"What do you mean, he disappeared?!" High Empress of Jurai Ayeka Jurai stood up from her throne. The unfortunate who had a moment ago informed her Majesty that the unsuccessful assassin was nowhere to be found stared at the floor, ashamed and afraid to look his Queen in the eyes as she glared at him in fury. His direct superiors, Officers Kiyone and Mihoshi, stood to her side, leveling equally furious glares of their own. At least, Kiyone was; her blond-headed partner was sniveling into a handkerchief and whining about Tenchi's potential near demise.
"Oh, Tenchi!!! You could have died! What would we have done?! It's just horrible! You almost died-"
"Oh, shut up, you bumble brain." The words seemed harsh, but anyone who knew her could see the frustrated but fond glance Kiyone gave her partner from the corner of her eye. After all, the teal-haired GP reflected, Mihoshi really couldn't help it.
"I'm sorry, Empress, but the individual disappeared completely from all cameras and scanners moments after he left the royal suite. The thing is, we don't know how that could have happened, because the palace is warded against all teleportation devices in the known universe, be they live or mechanical."
Kiyone nodded in agreement. She herself had overseen the latest upgrades. "We found the real page in a storage closet near the kitchen." She bowed her head. "The boy… they killed him."
Ayeka opened her mouth, no doubt to deliver some other scathing retort, but her husband cut her off. "Why don't we get Washu over here? I'd like to know how she managed to discover the poisoned food in the first place." Despite the shock of the recent assassination attempt, Tenchi appeared very calm.
Mihoshi nodded eagerly and gestured to a nearby officer, who spoke into a mouthpiece. Seconds later, a screen flashed in midair before the royal couple. Washu looked up and sighed. "This is becoming a bit too frequent, my friends. I'm in the middle of a very important-"
"Washu," Tenchi interrupted, "Would you mind telling us how you knew?"
"Look, I've got a few machines watching out for this sort of thing, that's all. As for where the guy went, another of my creations went after him to try and apprehend him, but he got violent and self-destructed. Simple as that. See you later." The screen winked out as suddenly as it had materialized.
The four people watching turned to look at each other, as puzzled as the last time they had contacted her with questions.
* * *
Washu looked away from where her interdimensional vid-screen had recently floated to her daughter, who now floated behind her. "You owe me big time, little girl. I don't know what the hell Tsunami expected you to accomplish on your own."
"Yeah, yeah," muttered Ryoko. "I stopped the guy, didn't I? I saved Tenchi's life, and that's what matters." She slumped back on the pillow that now waited for her everywhere in Washu's lab. Like many things, she had been told that it belonged to her in that life she still couldn't remember. Maybe it had, and maybe it hadn't, but it was comfortable and covered in velvet her favorite shade of teal with black tassels and gold beads.
"You didn't just stop him, Ryoko. You disintegrated him," her mother replied in disgust. "Now we still know absolutely nothing about those he's working with."
"Who says he's working with anybody?"
The petite scientist sighed. "You need special everything to simply get into the palace, much less obtain the poison he did and get it into the royal meals. That poison, by the way, is incredibly rare. I know of only two or three places where it's obtainable."
"That's great!" Ryoko leapt into the air. "So we go check those places out?"
"Hold onto your tail, daughter-mine." As the space pirate was wearing her blue and gold dress with that particular appendage, Washu did indeed reach out to grab it. "Whoever got the poison would have been sure to leave absolutely no tracks behind him. Think about that, dear."
Ryoko's eyes dimmed. "They'll be dead, won't they?"
Washu nodded her head. "I'm afraid so, little girl. Come on, Ryoko; think! He must have said something, anything, that could give us a clue as to his origins."
The demoness thought for a moment. "Right before he attacked me, when I asked who sent him, he said, 'she'll kill me if I tell you. She'll kill me.' He was also spouting off some sort of babble about Tenchi giving Terra special considerations."
"Well that's total crap. Everyone knows how adamant he is about keeping his home unaware of all of this." The redhead sighed. "I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out. Now that one attempt has failed, they'll be more cautious about the next."
* * *
The atmosphere around the table was so tense you could cut it with a knife. The various masked figures stared around the room, anywhere but at each other, and especially at the ebon-masked individual who coldly stared at each and every one of them.
Finally, he spoke. "Orange was a fool. He was clumsy, and allowed himself to be caught. If any of you try anything like that again, I can't guarantee you'll survive Our Lady's wrath. And if you do, you won't survive mine." His voice was low and chill. "Now, tell me what each of you have been up to."
He turned to the individual to his immediate right, a tiny, feminine figure wearing a violet mask. She trembled under his gaze as she replied. "The royal chambers are in an uproar. No one gets in if they're not members of the family or Royal Guard."
"And you?"
"I . . . I'm her Majesty's favorite maid, so they let me in. Um . . ."
"You've done as I asked?"
The trembling increased. "I put the . . . the poison in her morning drink. But you're sure it won't kill her, right? I don't want to hurt the Queen, really I don't."
Black shook his head and sneered at the girl, for her voice and manner betrayed her youth. "No, of course it won't kill her. Our Lady assured me of that. It simply renders her barren until I provide the antidote. Which leads," he looked to the next person, "to you, Blue."
Blue tossed his head. "There's not much that I can tell you. I'm keeping most of the nobles nervous and unsure about recent events, playing up to the Queen, the same damned things I've been doing since we started this."
Black rose at his words. "That sounds like a challenge, Blue."
"Not at all, my dear fellow. I'm simply saying that secrecy is all very well, but if Tsunami is getting involved we might want to hurry things a bit. I don't like the odd things going on any better then you do. We still need to be careful, but we need to hurry."
A cruel smile grew over Black's face. "Very well. Here is the next set of instructions from Our Lady."
* * *
Crack!
Wooden blades clashed together again with a force that would have snapped ordinary metal blades. Luckily, the ruler of Jurai had access to the strongest substances and weapon treatments in the known universe. The legal ones, that is. And these blades, constructed from the hardwoods found only on a tiny moon of the Zoranian nebula, could slice a diamond into julienne strips.
Tenchi leapt back to avoid a clever slash aimed at his face. Through the visor that his countless nervous advisors insisted he wear, the young man grinned at his opponent. "Nice move, Keyzu. Almost had me there."
Keyzu simply huffed out a laugh. "You're just delaying the inevitable. I always win these bouts." So saying, he executed a series of offensive cuts that forced Tenchi back against a wall. "You should know better then to –oof!" He tripped over the foot that had been neatly stuck behind him and landed on his back.
"What was that you were saying?" With a laugh, Tenchi leveled his blade at the other's throat before whipping it away and replacing it with a hand.
Keyzu shook his head as he accepted the help up. "No wonder your court is so shocked at you, my Lord. No properly raised Juraian lord would even think about pulling such a dirty trick. Tripping your opponent indeed! Scandalous!"
Grabbing the towel and drink offered by an ever-present page, Tenchi shook his head. "I was taught to survive, Keyzu. Idiots. You'd think they'd have realized that anyone could take advantage of their honorable traditions to pull some trick and then –bam- they're dead."
The Chief of Guard shook his head again, a more serious expression coming over his face. "And that attitude is exactly why they're so unhappy with you. Mindless and dangerous or not, this empire has relied for countless millennia upon those rules of conduct. Honor and etiquette are more important then water and air here."
Tenchi just sighed and dropped onto a nearby bench. "I know, I know." He raised his head and looked at his best friend. "It just . . . I feel like going crazy here sometimes." He knew as he said this that Keyzu wouldn't understand. The handsome warrior, while occasionally amused by his peoples' idiosyncrasies, was thoroughly Juraian, and dearly loved much of the custom and elaborate ritual.
As he always did, Keyzu simply placed a hand on Tenchi's shoulder and squeezed affectionately. "Hang in there, pard-ner." He slurred the last word and affected a very poor John Wayne accent. (The knight, surprisingly enough, loved Terran Westerns, and had happily educated Tenchi in the odd culture.) "I'm sure things will become better in time."
* * *
Ryoko stepped out of the training simulator that Washu had constructed for her and rubbed the back of her neck. After checking with her shadow to make sure Tenchi was still okay, she phased out, allowing the dirt and sweat she had accumulated to simply fall away. The numerous hours she had spent in the onsen on Terra were never for the sake of cleanliness; she had no need for that, but had simply been lazy.
With a yawn and a proper, catlike stretch, the demoness 'ported through to her bedroom, looking over her shoulder guiltily. Washu didn't like it when she teleported in the living quarters. Something about excess energies and overloading some experiment or machine or something. When no scathing mental reprimands followed her minor misbehavior, Ryoko happily flopped onto her bed.
"Ouch! What the hell-" The cyan-haired woman sat up rubbing her head. A quick check under the pillow resulted in a leather-bound book. "Hmph. What's this? Don't remember seeing this one on the shelves. And why the hell's it here?"
"That, daughter-mine, is a photo album." Washu stood in the doorway. When Ryoko looked over in accusation, the scientist shrugged. "You left the door open." She walked over and perched on the edge of Ryoko's extra wide bed.
"Photo album? What of- oh." Upon lifting the cover, Ryoko was treated to several blank squares. When she put her finger over one, however, a hologram sprang up. She slowly passed her fingers over more; they were all of her and Washu. That's me? I'm . . . I'm cute. And I look so happy.
You were adorable. What, you thought I'd have created an unattractive child? Not with my genes. And what reason did you have to be unhappy? You had a loving mother, run of the Academy, and several of the greatest professors and scientists in the known universe wrapped around your pinky finger.
"Did I have many friends?" Ryoko wanted to know. She was quickly discovering that while the holos featured herself alone, herself with Washu, and herself with countless adults that she assumed were the professors and scientists mentioned, there were no pictures of herself with children of her own age.
Washu sighed. "No. In honesty, I can't say you did. You always were a solitary child. I tried placing you in childcare for a while, but it didn't work. Some of the other children you scared with your powers, and you weren't interested in the rest."
The cyan-maned demoness bowed her head a bit and whispered, "I wish I could remember." Her head rose, and teary eyes sought her mother's. "Can't you do something? Mess with my head and make me remember?"
The older woman shook her head. "You know I can't, little Ryoko. The locks Kagato left on your mind are too complex; I'm afraid of what I might damage in undoing them. You know that."
"I know. I'm sorry. It's just-" Ryoko stopped mid-sentence. She could feel Washu's pain and frustration echoing clearly down their link. Perhaps, once this was all over, she could bug her mother again, but not now. For now, there were more important things at hand. "Don't worry about it. Like I really need them that much anyways. Now," she bared her fangs in a feral grin, "what has the universe's greatest scientist discovered since we last spoke?"
* * *