Tenchi Muyo is the property of AIC and Pioneer LDC.  The author
owns only the writing and the characters he, himself, creates.
This is a post Manatsu No Eve fic, so if you haven't seen that
particular Tenchi movie............GO WATCH IT!!!  ^_^


The Last Avatar:  Part 1
The Day Heaven Fell


	"ENOUGH!!"
	The two girls froze in shock and turned to the young man
they had, only moments ago, been fighting over.  It had started
simply enough.  Tenchi had been sweeping the shrine steps.
Ayeka had walked over and asked if he needed help.  Before he
could reply, Ryoko appeared and glomped him.  Etc. Etc. Etc.
One thing led to another, and before long, both girls were
powering up for a fight.
	Only this time Tenchi Masaki was not going to let it go
that far.
	"Stop it!" he hissed.  "Just stop it!  I am so sick and
tired of this happening every single day!"
	"But Tenchi!"  the girls cried in unison.
	"No buts!"
	"She's just trying to keep us from being together!"  Ryoko
wailed, pointing at Ayeka.
	"She's trying to manipulate you, Tenchi!"  Ayeka cried,
pointing at Ryoko.
	"QUIET!"
	The girls fell into silence.
	He walked over to Ayeka and pointed at Ryoko.  "She is
not trying to manipulate me!"  Ryoko grinned.  Then he walked
over to the demon and pointed at Ayeka.  "And she can't keep
us apart because *we are not together*!"
	Ryoko flinched.  "But...But Tenchi...You don't mean that."
She smiled and reached out to caress his face, waiting for his
nose to bleed or for him to falter like he usually did.
	This time, he reached out and snagged her wrist.  Ryoko
blinked in shock.  "Stop it!"  he hissed.  "Just...stop it."
	Ryoko tried again.  "Tenchi..."
	"No!  Don't you get it, Ryoko?!  I don't love you!"
	Ryoko turned dead white.  Even Ayeka took a step back in
shock.
	"T...Tenchi?"
	He just stared.  "Ryoko," he said quietly, "You're my
friend, and I care for you, but I do *not* love you.  So stop
acting as if you own me.  You don't."  Ryoko stared out into
space in shock.  "And you," he said, turning to Ayeka, "I'm a
big boy.  I can take care of myself, so stop trying to protect
me from the big, bad demon.  Got it?"  His voice was just above
a whisper, yet sounded as loud as a cannon.  Ayeka gulped and
nodded quickly.  She was too afraid to ask where *she* was on
his list of priorities.
	Ryoko stood there, shaking.  Then, suddenly, she lashed
out and slapped Tenchi across the face.  Tenchi stood there,
unmoving.  Ayeka flinched.
	"Okay," Ryoko whispered harshly.  "Fine."  A tear rolled
down her cheek.  "Excuse me."  With that, she vanished.
	"I...I think I should go see what's keeping lunch,"
Ayeka said quietly.  She turned and made her way back to the
house.
	Tenchi sighed.
	"Was it really necessary to be so cold to them?"
Katsuhito Masaki asked from behind him.
	Tenchi turned and sighed again.  "No.  It wasn't, but...
What am I going to do with them?  Neither one of them see me
for who I am, just what they want me to be."

	From behind a nearby tree, Sasami hid and listened.
Tenchi didn't have to be so cruel to Ryoko and Ayeka.  They
loved him.  They deserved better than that.  He was out of
line.  She was about to walk out from behind that tree and
give him a stern lecture when she felt something.
	She shivered and looked about herself fearfully, like an
animal suddenly caught out in an open field with predators
about.  Whatever it was, it was getting worse.
	"Do you remember when I wasn't Tenchi Masaki, Prince of
Jurai?"  she heard Tenchi ask Katsuhito.  "When I was just
Tenchi Masaki, boring old high school student?  What happened
to him?  Huh?  I *liked* him!  Why do I have to be something
I've never wanted to be, huh?!"
	Sasami's breathing became quick and fearful.  It was
getting closer.
	"You cannot deny what you are, Tenchi,"  Katsuhito told
him sagely.
	"Yeah, but I should have some choice in what I become!"
Tenchi snapped back.  He sighed.  "Look, I'll go apologize to
them once they've had awhile to think, all right?"
	Sasami ran out from behind the tree.  "Tenchi!  Grandpa
Yosho!"
	The two men turned to her.  Tenchi blinked.  "Sasami?
What's wrong?"
	Her eyes went wide as she saw something appear behind them.
Katsuhito turned to it, his eyes narrowed.  "Who are you?"
	The figure, clad in an outfit similar to Tenchi's Jurain
battle outfit, only pitch black, looked up at them.  It's head
and face was dark grey.  It was bald except for a long black
queue that hung down his back.  It's eyes were black, yet seemed
to glow.  It had fangs that made Ryoko's look tame.  It grinned
at them.
	Tenchi turned and saw it.  "Kami sama," he whispered.

	Ryoko sat in front of the TV and moped.  She could just
barely hear baby Mayuka crying in the next room as Mihoshi
tried to change her.
	How dare he?  How could he say that after all she had
done for him?
	<Such as?>  a part of her mind asked.   <Blown up his
school?  Attacked him?  Kidnapped him?  Almost kill him?>
	>It wasn't my fault,< she thought back.
	"Ryoko?"
	She didn't look up at the owner of the voice.  "Well,
Ayeka," she whispered, "I bet you're feeling pretty good right
about now."  Her voice held no emotion, none whatsoever.
	She felt the princess' hand rest on her shoulder.  "Ryoko,
don't worry.  I'm sure he didn't really mean it."
	Ryoko looked up at Ayeka in shock.  "What?!"
	Ayeka sighed and sat down.  "That Lord Tenchi loves me
more than you is a certainty,"  Ayeka told her.  "But I do
accept that he still loves you...only not as much," she added
hastily.  "That's what makes it so difficult for him *and* for
us.  His culture doesn't smile on...polygamy...as these
primitive Earthers like to call it, so he feels trapped, not
wanting to hurt either of us, but loving us both just the same."
	Ryoko turned away from her.  "He has a funny way of
showing it," she growled.
	Ayeka just sighed.  "I'm willing to do anything for Lord
Tenchi," she said.  "Are you?"
	Ryoko bolted up in her seat.  "Of course I am!"
	Ayeka nodded.  "Then we mustn't fight in front of him
anymore.  Agreed?"
	Ryoko sighed.  "Agreed.  I guess...we should go apologize
to him."
	Ayeka nodded.  "Together.  To show that we really mean
what we say."
	Ryoko grinned.  "But there's no way in hell he loves you
more than me."
	Ayeka was about to fire back when Sasami burst into the
door, panting.
	"Ryoko!  Ayeka!  Help!"

	The hum of lightswords was low, but loud enough to frighten
the birds from the trees near the Masaki Shrine, especially when
the energy blades came into contact with one another with
sharp "zats" that promised searing pain to whatever they came
into contact with.
	For the third time, Tenchi, holding the Tenchi ken, and
Katsuhito, having formed his own light blade, attempted to
outflank the black clad warrior, and for the third time, the
warrior responded by lashing out with his own amethyst lightsword.
Katsuhito brought his blade up to block and managed to turn the
blow, but the warrior responded to this with a quick kick to the
face.  Katsuhito fell backwards, his head striking a rock and
knocking the priest unconscious.
	The warrior turned to Tenchi and grinned.  Since arriving,
he hadn't uttered a single word.  The black handled lightsword
in his hand burned with hate.  Tenchi brought his own blue blade
up and braced himself to fight alone.  Taking the offensive,
he lashed out with the blade in two quick slashes.  The warrior
spun out of the way and counterattacked.  Tenchi blocked his
attack, but only with great effort.  He grit his teeth and
struck again, and this time he kept the pressure up.  The
warrior growled and began to lose ground.  Tenchi lashed out
again and again.  The grey skinned alien moved up the steps
into the shrine.  He brought his sword up, and the two blades
locked together.
	"What the hell do you want?!"  Tenchi ground out, trying to
keep the amethyst blade from forcing his own sword to cut into him.
	The creature smiled and spoke for the first time.  "You,"
he growled.  He shoved, throwing Tenchi back.  Tenchi got to his
feet quickly and just barely blocked the warrior's follow-up
attack.  Now *he* was the one retreating, desperately trying to
keep the monster's attacks from getting through.
	He ducked under one slash and swung his own sword around.
He had the satisfaction of seeing the bottom inch of the
monsters sword handle being cut from the rest.  For a moment,
he hoped that the sword would cease to function, but the
amethyst blade remained.  The warrior lashed out with his foot
and caught Tenchi in the chin.  He stumbled back into the shrine
and quickly got back to his feet.  Through the entrance he saw
his grandfather begin to come around.  He raised the sword and
blocked another strike.
	"Tenchi!"
	He looked up and saw Ryoko flying up the path towards them,
her red lightsword engaged.
	The warrior saw his moment's distraction and attacked in
earnest, striking out three times.
	Tenchi blocked one strike, then another, then the last.
The creature lashed out one last time, knocking the Tenchi ken
to the side.  He spun and stabbed out...
	Burying his lightsword into Tenchi's chest right up to
the hilt.  Tenchi's eyes went wide.
	"TENCHI!"
	The warrior pulled the blade from Tenchi's torso and
watched him collapse to the ground.  The Tenchi ken's blade
disappeared.  The warrior turned to Ryoko and growled.
	Ryoko floated fifty feet from the shrine, her mouth open
in shock.  The alien grinned and spoke out.
	"Another time, Avatar!"  With that, he ran into the back
of the shrine.
	Ryoko blinked, then balled her fists in hate and howled in
fury.  She raced after the alien, phasing through walls and
furniture until she was in the garden Katsuhito kept in the
small space behind the shrine.
	It was empty.
	She looked around desperately, searching for the black clad
figure.  There was nowhere for him to go, yet somehow, he had
vanished.
	"Tenchi!"
	She turned and dematerialized, reappearing in the front
room again.  Washu and Ayeka had just arrived.  Yosho had come
around.  Ayeka was shrieking in fear as Washu tried to work on
Tenchi, giving him CPR.
	"Come on, come on," she muttered as she pumped Tenchi's
chest.  A charred hole about an inch in diameter was prominent
high on his chest.
	"Tenchi!"  Ryoko appeared next to him.  She knelt down and
cradled his head in her lap.
	"Come on!"  Washu cried out again, louder, more desperate
than before.
	Tenchi's eyes opened for a moment.  "Ryoko?"  he whispered.
	Ryoko smiled, a tear coursed down her cheek.  "Just hang on,
Tenchi.  You're gonna be fine, okay?"
	"Ryoko," he whispered again, "I...I lied."  She blinked in
confusion.  Then, Tenchi exhaled one last time.
	"Tenchi?"  Ryoko asked in a haunted whisper.  "Tenchi?"
	Washu put her ear to Tenchi's chest and listened for
several seconds.  She straightened a moment later.  Her mouth
opened and closed in shock.  "He...He's dead," she said as if
she didn't believe such a thing were possible.
	Ayeka shrieked and shoved Washu out of the way.  She
grabbed Tenchi by the shirt.  "Tenchi!  Tenchi!  Please!  Don't
leave us!  Don't leave us!"  She crying openly now as she begged
the cooling body below her to come back to life.  "PLEASE!"
	Ryoko stood up and looked down at herself.  She had blood
on the front of her dress.  She took a couple of unsteady steps
backward until her back struck the wall.  Her hands went to her
face.  She looked down at them and found blood on them as well.
	<Blood on my hands...>
	The only sounds she could hear were those of Ayeka screaming
his name.  Her breathing quickened.  She felt like she was going
to vommit any second.
	"Why?" she breathed.  "Why?!"  She covered her face with
her blood-soaked hands.  "WHY!?"  she screamed.  "WHY!?  WHY!?"
She fell to her knees screaming out that one single question no
one could answer...



Fifteen years later...

	Sixteen year old Mayuka Masaki pushed the front door to her
house open and dropped her school bag at her feet.  She pulled
her father's sword, the Tenchi ken and commanded it to ignite.
The blue energy blade appeared, illuminating the dark hallway
with a pale, blue glow.  Mayuka ran the fingers of her other
hand through her short, dark hair and took a breath.
	<Dammit, why does she insist on doing this every day?>
	She raised the sword and stepped inside cautiously.
Nothing was moving within the Masaki home.  Her eyes darted to
and fro, searching for the trap she knew was coming.
	<Behind!>
	She turned and brought the sword up, just barely blocking
the red light sword of her mother.  Mayuka struck out twice, but
her mother managed to turn both blows.  As she was straining
against her mother's strength to keep the red sword from striking
back, she failed to notice the smaller red blade in the other
hand.  She gasped out as the blade came within an inch of her
throat...
	And stopped there.
	"Mayuka,"  Ryoko began, a disappointed edge in her voice.
"Why do I get the feeling you've been skipping your practices
with Grandfather?"
	"Bad miso soup?"  Mayuka asked with a smile.
	Ryoko's eyes narrowed.  "Usually, I'd make you practice
until you couldn't hold that sword up anymore."  Mayuka sighed
in defeat.  "But it just so happens that your Aunt Sasami is here,
and..."
	"Aunt Sasami's here!?  Sweet!"  Ignoring the rest of
Ryoko's speech, Mayuka turned and ran down the hall.  "Aunt
Sasami?!"  she called out.
	Ryoko disengaged her lightswords and sighed at her adopted
daughter's behavior.  So like Tenchi, and yet so unlike him.
	Mayuka found her blue haired aunt standing in the kitchen,
sipping at a cup of tea.  "Hello, Mayuka,"  she greeted her
niece with a smile.  "How was practice?"
	Mayuka didn't answer.  Instead, she jumped at Sasami and
hugged her.  "I didn't know you were coming!"  she cried out.
"Why didn't you call?!"
	Sasami, dressed in a simple shirt and slacks, laughed.
"Well, to be honest, this wasn't a planned trip.  I'm just
passing through."
	Mayuka blinked.  "You are?  Where to this time?"
	Sasami smiled.  "Mallistair.  Think you could stand a
lecture from your boring old aunt?"
	Mayuka grinned.  Her aunt Sasami was many things, but
boring wasn't one of them.  She was an archaeologist and historian.
She spent her time jetting from one obscure planet to the next,
exploring the galaxy's past.  She promised to take Mayuka with
her on a trip one day, preferably when she wouldn't miss any
school.  The second semester was just starting, so it was a good
bet that Mayuka wouldn't be making this trip with her.
	"I'll manage," she finally said.
	Sasami's expression softened slightly.  "Actually, it
concerns your father."
	Mayuka blinked.  "Father?"  She had never known her
father  She had only been a year old when he was kil...murdered.
Her mother didn't like to talk about it.
	Sasami blinked.  "That's why I'm here.  I needed to get
something before I go."
	"What?"
	Sasami held up a small piece of what appeared to be
engraved wood.  Mayuka took it and examined it.  It was about
two inches long and black.  Strange characters were engraved
in it.  "What is it?"
	"It's a piece of the sword that..."  Sasami broke off and
bit her lip.
	"Killed Father?"  Mayuka whispered.
	Sasami nodded.  "It's the only clue as to who killed him.
And...I think I might have an answer soon."
	Mayuka blinked and examined the piece again.
	"You staying for dinner, Sasami?"  Ryoko asked as she
entered the kitchen.
	Sasami brightened.  "Sure."
	"Great!  What are ya gonna make?"  Ryoko asked with a grin.
Mayuka groaned in embarrassment.
	"Mom!  Aunt Sasami didn't come here to cook!"
	Sasami smiled.  "Don't worry.  I miss cooking.  I don't
get a chance to do it much anymore.  Cooking with what you can
carry in a pack over an open fire stretches creativity a bit."
	Sasami opened a cupboard and got straight to work.
	Mayuka fingered the sword piece, examining every facet of
it.  Somewhere out there, there was a man with the other half of
this sword.  Her mother and Grandfather had trained her with her
father's sword since the day she was old enough to pick up the
Tenchi ken.  Sasami had also been trained by Grandfather
Katsuhito, and had taken that training very seriously.  Sasami
had insisted on learning, and now, she wore a lightsword, a
gift from her mother, on her belt where ever she went.
	"Mayuka?"
	Mayuka snapped out of her reverie.  "Yes, Aunt Sasami?"
	Sasami smiled.  "Could you set the table while I cook?"
	"Sure."

	The priest, wearing the blue robe of the Tsunamic Church,
waved to the crowd as he walked out of an unknown building.  The
gold trim of his robe identified him as an Archsennas, only a
step down from Patriarch, the highest position within the church.
	The old man walked forward only a few steps before a lone
man pushed through the crowd and tackled the priest.
	"TOKIMI'S WILL BE DONE!"  he screamed.
	Then he exploded, taking the priest with him.
	The tape ended.
	Carvin Kenzaki took an unsteady breath and turned to the
aging nobleman who led Jurai's Secret Intelligence Service, the
SIS.
	"I hate fanatics,"  he muttered.
	Lord Akita nodded sagely.  "A very disturbing event," he
agreed.  "We traced the man's identity.  Absolutely nothing
about him stands out.  He had a job, a wife, two kids..."
	"And a tricobalt bomb strapped to his chest,"  Carvin
finished.  The dark haired agent shook his head ruefully.
	Lord Akita nodded again.  "It's his last words that are
cause of concern.  'Tokimi's will be done.'  Do you recognize
the slogan?"
	Carvin shook his head.
	"Tell me, Commander, what do you know of the Order of
Tokimi?"  The noble gestured to a seat across from his desk.
Carvin sat down and collected his thoughts.
	"An anti-Tsunamic group that I believe falls under the
technical term of, 'wacko cult.'"
	"That wacko cult, as you so eloquently put it, incited
rebellion, assassinated political, military, and religious
leaders, brainwashed our young people, and all but declared war
on Jurai."
	"Everyone needs a hobby,"  Carvin muttered.
	"Jurai stamped their kind out ten thousand years ago, we
thought for good."
	Carvin blinked.  "Sir, surely you don't believe that the
Order has come back...based on the rantings of a single
madman..."
	"With the Order of Tokimi, one does not take chances,"
Lord Akita told him seriously.  "Better safe than sorry and all
that.  To that end I'm assigning you to investigate this
assassination.  Even if the Order is not involved, I want to
know for sure that there are no accomplices wating in the wings."
He held a datapad to the young agent.
	Carvin nodded and took the pad.
	"Operation Gate of Heaven,"  Akita informed him.
"Investigate and ascertain whether or not the Order of Tokimi
or some element of it was involved in the assassination.  When
you know for sure, report back."
	"Understood, Sir."
	"Commander,"  Akita said, "The Order came very close to
destroying Jurai at one point.  They are considered the greatest
threat that our world and way of life have ever known.  I want
you to keep that in mind as I name the order I am about to give."
	Carvin listened closely.
	"Kill them, Carvin,"  Akita told him seriously.  "All of
them."

	Sasami turned and saw Mayuka standing at the door of her
room.  "Mayuka.  Is there something wrong?"
	"No, Aunt Sasami, but I would like to hear about what you
think you've discovered."
	Sasami sighed.
	"I know Mom doesn't like to talk about it.  But I have to
know what happened.  I have to know why it happened."
	Sasami sat on the bed and patted the space next to her.
Mayuka sat down, and her aunt showed her the handle piece again.
"I always assumed that it was some alien race that wasn't
really after Tenchi, but looking for a way to damage Jurai as
a whole.  This seemed to be beared out by the markings on this
piece of the hilt."  She pointed at the odd characters there.
	"Right.  They're not Jurain symbols,"  Mayuka said.
	"Wrong.  That's just it,"  Sasami told her.  "They *are*
Jurain characters, but they're very, very ancient."
	"How do you know?"  Mayuka asked.
	"I didn't.  Tsunami did."  Mayuka blinked in confusion.
"Did I ever tell you why I chose to become a historian, Mayuka?"
	Mayuka merely shook her head.
	"On my eighteenth birthday, I realized that I was slowly
becoming assimilated with Tsunami.  It wasn't obvious.  I mean,
she didn't ring the doorbell one day and move in with us or
anything.  It was subtle things.  For instance, one day your
grandfather and I had an entire conversation in Belegeuse."
	"I don't understand,"  Mayuka said.
	"I never learned to speak Beleguese,"  Sasami said with a
smile.  "I just knew it.  Tsunami understood it, and now so could
I.  I began to remember things as if I actually lived them.
Things that happened a hundred thousand years ago seemed as if
they happened yesterday, and I could see it all.  I was
fascinated by my own memories, memories I couldn't account for.
It dawned on me that I was probably the only person alive who
could say that they have seen these things.  I immediately sat
down and began to write what I remembered, and I actually found
mistakes that other historians had made.  In my Freshman year
of college, a professor and I got into an argument over who won
some obscure battle that occurred seventy eight thousand years
ago.  He cited famous historians and texts, but I...I could
say that I was *there*!"
	Mayuka took a breath.
	"But even Tsunami hadn't seen everything, and there were
mysteries that I couldn't readily solve, so I decided to go
solve them.  I'm a princess.  It's not like I had to worry
about making money, and I love the work.  I love teaching."
She held up the hilt piece.  "And now, those memories are going
to tell me why Tenchi had to be taken from us."
	Mayuka nodded.  Sasami continued.
	"These characters are from a very ancient script used by an
obscure religious order that went extinct ten thousand years ago.
The Order of Tokimi."
	Mayuka blinked.  "Isn't that like the Jurain version of
the devil?"
	"Mmmmmmmmmmm......Sort of.  One thing's for sure, the
followers of this Order hated Tsunami and anyone that had
anything to do with her.  Everything that Tsunami created, they
copied and perverted.  They had their own tree ships, evil,
twisted, rotting things.  And they had their own lightswords,
but once again, they were only copies, powered by Tokimi's will.
Or so the legend goes.  For some reason, I can't remember too
much about this even though Tsunami was certainly involved in
putting them down.  She told me she would have to keep things
from me, but I wish this didn't have to be one of them."
	"So what do the letters say?  Can you read them?"
	"I can now.  I had to hunt down an ancient text that
translated the two languages.  Cost a small fortune."  She
smiled.  "Being a princess in this field has its advantages."
	"So what does it say?"
	Sasami pointed to a one of the characters, a sharp, angular
text, nothing at all like the scrolling Jurain script.  "This
character represents time."  She pointed to another.  "And this
one death.  The character between them is a possessive particle.
Literally translated, it means, 'the time of death.'"
	The dark-haired girl paused.  "Soooooooooooo........"
she prompted.
	Sasami faltered.  "I don't know."  Mayuka facefaulted.
"One thing I do know is that the only people who knew how to
create these weapons were wiped out almost ten millenia ago.
To find one now would be like..."  She searched for a proper
analogy, "Finding a viking helmet in Kyushu.  It's not supposed
to be here, and that warrior was not supposed to be there when
your father died."
	Mayuka swallowed nervously.  "So...You think this Order
killed Father?"
	"Light swords are a tricky thing, Mayuka.  There are the
generic kind that are just machines, and there are the true swords
that are granted their power from Tsunami."  She held up the
hilt piece.  "This is neither.  I'm certain of it.  It's said
that the lightswords of the followers of the Order were powered
by Tokimi's will.  If that's true..."  She broke off.  "If
that's true, then your father was killed by an organization
that hasn't existed in ten thousand years."
	"So you're going to Mallistair?"
	She nodded.  "The Order had a temple there where they hid
from Jurai during the Fifty Year's War.  I might find a clue
there.  That...and there's literally no where else to look."
	"Take me with you."
	Sasami shook her head.  "Sorry, Mayuka.  You have school."
	"Screw school!  This is more important!"
	"I'll keep you updated,"  Sasami told her.  "I promise.
Next time it'll be you and me, okay?"
	Mayuka sighed in defeat.  "Okay, Aunt Sasami."
	"I'm sorry, Mayuka."  She smiled.  "But could you imagine
the fit your mother would have if I took you?"
	Mayuka giggled.  "She'd hunt us down in Ryo-Ohki and
barbecue us!"
	Sasami laughed.  "Right.  So I'm afraid you're stuck here
for awhile, but next time...me and you.  Okay?"

	"Hello, Ryoko.  Did I catch Sasami?  She said she'd be
stopping by there."
	Ryoko smiled at Ayeka's image and shook her head.  "Sorry.
She left this morning."
	"Rats!  I was hoping to talk to her."
	"How's life at the palace?"
	Ayeka bit her lip for a moment.  Ryoko looked at the
Jurain queen quizzically.  "Ryoko...I'm going on a marriage
meeting."
	"I see."
	Ayeka looked defensive.  "Don't think for a second that
I love Tenchi any les..."
	"I don't,"  Ryoko told her sympathetically.  "Actually,
Ayeka, I think it's about time you did this."
	Ayeka paused.  "I have a duty to my kingdom to produce an
heir," she said quietly.
	"I know,"  Ryoko told her.  "This is what Tenchi would
want."  Ayeka only nodded.  "So who is he?"  Ryoko asked, putting
a smile on her face.
	Ayeka smiled slightly in return.  She didn't smile all that
often anymore.  "Well, his name is Vazner.  He's the Second
Prince of Mollidon.  I met him a few times at diplomatic
functions.  He's...He's nice."
	Ryoko smiled.  "I hope so.  You know he has to meet *my*
standards, right?"  Ayeka's smile widened slightly.  "So no
pink hair, okay?"
	"I'll be sure to send you his file,"  Ayeka joked.  "What
about you?"
	"What about me?"
	I happen to know that Vazner's youngest brother, the
Fourth Prince, is single."
	Ryoko's smile slipped.  "No, Ayeka."
	"Ryoko, Tenchi would want you to be happy."
	"I know," she told Ayeka.  "But I'm not going to be happy
with another man.  This is just the way things are going to be."
	"Ryoko, you should try.  I know how lonely it must be."
	"I'm not lonely,"  Ryoko told her.  "I have Mayuka and
Yosho here.  Even Washu...when ever she decides to wander out
of her lab."
	"Kiyone and Mihoshi are gone though,"  Ayeka pointed out.
"And ever since Noboyuki died..."
	"It just hasn't felt like a real family,"  Ryoko said
quietly.  Mihoshi and Kiyone had left Earth when they had been
promoted.  Noboyuki had died about three years after Tenchi,
unable to go on after losing both his wife and son.  Ryoko had
raised Mayuka with Yosho, Sasami, Washu, and Ayeka.  Then,
Sasami had left for school, and Ayeka had assumed her place as
Queen of Jurai.  Washu spent most of her time in her lab, and
Yosho was always at the shrine.
	For all intents and purposes, it was just her and Mayuka.
	"Hey, I got an idea!"  Ryoko began.  "How about Mayuka and
I come see you?  When you're back from your trip.  You know how
Mayuka loves Jurai."
	Ayeka smiled.  "What about schoool?  You're not going to
let her skip, are you?"
	Ryoko smiled proudly.  "Mayuka does well enough to where
she can afford to skip a week."
	Ayeka nodded.  "All right.  I'll call you when I know when
I'll be back from Mollidon.  By the way, did Sasami say where she
was going?  She didn't say in her last letter."
	"Mallistair, I think,"  Ryoko told her.  "She didn't tell
me much about it, but I think she talked to Mayuka about it.  I
could ask."
	The Queen nodded.  "Thank you, Ryoko.  Well, I have to go.
I'll talk to you again later."
	"Goodbye, Ayeka."

	Ayeka turned as the screen went black.  "Mallistair?  Why
would she go there?" she mused.  "Computer, please list for me
anything on the planet Mallistair that might be of historical
significance."
	The computer brought up a list.  Ayeka examined it and
shook her head ruefully.  "Oh, fascinating," she muttered
sarcastically.  She didn't grudge Sasami her freedom, but she
had hoped that her little sister would try to play a more active
role as Princess.  "A comet fragment containing fossilized
microbes, a city of ancient sea dwellers, and ooh, look!  Cave
art of the ancient Dung Tribe, well this is certainly worthy of
a Princess' attention."  She stopped when another item on the
list caught her eye.  "The Order of Tokimi?"
	She ordered the computer to go into detail.  "Ancient
temple of the outcast cult known as the Order of Tokimi.
Attacked and destroyed by Jurain Knights ten thousand years ago."
She hmmm'd in thought.  There was something about this that
just sat wrong with her.

	"Mallistair, huh?"  Agent Mina Todara commented as she
hopped up and sat on the edge of Carvin's desk, demurely crossing
her legs in front of her and brushing a stray lock of blonde
hair from the front of her face.
	Carvin nodded as he looked over a report.  "Yes.  An
investigation of the terrorist's home turned up nothing, and
my sources tell me that the main headquarters of this cult was
once based on Mallistair.  If they are coming back, there might
be a clue there as to what they're up to."
	Mina nodded.  "Good assignment.  They put me on the
Queen's security detail for her trip to Mollidon."
	"Congragulations," he told her.
	The blonde rolled her eyes.  "It's a shit assignment.
Guarding Her Majesty while you get to hunt anti-Tsunamic
cultists hell bent on galactic domination."
	His mouth quirked up in a lazy grin.  "I'll be sure to
send you a post card."
	"So when do you leave?"  she asked.
	"Two hours.  I requisitioned a small ship.  She's fueling
up now."
	"Got time for dinner?"
	Carvin looked up at her and bit his lip. "No, actually, I
don't," he said, finally.
	"Oh," Mina said with a touch of disappointment.  "Well,
I'll see you when I get from Mollidon, I guess."
	He smiled.  "Good luck, Mina."
	"You too."

	Mayuka stared at the math problem before her and read it
aloud, hoping that hearing it out loud would make it clearer.
"A train leaves from Osaka and travels to Tokyo at eighty
kilometers per hour.  It passes through Yokohama and Kyoto along
the way, cutting it's speed in half after each stop.  How long
does it take before it reaches Tokyo?"  Mayuka looked up for a
second before writing, "One....billion....years..."  She
grinned.  "There!  Finished!"
	There was a knock on her door.  "Mayuka?"
	"Come on in, Mom,"  Mayuka called.  Ryoko entered and
walked over to her.
	"How's your homework coming?"
	"Oh!"  Mayuka said, casually covering her algebra homework
with a textbook.  "All done."
	Ryoko arched an eyebrow and sat down on the bed.  "I just
got off the vid with Ayeka.  She invited us to come to Jurai in
a few weeks."
	"Sweet!"
	"Yes.  She called looking for Sasami.  She went to
Mallistair, right?"
	Mayuka nodded.  "Yep."
	"Do you know why?"
	Mayuka looked uncomfortable.  "Yeah.  She said she had a
lead on the guy who killed Father."
	Ryoko stared at her, her face expressionless.  "Why
didn't you say anything?"  she asked.
	Mayuka bit her lip.  "Because I know how much you hate
talking about it."
	Ryoko sighed.
	"Mom...What was Father like?"  Mayuka asked quietly.
	Ryoko was quiet for a moment.  She didn't like talking
about Tenchi.  She loved him more than her own life.  That she
lost him was hard enough, but to lose him, and to know that her
last words to him were spoken in anger, was a pain unlike any
other she had ever experienced.
	Even so, Mayuka was his daughter, and she deserved to know
what he was like.
	"Your father...was by far the bravest, most gentle, caring
man I have ever known," she told her adopted daughter quietly.
"You couldn't help but to fall in love with him inside ten
minutes of meeting him."  She smiled.  "He set me free.  Gave
me a real home.  Made me his friend."  She paused for a moment
before whispering, "I would've died for Tenchi Masaki."
	Mayuka listened dispassionately.  "Why did he die?"  she
asked after a moment.
	"I don't know,"  Ryoko told her in a haunted whisper.  She
wiped a tear from her eye.  "All I know...is that it was empty.
A death without a meaning or purpose."  Mayuka could almost hear
her mother grit her teeth over the sound of gentle sobs.  "I swore
that if I *ever* found the man who did that to him...If I *ever*
got my hands on him...I swore I'd make him suffer.  I used to lay
awake at night planning it, trying to find the most painful,
brutal way to kill him.  I even drew on some of what Kagato had
done to *me*!  I'd show him what pain really was!"
	Mayuka looked back at her mother and saw tears falling
from the demoness' eyes onto her lap.
	"But I never did," she whispered.  "We never saw him again.
The Jurains searched for him.  The GP searched for him.  *I*
even took Ryo-Ohki out and looked, hunting him like an animal,
but it was as if he never existed at all."
	Mayuka felt tears pooling up in her own eyes.  She walked
over to her mother and hugged her.  Ryoko hugged back, nearly
squeezing the life from her daughter.

	Silently, a Jurain warship glided through space on its
designated patrol route, taking no notice whatsoever the beauty
surrounding it in the form of stars and nebulae.  Oblivious to
sheer silence of the emptiness around it.
	The only think it wasn't oblivious to was the small
Danitan fighter that had buzzed it.
	"Report,"  Captain Itoshi Mizuhara ordered, taking his
seat on the bridge.
	"She showed up about three minutes ago and buzzed us,"
his Executive Officer informed him.
	"Sir, we're receiving a signal from the fighter,"  his
Communications Officer told him.
	"Let's hear it,"  Mizuhara replied.
	A gentle female voice came over the speakers.  "H.M.S.
Invincible, chyo ha nandi no kama te enyoza ni ovetiman isala
yonto ka nandi ven..."
	"Can we get a translation, please?"  the captain commanded.
The Comm Officer handed him a pad, and Mizuhara read it.  "Is
she out of her mind?"  he asked quietly.
	"Sir, she's repeating the demand that we surrender," the
Comm Officer told him.
	"IFF?"
	"She's transmitting a Danitan Naval I.D., Sir,"  the Exec
told him.
	"Scan for Danitan warships and bring us to condition
three."
	The Invincible went to a heightened state of alert.

	Watching these events unfold from a cloaked ship not far
away, a man wearing a black robe in the same style as a Tsunamic
priest smiled.  "Zara,"  he called out.
	The beautiful and predatory features of the Danitan piloting
the fighter appeared on his screen.  "They don't appear
concerned," she noted in perfect Jurain.
	"Good.  You may proceed as planned."  She nodded.  He
turned to his own Comm Officer.  "Have the landing party stand
by."  He turned back to the screen.  "Zara....Go."

	A light began to flash at the Sensor Officer's panel.
"Tsun..." he began, but broke off as he hit the intercom switch.
"ALERT ONE!  TORPEDO!  TORPEDO!  TORPEDO!"
	"She's *attacking us?!"  the EXO asked in amazement.
	Mizuhara reacted quickly.  "Increase to flank!  Come right,
three-two-five!"
	"Three-two-five, aye!"  the helmsman responded as he
increased the Invincible's speed and began to turn the massive
warship.
	"She's turning with us!"  the Sensor Officer called out.
	"Wings!"  Mizuhara ordered.
	"No time!"
	"Sound collision,"  the captain commanded.  A ringing bell
could be heard, and the lights on the bridge turned red.  They
all tensed.
	Nothing.
	"Direct hit!  Deck three!  No damage!"
	Mizuhara arched an eyebrow.  "A dud?"

	Outside the Invincible, a small, black, wooden object
latched onto the hull.  It seemed to glow a dark purple for a
moment before twelve, thin tendrils shot out of the object in
all directions and latched onto the outer hull.  Electrical
energy flowed from the object through the tendrils and into the
ship.

	"ENERGY SPIKE!  DECK THREE!"
	The Exec dashed to the sensor officer's station and checked
the readings for himself.  "There's an ionic pulse moving forward,
throughout the ship.  It's blowing out our systems as it goes.
Deck three is without power, decks four and five are in the same
boat, and the pulse is moving this way."
	"Weapons!"  Mizuhara barked.  "Target that ship. Take that
bitch out of my sky!"
	"The power regulators for the weapons were on deck four,
Sir, they're gone."
	The lights began to flicker.
	"Sir, we're beginning to lose life support,"  the Exec
told him.  "Also, the pulse might cause a containment failure
in Engineering."
	Mizuhara sat there as his ship began to die beneath his
feet.  He looked up at the massive space tree that made up the
Invincible's computer and intelligence.  She was the first of a
new class of warship.  For her to die like this, taken out by
*one* Danitan snub fighter...
	It was disgraceful.
	"Encode a message to the Admiralty," he ordered quietly.
"Transmit our coordinates and the ship's log."  He took another
breath.  "Abandon ship."
	The bridge crew got up from their stations and ran for the
escape pods.

	"Escape pods ejecting,"  Zara informed him.
	"Let them go.  Tell the landing parties to go."
	From beneath the cloaked ship, six shuttles started for
the beleaguered Jurain warship.  The lights of the Invincible
were flickering on and off as the space tree attempted to
maintain power.  After a few minutes of valiant effort, it gave
up.
	The Invincible went dark.
	Sitting in their escape pods, the crew of the Invincible
watched as the shuttles latched onto the ship's outer hull.
	"Zara,"
	The Danitan warrior's face appeared on the screen again.
"We're going to need more animosity," the black robed man said.
"Destroy half of the escape pods."
	"Yes, Your Eminence."  The screen reverted back to a view
of the Invincible, now floating dead in space, and the horde of
escape pods that were trying to connect together and flee.  The
robed man watched as Zara's small fighter began to strafe them.
	"What report from the Invincible?"
	A man from the communications terminal spoke up.  "They
report that emergency power has been restored."  At that exact
moment, the dark priest saw the lights on the Invincible come
back on.
	"Remind them again not to reconnect the tree to the ship's
systems," he ordered.  The communications tech nodded.  He
understood the need for caution.  Space ship trees were sentient.
If one detected that it was being kidnapped or attacked, it
would retaliate.  This one would probably overload the engines
and destroy the Jurain battleship, itself included.
	That was okay, though.  They didn't want the tree.
Tsunami's filthy pawns had no place in the grand designs of
his goddess.  They wanted the ship itself.  The priest turned
to their own tree, once again admiring its dark beauty.
	It was black, the true definition of the absence of color.
It's leaves were also black, but tendrils of violet energy could
be seen coursing through vegetative veins.  It sensed the priest
looking at it and spoke, beams of purple energy striking the
pool of dark, viscous blood it sat in.
	The priest nodded.  "It goes well.  As soon as the ship
is secure, we  will bring you to your new home."
	The dark tree replied with another few beams of dark
light.
	"Your Eminence, boarding party reports that auxiliary
power and propulsion had been restored.  They're asking what
they should do with the Invincible's tree."
	The priest thought for a moment.  Without the tree, it
was difficult to maneuver a ship, but still possible.  "Jettison
it," he ordered.  The tech relayed his orders.  A few minutes
later, a massive space ship tree was expelled from the underside
of the Invincible through the emergency vent, a device designed
to save a precious tree in case the ship were destroyed.
	The priest heard a shriek in the back of his mind.  The
dark tree's leaves began to glow.  Suddenly, without orders
from him, the ship they were standing in opened fire, lances
of dark energy slicing up the Jurain tree as it floated in
space.  Within a few moments, there was nothing left of it.
	The priest watched this and smiled.  "Tokimi's will be
done," he whispered before turning to his other duties.


Author's Notes:

This is the first part of a multipart series.  Please send
criticism and comments to Thomas Doscher at doscher009@hotmail.com.

Thanks for reading.