Disclaimer: I'm going to have four original characters of mine make a "special appearance" in this chapter, so plagiarists beware! These four characters are my idea, so no stealing!! Oh, for some clarity on who they are, check out my "Nagi: The Lonely Path of the Hunter" story, and if you're feeling ambitious, "Shift: Code of Honor" and "The Life and Times of Hot Ice Hilda". Of course, there are a few "spoilers" scattered about in this chapter for those of you who have not read one of the aforementioned stories or another, so tread carefully (aw, g'wan, you know you wanna read it!).

XIII: No Need for a Gathering!

Nanette Gizra Stohk stood on a hill, looking over the vast, ruined landscape that was her real home. There was a soft but bitter wind that played with her hair as she surmised the damaged land, and a quiet howling of voices that whistled occasionally with the dead breeze. The suffering of her people was deep and long, and each and every day they cried out for a savior--any savior would do, really. As the heir to this barren land, it was up to her and her sister to set things right in this world. There would be a reconstruction effort--Nanette had sworn it--but before a single stone could be replaced, one final thread had to be sewn up.

The only problem was, this thread was about as easy to find as… well, a piece of string. Nobody knew where Pandemonium was, or else they didn't want to know, and even if there had been a person like that around, Nanette had yet to find them. Of course, she had just learned of her parents' plight, so it wasn't like this was old news. Nanette and her sister Christina had already been exposed to a large amount of their past in a small amount of time, and it was only through the support of each other that they were able to stay sane.

Nanette began growing attached to Tenchi and Ayeka soon after reuniting with her sister. She found the princess and the young boy to be quite good friends, and as reliable as a cabbit. She liked Ayeka for her inner strength, and her organization and rationalization, and her ever-present ability to straighten out even the most complex problems. Tenchi was very similar to Ayeka, in that he also made so many things easier to understand. Plus, he was so nice and warm and polite that she couldn't help but love him. Nanette now understood why the two girls pined for him so, and couldn't blame them at all.

Thinking of Tenchi spurned a few nostalgic flashbacks in Nanette's own mind. She thought back to her youth, which seemed eons ago, and back to her first big mission--and her first (and only) love. She had been so young at the time, probably no more than about fifteen or sixteen, but she was already well-versed in the art of hunting and fighting. She was not famous back then, nor was she quite as lethal, and personally, Nanette considered her younger self a bit of an airhead and a moron.

How she missed those times. She had been so carefree and innocent back then--heck, she was actually frightened of Ryoko--and didn't know the troubles of loneliness or the hardships of death and destruction. That first mission not only gave her fame a jump-start, it also bore her the only romantic interest she had ever encountered in her life. On the planet she visited, she met a kind and simple young monk named Judah, who was living there as a kind of student. He had been stricken with amnesia, and thus could not remember his true identity, but he had told Nanette that it didn't matter. From the way he was built (Judah was obviously a fighter long before he stepped foot on the planet, and he had a scar over his right eye), Judah theorized that he might've been a criminal in his past, so the amnesia was actually a good thing. Nanette had spent many months on that planet, even after her job was over, and the two grew to love each other.

Unfortunately, Nanette's desire to protect the one she loved took precedence over her feelings. There were many evils out in the universe, and only a few people bold enough to stand up against them, and Nanette was cursed to join their ranks. She gave a tearful goodbye to Judah while he slept, and left the planet to search for her place in life. That had been the last time she saw him, and that was many years ago. Now, Nanette's hunt for Ryoko had came to an end. She had retired from hunting and was already moving up in life thanks to Washu's investigations. For perhaps the first time since she became a bounty hunter, Nanette was free to live a normal life.

A sigh escaped her mouth as she looked over the land of Tg. By this time, Judah would've either forgotten about her, found another woman to be with, or perhaps both. Even if he remembered who she was, odds were that he probably wasn't looking for her, and even if he was, he'd never be able to find her on Tg, no matter how hard he searched. But Nanette was not a hopeless woman, and even though she knew better than to keep watching and waiting, she continued all the same.

"Hello, Nanette." Nanette turned around to see who had disturbed her, and smiled as she saw Ayeka. The princess really was becoming a good friend to the former huntress, and although she could never boast the bond that Ayeka shared with Christina, Nanette still liked to think that she was close to the younger woman.

"Lady Ayeka," replied the crimson-eyed woman. "What pleasure do I owe this encounter?"

"Just the pleasure of being with a friend," she sighed. Ayeka stood next to Nanette, and soon both ladies were peering out into the distant land. The sky was a reddish color, although Holtz had said that at one point it was as blue as Earth's, and most of the land took a crimson hue to it as well. Holtz also claimed that the color of the environment was due to the massive wars that had plagued the planet in the wake of Pandemonium, and none of the planet's former beauty had recovered since.

"You know," said Nanette suddenly, "in a way, this really isn't Pandemonium's fault."

"I know what you mean," whispered the princess. "These people were not attacked by any outside force, they were wiped out from within. It's a very depressing situation… a planet being torn apart by its own people… So many lives, needlessly lost, and so many more suffering because of it. The people of Tg have brought this all upon themselves, and in a dark sense, it's just another reminder of how horrible we people can become."

"But there's also hope," replied Nanette. "…Hope… that the people of this world, and others, can learn from their mistakes and continue on. These people might have committed many atrocities, but they can amend their ways just as easily. Rebuilding a planet from the ground up never caused anyone any inner turmoil or grief."

"Indeed…" The two ladies stood in silence yet again, and for the longest time, they stood together as they contemplated things. Ayeka's mind mostly wandered onto the terrors of war and the insane weakness of humanity, and how bloodthirsty people could become; Nanette had everything on her mind.

Why did I have to think of him at a time like this? she wondered. Let's face it, I'm never gonna see him again. I can search the entire universe and I'll never find him. I should just concentrate on reviving this world and stopping that demon.

"Something on your mind?" asked Ayeka as she noticed the taller woman's turmoil. Nanette, who didn't realize that her thoughts were so obvious that they affected her physically, merely showed her friend a weak smile.

"Yeah… but you wouldn't believe me if I told you." A pause.

"All right. I'll respect your privacy." Ayeka bowed her head, and excused herself from Nanette's presence. Meanwhile, the turquoise-haired woman continued staring at the empty fields of Tg, and took a deep breath as she finally realized that she was home.

An hour later, Nanette heard Tenchi calling out her name. She was still on that hill, staring into the horizon, but was glad for the interruption. A lot was going on back at that manor, and Nanette had wanted some private time to think about things. She had even refused the company of her sister (although now she was regretting that decision), but by now she was hungry for the presence of another person. Her wish was granted when Tenchi came running up to her in a frenzy, and even though it was a little amusing to watch the young man sprint, the look on his face told Nanette that something important was up.

"Ayeka… said… you'd be here…" he wheezed. Tenchi had to lean over and catch his breath, which meant that Nanette had to do most of the talking, unless she wanted to wait.

"Yeah… so, what's up? Is something going on?" A pause that couldn't be helped filled the air as Tenchi gained his wind back.

"…Well, yes, actually," he told her. "While you and Ryok--I mean, Christina were away, we got some more visitors. They all came in a big ship together, and although we didn't recognize any of them, they said that they were looking for you. Do you know who they might be?"

"I have no idea," admitted Nanette flatly. "Frankly, Tenchi, it could be some person I hunted down who wants revenge, or maybe one of my millions of enemies. I don't think they're friendly, whoever they are."

"Well, they seem okay to me. They didn't sound angry, just eager to see you."

"Then I'd really better be careful," she smirked. "If somebody wants to see me that badly, they probably want me to do a job."

"I'm not too sure about that," he said mysteriously. "…C'mon, you'd better go and see for yourself. Don't worry, none of us will let anything happen to you." Nanette smiled and thanked Tenchi for his guarantee, and decided to follow the young man just to see what the deal was. Odds are, one of her premonitions was probably correct. Nanette had very few real friends in the galaxy, and only those accompanying her knew exactly where she was.

But when Nanette returned to the manor, she found neither foe nor employers waiting for her. Instead, four people sat there in the main lobby, all of them waiting for something--apparently her. Nanette couldn't tell who two of them were, but the other two…

A sharp gasp came from her mouth as she recognized them. One of them was a tall, dark-skinned woman with exotic clothes and hot-pink hair; the other was a well-built young man with wild dark hair, a single dark eye, and one eye colored white like a crystal. A single tear came out of both of her eyes, one for each person, and the two she recognized cried and smiled joyfully as they too remembered her. With a sudden shout, Nanette ran forth and embraced them both in a big hug.

"Delilah!" she cried. "And… and……… Judah…" Weeping uncontrollably, the three people held each other close, and smiled sweetly at their old friend. The male's grin was especially big, and the dark-skinned woman was cut out of the embrace briefly as he and Nanette held each other. Nanette only wanted to breathe him in as she evoked long-buried memories, but his eyes forcibly gazed into hers with a thousand years' worth of love and loss.

"…It's good to finally see you again, Nanette," he whispered, and Nanette broke down at the sound of his voice.

"…Judah… I……" Finding words to fit the situation was impossible, but that was okay since all they really did was hold each other. The one who had been removed from the group hug, the dark-skinned woman named Delilah, merely crossed her arms and smiled at the reunited lovers.

"Tis' a heartfelt scene," she sighed, "and one that I feel thou deserveth, dear friends. Shalt I ask thine acquaintances to give thee private time, so thou mayest spend thine time to thyself?"

"Would you?" sniffled the dark-haired man as he looked in her direction. Delilah bowed her head gracefully and took a single look at the other two people. Without a word, they both stood up to leave, and all but one of them left Nanette and Judah to reunite. This one was a muscular woman, bearing a strong resemblance to Judah save for her shorter mop of hair. She even had a scar, but hers was over her left eye.

"So, this is Nanette, eh?" Her voice was rough, like Nanette's had been at one point, but there was a definite gentle air to it as well; Delilah's had been fluent and eloquent. Judah nodded at the woman and smiled.

"Yeah… this is her. This is the woman I've been searching for." The other woman smiled, and stepped forth to extend her hand.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you at long last," she said. "My name is Mabel Leah Fionn, and I'm Joshua's twin sister."

"Joshua?" blurted Nanette. "Twin sister?" She gave her love a confused look, and he let out a long sigh.

"Sorry, Nanette," he said. "It looks like I have a lot of explaining to do. Mabel, would you mind joining Delilah and Ace? I need to have a moment alone."

"Sure," she shrugged, then left to join the other two she had came with. Nanette's confused face didn't diminish in the least.

"Judah… what's going on? Why did that woman call you Joshua?" Judah took a deep breath, gave Nanette one last hug, and set her down in a nearby chair.

"Listen, Nanette," he began, "a lot of things have been going on since we parted ways--some of it's been so crazy that I don't even know where to start!! I'm gonna tell you everything, but you're gonna have to promise to listen to me all the way. All your questions will be answered, trust me." A pause.

"All right. I understand. Hey, it'll be nice to hear your voice after all this time."

"Thanks," he smiled. Another big breath of air escaped his mouth, and he prepared himself for the long story. "Whew, where should I even begin…?"

----------

Meanwhile, Tenchi, Holtz, Ayeka, Christina, and Washu were acquainting themselves with the three others who had came with Judah. There was obviously Delilah and Mabel, and the third person was a man who went by the name of Ace. Tenchi had the privilege of learning that these four people had came from a completely different galaxy, one known as the Pyrrhmeion Galaxy, and they had traveled all this way just so Judah could reunite with Nanette.

Delilah, the exotically-dressed dark-skinned woman, was Nanette's very first partner in the field of bounty hunting. She was an eloquent woman from a world where all the inhabitants had a special bond with birds of all kinds, herself having a previous connection with a raven, and a current connection with a griffin. She and Nanette had ran together in a very risky and very productive mission, and the two had became friends during that time. They never heard of each other until that very hour, so of course Nanette's reaction to seeing her friend was one of ecstasy.

The woman calling herself Judah's twin sister had the physical and biological evidence to back it up. Not only did she resemble her brother, she had the papers and the memories to back it up. Her name was Mabel Fionn, and she stated that Judah's true identity was Joshua Horace Fionn, her older brother and an expert in the Fenrir-style of martial arts (which was why they were both in such good shape). Mabel had a history as colorful as Nanette's own, and just a little similar as well.

A little earlier in her life, Mabel had been one of the most renowned bounty hunters in her galaxy. She had went by the name of "Firehands Fenrir", and anyone that got smacked by her fists would soon figure out why. She had retired from her position not too long ago, after her final mission pitted her against a maniacal and power-hungry overlord. She had reunited with her brother well before that mission, however, and the two spent nearly every waking hour catching up on lost time.

Unbeknownst to Nanette, Judah--or Joshua, as he was really called--had not been a criminal in his past, but a very normal, average young man, who just happened to be very skilled in martial arts. Somewhere around the time of their 23rd year, Joshua and Mabel, along with a large group of friends, had been attacked by the now-extinct Blackrose pirates. They had fought back, of course, but out of all the people in that struggle, they were the only ones to survive. Both siblings had received their scars in that fight (Mabel herself gave Blackrose a scar across his throat), and while Mabel was able to recover, it seemed as if Joshua did not (though it was later discovered that he had been placed in cryogenic freezing, which would account for his amnesia).

Mabel and Delilah teamed up to help the clueless young man gain his memory back, and eventually he did. But while regaining his previous life, Joshua also had the desire to reunite with the woman he fell in love with while studying as a monk, and so the three of them went on a quest to locate her. This required the aid of a machine very similar to the one that Washu had used to determine Nanette's heritage, so they were able to find which planet she lived on.

The fourth addition to the team seemed the most useless, but in fact it was his skills and know-how that got the others through most of their problems. Delilah introduced him as Diamond Clubb Spadehart, or "Ace" as people called him. He was a very polite and proper gentleman, the kind that could rub elbows with royalty, but he was also an extremely skilled gambler who owned a very large branch of casinos. He and Delilah had been an item in their youth, but through some means he offended her, and the two never saw each other again until fate saw otherwise.

Through much trial and ordeal, Ace and Delilah reunited, and "the Gentlemanly Gambler" (as he was also called) proposed marriage not too long afterwards. She accepted, naturally, and the two had plans for a future wedding. When he wasn't charming people, Ace's unique brand of fighting, espionage, interrogation, and spying got his friends out of a hundred jams, and since he was still fairly young, he had lots of years left to continue his services.

"Whew!" whistled Tenchi after hearing their stories. "Holy cow! That's a lot to absorb in one sitting!"

"We're used to it," smiled Mabel lazily. "We're all used to living in the fast lane, but I think nowadays we've earned ourselves a rest. Yeah, Josh's found his love, and Delilah and Ace have found each other too. She's got herself a new bird-partner, and if I play my cards right--no pun intended, Ace--then I just might get married myself in the future."

"It's just one great big happy family," smiled Ace. "But enough about us. Please, we would like to hear your stories as well. Surely there is much that you will be able to indulge upon us."

"Oh, you have no idea!" chuckled Washu darkly.

----------

"…And, that's the way things have been," concluded Joshua. "It's been one crazy ride ever since I 'woke up', if you know what I mean, but I guess I've gotten used to it."

"Amazing," muttered Nanette, and she meant it. "That's just too incredible… So, lemme get this straight: you're not a criminal, but you are a martial artist. That woman I saw earlier was your twin sister, and she helped you regain your memory. You then went up against this guy named, uh……"

"Grady Dorina."

"Right, Grady Dorina. You went up against him, and you were successful in defeating him and all his plans. After that, things settled down to the point where everyone could retire and go on to other pursuits, or continue their original line of work--or, like you, search for what was lost."

"It seems as if you've gotten everything," he smiled. "Yeah, it's been a tough road for all of us, but luckily, I have a lot of good friends, and Mabel's been my guardian angel ever since she was born." Nanette smiled at the dark-haired man, and leaned forward to cuddle in his grasp. He eagerly held her tough body in his strong arms, and breathed a scent that was never lost to him.

"Your hair smells exactly the same as it did when we first met," he muttered. Nanette smiled and sighed.

"Yeah… But we've both changed a lot."

"Yeah… Hey, you never told me what happened to you! How in the worlds did you manage to come from Kiz Baldoon to this place?" Nanette sighed deeply as the name of her "second" home world reached her ears, and she laid her head on his shoulder as she thought back to those days.

"Do you really wanna know?"

"I've got time," he shrugged. Joshua smiled, and began stroking her beautiful icy-blue hair. "I have all the time in the world, Nanette…"

----------

"………Aye, tis' a strange tale you weave…"

"Yeah… it's about as strange as ours, eh?"

"Definitely…" Delilah, Mabel, and Ace all agreed that the story Tenchi and the others had told was quite unbelievable and strange, but since they all testified that it was true, the plausibility of it was no longer in question. Its strangeness was still sky-high, but then again, truth always was stranger than fiction…

"So that's where we stand now," said Tenchi after getting a drink of water. "We're out looking for that dragon-demon, and then we'll probably help with the reconstruction effort here. Nanette and Christina deserve to have a home as much as anybody else, so I think it would be best if we stayed around to help out." Behind him, Christina thanked him by playfully punching him in the shoulder.

"What about you?" he asked. They all snorted.

"I believe Delilah and myself shall be wed," said Ace as he held her hand. "Then, we shall just leave our fate to chance, as per usual."

"Old habits die hard," commented Delilah wryly. "Thou hast yet to abandon thy goddess of luck."

"You're my goddess of luck now, milady," smiled the gambler. Delilah grinned and grew rosy, and the two might've made a scene if Mabel didn't interfere.

"Anyway," she coughed, "I figure that I'll probably go to live somewhere, and hopefully I'll find a good clean honest job. I'm still in pretty good shape, but I wouldn't wanna live as a bounty hunter anymore. Maybe I'll give parenting a shot. As for your dragon, I think I might actually be able to help."

"Really?" squeaked Washu, and everyone's face flew open in surprise.

"Yeah… I've been on this one planet that's supposed to be populated by terrible creatures. Don't ask me how I know this, but there's a very strong chance that your white dragon is living there."

"For real????? Where is it?!?!"

"I really don't wanna go back there," she mumbled fearfully, "but with you all coming along, I guess I can endure it. It's a place somewhere between this galaxy and ours, a planet existing in a formless pocket of space called the Drift. The planet's name is Harut."

----------

"…Harut?" The name sounded foreboding, even to battle-hardened Nanette. Joshua had been reluctant to talk about it as well, so the place must've been terrible.

"Yeah… A really dark, desolate world where the worst kinds of life cause all the chaos they want. I've been there once before, with Mabel, but that one time was enough for me. Let's just say that I don't recommend going there without a crack team of specialists."

"…I see," muttered Nanette. "…Well, what if you have Tenchi, Ayeka, Sasami, Washu, two Galaxy Police officers, two guardians of Jurai, Holtz, my sister, you, Mabel, Delilah, Ace, and myself there? You think that'd constitute as a team of specialists?"

"I see your point," chuckled Joshua, who had been given very specific detail about each of the ones that Nanette had listed off. "Okay, I guess you're right. If we all go in there, there won't be a demon there who could stand up to all of us. But do you really wanna go so soon?" Nanette paused, sighed, and stared right into his black and white eyes. The determination on her face was proof enough that she wanted to leave, but just in case her love couldn't read her face, she spoke for him.

"Yes," she said, "I do."

Next chapter: Was that a little overwhelming? Well it's nothing--nothing, I tell you--compared to what will happen next time! Tenchi, Ayeka, Christina, Nanette, and all their friends make a journey to Harut to settle the score with the legendary archdemon Pandemonium! It's a showdown like none other, and who knows--there might be a casualty on the good guy's side! Next chapter, "No Need for Pandemonium!" It's unquestionably action-packed!!