Crossover Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy ❯ Chapter 07c ( Chapter 12 )

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

PATH OF CHAOS

- Lord Rance

Disclaimer: Seriously, I don't own any of the anime characters that
appear in this entire fanfic, otherwise I'll just make sure you'll know
if I do make new characters.

Author Notes: Remember... the Vandread Universe is gonna be one huge
Alternate Universe. I'm gonna rewrite most of the episodes, maybe even
skip some unimportant ones, but some will still be used. ^_^

Warning about the bit of violence in some parts. Take note that the
violence level would pick up real quick as Ranma gets flung deeper into
everything.

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose (http://shi_hanna.tripod.com) and St
Longinus (amesuisei@yahoo.com) for pre-reading this stuff.

Ancient Language (used by gods and goddesses, Ancient Gods): ++

Phone Receiver: ##

Telepathy: {}

Thoughts: <>

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: []

======================================================================== =====
CHAPTER 7C - THE NEXT FRONTIER: COMFORT IN THE 'EYE' OF CHAOS
======================================================================== =====

Ranma sighed as he stood face to face with a small red-haired girl with
green eyes, who was smiling at him in full blast. After the sudden
appearance of the Soja II (yep, Soja I was filled with bad memories so
Washuu reconstructed the thing and viola, Soja II was born), Washuu
teleported herself inside the Nirvana, but not before attaching a
chain-like apparatus on the side of the Nirvana. Now they stood face to
face, Washuu on one side while Ranma, the crew and the five Galaxy
Angels stood on the other side of the docking bay.

"Washuu-chan, it's... nice to see you again." Ranma said tiredly.
Rin-Ohki immediately launched herself towards Washuu and circled happily
around her legs, meowing all the time.

Washuu put her dainty hands on her hips as she pouted rather cutely.
"Awww... only 'nice', my dearest Ranma-chan?"

Magno, the captain of the Nirvana, turned to Ranma and said, "Are you
sure she's not your lover? You sure sound like one to me..."

Ranma's eyes bugged out as his face planted on the floor.

Misty boggled at the thought. "I never realized that. It would make a
lot of sense though. Ranma-san, I never knew you liked really young
girls!"

Ranma's body twitched violently in response. He slowly lifted his head
from the dent it made on the metal floor and muttered, "That's not her
real age. She can change her outer appearance by will."

"R-Ranma..." The boy in question looked up and saw Meia's somber face.
"I... I didn't know you were that way..." she said softly, but loud
enough to be heard by the boy.

The boy's face threatened to go through the steel floor at the moment as
another massive facefault hit his already facefaulted face (cool
description, ne?).

Vanilla stepped forward and kneeled on Ranma's side, asking, "Are you
alright, Ranma-sama?"

"Vanilla, no need for the honorifics. Just 'Ranma' will do." A muffled
response came back.

Finally, Washuu took pity on Ranma as she responded, "Oh come off it
everyone. Ranma is my dearest guinea pig, and also my dearest friend.
There's nothing going on romantically between us." <Although he's
actually really nice on the eyes... pretty clueless too... but Ryoko
would kill me over and over if she found out about it, that and also
Ranma's my niece, not that it would matter anyway, but nobody should
know about that right now...> she thought to herself.

Ranma finally stood up shakily, trying to bat the cobwebs in his head
away. Looking at Washuu, he asked, "So, Washuu... how the heck did I get
here anyway?" Seeing that Washuu just crossed her arms across her chest
and stood adamantly silent, he amended his earlier statement. "I mean,
Washuu-CHAN..." he said the last syllable with a small amount of
sarcasm.

Whether Washuu heard the sarcasm or not, she didn't give any signs about
it. "Well, Ranma-chan... you do remember that teensy-weensy accident
where you got zapped by my experimental Spatial Equalizer? The one I'm
making to stabilize this world long enough for you to find a way to
bridge the gap of the two parallel worlds and making them separate from
one another? Well, as it turned out, that and your latent chaotic nature
somehow made it into a temporal wave distorter, accidentally sending you
to this time. By the way, that experiment botched after you disappeared,
because it literally exploded in our faces after a short while." She
explained with a flourish, but grew a sweatdrop when she noticed
everyone but Parfait, who was drooling once again at the information,
stood glassy eyed and looked rather lost.

Especially Ranma.

Washuu shook her head as she explained blandly, "You went bye-bye
because of my experiment."

"Ahhh!" Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

"Is it true?" The crew turned to the timid voice of Ranma, who was
sitting on the floor looking anguished. "I mean, is Ryoko...?"

Washuu lost her smiling face and took on a more somber look. "It's true,
Ranma-chan. Ryoko had herself locked in cryogenic sleep when she
couldn't find you. After years of searching for even a clue as to where
you might've been sent to, she finally broke down and made that request.
Naturally, Yosho and I tried to stop her from doing so, but she was
quite serious about it. I couldn't do anything but watch as she and
Ryo-Ohki entered her tomb in the cave of the shrine."

Ranma and Washuu sighed simultaneously, while the crew of the Nirvana
kept silent because they didn't know anything about the past. Suddenly,
a thought came to Parfait.

"Wait a minute..." Parfait said to Washuu, "You said you've been with
Ranma since then, I mean, how old are you?!"

Meia looked on thoughtfully. "Actually, that's kinda a valid question. I
mean, if Ranma's from a distant past, and he knew you, how could you be
alive right now?"

Washuu snorted. "Oh please! That's not a hard thing. Besides, don't you
know it's bad juju to ask a woman about her true age?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow at the 'woman' comment. "Uhm... Washuu... you're
in your child form."

Dismissing him with a wave, Washuu retorted, "Details, details."

He rubbed his hands unto his temples. "Just tell them, will ya?"

"Oh, fine! I've lived for more than twenty thousand years before I met
Ranma, how can a few millennia more be the same?" Washuu leveled a
slight glare at Ranma, who pointedly ignored it.

Everyone except Ranma gasped at the information.

"HOW?!" Parfait asked again, baffled by the sheer impossibility of the
phenomenon.

"T-Twenty... t-thousand years?!" Ranpha goggled. "Damn, you're really
old!"

Forte gazed intently at Washuu. "That's one hell of an operation..."

Washuu huffed in disgust. "Don't be absurd! I did not take an operation
of some sort! Do I look old to you? Age doesn't hold me down pretty
much. Even Ranma there is older than he looks."

"Uhm... actually, I'm not really that old...." Ranma said softly, but
loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"Yes you are, you are somewhere in your fifties, if I remembered it
correctly. But because of that temporal accident, I have no idea how old
you are right now, whether to think about it in terms of how long I
searched for you, or in your own perspective."

Ranma cocked his head to one side. "Huh?"

Washuu shook her head. "Ranma-chan, you may think you're still as old as
you think you are. But if you look at it in our perspective, especially
mine, you are older than two millennia."

The boy groaned loudly.

"Anyway..." Parfait interrupted impatiently, who was also planning to
get Ranma later and finally unlock his secrets. "We were talking about
how you survived, Washuu-san."

Washuu smacked her fist to her other open palm, saying, "Oh yeah. Well,
that's easy!"

Ranma sighed. "Oh man, here we go."

Washuu cackled gleefully. "Because I'm the Greatest Scientist in the
Universe! Muahahahahahahahaha!!!"

A small sized Washuu popped out of her left shoulder showering confetti
and cheering, "Washuu-sama is the greatest!!!"

Another small-sized Washuu emerged from her right shoulder, also
showering confetti and has cymbals on its small hands. "Washuu-sama is a
genius!!!"

"I knew it!!" Ranma smacked his hand to his forehead as the others
sweatdropped.

"Washuu, your ego is showing." Ranma commented.

Washuu stopped laughing abruptly as she responded, "As if there is a
difference when you do your own rendition, Mister Greatest Martial
Artist in the Universe."

"At least I don't have the puppets." Ranma shot back.

"True, but only because you don't know how to do them. Wanna learn?"
Washuu said to him casually.

Ranma and Washuu smirked to each other. It is amazing because one could
really see the family semblance, AKA the proud smirk.

"HOWWWW!!!" Everyone jumped back from Parfait as the girl suddenly
screamed out of frustration.

"As I said, she can control her physical aging." Ranma answered and
stuck a tongue out to Washuu, who glared at him in full force.

"That's impossible!" Parfait garbled out. She was really trying to
understand how this can happen, and the two who knew how didn't want to
cooperate with her!

Ranma shrugged and willed his own body to change. Everyone stared in
rapt attention as Ranma's body shrunk down to approximately Washuu's own
age. "No such thing as impossible in my life." Ranma said wryly.

"We're not human to begin with." Washuu took over the explanation.
"Ranma is not even native from my world. Ranma is an alien hybrid who
has more firepower than he lets on, and I'm his aunt. He's my sister's
son, you see."

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

After two hours of explaining Ranma's history, much to the boy's
embarrassment, the listening group was finally satisfied and were
occasionally asking questions for confirmation on some things. Washuu's
explanations were thorough, even having a laser pointer with a large
chart of Ranma's body to boot. They vacated their former location in the
hangar to the cafeteria, because it was the only room large enough to
accommodate all those people. Most of them were especially interested in
Ranma's genetic make-up.

Some of the members of the Galaxy Angels were curious about his powers,
as Washuu had described them. Milfeuille was just happy that Ranma liked
the cake she made earlier.

Ranma on the other hand finally managed to slip out of the room without
being detected, and started to head towards nowhere actually. He just
felt suffocated in the presence of more than a hundred people, mostly
comprised of women much to his dismay, who were talking about his life.
Before he gave them everyone the slip, he gave a silent 'go' signal for
Washuu to explain everything. He knew the scientist could make everyone
understand something he didn't understand much either. His weird aunt
was livid with joy as she started pulling out charts and diagrams
pertaining to his anatomy, gleefully showing them and discussing them to
her audience. When Washuu first explained those to him all those years
back, he was as stunned as they were. He didn't know much about the
significance of the blood that flowed in his veins, but after she told
him about it, his ignorance for things faded in due time.

Ranma found himself in a large circular room with a transparent ceiling,
probably an auditorium or stargazing area of some sort. Here he stood in
the middle of the empty place, as he continued pondering on life in
general.

Much of the things he took for granted, such as studies and social
graces, were now in par of his top priority, which was the Art. Ever
since the power inside him awakened, his thirst for fighting seemed to
have escalated, constantly in search of a stronger fighter to pit his
skills.

Ranma's gaze fell to the black bracers he wore on his wrists. He finally
noticed that since Washuu made him wear those limiter bracers years ago,
he virtually forgot about them. He felt a lot weaker when he first put
them on, but then everything was forgotten afterwards. Right now, he
even felt stronger than he ever was, even with the limiters in place.

That thought somehow scared him. What was he becoming? Was he going to
the path of becoming too powerful for his own good, transforming him
into huge egomaniacs like those enemies he encountered along the way?
Suddenly, his thoughts went back to Son Goku, and how he always searched
for the perfect sparring partner, doomed to live for the fight. Not that
he had anything against the full-blooded Saiyajin, in fact, Ranma
respected Goku for his efforts to become stronger and save Earth more
than a few times in the future... or was it the past? Oh... he didn't
even get to this timeline as far as Ranma remembered from Washuu's
recordings.

Ranma didn't want to become like a 'typical' Saiyajin, as Chi-Chi always
usually complained about her own husband. The pigtailed hybrid did not
want to end up looking for a fight just to satisfy his battle-lust. He
just wanted to live normally.

Ranma sighed. He needed to think about that one, because he will never
be normal anymore. He didn't really mind that much at all anymore, but
all these accidents involving parallel universes and dimension hopping
seemed too bizarre even for Ranma's tastes. Oh, he believes them all
right, heck he's been an unwilling victim most of the time, and if not
for that accident with Happosai he wouldn't have learned of his true
lineage.

Ranma shuddered at the thought, him being grateful to Happosai just
didn't seem right. No matter how much he looked at it.

That was another thought he wanted to think about. Ranma wanted to meet
his real mother, even though he felt a bit nervous about it. He heard
that she was evil, but he didn't really believe that at all. Most of the
people in Nerima thought that Ranma was the embodiment of evil, always
trying to blame most of the chaos towards him.

Oh, wait. That's right... it was partly his fault. He is the son of
Tokimi after all, the dubbed 'Goddess of Chaos'.

Speaking of chaos... now Ryoko and everyone went missing. What went
wrong? Was it really his disappearance that caused all these to happen?

Ranma felt moisture seep down his cheeks. He lifted his hand to his face
and was a bit surprised when he felt some tears leaking from his eyes.
How did this happen? It wasn't manly to show emotions.

The boy shook his head vehemently, banishing those thoughts away as he
let his tears flow. For once, an unabated bout of tears sprang from his
eyes as he wept silently for the loss. Amidst his silent weeping, he was
thinking, <Did I really care for Ryoko so much to cry for her?>

The tears flowed even harder as they cascaded down his cheeks some more,
giving the answer to his silent question.

<I don't know if this is love, but I do care for her a lot.> And care he
did. Ranma finally admitted to himself about caring for someone.
Although how it will work, he didn't know. He just wanted to be there
for her, because he didn't want her to feel lonely anymore. But Ranma
always dreaded the fact that he was going to be forced to go back to his
own universe.

<Washuu once told me that I am the main problem in the two parallel
worlds. Although there are some slightly smaller problems in magnitude,
I was the biggest one. So there might be a chance that I must go back to
my own universe to stabilize it. So I might have to leave Ryoko
behind... what then will we do?> Ranma thought morosely to himself. That
was why he was trying to hold back Ryoko for a bit. His unstable
existence in this parallel world might've caused his random accidents,
such as what had happened to him earlier, so pursuing a normal life is
somewhat out of the question as of now.

Ranma was so lost in his thoughts that he failed to notice someone else
entering the area he was in. By the time he heard light footsteps behind
him, the person, whoever it was, was already close enough to touch him.

Realizing that it was too late to do anything anyway, he sighed and
asked, "I... I want to be alone."

A moment of silence filled the air, as Ranma felt the footsteps stop
just inches behind him. He had this urge to turn around and look at the
one who invaded his privacy, but he resisted it and continued to stare
forward.

"I cannot do that... Ranma-sama." A soft but firm voice answered.

Ranma's eyes widened a bit, as he recognized it off the bat. The voice
was female, and was one of those newcomers that docked with the ship.
She was one of those... Galaxy Angels or something. Before he could
ponder deeper on it, the girl finally went to his side and sat beside
him. Ranma inclined his head to one side and confirmed his suspicions as
to who it was.

The girl was Vanilla.

Also without his knowledge, his tail unconsciously unwrapped itself from
his waist and carefully snaked its way on Vanilla's backside, rubbing
itself on it slowly. Vanilla flinched a bit, but relaxed when she traced
the source of the furred sensation on her behind back to Ranma.

The boy wiped the tears from his cheeks and said, "I'm sorry if I
sounded harsh... I was just realizing some things."

Vanilla nodded. "I know, Ranma-sama."

"Please..." Ranma half-groaned, half-pled to the girl, "Just Ranma will
do, okay? I'm not some god to be called like that."

Vanilla looked at him, her face slowly showing some emotions, such as
surprise and a bit curiosity. "As you wish, Ranma."

Ranma finally let go of the breath he was holding. "That's... good. So,
how about you, why are you here?"

Vanilla looked down on the floor, uncharacteristically fiddling on the
laces of her uniform. "I... was searching... for you."

Ranma stiffened. He didn't notice, but the gems on his forehead lit up
softly. "What about me?"

The girl's red eyes bore into his own. "I do not know, but I have a
feeling I should be searching for you. A vision in my dreams once told
me to seek those who have those gems on your forehead, as well as some
semblance of your own appearance that was silhouetted against the
darkness. I was to search for you, and help you with all I can."

When Ranma fell silent, she broke her gaze and stared forward,
continuing, "Washuu-sama may not remember me, but I remember her well.
For you see, she saved my life once before."

That actually got Ranma's attention. "Saved you? How?"

Vanilla inclined her head. "I was... dying... when she found me. My
former creator, Ikari Gendo, abandoned me when he finally revealed his
true purpose in trying to achieve the Third Impact. He used me as a tool
to achieve his goal of destroying mankind and rebuilding it just the way
he wanted. In other words, he wanted to be God."

Vanilla clenched her fists as she glared to particularly no one. "He
left me to die while he went to try and resurrect his dead wife,
regardless whether or not she wanted to or not, and regardless of
humanity's survival. Washuu-sama took me in after she found me and
reconstructed my mangled body using her technology."

She lifted her hands in the air and looked at them. "She was as good as
she said she was, and recreated me perfectly. My hair is also out of its
natural color, and my age regressed somewhat. Although she added some...
quirks... in it as she said."

Ranma sighed. "I was gonna ask you how you managed to survive this long
in that body, but I guess those 'quirks' must be it."

"Precisely." Vanilla nodded in approval. "For some reason, I got shipped
in the next flight in a colony ship, and managed to reach another star
system. There I restarted my life, away from the hard one I came from
before. But as of late, I was having these visions of you, and that I
have this urge to go and find you. It is really confusing, but I want to
trust my heart in this. And here you are." She softly gestured to him
with a look.

"If you say 'It's Fate!' or 'It's Destiny!' I'll scream real loud."
Ranma deadpanned.

Vanilla just gave him a confused look once again. "You don't believe in
fate?"

Ranma shrugged in response. "There may be a Fate or Destiny, but I would
like to be the one in control of my life. Knowing something like those
controlling what was happening to me gives me the creeps. I hate having
no control of my life, that's why I don't want to give my life to Fate
or Destiny."

"I... I see..." Vanilla said softly. "I... envy you."

It was now Ranma's turn to look confused at Vanilla. "Huh? Why?"

Vanilla looked longingly at him. "I... used to believe that it was my
fate to die. Back when the man who created me was using me, I devoted
myself only to him and his wishes, even if I was to die. You see… I
wasn't born naturally. I was created out of the memory of that man's
dead wife. At first, there were many others like me, or you could call
them clones. I was made to pilot these giant organic robots called
Evangelions, which existed to specifically battle Angels. The Angels
were God's messengers, and at the same time they were tests given by God
to Humanity. It is to find out if humanity was still fit to survive for
the future."

"I see..." Ranma replied seriously, then blinked as he realized
something. "Wait a minute... that would mean that you came from..."

"Around in the year 2015 of Earth... that was probably the approximate
time I was alive on Earth." Vanilla continued for him.

"Ah... that means you are still a bit further in the future of my own
original time. I was from the year late 1990s, originally that is. Then
I warped myself into a parallel past, as Washuu explained to me when she
was freed." Ranma explained, as he finally understood. "That means
you're from that war with the Angels era that Washuu's recording for me
explained. It also said that the leaders of the so-called defenders also
had their own agenda, mainly, that Human Implementation Project or
something."

Vanilla nodded. "Yes. That was where Commander Ikari and the Seele
members would activate the Third Impact and supposedly ascend to
Godhood, according to the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Seele members and
Commander Ikari planned to double cross each other in the end, because
Ikari only wanted the power for himself so that he could resurrect his
wife, while Seele wanted power over life and death. It was all a
nightmare for the Evangelion pilots, especially since all three pilots
were only fourteen year old children."

Ranma eyed her incredulously. "C-Children?! You mean to tell me that
they used children for their dirty work?! What kind of a future is
that?!" Ranma's face saddened over the thought. "And to think it must
have been all my fault! For disappearing like that... crap! This is all
my fault!"

"It was a dark and struggling world." Vanilla said simply. "Back then, I
used to go by the name of Ayanami Rei. I was a clone who thought I
didn't have a shred of soul in my body."

Vanilla gazed up to Ranma and continued, "It wasn't your fault, Ranma.
You could never have predicted what will happen once you disappeared.
Nobody could've thought everything that happened would really occur. Who
knows? Maybe even if you were there, it would've happened still. No one
knows the future..."

Ranma looked at her sadly. "I... thank you, Vanilla. What happened to
you was unfortunate, and I couldn't help but feel responsible about it.
Lucky for you, Washuu found you before anything else could've happened
to you."

"Hai. Don't feel too bad about it, because you couldn't have known it
will happen. Besides, it all turned out for the best." Vanilla nodded
curtly, now gazing at the transparent glass panel overhead. The stars
were moving slightly slower right now, as because Nirvana was moving in
cruising speed.

Silence fell upon them as they pondered on their own thoughts, about
their pasts and their near futures. Oddly enough, their thoughts were
coinciding with each other’s.

The door behind them slid open, bathing the near dark room with bright
light. Startled out of their thoughts, Ranma and Vanilla turned to the
door and saw Washuu and Meia standing just outside the doorframe. Washuu
has this weird smirk on her face while Meia just looked upset about
something.

"My, my, Ranma-chan... you're really quick with the ladies, ne? What
would Ryoko think when she finds out about this...?" Washuu sing-songed
thoughtfully as she tapped her chin with her index finger. When she saw
Ranma's confused look, she gestured on his tail, which was semi-wrapped
around Vanilla's back.

"Urk!" Ranma blanched as images filled his brain. Sure, Ryoko and his
relationship was really... well... mostly platonic (images of Ryoko
smooching his lips flooded Ranma's mind)... hmmm okay (sweatdrop) well
not so innocent after all, but still... and he also willed his tail to
his lap, where it is much safer (bad tail, baaaad tail!).

Meia turned a curious look at the redheaded scientist. "Who is Ryoko?"

Washuu grinned. "My daughter... who has this 'thing' for a guy with red
tail..."

"WASHUU!" Ranma growled out, trying to fight a huge full body blush.

Washuu chuckled happily, while her gaze finally settled on Vanilla, who
was looking back impassively. "Hello, you look very familiar."

Before Vanilla got to answer, Ranma's loud grumble was heard, "She
should be... you saved her life a long time ago."

"Really?" Washuu's brow raised up as she looked Vanilla up and down.

The pale red-eyed girl nodded. "Hai, Washuu-san. It was in the Earth
Year 2015, before the invaders started to attack the Earth. It was after
the Angel Wars."

"Hmmm... I remember saving someone from that year. She was dying in some
sub-atomic nutrient liquid called LCL when I stumbled on her. She was an
amazing piece of work... I can't believe that the Terrans were able to
develop that advanced technology that could actually clone humans to
such degree. I took her body and recombined her damaged DNA with small
amount of leftover Masu genes I have to restart her body's healing
factor and..." Washuu stared incredulously at Vanilla, muttering, "Oh,
my..."

Vanilla bowed low. "I was Ayanami Rei, and I never got to thank you for
saving my life. I am now Vanilla Ash, of the Galaxy Angels, Washuu-san."

Ranma chuckled at Washuu's quite stunned stare.

Meia just looked confused. "Uhm... can someone please tell me what this
is all about?"

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

After a half hour long explanation of Rei, err, Vanilla's past, Meia and
Vanilla found that both of them have a lot of stories to tell. The Dread
pilot pulled the Galaxy Angel to one side and talked vibrantly with each
other, trading 'war' stories and such. This left Washuu and her long
lost (for her) nephew Ranma to his and her own devices as the redhead
already sat herself beside Ranma. Rin-Ohki appeared a while earlier in
the middle of the explanation, snuggling possessively once again in
Ranma's arms once again.

The door opened once again as an overly excited Dita ran with a glass of
something in her hands. Apparently, she took a detour in the cafeteria
when she decided to barge into the room somehow. Everyone turned to her
expectantly as she ran towards where the four were.

"Mister Alien! Washuu-san! Leader! Vanilla-san! You have to see this!
There's this... ohhh!" Dita's inconsistent blabber was cut short when by
a stroke of fate, her foot stumbled awkwardly, causing the girl to
reflexively throw her hands in the air, tossing the glass in her hands
in the process.

Three... two... oopps. Not more than three seconds since the errant
glass flew, Ranma's hydro-magnetic body managed to sponge up the only
water that was present in the room.

Yes, instant Onna-Ranma. Oh look, Dita smacked her face on the floor.

A pin drop can be heard for minutes in the silence that seemed to
stretch for so long in the room.

"OhmygoshI'msosorryIdidn'tmeanitIwasrunningsofastbecauseIneededtote llyousomethingandIforgottolookwhereI'mgoingandI---"
Dita's mouth moved so fast that Ranma just gaped at her.

"Uhmmm... if it's about the water, no need to be sorry about it. It's
bound to happen anyway." A now female Ranma drawled out while waving a
hand dismissively.

Onna-Ranma noticed Washuu looking at her oddly. "What is it,
Washuu-chan?"

Washuu shook her head. "Huh? Oh... I was wondering why you still haven't
figured out how to control your gender change. Of all my guinea pigs
(giggles), you are the most adaptable of them all. I thought you
would've caught on by now."

"Eh?" Onna-Ranma just adopted a confused look. "How can that be?"

Washuu smirked. "Think about it. You can change age by will, how could
your gender changing be any different? Although, only you can be capable
of it since your body has been altered dramatically by your curse. I
thought you would've wanted the pleasure of figuring out yourself,
which’s why I didn't program any of your skills unlike what I did to
Ryoko. Do you remember? Ryoko's skills were pre-programmed in her head
so she can use them subconsciously. You on the other hand would've
refused if I asked, so I taught some of your skills manually. Besides,
your body is so complex that I don't know much of its secrets, but I do
know that you could control your curse by simple application from your
age-changing technique."

"You mean to tell me..." Onna-Ranma said softly at first, but gradually
growing louder and louder, "That I led myself to believe I'll be forever
cursed just because you forgot to mention something as important as
that?!"

The smallest redhead in the room, between Dita, Onna-Ranma and Washuu,
just shrugged in response. "You didn't ask. Besides, as I said earlier,
I thought you'd want to discover it by yourself."

Onna-Ranma pulled her hair out with two hands and growled loudly as she
fought for tedious control of her anger. Washuu just watched the
transformed girl impassively, as Vanilla and Meia looked on with
amusement. Dita however finally snapped into attention as she remembered
why she was running in there in the first place.

"Oh, I was going to tell you Mister Alien... we found a planet! We have
to make a stop for supplies. The captain was wondering if you could come
with them in this mission..." Dita explained cheerfully.

Because of the sudden change in topic, Ranma's anger was deflated a bit
as she stared at Dita. After a moment's silence of contemplation, Ranma
nodded to the Dread pilot. "Fine..." she muttered, still sore about the
latest surprise Washuu sprung at her.

Dita smiled brightly as she stood up and went out of the room. Ranma
turned to Washuu with a pout. "You should've told me."

The scientist smirked. "I know. I'm so sorry." The sarcasm was oozing
rather obviously.

"That... was weird." Vanilla said in monotone as she commented on
Ranma's new body.

Washuu tapped her chin with her finger. "Oh... Rei, I mean, Vanilla
doesn't know about your curse."

Ranma sighed loudly. He, rather she, looked at Vanilla with her blue
eyes with golden pupils and explained, "I turn into a girl with cold
water, hot water turns me back to my boy form. It's a curse I picked up
when my stupid adoptive father dragged me into a forbidden training
ground called Jusenkyo. Before you ask, I really am a boy. The girl part
is my curse."

Meia snorted. "Some ohma... taking a child to something as dangerous as
that."

The pigtailed girl shrugged. "What can I say? I had a weird childhood."

Vanilla nodded thoughtfully. "I see."

"By the way, Ranma-chan..." Washuu interrupted, "Since when did you have
those gems on your forehead?" she asked, pointing at Ranma's head.

"Huh?" Onna-Ranma absently lifted her hand to her forehead and caressed
the trio of silver stones, "Uhm... I don't remember. But it was after I
got away from my own time. Why? Do you know something about them?"

The smaller redhead shook her head. "No, not really. But it looks so
familiar... well forget about it for now. Anyway, let's go see what the
captain was talking about when she sent Dita here, ne?"

Ranma shrugged once again as she readjusted her clothes, which has
become laxed from her body. She silently vowed to discover how to
control the curse change as well, like she did with the aging bit.

"Now to find some hot water for now..." Ranma muttered to herself as she
followed the small entourage of ladies outside the room.

After turning back to her birth form, a male Ranma with Rin-Ohki in his
arms finally entered the meeting room of Nirvana, where most of the
battle maneuvers used were created. Inside the room were Magno, BC,
Gascogne, Misty, Dita, Jura, Barnette, Meia, Parfait, Paiway, Bart,
Duero and Hibiki already waiting. Present in the room were Washuu and
Vanilla, as well as the rest of the Galaxy Angels.

"It's good you have finally joined us, child." Magno opened with a small
smile on her face.

Washuu stepped forward to comment, "Actually, he might be older than
you. So..."

"It's just a rhetorical statement." Magno deadpanned.

BC cleared her throat. "Anyway... we have stumbled upon a moderately
populated planet, with a population ranging between two million people
to fifteen million. Their technology seemed high enough, since we have
detected movements from giant robots around the planet's surface.
Surprisingly though, the lack of space equipment like some satellites
and such gave us a little mystery. Be aware that we have detected some
strange energy readings from a larger body. At some wavelengths, it can
be compared with the Paeksis, but at the same time it isn't. Anyway,
that seems to be the assessment as of now. The captain wanted to come
down to the planet in person, while I accompany her. Meia is needed if
ever something occurs and Duero for medical purposes. We will go down to
the surface to get some supplies and if possible, some information. The
rest will stay here in the Nirvana to defend the ship if ever an attack
commences. Ranma, Washuu-san and the Galaxy Angels' group, you are
welcome to join us, but please bear in mind that we are not forcing you
in this."

Ranma smiled. "I'll come along. Someone has to keep you out of trouble."

Washuu snorted. "I'll stay here in your ship. But I have to make one
request from you, BC-san..."

"Uhmm... what is it?" The dark tanned subcommander asked curiously.

The redheaded scientist smiled cheerfully, "Call me, Washuu-chan!!"

"Err, right. Washuu... chan." BC just nodded at the violent nods coming
from Ranma and Misty.

"I'll stay too." Forte volunteered. She still hasn't finished analyzing
the Nirvana's various weapon preferences.

"I'll go with you." Ranpha replied. "There might be something real
interesting down there." <Like treasures and money... besides I can't
just let Vanilla have Ranma!> She chuckled to herself darkly, earning
herself some speculative stares from those around her.

Mint thought for a bit before shaking her head. "I'll stay here in the
Nirvana. There should be someone here to control Forte-san.
Milfeuille-san will stay here as well."

"Hey!" A shout came from irate weapons collector of the Galaxy Angels.

Milfeuille pouted cutely. "Awww... I wanted to go... but oh well.
Mint-san says I shouldn't, so I won't. I'll just have to bake cakes for
everyone then!"

Vanilla looked at Ranma briefly before staring forward and replying, "I
will accompany Ranma."

After a brief nod from Ranma, Magno finally smiled and said, "Well,
prepare to board the shuttle then. Gascogne will lead us to it."

May the Kami have mercy on the planet below. Ranma has descended!

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

At first glance, the planet seemed to look like a peaceful sort, having
lush green vegetation and wide open seas. While on the shuttle, Ranma
and his companions marveled at the view.

Of course, not all things that seemed good were always really that good.
In fact, some were just masked to look good in the surface. This planet
has been battered by a war that slaughtered a lot of people. Unknown to
those in the incoming space shuttle, the planet also has a history of
discrimination that persecuted a lot of innocent lives along the way.

The wars in this planet were fought with giant machines called Gears,
the counterpart of giant robots from Earth as well as the Vandread.

The Lambs and the Abel... two forces that distinguished themselves from
each other. The Lambs were cattle to the Abel, which were also called
the 'Surface Dwellers'. The Abel were more or less members of an elite
organization called Solaris. The Solaris believed themselves to be
something of a deitic blood, scoffing at the mere thought of
communicating with the Lambs. Because of this belief, the Solaris
treated most Lambs as slaves. A sad plight to those caught by the
elitist group.

But the war on the surface of the unnamed planet escalated to a high
degree when Solaris, an organization that thrived on technology, finally
fell. A group of rebels finally mustered a force that toppled the mighty
Solaris Empire, and their very own headquarters.

After that, certain events led to the reawakening of an old colony ship
that contained a new living symbiote. It mutated from energy into a
sentient being, gaining its own intelligence and almost took over the
whole colony ship as it traveled near the planet. The crew lost control
and finally crash-landed on that planet, leaving its precious cargo to
'go forth and multiply'.

It has been millennia ago since that crash, and now the being finally
rose once again to gather enough power to go back to its own home world.
With its rise, it will need to gather each and every living organism as
its host body, but those same rebels that toppled Solaris went against
it. As of now, each side was planning on their moves against one
another.

During this time of temporary peace (since its a deadlock between the
sentient being and the rebels) the Nirvana's shuttle craft descended
from the sky without any preamble, since for some reason the technology
on this world seemed to be limited on-surface only.

In another part of that world, a lone battleship dragged forward in the
sand. It was huge, probably three-fourths the size of the Nirvana. It
has a dark green color that seemed to blend well underground. It's form
is of a submarine model. This is the Yggdrasil IV, flagship of the
former King Bartholomeo Fatima, leader of the Desert Pirates of Aveh.

A strange dolphin, who was dressed in a military like suit, was keeping
track of the sonar and radar. He suddenly stiffened when a bleep sounded
off from the radar.

"[Captain! There is a ship descending in the forest near Nisan. It's an
unknown from our ship's databank.]" The dolphin said loudly.

A blond haired man with an eye patch covering one eye stepped forward.
His one good eye has a color jade as its pupil. He was dressed in a red
coat and white pants. A bandanna decorated his forehead. He was
Bartholomeo Fatima, otherwise known as Bart to his friends and
crewmembers. He looked curiously at the screen for a moment, which was
flashing unknown variables about the detected craft.

Bart turned to the dolphin and said in a loud voice, "[Turn the ship
thirty-five degrees to the west an' head to the Nisan port. We should
investigate this right?]"

Another man with white hair and an eye patch covering the opposite eye
flanked Bart. He nodded as Bart looked at him after asking for his
agreement on the matter.

"[What do you think, Sig? Another enemy?]" Bart asked the man behind him
warily as he examined the readings.

Sig, rather, Sigurd sighed and replied, "[I do not think so, young
master. Let us not act in haste. Shall I tell Fei and the others about
the situation?]"

Bart nodded perceptively. "[That'll be good. I might need back-up when it
turns out ta be enemies ya know.]"

Sigurd nodded and went out of the deck to inform their companions about
the current news. Meanwhile Bart just stared at the read-outs, still
wary about the coincidence of the arrival. It was understandable, since
the whole planet was in the middle of a huge war.

"[I hope they're not enemies or somethin'...]" Bart whispered to himself.

Fei and the other members of their resistance group were all situated
inside the conference room. They were all planning to meet there after
Bart has successfully led the Yggdrasil IV back to Nisan. He was sitting
on a chair that decorated the room, with Elly beside him on a chair as
well. The red-haired ex-soldier of Solaris looked saddened by something.
They have just come back after killing the giant Sufal Mass from the
Soylent Plant. Even if it was an enemy, Elly felt that horribly guilty
about it. No matter what it was, it was still a life.

Rico and Billy stood at the other side, staring at nothing in
particular. Rico's hometown Kislev was almost destroyed by the war. He
also watched in horror as people around him slowly turned into monsters.
He felt lucky that his own appearance didn't really make him feel bad
anymore. He was also thinking about his feelings about the upcoming
battle. He just hoped he would come back alive after it. Billy on the
other hand was contemplating on the teachings of his beliefs before he
joined Fei's group. He was taught that Wels were to be hated and
destroyed, but after seeing how they were created in the first place, he
felt sick to his stomach that he had to follow those beliefs.

Citan and Jessie were on the bar with Maison, the Fatima Family's
retainer, drinking in a somber mood. Since the Soylent Plant encounter,
their mood seemed to have dropped. Seeing Elly despair over that wasted
life really tore their hearts. The veterans knew that in battle,
casualties are inevitable, but someone as young as Elly, though a
hardened soldier at her own right, still has lots to learn about life.
Because of the newly reawakened sentience that has transformed most of
the people around them into bloodthirsty Wels, they have to defeat,
rather, kill most of them in order to stop their rampage. The reason
people were being transformed into Wels was to create a body for the
sentience, which some in Solaris believed to be a god itself. They
believed, since the ship the sentience was located was the same ship
that carried the first people to arrive in the planet, the sentience
itself was God. Now, they were just giving back and sacrificing their
own bodies to feed 'God' for redemption.

Maria and Emeralda were huddled in a corner as they watched the adults
talk about whatever. Emeralda's now older body towered over Maria, but
her mind was still of a child's. They both seem to understand a bit what
everyone was so down about. They saw how cruel the former humans were
treated in that Soylent Plant. Emeralda knew how it felt to be created,
but her ‘parents’, no matter how brief it was before they were killed
gave her love and affection and she was taken into Solaris' custody. The
Solaris lobotomized Maria’s father as the scientist finished created
Seibzhen's predecessor Achtzehn. The Solaris thugs even downloaded her
father's brain patterns into the giant gear, creating a monster that was
a shadow of who Maria's father was. Both Emeralda and Maria suffered
heartbreaks of their own as they grew up, so they were not strangers to
pain. But their experiences paled to what they have witnessed in the
incident, and that will give them nightmares for weeks to come. Still,
they both knew they have to fight for their own survival, especially now
that the seal for human evolution has been removed. The limiters
installed by the early humans in themselves were finally removed by the
nanobots that were spread into the atmosphere by Tora. But to their
horror, the same limiters seemed to have tripped a failsafe device that
transformed most of the humans into Wels, to serve as ingredients for
God's final body.

Margie was sitting alone at the other side of the table, with Chu-Chu at
her lap. Margie felt helpless as she watched her friends despair over
their last mission. All she could do was offer her sympathies and
support, which for her was not really all that much no matter how
grateful they say they were about it. Chu-Chu wanted to sit with Fei,
but seeing Elly's tear-streaked face made her think about it. The
red-haired girl needed comforting more than she does.

The door slid open and Sigurd walked inside the silent room, catching
everyone's attention. When he reached the table, he found that everyone
was looking at him expectantly.

"[So much sorrow in one room...]" Sigurd muttered to himself as he settled
on one seat on one of the stools directly in front of Maison's mini-bar.

"[Sigurd.]" Citan nodded his head, raising his glass of bourbon on one
hand. "What brings you to this place?"

Sigurd sighed as he nodded to Maison, who grabbed another tall glass and
poured his favorite whiskey into it. With no hesitation, the white
haired former Solaris Elite gulped half of the glass' contents and
slammed it down on the table with a slam. Wearily, he turned to his
friends' faces, those same faces that fought with him and his young
master, who was in truth his half brother as well.

"[I hope it's nothing, but a new development arose.]" Sigurd declared
solemnly, stirring what's left of his drink in the glass. "[We detected a
craft landing in one of the thick forests outside of Nisan. We still
can't determine whether it's Gebler, Solaris, or even from that gigantic
ship that rose from the sea. All we know is that it appeared out of thin
air, and it's not registered in our ship's databank.]"

"[So basically...]" Jessie commented beside Citan, "[We have absolutely no
idea who or what is inside that ship?]"

Sigurd nodded tiredly.

Fei sighed loudly. "[We can't catch a break, can't we?]"

"[But...]" Elly interjected, "[It could be nothing, right? They could be
allies of some sort, right?]"

Rico snorted. "[Maybe they're some sort of spies too.]"

"[NO!!!]" Everyone jumped at the voice, and stared at the quivering form
of Margie, who was glaring at them in general. "[Don't think like that!
We must think good things!!!]"

"[Margie...]" Sigurd began, but was stopped when Margie shot him a look.

"[Don't you dare tell me to calm down! Look at all of you! All whiney and
weepy and god knows what else?! I can't stand it!]" The small girl
furiously wiped the tears that seemed to fall down her face. "[I know I
can't do anything good for you... so please! Just let me make you feel
all right and just think of good things for now. We don't even know what
the intention of those inside that ship is, and here we are already
jumping into conclusions!]"

Oh yes. In other words, in the end there were at least several
shamefaced individuals trying to placate the crying Mother Superior of
the Nisan Sect.

Inside the incoming space vessel that was slowly positioning itself in a
good landing spot in the forest outside Nisan, everyone was glaring at
the floating pigtailed boy, who was currently changing height
constantly. Ranma decided to practice changing genders, deciding that it
would be prudent that he learned how. Somehow, he still can't get the
hang of it, often triggering the change of his age only. Everyone had
gotten annoyed, except Meia and Vanilla that is, when they grew tired of
watching the red-tailed boy shift physical aging.

"Amazing." Meia said in awe as she watched Ranma shift once again from
an eight-year-old to a twenty-year-old once again. "Ranma's so cute when
he's a child. Who knew men could be so cute at that age?" She wondered
out loud.

Ranma paused in his shifting as he stared at the girl. "What's being a
man gotta do with anything?"

Magno interjected, "You do remember that in Mejer, they believe that men
are their enemy."

"I still can't believe that." Ranpha mumbled to herself.

"What about you?" Ranma asked the old woman curiously. "What do you
believe in?"

The old woman snorted as everyone stared at her, waiting for her
response. "I'm not as close-minded as those fools back in my planet. If
I were, I would've thrown the men that came with us at the first instant
we discovered them in the Nirvana."

Gascogne shrugged. "I didn't believe much of those stories either. My
work as a pirate and as a supply manager opened me to various types of
information. A pirate goes to a lot of places, and I found one or two
planets that seemed to adopt man to woman relationships. But in respect
for my home planet's beliefs, as well as avoiding a lot of questions, I
just kept silent about my thoughts."

Meia, BC and Duero were gaping at Gascogne, who looked back innocently.

Ranpha grumbled as she crossed her arms across her chest. "I say you're
all nuts. Men and women needed each other for procreation! How could
anyone live in groups with same genders? And don't even get me started
with male to male... no offense, but it disturbs me."

"Eh?" Ranma asked eloquently, silently floating above them with Rin-Ohki
looking attentively down to them in his arms. "You can't really blame
them, since they were brought up in that kind of life."

"Men and women... together?" Meia gazed at Ranma thoughtfully, suddenly
catching herself in a blush. She turned to the lone window and stared at
the scene outside, trying to hide her flaming cheeks. The thoughts of
Ranma and her hand in hand came into her mind for some reason. She also
started to consider her feelings when Barnette, Jura and Misty would
start to snuggle up to Ranma for whatever reason. The feelings of pain
and anger in her chest would intensify when she sees those other girls
go near Ranma were a mystery to her. Now, whenever she looks at Ranma,
her thoughts go astray as her heart goes into palpitations. She had
asked Duero about it once, but all he said was that she was fine. Those
feelings confused her, and she once opted to ask Ranma, but for some
weird reason she suddenly felt fear and anxiety as she resolved her
courage. She backed out on that plan, and is now suffering because of
it.

"We have landed." Vanilla pointed out as the vessel halted its descent.
It shuddered once as it settled into position.

Ranma and the others turned to the window and saw their vehicle finally
came to rest. With an unspoken signal, Ranma and Rin-Ohki phased through
the steel wall, eliciting some stares from the group. Even though they
have witnessed some of his powers, they still can't get used to some of
them. Seeing him pass through the wall without any preamble reminded
them how different he was from them.

After a few seconds of waiting, Ranma's head popped out of the same
wall, catching most of them unawares. Magno clutched to her chest
panting, while Ranpha screamed in surprise. BC and Duero backed away
nervously as Meia's left brow twitched. Vanilla just blinked and smiled
slightly.

"The air's breathable, or that's what Rin-Ohki says." Ranma informed
them. "I trust her though, because I can't actually tell... now that I
don't really need air to breathe anymore."

"V-Very well, thank you Ranma." Magno replied in a slightly shaken
manner.

After last minute checks for their vehicle's stability, the group
finally exited the space craft and was awed at the tall trees in front
of them. Mostly because they were from places that thrived on
technology, that they were used to seeing machinery and factories. Oh
sure, they have some meadows and mountains and such, but the thick
vegetation and various small animals hopping around were new to them.
They saw Ranma leaping from one tree branch to another happily, with
Rin-Ohki hopping excitedly on the ground as well.

Their contemplation was cut short when a loud roar rumbled all over the
forest. Ranma and Rin-Ohki reappeared near the group in preparation,
while Ranpha, Meia and BC prepared their weapons for use. Strong
pounding resonated together with the roars, punctuating that their
adversary would be big, in fact, it's VERY big.

Sure enough, after several loud poundings of the ground and minor
tremors, a large dark-green head emerged from the dark patch of the
forest. Its body easily towered over their space vessel. Its head was
comparable to a dinosaur's, having a large mouth with serrated teeth in
them. Its eyes were golden as it glared on its victims below its vision.

Unknown to them, they stood face to face with a Rankar Dragon. How it
got there, nobody really gives a hoot right now.

Seeing the dragon preparing to strike, Ranpha open-fired with her laser
handgun, BC started lashing out with her whip and Meia fired her laser
rings. The beams seemed to dissipate on the dragon's hard skin, and BC's
whip snapped harmlessly across the dark hide as well. The dragon just
growled in annoyance and stepped forward menacingly.

"Oh great." Ranpha blanched as she fired more shots from her gun, which
still had little to no effect at the dragon at all.

Meia already abandoned her rings as she picked out some rocks from the
ground and chucked them at the creature. It seemed to somehow irritate
the Rankar.

The dragon glared at the puny insects at its feet. How dare they try and
hurt it by their pesky light show?! It opened its massive jaws and
lunged forward.

>SMACK!!!<

Everything stopped as the Rankar's huge mouth froze at midair. A fist
connected to an arm with a black bracer stopped the hulking head as it
was embedded at the creature's snout.

The crowd followed the fist to the body that sprang it in the first
place. Sure enough, there stood Ranma with his knuckles buried halfway
into the dragon's mouth. A few drops of blood flowed down on the ground
from the shattered Rankar's orifice as pieces of broken flesh and teeth
were exposed from the hole created by Ranma's strike. The pigtailed boy
slowly pulled his arm back and watched as the green dragon whine
pathetically a bit before teetering down to one side. With a loud crash,
the huge creature fell to its side, struggling futilely for a moment
before its final shudder. With a snort, the Rankar finally breathed its
last.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at the cooling carcass in front of them. Then
their gazes lifted to Ranma, who was trying to crack a crimp on his
neck. Then they lowered their gazes down on the dead thing again, and
once again to Ranma.

The boy finally got fed up and complained, "What?!"

"What are you?!" Ranpha all but screamed as she grabbed a fistful of her
blond hair in agitation.

"One punch..." Gascogne was mumbling, still shell-shocked at the huge
dead dragon in front of them. "A huge thing like that... down with one
punch!"

"Miyah." Rin-Ohki sighed. She just jumped into Ranma's waiting arms,
snuggling into it happily. She knew her master could do it, so she
wasn't really that surprised.

"You never cease to amaze me, bo-- I mean, Ranma." Magno nodded
approvingly.

Duero had already walked over to the corpse and was already examining it
thoroughly. After a few moments of silent contemplation he stood up, and
eyed Ranma with an appraising gaze. "That was some punch, Saotome. You
utterly demolished three-fourths of this animal's front teeth, as well
as destroying the connecting bone between the jaw and its head."

Before anyone could comment further about it, the whole area shook once
again as a mechanical rumble from somewhere hummed in the air. Birds and
other animals quickly bolted out of the area in reflex. Ranma just
looked at the wavering group curiously, mainly because he was still up
in the air so he wasn't really feeling the tremors. All he saw was that
the ground blurred a bit and his friends were having a hard time
balancing themselves. But he did hear the ominous rumbling... but a
living thing didn’t make it. It is however, a mechanical kind of rumble.

Without another word, Ranma rose above the thick branches of the trees
all over the small forest. When he finally reached the top and saw the
sun, he gaped at the view on the horizon.

Nearing their position was a huge dark green submarine-like ship that
has some kind of symbol at its tip. It stopped just outside the sand's
range and just settled there. Ranma discovered a little later that he
has been staring more than five minutes at the hulking thing when some
movement came from the ship as three to four smaller but still
impressively gigantic things emerged from it. Focusing his eyes on it
for a moment, he made out images of humanoid robots, but they were
sleeker than those he saw back in the Nirvana. Suddenly remembering the
group still waiting below him, he phased out of the area in his haste.

The said group except Vanilla (nothing can phase the girl, I tell you!)
jumped back in surprise as Ranma's form materialized all of the sudden
right in front of them. They started to talk at once when Ranma suddenly
spoke.

"We have company." Ranma said warily as he settled down on a tree branch
where he eyed the direction where he last saw the huge craft. In a
distance, he could already hear a different set of engine exhaust
whirring against the wind. He just knew this would be bad news for them.

Sure enough, three huge mecha emerged from the trees, momentarily
surrounding them. One of the mecha was dark blue-gray in color, with
small wing-shaped apparatus at its back. It seemed to lead the group. It
was flanked by a white and pink robot, which was standing quite close to
the leader. On the other side was a larger dark-green robot with a huge
sword in its hands. They all surrounded them quickly and efficiently
blocking their paths of escape.

"[LOWER YOUR WEAPONS AND RAISE YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR.]" A loud booming
voice emanated from the lead robot. To the Nirvana crew, it was all
garbled and not understandable.

"They want us to surrender." Vanilla informed them. Everyone was just
too surprised to even notice how the pale girl could understand the
language anyway.

Ranpha stared at the giants in front of her. "Forte would be jumping up
and down with glee right now, if only she could see these robots..." She
quickly raised her hands in the air.

Gascogne raised her eyebrow as she added, "Dita would be hugging the
thing's leg shouting, 'Another Mister Alien!' and that sort of thing."

Ranpha turned her head at Gascogne and choked out, "You have got to be
kidding me!"

Gascogne just smirked.

The others just followed suit, well everyone except Ranma since he still
has Rin-Ohki in his arms. The cabbit on the other hand was gazing at the
robots with hearts in her eyes. Ranma shuddered as he saw in his mind
what his partner was thinking. It was more in the lines of the robots
lying haphazardly in between huge loaves of bread. <Eh? Robot
Sandwiches?> Ranma thought as he tried to think of a way to get out of
this mess. He could just go and thrash the robots, but that would expose
everyone to danger. No offense to them, but they might get caught in the
crossfire and get hurt in the process. He can survive the battle, but
casualties may arise in that.

Magno hobbled forward, her hands on her cane. "We mean you no harm. We
happen to pass by your planet and figured that we needed some supplies,
that is all."

The area was silent for a moment, save for some scuffles from the
remaining animals that remained in the forest. After several minutes,
one by one the robots went down to one knee as loud hisses came
simultaneously from them, causing the visiting group to fidget slightly.

From the dark blue-gray robot, a young raven haired man with it tied in
a long ponytail that hung on his back emerged. He wore a white shirt
laced with blue with black kung-fu pants. He quickly stepped out of the
cockpit of his mecha and leapt into the air, landing at the robot's feet
with a soft thud.

A long red-haired woman came out from the white and pink robot. She wore
a tight fitting white pilot's uniform with black trimmings and combat
boots. She too leapt down from the cockpit located on her robot's chest
area and landed on its feet. She quickly made her way beside the young
man, who was eyeing the group intently.

Lastly, from the last dark-green robot a somewhat older looking man with
glasses and black long hair emerged. He wore a green shirt and white
pants. He landed beside his other two companions as they watched their
captives' movements.

The young man with the long ponytail finally stepped up and said, "[Who
are you and where did you come from?]"

The visitors have this blank look on their faces as they failed to
understand what he was saying. However, Ranma had this bewildered look
on him as he leapt down from the branch he was perched on. The young
male pilot idly noted how well Ranma moved as he landed silently.

"[English, huh? So it would seem you speak English in this planet... not
Japanese as the ones in the Nirvana.]" Ranma rubbed his chin with one
hand thoughtfully. Everyone just turned to gaze at him as he fell silent
in his memories. He did remember Chi-Chi's lessons about the language,
how it was hammered into his head as his second language. He was
silently thankful for the lessons Goku's wife gave him back then. Ranma
finally snapped back to the present and noticed the Nirvana's group
staring at him.

Hazarding a guess, he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and said,
"I guess you were wondering how I could speak their language then?"

"It is in English." Vanilla commented as she remembered her life as
Ayanami Rei once again. All the information were downloaded into her
brain as her body was revived at that time, and the languages were just
one of the information she received. She silently walked to Ranma's side
and stayed there.

"English?" Meia asked as she scooted closer to Ranma. She took note of
the slight twitch that seemed to have appeared on Vanilla's cheek when
she did so.

Magno nodded sagely. "Ah, I remember... an old language from our
original planet Earth."

Ranma noticed that the three newcomers were looking at them in confusion
as they waited for a response. He said to them, "[Sorry about that, but
most of the people in this group don't understand your language. Only me
and that small girl with cyan hair over there are the only ones who can
understand you. Before you ask, the language you're using is called
English.]"

The young man with long ponytailed hair looked at Ranma oddly at first,
and then nodded. He replied, "[My name is Fei, and the woman at my side
is Elly. The person behind us is Citan. We detected the descent of your
ship near Nisan, a town that has the highest priority of protection from
us. We immediately mobilized to make sure you weren't a threat or
anything.]"

Ranma nodded at Fei's explanation, while Vanilla quickly translated for
the bewildered group behind. His face screwed in contemplation and
asked, "[I am Ranma, just your normal wanderer. My companions are
Vanilla, the other girl who can understand your language. Meia is the
leading tactician of our group. Duero is the doctor in charge of medical
stuff. Ranpha is member of an elite force that we recently met, who by
the way has the same origins as Vanilla. Buzam or BC for short, is the
assistant to the leader of the group I'm staying with; Magno, the leader
of the whole group in general.]" He explained, pointing to each and
everyone behind him. A loud miyah interrupted Ranma whoever.

"[Oh! Before I forget, this is my partner, Rin-Ohki.]" Ranma gestured to
the silver furred creature in his arms. Elly peered closer to the thing
and gushed at how cute it was. Women, bah (no offense to women
everywhere though heh heh).

Ranma looked at Fei. "[I was wondering, what were you so uptight about?
I mean... no disrespect but... you were awfully jumpy at such a small
craft. You even sent those robots as reinforcements.]"

Fei chuckled as he relaxed his stance. "[Sorry 'bout that. We have no
idea what to expect, and we're in a middle of a crisis. You see, we've
been fighting something really bad, and we're just making sure about
things. The Gears, these robots as you refer them, are our...
instruments for warfare. They are also used for other things, but right
now war is its purpose. So tell us, where were you from?]"

The pigtailed boy smiled nervously as he looked back to Magno. Since
she's the captain of the Nirvana, she has the last word about things.
Revealing their origins are one of them. Vanilla just finished
translating for Ranma as Magno nodded back to him, giving him her
approval on being honest with the inhabitants of the world they were
supposed to gather supplies from. It won't do if the whole planet would
declare war on them because they withheld information.

"[Well...]" Ranma began, as he struggled for the words to describe their
origins, "[You see, we're really not from around here.]"

The red-haired girl named Elly (weirdly enough, a lot of the women Ranma
met were redheads) finally spoke in an accented English (she's
half-Solarian right?), "[From where then, another island?]"

Ranma violently shook his head from side to side. "[Uhmm... would you
believe we're from another... planet?]"

Silence reigned in the area, leaving the Nirvana group wondering if they
should run. They looked at Ranma, then to the three newcomers, then back
to Ranma once again. Only Vanilla seemed calm enough though, and that
gave them the courage to stay put and wait it out. They were avidly
waiting for the impending explosion from their hosts.

They weren't disappointed.

"[You have GOT to be kidding me!]" Fei all but yelled at their faces.
Eyeing them warily, he stepped back and stood in a hidden but ready
stance. The others were quite oblivious about this, but Ranma's
experience in battle saw this really well.

"[Another... planet?]" Well, Elly's reaction was a bit more subdued,
with a little bit of fear and disbelief in her voice. The fact that she
was quivering a bit under her pilot suit clearly showed her agitation
about the situation.

But the best response of all was from the last member of the host's
group. "[Simply amazing!]" Citan said as his eyes gleamed excitedly.
Ranma sweatdropped when he saw this. The glint in Citan's eyes reminded
him of Duero, Parfait and Washuu whenever they have this new toy to
tinker with.

Before any of it blew out of proportion, Ranma commented quickly,
"[We're really visitors from another world, although since you speak a
language that was familiar to me, it would seem that you might've came
from our planet as well. Tell me, were you colonists here?]"

This statement stunned Fei and the others. Citan spoke up, "[Yes... yes
you're right. Records has it that we were not native in this world.]"

Fei and Elly just looked dumbly at Citan, while Ranma nodded knowingly.
They knew about their people's history, since their reincarnated
memories reminded them about it, but they never knew Citan had that
knowledge as well.

Ranma just smiled softly. "[I knew it. You were probably one of the
original colonists sent forth into space from planet Earth.]" He
gestured to his companions, "[Well, these people were also from the same
planet you probably came from. They were colonists before they got to
settle down the planets they are in right now. Although... they have
some... weird customs that I plan to correct later on.]"

"[Regardless, please forgive our skepticism... but this is still hard to
swallow you know...]" Citan said seriously.

Ranma shrugged. "[I wouldn't have believed it myself if I hadn't
experienced it by my own.]" At Fei, Elly and Citan's questioning looks,
Ranma continued, "[Being flung into different universes dulls the
skepticism in my mind. That and revealing a lot of secrets about
oneself.]" He chortled merrily. In truth, he was quite amused at all of
these. After all, things just go bye-bye when Ranma's around, right?

After considering for a moment as the trio of Gear pilots conferred in a
huddle, Fei finally nodded and looked up to Ranma and the Nirvana crew,
saying, "[Well, since we can't leave you here, we just have to take you
in our ship, the Yggdrasil. Beware though, no funny business. The
captain there is quite... eccentric.]"

Ranma just shrugged as he held Rin-Ohki tighter into his body. He had
long curled his red tail around his waist once more, dispelling the
obvious conclusion of his weird but noble descent (crap... he now sounds
like Kuno!).

With that, Fei looked around to see if there are any more who would come
with them, he finally spotted the odd hill that stuck out on their side.
He walked towards it and peered at it closely. Realizing what it was, he
gasped as he backpedaled towards Elly and Citan, who were suddenly alert
at Fei's reaction.

"[What's wrong Fei? Is there something the matter?]" Elly eyed the
Nirvana crew suspiciously, thinking that they were hiding something from
them that Fei had just uncovered.

Citan only fell silent as he stepped forward, taking a look at the
'hill' as well. With an admiring whistle, he stepped back and faced the
confused Nirvana crew.

"[This is a Rankar Dragon. One of the deadlier animals that roamed these
parts.]" Citan explained to Ranma, since the pigtailed boy was the only
one who understood. Vanilla was busy translating for their group. The
surprised looks on their faces indicated that they finally get what they
have apparently killed.

Ranma for his part just looked really innocent. "[Soooo?]"

Fei finally recovered, but was a bit pale as he struggled to stand in
Elly's arms. He remembered his first encounter with the beast, and it
was not pretty. He wasn't able to do anything to the dragon but piss it
off. Luckily, Citan saved him by transporting Weltall to his location so
he may fight it. It was also around that time that he met Elly. "[To
kill one of these, we usually used Gears to do our dirty work. These
monsters have very tough hide, and even with our Gears he have a lot of
trouble dealing with them. How did you get to kill one of these
anyway?]" Fei asked incredulously.

Before Ranma could answer the question, Vanilla's flat voice replied,
"[Ranma punched it. Once.]"

"[EHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!]" Fei, Elly and Citan commented intelligently, eyes
bugging out while looking at Ranma.

"[Hmmmm?]" Ranma just looked more confused than ever.

Fei walked up to him. "[That's not possible! I tried fighting it before,
and I didn't even scratch it! I have to use a Gear just to beat it!]"

Ranma crossed his arms across his chest. "[Just because you can't do it,
doesn't mean I can't.]"

"[It is of no belittling of your abilities.]" Citan assured him. "[It's
just hard for us to believe that you can defeat something as powerful as
a Rankar Dragon.]"

Ranma just waved their skepticism off. "[It's dead, alright? Can we just
talk about something else?]" He was also getting real annoyed at the
direction the questions were going.

Refraining from asking any more questions, Fei just contacted the
Yggdrasil to pick them up, along with the message of more people coming
in as well.

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

The Yggdrasil was a very huge ship, and the crew from the Nirvana could
attest to that. It was roughly five-eighths the size of the Nirvana
itself. The huge docks it had held several large Gears, and even took
their shuttle inside. Although there were a handful of women, most of
the crew was men, much to Meia's dismay. Though she has no qualms about
men and their presence, pirate men were another story. They were just no
'Ranma', and subconsciously she took a peek at the pigtailed boy at her
side. She sighed longingly.

Vanilla was walking beside Ranma, and for some reason not even she could
name, she was sticking real close to him. She was still as emotionless
as ever, but Ranma knew what to look for. Dealing with Nabiki taught him
about subtle eyebrow shifts and cheek twitches proved to be something.

Ranma adjusted the dark tinted glasses over his eyes as he boredly
followed the trio of Gear pilots in front of him. He took note of the
spacious ship the Yggdrasil was made of, but it was nothing compared to
the Nirvana. Of course, when it comes to cool techno-crap, Washuu's Soja
II came a distant first. His hand was scratching Rin-Ohki softly,
eliciting some purrs from the hybrid pet while it slumbered peacefully
despite all the excitement.

Ranpha was disappointed, because most of the men were either old or too
weird-looking. Her pursuit for gorgeous men was in vain after all. She
shrugged, since she could always go for her old standby... treasures!
Besides, the male hunk she was acquainted with in front of her took the fun out of finding other prospects. Even though he changed to a girl with
the application of water, the promise of control (Washuu mentioned it
before, and Ranma was ranting about it nonstop when he heard it)
skyrocketed Ranma's appeal. Now, if she could only find a way to nab him
from the other girls eyeing him.

Duero was actually quite interested in the relationship between the
males and the females of the ship. He saw how that Fei person and Elly
were interacting. They were touching and remained in contact with each
other for the duration of the trip. He already heard from Ranma about
'intimacy', but experiencing it first hand was another thing.

BC was rather interested at the Gear designs. Their own Dreads and the
Vanguards were a bit more advanced than the Gears, but the latters'
designs were efficient and well made. Magno was looking around her the
same way, as well as trying to decipher some of the puzzling language
the crew of the Yggdrasil was using. She should know about it, but it
has been so long that she had already forgotten it.

Fei was feeling something a bit odd from the pigtailed boy. For one, why
was he wearing those dark glasses inside the ship anyway? There is no
sun anyway. And also, the fact that this 'Ranma' also defeated a Rankar
Dragon with his bear hands... with one punch no less! He was wondering
if he should challenge the guy, but for once he felt a sudden chill as
he thought what would happen if he did so.

Elly was rather skeptic at everything. Sure, she believes that there
might've been life in other planets or something, but seeing them face
to face is really weird. Plus, the fact that they might all belong to
the same planet of origin still made her feel a bit overwhelmed. Also,
the way Ranma moved made Fei look like a turtle in grace. She also
thinks that Rin-Ohki is quite cute.

The good old doctor Citan already has some conclusions on the group.
Yes, he believes that they are as they say, since his former master Cain
educated him about this. The boy Ranma was a bit of a puzzle though,
since he felt something off about him.

The Nirvana group was led to the conference room, just beyond the bar
area. A lone white haired old man who was standing behind the counter
was looking at them curiously. It would seem that they were not used to
visitors as of late. Finally arriving at the room with a huge chandelier
and that oval table, they saw another group of three small girls, a pink
fluff of a pet, a dark skinned green haired woman, a totally green guy
with red hair, a white long haired guy with an eye patch, an old looking
guy with a scar on his face dressed in a trenchcoat, a white haired
young lad in a trenchcoat and guns slung inside them, and at the head of
the conference table was a blond haired young man with an eye patch on
his eye as well.

"[Welcome...]" The blond young man with an eye patch greeted them. Ranma
smiled and bowed slightly. When the others saw the gesture, they took it
as a sign and bowed as well.

Ranma chuckled at the young man's confusion. "[Pardon them, but they
can't understand a thing we're saying, except the girl in white. I am
Ranma, a wanderer of some sort. The girl in white is Vanilla, who just
recently joined our group. The blue haired girl is Meia, while the
silver haired one is BC. The one in red and has blonde hair is Ranpha,
who was with Vanilla long before they kinda stumbled in with our group.
The longhaired young man is Duero, resident physician of the group. The
one in my arms is Rin-Ohki, my partner. Don't irritate her or she'll do
something real bad.]" He shrugged at the last sentence. Ranma was sure
Rin-Ohki reacts badly when she gets pissed, like that time Inuyasha
tried to pull the carrots the cabbit was eating right out of her grasp.
Who would've ever thought that a cabbit could fire energy blasts
unconsciously? The look on Inuyasha's shocked face, as he lay on the
ground smoking was a classic!

The 'eye patched blondie' nodded, eyeing the weird rabbit-looking animal
wryly. Rin-Ohki just yawned cutely and snuggled into Ranma's arms,
dreaming of the delicious metals on board the ship they were on right
now. Just think, she could eat several of those huge robot thingies and
she will regain most of her strength and be able to transform to her
ship mode! Also, she was thinking of some major modifications, ever
since seeing those robots made her wish she could transform into those
as well. She would have to fix all that after she gets the metals she
needed, which will be rather soon once everyone's attention is away from
her.

"[Anyway, this ship here is the Yggdrasil, and to clear everythin' up,
we're pirates. You can call me Bart, and I'm the leader of the group.]"
Bart said after contemplating for a bit.

Ranma chuckled, earning himself a curious look from everyone. "[Well,
waddya know? It's a coincidence, ya see, Captain Magno here and her crew
are pirates as well. Although, they're all women. Cool... a meeting
between two pirate leaders...]"

"[Really? Wow!]" Bart blinked as he realized the irony of it all.
"[Anyway, welcome then! I'd like ya to meet everyone here, since all of
them're my friends ya know? I see ya met Fei, Elly and Citan already.
Well, I'm gonna introduce ya here to the rest.]"

Gesturing to one of the smaller girls, she was a white haired one with
dark red eyes. She was holding unto a notepad for some reason, with a
pen connected to it with a string. "[Her name's Primera, and she can't
speak much... trauma or somethin'. Anyway, she usually writes what she
wants in that pad of hers, so just watch out for that.]" The others
smiled at her warmly, which she returned in kind.

Another small girl with long hair and goggles just above her hairline
was introduced. She was looking at them with a demure attitude. "[She's
Maria, and believe it or not, she commands one of the big Gears ya saw
back there in the docks, specifically the big blue one.]" Everyone was
looking at her amazed, making her blush a bit.

The third small girl was wearing a big red hat over her head, with her
clothes over her body in red as well. She was also clutching at this
pink stuffed toy, err correction, something alive, since it just moved.
"[Lemme introduce my cousin Margie, Nisan's Holy Mother. Uhhmmm, but
she's no nun or anythin' okay? Just so we're clear about it...]"
Everyone laughed as Margie smacked Bart upside his head.

Bart just grumbled as he scratched the back of his head. "[Anyway, the
ball of fuzz Margie is holding happens to be a living thing. Minda ya,
she's a bit irritatin', but once ya get used ta it, it all comes down to
place. She's called Chu-Chu, a survivor of one of this planet's original
inhabitants or something. She turns into a giant Chu-Chu when she fights
big enemies. Ya have got to see that.]"

The pink stuffed toy look-alike huffed as she jumped down from Margie's
lap. "[Chu-chu is very happy chu meet new people!]" Chu-Chu squealed
excitedly. After Vanilla translated for the pink life form, everyone
nodded in acceptance.

Bart nodded to the white haired young man in a dark blue trenchcoat. His
guns were gleaming against the light from the chandelier. "[Meet Billy,
former member of the Ministry. After learning what they really had in
store for humanity, he defected and joined us. He's real good with guns,
and he's very trustworthy.]" Billy bowed slightly to the guests.

Next was the white haired man with the eye patch, who was wearing a
white version uniform of Bart's red. "[Here is Sigurd, my assistant
commander and my... half-brother.]" Sigurd looked surprised at Bart
while the blond just smiled contentedly.

Bart finally took note of the look Sigurd threw at him and responded,
"[What? I wanna let everybody know that yer my older brother. It's time
that everyone knew the truth anyway.]" Sigurd's face melted into a soft
grin as he nodded appreciatively.

Continuing with the introductions, Bart pointed to the man with a
scarred face and dark trenchcoat. "[Meet Jessie, Billy and Primera's
father. He's a gun maniac, and a very good sharpshooter. He helped us a
lot of times, and like his son he's very dependable.]" Jessie smirked
arrogantly to the others, much to the women's askance.

Bart laughed lightly at the sight. He finally sobered as he pointed to
the elderly man behind the counter. "[The one over there is Maison,
who's been in my family for years. He's loyal and caring, and offers
great advice to those who asked.]" With great exaggeration, Maison bowed
to his waist with a flourish.

Moving on, Bart gestured to the huge green man. "[He's Rico... don't
mind the looks, coz he's got a heart of gold inside that hard outer
coverin' of his.]" He chortled as he heard Rico growl. "[Anyway, he's a
good friend, and you can depend on him whenever yer in a jam.]"

Ranma finally spoke up, looking at Rico intently. "[Uhhmm, no offense
but, are you an alien or something?]"

The rest of the Yggdrasil inhabitants laughed at Ranma's conclusion.
Even Rico didn't have the willpower to muster enough anger to vent.
Instead, he sighed as he explained, "[I'm what some called a
demi-human.]"

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "[I... I see. So there are others
like you in this world?]"

Rico nodded. "[Yeah. Most of them look like animals and stuff. Like
Hammer...]" Fei's group immediately saddened at the mention of Hammer's
name. Even though the demi-human chose the path to power and was killed
by it, they still thought of him as a friend.

Ranma noticed the mood change as he winced. "[Bad memories?]"

Fei smiled sadly. "[We just lost a... friend recently. It was hard on
all of us, especially Rico.]"

The greenish demi-human glowered at Fei for a moment, then let up.
"[Even if he was a bit irritating at times, he's still a good person. He
was just tired of being treated like a lower class life form because of
his looks.]"

The pigtailed boy cocked his head to one side, his eyes closed in
contemplation. "[Ahh... I'm sorry to hear that.]" He straightened
himself up as he breathed out. "[Hmmm... so anything weird looking is
okay right?]"

As the rest of the people around him looked on in confusion, even those
from the Nirvana themselves, Ranma finally unfurled his tail from his
waist, earning gasps from the Yggdrasil crew side. He even removed his
glasses, exposing the meshing of blue eyes with yellow pupils. But
instead of fear, he just saw curiosity in their gazes. Even the small
girls were unafraid of him.

"Ranma! Are you sure this is wise?" Meia asked from his side as he
finished exposing his secret.

The boy just shrugged. "It's not fair for them to just trust us out of
the blue, just to find out that I kept something as important as this to
them."

Turning back to the chattering Yggdrasil group, Ranma cleared his
throat, gaining their attention once again. "[It would seem you have a
lot of questions.]"

"[You're not a demi-human.]" Rico stated calmly, daring Ranma to refute
his words. He was quite surprised when the pigtailed boy just chuckled.

"[Whoever said I was?]" Ranma asked amusedly. "[I'm more of a hybrid,
but not of human standards however, at least that's what my scientist
friend would say...]"

Maria skipped to his side and glanced at the red appendage behind him.
"[Well, I think you're cute.]"

Emeralda cocked her head to one side, looking at Ranma intensively.
"[Nothing wrong...]"

Citan tapped his chin with his finger. "[I seem to detect an unusually
high life force within you. Tell me, are you a martial artist?]"

Ranma's head whipped to Citan's direction, boring his ethereal eyes into
Citan's own, making the bi-spectacled man fidget a bit. "[Before
everything, I 'was' a martial artist. But now, I'm a warrior.]"

"[Is there a difference?]" Fei asked, confused at the declaration.

The pigtailed boy nodded. "[Of course. A martial artist defends the
weak, trying to keep everyone safe and sound. A warrior defends the
weak, but to extremes. Warriors kill their enemies if there's no other
way in resolving everything.]"

Fei was aghast at the implications. His eyes narrowed a bit as he asked,
"[Did you kill already?]"

Ranma snorted. "[I won't be a warrior if I did not. Although I was
mortified when I killed the first time, I had to do it. Monsters and
such alike are hard to make peace with you know. It is better to destroy
them than letting them live. But don't make a mistake, even if they were
monsters, a life is still a life. I choose to kill only if the situation
has exhausted all options.]"

Fei was about to reply when all of the sudden, the alarms around the
ship were set off. Everyone just looked confused, that is until one of
the men from Bart's crew came stumbling inside the conference room. He
was pale and was panting real badly.

"[C-Captain! W-We have a s-s-situation!]" The unnamed crewmember
stuttered helplessly.

Bart and the rest of the crew from the Yggdrasil grew pensive when they
saw the panicked look on his subordinate. "[What the hell is it?!]" Bart
almost shouted out loud. He was already enjoying a bit of downtime from
those battles him and his friends were into back then, and now it would
seem that the short rest was over too soon.

The crewmember struggled to control the shaking in his voice.
"[T-There's something happening! We have reports from all over the
world... that people started transforming once again into Wels! The cure
somehow failed!]"

"[Shit!]" Bart cursed as he glanced at Sigurd, who paled at the news.

Fei also cursed under his breath as he felt Elly cringe close to his
body. "[What is it this time?]" he mutters angrily.

But the news was far from over. "[We also sighted something lifting
itself up from the ocean floor. Something really massive, and it is
somewhat mechanical by nature.]" The crewmember explained, having calmed
down a bit after explaining the first bad news. "[We are still analyzing
it, and would probably have the results later on.]"

Bart sighed and nodded. "[I see... carry on then.]"

The crewmember saluted smartly and ran back outside.

The blond captain of the Yggdrasil shook his head as he faced Ranma and
his guests once more. "[As you can see, we have a lot of problems right
now... I might suggest that you leave this planet real soon. Once things
get ugly, you might be caught in between.]"

Ranma agreed and turned to Magno. "I suggest you call the Nirvana and
have them on stand by. I feel that a little while longer and this planet
would erupt in a huge-scale war. You don't want to get caught up in that
right?" he spoke in their native language.

The old woman smiled softly. "Although I can see it in your eyes that
you wanted to help these people, right? Don't bother denying. Anyway,
let me inform Parfait about the situation." She pulled out a small
circular button, which Ranma recognized as the communication devices
each of the crewmembers of the Nirvana have with them. Magno began
speaking in the small device, frowning slightly at something before
speaking into it once again.

Ranma detected a hint of fear and annoyance from Magno's features.
Hunching himself to her side, he whispered, "Something wrong?"

Magno glared at the device she held before putting it back in her
pocket. She looked up to Ranma's concerned face and replied, "I can't
seem to contact the Nirvana. The lines are all garbled."

"[What's the matter?]" Bart asked from behind them.

"[We can't contact our ship.]" Ranma said warily as he scratched the
back of his head. He kept his grip firm on Rin-Ohki with his other hand
however, since for some reason her thoughts disturbed him.

Citan stepped forward. "[Something must be interfering with the
communications array. It must be the thing coming out of the water right
now. You see, we also released some nanobots into the atmosphere a few
days ago. It was so that we could remove the limiters installed into
most of the Land Dwellers. Unfortunately for some reason, when this new
thing came up, there was a severe side-effect. It seems that removing
the limiters and the new phenomenon sped up the evolution of chosen
individuals all over the planet into those things called Wels. We found
out earlier that the Wels were to be used as a host body for a
resurrecting god.]"

"[Wow.]" Ranma breathed out. "[This planet's kinda messed-up.]"

"Ranma..." Magno called to him. "We need to contact the Nirvana."

The pigtailed boy just shrugged. "What can I do? Wait... there's
something I can do! Wait here for a moment while I try a long range
teleport there okay?"

With Magno's nod, Ranma closed his eyes and concentrated. His body faded
away together with Rin-Ohki as the Yggdrasil group stared at the spot he
was in a while ago.

He came back a little later with the cabbit still in his arms. He
blinked when he realized everyone was still staring at the spot where he
disappeared.

"[What?!]" Ranma asked dubiously.

"[HOW?!]" Everyone save the Nirvana crew shouted simultaneously.

Ranma sighed as Meia and the rest chortled in amusement. Another long
explanation is at hand, but that's for later. Turning to Magno, he said,
"There's something wrong with the atmosphere that seemed to... uhm...
interfere in the communications. They were actually ready to send some
of your ships on the planet to retrieve us. Good thing I arrived there
just in time. Anyway, I told them to stay put, and be alert at any
changes that's going to happen. Is that okay?"

The old woman nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Ranma." Gesturing to
Bart and the others, who were staring adamantly at Ranma, she continued,
"But I suggest you start explaining about your... 'gifts'. I don't think
they'd take this lying down."

Ranma sweatdropped at the smoldering gazes directed at him.

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

The whole group was now watching the viewscreen intensively as they
watched something huge emerging from the sea. Then the scene shifts to
one part of Nisan, where most of the refugees converge. A lot of people
were screaming, tearing the flesh from their skins as they clawed at
themselves. They were all slowly turning to Wels, even with the presence
of the nanobots Tora created to counteract the effects of removing the
limiter. Other viewpoints were also viewed, with the same scene and
results.

It was horrible.

Citan grimly explained why, his own theories were the best they've got.
He revealed that the only way for the humans to grow to Wels at such an
incredible rate was to use the Gaetia Key, which to his knowledge was in
the hands of the Gazel Ministry, the group behind the whole thing. There
was a snag though. The reason the ministry hasn’t used it earlier was
because there was someone who was stopping it and that was Citan's
master, Emperor Kain. The only way for the Gaetia Key to be used was for
Kain to be killed.

Those people destined by god, regardless of whether they were surface
dwellers or Solarians, began to change shape, one after the other. The
howling was the people themselves, who re-populated the earth in due
time, calling out to god. When the humans have actually filled the
earth, this same god will finally re-awaken from his long sleep, and the
awakening of Mahanon, the paradise in the sky, will soon follow. Mahanon
was, for all its worth, was the 'resting place of god'.

They saw Mahanon rise from the sea on their screen. Its long hibernation
already caused the whole thing to accumulated layers upon layers of
seaweed and barnacle. It turned out to be an old hunking battleship,
which to Ranma and Magno's conclusion, was the same colony ship sent by
Earth to this planet.

They also detected a massive strike force approaching the still rising
battleship. This force has quite a number of Gears, but majority of it
was made up of Wels who were formerly of Solaris and Gebler's own. Fei
and the others decided to put a halt to their advance, since they
couldn't let the Gazel Ministry get their hands on the ancient knowledge
of god.

A new meeting was called into place... and it centered mainly on the two
couple, Fei and Elly. Magno and the rest of her crew were escorted in a
vacant room to discuss their own plans and options, but Ranma, Rin-Ohki
and Vanilla decided to stay with the meeting, since they could
understand what Bart and the others would say.

It was really not what they expected, but somehow, Ranma found it rather
lethargic listening to the argument that brewed.

Elly was screeching out loud as Fei uttered the words she hated to hear
from him. "[Wait a minute! You want me to stay here? No, I'm going with
you!]"

Fei shook his head sadly. "[No. It's too dangerous...]"

"[Why? I've been in many dangerous situations. This isn't the first
time!]" Elly pressed on with her request.

Fei growled. "[I said no! We can't take you. Please understand!]"

The redhead stomped her foot on the ground angrily. "[No, I want to go!
We've been fighting together all this time! And suddenly you're telling
me not to go!? I just don't get it!!]"

Fei crossed his arms across his chest. "[This isn't like any other
fight! It's a battle for the wisdom created by god. It's life or death.
Whoever controls it, becomes the true dominator of the worlds! It's
obvious the Ministry will bring the strongest possible troops. There is
no guarantee you would come back alive!]"

Elly's eyes softened slightly. "[That's exactly why I want to go...]"
she said softly.

The love of her life looked away. "[You don't have the slightest
idea...]" he mumbled back loudly.

Elly suddenly felt enraged again. "[What don't I understand?!]"

Fei closed his eyes as he slowly shook his head again. "[If the enemy
were only the Ministry or just mechanical weapons it would be okay. But
most of the enemies will be made up of what were once humans... humans
just like you and me!]"

The redhaired former Solaris operative froze at his declaration.

Fei nodded his head once he saw Elly's hesitation. "[I saw them at those
facilities... Gears that were made out of humans. They were the same as
Hammer... Could you now destroy them after knowing this?! In order to
save ourselves, can you truly say that you could kill those who were
once our friends?! So, do you still want to go now?!]"

Elly looked down to the ground, her hesitation growing by the minute.
Memories of Hammer and his death haunted her memories since it happened.
"[W-Well...]" she stammered, unable to make a feasible reply.

Fei decided to drive his point home. "[You can't even kill one person.
Your presence would be a burden during the fight.]"

Everyone, especially Elly, stiffened at his words. Ranma however
narrowed his eyes on Fei, who took no notice since he was still
struggling with the words he wanted to convey. Vanilla's own gaze was
smoldering if Fei bothered to look at it.

"[You'd just get in the way.]" Fei finished his statement, looking
satisfied at his argument. Elly suddenly turned without a word and ran
outside the conference room, her passing was streaked with twin lines of
tears in the air.

Bart looked at Fei in astonishment. "[Don't you think you went a little
too far there, Fei?]"

Citan nodded in agreement. "[We cannot blame her. At least we should
understand her feelings.]"

Fei groaned, feeling a headache coming. "[I know how Elly feels. I knew
she wouldn't have listened to me if I had just said, 'You're not
coming!'. Seeing as she has worked together with us for such a long time
and all... That's why I had to explain to her like that... The people
gathered in Nisan need Elly. She's gotta realize how much people are
depending on her. I can't put her in a dangerous situation...]"

Ranma fought off the urge to smack Fei hard on the head. He knew how Fei
felt, and he also knew his own mouth would shoot off probably the same
things Fei said. Now that he heard it as a third party, Ranma wouldn't
believe how hurtful his words and actions were back when he was in
Nerima. But he knew he had to comment anyway, "[The way you said it...
it reminded me of how stupid I was back home.]"

Fei leveled a glare towards Ranma, who just snorted when he saw the
look.

"[Don't give me that. I know you just wanted to protect her, but the
manner you showed how you care to her... damn. No wonder everyone wanted
to kill me back then.]" Ranma chuckled sadly as several people stared
him at.

Margie looked back to Fei and put her hands on her hips. The expression
on her face was less than approving. "[He's right. The way you said it
was a little harsh.]"

Billy patted his sister Primera's hair lovingly. He knew the little girl
was upset at the situation. "[You didn't have to be so cold. She was
crying, you know?]"

Fei faltered. "[But...]"

"[I hate seeing females cry.]" Ranma commented, "[I just can't stand
seeing girls feel sad like that. It hits me real bad.]" All young girls'
stared at him in surprise, even Vanilla, and felt their hearts melt at
the simple and unintended declaration from Ranma.

"[I am sure she realizes that you wanted to protect her.]" Citan said
calmly as he sat once again at a chair.

Bart nodded in agreement. "[I agree. Maybe you are the one who doesn't
understand?]"

"[Me...? I don't understand?]" Fei pointed to himself as he slowly
backed away from the group.

Margie placed her hands on her chest as she said, "[A lady's...
heart...? What a woman wants for the love of her life?]"

Billy smiled as he patted Fei's shoulder. "[She wants to go, to be with
you, Fei... until the end...]"

Margie beamed a smile. "[Yeah.]"

Bart added his own comment. "[If I were you... I'd hold her tight and
say... 'Let's go together!'... just like that!]"

The people gathered looked at Bart curiously, but it was Margie who
asked their question. "[Really?]" she asked at Bart's face, her eyes
watering in happiness.

The one-eyed pirate blanched at the implications of his statement.
"[Um... no... I mean... errh...]"

Everyone laughed at Bart's stammering. "[Young master, don't overdo
yourself now...]" Maison chided the captain of the Yggdrasil lightly.

Bart blushed heavily. "[Ah, shut up! Anyhow, why don't you go ask her to
come with you? Whether she'll go or not, you should express your
feelings in words. If you really care about her, you have to go tell
her.]"

Citan chuckled lightly. "[Express your feelings... right?]"

Fei's eyes widened in surprise. "[I, I didn't mean...!]"

Bart shook his head vehemently, grasping Fei's shoulders with his hands.
"[Too late now. Everyone knows it.]"

"[You are not being true to yourself, are you?]" Citan leaned forwards,
his face almost touching Fei's own as he stared the fighter down eye to
eye.

Margie crossed her arms across her chest and nodded. "[I agree.]"

Emeralda stepped forward and tugged on Fei's sleeve. "[Fei... say it...
straight out...]"

Margie pointed to the door. "[Go ahead... go chase after her! What are
you waiting for?]"

After a moment of hesitation, Fei hardened his resolve and finally ran
out of the room, determined to follow Elly. Everyone's gazes was rooted
at the door where both exited before.

"[He's lucky.]" Ranma said softly, catching the group's attention. The
sadness on his face was evident. "[He's got someone who would wait for
him no matter how long it takes.]" Before anyone could comment on his
words, Ranma turned and walked outside. Or rather, Ranma glided outside,
followed by Vanilla and surprisingly, by Emeralda.

The ones that were left just looked at each other in confusion.

When Emeralda went out of the conference room, she immediately sought
out the one she was following, which was Vanilla, since the girl would
lead her to that young man, Ranma. Emeralda was actually intrigued as to
why the boy exudes some sort of aura entirely different from Fei, yet
the attraction to it was more powerful. She realized that she has to
find out why, so here she was. She spotted the girl just going up the
ladder leading to the balcony of some sorts of the Yggdrasil. She
hurried her steps along, since she has to warn the pale red-eyed girl to
be careful, since that area was pretty dangerous when the Yggdrasil is
moving.

Emeralda cautiously went up the ladder and opened the circular hatch on
top. The wind suddenly blasted against her pale green hair, but she
doesn't mind at all. She quickly pulled herself up and closed the hatch
once again. She looked around and spotted two people just in front of
her. Ranma was sitting on the railings while Vanilla leaned unto the
railings themselves. She saw a silver-furred animal hopping madly at the
Yggdrasil's hull, defying physics and everything. Heck, Emeralda
wondered how Ranma managed to balance himself with the wind blowing like
this. She shook the thoughts away from her head as she started to walk
towards the two.

"Is there something wrong, Ranma-sama?" The cyan haired girl turned
slightly to the boy.

Ranma sighed to himself. "You're never gonna call me in a normal
fashion, are you? Anyway, yeah I'm okay. I'm just reminded of what
happened before I went on and wished myself out of my time."

Vanilla nodded. "I see."

Emeralda was dismayed when she discovered her quarry was speaking in
their native tongue, so she can't understand him real well right now.
Looking back into her knowledge database, otherwise known as her brain,
Emeralda tried to look for a solution in her predicament. Surprisingly,
an answer showed itself to her. She tapped Vanilla on the shoulder,
making the girl turn to her in surprise and curiosity.

"[Do you need something from me, Miss Emeralda?]" Vanilla asked bluntly.

Emeralda nodded. "[I wish... to connect with you...]"

Ranma remained silent at the exchange, but was listening attentively. He
continued to look at the passing clouds above him.

"[How will this be done?]" The Galaxy Angel cocked her head to one side
slightly.

Emeralda raised her hand to Vanilla's forehead, not quite touching but
real close. "[Only a short moment... nanobots from me go to you... get
info from mind. No worries... will only take important language info.]"

Vanilla glanced discreetly at Ranma, who by now was looking at them.
Seeing her gaze at him, Ranma shrugged noncommittedly. He said, "[What
harm could it do? As long as she doesn't take your memories, it's
alright, ne?]"

Vanilla nodded once. "[As you wish, Ranma-sama.]"

Ranma narrowed his brows as he held his hand in the air. "[Stop right
there. You should do it only because you decided it for yourself, not
for me or anyone else, okay Vanilla? You're not a puppet, you're a...
well not exactly a human, like me, but you're definitely not a puppet,
alright?]"

Vanilla's expression was memorable. Her first expression of extreme
surprise was right now etched on her face, showing to Ranma and
Emeralda. Gaining control of her emotions, Vanilla spooled her features
once again as she meekly replied, "[H-Hai, Ranma-sama.]" Her face was
lined with a thin blush.

Ranma smiled. "[Good. Now if you wanna do it, do it then. Just make sure
it's safe.]"

Emeralda sighed. "[It is safe. No need... to worry.]"

Vanilla finally acknowledged Emeralda's explanation as she leaned her
head to the dark-skinned girl's hand. Emeralda recognized the gestured
and sent a silent thank you to the gods. Her hand glowed as she felt
small bits of herself break away from her, entering Vanilla's body
through the small wall of skin through her forehead. After nearly ten
seconds of contact, the glow finally receded as Emeralda's nanobots
retreated back to her body. Vanilla opened her eyes slowly as Emeralda
pulled her hand back from the forehead, glancing at it curiously.

Seeing Emeralda's expression, Vanilla asked worriedly, "[Is there
something the matter, Miss Emeralda?]"

The green haired, dark skinned girl snapped her head to Vanilla. She
shook her head slightly and replied, "N-No... no... it's just... first
time I use technique... new to me..."

Ranma gasped in shock. "Eh?! You're... you're actually speaking
Japanese!"

Vanilla nodded, her eyes wide as well. "Amazing. It must be a handy
skill, even if it was the first time you used it."

Emeralda shook her head rapidly. "Not going to try again... hard for
head. Now I understand... what you say..."

The pigtailed boy directed a dazzling smile to Emeralda, who blushed
slightly under the guise of her dark skin. Vanilla however noticed the
slight shift of posture from the girl and sighed internally. Another
unintentional rival for her. If this continues, she would just have to
learn how to share then.

"That's so cool! But I was wondering... why do you speak like that? I
mean... no offense, but it's pausing every now and then, like you've
been speaking only for a month or so." Ranma asked confusedly.

Emeralda smiled sadly. "I... I am no human... just machine. Still
learning speech patterns... much more to learn."

Ranma nodded, his eyes unfocused for a moment as he thought of
something. "I see... so that's why you're so silent most of the time...
maybe that's not so hard... to learn I mean." Seeing Vanilla and
Emeralda's curious eyes, he continued, "Washuu's gonna love looking into
it for you. She might even manage to upgrade you or something."

Vanilla blinked. "Amazing. You just suggested something worthwhile."

Ranma shot her a mock glare. "Hmph. I can think sometimes, you know."

"Miyah!"

Emeralda gave the cabbit a thoughtful look as Rin-Ohki leapt to Ranma,
the boy' arms automatically catching her.

"See? Even Rin-Ohki agrees with me." Ranma patted the cabbit on the
head, eliciting some purrs from her.

"Miyah, miya-miyah, miyah!" The cabbit looked like she was grinning as
she looked up to Ranma, who suddenly coughed.

"What do you mean I usually think of bad ideas?! Hmph!" Ranma snorted at
the cabbit. Rin-Ohki pointedly ignored his ire. Vanilla couldn't help
but giggle a bit under her hand that covered her mouth to hide it.
Emeralda however looked back and forth between Ranma and Rin-Ohki in
confusion. It seemed to her that Ranma understood the weird creature
without any problems.

Ranma suddenly glanced at the horizons, seeing the sun had already set
minutes ago. Some rays still flickered their last light as the night
crept in quickly.

"The sky... beautiful." Emeralda said breathlessly as she gazed at the
twinkling luminous dots above them.

The pigtailed boy couldn't help but agree. "Yes. And the view's even
better if you're in space."

Emeralda stared at Ranma. "Space? Meaning... out there? Above the sky?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. Out there, everywhere you look there would be
stars. It's fantastic..." He smirked as he slowly floated to the front
of the Yggdrasil, with a now dozing Rin-Ohki in his arms. The cabbit
didn't even wake as Ranma leapt off from his seat at the railings. To
the onlookers, it would seem like Ranma was ice-skating on the ship's
hull, which was weird since Ranma was a bad skater after all.

The dark-skinned girl turned her gaze upwards once again. "I... wish to
go... to space."

"You can if you wanted to." Vanilla said as she too stared upwards the
starlit night.

"Can... but... why?" Emeralda seemed to have a bit of trouble with her
words. Vanilla seemed to understand though.

"You and I both know why." Vanilla calmly retorted as she pointedly
looked at Ranma, who was still floating along the hull. Emeralda
followed the smaller girl's gaze and blushed lightly.

"I... do not understand... my chest... feels like... pressured."
Emeralda sighed.

Vanilla smiled softly at Emeralda. "You are feeling an emotion. I can't
tell you what though, but you will learn about it as you go on with your
life."

Emeralda placed her right palm on her chest as she breathed deeply. She
was looking at Ranma, entranced. "I... I wish to know... more."

"I know." Vanilla agreed, glancing at Ranma as well. "I too wish to know
more about it."

The stars shone brighter that night, as emotions ran high.

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

The next day, everyone gathered inside the conference room once again.
Ranma and Bart both smirked when they saw Fei enter, slightly flushed.

"[Good night?]" Bart grinned at his friend Fei, who blushed deeply.

"[Shut up, Bart...]" Fei snorted half-heartedly. "[Anyway, we are going
to battle in a little while, right?]" Seeing the nods around him, he
looked at Ranma and his group, who stood a little ways away from them.
He however raised his eyebrow a bit as he noticed Emeralda standing a
little closer to Ranma than normal. He just shrugged it off as a weird
thing. "[Ranma, we will battle soon. We don't really want to rush you,
but since your supplies are replenished already, might I suggest that
you leave as soon as possible. We don't want you to get caught up in
this battle. This is our fight, not yours... it would be disrespectful
of us if you get in the middle of it.]"

Ranma nodded and turned to Magno, who was already hearing the
translation from Vanilla.

BC said to Magno, "Commander, we need to return to the Nirvana to make
sure the phenomenon did not damage our ship in any way."

Ranpha grumped as she crossed her arms across her chest. "The Galaxy
Angels have the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) to help those who are
in need, but a war is way beyond our capabilities. Especially since
they're using those giant robots with weird power sources."

The old woman nodded once as she addressed Ranma, "We will return to the
Nirvana. Our job here is done. We do not wish to be in the middle of a
war we have no part in."

Ranma felt something inside him hesitate, as something tugged inside his
mind. Something in the planet was calling him, beckoning his attention
and help. He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he agreed
reluctantly with Magno. "Yeah... I guess so."

He turned to Fei and said, "[Okay, we'll return once our preparations
are complete.]"

After an hour and a half, they were all standing at the hangar bay,
where the different Gears were docked. The transport ship that carried
the Nirvana crew was also docked inside temporarily. The Nirvana crew
was already inside the ship, as Ranma and Fei stood face to face at the
ramp. The others just passed on their thanks and messages to Ranma since
he's the only one capable of translating them.

Gascogne sighed as she sat on the pilot seat. "It's nice to be back in
civilization again. Their technology is rather outdated, but those
robots of theirs beat ours hands down."

BC nodded. "I drew up some designs from their engineers. They were quite
happy to share their knowledge in the robot designs, as well as
Nirvana's own system."

"What a waste of time." Ranpha slumped into her seat. She couldn't wait
to hear Forte's teasing later inside the Nirvana.

Vanilla glanced at her. "It was not a waste of time." she said softly as
she clutched at Rin-Ohki tightly.

Ranpha snorted. "For you maybe, because you've been with Ranma all the
time!"

"You've been with Ranma since last night?!" Meia almost shouted, but she
knew it was quite unbecoming of a Dread pilot leader.

She was ignored by Vanilla, whose gaze didn't even waver. "Why didn't
you come?"

"Miyah!" Rin-Ohki agreed with Vanilla.

Ranpha opened her mouth to retort, but was silenced since she couldn't
think of a comeback for that one.

"Why didn't you call for me?" Meia asked.

"You were unavailable at that time. You were discussing your options
with your commander during that time. It was a breach of protocol to
disturb something like that." Vanilla droned emotionlessly, but it was
the truth since Meia just kept to herself afterwards. Behind them, Magno
just chuckled under her cowl. Seeing a lot of women after a man was
quite entertaining for her, since she never saw it before. Well, her
early memories in the Colonial days were sketchy at best.

Outside, Ranma and Fei were talking as the rest of the Yggdrasil crew
looked on. Elly was not present since she hasn't left her room since
this morning. Emeralda just looked uncomfortable, it was like she wanted
to jump at something but can't.

"[Thanks for accommodating us in the middle of this war.]" Ranma said as
he bowed his head.

Fei was a bit confused at the gesture, but mimicked the move. "[It was
our pleasure. It was nice knowing where we really came from. Have a safe
journey.]"

Ranma smiled. "[Thanks. And good luck in your upcoming battle.]"

Fei nodded as he watched Ranma board the ship. Just as the pigtailed boy
was about to enter the ship, a shrill voice stopped him, "WAIT!"

Ranma whirled around, his tail whipping at his back as he tried to
locate the voice. The rest were surprised to see Emeralda sprinting
quickly on the ramp, more so than hearing her speaking the departing
group's language.

Emeralda finally reached Ranma. "Wait..."

Ranma's eyes widened when he recalled something. "Oh crap! I forgot to
ask Washuu to take a look at you!"

Emeralda shook her head. "It's... okay. I will learn... eventually. But
for now..." her voice trailed away as she leaned forward, kissing
Ranma's cheek boldly.

Ranma stood shell-shocked when he felt Emeralda's warm lips touch his
cheek. In fact, everyone was quite astonished at the display. When
Emeralda finally disengaged, she was blushing. Well, so was Ranma
anyway.

Ranma chuckled nervously as he scratched the back of his head. "U-Uhm...
y-yeah... uhm... wow. I... I'll miss you, Emeralda."

Emeralda nodded as she backed away from the small ramp. "I will... miss
you, Ranma."

Ranma gazed at her for a little while longer, before turning to the ship
and entered it. The ship's engine flared to life, and finally left the
Yggdrasil through the hangar bay doors.

After a while, Fei and the others left for their mission as well, to go
inside the old battleship Mahanon that rose from the sea. While the
Yggdrasil flew towards the old wreckage with Fei and the group, Margie,
Elly and the rest of those who can't fight were left on the town of
Nisan. The two young women, Elly and Margie were currently talking about
aspects of their lives, like religion and men in general.

"[Elly. Are you okay about this? Don't you want to be with him?]" Margie
turned to her companion as they stood at an overhead bridge that showed
a magnificent view of Nisan from above.

Elly nodded. "[Yes, but it's because I believe in him. Just being close
to a person is not in itself an indication of love, is it?]"

Margie huffed angrily. "[But... men are selfish... when something big
happens, they say... 'It's too dangerous... you can't come!' They treat
women like we are weaklings. Although it is true I can't help Bart and
friends much anymore...]"

Elly shook her head sympathetically. "[That's not true. Everyone, wants
someone special waiting for them. Someone who will protect a place they
can return to. If you don't have that peace of mind, then you would not
be able to get anything done... men try to fight it out as much as they
can and then some... they're cute when they do that, aren't they?]"

Margie sighed as she agreed. "[Yeah, you're right...]"

Elly smiled softly. "[Anyway, we have things we have to do too, now.
And, while we do them, let's pray that everyone comes back safely.]"

Margie looked up to Elly. "[To god?]" she asked.

Elly closed her eyes. "[No... to your own innermost feelings that
everyone believed in... what's wrong?]" she asked when she noticed
Margie looking at her intently.

"[I knew it... yes, that must be it!]" Margie cried out happily.

Elly just looked very confused. "[What?]"

Margie looked very excited as she started to explain. "[Elly, it's like
everyone says! You must be a reincarnation of Sophia! You have no way of
knowing the Nisan Sect's teachings, but what you say... ...well, it's
exactly the same as what Sophia always said.]"

Elly suddenly had this faraway look in her eyes. "[Yes... that must be
it. The first time I visited here I had the most familiar feeling.
Familiar... sad... like I had visited here many times in my dreams. I
know where each room is and what's in them. I just know I must have been
here in the distant past. Before, if you had spoken of this I'd have
brushed it off with a laugh. But now... Now, I can more or less believe
it. The things I couldn't do then... I'm probably trying to do now...]"

"[Things you couldn't do...?]" Margie asked.

"[Yes. Things I couldn't do...]" Elly said sadly.

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

Back in the Nirvana, the rest of the crew were overjoyed when Magno and
the rest came back. They were getting restless since there was no news
about their situation when they were still on the planet's surface.
Nevertheless, they stayed in orbit for the moment to continue fixing the
damages the Nirvana had since the last battle. The momentary rest period
allowed them to concentrate on the repairs, especially on the Dreads as
well as the engine.

While Ranma and the others were away, Washuu gave a helping hand in
repairing the breached hull of the Nirvana. She also reinforced some of
the plating for the areas that were very important, like the engine area
and the captain's deck. After nearly sixteen Earth hours of repairs, the
repairs were going as planned, and now the repair crews were ready to
move on to the Dreads that were severely damaged. Washuu then decided to
leave it to Gascogne to supervise those repairs and went on to the
engine room, where she spotted Parfait having some problems
re-stabilizing the Paeksis core. She saw a flaw in Parfait's method,
since they were forcing the core to adjust to their settings. She
immediately told Parfait that the settings should be the one adjusting
to the power surges of the core, not the other way around. The Paeksis
core was losing a lot of power before Washuu finally saw the problems.

Washuu had been helping Parfait in monitoring the Paeksis core after
pointing out the obvious mistake in her maintenance. They were a bit
alert since the core was glowing quite strongly while they were near the
planet. Parfait explained to Washuu that this was the first time it
glowed at this intensity.

After several hours of re-calibrating the systems to accommodate the
huge power flux from the Paeksis, Washuu decided a direct approach on
the Paeksis. She entered the holding area for the glowing sphere of
energy. When she did, its glow intensified as if reacting to her
presence. This made Washuu more interested at the energy source and
prompted her to get more data from it.

What she found clearly blew her mind. Now she knew why the energy
pattern was very familiar to her, and also why Ranma felt some kinship
with it. But before she could go further, the speakers have already
announced the arrival of the missing crew. She then decided to pause her
experiment for now, since she has to inform Ranma of her discovery.

Washuu easily found Ranma and pulled him away from the crowd. Ignoring
Ranma's protests, she dragged him by the ear into the Paeksis core's
containment room.

"Hey! Leggo of my ear!" Ranma sputtered as he struggled to pull himself
out of the predicament.

Washuu nodded to herself as she let Ranma's ear go. "Here we are." she
said as she watched the boy slump down to the ground, clutching at his
abused ear.

Ranma glowered at Washuu. "What the heck did you do that for?!"

Washuu sighed as she patted Ranma's shoulder. "Nevermind that, just do
something for me, please?"

Ranma's irritation suddenly vanished when he noticed Washuu's serious
expression. "Hey, is there something the matter?"

Washuu shook her head as she turned her gaze to the glowing Paeksis. The
light was much brighter than before. "Nothing's wrong. In fact,
everything's just peachy." She turned back to Ranma and gazed into his
eyes intently before saying, "The Paeksis is alive."

"What?" Poor Ranma just looked confused.

Washuu shrugged. "This huge glowing ball of energy is a sentient being.
Meaning, it is alive, capable of decisions and has emotions."

"How can that be?! I mean... it's just... that, right?" Ranma said
frantically, gesturing at the Paeksis. In response, the Paeksis suddenly
dimmed a bit, then brightened once again. It freaked Ranma a bit.

"I don't think it likes to be told that, Ranma-chan." Washuu chided him
in amusement.

"W-W-Wha...?!" The pigtailed boy backed slightly from the glowing
Paeksis.

The Paeksis suddenly glowed much brighter, almost blinding the two
people inside the room. Washuu immediately sought out her transparent
computer as she typed furiously to record the event. A scream made her
look to her side, as she spied Ranma down to his knees, clutching at his
head tightly. She also noticed that the gems on his forehead flared in
silver light, while his body was curiously riddled with darkened
lighting as well. At closer inspection, Washuu discovered to her delight
that these were crystals as well, and they were underneath Ranma's skin.
They glowed in a dull dark purple color, illuminating some various parts
of Ranma's body with the light. There was one on both the opposite side
of the palms, just below the knuckles. There were two more on the upper
forearms, on both left and right sides as well. There was one on each
lower leg. There was one on his throat, but the last one was bigger than
the rest, and it was glowing in the middle of Ranma's chest.

Ranma felt his body flares up in pain, but it was nothing compared to
the pounding headache that engulfed his whole head. He struggled to
stand, only half-successfully so, and stumbled to balance himself. In
his attempts to stabilize his balance, he fell forward, touching the
Paeksis' surface with his hand. Suddenly, he felt his whole body warp,
and everything turned white.

Washuu blinked the spots away from her eyes as she frantically searched
for Ranma. After she saw him stumble forwards and touched the Paeksis
accidentally, the contact drew a huge energy reaction, where Ranma
disappeared all of the sudden. After looking around and found nothing,
she finally figured that Ranma must've been absorbed by the energy
sphere in front of her. She gazed up to the Paeksis, and discovered that
it changed from blue to silver, thus further proving that Ranma must've
been sucked into it. Washuu didn't part her gaze from the Paeksis as a
team of Parfait's engineers, as well as Parfait herself, entered the
room in panic.

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

"This sucks." Ranma groaned to himself as he struggled to reacquaint
himself with his surroundings. He saw himself in the middle of blue
light, which didn't give him much comfort at all. His senses were
tugging at him though, since the energy levels in the place were high
enough to give him pause.

His trepidation grew when he noticed at least three shapeless forms
gathering in front of him. They were vaguely humanoid, although still
too formless for him to make a distinction. So it was natural for him to
fall into a defensive stance that he reserved only for those really
powerful opponents that he faced before. Right now, he didn't want to
take any chances, since he really doesn't know what will happen in the
place he was in right now.

"This is not good." Ranma muttered to himself as he watched the shapes
solidify slowly.

"What's not good?" One of the forms lit up and was bathed in white glow.
When it died down, a figure of a young man in his mid 20s with long
black hair wearing weird but familiar white robes looked back at him
thoughtfully.

"Uhmm..." Ranma backed away slowly from the apparition.

The figure laughed out loud. "Oh relax Ranma will you? Don't you
remember who I am? Did old age finally got into your mind? Oh that's
right, I heard that you were transported here by mistake."

"How did you know that?!" Ranma demanded, then something in his mind
clicked as the pieces fell into place. "Wait a minute... YOSHO?! Is that
you?!"

"In the flesh!" Yosho, rather, his apparition lifted his hands to his
sides as he presented himself to Ranma, who was blubbering a bit from
shock.

"So... this is the adopted cousin I heard about from the stories grampa
told me? Man... you really are different, aren't you?" The second figure
solidified as well, forming the image of a young boy around Ranma's
physical age, with short-cropped hair that has a short ponytail sticking
at the back of his head. He wore a black yukata, which seemed to be
sticking like a sore thumb against the blue background.

"Oh dear... he really is handsome, isn't he? He has the eyes of Tokimi,
and the tail of a Saiyajin. Weird color though. Anyway, my heart only
belongs to my dear Tenchi." The third figure followed as well, forming a
girl with purple hair that seemed to be cut in a helmet style, but it
still has twin long narrow ponytails hanging down her back. She was
dressed in a dark blue kimono with red obi (belt cloth). She has some
tattoos on her face, and her eyes were reddish in color.

"Now now, Tenchi, Ayeka... we need him to be coherent when we explain
this to him." Yosho chided the two newly formed figures as they stood on
an imaginary floor. Ranma was still frozen in shock as he stared
open-mouthed at the trio.

"He's in shock." Ayeka, the purple haired girl, commented wryly as
Tenchi, the boy with the short-cropped hair, waved his hand in front of
Ranma's eyes. Ranma was still unresponsive as of the moment.

Yosho nodded in amusement. "Apparently."

Ranma suddenly shook himself back to the situation at hand and pointed a
shaky finger at the trio. "You... what are you doing here?"

"To tell you the truth..." Yosho began, gesturing to the surroundings,
"You're in the thing you call the Paeksis. You were summoned here. And
as for us... well, Ranma... we've already passed on."

"Absorbed in the Paeksis? Passed on? What..." Ranma squinted his eyes in
confusion, but then they widened as comprehension dawned on his face.
"You mean...?"

Ayeka nodded sadly. "Yes. We are... dead. Passed on... for thousands of
years already."

"How?!" Ranma asked loudly as his knees threatened to buckle.

Yosho snorted. "It was actually all Tenchi's fault."

"WHAT?!" Tenchi turned to his erstwhile young grandfather, who was
smirking at him, daring him to say it wasn't so. He relented as he
slumped on his shoulders forward. "Y-Yeah... I guess so. I mean, I
should've destroyed Kagato when I had the chance. Instead, I let him
go."

Ranma sagged as he fell to his knees. "So... it was all true. The
Earth's downfall, the wars, the colonization... Kagato's reign...
damn..."

"We were caught by surprise." Ayeka continued, gazing at the blue light
surrounding them. "Kagato attacked us discreetly, kidnapping us one by
one, after studying our daily activities. He grabbed us when each of us
were left alone. Good thing Sasami has been recalled to Jurai before
everything happened."

Tenchi shuddered. "I still remembered how he absorbed our essences and
put them in this system he's been developing. Kagato was ecstatic,
saying that he got everyone who wronged him under his power."

Ranma's eyes widened marginally, staring at Yosho in desperation.

Yosho shook his head at Ranma's gaze. "Yes, even Ryoko. As you might've
remembered by now, she was also in his hit list. Both Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki
were in another one of the systems he made. He called them Paeksis
Plagma, containers of pure energy. Now you should've gotten it... that
the Paeksis this old colony ship is using was made out of Juraian
energy."

"By the kami..." Ranma winced at the implications. Such a terrible thing
to do, for an individual's essence to be trapped helplessly inside these
cores, just to be used as weapons of mass destruction. "It's... all my
fault. Yosho... Tenchi... Ayeka... everyone... they were all killed
because I failed to find a way to come back. Ryoko.... oh kami Ryoko..."
A sudden dawn of light made Ranma understand the effects of his
disappearance. His eyes suddenly sprang tears as he contemplated on
everything. So much pain...

"Ranma." The pigtailed boy's face snapped towards Yosho, who was
speaking to him. "It was never your fault. You couldn't have known that
the machine Washuu was testing would do that to you. Instead of trying
to punish yourself, try to move on and find a way home, so that you may
avoid this future."

"But..." Ranma began, but wilted under the combined glares of three
Juraian nobles. "A-Alright... but... where do I start? What should I do?
I don't know what to do!" He absently wiped away the tears that leaked
from his eyes.

Tenchi sighed in relief. "First of all, relax. You have the power and
the will to overcome this. Don't give up."

Yosho beamed at his grandson's statement. "Yes, also, try not to find a
way to recover us. It will never be, since we already have been gone
from life for a long long time."

Ayeka smiled at Ranma gently. "There are three Paeksis Plagma in
existence. One is our Paeksis Plagma in the Nirvana, where the essences
of the Juraian nobles were accumulated. The other Paeksis Plagma is on
Earth, which is Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki's essences. The third is an entirely
different kind of Paeksis Plagma. This one was a natural born one, not
like the one this ship uses. What I mean is... that core is based on
something else entirely. It was found somewhere after the Angel Wars I
believe, and it was grown naturally."

"Since we approached this planet, we began to hear a voice... we suspect
it's the Natural Plagma. It named itself Zohar, and it's inside a being
called Deus." Yosho continued the explanation. "Ranma, Zohar is on this
planet right now, and it is calling for help."

Tenchi nodded. "We cannot let Zohar fall into the wrong hands. Deus is
starting to stir, and it might be too late if we dally. Deus was born
out of the spaceship Eldritch, which was a colony ship from Earth. Deus
was a weapon being tested from Earth, powered by Zohar, the Paeksis
Plagma. Before, we can't understand Zohar's pleas, since it was still
too far for us to hear each other. But we have heard some buzzing when
Zohar beckoned. Now that we are near each other, the two Plagma's can
communicate freely, and Zohar is clearly in danger right now. When Deus
reawakens, it might start to attack nearby planets, effectively dooming
this entire universe. You have to get Zohar from Deus, and from others
trying to control it."

Yosho shook his head. "But getting to the Zohar core is not as easy as
it seems. Deus is a divine being. Remember what we said about it being
from the Angel Wars? Well, Deus came from the DNA of those things called
the Angels. It will not be easy, but we know you can manage."

"We trust you." Ayeka agreed.

"You're stronger than I was." Tenchi admitted ruefully.

Yosho pointed to Ranma. "You are the only one worthy of obtaining Zohar.
We actually thought of trusting that Hibiki boy, but with you around,
why settle for anything less? Do you understand?"

Ranma looked at them calmly for a long while. After several moments, he
pushed himself up from his kneeling position and replied, "No... not
really."

Yosho, Tenchi and Ayeka would've facefaulted, but they thought it was
undignified right now. They settled on their jaws falling down on the
ground in surprise. But Ranma wasn't nearly finished.

"But... I know this is important. So I will do it. Not because you
really asked me to, but because it is the right thing to do." Ranma
nodded to himself at his arrived conclusion.

"Good." Yosho said with a soft smile. "Now you must go. Washuu is
getting pretty worried about you."

Ranma blanched, then almost immediately sobered. "What about you? What
will you do?"

Tenchi shrugged. "We can't really do much, right? Except lend out power
to guide all of you to the right path."

Ayeka lifted her hand and settled it on Tenchi's shoulder. "Our time on
Life has been over for thousands of years. All we can do now is this, to
continue powering up this ship as a Paeksis Plagma. That was one of the
reasons why we changed the appearances of those smaller attack ships, as
well as that giant robot they have with them. Oh, and also this ship's
appearance as well."

Yosho approached Ranma and clapped him on the shoulders. "Do not worry
about us, Ranma. We are happy as long as we know there is hope out
there. You are our hope, you should know that."

Ranma opened his mouth to say something, but was tongue-tied for the
moment. He shook his head in amazement as he muttered, "I'll miss you."

Yosho, Tenchi and Ayeka nodded together as they stepped back, their
bodies started to lose their solid figure as they were being reabsorbed
into the blue background once again.

"And we'll miss you as well, Ranma. You have to find a way back to your
original time, so that you may avoid this catastrophe. But first, save
Zohar." Yosho's voice lingered.

Ranma nodded to particularly no one as he was blinded once again by the
blue light that encompassed him once again.

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

Washuu was already panicking, because Parfait and the others were also
panicking as well. No trace of Ranma has been found, and the Paeksis
Plagma was acting strangely after the accident. Suddenly, the whole room
was bathed once again in the same blue light a while ago, blinding
Washuu and the others.

The light finally died down, revealing Ranma's body laying near the
Paeksis Plagma. Ranma's body twitched once, then sat up, surprising the
heck on everyone. Washuu quickly made her way to the boy, who was
reorienting his senses to his surroundings once again.

"RANMA!!" Washuu enveloped the sitting boy in a hug worthy of an amazon.
She thought she lost Ranma as well, the same with Yosho and the others.
She still can't forgive herself for being caught off-guard at that time.

Ranma on the other hand squirmed within Washuu's embrace. "Ack! Washuu!
I'm okay! Geez... lemme breath will ya!"

Washuu blushed as she quickly let go of the boy, who coughed a bit as he
drew deep breaths into his lungs. Behind Washuu, Parfait ran towards him
as well, while her engineers quickly recorded the energy readings from
the Paeksis.

"What happened?!" Parfait asked, beating Washuu to the question that
plagued everyone's mind since he disappeared.

Ranma scratched his head in embarrassment. "Would you believe that the
Paeksis is a whole new living being? That's why the ship became like
this."

Parfait backpedaled. "WHAT?! You mean... those weird energy
fluctuations... those times we got power at the right moment..."

Ranma nodded. "Yeah... it's because of the Paeksis."

Parfait looked at the Plagma in awe. "Whoa..." she mouthed breathlessly.

Ranma turned his gaze to Washuu. "The energy readings from the
Paeksis... do you have any idea why they're familiar? I know you can
feel it as well."

Washuu looked at Ranma seriously for a moment, then sighed. "I know... I
just can't put my finger in it for a while, but now I have a strong
hunch."

Ranma closed his eyes. "Yosho, Tenchi and Ayeka are in there,
Washuu-chan."

A soft sob escaped Washuu's lips. "Damn... and I guess that one I failed
to retrieve on Earth..."

Ranma shivered. "That's... Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki."

"Damn it." Washuu said softly as she cursed Kagato in her mind.

"I have to find a way back to my time, Washuu-chan." Ranma said
solemnly.

Washuu could only nod. "I know... don't worry. We will find a way to get
you back."

Ranma patted her shoulder. "Yeah, but first we have to get the third
Paeksis."

Washuu stared at Ranma in surprise. "You know where it is?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah. Down on the planet... that's why the Paeksis was
acting up. They were feeling each other. They called it Zohar or
something."

Ranma stood up quickly, pulling Washuu up with him.

"We have to defeat Deus first. It has Zohar." Ranma growled
imperceptively.

======================================================================== =====
== To Be Continued... ==
======================================================================== =====

Author Rants:

I had a bit of trouble writing this one. Why? I had to play Xenogears
again to figure out the dialogues, as well as the names and places
indicated there. So if you notice some of the dialogues vaguely familiar
in here, then those are the ones I got from the game themselves.

Why did I choose English as Fei and the others in the game's language?
Well, it's kinda easier to do so. Also, Japanese won't work since it
might've changed through the years. In Vandread, there are still those
from the old era alive to teach the old Japanese language, while in
Xenogears most of them are dead or reincarnated. Besides, aside from
Fei's name, he's probably the only one who's name is near Asian origins.
The others are either American or German. Even though Chinese is fast
approaching as a secondary universal language, it is more likely for
them to retain English out there, no offense to the other languages.

Why's Emeralda's speech kinda weird? Well, I noticed she talked less in
the game itself, especially after she grew up in that tower (play the
game to figure it out, it's a side quest by the way). Her speech
patterns are erratic since she's still learning. And what's this about
her learning Japanese from doing a mind probe off Vanilla? Her mastery
of the nanobots (heck, she can reform her own body in any way she wants
to by thought, why can't she use them this way?) allowed her to access
certain information from her target by command. She could've read
Vanilla's mind, but it would've been invasion of privacy. Besides, who'd
want to get into the mind of Vanilla Ash, AKA Rei Ayanami, anyway?

Ja ne.

- Lord Rance

In case you need my email for some reason at all, here:
lord_rance@yahoo.com

For those who will send flames, well, I'll just douse it with my trusty
bucket of cold water!

"I swear!! This ain't what it looks like!!!" - Ranma Saotome