Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo is the property of Pioneer and AIC.  Only the 
story belongs to me, and I can always blame that on the Voices!  Anyway,
please don't sue, or I won't be able to afford my daily ration of ramen
soup.  Anyway, on with the fic!   WARNING: This is a DARK fic.

Things Fall Apart, part two: Pieces Broken
By Cori Jordan

	They filed back into Washu's lab.  Ryoko was numbed by what 
she'd just seen.  The first place she'd ever called home was completely
destroyed.  "Somebody's gonna pay for this." she muttered, and no one 
contradicted her.  She swayed on her feet; revenge or not, she *had* 
just come out of a month-long coma.  Ryoko tried to steady herself 
before the others noticed, but Tenchi had already seen it.
	"Ryoko, maybe you should go back to bed," he suggested, 
gallantly taking her by the arm to keep her upright.  
	"I'm fine," she demurred, shaking her head.  That was a 
mistake.  The injudicious movement caused a wave of dizziness to roll 
over her.  She leaned gratefully into Tenchi's support, smiling weakly.
"Then again..."
	Washu looked concerned.  "Back to the bio-bed with you," she 
ordered.
	Ryoko stopped for a moment.  "Washu..." she began, then 
stopped.  "Mom, do you suppose you could make my room here, like you 
did with the living room?"  She hesitated again.  She hated to admit to
her fears, but constantly being surrounded by black abyss bothered her 
more than a little bit.
	Seeing the problem immediately, Washu agreed without argument. 
A bit of familiarity in their surroundings would probably do them all 
some good.  "It will take a few minutes, but I think I can do one for 
each of us, if that's what you want."
	Sasami's eyes opened wide.  "Washu," she squeaked, "do I have 
to sleep alone?"
	Instantly Ayeka and Tenchi were both kneeling next to the 
frightened little girl.  "Of course not," Ayeka soothed.  "You can 
sleep anywhere that you want to."  The elder princess looked at the 
others.
	"Absolutely!" said Tenchi and Ryoko in chorus.  Washu nodded as 
well.  She realized that the child probably didn't like the blackness 
all around her either.
	The whole time Ryoko had been unconscious, the little girl had 
slept on the couch or on the floor near Ayeka or Tenchi, no matter 
where they were.  It surprised all of them that they hadn't thought of 
re-constructing their own rooms.  
	"Can you put the real house back together, Washu?"  Sasami 
asked.
	"Not yet, Sasami." Washu said gently.  "The people who hurt 
Mihoshi are probably still there, and until we know more about them, 
we're going to hide."
	"Oh...Okay."  The child looked crestfallen.  Then she yawned.  
Ryoko did the same moments later.
	Washu noticed.  "If you two can wait a couple more minutes, I 
can get one room set up, and when you wake, the rest of it will be 
here.  Okay?"
	The space pirate and the young princess smiled at each other. 
"Sounds real good, Mom." Ryoko said.
++++++++++++
	Ayeka had been just a little bit hurt that Sasami preferred to 
sleep in Ryoko's room for the first few nights, but after all, Ryoko 
had saved the little girl's life.  Ayeka had been quietly observing 
the various changes in the others.  Ryoko was sitting on the rafter 
beam, staring into space and chewing on her bottom lip, Washu was in 
the next room working on her console to adjust some kind of scanner, 
Sasami was staring intently at the new Ryo-Ohki egg, and Tenchi was 
napping in one of Washu's floating chairs.  Ayeka sat in the living 
room of the simulated house, watching and thinking about each person 
in turn.  
	Ryoko had mellowed considerably, at least in regards to the 
rest of the group.  She almost never glomped on to Tenchi, she was 
warmer to her mother, becoming a close friend to Sasami, and 
surprisingly, to Ayeka herself.  They certainly didn't exchange deep, 
dark secrets, but there was no more hostility and Tenchi walked around 
with a relieved expression most of the time.  The former pirate had 
even exchanged her outrageously revealing costumes for jeans and a 
T-shirt.  Ayeka could tell that Ryoko was still enraged about what had 
happened, though.  
	Sasami had been traumatized by the events.  First she and 
Ryoko were nearly killed, Ryoko went into a coma, Mihoshi was dead, and 
no one really knew why.  The little blue-haired girl was terrified to 
be alone and she carried around a lot of guilt.  Ayeka knew that 
Sasami felt that she was responsible for Ryoko's injuries, and that 
nothing they had done or said had removed that shadow from her eyes.  
Sasami also grieved heavily for Mihoshi, who had been more like a 
child than a competent GP officer.  The two had been good friends.  
Ryo-oki's egg was close to hatching, though, and Ayeka hoped that the 
cuddly little critter would help Sasami out of the depression that she 
was in.
	Washu was more or less the same, although she also carried a 
load of guilt.  She had watched the alien ship attack Mihoshi, and had 
been unable to act.  Ayeka could tell that it hurt the genius 
scientist even though she seemed to be the same.  Her maniacal laugh 
was almost never heard anymore, and her constant proclamations that 
she was the Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe had stopped 
completely.  Washu's eyes held the same rage that Ayeka had seen in 
Ryoko's, and that was bad.  One just didn't piss off a person like 
Washu and get away with it.  Ayeka guessed that when the identity of 
their enemy was found out, things were going to get *ugly.*  Ayeka 
didn't mind a bit.
	The First Princess of Jurai's wandering thoughts brought her 
to Tenchi.  He too seemed much the same on the outside, but much had 
changed in his attitude.  He still didn't play any favorites between 
the girls; he was caring and respectful and kind to everyone.  His 
relief about the end of the Ryoko-Ayeka war was obvious, though.  
Ayeka was a bit surprised at the change in him; she hadn't realized 
how their little fights affected him.  The fury was there in his 
liquid brown eyes, too. <like I said,> thought Ayeka.  <Things are 
going to be ugly for the bastards who did this.>
	Her own thoughts of violence and vengeance surprised her.  
Ayeka couldn't remember *ever* having been this angry in her life, 
not even when she and Ryoko had met up on Earth.  <Have I changed, 
too?> she wondered.  She knew she had.     
	The princess was a bit discomfited to think about how much she 
and Ryoko had in common now; but it didn't bother her for long, not 
when she looked at the freckled face of her precious younger sister.  
Her animosity had faded almost entirely when Sasami had been pulled out
of the wreckage, shielded by Ryoko.
	"It's moving! It's moving!"  Sasami's excited voice echoed 
across the space, breaking into Ayeka's reverie.  
	"I thought it would be soon," commented Washu, entering through
a side door.  The entire family gathered around to watch the egg as it 
rocked frantically back and forth.  Cracks appeared and mewling could 
be heard from within.  A very short time later, an ecstatic Sasami was
cradling the furry animal while sitting on the couch.  It was eerie--
the resemblance between this scene and the one that happened a lifetime
ago when Ryu-oh had crashed onto the Earth.  Ryoko, Ayeka and Tenchi 
all exchanged glances as they all recognized that fact.  Then their 
attention went back to the pair on the couch, as they heard a familiar 
"miya!"
+++++++++++++
	The older members of the group gathered in Ryoko's room to 
discuss what was going to happen next.  For the moment, Sasami was 
content to stay downstairs with Ryo-Ohki after vehement reassurances 
that nothing would happen in Washu's lab as long as she kept Ryo-Ohki 
with her.  Ryoko and Washu both had established mental contact with the
cabbit and would know if anything happened to Sasami.  Ryoko, Washu, 
Ayeka and Tenchi were deep in conversation, but still kept their voices
down to avoid upsetting the pair downstairs.
	"You mean they haven't showed up at all?" Ryoko asked, chewing 
on her bottom lip.  It was a habit she had picked up after the incident.
	"Not a sign, but it's possible that my sensors and scanners 
aren't able to detect the metals they use, or left over traces of 
whatever it is they use for fuel."  Washu's face was very serious.  "I 
have to be honest.  Nothing here is familiar.  No known race uses those
types of ships.  I'm not even sure if it's a race at all.  For all we 
know, it wasn't a ship at all, but a new type of space-borne life 
form."  The others made sounds of disbelief.  "I mean it," said Washu. 
"We know so little about the situation that I can't afford to rule 
anything out."
	"Do you think that they're still out there?" Asked Ayeka.
	"This was an extremely well planned attack,"  Washu answered.  
"Judging from the kind of attack, they've probably been watching this 
place for a long time.  They managed to take out the only visible exit 
from the planet: Mihoshi's ship.  They knew how to lure her off planet,
they knew where she launched from, they seemed even to know what kind 
of people lived here."  She held up a small vial of reddish-brown 
liquid.  "I discovered that this chemical is a biological agent that 
is inimical to just about every carbon-based life form in the galaxy, 
but it seems to have been engineered to shut down certain higher body 
and brain functions in those who use high-energy, non-external 
cerebrally manipulated output."  After one full round of confused 
looks, the diminutive scientist clarified. "The Jurai power in the two 
of you," a look directed at Ayeka and Tenchi, "and Sasami; as well as 
your shield, lightsword, any of your powers, Ryoko."
	Washu sighed.  "I'm afraid that we are being targeted by 
extremely well informed, highly advanced enemies here, kids."  After a 
moment, she added, "and I'm not sure they meant us to be killed."
	Ryoko was puzzled.  "What do you mean, Washu?  That chemical, 
or whatever, you said it nearly shut me down completely!"
	Washu nodded. "That's what I thought until I looked a little 
closer.  The chemical itself merely put your powers out of action at 
first, then it stayed in your system to keep you down, but it did 
eventually cycle itself out, allowing your powers to resurface.  
The reason you were so badly hurt was because this" and she held up the
vial again, "shut you down at a very dangerous moment.  Most of your 
injuries were what a normal human would sustain in a similiar situation."
The scientist frowned.  "I think that whomever made this stuff made it too
strong.  Its structure suggests that it's an incapacitation agent, not 
designed to kill; but the tests I ran on it say that if it had gotten into 
any of you others, it would have killed you."
	Ayeka gasped, and Ryoko shuddered.  Her memory of exactly what 
happened wasn't that clear, but she had a very vivid picture in her 
mind of the metal shard as it punctured her arm and stopped mere inches
from Sasami's flesh.  Ryoko resumed chewing on her bottom lip. She 
became aware of the others looking at her.
	"What?"
	Tenchi wordlessly handed Ryoko a clean handkerchief.  Without 
even noticing, Ryoko had bitten through the skin and drawn blood from 
her own lip.  "Thanks," Ryoko murmured as she cleaned herself up.  
There wasn't much blood, but it did make her stop gnawing on herself.
	Tenchi cleared his throat.  "Washu, did you manage to contact 
Dad and Grandpa?"  Nobuyuki had gone to Tokyo for an architectural 
conference a few days before the incident, and Yosho had accompanied 
him to visit some of the shrines in the Tokyo area.
	"I spoke to them shortly after this happened and warned them 
not to return until we knew more. I also tried to talk to them 
yesterday, but I haven't been able to reach Nobuyuki yet." Washu 
answered.
	Tenchi frowned. "I hope Dad's all right."
	"Your dad can take care of himself, Tenchi." Washu assured him.
	"Maybe he found a date," suggested Ryoko with a smile.  Tenchi 
blushed slightly, then nodded.
	"Could be."
	A red light abruptly began to flash as a warning bell rang out.
Ayeka, Tenchi and Washu leapt to their feet.  
	"Washu, what..."
	Tenchi was interrupted by Sasami bursting into the room and 
rushing in. "Ayeka!"  She sobbed as she clung to her older sister. 
"What's happening!"
	Everyone looked at Washu, who was typing hurriedly on a 
holo-console.  "Someone is coming towards us." She paused.  "One 
person, human."  Her brow creased with concentration, then cleared 
slightly.  "It's Nobuyuki!"  A few more keystrokes and the klaxons and 
lights ceased.
	"Thank god!" muttered Tenchi.  He looked at the others.  
Both Ayeka and Ryoko were trying to calm Sasami down, and Washu still 
looked a little worried.  "Well? Let's let him in!" Tenchi said.
	Washu hesitated, then nodded.  "All right."  She had seen with 
her scanners that it was indeed Nobuyuki, but there was something wrong
with him.  Something in the genetic fingerprint wasn't matching up, but
she would be able to find out what momentarily.
	The group gathered in the open space where Washu had the 
dimensional portal that usually led to Tenchi's home.  For safety's 
sake she had left the door unconnected, so that no one could just walk 
in from the other side.  She was in the process of reconnecting it--and
taking some other precautions as well.  The whole thing had a very 
uncomfortable feel to it, but it might just be perfectly understandable
paranoia.  Better not to take chances, she thought.
	The doorway appeared, and they could hear Nobuyuki knocking on 
it.  Washu walked up to it and opened the door.
	There stood Nobuyuki, just as he'd always looked; trench coat, 
briefcase, umbrella.  His face was pale as he looked around at the 
devastation of his home, and he was unable to speak.  Washu waved him 
in.  He entered with his shoulders slumped and his head hung low.  
Tenchi looked at him in sympathy.
	"It's all right, dad," he said. "we'll put it back together 
someday."  Tenchi reached out to put his hand on his father's shoulder,
but Nobuyuki simply sidestepped it.  A little hurt, Tenchi said, "All 
right.  You're tired.  We have a room for you, why don't you get some 
sleep?"  Mutely Nobuyuki followed his son, trailed by the others.
	"Poor guy," Ryoko said.  "He looks like he's heartbroken."
	"Yes," Ayeka agreed.  "Well, that is the house that he and 
Tenchi's mother shared for so long."
	Washu said nothing.  She followed Tenchi and his father to the 
room that she had set up as a spare, or in case Sasami was able to 
sleep alone.  Nobuyuki simply went in and closed the door without 
saying a word.  Heartbroken or not, why wasn't he speaking?  Was he 
ill?  Well. The red-haired scientist didn't want to seem overly 
suspicious or paranoid, but it was nearing bedtime, so she could find 
out later.  She did, however, put an invisible force-screen on the 
door to Nobuyuki's room without mentioning it to anyone.  This 
scientist wasn't going to be careless and idle and maybe watch another 
friend die, she said to herself.  Once is enough.
	"Well, I'm going to get some shut-eye too," Ryoko stated.  The 
space pirate had been doing combat workouts every day lately, for hours
at a time.  Her period of weakness had convinced her that she never 
wanted to be in that position again, therefore had resolved to keep 
more in fighting trim, so to speak.  She floated off towards her room.
	The others were tired too, and started to go their own separate
ways.  Ayeka was slightly surprised and a little relieved when Sasami 
began following her instead of going with Ryoko this time.  It hadn't 
really bothered the older princess, but she missed her sister's 
presence at night.  In minutes, everyone was settled down for the 
night.
++++++++++
	Sasami stood on a gray, featureless plain.  It stretched on 
and on, forever with no relief.  She was alone.  She *hated* to be 
this much alone, and she whimpered.  Suddenly a hill rose up in the 
plain before her and shaped itself into a wall. A scene played across 
its smooth surface.  She saw herself, standing alone. suddenly a door 
opened behind her reflection, and a shadow reached through and dragged 
her into blackness.  Sasami screamed in chorus with her reflection.  A 
voice boomed overhead; a woman's voice, and gentle, but impossibly 
great.  "This must not be."
	Again Sasami was faced with a reflection of herself, but this 
time it was no image.  Two identical Sasami's faced each other on that 
vast plain.  There was a wrenching, a sickening feeling of being 
shoved and pulled at the same time.  Then stillness again.  Sasami saw 
with terrified eyes that she was now the reflection.  The girl screamed
again, echoed by her doppelganger.  "AYEKA!"

	"Sasami! Sasami, are you all right?"  Ayeka was trying 
desperately to wake her sister who was thrashing and shrieking in her 
sleep.  Suddenly the little girl cried out Ayeka's name and opened her 
eyes.  The two looked at each other, both of them shaking.  Sasami 
burst into tears.
	Ayeka pressed her little sister to her, trembling with 
reaction.  When Sasami had first cried out, Ayeka had jerked into 
wakefulness; sure that she would find her sister being attacked by 
someone.  She was slightly relieved that it turned out to be only a 
nightmare.  Those she knew how to deal with.  "Shhh...It's all right." 
Ayeka whispered as she stroked Sasami's hair.  "Just a dream...Just a 
dream."
	Slowly Sasami's tears dried, and the shaking was calmed.  
"I'm o-okay n-now," the little girl stammered.  She sniffled, then 
tried to get up.
	"Where are you going?" Ayeka asked.
	Sasami looked a little confused for a moment. "The bathroom?" 
She said.
	"Oh."
	"Um, Ayeka?"
	"Yes?"
	"Which way is it?"
	"Huh?" Ayeka asked, puzzled.  Sasami knows where it is, she 
thought, then remembered how Sasami's dreams affected her sometimes. 
"I'll show you."
++++++++++++
	Washu was awakened by a loud hammering on her door.  She 
raised her head from her console; she had fallen asleep looking at 
scanner readings again.
	The banging continued. "Geez, gimme a minute," Washu mumbled 
sleepily.  She opened the door on a very upset Tenchi.
	"Why did you lock my dad in his room?" Tenchi demanded.  That 
brought the scientist completely awake.  
	"I did it for a very good reason, Tenchi, and I can show you 
why."
	"I'd love to hear it."  Tenchi was angry when he found that he 
couldn't get into his father's room to wake him for breakfast.
	Washu gestured for Tenchi to follow her to her console and 
brought up a display of two DNA strands.  She pointed at the one on 
the left.  "Tenchi, that's your dad's genetic code, and that's how I 
knew that it was him last night. But," she continued, "That's not 
exactly what my scanners picked up.  I recognized the sequence right 
away, but when I analyzed the actual data, I found this."  And she 
pointed to the display on the right.
	Tenchi looked from one to the other, unable to see any real 
differences.  Then Washu changed the display again.  "This is the 
genetic code I found last night, and this is the trace I found on 
Mihoshi's ship."  She tapped some keys.  "If I run a certain trace 
analysis against both of them..."  On the screen, the word 'MATCH' 
flashed in red.
	Tenchi was horrified.  "What does it mean?"
	Washu's face was grim.  "I'm not sure yet, Tenchi, but I put 
that  shield up last night because I knew something wasn't right.  At 
worst, I was being paranoid and I could apologize, and at best, I was 
stopping one of our enemies from killing us in our sleep.  I had to be 
sure."
	"You don't really think that my dad is...one of them, do you?"
	"Like I said yesterday, we can't rule anything out."
	Tenchi still looked uncertain.  Then he squared his shoulders.  
"Let's go find out for sure."
+++++++++++
	Ayeka, Ryoko and Sasami were sitting in the living room 
finishing up their own breakfasts. It was a breakfast cooked by some 
of Washu's bots, since Sasami had said she didn't feel up to cooking 
just then, but it was adequate.  They had just deposited their dishes 
in the kitchen when Washu and Tenchi entered the room.  The tension 
was immediately apparent.
	"We're going to check on Nobuyuki, want to come?"  Washu asked, 
her voice conveying a sense of how concerned she was.  The others 
quickly agreed and followed.  
	As they walked down the hall towards the spare room, Ryo-Ohki 
met them as she was going the other way.  Sasami jumped back behind 
Ayeka when she saw the furry creature.  "What's that?" Sasami asked, 
sounding a little afraid.
	The others exchanged puzzled looks.  Ryoko walked over to the 
young cabbit and picked her up.  Ryo-Ohki miya'd happily.  
	"It's only Ryo-Ohki," said Ryoko, bringing the little creature 
closer to the girl.
	"Ryo-Ohki? Oh, yeah! Ryo-Ohki!" And Sasami's smile returned. 
She took the cabbit from Ryoko and cuddled her close.  Ryo-Ohki miya'd 
again.
	Everyone was concerned, but they continued towards Nobuyuki's 
room.

	They stood outside the closed and locked door and Washu 
explained the situation to the others as she had to Tenchi.  Then, 
bringing up her holo-console, Washu typed in a few commands.  The 
force-field remained, but the door to the room disappeared.  They 
stared in shock at the man inside.
	Nobuyuki sat in the corner of the room, knees drawn up to his 
chest.  He was trembling and rocking back and forth, muttering.  He 
spoke his own language one moment, and then began to cry out in a 
strange, bestial, almost animal language the next.  His face and body 
seemed to be covered in scratches and his clothes were badly torn.  
His eyes were blank with a wordless, unendurable horror.  Suddenly he 
screamed; a piercing, lost sound.
	Everyone outside the room jumped at the sound and watched as 
the man in the room began to tear at himself with his fingernails as 
though trying to remove his own skin.
	"Oh my god," whispered Tenchi, stricken.  "What's wrong with 
him?"
	"I don't know,"  Washu winced as Nobuyuki shrieked again, then 
he shrank back into the corner, whimpering and shaking like a broken 
animal.  "The only thing I can come up with is that somehow he's been...
touched...by whatever it is that's after us."
	"T-Ten-Tenchi?"
	Everyone looked in surprise at Nobuyuki.  He ddn't really look 
any different than he had moments ago, but there was a sense in the air
that he was *awake.*
	"Tenchi, a-are you there?"
	Tenchi nearly walked directly into the force field.  Washu 
grabbed his arm and shook her head.  "Talk to him, but don't go in 
there."
	"I'm here, Dad."  Tenchi knelt at the edge of the barrier.  
"What's wrong with you, Dad?  What happened?"
	Nobuyuki moaned.  "I shouldn't h-have come here."  He began to 
cry, but it was human weeping, not the wailing of a cornered beast as it
had been before.  "W-why didn't I li-listen to you, Washu?"  abruptly 
the crying stopped, and he sat up. "They want me to go and tell them 
where you are," He whispered in a frantic tone as he edged towards the 
door.  "They want me to open the door for them.  They want...no...No!  
I won't do it. I won't do it! I WON'T DO IT!" His voice rose with each 
repetition, then trailed off in a half choked gurgle.  Nobuyuki 
retreated to the corner again, his hands covering his face in a 
defensive posture, and resumed muttering.
	The group stood in silent shock at the transformed man before 
them.  The good-natured man who had welcomed them into his home, no 
matter how much trouble they caused had become a wild and confused 
creature.  He wept and begged someone to help him like a frightened 
child, then he screamed and began to claw himself again.  They all 
turned their eyes away, unable to watch.  Except for Tenchi.
	Tears flowed freely down Tenchi's face as he watched his father.
"Why him?" He asked in a cracked voice.  "He's never done anything..." 
His head dropped and he buried his face in his hands.
	Ryoko knelt beside him, putting one hand on his shoulder.  
Ayeka and Sasami stood at his right shoulder.  Ayeka also put one hand 
on his shoulder.  They remained like that for a few moments, then 
Tenchi was able to raise his head.  When Tenchi spoke, his voice was 
steadier, but his eyes were ravaged.
	"Can you help him, Washu?"
	The scientist had been considering that.  She replied, "I'll 
have to know exactly what happened to him.  Do remember the device I 
used to check Ryo-Ohki's memory when the Mass escaped?"  Ayeka and 
Ryoko nodded.  "I can use that to see if I can find out who 'they' 
are."  Washu prudently put the door to Nobuyuki's room back in place. 
"If Nobuyuki can still break himself away from whatever it is that's 
invading his mind, then there may be hope that we can separate the two,
and destroy the invader."
	"Do it."
+++++++++++
	Washu's bots bound the man into the chair and placed the cap on
his head.   Nobuyuki had lapsed into muttering again, but human 
language was heard less and less.  He looked pitiful and frightening at
the same time with his black hair hanging in his eyes, his face covered
in blood and contorted into an expression of constant pain and fear.  
His glasses had been broken during the night and he looked younger 
without them, and that seemed to make it even worse.  His shirt was all 
but rags from his frantic tearing and clawing, though his trousers 
were more or less intact.  Every bit of exposed flesh had self-
inflicted claw marks, and most of them were either bleeding or recently
scabbed over.  But his eyes burned with both madness and hatred.
	"Is this going to hurt him, Mom?" Ryoko asked, averting her 
gaze from the struggling man.  The little group sat in some of Washu's 
floating chairs, pointed at the screen.
	"It won't hurt him physically, and the procedure itself won't 
hurt him mentally.  But he will in essence be reliving certain events, 
and if what happened then was traumatic..."  She left it hanging.  They
knew the answer.
	Washu brought up the screen and her control panel and began 
typing in the appropriate commands.  The screen turned black, then red.
Washu 'hmm'ed a bit in thought, then typed in a sequence that should 
block any input from the foreign agent that had invaded Nobuyuki's body.  
	Slowly the red faded, and what looked like the interior of a 
bus appeared.  It was dimly lit, for it was approaching full 
night outside.  The view shifted to peer through the front window.  
The bus was approaching a wall of black fog.  As the bus passed into 
it, the blackness swallowed even the interior lights, plunging the bus 
and everyone on it into darkness.  There was the sound of rending metal
and screams.  The scene on the screen was punctuated by Nobuyuki's 
scream as he sat bound in the chair, reliving that first jolt of fear. 
	A few moments later, the scene changed abruptly to a dim chamber 
with black metallic walls.  Strange creatures stood nearby with what 
were undoubtedly weapons held at the ready.  From Nobuyuki's point of 
view, the watchers could see that the people from the bus were huddled 
together, being forced to kneel on the floor in a tight knot.  
	Through Nobuyuki's eyes, they saw the driver with a heavily 
bleeding head wound, a mother with a small child who couldn't be more 
than a year old.  There was also a young couple who clung tightly to 
each other, the girl hiding her face against the boy's shoulder.  An 
elderly man stayed close to the mother and child with a helpless look 
of determination on his face.  By his expression, he would do whatever 
he could to protect the two, but doubted that there was anything *to* 
be done.  Nobuyuki moved closer to the young couple, trying to calm 
them down.  The gaze of Nobuyuki met that of the old man.  
	In the chair, Nobuyuki whispered, "They're so young, they're 
so young, why them?"  His voice made Washu and the other's jump.  They 
had been caught up in the drama unfolding on the screen, they had 
almost forgotten the man who's eyes they had been looking through.
	The view shifted again to study the captors.  No two of them 
looked alike.  There was one with scales as large as plates all over 
its body, but it didn't look like any of the reptilian species any of 
them had ever seen.  It stood on four short stocky legs and held its 
weapon in a third pair of limbs while a fourth hung at its sides. 
	The second seemed to be a large, round, grey ball stuck on top 
of two multi-jointed legs, and it had no discernible features.  Two 
multi-jointed arms also radiated from it, and held some kind of weapon 
trained on the knot of terrified humans.  
	The third looked more familiar; almost humanoid, but also very 
strange.  It had blood-red skin and was hugely muscled.  However, it 
was perfectly smooth and without hair, and it's head was a smooth 
cylinder with three slits showing its glowing red eyes.  What could 
only be a mouth hinged open momentarily, showing glistening black teeth.
	"Impossible!" Washu whispered.  Questioning looks were directed
at her.  "There's nothing like those...things in my xeno files.  They 
don't exist!"
	Presently, a fourth creature appeared on the screen.  It was 
human shaped--that is, two arms and two legs. It was vaguely rodent-
like, with short fur over it's entire body and quivering whiskers.  
But the whiskers were on its arms, and the eyes seemed to be on it's 
shoulders; it didn't appear to have a head at all.  It carried no weapon,
but stood observing the captives for a moment.  Then it raised an arm 
and pointed at the mother and child.
	From the chair, Nobuyuki cried out "No!  Not them.  Take me!" 
as he relived the situation.  
	On screen, the furred creature turned it's attention towards 
Nobuyuki, who had moved closer.  Then the arm came up,and pointed 
directly at Nobuyuki.  He was picked up bodily by the smooth-skinned 
red creature and carried away from the group.
	Moments later the watchers in Washu's lab saw Tenchi's father 
being stripped to his shorts and having his arms bound to his sides and
his legs bound together.  He was placed in what looked like an 
elongated bowl; long enough for a very tall man, with deep sides.  At 
the end by Nobuyuki's feet, there seemed to be a pipe of some kind.  
The 'bowl' began to fill with a clear liquid.  It filled completely 
with Nobuyuki's body floating on the top.  Suddenly there was movement 
in the liquid.  Nobuyuki tried to lift his head to look down at 
himself to see what was happening.  There was something else coming 
out of the pipe. At first it looked like a red fluid, but it wasn't 
dispersing.  It moved with purpose and deliberately grasped his bare 
foot.  He struggled and kicked, trying to get it away, but it began to 
flow over his entire body.  Nobuyuki screamed again, but his cry was 
cut off as the *thing* covered his face and the screen went red, then 
black.  
	Then they heard a voice through the speakers that were 
transmitting the scene that they were watching.  It was Nobuyuki's 
voice, but spoken as if deep under water:
	"This. one. will. lead. us. to. those. we. search. for."  It 
spoke haltingly, as though unfamiliar with speech.  Then it spoke again
in an unknown language.  
	The screen went black again, then gray.  It was over.
	Nobuyuki had passed out in the mind-scan chair.  Tenchi and 
the others exchanged stunned looks.  Washu commanded her bots to return
the unconscious man to his room, then slumped back in her chair.
	"I had no idea."  Washu shook her head.  "I've *never* seen 
anything like that.  It shouldn't even exist!"
	"What do you think it is?" Asked Tenchi with tears in his voice.
The way his father had given himself up to try and save the others had 
touched him deeply.
	"I don't know for sure, but judging from its actions and its 
effects, I would have to say that it's some kind of parasite, possibly 
even a symbiotic life form.  I'll have to do some tests to be sure."  
Washu looked at Tenchi.  "I'll do whatever I can, but I can't promise 
that I'll be able to separate the two."
	Tenchi took a deep, shuddering breath, then nodded.  "Just try, 
please."
	Ryoko and Ayeka looked at each other, then both got up and led 
Sasami back to the 'house' part of Washu's lab.  The little girl hadn't
watched the screen, but had kept her eyes shut tightly the entire time.
++++++++++
	They were gathered in the living room after dinner that same 
night.  It had been a simple meal prepared by Washu's bots.  No one 
spoke much.  Ryoko challenged Ayeka to a game of chess, more to be 
doing something then by any desire to play.  They decided to play Earth
chess, since neither of them had much experience with it and it would 
be a more even match.  Ayeka even managed to get Tenchi to agree to 
play the winner.  He seemed almost grateful for the distraction.  Soon,
the three were deeply involved in the intricate game.  Sasami sat 
nearby, watching idly, and Washu was off running tests on the blood, 
hair and skin samples she had taken from the unconscious Nobuyuki.
	"I think you're in trouble, Ryoko." Tenchi warned.  "If you 
move that piece, she can checkmate you in three moves."
	Ryoko and Ayeka both looked confused.  "You sure about that?" 
Asked Ryoko.  "I don't see it."
	Ayeka peered closer at the board.  She had had the feeling that
it was the other way around, but...Ryoko moved the piece anyway, and 
suddenly Ayeka saw it.  The game was quickly finished.
	Ryoko scowled as Ayeka knocked over her king.  Then she smiled.
"You're pretty good, Princess."  Ryoko had noticed that with the the 
constant arguing over Tenchi gone, Princess Ayeka turned out to be a 
likable person.  "Looks like you're next, Tenchi."
	Tenchi was setting the board up for the next game when Ayeka 
jumped up.
	"Where's Sasami?!"

	Sasami had gotten bored about halfway through the game and had 
wandered off to explore the lab.  She was hopelessly lost and nearly in
tears.  Ryo-Ohki was perched on her shoulder, but didn't know her way 
around either.  Sasami lifted the little creature from her shoulder.  
"I think we're really lost, Ryo-Ohki."  Then an idea came to her.  
"Hey, can you find Ryoko or Ayeka?" The cabbit miya'd an affirmative.  
"Great!  Go get 'em!"
	Ryo-Ohki bounded away.  It might be a good idea, thought Sasami,
but now she was even more alone.  She was starting to get scared.  What
if something happened to her?  Who would come and rescue her then?  The
little girl was began to panic. She was desperately searching for 
something familiar in the dark when she caught sight of a room just 
ahead.  It had a sliding door just like the ones in the Masaki home, so
she rushed towards it.  Glad to find something familiar, she pulled 
open the door.  
	She stopped just before she crossed the threshold.  It was the 
wrong room!  She was face to face with Nobuyuki.  He grinned wickedly.  
Sasami turned to run, but the hem of her dress had crossed the one-way 
barrier. Before she could get away, he had caught hold and jerked her 
into the room with him.

	Washu's alarms went off.  Something had just crossed the shield
of Nobuyuki's room!  At the same moment, Tenchi, Ryoko and Ayeka rushed
in saying that Sasami was missing.  Washu didn't even stop, she just 
ran to Nobuyuki's room, immediately followed by the others.
	They reached the open door in time to hear Sasami scream.  The 
same red fluid they had seen in Nobuyuki's memory was already creeping 
over Sasami's body.  She screamed again as it crawled up her neck; then, 
it reached her face.  The little girl slumped to the floor.  In a split
second, the red fluid was gone, as if it had been absorbed by the 
child's skin.
	It had only been a total of ten seconds since Washu's alarms 
had gone off.  Ayeka screamed.
	"*SASAMIII!*"	

------------
	Well, there you have part two.  I know it's a tad disturbing, 
but, well, I'm a tad disturbed!  hehehe.  Once again, thanks to my 
proofreaders John and Samm for technical advice and encouragement.
John, log off and start your own story, dammit!  Anyway, PLEASE send
C&C to Celtic_Wolf@excite.com . I'd just like to know if people read
it!  Thanks for reading!
-Cori Jordan