Into the Evening's First Darkness

[Monica]

Monica awoke in total darkness with a yell. Even if it hadn't been pitch-black in her room within the Guardian's fortress, she was blinded with pain, unable to control it. She cried out again, clutching her stomach gently.

Through the past nine months, Monica had spent her time at the Guardians Citadel, on a leave of illness from the Corp. She had been tended to by Goron and Shadow mainly, who had been rarely seen by the outside world for the past two months. Now it was time. Monica needed help more than anything.

Sweat rolled down her brow as a third cry escaped her lips. Why was no one coming? Had they all abandoned her now? Suppressing the pain as only GORON training allowed her to, she sat alone in her room, whimpering and waiting.

[Goron40]

Shadow and Goron awoke simultaneously on the second yelp. Not wasting any time, Goron simply disappeared into the shadows of his bed sheets to warp to Monica's room. He pushed up through the floor shade, just as Monica released her third scream. She was flailing on her bed, arms waving and hair shaking. Goron reached out and caught one of her hands, reassuring her that he was at her side.

He felt helpless at her side, and unable to ease her pain.

"Don't worry Monica... Shadow's getting help. He'll be here."

She was unable to respond, but her eyes remained fixed on him, peering through the darkness of the room.

[Shadow]

Shadow watched Goron vanish under his covers. Now was the time. Goron had been practicing with the Grendel for the past 4 months or so, and now it was time for Shadow to act. Unable to shadow travel, Shadow leapt from his mat on which he slept.

Skidding out the door, he smacked the Guardian's internal crisis alarm on the wall. The other Guardians would know what it meant. Shadow reached the end of the hall and grabbed a phone off the wall. It was interesting for a Grendel to dial the number of the Psychotopian palace, but somehow he managed.

"DP approach Citadel. Monica quite hurt. Monica push hand!" Shadow screamed into the phone, much to the confusion of the operator at the palace. Hopefully DP would get the message.

((Just like Embri's "RP", it's fairly static story lined, but feel free to help.))

[LordPsycho]

DP was at his palace, for a change, having an evening meal of Pocky, as normal. It was a peaceful meal at the end of an abnormally peaceful day.

DP should have known better.

It was about then that the Operator for the palace came in, message in hand. She appearently had no clue what it meant, only that it mentioned DP.

DP took the note and read it.
"DP approach Citadel. Monica quite hurt. Monica push hand."

Nornish-English. Considering it mentioned the Citadel, DP could only assume that it was Shadow.

DP got up, went over to a picture on the wall, and reached through it. When he withdrew his hand, he had his armband on and was carrying a medical bag.

He then approached a door, which burst to life in a warp portal, and was off.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the Citadel, DP came rushing into the room. He stopped when he saw Monica, obviously in labor, and Goron standing next to her.

"Please tell me you two didn't. Monica, you should have come to me as soon as you knew. Do you realize the problems geneticly modified beings have with reproduction!"

"Oh well, the damage is done, we'll see about repairing any problems later. Now Monica, I need you to sit up...thats it..."

[Monica]

Monica sat up, teeth gritted. Despite the fact that DP had come to help, she felt angrier than ever at him. Any other time, anger at this level would have caused her to tell the antagonizer off (or possibly seriously injure him), but she was in too much pain as it was.

Goron's hand was turning blue from her grip, but Monica felt no intention of letting go. Without it, she couldn't find the strength to follow DP's instructions. Another convulsion flooded through her lower abdomen. Monica suppressed a scream and shut her eyes tightly. Tears streamed forth nonetheless.

[Shadow]

Shadow skidded into the room behind DP.

"Guardians approach," he noted, signaling to the alarm that was now sounding throughout the citadel.

He looked at the other three figures in the room. Goron seemed at a loss of what to do, DP seemed calm and collected, if not a little annoyed, and Monica... well Monica looked like she was having a baby.

Shadow stood at the doorway, unwilling to get too close.

[LordPsycho]

"Good, good...it looks like your dialated. During your next contraction...I need you to push. It will hurt, but you should be able to handle it"

[Mitsukai]

Nynaeve was napping in her room as usual when she awoke adruptly because of the alarms. Crossing her eyes in annoyance before leaping into action, she tossed the covers off her and briskly walked out of her room while rubbing at her eyes.

Seeing all the commotion and the Grendel at the door, she frowned and became serious.

Now, being a healer, she also had a bit of knowledge in helping childbirth... but would her skills apply appopriately here? Unsure of herself somewhat like Shadow was, she entered the room and remained somewhat close to the door, examine the scene closely.

[Shaon]

She could feel the commotion from a distance.

She remembered the emotions from the last time such a thing happened.

Now was her chance.

She wasn't there.

She was invisible, watching from the eyes of others.

You could not see her, you could not find her, for you can't find someone who isn't there.

And now, for the wait.

She is waiting.

She is watching.

[Monica]

Monica could feel it coming from a mile away. This was it. Nine months of agony would finally come to an end in this one moment. Monica couldn't say she was going to miss it. Blinding pain seared through her once more, but this time, she did as the DarkPyscho asked. She pushed. As hard as she could. It nearly knocked her unconscious, but anything to get rid of the pain permanently.

And then... nothing. For the first time in almost a year, Monica felt nothing. It lasted less than a second though, she was soon overwhelmed with desire to see what all that torment had been worth.

"Dau'Pay? Tell me my baby's alright..." she gasped at the god/doctor.

[Intyalle]

((Awesome story. I'm hanging on every post. Keep up the good work! ))

[Little Sister]

((Sorry Goron, I couldn't resist posting .

If you want me to get rid of this, just ask and I'll delete it.))

High above the Dojo, Little Sister and Noten were witnessing the events below.

For Noten it was a matter of curiosity, having never witnessed a birth before. For Little Sister... Well, to begin with she'd thought of using the chance to try and kill Goron, his girlfriend, that dimwitted reptilian buddy of his and every other Guardian who'd be too busy worrying about little Goron Jr to be concerned with something like defending themseves. It seemed like a good plan (better than her usual ones at least), but she found herself hesitating.

Why? The Parasitian thought to herself angrily. I hate Goron, I hate Shadow and I hate every Guardian just for existing, why don't I want to kill them? Back when Embri was having her baby she felt like slaughtering the annoying mule and her little spawnling there and then, what was the difference here? Had something changed? Had she changed? She didn't want to ask aloud, as if doing such a thing would make her weak and inept, but at the same time she sort of wanted an answer.

She may as well have spoken though, as Noten could read her like an open book. "Have you changed your mind?" The faceless God asked her. "Keh! I just can't be bothered, that's all!" Little Sister glared down at the Guardian Citadel, jealous thoughts flooding her head. Why was life so unfair? "Go get Kappa. Tell the idiot that I want the strongest drink that we have. I want to think by myself for a while." Noten could easily see past the defensive wall of anger that she'd put up, but nodded and obliged her. A few moments later, a sleepy looking Kappa entered the room with a large bottle. She hadn't bothered to bring a glass, figuring that it was a fair assumption that Little Sister wasn't in the mood to use one.

She was right of course, Little Sister snatched the bottle right away, ripped the cork off and took a big swig. "What's got you in such a bad mood?" She asked, not really expecting an answer. "Goron and his mate have reproduced. Another Guardian in Blackstar." Little Sister answered bluntly, giving herself a moment to catch her breath before taking another big swig of booze. Kappa didn't understand. Usually such news would inspire Little Sister to send her and the rest of the worshippers here on a suicidal mission to the Citadel, but she didn't seem too into this. "You know, you probably shouldn't drink so much if we're going to be attacking the Guardian Headquart-" "We're not. I don't feel like it." Little Sister cut her off, taking another deep swig. "Oh really?" This was very unusual for Little Sister, and now Kappa felt compelled to know why. "Because you don't want to, or because you can't?"

"Keh! I don't have to tell you a god damn thing. Get out of my sight." The Parasitian slurred back to her, emptying the last of whatever poison had filled the bottle. Normally Kappa would have done as she was told and grumbled to Tengu about it later, but it was obvious that Little Sister didn't want to talk about this, which to Kappa meant that this was the perfect opportunity to get revenge on the Parasitian for treating her like a slave all the time. "It's fair enough, I don't suppose anybody would blame you. The kid'll have a safe home, parents who'll be proud of it, probably going to have friends soon too. If you took 'em away... Well, I guess you'd just be making another you." Kappa laughed, finding this quite amusing. "What a time to find out that you've got a soul."

Kappa's taunting was cut short as Little Sister brought the large empty bottle down on her head, hard. The glass shattered, and Kappa collapsed onto the ground, knocked out good and proper. "And you wonder why I hate you the most..." Little Sister muttered, lying down at the mouth of the Temple of Nothing.

Her seventh eye still burned with jealousy as she watched the scene below, but for tonight watching was all she intended to do.

[Coolpikaaa]

Coolpikaaa couldn't sleep.

He wandered the halls of the citadel,looking for something to do,when he noticed a grendel running down the hall to a telephone.Before he got there though,he hit an alarm button on the wall.It echoed through the fairly empty hallway,and then after shadow finished his call he ran back into a nearby room.

Coolpikaaa was very muchly confused.He had just started here,and now there was panic and alarms.He moved over to the door that Shadow had gone into and jumped up,trying to see over the grendel who had decided to stand at the entrance.

On his 3rd hop,he saw into the room.DP was there,along with Goron and another girl who was in a bed.Eve was standing beside the door looking worried.The girl in bed looked to be in deep pain.Coolpikaaa suddenly remembered Neutrino,when she laid BP's egg.

The girl gave another push and seemed to relax a tiny bit.She asked DP something,but coolpikaaa had landed once more on the ground behind Shadow,not sure if he wanted to jump again.

-coolpikaaa

[LordPsycho]

One final push, and the child was out.

DP took a second and did a quick genetic scan with his armband. It wasn't a full genetic scan, but it should be able to spot any immediate problems.

"It appears that your son is a healthy baby boy, Monica. I'll take these scans to our genetic facility to get a full analysis done though."

DP then waved his hand outside of Monica's view, and a couple of clamps materialized on the embilical cord.

"Goron, I think it appropriate if you take your photon sword and cut the embilical cord here. That should also cartarize the ends."

[Goron40]

"A bit unorthodox no doubt..." Goron said as he lit his plasma sword, "However... it seems appropriate."

The heat of the blade sliced cleanly through the cord, much more efficiently than scissors or a scalpel would have. The ends sizzled from the heat as Goron dispersed the plasma.

"Can you believe it Monica? Our very own child," Goron commented to the new mother. He gave her the best smile he could muster, given the tension of the situation.