Ever After

"The zombies are getting closer!" Hazuki yelled a warning as she splattered a nearby one's head with her katana.

"My shield can't hold long!" Quill added, using her device Cadeus to try to keep the ravenous undead at bay.

(Technically they weren't undead, exactly. Nearly two years ago, a mad scientist had developed a very nasty engineered virus. It's first stage worked like the flu, but even more contagious. Then the second bit kicked in, first making you trip, then making you mindlessly rabid.)

"Ewww! Why are they all naked?!" Lilith bitched.

"Well, otherwise the wastes would build up and...," Quill noted.

"NEVER MIND," Lilith growled.

Hazuki cut another zombie down as she said, "Lilith, can you get us out of here?"

"Just a moment...," Lilith said as she built up power, then in a burst of green they were gone once more.

X

X

X

Eternal City Crystal Tokyo: One

"Where IS everybody?" Lilith had to ask.

The three had appeared in grassy, rolling hills with no one in sight in any direction. They found a clear, clean stream of water and washed the zombie muck off, then used magic to dry. Lilith was concerned about all the active magic around, so Quill used Cadeus to scan for a large population. They walked and found a paved road, then followed it.

"We know there's a city out there," Hazuki noted as they walked.

"The air is remarkable clear of pollutants," Quill was still scanning, "no signs of significant industry on the surface."

"None?" Lilith asked, surprised.

"Like Mid, it appears to have become post-industrial," Quill mused.

"Or it's all orbital," Hazuki suggested, having read some science fiction.

"Also possible," Quill agreed. She frowned at a reading and asked her device, "Cadeus, please confirm number 4779 epsilon?"

"Range prevents 100% verification," Cadeus said, sounding a bit miffed, "but data is 98% accurate at this distance."

"Trouble?" Hazuki asked.

"If Cadeus is right, there are some extremely powerful beings out there..." Quill mused.

Lilith nodded, "I sense it too."

They crossed a rise... and froze.

"Okay," Hazuki said, despite hazing seen quite a lot in the months they had been travelling, "that is impressive."

The huge city was a strange combination of structures. There were gleaming crystal towers, a crystal palace, and apparently an orbital elevator. There were twentieth century skyscrapers, a monorail around the circumference, and a variety of other buildings from past eras. And no smoke or any signs of pollution at all.

"That's... almost entirely magic powered," Lilith noted.

"Well, let's get over there. I assume Hatsumi is there?" Hazuki said.

"Eve," Lilith corrected.

"Whichever," Quill said as they marched on.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0.

They ended up being picked up by a transport heading into the city. "Inter-dimensional travellers?" they asked.

"You can tell?" Hazuki asked them curiously.

They nodded, "It happens. If you're not registered, the protective shield around Crystal Tokyo will shunt you off to the countryside."

"It did sort of feel like we bounced off something," Lilith admitted.

The transport dropped them off at the city limits as they pointed out, "Don't forget to check in to customs, too."

"Thank you for your help," Hazuki waved as they drove off.

"We should check in with customs," Quill noted.

"Yeah," Hazuki agreed, "maybe they know something about Eve."

Lilith was looking around at the people, "I can't get a sense where Eve is. There's too much background magic."

The city streets weren't crowded, by design they suspected, but there was a huge variety of people of all shapes and sizes. There were clearly aliens, animal/people hybrids, what looked like elves, cyborgs, robots, very humanoid robots, and many others.

"Dimensional Customs? Third tower to the right," the near naked catwoman pointed.

"Thank you," Hazuki tried not to look at her breasts. And everything else showing.

"If you're not busy later...," the woman started.

"Excuse us, must be going," Lilith grabbed Hazuki and they hurried off.

"Oh poo," H'nor of the Knanite pouted,

Quill looked amused as she noted, "Hazuki, you've done it again."

"It's not intentional," Hazuki sighed.

The three reached the offices, which were an open and casually laid out space. An attractive young man smiled at them, "Welcome. My name is Hikaru, what can we do for you?"

"We teleported in without earlier clearance," Quill admitted after introducing everyone.

"That's fine," he casually said, "we actually like encouraging free movement between worlds as a policy." Hikaru continued, "Who was the transporter?"

"That would be me," Lilith admitted.

"We'll basically retroactively register you," Hikaru explained, taking out a plain crystal plate. "Just put your hand here."

A little warily Lilith did so, and her hand glowed golden a moment.

"There we go," Hikari nodded in satisfaction. He checked something, "I note Miss Quill is from Mid. Do you need a registry too?"

"I'm just tagging along," Quill explained.

"We wanted to ask you about an unusual traveller," Hazuki began, then explained about Eve/Hatsumi's odd reincarnation universal travel.

"That's definitely unique," Hikari admitted. "Let me check our files," he gestured, summoned a virtual keyboard, then typed. "Huh," he muttered.

"Bet you its no," Quill murmured.

"There's nothing in our records on her," Hikari admitted, "but I would suggest trying the Great Library. It not only accesses records across Earth, but the Solar System."

"Thank you for the help," Hazuki said to him politely, after they also got a free map of the city and surroundings.

"Good luck," he waved as they left.

All three emerged from the offices, taking a moment to just enjoy the sun. Then Lilith's stomach growled.

"Bad stomach," Lilith scolded it.

Hazuki wanted to keep up the search, but she was peckish too. "Let's get something to eat," she said willingly.

There were a LOT of returants, including a few odder ones. Vegetarian, several alien run ones, two different ones run by, apparently, actual dragons...

"That coffee shop has a food display," Hazuki pointed. That seemed safe...

"Welcome to Cafe Alpha," the green haired woman smiled as they came in. "Oh! Miss Lilith?" she recognized her.

"Haven't we seen you at Arisugawa's Locket?" Lilith noted.

"Yes," Alpha agreed, "though I haven't worked there since I moved to this era and re-opened my cafe here." She led them to a seat, "Coffee? Tea? Snacks?"

All three ordered drinks then something from the snacks display, and relaxed a moment in the quiet cafe. "Interesting place," Quill noted as she drank.

"What year is it, by the way?" Hazuki asked Alpha as she passed their table later.

"Old Earth Calendar?" Alpha asked. Hazuki nodded and she continued, "It's roughly... 3005, I think? We changed calendars after the Restoration."

Hazuki, Lilith and Quill exchanged glances. "Nearly a thousand years," Hazuki muttered.

To be continued...

Notes:

First bit is set in John Ringo's Black Tide Rising zombie plague series, more or less. As much as I hate his politics, man writes good books. At SOME point I want to write a LGBTQ side story to the series.

This is set ABOUT chapter 77 of my Eternal City Crystal Tokyo series. With some wiggle room.

Ever After

Crystal Tokyo Two

"Why are we doing the various time jumps, though?" Hazuki wondered, the three having finished a snack and drinking good coffee.

"I'm just following Eve," Lilith mused.

"Hatsumi," Hazuki corrected.

"Whichever," Lilith sighed. "I don't know why time is now a factor."

"Time can pass at different rates between dimensions," Quill Fiat offered.

Lilith looked sheepish, "I kind of forgot that..."

"Really?" Hazuki asked.

"It's normally not a huge amount," Quill noted, "but there are universes with serious time discontinuities. Remember that universe we met Miss Tanya?"

"Yeah, it was kind of WW One but with magic," Hazuki nodded.

"And when we were first looking for Eve and ended up on a colony ship out in deep space," Lilith recalled.

"That's interesting, You'll have to tell me about it," Quill mused as she smiled a bit flirtatiously at Hazuki.

"ANYWAY," Lilith continued, "we might be time jumping more often too."

"Is everything all right?" Alpha asked them, the pretty green haired woman smiling politely.

"Yes, thank you," Hazuki said. She hesitated, "Uhm, it occurs to me I don't have local money. How do I pay?"

Alpha looked amused, "We no longer use money in this era, and you three have 'credit' here for past actions."

"Huh?" Quill blinked.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll find out, eventually," Alpha said cheerfully. "Can I get you a refill?" she asked.

The three exchanged a look, then Hazuki decided, "I think we'll head out. Thank you for the drinks." Both Lilith and Quill also thanked her.

"Thank you for visiting," Alpha waved as they left.

"So, let's go to the Great Library and see if there's information there on Hatsumi," Hazuki said, checking the map.

The three walked off, unaware they were being followed...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

One of the (many) powerful beings that Quill and Lilith detected was also aware of them. In fact, there was an ongoing discussion...

"I can confirm it's Lilith," Lady Mercury, formerly Sailor Mercury, said.

"The question, of course, is which Lilith, or more accurately when is this Lilith from," Lady Venus asked, the blonde former Sailor Venus frowning.

"Okay, I'm confused," Utena Tenjou noted wryly. The pink haired woman wasn't as powerful as the Sailor Soldiers, but was respectfully strong.

Queen Serenity smiled wryly, "At one point in the past, Lilith, Hazuki and Quill will assist us in saving Japan, basically. Which leaves us in their debt."

"Right," Utena nodded.

"But because they're time travelling, we don't know if that has happened for these three yet," Serenity noted, "and telling them about their future actions might disrupt the timeline."

"I thought that you couldn't change history?" Anthy Himemiya asked, The mystic and Utena's wife was frowning.

"It's complicated," Lady Mercury looked over at Setsuna.

Setsuna, Lady Pluto, and the guardian of time, smiled wryly. "It's certain that you can't deliberately change the past," she said, "paradox prevents that."

"Okay," Anthy nodded.

"That doesn't, however, prevent accidental changes to the timeline," Setsuna admitted. "A alternate version of myself changed the Fall of the Moon Kingdom, as a example. The only reason the timeline wasn't seriously damaged was due to how far in the past it was."

"So if we tell the three of them the wrong thing," Utena realized, "we might change how events played out later."

"Exactly," Setsuna said.

"Actually I think we're safe," the figure said over a holographic link. "I have an agent following them... they clearly do not know the city. And the versions of them that assisted you knew that Crystal Tokyo existed."

"So we'd best leave them alone?" Serenity asked.

"I think that would be wise."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"OH WOW," Quill breathed out.

"Hmph. I don't like it," Lilith frowned.

They had arrived at the Great Library, another of the tall crystal towers. It was absolutely huge, ascending dozens of floors and filled with data. Sadly there weren't THAT many physical books, which apparently annoyed Lilith.

"May I be of assistance?" the male librarian asked.

"Let me," Quill stepped up, giving a fairly dry summary of Eve's universe jumping and how it appeared to work.

'I sometimes forget she's a research scientist,' Hazuki mused.

"So is she dimension jumping, time jumping or space travelling?" the librarian asked.

"All of the above," Hazuki noted.

"That's going to be interesting," the man admitted.

They had a immense amount of data, Hazuki found out, but on the other hand, a planetary war had gutted earlier records. But they did find several times it looked like Eve had popped up.

Hazuki felt a twinge as she looked at a image of Hatsumi, nearly 500 years in the past. It was just... weird and eerie.

"Are you all right," Lilith asked, putting a hand on her arm.

"Just odd feeling," Hazuki admitted.

"Can we bring the information with us?" Quill asked.

Hazuki's phone, sadly, lacked the capacity, though the staffer was ASTOUNDED she had a antique like that. Quill's device, though again 'old' by their standards, could save the data.

"Thank you for your help," Hazuki bowed.

The three then left, emerging out on the busy street. "Can you make another attempt to scan for Hatsumi?" Hazuki asked Lilith.

"There's too much background magic here," Lilith shook her head, "the other mystical beings here drown everything out."

"Quill?" Hazuki asked as they walked.

"Same," Quill said, "I'm trying to find readings like Lilith... but there's several."

"Really?" Lilith looked surprised.

As they turned a corner Hazuki noted quietly, "We're being followed. They're keeping same distance and followed us through two turns."

"I wondered why we were aimlessly walking," Lilith noted.

"Duck into that doorway," Quill ordered, then used her device. "I'm making us functionally invisible."

They watched, silently, as the woman emerged from the small crowd, looking about wildly. She neared their doorway, frowning as she looked for something.

Lilith, being Lilith, waited until her back was turned then grabbed her.

"Eep!" the girl yelped.

"Why are you following us?" Lilith demanded.

"I mean you no harm," the girl (a redhead, dressed in shorts, a blouse, with gloves and boots) said quickly.

"She's armed," Hazuki noted, "throwing knives in her gloves."

"No harm?" Lilith asked dryly.

"My mistress ordered me to keep a eye on you," the woman quickly explained, "the knives are to help me protect you."

"Mistress?" Quill asked.

"I am sworn not to reveal her name," she sounded very ninja-like as she said, "but I can take you to her."

"It's probably a trap," Lilith noted.

"Still, I kind of want to know," Hazuki said thoughtfully. She added, "And we've fought our way out of traps before."

"This could be the time our luck runs out," Quill frowned.

"I have to admit, I want to know who's having us followed too," Lilith said.

"Oh hell, lead the way, miss," Quill sighed.

To be continued...

Notes: the other characters are the 1000 year old Sailor Moon cast, and Anthy and Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Ever After

Crystal Tokyo Three

The redhead was named Shinobu, and seemed very ashamed at being caught like she was. "Please do not tell my sisters you caught me," she pouted.

"We have no reason to," Hazuki reassured the woman.

"Oh, THANK YOU, Lady Hazuki!" Shinobu said, taking her hands and smiling warmly.

Lilith did NOT like the way she was looking at Hazuki and ordered, "Back off."

Quill ignored that, checking her device as they walked. Quietly to Hazuki she noted, "We're getting near a reading that resembles Hatsumi and Lilith."

"Huh," Hazuki nodded.

They reached a traditional, centuries old Japanese home, that looked faintly familiar to Hazuki. "Please follow me," Shinobu said, leading them in. As they walked they saw similar female Ninja, whom looked at the group... weirdly adoringly?

"Reminds me of the ones you fought to save Princess Fiji," Lilith noted.

"Hopefully these aren't enemies," Hazuki answered,

"Here we are," Shinobu said as they reached a fancy set of doors, "our Mistress awaits."

The room smelled of sweet smoke, and seemed weirdly large. The three advanced warily, then saw a figure reclining on a huge futon with many fancy cushions. Lilith and Hazuki instantly recognized her, though it'd been awhile.

"Meirin?!" Hazuki blurted.

The beautiful nine tailed kitsune chuckled merrily, "It's been a long time since I was called that, but it's fine."

"How did you end up here?" Lilith demanded.

Meirin took a puff of her pipe, "This place is a crossroads, Lilith-san. Many immortals like ourselves have taken up residence here."

"Your energy actually resembles Lilith's," Quill noted, her device glowing slightly.

Meirin shrugged eloquently, "We have known each other a long time."

Hazuki demanded, "Is Hatsumi here? Is that why...?"

Meirin's face fell. "I'm sorry," she simply said.

Hazuki visibly slumped.

"Why are there so many similar readings?" Quill asked, even as she squeezed Hazuki's arm comfortingly.

"More than the sisters will access the Great Library," Meirin said. She held up a hand, "I can't explain more. Paradox."

"Huh?" Hazuki blinked.

Lilith realized, "We're going to have other meetings in our future but her past." She scowled, "I HATE time travel."

"Agreed," Quill sighed.

There was a knock on the door, then Shinobu stuck her head in, "Milady, dinner will be soon. Should we set three more places?"

"Join me?" Meirin asked them, smiling.

Hazuki exchanged glanced with the others, who shrugged. "Why not," she nodded to her, "we can catch up a bit."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The whole group, including some of the ninja, ended up going to Arisugawa's Locket later that evening for drinks.

"This place is still open?" Hazuki noted, surprised.

"Yes," Meirin nodded as she said, "except for a few interruptions, it's been open since the twentieth century."

"Welcome!" Cyberdoll May smiled welcomingly. "Would you like a table, or...?" she asked them cheerfully.

"Table," Meirin decided. As they walked to the table, a gorgeous redhead was just finishing up a song up on the kareoke stage.

"Oh woe to ye, thee people of order,

I hope your homes continue to smoulder.

And that you never rise again,

And woe to those who called me a friend."

There were, surprisingly, boos when the woman finished. She ignored it, stalking up to the bar and ordering a drink.

"Why all the booing?" Quill wondered.

Shinobu noted, "That's an alternate version of Beryl. The woman who caused the fall of the Moon Kingdom, back in pre-history."

"And she's running around free because...?" Lilith blinked.

"She hadn't committed any crimes here. Though apparently she does advocate the fall of Crystal Tokyo," Shinobu said.

"WHAT," Hazuki blinked.

"I admire Queen Serenity's principles," Meirin noted mildly, "she's insane, but principled."

"Hazuki!" a cheerful voice called out.

A cheerful redhead in a VERY tiny bikini strode of, along with a woman with long black hair in a matching bikini. "Who...?" Hazuki started.

"Aww, you forgot us?" the redhead pouted.

"Kei, they haven't met you or Yuri yet. Time travel," Meirin quickly said.

"Oh, damn. Okay, we'll cat up next time," Kei pouted but turned away.

"I hope this doesn't keep happening," Lilith grumbled.

Annoyingly, they had several run ins with folks that knew them, but they were strangers to. It was a decidedly odd experience.

"You have the oddest look on your face, Lady Hazuki," Shinobu noted respectfully.

Hazuki REALLY wanted her to stop using 'lady' but... "Just, seeing all these people," she said, "that I WILL meet, it means I and my friends are going to have to keep going for a long while."

Shinobu gave her a sympathetic look, "I'm sorry."

"HAZUKI! Let's try singing!" Lilith yelled, and nearly dragged her off to the kareoke stage.

"Well, Miss Quill, alone at last," Meirin smiled impishly.

"Hmm?" Quill looked at the sexy fox woman thoughtfully.

"Would you care to dance?" Meirin asked, rising and offering a hand.

"My pleasure," Quill got up and followed her.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The group stuck around Crystal Tokyo for another day, mostly to stock up on supplies and decompress a bit. They stayed over at the Kitsune's home, sharing breakfast with her and her ninja.

"Good luck," Meirin wished them as Lilith began to glow.

"See you again," Hazuki said wryly.

In a burst of familiar green magic, they were gone.

Meirin told Shinobu, "Go tell our other guest they are gone."

The woman would have been instantly recognizable as a relative of Lilith. She wasn't, actually, but magic and reincarnation was involved. She was dressed in a beautiful kimono, and had a gentle but sad smile.

Princess Fuji asked plaintively, "Did I HAVE to hide from them?"

Meirin said seriously, "You haven't met them again, in their timeline. We can't risk altering our history."

"I guess," Fuji pouted.

"I wish I could be there to see their reaction," Meirin chuckled.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"All right, nobody move!" the giant demon ordered. He was, oddly, wearing a trench coat, had horns that were shaved down to stumps, and a pistol in one hand.

"A Prince of Hell?" Lilith yelped.

"SERIOUSLY?" Hazuki blurted.

"WHY did you three pop up in BPRD headquarters?" an older, blonde woman demanded.

"BPRD?" Quill wondered aloud.

"Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defence," the brown haired woman with flames dancing around her hands said dryly.

Hazuki didn't get a feeling of evil from them, and she knew the three of them had apparently popped up in their base. She lowered her katana a bit, "We mean you no harm, we're on a quest to find a missing person."

The blonde woman studied her a second, then nodded. "I'm Kate Corrigan, that's Liz Sherman, and the big guy is Hellboy."

"An' how did blonde there know I'm a Prince?" Hellboy asked, frowning at Lilith.

"It's complicated," Lilith admitted.

To be continued...

Notes: the song Beryl's singing is Woe to the people of order by The Shiny Snivy.

I've always liked Hellboy, though more the comics versions than the films.