Chapter Eighteen
"It feels strange to be back on Jurai again after so long."
Tenchi stared out from the balcony of the royal palace, taking in the familiar landscape with a slight smile on his face. "The last three years now seem like the dream world, you know, Ayeka. And this is the real world somehow - travelling through space, fighting battles with evil men and women along the way. Which is my true life, I wonder? Sometimes even I don't know for sure."
"Well, if you don't know it yet, Tenchi, I doubt I'm going to be able to spell it out for you." Ayeka looked amused, her long hair whipping round her face in the wind as she wrapped her cloak more tightly around her shoulders. "I asked you once to remain here forever, and you refused me. Are you regretting that decision now?"
"No." Tenchi shook his head. "Jurai is so beautiful, but there is also a lot here that I can't adjust to."
"I know." Ayeka admitted, a wistful expression touching her ruby eyes. "And I'm sorry for that, in more ways than I can tell you, Tenchi. But in some ways I think I've always known it. My duty comes first to me in all things, and your duty..."
She faltered, then,
"Your duty is to Noboyuke-san and Yosho-dono back on Earth." She admitted unwillingly. "You are theirs, not Jurai's. Yosho made that choice when he left this planet with Haruna all those years ago."
"I guess he did." Tenchi nodded. "But the Earth is dull without all of you. I miss you all a lot, Ayeka. It's that part of this I don't want to leave behind."
"Well, there is no hurry for you to leave, is there?" Ayeka questioned. A slight blush touched her cheeks. "After all, would it ask too much of you to be on Jurai for my wedding?"
"No...actually, I'd be honoured to attend." Tenchi grinned. "I've never been to a royal wedding before, and Sasami's talking about it has got me excited too. I know it's a very big deal on Jurai. It'll mean you're officially next in line to the throne, isn't that right?"
"Yes." Ayeka lowered her gaze from his, turning to gaze out across the landscape. "Though that has been my lot for a long time, you know, Tenchi. Yosho left so many years ago now...even in Jurai terms it was a long time ago. So I've been raised for this my whole life, really. The cares of this planet will be mine one day. There's no other choice I can make. This is my destiny."
"I think you're very brave, sacrificing your own feelings for the feelings of your people." Tenchi said gravely. "I know that you don't always want to be trapped in this world, Ayeka. It takes a lot of courage to accept that you are."
"Well, I am what I was born to be. A Princess of Jurai." Ayeka offered a wistful smile. "And sacrifices come with the territory."
She glanced at her hands.
"You will not mind, Lord Tenchi, when I take Takeru as my husband?"
"Mind?" Tenchi frowned. "Why would I mind, Ayeka-san? I want you to be happy and secure...and he seems like a nice guy. Sasami certainly thinks so, and she seems to know all about those things these days somehow. He cares about you...why would I mind about that?"
Ayeka was silent for a moment, then she nodded her head.
"Yes, I thought that's what you'd say." She owned. "In fact, it was what I was coming to hear you say when I was kidnapped by Haki. I left Jurai to come see you one last time, Tenchi-kun."
"I didn't know." Tenchi looked taken aback. Ayeka smiled, gripping him loosely by the hands.
"It doesn't matter." She told him gently. "I knew it a long time ago, and I've learnt to master it inside of me. I knew that, when you would not stay on Jurai, that you would never be a part of my world in the long term. And that's all right, you know. I have my responsibilities here. And sometimes I don't think you'd be up to them, Tenchi. I think, strong as you are, they might ask too much even of you if you were to become Emperor."
"I think you're probably right." Tenchi agreed, leaning against the wooden railings. "Although I'd like to think that, when we leave, it won't be a final goodbye to you, Sasami or Jurai. I might not want to stay here, but I don't want to lose contact with you altogether. We've been through too many things together."
"I agree." Relief flooded Ayeka's eyes and she nodded her head. "Then it's settled. Takeru already promised that we should travel every Jurai year to a place outside of our territories, for he's anxious to see as much of the universe as I have. We won't lose contact with one another, Tenchi...that's a promise. After all, you're a part of my family too."
"Yes." Tenchi nodded his head. "I'd say that I'd come see you too, but you know, transport is a bit more difficult for me."
He looked rueful.
"I'm not sure I make a great spaceship pilot anyway." He admitted. "You and Ryoko make it look so easy."
Ayeka laughed.
"I'm sure you'll have more than your fair share of training in that department." She told him affectionately. "I wouldn't worry, Tenchi. I have a feeling you won't be without space travel capabilities for very long."
"What do you mean?" Tenchi looked startled. Ayeka rolled her eyes.
"So you're not planning on taking Ryoko back to the Earth with you when you go?" She asked. Tenchi drew his brows together in a frown.
"I don't know." He admitted. "I hadn't thought about it, in all honesty. I guess it all depends on your father and the Emperor and whether or not they decide to push the pardon with the Galaxy Police. If they dont, Earth has no defences. Ryoko can't be there safely, and I know the Earth is my world, Ayeka. I guess it all depends on that."
"But if the pardon was to become official, Tenchi? What then?" Ayeka asked softly. Tenchi stared.
"Why does this matter to you?" He asked at length. "What do you want me to say to you, Ayeka?"
"The truth." Ayeka said gently. "She died for you aboard Karasu, you know. It wasn't for me...it wasn't even about me. It was for you."
Tenchi looked taken aback.
"But..."
"You need to stop being so slow." Ayeka sighed. "And take everything into account. We both know, Tenchi, that our futures do not follow the same path. But maybe I know better than you that you want Ryoko in your future...you just haven't realised what it will mean yet, that's all. Why do you think I pushed Father and Uncle Azusa for this pardon? I didn't do it for Ryoko, you know. I did it for you."
She touched his cheek.
"Even if you don't love me, Tenchi, I love you enough to want you to be happy." She added. "I didn't think I ever would feel this way, but it's all right and I do."
Tenchi glanced at his hands.
"We've been apart three years, she's angry at me for leaving her in a police cell and...I don't even know if she will be able to leave Jurai a free woman." He said quietly. Ayeka nodded her head.
"You know, when Kagato took over Jurai, you drew your blade and fought him, almost to the death." She said, her tone soft and almost dreamy as she recounted past events. "When Haki attacked, you were there once again, ready to yell and cry war to defeat him if it was possible for you to do so. You entered those encounters ready to die, Lord Tenchi. And yet you can't even tell the woman you love how you really feel about her."
She let out a soft peal of laughter.
"I think maybe you and Ryoko are more suited to one another than I first realised." She murmured.
Tenchi reddened.
"I don't know if I should discuss this." He admitted. "With you or with anyone, at the moment. So many things have changed in my life...I'm a little older now, and I know more about the universe than I did when Ryo Ohki first crashed to the Earth. But there's so much else at stake. Ryoko's lifespan is long, Ayeka. Mine may not be. What about that?"
"You have the Jurai Power inside you now, Tenchi-dono." Ayeka told him softly. "Like Yosho before you. Your life won't be like the lives of other earthlings, you must know that by now. As Yosho continues to live after so many hundred of your years, so will you after many hundreds of them too. Jurai's energy will keep you while others around you wither and die. That is the true power of Tsunami, Lord Tenchi. The power of life."
Tenchi was silent for a moment, as he digested this information. Then he nodded.
"Maybe you are right." He admitted. He smiled at her crookedly, a sheepish look in his dark eyes. "Though I find it ironic that it's you pointing it out to me. You're a good friend to me, Ayeka. One of the very best I've ever had."
"And I'm content to remain that friend for as long as we both live, Lord Tenchi." Ayeka's eyes twinkled with affection. "But right now your presence with an engaged woman alone up here may be misconstrued, and there is someone else you should really be talking to about this, not me. Go, Tenchi...no doubt we shall speak again before the ceremony."
"No doubt we will." Tenchi nodded his head. "Thank you, Ayeka. And good luck."
"You're the one who'll need the luck, if you've lost your heart to a space pirate." Ayeka's tone was teasing, and Tenchi laughed.
"Maybe you're right." He agreed playfully. "But you never know. Maybe we do have more in common than you thought!"
"This is highly irregular, you know."
"Haru, we promised Ayeka and Sasami both that we'd do this, and we can't let them down now."
"I know, but Azusa..."
"We said we'd come in person...and that's the end of it."
"This way please, honoured gentlemen."
"But she sleeps still. Surely..."
"I can soon solve that, honoured Lord Haru."
A pin pricked against her arm and Ryoko struggled against the wave of sleep that held her, picking up the disembodied voices as she fought her way back to consciousness. Never had she slept as much as she had recently, she decided, forcing her heavy eyes open and blinking against the bright white light of the chamber. How much energy had she used against Haki anyway?
Washu stood at her bedside, and a smile touched her lips as she registered Ryoko's wakefulness. She nodded her head in satisfaction, sitting down at her left side and gesturing for her companions to follow suit on her right. Alert in an instant, Ryoko shot the two men a wary look. Older they might be, but her memories were still vivid enough in her mind to recognise them both.
She wet her lips, watching as they took their seats.
"Washu said you would want to see me, Azusa-heika." She said quietly, struggling to bring herself into a more upright position. "I didn't expect you to invade my bedchamber...what would your honoured wife say to that?"
The Emperor of Jurai stared at her blankly for a moment, then he frowned.
"This is not a matter for levity, Ryoko." He said gravely. "You know why my brother and I have come here. You must be aware of the appeal made to us by my nieces Ayeka and Sasami."
Ryoko drew her brows together, nodding her head.
"Yes. I am aware." She agreed cautiously. "What of it?"
"What they ask of us is preposterous in so many ways." Haru put in coldly. "Your crimes are many, Ryoko, as well you know. You have vandalised and pillaged twelve planetary systems, causing damage and destruction wherever you have been."
"Thirteen." Ryoko said absently.
"Thirteen what?" Haru looked annoyed at being interrupted.
"Thirteen planetary systems." Ryoko responded, then clapped a hand over her mouth. "Damn! Why did I say that?"
"Even more reason for us to refuse the girls' request." Haru looked across at his brother. "Clearly you're a threat to everyone, if we were to grant you a pardon of any kind."
Azusa frowned.
"Ryoko, tell me something." He said softly. "Ayeka believes you would have given your life in the fight with the Space Pirate Haki. And more...she told me that you used Juraian jewels to defeat him. Can you tell me how that was possible? How you controlled their power?"
"I don't know the answer to that." Ryoko said with a shrug. "I don't know how they work any more than you do. I don't know why they bonded to me or why Sasami gave me the Dark Heart instead of trying to use it herself or giving it to Ayeka. I'm still as much in the dark about that as you are, Azusa-heika. So sorry to disappoint."
Azusa shot Washu a glance, and Ryoko saw Washu shrug her shoulders. The space pirate frowned.
"Something is going on here, isn't it?" She asked suspiciously. "Why ask me about the gems if this is about my pardon? Or do you expect information in return for my freedom? Because I don't have any to give. Not really. I just know that I can touch the gems and Haki couldn't...that's all."
"She's telling you the truth, Honoured emperor." Washu spoke quietly. "You know that. I did tell you that Ryoko knows as little about those gems as anyone else. They chose her. It wasn't the other way around."
"What do you know about this, Washu?" Ryoko shot her companion a confused glance. "And why are you here, anyway? If this is a legal meeting, why aren't Kiyone or Mihoshi here with me?"
"Jurai law states that all interrogations of this nature must involve an impartial witness, to ensure nothing is done wrongly." Washu said primly. "The Lord Emperor and his honoured brother agreed to let me be that witness. Since Kiyone and Mihoshi have their own charges to face, it was felt that I would be a more appropriate choice."
"Yeah. Very appropriate." Ryoko sighed. "All right. What do you really want from me? Some kind of confession of crimes past? Some kind of admission of regret? Because I don't regret things I've done in the past. You should know that now. The past is gone and it's over. I'm not going to dwell on it more than I have to."
"You see! No remorse at all!" Haru exclaimed. Asuza shot his brother a reproachful glance.
"Without the courage of this woman, your daughter may yet be lost to us." He said chidingly. "No, Ryoko. That's not what we want. We know what you have done in the past. That is not what concerns us. What worries us is the future...whether granting this whim of Ayeka's will put civilisations in serious jeopardy."
"That's what it's always been about with you, hasn't it?" The words tumbled out before Ryoko could call them back. "Protecting other people. Ryoko is a danger. She's a demon. Maybe she's a witch. She flies and walks through walls and so she must be cursed by some kind of dark magic. That's what you've always thought of me, isn't it, Asuza?"
"You shouldn't speak to the Honourable Emperor that way, Ryoko." Washu chided, but Ryoko was taking no notice of her companion's advice. She shook her head.
"I don't care." She said darkly. "He's not my Emperor. I'm not a citizen of Jurai...he and his brother here made that very clear to me when they wanted to send me off to some remote colony where nobody would ever see me again. A little girl who put her trust in the word of princes when her mother was taken from her."
Azusa flinched at this. He dropped his gaze.
"So you remember that acquaintance after so many years, Ryoko-chan?" He asked softly. "I'm sorry that you do."
"I remember a good deal of things now." Ryoko agreed. "Including how I feel about your stupid planet and it's laws. I don't care if you pardon me or if you don't...that's up to you. I'm not going to grovel to either of you to try and get in your good favours. It isn't how I work."
"I always said you were a little savage." Haru eyed her coolly. "Some kind of demon child. I told Azusa that he should never bring you to the palace, or involve you in our world...that we didn't know where you came from or what you would become. But he would not listen to me...and now look. I'm proven right, after so many years. The most feared space pirate Ryoko - we should have left you to perish on that godforsaken outpost where we found you."
"Then someone else would have had to rescue your precious princess from Haki!" Ryoko shot back. Azusa held up his hands.
"Enough!" He barked out. "I won't tolerate this kind of argument in my presence. Haru, be silent. Ryoko, calm yourself. You speak without thinking."
Ryoko took a deep breath, glaring at him through mutinous eyes.
"Do you know what kind of demon child I am, Haru-dono?" She said quietly. "Would it pain you to know that I am a child of Jurai just as much as you and your precious daughters?"
"What are you saying, Ryoko?" Asuza frowned. "Tell me. What do you mean? Does it have something to do with the magic in those gemstones? Tell me."
"You don't need more power at your disposal, Emperor of Jurai." Ryoko shook her head. "But I won't be treated like a demon any more. My father was a Prince of Jurai, just as yours was. So then. Now you know all, don't you?"
"This needs to stop now." Washu held up her hands. "Please, Azusa-heika. She's not strong enough for this kind of a confrontation. I had no idea her feelings ran so hotly towards you, else I would never have agreed to it. Not so soon."
"Please explain to me what she means, Washu-san." Azusa looked troubled. "I must know if I have done wrong to one of my own blood. Sasami said something to me about branches of the same tree, but I didn't understand exactly what she means."
"Ryoko died aboard Karasu, my lord." Washu pursed her lips, sending the patient a dark glare that cowed even the fiery Ryoko into silence. "Her heart ceased to beat and she was dead. Sasami was the one who brought her back to herself. The power of Tsunami, your tree of life. If Ryoko was not a child of Jurai, Tsunami's magic would never have been able to touch her. But Tsunami knows more than any of us about the children of this royal house. Ryoko is of your blood, Azusa-dono. Not pure and not in the way Ayeka, Sasami or Yosho might be...but of your blood all the same."
She paused, then,
"She is Kagato's daughter." She added softly. "And a daughter of Jurai. Her demon magic is the magic of this planet, but untrained and wild, mingled with the blood of her mother into something unique to herself."
Azusa was silent for a moment. Then he glanced at Ryoko.
"This is all true, Ryoko?" He asked softly. Mutely Ryoko nodded her head.
"Kagato was a bastard and a usurper." Haru remarked.
"Hey, I didn't love him any either, you know." Ryoko snapped. "This whole fatherhood thing is something I could have lived without discovering - your Kagato gave me a hefty scar down my side as it is!"
"This has gone on long enough." Washu sighed. "Nothing is going to be settled like this, Honourable Emperor. You must see that."
"On the contrary, I think much has been settled."
Azusa got to his feet, pausing to touch Ryoko's hand. His fingers were cool, and she flinched at the energy she felt in their tips. He smiled.
"There is one thing I must know." He said, meeting her gaze with his. "If we were to grant this request, would you continue to be a pirate? Is that what you want to be, for all eternity? For I can't push for something with an easy conscience if I know I will be causing the misery of millions in doing so. Do you understand? I must know."
Something in Azusa's touch calmed Ryoko's temper, and she let out a weary sigh, shaking her head.
"I know what it feels like to be drunk on power." She said slowly. "To have so much of it burning inside you that the impulse to use it and to keep using it, even if it destroys you...that's what Haki wanted. What he would have become, if he had been able to absorb the power of the three gems. That's why he wanted me...because he knew I could touch them where he couldn't. He let his greed and his lust for power take him over...because he had nothing else to fall back on. And I don't want that life any more. I don't want to be alone in space, hunting and destroying things that I can't hold in my own hands. That isn't who Ryoko is deep down, Azusa-heika. That's not who I was meant to be."
Azusa's eyes became grave.
"Then I think it is time I spoke to the Galaxy Police." He said decidedly. "You owe a great debt to Jurai, Ryoko, but then Jurai also holds you in it's debt for helping to rescue the Princess Ayeka."
He stood, turning to face her again.
"I would not have sent you from Jurai if it had been my decision to make, Ryoko-chan." He said softly. "I saw your face that day, when we first found you. I saw what you'd lost and I knew what you felt. But my father had different ideas...the prejudices of his age meant that children of mixed blood were often turned away or reviled by their peers. I was under pressure, and I buckled to it. I am sorry for that."
Ryoko stared at him. Then she tilted her head on one side, offering a faint smile.
"It doesn't matter now." She said softly. "It's past."
The emperor nodded his head, then, taking his stunned brother by the arm, he led the way out of the chamber. The door swung shut behind them, and Washu let out an exclamation.
"Most people who are that rude to the Emperor of Jurai wind up locked up in a secure cell." She scolded. "What were you thinking, Ryoko?"
"Don't nag me. I only told him the truth."
"Yes, more than." Washu glanced down at her discarded syringe, a troubled look marring her brow. "I thought you'd blown it when you lost your temper like that."
A cold feeling settled inside of Ryoko's heart.
"What did you do to me?" She whispered. "Washu, what was in that syringe? I felt the needle go in...what did you dope me with?"
"Asuza demanded it." Washu said simply, meeting Ryoko's gaze with an impassive one of her own. "And I didn't think it would do any harm. After all, what could you tell him that he didn't already know?"
Ryoko sank back onto her pillows, closing her eyes as the realisation sank in.
"Truth serum." She muttered. "Washu, that was a cheap trick!"
"I had no choice." Washu shrugged. "If I'd refused, then they'd have thought you were hiding something about those gems."
Ryoko rubbed her temples.
"I should have known, when I told him how many planetary systems I'd crashed." She said darkly. "I was slow. It's not the first time they've doped me up on this stuff for an interrogation...but dammit, Washu, it was underhand!"
"Well, it may yet go in your favour." Washu's eyes twinkled. "So calm down. You're doing noone any benefit by screaming at me. I'm certainly not reviewing your case, and I've had enough of your company as it is of late."
"The feeling is more than mutual."
"Then I'll leave you to yourself." Washu smiled. "The drug will wear off in a couple of hours, and it won't do you any permanent damage to tell the whole truth for once, Ryoko. You might find it's made a nice change!"