I have a message from another time... Eyrie Productions, Unlimited presents UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES FUTURE IMPERFECT - SYMPHONY OF THE SWORD No. 4 - Interlude on Titan in F (For Tomorrow) Benjamin D. Hutchins (c) 2002 Eyrie Productions, Unlimited WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2409 1140 WILDWOOD ROAD NEKOMIKOKA, TOMODACHI For most of the night, Corwin Ravenhair had no idea that he was having anything other than an ordinary evening with his dearest friends. They were nine at the dinner table at 1140 that night: Corwin himself; Utena and Anthy Tenjou; Corwin's half-sister Kaitlyn Hutchins; Kate's students Anne Cross and Kyouichi Saionji; her lover Juri Arisugawa; Miki Kaoru and his twin sister Kozue. They talked of old times, of Cephiro and Earth, of Jeraddo. They waxed reminiscent about Utena and Anthy's wedding. They drank toasts to dear old Satori Mandeville Memorial. Kate played the song that always made Juri cry. It was a pleasant, if piquant and nostalgic, evening. Most of those assembled had good reason for their nostalgia: Earlier that day, Corwin and Kozue had graduated from Koopman Memorial High School. Eventually, those who didn't live there filtered out, one by one, except Corwin. Though Kozue had come to Tomodachi with Corwin, she wasn't going back with him tonight. Rather, she was crashing at Miki's apartment, the better to spend the next day looking around the city where she would soon live and the college she would soon attend with her brother. The five who remained retired to the living room, still talking over days gone by, focusing on the past rather than the uncertain future. Anne, who was beginning to feel a bit voyeuristic hanging around, excused herself to bed at midnight. Kaitlyn, yawning hugely, did the same at one. Corwin glanced at his watch after kissing his sister goodnight and said, "Hmm... maybe I ought to go." Anthy and Utena glanced at each other, though Corwin missed it, and then Utena said, "Um... can you stay for a few minutes more? There's something we'd like to talk to you about." "Sure," he agreed readily, sitting back down in the black leather chair he favored. As he did so, he began to feel a little odd. The tone of the evening had somehow changed now that it was just the three of them, the Trinity of Cephiro, here in the living room. Certainly they looked mundane enough. Utena, her jacket off, top button undone, and tie loosened, was sitting cross-legged in her blue wingback; Anthy, simple and elegant in blouse and skirt, was perched on the arm of that chair, her left hand linked with Utena's right. Corwin had on his usual jeans and flannel-over-t-shirt, and sat in his usual comfortable slouch. Nothing about them indicated that they were the three most powerful people of a demireality far from Tomodachi... but they were, and that gave them a link normal people couldn't even begin to understand. "What's up?" asked Corwin, and he looked puzzled as the two women gave each other an uncomfortable glance rather than proceeding. This wasn't like them at all. Utena was one of the bluntest people he knew, period, and Anthy, though more diplomatic, was never less than forthright when dealing with Corwin. Yet here they both were, looking as though they were wondering how, or whether, to broach something with him. "Hey," he said gently, spreading his hands with a smile. "It's -me-." Both women smiled a little bashfully. "Yeah," said Utena, "but in this case that actually makes it a little harder. You want me to do the talking, love?" "For right now," said Anthy softly. What the hell is going on? Corwin wondered. "Well," said Utena, "OK." She seemed to gather herself, holding Anthy's hand tight in her own, and then she blurted, "Anthy and I have decided that we want to have a child." Corwin blinked, then grinned. "That's terrific!" he said. "I'm really happy for you. Um... who gets to be the 'mom'?" "Ah, that would be Anthy," said Utena. "I'm not in any hurry to have that experience, thank you." "I guess that stands to reason. What the hell! You'll make a hell of a father." "Uh, well, thanks," said Utena, "but... well... there's kind of an obvious problem." Corwin shrugged. "Nah, it's no big deal," he said. "I can think of half a dozen labs off the top of my head that can handle a simple ovifusion. People get it done all the time. Hell, or, biotech isn't really my bag, but Mom could do it no problem." "I... " said Anthy hesitantly, and then, a little more firmly, "I don't consider that an option. It's... unnatural." Corwin gave her a look that combined sympathy with puzzlement. "Well," he said after a moment's thought, "if not that, then... I guess you're kind of up a stump. Unless you're planning to adopt?" Utena shook her head with a wry grin. "Thanks to Kate we've already kind of done that," she said with a vague gesture toward the upper floor. Corwin frowned thoughtfully. "Well, what does that leave?" He cocked his head back and considered for a few moments, then said, "Alchemy? I don't -know- of an alchemical compound to do something like that, but it wouldn't surprise me all that much - " Again Utena shook her head. "No, look... I'm going about this wrong. I knew I'd screw it up, and I'm screwing it up." She looked searchingly at Anthy. Anthy looked back for a few seconds, then looked up at Corwin and said, "Utena thinks I'm being a bit silly." "No I don't!" Utena protested. "I respect your feelings. All I said was that it wasn't what -I- would do. But you're not me, you're you. You have to do what you feel is right." Anthy smiled. "You can believe all that and still think I'm being a bit silly." She looked back at Corwin. "Corwin, I... I think children should be an expression of the power of love, not science." Her smile was a little apologetic as she went on, "I know that's practically sacrilege to you, but it's the way I feel. I don't think I could put myself in a scientist's hands, even your mother's - even yours - to have something like that done." He nodded. "I understand. But... well... that doesn't seem to leave you any options." "Not quite," said Anthy, glancing down. "It leaves me exactly one." She looked up again, met his eyes, and said, "You." He blinked, blinked again, sat utterly still for ten seconds, and then leaned forward in the chair and said, "Me?!" She looked away again, down at her hand, linked with Utena's. "I'm sorry. I've upset you. It was too abrupt of me. I should have... I don't know. I never thought I'd ever have a conversation like this." "Well," said Corwin with a slightly desperate chuckle, "that makes two of us!" He looked an appeal to Utena, who shrugged slightly. "We've talked about this, off and on, for a few months," she said. "Since... oh, around Christmas, I guess. The first thing we settled was that it had to be you we'd ask. There isn't anyone else." With a wan grin, Corwin asked, "What was the second?" "Well... there wasn't really a second. We hadn't figured out a plan for approaching you about it yet." She gave a sheepish shrug. "That ought to be obvious." Corwin leaned forward a little more, elbows on knees. "Anthy? Look, I'm not upset. I was just... startled, that's all. I mean, of all the things I might have guessed you'd say, that was about number last on the list." She raised her eyes to his, blinking away tears. "I'm sorry. I handled it badly." "No, no, stop apologizing. It's just... are you really asking me to... to... " He stopped, unable to put it into words. "Take me as your lover," Anthy said, "once. That should be all that's needed, if it's done in the next few days." Corwin blinked, sat back, laced his fingers on his chest, and sighed. "I'm... " he said, trailing off; then, "I'm honored. Really. That you'd ask. And that you say I'm the only one. I'd have thought... " "No," Anthy cut him off. "There's no one else. You know my story, Corwin, better than anyone except Utena. You know I've been hurt, been used, been betrayed. I cannot give such a measure of myself lightly... you are the only man I can trust that much. There are others I trust with my life, but only one I can trust so far beyond it." He gazed back at her for a long time, his face grave but not grim, as he considered her words and recalled pieces of the past. "Hello, Miss Himemiya," he'd said to her when they'd first met. "We haven't been introduced. My name is Corwin Ravenhair. I'm sorry. This will hurt." He remembered the instant, a short while before that actual meeting, when they'd first laid eyes on each other, first made eye contact, yards apart on the dueling platform above Ohtori Academy. There had been something electric about it - not in the sense that was now under discussion, not exactly, but all the same, there -had- been an instantaneous connection, of a kind he'd only felt once before in his life, and never again since. He remembered their conversation the next morning - which had felt like about a month later - as they washed the breakfast dishes in his apartment on the Street of the Eternal Heroes in Asgard. He remembered their conversation as they danced together that night at Anthy and Utena's wedding reception. He remembered Anthy saying, as the music whirled them around the Great Hall of Odin's Palace, "Your actions yesterday, and your words today, make it obvious how much you care for Utena, and in that, you and I are one. I hope we can be friends." And indeed they were, as close in their way as he was to Utena, Utena who now sat stone-faced and silent in her wingback with her hand clenched on Anthy's, her blue eyes boring into Corwin like laser drills. Anthy was a quieter, less demonstrative sort of friend, and their relationship lacked the lingering tension of an old and starcrossed courtship that still colored the arc of his bond with the Knight of the Rose, but her capacity for love was remarkable, and their shared history bound them further. He closed his eyes and took a deep, shivery sigh, all the way down to the bottom and then back out again. "Kozue would have to know," he pointed out. Anthy nodded. "I wouldn't have it otherwise," she said. "I don't intend to be the -cause- of a betrayal. That would be intolerable. It would ruin everything, make it all pointless. Do you think she would object?" Corwin considered this. "I don't know," he finally replied. "Maybe. She's been through a lot in her way, too, and she has some bad history with abandonment... and here I would be asking for her blessing in... well... it depends on how she reads it." He paused and went on, "I can't give you an answer. Not now. There's too much for me to process, too much for me to do." "I understand. I didn't expect you to make up your mind on the spot." She got up from the chair arm, bent down, and kissed Utena, then unlinked her hand and crossed to Corwin. "Thank you for not -refusing- on the spot either," she added; then she bent, kissed him on the cheek as she had every time they'd parted for the past three years, just as though this were the end of an everyday ordinary night after dinner, bade them both good night, and went upstairs. Corwin and Utena sat looking silently at each other for several minutes, with nothing but the ticking of the mantel clock to break the night quiet. Finally, his voice a little hoarse, Corwin asked, "Utena... are you OK?" She blinked, coming back from somewhere far behind her eyes, and replied, "Sure. Why shouldn't I be?" "Oh, well, I dunno," Corwin replied with exaggerated offhandedness. "She feels very strongly about this," Utena replied, her voice slightly too even. "It's something she needs in her life now... something I can't give her. And... if she -has- to go to someone else for it... then it has to be you. I couldn't... couldn't trust anyone else to be good to her. Not after all she's been through." Corwin sighed and got to his feet. She rose too, and they stood facing each other in the middle of the living room. He reached out his hands, and Utena took them, looking up at his eyes. When they'd met, four and a half years ago, she was a head taller. He'd outpaced her, and now it was the other way around. They stood looking at each other for a few moments before he drew her into a hug, his hand on the back of her head, stroking her bright pink hair. "I'd cut off my own arm before I'd hurt you," he murmured. "I swore... " "I know," she replied. "I know. But... she wants this -so- much. I can't refuse her. I can't refuse her -anything-." Corwin chuckled wryly. "It's ironic... " he mused. "I know," Utena repeated, her voice barely audible. "I'm sorry." He shook his head. "It's OK. Sometimes that's the way the wheel spins." He held her by the shoulders and kissed her forehead. "I've got to go think. Talk to Kozue when she gets back to New Avalon. Think some more." She nodded. "You know where to find us," she said. Corwin thumbed a tear from her cheek and left his hand there, cupping the side of her face, as he gave her a brave smile. "I hate it when I make you cry," he said. "Not your fault," Utena said. "We shouldn't have done this so late at night." She turned her head, kissed his palm and let him go, unconsciously imitating herself at another time. "Go think. I'm all right." He smiled, and she followed him to the hall and waited as he put on his shoes, then showed him to the door. "Good night, Corwin," she said. He kissed her goodbye and said, "Good night, Utena." Then he walked down the front walk, got into his car, and glided away into the night. Utena stood looking after him for a few seconds, then closed the door and went to bed. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 2409 NEW AVALON, ZETA CYGNI Corwin and Kozue Kaoru regarded each other across the nose of a starfighter, his eyes grave, hers wide with surprise. Finally, she recovered herself and asked him, "Are you putting me on?" "No," he replied. "It's true." "Hum," she said, and subsided into a meditative silence, her eyes intent on the sensor array she was calibrating. He waited, all but holding his breath. Minutes passed. Outside the hangar, birds sang. He could hear distant traffic, the low roar of a light freighter taking off from a nearby revetment. At length, Kozue raised her deep blue eyes, looked back at him, and said, "Well, of course you'll have to do it." "A... are you sure?" She nodded firmly. "Sure I'm sure. There's no one else." "But... " "No, Corwin. No buts. You know how much it cost her just to ask you. What kind of a friend would I be if I denied her your help?" "It's not like she's just asking me to break a date with you to help her move or something," said Corwin awkwardly. "I -know- that," Kozue insisted. "I'm not a child." With a wry, slightly pained little smile, she added, "Seems to me I know more about that kind of thing than -you- do, rocket boy." "Some would call it a betrayal," he said soberly. "'Some' don't have a thing in the world to do with it," she interrupted. "'Some' don't even know Utena and Anthy. They certainly didn't see them wed by your hand in the Valkyries' Hall. -We- did, Miki and me and all the rest. We understand. What does it matter if nobody else ever would? -We- understand." Corwin looked down at his shoes, at the concrete of the hangar floor, at the spot of lube oil under Getter Machine #2's nose gear, then back up at the girl who'd taught him so much about friendship and love after he thought he'd already experienced everything meaningful about them. "You're one in a million, Kozue," he said. "More than that, I hope," she replied with a little smirk. "I'd hate to think there were fourteen of me in Avalon County alone. Now, you want to help me with this? It takes three hands to get these stupid deflectron tubes aligned right... " He went for a walk that afternoon, roaming all over the city of New Avalon, from the Museum of Science to Chandler's Point, past repair crews working around the clock to fix the damage left behind by the incident on prom night, from the Battledrome (ah, the Battledrome, such fond memories!) to Knights Field. When he arrived there, a game was starting, so he bought a ticket. The Knights lost to the Baltimore Orioles, 3-2. His mood not substantially improved, Corwin kept walking. He ended up on the first of the Entire State Building's five observation decks at midnight, looking down at the city. He found no answer in the complex geometric patterns of New Avalon's lighted streets. The Art Deco facade of the Hotel Monolith (rustling black tarpaulins covering the jagged hole where the penthouse floor had been) mocked him. Sighing, he rode the elevator back down to the N station, took the Gold Line home, and went to bed. During the course of the evening, he had a dream which, though he would not consciously remember it for several years, would have a great deal to do with his final decision. At about noon the next day, he was back on Tomodachi, knocking at the door of 1140 Wildwood. "Oh," said Utena as she answered the door. "Corwin, hi, come in!" He crossed the threshold and the sun porch, took off his shoes in the hall, and said to her, "Better during the day?" She smiled. "It was the wine. I always get maudlin with a good red," she said lightly; then she kissed him in greeting and added, a little more seriously, "You're sweet for asking." "If you're sure," he replied, and she nodded and guided him into the living room. Anthy finished feeding Hachi the octopus, locked the cover back down over the aquarium, and turned to face them, smiling her same old smile. "Welcome," she said. "How are you today?" "Fine," Corwin replied automatically. "Um... look... oh, slag it, I'm bad at this sort of thing. I... well... about... what you asked me about the other day?" She nodded, still smiling. Utena went to stand beside her so she could see Corwin's face as well, and he continued, "I asked Kozue, and... " He paused, swallowed, and went on, "Look. Because it's you guys... because there's no one else... because I love you and I'd do -anything- for you... if you still want me to... um, help you... then I will." Their smiles - both of them, he was immensely relieved to notice - widened, and Anthy stepped forward to embrace him. "Thank you," she said softly. "Thank you so much." He darted his eyes over her shoulder to Utena, but she only nodded, still smiling. Her eyes were a little moist, but they didn't look like tears of pain. Maybe she'd been right about the wine. He put an arm around Anthy with a faintly sheepish grin on his face and rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck with the other hand. In that instant, with that grin and that mannerism, he was transformed in Utena's eyes. Four and a half years disappeared in the blink of an eye; the almost-eighteen-year-old man, rugged and tall, was a thirteen-year-old boy again, trying to explain hyperdrive to the first girl ever to dazzle him. Utena, who had been that girl and in many ways still was, felt her heart melt, and with it the last of her doubts. And still she wanted badly to scruffle his hair. So she did, embracing them both; kissed him; kissed Anthy; whispered something in her ear; and then quietly left the house. Corwin and Anthy just stood there for a few minutes; then he half-stepped back, still holding her, and looked at her speculatively. She looked back, as uncertain as he. "So... " he said. "Um... what now?" "Perhaps we'd better go upstairs." "Yeah, uh... I guess we should." They went. Corwin stood just inside the door of the Tenjou bedroom, feeling loutish and stupid. This wasn't his place. It was a bright, happy room, with sturdy oak furniture Utena had made in her garage workshop and pleasant white and violet wallpaper, and a nice purple rug. He'd been in it many times before, but now he felt like an intruder. Hesitantly, shyly, Anthy went and closed the drapes, then turned, tilted her head, and asked, "Corwin?" He blinked, swallowed, and took a couple of steps toward her. His hands trembled. He put them on her shoulders, stood looking at her for a few moments, and then bent to kiss her. A couple of seconds later he was taking a step back and berating himself. "Corwin?" Anthy repeated. "What's wrong? Is... is it me?" "No, no, oh -slag- it," he replied, shaking his head. "No, Anthy, it's not you, you're beautiful. It's me. It's my head. I can't just walk in here and -do- this. Like I'm fixing a furnace or something." He gave her an entreating look. "Come on - let's go for a walk or something. I have to think. Settle myself." She nodded with a little smile, and they put on shoes (no coats needed in June) and left the house. From the roof, a figure watched them go, nodded with satisfaction, and darted off in a different direction. This false start had been anticipated. They started out by walking in the pleasant residential neighborhood near the two great colleges of Nekomikoka, where almost everyone either of them knew on Tomodachi lived. It was a warm early-summer afternoon, sweetly scented and breezy, and they walked arm-in-arm through the wooded lanes of the district, up the hill and across the extremely decorative campus of the liberal-arts half of the two-great-colleges equation, Hotohori University. As they walked, skirting the pond in the middle of the campus and enjoying the old-Earth-style architecture of the school, they talked - at first about easy, harmless subjects, then, as Corwin began to relax, about the reason they found themselves taking this pleasant walk in the first place. "I can't really explain why I feel so strongly about this," Anthy admitted. "It first occurred to me last fall, and... the idea just came out of the blue. At first I laughed it off - a completely impractical idea, out of nowhere like that - but it wouldn't go away. Eventually I felt I had no choice but to ask Utena about it." "That must've been... awkward," mused Corwin sympathetically. Anthy laughed. "She was bemused, to say the least, but she agreed. Then we had to talk to Kaitlyn, of course. It's her house, after all. I wouldn't have blamed her if she had asked us to move first. It's bound to be inconvenient at times." "She can always go hide at Juri's," noted Corwin with a chuckle. "That's exactly what she said," said Anthy, laughing again. "She said she thought it would be... I think 'interesting' was the word she used. Although," she added, sobering, "she's worried for you." She paused by a spreading willow tree, moved her hand down his arm to take his hand in it, and said, "I don't want to make you feel obligated to do anything you don't want, Corwin. I realize that this is an incredible imposition... " Corwin smiled. The light in Anthy's eyes as she'd thanked him for agreeing to help, and as she talked of the subject now, reminded him of the way his Aunt Bell had looked when she told him, years before, that his cousins Hiroshi and Mirai would presently be joined by another. He didn't really understand what it was about children that moved some people so powerfully, but he didn't mind them himself, and he liked seeing that light. Every time he saw Anthy happy, it stood out in stark contrast in his memory to his first sight of her, captive and miserable on the dueling floor above Cephiro. Though he didn't consciously think in such terms, he saw it as part of his duty in life to help keep her in the opposite of that state as much as possible. "I won't deny that," he said wryly, "but I think I'll probably survive." Then he put his arm around her shoulders and said, "What do you say we do this thing properly? Aunt Urd always told me I shouldn't ever expect to take a girl to bed unless I'd at least bought her dinner and taken her dancing." That had its desired effect. Anthy (who knew her cousin Urd's somewhat quirky, often bawdy sense of humor well) snickered convulsively, then burst out laughing. What followed was basically a courtship compressed into a single evening. Or the final stage of a courtship, anyway. Without really realizing it, Corwin had been courting Anthy for three years, ever since (ironically enough) shortly after her wedding. They'd spent at least part of almost every Saturday since then alone together, learning each other - unconsciously exploring that instant connection which had formed between them at the moment of their first eye contact. Balancing his life in New Avalon with his Saturdays with Anthy, and the Friday evenings he had almost always spent with Utena for the last FOUR years, had occasionally been difficult; but Corwin had never really thought of doing anything else. Even when his sham relationship with Kozue had unexpectedly turned into a real one, he'd kept to his weekend routine. And why not? Kozue almost always went out marauding with her girlfriends (most prominently the three Utonium sisters) on Fridays anyway, and spent most of Saturday sleeping it off. Anthy had said, before their first date, "I think it's important that we get to know each other in our own rights," and they'd matched their deeds to those words. The friendship which had grown between them was connected with, but independent from, the fact that both of them were very close to Utena, or the fact that they were both members of Cephiro's Trinity. They went back to 1140 Wildwood, where Anthy changed into clothes suitable for a proper evening out. Then she got her first experience with the OSCILLATION OVERTHRUSTER as Corwin used the device (for which he had recently installed a cradle and control system in his usual car) to transport them in a matter of minutes to New Avalon. He went to his apartment in the Millrace and put on his tuxedo - why do things halfway? - and then the two of them hit the town. New Avalon was still smarting from the thumping it had taken from Big Fire a few weeks before, but even a beating like that couldn't keep the City in the Sphere down. If the Hotel Monolith had lost its penthouse floor (temporarily - the reconstruction was already well underway), there was nothing wrong with its galaxy-famous restaurant, Allard's; and there was certainly nothing wrong with its close neighbor the Cobalt Club, the hottest big-band club in the quadrant. /* Glenn Miller Orchestra "In the Mood" */ Corwin had learned this kind of dancing from Urd, had refined his technique with the help of his good friend Fuu Hououji (who was from Funkotron and knew how to get down), and had since gone on to teach it to several girls he knew. That list included Kozue, and it also included Anthy. She had surprised herself by not only enjoying it greatly but also being quite good at it. She was a fairly familiar sight on Corwin's arm on Saturday nights at the Cobalt - but the staffers who recognized the two of them all agreed, when they discussed it later, that there was something different in the air tonight. "Captain" Joe Hodgson, the Cobalt's bandleader, felt it too. He knew Corwin pretty well by way of his sister Kaitlyn, who occasionally came by to take in (and sometimes join) the Cobalt Club Orchestra with Miki or Juri. Captain Joe, an experienced bandleader working in one of the hottest clubs in the galaxy, knew chemistry when he saw it, and there was something at work tonight that he hadn't seen in any of the young man's previous visits. There was something different in the way the two young people carried themselves, something different in the way they talked and laughed and danced, that said to Captain Joe that they were more than just friends out for a fun time on this particular night. There was a new energy humming in the space between them, and it transformed the way they danced. Everyone in the club could feel that energy by the end of the night - and by then they'd all seen some of the most impressive dancing to grace the Cobalt's parquet floor in quite some time, too. The two of them left the Cobalt at midnight, walking close and laughing, and from his podium Captain Joe raised his glass of icewater in salute as they passed through the cut-glass doors and out to the street. Not that they saw the gesture - they had eyes only for each other by then - but the Captain was satisfied with having made it, anyway. He was smiling to himself as he turned back to his grinning band and launched them into the next number. As he walked around the long prow of his Griffon Mark II limousine, bound for the driver's door, Corwin felt the pleasant tension which had been building inside him all night turn a bit nervous and fluttery. It didn't bother him much. Though he hadn't had anything but water to drink tonight, he felt a bit drunk anyway, just from the effect of that same energy which had suffused the Cobalt and made it swing like even the Cobalt rarely swung. It wouldn't affect his driving - it wasn't that kind of drunkenness. Instead it made his thoughts flow smoothly, wiped away that nervousness in the space of a few moments, and by the time he slung himself behind the wheel, he knew precisely what he was going to do next. At the start of the evening he'd felt terribly dubious about all this, but now... He looked across the seat at his smiling companion as he started up the turbine, and much as it had happened at their first meeting, some silent communication crackled between them as they made eye contact. He'd always thought she was beautiful, and so different from most of the Norsewomen he'd grown up basing his standards on with her rich dark skin and her deep violet hair. She was half-svartelven on her mother's side, and it showed in her appearance and, sometimes, in her manner. The dark elves of Svartalfheim were a secretive people who tended toward arts as dark as themselves, and had often been the enemies of the Aesir and Vanir; this gave them an exotic, faintly dangerous and mysterious overtone in Asgard's cultural programming from which even mostly-Midgard-raised Corwin was not immune. Still, most of the time, she didn't really register on his consciousness that way. Oh, he readily acknowledged that she was a beautiful woman, and a desirable one. He thought she considered him handsome, too, but because of their relative places in the scheme of things, it didn't tend to preoccupy them. The tension which still flavored all his interactions with Utena, and probably always would, was absent from his normal relationship with Anthy. They merely added an aesthetic layer to the levels on which they appreciated each other, and moved no further. Tonight, as they ate and talked and danced, that had slowly but palpably changed. Corwin had started out on this little odyssey wanting to help Anthy, his dear, beloved friend; now, in addition to that, he simply wanted her. And judging by the intensity in those green eyes as they sparkled back at him, the feeling was mutual. Corwin put the Griffon in gear, pulled away from the curb, and started punching a different code combination into the overthruster control program. Anthy watched the code march across the display, saw the result that flashed back as the system readied itself, and chuckled, covering his hand with hers as he removed it from the keypad and placed it on the gearshift lever. He glanced across and grinned at her, the beam lanced out into the night to splash against the side of an office building, and the long black car leaped forward into the Eighth Dimension. Across Allard Boulevard, a slim figure crouched on an Art Deco gargoyle on the Wiltshire Building and watched them go. Silently, the figure was joined on the ledge by two others; they seemed to confer without speaking, and then all three linked hands and vanished in a wash of silver light. Castle Eyrie, at the edge of the Tsiolkovskiy Sea some distance from Beltane, the largest city in the Sol VI Territory, had stood mostly empty and unused since the Battle of Titan. Transit through Earth Alliance space to Titan was a dicey proposition for Zeta Cygnan starships, even with the Territory's borders guaranteed by the Federation, and so the castle's owner hadn't often made the attempt. A droid staff kept the place nicely maintained, and Corwin did occasionally Gate through for special occasions, but the place had gone more or less idle for the last three years. Tonight, that would change. The East Tower Room of the castle was a special room, even in this special building. It was a bedroom, of which the castle had many, but it was different from the others. Like the others on the castle's east side, it had a balcony and a French door that gave an excellent view of the sea beyond the cliff on which the castle was perched. Its one unique feature was the sheer number of sockets and sconces for candles it contained - over one hundred. Alone in the castle, Hikaru Shidou set the last of those candles in its place, stepped back into the middle of the room, and surveyed her handiwork with satisfaction. Candles of all sizes (if only traditional shapes, pillars and tapers) lined the room, studding the walls and dressing table. Scents of vanilla and various berries sweetened the air even without a flame. Setting them all up by hand had been quite a task. Hikaru wiped her forehead on her sleeve and gave a pleased little sigh that her work was nearly done. Her Lens pulsed, and Fuu Hououji's voice said in her mind, Hikaru acknowledged her fellow Rune Knight's message, closed her eyes, and concentrated for a moment. When she opened them again, a flame flickered behind them. With both hands she made a sweeping gesture that encompassed the room. Where her hands passed, wicks sprang to life, and in a moment every candle burned, flooding the room with a warm, gentle yellow light. Shadows dancing across her face, Hikaru smiled a quiet little smile, turned, and disappeared into the dark of the corridor. A few minutes later, the door opened again, and Corwin bowed Anthy through the portal into the flickering light. "Oh my," she said softly, looking around. "This certainly brings back memories." She turned to face him as he closed the door, and smiled. "Wonderful memories." She took a step closer to him, then another, stopping with her hands against his chest. Her eyes shone up at him, shadows golden on her dark skin. "Memories," she said, "that were only possible because of you," and she stood on tiptoe and placed her lips against his. /* Sarah McLachlan "Possession" (live) _Mirrorball_ */ Outside, the storm they'd seen coming in from the access road arrived at the point, and a brilliant flash of lightning suddenly washed out the candlelight in an actinic arc. Anthy made a small noise and pressed herself closer - not out of fright. Corwin's hands spread across her back as he took her in his arms, any lingering doubt and hesitation forgotten with the first clash of thunder. The waves crashed against the rocks far below the East Tower, sea and sky churned into madness by the storm. Rain lashed the balcony, wind rattled the windows. One of them blew open, making the candles flicker furiously but extinguishing only a few. By then, the room's occupants wouldn't have cared if the roof had blown off. In fact, they might rather have enjoyed that. The wind racing into the room brought with it a bracing spray, and the air was spiced with seawater and ozone. More of the candles died, but still the bulk of them soldiered on. Having taken the evening to ease into acceptance of his role, Corwin now threw himself into that role the way he approached everything else he considered truly important: with all his heart and soul, his every nerve and fiber dedicated to the single task of granting this wish for this woman he loved. As for Anthy, her quiet intensity blossomed into something just to the tender side of ferocity as she took that last vertiginous step and gave herself fully up to him. The pace surprised some small part of her. She had expected to be fearful, even of him, at this moment - to flinch back from this final step, to need soothing and reassurance. She had even accepted the possibility that she wouldn't be able to proceed, too beset by the images of her life as it had been. One of the many reasons Anthy trusted Corwin to be the one to do this was because she knew that, if that happened, he could be counted upon not to rush or hurt her, to give up the attempt altogether if need be, to be kind and patient. But, except for that tiny corner of her unconscious mind that marveled at the very fact, she didn't even think of it, and with almost no build-up at all, they were there and past, carried along by the crash and howl of the storm. There was no pain, no fear, no assault of unpleasant memories. Now was as different from then as a shout of joy is different from a scream of terror. Fired though its participants were by the storm's fury, there was no anger in this coupling. Intensity, yes - plenty of that - even a certain degree of fierceness, but it was a joyous kind of fierce. It was true, Corwin discovered, what his Aunt Urd said about quiet women. In some distant corner of his mind, he doubted if he would ever be able to look at Aunt Bell in quite the same way again. Titan's storms are furious, but brief. Within half an hour, this one had moved on down the coast, to lash Port Anderson and Southpoint before moving again out to sea. In its wake, it left the castle gleaming golden in the Saturnlight, its gargoyles dripping and gutters gurgling merrily, and the air cool and clean. The stars leaped out, glittering around Saturn and the mirror-Saturn in the suddenly glass-calm sea. Corwin Ravenhair and Anthy Tenjou lay amid a tangle of sheets on the East Tower Room's great bed, silent and spent. Most of the candles had gone out by now; a few flickered here and there, but most of the light in the room now came from Saturn. After a few quiet minutes, Corwin stirred, levered himself up on one elbow, and regarded her. She lay face-down, her face turned toward him, one arm holding a pillow under her head, the other extended across the rumpled sheets as if reaching for him. Her violet hair was in wild disarray around her head, obscuring part of her sleeping face. Smiling, Corwin reached out and smoothed it away, tucking it behind her ear, running his knuckles gently along the curve of her jaw. She shifted a little in her sleep, smiling with a soft, pleasant sound. He opened his palm at the nape of her neck, eased back some more of her hair, and ran his hand gently down the smooth contour of her back, struck as he did so by the vivid contrast between his Nordic pallor and the rich darkness of her svartelven skin. Saturn's golden light cast them in different metals, Corwin pale, shining gold, Anthy deep, lustrous copper. Chuckling softly, Corwin bent and kissed the fragrant, slightly damp tangle behind her ear, then got up and went out onto the balcony to look at the Ringed Planet. It loomed spectacularly in the sky, as always - farther away but so much bigger than Earth's Moon that it outdid that august body by a factor of three. Around it, the stars twinkled and danced. He leaned against the cool, wet stone of the balcony rail on folded arms and sought out a few of his old friends. Well, he said conversationally to Saturn, that's that. I don't feel as strange as I thought I would. That happens, Saturn replied with a gas-giant shrug. Sometimes things are right even if we don't know they will be ahead of time. And sometimes they're wrong even if we think they'll be right. Sometimes there's no way to tell unless you try. Mm, Corwin agreed. You're right about that. I hope we didn't disturb you. Not at all. Good to see her back here again; she's one of my favorites. And she's always glad to see me. I like being part of people's happy memories. Well, you're part of mine, old friend, Corwin assured the Ringed Planet, and he turned his attention to the glassy sea and the calm, cool breeze that was now picking up from the south. He felt a warm, slim hand go flat against the middle of his back, and Anthy appeared beside him, concern on her face. "Corwin?" she said softly. "Mm," he said, slipping an arm around her shoulders. "Are you... all right?" she asked. "Sure," he replied, squeezing her a little. "Just thinking about... " He made a vague gesture with his free hand. "Stuff." "Oh," said Anthy; then, hesitantly, "I... I woke up and you were gone... I was afraid you might be... regretting." Corwin turned to look at her, his pale blue eyes set in molten white gold by Saturn, and smiled. "No," he said. "No regret. I had my doubts," he admitted, "you've been watching me wrestle with them all night, but now... no. They were unnecessary. Everything's... " He fumbled for the word, finally settling on, "... right." He sighed. "That sounded dumber than it felt." She chuckled softly. "I understand." "How about you?" he asked. "OK?" "Mm," she said, nodding. "I thought... I might be afraid," she said - since they were making confessions, she might as well get into the spirit of things. "I've... only been with one other man... and those aren't pleasant memories. I worried that I might freeze, or even panic." "If you had," he told her, "we've have dealt with it." He smiled gently. "I've been -there- before... " He chuckled. "... as opposed to where we ended up going instead." "Oh... " Anthy nodded, remembering the story of the Monolith. "That's right, you have... " Then she finished parsing his sentence. Gasping softly, she looked up at him, her eyes wide with surprise. "Corwin... do you mean to say you'd never... " He shook his head. "No, never." "I, I... " She said nothing for a long moment, her lower lip trembling; then she took her hand from his back, moved away from him a little, and bowed her head. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "Oh, Corwin, I'm so sorry, if I had known... " "What?" Corwin replied; then he blinked, comprehending, and closed the distance she'd opened, enclosing her in his arms. "No, Anthy, don't do that," he said in a tone of voice that combined soothing with pleading. "Don't be upset. I'm not upset. If I had thought it was worth worrying about I'd have mentioned it." "I thought... you and Kozue," she said, "you've lived together for... I just assumed you were... I'm such a fool," she whispered. "Shh, shh, it's all right," he said. "For Grand-dad's sake, don't cry. I hate it when I make you cry." "But... " she murmured, "you must have wanted... wanted your first time to be... special." "It -was- special!" he insisted. "How could you think -this- wasn't special? Anthy, look at me. Please don't do this to yourself. There's no need for it. You're blaming yourself for something that wasn't a crime. Where's the sense in taking the blame for joy? Because that's what I feel knowing I've done this for you." She looked up at him, silently, her eyes shimmering but not overflowing, for almost a full minute, and saw nothing but his usual earnest, straightforward, rather craggy face. Warmth supplanted the cold horror that had touched her heart upon his confession. His honesty burned like a flame in his heart. He couldn't lie to her. Was she not the Priestess of the Tenth World, and he its Pillar? He could no more lie to her than to his own heart. He was so much like Utena at moments like this that it made her ache. Her eyes softened, then closed, and she let him pull her into his embrace. "I love you, Anthy," he said softly, combing the fingers of one hand through her hair. "Never doubt that. It's a different kind of love than the love I feel for Kozue, or for Utena, but it's real and it's true, and it runs no less deeply through me." He kissed the side of her face softly a couple of times. "I rejoice knowing that a creature who mixes my blood and yours will walk this world." "Even though my blood is also his?" she asked softly. "Blood didn't make him what he was," Corwin replied, "-he- did. Our child will be as noble and kind as her mother, as strong in spirit and rich in love as the Knight of the Rose, as beautiful as you both... and I'm sure she'll get something good from me, somehow, too," he added with a wry grin. "'She'?" Anthy inquired with a querying look. Corwin shrugged. "A feeling." She smiled. "I hope you're right," she said, then leaned closer and kissed him again. "Thank you, Corwin." He returned the kiss, then added another for good measure. After a few minutes of this, he murmured, "Anthy?" "Mm?" she asked. "I realize the original contract was just for the one appearance," Corwin said, "but do you think I might be able to negotiate an extension?" "I think," she said with a low chuckle in her voice, "that might be arranged." /* Akino Arai "Voices (Piano Version)" _Macross Plus: OST 2_ */ This time, there was no ferocity, no urgency at all. With no storm, no tide of emotions from an evening's build-up, only the benevolent golden glow of Saturn and the sweetness of the storm- cleansed night, they took their time and savored every moment, knowing that whatever course the universe took after this night, nothing would ever be quite like this again. Corwin Ravenhair had the soul of a craftsman. He believed in taking time and doing things correctly, building strong, beautiful things that would last and could be maintained. It was a philosophy he tried to apply to everything he did, from making a bookshelf to building a friendship. Now he discovered that it could be applied to this task as well. It was not information he anticipated an immediate need for, but he filed it away for later with satisfaction nonetheless. Anthy experienced one moment of doubt, when she realized that, in not being storm-tossed and urgent, this was likely to be closer to those painful memories she'd dreaded; but they didn't surface. His kindness, his obvious concern for her own pleasure, and the fact that she loved -and did not fear- him were enough to bar any ugliness entry into her sphere of consciousness. Her own spirit, for all its natural reserve, was a rather mischievous one, and inventive as well. Freed from that reserve by his forthright appreciation of her, she reveled. And then, wrapped in warmth and each other's arms, they slept as the grayish light of dawn fringed the horizon and turned the sea to misted glass. Utena Tenjou got home at noon, having spent the previous evening at Skuld Ravenhair's, playing video games and occasionally saying things like, "Y'know, I really don't -get- the world I live in sometimes." (Skuld, no fool, did just the right thing: provided ice cream, sympathized noncommittally, and warned Utena to stay clear of the clusterbombs.) She found the house quiet and empty. She looked around downstairs, but no one was there. After a momentary pause (she was OK with this whole thing, really OK, or she wouldn't have agreed to let it happen, but still, she didn't really need to see them together), she went upstairs, and there she was somewhat surprised to find the bedroom door standing open and the room empty. The bed was neatly made, just as she'd left it the day before. It didn't seem as if anyone had been here. Unless they made the bed when they left, I suppose, she thought as she went downstairs. But is even Anthy that neat? Utena was just about to phone Bell's to see if, perhaps, they'd gone over there for some reason, when she heard the distinctive low whine of Corwin's car out front. She went down the steps and out to the street as the Griffon shut down and Corwin and Anthy climbed out. Utena was a bit surprised again, this time at the clothes they were wearing - Anthy had on her best evening dress and Corwin wore his tuxedo, both of them somewhat rumpled. They looked tired, but relaxed and happy. Hell, happy, Anthy was practically -glowing-. The thought gave Utena a tiny little pang, but it was gone in an instant as her wife embraced and kissed her before looking at her with joyous eyes. "Thank you," Anthy whispered. What the hell, Utena thought, do I say to that? "You're welcome"? She considered it for a second, then decided against saying anything and just hugged her again, overflowing with mixed emotions, happy to see her home and feeling joy for her joy, but... Corwin started to round the prow of his car, but stopped at the passenger-side corner, his posture suddenly awkward, unwilling to intrude. Utena saw the movement as he raised his hand to rub at the back of his head, and just as it had last time, the gesture melted her. She beckoned him into their embrace, not sure exactly -what- she was feeling, only that it was warm and good, born of the almost knee-weakening love she felt for both of them at that moment. At that moment, she finally thought of something to say in response to Anthy's thanks: "Welcome home." After a few seconds of this somewhat tearful tangle, all of them overwhelmed by the rushing emotions of the moment, they separated and looked at each other, uncertain quite what to do next. Then they laughed, the laughter not nervous or strained but clean and pure, and the moment ended. "Well, uh... I guess... I'd better head home," said Corwin. "Sure you can't stay for dinner?" said Utena. "Kate, Saionji and Juni ought to be home from their camping trip in another hour or so." Anthy wasn't sure it was really appropriate to call a wilderness survival exercise a 'camping trip', but she said nothing. For one thing, to do so she would have had to interrupt Corwin, who was replying, "Thanks, but I'm expected at Mom's. She said she was going to do something special - which scares me slightly, but I better show up all the same," he added with a wry chuckle. Utena laughed. "Yeah, I guess you'd better take a rain check here," she said. "But hey, we'll see you next week, right?" "You bet," said Corwin. "Any ideas?" "Dunno offhand," Utena mused. "I'll think about it and call you." "Works for me." Corwin suppressed a yawn, then said, "Whatever Mom's got planned, I hope it can wait until I have a nap." Then, sobering a bit, he said in a quieter voice, "You guys... take care, huh?" Utena matched his tone, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, "You too, Corwin. I... I really appreciate... hell, you know." Smiling, she drew him into a hug, kissed him, ruffled his hair, and then trotted back to the house, pausing on the doorstep to wave. Alone in the yard, Corwin and Anthy regarded each other silently and contemplatively for a few seconds. Then she stepped to him, enfolded him in her arms, and murmured, "Thank you, Corwin. What you said yesterday, on the balcony, is true for me as well - I love you... " Corwin held her close for a moment, his hand on the back of her head, and kissed her just above the hairline. "Love you too," he replied. "Thank you for asking me to be part of this. I can hardly wait to see... " He paused, as though the true purpose of the entire adventure were really dawning on him in the light of day for the first time, and added in a soft voice of wonder, "... our child." Anthy looked up at his face and smiled. "She'll be born in the spring," she said. "A good time for a new life. The cherry tree will be in bloom... " She stepped back and nodded. "Please tell your mother hello for me," she said. "Sure," he agreed. "Take care, huh? I'll see you next week?" "Of course you will." Then she stepped forward again, reached up, and kissed him goodbye - in a way markedly different from the sister-like kiss on the cheek he was accustomed to getting when parting from her. As he stopped at the first stop sign down Wildwood Road, Corwin glanced in the rearview mirror to watch her cross the yard and go into the house. Then he sighed, a smile on his face, tapped the steering wheel with the heel of his hand, and muttered, "How was my weekend? Well, Mom... " "So," said Utena as she hunted around inside the fridge, rounding up ingredients to prepare dinner for her sure-to-be-hungry kenjutsuka housemates. "So?" Anthy replied with a quiet smile from the reading chair she kept near the refrigerator, for the express purpose of having somewhere to sit while Utena worked in the kitchen. "I don't want to seem, you know, really nosy, or anything, but... " Utena elbowed the fridge shut, deposited an armload of supplies on her prep table, then turned around and leaned back against it as she asked, "Uh... how was it?" Anthy's eyes twinkled. "Well," she said, folding her hands primly in her lap. "You know that sort of concentration that Corwin gets when he's doing something important, like building something intricate out of small parts or drawing a very detailed diagram? The total focus, the sureness about him, the attention to every detail?" Utena nodded. "Uh-huh." "Well," said Anthy, "it appears that he does -everything- he considers important like that." Utena digested this for a moment, and then her face went, very slowly, very red. "Oh," she murmured, wide-eyed. "Wow." Anthy smiled and wriggled very slightly in the chair. "Mm-hmm," she said. "Wow, indeed." "Well, uh... " Utena mumbled. She turned around again and started organizing her ingredients. "I'm, uh... glad you had a nice time... " Anthy chuckled, rose to her feet, and crossed the room, putting a hand on Utena's shoulder. "Well," she said, leaning close to press the full length of her body against her husband's back and murmur in her ear, "you -did- ask." "Yeah, I s'pose I did," said Utena. "And I -am- glad you had a good time. I was afraid, you know... after all that happened before... " "Mm, so was I," Anthy replied. "But we needn't have worried. Night and day, as the expression goes. As different as experiences can be." She leaned close again, kissed Utena's neck, and added, "I highly recommend it." Utena froze momentarily, then went back to combining items in her biggest mixing bowl. "Uh. Well," she replied. Anthy sighed inwardly and let it go... again. "But right now," she said with a delicate yawn, "I need a nap." She rounded the table, paused, and said, "Wake me when dinner's ready?" "Sure," said Utena. Anthy leaned across the table and kissed her, then went up the stairs. Utena watched her go, then sighed and went back to her work with a fond little smile. "Six years later and I -still- don't get her half the time... " Anthy got undressed in the drape-darkened master bedroom and regarded herself for a moment in the dressing table mirror in the half-light. Then she climbed into bed, curled up, and tried to picture herself here with one of her loves on each side, warm and content, the Trinity complete. A fine dream, Anthy, she told herself silently, but probably a futile one now. You waited too long; he has Kozue now, and you may have been able to borrow him, but you would never try to steal him, would you? That wouldn't be right. You said yourself you could never tolerate being the cause of a betrayal... Still, she thought, splaying one hand over her belly, at least I have this. Like you, Corwin, I can hardly wait to see our child. I pray all your predictions about her come true. I pray she reminds us always of the power of love, however star-crossed. I pray she brings us all still closer together, as close as we can be. I pray she fills our lives with joy. That will be a good life... ... good enough. /* Peter Gabriel "In Your Eyes" (live) _Secret World_ */ Eyrie Productions, Unlimited Accepting all I've done and said presented I want to stand and stare again UNDOCUMENTED FEATURES Until there's nothing left out FUTURE IMPERFECT Oh it remains there in your eyes - Symphony of the Sword No. 4 - Whatever comes and goes Interlude on Titan in F I will hear your silent call (For Tomorrow) And I will touch this tender wall 'Til I know I'm home again The Cast Oh... (in order of appearance) In your eyes Corwin Ravenhair Utena Tenjou Love, I get so lost sometimes Anthy Tenjou Days pass and this emptiness fills Kaitlyn Hutchins my heart Kyouichi Saionji When I want to run away Anne Cross I drive off in my car Juri Arisugawa But whichever way I go Miki Kaoru I come back to the place you are Kozue Kaoru Fuu Hououji And all my instincts they return "Captain" Joe Hodgson And the grand facade so soon will burn Uum'y R'yuu-z'ky Without a noise, without my pride Hikaru Shidou I reach out from the inside Written by In your eyes Benjamin D. Hutchins The light, the heat (In your eyes) I am complete With help from (In your eyes) The resolution Anne Cross (In your eyes) Of all the fruitless John Trussell searches (In your eyes) Oh I see the light This is a very long song, and the heat and the credits aren't going to (In your eyes) I want to be that come anywhere near being long complete enough to match it all the way I want to touch the light the heat down. But that's OK. It's such I see in your eyes a pretty song, let's just let it play... Love, I don't like to see so much pain So much wasted, and this moment keeps slipping away I get so tired Working so hard for our survival I look to the time with you To keep me awake and alive Though I generally tend to think of "In Your Eyes" as an NXE song, And all my instincts they return this long live version got a lot And the grand facade so soon will burn of headphone play while I was Without a noise, without my pride working on this story, and it's I reach out from the inside especially appropriate with the extra verse at the beginning... In your eyes The light, the heat (In your eyes) I am complete (In your eyes) I see the doorway "Revolutionary Girl Utena" (In your eyes) Of a thousand churches characters by Saito/Hasegawa (In your eyes) The resolution (In your eyes) Of all the fruitless searches (In your eyes) Oh I see the light This one's for the folks who said, and the heat "Darn it - that was my favorite (In your eyes) Oh I want to be that subplot and now it's OVER" way back complete when "Interlude at Bancroft Tower" I want to touch the light the heat came out... I see in your eyes In your eyes In your eyes With the usual help from In your eyes The Usual Suspects I want to stand and stare again Powered by Peter Gabriel Oh and the Glenn Miller Orchestra It's in your eyes The Symphony will return E P U (colour) 2002