Guess what? My last chapter got a whopping 0 reviews!! Zip, zilch, negatory-nada! So, if nobodies readin, then I'm not writing. Therefore this will be the last chapter unless I get some reviews...
"WASHU!" Kagato yelled as he telaported into the living room. He laid Ryoko's limp body on the couch as the household began to filter in.
"Oh my God!" Kiyone yelled as she descended the stairs and ran to where Ryoko laid. She instantly put pressure over the makeshift bandage Kagato had wrapped around her wrist. "Mihoshi, take Sasami and go get some water." She started giving orders, it was what she was trained to do, keep people alive.
Ayeka came in next from her room, rushing down the stairs to Kiyone's aid. "Where is Washu!" She fluttered around nervously by Kiyone's side. "Ryoko don't you leave me, if you leave me I wont have any competition for Tenchi." She said, tears streaming down her face.
Kagato stepped back from the commotion and to the lab's door as Tenchi bounded down the stairs. "WASHU!" He yelled banging on the door to the lab, for the first time noticing the fresh blood on his hands.
Washu burst from her lab with what looked like a sports band in her hand. She had seen it all through her link with her daughter. "Move." She said sternly as Kiyone backed away. Quickly she slid the band over Ryoko's wound, and upon pressing a small button in the seam, exhaled a sigh of relief.
"Is she going to be okay?" Sasami asked peeking over the couch at Ryoko's sleeping form.
"She'll be fine. The machine is repairing the wound now but we should get her to my lab."
Washu's news fell on Tenchi's deaf ears. "You Monster! What did you do to her!" Tenchi yelled turning to Kagato. He was swinging before he knew what was happening. Kagato was still looking at his blood soaked hands and was blindsided by the punch.
He fell back, bloody hand touching the side of his face where Tenchi had hit leaving a line of crimson. Suddenly all the years of fighting kicked in. In one swift reflex that was too fast for anyone watching to even follow, Kagato moved forward and struck Tenchi in the chest with the palm of his hand. Sending the young prince flying back through the air and crashing through the paper door that connected the living room with the kitchen.
The house was silent now, six pairs of eyes trained on him. He looked at them; they all looked so scared, like he was an animal out of control about to kill them all. Then he looked at Sasami, she was terrified, the one that had allowed him in without a second thought was now wondering why he had hurt her friend.
Kagato closed his eyes, turned and walked out the door. He was a monster, and he vowed never to hurt them again.
~~~:*:~~~
Lord Katsuhito opened his eyes and broke his meditation. Looking around the interior of the small shrine he watched as the last ashes from the incense fell. Raising from his cushion he stretched his old muscles.
"My my, I have much to do." The old man talked to himself as he walked out into the cool night. "My visitor should be arriving anytime now."
~~~:*:~~~
Washu glanced over her shoulder at her daughter again. She was fine, nothing a little laser surgery and plasma transfusion didn't fix, but it was best to keep her unconscious until the blood was completely replaced.
She sighed, she new it was no ones fault, just an accident, but she new Kagato blamed himself. Not just by his disappearance, but the fact that she couldn't pick up a trace of him. Cameras, heat sensors, motion detectors, with all her security measures around the Misaki house nothing could find him.
"He doesn't want to be found." She turned her attention back to the computer. Tokimi was no where to be found either. That wasn't big news though, the GP only accurately monitored about 12% of the known universe. She sighed again. Why did this bunch have to make a big deal out of everything? She understood why Tenchi did what he did, but he was lucky Kagato didn't kill him. *No, he wouldn't have. Kagato knows Tenchi is the only one that can beat Tokimi.*
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato walked in the night. He had walked straight out of the house and into the woods, path illuminated only by the soft glow of the moon. It felt like hours since he left the house, but it had probably been no longer than a few minutes.
"I wonder where this goes?" He asked himself as he came out of the woods onto a set of stone steps leading farther up the mountain. He turned to climb them; still wondering what prevented him from just leaving. Tokimi of course. But would he want to stay even if she wasn't coming? There was Ryoko... *No! I have to stop thinking that. She is not the Ryoko I once knew.* A small visible sign of weakness fell from his eye and traced its way down his cheek as the silent man continued to climb the stone steps.
~~~:*:~~~
"Kiyone?" Sasami asked as she sat next to the green haired woman on the couch.
"Yes, what is it?" Kiyone asked still sitting down where she fell after the night's events.
"Ryoko is going to be okay, isn't she?" The little girl asked with tears in her eyes.
Kiyone stood dumfounded for a moment. Ever since Tsunami revealed she was merging with the little girl the house began to treat her like an adult. "Yes Sasami, Washu said Ryoko is fine, she just needs to sleep a little while."
Sasami sniffled again, wiping her nose on her sleeve, an action that reminded the galaxy police officer of a certain space pirate, not a crown princess. "Good."
"You really like Ryoko don't you." Kiyone asked.
"Yes," Sasami looked up at her. "She's my friend."
"Really," Kiyone said faking a sense of disbelief. "How?"
"Well, she always looks after me. And every once in a while she will take me flying with her."
"You mean in Ryo-ohki?"
"No silly, I mean in the air. She lets me ride on her back, and sometimes lets me fall, but she always catches me." Sasami's eyes got worried. "Please Kiyone don't tell Ayeka, I don't think she would like it."
Kiyone rubbed her hand in the little girl's hair. "Don't worry about it, it'll be our secret."
"Good."
"Tell you what, why don't we go make some cookies for Ryoko. I'm sure she will be hungry after she wakes up."
"Good idea Kiyone!" Sasami giggled and hopped up from the couch. "Kiyone?"
"Yes?"
"Can we bake some for Kagato?"
"I don't see why not, but why?"
"Well, he was upset about what happened."
"How do you know." Kiyone hadn't even noticed him; she was too preoccupied with Ryoko. The more she thought about it, she doubted anyone noticed him until he hit Tenchi.
"I don't know," Sasami twisted her foot on the ground. "I just felt it."
Kiyone smiled again. "Okay, we had better get started."
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato came to the end of the stairs that opened out to a small Shinto shrine and accompanying house.
"Hello there." A friendly voice called out as an old man walked into view. At first Kagato thought it strange that he hadn't felt his presence, but then he remembered whom the old priest really was.
"Uh.. hello." He abandoned his usually careful use of words to just what he was feeling at the time.
"The shrine usually closes around seven you know."
"I was not aware of that, Yosho."
Katsuhito looked at his visitor a moment before pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Himm, I cannot say that it is good to see you again Kagato, but I am glad you wish to help us defeat Tokimi."
"How did you know all that?"
"Meditation allows you to see thing which are out of eyesight." The former Son of Jurai said tapping a finger to his forehead.
"So you know about me, I mean all about me?"
"Yes I know your past. But that is not the reason you have come up here tonight is it."
"I am leaving. I will help you fight Tokimi but I will not go back to that house."
"You mean back to Ryoko?" Katsuhito raised an eyebrow.
Kagato said nothing, he had forgotten that Yosho had been born with a gift to read into people. "Yes, I was a fool to stay there in the first place."
"Come with me. I think a little walk will help you clear your mind. I find that when people talk in the same place the air around them becomes old and stale."
Both men walked past the shrine and along another stone pathway. Kagato pondered the significance of the path. It was built long before the inhabitants of this planet knew anything of modern machinery. Which meant that not only was each stone cut by hand, but that each one was carried up this mountain and placed in its exact spot. Yosho was like a living Buddha, everything he said or did always served as a purpose of enlightenment. It must have taken him years just to complete this stairway.
"Watch your step." Katsuhito warned as he walked around a segment of ruined pathway.
"What happened to this section of the stairs?" Kagato asked, it looked like it had been exploded.
"Oh," Katsuhito said faking surprise. "That was damaged when you returned for Ryoko."
Kagato understood. When he had returned for Ryoko he hadn't even noticed the pathway. How easily he had destroyed something that had weathered hundreds of years.
"You need to stop running and hiding."
"Running?" Kagato asked surprised at the old man's accusation. "I am not going anywhere. As I told you before I will stay and face Tokimi."
"I did not mean from Tokimi." Katsuhito replied as the two continued their journey up the stairs. "I meant from them. You are hiding your past from them, squandering it away so you yourself do not have to see it."
"Yosho, I do not think that any one of them wants to see my past."
"There you are wrong. They need to see it, to fully understand that is was not your fault."
"But they understand Tokimi controlled me."
"Not really." Katsuhito stopped walking. "Do you know where this place is?"
Kagato looked around a moment at what appeared to be a stone cave. "No."
Katsuhito lit a torch that was leaning against the stone wall and illuminated the area. "This is the entrance of the cave I imprisoned Ryoko in." The Priest held the torch in front of him and entered the cave pushing open the rusty iron gates, with Kagato following.
"When I fought her I absorbed one of her Gems into the Master Key. It was then that I saw why she was doing the things she was."
"You mean me?"
"Yes, so rather than kill her, I decided to put her to rest here so you nor Tokimi could find her." Katsuhito paused as the two reached the cold holding chamber where the demon of the Misaki Shrine had dwelled. "But when Tenchi awakened her, she told me that she was not asleep down here. For a thousand years she suffered in this freezing hell. You see Kagato, had she not told me I would have never understood her anger."
Kagato understood now. He could not expect the others to forgive or understand him without letting them know what had happened. Like the stairway he had endured much in his life, and he needed to let people know so they could truly see him. "Thank you, I know what I need to tell them now." Kagato turned and began to walk back out of the cave. "Yosho?"
"Yes?"
"Do not feel guilty for imprisoning her down here. I am the one that forced you to do so." The former slave said over his shoulder.
Katsuhito nodded. "You need to go now."
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato stood in the corner of the room watching Ryoko's sleeping form. He had asked Washu to let him speak with her, he knew she was the most effected by his presence. And by the same token, he was the most effected by hers.
She looked so peaceful lying there, like she was truly happy. But he sighed, when she woke up her eyes would turn to hate at the first sight of him. As if on cue Ryoko shuffled in her sleep and mumbled something incoherent. Washu had removed the repair band a few moments earlier and left him alone. Slowly he walked to the bed and watched her eyes crack open.
"Your awake." He said wanting to announce his presence before it would have startled her.
"Uggh." Ryoko growled as she realized the man beside her was not her beloved Tenchi.
"I guess your head hurts as much as mine did?"
"What happened?"
"It was an accident Ryoko, Washu told us you had no intention of hurting yourself and I overreacted." Kagato sighed. "It seems I cannot exist without causing something pain."
"What, like calling me defective, or threaten turning me into a rock again." She hissed as she rubbed her temples.
"I'm sorry but I did not say those things."
"Bullshit, if you didn't then who tormented me all those years?"
"Tokimi."
"What, don't try and blame this on her. Its not like she made you treat me like a piece of crap!" She yelled from her resting-place still not making eye contact.
"Actually it is."
Ryoko set up in the bed. She hated this man with all her heart, but something made her listen.
"You grew up quickly Yoko." Kagato sat by her bed. "I treated you like a princess, I gave you everything you wanted." Kagato chuckled. "When you were five the interior of Souja was painted with white clouds and flying pigs. I'm still not sure where you got that from."
Ryoko blushed; she could picture it, blue walls with the occasional pig with white wings dipping in and out of the white clouds. *Why now? Why am I seeing this now?*
~*Well I might have a little something to do with that?*~
~*MOM! YOU KNEW?!?!*~
~*Just listen to what he has to say. Bye bye now.*~
"But in just nineteen short years you reached maturity and stopped growing, and you wont age a day until you die. Things were different then. Although you may not believe it we were, friends. Tokimi rarely forced us to do anything. That was until Yosho."
"Yosho? What did he have to do with it?" Ryoko asked. Here she was, listing to the last person in the universe who she thought would tell her about her past.
"He tapped into the Jurai power. Tokimi was furious, she wanted me to send you to kill him."
"Yea I remember that!" It was one of the few memories she had. Him chasing her all the way to Earth, and then sealing her in that cave.
"I refused her order."
"What?"
"I refused. Yosho was way too powerful for you, Tokimi was willing to sacrifice you so I could study his fighting styles and then destroy him." Kagato looked at the floor. "That's when she took complete control of me."
Ryoko watched as Kagato clinched a fist in his lap and seemed to struggle with his words.
"After that I can only remember things she wanted me to see. It was like someone was driving my body, when she let me I could only see and hear what was going on. I tried, but could never control what I was doing."
"Like what?" She asked quietly.
Images flashed in his mind. It was a scene that had repeated over and over in his head for years. There was Ryoko, and himself placing the third gem in her neck. All three of the gems lit up with power, and with a burst of electricity all of the cyan haired woman's memories were erased. He stepped closer to her; she stood looking around like a scared rabbit, trying to understand where she was.
"Where... where am I?" She asked meekly. But no sooner than the words escaped her mouth Kagato slapped her to the ground.
"Shut up! You are a defective piece of waste!" He yelled.
Her face was already starting to swell as fresh blood came from her lip. "Wh... why?"
He reached down and grabbed her neck lifting her up into the air. "I thought I told you to shut up?" His voice was cold and emotionless. He raised his hand to strike her again and as always the image faded, accompanied by her scream.
Kagato shook the vision out of his head and looked at her still setting up on the bed. "Visions, visions punishing me for disobeying her. Visions of me hurting you."
"You mean all I can remember is the times Tokimi was controlling you?"
"Yes, and she continued to control me until last week."
"Kagato I..."
"Please do not call me that." He seemed to visibly wince at the reference.
"Kagato?"
"Yes, that was the name she gave me after she took control. I am no more Kagato than you are the demon of the Misaki shrine. Call me Hanshin, it was my name back when we were both free."
"Hanshin?"
"Yes, or Han for short, whichever you prefer."
"Han, what... what exactly did we share back then."
Kagato looked up at her. "I loved you."
Ryoko blushed and looked down at her lap. "Was the feeling mutual?"
"Yes, you wanted to fight Yosho so I wouldn't have to. But when I told Tokimi no, she saw our feelings for each other. She could not have a slave without 100% devotion to her. I suspect that is why she had me beat you, to insure you retained no feelings for me."
"How long have you been her slave?"
"Over half a million years."
"Ka.. Han, I didn't know." Ryoko hesitantly reached out and covered his hand with hers.
Han looked at her hand, if felt just like it did all those years ago. "How could you of?" Ryoko chuckled halfheartedly. "What?"
"So then, you and I were an item?"
Kagato reached out and held her hand in-between his. "Ryoko, although you have no recollection, it is all still very real to me. I do not expect you to come running back into my arms; in fact I know that will never happen. Tokimi may have separated us, but I will not let her get you, not again."
"I'm sorry, all of a sudden three thousand years doesn't seem so long."
"It was too long Ryoko. And you must believe me that she will not live to see another year."
Ryoko kept looking in his eyes, he seemed gentler now. No, it wasn't him; it was just her view of him. God, how much had she hurt him this past week? He was finally released from half a million years of imprisonment, and she wanted nothing to do with him.
"You need your rest Yoko.. Ryoko." He said releasing his hand and breaking her thoughts. "And I must train. Incase you have forgotten Tokimi is coming, and I have some business with her."
Ryoko watched as the man telaported out of sight. "Yoko..." She said aloud. He called her that twice. Was it that serious, pet names?
"Agrr.." She growled and flopped back onto the bed.
"Awake I see." A cheerful voice sounded that Ryoko didn't need to open her eyes to see who it belonged to.
"You knew?" She asked, not removing her arm from over her eyes.
"Yep." Washu said checking her daughter's wrist.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"They were his memories, I had no right to tell you. Had it not been for Mihoshi somehow getting in the lab," *Despite my security measures.* Washu thought coldly. "And spilling her tea on the control panel it would of never shorted out giving me full access to his brain once I was leaving the forest I implanted in his mind."
"What..." Ryoko raised an eyebrow.
"Never mind." Washu grinned. "Soooo..., want to hear all the juicy details?"
Ryoko stretched and got up off the table. She was dying to know, but knew if she begged Washu would only relish in it more. "Not if you are going to act like a child about it." Ryoko turned to leave the lab.
"Ryoko."
"Hn?"
"It was real," Ryoko was startled by the sensitivity in Washu's tone. "and if I could I would send you back there to feel it for yourself."
...There you go, getting a little juicy hu? REVIEW if you want to see any more! And let me tell you, this one's ending won't be like my others.
"WASHU!" Kagato yelled as he telaported into the living room. He laid Ryoko's limp body on the couch as the household began to filter in.
"Oh my God!" Kiyone yelled as she descended the stairs and ran to where Ryoko laid. She instantly put pressure over the makeshift bandage Kagato had wrapped around her wrist. "Mihoshi, take Sasami and go get some water." She started giving orders, it was what she was trained to do, keep people alive.
Ayeka came in next from her room, rushing down the stairs to Kiyone's aid. "Where is Washu!" She fluttered around nervously by Kiyone's side. "Ryoko don't you leave me, if you leave me I wont have any competition for Tenchi." She said, tears streaming down her face.
Kagato stepped back from the commotion and to the lab's door as Tenchi bounded down the stairs. "WASHU!" He yelled banging on the door to the lab, for the first time noticing the fresh blood on his hands.
Washu burst from her lab with what looked like a sports band in her hand. She had seen it all through her link with her daughter. "Move." She said sternly as Kiyone backed away. Quickly she slid the band over Ryoko's wound, and upon pressing a small button in the seam, exhaled a sigh of relief.
"Is she going to be okay?" Sasami asked peeking over the couch at Ryoko's sleeping form.
"She'll be fine. The machine is repairing the wound now but we should get her to my lab."
Washu's news fell on Tenchi's deaf ears. "You Monster! What did you do to her!" Tenchi yelled turning to Kagato. He was swinging before he knew what was happening. Kagato was still looking at his blood soaked hands and was blindsided by the punch.
He fell back, bloody hand touching the side of his face where Tenchi had hit leaving a line of crimson. Suddenly all the years of fighting kicked in. In one swift reflex that was too fast for anyone watching to even follow, Kagato moved forward and struck Tenchi in the chest with the palm of his hand. Sending the young prince flying back through the air and crashing through the paper door that connected the living room with the kitchen.
The house was silent now, six pairs of eyes trained on him. He looked at them; they all looked so scared, like he was an animal out of control about to kill them all. Then he looked at Sasami, she was terrified, the one that had allowed him in without a second thought was now wondering why he had hurt her friend.
Kagato closed his eyes, turned and walked out the door. He was a monster, and he vowed never to hurt them again.
~~~:*:~~~
Lord Katsuhito opened his eyes and broke his meditation. Looking around the interior of the small shrine he watched as the last ashes from the incense fell. Raising from his cushion he stretched his old muscles.
"My my, I have much to do." The old man talked to himself as he walked out into the cool night. "My visitor should be arriving anytime now."
~~~:*:~~~
Washu glanced over her shoulder at her daughter again. She was fine, nothing a little laser surgery and plasma transfusion didn't fix, but it was best to keep her unconscious until the blood was completely replaced.
She sighed, she new it was no ones fault, just an accident, but she new Kagato blamed himself. Not just by his disappearance, but the fact that she couldn't pick up a trace of him. Cameras, heat sensors, motion detectors, with all her security measures around the Misaki house nothing could find him.
"He doesn't want to be found." She turned her attention back to the computer. Tokimi was no where to be found either. That wasn't big news though, the GP only accurately monitored about 12% of the known universe. She sighed again. Why did this bunch have to make a big deal out of everything? She understood why Tenchi did what he did, but he was lucky Kagato didn't kill him. *No, he wouldn't have. Kagato knows Tenchi is the only one that can beat Tokimi.*
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato walked in the night. He had walked straight out of the house and into the woods, path illuminated only by the soft glow of the moon. It felt like hours since he left the house, but it had probably been no longer than a few minutes.
"I wonder where this goes?" He asked himself as he came out of the woods onto a set of stone steps leading farther up the mountain. He turned to climb them; still wondering what prevented him from just leaving. Tokimi of course. But would he want to stay even if she wasn't coming? There was Ryoko... *No! I have to stop thinking that. She is not the Ryoko I once knew.* A small visible sign of weakness fell from his eye and traced its way down his cheek as the silent man continued to climb the stone steps.
~~~:*:~~~
"Kiyone?" Sasami asked as she sat next to the green haired woman on the couch.
"Yes, what is it?" Kiyone asked still sitting down where she fell after the night's events.
"Ryoko is going to be okay, isn't she?" The little girl asked with tears in her eyes.
Kiyone stood dumfounded for a moment. Ever since Tsunami revealed she was merging with the little girl the house began to treat her like an adult. "Yes Sasami, Washu said Ryoko is fine, she just needs to sleep a little while."
Sasami sniffled again, wiping her nose on her sleeve, an action that reminded the galaxy police officer of a certain space pirate, not a crown princess. "Good."
"You really like Ryoko don't you." Kiyone asked.
"Yes," Sasami looked up at her. "She's my friend."
"Really," Kiyone said faking a sense of disbelief. "How?"
"Well, she always looks after me. And every once in a while she will take me flying with her."
"You mean in Ryo-ohki?"
"No silly, I mean in the air. She lets me ride on her back, and sometimes lets me fall, but she always catches me." Sasami's eyes got worried. "Please Kiyone don't tell Ayeka, I don't think she would like it."
Kiyone rubbed her hand in the little girl's hair. "Don't worry about it, it'll be our secret."
"Good."
"Tell you what, why don't we go make some cookies for Ryoko. I'm sure she will be hungry after she wakes up."
"Good idea Kiyone!" Sasami giggled and hopped up from the couch. "Kiyone?"
"Yes?"
"Can we bake some for Kagato?"
"I don't see why not, but why?"
"Well, he was upset about what happened."
"How do you know." Kiyone hadn't even noticed him; she was too preoccupied with Ryoko. The more she thought about it, she doubted anyone noticed him until he hit Tenchi.
"I don't know," Sasami twisted her foot on the ground. "I just felt it."
Kiyone smiled again. "Okay, we had better get started."
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato came to the end of the stairs that opened out to a small Shinto shrine and accompanying house.
"Hello there." A friendly voice called out as an old man walked into view. At first Kagato thought it strange that he hadn't felt his presence, but then he remembered whom the old priest really was.
"Uh.. hello." He abandoned his usually careful use of words to just what he was feeling at the time.
"The shrine usually closes around seven you know."
"I was not aware of that, Yosho."
Katsuhito looked at his visitor a moment before pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Himm, I cannot say that it is good to see you again Kagato, but I am glad you wish to help us defeat Tokimi."
"How did you know all that?"
"Meditation allows you to see thing which are out of eyesight." The former Son of Jurai said tapping a finger to his forehead.
"So you know about me, I mean all about me?"
"Yes I know your past. But that is not the reason you have come up here tonight is it."
"I am leaving. I will help you fight Tokimi but I will not go back to that house."
"You mean back to Ryoko?" Katsuhito raised an eyebrow.
Kagato said nothing, he had forgotten that Yosho had been born with a gift to read into people. "Yes, I was a fool to stay there in the first place."
"Come with me. I think a little walk will help you clear your mind. I find that when people talk in the same place the air around them becomes old and stale."
Both men walked past the shrine and along another stone pathway. Kagato pondered the significance of the path. It was built long before the inhabitants of this planet knew anything of modern machinery. Which meant that not only was each stone cut by hand, but that each one was carried up this mountain and placed in its exact spot. Yosho was like a living Buddha, everything he said or did always served as a purpose of enlightenment. It must have taken him years just to complete this stairway.
"Watch your step." Katsuhito warned as he walked around a segment of ruined pathway.
"What happened to this section of the stairs?" Kagato asked, it looked like it had been exploded.
"Oh," Katsuhito said faking surprise. "That was damaged when you returned for Ryoko."
Kagato understood. When he had returned for Ryoko he hadn't even noticed the pathway. How easily he had destroyed something that had weathered hundreds of years.
"You need to stop running and hiding."
"Running?" Kagato asked surprised at the old man's accusation. "I am not going anywhere. As I told you before I will stay and face Tokimi."
"I did not mean from Tokimi." Katsuhito replied as the two continued their journey up the stairs. "I meant from them. You are hiding your past from them, squandering it away so you yourself do not have to see it."
"Yosho, I do not think that any one of them wants to see my past."
"There you are wrong. They need to see it, to fully understand that is was not your fault."
"But they understand Tokimi controlled me."
"Not really." Katsuhito stopped walking. "Do you know where this place is?"
Kagato looked around a moment at what appeared to be a stone cave. "No."
Katsuhito lit a torch that was leaning against the stone wall and illuminated the area. "This is the entrance of the cave I imprisoned Ryoko in." The Priest held the torch in front of him and entered the cave pushing open the rusty iron gates, with Kagato following.
"When I fought her I absorbed one of her Gems into the Master Key. It was then that I saw why she was doing the things she was."
"You mean me?"
"Yes, so rather than kill her, I decided to put her to rest here so you nor Tokimi could find her." Katsuhito paused as the two reached the cold holding chamber where the demon of the Misaki Shrine had dwelled. "But when Tenchi awakened her, she told me that she was not asleep down here. For a thousand years she suffered in this freezing hell. You see Kagato, had she not told me I would have never understood her anger."
Kagato understood now. He could not expect the others to forgive or understand him without letting them know what had happened. Like the stairway he had endured much in his life, and he needed to let people know so they could truly see him. "Thank you, I know what I need to tell them now." Kagato turned and began to walk back out of the cave. "Yosho?"
"Yes?"
"Do not feel guilty for imprisoning her down here. I am the one that forced you to do so." The former slave said over his shoulder.
Katsuhito nodded. "You need to go now."
~~~:*:~~~
Kagato stood in the corner of the room watching Ryoko's sleeping form. He had asked Washu to let him speak with her, he knew she was the most effected by his presence. And by the same token, he was the most effected by hers.
She looked so peaceful lying there, like she was truly happy. But he sighed, when she woke up her eyes would turn to hate at the first sight of him. As if on cue Ryoko shuffled in her sleep and mumbled something incoherent. Washu had removed the repair band a few moments earlier and left him alone. Slowly he walked to the bed and watched her eyes crack open.
"Your awake." He said wanting to announce his presence before it would have startled her.
"Uggh." Ryoko growled as she realized the man beside her was not her beloved Tenchi.
"I guess your head hurts as much as mine did?"
"What happened?"
"It was an accident Ryoko, Washu told us you had no intention of hurting yourself and I overreacted." Kagato sighed. "It seems I cannot exist without causing something pain."
"What, like calling me defective, or threaten turning me into a rock again." She hissed as she rubbed her temples.
"I'm sorry but I did not say those things."
"Bullshit, if you didn't then who tormented me all those years?"
"Tokimi."
"What, don't try and blame this on her. Its not like she made you treat me like a piece of crap!" She yelled from her resting-place still not making eye contact.
"Actually it is."
Ryoko set up in the bed. She hated this man with all her heart, but something made her listen.
"You grew up quickly Yoko." Kagato sat by her bed. "I treated you like a princess, I gave you everything you wanted." Kagato chuckled. "When you were five the interior of Souja was painted with white clouds and flying pigs. I'm still not sure where you got that from."
Ryoko blushed; she could picture it, blue walls with the occasional pig with white wings dipping in and out of the white clouds. *Why now? Why am I seeing this now?*
~*Well I might have a little something to do with that?*~
~*MOM! YOU KNEW?!?!*~
~*Just listen to what he has to say. Bye bye now.*~
"But in just nineteen short years you reached maturity and stopped growing, and you wont age a day until you die. Things were different then. Although you may not believe it we were, friends. Tokimi rarely forced us to do anything. That was until Yosho."
"Yosho? What did he have to do with it?" Ryoko asked. Here she was, listing to the last person in the universe who she thought would tell her about her past.
"He tapped into the Jurai power. Tokimi was furious, she wanted me to send you to kill him."
"Yea I remember that!" It was one of the few memories she had. Him chasing her all the way to Earth, and then sealing her in that cave.
"I refused her order."
"What?"
"I refused. Yosho was way too powerful for you, Tokimi was willing to sacrifice you so I could study his fighting styles and then destroy him." Kagato looked at the floor. "That's when she took complete control of me."
Ryoko watched as Kagato clinched a fist in his lap and seemed to struggle with his words.
"After that I can only remember things she wanted me to see. It was like someone was driving my body, when she let me I could only see and hear what was going on. I tried, but could never control what I was doing."
"Like what?" She asked quietly.
Images flashed in his mind. It was a scene that had repeated over and over in his head for years. There was Ryoko, and himself placing the third gem in her neck. All three of the gems lit up with power, and with a burst of electricity all of the cyan haired woman's memories were erased. He stepped closer to her; she stood looking around like a scared rabbit, trying to understand where she was.
"Where... where am I?" She asked meekly. But no sooner than the words escaped her mouth Kagato slapped her to the ground.
"Shut up! You are a defective piece of waste!" He yelled.
Her face was already starting to swell as fresh blood came from her lip. "Wh... why?"
He reached down and grabbed her neck lifting her up into the air. "I thought I told you to shut up?" His voice was cold and emotionless. He raised his hand to strike her again and as always the image faded, accompanied by her scream.
Kagato shook the vision out of his head and looked at her still setting up on the bed. "Visions, visions punishing me for disobeying her. Visions of me hurting you."
"You mean all I can remember is the times Tokimi was controlling you?"
"Yes, and she continued to control me until last week."
"Kagato I..."
"Please do not call me that." He seemed to visibly wince at the reference.
"Kagato?"
"Yes, that was the name she gave me after she took control. I am no more Kagato than you are the demon of the Misaki shrine. Call me Hanshin, it was my name back when we were both free."
"Hanshin?"
"Yes, or Han for short, whichever you prefer."
"Han, what... what exactly did we share back then."
Kagato looked up at her. "I loved you."
Ryoko blushed and looked down at her lap. "Was the feeling mutual?"
"Yes, you wanted to fight Yosho so I wouldn't have to. But when I told Tokimi no, she saw our feelings for each other. She could not have a slave without 100% devotion to her. I suspect that is why she had me beat you, to insure you retained no feelings for me."
"How long have you been her slave?"
"Over half a million years."
"Ka.. Han, I didn't know." Ryoko hesitantly reached out and covered his hand with hers.
Han looked at her hand, if felt just like it did all those years ago. "How could you of?" Ryoko chuckled halfheartedly. "What?"
"So then, you and I were an item?"
Kagato reached out and held her hand in-between his. "Ryoko, although you have no recollection, it is all still very real to me. I do not expect you to come running back into my arms; in fact I know that will never happen. Tokimi may have separated us, but I will not let her get you, not again."
"I'm sorry, all of a sudden three thousand years doesn't seem so long."
"It was too long Ryoko. And you must believe me that she will not live to see another year."
Ryoko kept looking in his eyes, he seemed gentler now. No, it wasn't him; it was just her view of him. God, how much had she hurt him this past week? He was finally released from half a million years of imprisonment, and she wanted nothing to do with him.
"You need your rest Yoko.. Ryoko." He said releasing his hand and breaking her thoughts. "And I must train. Incase you have forgotten Tokimi is coming, and I have some business with her."
Ryoko watched as the man telaported out of sight. "Yoko..." She said aloud. He called her that twice. Was it that serious, pet names?
"Agrr.." She growled and flopped back onto the bed.
"Awake I see." A cheerful voice sounded that Ryoko didn't need to open her eyes to see who it belonged to.
"You knew?" She asked, not removing her arm from over her eyes.
"Yep." Washu said checking her daughter's wrist.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"They were his memories, I had no right to tell you. Had it not been for Mihoshi somehow getting in the lab," *Despite my security measures.* Washu thought coldly. "And spilling her tea on the control panel it would of never shorted out giving me full access to his brain once I was leaving the forest I implanted in his mind."
"What..." Ryoko raised an eyebrow.
"Never mind." Washu grinned. "Soooo..., want to hear all the juicy details?"
Ryoko stretched and got up off the table. She was dying to know, but knew if she begged Washu would only relish in it more. "Not if you are going to act like a child about it." Ryoko turned to leave the lab.
"Ryoko."
"Hn?"
"It was real," Ryoko was startled by the sensitivity in Washu's tone. "and if I could I would send you back there to feel it for yourself."
...There you go, getting a little juicy hu? REVIEW if you want to see any more! And let me tell you, this one's ending won't be like my others.