Queen Washu of the Hyurodan, ruler of one of the more technologically advanced races in the galaxy, and wearer of hair that looked remarkably like a crab, groaned quietly in frustration. She could hear her daughter Ryoko and her daughter's fiance Ayeka upstairs, bickering loudly over who-knew-what, and it wasn't making the attempts to arrange their wedding any easier. "The rituals of binding are very important to the Juraian culture," Empress Funaho repeated calmly, leaning forward over the table slightly. "It represents a giving of oneself to one's partner, as well as a solid bond of trust and love." "Look, Funaho, what you call an all-important ritual is just another fun night in bed for the Hyurodan," Washu replied, leaning forward as well and tapping her finger repeatedly on the table. "In such a setting, to us it would symbolize being tied down, being restricted by the marriage! And that's not exactly a good way to start off an alliance between us." "No, I suppose you are right," Funaho agreed with a sigh, leaning back in her chair and closing her eyes. The Empress' rich, dark brown hair was starting to come loose a little bit from the long parts bound and held over her shoulders, casting strands of it across her face. Washu realized she was staring a little and shook it off. "It's tough going," she allowed, softening her voice somewhat. "And it's been a long day." "Indeed. It is... difficult, at the least, determining a ceremony that will satisfy the hearts and minds of two peoples, one of whom prefers to focus on restraint and togetherness, while the other values uninhibition and independence." Funaho sighed again, brushing more strands of hair away from her face. "If only there were a way in which we could portray Ayeka and Ryoko being bound together without it becoming, as you said, 'restricted'." "Manacles without the chains," Washu murmured wryly, letting a grin curl her lips. Then she blinked and sat up. "Heeey, that's not such a bad idea!" Funaho blinked once, sitting up as well. "I'm afraid I don't follow." "Manacles without the chains! A way to show that they're held together, but not actually restricted by it." "... Bracelets," Funaho murmured after a moment, starting to smile herself. "Matching bracelets. 'Manacles without the chains'." "Exactly. It would symbolize that they're being joined, but that it's not something you'd equate with being thrown in the dungeon." Funaho's smile turned a little bemused. "Yes, well, being thrown in a dungeon can be fun in its own way." The Empress flushed, then shook her head. "... Forgive me, as you said, it's been a long day." "Quite all right," Washu chuckled, then jumped just a little at the sound of a crash from upstairs. Sighing, she shook her head. "I wish those two would find a less expensive way of expressing themselves." ------------------------------------------------------------ Princess Ayeka leveraged herself up out of the remains of the small table, then noticed that the vase that had been resting on it had somehow come through things unscathed. Grabbing it up, the Juraian hurled it at her opponent with a shriek of outrage. Princess Ryoko ducked in time to avoid having the vase slam into her face, the expensive piece of ceramic shattering on the wall and scattering pottery shards and dust in the Hyurodan's hair. Straightening up and shaking herself off a bit, Ryoko smirked. "That's just the sort of thing you'd do, throwin' stuff. You are SUCH a spoiled little brat!" "I'll show you!" Ayeka shot back, at the moment too enraged to think up anything snappier. She hurled herself forward, only to squawk indignantly as her forward motion was arrested from behind. "Excuse me, Princesses." Kallista, the captain of the royal guards, released her grip on the back of Ayeka's kimono, then took a step back to give a small bow. "There's something I've gotta talk to the queen about, but you should be there as well... Princess Ryoko." Ayeka blinked, noticing the strange emphasis that the guardswoman had placed on the word 'Princess'. She looked to Ryoko, and saw that there was a slight tightness around the other woman's eyes. But Ryoko simply gave a quick nod. "Alright. I'll be down in a minute." "Thank you." With that, Kallista sketched another quick bow in Ayeka's direction, before turning and walking down the nearby stairs. "Well, guess we'll have to finish this up later," Ryoko said brightly, moving to follow Kallista. "See you in a little while..." Ayeka huffed a few times, suddenly realizing they'd been interrupted in the middle of a fight, and that her clothes and hair were in disarray. "That WOMAN," she muttered, stomping one foot. ------------------------------------------------------------ "So, what's the big deal?" Ryoko snorted, leaning back in her chair and propping her feet up on the table, just to show her mother how unconcerned she was. "Half these 'rebel' guys are offworlders. I could probably take care of most of 'em myself." "And what if they endangered our guests, hm?" Washu lay both her hands on the table to lean forward and look Ryoko in the eye. "We drove off the Terrans, but do you honestly think we could deal with it if the entire Juraian fleet showed up on our doorstep?" "... Okay, so maybe you have a point," the Hyurodan princess grumbled grudgingly, swinging her legs off the table. "So assign a double watch of guards." "I already have. Just remember that you may need to take care of your fiance." "Of course I will!" Ryoko answered, a little too quickly for her own comfort, so added a scowl and rather petulant, "If that little idiot got hurt while she was staying here, I'd never hear the end of it." "Mm-hm. So just keep that in mind, alright?" "I am not a CHILD, Washu!" Ryoko snapped back, yellow eyes flashing indignantly. "You're my child," the Queen answered back calmly. "... Yeah." Slowly, Ryoko got to her feet, then took the smaller woman in her arms and hugged her tightly. "Yeah, okay, I'll keep it in mind, mom." Washu patted Ryoko's back gently. "Good. Now, go on. We'll be leaving for Jurai in a few days, and I don't whining you whining to me that you didn't have enough warning to pack!" "Motherrrr! I don't whiiiiiine!" ------------------------------------------------------------ Ayeka lay in bed, one arm laying stretched out at her side, her other hand resting lightly on her chest. Her pink eyes stared unseeing at the darkened ceiling, wrapped in her own thoughts more than the blankets or her light sleeping kimono. Ryoko... a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a gorgeous body that Ayeka had found herself noticing more and more as the days went by. She just didn't understand Ryoko... nor her own reactions to the other princess. Dinner last night had been... odd. Ryoko had obviously been struggling to be courteous, polite, and good company. And Ayeka had found herself growing ever more unnerved by it. As the meal had gone on, she had grown gradually more uncomfortable, and she thought that others noticed it as well. Even Ryoko seemed dismayed by it. Then, the Hyurodan princess had slowly smiled, and in a loud, even tone, stated, "What's the matter, Ayeka? The food not stink enough to make you turn your nose up like usual?" Before the fight was over, most of the dinner was scattered over the table, the floor, and the two combatants. And Ayeka had limped back to her room with a grin on her face. 'It seems so strange. When I fight with her, it's comfortable, it's... it's almost as if I really do like it. But why?' Still struggling with that question, and a thousand others like it, she eventually drifted off without really noticing she'd gone to sleep. And she almost stayed that way forever as, sometime in the night, she awoke to a man with dark skin and ridged cheekbones standing above her, holding a wicked knife in his hand with the blade aimed at her heart. Ayeka drew in breath to scream, but choked it off when she saw slender female fingers wrap around the assailant's wrist. It was the alien who screamed as his upper arm was suddenly bent double around a jagged break in the middle. His wrist was turned loose, the knife clattering to the floor from limp fingers, and those slender, soft woman's hands went around his face, resting on his cheek almost as if in a carress, the other fingers visible in his dark, tangled hair. There was a sound like dozens of tiny, wet twigs being turned until they tore. Kiyone stepped back, allowing the assassin to fall to the floor, his head turned almost backwards. Calmly, the white kimono-clad attendant offered her hand to Ayeka. "My lady, we'd best get you out of here. It appears that the castle is under attack." Shaking a bit, Ayeka took Kiyone's hand and pulled herself to her feet, absentmindedly pulling her thin sleeping kimono more tightly around her, as if it could shield her from what had happened. Always, always in the back of her mind, she had known that Kiyone was a trained bodyguard as well as a maidservant. In the back of her mind, she knew that her lady-in-waiting was there to protect her, and if necessary, kill for her, and probably had at some point without her ever knowing. But she had never truly KNOWN until she'd seen it with her own eyes. Kiyone hurried to the doorway, glanced outside quickly, then ducked back in and pushed the doors closed. Moving smoothly, efficiently, but with all the speed and grace of a shadow stretching across the floor, the maidservant crushed a chair, then shoved several long pieces of wood through the handles and under the doors, jamming them in until they were tight. "There are more outside. We'll have to find some way of going out the window, my lady." As if summoned by the words, the windows swung inwards with a gust of air, admitting Ryoko. Kiyone whirled around and moved in an instant in front of Ayeka, and did not relax her pose of combat readiness despite the new arrival's identity. Ryoko touched down lightly, then glanced around, eyes settling on the dead assassin. "There's no time to waste, I guess, then." She looked back up to Kiyone and Ayeka. "I can fly one of you out of here, but I can only carry one." Slowly, Kiyone nodded. She didn't seem eager to give up her charge, but she'd felt Ayeka's body suddenly relax slightly when the other princess had flown in, even if the Juraian royal was unaware of it herself. "Alright then. Take good care of her... or I'll come after you, flight or no flight." Ryoko bit back a snappy comment, and simply nodded, meeting Kiyone's determined gaze, then turning to Ayeka. "Well, c'mon, we don't exactly have all night." Tentatively, Ayeka moved forward and stepped into Ryoko's open arms. She flushed as she felt those strong arms wrap tightly around her, muscles like liquid metal, strong and supple. And then she was being lifted off her feet, and felt cold wind rushing past her, cold mingled with the warmth of her fiance's body. Kiyone watched Ryoko fly away holding Ayeka close to her, her face set in a solemn mask. Without another look back, she turned to the door that was beginning to shake from an outside assault, and reached into her sleeve, withdrawing a hilt made of entwined, smooth wood. The faceted blue gem on the hilt flashed once as the long indigo blade of energy flickered into being. The maidservant took one step back to make sure she had plenty of space, then readied herself for the tide. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Seems like you picked a poor weekend to visit, princess," Ryoko said conversationally, her voice right in Ayeka's ear, the calm thrum of it easily heard over the whistling, stinging wind. "It is an inappropriate time for joking, Ryoko," Ayeka murmured back, still a little too much in shock to snap at her fiance. She cautiously turned her head away from the Hyurodan's shoulder, looking back to see that the castle was dark, save for a few rooms where there were flashes of light. One in particular was alight with sweeping arcs of green, purple, and bright orange-red. "My mothers!" Ayeka cried, eyes going wide. "Ryoko, you MUST take me back down, we must help them!" "You ain't gonna help 'em by getting yourself killed," Ryoko snarled back. Before the argument could escalate any further, Ryoko pulled up short as Kallista flew to meet her in a flash of gold and white, the head guardswoman's long, backswept orange hair seeming more bristled than usual, like an angry cat. "Gimme the girl, I'll take her to her sister," Kallista said quickly. "You should probably come too." "No, I'll take 'er to her sister. You get back to her room and help her friend, I hadda leave her there." Kallista hesitated for a moment, looking uncertain, then nodded rather reluctantly. "Alright. I left the kid and her pal near the big outcropping of boulders and that almost-cliff to the east." And with that, the guardswoman angled her spear in front of her and flew off with a flutter of her loincloth. "Ryoko, no!" Ayeka protested. "I want to help my mother and Empress Funaho!" "It's too dangerous!" Ryoko growled. "Ryoko, PLEASE!" Something in that please made the Hyurodan princess actually look at her fiance. There was an honest pleading in those pink eyes, an openness to the aristocratic features that had never been there before. "... Okay. But you don't leave my side, okay?" "I won't leave your side," Ayeka answered, with a sincerity that would have disturbed her... if only she'd had the time. ------------------------------------------------------------ "Mihoshi, I'm scared," Sasami whispered, her back as close to the flat rock as she could manage, her legs pulled up and arms wrapped around them. The solid, comforting mass and warmth of Ryo-Ohki was nestled between her chest and legs, and vigilent brown eyes peered out from the little enclosure of limbs. "I'm scared too, princess," Mihoshi answered, a quaver in her voice that showed she was on the edge of bursting into sniffles. Her baby blue eyes shone with unshed, fearful tears, and she seemed likely to jump should anyone sneak up on her and shout 'Behind you!' Luckily, the usually mischievious Hyurodan guards accompanying them were all business now. Three of them had remained behind to guard this fallback position, and were now fanned out in a loose perimeter. "This was so sudden... it's strange," said Ada, the one on the left. The hair she chopped almost boyishly short was a very light blue, with faint green highlights, and her eyes were a very nervous grey. She was also gripping her golden spear so tightly that her knuckles were white, and her hands trembled. "Not all that sudden," Riyata called back from her position on the right. Her own hair was so black that it was only visible against the night sky by where the stars didn't show around her, almost sweeping the ground with every turn of her head. Her narrowed orange eyes scanned every last rock with a practiced eye. "A lot of the outer planets in our system have always felt Washu got too much glory for her part in things." "Ridiculous," the third guard put in, from her perch on a boulder in the center. Kuska apparently saw no further need for comment, as she remained silent, calmly running a hand along one of the two indigo "fins" formed by her hair. Seeming unconcerned by the possibility of attack, she instead watched Ada pace, apparently fascinated with the other guard's backside. "I hope everyone's okay," Sasami said quietly, mostly to herself, fighting to keep from whimpering. She was a Juraian Princess, she'd be strong, just like Funaho, just like Ayeka, she'd be tough... Mihoshi started to agree with her young charge, then stopped moving completely, eyes going very wide. "... Someone's here." Ada froze, too, at Mihoshi's words, seeming torn between turning towards the maidservant and continuing to look for trouble. Riyata, without turning, said, more quietly than they had been, "What are you talking about, woman?" "I heard them... they're out there in the sand." Mihoshi took a step back towards the cliff face. "There are enemies close." "Closer than you think!" came the lusty cry, as camouflaged forms rose not thirty feet away, shedding sand. But the cry had come not from any of them, but Kuska, as she lept down from her boulder perch. The tip of her golden spear touched against the flesh of Ada's back, for one horrible moment simply dimpling it, before sinking into the skin, a rose blossoming from the other guard's shoulderblades. Ada's eyes went wide, tears of surprise and pain flung from them as the spear emerged between her breasts, ripping through the armor plate. The young Hyurodan fell forward with the motion of the thrust, blood falling from her lips as she whispered in a tiny, lost voice, "Riyata... help..." "NOOOO!" Riyata wailed in anguish, tears streaking her own cheeks and spilling like diamonds into the night even as she turned and rushed towards her lover's killer, spear brought up to be swung like a sword. Kuska yanked her spear from Ada's body as she would have from a block of wood, leaving the murdered guard to fall forward and stain the sand with what remained of her life. With a grim, almost insane smile, she turned and lowered the point of her weapon at the oncoming avenging angel. It was not Riyata's spear that claimed the traitor's life. Startled by a sudden flash of yellow light, Kuska tried to leap backwards, only to have her head come away from her body. She felt an intense, almost curious surprise as she thumped to the ground, and that expression was, half a moment later, frozen on her face forever. Riyata pulled herself up short, clenching her spear more tightly, still feeling burning in her eyes and dampness on her cheeks. She was torn between satisfaction that Ada's murderer was dead, and fury that she had not been the one to claim that right. Confused, she turned her gaze to Ada's avenger. Mihoshi angled her Juraian energy sword downwards, calmly drawing a half-circle in the sand with the tip of it where she stood in front of Sasami. Those sky-blue eyes, that Riyata last remembered wide with fear, were now very calm, and it seemed that a smile almost played over the dark-skinned maidservant's lips. "If you wouldn't mind, please... I know it's hard right now, but could you be our first line of defense?" Tucking away her grief as only a professional soldier could, Riyata nodded once and turned to face the oncoming assailants, making sure to give the formidable warrior behind her enough room to wield her weapon. ------------------------------------------------------------ Ryoko set down on the balcony outside Funaho and Misaki's room, releasing Ayeka, who stepped away and started to move towards the windows. Ryoko quickly grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back. "If you've got to do this, you ninny, stay behind me!" Just about to snipe back that she could take care of herself, Ayeka was instead stunned into silence as Ryoko summoned forth a ball of bright orange-red energy and closed her fist around it, the swirling light bursting forth into an energy sword. Moving forward quickly, the Hyurodan princess kicked the window inwards and strode forward, energy blade humming, golden cat's eyes flashing and almost glowing with battle-lust. Inside, war was raging. Funaho and Misaki had obviously been caught by complete surprise, and it showed in that neither Empress was wearing much. Misaki had only her light blue sleeping kimono, which was hanging open in front, the dangling belt trailing behind her movements like some odd tail, and Funaho's black sleeping kimono was almost falling down around her shoulders. Neither of them seemed to care, however, their faces somewhat drawn, eyes hard and set. Back-to-back, they calmly and efficiently fended off each incoming attack, Misaki's purple Juraian blade and Funaho's green one casting dancing light over their features as they impacted against the natural energy swords of the rebel Hyurodan. "Bitches!" Ryoko yowled, wading into the surprised insurrectionists from behind, her own energy blade cutting through flesh and bone as if it were air. Quickly, some of the assailants turned their attention to her, and Ryoko soon found herself clashing lightblades with others. "Thank you, Princess Ryoko," Funaho said calmly, as if she were giving the proper response to Ryoko passing the salt at dinner, rather than fending off two energy-wielding wild women. "Your assistance is much appreciated." "Thank your daughter, she's the one that insisted!" Ryoko called back with a smirk, ducking in under her current opponent's swing and slicing her in half at the waist. "Ayeka?!" Misaki cried, looking over her shoulder and seeing her daughter standing nervously on the balcony. "Ayeka, you shouldn't be here!" Motherly instinct overriding even the common sense of a trained swordswoman, Misaki whirled around and began to run towards Ayeka. Funaho felt Misaki leave her back, and turned her head, saw an attacking Hyurodan thrusting the tip of her sword towards her co-wife's back. Without a second thought, Funaho cried Misaki's name and threw her shoulder against the other woman's, knocking her out of the way. She felt the boiling energy pierce her bare stomach and burn all the way through her, a certain cold radiating out all around it as it came out her back. She fought the urge to fall to her knees, knowing that it would slice her in half. 'Please God... if I die... at least let it save my family...' "Empress!" cried Ryoko, surprised at her own pain at the sight. "Funaho!" Misaki screamed, tears bursting to her eyes, feeling as if the energy sword had instead pierced her own heart. Ayeka could only let out a long, wordless wail of loss.
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