SPIRITS OF REMEMBRANCE

				     Chapter 1
			     "The Spirit and the Caller"

				  by Marc Weinstein


	Legal boring stuff: I don't own Tenchi Muyo! or any of it's characters. They are the 
property of AIC and Pioneer. Ghost Rider and all things related to the Marvel Universe herein 
are the property of Marvel Comics. I own no characters save for Marc Weinstein and a few 
characters made specifically for this fanfic. This story is set in the OVA continuity. This is 
also NOT the Ghost Rider of either of the three Marvel books. This Ghost Rider is entirely my 
own take on the character, so please don't skewer me if he seems out of character. He may seem 
similar to Zarathos or Noble Kale at times, but he is NEITHER of them, nor is he Vengeance, or 
Ghost Rider 2099.


	12:00 AM in the United States of America.
	Specifically, New York City.

	It seems a fact taken for granted in this proud metropolis that crimes happen almost 
every second or so in this noble city. But it is also a fact of life that there are numerous 
heroes to protect this city. Whether the hero be one in red and blue swinging from building 
to building, with the proportionate speed, strength and agility of a spider, or a Viking warrior 
with a mallet made of a metal forged in a world of gods. However, on this day, at this time, at 
a dockside warehouse, a hero which people are more likely to run from than the very criminals he 
seeks to stop, rides into the night.......
	"C'mon, c'mon! You wanna get caught by the Web-Slinger or something?!" yelled Lanny Zukov 
to his partner. The two were pulling their latest heist, and had unfortunately ended up killing a 
guard while doing it. Super Heroes tended to frown on cop killers, even rent a cops like the 
security guards in low rent rat houses like this. 
	"Hey, I ain't worried about the Web-Head. It's ol' Bonehead I'm worried about!"
	"What are you, nuts? He may be a spook, but I doubt that he's anywhere near here!" Lanny 
objected.
	His partner laughed in his face. "You don't know him then! You see what he did to Burt a 
few weeks ago?"
	"Why don't I show him personally, you murdering bastard?"

*	*	*	*
	6:00 PM in Japan
	The Masaki household

	"Washu...." came the growl of Ryoko, who was in a less than stellar mood. Being strapped 
to yet another of her mother's (and in her case she uses that term highly reluctantly, if at all) 
contraptions, and she did NOT like it. Tenchi was due back from his errand into town any minute, 
and Ryoko was determined to be the first to greet him upon his return.
	"Oh come on now little Ryoko. It's just for a little while longer." Washu grinned. For 
once, she wasn't simply saying that. The experiment WAS nearly complete, and within a few moments, 
she'd  have what she needed. A scant few minutes later, her holo-top gave off a few pings and she 
smiled.
	"All done. You can go now, dear."
	The minute the straps released, Ryoko was airborne and headed for the door. She escaped 
out the door and headed out of the house before the semi-demented self-proclaimed 'greatest 
scientific genius in the universe' decided she wanted to do something ELSE to her.
	*Don't tempt me, Little Ryoko. I might take you up on that.* Washu's voice sounded in her 
mind, eliciting a growl from  the demoness.
	*Get the fuck out of my mind, Washu.* Was all that Ryoko sent by way of a reply, as she 
turned her focus towards the figure coming up to the house. That was unmistakably Tenchi. Pouring 
on the speed, she zipped to him, and proceeded to wrap her arms around him.
	"Hello Tenchi. That commute must have been so tiring. let me help you relax." She said 
with her usual seductive smile.
	"Uh...no thanks, Ryoko. I have to get this to Grandpa and then I promised to help Sasami 
with a new dish she's been interested in making." came the reply, as Tenchi began sweating 
immensely. Whenever Ryoko offered to try to help him 'relax', half the house ended up being blown 
apart. Mostly due to the fact that Princess Ayeka Jurai of the planet Jurai- His GRANDAUNT no 
less!- also held romantic designs on him. To be honest, there were times he felt truly tired of 
the havoc they caused while battling over which one of them he loved. Tenchi himself didn't know. 
Ryoko, though very very tough talking, was very fragile beneath her facade of invincibility. It 
wasn't that she couldn't back up her boasts, Tenchi knew, because she had backed her claims up 
with the raw power and skill that seemed to have often been demanded of her. No, it was her 
emotions that made her so fragile. After thousands of years under the heel of Kagato, Ryoko's 
emotions had finally been allowed to express themselves openly after 700 years of imprisonment on 
Earth, and in many ways, her emotions were very childlike and fragile.
	Ayeka, he mused, was very much a mirror image of Ryoko, yet almost her complete Polar 
opposite. Ayeka was generally self contained and had very little knowledge of how to express her 
feelings well. Other than rage, Tenchi smirked as that correcting thought flitted across his mind. 
Ayeka wasn't under anyone's control on Earth or on Jurai really. But she just didn't know how to 
open up. However, Ayeka still held a large amount of bitterness towards Ryoko for her assault on 
Jurai some 700 years before, which had led her half brother, who was also her fiance at that time, 
halfway across the known universe, to what most Juraians referred to as a backwater colony planet. 
Tenchi STILL didn't believe Earth was in any way associated with Jurai other than the fact that 
his grandfather, his grandaunts Ayeka and her younger sister Sasami, and himself lived on Earth. 
But then, Tenchi was only about 1/8 or so Jurai. So he wasn't even sure if he should count 
himself as Juraian. 
	"Tenchi, are you listening to me?" Ryoko's voice said, snapping him from his reverie.
	"Uh...what?" He said, feeling foolish for having zoned out the way he did. He hadn't even 
known Ryoko was still speaking.
	"Forget it." she sighed, feeling disappointed. Tenchi had begun zoning out frequently, 
and it was beginning to concern her. She had vowed to protect Tenchi from anything. His presence 
near the cave she had been imprisoned in over the course of seven hundred years had helped her 
learn what it was to have a childhood. What it was to have a family. It was also Tenchi's 
presence that had enabled her to find out what it meant to feel love. For what he had given her, 
she had vowed to protect him from harm. But she had failed, more than once. She half assumed 
Tenchi hated her for her failures, even though he had twice saved her from danger. The first time, 
Kagato had come for her, and she had tried to protect Tenchi from him, and instead had been used 
against him by her master. Then Dr. Clay had abducted her, replacing her with Zero. She had been 
forced to watch as Zero nearly assassinated Tenchi in his sleep. On top of it, Tenchi had nearly 
gotten killed when Clay attempted to destroy fully his entire ship. Overall, Ryoko didn't feel 
she'd done very well in keeping her vow to herself. Zero, the robot who had become her double, 
and which contained emotions even more raw than her own, now joined with her, felt Ryoko's pain, 
and did her best to quell it. telling Ryoko that the circumstances were beyond her control.
	*Shut up, Zero.*

*	*	*	*

	Three nights had passed since the dock battle. And the man known only as Marc was still 
no closer to finding out who the hell he was, or why he turned into a demon with a flaming skull. 
He just knew he did it. As he prepared to board the plane bound for Japan, he reflected on his 
recent situation. His alter ego's driving obsession, which seemed to be only an echo in his mind, 
even when he gave in and allowed himself to be driven to right wrongs as a skull faced monster, 
had driven him to take this trip. One of the local crimelords, who he had been getting closer 
to as the Ghost Rider, had departed for Japan three days earlier, on the very day of his battle 
on the docks with those two punks. He knew that he was the Ghost Rider. He sometimes felt that 
he wasn't. He felt something whispering, always whispering, in his mind when he allowed his 
powers to manifest. Perhaps the person he really was? He had called himself Marc since the 
night he awoke in an alleyway with no memory of who he was, and a paper with the word 'marc' 
had smacked him in the face. But it was the first time he had turned into the Ghost Rider 
that troubled him. He had done it almost instinctively. Had KNOWN what to do, and had known 
just what he was going to say. Like the fog in his mind that kept his true identity hidden 
from him, lifted only when he transformed. But even then, he remembered nothing save what he 
was capable of as the flaming skull faced Demon. With a shrug, the Living Spirit of Vengeance 
boarded his plane.
	He may have been better off staying in New York.

*	*	*	*

	The Masaki Household looked like it had seen better days. Shortly after Ayeka had seen 
Ryoko with her arms around Tenchi as the two walked in, she had thrown her usual royal fit, and 
she and Ryoko had once again trashed the living room extensively.
	Tenchi hadn't been too thrilled, since as usual he had ended up in a great deal of pain, 
and counted himself fortunate to have placed the items he had been sent to retrieve out of harm's
way. Not that it had helped his disposition. To be honest, he had been pushed well past his limits 
already. This just ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back.
	"ENOUGH ALREADY!!! Every day, no matter what the reason, the two of you always end up 
doing this. Can't a guy go through a single day without nearly getting KILLED in his own living 
room?!" He'd screamed at them.
	"Tenchi....we...it was just...." Ryoko began to protest. She'd rarely seen Tenchi angry, 
and certainly NEVER *this* angry.
	"I don't *care* what it was, Ryoko! With Ayeka and yourself, even something as trivial as 
who gets the last french fry turns into an all out war! I'm *sick* of it!" he said, beating down 
her words before she had time to fully think them out and speak them out loud. "I'm telling you 
both, stop the fighting. or else get out. I'm sure the two of you can find someplace out in space 
to wreck with your battles."
	That stopped them dead in their tracks. Tenchi had never before come close to uttering 
something like that.  Ryoko went about as pale as it could get. The thought of being forcibly 
expulsed from Tenchi's home was too much for her to take, and she vanished, with tears in her 
eyes. Ayeka only barely managed to come through the tirade better, though inwardly, she echoed 
Ryoko's despair. Still, she kept her emotions well hidden behind her mask of royalty.
	"I...understand, Lord Tenchi. It shall not happen again."
	"See that it doesn't."

*	*	*	*

	Ryoko stood by her cave, shuddering and crying at the same time. If ever there was proof 
positive that Tenchi hated her for failing to protect him, that was it. Somewhere inside her mind, 
she felt, more than heard Zero trying to comfort her, telling her that no, Tenchi did NOT hate 
her. But Ryoko felt that the act was a hollow one. That even Zero wasn't sure of it herself. Yet 
Zero kept persisting that Tenchi didn't hate Ryoko. Eventually, Ryoko tired of it.
	"Alright! Enough of this! I want you out of me, Zero! NOW!"
	This be ing said, Ryoko set about seperating from Zero. She hadn't expected to feel such 
pain. She had felt mild discomfort when she had first merged with the former robot-turned-flesh-
and-blood double. But this was about fifty times worse. After what seemed like an eternity, but 
only about thirty seconds in reality, the two stood face to face.
	"Why in the world did-"
	"Quiet, Zero. I'm done. Tenchi hates me. No matter what you may want to believe, I *know* 
hatred when it's right in front of me."
	"Ryoko..." Zero started to say, but was again interrupted by the Demon Caller.
	"No. You're still too innocent. Too Naive. You may have my memories, but you don't have 
the same experience with them as I do. When we merged, I knew what it was like to be me, through 
your eyes. I remember how gullible I was for almost a month, taking almost everything at face 
value. You've changed a bit, but most of that innocence is still there. That's why you can't 
believe Tenchi hates me. That's why we need to seperate. I can't keep clinging to false hope 
anymore."
	Zero simply looked at Ryoko with a stunned expression. Ever since merging with her, Zero 
had been the part of Ryoko that kept her from being as wild as she once was, and Zero believed 
that it was helping Ryoko in her quest to win Tenchi's heart. She also believed it was working. 
Tenchi, while not completely at ease with her, was much more open with Ryoko. Had Tenchi, in a 
moment of anger, crushed all the headway Ryoko had made now that she had a sense of....honor?

*	*	*	*

	Marc stepped from the plane and into Japan. He hoped he could do what he had to and leave 
as soon as possible. He knew some Japanese, but in his opinion, not enough nor well enough, 
despite listening to a decent amount of Japanese language tapes and perused a few Japanese/English 
lesson books. He still didn't feel that he quite knew the language as well as he would have liked. 
Still, there was little he could seriously do about it. Were it not that he were needed here, he 
would not have come. He had enough foes to deal with in New York City. Travelling to Japan was 
not a trip he made as part of his mission. But if what he'd found out of late were true, then 
this time he'd have to make the trip.
	Ghost Rider was needed.

*	*	*	*

	In the depths of a cemetary, not far from the Masaki Shrine, power began to flow. Power 
that had not walked this Earth for many years. Power that would rule the Earth in darkness, and 
eventually conquer the universe. 
	It knows.
	It recognizes it's greatest threats on this planet. One, similar to a power it has not 
felt since before most of Jurai's first wave of human populants were even infants, and a mass of 
powers that would be a threat when combined with that power. It knew what must be done. 
	And the demon laughed.........

					To Be Continued....