Disclaimer:  I don't own Tenchi.  In fact, I own very, very, VERY little.
One of the things that I do not own... is money.  Well, I do own a kitty,
but there's no way in fuck that I'm selling that.  ^_~  So don't sue me,
Pioneer LDC or AIC.  Please.  I beg of you.

Forward:  Hey hey.  Well, here it is.  The first chapter of what will be
one hell of an interesting and fun fic to write.  Be warned... this fic
kinda revolves around a subject that is oft considered to be taboo in
the realms of Tenchi Fan Fiction.  And, as you no doubt have gathered
at this point and time, this fic has an element of lemon to it.
(Eventually, anyways.)  So be warned.  Be very warned.  ^_^  I'd like to
thank Beautiful Mirage, Dark Jezter, and Zelgabunny for prereading this
fic for me.  Thanks a lot, guys.  ^_^

On with the show!



(( Opening Theme: "Eden", by 'Sarah Brightman' ))



	**********

MEMORIES OF LIFE
Chapter 1: "A Perfect World"

	**********


(( Play: "A Far Cry", from 'Vision of Escaflowne' ))


"What... what the hell just happened!?" Kiyone cried.
	The Yagami floated in a held position a few hundred meters from
the epicenter of the blinding light.  Space seemed to carry on as if
there had been no disturbance.  The earth continued to shine like the
beacon of beauty that it always did.
	But there was no one to be found.
	Tenchi, Ryoko, Aeka, and Sasami...
	...they were all gone.
	Mihoshi's lip trembled as she continued to look through the screen
that the two stunned Galaxy Police women shared.  She looked over at
Kiyone from the corner of her blue eyes.  "Wh- what's going on, Kiyone?
Where... where did everybody go?"
	Kiyone shook her head, still staring at the screen.  "I- I- I
have... no idea!  They couldn't have been *vaporized*, because *we're*
still here."
	Mihoshi sniffled, and began to cry.  "But... but..."
	Kiyone shook her head quickly, and began to bring up all sorts
of different schematics charts, ion readings, plasma drive emission
regulators... essentially *anything* that might have pertinent information
on the supposed disappearance of their friends.
	Mihoshi continued to stare at the quiet emptiness that was
formally an onslaught of carnage.  "They were right there... just a
second ago.  Where could they have gone?"
	Kiyone grunted, and stood up.  She looked down at Mihoshi, and
summoned all of her authority and posture.  "Mihoshi?"
	"Y- yes?"
	"Let's go."
	Mihoshi blinked.  "Go?  Go *where*?  What about the others?"
	Kiyone turned and walked to the doorway.  "To *find* the others,
of course!  Come on!"
	Mihoshi sat there for a moment, then jumped to her feet, and
quickly followed after her partner and friend.  The two of them made
their way down the hallways of the Yagami.  Their boots clicked and
clanged against the steel floors, sending an ominous echo throughout
the massive, mostly empty ship.
	The light were dim.  Everything seemed eerie.
	Kiyone led Mihoshi to an area with a large terminal.  The two
of them entered the small dark room.  Kiyone jumped into the seat in
front of the supercomputer, and turned on the monitor.  Mihoshi walked
next to Kiyone, and looked at the screen over her partners shoulder.
	"What are you doing, Kiyone?"
	Kiyone didn't look away from the monitor as she continued to
type and access different commands.  "I'm finding our friends, Mihoshi."
	Mihoshi nodded.  "Umm... okay.  But... how?"
	"Do you know what this is, Mihoshi?"
	Mihoshi shook her head.  "This is *your* ship, Kiyone."
	"This," Kiyone began, still typing, "Is the Yagami's supercomputer.
All the mandatory to access and essential files and programs can be
accessed from the bridge's operating system, however, a lot of the
advanced protocol can only be used through this."
	"Umm... how come?"
	"That's because of the nature of this equipment," Kiyone explained,
the light flickering off of her face from the monitor giving her an eerie
appearance.  "This is all equipment that is only authorized to specially
sanctioned Galaxy Police members.  Everything that is done here is also
seen at GP headquarters.  There's a lot of science involved that I never
really paid attention to or understood, but what it all means is that there
are some programs in this that aren't on the bridge."
	"Oh, okay."  Mihoshi wiped some tears off of her face.  "So this
will help us find everyone?"
	"Hopefully," Kiyone answered, non-commitedly.
	Kiyone stopped typing, and lifted her hands off of the keyboard
as the computer began to make a large grinding noise, almost like a
siren.
	Mihoshi looked down at Kiyone.  "Kiyone?"
	Kiyone blinked as she looked at the screen dumbfoundedly.  "I...
I don't know!  I was simply trying to access the phase shift protocols,
so maybe I could lock onto their atoms and find their carbon trails...
but..."
	The computer screen then stopped making the loud siren noise.  It
seemed to click itself off, once again plunging the small room into
darkness.  After no more than a few seconds, however, the screen erupted
back to life, with eerie red text climbing up the screen.
	Kiyone just simply stared in awe at the screen.  She began to
quietly whisper what she read aloud.

	"And you shall rise, and you shall fall...
	As men you are obsolete.  Man is obsolete.
	They are already extinct.
	We bring you not division.
	We bring you not salvation.
	We bring you not death, nor destruction.
	We simply bring you an end.
	An end to your story.  An end to your uselessness.
	For you...
	...shall all...
	...be as gods.
	We are the Alpha.  We are the Omega.
	You are the first, and you are the last.
	We... and you... are all one.
	This is the end.
	The concept of anything other than one being will now be erased.
	The end.
	No.
	The beginning."

As the words finally left to the top of the screen, it left the screen
black, leaving the two detectives in the dark room.  Kiyone sat in silence.
Mihoshi stood in silence.
	Kiyone still stared at the screen with her hands perched just above
the keyboard.  Not a word passed for over a minute between the two.
	Eventually, Mihoshi looked at Kiyone in the dark, and whispered,
"Kiyone?  Kiyone... what... what was that?"
	Kiyone didn't respond at first.  Eventually, once she discovered
that she still had a voice, she managed to whisper to her partner.  "I
don't know, Mihoshi.  That... that..."
	"What about our friends, Kiyone?"
	"I don't know.  I don't know anything."
	Kiyone swallowed.  "Anything at all."


__________
**********


(( Play: "Arcadia", from 'Vision of Escaflowne' ))


Ryoko's eyes snapped open.
	Blinking a few times, she began to look around in perpetual
fright.  She was lying on top of her perch in the rafters in her gold
and blue dress, with her hands behind her head.  She quickly sat up,
and looked around herself.
	Nothing.
	<What... what's going on?  Why am I here?  Is... is this a dream?
Am I dead?  Was... was *that* all just a dream?>
	Ryoko slowly phased down through the plank of wood, and floated
gently down to the ground below.  It was a warm summer evening.  The
windows in the house were open.  The doors were ajar.  A haunting and
almost cadaverous orange twilight shone in through all the openings of
the house.
	Ryoko's golden eyes glinted in the bath of orange twilight as she
scanned around in every direction.
	Again, there was nothing.
	There was no evidence that there was anyone in the house.  There
was no sound of movement.  Everything that required power was off.  It
was almost as if the house was hanging in a static limbo state.  Ryoko
simply stared out the open door at the lake, and she blinked a few times.
She could clearly see in the slit of light permeating from the window
and door the dust moving through the air, so she knew that time wasn't
frozen.
	<Where... where is everyone?  Why am I *here*?>
	Trying to reorientate herself without letting the ball of fear
that was quickly manifesting itself in her stomach take dominion over
her own mind, Ryoko let out a long breath.  She blinked a few times,
trying to force tears that were threatening to fall from doing so.
	She turned, and walked over to the kitchen.  As she entered the
kitchen, it was as she expected it.  Empty.  Alone.  Bathed in twilight.
	As was she.
	Frowning, she floated off the ground, and made her way up the
stairs.  As panic beginning to seize more and more of her being by the
second, Ryoko quickened her pace.  She crested the stairs, and
immediately flew towards Tenchi's room.  The grooves in the floor and
on the wall became a blur as she blazed down the hallway.
	Not stopping to knock, she simply phased right through the door,
and into his room.  She stopped, and lowered herself onto the floor.
	Nothing.
	Nothing at all.
	There was no evidence that there had been life.  There was no
furniture.  There was no bed.  No desk, no papers, no clothes, no
carpet.  Simply brown wooden floor and walls, with a window on the side
and on the roof.  Ryoko stared at the shining hardwood from the
fading sunlight that emanated from outside, and felt her shoulders slump.
	"Where..." she whispered.
	She felt her eyes begin to twitch, and her vision grow blurry.
"Where... where are you, Tenchi?  Anyone?"
	Ryoko simply stared at the ground, and made no effort to move,
nor stop the tears that began to flow lazily down her pale face.  The
glint of light from the reflection of dusk off of the hardwood floor made
the breaking woman seem almost haunted.
	"I... I don't want to be alone.  I don't want to."
	Ryoko slumped to her knees, and buried her face in her arms.  "I
DON'T WANT TO!  I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!!!"
	Her screams for mercy and companionship, however desperate they
were, fell on deaf ears.  The world around her did not change.  The only
sound was that of her sobbing.
	Ryoko quickly rose to her feet, and phased back through the door,
and began to run through the house.  "Tenchi!  Aeka!  Sasami!  Anyone!
Please, answer me!  Stay with me!  Please... please... ANYBODY!!!"
	"Look at you.  Pathetic."
	As Ryoko came to the top of the stairs once again, she stopped.
Ryoko looked to her left on the balcony overlooking the landing at the
front door.  Through her blurry, tear filled vision, she could make out
a figure standing there.
	It was Washu.
	Washu was standing there with her arms crossed, and a disgusted
look on her face.  She looked away from Ryoko angrily when they made
eye contact.  "You're worthless, Ryoko.  Worthless.  I can't believe
that I could have even considered you to be my daughter."
	Ryoko wiped her tears away angrily.  "Yeah?  And who thinks that
I give a damn about what *you* think?"
	"Failure.  Useless trash."  Washu looked back at Ryoko, her eyes
full of condescending discontent.  "I should have destroyed you instead
of grown you.  You don't even deserve to be a human.  Hell, you *aren't*
a human.  Being in a human form has obviously *fooled* you into thinking
otherwise."
	Ryoko was seething with anger.  Her hands shook, and her amber eyes
glared back at Washu with rage.  "Shut... shut up.  *Right* now."
	"Hmph.  What?  Does the little machine think that she can turn
on her creator?  Does the little girl think that she has feelings?  Does
she think that she has rights?  She has the *right* to even *feel* angry?
YOU ARE WORTHLESS!!"
	"SHUT UP!!" Ryoko lunged at Washu, but the small scientist simply
leapt up onto the railing gracefully, easily dodging the barbaric primitive
lunge.  Ryoko missed and fell onto the wooden ground, and simply began
to cry.
	Washu's green eyes were nothing more than emerald slits of contempt
as she frowned down at Ryoko from her perch.  Shaking her head in
annoyance, she sighed.  "To think that I once was proud to consider you,
you trash, to be my daughter.  I can't believe I was so foolish.  Times
change, I suppose.  Life isn't the same from one moment to the next.
It has to adapt," she looked at Ryoko's sobbing face, "And *you* must
cease to be."
	Ryoko growled in pure anger, once again lunging at Washu.  "Fuck
you!  Fuck you!  FUCK YOU!" she screamed through her tears.
	This time, Washu simply vanished.  Her entire being disappeared
the moment that Ryoko's hands came into contact with her.  Unable to
escape her state of perpetuation, Ryoko crashed through the railing and
fell.  She made no effort to take to the air, and she landed on the floor
below directly on her back.
	Moaning on her back, she rolled over onto her side, and curled up
into a fetal position, sobbing profusely.  Her tears shimmered in the
orange light that seeped in from the doorway to the empty and desolate
Masaki home.
	<It... hurts...>
	<Tenchi... Tenchi... please... please help me...>
	"Ten.... Teeeeeennchiiii..." she cried out into the twilight.
	As Ryoko cried, she didn't hear the footsteps.  The soft patting
of feet on the hardwood floor that grew closer to her with each step.
Closing the gap from the doorway to her.
	A shadow loomed over her as the being stopped walking five feet
from the shattered woman, and simply looked down at it.
	"Ryoko," he spoke.
	Ryoko stopped crying, and rolled over slightly to look at the
person who stood just inside the door.  Her eyes went wide, and they
ceased to produce tears as she laid her vision on him.
	The way that the light came in through the doorway behind him
made him seem almost angelic.  He stood there looking down at her,
his face expressionless.
	Ryoko sniffled.  "T- Tenchi?"
	Tenchi looked down at Ryoko, his eyes full of sorrow.  His face
held no expression, but his eyes permeated a painful sorrow that cut
into Ryoko like a knife.
	"Ryoko..."
	Ryoko slowly managed to pry herself to her feet, and limp over
to Tenchi.  She cast her arms around his shoulders, and held him close.
	"Tenchi... Tenchi... it was... it was awful..."
	Tenchi just stood there, not returning her embrace.
	Ryoko continued to cry into his shoulder.  "You... you weren't
here... no... no one was.  Everything was gone.  Everything.  And... and
then she... she..."
	Tenchi closed his eyes in pain, and put his hands on Ryoko's arms.
He gently pulled her arms back out of the embrace, and looked at her
straight in the eyes.
	Ryoko continued to sob.  "She... said that... my... my..."
	"Ryoko, there's something that I have to tell you."
	Ryoko looked at Tenchi with an expression wrought with anguish.
"Haven't... haven't you been listening to me, Tenchi?"
	Tenchi continued to stare into her golden eyes, his eyes still
full of sorrow.  "There is something that I have to tell you, and it's
very important.  And... and I'm afraid of what will happen when I do,
but... but I *have* to."
	"Tenchi..."
	Tenchi closed his eyes, and took in a deep breath.  He opened
them again, his eyes glistening like hers.  "Ryoko... Ryoko... I'm...
I'm in love with Aeka."
	If there was any glass left within Ryoko's soul that still
remained in tact after all it had endured, it all shattered at that
instant.  Every scrap of her rationality, her dignity, her self
confidence... essentially everything that made her herself and put
pride in herself was destroyed in that one sentence.
	Ryoko stumbled backwards from Tenchi, her face and mind in a
daze.  She backed right into the wall, and just stared at Tenchi's eyes.
She saw nothing more than pity and sorrow.
	And honesty.
	Ryoko's breathing picked up and she began to move her head around
in all directions, as her vision began to go haywire.  Nothing was clear
anymore.  Everything was a haze.
	<Useless trash.>
	<I'm in love with Aeka.>
	<Worthless.>
	<I'm in love with Aeka.>
	<I'm alone.>
	<I'm in love with Aeka.>
	<I'm alone.  I'm nothing.  No one.  Nobody.>
	<I'm in love with Aeka.>
	Ryoko's knees buckled out from underneath her, and she slumped
to the ground beneath her.  She picked her hands up, and stared at them
in sheer terror.


(( Play: "Infantile Dependance", from 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' ))


	"Blood... blood... covered in blood..."
	Ryoko began to hallucinate that her hands were stained in blood.
She began to frantically wipe them together, in a vain attempt to clear
off what she was perceiving to be blood, but to no avail.
	"GET IT OFF!  GET IT OFF!  MOMMY!  GET IT OFF!!!"
	<Kill.>
	<Murder.>
	<Destroy.>
	<Erase.>
	Tenchi simply stared down as Ryoko thrashed about on the ground,
screaming and sobbing incomprehensibly.  He made no movement to comfort
the woman, yet he made no movement to leave, either.
	"And to think... that you could have chosen anything that you
wanted.  And yet... you chose this.  The antithesis of what you wanted."
	The voice that spoke bore through Ryoko's petulantly struggling
psyche and latched on to whatever scraps of sanity remained.  Her
hallucinative tantrum was shattered, just as her soul.  She stared
off at the wall for a moment, then slowly, carefully, directed her
eyes towards the voice.
	Standing next to Tenchi, was a man.  A man that Ryoko could have
sworn that she had seen before.  There was something so familiar about
him... and yet... she simply could not place whom he was.
	He stood there next to Tenchi, looking down at Ryoko.
	Tenchi appeared to be frozen.  The dust was no longer moving.
Time had ceased to spur its course forwards.
	The man appeared to be around thirty years old earth calendar.
However, Ryoko knew that in this universe, appearances were *never*
accurate.
	He looked down at Ryoko with two solemn dark green eyes.  His
hair was dark green as well, and fell behind his back.  He wore a
standard Juraian battle uniform.
	Something about the way that he stood staring down at Ryoko
made him seem... sacred.  As if he was an apostle, or an avatar of
a God or Goddess.
	Ryoko's breathing was still heavy, and her face was still ravaged
with tears, but she managed to speak.  "What... what do you mean?  Who
are you?"
	The man continued to stare back at her, his face unchanging.  "You
had the ability to choose any reality... anything at all... and this
is what you chose."
	Ryoko winced as she tried to prop herself on her elbow.  "What?"
	"Death.  You wish for death."
	Ryoko groaned as she managed to sit up.  "What are you talking
about?  I... I'm very much alive."
	"Death doesn't mean the end of a life, always.  You wished for the
end of something that makes you yourself.  Your soul."
	Ryoko shut her eyes in pain as the last few torturous moments
screamed past her sub-consciousness once again.
	The man smiled, and continued.  "After all... what's the point
in living?  You're going to die, anyways.  Isn't it all futile?  Isn't
doing anything at all simply... worthless?"
	Ryoko slammed her fist into the floor, cracking the wood.  "Don't.
I *hate* that word!"
	"Why?" he asked, still smiling.  "Do you hate it because of what
you have been branded as, or because it is the *truth*?"
	Ryoko's head dropped, and she simply stared at her lap.
	"Go away..." she whispered.
	The man perked his ear and leaned forward.  "Hmm?  What was that?"
	"Go away," she repeated, this time louder.
	The man adapted a smug look on his face.  "Why?"
	Ryoko looked up at the man.  "Just vanish!  Disappear!  Everything!
Just... just go away!  Nothing even matters to me anymore!"
	The man chuckled.  "What?  Is it because of this guy?" he asked,
chucking a thumb to the frozen Tenchi standing next to him.
	"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!"
	"Heh.  It's all an illusion, you stupid girl.  An elaborate
fabrication, constructed by none other than... well... you.  Yourself.
An escape.  There is a rule," he began, "That when in reality, you have
to face one principle.  That it is the world that is, and nothing can
change that fact.  Too bad it doesn't *really* amount to nothing more
than an old wives tale."
	"Shut up." Ryoko grunted, struggling to her feet.  "I don't...
I don't *care*.  Just shut the hell up and leave me alone."
	The man shrugged.  "She was right.  You *are* perfect."
	Ryoko didn't even pay attention to that statement as she just
lifted herself into a position so she could lean back against the wall,
with some difficulty.
	The man turned and began to walk towards the doorway.  As he
did, his very entity began to slowly fade away from existence.  As he
left, he spoke over his shoulder before he faded into nothingness,
"I'll keep in touch.  Until then, remember... suffering *can* be
beautiful."


__________
**********


The thick blackness of the cloudless night sky spanned over everything.
The dark blanket which covered everything loomed over the craggy, gnarled
rocks of the massive cliff which met strongly with the shore of the
massive ocean.
	The sea itself was even darker than the sky, as the sky had
hundreds of twinkling stars to flicker and illuminate the earth below.
There was no wind this night, the only sound was the gentle lapping of
the water against the cliff and the small beach at its basin.
	Aeka coughed violently as she began to gain consciousness.
	The princess lay with her legs in the water, and her torso
sprawled face down on the soft, white sand.  Coughing a few more times
as reality was beginning to return to her, she moaned.  Aeka rolled
herself onto her back, either not caring or not noticing that her
legs were submerged in shallow water.
	Aeka put her forearm on her head, and looked up at the vast sea
of flickering stars.  She lay in her battle gear.  It was rather torn
in several spots, and yet her body did not reflect the wounds of her
clothes.  She felt no pain, and no unease.  Aeka closed her eyes as she
let the memories return to her.
	<I'll kill you!>
	<Lord Tenchi!>
	<You little bastard!  Die!>
	<Life for the obsolete is meaningless.  Let your life slip away
now, while you still believe it to have some purpose.>
	Aeka sniffled, taking in the sweet scent of the of the reef.
Opening her eyes once again, she simply stared at one of the many
stars in the sky.
	"Where am I?" she pondered aloud.  "How did I get here?"
	She frowned.  "What... what has happened to Tenchi?  Sasami?
To Ryoko?"
	Aeka began to lift herself up in search of answers, when she
heard it.  The sound.
	A song.


(( Play: "Sora", from 'Escaflowne - Girl from Gaia' ))


	Blinking a few times, Aeka tried to sift out all other sounds,
and hone in on what she perceived to be someone singing.  After a few
seconds, she was certain.
	It was a beautiful song.  Somewhere, a woman was singing a
beautiful song.  It was in a language that Aeka couldn't understand,
but she felt almost entranced by the song of the night.
	"Where...?" she whispered into the night air as she rose to her
feet.  As she stood, she was somewhat surprised by the complete lack of
pain.  She remembered vividly that mans sword tearing into her flesh.
So... why was it that she didn't feel pain?
	<Why?  And... how did I get here?>
	She took a closer look around.
	<And where *is* here?>
	All these thoughts were pushed out of her head as she continued
to listen to the song.  The language that the song was being sung in
sounded so familiar, yet Aeka couldn't quite place it.  It danced on
the tip of her mind, but refused to move any closer.
	Aeka closed her eyes as the beautiful singing continued, trying
to locate the source of the song.  It didn't take more than a few
minutes for Aeka to discern that the song was being sung from the
crest of the cliff, some two hundred feet into the air.
	Sighing, Aeka began to look around.  She'd have to find another
way up.  She had no way of scaling the sheer rock face.
	Scanning the dark beach once more, Aeka located with her crimson
eyes a small path that led into a forest at the edge of the sand.
Realizing that it was the only way off the beach other than taking to
the sea itself, she began to walk down the path.
	The trees themselves were very similar to those that could be
found in a rainforest on earth, only this forest did not share the same
phenomenally humid climate.  It was actually rather cool, but comfortably
so, Aeka noted.
	Brushing a strand of loose purple hair from her face, she began
to weed her way through the thicket, the sound of the beautiful siren
song still very audible.
	<Who is that?  What song is that?>
	Aeka pushed further into the forest.
	<I... I *know* I've heard that somewhere before.  Where?  Where
have I heard that song?>
	Another thing that caught Aeka off in surprise, if only for a
moment, was that there were no bugs.  Nothing.  No snakes, no spiders,
no insects.  It was a calm, peaceful, yet uninhabited tropical forest.
	After combing through the forest for a few minutes, travelling
in the direction of the singing, Aeka found the spoils of her search.
	She stumbled across a wide beaten path, that led up the side of
the sheer rock face cliff at a gradual pace.  Taking in a deep breath,
Aeka began to ascend the cliff in the midst of night.  The only sound
to be heard was the gentle waves, and the nocturnal symphony.
	Aeka's feet made quiet patting sounds as they pressed against the
soft earth with each step.  Other than the entrancing song, Aeka noticed
that there was also something about the very reality of this location.
	<This place.  It's... it's perfect.>
	Even in the dark of night, there was no flaw to be found.  No
annoyances such as bugs, no biting or harsh winds, no sounds of
bustling city life... nothing other than peaceful, natural forest.
	<I wonder how the ecosystem can survive here without the
appropriate wildlife?>
	Eventually, after several minutes of travel up the cliff, Aeka
reached its zenith.  Aeka's eyes softened as she gazed upon the creator
of the beautiful song.
	Standing at the edge of the cliff, singing out to the open sea,
was a woman.  The woman was a few inches taller than Aeka was, and her
skin was very pale.  Her face was beautiful.  Her ears were pointed, in
similar vain to an elf from earthen literature.  Her lips were soft
and full, yet as pale as her skin.  Her hair was white, and it flowed
like a stream of water down her back, gently rippling in the soft breeze.
	Her clothes were very regal.  Almost like a priestess, or someone
from a monarchy.
	Her eyes were closed, and she simply sang.
	Aeka watched this woman sing for a few minutes, completely at a
loss of what to do next.  She was so entranced by the beauty of this
woman and her song, that she had lost everything.  All sense of thought,
all sense of motion... everything.  She found herself lost in the
music of this woman.
	After a few more minutes of singing, the woman finally stopped.
	Aeka was snapped free of her trance, and she simply gazed towards
the woman.  The woman smiled, and then open her eyes, letting the
brilliance of the cerulean iris' gaze upon the night sky.
	She turned from the cliff and looked at Aeka who stood only ten
feet away.  She clasped her hands together in front of her, and smiled
at the Juraian Princess.
	"Hello there."


(( Play: "Her Most Beautiful Smile", from 'Rurouni Kenshin - The Movie' ))


	"Um..." Aeka blinked, and then bowed politely.  "Hello.  I'm
sorry.  I didn't mean to spy on you."
	The woman simply smiled back at Aeka, then calmly walked over to
the Princess.  "It's alright.  I sometimes get wrapped up in my singing.
I do it kind of loud, don't I?"
	Aeka shook her head.  "It's quite alright.  You have a very
beautiful voice, Miss...?" Aeka inquired.
	The woman bowed slightly.  "My name is Sora.  It is an honor to
meet you.  Might I ask your name?"
	Aeka finally found her ability to smile, and did so.  "Yes, of
course.  My name is Aeka Jurai."
	"Glad to meet you, Aeka."  Sora smiled.
	Aeka nodded.  "Excuse me, but... might I ask a question of you,
Sora?"
	"Of course."
	"This might sound silly, but... where am I?"
	Sora chuckled quietly.  "Lost?"
	Aeka gave a half smile and nodded.  "It seems that way."
	Sora nodded.  "Well, fear not.  You are quite safe here.  This
is the land of Fa'Dien."
	"Fa'Dien?" Aeka asked, wracking her brain for that word.  "I
don't think I have ever heard of this place before."
	Sora's smile widened.  "Oh, it's of no concern.  No one who
visits here knows of its existence.  It's a rather underpopulated area,
actually."
	"Why is that?" Aeka asked, scratching her head.
	"It is a sacred land," Sora explained, "Where we worship the
Goddess of Eternal Life."
	"Wow..." Aeka breathed, "I never knew of such a goddess.  Where
do you worship?"
	Sora giggled.  "Just down the path that you climbed up to meet
me here.  It is a temple where we priestess live.  You are welcome to
stay if you wish, Miss Aeka."
	Aeka took a look around herself.  To her left, was a cliff which
dropped down to a beach and the ocean.  To her right, was a large field
of long grass that swayed gently in the evening breeze.  And behind her,
was a sea of trees.  There really was no where for the princess to stay.
	<I still wish to know as to how I came about this place.>
	Aeka sighed.  "I believe I will accept your offer for the time
being, Sora.  I'm afraid that I have no place to go, and I'm still
curious as to *where* this is, and how I made my way here."
	"Fa'Dien brought you here."
	Aeka blinked.  "E- excuse me?"
	Sora's smile returned, and she gestured the grandeur of the dark
ocean over the Cliffside.  "This is Fa'Dien.  Its will is absolute.
It can change you, as it can change me."
	Aeka arched an eyebrow.  "Might you be insinuating that this...
place... has a will of its own?"
	"Indeed it does," Sora added, still looking over at the ocean.
"Fa'Dien is as alive as you or I am.  Moreso, even."
	"Moreso?  How can it be *more* alive than me?"
	"It's... complicated." Sora said, looking at the befuddled
Princess from the corner of her eye.  "Fa'Dien is the essence of life
itself.  It has a will.  In a way, it *is* the Goddess of Eternal Life."
	"How did I get here, Sora?"
	Sora turned to Aeka.  "You will have to ask Fa'Dien that, Lady
Aeka.  I do not have the answers you seek."
	Aeka sighed.  "Very well, then.  How do I ask it?"
	"Her."
	"Alright... how do I ask 'Her'?"
	Sora smiled once again.  "You sing.  She loves to hear the songs
of her children."
	Aeka blinked again.  "Wait... is that... what you were doing?"
	Sora nodded.
	"What did you ask Her, Sora?"
	Sora looked deep into Aeka's eyes, and said nothing for a moment.
Time passed, and Aeka wasn't sure that she would answer.  Her gaze had
something behind it.  Power.  Change.  Love.  Beauty.
	All of these things at once were present in this beautiful woman's
eyes.  Finally, she answered.
	"That the one who is with us will be safe."
	Aeka looked confused.  "One that is with us?  Do you mean... me?"
	Sora laughed.  Her laughter was almost as beautiful as her singing.
It was almost a song in and of itself.  "No, no.  Well, I suppose that
you could interpret it that way, now that you are here with us."  She
smiled.  "There is a baby.  A young girl who came to us only a few hours
before you did.  *She* is the one I asked for guidance."
	"Did she simply just... appear, as I did?"
	Sora nodded.  "Indeed she did.  We found her at the entrance to
the forest at the edge of the temple.  She was crying.  So we took her
into the citadel."
	Sora began to walk towards the path.  "Are you going to join us
in the citadel, Lady Aeka?"
	Aeka sighed, and nodded.  "I think I will, thank you."
	<What... what is going on here?>


__________
**********


(( Play: "Sound of Snow Falling", from 'Rurouni Kenshin OAV' ))


Tenchi moaned low in his throat.  He was in pain.  He was cold.  In
fact... he was freezing.
	Blinking his eyes open, he saw it.  The snow.
	Tenchi lay in the thick snow face down.  He was somewhat surprised,
as he had no idea how he got there.  His hands shook as they were
touching the cold snow bare skinned.  Letting out a breath of air, snow
flew away from the ground just in front of his mouth, dancing in the wind.
He rolled slowly onto his back, as his entire body was still burning with
pain.
	<Where... am I?  How... how did I get here?>
	Tenchi's vision flickered slightly as his eyelids twitched
involuntarily as he stared up at the gloomy ashen sky.  Thick snowflakes
lazily descended to the ground and past his vision.  From the corners of
his peripheral vision, Tenchi could make out stripped trees, covered
with frost and ice.
	He felt his legs and hands beginning to quiver as the intense
cold of the snow was affecting them.
	Tenchi coughed twice, bringing one of his cold hands up to his
mouth.  He groaned as he moved his arm.  His entire body ached with an
intense pain.  One which he did not understand as to why it was there.
	<Get up, Tenchi.>
	Tenchi attempted to move himself off the ground, but he grunted
in pain and frustration as he misfired.  His attempt fell short as he
had not the strength to lift himself off of the ground.
	<Cold... so cold...>
	Gritting his teeth in determination, Tenchi propped himself up
on his elbows, and then hoisted himself up into a sitting position.
Shaking his head and wiping the snow off the back of his neck and hair
with his hand, he took a longer look around him.
	A forest.
	He lay in a thick forest.  A sea of trees that were all stripped
of their leaves.  Their life.  He sat in the middle of what he decided
was a small path, no more than five feet between the rows of trees.
	Rolling his left wrist slightly as he braced it with his right
hand, Tenchi sighed.
	<Where am I?  How did I *get* here?>
	There appeared to be no signs of life in any direction other than
himself.  Roots and the occasional dead leaf was all there was other
than the snow, the trees, and the ash gray sky.  Tenchi coughed a few
more times, and then sniffled.
	"I've gotta find a way outta here," he decided aloud.
	As Tenchi began the epic battle of wills against the pain in
his body as he tried to stand, he heard something.  Something that made
him stop.
	A moan.
	Blinking twice, Tenchi looked around.  Nothing.  There was nothing
here.  <Now I'm hearing things... this must be some sick dream or
something.>
	Tenchi shook his head in annoyance as he managed to get himself
onto his feet, when he heard it again.
	A soft, gentle moan, that was almost as loud as a whisper.  A
whisper through that dead forest.  It was most definitely a female's
voice, Tenchi decided.  Looking around him again, Tenchi tried once
more to locate the genesis of the soft elicitation.
	Tenchi's eyes went wide as he looked behind him.
	Laying there on that path, no more than ten feet from him, was
a woman.  Lying completely naked in the snow.  Unconscious.
	Her sea of blue hair spanned away from her head like a pool of
tropical water, and it was dotted with snowflakes.  She was curled lazily
into a fetal position, and she appeared to be around nineteen or twenty
years old.
	The woman moaned quietly once again, and her eyes began to flutter.
She was slowly regaining consciousness.
	Tenchi, breathing heavily, tried to suppress the nosebleed of
seeing this beautiful naked woman, and tried to focus on whether or
not she was alright.
	He frowned as he looked at her face closer.
	<Is that... is that... Tsunami?>
	The woman grunted once again, and rolled onto her back, opening
her eyes to the gloomy forest.  Despite all the willpower that Tenchi
exhibited, he couldn't prevent the blood that began to rush to his head
as he looked upon this woman.
	The woman blinked a few times, and then looked at Tenchi.
	Tenchi's heart stopped.
	<This... isn't Tsunami... it's...>
	The woman's eyes immediately began to tremble, and her entire
body began to quiver as she made eye contact with Tenchi.
	Tenchi shook his head.  "You're..."
	The woman quickly propped herself up with her elbows, and began to
propel herself back away from Tenchi with them as fast as her semi-conscious
body would allow.  With the eyes of a frightened animal, the locomotion
she produced was actually rather high.
	Tenchi held out his hand, as if to stop her.  "Wait!"
	She began to whimper in pure fright.  Then... she ran.
	The woman quickly leapt to her feet, turned from Tenchi, and
began to sprint in the opposite direction, unhindered and naked.
	Tenchi called out to her.  "Wait!  Sasami!"
	The woman didn't listen.  She continued to run like a zebra
from a lion, as fast as she could away from Tenchi.  She was crying
and whimpering every time her bare feet touched the cold snow beneath
her.
	Tenchi took a step towards her to chase her, but stopped as
the incredible pain returned his body.  He winced, and put his hand
on the bottom of his ribcage.  "Dammit..."
	Grunting in determination, Tenchi pushed all of the pain from
his mind, and took of running after the woman.
	He could hear the woman's frightened breathing as she continued
to run aimlessly through the vast forest.  He tripped slightly as
his foot caught a root, but he managed to regain his balance, and
keep up the pursuit.  "Sasami!  Sasami, wait!  Wait, Sasami!"
	The woman was sobbing uncontrollably as she ran from Tenchi,
and her crying began to slow her running speed.  Her dislocation and
fear began to take control of her, and she began to lose speed.
	Tenchi was gaining ground quickly.
	<Sasami?  What... what happened to her?  Why are we here?  What's
going on?!>
	The woman's bare foot caught a root erected from the snow covered
path, and she fell.  She landed face first into the snow, and made no
movement to get up.  She simply sobbed and sobbed into her arms, seeming
to not care about the cold snow pressing against her completely naked
body.
	Tenchi caught up to her, and slowed down.  He sighed, his low sound
full of confusion, pain and sorrow.  He felt his eyes began to water as
he stared at the naked sobbing woman.  The snow covering parts of her body
in small white dots.
	Tenchi leaned down next to her, and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Sasami..."
	She jerked her shoulder away, continuing to cry.  Tenchi ran his
eyes from her head, and followed her hair.  It was exactly like Tsunami's,
only completely free.  It ran down her back, all the way to her exposed
rear.
	"Sasami... Sasami, listen to me.  Answer me, Sasami!"
	Sasami stopped crying for a moment, and looked at him out of the
corner of her frightened pink eyes.
	"S- Sasami?" she whispered.
	Tenchi felt his heart climb into his stomach.
	"A... are you... Sasami?  Who is... Sasami?"
	As she uttered these words, Tenchi felt the cold wind of the forest
pick up, whipping stray snow and foliage about.  Sasami's hair rippled in
the wind, and Tenchi felt the sting of the frost on his face.
	"Y- *You* are Sasami."
	Sasami suddenly began to tremble furiously, and her eyes began
to look around quickly again in terror.  "C- C- Cold..." she whispered.
	Tenchi looked at her leg, and winced.  There was a large blue
bruise on her thigh, most certainly from her fall.  Her ankle was also
sprained from tripping on the root.
	Tenchi took in a deep breath.  "We're going to have to find shelter.
We... we can talk there."
	"Wh- who... who are you?"
	Tenchi closed his eyes in pain.  <Please God... don't let this be
what I think it is.>
	Tenchi looked into Sasami's pink eyes that were searching for
something to latch on to.  Tenchi tried to smile, but found that he
failed miserably.  "I'm... I'm a friend, Sasami."
	Her trembling increased.  "So... so cold..."
	Tenchi then forced every essence of pain, hormones, and fear
down into his stomach, and stood up.  He leaned down over Sasami, and
gently rolled her onto her back.
	"S- S- stop... please..." she tried to say, but her soft, gentle,
frightened voice being drowned by her teeth chattering.
	"I'm sorry... but I have to," Tenchi responded.  Tenchi then
tried to focus his vision away from her now ample breasts and crotch,
and he put one hand under her knees, and the other under her back.  He
then lifted her up into his arms.
	He could feel her trembling violently in them.
	"C... cold... S... Sasami..." she chattered.
	Tenchi began to look around in every direction, trying to find
somewhere... *anywhere*... where they could go inside.  If he didn't,
she would surely die soon.  It was freezing.
	As Tenchi let out a long breath, the water vapor swirled in an
intricate dance once it left his mouth.  Closing his eyes, trying
to push away his pain and the painful whimpers for mercy from Sasami,
he thought.
	<Where are we?>
	He opened his eyes, trying to find something... *anything* with
which he could associate with.  A clue as to their whereabouts.
Anything that would provide them with warmth.  Blinking twice, he walked
towards one of the larger trees a few meters away.
	He stared at the bark for a moment, as Sasami continued to tremble
in his arms.  There was a cross carving into the bark of the tree.
Tenchi's eyes went wide as he realized that he made that carving when
he was a small boy.  In case he ever lost his way in the forest, it was
a marker to return home.
	Home.
	Tenchi nodded, and began to walk towards his home, down the path.
	<Once we get inside... we'll be warm.  Then... then maybe we'll
find out what's going on.>
	He looked down at the naked woman in his arms, and saw that her
eyelids were starting to droop, and she was beginning to lose
consciousness.
	"Don't!  Sasami, don't fall asleep!"
	"C- cold... tired... Sasami..."
	"Dammit!" he shouted, beginning to feel a cold vice inside his
heart taking a firm grip.  He began to run, despite the intense pain
in his legs and arms, trying to get to shelter as quickly as he
possibly could.
	"Sas... Sasami..." she continued to whimper.
	"Yeah... we'll be okay, Sasami.  Everything will be okay."
	Tenchi felt tears streaming down his face as he neared a clearing
in the woods.  Whether or not they were from the cold wind, or his pain,
or the emotional torment that he was experiencing... he didn't know.
	All he knew is that they needed to be inside.  Now.
	Tenchi's hopes began to soar as he broke through the woods and
into the clearing.  The clearing was small, yet it was easily
recognizable.  It was a small outcropping on the stone steps that led
from the lakeside house to the shrine, higher on the mountain.  Letting
out a quick breath, Tenchi calculated through experience that the house
was closer than the shrine, so he began to carefully descend the stone
steps.  He didn't want to slip on ice and fall with Sasami in his arms.
	He tried his best to use the limited leverage he had on Sasami's
thighs and back to rub back and forth to create some friction and make
her somewhat warmer, but it seemed to have no effect.  Her once pleas
for warmth and chattering of her name had now deteriorated into
incomprehensible slurs and whimpers.
	"Hold on... we're almost there... almost there..."
	Tenchi leapt off the last few steps, and broke into a sprint
towards the direction of his house.  As he cleared the forest and
caught sight of his house... he stopped.
	He became frozen in his tracks.
	Blinking a few times, he stared in complete shock at the spectacle.
	His house wasn't there.
	There was a much, much smaller dwelling.  It had no more than
three rooms at most, and it was made completely of primitive lumber.
	His house was nowhere to be seen.
	Tenchi growled in anger, and simply ran to the small house.  He
chalked it up as something that just couldn't be understood.
	Even though he still was in bewilderment.
	Tenchi ran up the three wooden steps onto the porch of the small
house, and didn't even bother to knock.  He kicked at the wooden door,
causing it to fly open.  He wasted no time in walking into the alien
house, and shutting the door behind him with his foot.
	He took in the room he was in quickly.  It had a primitive
kitchen to the left of the doorway, which consisted of a sink, some
cupboards, a small wooden table and two chairs.  On the right side,
was a doorway which led to a small bedroom.  On the left wall, was
a doorway which led to a small bathroom.  And at the far end of this
small room, was a soft couch which was positioned just in front of
exactly what Tenchi wanted to see.
	A fireplace.
	Not noticing (or caring) that the entire house from head to
toe was composed of several different kinds of wood, Tenchi leapt into
action.  Tenchi carried the quietly babbling Sasami to the couch, and
lay her down on it.  He immediately turned to the fireplace, finding
fresh fodder in it.  His eyes drifted to the top of the mantle which
was composed of marble, where they fell upon a matchbook.
	Tenchi quickly grabbed the matches, and began to fumble with
them in an attempt to dislodge a match as expediently as possible.
After a quick moment of freeing the match and lighting it, he set it
to the fodder, and watched with finally appeased eyes as it quickly
began to become engulfed.
	He rose from his kneeling position, and walked back over to
Sasami.  "Sasami?  Sasami?"
	Her whole body was still quaking with shivers.  "S... Sasami...
Sasa... Sasami..."
	Once again pressing down his hormones as best he could, Tenchi
slowly pulled Sasami off of the couch, and gently into his arms again.
He positioned her so that she was closest to the fire, and wrapped in
his arms.  He used his hands to rub up and down her pale, frozen arms.
	Sasami simply stared into the fire as she let her head go limp
against his chest, still whimpering her own name.
	Tenchi let out a breath.  "It's going to be okay, Sasami.  It's
going to be okay.  I'm here.  I'm right here."
	"F- friend... friend... Sasami..."
	Tenchi simply looked up at the low ceiling.  The dark room was
now eerily lit with the orange glow of the fire.  The shadows created
from the beacon of light danced and morphed on the walls, flickering
and then vanishing.
	Tenchi closed his eyes.  <What... what has happened?>


__________
**********


(( Play: "The Tempest - Remix", from 'Neon Genesis Evangelion' ))


The lines of reality quickly began to swirl.  Matter seemed to draw in
and upon itself, crashing into a blinding smattering of light and colors.
As the very distinction of objects and singular entities no longer
became possible, the anti-matter of the existence began to funnel into
an ethereal embodied vortex.
	Washu squinted as her very distinction of existence was torn
asunder, and reality simply became a mass of hyper condensed electrons.
As this occurred, Washu felt her very entity being pulled into this
vortex.  It felt as if she was free falling through a boundless sky
as she felt the remnants of her physical existence be propelled
into the distorted space.
	Countless millennia and knowledge seemed to flow past her inside
this reality distortion.  The wormhole seemed to be some sort of
temporal anomaly.  The tunnel seemed to be the layer of existence that
acted as the pseudo-membrane of various different realities.  As such,
the various realities that it overlapped seemed to congregate all images,
knowledges, times, and existences into this wormhole.  Washu's entity
blazed through it all, seeing things, feelings, and contemplation's of
other beings as clearly as if they were her own.
	She pressed onward.
	Not by her own will, but as if it were some sort of super-entity
that was the driving force behind her propulsion through this smattering
of realities.  Everything seemed to coalesce into a blue haze as Washu
felt herself free fall through the incalculable amount of information
and distinctions.  Faces of various different events floated along
the walls of the wormhole in a distorted manner, almost like reflections
off a rippling water surface.
	<What the... what the hell is this?> Washu thought.  She had
lost the ability to speak.  Even though she actually felt herself
travelling as if she had a body, she did not.  There was nothing other
than her own consciousness travelling beyond the realm of the natural
and into the supernatural.
	Eventually, everything seemed to come to a head.
	The anti-reality seemed to begin to collapse upon itself, and
Washu found her psyche blazing through the wormhole towards an advent
of brilliant light.  The light continued to spur on towards Washu as
fast as she did to it.
	As Washu reached the pinnacle of the lights advent, everything
stopped.  Washu felt herself once more inside of a body.  She felt
herself once more in a stable environment.  Within an actual plane of
physical existence.
	She fell to her knees, and began to pant heavily.  Psychological
transferring from the natural world to the supernatural world was
extremely taxing, afterall.
	"So... you made it."
	Washu managed to slow her breathing, and looked up.  Looking down
at the petite scientist, with a large smile on her face, was Tokimi.
Tokimi stood in her normal raiment's, only her existence was bound to
this world.  She was no longer an astral projection, but it was her actual
physical entity that stood before her.
	Washu took a moment to look around herself.  In every direction,
was a beautiful garden.  Fine trimmed shrubbery, gently falling waterfalls,
cobbled stones, flowers, and a large fountain in the center of it all.
Around the edges of this garden, was a five foot tall stone wall.  It
wrapped around the massive garden in a huge circle.  Beyond the wall,
was nothing.  Simply cloudless blue sky in every direction.  Up, down,
left, right... everywhere.  The Garden was the only form of matter.
	Washu stood, and noticed that Tsunami stood behind her, also in
a physical body.
	Washu turned to the blue haired goddess.  "I thought that you
couldn't leave your ship?" she asked skeptically.
	Tsunami smiled.  "It's called an 'elaborate fabrication'.  I'm
sure you know of them.  It's when you want someone to believe something
that is not true when their ignorance of the matter will benefit you
in more ways than it would if they were privy to the actual knowledge."
	Washu rolled her eyes.  "You could've just said 'I'm a lying
bitch', and that would've been fine with me."
	Tsunami smiled, but didn't respond.
	Tokimi nodded, smiling as well.  She walked around Washu next to
Tsunami.  "Well, either way, Washu... you're here."
	Washu nodded.  "Yeah, that's right.  I'm here.  You two still
haven't told me what the hell is going on.  I'm getting a little bit
pissed off about that, you know."
	"Patience, patience," Tokimi cooed, "All will come with time.
The game has just begun, after all.  The players are ready to begin.
The pieces are in place.  So now we let the game begin."
	Washu crossed her arms and frowned.  "Uh huh.  And what are
*we* going to do about it?"
	"Watch," Tsunami said softly.  "We are going to simply let the
players play."
	Washu's frown deepened.  "Not on my life.  Where is everyone?
I'm not going to sit on my ass and let you people screw with my friends.
Goddess or not."
	Tokimi laughed.  "You will see, Washu.  You will see."


__________
to be continued



(( Ending Theme: "The Memory of Trees", by 'Enya' ))



***


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