This fiction is about how an incident with Washu provokes
one of Ryoko's most hidden memories.
Since I don't want anyone to get upset, I'll tell you right now that I
rated this pg-13 b/c of some mention of rape.
Sorry if I did a bad job with the rating…I figure nobody really pays
much attention to it anyway. Well,
enjoy!
Ryoko's Past
Ryoko gulped down
another saucer of sake and turned the page of the latest romance comic she had
swiped from Sasami. Though she would never
admit it, she secretly loved the romances that Sasami, Mihoshi, and Ayeka
always read.
"It's
that stupid Zero," Ryoko muttered to herself. But even she knew that wasn't
exactly true. Zero had only allowed
Ryoko to be more honest to herself about her own feelings. When they first assimilated, Ryoko found she
was expressing feelings that she had hidden for thousands of years. Even now, when she had begun to regain some
control, she could not deny herself these silly comics.
Ryoko
poured herself another cup of sake and concentrated on the comic. She had to return this to Sasami and Ayeka's
room before one of them noticed it was gone.
"I
wish winning Tenchi's love was this easy," Ryoko thought, smiling at the happy
faces of the two lovers in the comic.
"Whatcha
got there, Ryoko?" Ryoko instantly
dropped the comic and whipped around, igniting her energy sword. Washu grinned cheekily from her perch and
waved.
"My, aren't we jumpy today!"
"What do you want, MOM?" Ryoko released the sword and regarded Washu
with mistrust.
"I just wanna run some wittle tiny
weeny experiments!"
"Uh-uh, no way! I'm not going anywhere near that lab."
"Oh, you're sooo mean!"
"Huh, I'm mean! Maybe you don't remember what
happened last time, but I do. There's
no way I'm going in there again."
"Not even for…your gems?" Washu raised an eyebrow and took on a more
serious tone.
"That's ridiculous. Tenchi has the other gems, and not even you
can retrieve them from the sword if he doesn't want you to." Washu sighed in exasperation.
"But if I could
convince Tenchi to give you your gems, would you promise to let me perform a
couple experiments?" Ryoko remained
silent. "I know you feel their absence
like a missing limb, Ryoko. I can get
them for you," Washu continued, "You would be able to blow Ayeka away without a
second thought."
"I can do that now!" Ryoko snapped. Washu shrugged,
"That's true enough," she admitted,
then grinned widely. "You could protect
Tenchi more easily. Remember what
happened the last couple times?" Ryoko
winced, taking a long drink from the bottle of sake.
"First, he dies chasing after you,
and then you turn around and try to kill him!"
"That wasn't me, it was Zero!" Ryoko shouted hotly and glared at Washu, who
smiled back innocently.
"All I'm saying is —"
"Alright, alright," Ryoko sighed,
"You've made your point. But what makes
you think you can succeed with Tenchi where I have failed?" Washu chuckled.
"Do you really want me to answer
that?" Without waiting for a response, Washu
leaped off of the beam and landed on the couch below. "Oh, and Ryoko?" Ryoko
peered down at her. "Shall I return
this to Sasami now?" Washu held up the
comic, laughing hysterically. Ryoko
felt herself blushing wildly, and made a sound of disgust before phasing onto
the roof with her bottle of sake
"Dammit Washu," Ryoko growled
softly under her breath, "you had better not be trying to trick me."
* *
* *
Washu bounded up
the stairs to Tenchi's room, a satisfied smirk fixed on her face. If she just played the right cards, she could
get Ryoko to do just about anything.
She stood in front of Tenchi's door and tried to appear serious before
knocking.
"Come in!" Tenchi called.
"Hi there, Tenchi," Washu said
brightly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her.
"Uh, hi Washu, what can I do for you?"
Tenchi responded, unable to keep a note of nervousness from his voice.
"Don't worry, Tenchi. I'm here purely for business."
"What's up?"
"Well, it has to do with Ryoko's
gems. I need you to give them back to
her."
"What!? I don't know if that's such a good idea, Washu."
"Oh, don't worry, I only need them
for a little while, just so I can run an experiment. After that, you can take them away from her again!"
"But-"
"Please, Tenchi! It's really important! I promise I won't let her blow-up anything."
"I guess if it's only for a little
while…"
"Great! You're the best Tenchi."
Washu looked at him slyly.
"Well, now that the business is over, maybe we can…" Washu shot up into
her adult form. "Have some fun!"
"Ahhh, Washu please –" Tenchi
inched backwards, a familiar panic starting to surface.
"Lord Tenchi is anything…Miss
Washu! How dare you? Leave Tenchi alone!" Ayeka stood fuming in the doorway, glaring
daggers at Washu.
"All right, I'm going, I'm going,"
Washu protested, reverting back to her more commonly seen child form. "Be sure to meet me down in the lab in a few
minutes, Tenchi. And don't forget the
sword!" Washu inched past Ayeka and
made her way down to her lab.
* *
* *
'Ryoko…'
Ryoko muttered and shifted in her sleep.
'Ryoko…wakie, wakie, eggs and bakie!' Ryoko clenched her jaw and began to snore lightly. 'RYOKO WAKE UP!' Ryoko screamed and
sat up quickly, clutching her head.
"What the hell did you do that
for! I thought I cut off that stupid
link."
'I heard that!'
'Who says you weren't supposed
to?'
'I need you in the lab, pronto.'
'I thought I already told you I
wasn't going in there.'
'Yeah, unless I got Tenchi to
give you back your gems.'
"You…convinced Tenchi?'
'Sure did! Remember, now you can protect him in the
future. Show him how much he means to
you!'
'I…I'm coming.'
Ryoko phased from
the roof to in front of Washu's lab door, sake bottle still in hand. She had thankfully remembered not to try to
phase directly into the lab, thus avoiding serious injury from Washu's
shield. Ryoko emptied the sake bottle
in one swing and threw it to the side, before entering the lab.
The
room she entered was friendly enough.
Exotic plants were hung randomly around the spacious interior, floating
freely, and a small waterfall cascaded into a shallow pond decorated with
stepping-stones and lily pads. Lush
green grass carpeted the 'floor', and a neat sidewalk twisted around the area,
eventually leading to a blue metal door, located on the opposite side of the
room. Tenchi waved uncertainly from his
post beside that door.
Ignoring
the orderly winding sidewalk, Ryoko eagerly floated across the grass in a
straight line for Tenchi.
"Tenchi!" She greeted him happily, delicately floating back to the ground
once she reached him.
"Hi Ryoko." Tenchi smiled nervously, stepping out of her
reach and pulling the door open. "Washu
wanted us in this room." Ryoko peered
inside, trying to hide her fear. This room
was much darker and filled with cold, dull metal. She didn't like it at all; it reminded her of that cave. "Ryoko?"
Tenchi was searching her face worriedly. "Are you okay?" Ryoko
shook off her suspicions. Tenchi was
with her; there was nothing to worry about.
"Tenchi! I didn't realize you cared so much." Ryoko gave him a confident smile, and walked through the door,
not in the mood to tease and flirt with him.
"Ah, there you two are!" Washu began to type rapidly on her
holo-top. "I presume you know what to
do, Tenchi?"
"Uh, yes," Tenchi replied hastily,
pulling the sword out of his pant's pocket.
Ryoko practically glowed with anticipation, stretching out her hands so
that her wrists faced upwards. Tenchi
held the sword with its hilt pointed toward Ryoko, and closed his eyes. The two remaining gems began to glow as he
prayed for them to return to Ryoko. The
glow increased to a blindingly white light as they disappeared from the sword
and reappeared on Ryoko's right wrist and throat. Ryoko gasped slightly, then sighed with pleasure at the warmth
spreading through her body. She finally
felt complete.
"Tenchi…" She breathed, her eyes
filling with tears. "Tenchi, I want
to…I want to thank you. Thank you so
much for trusting me, Tenchi. I never
imagined you would-"
"Yeah, yeah. That's enough of that, Ryoko," Washu
interrupted guiltily. "It's time for
that experiment you promised me."
"Now?" Ryoko asked in dismay.
"Can't it wait one more night?"
Tenchi looked at her, confused.
"But you have to do it now-" He
began.
"Yes now Ryoko!" Washu snapped hastily.
"Okay…I guess I owe you that much,"
Ryoko responded graciously. She refused
to let anything bring her down right now.
She could even stand being nice to Washu.
"Good. Now get on that metal table over there." Ryoko floated over to it and lay down. Her arms and legs were instantly clamped
down to the table.
"Hey! What the-"
"Calm down, Ryoko. They are necessary to hold you in place when
the table moves into a vertical position."
Washu pressed a button on her keyboard and the table raised, stopping
when completely upright.
"They're awfully tight," Ryoko
grumbled, testing their strength. "So
what kind of tests will you be running, anyway? I don't - " Ryoko's scream reverberated throughout the lab as
electrical currents ran through her body.
"Washu! What are you doing?
You're hurting her!" Tenchi
yelled, running over to her.
"What? Oh, Tenchi…you're still
here?" Ryoko's screams died away as
Washu paused her experiment. "Don't
worry…I'll return those gems to you as soon as I'm finished!"
"Tenchi?" Ryoko called out weakly, her voice breaking. "You never trusted me at all! I thought you finally saw me as a person,
not a monster. You were simply helping
Washu get me into the lab…I was going to protect you with these gems! I only wanted to help you…." Her voice
continued to get weaker as she tried to hold back tears. The burning in the back of her throat grew
as she bowed her head, tears sliding down her face and sobs racking her body.
"Ryoko, no," Tenchi whispered,
anguish filling his voice. "I had no
idea, I swear. Please, Ryoko! Stop crying, listen to me!" He stepped closer, hesitantly bringing up a
hand to touch her face. Ryoko instantly
jerked away from him, twisting her head to one side. Her breath came out in ragged, painful gasps and she squeezed her
eyes shut to stop the flow of tears.
"Ryoko don't!" Tenchi cried,
letting his hand drop to his side. "I'm
so-" Ryoko let out another bloodcurdling scream as Washu reactivated her
machine.
"Sorry Tenchi, but I've got to get
this show on the road!" Tenchi whipped
around, his face radiating anger.
"Why are you doing this, Washu?"
"Why?" She blinked rapidly. "For
science, of course! I'm doing some further
testing on the power of Ryoko's gems, her tolerance for pain, oh, and I really
want to figure out how Kagato was able to control her like that. You know, I never did find out, and being
the genius that I am, it should be a piece of cake for me!" Ryoko's body writhed in pain as she clenched
her teeth and tried to suppress her screams.
Tenchi ran over to Washu's holo-top and slammed his fist down.
"You have to stop this, Washu!"
"Ahhh! Tenchi, what the hell are you doing? You're going to cause a system overload, which in turn will
result in an-" Ryoko's screams reached a new pitch as the electrical current
intensified, ending in a dull boom as the clamps holding Ryoko to the table
popped off. "-explosion." Washu finished. Ryoko had slid down to the floor and was now unconscious, resting
in a sitting position with her back up against the cold metal table. Tenchi ran over to her and grasped her by
the shoulders, shaking her slightly.
"Wake-up, Ryoko! Come on, please, get up!" Ryoko stirred and lifted her head, raising
her eyes to meet his. Tenchi smiled at
her, bringing his hand up unconsciously to brush a strand of hair from her
face.
"No!" She screamed in terror.
"Please, don't! I'm so sorry…I
won't fail next time," Ryoko pleaded, throwing her arms up to cover her
face.
"Ryoko," Tenchi said
helplessly. "What are you…?" Ryoko
cowered away from him.
"Give me another chance to prove myself. I promise I won't fail again Kagato.
Okay, that's it for now.
Please review…I would welcome any suggestions, and tolerate criticism
(as long as it's constructive). Oh,
sorry if you think I'm being too mean to Washu. I really do like her, I just think she's completely insensitive
to Ryoko.
