Episode 10: No Need for a Paradox
From Washu's Notepad:
This new dimension, where everyone looks like humanoid versions of Ryo-Ohki and Ken-Ohki, is slowly creating an instability on the dimensional plane. If this plane collapses, it would cause a chain reaction which would lead to total eradication of any existence of life in the entire interdimensional multiverse. Ouch.
I only hope that the alternate Washu believes my words and will help me solve this predicament.
End of Entry
The alternate Washu exited her lab and slowly closed the door behind her with a sigh. It couldn't really be true, could it? Of course not! She remembered everything from the day she was born; how could this dimension have been created only a few days ago? However, the real Washu's words were stuck in her mind.
"These are false memories that are copied from our own. Like I said, your dimension is a compilation of my memories and Ryo-Ohki's DNA."
The memory of that statement rocked Washu for the second time that day. She almost fell against the kitchen table and began to cry her eyes out. Did that mean that her love for Tenchi was false? That all of their happiness was a mistake? That all of her wonderful memories, happy times, and times of anguish were all someone else's to own? She couldn't bear it.
Sasami opened the front door carrying a basket full of carrots. She had been helping Tenchi in the field, and he had told her to go on in since he could handle the rest. Moreover, he didn't want to come home to no supper. Sasami was just taking her shoes off at the door when she heard an odd sound coming from the kitchen. Was someone crying?
'Oh no.' Sasami thought. 'Can't Ryoko and Ayeka find a better place to mope than the kitchen?'
As she opened the kitchen door, however, it was neither Ryoko nor Ayeka that she saw huddled under the table. "Washu?" she gasped. "Oh, what's wrong?"
Washu wiped her eyes quickly to save face. "Nothing, Sasami. Really."
Sasami gave her a skeptical look. "You don't want to tell me?"
Washu smiled. Sasami was awfully perceptive. "You wouldn't understand yet, Sasami."
Sasami looked downcast, but she understood. "Okay."
Washu lifted the blue-haired girl's chin. "Hey, come on! Don't worry about it! What are we having for dinner, hmm?"
Sasami smiled. "I was just about to work on that!"
Washu exited the kitchen and opened the front door. She plopped down in a hammock on the porch. Of course that other Washu was mistaken. This dimension had existed forever. Perhaps the magenta-haired genius' dimension was the mistake. Washu smiled at the porch overhang above. Yep, nothing to worry about. Nothing at-
Washu looked strangely at the overhang with her golden eyes. Part of the overhang was missing. In its place was an interdimensional tear. The white-hot anti-energy crackled and flashed. It was barely visible, but it did prove one thing. Whether or not this dimension came first, both were going to collapse sooner or later.
Tenchi sneaked quietly through the house at night.
"Ow! Dammit, who put that-"
"Yaaaaah!" (crash)
Almost quietly, anyway.
He limped his way towards Washu's lab bearing the injuries he had sustained from the free-standing vacuum cleaner heroically. As he slowly opened the door, careful not to make a creaking noise, he heard the sound of Washu typing.
'Ah, she's working on that experiment again.' Tenchi thought.
As he opened the door further, though, he discovered that not only was Washu typing away madly at several keyboards, but she was red-eyed and crying as well. Her hair looked seriously rumpled, as if she had run her hand through it many times. Sweat and tears dripped off her chin and onto the holographic keyboard as she continued to type and mumble to herself.
"No, not that one. Not that one either. Nope, wrong again."
Suddenly she screamed and punched straight through the computer screen. It sustained holographic damage before dematerializing. Washu put her face in her hands and sobbed.
Tenchi walked behind her and rested his hands on her soft shoulders, one of which was bare since her nightshirt was really big and sort of hanging off to one side. She impulsively slid her own hands under his and grasped them.
"What's wrong, Little Washu?" he asked.
Washu looked up at him with teary eyes. "I can't save our dimension, Tenchi. We'll all . . . cease to exist."
Tenchi held her close and she continued to cry. "What do you mean? Our dimension?"
The human Washu continued to float in interspace. At the moment, she was throwing around a Ryo-Ohki high bouncer ball around to determine the area of her prison. At least, that's what she told herself. To be truthful, she was bored out of her mind.
'What in the world could that other Washu be doing?' she thought. 'We're talking about an interdimensional paradox here! What could be more important than that?'
She opened up a dimensional window to see if the other Washu was working in her lab. Washu did not find what she had expected. The Ryo-Ohki Washu had completely broken down in Ryo-Ohki Tenchi's arms. Human Washu gasped. For a moment there, she had forgotten that sometimes, people's feelings should come first. She regretted thinking badly of the other Washu.
Human Washu looked again at the pair and smiled, despite the sorrow of the situation. How often had she wished that she could have a man like that? Ever since her husband had been taken away from her . . .
'Wait a minute . . .' Washu thought. 'How could I be married to Tenchi in that dimension if it's only a reflection of my memories . . . and feelings? That means . . .'
Washu blushed. She didn't have time to think about it before, but maybe she too had a crush on the young prince? She began to cackle at the thought, forgetting that the dimensional window worked both ways.
Tenchi and Washu almost broke their embrace in shock and turned to the dreaming Human Washu. "What do you think is so funny?!" Ryo-Ohki Washu shouted.
Tenchi had no idea what to say.
Neither did Human Washu. "Oh! I wasn't laughing at you! Really! It's just the thought of . . . Well, you see . . ."
Ryo-Ohki Washu wore a morose stare.
'Oh, hell with it.' Human Washu thought. "I'm sorry."
Ryo-Ohki Washu turned. "I just tried every possible solution to our situation in the simulator."
Human Washu folded her arms. "None of them worked, huh?"
Ryo-Ohki Washu shook her head, making the long tendrils of green hair flutter. "No. Only one solution will solve the problem: annihilation of one dimension."
Human Washu frowned. "Or the other."
Tenchi suddenly realized what was going on. "You mean that there are other dimensions besides our own?"
Both Washus sighed. "That's kind of a moot point, Tenchi."
Human Washu pulled out a computer panel. "All right. I hate to do it, but I'm shutting down your dimension."
Ryo-Ohki Washu panicked and pulled out her own console, canceling Human Washu's commands. "You can't do that? What makes your dimension so much better?"
Human Washu sighed. "No matter how real your dimension seems, it's only three days old! Your feelings and memories are false! Mine are real! My dimension is real! Don't you get it! I've got to do this now; we're running out of time!"
Ryo-Ohki Washu was fuming. "How can you say my feelings and memories are false? They're identical to yours!"
'Not quite.' Human Washu thought.
"What makes them so different, huh? What makes me any less real than you? I'm standing . . . sitting here, aren't I? Does that make me and my dimension an illusion?"
Human Washu sighed and stopped typing. "It's not the substance of the situation but the timing that counts! My dimension was the original-"
"Does that make it better?!"
"You're confusing the issue!"
"I'm bringing to light what you don't realize!"
"I'm saving the entire dimensional plane!"
"You're committing murder!"
"I made a mistake! It could happen to anyone!"
"Yeah, right!"
"That's enough!" Tenchi shouted suddenly.
Both Washus stopped arguing.
"Neither of you make any sense! Listen to yourselves!" Tenchi continued. "We can't hold a debate here over whether one dimension is real or not. One of us is going to have to volunteer." He laid his hands on Ryo-Ohki Washu's shoulders once again. "Maybe you need to think about this a little more." He turned to Human Washu. "And maybe you need to stop regarding this dimension as just another lifeless creation!"
With that, he left the room.
Human Washu just stared. "Wow. The Tenchi in my dimension was never so forthcoming."
Ryo-Ohki Washu turned to her with tears in her eyes. "Maybe that's another thing you should consider when you judge your 'creations'." She exited the lab and headed upstairs.
Human Washu closed the window and sat cross-legged. Had she made a bigger mistake than it had at first seemed?
Tenchi leaned against the bathroom sink and splashed cold water on his face. He then watched it drip off of his chin into the drain below.
'How did this happen?' he thought.
He often found it best not to question life as it was, but this was different. This was quite possibly the end of his life. Would his dimension be erased, or would that other unknown dimension? He looked out the bathroom window at the night sky. Unknown dimension; that's what that other place was. What was it like over there? What would that other Tenchi be like? Could anyone over there answer that same question about his dimension?
He shook his head. No one could be expected to answer questions like that. No one can fully understand what it would be like to walk in someone else's shoes. No one had the right answer to this situation. It was a 50: 50 chance, wasn't it?
Tenchi fished a coin out of his pocket and flipped it. Heads. Tails. Heads. Tails. Heads. Heads. Tails. Heads.
Tenchi smiled. The only way to decide the odds was to weight one side of the coin.
Ryo-Ohki Washu was crying in her bed. It was confusing, even for her. Deciding the fate of an entire world? She wished that she didn't have to, but if no decision was made, then both worlds would die. That would be a pointless waste.
But there were too many factors involved. There was no right answer, was there? Then Washu observed another tear in space, this time just above the curtain in her room. Was the other dimension experiencing this? Just then she had a queer thought and rushed to her lab.
Later that night, Tenchi and both Washus were in the lab. After a bit of testing, it was confirmed: only the new dimension was showing signs of deterioration.
"Those tears aren't part of the paradox effect." Human Washu reported. "That's your own dimension's instability. Even without the paradox, it will collapse in a few days."
Ryo-Ohki Washu brought up another pad and typed slowly. "I know."
Tenchi sighed. So this was the weight on the coin. He walked over to Ryo-Ohki Washu across the dimensional laboratory chamber. "Little Washu, if you want to-"
Ryo-Ohki Washu turned to him. "No." She gazed at Human Washu with an intensity that made the other Washu gasp. "It's better that she have a chance at loving you for a lifetime than me have you for just a few more days." She choked on the last part.
Tears started to well in Tenchi's eyes. "Little Washu . . ."
They embraced and cried together with a grief beyond comprehension. Human Washu turned away. She couldn't watch this; it was painful enough already. Was this really . . . no, she couldn't decide otherwise. She couldn't make a decision for all the others in her dimension. This choice was upon the other Washu, and she had made the logical decision. Oh, logic be damned! Washu turned back to the weeping couple. Emotion of this magnitude could make you forget the world of people out there. But Washu couldn't afford that. She had made the most dire of mistakes this time. This was no mere malfunction; this was love torn to pieces.
Ryo-Ohki Washu looked up at the likewise crying Human Washu. How different they appeared, yet how alike they were. Maybe she didn't understand everything about Human Washu' dimension or the origin of her own, but this situation had to end. The pain could not go on forever. Rest would come soon. And peace.
Ryo-Ohki Washu slid her hand over the final button that would activate the deletion of the Ryo-Ohki V.2.0 program which was the center of the paradox. Her hand was soon joined by Tenchi's warm grasp. Human Washu watched as Ryo-Ohki Washu leaned backward to give Tenchi a final, desperate goodbye kiss . . .
Human Washu couldn't take it. "Wait, you don't have to-"
It was too late. The button had been pressed. Human Washu screamed as the dimension before her tore itself to pieces in a blinding flash of light and crackling anti-energy. The space around her warped rapidly and became a sort of light tunnel. Washu soared through it unconsciously as light orbs shot by in stretched ellipsoid form and waves of energy twirled around her body.
"Washu! Wake up! Wake up!"
Washu opened her eyes slowly. There was Tenchi, smiling at her with that wonderfully warm smile of his and those kind, glittering eyes. Without thinking, she pulled him into a long kiss which Tenchi did not have the will to pull himself away from. He slowly rose from it and Washu sat up. Had she been on the floor of the laboratory for all this time? Had it all been a dream?
Tenchi was blushing heavily. "What was that for?"
Washu blushed as well. "Um . . . It's sort of a long story. I sort of reacted without thinking." 'Very unbecoming of a universal genius.' she thought. 'Get a hold of yourself, Washu.'
Tenchi stood up and offered a helping hand. "Well, I wish I understood what that meant. That must have been some crazy dream you had, eh?"
Washu took the waiting hand and smiled. "Yep, crazy as hell."
At dinner that night, Tenchi was having much difficulty eating. Ryoko had made another overly flirtatious move on him and Ayeka had protested as usual. As a result, they had begun to slap each other across the table and pull on Tenchi's arms. Tenchi had stopped the main fighting, but now they were kicking each other under the table, using Tenchi's calves as the demilitarized zone.
Sasami, oblivious to the under-the-table conflict, leaned on her hand and questioned, "I wonder where Miss Washu is."
Tenchi looked toward the ex-broom closet door. "She was working in her lab the last time I saw her."
Sasami sighed. "That's to be expected, I guess."
Tenchi looked at her strangely. Wasn't that a bit of rich dialogue coming from a 10-year-old? 'Maybe its because Juraians age differently then we do.' he began to think. The thought was shoved out of his head, however, when Ryoko took aim at Ayeka with a low-power electric blast under the table, missed, and hit Tenchi instead. Tenchi yelped and fell over backwards in his chair.
Ryoko gasped. "Oh my! Tenchi, are you all right?"
Ayeka stood up. "Lord Tenchi!"
Tenchi sighed. "Why me, God? Why me?"
Washu sat on a shelf in the dimensional chamber of her laboratory, overlooking the button that she had seen in . . .
Was it a dream?
Washu sighed and buried her face in her arms. Whether the situation had been real or not, the guilt remained. Washu remembered seeing dimensional tears in both dimensions, but lying about it to the other Washu. That was why she had tried to stop them at the last second. Washu began to cry. This was the strongest guilt that she had ever felt. She didn't like facing emotion; it interfered with her work. Every time she had tried to work at her computer that night, the images kept coming back to her, especially that last moment . . .
She sobbed alone in the darkness wishing for it all to go away.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fan fiction and uses characters and situations from the Tenchi Muyo TV series, copyrighted under Pioneer. Also, some characters may come from the No Need For Tenchi graphic novel series, copyright Viz Comics. I take no credit for the base characters and plot, but all developments as of the time frame of my story are of my own design. If by some strange chance my plot is parallel to another author's fan fiction, I wish to be notified. For comments and information, E-mail me at bkvhw@earthlink.net