Crossover Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy ❯ Chapter 08a ( Chapter 15 )

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

PATH OF CHAOS

- By 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: Hmm... probably two to three chapters more, and Arc 1's done.

This is a Ranma/Saber Marionette J crossover chappie, folks! The timeline is AFTER Lorelei was saved, and BEFORE the special season where the marionettes were transformed into human (which was quite weird, but hey, it's their anime).

This chapter hasn't been fully inspected by my other prereader, C. Rose, yet. But if he ever decided to send me back his comments, I'll be implementing changes on this chapter. It's just that a lot of people has been urging me to post this, even though it wasn't finished yet. Just to prove I really do have chapters in the works, here's one for you, although it's unedited yet.

I used a minor spellcheck system for this, but I'm not sure if I covered all the bases yet. So bear with me, and I might repost the chapter as soon as C. Rose finishes prereading. St Longinus already sent his comments, and I thank him very much for them.

Oh, and if anyone's gonna be interested, Ranma's gonna be in another planet, although it's a few cameos only. He's going to be in planet Zi, as in the Zoids planet Zi. He'll arrive there during the last parts of the war for the power of the Zoid Eve. The main cast of that leg of the Zoids saga was Van, Fiona, Zeke... etc. But the Zoids crew will be almost non-existent in this fic, but would *probably* be mentioned here and there. Or in any case, they'd *probably* be implied in the next chapter, when it finally focuses back on Ranma's travels.

There's going to be a lot of Ranma's presence at the beginning paragraphs, but he'll disappear near the end. Someone might ask why Ranma disappeared at the end, so this might explain it.

By the way, pardon me if I and my prereaders missed some misspelled words in the fic. I upgraded my OS to WinXP, and sadly I got the no-Office copy, meaning, I have no spell check. I'll try to do a spell check on the edit page of FF dot net instead, but don't get your hopes up too much.

^_^

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 the weirdness.

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose (http(colon)//shi_hanna(dot)tripod(dot)com) and St Longinus (email apasco at sbcglobal dot net) for pre-reading this stuff.

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

Phone Receiver/Other Electronic Devices: ##

Telepathy: {}

Thoughts: <>

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: []

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CHAPTER 8A - HOME, HOME ON THE RANGE... BUT FIRST!

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In the highest level of the Heavenly Plane...

"He can now travel through dimensions, albeit in accidental and weird circumstances..." Hild remarked wryly as she glanced towards the man that handled everything in Existence from the beginning of Awareness itself.

Kami-sama, or Deus as his ancient name denoted, was currently analyzing the situation at hand via his computer. "That was... unexpected. I was hoping to control his movements with it. It seemed that Ranma's chaotic tendencies have awakened far too early. But that was the one thing expected of Chaos. He can never be tied down by control of any kind." he said as he leaned forwards his seat, resting his elbows on the massive table inside his office. He held his chin with his hands as he idly navigated through the information being filtered from tracking Ranma's progress.

Hild snorted and said, "What about the other enemies... the Titans, or Ancient Gods?"

Deus shook his head. "So far, the shield Chaos-niisan brought up ages ago still held them in. But I don't know for how long. They've intensified their efforts to punch through the barrier lately, since the appearance of the Manticore and Carrions proved that point."

"Hmmm... Washuu made another set of three limiters for Ranma here. Isn't that a bit too much? Ranma-chan's already filled with five limiters right now." Hild noised as she pointed at a certain re-run of the scene where Ranma and his companions were about to test the pigtailed young man's new battle armor. Hild almost whistled as to how cool Ranma's new armor meshed well with his personality.

Deus groaned. "That's not such a good idea, but it's necessary."

Hild looked at Deus in confusion. "Huh? What do you mean?"

Kami-sama held up one finger, saying, "One word: Saiyajin."

Hild cocked her head to one side. "So? What does that have to do with anything?"

The Being of Order sighed as he settled back to his seat. "One thing you have to admire about Saiyajins is their ability for their strength and ki levels to skyrocket when they're the underdogs. They are basically almost like the Earthling's origins. They came from the basic Ape-man, then developed into species that walk on two legs. As you can see, they still have their tails. They developed physically, instead of intellectually like the other beings in the universe. They're not as stupid as expected, since they are excellent battle technicians. That's why they're perfect soldiers. Their planet, the Vegeta-sei, is a planet with a gravity rating a lot higher than Earth. Walking along the surface of their planet is a training regimen to them. It's a natural kind of 'limiter'. And that's also why they're so strong."

Seeing that his companion hasn't gotten his point yet, Deus continued, "Ranma has Saiyajin blood in him. Each of his limiters weigh at least ten thousand pounds each. Add them all and we got an approximate total of around fifty thousand pounds. He flies, he walks, he runs, he eats, and he fights with those limiters on most the time. To add an effect, Washuu installed self-programming limiters, meaning, the limiters increase in strength as Ranma grows in strength as well. With his other powers, imagine what would happen when he removes those limiters."

"Ack." Hild noised as she stared dumbly at Deus.

"Yes, 'ack'." Deus said flatly.

Hild violently shook her head. "Don't we, like, need to stop that from happening?"

Deus just shrugged indifferently. "Won't matter anyhow. Disallowing the use of the limiters will just temporarily hamper the power surge. Ranma WILL live for a long time you know, so it's definitely a lost cause. Besides, Ranma IS a Heretic of Heaven. He'd probably be less than accommodating with my meddling anytime in the future."

"Shit." Hild summed up the entire situation.

Deus winced, "Avoid swearing, Hild. But yes, that about sums it all up. Especially WHEN he reaches this place. I'd reckon he'd have some bone to pick with us, toying with his life."

Hild glared at Deus. "This is all your fault, baka."

The Heavens shook as Hild's Mjollnir X hit Deus squarely at the crown of his head, causing his face to smack down to the ground. The whole conversation was heralded to a close when a fuming Hild stormed out of the Heavenly Office's doors, intent on giving herself a break from Kami-sama's idiocy.

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Dreams were some of the more wonderful things people tend to try and enjoy as they continue their slumber at night. Ranma had few good dreams in his life, and one of his favorites was currently 'Now Showing'.

As of the moment, he sat in the middle of darkness, which was only marred by the huge kaleidoscope that showed various parts of his life. The biggest scene was in front of him, which he had enjoyed watching so far.

It was a scene where Nodoka Saotome had a baby version of Ranma cradled lovingly in her arms. She was cooing baby noises at the child, which made the small bundle gurgle happily. It was a bright sunny day, and the view where Nodoka was sitting on the veranda with her baby was magnificent to look at.

With his tail slowly 'wagging' behind him, Ranma smiled warmly at the sight, his old memories of his mother really lightened the load on his shoulders. Even though Nodoka wasn't really his biological mother, she did carry him in her womb and became a loving surrogate.

Thoughts of his 'Nodoka-mama' made him think about his real mother. From the stories gathered from those who had met her, Ranma knew his real mother, Tokimi, was ruthless to her enemies. And to his understanding, somehow, he knew that she was looking for him. That was the most probable reason Tokimi was on a warpath anyway, and on some instinctive level, Ranma knew it. Even though they never met, Ranma felt that his mother loved him, so much that she was willing to rip the universe apart just to find him.

The scene abruptly changed into the deep recesses of space. The whole area became the view of millions of stars and a few nearby planets, with Ranma floating leisurely along. Ranma finally realized how attracted to space he was. Even back in his own timeline, he was always looking at the stars at night. He had always been yearning to go there, but he wasn't so sure if it was instinctive or something.

The stars twinkled endlessly in front of him, giving Ranma a small sense of security, until the whole scene became hazy once again, before turning into a room full of... carrots?

Carrots? How the heck did... huh?

Now the whole area was filled with ice cream, cakes, some flying unicorns... no, he wouldn't even think about that. What was really weird was that there was some sort of a shrine atop a small hill at the middle of the world he was in.

When Ranma got closer, he vaguely saw a golden statue of... him? But something was a bit different from his features, like those longer floppy ears and instead of his long furry tail, there was this ball of what he thinks was 'fluff' stuck at his backside.

Before he could even try to begin to understand why his image was here, he was pulled back from that world by some voices talking all around him. The whole scene became hazy before the darkness replaced it.

And those damn noises were getting quite annoying for him!

With that, Ranma opened his eyes and immediately shut them closed again. The light was so bright! It was then that he also realized he was sleeping a while ago.

<Hmmm... carrots. Must be Rin-Ohki... I'm kinda curious about the statue though...> Ranma thought to himself. He blearily looked around, and saw Emeralda, Vanilla, Elly and Primera talking animatedly with each other off to the side of the bed he was on. Well, Primera was actually showing her small pad that she was carrying around since she still has a bit of trouble talking normally, but she sometimes responded in soft but halting sentences. Nevertheless, Primera was doing great progress with her speech problems, since it has been way too long since she last spoke.

The whole group was in a small white room, probably the Yggdrasil IV's medical ward, and was barely holding them all inside with some of the instruments lying around.

Ranma immediately assessed what had happened from before. He remembered how he was in the middle of this big battle against Deus, and Rin-Ohki was transformed into that huge dark blue mecha that he rode to beat the gigantic angel form of Deus. He looked around for his partner, and found Rin-Ohki at the base of the bed he was on, sleeping peacefully.

Ranma smiled gently at her, even though he knew Rin-Ohki wouldn't be able to see it. He was extremely grateful at the help she gave him during that fight.

The pigtailed hybrid noticed something weird. His body was smaller than it should've been. He raised his arms and saw he was right. He was reverted into a six year old child form, which was even younger than the age prior to that incident with the mushroom thingie with Ryoga. Ranma surmised that he must've been severely drained for his body to revert into that state. Although, he wondered why he wasn't in his female form as well, since that's the first form he would revert into before his age does. He was now dressed only in his black body suit, which was for the best since it adjusted itself to his current body size.

Ranma's self-examination brought the girls' attention to him though, as they stopped talking when they noticed Vanilla stared at something, or someone. The other girls followed Vanilla's line of sight, since they wondered why the red-eyed albino stiffened in her seat. They all saw Ranma, who was now wide awake and was taking stock of his own body parts... probably.

"[You're awake!]" Elly shouted, while Primera showed him a page of her pad that said, "[It's good that you are okay!]"

Emeralda was silent, but what she couldn't say in words, she did with actions. The pale green haired young woman stood from her chair and flung her arms around the hapless Chibi-Ranma, who eeped in surprise. Elly and Primera blinked when they noticed that Vanilla was already cuddled on Chibi-Ranma's other side of his body. They hadn't seen the girl move at all.

"[Ack! Okay! I'm alright! Can't breathe!]" Chibi-Ranma gasped as he felt two forces embracing the air out of his body. When the two girls heard his plea, they sheepishly eased on their hugs but still held him. Ranma even saw their eyes flash with tears for a moment, before they buried their heads on opposite sides of his small chest. He decided to endure their affections, since he knew he's a sucker for women crying. Even Elly and Primera were quite worried about him, since he could see the beginnings of black rings around their eyes, probably from lack of sleep.

"[Uhhmm... what happened?]" He asked, gulping at the sight of the girls eyeing him from every angle. From his child body's point of view, the stares were pretty intimidating. He really didn't plan it, but when he asked his question, his voice turned all squeaky and cute, causing the girls to gush at him.

After going through a series of hugs and coos from the amorous females, someone finally answered his question.

Bless the gods for... no, scratch that. Gods are icky. Ranma just thanked his luck for having Elly there to explain things somehow.

"[We panicked when we saw that floating island disappear right out of the air.]" Elly began, holding back her laughter as she watched Ranma being smothered in affection, much to the boy's dismay, "[When we went to see what happened, and we found this really weird Gear that was lying face down on the ground below where the floating island was positioned earlier. We thought it was you, since Lady Washuu was going on about how great Rin-Ohki was.]"

"[Great...]" Ranma mumbled loudly, "[She must be screaming guinea pig by now.]"

Elly nodded with a bit of speculation on her face, "[Yeah, she was. What's up with that?]"

Ranma sighed morosely, "[Believe me, you don't want to know.]"

"[Err... okay.]" Elly sweatdropped at the extremely dejected look on Chibi-Ranma's face. If it wasn't so bleak, she would've found the gesture extremely cute on the boy. Beside her, Primera just sat there, confused.

"[Besides...]" Ranma said a second later, looking up to Elly's face, "[I was curious as to what happened when I lost consciousness.]"

The red-haired former Solarian soldier shivered slightly as she gazed at those eyes of his. Even if Ranma was in child form, his eyes were chilling at the combination of yellow pupils and blue-gray. A normal person's eyes should've had a white colored membrane surrounding the pupils, but Ranma's were blue-gray totally, and instead of normal colored hues of pupils normal people have, Ranma had yellow. Ones that kept on glowing a bit every time he was serious.

"[Hello?]" Ranma waved his little hands in front of Elly's line of sight. He was still buried underneath the bundle of female arms of Emeralda and Vanilla, and it was quite a feat that his short stubby arms could actually do what he intended them to accomplish in the first place.

Elly blinked and blushed a bit, as she saw Ranma's curious face peering at her. She became too preoccupied by her own thoughts that she had almost forgotten to answer the boy's question.

Breathing in a slowly, she started to explain, "[Well, when we reached the Gear you were in, it suddenly shrank down into Rin-Ohki, who was unconscious, but not before spitting you out in a flashy ball of light. We were quite surprised when you came out as a female child, and Lady Washuu took the liberty of transforming you back to male by hot water. She said that you were still leery about your female form.]"

"[And what about Deus?]" Ranma asked expectantly.

"[It's gone, the whole floating island, the white blob... everything. Oh, and we got a surprise of our life when that girl you found in that ship's wreckage woke up around after the floating land disappeared. It turns out she wasn't as dead as we thought.]" Elly giggled slightly.

"[The first thing she said when she awakened was your name. She was looking for you.]" Vanilla said in a soft voice, her face still buried on Ranma's chest.

"[It's not my fault!]" Ranma whined, which was quite effective with his current body. He suddenly felt guilty at Vanilla's statement, born out of his experiences in his home world.

Emeralda looked at him as she slowly disengaged from the three-way hug between her, Ranma and Vanilla, and asked, "[Why so defensive? We are not angry with you.]"

"[Sorry...]" Ranma muttered, "[I got used to being blamed all the time. Somehow, it became a self-preservation thing.]"

"[Anyway...]" Elly continued, "[The others are waiting for you in the Excalibur as we speak. I think they're talking to woman you rescued.]"

Ranma shrugged. "[Her name's Lea, and she's from some other world.]"

"[Yes...]" Elly agreed, "[And she likes you.]"

Chibi-Ranma hung his head, "[Yeah... I kinda figured that back when I met with her inside Deus.]" He blinked when he saw the girls staring at him with wide eyes.

"[What?]" Ranma asked curiously.

"[Good grief. I thought you were just plain ignorant! So you DO notice those things!]" Elly crowed with mirth as Vanilla and Emeralda continued to stare at the boy (for the moment).

Ranma bristled, "[Hey! It's not my fault I was raised solely for the purpose of fighting, ya know! And I do notice those things, even...]" He trailed off, but he looked meaningfully at Emeralda and Vanilla plaintively.

"[Please do forgive us with the presumptions Master Ranma, but you cannot blame us as well with our conclusions regarding your feelings on the matter.]" Vanilla explained.

Emeralda nodded in agreement with Vanilla, "[We do not know what to think, or what you would feel when you find out...]"

Chibi-Ranma sighed, "[We'll cross the bridge when we get there. Right now, I want to find some way to go home first, before I even consider deciding on the matter. But just to settle whatever thoughts you have about it, I care for you two as much as I care for Ryoko. Call it protectiveness, call it love, I don't care. It's probably love, or very very close to it. So for now, we have to concentrate on going back home since I have another girl waiting for me who must've been very lonely, especially since she allowed herself to stay in suspended animation. I heard she locked herself in suspended animation and left Aunt Washuu to find me. So now...]"

"[We understand completely, Ranma-sama.]" Vanilla said contemplatively, "[Please know that we have all the time in the universe, you know that very well.]"

"[Gee, you think?]" Ranma deadpanned.

Primera and Elly giggled uncontrollably as Emeralda and Vanilla looked at him in exasperation.

Their laughter was cut off when the door to the miniature infirmary opened, revealing the group of people that came through the battle. Everyone's faces lit up when they saw Ranma already awake. Citan immediately went to check the electronic monitors around Ranma, while Fei, Bart, Billy, Margie, Rico, Maria, and Sigurd went around the bed, congratulating Ranma on his quick recovery. Fei's father Kahn stood behind his son, thanking Ranma profusely for saving him from Deus' wrath.

Trailing behind the group was Washuu and Meia, who were escorting a tall platinum blue haired woman with deep red eyes and red tattoos all over her face. She was dressed in some clothes procured by Washuu, consisting of a pink kimono overlapped by an oversized white robe that was quite similar to Washuu's old goddess clothes.

The group parted to make way for the woman, who didn't take notice of anyone else since her eyes were riveted to Ranma's. The current boy fidgeted as she approached, slowly recognizing the woman's face from his trance from a while back.

"Uhhmm... Lea?" Ranma asked hesitantly in Japanese.

The woman nodded, smiling, "I'm glad you remembered, Ranma-sama. And it's okay for you to speak their language. I already cast a universal translation spell. Nothing major, but it can decipher and automatically teach me the languages I hear."

Ranma nodded. "Ah... I see..."

Lea smirked as she bent her head down towards Ranma, who froze as his eyes zeroed in on those luscious red lips approaching his face. A loud smooch echoed the now-silent medical ward, and a slight sound of papers falling on the floor followed it.

Citan was shocked into immobility, his arms still in position as he was reading Ranma's status chart when he saw the new girl kissing Ranma soundly on the cheek. The other men's eyes bugged out at the sight.

The women were silently throwing hostile glares at Lea, which were deftly ignored.

Ranma fell back to his pillows, a dark red lipstick marking his cheek dangerously near his own lips.

The platinum blue haired woman patted Ranma on the head, saying in English, "[Well met, Master Ranma. I am Lea, and my existence is for your happiness only.]"

Ranma whimpered incoherently.

Everything went to chaos after that declaration.

Well, so much for the silence.

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With Solaris and Deus gone from the planet, the radio jammers that prevented Ranma and his companions to contact the Nirvana finally disappeared, and Meia got the chance to report to the distraught Mejer pirate captain, much to the relief of Magno and the rest of the Nirvana's crew members as well as the Galaxy Angels members.

After receiving a huge tongue-lashing from the extremely worried Magno of the Mejer pirates, a red-faced Meia joined an equally red-faced Ranma still in child form, a chuckling Washuu, and an impassive Vanilla inside the meeting room of the Yggdrasil IV once again.

It was a post war meeting of some sorts, and they were met by another bout of congratulations from the group that went with Ranma to defeat Deus once and for all. The mutations had stopped for good, and the others that had suffered preliminary symptoms of the mutations were successfully changed back into who they were before the 'Change'. A few who had been too drastically changed where unfortunate enough to live with the curse, but somehow, the rest of the people became sympathetic to the mutants. Rico was especially happy with this development.

After the initial good atmosphere has been established, Chibi-Ranma dropped the bomb that dampened their festivities.

"[We're leaving in about three hours from now.]" Ranma had said. Washuu, Meia and Vanilla all agreed with him that it was already safe for them to leave the planet. Washuu had already left the necessary plans and blueprints for low level technology (at least for her anyway) so that the habitants of the planet would recover from their recent mishap with Deus.

"[What?! Isn't it too early?!]" Bart asked loudly. Although he did say what everyone wanted to convey at the moment at least.

Citan nodded at Bart's declaration. "[That is true. Why not stay for a few more days, so that we can thank you more properly? You DID save the planet and all, and you can even invite your companions up in your... mothership.]"

Ranma smiled sadly and shook his head. "[Well... as much as we regret to leave, we have to. It's just some luck that we were able to get here. Well, you could say that we came here because of the original Paeksis Plagma's pull with the Nirvana's own Plagma.]"

"[But why do you need to go so soon then?]" Elly asked curiously.

Vanilla said, "[The initial journey of Master Ranma was to search for a way back to his original time. We came here in hopes that the intelligent life that resided inside the consciousness of the Paeksis was able to answer that, but then... there is none.]" She spared a look towards the platinum blue-haired Lea, who shrugged in a nonchalant manner. She had already told them that she knew nothing on how to send Ranma back to his own time.

"[I will come with them, of course.]" Lea explained, "[I will follow Master Ranma where ever he may go.]" She launched herself to Chibi-Ranma, who was beside her, and quickly lifted the poor pigtailed hybrid off his chair and cuddled him into her bosom.

Chibi-Ranma squawked in protest, squirming slightly at the treatment. "[Hey! I'm not a real kid you know!]" he squeaked, immediately freezing when he realized what he was leaning against.

The women glared at Lea, who happily snubbed their scathing looks as she buried her face into Ranma's thick hair, while the men were jealous of the boy's treatment in the hands of the healthy young woman.

"[I will... come with them as well.]" Emeralda's soft and hesitant voice caused Fei and his companions to stare at her in confusion at first, as if seeing her there for the first time. After the pale-green haired girl's statement finally settled its meaning into them, the confusion turned into shock.

Washuu beamed happily, "[Of course you can, Emeralda!]" Turning to Elly and the others, who were still frozen in shock, the red-haired scientist asked, "[Well, if it's all right with your... ahem, 'parents'.]"

Elly jerked at the 'parents' dig, and she recovered the use of her tongue. She leaned towards Emeralda's position and asked, "[Why?! I mean... did we do something wrong? Are you unhappy here? Why are you going to leave us?]"

Emeralda shook her head, "[You did nothing wrong, Miss Elly. In fact, I'm very grateful that you have awakened me. But... I need to find my own place in the universe. Sooner or later, all of you will grow old and die, while I remain as I am now. And also...]" She turned her head slightly to Chibi-Ranma, who was thankfully not paying attention to the soft loving look Emeralda gave him since he was still trying to wiggle out of Lea's enthusiastic hug.

Elly followed the pale green haired girl's gaze, and her eyes widened as she realized the implications. She opened her mouth to say something, but words failed her. Instead, she cast a desperate look towards Fei, who was quietly contemplating on the situation. The planet's resident martial artist caught the look from his beloved and nodded.

"[I think... I'm beginning to understand what Emeralda means.]" Fei said seriously.

"[Fei!]" Elly said to him, "[You don't mean...]"

"[I can also understand what she means but...]" Bart began, "[Emeralda's leaving this planet... our planet. Where she may go, it may be very far away! Who knows when we'll ever see her again?]"

Maria sighed. "[But you know, we can't really hold Emeralda back just because of how we feel about the situation. We would be too selfish if we did that.]"

"[I agree with Maria...]" Billy nodded at the small pale blonde haired girl.

Rico just shrugged. "[Besides, we can't stop her if she really wanted to go.]"

Margie reached out across the table beside her and gripped Emeralda's hand in hers, saying, "[Emeralda is free to find her own happiness in the universe, don't you think? After all she did for us, are we going to prevent her from doing just that? Have you noticed that in the near future, every one of us have their own partners to grow old with? What about her? She might not ever die, and she'll be always lonely... just because we held her back. Can you be responsible for that?]"

Silence met the words said by the Mother of Nisan, as Fei and his companions thought of the consequences that lies on their decision. On one hand, they would lose Emeralda, probably for good, but she would be happy. On the other hand, they could stop Emeralda from leaving, but she would eventually be saddened as time passes by with everyone around her dying of old age. With Emeralda's special genetic make-up, her aging was depended on her own mind, and she cannot die just as easily.

In both decisions, they would lose Emeralda eventually, but her happiness was the deciding point.

With severe sadness in her eyes, Elhaym eyed Emeralda and said in a low voice, "[I never noticed it... but she will be lonely when the time comes, right? I was so preoccupied about the situation of the present, that I wasn't able to think of what would happen when we did win. I... I give Emeralda the permission to go. Not that she really needed it in the first place... but know this Emeralda. We will always love you, and we never intended to hurt you by holding you back from your own happiness.]" Feeling spent after her words, Elly quickly buried her face into Fei's chest, who instinctively wrapped his arms around the distraught woman with a surprised expression on his face.

Emeralda wanted so much to just take her the incarnation of her 'mother' in her arms, but decided not to. It was hard enough for Elly to release her, Emeralda knew that. She just sat there as she watched Fei trying to console the young redhead woman.

"[Hey! Don't I get some say in this?!]" A squeak from a small boy was quickly smothered into Lea's bosom. The voice was promptly ignored.

Washuu snorted slightly. "[Gee, my nephew's a hotty even if he's a kid, ne?]"

"[You said it!]" Lea said cheerfully, still hugging the poor boy into her chest. Chibi-Ranma had already fainted due being overly exposed to THAT part of the female anatomy.

But before he fainted, Ranma DID imagine Ryoko's own bosom drowning him in the same manner as he was right now, and was also mentally comparing the sizes. <Ryoko was a little bit larger...> were Ranma's last thoughts before he caught the meaning of his own daydream and lost consciousness. We should just disregard that mysterious smile on his face as he did lose his sanity, a sight quite weird on the face of a kid.

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The three hours were spent with the final goodbyes coming from Ranma and those who will be coming with him.

As of the moment, most of the people that manned the Excalibur and the Yggdrasil IV were currently assembled just outside the city of Nisan. A big white ship hung above them on the stratosphere as it waited for the dropship it had deployed to pick its 'lost' grew up, along with new companions as well.

"[I wish I could say 'See you soon' but... I don't think that is possible.]" Emeralda said calmly as she gazed upon the people she had been with for all her life, not that it was THAT long anyway... technically.

Ranma had already explained that there is a one out of a hundred million chance of Emeralda ever seeing this place again, especially once they managed to find a way for Ranma to go back. This was Ranma's last try at making her reconsider her decision, but somehow her mind has already been set since she met first him.

So, squaring her shoulders, Emeralda went forward and hugged her 'mother' forcefully, causing the red-haired woman's face to go from astonished to loving smile. Elly enthusiastically embraced her pseudo-daughter back, with Fei smiling right beside her. Fei knew he would not see her 'daughter' again, but he was happy that at least, Emeralda had found herself a place to belong to. Glancing behind him, Fei found his friends smiling at the sight as well, albeit a little sadly. He knew how they felt, since this situation was bittersweet for all of them. But as Margie had said a while ago, they couldn't possibly begrudge Emeralda of finding her happiness.

Ranma, who was still in his child form, stood a bit further away from the group. He sighed as he mentally assured himself that he had tried his best to make Emeralda change her mind. In a small piece of his mind, a VERY small piece, he thought of just turning right now and leaving quickly, leaving Emeralda with her family, but that was quickly ki-blasted by a larger part of him that would miss her company. That and he could never abandon anyone who wanted to go with him willingly. He also wondered if his subspace pocket could actually hold unto the mech Emeralda had entrusted to him.

Well actually, he couldn't call the subspace rift a 'pocket' anymore.

Washuu had shown him a whole new different way of ripping a hole in reality. Thanks to his physiology, he can actually slice through the immediate dimension easier than most, like his aunt Washuu does with her subspace laboratory. As of the moment, his subspace pocket was now the size of a small hangar, with his stash of wealth and some choice souvenirs he got from his travels kept inside. He had managed to accommodate Emeralda's mech Crescens inside his subspace room.

Back to the situation at hand, Ranma was still watching the tearful goodbye. Behind him, the medium-sized supplier ship was landed pretty securely, with Gascogne in its pilot seat. The muscled woman was quite worried about them, and had given Chibi-Ranma the 'Noogie from Hell'. At least, he has been spared from being carried around by her when Vanilla, Emeralda and Lea frowned at her. But he still has no idea how to feel about that as well. Ranma sighed again, as his mind turned all weird again.

Vanilla looked at the scene impassively, but within her she could feel that small twinge of jealousy of watching the tall, dark skinned, green haired girl hugging her 'family'. For a long time, she hadn't had any family whatsoever as of yet, and she had been lonely. Sure, she had some companions when she joined the Galaxy Federation's small elite group called the Galaxy Angels, but still, she craved for what Emeralda was about to leave behind. She discreetly glanced towards Chibi-Ranma, and her irritation at the thought of what Emeralda was leaving behind vanished in the wind. She understood how powerful the pigtailed boy's charisma could be. Vanilla knew that she fell victim of Ranma's personality quirks, as much as Emeralda was. Carefully giving the taller platinum blue haired woman a small searching look beside her, she amended herself that Lea was smitten as well as she and Emeralda were.

The young woman with platinum blue hair, Lea, or Ihadurca to some, was also thinking a lot of things. Like, how she was a floating free-form energy a while ago, and then a living breathing person as of the moment. She also felt that the individuality between Lea and Ihadurca had disappeared once she was trapped within Deus, and now she was the result. Somehow, she wasn't all that worried about it, rather she felt strangely relieved. Right now, she was actually busy at thinking what she would do in the future, but the most prominent outlook she could see was being by Ranma's side. When she was within Deus talking to Ranma, she had seen the strength of his spirit, and it was immense. It dwarfed her own power by an unimaginable margin, and she just knew the limits of Ranma's power hasn't been seen yet. She was curious as to why his powers were a kaleidoscope of energies, both white and dark magic, and it confused her to no end at all. She was curious, as well as attracted, to the boy's attitude, no matter how crude it was. She mentally shrugged, plucking it off as one of the mysteries of life.

Washuu was already inside the Nirvana's dropship, being... herself. Washuu was Washuu to the core, who was now carefully analyzing the data she gathered from Rin-Ohki's statistics report. The aforementioned cabbit was now lying on a soft chair beside her, sleeping off the fatigue from the still-recent final battle with the fake Deus. Her transformation had been a bit forced, since it was dreadfully needed at that time. Rin-Ohki was tired. Meia was chatting with Gascogne, retelling everything she had experienced and seen while the group was down on the surface. Gascogne was riveted to her story, once in a while cocking an eyebrow as the light-blue haired girl ranted on how Ranma had gathered two additional women attracted to him.

After a tearful goodbye, Emeralda was finally released and was now seated just beside Chibi-Ranma inside the dropship, which was now ascending towards the planet's stratosphere. The ship finally docked with the Nirvana several minutes after taking off from the ground.

Chibi-Ranma grew a bit nervous, remembering that he was going to be surrounded by women once again. Nothing bad about it, really, it's just that now was an unfortunate time for him, if the idea of Lea latching unto his small form when he entered the dropship was any indication.

It was hard to be cute.

Currently, the ship had settled into the Nirvana's hanger bay, and the small group from the surface was now waiting for the doors to open.

Ranma tried to hide behind Vanilla and Emeralda, but he knew he'd be discovered anyway, so he figured this was just for principles only. Lea had been hovering behind him since he entered the ship, and he resigned himself to the fate of being her plushie for the rest of the time he spent on his transformed state.

"Ready?" Ranma was snapped into attention as Gascogne glanced back at them, especially on him. He could see that she was trying to hold her laughter at his pitiful sight, clearly enjoying his discomfort at the thought of what will happen when they go out of those doors.

When all of the people behind her nodded, Gascogne pressed a button at the left side of the doors, causing a metallic hiss to emanate from the door. It slid open to the side, exposing whatever was beyond the dropship's small room.

Chibi-Ranma paled at the sight that greeted them. It was worse than he thought. All one hundred and forty-eight women were present and accounted for, waiting for the new arrivals to come out. He can do nothing as his cover slowly lurched forward, slowly exposing him to the outside.

The women ignored the new faces of Lea and Emeralda in favor of Ranma's smallish form. More than a hundred of excited squeals from the females pierced the air as more than a hundred pairs of feet thumped against the metallic surface of the floor. Chibi-Ranma could only watch in dismay as the waves of women started forward, intent of snagging his 'cute' form.

As the women closed in on him, Chibi-Ranma whimpered slightly, causing the normally stoic faces of Emeralda and Vanilla to twist into a slight smile.

Before the scene faded, a small boy's voice echoed weakly over the multitudes of female voices in the hangar, saying, "This is NOT my day..."

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

A few days later (relatively speaking, since all they had to know it was the time increments their ship kept), the Nirvana finally approached the last legs of their journey before being able to get to the men and women's star system. All they had to do was path through the incoming magnetic storm system, and they will be home free.

But alas, even when they were just at the edge of the magnetic storm, they already encountered a massive electrical storm that caused them to fly blind. It proved treacherous if they didn't take great care transversing, since the whole area near the magnetic storm and inside the storm itself was littered with space debris. Floating hulking masses of metal from ships that dared the magnetic storm but failed decorated the entire area, making things difficult for the Nirvana's crew.

Not to mention just a few minutes ago, the Nirvana's alarms sounded off when multiple enemies were detected. The Harvest ships from Earth managed to outmaneuver them, somehow being able to find the Nirvana inside the storm.

As always, Hibiki, Dita, Jura and Meia launched in their Vanguards and Dreads respectively, followed by Group A of the Dread force Meia commanded. The whole battle was tedious and hard, with the giant chunks of space debris as well as limited sensors, they barely managed to retaliate against the enemy.

Hibiki and Dita combined, causing the first ever Vandread formation, a giant blue colored mecha, to come out. They managed to take out a lot of the Harvest drones, and were now concentrating on the clone that their enemy had made based on their own Vandread formation. As of the moment, Hibiki and Dita were battling against a clone of their formation.

They barely managed to win, but as they were about to return to the Nirvana, the Vandread was hit by a red beam of light, courtesy of a Harvest drone that was immediately destroy afterwards by Jura's Dread. The inevitable occurred, and the red beam forced Dita and Hibiki's machines apart.

Back in the Nirvana, BC suddenly had a flash of an idea as she thought of the automatic recall for the Dreads. Seeing that the enemy numbers were now dwindled down to barely negligible size, BC suggested a tactical retreat after pulling everyone in. Magno approved of it, and BC activated the recall system. Every Dread was pulled via laser guided tractor beams that locked into each specific programs embedded inside each Dread's programming. Theoretically, even if the Dread is combined with the Vanguard of Hibiki, the signature from the Dread will still be present.

They were not able to test the theory out, though, when Dita's piercing cry echoed all over the speakers. It was then that the red beam from a stray enemy Harvest drone hit the Vandread, forcing the reversal of the transformation. Unfortunately, it was also the time when BC activated the Dread Automatic Recall System, pulling all the sensor-deprived Dreads to be retrieved by the Nirvana.

Hibiki's Vanguard, having no form of connection with the Dread and Nirvana whatsoever, hurtled deeper into the magnetic storm. Only static was heard from the comms as they tried calling upon the boy.

As of the moment, the bridge was now discussing on the matter.

"I'll patrol around the area. There may still be some enemies left." Meia intoned impassively as her face appeared on the viewscreen. A determined expression adorned her face as she silently implored the captain of the female pirates for approval.

"Kinda subtle... nice excuse..." Ranma muttered from the side. Magno heard him, and she hid a small smile under her short hood.

Magno mentally chuckled at her crew member's enthusiasm about the situation. She was also extremely worried about their male crew member, but she was also the captain of the ship. She was supposed to be calm and collected when things go wrong. It wasn't a long time ago when her crew was still disgusted by the thought of being in contact with males, but now here they were, furiously shouting for her to do something about it.

The old woman's contemplation was cut short, however, when the blond haired Dread pilot, Jura, suddenly opened a channel beside Meia's own. "If we don't find him, we may not win against the Harvest. It was because of his help that we were able to go on up to this far."

"Well I..." Magno began, but once again got interrupted when a Dita's crying form appeared just below the other two channels. Her hands covered her face as sobs wracked her body. Magno's heart twisted as she saw Dita's bad reaction to Hibiki's disappearance.

"Captain..." Dita sniffed as she haltingly continued, "I... I will go look for him... please let me out and look for him... I... I..."

"I know that..." Magno said gently, "But we have to..."

"We just can't leave him!" Dita wailed loudly, causing everyone to wince. But the statement quickly made an impact to the other crew members, as they too provided their own comments as to what they thought of the situation.

Ranma snickered and glanced sideways at Magno, "Well... what do you wanna do now, oh great granny?"

"Oh hush you." Magno replied in mock irritation. She was actually amused at the situation.

"If Ranma were the one who was lost out there, I'd go out and find him myself too." Lea commented seriously beside Ranma. She had been watching everyone's reaction to the news. Mejer and Talark's historical background were explained to her earlier, and she was quite baffled by it. Although it wasn't really a surprise, since she already knew a few villages back in her home planet that were gender-oriented.

Vanilla nodded empathically, who was standing a little further behind Lea and Ranma's position, "I understand how everyone feels as well."

Emeralda just stepped forward and bent down to take Ranma's smallish arm in her own. Ranma was still in his chibi-form, even though his reserves were already at 'optimum level'.

Washuu was nowhere to be found for the moment, but she did mention something about modifying Ranma's body armor. The smile on her face when she left for her subspace lab brought a few bouts of shivers into Ranma's spine though.

"Well then..." Ranma cut into the conversation, clapping once with his hands, "I'll help too. We can't leave a friend in need, right?"

All the girls turned to him and made googly eyes, which made the still-small boy shudder slightly. Too much cuteness rays...

Parfet nodded as she pointed to the navigation screen, which she involuntarily brought up to the main viewscreen. The three Dread pilots' screens were resized to accommodate the new screen. A bunch of shiny dots were illuminated.

"As you can see, our sensors are still on the fritz, but I managed to get a vague map of some planets that are located near our position." Parfet pointed to the three largest dots, saying, "These planetoids are somehow in direct collision with whatever direction Hibiki was in when he got separated from Dita, so he'd probably be there. The images I got were a little bit sketchy at best, but we have to make the best out of what we've got. The rest are just small asteroids that he might've bumped into, but in the end the gravitational body of the three larger masses will pull Hibiki's Vanguard, so the probability of his presence in these planets are more than 75% on each."

"Three planets..." BC noised, tapping her chin with her finger, "A lot of area to cover... but we can't really go anywhere unless we retrieve Hibiki Tokai. We must allocate search parties to each planet."

A short tense silence ensued, followed by a chorus of voices that surprised most of the crew, saying, "We'll go at the third planet!"

Meia, Dita and Jura decided to go on the planet that seemed to have a lot of desert in it.

Ranma shrugged as he pointed to a planet that somehow reminded him of Earth a bit, saying, "I'll go to this one."

As soon as his destination was revealed, Vanilla, Emeralda and Lea jumped forwards and said in chorus as well, "I'll go with Ranma-sama!" When they realized they all had the same tactic, they turned to each other and glared.

Before the situation could escalate, a dry chuckle interrupted them that said, "I think Ranma and Rin-Ohki can handle that by themselves, you three should just go to the last available place so that you three will be equal." The voice was Washuu's, who just came into the bridge carrying a big bundle of... something, with Rin-Ohki draped on one side of her shoulder.

When Washuu opened her arms, her bundle was revealed to be a pair of big dark blue bracers. Shoving them into Ranma's surprised arms, she gave the boy a thumbs up and said, "Now, try them on! Don't worry, it will re-size itself with any form you take." Throwing back her had, she cackled, "I am SUCH a genius!!"

And as expected, a pair of mechanical puppets emerged from the redhead's shoulders, chanting praises in the name of Washuu.

As the crew members present inside the bridge eyed Washuu warily, Ranma ignored the spectacle, opting to examine the new limiters Washuu gave him intently. The pair dark blue bracers had synthetic fingerless black gloves attached at one end of it, which no doubt that the materials were made of no ordinary alloys. The bracers themselves extend up to his elbows, showing how much protection it would provide for his whole forearms.

After giving Washuu a last stare of contemplation, Ranma shrugged and slipped the bracers into his hands like oversized gloves.

Washuu nodded thoughtfully, happy that the bracers did automatically resized itself with Ranma's physical built as it shrunk a bit. "That's great!" she mentioned, nodding at her genius, "Now... I want you to 'will' your battle armor unto your body."

Obediently, Ranma brought up his tight fitting garb again. But to his surprise, something else happened. Instead of summoning the latex-like armor he had initially, a dark colored tight fit garment similar to the make of the fingerless gloves at the end of each bracers extended itself over his body. And then, a dark blue armor of some sort appeared on his chest and groin area. His feet were suddenly clad in big dark blue boots that extended up to his knees. His head was now also being covered by a black pilot-like helmet, that had dark blue spikes running from the front to the back. His pigtail popped out from under the helmet, and his red furred monkey tail sprung out of a convenient hole at the upper backside of his lower armor. A big semi-transparent silver gem that was shaped in an inverted triangle decorated the helmet's front-most part, which was just over Ranma's forehead. It was actually directly over the area where Ranma's gems on his forehead were located.

Everyone gaped as they saw Ranma's new armor's look. He seemed like a super warrior they had watched only in various anime (the look wasn't all that futuristic to them, but with Ranma wearing the armor it looked pretty damn cool). Even if it was a chibi-fied version of the armor itself, since it resized according to Ranma's measurements as of the moment.

Speechless, Ranma looked at Washuu for an explanation.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Washuu crowed triumphantly as she cackled. "I managed to upgrade the crummy titanium synthetic fiber of the first armor I gave you, and put into it a bit more 'oomph'! Now, that armor you're wearing is the ultra rare Xentronium synthetic fiber, a material that cannot be found anywhere in the universe! Why? Because I made it back when I was still the Goddess of Knowledge! I only remembered about it now, because I kept it as a reminder of the past I gave up. Xentronium is a mineral that was used usually in divine armors of the gods, but it was later banned of use since it's too rare. I think the gods found a substitute, although that material was reinforced with magic. Your armor is also equipped with its own self-repair system, since it was easy for me to install nanotechnology that mends itself with the Xentronium. It was very hard for me to manipulate the mineral, and I had to use a heat source several times hotter than several supernova to even begin shaping it."

"In other words..." Ranma deadpanned with a half-lidded stare, "This armor's pretty damn cool, right?"

Washuu frowned and huffed a little, saying, "Fine... yes it is. Although it sounds so mundane when you say it like that."

"SUGOI!!!" Chibi-Ranma and Washuu blinked twice simultaneously and looked around them. All the women in the bridge were staring at Ranma with starry eyes, visibly impressed by the new look the small boy was sporting.

The young boy, the ONLY 'little' boy in the ship, shivered slightly as he felt everyone's gazes centered on him. The other two males left on board the Nirvana were 'men', so technically they weren't boys anymore.

Inside the pilot's area, Bart frowned slightly in jealousy. The boy had been the center of everyone's attention these days.

Duero was ignoring everyone as of the moment. He was busy trying to decipher Emeralda's nanobot programming, without much success. For some reason, he couldn't understand for the life of him the way Emeralda's nanomachines acted. Somehow, they were acting like normal body cells from an organic. After he had asked Washuu about it, she explained with a shrug that Emeralda was just well-made.

"Uhhmmm... can we just talk about the rescue operation for Hibiki-san, please?" Chibi-Ranma squeaked loudly, with Magno and Gascogne looking at him with great amusement.

After a good fifteen minutes of discussion, Vanilla, Emeralda and Lea were finally cajoled into going as one group to the planetoid they'd been assigned to. Ranma and Rin-Ohki will go together as another group, while Meia, Jura and Dita will go to the last one. The purpose of the tactic was to cover more ground to hasten the operation. BC surmised that they shouldn't stay inside the magnetic storm any longer than they should.

They started the mission. It was proper, too, since every second they waste could be fatal to the one they were rescuing.

To say that the temporary parting was tense would be an understatement. There was a general feeling of unrest as the three groups went to each of their own modes of transport.

One group was comprised of Dita, Jura and Meia, who had taken off to their targeted planetoid in their Dreads full of ammo for their missiles. They could encounter another Harvest group while on their way, after all.

The second group to depart was made up simply of a Chibi-Ranma and his pet, err, partner, Rin-Ohki. Actually, they really didn't need anything to survive out in the vacuum of space, but just to be official, Rin-Ohki transformed into her ship form and carried Ranma out of the Nirvana's vicinity to their own location.

The third group was the one where most of the unrest came from, comprised of three volatile and potentially destructive females who have only one man in their minds. They managed to remain civil with each other and declared a temporary truce, at least just until they finish the mission and be reunited with their Ranma once again. They left in a spare supply ship, a copy of the one Gascogne usually used to deliver ammo to the Dreads once a battle started. Washuu was just plain amused at the events, carefully hiding her grin as she watched the three girls awkwardly allowed one another inside the ship. Good thing nobody fought over as to who will pilot the ship, since Vanilla had offered her services at this point.

Washuu just hoped the last group would survive just being in contact with one another, at least until they come back to the ship.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

After a short period of being buffeted by strong electrical storms, the ship Vanilla, Emeralda and Lea were in finally escaped the storm zone, and went directly into the planetoid's area of responsibility.

The drop ship went into a series of pink clouds with plasma charges while entering the planet's atmosphere, but they too abated once the atmosphere has been breached. They maneuvered the ship in a relatively large green patch of forest, that outcropped a nice calm lake.

It surprised them a bit, that they found the planet a bit similar to the ones they were from. Vanilla thought that this planet had a bit more earth than planet Earth she was from. Emeralda thought at the same lines with Vanilla, but she DID wonder about her home planet's name. After all the time she'd been with her Kim-papa's reincarnation and Elly, she never heard her home planet's name even once. Lea on the other hand, was thrilled that the planet was AT LEAST life-friendly. She had been to some places that were extremely hostile, just landing on the surface earned you an attack from the local wildlife. So far so good, nothing threatened them for the moment.

Well, the peaceful moment lasted only until a group of men, their age ranging from teenagers to barely 40-ish year old, burst into the small clearing their dropship had landed on.

"Hmmm... this reminds me of that time those people called on a Witch Hunt for me back in Happy Iron..." Lea said thoughtfully as she readied herself for a fight.

Emeralda looked at Vanilla with a questioning look in her eyes.

Vanilla shook her head, placing her hand on Lea's shoulder. "Stop. We shouldn't hurt the locals unnecessarily. In their eyes, we are invaders, which we ARE. We have a mission, and incurring the locals' wrath will not be beneficial for us."

"Besides..." Emeralda whispered loud enough to be heard by the other two women in front of her, "Ranma-sama will not be pleased."

"Oh... since you put it THAT way." Lea sighed as she relaxed her stance.

The group of newcomers, all men, still held their miniature weapons as they looked at the women warily. Two of them had broken off from the main group and scampered off to kami knows what. Luckily, by the loud chatters coming from the group, Vanilla and her companions figured that the natives spoke Japanese.

Weird though, that the men looked almost exactly alike, except for some small differences, like hair color and eye color.

One of the men, a young boy actually, seemed to have mustered enough courage to walk a bit forward, his weapon still poised in his hands. He stared at the trio of women for a moment before asking, "Who sent you? Why are there new marionettes sent into our country's territory again?"

"Marionettes?" Lea parroted, completely baffled at the query.

Vanilla helpfully commented, "Marionettes, you know... dolls."

"I know that!" Lea snapped at the red-eyed girl, who just took the platinum-haired girl's angry response in stride. Lea turned to the young man who stepped forward and said, "I know what a marionette is, but I'm wondering why he thought we were dolls!"

"They show emotions..." One of the men said in awe.

The young man's eyes lit up, asking, "Are you Saber Marionettes perhaps? If so, what country are you from?"

Lea snorted, crossing her arms across her chest in a huff, "As if adding a 'Saber' in front of the word 'Marionette' could make any difference! What is this planet anyway?!"

"Terra-Two." A cold, mechanical female voice answered Lea's question. The crowd of men hastily parted, revealing two figures of armed women.

The first one has dirty white hair, and garbed in a red kimono. In her hands was a red plasma sword, which cackled with electricity as it was blatantly displayed as a threatening gesture. The other had dark green hair, and dressed in a generally green kimono. In her hands was a long pole that was ended with a short blade. A polearm, which was just as deadly as the weapon on the other's hand.

"I should've asked for the Crescens before Ranma-sama descended on that other planet." Emeralda commented wryly as she stared at the impassive female newcomers. Her hand twitched a bit, though, ready to be transformed into a scythe or anything potentially lethal if these individuals decided to attack anyway. This reminded her of Washuu's promise of upgrading her body into the nearest human-like body the diminutive scientist could muster, even allowing Emeralda to be able to bear a child.

Anyway, back to their situation at hand, they were now being led through the thick woods that was near the edge of the clearing where Vanilla had landed their dropship. With a promise of leaving their ship alone (Lea casted a couple of trap divinations just in case someone did lose their control) the three women in Ranma's life followed the group, drinking at the sights they were passing. They had finally burst out of the forest, which revealed a rather large city just beyond it.

The whole city was fairly advanced, but Vanilla and her companions had noticed there were only men in it. As the group entered the city, the townspeople parted to allow the two 'women' that led the entourage to pass by, but they turned to stare at the trio that was surrounded by the incoming group.

Coincidentally, most of the residential homes were reminiscent of the ancient styles that Vanilla used to read in her history books back when she was still on Earth. Some of the houses were apartment complexes built beside each other, and they used paper-screens as window covers and such. The whole city was a mixture of old style architecture mixed with the new, more advanced styles.

"This is Japoness." The red-clothed lady in front of the group said, loud enough for Vanilla, Lea and Emeralda to hear.

Vanilla nodded. "Japoness... any connection with Japan?"

The red-clothed woman cocked her head slightly to one side, saying, "Japan... oh. An old Earth's country. I think you may say that is so, since everything in this place will remind you of that country."

"By the way..." Lea cut into the conversation, "Where are you bringing us, and who are you for that matter?"

"Tamasaburo." The red-clothed woman said.

"I am Baiko." The green-clothed woman added.

"Vanilla..." The pale-skinned light cyan haired newcomer girl said, eyeing the interesting structure far in front of them.

"I am Lea..." The platinum haired woman said lightly. Gesturing to the dark skinned girl beside her, she continued, "She's Emeralda, but she rarely speaks, especially NOT to strangers."

The two leading women nodded, strangely altogether too. "Understood." they both said simultaneously, causing the trio to look at one another in askance. They wordlessly shrugged and followed the group into a spacious yard, which led to a very large castle of an Edo Era design.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Across the other side of the planet Terra-Two, another bustling city was thriving. The people were comprised of men as well, and marionettes undertook the responsibilities a normal human female should have.

There was also a large castle of ancient Earth Chinese design, similar to the design of the Forbidden City hidden within Earth China. A heirarchial government was established.

Deep in the bowels of the palace, there was a flurry of activity as the certain phenomenon of the unidentified flying object landing in the land of Japoness.

"Emperor..." A servant of the palace bowed low in front of an intricate throne that was located inside the castle, "We have confirmed the UFO's location. It was last detected in Japoness space."

"I see..." A man with long mustache and beard sat at the said throne, his clothes comprised of high-quality wool that was lined with pure gold. His face reflected that of mature age, somewhere in the late 30's or early 40's. His dark eyes roved over the whole of the room, where countless other scientists ran amok as they tried to tally the arrival's data.

"It was too bad it landed in Japoness. Nevertheless, the UFO is vital to our country's rise in power. The information we could gather alone... we need to take that ship!" The leader banged his fist against the armrest of his throne.

The servant shrunk into his place, "But Emperor! We cannot enter Japoness without stating our reasons, or we could potentially trigger another war! Think of what Gartland has done..."

"I do not care!" The leader growled out, "Japoness has already too much luck on their side! First, it was their marionettes that evolved with their emotions first, second, they took the only female in the world in their clutches, and now are we to be denied of this?!"

"But..." The groveling man tried to reason, but was cut off by the glare sent to him by the Emperor.

"Make use of our Saber Marionettes, but first, send a scout to assess the situation at hand. And then..." The leader gave a dark smirk, "We will take the new technology into our custody. This will propel Neo-China into glory once more!"

Turning to the servant, he crowed, "Prepare our army! We will strike at Japoness!"

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

In a planet a few asteroids away from the one Vanilla and her companions were in, Ranma and Rin-Ohki finally broke through the plasma-filled atmosphere--- and landed smack in the middle of a huge battle.

It was a surreal sight for him, actually, since he's been from a battle filled with humanoid-shaped mecha from before, but the one in front of him was different. The mecha were animal-shaped instead, mostly shaped like, ironically enough, big cats. If he still had the Neko-ken, Ranma wondered briefly if he would've ran to the hills at the sight.

Rin-Ohki was quite awed at the sight as well, and her owner took note that she was memorizing various mecha designs in her head. It may come in handy some day.

Well, the whole battalion of mecha were actually banded together in attacking a much larger mecha. Ranma observed that the targeted robot was alone in its conquest, and was indiscriminately blasting everything it sees moving. He wryly surmised that the huge reptilian-type mecha was the villain. Perhaps the Tyrannosaurus Rex shape of the mecha gave it away.

Ranma sighed to himself. He just knew he'd get involved in this somehow.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Back to the planet called Terra-Two...

Inside the aforementioned castle, there were various 'women' armed with a naginata of some sorts prowling all over the place. There bore the same face, as well as the same pink kimono with cherry blossom designs. The reason was to guard the most valuable asset in the whole of Terra-Two, the only female alive left, Doctor Lorelei.

The whole world of Terra-Two was actually a planet full of men, not that it was their fault. Fate made it that the survivors of the colonizing expedition sent to this planet were all men. Lorelei should've been with them, but she bartered her life for the lives of her fellow crewmates.

The Messopotamia's computer became a sentient AI that craved for affection. Sadly, it took notice of Doctor Lorelei, and it led to the doctor's fall to cold sleep.

The men left on the planet's surface never lost hope though. Through cloning, they managed to build up their own countries, all six survivors had their own side of the world, as well as their people. It turned out that they could only produce male clones, so as time passed only males were produced. They did, however, create marionettes.

These marionettes were androids made in the form of a human female. But these androids cannot produce human emotions. However, a few countries did manage to create Maiden Circuits, somewhat like an artificial 'soul' for a marionette, and gave them human-like emotions. There were six known and recorded Maiden Circuits, three from Gartland and three from Japoness.

The circuits were actually going to be used as a replacement for Lorelei, who has been taken by Messopotamia as its 'lover'.

The good doctor has been rescued from the space battleship Messopotamia, after the marionettes from Japoness named Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry sacrificed their Maiden Circuits to free her. All is good, though, since the three marionettes found their way home in the long run, and was reunited with their master, Otaru.

The planet Terra-Two was riddled with war before the Messopotamia was breached, because of the doctor herself. Doctor Lorelei was the only female capable of producing female DNA for cloning. She was very vital to the planet's survival and its vital hold to its sanity. Japoness had won the race to save the doctor when its long time rival country's leader, the Gartland Fuehrer Faust, finally acknowledged that Emperor Ieyasu of the Japoness' marionettes have 'matured' faster than Gartland's own marionettes that had the same maiden circuits. It was all thanks to Otaru Mamiya...

As of this moment the whole Terra-Two was in a peaceful transition, with Lorelei beginning her long work to reviving the female species as the former excitement of the war finally dwindled down. There were still squirmishes here and there, especially with Faust disappearing with her loyal marionettes.

One of the probable reasons the locals were staring so intently at the group that entered the Japoness territory, particularly the three foreign females with them, was that Lorelei was able to finish her first batch of female clones earlier than expected, and that this was a test run.

Not that the three mentioned females really cared at this point. The former Rei Ayanami, now Vanilla Ash, acted as the leader of the group. Lea, or Ihadurca to most who encountered her much more volatile personality, was unconsciously staying close to Emeralda's side. Somehow, the tallest woman of the group was strangely protective of the silent dark skinned girl, not that Emeralda minded or given it much thought at all.

The whole parade lasted for a good thirty five minutes starting from when they came into the front gates of the city. Vanilla, Lea and Emeralda looked around in confusion as the men stopped at the gates of the palace itself, before handing them over to the female marionette guards of the palace itself. The same-faced marionettes silently escorted the three with Tamasaburo and Baiko towards the main palace itself, where this Doctor Lorelei and the champion of Japoness, Otaru Mamiya and his three Saber Marionettes awaited their arrival.

When the three outerworlders finally entered the palace proper, they were slightly disappointed. They had been expecting something grand, but to their dismay most of the things inside the 'palace' were plain and old. Vanilla, even as she remembered her life in the past as Rei Ayanami, was used to the modern things, like an apartment and the Geofront itself. Her life revolved around those two main locations and nothing else, so even if there were homes that sported the traditional designs back in her time, she wouldn't know much about them. Emeralda and Ihadurca were just as bad, since they were never really part of the Japanese culture in the past of their own lives. Nevertheless they kept their comments to themselves, since their main purpose there was to straighten out this mess they got themselves into in the first place.

They were led deeper into the Imperial Palace of the Japoness country, where rows of glazed-eyes marionettes roamed around the grounds. Most of them were stationary in their positions, almost looking like statues because of it. Even if they didn't stare at the small group that entered the palace, they were informed of their arrival, and were closely monitoring the situation through their other sensors that were programmed into them since their creation. Each of their naginata were equipped with a special high voltage tazer at the blades themselves, and they will be effective in stopping and momentarily paralyzing their opponents if ever they were attacked.

The trio was guided into a large room, which contained nothing but two rows of pillows lined up at either side of the narrow red carpet located on the middle part of the room. The line-up led up to a much larger pillow at the other end of the hall, and it screamed 'Important' to everyone who can see it.

"You must wait here." Tamasaburo said casually as she and her companion marionette turned abruptly and walked out of the door they came into, leaving the three women to their own devices.

Lea snorted as she started to break away from the group, only to be stopped by Vanilla's imperative tone, that said, "You shouldn't go gallivanting. You might break something."

The platinum blue haired girl grinded her teeth as she huffed under her breath, saying, "You're not my master for you to give me any orders! Besides, I'm not a child to be talked like that."

"Who knows?" Vanilla commented casually as she turned away from the irate woman, who started to charge at her. Both were a bit surprised when Emeralda stepped in the middle of their paths towards each other, barring them from hurting each other in the process.

"Stop." Emeralda said softly, her face was half covered with a white material of some sort. "We do not need to fight."

The other two women visibly wilted in the presence of the dark skinned girl and her newly acquired 'puppy dog eyes' weapon. They both sighed and agreed to limit their fighting to light banter only. That seemed to bring delight to Emeralda very much.

Just as the trio were about to relax more thoroughly inside the huge room, the doors opened once again. Vanilla and Lea/Ihadurca quickly stepped in front of Emeralda, assessing the newcomers at once.

There were three marionettes that entered first, their true personas revealed by the inherent exhaust creases around each of their arms. All of the marionettes in that planet have them. But there was something different about the three, since unlike all of the others the guests have seen so far, these androids were full of emotion, albeit a bit different from each other.

The first one has an exuberant expression on her face, her eyes dancing with mirth as she gazed at the other trio of women like new playmates. Her dark blue hair was almost covered fully by a white cloth hat, that was held together by a large circular gem. Her oversized shirt hid a very nice figure in it, wrapped inside a black material. Her black spandex shorts reached up to her upper knees, and her feet were covered by two oversized yellow shoes. She was like a child in a candy store.

The second one was more of the demure types, wearing a light pink kimono that covered most of her body. Her purple hair was long and smooth, which was tied by a large ribbon on top of her head. Her hands were clasped in front of her, as she gazed at the room in askance, as if preparing for a fight. Her feet were covered with a pair of geta, an old style footwear of the ancient Japanese back on Earth. Vanilla knew of the Earth's history as much. The marionette was a symbol of a typical housewife.

The third marionette was the tallest one of all, wearing a bright red outfit that seemed to be a few sizes smaller than her real measurements. Her hair was bright red, quite like Ranma's female form's hair color, and her visage was that of a fighter. She actually led the group with a flair of confidence in her skills, as she looked around the room. Aside from instinctively showing everyone that she was a fighter, she was also exposing her sexiness without restraint, and perhaps the most sultry of the three.

The three flanked the other two marionettes that led Vanilla, Lea and Emeralda into the palace. Tamasaburo and Baiko, if Vanilla's memory served her right. The entourage of marionettes were being followed by two other people, one young male and one female.

The male has brown hair tied up in a scruffy ponytail. Her light brown eyes quickly flashed with a bit of nervousness as he entered the room, but it vanished when the marionette with the bubbly attitude smiled at him in reassurance. His gait was that of a martial artist, and a sai was strapped around his waist.

The female was definitely that, a female, since her whole visage was vastly different from the rest of the so-called females Vanilla and her companions have met so far. She has long straight brown hair that reached up to her lower back, and she was dressed in a light blue kimono. It would seem that the marionettes concentrated on guarding more on the female's side, confirming her identity as the most important person in the palace.

"Three new marionettes?" The only male in the room asked curiously, looking at the outworlders intently.

The exuberant marionette jumped up and down excitedly, squealing, "Wai! Wai! New friends!"

"It's weird..." The meek one commented, "They don't have any recognizable frequencies specific to any marionettes. I at least would've detected the emissions but..."

Lea grumbled, "We're not marionettes!"

"Eh?!" The tall red-haired marionette noised, "Are they broken or something?"

"What my friend was trying to imply..." Vanilla began as she took charge of the conversation, "We were never marionettes in the first place. We're not 'broken', or misunderstood, or even confused. We're simply not marionettes. We're real women, as real as the one behind you." She turned her gaze to the woman hiding at the back of the group, carefully taking in the information being exchanged.

The said woman finally stepped forward, finalizing that the situation was safe so far. Besides, she was surrounded by five of the most powerful marionettes in Terra-Two. She should feel safe (yeah right). "Pardon me for not speaking earlier, since we still don't know if you were not going to try anything drastic. Everyone was being protective of me, since I am the last real woman in this planet. I am Lorelei." She gestured to the male beside her, saying, "This person is Otaru Mamiya."

To the two impassive marionettes, Lorelei declared, "You must've met Tamasaburo and Baiko, the royal guards of the Japoness Palace."

Patting the hyperactive marionette on the head, she said, "This is Lime, one of Otaru's marionettes." Touching the meek android, Lorelei continued, "This is Cherry, another one of Otaru's marionettes." Pointing to the tallest marionette with red hair, she explained, "She is Bloodberry, again she is Otaru's marionette."

Turning back to the visitors, Lorelei commented, "It's only a few weeks since they've seen a real female. I was trapped in cold sleep in the colony ship I came from. It is destroyed now, but still three hundred years have passed since then. For three hundred years, only men thrived in this planet, being sustained only by cloning. They can only produce men though, and it showed. Also, they made marionettes to compensate on the loss of women, since they can't find a way to clone women. I have only began to clone my own cells a few days ago, to refurbish women in this planet."

"Cloning..." Vanilla frowned, her own dreaded memories of the past crashed inside her head like a giant wave. She never did like watching other versions of herself floating inside a big glass aquarium. She was actually the third version of the original Rei Ayanami, and the other two before her had died because of various reasons, but they were because of one man, Gendo Ikari. She, being a third version of Ayanami, often wondered how the previous Rei managed to stand the pompous asshole. She was thoroughly disgusted at how the man managed his employees. Only the fact that she has been briefed about her glorious participation in the world's salvation gave her enough to go through with the bastard's plans.

Lea raised an inquisitive eyebrow as her fellow visitor's gaze turned inward. She poked the distracted girl, saying, "Vanilla, are you all right?"

The light cyan-haired girl almost jumped in surprise, but her face remained impassive. She quickly turned to the slightly concerned Lea and replied, "I'm fine. I was just remembering some bad memories."

"Ah." The taller platinum-haired woman nodded solemnly, and didn't try to press for more information.

"Is there something the matter?" The brown haired female doctor of Terra-Two asked worriedly, glancing between Lea and Vanilla.

Lea shook her head seriously, looking at the woman who voiced the question, "Nothing's wrong. At least, none that anything you should be concerned of."

"I... see..." Lorelei just let it slip past, since the look thrown at her by the imposing woman was rather intimidating. Besides, judging from the expression on the face of the smallest of their three visitors, it was something personal anyway. Mentally shrugging, she continued, "Well, as I've said earlier... you're probably the few other real females seen by EVERYONE in the planet, aside from me. Just expect that everyone, including these three marionettes, will be very curious and would ask a lot of questions about being real women."

"Really..." Lea deadpanned, her eyes drooping in a half-lidded stare as she tried to stifle her laughter, "No offense, but that won't be possible. In fact, it's downright weird."

"But why?!" The redhead marionette, Bloodberry, almost growled out in frustration.

Lea looked towards their host, replying, "Because all three of us have little to no experiences of being normal women or whatsoever. Emeralda is but a small child, her body not taken into consideration. Despite her looks, she has a very young mind. I'll let her explain how that came to be if she wanted to, since it's not my story to tell. I never really thought of having a relationship before, and I've been alone for a long time. I've been feared by most of the people in the place I was in because of my power."

"Power?" More than one person has voiced the question from the hosts' side.

The sorceress nodded glumly, "Yes... power. I was considered a witch in my place of origin because of my power. I was... trapped in a timeless zone until Ranma-sama freed me of my captivity."

"Who's this, Ranma-sama?" Otaru asked.

It was Vanilla who answered for Lea, who was by now staring out to nowhere, her eyes glazed in the fond memories of when Ranma was conversing with her inside Deus, "Ranma-sama is the man we treasure most."

The dark blue haired hyperactive marionette bounced in place, squealing, "Like what Otaru is to Lime! I love Otaru!"

Cherry quickly interjected, "I love dear Otaru-sama as well!"

Bloodberry wasn't one to lose the imaginary argument, "Hey, I love Otaru too ya know!"

"Urk!!" Was all Otaru could say as he watched the three buxom marionettes slam unto him, cradling him into their bosoms on all sides.

Lea smirked, finding the scene strangely familiar, "Well, they're certainly enthusiastic."

Lorelei smiled softly, glancing at the bickering marionettes and their suffocating master, "Yes, they are. Even though they're not actually humans, their Maiden Circuits have developed wonderfully. The Maiden Circuits are the hearts for the marionettes, and only a handful were developed in Terra-Two."

"Lower class models..." A soft voice caused Lorelei, Lea and Vanilla to blink. They all turned to the dark skinned emerald-haired girl behind them, who was looking at the scene impassively.

"What do you mean, 'Lower class models'?" Doctor Lorelei asked curiously, slightly offended at the tone from the girl. Emeralda's gaze turned to her, causing the poor doctor to fidget in her place. She idly noticed that the other two marionettes that had escorted them into the palace earlier already vanished, probably off to somewhere.

"They still use the old designs for android technology, compared to my systems." Emeralda began as she nodded slightly to the concerned looks of Vanilla and Lea. She continued, "Their creators used titanium alloy as a framework for their skeletal system. Instead of organs, dialysis machines and a miniature pump system for a heart were used. Their 'Brain' is a mass of super-miniturized integrated circuits located at the chest area near the mechanical heart, and was a self-learning supercomputer. Their eyes were highly developed cameras that offered several different functions."

"Well... damn. That's the most she's probably said at one time." Lea commented as she looked at Emeralda appraisingly. Vanilla nodded in approval as well, and the marionettes and their owner were now looking at her in interest. Doctor Lorelei just gaped at the young woman for the moment, since while the explanation was slightly obscure, Emeralda managed to describe the general layout design for the marionettes' system Faust, Ieyasu and Lorelei developed in the past.

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she asked, "How did you know about it? Nobody should've known about the design pattern of the marionettes, especially the Saber Marionettes. You have just described the special marionettes Faust, Ieyasu and I have developed in the past. I don't think anyone should know about it at this time."

Emeralda allowed a small ray of amusement reflect in her eyes as she replied, "I am... an artificial human."

"EH?!" The hosts' outburst was loud and outraged, but the three visitors took it in stride. After allowing the hubbub to die down, Lorelei gestured for Emeralda to continue.

"I am what my creators call as... a nanomachine colony. Almost human, but not quite." The dark-skinned beauty's melancholy can be heard from the tone of her voice as she said this. "My body is made up of micro machines that mimic how a human body's body system worked. Cells for a human, nanoprobes for me. Nevertheless, I am who I am."

"Amazing..." Lorelei breathed, her eyes turning to a strange glint as she stared at the dark skinned meta-human, "The scientific level of creating something at the microscopic level is truly astounding! Uhmm... would it be okay if I---"

"No..." Lea immediately placed herself into the path of Lorelei's vision on Emeralda, causing the brown-haired girl to blink and stare at the dark witch in confusion, "You will not examine her. She is not some... Thing... be taken apart and experimented on."

"Please!" The doctor implored, "It would greatly benefit this planet's technology, as well as help the marionettes gain more of the humanity they seek to take!"

"Please do it in your own terms." Vanilla intoned ominously, causing everyone to shiver involuntarily at the cold tone she used. She continued, "Emeralda is... Emeralda is one of us. We would never allow such atrocious thoughts to be acted upon her body. If you try, we'll be forced to retaliate harshly."

Bloodberry bristled at the implied threat, saying, "Hey! She's just excited, you know! You don't need to be so rude!"

Vanilla's red pupils bored into Bloodberry's own. "What's rude is asking us for permission to open up our friend and try to find out how she works. How would you feel if Lea would ask your creator if she could open you up and see how you are able to have emotions?"

"That's bad." Lime's normally happy voice was not present, instead there was the tone of seriousness in it. Shaking her head, the dark-blue haired marionette intoned, "I don't want that. If it means making someone sad, I'd rather wait than force Lorelei to make us near human!"

"But Lime..." Lorelei began, but she was cut off by the marionette.

"NO!" Lime shouted, quickly leaping to her feet and dashing away from the castle. Otaru cried out as well, casting an apologetic glance towards everyone gathered in the hall and ran after the bawling pseudo-female, followed by Cherry and Bloodberry as well.

Doctor Lorelei just sagged in her place, staring at her lap forlornly, "I... I was just... they... they deserve so much more. Doing this... would help them greatly."

Lea shrugged slightly, saying, "I don't know about you, but as far as I can see, I think they pretty much accepted what they are. They're content with what they have."

"I know." Lorelei muttered loudly, "But it doesn't give me any peace with just that. Although... it's really gratifying to see them content like that. It's just me, I guess. I just want them to have more, especially since they managed to work out their issues regarding the man they loved."

"Ahh..." Lea nodded sagely, "And what have they decided? Who will spend the rest of her life with him?"

The doctor blinked in confusion. "Can't you tell?" she asked curiously, "They chose to share him."

Now it was the guests' turn to blink.

"Share?" Vanilla cocked her head to one side, "Like... a harem?"

"Preposterous..." The platinum-haired witch huffed as she crossed her arms across her chest, "Sharing indeed... as if having to share the man wouldn't be a problem enough, they have to live together? Hmph."

"You would be surprised." Lorelei said calmly, a slight smile gracing her lips, "As you can see, there's a scarceness of females on the planet, but that's besides the point. They chose to live together to love one man, and accepting their fate of living with each other. At first, I heard they fought tooth and nail for his attention, but gradually they learned that selfishness may be their undoing. Instead of having the possibility of losing the one they loved to their bickerings, they opted to curb their jealousy and share. They may have disagreements every now and then, but they fix it peacefully. As you can see, they still care so much for one another to run after Lime when she ran off."

Vanilla hummed noncommitedly, "But... isn't it hard for the man to cope?"

The doctor grinned widely. "That's the beauty of it!" she exclaimed happily, "Even if it was hard, he still tried to make things work. And succeeded. Actually, he left the decision-making to the marionettes, so he really had no regrets about it."

"That's..." Lea tried to think of something bad to call it, but settled upon a weird spaced-out look that made her look more 'thoughtful' than 'confused'.

"It's actually one way of solving the problem, if you really think about it." Vanilla commented as she looked back to Emeralda, who had the same thoughtful expression on her face as with Lea's.

Doctor Lorelei blinked, then clapped her hands once as she remembered something, "Oh right! We better go after them." Without waiting for a response, she quickly stood and raced outside the palace doors, followed by a bunch of kimono-clad marionettes led by Tamasaburo and Baiko.

Lea huffed lightly, standing to follow the rest of the entourage wearily. "We haven't even begun to discuss the reason why we're here."

Vanilla and Emeralda gasped slightly. They apparently forgot as well, as they were thinking much on the system the Saber Marionettes have devised to share their love for their master. It was something to consider after all.

Oh well, they could always mention it later... well... after they manage to catch up with the others, that is.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

It wasn't really as surprising to the trio of otherworldly visitors to find three more Saber Marionettes, the androids that have the Maiden Circuits installed in them, all present and accounted for inside Otaru's home. It would seem that Lime bawled her way into their home instinctively, and had locked herself in her room for quite some time. By the time Vanilla and her companions reached the house after being guided towards it by the bystanders, the encounter has been contained. Lorelei and her two guardian marionettes were already in the house, along with the three new marionettes and the other three marionettes loyal to Otaru Mamiya. Tamasaburo and Baiko stood stoically outside the patio doors, steadfast in guarding the perimeter of the home.

"You sure do remind me of Ranma-sama though. But now I'm quite happy that he hasn't come with us." Lea said wryly to Otaru, staring at the entourage of android girls in front of her. They really look like real women, apart from the compartment outline frames visible along their arms and bellybutton. Otherwise, they're real girls to most eyes.

Vanilla nodded sagely, "Truly. It would've been a disaster."

"Oh?" Lorelei mused, "Is that why you're worrying about a harem?" She had figured it was a topic that caused dread in the hearts of the women assembled before him. Not that the marionettes cared the least NOW.

"Somewhat..." Vanilla and Lea deadpanned.

Bloodberry snorted as she clutched at Otaru's right arm, "He couldn't be as manly as Otaru-sama."

Lea gave her a half-lidded stare, saying, "You'd think that. Unless you've seen how he managed to turn one hundred and fifty plus women, who majority are... WERE lesbians, into a pile of lovesick puppies when he smiled."

"Lesbians?" The six marionettes said altogether as they looked up to the organic females curiously. Well, three organic and one artificially organic... or whatever.

"Female loving females, and having sexual relations with each other." Lea explained impatiently.

"Female having sex with another female?" The marionette with shortened spiky blond hair and a pink star-shaped eye patch over her right eye (her POV) asked dubiously.

"It's... actually possible, Panther-chan." Lorelei blushed, when she realized that the intimate topic was going deeper.

The marionette beside Panther, who has dark-blue pageboy cut hair that has bangs that covered most of her eyes cocked her head to one side, asking, "How can that be possible? Is that one of the things you'll teach us to become more... human?"

"URK!" The poor flustered doctor facefaulted as Vanilla and Lea blinked in confusion. Emeralda kept her silent vigil as she watched the proceedings with a keen eye. The lone female of the planet recovered slightly as she choked out, "That's not part of etiquette training, Luchs-chan!"

"I think Tiger is interested in lesbianism." Panther thumbed to her side, indicating the marionette with short red hair that reached up to her neck. She was dressed in a light pink dress that hid a luscious figure.

The aforementioned marionette adopted a wide-eyed expression as the attention of the conversation shifted to her. She blushed slightly, ducking her head in embarrassment. "No..." she said softly, "I'm... I'm just wondering why everyone was so worked up about it."

Lea shrugged noncommittedly, saying, "It's simple actually. Instead of male and female, it's a female and female kind of thing. As for the mechanics, well... it's a delicate matter. You better ask the good doctor for that information, but reserve it for later. Right now, we need to tell you why we touched down on this planet in the first place."

Lorelei shot a thankful look towards the dark sorceress, which was acknowledged with a slight nod. "I was also wondering about that, but I guess I just forgot because of all the excitement..." she admitted.

"We are here to find someone." Vanilla said bluntly, boring her red-eyed gaze on the doctor, "But I believe he's not here, since you were surprised at our arrival. But then again, you may have just not noticed his arrival, since he's male. And Hibiki Tokai is one full-blooded male, through and through."

"I don't think that would be the case." Lea commented thoughtfully, "Because if Hibiki-san DID land on this planet, his Vanguard would've caused a ruckus. It's big enough to attract attention. The palace would've had heard something about it by then."

"A Vanguard?" Lime piped up, "What is it? Is it delicious?"

Vanilla and Lea stifled a laugh, while Emeralda's smile remained hidden within the folds of the cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face.

"I don't think you'd want to try eating a sixteen or more feet big of yellow mecha, Lime-san." The dark sorceress grinned as the rejuvenated blue-haired marionette ignored her slight jibe, somehow managing to bounce all over the place in excitement.

Lorelei shook her head, saying, "No... I don't think that kind of object was seen anywhere on this planet at least. I get updated news hourly from the other cities around Terra-Two, but no one has reported anything like that. And they won't dare conceal such an important fact from me, since I'd be excluding them from the list of cities I'm going to give some of my cloned genes to."

"Then perhaps... one of the other planetary scouts we sent have located our missing compatriot." Vanilla sighed ruefully, feeling that her efforts in going here has been NEAR to useless. Actually, she has been quite smitten at the idea these marionettes were using. Harems, huh? Love prevails after all, ne?

Next to her, Lea has been thinking of the same thing. Ranma-sama was quite adverse to their affections when they end up fighting in the end. He found that while he was quite 'dodgy' most of the time, he wasn't against on them showing their affections in such a manner as she had foreseen. Oh sure, she had been wrong before, but this was one thing she was sure of when she dealt with some of the males back when she was still in I-Praseru.

Emeralda, on the other hand, has other things in mind. Like thinking about that weird presence she had felt earlier, one that has a cold indifference towards someone. Nobody noticed it, probably because they were too engrossed in their conversation. Suddenly, her arm snapped forward, transforming into a very big frying pan along the way towards the side of Doctor Lorelei. Everyone, except Vanilla and Lea, were extremely surprised to react. Several small clangs of metal hitting metal later, the frying pan managed to thwart off several iron darts. The blocked projectiles fell to the ground harmlessly, gathering into one neat pile. The poor doctor was staring wide-eyed towards nowhere, severely shaken by the sudden attack.

The marionettes reacted immediately, jumping to their feet and fell into their defensive stances. Tamasaburo and Baiko burst into the room, catching Emeralda's transformed hand slowly melting into its original shape. They concluded a lot of things at this scene.

The two Imperial Marionettes quickly unfurled their weapons and leapt towards the dark-skinned girl.

This opted Vanilla and Lea to think of several thousand ways of how to dismember the approaching marionettes, which had the intention of harming Emeralda. Both were actually surprised at the strength of emotion they felt for the girl, even if Emeralda was capable of defending herself (and that the girl was actually taller and much more dangerous than the two).

Vanilla summoned something she hasn't called upon for five millennia. When she raised her right hand in front of her, a red haze of orange hexagonal 'hive' bubble appeared a few inches in front of her and her other two companions, who were near her at the moment. The orange field has effectively stopped the beam sword and the naginata that Tamasaburo and Baiko wielded, the weapons bouncing off the AT-Field Vanilla has generated. This stopped the marionettes' attacks, momentarily stunning them.

Lea's staff, which was actually named Vanalgando, appeared in a bright light show, immediately latching itself into her grip as the top end glowed with electrical power. Growling softly at the impudent little dolls that tried to skewer her fellow pursuer of Ranma-sama's heart, she pointed the charged side of her staff without any sort of hesitation towards the marionettes, her eyes glowing fierce red in rage. A blast of electrically-charged ball later, the two marionettes flew over the stunned audience outside of the house, their battered forms cackling with lightning every now and then. They both landed in a heap just short of hitting Cherry's beloved vegetable garden, and didn't get back up. Lea's glare didn't let up, as she sharply turned towards a tall tree that was visible beyond the opened door of the house. Without a word, another bolt of energy blasted from the tip of her staff, hitting something inside the thick mass of leaves atop the tree. A short, female shriek was heard, before an equally-female form fell from the tree.

A marionette dressed in a tight cheongsam that had a huge gaping hole at its chest greeted them. The sightless eyes of the marionette stared at the sky, the hole on its chest exposing a lot of its electrically-inclined insides to the world. Smoke and sparks wafted out of the hole, though.

The witnesses slowly turned towards the irate demon sorceress, who was now a picture of her battle psyche, Ihadurca. Her ornate staff was still giving off electrical sparks every now and then, which caused the marionettes to flinch slightly at the sight since they saw the damage it did to the poor Tamasaburo and Baiko. They dared not move an inch yet, since Lea was still looking quite angry and might attack them indiscriminantly.

"Sniveling little whores! How dare you raise your weapons on my companions so blatantly in front of me!" Lea's voice changed its timbre, adopting a very menacing and evil-sounding tone that brought shivers to the others. Her ongoing anger streak was severely hampered though, when Emeralda's soft voice cut through her haze of madness.

"Lea-san..." Emeralda muttered loudly, causing the platinum blue-haired girl to blink and snap out of her trance, "Relax, please."

The sorceress looked at the green-haired girl imploringly, "But they attacked you, just after you saved their precious woman's life! What do you expect me to do, just sit back and watch?! I will NOT allow any one of us get hurt. Ranma-sama will be displeased!"

"Nevertheless..." Vanilla intervened, lowering her hands in the process that allowed the AT-Field to disappear, "The danger has passed, and I don't think the others are as foolish as those other two. Besides, that other one you managed to tag in the tree happens to be the true enemy. Which reminds me, how DID you detect that one?"

Lea shrugged indifferently, saying in a serious voice, "Reflex action, actually. I got used to being attacked by various enemies that used sneaky tactics. They usually hide at high places, taking the landscape advantage into consideration. They would carry assassination attempts through there, so I just reacted accordingly."

"A marionette." Emeralda said curtly.

Everyone blinked when they turned to where the dark-skinned girl was SUPPOSED to be, but she wasn't there. Instead, they spotted the tall girl outside, already inspecting the mechanical body that Lea successfully hit with her energy blast.

"New Hongkong?!" Lorelei exclaimed as she ran to the body. The cheongsam was actually a dead give-away of where it had come from. "Why would New Hongkong want me assassinated?"

"Well..." Lea drawled out, "If what I can surmise with all these guards walking around with you, I'd say you're someone really important, or that you're doing something important, or you have something important. Either of the three, the stress on the 'important' is evident."

"I don't understand..." Lorelei shook her head as she stared at the marionette body in despair, "My work... it's atonement... for my sins in the past. If not for Otaru, Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry, I might've already taken my life when the cloning process for the females went underway."

"Whatever." The sorceress shrugged.

Otaru turned to Lorelei, saying, "Lorelei, we have to go back to Japoness Palace. Now that we have intruders within Japoness, we have to make sure the threat has been exterminated first."

Luchs nodded beside the brown-haired Japoness, saying, "I agree with the assessment, Lorelei-sama."

As they all shuffled out of Otaru Mamiya's home, Lorelei looked forlorn and sad all of the sudden.

"I will be trapped once again like a caged bird, but it probably is for the best." Lorelei whispered to herself, only Emeralda caught the gist of what she had said.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

In another galaxy, four of the Galaxy Angel members had successfully returned to the Transbaal System. They were currently reporting to their superior, Commander Walcott, about the sudden decision of Vanilla to leave their group.

"This is terrible..." Commander Walcott fretted as he examined Vanilla's pre-written resignation letter. He had never realized that the long-time member of the Galaxy Angels would be the first to resign. Not only that, but Vanilla was a vital asset to their operations. Her powers were mainly to heal people, and she was really good at it. Sometimes, the commander wondered if Vanilla was really an angel in disguise, for real, but now he would never know.

Now that he thought about it, he thought she was a nun. But why did Vanilla leave everything behind just to pursue a man then?

"I wonder why she went with Ranma-san though..." Mint unknowingly voiced Commander Walcott's unasked question, "I always thought she was never interested in those things."

Ranpha scoffed slightly, "I thought she was a nun! She has this 'God is Everything' kind of thing going on around her."

"I think it's romantic!" Millfeulle clasped her hands to her chest as her eyes grew all sparkly. Everyone sweatdropped as the pink-haired girl was suddenly surrounded by colorful flowers, rainbows, and birds...

"Anyway..." Forte interjected, readjusting her hat, "I wonder how we'll tell Nomad about it, though."

"Oh..." The whole group went silent. They jumped when the screen in front of their meeting room suddenly lit up, exposing a weird pink stuffed toy with the face of a fat bird and a body of a roundish cat.

"Err... Nomad..." Mint sweatdropped.

"Tell me about what?" The doll's shrill voice caused the others to wince slightly, but mostly it was because they dreaded the conversation's topic. Too bad they had to say something right now, since Nomad was in the middle of his job, that is, copying his missile guidance system protocols to the rest of the missiles he was asked to program. He took a break and decided to take a peek at the Galaxy Angels' meeting room, since he had heard from the techs down at the hangar that the girls have already returned a few hours ago, and were under a debriefing. He already missed his lovely and innocent Vanilla, and was looking forward to be dragged around by the girl once again.

Commander Walcott and the rest of the Galaxy Angels big sweated as the pink stuffed toy that sat at the artillery section of the base waited for a response from them.

It's going to be a long day indeed.

And Nomad's scream could be heard from the nearby planets and star systems surrounding the Transbaal System after the tale was told.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

In planet Terra-Two, Japoness Palace...

"What's this corridor for?" Lea commented curiously as she pointed at the dimly lit hallway that led somewhere, which was slightly hidden from view. She surmised that it led to some place real important, especially when everyone of the planet's residents flinched.

"Marine-chan..." Lime muttered loudly, her eyes tearing up all of the sudden. The other marionettes quickly converged on their distraught companion, shooting a heated glance towards Lea. The sorceress just ignored the looks.

"She's our friend..." Cherry informed them, "She saved the whole planet, when she took it upon herself to absorb the erratic plasma storms that has been expected to occur at some interval. But the power strain was too much, and Marine's maiden circuit shorted out. Marine-chan has been asleep since then."

Lorelei shook her head sadly, saying, "I still have no idea how to fix the damage done to her maiden circuit. But I WILL fix her, no matter how long it takes."

While everyone conversed about the comatose marionette, Emeralda's gaze was at the door that lead into Marine's sanctuary. Half of her consciousness was listening to the conversation around her, but the rest were riveted to the growing sudden impulse to walk to THAT door. Ranma had mentioned to her once that when in doubt, one would resort to trusting their instincts. When she asked about what 'instincts' were, he had explained that they were what her insides were screaming for her to do. It was what she thought was the right thing to do.

Was the feeling she felt the ones Ranma-sama was talking about?

Emeralda really didn't know much, since she was never taught these things back when she was with Fei's Kim. Her reincarnated father/creator gave Emeralda the freedom to learn for herself, and she was slowly picking up things as they go. Still, it wasn't fast enough.

But this feeling... this compelling force that was driving her into an internal turmoil... she wanted to go in there and do... something. She knew, and her body did too, that she could do something. Deciding to follow her Ranma-sama's advice, she abruptly turned and went straight into the dimly-lit hallway, ignoring the shouts of her companions for her to stop. She had to do this, because she knew she can do something.

Everyone stared in confusion as Emeralda basically brushed off their efforts to stop her. Panther and Bloodberry went to intercept, but Lorelei stopped them. The doctor saw that the girl won't be stopped, and trying to do so would invoke another fight between the two groups. Instead of trying to explain why she stopped the marionettes, Lorelei motioned for them to follow the girl, who was already followed by her two other companions.

Now normally, Emeralda would've just smashed the doors open with a swift transformation of her fists into hammers, but doing so would've just agitated the castle guards. Instead, she just looked at the seemingly sophisticated electronic lock that might've been a good security measure, if not for Emeralda's... special abilities.

Without uttering a word, the pseudo-human waved her hand over the control panel for the room's security system. Her hand passed through the construct, causing everyone who had already caught up with her to gasp in shock. Her hand was thrust deep into the circuitry, without disturbing the housing at all.

Emeralda was in fact well-versed with machinery. Her former home, that lab where Fei's Kim had created her, has been a haven of information for her. Most of them were practically negligible to most normal humans, but for someone like her, they were treasures, especially since she was, all in all, a newborn babe at the time. Curious as to how much info she can gather being trapped like that, she had unwittingly tapped into the laboratory computer's mainframe system, and she was able to get most of whatever she knew from there. The rest were learnt according to experience.

Her musings were cut short when she finally found what she was looking for. Emeralda was actually using a revised version of the nano-probing she tried on Vanilla a few weeks ago. She had learned the 'Japanese' language because of the process. Now, she just had to apply the same thing with regards to the machines, just like what she did back when she was just a newborn. The computer system was state-of-the-art, but her nanomachines were phenomenal compared to it. Soon, the system has been partially assimilated into Emeralda's psyche, and now she was shifting through the records stored in the database. She almost gave a short cry when she found the password, therefore opening the door with a silent 'swish'. She quickly pulled her hand back from the console and casually strode into the room.

"Never ceases to amaze me." Vanilla muttered as she ambled past the shell-shocked marionettes, followed by a smirking Lea.

Doctor Lorelei, Otaru and the marionettes finally shook off their shock, as they quickly followed their guests into the room quickly. They did not want anything to hurt their sleeping friend, so powerful or no they intended to fight the outerworlders to the death if they have to. Just as they burst into the room, they stopped and stared at the weird spectacle in front of them.

Emeralda, her face still as expressionless as ever, had her hand buried deep into the sleeping marionette's chest. The marionette was as dark skinned as Emeralda, with dark moss-colored hair that was tied in a high ponytail. Marine's body remained untouched for a few weeks now, and it has been undisturbed still, aside from Emeralda's intrusion. Nothing seemed to be out of order, and the dark-skinned girl's hand seemed to have melted into Marine's chest. Lime was about to run towards Emeralda to lay the smackdown on the girl, but Cherry held her back, pointing out that as far as her sensors indicated, there had been no intensive damage done by Emeralda to Marine. Reluctantly, the protective dark-blue haired marionette settled down to a ready stance.

Emeralda on the other hand, ignored everyone around her completely. Her 'instincts' have brought her here, and when she faced the comatose android, she was compelled to fix the wrong done to Marine. She had placed her hand on Marine's chest, and willed her nanomachines to gather data on the marionette's design as she pressed it into its chest. After a few seconds, the schematics of the marionette's body appeared in Emeralda's mind's eye, and with the information she set upon trying to correct whatever burnt components the unique Maiden Circuit of Marine has acquired due to excess plasma discharge. Marine's Maiden Circuit was different from the other Saber Marionettes', since instead of having only one circuit, her body has been installed with three combined Maiden Circuits.

Emeralda has been quite amazed at the advanced design of the circuit, as the information regarding it flowed into her brain. The Maiden Circuit was an artificial heart, as well as the Brain of the whole Saber Marionette system. Without it, the marionette will be like the normal ones that walked outside the Palace, as well as the Palace Guards. The initial design of the Saber Marionettes were still embedded in Marine's core system, so Emeralda was able to discern that the original Saber Marionettes could only hold one Maiden Circuit, but Marine had the experimental combined three Maiden Circuit. Each Maiden Circuit was supposed to hold a facet of a woman's personality since the body cannot handle the energy stress of combining all three. But Marine's body has been highly modified, giving it extra power to supposedly hold the experimental Maiden Circuit. But in the end, there was still a limit to the design. The maker of the marionette, New Texas, encountered a fatal flaw in using the experimental circuit. No matter how good they designed the body, it still cannot handle the power surge, thus the marionette would've encountered 'heart burns' or 'heart attacks' as well.

But that wasn't all that Emeralda has seen in the information. She had surmised that Marine was a prototype with a specific mission, and that is to sacrifice itself to absorb the excess plasma storm that was predicted to erupt within the planet of Terra-Two. New Texas took it upon itself to become the 'Savior of the World', and created a scapegoat to catapult the country into glory.

It was inhuman! At least, that was what Emeralda was feeling as of the moment. Actually, the dark-skinned girl felt a bit peeved at this New Texas country, for being so uncaring for something they have created. Fei's Kim and Elly-mama had died to protect her, so she knew that it was wrong for New Texas to exploit their creation so blatantly.

They created something to sacrifice itself for their own gains, under the guise of Saving the World.

Emeralda felt apathy for the poor marionette, at least, that's what she thought she felt at the moment. She wasn't really adverse to emotions yet, but she was getting there. What she was sure of, is that she needed to fix this problem. Analyzing the complicated design of the experimental Maiden Circuit, there were several faulty wiring that should've been removed to save excess power surge. Using her nanomachines, Emeralda started repairing the faults first. When she finished fixing whatever she could at the wiring, she inspected the internal structure of the Maiden Circuit itself.

She was actually boggled at its complexity, and she hoped she would do a much better job that the doctor did. There were some data loss that were burnt out when the electric charge from the plasma storm fried Marine's circuit, and it will take Emeralda's nanomachines a few hours before she could reconstruct whatever she could salvage of Marine's data.

Lime, Cherry, Bloodberry, and the rest of those who were watching grew restless just watching Emeralda standing above Marine's bed, her hand still stuck into the other marionette's chest. Only the presence of Lea and Vanilla between the group and Emeralda stopped them from doing anything. Just as they were about to voice their protests, Emeralda finally blinked and snapped her gaze from Marine's face towards the group. Her eyes reflected curiousness, as well as a bit of weariness from the looks of it. Otherwise, they have no idea what her emotions were for the moment, since the cloth covering Emeralda's mouth still wound around her face.

Lea stepped forward, her worried gaze looked from Emeralda's still-buried hand into Marine's chest towards her face, saying, "Are you alright, Emeralda-chan?"

The tall dark-skinned girl just nodded silently.

Vanilla gestured to whatever it was the girl was doing, "Are you sure you will be fine with that? Is there anything wrong?"

"Fixing..." Emeralda muttered loudly, "Lots of damage. Data loss immense... I have to reconstruct data as best as I can."

"Wait!" They all turned to Lorelei, who blushed at the sudden attention. The doctor continued, "You... what are you doing? What do you mean, 'fixing'?"

Emeralda seemed to shrug, but nevertheless answered, "Her creators were... uncaring. Not fair... I want to give her the chance to live."

"But I thought Marine-chan's circuit was almost totaled by the plasma?" Cherry pointed out.

"True..." Emeralda allowed, "Reconstruction requires three hours at least. Total repair impossible, only eighty-nine percent data recovery applicable."

Lorelei made a choking sound deep in her throat, as she gaped at Emeralda, "H-H-How?! I only m-managed to s-salvage the M-Maiden Circuit, but d-data recovery?"

"She can..." Vanilla intoned with confidence, "And she will. She is... very special."

Lea shook her head, "Don't ask too many questions, because we won't allow you to examine Emeralda anyway."

The doctor was about to protest, but Otaru just held her back by grasping her shoulder with his hand, and shook his head.

"I can actually understand how they feel, Lorelei-san." Otaru commented, glancing at the group of marionettes that he has grown to love and cherish. Yes, he also included Tiger, Luchs and Panther, even if they weren't really HIS marionettes to begin with. They were his family, and he will do anything to protect them.

Otaru continued, "If someone were to ask me if they can examine any one of the marionettes, I'll be very cross and would probably smack them."

"But..."

"No!" Everyone almost jumped in shock at the sudden flare of temper from the normally happy-go-lucky boy. He continued, "We can evolve our marionettes all on our own, and not from the expense of others. They have their secrets to keep, so we have no right to pry. Besides, haven't you heard? She's made to be human-like, probably the closest one we've ever seen, so it's like trying to examine a real human. I sure can't live with that knowledge, that our advancement was because we took apart something so wonderful."

"But I don't have to take her apart to examine her!" Lorelei replied tartly.

"Impossible..." Vanilla retorted, giving Lorelei an unwavering stare, "Given how much advanced Emeralda's nanomachine colony is, it is impossible for your planet's technology to even comprehend a glimpse of how they work, let alone MAKE them work with your own marionettes. It's like forcing humanity's evolution... it will only lead to dangerous side-effects."

Silence permeated the room as they looked at each other uncomfortably.

A couple of hours have passed since Emeralda started the procedure to recover Marine's memories. The group managed to get through the awkward silence by small talk, a little about experiences and such during adventures, as well as what little they knew about relationships. Also, the marionettes were pretty much hooked on asking about how being a girl felt like to Vanilla and Lea. The two unoccupied guests explained as much as they could, at least, as much as they could explain to them. Not that they had much experience on having relationships and being a relatively normal girl in the first place.

Eventually, Emeralda's head snapped up, causing the others to react as well. They all looked at her expectantly, as the dark-skinned girl closed her eyes, whether in bliss or in agitation they never knew. Nevertheless, the girl turned to them and said, "It is done. Process, completed... more or less, memories accurate at approximately eighty-nine to ninety-five percent. Data corruption, defragmented and allocated as untouchable files hidden deep in psyche, to be reserved if time comes for a possibility of fixture."

The girl turned her gaze back to the sleeping form of Marine as she pulled her hand from the marionette's chest, continuing, "Approximately twenty minutes for self-reboot and self start-up, as well as self-diagnostics."

Lorelei urged the excited blue-haired marionette next to her, saying, "Lime-chan, take Marine-chan to the lab so that we may check if it's true." She watched as Lime immediately cradled Marine's body in her arms and took off to the direction of the palace laboratory, followed by the other marionettes.

Facing the taller form of Emeralda, she glowered, "This better not be a joke! I've been trying so hard to find a way to recover Marine's memories for Lime!"

Emeralda cocked her head to one side, commenting, "I dare not make a joke about it. It would not be funny at all, if I did, and that would make Ranma-sama upset at me."

Nodding dubiously, Lorelei left with the others, leaving Emeralda, Vanilla and Lea inside the room. The three looked at each other silently, contemplating on the recent events that they have experienced.

"They all love that Otaru guy, well, three of them anyway..." Lea said finally, "And they're willing to share."

Vanilla sighed, "I wonder... would it be so bad? We all want the same thing... why do we need to fight about it?"

"Ranma-sama is afraid to hurt people..." Emeralda added, "He would probably try to hold out for as long as he can, until some of us would give up. Rather than choosing one earlier on and let the others get hurt, he tries to take all the brunt of the pain and hoping to let the situation pass."

"But we have to let Ranma-sama know he has a choice in this..." Vanilla said softly, "If it's anything he dislikes, it is the loss of his freedom to choose."

Lea nodded, "You noticed that too, huh? Well... it wouldn't hurt to try and have all of us having a relationship with each other. I mean, he's a Saiyajin anyway. I heard they're insatiable in bed."

"What does that have to do with our topic, Lea-san?" Vanilla groused grumpily.

The platinum-haired sorceress chuckled, "Don't you get it? He can't be satiated by only ONE girl. With his Saiyajin blood only, he can outlast at least three women pleasuring him. But we all know Ranma is... different. He's more than just the typical Saiyajin."

"So..." Vanilla surmised, "We should expect more than three women, then?"

"Most probably..." Lea agreed.

Emeralda nodded and turned to the direction of the doorway, calling back to her companions, "We must follow them. I am interested if I was fully successful in rejuvenating the Saber Marionette."

Lea asked, "I was wondering, why did you help the marionette anyway?"

Sighing, Emeralda responded, "I, for one, knew the feeling of being trapped in limbo..." Glancing at Lea and Vanilla sideways, she continued, "I know you also know how it felt."

Vanilla and Lea had no answer to that, as they fell into a contemplative silence while following Emeralda out of the room.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

In the planet several asteroids away from Terra-Two, a lone pigtailed hybrid with his cabbit partner dodged another stream of laser fire, as the war of that planet waged on. He was unlucky enough to fall smack into the middle of the thing, as his luck was such. Below them, a view of a war-torned landscape comprised of several hundreds of animal-shaped mecha fired upon one another, explosions scattering here and there.

He finally reached a run-down city, but his luck struck again as a gigantic Tyrannosaurus Rex-shaped mecha emerged from the ruins. There was also a gigantic statue of a lady framed by a couple of pillars in the middle of the city. It glowed bright blue, and it gave the pigtailed alien an eerie feeling of power. He can feel the same power flowing into every mecha on the planet.

As he idly dodged another volley of Long Ranged Missiles that headed his way, he unwittingly made contact with the weird lady statue.

Again his cursed extreme luck activated, causing the statue to glow brighter than before. The pigtailed young man let go of the cabbit in shock, staring at the glowing figure that he had touched earlier. In a flash of bright light, he disappeared, leaving a cabbit alone in the middle of the battle.

Well, the cabbit, upon seeing her beloved partner disappear into the light and their telepathic connection silenced, she went berserk. Transforming into a huge crystalline silver ship, the interstellar ship blew away everything it saw moving on the planet's surface.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Back in planet Terra-Two itself, Japoness Palace...

"Amazing..." The brown haired female doctor that resided inside the Japoness Palace murmured as she read the feedback given to her by the sensors hooked to Marine's body. She was very impressed that the data loss that Lorelei has been at a stump to solve before was remedied somehow, even if there was still some memory damage. It was just like a person who suffered a little amnesia, but the rest were intact. They didn't have to start from scratch teaching Marine everything that has to be done to survive.

Cherry and Luchs glanced up from the computer console that they were monitoring for a while now. The purple-haired marionette nodded briefly and said, "It is short of a miracle. It was as if they were as good as new. The cooling system of Marine's Maiden Circuit has been modified as well."

Luchs snorted slightly, saying, "Modified is right. The stress of the energy output can be contained now. Before, Marine can't even allow extreme emotions to erupt from her Maiden Circuit, or else she'll suffer a massive energy output that hasn't been corrected yet in her experimental circuit. That was why she suffered every time she gets angry, or even be depressed so much. Her circuit was slowly deteriorating because of it, but now..."

"Her hand... she just pushed her hand into Marine's chest..." Cherry said in exasperation, "It was... it was very disconcerting watching it."

Their conversation halted when the door to the infirmary swished open, exposing the three aforementioned guests that had weird powers. Lea led the trio confidently, as she and Vanilla placed Emeralda in the middle of their entourage. It was certainly obvious how protective they were of the dark-skinned girl.

Vanilla surged forward, stopping at a respectable distance from the marionettes and the flat bed that held the formerly damaged Marine. She glanced at the immobile figure and inquired, "Are all the repairs as expected?"

"Even better than what I could have done..." Lorelei admitted, nodding to Vanilla.

"It is to be expected..." Vanilla countered, her red pupils straying over to where Emeralda stood a bit to her side, "Since you don't have the necessary technology to perform such a rigid task of recovering nearly lost fragments of computer data."

Lorelei visibly wilted, saying, "Well, it will stay that way, since you don't want to help..."

Otaru bristled, "Lorelei-san..."

Lea scoffed, "Nice try, but that tone won't get you anywhere."

The doctor shrugged slightly. "It's worth a shot."

Tiger interjected in the rising ire of conversation between them as she said, "Marine-chan's brainwave patterns have shifted. She's returning to full activation within fifty seconds."

Before Lime, Panther and Bloodberry could ask, Luchs explained, "That means Marine-chan's waking up."

Bloodberry and Panther, both mollified by their lack of much-needed knowledge in science, chuckled weakly. Lime on the other hand just let the comment pass by her head. Instead, she focused on the phrase, 'Marine-chan's waking up'. In other words, Lime became incorrigible, as she immediately bounced to her feet and fluttered here, there, and everywhere.

The others just patiently ignored Lime's badgering, as they watched the dark-skinned marionette's eyelids flutter in activity. It was a sure sign that she was about to wake up. And wake up she did, as her eyes suddenly snapped open, her pupils still dilated from the long deactivation. The haziness in Marine's eyes slowly decreased as her internal system whirred into activity. Finally finishing her last diagnostics, Marine sat up on the white lab bed, staring around her as she blinked owlishly.

"Huh? Lime-chan, Cherry-san, Bloodberry-san?" Blinking once more, Marine turned to the others, asking, "Luchs-san, Panther-san, Lorelei-sama, Otaru-san... and Tiger-san? What happened? Where are we? Last I remember... I was... the plasma..."

"MARINE-CHAN!!!" Lime leapt towards the startled newly-awakened marionette and hugged her hard, crystalline tears flowing down her eyes. Marine quickly recovered from her shock and hugged back, her own tears marring her happy face.

"My, such a lively child..." Lea commented in amusement, watching as the exuberant Lime nearly crushed Marine's ribcage. The dark-skinned marionette was already wind-milling her arms in protest of the treatment.

Bloodberry gazed at the scene with a half-lidded look, commenting, "I wonder if Marine's gonna survive a few seconds more, with Lime squeezing the living daylights outta her..."

"Ano... Lime..." Otaru grimaced, watching Marine's face turning purple in suffocation, "Ah... Marine can't breathe..." he finished lamely.

"Lime!" Panther called out urgently, "Leggo of Marine-chan! She's suffocating!"

Lime quickly released her friend, who had swirly eyes because she had lost consciousness already. "WAAAAAAHHHH!!!" the horrified marionette screamed, shaking the unconscious Marine violently, "She stopped moving again! I deactivated her!!!"

"Baka..." Cherry and Luchs noted.

Lorelei and Tiger sweatdropped as they witnessed Lime swing Marine's senseless body around.

Vanilla sighed, saying, "She might need repairs again."

Emeralda just blinked.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Somewhere...

"I'm starting to hate swirlies..." The pigtailed young man commented wryly as he spun around the dimensional vortex he was sucked into, again. His arms were crossed across his chest, as his feet crossed each other as well. He took the position of being seated atop an imaginary ground as he plunged head first into the swirling mass of darkness that managed to swallow him. His face reflected a slight frown, but his agitation was questionable since the red tail jutting out his backside was wriggling around happily.

The last thing the young man remembered was dodging a lot of laser fire in the middle of that ruined city. Planet Zi, as the natives called that planet, was a highly-industrialized planet. The presence of advanced machinery, particularly those animal-shaped mecha he had seen doing hard labor meant for heavy machinery, proved it. Zoids, they called those machines, in honor of their planet.

It has been a pretty bad four hours since he and his cabbit partner touched down on the desolate planet's desert surface, and he was already involved in a full-scale war involving two factions. One was the united alliance thingie that was formerly two opposing governments, who have banded together to battle the true threat. It was the second group that wanted world domination, not that he was really interested in it. Still, his dropship was totally destroyed by multiple hits from particle beam cannons that came from various parts of the terrain. Next he found himself staring at this huge Tyrranosaurus Rex mechanical replica, which was busy stomping things around and blasting its built-in missile silos in full throttle against anything that stood in its way.

In the end, he had accidentally touched the surface of the big bluish statue that looked like a woman wrapped in mechanical vines. The whole statue was roughly three times the size of the Tyrranosaurus mech that terrorized the planet, and it was glowing a faint blue aura. He had detected a large-scale level of energy emitted by the statue, which was in exchange fed into the various war machines that were still fighting.

When he made contact with the statue, there was a reaction with his aura, and then now here he was, floating along nothing again. And he forgot to grab Rin-Ohki before being sucked in too, but then again, he figured it's for the best. He would probably need an anchor to relatively pinpoint which reality that was.

Yep, Ranma Saotome's life just plain sucked.

It irritated him more when he felt his body shrinking. It would seem that the hole he got himself into was using him as a living battery to power itself. He decided not to cut the power drain, since he wasn't sure what would happen. It could potentially trap him for a long time again in limbo, which he didn't want to happen.

"Someday, I'm gonna reach Heaven and kick Kami-sama's ass. And then I'm gonna smack him some more..." Ranma grumbled to himself as he continued traveling through the wormhole. His only consolation was that this time, he knew who to call when he reaches the other side of this rift. He just hoped Auntie Washuu's experiments wouldn't take too long.

Ah yes, he can now see the end of the crazy tunnel.

In Heaven...

Kami-sama... or Deus as His real name implied, shivered uncontrollably as He lip-read whatever Ranma grumbled under his breath. He suddenly felt clammy as those words spelled an impending doom for Him.

Suddenly He felt vulnerable, especially when Hild wasn't at His side. Then He remembered that the platinum blonde haired woman was pissed off at Him since their conversation earlier, THAT made Him even more nervous.

*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*

Back in Terra-Two...

After the debacle inside the Japoness Castle's med room, Lime quickly pulled the still-disoriented Marine into another room of the castle, to update her about the current situation, and what had happened since Marine fell into stasis. Bloodberry and Panther offered to come with them, as well as Cherry and Luchs. Vanilla, Lea and Emeralda opted to depart the planet anyway, since their main objective was a total bust. After thanking them profusely (they have wisely declined on Lime's hug though) they were escorted outside by Otaru, Lorelei and Tiger.

"Are you really certain we can't ask you to stay a bit longer?" Lorelei asked, eyeing the three guests that have helped them immensely.

Vanilla shook her head, replying, "We need to report back to our main ship, to inform them of Hibiki's absence from this place. The others may have already found him on those other planets we have set to explore..."

"All that technology..." Lorelei grumbled.

Otaru rolled his eyes, "Lorelei-san..."

Vanilla allowed a small smile grace her lips, before smothering it into impassiveness as she turned to the gates where they had gone through from earlier. There were people who still bothered to stop and gape at them, actually, gaping particularly towards Lea. She surmised that since she and Emeralda were practically oozing emotionless vibes since they got here, they thought only Lea was a real female. It was true then, the stories they heard earlier, about how Lorelei was the last and only human female on this planet.

Nope, she doesn't envy the doctor, not one bit.

Although, Vanilla did learn something fresh from this planet, particularly something about relationships. Actually, they were the last people she thought she would learn the lesson, but then life wasn't really all that grand in the least. Unlimited love, shared by mechanical dolls given self-learning capability, which they have showered upon their master. The marionettes decided to share their master, despite their desire of monogamy.

The demonic sorceress, whose reddish tattoos were fully displayed as she was garbed in her battle form as of late, was eyeing the horizon warily. The sun was already setting, and Lea figured they had wasted at least four hours of futile search of this planet. She really wasn't up to looking for the Hibiki boy in the first place, but it was her decision to make the effort. She had presented herself, along with Vanilla and Emeralda, to accompany Ranma. Then Washuu...

<Oh... that puny redhead's gonna feel it later...> Lea thought to herself darkly, <Come to think of it, it was all her fault we were separated from Ranma-sama.>

But then, she stopped her thoughts as she received a sudden revelation. Her over-protectiveness over her friends leveled up from being 'casual acquaintances' to 'mates'. A huge step, she realized that, but what can she say? That's how she felt. And judging how Vanilla also stuck up for Emeralda earlier on, it was the same thing with her.

As of now, they were a few minutes outside the huge gates of Japoness, to be escorted to the place where their dropship has been 'parked'. Lorelei insisted on escorting them herself, so Tiger elected herself to come and guard her while the others tend to Marine, since she wasn't as close to the newly awakened marionette as the others were. Otaru Mamiya volunteered to guard Lorelei with Tiger. Several Imperial marionettes were dispatched to guard the group as well, just a precaution if ever someone tried to attack. Tamasaburo and Baiko were still out of commission, after Lea had electrocuted them with her staff.

Apparently, the peace of the moment was to be disturbed, as a wooden arrow came crashing out of the rows of trees that decorated the path. Tiger quickly caught the offending object, snapping it into half as she stood closer to Lorelei. Otaru took out his steel sai and positioned on the doctor's other side. The marionette group blurred into movement, as they quickly assembled around their recognized leader.

Vanilla sighed as she mentally calculated the trajectory of the arrow's flight, finding out where the source of the dangerous weapon was. Emeralda on the other hand has computed it faster than Vanilla, and was now looking directly towards the small shadowed part of the trees just across the willow bark... a pair of greenish eyes were peeping out of it so it seemed. Lea on the other hand already has her staff firmly planted on the ground, waiting for the right time to strike. Now that she really concentrated on it, she could feel various electrical sparks emanating from different parts of the pathway. It was the same as the ones the marionettes from the palace gave out, so Lea concluded that those that surrounded them right now were marionettes. Nasty ones at that.

It would seem that the situation further escalated, when several blurs managed to erupt from the trees. The Japoness group was fairly far from the main capital, therefore if ever they try to call for help, it would be a little too late. Besides, Tiger did promise she'd care for Lorelei, and as an act of self-redemption she'll try to do her best. When the red-haired marionette saw the assassin squad, she grimaced a bit.

Xi'an Marionettes were among the top of the line marionettes in Terra-Two. Their knowledge of the different arts in fighting was pretty much impressive as well. That was why Gartland was adamant on keeping their peace with Xi'an lately, since their marionette power was nothing to sneeze at.

They were all dressed uniformly, quite like the Japoness marionettes as well. They were wearing tight dark green pantsuits, as well as form-fitting dark green Chinese shirts. Their hair were relatively long, and were tied in tight twin buns at the upper part of their head. Most of them wielded twin swords and quarter staves, while some had bows and arrows with them. There were at least two dozen surrounding them right now, and the situation seemed unfavorable for them.

In a clear an tilting voice, one Xi'an marionette stood a little closer than the rest, addressing them as she said, "We have you surrounded. It would be prudent if you surrender all the biological female units in your group, as we salvage what we can from that contraption we recorded that have landed earlier."

"Wait..." Lea deadpanned, gripping her staff tighter, "You mean to tell me, that you're going to take our ship apart?"

"It is prudent for our mission's success..." The marionette replied coldly.

"I see..." Lea growled out. Her armor suddenly blurred and shifted, as her shoulder pads grew and detached itself from her shoulders, floating an inch above her skin. Two large spherical gems emerged from them, maintaining a solid revolution around Lea's form. An intricate golden-colored headband phased into view around her head, which transformed itself into a complicated halo-like attachment. Two translucent wings of energy erupted from her back, bathing the area with a soft glow of light. The red tattoos riddled all over her body became much more pronounced as they glowed with the color of blood.

Without waiting for her sudden change in image to register into anyone's minds, Lea quickly phased herself in front of the offending Xi'an marionette's face, grabbing her by the neck and quickly tossed the marionette over her shoulder. The two orbs that emerged from her now floating shoulder pads removed themselves from their positions, tracking down the still floating body of the marionette Lea had thrown. While in mid-air, the two orbs glowed and fired multiple bursts of energy, accurately hitting the marionette with deadly force. After several shots of beams, the orbs retreated back to their master, leaving in their wake the marionette's body filled with holes. The Xi'an android fell to the ground lifelessly, before exploding in a fantastic ball of fire.

The explosion served as a signal for the others to avenge their own, not that they really understood the feeling since they were the mass produced combat marionettes without the gift of the Maiden Circuit in the first place. They jumped into action, and soon Tiger, Otaru, Lorelei and the rest of the group from Japoness found themselves in a fight.

Tiger leaned and punched right and left, trying to draw the crowd of mechanical dolls away from the one they were protecting. So far, she was quite successful with her endeavor, but her hope was strained to the limit. So far the waves of Xi'an marionettes remained endless. When she destroyed three of them, several more emerged from the shadowed parts of the trees around the path they were in. Their speed was their asset, since the Chinese-oriented droids' designs were favoring speed and stealth over power. Already, Tiger has been hit a few times earlier on, but the hits lack the power it needed to permanently disable her. But what the Xi'an lacked in strength, they made up in their numbers.

Otaru was doing quite well, as he had already dispatched quite a number of the dolls. Their own Japoness marionette escorts faired below the level of their adversaries, although they did manage to cut down some of the attacking party as well. But it was a losing battle for them, since they were only a handful of them left intact. Otaru was quite worried at how many their enemies were, since they were blind-sided by the Xi'an before they managed to call for help. Any attempt to do so would be way too late. He just hoped for the best as he eyed Tiger, who he surmised was doing well in battle, and Lorelei, who stood near Vanilla. The red-eyed albino was looking at the fight impassively, and Otaru concluded that the girl must have summoned the red shield she used to block Tamasaburo and Baiko's attack from earlier. The Japoness national felt he could trust Lorelei's life with Vanilla.

When Otaru spared Emeralda a glance to see if she's all right, he almost stumbled in shock. Out of the sleeves of her clothes, her hands were transformed into a pair of long slightly curved blades. The tall dark-skinned girl remained emotionless as she systematically cleaved and sliced the offending marionettes that came her way. The young man's eyes widened even further when all of the sudden, one of Emeralda's hands morphed into a large spiked mace, smashing a trio of Xi'an warriors into bits as Emeralda swung the new weapon in a wide arc.

While the Japoness hero gawked and fought at the same time, Lea was mowing down everything that wore Chinese clothes, as her eyes glowed red along with her tattoos. Her anger at the situation finally came to the fore, and was now releasing her pent-up frustration against the enemy group. Dismembered marionettes flew left and right, as her staff swung everywhere. Lightning coursed as the orbital orbs floating over her shoulders fired off scathing beams that burned holes into the hapless droids that were unfortunate enough to stand in their way.

Emeralda grew weary of the continuous attack of the enemy. She glared at the expanse of the trees as they kept on spewing marionettes. After shouting a warning to her companions, she jumped high in the air and formed dark wings on her back, allowing her to float in the air momentarily. Calculating the angle of the immediate source of their enemy, she concentrated on her hand. Her right appendage burst into a large scythe, which she used to cleave the air without hitting anything. A luminescent line of... something stayed as it followed the cutting path of her scythe. The slash in the air suddenly opened into a dark hole, something that went inside out and transformed into large jaws with equally huge teeth.

Tiger, Otaru and Lorelei's eyes bugged out as they watched the air distort itself into Emeralda's liking. Vanilla and Lea, seeing that their companions were busy staring at the scene happening above them, quickly disengaged from their own fights and snatched the trio and led them away from the area. Vanilla had seen Emeralda use this technique once before, while Lea could feel the aura of darkness that seemed to claw at the very fabric of reality. They both reached the same conclusion, that Emeralda's coming attack would be big and vicious.

The large maw of darkness, the one Emeralda affectionately called the 'Dark Beast', growled loudly before swooping down into the cluster of marionettes that have been exposed on the open space. Roughly several feet in diameter of space has been reverted into a smoking crater when the maw finally finished chewing its victims. It even spat out the destroyed parts that came from the robots. After its job was done, the Dark Beast growled once before dissipating, leaving only a handful of Xi'an marionettes as well as a wider tree-less area behind.

Leaving the still-stunned group to their staring, Lea had jumped into the fray once again, smashing the rest of the marionettes that have been left by the attack Emeralda threw. The dark-skinned girl on the other hand floated downwards and dashed forwards without pausing, quickly transforming her hands into medium sized scimitars that she used to move down several more Xi'an marionettes by passing. When Emeralda stopped her dash, the marionettes she passed by literally fell into pieces.

Vanilla had been busy protecting the trio of Japoness citizens with her AT-Field. She idle allowed her AT-Field to jerk into expansion, making it smack unto the incoming marionettes that have been brave enough to come and try their luck in breaching her shield. She was panting, since activating her shield for such long periods of time was draining her energy reserves drastically. Compounded with the fact that she has been experimenting on manipulating the Divine Shield given to her, making it an effective weapon that was a defensive one as well. The albino just hoped Emeralda and Lea would hurry up with wiping the rest of the enemy off quickly. She just clutched at her chest and breathed in rapidly, trying to stifle the pain she was feeling at the moment of her exertion.

Luckily for Vanilla, Tiger had snapped from her shock as she recollected herself to battle once again. The redhead's whip came out of its confinement when Tiger grabbed it from its holster around her waist, snapping into the air angrily in preparation for use. A calculated swing from Tiger made the whip to latch around the neck of a hapless Xi'an droid. Glaring at the heartless robot, Tiger pulled back on her whip harshly, severing the enemy marionette's head from its body. Without uttering another word, Tiger snapped the whip back to her hand and smashed another nearby marionette's head with her fist, causing it to cave into itself and drop lifelessly on the ground. The red-haired retainer of Gartland's ruler snorted as she surged into the remaining Xi'an warriors again, snapping her whip all around her.

The formerly oppressed group fought with such ferocity that, after a half hour or hacking down more than fifty Xi'an marionettes, they managed to dwindle down the fight drastically. After the good thirty minutes, there were only six enemy droids visible on the field, and there were no back-ups arriving anymore.

Eyeing the small enemy group with disdain, Emeralda punched her arm downwards into the earth, burying it up to just before her elbow. At the area where the Xi'an female androids were located, several black spikes erupted from the ground, spearing each and every one of the enemy in various parts of their bodies. The spikes hit them all in their vital spots, making them explode after a few seconds of futile struggle.

And with that, the battle drew to a close.

Tiger's clothes were a bit of a mess, but they were still intact enough to provide her with modesty. Otaru's shirt has been discarded, since it has been long ago when it fell apart from the attacks. Lorelei was shaken but perfectly fine, thanks to Vanilla constantly conjuring her AT-Field to protect the doctor. The red-eyed, light cyan haired girl was kneeling on the ground, panting because of the strain she took during the battle. Her eyes were still cold, but was now laced with weariness.

Lea on the other hand was scratch-free, and her armor was only dirty with dust. The enemy wasn't able to touch the demonic sorceress, especially during her semi-rampage and battle lust. She was a bit winded though, and she used her staff to steady herself as she surveyed the surroundings. Emeralda only has a few cuts on her cloak, but otherwise untouched. Her body was still twitching from the euphoria of the fight. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, fighting all out like that made her a bit more relaxed. The dark-skinned, light green haired girl wiped the smudge of ash that clung on her left cheek, trying to tune in into the sounds of the area. So far, there were no enemies detected.

Otaru sighed deeply, tying his retractable sai back unto its holster around his waist. He said, "That was... scary."

"I don't know why Xi'an would do such a thing!" Lorelei despaired, staring at the carnage of various marionette parts in horror, "I didn't do anything wrong, so why are they coming after me?"

"You are a valuable commodity, at least in their eyes..." Vanilla commented, having recovered her breath momentarily, "To gain control over the commodity means they have the power to control its distribution."

"In other words..." Tiger continued, "They'd have full control as to which country would receive the grown female clones in the future. Therefore, it would most likely end up in a bidding."

Otaru nodded. "I can understand that..." he began, "But why do they want Miss Vanilla and the others as well?"

Lea thumbed to the direction where Lorelei stood, saying, "Same as her actually, since we're real females too. Outworlders, but still organic females. That and the idea of controlling powerful alien technology or something would prove useful to them. At least, that's how I might've understood it since they want our dropship as well."

Vanilla nodded grimly. "Our presence here will give your enemy enough inspiration to attack relentlessly. Unless we're gone, your country will never find peace. We must depart immediately."

"Nonsense!" Lorelei crowed, "We can defend you..."

"I will not be a cause of a war between two countries." Lea said flatly, piercing Lorelei with a scathing gaze. The doctor flinched a bit at this.

"Ranma-sama... I want to return to Ranma-sama." Emeralda said as she walked past the group, towards where the dropship was supposed to be.

Lea smirked proudly, turning to follow the dark skinned girl, "What she said. We have someone to return to, and since our mission's done, we have to return to him." <And also tell him of our plans.> She thought to herself afterwards.

Vanilla just sighed slightly as she trailed after her two companions. She just hoped that whoever had those marionettes attack them hadn't tampered with their ship yet. It would not be a good thing if they did, especially if she and her friends have found out that it stopped functioning. The thought of being stranded on this planet was not an option for her. And she knows Lea and Emeralda felt the same way as well.

Otaru led Lorelei and Tiger as they went after their new friends in a sedate manner. No matter how odd their circumstances were, they had grown to like their guests. Also, knowledge of extra-terrestrial life gave them hope of being able to travel across the stars once again. News of other colonists that had survived from Earth strengthened their resolve to hasten their scientific research as well.

After a few minutes of walking, the group had finally come across the dropship. Emeralda, Vanilla and Lea were visibly relieved when it was revealed that the ship was intact and untouched. Lorelei, Otaru and Tiger were amazed at the sleek design of it. The doctor was more awed by the concept, since she remembered Mesopotamia and its humongous size. She knew the bulk was needed to hold the fuel, which was adamantly used for lift-off to escape a planet's gravity. As she looked at the dropship now, it seemed that the power source was vastly different from what she had remembered from her own studies. Lorelei would've been tempted to thoroughly examine the ship up close, but the words Otaru had mentioned earlier made her think otherwise. She wouldn't want to rely their technological advancement solely on this, since they'd just hamper their guests' ride home. Besides, just seeing the ship was a gift itself, giving Lorelei an idea on how much improvement she has to make on her own rocket designs. She has to find an alternate source of energy as well, if just to match the bulk size of the dropship.

"Here we are..." Lea said helplessly, gesturing to their borrowed ship as Vanilla pressed a button off to the side. The flattened surface slid to open, exposing the small but advanced interior of the dropship.

Vanilla noted the wide-eyed looks Lorelei and Otaru gave their surroundings as they entered the ship. Tiger's eyebrows raised a bit, but otherwise unaffected by the sight of new a more advance technology before them. "This is not really our ship, so asking permission to dismantle it would not be advisable." she commented wryly, giving Lorelei a pointed look.

To the doctor's embarrassment, Otaru and Tiger turned to her with raised eyebrows as well. She stammered, "O-Of course not! I already know that dismantling your only mode of transportation would be very inconsiderate of me. While I would've wanted to try and understand this technology, I'd rather have my friends go home instead."

Vanilla looked at her for a few moments, before nodding in satisfaction. She started up the computer and allowed the engines to warm up. She figured it would take at least four minutes for the warm up.

Emeralda turned to a console wordlessly and typed a few commands. A soft whirr of the component beside the computer sounded and pieces of paper came out of the component's slot one by one, filling up the tray that was conveniently place below the slit they were coming out from. After a few seconds the printer finally stopped, where the light green haired girl in turn gathered the papers from the tray and gave them to Lorelei without a word. After which, the girl just turned and went further in of the ship, probably to the sleeping quarters.

Seeing Lorelei just staring at the papers in wonder, Vanilla sauntered up to her side and took a peek at what the brown haired girl was holding. Reading some of the words on the papers, Vanilla said, "Emeralda just gave you some of the diagrams of this dropship, complete with the designs for the new compact engine to be used. She was a bit generous today."

"Heh, trust her to be cool 'till the end..." Lea said in amusement. She was a bit amazed at Emeralda's sudden generosity today, especially since a lot of people had been attacking her without any real reason whatsoever, but Lea just shrugged it off as one of the girl's quirks.

The initial rattling growl of the engines earlier finally gave way to a much smoother hum afterwards, signaling Vanilla that their engines have warmed up. Turning to the Terra-Two natives, she said, "Our preparations are complete. We will leave now."

Otaru nodded. "I see. Thank you for allowing us to see your ship, and we owe you a whole lot fixing Marine-chan as well."

Tiger stepped up, bowing to her waist. "On behalf of Lime and the others, I wish to thank you, especially Emeralda-san, for everything you did for us."

Lorelei finally snapped out of her trance. "I... I thank you so much! This... you've done so much.... how can we ever repay you?!"

Vanilla tilted her head in recognition. "We don't need any repayment. It's just circumstance that we got to your planet, and have the means to fix her. Don't worry about it."

Otaru led a still out of it Lorelei, who clutched at the papers in her hand like they were the greatest treasure in the Universe. Tiger was following them, but before she could reach the ramp that led outside, she turned her head over her shoulder and said, "I hope you found the answer to whatever you were seeking."

Lea walked up beside Vanilla. "Eh... we don't know what you're talking about."

Tiger nodded once. "You were troubled when you first arrived here, as if you were trying to seek some answers to some dilemma you were having. And I saw how you stared at Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry as they fawned over Otaru-san."

Vanilla shrugged. "I think it has been resolved. Even if they didn't know about it, they helped us a great deal."

"I'm so glad that's solved, at least on our side. We still have to know if our guy is receptive to the idea." Lea said thoughtfully, tapping a finger to her chin.

Tiger faced outside and continued walking as she said, "Just be sure to explain that you're all in for it. And that you all care for him." She finally stepped off the ship, allowing the door to slide close.

Outside, the trio watched as the ship slowly lift itself off the ground, before finally blasting off and propelling itself into space.

"I hope they can get back to where they're headed safely..." Otaru said, still looking up at the sky.

Tiger smiled. "They will. They are strong-willed women."

"I wonder though..." Lorelei said softly, "They seem to be much closer than friends, though they don't show it too often. Does it have anything to do with how they're staring at Lime and the others...?"

Otaru looked at the doctor without understanding. "What? What did I do?"

Tiger shrugged noncommittedly. "I don't know. I just hope they can answer their own dilemma."

"Dilemma...?"

"I am not in the liberty of answering that question, Lorelei-sama."

It was then that a call from a group of marionettes caught their attention. Lime, Cherry, Bloodberry, Marine, Panther and Luchs finally reached them, but they were disheartened to know their good Samaritans already left.

Nevertheless, they still shouted their thanks to the sky, hoping the recent visitors would hear them.

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In Niffelheim...

She was dreaming. That was what she realized she was experiencing when she got wind of what was happening to her. The woman's dark green eyes looked about her, and saw a scene that has been one of her most cherished ones in her Existence.

She was sitting in the middle of a flower-filled meadow with different colors from each type of species of every known flora. Her blond hair shone against the soft glare of the day. She was picking up some of the flowers and were adding them to the growing wreath that she was making.

A soft rustle alerted her of a presence of another person in the field. Her soft red lips quirked into a small but beautiful smile as she looked up. She saw the one she had been waiting for, but then she frowned cutely when she realized the wreath she had been making for him was not finished yet.

The young man that just came up to where she was wore a shiny silver plate of armor on his torso, and a dark magenta color of loose pants. His arms were trapped inside a pair of silver bracers, and a black cloak fluttered behind him. His face, which was not as angular as most men she met, was rather soft and rounded at the right spots that added more to his handsome figure. His eyes were amazingly pure black, without any pupils within them. However, she felt strangely drawn into them.

"+You always did like the flower fields, Hild.+" The young man said softly as he smiled at her. The woman, now known as Hild, laughed softly as she raised a hand to show the unfinished flower wreath to the young man.

"+As you can see, you came a little bit too early, Chaos. If I knew better, I would say you meant to sneak up on me all the time. Am I that irresistible to you?+" Hild giggled as the man called Chaos' cheeks burned a bit of red.

"+I assure you, my lady, that was never my intention.+" Chaos grinned as he plopped down the ground beside Hild.

Hild scoffed as she continued to weave another batch of flowers into her work. "+Flattery would not get you anywhere, Chaos.+"

"+Hild.+" The woman's fingers froze in mid-weave as she heard her name intoned in a very commanding but gentle voice. She slowly placed the wreath down on her lap and faced Chaos, whose eyes were intently watching her every move. Silence reigned for a short moment, but for Hild it was a very long time. Before long, she started to fidget in nervousness.

"+Please...+" Hild's voice came softly, her throat was quivering in longing, "+Please... do not look at me that way, Chaos...+"

Chaos allowed a small smile grace his lips. "+I always thought you would love to know you have a profound effect on me...+"

Hild's breath came out in a shuddering release as she continued in the same soft and subdued voice, "+You don't understand... I... when you look at me like that... I feel...+"

The woman almost jumped away as she felt a soft caress float across one of her tattooed cheeks. She had just created them too, a pair of five-point stars that she fancied and had them etched on her cheeks. She knew that the bright color of the tattoo would expose the sudden redness of her cheeks that lit up in a blush, which she knew that was caused by Chaos' touch.

"+Hild... my dearest Hild. Know this: I completely feel the same way as you do, every time you're with me.+" Chaos said softly.

Hild almost choked, as she felt tears course down her cheeks. Ignoring the warm pelts of salty liquid flowing down freely on her face, she whispered vehemently, "+You are very precious to me, Chaos. I love you very much.+"

The hand that caressed the blond haired woman's face quickly encircled around the back of her head as Chaos pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly into himself, "+And I love you too, my dear Hild.+"

Hild clung desperately to the man, her sobs turning into soft cries of happiness as the flower wreath she had been conjuring a while ago fluttered down on the ground and was neglected.

The soft wisps of her Dream were still quite vivid, but Hild finally sat up from her luxurious suite in Niffelheim, with her face flushed and breathing hard. Being the ruler of one of the major dimensions of Reality brought a lot of benefits to her, but she was still as empty as before. Nobody should make a false assumption, though, since Kami-sama, rather, Deus, her erstwhile bedmate and lover for over countless eons since the creation of the Realms of Reality had been very good to her. But try as she might, she could never forget the man, rather, the Being that always visited in her dreams. The pain of the Loss she felt when His final act of sacrifice to save all Reality was still very fresh in her heart.

Chaos wasn't just a name for him, it was very... Him. He was always the Balance Keeper, the one who was actually making the Final Judgement when Deus, Chaos and herself convened on matters regarding Existence. He always disrupted any disagreements that would erupt in the decision-making, and has always been fond of those Mortals.

Out of the Three of Them, Chaos was the one who got the most of the traits from the Abyss. He was the perfect representation of Neutrality, and he always does what he liked to do. Yet for some reason, his great scope of power was never abused. In fact, Chaos usually mingled with Mortals. Chaos usually walked amongst them, share food with them, and even taught them some tricks.

He was... he was Chaos. Simple as that. She always felt that she knew so much about him, but she never can tell what was going on in that mind of his.

Of course, all she cared about was that Chaos loved her. That's all that mattered to her.

That was why she gave herself to him one night, and it was something she could never forget.

That one time, no matter how trivial it would've sounded to the ears of others, had a very huge impact to her and her existence.

Her daughter, Urd, was conceived that night. How anyone couldn't get the hint that Urd was never Deus' daughter was beyond her. Hild had thought about it, that if Deus and she would ever have an offspring, the opposing polarities of powers would've been so immense that the child would either die because its body ripped into shreds, or that it would've grown mad over the years because it cannot control its power.

Urd had more of her real father than anyone would've ever thought, since the poor darling girl was just too chaotic when it came with her powers. Her potions usually produced the weirdest side effects, which greatly amused Hild to no end.

But it was also a week after she finally knew of her conception, that the titanic battle of the gods occurred, where Chaos had given his existence to power up the very powerful null singularity field that imprisoned the Ancient Gods. Chaos' energy powered up the same shielding that closed off the gods' former primary planet of origin, and has trapped all of the remaining Ancient Gods for countless millennia.

Because of this, Hild was thoroughly devastated, and had thought of plunging herself into the same energy field that Chaos fed his energy into. Doing so would destroy her existence, but she felt that without Chaos her life meant nothing.

It was Deus that had pulled her back, reminding her of the unborn daughter in her womb. Chaos and her daughter, an innocent casualty if she ever did throw herself into the mercy of non-existence.

So she lived, if not for herself but for her daughter's welfare. Deus had been watching her like a hawk the rest of the time, and acted as a willing step-father for her daughter. Hild knew that little Urd felt something off between the child and Deus. That was why the little tyke was constantly being mischievous and disobedient with Deus' rules.

Chaos' influence on their daughter was profound and obvious, but no one was able to connect the dots. It was as if everyone had forgotten Chaos' sacrifice for all of them, and it made Hild angry and reclusive to herself. Only Deus was brave enough to confront her.

But still, her daughter's presence was still there to remind her of Chaos' former existence, that he loved her.

Shaking her head, Hild settled her weary head down on her pillows once again, ignoring the tears that sprang out of her eyes. It was during these moments, that she allowed herself to be emotional.

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To Be Continued...

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NEXT CHAPTER:

Ranma's side of the mini-adventure. A botched summoning attempt by a nearby dimension's resident villain pulled Ranma out of where he was currently. As stated in this chapter, Rin-Ohki expectantly went loco, blasting everything that moved within her sights.

As for Ranma... well...

Superheroes. Now, Ranma was familiar with the term, it's just that he's rather weirded out seeing heroes wearing their colorful costumes. Heaven sent some of their soldiers as well to take Ranma out, but then the Divine made a slight miscalculation sending a particular Heavenly Batallion leader...

Next up... an angsty dark bird, a reminiscing valkyrie, a completion of merging, a massive information overload, an ancient weapon's return to its rightful owner, a visit to a parallel hometown...

Of course, don't forget those men and women wearing their underwears the wrong way. Not to mention those cheesy villains with cliche battlecries...

Masks, codenames, minions, idiotic speeches...

Ranma finds himself in a world full of people who don't know how to wear their clothes right. And they're being praised for it!

AUTHOR RANTS:

To those interested, the crossovers for this chapter are:

- Ranma 1/2 (Of course! Ranma is always there!)
- Ah! My Goddess!
- Galaxy Angels
- Vandread
- Tenchi Muyo, Ryo-Ohki!
- Xenogears
- Evil Zone
- Saber Marionette J Again
- Zoids: Chaotic Century (A few bits and pieces)

Yep. Updated. Cool ain't it?

Pardon me for taking this long to update the fic, but I was swamped with ideas. I don't know which to type in first! I was so confused!

Well, I have several other future chapters half-finished already, so I 'might' update faster in the near future.

Maybe.

Okay. I just had to admit it. Lady Ayame wrote most of this chapter. I wrote the Ranma parts though. Why? I can't seem to get myself in a female mindset, and Aya helped me through it.

Hmm... what else? Oh!

Someone asked me for this. I hope this will help some who had trouble understanding where is where and when is when.

1. HOME DIMENSION (DIMENSION X)

The Universe where Ranma came from. Volume 1 - 38 of the manga happened. It's a sort of continuation from the Canon, but of course some information has been revealed into light to suit my needs.

2. FUTURE HOME DIMENSION (DIMENSION A)

Ranma reached this dimension when Happosai threw the artifact at him during the prologue. This is approximately 700 years ahead of the Home Dimension timeline. Earth has experienced a death and rebirth, via Evangelion's plot. Dragonball Z Universe emerged in the end, where Ranma has finally popped out. This was where Ranma's true heritage reawakened. This is the timeline that went on AFTER Ranma disappeared, but since he appeared, everything in the Home Dimension's future splintered. Sailor Pluto, eat your heart out!

3. PAST HOME DIMENSION (DIMENSION B)

This Universe was reached when Ranma used the splintered Nanban Mirror. This WAS the past of the Home Dimension, until Ranma got into it. Upon appearing into the timeline, it has veered off its course towards the intended Home Dimension Timeline, creating a new path in itself. This will give Sailor Pluto all the migrain she needs. This was supposed to be approximately 500 years into the past, during the time of Yosho's time on Earth (Tenchi Muyo) and the time of the youkai, Sengoku Jedai (Inuyasha).

4. FUTURE DIMENSION B

An accident caused by Washuu's invention entrapped Ranma in a null vortex, which acted somewhat like 'cold sleep', except that Ranma's sense of time inside the vortex slowed to approximately 97.35% of 'realtime'. Normally, nothing survives inside the null vortex, but Ranma is Ranma. Ryoko, in her throes of despair, had herself locked in her own Cold Sleep after 10 years of searching for Ranma all over the universe. The incident catapulted Ranma approximately 5000 years into the future of Dimension B, the splintered timeline. Earth suffered into its deterioration, with constant strife and war battering the planet. It turns out that the Earth was under the seige of Kagato, who was under the guise of one of the bigwigs in the Earth's government. He manipulated events to totally dominate the world. Ayeka, Tenchi and Yosho were killed, their essences entrapped inside a special container that was later developed into an effective power source. Sasami fled, to parts unknown to anyone. Without Ryoko to help Tenchi defend Earth, the Juraians were easily beaten. Ryoko, still in cold sleep, was easily taken and converted into 'energy' by Kagato, and was transformed into a power source similar to the fates of the Juraians.

5. SLAYERS UNIVERSE

Mentioned a few times, here resides one of those who bore the gems of Higher Power, but still doesn't know about it. Go figure.

6. DC UNIVERSE

An offshoot from the Future Dimension B, when Ranma visited one of the planets inside a magnetic storm in order to search for Hibiki Tokai. The planet he landed on was Planet Zi, and he was unwittingly submitted into a war that he didn't want. When he neared the Zoid Eve, a power source for Planet Zi's Zoids, he was pulled out from Dimension B into THIS dimension. Later on, Ranma found out that it wasn't the Zoid Eve's fault, but a failed summoning experiment of the Universe's resident villain, Slade.

There ya go! Enjoy!

Ja ne.

- Lord Rance

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