Warnings: This one touches on depression, and failed pregnancy. It skips around it trying to be gentle, but... It's a trauma.
To help offset as well... The number of in-jokes in this one is sky high.
And of course, because trauma, no sex in this chapter.
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Blauer didn't look up as she walked into her study. Feet scuffing the floor as they dragged along. Nearby on a couch, Flare and Nixie were making up after another fight. The flaming monchen with her head between the other's legs. Blauer knew she should probably tell them off for making it all about sex, but she was... Too tired.
She was beyond exhausted. Every single time she tried to take a step forward, there was Roter, doing it as well. Looking clumsy and idiotic as he broke every rule... And somehow managed to pull it off.
No one else seemed to have noticed it yet, but she had. Roter wasn't normal. He wasn't going to be able to live the ordinary life that he seemed to actually want. There was something about the infuriating and optimistic man that guaranteed he was going to be one of the giants of the field.
He'd trained the untrainable blitzchen.
He'd discovered the monchen of legend, verfolchen.
He'd done it all whilst smiling, and blundering through, without actually putting in the effort that Blauer knew that he was capable of. There was no doubt in her mind, that if he tried to champion the world, he'd absolutely be capable of it.
Blauer had been absolutely convinced that crossbreeding was the way forward for understanding monchen. For creating a sustainable future for the various races, before their own genetics led to the inevitable and looming collapse.
You can't just clone yourself into an egg, endlessly. There are only so many gene variants that can be produced, before the dangerous mutations go from rare, to common.
Everyone was focused on solving the problem, from every angle. People researching where the monchen came from. People incubating eggs, and trying to guide the hatching process. Trainers looking to make stronger and tougher breeders, with fewer mutations through illness.
She hated to admit, hated herself for knowing it, but what the community needed right now, was Roter's bright smiling face. He could inspire, and she couldn't. He could make people excited to turn up to work, and she couldn't.
Rita didn't need Blauer's failed experiments with embryo hybridisation.
She needed... Blissbun.
Blauer walked over to the couch, and nudged Flare, "Oi. Time for our first trial. Sit up."
The feuerchen made a disappointed face as she leaned up, her chin sizzling and steaming. The monchen giving a deep frown, "What did I do wrong, this time...?"
"We're here to work, not just play." Blauer pulled a needle from a tray, flicking the end as she prepped the solution. "Do you remember the process? I did explain it to you."
The flaming hair on the back of the woman swayed from side to side as she shook her head.
Blauer gave a heavier sigh, "I'm looking to make a hybrid. That means we're going to use your eggs, as you seem the most resistant to elemental changes. You can fight through other monchen's magic. So... There's a chance. A small one."
Flare frowned, "Don't really get it, but sure."
"I'm going to make you pregnant." Blauer stated flatly, "Hopefully, with one of Eve's kids. But, chances are, it won't take. You'll lose the egg."
Flare's neck moved as she swallowed nervously, "I... I'll lose my kid?"
"Probably."
She winced, "I... Don't wanna."
Blauer went to snap, and then took a deep breath. "More like Roter. I can do that... I know it's scary. It will suck. I will be here, right with you. And if they survive... That's the hope of every monchen. They'll be the first of the future."
"Use me." Nixie whispered quietly, sitting up and letting her hair melt so that it was perfectly straight again.
Blauer shook her head, "It's sweet to offer, Nix. Really. But I'm using Eve as the donor, not you, because your magic is... Too adaptable. Chances are, if you donated, that your essence would eat Flare from the inside out and she'd just die."
"Geeze. What part of me running the experiment, didn't you get?" Rita breezed into the room, pulling on a pair of rubber gloves. "Tainted the process already. Bare hands on the instruments? Waldchen. Sanitize. Assistant, step backwards, and explain your solution."
The eye-patched woman smiled sweetly at the monchen as she started to rearrange the table of instruments, passing each one to Nixie who boiled it in her hands furiously, before grinning proudly at the professor.
"I..."
"Got excited. It's fine, darl." The professor smiled, before hesitating, "Once is, anyways. Everyone gets excited to change the world. But let's do things right, eh? So... Solution?"
Blauer rolled her jaw, "This one comes as a surprise. The solution is basically Eve's donated tissue -"
"Science first, trainer second." Rita interrupted.
"The waldchen donated an intact egg. Infused with sexual vigour." Blauer restated, "That was left to incubate for six hours, to stress the embryo. Before implanting, I intended to place a third essence within the feuerchen."
Rita frowned, "Third essence? Not the wassechen. That'll kill the subject. Can't do it, darl."
"No. Not the wassechen." Blauer swallowed drily, "Eh... I encountered a monchen, recently. With the assistance of... One of the Wicked Thirteen... I retrieved the essence of a verfolchen. Trainer Roter was also present, and can confirm the existence."
Rita blinked and stared, "Present. That's one way to describe it, certainly."
"Already got Vanessa's report? Sorry. I was just... Trying to say it science-like." Blauer defended herself.
Rita shrugged, "Stevie's report, actually. She's quite a trainer, for a complete and utter bitch. She noticed you nicking something. Essence of the verfolchen, then?"
"Vanessa... Suggested you'd attack Stevie."
Rita nodded, "I'd kill her, given half a chance. But I wasn't there, and now I'm here. So... You were planning to use the verfolchen's cum as a penetration pact? Preserve the egg from the immediate antibiotic reaction, and misdirect the system so it can't adapt before implantation takes place."
"I don't think a pact would work, if it came from any other species. My original plan was actually to perform a temporary hysterectomy. Have Eve, sorry, the waldchen, grow an incubation chamber for it, that can adapt, before reimplantation."
"High risk of death, but... Acceptable risk. Not a bad idea." Rita considered and then nodded, "This is better. Any idea where the host is?"
"I believe the verfolchen chose Stevie as the next owner."