"Abel," whispered a voice close to his ear. The silver-haired priest crinkled his nose before cracking his eyes open. "Abel…" the voice was getting louder. Rubbing his eyes and stretching out, Abel glanced over to his side to find no one sleeping next to him. Was I terrible? Abel could feel the panic rising in his chest as he searched for his glasses on the nearby bed stand. Did I do something wrong? Maybe it was something I sai-
"Abel Nightroad report!" yelled a voice sharply in his ear. It was Sister Kate. "We have been called for an emergency meeting…twenty minutes ago," she added dryly.
The priest frowned to himself as he groggily moved out of his bed to find his clothes. "Where is Ryoko?" he muttered to himself.
"The space pirate was not requested for the meeting," Sister Kate had heard him mention her name. "Please hurry down…Caterina is not very pleased as it is."
Pulling his hair back into a loose ponytail, Abel searched the room for any hints to where Ryoko had gone. He sighed loudly when he came to the conclusion that it was nothing more than a one night fling. His blue eyes grew misty but he cleared his throat and held back the tears. I shouldn't have said I love you…
Ryoko gave William Wordsworth a fowl look as she stood there listening to his boring drabble. The cup of tea and scones she had stolen from the kitchen for Abel were getting cold. "I really should be getting back-" she started to interject. The scowl on her face grew darker when he ignored her and continued to talk about his latest inventions.
What the space pirate didn't know was that Wordsworth was given the task to keep Ryoko occupied while the AX members had their secret meeting a few rooms away. Talking someone's ear off was Wordsworth's specialty.
"Look," Ryoko growled through clenched teeth, "I would love to listen more about your inventions but I really have to get these scones back to-"
Wordsworth knew he was losing her attention, so he decided to usher her towards his lab. "I finally found out how you entered our world," he smirked when Ryoko fell silent. He pointed to the schematics on his desk, "From my genius calculations…you and your friend came to this world through a black hole."
Ryoko remembered the small black cube that was sitting on Washu's failed experiments desk when she was fighting with Ayeka. The pink-haired crazy scientist wanted to make a miniature black hole to act as a storage space for all of her experiments and creations.
Setting the scones and cold tea on the desk, the space pirate stared at the squiggles, math equations, and random numbers on a star constellation map.
"You came here from Earth," Wordsworth folded his arms smugly across his chest.
"But this is Earth…isn't it?"
"Yes, but this is the year 3980…"
Ryoko bit her thumb as she thought about the last time she had seen an Earth calendar back at home. It was Tenchi's birthday three months ago…Fuck. She held her breath for a moment. "I am 2,000 years into the future?"
Wordsworth simply nodded. "Quite a feat to pull today for just one person…but two? I would have thought it to be impossible."
"Leave it to Washu," Ryoko clenched her fist. "Is there any way to create another black hole?"
He shook his head, "Not unless someone from your time decides to open the black hole back up."
Ryoko slammed her fist on the table, spilling the tea over the map. Damnit! How the fuck am I going to get Tenchi and I back home? I need to find Tenchi…I need Abel to help me- "Where is everyone?" she asked suddenly.
Wordsworth gave her a nervous smile, "The AX members are currently in a meeting…you'll have to wait."
"Wait?" she growled. "We have to find Tenchi and Esther before-" she felt a strange presence behind her. Shifting her yellow eyes, the space pirate saw a blur of black and white envelope her. Ryoko felt a slight prick on her neck and suddenly things became dark. "You bastard…" she hissed as she slumped over the person who had attacked her.
The professor walked over and lifted Ryoko's eyelids to find her eyes had rolled to the back of her head. "That was a little close," he muttered.
Gunslinger easily lifted Ryoko's unconscious body into his arms and gave the professor a calculating look. "Affirmative. You make for a poor distraction," he spit the empty syringe on the ground.
Wordsworth frowned, "Now don't forget to check in with me once you have reached the safe house." He glanced over at the scones and tea, which contained a mountain of melted sugar, and knew immediately who they were for. "Caterina has made is especially clear that Father Nightroad is to be kept in the dark about this, understood?"
"Affirmative," Father Tres carried the limp space pirate out of Wordsworth's office.
"You authorized what?" the silver haired priest slammed his fist into the closest stone pillar.
Caterina did not flinch. "Father Nightroad we did this for her safety-"
"Taking her away against her will and holding her captive in some dark underground safe house is supposed to make her feel safe?" Abel pulled his fist away the cracked stone. Blood began to drip down his fingers.
"We all decided that this was the best option for her…for all of us. The Rozencraunce Ordren wants her to complete their sick little plan to release chaos upon the world. The best way to prevent this is to hide her until we can find out more." Caterina cleared her voice, "With that being said-I am sending all of you to find out the whereabouts of Queen Esther and Tenchi."
She made momentary eye-contact with each of the AX members to make her orders crystal clear.
"We have to figure out what they are planning…once we know – then we can stop them once and for all," she let her words sink in for a moment. "Dismissed."
"Yhrr nn asssoooll," Ryoko growled through her mouth gag as she glared at Father Tres from the backseat of the car.
Gunslinger looked in the rearview mirror, "We are still allies," he tried to reassure her.
Ryoko scoffed in response.
"My orders were to secure you in our underground safe house for the time being," Tres said in an emotionless tone.
Her yellow eyes hardened as she glared at the back of Tres' head. "I cnn takkk caaar oof muhhselfff…" she tried to kick the back of his seat but lost her balance and slumped against the door. The space pirate's head banged against the door as Tres sped over a pothole in the road. "Gnnngh…"
Ryoko suddenly sat up straight in the backseat. "Whhtt uuu meeen weeerre?"
"My neurochip is malfunctioning," Tres tapped the side of his head with his index finger, "I am lacking the ability to follow the proper protocol at this time. I will have Woodsworth exam me once this is over."
Tres suddenly made a sharp turn, which made Ryoko slide across the backseat and slam headfirst into the car's door again, and then came to a complete stop. "Soonn off ah bttch!"
The front passenger door opened. "Now what did I say about swearing?"
Temporarily ignoring her swollen nose, Ryoko lifted her head to find the silver-haired priest smiling warmly at her as he climbed into the car. "Fkk uu," she grumbled as she masked her feelings of relief from him.
Father Nightroad slipped a piece of paper to Tres before he leaned over his passenger seat to untie Ryoko's mouth gag. His blue eyes stared directly into hers, reading her like an open book. He momentarily brushed his thumb against her cheek, hoping Tres would not see him do it. It will be alright, I promise.
"You didn't have to drug and tie me up you know," Ryoko spat at Gunslinger.
"You are not very good at keeping your mouth shut," Tres pressed down hard on the gas pedal.
Abel laughed at Ryoko's sour expression. He sat forward in his seat and pressed his glasses closer to his face. "How much time do we have?" the priest asked his AX partner.
"Approximately four hours before the planned strike-"
"Planned strike?" Ryoko interrupted. "How do you know when they will attack next?"
"They told us…" The silver-haired priest pulled out his right pistol to inspect how many bullets he had left.
Ryoko's brow crinkled, "Why the fuck would they do that?"
Abel dropped the pistol on his lap and looked over his shoulder at her, "First. Language. Second. They want us to try and stop them."
Her yellow eyes narrowed at him, "Because they want me…"
"Exactly," Abel faced the front again. "And that is precisely what we are going to do."
The space pirate laughed, "I like this plan. Can you put a bow on the top of my head for them?"
Abel smirked on the outside. On the inside he was scared shitless to walk straight into a trap like this. It was the only way to figure out what they were planning though. He glanced at Ryoko through the rear view mirror to see her wink.