A Very Sad Tale Part 3

Washu was brought over to a chair and she plopped down heavily in it as her mind was still reeling with pain and rampant emotions from Ryoko. She was not aware that she had been moved or where she was for some time. In her mind she pushed aside the emotions and fears and called out for her daughter, 'Ryoko!'

It took some time but she finally got a response from her many calls but it did not answer much just created more questions. In her mind she heard Ryoko shouting over and over, 'He's dead!'

'Stop this! Who's dead?'

'Tenchi, there's so much blood. Tenchi! Come back to me. There's so much blood, he's not moving…'

Over and over her daughter cried and she soon was able to discover why she was having such rampant feelings and emotions in her. But Washu refused to believe it. 'Ryoko, stop this!'

'There's so much blood!' She cried out, pain and fear reverberating through their link.

'Ryoko!'

'He's dead!' Her mind voice said softly as the pain increased.

'Damn it RYOKO! STOP!' Finally there was silence but she could still feel the pain. 'I am going to look through your eyes, so I need you to look at him.'

The pirate may have been strong, and tough in many battles, but this was the hardest thing she thought possible. 'I, I can't.'

'Please, just look at him.' Slowly to Washu's mind she saw the inside of the Ryo-Ohki come into focus, but Ryoko was looking up. 'Look at him.' Ryoko slowly looked down and the sight caused Washu to gasp and she let a tear fall. Tenchi lay on the floor, unmoving and with blood running out from behind his head. 'Is he breathing?'

'He's Dead!' the Pirate cried out again as if Washu was not hearing her.

The Scientist had heard all she wanted from her daughter, and bending her will towards Ryoko she forced her hand to touched the side of his neck with two fingers. 'Do you feel anything?'

There was silence then she heard in a small voice, 'I feel a slight something.'

'Good! That's a pulse, he's not dead only injured.' She felt Ryoko's spirits lift slightly.

'Then why won't he move?'

'This next part is going to be hard on you, do you want me to do it while you watch?'

There was a silence for a few moments before a timid voice returned to her mind, 'You can do that?'

'Only if I have your permission.' Ryoko agreed and she felt Washu's presence crowd into her mind, not to overtake it but to control its movements for a moment. Ryoko felt her arms move to his head and she was scared to look but having relinquished control all she could do was sit back and watch. Her arms rolled him to the side and her body stooped over to see the wound on the back of his head, then two fingers moved to inspect his scalp where the blood poured from, slowly now but it still flowed.

The sight sickened Ryoko's conciseness but Washu kept on, using a small amount of energy a small energy knife appeared between Ryoko's fingers. She felt Washu's skillful attention to detail flow through her as the wound was cleaned, mended then the edges of the wound were brought together as the blood has stopped. But he still has not awoken nor has he made any sign of waking, yet. Presently two fingers opened his eyes and Washu used a sphere of light to watch his pupils. And after a few more things were completed Ryoko's arms scooped him up and placed him in the chair to be comfortable.

Slowly Washu removed herself from her daughters' mind and Ryoko could feel her arms trembling. 'What was that? How is he?' Were the fist two cognitive thoughts that came to Ryoko's mind. Washu just reassured her that it was necessary and that he would be ok. She explained to her daughter that he hit his head and is unconscious and out of danger, but he will be awake in less than an hour, and she does not expect that there will be any permanent damage.

Ryoko was to say the least relieved, but she was not completely happy. In that short attack she knew there were no survivors. And with her having destroyed and taken lives she was the pirate again, the demon of peoples dreams. She felt cold, and alone even though she was with Tenchi. 'Ryo-Ohki, take us home as fast as possible.' With everything that had happened she felt it best to head there, so that he could rest and she could hopefully feel better.

'The closest and fastest way takes up through a part of the forbidden territory, but I can take us around it.'

Her mistress thought about it for a moment, 'No, fly to Earth as fast and as straight as possible. If we only go through a part of it no one will notice.' And so the three of them headed for Earth, through the forbidden territories. Still feeling cold she wanted to warm up some how then thought of how warm she felt when he held her. Casting a glance at him she debated for a moment then appeared beside him in the chair. It was laid back to make for a makeshift bed, so she had to move in very close to him to have room for them both on it.

And so Ryoko went to sleep lying on her side pressed up close to Tenchi as he slept. Both were deep in slumber as Ryo-Ohki neared the forbidden area. This part of space was forbidden for other ships to cross and none really knew why. But the peoples of the zone did not like outsiders and they did not like anyone using their territory for hiding, trading, passage or any other reason. Many space pirates and bums have entered this area in hopes of finding sanctuary or a place to hide as they ran from the Galaxy Police. However they never found what they wanted. Somehow they were always found and never lived to tell what those in the zone looked like.

Ryo-Ohki knew this was a bad place to go, but she hopped that they could make it through before anyone, or anything spotted them. At least that was her hope, and the hope of her mistress, who at this point had many other things on her mind other than this part of space. She was still worried about Tenchi, as Washu had said there would be no permanent damage, but what did that mean?

When Washu had left Ryoko's mind she slowly opened her eyes to see three worried faces; Ayeka, Sasami & Mihoshi. "I'm fine," she said albeit a little shaky.

"But Miss Washu, what happened? Why did you collapse?" The other two nodded as if in agreement of asking Ayeka's question.

"Well Ryoko had a very emotional experience that she has never had before, she thought Tenchi was dead." The three girls gasped and recoiled a little. "I said thought he was. Ryo-Ohki was attacked and Tenchi hit his head. He bled a good bit, but he'll be fine. Ryoko took his unconsciousness for being dead and she destroyed the attackers."

"Oh my," said Ayeka as she raised her hand to her face. "This is not good, and they are already wanted, what will happen now?"

"I'm not sure. We need to go though." And with that they got up to leave and after a short conversation with the security officers they were allowed to leave. None of them mentioned that a ship had been destroyed, only that they needed to go now. Since they were not actually under arrest they were allowed to leave no matter how much they wanted to keep them here. Making their way out and back to their ship was an interesting feat, as the galaxy reporters had shown up to as they said 'report the truth', but this batch of reporters wanted more hype than truth.

Several were interviewing those that had fled in terror as they reported seeing the demoness Ryoko with a new demon, one that they had not seen before. He was described as terrifying and destructive. Ayeka fought hard to not march over there and give them a piece of her mind. Sasami paid no attention to them and luckily Mihoshi was not paying attention either. She could just imagine what would happen if the ditz was to open her mouth and tell everyone that the male demon was in face Tenchi, a prince of Jurai. That in it self was going to be a hard thing to explain and get past. If word got out about who he was then it would taint the royal family and then their supporters would fall away and their entire lives could be in jeopardy. And if it was not told who they were then he would be labeled a demon like her and the galaxy police would peruse them. Either way things were not looking good.

It did not take long for the media to stir up people's anger and fears. The four of them made it back to Ayeka's ship and proceeded to leave, although it was not a very fast exit. There were hundreds of police ships and many more private ships that were trying to move about in the area around the planet. While Ayeka and Mihoshi tried to get them out of the area Washu was busy trying to determine where Ryo-Ohki was and where they were going. Her first thought had been that they would head towards home, but she could not find Ryo-Ohki's signature headed in that direction.

In a distant area of space far from what many would have dared travel sat Tokimi's domain. She had setup parts of each dimension to be hers and filled each section with being loyal to her. Her ethereal companion D3 was the watcher of this Dimension, and out of the void of the temple dedicated to her he appeared and called her name, "Lady Tokimi."

"Yes D3?" The feminine voice came from everywhere and nowhere at seemingly the same time.

"A ship has crossed the boundary into your territory, what shall I do?"

"Just a ship?"

"No, the Ryo-Ohki, that carries the boy and Washu's child."

"I see. Bring them to me. Alive if possible."

"I understand," he said and his head bowed before nothing and became nothing.

"So sisters, your playthings have come here. Why? What are you doing?" The voice pondered the meaning then she too removed her presence from this area.

In the Ryo-Ohki the two occupants slept in the command chair for some time, unmoving and unknowing what was happening outside. For one of them what was going on inside was a mystery as well. Slowly Tenchi returned to consciousness, and the first thing he realized was that he had a horrible headache. As he came closer to consciousness he was able to tell that he had something against him holding him down. In this state he was not able to discern what had happened or even where he was. His mind recalled in broken detail that he was talking to Ryoko and after she had hugged him they had been hit by another ship. The realization dawned on him that if he was knocked out then something horrible could have happened.

Acting more of fear than anything else Tenchi tried to break free from his captors. He was able to force his hands into the air knocking something off to the side, which released some of the pressure against him. He forced himself up and to move back. When he had forced his hands up he had knocked Ryoko over the side of the chair and upon hitting the ground she promptly woke up. Sitting up she was able to see Tenchi sit up quickly then he backed away from her. Unfortunately with him being in the chair when he tried to back away he fell to the ground again.

Upon landing on the ground again pain shot through his body, and his head was still pounding. But he heard laughing; someone was laughing at him. He had to have been kidnapped, that was the only explanation he could come to, as his eyes were unable to focus on anything around him yet. Tenchi did the only thing he could think of, he began to yell at his captors. "Come out of hiding you monster! I know you took me somewhere, come out and face me!" As he yelled the laughing stopped abruptly and he smiled thinking that he had won this round. He groped for his sword but it was nowhere to be found and with this pounding in his head he could not concentrate enough to even attempt to bring up his light hawk sword.

Ryoko had stated snickering when she saw him sitting and looking confused, then when he started staggering around she had started laughing. However when he opened his mouth to speak it was not at all what she had hoped for or expected. The sting of him calling her a monster hurt worse than anything else could have. Tears welled up in her eyes and she began crying, the pain she was experiencing completely tore away any semblance of control or strength she had left. She crawled away from him and wept in a corner as she wanted to get as far away as possible, but in space she had no where else to go.

Upon hearing the crying he thought about who it could be, but finally decided it was a trick or just his imagination going wild. He by this time had his eyes open but he was not seeing. Everything was black like he was in a cave or a cell so he could not tell where he was. However the laughing had gone away and he could barely hear the crying. Gathering his voice he called out to his tormentors, "Where is she you monster? What'd you do with Ryoko?" He waited for a response, and the crying seemed to stop briefly as if confused. "Tell me where is she?"

She looked back over her shoulder and saw him standing there, when he called out asking for her. Her curiosity caused her to stop crying and she looked at him concerned, but something seemed wrong. As she watched him he seemed to be stumbling around and calling for her. 'But why would he call me a monster and then call out for me?'

"Ryoko! Can you hear me?" He stumbled around and finally grabbed onto the chair to steady himself.

"Tenchi?" To her it did not make any sense what was going on, first he was yelling at her now he is yelling for her.

"Ryoko?" He sounded confused and strangely glad for one who had called her a monster.

"Tenchi, what's wrong?"

"Where are we? I, I can't really see to well." He began groping into the air as if he was trying to find something.

Pushing back her tears and confusion she approached him warily. When she was right before him she looked at him and into his eyes but something seemed very wrong about them. She waved a hand before his face and he did not even acknowledge it was there. "Tenchi?" She was about to begin crying again this time over what she was seeing.

Upon hearing his name being called from before him he reached forward and was happy to feel someone there, grasping onto what ever his hands found he pulled it closer to him. He had caught her by the arm and in pulling her closer it caused him to stumble but she did not allow him to fall. She wrapped her arms around him saying to him softly, "I'm here Tenchi."

"Oh Ryoko, thank Tsunami! I thought they took you away, but I can't see anything, where are we? Are we in a cave or something?" He heard her crying and he thought the worst, "Did they do anything to you? As soon as we get out of here…" her voice cut him off.

"No Tenchi. There is no one here. We're still on Ryo-Ohki." She held him closer and he could tell she was crying.

"But, the ship, and it's so dark?"

"I, I destroyed it when you fell." Her voice cracked as she tried to regain her ability to speak. "And the lights are on, you are standing on the bridge of Ryo-Ohki."

He could not believe this, "No. It's not possible!" He felt her nodding against him and everything crumbled around him. He could no longer stand and it was Ryoko that held him in place.

Mentally she cried out, 'MOM!' as she began crying harder. This was not something she had ever planned on, or had expected. Both of their dreams seemed to fall out from under them at the same time. "Ryo-Ohki, head for Earth."

Both heard Ryo-Ohki's sad voice cry out then with a jolt they bounded forward faster. She had already been going as fast as she could and now she was pushing herself beyond her limit, but for the pain Ryoko felt and after hearing the exchange between them she understood that he could not see.

Ayeka and Washu were busily talking about what could have caused her to fly off like that and what would have caused Tenchi to destroy something when Washu screamed and held her head. She was going to have to talk to her daughter about screaming over their mental link later, but with the pain associated with it she decided to save that for another day. 'Ryoko, what's wrong?'

'Tenchi's awake, but he's…'

'He's what?'

'He's blind. He can't see me even though he is holding me…' Her mind voice trembled and fell away.

'No... He can't be' she repeated mentally. "He can't be."

"He can't be what, Miss Washu?"

She looked over at Ayeka who was looking at her concerned. "Ryoko says that Tenchi had woken up from hitting his head."

"Oh that's good then, so what can't he be?"

"He's…" she could not say it, it would hurt her too much. But Ayeka kept asking and would not relent. "Ryoko say's he's blind."

"What? How?" The princess was shrieking then got herself under control. "Miss Washu, she said earlier that he was dead and that turned out that he was merely unconscious. Maybe this…"

"You're right, hold on." She focused back on her daughter, 'Ryoko, I need you to look at his eyes.'

'I can't.'

'Remember when you thought he was dead, maybe this is only temporary?' She offered the last in an attempt to stifle her own fears as well as calm her daughter down.

'Ok.' Ryoko looked at Tenchi's face and his eyes were open and looking at her but they looked cloudy. She gave her mom the ability to see through her again and Washu gasped. Moving Ryoko's face closer to his she was able to see into his eyes and what she saw sickened them both. It looked like a blood vessel had burst and it has already gone far enough to take away his sight. Washu did not want to say it, but this time Ryoko was right. He was blind and from the looks of things it was near total loss. If she were to operate on him right now she might be able to restore some of his sight, but she could not return it completely.

She began crying and pulled out of Ryoko's mind. When Washu looked up she saw Ayeka before her. "Tenchi's blind. If I had the ability to operate on him right this second I could return some of his sight." Ayeka slumped back in her chair. This day had gone from bad to worse and it did not seem to be getting any better. In the Ryo-Ohki the pirate and the prince held each other and contemplated the future. For Tenchi this meant that he would never see a sunset or a rose or anything again, not even Ryoko. Many times he had taken that for granted, he had woke up many mornings to find her watching him, and now he could not even see that again.