DISCLAIMER: This is the boring part. I don't own these characters, I'm still as poor as I was when I wrote this, and I'm going to return them...well most of them ^_~
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks so much for the reviews! More is loved! Anyways, I hope y'all will review again! ^_~
"R-Ryoko?" Tenchi questioned uncertainly.
The little girl nodded, and stuck her chubby thumb into her mouth. Feeling scared, Ryoko ran to her mother's side, stood behind her, encircling one of the scientist's legs with an arm. Large, innocent gold eyes stared at the people whose jaws hung open, and eyes bugged out.
"You mean this ---girl, is the space monster that has stood between me and Lord Tenchi for so long?" Ayeka inquired.
"You got it!" Washuu replied with a smirk. She erected yet another wall for another nearly overbearing feeling of dread.
While the others backed up to the wall furthest away from Chibi Ryoko and Little Washuu, Ayeka whipped out her cheering fans and began to shout with joy.
"That monster is gone! I won! I won!" She repeated over and over again.
Large sweat drops appeared on everyone's faces as the watched Miss prim and proper dance around. Mihoshi moved toward the highly skittish girl, dropped to her knees and looked at the little one.
"Wow!" She exclaimed, "How'd you do that! I want to be little! Did Ryoko see herself?"
"This _is_ the real Ryoko." Washuu said firmly, turning to her daughter and scooping the cyan haired child up in her arms. "And you know what, I can't change Ryoko back!"
"WHAT?!"
@--)--)-
Tenchi sighed, and shook his head sadly. "So you made a machine that could de-age a person, but you didn't remember to make a machine to counteract the effects?"
"Yup!" The short woman replied, as she sat on the couch rocking her sleeping baby daughter back and forth. "To tell the truth, I didn't think the prototype was even going to work!"
Kiyone groaned and fell back against the cushions. Mihoshi giggled as she stared at the funny faces Chibi-Ryoko made in her dreams. The only happy ones were Nobuyuki, Ayeka, and Sasami. They rejoiced in their own ways.
Tenchi's father figured that his wallet wouldn't be so quickly emptied if Ryoko and Ayeka didn't fight, and since the little one didn't have such a large stomach, less money spent on food!
Sasami was thankful in the same reasons, but different ones. She wouldn't have to clean up after her sister and the pirate got into fights, and Ryoko wouldn't want to eat the entire dinner before everyone else got a chance to have a morsel. It might even mean having someone to play with!
Ayeka though had her own joy filled reasons for blessing the mishap. No Ryoko, no rival! That, to the purple haired princess, was reason enough to live her life with a smile plastered on her face. Tenchi was hers forevermore!
"Can't you build one?" Grandpa asked, everyone muttered in response.
She couldn't and Washuu knew that she couldn't. "No."
"Why not?" Kiyone prodded, "Aren't you the greatest scientific genius in the universe?"
"Of course I am!" Washuu replied in her serious, adult tone. "I just can't age Ryoko back."
"Can't or won't?"
Bright green eyes bore into chocolate brown eyes. Washuu shuttered on the inside. Did Tenchi know?
"Doesn't matter. IF you all would think about this for a moment you'd want her to stay little. This is her second chance at life, no criminal record, no Kagato, nothing that made our Ryoko bitter and hateful." Washuu explained, clambering to her feet. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put her in bed."
/Our Ryoko, or *your* Ryoko, Little Washuu? /
@--)--)-
"Who was Ryoko?" Chibi Ryoko asked as she sat at her mother's feet in the lab.
"You are!" Washuu replied enthusiastically.
"No, no, no, mommy!" The little girl exclaimed, picking up a doll which resembled Ayeka and tucked it under her arm. "Who *was* I? I can't 'member anything! Why does Lady Ayeka seem so happy that the old me is gone? And Sasami, and Mr. Nobuyuki? Was I really the most badest person like Lady Ayeka thunk I was?"
Washuu's speedy typing came to a halt. A heavy lump sat in her throat, giving her a nasty taste on her tongue. "No, you weren't." She replied solemnly.
"Of course I couldn't be!" Chibi-Ryoko agreed, crawling up into the scientist's lap. "If'n I was, Ten-chan, Mihoshi, Kiyone and all the others wouldn't like me neither, huh? They'd all hate the old me still wouldn't they?"
Before she had a chance to comment on her baby's speech, a loud knock echoed through out the lab. After allowed to come in, Tenchi's head poked through the opened door and smiled.
"Ten-chan!" Chibi-Ryoko exclaimed dropping to the ground, and the doll as she ran to the boy.
"Sorry, Little Washuu, I thought I'd take Ryoko off yours hands so you can start working on her 'cure'. It's been over a month, you know."
"Yes." Washuu replied sharply, which was highly out of character for her. "I'll start right away."
"Bye mommy!" Chibi-Ryoko exclaimed as she walked out of the lab with Tenchi. After the door shut, the small girl turned to her friend and asked where they were headed.
"Oh no where special. Just, you know, walk around." Tenchi smiled and offered his hand. Chibi-Ryoko refused and ended up riding on top of his shoulders instead.
The night had set in, leaving the woods crisp and cool. With the pale moon high in a cloudless sky, the path to and from the temple was splattered with enough light that flashlights weren't needed. Ayeka, who had saw them leaving, invited herself on their small adventure.
Ryoko jumped from light patch to light patch, while Ayeka and Tenchi walked side by side behind her.
"Isn't this wonderful?" Ayeka questioned, longing side long at the man she loved.
"The weather? Yeah it's nice"
"No, I'm mean her" Ayeka said pointing to the child in front of them. No space monster around to keep u-us apart." At the last words the Princess' cheeks shaded with a light pink blush.
"How can you say that?!" Tenchi proclaimed.
"Easily," she turned and stared him in the face, by now Chibi-Ryoko stopped and observed the conversation. "She was a nuisance. She was rude, conceited, and never had a heart to love you like she proclaimed hourly."
Masaki took a step back from the ruby-eyed woman and glared at her in disbelief. "She was my friend, and yours too. Ryoko was nice, and caring when people weren't giving her reasons to lash out against them. But you wouldn't know that because you never gave her a chance."
Chibi-Ryoko's silent tears began to slip down her round face.
"Lord Tenchi, please! I had given her numerous chances when we were young. And every time she'd show her true character! She's a demon just as her name suggests." With that, Ayeka turned and stormed back to the house.
Tenchi watched her go, a frown marring his face. A slight tug on his pants brought him back to the world with semi-clear thinking. Gazing down, Chibi-Ryoko was staring up at him, tears in her gold eyes.
"Was I really that bad?"
His frown deepened as he leaned down to the child's eye level and prayed that the right words would come to him.
Meanwhile, Washuu stared at the device in her hand. It was the same contraption that had aged her daughter into a young child. Tenchi and the others weren't as naïve as she had hoped. Everyone knew the pink haired one always knew how to undo what she had done, so saying 'no' was laughed at as a lie.
/But what do I do? I want to be a mother, and Chibi-Ryoko lets me, but the real Ryoko doesn't. It would be easy to destroy the Tyme Calculator.../ Washuu's grip on the small box increased, as a small cracking sound echoed off the walls of her lab...
