DISCLAIMER:  All of the characters and character names from Tenchi
Muyo, TMil, and Shin Tenchi are property of Pioneer and AIC.  This
work of fiction is written for fan appreciation only.  Please do
not sue me. 
__________
NOTES:   This work of fan fiction is based in the OAV continuity of
Tenchi Muyo and borrows some elements from Tenchi Universe such as Nagi,
the Yagami, and also borrows from Shin Tenchi Muyo to introducing Yugi,
Sakuya, and Ryu-Ohki's mech form into the story.  I have also introduced 
some new characters and creations into the mix.  I hope you enjoy the 
series as much as I enjoyed working on it.
__________
THE DARK LORD OF JURAI SAGA

Episode Two:  No Need for A Space Journey

Written by Michael "The-Zorch" Haney
__________
Previously...

	Tenchi and the gang braved the forces of another interdimensional 
accident and survived an encounter with creatures created by Washu and Tsunami's 
evil sister Lady Tokimi.  The journey through the region of space called the 
Dead Zone has taken them six months.  What has happened in that time, and what 
will Tenchi and the gang face next.
__________
Chapter Six: Return to Darkness
	
	A dark shadow loomed over the Masaki family as they sat together in their 
living room on the Yagami.  Today they were leaving the Yagami but that in 
itself did not seem like sufficient cause for celebration, because they knew 
what lay ahead of them.  The mood began to spread among the family when Washu 
brought up a question of what to do if they encountered Kagato again.  Tenchi 
was 
immediately troubled, he hated Kagato more so than any other man who ever lived.  
He hated him for what he did to Ryoko and what his continued existence is doing 
to her now.  The very notion that he was still alive tore a wound in Ryoko's
heart that he felt also through their unique link.  For Aeka it was a different 
experience, she only met with Kagato once in her life when they fought him on 
the Soja.  Together she and Ryoko fought a desperate battle to kill Kagato to 
take revenge for Tenchi's death.  Tenchi did not know if he did indeed die and
that Tsunami resurrected him or not, but he did know that he was not conscious 
after the fragment of Ryouhl that Ryu-Ohki was carrying exploded.  The next 
thing he remembered was appearing before Tsunami and thinking for an instant 
that she was an angel because she was so beautiful,  but she explained things
to him and teleported him to the Soja.  When he arrive he made short work of 
Kagato by employing the power of the Light Hawk Wings.  Since that time, after 
great practice and intense training, he has learned to call upon the awesome 
power that had been hidden away in him since his birth.  Now that power was to 
be put to the ultimate test for Kagato was still alive and he was more powerful 
than ever before because he was now a Darkling Regent.  A Regent was a powerful 
creature with immense powers and abilities that dwarfed most, if not all, other 
Darklings expect for the Regis.  Together the Regent and Regis can spawn
Darklings that are more powerful and destructive than the ones they can create 
by infecting their victims with their seed.
	The living room on the Yagami sat in a pocket of subspace just like 
Washu's lab back at the house on planet Earth billions of light years away.  
Here the family could set and talk and draw strength from one another.  Since 
his union with Aeka and Ryoko a mood of optimism and hope had creped into the 
minds of the family, but what they were to face as they left the Dead Zone was 
quickly drowning any optimism they might have.
	"Lets face facts." Washu said explaining from behind her holo computer.  
"Yagami's etherealologic modifications will not be enough to withstand an all 
out attack by a Darkling ship."
	"You told us this already, Little Washu." Tenchi said.
	She looked at him and wondered if she heard a hint of exasperation in his 
voice that suspiciously sounded too much like what Ryoko would say.  "True, but 
I need to emphasize this, we cannot take them on head on...not right now we 
can't." she said.
	"So we'll have to keep dodging them until we reach Jurai and hope they 
didn't do anything too serious there." Tenchi said with a sigh.
	"Why are they doing all of this anyway, what are they after?" Kiyone 
asked.
	"The Elo'Quin, the race of creatures of Orrin's universe that created 
Etherealology." Washu explained.  "They made the initial discovery that magic 
was a normal formation of nature and could be harnessed using scientific means."
	"Because of this the Darklings saw the Elo'Quin as a major threat to their 
continued existence and they vowed to wipe out the Elo'Quin to keep 
Etherealology from ever being used against them." Yosho said from across the 
room where he sat in a lotus position.
	"That would sum it up quite well." Washu said, just a little impressed 
with Yosho's ability to dig down to the facts of things.
	"What exactly does Jurai have to do with all of this?" Aeka asked, she had 
heard some of Washu's earlier explanation but she needed to hear more.
	"The Elo'Quin scattered through space, time, and alternate realities." 
Washu explained.  "Some came to this universe and dwelled on Jurai for a time."
	"Some of them must have had children with the Juraians, thus in the 
thinking of the Darklings that makes them a threat." Tenchi said, but he was 
only surmising.
	"Very good, Tenchi, there is hope for you yet." Washu said to him.  
Tenchi's face reddened.  Washu sighed and said, "Despite all he told me, Orrin 
only knew very little about the Darklings, and the fact is that what we know is 
just the tip of the iceberg."
	Ryoko slammed her fist into the palm of her hand making a loud smacking 
sound.  "Tenchi and I can call up our Light Hawk Wings and carve those assholes 
a new one." she said.
	Washu shook her head.  "Foolish daughter, didn't you hear anything I just 
told you." Washu scolded her.  "We don't know just how powerful they really 
are."
	"Ya, you and Tenchi had your Light Hawk Wings and they were still kicking 
our asses in Washu's lab." Kiyone said.
	Noboyuki cringed at the memory, he was an ordinary human caught in the 
middle of that hellish battle trying to protect a cowardly version of his son 
and a pregnant Sakuya from alternate dimensions.
	"Lets not talk about that, its bad enough I have to remember being in the 
middle of it." he said.
	"Sorry, Mr. Masaki." Kiyone said with real concern in her voice.
	"The Darkling ability to dampen magical energy is also a major stumbling 
block we need to get around." Washu said.  "I've been working on a way to deal 
with that."
	"When they had me and Mihoshi, it was horrible." Kiyone said with tears in 
her eyes.  "It was like a terrible combination of experiencing a constant orgasm 
and feeling someone ripping into your with chainsaw at the same time."  Noboyuki 
slid over next to her and put his arm around her, she did not seem to notice 
this and did not try to move away from him.  "I don't want to feel that ever 
again." she sobbed as Noboyuki held her.
	"I don't intend to let that happen to anyone again, especially the people 
I care about." Tenchi said.  Aeka and Ryoko both gave him a physical hug and a 
wave of loving emotions through their link.
	"Tonight we leave the Dead Zone and enter normal space.  We will be fair 
game from then on." Washu said.
	"Then I suggest that we keep a watch out of anything suspicious that could 
be a Darkling ship trying to ambush us." Yosho suggested.
	"I rigged the scanners of the ship to alert us the second a Darkling 
energy signatures comes within sensor range." Washu told him.
	"We should also keep an optimistic attitude." Yosho said.  "If you keep 
your worst fears in your heart then you are doomed to experience them."
	"Good philosophies, I only hope it will work." Tenchi said.
	"Anything will be better than being destroyed by those monsters." Aeka 
said.
	Sasami yawned deeply and leaned up against Mihoshi who kept very silent 
through the entire conversation.  "We won't be of any use in an attack if 
collapse from lack of sleep." she said as the now young teenaged princess lay 
her head in the blonde policewoman's lap and feel asleep.
	"Mihoshi, sometimes I think your air headedness is just a rouse." Washu 
said.  "But, she is right, we need to get some sleep."
	"Look at her, she's still as cute as when she was a child." Tenchi said.
	"In body she may be fourteen or so, but in mind Sasami is still a child." 
Aeka said.
	"A child who has to do alot of growing up really fast, I feel sorry for 
her sometimes knowing what she must be going through." Washu said.
	"Mihoshi would you take her to bed, I'll take first watch on the bridge." 
Kiyone said.
	"I'll take second." Ryoko spoke up.
	"We need one more." Kiyone said.
	"I'll do it." Noboyuki said.  It was at that moment that Kiyone realized 
just who's arms she was in.  She did not know whether to blush or punch his 
lights out.  Noboyuki had made no attempt to fondle her or grope her at all.  In 
fact, his hands were placed in such a way that he was far from anything that 
could be misunderstood as a sexual advance.  Noboyuki was actually acting 
normal, and Kiyone for some reason like it.  Wait a minute, I can't actually be 
starting to like this guy, she thought to herself, the first thing he did when I 
moved into the Masaki home was to try and sneak a picture of me naked in the 
Onsen, but Ryoko showed up and stopped him.  I can't trust him, he'll just 
trying to grab my ass or something when I stand up.  But she saw genuine concern 
in the man's eyes when she looked at him.  Oh my God, I can't believe 
myself...I'm starting to LIKE Tenchi's dad, she thought to herself again as she 
blushed a deep red.  Thankfully for her nobody but Noboyuki noticed.
	Mihoshi helped a very groggy Sasami to her bedroom and Yosho retreated to 
his own room.  Soon the only ones left were Tenchi, his wives, and Washu.  
Kiyone walked with Noboyuki out of the living room and they parted when they 
reach their rooms.  Kiyone went into the room that she shared with Mihoshi to
get ready for her first shift on the bridge, and Noboyuki went to his private 
room at the end of the hall.
	"I can see that the link has done wonders for you three." Washu said with 
a humorous smirk on her face.
	"Our love for Tenchi has helped us maintain the peace." Aeka said.
	"Its not just that, I suspect that your link is also allowing certain 
personality traits to slowly work their into your own." Washu said.
	Tenchi frowned for a moment.  "What do you mean, Little Washu?" he asked.
	"Ryoko has been exhibiting a little bit of your common sense Tenchi, and a 
little bit of Ryoko's wild side has become a part of you." She said.  "Aeka has 
changed a little also, she isn't that poor shy little princess we knew months 
ago."
	"I am not a poor shy little princess!" Aeka said, her eyes flashing with 
anger, and she stood up
in a pose that looked like one Ryoko used to use against her during their fights 
over Tenchi.
	"That's a typical Ryoko-esque reaction if I ever saw one." Washu said.
	"Huh?" Aeka said suddenly as she looked down at herself and noticed what 
she was doing.
	"It's nothing to worry about, its a change that is for the better, I hope 
but the link between you three if slowly changing your personalities." Washu 
explained.
	"If it gives me a little piece of Ryoko and Aeka within myself I can live 
with that." Tenchi said, and the two women have him loving kisses.
	Washu sighed.  "There was time when I wish I could have been the one in 
your arms." she said.
	Tenchi looked at her and remember the day she tried to collect her sample.  
She offered to extract it in a number of different ways until Mihoshi showed up 
and interrupted her.
	"I didn't know your feelings for me were...real." he said to her.  Aeka 
and Ryoko both gave Washu a very strange look.
	"For a while it was, but most of it was raw lust." she said, and Tenchi 
blushed.  "You were very cute and you were the first man I'd been close to in 
several thousand years, so you can't really blame me for being a little horny."
	Tenchi gulped.  [So that is where Ryoko gets it.] he thought to himself 
and he heard Ryoko chuckle as she received the thought.
	"Tenchi sweetie, my mother can almost be as hentai as your Dad." Ryoko 
laughed out loud.
	Washu make the kind of face she usually made when someone called her name 
without added "Little" to the beginning.  "True but I don't transmit it to the 
world like he does." she said.  Aeka and Ryoko sent Tenchi vivid images into his 
mind different things Washu had shown them over the years, alien porn,
exotic sex toys, and a robotic copy of him with a manhood-feature that would 
have rivaled the size of the legendary John Holmes.  Tenchi turned blood red, 
and he looked at his wives while they looked back at him and licked their lips.  
He made love to them each a few times since their bonding, so he was not very
embarrassed about thinking such thoughts about them, but to be the object of 
lust 
he was not accustomed to it.
	"Well, we have to getting to bed." Ryoko said as she stood up and grabbed 
Tenchi's arm.
	"Yes, I agree." Aeka said.  "The early worm gets the bird, as they say."
	"That's the early bird gets the worm." Tenchi corrected.
	[Worm, oh yes, the worm.] Aeka said through the link with a very sweet 
smile and mischief in her voice.
	"Don't tire him out too much, girls." Washu called after them as they 
headed for their room.  "He might have to be in prime condition if we meet our 
dark friends."

	Kiyone watched the scopes on Yagami's bridge but saw nothing for millions 
of miles.  They had already left the Dead Zone behind and were traveling 
through stable space.  Planet Jurai was only a few days away at maximum speed.  
She took the time to think things though about this sudden change of 
attitude towards Tenchi's father.  She noticed over the weeks that he was 
changing, whether the events of their journey were maturing him, or he was just 
growing out of his hentai stage she did not know.  She did know that when ever 
he looked at her or she at him she felt very strange, and she blushed.  It 
started that day they talked on the bridge after they first launched on his 
trip, and it became worse since then.
	Despite his age she had to admit that Noboyuki was not altogether 
unpleasant to look at.  He was old enough to be her father, but she personally 
know women in the GP who married men alot older than they were.  The very 
thought of marriage suddenly made her cringe.  She knew that she would not be at 
peace until she had a talk with him about this.  She had to set things straight 
before they out of hand, but every time she thought about ending what was 
starting to happen she suddenly felt very uneasy.  It was as if something inside 
her was warning her that she was about to make a serious mistake.  She 
recognized it as that little voice in the back of her head that always popped up 
when she yelled too much at Mihoshi sometimes...it was her conscience.  She 
sighed, "Dammit, of all the men in the universe I have to start falling for why 
him?"
	Before long her wristwatch started to chime and she looked at the time and 
saw it was time to get Ryoko for her shift.  Before she got up though Ryoko 
phased though the hatch and sat in the copilot seat.  She has a very satisfied 
look on her face, and her hair seemed a little matted down from sweat.
	"I was just about to come get you." Kiyone said.
	"Hmm?" Ryoko said like she wasn't paying attention.
	"I see you've been preoccupied." Kiyone said with a sly smile know exactly 
why Ryoko was drenched in sweat.
	"I don't want to be known as one to kiss and tell, but Tenchi is very very 
very good in bed." Ryoko said.
	"I can just imagine." Kiyone said remembering all the times she had seen 
Tenchi in action with his bokken at his grandfather's shrine and marveling at 
how fast and strong he was despite his misleadingly skinny appearance.
	"So, I take it was all quiet tonight?" Ryoko asked as she looked at the 
scope on her console.
	"Not so much as an asteroid." Kiyone said.
	"Well, get some sleep, I've it now." Ryoko said.
	"Thanks." Kiyone said as she stood up and started to head towards the 
hatch.  She stopped and looked at Ryoko.
	"Ryoko, what do you think of Tenchi's father?" she asked.
	Ryoko looked back at her and was about to make a derogatory remark about 
the man but she was the serious look at Kiyone's face.
	"He's a hentai most of the time, but he tried to do the right think when 
it comes to Tenchi." she said.  "Despite all the things he does he is not that 
bad a person and he loves his son very much."
	"Despite the hentai aspect, what do you think about him?" Kiyone asked.
	"I think that part of him appeared when Tenchi's mom died, it tore them 
both apart pretty bad." Ryoko told her.  "I used to see Noboyuki and Achika as 
teenagers walking through the forest near my cave. They were really in love and 
they made love a few times on the bank of the lake.  Despite the fact that
she is gone he is very devoted to her still.  I think he pretty nice guy, if you 
overlook the hentai in him."
	"Thanks." Kiyone said.  "Could you keep this conversation just between 
us?"
	"Sure." Ryoko said as she did a Spock Maneuver.
	"Thanks again." Kiyone said as she left though the hatch.
	Ryoko turned back around to the scopes and said to herself, "What was that 
all about?"

	In their quarters Tenchi held Aeka in his arms, they lay on the bed 
drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.  He looked into her crimson eyes and he 
was a desire there, not a simple desire for his body but for something more, 
something like what Ryoko was giving him.  He pulled her close and he kissed her 
longingly.  He felt through their link the need for her to do this in her.
	"It will happen when I happens." he told her.
	"It happened to Ryoko so soon, and we knew humans and Juraians are 
compatible because of my brother." she said.
	"What I'm surprise about is that Ryoko and I are compatible." he said.
	"I just wish I could give you a token of my love same as her." Aeka said 
with a sad sigh.
	"Don't turn it into a competition, you two haven't fought over me for a 
while now." he told her.
	Aeka shook her head.  "We've both come to far and changed too much to go 
back to our old ways." She said.  "Its just I wish I could give you a child, 
also."
	Tenchi hugged her tight and felt it was a need in her that very great.  
She wanted to give him a child the same as Ryoko.  It had been a desire of Ryoko 
to be the mother of his child too before she discovered that she was pregnant.
	"We can keep trying." he told her and she gave him a powerful kiss.
	[Love you so much.] she said through their link.
	[I love you, Aeka.] he said though their link.
	Before long they feel asleep in each other's arms.  As they drifted off 
the protective barrier they erected in their minds dropped and Ryoko could feel 
them on the other end of the link again.  Before he went totally unconscious 
Tenchi sent a wave of loving emotions to both his wives.  Ryoko smiled as she
watched the scopes on the bridge and patted her stomach gently.  She was not 
showing yet, but she knew that inside their was a tiny life that she made with 
Tenchi.  She was concerned that all the action they had seen in the past few 
weeks might have endangered the baby, but Washu assured her that the baby was
just fine.
	Hours passed and Ryoko looked at the chronometer and saw it was time for 
Noboyuki to take his turn.  She decided to wait for him to show up before going 
to get him.  Elsewhere on the ship Kiyone found it very hard to sleep, she 
tossed and turned in her bed.  It was not from Mihoshi's snoring, she
had gotten used to that, but it was from the images of Noboyuki that kept 
popping up in her mind.  She sat up and looked at the digital clock next to her 
bed.  She saw it was nearing Noboyuki's turn on the bridge.  She got up, slipped 
into a pair of slippers and smoothed out the wrinkles in her nightgown.
She padded her way towards the bridge and stopped at the hatch, she heard a 
sound and hid in an alcove as Noboyuki passed her and opened the hatch to the 
bridge.  She heard Ryoko's voice say something and then heard Noboyuki say 
goodnight to Ryoko as she left.  Kiyone stepped up to the closed hatch and
wondered if she was about to do the right thing.  Her hands were trembling as 
she opened the hatch and slowly walked inside.
	Tenchi's father was sitting at the pilot's seat looking over the scopes 
and consoles and scratching his head.  "Who am I kidding, I don't even know what 
half of these things do." she heard him say.  "Knowing my luck I'll accidently 
hit the self-destruct."
	"I rigged that one out for safety a long time ago." she said, and Noboyuki 
almost jumped out of his skin.
	He recovered quickly and started rubbing the back of his head the way 
Tenchi usually did.  "I guess with a partner like Mihoshi you have to." he 
laughed.  So, that's were Tenchi gets it from, Kiyone said to herself.
	Kiyone could not help but notice that Noboyuki did not seem to react to 
the fact that she was in her nightgown.  She half expected him to bee ogling 
her.  She was not at all unpleasant to look at and she had a very well formed 
and athletic body.  One of the things that did get to her though was the fact 
that men seemed to pay more attention to Mihoshi than to her whenever they 
went out on the town.  Men seemed to be intimidated by her for some reason.  
She figured because she gave the impression she was all career and had no 
room for anything else.  In fact, Kiyone had felt something was missing from 
her life for a long time, and that thing was a serious relationship with a man.
	"Ya, before I did she accidentally tripped it at least twice a day." she 
said with a chuckle.  Kiyone walked up to the co-pilot seat and sat down.  
Noboyuki was looking at the scopes and he absently looked over at her for a 
second.  He did not seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, but
suddenly took a double take when he noticed what she was wearing for the first 
time.  Noboyuki's usual reaction to a beautiful woman in lacy lingerie was 
replaced by a deep red blush.
	"Couldn't sleep?" he asked as he started to sweat.  Kiyone noticed this.
	"No." she said.  "Which is why I came here."
	He looked at her and could not help but notice the look on her face.  He 
had to admit that he did like her very much.  She was indeed a very beautiful 
woman, she was not as drop dead gorgeous as Ryoko and Aeka, but she wasn't ugly 
either.  He could not help but see the smooth curves of her body visible
underneath her night gown, and the distinct shape of her breasts, the way her 
dark teal hair feel down her shoulder.  He blinked and tore his eyes away, 
turning a little redder.  What am I kidding, he thought to himself, she thinks 
I'm an old hentai and I'm at least 20 years older than her.  Since he could
not help wonder why she was here, with him, in her nightgown knowing what he 
was like.  But your only like that because you and Achika were such passionate 
lovers, and when she passed on it left a deep void in your life, said a voice 
deep within his soul.
	"Tell me about Achika." Kiyone said.
	"Huh?" he asked, not hearing her correctly.
	"Tell me about Achika, what kind of woman was she?" she asked.
	"She was my life, my treasure, my first true love." he said, the words 
coming to him from his heart. "I met her when I visited the Masaki Shrine one 
year, I feel in love with her the first time I saw her, but she hated by guts.  
It took two years to get her to come around and after that we started dating.  
We didn't starting getting really serious until after we graduated high school.  
Katsuhito helped me get into college and I took up architecture.  After I 
graduated we got married, and a year later we had Tenchi.  I loved her
so much, she was the world to me, and when she died it took a piece of me with 
her."  He almost seemed on verge of tears, and Kiyone felt like kicking herself 
for causing him this pain.
	"She was a loving woman, she liked the poems I used to write her when we 
started dating." he said.
	"You write poetry?" Kiyone asked, quite surprised.
	"I was young and deeply in love, Achika was such a beautiful woman, and 
don't tell Aeka or Ryoko this but I feel she was more beautiful than either of 
them put together." he said.
	Kiyone remembered seeing pictures of Achika around the house.  She had to 
admit that Achika was indeed a very lovely woman.
	"I know what your thinking, she had to have been some woman to put up with 
someone likme me, huh?" he said, it was more a statement than a question.  
"Truth is, you think I'm a hentai you should have met Achika."  This revelation 
was a real shocker for Kiyone, she looked at him and saw the sincerity in his
face.
	"She was as bad as you." she said with surprise in her voice.
	"Oh yes, I remember our first time, we were near what was Ryoko's cave 
when she attacked me and started tearing my clothes off.  Well, pulling off, not 
quite tearing, but you get what I mean." he said. "She was something else, I 
guess that is why I am the way I am.  After being married to a woman like her 
you
begin to miss it when she is not around."  Noboyuki put his face in his hands 
and he started to visibly weep.  "The day she died will be a day I will never 
ever forget." he sobbed.
	Kiyone felt horrible, her simple question about his late wife elicited 
this powerful emotional reason and it was all her fault.  She got up and walked 
up to him and put her hands on his shoulders.  He looked up at her with tear 
fill eyes and she could see her reflection in them.  For an instant she saw
herself and Noboyuki standing side by side in weeding dress, she almost gasped 
at the vision, or was it what was in her heart.
	"I'm so sorry.  I didn't mean for this to hurt you so." she said.
	"Its alright, if I don't get that out once in a while I might burst." he 
chuckled.
	"Nr. Masaki, Noboyuki, I have to talk you about something." she said.
	"What about, Kiyone?" he asked.
	Here it goes girl, the point of no return, she said to herself.  "Do you 
think you will ever marry again?" she asked.
	"Only if I found the right the woman, a woman who would love me for who I 
am, and who would love my son." he said with sincerity in his voice.
	"What do you think of me?" she asked.
	That got a reaction.  Noboyuki's eyes went wide with surprise and he 
searched her face for any sign of why she asked that question.
	"I thought you mated me?" he said.  "I heard you say so the last time 
I....huh."  She remembered saying such a think when he last tried to snap her 
picture in the onsen.
	"The past few days I have been thinking about you, I can't get you out of 
my mind, and today when you held me...." she said but her words trailed off when 
she found herself getting lost in Noboyuki's eyes.
	Oh my God, I am in love with him, she said to herself, I'm doomed!
	The passion of the moment grabbed them and they leaned towards one 
another, their lips getting closer about to touch when suddenly klaxxons sounded 
on the bridge.  They turned and looked at the scopes and several red indicators 
appeared.
	"Darklings, they found us." Kiyone hissed.
	"Damn." Noboyuki said under his breath and he got up from the pilot's seat 
so Kiyone could take the controls.
	"Go back and wake everybody, if I can't loose them we're going to have a 
fight on our hands." Kiyone said.
	"I'n going." he said and then turned back.  "Kiyone, about what happened."
	"If we get through this we can pick up where we left off." she said with a 
smile.
	"I'd really like that." he said and passed through the hatch.
	Well, Kiyone, you passed the threshold, I hope I know what I'm doing, she 
said to herself.

	The Regis saw through the eyes of her minions on the ships that pursued 
the Yagami.  She felt the power of the beings inside the ship and she could feel 
the disgusting throb of Elo'Quin energy.  It enraged her, but she reined in her 
rage and concentrated on maintaining the link.  Five Darkling craft, the same
configuration that confronted the Lunari, followed the Yagami at a distance 
after detecting it in space.  She quickly called upon several more in the area 
and before long she had nearly twenty ships surrounding the ship.
	Kiyone watched the ship appear on her scope and she started to sweat.  
Tenchi and the others came onto the bridge just as the twentieth ship showed up.
	"We've got a problem." she told them.
	Back on the lead Darkling craft, the Regis still commanded the body and 
mind of the captain of that ship.  She turned to the crew of the ship who were 
mentally linked to the subsystems in the vessel for navigation, weapons and 
engineering.  She herself looked at her Regent, Kagato as he too looked
through the eyes of a captain on another one of the pursuing ships.
	"We have no need of them anymore.  All is going as planned on Jurai, 
unless you want them?" the Regis asked him.
	"I no longer need the Tsunami Unit, and Ryoko has soiled herself with that 
boy....kill them." He said.  "But lets toy with them a bit, take two of his 
friends
and let the others live to feel the pain of loss."
	The Regis smiled broadly.  "As you desire, my Regent." she said.

	Tenchi looked at the scopes, understanding only half of what he was 
looking at, and looked back at Kiyone.  "Your saying there is no way we can 
loose them?" he asked.
	"We have no cover, and if we can see them on our scopes they can most 
certainly see us." she said.
	Washu had her holocomputer engaged and was working so fast that her hands 
seemed to almost be blurring as they moved.
	"These are new, they seem more powerful than the ones we encountered 
before." she said.  "We can't take these guys on, they out gun us and out 
number us."
	"All we can do is run and hope they can't overtake us." Kiyone said.
	"That does not leave us with many options." Yosho said, rubbing his chin.
	"I seem to recall that there was an asteroid field in his area." Ryoko 
said.
	They all looked at her.  "Where?" Kiyone asked.
	"Near the star Caprima Prime." she said.  Kiyone checked the charts and a 
diagram of the system showed up on her screen.
	"Its three hours from here at top speed." she said.  "If we can make it 
there we might be able to loose them."
	"How much time will this add to our journey to Jurai?" Aeka asked.
	"No more than a few hours if we are careful." Kiyone said.
	"I hate asteroids, remember the last time we went into asteroids, Kiyone?" 
Mihoshi asked.
	"Don't remind me, but this time I'm at the helm." she said.
	"That rock ran out in front of me, it wasn't my fault." Mihoshi cried.
	"It never is." Kiyone hissed under her breath.  She felt a pat on her 
shoulder as she looked to see Noboyuki smile at her.  She returned the smile.  
Thankfully, nobody notice the exchange because they were too busy looking at the 
scopes and indicators..
	"Do whatever you need to do, I feel that something terrible is happening 
or is about to happen on Jurai." Tenchi told Kiyone.
	"Oh no." Sasami gasped.
	"I'll try." Kiyone told him.
	"We all believe in you, Kiyone." he said.

	Kiyone made for the 	asteroid field at top speed.  On the scopes the 
Darkling
ships were altering course to follow them.  One important lession taught in the 
GP
was now to avoid a greater apponent until backup arrive, but in this situation 
there
would be no backup.  She employed all that she had learned on evasion and guided 
the
ship in among the giant asteroids.  Noboyuki sat gripping his seat, he was 
reliving
the asteroid chase scene from that Star Wars movie first hand.  The ship jolted 
a few
times as Kiyone fired retros to make quick course correctsto avoid a large rock.  
Far
ahead in the viewport Noboyuki could make out the really massive asteroids 
tumbling
in the distance.  A few he guessed has to be at least the size of Japan 
themselves,
and maybe larger.
	The ships on the scope were getting closer and moving much faster.  Kiyone
swore under her breath as she avoid smacking the Yagami on a huge rock the size 
of
a Volkswagon Beetle.  It wouod not be long until those ships were on top of 
them,
and she still did not know if she could really loose them out here.  There were
throusands of smaller asteroids, but the larger ones congragrated near the enter 
of
the belt.  The throttle was set to full, she could not get anymore speed out of 
the
ship without overloading the engines which would create a titanic explosion when 
the
quantum sigularity core explodes.
	Tenchi and the others left the bridge to batten things down in their 
private
quaters for when things got dicy.  Noboyuki elected to stay with Kiyone to give 
her
moral support.  He watched the scopes from his seat to Mihoshi's console, his 
fear
rising as the Darkling ships quickly closed the distance between them.

	Lightyears away the Darkling Regis walked through the corridores of her 
ship
when a wave of agony washed over her.  She recognized the feeling, it was the 
feeling
of thousands of her kind somewhere, another galaxy, another universe, suddenly 
loosing
their life.  The sensation subsided after several agonizing moments and she 
found
herself on the ground.  As soon as she stood, she heard the voice of her master 
in her
mind.
	[Regis!] the voice called.
	[Lord.} she answered.
	[A problem has arrisen, a Champion of Light has appeared.] the master told 
her.
[Out plans in dimension 001 have failed, our ranks thinned, and our forces 
defeated.]
	[How could this be?] she asked in sudden disbelief.
	[We underestimated our dreaded foe, the Elo'Quin once again.] the master 
said.
[The one know as Orrin Quintarin has arrisen as a Champion of Light and he 
possess
immense power.]
	[How long until we can strike again?] she asked.
	[Our main forces are still very far away, but I must warn you that the 
Champion
of Light is travelling to your dimensional coordinates.]
	{What, but I felt the defeat just a moment ago.] the Regis replied.
	[Time differences between the two universes vary.] the voice said.  [That 
defeat
occured four centuries ago.  The Champion of Light is coming and you must be 
ready to
meet him, he must not be allowed to join the one know as Tenchi Masaki.]
	[The human boy, but what threat could he pose to us?] the Regis asked.
	[He possess the greatest power in that universe, but has little 
understanding of
the full extent of his abilities.] the master told her.  {He must never learn 
how to
use this power or our plans here will meet a similar end.]
	[I understand, our forces are pursuing his ship as we speak, the boy will 
be
dead soon.] the Regis replied with a smile.
	[Excellent.] said the voice.  [In the meantime, I am sending you a gift.]
	The Regis nearly feel to the ground again as a vision suddenly entered her 
head.
She was standing in deep space with nothing around her, suddenly a large portal 
opened
up before her.  The portal was massive, several thousand miles across.  The 
power it took
to generate such a portal was massive, and the Regis knew the master was using 
up a great
deal of his own essense to create it.  From the swirling maw of the portal 
hundreds of
thousands of shapes began to form.  The Regis watched in fascination as the 
shapes
became ships, thousands of ships, and all of them were Darkling craft.  These 
were
different from the ones she commanded, they were the elite forces.  They 
nightmares
given physical shape, and they were the msot powerful ships the Darklings had at 
their
disposal.  She laughed and knew that the crew commanding thses ships were no 
ordinary
Darklings also.  These were the true Darklings, the creatures from which their 
seed
spawned.
	[They are yours to command, use them well.] the voice told her before the 
vision
faded leaving her back on her own ship.

	The situation for the Yagami became very grave as the first of several 
Darkling
ships came within firing range of the ship.  Kiyone dove the ship towards one of 
the
larger asteroids as energy blasts burst around them.  Several more ships 
suddenly 
appeared and added their own fire power to the mix.  Kiyone set the rear guns to
automatic so they would return fire, but even with the monifications the weapons 
did
no damage to these new Darkling ships.
	In the crew quarters Washu summoned a viewscreen of the ships and she 
watched
their power readouts.  She got a clear picture of what these new ships could 
really
done and she whistled.
	"Ryoko, you won't be able to pull your stunt on these ships like you did 
that
one before we entered the Dead Zone." she told her daughter.
	"Why is that?" Ryoko asked.
	"I think these might be the type of ship that took out that Juraian ship, 
the
Lunari." she said looking at Sasami.  The new teenaged princess just looked down 
at
the floor.  "Your Light Hawk Wings alone may not be enough." she continued.
	"How can we beat them then?" Tenchi asked.
	Washu just sat there and looked at her hands.  "I don't know, for the 
first time
in my life, Tenchi, I don't really know."

	According to the laws of astrophysics, the more massive an object the 
larger its
gravity becomes.  With asteroids this is the same as well, and occasionally some 
are
large enough to pull in smaller asteroids as satelites.  In some very rare 
occurances
an asteroids is large enough to hold its own atmosphere.  Although the 
atmosphere is
very thin and ususally made up of gases that are not breathable by most humanoid
beings.  In a very few reasonably rare situations an asteroids is large enough 
to 
hold a thicker atmosphere, and rarely still that atmophere is breathable.  This 
was
the kind of asteroid that Kiyone saw through the viewscreen of the Yagami as she
tried to avoid their Darkling pursuers.
	"We might be able to use that to evade them." she said.  "its not an M-
class
atmosphere, which is pretty rare, but its thin so it might be like being as a 
very
high altitude on Earth."
	"That is assuming we leave the ship, right?" Noboyuki asked her.
	"Right now I want to be ready for anything." she replied, and then a blast 
hit
the ship from behind.  Her eyes went wide as she watched the stress guages on 
the shields
go above the tolerance level and quickly return to normal.
	"Shit, one more like that and our shields will be gone." she shouted aftrr 
the
jolting subsided.

	Sociological and political turmoil on Earth prevented most of the ground 
based
observatories and monitoring stations from detecting a strange anomali occuring 
near
the moon.  A small rip in the fabric of space and time formed, manifesting as a 
round,
stable portal.  From the black depths of this portal a single starship emerged.  
It
was unlike any ship that had ever been seen or ever will be seen in this 
universe.  The
ship was sleek, almost organic in appearance, and its outer hull was shiny 
black.  The
starship had no visible engines or external hatches, and it needed none since 
the ship
could form a hatch out of its own molecular structure, and it had a will of its 
own.
	Three humanoid beings sat in the spacious bridge of this unique starship.  
One
was a young man appearing to be in his early teens who sat at an astrogation 
console,
a young teenaged girl sat at a communications and sensor console, and an older 
man
in his late twenties sat at the helm.  An accented voice, resembling a British 
accent,
can out of nowhere and everywhere at the same time, "Dimensional drive 
disengaged, we
have arrived."
	"Open a channel on frequency 234.341.1." the older helmsman ordered.
	"Channel open, Dad." the teen communications officer replied.
	"Hello, are you there?" the helmsman asked, knowing his words were being 
broadcast.
"I know you detected our arrival, please answer."
	Only static answered his hail on the other end of the link.
	"I don't think they got the signal." the girl at the com station said.  
"Sensors
read that the signal is bouncing back."
	"Is there any activitiy in the subspace pocket attached to the house in 
Japan?"
the helmsman asked.
	"None at all, and there are only two humanoid lifeforms down there." the 
girl said.
"One Homosapian, and the other an unknown alien species, but it appears female."
	The helmsman scratched his chin a moment.  "We are at the corrrect 
dimensional
coordinates?" the accented voice said out loud.
	"Then, where is everyone?" the navigator asked for the first time from his 
post.
	"If I might make a suggestion, your highness, I am detecting something 
that might
be of interest to you further from the planet." the voice said.  A holographic 
image
appeared in front of the helmsman displaying an orbital scematic of the planet 
Earth.
	"I am detecting tbe residual radiation from the Starburst Unit." the voice 
said
as a small red blotch appeared along the orbital track of the planet.
	"That can't be, its been over 400 years." the helmsman said.
	"The rate of decay of the radiation indicates that only 6 to 7 months have
passed since the incident." the voice replied.
	The helmsman's eyes went wide in disbelief, but then recognition appeared 
on his
face and he smacked his hand onto his forehead. "Damn, I forgot about temporal 
physics
differenciation factor." he said.
	"Huh?" the two teenagers said together, not sure exactly what their 
helmsman/father
had just said.
	"The physics of time are different in each univese." the voice explained.  
"Four
hundred years have passed for us, but only 6 to 7 months for them have passed."
	"Sp, where are the people that Dad knows at?" the navigator asked the 
voice.
	"In the vicinity of the radiation zone I am detecting a very faint ion 
trail."
the voice replied.  "It is so faint that standard instrumentation would not have 
detected it."
	The teen girl called up a three-dimensional representation of the icon 
trail and
said, "This looks a lot like the thrust trail of a hyperdrive."
	The helmsman called up his own image of the ion trail and plotted out the 
course
the trail was heading towards.  "If the Earth were at this position it looks 
like a ship
launched from the surface and jumped ito hyperspace from here." he said.  "They 
were
talking about go to planet Jurai before I left."
	"Dad, you said there were Darklings here, right?" the teen girl asked.
	"Yes, there were." the helmsman replied.
	"Kryton, scan Washu's old star charts from this universe and set a course 
for
Jurai." the helmsman said.  "I didn't know what I know now about the Darkness 
back
then, and I'm afraid she is getting herself into serious trouble."
	"I have set the course, you may engage it at any time, Darius." the voice 
said.
	"Thanks, Kryton." the teen boy said from his astrogation post.
	"Prince Orrin, will we see Mistress Washu again?" Kryton asked.
	"I hope we do old friend, I hope we do." Prince Orrin Quintarin, who sat 
at the helm,
said.  The Kryton streeked through space away from the planet Earth, a black 
portal in space
appeared in front of the ship and it passed through.  The portal closed with a 
bright
flash of light and the ship was gone.

	Washu was monitoring the same readings and she gasped in disbelief at what 
she
just witnessed.  "Oh my God!" she exclaimed.  "That shot almost penetrated the 
shields!"
	Yagami reached the massive asteroid that held an atmosphere.  The sensors 
on
the bridge indicated that it was indeed breathable, but a bit thin.  If they had 
to
leave the ship for some reason they would be a little light headed from it but 
it
was not so thin that they could not breath it.
	"Lets get up to the bridge, Kiyone might need our help." Tenchi said, but 
as he
headed for the door he was thrown to the deck as the ship suffered another jolt.
	A shot from another Darkling ship struck the Yagami, the blast overloaded 
the
shields and in Engineering the shield generator exploded.  The sound echoed 
through
the ship and could be heard in the subspace living quarters and the bridge.  
Kiyone
watched the status readouts for the ship systems suddenly go wild.  The 
explosion of
the shield generator started a chain reaction in Engineering that destroyed 
several
other systems.  One by one vital ship systems began to fail, helm control was 
one of
those systems, and then the main engines went offline.  All Kiyone could control
were auxilary thrusters designed to aid in docking.  These made little impact on 
the
ship as it punged, out of control, into the cloudy atmosphere of the asteroid.
	Kiyone could not say a word, she knew that nothing she could say would 
change
was about to happen.  She knew that they would probably die.  All she could do 
was
look over at a very frightened Noboyuki and say, "I'm so sorry."
	Noboyuki, still strapped into Mihoshi's seat, reached out with his hand 
towards
her.  Kiyone reached out and took his hand and he squeezed it.  They were unable 
to
take their eyes off each other for several minutes.
	"I love you." Kiyone said, saying it from her heart.
	"I love you." Noboyuki replied.  Seconds later they were both knocked 
unconscious
by the impact of the ship hitting the surface.

	"Sire, I am detecting Washu's life signs in realspace!" Kryton almost 
shouted
as they speed through subspace.
	"Where, what coordinates?" Orrin asked immediately.
	"221.056.987 mark 2." Kryton replied.
	"We'll be near those coordinates in two minutes." Darius said.
	The teenaged girl at the communications station, Yuki, pulled up a sensor
analysis of the same coordinates.  "Oh god!" she said.  "Dad, there are Darkling
ship crawling all over that area, class three!"
	"Take us out of subspace, give me weapons control." Orrin said.
	The Kryton suddenly appeared in realspace through the same type of portal 
it
vanished into a few moments ago in Earthspace.  The swirling tunnel of light of
subspace was replaced by the view of the asteroid field where the Yagami had 
been
moments before came into view.
	"I have turn over all weapon function over to you, sire." Kryton said.
	"Washu's live readings are faint, but Z can pinpoint her location on
a large planetoid class asteroid in the area." Yuki said.  She tapped a few keys
on her console and a red indicator appeared on the main viewscreen on the bridge
indicating the location.
	"Shields up, engage cloak, we're going in." Orrin ordered.  A force field
sprang to life around the Kryton and as it moved towards the asteroid field the
ship softly shimmered and slowly vanished.

	Washu opened one eye and tried to lift her head, and immediately regretted 
the
idea.  A wave of pain washed over her entire body, so she slowly rolled over 
onto her
back and opened both eyes to see where she was.  The first thing she noticed was 
that
she was not on the Tagami, the air of thin but breathable, and she was lying 
amonst
several large boulders.  After a few minutes she was able to sit up without 
feeling
a great deal of pain.  She discovered that somehow she had been thrown from the
ship in the impact, she did not know how she actually got out of the ship.  The
wreckage of the Yagami was not far away from where she lay.  The vessel was a 
totally
lost cause now, it was broken in half at the middle, and the engine section was 
missing.
	Washu reached out with her mind to focus on her link with Ryoko and she 
sighed
with relief when she got a faint trace of a thought.  A roaring sound of a ship
overhead caught her attention and she was a Darkling ship descend out of the 
clouds.
	[Ryoko!] she called through her link.  [The Darklings are coming!]
	Still somewhere in the wreckage, Ryoko was just now climbing to her feet.  
In
an act that was more instinct than anything else, Aeka had summoned a force 
field
around herself, Ryoko and Tenchi.  Sasami had called upon a force field also, 
and
across from where they were Ryoko could see Sasami kneeling in concentration as
energy radiated from her to surround herself, Mihoshi, and Katsuhito.
	[Where are you?] Ryoko asked her mother.
	[I'm outside the ship.] Washu replied.  [We need to get to the bridge to 
see
if Kiyone and Noboyuki are alright.]
	Aeka dispelled her shield and helped Tenchi and Ryoko to their feet.  
Sasami
did the same thing.  Tenchi noticed that the subspace living area they had been 
in
was gone, and that they were now inside the empty storage closet that it had 
been
created in.  His immediate thought was for his father.
	"I'll check out the bridge to see if they are alright." Ryoko said and she
teleported away.
	Outside Washu watched in horror as dozens of third stage Darklings began 
to 
drop from the skies as the ship passed overhead.  The creatures hissed in rage 
as they
advanced on the wreckage, intent on killing anyone or anything that survived.  
One of
the creatures landed and spotted her.  Washu turned and ran as fast as she could 
and
the Darkling bolted after her.  Her 20,000 years of her mortal life passed 
before her
very eyes as she ran.  Memories of her past billions of years before that came 
like
a flood to her.
	
	Ryoko materialized on the bridge to find the placed a total wreck.  The 
whole
chamber had taken the brunt of the impact and most of the consoles were totally
destroyed.  What sbx immediately noticed was that Noboyuki and Kiyone were 
missing.
At first Ryoko thought that maybe they ran from the bridge before the impact, so 
she
cut open the hatch and went into the corridor behind the bridge.  She could nto 
find
them there either.  She phased up through the ship and landed on the upper hull 
and
witnessed a horrific scene.  Darklings the likes of which she had never seen 
before
were swarming towards the wrecked ship.  In the distance she could see who 
Darklings
carrying what looked like a man and woman slumped over their shoulders.  She 
teleported
closer and gasped when she realized it was Noboyuki and Kiyone.  Ryoko ignited 
her
sword and lunged at them, but the Darklings ignored her and both creatures 
phased into
subspace before she could strike.
	[Tenchi, they have Kiyone and your father, I couldn't stop them!] she 
cried over
her link.  She felt a wave of sorrow float from Tenchi's end of the link and 
saddness
from Aeka's, but Tenchi voice replied, [You did what you could, get back here 
quick.]

	Washu ran as fast as her short legs would carry her in her child-like 
form.  The
creature behind her snarled and hissed in rage, but was enjoying the chase 
immensely.  She
knew she would not be able to escape the creature forever, and tapped a small 
button on
her bracelet.  A black portal opened behind her and several round objects 
ejected out in
the path of the the Darkling.  The monster did not have enough time to avoid the 
objects
and they collided with it with explosive results.  The diminutive genius smiled 
wickedly
as she looked back and saw a fireball rise into the air behind her.  The 
explosives were
not etherealogic, and only served to slow the creature down.  Once it picked 
itself up
off the ground and pushed large boulders off itself it started to scan the 
horizon for
its prey.  Washu had already found a cubby hole in a large house-sized boulder 
to hide
herself in.
	[Daughter, use Ryu-Ohki and get out of here!] she called to Ryoko through 
her
mind link.
	Ryoko had reached Tenchi and the others just as she received the message.  
{No,
I won't leave you!] Ryoko cried over the link.
	Washu looked into the sky from her hiding place and watched several more 
Darkling
ships descend out of the clouded atmosphere.  [More of them are coming, think of 
the
baby and the others.] she pleaded.
	[You can't ask me to do this, you can't!] Ryoko cried.
	[You must, I'll be alright, if I can I will meet up with you on Jurai.] 
Washu lied.
[Please go, hurry before they swarm over you.]
	
	Tears filled Ryoko's eyes as she heard Washu's words in her mind.  Tenchi 
and Aeka
could hear the exchange as well and shared her pain.
	"She wants us to leave her behind." Ryoko told the others.
	"She is sacraficing herself in order for us to escape to safety." Yosho 
said as he
cloaed his eyes in sadness.
	"I can't let her do it." Ryoko said, new tears threatening to fall.
	"She wouldn't want us to try and stop her." Tenchi said, his love washing 
over her
through their link.  "She's tough, if she survived Kagato she can survive this."  
Ryoko
had never heard Tenchi lie before, and she could feel through their link that he 
was only
trying to ease her pain.
	"But she's my mother." she cried.  Aeka was almost crying from the feeling 
of sadness
and pain she felt from Ryoko's end of the link.
	"She was correct, you do have to think about the baby." Aeka told her.
	Ryoko turned towards the direction she felt her mother was in and saw 
dozens of horrible
creatures dropping from the sky.  "I love you, mommy." she whispered and 
transmitted in her
link with her mother at the same time.
	The two stood beside her to give her support as she took the little Cabbit 
from 
Sasami's arms.  Ryoko lifted the little creature to her face and looked into her 
frightened 
eyes.
	"Ryu-Ohki, take us to Jurai." she said and threw the furry creature into 
the air.  With
a loud echoing "meow" the Ryu-Ohki transformed into her ship form.  A yellow 
beam descended
upon them and they were instantly teleported to the bridge of the Cabbit ship.
	"Fly my Ruy-Ohki, fly!" Ryoko cried as new tears fell from her eyes.  In 
the distance
Washu heard the loud cry of Ryu-Ohki's voice as she streaked through the sky.  A 
bit closer
but still in the distance she could also hear the sound of Darklings.  She 
estimated there
were hundreds of them.

	In space Ryu-Ohki raced passed several Darkling ships that hung in space 
around the
massive asteroid.  The ships prepared to turn and give chase but the Cabbit ship 
engaged her
hyperdrive and was gone before they fire on it.  A few of the waiting ships 
broke off from
the group to give chase in hyperspace, but a newcomer suddenly arrive that 
caught their
immediate attention.  This new ship gave off a massive ethereal signature that 
was larger
than anything they had seen before.  It drew them in like a moth to a flame, and 
the ship
began to open fire.  The newcomer had a force field in place and the weapons 
fire from the
Darkling ships was unable to penetrate it.  The newcomer returned fire on its 
Darkling
attackers and it had a completely different effect.  One by one the newcomer 
destroyed
every Darkling ship it exchange fire with, and before long there were no hositle 
ships
left around the asteroid.  On the bridge of the newcomer ship, Prince Orrin 
Quintarin
checked his sensor readings and found Washu's life signature on the asteroid.  
He also
detected a large number of Darkling signatures surrounding her.
	The scene brought back painful memories of the last time he lost someone 
who ment
everything to him, and he was determined that this time the Darkness would take 
another
loved one away from him.
	"I'm going down there!" Orrin shouted as he leaped from the
helm station and ran from the bridge.  He made his way to the outer edge of the 
inner hull
of the ship and phased through into space.  Instantly an arura of power 
surrounded Orrin's
body and he floated away from the ship.  In the distance the teltale sparking 
lights of more
Darkling ships emerging from hyperspace could been seen.  Orrin begins flying 
through space
without any visible means of propulsion and plunged into the atmosphere of the 
planetoid.

	On the surface, Washu did not hear anymore sounds from the Darklings 
lurking about in
the distance, and she this could be a good or bad thing.  One; they were too far 
away
for her to hear, or two; they knew where she was hiding and they were finding a 
way to sneak
up on her.  She was determined to find out which one, and knew she could not 
hide out in the
boulders from the creatures forever because they could feel her life essence.  
She came out
of her hiding place and started to run, but a pair of clawed hands grabbed her 
legs from
beneath the loose soil on he planetoid surface.  A massive Darkling rose out of 
the ground
and loomed angrily over its intended prey.  Several more creatures simply 
materialized around
her out of nowhere, but she knew they were appearing out of sub-space.
	"This one is very young, her essence will be very sweet." the creature 
that held her
legs said in a gravely voice.
	"Young yet also well developed for her age, lets have some fun first, then 
we feed."
another suggested as he transformed into his normal humanoid form but without 
his clothing.
	"She looks like she is at least twelve or thirteen." yet another Darkling 
said.
	"Ya, but she is a well built twelve year old." the naked humanoid replied.
	This was not the way Wasbu had expected her life would end.  The prospect 
of being
violated by a horde on monsters and then having her life force sucked away a 
piece at a time
was not the way she had wanted her last moments to proceed.  She did not see any 
possible way
out of the situation.  One of the creatures slowly slid a shart talon from its 
finger under her
dress to rip off her clothes.  The monster did not have a chance to strip her as 
a blast of
energy came out of nowhere and vaporized it where it loomed over her.  The naked 
humanoid and
the other Darlings looked in the direction the blast had come in total shock.
	A humanoid figure flew through the air towards them at high speed.  Washu 
could see the
outline of a force field surrounding the figure and for a few fleeting seconds 
she thought it
was Tenchi or Ryoko who had come to her rescue.  The Darklings could feel the 
immense ethereal
power radiating from their attacker and they snarled in rage.  The creatures 
responded to the
attaack by launching their own energy blasts at the newcomer but the blasts were 
deflected
effortlessly by his force field.
	The figure was humanoid, tall and had a male build.  Washu tried to see 
the man's face,
but he was shrouded by an arura of energy that made seeing his face difficult.  
The flying
man threw energy blasts from his hands at the Darklings and each direct hit 
instantly
vaporized them.  Before long a Darkling that had been the naked humanoid was all 
that was
left.  The creature summoned an energy sword in its clawed hands and stood its 
ground.  The
flying man landed on the ground and dispelled his shield, but was still shrouded 
in an arura
of power.  He ignited an energy sword in his hands and made a gesture towards 
the Darkling as
if to acknowledge the creature's challenge for a sword fight.
	The Darkling came at the man with its sword and made a clumby swipe for 
his head, but
the man ducked under the attack and deftly sliced the creature on the chest 
multiple times.  The
Darkling howled in pain and rage and sung again, but this time a bit more 
competently now that it
knew its opponent would not be an easy kill.  The man perried each sword swipe 
with incredible
speed, his movements were inhumanly fast, and his arms and legs seemed to blur 
as he moved.
The man swept to the side leaving a faint trail in his wake and jabbed the 
Darkling in the
side.  Each wound in the creature released a stream of green energy instead of 
blood.  The
Darkling tried a few cunning attacks at the man's head and legs, but the sword 
fighter was
too fast and much better skilled at sword fighting than the monster was.  Soon, 
the man began
to tire of this game, teleported behind the creature and releaved it of its 
existance by
taking its head.
	Soon after the creature was dead Washu stood up and looked at her savior.  
The man was
still surrounded by an arura of power, but the light began to fade and his face 
was revealed
to her for the first time.  Washu stood in absolute shock for a moment, she was 
wondering if
she was seeing things because of the thin atmosphere, or if this was a 
hallucination brought
on by having her life force slowly sucked away from her body.  The man slowly 
walked up to her,
she so wanted this to be real and she hoped beyond hope that he was real.  He 
stopped in front
of her and she hesitantly reached out her hand to his face.  She could feel the 
warmth of his
skin, he was older than he had been the last time she had seen him, and he had a 
scar on his
right cheek that appeared to somehow be several years old.
	"I missed you so much." the man said in that same voice she remembered.
	Her defenses were weakening and her knees were starting to give out on 
her.  The man
reached out and touched her cheek with his hand.  His touch sent delicious 
electricity through
her skin, and the softness of his touch brought tears to her eyes.
	"Is it really you?" she asked.
	"Yes, my love, it is." Orrin replied.  Washu could not contain herself any 
longer, she
flung her arms around his neck and held him as tight as she could.  She did not 
want to let him
go again.
	"I thought I'd never see you again." she sobbed with her head resting on 
his shoulder.
	"I thought the same thing, but I am back and this time it is for good." 
Orrin told her.
"I love you."
	Washu sobbed and her body began to shake.  She was overcome with joy and 
all she could
do was cry and hold the man whom she had grown to love close to her.  Though 
they had only
known each other for a few short weeks a powerful and loving relationship 
between them had
strung to life between them.  That seemed like a million years ago after all she 
had been
through since he left to go back to his home universe.
	"You look, older." she commented as she looked at his face.
	"It has been a very long time since I have last seen you." he told her.
	"Its only been six months." Washu said.
	"For you, but because of the differences in temporal physics betwwen our 
two universes
for me it has been over four hundred years." Orrin explained.
	Washu's eyes went wide with surprise and horror.  Four hundred years had 
passed for Orrin
since he last saw her face.  He only appeared to be just a few years older than 
he had been
the last time she had seen him, but she also noticed something else about him.  
For one thing,
when he was on Earth he did not have the awesome power she had just witnessed 
him use against
the Darkness, and second he was no longer carrying the StarGem Sword.  She 
looked into his
eyes and saw a slightly haunted look.  She had seen that look in the eyes of 
other beings
before, and it was usually after they had been the witness of unimaginable 
carnage and war.
	"What has happened to you?" she asked, her body trembling with fear not 
for herself but
for the man she loved.
	"Far more than I am willing to reveal right now, and maybe its better that 
I never
reveal the horrors I have witnessed." he told her.  Washu hugged him tighter and 
Orrin 
retrned her embrace with the same vigor.
	In the distance a faint sound reached Orrin's sensitive ears.  He lookied 
up and
scanned the horizon.  "More Darklings are coming." he said.
	Washu gasped as she realized she was being lifted into the air.  A force 
field bubble
sprange to life around them both and they raced away from the surface of the 
planetoid.  They
flew towards the wreckage of the Yagami.
	"Where are your friends and your daughter?" Orrin asked.
	"I made them so ahead without me." Washu told him.
	"A gallant gesture, but not a wise one." he told her.
	"It was either that or we'd all be dead." she replied.
	Orrin changed their direction and they soared into the cloudy sky above 
the surface of
planetoid.  Washu watched with fascination as they rose above the clouds and 
beyond the thin
atmosphere.  They raced through the vacumm of space and in the distance she 
could see an 
amazing looking starship.  The vessel looked organic and sleek like a sea 
creature from some
exotic alien ocean which was designed for fast swimming.  They were halfway to 
the ship when
a Darkling ship materialized next to them and opened fire on them.  Washu 
marvelled as the
massive energy blast splashed harmlessly off Orrin's shield.  The ship they were 
racing towards
turned and opened fire with withering firepower.  Twin pulse cannons from two 
winglets on either
side of the ship cut loose as a beam weapon fired from the nose of the ship.  
The weapons fire
penetrated the shields of the Darkling ship in seconds and tore into the armor 
hull of the
ship.  The beam weapon holed the ship through and through, internal explosions 
could be seen
flasbing through the hules in the armor plating, and seconds later the entire 
vessel became a
rapidly expanding sphere of gas and debris.
	Once inside the ship, Orrin dispelled his shield and lead Washu by the 
hand through
several twisting corridors.  Before long they reached the bridge of the ship and 
Washu
looked around in wounderous fascination at all the advanced technology was she 
seeing.  Much of
the technology she was seeing was equal to and sometimes beyond anything she had 
ever
developed.  She also knew without having to scan the ship with her instruments 
that the ship
was build using the decipines of Ethereealology.
	Washu's attention was immediately caught by two other people sitting on 
the bridge.  A
young man was seated at what looked like a pilot's station which had controls 
for steering
the ship, and a young girl sat at what appeared to be a communications console.
	"Dad, we have multiple incoming Darkling cruisers, and long range sensors 
are detecting
a large fleet of class four ships." the young girl said.
	"Kryton, plot an evasive course to the planet Jurai using our archived 
star charts of his
univeerse." Orrin said outloud.  "Use space fold to jump from way point to way 
point to keep
them from detecting our destination."
	"I already anticipated this, setting the course now." a familar voice with 
a Britsh-like
accent said.  "It is good to see you again, Mistress Washu."
	"I see you've made a few modifications to Kryton, and a few others things 
have happened."
Wash said and gestured towards the young girl who called Orrin "Dad".
	"This is my daughter, Yuko, and the young man at the helm is my son 
Darius." Orrin said.
	"Hello." Darius said.
	"Hi." Yuko said.
	Washu was intrigued by this revelation but was not surprised that Orrin 
had met someone
else during the time he had been gone.  Over four hundred years had passed since 
he last saw
her afterall.
	"Where is their mother?" she asked.
	"She went to a better place a long time ago." he replied with sadness in 
his eyes.
	"I'm sorry." she said softly and squeezed his hand.
	"Uh, Dad, isn't she a little young." Darius commented.  "Aren't you 
robbing the cradle."
	The young man had a sly smile on his face, he knew full well from his 
father's stories
that Washu was much older than she appeared.
	"Ya, it would feel pretty wierd calling somebody Mom who is younger than I 
am."
Yuko said as she tried to suppress a laugh.
	"You got two real comedians here." Washu said with a smile.  Orrin just 
looked at his
two children with disbelief and surprise.  The look turned to a sly grin.  "I 
seen despite all
my attempts you two still inherited your mother's sense of humor."
	Washu transformed from her child-like form to her adult form and Darius's 
eyes went
wide with surprise.  "Your beautiful, I mean really really beautiful." he said 
in awe.
	"Thank you, and if you think I'm beautiful you should see my daughter." 
Washu said.
"But don't get any ideas, she's already married."
	Darius made a face and snapped his fingers in a gesture of defeat and Yuko 
just chuckled
out loud.
	"At this speed and course we'll reach Jurai in two and a half hours." 
Orrin said.
	"Ryoko and the others are in Ryu-Ohki, we'll be thirty to fifteen minutes 
behind them."
Washu said.
	Orrin wrapped his arms around Washu's supple waiste and pulled her in for 
a kiss.  The
contact was soft and filled both of them with an immense feeling of love.  When 
they parted
the mood was suddenly shattered by Darius spouting out, "Hey you two, get a 
room!"
	"Lets go somewhere private so we don't bother my oversexed son." Orrin 
said.
	"More like undersexed, I've been in space so long I've almost forgotten 
what a beautiful
woman looks like." Darius said.
	"Hey, what am I chopped liver." Yuko said with a hurt expression.
	"You don't count, your my sister." Darius said.
	"I'll get you for that in our next cyberlink game, watch your back." she 
said dangerously.
	"Oh please, I frag you ten times more than you frag me at deathmatch." 
Darius said.
	"True, but I'm better at Capture the Flag than you are." Yuko replied with 
a smile.

	The two lovers left the youngsters on the bridge to continue their 
conversation, and
they walked hand in hand to Orrin's private quarters.  The door opened as Orrin 
reached it and
the lights inside activated, but Kryton though to turn them down to a romanticly 
low level.  The
living starship also turned on some soft music in the background.  Soft ambient 
techno beats,
smooth and romantic, started to play quietly in the room.
	"Looks like Kryton already anticipated what was on our minds." Orrin said 
as the door
closed behind them.  They kissed each other passionate, holding each other 
clsoe.  Before long
they were under the covers in Orrin's bed holding each other tight as their 
bodies moved rythmicly
to the mood inspiring music.  Waves of pleasure washed through them, every 
touch, every kiss,
ever sudtle movement brought on an inbelievably wonderful sensation.  Washu 
collapsed onto Orrin's
bare chest in exhaustion, sweat beading on her body, and her breath came in 
quick gasps.  Orrin
held her tight and he felt the soft tug of tireness grab at the edges of his 
consciousness
that always appeared after loving making.
	"I missed you so much." Washu said with her head resting on his chest.
	"My work back home is done, I'm here to stay with you forever." he told 
her.
	Tears of joy fell down Washu's face and she hugged him tightly.  "We have 
a family now." he
told her.
	"I've always had a family, but now its a complete family because your 
here." Washu replied,
and they kissed each other again letting all their longing and love for each 
other pass between
them with each touch.

	Ryu-Ohki raced through hyperspace at full speed.  The Cabbit ship was the 
fastest vessel
around, even faster than the Yagami had been, and only ships of Jurai could 
match her speed.  At
the helm Ryoko sat with her hands on the twin trackball controls that allowed 
her to steer the
ship.  She watched the holographic instrument panels to make sure that they were 
still on
course for Jurai and that they were not being followed.  The problem was that 
they were being
followed, and the vessels that followed them had Darkling signatures.  Without 
Washu she was
not certain, but the new programming added to Ryu-Ohki's neurol matrix did 
indicate that they
were Darkling.
	Ryoko still felt the presence of her mother in the back of her mind.  On 
the other end
the link was being blocked off, but before that happened she first felt terror 
coming from
her mother and then incredible joy.  Tears of happiness fell down her face 
because she knew
from the link that her mother was alive, but she was sure why she had the 
feeling of joy.
	"When we reach Jurai space I will contact Father and let him know what is 
happening."
Aeka was saying to the others, and Ryoko realized that she had been 
concentrating so hard that
she did not hear them.
	"Maybe he'll send some ships to escort us home." Sasami said.
	"Kiyone." Mihoshi sobbed from across the room.  The blonde office was 
sitting on the
shiny floor with her knees up to her chest, her arms were wrapped around her 
knees, and she
was rocking back and forth.  She had been like this since her initial shock over 
the crash
of the Yagami subsided.
	"Poor thing." Tenchi commented.
	"I wish there was something we could do for her." Sasami said.
	"Mihoshi must be allowed to work this through in her own way and in her 
own time."
Katsuhito said.
	"Without Washu to give us her scientific guidance this is going to be 
hard." Tenchi
said.
	"She's still alive, I don't know where, but I do know that she is happy 
where she is."
Ryoko said from her helm station.
	"She is?" Tenchi asked in surprise.
	"Yes, I feel her on the other end of my link with her." Ryoko told him.
	Sasami clasped her hands in front of her face in a gesture that looked so 
sweet and innocent.
"That is so wonderful, then we will meet up with her again." she cheered.
	Tenchi looked down at the shiny floor and sighed.  "I wish I could say the 
same for Dad
and Kiyone." he said.  Aeka placed a hand on his shoulder and tried to give him 
some encouragement
through their link.
	"We'll reach Jurai in two hours, we'll be in standard communications range 
with the Royal
Palace in an hour, Princess." Ryoko told them.
	This was it, they were about to complete their journey to Jurai, but they 
were seperated,
and nobody knew what has been happening on Jurai during all this time.
__________
Chapter Seven: Chaos Jurai

	Kagato's way of life had been abruptly changed forever by becoming a 
Darkling, but
not just any Darkling...he was a Regent.  Not ever having to ear solid foods 
anymore was
one of the things he had to get used to, but he was still able to enjoy those 
things of
life he had before his transformation.  The sweet necter of a young girl's life 
force
was like honey to him, but instead of savoring every morsal of her essense he 
took what
he needed right then and there and left the victim to die or recover to be feed 
upon
later.  It did not take a great deal of effort for him to get used to this new 
life, 
but what did take him some time to get used to was the unusual tastes of the 
Regis.
	As his latest meal was being carried away unconscious a pair of Darklings 
dragged
another young woman into their chambers.  She was kicking and scream, shouted 
every
obscene word imaginable.  The Darklings forced her to lay down flat and they 
manicled her
to a special device on the floor.  Her lower torso was sloped upwards and her 
legs were
locked forced open to spread her wide.  One of the two creatures grapped her 
clothing, which
consisted of almost nothing more than a black suit of boby armor that resembled 
a single
piece swimsuit, and ripped it off of her body to exposer her nakedness.  Kagato 
looked at
her enraged and frightened face and immediately recognized her.
	"Sakura." he said.
	"You know this morsal?" the Regis asked.
	"Yes, I have had dealing with her in the past." Kagato told her.
	"This one's essence of strong and young, her mind corrupt and her thoughts 
pervurse."
the Regis said.  "What do you say of her?"
	"She is loyal if given the proper motivation and assuming the pay is to 
her liking." he
told her.
	"The time to make another Regis is quickly approaching." the Regis said.  
"This one
may prove useful to us in that reguard, but for now I will savor her."
	"Please, must you play with your food." Kagato said with a smirk on his 
face.  The Regis
almost laughed at the joke, and then walked over to where Sakura was strapped 
down.
	"What the fuck do you people want from me?" Sakura shouted at them.  "Your 
Kagato,
aren't you, I thought you were dead."
	"The repoorts of my death were great exaggerated." he replied before 
sitting down in a
chair to watch
	The Regis kneeled down between Sakura's legs and started to softly carress 
the insides of
her thighs.
	"Get the fuck away from me you dike!" Sakura screamed.  "Get your fuck'n 
hands off me!"
	"But Sakura, you enjoy the love of women and men both." the Regis said, 
probing her
mind.
	"What the fuck did you do, blow up my ship so this skank can get her 
thrills." Sakura
shouted at Kagato.
	Kagato said nothing but what Sakura said next made him stand up bolt 
upright.  "Your
brother tried to fuck'n rape me before he died."
	Anger seeth in his eyes as he looked down on her.  "My brother is dead." 
he said.
	"Yes, Ryoko killed him in the Dead Zone." Sakura said.
	"So they were in the Dead Zone as you predicted." the Regis said.
	"Your looking for Ryoko?" Sakura asked.  "I might be able to help you find 
her."
	"We already have, but she eluded us temporarity." the Regis said.  "It 
will only be
a matter of time, and yes you can help us, but not in a way you might think."
	Kagato watched in pervurse fasination as the Regis lowered her head and 
Sakura's
eyes went wide, she screamed out every swear word immaginable.  A faint blue 
light began to
glimmer in the room and Sakura screamed.  It was a scream that was half form 
unbarable
agony and half from unbelieaable extacy.  Her body writhed and convulse in the 
manicles that
held her, her head whipped from side to side, and she screamed as if a massive 
orgasm was
washing through her body.  It went like this for ten minutes, and when the light 
faded
Sakura's body collapsed.  She was covered in sweat and was breathing heavily, 
she tried to
raise her head, but she was so tired she fell immediately unconscious.
	The Regis sat back up, her face wet, and smiled at Kagato.  "This one was 
indeed very
suculant and sweet."  A Darkling handed her a towel and she dried her face.
	"Leave this one here, when she recovers I have something special planned 
for her."
the Regis said as she stood up, and the Darklings nodded before they left.
	"What is wrong Kagato, you look haggard?" the Regis asked.
	"Must you always do that?" he asked her.
	"Its a part of what we are, our desires are amplified, and for this little 
one it will
be the same when she becomes a Regis." the Regis said.
	"Still worried, I feel you are trouble by your brother's death." the Regis 
continued.
"Revenge is a feast we Darklings savor most of all."
	Kagato looked at her and a fire raged in his eyes.  "I will find her and 
make her pay
for his death." he said, and the Darkling part of his mind conjured up all sorts 
of pervurse
ways to end her life.  The Regis felt this in his mind and she smiled at him.
	"Good, good, let the hate consume you." she said.  "It will make her death 
that more
delicious when you take her."
	"Assuming we can find her." he said.  "We lost several ships to this 
Champion of Light,
and now they could be anywhere in the galaxy."
	"In time we will find them, but for now we must accelerate our efforts on 
Jurai."
the Regis said.  "All is going according to plan, very soon he planet Jurai will 
be ready for
us to rape and pillage and the Juraian people will only have themselves to 
blame."

	At no time in the entire ancient history of the planet Jurai prior to the 
arrive of the
Goddess Tsunami had the planet been engaged in war with itself.  Previous to the 
arrival of
Tsunami the people of Jurai had been war like and savage.  Their wars against 
one another were
brutal and it was clear that they were heading towards an existance were peace 
would be
impossible.  However, Tsunami arrived and became the Tree of Light, she 
enlightened those who
happened upon her tree, and her arura that touched them gave them an extended 
lifespan and also
healed diseases and sickness.  In time, Tsunami had choosen from among the 
rulers of the people
one who was worthy and made him Emperor of Jurai.  This was beginning of the 
Jurai royal family,
and they had been in power for tens of thousands of years.  At not time in their 
history had
there ever been a civil war or conflict between the people and the government.  
That, however,
was changing rapidly.
	Several weeks after the initial report from the GP was received, Emperor 
Asuza began to
notice something dark and sinister brewing at the edges of his empire.  
Scientist on Jurai had
found a way to break through the interference that had blacked out the planet 
from the rest
of the galaxy temporarily, but even so all attempts to reach his daughters via 
communicator
had failed.  Ships of the GP that patroled the area where their ship should have 
been did not
see any sign of them.  As the weeks went by and turned into months the Emperor, 
his Empress,
and his Queen feared that they would not see their son or daughter ever again.  
Asuza did not
want to give up hope for his son and daghters safe return to Jurai, and he so 
wanted to speak
with Tenchi.
	His concerns over his missing family members had to pushed aside when 
reports bagan to
arrive in the court of increased violence in the streets.  Crime and violence on 
Jurai commited
by citizens of Jurai was almost non-existant.  Crime on Jurai was lower than on 
any planet in
the Galactic Union, and fighting in the streets was unheard of.  Everyday new 
reports arrived
at his desk in his private office where he reviewed important documents from the 
Senate and
the Holy Council.  Everyday they became more disterbing, more violent, and worse 
still a 
growing number of people began to place blame on the Royal Family for it all.
	Two months of this went by and still now word from his family, but reports 
from the 
Secret Police began to arrive of a covert neo-political movement on Jurai.  This 
movement wanted
to removed the Emperor of Jurai from power and place their own leader into power 
in the
government.  Laws for freedom of speech allowed anyone to say what they wanted 
about the royal
family, but this open display of unwarrented hatred of the royal family filled 
Asuza with 
dread.
	"How large is this organization?" he asked the head of the Secret Police 
who uncovered
the covert group.  It was his first audience with the new head of the Jurai 
Secret Poilice, he
was a man name Zerlova, a tall young Juraian who had formerly been in the 
military.
	"They have eight-hundred members thus far, and the ear of several members 
of the Senate."
Zerlova said.
	"Only eight-hundred?" Asuza said.  "Who in the Senate are they in regular 
contact with?"
	Zerlova touched a button on his PDA and a holographic screen appeared in 
front of the
Emperor's throne.  "Senators Tetsuo Troda, Vorego Yogora, and Gatro Zello, each 
are prominent
members of the Senate and represent some of the largest provinces of Jurai." he 
said.
	"I am aware of this, but what amount of influence do they have with them?" 
the Emperor
asked.
	"My investigation has found that a sizable amount of credits were 
transfered from the
Senators' personal accounts to a private account held by a man named Hakuda 
Asrovass." Zerlova
said as a picture of the man appeared on the screen.  "He appears to be either 
the leader or
in a position of leadership with the group.  I have my best undercover agent 
attempting to
infiltrate them now so we can have someone on the inside.  The group holds 
regular meetings
at this dweeling in the capital city every other day.  It is not clear if they 
possess any
arms and pose any real danger to the Empire, but they are growing in influence 
and are working
to recruit new members daily.  The Senators have not openly admitted to being in 
dialogue with
the group, but as their movement grows I fear it will only be a matter of time 
before they do."

	Special Agent Duncan Kirasawa of the Jurai Secret Police was accustomed to 
infiltrating
subversive groups, but not when they were made of up citizens of Jurai.  He 
walked the streets
of the capital city dressed in a standard workman's outfit.e looked like any 
other ordinary
citizen making his way home from a day of work.  His keen senses and training 
told him that he
was being watched from the crowd.  He stopped at a roadside cafe and ordered a 
drink of Sapri,
a drink similar to coffee from Earth, and took a newsreader from his pocket to 
make like he
was reading the days news.  He spotted his observer without much effort, a young 
man in a 
long coat, and decided to stay where he was to see if the young man intended to 
approach him.
	As if on cue he watched the man approach his table from out of the corner 
of his eye.  The
young man took a seat across from him, looked around somewhat nervously, and 
took out his own
newsreader.  Several minutes passed without the young man saying a word, so 
Duncan decided to
set out some bait.
	"Damn, this crime spree is totally out of hand and the Emperor doesn't 
seem to give a
damn at all." Duncan said.
	The young man looked up from his newsreader and said, "All the Emperor 
cares about is
the credits in his pocket, and the pockets of his so called Royal Family."
	"Sometimes I wish we had somebody in power who really cared about the 
people." Duncan
said.  "I wish there was something I could do."
	The man leaned forward.  "Maybe there is something you can do." he said.
	"What do you mean?" Duncan asked with mock interest on his face.
	"I am a part of a special interest group that is dedicatd to correcting a 
grievous
error in our current government." he said.
	"What error is that?" Ducan asked.
	"Our reliance on a royal family that cares nothing for the people of 
Jurai, our continued
faith in a so called goddess who has not shown herself for hundreds of years, 
and the supression
of our people by a council of so called holy men who only seek to fill their 
pockets with out hard
earned credits." the man said.
	Duncan was stunned by this last part.  Not only was this movement aginst 
the royal family
but there also against the goddess Tsunami.  He did not let his emotions show on 
his face however
as he sat forward and whispered, "Where do I sign up?"

	The young man introduced himself as Gerro, he head Duncan to a groundcar, 
and they drove
around the city for several hours talking about the government.  It was getting 
close to sunset
when Gerro stopped the groundcar in an industrialized section of the city.  
Duncan opened the
side door on the groundcar, stood up, and looked around.  Tall manufacturing 
towers and domed
processing centers could be seen in the distance.  Nearby there was only one 
building that
looked like an ordianry dwelling.
	"Where are we?" Duncan asked.
	"Come this way, I want you to meet some friends of mine." Gerro said.
	Gerro walked towards the house with Duncan following behind him.  As they 
reached the house
the front door opened and several people armed with type four plasma rifles 
spilled out.
	"Who's this?" one of the men asked.
	"New blood, taking him to see Hakuda." Gerro said.
	"Check him first." the man said to the others.  Immediately the other 
gunmen searched
Duncan's pockets and patted him down.
	"He's clear." another man said.  He pulled out a small device that looked 
like a pen.  The
device popped open to reveal a small folding display screen.  "His name is 
Duncan Kirasawa, he's
an employee of the Gensao Mining Company.  This says he's an engineer."
	Duncan took his ID wand back from the man and followed Gerro into the 
house.  So much for
our intellegence telling us they weren't armed, Duncan thought to himself.  He 
noticed that the
class four plasma rifles were military-grade with a disintegration setting.  
Those types of
arms were illegal for personal citizens to possess.  Inside the house Duncan 
found that most
everyone carried a sidearm that was military-grade.  They stopped in a large 
room filled with
young teens and children.  A young woman was speaking to the group on a makeship 
stage, her
words were riling up the assembled group of youngsters.
	"They spread lies about Tsunami, they tell us she is there, but we know 
the truth that she
has left Jurai a long time ago." the woman said.  "She is not with us because 
the Royal Family of
Jurai, and because of them she does have Jurai in her favor anymore, but we now 
have a new 
guardian to watch over us.  We have a new protector to watch over our world, but 
we must first
purge our world of the corrupt disease of the Royal Family.  It is they who have 
ruined our
world, it is they who suppress us, it is they who maintain the lies that keep us 
enslaved to a
false religion.  But, fear not, for the time is quickly coming when the eveil of 
the Royal
Family will be purged from Jurai, they will be punished for their crimes, and we 
will finally
be free!"
	The croud cheered and raised their fists and weapons into the air above 
their heads.  The
woman climbed down from the stage and the crowd started to chant a name, 
"Hakuda!  Hakuda!"
	"This way, Hakuda will see you now." Gerro told him.  Duncan was lead into 
an ajacent room
which was dimly lighted.  A shadowy figure sat in one corner of the room.
	"Welcome, I am Hakuda, I understand you are disenchanted with the way the 
government is
currently run." the man said.  His voice seemed odd to Duncan, somehow hollow 
and distant.
	"I am, things have been falling apart lately." Duncan lied.
	"It is because the Royal Family care only for themselves." the shadowy man 
said.  "They
no longer have the anointing of Tsunami to justify their power, so they are now 
using subversive
tactics to maintain their power over Jurai."
	Duncan knew all of this was a total farce.  He knew the Tree of Light, 
Tsunami's tree, was
still in the Royal Gardens at the palace and that the tree still had power.
	"I heard that speech outside about a new guardian of Jurai." Duncan said.
	The shadowy man was seated in a lotus position on the floor of the dark 
room.  Duncan
watched as the man floated into the air and hovered towards him.  He came into 
the light and
Duncan did his best to suppress his surprise.  The man who came into the light 
possessed the
likeness of the long lost First Prince of Jurai, Prince Yosho.  His eyes were 
glowing with
an inner light and Duncan could sense an arura of power radiating from his body.
	"I am that protector, and in time my followers and I will purge this world 
of the evils
of the Royal Family." he said.  "Will you help me, I have many followers now but 
we do not
have anyone with engineering skills in our group.  Your skills could be 
invaluable to us."
	"Yes." Duncan said.  A smile came across the false Yosho's face.  

	Three days would pass before Duncan was allowed out of the house.  He had 
atteneded
meetings to indoctrinations him into the group.  He was escorted on a tour of 
the house, and he began
to realize that the inside of the building was larger than the outside.  He 
realized it must be
a subspace pocket they were using to do this.  In different rooms of the house 
he watched as
hundreds of people sorted through different weapons and attended classes on how 
to set bombs and
subversive military tactics.  When it was time for him to leave and return to 
his home he had
seen more than what was expected.  This was not just a small political group, it 
was an all-out 
rebelion of religious fanatics following a man who looked like Yosho and set 
himself up as a god.
	He carried an arm band in his pocket that he had to wear to meeting to 
identify himself as a member.  He made his way through the city using the 
underground transport tubes in attempt to 
evade anyone who might be following him to observe his actions.  Eventaully he 
made his way to a 
meeting spot that was preassigned as his place of contact with the agency.  He 
spotted the agent 
that was his contact and immediately exchanged codewords with him.
	"I need to get in touch with Chairman Zerlova and the Emperor at once." he 
told the agent.
"We've got a very serious problem."

	  Zerlova and Duncan arrived at the lonely house in the industrial sector 
of the city
with a large contingency of soldiers.  The men were all armed with wooden 
weapons made from
the branches of Trees of Jurai.  They appeared to be stalves for hand to hand 
combat, but
they possessed the ability to launch plasma blasts at a great distance.  Their 
body armor
was also wooden, but the wood was also from Tree of Jurai and was harder than 
any metal and
was lighter also.
	They stormed the front door of the house and blasted open the door before 
spilling into
the building.  After hearing about the enormous cache of weapons inside they 
expected to face
a furious fire fight.  Instead, the soldiers came face to face with just an 
empty room inside
the small building.  Zerlova and Duncan walked inside, and Duncan looked around 
in total
surprise.
	"Where are they Agent Kirasawa?" Zerlova asked.
	"They wee here, sir." he said.
	A soldier holding a small device in his hand came over to them and handed 
the device over
to Zerlova.  "You might want to see these readings, sir." the soldier told him.
	Chairman Zerlova looked the device over and hrmphed.  "It appears you were 
correct, they
were here, but now they are gone." he said.  "These readings indicate that a sub 
space pocket
had been here for some time.  It looks like they got wise to your true 
identity."
	"If that is so, why did they let me go?" Duncan asked.
	"I'm not certain, but if they are as dangerous as you say its possible 
they might not
want to attract too much negitive attention yet." Zerlova said.
	"They'll probably be even harder to find this time, I was lucky to find 
them as quickly as
I did the first time." Duncan admitted.
	"Don't look at this as a failure, Agent Kirasawa." Zerlova said smiling at 
him.  "Without
your efforts we would know next to nothing about their true motives."
	They all exited the hosue and the soldiers sealed it with a portable force 
field device.
One soldier wrote down the access code that unlocked the force field and handed 
it to Zerlova.
	"This should prevent them from using the same house over again." he said.
	Before long the two men were in a ground car headed back to the 
headquarters of the
Secret Police.  "Where do go from here, I'm certain you will want me 
reassigned." Duncan said.
	"Not so fast, you haved first hand contact with these people, so I am 
putting you in
charge of the investigation." Zerlova told him.  "You will want to start 
assembling a team of
agents to work with you as soon as possible."
	Duncan Kirasawa had a broad smile on his face when he replied, "Yes sir."

	Somewhere out in space the Regis lounged in her private room she shared 
with Kagato
and looked longingly at the young woman who sat in the middle of the room naked.  
Sakura was
shackled to the floor by a chain attached to her left leg and was stripped down 
to nothing.  She
looked at the Regis in wide eyed horror, she lost her rough and tough exterior 
and was now
submissive and quiet.  The Regis had enjoyed herself so much the first time she 
played with
her she decided to play with her some more, and after a few days Sakura was not 
the same
person she had been.  Even Kagato had sucummed to the overwhelming desires 
brought on by his
new Darkling personality.  Sakura had been kept in her own room at the time when 
he walked
in, grabbed her, threw her to the floor, and took her on the spot.  Try as she 
might Sakura
was unable to resist Kagato's immense Darkling enhanced strenght, but soon she 
was screaming
as the man both ravished her and feed on her life force at once.
	"Why did you let that secret agent live after you sensed who he was?" the 
Regis asked.
	"I felt it was better that he lives to let them know what they are up 
against." Kagato
said.  "Besides they will not be concentrating on dealing with Hakuda's group 
and less on
looking for threats from elsewhere.  By the time they realize their mistake it 
will be too
late for them."
	"Crude but effective." the Regis said.
	"What do we do now?" Kagato asked.  He looked at Sakura, his eyes rovered 
over the
elegent curves of her nude body and that same powerful desire began to rise in 
him again.
	"I believe our little pet has been properly prepared." she told him as she 
stood up
walked up to the chained woman.  "But if you'd like to endulge yourself first I 
can wait."
	"Oh, by all means." Kagato said gesturing from the Regis to Sakura.
	The Regis smiled wickedly and kneeled down in front of Sakura.  The 
woman's eyes went
wide in horror.  "Please, no more, no more!" she cried.
	The Regis reached out and careesed Sakura's facen and sbe immediately 
calmed down.  The
Regis touched not only her skin but her mind as well calming the young woman 
down.  All of the
unspeakable things she had done to Sakura had been in an effort to break down 
the woman's
mental defenses, and she succeeded.  "Shhhh!" she said.  "Be at ease my pretty 
plaything, I
have choosen you for the greatest gift that our kind bestow upon any mortal."
	"A-a-a-a gift." Sakura stammered nervously.
	"I have choosen you Sakura to accept the purest seed of our race, I have 
choosen you
to be a Regis." the Regis told her.
	Forcing Sakura to obey her will, the Regis gently pused Sakura to the 
floor and then
straightened out her body.  She crawled over the woman's body, her tounge 
probing about
playfully.  When she was positioned over Sakura's head she straddled the woman's 
face.  Sakura
reacted by trying to free herself, but the Regis forced herself over Sakura's 
mouth.  The
woman hit and clawed in vain at the Regis to make her move.
	"Relax child, you are about to be reborn." the Regis told her.  The Regis' 
face took
on an expression as she was starting to experience an orgasm.  In reality a tiny 
crearture
was passing through her body seeking an exit.  The Regis groaned with pleasure 
as the tiny
creature passed from her body and entered Sakura's mouth.  One inside its new 
homw the
creature sought out the place it needed to go in order to survive in its now 
environment.
	Sakura writhed about on the floor and her screen were muffled from between 
the Regis'
legs as the Darkling Regis larva wriggled through her body and made its way 
towards her
brain stem.  When the tiny creature was settle, Sakura collapsed and the Regis 
stood up
to release her.
	Sakura stood up and looked around with new eyes for first time.  It was 
too soon for
all the changes to immediately take effects yet, but already her eyes were 
starting to glow.
	"Welcome my child, how do you feel?" the Regis asked.
	"Incredible." Sakura said in a voice that was filled with rapture.
	"You have been reborn, and now you msut feed." the Regis told her.  On cue 
a Darkling
carried to people into the room, a man and a woman.  The man was older with a 
mustache,
and the woman had long teal hair.  Kagato recognized them immediately.
	"Tenchi's father and one of his companions." he said.
	"Yes, I felt the Champion of Light nearing them so I decided on a new 
strategy to deal with
him." the Regis said.  "The pretty young one will be our new Regis' first meal, 
but the older
one will be the instrument of my plan."
	"What could he possibly do, he is human and old." Kagato said.
	"I will make him one of us, what better way to destroy Tenchi Masaki than 
to use his
own father to kill him." the Regis said with a sly smile.
	"I'll never harm a hair on my son's head you monster." Noboyuki shouted.
	The Regis walked up to him where he hung off the ground held by his 
Darkling captor.
"You will have no choice, you will be one of us, and you will obey me without 
question." she
told him.
	"Get away from him you bitch!" Kiyone screamed.
	"Yes, I sense you have feelings for this pretty one." the Regis said as 
she probed
Noboyuki's mind.  It was an easy task since he was never trained in how to 
resist such attacks.
	"If you please me I will give this one to you as your personal plaything." 
she said.  "But
first, she will nourish our newly born Regis."  The Regis turned to Sakura and 
she motioned
for the woman to step forward.  As she did the chain that held her to the floor 
snapped like
tin foil as she moved.  The Regis walked her over to Kiyone who was starting to 
kick at the
creature that held her and Noboyuki.
	"Aren't they cute when they resist." the Regis whispered into Sakura's 
ear.
	Sakura was unable to resist the urge in her body for energy, she grabbed 
Kiyone from the
Darkling creature that held her and flung her to the floor.  She leaped on top 
of her and
her lips locked onto Kiyone's mouth that was about to scream.  Noboyuki turned 
her head
away and tears fell down his eyes, a blue glow filled the room, and the sound of 
Kiyone's
muffled cried tore into him worse than any knife blade ever could.
	The Regis crabbed Noboyuki's face with her hand in grip that was as tight 
as a vise.  "Watch
them, isn't it beautiful?" the Regis asked as she forced his face towards where 
Kiyone was
being attacked.
	"Your a cruel, hideous monster and when my son finds me you will all go to 
hell where you
belong!" Noboyuki screamed into her face.
	"What do you know of hell, Noboyuki?" the Regis asked.  "You know nothing 
of hell."
	Immediately she projected millions of years of memories and images into 
his mind.  Thousands
upon thousands of atrocities committed by the Darkness upon billions of 
unsuspecting life forms
from tens of thousands of different realities.  The streams of horrific images 
became too much
for his mind and Noboyuki screamed, "Please stop, stop!"
	"In time you will revel in those images and take pleasure from them." she 
said.
	"I'll never take pleasure in the suffering of others!" he spat.
	The Regis moved her face close to his.  "I can guarantee it that you 
will." she said, and
before he could anything she pressed her lips to his.  The Regis forced her 
tongue into his
mouth.  A tiny creature that moved like a tiny droplet of saliva dropped from 
the Regis' tongue
and slipped down Noboyuki's throat.  The Regis broke her kiss with Noboyuki, he 
was about to
shouted an obscenity at her, but his body was soon wracked with agony as the 
Darkling larva 
works its way towards his brain.
	"Birth is always a violent and painful experience." the Regis said as she 
watched Noboyuki
flailed about and screamed in pain.  When it was over the Darkling that held him 
let go and
Noboyuki fell to the floor in a fetus position.  The door opened and a second 
Darkling entered
with a young girl of perhaps twelve or thirteen years of age.  She was stripped 
naked, bound
hand and foot in cloth cords, and her mouth was gagged.
	Sakura stood up from Kiyone who was now unconscious but still alive.  She 
sensed that the
Regis did not want her to die just yet, so she released her hold on the woman so 
she could
recover for later.  Noboyuki stood up, there was no hint of pain on his face, 
and he looked
about the room.  "I understand, I understand." he said.
	"I told you that you would." the Regis said.
	The second Darkling unbound the young girl and pulled off her mouth gag.  
She cried out
in horror and scrambled across the room and hid herself in a corner like a 
frightened animal.
	"A gift for our new brother, I know how much you like them young." the 
Regis whispered
into Noboyuki's ear.  She had probed into his mind and found his Hentai 
tendencies to her
liking.  "Take all of her if you wish, she is yours."
	Moving with a speed that was physically impossible for the human Noboyuki, 
the newly
born Darkling Noboyuki sprinted across the room to where the young girl kneeled 
on the floor
in fear.  Her eyes went wide as Noboyuki grabbed her, ripped off his own 
clothes, and started
to rape her in the middle of the room.  The girl screamed as a blue aurora 
surrounded the
both of them, Noboyuki slowly piece by piece devoured the young girl's life 
force.  The
please he got from consuming her essence was almost on par with the please he 
received from
her body.  When the light diminished Noboyuki stood up from the corpse of the 
young girl, but
now the body was wrinkled and brown.  She looked as if she had been dead for 
several days,
and her skin had shrunk so mush her ribs and pelvis bone could been seen.
	Noboyuki himself was also very different in appearance.  Gone was his 
slightly graying
hair and small wrinkles around his eyes denoting age.  His face radiated youth, 
and he looked
like he did in the photos he had of himself and Achika when they were teenage 
lovers.  He
appeared to by physically eighteen or nineteen years of age.
	"I see you consumed all of her, young Darklings are ravenous when they are 
first born."
the Regis said.  She turned to the Darkling that had brought the young girl in.  
"Dispose of
this trash." she ordered and the creature bowed low in obedience.
	"What do want me to do, Mistress?" Noboyuki asked in a young voice.
	"I want you to find your son, and put an end to his existence." the Regis 
replied.
	"As you command." he said and his eyes began to glow with an Inner Light.

	The activities of Hakuda's group were being closely monitored, by Duncan 
and his newly
assembled team of special agents, by the Secret Police and military.  It had 
taken three weeks
to find them again, it appeared they changed their recruitment style also, thus 
confirming
the belief that they discovered his true identity somehow.  At this time the 
only real
crime that the group was know to have committed was possession of illegal arms, 
but as Duncan's
team watched them they could easily add terrorism to that list.  Hakuda's 
followers carried out
a series of surgical terrorist attacks against government office all around the 
city.  It took
all the resources that Duncan would appropriate to deal with each problem, but 
as each
event occurred it was becoming clear that Hakuda's group was always one step 
ahead of them.
	"They set off bombs in five key government offices in the past six days 
and we have been
completely powerless to stop them." Duncan explained to Chairman Zarlova and 
Emperor Asuza.
"Without someone on the inside there is no way to know what their next move will 
be, and if
they found out I was an agent what will keep them from identifying anyone else 
as an agent."
	The images of five terrorist targets that were hit appeared on a 
holographic display
in the Emperor's throne room.
	"There must be a way to stop them, I will not stand by while some 
blasphemous fool
terrorizes my people." Asuza said.
	"We have work on different strategies, but without knowing their next move 
we have to
be ready to act the moment we see them on the move." Duncan told him.
	"That doesn't give us much time to act, they can pop in and out of that 
sub space
pocket they are using as a base of operations anywhere in the city." Zarlova 
added.
	"Are you certain we have been unable to detect this sub space pocket?" 
Asuza asked.
	"We flew in experts from the Galactic Science Academy and they all failed 
to find a
way to detect it." Zarlova replied.
	"I am not accustomed to feeling helpless, but at this moment that is how I 
am feeling."
Asuza said.  "Do whatever is necessary, use whatever resources you need, take 
the entire
fleet if you need it but I want this mad man stopped!"
	"You can count on us, milord." Zarlova said with a bow.
	
	Weeks passed without any more activity from Hakuda's followers.  The 
trailed had turned
cold and Duncan was wondering what the point of the earlier attacks had been 
about.  The
group had only made a few demands concerning the removal of the Royal Family 
from power, but
they stopped their attacks.  Unseen by Duncan and his team of agent, Hakuda 
followers were
busy with a new plan of attack.
	It was going on the fifth month of Tenchi and gang's journey through 
space, and at the 
royal palace the Emperor and his wives were starting to feel as if they might 
not ever seen 
their family again.  No word had come up concerning them from any ships 
patrolling Jurai space, 
and the GP received no word about them either.  The Emperor was both concerned 
for his people 
and his daughters both, and it was starting to have an effect on him.
	Queen Fonaho was recently appointed Minster of Defense for the Empire.  
She walked onto
the floor of the command center for planetary defense and watched as hundreds of 
holographic
monitors displayed data on each ship in the fleet.  She noticed that several of 
screens were
blanked out.  Admiral Shakar stood in the center of the command center in a ring 
of consoles
named the Hot Zone, from here all the defensive resources of the entire empire 
could be 
controlled at the touch of a button.
	"Why are these screen blanked out?" she asked.
	"Those are ships we recently lost." the Admiral said.  "We are 
investigating, and one
of those was the Lunari."
	"I wonder if this terrorist group has anything to do with the Lunari's 
destruction."
Fonaho mused.
	"Its possible, but the data recorder we recovered shows they were 
destroyed by an
unknown class of ship." the Admiral replied.
	"Engaged by enemies on two fronts, this is not good at all." she said.
	"It gets worse, I learned this morning that several ships have refused to 
check in, but
our monitors show they are still operational." Admiral Shakar said.
	"Mutiny?" Fonaho asked in shock.
	"Our intelligence agents have no other explanation, milady." Admiral 
Shakar told her.
"Some of our contacts with the terrorist investigation tells us that several 
members of this
Hokuda's group are officers in the fleet."
	"This is very bad, if they gain control of our some of our ships--" Fonaho 
said.
	"I could prove disastrous for us all." Admiral Shakar finished for her.

	Duncan's team received a major lead in the case, an anonymous informant 
told them that the
terrorist group was active in the Kogong sector of the capital city.  This 
sector was residential
with thousands of homes were the citizens lived.  The houses were domed like 
buildings that
appeared to be natural fixtures on the landscape.  Much of the architecture of 
Jurai reflected
this merging of form and design with nature.  Only the industrial sector, the 
most remote part
of the city, looked artificial on the landscape.
	The information that had been given told Duncan that a large structure 
used as a
place of recreation was the group's focal point.  For a week he had his people 
stake out
the location, they observed an obvious pattern of activity at the building, and 
a plan of
action of drawn up quickly.  Agent Kirasawa took the plan to the Emperor and 
Chairman
Zarlova first before enacting it.
	"So you've found them?" Zarlova asked.
	"Yes, they are staying around a recreation center in the Kogong sector." 
Duncan told
him.  "We've observed them for a week and they do not seem to notice we are 
there so I feel
we have a chance this time to take them."
	"What is it you will need to deal with this situation?" Emperor Asuza 
asked.
	"I wish to have the use of the Elite Guard." Duncan said.
	The Elite Guard were considered the best soldiers on Jurai.  None could 
beat them
and they were the protectors of the Royal Palace.  Their fighting skills were 
legendary,
thus making them the most feared warriors in the galaxy.
	Zarlova's eyes went wide, he did not expect his agent to make such a 
request, and he
looked at the Emperor half expecting a negative reaction on his face.  The 
Chairman of the
Secret Police was surprise to see a grin on the Emperor's face.
	"Take as many as you will anticipate needing, I want this monster either 
brought to
justice or stopped anyway necessary." Asuza replied.
	"Thank you, milord." Duncan bowed before leaving the throne room.
	"Do you think it wise to give him some of the Elite Guard during this 
crisis?" Zarlova
asked.
	"I have confidence in Agent Kirasawa." Emperor Asuza said.  "Everything in 
my empire is
starting to fall apart, this terrorist group, several fleet ships refusing to 
answer hails
or return to station, and the mysterious destruction of some of our ships by 
some new
enemy we have been unable to identify or locate."
	"It does seem like someone is trying to demoralize the Empire in some 
way." Zarlova
commented.
	"Demoralize is not the word, undermine, infiltrate, eradicate are some of 
the words 
that I would have chosen." Asuza replied.  "Someone is out to destroy my empire 
and I want
it stopped no matter the cost, my people are in danger, or faith is threatened, 
and my two
precious little girls are missing."

	In a secluded part of the city a lone man soon next to a public 
communications device
and just stood waiting.  The receiver buzzed with an incoming call and the man 
tapped the
receive button.  No picture appeared on the flat panel display, and the man had 
already
through to put a hat over the optic sensor of his communicator so whoever was on 
the other
end would not see him.
	"They found your latest position." the voice on the other end said.  "They 
are well
arms, and Duncan Kirasawa is leading them."
	"We'll be ready for them, and thanks for tipping us off that he was an 
agent."
the man said.
	"I deposited the usual amount into Lord Hakuda's account using a fake 
account I created."
the voice said.  "If it were ever found out that I was diverting some funds from 
the agency
to you it would be very bad for me."
	"The money will be of great help, you are wise to assist us." the man 
said.  "We are
both working to make Jurai a better place."
	"I have to go, all communications are being scanned, but I am blocking 
them for now
but I can't do this forever." the voice replied.
	"This will do, you've done us a great service." the man said and he 
pressed the
disengage button.  He took his hat, placed it on his head, and turned to leave.  
As he did
he started to laugh, his eyes glowed a dim red, and his face morphed into the 
likeness of
Hakuda.
	"Yes, thank you very much Chairman Zarlova." Hakuda laughed as he faded 
into
subspace.

	Three squads of Elite Guard soldiers joined Agent Kirasawa in the assault 
against the
terrorists.  The soldiers still wore the ornate armor they wore at the palace, 
with white,
green, and red markings and flowing red capes down their backs.  As decorative 
at they
appeared, the armor was also powerful, and gave the Elite Guard enhanced 
physical strength,
enhanced speed, and limited flying capabilities.  Their stalves were their 
ultimate weapon,
they were long and curved near the end and affixed with a large setting of 
crystals.  The
weapon was deadly with the ability to launch energy attacks, absorb energy 
weapons fire
and redirect it, and also had the ability to form a force field.
	The Captain of the Elite Guard stood beside Agent Kirasawa on the street 
while they
planned out the attack.  Captain Ginaro looked at the holographic floor plans 
for the building
they were about to attack.  This strategic mind told him the building was going 
to be hard
to attack, there were multiple entrances, and its interior had a great deal of 
alcoves and
twisting passageways that could be easily defended.
	"They pass into a sub-space pocket universe they created so they can move 
their base
of operations around much faster." Duncan told the Captain.
	"Which also means they can pull out at the slightest hint of trouble." 
Captain Ginaro
said.
	"Exactly, which is why we need to be cautious." Duncan replied.
	"We are ready to move at your order." Captain Ginaro told him.
	"Spread out to cover all the exits, put eight men on each of the four here 
and here,
and we will lead the attack from the main entrance here." Duncan explained as he 
pointed to
the building plans.
	"A sound strategy, that will leave us with ten men to attack the main 
entrance, and
if they are as heavily armed as you say will need those ten despirately." 
Captain Ginaro
said.
	Duncan looked up into the night sky and then at his wrist watch.  "We 
strike at dawn,
our intellegence says they open the doorway to their pocket universe then to let 
their agents
out." he said.

	As the sun rose over the horizon the Elite Guard made their move.  Duncan 
and Captain
Ginaro with their forces broke through the main entrance and into the large 
building.  They
made their way towards the largest room where a game similar to Earth basketball 
was played,
but there was no sign of any subspace pocket anywhere.
	"Not again, how do they keep doing this?" Duncan muttered under his 
breath.  The Captain
heard the comment and narrowed his eyes, he enjoyed a challenge and apparently 
these terrorist
were proving to be just that.
	A crackle came over their communicators as they were searching some of the 
adjoining
rooms.  "Agent Kirasawa, we found something in the community bath you might want 
to see."
said a voice of an Elite Guardsmen.
	"On my way." Duncan replied.
	When he got there the other Guardsmen were still searching the area fo any 
sign of the
sub-space door.  A single Guardsman was standing near a table in the middle of 
the room.  The
steam from the hot baths which were natural springs in the area filled the room.  
Duncan
approached and the Guardsman gestured towards the table.  A message in Juraian 
text, from 
which the pictographic language of the Japanese had originated, spelled out a 
message.  It
read; A Gift for Dear Agent Kirasawa.  Next to the message was a small device he 
recognized
as a holographic recorder.  He touched the device and stepped back as the 
message began
to play back.
	The face of Hakuda appeared in midair above the device.  Captain Ginaro's 
eye brow did
a Spock Maneuver when he noticed who this man resembled.
	"You have proven to be a exceptional opponent Agent Kirasawa." Hakuda said 
in the message.
"I am impressed with your abilities, it did take us some time to find out who 
you really were,
but it was not too difficult for us.  Too bad you are on the wrong side we have 
need of people
with your talents, but then not everyone will live to see Jurai's Golden Age.  
So far you have
seen a small demonstration of our power, and still the Senate and the Holy 
Counsil ignores my
demands.  The people have spoken and they no longer wish to be under the 
dictatorship of a
Royal Family that cares nothing for them, they want to be free, and I am that 
freedom.  The
rulers of Jurai will this day see a demonstration of our real power and then 
they must listen
to our demands then.  It is regrettable you did not join us Duncan, but I can no 
longer afford 
to play this game of cat and mouse with you, therefore I bid you farewell."
	"What did he mean by that?" Captain Ginaro asked.
	Duncan was puzzled, but suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood 
up on end.  He
kneeled down and looked under the table, and a large device was attached 
underneath.  He 
recognized it almost immediately as an explosive device.  It was attached to two 
plasma
cannon cartridges which indicated on their displays that they were fully 
charged.  But it
was the insignia that was on those cartridges that caught his eye.  The 
countdown on the
bomb was rapidly reaching zero, so he knew he didn't have long to get everyone 
out of the
building.
	"There is a bomb, evacuate the building now!" he shouted.
	Duncan and the others fled from the building as fast as their legs would 
carry them,
the Elite Guardsmen ran much faster due the enhancements from their armor.  "All 
Guardsman
leave the building its going to explode!" Captain Ginaro ordered over the 
communicator.
	Duncan ran until he reached his ground car, he leaped over the engine hood 
on the rear
and dropped down behind it.  Before he reached the ground the building became a 
massive fire
ball, flames and debris shot into the air, and the sound woke up nearly everyone 
in the
neighborhood.  As the debris of the building came down around them Duncan walked 
back over
to where Captain Ginaro was standing near the ground cars the Elite Guard had 
used.
	"This Hakuda individual is a rather cunning adversary." Captain Ginaro 
said.
	"That is an understatement." Duncan told him.
	"What is our move now?" Captain Ginaro asked.
	"Its pretty clear now, Chairman Zarlova and I suspected we have a leak in 
the Secret
Police, and now this proves it." Duncan said.
	"This is very bad indeed." said Captain Ginaro.
	"It is very bad, Captain, because the only poeple who know we are out here 
are the
Chairman and the Emperor." Duncan told him.
	Captain Ginaro looked at him for a moment.  "I assume you are not 
suspecting the
Emperor, which thus places suspicion on the Chairman." he said.
	"Exactly, and now I have to try and prove it without him realizing that I 
am investigating
him." Duncan said.
	"I wonder what Hakuda said that this day we will see his true power?" 
Captain Ginaro
asked.  At that moment a deafening roar, a bright light, and a powerful blast of 
heat struck
both men so hard they were knocked to the ground.  Duncan's head hit the side of 
the ground
car as he fell and he passed out into blissful unconsciousness.

	At last, after weeks of travel Tenchi could see the blue-green orb of 
planet Jurai, and so could
 the rest of the passengers of the Ryu-Ohki.  The sight of their homeworld 
filled the
Princesses with joy, and Aeka shared that joy with Tenchi and Ryoko through 
their mental link
with each other.  Ryoko had other emotions to share with Tenchi and Aeka, and 
these were
fear and apprehension since the last time she set eyes on Jurai was when Kagato 
ordered her
to attack the planet.
	"Don't be afraid to go to Jurai, it was not your fault what happened, and 
nobody can place
blame on your for what you did." Aeka told her.
	"I'm just still worried, after all, what if they don't except our marriage 
to Tenchi?"
she asked.
	"You are joined in the Great Bond, to contest it is blasphemy against 
Tsunami." Katsuhito
said.  "It is also a major violation of our laws as well."
	"It is beautiful, and it has two rings." Tenchi said watching the planet 
grow in size in
Ryu-Ohki's viewscreen.
	"Miya." the Cabbit agreed, and her face appeared in a floating crystal and 
nodded.
	"Ya, you can see the rings at night, they are so beautiful." Sasami said.
	"It has been a long time since I set foot on our homeworld." Katsuhito 
said.
	"I only wish Kiyone were here to see this----WAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" Mihoshi 
cried leaving
a puddle on the floor.
	"I wish Dad and Washu were here to see this too." Tenchi added to 
Mihoshi's comment.
	"I can feel that Mom is alright, and she is getting closer, but I don't 
know where the
others are." Ryoko said.
	"We'll find them, even if it takes use centuries we will find them." Aeka 
said.
	
	In the Defense Command Center for planet Jurai the Ryu-Ohki came up on the 
sensors.
Admiral Shakar read the readings from the sensors and his eyes went wide when 
the ship was
identified.  Fonaho had returned to the command center a moment before and she 
was jsut
walking into the Red Zone.
	"Milady, a vessel is approaching that is identified as the Ryu-Ohki." 
Admiral Shakar
told her.  "It appears to be the same vessel that was responsible for the 
catastrophic
attack on planet Jurai nearly seven hundred years ago."
	"The Ryu-Ohki, that is Ryoko's vessel, hail it at once and hurry." she 
ordered.
	"Yes, milady." Admiral Shakar bowed.

	The communicator on the Ryu-Ohki crackled for a second letting them know 
that someone was
trying to contact them.  Immediately after a gruff voice came over the internal 
speakers.
	"Captain of the Ryu-Ohki, you are ordered to respond to this 
communication, if you fail
to comply you will be fired upon." the voice said.
	"Welcome home, Princess." Ryoko said with a smirk on her face.

	"I did not tell you to say that, Admiral." Fonaho said with disapproval.  
The Admiral had
a stunned look on his face when Fonaho pushed him aside and ran her hands over 
the communicator
controls.
	"Ryu-Ohki, this is Fonaho, who is onboard?" she asked.
	A holographic image appeared in the command center showing the bridge of 
the notorious
pirate ship.  Fonaho's face will with joy that was mirrored by Sasami, Aeka, and 
Tenchi at
the sight of their family.
	"Fonaho, it is so joyous to look upon your face again." Aeka said.
	"You have no idea how happy I am to see you, but where is Sasami?" she 
asked.
	"I'm right here, Mommy Fonaho." Sasami said, and Fonaho's eyes went a 
little wide.
	"Oh, Sasami, you've grown up so beautiful, I hardly recognized you." 
Fonaho gushed.
	"Mother." Katsuhito said.
	"I am also glad to see you also, my son." Fonaho said with a polite nod 
towards the
image of her son.
	"If the pleasantries are over, may I remind you all that we have Darkling 
ships
following us." Ryoko said.
	Fonaho and Admiral Shakar looked at each other with a puzzled look on 
their faces.  "What
are Darklings?" Admiral Shakar asked.
	Admiral Shakar looked at his console for a moment and noticed that several 
ships were
on an intercept course for the Ryu-Ohki.  he scanned for their registration and 
found they
were some of the ships that refused to obey orders and check in.  It also 
appeared that
they changed their prefix codes as well, which made it impossible to take 
control of the 
ships from the command center.
	"Ryu-Ohki, there are several Jurai Fleet ships on an intercept course with 
you." Admiral
Shakar spoke up quickly.  "I believe they intend to attack you."
	"What do you mean, attack us, can't you order them to stand down?" Aeka 
asked.
	"These vessels are renegade, they refuse to obey orders." Fonaho told her.
	"What?" Aeka shouted.
	Sasami concentrated for a moment and her mind's eye looked out onto the 
Goddess Tsunami.
She appeared perplexed as she tried to contact the trees of the ship that were 
approaching
the Ryu-Ohki, but the trees would not respond.
	"Aeka, Tsunami can't feel the trees that control those ships, something is 
very wrong."
Sasami whispered to her sister.
	"That-that-that's impossible." Aeka said.
	"Fonaho, what has been happening on Jurai?" Tenchi asked.
	The Queen of Jurai lowered her head in sadness.  "There is a terrorist 
group trying to
get the government to remove the Royal Family from power, several of our ships 
have gone
renegade, and a number of our ships have been destroyed by an unknown enemy." 
she told
him.  "Could that have anything to do with these Darklings you mention?"
	"As a matter of fact it does." Tenchi replied.
	"Miya, miya miya miya miya!" Ryu-Ohki meowed a warning.
	"I hate to interrupt but we're under fire!" Ryoko shouted as her hands 
raced over the
controls to evade a barrage of weapons fire.
	"Juraian vessels, cease your attack on the Ryu-Ohki at once, this is Queen 
Fonaho the
Minister of Defense." Fonaho ordered over the comm.
	"No response." Admiral Shakar told her.
	"Ryoko, tried to evade them, we'll send you help." Fonaho said.
	"I can outfly these Juraian flyboys any day of the week.." she said with a 
smirk 
on her face.
	Ryu-Ohki meowed in annoyance as more weapons fire narrowly missed her hull 
thanks to
Ryoko's lightning fast reflexes.  The Juraian battleships were not letting up, 
they pressed
their attack, and they still refused to acknowledge any commands to cease their 
attack.  Finally,
Fonaho had quite enough of this situation.  She looked over at Admiral Shakar, 
and then pressed
a button on the console that opened a channel to all ships within listening 
range.
	"This Queen Fonaho Masaki Jurai of the Royal Family of Jurai and appointed 
Minister of
Defense for Planet Jurai," she said on the comm.  "If any vessel in the vicinity 
of planet
Jurai receives this transmission, please listen very carefully, five vessels of 
the fleet that 
are assumed to be renegades and traitors to the empire are attacking a vessel 
known as the
Ryu-Ohki which is approaching the planet, the Ryu-Ohki is carrying members of 
the Royal Family
and must be protected at all costs.  If any vessel receives this message that is 
still loyal
to the Royal Family you are ordered to intercept these traitors and stop them 
from destroying
the Ryu-Ohki at all costs.  If necessary I give you full authority to use lethal 
force and
destroy the renegade vessels.  The Ryu-Ohki must reach planet Jurai at all 
costs.  End of
transmission."
	Almost immediately the console in front of Fonaho lighted up with hundreds 
of acknowledgments from all over the system.  In space Ryoko had to change 
course from Jurai to one of the
ring systems that circled the planet to evade their attackers.  The renegade 
force was made up
of five ships, and each had their Light Hawk Wings engaged and were firing using 
full power
to their weapons.  Ten large sub-space portals opened in the same vicinity of 
space and
several Juraian cruisers emerged.  These were vessels loyal to the Empire, and 
they ranged in
on the renegades quickly and opened fire.  Their weapons splashed off the LHW 
shields the
renegades were using, and so they deployed their own shields to defend 
themselves.  The captains
of each ship knew the battle that was ahead of them, they each had shields that 
were virtually
indestructible, and each had immense firepower.  It was only a matter of who 
will eventually
loose power to their shields and when.  The two fleets of combatants exchanged 
fire, but it 
instantly became clear that the renegades somehow had superior weaponry.  The 
renegade beams
were damaging the Light Hawk Wings of the loyalists' ships.  For the captains it 
seemed impossible,
but during the fighting the renegade vessels began to eject fragments of their 
hulls into space.
	Tenchi and the passengers on Ryu-Ohki watched in horror as the renegade 
vessels began to
slowly reveal the Darkling modifications that had been made them.
	"So that is how they are doing it." Tenchi said in surprise and horror.
	"What is on those ships?" Fonaho asked them over the comm.
	"Some type of modifications made to the design of the ships." Katsuhito 
said.  "We have
seen this before, its was done by the Darkness, and I fear our ships will be 
hard pressed to
win this battle."
	A great explosion next to the Ryu-Ohki caught everyone's attention.  They 
looked out of
the clear crystalline viewscreen bubble and watched in horror as a Juraian tree 
ship became
a raging fireball in space.
	"We just lost the Joxar!" Admiral Shakar shouted from his console next to 
Fonaho.
	For thirty minutes the battle continued to rage on and Ryoko continued to 
dodge
attacks from renegade ships that broke from the fight with the loyal Juraian 
ships.  Ryoko
made one quick movement to dodge a shot but did not anticipate that it was 
intended to miss
them, and Ryu-Ohki meowed out in pain as a another beam struck her in the side.  
The Cabbit
ship began to loose power quickly and her engines began to give out.
	"Come one Ryu-Ohki, we've gotten out of tougher situations than this one 
before."
Ryoko said to the Cabbit trying to encourage her.
	"Miya miya miya!" cried the Cabbit.
	"Ryu-Ohki's hurt pretty bad, those things have nearly triple the firepower 
of a 
regular Juraian battleship." Ryoko told the others.
	A sudden jolt told Ryoko that Ryu-Ohki had just been snared in a tractor 
beam.  She
switched the external viewscreen in that direction and sure enough she was able 
to see the
shimmering energy of a tractor beam.
	"They've got us, looks like we're going to be fending off boarders." 
Tenchi said as
he took the Master Key out of his shirt.

	In the local region of space a strange phenomenon never before detected by 
sensors on
planet Jurai took place.  A region of folded space appeared on Fonaho's sensor 
console and her
jaw dropped in total disbelief.  A starship the likes of which had never been 
seen before in
Jurai-space emerged from the spatial rift.  It was long, sleek, and appeared to 
have an almost
organic look to its hull.  The vessel immediately started to scan the area as it 
assessing
the situation, then it moved towards the battle raging between the renegades and 
the Juraian
fleet ships.
	"What the hell is that thing?" Admiral Shakar asked.
	"At this point I won't even bother to ask." Fonaho told him.
	The newcomer began opening fire on the renegade ships, its weapons tore 
through their
LHW shields like a red hot knife passing through lard.  One by one the renegade 
ships were
disabled in space, the newcomer was targeting their weapons systems and engines.  
With the
renegades quickly disabled the newcomer directed its attention on the Ryu-Ohki.  
The ship
raced towards them and opened fire on the renegade's tractor beam.  A direct hit 
destroyed
the beam and diminished its LHW shields.  The renegade however returned fire, 
but its
weapons fire splashed harmlessly off a deflector field that sprang into 
existance around
the newcomer.  The newcomer returned fire with a beam cannon and twin pulse 
weapons, it
hit its mark and holed the renegade ship through and through.  The renegade ship 
drifted
in space for a few short minutes before it exploded into a brilliant fireball.
	
	Tenchi and the others were too stunned to say a word.  They watched as the 
renegades
were put down in minutes and then their attacker was destroyed practically in 
seconds.  The
newcomer ship was an impressive sight, and something about the appearance of the 
ship
seemed somehow familiar to them.
	"That couldn't be what I think it is, could it?" Tenchi asked nobody in 
particular.
	A holographic viewscreen popped into existence showing the smiling face of 
an adult
Washu standing next to a tall man in a black jumpsuit uniforms.  Her had her arm 
around his
waist and the man's arm was around her shoulder.  A look of supreme joy and 
happiness was
on her face when she looked at her family and friends on the other end of the 
comm link.
	"Mother!" Ryoko shouted in surprise and joy.
	"I told you I'd catch up with you, Little Ryoko." the red-haired genius 
said with
a sheepish smile.
	"But-but who is that with you?" Tenchi asked.
	"Who do you think?" Washu asked as she winked her eye.
	Suddenly Tenchi recognized the face of the man who stood with Washu.  The 
thought
travelled their the link he had with Aeka and Ryoko and the two women gasped 
with as they
too suddenly recognized him.
	"Prince Orrin, but you let our universe." Tenchi said.
	"I am back, my work at home is done and now I have work to do here." Orrin 
said as
he squeezed Washu tightly to his side.
	"Who is this, what is going on up there, would someone please explain this 
to me?"
Fonaho asked in a voice that was uncharacteristic of her normal placid nature.
	"Well, when the Darklings attacked the planet Earth Orrin was the one who 
helped
us defeat them." Tenchi said.
	"What exactly are these Darklings, and what do they want with Jurai?" 
Admiral
Shakar asked.
	"That is a very long---" Orrin started to say but the signal was 
interrupted.
	The floor of the command center started to shake and dust sifted down from 
the
ceiling and onto the floor.  Fonaho grabbed her console to keep her footing, and 
the
lights in the command center flickered for a few moments.  The lights suddenly 
went
dead and all the consoles shutdown, but instantly emergency power engaged and 
all
systems came back online.
	"What the hell was that?" Admiral Shakar shouted to several men working 
consoles
across the room.
	"Not sure Admiral, our main transmitter and receiver tower is offline." 
one of the
men replied.  "Sensor readings indicated a large explosion just took place 
inside the
capital city."
	"What?" Admiral Shakar and Fonaho both shouted at once.
	"It appears that a large thermonuclear device was detonated inside the 
city, its
total chaos up there, the Comm channels are full of cries for assistance on all
civilian channels." another man shouted as tears started to fall down his face.  
"The
blast was near the Royal Palace, but it appears that the palace shields held 
back most
of the blast.  Unfortunately it had the effect of reflecting the shockwave 
outward into
the city and there is vast destruction."
	"Great Tsunami!" Fonaho said quietly as she put her face into her hands 
and cried
because she know the death toll would be unimaginable.
	
	Orrin had everyone on the Ryu-Ohki transferred onto Kryton.  Ryu-Ohki was 
in her
Cabbit form munching away at a carrot Washu had Kryton replicate for her.  
Everyone
was introduced to Orrin's children, Darius and Yuko.  They were all gathered on 
the
bridge to try and figure out why Fonaho's transmission ended so quickly.
	"We're getting no transmissions from their command center at all." Yuko 
said
 her the communications console.
	"I am reading a great deal of radiation and electromagnetic interference 
down
there on the planet." Darius said from his astrogation console.
	"I detected an electromagnetic pulse the moment the transmission ended." 
Kryton
told them.
	"An electromagnetic pulse, doesn't that like knock out electronics?" 
Tenchi asked.
	"Yes, but normally Juraian technology is unaffected by such attacks due to 
its organic
nature." Washu told him.  "Something else has happened."  She immediately called 
up her
holo computer and started to type franticly.
	"I will lend you some of my key sensor arrays for your scan, Mistress 
Washu." Kryton'
said.
	"Thank you, but I think I know what happened down there." she said with a 
look of
sorrow on her face.
	The ship had passed beyond the ionosphere of the Jurai atmosphere and was 
quickly
approaching the capital city at a high altitude.  They could see the city from a 
distance
and they could seen dense black clouds hanging over the metropolis.
	"Looks like they are having bad weather." Tenchi said.
	"Those clouds are too low to be storm clouds." Katsuhito commented.
	Mihoshi stepped forward and for the first time in hours spoke up and said, 
"It-It-It
looks like smoke."
	"Smoke!" Aeka shouted.
	"The city is burning." Washu said in a monotone voice.
	"My god, look at these radiation readings." Darius said.
	"It appears that a nuclear device of considerable yield was recently 
deployed here."
Kryton said.
	Tenchi gasped and his shock spread to the two women he was linked with.  
"Are you
saying a nuclear weapon was used on that city?" he asked but did somehow he 
already knew the
answer.
	"Yes it was, and we are seeing the aftermath." Washu told them.
	"Mommy, Daddy, Fonaho, oh no!" Sasami cried as her hands flew to her face.
	"There is a massive structure built inside a giant living tree in the 
center of the
city." Kryton said.  "It appears to have survived the blast due to a force 
field."
	"Its the defensive systems of the palace, our parents may still be alive." 
Aeka said
with hope in her thoughts.
	"I am sure they are, but we have to get down there and see what we can do 
to help."
Tenchi said.
	Orrin sat down at the helm controls and looked over at Aeka.  "Guide me to 
where we
can land close to the palace." he said.
	"We have a hanger entrance on the opposite side of the palace we use, I 
can open it 
with our secret code, but we need to transmit it on the correct frequency." Aeka 
told him.
	"That will be my job." Yuko said.
	Aeka went to Yuko's console and keyed in what was necessary for them to 
get into the
hanger boy.  "That should do it." she said.
	"Ok, everybody hang on, there are a great deal of atmospheric disturbances 
around
the city due to the blast this will be a bumpy ride going in." Orrin told them 
as he took
the controls and guided the ship towards the hanger entrance that Aeka pointed 
out.

	Queen Fonaho knew her beloved Sister and husband were alive due to their 
link.  She
knew they were terrified, and that Asuza was enraged beyond reason.  A small 
glimmer of
happiness came through all the rage and anger though since the Emperor and 
Empress know
that their children were safe and coming back to Jurai.  The report of a ship 
entering
the royal hanger bay using Princess Aeka's secret code came to her on her wrist 
comlink
and she knew it had to be them.  She ran from the command center and headed for 
the
hanger as fast as she could run.  She found them all walking down a ramp that 
extended
down the bottom of Prince Orrin's starship.
	The Juraian Queen lost all her royal composure and ran to meet them with 
crushing
hugs and soft kisses.  She hugged Tenchi tightly and covered his face with 
kisses.
	"Thank you for bringing out beloved family back go us safely." she said to 
him.
	"I love them very much, I would gladly give my life to make sure they were 
safe."
he told her.
	Aeka and Ryoko did not gasp in shock over his remark for they know it was 
the
truth, but they still blushed none the less.
	"I understand our search for a suitor for you Aeka is at and end." Fonaho 
said with
a smile on her face.
	"Yes, Tenchi, Ryoko, and I are joined." Aeka told her.
	"I remember when I bonded with your mother and father, it was a very 
enlightening
experience." Fonaho said.
	"The same can be said for us, it was so enlightening that these two have 
made up
for good and haven't fought each other in weeks." Tenchi commented.
	"We sometimes have our differences, but our unique situation helps us find 
less
violent solutions." Aeka added.
	"Ya, we scream at each other with our thoughts and keep Tenchi from 
overhearing
us." Ryoko said with a laugh.
	"Wah?" Tenchi said with his eyes wide.
	"Got you." both women said at once with sly smiles on their beautiful 
faces.
	"I also see that parts of your personalities have also melded into each 
other."
Fonaho said with a smile.  "The same thing happened to us."
	"Mother." Katsuhito said and walked up to embrace her.
	After the gentle hug, she looked at her son and sighed.  "It has been a 
long time
since you set foot on Jurai, my son." she said.
	"The last time I was home was when I left to chase Ryoko across the 
galaxy." he
said and the mention of it made Ryoko wince.  Fonaho's quick eyes noticed her 
reaction instantly.
	"Don't worry, Ryoko, we shall accept you with open arms." Fonaho told her.  
"We know
the real reason for your attack on Jurai, so do not be afraid of this place 
because it is
now your home too---Princess Ryoko."
	"Princess?" Ryoko said in surprise.
	"I thought we discussed this once before, because you are married to Lord 
Tenchi you
are now a Princess of Jurai." Aeka told her.
	"Oh, ya, I almost forgot about that." Ryoko said smiling and rubbing the 
back of her
head.  "Ironic isn't it for me to become a princess of a planet I almost 
destroyed."
	"I'm really sorry to end this touching family reunion so quickly, but we 
need to meet
with the Emperor right now." Washu interrupted.
	"Yea, about this Darkness you keep speaking about." Fonaho said.
	"Yes, and if you think this situation is bad I am afraid you have only 
just seen the
beginning." Orrin said and an ominous feeling fell upon all of them, even 
Fonaho.

	Far ways in another part of the universe two sets of eyes watch the events 
on
planet Jurai very closely.  They know of the presence of the Darkness in their 
universe, but
they have decided to observe for now before it becomes necessary to intervene.  
One of the
set of eyes belonged to a beautiful woman whose very countenance radiated 
immense power, and
the other to a man with grayish skin and long gray locks of hair.
	"The arrival of the Darkness must most certainly alter the plans you have 
had for this
universe." the gray man said in a monotone voice, but his lips did not move.
	"It changes nothing, I am proceeding with my plans requardless of their 
arrival." the
woman said but her lips did not move.  "If they get in my way I will destroy 
them."
	"Greater immortals than you have proclaimed to do the same thing, and now 
they no longer
exists." the gray man said.  "It is unwise to underestimate the power of the 
Darkness."
	"I fear them not." the woman said.
	"You are new to them, you have never seen them before, but I have and you 
have much to 
fear, Lady Tokimi." the gray man said.  The gray man, D3, turned his ancient 
eyes to the
beautiful and ancient goddess.
	"This Orrin Quintarin is capable of destroying them easily, they cannot be 
more powerful
than myself." Lady Tokimi said.
	"They are only advanced scouts, Lady Tokimi." D3 told her.  "They will 
show their true power
soon now that the Elo'Quin's champion has arrived."
	"The Elo'Quin, that is a name I have not heard in a very long time." Lady 
Tokimi mused.
	"It is they whom the Darkness is looking for." D3 explained.
	"The Elo'Quin did not stay here long." Lady Tokimi told him.
	"This I know, but now they are here and even I am powerless to prevent 
them from destroying
this universe in their search for them." D3 said, his pupiless eyes which 
normally showed no emotion
now showed sadness.  "I feel their master is coming also, and if he arrives 
beings like ourselves
will be in grave danger, for you see he can destroy beings like ourselves with 
little effort."
	"Then for my plans to succeed and for this universe to survive our only 
hope is that boy and
that Prince from another reality." Lady Tokimi replied.
	"Their powers are considerable, they are our only hope." D3 said.
	"It is my hope that my sister has chosen well, and as for my other sister 
I find it interesting
that she loves this Orrin." Lady Tokimi said.
	"Did you feel that, there was a disturbance in the fabric of reality, yes 
I can sense it." D3
said suddenly.  "They have arrived, the true power of the Darkness has arrived."
	"I can feel their power from here, it is immense." Lady Tokimi said with 
awe in her voice.
	"We can do nothing now, we are powerless against these Darklings, but 
Tenchi Masaki and Orrin
Quintarin are not." D3 replied.
	"Then we wait." Lady Tokimi said and vanished.
__________	
End of Chapter Seven...to be continued

Next time...
Chapter Eight:  Prelude to Apocolypse...
	A terrible disaster strikes Jurai just as Tenchi and the gang make it to 
their destination.
Secrets about the Darkness are finally revealed by Prince Orrin who has intimate 
knowledge
of the creatures, and the Masaki Family finally comes to grips with the reality 
they are
facing.  Meanwhile, Kiyone awakens to find herself living in a nightmare where 
Noboyuki
has turned young and has become eviil.  It is the chilling and action packed 
conclusion
to Episode Two of Dark Lord of Jurai.  Stay tuned for Episode Three:  No Need 
for Total
War...

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Remember to check out GenSao's Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction Archives for this
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