Disclaimer - Tenchi and the crew are unfortunately not my property. I had no part in creating them, though I am desperately trying to figure out how to give myself Ryoko's abilities. I am not writing this for the purpose of making money, though if any kind souls see fit to give donations I will not complain. I am writing merely because I'm an obsessive person in general and I really need to get it out of my system. Mayhem is my creation however, and anyone using him without my OK will anger the Great Shaven Cat Goddess and cause her to sic her elite pack of Killer Llamas on you. Criticism is welcome, flames are ignored, praise will inflate my ego greatly, and make sure I actually finish this one-day. Enjoy.
Many thanks to my talented editor, and fellow fanfic author, for his help in making this readable. THANK YOU DREZ!!!!
Mayhem, Chaos, and General Messes
Chapter 3
Friends & Enemies
He was handsome. Tall with elegant features, pale blond hair tied up in a ponytail that fell to his waist, and ice blue eyes. If she hadn't been so worried over her sister, Sasami would probably have blushed from the smile he directed at her in greeting. As it was it took her a second longer than normal to find her voice.
"Hello, can I help you sir?" she asked
"Princess Sasami, it's an honor." he said in a formal tone, bowing deeply from the waist. "I am Lt. First Class Heero Karishima of the Galaxy Police, special crimes unit attached to case 67314." he introduced himself, displaying his badge.
"Case 67314?" Sasami asked.
"Class A criminal Mayhem." he grimaced when he said the name. "He was reported as dead in the crash of his starship, I'm here to make sure those reports are true."
The big problem with having a metabolism like his was that it was very very hard to stay drunk. Oh, he could get drunk easily enough. He just had to chug about a half bottle of hard liquor as fast as he could. The problem was that he would burn through all the alcohol less than an hour later, and the more he drank to stay drunk the faster his body burnt it. In the end he'd just end up dehydrated and with a hangover to end all hangovers. Needless to say it took a lot to get him to drink. That's why it was a testament to exactly how bad a day it had been that he was presently finishing his fourth pint of 200 proof whisky. He had been on his second when he'd visited the princess earlier. Unfortunately it wasn't working anymore, his body was getting rid of the alcohol as fast as he could ingest it, and he could already feel the hangover about to start pounding on his head with a sledgehammer.
Disgusted he pegged the bottle at a wall, wincing a bit when the sound of it shattering set off a fairly impressive ringing in his head. Resigning himself to the hangover, he forced himself to start thinking over his options. Unfortunately they were all bad ones.
Option number one. Kill the girl and be done with it. Not a chance. He took a few moments to mentally berate himself for even thinking about that one before continuing. Option number two. Let her go and run for it. Not much better, they'd still know he was alive and send people after him.
The next option left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he had to consider it. Use the girl as leverage; force Azusa to call off any and all pursuit in return for her release. The problems with that being that he didn't think that Asuza would keep any such agreement. But more importantly, he didn't like the idea of holding an innocent hostage. He'd managed to avoid it for years, and he'd like to keep it that way.
Next option. Deal directly with Ayeka. Tell her his side of what happened, and hope she'd agree to just leave him alone and not tell anyone that he was still alive, and get anyone she had been with to do the same. He liked that option better but there were some serious flaws in it. First off he had no real proof of his version of events, and he doubted she'd trust him anyway. Not to mention the fact that whoever she'd been with may have already spread the news. But still, it was worth a shot he supposed. That decided, he turned back towards the hotel and tried to ignore the migraine level headache that was attempting to burst his skull.
Heero's frown had gotten deeper and deeper as the story went on. Eye's sparking dangerously he summarized the situation in one sentence. "So the knave has the Princess, and you have no way of finding him?"
"Not until he contacts us." Washu answered curtly. Eyeing Heero with a critical eye she added "If you don't mind me asking Lieutenant, you seem to be taking this rather personally for someone who's never met Ayeka before?"
Grimacing a little at the diminutive scientist's familiar use of the princess's name Heero answered, "I'm a former member of the Jurian royal guard. I was assigned to Duke Satoshima when that animal slew him." The venom behind those words was obvious. "If it is with my dying breath, I will see him dead."
"Mom?"
Washu eyed her daughter suspiciously, a knowing smirk tugging at the corners of her mouth. The only time Ryoko called her mom consciously without any sort of coercion was when she wanted something. "Yes Ryoko?"
"Is it just me, or does something about this guy seem just a little bit... I don't know... off?" Ryoko asked, looking worriedly over at their new guest as he went over a map of the area with Kiyone, Mihoshi, and Tenchi.
"Other than the fact that it's highly irregular for the GP to assign an officer to a case that they're personally tied to..." Washu trailed off with a slightly frustrated sigh. "Not really Ryoko, but I suppose I could check into him if you really think that it's important." She smiled a rare, completely genuine smile, at her daughter. "Somewhere along the line you developed good instincts about people."
"Thanks mom." Ryoko returned the smile, even if hers was a little on the strained side.
"Sorry I'm so late with breakfast Princess." he called into the room as he kicked the door shut behind him. "Hope you don't mind..." he was cut off as Ayeka broke one of the room's chairs over the back of his head. Stunned he dropped to the floor like a marionette with it's strings cut, the tray of food he'd been carrying going everywhere. Before he could recover Ayeka reached under his coat and grabbed his blaster.
"You give me the slightest excuse and I'll blow a hole through your head." Ayeka growled, the small blaster wavering in her hand just the tiniest bit.
Pushing himself into a sitting position with a wince he commented, "For such a tiny girl you've got one hell of a swing Ayeka." Giving her a once over her he added "I guess I should be thankful that you just hit me with a chair." Despite her outward show of anger, he could smell her nervousness, and long experience made it obvious to him that she wasn't even the slightest bit comfortable with the weapon she'd taken from him.
"I couldn't find anything with sharp edges I'm afraid." she shot back acidly.
"Fine, you got me. It doesn't really change the situation much I'm afraid." He tenderly probed at the lump on the back of his head and was pleased to note that the swelling was almost gone already. "You still can't get past the security I set up without my help. I'm not letting you go yet Princess."
"I could just blow off extremities until you changed your mind." Ayeka shot back, her tone more confident than it had been before.
"Not with that you can't." he replied, shooting a small grin at her. "It's a stun blaster. Completely and totally non-lethal."
"Your lying." she spat.
"Ayeka, I never had any intention of harming you, and I still don't." Mayhem said with a sigh. "Despite the stories, I'm not a monster."
"Then turn of the security systems and let me go home."
"Eventually Princess, I just ask one favor of you first."
"What favor?" she asked in a cautious tone, eyeing him suspiciously, her scent, a confusing mix of fear hope, adrenalin, and nervousness.
"Just listen to my side of this whole bloody mess."
Washu scanned through Lt. Heero's personnel file for the third time, rubbing her eyes to ward away the fatigue that was building despite the various pharmaceuticals and stimulants she had taken to keep it in check for the past three days. On the surface, the Lt. had a perfect record. The one blight on it being his consistent failure to capture Mayhem. Almost every recorded encounter they'd had resulted in millions in damage, blamed of course entirely on Mayhem. Funny thing though, though there were often casualties in the incidents, the only witness pinning any of them directly on Mayhem was the Lt. himself.
On one occasion Lt. Heero had gone in with an entire squad of GP troops, and he had been he only one to survive the encounter. Nearly all the troops had died as a result of blaster wounds consistent with a type of blaster used by many GP troops. According to the Lt.'s report Mayhem had been using a stolen GP weapon during the firefight. Because of his record and Mayhems reputation no one seemed to have questioned him on that report. That struck Washu as odd, as in the few recordings she'd seen of Mayhem in battle, she had never seen him use any ranged weapons. He seemed to do almost all of his fighting hand to hand. Fists, feet, stun-rods, random pieces of furniture, even on one occasion his teeth, but never a gun of any sort.
In fact, Mayhem himself was blamed with over three-dozen different killings, but only the killing of Duke Satoshima had proof beyond Lt. Heero's testimony or the testimony of various criminal elements. Knitting her eyebrows she leaned closer to the screen and got back to work.
It was nearly midnight. After a long evening of planning with the Lt. they had managed to at least decide on what areas he'd most likely fled to. Heero's past experience with their quarry having helped enough for their own knowledge of the area and Washu's hacking skills to narrow things down to the point that a search had a chance of getting results.
Rubbing at her eyes tiredly Kiyone let out a frustrated sigh. "Well, it's a start anyway." She shot a quick smile towards their new arrival. "I'm damned glad you decided to stop by Lt.. Most people who go after our happy little group are a bit easier to find."
Heero returned the smile with a slight grin of his own. "Kiyone, I have to wonder. Why haven't you called for backup as of yet? I'm sure that both the GP or the Jurian military would have been more than happy to assist."
Kiyone sighed, glancing briefly at the curled, softly snoring form of Mihoshi with a mixture of irritation and envy. "We considered it, but when we weighed the added resources against the possibility of scaring the guy and forcing his hand..." She grimaced slightly, "It's just wasn't worth the possible risk to Ayeka's safety."
Grimacing slightly in distaste, Heero nodded his head in agreement, though with a bit of reluctance. "Then it is fortunate that Ayeka has managed to surround herself with such... impressive... allies."
Kiyone grinned slightly at that. "Well, I'm going to crash, you should get some sleep too Lt.. Goodnight" With that she stood up, stretched and trudged up the stairs to her room.
"Goodnight Detective."
Ryoko found herself on the roof again. The fact that she was the only person in the house, except maybe Washu, who could easily get up there made it to be a good place to be alone. A good place to think. Not that she was having any luck in that regard. The day's events had her head spinning. She wasn't used to sitting around during this type of event, and the fact that the guy hadn't even tried to contact them yet was bugging the hell out of her.
Next on her list of confusing events was Tenchi. Always Tenchi. The previous night had been... wonderful. And it felt so unreal in her mind that she was starting to doubt that it'd been anything but a pleasant dream. Tenchi hadn't treated her any differently than normal that day, almost ignoring her as he planned things out with Washu and the three GP officers. He had kissed her last night... and it had been wonderful. But he hadn't done anything since. No matter what she tried. He'd just stiffen up and get nervous like he always did. Angrily she wiped away the tears that trailed down her cheeks.
"Tenchi no Baka!" she growled.
"What did I do?" Tenchi asked from behind her.
With a startled yelp she spun around and glared at the young man who had been driving her crazy all day. Tenchi gulped slightly as she stomped up to him, her golden eyes flashing as they bore into his. "You didn't do anything." she half growled half purred, her face barely six inches from his own. "Not a thing, all day."
"So why are you mad at me?" he asked confused, unable to tear his eyes away from her almost feral gaze.
"That's WHY I'm mad at you!" she snapped, and with that dragged the boy into a passionate, almost desperate kiss.
Three years of deeply ingrained experience told him to run, to hide before the fighting started, the logical part of his mind that knew Ayeka wasn't there having stopped working the second Ryoko's lips had contacted his own. Three years of personal experience warred against millions of years of instinct telling him to respond to the attentions of the lithe, beautiful female that was pressing herself against him, trying to devour him with her soft, soft lips. In the end though, the two forces shorted each other out.
Ryoko almost broke down crying when Tenchi gently broke the kiss without ever really responding to it. "Why?" she choked out. "Why can't you just love me back?" this was barely a whisper. "You kissed me last night, why can't you now?"
"Ryoko..." he started to respond, gathering the upset girl in a comforting hug, trying to put words to his feelings. "I, I just can't do this right now. When we get Ayeka back..."
"You love her, don't you." the way she said it, it wasn't really a question.
"I love all of you Ryoko." he leaned back slightly so he could look her in the eyes. "All of you are my family."
"So you see me as a sister... is that it?" she snapped, her voice wavering between an angry growl and an anguished wail.
Tenchi couldn't stop himself from grinning slightly at this. "I don't think I'm supposed to have the kind of thoughts about a sister that I have about you Ryoko." he responded with a slight chuckle, hugging her close again.
Ryoko looked up at him, confusion evident on her face. "Then why?"
He sighed, "I don't know Ryoko." Looking down at her tear-streaked face his heart twisted in his chest. "Can you just give me a little more time Ryoko? Just until this whole mess is over?"
She sniffed, wiping away her tears "I guess I can wait a little longer," she managed to force a small smile "I've waited for this long after all."
His face was emotionless as he finished his story, and to Ayeka's eyes he looked exhausted. The telling had taken most of the day. It probably wouldn't have taken nearly as long but she'd constantly had to force him to explain this or that. She wasn't sure if she believed everything he'd told her, but she realized with a start that she'd long ago put the blaster she'd liberated from him to the side. Biting her lip she examined him with new eyes, and she found he didn't scare her anymore. She still didn't really trust him, but sometime during the story she'd decided to give him a chance.
He felt drained, emotionally if not physically. As much as he'd tried to avoid it, he found him reliving some of the worst times of his life, Ayeka's questions often making him linger on the memories longer than he'd done since they'd happened. In a lot of ways it had felt like a confessional. For all the pain it had made him face, he felt better. To be cliché about it, he felt like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He'd needed to tell someone, anyone, about everything for the longest time now.
"I assume from the fact that you've put the gun down that you believe me?" he asked with a forced grin.
"I believe enough of what you've told me that I've decided to give you a chance."
"Thank you." he responded sincerely. "So what now? What we do next is up to you Ayeka."
Ignoring the question for the moment Ayeka leveled a slight glare in his direction "Do you have something against addressing me by my full title Mayhem?" The glare turned into a slight grimace as she continued, "I swear, the way you say Princess makes it sound like an insult."
"Gomen Ayeka." his grin at her complaint was considerably more natural this time. "That's just the Yankee in me talking."
"Yankee?" she asked, awkwardly wrapping her mouth around the unfamiliar word.
"An American." he elaborated, smiling slightly when her face lit up in recognition. "We've never had much use for royalty."
"Well," she sighed "I guess I will just have to live with being called by my first name then. In that case then, would you at least tell me your real name to make things a bit fairer?"
His silver-green eyes regarded her carefully for a few seconds before he responded, a warm smile gracing his features. "Keith."
"Well Keith. Getting back on the original subject, what would you suggest?"
"You mean other then having you tell everyone that I was definitely dead and letting me live in peace?" he asked in an innocent tone, a small smirk twisting up the corner of his mouth.
"Yes, other than that." she answered with a smirk of her own. I believe a lot of your story, but I'm not sure about all of it yet."
"Well if you know where there's a lie detector you'd trust to work on me we could always use that." he suggested.
"From what you tell me of your powers, that'd be a bit difficult to find." she noted dryly. "However, I believe I know someone who could probably cobble something reasonably effective together." she added, shooting him an evil smile.
He simply raised an eyebrow in response.
The phone rang, shattering the early morning silence, and a dozen machines that Washu had hooked up to it sprang to life, ready to trace a call that might be routed twice around the world and hidden in ways that human science couldn't dream of. What they found was a simple, untampered phone call from a pay phone roughly thirty miles away. It was enough to make a number of them to short-circuit. Sasami was the first person to reach the phone, though by the time she'd placed the receiver against her ear half the household was hovering around the phone.
"Moshi Moshi." Ayeka's voice called over the phone speaker, sounding surprisingly relaxed.
"Ayeka!?!" Sasami responded happily, "Are you all right? Did you get away?" That man didn't hurt you did he?"
A slight chuckle came over the speaker in response "Yes Sasami, I'm fine. Mr. Mayhem didn't hurt me, merely scared me half to death." A muffled voice called an apology in the background at this statement. "As for getting away... well, not exactly, but I'm no longer being held captive anyway."
"You mean he let you go?" Sasami asked, confusion evident in her voice.
"Lets just say we've managed to come to an agreement for the moment." Ayeka responded in an amused tone. "I merely called to tell you all that I'm fine, and I'll be home in an hour or so. I'll explain everything then, so don't worry yourself anymore, okay?"
"Okay Ayeka, I love you." Sasami responded sounding and feeling relived.
"I love you too Sasami. See you in a bit, bye." The click of Ayeka hanging up practically echoed in the absolute silence in the room.
Kiyone and Washu exchanged a glance as a very happy Sasami hugged an exhausted looking Tenchi. "Well, this could be interesting." Kiyone observed with a wry grin. Washu merely grinned back.
Behind the relieved, if somewhat confused, group, a frown crossed Lt. Heero's face. Spinning silently on his heel he strode from the room, followed only by Ryoko's worried gaze.
He was nervous. Really nervous. If Ayeka's friends had contacted the GP or the Jurian Government, he could very well be walking into a trap. He knew there were at least four GP cruisers within two days of the planet on a normal basis, and if they were still doing follow-up inquires into his case there could be a dozen additional patrol ships in range to assist. The fact that Ayeka would occasionally glance over her shoulder and shoot him a truly evil smile didn't help things any either.
"Would you quit doing that?" he growled after the twentieth odd time this happened.
"Doing what?" she asked in an overly innocent tone, smiling at him again.
"Trying to make me nervous. I really don't need the help." he ground out, shooting her a dirty look.
"Says the man who spent the most of the past couple of days scaring me half to death." Ayeka retorted, a smirk on her face.
He sighed and let his shoulders slump in defeat as the cab came to a stop in front of a unpaved path leading away from the road. "This the place I take it?"
"Yes." she answered, obviously happy to be home.
After paying the cab driver, they started down the path, Ayeka with a bounce in her step, obviously resisting the urge to start running. "You can go on ahead if you want." he said with a slight smile. "I'll catch up."
She shot him a glare over her shoulder. "If you think I'm going to let you out of my sight this close to home..." she began angrily. "After all, you still owe me a new kimono to replace the one you ruined." She added primly, plucking unconsciously at the sundress she was wearing.
Raising his hands in the air in a gesture of surrender he interrupted "All right, all right... I gave my word I wouldn't run off didn't I?"
"Just hurry up Keith." she sighed, and picked up her pace.
The little girl that came flying out of the front door when they came into view of the house had blue hair put up in pigtails that trailed almost to the ground. She had tears in her eyes when she tackled Ayeka. Hugging the taller girl for all she was worth. The guilt that rose up at the sight quite honestly made him want to beat his head against a wall. Lacking a wall close enough he settled for a heavy sigh and some mental self-abuse.
He was so intent on the reunion taking place that he didn't really notice the rest of the group that came rushing out of the house until they had formed a comforting mob around the two sisters. The cyan haired girl with the golden eyes he didn't see until she was right next to him with her light-sword at his throat. Her scent was... unique. It was close enough to the human and Jurian norm that he could distinguish the anger radiating from her in waves, but there was something extra in it that was wholly alien.
"Um... hello." he greeted, his case of nerves returning full strength and making his voice slightly uneven.
"Give me one reason I shouldn't slit your throat right now for making Sasami cry." she asked, her voice harsh with barely suppressed rage.
He sighed slightly, turning his head to look her in the eyes. "Because then I'd never get a chance to apologize... or to try and make it up to her."
The girl's glare softened, just a tiny bit, and trace of uncertainty joined the raw anger in her scent. She asked her next question just as a second girl, this one with long teal hair that fell to her waist and wearing a GP uniform, minus the body armor and jacket joined their little standoff. "Are you armed?"
"Yes." he answered. Deciding that honesty was definitely the best policy in this particular situation.
"Take it all out, drop it on the ground, and back up. Slowly." the Teal haired GP detective instructed in a tone he'd heard a hundred times before from a hundred different cops. Reaching into his coat he pulled out the 9mm pistol he'd picked up the day before, ejected the magazine, and dropped it on the ground. Next came the pair of thin throwing knives from a sheath strapped to the inside of his left wrist and the 8 inch combat knife from the sheath strapped to the small of his back. Lastly the small holdout blaster hidden in his other sleeve joined the small pile at his feet with a soft thunk.
"Sure you didn't miss anything?" the teal-haired cop asked, her tone sarcastic.
"Just the built in stuff." he returned with a smirk. "Any point in asking you two for your names?"
"Ryoko." The cyan haired one answered in a flat voice, deactivating her sword after flicking it off and on rapidly, just to let him know that she could get it back at anytime, faster than he could possibly draw any of his own weapons.
"Detective first class Kiyone Makibi." the second one answered, crouching briefly to gather his weapons after he'd backed off far enough for her peace of mind.
"Washu-chan" came a slightly nasal voice from behind him, startling him.
Twirling around to face the voice, he found himself looking at a girl who appeared to be 14 years old at the most. Her scent sharply disagreed with that assessment though. It was the scent of a fully mature woman. It held no trace of fear or nervousness, and there was only the slightest trace of caution in it. Her most notable feature though, was the absolutely massive shock of pink hair that fell to nearly to her feet. She was looking him over with a critical, appraising eye. He could almost feel her taking mental measurements, sizing him up.
Washu looked over the young man before her. About 197 centimeters tall, he wore an old green military style jacket that hung loosely off of wide shoulders, making it easy for him to conceal things on his otherwise lean frame. The rest of his clothing was fairly unremarkable. A pair of jeans that had seen better days, a plain black T-shirt that was a size to big for him, and a pair of scuffed black leather workboots. The type of clothing that wouldn't draw any second glances, or even first ones for that matter. She was more or less certain that that was the whole point.
She noted that he had recently shaved, and his goatee was neatly trimmed. His hair, while not what anyone would really call long, obviously hadn't been cut in months, and the thick brown mop had already undone whatever attempts at styling he may have tried that morning. Meeting his silver-green eyes she flashed him her best mad-scientist grin, and pointed at the tattoo that ran down the side of his neck. "So is that real? Or were you just trying to look tough by getting a gladiators mark tattooed on you?"
"It's real." he answered cautiously. But before Washu could ask any more questions he turned his attention to Ayeka and the remainder of her friends as they approached him. Ignoring the older members of the group for the moment, he knelt so he could look the blue haired little girl, Sasami, in the face and spoke in a quiet voice.
"I'm sorry." he began, trying to put as much sincerity into the words as he possibly could. "I'm sorry I made you worry about your sister for so long. I swear that I never had any intention of hurting her, and I was always going to let her go eventually."
"But why'd you take her in the first place?" Sasami asked, her tone questioning, and slightly angry. Her ruby colored eyes, still streaked with tears, still managed to fix him with an impressive glare.
He sighed heavily, his shoulders sagging. "Because I was scared."
"Scared?" the little girl asked, taking a step closer to him, the glare fading slightly, curiosity evident in her voice.
"Scared that I would get caught by the GP or the Jurian military and get taken away after I'd finally made it home... before I could see my family again."
"You're from Earth?" she asked, her expressive eyes searching his face for any signs of deceit.
"America." he answered with a slight smile. "I didn't even know who she was when I grabbed her really. I knew she was a Jurian... and I just wanted to find out why she was tracking me. When she told me who she was, I guess I just panicked a bit."
"Why?" the little princess asked, her huge ruby eyes curious.
"Because your Dad's already mad enough at me, I didn't want to make things any worse." he answered with a small grin. "Plus there's what your mom would do to me." he added with a wink. "She can be pretty scary lady when she's mad."
This got a small smile out of the young Jurian
"Is there any way I can get you to ever forgive me?" he asked softly.
"You did lots more than just kidnap Ayeka...." Sasami's voice trailed off, and the smile faded.
"I know." he answered sadly.
"C'mon everybody, lets get inside." Tenchi interrupted, giving him a curious look. "Ayeka and our new guest can explain everything in there."
End Chapter 3