The first thing that Timmain awoke to was the dark. It was frighteningly dark, the deepest color of indigo with black so black it played tricks on her eyes. Colors throbbed like her head, dark shades of red and green, and when the pain hit her, they seemed to throb in sync. She shifted slightly, only to feel her fevered skin brush against the softest of cloths. Though her body felt as if something had snapped it nearly in half, she relaxed slightly, breathing in the unfamiliar, spicy smell of incense. She remembered the Crash, the soft voices of her dead friends about her, urging her to leave the Ship quickly.. the water crashing about her, her body smashing, dying.. She startled, silver eyes opening quickly.

Dying! In a desperate attempt to save herself, she had shaped her body to a different form, one better suited to the terrible, roaring pressure of the deep waters of the lake, but the transition was so sudden and violent that the magic all but slammed her up through the water, into the air and finally throwing her into the shallows. She lifted a shaky hand to her face, brushing the spun glass strands of her hair from her face. She had blacked out again.. healed only to be hurt again... and then Timmain remembered the others and started to her feet, but her ankles stung her with invisible needles and she fell down against the bed again with a strangled cry.

"Eh? Da nani anata...?"

Timmain lifted her head as the strange words startled her from her aches. A human man, his face lined with age, but strangely gentle, looked at her through a pair of glasses. He was dressed strangely, like no Abodean human she could think of, and he seemed more concerned than frightened. His graying hair was pulled back from his face in a ponytail that ran nearly the length of his back, and his whiskers twitched when he spoke. "Iie, ima anta tadaima nemas'neru, chiisai hitori..."

As his hands reached for her shoulders, she drew back. It was only then that she realized her body was clothed. A strange garment made of fibers she had never seen before held her frame like a robe, dyed the gentlest shade of purple - just dark enough to set off the yellow in her eyes, she thought absently. Remembering where she was, Timmain quickly looked up only to see the human man moving to take a seat beside her. He paused, his gentle eyes regarding her curiously for a moment, then touched his fingers to his chest, over which he wore a top not unlike the strange garment she herself wore now. "Katsuhito," he said quietly, then tilted his head to her expectantly.

Timmain's eyebrows came together, but she was a being older than a world itself, or so it seemed sometimes. She understood. The silver-haired maiden pressed her fingertips against her own chest lightly and returned his name with her own. "Timmain." Her voice was surprisingly soft, almost shyly said.

"T.. Tih-mm-hain.." he echoed, stumbling over the word, then offered the High One a crooked smile. "Timmain."

Timmain nodded, returning his smile with one of her own, feeling the edges of her lips twitch as they threatened to make it broader, but she willed herself not to. She felt ill, and though she felt no wrong towards this kindly human, she knew the ways of his off-wordly breathen and could not help but be cautious. His name was harder to say, so many syllables had it and the sharpness was strangely musical. "K-Kat.. Kat-so.. Kat-so-heet-oh? Katsoheetoh?" She screwed up her face, knowing that the name was somewhat like that, but she was butchering it. "Katsuhito?" That sounded right. She smiled, relieved, and looked up at the human.

The human - Katsuhito gave her an encouraging smile, then dropped his gaze as worry creased his brow. Timmain's brows, in turn, came together and she started to lean forward to touch his arm when a sharp pain took her side and she gasped, doubling over. "K-K-Kah..!" she tried to form his name, but when breath became short, the sounds would not come, and tears started to blur her eyes.

He was there in a moment, gently untangling her and laying her back on the bed. Her lips were forced apart and a liquid was forced down into her throat until she wanted to gag and spit it back out at him. But he brought it back and before she could put together a protest, her eyelids were already closing. A pleasant warmth spread over her and a welcome drowsiness quickly followed. She fell back into the feather light pillow, feeling the covers pulled up and over her again. A hand touched her cheek tenderly, almost affectionate in the simple touch, and she fell asleep feeling the fingertips brush away.

Katsuhito took his hand back slowly, fingers slowly curling inward in a loose fist which he pressed against his chest. The alien beauty had succumbed more quickly to the tea than he had expected. He stood, the cloth of his hakama rustling quietly, and turned away, his socked feet silent on the ground. The aged swordsman had found the elven maiden in the water near the house; he had been returning to check up on Tenchi and remind him of the chores that needed doing, and also that Ryoko needed to get around to repairing that frighteningly priceless artifact she had 'accidentally' broken the last time she was at the Shrine.

Instead, he had found a thin, frail-looking figure, curled up in the shallows, her crystal spun hair a cloud around her and turning brown with mud and water. He had knelt beside her, gathering her broken form into his arms, and then she had awoke, gazing at him blindly with eyes, the irises coated in silver and surrounded in gold. Her lips had parted, whispering something.. softly.. he could not understand it. Then she had closed her eyes again and leaned her head against him, mud-strewn hair cascading to the ground below, and had passed out again.

Katsuhito adjusted the glasses on his nose. The first thought that had came to mind, he realized with a flickering of his eyes, was that she was very beautiful. Truthfully, her upswept ears and four-fingered hands marked her as someone not of this world, nor Jurai, yet her eyes, bright with pain and shattered hope, reminded him of the dream he had had only nights before. Of eyes, large and afraid, of tears falling into pools of water, and of his daughter, who died when Tenchi was young.

Katsuhito turned slightly, his eyes falling on the slumbering alien who called herself Timmain. Were his dreams a prediction of her coming? or a warning of things to come?

Once her eyes had been burgundy and her hair jet-black turned lavender.

She had laughed and cried. She had lived and died. She had mourned - oh yes, she had mourned, but she had loved as well. She had a child once, and she had fought for him before she even knew that he was hers or that she would one day bear him.

She remembered school, of two young ladies, one prim and proper, her violet hair pulled back from her face, always smiling and playing nice. The other rude and noisy, her flash of cyan pretending to be hair, treating her as she would anyone else, yet she had always known that her heart was good. She had called them friend.

She remembered her son, his smiling eyes, his cheerful laughter. His tears as she held his hand and slipped far away.

She remembered her love, her danna-san. His glasses, always a bit crooked, and his laugh, always a bit awkward. His anger, his frusteration, projects he spent months on gone to waste, and the nights when he slept on the couch and she alone in the bedroom, crying into the pillow while he shivered from something not quite cold.

And then she remembered her promise, and she cried.

Petalwing much vexed.

Petalwing verymuch vexed.

Petalwing so vexed... Petalwing.. Petalwing..

Well, Petalwing notknow -how-much vexed, but ismuch vexed.

Is so? Is so.

Is good.

Prettysparkle home-place go boomcrashbreak in muddywater, go all breaky-broke. Highthings and high-digdig go flying uppity-up, flyhighair. Not MotherMother Highthing though.. poor MotherMother highthing. Go crashboom, crystalsparklewall fall down over. Petalwing tryhard find, no cando! Petalwing sorry, is so, is much.

Is very sorry. Is so.

Is verymuch so.

Petalwing sorry.

The Preserver flitted back and forth over the water, his tiny features twisted in a frown. The other highthings had gone into the house with the bigthings, but not MotherMother Highthing, and now Petalwing was getting worried. An explosion in a section of the water some time before had startled it, yet when it flew over in that direction, a bigthing was there and Petalwing hid quicky-fast. It still remembers Busyhead Highthing's rule: Noshow self to Bigthings!

But it kept searching. Petalwing was a good Preserver, really it was. Have to find MotherMother Highthing.

Poor MotherMother Highthing. Wherecould be?

Cutter ran a finger along the flat of New Moon's blade idly, his expression thoughtful as he watched his kin slowly adjust to living here with these strange humans. It had all been worked out pretty much of what was happening and what had happened. All that was left was the Now and What

Was to Be. The humans and elves shared a common enemy in this one called Kain. He had caught the look that passed between the three humans - the violet-tressed female, the awkward male, and the loud, cyan-haired female - that always seemed to be arguing, when he had mentioned Kain. And it did not help in the slightest when it came to soothing his worries.

He heard and scented the human's approach before he saw him and his sudden turning to face him startled the almond-eyed boy. Tenchi blinked at him, twice, before he grinned and chuckled nervously, reaching up to scratch his neck sheepishly. "Heh-heh-heh.. don't do that to me, okay?"

Cutter sniffed once in his direction. "Do what?"

"Um.. you know.." Tenchi's face took an awkward touch to it that Cutter was beginning to recognise as a common expression, gesturing with his hands. "Turn around.. so quickly.. like that.. heh.. you startled me.. heh.. for a moment there.."

Cutter gave him a long, searching look, then flicked his glance away. He had had a knack for humans like his sire, Bearclaw, had had with trolls, but this strange new world with these strange humans could only raise his hackles, even further considering the situation. "You said that you have battled with this Kain before.. is he dangerous?" he came out and asked bluntly.

Tenchi blinked, reclining back against the fence that Cutter was perched upon, his brow furrowing as he remembered. "Yes.. Kain is very powerful. It was only with the dimensional cannon and..." He swallowed. "..my mother's sacrifice that we were able to defeat him."

Cutter cast him a look, curious and perhaps with pity. The human cub had lost his dam to the monster? Not unlike what had happened to his own mother... long dead beneath Madcoil's claws. But he brushed the thought and old regrets behind him and frowned deeply. "And we have neither, or at least not both." What is a dimensional cannon anyway? "Can we still beat him?"

Tenchi didn't meet Cutter's gaze. "I... don't know," he confessed softly. "Washuu-san says that the probabilities are equal either way... with your... um... folk's arrival, we have more firepower on our side, but we have no idea as to how powerful Kain has grown…" His voice quieted, his eyes growing dark. "He can break out of subspace, destroy entire spacestations... manipulate time and space… He's even come back from the dead." Masaki Tenchi dared to glance to the Wolfrider Chieftain. "We have no idea how vast his power could be now."

Cutter's eyes narrowed. And he nodded.

Sasami reached over to touch the pendant about Suntop's neck, her ruby eyes glittering curiously. "What sort of glass is that, Sunchan?" she asked curiously, fingering the smooth red center of his pendant. "It's so pretty… but its not like any kind of glass I've seen!"

Suntop grinned mildly, still uncertain of what to make of this name Sasami had given him. Sunchan. Hmf. The red-haired lady had assured him that it was only an endearment, but it still confused him to no end. His name was Suntop, not Sunchan. And the others called Sasami, 'Sasami-chan'. Was there some significance to it? He wrinkled his nose at her and matched her grin, reaching to touch the pendant. "Mm-hmm.. I don't know what 'glass' is, but Mother says that the trinket-makers back in the Sun Village used to take sand and melt it down.. and make it into this!" He lifted the pendant up by its string, letting it twirl, the light nearby catching its red sparkle and flashing with color.

Sasami's eyes widened, the same color as the necklace, and 'ooh'ed softly, her hands clasping together. "Wow! I wish I had that... there's nothing like that on Jurai!"

Suntop quirked a brow, tilting his head slightly. "Jurai.." he repeated, then a lightbulb clicked. "Oh! The world you come from?"

Sasami bobbed her head up and down, the blue ponytails on either side of her head bouncing with the movement. "Hai!" she grinned. "We can make glass and find crystal, but... you can barely see through that, but its not dyed at all!" She reached a hand to touch it, watching it spin. "Maybe you can take me to your world when this is over, Sunchan, and I can get one too."

Suntop blinked, then grinned shyly, shrugging his shoulders as he focused his sky blue eyes upon the spinning pendant. "Maybe."

Washuu, the Greatest Scientific Genius of the Universe, was about ready to pull out every single bright red strand of hair on her head and burn it. She had thought she had worked the kinks out of Universal Translater, but apparently not. It refused to translate some phrases correctly and others just got so out of whack it made absolutely no sense to her. She gritted her teeth and slammed a fist on the console in frusteration, earning an obnoxiously red 'Error' In reply. "Oh, shut up," she muttered, lowering herself to the ground and started to pace.

It was silly phrases too. 'Oh my God' became 'Great Sun'. 'Shit' became 'Dung'. 'Power' became 'Magic'. The most annoying one was the word she loved best, too. 'Sex' became "Joining'. Now what the heck was joining?! It made sense, in a way, but it was way too romanticized for her liking. Sex is sex is sex, goddamit. Not… joining.

Washuu sighed and brought her fingers to the bridge of her nose, pinching it as the beginnings of a migraine started to inch its way into her head. And the Headache Remover Machine was out of order too... and she really didn't feel like fixing it right now. It would be easier, she thought, to cope with these frusterating errors if the computer would tell her why they were being translated that way. She's not stupid - she's a genius! - but even she couldn't figure out an entire language just by listening to someone speak it. Some phrases had to be different, but why wouldn't her computer explain them?

She sighed and slumped in her chair, gentle pushes of air and adjusting cushions helping to relax her. Sometimes it was hard being a Genius. Too much work.

Washuu was just starting to let her eyes close when the entire laboratory started screaming at her. Her emerald eyes snapped open and she all but jumped out of her chair. "What the-?" she squawked, eyes flickering about the room for the culprit. Someone was -in- here and had somehow accessed her computers... Her eyes widened. She had left the console on before taking a nap. Her voice was barely a croak. "Oh shit."

Her feet slapped against the ground as she scrambled for the console, stumbling more than once, her fingertips barely on the ground and pushing her up again, never losing a step. There was someone there - small, squat, rubbing at a beaked nose thoughtfully - and she shoved him away violently. She rapidly punched a few buttons and brought up the screen, which blared a blindingly red 'ERROR' message at her. Her jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she felt something inside her snap. Whirling about on the balls of her feet, Professor Washuu, the Greatest Scientific Genius of the Universe, grabbed up the halfling blacksmith by his collar and screamed into his face, "Whathehellhaveyoudonetomycomputer?!!"

Two-Edge regarded her mildly, his feet not even leaving the floor; the red-haired scientist wasn't all that much taller than him. "Fixed it," he answered simply.

"Augh!!" Washuu shrieked, flinging him away and turning back to the computer, both hands reaching up to embed themselves in her flash of red hair and tug. "I don't have time for this," she wailed, shaking her head back and forth. Now, it seemed, not only did she have to continue in this tedious work, but she had to start all over and rebuild her computer unit's memory from scratch. She removed her hands from her hair and instead balled them into fists, once more turning to Two-Edge and shaking them at him. "You idiot! You.. you idiot! Look what you did! Just.. just look!!"

Two-Edge's mild expression didn't even waver and, instead of replying, he sidestepped her and approached the console. He reached up, weaving his fingers through the white brush of his beard, then extended the other hand to the keypad. Ignoring Washuu's squawl of protest, he pressed a single, solitary button, then stepped back, glancing at her.

The computer beeped.

The red 'Error' message disappeared.

A scroll of white text over a blue background appeared.

'JOINING/Sex: The act of sexual intercourse is referred to as 'joining' by Species: 103384xbE because the experience is often a highly telepathic activity. Often, the 'elves' may forge a telepathic link with their partner, or partners, and in doing such, 'join' with them. Other reasons of choosing such a term may include…'

Washuu blinked once. Twice. A third time. Then she slowly turned her head to blink twice more at Two-Edge.

Two-Edge only smiled.

Skywise crouched in the brush, his dagger in hand and eyeing his chosen prey. It had been a frighteningly long time since the last time he had run with his wolf-brothers and, though this hunt was a solitary adventure, he had quietly rejected the humans' offer of food and instead gone hunting, rekindling a heritage he had all but forgotten in the journeys through the stars. There were woods surrounding the humans' chosen place of home, but he had caught sight of this ravvit-thing the moment he had walked out into the area filled with rows of dirt that that human cub had referred to as the 'gardens'.

The ravvit-thing had uprooted some sort of vegetable, an orange thing with green leaves sprouting out of the ends, and was happily munching on it and ready to start another, oblivious to the pair of smoky eyes that rested upon it.

The wind brought scents with it, curling about his nostrils, long since faded of their once wolf-keen sensitivity, yet that which he could smell - the fresh touch of trees, a quiet whisper of weed flowers that dotted the gardens, the bland smell of the vegetables themselves - raised his hackles and sang to his purified blood of a song, of a heritage, of a Way of life that he had given up. The stars sing to you, my brother.. and the forests sing to me. Weren't those your words, Tam? Skywise closed his eyes for a moment, his breath held as his throat choked. I know the path I've chosen, soul-brother, but sometimes.. I wonder..

He opened his eyes, their smoky irises noticeably darkened, and blinked when he found the spot where the ravvit-thing empty. Oh, puckernuts, he growled at himself, then reached forward to push away some of the branches barring his view and startled when he found that the ravvit-thing was still there, only closer and off to the side, out of his immediate line of sight. Letting the brush fall back into place, he ducked out of view, biting his lower lip as his grip on his blade became tighter. Stupid-stupid-stupid, he chided himself, then dared to peek again. Still there.

The ravvit-thing had started at the very end of the row and had already gone through one of the strange orange-coloered vegetables. It was slowly making its way down the row and, if it continued to follow that route, would bring it straight past the stargazer.

Skywise's eyes narrowed and a grin slipped across his face. He had an idea...

"They're called the Spice Girls," Ryoko explained patiently, holding out the C.D. cover to the auburn-haired Leetah, her eyebrows slightly arched. "They're a music group.. uum, English, I think. They're supposed to be really popular with teenage girls and stuff, but.." She paused and lifted it up, squinting at the scantily-clad stars of current pop music. "...I found it in Tenchi's room and -he's- definitely not a girl," she noted with a grin, "...so maybe they're wrong."

"Spice.. Girls?" Leetah blinked, looking perplexed as she lifted a slender hand towards the C.D., bringing it back down to blink at it as well. "I... I don't understand.." she said after a moment. "How can they be spice -and- girls... and what does that have to do with music?"

Ryoko shrugged, reaching to take the compact disc from the healer again, opening it. "How can you be a wolf and a rider?" she quipped. "I dunno. I haven't listened to it yet, but since they're supposed to be -really- popular... and Tenchi likes them, looks like.. so they have to be fairly decent." She paused, then winked a golden eye at Leetah, popping the C.D. into the C.D. player. "Let's find out, shall we?"

Leetah bobbed her head once, squinting at the strange black box with lights on it that the cyan-haired human had slipped the rainbow-hued disc into. Now how in the world was -this- thing supposed to make music? It didn't look anything like the pipes or harps that she knew made music.. and it didn't -smell- like spice..

Ryoko tapped a few buttons, then leaned back on her heels, arms folding over her chest as she waited. There was a few moments of silence, then a blaring voice shouted out of the speakers, another responding in turn:

Leetah's eyes bugged out and she stumbled away, hands clapping over her pointed ears, a pained expression on her face. "That's not music!" she protested shrilly, looking startled by the very noise itself.

"I think you're right!" Ryoko shot back, her expression echoing Leetah's, a hand lifted to her face as if to shield herself from the very rhythms themselves.

The C.D. player exploded in a shower of sparks, Ryoko's eyes wide and round as she slowly withdrew her hand after firing a handful of pure electrical energy at it. She panted, looking strained as if recovering from a fierce battle, and let her fingers curl into a loose fist, glancing at Leetah, who returned her glance with a weak smile. "Well," the cyan-tressed Space Pirate commented dryly. "That was satisfying."

Leetah let out something akin to a soft giggle, then a moment of puzzlement crossed her face. "What did they 'really really' want, anyway?" she asked innocently, her eyebrows drawing together.

Ryoko blinked, then adopted a feral grin, reaching to brush back the hair from her face. "Well, its quite simple, actually.." She started, then trailed off, the grin fading from her face, color draining slightly leaving her a strange pale.

Leetah blinked, squinting at Ryoko curiously. "What? What is it?"

Ryoko stared blankly into space for a moment, then her expression twisted, a scowl gripping her face as her golden eyes narrowed and flashed pure yellow. Her fingers curled into fists at her side and sparks of electricity flew off. As Leetah took a step back, the Space Pirate all but glowed with energy until she suddenly shot up into the air, blasting through the ceiling, and then through the roof, giving no notice to the wood that splintered and gave way to her.

"RYO-OHKIIIIIIIII!!!!!"

---------

So. You've finally come.

H-Hai. I.. I've come.

A deal you wish to make.

H-Hai.

Concerning the deal I've made with another.. with Kain.

She flinched. Hai.

State the deal you wish to make.

Please.. my son.. in the battle that is to come.. I don't want him to die. Please.. don't let him die.

All things must die. You only prolong the inevitable.

I-I know.. but.. please..

What will you give in return?

In return? I.. I..

I will make an offer. You will hover here for fifteen more of your years, in this Realm of Darkness, before moving on to the Realm of Choice.

Here? In this dark.. alone.. Oh..

Those are the terms. State your acceptance or denial.

She hovered there, torn. Beyond death, she loved her son more than he could ever know. She worried her lower lip, feeling something inside her tear. She had already dwelled here for a handful of years, in this dark and quiet. She would have long since gone mad had she not been dead. To stay here for fifteen more years.. but her son..

She swallowed. I.. I accept.

Then it is done.

And everything went white.