Reminders of the Past

A Tenchi Muyo and Invinsible Crossover

Chapter 7 - No Need For Homecomings Part 2

Washu finished the final touches on the portal device. She had to admit that some of the science fiction she'd seen helped with the idea. The portal itself was a large ring, sitting in the middle of a stage, the center of it seemed to be composed of rippling water, and around it were varying symbols. Each of them represented a different harmonic for the various universes. Discovering Mark's universe had ultimately been fairly easy once she got past the corruption from his travels through the multiverse. Which, she ultimately decided to make the portals to the other universes he'd been to as well.

If for nothing else it would provide her with samples from species she'd never seen. The existence of the multiverse wasn't a well hidden secret. It wasn't some unknown or uncharted world. She, Tsunami, and Tokimi all three knew of its existence, and she had managed to chart parallel universes to their own. There was one that was a nearly identical twin of the one they were in. In that universe she had been trapped in the cave instead of Ryoko. Neither of them were related, and of course the other girls managed to come out as well.

Then there was another one that was just outside of that universe, connected by a thin thread. That one was where Tenchi was purely human, his mother an ancient psychic, and it was the power of an ancient sword formed from her necklace that saved them all. That one was a bit more out there. Still, she stayed within the fairly close realms, checking the local parts of the multiverse, and mapping them quite extensively. She continued to do that until she had managed to map about one and a half million tangent universes that were connected to their own.

Each changing a little more from the previous one. While the beginning three had overlap it was easy to see how differently things changed from their universe to the last one she thought of. And then there were universes where Tenchi wasn't born, universes where he was born on Jurai, universes where his mother was someone completely different, and universes where she was sealed away and Ryoko was never experimented on.

Each different universe had its own slightly different frequency and signature. As it stood the connecting thread between their universe and Mark's universe was the Viltrumites. Their existence in both was a connecting thread which helped narrow the frequency down quite a bit. By narrowing it down she was able to connect to it. Once that was done she sent a few of her small ball drones through to construct the gate on the other side.

The building itself was out of the way, appearing to be a warehouse, and it appeared nice and open. That in and of itself was a blessing. Part of her considered some of the old manga that Nobuyuki had. The manga was Shōnen, and it was some lighthearted superhero stories. Still, the world that Mark came from wasn't too far off from those manga, and it stood to reason that an abandoned warehouse tended to be used for rather clandestine reasons. Still, the portal was finished, and once it was complete she knew that it was time to contact Mark.

The moment he went through she would keep the portal open long enough for him to confirm that it was his home universe. Once he was certain she would explain that she would leave a communication drone there, and he could communicate with her through it. When he found out if Kagato either didn't exist, or if he did and he was defeated, he was to contact her and she would allow Eve to come through. She considered her newest daughter. She had told Mark that she was completely made of him and Kain, but she hadn't been quite truthful. In order to have the psychic link with her she had to give her a small bit of her own DNA.

She used her own genetic coding to act as a binding agent to the two other genetic codes. She found that her genetic coding allowed an overlap of Kain's antimatter genetic material and Mark's Viltrumite genetic material. It also meant that she was personally connected to Eve. Of course she didn't use one of her eggs like last time. Instead she had taken a simple drop of blood, similar to what she did to Mark, and withdrew the genetic coding from that.

She smiled as she thought of Eve. The girl was cute, she was going to be cute, but she worried that she wouldn't really fit in places. She would possibly have to wear a human disguise while she was attending traditional school. Of course it was very likely that she would need to have a uniform while she attended. That was something else that she wasn't a hundred percent sure of. While she understood a good uniform was necessary, after all she wore her Galaxy Science Academy uniform fairly often, she did believe that a person had the right to express themselves through clothing.

Part of that she blamed Ryoko for. Her daughter had taken to creating many of her own clothes, mostly from the ambient energy that surrounded her, and having them appear on her skin. Each set was different, and each set was designed for the sole purpose of expressing who she was. She did notice that Ryoko's clothes all too often went with dresses, and normally those dresses would be designed with a split up the side to about the waist. It allowed the skirt of the dress to be free and flowing, but also allowed ample viewage of her legs.

There was little doubt in her mind that it was solely for Tenchi. The moment that Tenchi married her, Mihoshi, Ayeka, and Noike she had felt the jolt of joy through Ryoko's mind. There was also the fact that technically he was married to all of them. She hadn't acted on it, mostly due to Ryoko. She wanted to give her daughter the happiness she so deserved, and the last thing she wanted to do was ruin that for her. Ryoko deserved nothing but complete and total happiness.

Besides, the time would eventually come that things would progress. Partly it would be after Sasami was to step into her role as well. The moment that happened things would become quite interesting. Aykea being married was a blow to much of the nobility of Jurai, but to have both of the crown princesses married meant that all plays for power would be over. It would cause massive discourse throughout the nobility, and she didn't envy Seto a bit on the job she had ahead of it. Still, despite all of that it wasn't as if she had simply not tasted the fruit just out of reach. She had, of course, lived, a bit vicariously, through Ryoko's experiences. She could tell that Tenchi was getting far better at pleasing those he loved, and of course she learned that Ryoko didn't really have a clue about what was good and what was domination when they first got together.

She had been worried about them, but Tenchi proved himself to be a patient and caring husband. One that took time to help Ryoko find what she truly enjoyed, and one that took time to show her what he enjoyed. She had to assume that he did the same with Ayeka, which if the late night cries from Ayeka's room were anything to go by she was quite satisfied. Her mind stopped drifting for a moment as she studied the portal once again. Seeing that it was stable she prepared to call everyone into the lab.

She walked to the door that connected the lab to the door to the broom closet, and opened it. A soft click sounded as she turned the knob, and the door opened. It was exactly how it had always been. The door was a connection point to a small pocket of subspace that she had created for her lab. In truth, it was nearly eighty thousand kilometers in any direction, and the pocket had the ability to expand as needed. It allowed her to connect her lab practically anywhere, or at least anywhere that she keep a stable connection with. At the same time it made the door she connected to practically invincible.

The entire house had been destroyed around them, but the door that connected to her lab was fine. Naturally, she considered creating a lab in Mark's universe. She could attempt to thread her little pocket of subspace through the portal, allowing it to bleed over, but the problem was the stability. There was far too great of a chance that something could happen to the portal and then the cascade of failure would destroy all of her lab and quite possibly anyone inside of it.

It would be as if multiple blackholes opened all at once inside of the lab and each of them attempted to suck it into themselves. It would rip the lab to shreds, likely doing the same to anyone that happened to be unlucky enough to be in there. So, there would be no threading it through. The only reason she wasn't building a lab over there was the off chance that an alternate version of herself was already there.

She believed that it was likely any version of herself would most likely share the same choices in aesthetics of the lab, but she wasn't going to step on any toes until she was certain that an alternate version of herself didn't exist. Once she was certain there was either way then she would decide to build one there, or not. If she did the lab would be a gift to Eve while she was there. She had every intention of doing what Mark proposed. Afterall, he did have a very valid point about her needing to make connections with this world.

She needed to build friendships, learn about the people around her, and take part in their trials and tribulations. She could see the necessity in that, and she would certainly approve of her going to school with the humans. But she also knew that Eve would get through their education system fairly quickly, and so sending her to the Galaxatic Science Academy seemed like the best choice.

She would be able to study basically anything and everything she could ever want to study. She smiled at the idea and walked toward the rest of the house. To her surprise the house was empty. She closed her eyes, cleared her mind, and focused on Ryoko. There was always a psychic link between them, much like there was between Ryo-Ohki and now Eve. The link with Ryoko was usually the strongest. She could get emotions from Ryo-Okhi, and she could get impressions on what she was doing, but it was more difficult to get a full idea of what was going on. But doing what she was doing now she could see through Ryoko's eyes.

She saw the sky, blue, beautiful, and perfect. The sound of the air surrounded her, and she heard the laughter of Mayuka and Eve nearby. Ryoko's eyes looked down and she could see the house, the lake, and the shrine not too far away. So, that explained where they were. She walked outside and saw Mark in the air as well. Apparently he and Ryoko were flying the girls around, allowing them to feel what it was like. Eve herself was flying beside her older sister and Mark.

"Washu?"

She looked to see Tenchi, "Tenchi," she said softly, "The portal is ready."

There was a soft chuckle, "Then it is time to send him home," he replied, "To be honest, I think that we're all going to miss him."

She grinned, "He has certainly proven himself to be a decent man," she replied as she watched them, "To be honest, I believe if there would have been more like him in this universe the Viltrumites might not have been destroyed."

Tenchi shook his head, "I can understand where Kagato was coming from," he said as they watched, "I mean he didn't want any competition when it came to finding what he was searching for, but to destroy an entire planet."

She looked at him, and she could see the expression, "I know Ryoko told you, and the fact that it hasn't changed your view of her makes her incredibly happy."

He laughed, "It wasn't her fault," he replied, his eyes still taking in the sight of his daughter laughing while one of her mothers held her, "She had no control on what was going on, and the one that should be blamed is Kagato, not her."

She smiled, "I couldn't agree more," she replied, "Tenchi, Mark made a suggestion that I believe might be in Eve's best interests, so, what can you tell me about the schools in the area?"

He looked toward her, uncertain about the request, but shrugged and began to answer her, "Well, my school I went to was pretty decent. It was a smaller school, and that allowed for smaller classes. Most of the kids I went to school with were pretty friendly, and I made a couple of really good friends."

She nodded, "And would you say that your experiences in attending a school here, on Earth, has helped you make the connections to it and the people?"

He grinned, "Yeah, school certainly helped, but then so had just growing up here. I mean I got to know family, people coming to visit the shrine, and through it all I saw that while everyone was different they were kinda the same," he said before he thought for a moment, "You know, I'd like to think that the connections that I made here are exactly what made me who I am."

She looked toward Mark, "He suggested that Eve attend school here on Earth, that an education here would help her do exactly what you just described."

The more she heard, the more sound the idea was. Letting Eve build attachments would be best. Being the smartest being in the universe, quite possibly in all of the multiverse, meant that she could certainly understand the world around her. She could understand the social structure of societies, the development of an underdeveloped world, and what its place would be. She could understand it perfectly. But she had to be honest with herself. Part of the reason she was having reservations about letting Eve go to a school here on Earth was a deep sense of worry.

It wasn't that Eve would hurt any of the children. She believed that Eve would understand that she had to treat the other children more delicately, but rather it was a deeper worry. Kagato had her trust. He had developed a trusting relationship with her, and then he used that trust to trap her. Once she was trapped he began torturing Ryoko in order to break her. Ryoko, her Ryoko, was not the woman she was meant to be. She was a broken girl that had been put back together through love and friendship.

The jagged pieces of who she was had been carefully reassembled into the person she now stood as. That person was someone she was still proud of, but she understood that due to the traumatic nature of her life until she was trapped, and then released, meant that getting through to her meant being less than kind. She didn't want that for Eve. She didn't want her to suffer the same, and that was why she wanted Mark to either find out if Katago existed in his universe or not.

She knew that if he did then Mark would do all he could to stop him and release the alternate version of herself. In addition to that she worried that someone might attempt to take advantage of Eve here. Of course, it was highly unlikely that any normal human could do anything to her, but unlikely didn't mean impossible. Ryoko herself could call upon demons, evil spirits, and other beings that most believed were pure myth or legend.

If there was a human here with the same ability then it was conceivable that they could hurt Eve, or force her to do things that she didn't want to do. At the end of the day she had to realize that the only thing she could possibly do was to let her experience life, but be prepared to do all that she could to protect her. She didn't doubt for a moment that Ryoko would help watch out for her as well, and besides she would be attending school with Mayuka.

Perhaps there was a place the both of them could attend, here on Earth, that would allow them to blend into human society but they could be around others that would be able to handle their natural abilities. She smiled, there was a school like that actually. She'd seen it in the multiverse. A place called Yokai Academy in an alternate world. She'd seen the various beings, legendary monsters, that all attended that school. They were likely more than strong enough, and it would be a simple affair to use the portal to allow them to go there. Perhaps she would arrange a meeting with the headmaster, explain the situation, and see if both Mayuka and Eve would be good candidates for the school itself.

With that in mind she made a mental note to check into it further, and of course to arrange a meeting. She saw that Mark finally noticed her, as did Eve, and then Ryoko began coming to the ground as well. She saw them, and a slight smile crossed her lips.

"It's time, the portal is ready."