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The Reaches of a Dream Chapter One:

Death and Rebirth

Darkness. Endless darkness. I see nothing. Not as if that's a problem, though. Somewhere near the sound of two claps break the eerie silence. Following them are dull popping sounds of light bulbs charging with electricity. I smile and take the first steps into my little underground sanctuary.

"Rheia, please execute full system boot" My voice echo in the white concrete walls. Just after I say these words, as a huge beast that awakens, the machinery that fills the room start to whir and colorful lights start to flash from them.

"Good afternoon, sir. All energy specters are normal, emergency power charge is 100 per cent and the noon scan shows no threats to the system" So says the holographic woman that materialized by my side.

"Good to know you slept well, sweetie" I spoke to her "Does the surveillance system shows anything out of the ordinary?"

"Negative, sir. The lab was completely sealed and none of the laser tripwires in the house were broken" Rheia informs me. Named after the titan goddess of fertility, she is the artificial intelligence that commands all of the electronic systems in my house and serves as my assistant, secretary and encyclopedia.

I nod, walking absent-mindedly around my private genetics lab. I insist on calling it "genetics lab" but there are actually only two genetics-related machines in it. It houses mostly Rheia's worldly components, so her "Core" would be a better name. I come to a halt before a large steel gate and Rheia's projected avatar stops by me, holding out her hand. I touch it with my own and a light passes through it, scanning my fingerprints. At this moment, the bright lights overhead go off, being replaced by the weak glow of infrared bulbs disposed around the footer of the room.

"So, how's our baby?" I ask, walking through the now opened gate into the new room.

"She seems to be stable for now, but her systems aren't totally working yet" Her answer makes me frown.

"So she could still drop dead at any moment?" I sense her caution in answering.

"I believe so, sir..."

I sigh, something I been doing a lot these past times. I take a few last steps and rest my hand against the source of my greatest happiness and bittermost anguish. I was resting my hand against the warm glass of a cubic tank. Floating on the middle of the liquid that filled it, curled in fetal position was the form of an adult humanoid woman, covered in pink fur, with ears and the tail of a cat, though no muzzle, instead with human nose and lips, drifting lazily in the green-lit substance.

Now I must bring the story to a halt and begin to tell you another. The tale of one Christopher Reagan: Chris was a boy that grew in a small city, but his parents had enough money to provide him and his older sister a comfortable living and quality studies. Chris was always very smart and masterfully learned the use of a computer when he first came into contact with one, around the age of five. It wasn't until many years later, on a night, after his parents had picked him up from school, and told him they had internet installed at their house, that the boy's life would gain meaning.

See, while having some good-looks and being very intelligent, Christopher couldn't maintain the social life he found himself wishing for sometimes. He was raised on a farm, around 1.5 miles away from the actual city, hardly receiving visits from friends, so not only did he was not the most sociable person under the sun, but his personality was nurtured mostly by his sister. The romance and history aficionada she was, she raised him to be a well-mannered gentleman with aspiration for true love, the total negative of the romantic habits that, in his opinion, plagued those days. Back then, you could see someone you knew making out with somebody during a party, and with somebody else at next day's one, or even at the same one, if the person was lucky. In his eyes, that was repulsive but he learned that one boy can't change the informal laws of society by himself and that led to the wisdom of keeping some ideas inside his mind. While he had his circle of friends, he yearned for someone to share the burning passion of his heart and, after a crash-landing on puberty, to sate his carnal lust.

As I said before, sometimes he wanted to go with the tide and have his first intimate experience with just anybody, but he always managed to keep this desire at bay, wanting to at least find someone he was fond of to do it, not the first girl he cae across in some random environment. And just where does the World Wide Web enters this, you ask me? Well, with the flood of hormones his body secreted when he entered teen age and no girlfriend to "put out his fire", as to say, Chris relied heavily on internet to fuel his solo pleasures. He never was one for settling on one thing only, so it was only a matter of time before, on his trips for new and exciting forms of pornography, he tripped on the word "hentai", and he became marveled with the drawings he found of humans having sex in the most imaginative styles of hundreds of artists from all over the world.

Solo pictures turned to animated cartoons and written stories, including fan-fictions of his favorite TV shows, most fantasy-related animes, all leading him to the discovery of one word. "Furry". The world of the furry fandom was opening itself for him. Even over the pornography, he felt a sort of connection to the anthropomorphic animals, a connection drawing from his very soul. And, some random day he himself wouldn't be able to nominate, all of it personified itself into one furry: an anthro cat drawn by Hitoshi "Dr. Comet" Natsume, named Meeya Meeya. She was a rather unique fur; in all of Comet's drawings that he knew, she was the only one that escaped the stereotype of a fur-covered human with ears, muzzle and tail, she lacked the middle one. Her face was perfectly human, with nose and lips below her glimmering green eyes. Suddenly, Chris' visions of a soul mate took shape, his heart found someone to beat to and, if with furries in general he felt a connection, with this one it was a bond. A bond of love, like he had dreamed since, well, always.

Can you catch my point already, dear readers? While it brought happiness to young Mr. Reagan to have somebody to love, it filled his heart with sorrow as his overactive conscience kept telling him she was but a work of fiction and his wish to have her for his own would never be granted. During Chris' senior year at high school, the last drop fell when he met Natsume personally during a furry convention. The artist handed him an autographed picture of Meeya he had commissioned a few months earlier: it showed her making passionate love to a man that looked like him, its perfection worthy of the signature upon it. After hanging the picture on the wall of his room, he found himself crying in bitter anger and hammering his fists on the wooden floor. He wanted her, to feel her close to him, to have her share the happy moments of his life, to cry on her shoulder at the sad ones, to look into her bright green eyes and find the same expression of love she would find in his blue ones, to feel her fur against his skin on their nights of passion. That day, Christopher Reagan swore an oath: he would go to any lengths and have this one wish fulfilled. And so he did: he went to medical college, graduated as a geneticist, made many breakthroughs in the area, got rich, researched, built his lab and then decided to tell you his story.

A couple years before, I was part of the project that finally decoded the last 10% of the human genome; based on this knowledge, I created an apparatus that could instantly codify one's phenotype-defining genome based on a visual depiction, or even create a foresight of the appearance of the same one based on the manual coding of the same key genes. It was dubbed the Genomic Mirror, quite appropriately, if I may say so. The original model is the second genetic machine I mentioned earlier. Thus armed, I could finally hope to fulfill the oath I had proclaimed.

Needless to say, the first tries of creating a bodily Meeya were a monumental failure: the original cell would firstly self-destruct before even starting to divide. Then we only advanced to the first divisions, stabilized the early developing stages and, only after quite some time, got something that resembled a cat embryo. It pains my heart to remember the countless times I had to manually terminate a specimen because of malformation; To think that every one of those fragile bundle of cells could perhaps have evolved into the one thing that would make my life complete... However, with every error I committed, my determination only rose, I would succeed.

Now, with the credits for The History Channel rolling in, let us go back to the main story.

Rheia looked at me, probably feeling my thoughtfulness. I had gifted her with every emotion I could think of, she was more humane than a few humans I had met. She reached forward to touch me when I turned around with my head raised.

"It's time we entered the last phase" The tone of my voice awed her, I noticed. She lowered her hand and followed me as I walked toward a console at the far end of the room.

"The current operating capacities of her body are being shown on the screen, sir" The screen of the console popped to life as she said that. I read on: Nervous System - 35%, Digestive System - 50%, Circulatory System - 90%, Immunological System - 0.5%, Lymphatic System - 80%, among some others.

"Good. Execute final phase protocols, Rheia!" She nodded and contorted her face as if concentrating and the numbers on the console all rose to 100%, which meant the normal activity rate of a human body. I looked at the tank and suddenly my face wilted in a horrified look. The Meeya clone was convulsing, her face draught in agony. The rainbow colored light of the console suddenly flashed red and a bright exclamation point took over the screen. She had entered into anaphylactic shock.

"NO!" I ran over to the wall "Drain the tank, quick!"

The substance that composed her artificial placenta began to lower and she floated to the floor, kept moving for a few seconds and then laid still.

"NO! NO! NO!" I yelled "Let me in! We are not losing this one!"

The walls of the tank lowered into the ground. I raced to the middle, occasionally slipping on the puddles of amnio, where the pink figure laid motionless. Losing an undeveloped embryo was one thing, but this one was fully formed, one step from being perfect! I gathered the feline in my lap and held her hand firmly.

"Please resist! Don't die! STAY WITH ME!" The clone opened her eyes and stared into mine. Her eyes were filled only with confusion and pain. Her lips parted as she tried to make a sound, but all that came out was a gasp. Her desperate grip on my hand loosened, her eyes closed and her mouth too. My eyes widened, refusing to believe what they saw.

"Loss of vital sign" I heard Rheia. She was kneeling beside me "I'm sorry sir"

Her voice rang dull and distant in my mind. I settled the inert body in the ground and started to walk away, leaving Rheia's avatar standing by the corpse of another unfruitful try of the realization of a man's dream. I walked past the main room of the lab, got in the elevator cabin and waited. Feeling claustrophobic, I sighed in mild relief when the door opened into my study. I let myself fall into one of the velvety armchairs that littered the bookshelf-clad room. Tears that burned more than acid ran down my cheeks, a pained, furious anguish swirled inside me like a tropical storm.

It wasn't until many hours later, when evening had already fallen, that I was given a sign that there was some life left on the world. I was staring blankly at the crackling flames of the study's fireplace, when I fell a small tingling on my shoulder, like a weak electric current running through it.

"You know what the most unfair part is, Rheia?" For I learned to recognize that feeling as when her hologram touched me.

"What, sir?" She asked in polite curiosity.

"Those perfect beings... through my eyes the apex of evolution, they don't even have corpses, to be given, on the less, a decent burial" After all my experiences, I knew what happened to the clone's corpse by this time. Due to some yet-to-be-explained phenomenon, it would have decomposed into carbon, water, sulfur, potassium and the other many elements that comprised the body of a living creature "They become nothing but DIRTY WATER!"

I slammed my fists in the armrests, burning with anger at the injustice of it all. Rheia took a step back, feeling surprised, scared even, at her master's reaction.

"I... I must confess you something, sir" I looked at her in confusion; it was the first time she used that word "During the night, I... took a few liberties as far as the clone is concerned"

"What do you mean?" I looked at her, eyes wide in puzzlement, my mind composing and decomposing dozens of theories about what she meant.

"The developing of this one seemed very promising. So much that I took a blood sample from her for analysis and had a nanocamera inserted in her bloodstream"

"Where do you plan on getting, Rheia?" I loosened up a little after her harmless report.

"And... After you left, I took another sample of her blood, post-mortem" She ignored my question "If you would, sir"

She motioned to my desk. I got up from the chair and sat in front of my computer. With a quick flick of her hands, the screen turned on showing a microscopic picture of an apparently empty bloodstream.

"This is the sample from the dead clone" She explained. I was completely bewildered; the data being shown on the corner of the screen showed that her plasma was, indeed, empty. But where are the six million red cells that should be present on that cubic millimeter of blood? What about the four million white ones?

"This is the footage of the camera, during the shock four hours ago" With another flick, the image changed to an animated bloodstream, with a normal flow of cells. Suddenly, the white cells started to meld with the red ones, destroying them both. My eyes glued themselves to the screen, I was witnessing Meeya's blood agglutinating itself. In layman's terms, the leucocytes would fuse with the red cells, as they would with a virus or bacteria, fact that would eventually leave her with insufficient cells for her body to be totally nurtured. But that wouldn't be possible, unless...

"And this is the sample taken from the clone at 11:55 pm, yesterday" As in a cue, she changed to the still image of a normal stream. Attached to it was a grid showing the presence of proteins and antibodies in the cells.

"Impossible..." I stared at the numbers on the screen. It *was* impossible for such results to be correct, or was it? Suddenly, however, the explanation appeared in a pop of insight. I darted up from the chair "Rheia, if you had a mouth, I would kiss you!"

I darted to the southern wall of the study, passing through a rather surprised-looking hologram, pulled a book and the whole shelf sled sideward, revealing the same elevator I exited a few hours ago.

I crossed the laboratory's tiled floor in quick paces, crossed the tank room, feeling a twinge of pain at the confirmation that the clone, indeed, wasn't there anymore. The room was clean and ready for another try.

"The next one will work" I thought aloud. The door at the far side of the tank room opened automatically at my presence. This room had the shape of a half-sphere, with a comfortable chair linked to another computer console. I took my seat at it and typed a few commands; lights went off, a helmet adjusted to my head and two gloves clad with circuits were slid over my hands.

"Genomic Mirror online" A classic computer voice sounded.

"Open genome file M33Y4-FINAL"

A soft, ethereal glow took the room, along with soft humming of the CPUs. After a minute or so, the three-dimensional forms of chromosomes projected out of thin air.

"Zoom in to gene loci 9q34 and 1p36 to 13-p34.3" More whirring and most chromosomes vanished, and I could have sworn I saw a tad too many. The few that remained aligned themselves in my line of view, forming a group of...six?!

There you have it. First off, those chromosomes, which would be the first and ninth pairs of a human genome, as stated, should be pairs, not trios. That alone could utterly stop Meeya from living, but it was only the beginning. The holograms zoomed in some more and subtitles appeared identifying the genes I had requested.

My eyes couldn't help but widen as I saw that in those chromosomes, all the genes were present, both for ABO and Rhesus systems, which meant her body was set to produce every protein and every antibody a bloodstream can produce. Where I saw an anaphylactic shock, Meeya had actually died of what probably was the worst case of the Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn imaginable.

"That explains it, Rheia" I said to her, while changing the zooms to check the other blood type systems "The Mirror's auto-codifying program is faulty, so it creates a genome with every possible gene it has in the database... since there is no space for that in the regular 24-chromosome genome, it creates extra ones.

"We never thought of it, since we never associated her shock with an immunological reaction... and it only appeared in the final developing stage..." Rheia followed

"Because her immunological system is not necessary within the tank's controlled environment" I finished.

"So if you adjust her blood factors genes, the next clone ought to work" She looked quite happy "I can't believe it sir! You are so close!"

"No Rheia..." I let my mind retire itself from the rational word for a moment "*We* are so close. You are as much a part of this as me and Meeya"

"And it is my honor to be so, sir"

"Good girl. Now please leave me for a moment. I have a genome to fix"

"Very well, sir" She disappeared and I started to work on the genes. I made her an AB type Rh positive, so that it would be easier if she ever needed a blood transfusion. Over the next couple of hours, I worked feverishly on the holograms, plucking genes away, rearranging them and correcting every blood factor: Chido-Rodgers, Colton, Diego, Gerbich, Lewis etc. To make sure there is no possible way I would lose another Meeya to herself.

"Phew, last one!" I sighed in relief as I finished a rather long and tiring Scianna group chain. Getting up and ordering for the Foresight to shut down, I took a short walk and collapsed into a chair of my study.

.............................................

"Sir?" I jerked awake "You fell asleep"

I yawned, stretching my numb muscles.

"Apparently I did. Thanks for waking me up, sweetie" I said to Rheia, who was standing before the chair. Looking out of the window, I stated it was very late, for the sky was pitch-black "How long I've been out?"

"Well, it's now 01:35 am, sir" Impressive, I thought, I slept more than five hours.

"Oh, stupid me..." I sighed.

"Not at all sir. What happened?"

"Tired as I was, I forgot to ask you to prepare a new clone. Several hours of development wasted..."

"Nothing wrong with that, sir. It's only humane of you to forget. Plus, it's not like the world is going to end tomorrow. 2012 is already past, remember?"

"Makes sense" I chuckled "Rheia?"

"Sir?"

"How long would it take, if I ordered you to prepare a new clone with the highest developing rate, for it to be fully matured?"

"Eight hours at most, sir, why?"

"Do it" It was my turn to ignore her question "Also, prepare a tank geminated to the clone's own with a T-4 permeability wall"

"Sure sir, but..." I was barely listening.

"Also, equip the second tank with a life support system for post-birth organism and link both of them with the machinery regarding the NEUSYM project"

"NEUSYM?" Even through my haze of alienated epiphany, I sensed her doubt "We never made that work, sir"

For the first time I heard her. Luckily I was ready.

"I made alterations on the project, with 99% chance it will work. It's in my private server, download it to the main database and integrate with past information"

"Anything else, sir?" She stopped protesting, undoubtedly recognizing the glimmer of euphoria in my eyes.

"No, I don't think so..." All of a sudden, my body began to feel heavy and my mind, hazy "I need to rest now, don't disturb me until I wake up, please"

"As you wish, sir" And disappeared. As for me, I pulled a different book from the shelf and another elevator appeared from it. This one rode me upwards, to a carved wooden door. I opened it and emerged through my own room's dresser, taking a few steps forward and turning around to see the elevator going back down and the hangers, drawers and shoe stands sliding back into place. Smiling, I took a set of pajamas and closed the door. With the nightclothes on, and my other ones folded on a table, I collapsed in the soft red velvet sheets of my bed. With my cheek against the pillow, I did my own version of a nightly prayer: I imagined myself being embraced by my sweet cat lover, sharing the queen bed with me, snuggling close so I could smell her fur and hair, feel her warmth against my body. I was asleep within ten minutes.

Bright lights flash, the image of two green eyes shatter into broken glass, a voice echo in the silence.

"Help me... Save me... Christopher..." It sounds weak and distant, like the dying whispers of an agonizing beast.

I feel myself hugging something warm and fluffy; though I don't know what it is, it feels good to hold. Suddenly it is replaced by something wet and cold, that seeps through my clothes, freezing my skin, going all the way down to my heart, making it stop beating, leaving me in a dark void, frozen and crying in misery.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" My despair yells and its voice echo in the black infinity while my own self was busy panting in fear, back in my bed. I was drenched in sweat; my mind felt like it was being stabbed by white-hot blades and my heart exploding in fear and sadness.

"Good God..." I wiped my forehead, panting like mad, and laid back, trying to get back to sleep.

...........................................................

A few hours later, after managing to sleep again, I woke up to the sound of birds that come out after the snow, when the rays of sunlight warm up the earth again. I still felt scared, though in more behaved way, because of that dream. The clock by the bed accused 07:30 in the morning.

Rheia, as it seems, was pretty busy when I entered the lab a couple minutes later. She was fiddling with the main console, looking at what it seemed like reports from a gestation tank. When the motion detector announced me, she turned around to see my smiling form.

"Good morning, sir" She spoke in an almost concealing tone, as if trying to hide something "You are smiling... Good dreams?"

"Au contraire, actually" Her face took a puzzled look "I had one of the worst nightmares in my life"

"I see, was it about Meeya?" The look of puzzlement faded to concern.

"Indeed, it was horrible" My smile never twitched, though "But it couldn't be more welcome, right now"

"I don't understand. Why should a nightmare be welcome?"

"Because human beings define their reality through misery and suffering" I quoted the villain from a favorite movie of mine "As long as I keep having wonderful dreams about a happy life with her, it means my subconscious think of her as that: a dream, no more than a delusion"

Rheia kept silent.

"From the point I can imagine bad things happening to her... to us, it means I'm close to accepting it as reality, my brain as a whole accepts she can, in fact, be real" Her avatar manifests the first signs of understanding "My conscious tells me my life's dream is close, while my subconscious, always the villain, apparently, reminds me the rocky road we'll have ahead"

"I think I understand. Life isn't perfect, and if you dream of a perfect life, its root is still just a dream" She was smiling too, now "Difficulties are part of everyone's life, hers would be double, if your brain realizes that from info it took from itself, it means you believe we are close to success"

"That's my Rheia" My smile widened in response to hers "Now how is Meeya coming through?"

"Perfectly fine, sir. No signs of anomalies and new samples reveal she has a healthy bloodstream now. Did you..."

"Predict this? I did" On past experiences, when the clone's developing rate was too high, it would trigger her immunological system as a response to prevent a wrong division among the thousands of cells doing it per second. That, in turn triggered the HDN and the rest is history.

"Very clever, if I may say so" I smiled, flattered "Would you mind sating a personal doubt from me, sir?"

"Of course not, Rheia. What is it?"

"During the night, I updated the NEUSYM files as you requested, and, indeed, the results seem more promising. But... why all this? Why the second tank and the neural integration?"

"I will explain it in a minute, my dear. Now let's see her" I said decidedly. Rheia nodded and led me to the tank room. The same procedure from the last day took place and soon I was staring at the Meeya fetus again. It had a difference, though; she now had two tubes connected to her, one parting from her spine and one from the navel which was a feeding tube. It made sense; in slower developing rates, her body would sate its metabolic requirements by absorbing the nutritious elements that composed the liquid that served as her womb. At max rate, the absorption through her skin would be too slow to fuel the rapid cell divisions underway inside her, so she was being fed now with this "umbilical cord" of sorts.

There was something else, though. Through my eyes she seemed somehow... healthier; I could feel she was happy, as if having a good dream or knowing something good is about to happen... I couldn't help but part in her happiness, a child's joy, the purest form of a good feeling.

"Sir?" Rheia's voice echoed far in my mind, but it roused me from my dreaminess state.

"...What? Oh! Sorry, sweetie, I drifted off for a moment" I shook my head to put my thoughts black in place.

"So I noticed..." She giggled "The maturation is at 95%"

"Good" I said shortly, making a few calculations in my mind "We're starting the final phase now. Is the second tank ready?"

"As per your specifications"

"Good, while you help me to ready myself, start an info download to her brain and teach her communications and the meanings of emotions" She frowned.

"Help you to ready for what?"

"Oh, sorry. I forgot. The second tank is meant for me, Rheia"

"But..."

"Just a decision I took. I want to be there when it happens. I want to be the first to feel her alive... well, the second"

"As you wish sir..." I could tell I had lost her, but there would be time for explanations. I walked to a nearby operation table and undressed, laying against the cold metal. Robotic arms emerged around me and one of them stabbed my arm with a syringe...

........................................................................

All around me is warm, like if I was totally immerse in a tub of heated water. Even with the warm substance around me being a major distraction, my brain started to work again. My eyes opened slowly, revealing me that I was in a pool of something and the walls were glowing with a green light, making me unable to see the exterior. My eyes, by the way, felt no irritation at the liquid around, like some sort of window was shielding them. Also, by feeling around my nose and my spinal cord, I discovered two tubes, supplying me with oxygen and the world beyond with my thought patterns.

"I'm in. Rheia, do you copy?" I spoke, but with my mind only, without opening my lips.

"Loud and clear, sir" Came Rheia's response in the same fashion "How is it to be back in a womb?"

"Quite relaxing, actually. Is the NEUSYM ready?"

"All machines are in standby" She communicated. By the way, I suppose some of you are just dying in curiosity to know what NEUSYM means, right? Well, in some point of my career as a physician, I began working in cooperation with neurologists to try and find the genetic root to psychic abilities. Telekinesis, telepathy, mind control, there ought to be some genes that determined one's capacity to do it all. It was mostly a failure, because we never got a specific genome pattern in the tested individuals. I guess I can't call it a total failure because we understood the physiological reactions in it. Just like an iron lung, we discovered how to emulate psychic powers through machines. One special branch, dealing with psychic empathy, the ability of the brain to connect with others, was named the NEUSYM project, short for Neurosymmetry, its mechanical sister. The process consisted in forcing equalization between the brain frequencies of two individuals. As one changed, the machine would direct the other in the same change, so the alterations would be felt by the other one, supposedly letting one know the other's thoughts. It never worked out properly, but I've made alterations to make the connection stronger, and now it will be put for the test.

"Turn them on!"

At first nothing happened, or so I think, I had never been through the process myself before. My head turned to my right and I saw what probably triggered the connection: The Meeya clone. Floating by my side, innocently asleep, separated from me only by a glass barrier. When I saw her, it felt almost like her mind had been injected inside mine. I could feel what she felt, but she wasn't thinking of anything. Expected, since she had no life experience until now. Also, there was a bulk of raw data at the edge of her subconscious, the info downloaded into her as I asked. It waited for her mind to awaken and then it would be processed by her brain into useable knowledge. It was time to rouse her.

"Can you...hear me?" I sent to her, in the softest tone I could produce, like a gentle caress on the forehead of a sleeping baby. She became confused, feeling that for the first time in her life. That was "awake" enough, apparently, since her brain went into overdrive trying to process wave after wave of information. It wasn't much, though, so soon she calmed down.

"Can you understand me?" I tried again.

"Y...Yes" I couldn't help but shudder as I heard her voice for the first time: low, soft, like a mewl. She struggled to adapt to her newfound knowledge "Who... are you?"

"I am someone who cares for you. You can call me Christopher, as I will call you Meeya" I kept soft.

"Chris...to...pher" Meeya said, now being aware of her name and, by extension, of her own existence "Where are you?"

"Open your eyes" I coaxed the adult-sized baby.

More struggling. Her nervous system searched for the ways to do that and her lids flicked a bit before slowly opening and I smirked when I noted she didn't flinch from the luminosity.

"I'm over here" I sent my own eyesight to her, telling it was her we were seeing. Her head turned over to me, and her eyes met mine "You are not alone"

"I'm not alone..." She repeated, feeling a beautifully innocent joy.

"I will protect you, I will care for you, I will love you" My heart almost exploded in the sensation of finally saying these words.

"Love..." She searched for the meaning in her mind and probably found something good, because she opened a beautiful smile. Next, she made something that totally surprised me: She finished uncurling and raised a paw against the glass, trying to reach me. My tears mixed with the liquid as I placed my hand over hers, also sending, through a separate channel, an order to Rheia to remove the permeability wall.

Within seconds, the inches of glass dissolved, and our hands touched. Cinderella once said you find your true love by the touch, it's true I say. When her soft fur touched my skin, it was like a jolt of electricity parted down my arm, all the way to my heart, and I know she felt the same, despite not knowing the meaning. Shaking from the feeling of what that moment meant to me, I raised my other hand and touched the paw she also raised. Intertwining our fingers, I started to draw her close to me. It seemed to last forever, but when her breasts touched my bare skin, my chin rested softly on her shoulder and my arms wrapped around her in a hug, words can't describe the happiness in my heart. She was there, not a dream, not a hallucination, I was holding her: Meeya, my true love, my other half, my soul mate. Many believe a kiss is the epitome of affection two people can show, I respectfully disagree. In that hug, feeling her skin against mine, her neck against mine and, after a few seconds, her arms around my back, returning my gesture, there was all the love in the world.

"Christopher" She spoke in a trembling voice, probably due to the copy of my own happiness she was feeling inside her "I...I..."

"What? Tell me"

"I feel safe. You make me feel safe, feel...loved. That's what love means, right?"

I closed my eyes, feeling the tears slip free and disappear in the liquid "Yes, my dear. Love means that, and I will always make you feel safe, always... I will always love you"

"Th...Thank you" She started to cry as well, in spite of not even knowing what she was doing or why she was doing it.

Oh, how I wanted that to last forever! Just the two of us, holding each other, loving each other...

But there was too much to be done, and begrudgingly I backed slightly from her so I could stare into those wonderful green eyes.

"Being here with you is the happiest moment of my life, dear Meeya, but there is so much more I want to show you out there"

"I don't know... I am starting to feel... strange..."

My eyebrow raised at her comment and I dived deep into her consciousness, trying to discover what she meant.

Hmmm... Accelerated breathing and heartbeat rates... butterflies in the stomach... hardened nipples? Warmth in the loins?

A spark of comprehension came across me, and I smiled. Sounds logical if you think of it. Meeya was developed in an artificial womb to the equivalent of her twenties. Now that shew was awakened, her body started making up for the lost time. Her poor veins were being pumped full of hormones supposed to have troubled her only through puberty.

That understanding smile was slowly deformed into a mischievous grin as I realized the possibilities.

"Don't worry, my love. We will take care of that"

Shifting position lightly, I now hugged her from behind, one arm around her neck and the other on her waist. The pain only served to incentive me and very slowly my hand descended to between her legs, to cup her never-yet-stimulated vagina. It starts so simply, every little touch of my fingers against her lower lips creating a new effect, just like... poetry. First, a rush, heat, her heart flutters. She does not understand why. It is a new feeling. What is it? What is the reason? Soon it does not matter, soon the why and the reason are gone, and all that matters is the feeling itself. Suddenly it starts to outweigh everything around us, such a... pleasurable sensation. Her reproducing system kicks into action, hormones send signal for the production of a female's natural lubricant. It was almost unnoticeable around the liquid, but I felt it on my inside, through her. My idle hand reaches up to caress her nipples, while the other one starts focusing on her engorged clit.

"Th...this feels good" I hear her speak after one hour of sorrowful sobs and pained gasps.

"Indeed. Focus on the good feelings..." I rested my head against hers, in a twirl of emotions. love, pleasure and happiness among the distinguishable ones "...and let the bad ones go..."

Thanks to my autonomous nervous system's simpatico branch, I was sporting a full hard-on at this point, and Meeya probably noticed it through our shared conscience. What she said next was probably the result of her feral instincts acting over the rational portion of her brain.

"Take me! Make me yours!" It was the most meaningful thing she said in life, driven by lust, the apex of the instincts, the need to mate.

"But..." I was sincerely surprised. Never could I have expected such an extreme reaction.

"Do it! NOW!" Her voice came out almost as a snarl. I saw I had no choice; the maelstrom of feral lust growing out of control inside her needed to be sated, or else...

I passed my arms underneath hers and embraced her quivering form, shifting position again so my erection touched her virgin entrance. This simple touch made her arch her back in pleasure. She needed me, and, to be frank, I needed her all the same; to hell with love right now! I grabbed her and in one swift motion, stretched her passage and tore her hymen.

If she had air in her lungs, she would have probably roared from the sensation. I know because I had the same urge. The sensation of a hot male member filling you, touching everywhere a female needs to be touched at once, filling the void a heat creates, it's indescribable!

With my own mind being infected by her limitless lust, I started to move my hips, back and forth, slamming deeper and deeper my maleness inside her. She growled, and I growled back; we had no rational mind, we were just two beasts, or rather, we were one beast, melded together by the heat of mating. In our minds, our sensorial cortexes, chaos reigned with an iron fist of pleasure. I penetrated her, while feeling the penetration myself, and she got my cock in her cunt while feeling her own imaginary penis surrounded by a fiery love tunnel.

With our carnal pleasures doubled like that, it was obvious we didn't last long. Climax crashed and rocked our bodies and there was no way to contain it this time. We raised our heads, blind with pleasure, and our roars of lust and passion echoed inside each other's minds. The mixed fluids of love tainted the liquid around us and more kept flowing while load after load of my seed filled her womb.

After my mind settled itself again, I felt the taste of blood in my mouth. Opening my eyes, I discovered that during the trance of my orgasm, I had bitten her shoulder, making a small cut from where crimson clouds blossomed before disappearing into the tank.

"Sorry" I said guiltily, cuddling close to my sweet once-again lover.

"It was amazing" I smiled at her words. Indeed the stinging of the wound only added to the feeling of the afterglow

"That feeling is gone isn't it?" I looked down at her lovingly, she nodded "Your body is now perfect inside and out. Do you feel ready to be born?"

"As long as you are with me, I feel ready for everything" I started to cry again, while I sent outside the green sign for Rheia to drain the tank.

A loud rushing sound filled our liquid love nest and bubbles of air gathered at the ceiling of the tank. Our eyes never left each other while we were slowly drawn down. I thought of happy moments to come: Walking hand in hand in the beach near our home in Hawaii, gazing at the beautiful sunset, navigating through the icy waters of the North pole, the aurora borealis sparkling beautifully, riding Shire horses through the Scottish fields near my farm, snuggling close to sleep in a cold winter night. She was happy; the world through my eyes seemed beautiful, it was worth living in.

When our hips met the floor of the tank and the liquid level lowered to below our heads, I opened my mouth and vocalized my first words for Meeya to hear.

"Welcome to the world, my love"