Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction / Hand Maid May Fan Fiction / Gatekeepers Fan Fiction ❯ Retake ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Retake
Chapter 4:

Disclaimer: arrgghhh. i still hadn't attempted to write this. i just keep making a few notes and... oh yeah. Characters by other people. Well, mostly.

---------

She stepped into the basement, putting an elaborate earring into her pocket and looking around.

"Who are you to come trespassing into this lab? No, don't answer. It doesn't matter for this will be your grave."

The woman scowled and glanced at the guy in the labcoat. "Geramatou. Don't even bother with the cheesy dialogue. If you knew who you were dealing with, you *and* your Pharoah 90 would be running like pigs at a barbeque."

The Professor stopped dead still. The claim was obviously ridiculous, yet knowing his identity and that of his Master was fairly impressive in itself.

"This is the transmitter, I take it," the woman said, flipping her long hair back with a casual toss of her head. She immediately walked into the center of it. "Clumsy work."

"It's state-of-the-art, beyond anything mere mortal minds can conceive!" The Professor began an evil chuckle.

"Yeah. Right. Depends on the mortals in question, doesn't it? Though I'm not mortal by your definition in any case." The woman looked up, as if sighting through the layers of concrete and metal to something beyond it all. "There he is. It is. Inhuman demon-gods having an indeterminate gender after all."

"What are you..."

The woman held up both her hands and pointed up. Concrete vaporized. Metal vanished. The Eggs Of Daimon, with a year to go before they'd be ready, flared as smoke began pouring from them.

The Professor watched as long as he could as the metal and ceramic of the transmitter boiled away and a pencil thin beam of brilliance stabbed up and away from the woman.

"That's it," said the woman, dusting her hands off. "Poor boy wouldn't have had a chance against Pharoah 90. Of course, he'd have been immune to the beastie's attacks, but living in what would have been left would *not* have been any fun at all."

"You... killed..." The Professor dropped to his knees. He could feel it. Pharoah 90 wasn't there anymore. Either dead or wounded so badly that all connections to the alien intelligence had been cut.

"Oh, let me take care of that while I'm here," said the woman as she walked up to the Professor, and snatched an egg-like object from his head. Then dropped it and crushed it casually under her sandal.

"Uhmm... What..."

"Remember, Soichiro Tomoe, remember what happened when you were the carrier for the daimon Geramatou." The woman tapped her finger against the Professor's forehead.

"I..."

"Sorry, I can't give you time to consider everything. I've just saved you and your daughter's life, since summoning Pharoah 90 would have ended both your lives, and the only way you wouldn't have summoned the Pharoah was to kill both of you before the summoning. The Witches 5 would then have gone into political infighting and never become a threat. I've already removed 'Mistress 9' from Hotaru."

"I..."

The woman smiled. "The cost to you for this service is very simple. Are you familiar with the concept of arranged marriages?"

"I... Hotaru?"

The woman nodded. "Exactly. I've got an arrangement to make with Hotaru. Oh, and I'm going to have to train her as a shrine priestess. It's a good cover for her healing abilities anyway."

"An arranged marriage? Hotaru?" Professor Tomoe shook his head, focussing on the woman in front of him. Tight faded jeans with one knee worn out, a loose t-shirt with some odd anime-looking group shot on it, with what appeared to be a WWII leather bomber jacket over it. Peach colored lipstick and nail polish, but what really stuck out was the three facial tattoos. Two small red circles, one on each cheek, and a large red circle on her forehead.

The woman winked. "By the way, this lab will dissolve into subspace in thirty seconds. I'll be back to give you more details when you've had a chance to catch up."

"But... who are you?"

Another wink and smile, followed by a thumb's up. "A lot of people call me Amaterasu Omikami. *You* can call me Amaterasu. Hotaru, I think, can call me Ama-chan. She didn't screw up like you did. I'm sorry, sparing a life for a few years in return for eternal damnation? Who taught you to negotiate? Genma Saotome?"

"Uhm... I..." Soichiro Tomoe wasn't at all sure what the proper response to this was.

"Oh well, I got to go use the Seal. Wouldn't do to accidently incinerate some city because I got pissed at the way they're portraying me in some story, would it?" Waving a quick bye-bye, Amaterasu walked into a wall and vanished.

"THAT was Amaterasu...?!" Professor Tomoe saw the walls beginning to flicker and raced for the exit. Somehow he couldn't picture THAT Amaterasu hiding herself in a cave because she was being laughed at.

---------

"Acchoooo!" Greylle sniffled. Damn, a chill up his spine and he kept sneezing. He hoped he wasn't having a return to the allergies he'd had in his human first life.

Cramped apartment and one thing other that struck him as deuced unfair.

It was Winter of 1992 in Tokyo and he didn't have a damn TV! All the series he was missing out on!

Oh well, he had enough to keep him busy. But dang it.

:System Power at 25%
:Languages Set: Japanese, English
:Identity Set: Sailor Marionette Mercury
:Secondary Identity Set: Ami Mizuno
:Internal Diagnostic - Basic motility only
:Activating

The marionette moved. "Anata dare?"

"Greylle Shard. Set language to English, will you? I'm tired."

:Set Master = Greylle Shard. Done.

"Sit down. Right now you're at most basic levels. I can upgrade you bit by bit as materials and time becomes available." Greylle sighed. "Like i said. i'm tired. Also i don't have access to nearly the materials i'll need. Which is why your head and hands are the only thing covered by skin, and that skin isn't too convincing. i'll need a nanotank, something i can completely immerse you in that i can program nanites to build artificial tissues with."

Mercury sat back down and regarded her Master carefully.

"Oh, and i don't care for the whole 'Master' thing. So, just consider me a commanding officer for now. i'll sweat the details later."

Mercury blinked, storing that to memory.

"Uhm, anyway, there's some problems. i'll upgrade you with a Maiden Circuit once i can replace the units i have. The grenade launcher and other items, likewise. The kind of stuff i can currently make are too bulky to be internal and still remain useful. No lasers or particle beams."

Mercury blinked again.

"As soon as i can find storage room and solve some of the other problems, i'll build an Usagi model. Can't have the Senshi without having the Princess."

Mercury blinked.

Deciding this was fruitless and it was late, Greylle turned on a radio and handed it to the marionette. "Look, listen to this and use your spam filters. Maybe some of it will help fill in the gaps in your programming. i'm getting some sleep, tomorrow just stay in the apartment while i'm at school."

--------

Nabiki awoke and walked past Kasumi on the way to the bathroom. "Mrrrmmn Ssmmmi."

"Good morning, Nabiki," responded Kasumi, used to translating morning mumble. "Oh, since we didn't get to look too long on Saturday, I was planning to wait until all of you were at school, then investigate Shard-san's apartment in a bit more detail."

Nabiki stopped with her toothbrush in her mouth. "Mrfmmm? Mffff rmrmmff."

Kasumi blinked. She'd gotten so used to Nabiki's morning mumble that she had no trouble deciphering it. The addition of the toothbrush seemed to add an entirely new layer of cipher. "Well, he was fairly nice and polite, but *you've* heard the stories of some of these gaijin."

Nabiki turned slowly from the mirror to regard her sister through sleep-deprived eyes. "Mffmen?! thumn mfffn mrrrfn mefmnn?"

Kasumi considered that. "Well, he seemed like such a *polite* dragon. Besides, according to Mrs Setomi, father apparently engaged me to marry him."

Nabiki began choking on her toothbrush, finally dislodging it a few moments later. "Hah?!"

Kasumi was already walking away, embarrassed by this situation. Shard-san was too young! Still, the odd gadgets she'd seen, and obvious disarray, indicated that he was the sort who needed a woman to take care of him. Such a mess Father was making.

Nabiki stared after her older sister. Deciding that she must still be asleep, Nabiki went back to brushing her teeth after washing the brush out. *Kasumi* being sneaky while she herself was being honest and straightforward? No, that couldn't be the case.

--------

Kasumi let herself in, oddly easy as the lock on the apartment door didn't work too well.

She hadn't gotten a chance to examine things too well the last time, when she and Nabiki had been trying for a quick reconnoiter before getting back and planning to make sure Akane didn't get *too* forward with her new boyfriend.

There was that odd metal sculpture that had been folded up on a shelf, but which was now folded up in a corner. It reminded her of the mannequinns that artists used to get proportion and pose right. Except that this one was metal and plastic and lifesize. It bore a superficial resemblence to Akane, though with shorter hair and higher cheeks and an odd blue tint to the hair. Okay, there really wasn't much resemblence to Akane. It also, other than the hands and head, was mainly metal tubing and electronic components.

Some sort of robot, obviously. No doubt the boy was going to be an engineer and this was some sort of science project.

There was a pocket radio, tuned to an All News channel and playing. How odd. She knew the boy's Japanese wasn't that good.

An odd electric blanket, but considering how chilly the apartment was, its presence wasn't that unlikely.

What *was* odd was how uncomfortable she felt with the sculpture's eyes apparently following her. Which was silly, of course, it merely was a trick of the lighting.

Then there were these odd baseballs. No doubt used in his strange style of martial arts.

Kasumi smiled, remembering her own high school days when she'd been heavily into sports. Then she'd had to drop out and dedicate all her time to keeping the household together after her mother's death, but that was giri (duty).

"The Tendo are a family descended from samurai," Kasumi informed the sculpture, casually tossing the sphere from one hand to the other. "If my father has arranged for me to marry a gaijin like Shard-san, then I suppose I must..." Had the sculpture just blinked? Oh, yes, if it was a robot simple things like that might be possible. No doubt it would be radio controlled. She was mainly talking to it to settle her own mind, so why not act it out? Sort of like talking to a stuffed animal.

"Well, the Tendo-ryuu used to be a naginata style, but since Father trained with Happosai it has become a bare-handed style. Still, we keep the armor and ceremonial blades of the old samurai family. And our family honor, of course. Bushido. Which is broken into the seven virtues: Gi (duty to justice), Yuu (courage in battle), Jin (compassion), Rei (politeness to others), Meyou (truthfulness), Makoto (loyalty to one's lord), and Chuugo (duty to one's word). There is also Giri (family honor) to consider."

Kasumi let out a deep breath. "Though I don't know. A gaijin. Even if he is tall, and seems to be polite. I just don't think I could marry him, though how to Oh, what's this?" She'd just noticed these odd balls had a button in front. Maybe there was something inside? Kasumi decided just a peek wouldn't hurt, and pressed the button and peered in as the ball opened on some hinge inside it.

*SHOOM! WHOOSH!*

Mercury watched the ball rock back and forth, the light blinking repeatedly. It took three minutes, fifteen point two eight seconds, for the ball to stop moving and blinking.

As there was currently no one else in the apartment, Mercury picked the ball up and put it back where the girl had found it. No point in leaving a mess.

-----

"Naruhito?"

The Emperor turned to his wife after that gentle voice spoke. That she was pale and quite nervous started an alarm going. "Masako?"

"There's someone here to see you. I *really* think you should see her."

For his wife, the Princess Masako, to put an emphasis like that on something was alarming in and of itself. Especially after their recent kidnapping. "Very well, if you think so."

The woman who swept into the room was wearing a kimono of gold and red. She didn't look a thing like the old pictures, but he knew her on sight. "Oh my dear kami."

"Hello, great grandson," she said, deliberately omitting a few "greats" in there. "I think we ought to have a little chat."

--------

"Achhoooo!" Greylle looked around. "Uhm, sorry."

Akane spent some time looking over the gaijin sitting next to her, studying him and trying to figure him out.

Okay, he was an inscrutable American. On the surface they were very simple. All the guys were hairy grunting sports fanatics who fixated on power tools, or they were sinister power-brokers, or they were those wimpy ineffectual sorts, or they were clueless but well intentioned youths with a tragic past. Discounting series like "Wingman" where Americans were actually aliens from a shadow dimension plotting to conquer Japan. Which was Greylle Shard?

Yuka and Sayuri winked at each other as they noticed the scrutiny Akane was giving Greylle.

*WHACK!*

Akane rubbed her forehead from where a piece of chalk had impacted it. "Huh?!"

"Miss Tendo, you can stare lovingly at your boyfriend AFTER class."

"Huh?" Greylle said, looking up from where he had been trying to figure out a kanji.

Akane was momentarily in shock, then erupted from her desk. "HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND!"

Yuka and Sayuri started laughing.

"HE'S NOT!! We've only gone out twice!"

"Huh?" Greylle repeated.

Several of the other girls picked up on Yuka and Sayuri's mirth.

"HE'S *NOT* MY GIRLFRIEND! Waitaminute, I mean BOYFRIEND!"

"So," said the teacher, "that means you're going to stop sleeping with him? You won't get him to tie you down to the bed anymore?"

"WHAT?!" Akane was reaching entirely new registers with that comment. "YES! NO! I MEAN... ARGGHHHHH!!"

The teacher tsked a few times. "Miss Tendo, either sit down and pay attention to the lesson, or report for bucket duty."

"B-b-b-b-but I..."

"I not understand. What everyone talk about? What mean 'sokubaku'?!" Greylle puzzled. Yes, Japanese were crazy.

This comment caused Yuka and Sayuri to fall off their chairs but this was hardly noticeable from all the other laughs.

Hikaru Gosunkugi sighed. It was obvious. Akane spent all her time denying she was in love with the foreigner. Therefore she was. Clearly Shard wasn't clear on how to respond, which gave Hikaru a certain voyeuristic quality as he could imagine himself in the foreigner's position quite easily.

Greylle considered all the hilarity around him, how Akane was trying to shrink in on herself, and wondered if he would EVER understand the Japanese.

------

Ranma caught her breath. This was *beyond* ridiculous. "My life is a living hell."

A shadow moved and a male voice responded. "Tell me about it. I bet I can top it."

"Yeah right. My pop the idiot took me to a place with these cursed springs, now I turn into a girl when I'm splashed with cold water. Return back to guyhood with hot water, which doesn't seem to last too damn long. My Pops turned into some bear sorta critter that eats damn near everything it runs across. He throws up the people he swallows eventually, but lemmee tell ya: you do NOT wanna go through the experience. I rescue some gal from being a Happy Meal, knock her out while I'm going, next thing you know she's going off and trying to kill me AND kiss me and she's screaming something in Mandarin I can't follow. And we keep running into my Pops who is STILL trying to eat us. Top THAT." Ranma slumped to the alleyway and cursed her father, not for the first time by a long shot.

"Try this. Me and my friend were advisors to a team of magical girls out to protect the universe. One day, all the magical girls went off and tried to stop this 10,000 year old evil queen who was out to destroy the world. Except that they're 'Missing and presumed dead' now, and we've got noplace to call our home, and no way of telling what's going on! "

Ranma frowned. "Okay, well, 10,000 year old evil queens are about up there with transforming curses from ancient springs. So I'll grant you that to some extent. Still think my row's harder though. At least you don't turn into a girl."

"Nah. It's just *I* can't turn back into a human. I'm stuck as a cat."

Ranma nodded. Then she froze. Then she peered into the shadows nervously. Small. White. Definitely feline in shape. Oh. "C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-CAT?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Artemis tsked. "And you're an ailurophobe? Okay. Maybe you win. Naaaah."

-------

Shampoo screamed at the heavens. She'd been doing that a lot lately.

Outsider girl saved your life = determine if she's good enough to join the tribe. If she is, then you can petition the tribe to adopt her.

Outsider girl defeats you in combat = give Kiss Of Death and death threat, then pursue till ends of Earth. Etcetera.

Two very conflicting rules. Neither of which addressed the concept of someone who knocked you out while saving your life. Lufa had been spit out after a long run, but Lufa was a nasty bitter young woman. Shampoo knew she wouldn't have been so lucky. No, Shampoo owed her life to the redheaded girl. The problem was resolving the two laws.

If she'd stayed still after being told that she'd been given the Kiss Of Death - no problem. The girl could've been then taken to the Elders and made a member of the Tribe because she wouldn't have been a coward.

Shampoo walked past one of these odd high schools. Why couldn't her life be easier, like one of these schoolgirls?

*Bang!*

Take those boys over there playing baseball. When was the last time Shampoo had gotten time to just play like that? What was that boy yelling? It sounded like English, something about looking?

*WHAM!*

Having had a baseball bop off her forehead at high speed, and the world fading to black, Shampoo realized two major things.

One, she was *still* having a very bad day. This particular one had started over a week ago.

Two, if Great-Grandmama found out that some redhaired girl AND a boy playing baseball had defeated her, Shampoo would get her butt chewed out royally and some hellish martial arts practice to correct her "weakness."

Waitaminute. There was something about that last thought.

--------

Greylle walked up to the unconscious girl and groaned. Then he knelt down and began checking her. Pulse felt weaker than he expected, her eyes were rolled up in her head, and there was some nasty bruising forming at the impact site.

"Damn, she's *cute*!" Hiroshi said, not realizing what a good thing it was that *he* hadn't been the one to knock out this bouncy purple-haired girl.

Lifting her up, Greylle started trudging towards the nurse's office.

There had been odd failures of the so-called "Slapstick Effect" earlier, where the violence was only temporary stun damage, and the baseball *had* been going at a fairly good clip.

Well, at least he'd be able to get out of this one. Once it was revealed that Ranma was really a boy, he'd have defeated her prior to this, and Shampoo would have to drop him and pursue Ranma.

Or, wait a minute. This wasn't a fight or anything like that. He could petition the Elders... on second thought that might be a BAD idea.

--------

Nabiki had come home to an empty house, save for her Father. Kasumi had not been heard from since this morning.

Worrisome.

Nabiki was the only one to know where Kasumi had been going, but since Shard-san was likely to be busy dealing with Akane's desire to find out what odd connection there was between the foreign girl and her boyfriend. Despite his reassurances that he'd never met the girl, but was familiar with some tribe of Chinese Amazons and he was worried about some quaint laws he'd heard about.

Amusing.

Back to Kasumi. It was unlikely that Kasumi knew that this was some alien from the future sent back in time to save the past from an ancient evil. So she *might* have run afoul of some sort of strange alien alarm system.

Alarming.

Which led Nabiki to opening a door and carefully sliding into the room. One good thing about the typical Japanese apartment like this, there wasn't room to conceal anything.

A quick search of the apartment had turned up some bracelets that... was that *gold*?!

Nabiki slipped the ring on first, which had a chain that led to a bracelet of the same gold material, which slipped into place on her wrist. Just to admire it for a moment before taking it off. Except that the clasp appeared to be missing now, there was unbroken metal.

Realizing that she'd better NOT be caught here like this, Nabiki swiftly crossed the room to escape. She'd return this later when she figured out how to remove it.

She'd determined that Kasumi wasn't here. The only thing present was that metal statue tossing some softball at her. Huh?

*SHOOM!*

-----------

Mercury picked up the ball and put it on a shelf next to the first. Second intruder captured without physical harm or endangerment to unit.

Theft was wrong. Attempting to steal from her Master was therefore wrong. Therefore both intruders had been neutralized. One from her own efforts, the second via direct action. According to the radio, capture and detainment were the usual punishment for such offenses.

Mercury sat back down, her hands on the little computer and accessing its database. Those little spheres seemed interesting. Were there any other functions besides capturing intruders?

----------

Akane led the purple-haired girl into the apartment. Small, dingy, and mainly bare.

She'd gathered that Greylle did *not* want everyone knowing he could do those healing special manuevers, and that this girl had no home, so waiting at his apartment for him to get done with afternoon practice seemed a good way to get answers.

The youngest Tendo wasn't too clear on the details but had a feeling that the girl with the large lump on her head offered answers to the puzzle that was NOT her boyfriend.

Shampoo wasn't too clear on anything right at the moment. Her head hurt. A lot. This girl might be some pervert, but she had been talking to her new airen, and could be a rival but she was guessing not. Dark haired girl had been obviously unhappy about something.

Besides, Shampoo had tried to leap up and give the Kiss Of Marriage, only to find her legs were quite unsteady. Resulting in her nose impacting the floor. She probably looked a mess anyway. Better to wait until she could make herself presentable, THEN give the Kiss Of Marriage.

Akane saw the jewelry on the floor and came to the obvious conclusion. That baka. Here he was, trying to struggle and make ends meet and he'd picked up jewelry to give her. Her eyes were drawn to the red stone decorated one. The ring fit too. Baka baka baka. The bracelet fit too. Looked nice on her hand, he had good taste. Hey, what happened to the opening in the back?

Shampoo frowned *severely*. There was another bracelet on the floor. If her airen had given one to this girl, then Shampoo should have one too. Shampoo was admiring it when she got the sinking feeling of magic. Sure enough the gap at the back was gone. Saying something about how her head really *hurt* now, Shampoo wanted to see what curse was going to hit.

Having it turn out to be a baseball of some kind was something that SHE hadn't expected.

--------

Mercury idly noted that this appeared to be a high crime rate area.

These spheres were called "pokeballs", a "technowizardry" device patterned after a similar device that had utilized alien technology on another plane.

They were similar to a transporter device. Matter > Energy > Matter. These converted matter to hyperspatial patterns and then stored them in a micro containment field. If the power got below a certain point, the ball would automatically discharge the occupant and rematerialize them. The individual within was essentially asleep during their store time, with the common dream being of flower-covered fields and a vast playground they could romp in or even sleep within their dreamscape.

Accessing that dreamscape was something designed into these pokeballs. Originally it had been for the specific purpose of being able to enhance the creature within.

The idea had apparently been that on these "pokemon worlds" these spheres were used for containing monsters to battle other similar monsters in an elaborate tournament setup. The Rival Relief Office had developed these as they could be used to store other creatures.

The applications sited were that one could take one's horse through a dungeon, get to the plains on the other side, then simply toss the horse-storage ball and be able to ride off. Likewise guard dogs or other valuable animals could be easily transported.

Of course, as the Rival Relief Office member Sasami noted in the file: these troubleshooters and meddlers went from one universe to another and picked up all sorts of things in those pokeballs. Visiting a "Monster Rancher" universe, for example, one operative had picked up three varieties of something called a "Pixie" - "Daina" (dragongirl), "Janne" (pixie-knight), and "Snowy" (Yuki-onna). Then gone on to a "D&D" universe and stored a "Large Warhorse", "Stone Golem", and "Rust Monster".

Mercury delved further into the datastreams. The pokeballs were developed initially by an archangel named Raphael as "improvements" over the originals, refined further by a number of others, and eventually deemed too mindbogglingly useful to remain RRO equipment. Except that new ones were made after the last batch had been confiscated.

One of the "improvements" later disabled had been that the data inside these versions of the pokeballs could be accessed and altered. Or copied. They had been disabled due to the possibility of someone messing with them, and in order to get past the disable one would need to know the passwords and be able to enter them in a specific timeframe and without any second attempt.

Mercury had been built with an Ishii Kairo and a fairly sophisticated neural network computer AI. By one of the very people who had engineered the disabling routine. She analyzed it, checked her memory banks, deciphered, decrypted, and repaired files. Then slipped in through the disable.

Files were copied for later examination. Analyses were run. Mercury would need to decide if further action were required.

However, in discovering these files on the pokeballs, Mercury had discovered another file even more intriguing.

-----------

FILE 252-381-704
From Grey, Rival Relief Office, Asgard
To Hephaestus, the Forge, Olympus

Since we both know your opinion of small talk, i'll get right to the point.

Raph's pokeballs use matter > energy > storage > energy > matter conversion using tech-wizardry principles. This much you know and i know and practically everyone who bothers to ask can find out.

What occurred to me is that we could use this as a miniature manufacturing facility if we lack access to bigger concerns. We normally use Hoi-hoi cappsules for gadgetry, but it needn't be. Minor modifications would provide for mecha-balls. The idea was that you could build a virtual device, load up something close, and then impose the pattern in memory.

A quick computer simulation however, indicated a staggeringly high chance of defects. While less than point oh two percent would be completely dysfunctional, there would be at least a 10% major dysfunction rate. So manufacturing cars or something similar would be out, unless you used a "brain the size of a planet" to drive the thing.

Any ideas?

--------

Mercury looked at the empty pokeballs as she switched files to the doodles of character sketches he'd made for her sisters.

Then dismissed the concept for now. Priority was dealing with the intruders. These pokeballs were obviously too valuable to continue use as incarceration devices if other means could be devised.

Or perhaps...

-------

Escaping baseball groupies and the like had never been a problem. Until now.

He'd had to leave the school, then lead a few persistant trenchcoat wearers and the like through a long and involved chase, to end up in an area he wasn't familiar with. He was, in fact, as lost as Ryouga.

Though seeing a black shape with a flash of yellow in an alley, he counted this as actually a positive thing.

"Luna?!"

The black cat startled from atop the garbage can. Who knew her?

"Luna? It *is* you, isn't it?"

"Uhm, meow?" Luna tried to remember the guy standing over at the entry to the alley. She didn't recognize him but obviously he knew her.

"Knock it off, Luna. There's important things to discuss. Like what happened to the Senshi."

Luna startled again. "You... know about them?"

"Please Luna. Just because i'm not a Senshi doesn't mean i wasn't at Court, nor does it mean i'm an enemy unless you choose to make me one." Greylle considered leaning against a wall to act relaxed but the grime level in this alley was pretty bad. "Come on, we can discuss this in that open lot around the corner and i'll get you a can of tuna."

-------

Greylle looked over Luna while she attempted to get the last trace molecule of tuna from the can. Obviously she'd been out on the streets for some time, and hadn't done too well. She was practically skin and bones, had some scars from fights or accidents, her fur was matted and grimy. "Luna. If you need a place to stay, I'll see what I can arrange. First though, what happened to the Senshi?"

"Uhm," Luna gave up trying to coax the memory of tuna from the can. "Well. How much do you know?"

He pretty desperately wanted to just grab the little black cat and shake the answers out of her, but this was Luna. She had to much in common with Genma, put pressure on her and you'd never get a straight answer.

Luna sobbed and whimpered. "They're gone," she finally got around to divulging.

"Well, if I knew *where* they'd gone, maybe I can eventually go get them!" He was debating whether a shift to dragon would at least get the little cat to cough up details.

"How much do you know?"

Deep sigh. Greylle glared at the cat again, then shrugged. Basalt was gone, and he only remembered details of his life as if he had read of his exploits a few months past. Still, he thought he knew enough of THAT Silver Moon Kingdom - allowing for some differences. "i'm not *of* the Moon Kingdom, but i remember it and was an ally at the time. i remember Beryl and Metal'la launching an attack while the Queen gave a masquerade ball to prematurely celebrate victory. i heard that the Senshi had been reborn, Usagi Tsukino being the reborn Princess and Ami Mizuno being Sailor Mercury. Sailor Jupiter is Makoto Kino, Rei Hino is Sailor Mars, and Sailor Venus is Minako Aino. Prince Endymion is Tuxedo Mask who happens to be Mamoru Chiba. What i don't know is what happened to them."

Luna's eyes were wide. "How do you know all that?"

"Enough, Luna. i have answered your questions. Answer mine. What happened?"

The black mooncat sighed deeply. "I suppose it doesn't matter.

"We had just found Sailor Venus and I'd met up with Artemis again when Beryl started sending the Hunter/Killer youma. It was horrible. Only Neptune and Uranus were able to fend them off. So Pluto determined where Beryl's base was and led the attack."

Greylle held up a hand. "The Outer Senshi were involved?"

"Yes," said Luna puzzled as to the look of revelation on this stranger's face. "Uranus and Neptune joined after Jupiter, and Pluto showed up after the Hunters began showing up."

Greylle nodded, having an idea now. Typical plotline, but a turn or a twist in someone's path and the Inners meet up with Haruka and Neptune early. Haruka and Neptune being *much* more serious threats, having heard of and actually employing tactics, the Dark Kingdom uprated the threat and started sending nastier youma than the typical energy-harvesters. Pluto gets involved, hoping to contain the damage to the timestream by getting them to attack the stronghold and finishing off the big villain early. Except that they fail to return from their mission.

The Dark Kingdom had continually underestimated the Senshi from what he'd heard. None of his various incarnations or Aspects, including Basalt, had ever shown up during what would have been the first season of Sailor Moon. If the Inners had faced the like of the "Gloom & Doom Girls" earlier, it would have been a slaughter.

"They must have accomplished their mission if Beryl isn't around anymore," noted Greylle aloud.

Luna nodded wearily. "Now. How do you know about all this?"

"i'm an ally, Luna. And not without some magic of my own. i take it the Tsukino family didn't want their cat after their daughter vanished?"

"I just couldn't stick around," Luna made a helpless gesture that cats shouldn't be able to do, but mooncats were a lot more flexible than the regular variety.

"Understand *that*," said Greylle with a trace of irony. Well, rather a lot actually. "Okay, come by Furinkan High School when you can. i'll bring a can of tuna when i can manage it. In the meantime, let me see that shoulder."

Luna tolerated the examination silently for a moment. "How bad is it?"

"Bad. It's infected. Hang on for a moment." Greylle put his hands over the wound.

"You that fester and you that sicken,
Against you defenses swiftly quicken,
The unclean stain burn away,
Healing magic cleanse, i pray.
Cure Disease."

Luna startled as she felt *something* weave swiftly through her body and leave her feeling better than she had in months. She turned startled to the youth. "How did you do that?!"

"Luna. Just because you don't remember Basalt, don't forget there were Healers in the Moon Kingdom." Greylle was thinking of psychics with healing abilities as he jauntily waved and left. At least he had a point to investigate now. Beryl's fortress.

Luna gaped some more, thinking of those who had a connection with the Silver Crystal. Which meant Royal Family. Some bastard child off the Royal Line, and therefore not one who would normally get even the slightest chance at the throne. But if Usagi didn't show, that meant there was still a chance.

------------

A redhaired girl grumbled at the overweight man accompanying her.

"Look, we need a place to stay, or do you really think that I want to turn into that *thing* regularly?"

Ranma glared at her father. "If you haven't noticed, I turn into a *girl*. You fell in 'Always Hungry Or Sleepy Bear-thing', I got 'Magical Girl'. Who has time for fiancees?!"

"You do," pointed out Genma. "It is a matter of family honor."

Ranma winced. Honor. Why'd it have to be family honor? She couldn't walk away from *that*. "Can I at least get some decent clothes? These just look *so* tacky on me when I'm a girl."

It was Genma's turn to wince. Why had Ranma chosen to fall in THAT spring. He'd heard from the Guide that there was a Spring Of Drowned Girl, but no Ranma HAD to be difficult and fall in a spring that had mental effects.

Watching Ranma checking out guys, or looking at dresses on display, was pretty much causing hackles to rise in Genma Saotome. She was, however, easier to control than the real Ranma. And cooked better. Genma still didn't get any respect, but Ranma-chan was a LOT more polite than Ranma-kun.

Ranma hung her head to conceal a smirk. Just seeing the horror and digust creeping her father out whenever she stopped to admire a "pretty dress" or "cute guy" was enough to keep up the subterfuge.

And while turning into a girl was pretty damn lousy, at least there were aspects of a powerup in this. Higher strength, higher speed, good nightvision and increased sense of smell. There were problems like pain from someone blowing a dog whistle, but there were *some* advantages to being a supergirl.

"Ah, here we are, I just need to send this postcard, then we camp out one more night and be in Nerima tomorrow. We *should* have been there before now."

"Ain't my fault," pointed out Ranma. "Just be sure you keep that umbrella handy, that bear-spit of yours messes up my hair something awful and I ain't no chew toy."

omake

==============

omake: an attempt to handle a SM+R 1/2 crossover in a different manner.

--------------

Ranma was upset. First Ukyo and Shampoo went breaking up the marriage, then Akane started getting mad at him again.

"Ranma," Kasumi was as polite as ever on greeting him. "There's someone here to see you."

Ranma entered the room and knew he was in trouble. If the tension in the air had been any thicker, he'd have expected Kasumi to hang laundry on it.

Akane angry and sitting at the table - check.

Soun smoking and looking calm - check. He always did that just before he either did that demon head or got the samurai armor out of the closet.

Stupid oyaji pandafied and looking like he was on a high colonic. Yup.

Nabiki smirking and working an abacus. Oh, this was very very not good.

The tall girl with the red eyes and long dark green hair looked kind of familiar but he couldn't immediately place her.

"It took me some time to find you, Ranma Saotome," said the woman.

"This isn't another engagement arranged by his father, is it?" Soun's voice was showing his anger. "Because he's already engaged to marry Akane."

"No. This particular arrangement predates the two of you going on that training trip with your old Master," said the woman calmly.

"Hotcha! A new babe! Let an old man... YOU?!"

Seeing the old man speed up and prepare to glomp. Normal. Seeing him come to a complete halt, turn four shades paler, and start backing away while sweating bullets? None of them had ever seen this before and they weren't too sure how to take the situation.

The woman smirked ever so slightly. "It's been awhile, hasn't it, Toki?"

"AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"I've never seen the old freak run *that* fast," admitted Ranma. Ok, maybe he was a little concerned now.

"In any case, my business was strictly with Ranma," began the woman.

"NO! If you're just another two bit cheap tramp, go back home!" Soun exclaimed, taking in the eye and hair color and coming to an obvious conclusion. "Ranma will marry Akane and that's that!"

"Hmmmph. No way! I'm through with that pervert," Akane declared. "He forgave Ukyo and even Shampoo inside a week!"

"How long did it take you to forgive P-chan?" Ranma grumbled, knowing the answer - not even five minutes. Maybe if she knew that Ryouga was P-chan but she still hadn't figured that out.

"What was that?" Akane got angrier. "Would you care to repeat that?"

The woman stood. Suddenly she was wearing a long and elegant gown and she thumped a staff shaped like a big key down on the floor. She looked less than amused by Soun's casual insult. "No. I will be heard. Now. Ranma Saotome. Remember."

Ranma blinked and straightened. "So *that's* it."

The woman nodded. "Yes. That it is. Are you ready?"

"ranma?" Akane was the first to note that Ranma was standing differently. Usually he ended up cringing a lot in these sorts of confrontations. Now he was just oozing confidence.

"Is it an emergency? Is the princess in danger?" Ranma asked the strange woman.

"Not yet. Beryl, among others, has been dealt with. Your identity was well hidden, however, and this was the first opportunity to actually intervene." The woman's eyes passed over the others. "If you need time to settle things here, take a day or two."

"No, there is nothing here that is of any importance," said Ranma in a slightly more cold tone.

Nabiki stood, her own bearing changed, as she spoke in a language that none of the other Tendos had heard before. ("Give me a couple of days at least. Tell Princess Mars that her aide, Coral, will be along shortly.")

("This is a pleasant surprise,") admitted the woman in the gown. ("The tenth district of Tokyo - Hino shrine.")

Nabiki nodded and left, to the shock and surprise of those present.

"RANMA!" Soun immediately went into raging demon-head mode. "HOW DARE YOU-"

Ranma smirked and interrupted by pointing the palm of his right hand at the raging father. Also unlike the usual, as he normally caved in or fled whenever Soun performed this manuever. "Don't tempt me, Mister Tendo. I've remembered a previous engagement and far more important concerns."

"Fine! See if I care!" Akane turned her back towards Ranma. "Just don't come running back to me!"

"I won't," said Ranma more agreeably. "Thank you all for the occasional act of kindness and the lessons learned. Shall we go, Pluto-san?"

"OH NO YOU DON'T," Genma began, blocking the way to the front door.

Pluto moved her staff slightly and just like that she and Ranma were gone.

---------

"Nabiki!" Soun went stern and forbidding as he blocked the door.

Nabiki set down her suitcase and regarded her father. "What?"

"Where are you going?! I demand answers! You are forbidden to go!" Soun wept and grew angry and went back to weeping.

"I have a job, a duty, a matter of honor to attend to," said Nabiki matter-of-factly.

Akane held out a small pile of yen notes. "I want answers Nabiki."

"You're not ready for the answers, Akane. Give it a few weeks. Answers will come." Nabiki didn't take the money and turned a dazzling smile towards her sister.

Akane's eyes widened at this atypical behavior. "What happened to you?!"

Nabiki's gaze became pitying as she looked over Akane then the other two members of her family. The hastily summoned Nodoka and Genma drew a less friendly gaze. Pursing her lips, she turned back to Akane. "In simplest terms, I remember."

"What do you remember, Nabiki?" Kasumi's voice was polite but shaken.

Nabiki let out a deep breath. Short of going through the window, she was unlikely to get away. Staying to pack had clearly been a mistake. "Short form. Roughly 10,000 years ago."

Akane bellowed. "10,000 *years*?!"

"Perhaps 100,000," admitted Nabiki. "Clearly its been awhile. There was a previous life. I'd never actually met Ranma then, we didn't exactly travel in the same circles. I was Coral, an advisor and handmaid to a princess."

"'Handmaid'," Akane repeated, thinking Nabiki was talking about something hentai.

Nabiki's gaze turned wistful and distant. "Yes. And my princess has returned. Now that I remember, I have more important things to deal with than panty shots and running gambling pools."

"What about Ranma?" Genma grumbled, not believing this talk of previous lives anyway.

"He was Hematite," said Nabiki, then did something that startled and shocked those who knew her. She laughed, not a mocking or a sniggering laugh, but that of a young girl who had just found something amusing.

Both the Tendos and Saotomes stared at Nabiki, who was acting very different from the girl they knew. Kasumi and Akane who knew her best noted that even her stance and the way she moved was different. More confident and with an odd roll to her walk.

Nabiki continued with a smile. "Hematite. The Knight Of Valor - courage under fire. The brash young man among the Knights, Basalt's protege. Oh moon and stars, Uranus is going to get an ulcer!"

"Wait one moment, young lady!" Genma had had enough of this.

So had Nabiki actually, picking up her bags - she vanished.

"WHAT?!" Everyone stared around for a moment.

Akane was the first to realize what had happened. "She's still here. It's some kind of ninja trick."

"We'll just keep blocking the exits then," Genma concluded. "She's not going anywhere until we've gotten to the bottom of this."

The stairs creaked and a blurred shadow briefly showed on it.

"You can't get away that easily," Genma said, leaping towards the last known location.

Nabiki shook her head as she took the now available exit. Some people were just too easy to mislead.

--------

Usagi Tsukino smiled as the old Moon Kingdom's Court slowly was replenished. New/old friends and companions of hers. Old/new romances were being rekindled.

Hematite had renewed his relationship, both with his Queen and his love.

It had perhaps been perhaps a few short years just after the breakup she'd had with Jadeite, but a certain princess had renewed that spark of passion and mutual respect she'd had with Hematite now that they'd met again in this life.

Coral and Rei were chatting excitedly like the old/new friends that they were.

Others. Neither Naru nor Umino were members of the Court, but they could replace those who had not been found. If they accepted the offer, of course.

Things were coming along quite well.

"RANMA! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Well, with a few minor exceptions.

---------

Ranma was Ranma was Hematite. He was complete now. Ranma had been his wild life, undisciplined, perhaps a bit brain damaged. As Hematite he had been almost the opposite. In both he'd been the brash young kid on the block - the "can do" confident youth who eschewed common sense and was too stubborn to give up.

Of course, that had been one of the reasons that Hematite had died.

Now the two halves had come together. He remembered Ranma and he remembered Hematite. He was himself.

So he *did* remember the pudgy man with the little piggy eyes who had pulled a cat out of a bag and thrown it in his face. If anything, this only made him *less* inclined to follow the demands of Genma Saotome.

Placing the poor cat down on the ground, Ranma enjoyed the way the discipline taught Hematite over long years with the professional soldier/agent Basalt sealed away the fear that threatened to eat away his sanity otherwise. "Fear is something you use when it useful, otherwise you crush it in the vice of your will to be held for later."

"Old man," said Ranma, "you have one minute to leave. Otherwise I shall expel you by force."

"I don't know what kind of trick you're trying to pull Ranma! You *are* going back with me," promised Genma.

Ranma/Hematite held out his hand. Endymion had his roses and his cane - but his position was a Royal. A prince was one thing. A Knight was a warrior - a counterpart to the Senshi. He had neither a rose nor a cane. *Crackle.* What he had was a weapon similar to a European bastard sword. Made entirely of blood red alloys. "Thirty seconds."

Genma sneered. "A weapon? Weapons make you weak, you rely on them, and then you can be disabled easily. Have you learned nothing?"

"Zero," acknowledged Ranma, swinging the sword up. "Goodbye Genma. STORMFLARE!"

---------

Soun slowly approached the crater that was littered with pieces of dojo. Down at the bottom was the smouldering form of Genma Saotome. "I take it this means that Ranma was not retrieved?"

Genma, being unconscious, did not answer.

--------

Hematite stood with the rest of the Guard, both those who had been reborn - and those who had been recruited to replace those who had not been reincarnated.

"RANMA!"

It was hard. Yet his Queen had commanded and he could see the need. Those who refused purification. Those who refused to take part in the new utopia under the Queen's rule. Rather than let them pollute and infect the new kingdom, they had to be moved elsewhere.

"RANMA!"

Nemesis could support life. It was not the ideal solution, but that planet out in the darkness of space had sufficient magic that it could be inhabited.

"RANMA! YOU IDIOT! IT'S ME!"

There were those who had balked but eventually decided to allow the purification to take place. People he well knew.

"SON! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO YOUR POOR FATHER?!"

Ranma remembered some of them. Some like Ukyo or Kasumi, it had not been a surprise to find them volunteering. Some like Ryouga had been more surprising. Some of those volunteers, like Shampoo or Cologne - it was absolutely mind-boggling to the old Ranma. Though perhaps it shouldn't have been. Cologne would do whatever was necessary for her tribe to survive. Swearing allegiance to a Queen so long as they were allowed to keep their lore and cultural identity was perhaps not as strange as it first appeared. Kodachi might have been deemed stranger, but it turned out that her family's madness was genetic. Purification had cleaned that too.

"RANMA NO BAKA!"

The Nemesians would have food and shelter and the chance to continue to develop into their own society. Queen Neo-Serenity had declared this to be so. Other than that, no contact and no interference. They would be allowed to find themselves.

"FOUL SORCERER! I SEE THEE! FROM HELL'S HEART I SPIT AT THEE!"

Those that were going were those who would not submit to the Queen. Who would not give up on one thing or another.

"WHERE ARE YOU, OLD FREAK?! I KNOW YOU'RE HERE SOMEWHERE!"

Well, at least he could see them off and wish them well. In a thousand years who knew what wonders they might have crafted, wanting to do things the hard way instead of through the ginzuishou. To stand on their own two feet and proclaim to the universe that they did not require magic to forge their own utopia!

"SWEET-OH!"

In a way, he envied them. Ranma suppressed a tear as the cordoned off area seperated and lifted. Tens of thousands of citizens who would colonize a new world of their own.

Ranma saluted the lifting colony ship, feeling Venus grip his other hand in hers as she waved at the massive vehicle. "Good luck!"

=========
This was exploring an idea of why Nemesis?
Who would go?
Who among the Ranma cast would actually choose to be "purified"? (i included Ukyo because she spent ten years pursuing vengeance, but dropped that when a happier solution seemed possible. While Ryouga has never really struck me as happy being unhappy, particularly if he has a better chance with Akari after purification.)
Why does Ranma have to be exactly the same in every life, or at least mainly the same?
It's just an omake so i didn't want to spend a *lot* of time exploring these concepts. Ah well.
========