Disclaimer: Got Tenchi? Me neither. Actually AIC and Pioneer own his ass. After being deeply emotionally scarred by Tenchi in Tokyo, I just write this stuff as therapy. ;) ************************ "Oh, wow, Ryoko," Mihoshi gushed as she took a seat on the cushy maroon couch. "This is like being back on Earth; it's so homey! And this tea is almost as good as Sasami's!" Mihoshi grinned broadly, as she looked around at the room. It really was much more cheerful than the rest of the cavern hideout. With its ricepaper walls and collection of knickknacks it really felt like they were in their old home just hanging out over tea. Ryoko chuckled proudly. "Well, Hotsuma made it for me according to my exact specifications. Hey, that's right! You guys haven't been properly introduced yet!" Ryoko lit up slightly as she looked over her shoulder for a glint of blond hair in the shadows of the doorway. She didn't see him anywhere near the edge of the room. He was usually a respectful distance away, but near enough for her to call if she needed him. "Oi, Hotsuma! Hoooootsssssuma!" she sang out. There was still no sign of him. Her features slipped into an expression of child-like disappointment. This was finally her chance to share her big news with her friends, and the baka wasn't around! Men had such rotten timing when it came to these things. "Oh, well... I guess he's still busy in the loading bay. He takes care of all that boring post robbery stuff for me," she sighed regretfully. In his computer control room, Hotsuma winced. He would have preferred being by Ryoko's side, but under the circumstances he needed to be able to act freely if these two "friends" posed a threat to him. It wasn't merely his happiness with Ryoko that was threatened; it was Yugi's security. It was his freedom and his very existence. The stakes were too high to let his emotions govern his actions. He had to reduce it down to being logical-practical even. His continued nightmares were only making that harder to do, and now he was beginning to feel the dull throb of a looming headache. On the large view screen, Kiyone was changing the subject. "I thought our disguises were really good, Ryoko. How long did you know it was us anyway?" She'd relaxed around her cup of tea and was rolling her shoulders to loosen up her muscles as she spoke. She liked this retreat very much, but knowing Ryoko she was surprised that it wasn't something more lavish like a casino or an onsen. Ryoko cackled with glee. "Um. Let's see, I'd have to say it was from the time Zeltris told me about the crazy blonde and her keeper who attacked his hangar and then blackmailed the coordinates out of him. Of course, when I arrived at the tryouts there wasn't anyone matching the description, but there were only two women. Not to mention Mihoshi was waving at me." Ryoko grinned fondly at the memory as she leaned over her teacup. Mihoshi turned to her partner and watched as the teal-haired officer smacked her forehead into her palm and sighed in exasperation. The bubbly woman decided to try to cheer her friend up, since it certainly wasn't their fault that they'd been the only women to show up. "Maybe, next time we should disguise ourselves as men," Mihoshi suggested innocently. Ryoko came dangerously close to snorting tea from her nostrils as she fought back a gale of laughter. She waved Kiyone off as the affronted officer told her and Mihoshi both off. When she could finally speak Ryoko turned to Kiyone and said, "Don't you think you confused poor Aicheron enough, already? I can only imagine how he'd have reacted to a man named Kei-lyn checking him out and drooling every time they were on cleaning detail together." She broke back down into peals of laughter, as Kiyone nailed her with a pillow and turned away in a huff. "Why, Ryoko?" Kiyone asked abruptly. She was tired of beating around the bush, and she couldn't understand how someone she knew so well could run off without a word and totally change her life. Yet underneath she was still the same old Ryoko. "Why wouldn't Aicheron be comfortable with a man throwing himself at him?" Ryoko asked mischievously, as she raised her brows and leaned in toward her friend. Taunting Kiyone had been one of her favorite family pastimes for ages. It was only second to taunting Ayeka. "No. Why did you go back to piracy?" Kiyone asked bluntly, as she crossed her arms and shot Ryoko a warning look. "Kiyone, I'm a pirate. It's part of the job description," Ryoko replied with a wave of her hand. She really wanted to get away from this topic and get back to the good-natured fun. Her friends were here, so why waste time talking about depressing things. "Fine. Why did you leave Earth suddenly with no word? Something happened with Tenchi didn't it?" Kiyone shot back. She could feel herself going into interrogation mode, and she concentrated on searching for ways to get past the facade that Ryoko was obviously keeping up. "When? I don't know what you're talking about," Ryoko replied nonchalantly. She tried to convey with her body language the ridiculousness of Kiyone's assertion, as she blew off the questions. "Nothing happened," she maintained, giving Kiyone a shrug. "Uh-uh! On the night of the festival! Something happened between you and Tenchi, didn't it? Why won't you tell me?" Kiyone shouted. She leaned across the cushion and fixed Ryoko with a demanding glare. "Look I told you already, nothing happened. Okay?" Ryoko replied, waving her hands as she drew back. She needed a little distance under Kiyone's barrage of questions. "Then why did you leave Earth?!" Kiyone yelled angrily. "That's none of your business!" Ryoko hollered back with narrowed, glistening eyes. She was starting to feel sullen, and the more Kiyone pushed the more she wanted to run away from this conversation. She turned her face away, as she crossed her legs and threw her arm over the back of the sofa. It wouldn't do for anyone to see the universe's greatest space pirate looking rattled. "You know, Ryoko, you might be a great space pirate, but you're an awful liar," Kiyone accused. She too wore a sullen expression, but within moments it turned to a look of worry as she tried another tact. "Okay, so will you at least tell me what you're doing with this Hotsuma guy?" Kiyone asked. Ryoko recognized the worried look as she glanced over. She didn't like the way this conversation was going, or what Kiyone was insinuating with that look. She was a space pirate to be reckoned with; she didn't need Kiyone treating her like a helpless child! Likewise, Hotsuma had already proven himself to her, and Kiyone should know enough to respect Ryoko's judgment. She'd wanted so badly to tell her friends all about him, but not like this. "I'd have to say that's also none of your business," Ryoko said sharply turning her head back. "You have to admit, that he's not in the same class as Tenchi," Kiyone drawled. She watched closely as she waited for Ryoko's response. She wasn't the only one. Tenchi was innocent in ways that Ryoko doubted either she or Hotsuma had ever been. Tenchi was indeed in a different class, but she and Hotsuma were the same. They lived for the thrill, and they went directly for the things they wanted. Tenchi had toyed with her when he'd felt all along that she wasn't good enough for him, but she and Hotsuma were on the same level. "Yeah," she sighed, lost in her private thoughts. "But Tenchi's not the only man in the world," she added, looking at Kiyone from the corners of her eyes as she continued to face away. Hotsuma turned his back on the view screen and closed his eyes. He lowered his head and growled as Ryoko's words swept through him. She hadn't defended him at all! She'd agreed to him being less than Tenchi, and then she'd insinuated that she was just with him because she couldn't have Tenchi. He'd thought that she had gotten past her old fixation with that boy, but here she was obviously saying she'd only settled for what she could have. "You can't mean that!" Kiyone exclaimed, looking ready to stand up in her excitement. Ryoko had just told Kiyone point blank that she didn't want Tenchi anymore-that someone else could hold her attentions just as fully. "Oh, but I do," Ryoko told her with assurance. Kiyone thought for a moment, then asked shrewdly. "Well, if you don't want him, then can I have Tenchi?" She looked up at the ceiling innocently, before casting an open look at the surprised space pirate. Maybe if she shifted the spotlight off of Tenchi and Ryoko, the defensive pirate would finally drop her guard. "You can't be serious," Ryoko protested lightly, knowing full well that Kiyone had never displayed genuine interest in Tenchi as a boyfriend. "Why? I think that Tenchi deserves a sober, law-abiding girl like me," Kiyone maintained aloofly. She sipped her tea gingerly for emphasis. Ryoko rolled her eyes. "Besides, you're too late," Ryoko said absently. "When I last saw them Tenchi and Sakuya..." she broke off as she realized what she'd just revealed. She tried to finish the sentence nonchalantly, but she couldn't say that Tenchi had been kissing Sakuya. Not nonchalantly. Not at all. Hot tears welled up stinging her eyes, and Ryoko's voice shook as she stumbled over the troublesome syllables. When the wounded pirate looked over, Kiyone's look of sympathy was more than she could bear. Ryoko quickly rose to hide the raw pain still evident in her face. "Enough!" she bellowed over the twittering commentary about what might have happened that ran between Mihoshi and Kiyone. "I just want to forget about it!" Ryoko spat as she walked proudly towards the doorway. She refused to leave looking like some toy that Tenchi had broken in his excitement for a newer plaything. Hotsuma watched her stop as Kiyone reminded her exactly where they were standing, and within a few sentences Ryoko and her friends seemed to draw closer than before. As the discussion about good times on Earth filtered into the room over the speakers, Hotsuma opened up the communications satellites. "I'm sorry, Ryoko," he said wryly, "But I can't have you consorting with the Galaxy Police." By the time he was done with sending his message the conversation had shifted to the topic of what precisely Kiyone and Mihoshi's mission had been. Hotsuma was filled with both relief and guilt as the early detection net set off a warning alarm that destroyed the peaceful reunion before him. The only way to keep him and Ryoko out of the conflict between Yugi and the Earth guardian was to keep Ryoko away from Earth. It was time to put the wedges back between Ryoko and her old friends. He quickly teleported over to the doorway; the women were still getting to their feet in confusion when he came rushing in. "Ryoko, the Galaxy Police are here!" he warned trying to sound out of breath from a scramble. "Huh?" Ryoko replied as she tried to put the pieces together. He must have known that Mihoshi and Kiyone were GXP, when Aicheron brought them in at blaster point. "I thought you already knew about Kiyone and Mihoshi," she said in confusion. "Look, my friends are okay," she reassured him with a wink. "Really?" Hotsuma retorted, raising an eyebrow sarcastically as he clicked the main view screen up. They were faced with a projection of a Galaxy Police armada entering their space. A shiny new battle cruiser with all the firepower of a destroyer led the charge, and a swarm of smaller GXP cruisers defended it with their many lasers. "You were saying?" he prompted Ryoko. He watched her expression turn cold to the other women, as she accepted his words and gave in to suspicion. "Ryoko, I swear I didn't call in," Kiyone stammered. Just when things were going so well, they switched to going catastrophically wrong. She couldn't understand how the fleet knew their location, and she couldn't find the words to appeal to Ryoko. She couldn't think of a thing to make Ryoko believe her. "This is why I went back to being a pirate," Ryoko hissed, as she looked back over her shoulder at the two dazed officers, "To disrupt the world that nasty backstabbers like the two of you walk around in." "C'mon, Princess! Let's move!" Hotsuma called out, as he rushed her to Gaiyan. It had been better when it was just the two of them in many ways. He reached into his pocket and gave Ryoko's locket a reassuring squeeze; the update was only half finished, and he wouldn't have left it behind for anything. He knew he wouldn't feel relieved until the ship's airlock closed around them. With Gaiyan's capacity for speed, they still had plenty of time to avoid the fleet. They'd be safe in a few minutes. Back in the mock-up of the Masaki living room, Kiyone instructed Mihoshi to try to stop Ryoko while Kiyone took care of something personal. The two detectives took off in separate directions at a dead run. Around her Kiyone could see agitated pirates gathering up gold and weapons as they prepared to either fight or flee. One of the burly pirates who'd seen her escorted to the hangar earlier spotted Kiyone, and the world seemed to run impossibly slow as with a snarl he brought his weapon to bear. She heard him cursing at her for being a "damned GXP spy", and she leaped to the right as a laser arc cut through the air between them. The brute turned quickly, trying to get a new lock on her. The laser sight on his gun was activated and its little red beam was already climbing across her as Kiyone scrambled to her feet. Kiyone closed her eyes as a flash of light momentarily blinded her. She could hear a strangled scream, and when she could see again her attacker was lying motionless on the floor. "Are you okay?" asked a familiar gruff voice. Kiyone nodded wordlessly. "The Galaxy Police are coming, but I swear I didn't call them..." she blurted out hurriedly. She was afraid that he would argue the point with her, and she didn't have the time to waste, if she was going to get Aicheron off the base before it was too late. "I know," he agreed calmly, holding up his palm to display the communicators that she and Mihoshi had given him earlier. "According to the internal logs, these haven't been activated in weeks, and I know that I didn't call the GXP. I take it things didn't go well with your friend." He held up her hand and slid the transmitters into her palm; then he closed her fingers around them. Next, he held out a small blaster for her. "Let's get you out of here before any other pirates spot you," he told her, as he grabbed for her arm. Kiyone shook her head and jerked her arm out of his reach; there was that misplaced chivalry again. "Follow me," she commanded dragging him by the arm instead. "I'll be fine, but you have to get out of here fast! The secondary hangar should be less crowded, and I have a ship there that you can escape in." Despite his protests, she led him through the busy corridors to the auxiliary hangar, knocking aside anyone who got in her way. The ship she and Mihoshi had originally arrived at Kemvar in was waiting there. It required GXP passcodes, and the fleet would confuse it for one of their own if they scanned it. She glanced over the hangar quickly as the narrow stone passage opened into a brightly lit room with limestone walls reaching high above to the lofty ceiling. Two ships were already exiting through the open hangar shutter in the center of the ceiling. She spotted the small, grayish craft she'd used at the far right of the hangar. It looked like a shitbox, but she knew it had a very fast drive hidden underneath its worn fa‡ade. There was a pirate with a large sack of black-market instruments standing in their way, and Kiyone hit him with a well- placed roundhouse kick as he turned at the sound of their rushing footfalls. With a wide grin Aicheron looked back at the unconscious man. "I have to admit you have style, Miss Makibi!" he called as she opened the hatch to the ship and started running down the launch codes with him. There wasn't that much to remember, and the ship did most of the prep automatically. Kiyone activated the holographic star maps and the GXP sensor reports, so that they'd have a clear view of the approaching fleet and the layout of the surrounding areas. "They're coming in on this vector here, so your best chance would probably be to head into that debris belt along the Kemvar arc. I think it's a less obvious course than to travel straight ahead of them. This beacon right here will identify you as GXP according to their sensors..." she rattled off pointing to the consoles and controls in turn, as he leaned over her shoulder and studied the instruments. When she'd finished they said their goodbyes standing in the hatchway. "Listen to me," Kiyone began nervously. "I'm keeping you out of my report, but if you stay in this business the GXP will eventually hunt you down and capture you. If it's not me, the GXP will send somebody else after you. Once they get you it could be prison or even execution. I don't want to be sitting at my desk and read a report or a news article about it one day. When you get out of here, don't meet back with Ryoko's gang and get out of this life while you still can, okay?" Kiyone told him earnestly. She tried to keep a reign over her emotions, but her stomach felt like it was doing summersaults at the thought of probably never being able to see him again. She wanted to say so much more, but there wasn't time. Aicheron's eyes softened and he nodded slowly as he ran his fingers through her long teal locks. He kissed her tenderly, but he kept it short knowing that he need to leave as soon as possible. "Finding yourself irresistibly attracted to a space pirate," he laughed with a slight smirk. "That's pretty bad luck for a Galaxy Police Detective," he teased. Kiyone grinned back. "Finding yourself irresistibly attracted to a GXP Detective, that's pretty bad luck for a space pirate," she teased back. She lowered her face as she backed out of the hatchway, and she watched the doors close between them. She looked up as the small craft lofted into the air and rose through the open roof. It grew smaller in the distance, and Kiyone hoped that she wouldn't find his name among the captured or killed when the reports started coming in from this seizure. Mihoshi ran across the hectic hangar towards her partner's side. She arrived out of breath and had to stand with her hands on her thighs as she recovered from her sprint across the base. "I tried to stop her Kiyone, but she just wouldn't listen. She and that blond guy... what's his name? They got into their big ship and flew away, and Ryoko looked really sad just before they left. I just couldn't get through to her," Mihoshi panted. "How did your task go?" Kiyone looked over at her best friend and a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "You know what, Mihoshi? I think I accomplished exactly what I needed to." Days later Ryoko and Hotsuma had rejoined the remaining members of their gang, and they were trying to recoup their losses at a phenomenal rate. Hotsuma had secured them a new base, and after some well-placed persuasion he'd insured that Ryoko had no intentions of heading back to Earth anytime soon. Like most things with Ryoko, the secret was to make her think it was her decision all along. Their relationship still hadn't gone back to normal, however, and Ryoko had been beyond rude lately as she transferred her anger for Tenchi and her friends onto everyone around her. At the moment she was letting off steam by robbing an entire planet, while he sat at the base of a tremendous tree and watched her bully the citizens into submission. With her reputation most people would cow down at the mere mention of her name, but Ryoko was taking it one better than that as she fought barehanded against monks of the shrine for this tree village. It gave release to her anger, while at the same time reinforcing the terrible tales about her. Judging by the canine-revealing smirk she wore, Ryoko was enjoying the exercise greatly. While she dished out the bruises and gashes, a contingent with anti- gravity packs liberated the golden goddess statue from its vantage high above. The last of the monks landed in a pile at Ryoko's feet, and she paused to wipe the sweat from her brow with the corner of his robe, while she examined the beautiful golden deity that was winging its way into her coffers. A low growl to her left alerted Ryoko to a new attack and she reached out instinctively to block it. A green-eyed boy who looked slightly smaller than Sasami hurled himself at her, and Ryoko caught him by his dirty, tattered collar, hauling him off the ground with only one arm. The child spat every curse he knew at Ryoko, while the mothers in the village pulled their children against their skirts and warned them not to look. Ryoko pulled back her fist as if to strike, and it was clear that she could easily take his head off with one punch. Hotsuma felt his chest suddenly constricting as heat coursed through his veins. He struggled to breathe; his mouth had gone dry, and he realized that his hands were shaking. There was something about this scene that bothered him, and he didn't know why. Still, he couldn't look away. He rubbed his left temple as he watched Ryoko closely. The child had nearly screamed, when he'd seen Ryoko's fist haul back, and the assembled crowd gasped loudly, drawing away from the violence before them. "Relax! Your little brat is perfectly safe! I don't intend to kill him," Ryoko snarled at the crowd. They were obviously still nervous, but they seemed to understand that death was not imminent for this child. "Who're you calling a brat?" the angry boy demanded, and he lashed out at her with a kick to the knee that left Ryoko howling. "Oh that does it!" Ryoko fumed at him, tightening her grip. She moved the majority of her weight onto her other leg, knowing that her rapid healing would start to mend what felt like a torn ligament in her right knee. No one got a hit in on Ryoko the space pirate, especially not some snot-nosed brat with too much attitude. "I was going to let you live, but now you're toast!" Her eyes narrowed to near slits and her fist flexed in readiness. She gulped audibly as she hesitated-her fist still at the ready. Hotsuma buried his face in his hands and slumped forward as a burst of white-hot pain lanced through his skull. His mind filled with the vision of another town- a desert town filled with olive-skinned people. He was standing in the town center, while a band of rough looking men gathered up the town treasury that sat behind him. An enraged scream rang out, and from between the legs of the onlookers shot a child in a loose blue tunic. The boy tried repeatedly to hit Hotsuma with his small shaking fists, but Hotsuma easily blocked the blows with his palms and laughed heartily at the pathetic attempt. The boy's unruly black hair clumped against his forehead with perspiration and tears flowed freely from the child's completely black eyes. "I won't let you take everything!" the boy shouted furiously. "My parents and everyone worked so hard, and I won't let you take everything away from them!" He released another flurry of strikes, which Hotsuma gleefully blocked. Finally getting bored, the pirate backhanded the strange child hard enough to send him spinning into the sandy dirt of the main street. "You don't have any clout in the matter," Hotsuma sneered. He pushed his glasses up with his middle finger, and the sun glinted threateningly off the smooth lenses. "You should just be thankful that I'm leaving you your lives! I could take those just as easily as I take your wealth." He turned on his heel and began to walk away from the screaming furious boy. Behind him, he could hear the laughter of his men drowning out the frustrated screams, as the pirates gathered up the remainder of the town's money. "Do it, Ryoko!" Hotsuma growled still cradling his throbbing head. His voice sounded strained to his own ears, and he could feel a deep panic overtaking him. The pain in his head was becoming unbearable. She had to kill him! She had to kill him! "Do it, now!" At Hotsuma's words Ryoko's fist zoomed in towards the boys face, as his green eyes opened impossibly wide with shock. She suddenly saw a glint at her wrist, as the sun broke through the tree canopy and reflected off the crystal that Tenchi had given her. Had she fallen so far from virtue that she could cold- bloodedly slaughter a child? She'd led a normal life back on Earth, but if she did this there really was no going back. This would be the last piece of her innocence that was destroyed as well. Ryoko's fist stopped less than an inch from the terrified boy's cheekbone. She stared dumbfounded at the crystal, which hung wrapped around her wrist like a bracelet. "Tenchi," she whispered to herself. She would really be a monster to him and everyone else if she did this. She already had what she'd come for. She flung the child at the crowd and started to walk away. Hotsuma's vision went red, as he saw himself in silhouette on some other planet some other time. He was walking away as his men loaded the last of their hall into the shuttles. One silhouette broke away from the crowd and rushed in behind the unsuspecting pirate. The young man's arm drew forward and the shadow of a large knife arced downward. That familiar nightmare pain exploded low in Hotsuma's back, and he struggled not to scream as it spread through his body. The young man in the vision turned Hotsuma around, and the pirate stared directly into his hate-filled black eyes. "This is how you meet your end, you bastard!" mocked the young man. "You destroyed my family, our town, my life. I've waited years to repay you," the man finished, as he flung the bleeding pirate into the dirt. "Dammit, Ryoko! You can't let him live," Hotsuma protested whirling her around by the shoulder to face him. The vision had faded, but the feelings from it were still riding him down under their weight. She was making a grave mistake, and he had to stop her. "I'm the space pirate Ryoko; I can do anything I want!" she reminded him coldly. Hotsuma had never questioned her actions in front of anyone, and she surely wasn't going to let him start now. "He's just a kid! He can't do anything," she argued as the gestured towards the crying child with a flourish of her arm. "He won't be a child forever, and you may be about to leave a potential enemy alive behind you," Hotsuma whispered heatedly. His hair flew outwards as he rounded on the child himself and pointed at the target of his rage. "Never, leave an enemy behind! Cut him down now, and let him serve as an example to others," he protested. "If you don't finish him off, I will!" He could feel his vision going blurry as the pain became excruciating. Hotsuma reeled slightly, but caught himself by using Ryoko's shoulders for support. Ryoko drew her face close to his and studied his sweaty, strained features. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Ryoko demanded privately. She was acutely aware of the changes in her partner as of late. That first nightmare had only been a precursor of things to come, as he had continued to jerk awake screaming every night since with dreams that he refused to talk to her about. He was constantly on edge lately, and she'd seen him rubbing his temples habitually for about a week, as if he had a headache that just wouldn't go away. He was hell to live with lately, and she had problems of her own to sort out! She teleported them back to Gaiyan to finish this latest fight. Normally, she'd have just led him into the sky, but he was in no shape to fly right now. Besides, the more distance she put between her partner and that brat the better. "I want an answer, Hotsuma, and I want it now!" she thundered at him. "I thought you were a space pirate!" Hotsuma hissed back. "The great Ryoko! But apparently you're a little queasy about the job description these days! If you can't take care of yourself, it's my job to do what you need done for you! Remember?" He was trying to bring his breathing back under control, and the pain had receded to only his head and near the base of his spine. "That's not what I meant," Ryoko countered. Ryoko pointed an accusing finger at the tall blond man. "I want to know what the hell is wrong with YOU! What's going on, PARTNER?" she asked, as she whirled on him and fixed him with a scowl. "Oh! I'm fine!" Hotsuma answered, sardonically. He let the sarcasm ooze from his smooth voice until his temper overwhelmed it as he continued, "I'm just so touched by the sudden concern from someone who's spent all her time doing nothing but lashing out at everything in sight for the past few days! Should I assume that I'm the only target left standing?" He knew he should stop pushing at her, but at the moment he was too frustrated and he needed to yell. Ryoko stormed off to go find something worth pounding into dust. How dare he talk to her like that! Tenchi would never say something like that to her. He'd never push her to murder children. Of course not! Tenchi wasn't a pirate. Shrinemasters didn't do things like that! As far as yelling at her went, she'd always placed Tenchi on such a high pedestal that he'd rarely had need to put her in her place-only when she'd gotten in the way of him and Sakuya at the family's anniversary celebration. And maybe he was normally too afraid of Ryoko's temper and powers to raise his voice to her. Would he have fought with her if she'd only been a normal girl? Once again Ryoko found herself preoccupied with thoughts of Earth. Since seeing Kiyone and Mihoshi, all her emotional wounds had been reopened, and sometimes she felt like she was drowning in her own questions-in her uneasy thoughts. Back at Gaiyan, Hotsuma locked himself into his lab. Everything there was so ordered and under control. The projects were neatly arranged on the spotless surfaces of the carbon-metal table, counters, and shelves. Parts were all kept together, and nothing was ever left out of place. He needed to get himself clear again. He needed to do something technical, to occupy his mind. This was the first time he'd had a flash of vision like that, and he couldn't figure out what it was. Yugi had never sent him to a desert planet, and shadows didn't have hallucinations. What the hell was happening to him? He sat down at his worktable and looked at the project that sat before him. He'd decided to program something special into Ryoko's locket just before they'd been forced to abandon their old hideout. He'd known better than to trust locked doors on a pirate base, so he'd simply carried the locket with him as a result. He'd been glad to have it on hand, when he realized what he would have to do to keep Ryoko away from the influence of her old friends. Waiting for her to bring the subject up, he hadn't told her that the locket was here. He'd wanted it to be a surprise. She hadn't mentioned the locket once since they took off. "What the hell is happening?" Hotsuma asked himself, as he tried to work through the tension between him and Ryoko as well as the strange emotions and hallucinations that were plaguing him. He had to do something. He picked up a small soldering iron and turned his attention to the intricate circuitry of the memory locket. He was running out of options. *************************** Author's Note: Okay, this was a really fun one to write! I loved doing that fight scene between Ryoko and Hotsuma, and it was interesting to see how I could make Ryoko's comments to Kiyone mean different things to each of those three characters. Depending on your mind-set, her answer could change meaning completely. I could have kept Kiyone's comment that he wasn't "a match for Tenchi" the same and still done it, but I really liked this phrasing better. I've been leading up to this moment with Hotsuma for some time now, and I'm so glad that I finally got to it. I've written scenes from these final four chapters in my head countless times already, and I just hope I can remember all the stuff I liked best. It was quite difficult to write this section clearly, because his flashes are overlapping what's actually happening and it's disorienting. Yes, I've been trying to work everything into the original storyline, rather than just go completely away from Shin's plot. I think there was potential in the plot for so much more, and I'm trying to bring out some of that lost potential. There are more changes ahead, since with a different ending I have more room to play around. I think Ryoko and Hotsuma both have a lot of issues to resolve, and that's really coming into play right now.