THREE PRINCESSES...
Author: Daferge
Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! is a copyright AIC/Pioneer Ltd.
All respective characters are property of their original owners. All original characters and ideas are property of the author.
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Chapter 34... Revelations...
( the Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
" MOTHER?... "
Tenchi stood there, staring at the figure in the shadows, his body trembling…
Ryoko had his right arm, her face buried in his shoulder, not daring to look at the only person she remembered from Tenchi's childhood…
The person who had first carried, then led, a small child past her cave, on their way to the shrine almost every day…
The person who would stop to sit on the rock outside the cave entrance, to quietly hum a short tune to the small bundle in their arm, the same tune Ryoko began to hum as she tried to comfort her beloved and herself…
The person, whose loving attention to that small bundle had found the tiniest spark, hidden deep down within a hard shell of fear, hate and mistrust, to nurtured it, until it was a glowing blaze
The person who had introduced Ryoko to a fabulous world she had never know, much less even dared to dream of…
From the instant that tiny face had looked back, up into hers and smiled, nothing would ever be the same…
The same instant that the violent, ruthless, uncaring space pirate slowly started to disappear and a loving, caring future princess had begun to evolve…
Nothing in the universe could remove the face of that person from her memory, the face of Tenchi's mother, Kiyone Masaki…
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( the Masaki living room… )
After being introduced to Princess Ayeka's little sister and her bodyguard Nagi, Sasami had led their guest into the living room, for some tea and cookies…
Sipping on her tea, her majesty, the queen of England nibbled on the wonderful cookies that Sasami had brought into the living room for her…
She was going to have to get the recipe for these, for her pastry chef…
Sitting on the couch, Kiyone's fellow officer had joined them, turned on the big screen set and punched in the number that Washu had left behind, into the control, staying far away from the large button marked, SELF-DESTRUCT…
Washu appeared on the screen, she was wearing her black lecture gown and the two Kiyones just moaned…
" I'm sorry I wasn't there to greet you to our humble home, but a very important family matter arose and I was needed else where… "
Washu shut her eyes for a moment and sighed…
" As I'm sure ether of the officer Kiyones can confirm, living with the Misaki family is any thing but simple… "
Her majesty saw both officers nod their heads…
" It seems that the latest major inter-stellar disaster has been defused, as you would hear shortly, if you had the Galactic News channel, GNN… And as usual, the involvement of members of the Royal family in the events will again be 'rumored', but the Palace will, of course, nether confirm nor deny it… 10,000 years of NO COMMENT… "
Again, both officers nodded their heads…
" As for Tenchi, some skeletons from the past are about to resurface and some old history is about to be rewritten… "
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( The Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
Ayeka felt her beloved Tenchi trembling, for the first time since she'd met him…
And to her surprise, even the Great and Fearless Space Pirate Ryoko was afraid?…
Her only thought was that no matter what, she was going to be there for him…
Holding his left arm and pressing herself against him, she slid her free hand down his arm, until she felt his open hand…
Her eyes closed, she slowly interlocked her fingers with his and very gently squeezed his hand…
Some where in the very back of her mind, she heard a soft sweet voice and smiled…
Love you too!...
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( the Masaki living room… )
Washu paused before continuing…
" I was following the events at the palace very closely and suggest that you relax there at the house until we return… "
Washu took a moment…
" The house and grounds have both been heavily shielded and there's not a safer spot on the entire planet… As soon as I get back, we will start preparing for this Rasputin/Kain want-a-be's return… "
At that, she got a very wicked smile on her face…
" I have some very interesting ideas on how to rid the world of this crackpot… "
The two GP officers suddenly sat up, worried looks on their faces, both of them were well aware of PROFESSOR Washu's past history and her track record…
Washu chuckled before her image fading and the screen closing…
" Oh, yes... I promise, NOTHING that involves explosions OR the possible destruction of the planet…"
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( The Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
For a good number of years now, since she had been very little, Mihoshi had been taught that the most important thing was to do a good job…
So she had tried her hardest to live up to that, when she entered the Galaxy Police and make her family proud…
Thus, in her career, she had managed to acquire more awards and citations than any officer in the Galaxy Police's history…
For some reason, when officer Mihoshi and her partner officer Kiyone became involved in a case, no matter how cold the trail may have become, it was soon warm again and eventually got solved…
Quite often in the most unusual way...
For, like her mother, not every thing tended to work out as it had been planned…
And so she had also acquired a file of damage and destruction reports greater than ALL of the other GP officers on duty in the entire GP, for the same time period…
Rumor had it that a large chunk of each year's GP budget was set aside to cover the wide range of claims that tended to result from cases where officer Mihoshi was involved…
But even so, if she was involved, other GP officers tended to keep their distance, not wanting to be among the casualties…
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But recently all that had changed, when she had quite literally FALLEN TO EARTH and been rescued by a very shy teenage boy from a frontier world…
NOW, not only was she was a highly respected GP Detective, but also a Princess of the Mighty Juraian Empire and that young boy's wife…
Or, at least ONE of them!…
While guarding the prisoners, Mihoshi had felt Tenchi suddenly in great pain…
She had instantly dropped the huge assault rifle she had been holding and had rushed over to him…
She had taking her place behind him, her arms around him, her cheek coming to rest against the back of his head…
Hearing Ryoko humming, Mihoshi closed her eyes and softly joined her in humming the ancient lullaby that HER mom had hummed to her when she had been little…
It took Ayeka only a moment to recognize the tune as the one Tenchi was always hummed to little Mayuka, a tune that his mother had hummed to him when he was little…
Holding Tenchi's left arm and hand, Ayeka smiled, closed her eyes and began to hum along with her fellow sisters/wives…
Across the room, Airi watched as Tenchi, his eyes still closed, now in the arms of his loving wives, began to slowly stop shaking…
She was very proud of her grandson, he had indeed, chosen quite well…
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( Buckingham Palace, England... )
" Security… Brunsworth speaking!... "
Since the Queen's sudden disappearance, the place had been a regular madhouse…
One minute she'd been in the drawing room nearest her apartment, the next she was no where in the Palace and they had checked every square inch, several times…
Unless some thing happened soon, quite a few heads were going to be rolling and as head of security, his was likely to be one of them…
" Brunsworth… It's ME!... "
It was bound to happen, as soon as word of the queen's disappearance got out, crank callers…
Taking a deep breath, he played along...
" I'm sorry, but just who is ME?... "
At this he could have sworn he heard some one in the background giggling and as the caller counted to ten, twice…
After a short pause, the voice returned, this time with a very thick layer of honey in it…
" Brunsworth… If you don't do exactly as I say, when I get back to the Palace the first thing I shall do is stand on the balcony, so I can wave to you and that classical mint blue sport car you acquired last week, as you head off to your new posting in the Falklands… "
His eyes widened, he'd only just bought the car the week before and hadn't even had a chance to pick it up yet…
" If you think the pigeons around the palace are bad, just imagine what the penguins down there will do?... "
As the horrible images raced through his mind, he automatically snapped to attention and managed not to drop the phone…
" YES… MUM!... "
He didn't hear the sigh and more giggling on the other end of the phone…
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( The Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
As Airi watched, some thing very strange began to happen, some thing she'd only seen once before, when she was little and climbing a tree on the palace grounds…
20 feet above the ground, she had lost her grip and had begun to fall, but suddenly things around her had begun to move slower until she touched the ground, like a leaf…
Unhurt, she could never understand why or how it had happen…
Now, as she watched, every thing began to move slower and slower, until every one in the room was motionless…
WHAT IN THE UNIVERSE WAS GOING ON?...
She looked up to find that strange female standing there, looking right at her…
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( Buckingham Palace, England... )
Brunsworth had stood at attention for several minutes, as he paid very close attention to what the person on the other end was saying…
First, the Queen wasn't MISSING…
She was with some new acquaintances, one of them a very distant relative that she had just met and had wish to spend some time with…
Second, she would also explain the damage that had been discovered on the drawing room wall, WHEN she got back, but not now, nor over an open line…
It was to be quietly repaired, and no mention was to made of it...
If questions were asked, it was an accident and her majesty didn't wish to discuss it...
Third, if any one ask, the activity at the Palace were just practice security drills, to keep the staff on their toes, taking place while the Queen was else where for the evening…
And finally, if any one asked about the Queen herself, she was taking some private time to be with members of the Royal family…
If pressed for details, the answer was the standard, " No commit!... "...
When he asked when they might be expecting her back, her reply was quite simple…
" When you least expect me… "
The connection had then gone dead…
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A later attempt to back-trace the call to it's source, ended with it being traced to the phone in the Queen's empty apartments…
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( The Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
As Airi watched the figure from the shadows approached Tenchi and the others, she wasn't sure how they were going to take it…
Especially how Tenchi was going to handle it...
She had known this day would come, but it seem that she was still completely unprepared for it…
She had envisioned this happening in any of a number ways, however, in the middle of a mission had not been among them…
The female slowly stepped up to Tenchi and his wives, then reaching up a hand to touch his face…
It was at that moment that Tenchi opened his eyes and smiled sadly…
" Ryoko… This is not my mother!… "
Up close she still looked a lot like his mother, but there were also some very sidle differences too…
He felt Ryoko begin to calm down as she accepted his word…
" How did you know?... "
Before he could reply, another voice was heard…
" Because of her aura!... "
Out of the shadows stepped Washu, Katsuhito right behind her…
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( the Masaki kitchen… )
Sasami had been cleaning up when she suddenly froze in place, her eyes closed…
It took a few minutes for Nagi to notice that some thing was wrong…
As she started to approach Sasami, the figure of a very mature female appeared behind Sasami and smiled at Nagi…
After all the things she'd gone through with Ryoko and the rest of the Masaki family, Nagi was able to keep her calm…
Besides, she seen this female before, but had never met her…
Tsunami watched as Nagi twitched, but stood her ground, very much ready to defend Sasami if need be…
" Things are going well with Tenchi and the other… So, if things go as planned, they should be back in a few days… Please inform the others… "
Taking a slow breath, Nagi nodded her head…
As she began to fade away, Tsunami made a last remark before disappearing…
" Continue the good work… "
Nagi's eyebrow went up as Sasami began moving again, unaware any thing had happen, but praise from a goddess?...
She had to smile...
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( The Royal Chambers, Zanata six… )
Tenchi looked at Washu and then considered his next words, carefully…
" How long have you known?... "
Washu saw the sadness in his eyes, she was one of the very few people, other than his wives, that he trusted completely…
Stepping up to him, she reached up and caressed his face, Tenchi's eyebrow went up as he saw the tear form in the corner of her eye…
Her hand and her head dropped as she replied…
" Suspected?.. For some time!... Known?... Only a short time!... "
Tenchi looked over at his grandfather, who didn't said a word, but just watched…
Washu sighed and continued…
" Nobie asked me not to say anything to you, just yet… "
She lifted her head, to look him in the eye and say some thing else…
But Tenchi stopped her by putting a finger to her lips, as he sighed…
" And you would do any thing for my father!... "
He couldn't help smiling as Washu's face turned the color of her hair…
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Katsuhito shook his head…
" Like my true past, there were certain things that you could only be told when you came of age and were ready to understand them… "
Katsuhito managed to keep a straight face as he continued, only an eye brow going up…
" It would have been at least 10 to 15 more years, but SOME ONE opened the Demon's cave and started a whole chain of galaxy shaking events?... "
He eyed Tenchi and the females clinging to him…
He had been rehearsing what to say ever since Tenchi's birth, but the content had kept changing, as had the substance…
" At any rate… "
He took the young female's hand and gave it a very gentle squeeze…
" This is Tennyo Masaki, my lovely granddaughter… "
He paused for just a moment, but to Tenchi and the others it seem like a life time…
" And YOUR sister… "
Three sets of mouths dropped open…
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To be continued...
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Please feel free to comment and review for any errors...
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