Copyright 2002 by Steve Robinson, All existing Tenchi characters are copyright Pioneer AIC. The character Ryeka is copyright 2002 by Steve Robinson (me) Disclaimer - Look, it's a fan fic, so don't get bent out of shape. I thought up this idea a while ago, so I'm unabashedly pirating the Tenchi universe and bending it to my own nefarious purposes. I haven't read the millions of lines of existing a fan fic, so I can't say for sure that no one else has written this story line, but if so, well great minds and all that. I am sure that if Pioneer and company refrains from suing me, so should you. Besides, I wouldn't be listening anyways, la la la.... This fic is posted in its entirety at http://www.viciousbunny.net/ ------------------------------------------------------------- Thicker than Blood Chapter 13 Tomokon pressed a special button on his armrest. It was preprogrammed to transmit on a very special wavelength directed into trans-dimensional space. "Milady!" he sputtered. "It's Tsunami, she's here!" In space, the giant white spaceship Tsunami had completed her entrance into real space and was passing through the renegade Juraian fleet, firing ray after ray at the ships. For their part, the Juraians seemed to appreciate they stood no chance against the First Ship, and were fleeing in all directions. Suddenly, on the other side of the fleet, space began to shimmer. A large silver mist seemed to appear. The nebulous matter swirled and condensed. Forms and shapes appeared. A ghostly temple phased into existence. Arches and buttresses started from nothing and went nowhere. Rivers of blue water flowed off into space. At the center, a giant tree with its roots exposed appeared. All around floated the debris of civilizations that Tokimi had plundered for resources as she made her way from exile back to the dimension of Earth and Jurai. Giant black shadows rose up from the ruins, stretching across space and blotting out the stars. The shadows seemed to form the illusion of a celestial hall. At the head of the hall, Tokimi herself materialized. Her violet irises floated on blued eyes, her face was painted with emerald patterns. The figure was enormous; it seemed to stretch up from behind the Earth to the moon, though that was just an illusion. Behind Tokimi were two other shadows, profiles of two women. They gave the impression of something missing, something absent. Tokimi's ruby lips twisted into a smile. "At last!" her voices echoed through the minds of all the beings that beheld her. "Revenge will be mine! I will take your power, sister, and grow stronger." A translucent hand appeared to reach out of the swirling mist below Tokimi's face. The hand stretched a thousand miles across space towards the once sided battle that Tsunami was waging. Tomokon watched with anticipation. This was it! In Tomokon's warped mind, he envisioned final moment where Tsunami would forever lose her reign over Jurai. Tokimi's tree would takes its place as the life source of Jurai, and as a reward for his service, he, Tomokon, would be made the first Emperor of the Age of Tokimi! The Jurai power would be granted to him alone! He watched raptly as the Hand of the Goddess closed around Tsunami. The hand, however, seemed to miss. Tokimi's smile turned to a grimace of rage as she tried to grasp at the white ship! "Ahhhgggggg!" she screamed, causing the bridge crew of Senzo to fall to their knees, clutching their heads in pain. "Tomokon, you fool! This is not Tsunami! This is a phantasmagoric shadow! An illusion!" Tokimi howled and tore at her hair. "You have been tricked into drawing me out too soon! Find her! Find Tsunami before it is too late!" Tomokon stared at the screen. He tried to ignore the wailing Goddess who seemed to exist in vision only, not in form. She was unable to connect to Tsunami? No, it wasn't Tsunami? What then? He'd seen the First Ship before, and swore it was the same ship that was before him. Who else could it be? The display screen blurred with an incoming transmission, then cleared. It showed the figure of a tall woman with porcelain skin and dark, forbidding eyes. She was clad in a pitch black uniform with her blond hair cascading down around her shoulders. Behind the woman were the Juraian knights, Asaka and Kamadake. The woman spoke. "I am Yugi," she said to the collective gasp of Senzo's bridge crew. "Some call me the Abomination, some call me the Avenger. I was made as a weapon for Jurai, and now I serve that purpose by opposing this renegade fleet. I and these two noble warriors of Jurai will now execute justice against those who have betrayed their Empress, and have betrayed the love of the First Tree of Jurai, Tsunami." The white-pseudo Tsunami seemed to spasm and flex. The white superficial shell that covered the ship splintered and flew away in all directions, revealing a different spaceship underneath, black and forbidding. Long spidery legs reach out from the ship and sunlight barely reflected from its surface like distorted black pearl. Particle beams, red this time, not white, surged from mandibles and cut into the nearby warships. "I will spare any who run away, or who surrender immediately. All others will perish!" All around the monstrous black ship, demons and wraiths appears from nowhere and began attacking the Juraians ships. Many ships turned and fled. Some fired upon Yugi and the wraiths. Tomokon opened a channel to all ships. "Stand your ground! All of you! This isn't Tsunami, which means she isn't invincible! Fight her! Destroy this mutant abomination! Her only power is that of illusion! We mighty warriors of Jurai banished this evil creature thousands of years ago and we can do it again!" Tomokon grabbed his executive officer that seemed on the verge of fainting from fear. "Get a hold of yourself you coward!" Tomokon slapped the XO hard across the face and threw him over the command chair. "Take over here and destroy that ship! I am going to deal with the Empress and her pet once and for all." Tomokon dashed from the bridge as the space battle began in earnest, all against the background of the enraged Tokimi, who was helpless to do anything in this dimension except scream and claw uselessly at the ships. Ayeka held her shield around Ryeka as Ryeka blasted ball after ball of energy at the soldiers. Some soldiers seemed to have made shields of crystal against which Ryeka's assaults did nothing. The effort seemed to tire Ryeka, who had to stop periodically, seemingly to recharge. Fortunately, Ryo-ohki's claws were there to make a lethal physical attack against the soldiers. Blasting and slashing, the trio plunged down the corridors to the heart of the ship where the holds were. Outside the hold where Ryoko was being held, Ryo-ohki didn't bother with the control panel but dug her claws into the giant door and pulled. Ryo-ohki seemed to grow as her muscles rippled and bulged. The bulkhead bent and groaned under the strain. With a deafening roar, Ryo-ohki wrenched the doors off their mountings and hurled them aside. Inside the hold, a squad of soldiers stood between the intruders and the hanging crystals. For a moment, nobody moved. Then Ryeka, Ryo-ohki and Ayeka gave a war cry and plunged into the midst of the soldiers. The closer Tomokon got to the holds, the more destruction he saw. Blood and torn bodies littered the corridors, evidence of Ryo-ohki's fearsome strength. Blast marks and melted steel gave tribute to the energy blasts from Ryoko's brat. Tomokon paused to scoop up a blaster and a crystal shield from a dead soldier. As he approached the hold, her heard the sounds of a dying battle. Crouching outside the door, he peered inside to see Ryo-ohki tossing aside a Juraian soldier like a rag doll. Ryeka and Ayeka were standing before the crystals, staring up at the encased prisoners. Tomokon slipped into the hold and pointed his blaster. "Don't move!" he growled. The three women spun around. Tomokon turned the blaster power to high and pointed it at Ryo-ohki. "Don't move, now! You caught my soldiers by surprise, but I have the drop on you! I'll blast you if I see even one hair of your fur move the wrong way! And don't you try to raise your shield, Empress. If you move your hands at all, I'll fire" Tomokon grinned and giggled like the madman he was. Ryeka made to form a fireball, but Tomokon raised the crystal shield! "I said freeze, you little bitch! You are too weak to hurt me, but I can kill your friends if I want to!" "What is it that you think you can accomplish, Tomokon?" Ayeka asked, calmly. "What is it you want?" "Tsunami!" Tomokon snarled. "Where is she? She was supposed to come herself, not send her little pet mutant!" Ayeka smiled with the news that Yugi was running amok among the Juraians. When she had found that Yugi was traveling as a companion to Sasami (probably why Sasami kept such a wide berth of Jurai), Ayeka had conceived the plan to use Yugi ability to create phantoms and alter reality to trick Tomokon. "Tsunami is otherwise engaged at the moment, I'm afraid. She sends her regards, but declined your invitation." "No, impossible," Tomokon sputtered. "The Goddess... must have Tsunami's power, only Tsunami can bring her back into this universe!" "All of which Tsunami is perfectly aware of, you fool," Ryo-ohki growled, waiting for Tomokon to drop his guard for even a second. "Did you really think she would fall into your trap? She guessed immediately that it was Tokimi who was controlling you and what she wanted. Face it, you failed." Tomokon took an unsteady step towards Ayeka. "No, I have won. I have won! Tsunami is out there, watching, waiting. I'll destroy you and her mutant friend and she will have to come out. She'll never let you come to harm." Ryeka slowly turned and walked over to the crystals. Tomokon tracked her with the blaster. "Where do you think you are going, weakling? Trying to free your Mommy and Daddy? You couldn't save them before, and you won't save them now." Ryeka turned to face Tomokon. She was standing underneath the crystal arch that had formed between her parents. She reached up and placed her hands on the crystal. "Do you know why I am so weak, Mister?" Ryeka asked softly. "It's because I have no jewels to store my energy when I am not using it, like my mother has. Those gems are batteries really, storing up energy. Kind of like this giant crystal here." The crystal that held Tenchi, Washu and Ryoko began to glow where Ryeka touched it. "No!" Tomokon cried and fired the blaster at Ryeka. Ryeka's eyes flashed with energy and the blaster bolt seemed to bend away and dissipate. "Think about it," Ryeka continued. The orange glow was spreading outwards from her hands throughout the giant crystal. "Think about it, this crystal right now has stored up all the energy that my mother and father have expended every day since you captured them." "Stop!" Tomokon croaked. He was paralyzed with fear, unable to speak or move. Ryeka's eyes closed to deadly slits. "I wonder what would happen if I released it all at once?" >From the surface of the Earth, Kiyone and Kaji thought that the sun had suddenly gone nova. They shielded their eyes against the light and heat as they took shelter behind the wreckage of their escape pod. In space, the sphere of pure white light roiled outwards from Senzo, shredding giant ship and tossing all the other ships about like leaves in hurricane. Even Yugi's projected ship was turned and spun in the waves of pure Jurai energy that were spreading outwards from the explosion. Only Tokimi was unaffected, or not adversely at any rate. In fact, the Goddess seemed to drink in the energy as it washed over her. Her form grew richer, more solid as she used the massive explosion's energy to finish her transition into reality. At the center of the explosion, the shockwaves faded away to reveal a shimmering light, bright and pure. A slowly fading six bladed Lighthawk Wings spun around, creating a shield around Ayeka, Ryo-ohki, Tenchi, Washu and Ryoko. The group slowly opened their eyes, discovering that they were unhurt. But, that wouldn't last long, for the protection of the Lighthawk Wings was fading and already the pocket of air was hissing out into space. "Ryo-ohki, hurry, she can't hold it much longer," Ayeka urged. Ryo-ohki began to transform as Ryoko frantically started looking around. "Ayeka, she's gone!" Tears of fear and panic flooded from Ryoko's eyes as she clutched at Ayeka. All reason had vanished from her in fear for her daughter. "My baby Ryeka, she's not here!" As Ryo-ohki folded and grew around them, Ayeka held the sobbing Ryoko. "She is here, Ryoko, she's all around us. Look!" Ayeka pointed. The six-bladed Lighthawk wings shrank as it spun and fluttered to the deck of Ryo-ohki's cabin. The others gathered around as the Wings lost their form and collapsed on themselves, forming a glowing sphere. The sphere faded, revealing the unconscious form of Ryeka. Tenchi and Ryoko fell to their knees and held their limp daughter frantically. "She's alive but unconscious," Washu said, already tapping away at her trans- dimensional console. "The poor thing is completely depleted. Amazing, she transformed herself directly into the Lighthawk Wings, exactly the same way Tsunami does. Six blades, too! She is stronger than Tenchi and Ryoko combined." Ryoko was slowly rocking back and forth on her knees as she held Ryeka. Tears pattered occasionally onto the child's pale face. "We are always greater than the sum of our parts," Ryoko whispered. "Why shouldn't our children be greater than the sum of their parents?" Ryoko looked imploringly at Washu. "Mother, help her. Please, please tell me she'll live, make her be all right." Washu tapped at her keyboard. She seemed at first unable to suppress the emotion that welled up in her. "She is fine, my darling daughter," Washu said, huskily. "She is already starting to regenerate her power." The relief was palpable as Ayeka knelt down to take Ryeka's hand. Suddenly, Ryo- ohki was tossed violently around. The hull shuddered and groaned. "Oh, people," Ryo-ohki's mechanical voice spoke up. "I'm sorry to interrupt your little love-in, but we have a major problem." Outside, the now material Tokimi was looming over the Earth, eyes flashing with smoldering anger. In one hand she held Ryo-ohki, in the other Yugi's phantasmagoric vessel. "Tokimi is real," Ryo-ohki reported, "and she is very large and in charge."