Blood Red Moon: Epilogue

     This is a crossover fanfic including the characters from Tenchi Muyo, and
CastleVania, more specifically, the newest version out for the N64.  All
characters belong to their respective copyrights, and I take no credit for
them beyond their usage in this story.  Comments, quips, insults, flames, and
death threats can be sent to Platinum_Dragon@usinternet.com
     This is based on the OVA characters in the Tenchiverse - but don't be
surprised if you hear one or two TV references.  The original concept came
when I noticed that Carrie Fernandez sort of resembles Ryoko in powers and
looks, save that Carrie is only twelve.
     In the last chapter, Dracula took control of Ryoko, and forced her to
battle Tenchi, while he battled Reinhart and Carrie.  Ryoko, with an all out
attack, managed to first knock Tenchi-ken out of Tenchi's hands, and then
knock Tenchi off the roof.
     Seeing Tenchi thrown off, Carrie lost her faith in herself, and was
turned to stone.  Left standing alone, Reinhart actually managed to do a
little harm to Dracula, but in the end he too succumbed to the vampire.  Just
as it seemed the world was done for, though, Tenchi reappeared, with his Light
Hawk Wings, which had healed him of his vampirism.  After a short battle,
Tenchi was able to destroy the circlet that was controlling Ryoko.  She
collapsed, screaming, but Tenchi was able to reach her by revealing that he
did indeed love her.
     Afterwards, Tenchi stood, and faced Dracula.  The ancient vampire
produced a sword and shield that was an exact equal to Tenchi's Light Hawk
weapons.  The two battled, through the night.  When the sun rose, and struck
Dracula in the eyes, Tenchi was able to strike home with his blade.  The Light
Hawk Sword blazed with power, and the Lord of Chaos was killed.  With his
final words, Dracula thanked Tenchi for freeing him from his eternal torment.
     Castlevania began to collapse.  Tenchi sent Ryoko down with Carrie and
Ryo-Ohki, while he and Reinhart went after Rosa.  Setting down Carrie, Ryoko
turned and watched as the castle sank into the sea.  As she started to become
worried, the clock tower suddenly exploded.  Believing him dead, Ryoko fell
into a deep depression.  She was rescued from it once again by Tenchi, who had
carried Reinhart and Rosa back.
     Afterwards, they were proclaimed heroes.  For three years, they lived in
Transylvania with Reinhart and Rosa. Then, one night, Washu finally found
them, and they returned to their home.

*****

     Just over three years past their disappearance, Tenchi, Ryoko, and
Ryo-Ohki were all back.  It had been a long three years for Ayeka.  At first,
she had thought about just leaving - Thanks to Washu's machine, Ryou-oh was
fully regrown now.  But excuses kept coming up.  Mayuka had to be taken to the
hospital when she got sick, Sasami decided that she wanted to try out one of
Earth's schools.  And so, she had found herself staying, waiting for Tenchi to
return.  Just when she... just when everybody, in fact, had finally just about
given up hope that Washu would ever find them, the pink haired scientist had
burst into the living room, shouting that that she had found them, and would
need their help.
     Washu hadn't needed to drag everybody into her lab, as the whole family
stampeded in, save Nobuyuki, who ran to get her brother.  Washu had led them
to the central room, where she had moved the teleporter after it had
transported Tenchi, Ryoko, and Ryo-Ohki away.  As Ayeka had looked at the
strange family, she realized just how much they had all changed in the past
three years.  Mihoshi had been promoted, and seemed to be losing a little of
her ditziness.  Sasami, hurt by Tenchi's disappearance, had pulled in on
herself somewhat, her ready laugh and smile not seen as often.  Nobuyuki and
Katsuhito had both aged considerably, and Nobuyuki would sometimes wander the
house, calling for Tenchi.  Washu had rarely been seen outside of her lab, but
the scientist had grown haggard, lost some of her eccentricness.
     As Washu told them what she thought would happen, and what she needed
them to do, Ayeka wondered if things could be the same as they had been
before.  Or had they all changed too much for anything to be the same?
     "I'm going to activate the portal now!  I don't know how long I can keep
it open, and it may be our only chance!  Remember, they'll be able to see us,
but not hear us, so you have to get them to understand that they need to
hurry.  I'll keep it open as long as I can."  The scientist leaned over a
panel, and the four machines had groaned to life, firing a blue-green plasma
beam toward the center of the platform.
     "I'm attempting to use Tenchi-ken as a focusing point, which is how I
found them in the first place," explained Washu.  The four beams were focused
on one point, and slowly, a line appeared, which widened and seemed to turn.
With a startling suddenness, it snapped into a tall rectangle, roughly big
enough for three people to walk through.  It opened into a room that looked to
come from another time.  It was night, and a bed that looked like it couldn't
have been made for a hundred or more years dominated it.  Ayeka's heart leapt,
as she saw Tenchi, his face older, and it seemed lined with knowledge of
things that he didn't want, but it was Tenchi.  Behind him stood Ryoko,
pulling on a robe.  As much as she hated to admit it, she was glad to see the
demoness too.  Behind them stood two people, a tall man, and a young girl.
     "I can't keep it open much longer!" cried Washu.  As she and the other
girls waved Tenchi and Ryoko toward them, he turned to the pair.  It seemed
that they exchanged some words, and the man and girl raised their hands in a
farewell.  Tenchi gestured to Ryoko, and she picked up Ryo-Ohki from the bed,
diving through the portal.  Tenchi took one last look behind him at the pair,
and reached out to grab something from behind the portal, then leapt through
with Tenchi-ken.  As he touched down on the platform, the portal snapped shut,
and he looked at the back of his shirt, which had been sliced off.
     "Lord Tenchi!" she had called, and that signaled the onrush, as she and
everybody else rushed at him.  But she noticed, as she reached him, that he
looked to Ryoko for a moment, and smiled faintly.  She had looked at the
demoness, and wondered for a moment when she saw that Ryoko seemed to have
gained some weight, her belly swelling out somewhat.
     That had been the night before, and now Ayeka stalked across the house,
looking for Ryoko.  She didn't know how she could have missed it, the swell to
Ryoko's belly.  How could that... monster woman just go and take Tenchi like
that?  But the demoness was nowhere to be found.  Instead, who she found was
Tenchi.  Automatically, she turned her anger towards him.  How could he simply
let her force him into... into... THAT!
     Wheeling on him, she went to slap him in the face.
     And was quite surprised when he gently, but firmly caught her wrist,
without really looking at her hand coming toward him.  There was a strange
expression in his eyes, an almost sadness that she had seen the night before
when she had noticed that his face seemed lined.
     "We need to talk, Ayeka.  Ryoko is up stairs, and not feeling well."  She
stared at him, in surprise.  Where had the Tenchi she remembered gone?  The
gentleness that she remembered was still there, but now it was tempered, with
a strength.  For the first time, she wondered if Ryoko hadn't forced herself
on Tenchi.  She allowed herself to be led though, out of the house.  He walked
with her out to Yosho's tree, and asked her to sit down, and then sat quietly,
a far off look in his eyes.  She studied him, the rage that had been roiling
in her belly now gone, replaced by curiosity.  He did seem older, older the
simple three years that they had been gone.  There was a... weariness in his
eyes, a tightness around them that had never been there before.
     "What is it, Lord Tenchi?  You haven't seemed yourself since you've come
back," she asked finally, breaking the uneasy quiet.  Tenchi looked at her,
that almost sadness still in his eyes, and she was almost certain what his
words were going to be.
     "I'm sure that you've noticed it by now.  That's probably why you were
looking for her this morning.  Yes, Ayeka, she is pregnant, and yes, it is my
child.  And I want you to stop fighting with her.  She's paid her debt," he
said.  Tenchi looked away, and said quietly, "paid it in more pain than
anybody deserves."  He paused, and Ayeka tried to digest what he had just
said.  She realized that he was serious.
     "Tenchi... what do you mean, by that?"  He looked at her, and slowly, he
began to tell her what had happened when they arrived in their new world.  He
told her what Ryoko had told him, curled into a fetal ball and  sobbing with
the memory of it while he tried to comfort her, and told her about his own
transformation into a vampire.  She shuddered when he told her about the Rage,
and slowly began to understand the almost sadness in his eyes.  He told her
about Ryoko first reappearing, and when Dracula had taken control of her.
Ayeka felt her heart go out to her old enemy.  She knew, as did everyone else,
how much the thought of being controlled again had terrified her.
     Tenchi told her about the splitting of the circlet, and Ryoko falling to
the ground, screaming in terror.  And she finally understood, then, that
Tenchi had truly made his choice, on his own terms.  And it hadn't been all of
her quiet love that she had always tried to show him, nor had it been Ryoko
clinging onto him, flooding him with what she didn't understand.  It had been
Tenchi, doing as he always did, following what his heart told him to do, the
very thing that she had fallen in love with him for.
     And then Ayeka did the hardest thing in her life.  She let him go, and
let go of her hatred for Ryoko.  Tenchi was right.  She had been through
enough pain, and Ayeka would not let herself be the one to torture the woman
anymore.

*****

     Three months later, Nobuyuki had built another addition to the house,
more alive than anybody had seen him since Achika had died.  Mihoshi crashed
her ship into the lake yet again in her rush to make it in time.  The whole
family was piled into Nobuyuki's van, and Ryoko was rushed to the hospital,
Washu running along on one side of her wheelchair, and Tenchi keeping pace,
his hand entwined with hers, on the other.  Ayeka pushed the chair, making a
show of grumbling about having to push 'that monster woman', but they all knew
her heart wasn't in it, for in the past months, she and Ryoko had put aside
their differences for good.  Sasami bounded along in front of her, holding a
little sewn bear with Ryo-Ohki hidden inside, laughing and smiling in
anticipation.  Mayuka was led by Nobuyuki and Mihoshi, giggling, while
Katsuhito brought up the rear, looking as if he didn't know what had hit him.
     Ayeka wheeled Ryoko into the emergency room, and a human doctor came up,
asking them why she didn't seem to have any records.  Tenchi covered by saying
that they hadn't yet been transferred from her birth-place, which was true
enough - Washu still hadn't finished doctoring histories for all of the girls.
The doctor shrugged, and took Ryoko's wheel chair from her, pushing her into
the maternity ward, Tenchi following close behind, and the rest of the pack
just on his heels.  Hospital residents watched as the strange procession went
by.
     The doctor led them to the room, and Tenchi and Ryoko alone went in while
the rest of the family waited outside, watching through the window.  Ryoko
shouted in pain, and at least a dozen orderlies had to come in just to hold
her down.  Tenchi tried to sooth her, but was shouted at for his trouble.
Tenchi began to worry, when, after one particularly strong contraction, he saw
all too familiar sparks begin to appear around her hands.
     When the paper the next morning held the headline, 'Half of Hospital
Destroyed by Mysterious Gas Explosion,' everybody just thanked the gods that
nobody had been hurt or killed in the blast.
     And in the Masaki household, a pair of twins, one boy, and one girl. One
of the twins already had a little bit of cyan colored hair that seemed to
refuse to be combed out of spikes and would occasionally shoot little tiny
fireballs at whoever was holding her, the other with a little bit of black
hair, and had a tendency to float out of his crib, had joined the family.
Little Mayuka would play with them all day.  Everybody agreed that Ryoko made
a surprisingly good mother, but then, how could anybody go wrong in a house
full of women?
     And the names carved into the cribs?
     Reinhart, and Carrie.

*****

     Ok!  For those of you that stuck with me this long, I want to thank you.
I'd also like to thank Sivus, from the #fanfics channel on Dalnet IRC, for
prereading this, and giving tons and tons of pointers.  Second, I'd like to
thank Konami, for putting out a game that I could use as a good premise for
what most of the test group readers thought was a good fic.
     I hope that this didn't drag on too long for you guys, and I hope that
the ending wasn't too horribly sappy.  Given a few more weeks, I will be
reposting it in its final, C&C advice taken, revised format.  Thanks for
reading.

---
The Platinum Dragon
"The rising sun will eventually set,
  a newborn's life will fade.
  From sun to moon, moon to sun,
  Give peaceful rest to the living dead." - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
http://dragonsanime.dreamhost.com - Dragon's Masaki Shrine of Tenchi Muyo
Proud Member of the Ryoko Forever Fan Club