[Teknos Warhammer comes out from the light again.]
     WH: Once more into the breach my friends... or something
like that.


Teknos Warhammer presents

Legacies Found

Tenchi Muyo (and soon to be Tekno/Nuku/OMG/Ranma/Tenchi crossover) 
fanfic
Written by 
Christian Clark


     As always, the sun rises in the eastern skies, starting the
day for everyone on this side of the world. Everyone that would
stir will be faced with choices that would affect them and the
ones about them for good or ill. Life would continue for all. The
powers of both Chaos and Order were in perfect balance... or so
one would think. Fate had decided to play a rather twisted joke
on two certain individuals. 

In the valley from which the Masaki household, the sun slowly
crept up to the side and into the window of one of the two male
residents, Tenchi Masaki. The night before, Ryoko; a local space
pirate, had forced a little too much sake on everyone, save for
Sasami. Tenchi had no wish to consume any, but Ryoko had finally
gotten him to drink a small cup. Which led to another and another
and another.

The only thing that Tenchi could remember was the vicious
hangover from all the sake he drunk. Now he knew he wasn't going
to drink anymore, the headaches were simply not worth it. The
consolation was that he was in bed with a certain kind of warm
that he could get very comfortable with. That was when he
realized that something was not right. There seemed to be more
space taken up on his bed, as if there was another person in it. 

That was when he opened his eyes to see another figure was also
in his bed. He knew for a fact, that Ryoko would not do that...
she would just hang out and wait for him to wake up. At that
time, the other figure in his bed tensed and moved to see where
exactly it was. 

Tenchi found himself staring straight into the face of Kiyone
Makabi, and both were in a state of extreme undress. When the
numbers added up, the product was the loudest, most piercing, and
horror filled scream both were capable of doing. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" 
They both made
their shock rather apparent to the rest of the hemisphere. 

At work, Nobuyuki fell off his chair.

To keep things in order, one would find it best to label all the
reactants of the catalyst. Washu(a) slams open door(b), which
accidentally hits Sasami(c) in the face as she was exiting the
kitchen. Mihoshi(d) who had spent the night and now was in a
panic while searching for Kiyone(j), trips over Washu(a) and
causes Sasami(c) to be pinned to the wall(e) from the door(b). 

Ayeka(f), comes running out of the kitchen with a bowl of rice(g)
she made with her younger sister's help, after Sasami(c) and runs
into Mihoshi(d). Before she is hit by Mihoshi(d), she throws the
bowl up in a panic before Mihoshi(d) collides with her. 

Ryoko(h), awakens from her sake induced sleep to fly up and check
on Tenchi(i), but finds her sight blurred when the bowl of
rice(g) lands on her head. Careening out of control, she flies
into Sasami(c), after getting out from between the door(b) and
the wall(e). The two then bowl over Washu(a) and collide with the
two in front of the kitchen. 

The product from the catalyst and reactants: A big mess. 

     In Tenchi's room, both perpetrators sat on opposite sides of
the bed and tried to think of what happened. They both figured it
would be best if they both collected their clothes from about the
room and dress as quickly as they could.

     They could not even get past the question of how they got
there when the factors of both Ayeka and Ryoko. If either one
noticed that they were like this, someone was going to die. First
of all, any noise from either one would give away the exact
reason why. So, thinking quick, Tenchi gestured to the closet,
there would be enough room to hide in there until the others
would leave. Kiyone nodded and as she quickly padded into the
closet and closed the door shut. 

     Tenchi sighed and laid back down on his bed as the
aforementioned women barged in. 

     "Lord Tenchi! Are you unhurt?" Ayeka asked before Ryoko
could try and glomp him. Yet, she forgot her question and started
to fume as Ryoko floated over to assure Tenchi in her own way. To
both of their surprise, Tenchi rolled off his bed, causing Ryoko
to crash into the wall. 

He nodded quickly and replied rubbing his eyes, "Yeah, I'm ok. I
just had a nightmare..." {... a nightmare that came real.} he
thought with complete confusion and fear. What exactly happened?
Did he and Kiyone really... go all the way? Just because they
were drunk? His heart was racing, he knew of plenty of stories
about teenage pregnancies and hoped that he would not be one of
them. 

In the closet, Kiyone was thinking the same thing. The same
questions were going through her head over and over, with no
answers in sight. She liked Tenchi, but as a friend and not the
way Ryoko and Ayeka did. Even though she had been altered when
she became a GP, so that her chances of getting pregnant were
next to nothing as she worked, it wasn't that reliable. 

She peeked through the blades of the door to see that Tenchi and
the other two girls had left. She sighed, it looked like luck was
on her side for once. She slowly opened the door to the closet,
walked over to the window, opened it, and crawled out as quietly
as she could. Running down the steps, she took a last look at the
Masaki home and wondered if it really did happen. If so, she had
no clue as of what to do. She never had any plans to be a parent. 

She had thought about being a parent a few times, but her career
often came first. Also, the number of guys that actually took her
seriously were few and far in between. So, she decided to put
that idea aside for a while. Yet, if this little accident were to
come to the worst, she would be a parent sooner than she hoped.
What made it worse, she might as well be arrested for being with
a minor in the first place and breaking GP rules of conduct. She
wanted to kill Ryoko for all that sake she brought. Luckily,
today was her day off and she could get back to her apartment in
time before Mihoshi would get back and figure something was up. 

     Back in the kitchen, Tenchi was trying to eat his breakfast,
but with the bickering of Ryoko and Ayeka ruined his appetite.
The bickering wasn't the only thing that made him not want to
eat. The thought that he lost his innocence with a friend, due to
an accident, made him somewhat nauseous.

     "Tenchi, you ok?" Sasami asked from the other side of the
table. He blinked and looked to her and nodded, a bit too quickly
to assure that he was driving them off.  "Did that nightmare
really scare you?" she asked, taking the seat on the side beside
him. 

     Throughout the whole day, Tenchi wondered how Kiyone was
doing. After he was able to get some time alone, he took a look
around to see that Kiyone had  been able to escape safely. He
sighed and wondered if worse came to worse. He was just getting
into college and to end it then and there would be suicidal if he
wanted a good job. 

He couldn't take it anymore as he ran to the phone and dialed up
the number to Kiyone's apartment. Soon enough, she answered,

"Hello?"

     "Kiyone, it's me."

     "Oh... hi Tenchi."

     "Kiyone, listen. I want to let you know that I would never
do anything that..."

     "Don't worry. I know you well enough that you wouldn't do
anything like that. Besides, I don't think Ayeka and Ryoko would
really let you have enough time to do anything."

     "Thanks. But, what if... what if you're..."

     "I've been thinking about that too. If it is true and I am
pregnant... I'm going to get an abortion."

     "What?!"

     "Tenchi, you and I both know that what we did was a mistake
and if anything comes out of it, the kid would most likely be
miserable. Let's face it, even if we were together, neither one
of us are ready. Am I right?"

     "Yes. But it's just that, the thought that something will
most likely die because of a mistake."

     "It's eating me up too, I know. But there's nothing we can
really do."

"Except hope that you're not pregnant."

     "And that we didn't really do anything. You're my friend
Tenchi, and besides, I don't want to seem like I'm chasing you
too."
          
     "And you're the only one I can really talk to. I don't want
to lose a friend because of that."
     
     "Thanks." A pause followed. "So, I guess the only thing we
can do is just go on, hope for the best, and pretend nothing
happened."

     "Just as long as Ryoko and Ayeka don't find out. I intend to
live out the rest of my life."

     "As do I. I'm not exactly exempt from Juraian law you know
and Federation law can't protect me from something like this."
     
     "Well, like you said, let's hope for the best. Ok?"

     "Alright. Talk to you later Tenchi."

     "See ya."

     Both persons sighed as the phone was placed back upon the
receiver. They both hoped for the best, because knowing their
luck, they were going to need it. 

*************************************************

     A week had passed. To the relief of Tenchi and Kiyone, she
had no symptoms of pregnancy. In fact, she even tried several
tests that would prove if she was or not. All the tests proved
negative. Yet, there were things that still lingered. 

     Even though her schedule and his classes prevented them from
actually talking in person, the phone turned out to be the place
they both stayed the most when they were not busy. After every
job, after every class that ended, they both found themselves
heading for the phone to see if the other was there. 

     After hanging up the phone after a meeting with Kiyone's
answering machine, he started to walk outside to begin the work
on the carrot fields. Ryoko and Ayeka were still fighting, but it
did not seem to bother him as much anymore. Before, Kiyone and he
just knew of each other's existence and simply let the other be,
but ever since that accident, he realized that there was a lot
that he and Kiyone were not really doing as friends. 

     Even if it was something small, such as simply talking on
the phone, it turned out to be a solace from the bickering. The
princess nor the pirate seemed to care about what he was doing on
the phone, and he was somewhat glad. He wanted to be able to talk
to someone openly and freely about almost anything. 

     Ryoko and Ayeka were next to impossible. Sasami wouldn't
really interested in a few of the things he would like to talk
about. Mihoshi... well, she meant well, but she got distracted
easily. Ryo-Oh-Ki could not even talk. His friends at school were
too busy with their own social lives to worry about him outside
of classes. 

     When he got to the fields, he then realized that most of his
time was occupied with thinking about her. His shoulders slumped
when he remembered Ryoko's and Ayeka's most likely reaction to
all of this. And he did not like it in the least. 

     As he started to plow through the ground, he guessed that if
things continued as they were, someone would most likely die.
Ryoko wasn't about to let him go that easily and Ayeka felt the
exact same. There was also something about Ayeka that started to
bother him. 

     It was when Ayeka first came...

     It was raining hard and Ayeka had sprained her ankle. They
were staying inside the shack near the top of the hill and Ayeka
had invited him in. Ryo-Oh-Ki was there as well, offly enough,
her appearance was what granted him that chance to talk with
Ayeka.  

     "...besides... we're related too, I guess." He said, hating
the fact that most of the carnage was his fault. 

     "Yoshou is my half-bother. On Jurai, you may find it odd to
marry your brother, but on Jurai it's not. Even though my parents
arranged it, I was happy about it." She said, looking into one of
the darker corners. "It's just that I'll never be able to share
these feelings with my brother, I... I don't know what to do
anymore." With that she began to sob. 

      After the rain had stopped, she still had hope that Yoshou
was still alive when they went to Funaho. Seeing her spirits rise
with the news that she would find the one she loved soon enough
made him glad, but they were dashed when they found what really
happened to him. 

     So, once more, his heritage had placed yet another burden
upon his shoulders. Yet, it seemed odd to him that she had
switched so quickly from Yoshou to him. 

     That was when he noticed that he was going vertical on the
fields when he should have been horizontal. He shook his head and
realized that it would be better to think on such things when he
was supposed to be paying attention to something else. 

*************************************************

     Another week had passed. Kiyone was typing up her report to
the GP relay sat in the asteroid belt when she noticed something
on the screen. Her physical stats were slightly lower than the
previous rating. In fact, after looking over the last several
reports, her physical condition was slowly lessening. 

Kiyone knew for a fact she was keeping in shape as best she
could, she ate right enough, and she didn't exactly have that
much time to be lazy. In fact, most of her time was devoted to
work. Maybe it was the fact she wasn't that much going on in the
Solar System and she was getting a bit too content. 

Being one who preferred to stomp out problems before they got
worse, she considered the best option. Since Yoshou was very
proficient with martial arts, maybe it could help improve her
battle prowess as a GP. He would most likely not charge anything
and she would most likely be able to make the time she needed to
practice. 

Since there seemed to be no downside to the idea. So, as soon as
she could, she's meet with Yoshou and ask for his help.

{Maybe Tenchi and I could train together.} her eyes widened at
that thought and slapped herself, both mentally and physically.
She was just his friend and he was her friend and that was where
it ended. She kept on repeating those words over and over to
assure herself of that fact. 

*************************************************

     Having the next day off, she walked up to the steps of the
Masaki shrine and found the man she wanted to talk to. Katsuhito
was sweeping slowly, making sure to get every speck of dirt off
the ground and to the place where it would be properly disposed
of. 

     "Excuse me?" Kiyone asked.

     Tenchi's grandfather turned to see her and replied, "May I
help you?"

     {So far so good.} She thought as she walked up to him, "Can
we talk for a minute?"

     He nodded and walked to the main hall where it would be
better to speak. Sitting behind a table, he sat cross-legged and
waited for her reason.

     She sighed and thought of the right way to put her request,
the last thing she wanted to do was insult someone who was more
than capable of beating her in battle. "Well, recently, my
reports have said that I am lagging behind in how fit I am and
the last thing I want to be is ill-prepared when a violator comes
along. So, what I want to know is, would you be so kind as to
teach me what you know. If it's not to much trouble."

     He shook his head, "Of course not. Ever since Tenchi got
into college, he's not exactly been crazy to continue his
training. Also, what good is a teacher's knowledge without a
student to learn it." He ended with a smile. 

     Kiyone bowed respectfully and was about to leave when he
said, "On one condition..." with that she froze.  "A few weeks
ago, a rather loud scream awoke me from sleep and I heard yours
and Tenchi's voice in it. Would you be so kind as to tell me what
exactly happened?"

     Kiyone knew that sometime sooner or later, someone was bound
to figure it out. On top of that, she couldn't just refuse a
request like that, especially after she asked him for something.
"Well..." she said sitting on the other side of the table and
began her tale.

     Katsuhito did not flinch as she went through the possibility
that she and Tenchi actually slept together. When she got to the
part where there was proof that she was not pregnant, he looked
almost remorseful. The thought of being a great-grandfather was
rather appealing to him. 

     "...and that's what happened." Kiyone said finishing. "I
hope you're not mad about this whole ordeal."

     Once more, he shook his head. "Do not worry about it. You're
not pregnant and the others don't know about it. Just make sure
that if you do, let me know about it. I'd be interested to see
what my great-grandchild will look like."

     "Katsuhito-san! I don't love Tenchi, and he doesn't love me
either. We're just friends. It's Ryoko and Ayeka who love him."
He simply shrugged at her hasty defense. "Jeez, never mind. If
you'll excuse, me, I need to go." He nodded as she walked through
the door and closed it behind her. 

     He was about to return to his yard work when a voice from
the shadows said, "So, that's what happened." He turned quickly
to see Ayeka emerge. It was not the fact that it was Ayeka who
was there, but the fact that he could not even sense she was
there. She seemed perfectly calm, and that was rather not
ordinary for her.

     "Ayeka. What are you doing here? And how were you able to
get past my guard?" he asked with a slight bit of agitation in
his voice. 

     Ayeka smiled darkly, "That, my love, is a secret I intend to
keep for a while. Yet, it's amazing what you can learn about your
power when you had as much time on your hands as I did." 

Once more, she shocked Tenchi's grandfather with techniques he
never though possible. Also, she referred to him as her love,
something was definitely up.  "What is the meaning of this?"

     She looked as if she was being addressed by an idiot, "What
does it look like? I've come to visit the one whom I pledged my
heart to. Don't you recall, Yoshou?"

     "Yes I do, but isn't it Tenchi the one you should be saying
this to?" he asked, regaining his calm. Yet, his calm was lost
when Ayeka continued. 

     "No. It was always you whom I loved. You and no one else,
Yoshou. Tenchi never did earn my love, nor do I love him. It was
always you Yoshou."

     "I'm too old, remember? I'm a grandfather now. You should be
going after someone who is capable of making you happy. Like my
grandson."

     "Yoshou, you don't understand. I don't love Tenchi. I never
will. Not only that..." she looked down, as if guilt had overcome
her being, "The only reason why I pretended to love Tenchi was to
get back at Ryoko for what she did to us. After she took you from
me, I vowed to destroy her happiness. In one way or another." 

"Rather rude of you, Ayeka. Very unprincess-like. Besides, have
you seen how old I've become? It will never work."

     Ayeka's eyebrow raised, "Are you certain of that?" she asked
as she raised a hand and her circlet began to glow. A thin circle
appeared and waved over Yoshou, discarding the disguise. He
gasped in shock as his true form was revealed. He had no clue as
to how she was able to get past the hologram, but the way she
composed herself and the unearthly calm she had mastered made him
uneasy. 

     "Yoshou, you said yourself that if you wanted to get the
respect of those above you, you have to beat them by their own
rules. You are more than capable of beating the Holy Council and
ruling Jurai with a just hand. Why are you still here? You can
still inherit the throne of Jurai."

     He turned from her, "Because I made my choice and I live
with my decisions."

     Ayeka's frown grew, "So, you cowered out and used Ryoko as
an avenue of escape. An escape from your responsibilities and
from me."

     "No Ayeka, I didn't escape to save myself, I escaped to make
my own choice. And I chose not to have the throne of Jurai."

     "And to force the responsibility upon your own blood. That's
cowardice! You abandoned your home, you abandoned your family,
you abandoned your people, and YOU ABANDONED ME!" Yoshou's
silence only made her madder. 

"So, the Council and father were right. It wouldn't do you any
good to go back in this condition," her next words struck harder
than any blow from a weapon. "it would only prove what a
spineless prick you've become."

     His hand slapping her face was heard throughout the valley,
had it not been constricted to the small hut. 

     "How DARE you do that?!" Ayeka hissed, her face contorted
with rage. The consolation was that she had struck a sensitive
nerve.

     "Don't you dare say such things!" he said back with a frown
most thought he was incapable of. 

     Ayeka smirked like a cobra ready to devour its prey. "Why?
Or else you'll slap me again? Tear out my voice to silence me
completely? Or will you show more of your cowardice by killing me
to hide your tracks? You're not Yoshou... the real Yoshou would
stand up to the challenges I've said. But he died the very
instant you left me. You're only Katsuhito Masaki now, a cowardly
old man with the spine of a jellyfish."

     Yoshou turned away from her as Ayeka began to walk to the
door. She said with an air of such confidence, that she could
spit in his face and he would do nothing. "Train Kiyone and
Tenchi together, Yoshou... or should I say Katsuhito. The more
they stay together, the more their feelings will grow. And if all
goes well, my revenge against Ryoko will be complete."

     He didn't bother to turn to her, "And what if I say no?"

     Ayeka laughed a bit, a laughter filled with the joy of the
pain of others. "Or else Tenchi will discover just how old his
grandfather REALLY is. How will he react to that? Knowing him, he
will most likely hate you for placing a position he never wanted,
onto him. Maybe even worse. You see Katsuhito, you have no choice
in the matter." 

     She closed the door behind her and left Yoshou to hate Ayeka
with every fiber of his being. She had won, and all because of
something he would rather deny than admit. He would have no
choice but to give in to her demands.

*************************************************

     The next day, Katsuhito had requested both Tenchi and Kiyone
to come to the shrine. 

     Dressed in sweat pants and a sweater, Kiyone rolled up her
sleeves as she walked up the stairs to the shrine. Knowing how
rigorous some training programs could be, she decided to expect
the worst and give it her all. Yet, the odd thing was, she
expected be to training by herself, but instead she was told that
Tenchi would be there too.

     In a way, she was glad, but at the same time, she knew that
Ayeka and Ryoko would be there too. Kiyone swore if she heard
those two bicker for more than ten seconds, she wasn't going to
be responsible for the possible fatalities that would occur. 

For once, she wished, that she could be able to speak with Tenchi
without having to worry about those two. She sighed at that
impossibility as she reached the top of the stairs and saw Tenchi
and his grandfather speaking in front of the shrine and sure
enough, the dynamic duo were there as well.  

     As Tenchi spoke with his grandfather, he kept on throwing
glances at Ryoko and Ayeka, letting them know that they were
simply training and nothing more. But that still didn't stop them
from watching him and Ryoko took it on herself to protect Tenchi.
He wished that he would be able to have some privacy, of which he
had very little of, from those two. 

     He turned to see Kiyone walk up the steps and into the
courtyard, she waved at him and he waved back as his grandfather
got his attention again. He could also feel the ice from Ryoko
and Ayeka on his back, {Don't those two ever give it a rest.
We're just friends for crying out loud!}

     "All right then." Yoshou said, stepping in front of them
both, "I expect you both to work your hardest in everything you
do in this. I will not teach if you have no intention of
learning. This goes for you Kiyone and Tenchi, I want you to
catch up. You've been slowing down."

     Tenchi frowned, "Thanks a lot grandpa. But I've had a life
outside the shrine you know."

     Katsuhito still insisted, "That's still no excuse for you
getting slower."

     Tenchi sighed. It looked like he was going to lose this
either way. He turned to Kiyone to see that she was barely able
to stifle a giggle. The ensuing glare he gave her did nothing to
help as she held her gut and laughed harder. 
     
*************************************************

     Every muscle in their bodies ached. Luckily, Ayeka and Ryoko
got bored with watching them train and left, so that meant
Katsuhito could train them both a bit closer. The reason why was
for one on one sword combat and with the pirate and princess
nearby, they would think that Kiyone would try and put the moves
on their Tenchi. 

     What they didn't know was that Kiyone was putting the moves
on him, the only difference was, they were martial arts moves.
Several times, one would accidentally hit the other and cause a
delay. It was during this time that Kiyone discovered how out of
practice she was on her basic training. 

     When they reached the final meditation exercise, both were
glad to know that it was almost over. They both had to hold a Wu
Chi meditation position for fifteen minutes straight, if they
messed up, they had to start over again. The thought of having to
go through it again gave both GP officer and college student the
extra endurance to last. 

     "Very good you two." Katsuhito said, stepping in between
them. "You can stop now. That's all I will teach you today.
Tenchi, I want you to come back tomorrow after you've finished
your chores and homework. Kiyone, I would appreciate the same
thing from you as well."

     The both collapsed and nodded at his request. They didn't
even know what he said, on account they were just too tired and
worn out to listen. 

     Kiyone groaned as she used her bokken to try and stand up.
She was tempted to just use the thing as a walking stick on her
way home, but knew that Katsuhito would most likely want it back.
Handing back the sword, she bowed to him and turned to leave.
Just as she started down the steps, heard Tenchi say from the
distance, "See ya later Kiyone."

     Turning back, she smiled and replied, "Same to you Ten."
Both namer and namee blinked at the unusual name. The first half
of Tenchi's name, meaning Heaven. Somehow, it seemed to fit for
Kiyone to call him that. Something informal, that was the way the
always talked. It made them both feel comfortable, so he figured
it was ok if she called him that.

     They both gave a brief smile to each other before Tenchi
realized that he had to take care of something at the house. She
shook her head and walked down the stairs to the bus stop. 

     Tenchi did not want to say anything, but he had to go to the
bathroom. He did not dare want to use the facilities at the
shrine, so he made a mad dash through the forest to the house. He
was only yards away from freedom when he was grabbed from behind
by Ryoko.

     "Tenchi, what took you so long! Did you run through the
forest to come back to me?" Ryoko said happily. Yet, the way he
struggled suggested something else was up. 

     "Uh, Ryoko, could you be so kind as to let me go? I got
some... business to take care of." He said hastily. Blinking,
Ryoko did let go and Tenchi ran as fast as his legs could carry
him, past a surprised Ayeka and straight to the bathroom. 

     After taking care of business, it was not long before Ryoko
popped her head through the wall. He had to beg her to leave him
alone, and even then she would not let up. She clawed at his door
like some cat, waiting for some milk.

     Burying his face in his hands, Tenchi whispered, "Some
privacy... my kingdom for some privacy."

*************************************************

     Walking from the shrine, she took another look back at the
general direction of the Shrine and the house. {Poor kid probably
can't even go to the bathroom without one of those two bugging
him.} She shook her head in pity for her friend. He had the kind
of misery that reminded her of her father. 

     Although her dad was a good man, with a decent sense of
humor too, he could just be pitiful to the point where you
couldn't help but chuckle. The last time she saw her father was
when she graduated from school and enrolled in the GP Academy. He
and her only younger brother were sad to see her go, but knew she
would be happier out in space. 

     She often mailed them and they always made sure to playfully
torment her in their letters. Once or twice, her father had asked
her when she was going to be married. To those letters, she did
not respond so calmly as with the others. Her brother asked the
same thing a few times, just to get her goat and it often
succeeded. She wondered when they were going to lay off about
that, she had no plans at the moment to marry anyone. 

Then, she thought of herself in a traditional white gown.
She then realized that she hardly ever wore dresses. It had to
have been years since she last wore something that wasn't pants
or shorts. At least she did not have to worry about someone
calling her a tomboy.

That same image of her in a wedding gown appeared, she was
looking down with a veil covering her face. A pair of hands
reached over and lifted up the veil to reveal herself looking a
bit more beautiful than normally. Then, the owner of the hands
reached down and took her hands in his, when he leaned in to kiss
her, it turned out to be... Tenchi?!

Her eyes widened, looked about to find no one was there, and
screamed in agitation. She and Tenchi were just friends. Nothing
more or less. {Let the brat princess and the pirate bitch fight
over him, or even kill each other for all I care!} She mentally
screamed. She needed something to whack her head against, but
found nothing. 

     If there was someone who was playing with her mind, she
wanted to find out who was doing it and kill them. She had better
things to waste her time with than being married to a friend,
whom she did not love.

     That was when she realized she needed to go somewhere, a
place where she could calm down and ease her nerves. If she was
lucky, the public bath was still open and she could go in there
for a quick dip and head back to her apartment. 

*************************************************

     After the fiasco about the bathroom, Tenchi went up to his
room and completed what little homework he did not finished
because of the training, Ryoko's and Ayeka's bickering, and other
chaos that just happen to come along. 

     Although he was glad for a momentary silence, he knew it was
not going to last. He heard Ryoko's scratching at the door,
begging to be let in. 

     "I'm still working on my homework! Stay out!" Tenchi did not
want to lie, but the lack of privacy was driving him to the edge.
Ayeka was a bit more understanding about his privacy, but Ryoko
constantly made it clear that she was concerned for him. He
appreciated the sentiment, but he did not want to be watched over
twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  He was not sure how
much longer he would be able to last. 

     Words could not describe what he would give to have a normal
life. To have a normal day at college, to come home to a normal
house, a quiet house at that, and to someday live a normal life
with a wife that he would care the way his dad did with his
mother. Although the prospect of having a boring life and
comparing it the one he had now, he would rather have something
in between. His life at the time was too exciting, it was too
much for any normal guy like himself to handle. 

     He leaned on his hand and started to scribble on a blank
sheet of paper. All the while, wondering if there was any hope
for a source of order in his chaotic life. A person he could turn
to whenever things got too rough for him to handle alone, a
friend that could understand where he was coming from.

     That was when he looked down to see that his scribbling had
drawn three hiragana amid the mess. 

     Ki-yo-ne.

     He sighed and realized he was thinking a bit too much about
that ordeal that happened half a month ago. He had to move on or
else who knew what would happen. He crumpled up the paper and
threw it into the trash bin and decided it was time to enter the
breach once more. 

*************************************************

     Lucky for Kiyone, there was hardly anyone else there and she
had the whole women's side to herself. And unlike other public
baths, none of the men could or would peep in on her. If they
did, she would not be responsible for the resulting fatalities. 

     Slowly easing herself into the water, she felt the pain and
tension ease into nothing. If there was something she was happy
about on this world, it was the baths and their unnatural healing
power. The sounds of the water splashing on the sides slowly was
the only sound she heard and she liked it that way. 

     There was no bratty princess talking about her nobility or
some space pirate bitch going about some delusion that never had
any basis in fact. And best of all, no bubble-headed partner to
ruin her life as much as she did. Even if she would not be here
for much longer, she was going to enjoy this temporary heaven as
much as she could.

     Heaven. Ten. Her nickname for Tenchi, her friend. Her best
friend. The only one who took her seriously and knew the pain she
felt sometimes. She thanked whatever powers that controlled the
universe for someone who could understand what she goes through.
A friend that she could spend the rest of her life with... NO! He
was just a friend. And that was the... what, seventh time she
told herself that today?

     What was going on with her? She shook her head in
resignation. She did not want to say it, nor would she. She
needed to clear her head. So, she began to gently sing a simple
chant from her home world. The volume she used was low enough
that if anyone did hear her, they would think it was something
from somewhere else. It was a chant of nocturnal serenity, meant
to calm the souls of those in torment at night.* 

     When the chant ended, she heard clapping from the other side
of the spa. She blinked when she happened to see a woman, about
twenty to twenty-two years old, approach her. Her white-gray
colored hair was tied back in a simple ponytail, and her
childishly large orange-yellow eyes made her stand out. Somehow,
this woman seemed somewhat familiar to Kiyone, but she could not
place where she met this face. 

     "That was beautiful." She whispered and took a seat beside
Kiyone. "You practice a lot?"

     She shook her head. On her homeworld, only the best singers
were made Bards. Such a lucrative career was rather eluded to
most of the people there. She had a talent for singing, it just
wasn't noticed and she didn't care about it. 

     They both let the silence in the room ease the tension a bit
before Kiyone spoke up again, "Can I ask you a question?"

     The woman nodded.

     "Do know of any two people that have been good friends for a
while, but they never fell in love?"

     "I do."

     "Yet, they keep on running into occurrence where they do
care for each other. Not because of some cosmic destiny, arranged
marriage, some 'love at first sight' crap, or other things like
that. But because of friendship, trust, understanding, and mutual
respect." Kiyone could not believe she was going on about this...
and all over just one guy was already taken by two girls already.

     The woman took a minute to put all those numbers into her
head, smiled, then nodded. 

     Blinking, Kiyone tried to make this woman's expertise with
people a bit harder. "And what if there are others that feel the
same way and it interferes with how these two friends feel? Yet
he doesn't show these others the same side that the friend sees."

     As if she was waiting for Kiyone to ask that, she replied
simply, "If he does love you, he will come out and admit it. Not
just based on love alone, but on those qualities you listed
earlier as well. Couples tend to stay together longer when they
trust, understand, and respect each other. As well as love."

     Kiyone remained silent, realizing that this woman knew what
she was talking about, "I might not have been around as longs as
some people, but I've been around long enough to know the good
and bad in such things."

     Looking down, Kiyone then acknowledged her defeat and asked,
"Then... if I want to know how he feels about me... what should I
do? I mean, I don't want to make it seem like I'm..."The woman
stood up and started to exit the spa. 

     "The Spring Festival is coming up. My brothers and I are
planning to play some music. We could use a singer. You play any
instruments?" she asked with a smile. 

     Kiyone was obviously taken back at the sudden offer. "Why?"

     The woman smiled, "It's because if you want to show how you
feel for him, do something out of the ordinary, yet it can get
your message across."         

     That seemed to make sense to her, so she answered, "Well, I
think I got an old lute back at my apartment. But it's been so
long since I've practiced on that." The woman appeared to be
ecstatic about the news, despite the fact that it had been too
long since Kiyone played her mother's hand-made lute. 

     "Don't you worry about a thing. We got about a week before
the festival starts. My brothers and I can help you find that
edge again. Are you up to it though? I mean, you still want to do
this?"

     Kiyone then weighed the options. She could continue acting
like an idiot for possibly nothing, or just get the realization
drilled back into her head that Tenchi and she were only friends.
Well, she didn't really have anything to lose. So, she agreed. 

     "Oh, by the way, who are you?" she asked as the woman nearly
left. 

     "My name's Sanko Uchikishi. And don't worry about finding
me, I'll give you a call tomorrow." She said as she left the
room. 

     Knowing that she might finally get her answer made her feel
a little bit better. Yet, as she stepped out of the spa, only
then did the full implications of what could happen come to her.
Crying in resignation, she knocked her head against the wall
several times. She was really going to be in for it, especially
if things turned out for the better.  

*************************************************

     The following week had been one of the most hectic for
Kiyone, if not for anyone else. On the first day she was to
practice with Sanko and her brothers, she could not even come,
due to a sudden work order and of course, Mihoshi decided to let
them know about her previous engagement, and in turn broke
Yoruto's flute. He had to get a new one that same day and they
were not cheap. 

The second day, she made it up to the others by using the lyrics
to an older song she knew of, that they could adapt with their
instruments. But Yoruto wasn't there for a while, he said he had
to help a friend of his build some sort of booth.

The day after that, Sanko and Kiyone had to spend most of their
rehearsal time in just getting the words right, since Sanko was
not that familiar with Kiyone's native language.

     The next day, Sanko's youngest brother, Rokuto, got into a
fight with a few boys at school and had detention. This left
Yoruto and Gouto, Sanko's other brothers, to be prepared in case
one of them couldn't make it in time. 

     On the fourth day, Yoruto had a previous engagement that he
made with his girlfriend the week before and they had to cut the
rehearsal short. 

     On the fifth day, they nearly got the whole song down, but
Mihoshi had followed Kiyone and of course, made a mess of the
Uchikishi's home. It was a miracle that the instruments were
intact. 

     The night before the festival, they finally got the rest of
the song completed and they only thing they needed left was the
proper attire for the festival. For the rest of that day, the
boys had to learn how to sew up the patches they needed to make
on their yukata. And as a way of saying thanks, Sanko took Kiyone
out and bought her a nice, yet inexpensive kimono that would suit
her just fine. 

As far as anything was concerned, Kiyone was ready. Scared out of
her wits, but ready nonetheless. 

     The week for Tenchi had been relatively quiet. It seemed as
though everyone was getting ready for this festival and wanted to
make a good impression in it. So, with what spare time he had, he
and his friends at school decided to put up a booth of their own.
It was somewhat based on a popular American booth, that if one
could hit a bull's eye in the center of a target, that would drop
a platform a certain person would be sitting on and that person
would fall into a tank of water. 

     Of course, Tenchi was the one that got voted to be the one
who would get 'dunked'. Although the though of falling into a
tank of water continuously wasn't that appealing, it was
certainly better than other things he's faced before. So, he
reluctantly went along with their decision. 

     But while designing the plans for the booth, his friends saw
a few of his accidental marks on some of the paper. All of them
were Kiyone's name. His friends never let him have a moments
peace as they asked who this mystery woman was. The finally shut
up when Tenchi threatened to introduce them to Ryoko. They heard
horror stories from him and he simply exaggerated about her to
scare them away. It seemed to have worked.

     It when the booth was nearly done that Tenchi finally broke
the glass with one of his friends. In fact, it was one of his few
friends that he could talk to out of school. One that he could
rely on for advice about a certain person.

     "Say Kenichi." Tenchi asked, putting the hammer and unused
nails away and walking up to his friend.

     "Yeah?" He said, stepping off the ladder after finishing
nailing up the sign. 

     "Can I ask you something?" 

     "Sure."

     "Well, you see... there's this girl..."

     "Aha! So that's who this Kiyone girl is. If you just said
that you were in love with her, we would have left ya alone."

     "That's not what I was going to say. We're just only
friends. Nothing more or less."

     Kenichi on the other hand, was not convinced. "Does this
Kiyone woman say the same thing?"

     He nodded.

     "And have you two been friends for a while? You know, the
trust, respect, and understanding most friends have for each
other."

     A nod.

     "And never had any intentions of going beyond that?"

     A nod.

     "And some odd circumstance that I'll not ask about, made you
start thinking about her more recently?"

     A nod. "Wait! Where are all these questions leading to
anyway?!"

     "What I'm trying to say is that, you may really like this
Kiyone girl."

     "But we're just..."

     "I know, I know. You're just friends. Or so you say."

     "What?"

     "Listen. You tell me of how much you don't like those two
girls bickering over you, but when you talk about this
friend/romantic interest, you seem to forget that the bickering
others are there. Also, you tend to go on how great she is from
time to time. Now THAT should say something."

     "But she's older than I am!" he protested, hoping that this
little piece of logic would get in the way of what seemed to be
the inevitable. 

     Kenichi merely smirked, "If what you told us about her is
true, then she is more than capable of waiting for you to grow
up. I figure she wants a man that can actually think about the
future and you seem to be doing that right now. Face the facts
Ten, you really do care for her."

     Tenchi had no choice but to listen to his friend's words.
So, putting the next thought into the right words, he asked,
"If... if it is true and I... really do care for her... how can I
do it the right way?"

     Kenichi shook his head, "Can't help you there. Sometimes,
destiny has an odd sense of placement and you will be given the
opportunity to say how you really feel. But watch out, you may
only get one chance."

     "But what about the others? I just can't dump them! It'd
kill them."

     Kenichi was silent for a moment before continuing, "Better
let them down now instead of later. It tends to make the wounds
heal faster that way. Just remember Ten, the longer you wait, the
worse it will get."

     Tenchi nodded after carefully absorbing the words spoken to
him. It even made sense that he better do it soon or else someone
might really get hurt. With a thank you, he left Kenichi and
another there. 

     The other helper with the booth walked up to Kenichi. "Did
he tell you about her?"

     Kenichi smirked and turned to his sky blue haired friend.
"Yoruto, I have no idea how you were able to guess what he was
going to say, but it happened just like you said. That's
amazing!"

     Yoruto pushed back some of his sky blue hair and said with a
smile, "Oh, it's nothing much really. I just want to help two
friends of mine make a star... or however that saying went."

*************************************************

     The festival grounds were filled with people coming to and
from booths set up everywhere. A hyper-active blond girl with a
pair of odango was leading a taller black haired man from booth
to booth, in an almost desperate attempt to try out all the
booths. The man was rather apprehensive at his girlfriend's
energy, but was laughing at how happy she was regardless. 

     Another hyper-active girl was dragging along a rather
passive looking blond boy about the same pace as the first girl
did. Behind them, a woman in a kimono, with a squirrel living in
her hair, followed slowly with a fan in her hands. Behind them, a
man with shades eternally locked on his face, was with a woman
that one could easily call his girlfriend. 

     In the fishing contest, a red head girl with a pigtail was
apparently bickering with another girl with a pageboy haircut.
The arguing intensified briefly, but then lessened when the
redhead screeched something she'd rather not have and crossed her
arms, embarrassed. In fact, when the redhead stopped, the other
girl looked at him in shock; but then her face softened, she
reached for her companion, and hugged her gently. The redhead
didn't seem to mind it that much.
     
     Elsewhere, a man with short hair and a pair of glasses was
carrying a woman on his back. Apparently, the woman had a bit
much to drink and she needed to be helped about. After settling
her on a bench, he stood beside her until she woke up again. When
she did come about, the man pushed up his glasses to the bridge
of his nose and knelt in front of the woman and asked if she was
alright. 

     A peppy girl hopped about like a cat, trying to see every
booth that was available to her. Behind her, a boy, no older than
twelve years old, and a girl about the same age as he, ran
behind. 

     At Tenchi's booth, he 'wasn't' having the time of his life.
Almost every person that threw the ball ended up hitting the
target by the second ball. It made Tenchi glad he got used to
being wet. Yet, it was good to know that most of the others were
leaving him alone since they were busy with their own things. 

Those hopes were dashed when Ryoko and Ayeka came along and
demanded that he be released. Fortunately, his friend, Kenichi,
volunteered to take his place and get dunked for a few hours. For
that, he was very grateful and promised that he would help
Kenichi with his next essay. He refused the offer and said he
just wanted to get wet for a while. 

Rubbing his head off with a towel, he was visited by the princess
and the pirate, of course. 

"Tenchi, come on. Let's go to the booths and you can win me a
prize!" Ryoko said while taking his hand. 

"Oh Lord Tenchi, please tell me you were going to do that for me
and disparage the delusion this woman has!" Ayeka said while
pushing away Ryoko into a nearby tree. Yet, it didn't faze Ryoko
as she redoubled her efforts to woo Tenchi. 

"No. He was going to take me! Weren't you Tenchi?" She asked with
a sweet face that wouldn't fool anyone. 

If fate ever was on Tenchi's side, it was at that moment when
Sasami, Washu, and Mihoshi came along. "Hey you guys! Kiyone's
going to be singing in a few minutes. Come on!" Sasami said
excitedly. Taking Tenchi's hand she dragged him to the grounds
where aforementioned woman was to perform. 

*************************************************

     Kiyone looked to the developing crowd with her lute over her
shoulder. Dressed in a dark blue kimono with black birds on it,
she forced herself to calm down. The last thing she needed to do
now was break down at this point. 

     Sanko walked up behind her, placed her hand on Kiyone's
shoulder, and gave a reaffirming squeeze. Kiyone looked to her
compatriot and heard her whisper, "It's all right. Just do what
we practiced., but have fun. Like we did at rehearsal." Even
though Sanko was the one the people was going to be paying
attention to, Kiyone was going to be right beside her. 

     She had no choice but to admire Sanko's optimism. But now
wasn't the time for admiration, now was the time to play music
for the people. 

************************************************* 

     As each player of this small band brought out their own
instruments, Kiyone got a moment to search for her friends as she
strummed her lute. Gouto had just finished moving his taiko drums
to the correct places and Sanko asked them all if they were ready
as quietly as she could. 

Yoruto would be playing the wooden flute that he had purchased
while he repairing his original one that Mihoshi broke. Gouto
would be playing the drums to add in the percussion, and despite
his rather fiery nature, the volume of his instruments would be
minimal. Rokuto would be using a simple dance and singing back up
as he used his tambourines, specially made for him.

     At last, the time was ready and Sanko gave Kiyone one last
reassuring smile before she brought her hands to the instrumental
guitar she was using. What amazed Kiyone was how Sanko was able
to play almost several notes using only three fingers as she
played the opening chorus bars before she actually started to
sing. That was when Kiyone started to assist with her lute. 

~ Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Saldi takmie, de saun tiroihi mizoi deteir go tsur hi.
Sadi tak le bizon terioihi, kalimondo dei ru vi. ~

Kiyone knew it was her turn to join in with Sanko as she played
the bass part, note for note as she practiced. Despite the
difference of two in their notes, it fit to accentuate Yuroto's
flute that joined in.

~ Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Salde tak mei, mizon ti roi hi, biizon nea tea bo tsur hi.
Salier tagme, vizon tier mog hi, kalimondo de ru hi ~

     At that time, Rokuto had started to dance about them slowly,
making sure to wave his seashell tamborine at the right pace,
while singing a third voice for his sister and friend. And though
Gouto wanted to make a bit more noise than what he did with his
taiko, he knew the importance of being gentle in this song.
Besides, there were other ones where he could make a lot of noise
with anyway. 

     The audience didn't know what the words to the song meant,
but the combined effect of Rokuto, Kiyone, and Sanko's voices,
and the instruments made the music flow like a gentle mist
throughout the grounds. Within the minds of all who listened to
the music, they felt as if the mist was carrying them from
wherever they were and into a bliss that only the music could
provide. 

~ Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. 
Salde dag vei, kizou ti roi hi, biison nea tea bo tsur hi.
Sali tagme, vizon tier mog hi, kalimondo de ru hi ~

     During the last sentence, Kiyone looked up to the audience
to find Tenchi was smiling at her. For that instant, everything
seemed lost and forgotten about them. It was if they were in a
world made just for them. A world meant only for those two alone.
For that instant, all the doubts they had slowly faded into
nothing. Whatever that warm feeling they both had, it was
certainly something they wished would never end. 

     Sanko saw Kiyone's smile and went back to her own singing
and playing. It was just as she had hoped things would turn out. 

     Kiyone smiled back and then returned to her lute, the song,
despite how wonderful it was to everyone, was almost done. 

~ Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. ~

     For a brief minute, the only sounds that could be heard was
Rokuto's tambourines and Gouto's drums that were nearly silenced.

~ Kalimondo, kalimondo dei ru hi. ~

     They let the other two brothers another moment of their
instruments before all five of them played the final couple of
bars. The crowd certainly voiced its enjoyment of the song well. 

     In the crowd, Ayeka looked to her right and saw Ryoko
looking more content than she ever did. And she wasn't even
holding onto Tenchi. So, figuring now would be a good time for
talking, she tapped the demon of cyan colored hair. Ryoko came
out of her daze and asked without the usual snide remarks or
surly attitude. 

     "Yeah?"

     "Ryoko... if it's not too much trouble... could you walk
with me for a minute?"

     Ryoko blinked. She never knew that the princess would
actually get off her high horse and ask her just to talk. She
looked about to try and find Tenchi, but found him gone. Since he
wasn't around, she decided to do what she was asked and walk with
the princess.  "Sure. Why not? Got nothing else to do anyway."

     Ayeka smiled inside. She was hoping that she and Ryoko would
finally be able to get along for a moment, if no other time. What
ever was in the air when that song was playing, she was certainly
grateful for it. 

     "Ryoko...  did I ever tell you that I am sometimes envious
of you? Well, no I never did. But I am at times. You can go where
ever you want, do whatever you want, and there's no one stopping
you." Ayeka said wistfully as she and Ryoko walked through the
crowds of people at booths. 

     Ryoko snorted. "Sorry princess, but it's not as good as you
think. When you're a space pirate, you don't have any peace at
all. You're constantly hunted by police and bounty hunters, so
you can't really rest that much. The only way you can get by is
by stealing from others. And despite what you may think, I do
have a conscience, although small, it's still there." Ryoko said,
looking to the side. "Being a princess of Jurai sure beats being
a space pirate. You can get anything you want, got servants to do
what you want, and so much other neat stuff you can't get as a
pirate."

     It was Ayeka's turn to snort, "So you may think Ryoko. As a
Princess, I do things that are expected of me. Such as being
beautiful so my moron of a father can use me to continue having
his power last. You can not have any real friends, on account you
are too busy being told what you are to be or not to be. You are
trapped, whether you like it or not. When you are born, your
future has already been written for you."

     Ryoko turned to her companion, "Is that why you really love
Tenchi? Because he doesn't treat you like all those other
supremacist pricks?"

     {If only that were so.} Ayeka thought forlornly, but lied
perfectly, "Yes. I am not some piece in some chess game to be
used to him. I am something much more with him. Could that be the
same reason for you?"

     "Well, it was because when he was young, he could see me and
became my first friend. But I wonder why he stays away from us. I
mean, we both love him, so why is he so scared?" She asked
looking up with a bit of agitation. 

     {And here I thought you were smarter than that.} Ayeka
thought before responding. "I am not completely sure. But it may
be the fact that we... may be a bit too forceful."

     Ryoko turned to her with a bit of shock, "But I love him!
What more does he need to be convinced that I really love him?"

     "Maybe... it is because we are not giving him the space he
wants."

     "What made you so thoughtful about all this?"

     "Call it the song, or maybe it's just been that I've been
thinking a bit more about it lately. The reason why he doesn't
really respond to us both."

     "Hmph. So your brain actually has more than one use." Ryoko
chided, which only got a sarcastic fake laugh back. 

     "Really funny pirate. But I do think that if we want to get
his affections, we need to let him have more space and choose for
himself." Ayeka said simply. 

     Ryoko looked as though she was just slapped, "But Tenchi has
to choose me! He just has to! I know he will." With that, she ran
off and left Ayeka alone. 

     {You were so close Ryoko... we could have been friends, but
you had to be selfish and now, neither one of us will be happy.}

*************************************************

     After the concert was complete, Tenchi told everyone, save
for Ayeka and Ryoko, that he wanted to talk to Kiyone. He saw her
walking to the edge of the grounds of the festival. So, passing
through the trees, he found her sitting on a bench he often sat
at after festivals of past years. She was looking at the moon,
deep in thought. 

     When he walked up to her from the side, it was then that he
noticed how the dark really made her look better than usual. So,
taking a silent breath, and making a silent prayer, he made his
move. 

     "Hi." He said simply. She turned to him and smiled as if she
was almost expecting him to come to her. 

     "Hi yourself, Ten. What's up?" She asked, leaning against
the back of the bench. 

     "Well, other than the fact that you really did a good job
out there, I'm ok." He said, taking the seat beside her. 

     She chuckled for a second, "Thanks. And the odd thing is
that I don't usually play instruments or sing. The only things
I'm really good at are being a cop and putting up with Mihoshi."
They both got a laugh from that and the comfortable silence that
followed, Tenchi made the next move. 

     "Say Kiyone... we're friends. Right?"

"Like you need to ask. We've always been friends ever since
I came to this planet." She said with a smirk. 

     "And I am eternally grateful for that. Otherwise the only
way out of my life would be to end it. I don't think I could take
Ryoko and Ayeka's bickering for that long without someone to help
keep me sane."

     Kiyone snorted, "Same thing with me and Mihoshi. Most other
occasions, I would despise living on the same planet as her, but
when I got someone like you to keep me from going postal. It
turns out it's not so bad at all." She opened up a can of tea she
had bought after the song and took a sip. 

     "Oh, by the way. What were you two singing about anyway?" He
asked, putting aside a bag of a few things he had won from a
booth or two from earlier that evening.

     "Kalimondo. The Universal Truths. From my home world, it's a
song most people sung at weddings, days of birth, that sort of
thing. On occasion, people use it to say the truth on how they
feel... mostly for proposals or if people want to advance their
relationship. It's the truth on how they feel about another." She
turned to him, hoping he got the message. What she didn't expect
was... he did. 

     He sighed and started to shake his head, but still smiled
nonetheless. Even though he understood what she meant, she didn't
understand what he meant. And it quickly turned to agitation.
"What's so funny? Is that you find it funny that yet another girl
is chasing you?"

     Knowing what could happen if he did nothing, he quickly
calmed her, "No, no, no. What I find funny is that through all
the chaos in my life, out of all the confusion I went through,
the first time I really do like a girl, I find out she likes me
back. And not because of some reason why I can't like her back.
Not because I'm destined to be some emperor or that I gave
freedom to someone... but because she's a friend." And with those
words, he placed his right hand on her left. 

     Kiyone's eyes would have gone wide, but they didn't. In
fact, she started to smile and chuckle a bit. This time though,
neither one misunderstood the other. They both knew what they had
to give to the other and both were more than willing to accept
it. She turned her hand over and accepted his hand in hers. 

     Shaking her head, Kiyone said, "You know... I never thought
I'd find myself with someone like you. Somehow though, I don't
mind in the least. In fact, I like it."

     With confidence gained, he looked back to the moon, "Well,
let's not get too comfortable about this. I mean, the last thing
we want to do is a repeat of... well, you know. I don't wanna go
that fast."

     Blinking, she quickly nodded. "Neither do I. We still got
our futures to think about," then her eyes got a bit shifty, "and
our future too." He smiled at her insinuation and put his hands
behind his head, laid back, and stared at the moon in a pensive
mood.

     "Yep. I still gotta find myself in the future." His face
slowly darkened, "Yet, somehow, I don't know if I even want to
know what I'm going to be."

     She turned to him, in the middle of a sip of her tea. "Why
do you say that?"

     "Because I'm most likely to be a part of the Juraian court
if I ever leave this place. I don't really find the prospect of
ruling an empire, or even being one of the higher parts of it,
that appealing." He said, remembering his heritage all to well.

     "Not too many in the Conglomerate like the Juraian Holy
Council. But there's always a few of the exceptions that people
like." She said, hoping to raise his spirits a bit, but knowing
that she said the wrong things.

He still persisted. "I still don't like it."

     "Sometimes, we don't even get a choice and our ignorance
ends up costing the lives of those we never see."

     "I didn't say I was going to refuse my possible future, I
just said I didn't like it."

     "Well, maybe you can get those supremacist pucks off their
pedestals and bring them back to reality." She said with a raise
of her can and a sip of tea. "Get those jerks off of the backs of
the common man, make the universe a better place to live for
everyone."

     He chuckled, "Yeah, Tenchi Masaki, Savior of the Universe.
Yeah right."

     She smirked, not letting her friend berate himself just like
that, "You got those Light Hawk Wings. It's a symbol of hope for
many peoples. If you can't change the universe, then maybe you
can help it bit by bit."

     "Maybe... maybe."

     Kiyone took a final sip of her tea and put the can on the
ground. She looked to her right and saw Tenchi was turning to
her. And that was where they stayed for a while before Tenchi
spoke up. "Kiyone... do you want to... never mind. I never should
have thought of it." With that he turned away from her. 

     Somehow, Kiyone knew what he wanted to say. So, she moved
over by him, turned his face to her, and gently kissed him.
Kiyone never credited herself as a good kisser, but guessing from
the fact that he didn't pull away, she was doing it right. 

Tenchi was surprised that she had basically read his mind, and at
the same time happy. Here he was, with the first girl in his life
that he really did care for. Maybe the outlook on his future
wasn't so bad after all. 

The kiss was brief, but for them, it lasted just long enough, and
they were grateful. Kiyone put his head on her shoulder and her
head on his. She threw her arm over his shoulders and gave his
shoulders an affectionate squeeze.  

     This was where their lives together would truly begin. 

     "Say Kiyone."

     "Yeah?"

     "By any chance, did you happen to see fireworks?"

     "I did. So why did you... oh, I see."

*************************************************

Date: September 13, 2000
Event: The Second Impact

     The blast came with no warning. When it seemed like there
was no hope for any of them, a trio of black blades appeared in
front of the house. Tenchi and Sasami looked outside to see
Kiyone was commanding those giant black blades that were holding
the blast back. The Black Raven wings had saved them all. 

     "I can't hold this forever!" Kiyone screamed to everyone.
So, thinking quick, Washu took Ryo-Oh-Ki from Sasami and told him
to change as fast as she could. With no argument, the cabbit
changed into its space ship form, behind the shield Kiyone had
set up. 

     "Everyone! Get in quick!" Washu screamed to all the
occupants. Nobuyuki didn't bother to argue as she scrambled up
the doorway, Ayeka, Sasami, Azaka, Kamidake, and Mihoshi quickly
followed suit. Yet, Ayeka stayed behind when Katsuhito didn't get
on. 

     "What are you doing?! You'll be killed!" Ayeka screamed. 

     "I have made my choice... I am not going to somewhere I am
not wanted." He said simply. 

     She frowned at him after Tenchi ran past her into the ship.
"So be it, coward!" she hissed. 

     Ignoring her words, he walked calmly to Kiyone and said, "I
take it you'd better get on with them."

     She smirked, "Not until their out of the vicinity of the
blast. I can catch up!" She reached forward and the largest of
the three blades covered her, changing her once normal attire
into the darker version of Tenchi's light hawk uniform. "But what
about you?"

     He shook his head. "Don't worry about me, you just make sure
and keep my grandson happy. Ok?" She was about to argue, but he
shook his head again and told her to go. 

     Turning back to the ship, she screamed, "Ok, close the
hatch! I'll catch up and let down the shield after we clear the
atmosphere!"

     "You sure?" Washu screamed back. "Ryo-Oh-Ki can stand blasts
like this!"

     "No she won't! This isn't the usual type of explosions...
this type can tear Ryo-Oh-Ki apart at the seems. Just do what I
say and I'll be able to join guys in a minute!" She yelled
louder, starting to lose control of the shield. 

     Washu acknowledged her and closed the hatch. With that done,
Kiyone backed up to the point where she could lean against the
ship. It was then the ship began to take off, yet she still kept
a single shard of the third blade to protect Katsuhito. Yet, the
farther away she flew, the less control she had over the shard.
Soon enough, the shield left and his form was lost. 

     After several more minutes of the blast pounding against her
wings, Kiyone felt the air begin to thin and the blast beginning
to weaken. Until finally, they pierced the top of the blast wave
and started to increase speed from the planet, just as Kiyone got
into the ship. 

     As her form materialized on the inside, Mihoshi, Sasami, and
Tenchi ran to her side as she gasped for air. 

     "You ok?" Tenchi asked as he slung one of her arms over his
shoulders and picked her up. 

     "Yeah... it's just that using the Raven Wings take out more
than I'd like them too. I don't need to use it at full power all
the time." She said as one of the crystals became a seat for her
to sit on. 

     "You get used to it. Trust me on this one." Tenchi said with
a smile as he set her upon the chair. 

     Then they all turned back to see the Earth, covered with the
sepia colored winds. And then the four wings that emerged from
the North Pole. 

     "What in the..." Ryoko said staring at the sheer immense
size of them. Wondering just what exactly those wings were
attached to. Not only that, she could easily guess that a good
number of people had died. The human race would be lucky if there
was anyone left after this one. 

     Tenchi took another look at the Earth and wondered if any of
his friends were still ok. "Kenichi, Hiwa, Yuuichiro, Ryouta." He
whispered. He spent his childhood with them and now they were
most likely dead. Just like that. They didn't do anything that
was worth this. Fate could be so cruel to anyone. 

     As Ryo-Oh-Ki went into hyperspace to Juraian territory, four
lights flew out of the blast waves and into space. One of them
gray, another orange, another green, and the last one purple.
When the lights faded, it turned out to be three males and a
single woman.  

     "*Cough* Jeez, and I thought the air on Midgarna was bad!"
said the second male. Brushing away some debris that got into his
hair. 

     "Come on brother, something must have happened. I doubt that
anything man could do at this point that would cause something
like this to happen." The first male said.

     "You never know. Maybe they had this coming for a while."
Said the youngest of them, but was promptly bapped on the side of
his head by the female of the group and the oldest one.

     "Don't say such things brother, we're not supposed to say
such things." She said sagely, but the way she hit her sibling
would have proved her immaturity, "Besides, all that matters is
that the Hawk and the Raven have returned to each other. But I am
sure going to miss being Sanko."

     "Well, I'm not going to miss being the kid everyone picked
on at school." The youngest growled. "You wouldn't believe how
many fights I got into just because I was short."

     Then, the first male looked back at the planet and wondered,
{Sera... please be alright.}

     His younger brother grabbed his shoulder and gave him a look
that showed how he felt. 

     "Come you guys. We must protect her still. The Juraians are
not exactly going to welcome a pair of non-Juraians with open
arms." The woman said. Then, her brothers nodded and slowly
started to gain speed on their sister. 

*************************************************

     Several hours later, Ryo-Oh-Ki landed on the main platform
of the space station just out of Jurai's orbit and its precious
passengers. Of course, Misaki came running at a furious pace,
wondering if her daughters were alright. When the hatch opened to
reveal them all looking rather haggard she exclaimed, "What
happened?!"

     Sasami ran into the arms of her mother and Ayeka tried her
best to explain, "I am not exactly sure myself, but there seems
to have been a rather massive explosion that completely
encompassed the planet." 

When Ayeka noticed Funaho running down to see if her son was with
them, she met her aunt eye to eye and shook her head. She never
saw Funaho show that much emotion, but she could clearly see that
she missed her son. "I am deeply sorry Lady Funaho, but he chose
to stay behind. We barely made it off planet ourselves."

     "I see." Funaho said simply. Yet, she breathed a few times
and fought to regain her composure. "I should have known that he
would never return."

     Ayeka embraced her aunt and hoped that she would still be
strong. 

     When the police officers, the Masaki, and the pirate left
the ship reports of the events at Earth soon spread throughout
the empire. 

     Earth had experienced what most called, an 'Impact'. Where
an explosion of such world shattering proportions occurred and
devastated the animal and residential population. Most
populations were reduced by half or more and the world was
changed in such a way that the old maps would be of no use
whatsoever.

*************************************************

     A next day, Ayeka, in a change of clothes, had volunteered
to go before the council and give them the complete story. Kiyone
and Mihoshi didn't argue, but they wondered why. On the floor,
Ayeka and Tenchi were quietly speaking in the entryway to the
main hall.

     "Ayeka, are you sure you want to do this?" Tenchi asked her
apprehensively, tugging at the collar of the Juraian uniform he
wore. 

     She smiled confidently back, "Yes. If you were to try and
speak to these boneheads, they would tear you apart! Am I
correct?"

     Tenchi sighed and nodded. Ayeka smiled and gave him a
reassuring hug, not the usual types of glomps she did before.
This surprised him. "Everything will turn out for the better Lord
Tenchi. We just need to wait a while."

     He smiled back and pat her shoulder as she stepped into the
meeting hall. 

     In the meeting hall, the complete Holy Council sat in a
pillar of circled rows. The lower one was, the more important
that particular member was. Ayeka stepped up to the center of the
floor as the gaze of the council focused on her. Picking up a
status pad report and appeal, she read it to them without
stuttering a single word and with perfect confidence.

     "On Juraian calendar year 31,486, third month, first
quadromester, Earth experienced what most call an 'Impact'. We
have no exact information as to how this even occurred, but when
the time comes, an investigation will be put underway to insure
the truth is know. Although we do not have exact numbers, we have
reason to believe half of the species is dead and civilization is
in ruins."

     A few of the older member murmured to themselves, wondering
how Earth exactly became a victim of an Impact without the kind
of weapons or types of environment needed to cause an Impact. 

     "Among those dead is Prince Yoshou Jurai. We were able
confirm his demise on account that his form was lost in the
blast. He had no intention of return to Jurai."

     Once more, murmurs spread throughout the room. 

     "At this time, I have come with an appeal to the Holy
Council to admit a representative of Earth into the Holy Council
to represent his world and to appeal you for assistance in the
aid of Earth. The reason for this being that our current First
Empress is from Earth and the late Prince Yoshou is half Earthen
and his grandson and the candidate for election is an eighth
Juraian. Not only that, when the time comes that Emperor Azusa
retires, he may have an hair in the form of his great-grandson.
Tenchi Masaki."

     Several members of the council started to voice out their
opinions rather violently, but so many started to speak at once
that it was all lost in the argument. In the front row of the
council seats, a larger man leaned on his hands, lost in thought.
{These idiots are not going to get us anywhere.}

     The council seemed to be torn about what to do about letting
Tenchi in as a member of the Holy Council. Most of the weaker
members voiced the wrongness of letting a lesser species into the
Council. Where as some of the stronger ones saw the possible
advantages of letting him in. Then the emperor slammed down the
gavel that silenced everyone there.

     He stood up and addressed his daughter, "The Holy Council
has always been and always will consist of Juraian only members.
We will not allow a human from some backwater planet to just join
in, just because of a blood line that he accidentally got.
Moreover, I can choose another son from the nobles to marry into
the Royal Family to carry on Emperorship."

     "I object!" Shouted what could have been the loudest voice
there. All eyes turned to the large man as he stood up, "I,
Yoshimatsu, object to the rejection of Tenchi Masaki of Earth."
Ayeka, everyone in her party, the Emperor, and the rest of the
Council stared. 

Yoshimatsu was the second most powerful noble in the Juraian
empire and certainly older than Azusa, having trained him and his
father. "My reasons for this should be evident. I can tell the
talent that this boy Tenchi has from what I have heard of him in
the past. He has much to learn, but I firmly believe that he will
lead the empire with a just hand and a compassionate heart, the
markings of a great emperor and lift up the opinion of the Empire
of everyone in the galaxy."

     This time, Azusa stood up, the anger in his voice becoming
more apparent, "Are you suggesting putting this boy in my place?!
Of betraying the Juraian people of a true emperor?"

     Yoshimastu turned and smirked at his former student, "I said
the very same thing about you when you were young and the council
considered talking having another in your place. I am simply
doing what is best for the future of the empire. Even you know
that well enough Azusa."

     Azusa blinked in shock at the words of the older man. He was
right and the exact same thing was happening, when he promised
his teacher he wouldn't do the same thing his father did. So, now
was time to make good on that promise and keep the honor of the
Royal Family. 

     "It has come to my attention that Councilman Yoshimatsu has
brought up several valid points. In light of this new
information, I will allow the representative from Earth to be in
the council. And someday, he will succeed me when the time is
correct for emperorship. This has been my decision. All who stand
against?" A third of the members quickly showed their mistrust to
Tenchi. "And who is for?" All the remaining members voiced their
idea of making the empire stronger than before with a stronger
emperor.  

     Tenchi breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that the only
thing he could do was this. And he had heard the stories of how
bad the council could be. Luckily, fate was on his side and he
was safe for the time being. Now all he had to do was live long
enough to be the emperor. {If this is my destiny, then so be it.}

     He then noticed the giant of a man that came to his defense,
walking towards him. "You are Tenchi, are you not?" he asked with
a deep and powerful voice. Tenchi nodded and stammered,

     "Um... it's nice to meet you."

     The sheer size difference between them was unsettling, yet
some of the fear vanished when the man smiled and took his hand.
"It is an honor to meet you and to finally meet a bearer of the
Light Hawk. I never thought I'd live long enough to see it."

     "Well, it plays its games with me at times. So I can't just
pull it out of nowhere." He said, shaking his head. Instead, all
he got was his massive hand on his shoulder.

     "Don't worry about it that much. Besides, there are more
important things to worry about. Like helping you beat those in
the empire that don't exactly like you and training you to take
the throne someday." He said. 

     Tenchi blinked, "You mean you're going to..." 

Yoshimatsu nodded. "I taught the last three Emperors everything I
know. And I hope that my best student will be another of that
same line. Meaning you."

     Tenchi was flattered to say the least, "Well, I don't know
what to say."

     Yoshimatsu stood up and started to walk away. "Just make
sure you give it your all. Because that's what I expect from the
next Emperor."

*************************************************

     So, with help being sent to Earth, the Juraians worked in
secret to help replicate the civilization that Earth had at one
time. 

     After three years of reconstruction, the Juraians secretly
pulled out and left Earth to its own designs. It was on the
suggestion of the council that Earth be able to come to Jurai
first if they were to be part of the Empire. 

     During that time, Representative Tenchi Masaki worked
alongside Galaxy Police Officer Kiyone Makabi, who requested a
transfer to Tenchi side as an aide. With both of them working on
the reconstruction, along with Ayeka Jurai, Earth was able to
bounce back from the tragedy that had occurred. 

     Once the rebuilding was complete, Representative Masaki was
to make an announcement that, although would mean little to the
Empire, but would mean much to him. 

*************************************************

Date: August 2, 2003/ Juraian Year 31,489, Gous (Second month),
Mias (third quadromester). 

     Tenchi, now man of 24, took a deep breath and looked back up
to Kiyone, who stared in confusion. She was in the middle of
filing the total cost for the repairs of Earth when a meeting was
called for an important announcement. She was in one of the
meeting rooms where the council often met. The only difference
was, she, Tenchi, Representative Yoshimatsu, Washu, Mihoshi,
Sasami, and Nobuyuki were waiting for her as well. When she
entered, it appeared they were all waiting for her. 

     "Kiyone Makabi." He paused for a second, gathering his
thoughts before continuing. "Over the years, you have been more
than a friend to me. You have been so much more. For your being
there for and with me, I will be eternally grateful... and I
would be honored if..." he gulped and Kiyone could hear the
others prodding him on. "If... if... if you would be at my side
as my wife, significant other, and partner." With that, he pulled
out a small black box and opened it to reveal a small ring made
of Garcium, a long lasting and precious mineral that couples
often used for rings to signify their matrimony. 

     The datapad Kiyone held was suddenly dropped on the floor on
account that she had lost her grip on it out of shock. She
blinked several times as the digested each and everyone of his
words. Tenchi was asking her to marry him. Plain old Kiyone
Makabi with nothing really special about her. Yet, Tenchi seemed
to love her enough to the point where he saw the woman inside
that everyone seemed to pass up. Also, working with him had
proven to be some of the best times they had together. 

Though she never acting like some silly school girl with some
crush, she knew for a fact that that kiss that they shared
several years ago had grown on them. And now, here she was, in
love with a man that loved her back for everything that she was.
To everyone else, she was just a normal person... but to Tenchi,
she was much more and for that she was grateful.

When it seemed like the others were about to try and wake her,
she shook her head to come to her senses., looked at Tenchi and
slowly nodded. "Yes... I gladly accept."

     Mihoshi started to wail with joy as Sasami and Ryo-Oh-Ki
tried their best to calm her. Yoshimatsu and Nobuyuki voiced
their approval rather loudly, but they did not care. Washu
smirked knowingly to herself, almost as if she knew this was to
happen. 

Her smirk vanished when she felt Ryoko flying down the hallway,
almost expecting his announcement to be for her. Tenchi had told
her on several occasions that he did not love her, but she would
not believe it. Washu didn't want to see her daughter like this,
but she had brought it upon herself when she refused to listen to
the truth and continue to live in her own fantasy world. Now, the
blood would begin to spill. 

Ryoko dashed through the door, happy to think that Tenchi was
finally going to announce their engagement. Sadly, her smile
faded when she saw Tenchi and Kiyone, laughing and the former was
swinging around the latter happily. It was at first her dream
come true at hearing Tenchi make that announcement, but seeing
this, her first love choose another, it turned into a nightmare.

"No... Tenchi... you can't be serious... I was supposed to be the
one..." she whimpered. Yet a snide, venom filled hiss from behind
her, caused her to turn.

"And so, the circle has finally run its course to the end." Ryoko
turned to see Ayeka with the most sinister grin any Juraian was
capable of  giving. This did not make sense to Ryoko. She thought
Ayeka loved Tenchi too, and she would most likely be torn up as
much as she was. 

"What are you talking about?" Ryoko asked. All she got for an
answer was a laugh so controlled, so precise, it made Ryoko
wonder if it was really Ayeka. 

"And here I thought you were more intelligent than that. Very
well then, I shall explain it to you." With that, Ayeka raised
her hand, and with a near ear-shattering crack, Ryoko was
slapped. In addition, the former's nails raked across Ryoko's
cheek, causing three red lines to appear. "Now... WE ARE EVEN!!!"
She screeched and stomped out of the room. Leaving everyone else
look in shock at what just transpired.  

*************************************************

     Ayeka was on top of the world. Her revenge against Ryoko was
complete, the pirate had been humiliated and there was no way
that she could come out on top. Ayeka was truly the winner. Now,
there was one thing left to do. With that she headed to her room. 

     She was only a few meters away from her the elevator when
Ryoko materialized out of nowhere and grabbed Ayeka's collar.
"Alright princess, are you going to tell me what the hell's going
on here?!" Despite the ferocity she put into the threat, the
princess didn't even seemed to fear her. 

     "Very well then, bitch. I shall tell you. Think of it as a
gift to something of your low intelligence." She hissed back,
without showing the slightest bit of fear. 

     "First of all, you stole the only man I ever loved from me.
And you killed him by bringing him to Earth. You killed Yoshou.
And so, when I came looking for him, I discovered your affection
for Tenchi. So, I simply used him to make sure you were just one
step away from happiness, yet would never get there. Like the
pieces in a chess set, I arranged everything so Lord Tenchi and
Lady Kiyone would end up together and leave you in the dark.
Alone and afraid, just like I was. So, now, as the humans say:
Check mate! I win!"

     Ryoko growled and forced the princess into a wall and pulled
out an energy saber and held it to Ayeka's neck. "And what if I
decided to just chop you up into little, itty, bitty, pieces? Who
will have won then, huh?"

     Ayeka smirked back and said, "I would still win. You don't
think I've thought of this. The little baby, losing her precious
Tenchi, wanting to kill me just because I ruined her happiness.
What you don't know that I've been building a secret power base
just in case. With men that are loyal to me and me alone! Not
Tenchi, not Yoshimatsu, and especially not my father or Yoshou.
No matter where you are on Jurai, Ryoko, they're watching you and
waiting for you to make the mistake that would send the entire
fleet after your hide. For you see, you ruined their lives as
well and were more than happy to get a chance to kill you... once
more, I win."

     Ryoko snarled, "And what about if the Princess were to
suddenly disappear from Jurai? What if there weren't able to find
you?"

     Ayeka still did not flinch. "With footage with you and I
being seen together last? And I wouldn't go willingly with you
for all the currency in the whole universe! Everyone knows that.
I'm staying here on Jurai, for that's where I am working with
Tenchi, gaining his trust and friendship. For if you were to kill
me, Tenchi himself would hunt you down to the far reaches of the
galaxy just to have your head. Once more, I win."

     At this time, Ryoko was starting to develop tears from her
eyes, "Then why don't you just try and marry him now. Make it
hurt even worse."

     "Oh, I would simply love to do that, but the fact of the
matter is that I don't love him." With that, she turned to the
right, "Not only that, even if I were in love with Tenchi,  I
would not be qualified by Juraian law to be his other wife, were
he to ascend to the throne."

     "Wh... why?"

     "Because in my attempts to keep myself young and beautiful
for Yoshou, it ended up withering my reproductive organs.
Therefore, I am barren. I nearly murdered myself for a lost
cause. Yet, it's a blessing in a way. I won't have to marry any
incompetent fools from other powerful houses just to make sure my
foolish father stays in power longer."

     Ryoko blinked at the last sentence. She still had a chance
to live from all this.

     She looked down, almost as if she was tired from everything
that had happened. "While on Earth, I found out that in a certain
old book called the Scarlet Letter, it spoke of a character who
was so deep into his desire for revenge... that it ended up
destroying him at the end. Even if his revenge had come to
completion, he was so deep into his desire for vengeance that he
lost all his will to live. Now that I have destroyed your
happiness, there is nothing left for me. It is no different for
me than it was for that character."

     With that, she pulled a small white tablet from the pocket
in her kimono. "Do you know what this is? It is a tablet, made of
a very deadly poison called Cyanide." She took a look at the
tablet and continued, "How ironic that humanity's greatest holy
man gave a sermon on a hill of the same name, and is also named
for a poison that is just as deadly to Juraians as it is to
humans. As  soon as I get to my room, I intend to kill myself to
fulfill my last objective. To die in my complete and total
victory over you."

     Ryoko said incredulously, "Why are you bothering to tell me
then?"

     "Because I know you won't bother to tell anyone. You hate me
and I hate you. So in a way, we both win, but in the end... I am
the only victor... now release me or else you would rather have
the guards escort you to the prison for threatening Juraian
royalty."

     Ryoko reluctantly let the princess go. With the same venom
filled smirk, she sneered, "As the humans say Ryoko... see you in
hell." With that the princess left the pirate alone. When the
platform lifted the princess away. The pirate growled and punched
the wall in agitation. Ayeka had won and there was no way out of
it. Or was there?

*************************************************

     {I'm tired... so tired.} Ayeka thought, walking down the
empty hallway towards her room. Noticing her feet was the only
source of sound, she stood still for a moment and let the silence
prevail in the hall. Yes. She had won. Now with Ryoko beaten, she
could rest in peace at last. 

     She couldn't believe that now. She had just destroyed two
lives because of her own hate. There was no hope for her soul
now. Since there was nothing for her here, death would be the
only real true escape. But for the sins she committed: lying,
subterfuge, and blackmail, Tsunami would most likely banish her
soul to the darkest regions of the wasteland. 

     The wasteland... the only place where souls of the damned
went. Juraians of any and all kinds loved trees. In the
wasteland, there was no trees, no life, no hope. If she was
lucky, a soul eater would put her out of her misery. 

     She looked back and thought, {Lord Tenchi... Lady Kiyone...
may your rule be long and happy. And may you avoid the mistakes I
made.} With that and a sigh, she walked to her room. It would not
be long now. 

     Just then, Azaka and Kamidake, out of their log bodies,
appeared in front of her door. She blinked in surprise, it had
been a while since she saw them both in these forms. 

     Without any words, Azaka extended his staff over Ayeka's
head and created a stasis field over her. "Wait a minute! What
are you doing?!" She yelled. Azaka turned to his partner. 

     "Check her pocket. Then see if there are any others."
Kamidake nodded, and reached through the stasis chamber and into
her kimono, where he pulled out the tablet that would kill her.
Then, he waved his staff in front of her a few times, looked back
to Azaka and shook his head. That was when Azaka spoke again,
"Lady Ayeka Jurai, we are under orders to arrest you and confine
you to your quarters." With that, they both reached for her arms. 

     Of course, she refused, "Under who's authority?!"

     Azaka's face went stern as he opened the door. "Under
Councilman Masaki's and the Emperor himself." With that, they
gently forced her into the room, closed the door, and activated a
lock which would confine her there. 

*************************************************

     An hour later, Ayeka turned to the door as Tenchi and Kiyone
walked in. Apparently, they were confused at the current events
and wanted to know the truth just like anyone else. 

     "Ayeka, what was the meaning of that outburst a hour ago?
You've scared Sasami into thinking that you're not even her
sister now. It was like you were someone else." He stammered, not
at all believing that the Ayeka he heard an hour ago was the real
princess. 

     Looking down, she sighed, looked back up and said, "Do you
wish to hear the whole story? Lady Makabi, you as well?" She
looked to both the representative and his fiancée. Taking a
second to look at each other, they nodded. 

     For the next fifteen minutes, Ayeka described everything she
could that went from pretending to love Tenchi, to using him, to
blackmailing Yoshou, and planning on killing herself. Both were
shocked, to say the very least. 

     "Lord Tenchi, I have no wish to be shown any mercy. I will
not accept any other punishment, except death. For what I have
done has dishonored my family, dishonored you, and has forfeited
my right to both live as a princess and to live." She said
firmly. 

     Both looked at her with shock. But when Tenchi stepped up
and whispered a few things to Kiyone, he turned to her and said,
"If you'll excuse us, we need to talk about a few things." With
that, they exited the door and whether they knew it or not, Ayeka
sneaked behind them and listened through the door. 

     "So... does that mean that..." Kiyone started, but was
quickly interrupted by Tenchi. 

     "No Kiyone. If there's one thing that I know for sure, is
that I love you. I respect, trust, and honor you. Even if it was
all part of some deception, my feelings for you won't change...
no matter what." 

     "Thanks. I hope you know I feel the same way."

     "That's what I hoped. Now... what are we going to do about
*her*?"

     "Well... I don't know about you, but I got an idea."

     "Really?"

     "Come here, listen..." and with that, Kiyone's voice slowly
faded to the point of a whisper. That when Ayeka knew she could
hear no more and went back to her seat. A few minutes later, the
door opened again and Ayeka's visitors returned. This time, it
was Kiyone who spoke up. 

     "After talking about it, we decided that we can't let you
kill yourself."

     "But why?! I know that..." This time, Kiyone interrupted
her.

     "Wait! Let me finish. I said that we can't let you die
because you actually needed more than you think." Ayeka blinked
in confusion. "We're new here. You know your way around the
system. You can teach us how to be able to take care of ourselves
with the egos of the council and somehow make this part of the
galaxy a better place to live." 

     Ayeka found her words to be more than filled with truth. She
knew when people were lying or not, and Kiyone was not lying.
Then the thought of a new purpose came to mind. It sounded much
more appealing than being eaten in the Wastelands. Another chance
for redemption. She liked that idea. 

     "Very well then. I accept." She said with an extended hand.
Tenchi smiled, took her hand, and shook it. "But if  I may ask a
question..." they both blinked, "...how exactly did you gather
word of my suicide attempt? I did not tell anyone."

     "Oh, but you did, princess." Said a voice from nowhere. Just
then, Ryoko materialized beside Ayeka with a mischievous smirk.
"You guessed wrong about me telling anyone." 

     Ayeka was beyond shocked, not only that, but horrified,
"Why?! You don't have ample reason to do so!"

     Ryoko raised an eyebrow, "Oh really? You think I was just
going to let you die after you won like that? I've been hired as
a bodyguard for you by your dear old man. And as far as I'm
concerned, I'm going to make your life as miserable as possible."

     "Ryoko!" Both Tenchi and Kiyone said simultaneously.

     Ryoko waved them off casually, "Hey, calm down. I was
kidding." With that, she picked up the princess and hugged with
one arm, "So princess. Let's say you and I go into town, get
drunk, tell each other sob stories, and bash a few heads in?"

     "What... why are you acting like this?" Ayeka asked, wanting
to go crazy with all that's been happening. 

     "Well... I've had a little time to think about what you
said. And as much as I hate to admit it... I've had something
like this coming for a LONG time. So, what do you say you and I
try to get off on the right foot this time?" the former pirate
offered. 

     Ayeka sighed, {All this hate, all that planning... and
instead of dying I get another chance and a new friend...It's
like what they call a happy ending... I think, I'm going to be
sick.} "I don't see why not," she replied. 

*************************************************

Date: May 19, 2100/ United Earth Year 71/ Juraian Year 31,586,
Kayern (First Month), Agao (Second Quaromester)

     The day started out as all did before them, until a message
from a relay satellite from the Sol System and the Council was
called into a meeting immediately. 

     "From reports gotten from the satellite, it appears that the
United Government of Earth has been beaten at every turn by an
invading force. During several battle witnessed, there appears to
have been a calm between Earth and the invaders, known only as
the Lahdam. As far as the extent of the damage is, it is unknown
at the present time. We would have to estimate that over twenty
million of the human race have been wiped out. With the Lahdam
spore plant contamination as intense as it is, we would have to
assume that immediate assistance is required." Representative
Tenchi Masaki said to the council. 

The very second he got the report, he was in near hysterics to
try and help his home world. Though he came to accept Jurai as
his home, seeing his dad age and inevitably pass on was rather
hard for him, and Earth was still his home, no matter what.  

     Now, he was making an appeal to the council to assemble a
strike force and relief workers back to Earth. To not only stop
the Lahdam, but to help his home planet once more. He was already
in trouble with the council for making this same appeal nearly a
century ago, but for his home world, he would do nearly anything.
No other Juraian would do any less if they were in his shoes. 

     For the next several minutes, the council was discussing
what to do. Tenchi was beginning to get apprehensive. Whenever
they took more than five minutes discussing what to do, it
usually was not good. 

     Taking his gavel, the Emperor announced, "Have you all made
your decisions?" They all nodded. "Very well, all who vote in
favor for the appeal?" Nearly half of the council members raised
their hands. "And against?" Tenchi couldn't tell if there were
more or less than the same number of votes he got. Yet, his hopes
for his home world were dashed when the Emperor spoke, "By a 76
to 74 vote, the appeal has been revoked."

     "What?!" Tenchi cried. He was only one vote from tying and
another from getting his appeal passed. "You can't be serious!
The people of my home are in danger and you don't even have the
decency to send out a small strike force and relief workers?"

     Azusa began to stand, "The council has made its choice. The
Earthen people will have no choice but to..." he turned back to
the pad that had the results. The numbers appeared to have
changed. "It appears that my announcement was rather premature.
By a 77 to 73 vote, the appeal has passed." He looked up to his
great-grandson. "Do as you need with the men you need. Try to
keep losses to a minimum."

     Tenchi smiled, sighed, and bowed with respect towards the
Emperor. "Thank you, your highness."

     Azusa paused for a minute, almost as if he was about to say
something. But he just shook his head and walked out of the room.
Tenchi blinked at the near positive reaction he got from Azusa.
The emperor never really showed that much respect for Tenchi.
Maybe there was a chance that he was beginning to mellow out. One
could always hope. 

     Walking out of the council room, Tenchi met his wife, Kiyone
Masaki. She was leaning against the wall, wearing a more unisexed
version of Juraian robes, waiting patiently. 

     "The appeal got passed?" she asked with a confused look.
When her husband nodded she asked again, "I heard that they
revoked it? What happened?"
     
     Tenchi shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. But I'm not
complaining. Come on, we need to get the strike force and relief
workers together. We don't have time to waste." He said running
down to his office. Nodding, his wife ran alongside him and knew
that there was much to be done. 

     From the shadows, Ayeka stepped forth and smiled at her
'nephew'. She didn't love him the way she pretended, but loved
him for being family. Family that treated her the way she wanted
to. That was how she loved him. And that was one of the reason
why she helped Tenchi get that appeal passed. 

It was amazing when you could blackmail a few of the members for
knowing about illegal activities that would easily get them in
jail. Then, the idea of becoming a Council member came along. She
could keep an even closer eye on those select few who did not
behave themselves. {Ah... politics. Such a lovely game to control
the players with.}

     With that, she walked calmly to her father's quarters to
request being in the council. There were members of the council
of both genders and there was nothing in royal protocol that said
a member of the royal family could join the council. {Yes... a
very entertaining game to say the least.}

*************************************************

Location: Former Southeastern United States, Earth

     A shrill cry awoke a farmer from his sleep. With his heavily
accented voice he grumbled, "Great! Right 'n 'he middle o' my
heart attack!" As quick as he could, he got dressed, got his high
powered rifle and ran downstairs. And outside, his suspicions
were confirmed as three giant spidercrabs were chasing his
livestock around. 

     Loading the rhino bullets into the chamber, he complained,
"Last week a badger, last night a raccoon, and now this!" With
that, he aimed at the head of the giant crab that was nearest to
him. 

With a resounding *BOOM* the rifle kicked with such power that he
was thrown off his feet. The bullet did plenty of damage to the
spidercrab, it the farmer only succeeded in making the monster
even more angry. So, turning its attention to the farmer, the
crab was ready to eat its next meal raw.

     "VENUS DARK LOVE SCYTHE!"

     "MERCURY ICE LANCE!"

     From nowhere, a glowing yellow heart split in half and one
line grew longer than the other, turning into a blade, where as
the other half turned into a handle. The blade started to spin,
as if thrown. The crab did not have a chance to react as the
scythe chopped its head off. Like the scythe, a 15 meter lance
made of absolute zero ice flew at the other two crabs and pierced
them both through the heads from nowhere. 

With the crabs dead, the farmer looked about to see his rescuers.
There were two women, both covered with full plate armor, yet one
was colored yellow and the other one blue. The one in blue was
noticeably different than her companion, for the fact that her
left hand, side of her face, and leg were covered in mechanics.
There were the Soldiers Mercury and Venus.

     "Not bad, eh Mercury?" the one in yellow said clenching her
fist and smiling darkly. The one in blue remained passive and
turned to the farmer. 

     "Is there anyone else here sir?"

     Stupefied, the farmer shook his head. "Jus me and Dutch."

     Looking to the general direction that the spider crabs came
from, she said, "There is a herd of more of those things coming.
I recommend you take Dutch and head east to Newport City until
these things can be properly disposed of."

     The farmer stood up and took off his hat, "I thank ya much
fer saving my life." Mercury nodded once back to him, "I can be
much more 'preciative for saving my life ya know. I'm not such a
bad guy and..." Before he said another word, Venus stepped in
front of Mercury and growled,

     "Just get going, you cracker! Or else would you rather be
making this proposal as the crabs are all over us?! Besides,
she's already got a boyfriend." 

     Gripped in fear, the farmer ran back to the house, carried
out an old dog into his truck and drove off as quickly as he
could. When the truck was out of hearing range, Mercury turned to
her companion. 

     "I do not understand the point of scaring him off like
that... and I don't have a boyfriend."

     Sighing, Venus put her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Ames... trust me on this one. With what I've seen of these
people, it makes you wonder how they're still around after both
the Second Impact and the First Lahdam War.."

     "Still, that was rather rude of you."

     "Well, I guess I was a little rough on the guy. I mean, he's
only poor in money... and spirit... and dignity... moral fiber...
hygiene." Mercury interrupted as Venus was about to go into
another one of her fits. 

     "I see, I see. There's no need to do that. Either way," she
turned to the east, "Nephlyte was correct about the herd. They
are advancing this way." From one of the plates on her cheek, a
small microphone emerged, within seconds, a connection was made
between her and the base, "Hello? Serena? Yes, this is Mercury.
Turns out that Nephlyte was correct about the herd. I'm sending
you the coordinates of our position now. Where should we meet
you? Understood." With that, the microphone retracted back into
the plates and she turned to a waiting Mina. 

     "The herd is going to be here in less than fifteen minutes,
we are to meet the others in the 'Silver Nova' along the way back
to the base. Let's go."

     Nodding, a yellow glow began to develop about Mina and a
blue one about Amy. From an explosion, from where they were, they
flew at a greater speed than before to rendezvous with their
companions. 

*************************************************

     On the moon, in the wreckage of the Lahdam cruiser developed
by Darkon, something began to stir. In the darkness, a
consciousness awoken to find itself much different that before.
The time to strike would be soon.

*************************************************

     Being unable to fly, a herd of spider crabs traversed over
the plains and to the undefended Newport City. Most of them
simply crawling unorganized towards the city, while a few seemed
to argue about something that humanity could not understand. The
crab in front suddenly stopped and looked up to see a glowing
shape flying at them at an incredible speed. Whatever it was,
they could smell a distinctly bad thing about it and began to run
the other way. 

     The shape soon came into view and it turned out to be a
modified B-52 Bomber, colored silver  and with the hard edges
smoother and on the front, a silver twin crescent over a yellow
circle. The symbol of the Solar Moon. 

     From below the bomber, several bombs were dropped. Yet, what
made these ones much more different than the others was the
inclusion of a toxin developed that would make the blasts more
deadly to the spidercrabs. More and more bombs were dropped and
the herd scattered in every direction to try and escape. 

     With the first few blasts, the number of hits only increased
as parts of the monsters flew from their bodies and were soon
incinerated. Despite their attempt to either fly or escape, the
blasts were too big and the bombs too numerous. Within seconds,
all the spidercrabs were in disarray, too confused to fight or
fly.

     Within the bomber, the pilot raised the visor on his helmet
and smirked. Nephlyte was a better pilot than he gave himself
credit for. He turned to his back and said to a young woman with
blond hair, garbed in a business woman's suit, "Turns out they
worked. Just like you said."

     Nodding, Serena Shields brought up the visual display from
the bombing earlier. Turns out the bombs took out 20% of the
herd. And that was just what she wanted to know. Now the fun
would begin.  "Turn us around and make another run. After that,
take the plane to a safe distance and wait until we call for you.
The others and I haven't had any fun ever since that ordeal with
Rapier."

     Nehplyte chuckled and began to turn the bomber around. When
the pilot began to ready the second set of bombs, Serena walked
back into the passenger area, where several others waited for
her. She looked to her fellow Soldiers and the two Teknos that
had joined them. "Ok people, this has been our first day off ever
since this war began. So... who's hungry for seafood?"

     One by one, they voiced their readiness and eagerness to get
into the fray. They heard the sound of the bombs exploding below
them and Venus started to cackle. "Man, I love the smell of 
burning flesh and the sound of exploding bombs."

     Pluto turned to her and said sagely, "I believe you should
stop watching those old war movies. They affecting your mind for
the worse."

     Venus cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, look who's talking? They're
YOUR vids! You're just as guilty as I am for having them in the
first place."

     Pluto huffed and crossed her arms.  She hated being wrong.

     As Venus jumped, they all could hear her battle call, "I
LOVE THIS JOB!" They all wondered if she had been hitting the
sugar a bit much.

     Mars turned to Chad. He had come back during the attack with
Rapier and had continued to help them ever since. Not only that,
she was grateful that he was there. Someone whom she really could
talk to and stand her occasional explosions of temperament.
Before jumping out, she gave him a good luck kiss and jumped out
before the others could ridicule her about it. Chad blushed for a
second, shook his head and jumped after her. 

     Serena turned to Molly, who looked the most apprehensive out
of all of them. So, walking up to her friend, she wrapped her
arms around Molly's shoulders and hugged her reassuringly. Molly
looked up to Serena for a minute, smiled, and whispered, "Thank
you." She nodded as Molly stood up and went to the drop door. 

     Alex sat with her arms akimbo and more lost in thought than
the others. When it was her turn, she went to the door, and
jumped without a word to her companions. She often wondered why
she never said much, but she figured it was just a phase.

     Amy was about to stand up, but a sharp pain in her shoulder
appeared and she winced and held the aching part of her body. She
forced herself to calm down and clear her mind. Ever since she
found a way to escape the drugs, she had not taken another shot
of them. But there were withdrawal pains from time to time
without the constant intake of dope. Mercury was more than
determined to overcome the need for the drugs and she would
succeed. 

     Just as Mercury jumped out, something rocked the bomber.
Serena, being the only one left, ran to the cockpit. "What
happened?!"

     "That! That's what happened!" Nephlyte said pointing to what
appeared to be a much different Lahdam from all others. From what
Serena could remember, it was the same Lahdam that Saber once
rode. 

"Ok Nephlyte, change in orders. Take that thing down, we give you
hand if we take out the crabs before you take this thing out."
The pilot nodded and Serena ran to the drop door and jumped out
to catch up with her companions and join the slaughter. 

*************************************************

Location: Outskirts of Tokyo-2

     Nodoka Saotome, looked down at the grave of her husband. She
sighed and knelt in front of the stone, where she took out a
single rose and placed it on his grave. 

     "Genma, I was cruel to you... I was beyond nasty how I
treated you while you were living. And even at your death, I was
mean to your memory. Not only that, I was cruel to our son, a sin
that I think I can never forgive myself for. Only now do I
realize how wrong I was." Slowly, she moved forward and leaned
against the tombstone. "Please... forgive me..." Nodoka tried to
stop the tears from coming, but it was futile. 

*************************************************

Location: Space Knight Command Center

     Salian awoke from her meditation. She walked to the window
to stare at the moon. Her eyes narrowed. Something powerful was
emerging. But what? She had a very bad feeling about all of this.
It reminded her of when she last came to the Solar System in the
Silver Millenium. A powerful force that was just out of sight.
She disliked such things.

     In the loading bay, Merril Matheson rubbed the oil off his
hands as another job was completed. He shook his head and wiped
the sweat onto his arms. "Man, what a day."

     What he did not expect was that a very female body suddenly
embraced him from behind. It was not the presence of the woman
that scared him, but the fact that she had just put her hands in
dry ice. He jumped as high as he could from the adrenaline that
was suddenly pumped through his veins. 

     He turned to see Atsuko Natsume, in her lab coat and
uniform, was laughing her head off. "That wasn't funny Atsuko!"
He said frowning. She could not help but continue to laugh at the
reaction she hoped. 

     "You... you should have seen yourself! It was priceless!"
she said between giggles, holding her stomach. In response,
Merril just threw his dirtied oil rag at her. The laughter
continued nonetheless. 

     On the platform outside of Ringo Richards' room, Megumi
Morisato, Mediator Deity, stared at the moon. She had been
getting bad feelings about it ever since she looked at it earlier
that morning. Now, those uneasy feelings were just getting
progressively worse.

     "Megumi?" asked the man she had fallen in love with over a
decade ago as he walked out of the doorway. "You ok?" Ringo said,
walking up behind her. 

     She turned to him and blinked, "To be honest... no." She
turned her head to the moon. "Ever since this morning, I've just
got this bad feeling... I can't really explain it, but it's
scaring me." She went to the one she loved and held him close. 

     As his arms went around her, he looked up at the moon and
went over what she said. He never doubted her hunches and
whenever she was scared, it frightened him. For she had seen
infinitely more than he ever would and when something scared her,
it was most likely something he would not have a chance of
beating.
     
     So, doing his best for the one he loved, he held her firmly,
but gently. He felt her relax a bit under his embrace and found a
little confidence in the fact that she had confidence in him.

     On the roof, a pair of Japanese people appeared to be
immersed in a board game. Teknos Bo and Kanazuchi stared at the
chess board, racking their brains to figure out the best way to
defeat their opponent. Ranma then blinked, and the moved his
black bishop, right into Akane's king.

     "Gotcha." He said simply and with a large smirk.

     Akane jumped up and started to stomp around and scream in
frustration. She had lost three straight times in a row and she
was not happy in the least. Though she had been able to defeat
Ranma when it came of physical prowess, but with his power a as a
healer, his intelligence had literally soared above hers. When it
came to chess, shogi, checkers, any kind of game that required
strategic thinking, he had excelled at. 

     When she had finished stomping, she sighed and went back to
her husband. 

     "Feeling better?" he asked. She nodded and started to pack
up the board. 

     "I guess I just wasn't meant to play these kind of games."
She sighed. She never liked them, but she had insisted that they
play this for a while. 

     "Ah, don't worry about Akane. It's not that big a deal
anyway." He said, waving off her self-inflicted insult.

     After a pause, she turned to him and smiled, "You feel like
arguing tonight?"

     He looked up in deliberation. It had certainly been a while
since they argued. "Well... let's do it tomorrow. Fending off
that spider crab herd took more out of me than I thought." He
said looking back to her and putting the pieces inside the bag
they brought. 

     She shrugged, "Ok. But let's make sure we pick the right
subject and keep to it. I don't want to go through what happened
last time."

     Ranma chuckled. The last time they 'argued' both of them had
accidentally went off topic, resulting in making them both look
like morons. Their arguments had gotten more and more controlled
and were now simply used to remind them of the old days and to
amuse themselves. "And after we're done, you want to go out to
town? My treat." He offered.

     She nodded, "Sure."

*************************************************

Location: Just outside of Pluto, Sol System

     Tenchi looked back at the system of his birth with
adoration, glad to be home again. He looked to his side, where
his wife was taking in the sight of her Sol System once more.
They were both on the bridge of the lead ship, Yagami, purchased
from the Galaxy Police and upgraded with Washu's help. With the
small fleet of four hundred and fifty ships, the repairs that
Earth needed would be greatly appreciated. 

     "How long has it been since we were there last?" Tenchi
asked. 

     Kiyone looked up, evidently trying to remember when. "Hmm,
97 years I think. Wow, has it been that long?" 

     "Afraid so, but at least we might be able to get a few days
off to see how Earth's done since we were there last." He said
with a smile.

     She smiled back, "Sounds good to me."

*************************************************

     On the moon, a shape began to emerge from the goop that had
solidified over the past several months. To the eyes of anyone
else, it would almost appear that it was just a normal Teknoman.
But upon closer observation, this one was radically different. 

     Her face was visible without the helmet and there were few
wires that flowed over her face. Her eyes were completely black,
with a few designs about them. The calm her face possessed made
death seem tense. Her armor had changed completely, every shade
was darkened to the point where they barely even looked like
their original color. Her cloak had changed into a pair of black
demon wings, created from the demons of her mind, made real. In
her left hand, a broadsword colored black, but on the inside was
colored a red so deep that blood would only stain its appearance.

     She opened her right hand and a completely black crystal
appeared. She had evolved beyond what teknomen or Teknos could
ever do. She was corrupted to the point where her human body was
lost because of the immense power she now possessed. 

     "...with this power..." she said looking to the stars, "I am
God!"  Her expression turned vicious as she turned to the
unsuspecting planet below. "And now... face my divine
retribution."

     Several plates opened up all over her body. And black light
began to emanate from all 12 plates, gathering more and more
power. More than ready to give Earth its final gift. The power
was growing faster and faster about her, and waves of pure
corrupted Zetronic Antimatter flowed from the sphere that
developed about her. Soon enough, she felt the peak of her power
and then released it to Earth. It was not just centered on one
area, the several hundred tekno bolts flew all over the globe and
rained on every continent.

     From above, death came. 

*************************************************
     
     No one was spared from the black colored death that flew
from above and into the population centers. 

     At the base of General Xerxes Galt pushed the wall that fell
on him and looked about. Whoever did this was going to pay dearly
for this outrage. But then, he looked up again and saw another
blast was heading straight for him. 

     Sighing, he sat on his bottom and said, "What a day." With
another explosion, the General had died and all those in the
building he was in.  

     Elsewhere, Razeem Marlo pushed a segment of a wall off of
himself and looked about for the only person that meant anything
to him, Balzack Saint Jacques. Pushing away debris, he searched
frantically for survivors and Balzack. 

     His hope for finding Balzack turned to horror when he saw
his best friend's head poking out from beneath a large pile of
rubble. "BALZACK!" Marlo screamed and ran through the debris
field to his friend. Frantically pushing off rocks from the top
of the pile, Marlo tried to push off as much as he could. 

     "M... Marlo... is that you?" Balzack said weakly as the
blood dripped from his mouth. 

     "Don't you dare talk Balzack. As soon as I get you out of
here, I'm getting you to an infirmary!" Marlo said, tossing away
one of the larger rocks. 

     "*cough* Don't... even bother." He replied. Marlo hopped
down from the pile and next to his friend. "I don't stand a
chance here... Marlo. Do me a favor... would you?" With tears
starting to come form his eyes, Marlo nodded. "Go on... achieve
those dreams we said we would... I know you can do it, Marlo."

     The scientist shook his head. "How can I? What about all the
plans we talked about? What about our dreams? You were the one
who started these dreams! How can I do it without you?"

     Balzack shook his head. "Marlo... I wouldn't be saying
this... if I didn't have faith in what you can... do. Reach those
dreams for me... would you, please?"

     Sobbing, Marlo had no choice but to nod as Balzack breathed
his last. With his friend gone, Marlo screamed out Balzack's name
once more. 

*************************************************

     "What the hell was that?!?!" Serena screamed as Teknos Spear
helped Mars back into the Silver Nova. As the last few of the
spidercrabs were killed off, they were all witness to seeing
several black lights that flew down from the sky. The result
being loud blasts and lots of smoke from which the explosions
came from. 

     Mercury, at a communication panel, replied in horror, "A
massive space to planetary strike. The map says 75% of all
population centers have been hit! Reports of massive casualties
are pouring in, just heading into the mid-hundred millions!"

     This time, Uranus spoke up quickly after hearing a report
from a head set, "65% of all relay sats are down and 95% of comm
relays on Earth are damaged. We can't even give orders to our men
to send relief."

     Pluto got up from her station and said to her commander,
"What few scanner satellites that are left are detecting a
massive Zetronic Antimatter energy source coming from the moon,
the source of the attacks!"

     "You mean *another* Teknoman?!?" Serena screamed. 

     This time, Nephlyte spoke from the pilot seat. "Serena!
We've got a message from Luna back at the base. She needs to talk
to you."

     "Luna! What's wrong?!" Serena asked, wondering if the day
could not get any worse.

     "Serena... whatever hit us... it's... it's summoning...
Solar, again!" Luna stammered as if she was trying to suppress
the dark power within her.

Eyes widening, Serena turned to the pilot. "Get us back to the
base, NOW!"  With that she went back to the passenger section to
tell the others to belt themselves in. The newer engine developed
by the efforts of both Amy and Raye, was very powerful, yet
experimental. With the others safely belted in, Serena did the
same, hopping into the seat by Nephlyte. 

     "Ready?" She asked. "Is the course laid in back to the
base?"

     "Yes it is." He said, bringing the engine online. 

     "Good. Now set that sucker to full power at top speed." She
said without thinking of his reaction.

     "Are you crazy?! This plane's not built to stand that high a
speed!"

     "I'll be the judge of that." She said fiercely, reaching
over and pulling a switch right beside the pilot's seat. From all
four engines of the plane suddenly spewed forth enough fire to
burn a small town as its speed accelerated to Mach 15. 

*************************************************

     At the Space Knight command center, Atsuko looked up to see
Merrill was holding up the piece of the ceiling that would have
crushed them both. "Merrill... thank... MERILL!!" She screamed as
she saw his stomach. On the side, there were several pipes that
had pierced his side and came through to the ground. The blood
ran freely as Atsuko pushed the ceiling away and tried to move
Merrill as little as she could. 

     "Merrill, speak to me. Speak to me!" He opened his eyes and
tried to talk, but the pain from his injuries were too much. On
the edge of panic, she looked at the pipes and quickly figured
how to pull them out as quickly as she could. He didn't suffer
any more injuries, but the pain and shock was too great as he
passed out. 

     She carried him to the makeshift infirmary and placed him on
a cot where a few doctors tried to help stop the bleeding. Seeing
that she could do no more, she ran to find more survivors and ran
into Salian, who was staring at the moon.  

     "What do you think you're doing?! Give us a hand!" she
nearly screamed. Instead, Salian pointed to the orbiting
satellite and whispered, 

"It's there."

     Atsuko looked over Salian's shoulder and to the moon.
"What's there?"

     Salian simply turned to her and said, "The one responsible.
And the one who hurt your friend."

     Atsuko looked on in shock, "You mean..."

     Salian interrupted and left, saying, "Yes. There's one more
Teknoman out there and this one is many times more powerful.
There is only one thing for us to do."

     Atsuko did not hear the priestess. Instead, she was gritting
her teeth, breathing much heavier, and thinking of how Merrill
needlessly saved her from getting hurt. What she did not notice
was that her eyes were changing from the gentle shade of yellow
to red. The same red that when she went crazy against Ax and ate
him with a cannibalistic rage. With a ear-shattering scream, she
ran to the nearest platform, jumped and in an aura of blue light,
changed into her armor and flew into the sky.

     In another section of the command center, a figure emerged
from the rubble. So far, all that he had been able to get out so
far was his head and shoulders. For that Cain Carter was glad,
but then he rested his head on his shoulders and grumbled, "This
ALWAYS happens to me. If wasn't bad enough that Ness and Shara
flushed the toilet while I was in the shower before, THIS had to
happen." 

     He transformed without announcing and felt relieved to know
that he was covered for the time being. Once he found out who did
this, they were going to pay dearly.

     Elsewhere, Ringo pushed his way out of the debris. Looking
desperately for Megumi, he saw her form emerge from the rubble. 

     "Megumi! Are you ok?" he said, pulling himself out of the
rubble and helping her from the pile she was trapped in. 

     "My head and back hurt a little bit, but I'm ok." She
assured him as she emerged all the way from the rock. They both
looked about and saw the damage caused by the attack. "I never
thought that one of my gut instincts would actually come to
this."

     Moving a large part of a wall that had once been his door,
Ringo looked in what was left of the hallway. He jumped over the
wall and saw several people trapped in the rubble. "Megumi!" he
cried to her. Within seconds, she jumped over the wall and landed
beside him. 

     "Come on, we got to help these people. See if there's anyone
else around, I'll take of these people here!" He said. Looking
the other way, she nodded and ran through the crumbling walls of
the hallway.

     Hovering outside the command center, Akane looked on and
yelled "Ranma! Ranma!" She looked everywhere she could see as she
was, but could not find him. When she was about to go berserk and
tear apart the rubble to find her husband, he emerged from the
remnants of their room.

     Akane cried his name and as she landed right beside him, she
changed back to her human form and embraced him. "You jerk! Don't
scare me like that!"

     "Ha! You think that actually hurt? Compared to some of the
times you malleted me, that was nothing!" he said incredulously.
"But we got other things to do." He said, getting up. "Akane, you
go to the lower levels and see if anyone's there. I'm going to
the infirmary to see if I can help." She nodded as she let go and
jumped down to the levels where there might have been more
survivors. 

     Seeing the single blue light that was Atsuko fly to the
moon, Salian huffed {Of course.}

     At the highest point of what was left of the command center,
she twirled, changed into her armor and pulled out her staff.
Spinning it around, she built up the power to something she had
not done in quite a while. 

     Hitting the bottom end of the staff on the ground, she sent
her mind all over the planet and announced. 

     {All you Teknos of Earth, heed the words of another one of
your own. What you have now seen is nothing compared to what this
demon will do if you will all do nothing. I understand that you
are fearful of people finding out, but will you let the fear of
what might happen overcome you, then we will have already lost.
All the innocent, all those you love, and those whom you have not
met yet, will die. Do not let the sacrifice of Teknos Slade be
for nothing! This is the Call to Arms! Come forth Teknos of Earth
and defend, like the warriors of old.}

     Tina jumped up beside her as she pulled out her own Tek
crystal and said, "You love overdoing it, don't you?"

     All over the world, the several hundred Teknos, hidden among
the human population, heard her words. They all heard about the
exploits of Slade and the Space Knights and thought that he would
save them. But when they heard of his possible death, a few gave
into despair. But when the words of Salian touched their minds,
the memories of those they loved came to mind. Warrior and healer
alike head her words and knew what they had to do.

     Seven hundred and sixty-four people worldwide raised their
Tek Crystals and chorused, 

     "TEK SECTOR!"

************************************************* 

     Tenchi fell to his knees and clutched his chest. There was a
pain that had developed, but only got worse as time passed.
Kiyone jumped out of her seat and ran to the writhing form of her
husband. 

     "Ten, you ok?" She asked, helping him up. Yet, he was
shaking violently when she tried to put him in his seat, so he
could not reply. He was hugging himself, trying to get rid of a
deathly cold that had developed with the pain. It was the cold
that reminded one of death. 

     "They're... they're dying." He said looking to the distance
to his home world. 

     A sub-screen with a face of the commanding officer of the
fleet, "Sir! We're detecting a massive amount of zetronic
anitmatter coming from the satellite of Earth and Earth itself."

     Kiyone turned to the officer, "Can you bring it up on our
screen?"

     The commander looked off-screen momentarily, then shook his
head, "Not from this far. We need to get closer if we want a get
a picture."

     Pulling the straps over Tenchi, Kiyone made sure he would be
safe there. Then she turned to the commander as he asked what was
wrong with the Representative. "I'm not sure what's wrong with
him personally, but I surmise that he has a somewhat weak link to
the people of his world. And now that people there are dying on a
scale I can't figure, it's been hurting him much worse.
Commander, tell all the ships to increase speed to Earth and arm
all weapons and fighters. If things are as bad as I think they
are, we're going to need all the firepower we can muster."

     The commander nodded once and his image vanished. Kiyone
turned to Tenchi, saw his attempts to keep the pain from making
him hurt worse, and embraced him gently. Somehow, hoping that he
would feel better. Instead, she heard him gently weep for the
dead that he could feel.  

*************************************************

     Seeing the massive damage in the city, Nodoka turned to the
source in the sky. It all came from the moon. Knowing that the
source was extremely powerful, she knew the only way to overcome
someone with as much power as this. Gather even more power. 

     In the sky, she saw several other Teknos fly to the moon, in
a desperate attempt to stop whoever was behind this massacre. The
way she meant to go was the opposite direction, although the
intent was the same. In a haze of blue light, she flew at speeds
most other Teknos would be jealous of. 

     Minutes later, she found herself at one of the few remaining
islands of Kyushu, where she had stashed all the Teknocrystals
she had stolen from Darkon's men. On the cliff-face, she crashed
into the side where it revealed the wall was weaker than the rest
of the mountain. The hole she made lead into a tunnel leading
into the heart of the mountain where the chamber with the
crystals were. 

     The chamber was filled with pure power. That much was
evident from the amount of Z-Tron radiation given off from all
one hundred and thirty-four crystals. Had any human or lower
teknoman had dared to enter, the sheer amount of power would burn
them into nothing. This power was hers. Yet, Nodoka knew all too
well that such power would turn saints into devils. So, she hid
them and vowed only to use them in a case such as this. 

     Standing within the very center of all the floating blue
crystals, she gazed through the ceiling to the moon. That was
where her target was. So, drawing her katana, she cleared her
mind of doubt and fear. She meant to protect this world, even if
it cost her life. Raising up her sword, she screamed,

     "TEK SECTOR!"

     With that, the crystals started to glow white, one by one.
And once one of the many numerous crystals had become white, they
sped up until they became a single stream. The stream flew around
Nodoka, until they landed in the gem on her forehead. 

     With every crystal that had become one with her, she felt
the power of each and every individual teknoman she had killed
fuse with her own. Yet, it was not the memories of each one that
frightened her, it was the amount of power she would wield. She
could very easily destroy every planet in the system and prayed
to any and all powers of the other side that she would never
succumb to such a temptation. 

     She looked up to the moon again and hoped that the amount of
time she needed to use all the crystals for a short while would
be enough. If not... 

*************************************************

     "Luna! Luna! Are you ok?" Serena asked, hugging her cat-like
human mentor.

     The Methusian mancat tried to assure her student that she
was well, but the severe pain she was feeling in her heart and
soul was too great. Solar, the immensely powerful being that had
created the guardians of the Solar system, was trying to awaken
again. Luna did not want to think about the casualties that could
result of Solar's impulsive and destructive behavior. 

     "You can fight her Luna, I know you can." Serena said
reassuringly, but it was easier to say than to do, and they both
knew it. Serena had no intention to becoming one with Solar once
more. It was like being someone else all together and being able
to do nothing about it. 

     "I... wish I could... but whether I like it or not... she's
there." Luna whimpered. 

     "I mean... there's gotta be something I can do." She said in
desperation. 

     That was when Luna went silent. Serena gasped and shook her
mentor gently, then violently, calling her name all the time.
"LUNA! LUNA!!! Wake up!! Please?!" Tears started to develop as
Luna refused to stir. 

     At that moment, Chad had run in with the most present news,
"Hey boss, the Silver Nova's all set for space. We got all the
gear we need. All we need now is your say so and... oh no." he
started to walk to Serena, seeing that now Luna was quiet. 

He turned to her as he saw her sniff a few times, then wipe her
tears away, turned to him and said with more determination in her
voice, "Let's go. I want to see who did all this and make them
pay!"

     He nodded and when they both started for the door, a voice
said from where Luna was. "Serena... I never did tell you to kill
in anger, did I?" Both Princess and Teknos turned to see Luna
stand up and both regard them both as if nothing happened. Yet,
something seemed different about her. 

     "S... Solar?" Chad exclaimed, stepping in front of Serena,
getting ready to pull out his Tek Crystal. Yet, she interrupted
him.

     "Yes and no." Both blinked at the answer. "Serena... whether
you know it or not. I was always here, but I went under another
name. And that name was Luna, I just forgot that I was Solar for
a while."

     Stepping forward, Serena took another look, and found Luna's
eyes were the same, but there seemed to be much more. "So...
you're both Luna and Solar at the same time?" She nodded in
response, reached forward, and embraced the younger woman. 

     "Luna came into being when I was sent to watch over you. I
could not call upon my power because you and your friends were
doing a much better job than I ever would have done."

     "But I thought that Solar was split up and her power was
sealed into the nine children? What are you supposed to be?"

     "The mind of Solar. The consciousness and memories of Solar
in the body of one whom they would never suspect. I wanted to
come back again and again several times, but every chance I had
was ruined by fate. I had the perfect chance to come back when
you were born... but seeing your face when we first met made me
forget about all that I did and concentrate on helping you be
raised right. And I am more than glad how you turned out."

     Chad interjected, "Uh, this reunion is nice and all, but we
got an emergency here!" 

     Luna/Solar did not seem to be fazed at all, "I am aware of
that. So then, shall we be off?" She said smiling. 

     Serena blinked, "What do you mean we? You mean you can
fight?"

     Luna smiled, nodded, and held up a hand. Soon enough,
lightning began to crackle about her forearm. Then, a sphere of
water developed from nowhere as did a black field of energy
around her hand. "The power of the dead Soldiers are mine until
they discover their true origins again."

     Both Chad and Serena looked on in apprehension, but knew
that this was the same Luna that was on their side. Within
seconds, all three ran to the bay where the Silver Nova was ready
to take off. 

*************************************************

     On the moon, Omega Sword saw her handiwork and smiled. She
heard the screams of the dead, the dying, and the suffering and
she was enjoying it all. 

     Then, something unusual came into view. A single blue light
emerged from the northern American continent and was heading
straight for her.  

     She held her sword at the ready when it turned out to be a
rather cat shaped suit of armor. With massive claws, it roared
like a beast that had been enraged beyond the breaking point. She
side stepped the teknocat and turned to see it charge her again.
She brought up her sword as Claw's right hand flew at her. 

     Using Claw's momentum against her, she fell back and sent
her first foe away. Then, she looked back to the Earth to see
several hundred lights, similar to the first one and all were
heading straight towards her. Seeing this made her smile. {More
targets.} she thought viciously. 

     Just then, Claw had pounced on her back and started to claw
at her face. With one hand,. She grabbed the short mane of hair
at the back of Claw's head and threw her into the sky. At that
time, three of the Earthen Teknos had charged her from behind,
yet all met their end as with a single swipe from Omega Sword's
weapon. 

     Powering up the thrusters on her back, Sword flew into the
air at a speed so great, none of the others could even hope of
catching her. In a black haze that separated her form from the
rest of space, it turned into a bat and started to fly through
all the Teknos that dared to attack her. Though none were killed
this time, to some it would have been better to have died.
Despite their numbers, they were all nothing compared to her
power. 

*************************************************

     As the Silver Nova went through the stratosphere, Nephlyte
brought up the battle on screen to Serena. Seeing all the Teknos
go up against that single powerful being and know that they had
no hope, made her apprehensive. Instead, she heard Solar's mind
reach hers. 

     "Don't you all think it would be better if Solar at full
power had a chance at fighting this fiend?" the cosmic being
offered. Moving into the back, she found to her horror to see
Solar had already absorbed all the other Soldiers and was only
one more step away from being complete. The only ones there
besides a glowing silver Solar were a shocked Chad and Molly. 

     "Solar! Did... they give you their consent?!"     

     Solar nodded as if she expected this response. "If you doubt
me, ask your friends, they have no reason to lie to you." Both
Teknos nodded, yet still had their faces of surprise and that
made Serena all the more scared. Had they been indifferent or
shook their heads, Serena would have had to act against her
mentor.

     "Serena... why do you let fear overrun you? I am still Luna,
aren't I not?"

     The commander of the Solar Moon nodded, then replied
shakily, "But... there... there are things I don't understand.
How am I supposed to be able to trust anyone or anything when
things are changing so rapidly I can't even tell who's what
anymore."

     With a sympathetic smile, Luna walked forward and embraced
the smaller woman. Turning to her student, she whispered, "When
doubt overcomes your self-confidence... it is often best to take
a rest to collect yourself. Then you can make the correct
judgments."

     Serena looked up to her teacher and with a tired smile,
nodded, "Thank you Solar, I..." then the glowing Solar put her
finger to Serena's lips and whispered, 

"Please, princess... call me Luna. I like that name much better."

     "Ok... Luna." With that, she began to dissolve into a swirl
of silver that soon fused with Luna. Within seconds, the silver
glow was replaced with a gold haze, more powerful than the last. 

     "What surprises me is that you were able to convince Raye,
Alex, and Susan to fuse with you." Chad said, getting up from his
seat and getting ready to pull out his Tek Crystal  out. 

     Luna merely smiled back at them, "True, they are impulsive
at times, but they also have a reasonable degree of logic to them
and saw it."

     "Well, just make sure and give them back once we get back
from this. I don't intend of losing my best friend again." Molly
said, pulling out her own crystal.

     Luna began to chuckle as she began to punch in the code to
open the door. "You have nothing to worry about. They might be a
part of me, but they have their own will and I intend to let them
go once this is over."

*************************************************

     With most of the Teknos struggling to keep themselves in
control of their situation, they tried to avoid the merciless
strikes of Omega Sword. 

     Out of all of her attackers, the one with the claws and the
scythe seemed to have put up the best fight. So, she concentrated
her fighting with them, while she repulsed the other Teknos away
like flies. 

     Kicking away a female teknos with a long japanese sword, she
turned to see Claw had once more gotten her from behind. With a
massive crash, they both landed into the soil of the moon. Sword
rammed her head against Claw's and threw her away like before.

     Hopping up to her feet, she saw the one with the scythe
charge at her once more. As she hoped, there was murder in
Scythe's eyes. Blades rang like bells in a church as Tina swung
her weapon with the fury of a demon. Yet, despite her rage, it
amounted to nothing as Sword deflected every attack casually. "Be
serious little girl." With that, she extended her free hand and a
single spherical crystal appeared from beneath her hand's skin,
began to glow and flew right into Scythe's gut, sending her
several miles away. When she had gotten far enough, the crystal
that had been used against Tina exploded. 

     Behind her, she could sense that the Teknocat was gathering
power to send a Antimatter Disrupter her way. The instant she saw
the enraged Claw, the blast flew at her with all the power she
could muster. Yet, with a wave of her hand, Sword struck the
blast away and sent it to anywhere but to its intended target. 

     Claw charged again, but this time, Sword grabbed her neck
and slammed her into the ground. It was too easy, and when she
saw the numerous amount of  Teknos, getting ready to fire a
collective Tekno bolt, she sighed. This fight had grown boring
and now she was beginning to tire. 

     With all her plates beginning to open up, she figured it was
fun playing around with them, but even all things like this had
to end. Her eyes flew open when she saw a golden light fly to her
from a plane that had gotten this far into space. 

     Sword brought up her weapon just in time as a metal clad
foot nearly took off her head. She flew back and saw the mancat
apparition in a golden haze and a suit of full plate armor.
Taking a second to see who her new foe was, Sword asked, "Who...
or what are you?"

     The stranger smirked and said, "You'll never know." With
that, she pulled out a staff with a trident on its end from
nowhere and charged. 

*************************************************

     From the fleet rapidly approaching Earth, they were finally
able to get a good enough picture of the battle waging over the
planet and about the ORS.

     "Is that it?" Kiyone asked Tenchi, pointing at the single
speck on the screen that made his blood chill. He nodded slowly.
With her answer, she got the commander of the fleet on the
screen.

     "Commander, prepare to fire all weapons at the target that
fits the description I am sending you." With that she punched up
the image she was barely able to capture of Omega Sword's form
and transmitted it to the fleet. 

     "Image received, all weapons are powering up."

*************************************************

     On Earth, Nodoka had finally gotten all the power she needed
from the crystals she possessed and with that, she burst through
the roof of the roof of the cavern and in a much deeper blue haze
flew towards her target. 

*************************************************

     Back in space, the battle raged on between the nightmare of
a Teknoman and the cosmic being. From time to time, one of the
Earthen Teknos would try to attack Sword, but would either result
with his or her death or severe injury. 

     "Getting a bit crowded here, isn't it?" Sword said to her
foe before suddenly increasing her size several times. "Now
little one, you feel ready to meet your end?" She sneered at her
undersized foe.

     Instead of fear, as Sword hoped, Solar replied with
indigence, "Don't you dare call me small you metal assed wench!"
She fisted her free hand and proclaimed," I, who am visited by
the likes of Bahamut, Tiamat, and Draco, will not tolerate being
called small by a pitiful freak such as yourself." With that, she
too increased her size to the exact same as Sword and before
either one could ask how; the battle resumed once more. 
     
     All the other Teknos flew for their lives as the titans tore
apart the space ring with their fight. The wall crashed through
the intense weight of both giants as Solar pushed the giant
Teknoman through. Jumping away from Sword, Solar jumped on the
side of the platform and flew back a reasonable distance as her
foe pulled herself up. 

     "Not bad. Not bad at all." Sword seethed before releasing
enough power to destroy an entire metropolis. Solar jumped above,
only to seethe approaching form of her foe. With an overhead
swipe, she knocked Sword's weapon away and used the momentum of
the attack to deliver a devastating spin kick, which sent the
teknoman back into the space ring. 

"Don't take me lightly, insolent whelp." Solar yelled with a
clenched fist.

     As Sword got up, she saw Solar coming with her trident at
the ready. She brought her right wrist as the trident would have
hit her chest and pierce her heart. The resulting scream of pain
did not deter Solar from her endeavor to kill Sword. Bringing her
left arm up to strike the teknoman in the face, she got no
further as Sword reached up with her left hand, grabbed Solar's
neck and rammed Solar's head into hers. Not just once, but three
times consecutively. "Very well... I won't." Sword hissed.

     With Solar weakened, Sword took her right hand and started
to spin the cosmic being around, only gathering a greater amount
of speed. When Solar felt like her arm was about to be torn off,
Sword let go of it and the strongest guardian of Earth flew at
breakneck speeds to the surface of the planet. After a paused of
several seconds, she brought her sword up and threw it after
Solar.

     On the surface, a large shape in a gold haze crashed into
the middle of an abandoned valley. Several tons of rock, trees,
and dirt flew everywhere as Solar's form caused quite a mess on
the ground. Shaking her head to clear the cobwebs, Solar figured
Sword was really going to pay. She was about to stand up when she
saw the massive 60-foot sword tear through the clouds. She was
not able to move out of the way in time. 

*************************************************

     Sword snickered as she saw her next opponent meet its end.
She turned to see a deep blue haze flying straight at her and at
a speed she could not match. Just before it exploded against her,
she could barely make out the form of another female teknoman
with an 8-foot katana in her hand. The light collided with her
shoulder and severed the arm at the socket. 

     With her concentration lost, Sword returned to her original
size. She saw her disembodied arm float beside her, spewing forth
the black fluid that kept her alive. Acting as if the pain meant
nothing, she looked at the injury and said, "Impressive." Without
a thought, a new arm grew in its place. 

     She turned to see Teknos Katana looking on with complete
shock at the impossible display of healing, but had enough sense
of mind to start gathering power to use another attack against
her. Sword casually stretched out her new arm and knew that
something was wrong. That regeneration move had taken more
strength than she hoped. So, looking to the disembodied arm she
thought of a new plan. 

     With blue energy crackling all about her person, Nodoka
released the equivalent of several teknbolts into one powerful
blast. "TEKNO VOLT!!" The tidal wave of power she released
completely engulfed Sword until her form was lost. Seeing Sword
gone for good made Nodoka sigh with relief. 

     What none of them knew, that Sword merely transferred her
consciousness from her body to the giant arm, where a new body
changed from the present materials. Some of the black blood came
together, and as it formed a semblance of a human form, the black
exploded to reveal another, and completely fresh Omega Sword.
Faster than what Katana could see, Sword appeared behind her and
whispered, "Most impressive."

     Before Katana could even turn around, she felt a sphere
touch her back, and suddenly increase speed, pushing her back to
the planet and out of control. She looked back to the remaining
Teknos that dared try to attack her, pulled out her own Sword and
smiled. Now the massacre would begin. 

*************************************************

     On the planet, the figure of Solar writhed in pain as she
pulled out the massive sword that had pierced her side from the
front. With a loud clang, the sword came to a rest in the valley.
Solar winced as she tried to heal the wound, but found it to be
too painful to move. 

     Doing the only thing she could, she started to shrink and
several auras began to escape from her body. Several seconds
later, the Soldiers lay scattered about unconscious, save for
Moon, Venus, and Mercury. Turning to Serena, Luna stammered,
"I'm... I'm sorry. I should have not let my bravado get the
better of me."

     Serena shushed her teacher as she stroked the sweat soaked
brow of Luna's head. "At least you tried your best... that's all
you ever asked from me. So... well, you know." Luna began to
chuckle a bit, but stopped when the pain got in the way. 

     Suddenly, all of the conscious Soldiers looked to see the
form of another teknoman who had fallen against Sword. Thinking
quick, Serena ordered, "Amy, Mina, go find out what that is." Her
companions nodded and flew all in their respective colored auras. 

     Turing back to Luna, Serena said, "Well, it looks like it's
over now. It's nice that I got to know you Luna. For the past
century you've been the best teacher I've ever had. Thank you."
Luna blinked a bit when she realized that Serena was giving up,
but decided not to push the matter since they all failed. It was
no one's fault. The enemy was simply too strong for them this
time. 

     "And... I'm glad that you... were my student. You make your
teacher and your mothers proud." Luna whispered. Serena smiled
ruefully and held her close, waiting for the end to come, praying
in her heart that Darien and Reeni were alright and would be. 

*************************************************

     Up in space, Sword discovered the Teknos of Earth to be more
tenacious than she thought. With the first several heroes clearly
beaten, their resolve to kill her had only gotten stronger. She
was ready to chop the one nearest to her with a staff in half,
when several energy bolts hit her from the back. She knew for a
fact that those attacks were not Teknos based. 

     She flew out of the crowd to justify her fears. There was a
fleet, firing missiles and energy cannons at her. Taking another
look at the situation, she now realized her folly. She was going
to die. {Well, then. If I go down, I'm taking all them with me.}

     With that, she curled her body into a ball and several armor
plates grew over the parts of her that were exposed. She remained
still and waited for the correct time to strike. Hovering between
the farthest point of the O.R.S. and the moon.

     Seeing what Sword was trying to do, she turned to the small
teknos army and screamed, "KEEP FIRING!!!" With that, all the
teknos began to fire their own respective tekno bolts and energy
bows. She turned to the lead ship and communicated with their
radio. 

     "Attention alien fleet. Identify yourselves!" she said to
the lead ship. The reply came quickly. 

     "I am Tenchi Masaki of the Holy Council of Jurai. We have
come in assistance of the people of Earth. Who are you and what
exactly are we fighting?"

     "A long story, but what ever you do, don't stop firing at
what we are firing at. If you don't, we're all dead."

     "Understood." Came the last reply as the several hundred
Teknos and Juraian ships concentrated their fire on the nearly
impregnable shell that Sword hid in. 

     Sword snarled at seeing the increased pressure put on her.
Well, she was going to make them all suffer and then perish. One
by one. A Nova Wave, the same weapon that killed Darkon, would be
more than appropriate for them all. She started to develop the
power necessary for the move, but the correct timing would be
absolutely vital. 

     Blinking, Salian saw that they were not going to be able to
pierce the shell in time. If what she figured about people like
Sword and Darkon were true and were bad losers... they were all
in trouble. 
"PULL BACK! BUT DON'T STOP FIRING!" She ordered. They all did
what she said, knowing that she was in a better position to
command than any one of them. 

     "Why?" asked the Representative from Jurai.

     "Because she going to try and use a Nova Wave. An attack
powerful enough to take us all out if we're too close. Tell all
your ships to begin to pull back, but don't stop firing."

     "Very well... I hope you know what you're doing." Came the
worried reply.

     "I haven't been living for the past 450 millennia for
nothing. I know how some people behave."

     Tenchi turned the radio from the frequency the Teknos woman
used to the rest of the fleet. "Attention all ships. Pull back to
the maximum firing distance. And should the need arise, prepare
for impact, we're expecting a big explosion here."

     Sighing, he turned off the transmitter and looked to his
homeworld and saw the smoke from it. His home, the planet that he
represented, was now in turmoil. Frowning, he turned his
attention back to Sword and hopped back into his seat. His wife
looked to him from her seat and asked, "You ok."

     Looking to her, he shook his head, "No. It's just that after
all that I've been through, you think I'd be used to it by now.
But I'm not. My homeworld is in ruins and most of the population
is most likely dead and I couldn't do a thing to help protect
them."

     Walking from her seat, she walked over to him, embraced him
and said tenderly, "Don't blame yourself. Sometimes there are
things you have no control over. I should know... if I had any
say so, my mom and older sister would still be alive."

     Tenchi's eyes widened a bit and realized he should not have
brought this up and kept his calm, "I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean
it like..." She interrupted him and whispered,

     "No Tenchi. Don't worry about a thing. In the meantime, we
got to help save your world. That's something worth worrying
about." She ended with a not too serious smile. 

     Tenchi reached over and hugged his wife gently, whispering,
"Thank you." Kiyone kissed his cheek in return, reassuring him
that she was there for him. When the embrace ended, she began to
smirk,

     "Now come on. Let's show this jerk what we're made of."

*************************************************

     The level of power was where she wanted it. Now the reaper
would have a great harvest like never before. She burst from her
shell, threw her arms wide and screamed, 

     "NOVA WAVE!!!"

     The size of the blast was many times greater than Salian
expected it to be. She threw her arms up to protect herself and
waited for the end. After several seconds, she brought her arms
down slowly to see that she was not dead. She looked to where the
blast began and saw that the blast was being contained in a cube.
But how?

     Every Teknos of Earth, and member of the Juraian fleet saw
the massive explosion contained, yet wondered how it happened.
Only Tenchi and Kiyone could see what exactly happened. They saw
three giant human-like apparitions holding the blast with their
hands. It was all three of the Megami! Tokimi was holding the top
and the bottom of the cube, Washu the front side, and Tsunami the
back. When the blast finally subsided, they released and
vanished, with their job done. 

     Tenchi leaned back in his seat and sighed with relief. After
moment, Kiyone turned to her husband and said with a smile, "See?
Things turn out for the better don't they?"

     Just then, the face of the commander of the fleet appeared,
"Lord Masaki. We got a problem."

*************************************************

     Salian, Scythe, Claw, Bo, Kanazuchi, Halberd, and Saber flew
as close as they could to the near motionless and horribly
injured body of Sword. Claw got the nearest first and began to
sniff at the top of her head. When she got past her neck, Atsuko
reeled back, "AHH! There's something moving!"

     Salian turned Sword over to see what she suspected. A bump
was moving downward from the base of her neck. "Oh no you don't!"
Salian growled and pierced the skin to grab the struggling little
spidercrab that she pulled out. When everyone got a good look at
the symbiote that controlled the hosts, Salian squeezed with all
her might. The miniature spider crab screeched once, then died. 

     As the spidercrab screeched its last, the wounds on Sword's
body began to heal. It sent all the Teknos nearby several feet
away and all pulled their weapons out. When Sword opened her
eyes, which were still black, and looked about with confusion. 

     "What... what? Where am I?" Then her eyes came to rest of
Saber. "Cain? Is that you?"

     The Teknos about her looked to one another, but Saber
floated forward. "Katherine? Is that you talking? I mean, not
Sword?"

     Katherine blinked, "Who's Sword?" She looked down at
herself, and she started to panic, "What the... what happened to
me?!"

     Cain floated forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "A very
long story."

     Salian floated up to Katherine, "Are you feeling ok?"

     She turned to the priestess, "Well, other than a soreness in
my back, I'm fine."

     "Well, at least you're no longer underneath the symbiote's
power. But... I can no longer find any traces of your human body
left."

     Katherine's eyes widened with horror. "What_ what do you
mean?"

     Salian remained passive as she explained the truth, "As
Sword, you implanted the power of a Teknos Warlord into your
body. At your level of experience, the corruption in the level up
was too much. So, to compensate, your human body was erased from
your genetic make-up. You can no longer turn into a human being
now."

     Cain turned to Katherine and saw the tears begin to develop.
No longer human was to be her fate. Trapped in the body of a
killer who had nearly wiped out the human race. Looking back at
the planet, she felt the thrill of Sword as she killed the good
and the innocent. There were almost dead and it was all her
fault. It was too much for her to handle as she screamed and flew
away at a speed no one would be able to catch her with. 

     Most of the Teknos that overheard what went on had nothing
to say. They could do nothing to try and ease the pain that
either side felt at the moment. 

     "Hey!" screamed Teknos Spear as he flew from the lead ship
of the Juraian fleet. As he flew to the center of all the Teknos,
they noticed the allied fleet beginning to move to the other side
of the planet. "Everyone, we got a problem."

     "What?" Scythe asked. 

     Chad pointed to the opposite side of the planet. "There's a
massive pirate fleet coming this way. Over 2000 ships in all."

     "Wha_ what for?!" Atsuko asked with surprise. 

     "From what I was told by some former pirate with green hair
that they've been thinking about doing this for a while. Now
they're moving and unless we do something about it and help the
Juraians stop them, Earth's done for." He said as quickly as he
could. 

     "Everyone move to the other side of the planet and join up
with the fleet, we're not out of this one yet!" Salian said to
everyone. Without another word, the remaining teknos army flew to
the other side of the planet to make sure the planet belonged to
its original owners. 

     "Hey Spear!" Yelled Bo as he flew up to his ally, "Do you
know the odds?"

     Chad was hesitant, "By ourselves, it's almost 3 to 1. The
Juraians alone, 5 to 1. Together, it's a little less than 2 to
1."

     "Well, at least it's better than what I thought."

     "Don't celebrate just yet... we need to win this one first."

*************************************************

     Beyond the reaches of human understanding, a trio of minds
conversed. 

     "Sisters... if I may, can I speak to that one?"

     "What do you wish to accomplish?"

     "She is in anguish and needs comforting. And possibly a way
for redemption."

     "Very well. But be not long. For we are still working on the
gift proposed by my daughter. We must complete it before this
battle is over."

     "She is right young one. Please make haste, for time is
short."

     "Thank you."

     In one of the darker corners of the Space Ring, a single
voice sobbed. In the darkness, the figure of Katherine Thompson,
at one time Teknoman Sword, was sobbing. Only until recently, she
had been under the control of the Lahdam and only when she was
free, did she learn of her cursed fate. As Sword, she had killed
hundreds of millions of innocent people for no real good reason
other than some delusion of conquest. 

     She never felt so alone before in her life. 

     A voice from nowhere said gently, "Hello." She looked up to
see a tall woman with sky blue hair, gentle pink eyes, and
dressed in a white and purple robe, smiling down at her. "You are
hurting... are you not?" Blinking, not at all understanding what
this woman meant, nodded. Her answer only made the woman smile,
"Then, may I give you comfort for your tortured heart?"

     Sniffing, Katherine wiped the tears from her eyes and
figured that she had nothing to lose. So she nodded. Like a
spring breeze, the woman floated down by her and wrapped a single
arm around her shoulders. "Calm yourself my friend_ the anguish
in your soul is not of your doing_ though the body is guilty, you
are not."

     Katherine never felt so warm before. Like being in the arms
of a goddess, she leaned into the woman whose touch seemed to
heal her broken soul. Yet, she only cried when the woman kissed
the top of her head affectionately. The pain she felt was great,
but the warmth this woman gave her was soothing. So, without
thinking, she wrapped her arms around the woman who seemed to be
the only one who could help her. The woman smiled and held
Katherine just as gently, holding her more delicately than any
puzzle or sculpture. Several minutes of much needed comfort
passed for Katherine and that was what she needed. 

     "I don't know what to do_ I have nothing. Nothing to return
to_ nothing to look forward to. Nothing." Katherine whimpered. 

     Tsunami began to rock the sobbing Katherine. What she meant
to say next would be vital to how she reacted. "There is a way_"
Katherine looked up with tear covered eyes, "but you must be the
one to decide." She pointed to the exit to space and where all
the others were. "All that they have fought for is in danger, you
can help them. Help the future of all, help the future of
mankind. But you must be the one to decide to do that."

     Katherine started to reply, "But how can I_" yet the gentle
face that Tsunami had was replaced with one more stern. 

     "Don't you ever think so lowly of yourself. You, like anyone
else, can do things that will save the good and the innocent,
even the evil and the guilty. You too can achieve the redemption
you seek in your heart." With that, the woman started to fade
away, but the same gentle smile returned, "The way is right in
front of you, just think of a different view."

     Katherine blinked at her words and tried to talk the nice
woman into staying, but found it useless. She leaned against the
wall and digested all of her words. The woman was right, she did
want to find a way to redeem herself after all she did. Then she
thought of the Juraians and the Teknos. Then it all became clear_
like a cloudless summer day of when Conrad was about to propose
to her. 

     She stepped up and began to fly to the defending fleet, her
purpose all too clear. 

*************************************************

     With a combined fleet of a little more than a thousand, the
odds for the defenders did not look too good. Even if they called
for reinforcements, they would arrive too late and the pirate
fleet would have already established a base capable of holding
off the reinforcements. So, hoping to avoid bloodshed, Tenchi got
the leader of the fleet on the radio. 

     "This is Tenchi Masaki, member of the Holy Council of Planet
Jurai. State your business. This area is restricted to the rest
of space."

     The commander's harsh reply came immediately, "And what if I
tell you that this planet is free for capture by the scavanger's
law? You Juraians haven't been doing crap here for the past
century, so that means it's up for grabs. And since I want a new
base, I might as well use this place. If you want to try and take
it from me, be my guest, but I guess you already know that you're
outnumbered. So, why don't you just go back to Jurai and screw
the trees." Just then, the transmission was cut and the fleet
continued to advance. 

     Tenchi began to frown. This monster had the unmitigated gall
to tell him to abandon his home world. He would never forgive
himself if he committed such an act. So, opening up the radio to
the fleet and to the Teknos, he announced,

     "Attention both Juraian fleet and Earth fighters. The leader
of  this pirate fleet has made it clear that he wants the
homeworld of the human race as a base and could care less for the
people. I am not going to just let him take my home without a
fight. If needs be, I'll take them all on by myself. Fleet of
Jurai, you don't have to stay for this bloodbath and I will not
order you to fight a battle which does not concern you. Fighters
of Earth, I don't know if you are behind me or not, but I highly
doubt that you would let the innocent perish because of the
pirates. So, join me and we can defeat this menace. It is up to
you."     

     With his speech complete, he leaned back in his seat and
sighed. He turned to see Kiyone walk up beside him with a big
smile on her face. "That was great. Ayeka would be proud."

     Before he could reply, the face of the fleet commander
appeared and a signal appeared, saying there was a radio message
for him.

     "Lord Masaki. Despite what you may think, we of the fleet
came to a decision that we are to fight by your side until death.
Were Jurai in the same danger, we would do no different that what
you have done. We fight together, and should this be out last
battle, may we live our last moments with honor." He said with a
determined face.

     About the same time, Salian's voice spoke, "Such inspiring
words. Despite your doubts, you have the full might of the Teknos
of Earth at your side. Though I share not the same dedication
towards my own home, it makes me wish I was born here. With you
Lord Masaki, we fight."

     Tenchi smirked back to his wife, stepped off his seat and
brought up the pirate fleet commander. "So, you guys going to get
lost?"

     "Now that you mention it, NO! This is my home and I'm not
just handing it over to scum like you. In other words: BITE ME!"
before he could comprehend the screams of the pirate commander,
he cut the line. Tenchi felt on top of the world. Even though he
might die in the next couple of hours, he struck a blow to the
enemy leader that could never be repealed. 

     That was when it hit him. He just insulted someone with a
fleet twice the size of his own. He dropped his shoulders and
whimpered, "I just had to say that..." The only thing he could
hear was Kiyone's snicker behind him. He turned and sarcastically
noted, "I feel so loved."

     Kiyone stopped snickering and just smiled. "Oh stop that.
You are, it's just that you looked funny when you did that."

*************************************************

     Within minutes, both sides charged and let loose all the
fight they could. No quarter was given and none was given in
return. 

     The Juraian ships, having been somewhat experienced when it
came to ship to ship combat held the advantage. Yet, the bombers
with as powerful weapons as they had, made the going tougher. 

     One of the Juraian dreadnoughts, firing all of its weapons
in synch with protocol, dealt several crushing blows to five of
the enemy bulk cruisers. Yet, its victory was short lived as two
heavy cruisers converged on it and made short work of its
shields. It would have met its end, had it not been for fourteen
teknos that had pierced the cruisers and went through their
reactors 

     From fighter to Teknos, the ratio was horribly unfair for
the defenders. Yet, that did not stop their resolve as with their
advanced experience and power increased the odds as the bombers
and pirate fighters were soon taken out one by one. 

     With three high speed fighters after her, Tina knew she had
to think of something quick. Not only was she dodging fire from
the fighters, but she had to weave through crossfire from both
Juraian and pirate ships alike. She turned around briefly to fire
a tekno bolt at her pursuers, but missed all three. They were
better pilots than she gave them credit for. 

     Their aim was getting slightly better, and it seemed that
she was about to meet her end, when a tekno bolt from the side
took all three fighters. She turned to see that Ranma had saved
her. She grumbled, "Well, I guess that makes us even."

     To her surprise, Ranma said, "No." With that, he turned
around and whacked her on the side of the head with his staff,
"NOW we're even." With that, he flew off. 

     Snarling, Tina screamed, "I'LL KILL YOU LATER SAOTOME!"
Powering up her thrusters, she flew the other way and into the
nearest pirate cruiser, where she tore apart armor plates and
destroyed everything in sight. Within minutes, the cruiser blew
up and she flew from the blast, wanting more targets, pretending
them all to be Ranma. 

     Elsewhere, the Yagami was flying through the crossfire of
several medium enemy cruisers with the greatest of ease. Inside
the cockpit, Kiyone's fingers raced across the control board,
sending the ship into maneuvers its creators never thought
possible. 

Just in front of the pilot's room, Tenchi was having a ball at
the gunnery chair. Doing this reminded him of the days he spent
at the local arcade, playing the day away in those shooters. The
only difference was, that they stakes were much higher. But the
adrenaline rush made him forget the stakes at the moment. 

Though the Yagami could not take out the heavy cruisers, the
medium sized ones were just as fun to mess around with and
destroy. The case in point being as the Yagami's cannons took out
the gun turrets of a giant fish shaped cruiser, flew to its
backside and attacked its blind-spot, resulting in its
destruction.

     Despite the heroic effort put into the defense, the numbers
of the enemy were just too high. The Juraian and Teknos fleets
had just gotten into the first wave of the enemy fleet and more
newer and better ships were on the way. 

     Saber looked at the approaching waves and wondered if Mina
would still be all right even after this. Then, a light to his
right caught his eye. So, breaking from the fight, he flew to the
light and as soon as he could, he immediately recognized the
light as Katherine. 

     "Katherine!" he said flying towards her. The light slowed
down and turned to him. 

     "Cain."

     "What are you doing?!" he asked floating up to her. 

     "I'm giving you guys the leverage you need. Don't worry
about me." 

     "What?! Are you crazy?!"

     "No Cain. I'm not. But I know that I have to do something or
else I'll never be able to live with myself. Also, make sure and
tell everyone to pull back."

     "Katherine, don't you don't have to_" he was cut off when
Katherine forced him away with a bolt that sent him back to the
fleet. 

     She turned to the oncoming enemy and thought, {Cain, Ness,
anyone. Please forgive me.} With that, she powered up her
thrusters and flew at the rest of the fleet at full speed.
Judging from the amount of larger cruisers, she figured it would
be best to attack there. As expected, the pirate fleet aimed all
their weapons at her and fired.    

     She twirled and sent most of the energy blasts away. Seeing
her target, she activated her self-destruct mechanism. This is
where it would all end, but it did have consolation. She would be
free of the guilt this body carried.  

     Seeing her go off into the volcano, Saber searched through
the battlefields for the Yagami. After dispatching several
fighters that pursued him, he finally found the command ship
being chased by three bombers. Powering his thrusters to the
maximum, he gave chase to the bombers and one by one, met their
end in a flash of light. Flying alongside the Yagami he said,
"Mr. Masaki!"

     "Yes?"

     "We need to pull back!"

     "We've got a new ally, and she might be able to even the
stakes for us a bit."

     "Are you completely sure of this?"

     "I wouldn't be saying this if I wasn't sure."

     "Very well then." Tenchi said into his headset. Switching
the frequency to the fleet, he announced, "All units, pull back
and assume a defensive formation!"

     The order was heard by both Teknos and Juraian alike. Though
they did not understand, they did not argue as they all pulled
out of the crossfire of the pirate ships. 

     Elsewhere...   

     "CRYSTAL HAWK!" Katherine cried and with that, her power
began to manifest about her body. With more and more gathering,
it began to shape itself into a hawk. The hawk began to flap its
wings, destroying any and all ships that dared get in her way.
Clearing her eyes, she looked ahead to the point where she would
finally let go the safety of her self destruction. 

     Then, a single high concentration shot pierced her crystal
hawk and her heart. The hawk dissipated and the pressure from all
the other ships began to get worse. With blood pouring out of her
wound, she dodged what she could and flew straight at the command
ship. She was only meters away from the front of the lead ship
when another beam shot through. 

     She landed on the outside of the ship and looked ahead to
see the rest of the monstrously large battle cruiser. {Close
enough.} she thought as she released the safety from her internal
bomb. A dark yellow haze grew about her. She pushed herself on
her hands and knees and looked up to see everything was getting
bright. That was the last thing she saw.  

     The defending fleet saw the resulting explosion and gasped.
The sphere of dark light that consumed half the fleet of pirate
ships was easily half the size of Earth itself. 

*************************************************

     On Earth, Nodoka pushed herself from the crater that had
been created using her person as a tool. 

     She looked up and saw the massive explosion that took place
above her. Though not sure, she figured that whoever went through
that had no chance of survival. If it meant that Sword was dead,
then she was happy. 

     She looked up to see two lights flying straight towards her.
She tried to stand up and pull out her weapon, but Sword's last
attack had taken most of, it not all, of her strength. Soon
enough, her armor dissipated, yet was fortunate enough to keep
her kimono on. 

     Struggling to get to her feet, she noticed that both lights
had vanished and were replaced by women in full plate armor.
There were not Teknos, but at least they did not seem to be
aggressive. 

     The one with the metal plate on her face turned to her
companions and said, "It appears that she is one of them."

     Almost as if on impulse, the one with the blond hair walked
up to her and asked, "You ok? It looked like you took a pretty
bad fall."

     Lying on her side, Nodoka looked up to Mina and nodded, "I
must really be getting old. My back hurts."

     Smiling, Mina picked up the elder Saotome woman and swung
one of her arms over her armored shoulders. "Hey, Ames. Think you
can give me a hand here?"

     Amy nodded, and from the liquid metal arm, she produced a
hand and placed it in Mina's free hand, keeping that same
emotionless look. "Here you go."

     Frowning, Mina retorted, "Ha ha ha, real funny. Just go back
to the boss and tell her everything's ok." With the expected
reaction, Amy smiled. 

************************************************* 

     Back in space, the leader of the pirate fleet had been
killed in Sword's last hurrah. Without the leader to push them
on, the pirates pulled out and left the Earth. 

     With the battle complete, the Teknos of Earth, the Yagami,
and half of the Juraian fleet took a landing in the center of
what used to be Kansas City. 

     "What a mess." Tenchi said, looking through the ruins of a
city that at one time, housed millions. Beside him walked the
unoffical leader of the Earthen Teknos, Salian. 

     "You're telling me that. I found the planet in this
condition when I came to it several months ago. But take it from
me boy, I have seen much worse." She said, pushing aside a
fragment of a door that was in her way. 

     "Well, I know for a fact what I am supposed to do, but since
you told me that the Teknos were a secret and now that the secret
is out, what are you going to do?" he asked, turning to her.

     She paused and looked to the morning sun, "We have no choice
but to leave. The human population as it is, is scared of races
other than their own, were they to find out, it would throw them
into an anarchaic panic. Someday, we may be able to return."

     "But where will you all go to? Since Io has been the only
planet that I have seen that even comes close to holding life, I
doubt that there's anywhere else you can go. I'd ask the Holy
Council for an uninhabited planet, but they're just as xenophobic
as Earth is." he said dejected. 

      It did not seem to faze her in the least. "We will search
for a world. After all, we Teknos were meant to survive. We're we
not?"

      Tenchi sighed as his wife came up from behind him. "Ten."
He turned. "We just got a word from the fleet, they're detecting
something on the other side of the sun."

     "What?" He said, walking past her and to the Yagami.
Curious, Salian followed him as he placed on the headset and
tuned the frequency to the fleet. "Commander, what's going on?"

     The commander's confused voice came through, "Well, after
detecting it, I sent a scout ship to see what was up and well,
you're not going to believe this but, there's a planet on the
opposite side of Earth's orbital path."

     "Wait... are you saying that this planet you're talking
about, just appeared out of nowhere?"

     "Yes sir. Not only that, it's a planet that's more than
capable of holding life on Earth. Multiple environs, somewhat
mountainous, large oceans, you name it, it is there."

     "What about plant and animal life?"

     "Plenty of that. In fact, I would say it was Earth's twin.
Only difference being that mankind never existed there." 

     Salian smiled and said, "Looks like the Mother has blessed
us once more. I'll let the others know about it, and since not
all of us are capable of flying all the way there, as humans
often say: Can you give us a ride?"

     Both Tenchi and Kiyone sighed, "Yeah, just don't use those
kind of sayings ok?"

     Salian huffed and walked off. Once she was out of earshot,
Kiyone turned to her husband, "Seems a bit too good to be true to
me."

     Tenchi nodded, "Tell me about it. I mean, somehow, there's
got to be something that we know about that is connected with
this. But what?"

     "THAT, Tenchi-dono, is something you'd better figure for
yourself." Said a voice from above them. Both Masaki looked up to
see Washu sitting on the upper rafter with a rather large smile
on her face.

     "Washu... was this," Tenchi gestured to the information
about the other Earth, "your doing?"

     Washu's smile only got bigger as she replied, "Now, how many
times did I ask you to call me  Little' Washu?" Both Masaki
winced at the reminder, "But no. Part of it, yes. But not all of
it. It's how fate works Tenchi-dono, to confuse those who cannot
see the entire picture. Bye." she ended with another smile and
rolled backward and into wherever she vanished to.

    Kiyone turned to him, "And she was kicked out of the academy
because she was  considered' crazy?"

    Tenchi shrugged, "That's what I heard."

****************************************

    "But what do you mean we got to leave?" Ranma said with
indignance to Salian and most of the other Teknos. "I mean, Akane
and I've been living here all our lives and now we got to leave
just because we're Teknos and we transformed?"

     Nodoka put her hand upon her son's shoulder, "Ranma, if
you've forgotten, we're not exactly human anymore. So, the rest
of society will not exactly welcome us with open arms. We have to
go, for the better of our home."

      Ranma sighed and figured that he just could not win. Nodoka
walked in front of her son and continued, "You're not alone my
son. Most of us have lives are going to leave behind because of
this and we don't like it any better than you do. You think that
I would want to just abandon Genma now?"

     Ranma looked up and blinked, "What do you mean?" 

     His mother sighed, "Only recently, I've discovered how wrong
I was. How I treated your father, how I was to you about your
crystal, and so much more." She let go of her son and began to
walk from the group. 

     Blinking, Ranma ran up beside his mother, "Mom, I..."

     Nodoka interrupted him with a plea, "Ranma, can you ever
forgive your foolish mother for treating you so horribly?"

     Ranma nearly snorted, "Mom, if you didn't keep on beating
me, my ego would've just gotten worse. And it was bad enough
before Akane was changed and all.

     "All of Dad's talk about me being the best was just a bunch
of crap. Sure, I appreciate all that he taught me, but he wanted
me to be something that no one can be, unbeatable. Can you
believe that it took me 15 years for that simple idea to get
through my head?" he ranted. "In other words. Mom, don't worry
about it." 

     Nodoka looked to her son and her sad face slowly vanished.
She whispered, "Now I know you're a man among men."

     He sighed, "Please mom, can we forget that whole  man among
men' thing? It's gotten on my nerves over the past century."

     "Oh, sorry." Just then, a sharp pain appeared in her back.
She doubled over and landed on her knees and hands. After her son
helped her back to her feet, she said, "Now I know how you felt
after fighting me. Fighting Sword has got to be one of the most
humbling experiences I've ever gone through."

     Ranma smiled, "That makes two of us then."

     Back at the site where all the other Teknos were speaking...

     "So, it's decided, all the Teknos, save for the Space
Knights Teknos, will go with the Juraians, where they will be
dropped off on this new planet. There, I will personally instruct
them in the ways of the First Generation. Until they are called
again, they will remain there, until we deem it neccesary to
introduce ourselves to Earth once more. Anything else?" Salian
spoke.

       Tina rose her hand, "If I may, I want to go to this
planet. After several experiences in the past, I found it
recommenedable that I join them. The main reason being for the
safety of the people of Earth."

     Salian nodded. She knew all too well of Tina's  little'
attitude problem and it was she who recommend Tina should go with
the rest of the Teknos to the other planet. Maybe there, Tina
could find the solace she was secretly searching for.

     Since there were no other objections and ideas placed before
them all, they all went their separate ways to gather what few
possessions they had to bring with them to the planet. 

     Several hours later...

     Seraphina Brown stood at the exit of the transport cruiser
and stared at the world she was to leave behind. A ruined world,
which she loved nonetheless, and she was leaving it behind for
its safety. 

     The transport they were to use was a larger ship, when its
supplies were unloaded and modified on planet to carry the Teknos
to the new planet. 

     Yet, that was merely the beginning of how sad she was. At
one time, there was a man whom she was taking a liking to. He was
gentle, kind, patient, and respected her for who she was. Yet, he
sadly perished in the Second Impact and had no idea of he died or
not. 

     {Yoruto-kun... if you out there somewhere... don't forget
that I love you and always will.} She thought regretfully.

     A hand from behind brought her back to reality. She turned
to see Nodoka look to her nod, and then walk back inside the
cruiser. She understood how she felt. Though it was comforting,
it could not ease the pain Sera felt. 

     Soon enough, the gangplank began to receede into the ship,
the doors closed, and she watched as the doors closed for the
last time on Earth.


     The hovering thrusters flared to life as their power
propelled them into the stratosphere. There, they would travel to
a new world, a new life, and a new generation of guardians who
sacrified all for the safety of their home.

The End.

[Warhammer comes out for the REAL long author's notes.]
WH: Ok, notes for the Tenchi only segment.

     If you've seen my signature, you know exactly why I've
paired those two up. Also, I REALLY wanted to get flamed by the
fanboys of Ayeka and Ryoko for making sure neither one will get
Tenchi. And I don't even like the guy that much. 

     Several of my friends made a note that it was rather strange
to them that Ayeka suddenly went from Yoshou to Tenchi just like
that. The above could be a reasonable explaination as to how it
happened. Also, in most fics I've read, Ayeka's often treated as
a near brainless, spinless, perky princess. To say that I was
throughly disgusted would be an understatement. In the OAV, I
liked Ayeka because of her maturity shown in Episode 3... but
after that, it just went down hill. And when Kiyone came along, I
finally found the only female character in TM that I like.

     Examine the first two kana in each of the Uchikishi's names.
If you've read the Balance, you'll know who they are. BTW: They
had two other sisters named Ichiko and Niko. 

     The songs used in the fair and the one Kiyone chanted in the
public bath were from the music disc of Mystere Live. A Las Vegas
show I have seen and have marveled at the inhuman acts these
people preform. Plus, the music is pretty boss too. The * is
suppoed to saw that the song she was siging was in the middle of
track 6 of Live version. If you intend to get the music to
Mystere, I recommend getting the Live version. 

     Now, if you can find the reference to FF7, I commend you.

     Why the reference to the Scarlet Letter? Got me. I just
needed a character, where their vengeance caused their inevitable
death. And Hester Prim's husband was a pretty good example. 

     Also, the sermon on Cyanide. It's standard doctrine that
Christ taught there... well, at least in my religon it is. I am
not sure about other christian sects, but I was only using as a
reference, if I offended anyone, I am sorry. 

     Now, onto the second section of the story. I wanted to write
a short sidestory fic about how Nobuyuki was doing living on
Jurai and how he would mellow out about seeing his son go on.
Sadly, it will have to wait for a while. 

     On an important note: I am not satisfied with this one. I will 
rewrite it so that it will be better once I get back.

     Next, the whole farmer cracker bit was just a little bit to
explain that I don't know a thing about people in the
southeastern United States. I am not saying that all people in
that area are like that... just some. 

     The bombing the spidercrab scene was somehwhat inspired by a
short scene of Starship Troopers. As offensive as it may be, I
couldn't help but cackle with delight at seeing the insects get
blown to bits. Hehehe.

     And a little detail that I forgot while writing, was that
Nephlyte did take out that Lahdam that Saber once rode. 

     Let's face it, no body really likes Galt execpt to kill off
the old fart or to just put him in a sanitarium. So I decided not
to even bother going into detail about his death. Yet, when it
came to Marlo and Balzac's scene... lets say one of the more
popular characters died that day. I surmise there was a bit of
yaoi about those two in dojinshi form a while back, when Tekkaman
Blade was still popular. 

     On the little bit of chaos I caused, using Sword, let's just
say it's a small recap of the Second impact, only that people
were dying for no good reason at all. Imouto says that I might be
overdoing it a bit, but hey, overkill is good in some cases. 

     Now the whole fight scene involving Sword. Were it not for
the Megami, everyone on the good guy side would have died and the
pirates would have either gotten Earth or die at Sword's hands.
You take your pick. Sword as monsterouly powerful as she is just
living after all the efforts of those weaker than her couldn't
beat her alone, or just kill everyone off, ala Anno-Baka Hideaki.

     The Tina/Ranma scene was a sort of ending to the little
 tryst' they had in the last chapter of Machine's Blessing. But
rest assured, Tina won't kill Ranma... hurt him yes, but kill
him, no. 
 
     The Yagami scene flying through the space pirate infested
space was inspired by one of my oldtime favorite movies, the Last
Starfighter. Lost of explosions, lasers and what not to satisfy
anyone's lust for space fights.

     Finally, Katherine's sacriface was only meant for personal
redemption, she had not the intrests of Earth or the others in
mind. It was selfish, true, but she wanted to free her soul from
the prison she was placed it. Sad isn't it?

     Like I've said before in many of my fics, we as humans,
don't know crap when it comes to the great eternal perspective of
the universe. We're nothing... well, not nothing, just real
small. It makes me feel so insignificant... but then again I
always feel that way. ^_^

     If you know of Z-Tron Dreams, you know the plain fact that
Shara, Mother of the Teknos, is the one who requsted that planet
be created. In one of those rare moments where all three Megami
co-operate, they came up with that little planet just for the
Teknos. Neat huh?

     Plus, if you can guess who Sera's boyfriend is, than you are
a better man that I, cause my brain is fried from writing this. 

     Until my next fic... in 2000.

[Warhammer walks out for the last time.]     
Teknos Warhammer-
-Knight of the True Fiancee
-Offical Nodoka Saotome Guardian
-Self Proclaimed Guardian of Kiyone Makabi
-Fanfic hero for the Underdogs
-And so much more

View his fanfics at: http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Garden/4853/index.html

"Special FX by Industrial Light and Morons."
-Michael J. Nelson, MST3K, Space Mutiny