I know it took me a while, but here's the fourth chapter

I know it took me a while, but here's the fourth chapter!

"Mihoshi!" Kiyone yelled, rushing forward to the blonde's side. "You bastard, you're gong to pay for that!"

"Relax, detective," he grinned wickedly, "She'll only be out for a few hours."

"Kagato!" Achika shouted, "What the devil do you think you're doing?"

"Taking what's rightfully mine," he responded, grabbing Ryoko's arm and pulling her to her feet.

"Get the hell away from me, you psycho!" she demanded, struggling against his grip.

"Sorry, princess, but I need to…extract those gems."

"I'll kill you before I give you my gems!" Tenchi touched the hilt of his sword, stepping forward.

"Why do you need her gems?" he growled.

"They're rightfully mine!" Kagato snarled. "I know of their true power!"

"Which is?"

"The power to create the light-hawk wings."

"That's insane. Only the goddess Funaho can create the light-hawk wings." Kagato smirked at him, wrapping one arm around Ryoko's waist and the other around her neck to still her struggles.

"Mother predicted that no one would believe us."

"Tokimi?" Achika murmured dazedly. Kagato turned slightly to look at the queen.

"Yes, this was all her plan, before she died."

"What plan?" she asked, in a stronger voice.

"Once she learned of their existence, she researched the power of the gems for years. And ten years ago, she arranged for the kidnapping of Queen Washu." Ryoko screamed and redoubled her efforts to escape. "Oh don't worry, princess, she's not dead. When she refused to reveal the location of the gems, we froze her in a containment pod."

"Why would Tokimi do this?" Achika whispered, tears sliding down her face. Kagato snorted.

"Haven't you been listening to me? These gems give the holder the power of a god!"

"Tokimi didn't care about those things!"

"Looks like you didn't know your sister as well as you thought, Auntie," Kagato mocked maliciously. "But then, you never were a good sibling, were you? Mother told me how you snatched the spotlight from her." Ryoko stomped down, grinding her heel into Kagato's foot.

"Dammit!" he cursed, "You bitch!" He grabbed her chin, his nails biting into her skin, and twisted her head to the right. "Would you like to know how your mother screamed when we tortured her?" he whispered in her ear, laughing slightly. "It's time we made our exit, princess." He and Ryoko instantly disappeared.

"Where did they go!" King Azusa demanded desperately. There was a long silence.

"The Soja," Achika said tiredly. "Kagato's ship. He spends all day there, in his…laboratory." She broke down and began to cry. "Tokimi…"

"It's alright mom," Tenchi said softly. "I'm going after them, I'm going to bring Ryoko back."

"I'm going too," Ayeka spoke up firmly.

"No you're not!" Azusa countered swiftly.

"It's what Ryoko would do."

"You're not Ryoko," he said softly.

"I know that," Ayeka said swallowing. "But I can help." Azusa sighed, defeated.

"Fine, but I'm going as well."

"You can count me in," Kiyone called from Mihoshi's side. "If he thinks he can get away with injuring a galaxy police officer, he's got another thing coming!"

"So what ship can we use?" Ayeka asked.

"My ship, the Yukinojo," Kiyone volunteered.

"Too big," Tenchi rejected. "We need a small ship, something that can dodge the Soja's blasts easily…"

* * * *

After phasing onboard the Soja, Kagato immediately disintegrated Ryoko's handcuffs and shoved her into cell. Wasting no time, Ryoko placed her hands on the bars and released a powerful blast, throwing both her and Kagato backwards. Ryoko grunted as her skull banged painfully against the bars behind her. In front of her, the bars were blackened and bent grotesquely. Clamoring to his feet, Kagato surveyed the damage.

"Impressive," he chuckled, "Those bars are made out of the strongest metal in the galaxy." Then crossing the room to his computer, he added, "But we can't have anymore of that. I'm placing a shield over your cell, which will stand up even to your strength." A transparent white dome closed over Ryoko's cell. Ignoring him, she released another blast, completely shattering the bars, but leaving the shield in tack. Kagato merely laughed.

"I should've known you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't be Washu's daughter if you did."

"Tell me where she is!" Ryoko demanded, striking the shield with her fist. Kagato strolled over to her leisurely.

"I don't know why you care for her so much," he said, amused. He thrust an arm through the shield and grabbed a fistful of her hair, slamming her up against the side of the shield. "You were only an experiment to her," he whispered, bringing his head down close to hers and gazing at her sardonically.

"What the hell does that mean?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"She created you artificially," he said slowly and distinctly. "We found blueprints, like for a house, or a machine… She had the procedure recorded in detail, all in a file on her computer. Mother copied it to disk and stole it along with your mother. Or should I say your 'engineer'?

"You're a liar!" Ryoko screamed.

"She inserted a creature called Mass into her own ova," Kagato continued. "King Azusa isn't even really your father. You're not even completely humanoid," he added, smiling slightly. "But what Washu didn't realize was that the ova she injected the mass with was already fertilized, with princess Ayeka. Rather stupid if you ask me. Mother would never make that mistake."

"I know you're lying," Ryoko whispered, her voice trembling.

"Aww," Kagato said, feigning compassion. "But you don't know, do you? You always felt that you were different from everybody else, had this nagging suspicion…But you should be grateful! The Mass allows you to teleport, fly, and regenerate limbs. Without the Mass, you would not be able to contain and control the power of the gems. That was the whole purpose for your creation, to be a holder of the gems."

"Well then how do you expect to use the gems?" Ryoko spat.

"Ah, an intelligent question, princess. My mother also prepared me as a holder for the gems. Not before birth, like you, but later on when I was six or seven. Dozens of experiments in which she injected me with the Mass and sent strong electric currents throughout my body."

"So your mother mutated and electrocuted you," Ryoko said flatly. Kagato laughed.

"Maybe so, but I can fly, teleport, and regenerate, all without the gems."

"I'm sure your mother would be so proud," Ryoko said sarcastically.

"Yes, she would be, if Washu hadn't killed her," he hissed darkly.

"Huh?"

"Oh yes, we were able to kidnap Washu, but not before she injected a deadly virus into mother. She lived two more years and died giving birth to Yugi."

"I'm crying on the inside, really."

"And after killing father, I was an orphan."

"What?"

"Yes, I had to kill him after he discovered Mother's and my plot."

"You're completely insane," Ryoko told him. He grinned at her, bringing up his free hand and stroking her cheek with one finger.

"You're really quite beautiful," he murmured. "Too bad you'll most likely die while I retrieve the gems." Ryoko twisted away from him in disgust. Suddenly alarms began to blare throughout the ship. Kagato released her and stalked to his computer.

"Shit," he muttered. "It looks like they're trying to rescue you."

* * * *

"Great idea, Lord Tenchi," Kiyone said sarcastically, "taking a ship nobody here knows how to control!" Tenchi rubbed his head sheepishly as they soared directly for the Soja in Ryo-ohki, bombarded by blasts.

"You know," Azusa said thoughtfully, "now that I think of it, I believe one must have a psychic connection with Ryo-ohki in order to control her."

"Dad!" Ayeka wailed, as another blast struck their ship.

"Okay," Tenchi said slowly, "we just need some sort of incentive for Ryo-ohki."

"She loves radishes," Ayeka said hopefully.

"Great! Ryo-ohki, there's a huge basket of radishes onboard the Soja!" Ryo-ohki meowed disdainfully.

"What does that mean?" Kiyone demanded, bracing herself for another impact.

"It means that I got the vegetable wrong," Ayeka said firmly. "I'm telling you, there's this one vegetable that she goes absolutely bonkers over."

"How about tomatoes?" Kiyone suggested. There was no response from the cabbit.

"Tomatoes aren't even vegetables," Azusa muttered.

"What are you talking about, of course they're vegetables," Kiyone responded testily.

"Tomatoes are the fruit of the plant known as Lycopersicon esculentum," the king said, raising his voice.

"You're trying to tell me that a tomato is a fruit?"

"Yes, it is related to the potato and the tobacco plants, which - "

"Are both vegetables!" Kiyone shouted triumphantly.

"Tobacco is not a vegetable!" the King roared.

"Yeah, sure…next you'll try to tell me that carrots are not - " Ryo-ohki meowed excitedly, bringing up thousands of pictures of carrots on her screens.

"That's it," Tenchi said eagerly, "Ryo-ohki, get us to the Soja safely and you can have all the carrots you want!" The cabbit immediately doubled her speed, sending the crew staggering backwards. Kiyone glanced over at the king.

"I told you carrots were vegetables."

* * * *

The group paused indecisively at the intersection where the hallway diverged into two paths. Ryo-ohki pouted discontentedly on Ayeka's shoulder, cheated out of her prize.

"Your highness, you and Ayeka go to the right," Tenchi commanded, "and officer Kiyone and I will go this way." The pairs split up instantly, jogging purposefully down their separate paths.

Kiyone and Tenchi ran in silence, each deep in thought. They halted uncertainly as the hallway ended, giving way to a silver metal door. Tenchi started forward first, twisting the metal handle cautiously. Kiyone drew her blaster, following close behind. The door swung open, revealing a spacious, dimly lit room. Shadows flickered evilly, leaving the two tensed for danger. They crept along the length of the room, finding a clear containment cube at its end. A small, pink-haired child stood unmoving, her eyes shut.

"That's not lady Washu, is it?" Tenchi asked tentatively.

"Of course not! Don't be ridiculous," Kiyone said uneasily, jerking her head at the figure before them, "She's just a child."

"Well we should get her out anyway. Any ideas?" Tenchi started to ask, then shouted in surprise and dived for cover as Kiyone began to fire her blaster without warning. Small, spider web cracks began to appear on the surface of the cube. Kiyone continued to fire doggedly, and that side of the cube shattered, dumping the mysterious child onto the metal floor. She coughed uncontrollably, glaring up at her two heroes.

"Not that I don't appreciate being rescued," she began dangerously, "but next time, you might consider pushing the 'release' button!" Her voice raised in pitch until she was shrieking at the two, and she flung an arm out to point at the wall beside her. A bright red button positively glowed in the murkiness, and a large sign posted above it read 'push to open cube'. Kiyone lowered her gun slowly, looking embarrassed. Meanwhile, Tenchi had helped the girl to her feet, and she was now in the process of brushing herself off vigorously.

"Um, excuse me," Tenchi said tentatively, "but who are you?" The girl paused to glance at him, then stuck her hand out abruptly.

"Washu Hakubi," she said, shaking his hand briskly.

"It can't be!" Kiyone breathed, "Queen Washu of Balsi?"

"No," Washu said irritably, "just Washu. I'm a Quantum Theories professor at the Royal Space Academy of Jurai. Of course, I'm also quite skilled in physics, chemistry, biology…" Tenchi and Kiyone exchanged a horrified look.

"It is her!" Kiyone hissed to Tenchi. "When she disappeared, her entire life story was all over the news, and I remember reading that she once taught at the Royal Space academy." Tenchi glanced over at the still rambling, pink-haired scientist doubtfully.

"But she's so…tiny! And she said herself that she wasn't a queen."

"…calculus, and dentistry. But they had this complete idiot, Dr. Clay, teaching the Quantum Theories class. Do you know he still believed that nuclear fusion could propel a space ship? I haven't seen such ignorance since I visited Earth! Anyway I had to take the job - we couldn't have the hope of our future going off accepting that trash - "

"Miss Washu, we really should be going," Kiyone cut in finally. Washu seemed to notice her surroundings for the first time.

"Hmmm, yes, we seem to be aboard some type of space ship." She stalked around the room, both Tenchi and Kiyone at her heels. "All metal," she said disapprovingly. "I've been considering creating a space ship using living organisms."

"Lady Washu," Kiyone said in exasperation. "We really should try to find and save your daughter."

"Daughter?" she repeated blankly. "Young lady, you are most mistaken. I have no offspring."

* * * *

King Azusa and first crown princess Ayeka jogged down the hallway in silence. Azusa peered straight ahead, his browed furrowed and his eyes narrowed in determination. Ayeka willed herself to take long, deep breaths to calm the butterflies in her stomach.

'More like bats' she thought wryly. 'Maybe father was right…Ryoko is ten times as powerful as I am. The thought that I could rescue her is a laugh.' Suddenly her thoughts flashed back to that night on Balsi, when she spoke with Ryoko. The look on her sister's face when she spoke of the stars in space, the anger and determination in her voice when she promised to save Ayeka from an unhappy marriage. Ayeka balled her hands into fists and sped up, earning a surprised grunt from her father. 'I swear to you Ryoko, if it costs me my life, you will travel among the stars again'.

She and her father burst into a vast, sterile room. It was brightly lit and half filled with laboratory equipment. At the opposite side of the room, the wall was completely glass, gazing out to the solitude of space. The floor, looking entirely out of place among the metal walls and ceiling, was marble tile. Two colossal metal pillars sat on either side in the center of the room, and suspended between them, thirty feet above the floor, hovered a very discontent Ryoko in a milky white sphere. She had her arms and legs crossed, and was looking to the right angrily. She hadn't noticed the arrival of her relatives, and didn't respond to the sudden whir of machinery. But both Azusa and Ayeka tensed expectantly, ready for action. The metal columns began to spark dangerously as the humming sound rose. Then each suddenly released a powerful jolt of blue electricity, both headed for the oblivious Ryoko. They passed through the shield and hit Ryoko with a distinct sizzle. She jerked her head up, her eyes wide, and opened her mouth in a silent scream. As she twisted and writhed in pain, Ayeka watched in horror, thinking the silence was more terrifying than the screams would be. At least they would cover the sickening sizzle, the sound of bacon hitting the frying pan.

"Ryoko!" Azusa shouted desperately, taking a step forward. Ayeka caught a blur of movement in the corner of her eye and reacted without thinking. She leapt in front of her father, activating her shield of logs just in time to catch the downward arch of Kagato's sword. Kagato dropped to his knees in front of them, clutching the hilt of his sword, though the energy blade had been deactivated by Ayeka's shield. He jumped to his feet and teleported a safe distance away.

"I'm afraid that I have been most rude, your highnesses," he called, smiling cruelly. "Please allow me to welcome you to my humble ship, the Soja."

"Release my daughter now and I will hand you over to the Galaxy police alive." King Azusa said levelly. Kagato laughed. Ayeka stood transfixed by her sister, the fabric of Ryoko's dress beginning to smoke and blacken. Kagato noticed the direction of her gaze and parted his lips in a feral grin.

"I sound-proofed her captivity shield, however if you wish to speak with her…" Kagato snapped his fingers and Ryoko's screams instantly ripped through the air. A gasping sob wrenched itself from Ayeka's throat at the sounds of her sister's anguish.

"Ryoko!" Ayeka screamed in response, tears sliding down her cheeks. Even at such a distance, she detected a flicker of recognition in Ryoko's golden, tear-filled eyes, and the pirate clenched her teeth to try and stifle her screams. Kagato sneered in disgust and flicked his wrist, the electricity dying away. Ryoko's screams lessened into whimpers as she lay panting at the bottom of the shield.

"Emotions make one so weak," Kagato commented disapprovingly.

"Oh, and what of you?" Ayeka spat. "Only hatred would cause you to torture my sister, merely to hear the sounds of her suffering - "

"But you are mistaken, my dear Ayeka," Kagato said, amused. "I had to weaken her so that she would not try and escape during the operation."

"Operation?" Ayeka asked, her voice shaking.

"To remove the gems, of course," Kagato responded in annoyance. "The process is much too delicate to leave to machinery - I must do it myself. Though you realize, because she has had the gems since birth, the shock of losing them will most likely kill her." That was too much for Azusa; he leapt forward with an enraged shout, and attacked Kagato. Kagato blocked easily, smiling grimly, and Ayeka realized that he had purposefully provoked the attack.

Glancing up at Ryoko, she saw that her sister had raised herself up on one elbow and was watching the fight with wide, fearful eyes.

"Ryoko!" Ayeka hissed frantically. Ryoko tore her eyes from her father to Ayeka. "How do I get you down?" Ryoko pointed weakly at a wall of machinery. Ayeka stared at the levers, multi-colored buttons, and flashing lights, discouraged, but she jogged over. Scanning the machinery determinedly, Ayeka searched for any labels or instructions. There were none. So taking a deep breath and wincing slightly, she poked one blue button. Ryoko's bubble began to rotate slowly. Ryoko sat up, startled, then glared at Ayeka in annoyance.

"I feel like a disco ball," she muttered. Ayeka sighed and pushed a short green lever. The ball stopped rotating and began to descend to the ground slowly.

"Okay," Ayeka said, cheered, "that's a good start." Then she heard her father cry out in pain and she whipped around. Her father stood a few feet from Kagato, holding his arm as blood seeped through his fingers. His face was drawn and pale, and his whole frame sagged in defeat.

Kagato took one menacing step forward, then froze as Ayeka's logs closed in around him. Green vines shot out and wrapped him in a tight hold. Growling angrily, Kagato activated his sword and sliced through the vines and logs viciously, then turned to Ayeka.

"Do not interfere, princess Ayeka," He said threateningly. Ayeka stared back haughtily, and summoned her logs once again. This time Kagato leapt out of the way and sped towards Ayeka. He struck her in the face violently, sending her flying backwards and cracking her head on the wall. She slumped to the floor in a heap, blood trickling down the side of her face.

* * * *

"What do you mean you don't have children?" Tenchi blurted. "You have two daughters - Ayeka and Ryoko." Washu shook her head.

"My dear boy, I think I'd know if I gave birth to children. You have me confused with someone else." Tenchi looked at Kiyone in askance, who shook her head in response.

"It has to be her - maybe they modified her memory as well as - er…shrinking her." Washu looked affronted.

"Just what do you mean by that? My current stature is - " she stopped, looking at Kiyone and Tenchi strangely. "I've just noticed how large you two are. Are you from a race of giants?" She didn't wait for an answer, but opened a sup-space pocket and pulled out a full-length mirror. "Ahh! What's happened to me?! I know my cup size was much larger - " Kiyone cleared her throat noisily.

"Umm, Lady Washu regardless of the fact that you're three feet tall - " Washu pulled out a tape measure, muttering profanities. "and that you've been frozen for ten years - "

"Ten years!" Washu squawked.

"and are the Queen of Balsi - "

"I'm a queen?"

"and have no recollection of your husband and two daughters - "

"I might have to hurt you…"

"We really have to get going. So if you continue refusing to come, I'm going to tie you to some rope and drag you behind me."

"I believe she'd do it," Tenchi said solemnly. After a short pause, Washu nodded meekly.

'K, be sure to review…….