Chapter 12
"Zero!"
In the darkness of the Masaki home, Zero sat bolt upright, her lilac eyes opening wide in surprise and alarm as Dr Clay's voice rang through her databanks.
"Zero, I await your report! What have you to tell me?"
"Dr Clay." Zero frowned, pushing back the blanket that had covered her slim form and carefully stepping out of bed, getting to her feet and moving to the window. The room was small - barely more than a boxroom - but it had been more space than she had ever been given to herself before, and even though she knew it was all part of an elaborate hoax, she had hoped that maybe life would continue this way for days and weeks to come, while Tenchi believed she was Yume, and everyone in the mountains treated her so well.
In a matter of words, Dr Clay had managed to shatter those hopes into bare, cold reality and she stifled an involuntary shiver, gazing up at the stars as she contemplated what she could tell him.
"Do you have the samples Tokimi requires?" Clay seemed to find the silence too long, for his voice was rich with impatience. "Zero, you have never failed me yet. Don't make this your first time."
"I have not failed you, Dr Clay." Zero said stiffly. "The woman known as Washu has her laboratory sealed here on the Planet Earth. I have learnt that she is fond of experimenting, and that she has taken genetic samples from Tenchi Masaki Jurai as well as from her daughter, Ryoko Hakubi. I have not been able to acquire the samples because Washu-san has only just retired to bed. But I am ready to retrieve them now. I will go at once."
"Good girl." Clay's voice seemed to relax at this. "You are right to exercise caution around that viper Professor Hakubi. She is not to be trusted under any circumstances, Zero. Do not let her discover your true errand on the Earth."
"I will not be discovered." Zero said frankly. "My duplications are perfect. You made me to be that way."
"Yes, I did, but Washu has ways and means..." Clay responded. "She always did know too much. Just take care, Zero. You are only a machine and you can't possibly hope to comprehend how a woman like Washu operates. Find the samples and then I can withdraw you from that worthless rock. Tokimi will reward me well for our work here, and you can return to my laboratory safely."
"Yes, Dr Clay." Zero bit her lip.
"Zero?" Clay's tone became suspicious "Are you becoming fond of that world?"
"No, Doctor." Zero replied hurriedly. "I am aware of my mission and will obey you."
"See that you do." Clay's tone held a veiled threat. "This is too important to be messed up by a careless droid!"
Abruptly their communication was broken, and Zero leant up against the window glass, emotions welling up through her sensors and across her memorybanks as she replayed the conversation word for word in her head.
"Dr Clay doesn't think of me as anything more than his creation. His slave." She whispered. "But what am I, really? I never minded such things before. But being here...knowing Tenchi...I don't understand what I've become. So many things seem different to me now. Why do I want so much to stay here and be a part of this world? Tokimi is dangerous and Clay is my master. I must obey him - I am programmed to obey him! But how can I do so, when it means harming someone who's been nothing but kind to me from the start?"
She sighed, turning away from the window and making her way slowly out of the tiny bedroom, heading down the stairs to the store-cupboard that she knew led to Washu's extensive interdimensional laboratory. The door was not locked, and Zero marvelled at the careless arrogance of the woman Clay so feared.
"Maybe she's not as smart as he thinks she is." She murmured with a sigh. "But at least it makes it easier to do what I must do."
She pulled open the door, stepping carefully into the dark expanse beyond and adjusting her vision to compensate for the dim, eerie glow that lit the corners of the lab. Computers flickered occasionally from their corners, and the laboratory seemed to spread for miles beyond the naked eye.
Zero picked her way carefully between two units towards the centre of the laboratory, where Washu's chair hovered, abandoned. Not far away, she knew, the injured detective that she had not been officially told about lay sleeping, and as she drew closer she could hear the hoarse, even breathing of the woman she had not yet met. Covert eavesdropping at the door of Washu's laboratory at various points during the evening had told her enough to realise that the detective's injury was no coincidence, and somehow, knowing that Tokimi was involved made her even more apprehensive about her mission.
"But I did hear Washu mention samples too, when she was talking about Tenchi-kun." She murmured. "And that means that somewhere in here is the data I seek. Whether I like it or not, I am programmed to obey...and I do not know if I can defy Dr Clay."
"Good evening, Yume."
Suddenly the laboratory became illuminated from all sides and Zero swung around in shock and dismay, meeting the calm green gaze of the scientist watching her. Washu offered her a smile, folding her arms across her chest as she registered her companion's confusion.
"I wondered how long it would take for you to come." She added. "I've been waiting quite a while."
"I...I was looking for a glass of water." Zero thought quickly, trying to quell the panic signals that threatened to override her processors. "What is this place?"
"What the hell are you doing down here? I knew you were up to something, you little...Washu?" Before Washu could answer, Ryoko burst into the lab, stopping dead as she registered her mother's presence. "Is everyone up tonight? What's going on...did you arrange for her to come down here without telling me?"
"I...I think I should go back to bed." Zero took a step backwards, offering a faint smile as she glanced from mother to daughter. "I obviously have no idea what this is about, but I...I just want a drink."
"I'm sorry, my dear. That just won't do."
Washu flicked her hand across a switch and the door disappeared into the ether, leaving Zero staring at the space where it had been with a mixture of confusion and anxiety. Ryoko stepped cautiously forward, eying the intruder warily as she tried to gauge what was going on.
"What brings you to my lab so late, little Ryoko?" Washu sent her daughter a playful smile. "Visiting hours are within daylight, if you don't mind. Kiyone needs her rest."
"I followed her down here." Ryoko said darkly, jerking her head in Zero's direction. "I keep telling you, she's up to something and she has been since the moment she came here."
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Zero affected a shocked expression, pretending to look frightened. "I've done nothing to you! I thought you were on our side - that you wanted to help people on Earth!"
"I do." Ryoko said grimly. "I'm just not convinced you're one of them."
"That's crazy!" Zero opened her eyes wide. "What else would I be?"
"I don't know." Ryoko narrowed her gaze. "But you know what? I do know this. I've been thinking about it very hard and I know exactly what it is that bothered me about you. I got dragged to some official interrogation cell after you came to Tenchi's apartment in Osaka, and at the time I didn't figure out what the connection was. But the cop who stopped me...the one they said gave the tip. He had the same eyes as you...your father? Too convenient not to be true. And how did he know my last name was Hakubi? I never told you that and nor did Tenchi. But he knew it...and he came for me very soon after we'd told you about the Galaxy Police."
"You're insane." Zero snapped angrily. "I tried to defend you to those people and now you think I betrayed you? Why would I do that? Because of you, a lot of people's lives were saved."
"But that wasn't the point, was it!" Ryoko shot back. "The point was to make Earth suffer as much as possible for harbouring Tenchi and I in their midst!"
"Enough!" At that moment, Washu put up her hands, glancing from one to the other as she considered how best to proceed. Ryoko sent her mother a sullen look, and Zero schooled her features into a look of indignation.
"I want to go back to bed." She said frankly. "I don't know what's going on here, but I don't like it and I don't want to be involved. Tenchi must be mad to be tied up with a girl like you...you're completely unbalanced, and if he had any clue how obsessive you were, he'd..."
"I said enough!"
This time there was something in Washu's tone that cowed Zero to silence, and the scientist nodded her head, moving to stand between them. She glanced at her daughter long and hard for a moment, then turned her attention to Zero, tilting her head on one side as she considered what best to do.
"Ryoko, there's nothing to be gained by shouting at her." She said at length.
"But she was coming down here to interfere in your work! Maybe even to hurt Kiyone - I wouldn't be surprised!" Ryoko protested.
"I had nothing to do with Detective Makibi's injuries!" Zero exclaimed.
"How do you know her name is Makibi? You've never met her before - and you claim not to know anything about the Galaxy Police!" Ryoko was on her in a flash, and Zero berated herself inwardly for her lack of concentration.
"I heard you talking." She said quietly. "You didn't want me to know, but I'm not deaf."
"All right." Washu sighed. "Let's not start that again."
She stepped forward, putting a hand on Zero's arm and meeting her gaze with unflinchng green eyes.
"It's time we were all a little more honest with one another than we have been, don't you think?" She asked softly. Zero stared at her, uncertainty growing inside of her, and Washu nodded.
"Zero, I presume?" she murmured. Zero's eyes opened wide with shock.
"What?"
"I worked for a long time with your Dr Clay, you know." Washu turned on her heel, moving away from the droid and back towards her main computer system. "Many, many years ago. He was in my department for many years - although he always resented that I had the better pitch than he did...and that generally his tenure was beneath mine in the Academy hierarchy."
"Washu, what are you talking about?" Ryoko creased her brow in confusion, and Washu offered her a benign smile. She raised a hand, gesturing carelessly at the horrified droid.
"Clay's last patented project for the Science Academy before he was relieved of his duties." She said. "Do you remember me telling you about Ryo Ohki, and what happened to my lab and my research notes after I was exiled?"
Ryoko's eyes narrowed, and energy flickered from her fingertips.
"So you're the one who caused all those cabbits to starve to death." She said angrily. "You're some kind of twisted robot - and you try and convince Tenchi that you're human! Well, you might have fooled him, but you haven't fooled me! I'll blast you into your component pieces, you twisted lump of junk!"
A bolt of amber energy came searing across the lab towards her, and Zero flung up a forcefield around herself without thinking about it, glaring at the pirate from behind it's translucent gleam.
"And you're just as much of a savage as your police records suggest." She said bitterly. "What Tenchi sees in an animal like you I don't know."
She turned, eying Washu doubtfully.
"How did you know who I was?" She asked hesitantly. "I mean...my duplications are perfect. I...I was built to be perfect."
"You may have been." Washu spread her hands. "But my people possess an ancient, long dead gift. We see the true nature of those people who stand before us. No matter how much you tried to convince me that you were Yume, I knew that you were not all you claimed to be the moment Tenchi introduced us. And that you weren't who you said you were made me make the connection between your facade and what I learnt from the Science Academy about Clay's plagiaristic foray into organic research. I suppose Ryoko must have inherited some elements of it from me...I certainly have no other way of explaining why she felt so strongly about you being here."
She glanced at Ryoko, shaking her head.
"Drop your hands, Ryoko-chan." She said softly. "Violence isn't going to help."
Zero eyes the scientist for a moment, a cold feeling welling up inside of her as she digested Washu's words.
"But I thought the only one who could do that was..." She faltered, unwilling to say the name, and Washu raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" She asked. Zero shook her head.
"Nothing." She said, as determination flared through her. She raised her hands, glimmers of energy surrounding the edges of her form as she lifted herself bodily off the laboratory floor. "I have my orders and I must carry them out. You know too much about me and I must eliminate you. Nothing can stand in my way...I must obey the Doctor."
"Not if I get you first." Ryoko's eyes narrowed as she put a forcefield between her and the angry droid. "You're not fighting in the little league now. You said you had access to my police files - in which case you'll know that it doesn't take much for me to melt machines like you."
"And I've been dying to destroy you ever since I met you." Zero snapped back, as Washu stepped back to watch with interest. "You get in my way, space pirate."
"Ryoko? Yume? What's all the noise down here?"
Before Ryoko could react, the door flickered and materialised in the middle of the lab once more, swinging open to reveal a confused and half asleep Tenchi, his night robe wrapped around his body and a bewildered look on his face which soon turned to shock as he registered the scene he had walked in on. "Washu? What's happening here? What's going on!"
"Tenchi?" Horror flooded Zero's senses and she dropped heavily to the ground, the glimmer fading as her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh no...no...it's not what...I mean...I..."
"I told you that girl was a fake." Ryoko said darkly, electricity still flickering from her fingers as the door once more vanished into nothing. "Get out of the way, Tenchi. One blast and she'll not bother us any more."
"Ryoko!" Tenchi exclaimed. "What are you saying?"
"She's nothing but a damn robot, Tenchi!" Ryoko responded frankly. "Bits of scrap metal that took Ryo Ohki's place in Washu's lab and meant she and her kind were all left to starve!"
"No, Ryoko." Washu intervened at that moment, shaking her head. "Not quite just a robot. You underestimate the technology...would you consider Ryo Ohki to be just a machine?"
"No, but Ryo Ohki has a soul." Ryoko lowered her hands slowly, as Tenchi came to her side, and Zero felt a pang of anguish rocket through her as he put a gentle arm around the pirate's shoulders.
"So, I think you'll find, does Zero." Washu replied softly, and Zero fought back the impulse to cry, angry with her humanoid form for allowing her such weaknesses in front of those she knew were her enemies. The scientist stepped forward, taking Zero's left hand in hers and examining it carefully, a smile touching her lips as she did so. "Besides, it takes something extra-ordinary to break through my security systems and infiltrate my laboratory. This is sophisticated technology, Ryoko - not scrap metal."
"Someone explain to me what's going on?" Tenchi demanded plaintively. "Who's Zero? Where's Yume? And why is everyone having a free for all in Washu's lab at this time of night?"
"Yume doesn't exist." Washu gently released her grip, glancing up at the droid and for a moment Zero thought she saw compassion in the woman's eyes. Then, in an instant, it was gone, and she was left wondering if she had imagined it being there at all. "Zero is my shape-shifter - the one who broke into my laboratory and infiltrated my security system to access top secret files. Yume is just another of her facades...but she was never real. As Ryoko suspected, she was sent to spy on you - probably by Dr Clay, since he's the one who holds her patenting."
"I see." Zero's heart ached at the wary look Tenchi sent her. "And what does Dr Clay want with me, anyway? This is all connected somehow with that attack on Osaka, isn't it?"
"Without a doubt." Washu agreed. "Unfortunately for Clay, I have a knack for spotting technology in human form - and for reading people's true intentions. Besides, most of the advances Clay used to build Zero come right out of my own work. I was slow...if I had stopped and examined the plans better when I was at the Academy, I would have realised sooner how it was Clay managed to gain entry to my laboratory and maybe I would have been able to move our situation further along. Sparing Kiyone, perhaps."
She frowned, glancing at Zero.
"As it is, I didn't make the connection until she arrived here." She added. "I knew as soon as I saw her that there was something going on - but I thought that, if I kept an eye on her, I might learn something."
At this, the last of Zero's composure crumbled and broke and she sank to the ground, burying her head in her arms as the unfamiliar sensation of crying dominated her senses.
"I'm so sorry." She whispered at length, raising tearful lilac eyes to meet Tenchi's troubled ones. "I didn't want to hurt you, Tenchi Masaki. You've been kind to me. But I am programmed...I am programmed..."
She faltered.
"I didn't want to do it, not once I met you." She added. "But I'm afraid of what will happen to me if I disobey his orders."
For a moment there was silence. Then, slowly, Tenchi approached her, reaching down to pull her to her feet.
"So your name is Zero?" He asked softly. Zero nodded.
"I didn't know robots could cry." Tenchi glanced at Washu in confusion, and Washu smiled.
"Ryo Ohki can cry." She reminded him. "Zero works on the same premise. She's not entirely machine, Tenchi. Part of her circuitry is organic, just as Ryo Ohki's is. In both cases it enables them to change form at will - although Ryo Ohki's was locked to only two forms. Zero, I suspect, has many many more options at her disposal, since the focus of her design was to imitate and impersonate."
"Is that true?" Tenchi turned his gaze back to the distressed droid, who nodded her head.
"I'm sorry." She repeated again. "I haven't told them anything since I've been here, I swear. I just wanted to stay with you and be Yume and...and not have to worry about anything else. You're all so happy here and I wanted to belong. You don't treat me like a machine...not like Clay does."
"Do you think we believe your pathetic little sob-story?" Ryoko demanded.
"Hush, Ryoko." Washu shook her head. "I believe her."
She smiled.
"Just as he broke through your defences, I believe Tenchi has broken through Zero's in his usual, unassuming way." She added, eying Zero keenly.
"You mean she really is in love with him?" Ryoko stared. Washu nodded her head.
"I believe she is, in a manner of speaking." She agreed. "Having organic componants means that she is capable of human - or humanlike - raw emotion. It's what enables her to be so convincing when she takes on human form. But in this case, her circuitry has become confused. Instead of locking those feelings away and using them only on a superficial level, something has broken down the divide between them. Zero has developed real feelings...and those feelings have centred on Tenchi, because he's the one who has shown her the most kindness since she came to the Earth."
"You know a lot about me." Zero eyed the scientist hopelessly. "Will you now destroy me...now you know what I am?"
"On the contrary, I'm actually curious to know more." Washu pursed her lips. "You said yourself that you didn't want to disobey Dr Clay because you feared him. But Clay is not such a scientist to be able to generate all these sophisticated emotions on his own. Even with my notes he'd have floundered - he's not the genius he thinks he is and he never has been. There's something more and I'd like to know what it is."
"I never used to fear anyone." Zero said quietly. "Or care what happened to them when I completed my mission. But Tokimi..."
She faltered, shaking her head, and Ryoko frowned.
"Tokimi?" She repeated. "There's a name I haven't heard before."
"Ryoko, Tenchi, I'd like it if you left Zero to my care for the time being." Washu said gravely, glancing at the droid, then back at the confused couple that stood before her. "It's late and I don't want further violence or disturbance. I have a lot of things to ask her, and I'd rather neither of you were here to colour her feelings on any subject. She obviously feels very strongly where both of you are concerned, and that won't get me anywhere."
"What if she attacks you?" Ryoko demanded. Washu smiled.
"I can take care of myself against one renegade droid." She said simply. "Go to bed, both of you."
She flicked her switch and the door shimmered back into view. "Go on. I am quite safe and so, I promise you, is Kiyone."
With a backward glance, Tenchi and Ryoko reluctantly left the laboratory, and the door vanished behind them, leaving Zero once more alone with her scientific companion. She eyed Washu nervously, and for a moment there was silence between them as Washu glanced her prey up and down. Then she laughed, stretching her hands over her head and dropping down into her hovering chair.
"Well, now we can talk." She said airily. "Can't we?"
"What are you going to do with me, Washu-san?" Zero took a hesitant step forward, then stopped, confused.
"We're going to talk, like I told Tenchi and Ryoko." Washu beckoned for the droid to join her and, not without misgivings, Zero did so, stopping mere feet from the chair and eying her companion in trepidation.
"Will you hurt me?"
"I have no intention of hurting you, no." Washu dropped her light tone, eying the droid seriously. "But I do want the truth from you, Zero. I know you were sent here by Clay to spy on Tenchi, and probably to retrieve something else from my laboratory. What would that have been?"
Zero dropped her gaze, unwilling to answer, and Washu sighed.
"You have no reason to be loyal to Clay." She reminded her. "He did not develop your technology. I did. All of the intricate workings that make you who you are are down to my science, not his...no matter what he's programmed you to do. And you know your instructions have already been compromised by your emotional attachment to Tenchi. Will you trust me, Zero? I can help you."
"No, you can't." Zero whispered. "Even if what you say is true, I am connected to Clay through my thoughts. He can contact me at any moment and know what I am processing at that time. And then...there is something else. I fear it so much it paralyses every one of my circuits to remember...if I fail them, I will be terminated. And...I don't want to die."
"I see." Washu looked thoughtful. "And if I was to release your connection with Dr Clay? Eradicate it from your system completely? It wouldn't take more than a couple of seconds to find and remove the relevant chip from your data-banks. Would you trust me then, Zero? Because I have no wish to harm you. I just want to learn what you know...because a friend of mine is badly hurt and another friend is being pursued by forces I never imagined he'd have to face. I need to find out why and how."
Zero eyed her companion long and hard for a moment. Then she sighed, shimmering and blurring her form back to her original state.
"This is how I truly am." She murmured. "But you knew that anyway, didn't you?"
"Yes." Washu agreed. "But knowing your nature was more difficult than it normally is, Zero. Your loyalty to your programming conflicts with your new emotions. You're confused, aren't you? You don't understand how this has happened to you."
"No, I don't." Zero sighed, as the scientist glanced over her robot form, at last finding what she was looking for and carefully prying the chip free from it's sisters. "But I know when...nothing has been the same since."
"Since you met Tokimi?" Washu asked softly. Zero hesitated, then nodded her head, as Washu dropped the chip into a nearby chute that had materialised from nowhere, wiping her hands together as she did so. "Yes, I thought so. When you first came here I picked up energy emissions from you that correlated with anomalies I found in the Earth's atmosphere. Also at the Science Academy, when Dr Clay was broken out. I didn't suspect Tokimi - I was slow there again - but it's been so very long and I didn't realise the age of the magic involved. But I should have known. Only a being such as her could create such atmospheric disturbances. And even just by being in proximity to you, she has tainted your own signals."
"She called me the soulless one." Zero remembered. "Like you, she knew what I was even when I was disguised from her. But she did something to me - she said she opened my eyes. And she did...only now I don't know who I am any more. All these feelings are confusing and disorientating. I lose track of what I have to do because I'm focused on what I want to do. I see the world so differently...and I'm afraid for the first time of being destroyed. I want to live...but I know that living means eventually dying. And so I fear dying...and a lot more things besides."
She hesitated, eying Washu carefully.
"How is it that you know Tokimi?" She asked softly. Washu smiled.
"It was a long time ago, and probably doesn't matter now anyway." She said simply. "What does is getting to the bottom of her plans for Tenchi and stopping them before they get a whole lot further."
She paused, then,
"Tell me, did you know anything about Kiyone's attack?"
"No, I promise that I didn't." Zero shook her head. "But..."
"But you think you know what happened to her, anyway?" Washu asked gently. Zero looked troubled, morphing her form back to that of Yume as she did so. She nodded.
"When I was on Jurai, I discovered things that allowed Tokimi to snare a Galaxy Police agent into her web." She said slowly. "Clay had me hack the Galaxy Police personnel files, so that Tokimi would have access to officers at will, and be able to bend them to her plans. That is how I know Detective Makibi's name."
"The Galaxy Police agent - Seiryo Tennan?" Washu asked. Zero nodded.
"Yes." She agreed.
"And his raid on the Earth?"
"A smokescreen." Zero looked pained. "To bring me into the picture and into Tenchi's trust."
"I see." Washu looked thoughtful. "But Tokimi does seek Tenchi, I am right about that?"
"Yes." Zero sighed. "Or rather, she seeks something he has or...or maybe is. I don't know which, that's the truth. But she believes he belongs to Tsunami. That because he used Light Hawk Wings against Kagato, he must be Tsunami's chosen one and she walks among men once more. Tokimi hates Tsunami...she wants to destroy her. And she thinks she can do so by learning about and then destroying Tenchi Masaki."
"Well, she always did jump to conclusions." Washu grimaced. "Zero, Tenchi isn't Tsunami any more than you or I are. Tokimi is way off base. Yes, he has the Light Hawk Wings, but if he was truly Tsunami, don't you think he would have produced ten? Not three. Besides, Tsunami already walks among us in human form. Tenchi is just another Juraian prince...only one with the highest level of Juraian magic. Tsunami trusts him with it because his nature is peaceful, and she knows he would never abuse it. That's all."
"Are you sure?" Zero looked uncertain. Washu nodded.
"I have met the real Tsunami." She said softly. "And I can promise you that Tenchi is not it."
"Then Tokimi has gone to a lot of trouble for nothing." Zero realised. She bit her lip. "And when she finds out, she will destroy Dr Clay and me both. After all, she works on Clay's information, and I am nothing more to her than an extension of his will."
A note of bitterness touched her tones at this moment and Washu smiled, resting a hand on her arm.
"Not any more. Not now I've removed him completely from your system." She responded. "Your overriding loyalty is no longer to him but to yourself, Zero - it's now up to you how you act and which side you choose to follow."
"Clay seems to think you're as dangerous as Tokimi if you're crossed." Zero looked thoughtful. "Are you?"
"Maybe I would have been, once. A long time ago." Washu looked rueful. "I could hurt you, if that's what you want to know. But I'm not interested in doing so."
She smiled, shrugging her shoulders.
"You have to decide which side you are on." She added. "And I'll know if you lie to me, so think carefully before you answer."
Zero bit her lip, emotion flickering in her pale lilac eyes as she considered her options. Then, at length, she sighed.
"I want to be with Tenchi." She whispered. "I don't know how to explain it, or even make what I feel logical, Miss Washu. But I know that being here with him has made me happy...and I've never been happy before. And...I want to be Yume. Because...since I became her and started all of this, it has been like a dream. The first dream I ever had. I...I want to live this life and choose for myself for once, instead of having to do what other people tell me."
"I see." Washu eyed her keenly. "You know that Ryoko won't like knowing that?"
"I know. And I envy her." Zero said quietly. "Another emotion I never had before, but now it's always there whenever she's around. I know he loves her, Washu-san, and I know that now he knows who I really am, he'll never love me the way I love him. But I...I still need to be with him. I can't define it...but I know that it's what I really want."
"All right." Washu spread her hands. "In which case, I think it's time you told me everything you know about Tokimi, Clay, and Seiryo Tennan."
