"I can do things you cannot, and you can do things I cannot. Together we can do great things."

-Mother Teresa

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Of Impulse and Fey

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"Natsuki, what's wrong?" Asked Reito when he realized that the alien was no longer responsive to his questions. He barely caught her when her knees gave from under her, "Oi-!" Natsuki was shaking, her eyes wide with unspeakable terror, and Reito felt the fear seeping in through his fingertips to settle like ice fisted in his stomach. "Hey, hey! What's going on?" He said shaking Natsuki roughly by the shoulders, his voice rising with panic. Reito knew that something terribly wrong had happened to Shizuru again and his agitation and anger melded into his fear and panic. Angry and agitated that he had no idea what was going on because he lacked the mental connection that Natsuki and Shizuru had. Jealousy spiked for a few tense seconds before he shook it off, scolding himself for something so petty at a time of emergency.

His attention returned to the woman at his hands who had begun rasping for breath. "Get ahold of yourself!" He yelled while firmly slapping the left side of her face. Her glazed eyes cleared and Natsuki gripped his collar with an animalistic snarl before Reito found himself trying to catch his breath after being hurled into the nearest wall. Well Shizuru was right about not trying to pick a fight with her. He thought vaguely as his body slumped against the strong slab behind him. "Reito! Are you alright?" Natsuki rushed toward him after coming to her senses. "Peachy," he rasped, "but what the hell is going on? Is Shizuru in trouble?"

"The queen…" Natsuki's voice failed her when trying to form the following words in the sentence.

"The queen? What has she done to Shizuru?"

"She's taken her."

"What the hell are we waiting for then? We've got to find her!" Reito exclaimed, forgetting his injuries. As he ran to the nearest computer, Natsuki slowly trailed after him. He cursed at the piece of machinery when nothing new turned up from their previous search entered just a few minutes prior to the kidnapping. Another dead end. He rose from his seat, ready to punch in his precious screens, when a cool hand planted itself on his shoulder. The hand spoke volumes. His shoulders slumped in defeat. Shizuru was gone and they could do nothing.

…

My head ached, but I felt fine overall. The resistance I felt around my wrists was undoubtedly from the zip ties that Marguerite placed on them. I knew this woman was crazy, but this was a whole new level even for her. Reito's gonna kill me. It seemed like the freak had stepped out for a bit, leaving me to myself for a little while. I wasn't sure just what was going on, but I had to let Natsuki know that I'm fine and exactly where I was so she and Reito could come rescue me. Good grief, had I known how crazy this woman would turn out to be, I would have never slept with her! Come to think of it, why did I? Seeing her again made me realize that I wasn't attracted to her at all. She didn't have anything to offer speaking either visually or physically, and let's not reminisce on her baby fetish.

I felt the color drain from my face. That wasn't what this was about right? My being pregnant doesn't…oh my god I need to get out of here. Hoping to send an S.O.S via mental bridge, I did as Natsuki had instructed me before I left for my walk. "Breathe in, and out. Now picture the words themselves crossing over a road to get to me." Well, here it goes. Carefully, I created 'Help Me' in bold red letters with legs long enough to get to Natsuki in about four strides. After making sure that they were strong enough to endure the trip across the bridge I sent them on their way, or rather that was the idea. I'm not sure what happened, but as I tried to send my soldiers over to Natsuki a searing pain burned all throughout my skull. "Ouch!" I cried trying to cradle my head, but unable to because of the stupid zip ties. What the hell is going on? "I'm sorry, my dear, but that won't be working until I say so." Tomoe stated from the doorway.

"What is going on Marguerite? Why am I here?"

"My, my," she purred dangerously while walking over to lean her face close to mine, "playing dumb, are we? Oh darling, I should say that it is not very becoming of you."

"What are you talking about? I-!"

She reached out to grab my jaw and pressed a sloppy kiss to my lips. Her breath foul and saliva putrid, I was close to vomiting in her mouth. "There is something you should know about me, 'Zuru dearest." She said turning to reach for the knife on my left. "And what's that?" I asked, keeping my composure as best I could. I will not back down and give this vile creature the satisfaction of my surrender. I will find a way out of this in one piece; I'm just working on the how. "A very simple fact about me love is that I always win."

If the color hadn't returned to my face, I would have fainted. "You're the queen?"

"Yes," Marguerite whispered in what she thought was a seductive manner, "and I plan to rule again with you as my pet."

As soon as I have the chance to shoot myself in the foot, I will do so way before Reito has the chance to say, "I told you she was a bad idea!"

…

Back last year I had hired an overzealous secretary. To be honest I still have no notion as to how her psychological evaluations checked out. At any rate, she and Reito clashed upon their very first meeting. He begged me to let her go, and I would agree at home (completely agree mind you), but when I returned to work the next day I hadn't the heart to do it. This vicious cycle lasted for three months with each month worse than the last. I couldn't shake this teal haired woman for the life of me and I didn't know why much to my and Reito's dismay. Finally, she made a deal that I would sleep with her for three weeks straight and she would turn in her letter of resignation. It seemed like a dream come true and I agreed without hesitation. Unfortunately, the real nightmare had just begun.

Not needing any more introduction, it's obvious then that this "overzealous secretary" is none other than Marguerite Tomoe. An alien from another planet which my lover, Natsuki- another alien from another planet, has sought revenge on for the genocide of her people. All of this, leaving me, my best friend Reito and my unborn child smack in the middle; gone are the simple days.

I studied said crazy villainous queen as she waltzed about her disheveled home. Her eyes were too bright and her skin so paper thin the crisscross of her veins seemed like a grotesque highway about her face and body. Every time Marguerite caught sight of me, her face would light up again, as if she was walking on cloud nine before going back to her inane tasks while muttering to herself very rapidly. This woman is about nine flavors of crazy. Taking another sweeping glance at my surroundings, I deduced that I was in her kitchen. I also deduced that she left the house in shambles for about a month. However, if one were to go by smell, two months. The baby gave me a particularly hard kick between the ribs and I masked the gasp with a demure cough, being very careful to not draw attention to the baby. Whatever she had in mind, my baby was right in the thick of it. There has to be a way out of this mess. "Darling don't look so displeased," Marguerite crooned as she stepped lightly over the debris, "I will clean up as soon as the dog dies."

"Don't you touch her," I growled automatically.

Marguerite's head snapped to look at me so fast I was hoping she had snapped her own neck. Sadly, that didn't happen. "But she must, otherwise we can't be together. Mated bodies can't produce children with anyone outside of their partners unless their bridge is...," she twirled the knife happily between her fingers, "permanently disconnected."

…

Reito clacked on the keys of his keyboard with renowned vengeance that impressed Natsuki and offered the hope she needed to press on to look for her mate. "There's got to be something we missed." The minutes ticked by like hours, each second precious, "Could you give me her description again?" Natsuki described the queen as best she could, but as always, stumbled when trying to describe the color of her hair. As it turned out, she was a tad colorblind. She and Reito had been trying to figure out what color ealack was for weeks. Reito now desperately hoped that earth had such a color and identified it for the sake of Shizuru's rescue. "It's a bright gray?" Natsuki began cursing in frustration when Reito pulled up the color she described in another search and found that it was far from the shade they were looking for. "Natsuki!" Reito snapped when the volume of her voice indicated the rise in panic, "We have to keep looking, but we have to stay calm. We will find her." The ice queen clamped her mouth shut and gave a determined nod. Together they would find her, even if it was the last thing they did.

"Take a look at the color wheel again."

The blunette grunted in displeasure, but dutifully sat before the gigantic monitor trying to discern the colors humans had arranged under the category of "primary colors". Natsuki couldn't really see blue or green, and always chose those colors because of the different tones of gray they made. They weren't quite the color ealack was, but they came pretty darn close. Reito sighed quietly when she picked them out again. They had already ran several searches looking for neighbors with green or blue colored hair, but none ever turned out to be the queen. What would they do if they couldn't find Shizuru in time? The Japanese male then lifted the other hand to his mouth to nervously chew on the cuticle of his right thumb, a nervous habit that Shizuru was sure she had smacked him out of. Remembering the way she would get mad at him for biting his skin made him chuckle lightly. "Stop biting your nails!"

"I'm not biting my nails." He would state matter-of-factly.

"You know exactly what I mean; it's terrible for your teeth and your fingers!" She would scold and then slap his hand from his mouth. Remembering these simple moments made his heart lurch in worry for her well-being. Reito was also worried for the baby. He hadn't mentioned it to either of them, but he had high suspicions that the baby was due any day now. Shizuru had grown to a size bigger than an average house! We shouldn't have left her to walk alone, he thought in anger at his carelessness. Squashing the niggling worm of anxiousness in his stomach, Reito pushed a frustrated hand through his hair. Feeling a tug on his sleeve, he brought his attention back to emerald green eyes.

"Reito," Natsuki spoke curiously, "is it possible to combine these colors instead of looking for them individually?"

"That's brilliant!" Reito exclaimed while hurriedly looking through combinations of blue and green. "Look, here's a color scale of blues and greens. Do any of them look like eelek?" Natsuki smiled at Reito's mispronunciation, but had no time to comment on it. Quickly shifting through the different scales of grey, she found it, "Ealack! There it is!" Reito followed the path of Natsuki's finger on his monitor. "I'll be damned," he whispered with disgust, "it's teal."

…

"She'll be expecting us," Reito muttered in the black van they rented a half hour prior. It was well into the evening when they arrived at the queen's house. They parked half a block away to make sure that they weren't seen by Tomoe or any curious neighbors. To make sure they weren't identified, Reito removed the license plates and brought several changes of clothing. He also left the lights on at their home to give the illusion that it was occupied. "She already knows we're here," Natsuki replied gravely. So much for the element of surprise, thought Reito as he slipped on leather gloves, "So, what's the plan?"

"We go in, and give it all we've got."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a minute," Reito said as he held Natsuki back in her seat, "That can't be all."

She looked at him furiously, "We've lost too much time and Shizuru is in danger!" She tried to leave the car again, but Reito locked the doors. "I understand the urgency Natsuki, but we can't go in blind! We could get us all killed!"

"Then what do you propose we do?" Natsuki couldn't ignore the fact that he had a point, but itched for the battle that would wipe out the last of the monstrosities who murdered her people and took her mate. "Does she have a weakness?" The ice alien sat quietly in her seat before responding, "Not that I know of."

Reito slumped in his seat, "Well, shit, looks like we'll have to improvise."

…

The kitchen got warmer and I knew that there were two alarming facts about this. One, it was getting warmer by the hour and terribly uncomfortable and two, I knew it wasn't because Marguerite turned on the heater. I was getting thirsty, but refused to eat or drink anything offered to me. Marguerite looked too hopeful that I suspected that anything I ingested would do harm to my child. But where was the heat coming from? Surely, she wouldn't set the house on fire with us still inside…I hope.

"Marguerite," I ventured when she sped passed the kitchen doorway, "could you turn the heater down? It's gotten really warm." Of course I knew there wasn't a heater, like I said, but I could get some answers "playing dumb". "Hm? Oh sorry, my darling, I'll do my best to stop." She seemed distracted and paced around before me oblivious to the fact that she gave me a confusing answer. "Stop what, Marguerite?"

She returned to her mumbling and tossing the knife from either hand and did so for several minutes longer until I noticed that her hands were an angry red. Sweat beaded along my temples before it dripped down my face and stung my eyes. It's like a sauna in here! I fought hard for consciousness and did my best to look for something- anything- I could use to cut off the zip ties. Swinging my head to the side caused a reeling dizziness that I nearly passed out, at the rate of this inexplicable heat, I was well on my way to burning alive. Dry heaving in my chair, I struggled against the ties again, praying that by some miracle my wrists were sweaty enough to slip out of them.

Thump!

Marguerite's head whipped around to the sound of the noise and let the knife clatter to the ground, completely forgotten, "They're finally coming out to play." As soon as she left the room, excited by bloodlust, the room cooled considerably. Way more than enough for me to breathe, the baby punched weakly at my kidney, "I know sweetie, but don't worry, mama is going to get us out of here." Trying one last time of pulling my wrists apart to slide them out, I heard an audible click. The heat must have made them malleable! Pulling again with all my might, my hands were finally set free. Panting from overexertion, I stood to head over to where the knife fell. Upon trying to pick it up, I felt something drip down between my legs that I knew for a fact wasn't more sweat. My water broke.

Don't panic. Don't Panic! For goodness' sake, do not panic!

I remained stock-still in my half-crouched position, trying to figure out what the next best move would be when I heard another crash in what I imagine was the living room. Reacting with adrenaline, I rushed into the room and was immediately assaulted with an unwanted rise in temperature. "Die already!" Marguerite screeched when Natsuki barely dodged a hurtling right hook that shattered the adjacent wall it landed on. "Not on your life!" Natsuki replied with a left roundhouse kick that was meant for the teal head's ribs, but instead collided with- and easily splintered- a nearby doorframe. Thank the heavens I never got into a fight with either of these women! Shock and awe aside, I noticed that Natsuki was really struggling. I figured the heat must have been affecting her more than it would affect me after the incident in the house. I saw her trying to catch her breath, heaving gulps of air to keep from losing consciousness as I had a few moments ago. I had to do something! "Ugh," I groaned. The first of my contractions began and I suddenly remembered that I was about to give birth…right in the middle of a battlefield! I had to find Reito, I knew he had to be around here somewhere. Unsure if the mental blockade Marguerite placed on my telepathy thingy with Natsuki had worn off, I knew I was better off trying to find Reito myself. Neither Natsuki nor I could afford any distractions, and with my current condition, I had to find him fast.

I doubled-back to the kitchen and managed to find an abused door that I was able to escape from, "Reito you better be close by." I began to search the perimeter of the house. There was no doubt in my mind that Reito was hovering close enough to the aliens' fight to discern any weakness the queen could sport. Sure enough, I found him by a window on the far left side of the house where the battle could be clearly seen. "Reito!"

His head whipped around to see me, "Shizuru!"

We hugged briefly, our faces clearly displaying relief when several more crashes sounded from within the mangled home. Back to business. "Are you hurt?" He whispered hoarsely. "No, but- oh!" I gasped, "but I am going into labor I think."

"Damn, I felt like this would happen."

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now."

He looked at me like I grew a second head, "We have to take you to a hospital!"

"Not until Natsuki is safe! I will not leave her here to die!"

Reito opened his mouth as if to argue further when Natsuki shrieked out in agony. Marguerite's hands grasped her tightly around the throat while having a fit of maniacal laughter, "Finally! This is the end!"

My neck felt scorching hot and I felt my hands burning with the same heat. Looking to Natsuki, I saw that she was weakly trying to pry off the hands that were clamped around her smooth neck. It was in that moment that beautiful emerald eyes made contact with mine and I could feel it, my Natsuki slipping away. No! With my mind on overdrive, I did the simplest thing I could think of, I ran for the garden hose. I passed by it in my earlier search for Reito and prayed to the gods that it still worked. "Reito, bash the window!"

"Crazy woman! I don't know what you're doing," he smashed the window with a conveniently placed shovel, "but this better work!" As soon at the glass broke, I opened fire (erm water?), spraying Marguerite down with cold water. Taken by surprise, she shuffled away from Natsuki before looking over to my direction. " 'Zuru-chan," she whined, looking hurt beyond belief. "I'm not your 'Zuru-chan'. I never was to begin with. Huh-!" I crumpled inward, damn this is the worst time to be having a baby! Reito grabbed the hose from my hands and continued to spray Marguerite into submission. "I never knew I wanted this until now," Reito exclaimed with glee and watched Natsuki recover enough strength to get behind Marguerite, "Die bitch." I was able to stand quickly enough to see Natsuki snap her neck clean. At last, it was all over. The silence of the finality of the situation lingered heavily between the three of us. And if I'm going to be completely honest, as bizarre as the sight of Marguerite's head going far into an odd direction is, seeing Natsuki panting and in shredded clothes was pretty hot. "Angh!" My pelvic area felt like I was chicken getting split for dinner. Perhaps this is my body's act of penance for thinking something so indecent at a time like this.

"Shizuru, we need to get you to the hospital now!" Reito shouted while trying to coax me toward a black van. "Reito, I don't think we have time for that anymore. This baby is coming NOW!" I collapsed onto my knees dragging a frightened looking Reito down with me. "Let's quickly get her in the van," Natsuki wheezed. She hauled me into her arms bridal style and carted me into the vehicle. "Ooh, damn this hurts!" I bleated in the back seat as Natsuki planted herself beside me. Reito rushed to remove his jacket and spoke to Natsuki, "Here, have her sit under this." Doing as he instructed, Natsuki put the jacket beneath me. "You're right Shizuru, we won't make it to the hospital in time, but we can make it home." For some reason, it seemed like a good idea to have the baby at home. "Aahh," I took hold of Natsuki's hand and squeezed for dear life, "You'd better hurry!"

…

"Hee, hee, hoo, that's right. Hee, hee hoo…" Reito chanted when we finally reached the house. "Hee, hee, hoo- graaahh!" We all stumbled into the foyer when I was at my limit. "Reito, you're going to need those towels and scissors right about now!" Though sweaty and as stark white as a bed sheet, Reito nodded and hurriedly went for the supplies. Not knowing what else to do, Natsuki sat behind me. "Natsuk-augh! Natsuki," I cried, reaching for her hands and holding them tightly, "The baby is coming!" Just in the nick of time, Reito returned with a pail of hot water (which he kept far enough away from Natsuki), a batch of towels, a clamp and a pair of sharp shears. "Alright, it's show time," he spoke to himself aloud, most likely trying to keep calm, "push!"

"Aagh!"

My head fell back against Natsuki's collarbone as I pushed and pushed for what seemed like an eternity. Dear kami-sama, is that its head? To confirm my suspicions, Reito announced, "Keep pushing I see the crown!" I shook my head feebly, "I can't push anymore!" It hurt damnit, and I felt the tears stream down my face, I had no more energy left to push. "Push tonzae, we're almost there." I guess the mental block died along with Marguerite. Feeling Natsuki's velvety soft voice in my head reminded me that we all have suffered these past few months. It reminded me that Natsuki just survived a grueling battle and Reito is doing his absolute best in delivering my baby with only the experience of extensive research could give. It reminded me that the least I could do was give One. Last. Push. "Neaugh!"

At long last came the shrill cry of a new born baby.

A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this latest installment "Of Impulse". Sadly, this is the second to last chapter of this piece. T^T HOWEVER, I have a special announcement to make tomorrow (08/01/2017) on my tumblr page (link in bio) 2pm PST. So, please make sure not to miss it! Have an awesome day/night~