Chapter 9

It was late.

From her refuge within Washu's hidden laboratory, Yume stirred from her seat beside the sleeping Kiyone, a pensive look on her face as she contemplated all that had already happened. Although she had tried time and time again to retrieve data from her memory banks about Tokimi, each attempt had proven fruitless and her frustration had kept her awake long after the rest of the household had retired to bed.

Not that she imagined any of them were much sleeping, she reasoned bitterly. Not with Tenchi missing.

Washu and the girl Princess had left the Earth some hours before, and Yume leant back against the laboratory wall, trying to make sense of what she had witnessed. Washu had said that she had seen Tsunami walk amongst men, this she knew. And it would seem that the eccentric scientist had not been misleading her. Young and insignificant as the child had seemed, there had been no doubt in Yume's mind that the woman who had stood before them in the guise of Jurai's goddess had possessed the same Juraian lifesigns as the Princess Sasami, niece of the Emperor.

A humourless, ironic smile touched her lips.

Well, so Tokimi had been wrong, after all.

Somehow the thought brought her little pleasure, when she remembered that Tenchi's life may still be lost regardless.

"There is much about Washu-san that I don't understand." She mused with a sigh, re-taking her seat beside the still Galaxy Police officer and absently checking to make sure the girl's breathing and heart-rate remained steady. "I can't make her out. She's seemed kind towards me…and I want to trust her. Tenchi-san trusts her, and I want to be near him – I know that more than anything else. But then again, she reminds me of Tokimi, too. And now, discovering that she and Tokimi were close once…it makes me wonder if I'm wrong to trust her. Even if she did create my technology – I wish I knew. I wish I understood the minds of Goddesses."

A sound from the undergrowth outside the house drove all thoughts of Washu and her own safety from her thoughts and she froze, listening carefully as she strained to make out what it was. At first, her mind flitted to Ryoko's cabbit-ship, but then even in the few days she had spent at the Masaki house, Yume had learnt that few and far between were the nights that Ryo Ohki didn't curl up to sleep on her mistress's bed. Tsunami-fune was long away from the Earth now, taking with it the scientist, the princess and the two Knights of Jurai in their strange, dated uniforms, and everyone else had withdrawn to sleep for the night.

"So who's outside the house, and what do they want?" Yume's brows knitted together. "Is it Seiryo Tennan, come back to make an end to you, Kiyone-san? But he can't know you're here. He would never have left you alive…if he'd known you hadn't been killed, he wouldn't have left so abruptly. Nor would he have avoided coming here, when he descended to the Earth to arrest Tenchi."

There was another faint rustle from the undergrowth, and then the sound of a door being prised open. She tensed, flitting noiselessly to the entrance of Washu's lab as she tried to get a fix on the source. As she did so, she became aware of soft footsteps and someone's faltered breathing, as they did their best not to make a noise. In an instant, Yume's memory banks flared into life and she sprang back, eyes wide with alarm as she realised who was beyond the door.

"Dr Clay!" She whispered. "He's come at last – just as Washu said he would!"

Fear flooded her senses, and for an instant her impulse was to flee the lab and the house completely, losing herself in the mountains as she sought to evade her creator's grip. Then, as she turned, she caught sight of the pale, fragile Kiyone and another emotion settled within her, forcing her to think again.

"I promised Washu to help you, Kiyone-san, and I won't break my word." She said softly. "I am to blame for it, anyway. I brought Seiryo Tennan into Tokimi's web through my spying and subterfuge. My responsibilities are here and I will not be a coward. I will not abandon you to Clay's mercy."

For a moment there was silence and, as Yume carefully re-took her position of protection beside Kiyone's bed, she began to wonder if she had imagined everything. It was, after all, a dark and clouded night, and in the current circumstances, she knew her emotional reactions were, at best, jumpy and erratic.

Then, with a soft click, the door of Washu's lab shimmered and slipped loose, swinging back to reveal the scientist himself, smart and pompous as ever as he strode purposefully into the room, and pausing with a slow, conniving smile as his gaze rested on his absent droid.

For a moment Yume just stared back, impressed and repelled by the amount of loathing she now felt towards the man to whom she had given unquestioning loyalty for so many years. Then, Clay folded his arms across his chest, narrowing his beady eyes as he surveyed her.

"Zero." He said softly. "I believe you owe me more than one report. I know Washu isn't here to hide behind now - it's time you gave me an explanation of your recent conduct."

"I believe I owe you nothing, Dr Clay." Yume's voice was cold, and she flexed her fingers, ready in an instant to spring at him should he try to hurt her or her incapacitated companion. "I am no longer under your instruction, and therefore you cannot command me and expect me to obey."

"I created you, you ungrateful droid." It was impossible for Clay's eyes to get any narrower, and to Yume they looked like little more than black dots in an expanse of reddening flesh. "I gave you existence and you think to betray me?"

"You gave me existence. You never gave me life." Yume said flatly. "Leave this place, Doctor, and I might let you live."

"You dare to threaten me?" Clay's calm, reasonable façade was shattered and he put his hands on his hips, shaking his head in disbelief. "A useless unit of bolts and circuits and you believe you can turn on me, your creator, the greatest scientist of all? Do you really think that Washu Hakubi will treat you any differently – or any better – than I do? You have been my loyal servant all these years and I have never questioned your abilities. I have given you errands and experiences and have allowed you to serve one such as Tokimi. Do you think that Professor Washu will give you such things to occupy you? Or are you content that she's made you her drudge – a mere toy that she can destroy and manipulate at will?"

"Washu-san has done nothing to me." Anger glinted in the depths of Yume's lilac eyes. "I am not her servant, nor am I yours or Tokimi's or anyone else's! I am my own person, Clay!"

Clay stared at her for a moment. Then he began to laugh, and Yume bristled at the derision in his tone.

"You are not a person, Zero. You are a machine." He said dismissively. "You were built to serve and any deviation in your program represents a flaw, not an achievement. You are faulty. Tokimi was right. You have gone beyond your usefulness and should be destroyed."

"Zero has already been destroyed." Yume said in low tones. "Tokimi saw to that herself, the day she meddled with my circuits and gave me the ability to think and feel. I tried to warn you then, but you didn't listen – you didn't care about anything except obeying that woman and encouraging her to torment those around her. You say you created me, but you have never shown me kindness. Not even when I asked for your help did you bother to take any notice. I would have been loyal to you, had you only tried to understand. But you didn't care. And so I am no longer under your control, Dr Clay. Zero is gone. There is only Yume, now."

"Is that what Washu told you? That you could live your own life and be free of the shackles of my servitude?" Clay demanded. "You are a fool, as well as defective. That woman is a consummate liar – a deceiver and a turncoat even to her own people! She creates to destroy – or has she not told you how she was exiled for seven centuries after planets exploded and meteor belts disappeared into nothing more than dust? She won't help you, any more than that pathetic Earth boy Tenchi Masaki will. You are just a robot, whatever you choose to call yourself. Nobody cares if you exist or if you don't. You've served your purpose. I have come to shut you down."

Yume stared at him, tears glinting in the depths of her eyes as she absorbed all he had to say.

"It isn't true." She whispered. "I am my own person. Washu-san didn't tell me to be this way, and nor did Tenchi. I decided it myself! I like this world – it's pretty and full of life and I want to be a part of that life. And even if Washu is as you say, she's at least been kind to me. You weren't even that."

"And I suppose she told you I stole her technology to build you too, didn't she?"

"Did you?"

"Washu has been putting that particular story about for generations, to hide her own insane inadequacies." Clay's expression became cold. "And I won't lower myself to her level by acknowledging it. It was not I who was cast out of the Academy for treachery and destruction. It was Washu. Never forget that, Zero."

"My name is Yume!" Energy pulsed from the droid's fingers as she prepared herself for battle. "Yume, Dr Clay! Zero is gone! I am Yume now!"

"Delude yourself all you wish, my soulless one." Clay's eyes glinted dangerously, and he put his hands to his belt, withdrawing a control panel of buttons and wires that glowed intermittently with light as he touched it. "But human beings aren't at the whim of controls and signals. I can destroy you with one push of this button."

"Then do it!" Yume snapped back bitterly. "Add another murder to the long list of people you've already killed!"

"And would your precious Washu like it, if she knew how many you had slain yourself, over the course of your career with me?" Clay's finger hovered over the button, eying her maliciously as he did so. "Do you think that you'd have been welcomed into this house if she – or any of them – knew how often you'd played assassin on my orders? How you helped to slay Minami Kurashida, just so we could obtain information on the Light Hawk Wings of Jurai? How your own testimony brought Seiryo Tennan to Tokimi, and furthermore, induced him to attack the dying officer you flit around now, in a parody of nursing? Do you think any of them would accept you as Yume, if they knew how many times Zero had killed?"

Before Yume could answer, a bolt of red-orange light flared across the laboratory, blasting the control panel out of Clay's hands and sending bits of wire, circuitboard and singed plastic casing flying all across the lab like shrapnel. Instinctively Yume flung up a forcefield around herself and Kiyone, squinting through it as Clay turned in surprise, registering the presence of another in the doorway.

"That is quite enough."

Ryoko hovered just above the entrance, light still glimmering from her finger-tips as she glanced between the intruder and the defiant shape-shifter. "Perhaps noone told you, but Kiyone is resting, and there are no visiting hours at this time of night."

"How dare you attack my technology!" Clay exclaimed, reaching to his belt for a handful of small, explosive devices and hurling them in Ryoko's direction. "This is no business of yours, Space Pirate Ryoko! Will you have me kill you as well, just to destroy this waste of space droid that has failed me so badly?"

"Ryoko, watch out!" Yume screamed, but Ryoko's reflexes were quick and she brought her hands together, deflecting the grenades with a forcefield of her own. They fizzled and died uselessly against it, and she offered the doctor a predatorial smile, drawing herself closer as she descended slowly to the ground.

"This is my home." She said quietly. "And I consider any invasion of my privacy an act of aggression."

She raised her hands again, but Yume shook her head, teleporting across the lab to stand between them.

"No, Ryoko." She said quietly. "I don't want you to do this."

"At last, you've come to your senses." Clay said, amused. "You've realised whose side you should be on."

"Yes, I have." Yume wheeled on the doctor, taking him off guard and almost making him lose his footing. "I don't want Ryoko to kill you, because this is my fight. I want to kill you, for everything you've made me do over the years, and not letting me understand or choose whether they were wrong or right! I want to destroy you for making me bring an innocent man into Tokimi's web and for involving me in all of this in the first place. And most of all I want to kill you because you tried to make me hurt Tenchi – because of you, Tokimi has him and I might never see him again!"

White light flared around her as she made her angry speech, and despite himself Clay shrank back, taking in the look of pure fury in the droid's lilac eyes as she bore down on him.

"Woah there, girl."

Ryoko grabbed Yume by the arm, shaking her head. "Think about this. Do you really want to face Washu if you repaint her lab with this dude's guts?"

She paused, eying the scientist thoughtfully for a moment, then, "Although there's probably enough of him to go around, I still don't know as she'd like it."

"Washu doesn't expect to be coming back." Yume said quietly. "We both know that – that's why she delegated Kiyone to me. Don't you want this man dead too, Ryoko? He's part of the reason. Washu might be killed, and Tenchi too. You keep telling everyone that you love Tenchi and that he's your man. Aren't you mad at Clay too?"

Ryoko was silent for a moment, and Yume saw a mixture of emotions cross her face. Then she sighed, bringing her hands together as she projected a forcefield around the apprehensive intruder, lifting him bodily off the ground as she considered the best course of action to take.

"Let me go! Let me down, you heathen! Release me at once!" Clay blustered, but the pirate took no notice of either his struggles or his protestations as she considered the situation.

"Both of us have reason to kill him, but Tenchi would never forgive either of us if we did." She said eventually. "Yes, I hate him. Part of me wants to squeeze so hard that he finds himself suddenly getting work as a nightclub doormat, and it's real hard to resist that temptation when I know what he's done. But Washu promised that, whatever happened to her, Tenchi would come back to us. And I don't want to have to face him with blood on my hands, Yume. Not even the blood of a wretch like this. It isn't worth it, and besides, if we killed him, we'd be like him."

"I've killed before. You must have heard him." Yume said flatly. "What difference does one more corpse make to the tally? I'm already tainted with the blood of innocent lives. Why should the blood of a guilty one matter so much?"

"Because this time you have a choice." Ryoko said softly. Yume faltered, staring at the pirate with a mixture of shock and comprehension as the truth of Ryoko's words sank in. Slowly she lowered her hands, the white glow fading and flickering out as she calmed her indignant, raw emotions. For a moment there was silence, then,

"So what do you suppose we do with him?" She asked at length. Ryoko smiled coldly, eying the scientist thoughtfully as she did so.

"This guy must know where Tokimi is, even if he didn't share that information with you." She said at length. "And if he does, we can go help Washu and Sasami and we can find Tenchi for ourselves. That way nobody will have to die at all. Not meaning to sound like my deranged mother, but it seems to be a more logical course of action. Noone asked Washu to go kill herself, and if she'd told us where she was going, we could already be helping them. Tennan won't return here – he's got what he wanted. He's got Tenchi. We're sitting around doing nothing but waiting and I hate waiting. But if we knew where she was…"

She trailed off, and understanding flickered in Yume's lilac eyes.

"I follow." She said quietly. "Drop him, Ryoko. I know just the way to extract that information from him."

----------

"I guess that's the last time I'll ever see this view."

As the spinning form of the Earth grew fainter and fainter on the horizon, Washu turned away from Tsunami-fune's window, a strange look on her face as she settled herself in one of the uniquely carved seats that the ship's control room boasted. "Seems odd, somehow...leaving the others behind."

"Yes, it does." Tsunami ghosted up behind her, nodding her head as she followed her companion's line of vision. "You've become quite attached to the Earth, haven't you?"

"Yes, I have." Washu nodded her head. "It's so at odds with me, really - I've always looked for progress and technology and the Earth is lacking in those things. But somehow it seems like it's a safe world. I want to stop Tokimi from ruining that, Tsunami. For destroying another world that never did anything to deserve it."

"I see." Tsunami's voice was gentle. "Sasami is also very fond of this world, the Earth. And Tenchi-sama chooses to make it his home. It must have it's own special pull...but I can't sense a specific deity or a life-force within its core. It's not like Jurai or Kihaku. It's allure is something else."

"Maybe it's just the ability to lose yourself in peace and quiet, without anyone questioning you or asking you for identification and clearance." Washu mused. "Most of the work I do is beyond Earth comprehension, so they'd never look for a high tech laboratory in someone's closet. Or maybe it's my roots - Earth is as Kihaku once was, except without the dark forces beneath the surface. Either way, I'm sad to leave it behind. I have a whole catalogue of memories, and not all of them are happy. But my memories of the Earth generally are."

"Sasami's also." Tsunami admitted. "Part of her would love a reason to stay there forever, but she knows that it will never come to be. Maybe you're not alone in having rural roots, Washu-san. I have to admit that Earth reminds me of my own world, many years into the past. Back before I merged with Jurai's heart and became Tsunami-kami-sama. Earth has science, yes, but it's primitive science based on ancient principles. I have always been very fond of ancient worlds - because, like you, my roots are also there."

"Explain something to me." Washu pursed her lips, running her gaze over the tall figure at her side. "Who are you right at the moment? Are you Sasami? Or are you Tsunami-kami-sama?"

"I am Sasami and Tsunami." her companion smiled. "But if it makes you feel more comfortable to call me Tsunami in this form, then I don't mind. Either name is all right. Sasami is merely an old translation of my birthname, after all. The legend of Tsunami has passed down through many generations and many tribal tongues. In some eras I was called Sasami. In others, Tsunami. A simple matter of ancient characters that looked alike, and different dialects altering the pronunciation of my name. I have had other names too, over the ages. Words don't define someone's identity. We are the same, whichever name you choose to use."

"I see." Washu kicked her legs idly against the edge of her seat. "That makes sense, I suppose. The names aren't dissimilar, and Sasami did tell me about the picture of the tree she found in an old book - it had part of her name on it, not yours. But Sasami looks so much like Misaki, and so do you. How do you explain that? I can remember a long way back, you know - longer than most of my companions. I saw the tapestries hanging from the domes of Juraian settlers when they came to Kihaku. You are the image of that Tsunami, also. How is any of that possible?"

"Sasami resembles Misaki because Misaki is her mother." Tsunami said softly. "And I resemble Misaki because her appearance is of my creation."

"Wait a minute." Washu held up her hands. "Run that by me again. Misaki is what?"

Tsunami laughed.

"Lady Misaki met Lord Haru at the wedding of the Lady Aiko." She murmured. "Before that, Misaki was not a member of the royal court, but Haru was so smitten with her that he brought her into his circle. She was an orphan, with no surviving family of her own...but a Lady of great fortune and, so the stories had it, one of distant royal blood. Her resemblance to me made those stories stronger. And Misaki has a great capacity for love, just like Sasami. She fell just as much in love with Haru as he did with her. It was a perfect match - the Prince of Jurai and his beautiful consort."

"And she's a fake?" Washu demanded. Tsunami shook her head.

"No...Misaki is what she claims to be. An orphan of rich, distantly royal blood." She said with a dismissive flick of her fingers. "An only child whose parents and other near relatives died in a horrendous fire which ravaged their estate and decimated their house staff. Misaki was the only one to survive. I saw to it that she did."

"And you healed her in your own image." Washu frowned. "Yes?"

"Yes." A mischievous twinkle entered Tsunami's soft crimson eyes and for a moment Washu could see the younger princess's youthful spirit shining through her adult form. "I knew she would have children and that one of them would be Sasami. All I had to do was ensure that she lived. Many women don't survive many years beyond the birth of a child with the Jurai Power, Washu-san. Some die at the time - others are permanently weakened by the experience."

"Like Lady Achika?" Washu's eyes widened.

Tsunami nodded.

"Yes." She agreed solemnly. "But with my help, Misaki survived and regained her strength after Ayeka's birth. I needed her, and she did not let me down. She has been a loving and loyal mother to both her children, and she has raised Sasami to be the girl I knew she would be. I am indebted to her - as is all of Jurai."

"Does Misaki know even the half of this?" Washu stared at her companion in surprise. Tsunami spread her hands, shrugging her shoulders.

"I doubt it." She responded. "Why would she need to? She has been a good mother to Ayeka and to Sasami. That's what matters most in her life, not divine intervention. She need not know, and nor need Ayeka or Haru. There are some things best left uncovered."

"But Sasami knows, now."

"Yes, Sasami knows." Tsunami inclined her head slightly. "Eventually you'll have to stop referring to us as seperate people, Washu. We're really not, you know. It's not much different from you, shifting your appearance from adult to child at whim. The only difference is that my adult form and my child one are seperated because Sasami is young and scared of the changes that becoming one will mean. She's still learning, and although I think she's begun to accept it, there's still a lot she has to come to terms with."

"So Sasami really was always Tsunami. Even before she flew your ship." Washu frowned, sitting back in her seat. "The legend was all true after all."

"Of course." Tsunami nodded. "She is half of me. That's all. The living, breathing half which walks once more among earthbound folk."

"And the other half?"

"Sealed in the Heart of the World till such time as Jurai needed me." Tsunami shrugged, pausing to glance out across the black expanse. "Are not your two forms the same thing? The human and the goddess?"

"I'm not a goddess. I never was." Washu shook her head. "My father sought to control Kihaku and my family subdued it's spirit for generations. But I never saw any evidence of a sentient being. It was just a spirit, a set of wild, savage emotions that raged out of control if a firm hand wasn't applied to them. Your link with Sasami is much more sophisticated. She's effectively your reincarnation, but there was nothing on Kihaku to reincarnate."

She frowned, glancing down at herself as her form shimmered and changed, revealing once more her true image as she took on her adult appearance with a wistful sigh.

"I suppose it's no mystery how a Goddess knows my secrets, if she knows everything else." She added.

"I don't know everything about you." Tsunami looked thoughtful. "But Sasami has seen you many times in her dreams - in many different forms. It's interesting how you have been the pivot for so many events in my history. Almost as if it was building up to this - the time when you and I would go into battle together."

"I sincerely hope not." Washu looked rueful. "Because I'm a poor sorceress, and always have been."

"There's more to life than magic, and in this instant, it's your other abilities that I think will be more useful." Tsunami said quietly. "But you always interest and intrigue me, Washu-san. This form reflects you as you truly are, but you choose to shun it. I wondered if it was because you tried to conceal your link to Kihaku in the same way I've protected Sasami from hers to Jurai until she's ready."

"No...no, not really." Washu shrugged. "There are a lot of reasons I choose to be the child, Tsunami. Some too painful to remember, others harsh reminders of my father's warnings that I would never learn until I grew up and understood how important my destiny was. It's another way to run away, I suppose. Another escape from the real world. Children don't have to face responsibilities or make important choices about their lives or anyone else's life, either. It's an easy way to avoid the decisions other people make every day."

"Decisions such as what, Washu-san?" Tsunami asked her gently. Washu shook her head.

"They don't matter." She said softly. "It's too late to think about them, even if they did."

She sighed, spreading her hands.

"Besides, I never bonded to Kihaku and even if I had, I would never have been uniting two halves of one person. I have always been Washu. With or without Kihaku, and whatever appearance I choose, I am who I am."

"I see." Tsunami looked thoughtful.

"Tokimi is the one who bonded to my world, not me." A wistful edge touched the edge of Washu's tone, and she sighed, rubbing her temples. "If I had, things might have been different. I know I could have mastered Kihaku's tempests. I was born to do it. I just chose not to. But even twenty thousand Earth years isn't long enough to really escape from the past, is it?"

"That's why I hope Sasami will understand how important she really is." Tsunami said gravely. "Jurai will always need to believe in Tsunami, but in recent years, faith in the Goddess has waned. Kagato's insurrection would not have been possible if there were not already those who doubt. That's why Sasami was born into this age. To renew her people's belief and hope for the future...that Tsunami will protect them as I promised to, so long ago."

"Well, if I can do anything to help persuade her, you only have to ask." Washu said ironically. "I'm getting good at pushing other people into following their destinies, even if I can't reverse time and fix my own."

She stood, running her fingers absently through her thick red hair as she loosed the band that held the wild waves back from her face. The normally tamed locks fell about her shoulders in an imitation of the tribal priestess she had chosen not to be, and she faced her reflection in the dark glass with a frown. A tall, slim young woman in her middle twenties stared back at her, her green eyes clouded and troubled and hesitantly she raised a hand to her cheek, running her fingers gently over the features she was so unused to seeing. At length she sighed, shaking her head.

"I suppose I don't need to tell you that Kihaku is where Tokimi is hiding." She added. "And that by going there to destroy it, we'll probably encounter her face to face at some point."

"I'm prepared for that. We're prepared for it, in fact." Tsunami said gently. "Your science and my magic, together."

"I hope you're right." Washu looked troubled. "I have only one shot to blow the planet apart and I have to get it right first time. I don't know what might happen to me if I simply wound it...and I have no way to know if it will allow me a second shot. Blasting at it's core will alert Tokimi if nothing else, and by this time Tenchi might also be on Kihaku. It took me time to figure out, but she must be using my old laboratory as her base within the planet's heart. The ancient Juraian mines...the only place she could be so securely hidden against the tempests that still rage across the surface when she's angry."

"I have great faith in you, Washu Hakubi." Tsunami looked amused. "I always have had, from the moment that Sasami first spoke to you about her messages from me. I knew you were an ally I could trust in, and that our paths would cross as many times in the future as they had in the past."

She paused, then reached down to take Washu's hand, and the scientist felt a faint buzz of energy flicker through her skin and across her whole body, making her shiver involuntarily, gazing up at the Goddess in surprise.

"What was that?" She demanded. Tsunami smiled, and Washu could see Sasami's mischievous twinkle in the depths of the woman's crimson eyes.

"You have my blessing." She said simply, releasing her grip. "After all, Washu-sama, you have more often given your heart to Jurai than to Kihaku."

Washu frowned, glancing at her hand, but although the buzzing prickle of magic still tweaked at her senses, she could not see any sign of harm across her skin.

"Well, lets hope I don't let Jurai down in the same way I did Kihaku." She said blackly. "We're not far away now, Tsunami...and we should alert Azaka and Kamidake that we're entering Kii space. I'll need their help assembling my little toy to it's best advantage...and the less warning Tokimi gets of our approach, the better!"

----------------

"So what are we going to do now we've got him here?"

Ayeka cast a derisive glance at the incarcerated man who stood before her, wrapping her dressing gown more tightly around her slim body as a look of distaste touched her features. "And what, exactly, have you two done to him? What is that stuff? It looks vile."

"Ask her." Ryoko shrugged, gesturing in the direction of the defiant droid. "She did it. Although it does make it less difficult to keep him still, so I guess I'm not complaining."

"It's something he programmed me to do." Yume said quietly, and Ayeka saw a look of pure hate flit across the girl's eyes as she gazed on her former master. "Ironically. It's a memory enhancing hallucinogen. It absorbs thoughts, memories and ideas through the porous surface of the subject's skin, enhancing them so that they can be read and digitised by someone with the knowledge to process such data. You wanted to know where Tokimi was, Ryoko? Now we can find out. And as you said...it keeps him out of trouble. He can't move...and he won't be able to escape unless I choose to disperse the solution. As you can imagine, I'm not in any hurry to do that."

"Is it hurting him?" Takeru reached out a finger to poke at it hesitantly, but stopped within inches of the translucent greenish substance, a frown crossing his face. Yume shook her head.

"No. He's rendered completely senseless. And, thankfully, immobile, too." She said carelessly. "He's not aware of any of this...not since I chose to engulf him in it completely. I thought it was safer that way."

"So this is all very well." Ayeka frowned. "But if he knows how to get to Tokimi, then how are we going to find that out without Washu to pick his brains?"

She grimaced.

"Although it occurs to me that this goo is the kind of thing that woman would create, it's going to be hard to work out exactly how to translate signals without her here to press buttons."

"I don't believe Washu did create it." Yume shook her head. "It's an organic substance, but I don't think its origins are man-made. In fact, my databanks suggest that it's an entirely naturally occuring substance - duplicated, sterilised and grown under lab conditions to create so much of it, of course - but genetically it originates deep in the rocks of certain planetary formations."

"Enough with the science lesson." Ryoko snapped, startling the drowsy cabbit who, woken by the commotion had followed the light downstairs and had been busily winding herself around her mistress's ankles. "Ayeka's right. We've got our can of beans. How are we going to get into it without a can opener?"

"Considering Dr Clay programmed me to use it, you seem to be pretty slow in realising I can also interpret the data." Yume's eyes glinted. "Or have you forgotten that I am a robot beneath this disguise, Ryoko?"

Ryoko eyed her sharply, but the droid had already crossed the lab, activating one of Washu's computer systems with a deft flick of her fingers and then inputting several strings of numbers.

"I've hacked Washu's system before and I know it's weaknesses. Not that it has many." She said with a shrug. "For a completely humanoid mind, it would be near to impossible to find a way to crack it. But my mind is part organic and part digital. Thinking about it from a computer system's perspective often provides a way into networks and systems that would otherwise be blocked. It's one of the reasons Dr Clay relied on me so heavily. I could often access things he could not - and not simply because of how easily I changed my appearance."

She keyed in another set of digits, then paused, eying her companions hesitantly.

"Do you believe me now, when I say that I don't want to hurt Tenchi?" She asked softly.

Ryoko sighed.

"I suppose so." She said at length. "Since you were prepared to blast this guy up the walls of the lab if I hadn't intervened, I guess that means you're on our side."

"And if you can really do what you say you can, Miss Yume, can you find the coordinates that Washu and Sasami set off following?" Ayeka added, coming to the droid's side as she glanced uncomprehendingly at the mass of data on the screen. "All of that is nonsense numbers to me - but I presume it means something to you?"

"Every string of numbers is like a code...it's computer language and I speak computer language very well." Yume flashed the Princess a smile. "It shouldn't take me long to find the information we need. Dr Clay's memory is long and twisted and full of irrelevant information. But he's been in Tokimi's service a long time - before he even left the Academy and before I was created to serve his purpose. There must be some way of tracking her down by using his memories."

She clicked through another few buttons, then frowned.

"He did steal the technology from Washu, to design me." She added softly. "And he did dump Ryo Ohki and the other cabbits to starve in order to make room for my creation. Ryoko-san, I'm sorry. I guess you were right about that after all. Ryo Ohki and her kind did almost all die because of me."

Ryo Ohki mewed, leaping up onto the droid's shoulder and rubbing her head up against her ear with a purr. Ryoko snorted.

"Ryo Ohki says that that's nonsense, because you and she are like sisters and it wasn't your fault." She said resignedly. "So I guess if she doesn't blame you, nor can I."

"Thank you, Ryo Ohki." Yume flashed the cabbit a smile. "Seems like Clay was jealous of Washu's successes and how popular she was among the people she taught. He never quite got ahead, so he supported the move to exile her and when she was gone, he set to taking apart her notes to build his own. He probably doesn't even realise how much he stole, in the end. Time and Tokimi's magic are enough to confuse anyone. He's just a pathetic failure as a scientist, who couldn't have built me or anything else without taking from other people."

"This is all very touching, but what about Tokimi's whereabouts?" Ayeka demanded. "My sister is risking her life out there and if anything happens to her..."

"Your sister at least has the Goddess to protect her." Ryoko snapped. "Washu pretty much told me she wasn't coming back, and mad as she is, I don't want my mother splattered all over Deep Space because she took a crazy chance and went into a fight on her own! Plus, there's Tenchi - what if Tsunami and Washu are too late? We can't take that chance!"

"Perhaps someone should wake Lord Yosho, if we're planning to leave." Takeru suggested. "He has the sword, after all, and we might make use of his abilities."

"Washu wanted someone to stay here, just in case something happened." Ryoko shook her head. "I've seen Katsuhito-san fight - he's strong and he's determined. Better we leave him here, to guard his home and the shrine. Meantime, the rest of us can take a little trip. Ryo Ohki will fly us wherever we have to go - won't you, Ryo Ohki?"

Ryo Ohki mewed, pausing in her cleaning to acknowledge her mistress's question.

"Then we're all set." Ayeka frowned. "All we need is the coordinates of Tokimi's base."

Yume creased her brow in concentration, pausing for a moment as she scanned her gaze across the screen. Then she gave a yell of triumph, hitting a button and bringing a space map up onto the screen.

"Got it!" She exclaimed, as her companions crowded around to see. "That's where she is! There!"

"Well, what do you know." Ayeka pursed her lips. "Planet Kihaku."

Ryoko's eyes opened wide, anxiety flickering in their depths.

"That's what she's gone to do." She murmured. "That's why she was moving equipment...and why she didn't think she'd be coming back. That's what was so dangerous!"

"What are you babbling about now, Ryoko?" Ayeka eyed her companion impatiently. "What who's gone to do? Washu? What equipment? What's up?"

"We have to get to Kihaku, and quickly." Ryoko sounded agitated, and she cast Ryo Ohki a glance as she spoke. "Washu's gone to blow the whole damn planet to smithereens...and if that's where Tokimi took Tenchi, he might well be right in the centre of the blast."

"Washu said Tenchi would be safe...she can't be that crazy!" Ayeka's eyes opened wide. Ryoko looked grim.

"Yes, she can." She said flatly. "She told me herself that she's no match for Tokimi in terms of magic, so she wouldn't even think of that as an option. But she did say it was her fight all the same - one she wasn't going to run from. And if destroying Kihaku would stop Tokimi...Ayeka, Washu is from Kihaku too. If blowing this planet up will halt Tokimi in her tracks, what the hell is it going to do to my mother? That's why she said she wasn't coming back! Her life and Kihaku's are connected!"

"You're making wild leaps, Ryoko. You don't know that at all." Takeru said gently.

"No, I think Ryoko-san is right." Yume sounded troubled. "Her hypothesis makes sense...scientifically speaking. Washu has lived many centuries, and her family controlled Kihaku for generations before she was even born. That Washu's life force should be so preserved is mysterious in itself - that she should live so long and not succumb to old age. I think Ryoko has hit it right on the head. Washu is going to destroy Kihaku to stop Tokimi - and destroy herself in the process."

"We have to stop her." Ryoko added. "It's completely crazy, and if Tsunami is with her, surely she can take care of Tokimi on her own? We have to get up there, and talk sense into the woman!"

Ayeka pursed her lips, eying Ryoko keenly.

"You know now how everyone else feels when you throw yourself in front of the cannon." She said quietly. "When Sasami told me Washu was your mother, I found it hard to believe. But right now I'm seeing a strong resemblance between mother and daughter, right here. This is just the sort of thing you'd do, Ryoko, without even thinking it through. The only difference is this time it's out of your control. That's all."

Ryoko stared at her, struck speechless for a moment, and Ayeka spread her hands.

"You know I'm right." She said simply. "And if we're going to do anything about it, hadn't we better leave now?"

She glanced at the still Dr Clay, then,

"I suppose if we leave him here, he won't get anywhere by himself?"

"Trust me, he's not going anywhere." Yume flexed her fingers. "He'll wait...and then you can take him back to Jurai with you to face trial. Assuming you want him - there's plenty in his memories about Tokimi and her plots against Tsunami. You'd have all the evidence you liked to imprison him for life."

"The same could apply to you, you know. Since you're just as wrapped up in this as he is." Ryoko muttered. Yume sent her a hurt look.

"But now I have a choice." She reminded the pirate. "And I've made it. Are we going, or are we standing around here?"

Before anyone could respond, there was a resounding explosion and the house shook to it's foundations, causing Ayeka to fall against her husband with a shriek of dismay. Ryo Ohki tumbled from Yume's shoulder, righting herself with an indignant yowl as she ran for cover beneath Kiyone's makeshift bed and Ryoko grabbed hold of Yume, steadying herself as the droid gripped tightly to the computer system.

"What in Tsunami's name was that?" Ayeka was the first to recover herself, disentangling herself from Takeru's embrace as she did so. Ryoko bit her lip.

"Whatever it was, I don't think it was good." She said softly. "Maybe Washu was right. Maybe the Earth is still in danger."

Another tremendous blast rocked the house once more, and Yume clenched her fists as Ryo Ohki let out another angry yowl.

"The Unko." She muttered. "I should have known."

"Seiryo's ship?" Takeru looked startled. Yume nodded.

"Ryo Ohki and I both pick up his craft's ident as clearly as if it was shouted across the room." She agreed. "It's him, all right."

"Then we'd better go meet him." Ayeka said darkly. "Washu and Sasami will have to take care of themselves for a bit - they at least have some defence against whatever it is they've gone to face. Earth has none but us - and we have to stop him before someone gets hurt!"