Chapter 42

{Reminder: To simplify things, the names of characters from Terzo will be bolded and italicized. The names from Earth will be in normal type. J.}

I followed Amy, with Megan and Cindi close behind.

"God damn, motherfucking son of a bitching cocksucker!" I heard Amy snarl as I hurried into the room. Things were bad if she was cussing, especially using those words. I made a mental note to talk to Sammi about the influence she was having on Amy. I arrived just in time to watch her slam her fist into the far wall, punching a hole in the plaster.

"Ooouuuch," she whined. She kicked the wall, assuming that would hurt less. It didn't.

"Shit!" she muttered, rubbing her ankle.

"Stop it before you hurt yourself," Cindi ordered.

"Too late," said Amy, trying to hold her fist and her ankle at the same time. My precious daughter is talented, but that didn't work so well. I wrapped my arms around her from behind, giving her a hug.

"Want to talk about it?" I asked.

"No! Don't touch me," she hissed.

Ooo-kaaay. It was going to be one of those conversations. I had to admit, she hurt my feelings. I was her true love; she was supposed to come to me for comfort, not bite my head off.

"Fine," I said sharply, releasing her and backing away. "So, do I get to know why this is all my fault, or is that going to be a big secret?" I thought I sounded snotty, but maybe that's just because I was feeling snotty.

Amy's eyes opened wide as she realized what she'd said. She didn't have a chance to retract it, however. Cindi had been manipulating Amy since the day they were born (I firmly believe Cindi somehow maneuvered herself into being born first) and she did it again. She slipped next to me, wrapped her arms around me and gave me a passionate kiss.

"I guess you're mine tonight, since some dumb shit doesn't know what she's turning away," she proclaimed, giving Amy a sweet, innocent smile.

"I swear, if I find out someone in this family knew about this and didn't tell me, I'll ... I'll..." Amy stopped in frustration, not sure what she'd do.

Cindi is not the most patient creature in the universe; in fact, she's near the bottom of the list for that virtue. She'd had enough.

"Would you stop acting like a baby and grow up?" she snapped.

"That's easy for you to say," Amy shot back. "You're such a slut; you give it up to anyone that could wear a pair of pants. They don't even have to be male. What do you know about monogamy?"

I felt Cindi stiffen in my arms. My heart broke as I saw the hurt look on her face.

It wasn't as if Cindi minded being called a slut. It wasn't exactly an insult in our race. By the Judeo-Christian standards so prevalent in human society, our females were sluts. What hurt Cindi so much was that it was Amy that said it. Not only was her twin supposed to be loving and supportive in all things, but Cindi knew there was no bigger insult Amy could hurl at someone.

"That's not true, Amy," Cindi whispered sadly. "I've always been very picky who I have sex with. I don't criticize you for monogamy; why should you look down on me for not being like you? It took awhile to come out, but I guess I finally know what you really think of me. Besides, I wasn't talking about the monogamy issue." She buried her head in my chest and cried.

A look of horror crossed Amy's face as she realized what she'd said and done. She ran over to us and wrapped her arms around her twin.

"Oh God, Cindi, I'm sorry! I ... I didn't mean that! I'm sorry!" she cried.

"Don't touch me!" Cindi hissed, not even looking at her sister. Amy backed away, devastated.

Cindi looked at her twin, her face solemn.

"Doesn't feel so good, does it - having someone you love more than anyone in the world tell you not to touch them. Like it?" Amy hung her head in shame.

"I think you have some making up to do, girl," Megan said, trying not to show the sympathy she felt for her co-wife. God knows she'd said and done a lot of dumb things in her life, too.

"Start with him," Cindi ordered, pointing to me. "I'm your twin; I'll always be there and always love you, no matter how big an ass you're being ... which right now, is pretty big."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Amy whimpered as she tried to smother me with hugs and kisses. "Can you forgive me?" The look in her eyes, what little I could see of them, said she was sorry ... and worried.

"Ah, hell, that isn't even in the top ten of the bad things you've said to me over the years," I joked. I put my hurt feelings behind me and tried to comfort her. She hadn't meant it, after all. "And that's nothing compared to Cindi ... did I ever tell you about the time she..."

"Never mind, Dad!" Cindi protested, secretly glad I was taking Amy's mind off her problems. Not for long, though.

"Want to tell me about it, honey?" I asked.

Amy's face immediately clouded over again. 'Nice move, jackass!' the look Cindi gave me clearly said. Amy buried her face in my chest; a little sob escaped.

"Patrick, you're surrounded by beautiful girls. They're all funny and pretty and sexy, and you love all of them. All of them are prettier than me." I heard Cindi snort in derision. "The only thing I ever had to offer you that made me different ... special ... was my exclusiveness to you. I know you don't require it, but I also know you like it. It was my special gift to you." Another sob.

"I gave that up because I wanted to be able to have your baby. I knew you wanted that too. I didn't like the idea of giving up my exclusivity one damned bit, but I did it, for you. Now, I find out it wasn't necessary. How the hell can Amma-llia be pregnant when she didn't go through that ceremony? Was everything I gave up meaningless? Did someone lie to us? Could I have gotten pregnant without that ceremony? God damn it!" Amy ranted.

Sweet, empathetic Cindi interrupted at that point. Remember what I said about her infinite patience level?

"Amy, you're so full of shit your hair's brown," Cindi responded. "Ok, you have a GI bleed, so it's black. The idea is the same."

"What are you talking about, Blondie?" Amy snapped.

"Amy, Daddy loves you because you're Amy. You don't need anything different to be special to him. You'll always be his Amy, his little girl, and you'll always be special to him. No one else can ever approach how he feels about you. That's ok; we all know our place, and we're happy to be there. He loves you, Amy. It has nothing to do with your monogamy. He'd love you if you were the town slut; he loves me, doesn't he?" Cindi finished with a crooked grin. She couldn't resist the jab.

"I said I was sorry," Amy muttered, her face red with embarrassment.

"I know. You stop acting like an ass and I'll forget about it," Cindi said.

"Fine." Amy's voice indicated she wasn't convinced and that they would continue the conversation at a later time. Cindi rolled her eyes at her idiotic twin. "Still, if I find out someone knew about this..."

"You're being an ass again, Ass," Cindi retorted.

"What now?" Amy asked. "Can't I do anything to please you?"

"Not the way you're going so far today, Blondie," Cindi said. "Yeah, I know your hair's black, but being blond is a state of mind, and you're there today, Blondie."

"Cindi, I'm going to kick your ass if you don't tell me what the hell you're talking about," Amy said, exasperated.

"Oh? You and what army?" Cindi snorted. Then she turned serious.

"Look, Amy, everyone in this family loves you, even when you're being stupid." Cindi gave a sweet, innocent little 'who, me?' look at Amy's angry glare. "Everyone knows how important monogamy is to you. No one would even dream of not mentioning this to you if they had the slightest inkling about it. Even I wouldn't be that cruel, and I love pulling your chain."

"Was. Monogamy was important to me. It's gone now," Amy whimpered.

"Is. No, it's not gone. Monogamy isn't like virginity; it's not gone forever if you stray once. It's a state of mind, a decision that you make each and every day, every time you're presented with a situation where you could have sex with someone else. So you weren't monogamous for a day or two during the ceremony; so what? Now you are again ... or are you saying you want a return match with Eric, Christopher, and Grampa? Maybe add Jeff in for good measure?" Cindi gave me a wicked smile as Amy gasped.

"Ciiiiindiiii!" she shrieked. "How could you say that?"

"Hey, if you can be an ass, so can I. You know I'm right, Amy. Stop whimpering about losing your monogamy. We're all tired of hearing it. Come talk to us when you decide to fuck someone besides Patrick again and we'll commiserate with you ... after we kick your ass."

"Geez, Cindi, don't sugar coat it ... tell her how you really feel," I muttered. Cindi gave her sweet, 'butter won't melt in my mouth' look again.

"You mean like telling me I'm a slut?" she asked innocently.

Amy gave her a pleading look, her tear-filled eyes begging her twin to forgive her and, oh yeah, 'please don't bring that up again'. Cindi smiled at her, letting Amy know she was just messin' with her.

"Besides, aren't you jumping the gun a little here? We don't know why Amma-llia is pregnant or if we can get pregnant without the Ceremony. We know Lori never did. Hell, we don't even know why Amma-llia exists. Let's wait until we know if you have something to be upset about or not," Cindi reasoned.

"Well, isn't that something ... Cindi being the logical one," Amy smirked.

"Fuck you," Cindi said pleasantly. "In fact, that's a good idea." She stepped forward, took the startled dark-haired teen in her arms, and kissed her. I could tell by Amy's reaction that Cindi's tongue was busy.

Amy struggled for a second, then melted into her twin's arms. When Cindi finally stopped kissing her sister, she had to help Amy stand.

"Oh God, Cindi, you do that again and I ... I..." There wasn't any doubt in any of our minds what Amy was going to do if Cindi did that again. Amy seemed to be having trouble expressing it, however.

"That's a delightful thought, but we don't have time right now," Cindi said, patting her twin on the cheek. Amy kissed her hand.

"God, I hate you sometimes," she whispered.

"I know. I love you too," Cindi giggled.

"We better join our hosts before they think something's wrong. We've been in here too long as it is," Megan said.

'Something is fucking wrong!' the look Amy shot Megan clearly said, but she kept quiet and followed us out of the room.

"Something's wrong," Tori-llia told the pretty red haired teenager standing next to her. "The one called Amy is really upset about something. I hope we didn't do something wrong; we really need them. They're the only ones that can save us." Tori-llia's brow was etched with worry.

"Did you hear what they were talking about?" the girl asked.

"Not much. Amy's upset about Amma being pregnant. I thought she'd be happy about it. Didn't they clear everything with Katiro beforehand? I was sure Amma said she did. She said she slept with him every night she was there. He had to have known, right? What are we going to do if they won't help us?"

The girl gave Tori-llia a hug, calming her down.

"It'll be ok, Tori. They'll help. Did Amy say exactly what she was upset about?"

"It didn't make any sense. She said something about Amma shouldn't be pregnant before she went through some kind of Ceremony. Something about fifteen years old, or something."

"She ... wait... Amma didn't go through the Ceremony when she was with them before? I assumed she did when she said she was pregnant."

"I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. What Ceremony?" Tori-llia asked.

The girl slapped her forehead with chagrin.

"She couldn't have; she wasn't fifteen yet. Damn; I forgot about that. It's been so long since we had any babies, it slipped my mind completely. We couldn't go through the Ceremony or have babies ... besides, the Protocol they used to establish us assured we'd never have to worry about dying until they came back. I forgot they continued to die and be reborn, having babies, growing up ... all that stuff. Damn, damn, damn! I knew I was forgetting something."

"It's ok, Li ... you can't remember everything," Tori said, trying to console the upset girl.

"Damn it, I have to! I should never have forgotten something like that. Shit. If I've goofed this up, I'll just die ... we'll all die. I told the Historians this was a bad idea. We should have kept everything exactly the same as it was for Katiro and his people. I knew this would come back and bite us in the butt somehow. Damn."

"You know we couldn't do that," a voice said from behind them. The red haired girl turned to see her identical twin approaching. Her twin hugged her, wiping away her tears and kissing away her worry lines. "It wasn't possible. Without Cornaza, our only hope was the limited immortality the Protocol gave us. None of us liked the idea of not having babies, but it was the only way we could survive here. We had to be here when they returned."

"Wait ... you guys knew we couldn't have babies? You knew we couldn't reproduce? I thought it was a big mystery no one could figure out," Tori-llia asked. "I'm confused."

The girl and her twin looked at each other. Volumes passed between them with that look.

"You tell her ... that's why you get the big money," her twin said. The girl snorted.

"I didn't know I was getting paid. Could you ask Amma to come here, please?"

"Yes, Your Majesty ... right away, Your Grace," her twin laughed, bowing deeply.

The girl swatted her shoulder.

"Knock it off. Get going, snot," she snapped, pretending to be angry. She couldn't stop the smile that broke out. Her twin always made her feel better.

"Too late," her twin said. "Our guests are on their way in. Amma went to meet them. You don't have much time; better give Tori the short version."

The girl sighed.

"It's very simple, really. We can't have babies because..."

Amma-llia met us as we walked into the room. She was still bouncing off the ceiling, still excited about her pregnancy and our presence. She leapt into my arms and did her best to kiss my brains out. I was afraid she was going to make love to me right there in the middle of the room.

"What a delightful thought! The other girls would think it rude, however. We'll have to wait until later," she bubbled.

Something was not right. It hit me suddenly what it was.

"Amma, you can read our minds? I thought you couldn't do that? I thought you didn't have colors," I said.

"I can here; you're on our world now. I don't have colors, but I can tell what you're thinking. Better be careful!" she giggled. She ran to the door to drag two girls in to meet us.

"Katiro, I present to you... Kia-llia and Kya-llia!"

I didn't really need the introductions. 'Becky' and 'Katie' glided over to meet us. They both hugged and kissed me affectionately. They even tasted like our Becky and Katie. I felt Katie's desire to make love to me right then and there. Same old horny Katie.

We met the other girls one by one. 'Heather' (He'a-llia) and 'Kim' (Ki'i-llia) were there, as was 'Megan' (Me'a-llia) and Cindi (Cine-llia). 'Sarah' (Sa'a-llia) and 'Jessica' (Ja'a-llia) were every bit as sickeningly sweet as the ones we knew. Conspicuous by their absence was Valerie, Christina, Julie, Sammi, Rhonda and Jill, but I knew why they were not there. Valerie and Christina had been sent as Facilitators before the copies were made. The Terzons had no way of knowing about Sammi and Julie. Jill had died and Rhonda had been sent on her secret mission, so there were no copies of them. I was getting dizzy.

Amma-llia whispered in Amy's ear. Amy's eyes grew to the size of saucers and she started laughing. There were giggles all around. Everyone seemed to be in on the joke except me.

"You better sit down, Daddy," Amy said, trying to stop laughing. "You're gonna love this one!"

Two breathtakingly beautiful red-haired twins walked into the room just then with Tori-llia. My heart almost stopped, they were so pretty. I was sure I'd never seen them before, yet everyone seemed to think I should know them.

They walked up to me and each one kissed me soundly on the lips. They gazed lovingly into my eyes, then held my hands.

"Hi Daddy!" they said happily.

"Daddy? I think I'd recognize two daughters as pretty as you," I flirted shamelessly.

"He has no idea, does he?" they asked the girls. Everyone shook their head. Lisa and Lori each took my hand, then the hand of the two girls.

"Allow us to have the honor," Lisa said solemnly. Her giggles kinda ruined the solemnity.

"Daddy," Lori said, "I am pleased to present... Loi-llia!"

"It equally honors me to present Lia-llia," Lisa added.

What?

"I don't understand," I said faintly when I could talk again.

"Daddy, they're us!" Lisa and Lori chimed in together.

Oh dear God, was I in deep shit!

"But ... but they're not seven years old!" I blurted out. Loi-llia looked startled, then pulled the neck of her shirt out and looked down her chest.

"Nope, I'm definitely not seven years old." She reached over and looked down Lia-llia's shirt. "Neither is she ... although we are kinda little in that department!" Lia laughed and slapped her twin's hands away.

Lisa and Lori looked down their own shirts and pouted.

"I don't understand," I repeated. "Why aren't you seven years old?"

"I don't know. The more important question is ... why are they seven years old?" Lia-llia replied.

"We thought it would be better that way. The Qerda wouldn't be looking for six year old girls. Besides, we missed so much of our growing up because of what was happening on Cornaza the last few years we were there that we thought it would be fun to see what it was like growing up in normal times," Lisa explained.

Lori rolled her eyes.

"Little did we know what normal would be like," she muttered. "We wouldn't have done it if we'd realized it would mean giving up sex all this time."

"You can't have sex? Why?" Loi-llia asked, horrified. The tone of her voice plainly said she thought that was barbaric. "I'd go crazy if I couldn't have sex ... especially with him around," she added, pointing at me.

"I'd settle for them if I had to," Lia-llia sighed, looking longingly at Christopher and Eric. She didn't sound like she'd consider having sex with them as 'settling'. The look they gave her back said she was welcome anytime. Katie and Sammi laughed at their fiancés.

"Human seven year old girls don't have sex," Lori explained. The eye roll that followed said what she thought of that idea. "Patrick would freak out. He about has a fit if we even kid about it."

"Patrick?" Lia and Loi asked together.

"That's Katiro's human name."

"Oh. Humans are weird. How have you ever been able to adapt to their strange rules?"

"It's not so bad. Besides, sex with girls that young is pretty much a bad idea. It hurts. It causes all kinds of psychological problems for the girls and the offending guy spends the rest of his life in jail. Not good, even if the girl was willing ... and most human girls that age aren't. Heck, even incest is frowned on," Lisa said.

"And how would you know that sex hurts at that age, young lady?" I asked. I was partially ... mostly ... serious with the sharp tone of my voice.

Lisa and Lori both turned red.

"We ... um ... read about it somewhere," they mumbled together.

"Let me guess ... www..." Jessica started.

"Never mind!" I said sharply. "We'll talk about this later."

"What's incest?" Lia asked.

"Sex with family members," Lisa said. "Humans don't allow that."

"What?" several voices rang out at once. "I hope you've found a way around that nonsense," Lia said.

"We just kinda ignore it. Humans call it 'don't ask, don't tell'. It didn't work so well in their military, but it works pretty well for us if we're careful; most humans don't want to know about that anyway. They react very badly when it occurs with girls younger than twelve or thirteen, though."

"So, Daddy ... are you going to activate Lia-llia and Loi-llia?" Amy asked. She could barely get it out between her giggles. I glared at her. I was glad someone thought this was funny. Actually, from what I could see, everyone seemed to think it was funny except me.

Lisa figured it out first. She stopped laughing and turned serious.

"Knock it off, ladies," she said in her no-nonsense, head Historian voice. The laughter died immediately.

"No, I'm not. They have no powers or colors, so they don't need to be activated. It doesn't sound like they're virgins, either, so I don't see that I have any part to play in this," I snapped.

Everyone looked at me in horror. Lia and Loi's lips quivered as tears filled their eyes.

"You ... you can't do that!" Cindi found her voice first. "It's not fair to them. Everyone has been activated by you, and now you just leave them all alone? Amma didn't need activating; neither did Tori, but you did them! Look at them; they're ready to cry. They think you don't love them!" Cindi was panting when she finished her speech; she looked like she was going to cry too. Now there was a surprise.

"It's ok ... we can do without..."

" ... if he doesn't want us..."

" ... we're sorry we're not prettier..."

Lia and Loi hung their heads, tears running down their cheeks.

"This isn't funny to him," Lori whispered. "He's freaking out. We better get this settled now or Lia-llia and Loi-llia are going to die of old age before they're activated."

Cindi looked confused. Amy and Megan looked at me with sympathy in their eyes. I grabbed Lisa and Lori by the arm and started into the other room.

"I need to talk to you two ... now!" I snapped. They followed meekly. Lisa looked resigned, Lori looked scared. Now there was a news flash; Lori scared ... about anything.

I sat the two girls on the bed, then sat between them. I forced myself to calm down; this wasn't their fault, after all. It wasn't anyone's fault. Well, ok, maybe we could blame it on the Qerda or on God, but neither of those choices resulted in any appreciable degree of satisfaction. I sighed, then pulled the two girls into a tight hug, kissing the tops of their heads.

"Daddy? We're sorry ... we know how difficult this is going to be for you..." Lisa's voice trailed off as she watched me, concern written all over her face.

"You two know I love you to pieces, right?" They nodded. "Look, girls, I know you're not really seven years old, but that's the way you look, and I just can't get past that. I have too much human in me. Seven years old would be pushing the envelope even on Cornaza."

"But that's no reason to penalize Loi and Lia," Lori interrupted. "They're the same age as all the other girls."

"I know. I also know that if I make love to them, you two are going to be in their minds, soaking up every bit of it. That's the problem; when I have sex with them, I'm going to be having sex with you two also, whether I like it or not. I just can't handle that," I said sadly, burying my head in my hands.

Lisa and Lori sighed together. It was a heart rending sound. I knew how much they had been looking forward to this in the last few minutes, hoping I wouldn't figure it out.

"What if we promised ... if we promised we wouldn't be there, in their minds? You know we never break promises," Lori whispered.

I looked at the two girls. They looked more unhappy than I'd seen since their mother died hundreds of years ago. What the hell was I going to do? I was damned if I did and damned if I didn't.

"You can't do that. You know full well you wouldn't keep that promise. I can't be a part of you two intentionally lying. Besides, those two are you two, and you're on the same world together. I'm not sure you can stay out of their minds under the influence of that great a stimuli even if you tried." Shit, shit, shit! I wish I'd never come here.

The worst part was, I knew, I just knew I'd get turned on more than ever before in my life if I knew these two were involved. I wasn't that severe a pedophiliac ... girls under thirteen or so were definitely off limits to me and I had no desire to change that. I could honestly say I had never been turned on by a girl as young as Lisa and Lori. It wasn't that simple, though.

The problem was, this was Lisa and Lori! My love for them was infinite and knew no bounds, even if it wasn't even faintly sexual. I might never react again in my life that way to a girl that young, but I knew my love for these two, in circumstances like we were talking about, would flood over that line and there was nothing I could do about it. It might never happen again, but once was too much.

"What are we going to do?" Lisa and Lori wailed together softly.

"I want you two to promise me something. This is deadly serious. You break this promise and our relationship will never be the same again," I threatened.

They looked at me, terror in their eyes. I doubt any of us three would survive if that happened, and they knew it.

"Anything! You know we'll do anything for you, Daddy!" Lori sobbed.

"We can't stand to see you upset like this. Tell us what you need and I promise we'll do it," Lisa said as she put her arm around her twin, holding the sobbing girl.

"I won't ask you to do something I know you can't do. What I need you to promise is that, if you are there, you will never, ever, ever let me know you were there. Not at the time, not later, not ever. I mean it. There can be no accidental slip 40 years from now, in the course of conversation, there can be no throwing it in my face angrily during a fight, there can never be an admission from you two in any way whatsoever that you were there. Either you promise me that or I walk out of here right now and break the hearts of those two special girls out there. It will break your hearts too, because they are you."

Lisa and Lori threw their arms around me and gave me a hug and a sloppy little girl kiss on each cheek.

"We promise, Daddy ... we promise. We also promise we will do everything we can to not be there.

"We promise," they whispered as they hid their little faces in my neck.

"All fixed?" Becky asked when I came out of the bedroom, two little girls holding my hands like they were afraid I'd leave.

"No," I said. Lisa and Lori's face fell. "But it's as good as it's gonna get. I think we're ok."

The two little faces beamed again.

Lia-llia and Loi-llia moved next to me as Lisa and Lori reluctantly backed away, giving them room.

"We're sorry..."

" ... we didn't mean to cause you any trouble..."

I put my arm around each of the girls and pulled them close to me.

"It wasn't your fault. Besides, it's fun to see what these two imps will look like when they grow up."

"Does that mean..."

" ... you're going to activate us?"

Tori-llia rescued me. I love my twin sister ... both of her.

"There's another important person you have to meet," she said. Loi and Lia started to protest, but closed their mouths quickly when Tori shot them a 'shut up and leave well enough alone!' look. They each took a hand and led me out of the room. A whole bunch of smirking twins from two different worlds followed behind me ... or, a whole bunch of twins from two worlds that were the same ... or a whole bunch of the same twins that were different from two worlds that were the same, only different ... I was getting a headache.

If the frequency and urgently with which the two red-headed teenagers squeezed my hand and rubbed it softly with their thumbs was any indication, sleep was not in my foreseeable future. It never was when Amy and Cindi rubbed my hand that way, so I figured it probably meant the same thing here. I looked behind me with what I'm sure was a 'stag in the headlights' look to find all the girls laughing at me. I glared at Lisa and Lori; they weren't supposed to know why this was funny. They looked back at me with huge, sweet, little girl eyes, their faces a model of innocence.