Maxine watched the spaceship very slowly get bigger as it approached. However, she saw a literal fireball detach from it and come straight at her. It looks like grandma's being impatient. In response to this, Maxine launched off the ground towards her grandmother turned fireball. It only took them a few moments to reach each other and grandma Victoria veered off to the left. Maxine followed suite as they circled each other before finally coming to a stop.
After a moment of hesitation, grandma Victoria opened her arms with a tear-filled eyes and a hopeful expression. Maxine knew that she came here for the sole purpose of finding her long lost grand daughter and never really appreciated how much the woman had unconditionally loved her. She literately crossed an unknown number of lightyears just to find me just on the hope that I'm her grand daughter. And now, that she sees me, she just wants a simple hug to show her affection.
Maxine was so genuinely touched that tears threatened to flow and practically pounced onto her grandmother to give her the hug she so desperately wanted. However, she took the precaution of coating both her quills and claws to blunt them to avoid an accident.
However, just as Maxine buried her face into grandma Victoria's shoulder and she wrapped her arms around her, she sense a moment of surprise and worry that wasn't coming from her grandmother, but it quickly vanished. "Shh, it's alright. I'm here," grandma Victoria said gently in english as one of her hands gently brushed over Maxine's quills.
Maxine continued to surprise her grandma as the serpents sticking out of her back arched up and started flicking their tongues at grandma Victoria. "I thought I didn't have any kin left, aside from my father," Maxine said softly.
"You have an uncle and an adorable little cousin," grandma Victoria said as she continued to stroke Maxine's quills, "Although, we night need to find you some special gloves if you wish to play with her."
"I... don't think I should," Maxine answered, "I would be worried that I might accidentally hurt her."
"I think you'll be alright. I've seen how you play with those children," grandma Victoria replied gently, "Now, lets go talk to your friends. They might strain their necks if they keep looking up at us."
"Alright," Maxine said as she pulled herself out of her grandmother's arms and slowly floated down towards the ground.
As soon as they landed on the ground, the children swarmed her before the adults could stop them and were bombarded with questions. However, one in particular caught the attention of her grandmother. "You look a lot like scary lady. Are you her cousin?" one of the children asked.
"No, I'm not her sister," grandma Victoria said with a very pleased smile, "I'm her grandmother." However, her answer only confused the children.
"Why arn't you all wrinkly?" a little girl asked, which caused grandma Victoria to laugh.
"Cultivators, like me and 'scary lady,' don't age at the same pace as everyone else. In fact, we will barely age at all from the perspective of normal people," grandma Victoria explained and she looked at the approaching General McKenzie, "And are you the one that I have to thank for looking after Mana?"
"I've only known her for a little more than a month, if that's what you're asking, and I've done what I could to make her feel comfortable," General McKenzie replied.
"For that, I thank you," grandma Victoria said and send Maxine a message via spiritual sense, [We need to talk later on.]
[Okay,] Maxine replied cautiously.
"Think nothing of it. She helped us more than we have helped her," general McKenzie said with a small smile, "If it wasn't for her, we wouldn't have gotten access to chocolate again."
"I was meaning to ask about chocolate," grandma Victoria said, "Might I have a sample of it?"
"I have some," Maxine chimes in and hands grandma Victoria a piece of dark chocolate, "It's quite good."
"It doesn't look that appetizing," grandma Victoria scrutinized the piece of dark chocolate before she took a small careful bite, but in the next moment, her eyes lit up, "Oh.. Oh, my. This is absolutely delicious." Maxine flashed a brilliant smile at her grandmother's reaction. Perfect. This should encourage her quite a bit to nudge grandpa into protecting Earth's inhabitants. Chocolate is one of the most desired luxury goods in my timeline and once grandma spreads the word, I imagine it will be the same in this one.
"I know, right?" Maxine said happily as she tosses a piece of chocolate into her mouth and begins chewing it slowly.
"How much of this can your people produce in a day?" grandma Victoria asked hopefully.
"About 10 kilos a day," General McKenzie replied, "But that's from the sole effort of our chocolatier and that output can only be maintained as long as we have a steady supply of the ingredients. And it was Mana that procured the main ingredient. Without her to do that, it would be difficult to produce any at all."
Grandma Victoria glanced at Maxine appreciatively for a moment before she said, "I see. I think I can arrange for a few of my clansmen to come here to help with procuring the necessary ingredients and in return, I think we will take a portion of whatever you produce."
And with that opening, General McKenzie pounced, "You can take it all if you can guarantee the safety of my people."
"Protecting an investment is a given," grandma Victoria replied, "But I need to talk with my husband to give you a more in depth agreement."
"Of course," General McKenzie said with a slight bow of his head, "I eagerly await such an agreement."
"Oh, you've misunderstood," grandma Victoria said with a smile as a communication disk appeared in her hands, "I can contact him right now, if it's alright with you."
"Oh! Go right ahead," General McKenzie said eagerly.
Maxine stopped paying attention to them and returned back to the children while they hashed out the trade agreement. And the children insisted that she continue singing to them. She didn't see any problem with that, but this time she consciously controlled her transformation to only allow herself to revert to her shadow elf form. For some reason, when she was in that state, the children kept insisting on asking to touch her ears and while she was taking a break, she allowed it.
"Careful, my ears are very sensitive and it hurts when you pull on them," Maxine reminded them when one of the children accidentally pulled on her ear.
"Child, you should apologize," grandma Victoria said as she approached, "Elves normally wouldn't let anyone, outside of close relatives, touch their ears."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," the little girl that pulled her ear said in apology.
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"It's alright. Just don't do it again," Maxine said gently.
"Do you have a moment to talk in private?" grandma Victoria asked.
"Yes, I do," Maxine said and slowly stood up after the children backed away from her, "I believe there is an empty room that we can chat in near the center of the camp."
"Lead the way," grandma Victoria said as she gestured to Maxine.
It only took a few minutes to reach the empty room and Maxine turned to her grandmother before asking, "So, what did you want to talk about?" In an instant, Maxine felt her grandmother's spiritual sense expand and isolate the room that they were in.
"I wanted to thank you," grandma Victoria said, "You let me see what my grand daughter looked like and where she and her child are buried."
"Uh, you're welcome?" Maxine said in a confused tone.
"But what I havn't figured out is exactly who cloned an adult version of her and why it was done at all," grandma Victoria said as her voice took on a harsh tone, "Who created you, Mana?"
"I'm confused," Maxine announced, "I already told you she was my twin sister."
"Don't lie to me, again," grandma Victoria said as a sword appeared in her hand, "My daughter and I talked, even after she was exiled, so I know she only had one child growing in her belly before she died. So, it's impossible for her to have given birth to a set of twins. Now, I will ask one more time. Who cloned my grand daughter?!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Maxine replied gently. I don't know why she would come up with that sort of conclusion, but it's obvious that something made her think that I was one. But what's more concerning is that she can tell if I'm lying or not.
"How could you not know?" grandma Victoria asked in surprise as she glanced to her right and focused more on Maxine, "You're literately wearing a unique dimensional ring and you can't get those on this planet." Maxine glanced to the spot that her grandmother did and narrowed her eyes to spot the very faint silhouette of a woman. Invisible bodyguards? That figures.
Maxine's guard went up and reflexively transformed into her full hybrid form. "Who's your friend?" Maxine asked without taking her eyes off of the invisible woman.
"My bodyguard," grandma Victoria replied, "Now, what is your purpose?"
"Live, eat, love and possibly die in the future," Maxine answered simply, "Although, at the rate that I've been aging, old age doesn't seem to be in the cards for me. As for my reason for getting your attention, I did it to help the people of this world and pitching chocolate as a luxury good was the easiest means to do that."
"That doesn't make any sense," grandma Victoria said in confusions, "If you were a clone, you would've had some other purpose."
"Unless, I was grown in a lab on this planet and they're a bunch of retards that did it just because they could," Maxine pointed out, "But that isn't what happened. I remember growing up."
"This can't be...," grandma Victoria said in confusion before her eyes widened in realization and she swiftly grabbed Maxine's arm. Maxine felt a strange vibration run through her body and looked at grandma Victoria in confusion.
"Uh, what was that?" Maxine asked.
"So, you're the cause of the temporal reading that the Alliance detected," grandma Victoria said and her grip tightened on Maxine's arm, "You should be well aware that travel between timelines is strictly prohibited."
"That only applies if I don't belong here," Maxine answered as she dropped the charade, "And half of my soul came from this one."
"Oh, sweet maker," grandma Victoria said in sympathy before she growled in anger, "That wretched man! To think, he would do that to his own daughter!"
"He did it, so I wouldn't end up like your Maxine," Maxine replied softly.
"Do you have a way back?" grandma Victoria asked out of nowhere.
"Yes," Maxine replied, "I'll be using it in a month once a certain artifact recharges. It'll turn to dust after that and if it doesn't I'll throw it into a star."
"I see," grandma Victoria said as her grip on Maxine's arm loosened, "Can you... No, It's better if I don't know the circumstances of your timeline." Maxine felt bad for her grandmother in this timeline. If only there was something I could do for her. Well, there is, but I don't want the heat. Then again, I saw how it worked, so I guess I could do try to do that.
"Um, is there anything else I can do, aside from asking your questions, to make you feel better?" Maxine asked.
"Not unless, you can bring back the dead," grandma Victoria answered.
"I might be able to do that with Shaun," Maxine said without confidence. I just hope this works. Infants are far more adaptable than adults. Daddy confirmed that anything that was revived reverted back to an infantile mindset. Hence, it would be ideal to revive an infant without having their soul available. But even if it's possible to revive him with just my energies, it'll probably state of exhaustion as a woman that had just given birth to their baby. Afterall, breathing life back into dead tissue is thousands of times harder and energy intensive than repairing living tissue.
"What?" grandma Victoria asked with a look of shock and disbelief.
"Daddy succeeded in resurrecting mom," Maxine answered, "It was literately the only reason I was willing to talk to him after the shit he pulled and he was only able to do that successfully because her soul was bound to that golden bracelet."
"He figured it out?!" grandma Victoria asked excitedly, "Do you have the recipe?"
"Yes, but the ingredients are quite rare. It would take too long for you to gather them all and you would need someone with comparable skill to daddy's to make it," Maxine replied, "I'm no where near his level, but I could try to perform a resurrection on Shaun using just my energies. I'm not sure if it will work, though. So, I need to experiment a little bit to even see if it's possible."
"Very well, I'll allow it," grandma Victoria acquiesced and finally released Maxine's arm, "But I insist that you share the recipe to revive the dead."
"Alright," Maxine replied, "Although, I am curious. Who will get credit for it?"
"You will," grandma Victoria said with a smile, "Or rather your counterpart in this timeline."
"Oh, I might as well throw in the gender inversion potion recipe as well," Maxine said offhandedly, "Daddy created it after he found out my sexual preferences."
"You're a ... I see," grandma Victoria said as she looked away. You were going to say a deviant, weren't you? Or lesbian. Although, from her perspective, there is little difference.
"It should be a rather popular potions since there are quite a few same sex couples in the universe," Maxine pointed out, "But the effects of the potion are only temporary, so only female couples can have children together using it." Although, with a little research, I could figure out a way to make it last a lot longer.
"Incredible," grandma Victoria said softly.
"But, having just those two recipes will seem suspicious by themselves, so I'll take a few days to put together a book with Maxine's 'recipes' to give more credence to her ability to formulate alchemical recipes using local materials," Maxine replied, "And by that time, I should also know if I can revive little Shaun, or not."
"You're very intelligent," grandma Victoria remarked almost to herself, "Was my Maxine just as intelligent?"
"Yes, actually, but in a different way," Maxine answered, "Keep in mind, that I only know her from the few interactions the male half of my soul made with her and from the rumors that I've heard about her."
"You lied to me again," grandma Victoria stated with a scowl. "Tell me the truth."
Maxine sighed before she answered, "Fine. Daddy found a battle god and placed her soul into his body until I could create a body for her. So, I've actually talked with your Maxine. She's a rather nice person, but that wouldn't be the case if she hadn't met her current husband. She would probably still be hiding somewhere at the Kavros Clan mansion if he hadn't coaxed her outside."
"I see," grandma Victoria said softly while looking away, "She must've had a terrible life. Why did Guan choose to hide her on this planet rather than bring her to me? I would've ensured she grew up happy, healthy and safe."
"You would've tried to," Maxine said, "But daddy has pissed off a lot of powerful people and you wouldn't have been able to protect her from all of them."
"True," grandma Victoria agreed in a sad tone.
"So, what are you going to do about me?" Maxine asked, "I've violated a pretty major Alliance law."
"We won't say anything, if you don't," grandma Victoria said with a sly smile, "Afterall, you're my grand daughter, even if you come from another timeline, and I will not be deprived of any more of my family due to political nonsense. But I ask that you continue to call me grandma."
"I would've done that anyways," Maxine said honestly.
"Thank you and I'm sorry for being so rough on you. I just wanted the truth out of you," grandma Victoria said gratefully, but in the next moment, she frowned as she turned her head slightly, "It seems that fool couldn't wait any longer. Shall we go entertain that young man from the Divine Marks Clan?"
"Fine, but I really don't like him," Maxine complained.
"Even if you don't like him, you must keep up your charade," grandma Victoria pointed out, "Now, let's go greet him before he becomes too much of a pest for our kind host."
"I couldn't agree more," Maxine said as she followed her grandmother out of the building and towards General McKenzie and Adam Marks. Ugh, I do not look forward to that creeps antics. I can only hope his interest in me won't be as strong as it was in my timeline. If he is, it will be a test of my willpower not to beat the idiot half to death.