Cinco Storia Book One: Awakened

Chapter 1

Just when Tanagura was on the brink of destruction, the Council, then already made up of all the Tanagura Blondies, had discovered them, the lovers, Iason and his mongrel Pet, Riki, locked in each other's naked embrace, nothing more on them but the now-Black Pet and Master's Rings, both bodies twined like some beautiful artwork encased in stone and ash, sealed under the detritus of the fallen plant.

They had survived the destruction of Jupiter in a cocoon, whether they were aware of it, had a hand in it or not, was still a baffling mystery. But they were alive, breathing, surprisingly unscathed and without defect, the incident that had taken place before their supposed demise somehow, for some reason, not affecting them both although much of the Council were furious.

They thought the two to be merely lucky...and if they had survived the Fall of the God, they will not survive the execution the others wanted.

In earnest, however, Raoul had ordered them to be brought into the lab for analysis and instead diverted the lovers' fates in the mean time, although he was beginning to sense how pointless it was. Even if he did find a way to awaken them both, no, even just Iason, there's no telling what the Council will still do.

But it was worth a shot. It was worth the risk if he could help an old friend. Indeed, he had even made contact with Katze, Iason's most trusted subordinate, to make away with the two sleeping forms if any further threat arose.

Meanwhile the Council was wrapped in paranoia.

Their hold upon the Capital, pressed by the Commonwealth trying to sniff the lack of Jupiter's intervention for almost a year, and the ironically painful salvaging by elites of whatever was left of their pride, slowly crumbled Tanagura to dust. Yet Katze would bring them somewhere safe: including Riki of course because Raoul knew how much Iason would lament if he ever lost the mongrel again.

But then Raoul's worries would have been unnecessary. Because just when he feared having to fight to have his friend and the beloved Pet alive, that was when it happened.

Jupiter showed his final mercy, his last dying Will...that Tanagura continue even without his godly presence supervising it. Jupiter had chosen a new god to take his place, and it was Iason's body that he had found favourable. And Riki's, which somehow was not so unexpected but was a wicked twist all the same...

It started that time when everyone noticed some activity in Jupiter's remains a week after Iason and Riki's bodies were found. The System that went rogue and destructive almost to collapsing suddenly became passive and obedient, reactive to the subtle programming the Council then put it through. They were able to restore part of the System that run some of Tanagura, which was unusual indeed, considering how futile their attempts had been in the last year since the incident.

Then under the scrutiny of Raoul's scanners a discovery was made as to why exactly the dead System was showing signs of life again. It was Iason. Unconsciously manipulating and writing sequences of codes for Jupiter's sleeping ends, showing waves exactly identical to that of the supercomputer.

The Council was stunned!

Then Riki demonstrated the same, taking Iason's algorithms and actually executing them in his unconsciousness to slowly repair what was left of the Tanaguran Super System, throwing the Council into even further shock and awe, but putting a sort of victorious smile on Raoul's face. This meant they could not be dispensable. To further the claim, he immediately hooked their cocoon into a complicated uplink. It worked in an instant. The floodgates of all hidden data banks burst forth open for the Capital to once more utilize.

Raoul next made a bold move by suggesting that they needed the two now, and for them to be executed out of old tradition and scandal would prove as nothing more but fatal to all of Tanagura and simply egotistic. But it somehow had not gotten through. The fact that Jupiter has chosen Iason to replace it was not acceptable to the Council's members. They still wanted him and the Pet put on trial. And dead.

But just when Raoul was about to give up, calling in Katze to execute their contingency plan finally, another incident happened that would seal the lovers' return into acceptance for certain...

It was a weekend. The now-officially-named cocoon which held Iason and his Riki was slowly losing its capability to encapsulate the two bodies. Raoul and the Council came in to witness as both were extracted from their prison and separated, the latter mainly there to ensure they went nowhere. However, little did they know that dividing the two would come to such dire consequence.

For as Riki's slumbering form was taken away from the former top Blondie, the System of Jupiter that had been healing and regenerating began a countdown to self-destruction. Tanagura was thrown suddenly into darkness far worse than it had experienced since Jupiter's death, and, with the impending obsoletion the countdown promised, the Capital would have been annihilated completely.

The Council was in panic again. Raoul seemed to be the only one who had the proper sense to find a solution. He simply took Riki back. To Iason. Laying the youth's lovely and pliant body right next to where his lover lay. He made them a pair again.

"He is here. He will not leave you," Raoul whispered assurances to Iason's unconscious hearing, and everyone at the facility watched with held breaths as the System halted but then restarted and returned to normal with a silent hum as if the countdown that would have brought their dominion into ruin never started.

When they returned to look at the lovers again, they had both but unconsciously returned to their former embrace, the gleaming Master and Pet Rings like marriage bonds. They must not be parted.

Raoul had made his point.

Satisfyingly, the Council finally succumbed to his idea...