Chapter Thirteen
"Are you feeling better now, Ayeka?"
Ayeka pulled the thick blanket more tightly around her, taking a sip of the hot tea her sister had just pressed into her hands. Anxious and relieved at the same time, Sasami had been flitting around her like a small bird ever since she and Tenchi had boarded the Yagami, but somehow Ayeka found the young girl's attention comforting. She sighed, setting her mug down.
"Thank you, Sasami, I believe I am." She agreed. "Although I'm sorry that so many people have been to so much trouble over me. I'm quite unhurt."
"Well, that's a good thing at least." Tenchi sat down opposite, though Ayeka could see the concern shadowing his features and her heart clenched in her throat. She offered him a smile.
"I'm touched that you flew so far to help me, Lord Tenchi." She said softly. "I appreciate the gesture."
"What else would I do?" Tenchi asked simply. "You needed help."
He sighed.
"In the end I didn't do a whole lot." He admitted, glancing at his hand. "I don't like that he took Ryoko with him. Even though it was her idea, I still...I don't like it, Ayeka. I think he might hurt her."
"Do you think he would?" Sasami sounded alarmed, and Ayeka sat back against the hard seat, pursing her lips.
"Tell me again what she said to you, when she made the trade on that horrible excuse for a space station." She said slowly. "Didn't you say that she told you she was a pirate and that maybe she was better off with Haki? Seems to me pretty clear that Ryoko knows what she was doing. She got her way out of prison and now she's free to team up with her old associate again. I don't know why you're so worried about her."
"Because she's been strange recently. Not like herself...not like the Ryoko I remember, anyway." Tenchi admitted. "And now I know she's had two of those gems all along..."
"What?" Sasami's eyes almost fell out of her head. "The gemstones that Haki wanted for Ayeka? Those gemstones?"
"Yes, those gemstones." Tenchi nodded grimly. "I saw them for myself, and so did Haki. That's why he took her aboard, Sasami. Not for her, but for the gems. From the way he said it, it sounded like she was going to be used in some experiment or other of his...I didn't like how he phrased it."
Ayeka sighed.
"Tenchi, you said yourself that Ryoko hasn't been behaving normally." She said pragmatically, fighting to keep the hurt that bubbled up inside her out of her voice. "I don't know much about these gems, but I do know that Jurai magic can do horrible things to people who aren't capable of controlling it. Ryoko's not Juraian, so how would she even begin to know what to do with them?"
"That's what worries me." Tenchi admitted. "When she told me about them, she told me that they were dangerous and even addictive. I guess I don't know what they'll do to her. Could they even kill her?"
Ayeka was silent for a moment, digesting this. Then, at length, she spoke.
"When you fought Kagato to save my life, you saw an example of what tainted Jurai magic could do and what that power could turn someone into." She said quietly. "And Kagato was at least a member of the royal line, even if his claims to the throne were somewhat exaggerated. Ryoko is just a common space pirate with a lust for more than is her right. If she's taken them to use them, well, more fool her, I'm afraid. You shouldn't regret her silly choices. At the end of the day, she is a thief and a fraudster by trade. We all know this - why else do we see her wanted posters on every wall of every settlement in the known universe? If the power corrupts her, well, it's no more than what she's asked for."
"I don't want to see her hurt any more than I did you, Ayeka." Tenchi scolded. "And if the gems have been behind her strange behaviour lately, then it makes me even more worried about her. Plus, what these gems can do is supposed to be pretty terrifying. Even if you are right and Ryoko has made this choice based on greed, it could still spell a lot of bad stuff for the rest of the universe. And I know that Earth is tucked away in the middle of nowhere, but I like my planet and I'd rather it wasn't sent into a zillion pieces by some gigantic explosion somewhere else."
"That makes sense." Sasami sighed, resting her chin in her hands. "I don't like it at all, Ayeka. Ryoko might be in trouble now instead of you."
Ayeka dropped her gaze.
"I honestly can't understand your concern for that girl." She owned. "I can't think of a single thing she's done to make either of you feel that way."
"Ayeka, that isn't very nice!" Sasami's eyes became big, and Ayeka frowned.
"Maybe, but it's the truth." She responded. "I'm sorry, Sasami. I can't pretend to like her."
"Well, nobody is asking you to do that." Tenchi chewed on his lip. "But either way, I'm not happy leaving things the way they are. Haki has bad things planned for Ryoko, you know. Really bad things, if you ask me. And well, I don't want him to do them to her...whatever they are."
"And if she has those gems and they are dangerous, we need to stop him from getting them from her." Sasami added. "Else we might all be in bigger trouble still. And I'm getting bored of being in trouble now, you know what I mean? It's getting old."
"What confuses me is why Ryoko even had the stones in the first place." Ayeka owned. "I know she stole them from Haki, but really, she shouldn't be able to touch them. Someone with her meagre magical abilities...they should ward her off them like the plague. Juraian magic is like that, you see. It doesn't allow anyone who isn't capable to touch it."
Tenchi was silent for a moment, then he met her gaze and the look in his eyes almost broke her heart.
"Then Ryoko must be capable." He said quietly. "In which case, she might be in even more danger than I thought before."
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"All right. That's far enough."
Haki stepped back from Karasu's controls, and Ryoko pursed her lips, crossing her legs idly beneath her as she perched on one of the big steel girders that spread from left to right of the ship's drive room. He turned to her, and she raised an eyebrow, a challenge in her gaze.
"Well?" She demanded. "What is it now?"
"Do you think I'm a complete fool, Ryoko?" Haki spoke in low tones. "Do you really think I'm here to play games with you?"
"Games?" Ryoko's image blurred as she re-materialised on the floor opposite him, folding her arms across her chest. "That would be a change for you, wouldn't it, Haki? You've come over all serious since you died. You need to lighten up, you know - people are going to think you lost your spark. Lost your...ambition."
Haki bristled, reaching out a hand to grab her but a shower of sparks burst from the gems, burning his skin and causing him to cry out in pain. Ryoko let out an amused chuckle, shaking her head.
"Bad boy." She taunted. "Can't you touch me? What a shame. Pretty difficult to kill someone if you can't touch them, isn't it, Haki?"
"I wouldn't be so cocky." Haki said grimly. "I don't have to touch you if I want to kill you, Ryoko. All I have to do is implode Karasu. My ship regenerates, and rebuilds me with it. It won't be the same for you. You'd just be drifting space dust -so I'd watch your lip."
Ryoko's golden eyes narrowed to mere slits.
"I'm not afraid of you." She said darkly. "Maybe I was once. Maybe I did what you told me, then. This wasn't what we discussed at the space station, and you know it. We're meant to be looking for the Dark Heart. What's bitten you now?"
"And how long did you think I'd believe your lies?" Haki demanded. "We've been trailed at a distance the whole way by the ship your boy left on. The boy and the princess...strange, isn't it? Why should that be?"
"Ask them." Ryoko said flippantly. "Maybe I forgot to pay my half of the cheque again."
She shrugged. "Besides, pirates lie to one another all the time. Did you really expect me to show you all the cards in my hand at once? Shame on you, Haki. Time has made you naive."
"I think we've hit a stalemate, then." Haki said softly. "Your friends don't seem all that keen to engage me in battle. I guess they want the police reward, but don't really care whether they come into contact with me or not. They're not going to rescue you, Ryoko. And you're right, pirates do lie to one another. I've lied to you too, my dear. All the time I've known you, in fact. I've lied consistantly for a very long time - all so that one day I could do this."
He raised his hand and without warning, black metal tentacles ripped from the ship's walls, wrapping themselves firmly around Ryoko's wrists and ankles. She struggled to phase free, or teleport loose from the bonds, but in an instant she could feel her magic draining out of her body, and she glared at him with a mixture of venom and fear.
"So what happens now?" She demanded, false levity in her tone. "Is this really the only way you can get a date these days?"
"You can joke all you want." Haki said quietly. "I have more to take from you than simple pleasures, Ryoko."
"I should be insulted by that." Ryoko pursed her lips. "But you know what...you're really not my type anyway."
"You can't control the power of those blasted gems whilst your devil magic is contained." Haki said carefully, approaching her and standing just out of her reach. "But I can still use them, through you. Karasu has been primed for this ever since the regeneration. Before, even. You are the key to finding the Dark Heart and completing the set. Even if I can't touch the stones, Ryoko...I don't need to touch them to use them. I have you, and you'll act as a perfect foil for their magic."
He reached across to the control panel, flipping a switch and a bolt of electric energy shot through Ryoko's shackled body. She let out a shriek, struggling against it's hold, but Haki just smiled, pushing the switch up two more notches, and then turning his back on her, glancing up at Karasu's monitor.
"Soon, my friend." He said quietly. "The two gems will find their sister, and then the trio will be complete. Ours, at long last, to control the universe the way we choose!"
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