Chapter 1: Birthday
We hug Gab and then step through the veil. We didn't know what to expect, but finding ourselves in the universe was not one of them. there are what look like comets whizzing by, and stars, and planets. One of the comets slows down and comes to rest Infront of us. "Hello Susan and Daniel, what are you doing here? It's not your time yet, I was expecting Nick and Judy".
"Sir we are here because we gave away our life's energy to our parents". "Why would you do this"? "Sir our family needs our parents, we were hurt worst than they were. So, we decided to give them our energy, so they could love our family, and help strangers that they will encounter on the job in the future". "Very noble Daniel, do you agree with this Susan"? "Yes Sir, we talked it over with our bond as we walked towards the veil, and there was no hesitation on either of our parts". "Are your parents that important to you"? "Yes sir, they are". "Yes, I can see that, they are important to me too. I brought them together in the first place. They became what I hoped they would, they became the hero's of Zootopia".
"As for you two, what am I to do with you"? "We don't know sir; can you send us back"? "I could but what have you learned so far"? I look at Susan we node our heads to each other. "Nothing Sir, you have taught us nothing". "So, I'm a teacher now"? "Yes Sir, all higher beings can teach us lower beings something". "Do you know who I am"? "No sir, are you God"? The universe seems to shake with his laughter. "Gab told me you had a wicked sense of humor, and I kind of like it. No, I'm not God, I'm Ockny, (ock/knee) I am judge, jury, and executioner of souls. I judge the souls that come to me, and send them on, or send them back, or throw them to the far reaches of the universe, there they take millennium to make their way back. Hopefully they do a lot of introspective on themselves, if not I throw them away again until they learn".
"What are you going to do with us"? "I could pass you on, but you said you wanted to learn". "Yes sir, we want to learn". "All right, I could teach you the ways of power, but there is a cost. What will the two of you give me, for me to teach you"? We thought long and hard about what we had, and nothing came to mind. We were about to say nothing when Susan came up with an idea. "Sir, we offer you our youth". "I accept, but be warned if you fall to learn, I will throw you so far away you may never come back". "We accept your terms". "First lesson is breathing power". Ockny surrounds us with power. "Now I want you to breath in like you still had lungs". Susan and I take a big breath, we choke as the power seems to burn. "Again, you must make the power part of you". We take a second breath and it's a little easier. We keep breathing in power until we feel no pain from it. "Good, now we begin".
Peter and Victor disconnect the ventilators and shut them down. They pull the trachea tubes out of Susan and Daniel, and we all watch the oxygen saturation levels fall. 90%...80%...70%...60%...50%. their hearts start to speed up. 40%...30%...20%. Peter looks away at this point he can't look at the end. No one else is looking, they are looking at other family members, and holding them and they are all crying. After 30 seconds Peter begins to wonder why their hearts are still going.
He looks up, and the monitor reads 25%. He thinks it can't be. He jumps to the front of the bed and pulls an oxygen tube off the wall and sticks it into Daniel's left nostril. "Peter what are you doing"? He ignores the question and putting another tube into Susan's right nostril, turns the oxygen to 10 millibars. After about twenty seconds the oxygen saturation monitors go to 50% then 80% and steadies out at 95%. He then turns it to 5 millibars. "Peter what's happening"? Their hearts slow down to a normal level. Peter looks at Nick and Judy with a big grin on his face. "Guys, their breathing on their own, their alive".
A cheer goes around the room, and through the observation gallery. "Nick, Judy, they're not out of the woods yet, but the sun is shining on them both". Nick and Judy just cling to each other and softly cry. "Terry can you sense them"? "No dad, I can't, all I'm getting is white noise, which is more than I had 10 minutes ago. When Daniel broke his arm, all we got from him was a white noise, if I had to say, they are in there, but so far down we may never reach them". "But Terry it's a start", "Yes, dad it is".
They wheel Susan and Daniel to a long-term care bed. They are put in the same bed with their paws joined. Nothing happens for about two weeks. Nick and Judy visit every day, they hold their paws and then kiss them on the head before leaving for their own room.
"Nick, Judy we have a strange development with Susan and Daniel". "How strange Peter"? "It seems that in the accident their pituitary glands were activated. They are both growing and maturing". "What does this mean Peter"? It means that we are having to feed them, and they are getting bigger". "Do I have your permission to move them to the research wing? What's happening to them has never been seen before". "Will we still be able to see them every day"? "Yes, oh God yes, it just means that we will be studying them, they will be more closely monitored, than if we left them here". Judy looks at Nick they both nod to each other. "Yes, Peter you can".
All the kits have a dislike for the lab, they never wanted to go back and be studied. Peter convinced them that they needed a base line to study Susan and Daniel from. They all agreed to be part of this study. The first discovery was their 5% DNA. They still couldn't tell what it was, but confirmed they all had it. They asked for DNA samples from the rest as well. The conclusion was all the kits in the family had this 5% DNA, even Scott. Second discovery was their blood type. They didn't know how they all had the same blood type, but came to the conclusion it probably had something to do with their DNA. The bone setters were taken off about a week later, the bones as they grew just fused together. Davis and Rick had an idea about stimulating the muscles so they wouldn't anthropeia, they started to work on their idea.
Over the months Daniel and Susan grew. Davis and Rick had come up with an "Electro muscular stimulation system" that they could wear. The results were less than satisfying, until Mavis programed the computer operating it. Cindy got them a patient for it. The results were off the charts, the suit worked so well, that they were actually putting on muscle mass. When word got out about the suit, Terry had to set up a company to manufacture them. Everyone wanted one, to work out while sleeping. At this point they priced the suits so high, as to stop frivolous use of the suit. But rich mammals didn't care about price. They then lowered the price but put the stipulation on the purchase that they had to buy one for their local hospital. They then started to see if it could help paraplegics.
After about nine months Daniel and Susan stopped growing, which was a good thing as they were on the tall end for their respective species. Susan was at four feet tall, which is 6 inches taller than the average jack rabbit. Daniel was 4 feet 4 inches tall; he was taller than Nick by four inches, Nick was average height. As no new information was being gathered, they put them back in long term care. Through it all their condition never changed.
"So, you two, I have taught you everything I am willing to at this time, I am very proud of you both". "Thank you Ockny, we will be the best that we can be". "Oh, I know you will be, I'll be watching.
As a final gift to you, I'm taking you off the wheel of time". "What does that mean, Sir"? "It means that you won't age and die. You can still be killed, but death won't seek you out". "We are immortal"? "In a manner of speaking, like I said you can still be killed. Now go back you two with my blessing". "Thanks, Ockny".
We then travel back to the meadow to see Gab. We appear in the meadow as ourselves not the glowing balls of light we had been used to. We appear as we last remember we looked like. Gab had been waiting for us. "Welcome back you two", he says as we hug him. "Gab tell us the truth, when you told us that only two could go back, that wasn't the truth was it". "Yes, Daniel it was, you two were going to die from your injuries. But I wanted the next level of training for you two, and that could not happen with out you sacrificing yourselves. You had to believe it was the only way". "Couldn't you have just told us"? "No, the test was to see if you had the heart to sacrifice your selves for others". "Gab is something going to happen that individuals like us needed to be created"? "Not now, but maybe in the future, yes". "Go home you two, you have earned a rest with your family". "Thanks Gab".
We appear in the house and move around looking at everything. Grandma and grandpa and all our siblings and littermates were sleeping, dad and mom must be at work, and DeDe wasn't in the house ether. We then float to the computer room to talk to Mavis.
We touch Mavis's case to communicate with her. "Hi Mavis", "who are you? Better yet where are you"? "Mavis if you look in your room you will see two floating balls of light just touching your case". "Yes, I can see that, but who are you"? "Mavis it's Daniel I'm the red ball of light and Susan is the gold ball of light". "You can't be they are still in their room". "Mavis we are going to re-enter our bodies in a few minutes, can you cancel any alarms that would alert someone we were awake"? "I can, but why should I do this"? "I have a wicked sense of humor don't you remember"? "Yes, I remember". "Also, can you keep all the monitors readings the same, so that no one knows we are awake"? "I can do this as well". "Good this is going to be a big surprise for them". "Yes, I'm sure it will".
We float back to our room. And look at ourselves, "wow we are so big". "Well, we did trade away our youth for training". With that we enter our bodies. We start to move around, we both feel so heavy, and awkward. "Mavis what are we wearing"? "You are wearing an "electro Muscular Simulation System" or a stim suit for short". "What does it do"? "It stimulates muscles so they don't anthropeia". "How do you both feel"? "I feel heavy and weak", replied Susan. "Can you sit up"? "With a little difficulty yes, we can". "I should call someone". "Please don't, we will be fine. How long have we been like this"? "Daniel you and Susan have been in a coma for twenty-one months, it's now 3AM, and it's your birthday today, happy birthday you two". Susan and I look at each other, "kind of ironic don't you think? Mavis do you need a new voice print"? "No Daniel, as soon as you and Susan started talking, I got the new voice prints".
"Daniel there's something wrong with my vision. I can only see darkness out of my right eye, but I see everything in black and white out of my left". "You appear to have night vision in your left. There are no lights on in the room. My night vision is in black and white". We slowly climb to our feet and disconnect the wires attached to us; we pull out the I'vs and using the bed frame for support I move around to the other side of the bed, and just hold Susan. I then get kind of flustered as I just notice that Susan has breasts and is holding them against me. She just laughs softly, "I'm not the only one holding some thing against the other". I just get a little more flustered. "We need a shower Daniel; we are a little ripe". "Yes, we are, but you smell like a summer's day with over tones of cinnamon". "And you smell like the forest after a rain, with a hint of earthiness".
"I wonder if we have clothes"? We move to the dresser; Susan seem a little hesitant. "What's wrong"? "I feel like I'm going to fall on my face". "Well you do have some extra weight out front". "Yes, thank you for stating the obvious". She lightly punches my shoulder. There're clothes in our size in the dresser, I can smell grandma on them. we will have to thank her.
We open the door and as quiet as we can be, head for the shower room. We take the elevator, as we don't trust ourselves to the stairs. We go to one of the private showers, as we are feeling a little self conscious. I offer to scrub her back and she agrees. I scrub a lot of lose fur off of her, and I may have coped a feel or two. Susan does my back, and hugs me from behind, she puts her paws on a very sensitive part of my anatomy, and giggles. "We will use this" she says, "but not until we are close to 100%". I have to agree, we do need a bit more stamina. After the blow dry with the body blower, we get dressed, and head back up stairs to the kitchen.
I go to the cupboard and get the peanut butter and bread, and placing that on the table, go get two glasses and the carrot juice out of the fridge. We sit down at the table to eat our sandwiches. Small meal done we just hold each other for a few. I then go make some coffee. "Mavis can you wake Peter and Vivian up, but can you make it seem like they woke up on their own"? "I can do that".
Peter wakes up and nibbles on Vivian's neck. Vivian just sighs, and rolling over plants one on his muzzle. "Good morning my love, and happy anniversary". "Peter it's only 4AM what are we doing up"? "Don't know, but we could always take advantage of it". "No love, we have plans for tonight, or don't you remember"? "Oh, I remember all right, but we could always start a little early". "No love, but I will make it worth the wait". Peter just kisses her again and gets out of bed. He puts on his robe and sniffs the air.
"We are not the only ones up I can smell fresh coffee. Maybe Nick and Judy got off work early"? Peter holds out Vivian's robe. As she puts it on, she looks over to the monitors, which show no change. "I pray every night that when I wake up there will have been some sort of change in those two". Peter just hugs her, "so do I love, so do I".
Peter and Vivian come around the corner into the kitchen, neither one is looking up they are just staring at the floor. "Morning number2". Peter automatically responds "morning number1". Vivian's paws fly to her muzzle, and Peter take two more steps before his brain catches up to his automatic response. Susan and I just stand up as they rush around the table to hug us. Grandpa and grandma are both crying and kissing us at the same time. I just whisper in their ears, "happy anniversary you two". "It is now grandson, even if you did use that wicked sense of humor on us".