DISCLAIMER:

This story is based off of the Tenchi Muyo! anime series, produced
by AIC and released by Pioneer Anime America.  All characters
from said series are the property of such.  The characters Hikaru
Moriyata, and any Argelians (which will be discussed in a later
chapter) are the product of the imagination of Dennis Carr, and
belong to same. 

The persons and many events in this fanfic are fictitious.  Any
resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any event other
than what has obviously happened, is a coincidence.

Any military or police procedure outlined throughout the fic does
not necessarily depict any real life procedure or scenario.  Any
similarity to real life procedure/scenarios is, again,
coincidental.


Tenchi Muyo: Unfinished Business

A fanfic by Dennis Carr and Karmin St. Jean


 
Chapter 1:7 - An Unlikely Reunion

October 28, 1998 at 09:15 Tokyo time

Trakal was watching over his son's incubator when he heard the
sound of the little crab-bell over Washu's door.

"Help me carry him into the medical section." Trakal heard Washu
telling someone.

"Okay, Little Washu." He heard Tenchi reply.

Trakal suppressed a snarl. In the time he'd known Tenchi, the boy
had been kind to him, and he felt he should be polite to him. But
on the other hand, there was the detail that he was related to
Them.

But it was that relationship, or rather the means of its
achievement, that made him feel a bitter resentment toward Tenchi
and his family. At least, he tried to convince himself that's how
he felt toward them.

In any case, if Tenchi was the other person carrying 'him', that
meant 'him' had to be Hikaru.  Trakal nodded his head and
pretended to sleep, keeping his eyes open just a bit, but hidden
under the veil of his hair.

He watched as Washu and Tenchi carried the injured man into the
room. He sure looked like Hikaru, but that didn't mean it was
him. Plastic surgery could be used to make an imposter look like
the real thing, not to mention the possibility of a shapeshifter.
And Hikaru, while not as famous as some, had won a number of
awards, so his picture was readily available from a number of
intergalactic press agencies who had been on hand for the
broadcasting of some of the ceremonies.

Trakal kept his head down and kept his cool. He couldn't risk
another screw up like the last time. He couldn't recall exactly
what happened, but it had been pretty bad and he knew he didn't
want to go through it again. And he had a son to think about.

"Let's put him on the table." Washu told Tenchi. "On his
stomach."

Tenchi and Washu placed Hikaru on the surgical table, very
carefully. Once that was done, Washu set up a sterile field over
him, and a familiar device descended from the ceiling again.

Tenchi turned away as Washu proceeded to perform a quick-change
of sorts into her nurses' uniform.  A moment later, she
announced, "Okay, I'm all ready."

Tenchi turned and saw her standing there, in her adult body, sans
nurse's uniform.  In fact, all she was wearing was a smarmy grin,
which was plastered on her face.  If Hikaru had been conscious,
his eyes would've fallen out of his head.

Tenchi's nose started to bleed and he quickly spun around again.
"Washu, this is serious!" he scolded. "This man is badly hurt. He
could be in a lot of trouble!"

"I think you've forgotten who his doctor is." Washu announced.

"No, I haven't." Tenchi muttered, the sarcasm in his voice not
entirely hidden.

Washu got into her nurse's uniform and returned to the form she
was accustomed to.

"Tenchi, I need one thing from you."

He backed away slowly, assuming the worst possibility. "No, not
*that*!"

"You're right," she said, holding up a series of bags, attached to
each other by a series of tubes, and ending in a rather impressive
needle.  "Hikaru needs blood to survive, and he has A positive
blood."

---

Time did not pass when Hikaru was unconscious - at least, not as
far as he was concerned.  He wished it did, though, since the
first thing that hit his senses was intense pain - specifically,
the pain associated with having third degree burns along the back
of any part of his body that had a back to it, and a rather
serious headache, which seemed to be subsiding.

The second thing he immediately realized was that to his right,
there was what sounded like an EKG machine, and Washu working on
something.  Presumably, it was himself that was the subject.

The third thing he immediately realized was something that, had
he the energy to worry about it, would have possibly sent him
into a panic: he could not move anything below his neck.  So, to
get a look on his right, he moved his head - which was
momentarily face down - to the right, rolled it back, and looked,
and observed Washu taking some readings.

She then turned around, and looked at her latest test subject.
"Aha! It looks like our burn victim is coming around finally!
You're lucky to be alive, you know, and you're also lucky that
Tenchi is the same blood type as you."

Hikaru merely groaned, and felt a little bit of energy come back
to him, allowing him to talk.  "I feel awful."

"Just means you're not dead."

"Little consolation."

"Incidentally, what made you do that?"

"An ancient reflex," he said.  "Same thing would happen with
Aeka.  She got in trouble, I did something like that.  Never been
fried like that, though.  Where are we, by the way?"

"My lab."

"I've heard some pretty bizarre things about this place, Washu."

A deranged grin crossed her face.  "And all of them are true."

"Well, then, I should have to have a look around."  He tried to
shift his left leg, and failed miserably.  "That is, of course,
when I can move again.  How long have I been out?"

"Thirty minutes."

"Oh, lovely."

"Don't worry, you'll be up and about in about an hour.  I stuck a
tissue regenerator over your back, you're inside a sterile field,
and that IV tube you're attached to is currently electrolytes.
The blood is already in you, and that took all of fifteen
minutes - collection and all that.  It's amazing how uptight
Tenchi can get, he was lucky he didn't bruise during the
transfusion."

"Mmm.  Waitasec, did you say Tenchi is the donor?"

"Mm-hm. Anyway, I have to make the rounds through the lab, so
hollar if you need anything."  She then walked off, something
resembling a clipboard in her hand, and disappeared into a
bizarre maze.

*Good thing I have the day off,* he thought.

He then retreated into thought, trying to ignore the pain in his
back, and casually wondering what everybody was up to.  Knowing
the lot of them, it was going to be rather...um, tense for the
next week.  Aeka had a tendency to isolate herself from the rest
of the world when something disasterous happened - something that
concerned him greatly.  He could only hope that she would at
least eat.  Who would know about Tenchi, though.  Well, he might
- the very substance that gave Tenchi life had saved his own.

It was only appropriate, then, that the debt be repayed.  All
that remained was just *how* to repay it.

*I guess I'll start by buying him dinner,* he thought.

Despite all the time he had spent with her, Ryoko was still very
much a mystery to him.  But he did know that there was a very
emotional woman there - not to mention friendly.  But this would
put her into a funk - she would likely sit on the roof, figuring
out what to do from here.  After spending several mornings with a
former criminal over coffee, you learn a few things.

Sasami had likely never before been put in this situation, as far
as he knew.  What became of this between her and Aeka was
something that only could be told by time.

And Mihoshi and Kiyone?  Likely Mihoshi will forget the whole
thing happened, and Kiyone would probably consider arresting
Ryoko.

*Nah.*

And as a group, it didn't take a genius to figure out that for
about a week, the entire group would try to pretend it *didn't*
happen, and in the end there would be another explosion - it
would start verbal, then escalate into more violence, and
then....

The thought of the possibilities would have made him shudder, had
he been able to move.  It was almost like he was on a muscle
relaxer, but he still had neck mobility.  *Oh, just pour me in a
bucket,* he thought.

And then it happened.  More specifically, the sound of a GP-issue
gun being cocked came from behind his head, accompanied by one
gravelly sounding word: "Freeze."

*As if I have a choice!* "I know that sound.  Um, FX-11 arm mount
plasma pulse microcannon, mark 3, proprietary to the standard
cybernetic arm as built by JNC," Hikaru recited.  "Only three
people I've ever known have been issued such a weapon.  One
retired, one was killed in the line of duty, and the third
disappeared when the Kain incident happened, and was presumed
dead with an unholy number of people gone to who knows where or
when or if, for that matter, with him."

"Hmph." The owner of the weapon in question grunted. "Anyone
could know that. Whoever robbed the Shunga could've broken into
the ship's computers."

Hikaru sighed. "How long have you been in here, lieutenant?"

"Since before they brought you in. I pretended to be asleep until
they left."

"If I'd been conscious, you would never have fooled me." Hikaru's
voice seemed to have a smirk imbedded in it.

"Oh?" Trakal asked. "And just why is that?"

"You snore when you're really asleep." Hikaru explained.

"I do *not*." Trakal stated, as if he were offended.

"Oh yes you do." Hikaru replied. "You used to keep me awake every
night for a week, until I finally got used to it. Whenever you
ended up in the infirmary they used to pray for you to recover
quickly so the other patients could sleep."

"Fine." Trakal griped. "What else do you know about me?"

"I know that you were the finest Spec'Op the Galaxy Police ever
had. At least, in your own mind. I know you spent most of your
time alone and hardly ever made any friends. I guess that's why
I thought of our friendship as special."

Trakal felt a tear come to his eyes. He held it back, though.
Impostors often said stuff like that to lull their intended
victims. "Go on." He said, quietly.

Hikaru went on for a while, telling Trakal of all the times
they'd spent together during their leaves, including one
incident which neither of them had reported and which only they
knew about.

"Hikaru." Trakal removed his gun and replaced the cybernetic arm
that he normally wore, and sat down in a chair next to the bed.
"Look, sorry about all that, but my pregnant wife and my newborn
son are sleeping in here. I couldn't risk their lives."

"Um, gimme a second here."  He spent about fifteen seconds moving
his head to face his friend and former partner - moved his head
"backward" so the back of it was touching his left shoulder, rolled
so it was centered again, moved it *again* in the same direction,
and rolled to face his partner.  An attempt to then lift his head
failed miserably.  "Did you say wife and newborn?"

Trakal nodded, and Hikaru grinned feebly.  "In about one hour, I
will be more than happy to shake your hand."

Trakal smiled in return.  "The commander nearly pitched a fit."

"You mean Saarnd?"

Trakal nodded.  "She's human - that was bad enough - but she's
also from 1970."

"You and a hum- Twenty eight years ago?! How the hell...."

"If you can believe it, we met in high school."

Hikaru thought about that a moment.  "Lemme guess, Kain threw you
back?"

"Yeah.  Nearly killed me too."

The computer broke in at this point.  "Regeneration cycle
complete in 50 minutes."

Both were silent for a moment, then Hikaru broke again.
"Anything left of HQ?"

"Beats me, I haven't been back."

"Mm."  Hikaru closed his eyes momentarily, as he recharged a bit.
Even *talking* was draining on him.  "Good to see you again,
Trakal."

"Trakal, dear, who is this?"  Another woman at this point walked
in behind him, and wrapped her arms around him.

"Just an old friend," he replied, holding her hands.  "You know,
you really should be in bed."

Hikaru grinned somewhat sheepishly in response.  "Oh, nobody who
should've survived an explosion between Aeka and Ryoko."

"They're still fighting?"

"As if that's anything new," Trakal replied, while Hikaru nodded
his head, mumbling something about that being the reason he was
here.

"I don't know why they bother," she said adoringly, as she leaned
over and wrapped her arms around him. "I'm already married to the
cutest guy around."

*Cute?*  Hikaru raised an eyebrow, and looked at the couple,
watching Trakal lean back while smiling, and touch the tip of her
nose with his finger.  "Go back to bed, love."

"And the most stubborn," she muttered, as she walked back to bed.

"Would that be your wife?"

Trakal nodded.  "That was her," he quipped, just as his wife
turned around and made another comment about how cute he was,
before walking back into Japan and closing the door.

Now *this* was new.  "Cute?"  He laughed a bit at this.

"You find something amusing?"

"Let's see, I've heard 'damn good cop', 'stubborn', 'dedicated',
and a lot of others about you from the gang at HQ.  Now there's
cute."

Trakal's only response was to sigh worriedly.

"I see we still need to work on that sense of humor, hmm?"

"No, it's not that."

"What is it?"

"It's the baby."

"That's right, where is he?"  He then tried to get off of the
table - and once again failed miserably.  "Oh yeah - can't move
yet."

"He's in an incubator over there," the draalthi replied, pointing
to an area just outside of Hikaru's field of vision.  "He was
born six weeks premature.  I just get worried about him.  He's
also a draalthi...well, mostly, according to Washu's computers.
Still can't figure out the eyes, though, if they're going to
develop into something human or something like my natural eyes
were."  At this point, he broke down, and started crying, as
worry, fear and frustration took over.

"You know, though, it's still weird.  We were working together
some ten years ago, you get married to your job, and five years
after we last talk, you get thrown back in time, have a hand in
destroying Kain, and get yourself married to a human."  He
adjusted and refocused his eyes to look at him again.  "I don't
think any- oh man, I don't think I've ever seen you like this."

"I don't want him to die," he said, gasping through the sobs.  "I
don't want to lose anybody else."

All Hikaru could do was watch - it was just as well, he was still
immobilized, and growing very impatient about it.  "I really wish
I could say I knew how you felt."

For the next several minutes, Trakal just sat there crying, and
Hikaru lay on the table, the relative silence broken by the
computer announcing that there was thirty-five minutes till the
regeneration cycle was finished, and the sound of Hikaru
muttering happily as he found mobility restored to his arms and
propped himself up on them.

After a while, the retired operative stopped crying.  "You know,
I bet you never thought I'd fall in love with a high school
student."

"Kinda funny," he replied, smirking just a little.  "We all
thought you were in love with your job."

"I guess I was a bit of a workaholic, wasn't I?"

"And people thought I was nuts, staying on after seven hundred
years, not taking promotions higher than commander."

"You *were* nuts.  Mind you, though, until I met Makiya, the GP
was the only family I had.  I rarely spent time off of HQ, you
know."  At that moment, he fell into a rather dreamy state.
"Everything changed the moment she kissed me for the first time."

"You're incredible, you know that?"  Hikaru rolled his head once,
as to work the kinks out, and looked at Trakal with about the
silliest grin he could come up with.  "Your heart is now made of
mush, but you still have a head of granite."

"And what do granite and mush have to do with this?"

"QED."

Trakal narrowed his eyes in response to this, crossed his arms on
his lap, and for lack of anything further to say to this, stuck
his tongue out at the Juraian.  Hikaru laughed in response to
this, and Trakal, at a loss for any response, joined him.

After a moment, this died down, and they remained silent a few
more minutes, till Trakal broke the silence.  "The baby...he's
the first draalthi born in...."

"Far as anyone knows, since you," Hikaru finished.

"Yeah."  He paused a moment.  "At least he'll have me.  I didn't
have anyone of the same species when I grew up."  He then poked
Hikaru, whose eyes were closing.  "Hey, you still with us?"

"Yeah, just didn't think a conversation would be so draining. But
then, in seven centuries as a cop, I've never had to survive an
explosion before."

At this point, Trakal looked at his friend's back, noticed the
rapidly healing burns, and somehow, a memory that was nn years
old suddenly came back to haunt him - the charred remains of his
mother's body, images of which were found in an old report from
when they found him.  Much like an old Vietnam vet would probably
react to seeing violence, this caused him to collapse, roll up in
a fetal position, and start mumbling incoherently.

"Um, Trakal?"

No response.  Hikaru craned his neck to look at him, and watched
as he started to suck his thumb.

"Oh, lovely, I forgot.  Now I've done it."  Hikaru closed his
eyes, gathered whatever energy he had, took a deep breath, and
shouted the only word that came to mind: "ATTEEEEENNNNN-HUT!"  He
then promptly collapsed on his face, moaning as his forehead
impacted with the padded table, as Trakal abruptly snapped to
attention and regained his senses.

"Hmm.... Now that's strange behavior for a GP operative."  Washu
had come back, hearing a shout.

Hikaru had managed to position his head once again to look to the
left, once again enabling him to talk.  "Shellshock.  I think
it's some sort of weird flashback from when his home planet got
nuked.

"You get injured and he gets shellshock."

"Stranger things have happened.  Besides, full moon is this
Friday.  Or is it Saturday?  I don't remember.  Trakal, you back
with us?"

He nodded, unaware for the moment he couldn't see him. "And it's
Saturday, incidentally."

*Oh, ick, Halloween,* Hikaru thought.  *I work that night.*
"Man, I am *sorry* about that.  I totally forgot you did that!"

Trakal looked quite sheepish at this point.  "The ah, the burns,
my mother, she...."

"Alright, so don't look!"  Hikaru started to work his head to
look towards Trakal.

"I keep telling myself that I'll get used to it, that it won't
happen next time.  But I can't get used to it."

"I hate to say this, but you probably won't."

Trakal could only nod.

The conversation carried on for another half hour - Washu,
satisfied that her subject was going to not be shot, returning to
her rounds, Trakal and Hikaru reminiscing about old cases, the
wife coming in and asking if he was *ever* going to sleep, where
are you going later, and are you going to be long?, Hikaru saying
that she must have been something special since *that guy*
married her, and that they wouldn't be long, they were just going
out to catch up on things and probably have a few drinks, and
Hikaru would have him home before tomorrow, or since it was first
thing in the morning for him right now, maybe that wouldn't be
such a good idea to get him pickled, even if it was late
afternoon states-side.

Conversation carried on more or less like this, while Hikaru
pretty much laid there doing absolutely nothing, until the
computer announced that the cycle was complete.  As if on cue, he
felt his body making itself capable of movement again, as the
regenerator system retracted itself into what appeared to be
nowhere, and he sat up, simply glad to be able to do so, casually
noting that his clothing had likewise been repaired.

He then meandered over to the incubator with his former partner,
and Hikaru looked down at the machine in awe. The tiny Draalthi
infant lie there, slumbering peacefully, its fragile body
protected by Washu's device.

"He's so small," he commented. "I can't get over it."

"He'd be much smaller if he were a purebred," Washu told them.
"The fact that he's half human probably saved his life."

"You're a master at tact, Washu," Hikaru muttered, noticing the
troubled look on Trakal's face.

"Don't worry about that," Washu told him, cheerfully. "All
fathers get that way. Its natural. You'll get that look some day
yourself."

Hikaru might have told her that was utter nonsense once. But now,
with Trakal being a husband and father, perhaps it wasn't.

"Come on, Trakal," he told his former partner. "I'll take you out
to celebrate."

They started to leave but Washu cleared her throat.

"You're not going out like that I hope." She told Trakal.

"I intend to send my son to public school and let him have a
normal life, so they might as well get used to what we really
look like."

"Two things," Washu told him. "You're celebrating in California,
so I seriously doubt going out like that will impact Japanese
society much."

"I'm never going to get used to these dimensional portals,"
Trakal mutttered. "And the other thing."

"I admire your sentiments, but you're being foolish. You go out
as you are and you - and maybe your son - will find yourself on
display in a freak show," Washu replied.

"She's right." Hikaru told him. "You'd better wear your
disguise."

"It hurts." Trakal complained. "I have to keep my muzzle lowered
for it to look right. And I get a cramp in my neck and my eyes
get strained."

"Better a cramp in your neck then a steel collar around it."
Washu pontificated.

"You're right." Trakal sighed, putting his mask on.

"So, that's how you looked in 1970?" Hikaru asked. "I can see why
your wife married you. You *are* cute!" He grinned, manically,
and slapped his friend on the back. "Come on," he said. "let's go
celebrate."

---

18:15 PST
Starbucks in Anaheim Hills

"Grande quad mocha, tall latte, and an add shot."  Ryoko turned
around to draw a large cup of coffee for a customer to make a "red
eye", a cup of coffee with an added shot of espresso, as the barista
on duty that night repeated the order, and turned around to collect
the money.  The transaction completed, she looked at the next
customers.

Them.  *What the hell is he....*

Hikaru spoke.  "Hello.  Usual for me, and what he wants."

Trakal looked in the glass case, briefly lamented to himself that
there was nothing containing meat in there, and made a decision.
"Largest cup of coffee you have, and what are you doing working
here?"

"Oh, making an honest living, and, oh yeah - you're GP, you stick
together."

Hikaru rolled his eyes.  "Oh, just get the coffee for crying out
loud."

She mumbled something incoherent at that moment, as she drew the
two drinks, and handed them to their respective owners.  "Three
ten.  Um, Hikaru?"

"Yeah?"

"Sorry about earlier."

"Don't worry about it, it grew back."

The two officers stepped outside and found their way to a table,
Trakal still somewhat thrown off by the fact that it was just now
dusk, since not an hour ago it was morning for him.

"I still can't get over it." Hikaru told him, sitting across from
his compatriot at the small table. "You're married. And with a
son no less."

Trakal laughed a bit at this.

"You know, Trakal, I don't get it. Why her? I mean, she's no
one."

"Watch your mouth." Trakal scolded. "That's my wife you're
talking about. And I will have you know that..." Trakal stopped
dead, his gaze darting about.

"Trakal?" Hikaru asked.

"Never mind." Trakal relaxed and took a sip of coffee. "I thought
I saw something. It must've been a trick of the light."

"So, about Tanaka...?" Hikaru began again.

Trakal suddenly spluttered out the sip of coffee he'd just taken
and leapt to his feet. "Hikaru! Run! I'll distract him!"

"What are you talking about?" Hikaru became terribly worried, and
reflexively reached for a concealed gun on his leg.

"Kain! He's here!" Trakal screamed, pointing towards the nearby
Subway shop.

Hikaru turned. There were a few more kids coming out, and a woman
using a payphone. That was all. He turned back to his friend and 
grabbed him by the shoulders. "Trakal... Kain is gone. He's 
gone."

"No!" Trakal screamed, struggling to get free. "No! He's here! 
He's coming toward us! You've got to save yourself! Hurry! Run!"

Hikaru held on firmly. "No, Trakal. No." He told him. "Now, 
listen to me. Kain is dead.  He can't hurt you."

"Let me go!" Trakal screamed. "We have to ....HE'S GOT ME! 
NO!!!!!" he stopped struggling, his entire body going limp so 
that all that was holding him up was Hikaru's continued grip on 
his shoulders. He looked up at Hikaru, his eyes brimming with 
tears of pain, shame, and horror.  "Why are you helping him?"

Hikaru looked around - a scene was already developing, as some of
the area high schoolers watched what was going on.  He further
noted that Ryoko was also watching what was going on - with a
little amusement, of course.

*Water, now!* Hikaru mouthed, as Trakal thrashed about, now
hyperventilating.

A brief grin, and she was off like a shot - she grabbed a cup,
and one motion, opened the ice hopper, filled it with ice, and
closed it, ran over to a crock of water that was sitting near a
pair of customers, dumped the ice into it, picked it up, ran by a
customer as he came in the door and nearly running over him in
the process, and emptied the contents onto the hallucinating
officer.

---

Trakal felt fire sprinklers engage at him.  And then, he realized
that there wasn't a fire, and what were their sprinklers doing up
here, only darkness as Kain tried to penetrate him---

---

Trakal realized the hallucination broke about three seconds after
this, after he opened his eyes, and found himself soaking wet, nose
to the concrete.

"What are you kids looking at?" Hikaru inquired of the group near
them, now apprehensive.  "He had a bad experience in the gulf! Mind
your own business!"

They had, at this point, decided it would be best to move to another
table on the other side of the store, as an Anaheim cop walked up
from his coffee break.  "Is everything alright?"

Hikaru looked back, noted who was addressing him, and flashed his
own badge.  "Yeah, situation is under control.  Bad experience in
the gulf back in 91, coupled with lack of sleep."

Trakal wasn't so sure however. He was visibly shaken.  He waited for
the cop to return to his table before speaking.  "Hikaru, listen to
me. I'm telling you. It wasn't just a hallucination. It wasn't!"

Ryoko looked at him incredulously.  "Well, it sure as hell wasn't
Kain, Trakal. We killed him, remember?"

"What if some part of Kain survived and regrew?" Trakal asked. "What
if he hypnotized people into thinking he had been killed."

Hikaru considered these points. "You said that Lady Achika was 
Kain's target, right?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So, if that's true," Hikaru swirled his drink and took a sip, 
"then wouldn't Kain have killed her after everyone returned to 
the future if he had survived?"

Trakal nodded. "Look, all I know is that hallucination, as you 
call it, felt like it came from an outside source."

Hikaru looked at Trakal, then at Ryoko, then at nobody in
particular, as he considered what he said, and then finally
spoke.  "Ryoko, what time are you off?"

"Eight."

He sighed.  "Trakal, let's get you home.  Have you get some
sleep."

---

Washu found herself quite surprised when not only a very tired
looking Trakal, but also a very intent looking Hikaru carrying
what appeared to be a toolbox, walked into her lab.  As she sent
her terminal off to wherever it goes when it vanishes, she stood
up, and found herself a little less surprised when Trakal had
wound up on the table, only to be snoring within two seconds.

She then found herself very surprised when Hikaru opened the
box, pulled out a cable, detached his partner's arm, set it
aside, and inserted said cable into a plug where the arm
had previously connected to the rest of his body.

She watched as Hikaru turned on a computer in the box that
resembled a laptop, donned a headset, and relaxed, before she
spoke a few words: "Would you mind telling me what you're doing
here?"

Hikaru looked at her, and grinned sheepishly.  "I guess I
should've asked first.  He had a rather vivid hallucination, and
is convinced that it's not just that."  He looked back at the
portable terminal.  "I'm just punching into his implants to see
what's going on."

"Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Absolutely."

"Hikaru, if you access his implants via direct link, you could
subject yourself to the same hallucinations he's suffering."

"Not really," he replied, pressing a few buttons before he looked
back at Washu.  "His implants contain a sensory archive system-"

"Yes, I know, the black box setup."  She was quickly becoming
rather annoyed with him.

"Right.  He said it's not a hallucination, so there's
something else it could be."  The computer let out a feep,
indicating it was ready.

"So what do you think it is?"

"As ridiculous as it sounds, Kain."  He looked back at the
terminal, pressed a button on it, and spoke into the mike in
front of his mouth. "Open system log, time index, twenty
minutes ago."

"It can't be Kain. We destroyed him in...1970."  She then
remembered something about Trakal mentioning that Kain had
grabbed him.

"I know, but he said something about an external source."

The computer feeped again, in indication that it had found what
he was looking for.  "Load auditory and visual, and play back"
was Hikaru's further command.

While it played back his view of the events of their foray off to
get a cup of coffee, Washu took a blood sample from Trakal's
arm, pulled up some old data on Kain, and set to analyzing.

Hikaru watched the screen while she did this, and watched as the
surrounding area suddenly became Tokyo Tower, and Kain appeared
in the foreground.

"Stop, and rewind fifteen seconds."

It did just this, and stopped on a frame with a black smudge on
the right, Hikaru's face on the left, and a Subway shop in the
background.

"Text log of this location."

An incomprehensible list of log items appeared in a separate
window.

>From her own workstation, Washu made a horrifying discovery, as
something in the samples matched - to which she exclaimed, "Oh my
God."

Hikaru heard none of this.  "Grep Kain," he said to the computer.
Being that, even for alien species, voice recognition was still
not exactly the greatest thing since sliced bread, it could not
find the appropriate word, especially after assimilating the
English language - so it brought up a list:  KAIN CANE CAIN KANE

Hikaru rolled his eyes in response to this.  "First one."  In
response, it sifted through the text log, and spat out about
three screen pages worth of data, ending on one line:

KAIN RTN ACT 093804

He perused the log dump, noting places where the Kain routine had
otherwise done other activities - mostly assimilating itself into
the implant code - but this was the only thing that indicated
that it had been actually run.  *This is highly non-optimal,* he
thought.

Both waking figures sat back at the same time, and simultaneously
expleted "Damn."

Then they both looked at each other, and Washu spoke first.
"What do you have?"

"Kain has wormed his way into the code on his implants.  Check
out this log," he pointed out, "there are entries all over the
place where it did at least something.  But about twenty minutes
ago, it actually turned itself on."

"I think I have something more interesting," she replied, turning
back to her terminal for just a moment to bring up something on the
display.  "How much do you know about Kain?"

"Other than what Ryoko and Trakal have told me, along with what was
noted in Kiyone's report, absolutely nothing related to this."

The data file appeared on her display, and she went into lecture
mode.  "Kain is a regenerative being. Not regenerative like a
lizard, but like a starfish.  That means that not only will Kain
grow a new bit where the old one was cut off, but the cast off bit
will grow a new Kain, too.  And somehow, when Kain grabbed hold of
Trakal in the alternate dimension we had him trapped in, a very
small piece broke off inside him."

"And somehow, he managed to work his way into the implants.  I'm
concerned now about his wife and children, you don't suppose they
have been affected by this?"

"It's not likely, as it hasn't taken over his genetic structure
at all.  That's the interesting part about this, he's acting more
like a blood-borne pathogen.  But yeah, I'll take a look at them.
In the meantime, you better wipe his implants."

*Oh, shit.*  Hikaru looked at his former partner, and decided
that this was the only alternative, as Washu injected the
contents of a hypodermic needle into Trakal's arm, and opened a
portal that didn't seem to go anywhere.  "For all intents and
purposes, this is an antidote to Kain.  It's going to come out
of his mouth," she said. "I'd recommend staying as far away from
it as possible."

"Load code," Hikaru said to the computer, and then spoke to
Washu: "You sure this is a good idea?"

"If you have a better suggestion, now would be a good time to
give it."

He watched in disgust as a suspicious looking black fluid
started running out of the side of his mouth into the portal,
which presumably went to someplace that Kain wouldn't survive
such as the core of a star, and then looked away, trying to think
of an alternative - yet there simply wasn't one.  This was assembler
code, after all. "Well, you know assembler for a 4807 processor?"

"Of course I do!"

"Would you mind helping me with this?"

"Oh, alright.  But I want something from you after we're done."

"Um...experiments?"

"Yeah!"

"Why?"

"Well, I need a control to compare to Tenchi."

He would have rather remained innocent of the nature of her
experiments, but it would be a small price to pay for the life of
his friend.  "Alright, but no funny stuff."  He then directed his
attention to his terminal, and spoke: "Copy, disassemble, and
convert to hard copy."  After a moment, about 2000 pages of
assembler instructions in rather fine print dumped out of nowhere in
particular.  Both of their eyes glazed over at the prospect of
determining what was Kain and what wasn't, and figuring out exactly
how to work around the corrupt instruction sets.

After a moment of stunned silence, Hikaru spoke.  "If I had to
guess," he said slowly, "I'd say about ten percent of this is
whatever crap Kain put in there.  I think our work is cut out for
us."  He sent the wipe instruction through Trakal's implants, and
made a decision.  "We should start once I bring Ryoko home.  Be
about an hour before I have to get her, and besides, we're going
to need a *lot* of coffee."

She picked up a sheaf of the code, and winced.  "You're right."
She retrieved a few more loaded syringes from a tray, injected
herself, and approached Hikaru.  "You should take this, just in
case.  I'm going to get Makiya and their son."  A silly grin hit
her face at that moment.  "Once that's done, would you care to
get the experiments out of the way?"

He shot up, and felt absolutely nothing happen to him.  "Guess it
can't hurt."

---

Unseen to either of them, an ever-so-small droplet of the black
fluid managed to separate itself from the rivulet running from
Trakal's mouth, and somehow avoided the portal as it landed on
the floor adjacent to the floor.

It didn't have much - just a sense of purpose and a bit of energy
- but it was enough.  It managed to work its way across the
floor, and found a path to what it sensed to be a highly powerful
substance of a nature that could probably be described as organic
yet not.

It entered the tank through osmosis.

And then it proceeded to reproduce itself.

---

October 28, 1998 at 06:45 PST
Washu's lab

Trakal awoke sightless from a dreamless sleep - and then, just a
moment later, he found his vision restored to him.  First in
blue, then in green, then in red, then all at once.  It was blurry
at first, but quickly focused itself.  Upon a quick examination,
he noted that his implants were in a bizarre state of flux, where
they were being loaded with information.  Not horribly traumatic,
but an odd sensation nonetheless.

He then noted that his arm was not there, but approximately where
it should be was a rather tired looking Hikaru mumbling something
about the vision routines functioning normally.

"Care to tell me what happened, Hikaru?"

"Yeah," he replied.  "But first, you remember anything yet?"

"Well, I remember that Kain tried to rape me, and that you were
holding me, and then I was suddenly back at that coffee house you
brought me to, without Kain, and I was soaking wet, what happened?"

"Well, I have good news and bad news."

"Bad news first," he said.  "I always do better that way."

"Kain was definitely alive, and had infiltrated your code."

An odd sinking feeling was the first thing that hit him.  "And
the good news?"

"If he's still alive, he's not inside you anymore - or your
family, if he ever was there.  Washu pretty much pulled out
whatever organic material was in you related to Kain, and the two
of us spent the last ten hours rebuilding the code for your
implants."

He sighed, and then it hit him.  "You spent the last ten hours in
here with Washu?"

"Yes."

"Alone?!"

"Well, not entirely."

"OK, never mind me."

"In that case, yes, save for an hour when Ryoko was pestering us."

He laughed a bit.  "Yes, she can be a bit annoying."

*type type* "Fair warning, you're about to lose your vision again.
I'm uploading the final batch of code."

Trakal sighed, and watched as he suddenly saw nothing.  He heard a
few more keystrokes, and then felt the last of the data painlessly
finding its way into the appropriate places in his implants, which
slowly came to life.  "There's something a little different about
this code," he noted audibly.

"Yeah, we made a couple of patches.  Most of it was just code
optimization, but the only really significant one was access
control.  You require a specific key to get in and make any changes
to the implant code - in short, a proprietary terminal. Also,
there's a few error handlers that will reject any foreign code, and
the only way to actually change the code is to do it on the tiger
box.  Basically, Washu and I are the only ones that can change it."
The transfer stopped, indicated that all was well, and he unplugged.
"Alright, in a few seconds, you'll be able to see again."

"Good. I always hated these upgrades."

"Just a note, this came at a price to me."

"What price?"

"Oh, I was a lab rat."

Trakal turned as to look at him, despite the loss of vision. "She
experimented on you?"

Hikaru blushed as he responded.  "Well, yeah.  She said she needed a
control to work against Tenchi for when he consented to her."

Trakal did a recoil take as his vision restored itself.  "I hate to
ask, but what was *that* like?"

"Umm...interesting," he said slowly, a blank expression remaining on
his face as he closed the box.