TMiL Alterverse
Pride and Survival (part 14)
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Ainoko's aunt looked up as a middle aged woman walked in with a 
very distraught Ainoko.

"What happened?" her aunt asked. "Where's Tantei A? Did you two 
have a fight?"

"He took him away." Ainoko sobbed, inconsolably.

"Who did?" Ainoko's aunt was distressed at this turn of events, 
though clearly not as distressed as Ainoko. "Who took him."

Ainoko tried to think, then looked up. "Tantei A called him 
Tantei Alpha."

"Ainoko," Ainoko's aunt wished she could say something more 
positive, but she didn't want to give her niece false hope, "I'm 
afraid you have to face the possibility that you'll never see 
Tantei A again."

"No..." Ainoko sobbed. "Oh, please tell me that's not true!"

But that was something her aunt could not tell her.

*****

Tantei A opened his eyes and rubbed his temples. "What in the 
universe..." he stood up from the floor of the shuttlecraft and 
went over to Tantei Alpha. "Hey, take me home."

"I am." Tantei Alpha replied.

"I mean to Earth." Tantei A snapped. "That's my home now."

"You don't belong..."

"I belong there more than I belong where you're taking me." 

Tantei Alpha set the shuttle to autopilot, then went over to 
Tantei A.

"Tantei A," he said, "The non-interference law..."

"I know about it already." Tantei A cut him off. "I wasn't 
interfering with any human lives. You had no right to take me 
away from Ainoko." He went over to the window and looked out for 
a while, then he returned and turned his attention back to 
Tantei Alpha. "Scan my implants." he said. "They'll tell you 
what kind of operative I was. After you see, then you decide."

Tantei Alpha and Tantei A touched the palms of their cybernetic 
hands together, fingers splayed. Between their fingers, small 
slots opened and cables snaked out, from between the first two 
and last two fingers of Tantei A's hand and into the two
corresponding parts of Tantei Alpha's hand. Another cable snaked 
out from the area between middle two fingers of Tantei Alpha's 
hand and into the corresponding part of Tantei A's hand.

Tantei Alpha closed his eyes, switching his focus to the images 
passed to him by Tantei A. He saw Tantei A's memories of the 
academy, graduation, Tantei Alpha's death and Tantei A's 
selection as an operative a year later. He was touched that 
Tantei A had named himself after him and a rare smile played 
upon his lips for a second. Then he saw a sudden burst of 
rapidfire information, a montage of images of people screaming 
and vanishing as lightning filled the Galaxy Police Headquarters 
and those present fought to contain the evil that had escaped. 
Tantei Alpha quickly disconnected and both operatives' hands 
went back to normal mode.

"Oh my kami-sama..." was the only thing Tantei Alpha could say. 
"Look, I'm taking you back to Earth. I'll tell them that you've 
suffered amnesia and don't remember the future so you won't be a 
risk."

"Thank you." Tantei A replied. "But why the change of heart?"

"You'll know in the future." Tantei Alpha smiled.