The Future - Chapter 5: Oh, What a Tangled Web...
By: Ryoko-chan
Disclaimer: We all know the drill...the real disclaimer resides in Chapter 1.
A/N: Ya'll have been waiting for this one, haven't you? I should wait and have this chapter be last just to be mean, but I'm not like that. Anyways, Ryoko's future...
THE FUTURE - CHAPTER 5: OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB...
By: Ryoko-chan
Ryoko awoke on the floor of Ryo-Ohki's bridge. How she got on the floor, she couldn't quite remember. She also couldn't remember where exactly she was or how she got there. The last thing she remembered was leaving Earth to look for Sasami. She knew that Tenchi had tried to follow her, but she lost him easily enough. Ever since Tenchi had come back from Jurai, he had been dying to try out his own ship given to him by the Jurain military. He was a Jurain prince, after all. Ryoko had never had difficulty out running a Jurain ship.
"Ryo-Ohki...Where are we?" Ryoko asked, pulling herself to her feet and sitting in the chair she always sat in.
"Miao, miao, miao." Ryo-Ohki replied back.
"Shizukesa..." Ryoko repeated Ryo-Ohki's information aloud.
She always spoke out loud when she was alone on Ryo-Ohki. She would go insane if she only communicated through telepathy.
"This is the last system we can search, Ryo-Ohki." She said quietly. "If Sasami isn't here, she's nowhere."
"Miao." Ryo-Ohki replied, hoping that they would at last find Sasami here.
Both Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki knew about Aeka's execution. It was all over the universal news. They couldn't help but hear about it. At least Ryoko knew where Tenchi was...and she knew what kind of danger he was in.
"Ryo-Ohki...you might as well start the scanning process. There aren't many planets in this system. It shouldn't take that long." Ryoko said anxiously.
She wanted to be helping Tenchi. She wanted to protect him, but she promised to find Sasami and that's what she was going to do.
Ryo-Ohki meowed in reply and started a broad sweep of the Shizukesa system for Sasami's bio-signature thanks to a few upgrades courtesy of Washu.
Ryoko squirmed in her chair anxiously. The scan of the system would take up to three hours if they didn't find Sasami and something could happen to Tenchi while she was looking for the girl who she hadn't seen in two years and who had apparently disappeared from existence.
"Any luck?"
Ryoko heard Washu's voice before the petite scientist's face appeared on the view screen in front of the pirate.
"Not so far. This is the last system I'm searching. If Sasami's not a system more remote than the Sol system, then she's nowhere."
Washu nodded.
"Have you heard from Tenchi?" Ryoko asked.
"No, but I have heard from Mihoshi. She and Kiyone were searching for a secret group on Jurai that had been helping Aeka because she was arrested."
"And?"
"And, they found Tenchi with the group yesterday. And Nagi is the leader of the group. Pretty weird, huh?"
"Nagi? The leader of a resistance group? I guess the bounty hunting business isn't what it used to be. Is Tenchi all right?"
"He's fine. They need your help though. As soon as your finished, head for Jurai."
Ryoko nodded.
"Don't worry about that, Washu."
"Good luck, Ryoko." Washu said just before she discontinued their connection.
Ryoko sighed heavily.
"Anything yet, Ryo-Ohki?" She asked.
"Miao!" Ryo-Ohki replied.
"What!?" Ryoko shouted, isolating the information that Ryo-Ohki was giving her. "I'll be damned...She's on Wakusei. Go on, Ryo-Ohki! Let's go get her!"
Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki landed on Wakusei, an almost desolate planet on the outer rim of the Shizukesa System. There was only one major city surrounded by many small villages. Ryoko followed Ryo-Ohki's directions. The little cabbit was able to track Sasami with no trouble.
Finally the two came to a rather large building and went inside.
"What do you want here?" A loud, deep voice shouted as soon as they stepped a foot inside the door.
"We're looking for someone." Ryoko replied sharply.
"There's no one for you to find here." The voice replied back.
"Miao!" Ryo-Ohki meowed and jumped off of Ryoko's shoulder and ran down the hall.
"Ryo-Ohki!" Ryoko shouted, following her.
"Get back here!" The voice shouted back at them, but no one followed.
"Ryo-Ohki, what are you doing?" Ryoko asked once she caught up with the small cabbit.
"Miao, miao!" She said, phasing herself through the door.
Ryoko sighed and followed only to be face to face with about four rather large guards.
"What are you doing in here!?" They asked in unison.
"Leave her alone." A familiar voice called from behind them and the guards backed away.
On a small bench sat Sasami who looked to be about fifteen now. Her years on Earth had caused her to age more rapidly than she would have on Jurai and the aging process had slowed by now. She wore her long hair down and she smiled cheerfully with Ryo-Ohki sitting on her shoulder.
"Sasami, I have been looking everywhere for you!" Ryoko said, exasperated.
"Why?" Sasami asked, not looking over at her.
"Because everyone was worried about you. Your mother and aunt on in exile, Aeka's going to be executed in three days, and Tenchi and the others are trying to get her out."
"How come only you came looking for me, Ryoko?" Sasami asked softly.
"I just told you, Sasami. We need to get you somewhere safe."
"I am safe. I've been safe ever I left my family on Acadia."
"You left them?"
"Of course. I didn't want you to come looking for me Ryoko. Not you..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryoko snapped.
"It means that I didn't want you to come here, Ryoko." Sasami said, standing up.
"What about Aeka, Tenchi, and the others? They just want you to be safe." Ryoko said.
Sasami simply turned away from Ryoko and walked to an open window with a balcony and looked outside.
"Here I have the best protection I would ever need from the new Jurain royal family. Here I don't have to worry about falling into the same trap as Aeka did."
"Sasami..."
"I like it here Ryoko. I don't have to cook for a large group of people or clean up after them. I don't have to live in Aeka's shadow anymore. I'm no longer the 2nd princess, here I'm the first."
"Miao?" Ryo-Ohki said to Sasami curiously.
"I have missed you, Ryo-Ohki, but you shouldn't be here. Take Ryoko back to Earth."
"I'm not going back to Earth."
"What do you mean?" Sasami asked, turning around to face Ryoko for the first time.
"I mean I'm going to Jurai to help the others. To help Aeka."
"I thought you hated Aeka."
Ryoko shrugged.
"She shouldn't die like that. Besides, she's not really any competition for Tenchi anymore anyway."
"She must be if he went there to help her." Sasami said, looking Ryoko in the eye.
Ryoko clenched her fists.
"He originally came to help me look for you, you know." She said.
"Oh, really? He's not here now...He must not have tried very hard."
"Sasami, what's wrong with you?"
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with me, Ryoko. Just don't go to Jurai...you wouldn't know what you're getting yourself into."
"What are you talking about?"
"If you go to Jurai, you'll see. I suggest you go back to Earth, take Ryo-Ohki with you, and just wait things out with Washu."
"I won't go back to Earth, Sasami. And I'm not leaving this planet without you."
"I'm not going anywhere with you, Ryoko. Go to Jurai if you wish, you won't like what you find when you get there, if you get there."
"Sasami, you haven't...you didn't..."
"What Ryoko? Have you finally figured things out?"
"Miao?" Ryo-Ohki said sadly.
Sasami snapped her fingers and the four guards grabbed her quickly. With the men holding onto her, Ryoko couldn't teleport away.
"I warned you, Ryoko. I told you to leave and go back to Earth, but you refused. If you want to go to Jurai that much, we'll go together."
"What have you done, Sasami?"
Suddenly one of the guards hit Ryoko sharply on the back on the head and she blacked out.
-End Ryoko's Future-
As Ryoko started to disconnect herself from Washu's machine, everyone's eyes were trained on Sasami who had turned a bright red.
"Sasami, how could you do such a thing?" Aeka snapped.
"I didn't do anything!" The small girl defended herself.
"Don't yell at her for something she hasn't even done yet." Washu said. "Besides, whatever she's done, she probably won't do it now."
Aeka frowned.
"I still can't believe it. I don't believe that machine of yours, Washu. Its making up lies about everyone. It made Ryoko seem like a decent human being." She said.
"I can see why Sasami would turn against you..." Ryoko growled, charging toward Aeka, only to be stopped by Washu.
"No fighting in the lab. If either one of you use your powers in here, you'll be electrocuted." Washu said cheerfully.
Ryoko stuck her tongue out at Aeka and went back to floating just above the floor.
"I hardly got to see any of my future. I got knocked unconscious before anything happened!" She complained.
"That's not my fault, Ryoko. You only get one day of your future. If I connected you to that machine again, your future could be completely different now. Its nobody's fault that you don't wake up until the next morning." Washu said, typing various things into her computer.
"But Washu, how come our futures aren't different after seeing everyone else's?" Mihoshi asked.
"How do you know they're not?"
Mihoshi stood silently pondering that statement.
"Well, Sasami's next. Maybe now we can find out why she's so bitter." Kiyone said, looking at the girl again.
"C'mon Sasami." Washu said.
"All right." Sasami said slowly, sitting down in the chair and watching Washu connect the various wires to her.
"Hold still now." Washu said, starting the machine up again. "Here we go."
-End Chapter 5-
Next:
Chapter 6: All Shapes and Sizes
A/N: I know this isn't what you all were expecting for Ryoko, but having a good idea of what you were expecting, I decided to intentionally fall short of your expectations. There's still 4 chapters left, keep reading, you might find what you've been looking for.
;)
By: Ryoko-chan
Disclaimer: We all know the drill...the real disclaimer resides in Chapter 1.
A/N: Ya'll have been waiting for this one, haven't you? I should wait and have this chapter be last just to be mean, but I'm not like that. Anyways, Ryoko's future...
THE FUTURE - CHAPTER 5: OH, WHAT A TANGLED WEB...
By: Ryoko-chan
Ryoko awoke on the floor of Ryo-Ohki's bridge. How she got on the floor, she couldn't quite remember. She also couldn't remember where exactly she was or how she got there. The last thing she remembered was leaving Earth to look for Sasami. She knew that Tenchi had tried to follow her, but she lost him easily enough. Ever since Tenchi had come back from Jurai, he had been dying to try out his own ship given to him by the Jurain military. He was a Jurain prince, after all. Ryoko had never had difficulty out running a Jurain ship.
"Ryo-Ohki...Where are we?" Ryoko asked, pulling herself to her feet and sitting in the chair she always sat in.
"Miao, miao, miao." Ryo-Ohki replied back.
"Shizukesa..." Ryoko repeated Ryo-Ohki's information aloud.
She always spoke out loud when she was alone on Ryo-Ohki. She would go insane if she only communicated through telepathy.
"This is the last system we can search, Ryo-Ohki." She said quietly. "If Sasami isn't here, she's nowhere."
"Miao." Ryo-Ohki replied, hoping that they would at last find Sasami here.
Both Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki knew about Aeka's execution. It was all over the universal news. They couldn't help but hear about it. At least Ryoko knew where Tenchi was...and she knew what kind of danger he was in.
"Ryo-Ohki...you might as well start the scanning process. There aren't many planets in this system. It shouldn't take that long." Ryoko said anxiously.
She wanted to be helping Tenchi. She wanted to protect him, but she promised to find Sasami and that's what she was going to do.
Ryo-Ohki meowed in reply and started a broad sweep of the Shizukesa system for Sasami's bio-signature thanks to a few upgrades courtesy of Washu.
Ryoko squirmed in her chair anxiously. The scan of the system would take up to three hours if they didn't find Sasami and something could happen to Tenchi while she was looking for the girl who she hadn't seen in two years and who had apparently disappeared from existence.
"Any luck?"
Ryoko heard Washu's voice before the petite scientist's face appeared on the view screen in front of the pirate.
"Not so far. This is the last system I'm searching. If Sasami's not a system more remote than the Sol system, then she's nowhere."
Washu nodded.
"Have you heard from Tenchi?" Ryoko asked.
"No, but I have heard from Mihoshi. She and Kiyone were searching for a secret group on Jurai that had been helping Aeka because she was arrested."
"And?"
"And, they found Tenchi with the group yesterday. And Nagi is the leader of the group. Pretty weird, huh?"
"Nagi? The leader of a resistance group? I guess the bounty hunting business isn't what it used to be. Is Tenchi all right?"
"He's fine. They need your help though. As soon as your finished, head for Jurai."
Ryoko nodded.
"Don't worry about that, Washu."
"Good luck, Ryoko." Washu said just before she discontinued their connection.
Ryoko sighed heavily.
"Anything yet, Ryo-Ohki?" She asked.
"Miao!" Ryo-Ohki replied.
"What!?" Ryoko shouted, isolating the information that Ryo-Ohki was giving her. "I'll be damned...She's on Wakusei. Go on, Ryo-Ohki! Let's go get her!"
Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki landed on Wakusei, an almost desolate planet on the outer rim of the Shizukesa System. There was only one major city surrounded by many small villages. Ryoko followed Ryo-Ohki's directions. The little cabbit was able to track Sasami with no trouble.
Finally the two came to a rather large building and went inside.
"What do you want here?" A loud, deep voice shouted as soon as they stepped a foot inside the door.
"We're looking for someone." Ryoko replied sharply.
"There's no one for you to find here." The voice replied back.
"Miao!" Ryo-Ohki meowed and jumped off of Ryoko's shoulder and ran down the hall.
"Ryo-Ohki!" Ryoko shouted, following her.
"Get back here!" The voice shouted back at them, but no one followed.
"Ryo-Ohki, what are you doing?" Ryoko asked once she caught up with the small cabbit.
"Miao, miao!" She said, phasing herself through the door.
Ryoko sighed and followed only to be face to face with about four rather large guards.
"What are you doing in here!?" They asked in unison.
"Leave her alone." A familiar voice called from behind them and the guards backed away.
On a small bench sat Sasami who looked to be about fifteen now. Her years on Earth had caused her to age more rapidly than she would have on Jurai and the aging process had slowed by now. She wore her long hair down and she smiled cheerfully with Ryo-Ohki sitting on her shoulder.
"Sasami, I have been looking everywhere for you!" Ryoko said, exasperated.
"Why?" Sasami asked, not looking over at her.
"Because everyone was worried about you. Your mother and aunt on in exile, Aeka's going to be executed in three days, and Tenchi and the others are trying to get her out."
"How come only you came looking for me, Ryoko?" Sasami asked softly.
"I just told you, Sasami. We need to get you somewhere safe."
"I am safe. I've been safe ever I left my family on Acadia."
"You left them?"
"Of course. I didn't want you to come looking for me Ryoko. Not you..."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ryoko snapped.
"It means that I didn't want you to come here, Ryoko." Sasami said, standing up.
"What about Aeka, Tenchi, and the others? They just want you to be safe." Ryoko said.
Sasami simply turned away from Ryoko and walked to an open window with a balcony and looked outside.
"Here I have the best protection I would ever need from the new Jurain royal family. Here I don't have to worry about falling into the same trap as Aeka did."
"Sasami..."
"I like it here Ryoko. I don't have to cook for a large group of people or clean up after them. I don't have to live in Aeka's shadow anymore. I'm no longer the 2nd princess, here I'm the first."
"Miao?" Ryo-Ohki said to Sasami curiously.
"I have missed you, Ryo-Ohki, but you shouldn't be here. Take Ryoko back to Earth."
"I'm not going back to Earth."
"What do you mean?" Sasami asked, turning around to face Ryoko for the first time.
"I mean I'm going to Jurai to help the others. To help Aeka."
"I thought you hated Aeka."
Ryoko shrugged.
"She shouldn't die like that. Besides, she's not really any competition for Tenchi anymore anyway."
"She must be if he went there to help her." Sasami said, looking Ryoko in the eye.
Ryoko clenched her fists.
"He originally came to help me look for you, you know." She said.
"Oh, really? He's not here now...He must not have tried very hard."
"Sasami, what's wrong with you?"
"Absolutely nothing is wrong with me, Ryoko. Just don't go to Jurai...you wouldn't know what you're getting yourself into."
"What are you talking about?"
"If you go to Jurai, you'll see. I suggest you go back to Earth, take Ryo-Ohki with you, and just wait things out with Washu."
"I won't go back to Earth, Sasami. And I'm not leaving this planet without you."
"I'm not going anywhere with you, Ryoko. Go to Jurai if you wish, you won't like what you find when you get there, if you get there."
"Sasami, you haven't...you didn't..."
"What Ryoko? Have you finally figured things out?"
"Miao?" Ryo-Ohki said sadly.
Sasami snapped her fingers and the four guards grabbed her quickly. With the men holding onto her, Ryoko couldn't teleport away.
"I warned you, Ryoko. I told you to leave and go back to Earth, but you refused. If you want to go to Jurai that much, we'll go together."
"What have you done, Sasami?"
Suddenly one of the guards hit Ryoko sharply on the back on the head and she blacked out.
-End Ryoko's Future-
As Ryoko started to disconnect herself from Washu's machine, everyone's eyes were trained on Sasami who had turned a bright red.
"Sasami, how could you do such a thing?" Aeka snapped.
"I didn't do anything!" The small girl defended herself.
"Don't yell at her for something she hasn't even done yet." Washu said. "Besides, whatever she's done, she probably won't do it now."
Aeka frowned.
"I still can't believe it. I don't believe that machine of yours, Washu. Its making up lies about everyone. It made Ryoko seem like a decent human being." She said.
"I can see why Sasami would turn against you..." Ryoko growled, charging toward Aeka, only to be stopped by Washu.
"No fighting in the lab. If either one of you use your powers in here, you'll be electrocuted." Washu said cheerfully.
Ryoko stuck her tongue out at Aeka and went back to floating just above the floor.
"I hardly got to see any of my future. I got knocked unconscious before anything happened!" She complained.
"That's not my fault, Ryoko. You only get one day of your future. If I connected you to that machine again, your future could be completely different now. Its nobody's fault that you don't wake up until the next morning." Washu said, typing various things into her computer.
"But Washu, how come our futures aren't different after seeing everyone else's?" Mihoshi asked.
"How do you know they're not?"
Mihoshi stood silently pondering that statement.
"Well, Sasami's next. Maybe now we can find out why she's so bitter." Kiyone said, looking at the girl again.
"C'mon Sasami." Washu said.
"All right." Sasami said slowly, sitting down in the chair and watching Washu connect the various wires to her.
"Hold still now." Washu said, starting the machine up again. "Here we go."
-End Chapter 5-
Next:
Chapter 6: All Shapes and Sizes
A/N: I know this isn't what you all were expecting for Ryoko, but having a good idea of what you were expecting, I decided to intentionally fall short of your expectations. There's still 4 chapters left, keep reading, you might find what you've been looking for.
;)