Forever Caged

Thank you for all your reviews!

Aiko_chan,Villaluna, Sheleeta, alexxgalaxy , Ryn

Thank you and i hope you enjoy this installment as well as chapter 39 that will be posted after this one:)

Disclaimer: I don't own Ai No Kusabi nor do I make any money from this fanfic. But I do own all the original peeps that I've chosen to invade the AnK world.
Rating: NC-17
Pairings: Iason/Riki, Raoul/Katze, original characters and novel character pairings.
Parts: 38 of ?

Edited by the lovely Scarlet Tigress

~~**Forever Caged**~~

Stretching under the warm, soft blankets, V blinked open his eyes and smiled at the image standing above him. "Mmm…I haven't dreamed about you in a while," V whispered sleepily, "and never with so much clothing on either."

Orphe raised an amused brow at the words. Considering he was dressed only in a velvet robe, it was interesting to imagine what the mongrel's dreams had been like. "You think this is a dream?" asked Orphe as he sat on the edge of the bed, reaching over to caress a silky strand of violet hair. Violet hair, a pleasant surprise Orphe had discovered while personally giving the dirty mongrel a bath, and a much more welcome color. Better than the muddy brown he had been fooled into believing was the boy's true hair color.

"Something as beautiful as you could only be born in a dream…" V smiled charmingly at his dream Blondie, giving him a sleepy wink.

Orphe chuckled. "What a scandalous creature you are. I would think it was the drugs making you speak thusly, but you shouldn't be feeling the effects of them anymore," Orphe said huskily, as he continued to run his fingers through the boy's lovely tresses and then down to moist lips. Smiling, Orphe purred as the mongrel began to trail his hand shamelessly up his thigh, under his robe.

Darting the tip of his tongue out, teasing the pad of his dream Elite's finger, V moaned wantonly at the slightly salty taste of the Blondie's digit…salty taste? V frowned. Can you taste stuff in dreams? V wondered.

The dream haze dissipated quickly from V's mind, and he shot straight up into sitting a position only to be pushed forcefully back down against the feathered mattress. V's heartbeat pounded in his ears as his ex-Blondie boss easily held him down. The dude he had played around with and made a complete fool of in front of the whole Elite community and who was now pressing him aggressively into a bed. V cursed under his breath.

Orphe smiled when his charming mongrel finally understood his predicament. With one hand firmly holding the boy down, Orphe played with the strangely alluring small, silver loops in the mongrel's nipples. Aroused, Orphe moved his hand down well defined muscles of the violet haired boy's wash board abs to the jeweled stud twinkling at him from the mongrel's belly button.

"With all the piercing I've found in your body, I'm curious and surprised that you didn't decorate this," Orphe whispered, reaching all the way down, grasping the mongrel's quickly hardening length.

"There's no need to mess with perfection," V rasped, fisting the bed sheets under him.

Letting him go, Orphe stood and slowly untied the belt of his robe, discarding the cumbersome material to the side and standing for a moment to let the boy take in the full image of his naked body.

From the moment V had realized the Blondie wasn't a figment of his imagination, he had panicked. Knowing immediately what the out come had been on the planet and feeling fear bite deep into his gut for the others. V also knew that he couldn't go off half cocked, not like he could with other people, not with the huge bastard standing proudly in front of him. V also had no intention of taking the delicious bait the Blondie was tempting him with…or at least he would try. With speed born part of terror and part of sheer brilliance, V came up with a plan.

Sitting up he grabbed the Blondie's hips, feeling the Elite's surprise. V smiled when Orphe shuddered as he licked down his straining length in front of him, before taking the shaft fully into his mouth. His head falling back, Orphe couldn't stop himself from thrusting his hips forward into the heat of the mongrel's talented mouth, not bothering to silence his moans as the balled stud on the boy's tongue sent shivers throughout his body. Orphe almost lost restraint when the little metal ball rubbed the sensitive slit of his member.

"Enough," Orphe gasped, feeling his control beginning to slip as the pressure grew too much.

Chuckling wickedly, V slowly bit and sucked his way up on the Blondie's insanely sculptured stomach before latching onto Orphe's hardened pink nipple. Never ceasing his attack on the nipple, V pulled the Blonde's hot body closer to his so he could rub his own aching length against that of the Blondie's.

V knew exactly what to do. Unknown to his friends, he had been trained to know how to work with the human form, knew how to make a man or woman scream in pleasure. He knew every trick to torture someone with need in order to get what he wanted from them, without his victim ever knowing he was taking it, and he used it all on the Blondie panting before him. It was a secret he held in the darkest, deepest part of himself. But even if he hated how he had learned the things he knew, that shame didn't stop him from using every trick in the book on the Blondie or anyone else to get what he needed.

Breathless from what the boy was doing to him; Orphe grabbed a hand full of violet hair, pulling his head away from his chest.

"Too much for you?" V grinned, curling his tongue out to play the jeweled stud against his teeth, showing the Elite. "I can stop if you can't take it, if you're too overwhelmed."

Narrowing his eyes, Orphe let go of the silky tresses clenched tightly in his hand to haul the boy closer by the back of his neck. "Nothing you do will be "too much" for one such as me."

"Oh! Aren't we confident," V teased, tugging on a tentacle of blonde hair to bring the Elite's head down to him. V nipped at Orphe's lips to get them to open up for him smiling in satisfaction as the Blondie complied. Slamming his mouth over the Orphe's in a searing kiss, V lightly scraped his nails down the aroused male, palming Orphe's finely toned ass before wrapping one of his arms around the Elite's waist. He wound the other arm around his neck to close whatever distance their bodies had between them.

"Open up for me," V whispered as he moved to trail his lips down the Blondie's cheek to his neck, "let's see how much you really can handle." V could feel how excited the Elite was becoming and smiled as he licked his tantalizing earlobe. All he needed to do was push Orphe a little more, push him over the edge. Once the Blondie was desperate for him, he could start questioning him on where the rest of his gang was being kept, if they were still alive and unharmed.

Just like the day he had been carried away by the mongrel's charms, taunting the boy into licking the sweetened syrup he had smeared over his lips, Orphe was also close to being completely swept away. The overpowering sensations that were beginning to swamp his senses were quickly surpassing any feeling Orphe had ever experienced before. New emotions of need that only this human had ever brought out of him, ripped out of him.

The more the mongrel rubbed his body against his, touched him with his hands, the more Orphe's rigid Elite upbringing fell away. Soon, all he could feel was the primitive, all consuming need to claim the seductive creature in his arms, just as he had been compelled to do the last time. He had felt the surge of possessiveness before, but had resisted and the mongrel had run away. This time, he would not deny himself.

Bringing the boy's head up, Orphe, almost desperately, pulled the mongrel even tighter against him. Slanting his mouth over Lawrence's, trying to devour him with every wipe of his tongue, the Blondie ran his hands along the youth's smooth sides.

Being the instigator, the aggressor in the whole play they were acting in, V was taken back when the Blondie's hands suddenly began kneading his hind end. He out right froze when he felt a long finger dipping between the cleft in his cheeks, searching for the opening to his body. Tearing his mouth away V nervously laughed. "Whoa, there gorgeous! I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding here."

Through dazed eyes Orphe lifted his head and looked down at the mongrel, staring, transfixed, into those jeweled amethyst eyes. "Oh?"

Grabbing the Blondie's wandering hand, stilling it from its maddening caress on his ass, V used his other hand to gently push at the Elite's shoulder. He gave a little shove, trying to give himself some room to breath. "Yeah, you see, I'm more of a 'giver' than a 'taker'. I'm more than happy to pitch in this love game of ours, 'cause catch'n is a definite no, no for me."

Entertained by the mongrel's phrasing, Orphe chuckled. The meaning of what the boy was implying wasn't hard to understand, but it was the implications of those words that made Orphe laugh. He may have let the mongrel take the lead, but for the boy to think that he would be the one to penetrate him was beyond humorous.

"I think it is you who misunderstood Lawrence. It was always I who would accentually 'pitch' in this so called love game, never you," Orphe whispered, capturing the boy's lips once again, stepping forward until the mongrel's knees hit the edge of the bed.

"Okay, hold up there sweetness! I'm in semi-uncharted territory here, practically a virgin!" Tables undeniable turned, V's merry plans of getting the Blondie hot and heavy for him were slowly becoming a nightmare.

Orphe lifted his head once again and, slightly peeved by the mongrel's indication that he would not be the first one to enter the boy, Orphe still found the situation funny. "Here I thought you wanted to become physical with me. Where might I have received that impression?"

"Yeah, I did until I found out it would be my fucking prostate that would be examined and not the other way around!" V's hands held onto the Blondie's shoulder and biceps to keep from falling backwards onto the bed. He knew, almost by instinct, that assuming a submissive pose would not be a good idea. "I've seen your junk, and I've had it in my mouth. There's no way I'll be able to walk after you've stuck that thing in me."

Orphe removed Lawrence's hands from his and pushed him backwards onto the bed. "Who said you'd be leaving the bed or this room to walk anywhere?"

V rolled as fast as he could off the bed, but not nearly fast enough as the damn Blondie caught him in a mid roll. To V's horror, he had been pinned from behind.

"Tsk, tsk, little mongrel. It's not nice to tease," Orphe knew that he would enjoy what he was about to do, but to feel the full extent of the boy's naked flesh against his own was even more earth shattering than when Lawrence's mouth had cocooned his aching length against the searing heat of the boy's tongue.

"You force me and you'll have to do it every time," V hissed, breathing hard, trying to keep the panic rising up within him down. "No means fucking no. I'm not ready to-to surrender to you in this way and if you make me, you'll have to kill me because I will go after you."

Orphe stilled in his caresses.

"Such a violent response," Orphe whispered feathering a kiss on the boy's trembling shoulder. As tremendous as his needs were, Orphe didn't want start his relationship with the mongrel in a fight. He had every right to take what he wanted from the boy, but Orphe wanted Lawrence's affection not hatred.

"Lawrenc-"

"Don't call me that," said V, calming as he felt the Blondie easing back from his attack. "I go by the name V not Lawrence, which you no doubt already know."

Orphe turned the violet haired mongrel onto his back. "You are correct, but I chose not to identify you as such." Orphe didn't like the fact that his new pet was given an undignified letter for a name…Unless Marcus was wrong in his assumption and Guardian did not in fact name Lawrence thusly.

"Well, it doesn't look like I'm going to be leaving any time soon and I don't want to be called some stupid name that I use to relieve rich bitches of their worldly goods. So, if you want me to answer you when you call, than I suggest you call me V." V squirmed a little under the huge Blondie. Although the new position relaxed him to a certain degree, V still stiffened when he felt the hot length of the Elite's cock occasionally poke at the entrance of his body. Every time Orphe rocked his hips into him, V had to fight down a fresh surge of terror.

"What does it stand for?" asked Orphe as he nibbled the silky flesh of the mongrel's neck.

"What does what stand for?" V gasped.

"'V', what does it stand for?" Orphe smiled, as the resisting hands trying push him away began to pull him closer again. "You don't expect me to call you such a ridiculous name without giving me a reason, do you?"

"Valen,' lied V as he urged the Blondie higher up so he could kiss those perfect pink lips, also getting the Elite's hard member to align with his. Lightly scraping his nails down Orphe's strong, sweat dampened back, V grasped the Blondie's ass and squeezed as he lifted his hips up. "But everyone calls me V for short."

"Than I will call you Valen." Orphe shuddered as those hands pressed his lower body down and the hot silky flesh of the mongrel's hardened member rubbed along side his.

"You know just because I stopped you from getting to home base, doesn't mean we can't still have fun," V whispered huskily, tightly gripping the Blondie's ass. "Rubb'n is just as good," V said as both of their erections became trapped deliciously between them.

"Is it?" Bracing his forearms on either side of the mongrel's head, Orphe threaded his long fingers into the boy's violet hair. He began to rock slowly at first, then harder until they were both gasping for air. Covering Valen's mouth with his to catch the moan that keened from the mongrel's throat, Orphe shuddered first. Keeping up the gyrating movements until those strong hands tightened painfully on his ass, Orphe rocked against V until he felt the boy's seed spurt hotly, mixing with his own essence that he had released a moment ago.

Orphe stayed where he was, exhausted. He knew that he was smothering the boy with his massive weight, but the feeling of finally holding Valen beneath him was greatly enjoyable. "Don't think that this will satisfy me forever Valen," whispered Orphe once he was able to catch his breathe.

"I, Valen, swear by my very name that you will not have to wait too long," Violet lied again as he smiled up into the Blondie's silver-gray eyes.

"How talented your mouth is, the charm that flows so effortlessly from your lips…Oh, and for the record your little plan of trying to seduce information from me would not have worked." Orphe kissed the stunned mongrel's mouth one last time before slowly, deliberately, grazing what skin he could touch with his body as he got up off the bed.

"You may not have been able to start your pleasurable interrogation, but I could see your intent from the determined glint in your lovely eyes." Orphe chuckled as the boy glared at him as he picked up his robe from the floor.

"What happened to them?... Please tell me." Saying 'please' was the lowest V could bring himself to go, verbally at least. "Are they safe?"

"As far as I know, they are probably currently enjoying the same vigorous exercise as we just finished with their own masters," Orphe said offhandedly as he distastefully fingered the now cold, slimy, coating on his stomach.

"Masters?" V sat up. "What does that mean and where the hell am I?" Now that V really thought about it, he did not have the slightest idea where he was. At first he had believed that he was in a hotel, but no hotel on any world could afford the riches he saw casually thrown about in the bedroom.

"When Riki was returned to his master, you, and both of your mongrel friends, were given to us. We are your masters and you are our pets. As to where you are, you are in Eos. Your new home." Orphe said casually.

"Oh, so I'm not going to be some shameful little secret you'll be keeping in the dark to occasionally screw when you think no one is looking?" V gave a humorless laugh as he wiped the cum off his body with the soft and, most likely, insanely expensive bedding.

"I'm taking a page from Iason's book and learning from what he does with Riki. Why deny myself?" Walking to the intercom, Orphe called his Furniture to come and change the soiled sheets. "Come," Orphe beckoned, "shower with me while Tate freshens up the room."

"Tate?" V didn't move from his spot. "Who's that?"

"My Furniture." Walking away Orphe gave the mongrel a look over his shoulder. "Don't keep me waiting."

V made a face as he watched the Blondie arrogantly crook his finger at him before disappearing behind, what he could only guess was the bathroom door. "Fuck this shit," V whispered, standing.

"Master Zavi?"

V stared at the young man that entered the room, shaken when he recognized the Furniture. However, he was pleased when the Furniture recognized him and seemed startled as well. "Tate is it?" V asked silkily, as he walked shameless in his nudity up to the Blondie's servant. "Well, well, well…I had wondered what happened to you. I had even looked for you when I was kicked out of Guardian." V grinned cruelly. "Tell me Tate, does your master know that he's been harboring a mongrel under his roof?"

"Please Viol-"

"Shhh!" V slammed his hand over the mongrel's mouth. "My name is Valen to you, or would you like me to start calling you by your real name? Finn! Might get a little dicey for you if your master were to ask me why I keep calling you that. I might get pressured into telling him the truth, and that wouldn't be good for you now would it?" V removed his hand when he saw that he made his point.

"Who knows, it might even slip out that, because of you, I'm not the pure virgin that he so badly wanted me to be." Orphe may not have said it per say, but V saw the disappointment in the Blondie's eyes when he said he "technically wasn't a virgin".

Lifting his arms over his head, V stretched. "You know I was starting to get worried before you came in, but now…now I'm not, because I just got myself a spy as well as a slave."

"Valen!" Orphe bellowed from the bathroom.

"Boy toy is calling me." V gave the other, slightly older, mongrel a gentle tap on the cheek. "Its funny how fate brought us back together again, isn't it? Don't worry though; I don't plan on slitting your throat while you sleep. I got much better plans for you. After you clean up that shit, get me something to eat," V called out as he crossed the room to the closed bathroom doors and to the Blondie that waited for him. His night was looking considerably brighter then it had an hour ago.

oOoOoOo

Gasping against the painful pleasure as the cock ring tortured him with its stimulation, Riki fought to keep from screaming out. For hours now, Iason had had the damnable thing turned on. From the moment he had put it back on him, Riki had been too consumed with need to even speak. The ring was his punishment for taking more than just a bit of a swing at Iason when the Blondie had, very casually, informed him that his boys had been given to his fellow Blondie brothers to become their pets.

The rage he had felt, the denial that such a thing was happening to his gang, had driven Riki over the edge. Riki had attacked the fearsome Elite and, just like the day Iason had kidnapped him and he had aimed his fists towards that aristocratic face, Iason had dodged and struck back. But this time Riki didn't black out. He took the hit and then lost control, forgetting all the lessons the Blondie had physically and mentally taught him. Forgetting that there was no winning when his opponent was none other then Iason Mink.

Not one hit he had thrown had landed, but every one that Iason had, of course, did. Riki's new-found strength had done nothing, but piss Iason off, when he tried to use it against him. Riki's new power was still was nothing compared to the Blondie's physical might. With barely a mark on him, Iason had royally kicked his ass.

When he had awoken he was in their bed in Eos, naked. Iason had been seated and fully clothed at the foot of the bed, the cock ring's tight clasp already on his member. The whole situation was disturbingly reminiscent of his training and Riki had felt the old surge of fear flood back into his being. Iason had waited until the mongrel had regained consciousness before activating the torturous device.

"In such a short time you have forgotten all the lessons I've taught you," Iason whispered as he devoured the sight of Riki thrashing on the bed. The misconceptions he had had about that long hair evaporated once he had Riki on the bed and saw how beautifully it tangled around his body. The long black strands caressing his limbs with silky trees and how it spread out behind him was enough to quicken Iason's heartbeat.

Riki could taste blood in his mouth as he bit his inner cheek to keep his trap shut. Squeezing his eyes tightly closed, he concentrated on breathing in and out. His body was on fire with need, starved just as it had been the year he had been freed, but this time he had the power to resist. He could stop himself from begging even though he knew Iason wouldn't cease until he cried out his surrender. Still, his pride simply would not allow it. His body wanted Iason badly, but he was too pissed off and proud to admit the truth to the Blondie. To think what his friends where on the floors below him- Riki cried out when his body was jolted with painful yet pleasurable sensations.

"You seemed to be drifting there for a moment, so I thought to bring you back, remind you of you current situation." Riki's homecoming was exactly how Iason had pictured it, although his imaginings had been with the image of his past short haired, matured, mongrel in his minds eye and not the baby faced youth of six years ago. "Will you continue to be stubborn or will you come to your senses," Iason asked quietly, smiling when blazing black eyes burned into him through tangled midnight locks partially covering Riki's face.

Mouth dry from the constant, rapid, inhalations though tightly clenched teeth, Riki turned his head away. "Did you expect me to crawl to you all apologetically or some shit like that?" Riki laughed. "You don't really think that I'll tell you how sorry I was for taking off, do you?"

Riki's mocking laughter was cut off when the glacier eyed Blondie suddenly stood and to Riki's nervousness began to undress. "What? Giving up on the torture after only this long? You're getting soft in your old age Iason."

Iason did pause in his disrobing. "Torture? Is that what you thought was going on?" Iason leaned down, smirking when the lean bronzed body flinched as he raised his hand and placed it on Riki's hip. "I wasn't punishing you Riki….No…your penalty is that of your friends. You should be grateful that they were allowed to keep their lives."

Swiftly removing all of his restraining clothing, Iason finally allowed himself to lay next Riki. The emotions that overwhelmed him melded with the rush of dominating Riki, winning the fight his little mongrel had started over his sharp fanged, wild friends. Iason had had to step back and calm himself from his raging affection he felt towards the boy, or risk seriously harming him.

"Do not think that I won't get the answers out of you for all of the questions I have." It was easy enough to wrestle Riki's arms down onto the bed, as physically exhausted as the mongrel was from fighting the vibrations the pet ring shot through his body.

Riki's body tensed when Iason's knee, none too gently, pushed between his thighs and forcefully spread his legs apart to make room for the Blondie's behemoth size. Tired as he was, Riki still tried to fight using every bit of strength he had left to try and twist his wrists out of Iason's steel grip.

"Your determination is inspiring, moronic and pointless, but inspiring none the less," Iason said in a whimsical tone. Forcing Riki's arms, stretching them as far above the boy's head as the limbs could go as he interlaced their fingers, Iason all but purred as he settled himself onto Riki. "Shall we get started on my questions?"

Riki growled, helpless as Iason pressed his hard body onto his. However, he was happy when he felt a shudder course though Iason's flesh. The Blondie might be all calm and cool, but his body told him a different tale, which was good for Riki because just watching Iason undress had been agonizing. Not as excruciating as feeling Iason's hot flesh against his own after such a long time, but just as stressful to his unfulfilled body.

Riki dug his nails into Iason's hands as the Blondie purposefully angled his hips so that the hard length of his manhood probed the entrance to Riki's body. Determined to hold onto the truth for as long as he could, Riki had to force himself to move his body as far away from Iason's searing heat. He moved as far as he could, but it was not long until he had retreated all he was able to considering how pinned down he was.

Iason didn't know how much longer he could hold himself back. His control had begun to slip inch by inch since he had unchained Riki back on the ship. The year he had allowed Riki to get his 'second wind', releasing him to go back to his precious slums had not been a sudden thing. Iason had prepared himself for the loss of the comforts of Riki's body and presence, but his mongrel escaping so abruptly had left his body in a state of hunger that Iason could not control.

"I had planned on getting answers from you, but I think that it should wait for now." Iason had felt Riki trying to foolishly push away from him, not that it did him any good as Iason pulled him back to feel the fullness of his need. "You're not going anywhere. We have all the time in the world," whispered Iason as he switched his hold so that only one of his hands held Riki's wrists down on the bed, and smoothed an errant ebony lock that had been obstructing his view of Riki's lovely features.

Riki could feel the much-remembered fear filling him, making his limbs tremble. Iason was talkative at the moment, but he could see the storm brewing behind those cold, ice blue eyes. "Don't Iason," Riki rasped, hoping that his Blondie wasn't too far gone in his rage that he would still show him some mercy.

"Don't?" Iason's lips twisted up cruelly. "Did you honestly believe I would not have you once I got my hands back on you?"

No, Riki had no such delusions, but he also knew that his body could not take Iason's considerable size. Even as wet and prepared as he was, Riki knew it wasn't enough and from the gleam that sparkled in his Blondie's eyes Riki knew that Iason was past foreplay…way past foreplay.

In a panic Riki tried to twist away, even as hard and desperate as he, and his body, were for release. The writhing tired him further, but all his squirming did was bring forth an amused chuckle from Iason's chest. Riki's face contorted in pain and he bit down hard on his lip as he felt Iason's inevitable invasion. He couldn't even turn his face away to hide his shameful expression of delight as Iason had trapped his head, keeping him from moving so that the damnable Blondie could watch every emotion he felt cross his face.

Iason leaned down and licked the bead of blood that appeared on Riki's lip. "It's good to see that you haven't forgotten everything I've taught you," Iason whispered into Riki's ear before scraping a manicured nail across Riki's sensitive nipple a few times to make the mongrel thrash slightly underneath him. Hooking his arm under his mongrel's leg, Iason released Riki's imprisoned hands to grab a fist of Riki's long almost Elite onyx looking hair, forcing the boy to turn his face back to him.

"Look only at me," commanded Iason as he began to slowly thrust his hips, lifting Riki's leg to his shoulder.

The, oh so, familiar feeling of being smothered, the need for air that just couldn't seem to fill his lungs with enough oxygen as each monumental forward movement of Iason's hips drove the breath from his body. Riki's eyes filled with tears, dripping water down his face as he forced them to stay open or face the consequences should he blink while those cutting crystal blue orbs bore into his. Before long Riki's shouts filled the room as his body was tormented and played with by skillful fingers and tongue, and with each rough caress and thrust Riki could feel Iason's anger.

By the time Riki was flipped onto his stomach, his legs closed and hips drawn up, he was already begging Iason to let him go, to let him rest. The cock ring had been loosened and turned off long ago, but all the pet ring did was tickle him to a salute and keep him from cumming now. It was painful, but manageable… But having Iason riding him over and over again, ripping those pleasurable little deaths out of him, there was no getting used to that.

Iason kissed the back of Riki's neck, sucking hard, branding his mark on the mongrel's bronze skin. "Begging me to stop so soon? We haven't even started yet." Iason smiled when he heard and felt Riki's breathing quicken.

"We have much to catch up on."

oOoOoOo

One the very top of Jupiter Tower the A.I know only as Jupiter exhaled an imitated sigh of relief as she replayed the footage of her Blondies, one by one, taking their new toys back to Eos from the shipping port.

"A lovely sight to see, is it not?" Jupiter asked her servant.

"Will you be returning, now that Riki has been re-captured?"

Jupiter watched as the mongrel with long black hair was over powered by her chosen one. "Just looking at Iason with him, you can clearly see that my child needs to use more than the average amount of strength to deal with him. Truly fascinating."

"Is that normal?"

"No, it was not, not in the past when there were more of them. Before Jupiter Tower and all these building were here, there was nothing but open plain. Speed was the main thing Riki's people developed in their rejuvenation and strength was always secondary. Still, the fact that Iason acquired Riki at such a young age and being that Riki has been dominated by raw power since that time…it is little wonder why, when he went through his change, he unknowingly abandoned speed for brute force." Jupiter mused. With a flicker within her swirling mercury eyes, the A.I. moved the footage further forward until it showed all her Blondies with the mongrels of their choosing once again.

Such a marvelous development.

"Will you be returning now?"

"I heard you the first time, child," Jupiter softly said as she zoomed in to look at the perfect, enraptured faces of her children, Marcus and Aisha, and the gentle upward tilt of flawless lips of Gideon's expression before the car door closed, blocking his face from her inquisitive gaze. "No, I don't think I will return to my seat of power just yet."

"…."

"All is as it should be, child." Jupiter did not need to play the footage over and over again. She was more than capable to seeing it without the need of a holographic screen. Yet, she found that doing so was…satisfying….Hundreds of years of planning coming to fruition. Jupiter began to glow brightly, broadcasting her pleasure.

"Forgive me, but his Excellency…his power multiplies with every day that passes…To stay away…"

"Would only allow his power and strength to continue to grow, yes, I know this." Jupiter paused the feed, freezing the two majestic creatures as they faced off. One created from her power and the other because of her power.

"All is going according to plan. With the introduction of the other mongrels, it might even go faster than I anticipated. They will need to be tested, of course, but there is no rush, not like there was in the beginning." Jupiter minimized the images of Iason and Riki, holding them in the palm of her silver glowing hand.

"All is going as planned."

TBC...