** Disclaimer: I don't own Tenchi Muyo! or any of the characters created by AIC. I do own the unique plots, writings and original characters that I've created.
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Tenchi Muyo! - Echoes of TwilightA Fan Fiction by Sebayn
Cycle Beta - Chapter 2: Acquiescence
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"Everyone, everyone, in this life knows when the moment is before them. To turn away is simple. To ignore it assures survival. But it is an insult to life, because there can be no redemption, no second chance. Beyond death there's nothing. Just darkness. And cold." -- T.C. McQueen
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In space, there is nothing.
This nothingness is the fiber of the galaxy -- an endless void intermixed with the tangible substance of planets, star clusters, nebulas and the very essence of life itself.
In this void, a massive space station, once the epicenter of life in this region, presides over both the sector and the past dauntingly. Within the hulking beast of a station, Tenchi Masaki finds himself in the midst of countless people. Real people. One of these people, a small blue-skinned girl named Michiko, acts as his guide through this unknown place. Another is the Princess Ayeka Jurai, his long lost friend whom he journeyed here to save.
He frets and worries about the rest of those not in this room but still remembered. Washu, Ryoko, Sasami and Mihoshi. Questions consume him like the black void of space. Soothing in some regards, far neglectful and detrimental in other ways.
Are they all right? Where are they? Can things be made right?
But most of all, what is going on and what the *hell* is up with Ayeka and her dominatrix ensemble?!
Ayeka Jurai sat with legs crossed daintily -- brandishing her bare thighs alluringly. She was seated at a dark marble table suspended by metal that accommodated only two. Her crimson eyes were slanted -- still shining menacingly like a predator's the same -- but now softened slightly with an air of playfulness from being the recipient of so much attention that the occupants of the establishment had unwittingly lavished upon her.
She was the world -- the center of their universes and Ayeka knew it.
So she did the only thing she knew in this situation. The thing she had trained since birth to do -- overlook the stares, the fleeting glances and unbridled curiosity that warmly greeted her entirely and walk over it all as the unworthy maggots and pond scum that they surely were.
Minutes passed until Jorandan suddenly ascended from the shadows of the back room and made his way slowly to the table where Ayeka was with seated. Brisk white robes swirling around him, he peered at her knowingly as each step brought him closer.
Ayeka remained at the table uninterested while gently taking gentle sips from the Aurallian Spiced Tea she had ordered moments ago.
"It has been a long time, my dear."
"I am many things senile old Tensil, but 'your dear' is not one of them," Ayeka intoned dryly while idly gazing at her cup and indirectly refusing to meet his own iron stare. "Tell me Jorandan, has your mind rotted after so many years of aspiring to attain your power to a state where it can only incoherently babble ancient cliques and overdramatic banter? Or, in the process of enslaving yourself and helping sell out your planet and soul did you completely lose it?"
Jorandan's thin smile widened. "Your venomous tongue has become more lethal as the years have trickled away into nothingness." He sighed deeply before drawing up the chair next to her and sitting down. "And to think you were once the crown princess of Jurai. You will pardon this old clique, but I'd be loathe if I didn't point out how the mighty have fallen."
"Ho ho ho!" Ayeka cackled delightedly, "Your eyes seem to also be failing you in your old age. I have more power and freedom now than I've ever had as the first crowned slave to the throne."
Jorandon's eyebrow twitched keenly as he leaned in closer. "Is that so?"
"Look around here you pompous robed windbag," she flung her arms upward and gestured in all directions. "Do you see them?"
Jorandon's red eyes shifted uncomfortably to each side taking in the transfixed patrons of VaBou's establishment.
"Not just them but the whole galaxy!" she half-giggled. "I am known throughout the systems, outposts and the corners of all known space. Not as some aloft princess to be revered and admired from great distances -- but feared and respected for everything I do to spite you and your like."
"Feared and respected wearing an out fit such as that?" he scoffed mockingly, pointing to the shiny black corset she wore. "Only in your dreams...and perhaps certain clubs and marriage training rituals where such things are permissible."
"You're one to talk," she replied while pulling at his thick robes. "White, old Tensil? Now really, where is your taste in fashion with that? One might think you were posing yourself as Tsunami's high cleric."
"Enough," Jornadan spat irritably. "I've had my fill of small talk."
Propping her chin up with both gloved hands, Ayeka yawned. "I thought as much."
"We have business to conclude."
"Indeed, old Tensil, indeed."
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It was then the smell hit Tenchi snapping him back to reality and away from Ayeka's sirenous call. Standing next to him, Michiko remained star struck as the young girl gazed at her idol in awe. Her friend, the gruff old Vaughn, seated next to her, seemed to only have a muted interest in the whole ordeal. Tenchi's nostrils flared once more, inhaling the scent he knew all too well.
Sometimes blatant, other times more subtle, but for those who knew it, detecting it was second nature. More real than a mere premonition. It swept over the entire establishment, forcing Tenchi to take a step back in shock. He knew it intimately, for after having woken up with it hovering in the air for the last ten years. There was no mistaking it for what it was -- for what it meant.
Death.
Tenchi's eyes moved over the two levels of the bar, darting between person to person. Bounty hunters, mercenaries, loners, it was impossible to tell who was who. Everyone was out of their league and all were in danger greater than they could possibly comprehend.
"Michiko," he whispered as he knelt and put both arms on the young child's small shoulders, "something terrible is going to happen. Do you understand me?"
She blinked a few times as she fought an inner battle between who would control her meager attention span. Her crystal blue eyes slowly locked onto Tenchi's before she could nod.
Tenchi's voice remained stern as he spoke, "Do you remember where my ship is at?"
"MmHmm," she acknowledged sheepishly.
Tenchi drew the child in closer to him while he knelt down to bring them face to face. "Use your secret way out of this place. Run to my ship -- don't pause or stop until you get there."
"But Tenchi, what about you and...and Ayeka?" She pronounced the last name reverently with azure eyes gleaming bright. She crossed her arms defiantly over her chest in protest.
Tenchi shook his head violently leaving no room for argument. "Don't worry -- don't worry about me -- don't worry about her." He forced a smile, crude and laced with uncertainty. "If all goes well we'll see each other in a few minutes time. These are Jurians, Michiko, and I can't protect you when the real fireworks start."
Pouting softly, Michiko's shoulders slumped as she took one last half-hearted glance down to the first level where her idol sat. "What will you do?"
"Ayeka won't allow herself to be cornered in here," Tenchi decided. "She always preferred open spaces when it came to fighting battles on her own terms. She'll opt for the main corridor outside -- plenty of space and room for movement there. That's where I'll be waiting."
Michiko appeared to be deep in thought. Seconds ticked away like centuries until she ran up and engulfed Tenchi in the biggest hug her little arms could muster. "You're going to fight the young Jurian with white hair, aren't you?"
He nodded grimly.
"On the main observation deck...there's a bridge directly in front of the main cooridor overlooking the giant viewport," she told Tenchi cautiously, "get up there and you'll have the perfect hiding place to scout the area and get the drop when they they leave VaBou's."
"Thank you Michiko," Tenchi said with his trademark sincerity, which he seemed cursed with more than anything. "I'll do just that. In the meantime, get to my ship. That white haired Jurian has probably called for help...I don't think he would take on Ayeka alone...and it won't be safe for you here any longer."
"You'd take me with you...away from this station?" she asked unsure of what she had just heard.
Tenchi's reply was, again, simplicity itself. "Yes."
It wasn't in his heart to leave her on her own. The little child had acted as guide for the last several hours, an unspoken bond formed he was hesitant to acknowledge in any way. Unlike Eolanda and the other station inhabitants, she didn't have a way out. Tenchi was no tactical expert, but if Jurian reinforcements were close to the area he doubted the rickety old station would be able to survive the onslaught. He wouldn't abandon her to face certain death like that.
He couldn't.
"I don't know what happens from this point out," Tenchi admitted, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. "I'm going to duck out through the front door. They won't be able to see me at the table they're at. My ship will give you shelter regardless of what happens. You can trust in that."
Michiko tried to speak but found she couldn't -- she merely nodded softly. Understanding, Tenchi squeezed her little hand tenderly before shooing her away.
A metal panel opened on the wall at behind Vaughn's foot revealing nothing but an expanse of darkness. The dirty little blue-skinned girl with tangled black hair scampered inside. Piercing blue eyes illuminated the darkness for a brief nano-second before blinking out like the snuffed wick of a candle.
Tenchi closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of air.
Inside him a million different feelings and emotions clashed turbulently with one another. Ayeka was before him but in mortal danger from the forces that had separated their family in the first place. The same forces that had taken the universe and twisted and contorted it until it was in the sad shape Tenchi had found it in.
Silent rage ran beneath still waters.
He was now poised to enter another conflict he had no discernable way out of. He hoped Ayeka would be able to counter-balance Jorandan's masterful grasp of Jurian power. Tenchi's last encounter with the Jurian had impressed upon him how insignificant his fighting prowess truly was in its current state. He had a few moves, but the reality was that the element of surprise was his sole weapon. Once extinguished he was in deep shit.
The Tenchi-ken swung idly from his belt's strong grasp, as adrenaline coursed through his blood heightening his senses. Far beyond his comprehension and recognition, Tenchi Masaki failed to take note of the three jade triangle emblems appearing and disappearing on top his forehead faintly.
As he walked over to the stairs leading to the lower levels of VaBou's, Tenchi paused suddenly grabbing the railing and fixating his attention once more on the quarrelling couple on the ground floor.
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"What do you mean the array has been closed?" Ayeka questioned cautiously.
"Precisely that. It's function was no longer...required...in Sol and as such it has been removed to a more useful location. Quite naturally, you're free to come and go in the system as you please."
Suspicion arched its way onto the woman's face. She despised being taken for a fool but whatever had happened she needed to know.
"I can go back to Earth?"
"Of course," Jorandan beamed. "What's left of it that is."
"What?" Ayeka's asked in a hushed tone. He proceeded to tell her the fate that had befallen Earth. His version. Gutted in some places, the reality quickly became apparent to the shocked woman of what really had transpired. Loopholes are loopholes, in the cruelest possible sense.
"We had a deal!" Ayeka shrieked at the top of her voice, with the glint of murder in her eyes. "A promise...we did everything you asked."
Jorandan leaned back in his chair smugly. "Come, come my dear. Surely you can see that we honored our end of the bargain."
"Honored?" Ayeka gasped. "How dare you patronize me. How dare you..you--"
"Well, it's nice to see even one such as you can be at a loss for words," Jorandan remarked heartily, his smooth young face relaxed into a contented sigh. He seized the moment to grasp her right hand, catching Ayeka off guard, and bringing it up to his mouth for a gentle kiss. Visibly shocked and revolted, Ayeka pulled her hand away from him.
"You bastard," she whispered.
Emotion and energy drained away from Ayeka -- siphoned away -- leaving her distant and detached and a shell of her former vibrant self -- stripped of tears, beyond sobbing or grieving of any kind.
"And we did everything we said we would," Jorandan concluded brightly. "After all, he did perish of natural causes -- technically speaking, of course. It was well in our scope of living a nice full life on that backwater plant without any...outside interference. Such things do happen, no?"
Ayeka just stared off into the cold steel wall.
"The Regent would not see his masters angered -- it does go without saying the Chousin are fickle tempered mistresses. And as they say, a deal is a deal. How were we to know the planet's life span would start recklessly accelerating until the core could take no more? It is nature at its purest and a thing of beauty, in its own way."
Ayeka's fists hit the table shattering the whole surface to pieces with brute force. Shards went flying and the already deafening atmosphere of the bar became all the more silent.
"You bastard!"
The voice was testament to the energy rapidly returning to the scantily-clad woman and accompanied by blinding rage. Energy cackled in both sight and sound -- the fire cascading endlessly in Ayeka's eye shone with unbridled fury.
It occurred to Jorandan that before him sat a woman with nothing further to lose and nothing more to live for.
Even more peculiar was that at that precise moment someone tugged at Jorandan's robes causing him to immediately shift his focus and attention. Looking down, and very irritably at best, he soon discovered the source of the disturbance as he gazed into the wide blue eyes of Michiko.
"Hi!" she greeted in the brightest and friendliest of manners. "I'm Michiko!"
The child-like innocence rang true.
Jorandan's eyebrow instantly arched curiously as he returned to glance at Ayeka, whom had cooled down, at least momentarily with the encroachment of this strange child.
"Leave child," Ayeka growled. "This is no place for you."
The smile on Michiko's lips faded. "But I have some information you might like!"
"Stupid child, I said leave!"
Michiko, not anticipating that her idol would be so aggravated by her presence, was taken aback and completely unsure of how to proceed next.
"Now, now Ayeka, let's see what this adorably filthy germ bag has to say?" Jorandan chimed in, most amused at where this was going. It wasn't his nature to associate with native inhabitants -- nor was it his nature to associate with anyone outside of Jurain high society. But as he saw it, the misery this child's presence was causing his voluptuous companion was a treat in of itself.
Not sure how to meet such a cheerfully coated insult, Michiko began stuttering. "I--I ju..just thought you-you'd like to know where Ten--Tenc-chi was hiding." Out of reflex, she took several steps backwards until she bumped into the wall. Frustrated, the blue skinned girl bit her tongue until she was once again in control of her faculties. She was better than this and she knew it -- she'd make both of them see it! "I know where Tenchi is. I can lead you to him if you want -- for a price." Confidence returning, she took two bold steps forward on her bare little feet.
Silence was her response.
"You know little thing," Jorandan remarked offhand, "it is very impolite to eavesdrop on other people's conversations."
Violent denial erupted from Michiko's lips, "Oh no, sir! He arrived on the station looking for you. You see, we had all seen your ship dock so we knew where to find you. I guided him up from C-dock, it's a lot of levels down..."
Michiko's tale was viciously interrupted when Ayeka's forehand slapped the left side of her face, sending the small child sprawling to the hard floor. The red mark the blow left added insult to injury to the little girl and instantly found herself fighting back tears. I promised myself I'd never cry again...I promised... she thought frantically to herself, recoiling from a blow she never dreamed would be inflicted by her.
"He's here. I'll take you to him," she insisted coolly, getting to her feet as fast as she could.
"Petulant child. If I have to repeat myself once more, I will--"
Curling his hands underneath his chin, Jorandan spoke, "Pray tell, little thing, what do you want?"
Michiko didn't miss a beat. "To go with her." she said confidently, pointing to Ayeka. "That's all."
Jorandan laughed, "That's all? All the things in the galaxy and that's all you want?"
Michiko nodded.
"Do you hear that, Ayeka? She's willing to
give up the location of your deceased beloved just for the chance to travel
with you! The irony is absolutely delicious."
"Enough with the games, Jorandan!" she snapped.
"No -- I'm having fun," the alabaster haired man declared, "let us up the stakes, shall we?"
The look of sheer contempt Ayeka shot him couldn't have been more apparent. Michiko, for her part, seemed once again optimistic and oblivious to the fact a cruel game was now being waged which she was guaranteed to lose. Jorandan, quite naturally, was enjoying himself thoroughly.
"I propose we investigate the information you have prepared for us," he gleaned. "Afterwards, should we determine your honesty; you will be permitted to remain with Ayeka for the rest of however long you both shall live. Although I must warn you, such a life is very fleeting, it is indeed. Should we discover how truly creatively treacherous you are, your life, for our due compensation, is of course forfeit."
Michiko gulped. Ayeka muttered to herself. Jorandan smiled serenely.
The lavender haired pirate clenched both her fists tightly, causing the latex material of her elbow-length gloves to squeak quietly under stress. She was humiliated, no, not after coming to understand the meaning of the word decades ago. Truth be told, she wasn't particularly surprised either. Just enraged for hoping against the obvious. Every woman had her limit -- and she had crossed that threshold years ago.
For that reason, and more, Ayeka striked. In mere milliseconds Jorandan found himself encompassed by countless miniature guardians pulsating with raw energy. The successive shocks that bolted through his entire body were lethal to anyone, save those trained in the Jurian arts.
Jorandan screamed out in agony as the energy lashed out Ayeka's vengeance. Concentrating heavily, Ayeka honed in her attack and contracted the tight field of miniature guardians like a vice, until at least it would give no more. She watched contentedly as he withered in pain before drawing both arms back and closing her eyes sharply. Focusing, she released the field while propelling herself forward, effectively freeing Jorandan, and unleashing a devastating physical blow enhanced by her Jurian power, hurdling the lithe man through the dense metallic wall and leaving him reeling.
Now behind her, she arched her neck to one side and scowled at Michiko. The girl found herself encased in a static electrical field by Ayeka and tossed effortlessly to the front of the store, like a gerbil tumbling in a transparent plastic ball, to where the main bar stood.
The spacious room was once more silent save for the faint music playing in the background. Around her, curious eyes nodded their approval of Ayeka's tactics while others scoffed at Jorandan's half-conscious form implanted in the far east wall.
But it was too easy -- far too easy -- and Ayeka knew it before the thought had fully materialized.
Despair filled the room immediately as though the emotion had become a real, tangible substance and blanketed all corners of the room. From both levels of VaBou's Bar, shrieks and screams rose up in pure horror as realization dawned on everyone.
Twelve robed figures in black slate filed into the bar soundlessly bearing wooden power staves, contorted and black in every curve, raised over each's right shoulder. In the center of each robe cascaded a long red blotch of cloth on both front and back stained in blood red but with intricate, sloppy -- twisted -- markings etched out in an even denser combination of black and red. Each wore an oni mask, a dark crimson shade, eclipsing the face and serving as a cryptic skeletal insight to the eerie red light that bathed out from both eyes sockets.
There were no distinguishing marks or features by which one could tell them apart, except the gray hair. It varied with some wearing it up in a crest, or tied low and falling over the back.
Ayeka turned to confront the new combatants only to have the color drain from her face and gasp escape her supple lips.
"Imperators."
Flanked by shadows, they approached and fanned out laying claim to strategic positions. Ayeka sent a powerful energy bolt flying, hitting one of the dark figures square in the head, but afflicting no damage or even phasing the creature in the slightest. The robed men encircled her with staves pointed menacingly close to her.
She was surrounded.
Ayeka cursed under her breath -- knowing she could do nothing. Knowing that her fight was over.
From behind her, three hollow claps rang out. Ayeka watched frustratingly as Jorandan brushed himself off and walked through the line of Imperators that encircled her. His robes were singed, his cheeks charred but his sickly serene smile was once more planted on his lips. "You put on a nice show...in more ways than you know, Ayeka."
Resigned to her fate, Ayeka smiled back and shook her head lightly. "Twelve Imperators -- going for overkill again, are we?"
Scratching his chin, he quipped, "Better overdone than undercooked."
Slowly, the lithe man began pacing around her between the meager moat between her and the dark robed warriors. Taunting her -- daring her to do what he knew she wanted so badly. But Jorandan valued the virtue of patience. He knew time and pressure would be all it would take to push her over that final line, from which there was no return.
"Bring me the child."
Parting from his brethren, a lone Imperator broke the circle and headed straight toward the main bar. Michiko remained curled in the corner, hugging her knees together.
She was trembling violently.
The wraith-like figure approached her silently. "Please...don't touch me...please don't touch me..." she chanted in a voice no higher than a whisper. She looked and blinked sporadically but couldn't comprehend what was now happening.
As the gloved hand of the Imperator reached out for her, all at once she found herself in the static force field sphere Ayeka had used to move her away. The bubble raised her into the air and gently toward the circle where Ayeka stood dead still.
Ayeka's posture, as it always had been, was nothing less than pristine. The Imperators energized their staves in response -- dark energy cackling at each of their cruel tips and begging to be released. She smiled graciously at the irritated Jurian in front of her. "I was only doing what you asked," she said innocently.
Scowling, Jorandan briskly resumed his cyclical pacing. Curiosity was evident in his eyes.
"How did you know his name was Tenchi?" he wondered out loud, looking at Michiko. "Neither of us mentioned the once in our conversation."
"I told her," someone from behind explained, just as scores of people began utilizing this distraction and fleeing the bar. The voice was firm -- calm even -- not fueled by anger and what was spoken was a statement of fact and nothing more.
All eyes raced to trace the source of the voice. All heads and eyes turned around to discover a dark man standing before them only feet away. Though his eyes were masked due to the dim light, three triangles burned brightly from on top his forehead.
To his side, the blade of the master key ignited sweeping away any further doubt as to the man's identity.
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Moments before.
"That little runt just sold me out," Tenchi remarked more to himself than to Vaughn, "Just like that."
"It happens," the older man admitted.
Betrayal was a curious sensation. Denial and confusion were common elements of it, at least initially. Tenchi watched Michiko as she made her case, or rather, her sales pitch. The impoverished little girl who had nothing, no family, and from the looks of it no real friends, had taken the precious, yet preposterous, knowledge of his survival and was now bartering for it on the open market.
He didn't know what to feel. If anything, the sickening feeling that encroached in his gut felt more like disappointment. Tenchi had promised to take her with him. Didn't she believe him?
It was beside the point now, he realized, for better or worse she had chosen.
All at once Ayeka had attacked. Her fluid motions and graceful maneuvers were proof of how powerful she truly was -- and how much more lethal she had become since he had known the kimono-clad princess years before. Just as abruptly as the battle at started, the sudden appearance of the dark robed figures had effectively ended it.
Tenchi watched as the situation went from already inexplicably bad, to even worse. Ayeka's most powerful attack hadn't slowed down the caliginous creatures. The blast hadn't triggered a force field. It hadn't been repelled by some telekinetic countermeasure. It was absorbed as though it had never hit.
She had lost. She had all but surrendered while the grisly Imperators surrounding her.
I know those masks...where I have I seen them before?
The answer came to him quickly, disturbing him even more than he already was. For now, it was a pointless matter, but one he would ponder at a more convenient time. If ever.
He marveled at the sheer absurdity that once more the forces of the cosmos were again stacked squarely against him. Even more remarkably, he found himself taking slowly but surely taking steps down the sequestered staircase.
An angry hiss halted his descent. He turned to find Vaughn staring at him angrily.
"What do you think your doing?"
Tenchi thought for a moment before responding. "Acting on instinct."
Vaughn shook his head. "There's a back panel over here, you can get out with me. Everyone down there has sealed their fates," he explained. "Just the luck of the draw."
"I can't," he admitted. The mere thought revolted him. Yes, descending down those steps would probably mean certain death. He knew that -- he recognized it. But he also knew turning away and running would be an insult to everything he had endured and sacrificed. Cowards way out? Yes. Did it ensure survival? Probably. Did he deserve an easy out? Most assuredly.
"Don't throw your life away."
Tenchi had heard this string of words before. He remembered vividly the man who had spoken them to him. He had come this far. Turning back now, no matter the odds, would render himself pointless and devoid. And like the boy of twenty years ago, he was walking into the unknown and ready to take on anything that stood in his way.
"Sorry," he offered Vaughn apologetically with a bittersweet frown. "You better run before it's too late for you."
"You can't win."
"It doesn't matter"
No longer did Vaughn look at him with muddled interest, but now sparkling curiosity and confusion at what his ears were hearing. Before him stood a man in his prime. Below him stood death and a girl that betrayed him. It didn't click -- and it was more that fact than anything else that intrigued him to no ends.
"Here," he said, tossing Tenchi a thin rectangular device. "This will do you more good than it'll do me."
Tenchi caught it in midair, running his hands over its smooth surface. A single flat yellow button was built into the dark gray base. "What is it?"
"High yield explosive," he explained as he got up from his chair, tapped the back wall and waited for a medium sized panel to open. ''Oh," he said, turning back from the secret exit, "the thing's busted -- it can only set itself for a fifteen minute countdown once you hit the button."
Tenchi's immediately smashed the yellow activation mechanism with his thumb. A beep sounded as a tiny translucent LCD appeared on the device's surface -- counting down the time.
Vaughn looked back at him questioningly, a smile threatening his lips. "Enjoy yourself."
Tenchi grinned darkly. "I intend to."
Moments later Vaughn was gone. The side panel slid back concealing the old man's unobtrusive departure.
Unhooking the Tenchi-ken from his belt, he put it down on the table along with the device. Instinctively, he made a fist with his right hand and squeezed tightly as his mind raced. Tenchi brought up the hand and looked at it questioningly. The wooden ring, circled in obsidian in the center, glimmered back at him.
It was his connection to the ship -- something he could feel in the back of his mind. It was also still his armor ring that the goddess Tsunami had given him.
A quick turn activated the armor function.
Instantaneously thick cobalt-blue liquid erupted from both sides of the ring and spread over his body forming the base of the armor. When it was over, Tenchi found himself encased in a seamless garment comprised entirely of the now-solid dark blue liquid. Intricate amber patterns swirled around his wrists, two sky-blue halos wrapped around his shoulders. The familiar Jurian neck guards still dotted the base of his neck and were accompanied by the same ornate headband.
Some annoyances never changed.
Still, overall Tenchi decided he was more comfortable in Washu's incarnation of his armor ring. The old suit was too...bizarre for his tastes and seemed to restrict movement. The new version had no such aversions.
Gathering his sword and the explosive from the face of the table, Tenchi silently descended the stairs in reserved haste.
Once more he found that there was no turning back.
Act on instinct, Tenchi recanted.
Instinct, and a few surprises, were all he had to go on.
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"You look surprised."
The line of Imperators parted as six broke the circle to form dual lines flanking Tenchi's left and right. Jorandan stood mouth agape slightly as he stared vehemently, refusing to believe the truth his eyes told him.
Michiko looked at him sheepishly, forcing a bleak smile as she peeked out from behind the lavender haired woman's boots.
"Yo..you..." Jorandan stuttered, but Tenchi quickly silenced him.
"Wasn't talking to you," Tenchi explained. "I was talking to her."
Tenchi's gaze swept from Jorandan and settled knowingly onto Ayeka Jurai. Their eyes met -- crimson to cinnamon -- a reunion over twenty years in coming. Both stared for what seemed like a lifetime but were in actuality only seconds.
Tenchi smiled at her. Faced by overwhelming opposition and confronted with what could be his own demise; it was the only thing that seemed right. The smile conveyed unmistakable realities to the former princess, realities which Tenchi would sooner die than abandon; among them hope and love, but most of all a curiously demented sense of bemusement for catching her off guard over something that had occurred twice already in their relationship before -- him returning from the dead.
In response to his tacit teasing she said nothing.
Much to her horror, Ayeka Jurai, the most dreaded outlaw in known space, the most independent symbol of femininity and beacon of worship and respect for countless in the galaxy, found herself blushing.
When Tenchi's smile had at last faded from his lips, he struck without warning.
The blue blade of the master key spun widely from Tenchi's finger tips, flying through the air and cutting cleanly through the first four Imperators resigned to it's path. Each crumpled to the ground emitting a ghastly moan that never seemed originate from the beast's own mouths.
Yards away, the Tenchi-ken hit the wall with a thunderous crack, deactivated and fell to the floor with a clamor.
Tenchi wasted no time. Immediately he launched himself onto Jorandan and hit him with a punch, catapulting the young-looking Jurian to the hard metal plating of the floor with a loud thud. Shock at last rescinded from his system as it dawned upon him that someone was repeatedly striking his face with potently violent strength.
A shock of Jurian energy repulsed Tenchi, sending him tumbling several feet away.
Tenchi rose to his feet grinning.
Trying to catch his breath, Jorandan did his best to return the gesture. "My, my, my. So far from home are we, Tenchi?" He paused with malice shinning in his eyes. "Aww. That's right; you don't have a home any more do you?"
"You've already lost this fight, Jorandan."
"Have I?" Jorandan replied with an air of sarcasm. "How very good of you to tell me. I suppose now you expect me to drop to my knees and allow you to take my head?"
Tenchi shrugged undaunted. "Don't say I didn't warn you."
To his side, the Imperators gutted by the Tenchi-ken's flight were wiggling along the floor plating. They weren't dead. Around him, the rest of them maintained their distance cautiously. Tenchi saw this and wondered why. Why the Jurian master key had affected them and Ayeka's blast of Jurian energy hadn't eluded him.
But the obvious did not.
The deathbringer's mere presence affected everyone in their vicinity -- washing out the light of hope, heightening one's trepidation. Their power aurora was great, something he could sense. Something he could almost feel.
He could feel they feared him. The black harbingers of death feared him.
Was it because of his survival? Was it the power locked deep down inside of him that he had used only twice before? A power he couldn't even begin to harness let alone control?
Tenchi didn't know why. At this moment, he didn't care why. All that mattered was that they did.
Grinning, and all sense of deja vu fleeing him, Tenchi slowly walked up to Jorandan until their faces were only inches apart. "You owe me a hand."
Before Jorandan could respond, the Tenchi-ken was back in his hands, fully ignited. The blade swept upwards, screaming through flesh once more. Jorandan's right arm flew in the air leaving a trail of blood raining down below.
Jorandan screamed in pain, clutching the stub of what was left of his lower right side while withering in sheer agony.
Tenchi turned around and walked away from him. Jorandan had paid the price for not comprehending.
In front of him, Ayeka smirked.
"Where's the girl?" Tenchi said glancing around.
"She scampered out through the front door about the time you ripped into our poor disarmed friend here."
He had forgotten her accent. It always had been subtle, smooth even, but the way words rolled off her lips had always been...enthralling.
"Let's go," he shrugged, not entirely sure how he felt about the girl's escape.
She nodded curtly and turned to follow him, as side by side they went through the front door together and exited VaBou's bar, leaving frozen Imperators and one very tormented Jurian in their wake.
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - || - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
The main corridor of Enclave Station was a wonder even it its current state of dilapidation. From both ends of it, massive ports housed circular windows showcasing the marvels and beauty of space. In-between, the wide corridor stretched on for a good kilometer with shops and housing complexes dotting both sides.
Compared to earlier, not many people were out. An eerie atmosphere descended the normally bustling section of the station.
Ayeka and Tenchi hadn't gotten far when they heard the loudspeaker spring to life.
** Attention all people! Attention all people! Jurian armada on an intercept course to station! Evacuate the station. We repeat, evacuate the station! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill! **
Red warning lights began flashing in conjunction with claxon alarms.
Neither paid the message any attention. Tenchi motioned to an elevator lift 40 yards away. According to the station schematic map they had passed on the wall, the lift would get them to D-Deck, one level from where Orca was presently docked.
They were almost to the lift, around the middle of the corridor, before another unwelcome distraction hit them.
"MAASAAKI! MAASAAKI!"
Far on the opposing end of the corridor, standing right in front of the massive windows overlooking the expanse, stood a distraught Jorandan flanked by his complement of Imperators -- who now numbered only eight. Crudely tied around Jorandan's stub was a tourniquet. Rage bled liberally from his already bulging and bloodshot eyes.
Suspended above and in front of all of them was tiny Michiko.
Tenchi stood considering the scene before him, stood staring at the trembling girl who was terrified out of her wit's end. She betrayed him. Logic dictated she would do it again. Reason stated that the only way to save her would be to take her. It was a quandary.
Rubbing the back of his neck, he let out a sigh. "I'm going back for her."
"Need I point out that insolent little brat just betrayed not ten minutes ago?" she asked, more upset than curious.
He rolled his eyes. "Don't remind me. My ship's on C-Deck. You'll know it when you see it."
It went without saying he was telling her to take it and escape.
He started walking as fast as he could muster himself to go. Thoughts rumbled in his mind. He was treating this more as a chore, more of a cumbersome formality than anything. Was this what life had reduced him to? One could only take so much; true, but desensitization disturbed him. Guilt was there, yet lax. If it weren't for the immediacy of the situation at hand he'd spend a good while mentally debating with himself.
And that was always an oh-so-fun fun event, repeated and repeated more times in his life than he liked to admit -- even to himself.
When had he become so needlessly callous?
Momentarily lost in his thoughts, it surprised him mildly that sauntering once more beside him was Ayeka Jurai.
He stopped. She followed suit.
As he turned to glare at her, she put both gloved hands on her elegantly shaped hips and shot him a look that could kill, literally.
"Few have told me what I can and cannot do and lived to tell the tale," she stated coolly. "Consider this your one and only warning, Tenchi Masaki."
He blinked at her before shaking his head.
Things were accelerating.
Continuing on, Ayeka and Tenchi arrived at the corridor's end swiftly. They were greeted by charged power staves pointed directly at them by the remaining Imperators.
"I see you finally managed to get your Imperators to do something useful," Ayeka remarked haughtily. "Even if it was just standing there."
"What are they anyway?" Tenchi asked.
"They were once Jurian Knights," Ayeka's malicious grin wavered until collapsing entirely, "Before the X'vonian got their hands on them. Now they're soulless shells of who they once were, twisted and bound forever because of the treatment -- because of the poison and black oil."
The scowl on Jorandan's sweat-soaked face thickened. "They'll fire if you move. And while Tenchi may have found a way to penetrate some of their defenses in melee, I doubt he can survive a direct blast. For that matter, my dear Ayeka, I doubt your shield will stand in the way of any energy discharges given your earlier performance."
A funny look etched its way onto the woman's face. "Why not fire at us now? You have to kill us," Ayeka pointed out.
Tenchi laughed. "It's not that simple anymore -- I'm alive. These things have seen it," he said gesturing to the Imperators. "He's seen it. You've seen it. That means, at least from where I'm standing, our one armed host is in a big pickle."
Ayeka's cheshire grin widened with gleeful delight.
"How did you get here?" Jorandan demanded. "Who helped you get off the planet?"
"Someone once told me," Tenchi quipped, "that curiosity killed the cat." Gawking at the things in front of him, Tenchi inclined his neck slightly.
Jorandan motioned with his one good hand. The staves already pointed at them hummed chaotically as energy began crackling from the tips -- black streams dancing wildly around the twisted dark wood.
Inside Tenchi's mind, he was exploring, or rather searching for something.
That something was a connection he knew exited but had not explored. He knew Jorandan was right, one blast from those staves and he was dead. Same with Ayeka, and same with Michiko. The dilemma of what to do with him now that he was off-planet would be a fleeting moment.
He had to make the most of it while the long haired man quivered over how best to resolve the matter while not losing face with whoever sent him.
It was a long shot. But lately, Tenchi had noticed he had had a great deal of success with long shots.
"Release the girl to us," Tenchi countered, "and you'll get your answer."
Jorandan seethed, nothing was going right, in the blink of an eye his entire mission stood on the verge of annihilation.
Tenchi's mind raced. He was close, so close to what he needed he could almost grasp it. Almost there... Elation hit him as the final connection was made and immediately, on a level that transcended the conscious and subconscious, he telepathically whispered his urgent request.
"Fine," Jorandan barked.
Motioning with his good left arm, the little girl descended to the floor's surface where she quickly ran to hide behind an irritated Ayeka.
Ayeka glanced at Tenchi, as though to say, "Have you lost your mind?" Tenchi smiled back and nodded gently as to reply, "Yes, yes I have. Thank you for noticing." She slowly nodded to herself, digesting the valuable information she had just acquired. Michiko, as could be expected, was completely confused and bewildered.
"Now who aided you?" Jorandan demanded once more. "How did you get off Earth?"
"Turn around."
Fear seized the Jurian almost instantly, but he did so anyway as though coerced by powers unknown. Bones crackled softly as he turned, echoing from neck and shoulder, snapping eerily in his broken body.
Directly outside the massive station window, mere feet away from where group stood, a daunting obsidian ship lay poised in space. At the end of each jagged wing protruding from the main body of the vessel, blue plasma charged threateningly, waiting for the release it was sorely craving.
Jorandan barely had time to form his dense power sphere around him before the first shots ripped into the aging window, blowing the surface to shreds and leaving a twin trail of smoldering destruction along the inner floor. Already prepared, Ayeka's hand pushed forward forming a protective shield around both she, Tenchi and Michiko.
With the barrier between the compressed environment and space shattered, the station inside's were now exposed to the vacuum of space.
Everything gravitated toward the newly created gash in the station. The remaining Imperators howled in rage as they found their bodies propelled into outer space, the luxury of a Jurian force field beyond their grasp. The howling was soon dwarfed by the deafening shrieking created by the space vacuum itself.
As quickly as the chaos had begun, it ended as the station's cumbersome repair systems activated an automated force field over the breach and gravity returned to normal, leaving only the sound of claxon alarms blaring in the background.
It occurred to Tenchi just then, as he considered the absolutely shell-shocked form of Joradan, hovering before him in his Jurian shield that his odds had dramatically shifted to his favor for the first time since his little odyssey had begun. They now stood at 2 against 1.
He couldn't help but smile at that.
Jorandan knew it was over. Grimly, he surveyed the carnage a supposedly dead man had inflicted in mere seconds. Words failed him, so instead he reconstituted his spherical force field and kept his distance.
He was now the dead man.
Whether by the combined efforts of the harlot-of-a-princess and the lone warrior, or by the Regent, his fate was as good as sealed. Running would do him no good. There was no place to run, nowhere he could hide. Even now they knew.
Jorandan laughed, a rich, full sound arching through the corridor and illuminating the precariousness of his state-of-mind.
Adding insult to injury, the three people below him where now walking away.
"You're just going to leave me here?" the battered Jurian half-choked.
"I already told you back in the bar," Tenchi responded, looking over his shoulder, "you already lost this fight."
"You're saying it was destined?"
"No," Tenchi sighed, stopping to turn around once more, appearing annoyed. "I'm saying that just less than fifteen minutes ago I decided your fate to try to save you the pain."
Now the tables where fully turned on Jorandan -- defeated in mind and body, now reduced to pandering for mere answers.
"How?" he asked feebly.
Now Michiko and Ayeka were peering at him questioningly with curiosity evident in each of their eyes.
"Check the inside of your robe -- right side. It's my gift to you. Something you would not do me the courtesy of back on Earth."
With his left arm, he fumbled slightly as he separated the inner robe from outer and slid his hand inside. He found the smooth, cold rectangular object almost immediately. He pulled it out just in time to see the LCD display the final stages of the countdown. The small display read 3, and then 2, until reaching 1.
His final thoughts raced between wondering how an isolated quarter-breed had gotten the better of him. He wondered about the foolish orders. He thought about the fear that had processed the Jurian High Council to take such elaborate measures to dispose of one man. It was amusing to him how he had thought the whole matter pointless, extreme even, and a waste of time.
But most of all, he thought of how horrifyingly they had underestimated Tenchi Masaki.
The explosion that erupted enveloped Jorandan T'seni completely, killing him instantly, but bouncing off the perfectly cyclical walls of his still-whole energy field and creating a perfect sphere of fire. Moments later the field dissipated, showering the floor with amber shards and charred remains.
"Its over," Michiko breathed, still deeply shaken from the events of the last fifteen minutes. The longest quarter hour of her young life.
Tenchi looked over the station one last time, before resuming his walk toward the shattered port window where Orca awaited them.
"No Michiko," he corrected. "It's only begun."
| - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - || - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
Sometime later aboard Orca, Tenchi and Ayeka sat across from one another at a table in a section that served as the ship's small mess hall. In another room, Michiko slept soundly. As they had left the station, the initial vanguard of the Jurian armada had arrived to begun their assault. Stealthily, the nimble ship had escaped like the phantom it was, leaving only a haunting visual behind and no discernable information for the fleet's scanners -- only dust and echoes.
A conversation twenty years in coming was in it's infancy.
"Let me be clear Ayeka," Tenchi explained, "I don't want the throne. Whatever claim I ever had as First Crown Prince, I forfeit."
A bemused expression crept its way onto Ayeka's radiant face. She crossed both arms over her buxom chest.
"Whatever happened to the Royal Family, I'm truly sorry. But I have to be clear and upfront with you -- I don't want anything to do with the crown. I never have, I never will." Determination and honesty, laced with all the honest-to-goodness sincerity he could muster, was clearly what he was attempting to convey, knowing these qualities were often lacking in most his conversations with the girls back on earth, decades ago.
"I have to find my own way," he continued. "No matter how prestigious, no matter how fulfilling or rewarding the duty is, that's what it boils down to. I'll do all I can to help you reclaim what was taken from you and your family, but my help ends there. "As much as he hated to, he concluded with the final blow, "I can't live that life."
Tenchi waited Ayeka's response. A minute or two passed before the look on her face disintegrated into a hysterical look as she broke out laughing.
In the recesses of his mind, he had tried to predict what kind of reaction he might receive from such blatant honesty. This obviously wasn't one of them.
"You stupid, stupid man," Ayeka cackled as she wiped a tear from her eye. "You don't know anything do you? Though I really must thank you for the laugh. I don't think I've laughed that hard in..." She paused.
"Let's just say a long while," Tenchi finished for her. "I understand."
"Do you?" she asked, her voice dead serious. "Let me explain something to you right now, Tenchi. I don't want to 'liberate' Jurai. My intention is to *annihilate* it."
"What?" he asked incredulously.
She chuckled darkly at that. "My family...ruled Jurai for countless centuries. My own father was on the throne for thousands of years. We made mistakes. We were not without our faults. But we preserved peace and order in the galaxy." Sighing to herself, she tried regaining her composure which she was losing a battle to control. "You couldn't understand."
"I can only understand as much as you tell me."
"Very well," she muttered. "When the coup happened, and the X'vonian arrived, we weren't merely cast out -- we were shackled. Imagine if you can seeing your mother, your father, the very people who had protected you throughout your entire life, bound in the cruelest way imaginable. The X'vonian provided their Jurian collaborators with a device called the chaparral that countered and utterly drained whatever Jurian energy the person attached to it may have. It was a heinous weapon, Tenchi."
Tenchi could only listen intently, the sweet taste of knowledge more bitter than he expected it would be.
"The chaparral is a thick vine-like creature at first glance, but that is an inadequate way of describing what it is," she explained grimly. "A living, breathing organism -- it chokes you, leaving you perpetually out of breath with only enough oxygen to survive. All around it black thorns jet out, boring into skin and clamping down to ensure once attached it will never come off, save at the cost of the host's own life. My mother was the captain of the royal bodyguards. She was always so strong, so very beautiful. I remember watching her whither in agony and sheer torture. Blood was pouring freely from the wounds in her neck, cascading down her body...staining...everything."
"The Jurian rebels, lead by several influential council members and leaders of the great houses, executed the coup de tat, with the X'vonian covertly overseeing it all."
"Who are they, the X'vonian?" Tenchi asked. "I've never heard of them once before today."
"No one ever heard of them until twenty years ago. What we do know is that they arrived somewhere in the Arteris sector. We know that they poured out that region swarming and raining down destruction to whatever was unfortunate things crossed their path. The initial slaughter lasted little over three weeks and then stopped abruptly. Many speculated they were probing our defenses initially, others claimed they became bored at the ease in which they were able to conquer entire systems. I'm inclined to believe that they decided it didn't matter. They could destroy what they wanted when they wanted and come and go as they pleased. Coordinated assaults were rendered pointless."
"What about Jurian treeships?"
This didn't make sense to Tenchi, the most powerful empire in the cosmos unable to stand their grown? What of the Lighthawk Wings?
"First, second and third generation of treeships had some very good success against them. Their trees were strong and able to generate powerful enough Lighthawk Wings to muster considerable resistance. But there were too few in number and scattered too far across the galaxy at the time. Then the protests started."
"Protests?"
"Yes, Tenchi, protests." Ayeka's mood darkened to a level Tenchi thought unimaginable. "Having been the hegemon in the galaxy for longer than there was recorded history, it came a shock to many that the great Jurian Star Empire was losing the war."
"So they protested that?" Tenchi questioned.
Putting her elbows on the table, she raised her hands to massage her aching temples. "No, Tenchi, they protested the war itself."
"You mean the way the war was being fought?"
"The war," she reiterated bluntly. "Peace demonstrations began with only a few thousand protesting. Those numbers quickly grew to the millions, and then the billions -- on Jurai and across the empire. People believed a 'negotiated peace' could be attained without further bloodshed. Those fools thought that an enemy that had invaded unprovoked would actually bargain," she scoffed bitterly. "Those fools were right."
She rose from her chair and walked over to gaze out the port window. Endless stars streamed by dimly lighting the shadows of her cheeks.
"When the coup began," she continued slowly, "the people did not revolt in our support. The massive demonstrations ended overnight. The newly installed interim government signed a formal alliance with the X'vonian. Thus, without ever firing a shot on the planet, Jurai effectively surrendered. Ever since, the mighty Jurian Empire has been puppet society subject to X'vonian whims and desires."
"When...exactly did this happen?"
"The initial X'vonian assault began three weeks after I returned home."
Tenchi cringed; absently he noticed his arms were trembling slightly. "Everything was coordinated. All this was planned."
A few feet away, a distant look swept across Ayeka's face.
"My father, Azusa, received the most generous death. After they were satisfied they had extracted all the information they required, DNA samples, or whatever for their experiments with Jurian power and the trees, they threw him to the crowds. The Emperor of Jurai was beaten savagely and killed by a mob of lunatics armed only with crude weapons and mere stones. It wasn't fast, certainly wasn't painless, but it wasn't the worst fate I suppose."
His lip quivering, Tenchi tried to swallow but found his mouth had gone completely dry. This wasn't what he wanted to hear. He had gained so much damnit, survived so much. Now his victories didn't seem so impressive but rather meager and hollow.
"My father's wives, my mother Misaki and Aunt Funaho, suffered the most. After their interrogation, each was taken to a different part of the capital. The only thing in common these places had was that they were poor. People there were from the shallow end of the receiving pool, let's leave it at that. It was to them where they threw them. Only, the Empresses of Jurai weren't only beaten savagely...but rather...violated...over and over, again and again, by their faithful and loyal subjects."
The venom in her voice was matched only by the pain reflected.
"Mother's corpse was left in the streets -- broken, bloodied and mangled. The X'vonian and Jurian conspirators didn't see fit to prop it up as a symbol of their victory, rather left it to the gutters were it went out of sound and out of sight until decomposing entirely in the open."
Moments past that echoed eternity. Tenchi's fists were clenched in silent rage, unnoticed by him were the tears that streamed freely down each side of his cheek. He remained silent.
"Funaho was always a survivor. I don't know how, but somehow, she managed to escape after the several hours after being hurled to the masses. She found me and told me -- guided me really -- to a place of sanctuary known only to the Royal Family. There were enough resources and equipment to last an eternity while being spent on practical purposes. Aunt Funaho paid the price, her body had already sustained too much trauma, along with the forced separation from her space tree she died soon after showing me the way."
"Separating the bond between the space trees," Tenchi realized out loud. "It was the black oil, wasn't it?"
"Yes, depending on how they used it, it either killed the tree or warped it into a state which the X'vonian could make use of it."
"How did you escape?"
"I didn't," a sad look came into here eyes. "They let me go; and that was perhaps the great insult of them all. To tear down a noble dynasty that had existed for countless lifetimes is one thing. They forced me to watch everything, everything! I'm not sure if it was the Jurian or X'vonian's idea. But whoever's notion, I was dropped off after it was all over at a rundown homeless shelter on Korina IV, it's a small planet in the Galor system," she explained bitterly.
"And..Sasami?" he said in a low, hushed tone, a question he feared asking but found himself unable avoid.
"She was taken at the very same time the royal family was placed under arrest," Ayeka spoke wistfully, "I have not seen my sister for twenty years. I believe," she started, "..I must believe that my sister is dead."
"But surely with her link to Tsunami she'd--"
Shaking her head, Ayeka chuckled slowly. "Many of the protesters said that Tsunami had abandoned us because of the wickedness of Jurai's rulers. Fools didn't know she was always nearby in both body and spirit. They say after my family was stripped of power that Tsunami ascended back into the heavens where she rules and benevolently oversees the universe beside her two sisters -- the Chousin. Those same people say that the Regent, the man who controls both political and religious aspects of Juraian culture now, is directly endowed by them as their faithful and loyal servant."
Tenchi wiped his eyes while turning away from Ayeka. He could not face her. "Who is the Regent?"
"No one knows. It is perhaps the most carefully guarded secret of all."
Ayeka returned her gaze back to shaken man before her. The very same person who had intervened and saved her and the little girl's life was now trembling and painfully fighting away tears. She shed no tears of her own. She had none.
Gently, Ayeka raised her hand to her neck and let her gloved fingers roam over the spiked collar that adorned her swan-like neck. Hitting a hidden clasp, the black collar loosened considerably, enough to allowing her to remove it completely.
When Tenchi noticed this, he slowly turned around, arching his neck in advance to look at her. Trailing the middle of her elegant neck, completely disguised behind the mantle of the spiked collar, a jagged wound rounded her neck. Thorn-like impressions delved a quarter inch into her skin and dotted the jagged gash like an lethal pattern of vines. Tenchi did not need to ask to know what had caused it.
"The vine Tenchi," Ayeka said, "cannot be removed from the host and survive."
Gawking remorsefully at the scar, Tenchi stammered, "The X'vonian have a way?"
She nodded, "Which they gave the Jurians, who released me from it. But I wasn't lying, Tenchi, one always wears the chaparral until death. One way or the other."
"And now you know," Ayeka continued almost whimsically, "why I will finish what that devil woman began over two thousands years ago. The combined Jurian/X'vonian forces swept across the galaxy like a plague raping and pillaging whatever they came across. Whole worlds were slaughtered. The galaxy as we know it has been destabilized and chaos and anarchy rule. When it's not the coalition killing, it's the pirates, warlords and criminals of the universe."
"What about the GXP?" Tenchi mumbled, "I was told there were remnants left around the outer rim."
"Horribly outmatched and outgunned," Ayeka snorted. "But worst of all those idiots still fly and die by that inane 'code of honor' they oh-so-cherish. They're not even a remotely effective resistance organization."
"Mihoshi?"
"She was actually a top detective before she came into our lives," Ayeka mentioned casually. "She wasn't the bumbling bimbo we knew her as. Mihoshi was forced to reclaim her equilibrium somehow, and from what I hear that's not a good thing...that is, if she's still even alive."
There was one more question. One he now feared to ask more than anything. But one he ultimately had no choice than to confront.
From out of his pocket, he produced an ancient tattered letter folded several times over. Wordlessly he handed it over to her. She took it, unfolded it and read it's contents.
"Why did you leave?'
"I promised...we promised," she began, "to never say anything about this."
Tenchi moved closer to her, undaunted and unphased by the disfiguring scar bordering her bare neck. "Ayeka...please," he urged.
"The whole matter is null and void now," she shrugged, "especially after today."
"I still remember waking up that morning," Ayeka sighed dreamily. "The sun was so warm on my face. Everything just seemed..right. You and your father had left early that morning to go to Tokyo to pick up some things. I had just finished getting dressed; I could smell Sasami cooking breakfast in the kitchen. When I got to the kitchen, he was there."
Tenchi frowned. "Who?"
"Yosho," she spat venomously. "Not the wrinkled old man you know as your grandfather, Tenchi, but rather my brother. His glasses and gray hair were merely an elaborate hoax to deceive us all. He was there sipping tea when I arrived. Sasami was sitting next to him quietly. Standing over both of them was Jorandan, but not the young boyish man you killed today, rather the aging high priest of the Holy Council."
"Soon after the whole family arrived; Mihoshi, Washu and a very grumpy Ryoko. We all crowded around the table to hear what they had to say, and for me, to get some answers."
The sickening feeling that had been exponentially growing inside of him since this conversation had begun was now reaching it's climax. Without really knowing it, the gears within Tenchi's mind, the thought processes and semantic that had laid dormant as Ayeka related her story, began subconsciously moving once more. Grandfather...
"Jorandan proposed a simpe deal," Ayeka said, "leave the planet forever or else your life, and the life of the planet, was forfeit."
"What?" raged Tenchi.
"It got better -- Yosho insisted we do so. He said something was coming. Told us there was no other way. To make matters worse, Washu agreed. I've never seen her so subdued before, so vacant. Her eyes were haunted, as though all the ghosts of her past had suddenly returned."
"You and Ryoko didn't go along with it."
It was a statement of fact, not opinion.
"No, not at first. But with Washu persuaded to their side, Ryoko and I quickly found ourselves on the defensive. It was only a matter of time before we saw no other way to save you, or this planet. Yosho told us how much you wanted a normal life and how all of us were hindrances, coupled with the threat on your life and planet, Mihoshi and I relented. But Ryoko never did agree. Washu easily put her in a trance with a snap of her fingers and told Ryo-ohki to take her into space. We were supposed to meet up at the coordinates she gave us. But she," Ayeka said referring to the petite scientist, "walked through the closet door and that was the last any of us saw of her."
"What happened at the rendezvous?"
"We thought it was to plan our counter-moves," she sighed deeply, "but Washu never came. During our departure, we cleaned the house, made everything as perfect as we could and said goodbye through this," she said holding up the paper Tenchi had given her. "On our way through the hemisphere we saw strange looking ships deploying some sort of array that quickly cloaked itself once deployed."
"X'vonian."
"Yes," Ayeka confirmed. "Had we ran the blockade barrier, the devices would have been activated and destroyed the planet and ever living thing on it. There was no way to slip in undetected, and with Wasu gone, chancing it was too risky given the stakes."
"Those devices were active the entire time," Tenchi said bitterly, his fists clenched once more to the point where it drew blood.
"From what I learned today, that is also correct. The arrays were in a low-stage mode that slowly eroded the core and ruined the atmosphere of Earth."
"And Ryoko?"
"We fought one last battle there at the rendezvous coordinates," she whispered with a tinge of regret, but mostly reverence. "It was a terrible battle -- we blamed each other for what had happened. Who else was there besides us? At the end my ship was crippled, had to be towed back to Jurai. My final volley had done likewise to Ryo-ouki and sending her tumbling off into space. I haven't seen or heard from her since."
"And now you know," Ayeka sighed, regaining the topic. "Now you understand why I fight my own people. They attack and the rest of the universe falls back. Families destroyed, lives in ruins. Some wounds -- some cancers -- require drastic medical procedures. It's better to lose a limb than a life," she said, not knowing how grimly ironic Tenchi found the comparison. "Sometimes genocide is the only way to accomplish that amputation."
Her eyes focused at him once more as she spoke slowly and evenly, "Most of all, I've learned that pain is the only true power in this life -- the ability to survive and the ability to inflict."
Someone had once said the truth shall set you free. He didn't know who had originally spoken those words, but he did know that at this very moment in time he would enjoy nothing more than to strangle whoever said it until their eyes bulged and spilled out of the eye sockets.
They stood there looking at each other for the longest time. No further words were spoken. Two shattered people staring at each other, crying out for comfort, for the mere reassurance one was not alone. Though side by side, neither knew how. Comfort was unreachable to them, an alien concept forgotten entirely.
He knew there was more she was keeping from him. Other questions remained, but Tenchi had no heart to ask them here, or now. In the short span of mere minutes, the sole survivor of Earth had discovered the single most horrifying truth imaginable only in the darkest of nightmares:
What had happened to him was nothing.
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In space, there is nothing.
This nothingness is the fiber of the galaxy -- an endless void intermixed with the tangible substance of planets, star clusters, nebulas and the very essence of life itself.
In this void, a ship of jet ebony traverses the vastness of space with limitless ease. Within this vessel, Tenchi Masaki finds himself in the midst of two traitors. One, a small girl named Michiko, who betrayed him for personal gain. The other, the space pirate Ayeka Jurai, a former crown princess of a galactic star empire she has sworn to destroy.
Neither of whom he understands. Neither of whom he fully trusts.
Now marked and forever distinguished by the three triangles scorched upon his forehead, Tenchi idly wonders what awaits him. No longer does he endlessly fret and worry about the past, his friends and family. In the span of days he has journeyed -- been accelerated -- from the land of the dead to the land of the living. He has endured what one should have never have escaped -- let alone conquered and vanquished.
It is this fact that reassures him and this fact alone.
It isn't a proclamation of defeat of his goals and desires -- or abandonment of promises made -- rather the acceptance of his inability to control.
The universe may very well revolve around him, but he cannot control it.
Yet.
Still, he realizes that he and his two companions are fugitives from the forces controlling the current balance and order of the universe. Each is marked in their own unique way, and through some ironic twist of fate, or sick joke, have found their lives connected, and for at least now, bound together.
Angst and the pain of the last eons of his life seem trivial and beside the point.
And what was the point?
Is it destiny?
He despises the mere concept. The three singular triangles on top of his forehead stand as testament mocking this belief -- his belief.
Cruising through the nothingness of space, within his ship of jet ebony, Tenchi Masaki roams in body, mind and spirit striving to make sense and connect what was once whole.
To be continued...
Closing Song: Hemisphere
Written by Iwasato Yuuho and performed by Sakamoto Maaya
In any case, what can I possibly do?
What can I do to change the reality of this confined garden?
I haven't even lived through half of my life yet
I oppose and I embrace
Experiences are unconsciously tattooed onto me
When I'm in serious trouble
Challenges also grab at me
I was able to see my existence for the first time
Towards a huge field, somewhere bigger and deeper
I can only go to a world which exceeds expectations
Tell me the meaning of "power"
I wonder if it's something I can go through
Or even if I devote myself
Can I protect the things which I must protect?
Clouds of dust whip up in the savannas of gazelles
Until the winds die down, they must remain inside
People continue to walk
Just to live
I move on as the incomplete data is re-written
It seems I've started walking alone in the wilderness
Until I become more confident I want to live up to myself
Where did I come from long ago?
Where is the distant future heading?
I was abandoning it before I could notice it
It seems I've started walking alone in the wilderness
Until I become more confident I want to live up to myself
When I'm in serious trouble
Challenges also grab at me
I was able to see my existence for the first time
Towards a huge field, somewhere bigger and deeper
I can only go to a world which exceeds expectations
I want to know more about myself
The cycle will conclude in: Lessons.
--
Preview of next chapter: Knowledge is acquired by study. Study is undertaken by exercising discipline. Discipline gained through vigorous self-control and ever-vigilant supervision. Tenchi, finding himself in dire need of these three elements, reluctantly agrees to study under the tutelage of a new teacher to better understand himself, his powers and heritage. But what ulterior motives does his new teacher aspire for? And just what will she do to poor Tenchi?
Authors Notes: Random stuff out of the way:
i. Tenchi's armor is as appears in the movie "Tenchi Muyo! in Love!" with a few elements of the old OAV set, namely the headband with dangling ornaments. IE, Washu meets Tsunami in a non-lame version of TLC's "Trading Spaces."
ii. Do find a way to listen to Hemisphere (from the anime RahXephon) at least once. The more I listen to it the more I'm inclined to believe it's one of the better songs in existence.
iii. Until next time.