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

I roll Allure down a series of alleyways as we make twists and turns at different corners. She gawks and oohs and awes at every fountain, statue, or lighted spectacle we pace across. The town bleeds with both old and new, and even though I've walked these same roads a thousand times before, I can't deny the compelling differences from my last time walking here.

I made sure each of the spots I'm going to show her still exist, but I just dashed between each spot without soaking the scenes in. They surprise me. Our hometown was always known for the artistic values of the place, so we maintained a classical impression for many years with the people of the town wanting to maintain the old timey look of the place.

Despite that movement, the beginnings of our modern empire leaked in while I was gone. We pass across a statue embroidered with a new graphiti that incorporates neon colors that glow using photosensitive light cells during the day enabling the glow to remain vibrant for years after the artist finishes painting. New artists often repaint the older works using newer varieties of paint.

This particular statue shined with a particular brilliance as the artist embraced the artistic background of the classical approach of the statue. "A living mosaic of color," as my mother put it he first time she glanced at one of these colored statues. The glow and detail makes the once white, marble lady reaching for a bird turn into the real thing, except the sun shines below instead of from above.

The sight easily rivals the brilliance of the sights I meant to show allure, so she says, "This is amazing. I can't wait to see whats next."

I grin with feigned confidence as I say, "In due time fair lady." She doesn't need to know that this wasn't planned. Besides, having a little luck on my side is only fair after all I went through to make this date work. The waiter was the second event that really assisted me during the whole process.

He must have known who the owner was, so he spoke with him about closing the shop down himself just to maintain the atmosphere of our date. I couldn't believe it. I gave him a 400$ tip though. I'm sure that more then compensated his efforts.

I know how hard it is to walk that extra mile for someone, let alone doing it for someone you don't even know. It's amazing really. Still, that never changed the aspects of the night I wanted to maintain. The tables lighting was there before I left, and the food maintained its same excellence if not improved upon it. I rather enjoyed the different palet.

They used a mixture of mint and dill along with a crazy pepper that gave the spaghetti a minty sting that left a pleasant aftertaste in my mouth after I finished eating. The dish even left my breath smelling fresh.

That's perfect for what I have planned later, but even with these moments were things just line up, Allure pulls everything together. She never missed a beat the whole night. She expresses her amazement at even the tiniest joys, and she savors the tantalizing treats before her with her near childish wonder.

It brings a warm smile to my face as I see her bubbling over every little thing. She was serious whenever she said she wanted to see the world, and watching a piece of that desire be fulfilled tonight has been amazing.

It's not over yet though. We pass across the part of town inhabited by aquarell. They're a race of underwater dwellers who enjoy breathing water more then air, and they incorporates a large portion of the population of our homeworld. We roll down a slope before we see the underwater aspect of the town where we across the underground hallways underneath the town.

The water remains lit after dark through the usage of different ambient spheres of plasma that sit sifting through the water. They encase them in translucent spheres of a heat dispersing crystal that warms the water around the pools while the water's circulated by the shifting heat in the water. This ensures a stable temperature of around 70 degrees(21 Celsius) in the water making it difficult to feel from a temperature perspective.

They monitor the coming and goings of entrants into the water capsules to make sure no one poisons the water or drowns if they close the door behind them. Securities lax however, so it's easy to sneak past the guards. In our case, we just roll past them as I place finger over Allure's lips. Their sleeping in their chairs as I anticipated.

She nibbles on my finger for a moment before she licks it showing her true intentions, but I hug her from behind before we roll to the edge a porthole with the entrance to a lower lit public area of the watered area. Here, few people will pass through, so it enables us to do what we want without having to worry about people coming by. Especially at the night of the first day of work of the week.

People won't want to be groggy with so many more days of work ahead of them. I take of my suit before my tails unravel from my arms and body while my horns curve behind me as I creak my neck. I turn towards Allure as my tails turn the portholes entrance. I say,

"Would you mind singing for me here? Ever since I met you, I always loved the way your voice sounded, and I wanted to hear you in this place because I had always dreamed of swimming through these waters as a child."

She taps her cheek before she says, "Hmmmm. I suppose I could hum a melody or two, though this was supposed to be a date for me tonight."

I stroke her hair behind her ear as I say, "I never knew how good it felt to just give to someone else...I wanted to give you an opportunity to experience it yourself. That's what I hoped at least."

She grins she lifts her hands into the air. I follow her signal, so I lift her with my tails into my arms before she hugs around pressing her body against mine. Somehow, she seems sexier with her clothes on since my mind fills in the details subconsciously.

It's like I can't help but think about her, but after she presses her head into the side of my neck, where she fits like a flawless piece of a puzzle, she says, "I like it when your heart races when you look at me. It makes me feel sexy."

I squeeze her against me for a moment before I say, "You are sexy Allure. It's one of your innate traits."

She runs her hands down the muscles of my back as she says, "I'd argue it's one of yours as well."

I grin saying, "I can have that effect on people I've been told."

She grins back breathes on my neck saying, "Your not the only one. Come on, let's get in the water."

I walk over to the edge of porthole before my tails lift me an her before they set us into the water bending us with a slow drop. Neither of us cringe at the water as the pleasant heat matches the temperature of the air outside. We immerse ourselves before Allure scrambles out of her dress without even an ounce of embarrassment.

I was hoping to avoid public nudity, but whatever. She doesn't have any shame of her body. She shows herself with a pride and lack of guilt to an extent where the onlookers never see her as racy. She holds herself in such a way that she seems natural to the eyes. She seems at home here, and I couldn't prefer her liveliness anywhere else.

She shoots through the water with a furious speed after removing her dress, and her giggling enters my ears as she echoes her voice through the water. I kick my feet with my tails spiraling with each tail interchanging with the other allowing me to almost match her pace. Almost.

I can't beat her in her agility however. Her dashing through the water leaves me reeling as I glance around while she swims circles around me until she taps the edge of the glass that holds the water contained in this area. She dashes near the ground where she lets her hand rub against the sand of the ground before she lays down onto the expanse of sand beneath a plasma light.

The She lifts her hands overhead giving her luscious breasts an excellent showcase, and I can't help but marvel at her for a moment, so I sink towards her from above while my tails slow my descent from above the lamp. It casts a strange shadow over her before she outstretches her arms towards me with the edges of her cheeks creasing at my appearance.

I land beside her with a slight thud against the sand before lay down with my head on her belly. She strokes the edge of my hair before she says, "Gorge told me stories of angels falling from the sky in the Magna Alta, and she said the first and only angel she had ever seen was the arbiter from the meteor that crashed from above her."

She leans me onto her chest as she stares at me saying, "You just looked like one."

I grin before I squint my eyes as I tickle her sides. She squirms giggling for a moment before my tails dig into the sand on the other side of Allure. They pull me over her flipping me over her before I land on the sand puffing it in several directions as I land. Allure turns with her chest facing against the sand before she leans on her arms. I point towards my mouth before she smiles a wry grin.

She says, "What are you trying to say love?"

I point towards my throat before I move my lips as though singing underwater. She lifts herself with her back bending before she says, "Is this a game of charades?"

I lean my hand on my head for a moment before I ponder her inquiry. After a moment of thought, my tails trace onto the sand above Allure's head before they draw out the message, "Our master wishes for you to sing. Please do so."

They even rendered a crude drawing of her singing and me dancing as stick people. Allure giggles before she says, "Alright, alright. I don't want to see my audience sitting and waiting for too long."

And so she begins her song. She floats through the water as she turns her head and reaches out her hands giving her floating, dreamy voice an even wispier sound. Her notes float through the water before she builds her melody into the scene of our night from before. She paints the scenes of town with her melody.

I close my eyes as I let the song sink in. I missed this sound since she gained her voice above water. She always seemed to get her message across regardless of her limitations, but that never detracted from the cool sound she had a way of making. Her tattoos glow their blue as she sings adding an even greater strangeness to the performance.

Time slows to a crawl as we float in the shifting colors of the light overhead, and I can't help but smile.

It reminds me of after I got into the military. One of the strangest aspects of the whole process was how limiting other people expected me to act. It was like anytime I used a word with more then two syllables they would freak saying, "But you're a soldier!"

I am, it's true, but I'm a also a hivemind, a devoted worshiper of the Magna Alma, and I like to think of myself as charming. It always annoyed me how others would put me in such a small box. They acted like I couldn't be a certain way just because I had been to battle.

It's a ridiculous notion in my mind. Some people fight because they like too. Some fight for the sake of their family. I fought to support the Empire that once represented my religion and so that I could find something to do with my life. I don't have to be simpleton to join the military. I don't have to be anything.

But people will assume regardless, and besides, after all the fighting and chaos I burned through, I get to enjoy moments like this.

After an hour of her singing, Allure says, "It feels good to sing again. I didn't realize how much I missed it."

I nod my head before I point outside with my right hand while I purse my lips in a questioning look. She says, "I wouldn't mind giving my voice a break, though we should do this again."

I nod again before we swim towards the porthole entrance. My tails lift us outside while they collect Allures dress before they squeeze the water out of it, but Allure interrupts them saying, "Please don't. I enjoy the way the water feels."

They lean over her before they lift her with a genial care and place the dress over her while avoiding any sort of contact with her skin if at all possible before they set her in the chair. She giggles at their shyness before Allure says, "I'm surprised your so bold while their so evasive. It's funny."

I scratch my cheek before I say, "They aren't really me anymore if that makes any sense, even though I can feel what they touch. They each have their own minds, and the're trying to not offend me whenever they touch you."

She giggles before she pets a tail saying, "Don't be so worried little guys. I don't think Pyrex is that jealous."

I set the dress over her tail saying, "You'd be surprised. I thought you were cheating on me with Gorge and Tellara whenever we first entered their base a while back."

She plays with her hair as she says, "The're fun to be around and tease, but I want a man as partner. Someone who can take control."

I shrug saying, "Maybe my hivemind instincts will kick in one day and make that happen."

"You already have penchant for doing it in the bedroom already."

"It's hard not to when I have to look at someone like you all the time."

She lifts her wet hair off her face as she says, "Really now?"

I leer down at her as I say, "You're not the only one with romantic intentions."

She bites her lip before she says leaning towards me, "Would you care to explain somewhere more secluded?"

I lean closer to her before I place my hand on the edge of her cheek saying, "If you'd care to listen."

I kiss her for a moment as our lips press against one anothers. The intentions of this kiss become clear as I find my hands running down the sides of her body while she caresses my own with her fingertips dancing across my chest. After several moments, she tears herself from my embrace before she says, "I want it now. Enough foreplay."

I grin before I roll her out of the underground living quarters before we roll with her out into the open. She says, "Carry me, please."

I lift her with my arms before she presses her chest against mine as she says, "I know you like these. You can have fun with them later."

She's so damn sexy. My suit hides my tails once more while my pants still dry in the air, but she doesn't mind as her hands crawl across my skin with her fingers rubbing against me. She slides her hand an inch down my pants as we walk. Then another. And another. As we approach the hotel, she glances her hands across it saying, "I can see you're excited already."

I grin before a glass smashes in an alleyway a block away from the hotel I planned for us to stay at. This one has aquatic furnishings for the aquarell clients near here which costs far more money, but the experience would be well worth almost any price.

I roll my eyes before I turn towards the alleyway. Allure had placed her tail into the wheelchair to keep it rolling with us, so I set her in their before I say, "Just a momentary look. I just want to make sure everything's alright."

She pouts for a moment before she says, "Don't keep me waiting too long."

My eyes narrow as I say, "I wouldn't dream of it."

I walk down the alley way before a man appears from behind a dumpster. A coppery smell like iron enters my nose along with the familiar and caustic scent of fresh corpse. I clasp my fists before I walk around the edge of the dumpster where a man...eats another person.

He turns towards me with bloodshot eyes and bloody intestines hanging from his mouth. He crouches over a women who looks around unable to speak as her hand has been shoved into her mouth while this abomination broke her legs and arms preventing her from moving.

He tore the skin covering her guts before he began feasting on her while she was alive. The girl finds me as she stares at me with her cheeks split from her hand being shoved in her mouth. She blinks for a moment as the man over her glares at me with crazed eyes.

A tail rips through my suit slamming the creature from the girl before I shout, "Allure, come here. I need you to sing your healing songs immediately."

She scrambles down the alleyway before my other tails rip through my suit and tear into the walls around us. They shuttle me towards the man before he tears his hands into the brick wall where he climbs upwards from the ground. A tail reaches out before it whips into him with it's flattened end.

The blow splatters the monster across the edges of the building with enough force that the brick concaves, and a splattering of blood falls onto me along with other acrid smelling fluids. Two of my tails gather a pile of trash before another two rub against one another with a vicious, violent friction.

After several seconds, sparks fall from the tails igniting the garbage below before Allure screams at the girl. I turn towards her saying as tears fall from her eyes, "I know this is hard to see, but you have to sing for her. It doesn't matter what she may look like now. She's a person just like me and you. We need to help her."

Allure blinks several times before she gulps. She begins singing a soothing lullaby to the poor girl. I move my arm around allure's waist before I meet her eyes saying, "You're doing great. Remember how we first met?"

She blinks before she nods as she sings. I say, "I dreamed with your voice. It saved me then. It can save her now. You can save her Allure. You can heal her."

Her eyes gain focus while her song steadies into a more powerful and elegant harmony before I turn around where a small fire rages. Someone needs to put her insides back into her before she dies of shock. I turn towards the lady as I say meeting her eye, "You're gonna be fine. Do you hear that?"

She nods after a moment, so I say, "That's an angel of the arbiter come to save you. She sings songs of healing for you, and through her grave, you shall be saved."

She nods before I say, "But we need you to hold on. Draw upon the strength around you, find your faith, and resolve yourself to survive. 'They who find purpose find resolve, and with that relentless might, all obstacles collapse and crumble.' Use these words for strength. Think of who will miss you. Think of the family you'll never see again. Think about the grandchildren you'll never see or perhaps the smile on your daughter's wedding day. Don't give in to darkness. Don't walk into the light."

Her breathing stabilizes as I say, "I'm going to heal you, but it will be gruesome. I want you to look up. Don't close your eyes."

She nods before she lifts her head upwards as she glances at the stars above us. I turn towards the now large fire before I jab my hands into it searing the skin off my hands. I have no latex gloves around, so without sterilizing my skin this way, I'll kill her from the pathogens on my hands.

My skin and flesh burns as I grit my teeth through the fiery hell. Agony swarms up my limbs. My teeth clamp down until they chip. My fists clamp until I force them open burning all of my skin away. After several moments, I lean my hands away before I shake my fingers of fire.

My skin regrows as my metabolism kicks in. The new skin will be sterile allowing me to handle her insides. I grab her organs before my laying her intestines in place with a careful and slow motion as Allure drowns the squelching with her songs. After re-raveling her intestines, I set her liver back into place over her intestines before I adjust a few different organs with a careful management of my placement.

She breaths as I move her skin over her organs before she spits a fountain of blood over me. Her wounds regenerate before she convulses for a moment. I wipe her blood from over my eyes before she grabs the sides of my neck by tossing her broken limbs towards my throat. She pulls towards me before her teeth clamp into my neck.