Brixey grined and followed her out and up the stairs. They walked to their children's room. Karen's door had a pink sign bearing her name. Koji's was in blue. Brixey went to Karen and Jordana went to Koji. Brixey opened the door to Karen's room. The room was lit softly by a nightlight. Stuffed animals and dolls littered the floor. Lying on the bed was his daughter, fast asleep. Her walked over, stroking his daughter's brown hair. She looked so much like him. Same heart shaped face, blue eyes, hair. Same willowly frame, long fingers. She was a beautiful child.

She woke up, her long eyelashes fluttering open. "Daddy," she murmured."Wake up, care bear," said Brixey, lifting his daughter up. She rubbed her eyes and asked "What's happening?" Brixey held his daughter to his chest so that her head lolled against his shoulder."Mommy and I did it, care bear. We're going to another world."

~
Two years later, on the anniversery of his wife's death and three days after his daughter's second birthday, the man sat at his desk, scribbling rapidly in a leather bound journal. His toddler daughter sat on the ground in front of his desk, banging on a pot with a spoon. She looked up at him and asked "Daddy?"

The man looked down at her. She had her mothers eyes. "Yes?"he replied. The girl shook her head and continued to bang on her pot. The man smiled wistfully, sadness creeping into his eyes. She reminded him so much of her mother, Saila. And that was exactly why she must be sent away.

Well, he argued with himself, maybe that's not the only reason why. What he was doing... he looked around his study, at the evidence work. What he was doing was dangerous. He wasn't going to loose another loved one. He slammed the journal shut. The lock clicked.
~

"Don't worry, my brave boy," assured Jordana into her son's hair."Marny's here to take care of you. And Daddy and I will be back soon." Koji was bawling and wouldn't let go of his mother. It was the next morning, the morning after the breakthrough. Jordana and Brixey were going to step through that portal and into another world any minute now.

Karen watched her parents while she clung to her nursemaid, Marny's, skirt. Her eyes were sad, tinged with a tiny bit of anger. Brixey glanced over and saw his daughter cowering behind the overweight caretaker. He walked over, kneeling to her level. She bit her lip and stepped over, further hiding herself from her father. Brixey frowned and reached out for a hug, but Karen twisted away from his touch."Oh, care bear. We're coming back, I swear." No answer, just staring. She was a bit too old, but she stuck her thumb in her mouth. Nervous tic. "I'll tell you what," said Brixey, still crouching and resting his hands on his knees. "I'll bring you a present back, okay?"

Karen looked at him warily but nodded. Brixey nodded as well and one again held out his arms for a hug. This time, Karen ran into his arms. Brixey held his only daughter tightly, kissing her hair. When he let her go, she instantly went back to Marny. Jordana finally managed to wrench away from Koji and Brixey went over to her. They stood by the machine and looked at each other. Jordana smiled gently. "It's now or never," she said.

Brixey nodded once aand walked to the computer. Koji ran crying to his sister, who held his hand. Jordana hovered by the machine. She looked once more at her children and murmured, so that no one heard her, "For them. So they won't be crushed by this world...like I was..." Then, she looked at her husband. "Commence data feed."

"Commencing data feed," said Brixey, tapping on the keyboard."Sending data." Jordana closed her eyes, long lashed resting on her cheeks. Then, she turned her head, opening her eyes and taking a deep breath. The machine's screen flashed from the blue standby to the opertating green screen. "Receiving data," she said, shakily. There was a teeny bell chime. Jordana grinned. "Data retrievel sucessful. Commence cross-over stage two."

Brixey walked over as Jordana tapped the screen. The portal glowed red, and Jordana checked a digital thermomater on the screen."Temperature rising. Ten degrees farenheit to stage three." They watched the thermomater rise, the number flicking on the screen. When it reached the proper temperature, Brixey said "Commence crossover stage three."

Jordana grabbed Brixey's hand and they looked to their children. Brixey winked at his daughter and they stepped through the portal.

~
You can imagine Squall Leonheart's(aka Leon) surprise when two people literally popped out of thin air right in front of him. A man with spiky borwn hair and glasses, wearig a green turtle neck and stark white lab coat, looked around, stunned. There was a woman standing next to him, clinging to him. She had long blond hair and pretty green hairs. She also wore a lab coat and was equally stunned. They noticed Squall then.

The man said "Uh...where are we? What is this place?" Leon answered slowly and warily. "Radiant...Garden." "Radiant Garden," repeated the woman, awed. "That sounds lovely." "Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you here?" asked Squall, crossing his arms defensively. The people were very polite and reasonable about the whole thing.

"Oh. My name is Dr. Brixey Kano, and this is my wife, Jordana. We're from a place called Traverse Town," explained the man. He tried to explain how they got there, but Leon stopped him, putting up a hand. "Come with me," he said. Ansem needed to meet these people, for sure.

Ansem the Wise welcomed Brixey and Jordana with open arms, eager to get to know these people from another world. They sat in Ansem's study, talking while taking notes. There were hot beverages, coffee and tea, but nobody touched them. The three scientists scrabbled pages upon pages of nots on yellow legal pads.

"So, Mrs. Kano, tell me more about this...teleportation device of yours," asked Ansem, his pen poised over the paper. Jordana coughed gently, smiled proudly and said "Actually, I'm Dr. Kano, as well.My machine isn't really a teleportation device... it's more like a...well, I don't really know how to explain.Would you like to see the blue prints? Maybe that would help clear things up."

Ansem nodded, and while she dug around in her bag for the prints, she explained "It has a sort of...defense mechanism. It's programmed to pull us back to our world in one week, but it can be reprogrammed once we go back. Brixey can do that, he's the only one who can." She found the plans and slid them over the desk to Ansem. "Keep them. They're just copies." She grasped Brixey's hand while Ansem studied.

"These are...astounding," said Ansem, breathlessly. "I have to admit, we're surpised this worked," said Brixey. "So am I," added Ansem with a chuckle. He put down the papers. "But we have plenty of time to talk about science. Please...I'm curious. Tell me about yourself."

Brixey and Jordana both smiled. "Well," Brixey started, "We live in the third district or Traverse Town. We have two children. A daughter, Karen, who's six. And Koji, our son. He's four." Tears formed in Jordana's eyes as she remembered departing from her home and leaving her children. She reached for the untouched coffe and sipped from the mug, she she spit it out discreetly. Cold coffee, disgusting.

"What about you? Do you have any family?" asked Brixey. Ansem smiled sadly and said "My people are my family, Dr. Kano." Brixey regretted asking, sensing something deeper. He aplogized, but Ansem waved him away. He stood. "I'll have my staff find a place for you to stay.We can talk more tomorrow. I'm exhausted, all though I can't say the same you."

Brixey and Jordana stood and Jordana said "Now that you mention it, I am really tired." Ansem lead them out.

You can choose many of our Free Tools to enhance your site! Add as many as you like! Get a Hit Counter, Guestbook, Message Board, Email Form, Minipoll, Web Journal, or any of Bravenet's other great Tools and Services to make your Site fun and interactive.

Finally, don't forget to join the Bravenet Affiliate Program and earn money everytime you send somebody to join Bravenet.

PART I: Breakthrough

He'd met when they when they were both in college. She was beautiful, smart, funny...and very intelligent. It was love at first sight. And now, here he was. Married to the love of his life, Jordana, and standing in the middle of the study in his home. Their son,Koji,was playing on the floor. Their daughter, Karen, was doing addition worksheets at the desk.

There was a knock on the door. The two children squealed with delight. "Mommy," they shriekedas a lovely blond walked into the room. They hopped up and clung to their mother, Jordana. She smiled broadly, and patted her children's hair. She looked up at her husband and said "All right kiddos, time for bed."

The two children groaned but ran off to brush their teeth. Jordana walked over to her husband, who took her into his arms, kissing her on the forehead. She laughed and rested her head on his chest. "Okay, let's get to work, Brixey," she said, pulling away and walking over to the desk. She didn't wear a labcoat, unusual for work time.

Brixey was wearing his lab coat, and he pulled out a pair of eyeglasses, putting them on. He sat down at another desk in front of a computer, pulling out a keyboard on a rolling shelf. He felt Jordana's hands on his shoulders and he smiled, looking up at her. "Looks like...we're pulling another all nighter," she murmured, playing with a lock of his chocolate brown hair. "We're so close to a break through, Jordana... I can feel it. I can almost...taste it."

Jordana laughed. "You haven't been licking those computer screens again, have you, Brixey? Silly man," she said, tussling his hair. Brixey chuckled loud and hard. But then they were all work. Brixey clicked away at his keyboard, his long pianist's fingers giving life to the long mathematic equations on the screen.

Jordana walked over to a white lumpy ...thing in the corner of the room. It was a machine covered by a sheet. She ripped the sheet off, folding it neatly and putting it on the desk. She smiled, put her hands on her hips and looked at her life's work. Her most perfect, important achievement... besides her two darling children of course. She pulled a rubber hand from her wrist and wrapped it around her blond hair, keeping it away from her face so she could work.

She grabbed a screw driver from the desk and started working, biting her lip as she tightened things, moved things, loosened things. Nearly twenty years of work had propelled them this far. All they needed was a few safety precautions and...well, Brixey was the math genius. His job was to find the right formula to make the progam to make Jordana's machine work. He was the brain of this team. So was Jordana, but her speciality was mechanics. She was the brain, the beauty and the brawn.

~
She wasn't supposed to die on him like this. He refused to believe she was actually lying there in that bed, her death bed, burning with the fever that was killing her slowly, painfully. She was supposed to be all smiles on this, the happiest day of her life, and it disturbed him deeply to her face contorted in pain. The birth of their first child, a precious daughter. This was supposed to a supremely joyful occasion. But now, sitting here, holding his small, precious, oh, so fragile child in his arms... she seemed so...helpess. Defenseless. It made him sad to see anything this helpless.

The door cracked open, and the man looked to the side. He was jumpy, afraid that at any moment Death would walk through that door and leave again, with his wife and child. But, it was just a nurse, coming to tend to the sick woman in the bed. She looked at the man in the chair next to the bed and asked "Would you like me to take her, Master?" "No! No... the child stays with me. Saila's time is near. I think she should be with her daughter in her final moments"

The nurse frowned. "All right. If that's what you want, Master."
~

Brixey and Jordana would never forget the night, the exact moment all of their work came together. The breakthrough they'd been praying for for nearly twenty years. It happened in the evening. Brixey's startingly blue eyes were glued to the computer screen, his fingers a blur on the keyboard. His eyes burned but he didn't blink. All he needed was that one variable...

He stopped, feeling defeated. He blinked, pulling his glasses off and wiping them with his sweater. He was cold, so he went to go turn up the heat. Jordana walked in, her blond hair slightly mussed. Her cheecks were flushed, and she was smiling. Brixey was frowning and staring at the thermostat, mesmerized by the numbers.

After watching numbers for hours, they didn't even seem like numbers anymore. They were more like ancient runes, or some alien language that defied translation. Jordana slid her arms around his neck. "Still working," she sighed. She yawned. "What are you staring at? Is the thermostat broken?"

Suddenly, inside Brixey's head, a miracle occured. All of the numbers and letters and symbols finally came together. His eyes widened behind the glass panes of his glasses. He threw Jordana's arms off and flew back to the desk. He didn't even bother sitting. He just kicked the chair out of the way and hit his knees. He didn't breathe, didn't blink.

Jordana was by his side in an instant, her brown eyes wide with wonder. "Brixey," she said, her voice shaking with excitement. "What's happening?" Brixey didn't answer. He stood up, grabbing the wires that would connect the computer to Jordana's machine. He shoved them at Jordana and said "Hook it up."

Jordana snatched the wires from her husband and ran to the machine. Brixey turned back to the computer, his finger hovering over the "enter" button. Jordana turned to him and nodded. Brixey took a deep breath and...pressed...the...button.

"Sending data," he breathed. Jordana checked the machine's display screen. "Data...received? Oh my... oh my gosh. Data received!" she squeaked. The machine, with a few electric sparks, buzzed to life. The portal they would step through glowed red. They couldn't move, breathe or speak. Was their work, finally complete? Brixey took off his glasses. Jordana reached out and touched the metal hardware of the portal. She recoiled, exclaiming "It's hot! Oh my gosh, Brixey, it's hot! The metal is hot, oh my word, oh my... I can't wait to try!"

She shucked her lab coat, throwing it on the desk. She was about to step through but Brixey grabbed her shoulder. "The children," he said. Jordana frowned."I'm sorry," she apologized. "How could I forget Karen and Koji" "It's fine, my love. I'm excited, too." "Let's go wake them," already going out of the door.