Chapter 97: Division By Zero

Suddenly within her minds eye Ryoko was aware of being lowered, feeling bare shoulders touch a smooth soft surface that yielded under her. Experiencing a brief but pleasant friction as her body was eased downward. All but suspended by a pair of wonderfully muscular arms. In the dark above her, enough light was present to reveal a pair of dark morocco eyes silently regarding her.

"So ... beautiful," A man's voice sighed. "You have been haunting me all day!" In turn Ryoko simply stared, too stunned for a moment to speak.

"What the hell?" Her mind however found the moment to gape.

Her surprised only escalated when feeling her mouth move and hearing a voice that was clearly not her own exit!

"Have I now?" Ryoko heard it coyly reply. "You've not suffered greatly I hope?"

"What?" Her thoughts took a turn to stutter. "Did I just... ?"

Even as Ryoko's captive eyes watched as the face, barely visible above her slowly shook from side to side.

"Nay," He sighed gently, lowering his mouth then to within inches of hers.

"I only became the more ravenous with anticipation!"

Ryoko instinctively tried to twist her head, only to find in a sudden panic as the strange mans lips met hers that she couldn't. Worst of all, feeling her body undeniably rise ... to meet him! Suddenly also becoming instantly intensely aware of a large hand finding, then gently kneading her breast.

"HEY!" She mentally gasped.

"What is it now?" From somewhere Ena asked, sounding only mildly concerned.

"What the hell is going on?" Ryoko demanded.

"Seems pretty obvious to me?"

"HELP! Get me out of here! This guys gonna pork me!"

"SO?" Ena asked, now sounding curiously confused.

"What do you mean SO?" Ryoko rebounded disbelievingly.

"Ryoko..." Ena attempted calmly. "That's not really you!"

"OH YEAH?" Her mind gasped just as the man's mouth briefly left hers. "Then whose about to get 'dicked'?"

"Ena..." Ryoko heard the man whisper. Slowly drawing out the name, even as she felt lips, that were hers and at the same time simply not, part in a gentle smile, meant only for ... him.

"Ryoko?" Ena narrated dryly. "These are my memories? You not really there! So, could you please stop acting like some frightened virgin?"

"BITE ME!" Ryoko angrily projected, feeling his other hand gently trace her features. Every sense and sensation auguring adamantly against any possibility of this being an illusion!

"Kiss me!" She heard herself gasp.

"WHAT!" Ryoko mentally gaped, instantly feeling and much to her astonishment, delighting to the return of his lips!

"I can't breathe!" Ryoko silently lamented. Feeling him explore lower with his mouth. Occasionally teasing with his tongue.

"That's because you're..." Ena paused, with all the indication of a metal gasp, clearly exerting an effort to focus on their conversation. "Because I, was excited!" She corrected.

"THIS IS RAPE!" Ryoko wined, noting with ever rising alarm her legs drifting slowly apart!

"Nay. I was quite the willing participant!" Ena mentally panted. "As you will soon see!"

"I WANT TENCHI! HE'S NOT TENCHI!"

"Such a ruckus!" Ena coolly observed. "Do you think your actually cheating on your young priest?"

"That NOT the POINT!" Ryoko moaned mentally, hearing her 'borrowed' self echo it.

"Me thinks the lady doth protest too much!" Ena smoothly offered.

"This IS JUST WRONG!" Ryoko countered angrily. The comment served to bring her up short however, if only for an instant. She'd done her share of light reading...

Ok! So what if it was mostly girls comics and henti? Young Jump weekly and the Daily News never had any of the juicy stuff! But where had little girl blue pick up a line from Shakespeare? Which, incidentally she knew about due to the fore mentioned literature ... But still!

"Isn't it?..." Her mind groped though the haze of undeniable pleasure. She could now see the mans young body dimly above her, every rippling line a study in sensuous power. Watching in a curious mixture of elation and horror as he deftly positioned himself.

"Beautiful, isn't he?" Ena asked, much to her shame Ryoko had to agree. It was funny, this guy had a build awfully similar to...

"Don't make me beg!" Ryoko heard her borrowed self gasp to the man, poised above. instantly disrupting the fragile chain of thought.

"Oh?" She heard him sigh, lustfully amused. "You taunt me all day and now expect mercy?"

"Somebody get me some butter for all this corn!" Ryoko rasped panic stricken, taking brief refuge in sarcasm. As if there was such as thing as non-nonsensical 'pillow-talk'.

"Please?" She heard her other self breathlessly whisper. "My darling Azusa?"

"AZUSA!!!" Ryoko's mind instantly gaped.

"Oh Yes!" Ena beamed. "At last the good part!"

"GOOD PART?" Ryoko gasped. "I'M IN BED WITH THE EMPEROR!"

"Hold on!" Came the response. "The ride gets a little bumpy from here!"

The sensations, the emotions. Those portions that were hers and that which again was clearly borrowed, rolled and boiled within. Feeling as a leaf caught in a torrent, Ryoko was swept along out of control in the tides of passions. Ending the instant she felt him come rigidly to rest against her most intimate of places.

It was enough, more than enough to shatter the illusion. Enough for her to find the resolve to break free. Ryoko sat up screaming, the man poised above her dissipating like a veil of smoke.

"YOU WHORE!" She roared in utter dismay. "WHY DIDN'T YOU WARN ME!?"

Panting, staring wide eyed at the darken empty scene all about her Ryoko's eyes wildly search. Aware on some level that her surroundings seemed subtly drained of life. Oddly devoid of color. Noting the branches of a massive tree just beyond an elaborate window seemed now frozen when she seemed to remember movement there before. Almost as if someone had hit a gigantic 'pause' button.

"Could it be?" Ena disembodied voice suddenly softly ventured as Ryoko angrily attempted to fix a location. Even amid her rage at the improprieties of the moment noting all the elaborate appointments about the chamber. The subtle in some cases and the not so much in others that silently screamed Jurain.

"Is it possible?" Ena voice cautiously resumed. "That somehow ... You're afraid?"

Ryoko could almost feel a wave of surprise in the words, causing her temper to flare nova bright.

"Quit talking shit!" She snapped, instantly on the defensive. Though not certain to what her captor was referring.

Yet, there was a note of obvious panic she could hear in her own voice. A subtle tremor coming unbidden to her response.

"You are!" Ena projected, betraying her utter astonishment.

"Oh! You obviously know all about the physical part of the act." She continued her metal dialog.

"One could infer much from all the rumor and reputation you have acquired." Ena's narration notably paused while Ryoko seethed.

"Could it be?" Ena continued clinically. "That all of your notorious escapades are merely some elaborate facade?"

"What the hell are you babbling about!" Ryoko all but screamed to the apparently empty chamber. "I've had sex!"

She was uncertain however of exactly what it was that had flipped her switch. Sure she was pissed! And had every right to be. But what she was feeling was more ... much more. Something akin to blind panic!

"Aye..." Ena agreed readily enough. "The question I would offer however would be when? And with whom?"

Ryoko simply glared. Wondering what business it was of this woman's anyhow. Or for that mater why the question was twisting her soul in to knots? There was what appeared, at least from their perspective the longest of intervals before Ryoko finally answered.

"I!" She began angrily then paused, actually then thinking about it.

"I..." She haltingly attempted. "I ... Don't..." Her words then trailed off into the void birthing an interval perceptibly longer than before.

"Now that you mention it..." Ryoko at last returned slowly, glanced around, at the realm between their minds apparently astonished at her own words. It all seemed so real! The bed beneath was still warm, she could still smell the lingering musk of a man. Perhaps it was that lingering sense of arousal which prompted she reply.

"I don't really remember... ?" She added shaking herself mentally, or was it Physically?

She was finding this business of psychic 'hopscotch' more than just a little confusing. It actually struck her as kind of silly, she knew technically this wasn't even a place! Having spent just a little less than seven hundred years being 'disembodied' perhaps she had some kind of aversion to this type of contact? Maybe that was why she felt so off balance. She was further surprise to find her golden eyes wet with sudden tears.

"Why am I crying?" Ryoko asked, apparently aloud or again what passed for it here. Suddenly noting Ena studied her from the rooms darkness a few feet away before, in a swirl of moving forward into the light.

The two women regarded each other for a few moments before Ena moved closer, siting down upon the edge of the lavish canopy bed.

"Why indeed?" She asked reaching forth and brushing the hair tenderly from Ryoko's eyes.

"Could it be somehow your hiding something?" She asked, after another moment's contemplation. "Perhaps, even from yourself?"

Ryoko gazed hard into those beautiful emerald pools, wondering perhaps for the hundredth time.

Was this some kind of elaborate trick? Just to get her confidence?

Again, somehow almost instinctively She could sense that within this realm of the mind, Ena was the indisputable queen! She could almost certainly do as she will and any resistance Ryoko could mount would be trivial at best!

And yet ... There was just something. Call it the wildest of hunches.

Some glimmer of an instinct, told Ryoko that this strangely sensual woman was actually here, wanting to help in some fashion. Perhaps that too was part of the illusion, the real trouble was however Ryoko was firmly of the opinion she didn't need any help!

That is, at least she hadn't.

"I..." Ryoko attempted, feeling emotionally raw. "I don't know."

Suddenly it just broke. Unable to contain, Ryoko found herself crying softly, not aware of why but only feeling that something was suddenly deeply, terribly wrong.

Now considering amid her turmoil if perhaps Ena were causing this as well? Somehow provoking these emotional responses from her? And again, her instincts seem to volley a resounding no.

"Shhh." Ena smiled tenderly stroking Ryoko's cheek. "Please don't cry...", cooing motherly at her, deeply concerned, exerting a fraction more of her power, attempting to probe deeper into the cause of this sudden angst.

"It is clear, that you are ... withholding something." She continued to whisper, conveying a sense of absolute sincerity.

"Ryoko..." Ena breathed to her. "My sweet little child. Whatever it is, we can face it together! Please, Let me help?"

"My Sweet little child?" Ryoko gasped, feeling a cold wind blow up her spine from nowhere. Why were those words so coldly familiar?

"Ryoko?" Ena asked, seeing a look of almost dawning terror spread across Ryoko's face. "Is ... there something wrong?" Ryoko was in the act of answering, when a hand descended into her companion's flaxen hair from behind and unceremoniously yanked.

"ENOUGH!" The barely glimpsed assailant bellowed, snatching Ena off the bed in one motion! Flinging her bodily in the next instant into the room's far wall!

Wincing in aftermath of the brutal impact, coughing amid a billowing fog of crushed plaster Ena found herself, feeling some genuine pain and tasting blood.

Briefly elsewhere, in the realm we most deem reality. Her hands extended to Ryoko's captive temples. Ena serene visage contorted. A single cough suddenly staining her azure lips a deep shade of purple as back within 'the meld' Ena quickly refocused.

While true, the entire room was an astral contrivance, that didn't mean she could take the attack lightly. Should she be overwhelmed on the ethereal plane it was unlikely her body would survive the shock!

Striding arrogantly to where the blue woman sprawled spreadeagled, embedded halfway thru the royal bed chamber's gilded parquet, the intruder assumed an 'at ready' stance.

In a point of total surrealism owning to this dream-scape, One of Ena's hands fumbled, touching the contact to one side of her impression by the rooms door, Illuminating suddenly both chamber and her attacker.

At a little over six feet in height the intruder was statuesque, amply busted and a dead ringer for Ryoko!

From her perspective there were now two, with one still seated nude upon the bed, starring transfixed at the others back. For Ena, no further introduction was necessary.

"Zero I presume?" She coughed dryly. Having expected this encounter sooner or later, being fully briefed on the 'Clay series' android merged with Ryoko.

"You just named your executioner!" The doppelganger snarled and lunged, sword instantly blazing!

"WAIT!" Ryoko still on the bed suddenly cried. Realizing it was far too late as her doubles initial swipe neatly bisected the wall. cutting a blazing diagonal swath across the location of Ena's imprisoned torso.

Or rather it would have, if she still occupied that space!

Ryoko was in the act of wondering why she suddenly should care, when spinning like a caged tiger, Zero extended her energy blade at her foe, barely glimpsed behind her.

A shock reverberated up her arm when her opponent calmly extended a hand and intercepted the burning shaft of light!

"You can't be serious!" Ena laughed, enlisting a growl to exit her combatant's throat.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Zero swore.

"Do tell?" Ena observed coolly, her smile growing warmly sarcastic.

Instantly dismissing her sword, Zero swung, aiming a roundhouse directly at an unprotected face!

There came almost a thunderclap as a soft blue hand flashed almost out of nowhere and again intercepted!

"In this realm," Ena stated with a mean little smile from around the side of Zero's captured fist.

"One might catch me off guard." She then stated, starting to twist applying torque painfully to her opponent's wrist.

"But once prepared..." She added menacingly. "You couldn't induce me to blink my eyes little girl!"

Venting a scream born of frustration Zero faded sideways, breaking Ena's grip. Lashing out with a desperate kick, high to the chin! Connecting with enough sudden force to catapult the startled woman backward through the room's window.

Elated, and frankly more than a little surprised, Zero ran to the gaping pane. Looking out, hoping to see 'the body' laying on the ground below.