Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Tenchi characters, places, etc. all are property of pioneer and AIC. All original characters, places are mine, and I am not making any profit off of this. What's up? This is my first fic in an epic size story, but I wanted to see what kind of reaction I would get to it so I am putting the first part up in advance. I will try to keep to the Tenchi line as much as possible without changing anything. I am an avid Tenchi fan, so I should get it fairly close. Send any comments to HFenikubi@Yahoo.com. So, without further ado, the story begins... _____________________________________________________________________________ Prologue Sasami awoke form a nightmare, she had never had this one before. Images from her dream flashed across her minds eye. Pictures of a black world, of Kagato, and one of a young man she had never seen before. He was surrounded by a green fire, wearing a dark colored armor of some kind, he seemed vaguely familiar somehow. Tsunami was there also, and for some reason or rather, the young man did not frighten her. He was comforting in a strange way, almost like De Ja Vous. This meant that Tsunami was trying to tell her something. Then another man appeared, like the young man, but.not. Behind him was an image of Tokimi. She was afraid of him. His eyes were an eerie glowing yellow, not at all pleasant. He had something in his hands. People. One was Tsunami, but the other was obscured by light coming from the man's eyes. The other prisoner seemed oddly familiar. Then she saw something that made her want to scream: at the man's feet, piled in a heap, was all of her family. Dead. The young man she had seen Tsunami with was there as well. He was hurt badly and was right along side the rest of them. She wanted to scream but could do nothing. The memory of the nightmare was fading already, and Sasami was thankful for this. _____________________________________________________________________________ 1: Another Morning in...Paradise? It was a beautiful spring morning in the mountains of Okayama, one of those mornings you see every now and then that simply screams of the day's endless possibilities. It was some of these very possibilities that bothered Tenchi Misaki as he lay dozing in his warm bed. Truth be told, he just wanted to lay there and soak in all the peace and priceless quiet that a morning like this had to offer. He tried not to think about the chaos that would ensue upon his arrival to the breakfast table. He of course was worried about the battle that would take place when a certain cyan-haired beauty threw herself lustfully on him during his morning meal. This in itself did not particularly bother Tenchi, she was a very beautiful woman. What bothered him was that this would provoked a certain pink eyed princess into lashing out in his defense, and it was all down hill from there. This was completely Ryoko's design. She loved pushing Ayeka's buttons and she knew exactly how to push them. The soft sound of someone quietly breathing jarred Tenchi from his thoughts. He knew exactly who it was. Tenchi had known for quite some time that one of Ryoko's favorite things to do was to sit and watch her beloved sleep. 'Her beloved...'Tenchi thought. He wondered how long it would be until he was forced to make his decision. He knew that they would not simply sit and compete with each other forever, that eventually they would force him to decide who he truly loved. He cared about the girls very much and did not want to hurt any of them, and rejecting one or more of them would do just that. Tenchi did have feelings for them, he just did not know how deep they ran. He slowly opened his eyes, as if he had been asleep to begin with. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw two familiar feline eyes looking right back. "Good morning my Tenchi," Tenchi started to blush ever so slightly at her referring to him as "hers". He thought that it had a nice ring to it, although he would never tell her that, terrified at what she might do. "Did you sleep good?" Her golden eyes stared lovingly at the source of her affection. Tenchi absently nodded. "Breakfast is ready," she purred, and just as quickly as she had arrived, she vanished. "Why can't she ever use the door?" he wondered out loud. "Because that's no fun," Ryoko answered, her head sticking out of the door. Tenchi blushed wildly, slightly annoyed as that mysterious itch at the back of his head flared up. Her head vanished back through the door. When he was satisfied that she had returned to the dining room and was not waiting to ambush him at his door, he got up and got dressed. The scene downstairs was a most familiar one in the Masaki home. The wonderful aroma of a well prepared feast welcomed Tenchi to the table. Sasami was bustling about with Ryo-ohki perched on her shoulder, and Ayeka was sitting calmly at her place. Ryoko was perched next to Tenchi's vacant seat, most likely waiting to pounce. Even Washu had ascended from her lab to eat, and was busily typing away on her laptop. The only person missing was Mihoshi, who was out on an early patrol. "Oh! Good morning Tenchi!" Sasami said wearing one of her million dollar smiles. "Good morning Sasami. Wow! this looks great!" Tenchi said, his appetite perking up. "Good morning Lord Tenchi," Ayeka said, one of her most royal smiles spread across her face. "I trust you had a good night's rest?" "Yes miss Ayeka as a matter of fact I di-" "TEEENNNCCHIIIIIII!!!!!!" Tenchi tightened up his body as Ryoko delivered one of her bone-crushing hugs. "I was wondering when you would come down," she said with a hint of playful concern. "It had been a while since I left your room this morning and I was getting worried!" she said, with a somewhat playful tone. "What do you mean 'left his room'?" Ayeka shrieked. Her cheeks were turning red as a sign of Ryoko's successful provoking. Washu was smiling brightly at the scene playing out in front of her. While dangerous to anyone else, Washu derived much entertainment at watching her daughter and Ayeka dueling. "Why don't you just accept that Tenchi and I are destined to be together and pack your bags?" Tenchi turned a little red at Ryoko's statement, which did not go unnoticed by Washu's all-seeing eyes. She smiled inwardly at his predicament. Washu knew how much her daughter loved Tenchi, and she knew that he had feelings for her as well, she just did not know how far his feelings went. 'At least not yet,' she thought to herself. "I hardly think that Lord Tenchi would choose a dirty, foul-mouthed creature as you when he has a beautiful princess such as me around! And besides, everyone knows that Tenchi and I are meant to be!" Ryoko had gotten her devilish grin that everybody knew to mean that the inevitable was close at hand. By this time though, Tenchi had quickly dispatched with his meal and had delivered his dishes to the kitchen, Sasami had gathered up the dirty dishes and was taking them to the kitchen, and now Tenchi was bolting for the door, and the carrot fields outside. Washu quickly excused herself and was making good time back to her lab. "Ya wanna bet Miss Princess Twit?!" "Oooohhhh you devil woman! You are going to get it this time!!!" Now that the room was cleared, and Ayeka was standing up gathering her Jurai power, with raw energy crackling in Ryoko's hands. "Bring it on!!!" The fire behind her amber eyes was blazing forth as she readied herself to lay into her royal foe. It was going to be another typical day. Tenchi winced as an explosion issued from the house followed by several feminine screams of anger. Tenchi constantly wished that the girls wouldn't fight, but that would take an act of... Tsunami. Besides, life for the young man would seem somewhat empty without at least one part of the house in disarray. He gathered up his tools to begin his daily task of tending the carrot fields. He remembered how around a year or so ago they had been a beautifully diverse garden. But the arrival of a particular small, furry companion-one whose stomach had no discernable end- had made the need for a larger more specific garden most apparent. The fight ended as the rival's fight usually do, that is with Ryoko and Ayeka sitting back to back on the ground out of breath, and covered in dust and soot. "Well princess, it looks like you're getting a little slow!" Ayeka just huffed and looked away. "Yes, and you flew into that wall on purpose." Ryoko's grin faded away to a look of surprise. "I thought as much." it was Ayeka's turn to grin now. In her lab, the greatest scientific genius in the universe sat on her giant floating pillow and looked over the data recorded from her latest experiment. She was busily typing away at her keyboard and didn't see the warning flash up on one of her screens. _____________________________________________________________________________ Out beyond Jupiter, a small craft bearing Galaxy Police markings flew silently towards it's destination: a house on a small backwater planet in the middle of nowhere. Mihoshi sat fiddling with her small pink control cube trying desperately to get it to show her some cartoons while she returned home from her morning patrols. Yukinojo ignored the blond as she started ranting on about this and that. Suddenly, a large object appeared on the edge of the ship's sensor range. "Mihoshi. Mihoshi?" The small pink robot frantically tried to get his partner's attention. "MIHOSHI!!!" The blond detective, first class, leapt up from her seat spilling the cup of juice that she had been drinking. "Wha...What is it?" she whined. "Is there something wrong?" "An object has just entered Earth space near the edge of my sensor range. Galaxy Police regulations require us to investigate it." "Well...what is it? Huh Yukinojo?" A look of fear came over Mihoshi's eyes. "If I knew, we would not need to investigate Mihoshi," the robot answered, slightly annoyed. "Oh. Okay then, let's go!" Mihoshi squeaked with excitement! Back on Earth, Washu still had not noticed the events unfolding in space. Yukinojo closed the distance between him and the unknown ship quickly. He came within scanning range of the ship and hailed it. "This is Galaxy Police Detective First Class Mihoshi to unidentified vessel, under Galaxy Police regulations, any ship entering restricted space is subject to boarding and inspection." She had her work face on and was making preparations to board the ship when it changed it's course without warning. "Mihoshi! the ship has changed course and is now on an intercept course!" Yukinojo whaled. "Mihoshi!!" "Oh no! What do we do now?" Tears were starting to well up in her eyes. "Mihoshi!" the robot yelled before a blast rocked the ship. Mihoshi immediately started sending a message to Earth. The call was cut off, though, as the ship closed in and fired again. Then, before she could react, all of the ship's power cut out. With the ship disabled, artificial gravity failed and there was no longer anything to keep the ditz from floating to the ceiling. She let out a scream but never had a chance to finish. An eerie light filled the cockpit and she was teleported out of her shuttle. Washu leapt up from her place on her pillow and ran to the screen making all the noise. "Oh hell," was all she got out. The distress signal was coming from inside Earth space, near Jupiter, but there were two ships, and her computer told her that only one of them was occupied. _____________________________________________________________________________ The sun was hot in the daytime sky and helped keep Tenchi fixed on his work. The sooner he could get done, the sooner he could get out of the blazing heat. His hoe dug perfect little trenches to allow precious nutrients and water to the roots below. It was his curse, and his salvation. Tilling the fields allowed him some time alone away from the girls to think. It was the only time he had to do so. Thinking while training with his grandfather was suicide, and the girls, however fond of them he was, tended to force various thoughts out of him. He was looking forward to a nice, relatively calm day. It was only a little while later that Tenchi saw Ryoko flying at top speed towards him. He started to worry when he saw the look on her face. She had a very serious expression and he knew that something was wrong. "Hey Ryoko, what's up?" he asked as she landed. "Is there something wrong?" "We gotta go NOW!!!" she said, her eyes showing no playfulness. "Washu just picked up a distress signal from Mihoshi!" This was not an unusual occurrence. Mihoshi was in mortal peril as ling as she was conscious. Then Tenchi saw the concern on her face and began to worry himself . "What! What do y-" He started to yell, as Ryoko grabbed him up and started flying back to the house. "I'll explain when we get there!" It only took a few seconds and he could see everyone gathered under Ryo-oki in the yard, looking ready for battle. Even Ayeka was wearing her Jurian battle armor, and Washu was wearing her travel outfit with a large weapon that that could only be described as a bazooka propped next to her. Tenchi was a little puzzled, never before had Mihoshi cause this much commotion. "I got him Washu! Let's go!" Ryoko yelled. She stopped under the giant crystalline vessel. They all were transported onto the bridge of Ryo-oki and with a meow they blasted away. Tenchi just stood there with a look of utter confusion on his face. His hopes for a normal, peaceful day had just been totally destroyed. "Will someone please explain to me what is going on here?" Tenchi pleaded. "Well," Washu started, "it seems that Mihoshi has been attacked and she was apparently taken from her shuttle a few minutes ago, and now we're gonna go and save her." Not sounding all that worried. But then not much worried the greatest scientific genius in the universe. "That's all huh?" Tenchi replied sarcastically, scratching his head. "That's about it!" Washu said, with one of her childish grins. It only took a few minutes at top speed for the cabbit to reach Mihoshi's stranded craft. They noticed immediately the burns from a small fire fight on the gray hull. But there was something else wrong. That was the only ship there. "Where...where is the other one?" Ryoko asked. "There's no one here but us," the pirate sounded a little confused. "I'm picking up an ion trail from another ship, hang on," Washu was typing furiously at her keyboard. "I think I may have found it now." She fed the data to Ryo-oki. "Okay Ryo-oki! let's go!" And with that, they were off again. A little bit later, they watched as a big black wedge appeared on the view screen. It resembled a large triangular brick with objects protruding here and there resembling weapons. "Okay guys, looks like we found it!" They all stiffened up as they looked at the strange markings on the sides of the dark hull. "I'm not getting any responses to hails, but scans are telling me that Mihoshi is on board," Washu was looking at her screen and her fingers were flying across the keys. "Hmm...that's weird." She looked at her readouts, slightly curious. "What is it Washu? What did you see?" Tenchi asked. Washu being in the dark about anything usually meant something very strange was going on. Something very strange. "It seems there is some sort of dampening field around the ship, my scanners are having a hard time getting through. We may have to go and find her the old-fashioned way." This was unsettling to the petite little scientist, there was not a thing she had found that could evade her sensors, not even that fool Clay. "Well then, let's go get her! those creeps can't just take our friends and run!" red energy crackled between Ryoko's hands and she had a familiar fire in her eyes. "Oh no, here we go again," Tenchi said quietly. His family seemed to attract all kinds of trouble. And this kind of scenario was painfully familiar. A red sphere surrounded all of them and they transported onto the alien craft. For a brief moment, Tenchi could feel his body being disassembled into tiny parts and then, he was somewhere else. He was on the ship, and the others were with him. It was dark, and the inside of the ship smelled funny. Washu had a curious look on her face. "This is odd, I'm getting nothing at all on my sensors. Not even you guys. This field is pretty damn strong," Washu was not happy. That meant one of two things. One, Washu's equipment was malfunctioning, or two, someone did not want uninvited guests. Since Washu's things simply exploded whenever they malfunctioned, if they ever malfunctioned, they all assumed that they were not welcome here. Ryoko gasped. Everyone turned to look at her. She had a look of total confusion over her normal predatory grin she had earlier. "Problem?" Washu asked. "I.I.Can't do anything." Her voice had a hint of concern. "I just tried to phase over to you and I couldn't," she said, her voice a little shaky. "That's not surprising," Ayeka prodded, "things do generally go wrong when you're involved." Ryoko just bored holes through her with her eyes. Washu intervened. "That may not be all of it." Ayeka stopped and looked at her. "If Ryoko powers have been affected somehow, it is possible that yours have too." She smiled at the group. Ayeka wasn't prodding Ryoko anymore. She seemed to be concentrating real hard on something. Then her face fell. Apparently her Jurai Power had been weakened as well. "Well guys, that means that if we want to get off of this wreck, we need to find and disable the source of this damned dampening field," Washu added. Everyone nodded. Ryoko had managed to form her sword, and the master key was functioning, so it seemed that the only thing affected by the field were the higher level abilities that Ryoko and Ayeka had. Which was good because it allowed them some way to attack and defend. "The good thing is, I can tell where the source of this thing is, because I can tell where it is the strongest, so I think we should head there first. If we try to find Mihoshi now, we will be looking without any idea where we are going." With that last part, everyone nodded and began following the little scientist to their first target. The ship was sparsely populated because they had yet to see anyone at all. They had gone a few hundred yards when they found themselves in a large chamber. At its center was a large device, undoubtedly the source of the dampening field, as Ryoko's sword was dimmer here. Above it was a large tube. It was pretty solid looking and it was hard to tell what was in it form where they were. The group made their way over to the machine and they stopped dead in their tracks. Inside the tube was a person. A young man who did not seem to be much older than Tenchi, and he was asleep, or unconscious. He was bound by several heavy rings around his hands, neck, and feet. The man himself looked to be in pretty decent shape, a head taller than Ryoko, he had dark gray hair, and skin that was only slightly paler than Ayeka. He had sharp, exotic features like Ryoko, but they weren't the same. He had more muscle than Tenchi did and it showed under his gray clothes, which reminded Tenchi of prison attire. He had the overall appearance of someone who did not belong in a tube. Then Tenchi noticed the end of a scar peeking out from under the back of his collar. He thought that the man looked vaguely familiar but quickly dismissed the idea. "The energy of this field is concentrated on this person," Washu stated in awe as she looked over the device. For this person to need that much power to immobilize them, he would have to be incredibly powerful. She paced around the base of the tube examining it as she went. "Who could this be Washu?" Tenchi was looking at the man in the tube. "He seems to be a prisoner, or captive. That is a stasis tube, but not like any one I've ever seen," she added. "It seems to be designed to inhibit any kind of energy manipulation. Seems like someone went to a lot of trouble to keep him here." She continued to inspect the tube. "Washu, do you think shutting this thing down will release him?" Tenchi asked. "It could. But we're gonna have to chance it if we want to get off of this bucket." She simply stood and looked at it now. "Do you think he could be dangerous?" Ayeka asked. She certainly did not want to cut this man loose if he was evil. They already had enough problems without some psycho on the loose. "I.don't think so. This is not a friendly vessel from what I've seen. It abducted Mihoshi without cause and the occupants seem to want this guy looked up real good. But he doesn't look like a criminal, he looks like a captive." Washu was looking at the data on her computer. Everyone else was staring at the man in the stasis tube. "Well, there's certainly one way to find out," Ryoko said. She walked up to the base of the machine and held up her sword. "Any objections?" she asked to the group, although she was looking at Tenchi. Nobody said anything. She looked at Washu who just shrugged her shoulders. "Okay then," and she raised her sword and brought it down into the metal frame, sending sparks and little chunks of debris everywhere. The lights in the room dimmed and were replaced with red flashing beacons. An alarm went off. Bolts of electricity flew over the field generator and the stasis unit. "Oops." was all she got out. The machine exploded sending her flying across the chamber into a wall. Tenchi yelled and ran over to her. "Ryoko!" he picked her up off the floor. "Are you alright?" Ryoko's eyes fluttered open. "Anybody get the number on that truck?" Tenchi looked over her to make sure she wasn't hurt. Ryoko saw this and grinned broadly "Are you checking me out Tenchi? Thought you'd sneak a peek while nobody was lookin' huh?" Tenchi's face flushed various shades of red. "I was.just.checking to make sure you were okay," he finished nervously. Washu grinned. 'uh huh' she thought to herself. She was going to say something but was cut off by a loud noise. She spun around to see the stasis tube filling up with smoke. "Hey guys gimme a hand with this!" she yelled. She leapt up to the tube with surprising agility. Tenchi ran over to her and gave her a hand prying open the door. Ryoko, no longer hindered by the dampening field, flew over to them and helped as well. Ayeka was busy trying to put out a small fire near her. They pulled on the door and it started to give. Ryoko cut into it with her sword and ran it along the seals. A loud snapping sound told them that they had nearly gotten it. Another mighty pull and it slowly swung open and fell off onto the floor. Smoke billowed out from the inside and they pulled the young man out onto the floor. He was unconscious, but breathing. They heaved him up and put him between Ayeka and Tenchi. Ryoko went to the doorway of the chamber. Another explosion filled the air. The doorway was gone now, just a gaping hole. Ryoko was hovering a few feet above it and sent a few blasts down the hall. The sound of screams were drowned out in the blast. Hey all hurried out into the remains of the corridor. They were met by a barrage of energy blast from a group of guards. They looked human enough, but their skin was a sickly gray and their eyes were narrow slits that glowed green. The gang was pinned down as another group came up behind them. Ryoko loosed a few blast at them hitting a couple in the chest. Tenchi guided Ayeka, Washu, and the unconscious man over to a corner where Washu could keep an eye on him. He pulled out Tenchi-ken and its blue bade flared to life. He ran to the nearest bunch and joined Ryoko in dealing out death. Ayeka was pounding the hell out of a group nearer to Washu. 'Boy that Jurai Power packs one hell of a punch,' Washu thought to herself as another alien was sent sprawling. A group of the aliens had surrounded Ryoko when Tenchi cut into them from behind. He cleared out a large path with Tenchi-ken and took up a defensive position next to Ryoko. They stood side by side and took on the squad head on. Washu saw something out of the corner of her eye. A couple of stray guards were moving in behind Tenchi and Ryoko. Ayeka had no seen them because she was facing away from them. She yelled but she was too far away. Her voice was drowned out by the sounds of the fighting. They would not be seen until it was too late. Washu screamed as a bright green blast rocketed past her head right into the two sneaky bastards sending them on a one way trip to wherever it is that mean people go when they die. She spun around to see where it had come from and froze. The man they had pulled out of the stasis tube was sitting up against the wall with his hands cupped in front of him. He looked exhausted. He was looking at the hole where the two guards had just been. His silvery blue eyes showed no malice at all. His brow was furrowed in concentration. He looked at her and passed out. She ran over to him and pulled out her computer. She started scanning him and noticed that his body was totally drained of energy. 'That attack must have wasted what little energy he had,' she thought. She looked at him. He was pale and looked weak from exhaustion. Tenchi and Ryoko had managed to clear a path down the hall. Ayeka and Washu lifted the man up and Washu scanned the ship for Mihoshi. She located her not two levels down and only fifteen meters from where they stood. "Ryoko! Mihoshi is right under us two levels down!" Washu pointed to the floor in the area where Mihoshi should be. Ryoko looked at her and turned to Tenchi. He got the hint and ran. Ryoko put her palm out to the floor and blasted a hole straight down. They all jumped down through it. The corridor was dark and lined with doors. Washu indicated the correct one. They Ryoko removed it from its frame with her sword and they all ran in. Mihoshi was asleep curled up on the floor. They all just stared at her in amazement. Only a few meters from a heated battle and she was sound asleep. The blonde could sleep through a hurricane. Ryoko called to Ryo-oki. A wall was replace fairly soon by a large black point from Ryo-oki. They teleported over to the bridge just as another large group of guards came into the room. Ryo-oki pulled out of the hull leaving a gaping hole. Weapons fire rained down onto the crystalline vessel. Ryo-oki dumped a blast of red energy straight into the hole left in the hull. The cabbit roared away as the black hulk started to break up. Onboard, everyone sighed a collective sigh of relief as they cleared the blast. Washu was standing over their passenger with Tenchi. "So I guess he's coming with us then." Washu nodded. She never turned her eyes from him. "When you guys were fighting back there a couple of those guards slipped around behind you." She gestured to the man on the floor. "He woke up in time and blasted them. He used up his last bit of energy saving you and passed out." Washu looked up at Tenchi. "He saved you. I think we owe it to him to at least try and help him. Besides, if he was evil, he would've blasted you instead. Right?" Washu smiled at him. "Yeah. I guess you're right as usual Washu." He still thought that the man looked strangely familiar. "Of course I am!" Washu said. "I am the greatest scientific genius in the whole universe!" she sang. Tenchi just sighed. It seemed that his strange little family had picked up yet another alien. 'Well,' Tenchi thought, 'at least he's not a girl.'