a fic by Mystery Self-Lover! : City of Verona (1/2)

[selflovin_mod]

Title: City of Verona
Rating: PG13-15
Groups/Pairings: Pin (Yamashita Tomohisa/ Akanishi Jin), Ryoda (Nishikido Ryo/Ueda Tatsuya) & ShirotaKame (Kamenashi Kazuya/Shirota Yuu) Cameos: Matsumoto Jun, Tsubasa, Koki, Nakamaru, Yabuto & OCs.
Word Count: 18k
Summary: When human race faced the biggest threat of all times, Jin found what he has been looking for his entire life, unbeknown to him, it has always been at the reach of his hand.
Warnings: SCI FI, apocalyptic.
Notes: This fic is meant to be a gift for my friends, I dedicate this to them with all my love. Also the fic is set in a semi AU world (Jin isn’t married) in 2014. I took the name of the city inspired in Shakespeare’s most famous love story, so credits to him or Italy for putting such an awesome name to a city^^


City of Verona

It was a complete chaos; people were screaming their lungs out.

In fear.

Disconcerted.

He visualized plate shape ships throwing red rays at them, and how those destroyed everything on their paths. There were men, women even children disintegrating in the air like pollen and he wasn´t able to see a single familiar face in the crowd.

He ran, for his life, in desperation, trying to understand what was happening. Why or who was doing this.

Not even ten minutes ago, he was with his friends, as usual drinking and having fun; they heard some screaming so they went outside of the club to know what have caused them. Not even in a million years would he have expected that scenery.

He didn´t know how either, he lost his friends; the realization of being alone in that apocalyptic panorama tightened his heart. His family and friends, all his beloved ones anxiously flashing in his head while trying to avoid all the attacks coming from the sky.
He doesn´t actually remember how, in the middle of the screams and bodies lying next to him, he was able to see a familiar face.

That handsome face that he had known for half of his life and those lashed eyes that like magnets glued to his at the same time; he could see terror and fright in them, probably a reflection of his own. He felt a rush of relief of seeing him nevertheless.

They run to each other zigzagging between the corpses and they glued their hands together, both shaking, both panting, both dreading, but together at least.

After that, it was just a matter of survival.

***

“Do you think they managed to escape?” Ryo asked him quietly.

They were hidden in a subway rail; It was dark humid and uncomfortable, but they were at least safe and protected of the chaos outside. They still weren´t sure of exactly what had happened, only that apparently Planet Earth was a current victim of an outsider invasion.

Or extermination for that matter, depended on the point of view you were analyzing the situation.

“I really hope so” Jin answered. He observed his friend and felt grateful of having him right now; Ryo was strong and a fast thinker; for the last two days he has lost count of how many times Ryo had saved his ass.

But it was at night, when the weight of it all sank in his friend, the vulnerability of Ryo was evident right now, by the way he was embracing his legs tight on his chest. That lost and panicked look in his eyes that was probably the same as his.

The fire between them was the only source of heat they had. During those two previous days since everything started, all they could find was some food, a pair of jackets and a knife.
He approached Ryo, and sat down next to him resting his back on the wall and embraced him, covering his small figure with his jacket.

“We will get through this, I promise” he said, or lied; he was probably just voicing his hopeful wishes.

Ryo knew him too well though, probably also noticing the slight tremble on his voice and the lack of confidence he was trying to cover up.

“Ok” he said and they both fell asleep in each other´s arms.

***

Tokyo was destroyed.

They walked between shadows in the sunny fall morning, searching for beloved ones and for any item that could be helpful. Phones were not operating of course, and as far as they knew the TV or cable wasn´t either, no electricity and no people whatsoever.

It was deserted, the smell of the putrefied bodies on the ground reaching their nostrils. They agreed on the handkerchiefs on their faces to protect them from the cholera and who knows what disease that genocide could bring.

Jin stopped for a second. He saw the body of a young girl lying in the sidewalk and he felt his heart breaking; such a young life coming to a premature end, it was unfair. What have they done for this to happen? Sure human race was really messed up sometimes, but what could that kid have possible done to end like this?

Ryo covered her body with something. Jin wasn´t sure what it was, but it looked like an awning probably of one of the destroyed tents in the street; he grabbed his arm right after and urged him to keep walking.

The odor wasn´t the worst thing though; you also had the rats. Tokyo was currently a victim of two invasions, those nasty things tearing pieces of meat from the floor. Jin swallowed the nausea that rushed to the tip of his stomach.

Ryo looked at him, with that fierce and stubborn self that has always characterized his friend from head to toe. They needed to overcome this.

***

It has been a week already, and no sight of Pi and the others. They went to Jin´s parent’s house, then Pi´s and all of those they knew. They were deserted. Same as everything else, there were no people around. Only them, like if they were the only survivors of this catastrophe.

***

By the end of the second week, they decided to actually pick a place and just stay there; being or walking on the streets was extremely dangerous right now. The ships were patrolling and killing everything that moved.

The shelter was nice, homey like. It was a basement in some lost building that miraculously was on its feet. They searched for a pair of futons and food from the apartments and restaurant above them.

The silence was probably the worst part of all. For years, all his life even, music cords and melodies played in his head, like a record of something that has not being created yet, but it was there, in his head, ready for him to make it real and palpable.

Since all this happened, only silence encountered Jin´s thoughts.

***

“I need to go to Osaka” Ryo said one day, after a month or so. “I just can´t take it anymore, I need to know if my family and the Eitos are ok”

Jin could tell that his friend was at the verge of a breakdown,

“We can´t go that far Ryo, the ships are patrolling everything and we don´t have a car or the shinkansen; we won´t survive that distance by walking. It´s too dangerous” he said, trying to convince his friend.

“So what? It´s ok to search for all the people you care about and not mine?”

Jin felt hurt for those words. He wasn´t that selfish and he was as much as Ryo worried about Ryo´s mom; all their friend´s moms were like his own for him, for all of them.

“I just don´t want anything to happen to us Ryo”

“So we are supposed to wait our deaths and do nothing about it!?” He said outraged, “Fuck it I´m leaving this place, I don´t fucking care if I die anymore”

“Ryo wait!” he screamed when he saw his friend working frantically in removing the barricade they have made to protect the entrance of their shelter.

He couldn´t stop Ryo, he was just out of his self. His ass hurt when Ryo pushed him forcefully and he fell on the ground; when he finally stood up Ryo was leaving already.

He ran after him through the streets, breaking some abandoned bones and kicking half decomposed skulls in his path.

Right then, a huge ship and five men appeared. Their faces and bodies were completely covered by some petrol black clothes and on their heads they had egg shaped helmets with green and violet lights on them.

Ryo was petrified looking at the men and the ship behind them; one of them punched Ryo in the face painfully making his friend land limpid on the floor with a groan and pointed, what Jin recognized, as a lightening gun at him.

“Ryo!” Jin screamed and run to his friend desperately.

That was it. They have finally had reached the end of the journey; he didn´t spare a thought of why the last face that crossed his mind was Pi´s.

His heart hammered against his chest in frantic wait.

A deafening sound crossed the empty street, and suddenly the ship in front of them started to shake and crushed against some ruins at their left. The gun that was previously pointing at Ryo flew up in the sky with no apparent reason; that´s when he saw him.

Pi.

And right after, hundreds of music chords echoed in his head.

***

Yamapi lifted his hand and subsequently two of the enemies flew up away. Ueda´s hands turned red and a flame appeared in them; he directed the flames at the men that flew up just seconds ago, burning them to ashes in minutes.

Shirota screamed making the other three invaders bend down in hurt, sonic waves moving around them and making them shake and scream on the ground. Kame lifted his right hand up and a ray came from the sky reaching the black dressed men and finishing them right after.

Ryo and Jin could do nothing but gape dumbfounded at them.

***

They were back in the shelter, Ryo and Jin peeking at each other, half frightened at their friends and half relieved that they were fine. Jin saw Ryo´s hand shaking in distrust and nervousness. He felt the same; maybe they were dangerous after all; he felt a little betrayed. How come half of their friends could do stuff like that and never told them?

His arms yearned for Pi, for hugging him, for crying in his shoulder and letting Pi erase everything messed up in the world. He had missed him so much, thinking he was dead, that he wasn´t going to ever see him again.

But there they were, complete strangers.

It was like they were familiar yet completely different in Ryo´s and his eyes now somehow. Was it possible to know someone all your life and actually not know them at all at the same time?

He felt that way.

“Maybe they are clones or something” Jin whispered to Ryo, who widened his eyes as a response. Was that even possible?

Once in the shelter, Pi tapped his back and Jin couldn´t help to flinch in fear, clinging onto Ryo for protection, not that Ryo could actually do something if they mean to harm them.
Pi´s crushed face was enough to make both of them ease a bit. Maybe old Pi was there, or maybe the clone has inherited some of Pi´s care about them.

“For God´s sake we are not clones!” Ueda said annoyed snorting at them.

Ok, what just happened? Did Ueda just read his thoughts?

“I think someone needs to speak right now” Ryo demanded glaring at all of them while clutching Jin´s hand in the process, a habit they gained after hours of being only the two of them in that desolated reality.

Jin tightened his hold. He knew, he wasn´t going to like whatever was coming next, and less of all Pi´s pained face when he saw that intimate gesture between him and Ryo.

***

“It wasn´t supposed to be this way, they were supposed to let us know first” Kame was the first one to speak.

“What do you mean?” he inquired.

They were sitting on the futons with teas in their hands; Kame was leaning against Shirota’s chest, while the latter was caressing his forehead. Believe it not, that was not strange at all.

“It was supposed to be an invasion not annihilation” Pi explained, and rubbed his head frustrated, aching eyes landing on Jin’s in the process.

“Ok, stop with the encoding and explain us what the fuck is going on!” Ryo lost his temper.

“They are ´Nagoonis´” Ueda enlightened,

“Nagoonis?” Ryo asked.

“Aliens” Ueda continued.

“No shit!” Ryo voiced in irony.

Ueda glared and shut up. Now Ryo looked like he regretted the reaction; seemed like Ueda kept being his sensitive self, which was somehow relaxing.

“Nagoonis, are an alien race. They go from planet to planet invading and making the population slaves; once they exhaust all resources they leave the remaining survivors to die in there” Shirota voiced “We are Nagoonis” he clarified, but Ryo and Jin have figured out that part by now.

The silence that followed was uncomfortable; you could cut straight with a knife the tension in the room, but what would they expect? That was the strangest thing you would ever hear or want to hear from your friends. Plain logic.

“Why did you save us?” Ryo asked embracing his legs in that vulnerable way that he was already used to. It must have been a shock for the rest to see Ryo like that, but that didn´t mean that they didn´t glare at him in compassion for it after his question.

“Why? Are you kidding?” Kame wondered annoyed “You guys are our friends!” he barked scandalized, offended that Ryo didn´t see it that way.

“Friends tell each other everything” Jin said protective of Ryo, speaking for the second time. He has finally found his voice again somehow.

“Why would you have thought if we told you before Jin?” Pi asked him tiredly. He looked really exhausted mentally and physically, and Jin couldn´t help the feeling of being the cause of that “You would´ve laughed it off and not believed us, and even if you did you would have freaked out. It´s not like everyday to say to your best friend ´Hey, Jin I´m an alien´”.
Jin, against his own, chuckled, making Ryo glare at him.

“How do you have sex?” he asked Pi serious, trying somehow to ease that devastated look on his face.

Ryo glowered. “Really?” he frowned and stared at Jin like he thought he was the dumbest person ever “From all the possible questions in the WORLD for your ET friend, you have to ask that? Bakanishi!”

Afterwards, a huge collective laughter invaded the shelter. It was so messed up and hilarious, and after a whole month, Ryo and Jin could actually find their smiles, the muscles of their faces hurting by the lack of use. They could feel how the tensed muscles of their shoulders relax a bit.

“What comes next?” Ryo asked anxiously moments later when the laughter relented.

“We get our planet back” Yamapi answered and right then and there, Jin and Ryo could tell that they were still part of the same team.

Relief and a tiny ray of hope invaded Jin’s heart after that statement.

***

The day after, they started the journey. Their ET friends told them that they had to go to Kyoto. There was a huge bunker in there, where the resistance was organizing. Apparently they have ignored the call and spent the last month searching for them; they had lost their track when Jin and Ryo decided to stop and stay in that building´s basement. They have also encountered some Nagoonis from the alliance, and even some friends, like Tsubasa, Koki, Nakamaru and Yabuto and sent them to the bunker with the good Nagoonis.

“Nakamaru is not a Nagooni? That´s shocking!” Jin exclaimed and gained some laughs after.

“How come we can walk this uncovered? There are patrols ships everywhere, and I haven´t seen a single one in hours” Ryo asked surprised when he realized that they were indeed walking in the middle of the road in the middle of the day.

“That´s thanks to Shirota actually” Kame explained with a proud face, while tightening their hands together.

“How come?” Jin wondered out loud.

“He has all his senses overpowered; that means that he can hear the ships or enemies noises from kilometers of distance” Kame continued.

“Wait does that mean that he can hear someone farting from afar? Dude that´s gross!” Ryo said and again everybody laughed.

It was nice to actually laugh at something in the middle of the disaster.

***

They arrived to Kyoto three days later. Sometimes they did have to hide when the amount of Nagoonis patrolling was too big for them to fight against. It was tremendously relieving to be with them tough, and he was finally talking with Pi again, not like before, but still, it was a huge step.

He still felt betrayed by his best friend. Even if he would´ve freak out, he deserved to know the truth about them; they have known each other for all their lives and Jin felt stupid, for not seeing it, for not knowing, for being lied at.

Ryo was more at ease than him with all this. In a private moment where the rest were looking for food and they were hidden in some ruins, he told him that he had suspected all his life; he always thought Ueda was a freak, Pi had weird eyes, Kame was weird as a whole and Shirota´s height was out of this world and he was damn right apparently, so it wasn´t that shocking for him.

Ryo kept bombarding his friends with questions, like if they ate humans, if Michael Jackson and Elvis were also aliens and if they did sexual experiments on humans, which surprisingly was all answered by Ueda, who for some reason was the only one interested in his friend’s questions. The rest just shrugged him off saying he was the creepiest human alive.

Probably true though.

They arrived to an empty field, and two men approached them. Jin wondered why they didn´t attack them and Ueda told him that all Nagoonis had a certain level of telepathy; that meant that they could actually send messages with their minds.

They led them to a bush, full of undergrowth; they shifted them aside and they saw a huge circle shaped iron hatch in the ground. One of the men, Jack, according to Pi, put his hand atop it without actually touching it and it immediately opened.

They spent a good fifteen minutes climbing down narrow stairs, then another fifteen in a straight line, halls covered with iron walls and nothing more than that actually, until they reached a huge double door. It looked almost like a vault; Jack did exactly like before passing his hand through the device and it opened.

“Welcome to City of Verona gentlemen” Jack said and right after they entered the place.
It was a city for real, a huge underground city; the walls were covered by iron and some parts of it by rock; it looked like a cave, like if they were in the loins of some mountain.

“We are” Ueda replied. By now, Jin was already used to at Ueda reading his thoughts, although that didn´t make it less creepy.

They followed Jack´s lead though the city. There were tends with food, technology devices and all kind of useful things; he looked up and saw a circular shaped infrastructure, with stairs, elevators and thousands and thousands of doors. They passed by some sort of a park, or maybe a garden, with vast fields at its back illuminated by artificial solar light.

The entire place was full of people, and he couldn´t help the happiness of seeing that there were more survivors; he felt optimistic that maybe, his family could still be alive.

They kept walking for maybe half an hour, amazed by all what they were seeing; Ryo and him were actually the only ones gaping and going “LOOK!” and “WOW!” all the time. They reached a giant room after passing some security doors; it had its front covered by an enormous plasma TV or whatever the equivalent in alien language was, and it had maps, red and green points on it signalizing who knows what.

Some of the people there had the same outfit as Jack and the other men that had led them there, it wasn´t like the rest of the invaders they have seen; they had black pants and mostly camouflage shirts; him and Ryo have asked them once how come all Nagoonis looked like humans, “Why not?” Pi had asked back, as if asking them if it was only humans´ right to look like humans? “Most dominant species in the universe have humanoid form” he had explained after. It was weird though, when he thought of aliens, he always thought they were green with egg shaped heads. Maybe he did watch too much TV.

“Where is she?” he heard Pi asking someone that bent down his head at Pi in extreme respect; he and Ryo had been exchanging curious looks at why some Nagoonis gave such respectful gestures at their friends.

“She is coming soon sir” The guy answered politely.

He saw a door of a big elevator opening and he and his friends looked at it immediately. A young woman of probably mid twenties or so appeared through the door; the first thought Jin had after seeing her was Hot!

She walked at them moving her hips with confidence, and it was like a slow motion movie or something. She had her hair brilliant; it was black and really long; it reached until her round assets at her back making Jin want to pull at it and kiss the back of her neck passionately. She was curvy, not thin but not fat either, her push up breast peeking though her shirt sensually. She had thin elegant shoulders, plump lips and big eyes, really big eyes, extremely intense protected by long lashes and thick perfectly rimmed eyebrows. It was an exotic face, not cute exactly, but the package was way too seductive, too sensual and he could tell, too dangerous.

“Damn!” Ryo exclaimed wide eyed. He was probably thinking if she could do those sexual experiments he was asking before on him.

She smiled sexily at them and locked her eyes on Pi who smiled back; Jin felt immediately the twinge of jealousy in his heart at the familiarity between the two.

“Tomohisa! Happy that you finally decided to join us” she said with clear delight; her voice was nice too, rough and sexy.

Tomohisa? Who the hell she thinks she is to address Pi with such intimacy?
Pi grinned at her and they hugged. Jin knew Yamapi way too much; he knew that those two had a history together.

Disgusting.

He felt like he hated her already. He wanted to fuck her; hell probably everybody in that room wanted that, but he definitely hated her too.

He didn´t give much thoughts at why the hell was he so jealous about it though.

“Let me introduce you to my friends” Pi voiced joyful and proceeded with the presentations. Ryo lingered with her hand in his for longer than social manners required; he looked like a pervert teenager who wouldn´t wash his hand ever again. Surprisingly, when Ryo was being extra obnoxious, her eyes landed on Ueda, who looked at somewhere else, and crossed his arms annoyed.

She smirked amused. It was funny; those intense brown eyes looked like they knew way too much.
The fuck.

“Guys this is Verona” he heard Pi saying,

“Wait, Verona?” he asked surprised. “Like in city of Verona?”

“Yes,” Kame answered and Jin knew that from all the previous happenings what came next was going to piss him more than anything “She is the leader of the resistance; she is our only hope”

Yep, he definitely knew she was dangerous…although he wasn´t quite sure of what she was putting at risk exactly…

***

“So what´s the procedure?” Shirota asked Verona serious,

“The rest of the ships are arriving in eight months” she explained, “We are going to attack then; if we attack the current ones in the planet we might get out of resources when the main float arrives”

“Eight months? Wait, main float? You mean like there are more coming?” Ryo asked confused.
She looked at him with a condescending look like if he was some sort of innocent kid or something; “I bet you have heard about the difference of time in the space right? This is just the beginning; only twenty percent of what my race is capable of” Ryo glowered in embarrassment,

“But why the surprise attack? Why didn´t they tell us? Why they are killing everybody?” Kame asked outraged.

“They perceive humans as a threat for our race; think about it, every one of us, and I mean all the ones they sent to discover humans’ weaknesses, each and every one that was sent to actually start the invasion is completely loyal to humans; why would they tell us about an invasion if they knew we would have fought. I wouldn´t” Verona said in a -as a matter of fact- tone.

It had sense; Jin had to give her that.

“Why are you loyal to humans?” he asked her bluntly.

“Jin!” Pi scolded him.

“It´s none of your business” she replied curtly. Her intense eyes sent flames of pure displeasure at him. Those were probably the most expressive eyes Jin had encountered in his life.

A dead silence followed after. Seemed like pissing the leader off wasn´t such a good idea; by the way the rest of the Nagoonis were staring at him. Pi was almost face palming himself.
“So what´s their plan?” Kame quickly asked to change the subject.

“Extermination” she answered simply,

“Are they planning on killing everybody for real?” Ryo asked dumfounded, “There are four hundred billion of humans in this planet!”.

“Not anymore” Verona replied with a saddened look, “And they will kill everybody even the traitors like us”

“Our families….” Pi started,

“All your families are safe. Some of your coworkers are here; the rest are in the New Zealand’s shelter. I personally took care of it” She said and smiled, a true one this time.
Jin felt a rush of happiness through his entire body. His family was alive after all; if it wasn´t because she was a slut that slept with Pi he would´ve kissed her in appreciation.

He saw how she looked at him and frowned.

“Jin, you might wanna town down your thoughts a bit, she can hear you, you know?” Ueda told him making Shirota and Kame laugh while Pi and Ryo frowned in confusion.

“Anyway, you don´t have to worry; you might not see them, but we have a communication system with all the shelters” She shrugged it off and furthered her explanations.

“What is this place?” Ryo asked curious.

“This is our main operations bunker; we are coordinating everything from here. You have another five bunkers were the rest of the army is preparing; they are located in Alaska, Ryo de Janeiro, Sicilia, Cambodia and Beijing; then you have ten shelters for humans; all of them are under water, each of them with a capacity of one hundred thousand people” Verona said.

“So you are saying that, including the bunkers, not even two million humans are getting through this invasion alive?” Jin asked, feeling crushed all over again. Yes he was happy that his beloved ones were alive, but what about the rest?

“We saved everyone related with a Nagooni,” She explained, eyes landing hardly on him.

“So you are saying that you only saved people you cared about?” Jin asked frowning judgmentally.

“When the invasion started, our priority was exactly that, save everyone we cared about and we could actually save. If you don´t like it, it´s your problem; in the meantime, my roof my rules. You can go out there and try to save more if you want; I´m actually willing to see it. I wonder how would you do when a class one Nagooni attacks you,” she said with murderous eyes directed at him “I don´t have to explain myself to you”

Damn! The bitch has claws Jin thought.

“Please forgive him, he is just an idiot, we are very grateful of what you have done” Pi said quickly interceding in the bickering. Jin felt how his stomach revolted at Pi´s words, intensifying the feeling when he saw how he bowed at her.

Defending him like if he was a naughty kid or something? What. The. Fucking. Hell.

He glared at Pi, who had the decency to look troubled after.

“Anyway, your training begins tomorrow; be ready at four” Verona ordered dismissively. His Nagooni friends peeked at their wrist clocks obediently; it was 9pm. is this girl their God or something? Jin thought annoyed “Gentlemen” she said like if she was ending the meeting “Tomohisa, always a pleasure” she added smiling sensually, while locking eyes with Pi. She then winked at Ryo who blushed immediately after.

“I think they are calling you there” Ueda said curtly pointing at some Nagoonis that were indeed waiting for her.

She smiled knowingly “Ueda Kun, I don´t remember you being this impolite” she said sarcastically “Are you jealous?” she asked mockingly “Don´t worry you are not the only one” and she directed her eyes pointedly at Jin.

She smirked calculatingly at him and then at Ueda and turned around.

“What a whore” Jin said annoyed when she left.

“My thoughts exactly” Ueda quietly replied.

“She is not that bad” Kame said and smiled with sadness.

“She has gone through a lot” Pi followed poignant.

Jin wasn´t the only one staring confused at what the two have voiced. Ryo, Ueda even Shirota were puzzled, not that they explained anything after either.

***

“She mentioned a class one Nagooni” Jin voiced when they were having dinner.

It was some sort of restaurant, the city was massive and you had places where you could eat and the humans rescued by Nagoonis cooked as a way of thanking. It was nice because all they had to do was order and some old gentle obaachan made them something delicious with no money exchange whatsoever. It was probably the closest he had been in a perfect world.

But well, for Jin, a perfect world included mainly food, and maybe other things. He peeked at Yamapi.

“That´s the way we classify our powers; you have different types of Nagoonis: A, B, and C. A is for leaders, B is for Nagoonis like Pi, Ueda, Shirota and me, and C for warriors” Kame explained.

“But she said class one” Jin asked once more not fully understanding.

“Yeah! About time you guys explain what the hell you can do!” Ryo exclaimed while munching a ball of rice.

“As you know, Nagoonis might look like humans, but we have extraordinary powers. Nagoonis of Type B have five sub-classifications, class one for telepaths, like Ueda, class two for telekinetic, like Pi, class three for those who can control elements of nature, like me and Ueda again, class four for those who have an overpowered sense, like Yuu, and last class five for highly gifted mental intelligence, like me again and Pi.” Kame ended while drinking some tea.

Jin and Ryo stared at them with their mouth opens.

“Come again?” Ryo asked and they laughed.

“I am capable of reading people´s thoughts and I can also control fire” Ueda answered amused.

“I can move objects with my mind and I am actually very intelligent” Pi said and smiled proudly.

“No shit!” Jin said and Pi glared at him.

“So every time you were acting like a stupid person you were undercover?” Ryo asked chuckling mockingly.

“Actually no, he is intelligent and stupid” Kame interceded.

“You guys are funny aren´t you” Pi said annoyed and slapped their heads earning some laughter from everybody.

“Ohhh!” Jin said remembering something “I remember Yuu sending some sonic waves when he yelled”

“Well, normally a class four Nagooni has just one overpowered sense, but Yuu has all five of them, ear, taste, eyesight, voice, touch and that makes him more powerful” Kame answered for his boyfriend when he saw that the latter was pretty much busy eating an entire cow.

“The sense of touch in bed must be awesome” Ryo said oblivious in his usual pervert self.

“Ohh!!!!” Jin exclaimed agreeing with wide full of admiration eyes.

“You are damn right!” Kame replied and smiled mischievously.

“And you Kame?” Ryo asked,

“I control lighting and I´m intelligent nothing more than that, actually between the four of us Ueda is the most powerful with Pi right after” he explained.

“You are kidding me!? The hime!? For real!?” Ryo asked dumbfounded. Said person glared at him annoyed. “What!? It is shocking!”

“Keep anointing him and you might spend the rest of your life thinking you are a pre-scholar” Kame warned,

Ryo not feeling threatened at all shoved his tongue immaturely at Ueda “If the hime didn´t do it when we were juniors and I bullied him why would he now?” he said and smiled brightly at Tatsuya, who blushed right after.

Ryo was taken aback by the blushing in Ueda´s face and for once, was out of words.

“I saw that some other Nagoonis bowed at you and treat you guys like if you were superiors somehow” Jin said curious.

“Well that´s because we kinda are. You see, Nagoonis of type C are only strong; they can fight for hours and beat the hell out even the best of humans’ soldiers, but they are not as strong as a type B one, like us. Even in class B there´s a range; class one being the most powerful and class five the less and even then if you control more than one class then you are above any other type B that controls just one. Then the Type A, well we all have to bend our heads down for a Type A Nagooni” Kame explained and he shuddered a bit. It seemed like he was afraid of the amount of power that a Type A Nagoonis could have.

“Verona is a Type A?” Ryo asked.

“Exactly, she is an elite Nagooni. Her family is the one that controls the entire Nagoonia” Pi replied.

“Nagoonia?”

“That´s the name of our planet”

“Sounds like Narnia” Jin said mockingly.

“Then she is like a princess,” Ryo pondered “A princess that went rogue. That sounds perfect for our love story” he said delusional.

“Not exactly. There are not such things as Monarchy or Democracy in Nagoonia; we don´t have Kings or Presidents; it´s all decided by the power you have. We are born, live and die for fighting and colonization” Pi explained.

“That´s sad” Jin frowned, feeling empathetic for them “No wonder you guys like Earth the best” All his friends smiled at him gratefully, except for Ryo that kept daydreaming imaging who knows what.

“Right now her father is the one ruling Nagoonia,” Pi continued.

“That´s why she is our leader; even between the other Type As´ Nagoonis part of the alliance and actually within our entire race, she is the most powerful” Yuu voiced finally speaking.

“Could you not show that half dead cow in your mouth at us?” Kame asked him in disgust. Shirota instead of actually minding his manners, he shoved his entire tongue out with the ball of meat on its tip. “God you are disgusting” the turtle whined.

“What can she do?” Jin asked. He was really curious about it; why was everybody so willing to do everything she wanted or ordered to. Was she that strong?

“Well pretty much everything I mentioned before” Kame resumed.

“Which is….?” Ryo urged.

“Well she is the strongest at fighting, she also controls all classes of type B and her main power is her mind controlling abilities. I have seen them working and it´s scary” Kame told them.

“When did you see it?” Jin asked.

“Pi and I were called by her to go on a mission four years ago”

“Kame!” Pi shushed him, and Kame blushed, like if he was ashamed of him for revealing too much.

“Oi! I think I remember that! I was annoyed because you went on a trip together and you didn´t invite us!” Ryo recalled.

“You were not the only one pissed by it, believe me” Yuu said with a serious face, clearly annoyed by the memory.

They fell silent after it; every one of them lost in their own thoughts, Jin asked himself, what about that girl was so secretive that neither Kame nor Pi wanted to tell. What was so bad about it? Maybe it was when Verona and Pi hooked up, but it seemed like there was some more about it anyway.

She also mentioned a war that was coming. He knew he didn´t have any powers and maybe he wasn´t a strong beautiful alien that seemed to steal Pi´s breath away and Ryo´s for that matter, but he could do something. He wasn´t going to stand there doing nothing watching how those aliens stole his planet away, or things that belonged to him, no matter if they were enemies or allies.

“Ryo and me are going with you tomorrow” Jin declared, with that tone of voice of his that left no room for discussion.

“Ehhhhhhhhhhh!?” Ryo screamed and elbowed him, and looked at him like if asking if he was some sort of nut person or something; there was no way they were capable of beating the weakest Nagooni off after what they had heard the entire night.

The hell, he wasn´t nuts, he was just reckless.

***

Ok maybe he couldn´t beat a Nagooni off that easily, but he was definitely capable of defeating them!

A bit…

A tiny bit…

God who was he joking? There was no way he could do that! At least the picture didn´t look promising when he saw how they fought.

The mission apparently was to throw a single shot at Verona, which seemed pretty much impossible at the moment. The entire training room was full of Nagoonis, of all types, attacking her. Warriors were sent to the walls crushing painfully against them after just one punch from her; Types B, were throwing rays, fire, water, even making the earth crack at her feet but nothing seemed to affect her.

Jin saw Ryo eating pop corn at his side, widening his eyes and cheering for her. He almost looked like a cheerleader at times. He also saw how their friends were panting frantically trying to throw at least one shot at her.

Verona for her part, was throwing a sonic wave attack at some warriors now. She lifted one hand and at the same time dozens of Nagoonis ended up being shoved against the ceiling of the training room. She then created some sort of a hurricane of water and a good amount of Type B were caught by it, Kame and Shirota included, and was that Matsumoto Jun?

“You know….” Ryo said with his mouth full shoving even more pop corn at his mouth. “I always knew Matsu was an alien; his Kanji abilities can only be that bad in foreigners and outsiders” He looked at him suspiciously “Are you sure you are not an ET too?” he asked him. Jin had to slap him after that.

They saw how Ueda jumped to one of the walls like a cat, then to other, trying to approach Verona in the process; once he was at her back, his hands looked really red, like if they were burning alive; with his palm flat like in Karate, he tried to knock her by hitting the side of her neck. She blocked the attempt nevertheless, some seconds before Tatsuya actually hit her. It was the closest that any Nagooni had been to her.

“Wow that was cool” Ryo said, and for all Jin knew, praising Ueda for the first time.
Verona took Ueda by his collar and now her hand was the one in deep scarlet. Ueda´s skin was clearly burning; other Nagoonis were still throwing things and punches at her, but she had created some sort of bubble around her and Ueda. She was smiling while making the hime suffer.
Ryo´s joyful face stopped at once. Jin was able to see the frown in his face and how he started to look anxiously at them. They saw how Ueda was losing consciousness; then Ryo was running there, frantically waving his hands in the air cursing the hell out of…his crush?

“What the fucking hell release him already!” He yelled loudly. Surprisingly Verona looked at Ryo and smirked; then she sent Ueda flying who ended up landing in Ryo´s arms heavily, making both of them fell to the ground.

Jin saw how she looked at him after. She smiled again with that confidence that he was already kind of used to, but there was something else in that smile; it was like if she was challenging him. Soon after she let Pi come and tackle her. He could tell that she did it on purpose; it would´ve been easy for her to block him. Instead of that she let Pi shove her to the ground where she turned around in his arms and caressed the skin on Pi´s neck invitingly.
Pi blushed madly while hovering on top of her.

It was intimate, and kind of…

Perfect…

Jin felt like puking all day after that.

***

“What a crazy ass bitch!” Ryo was complaining on Jin´s and Pi´s bed.

Yes, their bed, as strange as that sounded for some reason they were all sharing rooms with king sized beds. They ended up together because they were best friends, Jack explained, Yuu and Kame for obvious reasons and Ueda with Ryo, just because. He was suspicious of the reasons Jack gave them for the way Ueda and Pi glanced at each other and cursed Verona under their breaths.

The previous night Ryo complained heatedly at his bad luck for sharing a room with Ueda, how he would prefer to spend the night with the beautiful and gorgeous Nagooni leader instead, how he wanted a third type of close encounter with her and experience some out of this world orgasm; funny that now was cursing the hell out of her, his crush apparently totally forgotten.

“Is Tatchan ok?” he asked concerned.

“Figures, I insisted on taking him to the infirmary; he complained but he for once listened to me, when we arrived there all the burns in his neck had disappeared. That guy is freakier than what I thought” He said annoyed, but Jin could tell that he was relieved too.

“That´s cool, he heals fast” he said honestly amazed “I always wondered how come he never showed a single bruise after boxing. He is really strong; I think he was the only one in there with real possibilities of actually punching that bitch”

“The hell, he totally was!” Ryo said annoyed but somehow proud.

That´s weird Jin thought,

“Yes, in fact, it looked like she let Pi win on purpose” Ryo continued voicing his own thoughts. Jin felt nauseous just by remembering that scene “I would bet my kidney that they have fucked” he said and must have seen something in his face because he didn´t went further on the matter.

Yes, he wanted to neither think nor talk about it.

***

He talked with his family almost every day and he was happy to know that everybody was ok and gaining weight from what his mother said about his father´s belly. His brother and fiancé, his grandparents and his friends were also there and they always fought for whose turn it was to talk with Jin. It was painfully refreshing and it never failed, not even once to make him nostalgic for happy peaceful times that were not ever coming back.

Planet Earth, as they knew it, has ended.

It took some time for Jin to realize that and sometimes at night he felt himself trembling and silently crying, two pairs of strong arms always comforting him tightly, telling in silence that he was not alone. And it was probably the happiest moments Jin had since all that madness started.

***

“For how long have you guys been here?” Jin asked them one night.

They were in the garden with their feet playing in the small artificial lagoon. It was after a month they arrived there and it was peaceful to have moments like this one. According to Verona, the war was starting soon, so it was nice to actually enjoy life.

“For all our lives” Pi replied and splashed some water on Jin making him giggle in delight.

“Eh!? And since when did you know you are Nagoonis then?” Ryo wondered. he had is arms crossed on his head and was lying relaxed on the ground with his feet in the water.

“Well, all of us were programmed to act normal, but we have known always, probably since we have memory” Pi answered.

“Can you tell when you are in front of other Nagooni?” Ryo asked once again.

“Yes, we have telepathy between us remember?” Ueda said with a snort and Ryo glared at him.

“How come you ended up here in the first place?” Jin asked and dried his face on Pi´s shirt, who in exchange rubbed his hair like if he was a little kid.

“The original plan was to send some Nagoonis here; their main mission was to blend with human families and to start investigating what kind of race humans were, maybe enter the government of any country and see what kind of resistance power humans had. It was supposed to be a matter of years” Yuu explained.

“What happened?”

“Nagoonis started to fall in love with humans and they had kids called halfus” Kame said bluntly.

“Ehhhhh can humans and Nagoonis fall in love with each other?” Ryo peeked at Ueda, “Halfus exist already?” he asked next taken aback.

“Of course! I´m a halfu!” Shirota said with a proud face.

“Wait, your father is a Nagooni!?” Jin asked surprised.

“What makes you think it´s my father and not my mother? But no, my grandfather was”

“Your grandfather!?” Both Ryo and Jin stared at him wide eyed.

“Nagoonis have been walking at your side for longer than what you think, probably sixty or seventy years” Yuu explained. “That´s why there are so many of us here; there are thousands of halfus actually”

“Ehhhhhhhh!? That long!?” Ryo uttered in shock.

“But wait, Ueda, Kame and Pi are one hundred percent Nagoonis right?” Jin asked and after they nodded at him he also enquired “How did you guys manage to blend with a human family?”

“The Nagoonis that brought us changed those families’ babies for us” Pi said and bent his head down in some sort of guilty expression.

“What happened to those babies?” Ryo asked confused by Pi´s reaction. Jin could tell the answer to that question even before they stared at them crushed.

“That´s horrible!” Jin exclaimed feeling pure rage and pain that someone did that to innocent babies.

“We know, it´s not like if I´m happy knowing that my mother´s kid, the person that I feel like my brother was murdered by those monsters” Pi uttered miserably.

“Maybe you haven´t noticed, but we love and care as much as you do, and as far as we’re concerned, we are humans” Kame said and for the first time Jin felt guilty as well. His friends must have gone through a hell all their lives, knowing what they were and feeling that just because they were there people were dying already.

He patted Pi´s back and rested his head on his shoulder, saying without words, that he was still there right at his side.

***

Two months later, they reached some sort of a routine. Things started to change too. They woke up every morning and went training. Jin and Ryo started to train too; maybe they weren´t strong enough to fist fight or they didn´t have powers but they did have something that has won wars since the beginning of times.

Weapons; guns; and God Jin loved them.

He never thought he was the type that would enjoy having a killing machine in his hand but he did, and it was to kick some alien´s butts so it was ok. He practiced his shots and he discovered with surprise that he was good at it.

Ryo had been learning how to fly. The alliance had more resources of what he previously thought, making him feel positive that maybe they could actually win; they had guns, ships, equipment everything with a technology he didn´t even imagine that existed. Ryo was quieter these days. He seemed to be focused on flying one of those ships; his fast reflexes were ideal for the job, but there was something more. Behind all Ryo´s layers, there was something hidden, something he didn´t even want to admit to himself. When Jin enquired him about it, he just said he was focused on his new job.

It was a lie,

He had caught him staring intently at the space, and sometimes even at Ueda. He wasn´t familiar with Ryo being this taciturn; he felt uncomfortable about it, and wanted to help his friend with it.

Not that things in his life were that good either. Verona and Pi seemed to get closer and closer every day; sometimes he didn´t even speak with him in the entire day, and at night when they were lying next to each other on bed, only silence could be heard.

He felt crushed that he and Pi were drifting apart like that, not only with him, with Ryo too. Sometimes Pi looked at Ryo with a murderous look out of the blue, and he couldn´t get it. What was happening that they were so apart? They were all best friends after all, but he still had that feeling that Pi wasn´t his Pi. It was a stranger that has stolen his Pi and replaced him with the one next to him. They needed to talk; he knew that. Pi sometimes stared at him like if wanting to tell him something, million things even, but he always shut up. And that was when Jin missed the sound of his voice the most. Pi’s honest and real voice.

He was hearing music in his head again though, but the melody he kept hearing was all sad and heart breaking, sometimes he didn´t understood what he was so sad about.

Maybe he and Ryo were more alike than what he thought.

***

“God this is delicious!” Yuu exclaimed in happiness.

“God how much can you eat!?” Kame said scandalized.

“I´m growing!”

“Please don´t grow anymore! You are going to end up being King Kong size”

“I bet you would like some King Kong sized c….”

“It´s already big enough!”

“Could you please stop with that conversation? Leave it for your room´s privacy!?” Tatsuya interceded annoyed.

They were in the main square like they liked to call it. It was a place where the entire bunker´s population reunited to eat and drink some beer; according to the Nagoonis, that was what they liked the most of human culture and they were humans in heart. All that sounded like big times excuses to hit the booze for Jin, but whatever, when did he actually deny a good cold beer?

Verona was seated right in the middle, with two other type A Nagoonis. They were always glued at her, like bodyguards or something. Jin sometimes wondered why someone that powerful would need two big monkeys watching her every move.

“Because she wants it that way” Tatsuya replied him,

“Don´t you know it´s rude to hear people’s thoughts!?” Ryo blurted outraged.
Jin and the rest jumped at that. They had practically forgotten about Ryo even being there by the way he was always so quiet lately.

“I don´t do it on purpose. I was born this way you know” Tatsuya replied,

“Don´t ´Gaga´ quote me!” Ryo yelled annoyed but his remark made everybody chuckle. He growled and embraced his legs in a protective manner falling in silence once again.

An hour or so later, the fire in the middle of them started to grow, sending different color flames up to the ceiling; he suspected that it was all Tatsuya´s doing so he looked at him and saw how Ueda was glaring at Verona who was currently staring intently at Ryo, with a smirk. Jin also saw how Ryo started to pant heavily and even some moans and groans escaped involuntary his mouth; his eyes were full of desire and pleasure.

What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?

Jin wondered. The situation didn´t last though.

“STOP IT!” Ueda yelled at her, and then it was all over. Tatsuya groaned in displeasure and left the place. Not even two seconds later, Ryo stood up and approached Verona.

“I don´t frigging care who you are or if you´ll kill me after, but let me tell you that I don´t appreciate some fucking bitch messing up my head!” he said outraged.

The entire place fell in silence almost immediately. Verona lifted her eyes up to look at Ryo that was standing next to her, screaming at her more precisely; she just smiled at him sweetly.

“I´m just helping you, since you have apparently no balls to do something yourself” She said and continued eating unworried. Ryo growled and left.

“Ok what just happened?” Jin asked moments after seeing his friend storm out of there.

“Verona” Pi replied.

“Yeah I know,”

“It´s what she does” Kame explained amusedly, “She helps people to realize things. That´s how Yuu and I got together years ago”

“When you and Pi went on a mission?” Jin asked once again.

“Yes, as I said, she is not that bad. She just pushes people´s emotions and thoughts to their limits until you finally do what you actually should be doing” Kame said serious.

“She seems like she likes to play with people´s feelings if you ask me” Jin said in distrust.

“She is a good being that has gone through a lot. Don´t think of her like that because everything she does is to protect and save people” Pi said fiercely at him. Jin was taken aback; it was probably the first time in their lives that Pi had talked to him like that. He closed his eyes, feeling them watering. Is that how far they have come to? So far away from each other that now he was even against him. It was almost like if they were not part of the same team anymore after all.

Pi must have seen the plain hurt in his eyes because he tried to touch him but Jin flinched away. Pi retreated and sighed heavily.

“Jin….”

“I just can´t believe it! You are my best friend; we used to tell each other everything! And now you have nothing but secrets for me” Jin said with a lump in his throat. He dried off the tears that were silently streaming down his face.

“Let´s go eat something!” Yuu said and stood up, making Kame stand up right after, both clearly anxious to leave them alone to talk.

***

Minutes of dead silence after, Pi sat down next to Jin and sighed. He rubbed his head and after a while he started talking.

“She was sent here to start the invasion; her first mission was to make all the Nagoonis on earth to actually cooperate. Something happened though” he made a pause and Jin directed a questioning look at him “She fell in love with a human”

Curiosity was eating him alive, wining him over. He couldn´t take it so he asked;

“What happened?” Pi smiled unsure, like if asking himself if it was ok to reveal someone else’s secret.

“She fell in love with a Japanese man. She stopped reporting herself with the Nagoonis and escaped with him; they even got married” he explained finally. Jin looked over at Verona who was staring at him back frowning; she was probably displeased with Pi telling him that; she seemed the kind of girl that hated pitied looks on people “They were together for two years running away before the Nagoonis confronted them. it was a whole type A team searching for her, and when they found them, she tried to make a deal with them; she said that she was going to leave her husband and prepare the whole invasion like she was told to as long as they kept him alive” Pi continued sadly, “They didn´t listened and killed him in front of her. As far as I know, they chopped him in pieces” he stopped with a disgusted look.

“But why didn´t she stopped them? I bet she is stronger than any of them” Jin said with logic.

“She was pregnant” Pi simply explained “All females of our specie are really weak during those periods of time. That´s why the attackers waited before attacking them; they knew they didn´t stood a shot against her in normal conditions”

“That´s….”

“That´s not it; even if she was weak, she gave a hell of a fight, killing almost a dozen of them. But eventually she was exhausted. Nagoonis took the opportunity and reduced her; they killed her husband and even performed an abortion on her” Pi said.

“That´s terrible….” Jin uttered in shock. He peeked at her and saw her staring blankly at the space. Jin felt sorry for her from the bottom of his heart, forgetting immediately how much he had suffered by thinking of her and Pi together.

“Kame and I found her bleeding on the ground were they left her. We heard her frantic thoughts from miles of distance so we hurried there. When we arrived she was shaking and crying hysterically next to the remains of his husband clenching her belly. She was in shock; I´ve never seen someone so broken. She kept begging us to not save her, to let her die in there with them. Of course we couldn´t do that, so we did everything to save her. She stayed at my place for a while healing. Kame went every day to give her food and talk with her even if for two months she didn´t say a word; then she disappeared, previously messing with Yuu´s mind for him to confess to Kame” he smiled “That´s the way she is you know, she just likes to play matchmaker” he said with tenderness and Jin brushed off the jealousy he felt by seeing that look in his eyes “Anyway, five months later, she started to talk with us, by telepathy. She said she wanted us in China immediately; we went of course. The leader was ordering, so we couldn´t do much more than obey. There she told us that it was time for a revolution and it was starting that night; she had gathered an army, and we attacked the Nagoonis that have killed her husband. Well saying attack is too soft for what actually happened; she was possessed; she killed them all. we were all almost staring only because she pretty much finished them by her own; imagine how that went” he said and looked pointedly at him who shuddered in fear.

They remained in silence for some minutes,

“I want to know what happened after that” Jin asked after, because he wanted to know how they ended up together; as much as it bothered him to the guts, he wanted to know.

“After the fight, Kame went right back to Japan. I stayed for some days” he made a pause embarrassed.

“So you did hook up” he uttered in disappointment. He deep down wanted it to not be true, although in the innermost part of his soul the reason why, was still a mystery to him.
“She was crushed. I think she has never overcome the loss of her husband. I knew him you know; he was a nice guy, sweet, you could tell he lived and breathed for her; you could see how much he loved her just by looking at him, and I, I was upset because of something,” Pi explained and rubbed his hair frustrated.

“Because of what?” Jin asked, pressuring Pi further, he wanted to know everything.

“You left” Pi said as an explanation after a while “You left Kat tun, your family, friends, me, Japan everything with no seconds’ thoughts in an eye blink”

“You were upset at me?” Jin asked dumfounded, feeling how rage took over him. Pi should´ve said something then; what was he? His neighbor? An acquaintance? He has always thought they had no secrets for each other. He was evidently wrong “Ok I have to go” he said and stood up. He saw Verona staring at Pi with a betrayed look in her face, Pi flinched in guilt, but he took Jin´s hand anyway trying to prevent him from going.

“Jin….” He heard Pi saying. The begging in his voice didn´t go unnoticed.

He wanted to get out of there. He was right after all.

Pi hadn´t been honest with him in more ways than he expected.

Part 2