Infinite Choices
By
Elendil Star-Lover

Chapter one

Princess Growltiger was so powerful that everything in her life had been planned. Everything. Even who she would marry. Now, granted the two cubs had known each other their whole lives and they were a match made in Heaven, but that didn't mean that Nala had to like it.

Nala Aislen Growltiger, The Angel of the Battlefield, The Hope of the Lightening, The Growling Tiger, was a thing so feared and despised that if her life wasn't planned, then it wouldn't happen.

Nala was a seven-year-old with a necklace and a set of nasty-looking claws. That was it. That was how she thought of herself: a girl, a child, a person. Most of her planet, her kingdom, didn't. For starters, she was their future queen, their hope, and all their dreams for the impending doom she was apt to see at day rested on her.

But, like all small children, Nala liked to play. She liked to run wild, play with her plushies, some of which were of the creatures in development in the labs dotted across The Main Island on the planet Saturn-Under-the- Rings. And like most Valkyrie cubs, she inherited her middle name by the parent with the same gender as her, and she had her own special talents.

Most people didn't know what it was. Most people thought it was just a rumor, or considered it fodder for the Inner Realm to talk about what a danger she was and how best to remove her power, not that it could be done without the death of the most valued asset and princess, who was only a cub, not even in her teens.

Yes, Nala was princess and warrioress, child and monarch.

And she was running.

She ran not from fear or pain, she wasn't hunting because she was too young. She ran just to feel as if she could do something just because she wanted to; just because she liked it.

And Nala ran right over a humanoid thing that was even shorter then she!

She collapsed into the moist ground, digging black soil into her baby fur's white stripes, with her toeclaws out and her tail sprawled beneath her. She cast her neon blue eyes back into the tree, whose branches connected to a road to other trees on the island (actually, Main Island was about the size of Australia), and blinked at the ten-year-old blinking down at her.

He was about three feet tall, smaller than a human child his age, roughly the size of a slightly small Valkyrie. His hair was a dark and sandy color, framing a square, boyish face and bright blue eyes. Despite the heat of Main Island, he wore a white hooded robe whose long sleeves barely covered a number burned into his wrist: 12.

"Hi," he said softly, bending down to aid his princess back into the tree.

Trembling, though not in fright for herself, Nala stretched her hand out and greeted the boy back. Then it dawned on her.

"Hey! You're one of the Digitals created in the lab, aint'cha?"

The boy nodded, "Yeah, my name's Gennaii."

His eyes widened, "And you're the princess! My, you don't look so scary to me!"

Nala gave her new found friend a wry smile, "Aint'cha supposed to be in a lab?"

Gennaii shook his head, "No. I'm not a control; I can go wherever I want so they can monitor how I react to people!"

Nala returned the boy's smile and said, "Number in the teens. That means you'll be one of the ones working on the project later on, right?"

Gennaii nodded.

The princess clapped her hands and jumped up and down, squealing, "Have you considered making eggs? And binding them to cubs?"

Gennaii stared at the black and white tigress blankly, "Cubs...?"

Nala nodded and gave him a playful yank on his hand, which she hadn't quite taken, and pulled him down beside her.

"Oh, come on, you know, cubs! Little ones!"

Gennaii laughed at his naïveté, "You mean infants! Yes, yes! That's a great idea!"

:30~

Gennaii couldn't help but be happy for his friend of so many years as he watched her walk the branches. Her dress was black, the groom was as dark as night. As she had gown older, Nala had turned as white as the ever- dreamed-of snow, and she was beautiful.

To follow her position in life, she had chosen to keep the betrothal and thus married Maximus, one who was just as handsome as he was smart, with hair as white as snow and neon green eyes.

Standing near the edge of the wedding, Gennaii felt a presence beside him. Elecmon, keeper of the digitamas.

"She looks quite pretty," the red and purple Digital Monster muttered in a deep voice beside the Digital.

Gennaii nodded.

Elecmon grinned knowingly and explained, "She's a good girl. She just wants what is best for her people, and puts them ahead of her."

He laughed again, "Funny, I don't see either one of you as the marrying type."

:30~

Not long after the wedding, Nala Aislen Growltiger awakened screaming in the night. Her gift was to see the future, her curse was that those who believed chose to fight and die.

:30~

"Take my cub and run to the Digiworld."

Gennaii stared blankly at the queen. Her ice blue eyes were filled with worry, the baby in her arms clung to her mother as if feeling the fright in the air.

Smell, Gennaii supposed, she can smell fear.

"Why?" the scientist asked.

Nala crouched down on the treebranch and sighed, "Queen Beryl is coming and she will destroy Silver Millennium."

Gennaii took his friends chin into his hand, "You are not telling me everything."

Again, Nala sighed, "I'm to be executed in hopes that the Negaverse will not be able to use me for their destructive purpose. Maximus is to lead the armies. Sarabi has nowhere else to go."

Long ago, Gennaii had learned to trust in Nala's visions, and so he accepted.

:30~

Gennaii smelled smoke. The whole forest was ablaze. Yes, Nala had been right. He moved in a blur, unable to think. He snatched the winged cub, as black as the depths of space, from her crib in the middle of the Digital's dormitory in a stone laboratory in the dead center of a Negaverse attack.

Frantically, Gennaii searched the blankets as his goddaughter screamed. Brave lass! She wasn't crying, the sound was more defensive!

So much like her mother, Gennaii thought with tears forming in his baby blue eyes.

Where had the egg gone???

Gennaii slapped himself! Another experiment! He ran into the next room. Where a black egg emblazoned with the marks of the crests sat in a glass chambray with wires sticking to its magnificent surface. The Digital had to dodge overturned computers and fallen colleagues, but he managed to snatch the egg and run with a baby tucked under each arm to the portal room.

:30~

Another day, another lab, Gennaii thought, watching a computer monitor out of one eye and the last Valkyrie paw at her partner's egg with the other. The egg wobbled, startling the kitten into backing away and hissing. Such fire! It shouldn't be wasted in th Gates of Oblivion. Still, the scientist owed his late friend such a kindness to follow her orders.

Pleasepleaseplease, Gennaii begged the screen, displaying the power levels of the new generation of Sailor Soldiers. He knew that if it didn't shift at that point, it wouldn't until Sarabi had her own daughter.

It didn't shift.

;30~

Gennaii kissed the baby girl softly on the cheek as he laid her down to sleep. He watched her, her silken fur, big eyes, and satin wings. He loved the cub like a daughter. Must he give her up?

Yes.

It was her mother's wishes.

Shouts brought the Digital back to reality. He carefully lifted his hood and picked his boken up from beside the door before walking through it. all his colleagues were backed against walls, scared stiff of a seven-foot harlequin grinning evilly and selecting crests from the eggs nestled safely in their chambers. A growl escaped through the young man's lips.

"PIEDMON!" he shouted, "Leave those eggs alone!"

The monstrous clown stepped forward, "Eight, Gennaii, where's the ninth?"

Gennaii grinned, "I can neither confirm nor deny."

Before the clown could react, Gennaii raced at him with his boken drawn, but he couldn't swing it. his body exploded with pain and he decided to change plans. A passing Armormon served his purposes well. Gennaii ripped its lid open and climbed inside.

He eyed the controls blankly, disorientated and confused. How to make it digivolve? Ah, yes, this one!

He selected a red button on the beeping control panel and felt a surge of energy. The new, winged Digimon carefully snatched one egg and opened himself new door before exiting.

As he flew, he didn't notice a single egg drop.

:30~

Gennaii returned, stumbling and tired, to angry faces. His colleagues no longer wanted him around. So, he picked up his goddaughter and her partner's egg and their shared crest and walked the long road to the Primary Village.