Legacy of Darkness, Chapter 1: Stolen Away
By Drakstern
Tenchi was out working in the fields. It was close to planting time for the carrots, so he had to make sure everything would be ready. The rhythm of the work relaxed him, being pleasantly mundane compared to the rest of his life. (Of course, I guess I did want the strangeness back,) he thought, as he churned up some fresh soil. (Life just hadn't been the same without the others.) Stepping back to examine his work, which had been going slowly, Tenchi could tell he was going to have to come out again tomorrow, and possibly the day after. (The ground has been stubborn.)
He was all set to get back to work, when he realized how hungry he was. (Might as well eat now,) he thought. He walked over to where he normally ate, looking for the food Sasami had made for him. It wasn't where he usually put it. Then he remembered, (I left it in the shed!) Sighing, Tenchi started the walk back toward the house, tools in hand.
Then, he felt a sting on the side of his neck. He quickly brought his hand up, and felt something there. His knees started to buckle as he pulled it out. (A dart?) was his last thought before he collapsed into unconsciousness.
***
It was getting close to lunchtime at the Masaki home. Sasami was playing with Ryo-Ohki outside, while Aeka tried her hand at cooking. (She really does too much work around the house,) Aeka thought to herself, as she tried to follow the instructions in the old cookbook that she'd found. She'd thought it would be nice for Sasami to have a day off from housework, so she had taken over.
She had just finished part of the recipe, and was about to put it on the stove, when Sasami came back in, carrying what looked like Tenchi's lunch. "Did he forget his lunch again?" Aeka asked.
"Yes, he left it in the shed," Sasami replied, " Should I take it out to him?"
"No, I'll do i-" she started, but then she remembered that she was cooking. "Maybe Ryoko could take it to him," She finished.
"Good idea, princess," Ryoko commented as she walked into the kitchen, "I could have it out to him in an instant."
"Oh, thank you Ryoko," Sasami said quickly, handing her the lunch.
"Yes, thank you Ryoko. You might want to hurry though, because he might have realized he forgot it and be on his way back here," Aeka said.
"Back in an minute," Ryoko said. With that, she walked outside and started flying towards the fields.
(I hope she doesn't- No, I trust Tenchi not to do anything like that,) Aeka thought to herself, as she put the uncooked food on to the stove.
"Don't let that overcook, Aeka, and make sure you stir it," the smaller princess advised.
"I know, Sasami, but thank you for reminding me, just in case," Aeka replied, smiling. Suddenly, Ryo-Ohki, who had been calm until then, started hissing and getting agitated.
And that's when Ryoko came back in. "Something's happened to Tenchi!" she exclaimed.
"What?!" Both princesses yelled at once.
"He's not out there, and his tools are just lying out on the edge of the field. I checked to make sure he hadn't just gone to the shrine to help Yosho with something, but he wasn't there either."
"I wonder what could've happened?" Aeka said.
"I don't know, but maybe Washu can find him," Ryoko asserted. She walked past the two princesses and went into Washu's lab. Aeka and Sasami followed closely behind her.
***
"...So, he's just gone without a trace?" Washu inquired as she typed commands into her computer.
"Yes," Aeka said quickly. " Can you do anything to find him?"
"Well, I may be able to find his life signs, but only if he's still near here. I'll also run scans for anything unusual in the area. It'll take time though," she quickly punched a sequence of keys, which brought up a screen showing several maps. One was of the solar system, one was the nearby area, and one was of Japan.
"How long?" Ryoko snapped.
"At least two hours."
"What if he doesn't have that long?"
"Then we'll have to hope that we find him early!"
"That's still not good enough!"
"Ryoko, please calm down. Getting angry will not speed things up," Aeka said from behind her.
"So! He could be in danger!"
"Yes, but yelling isn't going to help us find him any faster!"
"And we don't even know how long he's been gone, Ryoko. Even if someone were to have grabbed him, it's unlikely they'd go to all of the effort necessary, just to turn around and kill him immediately," Washu said in a calming tone.
"That's another reason to try and find him faster! He may've been gone for hours!" Ryoko exclaimed, but her anger was noticeably ebbing. There was silence for a moment, then finally she spoke up again, "Are you sure there's no way you can search faster?"
"I'm sorry, but no. If the Yagami was here, we could use its equipment, but since Kiyone and Mihoshi got a call out in the fringe of the system, they're too far away to be any help."
"Damn it," Ryoko muttered under her breath. She started back towards the door. "Well, I'm taking Ryo-Ohki out to see if I can find anything. Maybe I'll be in the right place at the right time."
"We'll coordinate our searches, get in contact with me when you get out of the atmosphere," Washu yelled after her.
"I'm coming with you," Aeka said, moving to follow Ryoko.
"Me, too," Sasami said.
Aeka stopped and looked at Sasami. "I know you want to come along Sasami, but it'd be better if you stayed here."
"But Aeka," she started to protest.
"No," Aeka asserted, "we don't know that it's not dangerous, so I want you to stay here with Washu, okay?"
Sasami looked down for a minute, then replied, "All right."
"Thank you, Sasami. We won't be gone for too long." She said, then turned around and left the lab.
***
Tenchi was slowly waking back up. His vision was still blurred, but he could see that he was in a rather small, blurry, room, with blurry people in it.
"So he's waking up?" someone with a deep voice asked.
"Yes, he should be fully conscious within the hour," A lighter voice replied.
"Good. I've been waiting to meet the boy who defeated Lord Kagato," deep voice said.
Then everything started fading again. "Hmmm... it appears it may be longer than I thought," light voice said. Then blackness swallowed him once more.
***
Ryoko was waiting for Aeka when she came upstairs. "Get ready, we're leaving in a few minutes," Ryoko stated, a determined look on her face.
"All right," Aeka said
"I have one thing to do before we leave, meet me in back of the house, then we'll go." With that, she glided up to the next floor, and into her room. (Now, let's just hope Tenchi's not in danger.)
***
Tenchi was starting to wake up again, this time his vision was clearing. He could get a general sense of the room he was in. It was small and mostly white, though there were a few strips of color running along the tops of the walls. He tried to move, but found that he was strapped securely down onto what he assumed was a table.
"Ah, so you're awake again?" said the person with the light voice. "Good, good." He stepped closer to Tenchi, who could now make out what he looked like. The person was fairly tall, and had short, cyan hair, which was red at the front, with trails of red running back through it. He was wearing a very light outfit of silver and gray, with a small patch depicting three bleeding gems on the breast of the shirt. He carried himself with an air that made it obvious he was dangerous. His eyes attributed to the effect; they were a deep yellow-orange, and his pupils quickly narrowed down to slits as he looked at Tenchi. "Well, I was worried for a while there, seeing as I wasn't certain how much of that tranquilizer your system could handle," He commented, almost to himself. He backed away, and began to walk out of the room.
"Wait, where am I? What are you going to do with me?" Tenchi asked.
"That, is not for you to know," the man said, turning around. "That is for the boss to tell you, if he decides to." Quickly turning again, the man walked through the door and out of the room.
(Oh, great, this is just great. Where am I? Why are they holding me?)
***
Ryoko came out of the house, now clad in her battle suit, with Ryo-Ohki in hand. "Are you ready, Princess?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Aeka said.
"Let's go then," Ryoko said.
Ryo-Ohki jumped out of Ryoko's hands and straight up into the air. Quickly, she transformed into her space-ship form. Ryoko reached over and grabbed onto Aeka, then teleported them both onto Ryo-Ohki's bridge. Quickly taking her seat, Ryoko started to direct Ryo-Ohki out of the atmosphere, and into space.
Looking down from the ship, Aeka could see the ground and the house quickly shrinking beneath them. She could just make out the figure of Yosho walking the path from the shrine to the house. He looked up at them and waved, then continued to walk, a little faster now. She watched until she couldn't see him anymore, and then went to stand by Ryoko. "Do you think Tenchi is in danger?" Aeka asked.
"I've got a feeling he is," Ryoko replied.
"Then let us hope we can reach him before anything happens."
"Yeah."
Ryo-Ohki let out a cry of agreement as they ascended through the atmosphere. When they reached open space, Ryoko opened a channel to Washu.
"Good, you're in place," Washu observed, "Scan the area you're in, then move through these sectors." Another screen came up with a globe of the Earth on in. It was divided into 22 sectors, 11 of which were flashing. "I'll handle the rest. I'll also try to get a hold of Kiyone and Mihoshi."
"All right, Washu. We've got it," Ryoko said.
"Good luck."
"Good luck to you too," Aeka said.
With that, they began their search for Tenchi.
* **
"So, the sleeper awakens, just as Kazunori said," came a deep voice from near the door. The voice belonged to a tall man wearing very nicely made robes of a deep black, matching the color the Dark Knights of Jurai had worn. His long brown hair was impeccably groomed. He looked at Tenchi appraisingly.
"What do you want with me?!" Tenchi yelled.
"So you have fight in you, even now. Good," he walked over to the table Tenchi was restrained on. "Seeing as I'm your host, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Itsurou, and I was one of Kagato's knights," he reached into his robe and produced an item that looked distressingly like the Tenchi-ken. A blade of black so deep that it seemed to radiate darkness emerged from it. Itsurou brought the blade close to Tenchi's skin, so close that Tenchi could feel the energy crackling off of it. "Once his knight," Itsurou continued, "Now, I am his avenger."
***
Disclaimer, or something: I don't own these characters. Pioneer and AIC do. Well, except for Itsurou and Kazunori. They're mine, mine, mine, mine. This story is a continuation of the Tenchi Universe time line, and it takes place after the first Tenchi Movie, Tenchi Muyo In Love. This has been a test of the Emergency Disclaimer System, were this a real disclaimer emergency, nothing would have happened.
Author's note: This story came out of a few weird ideas. I can't pinpoint where it started though. I'd like to say thanks to the illustrious FallenDruid for pre-reading this. Please review. I don't mind C&C, praise, or flames, just as long as I hear something. Send it to Drakstern@Yahoo.com. Chapter 2 should be following this one shortly.