please enjoy the ride.”

For the most part the drive to school was uneventful, only three protests going on but none were violent. That made me feel better about the day it seems to be starting out OK.

The young women dropped me off at the school, I tell her to pick use up at 3:15pm. I let her know that I will have people with me, and to have drinks in the mini fridge for them. 

I also say to her. “Thank you” as I shut the door and walk toward the school. I take a deep breath as I look at the front of the school, there I see standing at the front door Takami and Mia, thinking to myself they both look cute in their school uniforms; they both give me a bow and tell me good morning. Takami grabs my right arm with both of hers as we walk in.

Takami says excitedly, “It is a wonderful day to start a club is it not.”

Every time I am around Takami my heart races; even though it is a new feeling I like this strange sensation and I understand that it is my feeling for Takami, and I so much want to know more about her.

Takami feels the same way when they are together, and she too understands what her feelings mean; she is just not ready to go further.

We head to our homerooms, as Mia and I enter all eyes are on us; primarily the male students. I look around the class and say, “OK guys, I know we are hot but gawking at us like that will not get you anywhere. Mia starts to laugh, and all the boys start looking at their desk like they are saying not me I was not looking at you.

Fallowing us into the room is an exquisite woman, our teacher Ms. Yamisua. She looks over the class tells the students it is time to start class, and for all you horn dogs boys, there is nothing more a woman hates then being treated as a piece of meat. The room goes quite especially the boys, then everyone gets to their desk, we all face Ms. Yami, bow, then we all sit.

Ms. Yamisua asks me, “Gaia, have you decided on a club to join?”

I think to myself this is as a good time to explain the club I wish to create; I leave out that the people in the club will be saving the Earth from certain destruction.

I stand up and tell her, “Well I do not plan on joining a club, but I do plan on starting a brand-new one, a club that will focus not on magic itself but use the power that lies within us all.”

The students mumble, what she talking about it’s a joke right.

I look at the teacher and ask, “May I show what I mean?”

Ms. Yami tells me to come up front and show the class, “I also am curious about what you mean.”

I walk up to the front of the class, turn and face them. I then give them a bow, and I ask, “Think about this, what if you did not need to chant or use a device to use your abilities?”

Mia raises her hand and asks, “You mean like ESP or clairvoyance.”

I ponder that statement and then smile at her, “That Mia, is an awesome analogy, good job that is very close. Not quite, but that is on the right track.”

I clasp my hands and continue with an explanation, “What makes up the human body, and how do you move or think? All being are made up of pure energy, and that raw power runs through you all the time and this club will research and learn how to access that power.”

I put out my hands palms up; a blue ice crystal appears above my left hand and a blue flame above the right one. Not just the students in the class but even the teacher gasp in excitement. “This is just a small sample of what we will be learning in the club.”

“This is what I mean by using the power within you; there is no need to chant and no need for a devise. All you need is your imagination, and be able to focus on what you want to happen.

“There is a limitation only women can use these abilities.”

One of the boy’s raises there hand, I say. “Ask your question.”

“We will research that as well, but there are other things that males will learn in the club; both magic using and non-magic using.” I smile and say, “All club members will learn to defend against magic.” I raise my left hand and then bring it down pointing at the class, “Yes non-magic users will be able to defend against magic attacks.”

I can hear the whispers in the class, is this posable, that would be cool and so on.

I also tell them, “Women do not need to be a magic user to learn how to use this power.” I look over the class from left to right, “Sign up and learn about your potential.” I give a bow and return to my seat.

The teacher looks at me with surprise and says, “This is very interesting, you will need five people to start and a teacher advisor, fill out the paperwork and turn it in.”

I can see by Yami surface thoughts that she wants to be the advisor. I give her grinning smile, perfect looks like we have that part taken care of. (I can read the surface thoughts of humanoids without trying.)

The morning goes by quickly; I look at the clock above the door and sees there is five minutes until lunch. I cannot stop thinking about teaching these young people to protect themselves, many of them will be injured in the up and coming war. My hope is to keep the causalities to a minimum on both sides.

In my pack I have a new Nano-weave-armor suit for Hitora to try on; there are suits being made for all of them. We are also ready to make more as needed; we also are using our technology to make their type of weapons to use.

The lunch bell rings. Everyone starts to stand; I look over at Mia and we head for the door. Right about the same time the class door pops open, and standing in front of me is Takami with a smile. “Surprise, I am hungry let’s eat.”

Takami grabs my hand and says, “Are you waiting for an innovation, let’s get to the roof so we can have lunch.”

I smile and laugh, “Takami you got me; I was standing there with my hand out to open the door when you opened the door all of a sudden.”

Takami smiles and goggles, “I was able to see it in your expression, you could not hide the look of surprise on your face.”

Mia laughs and says, “Never thought it is possible to fluster an immortal.”

Now I am embarrassed, that a human had surprised me. I let my guard down for a moment now I realize I cannot allow myself to be complacent. But it was funny and the feeling was exhilarating. I do need to maintain full awareness of my surroundings though. Takami puts her arms around mine and says let’s eat, as we head to the roof.

Mia and Suzuka look at each other and smile; they both understand that we have a romantic feeling toward each other.

Mia looks at Suzuka and says, “They make a sweet couple.”

Suzuka laughs and says. “Right, they do for sure.”

As we reach the roof, I take a good look around we see many other students. The roof is decorated with so much vegetation just like the rest of the cities roof tops. Takami reaches in her bag and pulls out a large blanket and has Mia help her place it on the ground.

Everyone places the food on the cover, I look around to make sure no one can see me and wave my hand; a large lunch box appears next to the other food with an assortment of human drinks.

“Not sure what people like to drink, so I created a few different ones that our research said were popular.”

Suzuka stops what she is doing and says, “Now that’s convenient.”

I tell them, “It is, but all of you all at least made your own. I used the flow.”

Mia looks at me and asks, “Do you know how to cook?”

“No, no I do not; I have no need to consume food. My people did not see the reason to teach me. I have watched the Katharian fix meals, but never asked for them to teach me. Maybe it would be nice to learn.

Takami looks at Mia and Suzuka, “Well we now have something to teach her.”

Every one start laughing as we all sit down and say at the same time. “Thank you for the food.”

Takami and I are sitting next to each other, Takami pulls out our paperwork for the club.

Takami looks at me, then points her pen at me and says, “Let’s get all this filled out now so we can turn it in before our next class.”

“Well, the good news is we have a teacher advisor. Ms. Yamisua would be ecstatic if we asked her.”

Mia looks at me, “I cannot read people thought and I was able to tell she wanted to so bad.” She giggles as she tells us this.

Suzuka adds, “She is so nice, I also like the idea.”

“All in favor of Ms. Yami being our advisor.”

Everyone at the same time goes, “Ya for Yami.”

We all eat our lunches; I pull the new nano-suit out of my bag, look over at Hitora and I hands it to him. I explain to him and the others that it is Nano-weave it will help protect them, and each member of the club will have one made.

Hitora looks at the uniform and notices the emblem on it; he has never seen the design before. It is a strange silver Asian looking dragon on the right upper arm, with the words Avalon under it.

I tell them, “These suits have energy absorption, which includes kinetic energy, so physical weapon attacks do little damage and many types of magical attacks will not be as dangerous.”

In the distance we here the bell that signals it is time for the next class; we pick everything up and head to our next class. Takami goes to Ms. Yami and asks her if she would be our advisor, excitedly she signs the form. She then goes to the office and turns everything in, they tell her it will take two days, but it will get approved.

The rest of the day goes by without a hitch the final bell of the day rings and everyone heads out. As the five of us head to the gate, many students walk up and hand request forms to join our new club.

As we walk out the gate and the Limo I road to school in was waiting for us, the young women walks around to our side opens the door for us to enter. We all get into the car and head out.

I say to everyone, “We are now headed to a transport, and then to the ship, there we will start your training.”

The limo takes us to a warehouse, and slowly moves up to a very large door; it slowly opens making a loud scraping sound. The car pulls into a large open area and parks next to the office inside the building, as it comes to a complete stop everyone gets out. Takami, Mia and the other 2 look around the large building seeing only the car. 

They are all wonder why we are inside this building; I walk over to the center of the room and pull up my sleeve on my left arm. There they see at a strange wristband about 20cm long all white, I tap my fingers on the device and an area in the center of the room starts to shimmer.

 

 

Chapter five

Two Hearts One Soul

 

There in front of us is a strange metallic black ship with a rounder rear section that comes to a point, I had de-cloaked it and it appeared in front of us. The ship looks to have no seams and when we get close to it a ramp comes down, almost looks like flowing liquid metal. I bow and waive everyone into the ship. As I walk up the ramp to the hull a passage forms, we all walk through the hatch into the ship.

Mia is the first to talk as we inter the ship, “Wow, your ships have been really nice, but this is just beautiful.”

Suzuka touches the wall of the corridor we are in, it makes humming sound and multiple different colors pulsate out from her hand on the wall, “It is reacting to my touch almost like it knows I am touching it.” 

Uzo introduces herself to them and lets everyone know she is the piolet; “You have meant Ruuha, she is an AI an alive to us. This ship is alive as well, but it is formed from living metal. Yes, carbon life forms like us are not the only kind of life, Katana her is just one of the many life forms in our universe.”

Hitora tilts his head to the right a little and says, “Its name is Katana like the sword?”

Uzo replies to the questing with a stern voice, “Her! Name is Katana, and she chose it. She said it was because she is my sword.”

Takami asks Uzo, “So she can communicate.” Then she too touches the ship and introduces herself. “Hello Katana, my name is Takami. Thank you for taking us to our destination.”

Lights start flashing all over the inside of the hull of the ship like fireworks, then the die down and stop.

Everyone is in ow over how beautiful it all was. After all of it was over Uzo has the students sit down and put their safety harnesses on. 

“This is a slipstream transport; we have 3 different FTL drives the one this uses is for inside solar systems.” 

Takami sits down I come over, “may I sit here next to you.”

“Yes, please do”

The ship takes off, Uzo yells back. “We leave the atmosphere in 2 minutes.” 

Takami grabs onto Gaia tightly, she can tell Takami is scared and respected by holding her.

“So this is what it feels like to hold someone you have feeling for.”

Takami hold on a little tighter, “So you do feel that way about me.” She says softly.

Takami says. “I felt this way about you, from the first day we meant.”

“I was never able to read your thoughts from day one, we do not know how our pair will be, but our powers like that do not work on them.”

Takami then the others all ask, “What is a pair?”

“It is the person that you will join with, our life energy or life force, are connected. They are your partner to spend eternity with.”

Hitora blurts out, “she is like your wife.”

“For Dragonkin this only happens once, you do not get a second chance nor do you get to choose. I never thought I would have a pair, never accrued to me that a human was able to…”

Looking at Takami I say, “Sorry I did not tell you sooner I was scared that because of me you were being changed, you see this also means you are no longer mortal.”

They all say the same thing, they all knew there was something between us, and they are happy for Takami and me.

Uzo lets everyone know that we are preparing to leave the Earth’s atmosphere. They all look at each other with an O-crap on their faces, no hiding they fear what is next. The ship shakes and jolts as it fights to break out of the atmosphere, they here Uzo explain it would have been a lot more hectic if we did not have dampeners. 

I tell them they will normally use the transporter but thought this would be a nice experience for them. Some planets do not allow the use of transporters.

“Are we now in space?”  Ask Suzuka, “Why are we not weightless.” All the ships have grav-plaiting, and we can set it at different gravity levels. We set the ships here just below Earth’s Gravity.

Uzo interrupted. “We will use the FTL drive in 10 seconds.”

“Faster than light engines,” I let them know.

All of them sit down and scramble to put on the harnesses. I laughed. “Do not concern yourselves you will not feel a thing.”

As we come out of slipstream, we can now see the Avalon, all of them are thinking of how big the ship is. Hitora is the first to say anything; he comments on the large turrets, Takami goes on about the size of the engines; Suzuka and Mia just gasp at the sheer size of it all. I let them know the Avalon is a battleship 8.05-kilometer-long and that it had the firepower to wipe out all life on Earth with one volley. 

The slipstream transport heads for one of the landing bays, as it enters lights flash and they hear a buzzing sound from the hull. The ship does not shake or anything, but the flashing and the sound scares Takami and the others.

Takami excitably ask, “What was that are we going to be OK.”

“In space there is no atmosphere so to get in and out of a ship you need some kind of airlock, with our technology for the landing bays we use a shield that will let our ships through but holds the atmosphere in.”

I also let them on that they can control what ships can come in and out of the shielded airlock.

Mia blurts out, “Cool.”

After we dock inside the hanger we all disembark onto the Avalon. I let them know why I have brought them here this way.

“There may be times, which we will not be able to just beam into an area, transporters are noisy and give off visual indicators.” 

Smirking as I tell them, “This is part of your training so welcome all to-day-one of basic training; your training begins now.”

“Hikaru,” Gaia yells, “you will take Suzuka and Hitora, Mia and Takami with me.”

Hikaru was a cute little Katharian. She walks up to Suzuka and Hitora, “OK you mudpuppies, we will go ahead and use your primitive language for now. You will learn to use telepathy as soon as posable, and yes all being can learn to use this form of communication. Since you are going to be in covert operations it is a necessity, and I will whip you into shape.”

They discover she may be cute, but she will not be easy on them. The young Katharian is a drill instructor from hell, right away, she snaps orders at them.

Hikaru shouts. “OK, you mudpuppies it is time for you to pick up your gear and head to the combat training room, were you can earn your way up to a mud-kat.”

She points at the uniforms and weapons in the two chests next to her.

She turns to Takami kneels, saying, “We will take our leave your highness and I will train your friend well so they will be worthy of you.”

Almost simultaneously they all said. “You highness!” even Takami said in surprise.

I giggle a little. “Yes, Takami since you are my pair you hold the same rank as me, that means are also an Empress of the Galactic Federation.”

Mia and Suzuka walk over to Takami. “Congratulations Takami.” And then give a bow.

This all made Takami a little embarrassed, and she flushes red in the face. “Come on guys, please do not do that. I am already embarrassed enough.” And then they all burst out laughing, even the Katharian.

Uzo laughing says, “You and Gaia are two peas in a pod, she is the same way about formalities within are ranks. Gaia thinks of use as equals or you can say partners in our endeavors.”

Looking at Takami and Mia I tells them, “She may be tough, that Kat is our best combat trainer for her age I have ever seen. Now for you two, pick up your gear and we will be heading to the training room we will be using.”

They too have uniforms and weapons, but their weapon is a Bak’enn, bo-staff 5 feet long, hollow tube, uses molecular compression to shift from 6 inches long to 5 feet. I show them how to make the staff shrink down and extend again. The weapon fits in a sleeve on the belt of the uniform. I go over how even people that primarily use their power, will at time need to us a weapon, so it is mandatory to learn how to use a Bak’enn for back up. “Using both simultaneously makes you a formable appoints as well it will allow you to defend against attacks.”

Takami, Mia and I reach the training room. I point over to the dressing room. “If you look here,” pointing at a plaque on the right side of the door, “these words mean Prep Room in Dragonkin.” The characters look a lot like Japanese. “We will teach all of you this language.”

“Ok, it is time to get dressed and then we will meet up in the training room; it is behind the door right across from her.”

The three of us meet up in the training room, looking around it seems just like any other large room on the ship except for it being empty. I go over to the wall next to the door, place my hand on the wall, and say, “The ship recognizes millions of languages.” In their language, she says, “Simulation Alpha 112.”

The room shimmers and they seem to be in a large field with sparsely placed trees, green grass and many types of flowers.

Mia says with surprise, “Did we just transport here?”

I start laughing and say, “No, not at all, this is a hologram it is not real.”

They start touching everything and even smell the flowers.

Mia says right away, “everything even has a smell, this is awesome.”

“OK you two; I will start off teaching you the most basic attack ability, creating plasma balls.”

Takami and Mia both do well in the two hours they had; they both can create 3 balls at one time. I tell them that next time they will learn how to use them as weapons, and I will teach them to create a shield around themselves.

After we are all done with today’s training, we all meet up in the observation room. My group get there first, Suzuka and Hitora stager into the room right behind. We look at the two; both look like they had the crap kicked out of them.

Mia gasps as she asks, “What happened to the both of you?”

Gasping for air and panting they both say, “Hikaru happened to us, she is relentless.”

“Did you learn anything from her?”

Hitora barely let out, “Even though she is a tyrant, with her training we will definitely get stronger”

“I hope you enjoyed the training but it is time for you all to go home; your parents will worry if you are too late. I have an idea for this weekend. Let’s all have a Training Camp, where we will train hard.”

Mia says, “That sounds fun, tomorrow we officially have a club then 3 days later our first camp.”

I walk over to Takami and put my arms around her, “I wish you could stay, there is so much I want to talk to you about.” then we places our foreheads against each other.

Suzuka giggles and says, “You two get a room.”

Takami laughs and says back, “We would but my parents would not be happy if I did not make it home, and it is going to be hard enough explaining this to them.”

Takami puts her arms around me and says in a loving voice, “We will set aside some time at camp for only us,” then gives me a hug.

Everyone gives their good byes; Mia pry’s Takami and I apart from each other and tells us we can see each other tomorrow. They all go to the transporter room and then go home.

The next day; when I get to earth I think to myself, maybe I should get a place here. It would make things easier and let me blend in much better, I asks Ruuha to look for a nice big space for us to be able to get together every day; with a fenced-in yard.

Ruuha tells me, “I will have it set up by the end a day.”

As I walk through the front door of the school I see my four new friends, but before I was able to say a word a young man walks up to me.

He bows to me and stutters while asking, “Gaia, I like you a lot will you go out with me.”

“But I just came in”

Mia was almost to me when this happened, the boy looked confused and Takami looked a little pissed. The rest of the group where in shock but understood my response, not being human it made sense.

Mia grabs my arm and says, “OK Gaia, stop messing with him,” she looks at the boy and tells him, “She already has someone she is seeing.”

As I was being dragged away, the boy has look depression on his face and I was completely confused

“Amm, what, am I missing something. What is going on? Why was he asking me to go outside with him? I have no idea what is going on right now.”

Mia grabs both Takami and I, “Come on Takami. Gaia, Gaia, Gaia you may have lived longer then us but sometimes you are so clueless.” Mia said with a long sigh at the end.

“Ah, I am still confused, what I am clueless about?”

Mia giggles and says, “That boy was asking you to be his girlfriend.”

“Why do you ask someone out to be there friend?”

Mia starts laughing and tells me, “No, no, no not that type of friend,” Mia goes on and explains the concept of dating and the boyfriend girlfriend concept.

Class starts up and goes by smoothly and all the students look at their smart phones. Takami rushes through the class door, tells me there was some Non-magic users protesting peacefully and the Governor sent in the armed forces. It turned into a blood bath, a large amount of the protesters were hurt many were killed.

The day may have gone by without a problem, but it ended up with many people hurt and or dead. I knew things are getting bad; this though was the worst instance of violence as of date.

“This is only the beginning; it is only going to be more brutality.”

My wrist comm. goes off and Ruuha tells me there is a car outside for them; it will take us to my new house. I get everyone together, and as Mia walks over to the group; she has three students in tow.  

She tells Takami and me, “three new members for us.”

 I look at them; I sense no deceits, nor thoughts of malice toward us. “Welcome to the club, do you have time to go to my place for a club meeting today? If not, that is OK, we can get together tomorrow.”

All three of them say, “No, we do not, and we would love to go.”

I look them over, “well lucky for us this car has plenty of room.”

Takami whispers in my ear, “You’re taking them to the Avalon already.”

I smile and tell her. “Of course not, I have a house here on Earth now.”

She ask surprisingly, “When did this happen?”

“Ruuha set it all up for us today; I thought it would be better than going back and forth to the ship all the time.”

Mia tells every buddy, “It is time to go, let us get to the car and head out.”

When the day started out we had five members to our club, now at the end of the day we have a whopping 8; I think to myself, That are next goal should be 13 members, that will be nice.

 

 

 

Chapter 6

Home Sweet Home

 

My mind ponders over what is accruing right now on this planet; the new acts of violence are horrendous, and they are getting out of hand. We are no were close to being ready for what is to come, I defiantly need to speed up my efforts.

On the way to the car I call Suzuka over, and pull her to the side, “I hate to do this but I have a job for you, wait here for 15min, a Katharian will be here to get you and I then I need you to use your skills to help her. I need the both of you to infiltrate the governor mansion and get any information about what he is up to. I have a bad feeling, and right now you are the best trained human for this.”

“You hear all that Ruuha?”

Ruuha answers, “Yes empress, I will send Maco.”

Suzuka tells everyone, “I have something I need to do and will meet up with you all later.”

Then she gives her boyfriend Hitora a big hug and kiss. She moves toward the school as everyone else gets into the Limo and heads to my new house.

It takes about 30 minutes to get to the new house; I hope it is a nice small house, not knowing Ruuha found an older Japanese traditional estate. The car pulls up to a large double gate; they open, and the limo drives through.

Mia with excitement yells, “This is the Koku-ran estate (black Orchid).”

“I asked for Ruuha to get me a place, but this is not what I was thinking of.”

The driveway has many twist and turns and goes on for about 200 meters, on each side of the road are rows of sakura trees evenly lined up. As we pull up, we see 20 maids lined up in front of the house and two female butlers; they are all Katharian in disguise.

I put my head down and say, “Well, at least it’s roomy.”

All seven of us stand in front of the Japanese traditional style Machiya.

One butler tells us, “The inner garden/courtyard is nestled between the building structures, accompanied rooms surrounding the garden. It is a perfect setup for viewing from the comfort of your own bedroom or study. All the rooms comprise of tatami-woven-straw-flooring; sliding doors made of wood, low platforms and inlets, and elegant Japanese Washi paper window coverings that gently filter outside light.”

One of the maid’s adds, “In the back there is a large dojo and training area.”

I say to all of them, in a, I am afraid to ask voice, “Where did we get the money to pay for this?”

Ruuha replies over the comm, “Well you know the set of Wakizashi you received from Emperor Jimmu.”

“Yeeeess”

Ruuha then adds, “Well I found a collector and that gave us more than enough money for this home and then sum.”

“What, they were my pride and joy; I got them for saving his concubine.”

About 15 minutes later, all of us meet up in the main living area, I point to the large horigotatsu, “Let’s all sit and talk.”

“Sorry, we are just now getting to introductions. Most of you know who I am; these nice people are Takami, Mia and Hitora. Suzuka had something important to do but she will be here soon.” Then she asks the three female newbies to introduce themselves.

“My name is Akari Misoto I am 15, I do not use magic, and I joined the club for two reasons. The first one is your concept of having powers without magic; the second reason is they told me you wanted to help change how people treat each other.”

“Well, my name is Eiko Himarogi, I am also 15, and I use Magic, Akari is my friend but your ideas I agree with, so I joined.”

“I am Himawari Sato, I am 16. I do not use magic, and I joined because I am tired of being afraid. If you can help change this world for the better, I want to help.”

“I am here to help change how the people of Earth treat each other, this is true. But there is much more involved than that, human beings are on the verge of self-annihilation.”

Akari, “I know we are having problems, but how will that lead to our annihilation?”

“I have seen this happen many times; but before we go into that.”  

I ask them the same thing that I asked Takami and then show the three who and what I am. After the initial fear subsided, I told them everything. I tell them about how I will teach them new abilities that are not magic and explained why only women can use this to its full affect.

“Now let’s go over the first thing we will need to focus on.”

While all of us were talking about why we are doing all of this Suzuka and Mako were infiltrating the Governors home.

I meet up with Suzuka like Mistress Gaia had asked me too; I then hand her a new black combat suit. Suzuka tells me that she already has one. I then smile at her and say in a sly voice, “Not like this one.” I then go on to tell Suzuka that this new suit has an optical camouflage generation unit. We then head to one of the school bathrooms to prepare.

I look over at Suzuka then tells her, “Suzuka you are about to get a crash course in Silla-Tang tactics, and yes the name of our unit comes from your people’s history. I will help you put on the suit; it is a little tricky.”

Suzuka took off her school uniform and started putting on the new suit.

I look at her and right off I notice that even though she is a human she is quite hot; I think I might be in love, I think to myself, with a strange expression. “Even though you do not have a tail or ears like ours, you are cute.”

Suzuka blushes and replies, “I have a boyfriend, you know.”

I giggle and say to her, “Never said I would take you from him, but looking at you it might be worth the try.” I now even more want to win her over.

Suzuka now is beat red and all flustered stammering trying to get the words out.

I laugh and tell her. “You look even cuter all embarrassed; sorry I just could not help myself. I am like this when I meet someone I like, just lightning up the mood.”

Suzuka laughs and replies, “Well, it did do that. I was a little stressed, not so much anymore.”

I pull out a 7.62cm by 12.7cm pad, and then set it on the counter. I then push a small button it make a strange sound, some lights then a 3D map appears of the governor’s estate. “There are a lot of security cameras, personnel, auto defense weapons; the only place to transport in without notice is in this shed.”

Suzuka explains to me, “Even though I have trained as a Tsukai-ban I have done nothing like this, I am a little scared.”

Suzuka knows that they need Intel on this man, he just killed and injured so many people when he sent in the National Gaurd; she still feels anxious and a little afraid. Being able to show her skills off does excite her at the same time and she is glad to have me with her even though this little kat is a pervert. I was able to pick the thoughts up from her, soon she will be able to do the same, and learn to block others from doing it to her.

As we get ready to transport to the shed Suzuka looks over at me, she starts to imagine my head in her lap scratching behind my ears. Suzuka slaps her cheeks says to herself, “Get my head into the game.” All at once they are transported to the shed.

I wish I could tell her I would not mind it, but I will leave that for another time.

I slowly walk over to the only door in the room, cracking it open a little I look out to see two men walking away from us. I then pull out two small pads from a bag, I hand one to Suzuka. I show Suzuka how to use the scanner. “The green dots are us here, all the red dots are enemies and the yellow are unknown individuals.”

Then I show Suzuka how to use the optical camouflage on the suit. Then I pull out my weapons. I explain the head gear to her, “The suits head gear allows us to see each other; it also has night vision and infrared.”

I hold up her weapon and says, “These are TONFA with attitude; you hit someone with one of these they will be out for at least 6 hours.”

Suzuka comments on what I said, “So, they stun, that is good, I really do not want to kill anyone.”

I also add, “Gaia wants to avoid violence especially deaths if at all possible, but if it is the only way, we need to make sure we come back safe.”

We wait until no one is left in the courtyard, and then check to make sure everything is working properly. I slowly open the door peek out and both of us slip out; now we are heading to the house, I whisper to Suzuka. “We have no idea where we actually need to look, what do you think we should do?”

Suzuka whispers back, “Humans tend to keep their closest secrets as close to them as they can, so maybe in the bedroom, but an office or secret room is used as well.”

We are almost to the house when Suzuka puts her hand on my shoulder and point to two guards coming toward them. Both of us leap into a tree and hide; the two guards walk by and eventually walk around a corner and out of sight. We then make sure it is clear and then jump down and head to the house. As we reach the house we see some people in white coats dragging in three unconscious people, then they head down some stairs next to the side of it. We hear the guards talking, they are saying, “these are the new test subject let’s get them downstairs.”

Both of us look at each other and say, “There's a dungeon downstairs!”

I say with a tone of relief, “It is probably all in the dungeon.”

Suzuka with a sigh of relief, “WOW, I call this our lucky day, but what about the prisoners?”

I tell her quietly that, “We will contact Gaia when we get down there and incapacitate all obstacles and take out all recording devices. I will fallow you, so off you go.”

Suzuka looks at me with a questioning look, “Me first that’s new.”

I smile and say, “I like the view from back here better.”

She says, “Hay, like I said I have a boyfriend.”

I say to her, “Well do you humans have a saying; you can look but not touch.”

She says while we are on the move, “I do not think that is what it means but OK.”

We follow the guards taking the people downstairs unnoticed; we find out that they have about 25 people down here. There is also a lot of lab equipment, and much of it is surgical in nature. The guards throw the prisoners in a cell; Suzuka sneaks over to a large metal door. Opening it a little, she closes it and starts to throw up but manages to stops herself.

As the guards leave; Suzuka waves me over and points at the door, still trying not to get sick. I slowly close the door and then look at Suzuka, “This is why Gaia hurts so bad we humanoids do this to each other, she fought to keep us from being experimented on by her people. But her people are not humanoid; this is different you are doing it to yourselves.

Both of us sit against the wall while I contacts Gaia, She tells us to transport all survivors to the medical word on the Avalon. For us we need to take photos, and grab what information we can and to make sure to download any data, and then transport to the estate.

The two of us are starting to transport out, when alarms start sounding and then they materialize at the estate.

At the Governor's compound, everyone is in a panic. The Governor, Tohisedo Mokanera gets to the basement as he’s walking down the stairs and looks over at the cells. “What the hell happened here, and where are the test subjects?”

One of the guards “Boss, a small group of armed men interred, released them, and took all our data.”

Tohisedo “Who were they and what did the intruders look like?”

One of the guards, “We are not sure; the cameras show things moving around doors being unlocked, but no one shows up on them.”

One of the other guards’ “when the prisoners escaped there was a bright light and then they gone.”

Tohisedo, “What is going on?” The governor asks as he looks at the security footage. “This cannot be magic and if not, who has this kind of technology?”

One of the guards, “No boss; there is no magic signature, and we have never heard of a spell that can teleport a large group of people.”

Tohisedo is now pissed he starts yelling at everyone. “Find them, find them all. I do not care what it takes, get them back, and I want the heads of the ones that took them.”

Suzuka and I transported straight to were Gaia and the others are at, the three newcomers see them materialize and, in a panic, move back to the far wall.

“Do not panic this is some of our technology, there is nothing to fear.”

Himawari points at Maco and asks, “Why are you wearing cat ears and a tail.”

Maco looks at her, shruggs her shoulders and bows her head, “Humans” then she stands tall and blurts out. “I am a Katharian, not human the ears and tail are real!” she then mover both her ears and tail. Goes over to them and says, “Here, touch them, and see for yourselves.”

The three of them are in ow; they just found out that Gaia was not human, but to meet someone that looks non-human was exhilarating to them. They all tell Maco she is so cute, and they love the ears and tail. With all the attention Maco is getting she feels a little embarrassed and moves over to Suzuka and holds on to her arm.

I smiles at Suzuka and say, “I see you made a new friend, but let’s settle down and get the report of what has transpired.”

Suzuka looks over at me then Hitora then to Mako, with her head down toward the floor beat red, “It’s not like that.”

Himawari, Akari, Eiko look at me; Eiko is the first one to speak, “This is all real, you are not human, and our people are experimenting on other humans?”

Takami tells them, “Yes, yes this is all happening. Like she said if we do not stop what is going on, we as a people are done for.”

Himawari probes, “Why do you not use your powers and make us stop this insanity.”

Mia answers this question, “Forcing her wills, do you think that will work? If you try to force someone to stop doing drugs, they will just fight back to keep doing them, unless they want to stop. It is the same for us as a people we need to do this; she is just here to help.”

“We need to get as many people as we can as quick as we can on board whom are willing to change this world; also, we need to keep more of these kinds of horrific acts from going on.”

 

Chapter 7

It All Comes to a Point

 

The room goes quiet for a long time, while everyone ponders over what we have talked about. I hope that no one ever gets hurt in all this, but no one being killed is most important. As I look at all the club members, I see a glimpse of hope, with people like them Earth has a chance.

“You now have a decision to make stay and help or go back to the lives you had and hope we can do the job.”

Akari stands up takes in a deep breath, “I know if I do nothing and all this fails, I will feel it was partly my fault for not taking part. Things have been bad for a long time; my friend died in a riot two years ago. She herself was not a magic-user so nothing was done for her.”

Himawari looks at Akari and Eiko and says, “I am tired of being afraid for myself, or that one of the people I care about will be hurt or killed. Something has been needed to be done for a long time, so I am in.”

Eiko tells everyone, “I get to help stop the end of the world, and we will gain new abilities, hell ya I’m in.”

I tell everyone to talk to their parents about the training camp this weekend for the club.

Uzo will take everyone home and we will get together tomorrow. I now need to go and deal with the people rescued from the governors estate and discover as much from them as possible.

After some light training, everyone went home all but Takami. “You think you are leaving without me?” I look at here with surprise, “Are you not supposed to be going home, not that I mind.”

Takami pulls her nighty out of her bag and tells me, “I told my family that I was staying over at a friend’s home to study and that we will go to my club training camp this weekend. Since that starts after school tomorrow we will be together for four days.”

I walk over to Takami and give her a huge hug, as we prepare transport to the ship I say. “I wish we could stay like this forever.”

Takami and I both enjoy the warm feeling we both get when we hold each other, and Takami wanders how she will tell her parents about this. Her mom will not be to mad but not agree with it, but for the dad, she is not so sure. He has an open mind, but discovering I am not human and the creator of all humanity.

Takami looks at me and says. “Well, let’s go and find out what that man was up to with the people he kidnaped; the rescued humans should have some information we can use, or at least they might have heard something.”

I put my arm around Tamaki’s shoulder and say, “Transport.”

When the two of us materialize aboard the ship, we see there waiting are Uzo, Mako, and Ruuha. Mako looks at Takami bows and lets her know that she is glad that she came to visit, then tells them they did get a lot of information from the primitive computers. The humans we saved are in medical ward B101; all need some help, but they are alive. They are also terrified about having all this happens to them and now they are on an alien ship.

“Well now, let us go meat our new guest; if you wish to take the lead on this, here is your chance. This here is Tia and this is her sister Muuki I am assigning them to you as your personal guard; make sure nothing happens to her.”

The ship is 8.05 kilometers long and the med lab we need to get to is in the aft of the ship, so all six of us will ride the shuttle car to the medical center. We disembark the transport, three Katharian in red uniforms stand there waiting for us.

One of them walks up and puts her hand out to Takami bows. “My name is Hatheri, and I am the lead medical officer in this center. It is an honor to meet the new empress.”

Takami, surprised by her remark turns red like on apple, people treating her, as a princess is new to her. I look at Takami and think to myself how cute she is when she gets embarrassed. I take Takami by the hand and starts walking toward Hatheri, “Take us to the humans.” And they all head to the main ward were the six men and seven females lie in their medical beds.

Most of them are unconscious and the others are to week to do anything but lie there, Takami walks over to one woman and tells her who she is.

The woman in the bed looks at her and struggles to ask. “Are you a human?”

Takami knowing she is no longer human ether tells her, “Like you, I was born on Earth and so was this beautiful young women here, Gaia.” Not wanting to lie to her, she kept out the change she had undergone.

I introduce myself, “Hello, my name is Gaia, and we are here to help, our people rescued you from the prison you were in.”

Takami asks questions about what was going on, but before she could get too far, the young women say franticly, “so you are with these aliens, are we being abducted or are we going to be there dinner.”

“You are much safer here than on Earth no one on this ship will do you any harm. You are a special guest of the royal family of the Galactic Federation.”

The other humans that are awake look at us and start listening to the conversation.

“My name is Mikato, who are the royal family members that we are the guest of?”

Takami looks at me. “Gaia here is the empress of the Federation and I am her pair. So that means I am also an empress. She was born on Earth but long before humans existed, I was born on Earth 17 years ago but when Gaia came here to help us, I became her pair.”

I explain everything to them about myself, who my people are, and what I am trying to do. I leave nothing out; I also let them know they will be with them for a while, and if they would like to join the fight to free Earth from the ones that will cause their destruction, they are welcome too.

A young woman looks at them and asks, “What will happen if you cannot change our world?”

I take in a deep breath and look right at them, “I will take some of your people who are worth saving, and then I will destroy all life on earth. Then I will re-terraform the Earth and start over. This is the people of Earths last chance; there will be no more.”

One of the girls that was saved say’s “Excuse me, my name is Siachi; you will destroy all life not just the humans.”

“I do not want to kill anyone. I want you to grow up, and get rid of your prejudicial attitudes. Yes, most of the people are tainted with this hate and will bring it with them, not only the magic users but the non-magi users as well.”

Siachi tells us, “They were hooking us up to machines, and when they stopped, and that id when people started disappearing. Over the last five days, they started to bring new ones in.”

Mako says, “From the evidence, we accumulated it looks as they are trying to amplify their power range by using other humans. Some bodies in the room were headless.”

“Thank you for the information, sorry you cannot go home right now. But I will allow you to contact your families to let them know you are alive, one thing though, do not tell them about us or where you are.”

“Takami please come with me, Mako and Uzo to the battle bridge we need to inspect the Governors estate and look over the information we have.”

On the bridge, I tell my people to have several surveillance units placed around the governor’s estate; I tell Taka that the units have a cloaking system. I also have Mako send two units to my estate for extra security (two units is 20 Ishimu solders Gaia’s Special Forces) and I tell them to use non-lethal force if possible.

“We have done all we can do for now, so what do you want to do for the rest of the night?”

Takami walks up to me with a sensual sway to her, “What do you do for fun or relaxation?”

I look at Takami and sigh. “I have never taken time for myself, or spent time with someone I love. It has never accrued to me that I can just sit back and take a break, which was the original reason I came here. Nevertheless, you see how that went.”

Takami asks me, “Do you have a place to watch a movie, and can you even get movies from Earth?”

“Well, we can turn one of the hollow chambers to a theater; just let Uzo know what you need.”

Takami kisses me on the cheek and tells me to wait here. She walks over and whispers into Uzo’s ear, “Please get Naga Pearl, popcorn, and drinks. Make the seating were Gaia and I can sit next to each other and snuggle. Oh yes, please get a blanket that we can cuddle together under.”

After about 20 minutes Uzo comes back and lets us know, everything is ready. “The view screen is the same size as a large Earth TV, love seat and sustenance just for two.”

Takami and I thank Uzo, and then we head to the hollow chamber were the set up the home theater, when we get there you can see the awkwardness of both of us. Neither of us has any idea what to do next, we try to talk but all that comes out is a lot of stuttering. We look at each other and suddenly burst out laughing, this goes on for about three minutes.

“We are both clueless about relationships aren’t we, let's go sit down and see where things go.”

As the movie started up Takami scoots up next to me and slowly lies her head down in my lap. I stroke the cheek of Taka with my pinky and then run my finger through her hair. The two of us cuddle and embrace each other through the movie, after the movie we go to bed. I give Taka a kiss and then we end up going to sleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning I open my eyes; turn my head toward Takami. She lies there sleeping so beautifully, I then reaches over and strokes the side of her face with the back of her hand, “time to get up my sweetness, we need to get ready for school.”

“Just ten more minutes, Mom.”

“Mom hum, I hope not, this would be awkward if I was.”

Takami opens her eyes looks at me peering down at her, she smiles at me and then reaches her arm up and around my neck, she tells me, “So it was not a dream, thank goodness, this makes me happy.”

I lean down and kisses Taka right on the lips, then tells her, “I would love to stay like this forever but we need to get up. By the way, if you like to join me for some morning training, I will teach you how to deploy a barrier around you for defense.”

Takami yawns and says, “I know. I know we need to get ready, and yes, I will join you. I am not happy we cannot just lay here and cuddle more.” With that, Taka pouts a little and then squeezes me with a strong hug.

The first thing I do is teach Takami how to deploy an energy field around her; she picked it up fast. I also show her how to pick someone off the ground and throw them.

I think to myself poor Tia and Muuki, they are being good sports, allowing Takami to lift them up and move them around. Tia has a freaked out look on her face, Taka may be picking up her new abilities fast, but it has been a bumpy ride for them two Kats.

“Now do you think you can teach someone else these new abilities?”

Takami answered while moving Tia in the air, “I believe I can, if they will be able to do it that is another question.”

Tia yells out, “I think I am going to be sick.”

Even though Takami put her down it ended up being too late, I will leave it to your imagination on what happened next.

“Take you know you’re beautiful when you are all sweaty.”

Takami looks at me with a scowl on her face, “Gaia that is gross. I need a shower and so do you.”

After we clean up, all 4four of us, we all head to school were the meat up with the others. Tia and Muuki are using stealth to keep hidden, and at lunchtime, we all get together were I tell them what has transpired.

Suzuka ask, “Gaia, the Katharian’s can make themselves look like human, why not just have those two become students.”

“That is a wonderful idea Suzuka, OK kat’s you two are going to be new students at this school starting tomorrow.”

“Ladies and one gent, today starts our weekend of hell, I mean training. Taka here will be our first trainer for the females and Hitora gets Mako.”

Mako gets a gleam in her eye, then looks at Suzuka, “Suzuka do not worry too much, I will not break him too badly.”

Suzuka looks at Mako then at Hitora, she puts her right thumb and index finger over her nose and at the same time shakes her head. She then raises her left hand pointing her palm at them and says, “Hitora I will pray for a fast recovery for you, you pore, pore man, life is so short then you have to deal with Mako.

Mia asks, “Takami, what are you going to teach us?”

Takami is a little anxious, but excited at the same time, “Well two things, the first one how to put up a shield around yourself and the second one how to pick someone up and throw them.”

 “Then everyone will join up with Mako for weapons training, and before you say anything; just because you have abilities to use, being trained in weapon combat is a big plus.”

Suzuka says, “With all that is going on we need to train, and train hard and fast.”

“Yes, the situation is getting out of hand, trying to use killing other human to increase your own power. All the humans involved in this horrific act will pay a high price. I promise you that.”

We all eat the rest of our lunches, clean up the area and go back to class. The rest of the day goes by uneventful. When the school day is over we all meet up at the front gate, there we see two large limos. All of us get in and they are given rides to their homes; so they can pick up what they need for the weekend.

Takami, Mia, Suzuka and I go to Takami’s home. After dropping Takami and I off, the rest, go on to the estate.

 

Chapter 8

Victims of Circumstance

 

Takami looks at me with such sad eyes and says, “Gaia, I am scared. I know we need to talk to my parents before the find out what has happened to me.”

“We need to tell your mom and dad everything, so after we tell them about me I will transport them to the Avalon’s observation dome.”

Takami says, “You had better have a medical team there just in case they die of shock.”

“That is probably a good idea, but this is the best way to get it through to them, that all this is real.”

Gaia and Takami walk into her parents’ home, Taka’s mom greats her with a smile and her dad came over to give his child a big hug.

Dad says, “Who is your friend”

Takami stammers to get her words out, “Mom, Dad, this is Gaia she is my; well I will just get it out we are dating and she is also from another planet.”

Her parents say something as they begin the transport to the ship.

Takami’s parents are now freaking out, she tries to calm them down, “Mom, Dad, please stay calm, you are aboard the Avalon.”

Takami’s dad yells out, “Stay calm, how can we stay calm? We were in our living room, now we are here.”

Her mom puts her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Honey, please, let our daughter talk. Takami, what is going on?”

Takami tells her parents, “This was the fastest way to get you both to understand what is going on. We knew you would not believe Gaia to be an alien, so we brought you here to speed things up.”

Her mom and dad look around the room; they see six women with cat ears and tails (Katharians).

Her mom looking at Gaia says, “You are Gaia then, you look like us but the others do not look human.”

I look at Takami’s parents and can feel the fear within them. How can I explain that Katharians are humans? How do I make them understand that we are here to help? Telling them about Taka being my pair, what am I going to say about that?

“Yes, I am Gaia, and yes, what you are thinking there is correct. I am the same Gaia from Greek mythology, but no, I am not a GOD.”

I tell them the same thing I told everyone else, about my people, about how we came into this universe. I left nothing out.

“One of the most important reasons I brought you here, is you Ms. Yoshiro are a mage, Mr. Yoshiro you are not, that is frowned upon here. Still you made a good life together and raised a wonderful daughter.”

“You seem like good parents, Takami loves you so much from what she has said and you treat her well. I am a little envious; she has received so much love from you both. My parents were unable to care about me even if they wanted too.”

Mr. Yoshiro says, “I have some questions first, what do you mean our people are using humans to enhance their abilities? Second, why are you using our children to stop all of this from happening? And lastly what did Takami mean by she is your pair?”

“I will tackle the second questing first. You ask why I went to the young people for help, well that is simple, they are the most likely to change. The older you are the more set in your ways a person is, so in short, older people fight change.”

Ms. Yoshiro adds, “How true that is dear, you did not believe a woman should have a job. Now after many years you changed, but it was difficult to get people to change their view on that.”

Mr. Yoshiro says, “Yes, yes, you are right on that, and I understand why you started with them. Also, you did, save those people from the Governor’s home, and the one human child that went came back.”

“For a human Suzuka is one of the best infiltrators I have seen, and I can tell you this none of them will die. I cannot say, it will not hurt them, but I will do my best to train them so they will not die.”

I go on and explain to them, “human brains have a lot of stored energy, and even non magic users have the same energy. Tapping into that energy is what they are doing, and since they do not wish to use people like them, week magic users and none magic users are being victimized instead.”

“If you wish, you can talk to the people we saved.”

Mr. Yoshiro asks, “How many people did you save from that place?”

“We rescued 13 people, six men and seven females, but we were too late to save 34 of the ones they had already experimented on.”

Ms. Yoshiro, “I see it in your eyes and face; this gives you so much pain.”

It hurts me this is true. I cannot tell them that sometimes I regret giving up everything for them. It is one thing to experiment on lower life forms like rats, but their own people.

“Yes, it hurts, but I will try to change your people’s mindset. First I will find people that also want change, teach them how to protect themselves. Then focus on stopping the people that are hurting everyone and get the information out.”

I tell them it is true I can make everyone do as I say, but if I do that, the people will change back in no time. You need to do this I will help where I can. I take them to the bridge where I show them my chair.

“From here I can control the entire ship, only someone with Dragonkin DNA can use this chair, it allows me to see we’re ever I wish in the entire universe. Ms. Yoshiro, please touch the chair, as you can see nothing happened. Takami you touch the chair.”

The chair lights up and hums; all of them have a surprised look on their faces.

“This is because Takami and I, well we are a pair; we share the same life energy. Dragonkin do not find a person to spend our life with; we come in pairs. It may take billions of years, but it will happen. Your daughter will not grow any older; she will look like this forever.”

Mr. Yoshiro asks, “When you say pair, do you mean as a mated pair?” he looks somewhat upset.

“The only way we can have children is with each other, men are of no use to us. I can see you are not happy about this, we did not decide this. What has accrued is natural, all I can tell you is, that I will do anything and everything to make Takami happy.”

I add, “To be honest I never thought I would have a pair, neither did my people. They wanted me to be alone for eternity.”

I walk over to Mr. and Ms. Yoshiro, go to my knees, put my hands in front of me on the floor, and place my head on the top of my hands.

“Please forgive me; I never wanted to hurt anyone. Yes, I am a girl, but I love your daughter.”

Ms. Yoshiro looks at her precious girl and asks, “How do you feel about this?”

Takami looks at her mom then to me, “I was afraid at first about how I felt, but I do love her.”

Taka’s mom looks at her dad, then reaches down to Gaia. “Please stand, this is strange to use. In most circumstances we would frown upon it, but your case is not the same and to know our girl has such a high statues that is a plus.”

Mr. Yoshiro, “Though boys are out of the question, I will go with this if you give the first born our family name.”

“Well, I only have one name, Gaia, so if that is ok with Takami’s I am all for it.”

Takami’s mother gives me a hug; this is what a hug from a mom feels like.

“Taka you are so lucky to have parents like this.”

“Mom until I gave her a hug a few days ago, she’d never had one.”

Taka’s mom asks, “Your parents never hugged you?”

“My parents let me rephrase that, my people do not have emotions. So they cannot express love, hate, or any other emotion. Showing affection was out of the question.”

Mr. Yoshiro tells Gaia, “we are your parents now, if you need a hug, my wife will give you one any time.”

For the first time I started to cry, I reached up and touched my face to feel the tears.

“What is this, why is my face wet?”

Everyone asks what she means by that.

Ruuha appears as a hologram and tells them, “She has never cried before, so this is new to her.”

Takami comes over to me, puts her arms around my waist, and then tells me it will all be OK.

Ms. Yoshiro, “After Takami graduates; I want a human wedding, which is non-negotiable.”

“That sounds fun.”

Uzo walks up to them and hands over two smartphone looking devices.

She then shows them how to use the phones. “They may look like your smartphone, but they are more powerful them a human supper computers. You can call anyone by saying the person’s name, and they will only work for you, I have set the devices to your DNA.”

After we take Takami’s parents home, Taka and I head to the estate to meet up with the rest of the group. We walk into the main living room to see all of them siting and drinking tea. As I walk into the center of the room, I tell them we will start at down.

“So for now enjoy the rest of the day.”

Hitora and Suzuka sit together on one sofa cuddled up under a blanket. The three newbies are playing cards at the large table in the corner. Mia, Takami, and I sit on the other couch. Mia half a sleep falls into my lap. I look at Taka thinking I might be in trouble, but to my surprise, she reached over and rubbed her head.

Takami looks at me and whispers, “I already knew she liked you Gaia, and it is nice she feels comfortable around you. Also she has the right to her emotions and I know how you feel about me.”

“Relationships are new to me; I do not know the rules. I have never needed to understand them before you came Taka.”

As I look at everyone, I see people that just want to live their lives. I ask myself, can I help fix the problems of this world; will they all come together and say, we are equal? I have fallen for all of them, not romantically but as a family.

Taka lays her head in my lap as well to fall asleep. Well, I guess we will sleep right here. I put one hand on each of their heads and softly rub, smoothing out their hair. Hitora looks at us and laughs a little. I smile at him and continue doing what I was, smoothing out their hair.

The next morning as I open my eyes, looking out the window in front of me, I see it is getting light. The smell of food fills the air. Takami and Mia are still where they were last night, their heads in my lap. I hope all this can go on forever; I enjoy having friends.

Uzo comes over and lets me know that breakfast is ready; I tell her, “well let’s get everyone up; it is time for the wakeup call.”

She smiles at me, “just like the Ishimu training days.”

“That is right, be as loud as you can. It is time for shock and awe, so we can get their blood moving.”

I watch Uzo sneak away. A few minutes later, sirens and whistles start going off. Takami and Mai stand right up, the rest freak out, and start running around. It was extremely funny and entertaining.

Uzo and the other two Katherians yell, “It is time to go for a run, and then we will eat and get the day started. So you flee infested dogs get them callisthenic uniforms on and meat out front. Go, go, go, and get those asses moving.”

Siachi moans as she gets her clothing on, she looks at Hitora and says, “Hay, Hitora get out of here you pervert. The rest of us are girls so you need to leave.”

Hitora stammers to get out of the room. “No, no, I was not trying to spy on you give me a break.”

We all start laughing as he runs to a room to get changed, Takami yells out no peeking. He yells back I would never. Suzuka yells out, you can peak on me anytime. I thought to myself, this is fun, but poor Hitora the only male here.

Mikato says, “I thought you were kidding about the time.”

Mako adds, “The training you will do, is the same we do for our special units (Ishimu solders) we will make you flee dogs into ferocious felines.”

Mako clasps her hand into a fist in front of her face and say, “No one will defeat you after we are through.”

They allow Hitora to come back to the living room, as he inters and looks at the girls his jaw drops. Suzuka walks up to him smacks the back of the head, “Quit gawking you perv.”

I laugh and tell her, “he is a boy and the only one here, and I hate to say it we are all hot. Hot is the word you use, right?”

Mia laughs and says, “Well it is one of them.”

Suzuka is bent over looking in her bag, Hitora is watching from behind, Mako walks over to him puts her are around his shoulder and says, “now that is a great view is it not Hitora, she has some nice assets.”

Hitora says without thinking, “yes it is; no, no I was not looking at her like that.” He turns beet red stammering for words.

Suzuka turns to face them both, “You both care about me, that is great, but please do not treat me like a piece of meat.”

Hitora looks at Mako and says to her, “thanks a lot you got me in trouble.”

Mako rubs his head and says, “The heart wants what the heart wants my friend.”

“OK, Mako you take the three newbies, Uzo you take the rest. The run will be five miles, if you need to walk, walk, do not hurt yourselves.”

Takami ask, “You will not be training us?”

“Well, I will be training with you, but I find that if we share training duties we learn better.”

Chapter 9

Test of our Resolve

 

I walk up to Takami and Mia. “Also I am emotionally involved with you two, and I want you to train the right way. So I will stand back and be there for support.”

Mia says, “That makes sense Takami, she will worry about you.”

“Not just her all of you, yes I am closer to Takami but I have become too close to all of you.”

“I will teach some abilities, but for the combat training, no.”

Uzo yells out, “Let’s go you mud-puppies no time to gaggle.”

I watch them take off for the five-mile run. 45 minutes later, I see Uzo and Mia running up. It makes sense that Mia is coming in first; she is the best student in sports at the school. Next, I see Mako and Suzuka running up. Eiko, Akari, and Hitora, are all breathing very hard as they get to the finish. 15 minutes later, here comes Takami and Himawari barely walking. I walk over to them and let them use me to keep themselves up.

Takami half dead tells us, “I hate running, and you, you just stayed here.” She looks at me with a scowling expression.

While laughing, I say to her, “I will go next time.”

I will join in on the rest of the calisthenics; mostly, it goes by uneventful. After Uzo and Mako get finished, even Mie is now tired, I tell them to take a 30-minute break before combat and ethereal manipulation training.

I tell them, “I will Takami teach you how to deploy a defensive barrier around you today, and we will get into what type of element you are most suited for.”

“Hitora, I am sorry to do this too you but Mako, Uzo, and you have weapons training, the rest of you with Takami.”

Takami says, “Am I to teach them what you have taught me first?”

“Yes that is what I want you to do, and then you all will learn to implement a defensive shield.”

Takami turns out to be a great teacher she quickly teaches them everything that I taught her. She looks so cute doing it I just want to hold her, and Mia looks so happy learning from her. Takami and Mia are a good team; I will make sure they keep working together. Takami does a real nice job at teaching them; they seem to enjoy learning from her. I am so glad she is my pair; Taka is so strong and has intense charisma. She will be a great Empress and be an asset to help maintain balance in the universe.

“OK, it is time to learn your next ability let us call it, shield. Close your eyes and imagine a dense barrier of pure energy forming around you. Now make the energy denser, now keep concentrating on that dense energy and slowly open your eyes.”

As they open their eyes, they look at each other and see the surrounding energy. It is taking all they have to keep them up, but they are doing it.

“Good work all of you this is a shield. It is hard to deploy right now but with time and practice it will become easier.”

“Now it is time to figure out your elemental infinity, by that I mean are you good with Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. All of you will be able to use them all, but there is one that is best suited for each individual.”

After I test them on their elemental infinity it turns out the only one that has the same as me is Mia, Fire. Takami and Suzuka have an affinity with water. Eiko, and Akari, are stronger with air. Last, but not least, Himawari has a very strong hold on Earth element. Siachi and Mikado will need to catch up after they are better. I will test them when the time comes.

The weekend went by quickly, too quickly if you ask me. I wanted to spend more time with Taka; we had fun when we were together. On Sunday, everyone except taka went home, her mom said she could stay the night and go to school with me tomorrow. We spent the entire night in each other arms cuddling the whole night; we did kissed a little but nothing more. I am still learning what to do a relationship, never learned about them. Until now, I never had too, but I sure enjoy being in one.

The next morning, I wake up and look to might right; there beside me is my meaning for going against my people and being stuck in this universe. Takami makes the whole thing worth it, and I do not wish to trade it for anything now. Takami is facing me she looks so cute, I lean over and give her a kiss, “Taka my love it is time to get up.”

She slowly opens her eyes and smiles, “Yep, it looks like it is.” She reciprocates by kissing me back.

As we get ready for school, Taka tells me, “this weekend I had asserted more effort than I have ever done in my life.”

“So I wore you out this week end, sorry it was not in the other way.” I say to as I pat her on the butt.

Takami looks at me with a smirk and says, “I am not sure how to respond to that, but I do hope to find out what that is like one day.”

I start laughing and say, “I am not sure about it ether, but we will find out together some day.”

We go to the dining room and eat first meal and then we get everything we need for the day and head to the car to go to school. On the way there we see emergency vehicles speed by, lots of them.

Taka point and yells out. “Look they are at our school.”

The car stops as close as it can to the school; we get out and run the rest of the way. Taka and I see Mie and the others standing in front of the school with many other students and faculty, they seem to be safe.

We ask what is going on and Mia tells us, “Two vans pulled up, and some masked men jumped out. Before anyone could do anything, they took six kids and drove off.”

“Suzuka, I need you to use your family's contacts, find out all you can please and put a rush on it. Ruuha scan for them, if you find the kids let me know right away. You do not have to come but I will take the day off and anyone that wishes to help meet me at the soccer field in ten minutes.”

I knew things were going to escalate, but blatantly taking people off the street in broad daylight. I will make them regret this act, and they better pry to whatever higher power they have that those kids are not harmed.

As I reach the field there stands everyone with the look of vengeance, they want a fight. I smile at them and say to myself; they are all strong and want to help to help; I am proud of them. But I do not want them to go into this with clouded judgment; I need to make sur they calm down. They look at me with an ear to ear grin, and then talk all at once.

Suzuka says, “This is my school, and they took our classmates I will not just stand by.”

Takami comes up to me gives me a kiss on the lips; “you and I are here to help change this world and keep this type of situation from accruing. Let’s do our job to protect the people of this planet, we are as one and where you go; I go.”

Mia walks up to me and give me a hug, “I will not kiss you, Takami would kick my a*s but like her were you go; I will be at your side.”

Himawari, Eiko, and Akari look at me and say all at once, “you think after all this we would just stay behind.” They look at each other and start laughing.

Hitora adds to it all, “I needed to try out the entire skill list that hell cat has been teaching me, so this is a perfect opportunity, right.”

“All of you, I was hoping we would have more time. I was never planning to have you in this type of situation this soon. This conflict will be a test of your resolve, as well as to put what you have been learning to practice, but as you can see rarely do things, go as planned.”

“The Avalon is cloaked and in synchronous orbit around Earth. We now have a close platform to initiate a rescue operation as soon as we are ready. I still do not want the rest of humanity to know we are here. I still hope that, humans will change, with a little help from us on the side.”

From the field we walk into the restrooms and then beam aboard the Avalon, waiting there are Uzo and Mako. They tell us that the kids are being held in a compound outside the city.

“Good it did not take long at all to find them.”

Mako looks at me as she explains, “It is well guarded, but if you sent us in, we could easily do the job.” Even though she said that, Mako knows me too well, and that I would not do it. The humans need to be involved, or it will have no meaning.

The fastest way to get to the other end of the ship was using the shuttle, so we all headed to the transit station to board the car. As we get to our destination, the shuttle slows down and comes to a complete stop, the doors slide open and we get off and walk across the hall to inter the war room.

Ruuha brings up the Earth over an octagon table 1.98m across, I hear them all oohing and awing in the background.

“We find it’s easier to use holograms than 2-dimensional maps, we can bring up a more accurate view of the area we are looking at.”

Uzo says to me, “I believe we have found them. This is the place they are being held; it looks to be an abandon farmhouse, which has been turned into a research compound.” She brings up the 3d image of the area and six green dots start flashing. “Here this is the locations of the children.” She points to the red dots. “There are also many yellow dots which are unknown prisoners. They look to be 24m underground; we can beam into a small chamber here.” Uzo brings up the underground area on the table.

Takami says to Uzo, “Yes, we need to get them out, but we also need to find out who is behind this and make sure they never do it again.”

Uzo replies, “Yes your highness, this will be part of the plan.”

I have never seen Takami so angry, and Mie is just one step from going off herself. The rest of them are not in very good mood ether, I need to keep things in perspective.

“OK, it looks like we will need two teams.”

Mikato and Siachi walk into the room, Siachi says, “I hope this plan will have us in it.”

“So, you two have a clean bill of health, welcome to the war room. OK this is how it will go; I will send Mako and Uzo to help rescue the kids, with Siachi, Mikato, Eiko, Suzuka and Akari. If they have any information to their agenda grab it, and to the fate of the guards do as you please. Just try not to kill anyone if possible.”

Takami adds, “That leave the rest of us to take care of the surface.”

“I may not want them dead, but I will make them pay they will regret taking anyone from the school. I will make them have night terrors for the rest of their lives, and will feel the pain of any one they have hurt.”

Mia adds to the conversation, “We should castrate all of the men so that they will never reproduce.”

I look around the room I can see it in their eyes they all feel the same way.

Hitora says, “OK, I need to remember never piss any of you off.”

“So ado we all concur with what is going to happen?”

All of them at the same time yell, “Yes, make it so.” And the room goes quiet for a moment and then everyone laughs.

Over the next two hours we make our plans, “the first team will go in here.” Mako points at a small chamber.  “Uzo and Hitora will take out the guards at this post to make sure they cannot call for help. After that, the rest of us will move up this passage to take out the guards here, then to the kids.”

I bring up the compound in a detailed 3d model, “there are five towers.” I point at each one of them. “These will be your targets for bombardment with plasma balls; you all remember how to make them.” I point at a building on the map, “there seem to be a large amount of mana coming from here, Takami and Mia will go in there while we are hitting the towers.” I tell them we will start the bombardment first, this will allow most of the guards to be up top so the rescue team will have less to deal with underground.

Ruuha says, “After you are all done, we will beam you out and I will send a drone to level the compound even the under-ground area. We will beam the perpetrators to a not so pleasant part of the world.”

“Keep monitoring them let me know of any changes, we will go to one of the hollo chambers and practice our assault. We need to get this right the first time. We will attack tomorrow night under protection of night. With our technology we have an advantage at night.”

We spend the day practicing our attack on the compound over and over, and I tell them that what happens in these simulations may not be the same as the actual combat. We can win in a simulation and lose the fight, or someone will get hurt. This just gives us a better chance at winning.

“I can just go in there using my full power, and save everyone, but in that case, they will know something is not right. I am going to use the same power level that human are capable of this will keep them in the dark about who we are. I will have the Katharian’s not hide who they are because they will just thing the Kats are in cosplay, and seeing them will confuse or shack them I hope. All this is to keep the appearance that this is just a human fight.”

Ruuha tells them, “After this is over, we will leak the video we make, so be sure not to take your head gear off. We will let the world know what is going on. They will try to make it into anti magic propaganda and say it is a fake. Lots of people will still believe it is real, and that will help the cause.”

Eiko softly says, “I am scared, so scared. I know we must resolve this, and what will happen if we do nothing about it. But it does not alleviate the fear.”

“Fear is good as long as it does not overwhelm you, fear will make you think about what you are doing and I hope keeping you from taking unneeded chances.”

Siachi adds, “I am too, but we cannot just sit back and hope the adults will do something.”

Mikato tells them, “Adults and the government of this world are mostly useless unless you are a mage. The way they see our school, even if we use magic, we are still no better than non-magic users to them.”

Takami tells them, “My mom and dad are treated poorly, one using magic one that cannot, for me I am not a pure blood, so and I am treated like I am tainted.”

 

 

 

Chapter 10

Choices

 

“Something you all should know is that these types of biases are not bound just to humans, I may not have them but my people were the same way to me. I have emotions they do not; I was treated as an outcast even though my parents were the leaders of our faction of Dragonkin.”

Takami adds, “This is why she does not want these types of ideas to keep going in this universe, at least she understands the feelings we all have.”

Mikato asks, “Is that why you went against your people and fought for us; was it because of the way they treated you?”

“Yes and no, I knew I would never be fully one of them. But at the time I thought I would be alone for eternity. You see Takami is not supposed to exist as a pair for me, they thought I would have to watch you live and die, never being able to get close to any one for very long.”

They all think about what we have talked about for a long time, then……

Mia lets them know, “There are some good adults, but most have lost hope and believe we can do nothing about changing things. We will show them that there is a way.”

Takami, “We are all scared in one or another, and if you choose not to fight, no one will hold it against you. This will not be a walk in the park, and you all have a good chance of getting hurt.”

“That means you will all need to make a choice, how far you are willing to go and if you will risk your lives for your peoples freedom. We all live in this universe, for now you're limited to a single solar system. If you cannot make peace with each other, how will you survive out there?”

Takami, “all humans in the universe fight and kill, the ones that have left their systems only fight with races not their own most only fight to defend themselves from non-humans races. We are still fighting and killing among ourselves, and we are to judgmental of any and all things different.”

Mia, “So we need to fight, this is the only way to change our people. We need to show them there is a better way to live by fighting against injustice like what has happened to our classmates and showing the world that this will not be tolerated.”

“It is time to rest for the night let your families know you are OK and spending the night with classmates to study, this is not a lie we are studying just not schoolwork.”

I dislike lying it is something I refuse to do, but not telling them every little detail I see no harm in. Having them give just enough information not to freak their families out is a good thing, it will keep them out of danger. I have them talk about their concerns and wishes to help them deal with the anxiety they are all having, even I am anxious about how it will turn out.

The rest of the evening goes by without incident; everyone seems to have calmed themselves. We talk drink and eat, after a while we go to bed. Takami and I head to our room, and as we close the door Mia taps on it and asks if she could sleep with us. She just does not want to be alone, and Taka looks at me and says to her, “you can.” I end up in the middle of two beautiful women, one I love with all my heart the other I care deeply for. They are my first friends from this world and are precious to me.

Takami falls asleep just fine but I sense the stress Mia is feeling all night she fears what we will find when this is all over. She seems to have precognition ability, so I am worried about what is coming now. From what I can feel from her it is not one of use but what is in the compound that she is concerned about.

The next morning, I open my eyes; I am looking at the celling I can feel the weight of taka on one arm and Mia on the other. I guess I did not move all night. I pat them both on the head and slip away and out of bed leaving them to sleep. We will have a busy day ahead of us so I will let them rest awhile longer.

“Ruuha have you completed the scans of the entire compound for any irregularities besides the one building with strange energy readings.”

“Yes, yes, I have. There are many bodies of people they have already killed, but the kids from the school are still alive, as for other energy reading or peculiar anomalies, no.”

“Let’s get some food ready for everyone and then we will get them up.” We need to get ready for tonight. “Ruuha is the new gear ready? If so, take it to hollo room two so we can test it out.”

Takami knocks on the door to my study. As I open the door for her, she puts her arms around me, and then gives me a sensual kiss on the lips, I return the feelings.

“You did not wake me.”

“You both looked so beautiful and were sleeping so peacefully I could not wake you, and I thought since we have a lot of work today, I would give you more time to sleep. Well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.”

As everyone gets up, and get dressed they contemplate on the situation that will be transpiring tonight. We all meet up in the dining room to sit down for the morning meal, looking at each other we can see the uneasiness we are all feeling. We talk about mundane thing avoiding conversation about what we are about to do. The mood of everyone is tense; we all can feel it, Fear, anxiety and excitement all at the same time. I just hope it all goes off with no severe injuries on both sides.

“OK, after we are all finished eating, head to locker rooms across from hollo room two. In the locker with your name on it has your new gear. Now Hitora, we have set up a male locker room just for you, so no slipping in with the girls.”

Every one now looking at Hitora, he turns beat red, then yells, “I would never do that.” For a male he acts cute once in a while, all embarrassed. Everyone laughs and Suzuka gives him a hug and tells him, “We know, it is OK dear I love you.” She then kisses him on the cheek.

Mako walks over to Hitora grabs him playfully and says to him, “If my dear Suzuka vouches for you, you have to be OK.”

Hitora says to Mako, “It is strange, having someone else care for your girlfriend, but it does not bother me so much for some reason.”

Mako gives him a kiss on the cheek and says, “She is too much of a woman for ether of us.” They all start laughing, but pore Suzuka is all red with her face in her palms.

About 20min later everyone enters the training room, as Hitora walks in he looks at all the girls then looks at me, “Please can we get more men on our team, I feel out-of-place being the only one. Not that I mind, being around beautiful women all the time is a man’s dream, until it happens.”

We all start laughing so hard, I look at him and say, “If you know any that can handle themselves like you can, and the rest of the team approves I have no problem.”

“Over the next 4 hours we will simulate the assault on the compound, and then all of you need to write letters to your families. I hope we never have to send them, all I can say, I will try not to let anyone die but getting hurt is a part of everything we do.”

We have two hours until our attack on the compound that holds our kidnaped classmates; all of us can see the tension we are experiencing increasing as the time for the attack gets closer. I walk over to Takami and put my arms around her; she leans on me, placing her head on my shoulder. The room is quiet; no one is saying a word, all you hear is my old grandfather clock ticking over and over.

After some time, Uzo come in and announces, “It is time to get ready, and we are leaving in 20 minutes.”

Uzo’s sudden break in the silence startles almost everyone in the room; Takami tightens her grip on me for a moment then relaxes a bit. This did not help the tension at all; I will defiantly need to talk to my crew about how to deal with people not used to combat situations.

“OK everyone, time to get your armor on and prepare to move out. Everyone get to transporter room five, we leave in 15min.”

Taka yells out, “Move out, you heard the boss.” Looking at me, she winks as she gives me a big smile.

I feel a little embarrassed now.             

Team one beams into an unoccupied semi-large room. Mako the leader of the group swiftly but quietly moves over to a large door, cracks it just enough to see into the hall.

I give the signal to my team knowing that Gaia will be preparing her attack soon; we all turn on our stealth suites as we walk into the hall. Hugging the left wall we crouch as we move down to where the hallway splits into a tee, I wave my team to go to the left. Then after moving down about 10 meters I give the sign to stop; I then point at a double door and the thumbs up that tells them we are at our destination. (Guard House)

I pull out a baseball size clear globe; I then crack the door enough to toss the globe into the room it explodes and flashes making a bright light stunning all of them in the room. The seven of us rush into the room incapacitating the 4 stunned men; Suzuka walks over to the equipment and turns of all the security systems. Uzo then contacts Gaia to let her know it has been done.

Team two led by Gaia beams to our specific areas.

Mikato and Eiko are placed about 20 meters from tower one and two. Suzuka and I are the same distance from tower three and four. Tower five is on the far side and has no strategic influence on our attack Takami and Mia prepaid to move in once the attack gets under way. Himawari and a Katherians named Lorain prepare for anyone that comes to us and attacks.

After some time has passed, we get a message from Uzo that they have neutralized the security room; I then give the signal to start the attack on the base itself. The towers go down in seconds; I send in an energy pulse that interrupts the use of mana. Taka and Mia start for the building with the strange energy readings after they turn on their stealth suites.

One man from the compound runs into a tent looks at the women banging on the console in front of her. He then solutes her and says, “We cannot use our magic; it seems something is interfering with it.”

The leader of the compound tells him with fear and anger in her voice, “Hay dumb a*s, get some weapons and shoot back.”

Guard, “Yes mam”

Leader, “what the hell is going on? They will kill me and my family if I let this base get taken out.”

The Leader gets on the com’s and starts yelling “control room come in, why are all the security systems down. Get the dam auto defense systems back online.”

She did not understand that we had people already in the bunker, and we had already taken her men out. I could pick up that from her frantic thoughts, she was also in fear of what her employers would do to hear, and the people she loved. The compound leader did not feel good about what they were doing there; she was quite disgusted with it. I could tell this did not just have to do with the kidnaped kids; it had something to do with the small building the strange energy was coming from.

Before I could stop them from going into the building, Takami blast the door off its hinges and walks right in.

I feel Takami get very ill, and then vomit several times, Mia is in a similar state. I head to the building myself to see what the problem is; I have a bad feeling about this. I yell to everyone to incapacitate everyone, and to bind them up good.

A male and a female soldier move straight for me, shooting AK47. I reach out and stop the bullets, grab one of them with my fingers the rest stay floating in the air. Looking at the two of them I can see the fear flowing from them, “using primitive weapons like these is a waste of your time.” I say to them, “it is time for you to sleep, and they fall to the ground unconscious.”

“Gaia, Gaia they killed them all and took their brains, they killed so many children.” After Takami says this, she collapses to the ground crying.

More soldiers come out, and I snap my fingers, “sleep, and sleep the internal sleep.” I think to myself I may or may not wake them from this sleep; it all depends on what has transpired here.

As I walk into the building, I can now see what Taka and Mia saw. The energy we detected is coming from a generator type machine hooked up to a shelf with 24 human brains. There were 2 young female bodies on tables with their skulls opened up.

Get me their commander, take her to the ship, I will question her there. As I am saying this, my hair turns orange with yellow streaks, to Taka and Mia my hair looks like it is on fire. Takami comes over half bent over calm down we saved our classmates, and we are one step closer to finding the truth.

Uzo asks, “What do you want done with the rest?”

“Make sure to get their faces on the recording then leave them at the rundown farmhouse up the road, most likely their people will find them. If not, they got what was coming to them, if so they will never wake up.”

“Ruuha target this camp with a drone, make the yield large enough to destroy every last piece of this place.”

I put the detainees to sleep, so they will have no memory of being aboard the Avalon; do not wish for anyone outside the unit to know of its existence, at least for now. We all meet up in the war room, for a debriefing.

Mako starts us off.  “OK everyone as you humans say this is our debriefing, and the first thing I wish to say, you all did well.”

Mako goes on, “there is good news; the first is, we saved all of your classmates and the second is we saved 25 other young people.” Every one gives a cheer. “This is good news, but it still leaves a bad taste, we have found one reason for the abductions. They are using human brains to boost their powers; they are testing magic and non-magic users brains. Both seem to work but magic user brains are more efficient.”

“Mako is she in the interrogation room?”

Mako looks at me and says, “Yes empress she is there waiting for you to question her. Why did you bring her here?”

“I read her thoughts, she did not want to be there, and did not agree with what they were doing. She was there under duress, she was protecting her family. I think we can get a lot of information from her and she may be an asset to us. Track her family down and bring them here fast, before the find out what happened and get the chance to hurt them.”

 

 

  

Chapter 11

Fighting for Our Future

 

Taka, Mia and I walk to the Interrogation area; it is a large room with six cells on each side. I walk over to one and touch the panel on the right side of it. We can now see into the room on the other side, the leader of the compound is just waking up.

Takami ask if she can see us and if she should not be bound, I tell her she cannot move from the chair and that we can see in but not out.

“For now, all of you just watch.”

I walk through the wall; Mako tells them that our com badges allow us to walk through the shield.

I look right at her and say, “Unlike the people you commanded you get to wake up. Do not try, you cannot move or communicate, for now you just listen.”

I sit down across from her look right into her eyes, “the one thing I will tell you first is I do not lie, you can take every word I tell you as fact.”

“You just thought everyone lies, well that may be true for humans.” I change my appearance to the true form of a Dragonkin. I look the same for the most part, but horns grow from my ear area and some areas of my body have scales.

She freaks out so I change back and then I tell her, “You are no longer on Earth you are 21,000 kl above it, aboard my ship the Avalon.”

“I will allow you to talk, do not be belligerent, I will treat you with respect if you show the same. You and your people have committed horrific acts for the sake of power and used innocent children to accomplish this goal.”

She cries, and then I ask her. “So tell me why, why did you take part in this when it is obvious you did not want to?”

She looks up at me with sadness in expression. “My name is Namane Hikabiki I was part of the JDF (Japanese Defense Force) I was assigned to the post 3 months ago. They told me for my family safety I am not to speak out or tell anyone what is going on there. I wanted to tell someone, I wanted to stop it, I would hide in my room and cry over and over I could hear the screams.”

“You were in fear of your family's safety, how about now?”

Namane looks at me, tears running down her face, “I failed to protect the project my daughter and my mom will probably end up paying the price for it.”

I say Ruuha and she says, “We are already on it, one mom and one daughter on the way. We will take them to observation room 12.”

“Your family is being brought here, they are now safe.”

Namane tells me, “Thank you, and thank you for protecting my family. My husband was killed in a riot 3 years ago; all I have is my little girl.”

Namane ask, “Why am I alive, or are you going to get rid of me after all this?”

“No, you are safe. I already knew that this is something you did not want to do, and I do not want to kill anyone if I do not have too. I or I should say we hope to change people's minds and show them a new way to live and grow.”

“I would like your help, but I will not force you too. What can you tell me about what is going on, and who are the ones in charge?”

The fear in her eyes tells it all, Namane tells us, “this goes all the way to the Prime Minister; other countries have their own programs and are building their troops. The Americans have a buildup of troops in Panama, looking like they will invade South America. Russian and China troops are doing the same on their borders. The Prime Minister and other high-ranking members of the National Diet do not want to be caught with our pants down. In all there are 12 countries and there leaders are called the council of 12, each leader has 11 underlings. Governor Tohisedo Mokanera is one of the 11 here in Japan.”

“So it is much worse than we first thought, it is looking at a world war is on the horizon. Uzo send out infiltrators to all the major countries I need more information. Ruuha cloak the Avalon and move us away from Earth closer to the far side of the moon and start detailed scans of the planet I want to know what is going on.”

“You are still technically a prisoner, but I will give you a place for you and your family to stay. As long as you try nothing you have the freedom to go any were on the ship, no one will treat you as a prisoner.”

They Kats escort Namane to her family and I call for everyone to meet in the war room; I tell them all that is going on. You can see the despair in their faces.

“Do not fret we will stop this from getting out of hand.”

Mako talks, “I have analyzed and discovered that the devise they intend to use can increase human abilities, but with a cost. Not just in lives it takes to use it, but with prolonged use just one of them will over charge and become supper critical exploding with the same yelled as one of our drones at 50%. To fight a war they will need thousands of them, and that is each country will need that many.”

Takami says in a soft voice, “So we are on the verge of destroying ourselves.”

Mia, “It is as you said we are going to destroy all life on this planet. Do they know this is possible?”

Mako, “It looks like they know that it is a possibility, but seems to think the chance is so small it is worth the risk.”

“OK, we have had a busy day let’s all take some time get cleaned up, eat, and relax. Tomorrow we will talk more.”

The humans from earth and the Kathar leave, not saying a word. I walk over to Takami and Mia and give them a group hug. “I am sorry this is happening to your world, but I believe we can save it. We will show your people a better way. The only thing is now I know many people will die; there is no getting around it.” Takami and Mia and I start to cry, we know this is going to be a tough fight.

I started out with the idea of no one needed to die; now I know that it was a dream. Every war has people that die this is going to be no different. The only thing I can do is keep everyone as safe as posable; with my technology I can give them a good chance of getting through this alive.

I ask everyone to help Namane and her family gets accustomed to the ship, and make sure they all understand that it was the government that used her family to control Namane.

Namane and her family moved into an apartment style area of the ship meant for large family units. They seem to be to be adapting to their new situation very well, she also had many family members that did not use magic so she is sympathetic to a change with her people. Namane and her family seem to be curious about the universe and what is out there.

I decide to offer to send them to school, and any of the others that have an interest in learning. I tell Uzo to set let them join the Katharian’s in our educational programs, so we can teach the humans advanced ideas and technology. Since we already have young Kats going to primary all the way to collage level education it will be good for them and the humans to understand each other.

“Namane, how are you doing? We have retrieved every one of you family members that were at risk from the people you worked for?”

Namane looked at me and gave a bow, “Thank you for saving my family and helping me get out of a situation that would have probably got me killed. I know what I allowed to happen is unforgivable, I allowed them to kill so many young people and turn them into mana generators, but all I wanted to do was to protect my family.”

“Namane all I ask if you can help Uzo with the humans from your world, and if you can remember anything else about the people you worked for let her know.”

“I have a feeling that we will take in more refugees as time goes by.”

Namane, “If you have all this power can you not just make everyone stop this insanity.”

“Yes, I can force my will on humanity, and I get asked that question every time. But I ask; what happens when you try to force someone to do something, they do not want to do?”

Takami walks in, “If people do not change on their own it will not last, humanity need to come to this decision on their own.”

Namane, “I see, that is true. So this will be a long a dangerous fight.”

“I wished and hoped no one was going to be hurt, but yes I have the same feeling.”

Takami and I walk to the arboretum to sit by the small pound that has in the middle, a 4m tall, cherry blossom tree on a small island.

Takami snuggles up to me and says, “This is nice having something like this on a ship in space, it makes you feel at ease.”

Ruuha appears and tells us. “We have everyone from the school, students and the Teachers under constant surveillance, but I believe we need to recruit more humans to help. Even with our people having stealth, we need people to intermingle with them to be able to respond faster.”

“We are back to school tomorrow, so I think it is time for a recruitment drive.”

Takami smiles at me, “Sounds good my love, but for now let’s just not worry about the bad and spend time enjoying each other.”

She gives me a kiss and snuggles even closer to me. Taka is right, we should relax, because soon we will not have the chance to, and once things get going we cannot stop until the end.

I do not wish to do it, but if humanity on this planet does not change; I will take the ones that are already with me and bring humanity back to the Stone Age. I will have them start over leaving only 20 tribes of 500 humans a chance to start again.

I brush Takami’s hair to the side; I want her people to become a beneficial addition to the universe and the Galactic Federation. I wander how many of them will have to lose their lives before this is over?

Takami is asleep now so I pick her up and take her to bed. I lie down beside her, snuggle up, and go to sleep.

The next morning we get up and the compound on Earth then we take the car to the school. Pulling up to the school, we see Mia and Suzuka in a fight with three males and two women, as Takami and I get out of the car she starts toward them I reach out and stop her. She looks at me and understands right away.

“Let them handle this, it will be good for their self-esteem.”

Takami, “You are right if we interfere they might think they cannot handle themselves.”

“Or that we think they cannot handle themselves.”

I can see Mia and Suzuka have placed barriers around the students, they are definitely thinking of the safety of their friends. Takami grabs my hand tight, she is concerned about them and wants to go help even though she knows this is the right thing to do.

Mia yells, “Why are you doing this? It makes no sense we just want to live and go to school in peace.”

A large male about two meters tall and all muscles, definitely the leader yells out. “Nomu’s and mages should not be in the same school, it makes us look bad. Nomu’s are not equal to us and need to know their place.”

Mia counters with, “You say non-magic users are not our equals, who do you think invented the device you use. That ring you use to focus the mana was made by a woman named Kitigare Manami; she was someone that could not use magic.”

Suzuka chimes in, “You five need devises to use Magic right, look at me.” She shows them she has no device, then raises her hand toward the big guy and points her finger kind of like a gun. “Bang!” she says loudly as a bolt of energy shoots out hitting the man in the chest knocking him on the ground.

You can see the intense shock in the other fours faces, the other males start to cast spells, but the male on the ground yells out stop. He laughs, “Very interesting, so you can use magic without devices, is that what they teach you here.”

Mia laughs for a few seconds then stops, her expression changes to a face that shows her dislike of this man. “No, our friend and club president showed us how to use the power within ourselves. We are way out of your league, we are much more powerful then you can ever become.”

 Suzuka looks pissed she tells them, “You need a device to use magic, and we do not and are much more powerful then you. Does that mean we deserve to be treated better than you, are we superior to you? No, we are just some of the many humans on this world trying to live our lives.”

Mia, “Or does it just mean we can do something that you cannot. We are still human and are not better than you, non-magic users, magic users and us we are all the same, just human.”

The tall man looks at them, “The strong should always rule, the week should be happy that we are running things. You think you are so powerful, we will show you how wrong you are.”

Takami look, one of the men and the two women are backing off. Mia’s words are getting through to them, let’s go and meat up with them.

I hold on to Taka’s hand and phase shift to where they are heading, as the three of them walk around the corner we smile and wave. At first they get into a defensive stance, but as soon as they see we will not attack they relax.

Takami smiles, “We are not here to fight just talk.”

I look at them, “There is a coffee shop just up the street, do you mind if I buy you a cup of coffee and a treat?”

A tall women dark long hair looks at me in the eyes, “We started trouble with you and your school and you want to be nice to us?”

Takami smiles at them, “My name is Takami, and this is Gaia. Is it not better to talk then fight, this way no one gets hurt, and we can learn to understand each other?”

The man steps forward, “My name is Morahara, this young woman is Hite, and this is Monami. (Monami is the one with long dark hair.) To be honest, we did not really want to be there, our friend Luka talked us into it.”

“Well, let’s go sit and talk.”

While we head to the café, the fight at the school still goes on.

Mia looks at the tall man Luka, “So the strong should rule, I will show you strength.”

As the man (Luka) starts for Mia, she builds up her inner ethereal flow just like I showed them. She launches a plasma blast right at Luka, as she says to him. “Do not blame me for your stupidity, this will hurt.” The blast hit him covering his entire body, he screams in pain receiving second and third-degree burns over his body. Most of Luka’s clothing is gone he now lies on the ground screaming in pain, his friend runs in terror.

 

Chapter 12

The enemy makes its move

 

Mia walks over to Luka; she uses an ability I had not taught her yet. Banshee scream, it hits him with a powerful force blast breaking 2 of his ribs and giving him multiple fractures “My name is Mia, we do not even know each other and I do not care who you are. As you can see, I am more powerful than you, but I do not think I am better than you.”

Mia adds, “As a human being, yes I am, I can work with people that do not have powers, and some of them are close friends. As you heal, think about today, and if you go after any of the people at this school or if I see you attacking anyone; this will pale in scale of what I will do to you.”

An ambulance comes and picks up the young man, local police officers talk to Mia about what happened. The police seeing she is a mage shove it on the school for accepting non-magic users and tell her it would be in her best interest if she leaves the school for one the government backed ones.

While that was wrapping up, we sit down with Monami and her two friends, Hite and Morahara. It is quiet for a long time; a young woman walks over to take our order.

Young girl, “Hi, my name is Kim. I will be serving you today, are you ready to order?”

“Kim, thank you, I will take a house blind.”

Takami smiles at her and says, “I will take a latte with coco.”

Kim looks at the other three; they look at each other than over at us.

“You can have anything you wish, I will be paying.”

Morahara orders a coffee and a donut, Hite, she gets a caramel latte on Ice, and Monami orders a special blind coffee.

I smile at them, “now that we are relaxed. Question one; do you really feel that non-magic users are inferior to you?”

The three look at each other, Hite starts off, “they teach us that magic users are the elite, and if you cannot use magic, you have no overall value but to serve the elite.”

Monami looks at us with sad eyes, “But I come from a family that has had no magic users in generations, I am the first. So my answer is no, I was just afraid to speak out.”

Morahara, “My brother cannot use magic, but he is way smarter than me, so what they said hit home.”

“With the magic user’s non-magic user issue, you know how many think like Luka vs People that think like you.”

Monami scoffs, “For me most of the people I know go with the doctrine that is taught; even non-magic users go with that even if they do not like it, to them it is the way things are.”

The other two say similar things and I ask them, if you had the chance to help with changing this way of life, would you?

Monami smiles but you can still see the fear in her eyes, “I want to help but I fear what they will do to my family, if they find out.”

Hite looks at me, “I am an orphan, my parents died in a protest against the ill treatment of non-magic users. They told me they died by the hands of nomus, I knew the truth from the start that they died protecting children. If I can change things, I would even though I cannot see how.”

Morahara with tears in his eyes, “Every time I see my brother I cannot look at him, not because I dislike him. It is that I am embarrassed and ashamed I have not protected him.”

Morahara looks at the table clasp his fist raises his hand brings it down onto his leg hard. “Why do thing have to be like this, there are way too many people that think like Luka. Even the ones being bullied feel that there is no hope.”

I stand up and look at everyone, “If someone could guarantee your family safety, would you like to help change the world?”

They all say yes, yes at the same time. I tell them I wish to show them something spectacular and lead them to a small park, and then I place a barrier around it so people will avoid coming in. “Ruuha transport us to observation room five.” A bright energy field builds up, and then we transport to the Avalon.

The three of them panic, saying things like how, what, where, and what is going on. Takami looks at them, “please do not panic your reaction is the same for everyone the first time here.

Takami says to them in her soft and soothing voice, “Welcome to the Avalon.”

I say, “Blinds” and the blinds that cover the large windows open up, outside the window is a small planet with meteor craters all over it 10 seconds later as we pull around the moon they see Earth.

“Like Taka said welcome aboard the Avalon, and yes that is Moon out there, and in front of us now is your home world; we are in space.”

Morahara, “This is an alien spaceship?”

“Yes and no, this is my ship but like you I was born on Earth, of course humans did not exist yet.”

Hite, “Then if humans did not exist, what are you?”

I laugh a little and say, “No, I am not even close to being a human. I was born long before we brought humans into existence. My people are called Dragonkin, and yes we are the original dragons.”

I tell them about whom and what I am and the truth about everything; I hold nothing back. I also tell them why I cannot just force the issue on this change. Humans need to be the ones to choose that path and make the change.

As a Katharian bring in some refreshments, the expression on their faces seeing a humanoid with kat aspects is spectacular and feeling the emotions of Morahara I had to giggle so did Taka since we became a pair her Dragonkin abilities have been getting stronger.

“This is Hanadi she is a Katharian, she will make sure you are taken care of; also we already have many families here from Earth.” I look at each of them, “with your permission I will start bring your families here, after it is all over I will send them back.”

They all say yes, and I have them go with the transports to make it easier on the family members. Having someone they know makes retrieving their family’s way easer.

I walk over to Taka put my arms around her and say, “My empress, my empress, what does thy command.”

She looks at me, “kiss me my empress.”

So I give her a big kiss then say, “we should probably get to school.”

We get back to the school; and right when we reach the door a crap load of students run up to us, telling us about Mia, and how she defeated the bullies that came to the school. They ask if the club teaches how to defend yourself like that and to use that kind of power.

“After school today, I will meet anyone interested in the club, or just wanting to learn how to protect you and the other people you love at the main sports field.”

After they all leave I place my hand on the wall inside the entrances of the school, bow my head and close my eyes, “wow, this has been a productive morning.”

I stand up straight, take in a deep breath and then we head to our next class; Mia is there waiting for us as we enter, she starts to say something.

“Mia, now you did it.”

She bows, “I am sorry, I was so angry and he would not stop.”

“No, Mia you did well, you showed them that the students here will not just take it.”

Takami smiles at her, “We will have to beef up security, but yes you were perfect.”

Then Taka gives her a big hug, “but I am glad you are OK, and you have defiantly become a badass.”

Mia turns red from embarrassment and says, “I did not want to be left behind so I have been putting in extra training with Uzo.”

Takami tells her, “You will need to show me how to use the banshee scream that was so cool.”

Mia looks at her,” But of course I will.”

The day goes by too fast, the last bell rings and we meat up outside Takami’s class. Then we all head out to the sports field; as we enter the sports arena, we see so many students.

I clime up on the stands and introduce myself, “Good day to you all, most of you know me I am Gaia. You have come here either to join the club or learn how to defend yourselves. I will start a training school were we will teach both magic users and non-magic users how to fight, and defend against magic and non-magic attacks.”

Takami climes up on the stand right next to me, and tell everyone, “We will put up flyers with the location of where we will teach the classes and class times. We will make sure any one that wishes to learn will have the chance too.”

“We will need you to sign up, and then we will set you up with your person schedule, we cannot teach all of you at once.”

Mia yells out, “Every one, be ready to sign up tomorrow, also I do hope to see you all there. Every one of you please be safe and have a good day.”

We all head to my house; we look around at what it has to offer. In the end we concluded that my homes dojo will be a perfect place to train; it can hold 50 people at a time. We also have a large outdoor are to train the men who use magic and teach the women how to use their ethereal flow.

All of us spend the evening talking about how we will do the training, then around 11pm we head to bed.

I get up the next morning and looked over to where Taka is usually sleeping. Wait, She not there? “O Ya, she is with her family.” Even though we have her parents OK with our relationship, she still needs to spend most of her nights with them.

As I get ready, I think about the new trainees; we cannot just let them know about the Avalon or who I am, even though they do go to the Sanyo Academy, they would be put in too much danger. As I leave the house and head to school, I look up; it is a beautiful sunny day.

As I head to school the Governor is gathering his top officials at his Home, Governor Mokanera is frantic over our activities. “Who are these terrorist, can anybody do their dam jobs and tell me. We have some of the best technology and security in the world, how have they been able to hit us twice, and we had nothing to show for it.”

The governor’s head of security, Mike Guildburge says. “We have gone over the security footage; there is nothing on them during the time of the incident.”

Governor Mokanera, “Has the footage been altered or erased?”

Mike Guildburge, “No, the cameras were still going, it is like nothing was there it was all white.”

Undersecretary Mokeasol chimes in, “I have done some research and the only people in Hiroshima that are publicly out spoken against our policies are the students and staff at Sanyo Academy.”

Governor Mokanera slams his fist to the table, “Are you trying to say kids are defeating trained solders?”

Mokeasol backs up a little, “No, not at all; but it would be a good idea to start an investigation and set up surveillance of the school.”

Mokanera points his finger at Mokeasol, “That is a good point; I will put you in charge of that. I have a meeting soon with the rest of the council of 12, if anything comes up contact me.

Mokeasol stands up strait with a superior look on his face, “Yes sir, I will do as you say.”

The undersecretary heads to his office; sits behind his desk, pushes the button on his inter-com. “Please send for Kenneth the head of the shadow stalkers, tell him he needs to get here immediately.”

20 minutes later commander Kenneth Tobias walks in stands at attention salutes, “Mr. Undersecretary, the shade stalkers are at your service. How can we assist you?”

Mokeasol asks him, “How much do you know about Sanyo Academy?”

Ken answers, “Not a lot, but I know they except Mages and Nomus there, and the mages tolerate the nomus.”

Mokeasol laughs sinisterly and scoffs saying, “nomus are more than just tolerate; they’re accepted as equals, is that not disgusting.”

Ken shakes his head, thinking to himself this man is a dumb a*s, “We do not care about if someone is equal or not equal; we do not care if people tolerate each other. The only thing we are concerned with is if you are a threat to the government.”

Mokeasol says angrily, “Does that mean you can accept Nomus as equals.”

Kenneth laughs at him, “Equals No, but I see them as a person who needs our protection and guidance. Enough of the nomus talk, what do you need from us?”

You can tell by his demeanor that Kenneth does not like Mokeasol; he is a slimy bolding pervert of a man. He is well known for his taste for young women; they have not caught him crossing the line, only suspected. Mokeasol is a repulsive person to almost everyone: if it was not for the strength of his magic, he would probably already be in a prison or dead.

Mokeasol goes back to why he needed the help of the Shadow Stalkers, “You heard about the mansion being raided and the research camp being decimated?”

Kenneth sighs and says, “Yes I have; you think the students and or staff at this school had something to do with the attacks?”

Mokeasol sits back and says, “I am uncertain of this, but the Governor gave his consent for us to investigate the school.”

Kenneth sits back and thinks for a moment, “I have a perfect person to help with this, she is already an educator, and she will fit in at that school perfectly.”

Mokeasol looks at him questionably, “She will fit in because she is a teacher?”

Kenneth looks at him and smiles, “She is a teacher; Alesha also has no bias between magic and non-magic users. But her loyalty to the government is without question, which is why she will work out. Someone that is bias would not last a day, and would not earn any trust for people to open up to her.”

Kenneth looks at him with contempt, “if we treated non-magic users better there would be no need for us.”

Mokeasol slams the side of his closed hand on the desk, “I do not care what you think just do your dam job. I do not need, or want your opinion on how to treat a lower class people.”

Ken stands at attention give Mokeasol a salute, “Yes sir, and may we never meet again.”

 

 

 

                      Chapter 13

I Spy you Spy

 

Kenneth walks out thinking to himself, people like him are the reasons so many people are rebelling.

“I have a real bad feeling about this,” Kenneth said to himself out loud. He keeps thinking to himself; this situation is going to bring us to the crossroads. All of us at the bottom are going to pay a heavy price for their arrogance.

Even though I am not bias toward non-magic users, I am a patriot; I will obey the commands given to me by my government. I head to the shadow stalker headquarters at Gryphon Military base on the East side of the city.

There I meet up with Alesha Makenzie, “Take a seat Sergeant major, it is good to see you’re in good health. Today I would like to talk to you about an assignment.”

Alesha salutes and then sits in the chair across from me. “An assignment, good I was getting bored just doing research. So what does this assignment in tale and when do I leave.”

I look through the file in my hand, and then tell her, “It says here you still hold your Teaching credentials.”

Alesha looks at him with a puzzled expression, “hum oh Yes I do sir, why do you ask about that, I have not used it in over a year?”

I looks at her and kind of laugh to myself, “As you probably already know Sanyo Academy is a school for magic users and non-magic users, the brass suspects the people responsible for both the base attack and the governor’s house, are at that school.”

Alesha asks, “So what do you need me to do, I am not a field operative.”

“But you are a teacher, and that is what we need.”

Alesha looks at him questioning the situation she asks, “So you want me to go to the school masquerading as a teacher, and investigate all the students and faculty at the school?”

“Yes and no. All I want you to do is keep your eyes and ears open; but do not actively investigate, and do not question the students. I want you to become a friend build their trust, just listen to them for now.”

Alesha looks intrigued about her new assignment, “OK then, when do I start?”

“Your first day will be this Monday, so, four days from now.”

She stands up salutes and says, “Yes sir.” She then leaves the room.  

While all this was going on all the students at the school were broiling, sitting in an un-air-conditioned room trying to learn, the air conditioning had gone out and the day was hot.

The pore humans were sweating profusely as we spent the day in classes. For me I was unaffected by the heat, Heat and cold has no effect on me. On our breaks we discussed how we would set up the training schedule and complained about the temperature.

Suzuka looked at me, “It is not fair; you are not sweating at all.”

Mia laughs so hard from her comment, “I was thinking the same thing, but that is what it’s like for someone not effected by heat or cold.”

“I will have some school uniforms made that will make it were you will not feel the effects of the temperature, I will also reduce the temperature in the school for today.”

They all get excited about that, thanking me over and over, I laugh a little and tell them it is not a problem.

Takami tells us, “We have so many people signing up to learn our new combat system; I knew they needed to learn to protect themselves. So many people out there already want to hurt us, and it seems to be growing.”

“Soon there will be all out war; there is no way around it. We need to keep the casualties as low as possible.”

I look up and there stands Mako; she looks just like any other human; she is using a hello disguise.

“Well, for you to use that and come here in person it must be important.”

Takami looks her up and down, “Wow, Mako you make a cute human.”

Mako looks at Taka, “Even though you are my empress that still does not make me feel better. I am a proud Kathar and hate disguising myself.”

Mia says to Mako, “You do look better with ears and a tail, but I always want to pet your fluffy tail.

Mako blushes and says, “Thank you, but only Suzuka can play with that.”

Everyone goes OOO that’s hot.

“Well, you had something important you had to tell me; and you came here in person, so let’s go to the clubroom.”

We head to the clubroom, and I have Suzuka gather the other team members at the school. We all sit down at the large table; 15 minutes later the rest of our group come in and sit down, the members that do not go to the school are there via hollo projection.

Mako starts off after securing the door, “You are getting a new teacher; we have been monitoring the Governor and his people, today they had a meeting with one of their covert units.”

Mako walks around the table handing out files to us, “This is who they are sending her name is Alesha Makenzie, and the reason for her coming here is they suspect people at this school of being the terrorist that attacked them twice.”

Hitora laughs and then says with surprise, “They think we are a bunch of terrorist!”

Every one look at him with a surprise, then Mako says. “We are all a bunch of terrorist in their eyes; we destroyed one base and took people from the other one.”

Hitora scoffs at what has been said, “I never thought of what we are doing as terrorism, we are protectors.”

He looks as if he would cry, with his pouty face looking at the table.

“Hitora, they may call us that, but think about it. Who are the ones being terrorized; they have been terrorizing the non-magic users for years. Being right or wrong is up to the victor to decide, we are using our ideals and they are using theirs. To be honest, there is no right or wrong here; we just do not agree and are trying to change a way of life, they are doing the same thing by defending it.”

Hitora looks up at every one then at me, “Thank you Gaia. That makes me feel much better.”

Mia sighs then smiles, “I think if we all look at it that way it makes all of us feel better.”

Takami is looking at the file when Mako adds, “She is a real teacher, but she works for the military. She was told not to actively investigate, she is to be friendly and gain our trust, listen to everyone here to look for anything suspicious.”

Akari laughs and says to everyone, “Well she may be part of their intelligence service, but they do not hold a candle to Mako and the Silla-Tang.”

Mako looks at Akari, “When were we holding a candle?”

“It is a saying that humans have, it means they are not as strong or as good.”

Mako laughs, “Yes, we hold the candle.”

Everyone laughs at what Mako said, as we all get up to go to the last class.

“OK everyone, I am sending the invites out to our first training class tonight, I need everyone to be there and do not let anyone know too much.”

Takami and Mia walk over to me, Takami says, “The new,” she makes a coughing sound. “So called teacher will be here Monday, and her name is Alesha Makenzie. She is not a bad person per se, and she does not think treating non-magic poorly is a good thing. The only problem I see is that she is extremely devotion to the military; which is not a bad thing, except they are part of the overall problem?”

Mia adds, “I will make it my job to friend here and see if I can get her to slip up, oh, I mean open up.”

While Mia is talking about the new teacher Ms. Makenzie she gets a sinister smile on her face, I look at Takami and she looks at me. We are thinking the same thing; we hope Alesha does not piss her off; she might get more than she can handle.

After school we all head to my house, saying my house that is so strange to me. Even when I lived on Earth eons ago, I lived aboard a city ship that sat atop of the ocean. I have never had a house on any planet now that I think about it. Well, there is a first time for everything, and I think I like it. Having a permanent place to call home and it is on the planet I was born on.

As we pull in there are already 20 two 30 students waiting outside, I look at Taka and the rest. “I think they really want the training, I hope they are prepared for a workout.”

Hitora looks at me with terror. “Hikaru!” Is all she said?

We all start laughing and then I say to him, “At least it is not you this time.”

Hitora looks right at us hyperventilating, and with panic in his voice “It does not matter, she is the devil, she will make me workout even if I pass out, no matter what she will keep going.”

Laughing so hard I tell him “She thinks highly of you Hitora and for a male she sees potential in you. Also she really likes Suzuka, and wants to make sure you are worthy of her and have the ability to protect her.”

Hitora looks so depressed now as he blurts out, “That does not make me feel better knowing how she feels about my girlfriend.”

Hikaru shows up as they are talking about her, of course she is in disguise, the hollo only hides their tails and ears the rest of the look the same.

Hikaru says as she walks up to Suzuka and gives her a hug, “Hitora, Suzuka loves you but I am willing to share her with you.”

Hitora turns red with frustration then Hikaru says, “It is way too much fun teasing you.”

Hitora not sure what to say, “aww let’s get to work, we need to train.”

I have Takami and Mia both instruct the new students in our training program; it is going really well with them in charge. The students seem to adapt to the new techniques. The males ask why they cannot use the Authorial Flow method; it is the same question males ask on every planet I have had to do this with, and I tell them the same thing that only women can access the internal power of the flow. They dislike it at first, but when we show them, they will can enhance their magic and train them to defend against it; they seem to get over it pretty quick.

Mako and Hitora run the non-magic user combat training, and when they learn that non-magic users can stand toe to toe with a mage they get excited. Suzuka and Hitora have a mock fight; Hitora can deflect many of Suzuka’s attacks, but she still wins, after the battle they get even more excited about the training they have never seen a non-mage do so well.

Everyone works so hard, they seem to be having fun; even though they are probably training herder then they have ever had to in their short lives.

After the class is over, I have everyone meat up in the courtyard. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, but looking at some of you. I look across the crowd; you seem to have trained hard, some of you look like you will fall over and not get up. One boy in the group raises his hand.

I look at him and ask, “You have a question?”

“My name is Tobi, and I would like to say Hikaru may be our age, but she is tough and sure knows a lot.”

I would like to tell him that Hikaru is 1,200 of their years old, and that she has been at my side in countless altercations. But I cannot at this time, now if he becomes a member of our group, maybe then. I will like to see the look when he finds out.

“We are trying to make it possible for you to protect yourselves and your loved ones. One thing I ask is that you do not use your new skills to bully others, only protect. If you do, we will deal with you and it will not be pretty. If you are willing to obey the rules in this book and you can keep up with the training, then please sign up with Mia or Takami.”

Out of the 50 people 35 sign up for more classes, 10 of the students said it was too hard of training 5 of them it is not worth the effort. I hope they can keep it up, even if they do not join our group they will be able to protect themselves from harm.

I make sure all the students get home without any problems, and ask the group who is staying the night. Takami is the first to say she is; Mia says “I am going to.” Suzuka yells out, “Sounds good.” The ones that were her that are staying on the Avalon head back and most of the Kats that helped with the training head back themselves.

We spend the rest of the evening in the main living area around the fire pit/fire place, it is real nice having a fire place in the center of the room, it is round and open on all sides, the flew covers it on top to allow the smoke out. We just talk about mundane thing, enjoying each other’s company.

Around midnight we all head to bed, Takami and I head to our room, Mia comes up from behind and asks, “I do not wish to sleep be myself, can I sleep with you two.”

Takami says, “That is not a problem, come on.” I open my eyes and look at the ceiling of my room, the light from the morning sun shows through the closed drapes. I get out of bed and walk over to the window slide them to the side; it looks like it will be a wonderful day. I ponder over what has accrued since we started training the students from the school.

Over the weekend break we end up with about 240 students signing up for the advanced training. Many of the ones that did not sign up needed time to think and talk it over with their families. That is understandable, it is a lot to handle and can be a little scary. They are being trained so they will have the tools to defend themselves from harm.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 14

Gaia’s War Begins

 

We get to the school that Monday and there are many students waiting for us; they were telling us how excited they are to be learning the new techniques. I am glad it excites them to learn, but I worry about if some of them will abuse their newfound power. Any one that uses their abilities I teach to bully others or to commit any act of aggression except to defend themselves will be punished, that way no one else will think of doing it.

After All the excitement dies down, we walk in and over by the locker area were we notice Ms. Makenzie coming out of the principal’s office door. We all here the principal say, “Your classroom is on the second floor room 205, you will teach advanced mathematics it looks like.”

Ms. Makenzie, “Thank Principal Makaniro, I will do my best to be a good educator.”

She bows to Mr. Makaniro and seems to head toward her classroom. Taka holds my hand as we head to my homeroom class; we have been being openly affectionate toward each other now; we do not care if people accept our relationship or not. The faculty told us we can hold hands and give brief hugs just like normal relationships may do here. Taka walks me to my class in the door she wraps her arms around me.

She says, “Have fun and I love you, see you at lunch.”

I reach up and brush her cheek, “I love you too, and I look forward to seeing you at lunchtime.”

I walk to my desk, pull out the chair and sit down. Mokisota the girl that sits to the right of me leans toward me and says. “You too sure love each other, it may be strange to us, but everyone agrees that you two are a good mach.”

“Thank you, we are glad that you all accept us. Being excepted makes it easier for use and being able to be open about how we feel about each other is nice.”

I look over at Mia; she says under her breath that she cannot wait until math class, over and over. She has been acting strange since we discovered what they have been up to; I will need to monitor her and I will need to talk with Takami about it too. It looks like Ms. Makenzie will teach our math class, and Mia is looking forward to the chance to get close to her. We need to make sure Mia does not go too far, and I hope she will be OK.

I can empathize with the anger she feels, she is young and has seen nothing like that before. Human brains taken from living children, that is bad enough, but to be killed just for the purpose of making their magic stronger.

Our math class is coming up next, that teacher will be there, she is our enemy but I would like to convert her to our side if we can. I will have to talk with Mia after school; we will walk home together so that will be a good time to find out how she is doing, and being just the two of us she may open up more.

I watch Mia as we walk into room 205 for our math class; she looks strait at Ms. Makenzie, with a gaze that anyone looking at her can tell how she felt about her. She is unable to hold back her feelings, this is bad, and I need to make sure nothing happens or we will have way more to explain then we need to right now. I use my powers to keep people from looking directly at her. Now I have no doubt that what she experienced at the compound has adversely affected her. I walk over to Mia, smile as I put my arms around her, so to brace her as I say sleep; she then collapses into my arms, picking her up completely I look over at Ms. Makenzie.

“Sorry, Ms. Makenzie is it; Mia is not feeling too well, I need to take her to the infirmary.”

This was not a lie, she is not feeling OK, and it is safer to remove her from a situation that might get out of control. Right now I am protecting Ms. Makenzie from Mia and Mia from herself.

Ms. Makenzie with a bewildered look on her face says, “Sure, I hope she is OK.” Looking at me with Mia in my arms she adds, “You are a stronger one that is for sure,” and then look at her other students and tells them. “Time to get class started please open your books to page 134.”

“Thank you, I will be back after I get her to the infirmary.”

Holding Mia in my arms I walk to the infirmary; I lift her head to my face and kiss her on the cheek. “Sorry Mia for not noticing sooner, I have been avoiding sensing people’s emotions for their privacy.”

I need to pay more attention to the humans, they are more delicate then the other races that are already traveling the stars. Mentally and physically weaker because they still have male DNA with in them, I do need to be more observant and carful in how I deal with this humans.

Once I know I am not being watched I say, “Ruuha, get a massage to Takami and send down the Doc., Mia need help, she was affected by what they found at the compound worse than we suspected.”

Ruuha says with urgency, “What is her condition right now?”

“She is under a lot of mental stress so I put her to sleep for now; but before I wake her, Taka and the Doc need to be here.”

Ruuha, “She is still a kid remember, so are you, you may have lived longer but you are mentally the same age as them. You and your people mature much slower than they do, so all of you need to talk to the doc about what is going on.”

“You are right Ruuha; I have been feeling uneasy about what we found at the base. I felt the anger from seeing what they did. That is why my parents said emotions are a weakness, sometimes I wish I did not have them, but I am glad I do or I would not enjoy being with all of them.”

Ruuha, “You have to take the bad with the good but overall you do real well with them. All of are the young, and like I have said many times do not push yourself. You may not be human but unlike the rest of your people you do have emotions.”

I get Mia to the infirmary look over at the nurse, and then using my powers I tell her. “It is time to go home, you are tired and need to go to bed early and when you wake up tomorrow you will feel refreshed.”

I hate imposing my will on good people, but I have no choice right now. She will have a good night rest and be extremely relaxed tomorrow; I made sure of that.

I place Mia on one of the six beds; I chose the one closed to the window for the natural light. I lie down next to her and hold her until Taka comes, Doc materializes right after she shows up.  

Takami, “Gaia, let the Doc. Look at her, do not worry Mia will be OK.”

“This is my entire fault, I got her into this.” I start to cry, and Takami comes over and holds me. “We need to do everything we can to help her through this, we need to keep a better eye on each other.”

Dr. Hatheri gives her a light physical, “It looks to be psychological; the best thing to do is talk to her, well the best thing for all of you is to talk about it. Ask yourselves how you want to deal with these emotions. If you do not deal with this now, someone is going to explode and end up doing something they will all regret.”

Before I wake up Mia, Ms. Makenzie comes walking in. She looks at all of us and asks, “How is she doing? Is she going to get home OK?”

“She will be fine, she just needs her friend's support, and Mia has a lot of stress she is dealing with.”

Ms. Makenzie, “So you are a doctor, I heard them call you that before coming in.”

Dr. Hatheri, “Yes, I am Gaia’s family’s personal physician.”

Ms. Makenzie, “So you are Gaia, I hear the students talk about you all the time today, from what they are saying you are offering training for them to get stronger.”

“Yes, I am training them; it is to allow them to feel safe, and if need be to defend them.”

Ms. Makenzie “Is that not what the police are for?”

“Ms. Makenzie you seem like an intelligent person, and I know you are not naïve enough to think law enforcement can and or will protect everyone. Also, Ms. Makenzie many of them are non-magic users, and need to protect themselves from prejudicial mages.”

Ms. Makenzie, “Are you not just giving them false hope? A non-magic user cannot defeat a magic user.”

I look her right in the eyes, and giggle a little, and then I put my right hand on her left shoulder.

“Ms. Makenzie; I guarantee it, if you like to come to my home on Saturday morning, we will have a demonstration for you. You are more than welcome to bring a guest.”

Ms. Makenzie, “Your parents are OK with you doing this, and they would not mind if I come over.”

“Oh ya, my parents have been gone for a very long time, I take care of myself.”

Ms. Makenzie “sounds interesting, I will be there. Thank you.”

Dr. Hatheri, “OK Gaia, when she wakes up, takes her home so she can get some rest.”

Ms. Makenzie is the first person to leave. Then the Doc transports to the ship. I pick up Mia and look over at Taka, “Taka the three of use need to talk, about everything that is on our minds, when we get back to my house I will wake her up.”

“Ruuha transport us to my room at the house, please.”

After the transport, I walk into my room then I lay Mia on my bed. I then sit at her side brushing the hair out of her eyes.

Taka looks at me, then gasp. “Gaia you are crying again.”

“I will do what it takes to make sure she stays happy, OK I will wake her now so can you sit on the other side of her.”

With our arms we gently caress her arms; we lay down on both sides of her. “Wake up my little kitten.”

Mia opens her eyes and slowly looks at the both of us, “What is going on, and why am I here?”

“We are at my house, I am sorry that I had to make you sleep. You seemed to be on the verge of a meltdown and the teacher spy was on you agenda.”

Mia puts her arm around us squeezing us tight, then proceeds to cry saying, “They killed all those little ones, and they killed them just for selfish reasons ‘power’. The sight of their brains and their disregarded bodies, I see them every time I close my eyes.”

Takami, “You should have talked to us; we are all friends we are here for each other.”

Mia, “I am so sorry, but that is the other problem. Seeing you two together day after day, it hurts so much. I wanted to be part of that, because I love you both so much. Seeing how you were together made me feel so alone.”

“Mia, I now understand what is going on now. You are and always will be part of our family, and I believe Taka feels the same way.”

Takami, “You are family, and not just a sister.”

I take Taka’s hand then Mia’s, “We were a family from the day I meant all of you, our lives are intertwined forever.”

I am not sure why she feels this way about us; I am not sure how to even deal with these kinds of feelings they are new to me. No one ever taught me about feelings of love or how to deal with caring for others, my people do not have them and Ruuha is an AI. After all this time, I am still learning and dealing with things that I never imagined.

 “We need to talk with everyone, to make sure they are OK and to let them know to tell us if something is bothering them.”

“Mia, not all the people that are working for the government is our enemies, our true enemy is the Council of 12. Ms. Makenzie is just a pawn, she is not prejudice against non-magic users, and she knows that there is research into making magic stronger but not the details. She may be loyal to the government, but I still think we can bring her over to our side.”

Mia looks at me with her tired eyes, “Gaia, I know I am having problems dealing with the deaths of the children, and I do believe you when you say she might join our side. Also, with you letting me become closer to you and Takami has given me a new hope, I do not feel so alone.”

Takami, “If you start to stress out, you will come to us this time right.”

Mia puts her arms around Takami’s shoulders look her right in the eyes, “I will, and thank you for worrying about me Takami.”

“OK Mia, you can be the one to get close to the new teacher, you do need to be careful. Also Mako will be keeping a close eye on you, as your backup.”

Mia, “I know you do not wish to kill anyone if you do not have to, but the ones responsible for these atrocities need to pay a high price. Their total eradication, which is the one thing I request out of all this”

“I give you my word; after this is over I will let all of you decide their fate. If that means they die, so be it.”

In the 20^th century after WW2 they tried many people for war crimes this will be no different, Mia is right they need to pay for what they have done. Tomorrow when we get back to school Mia will start getting close to Ms. Makenzie, and we will start working on a way to bring down the first of the 12, Tohisedo Mokanera.

I head to the ship leaving Takami and Mia at the house; they seem to need to talk to each other.

Mia, “I am sorry Takami, I know you are Gaia’s destined pare. I have no right to bring myself into your personal relationship.”

Takami, “Do you love both of use or just one of us?”

Mia, “I love the both of you, being close to the both of you make me feel good. I want to be at your sides forever.”

Takami, “Then it is fine, now that Gaia knows how you feel you should talk to her about it more.”

Mia grabs Takami with a tight hug and starts crying, “Thank you, thank you Takami for accepting me.”