"I haven't seen him look like this since Sister Noelle…" Valclav's voice drifted off as he stood at the doorway to Father Nightroad's room. He sighed softly when he saw the defeated look in Abel's blue eyes.
Valclav glanced over his shoulder to see Caterina Sforza staring emotionlessly at Father Nightroad with her arms firmly folded across her chest. "When will Father Tres' facial reconstruction be finished?"
"Soon…" Caterina did not take her calculating eyes off Abel. "Dr. Wordsworth is working with that short, pink-haired scientist right now."
Valclav placed his hand on her stiff shoulder, "Let's leave him be…" he tugged her softly away from the open doorway and shut the door behind them.
The priest hovered over his bed where Ryoko was sleeping with his head hanging low. His silver hair was disheveled, edges of his clothes were frayed, and his glasses were cracked. Abel reached out and gingerly wrapped his hand over hers. He looked at her with his soft blue eyes in longing, "I promised myself I would never let it happen again…" It didn't matter that she couldn't hear him – he had to say it before his heart exploded out of his chest. "…Not tell someone how I feel about them before it's too late," the priest sighed. He shook his head at how difficult it was to express his feelings, even to an unconscious person. "I found love where it wasn't supposed to be. You fell right out of the damn sky and changed everything," Abel tightened his grip on her hand. "You changed me…"
"I want you to know that it was the only way to save you," he brushed a stray blue hair away from her face. His heart sank, "I had to use his nanomachinces…" The priest let out a long sigh as he lifted his head and stared out his window at the looming grey storm clouds. "I hope you'll forgive me," he glanced back to watch her sigh softly in her sleep.
He sat all night next to Ryoko, holding her hand in his the entire time, and praying for her speedy recovery. When the sun started to rise over the horizon Abel drifted off to sleep, slouching in his chair and snoring away. His broken glasses had slipped off his face and landed on his chest. He twitched in his sleep when he heard his name.
"Abel…" whispered the voice.
Opening one blue eye, the priest spotted Lady Caterina standing to the left of him. "Abel, we need to talk…now," she added in a harsher tone. The monocle that she typically wore in her right eye was dangling around her neck.
Sitting up straight in his seat, Father Nightroad nodded curtly to his superior in silence. He caught his cracked glasses just before they hit the ground. Glancing over his shoulder, Abel watched Ryoko's chest slowly rise and fall as she lay sleeping in his bed. Still alive... He followed her into Wordsworth's half-beaten library and instantly smelled the familiar sweet odor of a warm cup of tea and scones. As Caterina Sforza moved behind the wooden desk, Abel loaded the tea with thirteen lumps of sugar while his stomach started growling loudly.
The blonde cardinal had dark lines under her eyes, as if she hadn't much sleep in the last 24 hours. She had been busy organizing the reconstruction of the Vatican City and smoothing the Church's alliances with the Methuselah. "What you did was most absurd stunt you have ever pulled Abel," Caterina said in a stern voice.
"You blatantly ignored my strict orders. You went into the enemy's airship without any back-up and you endangered several innocent people's lives in the process. It was by pure damn luck that Father Tres wasn't obliterated for good. Are you even certain that Cain is truly dead? We still haven't figured out how that loon Dietrich came back to life."
More silence from Abel. The priest was mentally revisiting the aftermath of the battle. How he had put a bullet between Cain's malicious eyes, cut off his brother's head with his own scythe, and ripped his heart out of his chest. Crushing his brother's heart brought up mixed emotions. He was pleased that it was finally over with…but he wished that he could have prevented it all. He wished that he could travel back in time and stop the hatred from seeding in his brother's heart. There was no coming back this time.
Dietrich was another story. He was the puppet master. He could control both the living and the dead. Abel hypothesized that Dietrich was in fact dead – killed by Cain for failing the first time around in destroying the world. Cain must have given Dietrich some of his special blood. Bringing him back long enough for Dietrich to use his own tricks on himself. Now as an undead, Dietrich could be crueler and not be clouded by his emotions any more. That also meant less mistakes this time.
Esther had put several bullets in him, but Abel wondered if he was going to come back. His beautiful face was destroyed and he took at least one bullet to the chest. Not to mention the airship was destroyed by the Iron Maiden. I don't think he is coming back… Abel reassured himself as he thought about it some more.
"Not to mention that you injected Cain's nanomachines into that space pirate after your recklessness nearly killed her. We don't even know how her body will react to the nanomachines or what she will turn into! You knew…know that she does not belong here Abel."
Caterina paced back and forth behind the desk in frustration. "Do you think that she would want to stay here after she found Tenchi? Do you really think Ryoko would stay with you Abel?" she watched Abel's shoulders stiffen.
Abel stuffed a scone into his mouth to keep himself in line. He could feel his anger starting to rise. Clenching his jaw, the priest refused to make eye contact with Caterina. "I-I haven't thought that far ahead yet..." his honest words burned his throat.
"Or maybe you thought you would go to her world instead," Caterina was intentionally striking a nerve with the priest. "We don't know how traveling 2,000 years will affect our world, or theirs. We need you here Abel. You belong here… Abel, you have to end this stupid affair…now." She stopped pacing when she heard Abel's cup clanking against the plate. The silver-haired priest had all of his attention focused on the bookcases against the wall behind Caterina. "Abel...you need to talk to me. I'm concerned about your state of mind right now."
Abel lifted his head finally making direct eye contact. He raised a silver eyebrow, "My state of mind?" Standing up so quickly that he knocked his chair over, Abel hands started to shake with rage. He narrowed his hardened blue eyes at Caterina just before he threw his tea cup against the door. The brown liquid stained the red carpet a darker color. "Don't I deserve a little happiness in all of this?!"
Caterina jumped back from his sudden outburst. Her words had cut deeper than she meant to. "Abel please don't go…" her voice trailed off as she helplessly watched him storm out of the library without saying a word, crunching the broken china under his shoes.
Abel was able to make it to the outer courtyard before he broke down and punched his fist at the sole remaining stone pillar. "Damn it all!" Ignoring the throbbing pain, Abel leaned his back against the pillar and slowly slumped down into the loamy soil. What if she is right? He felt his stomach flip over. What if the nanomachines end up destroying her…or change her into something else? Abel banged the back of his head on the cold stone. You're a damn fool Abel. Damn fool for believing that everything would work out in the end. To have a happy ending… He buried his face into arms and groaned in despair.
"Abel…?" asked a soft warm voice.
Lifting his head, Abel's teary blue eyes recognized Esther. "Hello Esther," he sniffled as he rubbed away the tears from his cheeks with the back of his bloodied, swollen hand.
Esther knelt in front of him with a concerned look on her face. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and gingerly wrapped it around the priest's bloody knuckles. "Don't be angry with yourself Father Nightroad," she whispered calmly. She kept her hand over his wound and stared deep into his eyes. "You did well," Esther said sincerely, "You saved me…You saved us all."
When did she become so grown-up? She had changed so much since the first time he met her. The redhead was now a strong, independent woman ruling the kingdom of Albion. Abel smiled weakly, "Thank you, Esther."
"It's been almost six hours…" Ayeka bit the bottom of her lip as she stared at the emergency button Washu had left her.
"What if you pull Washu back before she can find Ryoko and Tenchi?" Mihoshi asked the princess in a small voice.
"Then we try again…I guess," Ayeka sighed as she hovered her hand over the red button. Five more minutes and then I'll press the button. You have better found them Washu…
The watch on Washu's left wrist began to buzz loudly. "Uh-oh," the crazy scientist paused in the middle of her work to examine the time.
"What is wrong Washu?" Tenchi stopped helping Wordsworth with attaching a new eye to Gunslinger's empty socket.
Nervously scratching the back of her head, Washu explained to Tenchi about her back-up plan she had set up with Ayeka and Mihoshi back home in Tokyo. "That was just the five-minute warning…" she swallowed loudly.
"Ryoko isn't even conscious yet! We don't even know if she will be able to survive the trip back home!" Tenchi rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Could we come back for her?"
Washu removed the small black cube from her pocket; she had shrunk it for traveling purpose. A tiny cloud of grey smoke poured from the edges of the cube. "It took me several attempts to find you two…I don't think the cube will survive another trip through the time-space continuum."
"Can't you build another one?"
Washu held her head in shame, "It was one of Kagato's projects…I don't know how it works. It would take me years to figure it out."
The Earth boy was in a state of shock. If Washu couldn't figure it out, then no one could.
Father Tres turned his damaged head towards Tenchi, "Based on calculations of regeneration from Father Nightroad's nanomachines, Ryoko is at 45 percent regeneration. There is a 25 percent chance she will not survive traveling through the black hole at this moment." Even though the droid said everything in an emotionless tone, the way he looked at Tenchi with his one functioning eye showed concern.
"We'll just have to take our chances then," Tenchi said reluctantly.
"We better go Tenchi," Washu pulled out her green goggles from another random pocket in her yellow shorts. The crazy scientist said her goodbyes to Dr. Wordsworth and they exchanged handshakes.
Just as Tenchi followed Washu out of the room, Tres stopped him by calling out his name. Tenchi came back in to see Father Tres standing on his own and wobbling over to the repair table. He grabbed one of his pistols, which had a red rosary tied to the handle, and presented it to Tenchi. "For my friend," he stately simply.
Tenchi nodded, "I'll make sure she gets it when she wakes up."
Once the Earth boy was gone, Gunslinger contacted Abel through his internal communication ear piece. "Father Nightroad, I'd advise returning to your room to say your goodbyes."
Abel jerked his head up suddenly when he heard the transmission. She is leaving? "Esther – I have to go before…" He leapt to his feet and bolted out of the courtyard at full speed, leaving the befuddled Esther kneeling in the soft ground.
Rushing back to Abel's room where Ryoko was resting, Tenchi found Washu injecting more of the white fluid concoction into the muscles of the space pirate's shoulder. Washu's watch started ringing again. Time was up. "Where's Abel?" Tenchi jumped back when the black cube in Washu's hand started to grow.
"There's no time!" Washu snapped the goggles over her face. "We have to go now!" she shouted as the cube created a massive black hole in the center of the room.
Stuffing the pistol in the back of his pants, Tenchi quickly scooped Ryoko into his arms. He stood next to Washu as they both took a step into the black hole. With a loud pop, the three of them were gone.
One minute later, Abel came bursting into his room out of breath. "I'm here – don't go Ryoko!"
"Ryoko?" he desperately searched his empty room. As the seconds passed, the sound of Abel's heartbeat grew louder and louder in his head. After franticly looking around his empty room in a state of panic, the humble priest suddenly realized that she was gone.
Esther walked into his room to find Abel sitting on the edge of his bed staring off into space with the color drained from his face. Without saying a word, Esther sat on the bed next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. "She's not coming back…" Abel said with a defeated look in his blue eyes just before he started to sob on Esther's shoulder.
Ryoko sat up in her bed in a panicked state of mind. "Abel?" rubbing the back of neck, Ryoko tried to remember what had happened. Her last stable memory was fighting Cain on the airship. She looked around at her surroundings – it was her own room back on Earth. Ryoko groggily climbed out of bed and nearly fell over. Her legs felt like jelly.
Shaking off her drunken-like state, the space pirate took a few bare foot steps forward before stopping at the doorway. Ryoko stared at the closed wooden door. She could hear laughter downstairs, it was most likely coming from the kitchen. In the back of her mind, Ryoko could picture Abel sitting at the Masaki dinner table flabbergasted by all the food their household could consume in one sitting. He was probable drooling over Sasami's cooking right now. Taking in a deep breath, Ryoko used her powers to walk through the door.
Yawning, Ryoko floated down the stairs unnoticed. She smiled as she watched Mihoshi trying to set the dishes on the table and Ayeka yelling at her for putting them in the wrong spot. Sasami was busy chopping carrots into a giant boiling pot with Ryo-Oki hovering under her feet waiting for a piece of carrot to fall within her reach. Washu was busy trying an experiment on Tenchi's father. He had a yellow helmet on that emitted tiny blue sparks that was making his face twitch whenever Washu tightened a bolt on the helmet.
Then there was Tenchi, sitting at the head of the table watching the Masaki family with a fond look in his eyes. He turned his head to see Ryoko floating at the bottom of the stairs wearing just a large, long-sleeve white t-shirt. He watched the smile on Ryoko's face slowly fade.
As she watched all of the Masaki family carry on like it was a typical day for them, it slowly dawned on Ryoko that Abel wasn't there. Tears formed at the corners of her yellow eyes and she bit the bottom of her quivering lip. "Where's Abel?" she finally blurted out so everyone could hear. The Masaki household went dead silent.
"Ryoko..." Tenchi stood up to start explaining what had happened but Ryoko teleported away. Tenchi glanced over to the rest of the family to see their saddened expressions. "I'll go talk to her," he sighed as he grabbed his jacket from the couch.
Climbing the stairs to the roof, Tenchi found Ryoko sitting on the edge of the roof staring at the night sky. Tears were streaming down her face. Tenchi placed his jacket around her shivering shoulders and took a seat next to her. They sat in silence watching the stars sparkling in the night sky.
"How long?" Ryoko finally asked without taking her eyes off the stars. A faint amount of hope still lingered that the next falling star she sees would be him.
"You've been unconscious for a week," Tenchi said uncomfortably. "Washu had set up an emergency protocol to get us back home…but she had only given herself six hours to find us. If we didn't take you…you would have never been able to come back home."
He let me go? Ryoko felt crushed. "Did he say…did he say goodbye at least?"
"There wasn't enough time-" Tenchi watched as every word he said shattered her heart into tiny pieces, "He didn't even know that we left."
Ryoko tore her eyes away from the dark sky. She was angry and upset. "Go back inside before you catch a cold," the space pirate grumbled when she noticed him shivering on the roof top.
Sensing that she needed some space, Tenchi stood up on the roof. "Check my jacket pocket," he said quietly as he headed back inside the house.
Once he was gone, Ryoko stuffed her cold hands into the jacket's pockets. She pulled out a silver pistol with a red rosary hanging from the handle. She instantly recognized Father Tres' pistol. They are really gone. Ryoko tried to fight the oncoming tears but finally broke down and began sobbing on the roof by herself. Don't leave me alone… she hugged the pistol close to her chest.
Weeks rolled on by. Tenchi grew more concerned for Ryoko as he watched her typically loud chaotic personality morph into a hallow soul. She stopped drinking sake. When the space pirate lacked the energy to argue with the princess anymore, Tenchi knew it was time to start finding a way back to the other world.
Every night Ryoko would sit on the roof watching the black sky for falling stars. By the fourth week, Ryoko was losing faith. She stared at the blinking stars with big yellow eyes desperately looking for the falling star.
Just as she was about to give up, a large star shot across the sky falling towards the Masaki shrine at the top of the forest. In a split second Ryoko had teleported off the roof and was flying to the shrine at full speed. She stopped at the top of the shrine's stone steps to see grey smoke coming from behind the shrine.
"Abel!" Ryoko teleported to the back of the shrine and ran through the smoke. She saw a large crater in the ground and felt a wave of relief hit her. "ABEL!" Ryoko summoned enough energy to cause a burst of wind. As the smoke cleared, Ryoko found herself standing in the middle of the crater alone. There was no sign of Abel.
Heartbroken, Ryoko dragged herself back to the Masaki household. At the front door, the cyan-haired space pirate turned back to look at the night sky for the last time. She heard the door open while she was looking up at the stars, "Don't worry Tenchi. I'm done for the night…"
"Didn't find what you were looking for?"
The voice did not belong to Tenchi. Ryoko's heart stopped beating. Slowly turning her head back to the door, Ryoko couldn't believe what she saw.
A silver-haired man with glasses stood in the doorway presenting her disheveled and broken flowers in his hands. "I'm sorry the flowers didn't make the trip-"
Ryoko tackled him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I thought I had lost you," she sobbed as she held him tightly.
"You can't get rid of this pathetic hide that easily," he whispered in her ear as he twirled her around in his arms.
They stared into each other's eyes. Ryoko pressed her forehead against his, "I love you." Hearing those words made his heart soar. Abel kissed her on the lips.
"Father Nightroad, I detect your heartbeat at an abnormally high rate," said a familiar emotionless voice.
Abel chose to ignore Gunslinger's remark and kissed Ryoko again. "He hasn't been the same since you left," the humble priest winked to his love. He glanced back to see the entire Masaki family staring at them. He nervously waved at them all.
"It's good to have you guys back," Tenchi was grinning from ear to ear.
Sasami ran up to Abel and Ryoko with bright eyes. "Ryoko said you had wings. Do you really have wings?"
He laughed at her curiosity. "Yes, in fact I do," he bent over to be at her eye level, "But it is a secret okay?"
"Okay!"
"Sasami let them come inside the house before you start bombarding them with questions," Ayeka scolded her younger sister. "Please come in and have some tea," she said in a pleasant tone of voice. She was relieved to see Ryoko smiling again.
While Ayeka prepared the tea, Sasami hovered over Father Tres asking him questions about his metal eye. "Ryoko said you are really good shooting the bad guys."
Father Tres gave her a serious look, "Affirmative."
Ryoko sat up on the roof with her feet dangling from the edge. She leaned against Abel, who finally looked at ease being in high places. "So this is Earth 2,000 years ago?" Abel watched the stars with her and listened to the summer wind blowing through the trees. "It's beautiful," he smiled as he wrapped his arm around Ryoko.
"I would come out here every night looking for a falling star. Wishing it was you."
"Washu had left some preliminary calculations with Wordsworth before…before you left. It took him a while, but he was able to reproduce the device," he kissed the top of her head.
"I'm surprised Caterina allowed you to leave."
"She didn't," Abel said truthfully. "She currently believes that I'm visiting Esther in Albion." The priest shook his head, "Once Father Tres had figured what I up to, he demanded me to take him with me…for protection of course." He started to laugh, "He even helped me pick flowers for you-"
"I want to go back with you," Ryoko said suddenly.
Abel stared blankly at Ryoko. "You really want to stay with me?"
"We're partners, remember?" Ryoko gave him a thumbs-up signal with her yellow eyes shining. "Besides, someone has to watch your ass-" her sarcastic remark was cut short by Abel pressing his lips against hers.
THE END