Null Tower, New York City

Todd Slate always feels weird visiting this place. It’s not exactly the same Tower where he used to live when he was Noriko’s boyfriend, but most of the interior is precisely identical.

<The Empress will see you now.> one of the Nullbots informs him, opening the door to the living quarters. The robot is the one to enter the room first, followed by Todd Slate.

<Your Majesty. Todd Slate, Secretary of Homeworld Security of the United States of America.> the Nullbot introduces him.

Noriko Null is sitting cross-legged on the couch, with her boots on the floor. She doesn’t look up from the holographic tablet she’s reading.

<You don’t need to introduce people I already know, Unit N-859. And how many times I have asked you not to call me Majesty?>

<Twelve times, Mistress Null.> the robot answers.

<Which robot did you overhear call me that?>

<Unit N-927, Mistress Null.>

<Great. Get to floor 23 with Unit-927 and deactivate yourselves until I get around to patching that bug, okay? And close the door behind you.>

<Yes, Mistress Null.> the robot answers with an almost imperceptible bow, before obeying her commands and leaving her alone with Todd.

<Hey. Awkward reunion, isn’t it?> Noriko tells him, putting aside her tablet and signaling him to take a seat on the chair next to the couch.

<A bit. It’s been a while, Noriko; you look great.>

<For someone who’s been in a coma for five months, you mean. That’s sweet of you to say, but we both know I look like s#it.>

<I was being diplomatic. Second nature with my job. So, uhm, what’s this thing with the bots?>

<Just an annoyance. The Nullbot operating system is complex enough that they pick up social cues from other units and get stubborn about them. I’ll just have to patch the AI Limiter, they’re getting too smart for the current version.>

<And this “AI Limiter” would be…>

<The thing that prevents them from getting sentient. Don’t get worked up, it’s not a big deal.>

<Noriko, that’s not nearly as reassuring as you seem to believe. Please tell me we don’t have to worry about a robot apocalypse.>

<You don’t. And I’d appreciate if you didn’t make bring this to the Global Defense Organization.>

<Are you kidding me? I get a memo from a General worried about your literal army of robots every other week already!>

<Can we not talk about work, Todd? That’s not why I asked you to come.>

<Right. But can I just ask who knew you were in a coma?>

<Only you, the Vanguard, my family, Asclepius, Prime Minister Lyra and her cabinet, plus Hebe and our vassals. Standard procedure in case this were to happen… it’s not the first time I get knocked out.>

<Somehow I doubt it’s standard procedure to warn me specifically.>

<Normally it wouldn’t. But I hated the idea to missing your wedding so I updated the procedure… and then I missed it anyway, Todd.>

<Don’t mention it.>

<And congratulations, of course. Did Kristin notice it was my android double attending the ceremony?>

<On the spot. You can’t fool a journalist of her caliber.>

<I guess not. Listen Todd, I know it’s outside your area of expertise, and we’re not as close as we used to be… but I asked you to come here to give me your feedback on something.>

<Just because we’re not a couple anymore doesn’t mean you can’t ask me for help, Noriko. And by the way you’re framing it, I assume it’s not about Earth.>

<No, it isn’t. Have you been keeping up with what’s happening in the Winter Kingdom?>

<As much as I could. News from that place are hard to come by in the other sectors, from what I’ve heard, but it’s even worse on Earth.>

<It’s one of the first things I checked once I got out of bed. Not a day goes by on Boreas without a massive protest, and the rest of the worlds in the kingdom aren’t much better. They really, really don’t want me as their ruler.>

<An uprising? Are things getting violent?>

<That’s the weird part: they aren’t. The Lar are perfectly fine with me being the Mortal Co-Empress, and they don’t even mind all that much about the Kingdom being a vassal state. The just don’t want me as their Ice Queen.>

<I thought you didn’t want the role.>

<Oh I hate it, trust me. However the Lar are adamant on being ruled by a monarch; if I tried to impose any form of democratic government, then be sure they’d get violent.>

<Alien politics are weird, uh?> he jokes.

<You have no idea. The problem is that the Winter King was a clever bastard: there’s no heir to his predecessors around, he made sure of that.>

<Isn’t the Lar monarchy millions of years old? They must have some potential ruler!>

<They do, if you go back enough. I won’t bore you with the details, but the Lar rules of succession make absolutely clear that there’s always someone with the slightest possible amount of legitimacy around. But there’s no single candidate that could be supported by a majority. Not even close.>

<So you don’t have anyone to put on the throne if you renounce the title.> Todd realizes.

<Exactly. If I were to put a minor candidate, it would cause a civil war and I’d have to use force to support someone. And I can’t put a god in charge to become my vassal, it’d go against everything I stand for! That leaves me and of course…>

<Your mother.>

<She’d be the only candidate to get near universal support. She’d be the perfect choice if she wasn’t, you know, a complete monster.>

<You’re leaving out the option you chose: marry someone, abdicate and leave the throne to him.>

<How did you…> Noriko wonders, the surprise evident on her face.

<Lyra told me. She tried to convince me to marry you instead of Kristin.>

<That b##ch.> Noriko says under her breath, then she realizes how her reaction could be interpreted and is quick to correct herself.

<I didn’t mean Kristin, I meant Lyra! She had no right to get involved. Just imagine what would’ve happened if you had said yes!>

<I had imagined it. When we were together.> Todd admits.

<Right. Just for the record, I didn’t ask you because… well, first of all you were engaged, second I assumed you didn’t want to be king, and third… uhm…>

<You don’t want to get married to someone you don’t love. Noriko, is this about Kylon?>

It takes her a few moments of silence before she has the courage to answer.

<He’s been turned into ice. Despite the name, the Ice Queen can’t marry a literal block of ice.>

<Come on. You’re Noriko Null. I’m sure you have some idea on how to revive him.>

<I do. But even if I could revive him now… we were going through a rough patch before he was transmuted.>

<You don’t love him anymore.>

<I’m not entirely sure I ever loved him. I like him and care for him, but I don’t think… I don’t think I ever loved him. I haven’t fallen in love since…> she chokes up a bit.

<Since me?>

<Kylon put his life in danger to protect me. Dmitry gave his life to save mine. They both loved me, and I knew it, but even with everything I made them sacrifice for me… I never really loved them back. And I never told them. Am I a bad person, Todd?>

<Noriko, don’t torture yourself over this. You know you’re a good person.>

<No, I don’t. Look at me, smartest person in the universe and I can’t handle a relationship to save my life. Literally.> she replies, wiping off a tear.

<Come on. You’ll get through this.> Todd tries to reassure her, standing up and getting close to allow her a shoulder to cry on.

<I’m sure Kylon wouldn’t want to see you like this. He’d tell you he doesn’t regret loving you, that you made his life better.> he tells her, gently patting her back.

<Yeah he’d lie like that for me. But that wouldn’t…> she pauses, getting away from Todd and staring into the distance. Then her silver eyes shine.

<That’s it. That’s how I fix this.>

<Everything okay, Noriko?>

<Better than okay. Way better. Thank you for this chat, Todd, you have no idea of how much help you’ve been.> she replies, hurrying to put on her boots.

<I literally have no clue of what you’re talking about.> he admits.

<That’s for the better. Gotta go now, the ‘bots will escort you out.> she answers, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek pressing a button on her N-Watch and tell it:

<Portal to Midgard City for one. Now.>

And just like that, she disappears with a flash of light.

 

Midgard City, Antarctica

The ice sculpture that used to be Kylon has been protected by a stasis field for months; nobody has seen it since Noriko locked it behind several layers of automated defenses.

She’s disabling the last of them, while a strange figure overlooks her: it’s the pink silhouette of a man with wings, a mass of pure divine energy.

<I don’t know how I feel about this.> Eros admits.

<You can transmute matter, can’t you? This shouldn’t be hard for you, I’ll do all the work.>

<My mother would be more comfortable with this.>

<Maybe, but Aphrodite would try to have sex with him as soon as he’s not made of ice. Heck, I’m not even sure she’d wait for him to be flesh and blood.>

<You’re not wrong. But Noriko, my dear… I’m having a really hard time changing myself into the person you love. Your emotions are so confusing they’re making me nauseous.>

<Join the club. I’m using the Nexus to access the Cosmic Background Network, you’ll just need to maintain the form for a few seconds. Ready?> Noriko asks, holding out her hand.

<You’re lucky I love everybody. Alright, here we go.> Eros answers, with his body becoming an exact replica of Kylon’s in the middle of the sentence.

<Hope this works. SOUL RESONANCE!> Noriko shouts, her silver eyes shining. Her soul touches Eros and the Cosmic Background Network at the same time.

Electricity flows over the ice sculpture a couple of times, and ice turns back to grey flesh.

<What just… where am I?> Kylon asks, looking around.

<It worked! You actually made it!> Eros exclaims, back to his undefined energy state.

<Can someone explain to me as well?> Kylon wonders, utterly lost.

<Ereshkigal transmuted you into ice. We couldn’t turn you back because she kept a piece of your, let’s call it essence. But Eros can transform into other people down to an atomic level, so I used his transmutation powers plus my connection to the Network to change you back. I couldn’t have done it before my latest upgrade, but it worked!> Noriko exclaims excitedly.

<Uhm… okay. I understood some of that. I have a ton of questions, the main one being… who are you, exactly?> Kylon asks, looking directly at Noriko. Or rather, at a human he doesn’t recognize.

<You really have no idea of who I am, don’t you?>

<You’re a human. Do we know each other?>

<No… I’m afraid not. There’s an infirmary in the next room, would you mind going there get checked? This is still new ground, we must make sure you’re fine.>

<I feel fine, but… I guess I could use lying down.> Kylon admits, slowly walking out of the room.

Eros approaches Noriko, uncertain of what just happened.

<Why doesn’t he remember you?>

<Because that’s the part of Kylon that Ereshkigal kept to herself, to use as the code to unlock the transmutation. His memories of me.>

<And you couldn’t pick those from me with your magic?>

<You can copy a person’s body, not the memories. We may have to thank Ereshkigal’s twisted sense of humor… had she taken a larger part of his mind, we wouldn’t have been able to restore him to this extent. But the rest of his memories were still there.>

<You could still have made him remember he loved you. I sensed you could do that while we were connected.>

<He’s better off this way. Loving me has never worked out for anyone.>

<This is so sad. I thought you two were a lovely couple!>

<You think that about literally everyone.>

<I don’t like messing with memories. Please never ask me to do this again.>

<You won’t have to. I won’t need your help for my next trick… it’s for someone who has never loved anyone in her entire life.>

<You don’t mean…>

<It’s time for my last act as the Ice Queen.>



Ø
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