With Gamma-17 destroyed it was time to erase any evidence of our presence on Entana. First, the agents needed to handle the hostages in the buses at the stadium. Turns out Men in Black didn’t have things too far off, mind-wipes were a rather simple procedure; after a healthy of dose of some harmless radiation the civilian survivors were sent to local authorities with the idea they’d just been victims of an attempted slaver kidnapping—one of the worst in recent history apparently.

  Several shuttles filled with researchers were brought to the stadium to collect any genetic material left behind by Gamma-17. Random black ooze along with weird ashen remains were gathered up in special containers to be thoroughly researched aboard The Radiance.

  The shuttles also had to ship off our wounded and any dead bodies were to be returned to The Radiance as well, not to be left behind on some random planet. It was a strange mix of somber celebrations as the mission was a success, but we mourned for our dead. Still, possible fatalities were projected to be much higher, so for that alone there was reason to be happy.

  Eve returned to my side in the stadium stands as we watched the cleanup; neither of us really knew what to say to each other, there was just a weird awkward tension in the air for now, and I wasn’t really sure what caused it. I wasn’t fearful of Eve after seeing her unrestrained power, even though it was a little unsettling. I was playing in my head her conversation with Gamma-17, wondering if I’d been right all along to be suspicious of Eve, thinking she had some grand scheme this entire time after all; maybe she was just using us to get to the other Predazoans, to consume their biomass so she would be the only one left, the strongest of them all.

  Eve beside me shook her head, “No Adam, I told you before I don’t give a shit about my sisters, I’m just on this mission because it’s what you want to do—I just want to be with you.”

  I sighed, “I would prefer you not sense what I’m thinking and give me the opportunity to voice my concerns myself.”

  Eve turned to me with a sad smile, “Sorry, I couldn’t take the silence, and your thoughts are a jumbled mess of screams right next to me.” She looked down at her feet, “I’m worried about you is all.”

  “Worried about how I feel about you?”

  Eve turned back to me, “No, just worried about you. I never wanted to expose you to this kind of violence, didn’t want to risk any triggering flashbacks or anything.” She placed a hand on my cheek, “I just want to take care of you, that’s all I ever wanted.”

  I grabbed her hand in mine and pulled it down, but interlocked our fingers together, “So explain what all that was you said to Gamma-17, about being the one and only perfect Predazoan.”

  Eve smirked, “Would you believe I was just getting inside her head?”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “Meaning?”

  Eve waved off towards the field, “I was inside her mind the entire time we were fighting—it was like reading a book she was so open to me. I could see every attack, every plan, I could even see her supremacy drive—what she considered her perfect form.”

  “What was it?”

  Eve half-shrugged, “The simplest off all perfect forms, a living planet of massive biomass. Her plan was to consume and assimilate all Entana, then come after the other Predazoans. She wanted to build herself into an entire living solar system, each with a core of stolen biomass from our sisters as assimilated planets with their own kind of biodiversity to increase her variable strength.”

  My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, “She could do such a thing?”

  Eve nodded, “Sure, but it would probably take tens of thousands of years; nothing to be considered with the other Predazoans either.”

  “You think other Predazoans share that same drive?”

  Eve shrugged again, “Who knows? It’s such a dumb, simple perfect form—so boring. And to what end? Live as some lame planet—a solar system? What kind of life is that, orbiting around the galaxies consuming random biomass for all eternity? So stupid.”

  It wasn’t that she thought it was frightening or horrible or some abominable loss of life, Eve just thought it was dumb—she thought being a living planet was lame. I shook my head slowly, finding the beautiful alien woman beside me very strange indeed, “So you just said all that to, what, mess with her?”

  Eve shook her head, “I wanted to make sure she stayed focused on me.” She turned to me again, “I didn’t want her to sense what was in my mind—my drive to supremacy.”

  I sighed, “To protect me then?”

  Eve giggled and nudged into me, “Always.”

  I shook my head slowly, “I just can’t believe how strong you are—how fast you moved.” I turned to face her, “You know it is a little intimidating.”

  Eve shook her head too, “You know why I’m that strong right? It’s because I’ve achieved perfection. I told you before how my cells all sing in unison; that’s not just some wonderful warm feeling, it also increases every cellular process, every synapse, every neurotransmitter to work at maximum efficiency. Before achieving perfection, a Gamma or Beta generation Predazoan wouldn’t give me much trouble, but now I think it would be the same against the other Alpha Predazoans; I would probably destroy them all easily.”

  “What about Prime-00?”

  Eve cocked her head to the side and frowned thoughtfully for a few silent moments, “Prime-00 wasn’t much stronger than the Alphas in the first place, so I should be stronger now. However, the Prime has some unusual powers and abilities none of us could understand, so there’s no telling if she might avoid a direct confrontation with me and use those strange abilities instead.”

  “Like becoming the Prime for all the other Predazoans, or opening up a warp channel on her own?”

  Eve nodded, “Exactly. Thankfully, however, I’m pretty sure she left this dimension behind.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, if she could open up a warp channel on her own, I’m pretty sure that was just a prelude to her becoming a true Outsider—she might not have come back to our dimension in the first place, might have drifted off somewhere even beyond void space.” Eve explained.

  “That a hopeful guess or a bit of that Predazoan instinct?”

  Eve smiled, “Maybe a little of both?”

  Talking about my worries, I realized Eve had dissolved them all rather easily; I was worried about what she said to Gamma-17, but there was a rather simple explanation for it. I was still a little scared of her strength, but it turned out in a way I was the cause of it—as her Prime that led her to this perfect form. I was beginning to realize there really wasn’t any reason we couldn’t be together after all. Was she a monster? Maybe, but she was my monster. Was she built of some fabricated personality? Doubtful, she was too individualistic to be anything but herself—in complete control of who she wanted to be. Was she trying to steal my freedom from me, force me to be her mate? Well, yes, there was no denying that. But I dunno, why did I now find it…kinda hot? Eve was so in love with me she would kill any other women who tried to get between us? I mean I had a yandere girl folder back on my laptop, so it wasn’t exactly outside the realm of my fantasies.

  “What are you thinking?” Eve asked in a quiet voice, a pale pink blush on her cheeks.

  I rolled my eyes, “Like you don’t know.”

  Eve smiled, an adorable shy smile, “I’d still like to hear it.”

  I let out a heavy sigh, “I’m thinking you’re my Evie, and I’m your Adam, and honestly nothing else really matters.”

  Eve bit her lip in such a cute way, and she leaned up to give me a kiss on the lips; it was the first time we kissed it wasn’t some reward, it was just something that felt right in the moment. She leaned back away and nuzzled her head into my shoulder, holding my hand and trailing her nails along my arm, “I love you Adam.”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I leaned my cheek against top of her head, “Yeah yeah, I love you too.”

  There was still a part of me that had doubts, a part that thought I should still take things slow—explore what we had with no small amount of caution. But another part of me raged that I’d taken too long already. We’d been down on Entana for what, 40 days now? And Eve and I were together for most of it. Wasn’t it about time I finally made a decision?

  Well, there wasn’t exactly a reason to rush; I could slow down, I could be cautious. I didn’t need to dive headfirst into anything. For now, I would be fine to have that date with Eve, see how things go from there.

  ***

  The clean-up was over surprisingly fast, but I guess that makes sense when you’re part of a hyper-advanced, super clandestine alien taskforce. In a matter of hours the stadium had been cleared, the civilians sent to the local authorities, and most of the teams were getting ready to evacuate the planet.

  As for me, I already told mission command I’d promised Eve a date as a reward for completing the mission, so I was given authorization to stay just one more day on Entana before we’d need to ship out. A few more members of the ground team made complaints they wanted to enjoy Tantalltera for at least another day before we all pulled out, so suddenly it changed so there would be two shuttles departing late into the evening the next day while the ground crews all got to celebrate.

  We returned to the hotel so late it was almost morning, and Eve gave me a half-hearted seduction attempt of squeezing her boobs together before collapsing on the bed and falling right to sleep. Exhausted myself, I went to sleep rather easily too.

  I was woken up in the early afternoon to an excited Eve getting ready for the date, prancing around half-naked as she tried to decide what all she was going to wear. I was much calmer as I showered, dressed, and decided to meet up with Zyno for lunch while Eve had her little existential crisis preparing for our first official date.

  “News travelled around pretty fast about Eve.” Zyno offered mildly over whatever weird alien sandwich he was eating.

  I sighed, “What, people know about the date?”

  Zyno looked taken aback, “What date?”

  I tilted my head to the side, “What are you talking about?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  I waved a hand around to stop all the nonsense, “Just—what about Eve?”

  Zyno let out a quick sigh, “There’s talk of revisiting the safety protocols with Eve; apparently after watching her absolutely annihilate another Predazoan, there’s some people in command who are getting really nervous over how much freedom she has.”

  That was probably the last thing I expected to hear, “Are you fucking serious? The mission was only successful thanks to her! The soldiers all would’ve died against Gamma-17, and they want to, what, put Eve back in the containment cell?”

  Zyno held his hands up peaceable, “Hey, I’m just telling you the rumors as I hear them.” He lowered his hands and leaned forward, “Personally, I’m totally on your side—most people that worked with Eve down here agree she’s an invaluable member of the team.” He leaned back again, “But some of the soldiers from the drop ship that don’t know Eve personally made reports she was wildly unpredictable and completely out of your control, and more powerful than we can do anything about.”

  Well, that was actually true; if Eve wanted, she could destroy The Radiance before anyone even knew what happened. But she wouldn’t—and she did listen to me.

  “Dude, that’s such fucking bullshit.”

  Zyno nodded, “I know, I agree.” He smirked, “Now what’s this about a date?”

  I waved it off, “I already told mission command I was rewarding Eve with a date for a job well done, just following through with it now.”

  “Right but is it going to be a nice outing where you humor her for the sake of a reward or are you actually going on a date—like a date date?” He pressed.

  I tapped my utensils against my empty plate for a few moments, trying to decide for myself.

  “I think it’s a real date.” I admitted.

  Zyno smiled, “She finally wore you down, eh?”

  I fixed him with a flat glare, “Dude, be for real; now that you actually know Eve, what do you think about her? We had this talk several cycles back, and I think it’s time to reevaluate.”

  Zyno leaned back and looked down at his plate, wearing a very serious face, “Honestly?” He shook his head, “I don’t think I can come up with a good argument against it anymore.”

  “Really? Even though she’s a Predazoan, and she could kill or control me or—”

  “But she won’t, we both know that.” He smiled, “Man, she absolutely adores you. I know we were both worried about brain spores and manipulation, every crazy doubt crossed our minds over what all a Predazoan could do against some little human. But the way she just looks at you—when no one’s even watching. That’s not an act, not some manipulation or trick. I was reviewing footage of an investigation at a disappearance site the other day, and the way she was just doting on you was not something anyone would do for some nefarious purpose—the way she watched you, the way she hung on your words, the way she orbited around you, it was so obviously genuine.” He chuckled to himself, “Honestly made me a little jealous I don’t have someone who looks at me like that.”

  “And you don’t think that level of obsession would be unhealthy?”

  He smirked at that, “Man, if you think it’s a one-sided obsession, you haven’t been paying attention to how you act around her either.”

  I quirked up an eyebrow, “What do you mean?’

  He rolled his eyes, “You’re just as head over heels for her as she is for you—just as puppy-lovesick obsessed. And it’s hilarious how protective you are of her, considering she could blow up a planet and what the hell would you ever do to defend her, and yet you do—always, constantly.” He chuckled again, “I think you fell in love with her a long time ago, you were just too afraid to admit it—scared of the big bad Predazoan girl.”

  I let out a heavy sigh, “I think you’re right—asshole—but I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to just submit to her.”

  Zyno cocked his head to the side, “Why not? You love each other, why not submit?”

  I waved my hands around vaguely, “Big bad Predazoan girl shit aside you mean?” he nodded, and I shook my head in response, “Because she is my perfect girl, she’s everything I’ve ever wanted—mentally, emotionally, physically, she really is perfect. So what if—what if it really is all a lie? What if she knew the cameras were around and she put on the show because her hyper-advanced computer brain knew you’d tell me what you saw? What if she’s a thousand moves ahead of us and wants this to play out exactly like this and then leave me some broken shell of a man?”

  “You really think she would do that? I thought we all pretty much trusted her completely at this point.” He countered.

  “Right, you lot all trust her for this mission, but this is different—this is my heart, and if she breaks it, I’m not coming back from this.” I admitted.

  Realization dawned on his face, “You mean she’s so perfect, if she broke your heart it would shatter you completely? No other girl would ever compare, no more romance in your life, it’s either Eve or it’s nobody.”

  I laughed at the cruel irony of what he said; that was the exact choice Eve told me I could make, choose her or choose nobody. “That’s it exactly. Even now I don’t think about other girls at all—totally have Tillia out of my mind. Eve is it for me, and that’s before I’m willing to take the plunge; if I pulled back now, I could recover—be hard, probably need to just go back to earth, but I could survive. But if I submit to her, I will absolutely submit to her.”

  “Damn. You ever been in love before? Do you always fall this hard or something?”

  I shook my head, “Not like this—I was even engaged once, but we were dumb and too young. I never felt like this with anyone before—like Evie is a part of my soul.” I sighed, “We call it soulmates back on earth, but I always thought that was just a fairytale.”

  Zyno chuckled, “Sounds almost ridiculously over-romanticized, but I understand the concept.” His face turned serious, “But if you really think she’s your soulmate, why the fuck would you resist something so beautiful?”

  I threw my hands up, “Because I’m afraid, I just told you! What if it’s all—”

  “Bull. Shit.” Zyno cut me off, “That’s the lamest excuse ever. You’re afraid to pursue romance because it might turn out bad, join the fucking club; that’s not something unique to humans or Predazoans, welcome to being a sentient being. Everyone is scared of love and scared of getting hurt, but only a true coward denies love for fear of rejection.” He narrowed his eyes at me, “And you damn well know Eve would never reject you.”

  I looked away from his intense gaze, afraid to confront his truth. Was it really so simple? Was it nothing to do with humans and Predzoans, I was just that scared little kid back in middle-school again who couldn’t gather the courage to ask out Ashley Tompson, my first big crush? Forget aliens, forget the Empire, forget the mission, was I just scared of being vulnerable to someone who absolutely adores me—who sees me, all of me for who I really am?

  I turned back to Zyno, “I want you to know you’re like my best friend in the entire universe. Like seriously, forget all my human friends, you and me are bros for life and I got your back no matter what.”

  His serious expression relaxed and he chuckled to himself, “The feeling’s mutual.”

  I leaned back and let out a tired sigh, “But what should I do about mission command? I asked Doctor Kianna before if I hypothetically succumbed to Eve’s seduction attempts what might happen, and she said they’d probably have to reevaluate my position as her handler—at least reassess all the safety protocols. And you’re telling me they’re already thinking of reassessing the safety protocols. What if they give the failsafe to someone else? Fuck, I hate the fact we even have this stupid failsafe.”

  Zyno held up a finger, “That’s the first legitimate concern you have with Eve.”

  I shook my head slowly, “Regardless how I feel, this isn’t something we can just rush into. We need to have a serious conversation before we move forward with anything romantic.”

  Zyno rolled his eyes, “Lovely mindset before a date with the girl you love.”

  I chucked at that, “Fuck off. Forgetting how simple all my other issues turned out to be, a relationship with Eve would complicate things significantly.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  I shrugged, “Enjoy the date, try to not get too locked up in my own head. Afterwards, we’ll see how everything goes and maybe once we’re back on The Radiance and we see what all happens with any new safety protocols we can have that discussion.”

  Perfect timing, my communicator chirped at me, and I saw a cute message filled with dozens of hearts from Eve telling me she was ready to be collected for our date. I stood up from the booth and Zyno stood with me. I gave him a quick bro-hug that took him by surprise, “Alright man, wish me luck.”

  Zyno just shook his head slowly, a small smile playing at his thin green lips, “Wish you luck? How about you wish me luck finding some impossibly gorgeous perfect soulmate space-babe? Hmm? Maybe share a little of that luck you’ve been hoarding all this time?”

  And with that I rushed off to collect my impossibly gorgeous perfect soulmate space-babe, finally willing to open myself up to the idea of being in love with Eve after all.