OK, You know the drill by now, I own none of the characters in this fan fic. Don't get any ideas. I was given kind permission to write this by horse_w_no_name. Find her here: horse_w_no_name@cheerful.com or her website here: http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/elfin/311/ It is a sequel/spin of to her stellar fanfic In this moment. Read it before you read mine. It's not essential, but it helps. Now, on with the story, the drama and the metaphors (not to mention bad spelling). *********************************************************************** This summer had been exceptionally hot. In the last few weeks the sun had scorched most of the grass and many of the flowers had begun to dry up and die. This would have been bad enough but EVERYONE was getting frustrated with the constant heat. It was too hot to move and Ryoko had given up on doing her chores. This made Ayeka upset, more so than normal because she had just 'lost' Tenchi to her too. Mihoshi stayed out to long in the sun and got very badly burned and had to get treatment from Washu who had taken to living in her lab in an attempt to avoid the heat. Even poor Sasami was agitated at being stuck in the kitchen, and had gone on stirke forcing everyone to attempt to cook, well, everyone except Ryoko, her food was that bad that they just decided to let her loaf. Then one night it had gotten exceptionally dark, it looked like a storm was brewing. Yosho had suggested that it was an omen of what was to come. Tenchi hoped not. Thick storm clouds cast a shadow over the land and thunder could be heard booming in the distance... *KER-RAK....BOOOOM!* "Tenchi!!!" Sasami's little cry echoed throughout the house, sharply contrasted by the distant rumble of the approaching storm. She had never liked the thunder, and liked it even less when there was lightning. "Ayeka!!!" She sat in her bed, covers pulled over her head. Her mind was racing at incredible speeds. When the thunder came Sasami was back on Jurai. She had felt so safe there. Behind those walls of the palace, with the entire Jurian fleet on guard she felt she could never be harmed. But the palace betrayed her. When Ryoko attacked she was not frightened. The fleet would stop her. When the outer fleet fell and she attacked the planet she was not frightened. The palace and father and Yosho would protect her. She continued her games and went exploring. Even when people told her to run for shelter she was unafraid. Nothing could harm her so long as she had her father. Nothing. She went deeper and deeper into the palace. Into places she had never gone. She saw the guards running to defend her family. She saw the vast fleet of ships that would protect them should the others fail. She was unafraid. Her family was protected by a Goddess, how could she be harmed? She knew she shouldn't, yet she did, she went deeper. Outside the battle raged. Ryoko had destroyed or damaged a good portion of the fleet and was so close to the palace there was talk of evacuation. She couldn't remember what had happened after that. Something big hit the palace and shook it to it's core. She fell. It seemed to last forever, yet she was still unafraid. She knew she could not be harmed. Father or Yosho or a guard would catch her. It wasn't until she neared the bottom that she was frightened. It was then she realised that she had been betrayed. Father would not catch her. Yosho would not be there. And in the last moments before she hit, she felt pity. Not for herself, but for her father and mother, and her family. They would blame themselves for what had happened. The thud resounded though-out the hanger. The pain was incredible, if only brief. Her whole body felt limp, the fall had broken most of her bones and her brain was being destroyed as the blood flowed from ruptured vessels. She was dying. In what was left of her ravaged mind the pity she had felt had turned to anger and rage. How could they let this happen to me? Where were they when I needed them? Her hatred and feeling of betrayal burned inside her like the fires of hell and it felt like the might weld he shattered bones back together. The little girl knew she was dying and was not scared by this. The only emotion she could feel was utter betrayal. Sasami still felt ashamed at this. She often pitied the girl and on occasion she had wept for her. She also felt ashamed at herself, she knew it was her fault that this girl had died and yet she had blamed others, worse, she had blamed those who had loved her the most. New thoughts raced into her mind. Doubt and fear swallowed her up and she wondered if she had been betrayed again. She would know why. She wasn't Sasami, she was a copy of her made by Tsunami. Her grief at her loss, of maybe loosing her sister, Tenchi and the others because she was a fraud threatened to engulf her. What if they to would betray her? For the first time in a long time Sasami began to cry. "TENCHI!!!!!" * Tenchi was sprinting now, the second cry had set his hair on end. It had sounded so mournful and so afraid. He knew it had come from Sasami yet he could not believe it. Only once he had heard her sound like that, when she had told the others that she was.... Tenchi was still unsure as to what she was. Sasami had thought that they would leave her when they found out the truth. Tenchi burst though the door and saw a sight that shook him to the core. Sasami was sitting on the floor crying, the blankets covering all but her face, there was a slight glow as well as Tsunami tried to comfort her, but Sasami could not see her. "Are you OK Sasami?" Tenchi was seriously concerned for her. He knew how much the lightning scared her. He would normally have asked if she wanted to sleep in his room if he knew that there was a storm coming, but he hadn't this time. He was angry at her for stopping cooking, and wanted her to suffer. He felt ashamed, and even though he knew that it was because of the heat but he still felt like a cruel demon. "Tenchi...." Her voice was so dry, so strained, the shame Tenchi felt now was now like a knife in his heart. "don't leave me." She did not look up as she spoke, tears like trickled down her face. He smiled and tilted his head, he was trying to keep his eyes in shadow so that Sasami could not see he too was crying. "Don't worry, you can sleep with me and Ryoko tonight." Tenchi leaned over and picked Sasami, blankets and all, up. He carried her though the house and into his room. He put her down at the bottom of his bed. He doubted she would sleep, but then again, he doubted if any of them would. Even the great Washu was here. Scared by the storm. She had given no other explanation as to why, she just came in and said "I know what lightning it, and I could stop it if I wanted to, but there is something about that storm." She paused, perhaps for effect or perhaps because she really was shaken. "It feels.... I dunno, it just feels..... alive." Tenchi had a feeling that she was right. When he went to get Sasami he had seen it through the window. The storm burned the sky, lightning flashed across the clouds, red fingers hotter than the surface of the sun seared across the sky. He too knew what it was, it's technical name was sheet lightning, but this seemed unnatural, the way it spread across the sky seemed somehow....manic. Like a man being chased in a maze, running for his life, not stopping to think, turning right, left, then right again and doubling back on himself at a dead end. Yes, tonight was an awful night, yet Techi knew that it would take the heat out of the air and would make the world refreshed in the morning. It would bring life to the house but hopefully not any more problems. As Tenchi tried to get to sleep, he looked around the room, at Sasami who would harm nothing and loved everyone, at Ryoko, who only so recently had opened her heart to him and, despite the rot and filth she had lived in...no was forced to live in by the monster Kagato, she had found a flower. He turned to Washu, he had not yet forgiven her for what she had done to him and Ryoko. The experiment was unfare, regardless of how it had turned out. Underneath his blankets, somewhere, lay little Rhi-oki, so small yet so brave. The only thing she loved more than carrots were her friends. At the other side of the room lay Mihoshi, burned and upset. A faint squeal could be heard from her every now and then as she rolled onto a part of her body that had been scorched by the sun. Tenchi had to smile. She was so scatter brained, yet when you need her she would be there, whether through luck or design was another question entirely. Finally he turned to Ayeka. He still felt sorry for her. She had tried so hard to adjust, but she had been so sure that she was going to be the one. To find that Ryoko was chossen instead ruined her. She would still smile and do her chores, but these were little more that faux displays of courage. Inside she had lost something. Something that acted like a fuel, she was forced to go on by the hope that one day he would choose her. Now she was just a shadow of what she was. Tenchi felt sure she would recover, he just hoped it was soon enough that it did not destroy her faith in love. As Tenchi settled down to sleep he felt a sense of relief wash over him, he knew so long as they had each other nothing could harm them. They were friends.... he stopped himself and smiled. No they were more than that. They were family. And nothing could stop them. As Tenchi slowly drifted to sleep he did not see Tsunami kneel beside him and gently kiss his brow. * *KER-RAK....BOOOOM!* A tall figure looms in the streets. He does not attempt to seek shelter from the storm. He knows what it is and does not fear it. He is its master and it shall do only his bidding. The rain and the wind does not bother him, he is dressed in a poncho that stretches from his broad shoulders down to his feet. A flash of lightning lights the sky, lighting his face, partially obscured by a broad cowboys hat. He has a long face, and although it is thin, it is not that unattractive. It would not stand out in a crowd and would fit in in almost any city on this planet's surface. As the lightning arced across the sky once more, the figure looked up. The storm was approaching it's peak and was now and was nearing it's most violent point. The heavy rain drops splashed around, forming deep puddles where ever it could not drain away. He smiles, the rain appears to come up from the ground. Another flash followed almost immediately by an ear splitting boom. Red fingers grope their twisted path along the sky, lighting the world in brief, fiery red glow highlighting more of the his face. This time it reveals a tiny pair of spectacles, perched across the bridge of his nose. Wisps of his hair are blown round his face, the colour impossible to tell in the half light of the storm. Two small cables hang from headphones hidden in his ears. Suddenly he moves. His hands are a blur, waving around as if he were a mad conductor. They flail around the night sky as he directs his imaginary orchestra, commanding fleets of violins, rank upon rank of woodwind and batteries of percussion as he wages his war against the storm. One man attempting to defy the weather, showing complete contempt for mother nature's show of her incredible powers. His hands dart around as he orders his band to rush head long into a deafening crescendo, the strings and bass mirroring the growing tension of the storm around him. The nocturne begins to career suicidaly to the end, the storm gathers it energy for one last attempt to punish the usurper who dares to defy it's will. The thin poncho is torn and twisted around his body and offers little protection from the ceaseless rain and hurricane force winds. The ferocity of the storm can do little to drown out the trembling strings and the thundering bass. The storm gains in intensity it's ferocity and is matched beat for beat, mournful howl for mournful howl, neither can continue, yet both are ceaseless in their determination. But the storm is nearly spent and the conductor battered and broken by the brutality, exhausted with the effort of moving his arms in winds that would tear branches from trees. Something must give, something must break. One must give in. *KERRRRRRRRRAAAAAKKKKKKKKKK-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!* There is no separation between the flash and the explosion as the storm unleashes it's final attempt to defeat it's solitary opponent. The blossoming lightning spiralling out from the clouds, blooming and growing from almost right above the man, it's petals opening like a hellish flower, born from the mind of a demon, revealing flashes of reds blues, whites and yellows as it continues it suicidal path across the clouds and into oblivion. He stands alone, he has won for now. For a moment he stands and watches as the light from the demonic glow above recedes, and in the twisted half-light he falls to his knees. The wind has already started to die, and the rain is in retreat, he has won this battle and he knows that it will not be his last, perhaps this is why he weeps his bitter tears, for every victory, there are a thousand more wars to be waged. Tomorrow would be a new day, and the world would be refreshed, washed clean by the storm. He knew that there would be more battles in the days that followed. He knew that he would face his most difficult challenges soon, but they were for another day. He would cross that bridge when he came to it. It was going to be hard, but such is life and his had only just begun. *********************************************************************** * Well, that's It for the first part of my multi-part fan fic. Hope you enjoy. Any feed back please send it to me at: ebh_maul@hotmail.com If your on yahoo chat you'll find me as digital_bannana Bye for now!