A Very Sad Tale Part 4 - A Desperate Gamble
Ayeka and Washu sat in silence as Mihoshi and Sasami attempted to move their ship away from the planet, but with so many tourists and reporters that was turned to a near impossible feat. Even members of the Galaxy Police showed up to get people moving and to restore order. For nearly an hour they maneuvered the ship until they were free of the interstellar traffic. Without knowing where Ryo-Ohki had gone it was going to be near impossible to track them. Several times she had found what she thought was their engine signature, but it was not complete enough to tell if it was them and what direction they were headed in. Several of them look like it, but they were headed in many different directions.
The only lead they had was from a small ship that the Galaxy Police had found. It was reported that they were able to rescue all five crewmen from a private security ship. The men said that they were attacked and that they had barely escaped with their lives. "That demon attacked us without warning and destroyed our ship!" claimed one of the survivors. The captain did not say a word neither did the rest of the crew. Instead they were taken to a Galaxy Police base for questioning.
As far as clues go this was the only solid clue she had and she was able to get at least an idea of the direction, but the reporter would not give away the exact coordinates. A few of the engine trails that where similar to Ryo-Ohki went in the direction that they were supposedly in, but she could not track down which one was the right one. Grudgingly Washu had them head for Earth as that was surely the direction they headed to, even though this happened in the wrong direction.
"Miss Washu?" The scientist looked up to see Ayeka. "Is there anything you can do for him?"
She shook her head sadly, "I'm sorry but I know of nothing that will help right now. Especially since we're so far apart."
"I know, I was hoping." The princess looked down as she was beginning to become extremely depressed. In all the thousands of years of Jurai's history there has never been a blind emperor or any handicapped emperor. So if he could not regain his sight then he would not be able to take the throne. If he had tried to take the throne as he is now, the Holy Counsel would block it as having a handicapped ruler would be a sign of weakness to the surrounding systems and their power might dissolve. "Is there any way to get his sight back?"
"Look I told you I don't know of anything! If I could I'd give him my eyes; hell Ryoko would give him hers if he asked. She can re-grow her own! So just sit back and…" A sudden thought hit her, 'Ryoko's healing ability, if we could transfer even some of that to him it might work…'
"Miss Washu? Miss Washu?" The scientist shook her head and looked back at Ayeka. "Are you ok?"
"I, think I know of something. Hang on." She then closed her eyes and mentally called for Ryoko. When Ryoko answered she told her what she thought. 'Ryoko, I think we can return his sight. All we need to do is transfer some of your healing powers to him. That way your accelerated healing should return him to normal.'
'Really? How do I do that?' She was extremely happy at the prospect that he could be returned to normal and even happier that she could be the one to do it. No matter what this involved she would do it for him.
'I need to transfer some of your… Damn, We need your blood to be transferred to him, or some way to get your powers to him.'
Ryoko frowned and thought for a moment, 'What about my gems?'
Washu thought it over for a moment, doing that would mean more then just transferring some of her powers, but she was not sure to what extent it would go. However this seemed to be the only possible solution, but she did not know if it was reversible. The way Yosho had taken the gems from Ryoko before were by piercing her and absorbing them. For Ryoko and her healing abilities that was nothing, but Tenchi could be killed if they tried to recover them that way. Finally she answered her daughter, 'We can try it, but only do one. I don't know the full extent on how it will affect him, but it should at least allow him to regenerate like you.' She could feel her daughters joy through the link and she thought it best not to tell her that she had no clue if it would work or not. If she had more time to study it then she would know for sure.
Washu closed the link and looked at Ayeka. "There is a chance, but I am not completely sure..."
Ayeka studied her then stated calmly, "Then that chance we must take."
"There may be side effects though." She looked down almost in shame, as she did not know if it would work or not and this seemed a one way ticket. The look Ayeka gave her plainly asked what kind without even needing to say a word. "As you know Ryoko's healing ability is beyond anyone else's so if we can transfer that power to him then it should heal him completely.
She thought about this for a moment and it sickened her at the thought of Ryoko being the one to help him, and it disturbed her to think that at this point. She could not understand completely why he had destroyed that ride and then chased after her, but there really did not seem to be any other options at this point. She would either have Tenchi blind for life or he could have his sight restored and he would be closer to her. She did not like either prospect, but in bad situations you have to pick the lesser of the two evils. The elder princess looked at Washu calmly. "As I said, if this is the only chance then we must take it."
Washu nodded and then contacted her daughter to let her know that she could go ahead and try. 'But remember this may not be reversible and I cannot give you any guarantees.'
In Ryo-Ohki the two occupants talked about this possibility. "Washu thinks that it will help if I give you one of my gems."
"No, they are yours and I need to give them back to you."
"Tenchi, if you give them to me I will still give one back to you." She placed a hand on his face and he did not flinch or move away from it as he had in the past, "Please Tenchi. Let me try to help."
He finally relented and Ryoko helped him over to his sword as she could not carry it, she knew that if she tried it would only shock her again. Picking it up he held it between him and her and in his mind he clearly remembered doing this before, but the circumstances were different. It seemed strange that how so long ago she had fought him over the sword and the gems and now she was giving one to him, actually demanding to give him one. His head still pounded from his earlier injury, but he had enough sense to remember what she had told him before.
"So, I guess I just pray to have one go to me then?" She nodded then remembered he could not see it, so she told him yes as she fought back the tears. He held the sword to him and then began the prayer he started so long ago in his room. The sword glowed for a moment then one gem began to glow. It slowly disappeared from view and reappeared on his left wrist like hers. In that instant all four of them, Tenchi, Ryoko, Ryo-Ohki and Washu felt a tremendous pain flow through them causing them all to cry out in pain.
Ayeka grabbed Washu as the scientist writhed in pain holding her head. This was not expected she had not expected to feel this. Ryoko could feel the pain as well but she could not tell whom it was coming from. It would take some time before any of them were to find it out, but the pain did not come from one of them but rather all of them. The gems combined and shared all of their pain. Tenchi and Ryoko hit their knees and the master key fell from his hand as she grabbed him to keep them both from falling over. Then just as quickly as it had come the pain left all of them but one, Tenchi.
'Ryoko! Ryoko? Are you ok?'
'Yes. What the hell was that mom?'
'I wish I knew. That was… unexpected.'
'Any more surprises for me?'
'I, I don't know.' Washu hated saying those words. More than anything she hated the idea of not knowing something. Especially when it affected both her and her daughter.
The pain had been so sharp and sudden that Ryo-Ohki had stopped for a moment and if she could have she would have cringed and held her own head. She was worried about her mistress and Tenchi though so at the moment she forgot to start moving again. She asked worriedly it they were ok, "Myia?" It did not cross her mind until after she asked that he would not be able to understand. The voice she heard though surprised her.
"Yes, I'm ok Ryo-Ohki. My head just hurts," said Tenchi out loud to her question. He sat up and tried opening his eyes to look around but he was still in darkness.
She cried out again several times and was excited to discover that they both understood her. "Tenchi! I'm glad you're ok. How can you understand?" To Ryoko's ears she heard the excited Myiaing that everyone else heard, but in her mind she heard the question to him. It was not surprising to the ship that Ryoko could understand as she has been her constant companion for thousands of years, but he should not be able to.
He spoke out loud though as if he understood it too, "I still can't see, but I don't know how I understand."
When Ryoko heard him say he could not see she began crying as the transfer has obviously failed, she had failed him. Even giving him her power it was not enough to bring back his sight. "Tenchi, I'm sorry."
He held her close; "It's ok. You tried." She moved him over to the chair so that he could sit down, then she sat in his lap so he could continue to hold her. This contact was the only thing he could do now to calm both her fears and his mind. Slowly she told him what Washu had said about his eyes and how he may never see again. Inside Tenchi thought he was falling apart. In the past forty-eight hours, at least that is how long he thought it had been from what she had told him, he had destroyed something out of anger, tried to comfort her, was then attacked and lost his sight. And to top it off he knew she felt guilty for destroying that ship. Even though they had fired first that was the first ship she had destroyed on her own free will. The fact remained that she had killed, and the blood was still on her hands for it. All these feelings were spiraling around in her as well as guilt over what had happened to him.
As he held her he realized that this has not been the first time he had done this. He has held her twice in the past, once against Kagato and once when Zero was dying. Both times he wished he could do so a little bit longer, but each time was cut short. And now, here they are again. But he can't see her, and he may never see her again from what he understood. Removing a hand from around her he placed it against her cheek and he could feel the tears she was crying. He whipped them away and began letting his hand gently caress her face. His fingers brushed across her cheek, down her jaw line and then back up to her ears. Using his palm and fingers as his eyes he looked at her face and began picturing her in his mind. He thought of how she looked when she laughed and was happy.
Feeling his hand on her face she looked up at him and wondered what he could be doing, but as gentle as he was being she hated to say anything in fear that he might stop. As she watched him thought she could see tears falling from his eyes, which were cloudy and already they had lost their luster. His eyes looked dead and empty though quite opposite from his face which seemed warm and caring. She forced herself to look away, as each time she looked into his eyes now she felt guilt. 'It's because of me that he's like this now. If I hadn't forced him to go on that ride nothing would have happened. We could be home and at least then he could see me.' The accusations from within were coming fast and strong, and with each one she would cry more. But each tear that fell was gently caressed away by his hand.
Ryo-Ohki had been watching the exchange between them in hopes that he would be all right, but sadly he was no better than before. But now he could understand her at least, like Ryoko could. Once the initial pain had gone away she sat in the stillness of space waiting and watching, but like the others she had gotten her hopes up too high and now she was depressed. She resumed her course as best she could but the stars seemed strange now, and she was not sure if she was headed in the same direction. At length she decided that when the pain hit she had begun spinning and in this part of the galaxy not even Kagato had taken them so it was a new place. But even in a new place she should be able to have some idea where she was, but here it was hard to tell, it was like something was surrounding them that was distorting things and confusing her on what direction she was going.
After the pain left Washu she began trying to find out what happened, and when Ryoko had finally told her that the only difference now was he could understand Ryo-Ohki she was not happy. Giving him the gem should have done something at least besides that. She informed Ayeka that their idea had failed and her spirits fell causing her to slump back in her seat.
The little scientist was about to tell them about to tell them about him being able to understand Ryo-Ohki, but stopped when Sasami rushed in. "Washu! Tell Ryo-Ohki to turn around!" Before she could even ask why the little princess provided the explanation. "They are in the forbidden zones and Tsunami says that they are about to be surrounded by Tokimi's ships."
"Tokimi?" Washu repeated the name several times but mostly to herself then the name registered to her. That was the person that was trying to kidnap her before. "Oh no!" She then turned her thoughts to Ryo-Ohki. 'Ryo-Ohki, you have to turn around.'
The cabbit responded to her and it was evident that she was confused, 'I can't. I don't know which way I'm going. Stars are strange here.' Then the link was suddenly cut off.
'Ryo-Ohki!' Washu called one more time but then silence, even from her daughter. "It's too late. I can't reach them anymore."
Tenchi and Ryoko barely had a chance to move before the first hit came. Ryo-Ohki screamed in pain as more shots were fired from other directions, as they were totally surrounded. Ryoko was standing facing the view screen trying to find a way out. "Ryoko, what's wrong?"
"We're being attacked! I don't know who and we're surrounded. Damn." Four more shots pounded into Ryo-Ohki before she stopped completely. "She can't move. Whatever they're shooting is paralyzing her." She turned around to see a stranger on board and he was moving up to Tenchi. "Tenchi duck!" Just a second after he ducked she flew past him and sliced into the man, but more soon appeared. She fought as hard as she could and Tenchi frantically tried to find his sword to help her but in his state he could not do much more then crawl across the floor.
Helpless and useless was just how he felt, as he was unable to do anything more than grope in the darkness the sounds of someone fighting Ryoko stirred him on though. If he could get to his sword and give her the last gem then she would have enough power to win. He was almost to it when the unthinkable happened he heard her scream. Pushing everything away he rushed to where he heard her scream when a hand grabbed him. It was large and rough so it was easy to tell it was not Ryoko. He grabbed the hand and with a quick flick he was rewarded with the sound of breaking bones. Letting go he continued over to her and two more assaulted him before he reached her. In this panicked state his strength moved well beyond it norm and he knocked at least two of his attackers away to get to her. She was lying on the ground when he got there and when he went to pick her up he felt blood, fresh blood. When his hand touched her side she winced and he knew she was hurt badly. But before he could say a word he was struck from behind with something. He felt his consciousness slipping as he struggled to not fall. "Ryoko," he called to her, 'I'm sorry.' Before he passed out he thought he heard her say something but he could not tell. From the number of hits he was receiving there had to be at least a dozen men around them.