Infinite Wills

by Garasu

An Epic Tale of a boy who struggles to make a choice, to learn that with time, anyone can change...and finally that sometimes, destiny should be embraced wholeheartedly. [Sacrifices Part B]

4. Opening Moves

Infinite Wills

Part 4: Opening moves

Author: Garasu

Tenchi quietly sipped the tea that had been given to him by his grandfather moments before. He often did not come to the small temple at the top of the hill near his house unless he was required to do chores. But today was different. This morning he was rudely awakened by the loud scream from Ryoko as she collapsed from her beam and since then nothing had gone right. After he had given the unconscious demon over to Washu and had the door firmly shut in his face, Tenchi had not been able to do anything. Finally, his Grandfather, Katsuhito, had found him trying vainly to clean the living room and brought him to the small shrine.

As Tenchi sipped the calming tea, Katsuhito watched his grandson carefully. Though he had not been present when Ryoko had collapsed, it wasn't very hard to sense what had happened through Funaho. Somehow, the gems that had been buried within the hilt of his sword had dissolved to reappear elsewhere. Since this had happened to the pair in the sword, Katsuhito assumed that the same thing had happened to Ryoko's gem. The demoness could of course function without her gems but he could only imagine the shock that it must have caused her to suddenly lose that large amount of power. Indeed though, even as he was worrying about Ryoko, some of his worry was also bent selfishly upon himself. Without the gems feeding power to Funaho and in turn himself, how much longer would he be able to function? Much less under the guise of an old man.

Of course, by Juraian standards, Katsuhito was still quite young. Even if the power source failed to sustain the mirage he would still have a long life ahead of him. What, however, would that do to Tenchi, who had grown up with the image of a wizened old man as his grandfather? How would Ayeka react to the sudden change? He suspected that a large part of the reason she was able to move on past their engagement was because he was an old man now. What would that do to her fragile sense of fairness? In that, Katsuhito was guilty. Guilty that it was necessary to fool his only grandson and his own half sister in to believing something which was untrue, guilty for the shock and pain he might cause when they found out the truth.

However, with the careful ease that many years of practice brings, Katsuhito was able to store away his fears and doubts about the future and focus on the main objective before him: Tenchi. When he had found the boy, the young man was obviously in emotional distress as he had nearly worn a hole through the carpet scrubbing a stain that had been there for years. A simple statement and an invitation was all that the priest needed to bring his grandson to the shrine for tea and perhaps a bit of meditation if the moment could be forgotten.

Tenchi continued to stare straight ahead, trying to count the amount of spots on the wall behind his grandfather. He knew what his grandfather was trying to do, and though appreciated it very much; Tenchi was just not in the mood to let anything go at the moment. Too many things had happened today to just calmly let the slip to the back of his mind, so with every ounce of his mental strength he fought against the soothing effect the tea had and focused instead on an inane task such as counting spots. Tenchi knew that his grandfather was also about to begin talking. Some lesson or other about calming the mind or perhaps even an odd bit of Haiku that the priest seemed fond of writing. So it came as a huge surprise that he wasn't even close when Katsuhito spoke.

"So, I assume you have been following the Tokyo Dragons on the television?" Katsuhito asked, with the quiet platitude any priest is expected to have. "They seem to be having a mighty fine season, don't you think?"

Tenchi nearly spit his tea out in surprise. This was certainly not something that he had expected his grandfather to talk about. Yet, the old man was there before him, staring inquiringly, expecting an answer.

"I…I… don't know." Tenchi hesitated, unsure of what to say or even do. How could his grandfather be so nonchalant about this matter? The house had literally been upturned within the past few days. How in the world was he supposed to answer the question? Should he get annoyed at his grandfather for being so nonchalant? Or maybe he should recognize it for the blissful distraction it could be. Dammit! Why did he have to be so indecisive?

"Hmmm… I guess that you haven't been following them." Katsuhito said, after a few interminable minutes of watching his grandson squirm. "Shame, you have been missing quite a few good games."

The priest took another sip of his tea, and then calmly regarded Tenchi from across the table and sighed. The boy certainly wore his emotions on his sleeve for the entire world to see. Anyone whom he passed on the street could plainly detect that something massive was troubling the boy, but the problem, it seemed, was actually getting him to talk about it. Katsuhito spared another sigh. Tenchi was notoriously difficult sometimes in talking about certain things, especially of anything to do with the female sex.

"I…I guess I should be getting back to the house now." Tenchi began, sensing the awkward silence between himself and his mentor. Besides, he really didn't feel like talking just yet. There still seemed to be a great deal of things left to fume over before he wished to get over them, which was exactly what his grandfather was trying to help him do. "Thanks for the tea." Tenchi bowed once to his grandfather respectfully before finishing the last drop and walking towards the door, feeling his grandfather's eyes follow his movements.

"Of course." Was all that Katsuhito said before Tenchi walked out the door and closed it behind him. Spring had come a while ago to the Masaki shrine, and he was already beginning to feel the heat of summer, which would begin in only another month. Still, the cloudless sky and the slightly cool breeze blowing down from the higher hills carrying with it the slight hint of late blooming cherry trees gave Tenchi a pleasant walk down the countless flights of steps leading from the shrine proper to the house where he lived. In fact, by the time that Tenchi arrived at the front door, his spirits had already lifted a fraction and he felt renewed energy towards the busy tasks ahead.

A picture of far different magnitude however was left in the wake of Tenchi leaving the small shrine office. Inside, once calmly sipping tea while the younger man was there, Katsuhito's face now shifted with intense concentration. The power from his Funaho leaving him suddenly and forcing to maintain his image by his own willpower. Even for the short while Tenchi was in the room the task seemed to slip from his mental fingers constantly. Katsuhito was very glad that the boy was not very perceptive in his current state, for otherwise he would have easily noticed the beads of sweat beginning to appear at the former prince's brow or caught the slight hint of a grimace at the corner of the priest's mouth.

Finally, sure that Tenchi wouldn't return suddenly, Katsuhito let go of the image in his mind that was holding the illusion in place. Silently, the image faded leaving smooth skin in the place of weathered, turning gray hair into luxuriant brownish black. After mere seconds a young man not much older looking than Tenchi himself was left in the place of an old man. Softly, a sigh left Katsuhito's lips as the mental strain eased. It was becoming harder and harder to maintain with each passing hour the deception to so tugged at his conscious. Part of him, secretly hidden away within the folds of his sharp mind wanted to tell Tenchi, wanted to drop the lie that had been maintained for so long. But even as Tenchi was more ready now, with his knowledge of Jurai and his heritage than he was a mere two years ago it was still a daunting task to reveal that his grandfather was not much older in appearance than himself.

More daunting than the reaction Tenchi would have would be the one Ayeka might sustain. He held no allusions about himself, and was reasonably sure that her love for Tenchi was complete. Still, there was a small doubt in his mind that his appearance had helped usher the change within herself and that destroying that helping hand might throw the emotional princess into a state of turmoil. Not, of course that Tenchi would eventually win out against her confusion. When the two were together he could feel something snap into place almost audibly. They of course couldn't feel it, but it was almost if the two pieces of the same puzzle, twisting and turning, were trying to find a way that they fit together slowly building a larger image. Every time Katsuhito saw Ayeka and Tenchi alone it was as if more pieces were falling into place, she teaching him more about his heritage, he teaching her more about herself.

Softly, the priest padded to the nearest window and stared out at the brilliant cloud spotted sky. When a feeling of deep apology and regret came across his mind he smiled. Funaho's personality was always contrite; she didn't like leaving him to rely on his own power too often but was helpless in the face of her loss of energy.

"It's alright," he said to himself, forming silent thoughts of acceptance and love along with the physical words. "We knew it was bound to happen sometime."

Another silent wave came across his mind, this time expressing its own confusion, but also reluctant acceptance. Funaho had always accepted their fate together. She knew, even as they breached the Juraian atmosphere in pursuit of Ryoko so long ago that they were never coming back to the place of her birth. Still, it must be difficult to accept a sure, slow death knowing that there was nothing one could do about it. Katsuhito sighed to himself, though it was surely more painful to acknowledge the death of loved than oneself. The symbiotic bond between Royal Tree and member of the royal family was closer than that of even love. The tree and the person whom the tree joined with often shared the same personalities, thoughts and feelings. In essence, it was a joining of the mind; the Juraian providing the conscious thought and direction and the tree providing the ability to transport almost anywhere. The bond between the two was so strong for a tree of the second generation and earlier that rarely did they survive the death of their partner.

Fortunately, as Katsuhito knew, Funaho had taken root in the earth's fertile soil. Though she would never become a spaceship ever again the soil should provide a long and healthy life, albeit with a much reduced energy signature, for his beloved tree. Still, the thought of death and its immediate repercussions kept the now young looking priest occupied for some time.

* * *

The black spacecraft drifted silently through the void of space, it's sleek and light absorbing hull making the ship appear as small black hole amongst the star riddled background. With the obvious destination of a small planet hidden halfway around the main star in the system, the spacecraft immediately corrected the course and checked its speed with a collection of small white-hot jets. Being careful to stay far away from the well-known defenses of the systems main habitable planet it carefully held a small holding orbit around the star and then went silent.

Unfortunately, the small spacecraft thousands of kilometers away with a large body between itself and the planet, failed to take into effect the other formidable defense the planet had other than electronic devices: living, conscious spacecraft.

Tsunami had designed the trees perfectly. They were the seamless integration of technology and biology, and like all biological life forms evolved and learned through experiences. It was exactly that sort of instinct, instilled into the trees conscious minds so long ago that the reason was forgotten by all that alerted a dainty brunette during her evening meal.

No longer uncomfortable with the small light touches in the mind that the Royal Trees used as communication between their partners and themselves, the woman paused only briefly to assimilate the information before schooling her expression into the pleasant appearance it had held before the mental interruption. A quick glance around her immediately revealed that no one else had been alerted by their Trees yet. Just as well, she thought, absently brushing a loose strand of her long hair away from her eyes. When another woman, this one with blue hair flowing around her body like two rivers caught her eyes and held them for a long while, Funaho smiled. It was just like Misaki to catch the momentary hesitation in her expression. The Second Queen of Jurai was too uncanny in her ability to perceive minute expression changes. When her brownish-green eyes quickly conveyed look that said "later," the skin surrounding the crimson eyes of Misaki crinkled merrily in response. She loved mysteries almost as much as she adored cute things.

Still, despite the merriment that was echoed throughout Misaki's frame, Funaho held her reservations about the sudden appearance of a small craft in their system. Especially if it had been holding the same pattern for some time. The orbit described by her ships calculations would place the orbit just outside their electronic sensor range. Though for the life of her, she couldn't imagine anyone attempting an aggressive scouting posture with Jurai, they're navy was just too powerful to have anything more engaging than a light skirmish. That was even considering that anyone in the known galaxy was disgruntled enough with the Jurai Empire to muster a sufficiently large force. That of course worried Funaho even more, if it wasn't anyone in the known Galaxy, it meant that it was someone that they hadn't encountered yet. That could be very dangerous.

In fact, Funaho thought it dangerous enough to tell Misaki immediately after dinner, when they were quietly finishing up some final affairs in their dual office.

"I had wondered what that small frown was for," Misaki commented as soon as Funaho had told her the news. "Does this warrant an official investigation, do you think?"

"I'm not sure," Funaho sat down in her chair heavily. "It's just one small ship, unknown configuration, but small enough to not be a serious threat to anything we have. It's well hidden too. The only reason my ship detected it was because she said she remembered it. Though she wasn't able to tell me from where or when."

"Interesting." Misaki intoned, deep in thought with her own ship. Sometimes the twin trees could combine their abilities to give a more complete picture, but all she was getting from her own ship was more of what Funaho was saying. That her ship remembered the design, but could not say from where.

"What should we say to Asuza?" Misaki asked, when she had concluded her conversation with her tree.

Funaho thought her answer through for a few minutes, considering all the options. Though she dearly loved her husband, she acknowledged that he could be incredibly stubborn sometimes. There were many times when it was just more convenient, as well as easier to let him find out through his own spaceship tree. Certainly, as she decided in an instant, this was one of those times.

"We say nothing," Funaho spoke slowly, then added quickly, "for now."

Suddenly the child like humor appeared in Misaki, momentarily catching the usually implacable Funaho off guard.

"Oh! Can we go check it out? Can we?" She asked breathlessly, a wide-eyed innocent expression complete with huge grin absolutely devoid of anything but pure happiness. For a few moments, Funaho could only stare at her sister. True, she had been living with the happy go-lucky Misaki for centuries but that still did not prepare her for the frequent and drastic mood changes that the second queen sometimes went through.

Flustered, but not flabbergasted, Funaho thought upon Misaki's excited question. It had been quite a while since she had been out with her ship, and it might be nice to have only the stars and the large blackness of space before her again instead of the endless politicking of the Jurai nobility. In an instant, she had made up her mind, and silently nodded towards Misaki with a tolerant smile lining her face at the younger woman's antics.

"Your ship or mine?" Misaki asked as she and Funaho walked out of the room and towards the large bay that housed the Royal Family's space-ship trees completely unaware of the danger that awaited them, and indeed all of Jurai.

Kiyone sighed and laid back against one of the large comfortable cushions that graced the guest couch in Ayeka's private chamber. Since they had arrived not more than a few days ago, she had been run ragged with tours of the palace, of the city at the base of the roots of the imperial tree and even some of the surrounding area. Despite the exercise of all the walking, she had thoroughly enjoyed herself as Ayeka took her around to some of the more interesting things to see on Jurai. Sometimes Sasami, who was beginning to improve in both manner and health, came with them and even added her own list of hidden places of interest.

Today, however, she intended to move on to her Uncles place. She had enjoyed the hospitality of the Royal Palace, but now she acknowledged that it was time to move on with her original intent since that fateful day at Galaxy Police Headquarters. It had been a nice vacation for her, and a much needed rest period, but there was only so much rest that Kiyone was willing to take. After a while her hands started to itch for something to do. So it was during a brilliant sunset that Kiyone found herself saying goodbye to Ayeka and Sasami. Unfortunately, she found that the two queens had left the planet for some private business. This was a shame, because in the short while that she had spoken to the two women, she had genuinely liked them.

However, for Kiyone, the bitterest goodbye was held for the First-Princess, Ayeka. In the time that the two young women had been together over this strange and unexpected journey they had become quite good friends. Enough so that Ayeka had even confided in her love for Tenchi, which confirmed Kiyone's earlier surmise. Though the news didn't quite shock the teal haired ex-policewoman, it did give her a somewhat mild surprise that Ayeka had revealed that bit of information to her. But once given, Kiyone was not inclined to argue with the princess's trust.

"You really must consider again soon." Ayeka said quietly into Kiyone's ear, as they shared a quick good-bye hug, and then she withdrew with a shy smile lighted on her face.

"And you must consider visiting me at my uncle's." Kiyone added, repeating an offer she had made last night. "I think you'd really like it there, and Tarmin would absolutely flip at the chance to have Jurai royalty visit his office." Kiyone crinkled her nose in a wide smile, which took years off of her normally mature looking expression. "He'd probably try to get you to agree to buy some of his products as well." She added with a sparkle of laughter playing across her teal-blue eyes.

Ayeka laughed a soft, rich peal of genuine humor. "I'm quite sure that I'd like to meet your uncle." She said as she dried the laughter tears from her eyes, and then sobered as quickly. "Do please call often, I'd like to see how you are doing and it would be nice to hear from someone that spent time with all of us on Earth."

At the mention of that planet, Ayeka's vision grew unfocused as her thought drifted towards a subject that Kiyone had no trouble guessing. "Do you think they're all alright?" Ayeka asked, suddenly, letting her worry show through.

Kiyone smiled reassuringly until Ayeka returned the smile, shyly.

"I'm sure they're doing fine, but missing you and Sasami like crazy," she said.

Ayeka laughed again and quickly gave Kiyone another hug. "But I'll surely miss you! Now go, before I decide to change my mind and have the royal guards chase you down and bar you from leaving as I had originally planned!"

Now it was Kiyone's turn to laugh, then knelt down to her knees and spent a long moment giving Sasami, who had spent most of the past few minutes absolutely silent, a long hug.

"Do you really have to go?" Sasami asked, a hint of sadness tingeing her tone.

"Mmmhmm," Kiyone nodded. "I really have to go, I need to do something again; real work. My Uncle Tarmin has promised me a nice job and I think it's time to make good on that offer. You can always come visit whenever you like, right along with your sister."

Showing a maturity bellying her age, Sasami swallowed the sadness at Kiyone leaving and put on a sweet smile, then nodded her head in agreement, leaving no doubt in Kiyone's mind that she probably would see Sasami and Ayeka very soon.

With all well wishes said, and several images of Kiyone, Ayeka and Sasami when they were touring Jurai as gifts in her arms, there was nothing left for Kiyone to do but silently turn from her new found friends and walk up the ramp that lead to the Yagami. It would be a relatively short journey to her Uncle's place, as the planet where his main headquarters were located was within Jurai space.

Once the familiar darkness of space was again surrounding Kiyone she leaned back into the softness of her pilot's chair, for a moment reluctant to enter the coordinates of Rukbat into the Yagami's drive computer. After only a moment, however, sense shook her from her reluctance. The vacation had served its purpose. Kiyone was well rested, and even sometimes at peace with her change in life. If she could just manage to make herself happy with Tarmin's engineers she would be very well off, but deep down, hidden within the depths of her mind was the inescapable fact that the Galaxy Police was the thing she held most dear.

"Kiyone?" A synthesized voice suddenly called the woman from her ruminations. "Please enter coordinates."

"Oh, sorry, 'Gami. We're going to Rukbat." Kiyone replied, somewhat distantly. It took a lot to distract her mind when she got into a rut.

"Affirmative." Yagami replied in his usual brisk manner. "Coordinates locked, estimated time of arrival is three hours fifteen minutes and thirty seconds."

Kiyone knew she wasn't needed for anything more, Yagami was very efficient in maintaining courses through the Void. And since it was such a short journey there wasn't much that she could do besides taking a short nap and a nice hot shower, which she felt she desperately needed. Kiyone had been up very early in the morning, making sure that all of her belongings were back on the Yagami before she left, not that it really mattered if she had left anything behind though, but it was just long standing habit.

Leaving the comfort of her chair, Kiyone exited the small but well organized cockpit and bore immediately left and walked for several lengths before coming to a small lift door. Despite the relative size of Yagami, the actual habitable space inside the ship was small. The living quarters were confined to two small levels immediately below the cockpit level, with her personal room on the closest along with an entertainment and fitness area with several guest suites on the floors immediately below that. Everything else on the ship was either storage space or the engine.

When the lift door finally opened to the level which contained her suite of rooms Kiyone felt herself growing wearier with every step towards the door. But first, she desperately needed a shower otherwise she knew that she would sleep the entire three hours.

Kiyone was never more glad of the fact that she had taken the effort (not to mention the expense) of adding a real running water shower in the Yagami than when she felt the first drop of comfortably hot water on her fingertips. Her system was made up of a separate tank designed exclusively for this purpose that held a continuously recycling filter that made sure that the two hundred-liter tank capacity was never in danger of drying up. As Kiyone stepped under the running water and let it run down her back, her thoughts ran back to expression on Ayeka's face when the princess had finally confessed of her love towards Tenchi.

Watching Ayeka's face during that moment had made Kiyone feel the rare instance of jealousy towards her new found friend. The teal haired young woman had never really had time for relationships, or so she continuously told herself after the occasional eager young officer approached her and she turned him down. Of course, the time for such things never indicated that she didn't yearn for something a little more intimate than professional courtesy. Looking down at her slim physique, the water running through channels created by various striations of muscle or following curves of a more feminine nature, Kiyone decided she certainly wasn't unattractive. There were, of course, the offers she had turned down at various points or another or the even fewer offers she accepted over the past years. Still, those evenings were great fun, but nothing more than a temporary escape for both of them.

Unfortunately, even while Kiyone was wishing for a more permanent relationship she realized that all the wishing in the world was futile until she was willing to sacrifice part of her career to make one happen. At this moment in time she certainly wasn't willing to do that, so with a sigh she ducked her head under the gently flowing stream of water and stayed there for a moment as if trying to wash the unpleasant thoughts from her mind. After a quick wash and a little longer soak, Kiyone turned off the water and stood dripping inside the stall for a moment, then smiled. She realized then just how spoiled she had been by using the Misaki family onsen and the Royal bathing rooms on Jurai; her puny little shower was barely enough of a laxative anymore. Yet it still managed to calm her nerves just enough to make her excited about visiting uncle Tarmin again.

Kiyone spent the next half an hour sitting in front of a mirror, first drying off then brushing her long teal blue hair. Kiyone was a plain and practical woman in every respect. Even though she preferred her hair long, a direct contrast to most of the female police officers who kept their hair short, she never tied it in anything more complex than a simple braid during even the most formal occasions. Most days she kept it in a simple ponytail or let it hang down her back. One extravagance that she always indulged in, though was brushing. It was always such a relaxing feeling at the end of a stressful day to sit down in front of a mirror and feel the brush stoke through her lengths or gently massage the scalp with the bristles. Sometimes, when she was younger, Tarmin would even humor her and attempt to style her hair for her. Some of the best times of her childhood were spent in the bathroom while her uncle made a fool of himself brushing her hair and trying to tie it into the fancy knots that were fashionable with all the other girls her age.

Finally, when she was sure that all the various tangles that could have accumulated during a day were out, Kiyone snatched a small band from the table before her and tied her long hair into a quick ponytail. A few more moments were spent on finding her bedclothes and dressing. By the time she had finished everything and arrived at the foot of her bed, Kiyone felt like she could sleep the whole afternoon away. In fact, she had just barely uttered a verbal command towards Yagami to wake her shortly before they arrived before she was fast asleep.

Ayeka finally decided to go back towards the palace when the last glitter from the Yagami's engines was out of sight. She had almost forgotten how nice it was to have someone close to her own age to talk to. Right from the start, Ayeka had felt that Kiyone was someone that she could trust with almost anything. The teal haired ex-police detective (for Kiyone had given her the entire tale about how she came to be at the Masaki's the other night) had seemed to easily be one of the most level headed people Ayeka knew. And while she never always had the answers, if the two women talked long enough they could almost always find a solution to a presented problem.

"Ayeka?"

Ayeka brought herself from her thoughts immediately at the sound of Sasami's inquisitive voice at her side. A warm, assuring smile spread across her face as she looked down towards her sister. The sadness that had been very evident in Sasami's posture before they left for Jurai seemed to have dissipated almost completely, though Ayeka could sometimes still hear a hint of it and only wonder at its cause. Still, though, it could very well have to do with the fact that all their friends were on a very far away planet.

"Yes, Sasami?" Ayeka asked.

Sasami hesitated for a moment, and then seemed to withdraw slightly away from Ayeka. "Oh, umm, nothing."

Ayeka sighed. Her sister was doing that more often lately. It was beginning to be a little frustrating, especially since the last incident that happened. She had thought that they had been able to settle any stray feelings that night so long ago when Tsunami had appeared before them to explain the little girl's feelings. Even more frustrating was the fact that Ayeka could never seem to draw anything more out after Sasami said something along those lines. So this time, she didn't even try, but instead changed the subject to something happier.

"We'd better get inside, Sasami," Ayeka said, letting a smile spread across her face. "Grandmother Seto is cooking again tonight. I'm sure you would like to exchange recipes again. She would especially like to know how good you've gotten while we were away."

That certainly seemed to catch Sasami's attention, as the next moment, a smile began to slide across the little princess's face at the thought of their Grandmother being so surprised at how she had improved her cooking skills. Grandmother Seto had taught Sasami to cook long ago when the girl had taken to following her around everywhere she went. At first, Asuza wasn't to happy about one of his children learning such a mundane task but he certainly came around that first meal where Sasami had definitely proved she had had a very deep talent for it.

So as Ayeka began to lead Sasami back to the palace, Sasami began to talk about all the wonderful things she was going to cook and Seto would be so surprised. Through most of the explanations, she could only smile tolerantly at many things that she just didn't understand, or sometimes sigh sadly. Ayeka had never been able to take to cooking as Sasami had. The elder princess supposed that there were just too many things for her to remember, to many details to sort out. Though, even when she wanted to make something nice for Tenchi, whom she would try and remember everything in the entire history of the world if would make him happy, it would never come out quite right unless her sister helped. After a while, Ayeka just had to swallow the fact that there were some things in which she would never be able to do.

That particularly hard to swallow fact occupied Ayeka all the way to her room, where she and Sasami then parted in order to get ready for dinner. Fortunately, tonight it was to be a family affair (the only times in which Seto and Sasami were allowed to indulge with the cooking). Ayeka really didn't feel like dealing with any of the foreign dignitaries that were constantly surrounding the Emperor of Jurai. Thinking of family, however, this fact reminded Ayeka that she had not seen her Aunt Funaho or even her mother all day. They had said that they were going on a short trip to investigate a matter, but that they would be back before dinner. Of course, as Chief Intelligence Officer and head of the Royal Bodyguards, Funaho and Misaki certainly had a lot of business to attend to but Ayeka couldn't help but to start to worry that the pair had not returned yet. As the princess began to get dressed for dinner, she wondered just what exactly they were up to.

"What do you suppose it is?" Misaki crowded next to Funaho, her expression wide with curiosity and wonder. Both she and Funaho had arrived at the projected area of the mysterious object and were now looking directly at it through the viewscreen on Funaho's ship. Strangely, it was like nothing they had ever seen before, yet somehow familiar. The object itself wasn't very big, registering two point three meters in length with a width of one meter. The material however was the strangest thing that the Funaho had ever seen. At first, she assumed it must have been solid rock judging by the way it absorbed and reflected light. However, her ship was showing that it was actually micro silicon crystals fused together. All in all, it achieved a slightly menacing look but was absolutely dwarfed by the Funaho's tree-ship. Especially unnerving were the slightly lengthy spikes that were randomly strewn across the body.

"It isn't very cute," Misaki replied somewhat distastefully, after Funaho could only shrug her shoulders and shake her head to answer Misaki's earlier question.

Of course, Funaho could definitely agree to that.

"What do you suppose we should do with it?" Funaho asked her sister. The first queen was generally a very impulsive person, making decisions at a very quick pace that more often or not left those under her command automatically doing what she commanded rather than thinking about it themselves. However, one learned that her impulses were almost always better than a hundred analysts trying to come up with a decision in a hundred days very quickly, which made her an excellent intelligence officer.

This was, unfortunately, one of the few times that Funaho was stuck. On one hand she knew that left to its own devices, this small mysterious ship could do some very harmful damage. On the other, she was getting a very bad feeling about the looks and feel of this ship. The really bad thing about this feeling, though, was that her instincts said it was a no win situation. Something deep inside Funaho really wished that this thing would go away and never come back.

"What do your instincts tell you?" Misaki asked quietly, suddenly in one of her very rare serious moods. It took only a quick glance to tell Funaho that Misaki was having the same sinking feeling in her gut as she was. Their only problem now was which course of action would be the best. Destroy the ship and the originators would more than likely know that they had been discovered and either become more overt or more covert, both were equally bad. Bring the ship back to Jurai for study and it could possibly become the Trojan horse of earth legend doing irreparable damage to both the civil and military population.

Funaho sighed and looked at her sister for assurance at the same moment her mind made up a decision.

"We must destroy it." Funaho said flatly. "We cannot risk whatever this thing might carry to anyone. If we destroy it, we likely will find out whom or what has made it because they will most assuredly know we have discovered them."

Misaki nodded her assent with a set expression on her face. Only for a moment however, as soon as the second queen was querying the weapons systems and locking the target her lips grew into a smile that was showing her teeth, though her expression remained deadly.

"I'll teach you to mess with my Jurai." Misaki mumbled as the target was established and the permission was given for Funaho's ship to fire. The ship's life was ended in a rather anti-climatic implosion as the weapons of the ship encountered no resistance and ripped its hull apart. In fact, there was even a lack of any debris, which made Funaho fall even more ill at ease with the situation. Ships just didn't disintegrate like that unless they were meant to do so.

Despite all the confusion that she had been receiving from her ship though, and considering all the uneasy feelings that she had been getting ever since they encountered the strange ship it still came as a huge shock to Funaho when she suddenly lost mental control of her own tree. For one mind-bending moment, Misaki and Funaho were suspended in midair then dropped unceremoniously onto the ground, as gravity was re-established. The two queens had no more time to look dazedly at each other before second wave of disorientation rocked Funaho to her core and the world around her began to spin violently.

Misaki was by her side in an instant despite the lurching ground and was somehow keeping steady on the heaving ground. In an instant the nausea was gone and Funaho found that she could stand, with the aid of the second queen.

"What was that?" Misaki asked worriedly, trying to do a visual check on her sister's health before the next episode could occur. Though she seemed to be physically fine, Funaho felt anything but as she stood uneasily on two feet, putting most of her weight on Misaki. Before she could answer though another wave hit her, this time in the form a searing pain inside her head. Funaho could barely bite back the scream of pain as wave after wave seemed to pass directly through her body with the focal point being her mind. The mental pressure of whatever was attacking her was so great then that Funaho fell to her knees clutching the sides of her head. Fortunately though, she only had to deal with a few moments of the splitting pain as her mind gave up on the pressure and the blackness of unconsciousness over took her, relieving the pain.

The virus that was introduced through the hull of Funaho's ship did its job quickly and did it well. After the primary target was disabled, it was programmed to compromise the link that existed between all the royal ships. To do that, however, there was still one obstruction: Tsunami. To that end, the virus was tailor designed to adjust to the biology of a dimensional being and use it as a base to spread more of itself throughout the network. Fortunately, killing was not its goal, only disabling so as the first signs of reaching the benign Juraian saint the reaction was mild but effective.

The virus first insinuated itself inside Tsunami's mind, the one place where it would have access to the entire network of Royal Trees. The first thing that the goddess felt was a splitting headache, much like that experience in Funaho, which drove all thoughts but that of pain from her. As it rapidly increased in number before Tsunami could even be aware of what was attacking and counteract it, the virus slowly disabled more functions that the goddess had. Soon, the lovely spirit was sinking to her knees in pain all her thoughts bent towards protecting the last barrier she had in her mind, the link between herself and Sasami.

In a strange twist of fortune, the one barrier that Tsunami had left was the one barrier in which the virus never attacked. It was programmed only to disable the goddess, then to proliferate down the link until all ships under the network were closed down. It neither took into consideration, or was programmed to recognize and outside link that was not related to its objective. Though, with as closely as Tsunami was linked with Sasami there was the progression of symptoms that the girl felt. So when she suddenly feinted at the dinner table from a terrible headache it caused great commotion.

Ayeka was chatting reasonably well with Sasami when the little girl began to sway as if she were beginning to feel dizzy. Though her first reaction was that her little sister was just tired from the last minute touring that she had done with Kiyone, it soon became apparent to Ayeka that something was going terribly wrong. That realization came, however, mere seconds before Sasami clutched her head tightly and shut her eyes in pain. This lasted only seconds and Ayeka had only moments to reach beside her and prevent the child from falling backwards as Sasami's eyes flew open then rolled back into her head as unconsciousness overtook her.

Tsunami was disabled, the link lay open before the virus and the network was at its command. With numbers swelling, reaching countless trillions it surged for the open portal in Tsunami's mind and with lightening speed overtook the first of its many targets. The first ones encountered were those that had the strongest links with Tsunami, the first generation trees, the offspring that came directly from the zeroth generation tree itself.

There were relatively few first generation trees alive in modern Jurai. Funaho controlled one, along with its twin, Misaki's ship. Funaho's tree had been the ship that was encountered first and had already been disabled which left only two. Misaki's tree and the Emperor of Jurai itself were the only others that had been linked with a living first generation tree. Within minutes of the first encounter with Funaho's ship, its strong link with Tsunami unfortunately speeding the process beyond comprehension, these two ships came under siege from the virus.

Misaki was the first to feel the effects, perhaps because of a closer bond between her ship and herself in combination with the tentative link between her and Funaho's. Misaki, as the head of the royal bodyguards was naturally a serious martial artist. She was used to pain, and had over the many years she had been practicing had even acquired a slight immunity towards certain types of pain. However, when the headache first struck her mind it was like nothing she had ever felt before. It felt like a fire was burning bright and hot within her brain. The normal techniques for bypassing pain were useless against the affront. Despite all that, Misaki did not scream or even yell out. The only outward sign of the inner struggle taking place was her wide, dilated eyes and the occasional tear falling from her dark pink orbs. Inevitably, the conscious effort began to weaken and the second queen could feel the blackness coming forward.

"Oh…oh my." Misaki uttered as her body began to fold itself on top of Funaho as the last defense to mental trauma asserted control over all her motor functions. The second queen was out in less than two minutes.

For Ayeka, Sasami collapsing was bad enough. The room in which she was in had fallen into confusion since the youngest princess collapsed. Everyone was either trying to find someone to help or was scrambling uselessly about the room, yelling that the princess had taken ill. Sasami was bad enough, so when her father, the Emperor of Jurai, doubled up in pain and began clutching his head madly it sent the room into a state of confusion that went beyond insane. Doctors began arriving only moments after Asuza blacked out, yet went straight for her father, bypassing Ayeka and Sasami for the moment.

"What are you doing?" Ayeka yelled at the top of her lungs, straining her voice to reach over the turmoil of the room. "Princess Sasami is here and she needs help as well. You can't all work on the Emperor!"

Ayeka continued yelling, completely unwilling to leave her sister's side, until she caught a doctor's attention. It was almost worth it to see the shame on his face as the young man ran over and began to examine Sasami. Now that the medical staff had arrived, things were beginning to quiet down. Those who were not helping were sent from the room and the doctors arranged for the Emperor and Sasami to rest on several gathered pillows, making them as comfortable as possible. The quiet, however, was not meant to last long.

When the virus had completely infected and disabled the first generation links and with unnatural speed began to divide rapidly again. Once the numbers were to the bursting point for the hosts that were not used to such infection, the offspring surged down the weaker links from Tsunami that comprised the second and third generation trees and down. All over the empire, Royal Treeships were disabled and their pilots sent careening towards unconsciousness. The speed in which the once mighty Juraian Empire was disabled would shock and confuse future analysts. For within the span of only a half an hour all ships connected to the network that Tsunami had established eons ago were disabled and non-responsive to any requests, their pilots all but useless. All command ships, comprising a full one-third of the Juraian fleet was now useless.

For one princess, the lone member of the royal Family still awake and functioning, the next few hours were the most enlightening as well as frightening hours in her life. It was during this time that Ayeka began to realize the vastness of the people who completely relied on her father. Every minute it seemed that some noble or another was demanding an audience with her, or a panicking palace official would come running into her chambers with yet another emergency.

To the Princesses credit, Ayeka handled the situations well, and with a confidence in herself and her decisions borne of necessity. Unfortunately, even for the best leaders there comes a point when one has to delegate to someone or be hopelessly swamped with the sheer amount of things to do. With all the upper nobility still unresponsive there was no one with the authority or the tile that anyone would listen to. Even in this emergency, Ayeka was disgusted to find that some of the lower nobility refused to listen to those of equal rank, despite it being in their best interests to do so. Still others, she was certain, held machinations of their own for a quick rise up the political ladder.

Princess Ayeka sucked a quick breath of air through her clenched teeth as she tried hard to think of anyone that held a title of authority that she could completely trust. A moment later a person sprang immediately to mind. Someone she trusted implicitly, who held a title of nobility that no one could supercede. But how would she be able to get him here? Would he even want to come here, knowing what it was he had to do? The latter, it seemed, was an easy question to answer because Ayeka knew this person's heart very well. But there still remained the previous question of getting him here.

Making up her mind very quickly, Ayeka ran down the hall to the communications room, resolutely ignoring the string of people that followed her shouting their questions. When she entered the quiet comm. room she locked the door behind her. As she switched the channel on, Ayeka prayed that Tenchi would have enough sense to use the galaxial receiver that Washu had installed in the Masaki's dining room years ago when the normal earth channels proved to be too boring.

* * *

"Sir," a voice broke the complete silence that permeated the bridge. "It seems as if the virus has made contact with a vessel. I'm getting no reading from the beacon; I assume it has been destroyed as designated?"

A nod was all that the Captain of the ship gave to the officer monitoring the beacon's progress. If the probe had been destroyed by the intended person then it should take no more than a few minutes to knock out the most important areas of Juraian civilization. It was merely a matter of sitting back and waiting for the effects to take place.

Though he was by no means a very patient man, especially when it came to the tribulations of war, the captain certainly did not wish to disobey the direct orders of the priest. If he was told to wait, then he would wait. Of course, that didn't mean that he had to like it, or that he couldn't make sure that Urchoíd was ready for the mission he was to do.

"Urchoíd?" he voiced in a raspy fashion, activating the speaker that would automatically make sure the boy got this command with his hand.

"Yes?" The quiet answer came almost immediately, presumably from the boy's room.

"Are you ready?" the captain asked, certain that he was but still feeling like he had to do something doing this interminable waiting period.

"Yes." Was all that was said before the link went dead. The captain just shook his head. A month in that temple had changed the boy. He could remember a time when Urchoíd Dorchacht was the pride of the military. He had received all the training one could possible receive all because of so superstition about golden eyes. Though the grizzly old shop captain didn't believe in superstitions anymore, he had to admit that the boy was a natural. A more skilled warrior he could not imagine anywhere else in the entire fleet. Then came that damn call, the call that brought Urchoíd from the military, where he belonged, to that damned temple in the capitol city. After that, Urchoíd had become quiet, reserved and less likely to use fighting force when unless absolutely necessary. Such a thing wasn't natural, it wasn't natural at all, he thought.

Sitting in the small room that had been provided for him during this journey, Urchoíd meditated on the mission that was at hand. He preferred to keep the room that he was in dark, as his eyes had adjusted to the constant darkness of Lady Tokimi's hall. As a result, he alienated several of his former brothers immediately. No one liked walking into a dark room. Yet, try as he might, the thoughts of peace and a successful mission could not come. He was constantly thinking of things these days, something that had both disturbed and frightened him. Lately, it seemed, images of another boy around his age began to appear. They were like the dreams he used to have of another opposite of him in every respect, yet this boy was in a style of clothing he did not recognize. Gone were the flowing white robes and the green banners that flew as if in a wind, even when there was none. Gone also were the three triangles of power on the forehead, whose light had haunted his dreams. This time, the boy was dressed in a simple brown work tunic with black pants. A happy smile replaced the grim determination he remembered from dreams past.

Is this the same man? Urchoíd thought to himself quietly. Perhaps this champion transformed as he did only when he was performing a service for his patron. Such things Urchoíd could only wonder at, and be more confused if he tried to ask Sagart about them. The old priest had not been very forthcoming with much knowledge of late, simply responding to his questions with a basic "you'll understand, in due time young one."

Urchoíd sighed and opened his eyes to the slightly lighter darkness. That answer had begun to wear his patience thin. Yet, it seemed, that Lady Tokimi wished it that way. Though he could hardly fathom a guess as to why she would wish to keep her champion in the dark about his future enemy. The mere fact that he existed was enough for everyone around the young cephean but himself. Hopefully, this mission would provide a few answers. Then, before he could think to bring any other thoughts of the mission to the forefront of his mind, the com link activated again and the raspy voice of the ship captain filled his ears.

"Urchoíd, it is time. You know what to do. You must penetrate the defense ring around the planet and then descend to their royal palace. In your ship you will find a map of the palace that will guide you to the nursery. We must have a seedling of one of the trees if this plan is to work. We have already given you the means to penetrate the defense ring in the form of a mechanical micro-virus. Once on the planet you are on your own. Failure will not be permitted." Then the link went dead, leaving Urchoíd to contemplate the final sentence on his own.

After a few minutes, the young cephean got up and exited his room, making immediately for the small launching bay that was on the giant ship. The small carrier that was to be his vehicle to get into the Juraian planet was extremely small, having only enough room for the engine and the cockpit with not much else. It was black in color, as all things the cepheans made, with irregular lines that were specifically added to prevent any sort of detection device from giving an accurate reading. Just running his hands over the dark material and Urchoíd could feel the unpleasant journey ahead of him. It was a long, long way from the outer reaches of the Jurai system to the planet itself.

Urchoíd sighed softly, and then entered the ship. Within moments he screen in front of him lit up with the standard instruments, as well as permission to begin the mission whenever he was ready. Within moments, the small black craft had expertly backed out of the bay doors and begun the long journey towards the small blue dot in the center of the viewing field.

"Sir, we're reading minor fluctuations within the navigational computers. Difference of point oh oh nine percent detected." The young Juraian officer turned to his superior and gave him a quizzical look. They had just run a diagnostic on this very computer as early as yesterday. It shouldn't be that far off yet.

"Didn't we run a diagnostic and calibration test on that computer?" The older officer asked, already beginning to think that some young recruit shirked his duties again for quicker leave.

"Yes, Sir, I supervised it myself."

"Well, run it again, let's see if we can't fix the problem before anything serious happens." A difference of point oh oh nine wasn't bad yet. Though in space terms, even the smallest difference could have a direct bearing on where you were going. For the ring of satellites that surrounded the homeworld, an exact positioning was crucial to stay in the stationary orbit as well as keep from colliding with the other satellites that were in extremely close quarters.

"Diagnostics and calibration tests running," the officer spoke and began reading off the different values on the screen to be compared with the set of values that were supposed to be there. Just as the test was finishing, a red alert began flashing on the proximity computer. The officer spun over to the device and looked at the values amazedly.

"Sir, now we're reading a small object closing fast. About to pass us in…two minutes," once again he turned to his superior for help. "This can't be right, sir. I've got a visual on the area right now and nothing is showing up. No heat signature, no reflection from infrared. Nothing!"

"Damn cheap politicians," the man in charge mumbled to himself. "Utterly sure that nothing will ever pull another Ryoko and ever come close to us that they do not provide adequate technology to maintain these heaps of junk. I'm sick of it." The frustrated officer banged his fist against the arm of the chair he currently occupied. "Shut it down, all of it. Reboot the complete system in five minutes."

"But, Sir! We'll be completely defenseless!" the younger man shot back, too surprised by the order to maintain proper discipline. "It will take an estimated 30 minutes for all the satellites to come back online once the reboot sequence is given. We'll be under emergency power only."

"So be it," the officer fired angrily. "If those damn politicians want to have a protected planet then they better give us the damn money to support ourselves. Now shut it down!"

"Yes, Sir!" The young man snapped to attention in his chair, then turned to locate a small shield surrounding the main power switch. They would be offline for almost forty minutes and have only enough power to maintain orbit and life-support. Although he was hesitant at first at such a radical procedure, the orders were not to be disobeyed. So with a sigh of the inevitable, he disengaged the shield and flipped the switch.

All around the planet the lights on the satellites went out one by one, and the main controlling sphere was blanketed in darkness before the reassuring hum of the emergency generators came on and small lights, barely enough to see by, came on.

"Now all we have to do is wait," the commander said in a quiet voice before leaning back into his chair. He would have a few choice words to share with the committee at the next budgetary meeting, but until then there was nothing he could do but try and fix this glitch as fast as possible.

Unnoticed by the now silent satellite defense ring, Urchoíd's ship slipped into the atmosphere of Jurai and quietly made its way to the capital city. Under the cover of darkness, his ship drifted easily within walking distance of the palace itself to find a spacious landing area within the darkened royal gardens. A mere moment later, the young cephean stepped onto the grounds of the Jurai Royal Palace and entered as stealthily as he could. As he disappeared into the grand halls, following the map that had been committed to memory he wondered just what his lady wanted with a tree seed anyway. He was so distracted by that pervading question that he failed to notice a small sensing beacon on the right hand side of the wall and walked right through its silent trigger.

It started with one guard suddenly appearing before him. Then it became two, then three and then many more. Urchoíd stopped in his tracks and wondered at the strange soldiers before him and wondered how they had found him. This time, however, the thoughts didn't distract him enough, so when the first man lunged at him he was ready, with as many guards as was no appearing, though, the young warrior knew he was in for a long hard battle. Anyone who witnessed the battle would later recall the amazing fact that no knight was killed as the young stranger slowly pressed his way to his goal, silently and efficiently.

* * *

Kiyone slowly opened her eyes, only subconsciously aware of the annoying ringing sound coming from the wall beside her. Only when it registered in her mind that that particular sound was an urgent message indication did the ex police detective come fully awake.

"Yes, 'Gami? What is it?" She asked of the blank wall at the headboard of her bed. Belatedly, Kiyone wondered what time it was, and how much longer she had to go before Yagami arrived at Rukbat.

"Timing indicates that we have less than twenty standard minutes until arrival at destination point." Yagami intoned.

Kiyone's eyes, which had already begun to slowly close again while Yagami was talking, suddenly flew open wide. Twenty minutes? Why in the world didn't Yagami wake her up earlier than this? As it was she was going to have very little time to get ready before she would take her ship off of automatic and begin the landing sequence.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner, 'Gami?" Kiyone spared a moment to glare at the spot on the wall where the link was as she ripped the covers off of her bed and bounded off the small dais that designated her sleeping space. The ex officer did not like being rushed into things, and she certainly wanted to make a good impression on her uncle after she docked, though from experience, Kiyone knew her uncle was very tolerant on dress codes unless someone was operating the heavy equipment. It still helped to dress nice every now and then, though.

A marked silence came from her ship that Kiyone had learned to interpret as a sigh and as close as a plea for patience that a machine could get.

"I have been currently trying to wake you for over a half an hour." Yagami finally said pointedly, making Kiyone look towards her feet in shame. Though she had to have been really tired to sleep through Yagami's repeated attempts to wake her. Normally it took only the first summoning to wake her up.

"Sorry, Yagami." Kiyone said quietly as she shucked her top and bottoms while walking over to the small closet that stored all civilian clothing now. Once there, she experienced another brief pang of sadness as the various colorful clothing revealed themselves at her word. There was a time when most of the items in this closet were uniforms with only the occasional nice civilian outfit for the rare times she went on shore leave or the even rarer date. Now, looking at the slowly expanding amount of casual clothes she had still had a sobering affect on her.

Finally, after only a few moments of sad reflection, Kiyone chose a modestly casual pair of teal slacks and a white blouse that always went well with everything she had then quickly dressed herself. The ex-detective only devoted a few more moments to make her hair presentable before she traveled to the bridge of the Yagami. As if on cue, the second she walked in the door Yagami's interface unit appeared from the ceiling and informed her that she was being addressed by the planetary landing authority.

"This is Rukbat Planetary Landing Authority tower two thirteen dash A. We have you on a visual now. What is your destination and cargo?" The voice that Yagami patched through at her nod sounded faintly familiar to her, though she couldn't quite figure out why.

"This is universal class ship Yagami serial number one niner dash alpha charlie seven, requesting clear course to Makibi Industries Engineering corp. landing pad B. I'm here on business with no cargo but myself." Kiyone replied, allowing the view screen on the Yagami's fore control panel to switch on and slowly begin showing an image of the controller that she was talking with.

"Tower Director Takabe Williams welcomes Detective Kiyone back to Rukbat and wishes her a pleasant stay. Please follow the marker drone to destination." Kiyone's eyes grew wide when the image of none other than one of her childhood friends appeared on the screen before her, albeit a lot more grown up than when she last saw him. With a humor as light as his hair and a soul to match his deep brown eyes, Takabe had always adored flying. Because of this adoration, he had gone to work for the Landing Authority at a very early age in the hopes of eventually crossing over into the local flight academy that used the same training facility as the LA. Seeing her friend again made Kiyone curious as to what had made him stay in the LA for so long. But ruminations about her past friends would have to wait for the moment as the marker drone appeared before her ship and began to lead off towards the southern continent of Rukbat.

"Kiyone Makibi thanks Director Williams for his kindness." Kiyone said officially, deliberately leaving out the title that Takabe had used earlier with her name. After all, he didn't know yet, though she hoped she would have some time to catch up with him later. Then as the Yagami reached the edge of radio contact with the tower Kiyone added their old childhood goodbye in a devilish voice. "Toodles, Wannabe." She added, using his old nickname just for fun then switched off that frequency as a strange gurgling noise and what she thought was someone in the background erupting into laughter came over the loudspeaker. Takabe's expression on the screen was priceless for her and she desperately wished it could have been recorded.

The expression on her old friends face managed to amuse her the rest of the short trip to her uncle's engineering firm. After a journey of only several minutes, the compound that was Tarmin's entire base of operations for his Galactic engineering firm began to spread out before her. As with any company that manufactures a portion of the engines, weapons, and defense shield generators for the entire galaxy, even a portion as small as ten percent the manufacturing facility had to be immense to keep up with the supply. To lighten the load on this particular facility, Tarmin had bought several finishing plants on planets of or near major accounts and shipped the raw engine parts there to be assembled. This saved him the cost of shipping the completed part long distances as well as saved the overhead cost for the buyer.

Kiyone took a few minutes, once the landing cycle had been completed, to collect herself and prepare to meet her uncle for the first time in almost two years. Of course, she wasn't scared to meet Tarmin, after all he was her uncle and the closest family she had. But despite that, there was an undeniable air of failure about Kiyone. She felt that in some small way she had failed her staunchest supporter by not fulfilling her dreams that he had done his best to encourage. With one final tug at her blouse, Kiyone finally stood up and made her way to the exit.

Tarmin Makibi had known the instant his niece had entered the system due to a tracker he had placed in her ship's engine. He really didn't want to pry into her life, but the signal would have been invaluable should something have happened while she was out on a mission. Of course, now that she wasn't working for the Galaxy police anymore, maybe it was about time to remove this protection of his. But all thoughts were placed towards the back of his mind as soon as the small portal that led into the Yagami began opening.

As his niece's form slowly began to be revealed to him, Tarmin tried not to be judgmental or worried. She seemed to have gotten thinner since the last time he had seen her. His keen eyes also noticed that she now sported a few more worry lines around her eyes and mouth and because them appeared a bit older than before. Of course, it had also been well over a year since he had last seen her; maybe she was just maturing from the insecure teenager that had proclaimed her intention to enter the Galaxy Police Academy despite her flourishing educational career. Or even perhaps from the ripped apart and angry young woman who had sought him out during her mandatory vacation. He sighed to himself and shook his head silently. His little Kiyone had definitely grown up, but it seemed as if she were learning a lot of things the hard way which, while beneficial in some cases, he knew she didn't deserve.

"Kiyone," he said softly, with a friendly smile on his lips as his niece came close enough to hear his voice.

Kiyone smiled in return and then before he could make any other move otherwise, Tarmin found himself wrapped up into the tightest embrace he had been in a long while. Constantly in tune with his niece's feelings as he was, Tarmin sensed that there was something slightly off kilter with the young woman who had become in all respects his daughter. His suspicions were confirmed when the shoulder that she was resting her chin on began to feel wet. Quietly, Tarmin let Kiyone cry herself out, idly running his rough, callused hands through her long teal hair.

"There, there dear. I'm sure everything will be fine if you just give it a little bit of time." Tarmin told Kiyone softly in her ear as the younger woman's tears slowly eased. The old engineer counted himself as a strong man, able to deftly handle more stressful situations than an average being, however when his niece removed her head slowly from his shoulder and looked at him his resolve easily melted. The cry session had resulted in the whites of Kiyone's eyes to become lightly red rimmed and the beautiful aqua color of her iris's to darken with emotion.

"Do you think so?" Kiyone asked hopefully, with so little confidence that Tarmin regarded her worriedly for a minute. His beautiful niece had been one of the most confident and sure persons he had known. His protective instincts flared briefly and violently like a match suddenly finding tinder as he thought about the situation and the people that caused it that reduced her personality to that of an unsure teenager. It took all the will power that he had to bring his simmering temper back under control and to force a smile on his face.

"Of course I do, dear." He said through the most comforting smile his current mood allowed. "In fact I know what we can do, how about we get your things settled into your room then I can introduce you to the team. They've been really dying to meet you, you know."

Kiyone smiled shyly then, and rubbed the stray moisture from her eyes. Her uncle Tarmin knew her so well; all she would need to get over her sadness was a little bit of something to do. Being introduced to the engineering team that she would be working with would accomplish that well. In fact, it gave Kiyone such a good feeling that before they had even finished unpacking her things, she was already talking about her time spent on Earth and Jurai with a smile and even an occasional musical peal of laughter.

Kiyone never packed heavily for any trip, and her personal belongings which had been on the Yagami in storage since she left the Galaxy Police Headquarters were soon unpacked and placed with loving care around the suite of rooms that would now be her home. They weren't extremely large, which would have made the ex-detective nervous, but the rooms certainly weren't what she was used to at HQ and on the Yagami. The suite itself was situated on the top level of her uncle's headquarter building, just down the hall from his own extensive suite. The top three floors, which compromised all the quarters of the live-on staff all varied in size and style to suite the many different cultures that Tarmin had under his employ. Kiyone's suite featured an extensive porch that could be accessed from either the bedroom or the main room that overlooked the huge bay to the east. The porch also was strategically placed to catch the most sunlight in order to allow a garden of some considerable size and diversity. The master bedroom itself could have encompassed her small suite at the GP HQ and featured a grand bed tucked into a corner, with the headboard facing the glazed porch door to catch the early morning sunlight. Further exploration of her new home proved that it sported a sizeable kitchen, though her culinary skills were nothing to write home about and two guest rooms just in case she had friends staying over. The decorations were all tastefully selected in her favorite shades, with everything blending in with almost impossible perfection.

"I think we're going to have to get you more personal things," Tarmin commented as she finished placing a small plaque over the white stone fireplace. Kiyone's items had taken up so little space that the rooms still looked slightly empty to his eyes.

"Do you think so?" Kiyone asked sincerely. Yet, she still slightly disliked the idea of buying so many personal items, most of this stemming from either previous lack of space or budget to buy many items. Her small collection seemed to fit so well in their own places, however, that she almost felt as if her uncle had always intended this suite to be hers, despite her being with the Galaxy Police for so long.

"Hmmm, we'll consider it," Tarmin said enigmatically, as he put the final touches to dust and polish a picture frame that had been placed prominently on the low table. "But I certainly feel that we have kept your new co-workers waiting far longer than they should have to meet you. Shall we go?" Tarmin offered his arm to his niece and palmed the door open, looking back at her expectantly.

Kiyone smiled, and then hooked her left arm through his proffered limb. With one final look into her new home, she silently smiled and closed the door and allowed her uncle to lead her off in a different direction than they had come. Throughout their trip down winding passageways and well lit corridors, Kiyone glanced to her left and right memorizing the way back to her apartments and listening to her uncle talk about the various engineers within the group that she would be working with. Her interests had always been defensive and offensive weapons, which traditionally held only a small but prestigious place in her uncle's company. Secretly, Kiyone held the opinion that her uncle had always expected or hoped that she would come back and work for him and as such held a position open that had never been filled.

After a short walk down the corridor that contained her room and a lift ride to the third floor of the large building, Kiyone and her Uncle stepped out onto the research and development floor. Here was where the heart of the company was, the place where just about everything had its start. There were four sections to this floor, each with its own separate key card entry to make sure that nobody was where they weren't supposed to. As weapons and defenses were in the furthest from the lift and the most heavily shielded section, Kiyone had a key card that was able to access all aspects of the floor. Each barrier she came to she had to re-insert her card and punch one of four special six digit numerical codes on the adjacent key pad which was prompted at random by the computer. If at any time the key code asked for did not match the code on the card, this area could be sealed off in seconds, and along with a special detachment of private security guards that would make sure that she didn't escape. If all of this seemed a little bit paranoid or a lot to remember to Kiyone, she just had to stop and consider what exactly it was that they were doing on this floor and what it could mean if it fell into the wrong hands.

Finally, all the barriers were passed, and Tarmin led her to a small door on the right side of the hallway simply marked, 'Weapons and Defense Dept.' He gave Kiyone a wink and a smile and then opened the door, allowing her to see inside the office. It was not exactly what she expected. The office floor was covered wit papers balls of every imaginable size and shape (some even a vague attempt at paper animals). There were no individual cubicles for her teammates. Instead there was one large conference area off to the side of the room and enclosed by four glass panels, inside which was placed six comfortable chairs and a medium sized table that already seemed to have seen its fair share of instant meals for the day.

"Everyone…everyone please gather around I have a new addition to the team to introduce." Tarmin announced softly, in a voice that Kiyone was sure would carry to all of the members in the room. She was surprised to find that his voice brought instant attention from everybody no matter what they doing and soon there was a group of four men and one woman standing in front of her, all with expressions of varying interest directed immediately towards her.

Kiyone instantly felt an uncharacteristic moment of shyness coming on as her uncle introduced the team members one by one and then added a little bit of their background. Most of the team was a bit older than she was, probably as a result of working here for over ten years, with the exception of one fair haired man who seemed about her age and the woman, who, strangely, looked even younger than she was.

"Kiyone, this is the Advanced Weapons and Defense Systems team." Tarmin continued on, oblivious to Kiyone's discreet withdrawal into herself. "On the left, the charming 'young' man with the blue coat is Dr. Makoto Chen. He was a graduate of the Jurai Inter-Planetary Research Institute, top of his class of course. He has been working with us for well nigh on fifteen years now. He also works part time at the local technical university as a professor in their advanced engineering department."

Kiyone took a few moments to regard Makoto. He was a slight man of only about one and a half meters or so with a collection of thick brown hair that looked like it hadn't seen a brush since the last galaxy formed. He had slightly brownish skin and very intelligent looking brown eyes that quietly returned her stare with idle curiosity all set in a face that wasn't unpleasant to look at all considering his age. It was obvious to Kiyone that her uncle's reference to young was a standing joke of some kind as Dr. Chen looked well past half a century in years.

"Standing next to him is his graduate assistant, Jamus de Laplage." Tarmin indicated the fair- haired young man whom Kiyone had earlier surmised was close to her own age. "Because his final thesis is on the subject of cold fusion fuel cells he was allowed to access to this engineering team as an intern."

Kiyone did not spend too long regarding Jamus; she found that he had a gaze that was quite disturbing. True, he was certainly not unpleasant to look at because the smile he seemed to wearing softened the hard nose and squarish face a great deal and even encouraged her to smile back shyly. But eye contact was almost impossible to hold as his light blue eyes that gazed at her from under thick blonde bangs gave Kiyone the most unpleasant feeling that her very soul was being surreptitiously judged. Fortunately, her uncle moved on to the middle-aged gentleman in a somewhat off-white lab coat and her gaze gratefully slid from Jamus's.

"After Jamus, in the lab coat is Dr. Jack Okuda. I'm sure, however, that you and Dr. Jack know each other well." Tarmin crinkled a smile at his old friend and then cast a sly glance at his niece. Indeed, Kiyone knew Dr. Okuda very well, as he had been a frequent visitor to the Makibi household when she was younger.

"It's such a wonderful pleasure to see you again, sweetheart," Dr. Jack said through a wide smile as Kiyone ran up to give him a hug. "It's been too long."

"I know what you mean," Kiyone added as she disengaged from the hug. "The last time I was here you were working down in the domestic vehicle department. When did you transfer?"

"I have been here for just about a year now; I'm very surprised that your uncle didn't tell you." Jack threw her uncle a severe look, but was it was completely disarmed because Dr. Okuda couldn't stop his smile from widening even more.

"It must have just slipped my mind," Tarmin shrugged. A lot of things seemed to slip his mind recently. Just before Kiyone could catch his less than humorous answer, however, a small noise made in the throat interrupted Tarmin's thought pattern. "Ah, yes. On to the introductions, I do apologize about that. Sorry about that."

"The last two engineers are Drs. Hitoshi Hakuda and Megumi Hayashi," Tarmin indicated the older Hakuda and then the woman standing next to him. The last two, Kiyone could not fathom like the others. Dr. Hakuda seemed to have a closed expression on his face as his coal black eyes regarded her from under a thick bowl of jet black hair. If Hitoshi's expression was unreadable, Kiyone immediately recognized Megumi's vaguely hostile glance. She was actually quite a striking woman, if one could get over her slightly down turned mouth. Her light brown hair and elegant green eyes complemented the golden skin and slim figure well. But Kiyone was still surprised to see someone so young in the engineering group, despite Jamus who was an intern. Megumi had a full doctoral, yet looked a few years younger than her.

"Megumi was one of the youngest in history to graduate from the Academy with a full degree and she is simply put one of the most brilliant minds in the local system." Kiyone's uncle put in suddenly, as if he could sense Kiyone's wonderment about the girl. "She's only been working her for a few months but I already know I can expect great things from her." To Kiyone's eyes, Megumi straightened her shoulders and positively began to glow under her uncle's compliments. There was no way this woman could be after her Uncle...could there?

"Well, I suppose that now that everyone has been introduced we should continue on our tour of the facilities, right Kiyone?" Tarmin cut in, interrupting the ex-detective's thoughts before they got on the wrong side of polite.

'Yes, of course." Kiyone smiled at her uncle and shot one more glance at Megumi, just to make sure that its implications were made clear. She smiled satisfactorily when Megumi's eyes narrowed slightly. With the exception of Dr. Hayashi, Kiyone felt that it would be a very pleasant experience working for this team. They all seemed quite competent at least, though she would have to spend some time on that Jamus. If she spent too much time in his company, the experience might be made unpleasant.

By the time that her uncle had taken her all over the grounds of his company, Kiyone was sure that her feet would fall off. She had just enough energy by the time she had reached her suite to shuck her clothes off and crawl under the covers. Despite her lethargy, however, Kiyone did not get as restful sleep as she had wanted and spent most of the night tossing and turning, haunted in her dreams by piercing light blue eyes. Finally, though, her dreams left her and the skin on her face relaxed immediately, allowing her conscious to fall into a deeper sleep.

* * *

Tenchi was just walking into the kitchen area when a sudden beeping noise was heard, coming from the dining room. It didn't quite sound like the phone, but had enough similarity to it that he curiously peeked into the darkened room, wondering if someone had moved it again. After his eyes adjusted to the absence of light, he caught a faint red blinking spot on the back wall that had often featured Mihoshi's favorite inter-galaxial television program when the family was eating. Another ring, emanating from that general direction reminded Tenchi that Washu had installed some sort of communications device within the entertainment circuits that allowed all of the television shows to be shown on that wall.

Unfortunately, Tenchi could not remember how to use it. He had only seen it used several times before and really hadn't been present when someone started a conversation so it was lost upon his mind as to how to activate it. By this time, yet another ring had gone by and the light on the wall seemed, to Tenchi anyway, to be growing brighter and larger. Cautiously, he approached the wall until he stood directly in front of it. Then, desperately because the rings were becoming quite annoying, he spoke to the wall.

"Hello? This is the Misaki residence." He spoke quietly, aware that he looked rather silly talking to a beeping wall. Fortunately, though, his voice seemed to be the trigger as the unit beeped a final time in a different tone from the ringing and then an image filled the wall. While he was contemplating the operation of the device though, it never occurred to Tenchi to wonder who would be calling, so it was still quite a shock to suddenly see Ayeka's head appear almost three times as large as it was in real life.

"Tenchi? Is that you? Thank god you happened to be around." Tenchi had never quite heard Ayeka using that tone of voice before. It seemed to him that she was under a great deal of stress, a surmise bellied by the fact that with her head three times as large he noticed her eyes had taken on a red tinge that disagreed with her natural crimson pupils.

"Yes Princess Ayeka? Is something the matter?" Tenchi asked, beginning to grow concerned about the princess's appearance. "Is Sasami alright?"

Ayeka sighed and shook her head sadly. "Unfortunately, she's not alright. Neither, it seems, is half the royal palace. I'm afraid it's a real long story Tenchi, one that I can't quite explain it all over this call so you'll just have to trust me."

Tenchi nodded quietly. This sounded really bad.

"Tenchi," Ayeka continued, once the earthling boy had nodded in acquiescence. "Please, this is very important. I need you to come to Jurai immediately. I have already dispatched one of the fastest ships that we still have operating so it should be there within a day. The crew has been ordered to see to your every comfort, but their primary function is to get you here as fast as possible. I hope that a day is enough for you to get anything you might need here together because I don't really know how long you might be needed. I can, however, provide anything you need just in case."

The entire time that Ayeka was speaking, Tenchi was trying hard to listen with his full attention. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to get much past "come to Jurai." She needed him to come to Jurai? Immediately? How in the world was he supposed to be able to pack for that in one day? What in the world was he supposed to do there? Though something about Ayeka's comment concerning the fastest ship she still had operating filled his brain with dread. Something must have really gone wrong, which further confounded Tenchi's mind because what was a simple priest's grandson from earth supposed to do about a major emergency on one of the most important planets in the Galaxy?

"But Ayeka!" He began in protest, more than a little overwhelmed. But he only voiced those two words out before tears began to fall from Ayeka's eyes.

"Please, Tenchi," she pleaded, more tears building in her eyes. "Everything has gone wrong, my father isn't well and Sasami is out as well. I have no idea where my mother and Funaho are or even if they are all right and to make matters worse I think some nobles are trying to take advantage of this tragedy. I have no one else to turn to, no one else that has the blood of the Jurai Royal Family that I can trust. I need you here."

Tenchi, overcome with surprise over the scene he was witnessing before him could only nod silently. "I'll come Ayeka. Somehow, we'll make things right I promise." He added quietly, when he found his voice again. It was worth the trouble to him to see Ayeka's face suddenly brighten with a smile and her hand reach up to wipe the stray tears from her eyes.

"Thank you Tenchi. Thank you so much. I'll be waiting." After that, Ayeka pressed a switch out of Tenchi's view and then the screen went blank. All at once the tension in Tenchi's shoulders let go and he shrunk down to sit on the dais that the Masaki dinner table sat upon. This was something totally out of his experience. He had just barely been able to deal with Kagato years ago, and that was only by a combination of a miracle and a power he had never really learned how to control. Now he had made a promise to someone he cared a great deal for and he had no clue as to how he should fulfill it!

If Kiyone had been sitting beside him at that particular moment, she would have seen the answer to her question earlier. The situation that surrounded the young earthling had seemed at odds with Tenchi's personality, especially regarding the female residents of the Masaki household. However, in that moment, sitting on the dais in the dark, Tenchi displayed the reason why. There wasn't much she could do; he knew that but that fact didn't stop him from making his promise to Ayeka. He would make things right, somehow, someway, he would force everything back into its rightful place.

With the courage that comes with conviction, Tenchi stood up in one smooth motion and squared his shoulders. There was a lot to do before that transport arrived sometime tomorrow, he had things to pack and then, perhaps, have a talk with his grandfather to see if the elder Juraian had any sage advice to give. Tenchi quietly balled his hand into a fist and shook it, for once in his life absolutely sure of what he had to do.

"So, you're going to go then, aren't you?" A soft feminine voice spoke from immediately behind Tenchi. He was so wrapped up in his ruminations that the young man hadn't even seen Washu arrive.

"Yah!" Tenchi exclaimed and took several steps back before he regained his composure. The he suddenly became shy, despite his earlier convictions, and cast his eyes down to the floor and nodded silently. "What choice do I have?" he asked of the resident scientist, who had still not returned to her general form of a child.

"You could stay and be here when Ryoko wakes up," Washu said simply, and crossed her arms over her buxom chest. "I know she would really like that." Then Washu muttered under her breath. "Besides, she would probably try and follow you to Jurai as soon as she found out."

Tenchi shook his head and looked up at Washu, catching her eyes. "I can't do that, Washu. Ayeka needs my help, and while I don't know if there's anything I can do personally to solve her problem, I promised her."

"I see." Washu commented, wondering at the strength behind his words.

"Besides, Washu, is there really anything I can do here?" When the scientist shook her head sadly, Tenchi continued doggedly. "All I would do is sit around worrying and waiting, which is hardly productive. I don't even know how long I'll be. I might even be back before Ryoko wakes up." Somehow, though, Tenchi didn't believe that statement, especially if he read as much as he did into what Ayeka said.

By this time, Washu could only nod silently. She knew that Tenchi had to do what he had promised, but Ryoko was still her daughter and the fact that Tenchi wouldn't be right there beside her when she woke up would upset her even if she chose not to show it. She wanted her own offspring to be happy and considering all that had happened in her life she deserved some happiness, but in this situation, Washu knew she could not win. Tenchi had a strong heart that was well placed; he did not make promises lightly.

"You feel like you can really do something there?" Washu asked in one small last attempt at convincing Tenchi to stay and making her daughter happy.

Tenchi nodded in reply, looking Washu directly in the eye. The scientist turned goddess could feel the plea for understanding radiating from his brown-eyed stare.

"Then you don't have to wait for a transport. I've got something that will get you there much faster."

Tenchi's expression softened immediately. "Thanks, Washu."

Three hours later, Tenchi was fully packed with just about everything he could carry and that he thought he would need. Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about much more than a few items of clothing as necessities went. Though Tenchi had thought to bring the entire complement of his textbooks. He really didn't want to but the studious, responsible side of him knew that he could be gone for a while and with the first college entrance examinations coming up in just a few short months it would not be good to fall behind in that department.

Tenchi had also sat down and had an extended talk with his grandfather who, strangely, seemed rather pleased that he had elected to go to Jurai. Even though it had been over seven-hundred years since Katsuhito had been on Jurai he still could remember almost every silly rule of etiquette and had filled Tenchi's head with everything that the elder man felt it prudent to know. There were even some things it wasn't necessary for him to know, like how in the world was he supposed to find a little bakery right behind the palace that made these special little pastries that his grandfather had not had in seven hundred odd years?

"Are you sure she's going to be all right?" Tenchi asked as he stood before the giant tube of water in which Ryoko was suspended. Physically, the former pirate did not seem to have anything wrong with her. Unfortunately, however, Tenchi only scrutinized Ryoko's body long enough to determine that she wasn't wearing any clothing and then turned away, lest the nose bleed gave him away.

"She'll be fine," Washu answered, slightly off to Tenchi's left and tweaking with a small device. "Ryoko is perfectly capable of functioning without any of the gems, if a bit less than her…perky self. What caused her to black out this time was the shock of loosing the energy all at once within a split second of time. The backwash was just too much for her to handle." Washu shook her head slightly. There was of course nothing stopping her from waking Ryoko up right now. However, Ryoko wouldn't be able to function at even a quarter of the level that she was used to previously with one gem. That meant that her daughter wouldn't be able to fly, teleport, or even summon her sword for more than a few minutes to a half an hour at most, depending on what she was also doing at the time. The scientist knew that unless she could find an alternate source of energy for Ryoko, it was pointless to wake her up, so she had deliberately kept her under stasis until such time as a new source for her energy could be found.

With a final click, Washu snapped the small device she was working on together and handed it to Tenchi, who took it curiously.

"This is my special transport device. It works by building up a local tear in the fabric of space/time, just enough to let the person who's wearing it inside, then with this computer here," Washu pointed to a medium sized computer console complete with keyboard and monitor terminal. "I will calculate the telemetry of where you will be going and transport the entire tear to that spot. Once there, the fabric will re-open and push you out. It all takes roughly between five to ten seconds to complete the process so you will have to hold your breath for that long as there is no oxygen in the medium that holds the fabric in shape."

All during Washu's explanation, Tenchi could only nod his head at the confusing words that she had used. Most of this stuff wasn't even known to the most brilliant research scientists on earth, let alone a high school kid without any college experience yet. However, if it worked and it got him there as fast as possible, Tenchi was willing to put his faith behind one of Washu's inventions. She had never failed yet during a serious situation.

"Place it somewhere on you where it won't fall off," Washu told him seriously. "If this device falls off, there's no way I can recover you."

Tenchi nodded and took a long breath, then clipped it to his pants and gave it a good tug for good measure. If it weren't for the fact that he had already promised Ayeka he would come, and the fact that time was definitely of the essence, Tenchi felt that he really would rather not use this device. But Washu had already turned her back as soon as she confirmed the device was on and secured and was typing away on the console that controlled the coordinates.

"Alright Tenchi, I have the coordinates locked in. I should be placing you somewhere within the old palace but beware that the Jurai Royal Palace is very large and very old as well as the map I'm using is more than likely out of date. I cannot guarantee where you'll come out but I want to place you as close to the princess as possible. Are you ready?"

Tenchi nodded once again then took a huge gulp of air in preparation for the airless void that he would soon be entering.

"Here it goes," Washu keyed in the proper coordinates and then pressed the engage button. For a few seconds nothing happened and Tenchi began to look around in wonder, then suddenly a jagged tear began to glow next to the unit and grow larger second after second. Within a matter of moments the tear was as large as he was and Tenchi could feel a vacuum begin to pull him into the black space that was in between the ragged edges. Several moments later he was gone from Washu's vision and a blinking red light tracked the unit's progress on the console as it rapidly sped across space towards its destination.

"Good luck, Tenchi." Washu whispered to herself as the blinking red light suddenly turned green, indicating that the unit had reached the entered coordinates. Then she turned towards the tank that held the sleeping Ryoko, just barely visible from the glow of its liquid. "I hope you come back soon."

Ayeka untied the sash the held her outer robe together and let the two sides hang open to reveal the form fitting silken inner robe. After the sash had been completely removed and folded carefully, she placed it upon the chair next to her. Ayeka then began to untie the thin inner sash, not for the first time wondering at the sheer amount of clothing that was contained in her formal attire. Just as the knot for the inner sash began to fall away a small glowing spot appeared directly in front of her. Ayeka's eyes grew wide as within a matter of seconds the small glowing spot sprung up into uneven line. Then, amazingly, the area around the line began to fold and wrinkle as if the back of Ayeka's room was painted on a sheet and it was blowing in the wind. Ayeka had just enough time to scream as a body was suddenly thrown out of the opened space between wrinkles and landed heavily against her, pushing her down to the ground with the body squarely on top of her.

An amazing sight greeted the guards that immediately responded to her scream when they barged into the room. Most of the guards that were selected for protecting the individual members of the royal family were selected on the basis of their loyalty, secrecy, and neutrality towards romantic situations. However, the latter asset came perilously close to being shattered as their eyes beheld Princess Ayeka lying flat on the ground; robes wide open right down to her undergarments. The surprise of this sight, coupled with the rather rare opportunity temporarily stunned the first to enter enough that Tenchi, breathing heavily and crouching on all fours above the princess, pinning Ayeka beneath him, was relegated to the back of their minds.

"T-Tenchi?!" In that small space in which the guards were dumbfounded, Ayeka's mind finally recognized the being on top of her. Upon the recognition, however, came new unbidden thoughts into Ayeka's mind. Now, rapidly driving back the fear that had initially taken hold of her mind came the natural embarrassment at this compromising position, but something more as well. Something deep down inside her, Ayeka thought, was welcoming this sudden occurrence with open arms.

The surprised exclamation of his name from Ayeka was enough to bring Tenchi out of the daze that the lack of breath had put him into and for the first time realize the position he was now in. Unfortunately for him, the exclamation was also enough to wake the guards up from their stares and within a matter of moments had closed upon the hapless earth lad and began to haul him off of the princess and out of the room gruffly, slightly bloody nose and all.

"No wait!" Ayeka commanded, wrapping the robes around her body and trying to ignore the fierce blush that could be clearly felt on her cheeks. The guards instantly obeyed and paused, but they did not let their grips off of Tenchi's arms. "Let him go." Ayeka ordered curtly. "I was expecting him, although not quite in this manner." Once again there was immediate obedience to her orders, despite their mounting confusion over the matter, and then one by one each of the guards filed out of the doors leaving Ayeka and Tenchi alone.

The pair spent a few moments blinking at other, each trying to think of something to say in the wake of Tenchi's awkward arrival. Finally, Ayeka was the first to make a move by tying the sash of her outer robe tightly and closing the distance in between herself and Tenchi to give him a warm hug. The earthling immediately turned shy and blushed a deep shade of red before slowly allowing his arms to travel upwards, hands opened, to return the hug.

"Thank you so much for coming, Tenchi. But how did you get here?" Ayeka's confusion eventually wore through her elation at seeing the man she loved again, and she broke the hug to stare at him quizzically. "I thought the ship I sent wasn't even supposed to arrive at least twelve hours after I called."

Tenchi looked slightly embarrassed, but still wore a slight smile on his face. "Well, Washu kind of overheard our conversation and offered to send me here. It took me a few hours only because I had to pack and speak with Grandfather." Tenchi held the device that had been previously been clipped to his pants to show Ayeka. "It works quite well, really, but I would have rather been able to breathe while I was in transit. Washu said it would only take a few seconds, but it seemed longer to me."

Throughout the entire explanation, Ayeka just nodded her head with a soft smile playing on her lips. In the end it really didn't matter to her how he had gotten here, just as long as he was here and by her side she knew everything would be all right. Though something still weighed on her mind as she took in Tenchi with her eyes. He seemed quieter than usual, perhaps a bit tired as well judging from the red-rimmed eyes and the rings that had formed on the skin surrounding his soft brown eyes. It was almost as if something or someone, she added to herself, was keeping him from truly wanting to be here.

A slight fear overtook Ayeka at that moment. Was it possible that as soon as she left the barrier that was between himself and Ryoko went down and something happened? Perversely, however, Ayeka wanted to dwell upon that idea herself and really didn't think asking about it would be ideal. However, she did want to know how the household was in either case. She had come to miss Earth very much in the week that she had been on Jurai.

"How are the others, Tenchi?" Ayeka asked softly, withdrawing from his proximity half with fear that he would say something had happened between Ryoko and himself.

Tenchi's eyes dropped even lower and his shoulders dropped. It was still frustrating the hell out of him that there was nothing he could have done for Ryoko and Washu.

"Not well," he simply stated then looked up towards Ayeka with tears in his eyes. "Something happened to Ryoko. I don't even know what." Tenchi shook his head and relived that night in his mind. "One moment I was sleeping soundly in my bed, and then in the next moment a scream woke me up. When I couldn't stand it any longer I clutched my hand over my ears and ran down stairs. I found Ryoko, lying on the steps in the darkness with her hands slapped to her head as if she were hearing something unpleasant. Before I even got to her though she fell and went unconscious. Washu still hasn't been able to wake her up."

Ayeka absorbed this information with difficulty. Something had made Ryoko go unconscious? Who in the universe could be as powerful as that? Especially with Washu guarding just about every entry point into the house?

"How?" Ayeka responded after a moment of silence. "How could something like that happen?"

Tenchi just shook his head silently, an occasional tear falling from his eyes. It was insanely difficult for Ayeka to watch Tenchi be so affected by the situation, yet she could only understand his feelings to well. In that moment, she decided to herself the most difficult decision she could ever make. Aside from leaving Tenchi once, which was incredibly painful, she was now going to allow him to leave her twice this time for the only other person that could hold Tenchi's love. She would find a way to deal with her problems by herself, and if she had known that this had happened Ayeka would have never asked in the first place that he come here. It was up to her to make it right, now.

"Ten…Tenchi?" Ayeka called and looked into the eyes she so badly yearned to see love and adoration for her and her alone reflect within. "Would...would you like to go back to Earth, to be with her?"

At that time, Ayeka couldn't even say her name. She knew she didn't want to hear the answer that would come, but somehow it had to be asked. She couldn't just let him be miserable here with her and her problems.

Tenchi blinked several tears away from his eyes and looked at Ayeka with wonder. She was allowing him to go back, despite her problems? Despite the feelings that he knew she carried for him?

In a gesture that was extremely bold for Tenchi Masaki, he reached out gently and took Ayeka's chin within his hand and held up her face, which had fallen since her question had been asked. With his other hand, Tenchi softly wiped a tear from her cheek, gazing at the crimson eyes that along with a pair of golden ones had haunted his dreams for over two years.

Ayeka…" he began, but was allowed to go no further. For as soon as he opened his mouth for the next word a guard barged into Ayeka's room out of breath.

"Majesty!" The guard began between long pulls of breath, and tried to make an apologetic bow for the intrusion. "There is an intruder in the palace; we think he may be heading for the royal nursery!"

Ayeka and Tenchi looked at each other, so startled for the moment that neither could move. Then, as if they both agreed together at the same moment, Earthling and Juraian ran towards the door and the guard who had already began to run back down the hallway towards the commotion. In a matter of moments, Ayeka could hear the sounds of fighting taking place in the grand hall, only two chambers and a long hall away from the entrance to the royal nursery.

Beside her, Tenchi had already activated his battle armor with a small twist of the ring on his left hand. He was running with amore and more determined look in his eyes as they drew nearer to the grand hall. It only took Ayeka a moment longer to activate her armor with a mere thought, the green markings on her face glowing eerily with her growing anger.

All three arrived at the scene just in time to see a guard fly back hit the wall behind him hard then fall to the ground unconscious. A look down the hall provided Tenchi with a look at the strangest being he had ever seen. The man's face, for it definitely was male, was well tanned and vaguely heart shaped. Cold black eyes looked out towards the small army that was gathering before him and a small mouth scowled at the nearest guards. The frame wasn't very athletic at all, and seemed to Tenchi to be quite gaunt, with bone clearly showing through skin in several places. A call from Ayeka brought the young man's attention their direction and he brushed a lock of jet-black hair away from his eyes as he sized up the two newest arrivals.

"That is enough!" Ayeka yelled, barely even winded from her run down the hall. "I do not know who you are and where you come from but as sovereign ruler of Jurai I am ordering you to leave." Tenchi was stunned speechless by the rapid change Ayeka had gone through. Just a minute ago she was unsure, crying, and offering him a way out of his responsibilities here. Now, however, Ayeka was every inch the ruler, commanding her guard with stony determination and talking to the intruder in a manner that left chills in his spine.

Princess Ayeka's tone however, was lost upon the stranger as he cocked his head sideways slightly and blinked a few times, saying nothing. In an instant his manner changed and with a mighty leap towards the main group of royal guards barring the way down the hall, he cleared all of their heads. With as soft a landing as any cat he hit the ground and begin to run again with the guards hot on his heels.

Ayeka sighed softly, and furrowed her brow in concentration. Within seconds she was levitating off the ground, and then Tenchi watched with wide-eyed amazement as she sped down the hall faster than any human could run. Ayeka passed the guards easily, and then went over the head of the intruder before neatly twisting in the air and landing once again in front of him. Her eyes were deadly as she spoke again in a steely voice.

"I said leave, immediately. I will not permit you to go any further."

The stranger stopped for a moment and regarded her with a searching expression, as if trying to find the limits of her power and testing them against his own. In a split second he had made up his mind and charged, going from defensive to offensive quicker than Ayeka had ever imagined someone could do. He was fast, but not quite fast enough as the tip of the small light sword he carried bounced off her personal shield.

Ayeka just smiled grimly and stood at a stand still as the stranger set himself again.

"I warn you not to go against the power of Jurai; it is something that no force in the galaxy can withstand."

All of her strange words made no difference to the stranger as he attacked again, just as Tenchi arrived behind the guards, sweating from the full tilt run he had just completed. Apparently, all the fights with Ryoko that Ayeka had gotten into had trained her well, for the princess had no trouble dealing with the intruders varied kicks and punches even if they were coming faster and stronger than a normal human or even Juraian could muster. Tenchi was simply fascinated by Ayeka's agility and apparently so were the guards, who stood ready to intervene at any time but couldn't help staring at their princess.

After a few exchanges the stranger decided that he was going to get no where attacking the girl conventionally. He also assumed that any energy weapon would probably be a waste of time with the shield that she was equipped with. Truly, this young woman was a very powerful warrior and very high up in this strange planet's hierarchy. Although he didn't want to, he was now faced with the prospect of transforming and using the power of his patron saint in this quest, for the initial aim of stealth had melted away. Casting a weary eye towards the other warrior that had arrived with this female, both dressed in very different uniforms from the regular guard units. There was no telling what his limitations were, whether they were higher or lower than his current opponent was. The decision, it seemed, was made. He must transform if the mission was to be completed.

The stranger stepped back slightly and closed his eyes in concentration. The sudden change in his disposition caught Ayeka off guard long enough for him to complete his change. As she watched dark light begin to emanate from his body, Princess Ayeka stepped back involuntarily for the moment too worried to do anything. In a matter of moments the light completely enveloped the young man and he was gone from her view. Only seconds later, though, he appeared again dressed completely different and Ayeka knew that something had somehow gone terribly wrong. The intruder was now dressed in a black version of Tenchi's light hawk armor!

As the realization hit Ayeka, her knees began to feel weak and she could slowly feel herself lower to the ground, unable to support her weight anymore. The guards that had surrounded the pair by now slowly began to step back, fear showing in their eyes despite the fact that their princess was in grave danger. Only Tenchi stood still when the others pulled back too shocked at seeing another boy like himself to move.

The intruder, now fully transformed, noted the pull back of every guard and began to walk purposefully towards the hallway entrance that marked the official entry of the nursery. He had a mission to finish, and now that he was able to move freely without attacking anyone, it was time he finished it. But out of the corner of his eye, just as he was passing the woman she began to stand up. For a moment, he marveled at her strength, there wasn't any possible way she could stand up to the power he now wielded yet she was doing just that. Truly she was a brave fighter. Such a worthy fighter did not deserve death at this time; however she was in his way and not allowing him to complete his mission. With that thought in mind, the stranger lifted his sword and struck out towards Ayeka. As expected, his sword encountered her shield and amazingly Ayeka snarled as she poured all her strength and energy into maintaining it.

Endless seconds ticked by as Tenchi watched Ayeka defend herself. The princess had now thrown everything she had towards the one point of contact with the light hawk sword and it glowed hot pink with energy born from anger and desperation. His brow was sweating profusely and her face was wrinkled into an almost feral snarl for the second time in his life, Tenchi was truly afraid of Ayeka, a person whom he had come to care about so deeply in the last two years. He had never seen her this determined or powerful, even against Ryoko. But it wall all not meant to be, as no power in the universe could stand a large amount of time against power that was goddess given. Slowly Tenchi watched Ayeka's shield begin to break down and the sword inch towards her forehead. Another two feet and it would cut directly into her head, killing her. Watching the event, Tenchi's anger began to swell. He would not lose Ayeka now; he could not allow this person whom wielded the same divine power as himself murder the person he loved. It cannot happen it would not happen. As his anger built, Tenchi could feel power begin to radiate inside him and swell to envelop his mind. The familiar transformation into Tsunami's champion was beginning and he welcomed it with open arms.

Ayeka could feel her shield cracking, and even see small shards of power begin to break off around her. Anger built within her anew and she redoubled her efforts. There was no way this stranger was going to take her away from her Tenchi, just as he came into her life again. At this point she didn't even think of the nursery that she was protecting with all of her strength, all that was going through Ayeka's mind was the image of Tenchi touching her, wiping the tear from her eye, Tenchi holding her close and looking deep into her eyes. She wanted to feel it again, wanted it badly. Power came from reserves she didn't even know she had, the shield began to reassemble itself before her eyes and her eyes were mere slits against the bright power that she was defending herself with.

The stranger marveled even more at the woman in front of him. She was withstanding the pressure of his sword far longer than anyone should have been able to do. This young woman, more beautiful than any other he had ever known was also the most talented and powerful fighter he had ever faced and he had to strike at her. Frustrations built up within him and for a brief moment in time the binding force that his patron saint held him with began to crack. Why was he doing this? Why was he sent here to Jurai to steal a royal tree? What could his patron saint do with a royal tree of Jurai? But the crack only lasted a second in his mind. Soon the binding came back stronger than ever. She was his patron saint, she was his world, and he would accomplish this mission even if it left him gasping for breath and unable to fight for an entire year. He poured more of his power into his sword and watched grimly as it inched towards his target.

Tenchi watched as the stranger doubled the power pouring into his sword. He could feel the energy waves rippled out from the contact point of Juraian shield and light hawk sword. He knew that Ayeka's shield wouldn't last much longer and he knew that the princess knew that as well, yet still she tried to hold on, made every painful inch that the sword worked towards her a fight.

Time then slowed infinitely as Ayeka's last reserves of power left her. She could hold the shield no longer and watched as the sword began to crack the shield again. In seconds that lasted an eternity for her, Ayeka watched as the cracks expanded then shattered all around her. The loss of her shield stunned Ayeka into freezing, yet she could still see the sward withdraw away from her and back as if for a death blow. She could hear Tenchi yelling beside her and saw from the corner of her eye the boy holding out his hands like he was throwing something towards her. As the stranger readied and through a strange force wave towards her, Ayeka closed her eyes and wondered why he had not attacked with his sword.

The force never came, however, and Ayeka opened her eyes to the stranger staring unbelievably at a small white-blue shield resting in front of her. The power of Tsunami, she immediately recognized. Tenchi had stepped in and saved her life with the wings of the light hawk. Indeed, when she looked over to where the earthling boy was last he had completely transformed into the armor of Tsunami's Knight, the white and blue of cloth billowing in a breeze all of it own. Tenchi himself wore an expression of intense concentration as he directed the single wing away from himself and in front of Ayeka. When the danger immediately passed, Tenchi withdrew the wing and stared coldly at the stunned stranger in front of him.

"You deal with me now," he told the intruded coldly, and summed his light hawk sword to himself, then pushed it into an offensive position.

For all of the offense that the stranger had put up, he could only now just stare at the sight before him. This mission had gone completely wrong, there was no way he could make it out of here with a seedling with one of the goddesses champions guarding the exit. Why hadn't his patron warned him that this man would be here? He was supposed to be on planet called Earth, far away from here! The stranger pulled back at a loss of what to do and the compulsion to run was getting stronger and stronger in his mind. His patron had warned him against this young man, she had told him to stay away from him and gave him images in his dreams of this boy, images that had frightened him to his very core. Why had he not recognized him when he first saw him?

"Tsunami's Champion," Urchoíd said in broken Juraian before the compulsion of his patron won out in his mind. With one mighty leap, he cleared the amazed crowd of guards and ran for the exit, for the first time in his life running from a fight, but not knowing why. The only thing Urchoíd knew as he jumped into the small carrier that had brought him here was that his goddess, Lady Tokimi, instilled such a fear of that young man in his mind that he could do nothing but run.

Tenchi came up, along with Ayeka and the royal guards and watched as the small ship took off and disappeared into the horizon.

"What do you suppose he was?" Tenchi asked Ayeka, turning to look at the Princess, now dressed in her normal robes.

"I do not know, but he wielded the power of the light hawk, but somehow different as well. His were black. I've never heard of anything like this." Ayeka let the fear and worry enter her voice, but only for Tenchi's ears alone. She was very scared of this powerful person, who seemed to be Tenchi's equal. She was worried about his agenda, and whether or not he was behind the recent events with her father and all other royals of Jurai. But most of all, she feared for Tenchi. When she was defending against his sword, she could feel his power and she saw in a brief instant, the depth of his power. Something like that was inevitably to face Tenchi once again. "I simply don't know." Ayeka answered again, and then leaned into Tenchi arms, for the moment wishing to be safe and sheltered from everything about her.

Tenchi swallowed the burning blush that threatened to overwhelm him once he felt Ayeka's soft body in his arms. Knowing it wouldn't be good to show his feelings at this time; he concentrated on being strong for the princess in her time of need and stared at the small point of light that was the retreating ship. Somehow, he would have to fight that person again, and he knew he must be ready for he had to protect Ayeka at any cost, Tenchi knew that with all the depth in his heart.

Unaware that he had unconsciously drawn Ayeka closer to his body as he was thinking to himself, Tenchi and Ayeka both watched the light fade to nothing in the star studded sky, together. If only for a brief moment in time comfortable and safe in each other's arms but both aware of the danger lurking in the near future.

End

Author's end notes: Holy Tsunami, this thing took a long time to write! I don't know what to say other than I hope it was worth the time I spent on it and thank you to Kale for being the rock of a pre-reader! You're going to hate me for this one my friend!