Heaven and Eternity

by K'thardin

Standard Disclaimer:  If you don't know what these say by now, you probably 
never will, but here goes.  You will never win!  Muhuhahahahah!  Sorry.  Anyway 
I don't own Tenchi Muyo!  I do own my characters!  There!  Oh, by the way; feel 
free to reprint this, just remember to credit me.

Authors Forward:  Remember the last one?  Forget it.  I don't know what I was 
thinkning when I wrote it, and I make no excuses.  I issue a formal appology to 
both Ryan Anderson and Brazil for what was done in that fic.  In this one those 
problems are removed...and in any case this was how I should have wrote it to 
begin with.  It's a much better version, I promise.

The Pain of Growing

"We either change or die.  That is one of the fundamental laws of the universe."
	-A Wise Man

<Opening Theme - Sweet Child o' Mine - Guns 'n Roses>

<Here Comes the Rain Again - Eurithmics>

 	"I love him."
	A simple statement; both profound and powerful, yet simple.  Only three 
words, yet those three words were spoken with all the feeling and will and life 
and compassion that an entire universe could not hope to contain.
	The goddess breathed in t air of her dimension, blessing the air with the 
energies of her body, if such could be called that, before she exhaled a long, 
slow sigh of despair.
	The light that seemed to emanate from all things dimmed.  Her realm 
reflected her soul and radiance.  As it dimmed so did the dimension.
	She was walking, aimlessly and without care.  As she walked, trees seemed 
to move out of her way and at the same time almost seeming to embrace her, as if 
to comfort her if they could.  She touched each one as she passed in a gesture 
that was a mixture of compassion, pride, gratitude, and yes...even love.  A dear 
nuzzled her arm from behind startling her for a moment.  The goddess hadn't even 
felt the doe approach her.  A testament to her distraction when she didn't even 
feel the life around her.  Her, a goddess of life.  A lovesick, severely 
distraught, incredibly depressed goddess of life.  She closed her eyes, not to 
blink, more to ponder as she caressed the doe before it's shy nature overtook 
it, and it moved away from the goddess, staying very close, though out of site.
	A frog jumped up to her from the bushes, quickly followed by many more.  
She gasped as they began a song, a choir of froggy music.  She remembered a time 
once long ago, when an ancestor of theirs did the same thing for the same 
reason.
	A cat, striped like a tiger, big as a bear, joined her in her walk.  He 
would say nothing, not even a rumble, barely even glancing in the goddesses 
direction.  But he was there beside her, which was more than his kind would do 
for anyone, even themselves.
	Again she sighed.  "I love him." she said again.  "Yet, he will not let 
himself love me."  She looked up at the blue blue sky her eyes going white 
momentarily as her eyes reflected the light of her realm.  "How long have we 
been like this?  Touching, yet apart.  As close as any two can be, and not be 
one.  Lovers when we can no longer deny...yet still not nearly enough."  She 
looked to the tiger.  "I sometimes wonder about us.  He disappears...sometimes 
for decades on end.  Off to where he is needed in the cosmos...when I need him 
with me too."
	The tiger glanced in her direction.
	"I couldn't rely on him, when I so wanted too."  She smiled wryly.  "I 
can't depend on any of them.  If it comes down to it they may be needed 
elsewhere when it, as the Terrans put it, hits the fan.  If so..." She grimaced, 
"If so, I'm just glad that Tenchi will be more I created him to be."  Her eyes 
closed with that statement, "And please let my son forgive me." She prayed to 
the one to whom even she was a child of.
	She finally stopped at the edge of what seemed to be a lake, and she took 
note of her surroundings.  The radiance was quite dim now, giving the realm a 
nightish quality.  Little lightning bugs had risen from their slumber, and 
lazily flew about blinking their patterns of lights like a miniature display of 
green and yellow fireworks.
	The tiger glanced at her, then to the water.
	"Yes." she answered.  Perhaps the waters may cool some of the burning 
inside of me.
	She started with her hair.  She gathered first the left lock, and slowly 
slid the first of it's holding bands off.  She examined it for a moment, 
twisting it back and forth causing it to glint in the half-light.  Orange and 
white...why those colors? She wondered before she let it fall to the ground.  
The form of the woman she projected was the form of Sasami when she was grown.  
Not just her looks, but in other ways Sasami existed.  This style of these bands 
signified that she was a member of the Holy Order of Jurai Priestesses.  The 
color though...was one she had no idea what signified.  This was one of the 
stranger mysteries of her assimilation with the girl.
	She considered another strange oddity of her form as she repeated the 
process for the remaining three bands.  That being the two circles on her 
forehead that looked both green and gold.  They signified both that she was a 
member of the royal family, as they wear all true power runes, and that she was 
a second wife.  She looked at her reflection in the water, and pulled her blue-
green bangs back to examine them better.
	A second wife, she mused.  What does it mean?
	Her mind conjured up a few possibilities...each one not something she 
desired to put it mildly.
	Whatever it is...I hope it's a good thing.  Otherwise, a particularly 
detestable image of both her and some other girl married to her son sprang to 
mind; otherwise I think I will probably kill myself.
	Still...marriage?  As a priestess?  Members of the Holy Order were not 
allowed to take lovers much less marry.  Why then did she have the marks that 
signified a second wife?
	Kami-sama may know...if that being did not play so many games, she thought 
to herself.  Kami-sama does not allow himself to know the future to keep the 
'game' interesting.  So the odds of him knowing are nil to nonexistent.  Hmm.  
And even if he did know, he wouldn't tell me.
	The final band came off, and it joined the other three on the ground 
beside her.  Absently she ran her fingers through the long luxurious strands of 
blue-green hair before letting it hang loosely around her.
	The overcoat came next.  Her hands moved to the golden clasp on the red 
chest plate above her right breast undoing it with practiced ease.  Then to the 
left clasp, undoing it just as easily.  Two golden circles, that signified the 
twin suns of Jurai, and the life they provided to the world.
	Her hands moved over the patterns of leaves on the back of the coat that 
represented the trees of Jurai and the people's eternal connection to them.  
Tugging slightly with a slight shrug she pulled the cape over her shoulders, and 
let it drop to the ground behind her.
	After that, came the corset of blue that was the sky.  Reaching behind her 
back she undid the buttons. Loosening it so when she pulled the armlets down 
around herself, it fell to the ground easily.    
	Heh...I keep forgetting why Sasami likes those Kimono's she always wears.  
Much lighter, she thought as she idly stretched, marveling in the feel of being 
free of those damnable clothes.
	She next reached behind her waist and unbuttoned the red sash that held 
her kimono in place.  Red for blood and the blood bond the people have to this 
world.  The sash joined the growing pile of clothes at her feet.  The wind of 
her realm picked up and a breeze blew uninhibited through the goddesses 
clothing, parting her kimono and chilling the skin enough to cause goosebumps to 
appear on her slender arms and legs.
	Lowering her arms and shrugging slightly she let the kimono of clouds fall 
to the ground leaving her clad only in her underwear.  Without pausing she undid 
the buttons on the front, and pulled it's armlets down to expose her perfect 
breasts.  She gasped as her nipples tightened slightly as the chilly air ran 
it's fingertips across the expanse of her bosoms.  Finally she pulled the 
garment down around her ankles, and stood arms crossed in front of the lake 
hoping the water's cold would quell some of the fire in her veins.
	The goddess took a step into the water, the water in all actuality being 
the water of life that her people so jealously guard, and tested it's near icy 
touch.
	It was the temperature she needed.  Of course it would be as, like 
everything else here, the water conformed to her will when she wished it to do 
so.
	Physical sensation...only here could she experience it.  Her dimension, a 
strange combination of the higher dimensions, and the lower dimensions where she 
could be real and not simply solidified energy.  She couldn't even be completely 
high dimensional anymore, Tokimi took that away a very long time ago. It wasn't 
even until recently, with her connection to Sasami, that she could exist like 
this, able to be a physical person.  Even if it was only in this very 
specialized dimension.
	Slowly she walked out into the water, savoring it's feeling on her bare 
skin.  As she reached the deeper parts, she submerged herself completely, and 
began to swim.  The lake shared the half-light that emanated from all things, 
which illuminated the depths as she continued lightly kicking through the 
deepest recesses of the water.  Her mind drifted aimlessly, shedding it's 
worries, and the passions of the goddess began to slowly cool as she hoped.
	Below the water was much the same as above.  Where everything there tried 
to console the goddess so did everything here.  Schools of fish joined her in 
her travels, swimming around her lithe form in a strange form of play.  The 
aquatic plants reached out to touch her as she passed; careful not to tangle the 
long hair that seemed blend seamlessly into the lake's color.
	Suddenly she stopped, and shot straight up to the surface, breaking it 
explosively, nearly coming completely out of the water as she did so.  Then she 
settled back and began to lazily float over the surface enjoying the contrasting 
of the mild warmth of the air and chilling cold of the water.
	That was almost better than sex, she giggled to herself.  Those words 
triggered her other memories of recent events, and the fire within her, that was 
thought quenched, flared again.  It was painful in it's intensity as if the 
stuff of a star were flowing through every part of her body.  It was not 
surprising that tears began to come to her eyes.
	Desperately she went underwater again, but found no relief from the anger 
and despair this time.  Unbidden the memories of the recent events began to play 
themselves out, showing her again the cause of her recent distress.

	"Lift the stone."  Cyraqs instructed.
	Tenchi sighed in boredom, and did as he was bid.  Another stone rose from 
the ground and joined the swirling mass of rocks already around him.  "How's 
that Yoda?"
	"Keep it up wise ass."
	Tenchi smirked.  It was rare when he could actually get any points in his 
favor against Cyraqs.  The man had an odd sense of humor and seemed to delight 
in irritating people in what seemed the most innocuous ways.
	For example, Tenchi himself.  Tenchi would make one statement, Cyraqs 
would question it, Tenchi would explain it, Cyraqs would either question or 
comment in such a way as to require another response from Tenchi, and so on and 
so forth.  Most of the time it continued until they wound up right where they 
started in the conversation before Tenchi would even realize he'd been led in a 
circle.
	It wasn't enough to make Tenchi angry, but it was irritating.  Which at 
times was much worse than anger.
	Another example, strangely enough, was Sasami.  Tenchi was positive the 
only thing that could possibly make her angry was for people to mess with her 
family...be it someone else or someone else in the family.  Tenchi was proven 
completely wrong when Cyraqs, grinning like he was about to do something very 
bad (which he was), walked up to him one day while he was helping Sasami in the 
kitchen and said, "Watch this Tenchi."
	So Tenchi watched Cyraqs creep...not walk, creep up behind Sasami as she 
was washing dishes, reach out, and lightly pull both of her long pony tails.  It 
was then Tenchi learned what a deadly weapon a frying pan could be as Sasami 
chased him for a good half hour trying to clobber him, as he deftly dodged and 
evaded her strikes, while tossing out the occasional comment about how much 
shorter she was than him.  This only served to anger her further and when she 
finally cornered him in her room she demonstrated her formidable skills with 
said instrument as she pounded him into submission.
	Which is not to say she could actually hurt him with that heavy piece of 
kitchenware.  However, the fact this was the way she made her displeasure at 
what he had done known, spoke volumes about what it was he had done.  This was 
considering the fact she didn't show physical violence to hardly a fly, and here 
she was beating him down after he had...annoyed her.
	After she was done battering the poor laughing Cosmic being, she damn near 
hit Tenchi with the skillet when he didn't get out of her way fast enough on her 
way back to the kitchen.
	Her.  The girl that could have passed for...well that analogy was a bit 
too accurate.  After all considering whom she is a part of, it could be said 
Sasami is goddess like Belldandy.
	Tenchi could swear that Cyraqs was also trying to show him something when 
he did things like that, but for the life of him, Tenchi couldn't figure out 
what.  In any case this was his sensei's demented sense of humor, and it would 
likely get him killed one of these days.
	Twenty-seven, Tenchi counted to himself.  Twenty-seven rocks, and I'm 
still able to daydream.
	The object of this exercise was to gather rocks one after the other (at 
least right now it was one after the other) and keep them moving around him 
randomly without them either going into a recognizable pattern or bumping into 
each other.  This would teach him how to use his evolving capabilities to 
enhance his control of his power.  For power without precision is, as a wise man 
once said, completely useless and of no true value.
	Tenchi thought about the last part of that quote for a moment.  Useless 
and of no true value?  It seemed redundant to him for some reason.
	However if this trend kept up it was going to be a VERY long time before 
he would reach anything that remotely resembled a limit.
	He wanted something more difficult, more challenging, more...
	Yep, definitely more interesting if Cyraqs is staring into space, he 
thought.  A mischievous thought crossed his mind.  Tenchi's smirk deepened 
slightly, and suddenly many more stones rose into the air to join the ones 
already there in forming a perfect three-dimensional smiley 'Have a nice day' 
face.
	Tsunami, who had been sitting near by watching them, collapsed on her back 
in gales of laughter.
	Cyraqs, wondering why the peanut gallery was on her back laughing so hard 
she was clutching herself, looked at her questioningly.  Seeing her point back 
toward Tenchi he turned his attention to his grinning student.
	Cyraqs rolled his eyes.
	"OK...think you got what it takes huh?  Let's see you fuse the molecules 
of those rocks like that.  Then I might be mildly impressed."
	Tenchi was a bit taken aback.  The manipulation of molecules required one 
actually adjusting one's senses to be able to 'see' the individual bits of 
matter, at least for what Cyraqs wanted him to do.  Then one had to be able to 
work with them in mass amounts to achieve the desired effect.
	A bit difficult.  Before Tenchi had only done it with a few molecules at a 
time.  Now he was being told to do it to several billion.
	Tenchi definitely got his wish.  This was something far more challenging.  
Tenchi took a deep breath and cleared his mind of everything but the task before 
him.
	Cyraqs nodded as he felt Tenchi reach out with his senses to see that 
which he would normally not.  He nodded again as the rocks began to take on a 
somewhat liquid quality and flow into each other.  The kid is..."THE MOLECULES 
YOU IDIOT! NOT THE ATOMS!" Cyraqs shouted suddenly, throwing up an energy 
barrier at near the same moment.
	Tsunami watched the micro nuclear pyrotechnic display inside of the 
barrier play itself out with a bemused, but calm smile.  After a couple of 
minutes it ended.  The smoke settled immediately telling her that one or the 
other was employing his power to fix things.
	As they came into view, she started laughing again.
	Tenchi and Cyraqs were both blackened with char.  Their clothing hung in 
tatters upon their bodies as they stood within a small crater.  Cyraqs' hair was 
blown back as if he were standing in a wind, and his glasses hung off of one ear 
in two pieces.  Tenchi himself looked no better, his rat-tail poked straight 
out, and his own clothes were even worse off than Cyraqs' as they barely covered 
his modesty.  Though it wouldn't have mattered, as it seemed he had a major case 
of shell shock.
	Tenchi started to apologize.  "I am so sor..."
	"Go away."
	"Sens..?"
	"Go away before I do something permanent to you."  Cyraqs said in an oh so 
quiet voice that promise a quick death.
	Tenchi took a step back in fear, then faded from reality as he shifted his 
presence to somewhere else.

<I'm on Fire - Bruce Springsteen>

	Tsunami quelled her laughter as she watched Cyraqs will his clothes back 
together, and himself free of the black ash that covered him.  She giggled again 
as he shook his head in frustration and muttered something that sounded 
something like, "You'd think I'd learn to tell them not to do it when not only I 
have done it, but so has everyone of my students, but nooooo."
	She leaned forward, and propped her elbows on her knees and her chin in 
her palms.  With a slightly amused smile she pondered what Cyraqs was to her as 
he began the task of repairing the damage wrought by Tenchi in his training.
	What is it about you?  She wondered.  He began by siphoning the radiation 
the blast caused, transmuting it to energy he would use later.   She scanned his 
small form, mapping it's every detail in her mind.  Your looks are definitely 
out of the question, she decided.  Your body is perfect for what you use it 
for...for anything you use it for.  She remembered a few times his body had been 
used for...other things besides battle and would have blushed scarlet had she 
the blood to do so. 
	For some reason Sasami felt a rising of heat to her entire body as she 
dozed on the couch watching some show that she had long since lost interest in.  
Other stranger sensations began working their way over her...she had no idea 
what they were, but they felt nice.  A smile that matched her other self formed 
on her petite lips as her muscles began to relax...every one of them.  And it 
was with her last ounce of energy she unbuttoned some of her clothing to release 
the pent up heat inside before she finally dropped off into a comfortable 
slumber.  Tsunami, meanwhile, continued her musings.
But you are not handsome, not ugly, but certainly not exceptional looking, she 
concluded.  So what is it?
	His next task was to fill the crater.  He gathered his power, and bent 
down to touch the ground.  As he knelt she passionately sighed while she watched 
his muscles bunch and flow freely beneath his skin and clothes.  Those arms 
filled with power unimaginable by most, those muscles, so compact and strong 
that he could easily shatter worlds by touch alone.  She found herself wanting 
those arms around her now.  To be touched by such a controlled and powerful 
force.
	Was it simply the power at his command?  A simple need to procreate, as 
all beings in the universe seemed to need, therefore it was her finding what 
would be the best mate to sire children?  Other beings that she had met had 
similar power levels, different ways of commanding power.  Not necessarily 
better, just different.  Some a whole hell of a lot better looking, and nicer 
too.  Hmm...that can't be it.
	The energy was transmuted to matter, and became the dirt below him.  The 
crater filled quickly leaving only barren soil where once was both grass and 
trees.  
	That done, he began his next task.  A peaceful smile formed on his lips.  
Gathering his power once again, he searched for seeds to begin new life in this 
blasted part of the earth.
	What is it that makes me feel so good when I'm around you?  She wondered.  
Is it your passion?  That impenetrable, all consuming darkness that shrouds 
every fiber of your being, only broken by that single scortchingly bright white 
light at the center?  The madness that threatens to consume your very soul, 
barely kept in check by your love for what you try your damnedest to protect?
	Grass began to grow, as his power both gathered it to the area and 
nurtured it to maturity.  A few flowers sprang up here adding color to the whole 
affair.
	I don't know what it is, she decided.  And to be honest...I can't really 
bring myself to care.  It just is, and it feels...right.
	You are so many things.  We are related, did you know that Cyraqs?  You 
are my sister's son.  I didn't know...perhaps I should have suspected, but how 
could I have known?  Your abilities are both the same, and so incredibly 
different from ours.  What does that mean you are in the grand scheme of our 
plan?  You are also a...never did give your kind a name did you?  Hmm...may have 
to remedy that one of these days, she mused as she continued to watch the grass 
and flowers grow.
	You are a protector of this universe, that is a sufficient name for it I 
suppose.  Tokimi threatens it, but if something else happens when she finally 
reveals herself to us, you may not be able to be there.  It is Washuu's and my 
responsibility, our mistake, our imbalance in the universe.  We must right 
it...will you be able to help us?
	He glanced over at her momentarily, just to smile at her for some reason 
only known to him.  She could feel him though.  Feel his friendship, his love 
for her.  Feel his life as it pulsed and flowed through him in perfect tune of 
heartbeat of the universe.
	Can you feel it?  I have always felt you...can you feel me? she wondered.  
She smiled back, blindingly bright conveying everything she could in the look in 
her face.  He closed his eyes and nodded his head just slightly, and returned 
his attention back to flora that needed his attention.
	No, you won't let yourself feel it, will you?  I want you to feel it.  I 
want you return it.  I want...her eyes narrowed trying to block the tears of 
energy that threatened to form.  
	Want...need...you.  I don't have the time anymore to wait for you.  Tokimi 
has come, and Sasami is growing up.  I may not live for much longer...and even 
if I survive, soon I won't be the same.  I need you...everything you are, as I 
am now.  I know you feel the same, it's barely under the surface.  I need you to 
realize it.  I want you to know everything...I will show you.
	She rose from her seat on the ground and glided over to him as he 
painstakingly gave a solitary tree the energy it needed to grow.
	"You never do that very well do you?"  She asked, almost smirking as he 
threw her an annoyed look.
	"It gets the job done."
	"Yes, but not like this." she pronounced as she closed her eyes and knelt 
down in front of him, her own lips scant millimeters from his.   She felt his 
heart beat faster as she nearly touched her lips to his.  Smiling to herself she 
backed away slightly, acutely aware of the increased pulse of her own energies 
that had responded to his near intimate touch.
	Her head bowed, and she gathered her power.  This was her area.  This was 
the power of the youngest goddess, the power of the goddess of life, which was 
the central meaning of her existence.
	The grass began to glow...then shimmer as her gentle touch gave them a new 
way to exist.
	Other Trees began to grow around the original one, to give it 
companionship and something else if he were to accurately judge the expression 
on her face.  Once they grew to a soaring height she opened her eyes and smiled 
up at her new children. "Sing." she said.
	And sing they did.
	The one created first, started.  A deep reverberating bass note was it's 
only melody.  The others soon joined it, adding their distinctive voices to the 
unearthly symphony.  The song spoke only of the joy of being alive, a moving and 
enriching song that touched the soul, though it's music did not traverse very 
far past this newly recreated glade of trees.  Not so quiet as one could not 
hear it, but quiet enough so one would have to be near the trees, so it's song 
could be experienced.
	The goddess stood there aglow with the joy of accomplishment on her 
beautiful features.  Her form, in fact, did glow a soft blue, and the smile of 
pure happiness; both only did so much as to enhance her wondrous and ethereal 
beauty.
	The cosmic being eye's were riveted to the site.  His mouth agape as all 
of his senses took in the site of the goddess before him.  It enchanted him to 
the point where even one such as he found his mind befuddled by the image she 
was presenting him.
	It was the effect she was hoping for.  She decided to see how far she 
could take this.  "What?"
	At the sound of her melodical voice, he managed to shake himself out of 
the hold she held him in.  "I was just thinking this world doesn't have the 
trees in it that you have just created."  He paused.  "So Beautiful."  He did 
not avert his gaze from her at that last part.  Which just allowed her to chalk 
up another point on her mental score card...she could still make him say things 
he normally wouldn't to anyone else, and make him act like an embarrassed 
schoolboy.  Though she shouldn't talk...he could at times do the same to 
her...whether he knew it or not.
	That last part irked her, and reminded her of the decision she had made 
only minutes ago.  She reached out to the shorter man and drew him close to her 
energy form. Yet again she marveled at how such a small frame could contain the 
power he did as she felt the energies of his chi begin to infuse her.
	Instinctively he returned the embrace as she brought her forehead down to 
touch his, and felt the familiar experience of her power and his reacting to 
each other.  "What's wrong Tsunami?" The concern in his voice made her jump 
slightly, only to have an explanation a moment later when his fingers began 
smoothing away tears.  Tears she hadn't even known she was shedding; that had 
wet his cheeks as well as her own.
	"Why couldn't we ever do this?"  The goddess asked, her voice filled with 
need he had never heard from her before.
	What do you mean Tsunami? "Do what?"
	Her response consisted only of bending over, and kissing him with a 
passion that burned like a million million super novas, stunning him with it's 
overwhelming intensity.  She finally broke the kiss, as he was in no position to 
do so.  He had barely hung on for dear life during it.
	"We have done this."  He replied after the precious seconds needed to 
recover had elapsed.  Yes, they had done this, and more.  Something was very 
different this time.  Very different.  He could discern the feelings of pleasure 
she had received from the kiss, from the other emotions that ran through her 
body.  He felt regret...a deep regret only matched by a sadness that coursed 
through her being.  Above all he felt a great desperation.  Not for...that, 
though it was part of it.  He found he couldn't begin to place it.  There was 
however a nagging part of him that practically screamed for him to acknowledge, 
that screamed it had the answer.  When he tried to look however, it seemed to 
get further away.  As if he could not make himself see what was right in front 
of his eyes.
	As if he couldn't make himself face some strange truth.  And that scared 
him...he was never one to lie to himself.  What could it be that was so terrible 
that he could not make himself face it?
	"What can I do that can ease your pain?"  She looked at him almost 
disbelieving that he could not know, and yet in every word he uttered, every 
look he gave her there it was.  His admission of love for her.
	"My...pain?" The disbelief in her gaze intensified, almost to the point of 
disgust.  He was beginning to wonder if he had grown a new head.  "You say it in 
every word.  Every look.  I say it in every word.  Every look.  How can you 
not," she choked, "know?"
	"Know what?"
	He found her blows still felt like stellar lightning, as one of them made 
contact with his jaw.  "What the..."  His question was squashed by the pure rage 
he saw in her face.  Then she realized what she had done, and her hands flew to 
her face to cover the shame she felt.  Yet she couldn't help but see the hurt in 
his eyes.
	She reached out and tenderly touched the red mark her fist left on his 
face.  "I...I..." she fumbled, before she vanished leaving behind a very 
confused cosmic being.
	He rubbed his sore jaw while he considered what just happened.  He finally 
concluded the obvious.  Something was not right.
	However in this instance, he had no idea about how to find out what it was 
that was wrong.

	Unbeknownst to them all, Tenchi floated in the sky some few miles away 
observing the exchange between the two.  He understood what had just 
happened...and at the same time he could not understand what it was that 
prompted what happened next.  Perhaps he didn't know as much as he thought.
	"Why?"  He heard himself ask.  It was so beautiful, so perfect.  What 
happened?  Why didn't it happen?

<Wilderness - C.W. Mcall>

	The goddess huddled into her self, as she sat on the rock deep under the 
water, hugging her knees to her breasts.  She tried in vain to bury the pain 
inside.  Only to find the harder she tried, the more it intensified.  Her tears, 
easily seen as they glowed brightly, leaked by freely intermingling with the 
water around her.
	What does that take?  She asked herself. How long have we been doing this?  
WHY WON'T HE LET HIMSELF SEE?
	Suddenly she shot through the water towards the shore at a speed that 
broke every known physical law in existence.  Then, just before she reached dry 
land, she changed the direction of her flight and went straight up in the air to 
scream to any and all in creation that had the ears to hear, "DAMN YOU CYRAQS 
K'THARDIN!"
	She settled down back into the water; it barely covered her lower calves.  
She dropped to her knees, her hair settling about her entire body.
	"Damn you for what you do to me."  She whispered amidst the tears.
	Then she was aware of a new sensation.  A small, naked, wet, and slippery 
form had thrown itself at her and was hugging her as tight as the strength the 
form's diminutive self would allow.  Surprise was the next thing she felt when 
she saw what, rather who it was.
	A pair of wide pink eyes stared up at her.  The owner's face was cute, yet 
filled with sadness and fear for her otherself.  And her hair was the same shade 
as the goddesses own.  "Sasami..."
	"Tsunami stop!  Please stop!"  Sasami cried.
	"Sasami..."
	"Please!" the girl pleaded as she held the goddess to herself and wept 
quietly.
	"Now I understand how Ryouko must feel.  It hurts so much, Sasami."
	For a time the little girl held the goddess, until the tears slowly abated 
until they just barely ceased.  "It hurts."
	Another memory came to her.
	
	She had followed her erstwhile friend, as best she could.  Damn fool is a 
master of evasion, anyone lesser would have been thrown off the trail.  Hah!  
You can't loose me!
	At least that time she spent learning all those nifty tricks during the 
wars against the Djinn, that had allowed her to track one of the best to 
wherever he was when it was obvious he didn't want to be found, was not wasted.  
Proud as a new mother of her accomplishment, she didn't realize at first the 
condition her friend was in when she came out of transdimensional space on the 
small asteroid.
	"I found..." you! Would have been her completed statement.  Something she 
would have spent the next few thousand years rubbing in his face.  He wasn't 
about to get away from her...they had some serious celebrating to do with the 
rest of their comrades!  The war was finally over!  There would be time enough 
to mourn the fallen later...now was the time to take joy that they were all 
still alive, and so was the universe.
	She should have suspected that he would go off and be by himself.  He was 
a loner.  Unlike the others, he was never very comfortable with his companions 
for any prolonged length of time.
	That, and he was much more emotional than all of the others.  He had a big 
problem with losing people, and he had lost many during the course of these 
thousands of years the war was fought.  It should have been no surprise that he 
would be the first to shed tears for those that had died, after it was finally 
over.
	She couldn't fathom, however, why he was kneeling in front of an obsidian 
black obelisk touching the ground of the asteroid while mouthing something she 
could not hear.  The emotions she felt emanate from him were unmistakable, and 
only served to confirm what she knew he was feeling...but what was this?
	In any case she could not bear to see him alone in his pain.  He had been 
alone far too long with it, just as she had before he had come.
So similar at times, she noted to herself.  Yet we are so different.
	Her energy form strode over to him, and placed her ephemeral hands on his 
shoulders.
	"She was all I had." Tsunami heard him say without feeling.  To his left 
she saw a half-empty bottle of some greenish colored liquor that accompanied 
three or four more, already drained to the dregs.
	Her bright pink eyes widened, and she would have gasped in fear, had she 
the lungs or air to do so.
He's not supposed to do that.
	Why he was not supposed to drink she had no clue.  He wouldn't even get 
near the stuff much less touch it when the others had it.  He would politely 
excuse himself when he came upon others having some, the stares of pity 
following him on his way out.  She once asked why he would not join his fellows 
in such a pastime.  Her only answer was that they are not the ones to share his 
tale.
	She had a feeling she was about to get a lot of answers right now.
	"She was my..." he choked on his own despair, "everything.  I had it all.  
A wife that loved me, my little boy that was supposed to have everything I 
didn't."  He took another drink.  "I thought I could protect them both because I 
was stronger than father.  I thought no one could possibly know about me.  I 
believed no one could possibly find out."  Tsunami's blue and glowing hands 
clutched his shoulders harder as he recounted some tale of woe.
	"They suffered the fate my father saved me and my mother from."  He had 
never talked about this before!  He was married?  Had a child?  A wife and child 
that were apparently killed by the families of his empire. The empire he very 
rarely spoke of.  Even when he was helping his family within it.
	"I was an arrogant fool." he continued, "And they paid for it with their 
lives."  At his words, her eyes began to well up with tears.  Here her friend 
was in pain, and there was nothing she could do about it.  It was long in the 
past, something no one DARED change.  He finished this bottle, and almost 
immediately went to another.  As it entered his body she watched it's subtle 
changes that he allowed it to have on him.
	It couldn't hurt him anymore, but she saw what passed for his cells, 
greedily accept that substance into itself, a place already prepared for it.  
She realized he was addicted.
	No wonder he never drank.  She said to herself silently.  It would be 
nearly impossible for him to stop.
	"I put them here, on the same asteroid they died on.  They died because 
they could not survive the rigors of space unprotected."  He bowed his head even 
lower, and closed his eyes.  "Those bastards shot us down...and then...they 
died." He barely got the last of it out.  It took him a couple of seconds to 
continue again.  "Why couldn't it have happened sooner?!  Why couldn't my power 
have been released just a few minutes before?  I could have saved them...I 
could..." He choked again.
	So that was the event that triggered his power, she realized.  They all 
had similar tales.  Of how some extreme circumstance had allowed them to tap the 
hidden power inside of them.  Some had happy endings, where they had used their 
powers to save a life or right some wrong.  Others were just plain ludicrous, 
like pulling a girls pants down to see if her hair color was natural or not.  
Others, like his, were not so happy.
	She wondered what became of those that attacked him, but only for a 
moment.  She knew what he would have done, what she herself most likely would 
have done.  Something he gave voice to now.
	"I killed everyone of them until there was no one left to kill.  Everyone 
of them."  His tone turned self-mocking. "Do no half measures I was taught.  
Well...how's about killing every man woman and child of that family with my bare 
hands?  That's no half measure is it?"
	Her hands flew to her face in shock.  How could such a man...do that?!  
That would have been at least a billion people...with his bare hands?!  
Innocents as well as guilty?!
	"A monster I became.  An insane mass murderer.  She would hate me for 
that.  No matter I just helped save the universe.  No matter what I do, I cannot 
atone for that.  Damn that I just cannot die!  Not when my family needs me so."
	For the first time she felt afraid of this man.  She hadn't been afraid 
when he showed her how strong members of his association were.  She hadn't been 
afraid when he showed her what a pure warrior he was.  She hadn't been afraid 
when he taught her to be the same thing.  That he could do something like 
that...
	She had wondered about his darkness.  How utterly consuming it seemed.  
Why he had it, and where it came from
	He had done some terrible things in his life, and he hated himself for it.  
Only his family had kept him going.
	No wonder the others refused to discuss it.
	Yes...this man was capable of such a great wrong.  So too was he capable 
of saving a cosmos.  They all were.
	She said nothing.  She bent down and wrapped her arms around his form, 
which for the first time she had ever seen him, looked as small and vulnerable 
as his height deceptively alluded to.
	"I don't hate you."  Tsunami told him.  "I love you."  No matter what, she 
told him silently.  I love you.
	He cried there in her arms.  The goddess holding him protectively against 
her, much as one would comfort a child, giving him some of the solace his soul 
had long been denied.
	"It hurts." He managed to get out through the anguish that was too 
terrible for mortals, and nearly too terrible for immortals, to bear.
	"I love you." was her only reply.

<Here I Am - Air Supply>

	It hurts.  He still hurts.  He still hasn't let it go...any of it.  That's 
what his darkness was, his own self-hate.  That's what his madness was.  The 
hate that drove him to do such a terrible thing, and the loathing he feels 
because of what he did.  He took vengeance because he loved so much, and he's 
scared that it'll happen again.
	Such a painful thing it is to love like this.
	"He hurts so bad he won't love.  Not like that at least."  Sasami sobbed 
quietly.  Tsunami brought her smaller other off her shoulder to stare her in the 
eyes.  
	She shared that memory with me.   Tsunami gave the girl a bittersweet 
smile.  "Yes."
	"And you hurt because he won't let you love him."
	"Yes."
	Sasami looked confused for a moment.  "He won't let himself even see.  But 
you told him right?  Back then?"
	"Yes."  Tsunami touched Sasami's face gently.  "But it was different 
then."  Sasami looked at the ageless part of herself in the stare that had nigh 
become infamous.  The one that shredded every wall that was set up in defense, 
and left one bared to her scrutiny.  Even Tsunami couldn't look at that gaze for 
very long.
	"No it wasn't." Sasami told her needlessly.
	"He wasn't ready then."  Tsunami countered.
	"He's never going to be ready!"  The goddess started back in surprise at 
the outburst from the girl.  "He's just going to keep going on and on and stuff 
like that until he dies!"  Sasami softened her voice, "Tell him...really tell 
him.  He loves you...I know it.  I've seen it.  So has everyone here.  Tell 
him."
	"I know all that beloved Sasami.  But how can I tell him that when he 
doesn't know that about himself?  If I don't make him see it in himself I 
might..." might...might loose him.  She could hardly think it much less speak 
it.  The mere thought left a chill inside of her that refused to go away.  He 
might push her away...for good.  She would never see him again, because he would 
be trying to protect her...
	The same way he tried to protect Washuu.  If it wasn't for the fact his 
family in the empire would have perished without him, he would have left them 
too.
	The same reason he was a loner, she suddenly realized.  Not because he 
felt any different, but because he didn't want any of his fellows to die because 
of him.
	So why stay around me?  She wondered, but she knew the answer to that too.  
It's because he couldn't bring himself to leave me.  But if he realizes why...he 
will consciously leave.
	"We might lose him anyway.  We've got to risk it.  For all of us."  Sasami 
told her.
	Tsunami heard only the sageness of the advice, not the wording itself or 
she might have been worried about what Sasami just said.
	Tsunami stood up; her hands still on Sasami's shoulders.  "Sasami...thank 
you."
	And then the mortal, whose heart could move even the proverbial immovable 
object, smiled her beautiful smile at Tsunami.  "Sure!"

<The Cajun Music - (Whatever seems appropriate)>

	Why?  Was only one of the questions that Cyraqs asked himself as he walked 
back to the Misaki home.  A few of the others consisted of 'What just 
happened?',  'How can I fix this (whatever it is that is happening)?', and 'What 
is wrong with Tsunami?'
	What can I do to help her? Was the top priority on the list of questions 
that he was asking himself.  The other questions that he had to answer first, 
that in fact would have led him to that answer, for some reason cluttered and 
swirled in a chaotic mess.  This resulted in his mind, normally serenely glacial 
and organized to a fault, becoming a confused mass of conflicting information 
with no answers to be found amidst the wreckage.
	However, there was still that nagging part of himself that kept on giving 
him the impression that if he would just let himself see what it was he was 
missing, the answer would be so plainly obvious that he would feel stupid for 
not having seen it sooner.  Yet, as before, he found that the harder he looked, 
the further away it got.
	He stumbled on a rock.
	He stopped walking.
	I don't trip, he thought.  He scanned the rock, in fact the entire area 
for something out of the ordinary.  Nothing, he concluded from the information 
his senses gave him.  Why did that happen?
	Turning he began walking again, paying extra attention to where he 
stepped, still mulling his previous problem over in his mind.  At least until he 
ran right into a branch that hung low enough to the ground to impair even his 
progress.
	He stopped again.
	He reviewed everything that led up to the point of him not ducking under 
the branch in reflex.  The only thing he saw was the mental replay of the look 
of disgust on his friend's face as she struck him.  His jaw still ached, though 
the pain he felt in his heart dulled that pain to near nonexistence.  He rubbed 
his chest, for the pain in his heart seemed almost physical.  She had hurt him, 
but worse it seemed she <I hurt her.> was hurting...what was that?
	I hurt her?
	I would rather die than hurt her.
	Yet it seemed like, he did a quick mental rewind and reviewed the events 
one frame at a time,  "How can you not *choke* know?"  "Every word I say...", 
yes it seems I am the source.  But how?  Why?  What did I do?  What didn't 
I...that question almost brought that nagging part of his mind to fore.  He 
swore he could hear it saying "BAKA!BAKA!BAKA!BAKA!BAKA!BAKA!BAKA!" over and 
over again.
	He didn't even realize what he did when he tripped up the couple of stairs 
to the kitchen door.
	He wondered if perhaps...another perspective might shed some light on why 
she was behaving so oddly.  He walked into the living room, almost right on top 
of a game of chess.  The players being Aeka and, strangely enough, Mihoshi.
	Maybe. He thought as he considered them.
	So he propped himself up against a wall with his arms crossed before him, 
and watched the game.  Which turned out more to be a perfectly executed 
slaughter of one's army than a matching of wits between two experienced 
fighters.
	"Again!  I don't see how you do it Mihoshi!"
	"Well, you know if you just quit trying to get the king and look around 
the board, you know this might help with Tenchi too, you might be a better..."  
Aeka's eyes began to narrow in anger.
	Cyraqs decided that he had better stop this argument before it started.  
Otherwise he may never get an opinion from them.  "Umm...excuse me."
	"Oh hi Mr. K!"
	Aeka fumed for another half second before she too greeted her 'Uncle'.  
Her annoyance disappeared immediately when she saw his troubled visage.
	"What's wrong?"
	"I was hoping you might have some ideas."  He began.  Then he told them 
everything...starting from the moment he began training Tenchi to the point 
where Tsunami struck him, and disappeared.  About the middle of the tale, he 
noticed that the girls began passing little glances between each other.  In fact 
it almost seemed like they were laughing at him for some reason.
	The looked at each other for a long time after he finished for some 
reason, as if they were telling each other things with just a gaze alone.  
Suddenly they both stood up from the table.
	"You know I know men are dense, but this is really bad!"  Mihoshi stated.  
"Don't you agree Aeka?"  They both began to walk out, not even bothering to give 
a straight answer to the confused cosmic being.
	"Quite.  I wonder if it's the water...it seems to be very prevalent, this 
density with men around here.  Perhaps we should have Washuu look into it?"
	Their conversation faded as the walked into the kitchen, not that he was 
paying attention anymore.  Considering the fact that Mihoshi herself had just 
called him dense, must mean he was missing something so flipping obvious that 
only a total bonehead would miss it.
	So I'm a bonehead then, he decided.  Alrighty then...how does one so rocky 
seek enlightenment?  Obviously talking to the local women is not going to get me 
anywhere.  Doubtful the men would know either, this seemed more a woman thing, 
when one takes into account the behavior I just witnessed from them.
	Even after 23,000 years in the objective universe women still prove to be 
an enigma to me.
	Perhaps I should look away from the problem for a time.  Then look back 
and see if I see any difference.
	He spotted Sasami sleeping on the couch amidst his musing.  So before he 
left he pulled a light cover out of nothing and covered the girl, leaving her to 
dream her dreams.

	It didn't happen.  Why didn't it happen?  Tenchi mused to himself on his 
bed.  It was so obvious.  My friend...I could feel it.  The universe could feel 
it.  It was almost like what I remember my mom and dad being like.
	He smiled as the bittersweet memories of the time his mother was still 
alive played again in his mind.
	Those memories...they didn't come upon him as much as they used to.  They 
were of a previous time when he felt so alive.  Achika would just smile, or 
laugh, or just a simple touch and his entire world was right somehow.
	His father was happy then too.  His father had a fire burning inside of 
him, the fuel was the woman that had borne his child, that loved him so much she 
made him the center of her universe...just him and Tenchi.  Oh and her 
father...can't forget about the 'old' man.
	That fire in his father was quenched for a time after Achika died.  He was 
more automaton than human being.  Later he began his...hentai-ish 
tendencies...but even they seemed hollow.  They lacked conviction.
	Recently he noticed the fire in his father was burning again.  It was 
different, it had more to do with Tenchi and the girls now, but it was there.  
It burned as brightly as it ever had did.
	His grandfather had gone through a kind of living death as well, when 
Achika died.  He had lived past two wives and all his children.  When his last 
child Achika died he retreated into himself, becoming the perfect image of the 
Shinto Priest that he was.  Somehow though, some way he seemed to recover much 
sooner than either Tenchi or Nobiyuki...that's when Tenchi's training began.  
Funny that, as if by raising Tenchi as best he could, in the only way he knew 
how, he would make Achika proud.  Or so his logic went.
	Perhaps this was true.  Or perhaps there was even more to it than that.
	But what of myself? He asked.
	I don't know.  What am I?  Have I done everything that mother would have 
wanted?  Have I become a man she would be proud of?
	For some reason those questions bugged him.  A lot.
	He rose from his bed, and over to his wall mirror.
	A man?  Am I a man anymore?  He asked himself as he inspected his face in 
the mirror.
	There was nothing different.  Nothing really that he could find.  Not one 
thing on him that he could point to and say "That's not me."  But he felt so 
different inside.  He couldn't tell what it was.  
	There was the power of course.  There was his new strength, his new 
abilities.  Abilities that still scared him.  Abilities that he neither wanted 
nor asked for, and would give up the very moment he was given the opportunity.
	There was also the omnipresent sense that something momentous was about to 
happen...something he would need to be as strong as he could get before it came 
upon him.  It sat there at the edge of his consciousness, like the sun that was 
about to crest the horizon...and then go supernova.  He knew it would be focused 
on himself and his family, and there would be nothing he could do to keep it 
from coming.
	They wouldn't let him go.  Nothing in his life would let him go, no matter 
how much he longed for a normal life.  It seemed that for every wish he made for 
it, life threw him a curve ball that made him go off and do some wacky, 
dangerous, totally suicidal seeming adventure.  Somehow...he would always pull 
it off, come out on top, and peace would reign.  Until the next time his world 
was disrupted of course.
	Ryouko appeared to his rear, and glomped him.  He had felt her coming, but 
for some reason he couldn't make himself avoid her this time.  "Hi Tenchi."
	Oh that sweet voice.  It promised so many things if he would just let go 
and be with her.  Her body was totally perfect, and her devotion to him near 
absolute.  Why didn't he do what was natural for any warm blooded heterosexual 
male to do in this situation?  Why?
That was the question wasn't it?
	And for just a moment, in that mirror, he no longer saw himself and 
Ryouko.  He saw Cyraqs and Tsunami.  It scared him out of his mind.
	It scared Ryouko too, for she had never seen the look on his face that was 
reflected in the mirror now.  This wasn't fear of Ryouko and Aeka destroying the 
house again...no this was fear far more deep seated than that.
	He turned in her arms, and for once did not push her away, as he just 
looked into those wild eyes.  Slowly he pulled her down closer to his own...
	"What are you doing to Lord Tenchi now?"
	Of course this WOULD be the time for Aeka to shatter this moment; her fury 
was quite apparent.  Her hands clenched at her hips, and her arms so rigid that 
it seemed nothing in this universe would be able to cause them to move again.  
But the eyes were the worst.  It wasn't anger he saw there, but fear.  Fear that 
she just may lose him...fear that he wouldn't say anything to her about her love 
for him.
	Again he saw Tsunami, this time standing where Aeka was...and he knew if 
he turned to look at himself in the mirror again, he would see Cyraqs...again.
	"NO!"  The girls heard him scream in shear terror.  He tightened his hold 
on Ryouko, who by this time was in near shock at what she was seeing and 
feeling, and ran to Aeka.
	She was expecting many things, most of them from Ryouko, with a punitive 
plea from Tenchi to not fight in his room.  To be grabbed by Tenchi and hugged 
incredibly tightly, as he held Ryouko (which meant they were near pushed 
together), and to hear Tenchi whispering softly to them, "No, no, no, no, no, 
no, no." over and over again...was definitely nothing she would have even 
considered in her wildest imaginings.
	Even if she had, had such a leap of intuition that would have allowed her 
to conceive of such a notion she was too stunned to react, much less think.  
Suddenly he let them both go still shaking his head and mouthing the word 'no'.  
He took a step back and vanished.
	The too girls sat there too shocked to move, for a very long time 
afterwards.

<Black Sabath - Black Sabath>

	Tenchi found himself running outside somewhere.  He didn't know exactly 
where, only that he was somewhere in the forests surrounding the shrine.  He 
wasn't even paying attention to where he was going.  He was too busy struggling 
with some demon inside while he crashed through the shrubs and trees that barred 
the way of his mad flight.
	"No."  The word just would not stop issuing forth from him.  No, no, no, 
no, no...they're fighting again!  They're fighting because of me.  I'm no man!  
They're fighting because I cannot tell them...
	And he stopped dead in his tracks.
	Tell them what?
	That question repeated itself over and over in his head, replacing the 
previous panic that had consumed him.  He began to walk as he mulled over this 
new problem.
	What do I tell them?  Please don't fight?
	Those were not the words he felt were right.  Besides he had asked them to 
stop on more than one occasion, to which they had ignored him.  He could just 
encase them in some sort of energy construct until they agreed not to 
fight...but that would not solve the problem.  That being the reason they 
fought.
	Me.  I am the reason.
	He knew this...he had always known, but he had always felt so powerless to 
do anything about it, because, in his mind, it would entail something he would 
rather die than do.
	He would rather die than hurt them.  And if he ended it...he would have to 
hurt one or the other.  Maybe even both.
	Why did he care so much about them?  They had forced themselves into his 
life, screwed up his existence to the point he would never have a normal life, 
destroyed his house constantly, brought enemies the like of which he had only 
seen in anime...
	They had gone on a suicide run against Kagato, just because he killed 
Tenchi (well...very nearly).  They had been with him, when Kain had gone to the 
past to destroy his mother.  They had risked their lives for his...no, they're 
family time and again.
	Tenchi began to realize, despite all arguments and fights, that they would 
go to hell and back for him...and for each other.  These were not the actions of 
people who hated each other...but they were the actions of...
	That makes a perverted kind of sense! he thought.  Aeka and Ryouko's 
fighting seemed almost like the fights between two sisters competing for...his 
attentions.  Or to be more accurate that he didn't pay any more attention to one 
than the other.
	BUT I NEVER DO!  He raged.
	Could that be the problem?  He wondered, but quickly dismissed it.  Even 
if he paid more attention to them both, it wouldn't be what they wanted.
	What they wanted, he could not give them...because...because...
	They wanted him.  And he was just not ready to give either of them that, 
if ever.
	His mind flashed back a bit, to the point where he had been holding onto 
both for dear life.  So why did I do what I just did with them?
	Why?
	He ran right into an immovable object.  Or very close to it.  It was 
Cyraqs floating about five feet off the ground, sitting in sort of a Zen 
position, the air of meditation around him unmistakable.
	Cyraqs's eyes shot open, and he looked to Tenchi who was rubbing his nose 
after the impact.  "You know you should really watch where you are going.  Trust 
me, it's less painful."
	Tenchi ignored the condescending tone and just looked at his sensei, this 
small and powerful man, like he was trying to puzzle something out.
	Cyraqs heard him ask softly, "Why?"
	"Why what?"
	"I saw...you and Tsunami earlier.  Why?"
	Cyraqs blinked in confusion.  "You could try to specify what you mean a 
bit more." he said in almost perfect Washuu-vian fashion, "But I'm pretty sure 
for anything you have to say...I'd have already asked that myself a hundred 
million times."  Then his eyes narrowed in annoyance.  "And what's up with you 
eavesdropping on us...again?"
	"I was curious."
	"Curiosity killed the cat."
	"Lucky for me I'm not a cat."  Tenchi smirked for a moment before his 
previous mood returned.  "Why?"
	"You ask the question.  What do you mean in specific?"  Tenchi had no idea 
that Cyraqs was deliberately prodding him for his opinion, as he himself could 
neither figure out the answer, nor did he expect anyone who knew to volunteer 
the information.  Again, he seriously doubted that one of the few males here 
would know, especially this clueless one, but he was getting desperate for 
anything.  He wondered if Tenchi wouldn't just surprise him...the kid, as Cyraqs 
thought of him, had been able to do that regularly.
	"Tsunami loves you." He stated.
	"I know that."
	"You love her."
	"Yes.  This is not news to me Tenchi."  Cyraqs lowered his legs to the 
ground, and walked a few feet away from the young defender.  He turned and 
barely had time to duck out of the way of Tenchi's fist.  As it passed he 
reached out and caught his arm.  Fury began to work his way through him, but as 
he looked in his student's eyes he saw no fear or anger that might have caused 
this act.  He saw only disappointment.
	Cyraqs's rage died.
	"What the..?  Why the..?"  Tenchi sputtered out.  "What happened there?"
	"Well basically you tried to sucker punch a guy who can..."
	"NO!"  Tenchi yelled, pulling away from Cyraqs' grip roughly.  He took a 
step back, the look of disappointment changing to disgust.  "I mean...if you 
knew all that...why did you let her go?  Why didn't you just say it?"  His voice 
lost it's disbelief for a moment, and took on a softer tone.  "It's all she 
wanted."
	Cyraqs continued to look confused.  "She knows she's always been my 
friend, and at times more when needed.  She knows I love her."
	Occasionally even the rockiest of beings gain insight.  This insight felt 
like a twenty megaton ICBM going off inside of Tenchi.
He has no clue what I'm talking about!  Is this my fate?  To go on and on and on 
for thousands of years, never once making up my mind or facing what I fear?
	Actually he realized that is the only future he had seen.  A future of 
just going on and on and on like he always had.   First it was with life...he 
wanted to continue on as a normal Japanese man, living life as any normal man 
would.  Then life had thrown him a curve ball...he was not normal.  Had he 
accepted this?
	No, he tried to go on as nothing happened.  Every time something happened 
that forced him out of his life, he had tried to deny that it made him 
different, and then when he was done with it, he would try to go back to being 
what he was trying to be before.  All the while ignoring the changes that were 
taking place...whether he wanted them or not.
	But I didn't want any of it!  He screamed to the silence he knew would 
never answer.  I don't want to be powerful!  I don't want all these adventures!  
I don't want to protect the universe!   I don't want whatever it is to happen!  
I don't want...them?  His heart froze when he even considered that.
	"So this is my fate? To go on and on like this...Just like Cyraqs and 
Tsunami?  For all eternity, never once facing what is clearly in front of me?  
Never once doing what is needed to be done in my life?"  Tenchi, as he looked 
inward, was unaware he had said the last out loud, otherwise he might have 
noticed the look on Cyraqs' face getting more and more puzzled.
	"What's going on, Tenchi?"
	"Am I a man my mother would be proud of?"  NO! screamed his inner voice in 
response.  "I am no man!  I'm a coward!  A selfish coward that can't even tell 
his own family that he's not ready for what they offer!"
	The kid is losing it.
	In fact he was losing it.  Tenchi was getting more and more hysterical by 
the second.  Cyraqs had seen this happen in all the students, both his and 
others.  It was quite natural...he himself had never gone through it, but he had 
been near insane anyway during his training.
	Honestly he had been expecting something similar to what was happening, 
but there seemed to be a whole hell of a lot more than just the usual "I'm 
losing myself in what I'm becoming!" routine.
	Something has scared him, Cyraqs realized.  Bad.  "Tenchi I..."
	The tears had started their torturous trek out of Tenchi's eyes, and 
turned to face Cyraqs again, as he had been pacing back and forth, his own hands 
clenched at his sides so, in fists so tight his knuckles were loosing their 
color.  "Why?"
	"Tenchi I..." he tried again.
	"She loves you so much.  I've seen it in you too.  You love her so much.  
Can't you just..."
	Cyraqs shook his head in confusion and disbelief.  "Tenchi, you sound like 
you're telling me that Tsunami has love for me like she would 
a...a...ayayayaya..."  His eyes widened, and for the first time in around 23,000 
years he felt the blood rush from his head, and the dizziness of a faint nearly 
over take him.  "No."  He stepped back and tripped on a branch, causing him to 
lose balance and land hard on his back.  "No."  He said again.  But even as he 
said it, he could hear that part of his head that was yelling at him before 
screaming loud and clear, "YES!"
	That shocked Tenchi out of his funk.  "Sensei?"
	"She...she can't love me.  Not like that."  He was suddenly back on his 
feet a wild look around his eyes.  Panic would be a more appropriate word for 
it.  "NO WAY!"  But it is the only...valid explanation for her behavior isn't 
it?  That part of himself that he couldn't hear before, he had finally been 
shocked into listening to, and now it just wouldn't shut up!  He suddenly 
grabbed Tenchi on the shoulders and looked into his eyes.  Tenchi could easily 
see the fear reflected there...even behind the sunglasses.  "Tenchi you got to 
help me find her!  I've got to talk some sense into her!  I mean sure, we've 
been with each other before...but that was just something we both needed!  I 
mean just because we've been around each other, would do anything to help each 
other, would go to hell and back for each other, would do absolutely anything to 
keep the other safe...even to the point where she put me...inside of 
herself...where...we...she..." He remembered her light.  It was the only thing 
he felt good in his madness...it had calmed and quieted the voices; it had 
healed the wound inside him.  It had touched him in the most intimate way 
possible.  She had held his soul...she knew EVERYTHING about him.  Not his 
memories exactly, more the very base self that is left when she striped away the 
body and mind leaving only that which he truly was.  Which was the part of him 
that was damaged by what he had done protect what he held dear.  Perhaps he 
could have known the same about her, had he not been a raving lunatic at the 
time.
	One thing he had never figured out...was the strangely warm feeling he had 
experienced emanating from her as she gently held him inside of herself.
	Yep...even then! He heard that part of himself say as he worked through 
it.
	For how long?  Other memories began to play out.  Just little looks she 
gave him over the eons. The little caresses.  What he felt from her when they 
were...fulfilling needs within each other, it was more than that.  A lot more.
	"She can't love me.  I can't let her get killed because of me...I love her 
too much to..."  He stopped himself when he realized what he just said.
	"We just can't do shit right can we?"  Tenchi quipped wryly and without 
humor or response forthcoming from Cyraqs.  "Sensei?"  Still no response, so 
Tenchi shook him gently.  "Sensei?"
	"Hmm?"
	"You alright?"
	Cyraqs looked at him, his face totally expressionless. "No Tenchi I'm not.  
You?"
	"Not a bit.  What else is coming?"
	"Something big."  Was Cyraqs' only answer, and the only one Tenchi felt he 
was going to receive now.  The only thing it did was confirm what he already 
knew.	 "This is a big mess.  You going to need help?"  Cyraqs asked him.
	"Yeah...I think I am.  Aeka and Ryouko, I'll do myself.  Umm...does 
Mihoshi..?"
	"Yes."
	"Yeah...I thought so.  Washuu I'm not too sure about either, but I..?"
	"I think I had better help you two with Washuu."  A voice stated.  The 
owner of the voice stepped out from behind the trees moments later.  "There are 
some things I think I should be the one to discuss with our erstwhile red haired 
child scientist."  Yoshou stated.
	"I've got to find Tsunami."  It was only a statement of fact, not an 
excuse that he wouldn't help.
	"I know.  Let us all part our ways and do what needs done."
	The two cosmic beings nodded their head in acceptance, and made mental 
preparations for what was to come.

<Book Of Days - Enya>

	Aeka reached for another cookie, while she waited pensively on the sofa.  
She brought it to her mouth and nibbled on it; not even tasting it's wholesome 
goodness as the chewy morsels slid down her throat.  She barely made a glance at 
her companion beside her, she herself chewing on her nails lost in her own 
little universe.  Both mulling over the events that caused this change in 
behavior, when before they would be either arguing or fighting for one reason or 
another.
	Ryouko spared a glance of her own at Aeka.  The two eyes met, golden cat 
like eyes to deep crimson, both could hardly look at the other for any length of 
time before they had to turn away.  Something they had done had scared the life 
out of Tenchi, at least that is what they both thought.  They had felt the 
effects of that fear, but neither knew how to deal with it.
	Somehow or another they had found themselves sitting here on the couch, 
after what seemed an eternity of sitting on the floor of Tenchi's room just not 
able to comprehend what just happened, why he did what he did.
	Sasami herself was worried out of her mind, and frantically paced back and 
forth in her and Aeka's room.  Tsunami, Tenchi, Cyraqs, Aeka, Ryouko, and even 
the others to a limited degree...something big was happening here.  And here she 
was powerless to do anything to either help or hinder.  Aeka and Ryouko hadn't 
even shown up for dinner, only herself, Mihoshi, and Washuu had made an 
appearance.  Washuu barely picked at her food however, just as Sasami had.
	Mihoshi still ate like there was no tomorrow, though even she felt the 
tension in the air, judging by the reduced speed of her eating and the 
occasional glances around her.
	After dinner Washuu had vanished into her lab without so much as a word to 
anyone, and Mihoshi had just vanished leaving her to clean up the remains of 
dinner.  Both Drakhenn and Ryo-ohki had helped her when they saw no one else in 
any real shape to do so.
	Drakhenn had complimented on her on her courage as he, in his taller more 
imposing form, had helped her with getting the dishes to the tops of the 
cabinets she could not yet reach.  When she asked what he meant, he had replied 
in that wordless way of his that though the people all around her...even the 
most powerful were falling apart at the seams, she struggled hard to help them 
keep it together in every way she could...even if it was just as simple as her 
making dinner and willing to clean up by herself afterwards.
	She had never considered herself 'brave' per se.  She only saw what needed 
to be done, and did it.
	Drakhenn then had asked her knowingly what did she think bravery was, as 
he put up another dish that Ryo-ohki had finished drying.
	To this she had no answer...but even realistically speaking, even if she 
was brave, simply being brave did not help matters.  Her oldest and dearest 
companion Tsunami was still very much depressed, even after she had tried her 
damnedest to cheer the goddess.  Her sister and Ryouko hadn't even acknowledged 
her as they walked down stairs from Tenchi's room and sat down mechanically on 
the couch.  Those haunted looks, scared the poor girl, but even so she tried to 
talk to them, even set out a plate of their favorite cookies to at least get 
some kind of reaction from them.  All in vain.  Ryo-ohki shared some of the 
feelings that Ryouko was experiencing, and miya'ed pitifully every now and then, 
as she knew she was also powerless to do anything about this new situation.
	Drakhenn had been watching her pace back and forth nervously for the last 
half-hour...every moment growing more and more frustrated with her inability to 
change things.  Until he finally had enough.
	He resumed his humanoid form, reached out with his scaly hand and stopped 
her as easily as one may stop a baby.
	"WHAT?!"
	He turned the smaller form around to look her in the eyes.  His size had 
long since lost it daunting effect it had.  And he no longer looked as some kind 
of demon from hell in her mind.  Strange that a simple change in perception 
could also change the way some one looked.  His face had the look on it that she 
had come to understand as concern.
	"I can't DO anything about this!  I feel so helpless!"
	He bent his massive frame down to her level to stare into the pools of 
pink that were her eyes.
	"I wish I could do something more.  I don't feel like I've done all that I 
can."
	He grinned in his way, and ruffled her hair.  Then mentally berated 
himself.  He had treated her like a child...something he knew to be somewhat 
inaccurate when he considered what he knew about this child.
	She flashed a grin when she saw him wince after what he had done.  She 
did, however, concede he had a point.  "I suppose you're right about them 
needing to work it out themselves.  I still feel like I should do something."
	Actually...Drakhenn said to himself, if you were to think about it really 
really hard...you would be one of the ones with issues to work through.  Then he 
started getting a headache when he considered all the ways that one could look 
at this particular situation.
	He looked at Ryo-ohki, who had assumed a form of a girl some 12 years old.  
"Yeah...confusing." She agreed.
	Katsuhito's head peaked into the room for a moment and looked in on them.  
Satisfied all was well, he left as quickly as he had come.

	Tenchi, Katsuhito, and Cyraqs emerged soundlessly from the space in-
between dimensions into the living room of the Misaki home.  There they saw the 
two girls on the couch who, once they saw who it was, became animated and aware 
for the first time since Tenchi had first left them.
	The three men looked at each other momentarily in some silent form of 
communication.  Nodding once, Cyraqs looked at the girls, then tsked for some 
reason, and disappeared.  Katsuhito walked up the stairs. Tenchi alone remained.
	His eyes met those of Aeka and Ryouko, and held them to his for a time.  
They weren't even aware when Katsuhito walked down the stairs, and walked to the 
door of the former store room, that was now the entrance to a pocket dimension 
that housed what could arguably be considered the most advanced laboratory in 
existence.  He looked back at the three once then quickly entered the lab.

<I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston>

	"Tenchi...sama..." Aeka began.
	"Tenchi..." Ryouko joined a fraction of a second later.
	What could they discern from him?
Nothing...they couldn't read his expression, which was the oddest one they had 
ever seen from anyone.  Almost as if he were seeing them, for the very first 
time.
	And what could he see?  He could see they were afraid...not of him, for 
him.  He could see so many things now, the way their energies flowed off of 
them, the way they reacted for certain moods.  He could taste the flavors of 
each and every emotion, smell the scent of every thought.  There were so many 
other ways to experience what they were, ways that had no name, but so infinite 
in their number.  In a way, it was the first time he had ever seen them.  The 
first time he had ever stopped to study them in any way...this way being so 
different than he ever could before.  There was something he could feel he was 
still blind about, but he knew how to make himself see.
	So he looked with what was inside, and felt what was missing.
	He was nearly blown over by the depth of their love for him.
	How could anyone love me so much?  He asked himself.  The vision of his 
mother danced before him...he could almost hear her rebuttal.
	I love you that much. he heard her say.  Have you forgotten what it was 
like?  That feeling inside, that you have noticed...that you thought was so 
different...can you not tell what it is?
	He felt her anger, and he could feel her sorrow that pounded him with such 
force as to cause him to cringe in it's presence.  The image smiled at him 
sadly, reaching out, he could almost feel her touch, like he had so long 
ago...filling him with...with...
	That very same feeling he had inside of him now.  And for the first time 
he knew both what it was...and where it came from.
	These two girls in particular, and even the others to a certain extent, 
were the source.  But with these two remarkable girls, WOMEN he mentally 
corrected himself, made him feel the most.  They connected him to the life he 
long ago thought he would never feel again when his mother died, and to the love 
he never thought he'd feel again.
	Aeka and Ryouko never saw him move, and were quite surprised when they 
wound up in his arms again.
	"I am so sorry." He sobbed quietly.  "I should never have let this go as 
far as it has."
	The depth of the despair they felt from him echoed deep inside of them, 
and triggered their own love and concern for him.  Instinctively they both 
reached around and grasped him in a furious embrace; never once giving thought 
to the fact the other girl was doing the same thing.  Tenchi needed them, both 
of them.
	This fight was over.
	"Tenchi..." they said at the same time, with the same caring and love.  
Whatever happened next, would happen, but both sensed that he had finally found 
the solution to everything.
	The two women looked to each other, then to the man holding them softly as 
they in turn cradled him, and then back to each other.  The realization of what 
was about to happen, and the agreement to let it happen...communicated itself 
perfectly between them.
	After a time he pulled back, a wry smile on his tear streaked face, and 
faced them again.  They sat silently, as they awaited the decision he had come 
to.
	"I don't know what the future is going to hold.  I don't know what is 
coming." he began.  "Something big is about to happen...something I feel we'll 
all need to be at our best for."  He reached out and rubbed the tears they had 
not even known they were shedding.  "Before I couldn't make a decision because I 
didn't want to hurt either of you.  Now I know why I didn't want to hurt you."  
He drew in a big breath, while the two girls waited in giddy anticipation for 
his next words.  "I love you Ryouko.  I love you Aeka.  Don't ever think again 
that I don't."  They would jumped into his arms in joy, had not his powerful 
hands restrained them.  "There is more.  That part before about something 
coming...I can't deal with this now.  I have to prepare...so when it comes upon 
us I'm ready, and we'll have future where I CAN deal with this and can make 
decisions about it.  Can you both understand?"
	Ryouko was not restrained this time, and grabbed him with a delighted 
squeal of joy.  This was something she had been waiting all her life to hear.  
He had told her something she would have given all of eternity to hear.  "Oh 
Tenchi...I love you too!"  That he had asked for time before they would go any 
further than this was irrelevant.  The time would come, he had promised that.  
She had learned to be very patient.  "I'll give you as much time as you need."
	Again he didn't push her away and thrilled with the way his strength 
wrapped itself around her so tenderly.  Before she had been careful of hurting 
him.  Now the roles seemed to be reversed, and for some reason the difference 
made her giddy as someone who had just received her hearts desire, which is what 
she was.
	Aeka had been only a fraction of a second behind Ryouko.  Though she too 
was overjoyed by Tenchi's admission, she had noticed his hesitation.  She had 
fought with Ryouko, at first because she had truly despised her.  Then as 
understanding grew that Ryouko was not the evil one Aeka originally thought, it 
became more of a struggle over the attentions of Tenchi.  Now he had admitted to 
loving them both, but she could sense the hesitation.  He still believed he 
could only have one of them in the end.
	A plan began to form in her mind.  If what he said was true, it would have 
to wait until later for completion, but she was certain it would be able to 
work...if he wasn't lying about loving them both.  Her only worry was; how would 
Ryouko handle it?
	Shut up for now and just enjoy it, a part of her said.  So she took her 
own advice, shut up, and enjoyed being held by the man she loved.
	Ryouko suddenly glanced at her, a question in her eyes.  A question Aeka 
found she understood, and nodded her acceptance, while at the same time seeming 
to pass something on to Ryouko who acceded to her demand.  It seemed Ryouko may 
be more responsive to Aeka's idea than she originally thought.
	Aeka slowly disengaged herself from the three-way embrace and let Ryouko 
hold onto Tenchi by herself.  "Tenchi...you owe me something, for making me wait 
this long." she told him before he could ask what was up.
	"Owe...you...something?" He asked haltingly, in that oh so shy way of his.
	"Mmm hmm." she breathed huskily in his ear.  She pulled away slightly, 
though still in his arms, looked at him archly, then kissed him full on the 
lips.  A deep probing kiss that took him a moment to respond to when he felt her 
tongue slide into his startled mouth.  But respond he did.
	For his first real kiss he had had many fantasies of, but the reality of 
this...incredibly pleasant feeling was more than he could have ever imagined.  
She was primal, fierce, like a tigress hungrily devouring the only thing that 
would assuage her hunger.  It touched something he never knew he had inside, and 
before he knew it, he was responding in kind.
	All too soon it ended...though it had to have been at least 15 minutes 
long.  It was good, he noted that he no longer needed to breathe.
	"My turn."  Aeka said simply.  His eyes widened.  "Oh, come now Tenchi-
sama.  You didn't think that I would let Ryouko get something like that without 
experiencing it for myself did you?"
	"Umm...well..."
	She smiled at his fumbling.  He was still Tenchi...no matter how much he 
may mature.  "Now Tenchi..."  Ryouko had pulled away already, and watched with 
amusement at the proceedings.  She drew very close, in a quiet dignity coupled 
with a strange desire of her own.  The effect was different, but the end result 
was just as exciting as Ryouko's wild nature.
	Her touch was gentler as she pulled him close to herself.  And her kiss 
was not the near biting, and sucking of Ryouko, but the quiet demure that asked 
and demanded very gently as their lips and tongues met.  Unlike Ryouko though, 
Aeka needed air, so it was an even shorter time later that she was forced to 
brake the kiss before she lost consciousness.
	"You alright?" He asked as she wobbled on him unsteadily.
	"I'm better than fine Ten-chan."
	Ryouko flew up behind them and leaned on Tenchi's other shoulder in 
midair.  "Well now, I think that about wraps things up."
	"Quite."  Aeka agreed.  She leaned close and whispered in Tenchi's ear, 
"And you will get all the time you need, but remember we don't have eternity."  
There was an implied threat in those words, but for what he had no idea because 
it certainly didn't give him the impression of a threat of leaving.  It was 
something...else.
	"Oh I'm so MOVED!  I'm so moved!  That was so...so..."  All of them 
jumped, and turned quickly towards the kitchen.  There was Mihoshi crying a 
fountain and clutching the front of her shirt.  She quickly rushed the three and 
crushed them in a hug worthy of Misaki.  "Oh you guys that was so beautiful!  
I'm just glad to be part of your family!"
	Ryouko ceased her efforts to get away.  "I thought you wanted Tenchi 
yourself?"
	"Oh I can't now!  He loves you two!  I can't break ups something so 
perfect as that!"  She cried between tears.  They suffered through it for 
awhile...until they felt another smaller set of arms hugging them as well.
	"I've wanted this for so long!  Now you guys wont' fight over Tenchi cause 
he loves you both and you can all be friends and we can all be a family!"
	They all looked down at Sasami's surprisingly diminutive form.  Surely 
that much caring and love could not be contained by one of such a small stature, 
Ryouko thought for about the millionth time.  She tried her best in the mass of 
arms to hug Sasami back.  "Well I don't know about that kiddo."  She glanced at 
Aeka, who's happiness mirrored her own.  "After all, there are lots more things 
to fight about than Tenchi."  She winked at Aeka, who caught the joke, giggled 
back.
	Mihoshi stepped back suddenly, her hands raised to her mouth in concern.  
"Oh my!  Poor Tenchi!"
	"Ehh?"  They said together...then looked down to where the poor cosmic 
being in question had been crushed in-between Aeka and Ryouko's breasts.  They 
stepped back quickly when they realized he had lost consciousness, and he 
predictably hit the floor, making a dull thudding sound.
	Aeka considered his downed form critically.  "We absolutely must do 
something about that."
	They could only nod their agreement.

<Unicron's Theme - Vince de Cola>

	"I'm disappointed."
	"Hmm?  How so?"
	Cyraqs sighed and typed a few more keys on the holoboard, almost striking 
them, as if this inanimate object were capable of feeling his blows as if they 
were that which was responsible for his present anger.  "I thought better of 
Washuu than this."  He replied sourly as the scene of Ryouko hung nude and 
screaming for her mother rang out from the screen before them.  "How long?"  A 
few more taps and the tape fast forwarded to the part where Ryouko, worn from 
crying and yelling in fear, finally fainted in mental and physical exhaustion.  
"Time: 0534 hours.  9 hours old friend.  9 hours."  He stated as the videotape 
showed itself being set down.  The camera set in such a way as to show Washuu 
herself tapping a few keys and releasing her daughters limp, unresponsive form.  
The recording thankfully ended there.  "Is this what you wished to show me?"
	"Yes.  Ryouko told only me."  The memory of Ryouko sobbing against him.  
His disappointment in his grandson that he would never have been able to do 
this, bitterly reminded him of why he had showed his former master this 
recording  "She asked me to do nothing, and tell no one there at the time for 
some reason I could not fathom."
	Cyraqs bared his fangs, but no smile was this.  "So I get nominated as the 
local loophole huh?"  For a moment his eyes glowed bright crimson behind his 
sunglasses before receding to a dull blood red.  "Kagato used to do this to her 
to strengthen her.  As he hurt her, she evolved to overcome...adapt.  Become his 
perfect weapon...his mastery of those gems ensured that she would never grow 
beyond his control.  I've seen these images in her mind, Katsuhito."  Yoshou 
barely maintained his stoic composure as the unreadable mask shattered 
momentarily on Cyraqs' face, to be replaced by the fury of the insanity he 
struggled to maintain his hold of.  It fortunately passed very quickly and he 
returned to his normal unreadable state.  "I think perhaps a talk is in order 
with my mother.  You expressed a desire to do it...yet your word prevents you 
from interfering directly."
	"Wasn't it you who said that a promise when it threatens your family is no 
promise to be made?"
	Cyraqs chuckled.  "I.E. you needed back up, and here I am to give it to 
you."  Yoshou nodded wryly.  "Always fight when you have the greatest 
advantage...at least you learned that.  I'll be watching."  With that, he faded 
soundlessly from this reality layer, yet maintained himself just a hair away 
from ours...in a way existing both simultaneously and, at the same time, between 
the dimensions.  Washuu's scanners wouldn't detect him, unless they were looking 
right at him...and he moved just a hair too fast for them to pick him up with 
any reasonable degree of accuracy.
	Yoshou grinned in anticipation of the up the upcoming ruckus he was about 
to make.  Part of this particular plan now required that he gain Washuu's 
attention.  While rather irked at her at present time, he was not one for 
blatant destruction.  Besides...there were much easier ways of achieving his 
goal. He reached down and tapped a key on the holoboard.	

<Enter the Ultimate - The Imortals (First part only)>

	The alarms that began to blare and lights that began to flash in various 
colors almost reminded him of a disco bar he had once had the unfortunate 
pleasure of visiting.  He was also acutely aware of various devices of uses he 
could only speculate on, began to train on his position.  Briefly he wondered if 
he should have brought Mihoshi...but then he figured the alarm probably wouldn't 
have gone off.
	Besides...Cyraqs is there.  I should be safe, he figured.  A particularly 
nasty looking globe with teeth and claws grew very close.  A few sweat beads 
appeared on his forehead.
	He hoped Cyraqs was enough back up.
	He sighed imperceptibly in relief when the resident scientist herself ran 
up to his position dismissing her creations as she passed.
	"Ah!  It's you Katsuhito.  You need to be more careful...I've recently 
been modifying my security systems in another attempt to keep out Mihoshi...damn 
girl STILL gets in here and breaks things...do you..."  She abruptly stopped 
when she saw what was playing on the holoboard behind him.
	Because the key he had pressed...had been the equivalent of 'Replay'
	"Nice video.  Great cinematography I must say.  I like this part 
especially."  He gestured glamorously with both arms at the scene of Ryouko 
crying for her mother.  "Bravo!  Bravo!" He added a few false claps to punctuate 
the remark.  Few could sound so sincere, and yet so sarcastic at the same time.  
Katsuhito pulled it off masterfully.
	"How did you...Never mind."  Washuu pursed her lips thoughtfully for a 
fraction of a second before coming to some kind of decision.  "Alright.  
Obviously you have something to say about this.  So please let's get this over 
with.  I just got a mind blast of pure happiness from Ryouko, and need to take 
some more readings on it."
	The implications of what she just said he barely managed to quell in his 
mind...well not entirely.  He just walled his emotions off from the rest of 
himself, otherwise rage may overwhelm him and that would be very bad tactically 
speaking at this juncture.
	Still, it was a very angering subject.  "So is Ryouko simply a research 
subject for you?  Something that is to be used as a tool and nothing more?"
	"There is a lot more to Ryouko than you may realize...there is a lot more 
to Ryouko than even I know."  She explained, as one might explain a subject to a 
child.
	This was hardly lost on Yoshou.  Perhaps it was time she learned that we 
are not all children.  Yes...it is time to get serious...as if it wasn't serious 
enough, he thought wryly.
	One mental command and a slight shimmering effect surrounding him 
later...and his age was shed.  His eyes, however, showed the experience of 
someone who was a lot more hardened than this physical age he now projected.
	"Heh...interesting." Washuu noted.  "I don't suppose Aeka knows does she."
	As her statement was just that, a statement instead of question, he 
decided not to confirm what she seemed to already have guessed.  But an 
explanation was something he knew she would need.  "She will remain in the dark 
about this until a very specific time."  She nodded as he stated this too.  It 
was the answer he felt she had expected from him.  Well, it was the truth, and 
it cost him nothing to tell her.  Hopefully.  In any case it was not what he was 
here to discuss.  "Your explanation makes sense...your treatment of your 
daughter does not."
	"And what about it does not make sense?  She is my daughter is she not?"
	His eyes narrowed momentarily in rage.  NO! he rebuked himself silently.  
I cannot get angry now.  Within milliseconds his face unclenched...so fast that 
anyone not watching closely would have missed it.  Which in this situation was 
not the case.  She knew she had just touched a sore spot with him.
	Her analytical mind took note and analyzed the information, filing it away 
for further use in her studies of this household.  This place was a veritable 
gold mine of interesting subjects to study...and this one in particular could be 
the most interesting of all.
	If only she could maintain her objectivity, seeing as how it concerned her 
very personally and deeply.
	"What doesn't make sense is holding Ryouko for hours while she cried on my 
shoulder that her own mother had just locked her up and hurt her despite her own 
fears...just like Kagato."
	"I am nothing like Kagato." she growled low.  So much for the objective 
view point.
	"You've been treating your daughter as nothing more than something to be 
used.  You've hurt and humiliated her numerous times."  He gestured to the 
video.  "I'm pretty sure she would even forgive this, chalking it up as one of 
your oddities maybe or whatever else her mind would conjure up to explain why 
her mother would do that to her."  This time he couldn't keep the rebuttal out 
of his voice, nor could he keep his face straight as he continued his discussion 
with the child like...bullshit!  He cut off that line of thought fiercely.  She 
is a grown woman that hides from everything in that young body.  "But I wonder 
how it must feel to her, that her own mother...the one that is supposed to love 
her, seems dead set on taking the one she has chosen as her mate right from 
before her eyes?  One of the first real things she has ever had...and probably 
the last thing too.  I wonder how much that must torture her at night...I 
suppose you would know, if you bothered to look."  Washuu had grown steadily 
angrier, and angrier throughout...until her face had become a mask of pure rage.
	Absently his hand strayed down to the ready on the hilt of the Tenchi-ken.  
It was his sword again, after Tenchi had demonstrated to him that he truly no 
longer needed such a crutch...as that is what it had become to him.  It was the 
most powerful of the Juraian energy swords...fashioned by the hand of Tsunami 
herself.  Though he suspected a certain cosmic being had been giving her a few 
ideas on the sword's construction, considering some of the...other attributes 
that were demonstrated for him by the goddess in question. They for some reason 
didn't seem to match her personality (like the spontaneous nuclear detonations, 
or the changeable blade size from normal to HUGE the Yoshou could pull off with 
it...).
	Even so, he seriously doubted it would be enough to protect him from 
Washuu, if she so desired to cause him harm.  But then again that wasn't the 
backup he had come with.  Still for some reason it made him feel somewhat better 
that his sword was in his reach in this potentially life-threatening situation.  
He just hoped his 'backup' was fast enough to prevent anything like that from 
happening to him.  Considering the probable maliciousness of some of these 
devices, he really did not like his odds all alone here.
	Then her fury died to be replaced by her normal...and slightly superior 
attitude "I don't expect you to understand."  Translation, your measly intellect 
could not possibly comprehend what I'm doing.
	"Well then...how about me?"  A disembodied, and totally emotionless deep 
voice sang out.
	Cyraqs stepped out from nothing, as his tone suggested there was no 
feeling in that face, but his eyes betrayed his true emotional state.
	They glowed a bright red.
	"Do you think...that I could not possibly understand?  Because all I can 
see here is exactly what Yoshou was pointing out.  Just because he is young, 
does not mean he is any less..."
	"DON'T YOU DARE PREACH ETHICS TO ME LIKE YOUR FATHER USED TO DO...."
	Yoshou heard the words of the child scientist, noting with satisfaction 
that her face became an ashen color as the ramifications of what she had said 
settled in.
	"Thank you for trying old friend...but you better leave.  This is family 
business now."  Cyraqs said quietly.
	Yoshou nodded.  "I understand.  May the Goddess," Actually that statement 
would have been meaningless considering what this man was to the Goddess in 
question "...well she'll always guard you." he settled on.  Yoshou quietly 
skirted past his shorter companion, and made a direct beeline for the door, 
noting before he left that they hadn't once glanced at any other person except 
themselves.

<Vera - Pink Floyd>

	A slight click of the door as it closed heralded Yoshou's departure from 
Washuu's dimension, leaving only mother and son to face each other.  For 
better...or worse.
	"That's the first time I've heard you mention father." he said, leaning 
against one of her terminals with his arms crossed before him.  "At least let me 
see you as you really are."
	Washuu glanced away.  There was no transition, no flash of light or any 
fanfare; Washuu was simply her taller, maturer form.
	He stood straight and walked toward her, taking his glasses off as he did 
so.  He stopped just before her and looked up, not for the first time since he 
had found out about his true heritage some 23,000 years ago wondering how the 
hell he got so short with two tall parents.
	Then again, he thought wryly, my brother got all the height in my family.
	"You never listened then.  You must not have loved him as much as he did 
you."
	Her hand flew as soon as the words left his mouth.  His face never budged 
as her open-handed slap made contact.
	When one slaps someone the usual effect is to see that person's face give 
back, even if only fractionally.  If one doesn't give than the one who did the 
slapping had better not leave his or her wrist limp.  Otherwise that person 
winds up doing very painful stretching of the ligaments in the wrist.
	Washuu never felt the pain over the anger she now held toward her son.
	"I LOVED your father more than life itself!  How DARE you question that!"
	For his answer he levitated himself a couple of feet to look her in the 
eyes and said, "Then why the fuck are you pulling shit like this?"
	"What the hell does that have to do with this?"  Washuu asked, glaring.
	He pulled a cigarette out of nothing, and flicked it with his finger, 
lighting it.  A slight grimace and a random thought later, the device that would 
have shot it out of his hand was destroyed.  "You know how he would have looked 
upon this.  You must not love what he was to you enough to prevent you from 
doing that." He replied, taking a long slow drag off the burning stick after he 
finished.
	Washuu wrinkled her face in disgust as the smoke wafted lazily past her, 
but was not daunted by his obvious attempt to annoy her.  Either by the smoke or 
by the fact he just disabled one of her security devices.  "You have no right to 
judge what I..."
	"I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO PROTECT MY FAMILY!  EVEN IT IS FROM THEMSELVES!  
WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO THIS?"  His eyes began to reflect the abyss of 
eternity, and seemed to be absorbing reality around them, as the stars and space 
began to roll like some sort of ethereal fog around his eyes.
	Taken aback by the force of his outburst she could barely respond. "Do you 
have any idea what I've gone through since..?"
	"What you have gone through is nothing compared to what we have gone 
through."  And with that he sent his stick of burning chemicals away, and drew 
very close to Washuu.

<Veteran of the Psychic Wars - Blue Oyster Cult>

	He looks so old, she thought as she couldn't help but stare into those 
strange eyes of his and see what was on the other side.
	"You haven't even asked about father since I got here."  He began quietly.  
"Not a question, not murmur, not a peep." He went to take a drag off his 
cigarette, but found he had already did away with it.  Another appeared in his 
fingers already lit, and he took a puff. "Well now you're going to hear it 
whether you want to or not."  Washuu tried to turn from him, but found...she 
could hardly move.  Cyraqs' lips creased up in a smirk as he took another hit 
off the stick of chemicals.  "I told you...whether you want to or not."
	She tried to access any device she could in any of her countless 
dimensions...but found she was barred from that too.  For a fraction of a 
second, she felt great pride that her son was good enough to be able to stop the 
number one genius scientist of the universe in anything.  His not so nice grin 
deepened when she tried, only confirming that he was the reason her machines 
were unresponsive.
	"When he left you, that man had a good piece of his spirit die on him.  
You were everything to him.  He got up in the morning, just cause you existed.  
When you smiled, it was like pure sunshine inside, and when you cried there was 
nothing else worse.  He loved you in a way that is only spoken of in fairy 
tales."  He took another puff before he continued.  "I had to know you see.  I 
had to know why he took me away from you.  I had to know why he was doing what 
he was.  And the way he described you...dear god...he could never put you out of 
his mind for very long.  He did everything for you.  He left to save you...and 
me.  And when he did he made a vow...that he would find a way that one day in 
the future it will never happen again.  Right beside the vow he made to kill 
everyone of those pricks that had the gall to make him hurt you."  He looked 
away for a moment and muttered to himself. "And that's when it all hit the fan."  
Then he looked back a strange sadness in his eyes.  "You couldn't possibly know 
what we've gone through.  My father watched his second wife flash fried by the 
emperor because she carried a trait he didn't want to see propagated too far 
into the empire...she was an empath.  She could feel what others felt...not a 
very good thing when one is a member of a race of warriors."  His voice grew 
quiet. "The woman who kept his sanity intact through those early years...gone 
just like that.  I had been thought killed some two or three centuries earlier, 
but no, I suffered the fate that my father saved you and me from.  My own wife 
and child were killed...but oh they did not like what happened next, oh no they 
didn't." He said with a near insane chuckle, "They all died as my power came 
alive in me...but not only that, I found out who did it and sealed them up in 
their stupid little star system.  I personally killed every man, woman, and 
child in that family with my bare hands.  Wanna hear about it?"  Washuu's head 
nodded imperceptibly negative.  "Yeah...not many could bear to listen to 
something like that.  I knew them all before I killed them...heh over a billion 
souls...a billion thoughts and dreams in me, and I snuffed them out as easily as 
one might extinguish a match.  Oh and after...heh after that I found out that I 
couldn't die for some reason, no matter what I did.  So I buried my pain in 
drugs and alcohol...at least until my associates found me...I was very good at 
hiding they said.  Took them about 150 years...heh."  The insane look in his 
eyes was getting worse, and Washuu began to feel afraid for her very survival.  
"Yeah...should have seen him when I finally reappeared, he had nearly died of 
heartbreak.  My brother's family was nearly wiped out too...and there was 
nothing father could do then either.  He was away on some diplomatic," he nearly 
spat the word, "mission.  He could do nothing as my brother's first son was 
killed, and his wife blown to pieces in the next instant, nearly killing my 
brother right then."  Cyraqs threw his cigarette to the floor and pushed his 
face to near touching that of Washuu.  "And that's just for starters.  You ought 
to see him now.  The Years have nearly destroyed him...he's going to die soon 
because everything he's done has finally killed what is left of his soul...and 
the biggest reason of all was...he had to hurt you."
	He then bent over and whispered in his ear.  "And if you think that's 
bad...here's just a taste of what I myself have had to do over the years."  As 
soon as he completed those words, he reached into Washuu's mind, and opened a 
barrier that he had place within her a very long time ago.
	There was no scream of pain as the memories flooded her mind, only a 
stricken look on her face as each one casually floated by.  Tears began to form 
in her eyes, a single one breaking free to trace it's way down her left cheek.  
"You sealed it away.  I knew and you took it away."
	"Yeah...I did." he replied, not able to keep all the pain out of his 
voice.  "You see...now it no longer matters.  Now it is almost done.  Then...it 
would have gotten you killed.  Or put you in danger...or put my father in 
danger."  He had this most disbelieving look on his face, he couldn't believe 
that this was the same woman he knew at the academy.  "Where did that woman that 
I knew at the academy go?"
	"I...I..."
	"DAMNIT MOM WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!  YOU ONLY GET SEALED UP FOR 5,000 
YEARS!  RYOUKO WAS A SLAVE FOR MOST OF HER LIFE!  I'M A FUCKING INSANE MASS 
MURDERER AND DAD IS ALMOST DEAD BECAUSE OF WHAT HE HAS DONE!"
	There are limits to everything...Washuu had finally been driven beyond 
hers.  Her legs gave out from under her, and it was only by the cosmic being's 
hyperfast reflexes that she didn't fall to the floor.  There he held her as she 
sobbed and screamed uncontrollably.  She tried to tell him to leave her...he 
would not.  She tried to push him away...he held on tighter until she finally 
gave up.
	"I'm the one supposed to be insane here, not you.  Oh God, I failed...dad 
failed..."
	"You didn't fail." Washuu said between sobs, "I have.  I'm shit...I'm 
nothing.  Worse than Kagato."
	"If I believed that I would have killed you when I first saw you."  He 
tightened his embrace, drawing her as close to himself as he could manage.  
"We'll get through this...somehow."
	"I was pushing you away...all of you.  No one that I loved was going to 
hurt me anymore.  How could you still?  After all this how could you?"
	His reply sounded vaguely offended.  "Jeez mom, I may be short but don't 
sell me up short."  She couldn't help but give him a small laugh.  "It's real 
simple if you must know.  I don't give up on what I love until I'm dead."
	And sometimes, he thought, as he remembered some of his life, not even 
then.

	"Mom's going to be O.K. now."  Ryouko said suddenly.
	"Hmmm...that's good." Katsuhito replied.  Ryouko could have sworn she 
heard him sound relieved.  But him actually breaking that near monotone of 
his...naaa...that wasn't like him.
	"A lot better than Tenchi is doing in any case." Nobiyuki stated as he 
looked critically at the still passed out form of his son on the couch.  "You 
disappoint me Tenchi...you really need to gain some tolerance."
	A quiet moan was the only response Tenchi could muster.

<I Want To Know What Love Is - Foreigner>

	It was late.  Or more precisely very early when Cyraqs finally stumbled 
back into his cabin through the front door.
	He had felt what was inside waiting for him, long before he had even 
arrived.  He had opted to walk here instead of teleporting to give him time to 
think of what he was to do now.
	After what he had gone through with his mother, after what he had gone 
through with the problem in question before, he had no clue what to do.
	The problem herself was waiting for him, patiently sitting on one of his 
couches.  Her eyes, that held such wondrous beauty, focused on him as the door 
closed behind him.
	"I'm tired."
	She smiled.  "I know."
	"Can we skip to the end until tomorrow?"
	Her smile turned mischievous.  "Actually I was thinking of making you 
suffer a bit more."
	"Hmm."  He blurred and wrapped her up in his arms almost faster than even 
she could see. "In that case...I'm an idiot."  Her eyebrows arched up, 
indicating a demand for more.  "A fool?"  He offered.  "Moron?  Asshole?  
Insensitive Jerk?"  Nope, still nothing.
	"Is so hard?"  her eyes seemed to ask.
	Hard?  he asked himself.  Yes, it's hard.  Perhaps the hardest thing I 
have ever done in my life.  Maybe, though, it would be the best thing for my 
life.
	Then quit being a wuse and say what needs said.
	With that he took a deep breath, and said what needed said.  "I love you."  
And this time he got it right.
	At his words, she gifted him with a smile of pure and blinding joy, 
telling him that it was all she wanted to hear.  So they said nothing more.  
Perhaps nothing more would need to be said.  Perhaps the old adage is 
true...that sometimes the important things don't need to be spoken to be 
understood.

	A small girl of ten or eleven appeared in the cabin's kitchen, with little 
more than a slight sound and rustling of displaced air to announce her presence.  
Almost immediately she went for the fridge, and began to search it's contents.
	Her head jerked up in surprise.  Surely they were here...Cyraqs always 
kept a ready supply for her.  She checked again, but as before did not find what 
she was looking for.
	She let out a small sigh of disappointment.  "Miya."  He always had some 
carrots for her...why didn't he this time?
	Then she figured he might have just forgotten this time, and so all she 
would need to do would be to ask him.  Perhaps he would even share one with her, 
he was usually available to talk at this time of night.  He was weird like that, 
he would treat her as more of a younger sister than sometimes-humanoid pet.
	She was nearly out of the kitchen when an arm wrapped around her from 
behind and a scaly hand clamped itself over her mouth, effectively stifling her 
scream.  Scales though?
	She turned in anger at her sometimes tormentor and, strangely enough, 
sometimes language instructor.  Drakhenn placed a finger over his lips, and 
pointed outside the kitchen indicating she should be very quiet when she looks.
	She nearly Miyed in surprise, but somehow it seemed what was happening 
would brook nothing to interrupt.  She watched for a time, her heart melting, 
and tears of a kind of joy forming in her eyes.
	She walked back in the kitchen and her form changed to the more adult body 
she had when she initially assimilated with the Massu to better speak with the 
Star Dragon who himself had been in his larger and more humanoid form.  "It 
pretty."  She told him.
	It had been beautiful.  A man and a woman laying side by side, saying 
nothing, just looking into each others eyes...occasionally kissing, in a strange 
kind of love making.  Not sex, which was something different, but a sharing of 
that kind of love with just a smile and a touch.
	"What is it?" she asked.
	In his way he told her that it was something that he had been waiting for, 
for a very long time.
	"Why?"
	Again in his silent way he told her it was something that had been 
building between them for a very long time.  Two souls so very much a lone in 
their way, finally admitting for the first time to each other that together they 
are not alone.  And never need be so again.
	"Why watching?"
	His reply 'sounded' kind of like 'confirmation.'  To which she left it at 
that, because in that moment her perception of the Star Dragon changed.  No 
longer was he just the slightly mischievous drake who bit her tail on a regular 
basis.  She had a feeling that part of his personality would never change.  Now 
he had shown her something deeper, a caring for others that she never knew he 
had.  Especially for the man in the other room, and strangely enough the woman 
as well.
	Impulsively she hugged him, noting with satisfaction that he was too 
startled to respond.  Then she teleported them above the lake outside the Masaki 
home and dumped him in screaming and all.
	After all, she thought as she flew away the Dragon in hot pursuit, he 
can't get away with thinking the game is going to end that easily.  Even if he 
has convinced me he's not the jerk I thought.
	Her laughter echoed off the hills as she led her winged companion on a 
merry chase through the night.

<End Theme - Dreams - Van Halen>

Afterward:  Well I hope this is more like it.  As always I'm at 
kthardin@geocities.com