Disclaimer: Tenchi Muyo! and all non-original characters herein are property of AIC and Pioneer LDC, Inc. I only use these characters out of respect to the series I enjoy so much. Note: I DO own Khalima! Since she is me...or I am she...or...GAH! Anyhoo! If you dare steal her, I'll track you down and do...things ..to you...Really bad things...like...OK I haven't figured out what yet, but when I do...Ummm...Just don't use my name OK? ^_- FYI: This is a Self-Insertion fic, so instead of the small bit of myself I add to my writing I'm putting in the whole kit-n-caboodle. You have been warned. Special thanks to my proofreader Zervon (He would have been a pre- reader if he hadn't taken so long getting back to me!). Thanks for pushing me to make the fixes and stick to my guns. ::HUGGLES:: Tenchi Muyo Old Wounds v2.0 By Arca Jeth Part I: P.O.V. Travelling through the stark blackness of space, the small, midnight blue ship "Usuba," sliced its way through the void. While the ship carried no weapons save a small plasma gun, its real defense lie in its upgraded early-warning sensors, jamming equipment, and the sharp mind of the woman at the helm. With long braided hair, large dark-brown eyes, and smooth mahogany skin, Khalima was a striking woman. The way she dressed punctuated the point: A tight-fitting black jumpsuit that showed off her long legs and firm stomach with a plunging neckline that gave a tantaliz- ing glimpse of her full breasts. While others she knew found rippling muscles, or gargantuan breasts appealing, Khalima preferred her trim, dancer's figure. In her line of work it paid to be either inconspicuous or stunning when it suited her. "Goddess!" She exclaimed. "This is taking forever." Taking a moment, she looked over her computer displays for the fifth time in 30 minutes only to see that she was indeed on the correct course for the Sol system. Sighing her impatience, Khalima picked up a hand mirror and checked her appearance, finding that minor imperfections had inexplicably transformed to hideous disfigurements in seconds. She closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again...and let her breath out in relief as she saw that her face had returned to normal. Same coffee colored skin with little makeup or jewelry to speak of; save one red earring she wore in her right ear. Khalima gently touched the red orb, and closed her eyes for a moment. Her mind wandered back to happier times, before her life had taken such a drastic change. A past where she and her beloved walked hand-in-hand along a distant beach. A time when she felt the subtle thrill of her beloved's touch. She thought back to a time when she last felt the quiet power of her beloved's kiss. Her common sense intruded on her dreams of happiness with cold reality. *What if things have changed? What if the love I seek is not there?* She shook her head sharply as if to rid herself of the errant thought. *The love has to be there. It's all I have.* Khalima increased the ship's speed a bit as she absently straightened her clothing once again. She couldn't just be presentable for this meeting; she had to be perfect. "It won't be long for us my Love," she said quietly. "Not long at all...my Beloved Kiyone." --------------------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile on Earth --------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ok, get ready!" Nobuyuki called to the assembled group. As he set the auto-timer on his camera the members of the Masaki household jostled one another for position. Actually it was Aeka and Ryoko who did most of the jostling, and that was to get closer to the long-suffering Tenchi Masaki. Young Sasami stood next to the resident mad scientist, Washu while the cabbit, Ryo-Ohki sat upon her head. The shrine-keeper, Katsuhito stood just to the right of Tenchi and the arguing girls, looking his placid self as he tried to ignore the ensuing fight. Kiyone meanwhile stood to the left with Mihoshi trying to look inconspicuous. She couldn't help but smile at the scene. Ryoko and Aeka both had hold of Tenchi's arms and were pulling him back and forth between them. "When will they ever learn?" she chuckled to herself. "They don't have any clue at all, do they?" Kiyone caught a slight movement from the corner of her eye. She turned to her left to see Mihoshi looking the other way. *She was staring at me again.* In recent days Kiyone had begun to notice that her partner would stare at her sometimes. While she said anything about it, Kiyone was beginning to feel un- comfortable with the attention. She couldn't put her finger on it but there was something about the intensity of that gaze.... Kiyone shook her head. It was probably nothing, she thought to herself Just another one of Mihoshi's games or something. Besides, even if she asked her what it was all about, the blonde would just give one of her patented excuses that made slightly better sense than her explana- tions. *I probably don't want to know.* "All right, settle down now," Nobuyuki said, taking his place next to his father-in-law. "I want to have at least one good family picture." Reluctantly, Aeka and Ryoko abandoned their argument, and put on their most charming smiles. Everyone else waited and in 30 seconds the camera snapped the photograph. "Ah! Now that's a keeper!" Nobuyuki exclaimed happily as he looked at the LCD screen of his digital camera. "No bunny ears, funny faces or energy swords pointed at anyone." "Well we've got to be getting home," Kiyone announced. "Oh won't you stay for lunch?" Sasami asked. "We'd love to have you." "I wouldn't want to impose..." Kiyone began trying to ignore the hope- ful glances Mihoshi gave her. "It's all right," Sasami replied. "I always cook too much anyway." "Then we'd be glad to," Mihoshi interjected before Kiyone could get a word in. "Come on," Sasami said happily. "You can help me set some extra places." Kiyone followed along in defeat. *Kiyone's dignity 0...Mihoshi's stomach 100,000* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sol System ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Khalima sighed with relief as her ship rounded the last of the asteroids. She could have come in-system through hyperspace but she dared not compromise her ship's stealth capabilities. This slow approach was hard enough without her having to show her credentials to a surveillance drone, ruining the surprise. The real surprise was how much she missed Kiyone. Khalima sometimes awoke late at night, with her beloved's scent still lingering on her pillow. Sometimes, she'd be in the shower and feel the softness of Kiyone's arms around her. Khalima hugged her self briefly, letting her mind go back to remembered embraces. How had it all gone so wrong? *How did I allow myself to lose her?* But now she had a chance, a real chance to do things differently, to make things right. With a look of determination, Khalima returned to her work and piloted the ship around the red planet toward Earth. A screen came up on her status board showing the GP patrol ship Yagami's status. "Good," the dark-skinned woman said to herself. "The reports were correct, patrol time has already passed." The right whispers in the right ears had given her Kiyone's official patrol times, and information on the company she kept. While some of her exploits were hard to believe they made for interesting reading. Khalima smiled to herself as she thought about the bashful girl she roomed with their freshman year and the confident, self-reliant detec- tive Kiyone had become. Khalima sighed in relief as the Yagami's sensors failed to detect her ship. Now came the most difficult part. As her ship neared the space surrounding Earth, Khalima began shutting down all systems excluding life-support. Since one of Kiyone's new friends was the infamous self- proclaimed "Greatest Scientific Genius in the Universe(tm)" Professor Washu, it was virtually impossible to land on the planet without her knowledge. Yet instead of breaching her security, Khalima planned to subvert it. By appearing as a random tiny, asteroid or another bit of flotsam, to burn up in Earth's atmosphere, Khalima hoped Washu's equip- ment would ignore her entry. Checking her trajectory one final time, Khalima sent her ship in a ballistic path that would put her in a deteriorating orbit around Earth. Within an hour, she just entered the atmosphere, appearing as a brilliant point of light in the sky. In the distortion of entry, Khalima threw power back into her thrusters and pulled out of the tumble. For a moment, all was quiet on the "Usuba." Seeing no warning indicators, Khalima smiled to herself. *Yes! I've not been detected.* The young woman checked her schedule once more. "According to this," she remarked to herself. "Kiyone won't be at home, but here. 'The Masaki Shrine.'" With that, the "Usuba" powered down and began it's descent. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The Masaki Household [Lunch Time] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "What a wonderful meal Sasami," "May I have some more fish?" "Ryoko! Those are my noodles!" "I don't see your name on them, Princess!" "Can't you two lay off?" "So, how was work this week?" "Please, no talk of work Father. This is my first weekend off in months!" Kiyone sat quietly, taking in the chaos passed for a normal lunch in the Masaki home. Yet, despite the tumult, Kiyone found it almost comforting. *Everyone here seems to truly care about one another.* Kiyone looked to her left to see that the two hotheads had settled down a bit. Even Aeka and Ryoko with their endless bickering held no more real malice. This place and these people were becoming a real family. So, it had surprised Kiyone when Nobuyuki invited Mihoshi and her to join in the family photo. "It's not like I have any real stake in this," Kiyone thought to her- self. "I'm not one of the multitude trying to marry Tenchi or anything." Besides that, Kiyone thought, Mihoshi might have a small crush on him. It always amazed her how a seemingly simple day could become so compli- cated when she visited. However Kiyone felt a strange sense of belonging here. Her instructors at the GP academy had warned against getting too close to her assignments. "I guess this is what they meant by that," she thought to herself. "As much trouble as they are, I can't imagine life without them." Kiyone sighed a bit as she looked inward. Loneliness had been a part of her life for so long that she had trouble identifying the warm feeling she got being with them all. Contentment. Perhaps it was even happiness. *No, not that. I can't truly be happy anymore...* "Hey Kiyone," Mihoshi said intruding upon her reverie. "W-What?" Kiyone startled out of her thoughts. "Are you okay? You were just staring off into space." Several of the party had stopped to look at the exchange. "I was just thinking about something," Kiyone covered. "Must be something deep," Ryoko commented. "Which is more than what you are capable of," Aeka baited. Kiyone inwardly sighed with relief as the two girls launched into another bout of name-calling. Yet, in the back of her mind she wondered; was it really so impossible for her to be happy once more? _______________________________________________________________________ In the forest surrounding the Masaki Shrine _______________________________________________________________________ With more of a whisper than the characteristic roar of engines, "Usuba" set down in a small clearing. Khalima smiled as she congratulated her- self for upgrading the sound suppression systems on the midnight-blue shuttle. After disengaging her restraints, the pilot alighted from her ship with just one more glimpse into her hand mirror. *I must be perfect...But will it be enough?* When she had begun planning to visit Kiyone, she planned to be calm and cool, not showing the least bit of nervousness. Yet now that she was on Earth, with her desperately-missed Beloved only a few hundred meters away; Khalima felt all those plans drift into nothingness. "If this doesn't work," she said to herself. "If it doesn't work I shall have to try something else. I can't lose her again." "Well, you'd better get a move on," A tiny voice piped in. Khalima spun around; her left hand automatically reaching for the small vibro-blade she kept hidden in her clothing. She came up short when she saw...a toy. A doll, about 6 inches tall stood at the edge of the clearing waving at her. A doll with a familiar mop of spiky, red hair. "Great," Khalima murmured. "You were very naughty, trying to sneak in here," the doll scolded. "I apologize," Khalima huffed. "I wasn't trying to get past Washu..." The doll stared at her for a moment. "...Little Washu," Khalima corrected herself. "I just wanted to sur- prise a friend of mine here. So please don't tell anyone that I have arrived." "Hmmm..." the doll didn't sound convinced. "And," the dark-haired woman continued. *I'm going to hate myself for this* "I couldn't possibly hope to compete with the most knowledgeable, intelligent and cutest scientific genius in the universe!" Khalima put as much earnestness into her voice as she could muster without gagging. "Well," the doll hesitated. "You seem enthusiastic enough... But I was just going to ask if you wanted your parking validated!" When Khalima recovered from a catastrophic face-fault, she was once again reminded of a report that questioned Washu's sanity. *I'm beginning to see where those reports originated* she thought to herself. "Just show me to the house please," she said aloud. "Right this way," the doll called cheerfully, and began running at a speed that belied its diminutive size. Khalima kept up as best as she could, while her mind continued going over what she would say when she was finally face-to-face with the only woman she could ever truthfully call "Beloved." Meanwhile, at the house, Kiyone sat on one of the couches in the family room, feigning interest in the program they were all watching. In actuality, her mind was worlds away. She was re-living a time when her heart had been more than merely content. She'd been in love. Kiyone remembered her first assignment as an armed officer at the Galaxy Police Academy; the graveyard shift at the records dump. At the time she felt it demeaning, pointless work, not taking advantage of her investigative skills. Yet it was just another stepping stone to the top for her. And besides, she had a wonderful reason to come home every night. With their conflicting schedules, it was hard for Kiyone to see her love. Mostly she would lie down next to the sleeping form: A touch, a caress, a light moan of recognition. Yet that was all it took to make her life complete. *But how it ended was...* The detective quickly brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a sob, hoping the others would think it a simple cough. However, she wasn't so lucky. "Are you Okay, Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked, her eyes brimming with concern. "It's nothing!" Kiyone said more harshly than she intended. Mihoshi blinked but didn't retreat. "You're crying..." She observed. Others were beginning to take slight interest in the exchange, so Kiyone quickly grabbed her partner's hand and ushered her into the hallway. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it. *How do I explain this?* "What is it Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked. "You can tell me, I'm your partner." "It's none of your concern," Kiyone said defensively. "It is my concern. We're supposed to be friends!" "Keep your voice down," Kiyone admonished. "Look Mihoshi, I'm not up to this right now." "But I am," Mihoshi persisted. "We've been together for three years and it's always the same this time of year. You always get so gloomy." "I do not," Kiyone protested. *Has it really been showing that much?* "You do, and it hurts me to see you like that," Mihoshi said obviously struggling to get the words out. "You're so private about it. And...I.. I wish I could do something for you." Kiyone mentally berated herself for not taking her partner's feelings into account. Mihoshi had always been able to pick up on her moods. Kiyone realized for the first time what kind of emotional toll it was taking on her. "I'm sorry Mihoshi," she said aloud. "I should have known I couldn't hide anything from you." "What happened?" "It was a long time ago, back to the Academy," Kiyone began. "I guess you could say I fell in love." "Oh Kiyone," Mihoshi whispered. "We were pretty happy at first," Kiyone continued. "Junior year, we got a place off-campus. I wanted so much for us to be together forever. But ...things just didn't work out..." Kiyone looked away, trying to hide the hot tears from view. "You don't have to say anything else," Mihoshi said at last. "You were hurt weren't you?" Kiyone only nodded. "I'm sorry I tried to drag it out-" "It's okay," Kiyone said shortly. "Really. I think I'm glad I could finally talk to someone about it." She closed her eyes for a moment and found that it was true. Somehow getting the ordeal (or at least some of it) into the open made Kiyone's heart just a bit lighter. *I wish I could tell you everything Mihoshi.* She thought. *But I can't trust anyone with that much of myself...never again.* Mihoshi stared at Kiyone for a moment, wondering. *She's holding something back.* The blonde detective sometimes said she knew Kiyone better than she knew herself. So she also knew when her partner was telling lies or half-truths. "Why don't you trust me?" Mihoshi wanted to demand, but didn't. Though it wounded her heart she wouldn't try to take the answer from Kiyone. It would have to come of her free will. The doorbell rang loudly into the awkward silence. "Oh, um..." Mihoshi began. "I'd better-" "Yeah," Kiyone said, turning away. "I'm gonna go freshen up." With that likely excuse, Kiyone hurried down the hall toward the rest- room. Once inside, she filled the basin with cold water and washed her face. As she stared into the mirror, she saw the true sadness etched into her face. The weariness. *I can't do this anymore. I've held my feelings inside so much that they've started to eat away at me. If I don't do something there won't be anything left...* As she dried her face with a towel, Kiyone remembered that there was another part to the equation; her partner Mihoshi. Ever troublesome, easily distracted from work, coming up with the most silly of ideas; and the truest friend she had ever known. Sometimes when she was feeling dejected about her low rank, or the sheer tedium of some of her odd jobs, there Mihoshi was; coming up with some off-the-wall suggestion for fun or adventure. Kiyone realized that Mihoshi always timed these little excursions when she was feeling her lowest. *All this time and I had no idea she was trying so hard with me.* "Forgive me Mihoshi," Kiyone said softly. "I've been so horrible not to trust you." Then and there, Kiyone decided to tell Mihoshi the truth. The *whole* truth. Her resolve set, Kiyone emerged from the bathroom with a determined air. Rounding the corner she saw that the mysterious caller had yet to come inside. Mihoshi was standing off to the side, a curious expression on her face. "Who was at the door?" Kiyone asked. "See for yourself," Mihoshi said, a cryptic smile touching her lips. "She said it was a surprise." *She?* "It better not be that self-serving bitch Mistuki again," Kiyone thought to herself remembering her old classmate's previous visit. Putting on her best false welcoming smile, the teal-haired detective slid the door open... And looked into a set of light brown eyes that flowed from the depths of her past. A million memories flitted through her mind. Memories of the vibrant young woman who had shown her around her first day at the Academy. Of the friend who conspired with her to get revenge on some particular- ly cruel upper-classmen. Kiyone remembered laughing too loudly at a lame joke to drown out the thrumming in her heart when she was near. She recalled the electric feel of soft skin against her own. The nights when their passion was sated (for the moment) and they would lay together and talk of that future which seemed so bright. All of these things and more passed through Kiyone's mind at twice the speed of light. Including the way it had all ended... Kiyone's false smile evaporated and was replaced by a look of combined shock, deep sadness, and seething white-hot anger. "Khalima." The name of her former lover rolled off her lips as easily as cool waters. How many times had she cried that name out in the throes of passion? The mahogany-skinned woman's lips turned up in a lovely smile. "Beloved." "Never call me that again..." And Kiyone slowly, deliberately, closed the door. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- END PART I ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I've decided (after a lot of argument and blushing) to add the lemon content. I just hope I can finish this story without dying of embarrassment. Thanks for reading, Arca Jeth