[Fiction] Phaeton's Homecoming (Warning: Mature Themes)

[GDP_ST]

The post-midnight sky was dark and overcast above the Windy City, the people huddled in their homes against the chill winds that blew in from Lake Michigan. The homeless were not so fortunate, and only swathes of oversized ragged clothing prevented them from feeling the last bite of winter more fully than their shivering frames could stand. Above the skyline, the noises of the urban night-time rose into the air, a medley of voices, machinery and music that made the city a living creature with its own pulse, its own breath, and its own heart.

A soft glow penetrated the cloud cover, then grew more intense, the clouds dissipating slightly as a humanoid form descended through them. Clad only in white cotton shirt and slacks, the radiant figure glowed with an unmistakeable golden aura, solar nimbii playing in his corona as he flew in an easy circle around the center of Chicago, leaving a trail of warm light in his wake. The chill did not affect him, nor did the wind throw off his course as he plotted an easy arc over the skyline.

Procyon's azure eyes glimmered as he gazed down at the city he had come to think of as home. He spotted the building that housed Club Babylon, and the WCK headquarters, and he smiled. He had much to do, people to visit for both the pleasure of their company and more serious business. But none were more important than the one who waited for him ahead. In the long no-time of the Chrysalis he had not thought of anything of course, but his last thought before darkness overtook him was of her.

Ai

He glanced up from his vantage point above the streets, taking in the Fordham Spire. His eyrie. His home. He wondered if she were in as Gryle had told him. He briefly regretted not calling ahead: perhaps she was elsewhere? But no, there were lights on up there - someone was home. Hope swelled and he rose up from where he was cruising above street level, ascending into the night sky once more as he homed in on the penthouse balcony, the light from inside the large-paned windows warming to his heart.

With a graceful wingless swoop his bare feet touched down on the balcony of his home for the first time in months, and though he had little need of it, Procyon took a deep breath of the cold night air, his sapphire blue eyes gazing raptly at the room beyond the glass sliding doors. He watched for long moments as one quietly entranced, content for the moment to simply take in the sight that lay before him.

[Butterfly]

The woman who moved about inside the apartment Procyon called home was a much different creature to the one he had left behind. Gone were the brocade cheongsams and pretty hair ornaments or the featureless black eufiber that absorbed light; she now wore a black crop top and leggings as she worked out on a punching bag in the corner. She had added other touches to the apartment, like the scattering of exquisite antiques from Asia, and a three-folded screen of darkest stained rosewood inlaid with mother-of-pearl depicting a golden man and his female shadow.

Butterfly balanced on the balls of her feet, striking the punching bag with punches and kicks that could come from a textbook of Muy Thai fighting. She had gotten complacent, secure that she could not be found, and look what had happened... Mentally shrugging, the Asian beauty returned to her pattern of strikes.

Her long black hair hung in a braid that swung behind her, and her sugar-brown skin gleamed with sweat. Beautifully rendered tattoos ran down her sides, koi fish and lotus blossoms and butterflies peeping out from under her clothing, the pattern random yet somewhat connected.

Finishing up her exercise, she turned from the punching bag and picked up a towel. It was not until then that she saw the golden glowing man on the balcony.

Nan Ho!?!

[GDP_ST]

The changes were obvious: the tigress revealed to his widened blue eyes. Gone was the repression, the passions leashed for fear of censure that had affected her posture and gaze before. So marked was the change that he wondered if she had undergone a period of Chrysalis, as his eyes followed the blurring, savagely beautiful motions of her body.

She glowed with beauty, health and vitality that made his heart sing and would, had he need of air, have left him breathless, the tightness of his heart undeniable as he took in the smooth lines of her muscles shifting and bunching under their satiny covering in the timeless, endless dance of strike, block, and recover. The brightly-colored tattoos that he could see revealed tantalised his mind even as the way they flickered and danced on smooth beauty of her body stirred his blood; they hinted at a pattern to be discovered, complexity lying within complexity that would take hours, days, years to unravel.

He was lost in contemplation, his body glowing softly through the thin white cotton of his garments. The streaks and whorls of golden light tracing his body flared and lapsed softly, as though to the rhythm of his heart as he watched her finish her practise session and reach for the towel. Eyes dark as jet met eyes as radiant as lapis lazuli, and he smiled, reaching for the handle on the sliding door as his gaze met hers.

Ai.

[Butterfly]

For a moment, she was once more the almost timid, unsure woman she had been when she met Procyon so many months ago in Bali, but then her eyes flashed and her back straightened. It was for him to open the door, to confirm to himself that he had finally come home, while she wiped herself off with the towel.

Not anymore, she told him mentally, her heart beating rapidly in anticipation as she prepared to meet him as an equal, a goddess. Not all Chrysalis comes from quantum shells, Nan Ho. I am Butterfly, and anyone who thinks to make mock of my name well live just long enough to regret it!

He was so beautiful, so golden. Truly, she was his shadow, for every light cast one. Yin to his Yang.

But welcome home, beloved.

[GDP_ST]

He saw her waver, then strengthen again, even the shock of his sudden appearance insufficient to reduce her newfound pride and dignity. Smiling broadly, trying to keep his own jubilation under control, he opened the sliding door and stepped into his... no their home, sliding the door back with care as he feared that haste in his current state of mind would not only shut the door, but likely wreck the whole window and part of the wall.

He stepped towards her, noting that their heartbeats were the same pace, throbbing strongly in sync with one another. He stopped just within arm's reach, her scent, the feel of her around him and in his home, fitting a piece into his heart with an almost audible 'click'. His azure gaze expressive, he disturbed the silence.

"Hello, shin gan." His voice was quiet, yet thrummed through the air in that old familiar way, the resonance of it caressing her skin and ears.

[Butterfly]

Butterfly closed her eyes, tears of joy trickling down her cheeks. Since Procyon had seen her last, she had become more beautiful on a quantum level, her powers broadening.

Despite her growth, she still felt she had failed him, and admitted it softly. "I should not have left you," she confessed sadly. "I had grown soft amd complacent in the knowledge you could protect me. I was wrong. Forgive me."

No way in hell was she telling him about her own experiences at the hands of Dawson and Madison.

[GDP_ST]

His heart went out to her as he watched tears etch a sparkling trail down her smooth cheeks. And at her soft words, his own azure eyes glistened with unshed moisture. She was apologising? Her? He was the one who should be sorry, who should have been more careful, who should have stayed with her rather than rushedly pursuing his apotheosis.

"No, my sweet Ai." He stepped forwards then, his warm hands cupping her face, feeling the wetness of her tears on his fingers. "You cannot be forgiven for committing no offence. No one could have forseen what would happen. At least," he added with a slight smile on his perfect lips "No one in this room."

With that he leaned down and gently brushed his lips over one cheek, then the other, then her mouth. Small, warm kisses that communicated tender affection and love, as his arms slid around her, his hands gently smoothing up and down her back.

[Butterfly]

She folded into his arms and tilted her head back to meet his lips with her own. Her expression was blissful, like a flower looking towards the sun, and her arms tightened around him. The warmth was cleansing, chasing the dark and doubts that haunted her since her experiences with Dawson and Madison.

"I might have been able to stop them if I were here," she pointed out softly, drying wisps of hair framing her face. "So... you did... evolve, I guess I should call it... Was it... hard? Are you alright?"

[GDP_ST]

He smiled slightly, his eyes distant and dark for a moment, then focusing on hers again. He holds her as much for his comfort as for hers now, taking strength from the feel of her against him.

"It was hard, yes. I reached into myself, a deliberate act in chaotic and uncontrolled circumstances. I was weakened by what they had done to me, and was forced into cannibalising my own life's essence for the power I needed." He nestles his glowing cheek against her dark soft hair, breathing in her scent.

"I saw what needed to be done, you see? The project could not be allowed to survive, even in the minds of it's creators. To do that, I pushed myself as have never done before." His voice is soft, vibrating through Butterfly's body as he holds her to him. "Afterwards, I was weak, my mind trying to hold back the tide of Chrysalis. I could hardly think outside of that, and so followed the plan I had made years ago. I went to Gryle."

He drew back slightly and looked down at her. "I was coherent enough to explain to him what had happened, and set him on the task of cleaning up any loose ends, as well as making sure my various financial affairs were kept in order. Then I allowed the Chrysalis to take me... It was like sinking into a golden-tinted slumber. But even as I felt it overcome me, I wished I could have been with you at that time, to see your sweet eyes rather than Gryle's rather cold gaze."

He smiled at her gently, his voice little more than a whisper. "I wanted that more than anything."

[Butterfly]

"Next time, I will be with you," Butterfly vowed softly, deciding to tell him something of the truth about what happened to her while he was gone. "I have freed myself of the butterfly net, with some help."

Once the dam was breached, words came rushing out. "I was tracked down by someone I knew in Interpol, who has joined the Directive. He dosed me with mox, which does work on me, and took me to a telepath to... be restored to what I was, before I met you. I burn off mox quickly, it seems, because I entrapped the woman in her own mind and saw her for the monster she was. I destroyed that monster, and left my old friend at a Pandaimonium party."

[GDP_ST]

He listened quietly, his hands never ceasing their roaming of her back, though his blood ran cold as he digested her words. His smile as she told of leaving her old friend at a Pandaimonium party was partly mechanical, as his mind was in turmoil from the threat to her, the woman he loved.

So close, too close. If she had not turned the tables, Ai would be my enemy right now. The thought made his heart lurch, and he hugged her slim body tightly.

"I am glad you proved more than they could handle, shin gan." He told her with quiet intensity. "But what is the butterfly net you speak of?" Relaxing as the reality of his words hit him, he drew back his face and looked at her with a small smile, head tilted to one side curiously. His heart danced with joy and pride in her.

She beat them. And she'll beat them next time too, I know it.

[Butterfly]

"My old life. I would have left them alone, had they done the same to me," Butterfly answered, feeling his turmoil and grateful she had not given him details. Nan Ho would have made an example of them both, which would have caused no end of trouble.

"I was relying on you to keep me safe. I was a fool, and it was unfair to you. I am your shadow... but it does not mean I am your inferior. I have learnt to rely on myself again."

[GDP_ST]

He smiled at that, the shadow leaving his eyes as he looked upon her with a gaze that was assessing, measuring, despite the warmth and love contained therein. The shimmer of his irises seemed more brilliant than she remembered, more... crystalline. Though they were still portals to his soul, those sapphire orbs were even further from what could be considered a normal Human brightness and glitter than before.

"My shadow?" He asked her softly, his lips curving in a tempting smile as he took in her beauty within and without. Dark to his light, the graceful calm pool of her spirit hiding depths unplumbed contrasted pleasingly with his blazing unconquerable fire. "I would say that you are my complement, Ai. My Other. You are separate and so different from me, yet without you I am only half of what I should be."

"We have both been through the fire, it seems. And in both of us it has refined our substance. Though my captors were dangerous and wrong in their views, they did me an important service that I only realised after my emergence: I was fragile, mortal again. However briefly, I felt something akin to how Humans feel. To live with that everpresent fear is something I had forgotten how to handle. It broke me..." He quiets for a moment, then continues, looking into her eyes. "I broke and then was remade. But I remade myself. The process that started with a press release, and the conversation leading to it, last year is complete with my latest Chrysalis."

"In many ways, I think it is safe to say that I have grown up." His lips twitched again into a slight smile as his sun-warm fingers trailed up to the nape of her neck, gently playing with her hair there.

[Butterfly]

Butterfly frowned thoughtfully. "This is... your third, yes?" she asked tentatively, remembering things he had told her and what she had heard at various Terat gatherings. Being a shapeshifter had distinct advantages.

If it was his third, then Nan Ho was equal to the greatest leaders of the Teragen excepting possibly Divis Mal... which would either give him more favour or earn him more enemies.

Dangerous for her either way. But she was not as helpless as others would presume.

[GDP_ST]

"My second." He said with a slight grin. "I'd heard those rumours: that I was in Chrysalis between 2011 and 2015. But rumours is all they are. I'm a Third Stage Terat, for whatever that's worth." He grinned more broadly, a familiar irrepressible sparkle in his jewel-like eyes. His smile turned a little more solemn, though he still ran his hands up and down Butterfly's smooth-muscled back.

"I've grown in depth and breadth, spread my wings somewhat in directions that, before last year, would have been strange and out of character to me."

[Butterfly]

"I can see your changes..." Butterfly began before an odd thing happened to her eufiber. It ... shrivelled, like it had been burnt intensely, and flaked off to fall onto the ground. Since it had been her workout gear, there was nothing left on her lithe body.

"You... you killed my eufiber!" she blurted, her voice a mixture of shock, horror and outrage.

[GDP_ST]

Procyon was surprised as well, though by no means displeased to have the lovely woman in his arms suddenly become naked. The feel of her body against his sparked a rush of desire through his body and mind. But the surprise in his glimmering eyes quickly turned to chagrin, and he met her shocked gaze with a frankly penitent expression

"Oh... Yes... That." He looked a little sheepish, of all things.

"That was one of the changes I underwent before I went away. It appears my quantum signature kills living eufiber. Not instantly, but within a short period of time. It might be something to do with the low levels of solar radiation I put out, then again maybe not..." He trailed off, wondering if the tautly-muscled tigress in his arms was going to go off like a rocket, so wide-eyed and outraged she seemed.

[Butterfly]

"You know I always wear my eufiber! You could have warned me!" Butterfly wailed. The eufiber was more or less the only thing of value she owned... and now it was dead!

Since she had rid her wardrobe of the pretty silks that she had been masquerading in, the eufiber had been her only piece of clothing.

Poor Procyon. He was about to be dragged into the one activity every male worth his salt hated - shopping.

"That was the only garment I owned now," Butterfly told him in a too-quiet voice. "So... since I cannot wear eufiber, you will need to remedy its lack."

[GDP_ST]

"You mean... You have NO other clothing?" He blinked, then started laughing softly at the situation. He realised that laughter was not a wise move, but the dangerously solemn expression on the lovely face of his heart's desire, plus the fact that her naked body was still against his, added to the irony of the situation. And if Procyon had any flaw, it was an over-appreciation of irony. Somehow, he managed to stop the laughter from rising above an infectious chuckle, though his eyes were now an iridiscent sparkling azure that could challenge the tropical sky for beauty.

"I will indeed need to remedy that lack, shin gan." he replied good humoredly. "It is only fair, after all, that we share the same clothed state." With that, the thought came to him that a small demonstration of one of his changes was in order.

Holding her close, he concentrated briefly and reached out with his node, permeating and surrounding his loved one with what was, in essence, his own signature. A mischievous smile was the only warning Butterfly got that her Nan Ho was up to something before he suddenly floated up into the air a foot from the floor.

For a split second, a small corona of searing hot flames danced around Procyon's godlike form, caressing Ai's skin like warm breath, but not so much as singeing her otherwise. The Sun King's clothes, however, vaporised so quickly and thoroughly that not even smoke was left.

"There." He said with a devilish smile as they both touched down on the warm carpet. "Now neither one of us has any hidden advantages." Holding her to him still, his smile was equal parts warmth, impishness, and love.

[Butterfly]

"I will make this up to you," Butterfly promised dangerously as her body shimmered into a cloud of butterflies for a heartbeat before reforming into a snake that slithered out of Procyon's arms. Coiling up from a few feet away, the snake hissed before dissolving into butterflies and reforming into human form again, the tattoos on her sides visibly running from neck to hip.

"We are not doing anything until you promise to replace my clothing."

[GDP_ST]

His expression of startlement was almost comical for the split second it hung on his face, then he laughed in sheer delight.

"Ye gods! When did you learn that trick? That was some very impressive shapeshifting, Ai." He gazed at her in naked admiration for a moment, then registered her words.

She HAS changed. He smiled at the lovely nude Asian with a twinkle in his eye, then adopted a formal expression and posture, sinking to one knee and gazing up at her rapturously.

"I do beg your pardon, Lady Ai. By all means, I shall endeavour to shower upon you raiment such as would make the goddesses of Olympus jealous. E'en though it be a crime to art, beauty and desire to clothe that divine frame, permit me this act of apology." He glanced up at her, a hint of a smile on his lips once more. Though the words were light-hearted and his smile playful, the admiration and love in Procyon's cerulean eyes was genuine. He was glad to see her, glad to find her stronger and more resilient, and glad that she appeared to have found a beautiful and appropriate form of quantum expression.

"Wo ai ni, Ai." He said simply in Mandarin, his heart in his eyes in that unguarded moment, all jest forgotten.

[Butterfly]

"I love you too," she whispered, sitting back on her heels to meet Nan Ho eye-to-eye. She then undid the length of braid hanging over her shoulder, releasing a river of ebony waves.

"I thought you knew that I could shapeshift. I developed the power about the same time I did my control over probability."

August Jade Personage of Heaven, but he was beautiful! It was this remembered beauty that kept her loyal when others might have given up and left, for she knew he would be back.

[GDP_ST]

Dropping back from his kneeling position, he sat naked on the floor with the unconsciously arrogant grace of a fully-clothed Emperor, straight-backed with one knee bent and a hand on the floor beside him.

"I knew you could mimic and disguise, but not a full metamorphosis." He explained as he watched Ai shake out her full black hair with a understatedly sensual toss of her head. His eyes roamed her body, his analytical mind tracing the patterns of her tattoo markings as his libido followed the rondure of her flesh.

He watched her like that for a long drawn out moment, his senses rapt, his eyes sparkling.

[Butterfly]

"You sound a little jealous," Butterfly teased, stretching herself in her squatting position. Only a nova could pull that off and not lose balance, and somehow look graceful at the same time.

Her dark eyes sparkled with some humour as the tattoos undulated with her movements. "You cannot analyse a butterfly effect," she added.

[GDP_ST]

"The fun is in the trying, not the succeeding. And when the butterfly effect has such an enticing background..." Procyon grinned appreciatively as he watched her stretch.

"And as for being jealous..." He stretched also, an exaggerated leonine motion that threw the hard, sculpted body into sharp relief, the glowing whorls of light adorning his skin glowing. Fixing Butterfly with a seductive half-lidded gaze, he gestured at his long golden form in a long sweeping up-and-down gesture. "I've never seen anything here I wanted to change. Why? Do you?"

He kept his deep blue eyes on hers, his posture and voice containing a hint of playful challenge as his smouldering gaze sparkled with mirth.

[Butterfly]

"I like you as you are, impossible male and all," Butterfly retorted, her eyes twinkling. "And I think you are entirely too certain of yourself."

She stood up and turned her back on Procyon, sauntering into the bedroom without a backwards glance.

[GDP_ST]

He grinned appreciatively as he watched her walk into the bedroom, eyes narrowing slightly in predatory humour as he took in the sway of those lithe hips and the shifting of muscles under the skin.

With a soft, resonant sound in his chest that was part growl, part purr, Procyon rose gracefully to his feet and padded quietly to the bedroom, a small smile gracing his lips as he stepped through the door.

[Butterfly]

In the bedroom, Butterfly was lighting scented candles, the aroma of jasmine and honeysuckle filling the air. The decor was more or less the same, though a few choice pieces of carved jade and ivory (obviously antique) and a sandalwood screen had been added, a Chinese brocade coverlet on the bed.

"Yellow Water Dragon sent it to us," she explained, gesturing to the length of black silk embroidered with butterflies and phoenixes. "I hope you like it."

[GDP_ST]

Procyon moved over to the bed and reached down, trailing glowing fingers over the embroidered silk. His crystalline eyes examined the beautiful images of renewal and rebirth, and a distant smile of joy curved his lips. He studied the coverlet for some time, then turned to Butterfly.

"I will have to thank Yellow Water Dragon properly. It is a fine gift." His voice was quiet, reverent as his fingers continued to trail over the image of a butterfly on the coverlet. Glancing around as he did so, he studied the other small touches she had applied, making the place her abode as well as his.

"Where did you get the carvings, Ai?" he inquired, gazing at a jade effigy of a long-maned dragon. "They are beautiful." He smiled at her, his eyes curious as he sat on the bed, fingers still exploring the embroidered patterns.

[Butterfly]

The lithe Asian woman shrugged faintly. "Around," was all she said. Some of those carvings had been acquired by shady means because they were in the wrong hands.