FicWad

ETERNAL DREAMS:
YU AND XIAO
By
Gregory P. Wong


To 23rd century scientists of "temporal mechanics"-in laymen's terms, time travel-there existed a little known phenomenon called "temporal shift resonance flux."
What it meant, simply, was that in rare cases, people directly involved in time travel would experience some direct temporal displacement anomalies. It was hypothesized that entirely new /timelines could be created, not going quite the way they should have. George Washington might die before crossing he Delaware, the alien Arcone and Gryth might not be friendly, or even a person might be erased because his ancestors never met./
In general, these occurrences were rare and minor.
In some cases, not.
For a group of people, it was a case of the latter.

Zhou Yu leaned back in his chair and took another sip of coffee. Whatever it was, a really bad virus had hit the computer networks of the grade school where his and Xiao's son, Ce, attended. According to the principal, the schedules had been hacked and the AI had had to be shut down because the virus had scrambled its coding.
As one of the best computer experts in the area, he'd been hired to fix the problem. Ce was at the school right now, with no computer system or school AI. He couldn't wait to hear his son's stories.
"Wait..." he muttered to himself, and adjusted his glasses. Yes, glasses. Despite living on a modern planet-namely, the United Nations of Terra planet Erwauld-and living in a modern time-the year 2325-he hadn't gotten his eyes fixed. Seriously, all it took was about an hour with some medical nanobots crawling around his eyeballs, and it would be all good. But... nah. He wanted to remember something from the 21st century-why he wanted to remember the 21st century involved a very long story-and, well, a slight case of farsightedness and glasses wasn't much. Besides, his glasses were made out of modern materials, rendering them practically unbreakable. If he stepped on his glasses he'd probably break his foot, not the specs.
Besides, his vision wasn't all that bad. Looking at the holographic display of the computer just barely warranted glasses, in fact.
Besides, though she rarely openly admitted it, his wife though he looked cute in them. Heh.
He heard the door slide open behind him. He looked. Ah, Xiao. The beautiful woman in his life whom he loved.
"Got the problem fixed, sweetheart?" his wife asked.
He shook his head. "Not quite, honey. I think I've zapped the code that attacked the datebooks. It was pretty sneaky, actually. The hacker pinged a service node to hell, and then inserted an interrupt wedge when it was taken offline. There. Instant backdoor. That way he could scramble the anti-viral firewalls and sweepers guarding the AI and the datebooks. And then, a little virus, maybe a Trojan horse, and the school's network didn't have a chance."
"Uh, whatever you say, Yu."
He grinned. It was a long-running-and affectionate-competition on who could puzzle the other, whether it was him with computer jargon or Xiao with architectural terms. He still hadn't figured out what the hell a "conidial internal counterweight mechanism" was.
Speaking of which...
"You doing well with the designs? The ones for the new high rise?"

Ugh, Xiao Qiao didn't really like the story surrounding /that/. She wrinkled her nose.
"Not really. The people financing the whole thing just don't understand that I can't exponentially reduce the area and hope to keep it structurally steady. Well, steady without cross-towers lined up tangentially to the corners and faces, but they don't want those either. So I'm stuck trying to rig some type of expansive foundation, but the surrounding buildings will give me problem with that."
Hah, that was a reminder that she could play stump-the-spouse, too.
He just shrugged. She chuckled.
"We're even now."
He laughed back. "Yeah."
She walked over to him and sat on the arm of the chair. While she and her husband were in their mid thirties, they still had the bodies of people in their early twenties-thanks to the psionic power that was inside them-which earned she and her husband wife the odd look here and there, especially when they picked up Ce from school.
And they hadn't changed all the much. Well, a bit. She wasn't as hyper as she used to be-and she, in her early teens, was energetic enough to put some sugar-high kindergarteners to shame-and Yu was a bit more outgoing that he used to be. A perfect example of two personalities affecting each other in a positive manner.
Of course, the fact that they loved each other quite strongly had something to do with it too. She was still sad that se would never see her sister again, and Yu missed Sun Ce greatly, but they helped each other past that. It hadn't been easy, but that's what spouses were supposed to do, help each other.
But she still missed her older sister.
Hmm? There was a humming sound coming from behind her, and the room seemed a bit brighter. What could...
She looked behind her.
Oh, God, no.
A sphere of white fire was floating behind her and her husband.
"Yu..." she whispered and shook him.
"Hmm? What..." she heard his voice trail of as he turned around. Yu blinked a few times. "Is that what I think it is?"
It had better not be... "I really, really hope it's-"
Whiteness.

Why him? Why him? There were countless other Wu warriors who could have done this, but it had to be him! This was ridiculous. Zhou Yu did not even like her. His lifelong friend, Ce, at least seemed to be taken with that woman's sister, but he really didn't want anything to do with the younger Qiao, who seemed the epitome of immature energy. Yes, Xiao was beautiful, and yes, she was kind-hearted, and yes, it was a bit refreshing to be around such enthusiasm... no, no. None of that. That Qiao was a nuisance, nothing more.
And that was proven by the fact that he had to help rescue those two from Dong Zhuo. Single-handedly, to compound this situation; a large force would be detected more easily.
But why him?
Ah, complaining would get him nowhere. He and Ce were two of the best fighters in the Wu kingdom, so it made a certain amount of sense.
Ah, no matter. He would help liberate both Qiaos, and then he would have nothing to do with them-especially /her-/ever again. Ever.

"What the hell...?" Yu muttered to himself as he picked himself off the ground. A second ago he was talking to his wife, zapping a virus, and drinking coffee... and now he was on his back on the cobblestones of some place.
He took a look around. It looked like he was in a courtyard of some type, lit by the odd torch and the full moon. Had to be. He was surrounded by some pretty tall walls that looked to be made out of stone.
This place looked vaguely familiar. He could see a banned fluttering in the light breeze not too far off. Something about the device on the flag was familiar, too, but he couldn't put his finger on it. To top it off, some text he couldn't quite make out was painted on, too. Looked like... Chinese?
Something was definitely wrong with this place.
/Thump/!
"Youch. That hurt!" he heard a familiar yelp shrilly from behind.
He looked around.
His wife was picking herself off the ground, rubbing her rear.
"Glad you could join me," he said wryly, helping Xiao off the cobblestones.
"Uh-huh," he heard his wife reply vaguely. Oh. Xiao was taking in the surroundings. "You know, unless I'm completely wrong, this is a freaking good replica of a Chinese imperial castle."
He almost laughed. Here they were, sucked through a white ball of fire-which looked suspiciously like a temporal warp gate-and deposited in some obviously new place, and his wife was checking out the scenery? Heh. Guess that's how the architecturally-minded saw things.
Xiao must have seen his smile. "I'm serious. If you told me this was a Chinese imperial palace, I'd believe you." He watched his wife look around some more. "Hell, if you said this was an original from Earth, and not a replica, I'd believe you. It looks so real!"
This time he did laugh. "Xiao, we've been sucked out of our room by God-knows-what and you're running cultural architectural analyses?"
Xiao laughed back and rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me if we were somehow plopped into a Matrix world or something that you wouldn't be trying to figure out the code."
Well... "Of course I'd be doing that. But I wouldn't make it as obvious." He winked.
Xiao giggled. "See? You-"
"Over there!" a new voice rang out.
What the hell? He peered at where the voice had come from. Uh...
It looked like a heavily armored man holding a very sharp looking spear had shouted.
And there were, oh, about fifty men behind, also heavily armed.
"That's one of the Qiaos! Take her to Lord Dong Zhuo. Kill the man!"
What the...
/Dong Zhuo/!?
"Please tell me I didn't hear that. I really, really hope I didn't hear that," his wife muttered. "Please tell me those guys aren't Chinese men holding Chinese weapons and that we're not standing in a Chinese castle and that those banners aren't Dong Zhuo's banners."
That's where he'd seen those symbols before! When he had...
When he had rescued the two Qiaos from Dong Zhuo along with Sun Ce.
And that man was either a clone or that was the original Hua Xiong. Oh, hell.
It looked like a really ugly mix up with timelines and temporal travel. Plus, this little warp had put them pretty darn close to guys who'd like to see his head on a pike.
"I think now is the time we start running away," he said with a groan.
"I think so, too."

It had been pure luck had enabled Xiao Qiao to get out of the chamber where she had been locked. It had been the will of the Heavens that had allowed her to get her sister, Da, out as well. Now, the luck seemed to be fading as she and Da got separated as the guards discovered their escape.
Perfect, just perfect.
She heard a commotion coming from the opposite side of the courtyard, hidden behind a statue. Uh-oh. Better duck behind some bushes and stay out of sight.
Whatever it was, it sounded like it was coming closer.

"This is ridiculous, you know that?" Xiao huffed to her husband as they sprinted away from a large crowd of men holding very intimidating weapons. "I mean, seriously, we were told that nothing would happen because of the time travel..."
"Well, they were wrong. And I... uh-oh..." she heard her husband trail off.
Oh, no. It looked like she and Yu had just taken the proverbial wrong turn. Except the wrong turn didn't usually take the form of a thirty-foot stone wall that hemmed them on two sides.
She turned and looked behind. The soldiers were almost on top of them. And there wasn't anywhere else to run.
"Well, looks like we're sticking for this round," she said grimly.

There! Zhou Yu swore that he heard what sounded like the pounding of many feet. It was not coming from too far off. Ugh. That idiot girl must have somehow gotten the attention of the guards. If he followed the crowd, he would probably find Xiao. The sooner he found Xiao, the sooner he could forget about this.
He gripped his long saber tighter and hurried off.

"Well, look on the bright side. You can at least find a sword somewhere. I probably won't be getting any fans, edged or otherwise," Zhou Yu heard his wife say.
Yeah, a sword. The difficult part would be prying it from the fingers of someone here. Great.
He and Xiao were standing about twenty feet from the wall-he wanted room to move if they needed it-and were waiting for their first move. Thankfully there were only a few spears in the group, so they couldn't play Prick-The-Yu from a distance. In general they didn't look like the most skilled bunch-save Hua Xiong-but they had numbers. If he and his wife had their weapons, it would be all over for Dong Zhuo's boys except for the screaming. But unarmed and unarmored-he was wearing sweatpants and a tee shirt, Xiao shorts and a sleeveless tank-it would get pretty ugly.
They did have their enhanced physical abilities and psionically-generated elemental powers, so they had a /chance/, albeit a rather small one. Thirty-seven on two were bad odds.
And he was worrying. There was a real chance that Xiao could get hurt very badly... and he wasn't sure what he could do about it. He loved her so much...
Well, that just meant that he was going to have to protect her.

There was no way she was letting these guys hurt Yu. None.
"You're move, guys," she said to them in Mandarin. Lucky thing that she still knew Chinese. Not that was planning on using it on what was obviously a time-travel issue, but yeah.
Hua Xiong-it was him, she was sure of it-glowered. Then a faint smile stretched the man's lips.
And it was definitely not of the friendly sort.
"Take them," she heard Dong Zhuo's officer say coldly.
Oh, dear.
The closest man to her rushed and grabbed her around the arm. With a deft motion she pried the fingers off and sent a open-palm strike to the face.
Incidentally, heh, she fed some psionic force to it, so the poor bastard flew a good thirty feet away. Guy deserved it.
She took a quick glance at Yu. Her husband was rapidly dodging back and forth, avoiding a sword. Yu sidestepped an badly timed swing, sent a sharp punch to the soldier's face, and wrested the sword away.
Good, now at least Yu had something. Now-Yah!
She ducked under a swing from the butt end of a spear and rolled to the right. Another man tried to smack her over the head with a club. She dodged to the left, sent a kick to the enemy's side, and polished it off with a fist to the side of the head.
Had to give these guys credit. You've thought seeing a woman who didn't stand taller than five-feet five inches sending a man much taller and heavier than her thirty feet with a single punch would've perturbed them.
But right now credit was a bad thing. Goddammit.

There! Zhou Yu saw a large clump of men fighting something near one of the castle walls. Whatever it was, it was propelling man many feet away form the main crowd. It screamed formidable warrior all over it, which certainly did not describe Xiao Qiao. It be best to move on while these guards were distracted.
He quietly made his way past the battling enemy.
"Yu! Watch his sword! Behind you!" a voice cried from the direction of the battling soldiers. What in the...
That had been Xiao Qiao's voice!
"Oh, what a fine mess she has gotten herself into," he growled. That woman was rapidly becoming the worst thing to happen to his life.
He shook his head and squared his shoulders and stepped up to embattled enemy.
Chivalry would have dictated that he announce his presence to the enemy.
But he wasn't feeling particularly chivalrous at the moment.
He charged in, saber flashing.

"I'm going crazy, aren't I?" Yu whispered as a man came charging though the enemy soldiers. Not surprising in and of itself. He actually welcomed the support.
Except the man who had just dashed through was wearing his face.
"No, you're not. At least... if you are, so am I," Xiao replied.
"Oh, that's reassuring," he said darkly.
It was another Zhou Yu. It had to be. Exact same features, same hair-well, almost the same hair-and holding the same long saber. Oh, God, Back To The Future Syndrome.
And this particular Zhou Yu made a beeline straight for his wife. The other him looked down at Xiao.
"Xiao Qiao, I've been sent to take you back to Wu."
"Oh God, this is getting weirder and weirder, isn't it?" he heard Xiao moan.
Well... at least the shock of another man charging through had made Dong Zhuo's soldiers step back a bit.
"Xiao, I don't have time for your foolishness. We must-"
And then the other him looked at him.
"What in-"
And then he heard one of the soldiers in the rear of the crowd shout "There! The other one!

Oh no! They'd seen her! Xiao trembled. They knew where she was!
She bolted from under the bush. Some of the soldiers that had been fighting turned towards her and charged.
No!
"Help!" she screamed.

"Uh, I think that's the one you're trying to save," the strangely dressed him said.
He still could not understand this. Was this some form of spirit? A demon? The strange garb this stranger wore seemed to support that.
Ah! He had no time to investigate this. The voice of Xiao Qiao-or at least another Xiao Qiao-had come from behind. And, as this Xiao was dressed as strangely as this doppelganger, it was most likely the real Xiao.
This was getting better and better...

Xiao watched a man with a long saber break through the crowd. In the moonlight, it looked like...
/Zhou Yu/!? She'd have preferred to be saved by anyone else! Not that man!
Yu broke past the soldiers, cutting several down, and wrapped a hand around her arm.
"We don't have much time. We must go!"
"We have to take care of them first," she snapped. By the Heavens, she didn't care for Yu's unexciting, conceited nature. Yes, he was intelligent, handsome, and skilled, and that quietness was soothing, but...
No.
"We are not fighting. We are trying to get you back to Wu, so I can get you off of my hands."
"/What/!? Am I a mere burden to-"
"KILL /HIM/!"
And then she saw it. It seemed to move so slow...
A spear... it must have been thrown badly, because it was heading straight for her...

It seemed to move so slowly...
There was nothing he could do. It was at a bad angle... he could not hope to deflect it.
It would hit Xiao Qiao. He could not stand her. This woman was nothing but a nuisance. Who at Wu could blame him if...
No!
He launched himself in front of the spear.

Zhou Yu, still having a merry time with the soldiers that hadn't gone off after the other him, heard a meaty thunk that he knew all too well.
"Okay, I think we'd better go help him," he suggested urgently to his wife.
"I think so, too. That didn't sound good."
He blocked a sword and maneuvered it away, but he didn't counterattack. In that time, his wife slammed a psi-force driven kick into the swordsman, whose body became a very large missile that knocked away several others to form a hole. Ah, perfect.
He drove through the gap, his "borrowed" sword slicing down Dong Zhou's soldiers. He could hear some satisfying crunches from behind. Xiao Qiao dealing some nasty strikes to unfortunate faces, had to be.
He battered the few remaining soldiers out of his way and came up one...
Oh no.
The other him was breathing hoarsely as a spear quivered from the other man's body. Was-
"One of them's down! Get the other one!" he heard Hua Xiong roar.
He took a quick count. About... about twenty, twenty-five more, plus Hua Xiong. Well...
He snatched the long saber from the other him's weakened grip. Ah, it was good to hold this again. Perfectly balanced.
And one more thing...
He fed psionic energy into his arm, into the weapon...
...And the saber's blade erupted in fire.
"Come and get it," he said with a dour grin.

The smarter ones, Hua Xiong included, had beat it after her husband had smeared the first fifteen or so with "his" blade. With that long saber her husband could take care of himself perfectly.
The other Yu, thankfully, would be okay. The spear had been turned by the armor and had only made shallow entry into the twin's shoulder. Close thing though. A few inches to the right and it would have hit the heart.
"You okay?" she heard her husband ask as he knelt down to the other. Her twin was just staring in amazement. Well, of course. Seeing another you tended to leave you speechless.
"I'm fine," she replied, not looking up. "He'll be fine too. It was actually a pretty light hit. I'm not trained or anything like Bei or Shang, but I'm pretty sure he'll be fine in a jiffy. I think we just need to get him patched up a bit." She took a look at her husband. Oh. He had a bleeding scratch across his cheek. "Honey, let me take a look at your face. You're bleeding."
Yu shook his head. "We can save that for later. I got scratched, this guy took a spear. He has priority."
She ripped a piece of cloth from the other Yu's shirt and rigged it as a bandage. Ugly, and it wouldn't hold for very long, but hopefully they could get some better healers soon enough.
"Okay," she said. "I think we're good to go. If I remember correctly, we can use the east gate and-"
"Who are you people!?" the other Xiao demanded. "Are you demons or spirits? What do you want with me?"
Uh...
"Well, we could explain, but this might take a while..."

It was an incredible story, an impossible story... but he could not deny it with proof in front of him.
Zhou Yu groaned and shifted his injured shoulder. It had almost stopped bleeding, though it was quite sore.
"It is true, all of it?" he asked again, dumbly."
"The whole thing," the future-Xiao affirmed.
Something about how these two acted towards one another seemed... different. It almost looked like affection, but it was not. No, it seemed more, much more.
Could it be love? Between them? It was like... being in love with Xiao Qiao.
Impossible!
"So you two also genuinely love each other?"
"Yes," the future-Yu said with a firm tone that made him believe it.
That did not make it any less puzzling.
"But how? How can you stand her... her... immaturity? Her relentless energy?"
"Humph," Xiao grunted. "How can /you/," this was apparently directed at the future-Xiao, "stand him? He is... anemic! Conceited!"
The two future people looked at each other for a moment. When the two looked back at him and Xiao.

Well, it was obvious something was wrong with this. They weren't supposed to hate each other like this. Gah.
"There are many reasons, I guess," her husband said calmly. "I guess the first would be to realize that no one is perfect. We all have our faults. Don't expect the other person to be like you completely. I mean, if that was the case, that would be complete and utter boredom. What's the point in loving an exact copy?"
"And two," she put in, "is to not let little things get in the way of big things. Yu has other aspects besides, er, conceitedness. Trust me, I know. Can you honestly say that you like nothing about each other?"
The two said nothing, which said everything.
"Okay, I'll add one last thing. I'm not a relationship counselor, but yeah," her husband said. "Try and look into each other. Don't let the little annoyance puts you off. I guarantee you that you won't find anyone who wasn't annoyed by something their spouse did. Give each other a chance."
She felt her husband draw close to her and lightly take her hand.
Yes, it was true, she had found some things a bit annoying about Yu at first. But, really, that had been nothing at all. And she hadn't just "put up" with who Yu was, she'd accepted and improved herself, becoming a better person. Hopefully these two could-
/FLASH/!

"Where...?" Zhou Yu gasped as the two future-people vanished in a flash of white.
"I don't know," Xiao said quietly. What? It seemed that the young woman was somber... for once.
"Heh. You seem to be lacking your energy for once," he said to her.
Xiao looked into his eyes. "I guess I am." Xiao looked away for a moment, then locked onto his eyes once more. "Yu, I saw you hesitate before you jumped in front of me. Why? You didn't... you didn't have to."
Was that really true? He was still unsure of his feelings so far. Yet...
"Maybe I did not have to. But I made a decision, just as those two strangers made theirs. Perhaps... I can, as well."
Xiao surprised him by gently taking his hand. "I'll make a decision right now, which I guess is a first for me." She gave a little laugh. "I can look into who you are, Yu, and I know I will be able to see past what I don't like."
Could he do it as well? Was it even worth the effort? Of course it was. The serenity between the other two affirmed that.
He squeezed her hand. "I can do the same Xiao, I believe I can do the same."
In the moonlight he saw Xiao give a small smile. "I feel different, Yu. I don't know why, or how, but I feel different. Could this be the beginning of love?"
He looked deep into Xiao's eyes, and saw possibilities there. And, perhaps, a hint of somebody he could love. "Perhaps, Xiao, perhaps."
He looked around. The moon was high in the sky now. "We had better move. I'm sure Ce and Da will be looking for us."
Xiao helped him up and supported him. Yes, something was different now.
"I can't wait to see what the future will bring," he heard Xiao whisper.
"I cannot tell what it will bring... but I have a strong feeling it will be bright."

"Uh..." was all Xiao could say. They'd somehow popped back into Yu's work room.
"I guess... we're back to the present. Or whatever," her husband noted.
"I think so, too."
Yu didn't say anything for a moment. "I never thought of it that way," Yu said simply."
He could only be talking about only one thing. "Me neither."
It had opened her eyes a bit. It hadn't been a secret that she was energetic and upbeat and Yu was not... but she'd never thought about how it would turn out.
But, hopefully, it wasn't permanent. If nothing else, it looked like the other thems proved that it wasn't. She hoped so.
She stepped up to her husband and hugged him tightly. Yu wrapped his arms around her.
Hah, what a change of the day. A normal, Xiao-induced cheerful day, and now here she was, holding her husband and being held, thinking about people who were from some alternate past.
"I love you," she whispered into Yu's chest.
"And I love you," her husband said softly.
And this love was despite any barriers that might exist.
She also thought... she and Yu had come very close to injury. Maybe even death.
But that made her cherish who she had even more. No matter what fault she had-or that Yu had-there was no way that it would ever, /ever/, come between them. That's how love triumphed, and that's how love lasted.