Disclaimer... the ones you recognize ain't mine.
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Mayhem, Chaos, and General Messes - Chapter 8
Interludes
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She hadn't felt this pathetic or helpless since she had been trapped in the cave. She couldn't move so much as a finger, she couldn't talk... and the sounds of the dozen odd monitors Washu had arranged around her bed in Yukinojo's medical bay were slowly driving her insane. Carefully she reached out for the energy she could feel throbbing in her newly returned gems and attempted to draw it into her, willing it to speed up the healing process and let her run away like she was aching to do, but it evaded her mental grasp once again. If she could have sworn at that moment she would have.
"Ryoko?" Tenchi's gentle voice called into the room, and Ryoko snapped her eyes firmly shut. He was the last person in the universe she wanted to see right now, and while she couldn't escape from him completely; at least she wouldn't have to look at him.
"I know you're mad at me." The young prince started quietly, sitting down on a low chair beside the bed. "And I'm sorry I had to do that to you... but I couldn't just let you die. Even if you hate me from now till the end of time, I just couldn't..." his voice trailed off, and she heard him settle back into the chair, apparently out of things to say for the moment. If she'd had her voice she would have screamed at him to get out, to leave her alone. She had trusted him more than anyone else in her entire life, and he had betrayed that trust. He had abused her feelings for him to control her, to take away what should have been HER choice. He may not have done it as overtly as Kagato, but for that moment, that vitally important moment, he had robbed her of her most precious possession. Her freedom. As it was she just did her best to ignore his presence
"Tenchi." Washu called, stepping through the sick bay's door. "Mayuka wants her daddy." The tiny scientist said in a sing-song voice, pointing back over her shoulder with her thumb. Tenchi let out a tired sigh and stood up.
"Thanks Washu-chan." Tenchi said as he stepped past her into the corridor. Just outside the door he paused and called, "I'll be back later Ryoko." before continuing down toward the room where his daughter was supposed to be sleeping.
"Please, don't do me any favors Tenchi." She thought, wishing fervently that she could at least turn her head and glare at him properly.
"You can chew the boy out to your hearts content later my dear Ryoko." Washu said softly, claiming the chair that Tenchi had just vacated, and giving Ryoko's nearer hand a gentle squeeze. "For now you need to rest and heal."
"Stay the hell out of my head Washu." Ryoko sent angrily over their link. "I'm not exactly happy with you either you know. If it wasn't for you he could never have gotten into my head and done that to me in the first place." She accused. "I was ready, I'd made my choice and he... BOTH of you robbed me of it."
She wailed, her mental voice pained and unsteady, a few tears trickling from the corners of her eyes despite her best efforts. "I expect you to do that kind of thing to me, but I TRUSTED him." Washu could feel tears start to from in her own eyes as her daughter's words struck home, making her chest contract painfully.
"Were you really that ready to die Ryoko?" Washu asked in a quiet, slightly horrified voice, all of her normal confidence and arrogance gone.
"YES!" Ryoko's mental reply was immediate and held no hint of indecision. "What did I have to look forward too?" Ryoko Spat. "Waiting around for Tenchi to finally decide on someone else and leave me all alone? Millennia after millennia of my mother playing torture the space-pirate in the name of science? Of having people run away from me in fear because of what Kagato made me do? Of having to live with the guilt of knowing that there was a point in time that I actually ENJOYED causing all that pain and suffering because the fear I saw in peoples eyes just before I snuffed them out was the only time anybody ever bothered wasting an emotion on me? A few thousand more years of trying to figure out what makes Sasami's food so special?" Tears were flowing freely from Ryoko's eyes at this point, and Washu could only listen in numb horror as her daughter ranted. "Yes Washu, I was ready to die. Before the good memories I have of the past few years had time to turn sour. Before what happiness I've managed to gather around me crumbles in my hands. Before..." Ryoko's mental voice trailed off.
"I... I won't... won't experiment on you anymore." Washu said in a small, unsteady voice, not sure of what to say, but wanting to offer something at least. Ryoko just snorted in response, that at least was something she could vocalize. Silence reigned in the small room for a while, Washu not sure of what to say next and Ryoko not wanting to talk at all.
"You... you said something about trying to guess why Sasami's meals were so good." Washu started hesitantly grabbing desperately for any way she might be able to help her daughter, "What did you mean?" Washu asked, a touch of her normal curiosity managing to creep back into her voice.
"What the hell do you think I mean?" Ryoko asked, thoroughly annoyed. "You're the one who designed me."
"I don't understand." Washu admitted, confused.
"What, is old age effecting your memory now Washu?" Ryoko asked with a snort. "You're the genius that decided that I didn't need a sense of taste."
"A sense of..." Washu's voice trailed off, looking at her daughter with wide eyes. "That BASTARD!" she shouted, leaping out of the chair and bringing up her holotop with an angry wave of her hand as she ranted. "Every time I think I've figured out everything Kagato did to you another thing pops up! It took me months just to get rid of the programming that let him control you in the first place, and now I find out that he was messing with you're senses as well?" she typed furiously at her computer as Ryoko listened to her rant, her eyes widening in surprise when Washu mentioned removing the programming.
"Washu?" she called over their link. "Mom?" she added when that didn't get the small woman's attention.
"Yes Ryoko?" Washu asked, her head snapping up from the computer screen to look at her daughter's unmoving form, still looking much to frail for Washu's taste underneath the thin blankets that were covering her.
"What programming? And when did you get rid of it?" Ryoko asked, genuinely curious.
"Ryoko my dear, I did not design you to be a puppet or a weapon or anything else Kagato tried to use you as." Washu said with a heavy sigh. "Yes, you're my creation, but more importantly you're my Daughter. I just wanted... just want you to be you own person. If Kagato hadn't stolen you from me when
you were so young he would never have been able to do any of those things to you." Washu walked over to the bed so she could look her daughter in the eyes as she talked. "A for when I got rid of the programming... do you remember right after the incident with Doctor Clay?"
"When you stripped me of my power and tied me up half naked in the dark all night?" Ryoko asked, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the pink haired scientist. Washu winced at the hurt and anger she saw in Ryoko's golden eyes, but nodded in affirmation.
"Sorry 'bout that." She apologized in a small voice, "but it was the only way I could think of to do it. You had to have your mental defenses stripped away completely... and you can't do that consciously, nobody can. If I'd told you what I was trying to do ahead of time it wouldn't have worked."
"You should have at least told me afterwards." Ryoko responded, but most of the anger was gone, she was too tired to be angry at more than one person right now.
"You're right... and I'm sorry." Washu responded sincerely, leaning over to give Ryoko a careful, if somewhat awkward, hug, deciding that it was probably going to be a long time before she got another opportunity. "At least getting your senses back in order shouldn't be to hard." She murmured, savoring the rare opportunity to show her daughter some genuine affection, and rather surprised that Ryoko hadn't yelled at her to stop yet. She couldn't stop the tears of joy when one of the cyan-haired girls arms, shaking from the effort, lifted up to return the hug, albeit weakly.
"Thanks mom." Ryoko whispered, her voice rough and weak from disuse, but the words genuine.
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Mihoshi was watching Keith and Ayeka worriedly. Since they'd gotten off the transport Ayeka had been purposefully keeping as much distance as she could manage between herself and Keith, despite the boy's efforts to do the complete opposite. She figured that they'd had a fight of some sort on the shuttle, but the way it the ship was designed meant that neither she nor Sasami had been able to hear anything, or see what it had been about.
At the moment Ayeka was walking ahead of Keith, shooting the occasional glace back in his direction, and talking to her little sister. She was still wearing the short skirt and midriff baring t-shirt that Keith had convinced her to wear, but she had added a wide leather chocker clasped together at the front
with an amber cats-eye gem, a pair of matching bracelets, and a loose chrome-chain belt to the outfit. Her hair wasn't in the same style either; it had been pulled back into a single thick braid, and looked a tiny bit mussed. Her tiara, needless to say, was absent as well.
For his part, Keith was looking really overheated in his long sleeved shirt and jeans and was watching the elder of the two princesses with an unreadable expression on his face. Nodding resolutely the blonde detective put on her serious face and picked up her pace in order to catch up to the young man so she could get to the bottom of this mystery.
"Keith-san!" Keith heard Mihoshi call from behind him, and after a slight moment of hesitation, turned his attention from the pleasant activity of watching Ayeka's hindquarters and turned to look at the blonde detective as she half-jogged to catch up to him. The outfit the young woman had chosen to wear
was... well let's just say she was definitely not as modest as Ayeka. The yellow bikini top she had picked out (with no prompting from Keith just in case anyone was wondering) was causing havoc among the male population, and the extremely short jean shorts weren't helping things at all. And now she was jogging,
with the predictable results. Keith winced slightly in sympathy as a distracted young man on a bicycle ran into a parked car because he was staring too hard.
"Yes Mihoshi?" Keith asked when the Blonde caught up to him, forcibly making himself look at her face when he talked, not that the attractive young woman's face was particularly hard to look at.
"What's Ayeka so mad at you about? Mihoshi asked in her best police-persons voice, getting right to the point of the matter. Then in a more normal tone, well normal for her anyway, she added, "I mean, I'm pretty sure you two had a fight or something on the shuttle, but Sasami and I couldn't hear or see anything from the front seat, and Kiyone says she slept right through the whole trip and doesn't know anything!" Keith turned bright red, and he could smell the wave of embarrassment, mixed with a few other scents, that emanated from Ayeka at Mihoshi's question, which reached the Princess's ears quite easily given how loudly the blonde's normal tone of voice was.
"We didn't get in a fight." Keith protested, looking down at the ground in an attempt to hide the neon-red blush he could feel coloring his face.
"I'm not mad at him Mihoshi!" Ayeka added, turning around to fix the blonde detective with a glare, though the blush that was decorating her own cheeks made it considerably less effective than it would have been otherwise.
"Then why are you avoiding him like this?" Mihoshi asked curiously, managing to miss both of their red faces completely. "I mean, you two were acting like best friends before we rode in that shuttle."
"Best friends? With that criminal?" Ayeka snapped reflexively, her hand going to cover her mouth even before the words had finished coming out, a horrified look on her face at the knee-jerk response.
Keith just snarled in answer, throwing Ayeka a dangerous glare before stalking ahead of them.
"Well Princess," he growled as he stomped past her, emphasizing her title to the point that it sounded like a curse, "you'd better walk a bit faster or this criminal is gonna leave you behind."
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They arrived at their destination a little under an hour later, Keith still staying well ahead of the rest of them, picking up the pace any time one of them tried to catch up. The building they arrived at was rather nondescript. Low-built and made from plain gray concrete it actually looked rather like a bunker. The vault-like steel door that was apparently it's only entrance only served to reinforce that impression. Ayeka and the rest of the group arrived just in time to see Keith reach for the small intercom set into the side of the building by the door.
"Yo! Grease-monkey, get your butt up here and let me in before I start trying to pick the lock." Keith drawled holding the speak button down, a malicious smirk on his face.
"Who the fuck is it?" a heavily distorted voice responded after a couple seconds, the owner replied, obviously annoyed, prompting Ayeka and Kiyone to cover Sasami's ears. "And who the hell do you think you fucking are calling me that!"
"Who else in this shithole arm of the galaxy calls you a grease-monkey, yah Grease-monkey." Keith replied, his grin widening.
"You..." the voice started to say then cut off. A handful of seconds later the heavy door swung aside considerably faster than it looked like it should have been able to, and a petite figure came flying out, latching onto Keith and hugging him fiercely.
"You asshole! I thought you were fucking dead!" the figure, now identifiable as an attractive young woman with silvery hair tied back into a waist-long ponytail... wearing a short rumpled nightshirt and little else... accused, all but strangling Keith as she hugged him. Ayeka scowled, unable to repress the surge of jealousy that ran through her when Keith returned the hug affectionately.
"If I could've called I would've kiddo." Keith replied, the smirk on his face softening into a genuine smile. "Still not one to get up before mid-afternoon I see." He added teasingly, tugging on her nightshirt to get his point across.
"Huh? Eeep!" the girl, realizing her state of undress quickly released her death grip on Keith and darted back inside.
"C'mon everybody." Keith said, gesturing towards the door. "Lets get inside before we attract any more attention than we already have." With that he stepped through the still open doorway, pointedly ignoring the glare that Ayeka was giving him.
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Despite its outward appearance the inside of the building was cavernous, extending several stories underground. The entrance had led to a short hallway, which had in turn led to a second door that opened onto a catwalk above what was from all appearances a covered landing bay, a partly disassembled fighter dominating the floor. Keith let them look around for a few seconds before waving them on towards another door about twenty feet down the catwalk from where they were gathered.
"You decent in their Kiddo?" Keith called after knocking on the door a couple times.
"Yeah, c'mon in Mayhem." The girl's voice, a pleasant alto without the distortion of the intercom, came through the door. With that reassurance Keith pushed the door open and steeped through.
The room was actually rather comfortable in it's own way Ayeka noted a bit grudgingly as she stepped through the doorway, though it'd never get an award for organization. A pair of plush couches dominated the center of the room, facing a monstrous entertainment center that completely covered one wall. Behind the couches against the opposite wall was a queen-sized bed, unmade and covered in thick blankets and cushions, and beside it an oversized dresser. The girl, who's name still hadn't been mentioned Ayeka noted, was currently standing next to the dresser, and was in the process of absentmindedly tossing her nightclothes into the hamper stuffed between the dresser and the wall.
"Make yourselves comfortable." The small woman offered, giving them all a warm, if somewhat curious smile, and gesturing towards the couches.
"Thank you miss...?" Ayeka responded, doing her best to be civil despite how she was presently feeling about the young woman, reminding herself once again that she had no right or reason to get jealous over Keith.
"Sari." She supplied with a grin. "Now if Mayhem here will stop acting like his usual clueless self and introduce you all." She said, giving Keith a pointed look. Taking the hint, he quickly introduced his traveling companions, leaving off Mihoshi's and Kiyone's jobs and ranks, but including Ayeka's and
Sasami's full titles and grinning like a madman when Sari's jaw dropped open.
"The crown princesses?" She gasped after a few seconds, staring at the two girls in a mixture of horror and amazement. "You've gotta be shitting me."
"Keith is quite serious I'm afraid." Ayeka replied before Keith could respond with an appropriately smart-aleck remark, trying not to wince at the silver-haired girls crude language. To emphasize her answer she fished her tiara out of her handbag and held it up for inspection.
"Now this one I gotta hear." Sari said after a moment. "Later though, first thing I want to know is..." she stopped mid sentence, an odd look on her face. Turning to face Keith, she fixed him with a baleful glare. "Keith? You told them your real name?" the small girl asked in an icy tone, "BEFORE YOU
TOLD ME?!" she all but shouted the last part, genuinely upset.
"Ah Christ..." Keith muttered, "I'm sorry Sari."
"Sorry? SORRY?" Do you have any fucking idea how long we, ALL of you're friends out here, have been trying to get that little piece of information out of you? And the second you get out of the loop for a couple weeks, you go and tell a bunch of people you've known for what? A week maybe?" she ranted, stalking over to where he was sitting and putting her face bare inches away from his. "Do you have any idea how insulting that is?"
"I was home Sari." Keith replied with a sigh, pulling the small woman onto his lap and into a hug against her protests. "I honestly didn't think I was ever going to leave the place again..." he let his voice trail off as Sari relaxed against him.
"And you decided that it was time to go back to you're old life." Sari finished with a sigh. "I understand I guess, but I'm still pissed at you." She murmured. "You realize that the gang's gonna lynch yah when they hear about this though, don'tcha?"
"I'll make it up to you guys when I'm a bit less rushed." Keith responded with a smile... though that lasted only as long as it took him to notice the angry, jealous, scent all but pouring off Ayeka. Glancing over at the violet haired princess he winced at her icy expression. He could practically see the
gears in her head plotting painful things to do to him.
"Anyway, enough of this sappy shit." Sari said, scrambling out of Keith's lap and into the space between him and Kiyone on the couch, but taking advantage of the position to use him as a pillow. "Back to business. What brings yah to my humble little shop, and who's after yah for what?"
"Straight to the point as always." Keith drawled, grinning down at the petite woman nestled up against him. "I'm gonna need one of your custom jobs, fake registration, fake clearances into Jurian space, and a few other odds and ends for starters. And it's just the normal a-hole after me, but with new ammo to get support."
"Well it's gonna take a day or two. Fortunately for you, despite the fact that you've once again managed to give me absolutely no advanced warning, I got something nearly ready that should suit your needs pretty well." Sari responded with a smirk. Keith just grinned in reply. "Well you know the drill... Keith... the terminal is where it always is, you know the prices, just put the money in the Reich account."
"Do I get my normal discount?" Keith asked with a grin as he stood up.
"After all the shit you just pulled? Fuck no." Sari snorted, "You get the 10% regular customer discount and that's it." Keith just laughed in response as he stepped out of the room, the metal door shutting behind him with a soft clang.
"So, while he's busy doing that, why don't you guys tell me how you got mixed up with that punk?" Sari asked, turning to give the four assembled girls a wry grin. "Him coming by trailing a group of strays behind ain't that uncommon an occurrence... but this is the first time he's ever brought a pair of princesses and GP with him." Kiyone and Mihoshi exchanged worried looks at that.
"How did you know...?" Kiyone asked after a brief pause.
"My security picked up your blasters and control cubes when you came through the door." Sari replied with a smirk. "Don't worry though, I'm not gonna tell anybody. If May... Keith, trusts yah, I will too." She paused for a second, making a face. "It's gonna take me forever tah get used to calling him that. But anyway, back to the original question."
"Well, that is something of a long story..." Ayeka began, nervously fingering one of the bracelets she was wearing.
"Keith was running away from some other Galaxy police and crashed on Earth and we went looking for him because Washu figured out he was alive and Ayeka wanted to catch him for killing her uncle, but we had to split up to actually find him and he caught Ayeka instead, and when she got caught this really mean man, though he was acting really nice at the time, named Heero came by saying he was there to help but when Keith brought Ayeka back Heero tried to blow us all up with his ship and really hurt one of our friends so we had to try and catch him, but he managed to convince everybody that we were imposters and everyone started chasing us so we had to hide in this really cramped shuttle while Keith's friend Marcus flew us here..." Mihoshi stopped to take a deep breath before finishing, "and my favorite soap is starting like right now so can I please use your TV?" the blonde detective finished in a rush, fixing Sari with her best puppy-dog look.
"Uhhh.... Sure." Sari responded after a few seconds of silence, a look of horrified fascination on her face as she contemplated the blonde's lung capacity and her mind digested the information that had just been thrown at her. With a squeal of delight Mihoshi lunged for the remote, switching the TV on and flipping to the right channel with an ease born of experience.
"So... what she just said is what really happened?" Sari asked after spending a few more seconds goggling at Mihoshi's actions.
"Well, she oversimplified things considerably," Ayeka replied with a sigh, "but it's reasonably accurate."
"...oh..."
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Keith tapped one clawed finger against the plain wooden desk that held Sari's 'business' computer in a poor attempt at a rhythm as he double checked his order for anything he might have missed. He was just a touch distracted though, and it was taking him four times as long as normal to do anything. Too
much longer and they were going to send a search party after him.
"Ah fuck it, that's good enough." He muttered under his breath and tapped the enter key before leaning back in the slightly to small office chair to wait for the computer to run through all of the security protocols that both ends of the transaction were guarded by. That done, he let his mind focus itself on the train of thought that had been bouncing around in the back of his head since they'd arrived on planet.
"What the hell were you thinking you horny bastard." He groaned, giving in to the urge to bang his head against the desk a few times. "You've known the girl for less than a goddamned week and you come within a few inches of banging her brains out. What kind of friggin' asshole are you anyway," he berated
himself half under his breath, "the second Lia'ne says she doesn't mind I just about jump the girl... and how the hell can I even be thinking about that kind of thing right now anyway!" the last part of that he all but shouted before he caught himself. "Especially after what happened at the hotel..."
"Keith?" a voice, Ayeka's voice, called from the half-open door.
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"You know what?" Sasami said as Ayeka stepped out of the room, claiming she needed to use the restroom.
"What Sasami?" Sari asked, giving the young girl a smile and doing her best to ignore that she was talking to a princess of the most powerful and influential families in this and several other galaxies.
"I think Keith and Ayeka like each other." She finished, the way she said it making it perfectly obvious what type of "like" she was talking about. Kiyone nearly spit out the coffee she was drinking.
"What makes you say that?" Sari asked, giving the teal-haired detective a curious look as she regained her composure. And she was genuinely curious, habitual flirting aside, Mayhem... Keith hadn't shown interest in any woman but Talia for as long as she had known him, and more than a year after his wife's death she personally thought it was about time. But of all people, why the crown princess of the Jurian Empire?
"Well... Sasami trailed off, trying to put what she'd observed into words. "They spend a lot of time together talking about stuff," the blue haired girl started ticking off reasons on the fingers of one hand, "they're always peeking at each other when they think the other ones not looking, they both blush an awful lot when they're around each other..." Sasami paused for a second before leaning forward to whisper the last reason conspiratorially to Sari and Kiyone "and I think they were kissing or something on the shuttle ride over." Kiyone promptly started choking again.
"Wha... what makes you say that Sasami?" Kiyone asked, still coughing a little.
"Well they were all alone back there for the whole trip, and they took forever to get out, and Ayeka's hair was really messy when she did..." Sasami answered in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Uhh, I almost hate to ask, but why were they all alone on the trip over?" Sari inquired.
"It was a three seat research shuttle with more or less separate compartments for each seat. Ayeka and Keith kinda just ended up in the back seat together." Kiyone explained quickly between coughing fits.
"Ah..." sari responded, fighting back a evil grin. "Sooo... do you think they make a good couple Sasami?" she asked, trying hard to sound innocent.
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"Yeah Ayeka?" Keith responded, praying that the young woman standing in the doorway hadn't heard his little rant.
"We... we need to talk." The violet-tressed girls started hesitantly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her and leaning back against it, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
"So, talk then." Keith prompted when the young woman didn't say anything for several seconds.
"About what happened on the shuttle..." Ayeka started, looking up but still refusing to look him in the eyes, "... it shouldn't have happened."
"So you regret it then?" Keith asked quietly, his voice slightly pained despite his efforts to not let the words effect him.
"No..." Ayeka admitted, the barest hint of a sad smile flitting across her features, "But it still should not have happened. I... I am in love with someone else. And even if I was not, it wouldn't work between us... it couldn't really."
"...well I guess I have no choice then." Keith started, his face carefully neutral as he stood and covered the distance between them in two long strides. Ayeka bit back a gasp and looked up at him, her heart speeding up a little in her chest.
"Friends?" the scruffy young man asked, sticking out his hand, the serious expression he had been carefully maintaining turning into a genuine, if slightly melancholy smile. Ayeka's worried expression melted away, her own smile mirroring his as she took his hand.
"Friends." She confirmed.
"Good. I don't think I could deal with a person I care about hating me at this point in my life." He responded wryly. "Just one thing though..."
"Yes Keith?" Ayeka asked curiously.
"I don't give up quite that easily." And with that he pulled her to him and leaned over to capture her mouth with his in a passionate kiss. After what felt like an eternity he broke contact and carefully stepped past her and out the door.
"Oh my..."
End Chapter 8
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Mayhem, Chaos, and General Messes - Chapter 8
Interludes
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She hadn't felt this pathetic or helpless since she had been trapped in the cave. She couldn't move so much as a finger, she couldn't talk... and the sounds of the dozen odd monitors Washu had arranged around her bed in Yukinojo's medical bay were slowly driving her insane. Carefully she reached out for the energy she could feel throbbing in her newly returned gems and attempted to draw it into her, willing it to speed up the healing process and let her run away like she was aching to do, but it evaded her mental grasp once again. If she could have sworn at that moment she would have.
"Ryoko?" Tenchi's gentle voice called into the room, and Ryoko snapped her eyes firmly shut. He was the last person in the universe she wanted to see right now, and while she couldn't escape from him completely; at least she wouldn't have to look at him.
"I know you're mad at me." The young prince started quietly, sitting down on a low chair beside the bed. "And I'm sorry I had to do that to you... but I couldn't just let you die. Even if you hate me from now till the end of time, I just couldn't..." his voice trailed off, and she heard him settle back into the chair, apparently out of things to say for the moment. If she'd had her voice she would have screamed at him to get out, to leave her alone. She had trusted him more than anyone else in her entire life, and he had betrayed that trust. He had abused her feelings for him to control her, to take away what should have been HER choice. He may not have done it as overtly as Kagato, but for that moment, that vitally important moment, he had robbed her of her most precious possession. Her freedom. As it was she just did her best to ignore his presence
"Tenchi." Washu called, stepping through the sick bay's door. "Mayuka wants her daddy." The tiny scientist said in a sing-song voice, pointing back over her shoulder with her thumb. Tenchi let out a tired sigh and stood up.
"Thanks Washu-chan." Tenchi said as he stepped past her into the corridor. Just outside the door he paused and called, "I'll be back later Ryoko." before continuing down toward the room where his daughter was supposed to be sleeping.
"Please, don't do me any favors Tenchi." She thought, wishing fervently that she could at least turn her head and glare at him properly.
"You can chew the boy out to your hearts content later my dear Ryoko." Washu said softly, claiming the chair that Tenchi had just vacated, and giving Ryoko's nearer hand a gentle squeeze. "For now you need to rest and heal."
"Stay the hell out of my head Washu." Ryoko sent angrily over their link. "I'm not exactly happy with you either you know. If it wasn't for you he could never have gotten into my head and done that to me in the first place." She accused. "I was ready, I'd made my choice and he... BOTH of you robbed me of it."
She wailed, her mental voice pained and unsteady, a few tears trickling from the corners of her eyes despite her best efforts. "I expect you to do that kind of thing to me, but I TRUSTED him." Washu could feel tears start to from in her own eyes as her daughter's words struck home, making her chest contract painfully.
"Were you really that ready to die Ryoko?" Washu asked in a quiet, slightly horrified voice, all of her normal confidence and arrogance gone.
"YES!" Ryoko's mental reply was immediate and held no hint of indecision. "What did I have to look forward too?" Ryoko Spat. "Waiting around for Tenchi to finally decide on someone else and leave me all alone? Millennia after millennia of my mother playing torture the space-pirate in the name of science? Of having people run away from me in fear because of what Kagato made me do? Of having to live with the guilt of knowing that there was a point in time that I actually ENJOYED causing all that pain and suffering because the fear I saw in peoples eyes just before I snuffed them out was the only time anybody ever bothered wasting an emotion on me? A few thousand more years of trying to figure out what makes Sasami's food so special?" Tears were flowing freely from Ryoko's eyes at this point, and Washu could only listen in numb horror as her daughter ranted. "Yes Washu, I was ready to die. Before the good memories I have of the past few years had time to turn sour. Before what happiness I've managed to gather around me crumbles in my hands. Before..." Ryoko's mental voice trailed off.
"I... I won't... won't experiment on you anymore." Washu said in a small, unsteady voice, not sure of what to say, but wanting to offer something at least. Ryoko just snorted in response, that at least was something she could vocalize. Silence reigned in the small room for a while, Washu not sure of what to say next and Ryoko not wanting to talk at all.
"You... you said something about trying to guess why Sasami's meals were so good." Washu started hesitantly grabbing desperately for any way she might be able to help her daughter, "What did you mean?" Washu asked, a touch of her normal curiosity managing to creep back into her voice.
"What the hell do you think I mean?" Ryoko asked, thoroughly annoyed. "You're the one who designed me."
"I don't understand." Washu admitted, confused.
"What, is old age effecting your memory now Washu?" Ryoko asked with a snort. "You're the genius that decided that I didn't need a sense of taste."
"A sense of..." Washu's voice trailed off, looking at her daughter with wide eyes. "That BASTARD!" she shouted, leaping out of the chair and bringing up her holotop with an angry wave of her hand as she ranted. "Every time I think I've figured out everything Kagato did to you another thing pops up! It took me months just to get rid of the programming that let him control you in the first place, and now I find out that he was messing with you're senses as well?" she typed furiously at her computer as Ryoko listened to her rant, her eyes widening in surprise when Washu mentioned removing the programming.
"Washu?" she called over their link. "Mom?" she added when that didn't get the small woman's attention.
"Yes Ryoko?" Washu asked, her head snapping up from the computer screen to look at her daughter's unmoving form, still looking much to frail for Washu's taste underneath the thin blankets that were covering her.
"What programming? And when did you get rid of it?" Ryoko asked, genuinely curious.
"Ryoko my dear, I did not design you to be a puppet or a weapon or anything else Kagato tried to use you as." Washu said with a heavy sigh. "Yes, you're my creation, but more importantly you're my Daughter. I just wanted... just want you to be you own person. If Kagato hadn't stolen you from me when
you were so young he would never have been able to do any of those things to you." Washu walked over to the bed so she could look her daughter in the eyes as she talked. "A for when I got rid of the programming... do you remember right after the incident with Doctor Clay?"
"When you stripped me of my power and tied me up half naked in the dark all night?" Ryoko asked, narrowing her eyes accusingly at the pink haired scientist. Washu winced at the hurt and anger she saw in Ryoko's golden eyes, but nodded in affirmation.
"Sorry 'bout that." She apologized in a small voice, "but it was the only way I could think of to do it. You had to have your mental defenses stripped away completely... and you can't do that consciously, nobody can. If I'd told you what I was trying to do ahead of time it wouldn't have worked."
"You should have at least told me afterwards." Ryoko responded, but most of the anger was gone, she was too tired to be angry at more than one person right now.
"You're right... and I'm sorry." Washu responded sincerely, leaning over to give Ryoko a careful, if somewhat awkward, hug, deciding that it was probably going to be a long time before she got another opportunity. "At least getting your senses back in order shouldn't be to hard." She murmured, savoring the rare opportunity to show her daughter some genuine affection, and rather surprised that Ryoko hadn't yelled at her to stop yet. She couldn't stop the tears of joy when one of the cyan-haired girls arms, shaking from the effort, lifted up to return the hug, albeit weakly.
"Thanks mom." Ryoko whispered, her voice rough and weak from disuse, but the words genuine.
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Mihoshi was watching Keith and Ayeka worriedly. Since they'd gotten off the transport Ayeka had been purposefully keeping as much distance as she could manage between herself and Keith, despite the boy's efforts to do the complete opposite. She figured that they'd had a fight of some sort on the shuttle, but the way it the ship was designed meant that neither she nor Sasami had been able to hear anything, or see what it had been about.
At the moment Ayeka was walking ahead of Keith, shooting the occasional glace back in his direction, and talking to her little sister. She was still wearing the short skirt and midriff baring t-shirt that Keith had convinced her to wear, but she had added a wide leather chocker clasped together at the front
with an amber cats-eye gem, a pair of matching bracelets, and a loose chrome-chain belt to the outfit. Her hair wasn't in the same style either; it had been pulled back into a single thick braid, and looked a tiny bit mussed. Her tiara, needless to say, was absent as well.
For his part, Keith was looking really overheated in his long sleeved shirt and jeans and was watching the elder of the two princesses with an unreadable expression on his face. Nodding resolutely the blonde detective put on her serious face and picked up her pace in order to catch up to the young man so she could get to the bottom of this mystery.
"Keith-san!" Keith heard Mihoshi call from behind him, and after a slight moment of hesitation, turned his attention from the pleasant activity of watching Ayeka's hindquarters and turned to look at the blonde detective as she half-jogged to catch up to him. The outfit the young woman had chosen to wear
was... well let's just say she was definitely not as modest as Ayeka. The yellow bikini top she had picked out (with no prompting from Keith just in case anyone was wondering) was causing havoc among the male population, and the extremely short jean shorts weren't helping things at all. And now she was jogging,
with the predictable results. Keith winced slightly in sympathy as a distracted young man on a bicycle ran into a parked car because he was staring too hard.
"Yes Mihoshi?" Keith asked when the Blonde caught up to him, forcibly making himself look at her face when he talked, not that the attractive young woman's face was particularly hard to look at.
"What's Ayeka so mad at you about? Mihoshi asked in her best police-persons voice, getting right to the point of the matter. Then in a more normal tone, well normal for her anyway, she added, "I mean, I'm pretty sure you two had a fight or something on the shuttle, but Sasami and I couldn't hear or see anything from the front seat, and Kiyone says she slept right through the whole trip and doesn't know anything!" Keith turned bright red, and he could smell the wave of embarrassment, mixed with a few other scents, that emanated from Ayeka at Mihoshi's question, which reached the Princess's ears quite easily given how loudly the blonde's normal tone of voice was.
"We didn't get in a fight." Keith protested, looking down at the ground in an attempt to hide the neon-red blush he could feel coloring his face.
"I'm not mad at him Mihoshi!" Ayeka added, turning around to fix the blonde detective with a glare, though the blush that was decorating her own cheeks made it considerably less effective than it would have been otherwise.
"Then why are you avoiding him like this?" Mihoshi asked curiously, managing to miss both of their red faces completely. "I mean, you two were acting like best friends before we rode in that shuttle."
"Best friends? With that criminal?" Ayeka snapped reflexively, her hand going to cover her mouth even before the words had finished coming out, a horrified look on her face at the knee-jerk response.
Keith just snarled in answer, throwing Ayeka a dangerous glare before stalking ahead of them.
"Well Princess," he growled as he stomped past her, emphasizing her title to the point that it sounded like a curse, "you'd better walk a bit faster or this criminal is gonna leave you behind."
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They arrived at their destination a little under an hour later, Keith still staying well ahead of the rest of them, picking up the pace any time one of them tried to catch up. The building they arrived at was rather nondescript. Low-built and made from plain gray concrete it actually looked rather like a bunker. The vault-like steel door that was apparently it's only entrance only served to reinforce that impression. Ayeka and the rest of the group arrived just in time to see Keith reach for the small intercom set into the side of the building by the door.
"Yo! Grease-monkey, get your butt up here and let me in before I start trying to pick the lock." Keith drawled holding the speak button down, a malicious smirk on his face.
"Who the fuck is it?" a heavily distorted voice responded after a couple seconds, the owner replied, obviously annoyed, prompting Ayeka and Kiyone to cover Sasami's ears. "And who the hell do you think you fucking are calling me that!"
"Who else in this shithole arm of the galaxy calls you a grease-monkey, yah Grease-monkey." Keith replied, his grin widening.
"You..." the voice started to say then cut off. A handful of seconds later the heavy door swung aside considerably faster than it looked like it should have been able to, and a petite figure came flying out, latching onto Keith and hugging him fiercely.
"You asshole! I thought you were fucking dead!" the figure, now identifiable as an attractive young woman with silvery hair tied back into a waist-long ponytail... wearing a short rumpled nightshirt and little else... accused, all but strangling Keith as she hugged him. Ayeka scowled, unable to repress the surge of jealousy that ran through her when Keith returned the hug affectionately.
"If I could've called I would've kiddo." Keith replied, the smirk on his face softening into a genuine smile. "Still not one to get up before mid-afternoon I see." He added teasingly, tugging on her nightshirt to get his point across.
"Huh? Eeep!" the girl, realizing her state of undress quickly released her death grip on Keith and darted back inside.
"C'mon everybody." Keith said, gesturing towards the door. "Lets get inside before we attract any more attention than we already have." With that he stepped through the still open doorway, pointedly ignoring the glare that Ayeka was giving him.
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Despite its outward appearance the inside of the building was cavernous, extending several stories underground. The entrance had led to a short hallway, which had in turn led to a second door that opened onto a catwalk above what was from all appearances a covered landing bay, a partly disassembled fighter dominating the floor. Keith let them look around for a few seconds before waving them on towards another door about twenty feet down the catwalk from where they were gathered.
"You decent in their Kiddo?" Keith called after knocking on the door a couple times.
"Yeah, c'mon in Mayhem." The girl's voice, a pleasant alto without the distortion of the intercom, came through the door. With that reassurance Keith pushed the door open and steeped through.
The room was actually rather comfortable in it's own way Ayeka noted a bit grudgingly as she stepped through the doorway, though it'd never get an award for organization. A pair of plush couches dominated the center of the room, facing a monstrous entertainment center that completely covered one wall. Behind the couches against the opposite wall was a queen-sized bed, unmade and covered in thick blankets and cushions, and beside it an oversized dresser. The girl, who's name still hadn't been mentioned Ayeka noted, was currently standing next to the dresser, and was in the process of absentmindedly tossing her nightclothes into the hamper stuffed between the dresser and the wall.
"Make yourselves comfortable." The small woman offered, giving them all a warm, if somewhat curious smile, and gesturing towards the couches.
"Thank you miss...?" Ayeka responded, doing her best to be civil despite how she was presently feeling about the young woman, reminding herself once again that she had no right or reason to get jealous over Keith.
"Sari." She supplied with a grin. "Now if Mayhem here will stop acting like his usual clueless self and introduce you all." She said, giving Keith a pointed look. Taking the hint, he quickly introduced his traveling companions, leaving off Mihoshi's and Kiyone's jobs and ranks, but including Ayeka's and
Sasami's full titles and grinning like a madman when Sari's jaw dropped open.
"The crown princesses?" She gasped after a few seconds, staring at the two girls in a mixture of horror and amazement. "You've gotta be shitting me."
"Keith is quite serious I'm afraid." Ayeka replied before Keith could respond with an appropriately smart-aleck remark, trying not to wince at the silver-haired girls crude language. To emphasize her answer she fished her tiara out of her handbag and held it up for inspection.
"Now this one I gotta hear." Sari said after a moment. "Later though, first thing I want to know is..." she stopped mid sentence, an odd look on her face. Turning to face Keith, she fixed him with a baleful glare. "Keith? You told them your real name?" the small girl asked in an icy tone, "BEFORE YOU
TOLD ME?!" she all but shouted the last part, genuinely upset.
"Ah Christ..." Keith muttered, "I'm sorry Sari."
"Sorry? SORRY?" Do you have any fucking idea how long we, ALL of you're friends out here, have been trying to get that little piece of information out of you? And the second you get out of the loop for a couple weeks, you go and tell a bunch of people you've known for what? A week maybe?" she ranted, stalking over to where he was sitting and putting her face bare inches away from his. "Do you have any idea how insulting that is?"
"I was home Sari." Keith replied with a sigh, pulling the small woman onto his lap and into a hug against her protests. "I honestly didn't think I was ever going to leave the place again..." he let his voice trail off as Sari relaxed against him.
"And you decided that it was time to go back to you're old life." Sari finished with a sigh. "I understand I guess, but I'm still pissed at you." She murmured. "You realize that the gang's gonna lynch yah when they hear about this though, don'tcha?"
"I'll make it up to you guys when I'm a bit less rushed." Keith responded with a smile... though that lasted only as long as it took him to notice the angry, jealous, scent all but pouring off Ayeka. Glancing over at the violet haired princess he winced at her icy expression. He could practically see the
gears in her head plotting painful things to do to him.
"Anyway, enough of this sappy shit." Sari said, scrambling out of Keith's lap and into the space between him and Kiyone on the couch, but taking advantage of the position to use him as a pillow. "Back to business. What brings yah to my humble little shop, and who's after yah for what?"
"Straight to the point as always." Keith drawled, grinning down at the petite woman nestled up against him. "I'm gonna need one of your custom jobs, fake registration, fake clearances into Jurian space, and a few other odds and ends for starters. And it's just the normal a-hole after me, but with new ammo to get support."
"Well it's gonna take a day or two. Fortunately for you, despite the fact that you've once again managed to give me absolutely no advanced warning, I got something nearly ready that should suit your needs pretty well." Sari responded with a smirk. Keith just grinned in reply. "Well you know the drill... Keith... the terminal is where it always is, you know the prices, just put the money in the Reich account."
"Do I get my normal discount?" Keith asked with a grin as he stood up.
"After all the shit you just pulled? Fuck no." Sari snorted, "You get the 10% regular customer discount and that's it." Keith just laughed in response as he stepped out of the room, the metal door shutting behind him with a soft clang.
"So, while he's busy doing that, why don't you guys tell me how you got mixed up with that punk?" Sari asked, turning to give the four assembled girls a wry grin. "Him coming by trailing a group of strays behind ain't that uncommon an occurrence... but this is the first time he's ever brought a pair of princesses and GP with him." Kiyone and Mihoshi exchanged worried looks at that.
"How did you know...?" Kiyone asked after a brief pause.
"My security picked up your blasters and control cubes when you came through the door." Sari replied with a smirk. "Don't worry though, I'm not gonna tell anybody. If May... Keith, trusts yah, I will too." She paused for a second, making a face. "It's gonna take me forever tah get used to calling him that. But anyway, back to the original question."
"Well, that is something of a long story..." Ayeka began, nervously fingering one of the bracelets she was wearing.
"Keith was running away from some other Galaxy police and crashed on Earth and we went looking for him because Washu figured out he was alive and Ayeka wanted to catch him for killing her uncle, but we had to split up to actually find him and he caught Ayeka instead, and when she got caught this really mean man, though he was acting really nice at the time, named Heero came by saying he was there to help but when Keith brought Ayeka back Heero tried to blow us all up with his ship and really hurt one of our friends so we had to try and catch him, but he managed to convince everybody that we were imposters and everyone started chasing us so we had to hide in this really cramped shuttle while Keith's friend Marcus flew us here..." Mihoshi stopped to take a deep breath before finishing, "and my favorite soap is starting like right now so can I please use your TV?" the blonde detective finished in a rush, fixing Sari with her best puppy-dog look.
"Uhhh.... Sure." Sari responded after a few seconds of silence, a look of horrified fascination on her face as she contemplated the blonde's lung capacity and her mind digested the information that had just been thrown at her. With a squeal of delight Mihoshi lunged for the remote, switching the TV on and flipping to the right channel with an ease born of experience.
"So... what she just said is what really happened?" Sari asked after spending a few more seconds goggling at Mihoshi's actions.
"Well, she oversimplified things considerably," Ayeka replied with a sigh, "but it's reasonably accurate."
"...oh..."
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Keith tapped one clawed finger against the plain wooden desk that held Sari's 'business' computer in a poor attempt at a rhythm as he double checked his order for anything he might have missed. He was just a touch distracted though, and it was taking him four times as long as normal to do anything. Too
much longer and they were going to send a search party after him.
"Ah fuck it, that's good enough." He muttered under his breath and tapped the enter key before leaning back in the slightly to small office chair to wait for the computer to run through all of the security protocols that both ends of the transaction were guarded by. That done, he let his mind focus itself on the train of thought that had been bouncing around in the back of his head since they'd arrived on planet.
"What the hell were you thinking you horny bastard." He groaned, giving in to the urge to bang his head against the desk a few times. "You've known the girl for less than a goddamned week and you come within a few inches of banging her brains out. What kind of friggin' asshole are you anyway," he berated
himself half under his breath, "the second Lia'ne says she doesn't mind I just about jump the girl... and how the hell can I even be thinking about that kind of thing right now anyway!" the last part of that he all but shouted before he caught himself. "Especially after what happened at the hotel..."
"Keith?" a voice, Ayeka's voice, called from the half-open door.
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"You know what?" Sasami said as Ayeka stepped out of the room, claiming she needed to use the restroom.
"What Sasami?" Sari asked, giving the young girl a smile and doing her best to ignore that she was talking to a princess of the most powerful and influential families in this and several other galaxies.
"I think Keith and Ayeka like each other." She finished, the way she said it making it perfectly obvious what type of "like" she was talking about. Kiyone nearly spit out the coffee she was drinking.
"What makes you say that?" Sari asked, giving the teal-haired detective a curious look as she regained her composure. And she was genuinely curious, habitual flirting aside, Mayhem... Keith hadn't shown interest in any woman but Talia for as long as she had known him, and more than a year after his wife's death she personally thought it was about time. But of all people, why the crown princess of the Jurian Empire?
"Well... Sasami trailed off, trying to put what she'd observed into words. "They spend a lot of time together talking about stuff," the blue haired girl started ticking off reasons on the fingers of one hand, "they're always peeking at each other when they think the other ones not looking, they both blush an awful lot when they're around each other..." Sasami paused for a second before leaning forward to whisper the last reason conspiratorially to Sari and Kiyone "and I think they were kissing or something on the shuttle ride over." Kiyone promptly started choking again.
"Wha... what makes you say that Sasami?" Kiyone asked, still coughing a little.
"Well they were all alone back there for the whole trip, and they took forever to get out, and Ayeka's hair was really messy when she did..." Sasami answered in a matter-of-fact voice.
"Uhh, I almost hate to ask, but why were they all alone on the trip over?" Sari inquired.
"It was a three seat research shuttle with more or less separate compartments for each seat. Ayeka and Keith kinda just ended up in the back seat together." Kiyone explained quickly between coughing fits.
"Ah..." sari responded, fighting back a evil grin. "Sooo... do you think they make a good couple Sasami?" she asked, trying hard to sound innocent.
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"Yeah Ayeka?" Keith responded, praying that the young woman standing in the doorway hadn't heard his little rant.
"We... we need to talk." The violet-tressed girls started hesitantly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her and leaning back against it, her eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
"So, talk then." Keith prompted when the young woman didn't say anything for several seconds.
"About what happened on the shuttle..." Ayeka started, looking up but still refusing to look him in the eyes, "... it shouldn't have happened."
"So you regret it then?" Keith asked quietly, his voice slightly pained despite his efforts to not let the words effect him.
"No..." Ayeka admitted, the barest hint of a sad smile flitting across her features, "But it still should not have happened. I... I am in love with someone else. And even if I was not, it wouldn't work between us... it couldn't really."
"...well I guess I have no choice then." Keith started, his face carefully neutral as he stood and covered the distance between them in two long strides. Ayeka bit back a gasp and looked up at him, her heart speeding up a little in her chest.
"Friends?" the scruffy young man asked, sticking out his hand, the serious expression he had been carefully maintaining turning into a genuine, if slightly melancholy smile. Ayeka's worried expression melted away, her own smile mirroring his as she took his hand.
"Friends." She confirmed.
"Good. I don't think I could deal with a person I care about hating me at this point in my life." He responded wryly. "Just one thing though..."
"Yes Keith?" Ayeka asked curiously.
"I don't give up quite that easily." And with that he pulled her to him and leaned over to capture her mouth with his in a passionate kiss. After what felt like an eternity he broke contact and carefully stepped past her and out the door.
"Oh my..."
End Chapter 8