Here's the new AHE; it's slightly liter tone than the other chapters.  C&C
welcome (unless it consists of 'Mayuka is acting out of character').

Chapters 1-5 are available at http://www.rahul.net/arromdee/fanfic.html (this
is a new address).

                           Angels, Heaven, and Earth
                                by Ken Arromdee

                                   Chapter 6

    Gendou knew that he could not plan for every contingency.  No man could.
But as each Angel died and as each obstacle in his path went away, his goal of
union seemed more attainable.  He thought about it almost constantly now; he
could almost see Yui's face.  He imagined her smiling at him, him running to
her as she welcomed him back to eternal peace with her after so much time in
her absence.

    Yet now that the light at the end of the tunnel was so brilliant that
Gendou could see little else, he had stumbled.  One of those nearly-impossible
contingencies had happened.  The last Angel wasn't cooperative.  He was
working with SEELE in some way that Gendou couldn't completely figure out.
And then, Rei was corrupted.  No doubt, SEELE's handiwork again.  Gendou worked
with them, but he never did like them, and he liked them even less now.

    The phone rang.  Gendou picked up the receiver and answered "Hello.  This
is Ikari Gendou".

    "It's me, Commander Ikari.  Ritsuko."

    "Oh?"

    "Commander Ikari, there's something I need to tell you about.  It's hard to
believe, but I was there; I saw it."

    "Get to the point."

    "There isn't any Fifteenth Angel yet."  Seventeenth, thought Gendou, but
Ritsuko didn't know that.  He hadn't trusted her with all the details of the
project, after all.  "They're really from outer space", she continued.

    "Really?" replied Gendou.  "You're one of the few people I've trusted with
the truth.  You should know that Adam was on Earth all along until the
Katsuragi Expedition..."

    "No!  Commander Ikari, it's a mixup.  They're not the Angels.  They're
something else.  Space people, if you believe them.  We thought that the
Angels were unique.  It never occurred to us that if there was one set of
beings of unimaginable power there could be another.  One whose attention NERV
has just attracted."

    "How do you know this?"

    "Because I met them.  Because they knew a lot more than they should, even
though they did have some strange ideas about a Third Impact.  Because they're
so entwined with the government that the Prime Minister gives orders upon
their command.  And because one of them floats through ceilings."

    It could be, thought Gendou... it could be.  Ritsuko usually stayed pretty
level-headed when she was on her own, and it really wasn't that hard to
consider that space aliens might exist given all the discoveries that lead to
the creation of NERV in the first place.  Gendou lowered his voice, and pushed
feeling into it.  That always worked with Ritsuko.  "Ritsuko... you do realize
that this sort of thing demands proof, don't you?  I believe you, but others
might not.  SEELE certainly won't.  I wish I could act on that information, but
there's nothing I can do yet.  If you could tell me when you find out a little
more?"

    "I understand.  I'll do that, then."

    "Thank you" said Gendou curtly, and hung the phone up.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Girls with light blue hair and red eyes were never very common in Japan,
but there were a few.  They almost all had something special about them.

    The phone in one such girl's dorm room rang as she prepared to haul a load
of clothes out to the laundry room.  She nearly considered letting the person
on the other end play phone tag with her answering machine, but noticed that a
small crab-shaped light was flickering.  That meant this wasn't a normal phone
call.

    "Hello", she said, picking up the headset and pressing a button near the
light.  "Duchess Masaki speaking."

    The face of a woman with purple hair appeared on the screen.  "How _dare_
you use that tone of voice with me, a princess of the empire of Jurai.  And
addressing yourself by title.  How rude."

    "And how dare you", replied Mayuka, "fail to properly set an example for
your descendants, who slave away all day on a colony planet taking calculus
exams while the princess sits on Jurai eating, um..."  Mayuka thought a moment
and said "Eating natto."  Aeka hated natto.

    "Oh, ho, ho.  Such crudity from one whose eyes are constantly bloodshot, no
doubt due to the ribald parties she holds in her dorm."

    Mayuka was beginning to laugh too.  "Woman, I am not the one who was once
almost engaged to a pink-haired man straight out of a shonen ai manga..."  She
suppressed her laughter.  "Anyway, how are you, aunt Aeka?"

    "I'm fine, I just called to warn you.  And by the way, that was a great
guess."

    "Hm?  You...."  Oh no, it couldn't be, thought Mayuka.  "You...  started
eating natto?"

    Aeka looked innocent.  "Would I do that?  No,  Mom and Dad and Mom are
coming to visit all of you.  It was supposed to be a surprise.  You know, 'oh,
it's been so long since we've seen you, and by the way we really hope you'll
marry this really nice guy...'"

    "With pink hair?"

    "With pink hair.  At least they can't engage you just like *that*" said
Aeka, snapping her fingers.  "You're not their daughter, you're four
generations down."

    "Do you think I'll have to fight him myself?  They're obviously not going
to ask Dad any more; he's too powerful."

    "I don't know, but if you do, be careful.  Men like that try to make
themselves look all useless and innocent.  So they can just nonchalantly
win against someone and make it look like he was defeated by a complete fop.
I've seen Seiryou train; he's more familiar with swords than we are with
insults."

    "Well, thanks for the warning.  I'll see you around."

    "Bye, Duchess."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    A circle of black monoliths floated in the dark musty air.  One of them
(the one with the "3") spoke.

    "It is good that Ritsuko has not yet found the transmitter", it told its
compatriots.  "With a wiretap in her own phone, it doesn't matter that she is
on a secure line."  A speaker activated; from it came the recorded voices of
Gendou and Ritsuko.  "It never occurred to us that if there was one set of
beings of unimaginable power there could be another."

    They then played the entire speech.  Discussion exploded.  "It's a
possibility."  "The threat must be eliminated."  "It is hasty.  There will be
investigations."  "If the Project completes first, investigations will not
matter."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The whole family gathered in the living room, occasionally staring out the
window at the sky as if something unexpected were to fall out of it at any
moment.

    "What do I do?!" yelled Mayuka.

    "It'll be fine", replied Tenchi.  "Just act nice but never say 'yes' to
anything.  It's not as if you've never met them before."

    "The last time I met them, Dad, was six years ago.  I was too young for
them to do something like this."

    "Not really.  Aeka got engaged to your great-grandpa when she was even
younger."

    Ryouko raised a finger and interrupted.  "I have an idea, Mayuka."

    "Yes?" replied Mayuka.

    "You could say you're engaged to Akuma, so you can't marry Seiryou."

    In the background, Akuma silently shook his head.

    "Um, Mom?" replied Mayuka.  "He's my brother.  We couldn't...  oh.  Good
point.  But I'm not going to do it.  If I can't handle a few inlaws on my own,
I don't deserve having a royal title...."

    "Oh, stop worrying about that.  They had to make me a _princess_, and you
know all about my past.  And all I did to get the title was to marry your
Dad."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Washuu punched the glowing buttons on her ethereal, floating, computer
terminal.  "Five minutes", she announced.

    "Five minutes to what?" asked Ryouko suspiciously, familiar with how not to
interpret Washuu's remarks.

    "Five minutes to the Emeraldas reruns.  Oh, don't worry, I'm recording
them.  And less than five for the King to get here, considering when his ship
landed.  I'd estimate just right about..."

    Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

    "Hello, who is it?" asked Washuu.  Akuma didn't recall his grandmother ever
wondering who was on the other side of a door before.

    "Is Yosho there?  We're his parents.  We just dropped by to visit."

    "Oh!" exclaimed Yosho.  "This is a complete surprise.  Come on in, come on
in", he said as he opened the door for the King and his two wives.  "We really
weren't expecting you, so pardon us if the house is a bit of a mess."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Misaki, the second queen, rushed forwards to hug Mayuka.  "My, how you've
grown.  I missed you so much, and I hope you've been eating well.  Sasami is
still not cooking the food, is she?  You'd think that after fifteen years
she'd get over her anger and be helpful again."

    Through the still-open door, Sasami walked in.  "I heard that", she said.
"Mom, you got it all wrong.  It wasn't a fit of anger."

    "Oh, Sasami!  You're still so cute!"  Misaki let go of Mayuka to glomp
Sasami.  "And you shouldn't go out in the heat, you're sweating too much.  It'll
ruin your skin."

    "Wait, don't!" gasped out Sasami, who was nearly suffocating in Misaki's
embrace.  "I was just in..."

    "Don't say anything!" exclaimed Misaki.  "Give your mother a hug!"

    "But Mother..."

    Mayuka walked behind Misaki and put two hands on Misaki's head, one on
each ear.  With a strong pull she forced it to turn towards towards herself.
"Your Highness, I think Sasami's trying to tell you something."

    "She is?"

    "Right, I am", said Sasami.

    "Oh.  Well, you can let me know!"

    "I'm not sweating.  That's cream to protect me from the poison ivy.  And
there's still some poison ivy on my clothes."

    "What's poison ivy?"

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "You know, Ryouko, that book caused quite a stir", said Funaho.

    "What book?" wondered Ryouko, innocence covering her face.

    "_Death from Jurai_."

    "Oh, that", said Ryouko.  "It's not as if Tenchi and me write much.  It
was just a spare time project."

    "It got quite popular, Ryouko.  Five thousand planets reading a lurid
thriller about the Eyth System Massacre.  Jurai doesn't usually have its
dirty laundry dragged out like that.  We couldn't even ban it or it would go
underground and become even more popular."

    "Hey, you were pirates, what can I say?" said Ryouko, shrugging casually.
"Some of you still are.  We all know that the royal family started as a pirate
guild."

    "Besides", said Funaho, "you wanted to take advantage of all the pirate
hype from 'Dread Pirate Ryouko'."

    "There is that.  If some minor Juraian noble wanted to make me look bad by
broadcasting everything I did under Kagato's control, I may as well get
something out of it."

    "And once your own book came out, Lord Mueki had to change his mind about
pirates being bad."

    "There is that too."

    "Confidentially", whispered Funaho, "I couldn't have done it better
myself."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Since it was still a few hours before dinner, the group quickly broke up
into various smaller chats (except for Misaki, who was turning red on her face
and arms and scratching a lot).

    "So how are you children?" asked Azusa.

    "I'm not a 'children'", replied Mayuka.  "But I'm doing well.  I still
haven't chosen my major yet though."

    "Your major?"

    "She's in college now", said Akuma.

    "I'm going to school at---"

    Suddenly a plane roared overhead, interrupting Mayuka and generally
bringing all conversation in the living room to a half.  Mayuka turned to look
out the window.  "They're dropping something..." she noted, watching an object
falling through the sky.

    Washuu glanced out the window, then immediately handed Misaki a jar of
blue cream, and, leaving the woman to figure out how to use it without looking
like a Gamilon, brought out her computer keyboard and feverishly started
punching the keys.

    "Hey, Mom, Dad, Grandma", said Mayuka.  "I think someone dropped a rock
out into the field."

    "Really?" said Washuu.  Why would anyone do that?  Oh, there's nobody out
there, right?  And nothing important?"

    "Come on and look, Grandma.  It's just east of the carrot patch...."

    "That's where I parked the spaceship!" exclaimed Azusa.

    "It is?" answered Washuu.  She glanced at the field.  "I don't see
anything.  Just a large metal thing and some pieces of pink scrap."  She
returned to fiddling with her keyboard.

    "The spaceship is hidden so the Earthlings won't see it!"

    "Don't call them Earthlings.  I believe the right word is 'Terrans'", said
Washuu.  "'Earthlings' is a word with discriminatory connotations...."

    The king reached into his pocket for something.  Immediately, a patch of
grass dozens of meters long shimmered, revealing the form of a winged
spaceship.  The ship was painted pink with green stripes.  It also had a gash
torn through its left wing, which ended at a large metal object as tall as a
man, making the source of the scraps on the ground now obvious.  A Juraian
man, whose hair was neon-pink, was slowly walking around the ship, just staring
in disbelief at the damage.

    "Oh, I see you brought a friend!" said Mayuka.  "Is that his spaceship?"

    "Yes, it is", replied the king.  "Mine doesn't have landing capability."

    "I'm terribly sorry", said Washuu.  "That experiment wasn't supposed to do
that, but I assure you I took all precautions to aim it towards an empty field.
Your visit was a complete surprise....  Oh, Sasami, Tenchi, Ryouko, I need to
speak with you in my lab about that."

    "Huh?" said Tenchi.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "So what's the big deal with your experiments?" wondered Ryouko.  "Someone
could have been killed."

    "It's not my experiment", the adult, but still eccentric, scientist
answered.

    "What is it then?" asked Ryouko.

    "Oh", explained Washuu, "it's just Sasami's friends over at SEELE.  They
were being friendly today and decided to greet us with an expensive piece of
machinery.  An N2 bomb dropped on our house.  I slowed down its time rate so
it won't explode for another week."

    "What?" yelled Ryouko.  "Someone's trying to kill us?  We have to do
something about it."

    "Not while the King is here", answered Washuu.

    "I see", said Tenchi.  "You really don't want the King of Jurai to know
that someone on Colonial Planet 0315 was trying to assassinate me.  And,
incidentally, kill the King and Queens too just because they happened to be
there."

    "I like the Earth", said Washuu.  "Nice and calm and out of the way, even
if there was that accident with Adam fifteen years ago.  I'd really rather not
see his advisers recommend that something be done about the 'menace'."

    "It's not a menace to them", said Ryouko.  "Just to people who come here
or live here, and I can easily destroy that menace for good."  She clenched
her fists, energy crackling from them.

    Tenchi shook his head.  "Ryouko, I think this would be the perfect excuse
for factions in the court who don't like us anyway, to decide that Earth people
can't be trusted because they almost killed the King.  We have to keep silent
about it."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "I'm really terribly sorry, your Majesty", said Washuu.  "If you send me
a bill I'd be glad to pay for any damage I caused.  I have a few planets in
my lab, I can afford it for the sake of galactic peace."

    Azusa seemed about to answer that, but Funaho spoke first.  "I'm sure that
we can handle this on our own", she said, and winked at Washuu.  Azusa
shrugged; what could he do?

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The evening was not exactly uneventful--a visit by the royal family never
was, even for a group of people as unconcerned with titles and protocol as
the Masakis and their relatives.  On the other hand, there weren't any more
planes roaring overhead (the only unusual sound from outside was a man
hammering boards onto the wing of his spaceship), and SEELE seemed to have run
out of high-tech gifts.  Eventually everyone went to sleep, except for
Ryouko, who spent the night trying to outdrink Misaki and finally went to sleep
(in instant sobriety) after everyone else.

    "Mmmm..." said Ryouko, stirring in her bed.  "Tenchi...."  Tenchi hadn't
really resisted Ryouko's advances since he was a teenager, of course, but
since he was was genuinely asleep, he didn't notice anything.  "Tenchi...?"
murmured Ryouko, turning over in the bed right on top of Tenchi.

    A crab-haired scientist stepped out of a door that floated in the middle
of the air.  She poked Ryouko.  "Don't make out in your sleep.  It's unseemly."

    Ryouko's eyes cracked open, and she yawned.  "You can't have him", she
murmured, still half-asleep.

    "Ryouko!  Tenchi!" yelled Washuu.

    "Huh?  What?" said Tenchi, his eyes creaking open too as he disentangled
himself reluctantly from Ryouko, the presence of his mother-in-law overriding
the stimulation of having his forever-beautiful wife glomped onto him.

    "I thought you didn't like people entering without knocking", said Ryouko.

    "Well, I did knock", answered Washuu, not explaining why her door was
inside instead of outside.  "It's not my fault you two sleep like bears in the
winter.  I've found the fifteenth Angel.  I think you'd better go and take it
out.  Here's the coordinates."  She pushed a post-it note into Ryouko's hand.

    "No", replied Ryouko, not grabbing the note, which dangled stuck to her
wrist.  "It can stay there a little longer.  We've had a hard day."

    "It can also decide to wake up and destroy the world instead", said Sasami,
stepping through Washuu's door.

    "We'd better do it", said Tenchi.  "I should get my suit on...  it's been
a long time since I've used this.  Tenchi snapped his fingers and his Juraian
battlesuit appeared on himself.  "God, doing this makes me feel like Sailor
Moon."

    "I won't look good in the morning without any sleep", said Ryouko.

    "You look fine anytime", said Tenchi.

    Ryouko hugged Tenchi and leaned into his face, but with a noticeable lack of
romance, whispered "It was an excuse, Tenchi."

    Tenchi shook his head.  "We have to go."

    "I know that", replied Ryouko.  "I just wanted to have a little fun."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    *Knock, knock*, went the door.

    "Who is it?" yelled Ryouko.

    "Don't say 'who is it', it's me."  The voice was feminine and knowing.
It was easily recognizeable as that of the first Queen.

    "All right, Funaho, come on in", said Tenchi, opening the door for the
Queen.  Sasami, seeing her, discreetly backed off back through the floating
door.

    "Tenchi...  Ryouko...", she said, "I was hoping you were awake.  I just
wanted to ask you...  do you know if there's anyone in Mayuka's life?"

    "What?" wondered Ryouko.  "You mean, like a boyfriend?"

    "Of course", said Funaho.  "Like a boyfriend.  Because we know this man
who we're sure she'd get along with quite well.  She isn't engaged, is she?
I'd understand if she was going to marry Akuma, but otherwise...."

    "Uh-huh", replied Ryouko.  "The guy with the Chibi-Usa dye job, who you've
been trying to marry off since before the Second Impact.  You make marrying
her to her brother sound like a good idea."

    "Well, er..."  Funaho turned away a bit, but soon regained her composure.
"There's nothing wrong with Seiryou.  There are lots of people like him on
Jurai, you know."

    Yes, thought Ryouko.  One reason why they don't live there.  "Anyway",
she said, "we have to go.  We need to..."

    Tenchi immediately clasped his hand over Ryouko's mouth.  You just don't
tell the royal family that the world they're staying on could get blown up
underneath them.  "We have to, er, go let Washuu do some tests on this
battlesuit.  It's really nothing, you can go ahead."  That might work.  It
even explained the suit.

    Funaho smiled.  "That's good, then, because I hope I could convince you.
You see, Seiryou comes from a very well-placed family and his brother is a big
part of the anti-Earth faction...  if he were to marry Mayuka, they'd have to
quiet down.  It's all a matter of politics.  Just because Jurai has a royal
family doesn't mean we're immune to politics, you know.  And the anti-Earth
group has opposed us ever since I married in, hundreds of years ago...."

    Funaho told her story, sincere and earnest, impressing on Tenchi the need
for him and his daughter to make a few sacrifices for the good of the planet
Jurai, and for her, and for himself.

    Meanwhile, Tenchi's thoughts began to turn more towards an image of the
whole Earth turned into an advertisement for the Okinawa Citrus Juice
Association.  He knew, intellectually, that it wasn't likely that the Angel
would wake up at that exact moment, but the impending doom of the planet does
tend to make one worry regardless.

    "Tenchi...  Ryouko...  have you been listening to a word I've been saying?"

    "Yes, Funaho", answered Ryouko, Tenchi nodding in agreement a with her a
moment later.

    "Well, what do you think?" asked Funaho.

    "I think", replied Ryouko, "that I'm going to go out for a drink.  Tenchi,
would you like to come with me?"

    "Oh, no, you don't!" exclaimed Funaho.  "I came here specifically so I
could talk to just you and there really isn't another good time for it.  Why
don't you think it over a bit?  You could have a drink any time.  I'll even
invite you to the palace later for one."

    "We have to go to the bathroom?" said Tenchi, uncertainly.

    "You don't have to go to the bathroom", replied Funaho.  Tenchi tensed;
how much did Funaho know?  "You're just being rude because you don't like
Seiryou.  But think about the good for our people, both our peoples."

    "We have to ask Mayuka about it", said Ryouko.  "So we really do have to go
and wake her up."

    "I hoped we could make it a foregone conclusion first.  Though Seiryou's
quite handsome, we both know this isn't just about romance.  But go ahead, go."

    "Whew..." said Ryouko, grabbing Tenchi's hand and stepping towards the wall.

    Funaho pointed to the adjoining wall.  "I thought Mayuka's room was that
way."

    "Oh, yeah", said Ryouko as she turned in the right direction and Washuu
giggled.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "What do we do?" asked Tenchi as the two phased through the wall to
Mayuka's room.  "We have to go, or the royal family is going to literally talk
us to death."

    "Mom, Dad!" yelled Mayuka.  "I thought you didn't like people entering
without knocking."

    "You were _listening_", said Tenchi.

    "Of course I was listening.  Making out in your sleep...."

    "Really, dear, it was nothing embarrassing", said Ryouko.  "And you don't
have to worry about Seiryou.  We're not going to engage you to anyone."

    "That's not what I'm worried about, Mom.  You and Dad could get hurt out
there."

    "We'll be fine", said Tenchi.  "We've survived much worse."

    At that moment, Funaho threw the door open and raised her voice slightly.
"What do you _mean_ 'much worse'?  It's an offer.  It's for _your_ sake.  You
should be glad I don't get angry easily."

    "I wasn't--" said Tenchi before Ryouko shushed him.

    "Mayuka", said Funaho, "please consider it.  Marriage in a royal family is
sometimes difficult, and it's done for many reasons."

    "Considering how you married the King, I'm surprised you're bothering to
tell me all this."

    "Mayuka!" exclaimed Funaho.  The girl didn't seem to care, though.

    "Hello, Mayuka", said the King, following behind Funaho.  Misaki was on
his arm, giggling.

    "It's really for the best, Mayuka", said Misaki.  "And you'll love Seiryou.
He makes interesting conversation."

    "By your standards", answered Mayuka.

    "Mayuka", whispered Tenchi, "be strong.  We'll be right back."  Following
Tenchi's cue, Ryouko took his hand and they both disappeared into the air.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    They reappeared ina a room full of meowing crystals.  The only other
person standing around was Sasami.  "That was fast!" she said.  "You couldn't
have been more than fifteen minutes."

    "I just hope poor Mayuka doesn't agree to marry Seiryou just to get them
off her back", said Tenchi.

    "I love them dearly", said Sasami, "but they're out of touch.  They want
Jurai to become too respectable.  Anyway, do you know where the Angel is?"

    Ryouko reached for her pocket.  "I had the note right here...  wait a
minute...  this outfit doesn't have any pockets.  I know I put it somewhere.
Tenchi?"

    Sasami silently raised a hand, waving it to catch Ryouko's eye; then she
pointed her fingers towards Tenchi.  "Oh", said Ryouko, pulling the post-it
note off of Tenchi's back, where it had stuck when she had hugged him.
Reading the coordinates, she said "It's in space.  And its name is Arael.
It seems to be the one Angel that knows that you're supposed to nuke a planet
from orbit to be sure."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The Angel glowed brilliantly in the darkness of space, a braided circle of
luminescence that emanated enough power to rival Kagato.  As it appeared on the
viewscreen, Ryouko ordered Ryo-ohki to stop.  There was no way her pet ship's
firepower would affect it.  They'd have to bring out the big guns.

    A column of light around all three passengers transported them to the
outside and Ryouko and Sasami immediately flew off towards the Angel.

    Tenchi, meanwhile, began to choke.  There wasn't any air...  it wasn't
possible to survive.  But, with eighteen years of experience using the
Light Hawk Wings at will, he knew that more was possible than he could have
ever imagined back when he was a teenager.  The Light Hawk Wings could create
far more energy than the body could ever get from burning up sugars and oxygen.
All he had to do was absorb a miniscule fraction of it, and he could make
himself live in space.

    Ryouko turned to Tenchi when he did't follow him, and saw his obvious
distress at adapting to space.  She began to fly back.  "Tenchi!" she yelled,
but the sound didn't carry.

    "Ryouko, I'm okay" yelled Tenchi, but all she could see was his mouth
movements.  Tenchi waved his hands frantically at the sight of the glowing
object behind her.  It was beginning to shift shape.  "Ryouko, don't worry
about me, watch your back...."

    Reading Tenchi's lips, Ryouko turned back towards the Angel, but as she
turned it opened its eyes.  Its unholy white gaze lanced out at Ryouko, the
beam striking her before she even had a chance to put up a shield.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    No, not again.  Ryouko relived those thousands of years, enslaved to a man
who forced her to rob and kill.  She felt herself fly on the planet Brumis
through a crowd, three feet off the ground with her energy swords chopping
dozens of people into bloody stumps as she passed them.  She could taste the
nerve gas that they threw at her, slaughtering dozens more of their own people
in a vain attempt to kill the Devil of Destruction.  And the same was repeated
for thousands of planets, over enough years to fit the history of Japan into
three times over.

    And she knew that she was reliving that pain because of their new enemy.
The Angel was created by man, but it knew less of human feelings than she did.
She could go mad as it churned through her mind.  No...  no...  she survived
for millennia with her sanity intact.  She couldn't break now.  That time
with Kagato wasn't the end; she was captured and then she lay half asleep in
peace until Tenchi awoke her...  Tenchi....

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Ryouko...  Ryouko!" yelled Tenchi.  He flew to her, icy motes hitting
his battlesuit...  frozen tears, he realized.  He took her in her arms and
summoned the full Light Hawk Wings.  It tore through the Angel's beam and
surrounded him and Ryouko.

    "Tenchi...  it made me remember..." she murmured.  Tenchi immediately
knew just what that meant.

    "You bastard", said Tenchi to the floating Angel.  "Ryouko, we're going to
destroy it.  We're going to destroy it now.  Sasami, we need your help..."
Ryouko summoned what she could of the Light Hawk Wings--her powers having
grown much since she was freed from the cave--and Sasami, having merged with
her goddess half years ago, created ten more.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Four blue patterns?" wondered Misato.  "Maya, there isn't some kind of
mistake?"

                                *   *   *   *   *

    For a moment a small sun lit up the sky hundreds of miles above Asia.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Four...  no, there's three now", replied Maya.  "Wait...  the others are
fading away, gradually...."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "We got it", said Tenchi, whispering directly into Ryouko's ear so she
could hear.  "We all got it.  The AT Field just shattered with all that power.
It's over, Ryouko.  The Angel's never going to do that to you again."

    "Tenchi..." murmured Ryouko, clinging to him and making them both tumble in
the zero-gravity environment.  "I...  I'm glad you and everyone gave me a
chance to live in peace...."

    "You don't have to say anything, Ryouko."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Ryo-ohki?" said Tenchi after the three beamed back aboard.

    "Mew?" came a quizzical sound from all directions.

    "We need to get back home.  Ryouko's upset, and I can't blame her."

    "Mew?"

    "It dredged up her old memories...  and that's most of her existence."

    "Mew."  The cabbit-ship flew back down to Earth.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    Tenchi opened the door to Mayuka's room a crack.  His daughter was busy
giving the King and Queens a lecture on the social structure of the government
on Earth and how she really couldn't be expected to do things the Juraian way.
They all looked bored, even Misaki, they were sweating slightly, and all three
were slowly edging towards the door.

    "Oh, hello", said Tenchi.  "Did you come to a decision yet?"

    "Don't worry, Dad", said Mayuka.  "I'm just explaining why I can't really
marry Seiryou after all.  I'm sure we can figure something out in another
hour or so."

    "Another _hour_" said Funaho?

    King Azusa pushed the door open the rest of the way with his foot and all
three royals fled.

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Are you all right, Mom?" asked Mayuka worriedly.  "We heard what happened
up there in space with the Angel."

    "Mom?" said Akuma.

    "I'm okay", said Ryouko.  "If I couldn't deal with it I would have been
dead by my own hand before you two were even around.  It's not just that the
Angel brought back bad memories... it's that it screwed with my head so that I
wasn't able to cope."

    "She's okay", said Washuu.  "I can tell."

    "That's good..." said Akuma.  "Wait.  Grandmother Washuu, could that
explain NERV?  Everyone lives around a buried Angel.  And NERV has more messed-
up people than anywhere else that isn't on the Soap Opera Channel.  Maybe the
Angel is influencing them.  They couldn't all just be like that naturally,
could they?"

    "Naaah", replied Washuu.  "I checked that.  It's not true.  It's almost
too bad it isn't, though.  If that was true, it would all make _sense_."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    The sun shone through Mayuka's window.  She yawned.  Time to go back to
sleep, she thought, she didn't have classes today... no, wait.  It was
Impromptu Visit by the King weekend.  Oh well, better clean and get dressed and
say good morning to everyone.

    "Good morning", said Seiryou, the first person in the living room to
notice her entrance.  "It's nice to meet you, Mayuka.  I wish I could have seen
you yesterday, but there was this accident...."

    It wasn't polite to just ignore him completely, so she greeted him back,
but after that Mayuka didn't really pay much attention to him.  Which was just
as well; he didn't pay much attention to her.  She caught a snippet of
conversation, though: her father was making an offer.  "I'd be glad to settle
this by personal combat.  Isn't that the way it's usually done?  Besides, I
owe you a rematch for that time twenty years ago...."  Seiryou didn't seem very
thrilled by the idea, for some reason.

    Eventually, the guests had to leave.  The whole household gathered together,
they exchanged hugs and promises to visit sometime with their guests, and
finally watched as Seiryou's ship took off into the sky.

    "Well, back to school tomorrow", said Mayuka, shrugging.  "You know, they
really are nice people to have around.  I wish that one day they'd come just
to come instead of because they wanted something."

    "Back to school for me too", said Akuma.  "I just wish I knew what to do
about all this Angel stuff."

    "Back to spying", said Sasami.  "Maybe I'll find your answer."

                                *   *   *   *   *

    "Mayuka", said Tenchi, "there's a message coming in for you.  It's from
Queen Funaho."

    "I hope I didn't hurt her feelings", said Mayuka as Tenchi pressed the
button to show the message on their Washuu-modified television.  "I think I
overdid it a bit."

    The screen popped into life.  "Hello, Mayuka", said Funaho.  "Sorry to
cause you all that trouble."  She laughed a little.  "We should have known
better, Mayuka.  This isn't Jurai.  You wouldn't just agree."

    "Hmm?" said Mayuka.

    "Earth people are like that", said Funaho knowingly.  "I should know.
They have an indominable spirit.  Like your own little branch of the family
here did for whatever you were doing together last night, they stick together.
They have diversity and celebrate it, while they form communities.  They..."

    "Funaho-grandmother, I'm less than half Earth person and anyway there's
_plenty_ of blind obedience, blind disobedience, conformity, cowardice, hero or
emperor worship, and all those other things on the Earth.  What are you talking
about?"

    Funaho shrugged.  "I know, I know.  But it was a nice thought, anyway."

END CHAPTER 6.