Brought Together Chapter 21:

Kisshu's Past and Ichigo's Future

After Ichigo finished packing (and dragged Kisshu's attention away from her dresser), she and Kisshu went downstairs to say goodbye to her parents. "Mom, Dad, we're going," Ichigo said when they reached the living room.

Sakura and Shintaro stood up, and Sakura said, "Please be careful, and come back safe."

"We will," Ichigo and Kisshu said together.

Sakura hugged them both tightly. Shintaro hugged Ichigo, then shook hands with Kisshu, and said, "Kisshu, I'm counting on you to keep her safe."

"I will," Kisshu said. "I promise."

Shintaro nodded, and Ichigo and Kisshu waved, then teleported to the spaceship. Pai and Taruto were waiting for them.

"Ichigo, are you ready?" Pai asked.

"Yeah," Ichigo said. "My parents said yes, but they wanted to say goodbye, and I thought that was fair."

"Of course," Pai said. "Our parents did the same when we came to Earth."

"I thought Kisshu said his parents are dead," Ichigo said.

"His are, but Taruto's and my parents took him in after his parents died," Pai explained. "We're not exactly related, but we think of each other as brothers, since we're so close."

"That's great," Ichigo said. "I always wondered what it would be like to have siblings."

"If you and Kisshu get married, we'll be your siblings," Taruto said, causing both Ichigo and Kisshu to blush.

"We should get going," Pai said. "Taruto, you're my copilot."

"Whyyyyy?" Taruto whined.

"Would you prefer to keep Ichigo company?" Pai asked with a smirk.

"NOOOO!" Taruto said. "I'll copilot!" He teleported off.

"Well, that worked," Pai said. "You two have fun, but don't go too far, got it?"

"You sound like my dad," Ichigo said. "Don't worry, we won't."

Pai nodded and teleported off.

"Let's go to my room, and put this stuff down," Kisshu suggested. Ichigo nodded, and they teleported to Kisshu's room. After they put Ichigo's stuff down, they sat on Kisshu's bed. Kisshu was about to say something, but Pai's voice suddenly came over an intercom, and said, "We're about to take off, so stay seated."

About a minute later, the floor lurched, and the ship started to move. Ichigo said, "Wow, I can't believe I'll be on another planet soon."

"That's about what I was thinking when I left home," Kisshu said. "I wonder how everyone is doing."

"So do you have any family besides Pai and Taruto's family?" Ichigo asked.

"No," Kisshu said sadly. "My mom died giving birth to me and Ichigo, and my dad died when we were about six. Pai and Taruto's family took us in, but then Ichigo died. I fell into depression after that, and they were really worried about me, because I wouldn't come out of the room I had shared with her. After a while, they suggested I go to the military school Pai and Taruto went to, and train there to help others. I was proud to be sent to Earth; I was hoping that finding a new place to live would help save the lives of my people, who were dying."

Kisshu paused, then continued, "I was confused at first when I met you. I knew it was wrong to fall in love with the enemy, but you were different. I saw what you were like with everyone you met. You were kind, caring and compassionate. When I found out your name was Ichigo, it made me happy and sad at the same time. You had the same name as my sister, and you were a lot like her, at least in personality. Same eyes, too. As time went on, it became harder to fight you, as I fell deeper and deeper in love. The fact that you seemed to hate me really tore me up. It was really, really hard for me to see you with the treehugger. If it wasn't for the mission, I might have fallen into depression again. I'm actually glad that Pai and Taruto were sent to Earth, even though they can be irritating at times. It gave me some company, even though at first they didn't understand my feelings for you. Eventually, they came to see my point of view, as Taruto started to fall for Pudding, and Pai fell for Lettuce, albeit slower than me or Taruto."

Kisshu paused again, and then continued, "I'm glad I didn't just give up on you, Ichigo. You mean the world to me."

Ichigo was nearly in tears. "Kisshu, I wish I had realized your feelings sooner, and returned them," she said. "I wish I hadn't put you through so much pain."

"As long as you love me, that's all that matters now, Koneko-chan," Kisshu said softly. "I love you, with all my heart, Ichigo."

"I love you with everything I have, Kisshu," Ichigo said. "I'm just glad we're together."

"Me too," Kisshu said with a smile. Suddenly his smile faded, and he looked at her closely.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.

"You've got green streaks in your hair," Kisshu said. "Did you do something to it recently?"

"No," Ichigo said. "That's weird. Why would my hair start turning green?"

"Beats me," Kisshu said. "I think we should go talk to Pai."

"O-okay," Ichigo said. She followed Kisshu out of the room, and down a hallway. They stopped at a large green door, and Kisshu pushed a button on the wall. The door opened, and Pai and Taruto looked up, surprised.

"Kisshu, is something wrong?" Pai asked. "You look worried."

"Ichigo's hair is turning green," Kisshu said. "Are you positive you injected her with your DNA?"

"Yeah… I mixed my blood with a special liquid that's supposed to meld two DNAs together," Pai said.

"And you're positive you took the right liquid?" Kisshu asked.

"Yeah. What are you thinking?" Pai asked.

"She's starting to look…. like my sister," Kisshu said softly. "If her hair turned completely green, and she had our ears…. she'd look like Ichigo."

Pai seemed to be thinking, then said, "Kisshu, take over here, I'm taking Ichigo to the lab."

"Okay," Kisshu said hesitantly. Pai got up, and Kisshu took over his controls.

"Ichigo, come with me," Pai ordered. "We need to get to the bottom of this."

Ichigo nodded and followed Pai to his lab. When they got there, Pai said, "I'm going to do a blood test on you, so sit down over here, and hold out your arm."

Ichigo walked over to the chair Pai had pointed out, and sat down. Pai took a needle, and said, "Close your eyes, this won't hurt."

Ichigo closed her eyes, and felt a pinch, but nothing more. Finally she heard Pai say, "Okay, you can open your eyes. Here's a bandage; I'm going to run some tests on your blood. Don't touch anything in here."

"Okay," Ichigo said. She put the bandage over the little prick in her arm, and waited for Pai to be done testing.

She watched him as he looked at her blood. At first his eyes widened, and then he ran over to a cabinet and pulled something out. It looked like a similar vial to the one of the stuff he had injected her with. Then Pai did something surprising. He started hitting himself in the forehead, repeatedly saying, "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit….."

Finally Ichigo got up her courage and asked, "Um… is something wrong, Pai?"

"YES! I think I injected you with not only my DNA, but ICHIGO'S DNA!" Pai moaned.

"And the reason you had her DNA was….?" Ichigo asked.

"Oh, I have some of my DNA, Taruto's, and Kisshu's. I had some of Ichigo's from before she got sick, because I wanted to study the difference between her blood and Kisshu's, since they were twins, not just mere siblings," Pai said. "However, I'm not exactly sure what Kisshu's going to think of this…"

"That doesn't sound good," Ichigo said. "If you're scared, it must be pretty serious."

Pai sighed, and said, "Well, we'll have to tell him sooner or later. By the way, I think your ears are starting to change, too. They're looking pointy at the top."

"Great….." Ichigo said. "Well, I have only myself to blame; I'm the one who insisted you inject me with Cyniclon DNA."

"We should go explain to Kisshu what happened. If he gets mad at me, I suggest teleporting out as fast as possible," Pai said.

"O-okay," Ichigo said. Pai led her back to the control room, and opened the door. Kisshu and Taruto looked up, and Kisshu said, "How did it go?"

"Um…. You're not going to like this, but you were right to ask if I took down the wrong vial of liquid," Pai said.

Kisshu started to look scared. "Wha-what happened?" he whispered.

Pai sighed. "I accidentally injected her with both my DNA- and Ichigo's."

Kisshu's hands slid off the controls in shock. "But- that means-" he started.

"Yes," Pai said. "It means that she will fully become a Cyniclon- and by the way she's looking, it's going to happen soon. Her ears are starting to change."

"What's going to happen now?" Kisshu asked. "We can't exactly take her back to Earth looking like us!"

"We may have to hope that our people will allow us all to live with them," Pai said. "If that doesn't pull through, I'll have to come up with a way to make us all look human."

"What about my parents?" Ichigo asked. "If I start living on your planet, I'll have to tell them first."

"We can go back to Earth and tell them, but if our people decide to let you live with us, you should do it," Pai said. "It won't be easy to explain this to the school you go to, or anyone else for that matter."

"You're right," Ichigo said. "But how are we going to handle it when they see I look like Kisshu's sister?"

"I guess I'll take the blame for that," Pai said. "It may have been your choice to become part Cyniclon, but I am the one who made the mistake of mixing the DNA of two Cyniclons, one of whom is now dead."

"At least you won't have to deal with a different name," Taruto commented. "You're starting to look exactly like Ichigo."

"Yeah…" Ichigo said. "My parents will kill me for this."

"Well, maybe it's better that you come to our planet, then," Kisshu said. "I think we'll be there in a few minutes."

Everyone looked out the window, and sure enough, they were about to reach the atmosphere of Cyniclonia.

Okay, I think this came out well, but I still want reviews. Things just got WAAAY more interesting, didn't they?