To Love-Ru: The Fight for Love

by drastorm3r

The Earth, potential battleground for a blossoming second Galactic War. Rito has won his battle for the right to love Lala, but now the fight to make a better universe for her is on! Shady organizations with Earth in their cross-hairs, a mysterious enemy who is much more than they seem, and the most shocking reveal are yet to come for Rito and Lala. Sequel to To Love-Ru:I Struggle

6. Galactic Conspiracy

To Love-Ru: The Fight for Love
Chapter 4.1
The Golden Ruler

Disclaimer: I do not own To Love-Ru

Fair Warning Ahead: Lime scene included, may up the rating if necessary.

Somewhere

Sunlight was streaming in from a window, spilling onto a collection of beakers, burners, and various scientific equipment and experiments all in the middle of being conducted. Bursting awake from his impromptu bout of fitful sleep, the lone occupant of the room drew his hand up to wipe off the sweat from his brow and tousled his bed head in the process, before searching for the discarded pair of glasses nearby. Placing them on, equal parts cursing himself for not fixing his own eyesight and falling asleep in the middle of an important experiment, the black haired scientist finds his discarded lab coat and shifts the familiar weight across his shoulders to cover his black turtleneck. Going to the nearest computer and gazing over the hours of amassed data, pink eyes absorbing everything with his enhanced memory. He was lucky he only lost a couple of hours to sleep, if he had stayed away any longer, accidents could have happened and unnecessary discoveries and revelations could have been connected.

His introspection was interrupted by muffled cursing and bangs from outside of his domicile, shortly before the shorter form of the younger alien college, Kieze, appeared from the doorway. "Doctor, I'm afraid there's been some..." he hesitates, glancing around at the disheveled state of the room that had seen better keep, "...complications."

The Doctor barely even spares him the picoseconds it takes for his algorithms to finish and move onto their next task, before voicing his own retort. "I am aware that the scouts were lost, the supernovae remnant was underestimated and we only lost incompetent pawns, the momentary distraction they caused will force Mikado to divert their course and prolong them just enough for my plans to finalize," The Doctor states dispassionately, unfazed by the expected variables, much to Keize's surprise and discomfort, "My planned timetable requires them to divert to the abandoned Canis Systems, before they realize that it's actually Sirus Major that hell-witch resides on." He turns to Keize, pausing from his crucial work as he does so and losing precious time, to address him with frankness. "If your past failures show anything, its that your willingness to sacrifice your men to accomplish your goals is only minor at best, despite your apparent readiness to sacrifice everyone to get me out of that Devil's prison." Keize audibly gulps as he feels the heat from the Doctor's glare, despite the neutral expression he is leveling at him.

"Sorry- sorry, sir, it's just that we put a lot of resources and manpower into rescuing you a year ago, that our group still hasn't recouped all the losses from our various enterprises," Keize reports, his opinion of the man having shifted over the past year stranded with the man on Earth after being sent by the Director of Solgam to this mudball, "The Boss may have a better grasp on your plan, but every head lost brings us that much closer to being pulled from our experiments- your experiment, sir." Despite his apparent lack of survival instincts, Keize did know how to knock some sense into the Doctors head by threatening his experiments. This actually caused the man to sigh, before rubbing the bridge of his nose below his glasses.

"Fine, you're correct we shouldn't waste manpower so needlessly, but I'll explain it to you simply how necessary their sacrifice was," The Doctor says, pulling up some blueprints from his computer and requesting Keize to step forth to observe it. The younger man does so, as he looks over the plans, his face physically shifts between confusion, awe, and a hint of terror, before settling on confusion as he looks to his senior scientist.

"Sir, this is a very dangerous game you could be playing by doing this," Keize states with a hint of uncertainty, "If Deviluke- no, if the universe gets even a hint of these plans-" The Doctor stops him with a glance, that causes him to freeze and gulp, his Adam's apple bobbing pronounced as he does so.

"That is why I, personally, will continue on with the next phase, while you prepare for the final phase here," The Doctor states, clamping a firm grip on his subordinates shoulder, "No more involving any other people, just you and me, less chance of plans leaking out that way; it helps that most of the equipment for the final phase mainly needs upkeep until we carry it out, but until then I need to know I can trust you, boy." Keize nods, which causes The Doctor to smile in approval. "Good, now, leave," The Doctor orders, his face turning cold and steely as he turns back to his work, "I have projects that need to be finished before I continue."

The younger man nods, hastily exiting the room, sprinting as far away as possible, before he stumbles to the ground with his hand over his chest, heart beating faster than he knows it should be. Keize respected the man he adored as his mentor, his idol, but working with the 'eccentric' man in the flesh was far different than he imagined. He knew the man to have rightfully been kept in that prison, if the grandiose design he had barely gotten a glimpse of was any key part in a far grander scheme. Madman or not, the Boss requested and gave him free reign over this project, something Keize could now see he would be regretting if things played out with little care to the lives caught in the middle. Was it worth the discovery, if playing god resulted in the deaths of countless billions?

Edge of the Devil's Playground
Outer Galactic Bank of the First Empire

"So this is the busiest bank in the galaxy?" Rito asks, as he stares at the empty expanse ahead of them, a small planetoid barely the size of Pluto circling a massive red giant, "isn't it a bit... small?" Lala laughs at that, before Rito follows him up towards the cockpit with Mikado.

"The bank vaults themselves aren't located on the planetoid, just the main branch of the bank, a small docking port, and the remainder of one of the oldest known living civilizations left after the great galactic war wiped most of the elder races of the universe off the map," Lala states, as the small planetoid grows larger as the distance closes, "Mikado-sensei, have you sent out our declaration of intent?" She turns back to Rito to explain this. "The security is pretty tight, like most banks, and you have to be the richest of the richest to actually even manage to approach this far," she continues, her tail swishing in excitement as she recounts all of this to Rito, "Father never took me or my sisters, but from what I hear the vaults are actually stored within various asteroids and such within the Devil's Playground itself, located on or near the event horizon, all to prevent decay and allow exact control of managing everything from air pressurization to atmosphere and temperature." Lala grabs him by the shoulder, beginning to shake him in excitement, joy beaming off her face as he returns the smile.

"They say the Chelidane are one of the oldest living beings, some up to the age of two thousand years, give or take a few centuries," Mikado states, grinning down at the planetoid, "Most history was lost during the great wars, cultural artifacts were plundered and pillaged or outright destroyed, little information survived beyond two thousand years ago, and the Chelidane are considered one of the most richest in knowledge, as well as technology." She turns to Rito with a serious expression on her face. "If the rumors are true about this place, from what I've heard their technology is so advanced that there's a reason no one attempts to rob them: if you can control temperature and atmosphere,why not decide how much time passes in a vault for those who try to rob you?" she states all too serious, causing Rito to get nervous, "Why bother dealing with legalities when you can rob the robbers of air and heat, adjust the time and they'd be mummified without a fight." Rito gulps at that, with Mikado smiling as she turns her attention back to the screen as a new message is received by her ship. "You won't have any worries though, don't let my teasing scare you either, the Chelidane are pacifists by nature, welcoming everyone, and the stories keep the riff-raff away."

Outside the ship from the view of the bridge of Mikado's ship, a drifting satellite suddenly came to life, brightening against the refracted light from the planetoid's atmosphere. Before Rito could ask what was going to happen next, a beam of light seemed to emanate from a point at the bottom of the dish before they slowly began to drift towards the beams seemingly magnetic pull. As they slowly came to a halt in front of the dish, the ships instruments indicated they had begun to be scanned from the bow to the stern, a green light slowly crawling from the windows across the surface of ship. "Must be standard security protocols," Mikado assured the nervous earthling, before taking a puzzled look at her instruments, "Though it appears... to be taking cellular scans; but those aren't used in normal screening..." Suddenly the ship came to a grinding halt as the bright green light shifted, plunging into the darkness of the void before being replaced by a deep scarlet that pulsed with warmth even through the highly protected viewing port on the bridge.

Somewhere within the Planetoid

Turning off carpet with thin click of heels onto ancient marble stone, no doubt procured from some faraway alien planet as payment to the Chelidane, and a female humanoid with wavy, soft cream hair and curly protrusions, stood in front of the Minister of Securities foreboding door. Knocking gently with all five knuckles, the shifting of weight followed by slight tremors carried along the stone, alerted her to the fact that the massive presence behind the door was aware of her intrusion into his domain, at a time when he had requested solace despite his position. "What is it?" a gruff voice booms behind the closed door, obviously rhetoric as he opens the door to face her in his full might, "Oh, its you girl; well, what is it?" Massive was the least of the adjectives she could call this elder being in front of her, a weathered beak showing its age as it had dulled with time, a shell having grown heavy with age and the weight of his two thousand plus years of life, the fact he towered a good two feet over her 5"6', despite the wrinkles and sagging jowls that seem to paradoxically reside among the weathered, gray-green skin that reflected his cold-blooded nature. A three fingered hand raises to her forehead and flicks her right between her horns, bringing her out of her stupor, as she realizes a cry of pain and covers the injured surface. "Speak," his sagging beak balks out, "What is it you ditzy Ariesan, that is causing you to interrupt my scheduled three hour sunning?"

The giant turtle had a point, which caused her to bow out of embarrassment for having disturbed him while he fulfilled such an important biological need in a place that lacked a lengthy period of sunlight compared to most places in the universe. "Minister, the security satellites in sector three-B were conducting normal scans of a vessel that had requested docking with the proper permits filed, when there was a problem," the young ungulate states, raising up to face her superior while handing him a silver tablet with more information, "No action is being taken yet without your authorization, but a class five silent alarm was triggered, and per your request I have come to inform you that unless you act sector security will authorize a level nine-clean sweep protocol, per normal procedures." At that wide eyes grow taunt, and the massive form turns to reveal a scarred surface among the decorative cracks that formulate the shell plating, as he lumbers over to a personal computer to begin inputting commands into the device.

"I've managed to circumvent the alarms, those stuffy fools won't hear a word of this if I can help it; they won't get another chance to crack down on my department while I've worked so hard..." He mutters under his breath as he redirects lines of coding and sends messages to certain people in certain places, "Brilliant, bloody brilliant that we get a Class Five anomaly just before we're told the crown princess of Deviluke is scheduled to come visit us..." At that the Areisan secretary perks up at that, a bit of confusion lacing her voice.

"That's the odd thing, sir, the ship that triggered the alarm is the same ship that is supposed to be carrying the Princess," the young woman states, pulling one of the curls of her hair taunt out of nervousness, "While we commonly only hear about Class Four and below threats in our security briefings, sir, what is so dangerous that it even overrides the threat of harming the Devilukean Princess, who would normally be classified only as a Class-Three anomaly?" The man turns his pointed beak to her, opening it and clipping it shut just a fast as if reconsidering his words, the dismissive gesture causes her instincts to act up, forcing her to cower against her wishes

"Do not worry about that, Brightwool, just hurry and meet them before that stuffy woman that the Council calls a receptionist scares them all away," the Minister states, dismissing her with a firm tone, "Refusing the Princess of Deviluke, the eldest daughter and future Queen at that, would be a blow to our establishment that could tarnish our reputation and relationship as the number one bank in the universe; refusing her now might even cause Deviluke to pull all of their stored resources her and collapse the financial security of the entire quadrant!" The woman nods, bowing as she hesitantly and hastily vacated the room after he enthusiastically announced such. He sighs once she had left, sitting back into his chair and relaxing at the interruption of his entire schedule, before going to reach for a silver topped cane that sat against the wall nearby. "Too soon, quite too soon for these old bones," he sighs to himself, "I might see the tides of change in our lifetime after all, father." Tapping his three fingers on the top of the cane, he waits for the tides of change to come to him.

Shortly...

Rito and Lala had conferred with Mikado, the latter knowingly staying to watch the ship without access to the main facilities, though apparently a separate housing and recreational facility was available for pilots and such who usually chauffeured, built specifically in mind to accommodate them as they waited for their charges. With matters settled , Lala was the first off of the ship to be greeted, with Rito following shortly behind, unsure and anxious as he was way out of his known experiences going into such a highly secured bank. A set of guards, each armed with futuristic rifles and suits of armor that obscured their faces, stood in a row flanking either side of a walkway that was basically a red carpet at which an unusual alien, dressed in formal business attire, stood at the end. Rito noticed she appeared to be nervous by the way she carried herself, holding tightly to a silver tablet like it was her lifeline, though that wasn't the only unusual factor about her. The woman, if the moderate rack hidden behind the tablet and above her crossed arms were any indication, had lightly wavy, stark white hair that almost seemed curly and soft framed by a pair of square framed glasses, and what appeared to be small, curled horns on either side of her head. He almost missed the fact that beneath her well dressed business attire, her feet ended in what appeared to be cloven hooves that made her alien nature more apparent.

"Welcome, children, welcome to Chelidane Prime, adoptive home of the Chelidane and the most secure Galactic bank in existence; I was told of the arrival of the Princess of Deviluke, but whom may I ask are you?" the woman pointedly asks Rito, showing a strained smile as she sizes him up, "I'm afraid I was unaware yo would have an escort...?" Before anything more could be said, a young girl comes clomping out of another doorway, dressed very similarly to the adult standing before them, though the color of her hair is more of a cream than white, and her horns are much less curved or pronounced.

"I'm sorry, oh so very sorry Manager Clover, that I was unable to approach you with the proper paperwork in time," the younger woman states, smoothing out her blouse and straightening her skirt from having apparently run from wherever she had been, "The Minister of Security has approved the unusual circumstances, having realized it was merely an oversight of informing the proper parties." Lala and Rito are both surprised that the girl had taken a step between them and the other woman, offering her the paperwork meekly. "You see this is apparently Princess' Lala's fiance; the Galactic News Network is all for its stories and gossip, so Lord Emperor Deviluke neglected to mention to us that both parties would be escorted into the bank," she smoothly puts out, smiling as the older woman frowns and takes a look at the assembled paperwork, "While our security is airtight internally, it would not be unusual for someone to, uhh, to leak information to outsiders to try and make a story out of nothing; considering our gracious Emperors continued patronage as a customer, it would not be unusual for the prince consort to be made aware of all the wealth he will acquire upon his marriage to the princess." The older woman closed the packet of information, sliding it behind the silver tablet, before sighing and adjusting her glasses.

"Very well, Brightwool, I will inform the telemats of an additional guest for transport, but please come forward sooner with this information," she turns to Lala and Rito, bowing to them both, "We here at the First Galactic Bank continue to appreciate your services and continued patronage, so please be assured we will continue to guard your treasures up until the end of time, thank you both." She hastily retreats, dismissing the guards who break up to return to guarding their individual posts elsewhere in the facility.

The younger woman is tense, before exhaling a sigh of relief and turning back to face both Lala and Rito, who continued to stand upon the red carpet. "Welcome Princess Lala Satalin Deviluke and guest," she states with a shaky smile, looking over Rito as she continues, "I apologize that we weren't made aware of you entertaining a guest, but I hope I did not offend anyone by making assumptions; I wasn't aware if this is truly your fiance, but news of your engagement has just recently broke ground her, and it made things easier..." She nervously scratches behind her head, eyes slanted and look apologetic, which made Rito confident enough to speak up.

"That was quite fine, Miss Brightwool, in fact I am Rito Yuuki, and I am indeed Lala's fiance," he states, putting out a hand to shake her own, "And thank you for covering for us." She politely returns the hand gesture, grasping his hand and gently shaking it.

"I find it quite odd, my Father should have made you aware that both Rito and I were to arrive," Lala puzzles over, "Did he not make that clear when he booked the appointment?" At that Brightwool nervously chuckles, and nods.

"Actually your father, the Emperor, did in fact make us aware that you would have an accompanying person with you when you arrived, but other circumstances were brought to our attention that caused my Boss, the Minister of Security, to personally look into your case," Brightwool states, pausing to bringing an arm up to direct them, "But, let us take you to somewhere more secure, the minister's own private telemat, where we can discuss this more freely." At that they follow her guidance, down a long hallway and through a pair of doors and down yet another hallway, until they reach a pair of highly secure doors. She places a hand on a scanner, then puts her eye to a retina scanner, and the doors open to reveal an elevator. "Please, after you," she states holding the door open for Rito and Lala to step into, which they do, "Hold on tight, the descent is a bit rough." Grasping onto the railing in the elevator, both Rito and Lala prepare themselves, before a roar of air compress down upon them, and they lurch at the sudden feeling of their stomachs in their throats. The feeling ends as gravity seems to catch up with them, as their descent slows to a stop, the doors opening to another hallway.

They follow her through it until they reach yet another door, though this one opens to an office, a Princess and the pauper, please come in and have a seat," the large figure states, looking up from his work to reveal a hulking humanoid turtle, much to the surprise of Lala and Rito, who each take an empty seat, with Brightwool stepping behind the man and waiting patiently. "My, my, you look so much like your mother," the massive turtle states, its long, sagging neck showing pronounced folds as it looks from Lala to Rito, "And you, good sir, may I ask what planet and race you represent, give me your name too, boy." He states this plainly, beaked mouth showing no emotion but eyes shining in curiosity as he expectantly waits for an answer. "But, where are my manners, of course, of course," the tortoise states, "My name is Chelus-Fim, I am the minister of securities of the banks interests and vaults." He smiles and lets Rito speak now.

"Uhm... ahem, my name is Rito Yuuki, I'm a member of Humanity, the Human race that is, of Earth," he states a little confused at the Chelidane's question, "Is there a problem sir; shouldn't have Emperor Gid informed you of all of this before our arrival?" At that, a chuckle erupts from the giants mouth, as he smiles as much as a giant alien turtle could with such a large beak.

"There are probably more questions than I have answers for you, boy; do you know how many humanoid races call themselves 'human', before they were given other names?" the Chelidane asks him, but continues without a response, "There are Humans in Talha Prime, Humans from Quirkus IV to Andros Seventeen, and all manner of 'humans' in all shapes, sizes, and colors: I could consider a Memorzean human, just as you could consider your own species 'human', Earthling." He stops chuckling, giving a sincerity to his next words, as he pulls up a pen to point at Rito in his green, three fingered hand. "The humanoid form is the most common genetic template in the galaxy, as varied as I am in comparison with an Earth born turtle, but your ignorance is forgiven for a being of such a... unique planet, such as Earth," he half smiles, or at least Rito assumes so, before returning to address the both of them, "Though because this is both your first times coming into our establishment, we will need to have you each give us a baseline genetic profile." He hands each a sheet of information, with spaces for them to fill out with a pencil on the side. "Blood, you see, is the major difference that allows us to decipher where you come from; as every species has a unique profile catalogued within our database," he states boastfully, "by registering you within our system, we are able to show you which vaults you are allowed access to within your genetic compatibility; this baseline also allows us to screen for any minute variations that would alert us to someone trying to falsify their way into one of our vaults."

He turns to his assistant and points between her and Lala. "Due to the secure nature of a couples account, we will need a fully body scan as well; Miss Brightwool, could you prepare Miss Deviluke for a full body screening in the adjacent room," he informs the sheep girl, who bows her head and smiles as she approaches Lala, "I will inform Mister Yuuki of the nature of this exam, as it might be a bit... intimate, compared to normal screenings." With a slight bow the sheep girl leaves, leading Lala through a door to the side of the room, leaving the two men to talk together, the large Chelidane turning with a bit of mirth to observe Rito. "While I might say it is strange for one such as I to be surprised, I must say I never expected to see one of your kind truly rise to such a prestigious position; if King Gid's summary of your planet Earth's history is correct," He states, slowly lifting his large form out of his chair to slowly walk in front of his desk and position himself properly in front of Rito. Rito was able to get a better look at the giant alien tortoise, and he would say he was about his own height, if a tad bit smaller, but the girth of his shell made up for his lack of stature, giving him an imposing thickness that reminded Rito of a jolly, old, fat man, albeit with a long, wrinkled yet bulging neck connected to a sharp beak, hiding imposing charcoal black eyes behind bushy green eyebrows, which surprise him the most for a tortoise to have, until he notices that it appears to be moss of some kind cleverly disguised as hair.

"I imagine it seems odd for you, to see something so remarkably similar to a common house pet, or lunch in some parts of your world, heh heh, standing before you, conversing with you like any other sane being?" the man's face seems to soften and sag as he des so, as does his posture, as he picks up a small cane from his desk and begins to lean onto it as support, "I see a hairless ape standing before me, something remarkably plain and seen throughout the cosmos in various forms; what is one hairless ape when you've lived thousands of years and seen them in all their variance across the various galaxies that are habitable to complex life..." He lifts up the cane and strikes Rito in his side, causing him to flinch as he does so. "Well, whose to say we can't still be impressed by the things we do not know beyond the surface," he chuckles at this, then becomes serious with Rito, a glint in his eyes as he sighs and adjusts his grip on the silver topped cane, "Long ago, my egg-father's egg-father made a mistake, of judging what you see by just the surface, and paid deeply for his sins by being cooked for lunch by the local natives, a bunch of brutes who saw him as nothing more than walking meal." The Chelidane strikes his cane on the ground, and a portion of the floor beneath Rito slides down and away, as a computer system appears and rises up from beneath the floor. "In that lesson, I've learned not to judge the men I meet in my line of work as the same savages or brutes who snacked upon my distant ancestor; you, too will find as you become King of this vast and wide universe, not to judge the people you meet as the same as those who threatened your life, or the ones you loved, or even by the friends you've made in your short realization that life exists outside your own planet," the screen comes to life, and a holographic projection begins to come to life of a simple cylinder, as it begins to render a three dimensional model of a human body with no distinctive features, "This, is you, or rather what little we know of you and the human race, a simple featureless model extracted from various radio signals and photos of aliens who have visited your planet, enough to make simple skin suits and have basic, if incorrect knowledge of your planet, which is constantly getting updated to the Galactic Net, forcing us to sift through facts and fictions to figure out who you are as a people."

Looking over the figure, Rito is not impressed, the figure was basically a doll with nothing on it except hair and eyes like himself. "The reason younger species contract with us, is the same thing we all wish: curiosity to know about our neighbors, to learn and grow, to find our place in the universe; whether that means being the next galactic overlord or someone's next meal, the realization that knowledge is worth the most to the ones who first learn it, is quite a wise investment to make," he points to the door through which Lala and the assistant had gone through, "We will take a genetic compatibility scan by submersing you in a permeable liquid that is oxygen infused, to allow you to breath it in after a period of adjustment of course, and we will use the information we find to create a base genetic profile that we will use, and if you are so willing, can be properly compensated for in exchange for allowing us to disseminate this information first hand." Rito realizes that he is asking for him to sell his genetic information in exchange for something, whether it be money or something else he did not yet know.

"Well, I don't know about selling my information, you do know that I've been genetically modified and exposed to so many various transformation devices that, um, well I may not be the most baseline example of what qualifies an 'Earthling'? Rito tries to explain, "I would have to talk with Lala, but I think we're find with money..." At that the man gruffly chuckles, which startles him, as he stares down the smiling beak.

"Be assured what I would compensate you with would not be merely monetary, oh no, I am quite aware of your fiscal sum, no, no, what I would pay you with would come from the innermost vaults, the oldest ones detailing with information we have gathered on the universe itself, since our conception," he replies, as he walks to the door and stands aside it, "But, enough about business, we can talk about business later, now I must ask you to follow me into the preparation chambers." After what had seemed enough time to finish whatever Lala and the assistant had done, he motioned for Rito to enter, which he did as the Chelidane entered the room and came to the end of a forked hallway. Rito watches as Chelus-Fim shuffles in front of one of the doors and taps it with his cane. "Once you enter into this door, do not go beyond the poly-fiberous curtain until you discard your outer layers, there is a basket for you to place them in during your sterilization, then enter the room beyond the curtain and close your eyes promptly for five seconds," the Chelidane instructs, which reflexively causes Rito to nod in understanding, albeit embarrassed, "Once sterilized, you will enter into yet another room where sterilized bio-gel awaits you in a privacy vat; enter it and do not force yourself to breath, it is oxygenized but air-breathers find the transfer from gas to semi-solid uncomfortable generally." Rito nods, and wants to ask questions, but the giant tortoise continues to speak with a commanding tone. "Now, the gel is transparent allowing you to see through the entire contents of the container, but a one-way mirrored surface protects your privacy from being violated as the container conducts its scans," the man finishes, as he opens the other door and begins to walk into it, stopping to turn back with a smile, "The process will take about an hour, and as I am sure you have not eaten since arriving, proper sustenance will be prepared for your consumption afterward based off of the data we gather; also, don't struggle too much, or the scans will take longer, oh, and also don't worry about whether we can hear or see anything going on within the container, the privacy screening also extends to sound as we will be separated by a five foot vacuum of space between the observational post and the examination room." Taking all of this in, Rito nods, if a little hesitant and confused as to what exactly is going on, but he breathes as he proceeds to enter the opposite door.

***** Lime Begins Here*****Feel free to skip*****

He feels a chill in the air as the door shifts open, the warmth of the room sucked out as he enters the new room, with the door closing behind him with a 'hiss' as it seals. The room felt damp entering into it the longer he stood, noticing the flooring changed from carpet to ceramic tiling, noticing a set of baskets, some with clothing already inside it put into a concave cubby hole of sorts, the other sitting next to a simple bench awaiting his own clothes. Looking around out of embarrassment and indecision, hoping no one could observe him, he begins to undress by first removing his shoes and socks, feeling the tiling leach the heat from him just by standing still on it. Taking off his pants, then his shirt and folding both into the basket, he hesitates to strip out of his modest underwear, taking a deep breath as the chill of the air crawls over him as his body adjusts to the temperature of the cool room. Stripping, he reflexively covers himself as he prepares himself to walk through the thin, dangling sheets of translucent plastic that remind Rito of the things that are inside of car washes that look like pasta and soap up a car. Like a soft breath of air, wind blows through them and the difference in heat is apparent as the difference in humidity causing the change in air pressure to be noticeable, as it blows warm against his nude skin. Stepping through the curtain, the plastic sticking to him like static would a balloon, he pulls free of the curtains, he notices that the room is mostly empty beyond a colored circle at the center, and a sort of chandelier made up of multiple identical machines attached to the ceiling. He moves to stand at the center of the small room, no bigger than three meters but noticeably warmer than the first, and remembers to close his eyes just before a searing heat seems to pass over him accompanied by a spot inducing brightness that shines through his closed eyelids from all around him.

'One, two, three, four, five,' he counts inside his head, before the heat and light passes, opening his eyes to find unusual colors and black spots passing in front of his eyes. A smell of singed hair seems to gather in the room for a few seconds, before the sound of something being lowered around him and powering up concerns him. His eyes finally adjust, and he realizes that it was the apparatus having been lowered around him on mechanical arms, settled around him in various positions much like a gyroscope for a full 360 degree effect. There appear to be six of them in total, half circles with a single hose like nozzle at the center, with three smaller nozzles on each side leading up to the end of the apparatus' branches. Wondering what was going to happen next, each of the branches began to spray a soft white foam from them, covering his body, much to his utter surprise as the foam covered every part of his body; it began reaching uncomfortable places, including his eyes as it fizzled against his skin and began coat him in a soapy film. "Hey, what the heck is going on?" he sputters out, hoping someone could hear him, "Stop that; hey, watch where you are spraying that!" Not expecting the machine to answer, but unable to stop it, he protested what he could against the intensity of the process. The foam suddenly stopped, sputtering out a final few bubbles of foam, before whirring to life as the six arms began to slowly rotate both around and above him, each separately pivoting on their arms in circular motions as they pass around him. Before he could wonder exactly what was going to happen next, half knowing half expecting it, he closes his mouth as high pressure streams of hot water scour every inch of his naked form.

Before he can complain as the pressure lowers to a tolerable level, now able to see with the suds blasted from his eyes by the streams of water, he sees the water level begin to drain from the floor as slats open up throughout the rest of the floor outside of the circumference of the machine. Suddenly the same heat, though not as intense as before, heats up the room, quickly drying him and the remainder of the room, as it seems the very tiles themselves were turning red and quickly evaporating the remainder of the water on the surface of the tiles, as the machines begin to retract back to the ceiling after lining back up and straightening out. He waits a few more seconds to ensure the tiles were properly cool, as they turn from red back to a sterile white, the door on the opposite side of the room he came in from opens with another hiss, as a blast of humidity enters the room as the atmosphere between both rooms settle. Covering his privates modestly, realizing that whomever is in the next room might be able to see him through the observational window, he walks in to the next room, which is about double the size of the previous room, and still just as empty. The only obvious features are a black, reflective glass on the left wall, which Rito assumes is where the others are located behind, and the large tub of fluid with its reflective, mirrored surface. There appeared to be a platform with a ladder built into the wall behind the giant tub, and what appears to be a half-ladder off to the side of that, most likely to assist in exiting the tub once the tests were done. The room felt like an indoor bath, or a sauna, with the temperature actually making him sweat a bit, making him wonder if the room and the pool was adjusted to accompany a certain body temperature that made it more comfortable to those inside the room.

Walking over to the ladder, he quickly hurries with a red face up the ladder, ignoring the impropriety of the situation and the feeling that someone was staring at him. Weirdly enough the top of the pool seemed to also be covered by a shimmering mesh that seemed to allow light into it, but still protect the privacy of whomever was in it by obscuring it everywhere but a small section where the ladder just above the pool allowed one to enter and exit. Standing over the shimmering pool of liquid, he goes to grab the handles of the half ladder, hesitating as he slips a foot into the breathable liquid. Taking a breath for courage, he lets go and feels himself plunge into the warm liquid before exhaling, as his feet touch the bottom letting him sink into water like substance like a stone. He opens his eyes and breathes as normally as he can, choking as he feels the unnatural fluid pervade his lungs, and slightly panicking a bit at the feeling, he fights the desire to swim upwards and gulp in fresh air. Breathing more steadily, as the last bubbles leave his lungs, he realizes that everything is okay, and the sounds he was imagining were his screams for help, were actually coming from beside him.

For the first time since he plunged into the singular vat in the room, he realizes that there is a shadowy form at the other end of the pool, where the sounds and movement are coming from. He realizes also that someone is rubbing his back comfortingly, the same person in the shadows talking to him underwater as his ears and eyes adjust to the liquid, and he can make out sounds and sight. His eyes nearly bug out, as he realizes that Lala, in all her naked glory and barely covered by clumps and strands of pink hair floating in the liquid, is standing next to him trying to reassure him with her breasts pressed firmly against his arm, one of them in full view and unashamedly quite an sight. "-Rito, are you okay?" she asks, her mouth moving and making words but the sounds seem slightly delayed, "You scared me when you suddenly entered the liquid and started to choke." She comfortably pats him on the shoulder, confidently staring him in the eyes in a way that forces him to look at nothing but her, as she continues to speak. "The liquid contains medical nanites that are scanning us, they also allow us to hear what the other is saying while we're in here," she states, "They can adjust for the distortion of sound under water, allow us to talk while the process continues and scans us from the inside."

More bubbles come out of his mouth as his mind catches up with his body in realization, nervously covering himself on instinct while trying not to let the heat of the liquid and situation get to him, he covers himself with one hand and tries to look away out of some sense of discomfort to protect Lala's dignity. "Thank you," he states, as he looks slightly back to where he can see Lala's head and hair floating in the liquid, "They didn't tell me we'd be in here together; honestly they didn't explain what was going to happen beyond that terrible sterilization process..." He trails off, as he feels Lala touch his shoulder, he tries not to reflexively jump away from her touch but he can feel her suddenly let go of him. She suddenly attacks him from behind, latching around his chest and pining his arms to his side as he feels every inch of her bare skin through the liquid pressing firmly against his back. "Lala!" he exclaims, going stiff in her grip, as he blushes and tries not to lose his consciousness, "W-what are you doing?!"

"I know this is uncomfortable for you, i-it isn't exactly what I was expecting either, but the- the exam goes a little bit deeper than what we thought, Rito," Lala states as she firmly presses her head into his neck to whisper in his ear, her breath sending reverberations across his ear that tickles as it would in air, "We- well, our compatibility is being tested, genetically I mean, along with the blood test; Brightwool explained it to me that the test not only creates a base genetic profile, it-it tells us how c-compatible our species is together, in -that- way." He stiffens even more as he feels her tail lightly tease his foot, wrapping around his ankle as the unusually embarrassed tone she was speaking with was clearly being conveyed even through this liquid. "I know you, may not have thought about that, but-" she trails off, and his breath and heart both hitch, as it gets even hotter in the liquid, "-mhmsor-" Her voice trails off, her mumbled words not getting across to him, so he twists around to break free of her tight grip, unexpectedly, he grabs her shoulders in return and levels his gaze with her despite the difficulties he had trying to ignore her luscious body.

"I-I understand," he says, leaning closer to her, looking deeply into her green eyes and realizes that he truly did understand, as a man, "You don't have anything to be sorry about, you realize I willingly walked in here with you, ya' know?" He states with a grin growing on his face, as she begins to slowly smile with him. "I trust our feelings are the same, I knew the pressures we have had made it difficult to make my feelings known to you, and I took a job I've had no knowledge about," he trails off, but slowly looks her beautiful form over as he grabs both of her hands and intertwines his fingers with hers, "I know that together, we'll get through whatever is going to get tossed at us, you know things and will help me become the King your father expects me to be, and I'll learn how to be the best Husband for you as well, my... my..." Forgoing the situation they were stuck in, he leaned into her, pulling her down helplessly in his own grip and puts his lips against hers, much to her unwitting surprise. She doesn't need to know the words he couldn't express to her, she pressed back against him as she greedily took in his tongue with her own, wrapping her tail around his body and her own to strengthen her own position. Together in that tub it was as if the two could express the love they had alone, that they could not among the circus of events happening in their very home.

*****Lime Ends here*****

---

"Blood pressure is slightly increasing, blood flow appears to be distributing to, oh, they appear to be... eww..." the Ariesan girls states with a disgusted look crossing her face, "Why is it that all sentient life in the galaxy gets down and dirty when locked together in a cramped space?" She turns off the main monitor, leaving the background data for the digital extraction of the D.N.A. profiles to the forefront of the remaining monitors. Her benefactor chuckles as he sits at a chair in the main observation room, turning to face his assistant.

"All life began somewhere, even your own child; if I recall your mother had a crush on a Eulcerean that came and went from our facility for several months, until she met your father in marketing, of course," Chelus-Fim states in rebuttal, smiling as he does so, "Of course this is a compatibility test, so harmless intercourse and... experimentation, will doubtlessly help us with our own discoveries; as experimentation is the oldest form of understanding one another's -heh- needs..." He trails off, as he brings up the disseminated information the medical probes had recorded and began to display, showing the two separate profiles of Lala and Rito. Grabbing a silver information device from the larger console, transferring the information to the smaller device to make it easier to read for his aging eyes. "It is interesting, Miss Lala's data is so remarkably different than her parents, radically altered compared to our predictions," he states, observing her data and showing the results to his assistant. As he was speaking the results of Rito's test seem to send out silent warning signs to both machines, flashing bright red letters in bold across it, when the Chelidane security minister ends both alarms with a few inputted commands and transfers its readings to his handheld before his assistant can see them flash across the screen.

"Did something happen sir?" she quizzically asks as she turns back from her impromptu desk, where she is hastily scanning over the allergens and gastronomic results to pull out the information necessary to order them lunch from the cafeteria three levels up and a telemat over, "I thought I saw something flashing reflecting in my screen?" He quickly hardens his face, before turning to her with a dismissive gesture, as he pulls the handheld device up and out of her view.

"Hmmph, I afraid that the specifics are not for you to know; the clients personal information is classified level four, and per your last review you were level two, so sorry my dear," he states dismissive, before sighing at his sudden change of attitude and looks back up at her from the device, "The process has twenty minutes left before the scans are complete, go get yourself some lunch and order meal boxes for the VIP's before it gets busy and you cause the lunch crew distress at the sudden interruption; I can finish up the mammalian's scans, you just hurry back with their lunch, and grab myself something easy before I try and use up the rest of my free time to sun these old bones." She hesitates, of course, knowing something was wrong as he suddenly became defensive in his actions. Her curiosity would not win out to her own training, bowing her head slightly before departing the room to leave her honored elder alone in the room. As she departs, he sighs and opens up the secondary security logs, then the tertiary, and scrubbing all presence of anything amiss before the Council of Elders determined something was wrong and would send the Black Guard to deal with it. Even as head of security, the private security force was loyal only to the very same Council he worked under, meaning he could not step in or intercede as their orders came directly from the council itself, meaning he could not dispute their interference with such sensitive manners.

Turning back to the device in his hand, which he separated from the system as he wiped the security logs, he sighs and reflects in the danger this single device could bring to his very life, and all those who worked under him. He knows he is running long in his excuses to her for as long as she worked for him, but he prays that his assistant never reads these blacklisted files, for fear of her own safety as his unofficially adopted great-granddaughter. His father made him take the same promises as his own egg-bearer did as Minister of Security along with Brightwool's distant ancestors, and it would be with a heavy heart he would betray those same convictions for the sake of providing the universe peace it so desperately needed as it edged closer to the brink of another Galactic War. Even if it cost him his life, he would go against the council's decisions and let this one warning be ignored. He would ensure that he and he alone would bear this crux separated from all he loved; it was all for the price of peace.

He pulls out a small device connected to the handheld, and makes a small recording to answer his granddaughter's unanswered question. "Let it be said, that if the only known categorized Class Four, the Princess' own Father, had ill intent towards this station, we only would have to worry about the physical damage and monetary loss among our treasures," he gulps knowing exactly how powerful the man who united the entirety of the known universe and its ever expanding definition was, before he continued, "A class five would threaten the stability of our hold in the galaxy; not only how people view us, but how we view the rosy portrait of history we've glossed over the horrible and disturbing truth behind... everything." He looks up from his computer, letting the silver palm device fall from his hands and allow it to clatter to the table, before he mutters almost inaudibly to himself, hopefully unrecorded by the device. "So God forgive me for being delighted that these ugly sins of ours can be brought into the light, father," he mutters unheard by anyone, "What terrors will I unknowingly release, what buried secrets will we uncover hidden within out Devil's own playground.; I pray that the boy forgives us when his part is through." Picking up the device and erasing the recording, corrupting the data he had etched into his eidetic mind; for a Chelidane as old as he had quite the talent for recall, having carved the talent into his mind as much of his kind did to allow them to replay the memories of the distant past before them. "God forgive me."

---

*****Lime Continues Here****
Their bodies were intertwining, he felt her tongue meet his as their lips smashed together, he greedily takes her in his arms and holds her closer to him. She slips her hands from his, sliding her arms under his and holds him by the hips just apart from her, her tail still wrapped around his body, yet snaked around to cover herself and keep their embrace chaste. "Officially we aren't married yet, Rito-kun," she murmurs to him between breathes of the oxygenized liquid, "I wouldn't want to p-pressure you..." His kiss trails down her neck to her collar bone, nibbling it slightly, his body reacting on instinct as if it had done this hundreds of times before, which causes her to shudder in his gentle embrace. He reaches behind to deepen a new kiss, trailing her spine down her lower back to her tail. "Mhhmm-" she softly cries, breaking the kiss as his heart begins to race at her cute sounds, "Nhhngh-no, Rito, not m-my t-ail!" Her pleas were ignored as he softly grabbed the base of her tail and began to travel upwards, sending arcs pleasure up her spine that cause her resolve to weaken, as her mind is muddled by her own oversensitive reactions.

"Turnabout is only fair play, after all those times I woke up with you in my bed," he states pulling at her tail freely, unraveling it from her body until he reaches her most sensitive part, "Your sister always did call me a 'Beast' after all..." She opens her eyes to stare into his, sobering as she sees the normally playful look in them replaced by a glazed lust that sends shivers up her spine as he roughly handles her tail, letting go of her just a bit. Pulling the spade tip up to his mouth, he meets her eyes for a half a second, before kissing the tip, which causes her to whimper as puts it between his lips and softly tickles it between his teeth with the tip of his tongue. He pulls it away to enjoy the look of dissatisfaction that briefly crosses her face, the denial that she was enjoying this fighting against her reason to stop it. Taking it in his hand like a lollipop, he starts to torment his love at the base of the inverted heart, feeling it pulse underneath his tongue as he consumes her for the first time in the waking world, like she was a forbidden sweet that tantalized him and left him wanting more. She glowed in his arms, the liquid around them bathed by that sinful light, illuminating her form until it filled everything, even himself. It was as if her heart could no longer contain the love she felt for him anymore, so it came bleeding out of very pores, pooling in the liquid that they breathed; though a faint recollection of something tickled Rito's memories as he thought more about her delicate skin, her irresistible beauty, and that wonderful scent of...

*****Lime Ends*****

Suddenly he feels the world go spinning as he realizes, letting go of her and pushing her away from him, he feels a splash of cold water across his face as he realizes just what he was doing. "W-what the hell was that?" he asks, finding it a struggle to breath as he turns away from his lovely fiances wonderful form, "The hell came over me?" Lala seems distressed and saddened by his sudden change of attitude accompanied by the corruption of his beautiful eyes into a frightful flash of purple, fearing something was wrong when he pushed her away but finding his eyes back to normal.

"Rito?" she questions him, drifting closer to him as she attempts to face him directly, causing him to pull away from her touch, "Tell me what's wrong." She lowers her hand, curling it into a fist as she does so, her tail betraying her cool exterior as it lashes around her feet. He couldn't tell her, the words wouldn't form in his mouth because of how crazy they sounded to him, but she was glowing. Whatever it was he had thought he had imagined in that lustful stupor had actually been true, as he realizes that she does in fact appear to have something... red bleeding into the fluid around her, though it was quickly dissipating the longer he stared. "Rito, you're scaring me..." she states, as she crosses her arms over her breasts to hide them from view, her tail settling back to its original position to give her enough modesty to allow him to glance her way without totally blushing, "Something's wrong, and I need you to tell me what it is!" Her tone is commanding, and her face shows her impatience as he watches the last bits of red suddenly cease, like a fire being put out.

"Uhm- well, this is going to sound crazy, but you can't see it, can you?" he asks just to reaffirm his suspicions, Lala tilting her head as he asks that, "You, well you were slightly... glowing; and- and you were turning the water around you red, or well you, were emitting something..." He turns to look at her sideways, covering himself a little bit, with a little bit of modesty returned to him, shame clearing his head of the fuzziness. "I- I think you were emitting pheromones into the liquid, I don't know how I could see it, but it was seeping from your pores, all... erhm, all over your body," he embarrassingly relates, as she starts to blush at the memory with a smile, "I was breathing it in, it was everywhere, and I lost myself to it... I mean I've already have seen you like this before, so it didn't exactly excite me..." He blushes, turning his back to her and covering his face, sitting down as best he could in the breathable liquid, until he feels her sit down behind him, feeling a light electric shock where her back touches his for a moment.

"If- if, the nanobots are scanning us, if the liquid needs to continuously be oxygenized as well, and I don't see a pump, maybe they are acting like blood cells," she states, as she puts her arms around her knees, her tail curling and swishing above her toes as she talks, "If they take in minute particles and scrub them to make oxygen, they could theoretically be unable to distinguish my pheromones from carbon dioxide and other gases, and collected it to be recycled." She puts a hand out and pushes the tip of her tail against her palm, staring aimlessly at the action as she couldn't face Rito like this. "Since we know that my mother's beauty, her pheromones, don't affect you more so than a normal person, and the fact my own body doesn't produce the same effect," she continues, Rito blushing madly and digging his nails into his scalp as he remembers the hot springs incident, "Theoretically the machines could be concentrating my weaker pheromones, which- if you did breath it in- could be what caused you to be so-" She stops herself, biting her lip as she realizes exactly what she was just about to admit to, and liking it.

"I wasn't clumsy you mean, or awkward, or indecisive," Rito supplies, reading between the lines, which in any other circumstance beyond being locked in a tub with his naked fiancee, would be out of character for him, "I'm not stupid, my chronic 'gift' may get me into all sorts of problems, but don't think I didn't exactly realize why you stopped always sleeping in bed with me after your sisters came to live with us; it didn't help when Mikan chastised my sleeping habits, so its not hard to figure out the rest now that I know about it." He trails off and can't see it, but Lala is blushing at the implications that he knew. "I am still a guy, you know, it's not like I have never had 'one of those dreams'; I'm more than guilty of my fair share of daydreams that all hormonal teenagers get," he says with a chuckle, trying to relieve the tension, "I got to say, this wasn't one of them, but I can say I am living the dream." She covers her mouth for a second to stifle a chuckle, before outright laughing at the terrible pun, whether it was intentional or not.

"You know, it's terrible that this happened, but it was nice that it...it was like the whole universe out there didn't matter; I wasn't 'just some princess', I was myself, and you were yourself," she states, as she tosses her head back to watch her hair float in the liquid, "You know I always wanted to be like my mother when I grew up, but when my sisters and I were old enough to be left to the servants and my mother was able to resume her duties as Ambassador, I learned how big my house really was left alone in a castle with some bodyguards and servants to keep me company; I never really interacted with many people because of my mother's condition before that." Rito tried to imagine a younger Lala, alone and confused as she and her sisters were left without Gid or Sephie watching over them, though he easily could picture a freaked out Zastin balancing the three's individual needs. "When I had to interact with people, beyond Zastin, I learned that the people in my own home were afraid of looking at me, on the off chance I could be too much like my mother and enamor them," she states disheartened, Rito bringing his hand backwards to grab hers and squeeze it, "-they eventually learned I was tested at a young age for the same trait as a precaution, as were my sisters, and for a time we were fine, until I hit puberty." She sighs, scooting back to make contact with Rito, whom stiffens for a second before relaxing. "Whereas my sisters gained their powers in equal parts from my mother and father, it wasn't until I began to mature that the Charmian side of my biology began to make its presence in my life, when it was realized that I began to charm the weak-willed suitors my father had begun to bring around for the promise of an arranged marriage." He squeezes her hand gently, with Lala smiling as a result even if he couldn't see it. "I never really thought about it, but maybe that's why Ren always had that twisted fascination with me to get me to acknowledge him as a man, despite how hard I tried to get him to hate me, when I was a cruel little girl trying to spite her father's intentions," she says, which surprises Rito greatly.

"You knew he had a thing for you?" Rito asks incredulously, as he even turns around to face her, which causes her to blush as she turns to face him, "I mean, I didn't think you were trying to mean to him, but you actually did that on purpose?" He turns his back to her, smiling and laughing as he does so. "Man, I always thought it was weird how he talked about you like you were a flawless portrait of a princess," Rito states, as he put a hand to his forehead and chuckled, "Man, who knew alien hormones could be so out of whack; but if everyone was affected by it, why wasn't I?" He turned his head to look back at her, and she in turn looked at him with a smile on her face.

"I dunno," she answered honestly as a genuine smile graced her face, a blush across her nose and barely visibly dusting her cheeks, "But I loved every moment of it, when you tried to save me the first time we met, I wondered if humans were just easily susceptible, and I almost believed my first impression when you accidentally confessed to me; but then you kept defending me, even if I made your life difficult, and really getting to know you in your daily life, seeing that you were a mess when it came to girls in general, I realized little by little that you truly weren't affected by me." She turned around to face his back, and shakily raising her hand, she gently placed it on his shoulder, draping her other arm across his chest from behind. Her hair drifted and settled over his shoulders as she rested her head on his crown, he looks up only to have his view of her forehead blocked by a curtain of pink. "I love you, I love you, I really, really love you Rito," she states with a clear certainty in her voice that makes him smile at the simplicity of her confession, "I know I've said it before Rito, but I really mean it, at my very core I know we were written to be together; you allow me be myself with you, and I hope you'll learn to be yourself around me."

He does something unexpected, to himself and Lala, grabbing the back of her head as he twists his body around to lean in towards her. Lips meeting in a passionate but chaste embrace, the two lovers emotions were not muddled by the products of biology, but brought together by the pure bond between them as they bared themselves to each others truths. Breaking apart, as much as his body desired to return to their earlier encounter, she smiles at him as well as they resettle with their backs to each other yet again.

The remainder of that fleeting hour that followed, felt like an eternity to them both as they sat there back to back. Rito's senses having finally come together again allowing him to properly converse in idle chatter, even Lala seemed properly satisfied as she returned his word for wit. Pulling a safe distance away as the time drew near, and the restlessness grew in their limbs, they resorted to talking together and laughing over the events the past few years had lead them to, until the tub seemed to suddenly halt its nearly imperceptible motions. Before either of them could figure out what was going on, the floor below them seemed to open into thin slats, they stumbled to the ground as the liquid was quickly drained from the tanks. Rito and Lala were both overtaken by how fast the liquid was sucked from the pool, as they fought against the pressure like their lungs were being pulled from the inside out. As the liquid reached their height, it quickly vacated their lungs in harsh coughing spits, as they each vomited out the excessive fluid that the power of suction had not yet removed. Stumbling to his feet, Rito was the first to recover and walk over to Lala, whose soaked hair was clumped and matted with the sticky, warm fluid that covered them both like a coat of slime. He helps her up, as she queasily clings onto him, both ignoring their current lack of attire for the situation, until they turn at the sound of clanking metal, as the ladder that had sat just above the pool extended downwards to reveal it was longer than it seemed.

"You first." Rito tells Lala, as he walks her over to the ladder, grabbing it by its side to steady them both, "We don't know how slippery this stuff is, and I'd rather feel a bit better if I caught you, since you still seem a bit out of it." She didn't object and he averted his eyes as she ascended, thereupon her successfully reaching the top without much trouble, he hastily followed as she began to descend the second ladder. He descended to meet her at the exit, where she hesitated to enter into the next room without him. "Do you think it will do that sterilization with the heat and lights?" he asks her.

"No, Brightwool told me the sterilization process was only going in, exiting will mean we'll just go through the 'wash and dry cycle', as she put it," Lala stated, as she lifted a hand full of gunk, the slime peeling away from their bodies as they walked, "I think it's only one person per wash, though, so it might be better we not push our luck and go separately into the next room." He nods, and points her towards the room. "Thank you Rito," she states, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek, "I'll see you on the other side."

He smiles and nods as she enters alone, sighing and collapsing to the ground in relief, his knees giving out. "Ho boy, Momo will kill me if she ever finds out about this, on that note so will Mikan, even if she is my sister!" he rests his head against the metal surface of the door, "Oh man, I don't know how I keep getting myself into these things..."

By the time the door opened for him to go through it next, he was prepared to be assaulted, and managed to get through the process without too much discomfort. Walking through the noodle like door yet again, he manages to see Lala finishing up getting dressed. She looks away just long enough for him to grab his underwear from the storage bin, putting it on as he pulls out the rest of his clothes. Lala walks over to him and gives him a kiss on the cheek, interrupting his process, as he wonders why she suddenly and cheerily gave him the peck. "Mother always believed Momo was the most like her," she giggles as he pulls his shirt over his head, "Well, I'd say I now have a story to tell her that proves her wrong..." Rito is finishing putting on his pants and socks, before walking over to join her at the exit to the main hallway.

"Yeah, but let's get married first before we give them any rash ideas about getting grandchildren," he states, wrapping an arm around her shoulder to hug her close, "I know your mother would be more than happy to see you being yourself, but for some reason I think your father might be more prone to hurting me if he thought I was doing all that...and not getting anywhere; honestly I think his priorities are more more backwards than your mothers..." Lala laughed heartily at that, as she went with into the hallway. They nearly crashed into the Aresian girl as she precariously balanced a tray of various foods on it, each showing through various clear plastics, though Lala manages to help save the food before it could spill onto the floor. "Whoa there, are you okay?" Rito asks, quickly grabbing her arm to steady her before she could stumble, "Take it easy, I got you." The blush on her face was very evident, though Rito couldn't tell if it was from the embarrassment of the fall or his sudden act of chivalry. He hoped the universe hadn't made his life more difficult by letting (yet) another girl fall for him, especially considering the irony of it literally happening.

"I'm- F-fine," she states, standing straight up and straightening herself up from the fall, she quickly takes the tray of food back from Lala, but quickly gives her two of the containers from the tray, "Here, food synthesizer was on the fritz, but I managed to get a salad mixed up with some ingredients from Deviluke for you Princess Ma'am, and gourmand cuisine that is 76% palatable for your fiance's species." She quickly opens the door to let them both in, before hurriedly following the long hallway towards its end, with Rito and Lala following behind her.

"I hope I didn't offend her," Rito mutters to Lala, as they go down a nearly identical hallway to the last, "I always seem to get into trouble regarding women; do you think I did something?" Lala chuckled mirthfully at his paranoia, tapping him on the shoulder as she sneaked under his left arm.

"I wouldn't worry about it Rito," she states, a mischievous smile in her eyes as they crinkle around the edges, "I know women have a habit of falling for you, but there wasn't any indecent contact, so maybe your 'gift' decided to give you a break after all that exposure..." He heats up a little bit at that, adding fuel to the fire as Lala cackles at his unease.

Unfortunately the effect was much more noticeable to Brightwool, than Rito or Lala would know, as she tried to steady her shaking hands with the fresh cut salad she had prepared for the Minister still on it. 'What was that?' she thought to herself, trying to still her beating heart as she replayed her clumsy accident over again and again in her head, 'I've passed through these halls hundreds of times, and I've never fallen like that... or felt that odd when Rito grabbed my arm like that.' She wasn't sure what the emotion she was feeling was, whether it was nerves from being embarrassed, or whether it was the feeling of that strong grip that excited her. Her normally isolated days spent serving the Minister as a go between or errand girl, it kept her from really interacting with many men or women outside her peers, and it made her socially awkward despite the obvious attempts by her benefactor to get her to widen her circle of friends beyond those cold steel walls of the office. 'But it's weird, that didn't feel like.. love, or anything like that,' she thought with a blush on her face, as she entered the room and set down the food in front of the minister, 'It was almost like my body wanted him to pet me, like some little kid...' She sighed, as she closed her eyes, only to open them and find herself staring at a massive green leaf. "Baaah!" she bleats out in surprise, backing up and bumping against a startled Rito and Lala, as she drops the tray in her hands to the floor with a crash. She looks up to see her benefactor with a smile and a piece of lettuce speared onto his utensil, she huffs and gets on her knees to pick up the remains of her own lunch that she had spared the last of her extra pay to splurge on extra sweets, that she realized that the food on the floor wasn't hers.

"No, no no no!" she states in alarm, realizing that the food on the floor was not the spring salad with extra sprouts and wheat germ added to it, but the grilled basilisk and imported gourmand rice seasoned with extra dark matter, "I'm so sorry, I think I mixed up the young masters lunch with my own... oh, dear, oh dear!" She tries to salvage the food as best she could, but Rito merely walks over to the despondent girl and gently puts a hand on her shoulder to stop her from dirtying her hands.

"It's alright Miss Brightwool, here, take your food," he states, leaning down to grab her hands and put the salad that had been obscured by Lala's own food into her hand, "I can share some of Lala's food with her; as long as I'm careful what I eat, my body should be able to handle the worst of it." He says it jokingly, but the tears that suddenly poor down her face surprise him, and he awkwardly tries to comfort him. "It's really okay, I meant it as a joke," he states, cowed by her quivering form, he is reminded somewhat of his little sister, and he instinctively tries to comfort her with a head pat, coveting the feeling of her soft wool as he does so, "There there, it's alright..." He soothes her with his pats, her tears stopping as her watering eyes end, a small hiccup being the last of it as she nods and gets up to accept the food with gusto.

"Sorry again," she states, turning to take the food container and relocate to a spot near her boss, settling in to eat. They ate in silence like that for a while, until the Minister was finished and Brightwool would remove their utensils and empty plates to be returned to the kitchens.

"Well, has the machine processed all of the information now?" Lala asks Chelus-Fim, "What does it state, and can you tell us the details, or gives us copies of the information?" Lala was a bit excited and nervous, which Rito appreciated her eagerness, he felt more apprehension at the information that would come back. He had known the process was in=depth, that their compatibility was being tested and all of that, but he really wondered what it was that the machine found out about him, after all being changed by the Pearls had no doubt altered him in some very serious ways, and whether it would affect the results, he wished to know. After grabbing to silver devices that were plugged into slots in the machine, the three-fingered Chelidane handed Lala and Rito each a tablet that sparked to life at their touch, illuminating at their touch to reveal their picture on each respective device.

"The public information has been downloaded to your devices here, the rest has been stored in our private servers; until either of you decide to sell your physical profiles, you'll find that our private servers are perfectly secure and no breach of security has ever been successfully attempted," the minister states with a smile, crossing his six fingers together, as the two stand before them, he gestures towards the pads with a nod, "The information held in the devices contain your current accumulated wealth, the status of a trust your Father has put towards yourself that you can access upon setting up your account Miss Lala, and the vaults you can currently access that offer their stores of various resources for currency, are located just below that." Rito and Lala turn their attentions to the devices, scrolling though it, Lala finds an shows Rito the information regarding the resources that her father had allocated to them, including a large and diverse list that causes his eyes to pop.

"Wow, various metals, technologies, that's a lot,and look, it says you can access the vaults of Deviluke, Memorze, and a bunch of others too" Rito states, as he turns to his and begins to explore and see that it lists the same things as her, "So if yours expand to planets under Deviluke control, I wonder how mine look..." Lala leans over to look at Rito's list, as he trails off and stops,the Chelidane minister creasing his brow as he watches, a frown appearing on his face as if expecting what comes next. "Excuse me, but this must be a mistake, it says that there is already a vault registered under my name as accessible, but I think it must be a mistake, since this is the first time I've ever been here, and I'm not even married to Lala yet," he says with a smile, as he looks up at the minister with a confused expression, "Besides that, the characters are so outdated I almost didn't even realize it at first, but the fact its representing a 'Japan'; you said this was the first time you've ever recognized the term 'Earth', I can't imagine such a specific spelling is just a coincidence..." The giant tortoise sighs then turns to Brightwool motioning, in which she gets up and leans over to let him whisper in her ear, causing her to nod as she walks to the door, gives a bow, and closes it tightly behind her as she leaves the room yet again.

"What I am about to tell you both is in high confidence, it is in fact treason against my very people to even discuss this, but it will be better to clear the air know before I show you," he taps Rito's own tablet with the tip of his silver cane, which causes the tablet to glitch out for just a second, as its contents change to show something other than what they had been observing. Prominent among this were red warning signs flashing in the foreground and background saying: 'Class Five', 'Imminent Threat', and 'Warning', in big bold lettering. "The reason why no one has ever been classified as 'Human', the reason why your DNA profile is setting off our genetic scanners (that I may or may not be blocking out), and the reason this bank was originally initiated, all lead back to the beginning of the first Galactic War," Chelus-Fim states while tapping the device in Rito's hand again and causing it to revert to its previous state, "Back to the days when our people had yet reached the stars, when any species had yet to ascend the stars, save those few favored by The Ancient Ones, given the power of Tao to utilize and travel across the bounds of space." Rito and Lala both look at each other, then at the Chelidane, as he looks to the cane between both of his hands. "There is so much we have hidden, so much history that was lost to the universe in the second Galactic War, that what is left is little more than myth and legend, to the point where what little we do know is propagated by a stellar Cabal more interested in secrets and lies,"the Chelidane states, as her walks over to Rito and puts a hand on him, "You, son, are perhaps the only one of your kind, or at least the only self made Taoist this universe has seen in last five millennia; perhaps due to your exposure to the Taoists Pearls, but the genetic factor goes deeper than that, and it appears our own hopes that the nightmares of the past would never resurface have colored the truth."

He turns away from Rito, his hand falling to his side as he does so. "My boy, please forgive me for this, I never once thought a true Human would walk through these doors in my, or any lifetime," he stops in front of the bookshelf and actively searches for a book from a certain shelf, "I might have been able to hide it for a bit, but the system in place is older, much older, than I and not every backdoor or alarm could be accounted for, but the fact that you and I are still talking has given me the courage to defy everything I've ever known and give you the key to the most dangerous, oldest vault in our care, one that by your birthright, can alone gain access to." Pulling a certain book, the Chelidane activates a hidden pulley system, and the entire swings open to reveal another room just beyond the open doorway. "This telemat will allow you to access any vault you can reach with your clearances, together you both can reach the only vault out of our control, separated entirely from the rest of our clients: The Devil's Heart, a point just inside the black hole at the heart of the Devil's Playground, where neither time nor space can take affect, a miracle created by the God Chronos himself when they graced us with our duty as eternal guardians of the truth," Chelus-Fins states, he turns and pleads with Lala now by grasping her hand, "You, oh dearest Princess of Deviluke, can always return to our place in the future, but this is an unprecedented honor you both have now; one I can promise you will not be possible if my superiors learn I am disobeying our ever law, rule, and command to keep anyone and everyone from the Devil's Heart... please, if anyone can absolve my people of the mistakes of our past, it would be you my King!" He grabs Rito's hand and brings it together with Lala's, passing off the cane between them both, with a smile. "The secrets within will explain themselves, once they are seen, they cannot be ignored, so please forgive this pleading old man, and please choose what is the best for the future: a past kept hidden by deception and lies, or a future built on honesty and trust," he lets go, turning to the console to prepare it for the initial transport, "The machine will only register one of your transports before it will alert the council to my actions, so please, if you have any reason to trust me beyond my limited knowledge of what is beyond, know that your part in uncovering the truth will not stay unknown to those who seek you ill; the Cabal reach even within these hallowed walls." Suddenly a massive blast shook the room behind them, and Chelus-Fin looked past the room and closed the hidden door. He shuffles over to the console and beckons for them to make their choice.

"Please, your answer; I fear they are already coming for you both, if they find out I did nothing to stop you, they will forgo their passiveness and expel me into the Devil's Playground itself," he states, as Rito hands him his device, with the choice selected for him, "Thank you, thank you; now go!" Plugging the machine into the greater device, unlocking its contents for a one-time transfer, the machine whirs to life and the Chelidane pushes both of them onto the platform and waves them both a sad goodbye, ensuring they both still take hold of his staff, he flips a switch and in a pulse of light and sound, the two are engulfed in silence and darkness, leaving the room behind with Chelus-Fin to face the consequences.

The secret door is blasted open, just moments after they depart, but the damage is done and the entire platform and data are lost as Chelus-Fin coughs out a lung full of dust and brushes off rubble from his shell. "Honestly Chelus-Fin, you were a minister of security, do you realize what you've done to this establishment by allowing him free reign to the most sacred place?" a clack of hooves as a sandy haired, busty woman walks through the broken doors, flanked by two men in non-descript battle suits, "Minister Chelus-Fin, by unanimous order of the Peace Council of Chelidane Prime, you are hereby arrested for suspect of treason, stripped of your ranks and rights as a citizen, and your clearances revoked standing a trial in which your guilt will be officially recognized before a court of your peers." Kneeling down in front of the decrepit old tortoise, the beige skinned woman lets a spastic smile cross her face as she stares into his smiling face, before slapping him across the face and spitting at his feet. "A hypocrite like you dare stand against the Ancient Ones plans; a fitting end to a pious man, like your great egg-bearer, tried for treason and expunged for rebelling against those whom's plans should not be questioned," the sandy-blonde Ariesan stands as she motions for the two guards to take him, "They will never leave the Devil's Playground alive, the Ancient One decrees that their ship shall be forcibly removed so as to strand them here, all ties with Deviluke cut, and preparation for the Grand Design has begun... too bad you will never see God's Work complete, heretic!" As they leave, the woman turns to salvage what she can from the broken console, hoping to extract the secrets to reach the lost heart, only to notice too late the broken countdown having displayed on across the machine. The surge of electricity that followed, blew not only the circuits and all the information the device had held, but tossed the sandy Ariesan back through the doorway and into the other room, smoking curls of wool pushing out of her body as she landed, all data turned to ash. Chelus-Fin, despite being restrained, and knowing he had put his life, and the life of his granddaughter on the line had smiled in satisfaction at the smoking ewe on the ground before him, hands cuffed and laughing a full on bellow, as the two stunned guards frantically went to her side to help her. He may not have won the day, but he had given them a chance, and that was more than enough to satisfy him until the end of his days.

Somewhere within the Devil's Heart

"Where are we?"

A/N: I'm back! And here is an extra long chapter for you all to enjoy... Had viral bronchitis that knocked me down, decided to get back into writing this story after getting some more inspiration for how I want it to play out. We've already met the Cabal, or at least one of its players. What an interesting ending, if I do say so myself, though please tell me how it is. Leave a like, a favorite, and especially give me honest reviews, or else I won't get better as a writer. (I must admit most of this was written while under prescriptions to fight said viral bronchitis, so forgive me if most of this is a bit weird). Anyway, probably could have handled the ending a bit better, but ran out of steam. Where will we end up next, the Devil's Playground, Earth, somewhere else? Who knows!

p.s. Seriously though, leave a review about the Lime scene, let me know if you think I should up the rating or not. I tried to be the least descriptive I possibly could, but that cold medicine may have compromised my judgement in all honesty...