Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Total Shock ❯ ETERNITY PART ONE ( Chapter 9 )

Disclaimer: the author of this story owns none of the series, characters, or locations mentioned in this story unless stated otherwise.

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The three teens stared at Kuno in silent surprise at the symbol on his forehead.

“What is that?” Ranma-chan asked suddenly. “We've seen that before.”

“We've seen that before?” Akane muttered in confusion.

“That's the roman symbol for Jupiter or something, right?” Ryouga asked. `Don't they teach that in astrology?' He glanced at Ranma and Akane. Kuno nodded and joined the three teens, sitting opposite of them on the ground.

“Or something, yes…” Kuno muttered. “It is a symbol of my ties with the Jovian planet.”

“What do you mean?” Ranma-chan asked, confused.

“Simply put, it is a representation of the link between myself and the fifth planet of the solar system.”

“A link between you…and a planet?” Ryouga asked. “You mean a physical link?”

“Yes.”

“Well, okay, but… what does that have to do with Ryouga's dream?” Akane asked stiffly.

“Everything. And nothing.” Everyone present gave Kuno a half lidded stare. “Hibiki, describe your… dreams.”

“Uh, well… The best way to describe them is like some kind of continuous fantasy…” He looked up at Kuno. “You know, I think I've seen you in one of them before, or something…”

“Your name was Emilio back then, was it not?”

`Back then?' Ryouga paused. “That's what they call me in the dream, yes…”

“Indeed…” Kuno looked thoughtful for a moment. “This can only mean one thing. Some unknown power has seen fit to bring us together again…”

“Eh?”

“Kuno…” Akane started. `I'd say “You're not making any sense” but…' She and the other two teens uncomfortably looked everywhere but at the boy as he rambled on about `Astral Warriors' or some such. `You'd be scaring me if you actually were being coherent.'

“Wait, wait, wait-up, time out.” Ranma-chan finally interrupted Kuno's ramblings. “What the hell are you talking about? I'm completely lost,” She said, annoyed.

“Then allow me to show you what he means,” came a familiar, snide voice. All of the teens looked at the shape with wide eyes. A man who could have been Ranma's twin dressed in all black with an extremely long pigtail was smirking off to the side, holding a massive purple blade over his shoulder.

“You!”

“Heh, me.” He smirked. “What are you gonna do about it?”

“This!” Ranma-Chan leapt at him with a scowl on her face and the greatest amount of speed she could muster.

“Tsk, Tsk, Tsk,” the Copy-Ranma waved a finger. Ranma-chan found herself floating. “I thought it was made apparent just how weak you are in contrast to myself.” He threw his hand out and Ranma-chan flew across the room before hitting a wall. The other teens growled as they stood up to engage him. “Sigh.” He shook his head and they blinked at his actual vocalizing of the word. “Don't you fools ever learn? Did you not just see me stop him with minimal effort?”

“What do you intend to do to us?” Kuno asked as he thumbed his bokken.

“A favor.” He smirked as the redhead sat up. “If your deaths were my aim, then you'd all have died before you knew I was here. No, instead, I'm going to do you a favor.” They looked at him in confusion and he sighed. “How does a trip to the past sound? The far, distant past?”

“What?” Akane asked, confused.

“You can't mean…” Kuno and Ryouga's eyes widened at the implications.

The air around the sword vibrated with a hum as it began glowing. Before anyone could react, there was a bright flash of blue energy, an explosion and suddenly all of the teens fell to the back end of the room as an explosive burst of air pushed them in. Nabiki fell in through the door and the five screamed as it nearly flew off of its hinges. The air started pulled on them from outside. Ryouga caught Nabiki, and shoved his fingers through the wall so as to grip it better, while Akane and Kuno held onto the door opposite of the open one. It too swung open and the teens' eyes widened with fear as the hinges started pulling themselves from the wall.

Ranma was gripping the wide sofa they had all been sitting on not a minute earlier while her copy merely floated off to the side, watching as they all attempted to avoid being sucked out of the compartment. Ranma-chan looked out the door and was horrified at what she saw. Their part of the plane had been torn off and beyond the door was a seemingly endless visage of clouds and sky. She noticed how the door opened inwards, and a small nudge would make it turn so that the vacuum of air would pull the door shut, insulating the room in the process. She threw a tiny bolt of energy at it, and as she'd hoped, the door slammed shut as the vacuum savagely pulled on it.

Without the vacuum holding them in the air, they all fell to the ground in crumpled heaps. They had flipped sometime during the excitement, meaning that the floor was actually one of the walls, and nothing was upside right. Ranma-chan looked up at her copy, who only chuckled as he slowly vanished.

“You coward! Damn you!” She screamed in vain at his dissipating form, rewarded only with his incessant laughing.

“What the hell is going on?!” Nabiki cried as she sat up.

“Nabiki?” Akane asked. Ranma leapt up and clung to the sofa as she looked out of the large window that had been in what was previously their floor. “What are you doing here?”

“That's not important,” The girl said, pulling a hand through her hair to smooth it out.

“She was tryin' to spy on us,” Ranma-chan explained. “She fell in when it opened.”

“Ranma,” Ryouga started, suddenly. “I'm pretty sure we're falling to our deaths. Why do you sound so calm?”

“Well, you're right,” Ranma-chan said, craning her neck to see outside of the window as best she could. “We're fallin' all right. But it looks like we're gonna land in some water-” The room shook as it violently impacted the water and continued descending. She paused and she made a motion of looking up as the room quickly faded into darkness. “Yep, we're underwater,” She said. “But the door seems to be holding, so I wouldn't worry about drowning just yet.” As she finished her sentence, all sunlight had faded into darkness as they sunk to the depths of whatever body of water they were in. There was a loud thump and the girl fell to the floor before someone else groaned in pain.

“That's going to cost you, Saotome,” the middle Tendo's voice could be heard growling as they all moved around. A ball of light appeared and everyone turned to see the source; Ranma was holding a ball of Chi in her hands. “Okay, that's better,” the middle Tendo said. “Let's review what's happened so far.” She said. “Some evil Ranma appeared and literally ripped our plane to bits, but some how we're still alive, in this tiny compartment.” There was a group nod. “We're underwater and sinking very quickly.” There was another group nod. “We're underwater in a torn off section of a plane, sinking, with no way of escape.” There was another nod, slower this time, as the realization set in. There was a loud noise outside as they impacted the ground and their impromptu submarine tipped over, righting itself. They avoided falling by moving as it turned.

“That means that there's tons of water pressure bearing down on this little dinghy,” Nabiki said in a sudden fearful voice. “And Ranma, did you say that that door opens in?” She asked, pointing at the door.

“Y-yeah,” the redhead breathed. Akane for her part was doing some old prayer her mother had taught her. Nabiki joined in without a second thought and Ryouga looked at them, before realizing how familiar that particular prayer was and joining in himself. Kuno for his part was sitting cross-legged, with his bokken propped up against his shoulder, with an eerie calm that announced he had already accepted the ultimate fate that befell all. “What the hell,” Ranma-chan said, angrily. “I didn't become the best martial artist in the world to die like this!”

“That's good,” came the agonizingly familiar voice. They all stopped what they were doing and looked up at the floating visage of their enemy. “If you want to get back to your time, you must find this and master it of your own volition,” He held up the huge, purple sword.

“No thanks, bastard, I don't use weapons.”

“Fine, then you can just perish along with this planet when the time comes,” He said.

“What?!” Akane asked, confused. “What is going to happen to Earth?!”

“Nothing. But you're not on Earth, see,” He smirked. “The… `planet' you're on, however, is set to be obliterated by the end of the month…Oh, but if you just stay here, you'll all suffocate or be crushed by the water when it finally comes in,” He pointed at the door as water started leaking in through the cracks. “Well, I guess that sums up your pathetic lives. See you on the flipside, eh?” He laughed one last time as he vanished with a flash of light.

“Dammit!” Ranma slammed her fists into the floor. “What the hell are we supposed to do!?”

“I would suggest escaping this little imitation of a vessel first,” resounded their enemy's voice.

“How are we supposed to do that?!” She asked agitatedly as she looked around.

“Really, you can't figure it out? I guess you're doomed to die, then,” The voice echoed impassively. Nabiki looked up at the ceiling and frowned.

“You asshole!” Ranma yelled. This time, there was no response, only the unnatural light of Ranma-chan's chi.

“Saotome,” Nabiki said. “Perhaps we have a way to survive yet.” She steeled her gaze down to the neo-girl. “Would it be possible to use your energy to capture all of the air in here and keep it secure? You know, make a bubble?”

“Y-yeah,” Ranma said blankly. “But how would we get out?”

“Air can shift rather easily,” She said. “If you put all of your energy around the air right now and blow apart the ceiling, we might be able to make it to the surface.”

“How do you know how deep we are?” the red head asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“It wasn't long from the time we hit the water to the time we it the bottom. We can't be too deep.”

“We were moving pretty fast.” Ranma countered.

“We haven't got all day, so any plan is good enough for me,” Ryouga interrupted their little argument.

“Likewise,” Kuno said. “I suppose I can see the merit to Nabiki Tendo's plan. If we were to all huddle together and some how blast apart the ceiling, the air would undoubtedly carry us up with great speed,” He nodded.

“Exactly,” Nabiki nodded.

“How are we going to blast apart the ceiling?” Akane asked. Ranma looked at Ryouga, who had a grim expression settled on to his face. There was no way he'd be getting out of this mess without either dying, or having his curse exposed to Akane. Ryouga turned away from them all and looked up.

“Leave that to me,” he said. `At the very least, I can ensure your survival, Akane…' Ranma-chan nodded at that and with a flash, her chi engulfed the room with a bright glow. She appeared to be putting forth a tremendous effort as she had furrowed her brow, and her face was red with the rush of blood. For good measure, each of the teens grabbed on to her. Ryouga turned around to look at her and smirked. “Are you ready?” She nodded and he held up a finger to the hull. “Bakusai Tenketsu!” Instantly, the hull burst upwards with an explosion and the group felt a great rush as the massive air bubble shot up like a rocket, pulling them along.

They all painfully slammed into a large black metallic surface and Ranma groaned as her concentration was nearly torn. The air bubble retained its round shape as much as it could while bits and pieces of it started breaking off. Ryouga clung to the metal surface as well as he could to avoid the water below them and he re-enforced the barrier with his own energy while looking around the hull of the black behemoth they'd crashed into. Black metal stretched practically forever in all directions and he realized they'd never make it in time by climbing around whatever they'd hit.

He finally spotted something that looked like light, blinked as two large shapes descended from within the one they had crashed into, and realized it was a door of some sort. He gave a resigned sighed as he realized they'd have to swim through the water to get to where they needed to after all.

“Guys! Over there!” He pointed at the closing door and they all looked up at the light.

“We hit some kind of ship,” Nabiki announced as she noted the smaller submarines diving down towards where they'd come from. `If we'd waited for a few more seconds…' She mentally cursed; someone had obviously seen them fall into the water, and Earth or not, it looked like they were concerned enough to send scouts… then again, how would they have gotten out? Would the natives of wherever `here' was even be friendly? `Wait a minute…' “We can go in the way those little subs came out!” She said quickly. “But it looks like we'll have to swim from here…” There was silence before Ranma and Ryouga looked at each other. Ryouga nodded and grabbed onto the girl's waist. Nabiki raised an eyebrow at that but nothing else.

“Okay, you guys ready? I'm gonna let go of the bubble,” Ranma announced, to which they all nodded. “In three…two…one…NOW!” They all breathed in as the bubble bled away, and the air they were in speedily floated up and away, around the hull of the hulking vessel they'd crashed into. All at once, they swam towards the opening and Nabiki's eyes widened as she realized it was closing. She redoubled her efforts and nearly sighed with relief as she swam into the opening. The others followed and they all started swimming up. It wasn't ten seconds later that the four teens were greeted with a blast of fresh air just as there was a resounding thud beneath them as the door shut. They all gasped the air and were near ready to celebrate when Akane noticed the absence of one of their companions.

“W-where's Ryouga?!” She asked worriedly, looking around. “What happened to him!?”

“He's in Saotome's armpits,” Nabiki drawled rather casually. Akane blinked at first but looked at Ranma-chan and she noticed the small black shape under Ranma's arm.

“P…P-chan?” She asked tentatively. “Ryouga…He's P-chan?” Ranma turned away with a grim look on her face as Kuno looked on in confusion. Akane's eyes rolled up in her head and she lost consciousness.

“Well, I guess she took that rather well,” Nabiki said in annoyance as she held onto her sister and looked around. “There's something we can stand on over there,” She pointed at a wall with a ladder on it that was no more than ten meters away and they all began swimming towards it. Ranma climbed up onto the ground and looked around in contemplative silence as her companions caught their breath.

“I do not understand,” Kuno said after a moment. “What did she mean when she said that our companion from earlier was the small porcine animal under the pig-tailed girl's arm?”

“Oh,” Ranma said. “Forget about it, Kuno,” She commented lazily, waving it off.

“But I must insist, pig-tailed girl. Our companion may be…dead, and we have no explanation for how that… piglet… appeared.”

“Well you see,” Ranma-chan said, holding up the pig. “This little guy has the amazing power to transform into a human when certain circumstances are wet, and likewise as a human can return to the fierce form of a wild boar.”

“Oh,” Kuno snorted. “That.”

“That?” Nabiki asked with a raised brow. “You don't seem very surprised, Kuno.”

“Ah, yes, well it takes much more than the average trick to faze Tatewaki Kuno,” He said in a suave tone with a impassive look on his face.

“I see,” she nodded, filing his reaction away for later. Nabiki took the time to finally look around the room before whistling. They were in a large room with many of the smaller submarines she'd noticed earlier. The walls and floor were plated with some kind of metal and she could not for the life of her recognize any of the symbols that dotted the sides of the miniature submarines and walls. “My first guess is some kind of research vessel or something. Then again, what with it not being Earth, this could be anything, really.”

“How do you know he wasn't lying about us being on another planet, or even the past?” Ranma asked seriously.

“I might not be a linguist or anything,” Nabiki started, motioning a large word `painted' into the wall behind Ranma. “But think I've seen most of Earth's `Today' scripts. That's not Latin, Chinese, Arabic, Greek, or anything. I opt to go with the prompt.” She shrugged. Ranma blinked at the sign and narrowed her eyes in confusion.

“You're right, but…why do I recognize that script?” She asked, scratching her head unintelligently.

“I as well have seen that before,” Kuno said.

“In your dreams?” Nabiki asked the boy. He stiffened before slowly nodding. “So that's the language the people of your previous empire used, correct?” He nodded again, faster this time. “Can you translate it?”

“I think that says `deck three' or somethin',” Ranma-chan said. Kuno, P-chan and Nabiki shot her a surprised look, and Nabiki looked at Kuno for confirmation.

“I believe the pig-tailed girl is correct.” Nabiki looked at Ranma again, who merely shrugged.

“There has to be some kind of map or somethin',” Ranma said, looking around. She spotted a blank panel on the wall and walked over to it, looking around in confusion. Nabiki and Kuno joined her while P-chan sat down next to Akane's unconscious body. She put a hand on her chin and Kuno stood beside her before touching the flat panel. Suddenly, it sprang to life, surprising both her and Nabiki. They fell backwards as the display hummed and blared to life with a bright blue glow. There was a white screen with five jade boxes that had words in the nameless language before them written in more white. Kuno touched a few more of them as his female companions stood and stared. After a few seconds of this, a large picture of a vessel appeared before them, and Nabiki assumed that it was the ship they were on. She whistled as a tiny box lit up on the model and a line led from it to a phrase that she could assume to be `You are here.'

“Impressive,” Nabiki intoned. “It's not everyday your random teenage boy is able to operate alien technology like this.”

“…” Kuno was silent as he looked at the model.

“Hey Kuno, do you know where we can get some hot water?” Ranma asked in an annoyed voice.

“Hot water…” He repeated. It sounded more like he knew what it was for rather wanting to ask her if he'd heard right. “I believe we could get that here,” He said, pointing at a block. “We could go here, but it's not advisable,” He said, pointing a closer block. This one was in an irregular looking sect of squares.

“A kitchen…” Ranma blinked, then shook her head. “People will notice us.”

“Which is why I recommended the earlier selection.” She looked up at where he'd pointed first.

“No latrines or nuthin' nearby either…” She said annoyed. The unoccupied crew quarters will have to do,” Ranma gave a resigned sigh.

“You two talk as if you know this ship,” Nabiki smirked at Ranma who shrugged in response.

“Yea', I know this…place. Don't know how or why but I do, and that's all that matters for now. We can worry about the details later.”

“And I know it well enough,” Kuno intoned. There was suddenly some violent squeaking off to the side and they all turned to see Akane strangling the little piglet with a crazed look in her eyes. “What in blazes…”

“Akane! Let him go!” Ranma said hurriedly as she ran over to her two friends.

“Let him go?” the hysterical girl looked up with deranged eyes at her fiancé. “I'll kill it! Kill IT!” Ranma sighed and held in spot on her neck with her finger. Akane's movements slowed down and her grip became weaker. The pig easily escaped her grasp and flew into Ranma's arms as the youngest Tendo girl fell down and aimlessly flailed her body in a futile attempt to regain control and dismember the little porker. “GRAGHH!” The three teens watched in disgusted silence as the girl growled and continued flailing with righteous anger. After at least five minutes, the girl's efforts slowed down substantially and tears began to gather in her eyes as reality began to set in.

“Akane…” Ranma started. “We have to worry about the here and now at the moment. What you do to Ryouga can wait until we're all sure we can survive.”

“Oh I already know what I'm going to do,” She said, narrowing her eyes as she hissed at the little black piglet. The pig could only sit there and stare at the ground as his world crumbled around him.

“Now come on, Akane, we've got to go now,” Ranma said, tapping her again. Akane didn't move for a few seconds as feeling slowly came back, but growled and eventually stood up. “I don't like this, but that guy obviously has reasons for sending us here. If we're to survive whatever he puts us through, we're all gonna have to work as a team. I know some of us normally wouldn't work together,” She said, nodding at Kuno and Nabiki, “But this is way more serious, and I know I can count on you guys when it's serious. Don't let me down.” She was met with several of assent from most of the group and they all started walking towards a door in a corner of the room.

The group came into a wide corridor that went on seemingly forever; they couldn't see where it ended. The hall was very bland; the walls were made from that same light grey metal, although they had a much more smoothed out design giving it a streamlined feeling. The floor was a dark tan color and very soft, but none of the teens could readily identify the material that was used; it certainly wasn't any kind of fabric they'd ever encountered before. Various doors dotted the hall from one end to the next and the room was clearly lit with no visible light source.

“Where are we supposed to go from here?” Nabiki asked. Ranma peered into the distance and turned around. The others turned with her to see an echo of the other side of the hall.

“Well, both ways lead to a lift, but…” the red head scratched her head and Nabiki sighed.

“Is there any reason for it to be so abhorrently long?” Nabiki asked

“It's a self supporting space station,” Kuno replied. “It's this large so that it can survive on it's own for incredibly long periods of time. However, the design, down here at least, does leave something to be desired,” he admitted.

“It is rather repetitive,” Akane commented, tense. “Why is it empty, though?”

“My memories aren't that great, but I think that this may be an emergency area or something. You'd think with all this superior technology they'd have a short range transporter or at least an elevator that moves sideways,” Ranma grumbled.

“Perhaps we can suggest something to that effect,” Kuno sighed in exasperation as he started in one of the two directions. The others merely followed.

At least half an hour later they arrived at the end of the extended hall, which was fitted with a rather large double-door that opened automatically upon their nearing it. The four teens and pig entered the lift and looked around. It was designed with a different feeling; the walls were a soft tan color; the same as the floor and made with a furry material that she could tell was soft. The only metal present was the door itself and it was almost perfectly reflective in it's cleanliness. Ranma was expecting an elevator girl to announce her presence, some kind of announcement about the sales on floor six. One of the blank panels that had been in the room with the smaller vessels was present as well, and Kuno went to it immediately to find out where they were.

“Wait a minute, Kuno,” Nabiki said. “That place we're planning to go to, does it have any kind of human… err alien presence?”

“I do not believe so.” He responded as he input several commands into the panel.

“That's good. I'm sure we'd look horribly out of place here,” She nodded.

“That's right. We need a plan to get out of here,” Ranma muttered absently. “I have a feeling what we need isn't here.”

“We need to figure out a lot of things, but that can wait until we're comfortable.” Nabiki answered. `It's obvious who'll be the brains of this group,' She sighed. `Of all the unlikely situations… Oh well. Life with Ranma is never dull, I guess.'

“We need to get to level six,” Kuno announced. “The area is slightly more populated, but we can manage avoidance,”

“Slightly? Man, security is lax here,” Nabiki muttered.

“They have no reason to have increased security when they are part of an empire with totalitarian rule that spans the entire solar system.” Kuno explained, inputting the final commands into the panel.

“What about insurgents?” Nabiki prodded as she gave Kuno a skeptical look. “Surely not everyone is satisfied with the way this…errr, country, is ruled,”

“That's…” Ranma-chan started. “We'll have time for that later. But right now, we don't need to question something we can use to our advantage.”

“The pig-tailed girl is correct. We should move on,” Kuno said, turning around. The door opened to reveal a completely different setting and the Tendo sisters blinked. This time, the hall was lined with vines and the hall seemed to be a hollowed out log. The ground was the same as before, and also like before, the room was lit up with no visible light source.

“When did we start moving?” Akane asked. `I didn't even feel the elevator start up…'

“Follow me,” Kuno announced as he exited the lift. Ranma complied rather quickly and the two sisters looked at each other before going after them. As they walked along the corridor, Akane took in their surroundings. The scent of the vines was relaxing and the wood gave the corridor a natural ambiance. She absently reached out and knocked on the wood before pulling her hand back, convinced that it was real.

“What place is this?” she absently muttered.

“The main ship was originally for long-term war, but it was eventually adapted to be a self-sustainable research station.” Kuno elaborated. “The entire colony has six sectors like this one, all with artificial recreations of natural environments. It's mainly for all of the research subjects that live on the vessel.”

“Wait… Main ship?” Nabiki asked.

“That is correct. This is merely a section of the colony. I will be able to show you a diagram later if it still interests you.”

“We're here,” Ranma announced. They were standing before a simple single door. Ranma reached over to something resembling a keypad and hit several of the buttons before the door shot up. As they walked in, Akane gawked; the room was extravagantly festooned and extremely comfortable. There were two large beds and something resembling a recliner. There was a stand on either side of the bed and the comforter was silken to the touch, but the material inside was thick and made to retain heat to a relaxing temperature. Ranma approached another door and it shot up automatically as she continued walking.

“Now what?” Nabiki asked as she sat on the edge of a bed as Kuno walked over to the panel and activated it. Akane fell back into the recliner with a sigh.

“Now we figure out what the hell's going on and what we're gonna do about it.” Ranma's voice came out as she walked out of the room she'd gone into. A fully clothed Ryouga followed as he finished drying off his face with a towel. Ryouga stopped at the door, but Ranma continued over to one of the beds.

“OK. We're on an alien submarine-space-station, apparently in the distant past and on a completely different planet, and we still don't know the full extent of the situation,” Nabiki said.

“We're not on the actual station,” Tatewaki snorted. They all turned to him and he tapped the screen again before a layout of the vessel they were on appeared. “This is merely a scout ship for field missions and the like.”

“Okay,” Nabiki started. “We're on a scout ship with deployable mini-subs, apparently in the distant past, on a completely different planet, with three idiots who can all give us a well-informed tour of the Enterprise, and still don't know the full extent of the situation.” She shook her head. “However, the weirdness of the situation is all but lost on me. I blame Saotome,” She glared at the younger girl, who shrunk back nervously.

“Perhaps a plan of action would be best,” Kuno announced without turning to face them. “What were the foul demon's conditions for returning home?”

“He said something about mastering that giant purple sword, then vanished,” Ranma-chan commented, narrowing her eyes in thought. `I know I've seen that thing before, though…'

“What could he be planning? He wants you to master a sword that you don't have,” Akane said, mirroring her fiancé's thoughtful look.

“Obviously he wants us to find that thing. I don't trust him for a minute, but it's better than sitting around,” Ranma conceded as she fell back to lie on the bed.

“There must be a reason for it,” Nabiki insisted. “Why would he make an enemy stronger?”

“Well he did come from me,” Ranma-chan admitted. “He probably wants me stronger to make it interesting,”

“Yeah, that sounds like you, Saotome. Supremely overconfident,” Ryouga snorted. “Let's hope it works in our favor for once.”

“Then you agree with Ranma?” Nabiki spoke up.

“It's the only thing that makes sense,” Ranma-chan snapped. “I don't know how the mind of a demon works.”

“Well, all right,” Nabiki sighed. “Okay, but that leaves us. Why the hell would he bring all five of us here?”

“He doesn't seem the type to care for who gets caught in the crossfire,” Ranma shrugged. “We've been through a lot of weird stuff. A trip to the past-”

“And outer space,” Nabiki interjected.

“And outer space,” Ranma continued. “Shouldn't be too much to handle. I'm sure we'll find a way back.”

“There's also your memories,” Nabiki pointed out.

“I can't even begin to understand that,” Ranma admitted. “Unlike Ryouga and Kuno, I haven't been havin' any dreams or nothin' that would explain it. It's like I just know these things. Reading those weird letters was like reading Japanese.” She shook her head and sat back against the wall. “I don't want to think about that right now. I guess we should focus on finding that magic sword right now.” She sighed as she sat on the bed. `Man, it's one thing after another this week, isn't it? I won't be able to change back into a man until tomorrow, at least.'

“Okay,” Ryouga started, skeptically. “But how do you intend to find out about this sword of yours?”

“Well…” Ranma blinked and started scratching her head. “What else can we do? We ask around,” she shrugged. “It can't be that hard.”

“Ranma,” Nabiki started in an amused tone. “Do you really think these people would take well to five strangers appearing on their little space ship and asking for information on something like that?”

“Uh…” Ranma's furrowed her brow in annoyance. “Well do you have any bright ideas?” She asked.

“Sure I do,” She said, turning to face Kuno. “Kuno, you think you can find out about it with that sword?” She asked.

“Eh?” The boy looked at her in surprise at hearing his name called, as he hadn't been paying attention. “I suppose. It wouldn't hurt to try,” He shrugged as he went back to the device.

“For now, we should rest,” Nabiki sighed. “It was fairly late when he attacked us. If we're going to do anything, I'd rather it be after a good night's sleep.”

“How are we going to get food?” Ranma asked with a pained grimace as her stomach grumbled.

“Leave that to me, Pig-tailed girl,” Kuno said. “When you awake, all of your needs will be met.”

“If you say so,” Ranma sighed.

“There are…other rooms we can use, right?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Ranma nodded as she stood up. “There are some rooms with two beds like this one, but most only have one…I think.” Akane and Nabiki nodded and the two girls left the room. When the door shut, Ranma turned to face her rival. “Hopefully, by the time all of this is over, Akane will have forgiven you,” She yawned and stood up to stretch. “I'll see you two in the morning,” She announced before following the other two girls out of the room.

The lost boy merely sighed as he ambled over to the bed Ranma'd been on.

“I seem to have missed something,” Kuno mumbled.

“Eh?” Ryouga blinked as he looked over at the other teen. “What's up?”

“Akane Tendo's averse attitude towards you is most… noticeable. Especially when she saw you transform.”

“When she saw me… you mean you noticed?” Ryouga asked in a dry voice. “It could have been a body switch, you know.”

“I…” Kuno fought back a growl. “Yes, I noticed. You are like the Amazon and her consort, are you not?” He asked. Ryouga nearly snorted at the inaccurate view of Shampoo and Mousse's relationship.

“Eh? I guess you could say that.” `Maybe he'll finally realize…' “Have you noticed any one else like that?” He asked, raising a brow.

“The foul sorcerer's father has also exhibited such a spectacular transformation.”

“Any one else? How about the `foul sorcerer' himself?” He asked, holding in a breath. Kuno was silent for a while as he continued his manipulation of the touch panel. Ryouga merely shook his head when he realized he wouldn't be getting an answer from the other boy. He took off his shoes and lie backwards on the bed as his exhaustion began to catch up to him.

---

Ranma lay underneath the layers of blankets that were on her bed with her eyes closed. She was finding sleep hard, as every time she tried, the face of her enemy would form in her mind. The sneering, pompous, arrogant visage of her male self was not something she could easily ignore.

“Dammit,” She opened her eyes and found that while it was still pitch black, with her eyes trying to focus, the face that haunted her was easier to ignore. “I'm going to kill that bastard,” she promised her self. “Such a monster…doesn't deserve to exist. He's just…just a pale imitation… a sick mockery…” She focused on the rhythm of her breathing after that, trying to find solace in the calm repetition.

“Heh heh heh,” came the familiar voice. Ranma's eyes widened and she felt her heart skip a beat. Suddenly, two glowing eyes opened parallel to hers, and she realized the man was floating above her. “That's hilarious. I don't need to do a damn thing, and yet still I cause you no end of discomfort.” She gasped as she felt something wet on her cheek and growled and threw a fist from her position. He laughed as he floated up, easily moving out of the path of her limb. She sat up and grit her teeth as she wiped the wet spot on her face off on the blanket in disgust. “Hah hah hah! You're such a child,” She could practically hear the grin in his face.

“You bastard,” She narrowed her eyes. “You sick bastard!”

“Flattery will get you everywhere,”

“You're watching us, aren't you?” She seethed. Their greatest enemy had been with them the entire time, yet none of them could do a thing about it.

“Of course not. I've been busy, getting things ready,” He continued. She glared up into his glowing eyes. “You might want to change your expression or your face will get stuck that way,” He said suddenly.

“Shut up,” She snapped. “What the hell do you want?”

“That is a secret,” He said cheerfully.

“You wanna fight or something?!” She asked, angrily. “I'll fight you, right now!”

“As fun as that might be, no.” His eyes vanished and Ranma blinked. Before she knew it, a feeling of incredible exhaustion crept up on her, and she felt herself falling asleep.

-

Ranma opened her eyes and sat up, looking around. She blinked as she took in her surroundings. She was in a field of flowers with a light breeze, yet it was warm and she did not seem to notice the breeze. She looked around in confusion before she realized where she was. She turned around and looked up at a familiar palace.

“That's…”

“Where you must go.” The voice came from behind her and she instantly and literally leapt into action, jumping backwards with her foot raised for a kick. She blinked as she passed through nothing. The man started laughing and she looked up at him in disdain as she growled. He smirked down at her. “Is that any way for you to act when you're dressed as you are?” Ranma looked down and realized what she was wearing.

`Frilly' didn't come close to describing it. To Ranma, it was an abhorrent abomination that could only have been spewed from the very bowels of the deepest pit of all the hells. Anyone else would have seen a pale regal gown that flowed down to her ankles, waving in the gentle wind. Ranma blinked and noticed her hair had turned a lighter shade of red; not pink, but more like a reddish-white color, and that it also was not in the usual pig-tail, but was tied into twin ponytails that when she felt, recognized as being the same style Usagi and Usagi constantly wore.

“What the hell is going on?” She muttered. “I don't understand you at all. First you're trying to kill my friends, then you beat me up, and now you're trying to help me. What is your problem?” She asked as he floated down to the ground.

“I wasn't lying when I said you'd lose control if you didn't let me back into you,” He ignored her and turned to face the castle. “As for beating up your friends… Well, I've been fed up with them all for quite a while. They deserved it, if not worse.” He snorted.

“That's not true. You nearly killed them all. And in that other dream world, you…” She growled as she remembered how easily he'd decimated her, Cologne, Ryouga, and even that guy who… neither claimed nor denied godhood.

“Okay, I lied. Sue me.” He smirked. “I did it for the hell of it. There, you happy?” Ranma-chan growled but for some reason could not bring herself to strike him. He shrugged. “Pallas… I was actually surprised that Pallas didn't recognize me right away, at first.”

“You know him?”

“Oh yeah,” he said with a bitter laugh. “We go way back.” He turned to face her. “You know, `gods' are no better than `demons'. When you really need them, they don't do jack shit, and when you don't need them, they annoy the hell out of you. If you anger them, they `smite' you. Smite being another word for murder, by the way.” He shrugged before turning to face the palace again. “He is a god, or at least as close to it you can be without being one. And like other `gods', when a great number of people needed him, he ignored them. I have no respect for the guy.” Ranma looked at him in confusion before sighing and walking over to join him.

“Who…who are you?” She asked as she looked at him. “There's no way you just…came from me.” She crossed her arms and frowned at him.

“Finally, the question I've been waiting for,” He said in a dead voice. “You took long enough, you know.”

“Well?”

“How to begin, how to begin…” He turned to face her, and she blinked as his all-black ensemble rapidly melted into a pale, silver-white color. His hair matched it as well, and she blinked at his now sapphire eyes. “Once upon a time, you and I were siblings. Twins, actually,” He smirked. “We appear now as we did then.” She blinked and then her eyes widened as she looked down at herself.

“W-what?!” She growled as she whipped her head up and looked into his laughing eyes.

“It's true, you know. You were a girl originally. My twin sister.”

“That's impossible!” She growled.

“We were originally two souls. You are the product of those two fusing, but only have half that soul right now. The technicalities of it all are frivolous.”

“How is it you broke off from me?” She asked angrily.

“It's simple. Our souls fused when we died, but began to separate when you started getting complacent with your shitty life. Once I reached a full awareness, I decided that this was no way for me to live. I came up with a few plans to separate from you, or at least gain some amount of control, but none of them ever worked, really. Then one day, I got lucky, and that evil little jewel found its way into your body. Taking total control then was one of the easiest things I've ever done.

“When I was defeated, I used the last of our remaining energy to create a weak construct based heavily on some odd anomaly in our current DNA. Before, our souls were more or less split, but now I'd ripped them fully apart. It had ramifications that I could not have possibly known, though.” He turned to face her with a tired look. “I won't last more than three months if we don't combine again, and you yourself won't last much longer than that.”

“W-what?”

“We'll both die if we don't recombine, Ranma. You'll go insane first, though.” He shrugged.

“You can't be serious,” She growled.

“It all comes back to light and darkness,” The boy said. “One can not exist without the other. The seeds of each remains in the other to serve as a reminder to that.”

“…” Ranma was silent as she contemplated his words. He was right; Yin could not exist without Yang. She'd begun to notice her aura's shift several nights before, an imbalance that eventually, caused her to lose control of her emotions in an embarrassing display. “What can you tell me about my past life?” She asked.

“You're beginning to understand,” the other said. “I will unlock the stream to both of our memories, and tell you enough to get you started. You must remember the rest on your own. Emilio, Vladimir and Soren were able to remember things because they didn't have the stress of having their souls split.”

“Don't think this means that I like or even trust you,” She growled, looking away. “If I find a way to live without you…”

“You're a fool. If there was a way for us to live separately, you'd have died long ago.” There was nothing but utter seriousness in his voice.

-

Ranma awoke with a start. The room was lit in a way that resembled early morning light, but there was no visible source for the light. Once again, she scratched her head in confusion at that and sighed, wishing she could remember how it worked. She glanced up at the ceiling and hopped out of bed to put on her slippers before walking towards the bathroom as she yawned. She rinsed her face with some warm water to wake herself up and grumbled when she didn't transform. She walked out of the bathroom, left her room, and then walked over to the one they'd all been in the night before.

Ryouga and Kuno were both sitting on the ground, dressed in oddly familiar uniforms. They were a very dark shade of blue -- she'd almost mistaken it for black, and had no visible seams or threads. It appeared to be comfortable, yet wasn't skin-tight or ridiculously loose.

“Yo,” Ranma blinked as her hand rose up in greeting. “What's with the uniform?”

“We're going to scope out the ship,” Kuno explained. “This area may be low-maintenance, but others will be brimming with crew members now. It's best to go incognito.”

“Oh.” Ranma blinked. “You two are going out alone?”

“Well…” Ryouga started. “You could come, but it would be best if you stayed here. If someone found Akane and Nabiki before we could give them a translator, they'd be… well, I think you know,”

“Un,” she said, biting her lip. “All right. Do you have more than those?” She asked.

“We have three others. They fit all sizes,” Kuno said, motioning towards one of the beds, where three large boxes could be seen. “We will have to leave soon, and I'd rather not attract too much attention when we do.” He stood up and Ryouga followed suit. They both messed with their hair until it covered their ears. It was then that she noticed the two had done something to their hair to make it lighter. Kuno noticed her confused look. “Dark hair is extremely rare in these times, to the point that the ship's captain would know how many he has on his ship. We're trying to keep a low profile.” Ranma blinked and nodded, assuming he'd found out that much from using the computer.

-

Moments later, Kuno and Ryouga were both standing amongst a crowd of people.

“What the heck are we doing, anyway?” Ryouga asked as he followed Kuno's lead through a huge dome like structure.

“Reconnaissance. The panel in our room did not have the clearance necessary to get the information we need.”

“Uh right,” Ryouga said nervously. The people all around them were all caught in their own little conversations, and the combined sound was little more than a dull roar one would expect of a crowd this size. That didn't change the fact that it was unsettling to him; they used words he should not have in any way known, yet did, with unnerving clarity. The bits and pieces of the conversations he understood, he found himself agreeing and disagreeing with several people that flew around. It was annoying and disturbing at the same time. “Where exactly are we going?” He asked. He realized he was speaking in the odd language that he couldn't even remember the name for. `May as well just call it 'Tsukigo' or something, jeez,' Kuno sighed.

“That's not important, Hibiki. Just do as I tell you, and we might survive.”

“Whatever,” Ryouga responded, a little annoyed. “Why do you even need me?”

“I don't,” Kuno started. Ryouga looked at him, confused.

“Then why…”

“It was the best choice. Left alone with Akane, things might have escalated.” Ryouga opened his mouth to argue, but could not. Things between him and Akane would never be the same, and it probably wouldn't have been best for him to be near her so soon after her discovery. After all, he had not only revealed himself to be much worse than she'd ever thought possible, he'd betrayed her in countless ways and practically murdered one of her closest friends. He'd always acknowledged that the time might come, but never went this far with that thought. Throughout the course of the day before, his mood had been worsening and was now at it's worst, possibly worst ever. He didn't seem to notice people staring at him until someone spoke up to Kuno.

“Is your friend okay?” a woman asked him, concerned.

“He gets like this at times,” Kuno said rather nonchalantly. He glanced over at Ryouga and then looked her in the eyes, then leaned in and whispered to her, “His life hasn't necessarily been the best, you see. He's a kind soul though, to a fault even, and would feel even worse if people were to try and help him. He only gets better when you ignore it,” he said in mock despair. She gave him a sympathetic look and a nod before backing off. “Emilio, come. We've wasted enough time here. We must get back to work,” He said, forcefully grabbing his companion's arm and leading him into a double door.

Once they were through the double door, Ryouga looked up at Kuno, angry.

“What was that just now?”

“I should be asking you that.”

“What?” Ryouga asked, taken aback.

“We need to keep a low profile, Hibiki.” Kuno said, annoyed.

“Well? I was just minding my own business. I don't really look that bad, do I?”

“You were nearly glowing in there.”

“W-what?” Ryouga asked, concerned. “Did I blow our cover?”

“Evidently not, but if you keep talking about it, you will,” Kuno said, grabbing his arm and leading him away again. “Listen, just do as I say and hopefully things will run smoothly.” He released his partner's arm and started walking in a set direction down a corridor. Ryouga growled as he followed the other boy.

“Hey, listen, Kuno…”

“Hibiki,” Kuno started as he stopped at a door. It shot up and Kuno dragged Ryouga in behind him. When the door shut, he continued. “Remember Saotome's words. We can not afford to split our power here, let alone set it against each other.”

“Well okay,” Ryouga said. “However, while that may be true, I'll not just allow you to order me around… Hey, wait. `Saotome'? Since when do you call `the pigtailed girl' by her name?”

“I suppose I can understand your not wanting to follow my orders,” Kuno said, ignoring his second question. “However, as I am not only your senior, I also have a clear mission in my mind with objectives and a goal, it would be in your best interests to do as I say,”

“…Fine,” Ryouga sighed. “But what is our `goal?' You still haven't told me much, other than that we were going to be looking around.

“That… I can't tell you. But know that I am one hundred percent certain of what will come to pass,” Kuno said.

“… All right,” Ryouga ceded. “I… trust you.”

“Good.” Kuno nodded and led his companion out of the room and continued in the direction he'd started in. A little while later, they walked into another room. Several people in different uniforms looked up at them. One of them, a white haired woman wearing glasses, approached them from the sides.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked pointedly.

“Uh,” Ryouga said intelligently, looking at Kuno nervously.

“We're to inspect these consoles,” he said. “Vladimir was very specific in telling us not to tell anyone why we had to. Especially, for some unknown reason, the head researcher.” He said with a lazy look.

“Again?” the woman muttered. “Doesn't he trust me to run this station? Ten years and yet still…” She sighed in exasperation and she covered her face with a hand.

“Professor Sage, what should we do?”

“You're on break until these two jokers are done,” she said in a tone that gave away her impatience. There was a group cheer as well as a few sighs as people filed out of the room. She crossed her arms and tapped her foot as she stood back and Kuno approached one of the consoles.

“We'll only be a minute,”

“Whatever,” the woman snorted. She turned her gaze to Ryouga, who only nervously smiled back in return. She rolled her eyes and walked away. “Listen, I'll be back in a few minutes. Don't hurt yourselves, now,” When the door shut behind her Kuno stopped what he was doing and looked at Ryouga. He inclined his head in one direction and Ryouga wordlessly followed him into another room. Kuno walked over to a desk and held up his hands as if he was about to type something. A nearly transparent keyboard appeared and he began inputting several commands at a speed Ryouga didn't know was possible.

“What the heck are you doing, anyway?” the fanged boy finally asked.

“I'm clearing the usage of five escape pods for a low profile evaluation. There will be no public notice and no one will know we're using them.”

“What?” Ryouga blinked. “Don't you need some kind of… clearance… to do something like that?”

“I have the proper authorization,” he said simply.

“Oh,” Ryouga said as he walked over to Kuno's shoulder and watched him. After a few seconds of watching, he suddenly knew exactly what the other boy was doing and was even able to read some of the commands that floated by at insane speeds. “Is there anything I should do?”

“Not at this moment, no.” Kuno stopped and looked at the holographic screen. “Hmm. This vessel is headed towards the capital…” He rubbed his chin and blinked at the screen several times.

“The capital?” Ryouga's eyes glazed over as an image became clear in his mind. Kuno glanced at him then turned his eyes back onto the screen.

`Something is wrong. My memories say that the human boy named Kuno was at large at the capital, and that Saotome and Tendo Nabiki joined him. However, as she is now, Nabiki could not do half of what she did, according to my memories. She has been far too lax on her training and… wait, wait. It took a month for them to arrive… as a matter of fact, they arrived the same day I did. Perhaps…' “Of course.” Ryouga was shaken out of his reverie by that sudden statement and he looked up at Ryouga. “It seems we won't all be going the same way…” he muttered.

“Huh? What's that, Kuno?” Ryouga asked.

“Nothing for you to worry about, Hibiki. I just remembered something, that is all.” The teen lied. After a few seconds of staring at the screen, he closed his eyes and input several more commands. “Hmm… this could be bad.” He said upon opening his eyes.

“What? What could be bad?” Ryouga said, suddenly worried.

“I seem to have made a miscalculation. The ship's personnel have detected my presence within the system. We must prepare to leave this ship at once, Hibiki.”

“W…what?” Ryouga asked, his eyes wide. “H-how is that possible?”

“Tsk tsk tsk,” Kuno started, raising a brow. “You did not think that after thousands of years of not using this brand of technology that I would be subject to a few errors? Really, Hibiki, think more realistically from now on.”

“Well great, now that you've screwed up your `mission', what are we going to do? I for one do not intend on becoming the prisoner of these alien people, be them our past relatives or not!” Ryoga said vehemently. `Hey, something's up with the way I'm talking…'

`On the contrary, everything is proceeding according to plan, Hibiki.' Kuno opened his eyes. “We should hurry and leave, then,” Kuno said, taking long, quick strides away from the computer. Ryouga hurriedly followed him out of the room and they passed the white haired woman, who blinked and took a step back in surprise.

“Hey, wait a minute,” She called after them. “What were you doing in there?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. Kuno spared her a glance and continued his strut. Ryouga looked back nervously and only increased his own speed. She sighed and shook her head before continuing into the smaller room. When she got to the computer station, she froze up. “What in the name of Serenity…” there was a brief pause as she took in the sight. “This is… Vladimir's interface…”

---

Ranma was lying back on her bed, looking up at the ceiling. She sat up and looked on in surprise as Kuno, followed by Ryouga, hurriedly walked into the room.

“What's up, guys?” She asked plainly.

“We need to leave,” Ryouga said hurriedly.

“Did you guys screw up or something?”

“You guys?” Ryouga asked angrily as he shifted a glare at Kuno.

“Oh…” Ranma-chan sighed as she followed the lost boy's gaze. “So what did stick boy do? Annoy entire female populace with his usual crap?”

“Not really,” Ryouga said, as a look passed over his face. `That's right; he didn't make a pass at any of the females…not even the one that deigned to speak with him for a brief moment, or that hot scientist…'

“It's not important,” Kuno said. “Where are the Tendo sisters? We have no time to waste,”

“They're in their own rooms, of course. I'll go get them. I'm guessing you know the way out?”

“Yes,” Kuno said. She nodded and left to get the girls and the two waited in the hall.

“We're still using the escape pods, right?” Ryouga asked.

“No. We must leave the way we came,” He said.

“What?” Ryouga asked, confused.

“The vessels we saw as we came in. We must use those.”

“Oh,” Ryouga said, sighing in relief. There was no way he'd have ever made it to the surface.

“We're not underwater anymore, Hibiki,” Kuno informed him.

“What? Then we're not…in space, are we?”

“No, we are not in outer space.”

“Then we're just flying.”

“Yes.”

“Okay! We're ready!” Akane's voice came. She and Nabiki followed Ranma out of one of the other rooms, both clad in uniforms. “We're leaving, right?”

“Finally,” Nabiki sighed. “Well, let's go,” They all started down the corridor just as the lights dimmed to red.

“We have confirmed the presence of humans aboard this vessel. All personnel are to report to briefing rooms A1, A2, and A3. I repeat…”

“Just how did they do that?” Ranma-chan cursed their luck.

“Kuno messed up, remember?” Ryoga reminded her.

“Well if it's from that…” She narrowed her eyes in thought. Something felt out of place…

“This way, pig-tailed girl!” Kuno's voice snapped her out of her reverie and she looked up. Kuno made a sudden turn and they followed him.

“How are we leaving again?” she asked.

“Escape pods, right?”

“Why would they let us use escape pods? Wouldn't that set off some kind of alarm?” Nabiki asked. Ryoga looked at Kuno.

“We need not concern ourselves with that,” Kuno said simply. “Just follow my lead, and we will survive… for now.” They all suddenly stopped at a door. It was lit up with a blue color and would not open as they approached it.

“What now?” Nabiki asked. “Is there an alternate route?”

“That will not be necessary,” Kuno said as he approached the door. He held up his hand and a holographic keypad appeared. He entered a series of digits at a blinding speed and the door slid open as the bluish glow dissipated. Kuno wasted no time in taking the lead, the others only took a second longer.

A while later, they came upon a long corridor that had a transparent material to serve as it's walls. All but Kuno paused to get a glimpse of the view beyond the `glass'. It filled them with awe- the window on the Kuno private jet had been a peephole in comparison to where they were now. The door behind them shut slowly and Kuno stood, waiting patiently at the other end.

“Why is this place all see through?”

“This is an airlock,” Kuno said simply. The group stared at him in confusion. “Some sections of the ship are detachable. We won't go flying out into the sky once this door opens,” He assured them. The red light above the door Kuno was waiting at turned green as the opposite occurred at the door they'd come in through. They all walked over to join him and as the door slowly opened, they all became aware of a strong wind. Their hair whipped about as the door opened, Kuno and Ranma both stepped out. Ranma narrowed her eyes and held up a hand to block the strong winds.

“What the heck is this?” Ranma asked. They were in a room identical to the one they'd come into the ship through; except instead of the moderately sized miniature vessels like those they had seen descend into the ocean after them, there were rows of capsule like pods of some sort.

“Are these the escape pods?” Ryoga asked. Although Kuno merely grunted a barely heard affirmative, Ranma felt there was something wrong.

`But wait… weren't the escape pods bigger? These…these are for special forces deployment, aren't they?' “Hey, Kuno, I think we made a wrong turn!” She said. “This is for the-”

“We are, without a doubt, in the correct area,” Kuno said in a firm voice. Ranma blinked and then nodded. “While it's true these will not exactly be luxurious, they will do in our current situation,” He said. He ran in a direction and they all followed him across the deck, careful not to fall down and into the apparently endless sky. “They will be even more subtle than our original plan,” he insisted.

`Of course- no one would expect us to escape in these! I knew your head had to be good for something!' Ranma smirked as she stood before one of the vessels. They were roughly ten feet tall, and wide enough for minimal body movement. She opened one and nearly stepped into it when Kuno put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. “Eh?”

“I had already prepped some for our departure prior to arrival,”

“Really?” Ranma blinked. “Where are they?”

“Right here,” He said, motioning for them to follow him. Five of them were already open and waiting for the group to get in. “Tendo Akane, Tendo Nabiki, allow me to assist you-“

“That's okay, Kuno-baby,” Nabiki said, waving him off as she stepped into one. “I think I can figure this out on my own, thank you very much.”

“Ah…” Kuno nodded. “Of course.

“Err,” Akane blinked. “I'm not so sure…”

“Here,” Kuno said, grabbing her by the hand. He set her into one of the devices and handed her a small device that resembled an earpiece. “Wear this.” She nodded and did as he said as the door started closing. “We'll meet again, soon, my fair Tigress.” She only boredly nodded and rolled her eyes. Ranma and Ryoga had already gotten into their own. Kuno nodded at them and approached his own. Ryoga and Ranma's pods closed. Kuno stopped briefly before the last one, and then kept walking. Four of the pods behind him fell down into the sky and he spared a look below him before he continued.

---

“What happened?” groaned a female voice.

“I'm not quite sure,” grunted a male voice. Ranma quickly recognized it as Ryouga and groaned as sensation finally came back to his body. He slowly opened his eyes and looked around for the sources of the voices, trying to dull the sensations of pain coursing throughout his entire body. Ranma looked around in confusion. They were surrounded on all sides by vegetation. Deployment pods weren't exactly meant for the gentlest of landings and it was showing now in how their bones ached.

“Oh yeah…those weird escape pods… Man, intergalactic space travel and you still can't get first class for cheap,” she muttered.

“Hey,” Ranma started, realizing something. “Where's Akane? Kuno?” He looked around in confusion. `Hey, why am I male?' He looked down at himself and realized something. `This place is more humid than any valley in China! Man, this will not be working in my favor…but still, how long were we out, even? I thought I still had a little while to go…'

“Maybe they landed somewhere else,” Nabiki suggested. “It's a wonder the three of us landed here, together.” She sighed, looking at the three of their pods. “My legs hurt like hell,” she grumbled.

“Eh..” Ranma looked around. “Where is here, anyway?”

“That's a familiar line,” Ryouga said, reminiscing. “We fell off of the Cerellius, but the area below us was nothing but rural land. This jungle for one, maybe a village or two.”

“Hmm,” Ranma rubbed his chin. “I'm gonna go look around,” He said. “I don't know what it could be, but I have a feeling about this place. Something familiar.” He glanced at Ryouga and Nabiki, of whom the former snorted.

“We'll be fine without you, for a few minutes, Saotome.” Ryouga snorted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ranma nodded and he turned again. “I'll be right back,” he said as he vanished. Ryouga looked at Nabiki and sighed. He sat down by the injured girl, glancing at her leg. The bones were set straight, and she'd heal, but that didn't change the fact that she was hurt. Although the shiatsu Ranma had done had rendered her mostly numb to the pain, there was no way she'd be able to move if something happened.

`That's right,' Ryouga thought. `This planet may be different, but we're in the wilderness. Anything could happen.'

“I don't need you to baby me like this,” Nabiki said in irritation.

“I'm just sitting here,” Ryouga said, frowning.

“It's obvious you want to do something. I'm not some damsel in distress. I leave that to my sister.”

“Of course,” Ryouga muttered, looking away.

-

Ranma looked over some tree branches. He was settled in a huge tree, watching something.

“A jungle village. How quaint.”

He watched the people below with interest. They were speaking that…whatever language, and the signs were written in the same. He strained his ears to hear what was being said. “They know we're here… well, really, who'd have missed something like three people falling from the sky?” he pondered going out when he remembered his appearance. “Wait a minute. I have this torn uniform, and my hair is…no. Too dark… Maybe there's…” He looked around and spotted a pond rather easily. “That's good.” He leapt down from the tree, still cloaked in the Umisenken's invisibility technique, and walked into the clearing.

It only took him a few seconds to realize that people had stopped talking and were mostly staring at him now. He stopped walking and looked around at all of them, awkwardly. `They can see me?' He blinked as he noticed the people's eyes tracking his movements.

Ranma blinked again, slowing down to a stop as the villagers looked at him.

“Uh…” He rubbed his head in the usual fashion. “I'm Ranma Saotome…sorry ab…” He stopped his usual introduction and blinked, as the all too familiar feeling of animosity washed over him in sudden waves. “Uh…yeah.” He turned around and started walking the other way. The hair on his neck bristled and he started jogging, but soon broke out into a full sprint. He leapt up into the trees, hopping from branch to branch.

-

Ryouga suddenly froze. Nabiki turned to face him and blinked.

“Is something-” he held up a finger to his mouth to silence her and suddenly grabbed her arm, lifting her to her feet. She bit back a cry of pain in fear of the consequences, and he grabbed her and leapt straight up, into one of the lower branches. Seconds later, a group of oddly dressed people passed under them. The people stopped moving as they entered the clearing and looked around.

Nabiki strained to hear what was being said, but realized that her damaged translator wasn't doing anything to help her understand them. She looked at Ryouga who looked down at the group with a wary eye, careful to keep both of them still. The group talked for a few minutes and then split into two more groups, going in two opposite directions. Once they were gone, the two teens let out their breath.

“What the heck was that about?” Nabiki asked her guardian.

“They saw Ranma,” he muttered.

“Oh. Great, leave it to Saotome to make First Contact,” she muttered. “He probably accidentally engaged himself to all of their women and insulted their men,”

“That sounds like him, but no,” Ryouga said carefully. “That was a hunting party, definitely. From what they said, I can tell that they do not like humans at all.”

“Hunting party… to hunt humans. Great, we're on the planet of the apes,” she said, disgustedly.

“More or less,” he agreed, sighing. “It would probably be best to stay up here.” He told her.

-

Ranma looked over his shoulder and panted as he tried to remember what he could have done to set them off.

`I walked into their village. While invisible. Then I left.' He made a sarcastic look of realization. `Oh yes. Walking into a rural village while being Ranma Saotome… there's absolutely no greater offense.' He sighed and looked around. `I've got to find some water...my hair's too dark like this and my ears aren't doing me any favors...although I think they'll recognize the uniform...' He stopped, frowning. `That's right. How did they see me? I was invisible. They must have some kind of extra sense. Think; what kind of senses did the natives of this planet have...I mean, I used to be one of them, shouldn't be too hard...' He only sighed when he came up with blanks and looked around, realizing something.

`Crap, the trail I left to those two is useless if I don't know where I am now!' He cursed and looked around. `Where the hell am I?' He tried to consider his options. He could pull a Ryouga by picking one direction and sticking to it until he hit civilization again, but the end result of that would just not do. So first he had to find water. He started walking through the trees, looking around in vain for any signs of his trail.

----

Nabiki sat in silence, looking up at the sky. Ranma had left both her and Ryouga hours ago, and Ryouga had gone out looking for him despite her protests at least more than one or two ago. The sky was darkening as the sun set, and the air was becoming much colder. She was starving, dehydrated, her body was aching and the only thing even resembling civilization was looking to skin her and all of her kind. To be blunt, things looked very, very bleak for the middle Tendo.

All alone in the wilderness with her chaperones missing and absolutely no hope of doing anything on her own... She was far more used to having more control over her situation, especially with modern conveniences. She wasn't quite the heartless wretch many people made her out to be, but it was still unnerving for her to have fallen this far.

“Hey,” came a voice she recognized. She looked down and saw Ryouga on the ground. He was holding an assortment of various round and colorful shapes that she assumed to be fruit. “You can come down from there,” he said.

“Come down from here?” She repeated, wishing he could see her face. Having a spasm in your eyes didn't quite help when no one could see it. “How the hell do you expect me to do that, Hibiki?”

“Jump...oh wait,” he sighed, putting the fruit down. “I'll be right up,” he said. Seconds later, Nabiki was gratefully on the ground besides her savior, before those wonderful looking shapes. She warily grabbed one and inspected it.

“How the hell did you find this?” she asked. She looked over the assorted fruits again in confusion. She recognized several of them - bananas, grapes, and a melon look-alike...there was an orange one that she didn't recognize, though.

“The bananas are really bananas,” he said. She looked at him in confusion. “The grapes are actually called amango, I've never tasted this kind of melon before, and this is called kirima,”

“How the hell do you know that?” she asked.

“I just do,” he shrugged. “They're all edible, but the amango is full of seeds,” She made a note not to touch the purple things. “I already ate on the way back, so you can go ahead and eat whatever you want.” She glanced up at him in thanks and ripped into the banana, being that it was the only one she actually knew. While she was chewing, she slowly came to a realization.

“Wait just a minute. How did you find me?”

“I left a trail of bandanas,” he said sheepishly. “This jungle mutes our individual chi, so I couldn't lock on to you…”

“No way was that enough,” she muttered, swallowing the mushy fruit. “Your directional sense is legendary. So how?” She took another bite of the banana.

“Oh...that. That stopped almost two weeks ago,” he shrugged.

“It... jutht up and thtopped?” she practically gawked at him. Getting the fruit into her belly was more important at the moment, however, so she merely continued to work the food in her mouth.

“Yeah,” he said, uncomfortably. “Could we not talk about that?” He asked. He was met with a slow nod and silence. When the girl had eaten as much of the fruit as she could stomach, they sat together in the silence. The sky was fully darkened by now, and Ranma still had yet to show. The silence stretched for what Nabiki estimated to be at least twenty minutes before she interrupted it.

“What do you think happened to Ranma?” Nabiki asked finally. “You think maybe he was captured? Those people haven't been by here recently. I think they stopped looking for him.”

“They're definitely still looking for him,” Ryouga sighed. “Like I said earlier, the jungle stops me from feeling his energy, but I know he's still moving around on his own.”

“Really,” Nabiki sighed. There was a brief pause before she spoke up again. “Ryouga...what are the chances we're going to get out of this alive?” She asked in a serious voice. Ryouga looked at her in what she interpreted as a joking way. He was barely hiding a smirk; his mouth kept twitching. “What the hell's so funny?”

“One night of the great outdoors and you're asking me if we're going to survive? Didn't you at least used to be a martial artist?” he asked.

“I'm serious,” She growled. “We're not in the great outdoors, Hibiki. We're stranded on a strange planet who knows how far from Earth in a strange time with savages looking to possibly eat us or something.”

“Yeah, but answer the question,” he said, totally ignoring her.

“I was,” she said, frowning in annoyance. “Up until I got my first black belt. Kasumi and I both quit at that time, though, because we were beginning to become more sophisticated than that silly punching and kicking you and the others find so amusing,”

“Is that when your father stopped training Akane?” he asked seriously.

“Yeah. He tried not to be obvious about it, but he really lost faith in her when the two of us quit, saying that she would just go and do the same thing. You know how that turned out,” she drawled.

“She's still obsessed with martial arts, but only as good as she was when the two of you quit,” he noted. “I was wondering how that had happened. Tendo-San seems to be more or less on par with Ranma's father. How long ago did you quit, anyway?”

“About...I dunno, five years ago?” She sighed.

“When's the last time you were ever even in a dojo to seriously train?”

“At least four,” she sighed again. “When we stopped doing the daily thing, I was still going once a week. Don't even do that now,” she admitted.

“That's not too horrible. Ranma and I can whip you into shape, no problem,” He said confidently.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“We're going to be in the wilderness for who knows how long. It would be ideal if you could protect yourself.”

“You can't be serious,” she muttered.

“As soon as you can stand, we're going to see how much of the Art you've retained.”

“Oh brother,” she sighed, putting a hand on her head to stop the incoming migraine.

It didn't work.

-

Ranma looked at the glowing, green water in awe.

“Well, at least it's water...” he mused as he approached it. In the center was a tall tree whose roots were visible in the water. Several fruit for which the name lingered on the tip of his tongue, but he wasn't able to quite remember. He knelt over the water and inspected it whistling. He drug his finger through it and blinked. It was a little... thicker than water, and warm to boot. It was actually warmer than the cold, night air around him. He withdrew his finger and blinked; the liquid dripped from his finger, leaving his finger completely dry.

“Hey... there's something about the chi of that tree,” he muttered. Upon closer inspection, he found that the tree was full of another odd, chi like energy and that it was seeping out into the water. “Mana?” He muttered, confused. “The water is saturated with the tree's Mana...” He blinked. “How do I know that? Why does it matter?” He shrugged and reached for one of the fruit that was floating in the water.

It was just out of his reach and he realized he was becoming a bit off balance. Just as he made to move back, another fruit fell, hitting him flat on the back of the head.

“Whoa!” His eyes flew open and he fell into the water. He scrambled up and blinked several times to get the stuff out of his eyes. “Ugggh!” He moaned as he realized he was entirely covered in the stuff. He sighed as it all slowly dripped away from him. “Well gross.” He ran a hand through his hair and blinked. It was totally dry. `That stuff...how weird,' he shook his head and looked around. The air was cold, yet the thick liquid substance was warm. He lowered himself down to his neck and relaxed. It wasn't furo warm, but it was better than freezing.

The search parties had stopped for now, he still had no idea where Ryouga and Nabiki were, and he still had no idea where he was. His plans had been to turn into a girl, stumble into the village, and ask them where they were while claiming to be an officer of the Cerellius two who'd somehow survived falling out of the ship with a group of humans who'd snuck aboard some how. The sight of his male form added credence to that story, but apparently cold water was a hard thing to come by in a jungle.

`So I still have to find some water. I thought it'd be easy, but this...' He frowned into the glowing, green liquid. He absently grabbed one of the reddish fruit and bit into it. Recognition flooded over him and he looked at the fruit in his hand. “Ymir fruit?” He screwed up his face in confusion. “What's this doing here?” another one fell into the liquid with a splash. “Huh. Whatever.” He finished the fruit completely and sighed, leaning back.

“What to do from here...” He looked around in boredom and his eyes stopped at the tree. At it's base was a massive hole that the roots went down into. He looked around, took a breath, and submerged his head. He swam over to it and investigated it. `What the hell does this go to?' He blinked, rubbing his head under the water. It was obviously not natural; the shape was too perfect and there were no visible pot marks in the wall of it. He looked around again before swimming down into the hole.

Inside was something rather confusing.

The roots of the tree went along the entire enclosure. The glow from the liquid was bright enough that he could see without having to use his chi to make a light. None of this was too confusing.

The bottom of the `shaft' turned into a corridor. The water filled it to the brim, and the other end of the corridor faded in the distance. `What's this for, even?' The corridor was too long to swim through; a normal person would drown on the way. Ranma was a fast swimmer and could hold his breath far longer than the average person, but he still wasn't going to go into a corridor that could possibly end up lasting longer than him.

He shrugged and started swimming up. It had been an interesting but useless find. Suddenly, he snagged on one of the roots and blinked. He looked down at his foot in confusion. One of the roots had somehow snaked around it. He mentally sighed and tried to get it from out of the root, patiently. The root merely seemed to squeeze tighter. He frowned; this kind of stuff only usually happened when you panicked. He mentally sighed again, punching through it with a chi-enhanced fist. The root broke off easily, and he rolled his eyes as he started swimming up.

Another root shot out and grabbed him. He growled, momentarily surprised by the bubbles that came as a result, as he ripped that one off as well. Suddenly, tons of roots all shot out and grabbed him, pulling his flailing limbs in all directions. He struggled to get loose; tearing many of the roots apart only to have two more take its place. He started feeling lightheaded and immediately knew what was happening. He frowned; this wasn't how he'd imagined dying, but whom could he really blame for having dived into a suspicious green pool of water? He went limp and the roots responded by drawing away slightly. After a few seconds, they had completely left him alone. `Self defense,' he realized as he started swimming up weakly. `But it's too late. Dammit…' he couldn't find the energy to be upset as he felt the air leave his lungs in a great big bubble. He inhaled the heavy liquid and felt himself sinking.

Ten seconds later, he blinked in confusion and bent his head to look at his hands. He tested his fingers by flexing them and realized that yes: he was still alive. He shook his head and started swimming back up, this time careful not to agitate the roots. Once he made it to the surface, he exhaled the liquid bit by bit and inhaled some air, then stared down at his rippling reflection in confusion.

“What the hell?”

-

Ryouga looked down from the huge, colorful moon of this planet. Nabiki was shivering in the cold, and her breath was visible. Her teeth weren't chattering, but that was more from control on her part.

“Are you all right?” he asked the older girl.

“I'm freezing, lost on a planet with murderous elves in the middle of a forest or some such,” she snapped. “Do you think I'm all right?”

“Sheesh, what can I do about it? Say `sorry Ranma's evil twin decided to toss us into some survival game' or some such?”

“That's a start,” she retorted.

“No way in hell,” he said. “I'm not Saotome's scapegoat, and I'm definitely not that other guy's, either.” He frowned at her as she continued to look angry with him. “It's not my fault we're out here. What the hell is your problem with me?” She merely glared at him in response and he shook his head. “We can't risk a fire, and you know why,”

“Besides being surrounded by trees and the like, yes, I know why,” she said.

“That could be easily fixed, but yeah.” He looked back up at the moon. “Hey, Nabiki,” He said, suddenly. She looked at him with a raised brow before answering him.

“What?”

“Why is this planet's moon so much bigger than ours? And why the hell is it so colorful?” He asked. Nabiki rolled her eyes as she looked up.

“Why the hell would I know, Hibi…” Her jaw slowly fell slack with realization. Ryouga noticed she'd stopped and turned down to face her.

“What is it?”

“That's not a moon, Hibiki.” She said. “That would explain the size.”

“What is it?”

“That's a planet.”

“A…planet.” He looked up at it in confusion. Nabiki rolled her eyes, readying herself to explain to the martial artist what a planet was. “That's not possible.” She blinked as she processed what he'd said.

“Yes it is,” She said lowly.

“How? Wouldn't gravity make the two collide?”

“Usually, yes, or I think so, anyway; not too sure on that part. The fact remains that we're possibly thousands, maybe millions of years in the past, though, so who knows what kind of alien technology exists.”

“Oh. I guess it's possible.” He shook his head. “Still, amazing.”

“Actually, that's not it, though.” Ryouga finally registered her quiet voice and looked over at her. “Ryouga… that's not just any planet,” she said wearily. “That's Earth.” Ryouga's eyes shot back up to the planet and he tried to recognize it as so. “You can see Europe and Africa from here…I think those are clouds covering up the rest right now…” His eyes glazed over with recognition.

“If that's Earth…” Ryouga started.

“We're on the Moon.”

-

Ranma walked along the corridor in awe. Since discovering he could breath the bright green substance that was almost water, he'd decided to investigate the corridor further. Minutes after he'd started breathing it in, the liquid became clear, as if it was air. His lungs were still getting used to the concept of something heavier than air, though.

“This is amazing,” He tried saying. Of course, it didn't work; a vocal chord worked by producing vibrations in the air, and right now he was underwater with no air to speak of. He could hear himself, but the sound probably dissipated by the time it hit the ground. He leapt forward and was met with the resistance one would expect underwater. He swam a little bit, spinning around several times and easily doing things he might have had to strain to do otherwise. He realized then that the other end of the long round hall was finally in sight.

He swam towards it upside down, and looked around when he arrived. There was another shaft nearly identical to the one he had been in before, except this one had no roots. He swam up and eventually met air. He looked around and realized he was still in the shaft, surrounded by stones arranged in a brick like pattern. He looked up as he became accustomed to breathing in the gassy oxygen, rather than the heavy liquid. The pig-tailed boy looked up and noticed the stars in the distance.

“Is it that late?” He asked himself. “Hey, I think this is a well or something. Wonder why it would lead to that?” He looked around for something to grab onto, but to his disappointment, found nothing. The top of the well was too far to reach, and swimming back would be a pain. He looked around and quickly formulated a plan for which to get out. `It's an enclosed space. The walls are close enough together for me to jump up from one to the next. Problem is, how do I get that much upwards momentum from water?'

An idea came to him and he looked down. The water was deep enough for him to get a swimming start - boosting his legs with chi and their natural strength would make getting up easy. He held his breath as he swam down to make things a little easier, and once he was far enough, started swimming up. He flew up from the water and instantly went to work, jumping from wall to wall. After nearly twenty seconds of that, he made it to the top and, panting, pulled himself over. He sat at the base of the well on the ground for a few minutes as he gathered himself.

“Huh,” He said, as he stood up. “This is familiar…” He looked around and realized where he was. “Oh crap.”

In the village.

Ranma stood up and hastily engaged the cloak of his father's sealed technique. It was true that he had `sealed' the school, but right now it had a practical use that could end up saving his life, and the lives of whoever else could be saved. He found himself wondering just how everyone else was doing. Nabiki and Ryouga were safe; that was definite. The last they had seen of Kuno was on the ship, and while he was certain the older boy had also escaped, there was a chance…no, that was impossible. No one had been there when they'd left. That left…

Akane. She had been put in a deployment pod for sure. Kuno hadn't told them where the pods were all set to go, so for all he knew Akane was all alone in some possibly safe place on a strange planet and no knowledge of the people on it.

'Man, this is sucking more and more,' He found himself thinking as he took a few precautionary steps towards the village. For some reason, it was far less humid, and the vegetation around it wasn't as wild. There was a small manmade river that ran through it in most parts, though he couldn't see where either end led to at that point. He jumped into it, and sighed in relief as the change instantly overtook him. 'Now they won't jump at me with spears just from the sight of my hair,' She said as she climbed out of the water. She took her hair out of the pigtail ran her fingers through it a few times before moving it to the side of her head to cover her ears.

She dropped her cloak; after all, if she was going to use hear earlier alibi of looking for a criminal rather than actually being one, stealth was not the way to go. Instead, asking around if the natives had seen a human traipsing around in a stolen uniform would more likely yield positive results.

Ranma stopped at some steps and looked up at the building. It was fairly loud inside, and there was a sign right on the door that read `pub'. She walked up the steps and pushed open the double doors, looking around. Only a few people glanced at her, and those that did immediately turned back to whatever they were doing. The room wasn't too well lit, but it still managed a cheery atmosphere, and Ranma could tell that only one or two tables had something alcoholic on it. The people continued talking as if she was not there, which was a good sign. She continued walking in and sat down at a stool.

“You look like hell,” the bartender said conversationally. The platinum blond didn't look a day over eighteen, but his aura was incredibly… balanced for someone so young, even more so than her own.

“I know,” she muttered.

“Hmm, what'll it be?”

“Actually, some plain water would be nice,” she said. Seconds later she had a glass of water.

“So what brings a soldier like you out here? Field work?”

“Eh? Actually, I'm after someone.” She said levelly.

“By yourself?” The man asked, raising a brow.

“Well, that's not how it was originally,” she said defensively. “We were escorting him to the nearest city to have him prosecuted, but he escaped and took out most of my crew,” she said. “He stole one of our uniforms thinking it might help, and left. I've been tracking him for days,” She said stonily.

“So it's more a case of revenge now,” the man said, calmly. “There was a human here who fit that description, but there was something incredibly odd about him. Although his Mana signature was unmistakably a human's, it was almost as if he wasn't there.”

“That's definitely him,” she said. “He's a spy, see, he has stealth techniques,”

“I didn't know the rebels were still actively trying to take on the Moon Kingdom,”

“Yeah, well… some people just don't know when to quit,” she said. He rolled his eyes in agreement.

“Know what you mean. Those people are so stubborn,”

“Yeah. Now, onto the reason I came here,” she said. “I need a run down of which direction he approached from, the direction he left in, and actually, it would help a lot knowing where here is too,” she said. “My geography isn't the greatest, so I really have no idea where I am,” she said sheepishly.

“City girl at it's worst, eh?” the man smirked. He lost the grin after a few seconds and put a hand on his chin, with a nostalgic look about him. “Well, we don't really have a name for this place, but it's called Seima Reishin by others,” he said, as if the name left a nasty taste in his mouth.

“O-oh?” She said, furrowing her brows as she focused on her glass of water. His face went grim at her reaction. `Weird name, why is it Japanese, and…' He looked like he was about to say something, but Ranma started before he could. “Where have I heard that before?” she muttered to herself.

“Wha?” the man looked at her incredulously. “You really are bad with geography, aren't you? How'd you get out of the academy with such a deficit?”

“Hey!” She said, offended. The guy muttered something about beauty taking people too far these days and sighed.

“Listen, it's not that important. The guy you're after came from east of here and ran north when he left.” He waved it off with a light smile.

“Okay, thanks,” she said, standing up. “Say, which direction leads out of this place? After I beat the crap out of him, I still have to take him in alive, but I've been going around and around and I can't find anything but jungle.”

“If you fly north, you should get there in a hour or so,” he looked at her, worriedly. “Don't you know how to use a ship's navigator? Or better yet, shouldn't that be automatic?”

“Hey! Shut up already!” She said, blushing.

“Yeesh,” He snickered at her loosely. “I'd hate to be your CO.”

“Well nobody asked you!” She said indignantly as she stood up. “I'll be leaving now, thanks!” She walked out in a huff, seemingly ignoring the people around her. When she got outside, she heard some wisecracks made at hers and the bartender's expense. As she walked to the north, several thoughts were coursing through her head. `Man was that lucky,' she thought to herself.

-

An hour later, She came to the campsite of Ryouga and Nabiki.

“Took you long enough, idiot.” The fanged boy said angrily.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ranma said, waving a hand. “You won't believe the things I've seen, though.”

“Ranma, after the things I've seen you do, I think I can handle a few measly jungle mysteries,”

“Oh. Yeah.” He frowned, before sitting down. “Well, there was this green stuff, right? It was glowing and…stuff. Anyway, I fell in, and drowned…”

“You drowned?”

“Yeah, got snagged in some tree roots. But it didn't matter, the water was breathable.”

“The water…” He looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “That's it?”

“Well, yeah, I guess. Man, that wasn't too amazing after all, was it?” She laughed, rubbing her head. “Say, where's Nabiki?” Ryouga wordlessly pointed to a bunch of leaves. “You buried her?”

“She buried herself.”

“Well, I suppose it would help retain some body heat,” Ranma said, raising a brow. Ryouga merely shrugged. “Listen, those guys won't be coming after us tonight.”

“Really? Why not?”

“They'll think I'm either dead or caught by someone else,” Ranma said non-chalantly. `And if not you can always be the mysterious prisoner. They couldn't really see me when I was there earlier.' “Let's catch some shut-eye, `kay?”

“If you say so, Saotome.”

---

Akane lay unconscious inside the escape pod.

“Ugh…what happened?” She groaned as she came to. She slowly blinked open her eyes and looked around. Her eyes opened suddenly as she realized where she was. “Damn,” she rubbed her head. Her vision was blurry and disoriented - everything was leaving a trail. When she was finally aware enough to do so, she surveyed her situation. The escape pod was wide enough for one person to lay in and comfortably move their hands to issue manual commands to the pod, and there was a monitor level with her eyes. “How the hell do I get out of here?” She sighed. “This isn't good at all.” Her eyes scanned the characters on the display before her and she scanned it carefully. The translator Kuno had given her was interfacing with the pod's computer to make it report in Japanese.

“Okay… Everything seems to be in working order… I think…” She looked at the computer. “How do I input a command? I want to get out of here,” she said. “Well first I want to know where I am, and where the others are…” The monitor gave her several readouts and responses. “Only this one launched?” her heart lurched. “D-does that mean I'm all alone? Uh, no other pods detected in the immediate vicinity…” the text scrolled down reading several more reports, but Akane could only sit there, empty.

“They… the others… they didn't make it?” The computer only continued it's noiseless scrolling of text and Akane felt the beginnings of tears in her eyes. There was a sudden beeping noise and she did her best to force back the liquid in her eyes as she focused on the screen before her. “…approaching the vessel… wait a minute, someone's coming?!” Her eyes widened with the implications of that. “How close are they? No less than thirty meters?! Augh, how am I supposed to get out and hide when they can see me doing it? Can you identify the life form? Is it hostile?” A face and profile appeared on the monitor, replacing all of the text. Her eyes slowly widened as she read the text on the file.

“Intent unknown. Target is within visible range of the vessel. How should I respond… Uh, what are the chances I will be able to peacefully negotiate with the person outside?” The chances read at 84. “Uh, I guess that's good enough. Open the door,” she said. There was a loud burst of air as the pressurized vessel opened its hatch.

“Hello! Are you all right?” came a familiar voice. Akane stood up from within the vessel and looked around for the source of the voice. “Over here! Hey!” She turned and her eyes fell on a very familiar face.

Ranma was standing there in a white outfit of some sort. His hair was silver, extremely long and out of its pigtail, but it was definitely he.

“Excuse me, are you uninjured?” Ranma asked as he moved over to her.

“I…I'm fine,” She said in a daze. “Ranma?” She muttered.

“Hmm? What's that?” The boy asked, confused.

“It's… you remind me of someone I know,” She said. “I'm sorry, but could you tell me who you are? Or even, where I am?”

“Oh, of course, my apologies.” The man took a step back and bowed deeply. When he stood up, he started talking again. “I am called Dai by my friends, and you are on Luna.”

“Lu…Luna?” Akane mouthed. “You mean… the moon?”

“Luna is a moon, yes,” He nodded.

“But…but…” she worked her mouth a few more times before her eyes promptly rolled back and she fainted.

“Oh dear,” the silver haired boy said. “This isn't good.” He spotted a device in her ear and frowned. “Maybe there's something wrong with her translator, yes?” He scratched his head and turned to face a random direction. “In any case, I should get back to Eliza.” His eyes went back to the girl on the ground. “But I can't leave her here…” He sighed and hefted the girl over his shoulder before turning and running off.

---

Morning came swiftly for Ranma's group. Though the moon's daily cycle was far different from Earth's, Ryouga remembered something about artificial climate and time control that the Senshi used. Putting aside his question as to who or rather what the Senshi were, he stood up and stretched. Ranma was already sitting with a pile of fresh fruit as well as the remains of freshly eaten fruit beside him. Sometime during the morning, the heat and humidity had changed her back into a man.

“You were up earlier than me?” Ryouga asked.

“A little bit, yeah. I kinda learned the layout of this area, and it only took ten minutes to get up and get all of this.”

“Ah.” Ryouga looked at the pile of leaves, where Nabiki was still sleep. “When will it be safe to wake her?” the lost boy asked.

“I'm not sure. She's not exactly a morning person.” They looked at each other.

“Say, Ranma,” Ryouga started. “What do you think has happened to Kuno and Akane?” He asked.

“I… I'm not sure,” Ranma said, simply. “I know they're both safe. That's certain. Kuno's stupidly tough and Akane's stupidly strong. We can assume that Kuno and Akane both made it to escape pods, and that Kuno would definitely send himself the same way as Akane. Heck, he probably sent the rest of us off course on purpose, the idiot.”

“Hmm… he was acting strange for a little while when he screwed up, but the whole time he was insisting on your words, about teamwork. I dunno…”

“Meh,” Ranma sighed. “I'm more worried about Akane. If he did split us up on purpose, then Kuno's stayin' on this planet when we escape, that's all there is to it,” He snorted.

“I have no objections to that,” Came a new voice. “He may be a cash cow, but if he did something that horrible, not even he can buy his way out of it. Especially since all he'd be able to give us would be potentially empty promises,”

“Hello Nabiki,” Ranma said.

“And how long were you listening to that?”

“I've actually been trying to fall back asleep since Ranma woke me up a while ago, but you two just won't shut up now,” she said as she sat up, brushing the leaves from her hair.

“You mean…” Ryoga looked at Ranma.

“Hm? I thought that was you who'd woken up when felt someone's breathing change…” Ranma muttered. “She woke up before you did,” He snorted to the formerly lost boy.

“Her nerves are frayed, idiot. She'd have woken up if a raindrop fell forty miles away, I'm sure,” He said.

“Oh really?” Ranma asked. He looked at the girl. “Your legs feeling better yet?”

“Yeah,” She said offhandedly. “But for some reason I have this absolutely pounding headache-“

“That's right,” Ryoga said. “Ranma, what do you think of training Nabiki?”

“Ah, yes, there we go-“

“Training Nabiki?” Ranma put some thought into it. “Five thousand an hour. Why?” he asked with an evil grin.

“Because she's volunteered to be our first real student,” Ryoga announced. “Afterall, we're going to be traveling through this kind of wilderness who knows how long, the chances of us not running into a life-death situation is slim to none.”

“Volunteered?” Nabiki seethed, her face having gone pale from the prospect of owing Ranma and Ryoga money.

“I volunteered her,” Ryoga amended.

“That counts,” Ranma said cheerfully. “We can start whenever you like. Anyway, I do have something I need to show you guys,” He said. “I found one yesterday, but I found another one this morning and think I can show you…” He said, standing up.