Disclaimer: I do not claim to own anything related to Tenchi Muyo be it characters, plots or clothing styles. This story is written entirely for my own entertainment and (hopefully) the entertainment of readers

Tenchi Muyo! characters and related plots belong to AIC and PIONEER.

This is the first piece of writing I've done in a long long time, so no doubt it lacks in a lot of areas. I would greatly appreciate any and all criticism/reviews you are willing to give. Your input helps me become a better writer :)

I'd like to say at the outset that Washu is my favourite character in Tenchi Muyo. This is set just after 'Here Comes Jurai Part 2' of the Tenchi Muyo! OVA

There is no bashing in this fic whatsoever, all behaviour is based upon my watching of the OVA, and any OOC behaviour has its reasons which shall be made clear in later chapters.

cheerio, I hope you enjoy this:

"" for dialogue '' for thoughts

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Ryoko sobbed in relief as the metal claws that had restrained her for what had seemed like a dark eternity, released their grip upon her flesh. Her crying continued softly as she drifted downwards towards the floor, oblivious to the picture she presented. The Space Pirate Ryoko weeping in a heap, calling for her mother.

As time passed, Ryoko became aware of her surroundings once more. Above her floated the instrument of her imprisonment. Its emptiness made it seem incomplete as though she were a component part, necessary for its function and purpose.

The laboratory had become dark, making its dimensions impossible to determine, it seemed to Ryoko that she knelt at the bottom of a deep well. She stood slowly, forcing herself upright against the weight of remembered solitude, swayed for a moment, recovered, then made her way haltingly to the wall and leant against it, trying to regain her composure.

Usually her first response would have been that of anger towards her jailer, but memories of her imprisonment in the cave and her treatment under Kagato were too strong, too recent to allow her to break through the feeling of helplessness that enfolded her.

'I need to get out of here' That was her first coherent thought in what seemed like years. She panted as she leant against the wall considering it, then coming to a decision, she pushed herself off from the wall and began to make her way blindly through the darkness, her only guide the cold blinking lights of Washu's machinery.

She didn't know how long she had spent walking, her footsteps echoing hollowly against the metal floor. Long ago she had given up hope of ever seeing light again. Now the only purpose behind her stumbling, halting shuffle was the desire to put her jailing behind her. She travelled to escape her memories, blissful forgetfulness now seemed a pleasant alternative to living in darkness within her mind, she could escape that at least.

A sound intruded upon her efforts, it clashed with the quiet hum of the machines, it seemed too organic, too friendly to belong in this sterile blackness. But she ignored it, just as she had ignored the other sounds that had intruded themselves upon her journey. She had lost count of the amount of times that she had started at the sound of her beloved's voice, only to fail in her efforts to trace its source. This too was an echo of his voice, a desperate creation of her own mind which in its confusion, was seeking solace.

The voice became louder as she travelled, accompanied by a dull thumping. It came as shock to her when a sliver of light appeared growing steadily larger, the voice became louder. 'It was his voice' she realized, then she was blinded by the light streaming in through the door as a figure was outlined against the brightness. 'It's Tenchi !' the thought was jubilant as she began to weep, once again in relief as she fell into the one place in all the Universe where she felt truly safe, crying his name.

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Tenchi sighed as he finished dressing himself after his bath. 'It's time for breakfast Tenchi' he told himself as he tied his belt. It was swiftly becoming apparent to him as time went by that he would have to make a choice. Insurance premiums were rising, and he yesterday he swore he had found a grey hair ! Tenchi chuckled to himself as he closed his door and entered the hallway, 'It always comes back to that' He never could stand to see any of *his* girls hurt, for that was how he considered them all, regardless of how much a certain pair fought over him and no matter how often they indulged in property damage.

He descended the stairs to the ground floor and entered the kitchen. Sasami was already busily preparing for the Hungry Hordes who regularly descended at this time of the day 'or as Ryoko calls it: "This unholy hour of the night"' Tenchi thought to himself as he entered the kitchen. 'and it never seems to bother her either' Tenchi wore a small smile, Sasami also held a special place in his heart, the small girl had willingly taken up the role of cooking for a household of six, three meals a day, seven days a week. She was more grown up than any of them could reasonably expect.

"A penny for your thoughts Tenchi ?" Sasami giggled as Tenchi stood there in shock, realizing that he had been standing in the doorway with a silly grin on his face for longer than was usually deemed normal. "So what marvellous breakfast have you prepared for us this morning, Sasami ?" he adroitly changed the subject with his usual mastery of tact.

Sasami, not falling for this in the slightest decided to let him off the hook, "Today we have the usual rice and miso soup and I've managed to get some mackerel which should go well with the pickled vegetables" Sasami proclaimed with great enthusiasm, while running around the kitchen letting steam out of pots, flipping the aforementioned mackerel, cutting vegetables and protecting the carrots from a hungry Ryo-ohki.

Tenchi, having never really mastered the art of drooling inconspicuously, decided to leave the room at that moment to prevent further embarrassment.

"Tenchi I'm just about done, could you get Washu for breakfast ?" Sasami wasn't going to let him escape so easily. Tenchi sighed and decided that today was going to be one of those days, especially if Washu decided to try and collect her 'Sample' again.

'One of these days I should ask Washu to reverse this door so that I can get that spare broom we had in there, Grandfather is starting to complain about the quality of my sweeping' Tenchi muttered about Washu and SweepaTrons, as he walked over to the door which had formerly lead to the broom closest.

"Good morning Lord Tenchi" Tenchi jumped as he noticed Ayeka on the stairs, "Ah, good morning Princess Ayeka", 'Smooth Tenchi' he thought to himself 'well it doesn't seem to bother her' Ayeka was smiling, content with the knowledge that she had greeted The Light of her life before the Demon Woman had managed to attach herself to him.

Tenchi knocked on the closet door, in a futile attempt to gain Washu's attention without having to enter, and possibly fall prey to her nefarious experiments. "Washu breakfast is ready !" he hollered while beating on the door. It was about that time that he realized he had an audience of three. Ayeka, Sasami and Ryo-ohki in her Humanoid form, were exercising the extraordinary ability to coalesce sweat into enormous basketball sized drops.

Tenchi then decided to be brave and opened the door into Washu's lab. The first thing that he noticed was the extreme darkness, he had never seen Washu's laboratory so dark. Before there had always been a myriad of confusing computer panels, switches and mechanical equipment. Then he noticed a voice, it seemed to be saying something in between sobbing. As the source of the voice grew closer he recognized what it was saying. It was repeating his name as one would a chant: "Tenchi, Tenchi". Tenchi almost stepped back in shock, wondering what monster had escaped from the deepest depths of Washu's laboratory.

It was then that Ryoko stepped into the small pool of light created by the door.

She was a mess, her exquisite eyes normally narrowed into a seductive smolder, were as open as a child's. There were tear streaks running down her cheeks and her voice was hoarse as though she had been screaming all night. The only piece of clothing she wore was a torn tank-top, which forced Tenchi to concentrate on her face,'now was not the time'. She was shivering, he noticed, not with cold but with something else, and her large eyes held the horror of something not yet escaped.

She stopped as she saw him, and fresh tears began to run down her face. "..Are you real...?" she whispered, her voice heavy with trepidation.

"Ryoko what happened to you ?" she visibly started at the sound of his voice and looked at him almost in disbelief.

"..Washu..she.." The tears came quickly, Tenchi stood there in mute incomprehension.

"Tenchi.." she whispered, stumbled and then fell into his arms, weeping.

Tenchi continued stroking Ryokos hair even after she had fallen asleep, He was trying to sort out the events of the morning in his mind. He had been surprised that morning when he had woken up without a greeting from Ryoko, but had been so relieved that he had not thought about what would have kept her from performing what was now an established ritual.

She had clung to him as though he were the only buoy in a storm tossed ocean, the only thing keeping her sane. Even after Ayeka had overcome her shock at Ryoko's appearance and attempted to forcefully remove her, she had held onto him with such strength that he himself had been in danger of injury.

He had carried her over to the couch and lay her out on it with her head in his lap and a blanket to cover her. At first she had buried her face into his legs, staining his trousers with her tears. Words did not seem to reach her but she seemed to take comfort in his presence, so he did the only thing he could and stroked her hair gently until at last she could drift into an exhausted slumber.

'But what could have affected Ryoko so strongly that she would collapse like this ?' he asked himself, 'Washu, she mentioned Washu, what could she have done ? surely she would not have experimented on her own daughter' However Tenchi was not so sure and the thought angered him.

"Tenchi, I'll leave your breakfast in the oven ok ?" Sasami told him, looking into his eyes with concern. He had told the others to go ahead and eat without him, he had decided to look after Ryoko. "Thanks Sasami, I'm sure it will be delicious" he said absently, Sasami being the good girl that she was, began to hustle the rest of the crowd out of the room, while managing to avoid Mihoshi's questions about what had happened before she woke up.

"..uh..Kagato..damn.you.." Ryoko began to tense on the couch as she entered a nightmare, Tenchi stroked her hair and made reassuring noises until she relaxed again. 'To rest she would need a proper bed' he decided, unfortunately Ryoko usually slept up on one of the roof beams where no one could annoy her. 'My bed it is then' he decided then carefully removed her head from his lap. He stood then picked her up in his arms, blushing as he did so, her state of undress affecting him as expected, and began to climb the stairs to his room.

As he shouldered the door open, he cringed at the mess he'd let his room become over the break.'well, it's not like she hasn't seen it before' He placed her on his bed, and drew the bedclothes back over her. Ryoko snuggled deeply into his bed muttered his name then slipped into a deeper more recuperative sleep, Content.

It was then that Tenchi came to his decision,'once I eat my breakfast I'm going to talk to Washu, and find out what happened'. Tenchi noticed Ayeka walking down the hall towards him with a furious expression on her face. Thinking quickly on his feet, Tenchi headed her off and quickly took her downstairs before she could make her displeasure known.

"What is it Ayeka ? " Tenchi's tone indicated that he would brook no nonsense from her. " It's that..that.. woman ! Lord Tenchi, I'm sure that this is all a ploy to get into your bed ! " Ayeka stuttered in incoherent rage, her normally pale complexion flushed with anger.

"Ayeka you may not have noticed this, but *I* am not in the bed with her" Tenchi said sardonically "If it were a plot of hers, I can assure you it has failed, I have done nothing for her that I would not do for the rest of you".

Ayeka stuttered some more before realizing that he was right, and with that came the inconvenient knowledge that she had most likely just hurt her standing with her beloved Lord Tenchi. "Of course..Lord Tenchi, forgive me" with that she bowed, and left the room.

Tenchi sighed, 'sometimes it's more than I can bear' he thought.

Tenchi went and got his breakfast then sat down to think about how to approach Washu.

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Washu, The Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe was typing on her computer when Tenchi entered. She of course, knew that he had entered because a devilishly complicated device she called a Door Crab told her so. When she had told Tenchi the history behind it, he hadn't believed that she annually raked in nearly 28 billion Jurais from the trademarks and patents associated with the invention.

"Pff Earthlings can not possibly understand my greatness !" had been her response at the time, though she had come to realize that this planet Earth, was abundant in such simple brilliant ideas. At the moment she was trying to reproduce the glue that makes post-it notes stick, she had the feeling (and her feelings never failed her, [except for that time with the Universal Deflambrigulator, which had resulted in her being censured by the Galactic Council and having her position as the Headmaster of the Galactic Academy being taken from her]) that she could make a killing on the Galactic market if only she could reproduce this particular chain of chemical bonds.

These then were the particular set of problems that were occupying The Great Washu's mind when Tenchi entered her lab for the second time that day.

"Washu.." Tenchi said uncertainly, wondering how to get her attention, Washu thought he was cute when he was indecisive and decided to give him a break.

"Can you tell Sasami that I won't be at breakfast today, I'm working on my latest and most brilliant invention" 'A little fib can't hurt' she thought. Washu continued typing. After a while, she realized that she had not heard him leave.

She spun around on her cushion and gave him a coquettish look "So how is my little Guinea Pig today, hmm ?" Noting the look of determination on his face, she got off her cushion and waited for what he had to say.

"Washu" he began "Ryoko came out of your lab this morning and she was a horrible mess, why ?" The words were short and clipped, Washu noticed this serious mien immediately.

'look how worried he is about her, congratulations Ryoko you may very well be the winner' Washu thought with an internal grin. "That was nothing more than a little test to see how she functions under certain conditions" She said confidently, "I've done the same many times and she's always been perfectly fine".

Judging by his expression, Washu immediately knew that he had not believed her, she had not seen this look of determination since he had fought Kagato.

"Exactly what conditions are we talking about here Washu ? Usually when Ryoko comes out, she's irritated or angry, never upset, certainly never weeping half naked !" Tenchi was irritated at her evasion, Washu herself was not used to explaining herself to anyone, but for this particular young man she had already made a great many exceptions.

"It was just a sensory deprivation experiment Tenchi, I had to see how Ryoko would hold up under certain conditions" She smiled, confident that he would believe her.

"Sensory deprivation ? How exactly did you achieve this Washu ?" He inquired, still refusing to take her at her word.

Washu herself was irritated now, "I merely turned out all of the lights and went to bed, a simple time-delay lock released her after a few hours". She couldn't tell Tenchi, poor, sweet loveable Tenchi. That her main reason for doing so, was to make a recording of her daughter calling her name, for solace when Ryoko denied her.

"Turned out the lights ?!" Tenchi voiced his disbelief, "Ryoko spent seven hundred years alone in the dark, even today darkness reminds her of that cave, she will do anything Washu, anything to avoid being trapped like that again" Tenchi could not believe what Washu had done, Ryoko was terrified of being alone in the dark, he suspected it was part of the reason why she stayed awake most nights watching him sleep.

"Don't you see ? that's why I had to do it, to test her mental strength and see how she holds up under that kind of pressure" Washu was trying to think of a way to defuse the situation, which seemed more and more likely to explode.

'I'd better head this off before he gets anymore upset', Washu thought, every sophisticated gear in her mind clicking away, looking for a solution. She decided on the tried and true.

Washu sidled up to Tenchi, he watched her warily, and as such he got to see something extraordinary, the precise moment of transition between Washu-chan and Washu-san.

"Tenchi, how about you and I perform a little experiment of our own ? You still owe me that sample" Washu-san looked down at him through a smoldering lidded gaze, a devilish smile upon her ruby red lips. She took his face in both of her hands and for a moment, he was able to see familial resemblance beyond spiky hair, between Ryoko and Washu.

He heard a faint hiss behind him like the release of steam, he spun.

There was a flash of light and Washu stepped backwards in shock, Tenchi had summoned Tenchi-ken to his hand. The remnants of her mecha crashed to the floor as Tenchi returned his gaze to her face.

This was not going how she had planned at all.

Tenchi was furious, she had never seen him like this before, admittedly the only real expressions she had seen him wear since she had arrived were confusion, embarrassment or determination, which was mainly due to the girls' presence in his life. For a moment Washu wondered what type of person Tenchi was when he was relaxed, around what passed for normality on Earth, at any rate, her analytical mind told her, here was trouble.

"Is that all we are to you Washu ?" he shouted "Guinea pigs, for you to perform your experiments on ?" his voice was harsh, grating "Bur your own daughter ?! " His voice was so completely un-tenchi like that Washu could do no more than stutter,

"No..that's not it at all..."

"Then what is it Washu ?, while you stand here trying to collect your 'Sample' your daughter, is sleeping upstairs dreaming of Kagato' He had calmed a little now, his voice was level, disbelief however still lent his voice a tone of outrage.

Washu stepped backwards as if she been dealt a blow, her eyes widened in shock 'How dare he.. ?' Washu's brilliant mind refused to function as an awful reality made itself known to her. "..I am nothing..like HIM.." she whispered vehemently in denial.

Tenchi continued, "I can understand the rest of us perhaps, compared to you we must seem hopelessly primitive, but to treat your only daughter in the same way ? !"

"You don't understand" she whispered.

"What makes it worse, is that you try to force her to call you 'Mother'" Tenchi's voice was a remorseless hammer and chisel, chipping away at barriers that had taken millennia to construct.

Washu couldn't think, her body had assumed a protective stance, her head bowed. Memories surfaced, A blonde haired child, she was reminded of the last time she had been swept by an emotional storm such as this.

She had been unable to function then either.

"You don't understand" she repeated, It had become a mantra, a shield against Truth.

"A mother is someone who cares for and nurtures her child." yet still he continued "They do not leave them alone in the dark all night to see what will happen." he said, driving the final point home with all the finality of a coffin nail.

"You don't understand !" She was weeping now, and forced the phrase through her sobs.

"What is there to understand Washu ?" Tenchi's voice was different, calmer and more sorrowful, yet with a note that pleaded, as though he genuinely wished to know what could make a mother treat her daughter in such a way.

"All of it !" she cried as she collapsed to her knees, weeping.

Tenchi walked slowly over to where Washu knelt and sat beside her on the cold, sterile floor of her Laboratory. He leant over to her and held her, she surrendered completely, bawling in the confines of his arms.

"Then talk to me Washu-chan, help me to understand"

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Once again I'd like to invite you all to leave your critiscism and reviews for me to peruse.