Ryoko stood up in the wake of the flash and looked around, and gawked at the familiar pure blue skies.
"It worked," she said quietly. "YES!! All right! I'm HERE!!" People that had taken very little account of someone appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the beach turned to look at her questioningly. Ryoko glared around at them, putting on her best pirate expression. She was surprised when a life guard approached her not seeming very concerned at all.
"Excuse me, miss," he said. "This is a private beach, only the Jurai royal family and their servants should be here."
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Ryoko demanded angrily. "I'm...." She snapped her fingers. Of course, she wasn't a pirate yet, no one would recognize her, and she didn't have time to waste. "...sorry, my ship must have got the wrong coordinates or something."
"Well, just leave and stop bothering the Jurai," he said. "Wait...don't you work here?"
"Maybe a while ago," Ryoko said, smirking as she lifted off the ground. The man watched non-pulsed and blinked as the silver-haired woman vanished from sight. Such powers were not unheard of, but it was still notable. He swallowed nervously, suddenly wondering if he had just escaped a severe beating.
Ryoko watched Ayeka ranting at the dirty cop about how much of disgrace the blind drunk was.
"I wish she would just leave my presence and stay away," Ayeka snapped angrily. "She is nothing but trouble! Always attracting trouble."
"Just keep yelling Princess," the older Ryoko smirked. This was the perfect opportunity to fix everything. Her younger self was still unconscious in the room, and what better witnesses than Princess Ayeka and her retinue? So there was no way that her younger self would get blamed for this. She glanced to the mirror on the wall to check her disguise, with luck they'd be hard-pressed to connect her with the Ryoko of five years ago. Then she started forward.
"It'll be taken care of, your highness," the damn slave trader said. "She'll never darken your..." He cut off when the older Ryoko suddenly appeared between him and Ayeka.
The cop reached for his gun, but was far too slow. The silver-haired woman slashed upward with her energy woman, slicing him in two. She spat on the body as Ayeka screamed behind her.
"Like dealing with slave traders, brat?" Ryoko asked coolly. "Next time find a honest cop." Then she vanished away before Ayeka could get over her shock and strike back.
Ryoko listened to the commotion that remained from the janitor's closet nearby. She smiled victoriously and drew out the mirror again. She wiped its surface and looked into it.
"Take me to Tenchi in five years," she whispered. letting her tears fall again. She vanished in a flash as the impromtu search opened the door to her hiding place.
Ryoko's joy faded quickly away as she found herself near a ship window looking over a system of asteroids.
"Where the hell am I," Ryoko asked nervously. She couldn't see Tenchi anywhere, couldn't feel him. And there was something familiar about the area of space she was in.
"So what was so important about this planet?" a voice down the hall asked. "It seemed like just a little backwater nothing." Ryoko danced back and up, fading most of the way into the ceiling as the guards passed.
"The Emperor commands, we obey," the second guard said. Ryoko saw them pass under her. "Find that old man and destroy his world, who are we to question him?"
"Killing all those people," the first said.
"There must have been a good reason," the second suggested firmly. As they passed away Ryoko floated back down to the floor and looked on the asteroids.
"R..." she stopped and shook her head clear. "I have to fix this."
Ryoko watched Ayeka ranting at the dirty cop about how much of disgrace the blind drunk was.
"I wish she would just leave my presence and stay away," Ayeka snapped angrily. "She is nothing but trouble! Always attracting trouble."
"Just keep yelling Princess," the older Ryoko smirked. This was the perfect opportunity to fix everything. Her younger self was still unconscious in the room, and what better witnesses than Princess Ayeka and her retinue? So there was no way that her younger self would get blamed for this. She glanced to the mirror on the wall to check her disguise, and then started forward.
"Wait!" a harsh whisper commanded. Ryoko growled and turned to look at the voice, she was running out of time, her window would close any moment.
"What do you..." Ryoko blinked as she saw a familiar face sticking out of the wall. "Want?" It was herself looking rather haggard, battle-weary and older.
"Get in here," the third Ryoko said.
"What the -- ?" she didn't get any further, the new Ryoko snatched her and dragged her into the room.
"You can't stop this," the newcomer Ryoko said.
"Why not?" Ryoko demanded suspiciously. "I don't go to that hellhole, I don't become a wanted woman, Nagi doesn't get kicked out of the GP."
"Nagi dies on the raid," the newcomer said. Ryoko shrugged.
"Good! I don't care what happens to her! Just Tenchi!" Ryoko snapped.
"Yeah?" the future-Ryoko asked. "He's dead." present-Ryoko stared at her shocked that she could just say that like that. "Earth was blown up so...Ranma dies too." She spoke regretfully, ashamedly.
"What?!" present-Ryoko snapped. "HOW?!"
"Kagato," future-Ryoko said. "How do you think?"
"Why didn't you stop him!"
"I've been trying!" future-Ryoko snapped angrily. "The only way I can think of to fix anything is to stop us from doing this here. We're going to need those years as a space pirate. Find something else."
"Fine!" present-Ryoko snapped. "I know just the thing." She smiled viciously and drew out the mirror again. "What are you going to do?"
The future-Ryoko drew out her own mirror and sighed dejectedly.
"I have to fix what I messed up," she said.
"Isn't that what I'm doing?" the present-Ryoko asked.
"I'm just keeping you from making the same mistake," the future-Ryoko said as she cried into the mirror.
Inagi Aoi strode sullenly down the street considering the new pirate that had ruined her life. She would hunt down that...girl if it was the last thing she did. She could have had a career. She could have been powerful, important. More than just a common street brawler everyone expected her to grow into.
"Hello, Nagi," a voice said behind her.
"My name is Ina...you!" Nagi growled seeing the woman that had ruined her life. She stopped and frowned. This woman was significantly older, more than four years older. The softness of the teenaged years was gone, this was a full grown woman.
"You're disappearing permanently this time," the woman said. She started to move forward, an energy dagger in her hand. Inagi glanced around for any sort of weapon she could use against this monster, but nothing was apparent.
"I'm not going down easily, pirate," she growled anyway, prepared to make this a fight.
"You're three years too early to compete with me, Nagi," the woman said smiling. She swung back a hand, and then there was a flash and suddenly Inagi saw two of the woman standing there. One holding the other's hand back.
"Don't tell me we have to keep HER alive too!" the first snapped angrily. "If she lives Tenchi dies!"
"If she dies now," the second said. "He still dies, and everybody else still! Remember the trip to Jurai!?" Inagi stepped back quietly as the two identical women argued about her fate. She readied herself for battle while catalogueing everything the two were saying.
"She was trying to keep the Jurai and GP from taking her kill!"
"And we wouldn't have gotten away without her!" Ryoko insisted.
"First Earth blows up and now this!" Ryoko snapped. "You're me plus experience! Can't you do anything?!"
"Earth blowing..." she seemed stricken, then calmed down. "Oh right, I told myself that," the second said. "If you had brought Ryo-Ohki back with you, I might have been able to do something!"
Time travel, Inagi realized. She glanced around and backed away. She had no chance winning a fight here, and maybe she could use this information in her favor. The second Ryoko glanced vaguely in Nagi's direction, sending a hate-filled gaze her way, but nothing else. The first was fully concentrated on her double.
"Nagi is as bad Kagato," the first snapped. "She's going to kill hundreds of innocent people just to get to me. And that girl, she's going to sell off that girl to those slavers again. All because some idiots think I paid her off!"
I do what? Nagi blinked, then narrowed her eyes angrily. She knows what happened to me? Good, I won't have to tell her then.
The other-Ryoko glanced at her again and then back to her double. This time, Inagi figured it out.
She wants me to leave now. She glanced at Ryoko. I'll defeat you Ryoko, but I'll never be this monster you call me.
"Look, I can find Ken-Ohki," the Ryoko that wanted her dead insisted. "Then I can keep everybody covered in the trip." Inagi didn't hear the rest.
Ryoko was starting to get used to that flash that occured on her arrival and departure between times. She stood on Jurai and looked up into the sky, any moment the battle was going to begin. And this time she'd have to deal with Nagi and Ken-Ohki. She had wanted to avoid that. She could almost curse herself for interferring in killing the damn bounty hunter, letting that bitch escape from under her nose.
Now she had to wait and find a way to stop Nagi from killing everybody again.
Nagi watched the scanners point out Ryo-Ohki smashing through the planetary defenses on the way out from the planet. Obviously in a hurry to be away. Nagi frowned. That wound of Ryoko's must have gotten worse, and Ryo-Ohki was taking her for help. She couldn't follow yet, not with these bumbling Jurai clambering around her. By the time she got off a star burst to clear the battle around her, Ryo-Ohki would be long gone. Then Nagi would have to face Ryoko with these friends of hers. She frowned.
"Ken-Ohki, alter trajectory toward the Yag..." Nagi paused, and remembered Ryoko arguing with herself. "Bely that, move away from the Yagami according to the detective's plan. Starburst as soon as the planet is clear."
"Ciao?" the cabbit responded.
"Their fault for messing with me," Nagi said. "We need the burst to get out of this mess." She frowned and glanced back toward Jurai. "I am not a monster, pirate."
Ryoko waited for the debris to start following. She couldn't think of a way to save both the Yagami and Tenchi, but she was certain she could destroy every piece of debris that was going to rain on the palace. She was capable of that.
Ryoko had briefly considered helping Tenchi face Kagato, but she reluctantly decided against it. She would still have to be much more powerful to face Kagato. And if she were there, Kagato wouldn't hold back like he had against Tenchi. She would fall and so would Tenchi. Tenchi getting help would be just the proof Kagato would want that he was more powerful.
At least that is what another future self had told her. That Ryoko had barely managed to go back, dying and torn to pieces, and stop Ryoko from making that mistake. Ryoko had given the woman a quick funeral in an out of the way grove, intensely disturbed at the prospect of burying herself.
No, stopping the debris cloud was her best bet for saving Tenchi. With just Tenchi there, Kagato wouldn't take him seriously, and then Kagato would fall. At least she hoped so.
The debris never started to fall.
Soon the small, for Jurai, city that she was in began filling with cries of celebration and triumph. Ryoko listened intently to the shouting, confused and frightened that it meant that Tenchi had lost his duel. It didn't take long to kill that theory.
"Imposter thrown down, lost prince found. Princess Ayeka restored" The news was everywhere.and Ryoko soon heard something intelligible.
"Nagi didn't attack the..." she stayed silent for several minutes. "What changed this..." She thought back to the argument with herself. "She couldn't have changed her mind...could she?" Ryoko shook her head and sighed. "Now all I have to do is find Tenchi and..." she smiled, looked down into the mirror and sighed.
This mirror had given her back her life. No, that was wrong, Ranma had given her back her life. She smiled about that, thinking about the pig-tailed martial artist.
"Thanks jerk," she whispered. Though something was bothering her about this whole thing. If Ranma had used the mirror, why was Akane still dead? She thought about it and sighed. "Tenchi will still be there."
Ranma watched the wind of his hiryu shoten ha's carry the fire rocks towards the Jusendo taps. He wasn't going to make it, Akane was going to die because of those tornados. Because of his attacks.
He barely noticed the bright red flash amongst all the other blasts of energy, but he certainly saw the suddenly surging Jusendo waters. And they were washing his direction under the flailing winds and rock. He relaxed. The water was coming to him. Everything was going to be okay.
Ryoko was momentarily discouraged as Ranma screamed Akane's name in rage and despair. Then the black haired girl stirred in his arms and the martial artist pair sat there celebrating each other's survival. Ryoko watched the scene with a pang for a few moments, and was surprised by the momentary surge of regret.
"Time to go surprise Tenchi," she whispered, taking the mirror out again.
In flash she was in the hills surrounding the Masaki shrine.
After a little reconnaissance she found the house was where it belonged, and she had seen Yosho and Tenchi's dad from a distance. She glanced up and smiled. Tenchi would be coming home soon, and she knew the perfect place to surprise him.
She appeared on the stairs, expecting to appear in front of Tenchi. She found nothing.
"I guess he's late today," she said quietly. Then she heard something further down the path and vanished away toward the sound.
Ryoko froze in the trees as she saw Tenchi seemingly dancing on the path with...herself. She stared shocked and confused at this new problem.
"What, I don't..." she stopped and slumped to the ground. "Of course, I still survived this time. That's the me of the past."
Ryoko had Tenchi.
But she didn't.
"There's only one way to fix this," Ryoko said in a dead tone.
The space pirate Ryoko, now a renowned hero, lay sleeping on the bed, breathing shallowly. Doctor Gunri shook his head and wiped his hands, amused. He'd never thought he'd see the day when Ryoko was heralded as a hero of the Jurai. It was amazing what some people made of themselves.
He left the room and quietly closed the door behind him. He completely missed the flash that announced the second Ryoko's arrival.
The future version of the space pirate stood over herself and looked down hesitantly at the unconscious earlier version of herself.
"I have to do this," she whispered. She summoned a bright red shaft of energy and held the dagger sized energy blade over the sleeping body. "I've been meaning to kill myself all this time anyway." She half-laughed at that.
All she had to do was replace this extra and Tenchi would be hers. Everything would be fine.
She raised her hand and held it there for several moments. Until she dropped her hand to her side, letting the dagger dissipate.
"Damn it," she whispered, crying freely. She took out the mirror again and held it to her. "I want to go home."
The Ryoko on the bed woke up to see a flash and a vanishing silloheutte.
"What was that?" she wondered briefly.
Ryoko collapsed to the floor of wherever it was she was now and felt the loss of Tenchi keenly all over again. She tossed the mirror into a corner of the room. She didn't even care where she was.
There wasn't anything left to go back to now. Ranma had his Akane, and Tenchi had Ryoko. She had really fixed everything all right. She had fixxed herself our of everything. She was worse than a ghost. This was almost worse than them being dead.
She barely noticed that there was another person in the room until they kneeled down beside her. She turned to look to see Ranma's worried face.
"Welcome back," he said. "Are you okay?"
Ryoko stared at him for a moment before she realized that she was back to her own timeline. The flood of relief and joy was immense and immediate as soon as the fact occurred to her. She grabbed the martial artists collar and dragged Ranma forward.
"You wou.." Ranma's response was cut off by Ryoko's forceful kiss. His eyes popped wide in surprise. He should have been angry. He should have been stopping her. He shouldn't have been relieved at the attention. He certainly shouldn't have been returning the kiss, however right it felt.
"Is everything alright in...Oh!" Nodoka asked as she opened the door. Ryoko and Ranma snapped shocked and embarrassed looks toward the woman in the door as Nodoka gave them a knowing smile. "Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt." She quickly and quietly closed the door again.
"ARRR!!! Ryoko shouted angrily, pushing Ranma away from her angrily. "Why did you even give me that damn thing!!" She stood up away from him.
"I told you I used it!" Ranma shouted back standing up as well.
"You didn't bother to say why it didn't work!" Ryoko snapped back, poking him in the chest as she said the words. "I buried myself once! I almost murdered myself in my sleep afterwards! You could have said something about how it works! You could have told me that all I'd do is make alternate timelines!"
"Well..." Ranma said. Ryoko leaned back and crossed her arms waiting for an answer. "Sorry bout that!"
"Sorry?" Ryoko repeated. "That's all you have to say?"
"I just thought," Ranma said quietly. "Maybe you could make it work." Ryoko growled and turned away from him.
"I couldn't," she said. "I saved your Akane." Ranma blinked in surprise.
"Thanks," he said quietly. "I guess that's one more world that isn't messed up then."
They remained quiet for a while staring around the room.
"What are we going to do about your mother," Ryoko asked finally.
"I don't know," Ranma said. "Hard to convince her nothing's happening, now."
"I wasn't myself," Ryoko said.
"Yeah, that trip can fool with you," Ranma agreed.
"So you don't take it seriously then?" Ryoko asked cautiously, she looked to him expectantly.
"No more seriously than you," he said equally cautiously.
"You kissed back," she reminded him, setting the matter of answering back to Ranma.
"I didn't think you'd be back," he said.
"You wanted me to come back?" Ryoko asked hesitantly.
"Well..." Ranma started.
"I'm hungry," Ryoko said quickly, walking past Ranma towards the door. "Let's go get something to eat alright?" She turned to look at him. "Alright?" Don't answer, don't answer.
"I kinda hoped you'd be back," Ranma said.
"You answered," Ryoko said.