Disclaimer: I don't own Tenchi Muyo! or any other charactors etc thereafter, only 2 in this story anyway (i think 2, does a cabbit count as a person?) If this is alot like someones elses fic it is purly coinsidental and if not i obviously liked your fic and including it in mine is purly a respect thing k. :) (P.S- if you read the last chapter you probebly realised i spelt phase faze (fazing, fazed etc) i appologise and it happened only because I was working on a really long essay at the same time k bye!!!) Resolution and Revelation: Chapter 2- Shall we dance? Ryoko crouched down under the window and brought her legs in underneath her; "Whats with all the Jurai presence Washu?" As Ryoko stared into space her link buzzed and Washu replied seemingly very happy to hear from Ryoko- "Ryoko! so you're alright, I was scared my little Ryoko wasn't gonna pull through.." Ryoko put her fist through the floor and was suprised to hear a sharp yell from below. "Washu! Who did I hit with the drywall?" Washu paused then thought about who was missing from the banquet. "Well the only one not here is Tagatashi, strange guy that, where'd you meet him? I-" Washu was cut short by Ryokos ponderence "Who?" Funaho noticed Washu's look of bewilderment and poked her a little; "Little Washu, Little Washu, anyone at home?" Washu turned her head to meet Funaho's questioning glare. "hehe, sorry about that lady Funaho, I'm speaking with Ryoko.." Funaho smiled, took a sip of tea then turned to Ayeka who hadn't said a word since mentioning the previous nights events. "Ryoko, Ryoko?" Washu was puzzled by her daughters lack of responce, then put it down to hormones and burried herself back into a conversation. Ryoko crept downstairs to check out this 'Tagatashi', as she reached the penultimate step she heard something and phased out to a rafter. She slithered along to a verticle beam and shuffled behind it. Tagatashi came through from the kitchen where he had been trying to find some half decent sake, he failed. Ryoko had a fuzzy feeling in her mind, the same she felt when Kagato tried to capture Tsunami before Tenchi destroyed him. She glared at the shape below her then turned her attention to the window facing her; She gazed out at the glorious imperial cruiser and then above it, the only place in the sky where there appeared to be nothing; She winced at it, her pupils dilating, then contracting trying to focus on whatever was there in to view, as she noticed she was having no luck, she lifted her arm to infront of her face, she gazed for what seemed like hours until the small crimson orb began to flicker into life, it glowed on and off for a few minutes before seemingly decided to stick with a ruby hue, an indication of- "Tsunami." Ryoko crossed the beam then, using the power of the gem focused on Tsunami, at first a greenish outline, soon backed up by a misty hued image of the actual vessel. She concentrated and became fixated on the glorious ship before she was cut off by a strangly familiour voice. "So, you're awake Ryoko..." Ryoko spun around to see Tag leaning against the beam she had just occupied with his eyes shut, and his hair tied back into a long ponytail. She ragarded his face, body etc then gazed into his eyes as he opened them to reveal how deep they were. She heard talking from behind her and recognised Tenchi talking above the rest; "Tenchi!" Ryoko forgot where she was and went to jump past Tag as a feeling like having a moon dropped on her overtook her, she grabbed at her gem, the source of the pain and something like a billion watts of power coursed through her, her powers faded, then disappeared, she blacked out as she hit the floor in front of the door as the others entered. Tag pulled in his wrists to his chest and fell down against the beam, his arms and legs twitched before he gradually stood up, panting and graoning as if he had just taken a brisk walk about the universe. Washu ran in and craddled Ryoko's head, Tenchi was watching Tag recovering and holding back the others from entering the room. Washu noticed Ryoko's gem fade and then come back as if it were an illusion. Tag pulled down his sleeves as twin whisps of smoke circled from his arms. He coughed and smoke came out too. As tenchi went to speak he got a sharp pain in his back pocket, as he yelped and threw down Tenchiken he noticed the sword discharge energy and the two gems glowed as if on fire. There was a long pause- "Alright Tag, I knew something fishy was going on and now I'm sure of it, who are you, really! And what just happened to Ryoko?!" Tenchi could feel a boiling rage building inside of him for some reason. Some kind of hieghtened agression and competative spirit, he wanted to drag him outside and rip him to shreds in front of everyone, he couldn't understand his state of mind, why was he so drawn to Tag? One second he felt like helping him with the pain he so clearly felt and the next he wanted to pop a lighthawk wing up in this guy. Tenchi snarled as Tagatashi composed himself to speak. "I've told you who I am, and as for what just happened I don't know." Tag coughed somemore and this time the smoke was accompanied by a few drops of blood, Ryoko, although still unconcious seemed to mirror his affliction and coughed a little blood into Washu's blouse. Tenchi became enraged again, he lost sight of his other emotions and verbally tore into Tag. "Bullshit!" Washu was shocked, Sasami covered her ears and Noboyuki bowed his head. Three symbols appeared on Tenchis forehead and in a flash of light Tag spiraled across the room and the beam rained down on them in the form of a million splinters. Tag landed on his feet, crouched and coughed then stood up as if he had never been better. "Ok Tenchi, if you want it like that.." Tag turned his head to the side and chuckled, Tenchi transormed into the vision of purity as two lighthawk wings embraced him and Tag's clothing morphed into the same battle suite from when they met, only this time with no shreds. "..LETS DANCE!" Tag was in the air before Tenchi could react, sending him through the wall and out into the garden. Tag swerved round him and set down on a fencing pole, he uncrossed one arm and formed a beam sword, Washu was bemused, it looked like Kagato's, only burning orange like Ryoko's trademark weapon. Tenchi fugured through the red haze in his mind that the other wing might be useful as a shield so summoned sword Tenchi to his hand. It connected, Tag sarcasticly yawned and the blade phased into view. Tenchi stood up and took offensive posture, Tag shrugged his shoulders and gestured at sword Tenchi. "Are you quite done? Or should I wait for an encore?" Tag grinned sinisterly and telaported away. Before Tenchi had time to become even more enraged he was dodging deadly sword swipes and trying to menouver around something that seemed everywhere at once. "What's wrong Prince Tenchi? You seem confused, or perhaps...scared?" Tag stopped moving and showed the on lookers exactly how he had come around Tenchi. He had his right arm peircing the lighthawk wing Tenchi was using as a sheild with his beam sword at Tenchi's neck, in his other hand he blocked sword Tenchi with a small yellow energy blade. As he moved into Tenchi a bit, the blade canceled out the lengendary sword and the blue blade wavered, then ceased to exist. Tenchi's lighthawk wings shamed themselves into nothing, the armour faded and Tenchi, exausted from a skirmish that lasted only a minute, collapsed onto the dirt. Tag stared at the ground, almost disappointed the fight had been so easy to win. Ayeka ran to Tenchi and cradled his contorted body; The others where soon about her making sure Tenchi wasn't hurt. Even Washu, the only one who had seen more than a few short glimpses of the fight, was at his side making sure he was alright. Ryoko had awoken as Tenchi hit the floor, she stood in the door way, watching Tag in a stare that was returned as he disengaged his weapon. Ryoko gazed long and hard at the face of the man who had supposedly saved her, and then tossed her beloved aside without even breaking a sweat. It was the eyes, and the hair that got her, those eyes, that seemed so lustful and blood hungry in shape were betrayed by the warmth of their colour, and that hair, unmistakably like Washu's, exept this crab had no flicky legs at the side, and no long tie. The colour bothered her too, the deep purple like Ayeka's when wet, but black as pitch in shadow. She saw so many people when she looked at him, and yet he remained so individually, him. As the others took Tenchi inside Tag phased back to the basic black clothes he had been wearing before the altercation. Ryoko continued her line of thought until she got confused, and went to lie down. "Well Shinjiquo, guess we'd better leave, he is gonna be madder than a braided snake when he wakes up..." Tag patted the cabbit, as it saddened and attempted to cry depite its lack of tear ducts cappable of that much liquid output. "Don't cry Shinjiquo! I trained you better than that!" "Mia!" This conversation seemed to go on for a few minutes before Tag noticed Katsuhito to his left. The old man spoke to him as if an old friend; "You're welcome to stay if you'd like." Tag was taken aback, he stood up and gazed mistily at the old prince before replying. "Are you sure? I mean Tenchi and the others will be-" "Tenchi and the others don't own all this land and this house, do they?" The old man, happy that he had time to ponder over who Tag was, strolled away whisling and happy in the knowlage he had left another whipper-snapper speechless. Tag entered the room and all was quiet. All exept Mihoshi and Sasami were in shock as to why he a)hadn't killed Tenchi and b)he had returned to a house where he had just beaton the master in combat. Ryo-ohki was the first to speak out, she dashed in front of where Tenchi was laying and hissed and growled at Tag. Tag looked away from the tiny cabbit in comparison to his own, and looked at the impressive hole in the wall. He picked up the larger pieces of wood and began to patch things up, phasing them back together molecularly. After a few creaks and stretches, the wall was repaired, he even ran his finger into it to carry on the shape of the cladding. Washu took a mental note that she couldn't have done it better herself, well, yes she could, and it would be able to stand up to sub-atomic warfare, but for a patch up job it was pretty good. Ayeka was about to speak against his presence as Tag cut her off; "Lord Katsuhito said I should stay, but if anyone really doesn't want me around I'll leave, no questions asked." Tag looked at each of them in turn he could sence Ayeka was going to say something but the lack of support brought her down. "Thankyou." He smiled slightly, then he wore a blank expression. Later that night, Tenchi had recovered, but his muscles were feeling the strain of working at forty times thier normal capacity, he had fallen back into unconciousness pretty soon after he had regained it. Tag lay on the sofa as he had a feeling the rafters above him wouldn't last the night with someone of his size sleeping on them, he lay awake for nearly three hours before a noise from above woke him from his pseudo-sleeping; Whoever it was, was perhaps four and a half feet tall, give or take and inche either way, not very heavy and female by the way they walked. Tag traced thier progress through the halls on the cieling before turning to the stairs to face them once they appeared, they didn't get that far. Something happened, by Tag's reackoning, either this person picked up something heavy, or they transformed into something bigger, heavier, still not that heavy though, and still female. Tag was ready to greet Washu from the bottom of the stairs, when a light illuminated the space before him. A familier face appeared at the top of the stairs, familier to Tag anyway. This person held out thier hand, and Tag took it; The two disappeared. "Young prince, why have you come to this time? You don't belong here, not yet at least." Tsunami stroked Tag's cheek with the back of her hand. Tag turned away. Tsunami was slightly shocked but understood. "Tsunami, I had to come, something changed, I was shifting when I came across-" Tag stopped, then gazed at the tree to his right. Tsunami brought his head around slowly to meet hers. "Tagatashi, you can't interfer with time." He stared in to her eyes, she gave him a smile, then ran her hand down his neck to his shoulder. "Tsunami, I don't know why, but this is meant to be, otherwise I wouldn't have interfered. I know, I know-" "I Know she wasn't meant to die there, and she would have if I hadn't come!" Tsunami grinned then pulled Tag close to her, embracing him even though he did not return the gesture. "Is there another reason..." Tsunami whispered in his ear while staring out of the one-way hull of the mighty ship that bore her name. "I never could lie to you, could I." Tag pulled away and placed his hands on her hips while she still had her hands clasped shut behind his neck. "I came to see him, if he always really..." he looked away- "If he always what?" As Tag turned away Tsunami's words bore into the back of his head. "I can't talk about it right now Tsunami, good bye my goddess..." With that Tag vanished into telaportation. Ayeka stood before her father, mother and Lady Funaho; "Ayeka, whats going on, are you marrying Tenchi or not?" Azuza interagated Ayeka as if she were a prisoner. "Ayeka, if the wedding is still going ahead, it has to be today, or tommorow, otherwise we will have to celibrate Startica here, and you wouldn't be able to be wed until after the festivities." Funaho was a beakon of calm through the emperors words. Ayeka's face brightened up as she heard the word 'startica'. She had hoped that they would stay for Startica on Earth after the wedding and the prospect made her depression waver. "I do not know when I will marry Lord Tenchi, if at all, something has come to light and I.." She paused, a smile on her bowed head crippled her words. "Speak up Ayeka!" Her fathers strong words and the sound of Misaki's hankerchief ripping as she pulled and bit at it, awoke her from the coma; "I, I would like you all to stay on Earth for Startica, I was hoping to ask you after the wedding, but..." Misaki and Funaho smiled at each other and Azuza stared between them. "If I had my way, we would leave now, but I fear.." He turned to look at Misaki, eyeing him with a twich and evil intent. he snapped around and smiled; Azuza darted down to his daughter and bowed profusly. "But we're definatly staying here, how long would you like us here?" "A month?" "A year?" "oh for heavans sake please just say a day before Jurai has to be relocated!!" "Just until Startica is over and the wedding is resolved, ok.." Ayeka looked at Misaki, who's eyes were shining, and then at Funaho how was dierly shocked. Azuza snapped up and coughed, before turning and walking up the steps to his thrown; "Very well, but we leave straight after we resolve the issue." Azuza smiled at Funaho, then at Misaki, who before he could jump ran to him and pinned him to the floor in a hug. A large sweat drop appeared above Ayeka's brow, and she turned and hurried away. As the only way to have a proper discussion in an imperial cruiser full of noblmen is in the dead of night, Ayeka silently crept through the bowels of the great ship and then she, accompanied of course by her guardians telaported off the ship and down to the Masaki household garden vis the correct tree. Tenchi awoke in his bed when he heard something below him, he lifted his top half out of bed, but exclaimed at the burn on his neck. As he dabbed it with his finger he thought about the fight, how even when he thought of the tiny ammount of time before Tag put his fist through one his lighthawk wings and defeated him, he still couldn't will up the same aggression or competativeness. He stared up at his cieling wondering what was missing, as he thought, something moved in the corner by the door. As he focused on the black blob before him, he winced at it, soon he reckognised the spikey hair and slendor figure of Ryoko, he assumed she was watching him, but was soon overtaken by her tiredness. He got up and moved Ryoko to his bed, then he spralled a blanket down on the floor and tried to go back to sleep. "Always on the floor..." He murmered, before pulling the thin sheet over himself. "How did he manage to breach the wing?" His ponderant thinking seemed to be echoed the sky, which blackened rapidly, only to be broken like glass by a ray of sunlight encroaching upon it domain. As morning broke, Ayeka gazed at the onsen, it was a glowing beakon in the dark, and the water run off's steamed in the dawn light. As she started to nod off, Taro began to cry; He had been sleeping next to Sasami, even though he was three years old now and had a younger sister he still behaved like a baby, and craved Sasami's attention the same way Ryo-ohki did. This did lead to a few fist and claw fights, but all was resolved once Sasami stepped in. Ayeka picked up Taro and carried him out on to the balcony across from her, she shut the door quietly to let her sister get some rest before she had to start on breakfast. Taro shrieked as Ayeka put the heavy little boy down on a small wooden table. Ayeka thought she had better try and quiet him down, her resolution was to cover his mouth lightly and tell him to calm down; Taro went blue and Ayeka released her grip franticly appollogising to him as he grabbed at her hair and kicked out. "Come on Taro, now be a good boy and a fetch you something to eat.." Ayeka pleaded with the small child, but Taro just kicked harder. "Somebody save me from this terror in terri cloth!" She quietly screamed out to nobody in particular. As she wrestled a lock of hair away from Taro, who found this very amussing and pulled harder, Taro whipped off her head ornament and tossed it across the deck. She nearly hurled the brat in to the lake; as she grabbed at the air her head piece was caught in the nick of time by Tag, who was accending through the roof in the kitchen. "Is this yours' lady Ayeka?" Ayeka crossed the boards and accepted her most treasured possesion thankfully, but as she began to say something she questioned Tag's presence. "What are you doing here? It's half past five in the morning for heavans sake!" Tag cringed as Taro shrieked louder as he hopped over the rail. "Well, I heard a baby crying and I came to see what up, I see its no baby but he sure is mad, mind if I take a look, miss Ayeka?" Ayeka re-adjusted her head ornament, nodded then put her nose up at Tag. "What would a brash heathan like you know about small chil-" Ayeka stopped in mid-complain as Taro's crying came to an abrupt stop; as she turned around she regarded Tagatashi pulling faces at Taro and popping small energy bubbles that exploded like miniture fireworks, as Tag continued his show Taro broke into a smile then he began to giggle and clap. Ayeka was taken aback, she had nothing to say, she girgled slightly then sat down on a small chair that accompanied the table Taro was sitting on. "How...how did you....." Ayeka was lost for words as she watched a person labbled viscous tyrant in her book, pull faces and entertain a little boy with ease. "How did I what?" Tag was edging about the subject, cautiously thinking about how Ayeka could turn all of this against him; Ayeka recomposed herself, in the way princesses tend to do, and fixed her kimono to speak. "Why do you have such a way with young children, mister Tagatashi? Tag picked up Taro and floated him in to the air, slightly spinning him clockwise about the table. "Well...." Tag thought, pondering what information to give out; "Well....." Ayeka broke his quiet consideration and broke off her own bemusment as to Taro's present state of floating. "Well what?!" The princess eyed the man in black before her and questioned him like her father had questioned her a few hours previous. Tag faultered in his thinking, and gave up on his 'need-to-know' idea. "Well... I have children of my own, so you kinda' get a nack'" Tag thought a second then gave a proud smile to Ayeka who was, to say the least amazed; As Ayeka stood on the deck, like a pillar of stone ,the door to her right opened and Sasami entered, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and shuffling about in her bare feet; "Ayeka, have you seen Taro? I was-" Sasami froze as she saw the not-so-little boy floating and enjoying himself a few feet above her head. As she tried to speak a gasp overtook her words and she sprung into a fully awakened state. "How did he get up there?!" She turned to Ayeka who just shrugged then fell back into the chair; Sasami spun around to face Tag who was perched like some giant blackbird on the rail, he was making circle movements with his index and middle finger, Taro's spinning mirrored the revolusions. She thought about the fight, then at how happy Taro was, being light as a feather. Sasami decided that Tag was alright, she smiled then went inside to fetch Taro's sister, Kyoko. "So miss Ayeka, are you looking forward to the begining of Startica this evening?" As Tag circled Taro, who had had too much exitment on an empty stomach and fallen asleep, back on to the table he looked up at Aykea who was sitting, more relaxed, staring into the orange hued' blue sky, she began to speak. "You know of Startica?" She spoke, but never took her eyes off the glorius vision before her. "Yes, its my favourate celibration, I like the 'Night and Day' festival most of all, a whole night of decorating the tree's, and then a whole day of relaxation before the acual Startica starts.." Tag gazed up at the sky, mirroring Ayeka perfectly. Ayeka broke her gaze and stared at Tag; "How do you know so much of it, I have never heard of a non-jurain celibrating Startica-" "That's a whole different story princess..." Tag grinned to no one in particular and phased through the floor. Ayeka glared on at the point where she last saw a dark shock of hair vanish into the beach wood floor; With that Sasami reapeared- "Where'd he go sister?" Sasami was a little dissapointed and it was conveyed in her tone. Aykea stood up, looked out across the water once more then picked up Taro and ushered Sasami and Kyoko back inside. Tag drifted through from the kitchen, ducking once to avoid the doorframe, and accending slightly above Misaki, who insidently was still clutching Shinjiquo so hard he had spent most of the night trying to squeeze out of her ample bossom, which is no easy matter. As he came to where most of Tenchi's earth relatives had been asleep last night, he noticed Tenchi at the door, appologising profusly to his aunt and several cousin's; "I'm very sorry about all the fuss, we'll let you know if and when the wedding is reschedualed!" He had began in a normal tone, but half way through his sentance they started walking away; "It's alright Tenchi, say good bye to you're father, and if the wedding is back on any time soon, get in more sake!" His oldest cousin had always liked parties, almost always because thats when the good stuff came out... A large sweat drop appeared over Tenchi's head and he bowed before closing the door. "I sure hope they like Washu's cake..." Tenchi pondered for a moment; "I didn't think you could erase jurai ships and people from someones memory without taking away the lot, even if you were the 'greatest scientific genius in the universe'..." --------------------------- (Meanwhile....) "Auntie.." "yes?" She replyed to her sisters son. "Where are we?" As the croud of eight scanned the scenery, a bird whistled a familier tune and we return to the Masaki household.... --------------------------- "Oh, good morning Tenchi, sleep well?" As Tenchi swung around to meet the friendly sentance, he jumped at the sight of Tag, holding a half empty glass of orange juice and an apple with a big bite mark on it. "Oh...It's you....Ta- I mean Mr.Tagatashi..." As Tenchi's words faultered the burn on his neck seemed to stab at his throat. Tag watched him jab and poke at the scared skin before making a decision... "Look, the name is Tag, k. Now sit still.." As Tag phased his breakfast out of view he moved closer to Tenchi, who reluctantly backed in to a wall. "Come on ya big baby'" Tenchi started toward the staires but was caught by the neck in mid-flight, Tag brought him to the wall with a thud. As Tenchi scrambled and kicked out, he noticed the look of contempt across Tag's face, then realised he wasn't being strangled, merely heald; Tenchi put his feet back on the floor as a strange feeling radiated from the point on his neck where he had glanced the beam sword in the fight. Tag gazed at his right hand around Tenchi's neck; A faint glow eminated from where his hand, and Tenchi's neck met; "How's that?" Tag took his hand away and glanced over his work. Tenchi put both of his hands around his own neck, and felt nothing unusual at all, no dry skin, no flaking, burnt fleks, nothing. "How did you- Why did you- Huh?" Was all he could manage. "You're welcome.." Tag messed up his Tenchi's dark hair, then walked casually over to where his breakfast had materialised on the sofa. Tenchi, was bemused, completely. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok... sorry to stop there but my computer is having a nervous breakdown... anyway... I would greatly appreciate any comments or complaints you may have, you can of course send them to: Mochi_man_uk@hotmail.com the chapter didn't get as far as i wanted but oh well... Next chapter: 'Distrust in the Tree's...' Thanx for reading, please read the next....