"Hello?" Mihoshi called out, looking around her curiously in
the odd darkness of the hall she entered. It had an feeling of age and
disuse, despite looking like much of the rest of Soja.
"It's about time you got here," the voice said crisply.
Mihoshi jumped a bit in surprise, spinning about to see a
short, redheaded girl standing right behind her. Dressed in the
uniform of the Science Academy, she was small enough to look like one
of the students there.
"Follow me," the redhead strode off without another word.
Running to try and catch up Mihoshi asked, "Who are you? What
are you doing here?"
"Washu," the redhead said simply, ignoring the other question
for the time being. She led them to what looked like an pool, within
an image of Ayeka, gazing up in stunned shock at what looked like her
elder brother.
"Ayeka," Mihoshi's eyes widened in alarm seeing the other
figure, "Wait, that's not Yosho!"
Washu looked up at her with a slight smile, "Very good!" She
looked back down at the pool, "Let's hope Ayeka's that perceptive."
Standing there in the great hall Ayeka gazed in honest
pleasure at the sight of her long lost brother, restored to the vigor
of youth. "Yosho," she cried out happily, running forward. A few
steps, a meeting of their eyes, and the dark purple haired princess
jerked to a sudden stop in the middle of the gigantic chamber.
"Come, Ayeka," Yosho smiled, his arms outstretched, "let me
greet you."
"You're not Yosho." Ayeka said firmly.
Standing there on the balcony he maintained that pose for a
silent moment, then in a flare of green fire he stood revealed as
Kagato. "How did you know?" he casually asked her, pushing his long,
silvery gray hair back.
"The eyes," Ayeka answered, "I've never seen that coldness in
my brother's gaze."
"They are always the most difficult to change," Kagato agreed,
pushing his glasses up. "Then I suppose we'll just have to do this the
hard way," he added.
Kagato gestured, and Ayeka was suddenly yanked towards him.
But instead of resisting she added her own power to his pull, hurtling
at him fist extended. Stopped in midair she growled in frustration,
the force of the mighty blow channeled away.
"This place protects me from all such crude physical attacks,"
the smugly smiling Kagato said to her quietly.
"Oh, really?" a silky dangerous voice came from right behind
him.
Kagato moved purely by instinct, flinging Ayeka away as he
swiftly dodged, Ryouko's blade burning the very air where he once
stood. The space pirate gave him a saucy grin, her scarlet energy
blade held at the ready.
Something, some sign warned Kagato just in time to dodge the
next strike, one delivered silently and without any warning. The ice
blue blade of Tenchi's sword tore the robes Kagato wore, and any
nearer would have pierced the very flesh.
"Coordinating your attacks," Kagato murmured, "I'm impressed."
Tenchi ignored his words as she softly asked Ayeka, "Where's
Mihoshi?"
"I'm right here," Mihoshi cried out, but they couldn't hear
her. She turned to glare down at Washu, "Where are we?"
"The mirror side to the ship," Washu answered crisply. She
sighed at the look of utter incomprehension on Mihoshi's face and
simplified, "We're in a part of the ship that's sealed off from the
rest of it. The only way we can leave is if they defeat Kagato."
"And you know this how?" Mihoshi asked weakly.
"I designed this ship," Washu said proudly.
"And you can't get out?" Mihoshi echoed.
"Of course! It's perfect," Washu explained cheerfully,
"because I designed it!"
Mihoshi sweatdropped at that, then she gazed anxiously down at
the pool again. "Isn't there anything we can do?" she asked.
"There is still one thing we can do," Washu murmured as Ryouko
delivered a devastating attack to Kagato.
"Yes?" Mihoshi asked, leaning forward eagerly even as the
image of Kagato shrugged off the blows and returned the attacks.
Washu suddenly whipped out two fans and began to wave them
about madly as she cheered, "Go Ryouko! Go Go!" Mihoshi suddenly
faceplanted and Washu gave her a worried look, "What? Wasn't I doing
it right?"
"Lets go," Ryouko cried out, diving at Kagato from above, her
sword swinging down right at his head. Kagato raised his blade to
parry that strike even as Ayeka slipped in close to him, punching at
his exposed middle.
"I have had enough of this," Kagato growled, catching Ayeka's
arm as she was about to try and land another painful blow. With a
gesture he tossed her up against a pillar, shattering the stone and
sending the slim girl crumpling to the ground.
"Ayeka!" Tenchi called out to her worriedly. Ayeka managed to
look up at her, the girl's expression dazed, then she slumped down out
cold. Oddly Ayeka seemed to slip into the floor itself, disappearing
from the battlefield.
"Where.." Ryouko started, then she stopped. "Washu," she
murmured softly.
Tenchi looked up to meet Ryouko's eyes, oddly reassured by the
smile she saw there. Raising her sword she faced Kagato, her eyes
narrowed, "This ends now."
"Indeed," Kagato agreed with her coldly. With a dangerous
little smile he added, "It's time to end this charade."
Ryouko's scream was Tenchi's first hint that something had
gone terribly wrong. The blue haired girl staggered, dropping to the
floor as the gem on her wrists blazed. Light traced from her body
outwards, the power literally being sucked out of the gems and her
body.
Tenchi raised her sword, but the blade flickered, then
completely went out. "No," she murmured softly, "Not now!"
"It's just a tool for channeling power," Washu sighed as she
looked down into the pool, "and Kagato has just taken all the
available power away." A slight smile teased her lips as she admitted,
"I really didn't think Kagato had it in him."
Mihoshi ignored her, carefully tending to the unconscious
Ayeka. The dark haired girl's eyes fluttered, then opened to look up
at her in confusion. "Mih'shi?" she managed weakly from where Ayeka
was laying on the floor, Mihoshi's jacket wadded up under her head as
a pillow. "W's worried about you," she murmured, "Where'd you go?"
"We're over in the mirror side of the ship," Mihoshi said
quietly, reaching out to gently press Ayeka back down to the floor.
She hesitated for a moment before adding, "We're safe here."
"No, we're not," Washu corrected her grimly from where she was
sitting watching the battle, "none of us are safe. Not as long as
Kagato still lives."
"Kagato?" the recovering Ayeka murmured. Her eyes widened as
she sat up in surprise, wincing in pain before asking, "Tenchi?!"
"She's alive," Mihoshi reassured her.
"Barely," Washu added grimly as she watched the dark haired
girl leap about, barely staying one step ahead of Kagato's energy
bolts.
"Is there anything we can do?" Ayeka asked softly.
"Pray," was Washu's short answer.
Tenchi rolled under another energy bolt, aiming her path to
stop near Ryouko. The blue haired former space pirate smiled at her
weakly, "Sorry for getting you into this, Tenchi."
Surprisingly Tenchi smiled back at her, taking Ryouko's hand
and saying, "Wouldn't have missed it for the world."
"Stand still and die," Kagato fired another bolt at her. Quite
conversationally he added, "With the power I've drained off of the
gems, I'll finally bring Soja's weapons to full power."
'Which means he can target Earth,' Tenchi thought to herself
grimly. She stopped running, turning around to face Kagato.
'Grandfather, I hope you were right about my having a hidden power,'
she thought, taking a step towards Kagato.
Kagato gestured, a bolt of emerald power striking Tenchi head
on. Smoke billowed out, a pain filled cry, and Ryouko wept, "Tenchi!"
"Well," Tenchi's slightly shaken voice came from somewhere
inside the smoke, "that was interesting." A stream of blood ran down
her arm from her shoulder, but other than that the dark haired girl
was unscathed.
"That should have killed you," Kagato looked at her in
surprise. He shook his head, "This time, for certain."
"You got that right," Tenchi grinned, raising her hands as
three white glowing shields materialized in front of her, stopping the
energy bolt cold. 'If I had been a bit faster, I wouldn't have been
hit last time,' she thought
Power flaring around her Tenchi pressed her hands to her odd
shield, and the energy coursed all across her body. In seconds her
battle garb was reshaped, the black and reds she now wore oddly
mirroring Ryouko's own garb, a fan-like symbol glowing on her brow.
"Material transmutation," Kagato murmured as he gazed at
Tenchi in shock, "Is this the fabled power of Jurai I have sought so
long?!"
"Get out of here," Tenchi murmured as she took one of the
shields into her gloved hand, reshaping it in an instant to a shining
sword, "this is the only chance I'm giving you."
Kagato met her eyes, then oddly he smiled. "I set out on this
road a long time ago," he said quietly, "I cannot turn back from it
now."
"So be it," Tenchi agreed.
The two figures moved almost as one, charging at each other.
The twin swords swung, blazing arcs of light, then there was pure
silence. Tenchi gasped, a burst of pain stabbing at her side. Still
standing she turned, seeing Kagato looking at her with an odd kind of
respect.
"Tenchi," Kagato murmured, "like the kings blade, unable to be
copied." The man's body began to crumble, dust swirling even as he
murmured, "Well done..."
The ship shuddered as he died, almost as if it was shifting
beneath them Her power restored Ryouko leapt to her feet, "You did it,
Tenchi,"
"Yeah," Tenchi smiled weakly as her new blade and armor faded,
"I guess I did."
"Tenchi?" Ryouko's eyes widened as she saw the blood streaking
the girl's arm and shoulder, a much larger blot of red spreading at
her side, "Tenchi!"
Tenchi barely heard that, or the other voices calling her
name. The world faded to black as the floor rushed up to claim her....
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