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What Future Do I See? - Chapter 5

Ryoko opens her eyes a crack and realizes she's still alive.

'That fall should have killed me,' she reasons, 'So why am I not dead?'

A deep sadness covers her as she opens her eyes all the way and realizes where she is; Washu's lab.

'I was dead. Dead and free from this horror. But she brought me back. She always brings me back,' she concludes sadly.

Her freefall into the courtyard wasn't the first attempt to take her own life. Five other times she'd tried. All five times Washu brought her back.

The first time, she simply jumped in front of a random vehicle while standing with Kagato on one of the thousands of corners he sold her from. There was a moment of absolute agony as the blades from the street cleaner cut into her, then blessed oblivion. Five days later she awoke in her mother's lab aboard the Soja. Once she healed, Kagato voiced his displeasure with a severe beating.

Almost 80 years later she hung herself. When Kagato found her she'd been dead for close to two days, but her mother brought her back within hours. Kagato would have beaten her again after she healed had she not immediately swallowed one of her mother's experiments that ate living tissue. It took nearly a month of regeneration to heal from that. By that time, Kagato's rage had dimmed, but not his desire for her. Her first weeks of wellness, he mentally subdued her and forced himself on her repeatedly. She was almost grateful when he decided to put her back out as a prostitute. Anything was better than being his sex slave. Her life was still unbearable, so she continued to search for ways to end it. It would be more than a hundred years before she tried again.

That time, one of her clients wanted to prove he was a vampire, so she let him drink her blood. When he told her he wanted to call some friends over "for dinner", she knew he meant to let them do the same. The sensation wasn't unpleasant when he did it, so she figured it would be a fairly painless way to die. As each of the six he'd invited took their turn "drinking", she felt very sleepy before the blackness of death overcame her. She was found in an alley the next day and taken to the morgue as a 'Jane Doe'. Some how Kagato located her and claimed her body and Washu brought her back again. Since Kagato couldn't be sure if she'd tried to kill herself or if a client had simply gotten out of hand, he didn't punish her.

Nearly 200 years later, certain she'd found a solution to Washu always bringing her back Ryoko tried once again. It was a few months after Kagato had beaten her for being late. Thinking that it would be harder to save her without a brain, Ryoko took a shotgun to her head, only to wake several days later floating in the same tank full of green liquid she found herself in this time. Despair covered her and she gave up trying to kill herself. It was about that time she started believing Kagato's assessments of her as "a worthless whore". She continued to believe him, even when she'd fight him off of her or when she killed some of those sleazebags he set her up with.

Then she met Tenchi. And in that one night, he changed her.

'He made me feel like a star in the heavens' she remembers fondly.

She even felt surer of her own thoughts; no longer fretting that Kagato's imposed will influenced them. That's when she discovered the power lying dormant inside her, though she wasn't quite sure how to access it.

'It all seemed so perfect when I was in his arms', she sighs in thought, 'but then I woke up.'

She'd almost found the strength to run away for what she felt would be the last time, but her fear took over. It engulfed her and she could only think of the ultimate escape; death. Her body flew from the balcony before she realized it; Tenchi's anguished scream echoing in her ears. She saw him one last time as he knelt beside her, gingerly stroking her face. She'd smiled lightly to him before oblivion took her.

'Did he feel the powerful connection as well? I guess I'll never know,' she admits.

Accepting her fate, she closes her eyes and remembers her wondrous night with Tenchi, her tears stifled by the green liquid.

Washu's grumbling about 'ruining their plans for the weekend' wakes Ryoko with a start from her fretful doze. As she releases Ryoko from the regeneration tank, Washu scowls at her.

"C'mon, let's go. Into the bed", she orders, after using some contraption to quickly dry Ryoko off; even her hair.

Slowly, Ryoko climbs onto the "smart" hospital bed that will be her home while she finishes healing. After setting up an I.V., Washu covers her with a light blanket.

"Don't forget to eat while we're gone," Washu throws over her shoulder as she exits the lab.

'Gone? Gone where?' Ryoko wonders before a drug induced sleep overtakes her. It would be another 48 hours before she woke again, fully healed from the fall.

As Ryoko sleeps, Kagato and Washu beam aboard the Soja and head off into space.

"Where are we going," Washu questions eagerly. Kagato had only told her they were going to 'pick up something' and she couldn't stand not knowing.

"You'll see," he replies, casually.

"Well, how long will it take to get there?"

"Long enough."

"You're not going to tell me, are you," she grumbles jokingly.

"No."

"Party pooper. I'll just go wait in my lab."

"You do that," he replies affectionately.

Washu slips into her lab, meaning to use her instruments there to discern their course and destination. In her zeal, she forgets that Kagato knows her implicitly. The instant she initializes her sensors, a powerful gas erupts from her console, rendering her unconscious. Chuckling from the door of her lab, Kagato moves to place her in a more comfortable position than sloped half over the console and half on the floor.

"Poor little Washu," he intones, lying her gently in their bed. "When will you realize that I know your every thought. We've been together far too long for you to deceive me."

Placing a loving kiss on her forehead and then her lips, he retreats to the bridge as they continue on their course.

It's been nearly a century since he and Washu have 'broken in' a new girl to be their private plaything. Mihoshi was exclusively for the clients, so she didn't count, though they'd had several fairly adventurous nights with her.

On average, they'd "find" a new girl once every few decades. Either Kagato would charm them into believing he wanted them or Washu would coerce them with promises of sharing her well-known scientific knowledge. They tended to stick to runaways or those who shunned polite society as they were least likely to be missed. The last girl they had was a surprisingly depraved earthling, Sakuya, who they'd met on a beach resort planet. After she'd been properly 'initiated' by Kagato, she seemed to almost enjoy the sessions of humiliation and degradation he put her through. For a long while, he even forgot about his favorite plaything, Ryoko, and concentrated solely on her. Had he been less shortsighted, he'd have had Washu lengthen her lifespan, but he didn't. Consequently, she succumbed to the ravages of age and he discarded her somewhere in the Orion cluster.

After Sakuya, sharing Ryoko became tedious and mundane. It was time for some new blood.