Tenchi Muyo is the property of AIC and Pioneer.
Yet another in my Lost Fic series.
The Man of Her Dreams
Aeka took a look at the flower in her hand and studied it. It was blue, a dark blue much like Earth's oceans. It was nothing like the Royal Teardrop, more like a rose...
But who had given it to her?
She looked around at the forest glen surrounding her. She knew a dream when she saw one. She smiled. Of course. She was dreaming of Tenchi again. He had given her this flower. She raised it to her nostrils and inhaled its sweet fragrance.
She walked on for a bit, searching for her beloved. He had to be around here somewhere. There was no point in having a dream about him where he wasn't.
She continued on, walking past trees and a small stream. She stood on the bank and looked for him.
Still nothing.
"Looking for me?" she heard someone ask behind her.
She smiled and turned, expecting to see her Lord Tenchi there. She blinked in surprise. It wasn't Tenchi standing there, but a man she had never seen before. Young, with white hair and saphire eyes. In his hand was an identical rose.
She stood rooted to the spot. She knew this man. She could feel it. But from where?
She could also swear that she had never seen him before.
He approached her, and still she didn't move. He encircled her with his arms, and still she didn't try to run.
She trusted him.
Why?
She didn't know.
She just did.
He smiled down at her and bent forward until his lips were an inch from hers.
"Aeka," he whispered. "I've finally found you again."
He kissed her.
Then she woke up.
She sat awake in her futon, her body coated with sweat. Sasami was sleeping comfortably next to her. The moonlight flooded in through the window.
What the hell just happened?
How could she have...dreamed of someone other than Tenchi?
It was impossible.
She put her hand over her heart. It was beating so fast. Why did she feel this way?
Enough!
It was just a dream!
Just a silly dream!
It didn't mean anything!
So why did she feel that something important had just happened?
She laid back down on the futon and stared up at the ceiling. Though she rested, she didn't sleep.
"Aeka? Is something wrong?"
Aeka jumped in her seat on the couch. Her eyelids had been drooping again. She looked up and saw Noboyuki standing behind her.
"Oh, Mr. Masaki," she yawned. "Sorry, I just..."
"Are you okay, Aeka?" he asked with more concern. "You look horrible!" He sat next to her on the couch to get a better look at her. Despite his hentai nature, Noboyuki was very fond of the girls and felt almost as if they were his own daughters. He knew one day one of them would be.
"I...I just didn't get much sleep last night," she told him.
He wasn't convinced. "Is that all? Did something happen?"
"I..." she trailed off. She couldn't tell *him*. Then again, this was really bothering her. Who else could she talk to? Ryoko would use it as an excuse to run to Tenchi, shouting at the top of her lungs how Aeka didn't love him and was dreaming of other men. Mihoshi simply wouldn't get it. Sasami was too young to understand. Yosho only spoke in riddles. And Tenchi...
She couldn't tell Tenchi. Period.
"I...I had a...uncomfortable dream last night," she said simply.
"You mean a nightmare?" he asked.
"No...Not really," she told him uncertainly. "It wasn't scary...in that way."
Noboyuki regarded her for a moment. He worried about Aeka sometimes. She was the serious one, and he knew from experience that young people that serious were the first to explode.
"It's nothing," she finally said.
"Aeka, if something's bothering you, you should talk about it with someone, anyone. If you leave it bottled up, it could hurt you down the road." Aeka said nothing as he continued. "You know, if you like, you can tell me," he said gently. She looked up at him in surprise. "Aeka, I know it's difficult for you. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing you'd discuss with your mother or father, right?"
She nodded.
He smiled gently. "Well, if it helps, think of me as their surrogate. I promise, whatever you say to me, stays with me."
She thought this over. Noboyuki could be a hentai and lech, she knew, but she also knew that he genuinely cared for them, for her. If he made a promise, she knew he'd keep it...
Or she'd fry his ass.
"I had a dream," she told him.
"You said that."
"In it, I...there was this man...and he..."
Noboyuki waited for her to continue.
"He kissed me."
"Was it Tenchi?"
She shook her head. "And that's what's so disconcerting."
He smiled. "Aeka...so what?"
She looked at him in shock.
"It was just a dream. You can't control your dreams, and if you try, they're no fun."
"How can you say that?" she asked. "I..."
"Had a dream," he finished for her. He patted her shoulder. "Relax. Achika used to say that dreams were the perfect playground because no matter what happened in them they couldn't affect your waking life or your loved ones."
Aeka thought on this.
"Let me ask you this," he went on. "Did you like the dream?"
"I..." Aeka began quickly. She paused and thought for a moment. Despite how disconcerting it was, it was rather pleasant. "Somewhat," she finally said, somewhat lamely.
"Then enjoy it," he told her supportively.
"But Tenchi..."
"But Tenchi nothing!" Noboyuki told her. "That boy is a constant disappointment, and until he gets his act together and chooses one of you girls, you don't owe him a damn thing." Aeka was shocked into silence. "Feel guilty when you've done something to feel guilty about, Aeka, not before."
Aeka thought for a moment, then smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Masaki. This helped a great deal."
"Um...It did?"
She nodded. "Thank you," she said quietly.
He smiled. "Anytime, Miss Aeka."
She heard flowing water not far away. Turning, she found a small brook and waterfall. She knelt down on the bank and reached out, touching it, disturbing the water with her hand. When the ripples disappeared, his reflection was there.
She turned quickly. "You," she breathed in shock.
He smiled gently. "For awhile, I was sure you'd never fall asleep again," he joked. He reached out and took her hand.
She pulled away. "Who are you?" she asked.
A veil of pain covered his face. "You...you don't remember?" he asked. "You don't remember me?"
She could only shake her head.
"I see," he whispered. "It'll...it'll come back to you," he assured her. "I promise."
She shook her head in fear and confusion. "I don't understand. What will come back?"
He stepped forward and embraced her again. Aeka's heart fluttered in her chest.
Why aren't I pulling away? she asked herself.
"Because the you that has always existed here knows me," he told her, answering her unspoken question. "And she trusts me."
"Who are you?" she whispered again, still making no effort to escape. She tensed as she felt his hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair.
"You should know," he told her. "You named me."
"*I* named you?" she asked. She struggled inwardly. She kept telling herself that she should fight...
Tsunami in Heaven, why did she have to feel so warm and safe right now?
"You never complained before," he chuckled.
"You keep speaking as if we know each other," she whispered.
"It'll come back," he assured her again. "In time..."
Out of nowhere, an image popped into her head. A split second image of her, laughing and hiding behind a tree, looking out from behind the trunk only to have this man come up behind her and grab her. She was smiling, laughing, giggling like a schoolgirl...
This couldn't be her.
"You see?" he asked her. "It's already coming back..."
She looked up at him. "Who are you?" she asked again.
"I love you, Aeka," he whispered. "I have since the day we first met..."
She said nothing.
"Aeka?"
"Aeka?"
"Aeka?"
Aeka's eyes snapped open. She was breathing fast, and sweat coated her forehead. Sasami was looking down at her with an expression akin to fear on her face.
"Aeka? Are you okay?" Sasami asked quickly.
"What?" Aeka mumbled. "Sasami?"
"You look sick, Aeka. Do you have a fever?" The tiny princess put her hand on Aeka's forehead and took her temperature.
"No," the elder sister whispered. "I...I just had a dream, that's all."
"Are you sure?" Sasami asked. "You were tossing and turning. Do you want some water or something?"
"No...No...Thank you, Sasami. I'm fine."
Sasami bit her lip and nodded. "Okay, Aeka. Try to sleep, okay?"
"Thank you, Sasami. I'll be fine."
The Second Princess kissed her sister on the cheek and laid back down on her own futon.
Aeka laid there the rest of the night with her eyes open, afraid to go back to sleep.
"It's open," Washu called out as she typed. She heard the crab bell signal that someone had entered her lab and turned. Her eyes went wide. "Holy crap, Aeka! You look like shit!"
Aeka yawned and rubbed at the circles under her eyes. "Please, no comments, I just need to speak to Ryu-Oh."
"Yeah, she's in the usual spot," Washu told her with a touch of uncertainty. "Are you okay? You really don't look good."
"I'm fine," Aeka said quickly. "I've just been having trouble sleeping."
"You want a sedative?" Washu asked.
"No!" Aeka said with a bit of panic in her voice. She calmed down a second later. "I...I just need a little rest."
Washu's eyes narrowed. "Let me scan you."
"Later," Aeka told her, quick to brush off any of Washu's 'scans.' "I need to speak to Ryu-Oh. Excuse me."
Without another word, Aeka walked up the ramp into Ryu-Oh's container. The sapling sat in the center, oblivious to reality. She walked up to it and gently caressed its branches with her hand. A few weak tendrils of light flashed from its leaves and caressed her arm. Aeka felt her mind enter the tree, accessing its memory.
She found herself in the dream-like state of Ryu-Oh's mind. "Ryu- Oh," she began, "Access Jurai civilian and military databases and cross reference with GP computers."
A few flashes of light told her that it was done.
"I'm looking for a man," she said.
Another flash of light.
"What do you mean, 'that's obvious!?'" she asked, just a tad irate.
Another flash.
"Apology accepted," she told the tree as she rubbed her eyes. "But please, Ryu-Oh, this is serious. I need your help."
Two more flashes informed Aeka that she would have all the help her ship could provide.
"Thank you," Aeka told the tree gratefully. "Now, then, I'm looking for a man. Five feet, ten inches tall." A mental image of a humanoid form almost six feet tall appeared before her. It was gray and featureless, the other aspects of the man not yet specified. "White hair, short and unkept," Aeka continued. Ryu-Oh added hair. "Shorter," Aeka told her. The tree adjusted the image. "Close enough." She thought about where to continue. "Eyes," she said softly, "Light saphire. More...more rounded," she specified as Ryu-Oh made the modifications.
"Light skin," she continued softly as the man of her dreams began to take shape before her. "More angular features...no...that's too much...There. Perfect..." She took a tired breath. "No facial hair..." She paused. There was something wrong with the image. "A smile," she told Ryu-Oh softly. "He should be smiling."
The modifications were made. Aeka took a breath. There he was.
"Ryu-Oh, run a search and tell me who this man is."
There were several flashes of light that answered this question.
"Nowhere?" she asked. "He doesn't appear in any record?"
Ryu-Oh flashed in a negative.
"Has this man ever set foot aboard you?" she asked.
Another negative.
She sighed. "I guess he really is just a dream."
Ryu-Oh flashed several times. Aeka listened as the ship made her comments.
"I'm fine, really," Aeka assured her. "I'm just so tired."
More flashes.
Aeka smiled. "Yes, I do remember. When I was a little girl, you always let me sleep under your branches. I always felt safe there."
Another single gentle flash.
"You wouldn't mind?" Aeka asked, surprised. She smiled. "Thank you, Ryu-Oh." She took a breath and thought on it.
He's just a dream, she told herself. You just proved it.
"Thank you, Ryu-Oh," she said with certainty this time. "I'd love to."
She felt her mind ease away from her ship's and blinked back to reality. She smiled and knelt down, lying on the soft grass next to Ryu- Oh's sapling. She made herself comfortable, and was asleep in a few minutes.
He's just a dream...
She yawned as she opened her eyes. She sat up and rubbed them, tiredly. That had been a wonderful nap. No dreams, no strange men, nothing. She looked around her and frowned.
She wasn't in Ryu-Oh.
She was near the brook again.
"Taking a nap?" she heard to her right. She looked and found him there, setting out a blanket and a picnic basket. He looked up at her and smiled. "You won't hear me complain."
She stood up and faced him. "You're not real," she told him point- blank.
"Oh really?" he asked.
"Yes, really. You're a figment of my imagination! A hallucination! A dream!"
"A dream, yes, but not a hallucination," he corrected her. "A hallucination implies that your own mind is creating me. That's not so in this case. I'm just as real as you are."
"Prove it," she said, folding her arms over her chest.
He stood up and walked over to her. He regarded her for a second, then reached out and pinched her arm.
"Ow!"
"There. See? If this was a simple dream, you would have woken up, right?"
"That proves nothing!" she shot back.
He sighed. "It took days the first time to get you to trust me," he told her. "I guess it'll take days more to regain that trust."
"Please stop speaking in riddles," she begged him. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"
"If I told you everything about you...about me...about us...you would tell me I'm lying. You wouldn't accept even the possibility because you'd simply believe I'm manipulating you somehow. I want you to remember on your own."
"I don't trust you," she whispered. "I want you to leave."
"Is that true?" he asked.
"No," she said without thinking. "I mean yes!" She looked at him for another half minute. "No..."
He smiled. "Don't underestimate your own mind, Aeka," he whispered. "You feel it inside your head, don't you? On some level you don't know about...you *do* remember me..." He took her hand. "...Remember us..."
She pulled away a little. "That's not possible. I've never seen you before..."
"You have seen me. Just not out there." He paused for a moment and looked at her. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "I brought your favorite." He smiled. "Mollidoni chicken parmesian."
She looked up in shock. "How did you..." She stopped. "I'm not hungry, thank you."
"Not even a little?" he asked. "If you're right, and this is just an elaborate dream...then where's the harm in having some?"
Aeka thought on this. "Well...perhaps a little...wouldn't hurt."
"It's over here," he said with a smile, turning to lead her to the basket.
She began to follow, but stopped as an image crashed into her mind. Ryoko, eyes glowing as red as the fires consuming her world laughing! Yosho, the Tenchi ken blazing in his hand, rushing after her! Herself, trying to run after him, calling his name, weeping in despair! The image of herself fell to her knees and began to scream. She felt someone touch her shoulder. She looked up and there he was...
Aeka gasped and fell to her knees.
"Aeka?!"
Her hands went to her head as she took a few deep breaths. She knew she had had dreams like that before, dreams of Yosho leaving, but this man had never been in them...
She looked up and found him there, looking down at her with concerned eyes. "Are you all right?" he asked gently.
"I...I saw Jurai...burning..." she told him. "It's...It's a dream that I had had fairly often until just recently."
He smiled. "It *is* coming back to you."
"Who are you?" she asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
"You named me," he told her again. "You tell me."
"I don't know," she said with a shake of her head.
"Yes, you do," he said softly.
She felt pain. It was like her mind was exploding from within, knocking down the boundaries around it, the boundaries that identified that mind as belonging to Aeka Jurai. Past those boundaries was something else, something that was fighting to make itself known.
She looked into those gentle, saphire eyes, eyes that were so familiar she was *certain* that she had spent years staring into them.
"Masayume," she whispered. "Your name is Masayume."
His smile brightened.
"I...I do remember," she whispered, rising to her feet. "I...I do..."
She saw the image of him standing over her as she wept in her dream.
"We met there," she whispered. "Not on Jurai...I mean we met in that dream!" She looked at him.
"Yes," he told her excitedly.
"You...You were wandering..." she told him as more bits and pieces began to fall into place. "You were wandering the galaxy....and you...you felt me...you felt my mind...my despair...While I was..." She broke off and looked at him. "In coldsleep," whispered in awe. "That's when we met! When I left Jurai to look for Yosho! I went into coldsleep....and I dreamed..."
"And we met," he finished softly.
She turned and shook her head as more and more memories returned to her. Scientists on Jurai had assured her that one can't dream in cold sleep, but they were wrong. The dream she endured once a night, the dream of Yosho leaving her, her planet in flames, haunted her over and over again as she lay powerless to wake up, to end it, even for a short time....and then...
"You took the pain away," she told him. "You entered my dream." She looked up at him in awe. "You stopped that dream."
He nodded. "I felt your despair from almost a parsec away. We're very sensitive to that. I decided to investigate."
"You came to me and..." She broke off. She could remember him clearly, now. She was crying within her own mind, unable to stop the images of death and fire and abandonment from assailing her every second.
She had looked up and seen him there, his hand outstretched to her...
"Go on," he had said quietly. "Take it. It'll be okay."
She had looked up, tears running down her face, and reached out...
Taking his hand.
He had smiled down at her and pulled her up. As if by magic the nightmare had begun to fade. The Jurai in her dream turned green again. All around her, life was springing again.
"What's your name?" he had asked.
"Aeka."
"Aeka, it's nice to meet you."
She looked up at him as the memory faded into the background again. Tears filled her eyes. She took a step forward and embraced him, the tears running down her face.
"Masayume!"
She continued to cry into his tunic, holding him as if afraid to let him go. He wrapped his arms around her and held her gently, stroking her purple tresses delicately.
"I've missed you so much," he whispered.
"I..." She broke down crying again. "I couldn't! I couldn't miss you! I couldn't remember! Why couldn't I remember?!"
"Shhhhh," he whispered to her. "It's okay. It's okay now. We're together again. That's all that matters."
More and more memories made themselves known to her. Seven hundred years of a happy life in her own mind with him as her ship journeyed from star to star. Some were shocking. Some were heartwarming. She saw herself with him, holding him, dancing with him, flying with him through the dreams and planes of her own psyche, saw herself...
She blushed a deep crimson. No wonder he seemed so familiar.
Thoughts like this brought her to memories of the results of those thoughts...
"Our daughter!" she gasped. "Yumeko! Where is she?!"
He chuckled. "It's okay, Aeka. Remember? Yumeko left three centuries ago. She's fine."
Yes, she remembered now. Saying goodbye to her little Yumeko chan as she, like all children eventually do, left her parents to make her own way in the galaxy, a product of her and Masayume's thoughts, love, and minds...
The one thing she had been truly proud of in the last seven hundred years.
And until a minute ago, she couldn't even remember she had existed.
She held him while she continued to cry. "I forgot her," she whispered. "I forgot her..."
"Shhhh," he whispered back. "You remember now, and that's what's important. Here, sit down." He helped her down to the blanket and held her. "It's okay," he said, wiping her tears away with a gentle finger. "How much do you remember now?" he asked.
"It's hard to say," she told him. "The memories are all crashing together like waves against the shore. I don't know what I remember because I haven't thought to remember it yet."
He smiled and held her in the crook of his arm, letting her rest.
"It's so odd," she whispered. "It's like having another lifetime suddenly spring to life in my head. Is this real?" she asked.
"Yes," he told her. "It all happened."
"Why did it end?" she asked.
He looked down at her and carefully brushed a few errant hairs from her eyes. "It was my fault," he told her. "I wasn't careful enough. I got lazy."
"What do you mean?"
His voice was warm and gentle. "One day, you woke up. Neither one of us expected it, so I didn't prepare. I guess the sudden shock of leaving one world and reentering another caused your memory of that world to be erased."
"I think I remember now," she whispered. "We were having breakfast and...The world faded in front of my eyes. The next thing I remember is looking out over Earth, and having the feeling that I just lost something."
He nodded. "When it happened, the shock sent me sprawling from your mind. By the time I was aware of what had happened, you were down on the planet. I had to search for you."
"You found me," she told him. "You kept your promise. You promised me that you'd never leave me, and you kept it."
Yet another in my Lost Fic series.
The Man of Her Dreams
Aeka took a look at the flower in her hand and studied it. It was blue, a dark blue much like Earth's oceans. It was nothing like the Royal Teardrop, more like a rose...
But who had given it to her?
She looked around at the forest glen surrounding her. She knew a dream when she saw one. She smiled. Of course. She was dreaming of Tenchi again. He had given her this flower. She raised it to her nostrils and inhaled its sweet fragrance.
She walked on for a bit, searching for her beloved. He had to be around here somewhere. There was no point in having a dream about him where he wasn't.
She continued on, walking past trees and a small stream. She stood on the bank and looked for him.
Still nothing.
"Looking for me?" she heard someone ask behind her.
She smiled and turned, expecting to see her Lord Tenchi there. She blinked in surprise. It wasn't Tenchi standing there, but a man she had never seen before. Young, with white hair and saphire eyes. In his hand was an identical rose.
She stood rooted to the spot. She knew this man. She could feel it. But from where?
She could also swear that she had never seen him before.
He approached her, and still she didn't move. He encircled her with his arms, and still she didn't try to run.
She trusted him.
Why?
She didn't know.
She just did.
He smiled down at her and bent forward until his lips were an inch from hers.
"Aeka," he whispered. "I've finally found you again."
He kissed her.
Then she woke up.
She sat awake in her futon, her body coated with sweat. Sasami was sleeping comfortably next to her. The moonlight flooded in through the window.
What the hell just happened?
How could she have...dreamed of someone other than Tenchi?
It was impossible.
She put her hand over her heart. It was beating so fast. Why did she feel this way?
Enough!
It was just a dream!
Just a silly dream!
It didn't mean anything!
So why did she feel that something important had just happened?
She laid back down on the futon and stared up at the ceiling. Though she rested, she didn't sleep.
"Aeka? Is something wrong?"
Aeka jumped in her seat on the couch. Her eyelids had been drooping again. She looked up and saw Noboyuki standing behind her.
"Oh, Mr. Masaki," she yawned. "Sorry, I just..."
"Are you okay, Aeka?" he asked with more concern. "You look horrible!" He sat next to her on the couch to get a better look at her. Despite his hentai nature, Noboyuki was very fond of the girls and felt almost as if they were his own daughters. He knew one day one of them would be.
"I...I just didn't get much sleep last night," she told him.
He wasn't convinced. "Is that all? Did something happen?"
"I..." she trailed off. She couldn't tell *him*. Then again, this was really bothering her. Who else could she talk to? Ryoko would use it as an excuse to run to Tenchi, shouting at the top of her lungs how Aeka didn't love him and was dreaming of other men. Mihoshi simply wouldn't get it. Sasami was too young to understand. Yosho only spoke in riddles. And Tenchi...
She couldn't tell Tenchi. Period.
"I...I had a...uncomfortable dream last night," she said simply.
"You mean a nightmare?" he asked.
"No...Not really," she told him uncertainly. "It wasn't scary...in that way."
Noboyuki regarded her for a moment. He worried about Aeka sometimes. She was the serious one, and he knew from experience that young people that serious were the first to explode.
"It's nothing," she finally said.
"Aeka, if something's bothering you, you should talk about it with someone, anyone. If you leave it bottled up, it could hurt you down the road." Aeka said nothing as he continued. "You know, if you like, you can tell me," he said gently. She looked up at him in surprise. "Aeka, I know it's difficult for you. I'm guessing this is the kind of thing you'd discuss with your mother or father, right?"
She nodded.
He smiled gently. "Well, if it helps, think of me as their surrogate. I promise, whatever you say to me, stays with me."
She thought this over. Noboyuki could be a hentai and lech, she knew, but she also knew that he genuinely cared for them, for her. If he made a promise, she knew he'd keep it...
Or she'd fry his ass.
"I had a dream," she told him.
"You said that."
"In it, I...there was this man...and he..."
Noboyuki waited for her to continue.
"He kissed me."
"Was it Tenchi?"
She shook her head. "And that's what's so disconcerting."
He smiled. "Aeka...so what?"
She looked at him in shock.
"It was just a dream. You can't control your dreams, and if you try, they're no fun."
"How can you say that?" she asked. "I..."
"Had a dream," he finished for her. He patted her shoulder. "Relax. Achika used to say that dreams were the perfect playground because no matter what happened in them they couldn't affect your waking life or your loved ones."
Aeka thought on this.
"Let me ask you this," he went on. "Did you like the dream?"
"I..." Aeka began quickly. She paused and thought for a moment. Despite how disconcerting it was, it was rather pleasant. "Somewhat," she finally said, somewhat lamely.
"Then enjoy it," he told her supportively.
"But Tenchi..."
"But Tenchi nothing!" Noboyuki told her. "That boy is a constant disappointment, and until he gets his act together and chooses one of you girls, you don't owe him a damn thing." Aeka was shocked into silence. "Feel guilty when you've done something to feel guilty about, Aeka, not before."
Aeka thought for a moment, then smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Masaki. This helped a great deal."
"Um...It did?"
She nodded. "Thank you," she said quietly.
He smiled. "Anytime, Miss Aeka."
She heard flowing water not far away. Turning, she found a small brook and waterfall. She knelt down on the bank and reached out, touching it, disturbing the water with her hand. When the ripples disappeared, his reflection was there.
She turned quickly. "You," she breathed in shock.
He smiled gently. "For awhile, I was sure you'd never fall asleep again," he joked. He reached out and took her hand.
She pulled away. "Who are you?" she asked.
A veil of pain covered his face. "You...you don't remember?" he asked. "You don't remember me?"
She could only shake her head.
"I see," he whispered. "It'll...it'll come back to you," he assured her. "I promise."
She shook her head in fear and confusion. "I don't understand. What will come back?"
He stepped forward and embraced her again. Aeka's heart fluttered in her chest.
Why aren't I pulling away? she asked herself.
"Because the you that has always existed here knows me," he told her, answering her unspoken question. "And she trusts me."
"Who are you?" she whispered again, still making no effort to escape. She tensed as she felt his hand on the back of her head, stroking her hair.
"You should know," he told her. "You named me."
"*I* named you?" she asked. She struggled inwardly. She kept telling herself that she should fight...
Tsunami in Heaven, why did she have to feel so warm and safe right now?
"You never complained before," he chuckled.
"You keep speaking as if we know each other," she whispered.
"It'll come back," he assured her again. "In time..."
Out of nowhere, an image popped into her head. A split second image of her, laughing and hiding behind a tree, looking out from behind the trunk only to have this man come up behind her and grab her. She was smiling, laughing, giggling like a schoolgirl...
This couldn't be her.
"You see?" he asked her. "It's already coming back..."
She looked up at him. "Who are you?" she asked again.
"I love you, Aeka," he whispered. "I have since the day we first met..."
She said nothing.
"Aeka?"
"Aeka?"
"Aeka?"
Aeka's eyes snapped open. She was breathing fast, and sweat coated her forehead. Sasami was looking down at her with an expression akin to fear on her face.
"Aeka? Are you okay?" Sasami asked quickly.
"What?" Aeka mumbled. "Sasami?"
"You look sick, Aeka. Do you have a fever?" The tiny princess put her hand on Aeka's forehead and took her temperature.
"No," the elder sister whispered. "I...I just had a dream, that's all."
"Are you sure?" Sasami asked. "You were tossing and turning. Do you want some water or something?"
"No...No...Thank you, Sasami. I'm fine."
Sasami bit her lip and nodded. "Okay, Aeka. Try to sleep, okay?"
"Thank you, Sasami. I'll be fine."
The Second Princess kissed her sister on the cheek and laid back down on her own futon.
Aeka laid there the rest of the night with her eyes open, afraid to go back to sleep.
"It's open," Washu called out as she typed. She heard the crab bell signal that someone had entered her lab and turned. Her eyes went wide. "Holy crap, Aeka! You look like shit!"
Aeka yawned and rubbed at the circles under her eyes. "Please, no comments, I just need to speak to Ryu-Oh."
"Yeah, she's in the usual spot," Washu told her with a touch of uncertainty. "Are you okay? You really don't look good."
"I'm fine," Aeka said quickly. "I've just been having trouble sleeping."
"You want a sedative?" Washu asked.
"No!" Aeka said with a bit of panic in her voice. She calmed down a second later. "I...I just need a little rest."
Washu's eyes narrowed. "Let me scan you."
"Later," Aeka told her, quick to brush off any of Washu's 'scans.' "I need to speak to Ryu-Oh. Excuse me."
Without another word, Aeka walked up the ramp into Ryu-Oh's container. The sapling sat in the center, oblivious to reality. She walked up to it and gently caressed its branches with her hand. A few weak tendrils of light flashed from its leaves and caressed her arm. Aeka felt her mind enter the tree, accessing its memory.
She found herself in the dream-like state of Ryu-Oh's mind. "Ryu- Oh," she began, "Access Jurai civilian and military databases and cross reference with GP computers."
A few flashes of light told her that it was done.
"I'm looking for a man," she said.
Another flash of light.
"What do you mean, 'that's obvious!?'" she asked, just a tad irate.
Another flash.
"Apology accepted," she told the tree as she rubbed her eyes. "But please, Ryu-Oh, this is serious. I need your help."
Two more flashes informed Aeka that she would have all the help her ship could provide.
"Thank you," Aeka told the tree gratefully. "Now, then, I'm looking for a man. Five feet, ten inches tall." A mental image of a humanoid form almost six feet tall appeared before her. It was gray and featureless, the other aspects of the man not yet specified. "White hair, short and unkept," Aeka continued. Ryu-Oh added hair. "Shorter," Aeka told her. The tree adjusted the image. "Close enough." She thought about where to continue. "Eyes," she said softly, "Light saphire. More...more rounded," she specified as Ryu-Oh made the modifications.
"Light skin," she continued softly as the man of her dreams began to take shape before her. "More angular features...no...that's too much...There. Perfect..." She took a tired breath. "No facial hair..." She paused. There was something wrong with the image. "A smile," she told Ryu-Oh softly. "He should be smiling."
The modifications were made. Aeka took a breath. There he was.
"Ryu-Oh, run a search and tell me who this man is."
There were several flashes of light that answered this question.
"Nowhere?" she asked. "He doesn't appear in any record?"
Ryu-Oh flashed in a negative.
"Has this man ever set foot aboard you?" she asked.
Another negative.
She sighed. "I guess he really is just a dream."
Ryu-Oh flashed several times. Aeka listened as the ship made her comments.
"I'm fine, really," Aeka assured her. "I'm just so tired."
More flashes.
Aeka smiled. "Yes, I do remember. When I was a little girl, you always let me sleep under your branches. I always felt safe there."
Another single gentle flash.
"You wouldn't mind?" Aeka asked, surprised. She smiled. "Thank you, Ryu-Oh." She took a breath and thought on it.
He's just a dream, she told herself. You just proved it.
"Thank you, Ryu-Oh," she said with certainty this time. "I'd love to."
She felt her mind ease away from her ship's and blinked back to reality. She smiled and knelt down, lying on the soft grass next to Ryu- Oh's sapling. She made herself comfortable, and was asleep in a few minutes.
He's just a dream...
She yawned as she opened her eyes. She sat up and rubbed them, tiredly. That had been a wonderful nap. No dreams, no strange men, nothing. She looked around her and frowned.
She wasn't in Ryu-Oh.
She was near the brook again.
"Taking a nap?" she heard to her right. She looked and found him there, setting out a blanket and a picnic basket. He looked up at her and smiled. "You won't hear me complain."
She stood up and faced him. "You're not real," she told him point- blank.
"Oh really?" he asked.
"Yes, really. You're a figment of my imagination! A hallucination! A dream!"
"A dream, yes, but not a hallucination," he corrected her. "A hallucination implies that your own mind is creating me. That's not so in this case. I'm just as real as you are."
"Prove it," she said, folding her arms over her chest.
He stood up and walked over to her. He regarded her for a second, then reached out and pinched her arm.
"Ow!"
"There. See? If this was a simple dream, you would have woken up, right?"
"That proves nothing!" she shot back.
He sighed. "It took days the first time to get you to trust me," he told her. "I guess it'll take days more to regain that trust."
"Please stop speaking in riddles," she begged him. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"
"If I told you everything about you...about me...about us...you would tell me I'm lying. You wouldn't accept even the possibility because you'd simply believe I'm manipulating you somehow. I want you to remember on your own."
"I don't trust you," she whispered. "I want you to leave."
"Is that true?" he asked.
"No," she said without thinking. "I mean yes!" She looked at him for another half minute. "No..."
He smiled. "Don't underestimate your own mind, Aeka," he whispered. "You feel it inside your head, don't you? On some level you don't know about...you *do* remember me..." He took her hand. "...Remember us..."
She pulled away a little. "That's not possible. I've never seen you before..."
"You have seen me. Just not out there." He paused for a moment and looked at her. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "I brought your favorite." He smiled. "Mollidoni chicken parmesian."
She looked up in shock. "How did you..." She stopped. "I'm not hungry, thank you."
"Not even a little?" he asked. "If you're right, and this is just an elaborate dream...then where's the harm in having some?"
Aeka thought on this. "Well...perhaps a little...wouldn't hurt."
"It's over here," he said with a smile, turning to lead her to the basket.
She began to follow, but stopped as an image crashed into her mind. Ryoko, eyes glowing as red as the fires consuming her world laughing! Yosho, the Tenchi ken blazing in his hand, rushing after her! Herself, trying to run after him, calling his name, weeping in despair! The image of herself fell to her knees and began to scream. She felt someone touch her shoulder. She looked up and there he was...
Aeka gasped and fell to her knees.
"Aeka?!"
Her hands went to her head as she took a few deep breaths. She knew she had had dreams like that before, dreams of Yosho leaving, but this man had never been in them...
She looked up and found him there, looking down at her with concerned eyes. "Are you all right?" he asked gently.
"I...I saw Jurai...burning..." she told him. "It's...It's a dream that I had had fairly often until just recently."
He smiled. "It *is* coming back to you."
"Who are you?" she asked for what felt like the hundredth time.
"You named me," he told her again. "You tell me."
"I don't know," she said with a shake of her head.
"Yes, you do," he said softly.
She felt pain. It was like her mind was exploding from within, knocking down the boundaries around it, the boundaries that identified that mind as belonging to Aeka Jurai. Past those boundaries was something else, something that was fighting to make itself known.
She looked into those gentle, saphire eyes, eyes that were so familiar she was *certain* that she had spent years staring into them.
"Masayume," she whispered. "Your name is Masayume."
His smile brightened.
"I...I do remember," she whispered, rising to her feet. "I...I do..."
She saw the image of him standing over her as she wept in her dream.
"We met there," she whispered. "Not on Jurai...I mean we met in that dream!" She looked at him.
"Yes," he told her excitedly.
"You...You were wandering..." she told him as more bits and pieces began to fall into place. "You were wandering the galaxy....and you...you felt me...you felt my mind...my despair...While I was..." She broke off and looked at him. "In coldsleep," whispered in awe. "That's when we met! When I left Jurai to look for Yosho! I went into coldsleep....and I dreamed..."
"And we met," he finished softly.
She turned and shook her head as more and more memories returned to her. Scientists on Jurai had assured her that one can't dream in cold sleep, but they were wrong. The dream she endured once a night, the dream of Yosho leaving her, her planet in flames, haunted her over and over again as she lay powerless to wake up, to end it, even for a short time....and then...
"You took the pain away," she told him. "You entered my dream." She looked up at him in awe. "You stopped that dream."
He nodded. "I felt your despair from almost a parsec away. We're very sensitive to that. I decided to investigate."
"You came to me and..." She broke off. She could remember him clearly, now. She was crying within her own mind, unable to stop the images of death and fire and abandonment from assailing her every second.
She had looked up and seen him there, his hand outstretched to her...
"Go on," he had said quietly. "Take it. It'll be okay."
She had looked up, tears running down her face, and reached out...
Taking his hand.
He had smiled down at her and pulled her up. As if by magic the nightmare had begun to fade. The Jurai in her dream turned green again. All around her, life was springing again.
"What's your name?" he had asked.
"Aeka."
"Aeka, it's nice to meet you."
She looked up at him as the memory faded into the background again. Tears filled her eyes. She took a step forward and embraced him, the tears running down her face.
"Masayume!"
She continued to cry into his tunic, holding him as if afraid to let him go. He wrapped his arms around her and held her gently, stroking her purple tresses delicately.
"I've missed you so much," he whispered.
"I..." She broke down crying again. "I couldn't! I couldn't miss you! I couldn't remember! Why couldn't I remember?!"
"Shhhhh," he whispered to her. "It's okay. It's okay now. We're together again. That's all that matters."
More and more memories made themselves known to her. Seven hundred years of a happy life in her own mind with him as her ship journeyed from star to star. Some were shocking. Some were heartwarming. She saw herself with him, holding him, dancing with him, flying with him through the dreams and planes of her own psyche, saw herself...
She blushed a deep crimson. No wonder he seemed so familiar.
Thoughts like this brought her to memories of the results of those thoughts...
"Our daughter!" she gasped. "Yumeko! Where is she?!"
He chuckled. "It's okay, Aeka. Remember? Yumeko left three centuries ago. She's fine."
Yes, she remembered now. Saying goodbye to her little Yumeko chan as she, like all children eventually do, left her parents to make her own way in the galaxy, a product of her and Masayume's thoughts, love, and minds...
The one thing she had been truly proud of in the last seven hundred years.
And until a minute ago, she couldn't even remember she had existed.
She held him while she continued to cry. "I forgot her," she whispered. "I forgot her..."
"Shhhh," he whispered back. "You remember now, and that's what's important. Here, sit down." He helped her down to the blanket and held her. "It's okay," he said, wiping her tears away with a gentle finger. "How much do you remember now?" he asked.
"It's hard to say," she told him. "The memories are all crashing together like waves against the shore. I don't know what I remember because I haven't thought to remember it yet."
He smiled and held her in the crook of his arm, letting her rest.
"It's so odd," she whispered. "It's like having another lifetime suddenly spring to life in my head. Is this real?" she asked.
"Yes," he told her. "It all happened."
"Why did it end?" she asked.
He looked down at her and carefully brushed a few errant hairs from her eyes. "It was my fault," he told her. "I wasn't careful enough. I got lazy."
"What do you mean?"
His voice was warm and gentle. "One day, you woke up. Neither one of us expected it, so I didn't prepare. I guess the sudden shock of leaving one world and reentering another caused your memory of that world to be erased."
"I think I remember now," she whispered. "We were having breakfast and...The world faded in front of my eyes. The next thing I remember is looking out over Earth, and having the feeling that I just lost something."
He nodded. "When it happened, the shock sent me sprawling from your mind. By the time I was aware of what had happened, you were down on the planet. I had to search for you."
"You found me," she told him. "You kept your promise. You promised me that you'd never leave me, and you kept it."