Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.

The dream started as it always did.

"Hello? Is anybody there?"

It was dark. So very dark.

"Mom? Mozu? Anybody?"

And cold. So very cold.

"Please… Please, I don't want to be alone…"

And nobody ever answered her calls.

"Please…"

And yet… She was not alone.

In the dark, she sensed a presence. Several presences.

They were hungry. They were hateful. And, more than anything in the world, they wanted her dead.

"Oh ancestors!"

She started running. But no matter how far or how fast she went, the malevolent presences were always nipping on her heels.

"No, please, no… Somebody, anybody, help! Help me!"

And then, in the distance, a light. Desperate, she reached out towards it – she thought she could make out a hand, outstretched towards hers-

And then the force that was chasing her caught her. She screamed as she was pulled back into the darkness, the light fading away, the hand out of her reach-

And then Akira woke up.

Akira blinked her eyes slowly as she gradually transitioned to wakefulness. For a moment, she was disoriented, unable to remember where, or even who she was-

And then it came rushing back to her, as it always did. She was Akira Tyruga, leader of the Diningers, future queen of the Shinobiryu clan, and loyal warrior, lover, and slave of Hegemon Kyukogo, and right now she was where she wanted to be more than anywhere else in the world: in her comfortable nest, upholstered with impossibly soft cushions and lush silk, dozens of beautiful women of various species happily nestled against her side. There were humans, Zyumans, Shinobiryu, Kikainoids, Youkaliens, and so many others, all gorgeous in their own way, all madly in love with Akira, and she madly in love with them.

Carefully, so as not to waken any of her beautiful dreamers – they deserved to sleep in a bit, after the way they'd pleasured her last night – she gradually released some of her dinpo, shrinking from her Shinobiryu form – a biomechanical red and gold Tyrannosaurus with a thick crimson mane and golden feathers about the size of a Buick – to her smaller, more humanoid form. She could keep going, all the way to pure human if she wished, but she felt no need to. It had taken a lot of hard work to earn her scales, and she saw no reason to ever shed them even for a moment. After all, she was finally in the body she had always craved, what reason could she ever have to change out of it?

She carefully extricated herself from the center of her massive harem, kissing and caressing every one of her loves – taking an especially long time to show her precious Mozu some affection, for while she loved every one of her concubines equally, the pink raptor would always have a special place of pride in her heart – and climbed out of her nest, inhaling deeply as the scent of love, of sex, of sandalwood and cherry blossoms filled her nostrils. It had taken a little getting used to, but she really thought of her quarters as home now.

Striding through her palatial suite – especially large to accommodate her true form – Akira passed by numerous prizes from her campaigns across the cosmos, gifts given by people she had saved and/or wooed, trophies from tournaments she'd won and adversaries she'd defeated, and holograms of special moments she had shared with those she loved most in the world, her precious memories preserved for posterity. Grabbing a kimono depicting Shinobiryu Valley in real time – by the coloration on the trees, it was currently autumn – hanging over a folding curtain and loosely draping it around her voluptuous form, she pushed open the doors to her balcony and stepped out onto a massive terrace with seats and small tables enough for her and all of her consorts when they felt like eating in.

Walking to the railing, she gazed out at the splendid vista laid out before her, almost the entirety of the Star Fortress Orochimecha visible from her vantage. She could see the palace slaves scurrying about below, hard at work as they tended to the gardens, drilled, cleaned, made minor repairs, and helped prepare the Youkalien throneship for their masters, chimes ringing out across the vessel to let everyone know it was time to wake up. Past the fortress walls, she could see the rim of the globe enclosing the grand structure, and past that, between the undulating heads of the great mechanical serpent, she could see the dozens of shining vessels of the Youkalien armada as they continued their journey of conquest across the stars.

"Looks like it's another morning in paradise," she murmured happily to herself, smiling gratefully as one of her kuroko-robed slaves – one of the ones who, sadly, had drawn one of the short straws which meant she had to sit out last night's lovemaking so as to be fit for work first thing in the morning – brought her a steaming cup of coffee. "Thank you very much," she thanked the girl. "Would you like some?" She asked, because while she was absolute mistress over all in her household, she refused to let that power go to her head.

Well. Much.

The slave shook her head. "No thank you, Mistress, I already had a cup. That… Is all right, isn't it?"

"It is," Akira assured her. "I've said before, whatever you need to get you through the day is fine with me." She sipped the cup, and sighed blissfully. "Oh. Oh wow, this is good stuff. Yeah, you're definitely getting a special reward tonight, and every following night you continue to make coffee as good is this."

The slave blushed. "B- but mistress, my rotation-"

"Is whenever I say it is," Akira purred, kissing her on the cheek and causing her to swoon. "Perks of being the boss."

As the slave reddened, stammered some apologies, and staggered away, Akira couldn't resist a chuckle as she sipped another mouthful of her sinfully good coffee. The poor girl was new, just picked up on the last planet. She really shouldn't be teasing her like that.

But it was so much fun!

The telltale sound of claw tips against lacquered wood got her ears twitching as Mozu, the beautiful pink biomechanical raptor – who, despite being larger now than she ever had been as a human, was still shorter than Akira – looking like she was practically sleepwalking, her eyes almost shut, dried drool taking her jaws. "Coffee," she murmured, with the same intonation as a zombie demanding brains.

"Here you go, Mistress," the slave from before said, promptly handing a cup to Mozu.

"'M not your mistress, she is," Mozu reminded her as she greedily guzzled down the contents of the cup. "I'm her slave, just like you."

"Technically, as my chief slave, you are, in fact, her mistress," Akira pointed out in amusement.

"Never asked to be your chief slave. Just your chief bed warmer," Mozu mumbled, eyes blinking rapidly as she immediately shot into wakefulness. "Shit, this stuff's good. You make this?"

"Yes, Mistress," the slave replied.

"Not your mistress. We're keeping you, and you get to join the nightly cuddle pile so long as you keep making coffee of this quality," Mozu decreed.

"Mistress Akira already said as much, but thank you, Mistress," the slave replied, bowing gratefully.

"I'm not your mistress!" Mozu yelled after her as the slave retreated back inside.

"You do recall that I eventually gave up on telling them that when we first got there?" Akira pointed out in amusement.

"Yeah, yeah…" Mozu grumbled, drinking another cup the slave had conscientiously left her. "She's new, right? What was her name again?"

"Kofi."

Mozu blinked. "Her name is Kofi and she makes really good coffee?"

"It's a thing in her culture, and it's not like it's the most on the nose name we've ever encountered," Akira pointed out. "And besides, it's still better than Trenta Vanilla Sweet Cream Cold Brew With Two Pumps Of Vanilla, Three Pumps Of Caramel Syrup, Two Pumps Of Cinnamon Dolce Syrup, Two Pumps Of Hazelnut, Two Pumps Of Toffee Nut Syrup, Two Pumps Of Mocha, Two Pumps Of White Mocha, Two Pumps Of Pumpkin Sauce, Three Pumps Of Maple Pecan Syrup, And Five Shots Of Espresso World."

"Good point," Mozu agreed, contentedly finishing her cup and releasing a satisfied sigh. She relaxed some of her dinpo, returning to her own humanoid form.

Akira looked at her body hungrily. While of course Mozu was beautiful in all of her forms and she loved her no matter what shape she was in, one of the only real drawbacks of her Shinobiryu form was the lack of mammaries. While of course Mozu's chest was nowhere near as sizable as Akira's own, she'd grown a cup or two from when she was pure human, and they were the perfect shape, size, and consistency in Akira's opinion. Factor that in with her soft pink scales, delicate claws, razor-sharp sickle talons, whiplike tail, graceful reptilian features, thick pink hair cascading in a waterfall well past her waist with some red feathers woven into it, and the fact that she was totally nude and didn't seem to care about it and Akira was having trouble keeping herself from taking her primary consort right then and there on the patio. It wouldn't be the first time.

Sadly, the flap of wings and a pair of shadows passing over her put the kibosh on that idea – she didn't really mind doing it with an audience, but always found it awkward when there were men involved – as Sora and Petra gracefully landed on the railing, which had no trouble supporting the pair of yellow biomechanical pterodactyls. Sora was still a bit smaller than his wife, but she did have a bit of a head start as far as age and birth was concerned, and she assured him he'd eventually hit a growth spurt in a few decades. For the time being, she seemed more than happy occasionally teasing him for his height, which he took with relatively good grace.

"Nice night?" Sora teased.

"Like you're one to talk," Akira retorted. "I can smell Petra all over you."

"Well, we are married and share the same nest," Sora replied. "But fair enough."

"I thought I smelled coffee," Petra said hungrily, licking her beak. "Really good coffee."

"Kofi? Could you please bring some cups for my friends?" Akira called over her shoulder.

"Right away, Mistress!" Moments later, Kofi reappeared with a pair of cups which she held out to the avian ninjas/librarians, not showing the least bit of fright as the couple leaned forwards and dipped their long, sharp, pointy beaks into the vessels in her hands. Then again, seeing as how her mistress was often a Tyrannosaurus, Akira supposed she'd seen far more dangerous things by now.

"Akira," Sora decided after finishing his cup, looking vibrant. "We're stealing her."

"No, you are not," Akira said calmly. "First of all, that's illegal, and may not even be physically possible given the magically binding contract between master and slave. Second of all, Mozu would gut you like a fish."

"She's right, I would," Mozu agreed cheerfully.

Sora pouted. "Do our years of friendship mean nothing, then?"

"I love coffee more," Mozu said honestly. "Though not as much as my beloved mistress, of course," she crooned, happily nuzzling Akira.

"Damn straight," Akira replied smugly.

"Could we perhaps pop in on our way to work in the morning, then?" Petra asked diplomatically. "This is really good coffee."

Akira glanced at Kofi. "That all right with you?"

"Whatever you think best," Kofi said dutifully.

Akira gave her a patient smile. "Kofi, while yes, I am indeed your mistress and you're more or less required to do anything I ask of you, I would never ask of you anything I didn't think you were comfortable doing. Would you be all right if my friends stop by from time to time in the morning for some coffee?"

"I have no problem with that," Kofi assured her, bowing her head. "I like making coffee. It's why I have my name."

Sora nodded in recognition. "Right, that's a thing in your culture, isn't it? Fascinating. I'm fairly certain I know what I would've been named had I been born among your people."

"Shorty?" Petra teased.

"Reed," Sora huffed. "Or possibly Flyt. Those are my greatest passions."

Petra pouted. "What about me?"

"You're rather farther down the list, right after this coffee we just had."

"Fair."

Mozu cooed. "The two of you are just so cute together! And once Jiro and Tetsu finally stop dancing around the subject, Kenji will be the only one of us who hasn't found love. Which is a shame, because rumor around the palace goes that a lot of people are interested in him, from the lowest ranking slave to some of the high nobles!"

"Now, Mozu, Kenji is our friend, and as such it would be irresponsible for us to interfere with his love life, or lack thereof," Akira said with a straight face. "Whether or not he finds someone is up to him, and if it turns out he doesn't want anyone, we just have to accept it and wish him well."

"We're going to play matchmaker, aren't we?" Mozu asked bluntly.

"Oh, absolutely. What's Kenji's schedule for the day?"

"He's going to be handling orientation for the newest intakes in a little while, but he should be free around lunch," Sora reported, for of course he knew everyone's schedules. "As for Tetsu and Jiro, they should be with Lady Sakuya for most the day. She really thinks they might have an aptitude for her kind of magic."

"Well, as the most spiritual of the clan-" Mozu began.

"Which is a matter of opinion," Akira pointed out.

"Members of the Ankylosaurus tribe would do well with priestly and shamanistic magic," Mozu agreed. She frowned. "Doesn't that mean they'd need to convert to the Youkalien religion, though?"

Petra shrugged. "Eh, we've got more than enough spirits and saints in our own culture that it shouldn't make that much of a difference. And speaking of schedules, Akira, I suggest you get dressed and ready as quickly as possible, the Hegemon will want you to give your presentation on the best way to handle conquering the next planet for the rest of the Armada in about an hour."

Akira smacked her forehead. "Oh shit, that was today?! Dammit, and here I thought I'd have time for a quickie."

"We might be able to sneak something in…" Mozu murmured to her, voice low and husky.

"Actually, Mozu, Ladies Yukinojo and Setpen have returned to the Orochimecha, and it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to see you as soon as they get settled in," Sora interjected.

Mozu flushed at this, with, with her pink scales, gave her an adorable rosy glow. "O-oh! W-well, I suppose I should get ready myself, then. I-I wouldn't want to keep them waiting!"

Akira chuckled. "Do I need to worry about someone else stealing your heart, Mozu?"

"While I adore the Ladies, and Her Divinity, and the rest of my sister wives," Mozu said fervently, clasping Akira's hands and staring into her eyes with adoration. "First and foremost, you will be the mistress of my heart. Always and forever, I belong to you, body and soul. I told you as much, remember?"

Akira smiled and gently ran a claw down her cheek, brushing away some hair. "Yeah. I know."

As they stared long and deep into each other's eyes, Sora coughed. "So, uh, Petra, we should get to work. Don't want to disappoint our alien overlords."

"It's actually possible for us to?" Petra wondered. "They're very forgiving."

"Yes, but I don't particularly want to find out," Sora replied, and the couple quickly said their farewells and took off, heading for the library, a cup of coffee to go in each of their claws.

"Did you ever think it would be like this?" Mozu asked Akira after a moment, once they were alone again, except for Kofi.

"Like what?" Akira asked, giving her a puzzled look.

"Happy," Mozu replied, smiling blissfully at her love. "We lost. The Youkaliens won. Our planet is now a Youkalien colony being governed by the two princesses, but we are off in space at the beck and call of the Hegemon helping her conquer other planets. And we're okay."

"… Yeah, it did take some adjustment," Akira admitted. "I honestly didn't think we were going to lose. It was really close there in the end. But…" She shrugged. "They won fair and square, and that's all there was to it. Further resistance would've just led to a war nobody wanted."

"The Children did," Mozu growled, slit pupils shrinking for a moment.

"Yeah, and they'll never be able to try anything like that ever again," Akira reminded her. She shrugged. "This isn't the life I really imagined for myself. Either of us. But… We are here, together. Happy and safe. The Earth is protected and prospering like never before, and may no longer need color-coded teams of five or more young people with giant robots or guys wearing outfits vaguely reminiscent of grasshoppers saving the day every week. I'll admit, sometimes I wonder what things might've been like if we had won, but… There's no point dwelling on the past. What's done is done, and life's too short for regrets."

"Both of us are almost immortal now," Mozu reminded her.

"Which means there's definitely no time for regrets, with lifespans long as ours, you'd rack up quite a few," Akira retorted.

"Now," she said, putting her arm around Mozu's shoulder and leading her back inside. "Let's wake up the rest of the girls so the two of us can get ready for our big days – Kofi, could you make enough for everyone? Oh, you already did? Thanks, you're a godsend – and have some fun in the bath while we do so, I knew I made the right decision springing for such a big tub-"

"Akira, it's practically an Olympic swimming pool!"

"Yes, and a lot of us are dinosaurs, so we need every bit of space we can get," Akira replied with a laugh, glancing at one of her body-sized mirrors as they reentered her suite. As always, she was greeted by her reflection; a very tall, drop dead gorgeous – in her humble opinion – woman covered in red and gold scales with fangs, claws, taloned feet, a thick tail, a more than generous figure that didn't even bother trying to be contained by her kimono, very attractive reptilian features, and a shaggy mass of red and gold hair almost as big as she was with a number of colored feathers woven into it.

She grinned and shot her reflection finger guns, knowing that this girl – this girl who had achieved her dreams of becoming a Shinobiryu, had the hearts of all the women she could ever love, had succeeded in vanquishing the Deathbringer and saving her sister, and was a frequent bedmate of a living goddess – was a born winner.

There was nothing more she could ever want than this.

Well, other than to occasionally wonder what might've been, but by and large, her life was perfect and she wasn't sure she would change a thing.

Hmm… Unless she wanted to make her mother a grandmother? Something to consider…

As she contemplated the feasibility of this – would she carry the eggs? Would Mozu? Would everyone? Would that be fair to them to make them do it, or would it be less fair to leave some of them out? She wouldn't want anyone to get jealous, managing the affections of an entire harem and keeping them from competing against each other for her affections was always something to worry about, thank goodness they all seemed to get along with each other pretty well for the most part – she failed to notice her reflection vanish, to be replaced by a hazy figure with tusks and a long snout, frantically banging against the glass.

"Akira!" The figure shouted. "Akira, Mozu, you need to wake up, this isn't real, you are all in grave danger! Wake up! WAKE-"

Akira blinked and glanced back at the mirror. There was nothing looking back at her but her reflection. "Did you just hear something?"

"No, why?" A concerned Mozu asked.

Akira frowned, then shook her head and turned her focus back to the logistics of becoming a mother.

As such, she failed to notice her reflection once again get replaced… This time, by something much more sinister…