"Oh, yes! Yes!" Callum glanced up and saw Venus spinning around as she descended toward him. She had one fist held above her head as she came toward him, which meant it was pointed at the ground. She seemed incredibly pleased about something. They were in the same misty nothingness as before but this was the first time he'd seen her flying around like this. Unfortunately, she still looked like his sister with a filmy gown.
Venus descended, twisting so that she landed on her feet. "Amazing job, Callum!" she crowed, practically vibrating with excitement. "I never expected that so soon! What a lucky break! And, you! You are everything I hoped!"
Callum frowned. He had just woken up in Venus's place. She'd already been spinning around in the air. "What are you so happy about?" What had he been doing before he fell asleep? His brain felt foggy. "Are you happy about us beating the carcha?"
"Huh? Oh, sure. Good job. I expected nothing less. That is not what has me gobsmacked though!"
Callum shook his head. "Gob…what?"
Venus disappeared and reappeared right next to him. She elbowed him in the ribs and said, "You know. You stud."
Callum remembered just what exactly he'd been doing before he fell asleep. He cried out in horror and fell to his knees. Tears came to his eyes. "How could I?"
Venus squatted down and asked, "What's the matter?"
"How could you ask me that? I slept with Mikan. I forced myself on that poor girl. What am I going to say to Valencia? What am I going to say to Cat?" The thought of his sister looking at him with disgust hit him with such force that he almost threw up.
Venus sighed. "Damn. You sure know how to ruin a good time." She stood and walked in front of him. He could see the outlines of her legs through the translucent gown. "Callum, what happened was a good thing."
"A good thing?" Anger washed away some of his horror. He looked up at her but she was so close it was hard to see her face. "How can you say that?"
She sighed. "Well, I wasn't planning on talking about this for some time yet but now that you and Mikan have had sex, I suppose I need to explain some things." She waved her hand and a little table with two chairs appeared. "Let's sit. Something to drink?"
Callum got up and glared at her. "No. Explain to me why you are so happy."
Venus sat with a sigh but a smile soon forced itself to the surface, as if she literally could not contain her glee. "Alright but I need to explain something else first." Callum nodded for her to continue. "The power that you have from me, the one that lets you pilot your mech and fight your enemies, that power is inborn. You can't give it away or steal it from another." Callum nodded. She'd said something like that before. "You also are born with a set amount of ether. You have more inborn power than any human in several decades."
Callum stared at her and then lifted a hand and glanced at it. He opened and closed a fist. "I don't feel very powerful."
Venus smiled and reached across the table to pat his hand lightly. "You are just starting, Callum. You haven't mastered it yet but it is there. There is a reason your friend Riley has so much trouble activating a mech. It takes almost all of his power just to operate one. He'll bever even be able to fire an energy cannon the way you did."
"Really?" Callum shook his head. "I always thought Riley could do whatever he set his mind to."
"It's not a matter of will. Well, not purely. If it was, Riley would be fighting alongside you. Not Mikan."
Callum twitched at the mention of Mikan. "She has more inborn power than Riley?"
Venus snorted. "She has more inborn power than just about any human in the galaxy. You have more but you're the only one of similar age."
Callum shook his head. "Really?"
"Yes, really," Venus said. Her grin had turned almost maniacal. "Two humans with massive potential born on the same planet. Do you know how long I've waited for a chance like this? I finally have a chance to turn the tide." Callum didn't like the look of dark glee in her eyes, not the least because she looked just like Catriona. 'What tide?'
"So, what? You want me and Mikan to be, like, partners or something? That's why you are so happy that we had sex?"
"No, that's not why. It would be good if you two worked together but not critical. The most important step has already been completed. And completed so, so well." She grinned and was practically vibrating with excitement.
"What?" Callum asked. He was completely lost.
"I told you that your inborn power is what it is and that is true but there is one way you can increase it. You have to merge essences with another person of power." Venus lifted up her hands and laced her fingers together as she said this.
"Merge…essences?" Callum repeated. 'What the hell is she talking about?'
"Yes…" She waved her interlocked fingers at him as if that would help. "I know you need and appreciate straight talk so I'll be blunt. Having sex with Mikan meant that your souls intertwined and the power you both have did as well. When it split back apart, you both retained some of the essence of the other, boosting both of your ether levels." Venus's eyes opened wide, looking at him expectantly.
Callum didn't know how to react. He was worried about what he'd done to Mikan and what it would do to his relationships with the people close to him and she was worried about a...a power boost. "So you were angling for this all along?" he asked angrily.
"Oh, yes. But I was afraid it would take years. Especially if you let yourself get tied to that Valencia girl. What a waste of time that would have been."
"How could you say that?!" Callum demanded.
Venus raised an eyebrow and rested her cheek in her hand. "You were the one that rejected her when she threw herself at you."
"I didn't...reject her." Even as he said it, Callum knew it wasn't true. "What about Mikan? Don't you care at all that I...that I…"
"Do you really think you forced her? Trust me, I am always with you both and I saw exactly what went down." Callum flushed. "Mikan wanted it. You made her first time about as incredible an experience as any girl could ask for. Two orgasms? Do you know how unlikely it is that a girl even has one orgasm her first time?" She winked and Callum's face grew hotter. "Not too surprising, of course, considering how much of me both of you have inside. You both have a natural instinct for that kind of thing."
Callum slumped in his seat. Natural instinct? What did that even mean? Still he took solace in what Venus had said. Maybe he hadn't done something unforgivable. He decided to take the seat across from Venus. The chair was astoundingly comfortable, like it was made precisely for his body. He rested his forearms on his knees and leaned forward. "She really wanted what happened?"
Venus nodded. "Oh, yeah. A real stroke of luck honestly. I should have warned you about carcha. Sometimes I forget how ignorant you are. I can't see carcha the way I can see humans. I only know Chajin through you and Nita's eyes and I didn't understand exactly what she was. She did us a favor this time, inadvertently, but you should keep your distance from her. I've seen her kind before. Her motivations aren't logical or predictable and she'll help you or hurt you on a whim."
Callum nodded. She didn't have to tell him that. Then something occurred to him. "Is that why she tried to have sex with me?" he asked. "To boost her power?"
Venus shook her head. "No. The carcha are not mine. They serve another and get power another way."
"How?"
"Death," Venus said heavily. "If you think of your own boost as a sort of joining and enhancing of souls, the carcha get theirs by stealing pieces of the souls of others."
"That's...horrifying."
Venus nodded. "It also makes them incredible soldiers. They gain power from every powerful enemy they slay. There is a reason they dominate the galaxy." Callum just shook his head, trying to process the implications of everything he'd heard. "Don't despair, Callum. You can fight back, I promise you. Gaining power from life is a harder road than gaining power from death but we can do it. We can set this universe right."
Callum didn't know what to think about that. He was beginning to think it was important to take down the carcha but it seemed an impossible task to him. All he really wanted to do was protect his sister and his friends. And "gaining power through life" sounded good but she had just told him it was sex that gained him power. He shook his head. "Do you really expect me to have sex with a bunch of different people to increase my power? Do you expect Mikan to do that?"
Venus smiled ruefully. "If only it was that easy." Callum choked. That was easy? "Just fucking isn't enough. It has to be between two consenting partners who care about each other--or at least into each other--for it to truly work. Rape won't do anything and rote, passionless sex stands almost no chance of creating a merging."
Callum nodded. That was good at least. He suddenly felt very tired, though. Strange, for a dream. He put a hand to his brow. "I have no idea what to do with all of this information," he confessed.
"I know. I meant to reveal all of this more gradually but things are happening too fast and I thought you deserved to know all of it." She got up and walked around the table. She hugged his head to her bosom. Callum almost fought it but she was so warm and soft and he was so tired. "Rest now, Callum. And know that I love you, always." He drifted into a calm sleep.