Chapter 8: Ripple Effect

Ora was typing on her computer when Dr. Wong walked into the room with two third generation TDD's. "Are you certain this is a good idea?" he asked her as he pushed up his glasses on his nose. His dark hair casting a shadow upon his eyes.

"When the Ouryuu shows up, I plan to get his help to find Princess Yona." she told him. "He's the only one that can navigate through time without causing too big of a ripple effect." she touched the screen of her computer to show the time stream to her fellow scientist. "Here above is what the time stream looked like before my father messed with it and the Princess vanished from her time." The image showed a tunnel of energy going in a path without end. "It was balanced and there weren't any ripples within it." she typed a few strokes on the keyboard. "Now look at it." The tunnel had turned red with ripples going throughout it.

The man bent forward. "Its changing." he said with awe. "But the spikes of energy are dangerous looking." he looked at her. "How far back do these spikes of energy go?"

Ora shook her head. "I don't know." she looked absolutely mystified. "I've gone back as four thousand years and they're still going back."

"Could it be that Princess Yona has changed things just by existing in that era that's not her own?" he asked. Scratching his head he looked at her with confusion. "I thought she was only a baby."

"Toddler." Ora corrected him. "It could be that we don't find her until she's older." she stood up to stretch her legs. "So," she began as she picked up the portable TDD's. "what's the new time limit for these?"

"You'll get a full hundred hours on these." he told her. "The bugs have been fixed and I believe you'll be able to find and return Princess Yona to her correct time with plenty of time left over."

"That might be impossible, if we find her when she is older." she said as she examined the devices. "We may have to leave her with one of her guardians or possibly the priest."

"What priest?" Dr. Wong inquired.

"In the story of Princess Yona's journey it stated that she had a priest that helped guide her on her journey." she looked at the scientist. "Do you not know the story?" she watched him frown before shaking his head. "You use to." her eyes widened as she realized what was going on. "It's your memory. It's being affected by the ripple effect already."

"It would seem so." he told her just as her phone went off.

"This is Dr. Tomoe, who is this?" she asked as she answered the phone, the caller ID saying it was an unknown caller.

"This is security. We have a Onez Uuyruo out here saying he was invited to come into the science labs." the officer answered. The voice sounding deep and disbelieving as he spoke.

"Send Mr. Uuyruo up here and make sure he is accommodated." she told the security officer. Disconnecting from the security office she looked at Wong. "He's here."

"Who?" he inquired looking confused.

"Ouryuu." she told him causing him to scratch his head. "The effect is taking place. You'll probably get more confused as it goes."

The man nodded before handing her the devices. "I remember some. My memory is overlapping with other memories." he told her. "It's quite the experience." He sounding intrigued by what was happening to him.

"We'll leave within the hour." she told him before she turned and left her friend and fellow scientist. As she went down the hallway, she felt as if she was about to fall forward. Catching herself with her hand on the wall, Ora shook her head as everything righted itself. Hearing a ding, she turned the corner and found herself starring at Zeno, who looked none the different from how he had been all those years ago except he had a pair of sunglasses on and was wearing a tan suit with a baby blue shirt, his bond hair was tied back with a blue ribbon as he walked out of the elevator. He smiled when he saw her, looking nothing like the carefree youth he had once pretended to be.

"Ora it's good to see you once again." his smile broadened as soon as he saw her.

"We don't have much time." she told him as she grasped his wrist. "I know I said I had questions for you, but those will have to wait."

"It's because Missy is with Hiryuu, right?" Zeno inquired as they went down a corridor with multiple labs. Zeno's eyes widening as he looked into each room, seeing so many interesting things. "Zeno once was a science teacher, but he never saw things like this."

"Why do you speak in first person?" she asked, that had been one thing that had bothered her when they had last spoken.

Zeno ran a hand through his hair, an embarrassed flush dusting his cheeks. "Ze-I, had a wife eons ago." he said. "Her name was Kaya and she told me once that I should say my name when I speak so I don't forget it. Before I met her, I had begun to forget my name because it had been centuries since anybody had said it." he continued to follow her up some stairs. "It became habit forming. I stopped for a little while, but then I began once again."

They came to a room with the larger TDD in it. Zeno whistled when he saw the huge magnets and various other items that he couldn't name. He smiled at her. "You made this?" he asked with an impressed look.

Ora blushed at his impressed look. "I did." she told him before walking over to the computers to set the dates on. "You once said you could remember important dates easily. Is that still true."

Zeno grimaced. "No." he told her with a shake of his head. "About two centuries ago Ze-I began having memory problems." he looked sad. "I remember Missy appeared out of nowhere and it was around the time Hiryuu first got sick; but then he got strong again. Hiryuu died when she was seven years old, or at least that's the age we guessed she was. Guen, Shuten and Abi took her away to avoid anybody trying to do her harm. Yak-shi, Hiryuu's son, loved her like a sister and never knew she wasn't his half-sister."

"Half-sister?" Ora asked. "She would've been seen as the first Princess of Kouka then." Zeno nodded as Ora began to through the records on a separate computer system behind her. Typing into the search what she was looking for, it didn't come to too great of a surprise when she found what she was looking was a story of the red haired Princess Yona, daughter to King Hiryuu who was the one to inherit the dragon warriors from her father. That the warriors created a secret village deep within the boards of Kouka that had never been found. She supposedly died in the village after becoming its first ruler. This story was close to the same age as the the founder myth.

If we can pinpoint the exact year. She thought when suddenly the computer began to beep. Turning towards the computer monitoring the timeline, she found her eyes widening as it marked out the date where things began to change. Handing Zeno one of the portable TDD's she began to speak as she showed him how to use the device. "I found the exact date that things began to change. It's twenty years after the first King began to rule."

"Hiryuu ruled only eighteen years." Zeno told her.

"So two years after his death something happened to change everything." she replied back.

Zeno frowned as he was brought into a room where clothing was set out for them. Zeno picked up what he was being given before going over to a dressing room and undressing before re-dressing in something he hadn't worn in a couple of centuries. Smiling at the warm memories, he walked out in a pair of brown slacks, a white silk shirt and brown-yellow haori jacket as Ora came out in some men's clothes, her breasts bound to make her look more of a man. Her clothes were similar to Zeno's as her hair was tied back at the base of her neck.

Zeno suddenly paused. "The assassination attempt." Zeno said remembering that there had been an assassination attempt upon the warriors lives. "A council member, I forget who, saw it as unfair that the warriors went to Missy and would be leaving Yak-shi without support. I alone stayed at the palace as the first priest." he paused as he went over the memory and nodded. "Yeah, that happened exactly two years after his death. Missy was eight or nine."

"Then we appear two years before his death and take Yona then." she said causing Zeno to nod.

"Then what?" he asked her as the device began to start up as Ora typed in the date that the computer had given her.

"We take her back to her time, only four years after her kidnapping." she told him with a smile. "We either give her to the you of then or to a guardian." she then watched the TDD begin to create the tunnel through time.

Zeno sighed. "Not me, but I think Ik-su could protect her, somewhat." he told her as they began to walk into the tunnel. Ora looked at him with confusion at what he meant. "The priest Ik-su could barely take care of himself, but once Lad came around things got better for him." he smiled at her. "He'll be devoted to her though and she'll be okay." he told her with confidence. Nodding Ora and he began to walk into the portal to stop the timeline from collapsing and hopefully preserve the future for everybody involved.

M-Angel: Yay, I finally got to update this story! I'm happy about this.