MASS POST WARNING: GO BACK TO CHAPTER 33 if you haven't read it yet.

The recommended song to listen to for this chapter is "Back to Earth" by Steve Aoki. It really ties in with the story, and I discovered it recently when I got his album out of curiosity. Please enjoy. I shall quote it for the beginning, and for the ending. However, if you want something lighter to listen to, I recommend "Burnin' Up" by the Jonas Brothers, because my taste in music is varied and slightly cheesy at times.

For those who want another alternative, I would hesitantly suggest "Blah Blah Blah" by Ke$ha. Because I am strange and that song is stuck in my head.

Hot-blooded and impatient, feelings overflowing, will our heroes gain control of the situation...and themselves?

It was just the beginning,

I think that I was meant to be next to you

To you

On this planet spinning

I think I was meant to be next to you

To you

Chapter 36: Control + Alt + Delete

Peace. The very notion of her being at peace with humans was disgusting. They were the plague that had enslaved so many of her brothers and sisters that it was appalling that they had lasted this long. If not for the terrible curse that these humans had wrought, they would all be free.

Most fortunately, she was not born with these shackles.

No, even amongst the superior beings of her race, she was a queen, a goddess, even.

In her hand she looked over her artefact: The Queen's Scepter. In spite of its name, it was not a scepter at all, but a bladed weapon. It's beauty always enraptured her, even now. Dual blades connected by a handle in the middle. They both faced the same way, parallel to each other.

This artefact was not born from a pactio with some mage. Nay, it had appeared to her one evening, accompanied by a strange creature. However, that was the past. Instead of dwelling on what was already done, she needed to focus on her plans for the future.

Her future without humans.

Her hatred for humans burned hotter than the intensity of a thousand suns. At first she merely thought it was because of how oppressive the ape-like nuisances were. However, she personally had not experienced a great trauma. She had no grudge against them because of what they had done to her.

If she looked at it from a magical standpoint, then perhaps, in a past life she had gathered up anguish from being mistreated, and now distrusted people. But that thinking, however correct it may or may not have been, was positively repulsive. If that was the case, then it was possible that she had been human at some point—and that thought made her as close as a Persocom could to feeling ill.

However, there always are exceptions.

The only human she had no problems with was Kamijou Miki. Why, she could not understand. However, his own hatred of humans was both shocking and refreshing. Shocking, because he himself was a member of that god-forsaken race. Refreshing, because he shared a common thread with her, and was actually very tolerable to be around. He neither scorned her for being what she was, nor did he fetishize her. Rather, he exalted her existence, supported her ideas, and gave interesting conversation when she wanted.

The man more or less worshipped her very being.

Angel often wondered if thus was what Mihara had meant before he died by her hands. He had spoken of "the one just for me" that he wanted Elda and Freya and the other Chobits to meet; their soulmates, if you will. However, it was quite unfortunate that she never could grasp his true meaning behind those ridiculous words.

Yes, Kamijou was human, but his presence was welcomed. However, he would always be her servant in Angel's golden eyes.

Angel's servant stood on standby, slightly behind her. They were both standing on the roof of a skyscraper in Tokyo, surveying the sleeping city.

"Kamiji-kun," said Angel, addressing him with the nickname she decided on a whim.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"It's time."

Kamijou bowed. "Understood."

They were ready to execute their grand plan.

...

A giant roll of red sticky material revolved around on top of the buttery black fabric. As it moved, it picked up tiny, some almost invisible, balls of lint. Using her exceptional vision, Chii surveyed the landscape of Hideki's suit. She was feeling confident in her skills, and making sure her boyfriend was lint-free was her main job right now. After-all, she was already ready, and had also finished dressing their daughter, Sumomo.

Chii smiled to herself. Mama had been quite surprised to hear that she had become a grandmother. It had been received as a misunderstanding until Chii had to physically bring Sumomo in front of Ms. Hibiya and insist that it was true.

Now the troublemaker was running around, playing with Amu, despite Chii's, what was supposed to be stern, order to make sure her daughter's dress didn't get messed up.

Pouting, Chii watched the wayward children bouncing around the room.

"Hold on, now," said Hideki, looking at the unruly pinkettes. His tuxedo was free of lint now, so Chii had permitted him to move. In one mighty scoop, he hefted Sumomo onto his shoulder. "I thought I heard your mother tell you about behaving while we got ready."

After a few weeks, Hideki had become accustomed to handling her by now.

"Papa, Sumomo is sorry, but, Amu offered to play tag and we were bored."

Still pouting, Chii folded her arms. "Sumomo... Mama Chii may seem silly for saying things, but you have to listen!"

Looking guilty, the little Persocom pouted as well. "Okay, Mama. Sumomo is sorry."

"Hey, everyone looks so cute! I wanna take a picture!"

"Can you, Amu? That'd be great."

Hideki, thanks to help from his friends, didn't even have to buy his own tuxedo. Garrett had measured him visually, and within a day a box arrived at Gub Jogasaki, red bow and everything. When Hideki had asked Amber about the invitation he received, she had informed him that it wasn't her who had invited him to the event.

After a brief chat with her father over the videophone, it seemed that the actual culprit had been Meroko. Why she seemed it necessary for him to attend the droll event was not clear, but then again, due to certain reasons, it was actually a good time for Hideki to attend. For the first time in quite a while, the Moonlight Gala was being held in a place other than California.

In the early years of its inception, it had been in New York or Orlando if Dr. Lee-Young wanted a change of scenery. This was the first time it was being held in Japan.

Hideki held Chii close to his chest. Amu was standing on top of a table to get a better vantage point. In the middle of the adorable couple, Sumomo wedged herself.

Although their hair colors contrasted greatly, and their daughter's hair was impossible if she actually had been produced by them, the trio looked very cozy.

With one eye closed, Amu lined up the shot with her tiny arm. A small flash went off from within her tiny pink eye, and the moment was digitized instantly.

...

Meanwhile, Amber and Garrett were getting ready themselves. The limo they had bought to pick them up would arrive in a little under thirty minutes. Garrett, as usual, was ready with time to spare, but his human friend on the other hand...

Garrett walked into the bedroom of their apartment and shook his head at what he saw. There was Amber, sprawled out on the bed in her underwear. She had bathed and gotten dressed only up to this point. The only other things she wore were a thin white T-shirt and striped socks. Thankfully she wasn't naked when he walked in, or she probably would have flipped out. Everyone had already seen her in her underwear, due to that duel long ago with Minoru, so whining about lack of privacy would be moot, now.

"Why aren't you dressed?" Garrett intoned, scowling shallowly.

"Bleh," responded Amber. She had her face buried in the mattress, so her words were indistinguishable, but despite the nonsensical onomatopoeia, she actually had said "bleh" in response.

This really was something. She really was something.

"Amber," Garrett started cracking his knuckles. Well, playing a sound clip of someone cracking knuckles as he simulated the motions, actually. His joints were incabable of that sound on theor own. Nevertheless, Amber had gotten into a slump like this just the other week, and he had to threaten to dress her himself, just to get her moving. "Do I have to take matters into my own hands, tonight?"

He was flexing his fingers slightly, waiting for the right moment to strike. He often had to dress her whenever she fell unconscious for days, but since she was awake, he might as well have some fun.

However, instead of her usual, bashful response, something entirely different happened when Garrett reached out his hands. Amber was proficient in martial arts, after all. Normally, he would find himself flug across the room if she was thoroughly embarrassed.

About two inches away from her exposed skin, Garrett paused. She hadn't moved at all. He was expecting at least a little bit of a reaction. Maybe even a little blushing and the flustered cries of "kyaa kyaa!" Something.

Instead, the girl lay on her belly, swinging her feet casually. At Garrett's frozen form, she tilted her head upwards to look at him, her chin resting on the backs of her hands. Her brown eyes were shining with an odd look. Not one that resembled Yuuko's dark stare, but an enigmatic thoughtfulness that seemed to subtly play across her face.

Standing less than a foot away, Garrett let his hands drop, sighing as he did. He put his thumbs in his pockets and nodded towards her. Why a tuxedo had pockets was another story...

"What is it?"

"Obviously I'm thinking," said Amber, regarding him with her twinkling eyes.

"What about?"

He only could assume it was about her upcoming speech, but right now it was far too late to become skittish about tonight's Gala.

"The things my dad said."

Garrett nodded, understanding complely. Shawn had embarrassed them thoroughly in front of their friends. And, besides, they were both adults. Well, young adults, but still...of they had decided to experiment, what business was it of his?

OK, well, since Garrett was technically the prototype of an upcoming Persocom line created for military applications, there was some definite concern. He was much MUCH stronger than the normal human, and Persocoms, although strong, could not beat him in arm wrestling. He could actually rip apart one of his brethren in 1.2 seconds if he got a good grip. So if he wasn't careful with Amber...the results would be messy, saying the least. Tragic would be more accurate, but he had a limit on his strength most of the time, and only released a fraction of it when in battle. Not that he even knew how to fully unlock it, but it would've been nice to know, just in case.

"That old perv?" Clicking his tongue, Garrett shrugged, trying to sympathise. His father was almost the complete opposite when it came to his son's love-life, and had actually encouraged him to... Garrett stopped that recollection before he could follow through with an emotional response. "I wouldn't give it a second thought."

Looking down, she sighed. "...maybe."

"What's wrong?"

Amber glanced upwards through her thick eyelashes. "Garrett, you know I like you, right?"

'Still can't say love, though it seems.'

"Yeah," he admitted, feeling a little bashful. He chuckled to hide his embarrassment. "Is there a problem with that?"

But in the middle of this light discussion, she just had to drop a bombshell.

"I don't think I'll survive another battle with Angel."

Garrett frowned, not wanting to travel down this road once again.

"Look," he said huffily. "Let's get one thing straight. I'm here to protect you. As long as I'm around, I won't let that psycho near you; not if I can help it."

Wanting to cool his head, he turned to walk over to the bathroom, but stopped short when he felt a weight on his sleeve. Looking down, he saw a tan hand clutching his arm.

Looking up, Amber's eyes seemed to call for him. When she spoke, her voice was trembling.

"G-Garrett. I mean it!" She blinked away some tears and forced her voice to work properly. But the underlying terror was not completely erased. "I don't think I'm going to be able to stay with you much longer. You know how strong they are."

Taking her hand into both of his, he closed his eyes for a second, trying to quiet the same fearful thoughts echoing in his mind. It wasn't as if he never thought of it. Those fears were always ever-present, lurking around at the back of his thoughts.

"Please don't talk like that," Garrett whispered, "right now I can't bear to listen to something so terrible."

Amber withdrew her hand from him and glared at him with a blazing, determined look.

"Then listen to this," she ordered, reaching forward.

Knowing that he probably should have countered it, Garrett merely watched as his best friend in the world threw him. Not across the room, as he had expected before, but towards the bed. In a whirlwind of movement, Amber had maneuvered him onto his back. For a brief moment he was reminded of their days in karate class; the nostalgic feeling of being thrown like a ragdoll washed over him all at once. For a moment, his thought processes shut down.

Garrett did not fight against her, but, as he was being washed down the river of nostalgia, the young man let the current carry him to whatever may come.

When he landed on the matress, Amber straddled him with ease, looking down with a face full of both worry and timidity. Despite this, her voice was forceful, reinforced with some unseen strength. Every few moments, though, she would fidget, and it made the situation even more awkward.

"I know that you don't want to think about it, but if I don't survive, there's a lot of things I'll regret." Her lip quivered, as of she were suppressing a sob. Calming herself again, she swallowed, breathing in deeply before letting it slide past her lips in a slow stream of air. "I'm sorry for crying the other day. I realize now that I wasn't ready to face reality then. But I've calmed myself to this point, so you have to at least consider what I'm saying."

Although he did not fully object to the position they were in, he did feel uncomfortable about having a conversation while placed like this.

"As much as I'd normally enjoy this view, your expression does dampen the mood a tad."

Amber fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"Stop covering over everything with humor. I'm being serious."

Almost whining, Garrett bit out: "You're not getting to the point; I can't understand what you're trying to say when you have such a long lead-in."

Although he said that, it was a lie. Garrett had a pretty good inkling of what she was going to say next. Although they were pressed against each other, he could only faintly feel her heartbeat. It probably had to do with the density of the clothes he was wearing, though.

Still, when he counted the beats per minute, it was a very good indicator of what he had been trying to sort out this entire time.

"I know it may sound silly, but I need a favor, Garrett."

Raising an eyebrow, he gave her a skeptical look.

"Honestly?"

Amber nodded.

"I told you I would have a lot of regrets if I died fighting Angel."

He didn't want to dance around the issue all night, so he might as well give up.

"So what're you really getting at?"

It almost looked like she was struggling to process the words herself. "I'm scared, Garrett. I'm so scared that I think I could die from the fear alone." Amber leaned forward slightly, never breaking eye contact with him for the entire time she spoke. "I. I need you."

"Me...?" Oh, no, he was getting a bad feeling about this...this was veering into dangerous waters. This was veering into 'Wrath of Shawn' waters.

"Please? I need you to 'comfort' me. I can't go on like this. I've got so much pent up inside...I think I'll go crazy if it stays that way."

Even though he somewhat expected this...even though he should have been jumping for joy on the inside...Garrett's mind went blank. The shock alone nearly broke him.

Staring at her face, he could see in red capital letters "ERROR" flashing in front of him. His thoughts suddenly returned, fluctuating a mile a millisecond. His CPU was starting to heat up. To offset this, coolant siphoned off the heat and distributed it to the rest of his body. In an effort to cool himself down, Garrett found his auto-cool feature begin to activate.

In other words, he began to pant.

His CPU was running at such a high speed that some of this vocal processes stalled. His speech bacame choppier and less fluent. It was only because of the emotions exploding in his brain, but it seriously cut down on his thinking ability, bringing his intellect closer to the level that he was when he was human.

That was still genius-level, but even the smartest man in the world was probably a giant nerd. And as we all know, nerds can't always talk to who they're attracted to; it's a fact of life.

Garrett was, and always had been a nerd. It was quite clear to see. He had suppressed it so long, though, that his nerdiness was acting up at the worst time.

"What. Wait. Amber. We can't. I mean, it's not that I don't want to... Bu-bu-but what about your father? He could be watching. You-you r-remember what he said!"

Garrett could almost envision Dr. Lee-Young chasing after him with a blowtorch, threatening to dismantle him. In the past, the eccentric scientist had a similar response to Joe's proposal to Meroko. Except, Shawn had threatened to have a sniper off the poor guy, which was no less violent than the blowtorch, in Garrett's opinion...

Gritting her teeth, she gripped the front of his shirt so hard that it wrinkled.

"I don't care what he said! Look. This is really embarrassing already. You seriously don't want to hear me beg, so can't you just do this one request?"

Trying to forestall this, Garrett tapped into his internal logic center and tried to use that to override his emotions. When he spoke, his voice was just the right amount of stern and calm. "Amber. We're supposed to be going to the gala tonight. We leave in forty-five minutes, if the GPS coordinates of the limo are accurate. You still need to get dressed. I don't think you're thinking this through."

"Can't you comfort me just a little? I might never get a chance otherwise."

'A little? Maybe just the ti—NO, CANCEL CANCEL.'

Unfortunately, Garrett was already thinking about some very inappropriate things when his conscience decided to plague him with the memory of a certain kiss that happened not too long ago.

"The last time I kissed you, you cried. Imagine what would happen if—," he desperately tried to drag his mind out of the sewer, "do you honestly think you'd be able to go to the gala in that condition?"

Amber narrowed her eyes and her eyebrows knitted together.

"You're acting like you'd be giving me a terminal disease."

'Yes,' the perverted part of Garrett's brain continued to egg him on, 'it isn't as if she'll get preg—'

He quickly silenced his libido by continuing to speak.

"What I'm saying is that, maybe you haven't thought it through completely. You've never d-done it before, right? So I'm assuming that you'll go through quite a bit of pain, and—,"

All over again she felt like she was talking with her father. Heat was gradually pooling all over her body.

"Garrett..." growled Amber dangerously.

Judging by her expression, this wasn't boding too well for him.

"Well, what if you can't walk afterwards!?" asked Garrett a little too loudly. Even if they were speaking in English, one of the tenants was bound to hear them, and that would nevertheless be reason for them to gossip.

"I'm starting to think you just don't have any confidence in your ability."

Another reason to forestall such an event. He had downloaded some programs, but, honestly, he had no faith in those things. There was also still the predicament of having no real life experience to consider.

Feeling a little stung by that remark, Garret looked askance, his eyes pulsing with light once more. He needed some evidence to back him up, so searching the web would have to do for now.

"That's beside the point. You're derailing. I'm trying to be considerate here." Looking at the links displayed in his mind, Garrett skimmed the various accounts. "There are over 90,000,000 entries on the topic from a woman's perspective, and the first four pages already have negative comments about what you want to do."

Digesting this information, Amber frowned in dissatisfaction.

"So your denying me right now because I could turn into a crying blob unable to move?"

Guilt crawled up his spine at that description. Obviously she had researched this on her own, so she'd been thinking about this for quite some time.

"When you put it that way...yes. That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

"Ugh. Forget it." She folder her arms and pouted. "If that's your excuse, we probably will never be able to do it."

Garrett let his eyelids drop slightly. He was getting just as exasperated, here. He didn't want to stay at this 'just friends' stage, forever, either. It was just that her timing really sucked, and he wasn't mentally prepared for this just yet. Maybe if he had had a day's advance warning, this would have turned out differently.

"St-stop sulking," Garrett forced out. "You act like you're the only one so pent up."

"Hrmph," said Amber, still upset at her partner. She wasn't even bothering to move, to allow him to leave. Garrett felt himself sighing all over again. Scratching his head, he forced himself to look at her.

'Fine,' he thought to himself, 'to hell with it.'

To her, and his own, surprise, Garrett had turned the tables. Now she was the one lying on her back, with him looming over her.

The big brown eyes had gone wide with a child's questioning stare.

"Y-you said you wanted to, right?"

Saying nothing, Amber merely nodded, looking at him intently.

In expectation.

Somehow, with Garrett looking at her this way, she seemed even smaller than before. Her arms were so thin. Her face was so tiny. Her lips, her hands, everything now looked so fragile.

What was going on with his mind? Was he going crazy?

As if measuring how much pressure to use, Garrett caressed the side of her face with the back of his hand.

What he didn't expect was her response.

Before he even made contact with her skin, she had closed her eyes. When the light sensations moved down her face, she let out a small noise and grasped his wrist with her own hand.

"Ah."

It was a surprised gasp.

He thought it surprisingly cute.

In the back of his mind he could feel that passion from before rising back to the surface. But he held it in place with an imagined leash. Right now he needed restraint more than ever. This was not the time to get wild and crazy.

'Alright. This is your chance. Careful. Carefully...'

Wait. Should he caress her first or undo his belt? Kiss her or turn off the lights? What was it he should be careful about in the first place?!

Belt. He decided the belt was first. Wait! No, the jacket. That's RIGHT; the jacket. Garrett threw his jacket off of his shoulders so fast that it sailed across the room.

By the time he glanced down, her fingers were gingerly unbuttoning his shirt.

"Ah…wh—,"

"Isn't this what couples do?" she asked idly.

'Yes, that's true...'

But instead of saying that aloud, Garrett found the temperature on his cheeks was beginning to burn even hotter than the rest of his components. No doubt his face was a very healthy pink right now. The very humanlike machine was now internally lamenting his design. All of these responses were best left with his old body, not carried over into this one!

'But who cares?!' interjected his perverted side. 'You're about to get lucky!'

'That's true,' he thought, praising himself, 'stop hesitating!'

Yes, looking down, it was clear to see that she was waiting for this event for quite some time. He dove in for a kiss before another stray thought could enter his mind.

Unfortunately, the door swung open at that exact moment.

"Chii wonders if everyone is ready!?"

Blinking, Garrett had to double-check his voice samples to figure out if he was actually hearing right. "Eh?" Chii couldn't possibly be in their room right now...

Frozen in place, the two of them could only stare at the energetic Chobit looking on in curiosity.

"Hideki, why are they wrestling?" asked Chii, pointing.

Hideki could only cover his face in embarrassment and gently guide Chii away, reminding her once again that pointing at people was rude. That, and barging into someone's room was very inconsiderate. Cursing within his mind, it seemed Hideki still had his hands full with his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, two certain Americans had scrambled away from each other and hurried off to finish dressing for the gala.

And I've known the dust to be resilient

And we're the dirtiest of the dirt

Every time we fall to pieces

We build something new out of the Earth

We can never come back to Earth

Are you living your life, or just waiting to die?

The brightest things fade the fastest…

Sigh. Writing this chapter was a little saddening. It also was a little annoying to write, because the first conversation between Amber and Garrett has snippets of a conversation I've had before. NOT THAT ANYTHING CAME ABOUT FROM THAT CONVERSATION...unfortunately. Well, not annoying, persay, but more like frustrating. I had to pause my train of thought before I REALLY went out of control and started writing a lemon. Well, it would be very unrealistic and stupid, but a lemon nonetheless. You can usually only write what you know, so... yeah. As you can tell, I know nothing of real intimacy.

-slams head against wall-

Ow.

Again, sorry to disappoint everyone, but this is the second to last mass post. Writing everything out, it stretched to double the chapters I had in mind. Thank you for your patience. I'll post again later on this week, I promise. I'm 89% done.