Chapter Four
The Lady flexed her clawed fingers as the man before her waited for her permission to continue. "The gems were just … gone?"
"Yes, Milady. Even the misfit had no idea that they had disappeared from his precious sword." Although he was still cloaked, the man had removed his mask. Any educated member of the Juraian Empire would remember his face from both history books and the events of two years before.
"You failed me, Kagato, just as you have failed me twice before. Fail me again…" she trailed off; it wasn't necessary to complete her threat. "Tsunami removed them, that much I know … But I cannot tell what she did with them."
D3 looked stoically between his mistress and her minion. "Your sister has always had different ways of accomplishing things."
"No. It's not simply Tsunami's protection. That alone would not be strong enough to hide such a thing from me. No…" The goddess Tokimi frowned as she sought the answers she needed. "Blast it! I know who must have them, and that means they could be anywhere in the universe! Kagato, you must retrieve them at once. My sister cannot be allowed to regain possession of those gems!"
The Enemy of Jurai looked questionly at his mistress. "I was not aware that the gems actually belonged to Tsunami."
"No. Not her. My other sister; the traitor."
* * *
Night had fallen over the Palace, and the complex was still with the exception of guards and a few late-night individuals, one of whom, unknown to anyone else, sat watching over the slumbering form of the Emperor.
He's changed so much since I saw him last, thought Ryoko. He was adorable then, but oh, now he is heart wrenching. The remembered face had sharpened, becoming stronger. He had let his hair grow out in the customary style, and in sleep it fell across his face, ebony over tanned silk. I know many individuals who would kill for cheekbones and eyelashes like that.
Tenchi turned in his sleep, and the sheet slid downward over his chest.
He never used to sleep in the raw like that on Terra. Oh, wow. Down, girl. It won't do much good for your plans if he wakes up to find you jumping his bones. Who would have thought two years could have done so much? But then, Terrans grow and develop so much quicker then we do. Once he reached a certain age, Ryoko knew his use of the power of Tsunami and Jurai would maintain him at that age for centuries.
"I love you."
The whisper died away in the still room. A tear rolled down Ryoko's cheek and she wiped it away. "I've cried more over you in the past two and a half years then I've cried in my entire life," she said in a soft conversational tone. "Well, in the life I can remember. You're the only one who could ever do this. Kagato, he tried, just to have that much more power over me. I never told you about what he did to me, did I? When you killed him, I thought; I'm finally free of him. You did that for me. And it made me love you even more then I did before. And now someone's trying to kill you. Well," she gently pulled the sheet up over his shoulders again, "I won't ever let anyone hurt you, my Tenchi. But …" her voice caught. She swallowed and continued. "But you're not really my Tenchi, are you? You could never be now, because you married Ayeka. It broke my heart when I found out. But I'll stay here, and I'll protect you. And I'll never stop loving you."
With that, the cyan-maned woman faded away. As she vanished, the object of her love reached out a hand in his sleep. "Ryoko …" he whispered.
* * *
Ryoko teleported into her room back in Washu's amazing living quarters. Floating to the bed, she hugged a worn rose-colored pillow to her chest. I can't do this.
What can't you do? The voice of Washu intruded gently into her thoughts. In return for her mother's help, Ryoko had agreed to take down the mental barriers Ryo-okhi had helped her to build.
"It makes sense," the genius had said. "This way, I'm only a thought away if you need something. Answers, help, anything."
And so she had painstakingly removed the wall that had stood in her mind for the past two years, sure that Washu would again return to poking and prying at her mind whenever she desired. Instead, it was as if a warm blanket had been wrapped around her. Her mother, on the other hand, had flinched and drawn back, tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Ryoko had asked.
The redhead had extended a trembling hand, and then drawn it back. "I had forgotten how it felt, to always experience how lonely you were. It's like a physical pain."
The demoness had stepped back. "I'm fine. No big deal." At that, Washu had retreated to her lab, leaving Ryoko to find her way to Tenchi's room.
Now her mother waited outside the door, waiting for Ryoko's invitation to enter. Upon receiving it, she crossed to the bed and sat down on its edge. "Do you have a moment?"
"Sure." With a thought, Ryoko separated herself into two copies; something, she reminded herself, she could never have done before Tsunami returned the gems. One Ryoko returned to watch invisibly over Tenchi; the other looked at her mother.
Washu cocked her head. "How much did you give your shadow?" She referred to Ryoko's ability to grant her copy whatever real emotions, intelligence, or other senses she wished. At the simplest, the second 'Ryoko' would be a true shadow: watching and able to alert the real thing should anything happen, but incapable of much more.
"Not much."
"It hurts you, doesn't it? Watching, but not being able to touch him, knowing that he is bound to Ayeka? You don't want the shadow to feel, because you don't want to feel any more pain yourself."
Ryoko looked up at the ceiling, down at the tear spots on her pillow, at various points of the room, anything to avoid looking at her mother. "So what if I am? There's nothing I can do, and why do you even care?"
Washu stood up. "You really don't understand, do you?"
Still raw over her unheard confessions to Tenchi, the space pirate had finally had it. "No, I don't! I don't get you! When we first find you, you expect me to fall into your oh-so-maternal arms with glee, then, when I don't, you make my life hell!" She flew up off of the bed and headed into the main area of their living quarters. Her bedroom was too personal a place to fight her mother. "And when you manage to catch me here, you act completely different and assume I'll fall right in! What do you want from me, damn it?" She threw her arms up in the air, enjoying the dramatic gesture. It fit her mood at the moment.
"A second chance!" The genius followed Ryoko, transforming as she went into her adult form. "Gods, Ryoko, when you didn't return after the battle, I thought I'd lost you for good! I've already lost one baby; when you showed up, it was all I could do not dance for joy and pull you into my arms." Tears dripped down her ethereal face.
Something she said gave Ryoko pause. "What do you mean, you already lost one baby?"
Washu sighed and pulled a small picture from some pocket concealed in her long vest. She handed it to Ryoko. The picture, a miniature painting, showed the redhead with a tall blond man. In her arms, she held a laughing baby boy. The two adults were gazing at the child with such open adoration that it made the demoness's throat catch. "That was my husband, and our baby. I met him at the academy, and we married pretty quickly. We were so happy… but then his family took them away; I wasn't good enough, they said. A few months later, the entire clan committed a ritual mass suicide. I never found out why. That's why I took on my child shape, and why I created you."
"As a replacement…"
"No! I realized that I loved being a mother. And in you, I created a beautiful, smart child who would love me and live forever, or near enough. Maybe that was naïve of me, but I wanted you, Ryoko. I put my heart into bringing you to life." The scientist closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I thought I'd lost you, after finally finding you free of Kagato and your imprisonment. So I promised myself, that if ever you returned, alive and well, I would tell you all of this, and I would ask for another chance. I want you to smile at me, to ask for my help, and to call me 'Mom'." She raised her head and looked searchingly into Ryoko's cat-like eyes. "So, will I get one?"
Ryoko sat carefully on the edge of her chair. "You hurt me, Washu. I know I've hurt you as well, and I know we were both lashing out, returning hurt for hurt. I don't know if I can ever give you what you want, but I … I can try."
Washu dropped into hers. "Could I hear it, just once?"
Her daughter dredged up a tiny smile. "Mom."
* * *
The next morning, Ryoko waited unseen in the private dining room. Here, as in the rest of the royal suite, there were no cameras or other mechanical security devises; all depended on the royal knights.
Thus, Ryoko was finishing her rounds, making sure all was safe. A page entered, carrying with him several breakfast dishes. Looks good. Her stomach growled. Really good, in fact. No one's here right now…
Once the man had left, she floated to the table and scooped a slice of ripe fruit up with her fingers. Wow, this is pretty citrus. My fingers are tingling. Loving tart fruit, Ryoko immediately transferred the slice to her open mouth and closed her lips, ready to enjoy the tanginess.
Instead, her mouth erupted in pain.
Washu!!! Spitting out the fruit, Ryoko transported directly to her mother's lab, where the redhead was waiting with mouth swabs and some kind of rinse. The golden-eyed demoness allowed the older woman to wipe her tongue before rinsing her stinging mouth out.
"Puhhh! What was that?!" She spit again and again, trying to rid her mouth of the horrid feeling even as her healing powers kicked in, repairing the damage done to her tongue and throat.
"Poison, little girl." Washu turned and gripped her child's shoulders. "Are you okay? If not for your healing ability and powers… Tenchi would have died immediately if he'd eaten that. Ayeka and Sasami would have become very ill."
"Oh, God. That page. Washu, contact the security, Tenchi, someone, and don't let them eat that meal. I've got to catch the man who brought it." Ryoko transported to the hallway outside the suite and flew down the hall in the direction she had seen the man walking. The occurrence hadn't taken more then a few minutes, so he couldn't have gotten far.
Ryoko, how am I supposed to notify anyone? What are you planning to do? Washu's mind voice was tense, shocked by the abrupt incident. Don't forget, we need him for-
With a wordless growl, Ryoko cut her mother off. He tried to hurt my Tenchi. He will pay! Any second now…
Sure enough, it wasn't long before she saw the thin fellow. Completely unaware, of course, that anyone knew what had happened, he was strolling along, a wide smirk on his pockmarked face.
No one was looking. The demoness grabbed the man's shirt and teleported to high above the palace. Unless he had an anti-gravity suit or a natural ability to fly, he was at her mercy.
Scared completely mindless by the sudden kidnapping, the man grabbed at Ryoko's forearm. "Don't let go," he screamed.
"Why not?! You tried to kill the man who saved your stinking home! Tell me why!!" The pirate thrust her face into his and bared her fangs. In her free hand, she formed an energy ball. It pulsed a dark gold, ready to follow her every command.
"He . . .he's a traitor!" the man cried. "He doesn't care about us! He ignores the rest of us to give his own home protection and freedom from any rules-"
"Where do you get this shit?" Washu's presence in the back of her mind called for her to listen to the other woman, but Ryoko ruthlessly shut her out. "Terra doesn't even know any of this exists! The only 'protection' Tenchi gives that planet is the same restrictions it's had forever! Who the hell are you working with?"
Upon her question, the nameless man began trembling and shaking his head wildly. "She'll kill me if I tell you. She'll kill me! No!" Reaching behind him, he came up with a serrated knife. It glistened in the early morning sun as he thrust it at his captor's face.
In surprise, Ryoko closed her eyes and propelled him away, letting go in the process. The energy ball that had been waiting drove into the man's chest as gravity began to pull him back towards the ground. There was a soundless explosion. When Ryoko opened her eyes, there was nothing to be seen. Anything left of the assassin had fallen from the air to be lost below.
Ryoko, get back here. Now.
Who is the 'She' he was talking about? With a deep breath, the demoness disappeared.
* * *