Author's Note:
Due to the content guidelines of this site, I will need to remove the 17+ version of this story that I previously had posted up on this site. If you are a reader who would prefer to read this chapter uncut and in its' official entirety, please PM me.
Thank you and sorry.
Prologue 2
In the week leading up to the wedding, Simon and Nia needed their privacy. They took Lagann and themselves to some island that they saw somewhere along their travels and decided to enjoy life to their fullest. The week passed. The wedding passed. Nia felt that something strange should have happened by now, the only strange thing that happened was Boota, a little pig mole who sat besides the cutting board, didn't chomp off the stems of her carrots when she would slice off the ends.
Nia looked at her hand, seeing her green beryl colored ring and wondered whether this was real life, or was it just fantasy? "Easy come...easy go…" she muttered to herself. She smoothly lifted up her cutting board and slid her carrots off into a pot of simmering thick soup. The smell was atrocious, but she knew her Simon would love it. She took one whiff of the stew and she knew it was ready. She took a ladle and served some to Boota in a bowl, leaving it on the floor for him to easily access. She picked out a lunch cloth, wrapped up their lunch, and made her way to the door.
Nia came out of her home, an estate that was front and center looking at Parliament Tower, and walked all to way to meet her driver at the car. "Hail Coco," she sweetly smiled as she got in, "Well met." Old Man Coco scratched his mustache and began driving. Needless to say, he was a terrible driver. He nearly hit multiple pedestrians numerous times, he stopped suddenly at every semaphore, and he turned hard at every turn. His height at the steering wheel clearly was not proportional either as he was too short to see the hood of his own guncar.
But still, Nia smiled on, she loved Old Man Coco despite his flaws. His dedication to her was adorable, to a point where Nia would talk to him on the nights where she would get depressed, even though he wouldn't talk back. The car ride was, a ride to say the least, and busy city life isn't such a sight for Nia to behold. She only wanted to get downtown promptly so she could meet up with her recent husband. The man of her dreams. The leader of the free world. Supreme Commander Simon. She looked out of her window and saw billboards where now the Supreme Commander was a spokesman for everything. Need to sell a watch? Simon is your guy. Need to promote a show? Simon for hire. Need to get your pet out of a tree? Simon can save that too.
Nia smiled at all the attention Simon was getting now and she was ecstatic for him, but she also selfishly wanted him for herself. "Milady," Old Man Coco abruptly stopped the car, "Your destination." Nia stepped out of the car and shut the door softly, she slowly clacked her heels along the pavement as she made her attention known she was coming to everyone in the vicinity.
Everyone knew what those clacking heels meant as Nia walked across the granite floor and up to Simon's office. To the security guard, it was his duty to allow the venerated princess to come in. To Kinon, Simon's secretary, it meant Nia had a lunch appointment. To the young janitor who dreamed of bigger things, seeing the total babe walk by so he could briefly smell her cloudy hair was the highlight of his day.
Nia had lots of thoughts racing in her mind. Even at this age and at this time, she would get nervous when seeing Simon. She was his wife, they were married, it shouldn't be awkward anymore, but it was. Nia put her hand on the door knob and slowly opened it, "Hail fellows, well-" "You cannot be serious Supreme Commander Simon!" a man in a white military suit incredulously overpowered his voice over Nia's greeting. Nia was in awkward shock. What was this all about? Simon and Rossiu turned their attention to Nia walking into an awkward situation. "Advisor Rossiu," Simon signalled towards Nia, "You'd best watch your tone with our guest." Situation awareness hit Rossiu, "Apologies Princess," he then laid a glare into Simon's eyes, "But I think she should hear this too!"
"Hear what?" she piqued her interest. Getting right to the point and not wasting time. "Supreme Commander Simon wishes to send a battalion of Grapearls right in the heart of the Solerian Peace Summit we've scheduled in three months." Nia failed to see the point, Rossiu forgot the slight lack of knowledge on current events to establish a proper opinion, she had been in deep space after all. "There have been rumors that the Solerians have been shadowing their true intentions by calling a peace summit in order to mount an insurrection against humans of Earth. But I don't buy it. Soleria is a planet that was hit by their own Annihilation System. They're world became a desolate, barren, unlivable place. Resources for food, weapons, and water are scarce and the purpose of their meeting is to establish peace, THEY NEED OUR HELP!"
Rossiu pointed his finger, trying to cast blame on the one man that Nia trusts with all her life. "Supreme Commander Simon here, he believes these rumors to be substantiated, he's sending a Grapearl squad in the event of a possible ambush. It doesn't make any sense to rile any further feathers, we've done our research and they're no threat."
"Need I remind you Advisor Rossiu," Simon got out of his chair and stared out his wide panoramic window to view the city below him, "Your reputation and word went down the day you made the choices you did." Rossiu took extreme offense, but he knew he was right, "Be that as it may," he chose his next words carefully, he was already seething, "You're right. You came to the surface, I followed. You defeated the Anti-Spirals, I ran. You married a Princess and I," he thought about Kinon, "I lost her heart. But Supreme Commander, as your advisor, no, as your friend, won't you see it in your heart to please not follow in the footsteps of Lordgenome?"
Nia felt the need to interject here as she felt a slight personal attack here, "Rossiu," she scowled a bit at him, this wasn't going to end well, "I believe in my Simon." She put her hand on her heart. "I believe in him with all my heart and I trust him. He is not my father, and I see no reason why sending a Grapearl squad wouldn't at least provide some type of relief for the possible safety of humanity here."
"Princess," Rossiu scowled back, "With all due respect, you're out of line." That did it. Nia wasn't going to take that anymore. "Rossiu!" she escalated her voice and pointed a finger at him, "By my order which reflects the direct order of Supreme Commander Simon, I hereby relieve you of stealing another minute of my lunch hour with Simon." Well that went better than expected. Typical Nia, a situation could be the most tense, and she'd just slice it with her sweet innocence. Rossiu couldn't help but lighten up a bit. "Hmph," he chuckled, "Thank you Princess. I'll take my leave, we'll discuss later Supreme Commander." With that, Rossiu took his leave.
"Geez what was that about?" Simon asked as he innocently just feigned the responsibility. "I-just -saved-you-from-another-meeting." She said in a singsongy voice. Nia nonchalantly walked over to a buffet table lined against the window wall. She ignored Simon's devilish look on his face as she walked across and she sniffed her hair. "You won't believe my day today," she began to ramble, "I was trying to boil this stew for hours, but Coco kept forgetting to remind me. I was in the garden and planting flowers, come to think about it I had to resow and replant."
It was then all of the sudden, Nia felt a hand on her bare shoulder. "Hm?" "Nia," Simon longingly whispered into her ear as he crept up right behind her, now placing both hands on both sides of her neck and brushing them past her bare shoulders. "Simon?" she blushed as he began to nip the right side of her neck. She enjoyed it, but she knew that what he was trying to do was taboo. "Simon...you're working...there's a window…" She protested for him to stop lightly, but before she knew it, Simon managed to slide her dress off by grabbing the sides of her sleeves and pulling down.
He pulled off her dress and let it drop on the floor. Thank goodness her hair was long enough that it covered the important parts on her chest. Nia blushed uncontrollably due to embarassment. She turned around to face Simon, "Simon, someone can come in anytime, we need to eat lunch, and…" Before she continued her rambling, Simon shushed her lightly with his finger on her lips. "I've told Kinon no more meetings," he gave his first soft kiss on her lips. "As for lunch," he looked at her naked body, as perfect as ever, "I want dessert now!" Simon lip locked with Nia and began to smack lips together, taking his time to ensure he used his entire tongue to explore her mouth.
"I've got him wrapped around my finger..." she thought to herself as Simon's tongue traced the outside of her lips, "...usually I do at least. Do I ever let him get his way? Guess I've been a little selfish." Nia acknowledged. "But who am I to deny the needs of the Supreme Commander?" The Princess gave a silent salute to him as she offered her full submission to him. Nia's mind then transported itself as she recapped her memories she had on the week leading to her wedding.
She recalls the seven days on the island. Living each day as if it was their last, not wasting a moment. Nia felt very spry after coming back, it was weird, she recalled her DNA being damaged during her Anti-Spiral transformation. She heard the doctors say words like, "She'll never be human again," or "It's a wonder she's still alive." So because of this, they never wasted a second. After a whole day of activities to take advantage of this beautiful island, the sun would set on one side of the coast. On the other, the moon would peek itself, two celestial bodies seen at the same time. This romantic sight was enough for them to make love on that very beach. Simon reassured her every night. "You're not going away, not now, not ever." They made as much love possible everyday, as much as they can, and as long as they can.
Nia's thoughts about these tender moments with Simon made her tickled pink. She couldn't live in the past anymore, she had to live for the moment. She spotted a lounger Simon had in the corner of his office. It was a gift from Rossiu, and Simon used it maybe once since coming back. Nia took notice of this, "Let's break it in," she playfully thought.
They made love on the office couch now. Simon was steadying his pace to the consistency of his beating heart.
Nia's mind began to wander, it eventually went to a dark place, the Anti-Spirals. Pain, violation, extreme breakdown, and complete despair; this is what the Anti-Spirals made her feel as they began to tear apart her DNA to the quantum level. Entire patches of her body were missing and she witnessed everything: important organs, circulation points, pain receptor glands, all missing for brief moments due to the Anti-Spiral being performing the worst kind of rape on her. She knew the Anti-Spirals broke her perception that day, her body may be repaired, but her mindset could no longer be recovered.
Anti-Spirals by nature were not in the business of performing sexual acts against Spiral kind, they find that low. But Nia still felt that they violated her: they violated her sacred body, they violated her mind, and to make matters worse, they tried to drain her into their collective conscience. To Nia, this was rape, and she was ashamed of this whenever she thought of Simon still wanting her after this whole ordeal. Simon was the perfect guy for her, he crossed the universe to save her, she only wanted to stay his forever and it was the least she could do.
But still, it was Simon. She looked at him, his sweet face: hardworking, soft, innocent. It eased up her tension. She let her hands wander a bit more like her thoughts. They settled on his shoulders. "These shoulders," she thought, "he's always putting so much of the weight of the world on these shoulders."
Simon kept increasing his pace, as Nia noticed the time for lunch winding down, even though they didn't eat anything, she really wanted to give Simon the last laugh, she loves him after all. Nia was ready, she was going to give her everything to Simon, she wanted one last look at his trusting face, the one that's kept her safe, she briefly glanced.
Red circuitry?
Her fear appearing on her face for a split second. She quickly closed her eyes and looked again. She was seeing things. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She felt absolutely guilty, but she knew that she needed to tell Simon to stop so she could recollect herself and her thoughts. Nia sweetly smiled at Simon with an uncomfortable but loving smile. "Simon…" she softly sighed, "I'm quite okay now… can you please stop?" Simon didn't answer her, instead, he carried on with his actions, making the lovemaking a little more painful on Nia. "Simon, please stop. I love you. But I'm actually not feeling too well."
Simon's face turned dark, his hair shadowing his eyes from all expression for Nia to see. Nia could feel it in the air. This time, Simon was unrelenting, Nia was not prepared or expecting what came next. Simon began to get violent against her body. Nia grew concerned and this time begged as she was no longer having fun, "SIMON PLEASE STOP YOU'RE HURTING ME!"
Nia's brain was scattered, she never felt so confused in her life, tears streamed down her face. There is no worse feeling than having the man you love suddenly become someone else, perhaps even something else. Nia's face frozen in shock. Simon looked at her. "Those eyes," she noticed his cold and expressionless eyes.
"Is he mad at me?" Nia thought, first and foremost. Simon pulled himself off of her and started putting his clothes back on. "Leave," he coldly said. "Don't you have a busy day back home today?" Nia's regret and confusion piled on. "Simon" she apologetically sighed, "I'm sorry…I don't know what came into my mind. I just..."
"It's okay Nia," Simon interrupted, "Sometimes I need to just accept you just aren't in the mood sometimes." Further from the truth, it's true Nia didn't come to visit him at work with the intentions of what they did, but she liked their moments together. She hung her head low, "I'm sorry Simon. I'll go home now."
A visibly broken Nia gathered her clothes and distressingly rushed to put them back on. Her hair wasn't decent, but she figured if she ran fast enough, no one in the hallway would see what she had just been through. It was embarrassing to say the least. Before she left, she turned to look at Simon one last time, already back at the desk reading a memo. "Simon, I liked it. I don't know what came over me. When you come home, I'll have dinner ready again ok?"
Simon turned her direction and gave a fake smile, "Sure." He responded. Then he went back to uncharacteristically look back at his work again. Nia knew whatever was bothering simon, she'd have to bear the responsibility for being partly to blame. As Nia went down the elevator, she once again wondered whether something was wrong with her again. Feeling as alive as she did, why did something feel off with her these past weeks? Nia then thought about Simon, why he would suddenly have needs in the middle of the day, why he would escalate by sending military might before a Peace Summit. She thought and thought again. With no further political clout or knowledge on the situations since coming back, she only drew one conclusion as she made her way back to her limo and looked back at Parliament tower one last time.
"Maybe he's just stressed."