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The standard-issue PYRAMID Academy ship was on auto-pilot as it cruised across the stars, towards a new planet, a new mission.
This would normally be the part where mission briefings took place: tactics discussions, the readying of supplies, perusal of planetary and facility blueprints, all in the name of preparedness for another run at Octavian and his cronies, in the name of freeing the Nile Galaxy.
There were, however, two chinks in the armor of this scheduling.
First: the mission's rendezvous time was still a few hours off, meaning that initiating full prep too soon could actually backfire in terms of results.
And second: the mission's team leader still had homework to catch up on.
Cleopatra sat in the coach of the starship, legs bunched up against herself, poring over her tab's holographic display as figures and shapes projected from it. After several, several moments of staring, then moving those same figures and shapes around with her fingers, she finally huffed in frustration.
Why were there so many numbers? Why were there so many variables, so many unknowns? They were like invading armies marching towards her brain—and while a part of that metaphor certainly appealed to Cleo, Princess of Ancient Egypt Who'd Totally Been Studying Battle Stuff Before Being Zapped Into the Future Without Anyone Asking Her Permission…
…yeah, she definitely preferred her engagements to be one-on-one, up close and personal. And with a plasma staff.
As it stood, her thoughts were translated into miniature battle cries as she struggled to figure out what x, y and z were supposed to be this time. Her grunts increased in volume as she tapped away at the assignment on her tab, until finally, with gritted teeth, she let out an extra-loud growl, her entire body heating up as x, in particular, continued to not play nice.
"I know those guttural sounds all too well," Pharaoh Yosira said, emerging from the rear of the ship where she'd been taking inventory of supplies. She joined Cleo on the cushions of the ship's back benches, sitting beside her. "What troubles you, dear Cleo?"
"It's the wrong number again! Uggghhh!" Cleo closed her tab, flopping backwards against the back of the bench. "You know what the crazy thing is? I don't actually hate math. I like making all the numbers do what I want, and I like that there's a correct answer to almost everything. It makes me feel cool and powerful when I solve a problem—and also, once I have the right answer, I don't have to think about it anymore. I can just move on. Which is great."
Yosira nodded with a small smile. "So, what's the problem?"
Cleo sat up. "Back in Ancient Egypt, math was already a super huge and complicated subject. It always took me the longest out of all my studies. But now? Now I've got 300 more centuries of this stuff to catch up on!"
"Not all 300," Yosira suggested with a raised index finger. "What we've recovered since the Blight, I would say, only amounts to…" She cradled her chin on her fingers in thought. "…oh, 100 centuries at most."
Cleo gaped, curbing her reflexive urges to shake Yosira by the shoulders, because she knew her girlfriend was just trying to help but oh gosh why. She threw up her hands instead. "That's still 100 centuries of advancement that I just skipped! What, the universe couldn't have taken a break on this stuff for a while?" Cleo draped herself across Yosira's lap with a whimper, looking up at the other girl's quizzical expression. "Yosira, help me. Make a royal decree, or exemption, or something—just, anything so I don't have to spend my entire life catching up on studies!"
"I mean, studying is by far the bulk of my life," Yosira said, "and I like to think I turned out all right."
Cleo blinked.
"Eh-heh…" Yosira tittered. "That was a… joke."
"Yes," Cleo said. "Yes it was. And now that I've had to endure said joke, your payment is having to do my homework for me."
"Except absolutely not," Yosira said, "given that I favor, sponsor, and have final say in running the specific school that you attend."
Cleo let out her loudest groan yet.
"But!" Yosira said, holding up a helpful suggestive finger again, "I can tutor you, if you so wish?"
Cleo's face scrunched as she looked up at Yosira.
"W-w-what's wrong now?" Yosira asked.
"I mean…" Cleo blushed. "Sure, we've done the tutoring thing before. Lots of times." She blushed. "But lately, whenever we do, it always ends with us… you know. Kissing."
Yosira's face tinted in kind. "I… I-I mean, is that such a bad thing?"
Cleo darted up to a sitting position. "W-what? No way! I love it!" Then, she flopped back down again. "But my grades hate it."
"Hmmm. That is a very fair point that I never considered." A wide smile spread across Yosira's face. "Okay, then. No kissing. Only assignment."
"Wait, what? That's, like, the worst of both worlds!" Cleo wailed.
"I'm serious. The last thing either of us needs is for you to flunk out of my Academy. How would that look for either of us?" She placed a tender hand on Cleo's cheek, her voice turning breathy. "I care about you first and foremost, Cleopatra. Which means that there are times I am willing to put my… personal needs aside, to tend to yours—and by proxy, those of my galaxy."
Cleo let out a long sigh. "Always with the dumb 'love' stuff. It's a good thing you're good at it."
"Your presence, admittedly, makes it an effortless endeavor," Yosira said, her voice lilting almost in song.
"All right, that's laying it on a little thick." Cleo sat back up, her entire face now burning. "Let's just get this homework over with."
"Yes!" Yosira whooped, raising a fist in the air. "Let us homework until we drop!"
"Oh my gosh." Cleo re-opened her tab to her assignment. "We have got to find the personality mod that stops you from getting excited about every boring thing in the universe."
Yosira giggled. "Never. Okay, let's see…" she said, looking over Cleo's homework. "Goodness, Three-Dimension-Spatial Trigonometry! You know, I actually don't blame you for calling for help—this always wrecked me, too, until I got the hang of it."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." Yosira nodded. "I, too, may enjoy mathematics, but I will not lie, the road was rocky under the best of circumstances. If you could, allow me to witness your attempt at a solution first."
"Okay. But don't say I didn't warn you." Cleo pored over the holographic shapes in the air, and the variables hovering around them. All she had to do was find the numbers that would allow her to calculate their area, as well as join said shapes, while having little starting information to go on.
She did her best to recall her calculations, based on a combination of what she'd learned in Egypt, and what principles she'd managed to remember from her time at the Academy thus far. She performed said calculations to the letter of all the books she'd read, following memorized formulas, and using the process of elimination.
Soon, she arrived at values for every unknown variable in front of her. She tried the numbers she came up with, tapping them into the mid-air holograms with one finger.
The shapes shattered in front of her eyes—and Cleo could feel her own heart shatter with them.
"Oh, my," Yosira said, with a pensive gaze. "The shatter. It's been a while since I've seen that one. I hated it, too, if it's any consolation."
"Eh, it's fine, it's fine," Cleo said, rolling her eyes and growling. "It's not like this is always how it goes, or anything…"
Except it was always how it went. And every time it did, it taunted her, gnawed at the back of her soul, fed the voice that she always tried to keep at bay, making it stronger.
And even then, she could usually keep that voice in its place—but she'd just shown Yosira, the picture-perfect example of the young woman she was supposed to become, what a fraud she was.
And that just made Cleo extra mad.
It didn't matter that she knew that Yosira was forced into her role via Octavian's hostile takeover. It became impossible to focus on the reality of things as her feelings of inadequacy washed over her like a tsunami. Her growling became louder, her breathing deeper and more pronounced, until…
With a roar, Cleo leapt up into the middle of the area, picking up one of two plasma staves which had been resting on the other bench, and swung with all her might. It flared to life on both ends, just as Cleo's eyes did.
"…okay, no, forget what I just said!" Cleo yelled as she swung every which way. "I hate this! I hate this so much! I hate being just the 'fighty girl'! I mean, I love being the fighty girl, but I don't wanna just be known as the fighty girl! Fighty girls don't get respected! They don't get seen as smart! They don't get to be seen as team leaders! They get seen as unstable! Unreliable! Stupid! Here stands Cleopatra the Savior—shame about what an idiot she was!"
That last trio of words was punctuated by Cleo taking an extra-hard swing—a swing which was utterly blocked by Yosira intercepting it with her own staff, and standing firm. Yosira looked to be doing both effortlessly, as well.
"Yosira…" It was only then that Cleo became conscious of her heavy breathing, and realized that her voice had been cracking the entire time. "So-… sorry," she said, letting the now-deactivated staff clatter to the ground, and catching her breath in earnest.
Yosira gently placed her and Cleo's staves back on the far bench, and returned to Cleo with a smile. "It's quite all right," she said, her voice as soothing as a mother's. "May I suggest we try the problem again?"
"What's the point? If it isn't something I can hit," Cleo said, drooping, "I'm useless."
Yosira's smile persisted, and she winked. "Perhaps, perhaps not. But I wouldn't commit to such a statement just yet. Trust me on this."
Cleo blinked. "You're being weird again."
Yosira giggled, leading Cleo back to their seat. "Weird like a space fox?"
"I…" Cleo's mouth hung open. "I don't even know what that means." Still, she allowed Yosira to park her back on the bench, and bring the problem up again. The problem which, by now, she could hear laughing at her.
The shapes, the variables, the numbers, floated in front of her. She thought about retracing her steps through the principles and equations she'd learned, but as she did so, frustration seeped in as she felt herself working towards the exact same conclusions as last time.
What was she missing, here? What was she forgetting?
Heck, did she ever have it to begin with?
Subconsciously, she felt the growls bubbling up from the pit of her stomach again, felt her throat vibrating, felt her whole body shake…
…and then, felt Yosira's hands softly, gently, land on her shoulders.
"It is all right, Cleo," Yosira whispered in her ear, her hands sliding into a slow, squeezing knead. "I'm here. I'm with you."
"What…" Cleo whispered, looking low, and closing her eyes. "…what if even that's not enough?"
"We are always enough," Yosira replied, her kneads firming. "You are always enough. Your name is legend in my time. However, that name, that legend, will forever be only the smallest part of who you fully, truly, are, and what you are capable of. You control it—never the other way around. And ever since you arrived in person…" Yosira smiled. "…I've learned to appreciate the real thing far more than I ever could any myth."
"Yosira…" The words were a balm over Cleo's heart, chasing as much fear away as it could. She looked back at Yosira with shining, hopeful eyes, and a smile to match. "Thank you. That means a lot to me."
In reply, Yosira powered on her own tab, pressed some icons… and the soothing sounds of a waterfall sounded around the ship, taking Cleo back to the last time she'd used Replicamp's Simchamber to relax after a hard day of combat practice. Callie had been there too, relaxing with her at a riverbank, after volunteering to act as her training dummy and totally not being a formidable warrior in her own right who Cleo had just barely managed to hold her own against. Nope.
Cleo felt Yosira cuddle close to her, hearing her speak softly once more. "One of the best ways to facilitate the mind to do its best, in study or recreation, is to have the right combination of environment and perspective." Yosira chuckled. "Contrary to popular belief, I do get bored and restless with my studies, just like anyone else."
"Citation… needed," Cleo said, sighing and leaning back into Yosira.
"Trust required," Yosira said back. "When you have the fate of an entire galaxy weighing on your shoulders, on your heart… tranquility comes at a premium. Thus, in response, I employed every trick in the book to help myself focus, to eliminate distractions, to allow myself to feel peace. It was a long journey, but very worth it, because only then was I able to focus on what I truly enjoyed about whatever I was doing.
"For example… oh, this is going to sound incredibly silly," Yosira continued, with a shaky laugh, "but whenever doing 3DS-trig, I always liked to picture such shapes as… well, territories. And instead of numbers, I always imagined little soldiers, either marching towards me, challenging me to overcome them in a safe space… or even better, willing to follow my every command."
Cleo gasped.
She didn't think it was possible for her heart to swell even more towards the girl behind her, but here she was, that was exactly what was happening, and she was doing her best not to loudly squeal about it. "W-wait, seriously?" Cleo said, her eyes and mouth agape.
"I-I mean, I told you it was silly," Yosira said, with a meek blush.
"No!" Cleo turned around completely, sitting on her heels and clutching the pharaoh's shoulders. "It's not silly at all! At least, not to me! Yosira, everything you just said, that's me, too! With the soldiers, and the territories, a-and… I do the same stuff! I didn't think anyone else would get that!"
Yosira's eyes widened, and Cleo heard her make the tiniest of gasps, her face morphing from embarrassment, to amazement, to a muted, but visibly present, happiness. "The legends always did say you were quite the learned tactician…" Yosira said, fingers to her chin in thought.
"I don't know about all that," Cleo said, "but, my dad was always telling me about Egypt's great battles, and all the intricacies around how they were won, or lost, and I loved that stuff! So many times, alone in my room at night, I'd picture myself as…" It was Cleo's turn to blush. "Like, some kind of cool commander, with those same armies behind me. Except, I dunno, they'd all love me 'cause they'd think I was really nice." Cleo giggled.
Yosira giggled back. "Goodness. We are of same mind, to a scary extent, sometimes."
"Right?" Cleo said, excitement long having crept into her voice. "Didn't expect that commander's urge out of you, though, Little Miss Diplomacy." She smiled wide, with a teasing wink.
"O-oh…" It was a blushing war, now, and Yosira's cheek turned completely crimson. "Come now, Cleo. I certainly do enjoy my diplomatic reputation, but you already know full well my… other callings." She rolled her eyes. "Sometimes it's hard to not think that Octavian has all the fun."
"Yeah, it's getting easier and easier to see why he's such a jokey, fun-loving guy. But…" Cleo's voice turned serious. "There is a danger to dreaming about having that kind of power, isn't it? Like, we don't want to become what we're fighting."
"Indeed." Yosira nodded. "You have the absolute right of it. Which is why we always seek out peaceful recourse, first and foremost, to any conflict that crosses our paths."
Yosira turned to the starship's window, placing her hand on it and staring out into the expanse of the Nile Galaxy. Cleo thought she heard the tiniest huff from her—a huff which spoke volumes, a huff that was more forlorn than the melancholiest ballad.
"And yet, Cleo…" Yosira's voice was hollow as she scanned the stars. "Sometimes, needs must—such as when innocent people, when whole civilizations, are hurting, all to serve a single despot's individual desires. When families die, or are torn apart, because that individual has a universally warped sense of order and justice, and detests any form of contention against it."
Yosira closed her eyes.
"Sometimes, it's understandable to want power. The power to remove the danger as quickly as possible. To stop it from spreading. To stop the pain, everywhere you see, that you feel otherwise powerless to heal."
Yosira was trembling now. As quickly as she could, Cleo scooted up, sitting on her heels, and turned Yosira's face towards hers, stroking Yosira's cheek.
"Hey," Cleo said. "It's gonna be okay. We'll make sure of it. You and I, our friends, PYRAMID, our planetary alliances… we'll always be enough. And we'll win." She hesitated for a second—then, with steeled nerves and an expression to match, she added, "On my name, I promise we will. You will never have to heal this galaxy alone."
With moist eyes, Yosira continued to look directly into Cleo's… until she finally nodded, taking a very, very deep breath… and exhaling just as slowly.
"I'm so glad you're here," Yosira whispered, wrapping Cleo in a soft, shaky embrace.
"So am I," Cleo said, hugging back.
The sounds of the waterfall, on their own, shifted to light, airy music, relaxing both girls' moods as they stayed together, their hearts slowly relaxing. Before long, a tone sounded over the music, letting them know that they now had ninety minutes left until rendezvous.
Cleo and Yosira took one last deep breath each before parting. "I suppose one needs such moments every once in a while," Yosira said.
Cleo nodded. "Definitely. I almost want to go back to that dumb math problem now."
"Speaking of wanting armies," Yosira returned to Cleo's side. "Forget universal conquest, or even healing—sometimes you're simply staring down the worst kind of assignment that my faculty can impart upon you, and need any sort of advantage you can get."
"Don't you have final say on the curriculum?" Cleo asked with a slanted grin.
"We can talk semantics later," Yosira said quickly. "Much later. However, since it's confirmed that we speak the same mathematical language, let's do so." The two shifted to sitting normally on the bench, their legs over the front. Yosira tapped Cleo's tab, bringing the assignment back up, and draped her arm around the princess.
"Tell me, Cleopatra…" Yosira said, bringing her girlfriend close, "…what do you see in your commander's eye?"
"I see…"
Cleo closed her eyes—and the moment she did so, she saw the shapes, still in her mind, as if they were perfect carbon copies. But in her mind, she could actually manipulate them the way she wanted, twirling them around, examining them to their fullest, finding their crevices…
…finding their weak spots.
Cleo heard sounds—and looked behind herself, too see a legion of soldiers behind her, wearing traditional battle cloths, armed with spears, shields, bows, axes, and all other manner of defense and offense.
Her friends among them—Akila, Brian, Zaid, Khensu, even Callie—up front dressed in the same…
And beside her… Yosira, dressed similarly to Cleo, Pharoahs, commanders of the past and future, united.
Cleo opened her eyes.
As before, the soldiers from elsewhere came.
But she wasn't afraid anymore.
The enemy army was populated in the numbers that the problem provided, and Cleo saw them fill the spaces of each territory to the shapes' exact boundaries—no more, no less.
They weren't just numbers anymore. They weren't just degrees, or even shapes. They were real. They were in front of her.
Meaning, they were something Cleo could work with.
The principles, the formulas, that she'd learned, weren't useless. They'd simply been applied to her incorrectly. She spoke a different language, one far more complex and heartfelt than the world's mathematicians, across all of time, could possibly follow.
She tapped virtual keys on the projection in front of her, and completely different numbers from the ones she usually arrived at were what manifested this time. Both armies clashed—the shapes as the theaters, the numbers as the warriors, variables as every single thing that could possibly go wrong or right.
And this time, they went right. The areas, calculated as easily as she could visualize them. The numbers, shorthand for what she had to work with. And the variables… unknowns no longer.
She heard Yosira's voice, echoing in the background in the midst of combat.
"How do the problem's elements work together? How do you achieve mastery over them?"
Slowly but surely, Cleo's armies overwhelmed the assignment's. The variables, x, y, and z, on every shape, all fell to her tactical, calculative prowess. With a flourish, she pressed the final icon to submit her answer.
This time, instead of shattering, the shapes glowed green, rotating and joining together to form a single sphere. A green check mark superimposed itself over the proceedings.
"Oh… oh, my gosh. I solved it." With a huge grin, Cleo turned to her girlfriend. "Yosira, I solved it! I'm not hopeless after all!"
Yosira chuckled. "Indeed, you did solve it. And no, you never were, but I understand how you felt as you struggled." She firmed her one-armed embrace, bringing Cleo close. "You are capable of so much, Cleo. But you still have to get there first, and none of the legends I've read, including the many more available before the Blight, ever said you were an island unto yourself—much the opposite, in fact.
"That said…" Yosira rose from the bench, looking at Cleo with wide-eyed awe. "You were quite beyond impressive just now. Even I struggle to concentrate as well as I saw you doing, and your hands moved almost as if possessed. It was almost as if you were practicing battle moves… just on a homework assignment instead of a fellow academy student."
"It did feel like a battle, in my mind," Cleo said, standing up as well. "It was a total rush. And… maybe that's okay."
"Different people approach and solve problems in different ways," Yosira said. "It would appear that you enjoy your tactics with a little adrenaline, and your combat with a little foresight. From where I'm standing…" She took Cleo's hand in hers. "…that sounds like wisdom. Dare I even say, legendary wisdom."
"Legendary wisdom," Cleo said, bringing her face close, "that I would never have gained alone."
In moments, Cleo and Yosira's lips were joined in jubilation. Yosira's hands let go of Cleo's, sliding up to her shoulders and locking around the back of her neck as they pressed their bodies, and tongues, together. They kissed now for as long as they'd embraced before, the soft music still playing, punctuating the tender, perfect moment.
"I…" Yosira managed breathlessly once they parted, "…I thought we agreed to no more kissing while studying?"
"That was then." Cleo's smile was Cheshire. "Now? I think I can handle both."