(Part Twenty-Two - No Need for War: Part Two) I had just finished emplacing the last clasps to my new Juraian sash; a part of my new attire, one befitting a Juraian noble... something that still rings of uneasiness... when I saw Tsunami come in... Accompanied with a wolf whistle... she sure had been on Earth while... I noted her attire had changed as well.... from her normal full regalia, to a pure white Juraian combat uniform.... made me sweat a bit.... All Tsui did was kiss me... I think she felt the same too... A warning tone rudely interrupted our... pep talk... and I grasped my Key in one hand, and Tsunami's hand in the other... and we walked to the main control center.... Tokimi and Bruinuae met us halfway... Tokimi making sure we understood that the procedure would work... that we would have the advantage... and so on and no... adfinitum it seemed.... I was more nervous about her constant need to make sure that we knew all this... almost like something bad WOULD happen... Tsunami just kept Tokimi talking to herself about it... just to satisfy her Sister... Upon reaching the bridge... I noted that the main projected globe; three dimensional no less... showed a whole LOT of dots on it... set in two colors... blue for our forces... gray for the enemy... or Dark Juraians... considering the nature of the enemy we faced... Kagato had met that assessment of description with less than enthusiasm... more like object animosity... As well as the reasoning that Kagato would not join us for the main assault on the palace... not wanting Kagato's past to become a weapon against us against Mulhorand... reason enough to worry considering the old battle near Earth proper.... as well as events would prove... I also noted that we had a three to one advantage... my first suprise of the coming battle... Azusa noted that the Battle of the Horse Nebula had took a good portion of the Dark Juraian's assets against us... And that they had moved in haste and with unrealistic hopes... according to Lord Kosihito... Tenchi interjected that Mulhorand was hoping we'd act slower... Funaho then injected the information regarding the resistance cells, at the moment many in number... were awaiting our main strike... I was loathe to make them wait any longer.... Except for one last bit... and not a small one to be sure... I had told the Sai`Hon Tree to send to the Yagami my tool for assaulting the palace... The exchange of a few bewildered faces told me that it was time to show off something new... That something came on the beam of light centered on the link pad I had created on the Yagami; within it... with most of the others gathered...the Sai`Hon Tree itself... a dimensional portal... with a guesture from my Key... I had the Tree send a large pillar beam, within that beam... my secret weapon... A large set of Juraian Armor, easily twice the size of a six foot humanoid... the opitime of the first age of Jurai... and the partial reason for it's downfall.... A piece of equipment, formed of living Jurai wood skin, and abridged with semi-organic ceramics. it flowed from it's shoulder cowls, a overlapping set of white capes... It also was attuned to the wavelength of the Trees, using their power to enhance their combat prowess.... With the price... one that cost much life energy of the Trees given the responsibility of powering their attacks and defenses... unlike the current Treeships, that have Tree's grown from them, not needing the give their powers to an external source... This was the weakness of the old civilization... one that destroyed it... from within... Because of the Armors.... a set of one hundred and fifty made; they slowly drained the life energy from a set of the weaker Trees, allowing dark energies to emplace themselves into the victimized Trees... corrupting at least fifteen Trees before Tsunami was able to act... this was the reason Mulhorand came into being.... the same as Tsunami; taking physical form for a specific purpose... Not one for the betterment of all Juraians... as witnessed with the implosion of an entire old Juraian enclave of some one million plus; for nothing more than to satisfy dark whims... Tsunami's shed tears led to the second exodus... and my ancestors self-imposed imprisonment, to keep the survivors; at the end... less than 20%, from being tracked by the dark lord. The genocide of old Jurai had been THAT bad... all because Mulhorand was uncontrolled and unrelenting in his vicious and bloody passions.... All because my ancestor had suggested creating the Armors... unaware of the consequences... making the imprisonment more logical in Sai`Hon's mindset... Now... two eventfully tragic decisions would be settled with one final set of Armor... one that now had three Gems inserted into the wrists and the head protrusion... as well as from my own power base... risking death to end this tragedy was little consequence to me..... This I told to the others... I noted the look of fear in the eyes of the Juraian members of the family... I think they could feel the tragedy the Armor represented... then I saw Azusa's eyes... and confirmed this from the only other person in our group to have witnessed these events.. And with that... it was time... for the final battle. The Yagami was pointed to an angle... one supposed to have the ship pointed point blank at the subsumed orbital defense platform control station... a part of Tokimi's plan... It was strange, most of the ships pointed at empty space; rather than towards Jurai... and with that... the last decision... Emperor Azusa, Lord Tenchi, Lord Yosho, Father, Assentu and Kamasian; Azaka and Kamadakye; Emperor Fenganis (To my suprise) and myself; would storm the palace using Nagi and Ken-ohki.... Tsunami and the goddesses would conduct the battle proper from the Tsunami unit... This ended our preparations... and with a dragged breath... I told all aboard... that it was time to ensure that the future of the universe was secure... a few words of encouragement... and a promise of celebration with a butt load of sake`... then everyone awaited my order... Jump.... I have to add one thing... remember Maymay's suggestion? Well... it consisted of transmitting a directed virus signal via Washu's preeminent genius; and the Yagami's interspace hotline unit... overpowering every Dark Jurai vessel with pictures... of... well... Let's say Juraian's are NOT used to the red light district of Paris... MUCH less so for the Dark Juraian's... As the signal hit the Dark Juraian lines... I felt a MASSIVE amount of confusion, as well as less than savory thought processes... the effect was VERY effective.... VERY VERY effective... Hence our cue... And.. heh... to add the second thing... Tokimi's idea worked... at the cost of my stomach for a few seconds... as well as for every other non- deity in the attack fleet... almost killed our advantage from the signal broadcast... But Kiyone acted quickly... taking out the defense platform immediately... literally forty meters infront of the Yagami... nearly soon after; much of the Dark Juraian forces were taken out... as Tsunami led Achika, Tokimi and Gaia behind the palace assault party... the Armor already waiting in Ken-ohki's morphed form... Ryo-ohki off to the side... Ryoko acting as our escort... having been there before... As Azusa was less than fond of reviewing... But... before the team boarded Ken-ohki... Tsunami fearfully yelled my name... pulling me into a deep kiss, one to make sure that I came back to her.... I only returned the kiss; letting events be my answer.... I then reluctantly tore my lips from hers... and announced with my deepest conviction... we would all make it back... The last thing I saw as Ken-ohki's doors sealed, was Tsunami's eyes... one with a tear... The Ken-ohki launched away from the Yagami, and it turned towards the main battle, a huge maelstrom of lasers and detonations; with the screams of dying warriors and shipcrews all about in my mind... I turned our attentions to the decent... with Ryo-ohki racing in front it's beloved cabbit vessel... acting as a deflector, doing it's job well... blazing a trail through the now defunct Magical Force Field barrier, past the atmosphere; into a barrage of floating spiky units, ejecting smaller versions of itself at us... Nagi had Ken-ohki begin to make vicious maneuvers; evading by the hundreds... the massive enclave of defenses... The chase was furious, noting that the defense was accompanied with more conventional ground emplacements, thundering massive showers of beams at us... The fire was becoming furiously intense, and the floating defenses didn't let up.... much less, it got worse as we approached the palace... Suddenly Ryo-ohki took a heavy hit to it's center, then we we're hit with multiple shots at once, causing Ken-ohki to skid the surface of the ground.. We made it past the first main perimeter, as we regained access to the sky, but Ryo-ohki wasn't in sight anywhere... Then we hit the second line... The intensity of the fire was so bad, Nagi considered abandoning the attack... lacking the conviction that Ryoko tended to display... this I used as motivation right back at Nagi... it got the desired result... not one I was proud of causing.. Nagi had Ken-ohki fire off a stand off beam, razing much of the ground defenses; and breaking a partial hole through the second line... But it didn't help with the third line... and we had about bought it... As the intensity of the barrage nearly overcame us... salvation... First... Ryo-ohki reappeared, striking the third line lengthwise with it's most powerful beam... Second... the Soja's main cannon fired at both the third, fourth and fifth lines; the shock of the attack staggering our foes.... Finally... Tsunami unit commenced orbital bombardment of the last three lines in our path... it's good to have friends in high places... VERY high... you know... high? I... uhh... anywho... As the defenses dropped in intensity... I then saw the first glimpse of the Jurai palace in the distance... one BUTT-kicking Tree I still must say.. And I saw it then... Tsunami... she.... made a reminder... of the way old Jurai was... I knew to what depths she loved me so... this solidified my heart to the task at hand... And I simply walked over to the Armor... morphing it around my form, letting the power of the construct become a part of myself... my engrossed extension of my vendetta against Mulhorand... I then took my first glimpse from the extended visor of my sight... I could see all about, I could see... all sides of myself... and I saw... we had arrived... The last vestiges of the overbearing defense was a group of Dark- Juraian constructs... warped humanoids, and the beasts from the attack on GP HQ; as well as a few assorted annoyances.... nothing our Juraian dream team couldn't clear out... Tenchi noted... this was different from the last time he was here... much more vicious and determined was the defense... considering the fact that no one was supposed to be able to harm the Emperor of Jurai... even to the extent that the fake shadow of Kagato assumed that he was as invulnerable... causing the lack of guards and troops under those circumstances.... it became apparent... that Mulhorand didn't follow that tenant... I could sense... a vulnerability to Mulhorand from this one fact... I intended to employ full force on this matter.... starting with the guards... This we began with saying our good-byes to Ryoko and Nagi... again with my heartfelt thanks... Ryoko bet me a bottle of Sake` we'd return by the time the sun set... and with that... we left off.... I shall still say one thing for Juraian architecture... HUGE!!!! plain HUGE!!! The hallways, alcoves, tapestries, light filters, transport tubes, the works... heck, the only thing not huge was my sense of smallness in such a titanic structure.... and that it was the SAME as from old Jurai... from my memory archive... the same... vastness.... Despite the distraction of the hugeness of the place... I kept focus on the enemy... which began to number more, taking much advantage of the space given.... it took much of our combined skills to just reach the first main transport tube... the Dark Juraian constructs being of numerous quantity... almost a repeat of the race outside just to get here... We were NOT wanted... not one bit... As we made the transport tubes, we split into two groups... Tenchi with Yosho, Father, and Guardians: Azaka and Kamadakye; and myself with the rest... It took several uses of shield power to fight off the enemy, using less than fair means to destroy the tubes themselves... but we made proper of ascent... reaching the main floor for the palace... dark and foreboding long... our split groups reached the bare safety of openness... I always did have a bit of a claustrophobic streak... especially in tubes being bombed... Then the second wave arrived... and I had had enough... and I let my Armor do the talking... shredding the enemy with growing anger at being so obstructed with so much force... I then unleashed my Avatarhawk wings... adding it to my fury... But I wasn't alone.. I noted the others using similar waves of assaults; feeding off my fury... taking down by the scores... hundreds of Dark Juraians... then wasting of so many also saddened me... but unfazed as I had to be... I continued until the constructs simply ran out of ones to send... Talk about your righteous fury!!! I simply felt dirty in having to conduct such tactics.... As we gathered ourselves... something happened.... I felt myself... draining... I became aware.. that our links were about to be cutoff!!! Azusa... Yosho... Father.. the Guardians, fell to the wayside.. having so much invested in their links.... they were about to become victims of it... Only Tenchi, and Fenganis were unaffected... Moreso... I felt Tsunami draining.... then I knew... Mulhorand... had begun siphoning into our beloved Trees... a repeat of the tragedy on old Jurai... I SCREAMED IN UNFATHOMABLE FURY.... and the Gems kicked in... showering us all with... Jurai energy? ...yes... Jurai energy... but... not just that... Fungesian... and... and... total energy... the base of energy that Jurai and Fungesia existed upon... the energy that gave the universe existence... a unnamed energy that made us truly one with the fabric of the universe.... this energy told me this much... like it was talking to me... It was this energy that made the theory of the Jurai and the Gem linked... and it gave Azusa, Yosho, and the Guardians new life... and a final nucleonic fury sear in me at that moment... And I simply lead the team on the last long stretch to the center... no opposition, obstacles... nothing... except my own doubt... evaporating with each step forward... then we reached the main throne room door... the source of the manipulation I sensed..... I, Tenchi, and Azusa shoved the door open.... High above... I.. saw... it... him... the thing that haunted my dreams... threaten me in my ignorance; in the place reserved for the true king... the Emperor that sat the true majesty of the throne, now defiled... The figure... it emanated pure dark energy... if there is a connection between "pure" and "dark"... this was it... Dressed in blacker than black Jurai Warrior's robes and cape... clutching a strange and twisted staff, literally excreting dark waves of energy wisps, it was stabbed into a glowing port.. Azusa announcing the link port from the Hall of Tree's; the Alcove of the Generation's... I could feel the life being stolen... The finger of hatred pointed a crooked finger at me.... and repeated: "{{~ Destiny will Die... ~}}" I erupted in return... "YOURS!!!!" Then Mulhorand spoke in guttural and archaic tones... speaking of how much Mulhorand waited for this day.. the day to see me expire... to rectify my ancestor's interference with finishing the job started on old Jurai... On how much he wanted so badly to finish the genocide begun, and how much he wanted to take my beloved Tsunami.... and dissect all of her secrets from her anguishing shell... With as much pain as could be physically and spiritually manifested.... The above is only a summary... the real words tore at my sensibilities with the need to silence the demon.... and I was about to attack the evil incarnate... When the unthinkable happened.... Kagato crashed the party.... Ryoko in tow.... Then the word... student.... escaped Mulhorand's yellowed toothy maw... Kagato announced out loud that he was about to avenge centuries of enslavement to Mulhorand... A secret I would never truly understand.... because Kagato began attacking Mulhorand rashly... The force of several focused beams nailed Mulhorand... and we stood aghast when Mulhorand emerged unscathed... then fired a lethal dark beam of some kind, straight through Kagato's chest... And then fired a strange dark energy into Kagato's sagging mind... as well as Ryoko's unintentionally, using power not even gods could stand to see... I the midst of all this... I had ended up near the base of the throne pedestal, quite below the main level.... and saw as much as anyone... the enslavement of two minds... making two powerful enemies of friends... a sickening circle to witness... Almost with split second intensity, Mulhorand siced Kagato and Ryoko upon us... not even Tenchi was safe from Ryoko now... The first phase of the real battle had begun... Mulhorand assaulted me, blade upon my Armor mega-Key blade; and the others under severe duress from Kagato and Ryoko... the full fury of such frightening power turned upon the light... This continued for a good bit, as Mulhorand used such anger against me.. I became unnerved for a moment... not ever being exposed to such hatred... such... evil... direct to the no less extent of hatred over the vast expanse of time... Blow after incredibly vicious blow struck down furiously upon my jittered blade... Making sure I couldn't use any power to help my friends; as well as knowing, I held the only key keeping the others alive... it was becoming a rout; nearly crushing my spirit with every blow.... Then Mulhorand mentioned Tsui and his plans for her... intent on breaking my spirit... the opposite effect... and my first real attack against Mulhorand sent him careening back all the way to the Throne level proper.... And then Nagi joined the fray... a few minutes and a knot on her head behind... straight at Ryoko.... This distracted Mulhorand long enough for me to reach the main platform, and SLAM one of the Armor's arm's into the breached Tree siphon port... sealing it with the last energy the Armor could muster....ashing the Armor all around me... but sealing the breach back closed... the Gem's having done their job... This had the secondary effect of rupturing the link Mulhorand had over Kagato and Ryoko, in a flash of plasmatic Jurai energy.... dropping them heavily to the ground... Tenchi switching from attack to helping Ryoko... crying for her to awaken.... Kagato fell limp... Azusa and Yosho to his side... I then barely missed being impaled by a blade stab; facing Mulhorand, as he hovered barely a meter and a half away... I quickly flashed my Key to life... both blades humming in fury.... I locked my eternal destiny of vengeance into Mulhorand's black eyes... I noted the arrival of other voices... Mulhorand did as well.... Mihoshi and Kiyone, Ayeka and Bruinuae, finally the Grand Marshal with Funaho, Misaki, Mother, and Rosusn.... a collective gasp upon seeing the evil Avatar of darkness for the first time... as well as a realization... Everything had boiled down to a single duel... the way all old scores and destinies are settled.... by the blade, and the conviction... and I had Tsunami's love to power me... Mulhorand... did... not.... And for that... Mulhorand showed cowardice... suddenly porting out of the chamber... I howled his name... And as the others howled in kind into the empty space vacated.... I felt him... Tsunami... you old dog... she had repulsed him into the Hall of Trees... trapping the fiend.... This I announced to the gathered.... Azusa responded in kind... to take the left turbo lift past the main door... As I reached the main door... a collective group of encouragement... as well as a plea from Kagato... a wish for forgiveness, and a wish for me to finish the job.... I grasped my fellow member of my family... as pledged upon my blood... it WILL be so... I turned... reached the door... looked back one last time... and raced off... Key and heart in my mind as the only weapons needed... I raced into the darkness.... the deep darkness created by a destiny of sadness, hatred, fear, and destruction... I raced into the heart of all that drove my life to become the Avatar of Life, Power, Genesis, Destiny, and Knowledge.... to destroy the Avatar of Entropy... Down a tube, off to the left... down a serenely calm hallway... past several doors... into a emerald lighted hallway.... down to the same set of doors... the ones that started all this... I placed my free hand on the door... This was it.... (End Part Twenty-Two)