DISCLAIMER:

This story is based off of the Tenchi Muyo! anime series, produced
by AIC and released by Pioneer Anime America.  All characters
from said series are the property of such.  The characters Hikaru
Moriyata, and any Argelians (which will be discussed in a later
chapter) are the product of the imagination of Dennis Carr, and
belong to same.  The character Trakal, insofar as he is
developed, is the intellectual property of Karmin St. Jean.

The persons and many events in this fanfic are fictitious.  Any
resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any event other
than what has obviously happened, is a coincidence.

Any military or police procedure outlined throughout the fic does
not necessarily depict any real life procedure or scenario.  Any
similarity to real life procedure/scenarios is, again,
coincidental.

Tenchi Muyo: Unfinished Business

A fanfic by Dennis Carr and Karmin St. Jean

Chapter 1:8 - Redemption

November 1, 1998

Much to Hikaru's surprise, activity carried on almost as normal
between the two units.  This, however, precluded the fact that
Aeka wasn't there to interrupt, taunt, or otherwise chew out
Ryoko, who in turn had an air of melancholy about her despite the
current lack of competition, Washu had been outside of her lab
less frequently, Trakal had made it a habit to drop by for a
couple of hours a day over the course of the week (and had in fact
managed to catch up on some sleep), and Sasami, while still the
seemingly tireless pre-teen, exhibited a little bit of caution
around Ryoko, and a little more around Aeka, on the occasions when
she would carry water to her sister, who downright refused to
leave the closet, except for those occasions where she would have
to take care of personal business, as it were.

On the other hand, Ryoko was still there to indirectly administer
a shot of adrenaline to Tenchi, Sasami was still preparing food
for everybody (less frequently, however, as the habits of take-out
had settled in), and Mihoshi and Kiyone...well, they hadn't
changed much.

Hikaru had watched the Draalthi, who had been known for his
tireless efforts in the Galaxy Police seemingly perpetual war on
crime. To see him in a state of exhaustion, sound asleep, was,
frankly, unheard of. It was amusing to think that a little baby
had managed to do the one thing that some of the most dangerous
criminals in the universe had not:  wear down Operative A.

Okay, so things weren't so normal after all.

---

23:10 PST

"*Watashi-wa tada hitori mada ikiteiru.*"

This line rang through Aeka's mind as she closed the binder.

She had spent the past five days inhaling the contents of Moby
Dick - an impressive feat, considering the average reader would
generally take somewhere closer to a year.  Consider though that
Aeka is several hundred years of age, even if one takes into
consideration the time she spent in suspended animation.

*I was the only one left.*

All because some idiot named Ahab was crippled while hunting down
what wasn't necessarily meant to be hunted by him.

Aeka closed her eyes, let her head land on the wall behind her,
and let out a sigh.  The easiest thing to do would be to blame all
her troubles on Ryoko - but why?  There was no real need to. Check
that, there was a need *not* to.  This was the woman who could
nearly drink *Mihoshi*, of all people, under the table, but aside
from that, this was the same woman who, on more than one occasion,
lended her very *life* to the cause of defending just about
everybody they lived with.  Including herself.

On the other hand, she had once laid waste to her home planet, was
loud, obnoxious, rude, lazy, and a general all-around pain in the
ass.

On the third hand, well, how else would one behave, if they were
under the complete control of a megalomaniac, and then further
imprisoned for several hundred years, probably never having any
contact with anything that one would consider good for all that
time, up until being inadvertently released by a high school
student whose curiousity got the best of him?  She thought about
it for a moment.  She seemed almost...childlike.

And then there was the issue of this boy Tenchi.  It was clear
that she had *probably* been putting too much pressure on him to
decide - almost as if her very life depended on his decision.

*Well, okay, maybe it *kind of* depends on it.*

But then she considered something else - Tenchi, while being one
eighth Juraian royalty, simply wasn't where she was from.  The
very idea that he was a *prince* of all things was flabbergasting
to him, even if he was now somewhat used to the idea, but then
there was the matrimonial aspects of royalty: marrying one's
immediate relatives, let alone polygamy, was simply unheard of.
She had heard that here in America, there were severe penalties
for doing so, but who only knew what would result if word of such
got around in Japan.

And what of Mihoshi, or Kiyone?  Or for that matter, her own
sister? She'd been locked in a closet for the past who knew how
long, as time had lost all meaning since she brought the book in
with her, but she didn't know if her sister would trust her upon
her exit.

Or for that matter, if she would ever again.

It hit her again.  *I almost killed my sister.*

And then she semi-casually wondered about Hikaru.  Despite the
fact that Juraians were pretty much impervious to most injury, she
herself was Juraian - and much like it takes another diamond to
cut another diamond, it takes a seriously powerful force (such as
another Juraian) to take out one of their own kind.  For all she
knew, he could be seriously injured, scarred for life - or worse,
dead.

But then there was Washu to figure into the picture.  She who
could solve all problems.  She who, despite nearly impossible
odds, sent six people and one cabbit twenty six years into the
past, pinpointed Kain, nearly lost Tenchi's mother, sent four
people into an alternate dimension, and through some odd bit of
widsom that could only be attributed to what the locals
semi-humorously called "voodoo", brought two more people back -
one who belonged in this time, the other who, if her guess was
correct, would've died in the explosion Kain touched off had she
not been with the GP. Surely, if she could save Tenchi's life by
indirectly saving the life of his late mother when she was in high
school, she could easily save the life of somebody who had used
themselves as a human shield against a supernatural explosion.

But figuring he did survive, what then?  She'd screwed up several
times under his charge, putting him in situations that could've
killed him.  And yet each time, he said he was simply doing the
job he was assigned to - protecting her, putting his very life on
the line if necessary.

There was the later understanding that he did it for his own
personal reasons - which came together on the day he was
transferred off, when they confessed each other's love.

*Hmph.  Love.*

The very concept of pure, unconditional love - that which sees
through all - was not within the nature of royalty.  The marriages
therein tended to be strictly out of duty, to carry on the royal
bloodline.  Her own father, it seemed, *maybe* had that love for
her mother and Funaho, but he was a difficult, impossible-to-read
man.  The two women he was married to seemed to be willing to show
more camaraderie than any one of them and Azusa.

She wondered what unconditional love was like. The closest she had
come to it was that between Trakal and Tanaka, who had become
romantically involved despite their difference in species, and had
even married and had a child - no, two - together.  Would anyone
ever love her unconditionally, she mused.

Sasami does... she thought. Or at least... she did.

And despite all this, it was somewhat clear that her father did
love her - he did, after all, come looking for his children. But
then, that's the love that a parent has for a child.

But the concept of that *other* love was elusive.  But when
talking to Hikaru on any random occasion, was that the same love
she saw?

And more importantly, did he still harbor those feelings for her?

And even more important than *that*, would he hold this against
her?

And despite all of this, what of Tenchi?

She had to talk to Hikaru.  It was the only logical thing to do.

But first, she decided as she took a deep breath, she would have
to talk to Ryoko.

And then the result of being cooped up in a closet assaulted her
nostrils - the miasma of a bodily odor that was very unbecoming
for a woman of her class.  *Before I talk to anybody,* she
thought, *I must shower.*

She turned off the light that had been burning midnight oil for
who only knew how long, and opened the door.  It was dark, and
there was the distinct sound of a young girl and a cabbit
sleeping.  The clock in the room indicated 11:25.

She waited a moment to let her eyes adjust to the lack of light,
then continued out of the bedroom, grabbing a towel on the way
out, and made her way to the bathroom.

And it was there that she had the first look at herself in five
days - she looked like hell.  Hair stuck to her face, and there
were white deposits of salts all over her, concentrating around
the innermost point of either eye and running down the side of her
nose, where tears had run down.  There was also the grime that had
coated her hands, presumably from the dust and whatever residue
the ink on the pages gave off - mixed with the sweat of her body,
this turned her skin a light gray.

There was, of course, also the putrid odor of whatever organisms
were feeding off of the perspiration her body put out.

And the clothing she was wearing - western fashion, a simple
t-shirt and a pair of jeans - were sticking to her body.

After a second thought, she briefly returned to the bedroom she
shared with her sister to retrieve a fresh change of clothes,
disrobed, and stepped into the shower.

---
November 2, 1998
00:00 PST

Ryoko was bored.

Everybody had gone to bed just an hour and a half ago, so now
there was nobody to talk to, or otherwise torment.  And Aeka had
stored herself in a closet for a week.  How a human could do that
was beyond her.

She then heard the sliding glass door open behind her, and turned
to meet the intent and somewhat melancholy gaze of Aeka, who
leaned on the balcony railing next to her adversary, gazing out
over the canyon for a moment before she spoke five words.

"We need to talk, Ryoko."

She looked at the princess.  "You mean to tell me that you spent a
week in a closet reading an old book, just to come out here and
talk to me?"

"In a nutshell, yes.  If it weren't for Hikaru, we would probably
have killed my sister."

"We?"  Ryoko was incredulous.  "Did I just hear you take part of
the blame?"

"There is no need to add insult to injury!" she yelled, before
catching herself.  "The honorable thing to do would be to shoulder
all of the blame myself, but you had as much of a part in this as
I."

Things were getting too predictable.  Ryoko brought a light sword
into being, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

Aeka, however, stood her ground, unmoving.  "I don't need weapons
to back up the facts, Ryoko."

For a full fifteen seconds, Ryoko simply stared before allowing
the sword to dissipate into nothing.  She then leaned on the
railing, using her elbows for support, and faced south.  "So
what's on your mind?"

"We need to stop fighting over Tenchi."

"So you're not going to claim him anymore?" She sounded very
hopeful at this - maybe too much so, Aeka decided.

"No, but you cannot claim him either."

For a second, she was confused, then it hit her.  "Oh."  They were
both silent for a few minutes, which was broken by a passing
Amtrak on its way to Chicago, before Ryoko spoke again.  "You
know, I should buy you a drink, but I don't think we should get
drunk for this.  I know a place, though, where we can get an okay
cup of coffee, and probably something to eat."

"Where?"

"Some place called Denny's."

This sounded vaguely interesting.  "Where is this?"

"The one I'm thinking of?  Barstow.  I would suggest you wear
something warm."

Ryoko must have been nuts, she decided.  "And what bus, at this
hour, is going to take us to Barstow?!"

Ryoko looked at her as she phased through the door.  "Who said
anything about ground transportation?"

---

Mojave Desert, near Lenwood, CA
(1/2 mile (.8 KM) outside of Barstow)

Two figures appeared about one foot off of the ground, about one
tenth of a mile away from Interstate 15.  Those who were driving
and happened to be looking to the east would have considered it to
be a hallucination brought on by a lack of sleep.

"You'd better not be trying to lose me in the desert, Ryoko." Aeka
scolded.

"Would I do something like that?" Ryoko asked, a wicked grin
coming over her face.

For a moment, Aeka was afraid that Ryoko was going to, indeed, try
to lose her out here. But that fear passed quickly as Ryoko broke
into a cheerful "made ya blink!" grin.

They descended, then walked into Denny's.

A waitress approached them. There was something familiar about
her, but neither woman could quite figure it out. "Just you two?"

"Yes." Ryoko replied.

"This way." The waitress seated them and handed them a pair of
menus. "Would you like anything to drink?" She asked, as a strand
of blue-black hair fell across her ivory face.

*She looks like Kain,* Ryoko thought idly.  "Just a cup of
coffee."

"Tea, please."

The waitress nodded as she scribbled the order, and walked back to
the wait station.

---

As Lucy O'Bannion walked away from the table, she decided that the
two customers she had were somewhat interesting.  Never mind that
they were the only two in the restaurant at the moment, but they
looked familiar somehow.

And in that, she didn't exactly trust them.

She recalled what 25 years of her life she currently remembered,
which, considering she was 26, was pretty good.  Nowhere in her
life did she remember two women - or girls, for that matter - with
either cyan or purple hair.

She stopped as she poured Ryoko's coffee. *Cyan? Purple?*

She stole another glance at the women, and went back to finishing
the drink order.  *Must be for something in Vegas,* she decided.

It was just past midnight, and already the signs of a typical
night at a Denny's out in the middle of nowhere were rearing its
head - sparse crowds that had already left to return to San Diego
or Los Angeles, or were continuing up to Vegas, an old couple just
now coming in, who were obviously returning from a long day of
unsuccessful gambling, based on the dejected expressions on their
face, and a few travellers grabbing a quick cup of coffee that was
probably better than what the local all-night gas stations had to
offer as they made their way up to the Utah ski resorts, in
optimistic hopes that they would be able to catch some pre-season
powder.  She observed this last group, a rowdy bunch of college
students, with much chagrin as she served Ryoko's and Aeka's
beverages. Hopefully, the skiers would be in here for just a few
minutes.

*Typical Los Angelinos,* she thought, a more cynical side of her
coming out. *Their brains have been done in by the smog down
below.*

Not that she would've minded doing something down there.  She'd
driven "down the hill" numerous times, and would live down there -
but there was the detail of the cost of living.  On the other
hand, it was just damn hot up in Barstow.  On the same hand,
Barstow didn't have any upper education to speak of, and waiting
tables, despite the tips, got rather boring after a while.
Granted, there was Victor Valley College, but the desert was
rather tiring.

---

It had been a few minutes since they placed their order.  They now
had their beverages, and were deciding what to eat at this point.

Aeka looked across the table, and inquired, "Any limits?"

"Nah.  Just don't order the lobster."

Aeka glanced over the menu, and found her eyes falling on
something called an "Ultimate Omelette".  Reacting to the fact
that she had not eaten in days, her stomach grumbled, indicating
that food would be a very good thing.  The thought of *any*
nourishment seemed wonderful at this point.

She put down the menu, a silly grin on her face, and a silly
thought accompanying.  "I will have one of everything on the
menu," she said.  As she watched Ryoko's eyes bug out in
realization that Aeka couldn't *possibly* meet Mihoshi's capacity
for food, she continued.  "But I'll start with an omelette."

"You're rather chipper this morning."

Aeka snickered.  "I've been up for five days.  I get rather, um,
silly when I do that."

Ryoko smiled at this - a warm, friendly smile, Aeka noted.  "I
should make you do that more often."

"Hopefully not in that fashion."

"No, I was thinking more in the way of caffeine injections and the
like."

Aeka poured her tea, and took its first sip, raising an eyebrow at
it just ever so slightly.  It was cheap tea, but it would do for
what they were doing.  After adding a bit of cream and a couple of
packets of sugar, she decided this helped immensely. "So where
were we?"

"You mentioned you wanted to make peace with me."

"Oh, yes, now I remember."  Aeka took a longer draw on her tea.
This was *not* going to be easy.  "So where do we start?"

"Tenchi," Ryoko replied, and then started speaking in Juraian.
"Look, if it makes it any easier, I'm not going to leave you out
here in the middle of Nowhere, USA, and I promise I will pay for
your food."

"It's not that," Aeka replied, matching the language.  "I,
um...I'm just tired of fighting.  Since we met, I've been trying
to kill you or otherwise get you out of the way so I could have
Tenchi for myself."

"It's all because I ransacked your planet under--"

"Kagato's control, yes."  Aeka sighed uneasily.  "Ryoko, I guess I
should tell you, I am right now resisting a...reflexive urge to
blast you through that wall."

"You two decided yet?"  The interruption in English distracted
them at the moment.

After they placed their orders, they continued.  "Well, let's see,
after six years of me hovering over Tenchi, waking him up
completely, crawling all over him in bed and following him into
the bathroom--"

"And myself yelling at you when you do that, us nearly killing
each other...."  Her voice trailed off, and she retreated in
thought for a moment.

"You think I should stop watching Tenchi like that."

"Well, yes, but that's just one thing.  We just need to stop
fighting each other.  We nearly killed Sasami and Hikaru," she
said, an uneasy expression becoming apparent, "I'm almost afraid
of who could be next."

---

From an alternate dimension, Washu put aside her terminal, and
"listened" in on the conversation briefly.

---

Ryoko caught onto her mother listening in, and put a block in
place, hoping this would obstruct whatever link they had.  It was
a temporary fix, but for now it would work.

And then she simply stared at Aeka.

And then she checked her watch, a gift from her boss - it was
definitely *not* April 1.

And then she looked at Aeka again.  "Tenchi."

"Yes."

Ryoko sat a moment, the very thought of losing the only thing that
really mattered to her registering in a way that could be best
compared to suddenly having your stomach freeze for a moment -
more or less the same feeling you would feel when you hear that
you are unexpectedly terminated from your job.  "You know, that
had never occured to me."

"There's also Hikaru I'm worried about, Ryoko.  I can only-"

"He's fine."

"-hope-- Did you say he's OK?"

"Yeah."

Aeka smiled, very relieved at this prospect, and reflexively shed
a couple of tears of joy.

Ryoko caught this, and smiled in realization.  "Alright, out with
it.  What is it between you and our landlord?"

She stopped, and sputtered silently for a moment before deciding
that she could tell her.  "Well, you know how he was my guard,
right?"

Ryoko nodded.  "There's more."  This was not a question, but a
statement.

Aeka drew in her breath, and continued.  "He and I had become
quite close to each other during that time."

"And?"  This was getting good.

Aeka had become quite serious at this point.  "Ryoko, promise you
won't tell *anybody* about this, because if you do, I am ruined."

Ryoko placed both hands on the table, now all ears.  "Shoot."

"I had fallen in love with him just before he was transferred into
the GP."

Ryoko's jaw dropped so quickly it nearly dislocated itself.  "You
and him?"

Aeka simply nodded, and Ryoko considered this silently for a few
minutes as Lucy brought them their food.  Aeka, now distracted by
this, picked up her cutlery and let loose with an enthusiastic
"Itadakimasu!" before blushing profusely, and both women started
giggling like schoolgirls.

"Aeka, I didn't think you could be like this!"

Aeka quickly ate half of the omelette, blushed again, and
swallowed.  "You've only seen me irritated or drunk, Ryoko.  You
haven't seen me in a good mood."  She then continued on the
omelette.

---

October 31, 1998 18:00 Tokyo time
Washu's lab

It was finally time to remove Mitsuki from his artificial womb. At
this point, nobody could accuse anybody of not being rather
excited about this.  Trakal was, however, the last to find out
about this, being that at the time his wife and Washu walked in,
he was still watching his child.

As they walked in, he somehow understood that now was the time. He
stood up from the chair he was seated in, and backed off, still
continuing his watch.  The child was in good hands, but still,
considering the circumstances, he wasn't sure he wanted to let him
out of his sight quite yet.

As Washu prepared the child to face the real world, as it were,
Tanaka impatiently paced the area near the incubator, waiting for
Washu to finish.

"Will it be much longer?" she asked, finally stopping in front of
the console Washu was seated at.  "I can't wait to hold him." She
then looked at her husband, still watching him.  "And how can you
be so patient?  We're about to hold our son for the first time!"

Trakal's gaze remained fixed on the incubator, though his face
spoke of calmness.  "I've been watching him for the past, what,
three weeks?"

Washu had heard very little of their conversation as she finished
making sure the child was ready to survive without assistance.
The nutrient flow was off, the blood vessels in the arm had closed
the "natural shunt" and were flowing normally, and it looked like
everything was fine.  Satisfied, she touched a button, and the
tubes that had been providing life to the infant retracted,
leaving no apparent evidence of their penetration.

She then removed him from the incubator. "OK, I think he'll be
fine outside now."  Tanaka holds her arms out to take the child,
and Washu handed him to Tanaka with a smile.  "And there you go."

It was a bit moving for her, being that this was her first time
holding her child, who was now estimated to be four weeks older
than the one still inside her.  "He's so beautiful," she
whispered, as Trakal walked up behind her and put his arms around
her neckline.  "Just like his father."

After a moment of this, she looked back at him.  "Want to hold
him?"

It was evident what his answer was, but nonetheless he hesitated
in a moment of fake consideration.  After a moment, he let go of
her.  "Yeah."

As she handed off the infant, he found himself choking up, as
emotions that could only be associated with first-time fatherhood
flooded him.  "My son...." was all he could manage to gasp out.

Tanaka simply smiled at her husband and son. "Is he really..."

"Your son is the first baby born to any member of Trakal's race
since Trakal himself was born."

Trakal looked at the baby, then started to cry at the thought that
the child would never know his grandparents.  His distant cousin
and his family were the only relatives Trakal had.

She simply smiled at her husband and son.

After another moment, the baby started to cry.  Trakal, since
recovered, spoke up.  "Um, I think he's hungry."

Washu promptly pulled a bottle of formula out of nowhere, which
was presumably tailored for the nutritional needs for their first
child.  Tanaka, in turn, took this from Washu, and handed it to
Trakal with a smile.  "I had to go through labor. Its *your* turn
to do the work."

"Oh, fine," he said, smiling as he took the bottle and proceeded
to feed the baby.

Washu, satisfied that all was well, made her way elsewhere into
her lab.

Upon finding a food source, the baby started noshing on the
nipple, squeezing out his dinner and eating every last drop. After
a few moments, he finished, and started blindly reaching around
until he found the first thing he could grab - his father's hair,
which had grown since he had chopped it off.  And then he pulled.

"Ow."

Tanaka laughed cheerfully at this.

"He has a grip.  He found my hair."  Had he been speaking English,
he probably would've sounded a bit like Jeff Goldblum. "Time for a
trim.  OK, remove hand from hair...." He moved his left arm, still
cradling his child, in such a way that he could reach his son's
hand and pry the errant hand off of his hair. "There."  In
response, the baby found an errant finger, and latched on to this.

Trakal laughed a bit as the baby tried to pull this over to his
mouth.

---

03:30 PST

Throughout the night, Lucy had watched these two at this table.
She'd seen people eat fast, but this girl with the violet hair was
likely to make herself sick.  Now would be as good a time as ever
though - the place was completely empty, save for these two and
the cook.

And then something occured to her.

One, they were not speaking any language she'd ever heard.  At
least, she didn't think they were.  Two, she understood every word
of what they were saying.

As she bussed the tables throughout the night, she had caught
clips of the conversation at hand.   Only that she could
understand it was the reason she felt the need to listen in on it.
Something about a guy named Tenchi, that they were both clearly
infatuated by, and what's this about Royalty and some place called
Jurai?

This last bit - Jurai - stirred something in her.  Something like
fear, loathing and mistrust.  She couldn't figure out why, just
didn't trust them all of a sudden.  Maybe it was just as well.

"He sounds interesting," she thought aloud, as she once again
added water and a fresh teabag to Aeka's teapot, and topped off
Ryoko's coffee.

Aeka, smiling a bit at another joke Ryoko had shot off, looked at
her.  "Who does?"

"This Tenchi guy."

Both women at the table stopped, and slowly turned their gaze to
the waitress, who now looked stunned.  "What?"

Ryoko became somewhat suspicious of her.  Somehow, she managed to
hold a facial expression that didn't transmit this.  "Lucy, how
did you know what we were talking about?"  While she asked this,
she removed the mental block she had established earlier, and sent
one thought to her mother.  *Washu, you might want to listen in on
this.*

Lucy seemed unsure of herself. "I don't knowm" she admitted. "I
know the language is one I never heard before, and yet somehow
I... I just knew what you were saying."

*She is Kain,* Ryoko thought, *She must be. That's the only
explanation.*

Ryoko leaped up suddenly, and activated her light sword. "All
right!" She raised it. "Now you die!"

*Ryoko, don't!*

Lucy leaped back. "What are you doing?!" She shrieked. At this
point, she wasn't even sure of what she was doing herself.

As Ryoko swung the sword at her, she backflipped over a nearby
table and landed behind the counter.

"Look, if there's something wrong with your order..." she hedged.

Ryoko glared at her, only to have the glare returned with a look
of confused fear. This girl probably was Kain, she told herself.
At the same time, there was no evil in her. Ryoko had thought that
the threat of death would force the girl to reveal her true evil.
But now it was clear there was none in her.

Aeka breathed a sigh of relief as Ryoko doused her sword.

Lucy stepped, hesitantly, out from behind the counter. "Can I
get you anything else?" She asked, politely.

Ryoko blinked at her.

"I've dealt with rowdy customers before, miss." Lucy shrugged.
"We get truckers in here all the time and they're a lot worse
than you."

There was a venomous tone in the girl's voice at the mention of
the word 'truckers'. Aeka and Ryoko both noticed this and
exchanged a quiet nod as if both understanding some unspoken
horror.

"Well?" Lucy asked.

"I think we're set." Ryoko replied. "Aeka?"

"Yes. I'm full." Aeka agreed. "Lucy. You said you thought
Tenchi was interesting. Would you like to meet him?"

"Aeka." Ryoko growled.

"Ryoko," Aeka replied. "have you forgotten who else is back
at our place?"

"You mean Washu." Ryoko replied.

"Washu?" Lucy asked.

"Her mother." Aeka replied. "She'd love to meet you."

"Well, my shift is just getting over." Lucy shrugged. "Why not."

Lucy got her coat and small dagger from her locker.  She had
purchased the "pointy bit" at the rennaisance faire the previous
spring, following the incident with the trucker when she had...

"Don't think about it." She told herself as she buckled the
small scabbard to her waist and put on her coat, effectively
hiding the knife.

---

Ryoko and Aeka were still out there when she returned to the
front of the restaurant. Both of them eyed what little of the
scabbard they could see with frank amazement.

"I could've got a gun," Lucy told them, "but I like knives and
such better. They're less likely to accidentally kill an innocent
bystander."

"I agree." Aeka replied. "And a dagger is a far more dignified
weapon."

Lucy nodded. Of course, the method of attack she planned to use
on the next guy who tried anything was far from dignified.

She eyed the now empty parking lot, which only contained her car
at this time, the car for the relief waitress, and a pickup truck
belonging to the cook who was himself about to leave for the
night.  "So," she asked, "where's your car?"

"Car?"  Ryoko smiled mischeviously as she placed her arm around
Aeka's and Lucy's shoulders.  "We don't need a car to get
around."  With that, she moved her arms to their waists, grabbed
tightly, and hovered.

For about one tenth of a second, Lucy wondered whether she should
take that personally.  She then realized that neither of them
were in contact with the ground any longer.  "Oh my God."

And then, in all of the space of one half of one second, they were
no longer in Barstow.  They had, in fact, appeared in Washu's lab.

After her feet regained contact with the ground, all she could
manage at the moment was one sentence, spoken with a note of
wonder: "I don't think we're in Barstow anymore."

"Of course not!" came a voice from another part of the labryntine
wherever-this-was she found herself in.  "In fact, you're not
really anywhere."  Washu came around a corner, making her
currently diminuitive presence known.  "And I, young lady, am
Washu, the greatest scientific genius in the universe!"

Something promptly unhinged in Lucy's mind, and her face suddenly
collapsed as she jumped to a rather bizarre conclusion.  *That's
it, I'm in the Twilight Zone.  They dropped something in my coffee
before I started the shift, now I'm hallucinating.  Either that,
or I just need to get some sleep.*

Washu handed her a cup of tea.  "Lucy, sleep can come later. Right
now, we need to talk."  She ushered her over to a table, upon
which resided a small tea kettle which was emitting some steam.
It was apparent this was where the tea that Lucy was carrying came
from this.  She sat down took a sip, and the astringent flavor of
green tea touched her mouth, causing her to pull back.  "Perhaps
some honey in this would help," she casually noted.

And then there was a small bottle of honey on the table.  Lucy
initially thought nothing of this as she added a bit to the cup,
located a spoon that was not there prior to her adding the
sweetener, and stirred, but then despite being tired from a rough
day, it hit her.  Normally, things didn't simply appear out of
nowhere.  In fact, that was the rule of thumb.  However, she had
seen two objects appear where there had previously been none. Lucy
mulled over this for a moment, went over to the chair, pressed her
hand down on it, and satisfied that it was real, sat down very
carefully.

Washu simply smiled as she spoke.  "Welcome to Wonderland, Alice."

"Um, look, if I'm supposed to save you from some sort of evil
witch in the east, I am *not* doing that sort of thing."

"Oh, no no no no, nothing of the sort."  Washu poured herself a
cup of tea, added nothing, and sipped.  "I actually wanted to ask
you a few questions."

"Questions?" Lucy asked, suddenly wishing she were someplace else.

"I told Washu about how you could understand what we were saying
about Tenchi." Ryoko explained. "She's curious about it."

"Oh. Um... I don't know how that happened." Lucy admitted. "It
just sort of... well... happened. Its strange." A thought hit her,
but she dismissed it as being silly. "You watch too many Freddy
movies." she told herself.

"Who's Freddy?" Aeka asked.

"He's a popular movie monster." Lucy explained. "He appears in
people's dreams, but he's real... in the context of the movies I
mean..."

"I take it you're saying you've been having bad dreams?" Washu
asked, by way of verification.

"All my life in fact." Lucy admitted. "I'm kind of used to them
now. But when I was a little girl I was terrified to go to sleep."

A simple glance was all it took to advise both Ryoko and Aeka that
this would require some privacy.  They took this cue, and both
left the lab.

*Ryoko, could you take her home later?*

*What, and keep her from hiking up Interstate fifteen?*  There was
definitely a note of cheerful sarcasm embedded in there. *Oh,
fine.*

Washu made sure her charge was sitting down.  "Lucy, you have to
keep in mind that what I'm about to tell you is going to probably
shock you, most likely scare you, and will definitely help you
cope with those dreams."

Lucy stared.  After twenty-six years, she'd finally have the
answers.  "Alright, say it."

"OK.  First, Kain is real.  As in, he's part of this temporal
world."

Lucy froze.

"Second," she added, "at the same time you're not Kain, you are
him."

As Lucy digested this information, she averted her gaze, and
stared at nothing in particular.  Considering this was comparable
to meditating on the sound of one hand clapping.  After a minute,
all she could manage was a short, clipped "Huh?"

"Yes, exactly.  As best as I can tell, when--"

"Who or what is Kain?"

Washu took a deep breath.  It had been a long night already.
"Roughly one hundred years ago, a criminal named Kain was locked
into a sort of trans-dimensional prison.  Come around local year,
1996, and Kain wipes out a galactic space station, and proceeds to
alter the time line."

Lucy looked at her, now more bewildered than anything.  *What is
this, did I just walk into a demented version of the Star Trek
universe?!*

Washu continued.  "To make a long story short, the two women you
met, Tenchi, who you heard about, and Trakal, who you *haven't*
heard about, went and did a recovery operation to extract Tenchi's
parents who had inadvertently been trapped in a new cell for him,
and Kiyone, another officer who was nowhere near the blast, wiped
him out.  During this, four pieces broke off.  One we just
eliminated from Trakal, one is out in interstellar space
somewhere, one is a simple thought process, and one," she said,
"created a humanoid, using whatever malignant energy it had left
to create you.  And yet somehow, you don't have that nature." She
focused on Lucy.  "So tell me something: are you sufficiently
confused?"

"Am I confused? I am very confused.  As soon as I wake up from
this weird dream, I'm going to call the sanitarium and have myself
committed.  This is obviously a power fantasy of some kind. I need
professional help.  Yes, that's it.  Who's this Trakal you speak
of, incidenally?"

"He's somebody else who was involved in this whole mess. Listen,
whether or not you believe this, at least keep it in mind."

Lucy's brain hurt.  "Um... okay.  Look, I don't know what the
hell is going on, but somehow, this is just bizarre.  That, and
it doesn't really explain my dreams."  Her eyes started to close,
thirty-six hours of having been awake for one reason or another
finally taking a toll.  "In fact, somehow I get the feeling that
*this* is a dream, and I'll wake up in Lenwood...."

There was a soft thump as her head hit the table.

---

06:30
Lenwood

*taptaptap*

Lucy woke up behind the wheel of her car, still parked in front of
work, and noticed that it was just sunrise.

"You all right in there?"

She looked left, and found at her window a San Bernardino County
Sheriff.  "Yeah, I'm fine.  Long night."

"Just making sure."  The officer walked back into the restaurant,
where she was pretty sure she still worked.  She found at her
side her dagger, and her jacket was now placed not-so-neatly on
the passenger seat.

"What a weird night," she mumbled to herself as she started her
car and pulled onto the interstate.  "Hell, what a weird
*dream*."