Chapter Fifteen

So, it was over at last.

Seiryo hauled his heavy body up from the end of his bed, running tired hands through his thick curly hair as he attempted to make himself look presentable. The previous day's verdict had at least allowed him freedom among his fellow Juraians once more, but he knew that it would be a long time before things were back to normal on Jurai. Half of them, he knew, believed him somehow responsible for the death of his father, and he had swallowed the suspicion with gritted teeth, knowing that whatever he felt, he would not bring Suki into the spotlight for her crime. Today he would rejoin the Council, assume Seiji's seat and begin to rebuild the Tennan name. In time, he knew, the stories would fade, and everything would be all right.

At least, he hoped it would.

"Seiryo-oniichan?"

His sister's voice from the doorway startled him and he turned, meeting her concerned gaze with a tired one of his own as he gestured for her to come in.

"What is it, Suki?" He asked quietly. "I have things to do this afternoon – I don't have much time to spare."

"Seiryo, you look ill." Suki came to his side, taking his hand in hers and turning it over as she examined the scars. "You're in no fit state to stand before the Emperor or to take on any responsibilities with the Council."

"As it stands, I'm fortunate the Emperor is allowing me back at all." Seiryo pulled his hand away, his tone bitter. "Leave me, Suki. I know what I must do."

"So do I."

A look of determination flickered in Suki's gaze and she grabbed him by the arm, pushing him back down onto the end of the bed and standing over him. "I must make you rest and recover from everything you've been through. You almost died because of me, Seiryo. You almost lost your mind trying to protect Tennan family honour. I won't have it any more…it's not important. So what if Azusa-heika expects to see you at today's session? That doesn't mean you're honour-bound to attend."

"You really don't understand anything about Juraian politics, do you?" Seiryo said flatly. "Suki, you're just a child…you don't know what you're talking about."

"Perhaps I know better than you do." Suki's eyes became hard, and she shook her head. "Listen to me, Seiryo. You think of me still as the little girl of seven that you left when Father sent you away. I've let us both slip back into those roles, but I've learnt things from this, even if you have not. I know what matters to me and those things are you and Mother and our safety and happiness. I don't care whether the Tennan family wash dishes or rule great estates. I just want my brother back – in one piece, the way he was before all of this happened to us."

"You can't turn back time, Suki-chan." Seiryo looked weary. "No matter how much you want to. The status of the Tennan family is not something to be bartered with. Don't you understand that we're already at risk enough? Had they found me guilty of complicity…"

"We both know that Tokimi wasn't responsible for everything you did." Suki said quietly, and Seiryo stared at her, unsettled by the look in her aqua eyes. "You said to me the night Father died that if I hadn't killed him, you would probably have taken your chance to do so. And the more I think on it, the more I know that Tokimi might have been encouraging you…but you almost let your ambition rule your head and that's nothing to do with what she did."

"So you think your only brother is the kind of coward to attack and kill a good officer behind closed doors?" Seiryo reacted angrily, glaring at her indignantly. "Is that what you truly think of me, that I'm my Father's son?"

"Oh, don't be silly." Suki snapped, and Seiryo found his anger evaporating in his surprise at his sister's unfamiliar tones. "You know that I love you and that I know you wouldn't do something like that. At least, not yet. But you do sometimes sound like Father, Seiryo. And it got me to thinking…about many things. About things Father did…and things you have tried to do. I don't want you to become that man – I know you could be a better one, if you tried."

"Suki, what are you babbling about?" Seiryo rubbed his temples, closing his eyes against the throbbing ache that had begun to spread across his skull. "I'm tired and I have much to do. Can't this wait until later?"

"You did not live with Father these past ten years." Suki said softly, resting a gentle hand on Seiryo's arm and guiding it away from his brow. "Listen to me. I saw him degenerate. I saw how he treated Mother, and how much he drank and gambled away the money our family have acquired through the years. These things, they took over his life, Seiryo. You saw him as a difficult man, who thwarted your ambitions and gave you nothing but grief. But I saw him in the mornings, when his hands shook for lack of alcohol. And I saw how he was when he'd lost money, or when somehow Mother had managed to prevent him indulging in his wilder behaviours. They became addictions with him – vices of the elite. And I see the same things in you now, my brother. The same signs…the same weaknesses. It breaks my heart, but I do."

"I don't drink and I don't gamble." Seiryo eyed her coldly. "What point are you trying to make?"

"I didn't mean that way." Suki shook her head impatiently. "But power is an addiction in itself, Seiryo. Tokimi gave you great strength – strength your body could not handle and didn't know how to manage. Now it's been torn away and you're left struggling to remember how you lived before it ran through you. You've always been ambitious and driven and it fed those emotions. Now you don't even seem to have the energy to move through the day and I worry about you. I don't want you to push me away. I want to help you – you and I, we need to stick together."

Seiryo stared at his sister, his anger and indignation draining out of him as he realised the truth in her words.

"An addiction?" He echoed softly, getting slowly to his feet and moving across his chamber to the mirror pool that sparkled by the furthest wall. For a moment he examined his tired, drawn reflection, then he turned away from it, unnerved by what he saw.

"Am I really no better than my father, succumbing to these things?"

"You expect too much of yourself and too little of me." Suki slipped her hand into his, and strangely Seiryo felt comforted by her touch. "I'm stronger than we both realised, and you need time to recover. I know this whole episode haunts you, brother, and I know that part of it is because you wonder how much of what you did was Tokimi's influence, and how much was your own resentment. But you aren't Father and it's not too late to turn away from those things."

Seiryo glanced down at her, a faint smile touching the edges of his mouth.

"Who would have thought that it would be you telling me this." He said ruefully. "And that I'd be listening. It's as if you do know my thoughts – my fears. I think about Detective Makibi all the time, Suki. And I ask myself whether, had Tokimi not pushed me to do it, I would have attacked her off my own bat to cover my tracks. I'm a little afraid of the answer. Even though I told you I wouldn't kill the girl who saw Father's death, if she hadn't proven to be who she was, I know I probably would have done it to ensure her silence anyway. I've always prided myself on doing things the honourable way…but Tokimi told me that I was ruthless and ambitious and you've just said the same thing. Eventually I would compromise my honour to get ahead – that's what you're telling me, isn't it? That I'd grow tired of failing and taking second place to men like Takeru Imada and I'd try and take short cuts to gain ground. Tokimi only encouraged me in a direction I was already prepared to go."

"Yes." Suki nodded her head. "It makes me afraid, Seiryo-oniichan. When I met with you, at Headquarters, and I knew you'd become involved in something dangerous, it frightened me even more. I suppose I didn't think you could make a wrong choice…but I'm learning that even you aren't perfect. And it's wrong of me to expect you to be. I expect you to rescue me far too much…especially of late. Now it's my turn to rescue you. I know you're too proud to ask for the Emperor's help, or that of Takeru Imada or the Crown Princess. So you'll have to do with my help, instead. I'm a Tennan, after all. It's my duty to help my family."

"And what do you plan to do, Suki-chan?" Seiryo eyed her affectionately. "To right all the wrongs and make everything go back to how it should be?"

"Firstly, you're not going to the Council session this afternoon." Suki said quietly. "I am."

"What?" Seiryo stared at her. "Suki, you're seventeen!"

"I know, but Father attended his first session at sixteen. I know, because I checked with Mother." Suki said stolidly. "It's not like it hasn't happened before."

"He went with Grandfather. If I don't accompany you, you'll have to go alone and that's different." Seiryo shook his head. Suki smiled.

"I already have the blessing of the Emperor." She said simply. Seiryo's eyes almost fell out of his head.

"You went to Azusa about this already? Behind my back?"

"With Sasami's help, yes." Suki looked sheepish. "I knew that you'd never be persuaded unless I'd covered all bases. Sasami-chan agreed to come with me and speak on my behalf, and Azusa is very fond of her. So it's all settled. I have his permission to attend."

"What did you have to tell him, exactly, to convince him that I wasn't fit to attend myself?" Seiryo looked suspicious. Suki rested a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"I told him that my brother was still suffering from shock and pain from the ordeal he had been through." She said quietly. "That Tokimi's magic had wrought physical and mental strains on you, and that only now were you beginning to re-gather your memories of what had happened. He was very understanding, given the circumstances."

"The Emperor believes, then, that all of my bad behaviour can be attributed to Tokimi?" Seiryo asked quietly. Suki nodded.

"Lady Sasami and I have encouraged him to think that way, and the Hearing came to the same conclusion." She agreed. "You have nothing to fear. You were a victim, not a villain. If anyone thinks anything towards you, it would be pity, not blame."

"Pity is just as bad as blame when family pride is at stake." Seiryo said darkly. "What interest does Princess Sasami have in all of this, Suki? Why would she help us, when Tokimi sought to destroy her family?"

"Sasami is my friend and she knows I love you." Suki shrugged. "Just like she does Ayeka. She's special…I can't explain why, I just know that she is and that I can always trust her, no matter what. She understands – even if I can't fully tell her what I want to say."

"A girl of no more than twelve summers?"

"Sasami is more than that." Suki said quietly. "She is a Princess of Jurai. Blessed of Tsunami, just like all of them. There's more to that connection than just power, my brother."

"Tsunami." Seiryo groaned, closing his eyes briefly. "How long is that name going to haunt me?"

"It doesn't have to be that way." Suki told him gently. Seiryo shook his head.

"I'm a practical man, not a spiritual one." He said heavily. "And considering my recent experiences, one who's likely to keep his distance from mystical forces for some time to come."

He clenched his fists, as determination surged through him anew.

"I will beat this, Suki. I will recover and be fine." He added. "And I will solve the Tennan finances and bring our family back to where it should be."

"Maybe you will." Suki agreed. "But not without my help or my support. I don't know how much time Mother has, but we'll always have each other, regardless of that. And family is important, but not in the way Father thought it was. Having each other and nothing else is better than being alone with the titles and the money. I realised that when you were gone and I had noone to talk to or confide in."

She grinned.

"This is a new day for the Tennan family." She added. "A day when we start gaining things without trampling on those beneath us, or shedding blood to preserve our good name."

"Perhaps I have been away from you too long." Seiryo admitted. He sighed, leaning back on his hands. "The truth is, I'm tired and my head aches. What you said about addiction frightens me, because I know it's true. With Tokimi's magic, I felt unsettled and out of control, but I did not want to give up the strength it gave me. And now it's gone, I wish it were back, even though I know what it would mean. I need time and space to re-evaluate who I am and what I am going to be, now that Father is no longer a factor. I've been bitter about being sent away for so long, but when I think about it, I could have stayed with the Galaxy Police and been much more than I was, had I not nursed that grudge and planned so many times to exact my revenge. I was good at that life and I earned every medal, but I looked down on it too because of the reason I was there. I've been my own weakness, not Tokimi. And that's a hard lesson to face."

"For both of us, because I face it too." Suki said. "I must live with Father's death all my life, and know that I was the one who caused it…it and everything that followed. But I do intend to go to the Council session today, my brother. You need to rest and I'm sure Mother would be glad of your company if you didn't want to spend time alone."

"Your mind is made up, isn't it?"

"It is."

"And somehow I can tell that I'm not going to sway you so easily from now on, am I, sister?"

"Not if I can help it." Suki dimpled, a sparkle entering her aqua eyes. "It's time I took responsibility for myself and my own actions, as well as help you deal with yours. That's what family is really about, Seiryo."

"Well, let's see if you're right." Carefully Seiryo stretched out on his bedcovers, eying his sister thoughtfully as he did so. "Go to the Council, Suki-chan, and make sure they know that the Tennan family is far from destroyed. But most of all, make your mother and I proud."

"You know I will." Suki stood, nodding her head. "And you take the cares off your shoulders and rest. Things will come right in time, I know they will – but for now, just trust in me and take it easy."

She bent, kissing him gently on the forehead, then,

"I won't let you down, I promise."

---------

"The sky is beautiful tonight."

Ryoko stood on the balcony of Tenchi's Osaka apartment, the wind whipping through her wild, wavy hair as she gazed up dreamily towards the heavens. It was a week later and the first wave of Earth hysteria had receded into a dull buzz of activity as the people of the confused and frightened planet got to grips with the bigger picture of life in the Universe.

"And peaceful, too, which makes a change." Tenchi came to join her, slipping a gentle arm around her shoulders as he did so. "Ryoko, it's good to be back to normal...even if normal isn't quite what it was before. No more possessed Galaxy Police officers or raging planetary goddesses. Just you and me back in Osaka, just like we were before it all kicked off. It's strange, really, to think so much has happened. It seems surreal - more now than it ever has before."

"It does." Ryoko agreed, glancing absently down at the busy streets below. "Your grandfather is sure that they'll get used to it eventually, though. Jurai haven't given them any indication of force or violence and several Earth representatives from this United Nations thing of yours have accepted Ayeka's invitation for them to visit...I hope it goes well. I know I don't like Jurai much, but I'd rather Earth didn't decide to upset them. I don't want it to change...not too much."

"That reminds me of something I wanted to talk to you about." Tenchi grasped her loosely by the hand, squeezing it, and she shot him a surprised look.

"What is it, Tenchi-kun?" She asked softly. "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing." Tenchi shook his head. "Just...come inside with me for a moment, will you? It's cold out here, and I'm starting to get goosebumps."

"All right." Ryoko nodded, allowing him to guide her back into the small bedroom. He closed the door behind them, indicating for her to sit down and she did so, making herself comfortable on his bedcovers as he dropped down beside her.

"So what's this about?" She asked, curiosity burning in her amber eyes. "You look so solemn, Tenchi. What's bothering you? I would have thought that you'd be happy everything was going back to how it should be. I mean, your classes start tomorrow, and we're here, and everything's all right. Isn't it? Your friends will come round eventually, won't they?"

"They'll have to, or they're no friends of mine." Tenchi said frankly. Ryoko stared.

"You really mean that, don't you?" She said in surprise. Tenchi nodded.

"I'm fed up with all this secrecy and hiding." He admitted. "It bothers me that I've forced so many things on you since we came back here, Ryoko-chan. I'm always nagging you about your magic or what you do in public...and we're living my life, not our life. I'm in Osaka to study, but I've pushed you to slot into my world and haven't really stopped and asked you what you want from all this. It's not fair and it's been preying on my mind more and more since all of this began."

"Well, you know me." Ryoko shrugged her shoulders. "I go where you go, Tenchi. That's what makes me happy. And I have no roots of my own - so I'll steal yours. It's really no big deal. I like your world."

"But you can't be completely yourself in it." Tenchi sighed. "And that's my fault."

"Tenchi?" Alarm flickered in Ryoko's eyes. "Do I want you to keep saying these things? I mean, maybe I'm paranoid, but I don't like where this is heading."

"Oh." Tenchi looked sheepish, shaking his head as he grasped her hands loosely in his. "No, I don't mean it that way. I'm not trying to get rid of you, Ryoko. I promise. Actually, the opposite. I just...now the Earth knows about you and Grandpa and the others that have come here, I really don't want you to hide who you are any more. I mean, you might not be popular if you go around blowing stuff up a whole lot - but you shouldn't have to pretend to be like everyone else here just to fit into my life. And more, I shouldn't ask you to. Because I didn't fall in love with a normal Earth girl - that never worked for me. I fell in love with a space pirate - and that's who I want you to be."

"Really?" Ryoko raised an eyebrow, looking at him doubtfully. "How much of a space pirate? Because your great grandpa's not too keen on me pillaging and looting my way round the universe, and I'd rather keep on his good side for now. Especially since he now has an interest in this place, too."

"Not that much." Tenchi assured her. "I guess what I'm saying is - be Ryoko. That's all."

"Oh, I see." Ryoko's eyes sparkled with amusement. "But I'm always Ryoko, Tenchi. Whether I'm teasing your friends or kicking Galaxy Police butt, I'm still me."

Tenchi laughed.

"Good." He said, relief crossing his face. "Because I wouldn't want you to be anyone else. It's the Earth's job to come to terms with it. After all, you fought Seiryo and his companions twice to defend it. You've more than proven yourself."

"I should have been at Kihaku though, rescuing you." Ryoko's amber eyes darkened with regret, and she shook her head. "That's where I wanted to be, Tenchi. I feel bad that you needed me, and I wasn't there."

"Ryoko, you don't need to put yourself in peril on my behalf every time we face some vicious criminal." Tenchi told her gently. "You can't always do everything. And we needed Tsunami - it took everything Sasami could muster and even then she had Washu's help. You would have been hurt. Maybe even killed. You take too many risks when my life is at stake, you know."

"But that's what I do." Ryoko objected. "I jump into the pit to drag you out. It's part of my job - getting you out of the trouble you wander into blindly."

Tenchi chuckled at this, sliding his hand affectionately around her waist.

"Yes, but honestly, I was much happier to get back to the Earth and have you here, alive and waiting." He admitted. "You're not much use to me dead, Ryoko. No matter how brave you were being - I'm glad Washu made you stop behind. It was a long flight from Kihaku - not knowing what damage Tennan had done to the Earth or to any of you. Tokimi wanted you dead especially, to spite me when I wouldn't give her what she wanted."

"Well, if Ayeka hadn't done it, I would've seen to Seiryo myself." Ryoko flexed her fingers. "But she was in bitch-princess mode and it's hard to snap her out of it when she's fired up. I let her get on with it. It sure put that jerk in his place, anyway."

She paused, then shot him a sidelong glance.

"So what now, Tenchi-kun?" She asked softly. "We're here, in Osaka, far away from home, your family and mine. Ryo Ohki's curled up in the front room on the sofa cushions after eating too much of Yume's carrot cake, so we don't even have a chaperone. What do you think we should do?"

Tenchi eyed Ryoko for a moment, then he smiled.

"Who would have thought Yume would make such a good cook." He said teasingly, and Ryoko grimaced.

"Oh, stop it. You're just doing it to annoy me, now." She said petulantly. "Tenchi, tomorrow you go back to school and then you'll be studying. You said yourself that you wanted me to be Ryoko. So let me be. You won't regret it...I promise."

Tenchi hesitated, then he got to his feet, padding over to the balcony and drawing the curtains carefully across the window. He turned, and Ryoko saw a mixture of affection and uncertainty on his face. She smiled.

"I won't hurt you." She murmured. "I never would - you do know that, don't you?"

"I know that." Tenchi agreed, standing at the edge of the bed and glancing down at her pensively. "But it's a big step, and bigger for me than for you. Ryoko..."

"Shh." Ryoko ordered, reaching up to grab him by the hands. She laughed as she pulled him roughly back down, amused by the surprise in his eyes. "Oh, Tenchi, stop worrying so much! I won't make you, if you really aren't ready. But it seems a shame to waste such a beautiful night. And with all the things we've been through - don't you think we can survive another adventure?"

Tenchi was silent for a moment, settling himself more comfortably on the bedcovers as he shot his companion a hesitant glance. Then he smiled.

"Sometimes I think I'm too cautious." He owned. "Maybe I should live life more like you, Ryoko...act first and think about it later."

"Does that mean...?" Hope flared in Ryoko's heart at this and Tenchi pursed his lips, slowly nodding his head.

"Our future starts here." He murmured, running his finger down her cheek as he did so, and then kissing her gently. "I'm all yours."