Chapter One Hundred - He Is My Husband!

Author's note; It's so much more real than 'part 100'! So to celebrate the change, I will change the cover! After all, it's so much more cute than mine! For those who didn't share the 'glory' of my art work, I've posted it above as remembrance.

"Is the Queen really after us?" Luck asked as the shuttle flew towards the cold, stone planet and source of all their troubles.

"Actually, I stretched the truth a little, Luck, sorry," Guran apologised. "If I am right, she is actually after Law."

"Why?" The twins asked simultaneously.

"Have you not been chased by a woman in almost every world since I met you?" Guran teased and kissed him on the lips.

"Am I just too irresistible?" Law asked as he curled his arms about the young man and buried his head into his shoulder. Luck flushed and turned his eyes aside. "But seriously, that has been very annoying. When all I have ever wanted was you." Guran laughed and returned his warm hug. This was the first time he had been taller than his lover, it was a new experience to hold him and be held this way. Of course, he was still a boy. If they had more time...

"Do you think they will be mad at us?" Luck asked aloud as he guided the shuttle towards the coordinates Guran had given him.

"Of course they will," Law snorted. "We can just make it up to them later. I just needed a little more time with Guran, that was all. After all, he's taking all this risk for everyone. Thank you, by the way, Luck." His twin smiled warmly, burying that slight ache in his heart once more. He couldn't help these illogical feelings, after all, but no matter, he and Law could not be separated in this lifetime.

"It's time for me to go," Guran said, tightening his hold for a moment and imprinting his lover's warmth upon his body before separating. He zipped up the protective suit over his body and sealed the helmet, which would provide him with air.

"Come back safe," Law said as he watched him head into the back. The doors separating the front of the shuttle from the rear sealed. Guran was encased by his chips into a lifepod as the rear of the shuttle was exposed to the airless atmosphere of the planet. The pod shot towards a fissure in the rock.

Luck closed the hatch and hovered for a moment, before flying away from the planet at speed. Law almost lost his balance as he made his way back to his seat. "Shit, Luck," he exclaimed. "What was that all about?!"

"We've been spotted," Luck advised and pointed at the rear sensors where a long ribbon of chips was rapidly closing in on them.

*****

The Megalith was not shy about burning its inner resources in order to answer the summons and capture the King. It was less than an hour after Guran's initial warning and less than twenty minutes since they had left the ship in the shuttle when it's presence appeared on long range sensors.

"Fuck, it's at least as big as the first one!" Maerlon cursed.

"Where are the boys?" Jezmi demanded.

"They have just reached the atmosphere of the planet and appear to be preparing to jettison Guran's pod," an ensign advised as he watched the hatch open.

"Hail them," Jezmi said, "tell them they need to return and then intercept their flight path."

The woman on the comms shook her head. "Sorry, ma'am," she told her. "There appears to be some sort of interference."

"The pod has been jettisoned," the ensign advised.

"The... thing... will be here in about five minutes," Swab told them. "We have time to pick them up and hightail it."

Jezmi nodded and instructed Sing to head towards the planet. "Captain!" The ensign cried out suddenly. "The shuttle... it's flying all over the place! I think they might be being chased!"

"Ready weapons," Maerlon instructed. "And shoot the bastards!"

"Bloody hell, how do I target that?" The imperial commander cursed as he saw the nanochips whip like form.

"Like this," Swab drawled, bumping the commander to one side and before aiming and shooting the lasers, cutting the string of chips in half. The half nearest the shuttle floated away into space, but the latter half seemed to lengthen, whipping about to grab the lost chips before shooting forward to reach for the shuttle. "Ah... this maybe harder than I thought..."

*****

While the ships battled above the planet, Guran was making his way towards the inner core. Using the reprogrammed chips, he was able to bury his way into the shell of the planet where the Queen's lair had lurked dormant for so many thousands of years. He could not help but feel some pity for her having lingered here alone for that time. But what she was doing, destroying lives and civilisations all for her obsession was madness and not something that could be forgiven.

In the year since Guran's body had rejected the chip and died, allowing himself and Yin to take over, he had watched her invade and take over parts of the galaxy first hand, all the while forming his plan. While it was true that there might have been other ways to deal with this, it was also true that the Queen might have been able to escape her fate if those ways had been followed through. After all, she was more machine than flesh and blood now, more A.I than humanoid. It was not out of the realm of possibility that she could escape as data into a puppet and gain a new body and begin her invasion once more.

So there were many reasons that his plan was the best choice. For one, as he gave off the psionic scent of a puppet, he was less noticeable when moving about her field of mental vision. Another was that Yin, as his inner chip, acted as a natural disruptor, interfering with connection between Queen and her nanochips. Of course, this function would make his stealth useless, so it would not be used until he entered her nest. The last reason was that all chips were programmed with a self destruct function.

As he entered the core, the nest, his chips scattered. They acted on a different wave length to the Queen, so he was not worried that she would have the time to recapture them. Yin had given them many levels of firewalls as it reprogrammed them.

The Queen was surrounded by small screens, fixated on what she saw, muttering to herself about her King. Her obsession was blinding her. But there was another who did notice.

*A failed puppet?* the message appeared upon a holographic screen in front of him.

*No.* Yin took the initiative to answer.

*Ah, then it's time for me to leave...* the screen vanished and Guran looked upward to see that he now had the Queen's attention. He moved closer as she stared at him, her inner voice clearly trying to control the chip she could sense in him. He noticed the red pupils of her black eyes, specifically the twin moons in her left eye.

"So it is you, sister," he murmured and felt slightly pained. Cornelius had felt guilty for some time after he fell in love with the man his sister had wanted as her husband. At first, he could ease the discomfort, reassuring himself that neither would be able to claim that man; his sister due to her status and himself due to his sex. But once Matthew had stolen him away to help him avoid his marriage, the guilt had increased. Matthew's touches had swept away the guilt, he had proved his love over and over until Cornelius had realised that there was nothing for him to feel guilty about.

The Queen gave him a blank look. She had no siblings in this life nor the previous one, and the first one she recalled, her brother was the System. The System had freed her from that mortal shell and promised her that she could capture her King. They had failed in the past life for that one had interfered. But it would not matter in this life.

When she did not speak, he continued; "You know I can not allow you to keep doing this."

"What makes you think you can interfere?" She said finally her focus fully upon him. He took this moment to instruct Yin to prepare the disruptive field. They would not have long between its activation and its loss.

"Because, he is mine," Guran told her, firmly. Her eyes widened as she realised who he was. "You keep chasing my husband throughout our lives, refusing to give up."

"He is mine, he is mine, he is mine!" She screamed curling her hands into fists as she hovered before him. "Marrying him is my destiny! He will be my King!" She attempted to summon her nanochips and nearby minions, only to realise that she had been blocked.

Guran shook his head, a tear falling from his eye as he stated; "No, he will never be yours."

*****

The twins evaded over and over, with the assistance of the merchant ship blasting the chips, but the last blast caused several of the chips to land on the outer hull and the boy's could hear the nanochips scurrying over its surface. "I think they are heading for the control conduit," Luck whispered.

*****

"Captain! That thing is just inside this solar system," Swab yelled out as he badly aimed, causing the chips to shatter and a few caught upon the hull of the shuttle. He swore. How the fuck were they going to get out of this now?!

*****

RS3 exploded.

The blast ring shook the shuttle before Law could register what had happened. He turned to face Luck, his mouth open wide and his expression completely still. "Luck..."

His twin shook his head and felt waves of sadness pour off the other boy. Tears began to run down their pale faces as they both wept for the loss of Law's love in this lifetime.

"Why?" Law sobbed. Luck could only hold his devastated twin and share his pain. Yin had sent him a brief explanation, but he knew it would not mollify Law.

*****

The megalith ceased all movement before their eyes and slowly seemed to crumble. Soon it was nothing more than scattered, tiny bits of metal and floating corpses. The chips had stopped moving aboard the shuttle as well. The whole region of space could be considered silent.

Maerlon practically collapsed in the captains seat, while Jezmi beside him, knelt down and pressed her hands together as if in prayer. "Was that his plan all along?" She wondered aloud. Guran had mentioned that he believed the invasion and all of the nanochips could only be stopped by stopping the Queen and that he was the only one who could bypass her internal security systems. Granted, she felt that he would kill her, but she never imagined that his was a suicide mission. "I... I didn't trust him..."

"I think he was aware of how hard it can be to trust an enemy," Maerlon attempted to reassure her. "Pirates seldom trust anyone beyond their ship and are seldom trusted by anyone else."

"Sorry," Jezmi said to him, before admitting; "I couldn't trust you either. But you did do well raising my nephews."

The man growled. "Those little shits never listen to me! How is that well raised?!" Jezmi laughed openly as did many of the bridge crew, the tension of this war lifting from their hearts.

As such, they did not notice the approach of a small, stealth cruiser.

"Hey, Luck," Law murmured as his tears began to dry aboard the shuttle. He knew deep down, and from his brother's confirmation, that his lover had returned to the Master's space. It still hurt and it still saddened him, but he would have time to confront him later. He would make him swear never to do something like that to him ever again!

"What?" Luck asked, feeling the pains ease.

"How about we grab Zee and hijack this shuttle for a while?" Law suggested.

Luck gave him a beaming smile. "That sounds like a...."