Disclaimer: Don't you just love that word? "Disclaimer"...a way to separate one's self from blame while still taking credit. This appeals to my more my more carefree and blame-fleeing side. Anyway, I am in no way affiliated with Pioneer or any others who own Tenchi, nor have I been, and probably never will be. Too bad about that....and now, without too much further ado, I present chapter two of my fic. Please enjoy, review, and if at any time you feel the need to be refreshed, the snack bar and restrooms are located there. ^_^

Washu carefully inserted the 2 gems into place on the makeshift headset she had just assembled. "Now this should boost your link enough to let you project a presence in Ryoko's mindscape as strong as her own. That will allow you to do battle with Kagato. The rest is up to you."

"Is there anything that could go wrong?"

"Well, this isn't as efficient as if Ryoko were wearing the gems, so the power output might not be sufficient. If that were the case, your neural patterns would be stuck in Ryoko's body, or deleted altogether. But both of them are fairly remote chances. There's a good sixty-five percent chance that you won't notice any side effects."

"Well that's reassuring," said Tenchi, looking anything but reassured.

"Just concentrate on her mindscape. I'll be monitoring things on this end."

"Wish me luck." Tenchi focused his mind solely on Ryoko's. He noticed that the bubble encircling Ryoko had become transparent after she lost the two gems. Just transparent enough, in fact, to see Kagato kicking Ryoko.

Tenchi's eyes narrowed. He focused his Jurai energy into a single ball and released it toward the energy sphere surrounding Ryoko. Tenchi's attack punched a hole big enough to walk through on both sides of the shield.

"What the--" Kagato's exclamation was cut short as Tenchi followed his blast through the shield and delivered a Jurai powered punch to Kagato's jaw, knocking the bigger man out of the bubble.

"Ryoko, are you okay?" Tenchi's gaze was filled with a concern Ryoko rarely found there. Despite the severity of the situation, she couldn't resist jumping up and kissing him. It only lasted a moment, but when Ryoko broke the kiss it looked as if Tenchi's brain was starved for oxygen. He seemed to not quite be able to get his bearings.

"Whoa..." was the first thing Tenchi could think to say.

"Get him, Tenchi."

After that kiss, Tenchi had some trouble wrenching his attention back the battle. Nevertheless, his attention was forcefully drawn back to Kagato as an energy blast narrowly missed him.

Tenchi jumped out of now porous energy bubble and faced Kagato. A thin line of green was running from the older man's mouth where Tenchi had hit him. Tenchi-ken's blade sprang to life.

Kagato's wore an obvious expression of disgust as he looked at the young man. "I don't know how you got in here, boy, but I'll make sure you don't get out again."

"Shove it." Tenchi remembered what had happened the last time he had challenged Kagato in this fashion. The older man had stopped his sword effortlessly, and Tenchi had been forced to bring up the Lighthawk wings to destroy him. But he wouldn't make the same mistakes this time. Katsuhito had taught him how to control the master key, how to use it to harness his hidden Jurai power. Tenchi rubbed the ring that Tsunami had given him and was immediately clad in Juraian armor.

Kagato growled and disappeared.

"What?" Tenchi looked around in a panic, then realized too late that Kagato was behind him. He heard an energy sword moving toward him. Tenchi powered down Tenchi-ken and used it to erect an energy barrier behind him. He spun around to face his opponent.

There was a swishing sound and suddenly Kagato was knocked back, his sword gone. Tenchi looked to his left. "Ryoko?"

The cyan haired woman smiled at him. "You didn't think I was going to let you do this alone, did you?"

Tenchi shrugged and once again took up a fighting stance facing Kagato. Ryoko stood beside him, sword at the ready. Tenchi's aura began to expand.

Kagato rose to his feet and considered them. "I hate to do this, really I do, but you leave me no choice." This said, he began removing his clothing.

"What the hell?!" Ryoko cried, aiming a kick at his head. "We don't want to see that!"

"You won't have to." As his clothing fell away, he revealed...nothing. No trace of the man could be seen. They both fell silent, the only audible sound being that of Kagato's cape whispering as it fell to the ground.

Tenchi and Ryoko unconsciously backed toward each other, both glancing around uneasily.

And then the barrage began.

* * *

Washu reclined on her pillow, another immediately floating in to cushion her back. She took a hand full of popcorn from the bag next to her and crunched on it contentedly. She was quite glad she had been possessed of the foresight to hook up her giant-screen holo-projector to the apparatus that was projecting Tenchi's brain waves into Ryoko.

However, being the greatest and most prominent genius in the universe, it would not be proper to merely watch as Tenchi and Ryoko bravely batted against Kagato. Nay, she was at this very moment typing up a summary and marketing strategy for this headset with her spare hand. Multi-tasking had always been a specialty of hers.

"...revolutionize the field of interrogation as we know it. Using specially designed synaptic enhancers, it utilizes previously unrecorded frequencies of light rays to project the thoughts of one being into the mind of another. No longer will cross-species telepsychosis be a risk of mind probing! With this oh my God!! Where did he go???"

Her hand unconsciously followed her train of thought as she watched Kagato, projected as hundreds of feet tall, simply vanish. With the enhanced detail, the fear and confusion on the faces of Tenchi and her daughter were painfully obvious. Equally obvious was their helplessness as they were pummeled from all sides by their invisible foe.

Washu abandoned her synopsis of the headset and ran to check the item itself, as well as the wearer. Tenchi was violently convulsing, his spasms exactly matching the timing of Kagato's hits. She quickly scanned him.

"Lord Tenchi....oh my...." Tenchi's nervous system was registering the beating. His heart beat and adrenaline levels were rising at an alarming rate. Blood was being siphoned off from unnecessary areas of the body and flooding his muscles. More alarmingly, his brain was simulating the effects of the blows to his body, slowly disabling him.

*If this doesn't stop soon,* Washu realized, *Tenchi will die!*

* * *

Blow after blow rained down upon Tenchi. The speed and power were astonishing, and over and over he barely had time to raise Tenchi-ken before another blow threw his balance off. He looked over and saw Ryoko receiving a similar thrashing. "Ryoko!" he cried out, the Lighthawk energy beginning to flood his body. He held out his hands, but was knocked to the ground before he could summon the wings. An invisible kick to the diaphragm left him unable to breathe, and the power quickly abandoned him.

Ryoko, for her part, was using what meager defensive skills she possessed to erect a force shield around her. It did very little, if anything at all. She crouched into a defensive position, her arms covering her more vital areas. Hearing her name called, she turned and saw Tenchi, apparently trying to summon the wings. She gasped as he was knocked to the ground and Tenchi-ken slid out of his grasp. He doubled over in pain, gasping.

She lunged for the sword hilt, her fingers closing upon the carved wood. She raised her hand to throw it back to Tenchi when blue electricity engulfed her, eliciting another scream as her flesh smoked. The weapon dropped from her hand, clattering on the ground, as she did likewise.

Kagato's clothing rose from the ground and garbed its unseen host. The face was the last aspect to appear, flickering into being like a holo-projection. The gray haired man smiled sardonically at the two moaning, prostrate forms.

* * *

Washu cursed violently in all the languages she knew. Millennia ago she had faced a similar problem, when a virus had taken over an android of her creation and razed half of the Science Academy. All of its anti-virus software had been crushed, her hacking skills had not been sufficient to rout the bug, and there was no time for other options. The android had to be destroyed. She knew Ryoko's destructive potential vastly surpassed that of the android, and she couldn't allow Kagato to control that force. A solitary tear flowed down her cheek.

*Dammit, Tenchi, get up. Get up!*

* * *

Tenchi gagged as he tried to force air into his lungs. They seemed unwilling, though his body screamed at him, a resonating cry for the necessity of oxygen. Finally he coughed and sucked in a cool mouthful of the precious gas. More quickly followed, and his thought process was slowly turned away from the need for air and toward the need to deal with Kagato.

He raised his eyes, more out of instinct than purpose, and once again beheld the gray haired man.

"Bastard!" spat Tenchi, forcing himself to stand.

"Really, is vulgarity such a necessity?" Kagato asked in a condescending tone, his cruel smile remaining.

Tenchi looked around frantically for his weapon. He spotted it next to Ryoko, and ran toward it. *Gotta beat him.....gotta kill him....my responsibility...* His hand wrapped around the hilt, and the blade sprang once again from its resting place.

Kagato raised his hand, summoning his own blade, a shimmering green against Tenchi's bright blue.

The Jurain boy screamed and charged at the older man, slashing blindly. The swords collided, parted, collided again. Defense was lost to Tenchi; his only focus was destruction. The best defense, he reminded himself, was often a superior offense. And his wager was paying off handsomely. Kagato was driven back and back, his sword searing the air around Tenchi, but never touching him. The cruel grin Kagato had worn was absent from the older man's countenance, but was slowly spreading on the youth's face. In what was left of his conscious mind, he was aware of a desire to kill, to tear, to vivisect.

His emotions reached fever pitch; he must protect Ryoko. He felt the energy once again moving through his body, and his hands stretched to allow it an outlet.

"Lighthawk wings, Tenchi?" Kagato laughed. "A very good idea, as a single blow will destroy my program...but it will also destroy Ryoko's mind."

Tenchi hesitated for a moment.

"Oh, yes, didn't you realize? The offensive power of those wings is incredible. They can destroy almost anything tangible, and in this situation, a mindscape is very tangible."

The youth struggled to comprehend: he had almost killed Ryoko, with the intention of saving her.

"And now, my dear boy," Kagato continued, discreetly forming a second sword behind his back, "you will pay for your indecision."

Tenchi-ken's blade cut a swath in the air, easily blocking Kagato's primary blade, but Tenchi was completely unprepared for the secondary blade, which severed his left arm just above the elbow, cauterizing the wound on contact. Tenchi stared dumbly at the stump.

Kagato's swords came down in a parallel arc, aiming at the boy's head. Tenchi brought up his blade with all the speed and strength he could muster, pushing it, willing it to stop Kagato's advancing weapons. The sound of energy hitting energy exploded into the air, and the gray haired man's swords did indeed stop, for a moment. But slowly, inexorably, they bore down upon Tenchi, and he was unable to summon the strength to stop them. He could feel their heat against his skin, and he could hear Kagato laughing, laughing....

Then the pressure stopped. His sword sliced through the now yielding air, for the older man's blades had disappeared. Kagato's hands had gone to his throat, where Ryoko's arm was wrapped around it, cutting off his air.

"Kagato sure knew how to make a life-like program," she quipped. "It even responds to a lack of air." She nodded to Tenchi.

The young man approached Kagato, whose lips were now blue-tinged. "For all you did," were the last words Tenchi uttered before his sword swung at the older man, cutting him in half. And again. And again. And yet again.

Ryoko coldly surveyed what remained of Kagato, then spat on it. The pieces slowly shimmered, then dispersed into the air. The imprisoning bubble followed suit, and the surrounding mindscape faded from gray to a bright white once more. She glanced up at the sharp clattering sound of Tenchi-ken slipping from its master's fingers to the ground.

"Tenchi!" she cried, closing the short distance between them. "Tenchi..." her eyes rested on his stump of an arm.

"Are you alright Ryoko?" She looked up, once again finding the concern for her well-being in his eyes.

"Of course I'm alright, but your arm--"

"Then it was worth it." His remaining arm slid around her waist and pulled her toward him. His head brushed the side of hers, his lips lowering to her ear. "Ryoko," he whispered, "I...I lo--"

"Sorry to break up the romantic moment," came Washu's voice from all around. The couple jumped visibly.

"Jeeze, Washu! What's the big idea?!" Ryoko's ire was obvious.

Tenchi's hand went to the back of his head in the familiar motion. "Wow, Washu, you really scared us there," he said with a good-natured laugh.

"Well, as I said, its bad timing, but I felt Ryoko ought to know that when Kagato was killed...again...our mental link was reestablished. And since she didn't put up her mental barrier, that means I could feel and hear everything she did!" the diminutive genius laughed.

"You...you...." Ryoko sputtered in her anger. "You little voyeur you!"

"Ooh, doing things you wouldn't want your mommy seeing?"

"Shut up! You little freak!"

Washu's laughter surrounded them, encouraging Ryoko's embarrassment to plunge further into anger. Tenchi stood by, hand on his head, laughing nervously.

"Heh heh...oh boy..." he murmured to himself.

Washu's laughter eventually subsided, leaving Ryoko's growling the most prominent noise. "Anyway, Tenchi," Washu continued, "I thought it might be time to pull you out of Ryoko's head. Unless she had other plans..."

"LISTEN, MOM," the cyan haired one began, putting extra sarcastic inflection on the second word.

"Hey, that sounds like a good idea!" cried Tenchi, hoping to distract Ryoko till he was safely out of harm's way.

"Okay, now let me see..." the small, red haired woman mumbled incomprehensibly to herself. "Neural stabilizing field...accelerator...intersecting field...readjust that...ok. Now we just push this little button, and you're back in your own...uh-oh..."