What Might Have Been Chapter Three:  Message in a Crystal

	Disclaimer: This fanfiction is not written with the consent of Pioneer/AIC.  I 
do NOT own the characters, with the exception of Kei.  Please do not sue me.
	Comments, criticism, flames, and death threats may be sent to 
Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com.
	!!WARNING!!	This is NOT mainline Tenchi.  It is an alternate universe, 
and the characters at times will be VERY ooc, compared to those in the series.  Please 
remember that the versions in this story line had very different experiences.

*****

	Kei smiled as Nobuyuki turned into the drive, and pulled to a stop.  Washu 
had made arrangements with her foster parents for her to stay with Tenchi's family for 
a few weeks, so that Washu could keep a close monitor on her.  On the drive back from 
the hospital, she had asked Tenchi if he would walk her up the steps so that she could 
begin to find out what she'd been missing.  Tenchi pulled the door open, and then got 
out of the mini-van with her.  Nobuyuki stuck his head out the window, grinning, and 
said, "Enjoy your walk up the steps, Kei, Tenchi.  We'll see you when you reach the 
house," before driving the rest of the way up the hillside.  Kei smiled again, and then 
started looking around herself - it still seemed slightly unreal to her...  She was 
LOOKING around herself, instead of hearing, or feeling, or smelling.  She was seeing 
what was there, and it wasn't in a dream.   
 	She couldn't decide what to see first, and for every new sight - and every sight 
was new, to her - a thousand questions came to mind.  Like, what were those things on 
the trees, that swayed gently in the wind and made a rustling sound - and what color 
were they?  What was color?  She had never known anything except for the cold 
darkness, and now everything sprang at her in thousands of different shades; she had 
no names for them.  And what about those flowers over there?  She knew what they 
smelled like, but now she could see that there were many different kinds of them, and 
that they had different shapes and sizes.  She turned to Tenchi, laughing.
 	"I never imagined it would really be this beautiful, Tenchi," she said, walking 
up to a tree and lightly touching it.  "How can I possibly try to explain what it's like?  I 
knew what a tree felt like, what it sounded and smelled like.  I knew that some were 
covered in something rough, and others were somewhat smoother.  I knew that if the 
day was hot, if I sat under one, it would be cooler, but never what it looked like until 
now.  I could guess, I could imagine, but what I can see isn't what I pictured."  She 
looked up at the sky, and laughed again.  "The moon is so bright, it seems strange that I 
really couldn't see it; it looks bright enough to pierce any darkness, even that of 
blindness.  And the stars!  They're so far off, so free, so...  I never understood what 
people meant when they said that something had to be seen to be believed."  She 
looked back at him, and smiled.  "Everything is so new now...  It's as though I were 
touching something for the first time, only now I'm touching it with my eyes, instead of 
my hands."  Tenchi smiled at her.
	"I'm happy for you Kei.  I'm glad that Aunt was able to do it," he said softly.  
She laughed, and hugged him tightly.
	"It wouldn't have happened, if not for you.  I don't know how to thank you," 
she said, and Tenchi blinked.
	"Huh?"  he asked.  Kei smiled at him softly.  He could be so naive at times 
that it was almost painful.  Then again, she was already starting to get an idea of just 
how much she had to learn now that she had her sight.
	"Think about it Tenchi.  Would I have ever met Dr. Washu if I hadn't met 
you?" she asked.  Tenchi looked at her.
	"Of course you would have," he said, and Kei smiled again.  If nothing else, 
he never ran out of optimism.
	"Maybe.  But when?  And would she have helped me?  When it comes down 
to it, I am just a foster child.  Yes, my foster parents care for me, but they care just the 
same for every child that come through their home, and even you have to admit that 
they are the exception, not the rule.  If not for you, would it have ever happened, 
Tenchi?  Maybe, but we both know probably not," she said quietly, embracing him and 
looking back up at the stars.  Tenchi opened his mouth to speak, and she lightly laid 
two fingers over his lips to stop him.  He sighed quietly, and remained silent.
	"You know, I used to dream about what it might be like to see, when I was 
very, very young.  I had kind of an idea from what people described and from what I 
could feel.  I mean, I didn't know what the colors were, or that the sky could possibly 
be so...  huge!  But I had something of an idea.  Yet, when I finally got my eyes open 
all the way, and they finally came into focus for the first time, I realized that never in 
my wildest dreams had I ever come close to the truth.  Because, in my dreams, I... 
never saw..."  She trailed off, as her throat started to choke up on her, and she began to 
feel some tears on her cheeks.  She couldn't say it aloud.  In her dreams, she'd never 
seen him.  And as sorry as he'd looked, with that IV in his arm and his head wound in 
bandages almost as heavily as hers had been, it'd been all she could do not to burst into 
tears right that moment.  He had given her a greater gift than she could have ever 
hoped for.
	Tenchi lightly touched her cheek, catching one of the tears, and smiled at her.  
"I know, Kei.  Maybe I can't imagine what it was like, to not be able to see, but I know 
what you're feeling.  It's on your face, and in your eyes...  I know," he told her quietly.  
She looked at him, smiling and hugging him again.  He didn't understand what had her 
almost bawling, not entirely, anyway, but for now that was fine with her.  It was more 
important that he was with her to listen.  He smiled, and lightly put his arm around her 
waist; they began to walk up the path.
	"It feels... weird to walk.  I'm used to sensing steps and things, not seeing 
them," she said, leaning against him slightly so that she didn't lose her balance.  He 
grinned, and looked at her.
	"It will take a little practice.  Remember?  Aunt Washu told you that your 
equilibrium might be off for a couple of days as you readjust.  Don't worry, I won't let 
you fall," he told her, and she laughed.
	"Oh, now I really feel safe!" she said, grinning.  And snuggling a little closer.  
They worked their way up the hill, Tenchi answering the questions that poured out of 
her in a torrent.  They were about half-way up when she heard a rustle to the side, and 
blinked.  "Hey, what was that?" she asked?  Tenchi looked around.
	"What?  I didn't hear anything," he told her.  She pointed at some bushes that 
were a little off the path.
	"Some rustling."  She cocked her head to listen as it she heard it again, and 
nodded.  "There it is again, it's definitely coming from those bushes," she told him.  
Tenchi grinned, and moved toward the bushes.
	"Hello?  Anybody here?  Anybody making rustling noises and planning on 
jumping out and attacking us?" he called.  Kei stifled a laugh as he looked at her.  "See, 
Kei?  There's nothing here!" he said, as he turned back toward the bushes.  Then he 
abruptly shouted in surprise, and stumbled backwards to land flat on his back.  Kei 
gave up, and started laughing.
	"Nothing, eh?" she said, before blinking.  Sitting on his chest, and looking 
surprised to be there, was a fuzzy little creature with two huge golden eyes and what 
looked like a thin red gem set in her forehead.  She carefully bent down, laughing in 
delight, and picked her up - in a rear corner of her mind, she wondered how she knew 
the creature was a she.  It looked at her for a moment.
	"Miya?"  Tenchi blinked, as he sat up, looking at her and the furball.
	"She's so cute, but what is she?" she asked him, and the little critter miyaed 
again.
	"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it.  At first I thought it was a cat, 
but it looks like it's half-rabbit," he told her.  She grinned.
	"She's a cabbit!" she exclaimed, as she scratched her between the ears.  The 
tiny creature purred in contentment, and she laughed in delight.  "What do you suppose 
we should name her?"  Tenchi blinked at her.
	"You're going to keep her - how do you know that it's even a her?" he asked 
her.  Kei grinned at him wryly, and set the cabbit on her shoulder.  The furball 
squirmed for a moment, and then settled in, miyaing happily. 
	"Women's intuition," she told him.  "And why not keep her, she doesn't 
belong to anybody."  Tenchi grinned.
	"Now THAT is a prime example of female logic," he laughed.  Kei gave him 
a flat look, and he grinned.  "Not that male logic has a chance of ever out showing 
female logic," he said, before his eyes turned inward briefly.  "Ok, a name...  How 
about Ryo-Ohki?" he suggested suddenly.  The little furball miyaed loudly at that.  Kei 
blinked, and looked at her, grinning.
	"Do you like that name?" she asked, tickling her on the chin.
	"MIYA!"
	"Ryo-Ohki it is, then!" laughed Kei, as Tenchi stood up, dusting himself off.  
He looked at the cabbit, and grinned.
	"Cute little thing.  But where do you come from, huh?"  Ryo-Ohki just looked 
at him, and Kei smiled.  Tenchi laughed, looking at the two of them.  "Well, you two 
look like you were made for each other, Kei."  She laughed, and her new pet miyaed 
happily.
	"Now I've gotten my sight, and a new friend.  This really is the best day of my 
life, Tenchi.  Come on, we better get up to your house before your parents think that 
we've eloped or something," she told him, taking hold of his arm.  Tenchi grinned, and 
they started walking again.
	"So, what do you suppose she eats?"

	As they heard a vehicle pull up, Ayeka and Kiyone looked at each other.  As 
they had been talking, they'd begun to notice an almost disturbing tendency to know 
things about each other.  Like when Mihoshi had abruptly asked Sasami for a cup of 
tea, and without thinking both Ayeka and Kiyone had asked her for some too.  Sasami 
had made the tea, and it hadn't been until she had set down the tray before them and 
started to pass out the cups that they had blinked, and stared at each other.  What had 
really caught Ayeka off guard a couple minutes later was, how did Sasami even know 
where to find the tea and tea pot in the first place?
	"That must be them now," said Kiyone, smiling slightly and standing.  She 
gave the softly snoring Mihoshi a push as Ayeka nodded, and shook Sasami awake.  
Both woke up, looking around and rubbing the sleep from their eyes.
	"What's going on?" asked Sasami sleepily.  Ayeka smiled at her slightly, as 
she picked up the silver broach from the table, and refastened it around her neck.  She'd 
taken it off a few hours ago;  seeing that Kiyone had been embarrassed, she had tried to 
relax her by telling her she didn't mind if she asked about the scar.  She explained that  
she only wore the broach among people that didn't know her very well, so that they 
wouldn't be uncomfortable seeing it.  She herself had long since come to terms with it.
	As the hallway light came on, Ayeka and Kiyone turned to it.  The first to 
come through the doorway was the young woman from the message - Achika.  She 
broke into a wide smile as she saw the two princesses, and walked over.  "Ayeka, 
Sasami, you really did arrive!  And Kiyone and Mihoshi, I really must apologize again 
for not being here in person - to all of you!  With Tenchi and Kei...  Gah!"  Ayeka 
made a calming gesture.
	"Do not be concerned; I believe that Miss Kiyone mentioned that your son 
had been injured?  I do not mind waiting when there are more important matters in 
concern.  However, I must confess a bit of confusion as to how you seem to know 
Sasami and myself," she said, smiling slightly.  Achika winced.
	"As I said on the message, I can explain everything once we're all here - 
Tenchi is walking Kei up here, this is only the first day that she's been able to see, 
and..."  Abruptly she laughed.  "I must sound like a mad woman.  Kei was born blind, 
you see.  Washu performed an operation on her two days ago to restore her vision, and 
the bandages were just taken off tonight - Kei wanted to wait for Tenchi to wake up.  
He injured himself a couple days ago as well, and only just came around.  Kei asked 
him to walk her up the steps to the shrine so that she could start to see what she'd been 
missing," explained the woman, and Ayeka nodded.  She thought that she'd understood 
all that.  Beside her, Sasami giggled.
	"How romantic!" she exclaimed, and Achika grinned.
	"He takes after his father," she said, before laughing.  "I know that this is 
confusing, but it's good to see you all again," she told them, smiling.  Behind her, two 
men came into the room, one an elderly gentleman, and the other a man of like age 
with Achika.  Achika nodded to them, saying, "My husband, Nobuyuki, and my father, 
Katsuhito...  Or Yosho, as he was named on Jurai."  Ayeka felt her jaw drop; beside 
her, Kiyone blinked and nodded slightly.  The wrinkled, weathered-faced old man 
bowed.
	"Y... Yosho?!?  But he can't!" exclaimed Ayeka, before a bit of anger flared in 
her.  Was THIS what she'd been brought here for?  This... sham?!?  "How dare you 
mock us with -" Ayeka abruptly cut off as Katsuhito withdrew a short, wooden rod 
from his robes, and held it out before him.  She stared at it in shock.  "That is sword 
Tenchi, Yosho's sword.  How did you..."  The man was silent a moment, and then 
spoke.	
	"It is said that this sword was made three times, once for each point of the 
leaves of the holy tree Tsunami.  The first was carved by a priest, and dipped in the 
tears of a phoenix.  The second was carved by a beggar, and dipped in the blood of a 
dragon that died saving Jurai.  The third, and last, was found, sealed in a crystal of 
amber made of Tsunami's sap.  When the three swords were placed on one of her 
leaves, they joined, and became one," he said.  Abruptly, the blade flared to life, and 
Ayeka bowed her head.  There could be no doubt.  Only the royal family knew that 
story, and only Yosho had had the strength in the Jurai Power to use the sword.
	"Yes.  You are Yosho," she said reluctantly.  "I humbly ask forgiveness for -" 
She paused, as Achika and Yosho shook their heads. 
	"You couldn't have been expected to believe us without proof," said Achika, 
and her father nodded, as the blade vanished.  Another thought occurred to Ayeka.
	"Are you then going to return to Jurai, Lord Yosho, to claim the throne?" she 
asked quietly.  He laughed, and Ayeka frowned, thinking he was mocking her.  He 
shook his head.
	"No, Princess Ayeka - I have no wish to rule," he said, smiling warmly.  She 
let out a breath that she hadn't been aware she was holding. 
	"Still, then, the question remains - why were we... err, summoned here, so to 
speak," she said after a moment.
	"Or how we all seem so... familiar to each other," added Kiyone, and Ayeka 
nodded her agreement.  Achika sighed briefly.
	"Washu could explain it better than me, but the short version of it is that you 
are picking up a sort of...  For lack of a better description, experience leakage.  Washu 
called it multi-dimensional temporal residue," she said.  Achika looked around, and 
then picked up two crystals that were sitting on the table.  "Think of it like this.  Each 
of these is the exact same universe, except for one thing.  In fact, they are so much 
alike that the Ayeka from this universe -" she lifted one crystal higher "- can sense 
some of what is happening to the Ayeka in this universe," she finished, lifting the 
other.
	"Essentially correct, except that I called - rather, my double called it multi-
temporal dimensional residue, not the other way around," said a short, young-seeming 
girl with a wild mane of spiky, hot pink hair, as she entered the room.  She was 
carrying a small black box in one hand, and a crystal in the other.  "Where are those 
two Ach?  A constipated Talorian snail would have been up here by now!" Achika 
laughed softly.
	"Give them their time, Washu.  We may take sight for granted, but for Kei, 
everything will be new.  And they both will face some difficult news once they arrive," 
she soothed.  Ayeka smiled slightly.  She was already, to her surprise, finding herself 
quite liking the other woman.  There was - as Sasami had pointed out - something 
about her that was simply trustable.  "Is there anything that we could get you while you 
wait, or any other questions?" she asked.  Kiyone frowned a moment, and then slowly 
spoke.
	"Ayeka and Sasami seemed... familiar.  So do Nobuyuki... and Yosho and 
Washu.  But this entire time, I haven't sensed that about you, and I'm too much of a 
detective to think that's a coincidence, not as well as you seem to know us."  Achika 
nodded slightly, sighing.
	"You're right, I..." She paused, as they heard the door slide open, followed a 
moment later by, "We're home!"  Achika sighed again.  "I'll answer that in just a 
moment," she said, before raising her voice slightly.  "Can you two come into the 
living room?"  There were a few soft sounds of shoes being removed; some feminine 
laughter followed by a somewhat deeper man's laugh.  Achika's momentary agitation 
vanished, and she smiled warmly as a tall young man with bandages wrapped around 
his head came in, his arm around the waist of a shorter young woman.  Ayeka blinked 
slightly as the light flashed off her eyes; they were a bright golden, and deep in the 
back of her mind a memory tickled slightly.  On the girl's shoulder - much to Ayeka's 
surprise - was a cabbit, and a fairly young one at that.  But she was drawn back to the 
girl's eyes.  Why did those golden eyes gnaw at her so strongly all of a sudden?  Where 
had she seen them before?
	Both of them blinked in surprise as they saw Ayeka and the others, and then 
blushed.  Tenchi - uneasily she realized that she hadn't matched his face to the picture 
on the wall, she'd just known - dropping his arm from the girl's - Kei, Ayeka surmised - 
waist.  The two bowed deeply in unison.
	"I didn't realize that we had guests, mother, father, or we wouldn't have taken 
so long in getting back," said Tenchi, and right on top of him, Kei said, "I must look 
like I've just stepped in out of a windstorm," while she made an attempt to straighten 
her shirt.  The cabbit miyaed in curiosity, as Sasami laughed.
	"So Ryo-Ohki did come to Kei," murmured Achika.  Ayeka glanced at her; 
she was smiling in a slightly relieved way, before nodding slightly.  Then Ayeka 
noticed Tenchi looking at them, something akin to recognition  in his eyes.  He knows 
us too, she thought to herself.  That's why we had to wait for them.  Her suspicion was 
confirmed a moment later as Sasami tugged on her sleeve and whispered, "That really 
is the boy in the dream."  Achika cleared her throat.
	"Tenchi, Kei, these are Ayeka, Sasami, Kiyone and Mihoshi.  They are... old 
friends," she said.  Ayeka wondered if she had deliberately left out their titles and 
ranks.  Achika turned to them.  "And this is Tenchi, my son, and Kei, who Washu 
performed the operation on.  She and Tenchi," she said, with a sudden, slightly 
mischievous grin, "are... close."  Tenchi blushed.
	"Mom!" he groaned, and then grunted as Kei elbowed him in the ribs, 
grinning.
	"Are you saying that it's not a good thing to be close to me?" she asked, with 
mock indignation.  Tenchi grinned slightly.
	"It depends on how hard you intend to hit me with your elbow," he 
deadpanned.  Ayeka laughed softly along with the others, as Kei gave him a 
malevolent little smirk.
	"Just you wait, Tenchi, just you wait," she said, only spoiling the threat by 
laughing.  Achika chuckled, before sighing.
	"Now that we're all here, if you could all sit down, I'll... try, at least, to 
explain," she said.  Tenchi and Kei exchanged confused looks, but sat down on the 
couch with Ayeka and Sasami.  Her sister grinned, and waved at the cabbit; the little 
furball miyaed and hopped over to her shoulder.  Washu set the box down on the 
ground, and stood the crystal on end.  It began to float, spinning slowly in thin air.
	"The projector is all set up Achika.  I'll start it when you're ready," said the 
scientist, raising her hands.  Tenchi and Kei's eyes nearly popped out of their heads as a 
keyboard suddenly appeared in thin air before her;  Ayeka filed that away mentally.  
Whatever they were about to find out, Tenchi and Kei had never been given any hints 
of it before now.  Achika nodded, and sighed again.
	"I... guess that the best place to start is nearly twenty years ago, while 
Nobuyuki and I were still in school.  The week before our school trip to Tokyo, two 
girls transferred in to all of my classes."  She nodded to Washu, and she typed on the 
keyboard for a moment.  The crystal began to spin faster, and suddenly above it a 
hologram appeared.  Ayeka started, as she saw herself, in a black dress with white 
trimming step into it.  Yet, that in itself wasn't all that had her eyes popping; it was the 
absence of the thick, slashing scar that caught her off guard, because that Ayeka's chin 
and neck was pale, pure and unbroken skin.  On the hologram she stepped the rest of 
the way into the room it depicted, to be followed by a second woman of like age, but 
with golden eyes and spiky cyan-silver hair.  Memory stirred deep within, but she 
pushed it down for now.
	"We also gained a new teacher -" Mihoshi followed the golden eyed girl, "- 
and a new janitor's assistant that was assigned to the section of the school where our 
classes were."  Kiyone made a strangled sound as, on the hologram, she appeared in 
overalls and glasses, and mopping the floor.  "And outside the school, a little girl and a 
young man started appearing during gym class."  On the hologram, Sasami tossed a 
volley ball to somebody behind the viewpoint, while Tenchi peeked out from behind 
some bushes.  Achika sighed, as Washu shut down the hologram.
	"Small pieces, and not even a puzzle to me, then.  The only two things that I 
recall thinking of as odd was Sasami being at the school, and not in class, and that 
Ryoko and Ayeka came to stay with father and I - they said that their home were too 
far from the school.  But my home was almost outside the school's range.  It's a long 
bus trip, as Tenchi and I both know," she said, grinning slightly.  Tenchi gave a 
confused nod.  "Small pieces, but sometimes I still wonder how I could have been so 
blind..."  Kiyone frowned.
	"Ok, assuming that we were all there...  Why?  And how?  Twenty years ago, 
I was still fighting with my sisters for space at home on Taras Seven," she said.  
Achika nodded, and Washu activated the hologram again.  This time, the Galaxy Police 
Head Quarters appeared.
	"Jump ahead twenty years, to the GP HQ.  A... creature that had been 
imprisoned one hundred years before escapes, destroying the headquarters in the 
process.  Kiyone, what do you know about the criminal known as 'Kain?'" she asked.  
Kiyone started.
	"Class A Criminal codenamed Kain.  Destroyed planets, several armadas, and 
I'm not entirely sure of what all else.  He was captured through a joint effort of the 
Galaxy Police and the Juraian Emperor, and permanently imprisoned in the Galaxy 
Police subspace net.  At least, the imprisonment is supposed to be permanent," she 
said, as the station was...  All that Ayeka could say was that it was unmade.  A huge 
black blob appeared, with some strange sort of three-eyed mask for a face.  It streaked 
away, as Achika nodded.
	"Kain escaped, and came to Earth - Earth of the past, his goal to kill my father 
and I.  His kind, you see, hate the Jurai Power, and at the time, the most powerful 
sources of it were father and myself."  Kain streaked past a Galaxy Police patrol ship - 
Ayeka would have wagered the throne that it was Kiyone and Mihoshi's - and splashed 
into Earth's atmosphere, vanishing.  "This is where things get a little hard to 
understand," said Achika, picking up the crystals again.  "Remember what I was saying 
about the two, almost identical universes?"  Except for Tenchi and Kei, they nodded.  
Achika set one crystal on the table.
	"In this universe, our universe, you all came here because you were... drawn 
here, for lack of a better description.  You felt an instinct that, in the end, drew you 
here, to this house," she said, before hiding the crystal, and setting down the other.  
"But in this universe, one by one, you each came here because of an almost 
unbelievable set of circumstances."  The hologram was started again, with an image of 
the golden eyed woman.  "This is Ryoko.  She is...  would have been a Space Pirate.  
Mihoshi stumbled across her while out on patrol, and after a short fight, their ships 
collided, and fell here, to Earth.  Tenchi, on his way to school, saw the crash, and went 
to see what happened."  The image changed, and Tenchi sucked in a startled breath.
	"No way!  But... That's what I was drawing when..."  He lightly touched the 
bandages around his head, and Achika nodded, producing a sketch book and flipping it 
open.  Ayeka blinked.  The hologram and the drawing were identical, save for a few 
splatters of blood on the drawing.
	"Of all of us, Tenchi will pick up the strongest...  feelings, because he was at 
the center of all that happened.  After Ryoko and Mihoshi, Ayeka came, when Mihoshi 
activated her emergency beacon.  Sasami came looking for Ayeka, then Washu was 
released from her prison, and last but not least, Kiyone was sent after Mihoshi.  One by 
one, you each came, and ended up staying here," Achika told them.  Ayeka blinked, as 
something fell into place.
	"There's no Ryoko here.  When Kain went back, he changed something, and 
so here she...  This is a split timeline, isn't it?  That's what you're trying to tell us," she 
said.  There was an answer, glimmering just out of sight now, if only she could reach 
out and grab it.  Achika smiled sadly.
	"Kain went back to kill my father and I, but Washu - their Washu - was able 
to send them back in time, and together, they stopped him.  Ryoko, Ayeka, and Tenchi 
were able to get Nobuyuki and I away from Kain, and Kiyone used the Dimensional 
Cannon to deal the final blow," she said, before sighing. "But Kain understood that, 
with even one string cut, they would have failed."
	"They returned to their time, but almost before she had landed, Ryoko fell 
extremely ill," said Washu.  "My counterpart discovered, with a little bit of 
backtracking, that it was because she no longer existed in that world before that point 
in time.  Kain sent... a miasma of himself to kill her in that time.  And to kill Ayeka 
and Kiyone too, if it could before it dissipated.  But because Ryoko was in the past 
when it killed her younger self, and thus, outside of the time stream, she wasn't 
annihilated.  However, as soon as she returned to her own time, she became a paradox - 
she existed, but couldn't exist, because she technically had never been."  Ayeka's eyes 
suddenly widened.  Technically had never been... the other Ayeka had never had the 
scar, either.
	"I know where she was killed - where the miasma killed her!" she exclaimed.  
Achika and Washu blinked at her.
	"Where? How?" asked Achika.  "Washu could never figure out where."
	"Can you bring up the picture of Ayeka... Err, me...  Oh drat, this is going to 
be confusing.  Can you please bring up the image of their me?" she asked.  Washu 
nodded, and a moment later there was a simple image of herself floating there.   Ayeka 
unclasped the broach; Tenchi and Kei both winced, and Achika gasped softly.  Ayeka 
lightly touched the scar.  "She does not have this - it never happened to her."  Ayeka 
shivered as she made herself remember.  "I was playing - I was very young - and met a 
young girl my age.  She had cyan hair-" the blob appeared, falling on the little girl "- 
golden eyes -" the girl's eyes screamed in pain as it attacked her "- and a something... 
tore... her apart.  And after it finished with her, it came after me, and did this," she 
finished, as she lightly traced the scar's path.  Ayeka abruptly realized that she was 
shaking, and forced herself to calm down.  That was long ago, and she... she was with 
friends, she knew, even if she wasn't entirely sure how she knew.
	Achika smiled at her comfortingly, and then looked at Washu.  The scientist 
nodded at her.  "It's likely; their Ayeka had already met Ryoko a number of times 
before they came to Earth, and the miasma would have been drawn to the pair of them 
even more strongly than just one alone," she said.
	"Then that's where we have to search," answered Achika.  Kiyone cleared her 
throat.
	"Ahh... Search for what?" she asked.  Achika sighed.
	"When Ryoko went back to her time, she became a paradox.  A very powerful 
paradox, and between her and the alternate timeline - us - reality is slowly being torn 
apart.  It's like a black hole - the longer it exists, the bigger and stronger it becomes, 
and the faster it grows," she said.
	"The Darkspace - maybe that's what she means, Ayeka!" said Sasami.  Ayeka 
nodded as Achika looked at her.
	"Darkspace?" she asked.  Ayeka nodded.
	"It's a region of space where things are simply... being unmade.  My mother 
said that it first became apparent a few months after I was attacked.  Attempts have 
been made to study it, but anything that enters it simply vanishes.  Energy, ships, it is 
the same, as if they had never existed.  At first, it only grew a few hundred, and then a 
few thousand kilometers a year, but now it's almost grown big enough to threaten Jurai 
itself," she said.
	"That would be the most likely manifestation," agreed Washu.  "And I'd bet 
my last study sample that it's exact origin was on the point where Ryoko died," she 
finished.  Achika nodded.
	"So in other words, we're going to prevent this paradox from unmaking the 
universe?" said Kiyone.
	"Partly.  But we also have to stop Kain from escaping in this timeline," 
answered Washu, as she produced a small black cube.  "My counterpart studied the 
data from his escape in their world.  This will create a field that will neutralize his 
power.  It needs to be installed on his prison lock within the next five days," she told 
Kiyone, handing it to her.
	"That's what you and Mihoshi need to do.  The rest of us will be going back to 
where Ayeka was describing, and prevent Ryoko from dying," said Achika.  "And you 
two, by far, have the easier job..."