[Author's Note: This story is placed in the "No Need for Tenchi" manga
universe, an extension of the OAV series. It includes individuals and
references events from the first eight mangas.]
No Need for Tenchi - Minagi's adventure
Conclusion: Ashes of Victory
Later in the evening
Ayeka slowly woke up. For a while she lay still, trying to recall
everything that had happened. At first, the battle seemed like a bad
dream. Then a cold spike of fear pierced her heart as she remembered
Tenchi's condition. With a low mournful cry, she lurched out of bed and
slowly worked her way to the medical bay. A sad sight met her eyes:
Ryoko was curled up in a ball in the hallway in front of the door,
while Mihoshi and Ryo-Ohki sprawled out along the wall across from the
it.
Just then, Minagi turned the corner with a pile of blankets in her
arms. She watched Ayeka slowly ease herself down onto the floor and
lean her head against the wall. Ayeka was instantly asleep and didn't
even stir as Minagi, smiling, draped a blanket around her. After
bundling Mihoshi and Ryo-Ohki up as well, Minagi turned to Ryoko.
She seemed to be asleep, but she was twisting slightly, as if she was
wrestling with something dark and terrible. Minagi draped a blanket
over her, taking care to tuck it around her shoulders. Ryoko seemed to
settle down.
Finished, Minagi started to rise.
/Thanks, Minagi. For everything./ Ryoko's eyes were still shut, but a
small sad smile crossed her face.
Minagi felt a bittersweet sadness touch her thoughts. The pain behind
them made her breath catch in her throat.
/Ryoko, did I wake you?/
/Doesn't matter, I was only having nightmares anyway./ A hurt
expression crossed her face, echoing the pain and regret that swirled
in her thoughts.
/Ryoko, I'm sorry about Tenchi. If you hadn't had to save me and get so
hurt, maybe things would have been different. If I never even came to
you guys, this would have never happened./ Her thoughts came out in a
rush; she could feel her guilt lashing at her conscience. Distantly she
felt tears running down her face, but she held herself still, waiting
for Ryoko's angry backlash.
/No, not your fault. I'm just... scared I might never see Tenchi again.
But don't ever regret what you did, never./ Ryoko opened her eyes and
painfully sat up, gasping a bit. She looked at Minagi with tired eyes,
but a faint smile played across her face. "Sit with me a bit, will you?
I don't want to be alone right now." Her voice was soft and raspy.
Minagi could only nod numbly at her. Shifting around, she leaned
against the wall next to Ryoko. She wracked her mind for something to
say. Then she felt Ryoko slumping gently against her. Ryoko's breathing
was soft and steady; she was already asleep.
Minagi smiled, glad to see her resting easier. Then she slowly drifted
off.
Washu's eyesight blurred again and her head throbbed fiercely. It was
over 48 hours since the explosion and she had been going full speed the
whole time. Even finals at the Galactic University hadn't been this
grueling. Tenchi's body was repaired, but Washu still hesitated to
bring him out of stasis.
Avashar had been out cold in a med-tank for the past eight hours. His
help had been essential at first, until Washu figured out her own
commands for the stasis field; after that she could control it more
finely than he could. She paused, drew in a deep breath, then carefully
began to bring Tenchi out of stasis completely. The field faded and
she watched her instruments closely for any warning signs.
Breathing: good.
Heart rate: good.
Brain waves: ...
Washu's heart froze as she watched the brain activity only register the
autonomic controls. All the higher brain functions were gone. She
calmed herself and took her fifth shot of stimulant, making a pinwheel
of fire burst in her head but clearing the cobwebs out completely. Her
hands trembled as she began a lengthy series of tests.
They were all negative.
She wanted to cry. She had pulled Tenchi's body from the edge of death,
but now all she had was the shell of the man they all loved. Tears
rolled down her face; she clenched her fists in helpless rage. She
couldn't even think about telling everyone about his condition, but she
knew she had to.
A sloshing sound from the second med-tank drew her attention to
Avashar. The release mechanism engaged with a snap. The cover lifted
off, allowing Avashar to slowly pull himself up. He looked blearily
around.
"How long has it been?"
"Eight hours." Washu tossed a towel at him; it slapped him in the face.
"Dry yourself off and get dressed. I've got to tell my friends some bad
news." She felt bad for snapping at him, but Tenchi's loss and the
thought of breaking the news to everyone was driving her mad. Without a
word of apology she walked to the door, took a deep breath, keyed it
open, and stepped into the corridor. The door closed behind her.
Everyone outside snapped awake. With one look at Washu's expression,
all the shouted questions froze and turned to ashes in their mouths.
Ryo-Ohki gave a small wail of despair and started crying.
The grief was so thick that nobody could speak. Ryoko worked her mouth
several times, trying to ask the question she already knew the answer
to.
"T-Tenchi. Washu, what's with Tenchi?"
Washu could feel her pain like a stab to her heart. But she didn't need
a telepathic link to know how everyone felt; she could see it written
on their faces.
"I'm sorry. Tenchi's body, I was able to save. But when I brought him
out of stasis, there was no Tenchi there. Whatever spark or soul that
was Tenchi is gone, and I don't know how to bring it back." It galled
her to say that, but she could only do so much. Miracles by science,
yes, even a little extra here and there, but re-creating life - no. She
felt numb. She knew she should say something, anything to bring
everyone together, but that part of her was burned out and she wasn't
sure if anything would ever bring it back.
Ryo-Ohki flashed into her child form. With a plaintive "Mya" she ran
and buried herself into Washu's arms. Sobbing as only an innocent can,
Ryo-Ohki startled everyone out of their grim thoughts. Washu looked
down at her and simply hugged her back, tears finally running down her
face.
Avashar slowly pulled himself out of the med-tank as the door closed
behind Washu. He scrubbed himself dry, then peered around for his
clothes. Seeing the tattered remnants from the battle, he shook his
head ruefully and made a small gesture with his hand. A shimmering glow
surrounded him. Moments later, he was fully clothed again.
Even this small act was painful. Although many injuries were healed
over, the healing process was a demanding strain on his body, and it
had been pushed far beyond its limits.
Nevertheless he still owed a debt to this young man. Standing over
Tenchi's body, he was impressed with the work Washu had done. He hadn't
realized how talented she was; the consummate skill with which she had
essentially rebuilt Tenchi was amazing. There was only one piece
missing.
Avashar tilted his head to the side for a second. There was one catch
with stasis fields: if one wasn't properly prepared before stasis, one
would actually remain "awake". Although the body was completely paused
in time, somehow one would continue to dream and recall the condition
before stasis.
Tenchi's situation hadn't lent itself well to stasis; his soul could
very well have writhed in agony forever. Avashar had known that if he
didn't pull Tenchi's essence from his broken body, Tenchi might very
well return a screaming maniac, mind and spirit irrevocably ruined. He
smiled grimly, knowing he could never have let such a brave soul perish
in such a horrible way. Now, with the body ready, it was only a matter
of returning the soul. It wouldn't even hurt that much.
Tenchi slowly woke up. Blinking, he sat up and looked around at his
surroundings. For a second he felt a burst of hope - was he home? It
looked like home, but everything had a soft fuzziness about it, as if
in a dream. Bits and pieces of the surrounding woods would fade in and
out of focus. The sky above was crystal blue, dusted with a few soft
clouds. No birds sang, nor was there any sense of a breeze.
As though recalling a bad nightmare, he remembered the combat with
Rashava. He looked down at his body to see that he was dressed in Jurai
battle armor, but there was no pain, no wounds. "Am I dead?" His voice
had a wondering quality about it, as if fear and doubt were gone.
"That depends on your definition of dead."
Tenchi spun around to see Avashar floating above the lake outside the
house. He looked just like Rashava. A cold light shone through his
skin. His eyes, though, were unlike Rashava's; they shone with warmth
at odds with his harsh features.
"Your body was heavily damaged during the battle with Rashava. I had to
place it in stasis aboard my ship, but your essence I had to place
elsewhere." He smiled at Tenchi's dumbstruck expression. "This is my
astral body, Tenchi. As you might have suspected, Rashava and I were of
the same race. At least we once were."
He floated over and dropped to the ground next to Tenchi. The ancient
armor covering his body was battered and torn. Thin trickles of blood
shimmered down from where he had been stabbed in the chest.
Tenchi was uneasy; he knew what answer he was going to get. "I remember
fighting Rashava, but then, then I..."
"Died. I believe that is the word you're looking for." Avashar winced
in pain. "You are an amazing young man. I have never seen such a battle
before; Rashava was practically wielding the power of a God and you
fought him to a standstill."
Tenchi flinched. "But in doing so, I stopped the last chance for
another realm, another race, to survive. Doesn't that make me as bad as
him?"
"Hardly. You did what had to be done. Life is as precious here as it
was in my realm, a fact that eluded most of my people. They viewed this
realm as ripe for destruction and re-creation, so they could move in
with nary a disruption to their comfortable existence as self-made
lords of creation.
"You ask if stopping Rashava makes you as bad as him, and I say no. My
race changed and something precious was lost over the years. There was
no effort made at reconciliation or colonization; their only interest
was remaking everything to suit their needs."
Avashar's grim expression softened into a sad smile. "But enough about
the dead. I think it's time you were brought back into the land of the
living."
There was no preamble, no flashy bursts of light. One moment Tenchi was
talking with Avashar; the next, his soul was back in his body.
Tenchi's eyes flew open and he took a deep a series of deep shuddering
breaths. Avashar leaned heavily against the med-tank and smiled down at
him.
"How are you doing?"
Tenchi held his head for a second, the raw sensations coursing through
his body threatening to overwhelm him. The feeling passed quickly and
he was able to look blearily around. "Ok, I guess. Where am I?"
"The Hinase. I'm not sure how they survived the blast, but they came
looking for you."
Ryoko's injury flashed in Tenchi's mind. "Ryoko! Is she alright?"
"Yes. All your companions seem pretty worn out, but they're all in one
piece." Avashar tossed a towel to Tenchi. "Better put this on, it seems
to be your only source of clothing available. Washu just left. She
seemed pretty upset."
"Oh, why?"
"A couple of minutes ago you were doing an excellent imitation of a
vegetable."
"What? You didn't tell her I was still alive?"
Avashar looked a bit embarrassed. "I hadn't really thought about it. I
never dreamt she could get your body repaired so quickly."
Tenchi flinched at the thought of upsetting Washu like that. He only
hoped that her happiness at seeing him alive would outweigh her urge to
strangle Avashar for pulling a stunt like this.
"Can... we at least see... Tenchi?" asked Ryoko tearfully.
"Yes, I'm sorry." Washu said, and with a heavy heart opened the door.
Washu found herself unable to speak. All the snappy patter and wit she
prided herself on suddenly just evaporated. She could feel her chest
tightening and her eyes welling up with tears. For the first time in
her long life, Washu was never so happy at being so completely and
utterly wrong.
Tenchi stood beyond the doorway, awkwardly holding a towel around his
waist. He blushed slightly at his state of undress. Then his blush
deepened even more as he saw their looks of love, wonder, and joy at
seeing him. A ringing silence filled the space between them. None of
the women spoke, as if saying something would dispel this vision of the
man they all loved.
Tenchi would always remember that moment with crystal clarity: Washu
shocked speechless, a dawning look of joy on her face; Ryo-Ohki as a
small child clinging to Washu, her mouth open in amazement; Mihoshi's
blue eyes shining with happiness; Minagi's stunned expression, a silly
grin on her face; Ayeka stunned, a hand half raised towards him. Ryoko
had a look of disbelief, but her eyes shone with joy.
Blushing even more, he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um, hi."
His words breaking the spell that held everyone still, Tenchi was
nearly trampled by the press of women. Ryoko and Ayeka kept nudging
each other out of the way while Ryo-Ohki clung to him and Mihoshi
jumped up and down, laughing with joy. Washu was left standing in the
doorway looking quite stunned. Minagi stood behind her, bright eyed
with happiness.
Avashar carefully edged past the mad press of happy people and worked
his way into the hallway. Washu fixed him with a stern look. "You could
have warned me, ya know."
"Sorry, but I didn't expect you to be finished so quickly with Tenchi's
surgery. It wasn't going to be an issue until we completely spun the
stasis field down. And that whole towel in the face bit threw me off."
Washu stared up at Avashar, patted his arm, and smiled brightly up at
him. "That's alright, just don't ever, ever, do that again. By the way,
how did you do it?"
Avashar leaned down and whispered three words softly into her ear. An
incredulous look of disbelief crossed her face, before slowly turning
into a maniacal grin. He straightened back up with a wince and grinned
back at her. "Anyway, you have to admit it was fairly - ahem -
dramatic".
Washu shook her head in slow disbelief. "I hate dramatic, especially
when I'm not the one doing it."
Avashar smiled again and started down the hallway when Minagi blocked
his path. She stared at him and said quietly, "I haven't forgotten what
you did to those traders".
Avashar's smile faded. He looked back and said just as quietly, "Those
traders were dealing in materials so deadly to existence they forfeited
any claim to their own lives. If enough of those books had been present
at the library, Rashava would have been that much more powerful and
could have initiated the re-creation right then and there.
"You're a good person, Minagi. I hope you never have to make the
decisions I have had to make. I never enjoyed killing, but this was
war, plain and simple."
"So what are you?"
"Perhaps we should save this conversation until later. Especially since
everyone else is, well, occupied." Avashar nodded towards the chaos in
the medical bay.
Minagi smiled and then nodded in agreement. "We'll talk later, then."
Washu moved next to Minagi and watched him stride down the corridor, a
serious expression on her face. Minagi turned and regarded the
diminutive redhead. "Washu, what did he whisper to you?"
Glancing back up at Minagi, Washu quietly replied, "Deus Ex Machina."
Minagi scrunched her eyebrows together. "So what is that? A type of
device or something?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Minagi was going to press Washu for more details, but then Tenchi let
out a yelp and went streaking by (literally) as his towel came loose.
Ryo-Ohki gave a cry of startled surprise and stumbled to the ground
back in her cabbit form, while Mihosi hopped up and down, red faced.
Washu sighed and shook her head ruefully at Tenchi's rapidly retreating
bare backside. Minagi blushed furiously and covered her mouth to keep
from laughing.
"Ryoko, what did you do?" Ayeka screamed.
"It was an accident, really!" Ryoko replied, the model of hurt
innocence. Flying after him, she waved the missing towel. "Tenchi, wait
up, I'll put this back on for you!" Ayeka followed close behind,
obviously preparing a flying tackle to bring Ryoko down. She was
muttering under her breath something about "if Ryoko thought she was
injured before..."
Later in Tenchi-time meant one embarrassed Tenchi, and several hours
more before everyone could gather around for a light dinner. Everyone
was burned out to a greater or lesser degree, so Tenchi actually did
the honors and whipped up a meal. Minagi sipped sake and grinned
at Ryoko and Ayeka's over-the-top wrestling for Tenchi's affection.
Even their sniping at each other seemed to have a giddy edge to it.
Ryo-Ohki had converted back to her cabbit form and was happily
munching away on a carrot out of Tenchi's hand. Washu still
looked worn out, but she had made it to dinner anyway. Mihosi would
only miss a meal if a supernova had vaporized her into component atoms.
After the meal had finished, Minagi turned to Avashar and said again,
"So who are you?"
He took a deep breath as he realized that everybody was looking
intently at him. "I am one of the Damned. 40,000 years ago, a powerful
race discovered that their reality was collapsing. Their grand council
decided to deploy agents to prevent anyone from attempting to escape
into this realm. It was the council's fear that, as the day of the
dimensional collapse drew nearer, popular opinion might try to force
something drastic that could extinguish all life in both realms.
"I was a volunteer, one of many, and our entire group jokingly called
ourselves the Damned - as fine a bit of gallows humor as there ever
was. We were never to return to our home dimension, nor was anyone
supposed to know we were here, and we were bound by oath to stop anyone
escaping or forcing entry into this dimension.
"Our abilities were strengthened, and our life spans extended with the
latest technology. We were the best, the brightest, and we were tasked
with preventing our race from escaping its doom.
"One thousand years later, the council was overthrown. Knowledge of our
existence was made public and we received news that all our families
and friends had been torn apart by angry mobs. Over the millennia, we
foiled countless attempts at crossover. Our names were cursed and we
became an entire race's boogieman for the next 39,000 years. But we
were never supposed to be operating unsupported for so long."
Minagi shivered, trying to imagine what it would be like to be hated by
an entire race of people. Glancing around the table, she could see that
the thought was disturbing to everyone else.
Washu leaned forward, interrupting Avashar. "You mean to tell me your
people didn't consider the thought of trans-locating to this realm
peacefully? If you haven't noticed, this universe is a pretty big
place. There's plenty of room."
Avashar regarded Washu silently for a moment before replying. "Yes,
that was one of the hopes of the original council. In all reality,
though, it was a foolish dream. To trans-locate peacefully would have
required a tremendous loss of power for our people. By forcing a new
creation in this realm, the rules preventing an easy transfer over to
this realm would have been removed. My people were too comfortable with
their god-like existences to allow any loss of their power."
Washu nodded slowly. "So - rather than enter this realm weaker but
alive, your people would rather destroy all life here to keep their
power?"
"Such a decision is remarkably easy to make when you don't regard
anything in this realm as worthy of being considered alive." Avashar
continued as if he had locked this story up for the time when he could
share it. "Unsupported, our losses mounted. At first it was from
combat, but as time passed others took their own lives. Then old age
began to decimate our ranks. The only solution was to transfer our
essence to another host. We could extend that host's life span, but not
indefinitely. So we would have to transfer again. Each time, a little
piece of us would disappear, our abilities would diminish, and the
personality of the host would grow stronger.
"As the energies destroying my realm grew in strength, it became more
difficult to send waves of warriors across. The battles grew
increasingly savage. Fewer but more powerful `champions' would cross
over. We were becoming too weak for direct conflict, so we resorted to
even more drastic measures. About 10,000 years ago, we began bombarding
planets that housed our brothers' and sisters' bases. More often, we
would use proxies to fight our battles, initiating revolutions and
outright war. Each atrocity turned us more into the monsters they made
us out to be."
Minagi's breath caught, as she realized that the man before her had
been present at those ancient massacres, if not the cause. Glancing
around, she could see that everyone was disturbed at the ease with
which he had employed violence to achieve his goals.
Avashar continued, not noticing their looks of horror and revulsion.
"Our numbers dwindled even more rapidly and soon there was only a
handful of us left. Rashava was the most advanced champion ever to
cross over into this realm; that was over two thousand years ago.
During that time, he personally killed the five remaining Damned left
in this dimension. Only then did he activate his final plan utilizing
the collected knowledge of higher dimensions here to undo creation and
transfer everyone over.
"I barely escaped from my first meeting with Rashava, and he believed I
was dead. I barely was able to join up with my last host. Our
personalities are completely intermeshed, and I, well, am no longer who
I was 40,000 years ago. The only thing I've truly kept pure is my
name."
He smiled sadly. "I never expected to see the day where I would outlast
my entire dimension, my race. I am no longer bound by the oaths I swore
so long ago."
Minagi clenched her fists. "Still, you didn't have to kill those
traders."
"Maybe you've forgotten, but there was a war going on. I couldn't face
Rashava directly, so I undermined his sources of power."
"You could have let them go. What you did was murder, pure and simple."
"Boarding one of those ships would have taken time, and the others
would have fled the scene. If you're expecting me to express some grief
at their deaths, don't waste your time." Avashar's expression was one
of hurt anger as he looked around and saw everyone's look of
disagreement.
"What? Don't look at me like that." He got up, bristling angrily. "I
always hoped for victory and did my best to accomplish that goal.
40,000 years of sacrifice and blood is on my hands, and what do I get?
I get to enjoy the ashes of victory."
Tenchi shook his head in disagreement. "Saving this realm didn't
require so many atrocities. What's the use of victory if you've become
what you despised?"
"What a wonderfully child-like point of view. Try living as long as I
have and not get blood on your hands."
"I've lived 20,000 years and -" Washu was interrupted in mid-sentence.
"Please, don't tell me you have no responsibility for Kagoto's actions?
His path and mine crossed more than once, and you honestly expect me to
believe that he suddenly up and went bad on you? His naked ambition
must have been painfully obvious, even in the beginning."
Washu's eyes flashed angrily. "Hey, I'm not a mind-reader. I had no
idea he would turn out like that."
"Then perhaps you still had some growing up to do."
Everyone flinched. Washu raised her chin and fixed Avashar with a cold
look. "Maybe. The question I have for you is whether your actions were
out of concern for the life in this realm, or simply to satisfy your
oath."
"Life, of course. I've just come to accept the fact that no battle is
won without loss, and usually it's the innocents who pay the price."
Rising, he bowed slightly to Washu and started striding away.
Minagi's mouth was dry. "Where are you going?"
Avashar didn't look back, merely replied as he walked away. "My ship.
Even heavily damaged, I can power it enough to get far away from all of
you."
Minagi flashed next to Avashar as he strode along the corridor. "I
didn't mean to cause this kind of trouble. You saved Tenchi, and we're
grateful. It's just that you can't expect us to accept what you are so
easily."
"I'm not looking for acceptance. Not anymore." He reached a viewport
and stared out into space. The TurtleDove glided into view, still
heavily damaged. He turned hard eyes upon Minagi. "I owed a debt to
Tenchi, and now we're even. I'll take my leave now, if you don't mind."
"What will you do?"
"There are plenty of other groups and individuals who tamper with
forbidden knowledge in this galaxy. Other powers still strive to
influence events here to their liking. I think it's time I paid them a
visit."
"So you're going to continue killing." Minagi's voice was flat with
disappointment.
A portal opened next to Avashar, the dim interior of the TurtleDove
appearing within. Stepping through, he looked back at Minagi and simply
replied, "As necessary." The portal snapped shut, and the TurtleDove
slowly boosted away from the Hinase.
Minagi watched the TurtleDove until it disappeared from sight.
Aftermath
Minagi sat with Ryoko on the beam above the living room. Swinging her
feet slightly, she smiled at the view of the household from above. "So
this is where you like to hang out?"
"Yeah, I can avoid a lot of the chores this way."
Minagi chuckled at Ryoko's wry tone. Thinking about the past week's
events, she turned and looked at Ryoko. "Ryoko, you're kinda my mom,
right?"
Ryoko tensed. "Whoa, I didn't even know who you were until recently.
There's no way I'm your mother."
"I know, but technically your are. It's just that Washu wanted me to
call her mom instead."
"Washu." Ryoko slumped, and sighed in frustration. "She never quits,
does she?"
"No, she doesn't. But at the least I would like to think of you as
family. I don't really have any, since Master Yakage." Minagi was
surprised at how it still hurt to think about him. There was Hinase,
but it would be nice to know she had a family, even one as weird as
this. "I just hate the thought of being alone."
"Yeah, I never had anything resembling a family until I met everyone
here. Just don't get me started on Washu, though." Ryoko realized she
was avoiding the question and hesitantly touched Minagi's hand. "I
think I'd like that. I mean, you as family." Her cheeks blushed; it had
been harder to say those words than she thought.
Minagi smiled and squeezed Ryoko's hand. "It's a start, at least."
Ayeka rested in the bath, eyes closed, the warm water relaxing her
muscles. She was feeling better now that the shock of all the events
was finally passing. She sighed and reflected on all the activity after
the climatic battle.
She was still in contact with countless galactic and Jurai
bureaucracies. Explaining how the Ship of the Beginning had been
damaged by a shockwave from a newborn star wasn't exactly the highlight
of the trip back home. Explaining how exactly a newborn star was
burning within Jurai protected space wasn't a treat either.
"But nobody ever said that being a Princess of Jurai was easy," she
thought aloud.
She stretched luxuriously and sipped some sake. The soft rush of water
was entirely too soothing. Then there was a soft splash, followed by
silence.
"Uh, Ayeka?" Ryoko's voice came from around the corner.
Ayeka sighed. "Yes?"
Still out of sight, Ryoko hesitated. "Yeah. Uh, thank you. Minagi told
me about how you protected Washu and me."
Ayeka opened her eyes a faint smile playing on her lips. "You're
welcome. Would you like some sake?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Ryoko slid around the corner and accepted a cup from her. They sat and
sipped, a companionable silence between them.
Aboard the Yukinojo, Mihoshi stretched, having completed the first
draft of her report to Galaxy Police HQ. Trying to explain what had
happened to her supervisors was no easy task. Just the thought of
trans-dimensional entities from another reality fighting a war for
40,000 years to undo creation was hard enough to grasp. The added bonus
of explaining how Jupiter had become a brightly burning star didn't
make things any easier. Thankfully, Princess Ayeka was assisting with
all the different organizations clamoring for information.
Shaking her head, she turned back to her work. The additional
information she had pulled from the GP archives was piled in front of
her. By using the earliest records dating back 30,000 years, she had
pinpointed several instances of planetary destruction, wars, and
rebellions which all indicated the involvement of the Damned.
Nobody could have noticed this pattern without understanding what was
behind them. Individually, they all appeared like random attacks or
wars without reason. When she correlated all the known pieces, a
horrible tapestry of mayhem and bloodshed unfolded. Many of the earlier
records could only estimate the loss of life, but it stretched into the
billions over the years.
She knew she could be wrong. Many of those disasters and wars could
have been of natural origin, but even if only a fraction were by the
actions of the Damned, they were still responsible for untold millions
of deaths.
Mihoshi steeled herself for the next draft. This would be her longest
report ever.
Sitting outside, Sasami laughed as Ryo-Ohki piteously wailed for
another carrot. She dangled the orange slice of heaven before the
cabbit's nose for a second before letting her snatch it out of her
hand. Ryo-Ohki scampered off at top speed, prize in mouth, tearing past
Tenchi in her eagerness to find a choice hiding spot to devour the
tasty morsel.
"Tenchi! Are you back from the field already?"
"Yes, Sasami. Washu told me to take it easy for the next couple of
days." Tenchi winced, remembering the terrible wounds from the battle.
He sat down slowly next to Sasami and sighed in relief.
Sasami threw her arms around him. "I'm glad you're okay, Tenchi. I was
worried about you."
He paused, remembering what his grandfather had mentioned. "Sasami, are
you still having bad dreams? Grandfather said you weren't sleeping well
since the explosion occurred."
Her bright smile faded a bit and she hugged Tenchi tighter. "I didn't
sleep well until everyone got home safe and sound. I'm still really
tired, but at least I'm not having bad dreams anymore." She snuffled.
"I don't ever want to have to go through that again."
"I don't want you to go through that again either, Sasami."
She snuggled up to Tenchi and leaned her head against his side. Tenchi
flinched at first, then smiled gently and relaxed. The sunlight warmed
him and the cool breeze crossing the lake was refreshing. He was amazed
at how quickly things could revert to normal after such an adventure.
His lips quirked in a smile; this blissful tranquility was vastly
preferable to fighting and racing all over space.
Suddenly he noticed that Sasami's breathing had slowed into a steady
rhythm. Tenchi whispered softly, "Sasami? Huh, asleep already. You're
more tired than I realized." He froze as he felt a presence appear
nearby.
"That's because she's also healing," Tsunami's voice whispered out of
the air. Shimmering into being, she stood before Tenchi, who was
awkwardly trying not to shift and disturb Sasami's sleep.
"Tsunami. Thanks for protecting everyone from the explosion. But what
do you mean, she's healing?"
"Remember, Sasami and I are linked. It wasn't easy shielding everyone
from the blast, I took more damage than I expected. Since I have been
healing, Sasami has been feeling the effect also." Tsunami smiled and
continued on softly, "I actually didn't expect this to happen, but I
have never bonded this closely to a life before."
"She'll be alright, won't she?"
"We'll be fine," Tsunami gently corrected, before breaking into a wide
smile. "Of course, the Emperor of Jurai is a bit upset that I've been
damaged. He seems convinced you are somehow to blame for all of this."
She chuckled at Tenchi's sigh of frustration.
Her smile faded as she grew serious again. She knelt down in front of
Tenchi and rested a phantasmal hand on his knee. Her beautiful face was
regretful, and she spoke awkwardly. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you
at the same time, Tenchi. It - hurt - not knowing what happened to you
after the explosion."
Tenchi felt his face flush in embarrassment. "Oh, that's alright,
Tsunami. I guess I was lucky Avashar could get me away from it."
Tsunami jerked her hand away from his knee as if she had just been
burned. "Did you say Avashar?"
Tenchi was surprised at the sharp question from her. He nodded. "Yes,
he's from somewhere else - another realm, he called it. Why, do you
know him?"
Tsunami rose gracefully, her expression slightly troubled. "Oh, it's
nothing. The name just reminded me of someone - but he would have died
long ago."
"Well, he claimed he's been around for the last forty thousand years. I
don't know how old he was prior to that."
Tsunami looked even more troubled but didn't pursue the topic any
further. "I have to go, Tenchi. I'm glad you're safe and sound. Please
don't ever get into trouble like that again, I hate worrying about you
like that." Ducking her head shyly, she leaned down and placed a soft
kiss on his forehead. Tenchi could feel a faint tingle where her lips
brushed his head. Smiling again at his slightly traumatized expression,
she straightened back up and faded from view.
Tenchi still had a slightly dazed expression on his face when he felt
Sasami stir and raise her head. "Tenchi, I'm sorry, I was so tired I
just fell asleep right against you." She scrubbed her eyes and blinked
several times at him.
"It was no bother, Sasami." Tenchi decided not to ask her about
Tsunami. "How do you feel?"
"I feel a whole lot better." A sudden look of dismay crossed her face.
"Oh my! I almost forgot, I've got to get lunch started." Scrambling to
her feet, she tugged impatiently at Tenchi's hand. "Since you're not in
the field, maybe you'd like to help out in the kitchen?"
Getting up, he smiled crookedly at her. "Sure. So what magic are you
planning to work in the kitchen today?"
"I've got a recipe for a new dish and I hope you'll like it!" She had
already dismissed her dark thoughts and was tugging Tenchi impatiently
towards the kitchen, both of them laughing.
Washu sat in her lab, ignoring all the merriment around the house. She
stared blankly at the screen of her untouched workstation. Rashava's
words before the battle still rang in her ears, the implication
terrifying.
The long lost memories had flashed so vividly before the crystal; but
now she could barely remember them. "Or I don't want to remember them,"
she thought. Blocking the event from Minagi's mind had been a snap
decision, but she remembered the look of unease Minagi had given her
before the battle.
Washu shivered and wondered again if there was such a thing as too much
knowledge.
Author's notes:
Obviously, all the Tenchi characters belong to Pioneer, Viz
Communications, etc. I'm only borrowing them for this story.
I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in
proofreading my story (in order of reply).
Trey - Trey's quick replies and comments helped me improve the first
rough draft. Trey even was brave enough to proofread the second draft
of my story!
nik - nik provided a number of very helpful technical and character
comments. After reading his detailed and lengthy comments, I began to
get a sinking sensation on the number of drafts I had ahead of me.
Bob Cannard - Bob was a tremendous help in improving the technical
accuracy of this story. He also provided a long and very professional
list of issues, questions, and criticisms. His assistance in the final
proof was outstanding, and very helpful.
Tawnia Wright - Humblest thanks to my lovely wife for accepting my
sudden Tenchi fever, and all the time spent working on this story. She
also caught an embarrassing number of typos and whatnot when I finally
showed her the story. She claims she will forgive all this if I get her
a Ryo-Ohki doll.
Again, thanks.
Timeline
-40,000 Council forms dimensional security force. Training and
deployment begins, unofficially referred to as the
`Damned'.
-39,000 Plan discovered, council overthrown. Friends and family of
the Damned are murdered. War begins.
-20,000 Extreme end of Damned life span in this dimension. Process
of bonding with other life-forms begin.
-10,000 As Damned grow weaker, they take more drastic measures to
prevent entrance to this dimension. First act of planetary
destruction occurs in -10,972.
-2,000 Rashava, most powerful of all champions, enters this realm.
-100 Rashava battles the five remaining Damned. Avashar is the
only Damned to escape alive (barely).
0 Rashava initiates final plan to collect sources of
dimensional energy to redo creation.
Bonus Points. If you caught the following, pat yourself on the back.
You're weird.
1) Avashar = Avatar? Nope, but nice try though!
2) V1z = Viz Communications, Inc.
3) Avashar, Rashava both owe credit to Harry Turtledove's "Misplaced
Legion (Videssos Cycle) series. (Get the ship's name now? :) ) I
added an `a' to the names to protect the innocent. I highly
recommend reading this series.
4) August Derleth is an author who has written a number of stories in
HP Lovecraft's genre. Alhazred's Necronomicon, the Pnakotic
Manuscripts, and Von Juntz's Unaussprechlichen Kulten all come from
HP Lovecraft's stories. ("Unaussprechlichen Kulten" was Robert E.
Howard's creation; Lovecraft only borrowed it.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/tomes.htm - Bob Cannard). I
highly recommend reading both of these authors.
5) Some of the grimmer quotes uttered by Rashava/Avashar owe themselves
to the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
5) "Deus Ex Machina", or "God in the Machine". A literary device used
to solve an impossible problem, and used frequently by hacks :) and
Hollywood movies.
I added these elements to the story because I have enjoyed all these
genres and wanted to pay homage to them in my own peculiar way. Either
way, I hope you enjoyed my first fic. Feel free to comment/criticize.
Regards,
John Wright
john.k.wright@worldnet.att.net
universe, an extension of the OAV series. It includes individuals and
references events from the first eight mangas.]
No Need for Tenchi - Minagi's adventure
Conclusion: Ashes of Victory
Later in the evening
Ayeka slowly woke up. For a while she lay still, trying to recall
everything that had happened. At first, the battle seemed like a bad
dream. Then a cold spike of fear pierced her heart as she remembered
Tenchi's condition. With a low mournful cry, she lurched out of bed and
slowly worked her way to the medical bay. A sad sight met her eyes:
Ryoko was curled up in a ball in the hallway in front of the door,
while Mihoshi and Ryo-Ohki sprawled out along the wall across from the
it.
Just then, Minagi turned the corner with a pile of blankets in her
arms. She watched Ayeka slowly ease herself down onto the floor and
lean her head against the wall. Ayeka was instantly asleep and didn't
even stir as Minagi, smiling, draped a blanket around her. After
bundling Mihoshi and Ryo-Ohki up as well, Minagi turned to Ryoko.
She seemed to be asleep, but she was twisting slightly, as if she was
wrestling with something dark and terrible. Minagi draped a blanket
over her, taking care to tuck it around her shoulders. Ryoko seemed to
settle down.
Finished, Minagi started to rise.
/Thanks, Minagi. For everything./ Ryoko's eyes were still shut, but a
small sad smile crossed her face.
Minagi felt a bittersweet sadness touch her thoughts. The pain behind
them made her breath catch in her throat.
/Ryoko, did I wake you?/
/Doesn't matter, I was only having nightmares anyway./ A hurt
expression crossed her face, echoing the pain and regret that swirled
in her thoughts.
/Ryoko, I'm sorry about Tenchi. If you hadn't had to save me and get so
hurt, maybe things would have been different. If I never even came to
you guys, this would have never happened./ Her thoughts came out in a
rush; she could feel her guilt lashing at her conscience. Distantly she
felt tears running down her face, but she held herself still, waiting
for Ryoko's angry backlash.
/No, not your fault. I'm just... scared I might never see Tenchi again.
But don't ever regret what you did, never./ Ryoko opened her eyes and
painfully sat up, gasping a bit. She looked at Minagi with tired eyes,
but a faint smile played across her face. "Sit with me a bit, will you?
I don't want to be alone right now." Her voice was soft and raspy.
Minagi could only nod numbly at her. Shifting around, she leaned
against the wall next to Ryoko. She wracked her mind for something to
say. Then she felt Ryoko slumping gently against her. Ryoko's breathing
was soft and steady; she was already asleep.
Minagi smiled, glad to see her resting easier. Then she slowly drifted
off.
Washu's eyesight blurred again and her head throbbed fiercely. It was
over 48 hours since the explosion and she had been going full speed the
whole time. Even finals at the Galactic University hadn't been this
grueling. Tenchi's body was repaired, but Washu still hesitated to
bring him out of stasis.
Avashar had been out cold in a med-tank for the past eight hours. His
help had been essential at first, until Washu figured out her own
commands for the stasis field; after that she could control it more
finely than he could. She paused, drew in a deep breath, then carefully
began to bring Tenchi out of stasis completely. The field faded and
she watched her instruments closely for any warning signs.
Breathing: good.
Heart rate: good.
Brain waves: ...
Washu's heart froze as she watched the brain activity only register the
autonomic controls. All the higher brain functions were gone. She
calmed herself and took her fifth shot of stimulant, making a pinwheel
of fire burst in her head but clearing the cobwebs out completely. Her
hands trembled as she began a lengthy series of tests.
They were all negative.
She wanted to cry. She had pulled Tenchi's body from the edge of death,
but now all she had was the shell of the man they all loved. Tears
rolled down her face; she clenched her fists in helpless rage. She
couldn't even think about telling everyone about his condition, but she
knew she had to.
A sloshing sound from the second med-tank drew her attention to
Avashar. The release mechanism engaged with a snap. The cover lifted
off, allowing Avashar to slowly pull himself up. He looked blearily
around.
"How long has it been?"
"Eight hours." Washu tossed a towel at him; it slapped him in the face.
"Dry yourself off and get dressed. I've got to tell my friends some bad
news." She felt bad for snapping at him, but Tenchi's loss and the
thought of breaking the news to everyone was driving her mad. Without a
word of apology she walked to the door, took a deep breath, keyed it
open, and stepped into the corridor. The door closed behind her.
Everyone outside snapped awake. With one look at Washu's expression,
all the shouted questions froze and turned to ashes in their mouths.
Ryo-Ohki gave a small wail of despair and started crying.
The grief was so thick that nobody could speak. Ryoko worked her mouth
several times, trying to ask the question she already knew the answer
to.
"T-Tenchi. Washu, what's with Tenchi?"
Washu could feel her pain like a stab to her heart. But she didn't need
a telepathic link to know how everyone felt; she could see it written
on their faces.
"I'm sorry. Tenchi's body, I was able to save. But when I brought him
out of stasis, there was no Tenchi there. Whatever spark or soul that
was Tenchi is gone, and I don't know how to bring it back." It galled
her to say that, but she could only do so much. Miracles by science,
yes, even a little extra here and there, but re-creating life - no. She
felt numb. She knew she should say something, anything to bring
everyone together, but that part of her was burned out and she wasn't
sure if anything would ever bring it back.
Ryo-Ohki flashed into her child form. With a plaintive "Mya" she ran
and buried herself into Washu's arms. Sobbing as only an innocent can,
Ryo-Ohki startled everyone out of their grim thoughts. Washu looked
down at her and simply hugged her back, tears finally running down her
face.
Avashar slowly pulled himself out of the med-tank as the door closed
behind Washu. He scrubbed himself dry, then peered around for his
clothes. Seeing the tattered remnants from the battle, he shook his
head ruefully and made a small gesture with his hand. A shimmering glow
surrounded him. Moments later, he was fully clothed again.
Even this small act was painful. Although many injuries were healed
over, the healing process was a demanding strain on his body, and it
had been pushed far beyond its limits.
Nevertheless he still owed a debt to this young man. Standing over
Tenchi's body, he was impressed with the work Washu had done. He hadn't
realized how talented she was; the consummate skill with which she had
essentially rebuilt Tenchi was amazing. There was only one piece
missing.
Avashar tilted his head to the side for a second. There was one catch
with stasis fields: if one wasn't properly prepared before stasis, one
would actually remain "awake". Although the body was completely paused
in time, somehow one would continue to dream and recall the condition
before stasis.
Tenchi's situation hadn't lent itself well to stasis; his soul could
very well have writhed in agony forever. Avashar had known that if he
didn't pull Tenchi's essence from his broken body, Tenchi might very
well return a screaming maniac, mind and spirit irrevocably ruined. He
smiled grimly, knowing he could never have let such a brave soul perish
in such a horrible way. Now, with the body ready, it was only a matter
of returning the soul. It wouldn't even hurt that much.
Tenchi slowly woke up. Blinking, he sat up and looked around at his
surroundings. For a second he felt a burst of hope - was he home? It
looked like home, but everything had a soft fuzziness about it, as if
in a dream. Bits and pieces of the surrounding woods would fade in and
out of focus. The sky above was crystal blue, dusted with a few soft
clouds. No birds sang, nor was there any sense of a breeze.
As though recalling a bad nightmare, he remembered the combat with
Rashava. He looked down at his body to see that he was dressed in Jurai
battle armor, but there was no pain, no wounds. "Am I dead?" His voice
had a wondering quality about it, as if fear and doubt were gone.
"That depends on your definition of dead."
Tenchi spun around to see Avashar floating above the lake outside the
house. He looked just like Rashava. A cold light shone through his
skin. His eyes, though, were unlike Rashava's; they shone with warmth
at odds with his harsh features.
"Your body was heavily damaged during the battle with Rashava. I had to
place it in stasis aboard my ship, but your essence I had to place
elsewhere." He smiled at Tenchi's dumbstruck expression. "This is my
astral body, Tenchi. As you might have suspected, Rashava and I were of
the same race. At least we once were."
He floated over and dropped to the ground next to Tenchi. The ancient
armor covering his body was battered and torn. Thin trickles of blood
shimmered down from where he had been stabbed in the chest.
Tenchi was uneasy; he knew what answer he was going to get. "I remember
fighting Rashava, but then, then I..."
"Died. I believe that is the word you're looking for." Avashar winced
in pain. "You are an amazing young man. I have never seen such a battle
before; Rashava was practically wielding the power of a God and you
fought him to a standstill."
Tenchi flinched. "But in doing so, I stopped the last chance for
another realm, another race, to survive. Doesn't that make me as bad as
him?"
"Hardly. You did what had to be done. Life is as precious here as it
was in my realm, a fact that eluded most of my people. They viewed this
realm as ripe for destruction and re-creation, so they could move in
with nary a disruption to their comfortable existence as self-made
lords of creation.
"You ask if stopping Rashava makes you as bad as him, and I say no. My
race changed and something precious was lost over the years. There was
no effort made at reconciliation or colonization; their only interest
was remaking everything to suit their needs."
Avashar's grim expression softened into a sad smile. "But enough about
the dead. I think it's time you were brought back into the land of the
living."
There was no preamble, no flashy bursts of light. One moment Tenchi was
talking with Avashar; the next, his soul was back in his body.
Tenchi's eyes flew open and he took a deep a series of deep shuddering
breaths. Avashar leaned heavily against the med-tank and smiled down at
him.
"How are you doing?"
Tenchi held his head for a second, the raw sensations coursing through
his body threatening to overwhelm him. The feeling passed quickly and
he was able to look blearily around. "Ok, I guess. Where am I?"
"The Hinase. I'm not sure how they survived the blast, but they came
looking for you."
Ryoko's injury flashed in Tenchi's mind. "Ryoko! Is she alright?"
"Yes. All your companions seem pretty worn out, but they're all in one
piece." Avashar tossed a towel to Tenchi. "Better put this on, it seems
to be your only source of clothing available. Washu just left. She
seemed pretty upset."
"Oh, why?"
"A couple of minutes ago you were doing an excellent imitation of a
vegetable."
"What? You didn't tell her I was still alive?"
Avashar looked a bit embarrassed. "I hadn't really thought about it. I
never dreamt she could get your body repaired so quickly."
Tenchi flinched at the thought of upsetting Washu like that. He only
hoped that her happiness at seeing him alive would outweigh her urge to
strangle Avashar for pulling a stunt like this.
"Can... we at least see... Tenchi?" asked Ryoko tearfully.
"Yes, I'm sorry." Washu said, and with a heavy heart opened the door.
Washu found herself unable to speak. All the snappy patter and wit she
prided herself on suddenly just evaporated. She could feel her chest
tightening and her eyes welling up with tears. For the first time in
her long life, Washu was never so happy at being so completely and
utterly wrong.
Tenchi stood beyond the doorway, awkwardly holding a towel around his
waist. He blushed slightly at his state of undress. Then his blush
deepened even more as he saw their looks of love, wonder, and joy at
seeing him. A ringing silence filled the space between them. None of
the women spoke, as if saying something would dispel this vision of the
man they all loved.
Tenchi would always remember that moment with crystal clarity: Washu
shocked speechless, a dawning look of joy on her face; Ryo-Ohki as a
small child clinging to Washu, her mouth open in amazement; Mihoshi's
blue eyes shining with happiness; Minagi's stunned expression, a silly
grin on her face; Ayeka stunned, a hand half raised towards him. Ryoko
had a look of disbelief, but her eyes shone with joy.
Blushing even more, he cleared his throat awkwardly. "Um, hi."
His words breaking the spell that held everyone still, Tenchi was
nearly trampled by the press of women. Ryoko and Ayeka kept nudging
each other out of the way while Ryo-Ohki clung to him and Mihoshi
jumped up and down, laughing with joy. Washu was left standing in the
doorway looking quite stunned. Minagi stood behind her, bright eyed
with happiness.
Avashar carefully edged past the mad press of happy people and worked
his way into the hallway. Washu fixed him with a stern look. "You could
have warned me, ya know."
"Sorry, but I didn't expect you to be finished so quickly with Tenchi's
surgery. It wasn't going to be an issue until we completely spun the
stasis field down. And that whole towel in the face bit threw me off."
Washu stared up at Avashar, patted his arm, and smiled brightly up at
him. "That's alright, just don't ever, ever, do that again. By the way,
how did you do it?"
Avashar leaned down and whispered three words softly into her ear. An
incredulous look of disbelief crossed her face, before slowly turning
into a maniacal grin. He straightened back up with a wince and grinned
back at her. "Anyway, you have to admit it was fairly - ahem -
dramatic".
Washu shook her head in slow disbelief. "I hate dramatic, especially
when I'm not the one doing it."
Avashar smiled again and started down the hallway when Minagi blocked
his path. She stared at him and said quietly, "I haven't forgotten what
you did to those traders".
Avashar's smile faded. He looked back and said just as quietly, "Those
traders were dealing in materials so deadly to existence they forfeited
any claim to their own lives. If enough of those books had been present
at the library, Rashava would have been that much more powerful and
could have initiated the re-creation right then and there.
"You're a good person, Minagi. I hope you never have to make the
decisions I have had to make. I never enjoyed killing, but this was
war, plain and simple."
"So what are you?"
"Perhaps we should save this conversation until later. Especially since
everyone else is, well, occupied." Avashar nodded towards the chaos in
the medical bay.
Minagi smiled and then nodded in agreement. "We'll talk later, then."
Washu moved next to Minagi and watched him stride down the corridor, a
serious expression on her face. Minagi turned and regarded the
diminutive redhead. "Washu, what did he whisper to you?"
Glancing back up at Minagi, Washu quietly replied, "Deus Ex Machina."
Minagi scrunched her eyebrows together. "So what is that? A type of
device or something?"
"Yeah, something like that."
Minagi was going to press Washu for more details, but then Tenchi let
out a yelp and went streaking by (literally) as his towel came loose.
Ryo-Ohki gave a cry of startled surprise and stumbled to the ground
back in her cabbit form, while Mihosi hopped up and down, red faced.
Washu sighed and shook her head ruefully at Tenchi's rapidly retreating
bare backside. Minagi blushed furiously and covered her mouth to keep
from laughing.
"Ryoko, what did you do?" Ayeka screamed.
"It was an accident, really!" Ryoko replied, the model of hurt
innocence. Flying after him, she waved the missing towel. "Tenchi, wait
up, I'll put this back on for you!" Ayeka followed close behind,
obviously preparing a flying tackle to bring Ryoko down. She was
muttering under her breath something about "if Ryoko thought she was
injured before..."
Later in Tenchi-time meant one embarrassed Tenchi, and several hours
more before everyone could gather around for a light dinner. Everyone
was burned out to a greater or lesser degree, so Tenchi actually did
the honors and whipped up a meal. Minagi sipped sake and grinned
at Ryoko and Ayeka's over-the-top wrestling for Tenchi's affection.
Even their sniping at each other seemed to have a giddy edge to it.
Ryo-Ohki had converted back to her cabbit form and was happily
munching away on a carrot out of Tenchi's hand. Washu still
looked worn out, but she had made it to dinner anyway. Mihosi would
only miss a meal if a supernova had vaporized her into component atoms.
After the meal had finished, Minagi turned to Avashar and said again,
"So who are you?"
He took a deep breath as he realized that everybody was looking
intently at him. "I am one of the Damned. 40,000 years ago, a powerful
race discovered that their reality was collapsing. Their grand council
decided to deploy agents to prevent anyone from attempting to escape
into this realm. It was the council's fear that, as the day of the
dimensional collapse drew nearer, popular opinion might try to force
something drastic that could extinguish all life in both realms.
"I was a volunteer, one of many, and our entire group jokingly called
ourselves the Damned - as fine a bit of gallows humor as there ever
was. We were never to return to our home dimension, nor was anyone
supposed to know we were here, and we were bound by oath to stop anyone
escaping or forcing entry into this dimension.
"Our abilities were strengthened, and our life spans extended with the
latest technology. We were the best, the brightest, and we were tasked
with preventing our race from escaping its doom.
"One thousand years later, the council was overthrown. Knowledge of our
existence was made public and we received news that all our families
and friends had been torn apart by angry mobs. Over the millennia, we
foiled countless attempts at crossover. Our names were cursed and we
became an entire race's boogieman for the next 39,000 years. But we
were never supposed to be operating unsupported for so long."
Minagi shivered, trying to imagine what it would be like to be hated by
an entire race of people. Glancing around the table, she could see that
the thought was disturbing to everyone else.
Washu leaned forward, interrupting Avashar. "You mean to tell me your
people didn't consider the thought of trans-locating to this realm
peacefully? If you haven't noticed, this universe is a pretty big
place. There's plenty of room."
Avashar regarded Washu silently for a moment before replying. "Yes,
that was one of the hopes of the original council. In all reality,
though, it was a foolish dream. To trans-locate peacefully would have
required a tremendous loss of power for our people. By forcing a new
creation in this realm, the rules preventing an easy transfer over to
this realm would have been removed. My people were too comfortable with
their god-like existences to allow any loss of their power."
Washu nodded slowly. "So - rather than enter this realm weaker but
alive, your people would rather destroy all life here to keep their
power?"
"Such a decision is remarkably easy to make when you don't regard
anything in this realm as worthy of being considered alive." Avashar
continued as if he had locked this story up for the time when he could
share it. "Unsupported, our losses mounted. At first it was from
combat, but as time passed others took their own lives. Then old age
began to decimate our ranks. The only solution was to transfer our
essence to another host. We could extend that host's life span, but not
indefinitely. So we would have to transfer again. Each time, a little
piece of us would disappear, our abilities would diminish, and the
personality of the host would grow stronger.
"As the energies destroying my realm grew in strength, it became more
difficult to send waves of warriors across. The battles grew
increasingly savage. Fewer but more powerful `champions' would cross
over. We were becoming too weak for direct conflict, so we resorted to
even more drastic measures. About 10,000 years ago, we began bombarding
planets that housed our brothers' and sisters' bases. More often, we
would use proxies to fight our battles, initiating revolutions and
outright war. Each atrocity turned us more into the monsters they made
us out to be."
Minagi's breath caught, as she realized that the man before her had
been present at those ancient massacres, if not the cause. Glancing
around, she could see that everyone was disturbed at the ease with
which he had employed violence to achieve his goals.
Avashar continued, not noticing their looks of horror and revulsion.
"Our numbers dwindled even more rapidly and soon there was only a
handful of us left. Rashava was the most advanced champion ever to
cross over into this realm; that was over two thousand years ago.
During that time, he personally killed the five remaining Damned left
in this dimension. Only then did he activate his final plan utilizing
the collected knowledge of higher dimensions here to undo creation and
transfer everyone over.
"I barely escaped from my first meeting with Rashava, and he believed I
was dead. I barely was able to join up with my last host. Our
personalities are completely intermeshed, and I, well, am no longer who
I was 40,000 years ago. The only thing I've truly kept pure is my
name."
He smiled sadly. "I never expected to see the day where I would outlast
my entire dimension, my race. I am no longer bound by the oaths I swore
so long ago."
Minagi clenched her fists. "Still, you didn't have to kill those
traders."
"Maybe you've forgotten, but there was a war going on. I couldn't face
Rashava directly, so I undermined his sources of power."
"You could have let them go. What you did was murder, pure and simple."
"Boarding one of those ships would have taken time, and the others
would have fled the scene. If you're expecting me to express some grief
at their deaths, don't waste your time." Avashar's expression was one
of hurt anger as he looked around and saw everyone's look of
disagreement.
"What? Don't look at me like that." He got up, bristling angrily. "I
always hoped for victory and did my best to accomplish that goal.
40,000 years of sacrifice and blood is on my hands, and what do I get?
I get to enjoy the ashes of victory."
Tenchi shook his head in disagreement. "Saving this realm didn't
require so many atrocities. What's the use of victory if you've become
what you despised?"
"What a wonderfully child-like point of view. Try living as long as I
have and not get blood on your hands."
"I've lived 20,000 years and -" Washu was interrupted in mid-sentence.
"Please, don't tell me you have no responsibility for Kagoto's actions?
His path and mine crossed more than once, and you honestly expect me to
believe that he suddenly up and went bad on you? His naked ambition
must have been painfully obvious, even in the beginning."
Washu's eyes flashed angrily. "Hey, I'm not a mind-reader. I had no
idea he would turn out like that."
"Then perhaps you still had some growing up to do."
Everyone flinched. Washu raised her chin and fixed Avashar with a cold
look. "Maybe. The question I have for you is whether your actions were
out of concern for the life in this realm, or simply to satisfy your
oath."
"Life, of course. I've just come to accept the fact that no battle is
won without loss, and usually it's the innocents who pay the price."
Rising, he bowed slightly to Washu and started striding away.
Minagi's mouth was dry. "Where are you going?"
Avashar didn't look back, merely replied as he walked away. "My ship.
Even heavily damaged, I can power it enough to get far away from all of
you."
Minagi flashed next to Avashar as he strode along the corridor. "I
didn't mean to cause this kind of trouble. You saved Tenchi, and we're
grateful. It's just that you can't expect us to accept what you are so
easily."
"I'm not looking for acceptance. Not anymore." He reached a viewport
and stared out into space. The TurtleDove glided into view, still
heavily damaged. He turned hard eyes upon Minagi. "I owed a debt to
Tenchi, and now we're even. I'll take my leave now, if you don't mind."
"What will you do?"
"There are plenty of other groups and individuals who tamper with
forbidden knowledge in this galaxy. Other powers still strive to
influence events here to their liking. I think it's time I paid them a
visit."
"So you're going to continue killing." Minagi's voice was flat with
disappointment.
A portal opened next to Avashar, the dim interior of the TurtleDove
appearing within. Stepping through, he looked back at Minagi and simply
replied, "As necessary." The portal snapped shut, and the TurtleDove
slowly boosted away from the Hinase.
Minagi watched the TurtleDove until it disappeared from sight.
Aftermath
Minagi sat with Ryoko on the beam above the living room. Swinging her
feet slightly, she smiled at the view of the household from above. "So
this is where you like to hang out?"
"Yeah, I can avoid a lot of the chores this way."
Minagi chuckled at Ryoko's wry tone. Thinking about the past week's
events, she turned and looked at Ryoko. "Ryoko, you're kinda my mom,
right?"
Ryoko tensed. "Whoa, I didn't even know who you were until recently.
There's no way I'm your mother."
"I know, but technically your are. It's just that Washu wanted me to
call her mom instead."
"Washu." Ryoko slumped, and sighed in frustration. "She never quits,
does she?"
"No, she doesn't. But at the least I would like to think of you as
family. I don't really have any, since Master Yakage." Minagi was
surprised at how it still hurt to think about him. There was Hinase,
but it would be nice to know she had a family, even one as weird as
this. "I just hate the thought of being alone."
"Yeah, I never had anything resembling a family until I met everyone
here. Just don't get me started on Washu, though." Ryoko realized she
was avoiding the question and hesitantly touched Minagi's hand. "I
think I'd like that. I mean, you as family." Her cheeks blushed; it had
been harder to say those words than she thought.
Minagi smiled and squeezed Ryoko's hand. "It's a start, at least."
Ayeka rested in the bath, eyes closed, the warm water relaxing her
muscles. She was feeling better now that the shock of all the events
was finally passing. She sighed and reflected on all the activity after
the climatic battle.
She was still in contact with countless galactic and Jurai
bureaucracies. Explaining how the Ship of the Beginning had been
damaged by a shockwave from a newborn star wasn't exactly the highlight
of the trip back home. Explaining how exactly a newborn star was
burning within Jurai protected space wasn't a treat either.
"But nobody ever said that being a Princess of Jurai was easy," she
thought aloud.
She stretched luxuriously and sipped some sake. The soft rush of water
was entirely too soothing. Then there was a soft splash, followed by
silence.
"Uh, Ayeka?" Ryoko's voice came from around the corner.
Ayeka sighed. "Yes?"
Still out of sight, Ryoko hesitated. "Yeah. Uh, thank you. Minagi told
me about how you protected Washu and me."
Ayeka opened her eyes a faint smile playing on her lips. "You're
welcome. Would you like some sake?"
"Yeah, I'd like that."
Ryoko slid around the corner and accepted a cup from her. They sat and
sipped, a companionable silence between them.
Aboard the Yukinojo, Mihoshi stretched, having completed the first
draft of her report to Galaxy Police HQ. Trying to explain what had
happened to her supervisors was no easy task. Just the thought of
trans-dimensional entities from another reality fighting a war for
40,000 years to undo creation was hard enough to grasp. The added bonus
of explaining how Jupiter had become a brightly burning star didn't
make things any easier. Thankfully, Princess Ayeka was assisting with
all the different organizations clamoring for information.
Shaking her head, she turned back to her work. The additional
information she had pulled from the GP archives was piled in front of
her. By using the earliest records dating back 30,000 years, she had
pinpointed several instances of planetary destruction, wars, and
rebellions which all indicated the involvement of the Damned.
Nobody could have noticed this pattern without understanding what was
behind them. Individually, they all appeared like random attacks or
wars without reason. When she correlated all the known pieces, a
horrible tapestry of mayhem and bloodshed unfolded. Many of the earlier
records could only estimate the loss of life, but it stretched into the
billions over the years.
She knew she could be wrong. Many of those disasters and wars could
have been of natural origin, but even if only a fraction were by the
actions of the Damned, they were still responsible for untold millions
of deaths.
Mihoshi steeled herself for the next draft. This would be her longest
report ever.
Sitting outside, Sasami laughed as Ryo-Ohki piteously wailed for
another carrot. She dangled the orange slice of heaven before the
cabbit's nose for a second before letting her snatch it out of her
hand. Ryo-Ohki scampered off at top speed, prize in mouth, tearing past
Tenchi in her eagerness to find a choice hiding spot to devour the
tasty morsel.
"Tenchi! Are you back from the field already?"
"Yes, Sasami. Washu told me to take it easy for the next couple of
days." Tenchi winced, remembering the terrible wounds from the battle.
He sat down slowly next to Sasami and sighed in relief.
Sasami threw her arms around him. "I'm glad you're okay, Tenchi. I was
worried about you."
He paused, remembering what his grandfather had mentioned. "Sasami, are
you still having bad dreams? Grandfather said you weren't sleeping well
since the explosion occurred."
Her bright smile faded a bit and she hugged Tenchi tighter. "I didn't
sleep well until everyone got home safe and sound. I'm still really
tired, but at least I'm not having bad dreams anymore." She snuffled.
"I don't ever want to have to go through that again."
"I don't want you to go through that again either, Sasami."
She snuggled up to Tenchi and leaned her head against his side. Tenchi
flinched at first, then smiled gently and relaxed. The sunlight warmed
him and the cool breeze crossing the lake was refreshing. He was amazed
at how quickly things could revert to normal after such an adventure.
His lips quirked in a smile; this blissful tranquility was vastly
preferable to fighting and racing all over space.
Suddenly he noticed that Sasami's breathing had slowed into a steady
rhythm. Tenchi whispered softly, "Sasami? Huh, asleep already. You're
more tired than I realized." He froze as he felt a presence appear
nearby.
"That's because she's also healing," Tsunami's voice whispered out of
the air. Shimmering into being, she stood before Tenchi, who was
awkwardly trying not to shift and disturb Sasami's sleep.
"Tsunami. Thanks for protecting everyone from the explosion. But what
do you mean, she's healing?"
"Remember, Sasami and I are linked. It wasn't easy shielding everyone
from the blast, I took more damage than I expected. Since I have been
healing, Sasami has been feeling the effect also." Tsunami smiled and
continued on softly, "I actually didn't expect this to happen, but I
have never bonded this closely to a life before."
"She'll be alright, won't she?"
"We'll be fine," Tsunami gently corrected, before breaking into a wide
smile. "Of course, the Emperor of Jurai is a bit upset that I've been
damaged. He seems convinced you are somehow to blame for all of this."
She chuckled at Tenchi's sigh of frustration.
Her smile faded as she grew serious again. She knelt down in front of
Tenchi and rested a phantasmal hand on his knee. Her beautiful face was
regretful, and she spoke awkwardly. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you
at the same time, Tenchi. It - hurt - not knowing what happened to you
after the explosion."
Tenchi felt his face flush in embarrassment. "Oh, that's alright,
Tsunami. I guess I was lucky Avashar could get me away from it."
Tsunami jerked her hand away from his knee as if she had just been
burned. "Did you say Avashar?"
Tenchi was surprised at the sharp question from her. He nodded. "Yes,
he's from somewhere else - another realm, he called it. Why, do you
know him?"
Tsunami rose gracefully, her expression slightly troubled. "Oh, it's
nothing. The name just reminded me of someone - but he would have died
long ago."
"Well, he claimed he's been around for the last forty thousand years. I
don't know how old he was prior to that."
Tsunami looked even more troubled but didn't pursue the topic any
further. "I have to go, Tenchi. I'm glad you're safe and sound. Please
don't ever get into trouble like that again, I hate worrying about you
like that." Ducking her head shyly, she leaned down and placed a soft
kiss on his forehead. Tenchi could feel a faint tingle where her lips
brushed his head. Smiling again at his slightly traumatized expression,
she straightened back up and faded from view.
Tenchi still had a slightly dazed expression on his face when he felt
Sasami stir and raise her head. "Tenchi, I'm sorry, I was so tired I
just fell asleep right against you." She scrubbed her eyes and blinked
several times at him.
"It was no bother, Sasami." Tenchi decided not to ask her about
Tsunami. "How do you feel?"
"I feel a whole lot better." A sudden look of dismay crossed her face.
"Oh my! I almost forgot, I've got to get lunch started." Scrambling to
her feet, she tugged impatiently at Tenchi's hand. "Since you're not in
the field, maybe you'd like to help out in the kitchen?"
Getting up, he smiled crookedly at her. "Sure. So what magic are you
planning to work in the kitchen today?"
"I've got a recipe for a new dish and I hope you'll like it!" She had
already dismissed her dark thoughts and was tugging Tenchi impatiently
towards the kitchen, both of them laughing.
Washu sat in her lab, ignoring all the merriment around the house. She
stared blankly at the screen of her untouched workstation. Rashava's
words before the battle still rang in her ears, the implication
terrifying.
The long lost memories had flashed so vividly before the crystal; but
now she could barely remember them. "Or I don't want to remember them,"
she thought. Blocking the event from Minagi's mind had been a snap
decision, but she remembered the look of unease Minagi had given her
before the battle.
Washu shivered and wondered again if there was such a thing as too much
knowledge.
Author's notes:
Obviously, all the Tenchi characters belong to Pioneer, Viz
Communications, etc. I'm only borrowing them for this story.
I would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance in
proofreading my story (in order of reply).
Trey - Trey's quick replies and comments helped me improve the first
rough draft. Trey even was brave enough to proofread the second draft
of my story!
nik - nik provided a number of very helpful technical and character
comments. After reading his detailed and lengthy comments, I began to
get a sinking sensation on the number of drafts I had ahead of me.
Bob Cannard - Bob was a tremendous help in improving the technical
accuracy of this story. He also provided a long and very professional
list of issues, questions, and criticisms. His assistance in the final
proof was outstanding, and very helpful.
Tawnia Wright - Humblest thanks to my lovely wife for accepting my
sudden Tenchi fever, and all the time spent working on this story. She
also caught an embarrassing number of typos and whatnot when I finally
showed her the story. She claims she will forgive all this if I get her
a Ryo-Ohki doll.
Again, thanks.
Timeline
-40,000 Council forms dimensional security force. Training and
deployment begins, unofficially referred to as the
`Damned'.
-39,000 Plan discovered, council overthrown. Friends and family of
the Damned are murdered. War begins.
-20,000 Extreme end of Damned life span in this dimension. Process
of bonding with other life-forms begin.
-10,000 As Damned grow weaker, they take more drastic measures to
prevent entrance to this dimension. First act of planetary
destruction occurs in -10,972.
-2,000 Rashava, most powerful of all champions, enters this realm.
-100 Rashava battles the five remaining Damned. Avashar is the
only Damned to escape alive (barely).
0 Rashava initiates final plan to collect sources of
dimensional energy to redo creation.
Bonus Points. If you caught the following, pat yourself on the back.
You're weird.
1) Avashar = Avatar? Nope, but nice try though!
2) V1z = Viz Communications, Inc.
3) Avashar, Rashava both owe credit to Harry Turtledove's "Misplaced
Legion (Videssos Cycle) series. (Get the ship's name now? :) ) I
added an `a' to the names to protect the innocent. I highly
recommend reading this series.
4) August Derleth is an author who has written a number of stories in
HP Lovecraft's genre. Alhazred's Necronomicon, the Pnakotic
Manuscripts, and Von Juntz's Unaussprechlichen Kulten all come from
HP Lovecraft's stories. ("Unaussprechlichen Kulten" was Robert E.
Howard's creation; Lovecraft only borrowed it.
http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/tomes.htm - Bob Cannard). I
highly recommend reading both of these authors.
5) Some of the grimmer quotes uttered by Rashava/Avashar owe themselves
to the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
5) "Deus Ex Machina", or "God in the Machine". A literary device used
to solve an impossible problem, and used frequently by hacks :) and
Hollywood movies.
I added these elements to the story because I have enjoyed all these
genres and wanted to pay homage to them in my own peculiar way. Either
way, I hope you enjoyed my first fic. Feel free to comment/criticize.
Regards,
John Wright
john.k.wright@worldnet.att.net