The Legacy of Kain, chapter 3
by Aaron Bastin - kakapo101@hotmail.com
synopsis:  Tenchi learns Kevin's secret, with terrifying implications...

This is not a Disclaimer:  This stuff is owned by other people, except for 
the stuff that doesn't.  If you own the stuff I've used, please do not sue 
me.  Firstly, if you do own any of it chances are you already have one hell 
of a lot more money than I do.  Secondly, I will have you slain.

The Legacy of Kain - Chapter Three (Revealed)


	Tenchi sighed and forced himself to relax, sliding deeper into the heated 
waters of the onsen, temporarily grounded while Kevin was in residence.  It 
had been a stressful two weeks, but it looked as though things were going to 
work out.  Much to everyone's surprise, Kevin had easily slipped into the 
day to day workings of the Masaki household - better than some who actually 
lived there, as Washu had curtly observed one day.  He seemed to 
instinctively know how best to put people at ease with his presence - he did 
more than his share of chores, he helped Tenchi out at the carrot patch, 
watched X-Files with Mihoshi, escorted Sasami on her explorations of the 
forests surrounding the shrine, talked science with Washu (the others 
privately praised Washu in her patience for discussing Earth-level 
technology, which she found incredibly dull - although Washu did grudgingly 
say that he had an impressive grasp of the Shrodinger's Cat quantum paradox, 
for an earther), and, every few days, joined Ryoko on the roof to get 
utterly blitzed on sake.  The only people in the house he appeared to have 
trouble relating to were Katsuhito and Ayeka, perhaps due to their reserved 
nature.  He made excuses and left whenever they tried to get him into 
conversation.  Ayeka seemed a little hurt.  Katsuhito's comment on the whole 
situation was, predictably, "Mmm."
	Tenchi yawned.  In some ways, things had actually gotten better since Kevin 
arrived.  The sparring between Ayeka and Ryoko had stopped completely inside 
the house, and lately rarely happened at all, though of course there was the 
occasional rumble in the woods.  If Kevin ever wondered what the muted 
explosions coming from the hills were, he didn't ask.  He seemed to accept 
without question the various oddities that couldn't be helped - Mihoshi's 
inevitable slips, Ryoko forgetting not to fly, the usual.  He seemed more 
interested in smoothing over the social atmosphere of the house than in 
investigating the growing amount of odd occurrences. Things still got tense 
around the dinner table every now and again, but Kevin had an instinctive 
knack for making a joke at the right time.  Tenchi couldn't even begin to 
count the situations he'd defused.  Funny.  For months he'd been dreading 
Kevin's arrival, and now he found himself dreading his eventual departure.  
I think I dread things too much, he thought idly to himself.  If I don't 
relax I'm going to be the first interstellar warrior with an ulcer.
	There was a soft beep close to his head.  Tenchi groaned and sat up, 
slapping the intercom button.
	"Tenchi?" came Washu's voice.
	"Yes, Washu-chan?"
	"Is Kevin there?"
	"No...last time I saw him he was with Ryoko.  Why?"  Kevin had been 
spending a lot of time with Ryoko, actually.  Every now and again Tenchi 
noticed him looking at the two of them with an appraising glance, and had 
the uncomfortable feeling that Ryoko had told him about the little love 
triangle that existed in the house.  He wasn't sure if it was a good or bad 
sign that Kevin hadn't broached the subject.  Whatever the reason, Ryoko had 
been noticeably less aggressive towards him.
	"Hmm.  I think you'd better come down to the lab."
	Tenchi started to complain, then caught himself.  Washu's voice was 
unnaturally serious.  Sighing, he pulled himself from the water, dressed, 
and padded towards the door.

	Ryoko was bored.  This was not entirely unusual - there was a bit of cat 
somewhere in the soup of Masu and DNA that Washu had created her from, after 
all, and her attention span was not the most impressive in the galaxy.  
This, however, was getting to be a bit more than a simple case of the blues. 
  It had been two weeks since she'd had a really decent scrap, and she was 
starting to get antsy.  When Ryoko got in moods like this, things tended to 
get blown up.
	She sighed.  But I promised Tenchi...dammit, she thought.  If something 
interesting doesn't happen soon, I'll - what?.  Up and leave?  Yeah, right.
	She tossed a jug of sake into the air as she walked through the woods, 
juggling it from hand to hand.  It's a lose-lose situation, she thought to 
herself.  I don't think I like the way this is going.
	She was so distracted she took a few seconds to notice that the sake hadn't 
come down from the last time she tossed it.  She looked up.  The jug dangled 
from a hand that reached out from the obscuring leaves, the owner hidden 
from view.  The arm, and jug, pulled back into the leaves.  There was a 
slight rustle, and then a dark figure dropped onto Ryoko, lashing out in a 
sudden attack.

	The crab noisemaker rattled as Tenchi entered.  He smiled, a little 
nervously, when he noticed Washu sitting on her floating cushion, staring at 
innumerable screens that hung in midair, flashing illegible messages.
	"Er, hi, Washu-chan."
	"Tenchi.  Come over here.  I think you should see this."
	Tenchi sobered quickly as he walked over.  Washu was only ever this serious 
when things were life and death.  Whatever she wanted, it wasn't another 
sample.  Thank heavens, Tenchi added silently.
	"What is it?"  Tenchi asked.  He squinted at the screens.  Most of them 
were full of words and odd-looking graphs, but the two central screens 
showed 3d representations.  The first was the shape of a man, the second was 
an amorphous blob.  Waveforms danced beneath the pictures.
	"Yeah, what is that?  Looks really weird." said Mihoshi.
	Tenchi and Washu blinked.
	"Mihoshi?  What are you doing down here?  How many times do I have to tell 
you-"
	Washu stopped as she saw the telltale traces of moisture forming in the 
corners of Mihoshi's eyes.  The last thing she needed was a flood down here. 
  Mental note: waterproof the entire lab next time I have a few seconds, 
Washu thought.
	"All right, all right...you can stay," she grumbled.  "This is something 
that affects the whole household anyway..."
	Tenchi frowned.  "What's going on, Washu?  This sounds serious."
	Washu sighed.  "It's about Kevin."

	Ryoko danced to the side, easily avoiding the newcomer's clumsy tackle, too 
amused to really be worried.  The dark shape landed gracefully, gathered 
itself, and leapt again, performing an aerobatic flip over her and directing 
a sweep at Ryoko's legs from behind.  She leapt forward, spinning to face 
her assailant, who jumped at her again.  Sighing inwardly, Ryoko lashed out 
with a foot that sent him crashing into the undergrowth a few feet away.  
She made her way over and looked down at him.
	"All too easy, pal."
	The figure rolled over and smiled at her.  "Impressive," Kevin said.
	Ryoko blinked.  "Uh...Katsuhito's been giving me self-defense lessons."
	His smile widened.  "I can tell.  Did he teach you how to fly, too?"
	Ryoko looked down and belatedly realized that she was floating two feet 
above the ground.
	"Aw, nuts."

	"This is Kevin's astral pattern.  I haven't had him in the lab, which is 
why it took me so long to get all the requisite data.  Look here.  There's a 
serious spike in his PS index, totally nonTerran, and I've found some 
interesting things about his DNA, but that's not the most worrisome part.  
His pattern clearly shows the influence of a null-point energy source of 
enormous proportions, one that has only been recorded once..."
	Washu's voice trailed off.  Mihoshi's face held that zombified look to it 
that it got when she was being subjected to one of her lectures, and even 
Tenchi looked puzzled.  She sighed.
	"Let's try this again, okay?  Here's the astral pattern of a normal 
Terran."
	She tapped a few keys.  A waveform appeared on the screen, flat for the 
most part.
	"Most Terrans, or ‘humans' as you so quaintly call yourselves, are more or 
less astrally comatose.  There are periodic flare ups - intuitions, sudden 
hunches, prophetic dreams and such - but by and large you people spend all 
your time in the third dimension.  OK?"
	Tenchi nodded.  Mihoshi stared at the aquariums for a bit.
	"Here's Kevin's pattern."  The pattern that appeared on the screen was 
markedly different from the first - there were large spikes in several 
different places.
	"This, this and this," she said, pointing out spikes as she spoke, 
"indicate that Kevin has access to the higher dimensions.  It's hard to pin 
down exactly, but I'd say that he's probably able to manipulate energy to 
some level, and he almost definitely has telepathic abilities.  From this 
and his DNA samples, I can say with absolute confidence that Kevin is 
extraterrestrial.  I'm still processing the data, so I can't pinpoint his 
species exactly yet, but he's not human.  With me so far?"
	Tenchi frowned.  Not human?  It would explain a few things, but...why would 
he lie to them like that?  It wasn't like him, not at all.  "Yes," he said 
quietly.
	Mihoshi looked at the ceiling.
	Washu sighed, hesitating, and then pointed out the last spike on Kevin's 
pattern.  "This is the reason I called you down, though.  This spike occurs 
in a point in the astral pattern called the null-point.  It's a reflection 
of - of negative energy, for lack of a better term.  The problem is that 
it's not supposed to occur in organic beings."
	Tenchi blinked.  "It's not what?"
	Washu frowned.  "I studied a bit of astral physics at the academy, and I 
can tell you, there is no known way for a matter-based life form to contain 
that kind of energy.  It's as different from normal energy as it is from 
matter.  This reading," she said, emphatically tapping the screen, "flies in 
the face of every law of astral physics I know."
	She dropped her eyes as she tapped in a sequence on her keyboard.  "I was 
naturally curious, and something about the pattern struck me as familiar 
somehow.  So I ran a pattern match.  One came up."
	A third pattern came on the screen.  It had crazy spikes all over the 
place, but still, it matched Kevin's pattern closer than that of a human's, 
and the null-point spike matched exactly.
	Tenchi looked down at the name that blinked beneath the final pattern.
	KAIN, it said.

	Kevin sat up and leaned against the tree, still chuckling.  Ryoko landed in 
front of him, sitting down facing him.  "I can explain, really I can.  
Listen, I, uh..."  Kevin waved her to silence.
	"Relax, okay?  It's not a problem.  I'm sorry I provoked you into it...you 
seemed bored, and I thought I'd liven up your day."  He looked appraisingly 
at Ryoko.  "Hmm," he said thoughtfully, giving her a sidelong glance.  "From 
the expression you're wearing, I'd say Tenchi made you promise not to fly 
while I'm around, right?"
	"Yeah," Ryoko said, sounding defeated.  Kevin smiled, shaking his head.
	"I won't tell if you won't."
	She looked up suddenly.  "Really?"
	"Really."  He took off his glasses, massaging his eyes for a bit.  "I'd 
never want to see you...that is, I wouldn't want to make Tenchi angry at 
you."
	Ryoko stared.  He'd do that?  For her?  She sat up and pulled him into a 
bone-crushing hug.  "Thanks, Kev," she murmured.  He'd been so nice to her - 
the first person she'd met, besides Tenchi, who seemed to like her, who was 
gentle and kind...and unlike Tenchi, he actually wasn't afraid of her.  Not 
even when he'd seen her flying.
	"Er.  No problem."  Ryoko realized she'd been holding on to him for a while 
and abruptly released him.  She blinked.  What's wrong with me?  What about 
Tenchi?  She let go suddenly and developed a sudden, intense interest in the 
grass before her.
	"You're thinking about him, aren't you."
	She looked up.  Kevin was looking at her solemnly.  She nodded, and stood.  
Kevin got up and walked beside her.  "Had you - ever been in love before 
Tenchi?" he asked, hesitantly.
	Ryoko just shook her head.  How could she tell him?  He could accept her 
flying around, sure, but telling him about Kagato?  About the years of 
slavery she endured, and the seven centuries of confinement under the 
shrine?  Love?  Hell, she'd never even had friends before she met Tenchi.  
No time for anything but killing.  Kevin pursed his lips and looked towards 
the horizon, searching for the right words.
	"Sometimes I get the feeling you and I are more alike than you may think, 
Ryoko.  We've both been through a lot.  And disliked.  For all the wrong 
reasons."
	Ryoko gaped.  "What...I mean..."
	Kevin shrugged.  "I'm a perceptive guy from time to time.  I think maybe I 
just guessed ‘cause you use the same defenses I do...we both do our damndest 
to keep anyone from really getting inside.  You're the wild woman, and I'm 
the joker.  Most people don't bother to look twice, do they?"
	Ryoko squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath, trying not to show the 
sudden stab of pain and regret that particular comment had sent through her. 
  "It's, uh...not all an act, really."
	Kevin smiled, squinting into the sun.  "Nah.  Not all of it.  There's a big 
part of me that really is a sardonic wiseass.  But that's not all there is."
	He looked at her then, his piercing blue eyes meeting her yellow ones.  
"Not by a long shot."
	Ryoko took a deep breath and made her decision.  Time to tell the truth.
	"Kevin, I haven't been honest with you.  No one's really talked to me like 
this before, except maybe Tenchi.  I should tell you some things about me.  
I-"

	Tenchi stood up, slowly, and turned around.  Washu grabbed his arm, but 
Tenchi, stronger than he looked, shook her off.  It was sheer bad luck that 
she stumbled backwards, fell over her cushion and smacked her head on a 
console with a resounding -whang-.  She fell unconscious, and was thus 
unable to do anything at all about what would happen next.  Tenchi left the 
lab and headed for the woods at a dead run.
	Mihoshi looked at Tenchi's retreating form, then at Washu.  Then to the 
door.
	"I - I don't think this is good.  This isn't good at all."  She jumped to 
her feet and ran for the door, screaming at the top of her lungs.
	"Ryoko!  Ayeka!  Sasami!  SOMEBODY HELP!"

	Ryoko's head snapped around.  "Duck!" she snapped, and vanished.
	"Ryoko, what-" Kevin cut himself off as a figure came darting from the 
undergrowth and slashed at him with a humming blue-white energy blade.  He 
ducked and rolled to the side, barely avoiding the sword as it cut a deep 
groove in the tree he'd been standing beside.
	"Hey, I - Tenchi?!"
	Tenchi, his face dark with rage, advanced slowly, Tenchi-ken held ready in 
his shaking hands.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:  Will Kevin survive?  Will Tenchi?  Tune in next time for the 
next stunning episode...and, er, send yer comments and criticisms, plus any 
hard drugs you may have lying around, to kakapo101@hotmail.com.  Later...