To be a Princess, Day 9 - Attacked
The three of them left the planet Anterlan, but not their troubles. "Tenchi! Ryo-Ohki has a number of ships closing in!" Ryoko was tense as they had just left one group behind, but there was a fleet of ships closing in on them.
Tenchi looked at the display that Ryoko was pointing to and dread filled him. "Can we get back home?" After a quick look she sadly shook her head and he could see that this fleet stood between them and Earth. "Where else can we go?"
"There's not a lot around here, we're a good distance from Earth and we'll have to go right through them to get there."
"Are there any other planets close, one that would help us?"
She laughed at the idea, "you expect an unknown planet to allow the Space Pirate Ryoko and her devil ship Ryo-Ohki to be welcomed anywhere after..." She let her comment stop there as it did not seem good to bring it up.
"Ryoko, how far away is Jurai?"
"WHAT!?"
"I'm prince there, right? So maybe they'll help us? At least give us sanctuary..." He looked at her and could see hurt, fear and tension appearing in her eyes. She finally had Ryo-Ohki look for Jurai and she told him that they were three days away. "Ok, head there as fast as possible." She nodded and had her ship head there. She was not sure how Jurai would feel having her re-appear after she nearly destroyed them over seven hundred years ago.
Their pursuers did not relent and tried to follow them, but thankfully the Ryo-Ohki was faster. That did not stop them from firing several times on them though. Tenchi refused to fight back as he thought that would hurt their cause more than just running. The cabbit turned spaceship did sustain a few hits, but they were not serious, as Ryoko did not seem worried about it. However his mind was concerned with what he would do upon arriving at Jurai. He knew her past and he could tell she was worried about returning to there of all places.
Tenchi placed an arm around her while looking down at the house. He knew when he got a chance he needed to call the resort and pay for it and he hoped it did not cause them any additional problems. She was very nervous to start, and even more so as they approached, and he tried many times to think of what to say or what to do, but it just did not seem to help. What he did next was to show her that he cared and wanted her to be safe, and it showed her how much trust he had. Stepping away from her he retrieved his sword hilt, as she looked at him wide-eyed.
Closing his eyes Tenchi prayed that prayer that he said so many years ago, but this time both of the gems remaining on the hilt glowed and returned to her. She stood there feeling of the gem now in her right wrist and at the base of her neck. At first she was unable to move from bewilderment at the suddenness of this. Finally though she spoke, her voice shaky, "W... Why?"
"I want you to be safe when we get there, I, I don't know what will happen but I want you to know I trust you." Looking into her eyes he reached out and touched her cheek, "My Angel, you are important to me, and I want you to be as safe as possible." She nodded then threw herself into his arms kissing him madly.
When she finally stopped she looked at him with her cocky smile, "Sit down, and watch this." He did as she asked and sat in the command chair as she looked over the gems in her wrists again. "Damn this feels good." Concentrating on Ryo-Ohki she gave the cabbit a surge of power. Ryo-Ohki responded with a loud cry before she lurched forward. Tenchi could feel the sudden speed increase and he wondered how fast they were moving as he had never felt that much of a speed change before. Looking over her shoulder she gave him a feral smile, "I just cut a day off the travel time, no one has ever been able to keep up with this speed before."
Looking at the radar display he saw the other ships falling behind rapidly, even though some were able to speed up a little, that little bit did them no good. Tenchi just smiled at her while she laughed madly at their vain attempts to keep up. After their initial power boost Ryoko told Ryo-Ohki to let her know when in communication range with Jurai. In the mean time she wanted to get closer to him. Smiling seductively she approached Tenchi, who just held up his arms inviting her to join him.
It was while she rested against him that she felt her mother's presence, or rather her mental presence. "Ryoko?"
"What? How can you reach me here?"
"Did he give you back the gems?"
Ryoko sighed; as usual her question was unanswered. "Yes he did."
"I thought so, Katsuhito suddenly felt weak a moment ago and Funaho told him that the gems are not in the master key."
Ryoko sat up in his lap, "Why would that matter?"
Her move startled him, "Ryoko, What's wrong?"
"He says that the gems were giving Funaho power, and were the only things keeping him alive. I'm sorry, but he has maybe a month or so left." Washu's voice for once was very sad, almost like she was crying as she spoke. At hearing that she too began to cry.
"Ryoko? What's wrong?" Tenchi tried to console her, but he was not sure what had just happened or even what was wrong. Instead of trying to speak she thought of him and then Washu. Her gems began to glow, but as they did he felt a pain in the front of his head. Before he could even bring up his hand he heard a voice.
"Ryoko, what are you doing?" The voice was familiar, and it took less than a second to realize who it was.
"Washu?"
"Tenchi?"
"What's going on here? Why are you in my head?"
"Ryoko must be using the gems to make a bridge for us, I don't have long so here goes. Since you gave the gems back to Ryoko, Katsuhito is dying."
"What!"
"He said they were the things keeping him alive. Don't worry about him, he says he has lived for too many years." He could hear her voice crack as if she was crying. It then donned on him that she was sad, she would miss him.
"How long does he have? Does any one else know? How's Ayeka handling this?"
"Whoa! Stop, you're going to fast!"
"Sorry."
"Ok he has a few months and only us two know over here, and you two know there so far."
"Ok, I don't think She should..." His voice was cut off from Ryoko.
"Ahhhh, damn it! That hurts." Washu's presence was gone now and it was just Tenchi and Ryoko again.
He placed his hand against her head and pulled her into him to kiss her head. "Thanks." She just nodded and fell against him. Pulling both of them into her head so that they could talk mentally was something that she had never done before. She taxed herself a little too much and was soon sleeping against him. But he could not seem to rest. Because of him, his grandfather was dying. All he had wanted was to make sure she stayed safe, he did not want this to happen.
So lost in thought was he that he almost missed Ryo-Ohki screeching. "Huh what is it?" A screen appeared before him with a dark-haired man in a Jurai uniform, but even though he looked just a few years younger than his dad Tenchi could tell by his eyes that he was much older. He only got this impression when around his grandfather though.
"This is Captain Kinata of Jurai, Identify yourself."
"I am Tenchi Masaki on my way to Jurai." He looked at the officer hoping that would be enough.
"I order you to turn around at once, that ship is not allowed near Jurai. If you do not stop this instant you will be destroyed."
"What!?" He searched his mind frantically for something, then told him, "I say again I am Prince Tenchi Masaki of the Jurai Royal family. I am on my way to see my great-grandmother Funaho."
"Oh, in that case." He turned to his men, "Fire when ready." Tenchi's eyes bulged out of his head at what he just heard. He didn't believe me?
He watched as the ships came closer and powered up their weapons. "NO! Stop!" Tenchi closed his eyes expecting to be destroyed, but all he heard was a startled gasp from the captain. Opening his eyes he could see that the ships had not fired and were stopped. The captain was looking wide-eyed at him and following the captain's gaze he saw his sword hilt glowing. He remembered a time that seemed long ago when something similar had happened on Ayeka's tree-ship. Grinning he grabbed the hilt, and turned his eyes to the captain. "I order you to stand down and back off."
The captain was thrown about on his ship as it began to move. When he stood back up he had a new respect for Tenchi. "I see that you have the master key, and only those of royal blood may hold it. So I accept your claim. However I request that you board our ship as the one you are on is not allowed to fly on Jurai." Tenchi could see in his eyes a little fear, but he was not able at the moment to decide why. However if he was on a Jurai vessel then they would not be attacked and they could arrive safely to Jurai, so after some careful thought he accepted.
"Ryo-Ohki can you put us on the Jurai ship?" With a happy cry from her the three of them soon appeared on the Jurai ship, and he was still holding Ryoko. The captain approached and suddenly recognized whom he carried.
"Your majesty, would you like me to take her away from you?"
"Don't you even think it." He looked up to see anger burning in his prince's eyes. Nodding quickly he apologized, which Tenchi accepted. "We need a room, we are tired and a lot has happened recently. Oh and I need to place a call to a hotel on Anterlan and send a message to Earth."
"Very well sir I can show you to a room, and I can set up a COM link to Anterlan, but Earth is another story. You see they don't..."
"Ok then I need to send a message to the GP who can get it to a GP on Earth."
"There's a GP on... Very well. I will link them to your room. Follow me."
Tenchi was surprised that the room was as large as it was, definitely not as big as their chateau or even his house, but it was a large room. As ordered Tenchi was able to place a call to the hotel and he was able to thank the one that gave them a warning and then he apologized for running off with the chateau. Of coarse they made him pay for it, but he had intended to buy it in the first place so he made no qualms about it. For the GP it was entirely different though. Her superior had hundreds of questions for him and Tenchi tried to answer as many as he could before cutting him off.
"I'm sorry sir, but my time is limited. I need you to send a message to Mihoshi on Earth that I would like her to bring the two princesses to Jurai please."
"Oh, OK, very well it will be done."
"Thank you and I need them here in two days or less so this is urgent ok?"
"Yes sir." And with that the conversation ended. Tenchi fell back into a chair and contemplated everything that had happened in the past few days. And he wondered if it ever would return to normal. However he had a growing sense that it was about to turn much worse. Slowly he trudged to the bed where Ryoko and her cabbit already slept. Looking into the crystal on Ryo-Ohki's forehead he could see a small outline of a building. "We have to get that out of her soon, it sounds uncomfortable." He pulled back the covers and slipped into bed beside Ryoko, who rolled over moving an arm across his chest. Snuggling in close to her he too went to sleep, as he felt sure that they would not have much peace in the near future.