Crossover Fan Fiction / Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy ❯ Chapter 08b ( Chapter 16 )

[ 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 chapter will focus on what happened to Ranma's side quest on Planet Zi, as well as introduce a possible companion for him in the future. This is also Ranma's first encounter with some of the Divine Army's soldiers (I just thought up a name for Heaven's foot soldiers... go figure).

This will be a good opportunity for Vanilla, Lea and Emeralda to test their newfound girl power syndrome.

This is a Ranma/Teen Titans crossover. Yep, them... those teenagers who owned their own Tower that for me is really architecturally unsound (a giant T atop a small islet in the middle of the water? Come on... one earthquake and down it goes... been wondering for how long Slade's gonna figure THAT one out).

SPEAKING of prereaders... it would seem that they haven't replied to my emails yet for two weeks already. I sent them both copies of the chapter, but they haven't replied at all. I sent CROSE the chapter 6 times, and no response yet. I figured something's wrong with his email system that seemed to have blocked emails coming from me, so I'll just post this chapter and have him read it here and comment about it. I'll just repost the chapter if changes were made.

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

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose and St Longinus for pre-reading this stuff. Many thanks to HolyKnight70, Norethfir, Valor Phoenix, SSJ Guyver andSilver Bullet for exchanging ideas with me, as well as semi-prereading. Special thanks to Backslash, who's been my best friend for, heck, years. Anyway, he's a cartoon, comics and anime otaku as much as I am. Kudos to you, my friend!

Ancient Language (used by gods and goddesses, Ancient Gods): "-Ranma-"

Thoughts and Telepathy: ((Ranma))

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: ""Ranma""

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CHAPTER 8B - THE WIND BENEATH THE RAVEN'S WINGS...

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In another reality...

For a long time, she has been drifting. A past that she cannot escape seemed to be nipping at her future's heels every now so often. Her world has always been filled with darkness, and her emotions should always remain and check.

Her powers have always been controlled by her emotions. One brief moment of forgetfulness, and a whole row of glass windows explode in a fantastic manner.

As of the moment, she was dredging inside her mind, trying to pacify her errant thoughts as she has once again almost lost her cool against the pressures of her responsibilities. Being a teen superhero has its perks, but it also had its share of bad karma.

Right now, though, she was actually staring at this strange apparition that had appeared inside the recesses of her mind, warning her about something. Sure, an occasional thought of an immediate future flickered every once in a while, warning her of the consequences of future actions that could affect both her and her teammates. But being visited by a giggling version of her, dressed in a tight fitting pastel pink midriff with tight dark purple miniskirt really disturbed her.

And that smirk on her doppelganger's face... ugh!

""Something's coming... something big... and it's gonna hurt your head!"" Her doppelganger chirped, causing her to wince in irritation.

She decided to quell her curiosity though, these dreams usually meant something, and it wasn't good to ignore them. ""Tell me more."" she droned impassively, trying hard to get rid of that tick her left eyebrow was making.

But that blasted doppelganger of hers just shrugged back, saying, ""Sorry. Can't tell you much. To tell you the truth, it's really gonna be a massive one, but as far as the lines of fate are concerned, it's really not gonna be bad for anyone, I think.""

""Gee thanks."" She intoned dryly, ""That really helps.""

""Don't mention it!"" The double grinned. ""By the way, I hear that siren again!""

""Oh."" Was all that she was able to say, before her consciousness was pulled back from her psyche. She could hear the loud wail of the alarm siren as it signified another one of those days where they would encounter another threat to their city, Jump City.

The speakers all over their Tower cackled into life, with their leader's voice bellowing, ""TITANS! We have a situation!""

Sighing to herself, she gathered her dark blue cloak and covered herself in it, melting into the shadows as she prepared another day to fight crime.

She reappeared later in the living room, where her companions stood waiting for her.

Their group's virtual leader, Robin, was dressed in his usual red and green ensemble with a black cape around his neck. His utility belt, a tradition he acquired from his mentor Batman, wound around his waist. The black and white mask he wore on his face has always been there since she met him. The shiny 'R' stitched at the corner pocket of his costume was a symbol of his authority, as much as Batman's was a large bat.

Her 'friend', the red haired Starfire, was floating next to Robin. Her tight-fitting purple clothes has always been what she wore in every battle they went. She has a small emerald stuck on her fore head, contrary to her own dark red chakra gem on her own forehead. Her eyes were the deepest green that she had seen on anyone. A Tamaranian genetic trait, so it wasn't really that mysterious.

Lounging around was the short, green-skinned boy named Beast Boy. His animalistic face was twisted in its usual grin, and was currently in an animated conversation with Cyborg. He has elfin ears that have been deformed since birth, and he can change into any animal he wished. He's the practical joker of the group, and a health freak. He had this obsession with tofu, but it was quite understandable. He reasoned that eating what he turned into was like cannibalism.

Cyborg was part human, part machine. It was the simple explanation, aside from which he could fire plasma bolts from the cannon that formed via his arms, and various high-tech weaponry that littered his cybernetic body. He was very strong, compliments of his cyborg body. He was quite the mechanic, as well as the overall technician of the group.

As usual, she looked at them in an impassive manner, unwilling to show any emotions that could cause some unneeded damage in their... home. She, Raven of Azarath, would however help her teammates no matter how much the consequences can be. In some ways, this has been the only family she ever knew and cherished, and she wasn't about to let them go.

As of now, though, the Teen Titans were needed by Jump City once again.

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It wasn't really his forte, but the super villain Slade thought a change of pace was in order. As of late, he has become too predictable, and his slippery foe Robin and his merry band of Teen Titans were getting more and more accurate at guessing where his hideouts were at. Slade has been losing some of his best drones lately, and it was time for a change.

Slade was born out of the darkest pits of the slums, and he enjoyed tormenting Robin as a training regimen for the boy. True, some might think that he has an unhealthy obsession on the boy, but who wouldn't? The boy has a lot of promise, and a picture of a future heir on Robin was very much appealing to him.

His face was covered by a full-head mask, and only one eyehole for him to see outside. It represented his passion, half red, half black, his mask was his reminder of his mission. To spread as much villainy as he could, and to keep those 'super heroes' up to their toes. His body was covered in a black material similar to his mask as well, and he was quite proud of his well-formed body that was quite comparable to Gotham City's Batman.

Right now, he's in the middle of a ritual.

A Magical Ritual (note the capital letters).

True, it wasn't even NEAR his style, but Slade needed something new. He stumbled upon some interesting texts in his vast library while he read to pass the time, and he has come upon a very promising spell.

The ingredients needed were easily obtainable, and the steps were fairly do-able. So here he was, stupidly chanting at the side of a large pentagram symbol he had his subordinates etch a while ago on the floor.

Some candles all around, some of those weird shrubbery he had bought all over the seedy shops he knew from the Underworld, and some choice words he had trouble speaking of in the first place... but still. A summoned demon was a welcoming thought. If Slade had managed to summon this mythical creature, as per described in the book he picked up, he could actually order it to destroy his adversaries. Not only that, he could summon one again if the former was destroyed for some reason.

Slade would've cackled with glee, if only he wasn't busy reading the text.

Anyway, he finally finished muttering those groups of phrases the ancient people called language, as the pentagram glowed bright red. Slade felt an ominous energy suck the life out of the room he was in, producing a micro-shudder from him. He watched in interest as a slight wind picked up in the middle of that sealed room, and a bright ball of light gathered at the center of the inverted star he drew. He normally didn't trust the supernatural, but seeing his work bear into fruit spurred him on.

Slade stood back and watched the proceedings in wonder. ""Now THIS is interesting..."" he said to himself.

To his growing surprise, though, the ball grew in intensity AND size, almost engulfing the room with its radiance. Gulping a bit, Slade backed away to the lone desk at the far end of the room he was in and ducked to the other side. The ball of light grew, until Slade heard the ominous creaking of the roof. Sure enough, the ball blew off the ceiling and part of the walls, before escaping into the daylight and skirting off somewhere.

Slade slowly got to his feet, all the while staring at the path where the ball he summoned took. He growled, saying, "That can't be good."

Not waiting another moment, he pulled a cellphone from his pockets and dialed the number for his group, instructing them about the current situation.

Slade needed that ball, and whatever he summoned, and FAST!

And the great ball of light, for all its shining glory, was gleefully skipping along the rooftops of Jump City, hitting an occasional errant billboard sign and electric post. More and more people managed to see the strange phenomenon, and they grew most concerned about it.

That's how the Teen Titans, who were now speeding after the playful light, were able to know about it.

The chase went on for about thirty minutes, before finally coming to a stop when the light crashed itself into a vacant lot just outside the concrete city. A small forest was beyond the area, and a lot of birds were disturbed by the sudden intrusion. The four teenage super heroes gathered around the crater the miniature comet created, their weapons and powers charged and ready for anything that could possibly come out of an errant ball of light. The smoke finally cleared, and they were quite surprised at what they found.

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"Oh for f---'s sake!" A shrill male voice shouted from the hole, causing the Titan members to jolt out of their shock. A small boy lay face up inside the hole, his black trench coat dusty from the impact while muttering some choice foreign words that seemed to be grating in their ears.

The young boy was between eight to ten years old. His forehead has three gems embedded on it, each with different colors of gold, silver and black or more of a dark purple. He had a pair of dark tinted glasses that covered his whole eye area, and his hands were covered by dark fingerless gloves. He has raven black hair that was tied in a small pigtail that hung down on his back. Around his neck was a simple black choker, but if someone would look closer some kind of symbols were etched on the surface of the neck protector.

But before any of the teens could actually do anything productive, a deep voice echoed all over the place, causing them to freeze on their places. It was a voice they learned to despise, since it came from the man that made their life difficult most of the time.

""I believe you have something that belongs to me."" Said the voice, making Robin growl in anger.

""SLADE!"" Robin snarled as he turned, facing a man clad in a red and black clothes. His face was covered in a full-head mask, and there was only one eyehole. Half of the mask was colored red on the side that has the eyehole, and the other was black.

""Hello, Robin my boy."" Slade said calmly, and one could actually HEAR the smirk in his voice. However, instead of taunting Robin some more he went straight into business mode and gestured to the newly formed crater. ""As I said earlier, I'm only here to claim what's mine. So you can rest assured, we're not going to clash today.""

Robin glanced at the crater briefly, before turning back to glare at Slade. ""We're not going to let you have it!""

""Truly!"" Starfire agreed, her head bobbing in midair, ""It has done nothing to deserve your cruelty!""

The diabolical man laughed loudly. ""It's not an option, kids."" he said, signaling something to the mechanical troops he had hiding amongst the trees, as well as those behind him. The robot troops surged forward, charging their weapons along the way.

The former subordinate of Batman shouted to his companions, ""Titans, SEPARATE!"" He quickly grabbed his retractable baton from his belt, twirling the lengthening rod as he jumped into the fray. He landed in the middle of a small circle of the mechanical menaces, and he twirled around with his baton in place, destroying those that had been in the way of his metal staff.

Starfire flew into the air and glowed bright green, sending green bolts of energy towards the robots. The mechanical soldiers were melted into useless piles of metal scrap. She continued furling her green blasts into the enemy lines, mowing them down like rice stalks ripe for the picking.

Beast Boy transformed into a huge green rhino, barreling his hardened body into the group of enemies. He quickly trampled unto the robots that were damaged by his rampage. Using the rhino's big bulk, he managed to shear a third of the enemy forces, just by slamming into them alone. He then transformed into a gorilla just to spite his foes, as he picked them two at a time and smashing them against the ground.

Cyborg smirked as he raised his right arm, transforming it into a large cannon that fired ridiculous amounts of energy bolts that fried everything that stood in their way. Alongside Starfire, their firepower combined was a sight to behold.

""Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"" Raven chanted, as tendrils of her dark magic emerged from her shadow. The dark energy wafted around several of the androids and caused them to short circuit. Other droids were reduced to smoking debris when the shadows were done with them.

While the general mayhem of battle occurred in the background, Slade had already skirted at the side and headed towards the crater. Under his mask, his smirk was profound. If only he could get to his summoned, he could finally order it to attack the Teen Titans in order for Robin to be forced back into his apprenticeship once again.

The man stopped at the edge of the crater, expecting his horrifying monster standing in the middle awaiting for its summoner's orders.

Instead, he found a child lying face up on the ground with a scowl decorating its face. As if sensing Slade's approach (which he did), the child snapped its head to his general direction. A slight shimmer of gold emanated from the dark tinted glasses, causing the hairs at the back of Slade's neck to rise. It was blaring 'DANGER' to him.

""Dare? Omae no namae?"" The boy asked him, an angry expression creasing on its face as he stared at Slade.

""Hmm... I wonder what language he speaks."" Slade asked himself thoughtfully.

The boy flipped upwards, landing on his feet a few ways from Slade. Cocking his head to one side, the boy said, ""English, huh? Well... I asked your name.""

Slade, having recovered from his momentary surprise that the 'demon' he had summoned learned his language quickly, straightened up and declared, ""I am Slade. That's all you need to know.""

The boy yawned slightly, causing the masked man to bristle in irritation at the blatant disrespect coming from the 'demon'. ""Yeah? Whatever. I don't wanna know, and I'm not gonna start caring. I'm not even gonna ask about your tacky costume.""

""What?!"" Slade snarled, before reigning his temper once again, ""Why I ought to...""

""SLADE!!!"" Robin's shout caused Slade to curse under his breath. Had it been that long already? Or was his army losing its touch? He'd better remember to tweak up the power of those droids later. Turning to the approaching teens, Slade noticed that the army he brought was now decimated, which left only a pile of metal all over the place.

Mentally filing away his findings for later, Slade addressed the angry group in front of him calmly, though a small sweatdrop fell at the back of his head, ""Well, well... my army hasn't been up to its usual high standards lately. Anyway, now I have a new playmate for you to try your luck with.""

Facing the now slightly irritated boy in the middle of the crater, Slade said, ""Now demon, get rid of everyone except the boy with the cape and mask. I need him as my... heir.""

The boy looked back at him wordlessly, while the Teen Titans gripped their weapons and charged their powers, ready to strike back if this... demon tried to attack them. Suddenly, everyone was dumbfounded when the boy snorted loudly.

""You expect me to follow you? Who do you think you are, my mother?"" The boy asked angrily, causing Slade's fist to clench in anger.

""Didn't you hear me demon? I summoned you here to help me, so you better pay your debt of gratitude of me pulling out of your hell and giving you life in this world! Follow my orders!"" Slade shouted at the boy.

"".... so you're the freak who made that stupid whirling thingie and pulled me out from where I was? I got sick in the stomach because of that!"" The boy growled out. He slowly walked towards Slade, who finally found something really strange on his situation. The Titans were also surprised at the sudden change of pace, their eyes bugged out as their luck seemed to have changed for the better. They slowly backed away from the confrontation.

The boy continued, undaunted by the looks of fear he got from everyone. ""You want me to be thankful to you, after pulling me out of the moment when I was helping some people fighting a war?! I should pound you into the ground for grabbing me out of my reality, you obnoxious bastard!"" he screamed, leaping towards the frozen form of Slade at high speeds. The ground he jumped from exploded because of the strong force.

Slade saw the boy disappear from the place he was staring at from before, and the boy suddenly appeared right in front of his face. The man couldn't do anything but take the simple straight punch that landed on his face with a loud crunch, causing his right cheek to distort rather ridiculously. The force of the blow lifted him off the ground, and actually sent him flying to god knows where. Not that Slade would've worried about it, since the man had long been unconscious right after the punch had landed. He crashed into the lake a few kilometers away, where he was whisked away by some of his reserve droids that had stayed out of battle just to wait for something like this to occur.

Slade would've been proud of them, if he were conscious.

Back to the place where the Titans and the boy were, the whole area was silent, save from the breaths coming from the Titans themselves. The boy was still hovering in midair, having to do so in order to reach that prick's face for the punch. Slowly, he retracted his arms to his side and stared at the group, all the while floating. Nobody said anything for a long time. Well, actually, only a minute or so.

""Oh for crying out loud..."" The boy deadpanned, slowly floating back down on the ground. He stood his ground, still staring at the immobile teens in front of him.

It was quite a comical sight, watching the teen's faces contorted in different funny expressions. The one with the colorful costume and white mask over his eyes was staring at him slack-jawed. The green skinned kid was slack-jawed AND drooling at the same time. The half-man, half-machine one was tinkering something on his wrist without breaking his wide-eyed gaze on the boy, and was visibly sweating for some reason. The red-haired, green-eyed girl floating a few feet above the ground was beside the one with the white mask, and was also staring at him with those wide green eyes of hers. The one with the dark-blue cloak was... well... mysterious, and the boy didn't bother looking inside that cape of hers. Obviously she was a girl, since she has the... equipments for one in front of her chest. A band of sweat was flowing down the side of her head, though, so who knew what the girl was thinking right now.

It was Cyborg who first broke the impasse. ""One... punch..."" he muttered. He was still nervous, his right eye busily taking data about the boy as he tried to calculate the boy's threat level.

His statement, however, broke Beast Boy out of his own stupor. Perking up, he said in awe, ""Dude... that kid just blew Slade away with ONE PUNCH!"" He gazed at the smaller boy with puppy-dog eyes, and wanted so much to aska lot fo questions from him.

Starfire turned to the direction where Slade flew and commented, ""I wonder... did Slade manage to survive his flight? I sincerely hope so, for death is not something to be taken lightly.""

The others just ignored her, but they all rolled their eyes and snorted at the innocence of their resident alien.

Raven just kept silent, her mouth in a firm line as she stared at the boy. The boy, though, stared back just as impassively, causing Raven to blanch internally. The girl was an empath, and she was currently trying to 'feel' something from the boy, anything, that would indicate the newcomer's current feelings at least, but she got nothing from him. While she needed to physically touch the boy to get anything concrete from him, current emotions should be easy to pick up. Raven didn't know what scared her more, whether it was of the boy's strength, the speed, or the boy's ability to seemingly block out her psychic powers.

Robin, ever the diplomatic leader type, stepped forward tentatively and said guardedly, ""Who are you?""

Raven had the sudden impulse to smack her forehead in irritation, for once not agreeing to the tact her leader was showing as of the moment.

The boy just continued to stare at them, though to one in particular they couldn't really know, since those sunglasses of his covered his eyes completely. He finally replied, ""I should be asking you the same question. I mean, I'm the one who was taken from my reality you know.""

The ever stoic Raven had to stifle a slight smile that threatened to form on her face, lest her emotions suddenly run wild again. She had to give the boy some credit. It was true that he had no idea what had happened, and as to why he was here in the first place. It was kinda rude of them to demand who he was when he was actually the victim in the situation.

Or... he could just be faking it and was waiting for the chance to strike at them, as per orders of Slade. But then again, that wouldn't be it, since the sound of flesh smacking flesh she had heard from when the boy hit Slade was pretty solid. No amount of faking could be done with that, unless Slade somehow developed invulnerability. Also, the Slade they encountered was strangely the real thing, not the usual cyborg counterparts he usually sent after them. The boy must've been really important for Slade to leave for his cyborgs, so he had to get his quarry himself.

How interesting.

A low growl echoed all over the area causing the Titans to turn towards Beast Boy, who blinked back at them innocently.

""What?!"" The green changeling asked exasperatedly, his expression was miffed, ""It wasn't me you guys!""

""Err..."" The boy offered, causing them to turn their attention back at him, ""That was me. You see, I've been fighting from where I've been, and I'm pretty hungry right now. So... if you're not gonna introduce yourselves to me, better leave me alone so that I can find something to eat."" He pretty much ended the conversation his way, which was quite amusing coming from some kid seemingly younger than they were. The Titans actually parted to make way for him, as he trudged by them without a care in the world.

""I'm Raven."" A small, but firm voice echoed in the silence of the lot. Everyone was quite shocked to find who said it, since the owner of the voice was none other than the goth girl herself, Raven. She, the Ice Queen of 'I don't care about everyone' was the first to introduce herself?

The boy stopped walking, already quite a distance away but was still able to catch the name that the girl spoke of. Turning slightly to the side, the boy said, ""The name's Ranma. Nice ta meet'cha, Raven.""

The girl in dark blue cloak nodded with the tiniest movement, almost not perceptible to the others except to the boy. ""You are not really a demon, are you?"" she asked in monotone, but one could almost hear the slight amused tone of her voice.

The boy turned fully to her direction, smiling slightly, ""Who knows? I was already called a lot of names before, some even worse than others."" It's true, Ranma could remember the time when him, Ryoko and Inuyasha were considered as the Three Demons of Japan.

""But you're not."" Raven stated flatly.

Ranma shrugged. ""Dunno. Didn't bother to find out. I could outfight any demons I faced so far, and some pretty bizarre beings as well. So I really couldn't tell...""

Raven nodded. ""I see."" she muttered. Floating in the air, she floated towards Ranma and said, ""Food, right? Follow me. I can get you some."" she continued on, flying towards the direction of the Tower.

The boy chuckled slightly, saying, ""Sure, but I gotta warn ya... I eat plenty."" Without another word, he floated in the air and followed the girl. Something red and furry curled up on his back, before falling down and twitching at his backside, greatly startling Robin, Beast Boy and Cyborg. The three boys recovered quickly though, since it was a pretty normal sight for them.

Starfire, though, was staring at Ranma's red tail in shock, as if she had seen something truly horrible. Which was probably the case, but that would be told later.

She was pulled along by Beast Boy and Cyborg, following Robin as they ran after the two that left earlier, intent on finding out what the hell just happened with Raven.

Not that the pale girl had shown too much emotion lately, but the way she interacted with that questionable boy was way too weird for them to stomach.

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Inside the Teen Titan's Tower...

The whole entourage had an uneasy truce going on. Raven and the boy, Ranma, sat on one side of the dining table, happily munching on some sandwiches. Raven was actually sporting a tiny smile as she watched the boy eat whole loads of sandwiches that he simultaneously created and destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Robin, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire sat on another side, seemingly keeping their distance from the duo. It was weird enough to see Raven willingly take a guest in the Tower, but the sight of her eating amicably with someone was rather disconcerting. The most affected was Starfire, who was normally chatty and vibrant, and now she was staring at Ranma suspiciously.

""You eat too much."" Raven observed as she took a bite out of her own sandwich. She was on her second sandwich as of the moment.

Ranma nodded. After swallowing a mouthful of bread, he responded, ""Yep. Needed the food to recover, since I usually burn the energy away quicker than normal people do anyway."" He was currently on his fifteenth serving, and still going strong. It's a good thing Raven took the liberty of doing the grocery shopping earlier today, so the pantry and refrigerator were stocked with newly re-supplied food. Of course, by the way her guest was eating, the stock would last only for that day.

""Slade was the one who summoned you."" Raven commented.

Ranma scoffed. ""It was that masked dude, right? Weird... ordering me like that.""

""He said something about summoning a demon. He probably miscalculated somewhere, or used a wrong ingredient...""

""Feh, that's why I don't like magic much. Been exposed to that too much too often, and it usually brought me weird things, mostly bad for my health."" Ranma chuckled.

""I use some magic."" Raven's monotone drabbed, her eyes narrowing.

The boy rolled his eyes, saying, ""I didn't say I don't like yours in particular. I just avoid magic in general, to keep me from making contact with them. I usually mesh badly with magic, and this strange accident proved it, again.""

""Where are you from, anyway?"" Robin asked suddenly. Raven's head snapped to him, and the boy wonder could actually feel her glare, but he paid it no mind. He still bore on Ranma, who stopped chewing and adopted a thoughtful pose.

""I can't really answer that..."" Ranma said sadly, ""I'm actually lost in between universes, lost in time, lost in parallel worlds... I'm so lost in most ways possible. I ran from my own side of the universe, after a tragic thing happened to me. Betrayal is a strong catalyst... anyway, that's all. I'm lost... drifting along the universes where ever it takes me. I actually have some companions, which I'd love to return to right now. But I'll have to find a way first, probably take whatever source that Slade guy had used to pull me out of my universe.""

""You are a Sai-Yahn!"" Starfire blurted out. She pointed a shaky finger at Ranma's red tail, saying, ""You... you are... you are abominations in the universe! You must all be destroyed!""

""Starfire? What's wrong? What's a Saiyan?"" Beast Boy asked curiously, glancing at Ranma.

Raven hummed. ""I remember some stories about them. A proud warrior species, notorious for their incredible strength and ability to adapt into any situation. They can fight losing battles and turn the tides of war to their favor. They were bred for fighting, and that's what made them one of the greatest warriors in the universe.""

""They destroy worlds!"" Starfire added passionately, glaring at Ranma.

""Shows what you know about me in particular."" Ranma mumbled loudly. ""You're one of those, 'goody-do-gooders-who-thinks-they're-really-all-that-good' types of people, aren't you? Just for your information, the violent types were my ancestors. They know almost nothing but to fight. I, on the other hand, was born here on Earth."" He watched with an internal smile as Starfire's face melted into a shocked expression, along with Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy. Raven just raised an eyebrow as a response, but he could feel a spike of something from the girl. Whatever it was, it just blew something in the next room, but nobody noticed it anyway. They were all currently staring at him, and it was starting to get freaky.

""Ahem. Anyway, you haven't introduced yourselves yet. You already know me, so I'm at a disadvantage."" Ranma reminded them, as he took another bite at his sandwich.

Raven quickly composed herself first, saying, ""Right. Well, the one with the mask is Robin, the red haired girl that's glaring at you right now is Starfire, the green-skinned boy with the weird goofy face is Beast Boy, and the big guy with metal all over his body is Cyborg. Of course, again... I'm Raven. We're a group called the Teen Titans.""

""Ahh..."" Ranma gave the gothic girl a thumbs up. ""That's cool. Sounded like those are your codenames or something though. And the group name... weird. Teen Titans huh?""

""The names are our codenames, and our group name is aptly given."" Robin said simply, crossing his arms across his chest.

""Alright. Fine by me."" Ranma noised, as he finally finished off his twenty-fifth sandwich. ""Anyway, thanks for the food, but I'd like to go find that Slade guy now...""

Starfire's 'hmph' was soft, but it was still heard by everyone. ""It would be the best course of action. A Sai-Yahn on this planet is a sign of bad luck.""

The other members of the Titans looked at her in surprise, their ears not accustomed to hear the normally cheerful Starfire to be so vindictive to someone. Her uncharacteristic scowl was already disturbing enough.

Ranma sighed. ""Yeah... well. It's partly true, since as of this moment, other powerful beings from all over the universe would've felt my power reading by now. They'd probably be curious, and would come to this planet to investigate the source of the reading. Some of them might even be thrilled at the thought of fighting someone strong.""

""You sound so sure."" Cyborg commented.

Ranma just shrugged noncommittedly. ""I've already had experiences on that one.""

""You see!"" Starfire pointed out smugly.

""Actually, he should stay here for a while, since he still has no idea where to start looking for Slade."" Now, everyone's shocked gaze turned to Raven, who carefully tried not to scowl at everyone looking at her, ""It would be pointless for him to just go around without knowing how to find Slade. Who knows? Slade might even find a way to catch Ranma off-guard and have him attack us after Slade has brain-washed Ranma. It would be... interesting to find out how we'd fare against someone like him, right?""

Ranma visibly slumped at his seat, glaring slightly at the seemingly smug face of Raven. ""Well, gee. Take out my fun, will ya? Besides, I'm not that easily brain-washed. A little gullible, maybe... but...""

Raven looked at the boy flatly. ""If you think you're going to have free reign over the city without supervision, then you are sadly mistaken.""

""So, like, where would he sleep then?"" Beast Boy asked rhetorically.

The red-haired Tamaran princess huffed as she floated up in the air, her nose pointedly tilted upwards, ""I refuse to be associated with a barbarian! My room, or anything near it is off limits to someone with the likes of him!"" Without waiting for anyone to reply, she floated up to the second floor and went into her room, slamming the door loud enough to shake the walls slightly.

The green-skinned shape shifter finally broke the small gap of silence that erupted in the room, saying as he looked at Ranma with a bit of pity, ""Bummer dude... Star's really pissed at you.""

""I don't think he'll like her room anyhow."" Raven muttered to herself.

""I never saw Star act like that before..."" Cyborg said slowly, then his eyes lightened up as he continued, ""Well, except that one time when we did that practical joke on her.""

""Oh yeah..."" Beast Boy hummed, ""When we hid those dolls of hers, she went Rambo on us. Man, I was sore for weeks because of that stunt.""

Raven's eyes narrowed slightly, ""Anyone would get angry if their prized possessions were taken away like that. And, add to the fact that you entered her room without any permission whatsoever...""

""Still..."" Robin interjected, stopping whatever sparks of conflict that would erupt in the group, ""Star did leave us a problem. Not that I'd let this kid stay in Star's room. So, where do we put him?""

""I'm not a baby, you know."" Ranma deadpanned, scowling a bit as he crossed his small arms across his chest, almost mimicking Robin's gesture earlier, ""I've been in a training journey most of my life, always on the road with my sleeping bag and the stars as company. I'll survive anywhere, even the couch.""

So, it was then decided that Ranma should stay on the couch temporarily.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

It wasn't really a very sleep full of a night for Raven, for her dreams have been more persistent lately. Something about the big 'thing' that would happen soon...

The doppelganger she met earlier had been replaced by the normal residents of her mind, which were her personalities. Not that they were much help at all, since they were all hinting on the same thing. Suddenly, her own mind has become secretive of those flashes of clairvoyance she sometimes got and kept her guessing by stating riddles.

So it was understandable that the next morning, there was one unhappy Raven who lacked sleep that greeted the morning.

She knew she was always the first one to wake in the Tower, and she used the time to make her habitual cup of tea every morning and go straight to meditation on the roof.

Raven was sitting half-asleep on the stool inside the kitchen waiting for her hot water to boil when her eyes snapped open, remembering their guest that they let crash on the couch the night before. Glancing at the u-shaped seat near the wide screen TV in the Den Room, she cursed silently when an empty cushion greeted her.

Turning off the stove, she quickly melted into the shadows to transport herself to the highest point of the building instinctively, where she could see everything around the city. When she appeared on the topmost part of the Tower she stopped herself, spying on the small black-clothed form of her quarry.

Ranma sat at the edge of the tallish building, mentally asking himself how something as big as this and 'shaped' like a giant T could stand firmly like this. As far as his limited knowledge of construction was concerned, it wasn't really possible. But then again, stranger things had happened to him already, so was it any surprise?

The boy stiffened slightly when he felt the presence of the girl that had given him the food yesterday. That girl in the dark blue cloak... Raven. He also started feeling something tugging in his mind, which he was pretty sure was someone trying to tamper with his mind. He usually had this feeling when the Amazons back in his Home World tried something of the sort, like mental manipulation or something. Not that it would work, especially after the Neko-ken was solved.

Ranma knew that the goddess Bastet couldn't have erased the technique from his mind. He ascertained that the technique became an effective mind shield, a natural barrier to his mind aside from the passive one his Masu genes has. Instead of being a nuisance in his head, Bastet had helped him convince the mental kitties to work with him. Now, he has some sort of various amount of divine and demonic spiritual kitties littered in his mind, prowling for any intrusions from outside forces. After all, the 'cats' were just defending their territory, which was his mind.

He felt the itching fade, deciding that the girl Raven had given up on reading up on his surface thoughts for the time being. He was thankful too, since who knows what the self-adapted mental barrier could do to anyone who'd force themselves in there?

""Hey."" Ranma heard Raven's monotone voice call out from behind him. He inclined his head to acknowledge her, but didn't say anything else.

""So..."" Raven continued haltingly, ""You woke up early.""

Ranma nodded. ""As I told you yesterday, I'm used to traveling. That includes waking up before dawn. I'm a martial artist, and I usually practice at dawn.""

""Oh... you're done practicing your... Art?"" Raven asked as she sat just a little behind Ranma.

""Yep."" Ranma breathed in deeply.

Raven paused slightly. ""You have those... gems on your forehead."" she said softly.

Ranma snorted as he turned his head to the side, looking at Raven at the edges of his eyes. The dark tinted glasses on his face prevented the goth girl to affirm that Ranma's gaze was really on her. ""You have a gem on your forehead too."" he smiled slightly.

""It's a chakra gem."" Raven said simply.

Ranma shrugged. ""I don't know what mine are. They just appeared one day.""

Raven gestured to his eyes, saying, ""You have glasses, even during last night. Why?""

The boy adjusted the shades up on the bridge of his noise and replied, ""I can see well enough even with it on. As for the 'why', well, why does that Robin guy wear a mask over his face like that?""

""Fair enough."" Raven said grumpily.

""Most people are not particularly accommodating with what I am, hence the reaction of that red haired weird eyebrowed girl. And believe me, looking into my eyes will just aggravate the situation."" Ranma said vaguely.

""You're not an ordinary child, are you?"" Raven asked, but at the tone of her voice it wasn't really a question, but rather a statement.

""No, I'm not."" Ranma admitted after a short tense silence.

""I can't read your mind."" Raven said in accusation, touching the boy's bare hand slightly.

Ranma shook his head. ""You won't be able to. Besides, you wouldn't want to read what's in my mind."" His face suddenly soured, as if he remembered something significant, ""Hmmm... and I shouldn't know much about these things. My integration of my distant past memories are partially completed. And no, don't bother asking about it. I can't explain everything to you, yet.""

""Who are you, really?"" Raven had abandoned her emotionless tone, as a bit of awe and curiosity seeped into her voice.

""Hey..."" Ranma groused, ""Isn't it my turn to ask questions?""

""Oh?"" Raven fidgeted in her seat.

""Uh-huh..."" Ranma smirked, ""Like what someone non-human like you doing here, and why are your emotions all suppressed.... VERY suppressed? Don't you know it's bad to stop emotions?""

Another short silence fell between them. The wind blew slightly, causing Ranma's pigtail to wave weakly behind his head.

""You don't have to tell me why."" Ranma amended, after deciding that Raven wouldn't answer his question anyway. ""I would just like to remind you that it will be like an overflowing plastic bag full of water. It will explode one of these days.""

""It's not like I really wanted to do it...""

""But you do it anyway."" Ranma said tonelessly. ""It probably has something to do with your body or your powers or something. Am I right?""

Raven's heart thumped loudly in her chest. ((How the heck did he know that?))

Ranma glanced back at her. Seeing the slight change in her expression, he snickered, ""Yep. I was right. And besides, I could feel those power spikes coming from you whenever your emotions go up to high levels.""

""How did you know all that?"" Raven demanded silently.

Ranma shrugged once again, turning to the slowly rising sun, ""I used to base my energy attacks from emotions. I know how it worked. I understand what you're going through---""

""Nobody understands!"" Raven said loudly, causing a metal pole beside them to bend crookedly. She quickly forced herself calm as she settled on glaring at the boy.

""I do."" Ranma stated simply, causing Raven to pause in surprise. Continuing, he said, ""It's like how my power got out of hand in the beginning. I went berserk, attacking everyone in sight. Allies or not, I mowed them down. They had to physically knock me down to get me under control."" He lifted his hands, allowing the sleeves of his trench coat to slide down his arms, revealing a pair of gold bracelets around his wrists, ""I wear limiters for that. Normal control will never be easy for me, since I have a high learning curve, as well as very high adapting rate. These limiters regulate themselves according to my current power. At least, that's how my aunt explained it...""

Raven didn't need to pry Ranma's mind for the truth. She could actually feel his power being suppressed by the simple gold bands around his wrists. ""Oh... you do understand..."" she muttered.

""I could help you control your powers, you know..."" Ranma looked thoughtful. He was startled though, when he found himself in the hands of an over eager Raven, who was clutching at the lapels of his oversized collar. Geez, when did the girl have the time to stand and grab him like that?

""You can? HOW?"" Raven asked excitedly, but then winced when one corner of the rooftop exploded into dust, causing a slight dent on the building.

Ranma chuckled weakly, his feet now dangling a few inches off the ground as Raven lifted him off the cement roof unknowingly. Damn, women don't know their own strength sometimes. ""Err... training for it, of course.""

""Training..."" Raven drawled out, slowly letting Ranma go. ""I've been meditating for control my whole life...""

The boy nodded as he floated a few feet away from the ash-skinned girl, readjusting his clothes in the process. ""That's good too, but it has a limit. Meditating is for finding your calm. You have to use your emotions constantly, and at the same time remember to maintain your center throughout to control your power bursts. That's why you have to train yourself. You must've shut off your emotions after the first incident that involved your emotions, so you haven't really trained on emotions and restraint on your powers at the same time. THAT is not good.""

Raven fell silent as she contemplated on what has been said. She has been so used to meditating her way out of her rampant emotions that she hasn't even given thought of using any emotions in the future. She just accepted the fact that she was someone who might never experience the joys of showing anger, or sadness, or even be capable of expressing love to others. Sure, she could show SOME emotions, but they are very small in comparison to how a normal human should use in their daily interactions.

Kind of like how Beast Boy almost collapsed when he just laughed because of a joke. Even Cyborg, being half-machine that he already was, could actually show emotions, unlike her. Raven had to suppress all of her emotions, lest it would produce a hole in her mental prison of Trigon.

Raven's thoughts suddenly focused on her mirror, wondering why she had to bring that always. She also wondered if she would even need the mirror once she has control of her emotions.

""You're only doing it half-right."" Ranma's statement broke Raven out of her thoughts. ""And in the long-run, you saw meditation and stifling emotions as a way to escape from your control problems. You gave up on trying to find another way.""

((To... escape?)) Raven thought to herself, trying hard to find a way to bury that strange feeling of anger that suddenly quelled inside her. She wanted to shout and defend herself from Ranma's hidden accusation, but the truth also outshone the retort she had thought up. It was true, that she had given up on everything related to her emotions. She had already accepted that she would always be running away from her father Trigon.

""Hey, you okay in there?"" Ranma asked suddenly, causing Raven to shake her head to clear her thoughts.

""I doubt it would help me any."" Raven said in a flat voice, but her eyes showed a different matter. It was as if it was pleading out to Ranma, to say something that could actually warrant the small flicker of hope in her heart.

Good thing Ranma's mouth ran on the right direction, as he said without a second of thought, ""Sure it will. As long as you want it, we can work it out.""

""But..."" Raven's face saddened somewhat, as she remembered something critical, ""You are going to be busy finding Slade, so that you'll get home sooner. You're not going to have time to train me.""

""Hmmm..."" Ranma toyed with the bracelet on his arm, turning it around and around, ""I don't know... I do have another method for me to get home, but it's kinda last resort. But since you want my help, I can't refuse that."" It was true. Ranma couldn't resist anyone who needed help, especially when it concerned training and self control. Somehow, his mind has already mapped out how he would train the girl, and he was quite excited about teaching.

The dark purple-eyed girl looked at Ranma curiously. ""What do you mean?""

""Eheh..."" Ranma chuckled lightly, ""Don't worry about it. I've got it covered.""

Without saying another word, he waved his hand in the air. At first, Raven was rather skeptical as to why Ranma did that, but then she was quite surprised when a transparent keyboard faded into view. What's more surprising was that Ranma was able to type with it. A small screen appeared on top of the keyboard as well. The goth girl tried to stifle a gasp of shock, but a small squeak came from her lips as she stared at the obviously highly advanced computer system the boy had in his disposal.

Ranma turned to the origin of the squeak he heard and grinned. ""My aunt gave me this one. She called it the STCOS, or Subspace Transparent Computer Operating System. But I just call it SubTrans Computer, or STC for my own shortcut.""

Seeing that the girl had nothing more to add, Ranma turned back to whatever he was doing with the STC. He smiled slightly as a very familiar image popped out of the floating LCD screen. He typed for a moment with the transparent keyboard that was floating in mid-air. With a satisfied sigh, Ranma finally stopped and pressed 'Enter', sending a message to wherever.

Curious at seeing the boy smile like that, Raven looked over Ranma's shoulder, catching a glimpse of the face that was displayed on the LCD. It was a face of a red haired girl, at least a year or two younger than Beast Boy's age. She has green eyes, and her red hair was spiked and shaped like a crab. The girl's pronounced smirk was screaming 'I'm the best'.

""Aren't you a bit too young for her?"" Raven asked with an eyebrow raised. A small twinge in her heart, though, made her pause a bit. ((What the heck was that?)) she wondered.

Before she could even ponder on it, Ranma had already thought of a response, his face screwing in a bit of disgust, ""Not that it would matter, but no, she's not someone like that. She's actually my aunt. She can control her physical looks, and she loves appearing like a kid. Makes those who see her underestimate her.""

""Change her physical appearance?"" Raven parroted softly, looking at Ranma intently. Then it hit her, something so blatantly obvious that she felt so stupid not thinking of the possibility. The 'boy' in front of her smirked as he watched her face slowly showing signs of epiphany.

""I think you got it."" Ranma commented lightly, turning his gaze to the quiet sea. The whole Titan's Tower was surrounded by the bay, and beyond it was the city's boundary. On the other side though was the expanse of the blue ocean, a sight Ranma usually saw in female form, since water plus Ranma equals a female Ranma.

Raven finally got her vocal chords to work. ""So... you're... not really of that age? Wait... of course... you act too mature for an eight year old. How can I miss something so obvious?"" she hissed at herself in irritation.

Ranma chuckled, ""We have our moments. Don't worry about it, since not many knew that I can manipulate my physical looks. Have you heard of the Mass species by any chance?""

The ash-skinned girl nodded once. ""Yes. They have been extinct for a long time. I heard that they were formless, but still had the inclinations of genders. They have bio-energy that seemed to be extremely powerful. They can transform into anything they wished, and also can assimilate other species that they wanted. They were persecuted because of this, but in truth they were a very peaceful race. Why do you ask?""

The pigtailed boy patted his chest. ""My aunt saved me from near death once, using the last DNA samples she had of the Mass. It means, that I have Mass genes in me."" Facing a silent Raven, he continued, ""My aunt is a scientist, the greatest in the universe, so she claims.""

""So... that's how you got your shape changing ability?"" Raven asked after a moment of tense silence.

""Not really. As far as I know, my aunt has no Mass DNA. I just wanted you to know that about me."" Ranma stated simply.

""Why? Why would you tell me such an important fact about you when you just met me? Why do you trust me that much?"" she asked.

The boy shrugged slightly. ""Because I wanna trust you. I wanna show you I do trust you, and that you should trust me too.""

Raven raised an eyebrow. ""Again, why? What if I don't tell you anything about me at all?""

He shrugged again. ""Cool with me. It's just that it seems to me that you don't trust anyone in this place. Don't bother denying it. Sure you trust them some, but not enough for you to share to them what's troubling you everyday.""

Raven sighed, rubbing her forehead in irritation. ""And how did you come up with that hypothesis?""

""Simple..."" Ranma raised a finger in the air, ""Instead of staying downstairs and chatting with them, since they're probably already awake down there and preparing to seize the day, you're here with me.""

""I..."" Raven stuttered, finally realizing that the 'boy' was right. ""It's not like that... I... I have to guard you...""

Ranma waved his hand in the air, ""Don't worry. Your secret's safe with me, whatever that is. And besides, guarding me? Please... I can take care of myself pretty well. That's kinda a very lame excuse, don'cha think?""

""Uhmm..."" Raven didn't know what to say after that.

""Don't worry, I don't hold it against you. But really, you have to trust someone sometime."" Ranma smiled at Raven, ""Especially since I'll be training you soon. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about myself as well, as a gesture of giving you my full trust. I feel that you can be trusted.""

""But... why?"" Her voice croaked.

""Dunno, really."" Ranma snorted, ""I don't need some spectacular reason to trust someone. Call me infuriatingly stupid for being so trusting, but no matter how you see it I do choose who I trust. And I just felt I could trust you with my life. I also want you to feel that you can trust me, and you CAN.""

Seeing the girl was still at a loss for words, Ranma started to float into a lazy pattern around Raven. ""Raven, it's not bad having a friend, no matter how grave your excuse for having none of them otherwise. It gives you someone to vent your frustrations to. And... it's also a start for you to control your powers.""

The boy suddenly remembered his own past, where people around him seldom listened to whatever he wanted to say. He didn't have anyone to turn to, not until the last visages of his memory of Nerima. It was only when he exploded in fury that he got everyone to at least stop for a moment and listen, but everything has been taken away by that accident. When he did manage to return, he found out that everything has changed.

Looking back to his memories of that betrayal, Ranma found that his anger was already gone. It faded as his travels wore on, replaced by something akin to amusement as well as melancholy when he thinks about Nerima.

Raven, on the other hand, was beyond baffled at this boy's proclamation. A friend? Can she really do this? She has been known to go off the deep end when she even tries to have some emotions seep out of her psyche, but a friend? She breathed in quickly, trying to suck air as much as she could in fast, furious gulps. Her life was thrown out of balance, just because of the untimely appearance of this being that seemed to be a few steps ahead of her thoughts. It seemed that he doesn't even know how he affected her so much, which greatly aggravated her more.

So it was really understandable when Raven felt something poke her forehead. She blinked as her sight refocused itself in front of her. She stifled a scream of shock as she saw Ranma's dark glasses-covered face was so near hers. Instead, she pulled back quickly, causing her to fall on her behind on the concrete roof of the Titans Tower.

""Hey, you okay?"" Ranma asked worriedly, looming over the fallen form of Raven.

It was then that the rooftop's only exit to enter the main building opened, revealing Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy and Cyborg.

""Hey Raven! The food's getting co---"" Robin and his companions stopped on their tracks as they took stock of the scene.

Raven on the floor. That Ranma kid floating over her. The flustered look on the ashen-skinned girl.

""I KNEW IT!"" Starfire crowed as her eyes glowed bright green. Her gloved hands quickly gathered green energy, preparing to blast Ranma to kingdom come.

Robin quickly fell into a battle stance, pulling his baton from his utility belt. ""Titans, GO!""

Beast Boy transformed into a greenish lion and scampered towards Ranma, who has adopted a look of bewilderment on his face. If it wasn't such a serious matter now, Beast Boy would've laughed at the boy.

Cyborg just grunted as his eyes narrowed, his arm transforming into a huge laser cannon and aimed it carefully at the floating boy. He didn't want to hit Raven accidentally.

To the one who was on her ass on the floor, the whole scene was one big surreal episode. She was still reeling a bit from the bit of surprise seeing Ranma's face ever-so-close to her face, so Raven was a bit livid as of the moment. It was unreal, watching the events occurring as of the moment in front of her. On one hand, she debated on stopping the huge misunderstanding that seemed to have popped out, and on the other side she wanted to see how Ranma would fare in this predicament. And judging from that adorable shocked expression on his face, Raven thought this ought to be fun.

Okay. That was pretty weird even for her.

Ranma on the other hand was extremely surprised when the boy with that mask on his face started instructing the other members of their group into attacking without preamble. He suddenly had a brief flash of memory, of what he had to go through almost everyday back in Nerima. The constant misunderstandings and unreasonable battles have plagued his mind. He wanted to chuckle, but as of now he had to dart away from the still-downed form of Raven. As much as he worried for the girl, he had to lure those gung-ho Titans away from her, lest they accidentally trample on the girl in their attempts to attack him.

However, his surprise was now gone, replaced by a wide grin as he felt invigorated once again for some reason. Ranma quickly swerved to the right, dodging the lunging green lion that tried to claw the hell out of him. He ducked as a blue beam passed over his head, which came from the half-machine that tried to take his head off. His right arm snapped to his side, blocking the metal bar that almost hit his side. He quickly released the bar and somersaulted in the air, effectively dodging the five green spheres that exploded on the space he vacated. Ranma landed on the far end of the spacious roof of the Tower, allowing himself some space from his attackers.

""How dare you attack friend Raven!"" Starfire cried out, summoning several star bolts that she momentarily hurled towards Ranma, who just weave and dodged out of their flight paths. This further angered the Tamaran princess in a near boiling point, her usual calm attitude gone for the moment.

Ranma chuckled as the last star bolt whizzed past him. ""I didn't attack anyone."" he said calmly.

Cyborg grimly said, ""Save it, monkey boy. You hurt one of us, so you pay!""

""Okay... can you calm down and let me explain first?"" Ranma asked loudly. He received no response, except a large green globe of Starfire's energy blast. Deciding to show his immediate annoyance at the silent declaration of war against him, Ranma calmly swatted the irritating ball to his right, allowing it to disperse in the air.

The seemingly young boy watched as the Teen Titans collected themselves and attacked at the same time, all four members charging towards him like mad. He wanted to scoff at the way-too-obvious mode of attack, which would definitely give away any element of surprise the group might've had.

Ranma shook his head. While not really adept into talking to people peacefully (usually, he ended up insulting them into attacking him), he decided to just give the Teen Titans a bit of a workout. He glanced briefly towards Raven, and he saw that she was a bit appalled at her companions' actions, but was clearly amused with that slight smirk on her face. Instead of wasting his breath explaining his side of the story, Ranma quickly hopped into the fray once again.

Dodging the lunging greenish monkey was a cinch for Ranma, and he surmised that the changeling of the group was untrained at fighting. Beastboy was used to relying on the strength of his transformations, but he never really trained into self-defense, or even fighting all that much.

Cyborg was more of a brawler, and Ranma noticed that immediately as he let the half-machine man's fist fly past his head as he tilted it to the side. Ranma twisted his body as Cyborg's other arm slammed into the concrete floor the pigtailed hybrid was on before, crushing some of the Tower roof into a crater.

The red-haired Starfire was kinda like Cyborg in fighting actually, with the way she just let her energy balls fly off towards him. Good thing her companions were so used to this that they already knew when to dodge those projectiles, but how about the innocents? Ranma was starting to dislike the floating girl a bit now, as her eyes burned bright green with fury.

Robin, Ranma surmised, was the only one without any super powers whatsoever within the group. His martial arts skills were commendable though not as extensive as Ranma's was, and his battle wits were quite an asset. Nevertheless, Ranma could see that Batman's protege has quite an ego, something Ranma could relate upon with. He just hoped the kid would grow up soon from this, since Robin wouldn't have much time being immature. Robin led a group of Super Heroes, sworn to protect Justice and yadah-yadah, and his overgrown pride would be a liability.

Whoops! Ranma chuckled slightly as a starbolt clipped his left shoulder, causing him to wobble slightly. It didn't really hurt, but force is force, and it still pushed him around a bit. There wasn't any damage to his body suit though. What made his eyes widen was the big cannon aimed towards him, courtesy of Cyborg. It would seem that the others served as distractions as the half-machine man stepped back to charge his weapon. Ranma could now feel the excess plasma discharge emitted by the weapon, and it was pretty powerful.

""Eat this, monkey-boy!!!"" Cyborg yelled as he let lose the accumulated energy from his arm cannon.

Ranma had no time to retort as the bright blue plasma blast hit him squarely on the chest and exploded upon impact. He was blown back by the force of the blast, causing him to tumble heavily across the T-Tower's rooftop. His impromptu tumble finally stopped near the edge of the roof, obscuring the area in a thick cloud of dust.

""Ranma!!"" Raven's voice was muffled by the sound of the explosion.

Cyborg grinned in triumph as he held his cannon arm up, saying, ""Boo-yah!! Who's da man?!?!""

Beastboy transformed back to his humanoid form and punched his hand up in the air, shouting, ""We got him!!""

""Nice work, team..."" Robin sighed as he clipped his retracted metal staff back unto its holster around his waist. He smiled slightly at his celebrating team mates, not noticing Raven starting to stew in anger a bit further away. But he saw that Starfire hadn't join their glee. Instead, the girl was staring at the dust cloud that formed on the other edge of the rooftop, her usual cheerful face marred by a slight frown as she glared at across the roof.

The leader of the Teen Titans strode towards the floating red-haired alien, asking, ""Star, what's wrong?""

Without turning away from her gaze, Starfire answered, ""The fight is not over, friend Robin. The Sai-Yahn were never that easy to defeat.""

""Well..."" Robin scratched the back of his head, ""This one's probably weaker than the others, since he grew up on Earth as he said...""

""He is very powerful. I can feel the energy that his body conjures even if he is at rest..."" Starfire said resolutely.

Robin was about to answer, when a chuckle from the dust cloud was heard. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and slowly turned towards it in dread, hopeful on Raven's point.

""That stings..."" Ranma's voice rang out from the dust cloud. The dirt finally settled, and revealed the young boy's unscathed appearance. Other than being dirty, there was virtually no scratch on the boy made by Cyborg's attack.

Seeing that the four kids attacking him earlier were about to let lose another bout of attacks on him, Ranma quickly intervened as he said, ""Oi, can you just listen up even for a minute? You keep on attacking without any reason to do so, you know!""

This caused the four attacking Titans to pause in their tracks, eyeing the fuming red-tailed boy warily.

Ranma snarled, ""Damnit, you stupid idiots, listen up! I didn't do anything bad to Miss Raven. If you'll just look a little longer, you'll see that she's just startled, and fell on her butt.""

Simultaneously, the four battle-ready Titans turned to Raven, who was already standing and has her arms crossed across her chest with an annoyed look on her face, eyeing them warily. It was a strange sight, watching four super heroes slowly slump like that.

""As much as it would have been amusing to watch your collective butts being handed to you by Ranma, I just like to ask... what is it that you're fighting him for?"" Raven asked softly.

Robin was scratching his chin as he looked as his companions for a witty retort. Beast Boy has long transformed back to his humanoid form, and is now cowering behind Cyborg. The half-machine man stood straight rigidly, now eyeing Raven's twitching form nervously. Starfire was still floating in the air, but her earlier angered expression was now one of confusion. She chewed her lower lips as she looked at Raven.

They all looked at Ranma when the boy began to chuckle slightly. Seeing that the attention was riveted on him, Ranma commented, ""Err. Sorry. I was just remembering those times when I experienced the misunderstandings in the past. Back where I was raised, which was in Japan, our bathrooms have no locks, instead we have sliding doors. They were called furoba, and were usually composed of a dressing room, a washroom, and the small tub of water where one can soak. The furoba's sliding door can be secured by placing a sign signifying that someone's in the furo. Well, the furoba is an excellent source of accidents. You can just imagine the mishaps... I can clearly remember that one time accident that has branded me a pervert, when I was the one who was walked into in the first place.""

""Japan?"" Beast Boy asked curiously. ""But Star said...""

The pigtailed boy nodded, ""Duh... I already told you, didn't I? I was born and raised on this planet.""

Raven cracked a small smile. ""You must really be a pervert, allowing yourself to be exposed at that age too.""

Ranma pouted, ""You're being mean. It wasn't my fault.""

""But, we saw this Sai-Yahn knock you down. Is it not our prerogative as your friends to help you?"" Starfire asked meekly.

""As you can see..."" Raven gestured to herself, ""I'm still in one piece. Besides, I can take him..."" She suddenly glared at the pigtailed boy, who had a hand in the air and his mouth open, ready to retort to Raven's assessment. The dark-purple haired girl hissed, ""Shut up, Ranma.""

""Feh. Touchy."" Ranma grumbled. His senses suddenly blared internal klaxons, causing him to jerk a bit. He quickly scanned around him and faced East. From the far horizon, he saw a small pillar of light touch down on Earth somewhere at the distance.

Raven felt a slight shiver pass through her body as well, being a little sensitive to spirit energy. Her gaze snapped to Ranma, who was looking pensively at something. She followed his gaze, and her eyes widened.

The other Titans were just confused when the two suddenly fell silent, gazing at the same spot in the horizon. When they turned to take a look at whatever for their attention, they finally saw the strange beam of light lanced from the heavens vertical to the ground. Whatever it was, the look in Raven's face says it wasn't good.

Ranma suddenly spoke, as he slowly rose higher in the air, ""Stay here. This is something you probably won't win against. Chances are, this was something meant for me.""

The pigtailed alien hybrid had a sneaking suspicion that he was the target of whatever appeared on the other side of the beam, since the power level can be felt even from this distance. It also reminded him of how Bastet, the Goddess of Cats had felt when he tried to search her aura. Instead of ki, or life force, Ranma felt something a whole lot different. It was as if Bastet was made out of pure light, which was later explained to him as Mana. Whatever arrived gave off the same feeling to Ranma's senses.

Not bothering to say any more, his silvery aura burst from his form, startling the Titans badly. With a determined look on his face, his body shot from zero velocity to Mach 3 in less than thirty five microseconds. The resulting sonic boom knocked the Titans off their feet, causing them to fall down on their butts on the concrete roof of their Tower. They continued to stare at the fleeting form of Ranma in the sky, visible because of the silver streak of his aura.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In another part of the Universe, there was a small planetoid that has been isolated from 'normal space' when it was pulled into a person's 'subspace zone'. Normally, no ordinary being in the Universe can do such thing, but this person was hardly ever normal in the first place.

The person's subspace zone was an enlarged dark zone where various advanced equipments that would probably never see the light of the normal space. Its interior housed the captured planetoid, and was now a home for a large laboratory. The planet itself was littered by ultra rare plants, some weird animals that were believed to be long extinct from various parts of the Universe, and some banned equipments that the person managed to 'acquire'.

Inside the laboratory, the whole area was currently in stasis mode, since its master was asleep somewhere. Suddenly, the main control panel of the lab computer lit up, and it beeped harshly as an urgent message tried to assert itself into the system.

A string of curses filled the air, followed by some rustle of clothes and stomps that slowly led towards the main console. The silhouette of the laboratory's owner revealed little of its form, but it was quite small in height. The person's hair was a weird but spectacular disarray of spiky locks. The person pressed a button on the keyboard and let the information trickle into the screen.

The person called out something in a shrill voice that caused the lights of the laboratory to turn on automatically, bathing the whole room in a bright flash of white light. It revealed the owner of the lab, who was actually quite female. A pre-pubescent female wearing a tight fitting black body suit underneath her brown cloak, which covered most of her body. Her spiky hair was dark red in color, and her green eyes were still half-shut with sleepiness.

But her tiredness vanished when she finally read what was in the message. She quickly typed something into the console, and read the results once again. She fell back to a seat that was waiting for her from behind.

"By all that is holy..." The young girl muttered, massaging her forehead with her index fingers, "This is a rush. I knew I shouldn't have left Earth when Tenchi married into the royal family of planet Jurai. But with her grandfather Yosho going with her in Jurai, I have no choice but to leave too. Teaches me not to trust my brain..."

Shaking her head in self-pity, she turned to the data on the screen once again, a wide grin decorating her face now, "Where have you been all my life, my pretty guinea pig? Hehehehehe... I will enjoy examining you my pretty! But first!" Her grin became even more pronounced as a certain line in the information sheet flashed, "Won't she be surprised when she learns of this? I wonder... I betcha she'd have a heart attack!"

She cackled for a while as she typed into her console once again. A transparent screen appeared in front of her, displaying an image of a regal-looking stoic woman with brown hair cut to her neck. A large gem decorated the woman's forehead, her pasty white skin just enhanced her beauty that blended well with her dark lipstick. Her cheeks had leaves attacked to them, and her eyes were the strangest ones of all. Instead of the whites that normal humans had, hers had dark blue on them. Her pupils were almost non-existent, but to someone who was very observant they revealed to be much darker in hue than the dark blue that surrounded them. There were also slitted, not much different from a feline's.

The woman's gaze focused into the redhead's own, and a small scowl slowly emerged on her face. With a firm voice, she said, "Well, to what do I owe you this summons, sister? Do you wish to finally submit yourself to me?"

"Hardly..." The redhead scoffed, smiling ruefully at the seemingly older woman's image on her floating screen, "Can't I just call my lovely sister just to see if she's okay?"

It was the seemingly older woman's turn to sniff snidely, as her gaze turned into a hard glare. "We both know how you are, sister. You don't just call for to exchange pleasantries. If you do not wish bowing down to me, why have you disturbed me?" she asked in an agitated voice.

The caller sighed dramatically, "Oh pooh! So you've got me. Aww alright, I'll tell you." She leaned conspiratorially towards the screen, stage-whispering, "I received an urgent message from Earth. And I think you'll be as excited about this as I am right now." The redhead paused as she stared at the slowly simmering woman with a lazy grin.

The recipient of the call finally got tired of the silence and almost growled out, "So?! What is so important about this business from Earth?! What is it to me then?! Prove it to me or I will have you destroyed sooner than scheduled, sister!"

The redhead snorted and waved her angry comments away. Apparently, she wasn't concerned at the threats. "Fine fine... whatever you say, sis. Anyway..." she said as she pressed something on the console, "Here's a copy of some of the data I got from the message. As they say on Earth, 'Read 'em and weep, sister!'"

Blinking momentarily, the older woman on the screen turned to the side and looked at something beyond the caller's view. The normally stoic expression on the woman's face melted into confusion first, which was followed by a very shocked one. Her eyes widened marginally as her jaw hung slightly.

"By the gods... what is this?!" The brown haired woman screeched, her wide eyes looking into the redhead's own.

The caller raised an eyebrow as she replied, "Oh, so you do understand what this means, right? Does this mean you're interested? We can meet somewhere and investigate this ourselves. I'm going to send my response now."

The shocked woman just nodded dumbly to her in response, causing the redhead to cackle in amusement.

"You should be happy, sis, that you were able to leave an offspring, even if it was from another dimension!" The redhead continued chortling as she watched the other woman blush faintly.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Back on this reality's Earth...

"Now what?" Ranma muttered in Japanese as he sped towards the ray of light. It dissipated a few seconds ago, but the excess of the energy discharge still hung in the air as he zoomed towards its location.

Finally, after several minutes more of flying in cruising speed, Ranma was now hovering above the spot where he approximately saw the beam touched the ground. Sure enough, a crater can be seen below, still smoking a bit from the beam's impact. He could see five people on the ground, and seemed to be in some kind of a formation, like in the military. Ranma cautiously willed his body down to the ground, preparing himself from a probable battle. The people were powerful, and divine energy reeked from their aura.

The assembled people all turned to where Ranma had touched down on the ground, their leader standing in front of their formation.

The leader was female, wearing a dark blue armor that had two floating shoulder guards at her shoulder blades area. A huge sword was strapped at her hip, and an ornate helmet with feathers sticking out at the sides covered her head. Her face was of a beautiful woman with light blue hair, but her eyes were cold and calculating... but for some reason, they also had some sort of a weird glint in them, kinda like how Nabiki used to look at him whenever he just got out of the shower wearing only a towel around his waist.

The rest of her followers were all females, wearing a light gray armor version of their leader's. They all stood in attention, awaiting further orders from the female commander. They were also currently gazing at a leering manner towards the boy Ranma, who was actually squirming a bit at their silent inspection of him. Ranma could actually feel the interested stares the group was giving him.

""We finally found you, Ranma Saotome."" The leader of the small platoon said calmly.

Ranma scratched the back of his head, wary as to why these people knew of his old name. He never said anything about it. ""Err, right. But just Ranma will do.""

""Appropriate. I am Lenneth Valkyrie from the Heavens. As you might've noticed from our formation, these are my soldiers, my fellow Valkyries sent to deal with you."" The woman allowed a small smile grace her face, before composing herself. Her head snapped to the side, her eyes boring beyond the mountains that surrounded the small valley they were in. ""We have company.""

Ranma paused and felt for some aura he might've missed earlier, and was surprised when he felt a few good several people with very strong aura approaching their location at very high speeds. ""Ah... yeah."" he said slowly.

Sure enough, a group of people flying appeared in the horizon. As they drew near, Ranma saw that the one on the lead was male, and wore a flashy red cape and blue tights costume, one that has a huge 'S' plastered on its chest and the back of its cape. On that person's side, a bit further back, was a green man, kinda like Piccolo, now that Ranma had noticed it. He wore a blue-green cape, and a simple body armor. On the other side was a woman with black hair. Her bodice was strapless, and it was glaring red in color, with a simple golden lines design that zigzagged across the chest. Her arms were covered with bracers, and a coil of rope dangled on the side of her dark blue lower covering. On the other side of the green-skinned guy was a man in black and green tights, his chest decorated by a symbol that looked like a letter 'O' that had a couple of lines parallel to each other at the top and bottom of the sphere. He was glowing dark green as well. It was also weird that this same guy had some sort of a green bubble connected to something on his finger. Inside the green bubble was a guy in red overall tights that had a symbol of a lightning stitched into his chest, and beside him was another man in a black cape and gray tights. This man has a bat symbol exposed on the front of his clothes.

There was another approaching group a bit of a distance away from the first group, and it was being led by a large green Pterodactyl. On its back was Robin and Cyborg, with Raven and Starfire flying as escorts. Ranma winced at seeing these children in this predicament.

The woman shook her head, saying, ""Mortals can never mind their own business. They always wanted to meddle into affairs they were never involved into in the first place. Such is their downfall.""

""Probably."" Ranma muttered loudly. ""But it's also our strength.""

The woman chuckled slightly, turning her attention towards the pigtailed boy, ""You are hardly mortal anymore, Master Ranma. And yet you are. Such a contradiction.""

""Feh, I'm so glad I amuse you."" Ranma said drolly, as the two groups of super heroes touched down a little further away from them.

""Who are you? Why have you come to Earth?"" The man wearing the blue spandex with red cape that had the large S displayed on the chest of the costume stepped forwards first. It would seem that he was the leader of the group, and Ranma knew that the man was quite powerful.

Lenneth just turned her head to the side and addressed the newcomer, ""You should not meddle with affairs not of your concern, Kryptonian. Or would you rather be called, Superman? I apologize if that was what you would have wanted.""

Not even waiting for a viable response from the surprised superhero, she turned to the others behind him, saying, ""The same goes to all of you. Martian Manhunter..."" she nodded to the green man.

""The Green Lantern..."" a nod came to the man with green eyes and a green field of some sort surrounding his form.

""Wonder Woman..."" Lenneth looked intently at the only woman of the group as of the moment, who has black hair and blue eyes. Wonder Woman's eyes widened as she barely remembered something she had heard from her lessons of Mythology from her mother. The sight of the legendary warrior of the Asgardian Pantheon greatly shocked the Amazon.

The Valkyrie turned her stare to the man in a red spandex, ""The Flash...""

""Uhmm... hi?"" Flash attempted to lighten the mood, but failed miserably as he was thoroughly dismissed by Lenneth.

""And of course, Batman."" Lenneth shrugged at Batman, who stared back silently.

A sudden eerie silence fell as the groups sized one another up, but it was broken when the Teen Titans' group finally reached the area. Beast Boy allowed Robin and Cyborg to jump off from his back before transforming back to his normal form. Starfire and Raven landed at Robin's side, while the Boy Wonder took the lead and stepped in front of their side.

Ranma groaned loudly, as he smacked his palm to his forehead, ""Geez... didn't I just tell you guys not to follow me? Crazy kids...""

""Kids?"" Beast Boy screeched incredulously, pointing at Chibi-Ranma, ""Dude, you're a kid too ya know?!""

""Looks can be deceiving."" Lenneth cut into the conversation amicably, ""Master Ranma is anything but a child.""

""'Master'?"" The Martian Manhunter, J'onn, asked curiously. ""The matter right now, is that why have you come here?""

Lenneth sniffed loudly as she looked at J'onn in slight irritation, ""What we want to do matters not to you, mortal. However, since you are to be persistent if my person would not give any response to your query, I will reply anyway. We have come here to take Master Ranma, intact or not. Of course, we preferred him intact, but it is of no consequence as to in what state.""

The aforementioned person snorted. ""That's really reassuring.""

""You must be desperate to have him."" Batman commented, as he stole an inquisitive glance to the pigtailed boy. His eyebrow raised when he saw the red furry tail coiling and uncoiling behind the boy. ""He's an extra-terrestrial... or is it a mutant? Is he some kind of experiment that escaped your laboratories?""

""That's new..."" Ranma muttered, but was ignored.

""Laboratories? What do you take us for...?"" Lenneth asked outraged, her eyes boring into Batman's masked ones.

""ANYway..."" The man known as Superman stepped forward, almost stepping over the Valkyrie's 'personal space' which almost caused her to growl at him, and said, ""We won't let you take or harm this child. Extra-terrestrial or not, he hasn't done anything remotely wrong yet. So, we will defend him.""

Lenneth bared her teeth at him in askance, ""Did I ask permission to do so, mortal? You do not understand... we WILL take him, whether you like it or not. You mortals love to dabble on affairs not of your concern. But, this is one predicament you do not want to immerse your heads into.""

""We'll take our chances..."" Superman said stoically, his eyes narrowing into slits, ""We will fight you.""

The blue-armored Valkyrie lifted her hand to the hilt of her blade that hung on her hip, and said in a cool, monotone voice, ""Is that a challenge, mortal?""

Before Superman could step up to the plate and retort to the irate woman, Wonder Woman had stepped between the two powerful beings, her expression a little shaken as she looked at Lenneth pensively. She replied in a soft but audible tone of her voice, contrast to the usual loud brash attitude she usually displayed in her previous fights, ""We will not challenge you, Mistress. Please forgive our transgression.""

The rest of the Justice League stared at the Amazon in shock. They have never seen her so humbled, ever.

Lenneth looked at Wonder Woman in slight appraisal, nodding in appreciation, ""At the very least, the Amazon knows of some manners.""

Batman looked at Wonder Woman quizzically, who refused to look at anyone but the ground below Lenneth's feet. He asked carefully, ""Diana, are you all right?""

Wonder Woman nodded. ""Yes. Please... just be silent and do not aggravate the situation."" she hissed back to her teammates, her head still bowed slightly.

Unfortunately, Flash's mouth was a parody of his super speed, which immediately ran amok. ""What's the hold up? We can beat these girls, right?""

Only the Flash's fast reflexes saved him from the titanic energy wave that passed by him. He stumbled to the side as a narrow trench exploded on the energy's path. He felt something sharp press into his throat, causing him to gulp loudly and froze him immobile.

Superman and his other teammates were shocked into immobility, as they watched Lenneth drew her sword from its scabbard with nary a sound. A huge explosion of power erupted when she slashed the sword towards the Flash's general direction, missing the red-clad super hero by inches. As if to add insult, Lenneth's form blurred and reappeared upon Flash's prone form, her sword already poised for the killing blow pointed out to his neck. The Teen Titans were very surprised, at seeing someone could beat the Flash's speed easily.

""I suggest you curb your tongue, mortal."" Lenneth's voice was cold and ruthless, as she pressed her sword into Flash's throat warningly. ""I do not have time to waste on someone like you.""

Wonder Woman gasped, ""Please! He's normally a crass individual, but don't harm him because of it!""

""Let him go, Lenneth. I think he got the idea."" Everyone turned to gaze at Ranma, who stared at the scene impassively. They have momentarily forgotten that he was there, and that he was actually the cause of all these.

Lenneth wordlessly pulled her sword and pushed the Flash to the side, causing the nervous Justice League member to fall down on the ground on his knees, clutching at his neck thankfully.

""Are you ready to come with us then, Master Ranma?"" Lenneth asked once again as she sheath her sword back into its scabbard.

Ranma pulled an eyelid down with his finger and stuck his tongue out of his mouth, causing the four other Valkyries to gasp in indignation, while Lenneth's brow twitched in annoyance. ""No way! Nobody has any right to order me around, not even God himself!"" he declared loudly.

The lead Valkyrie sighed, ""Please, Master Ranma! You have already been declared as a Heretic of Existence. You are to be hunted down and taken to the Almighty, intact or not! Even the Doublet System, the Rule that prevented the Angels and Demons to exterminate each other, has been lifted just for this occasion! Please be reasonable... I do not wish for us to battle!""

Suddenly, a tense silence followed. Everyone watched in fascination as Ranma's earlier teasing face melted into a serious one, his stance quickly shifting into a passive battle stance.

""Is that a challenge, Lenneth?"" Ranma's voice has taken a seemingly deeper tone, causing everyone to shiver slightly at the sudden gust of cold wind.

The other four women warriors finally moved to flank Lenneth, their hands on their own weapons as they grew alert in case of any attacks that may commence.

The leader of the Valkyries allowed a small smile to grace her face. ""I would never presume you would allow yourself to be captured without a fight. Shall we do this?""

Ranma's own grin matched Lenneth's own, as the lone boy and the five Valkyries slowly edged away from the crowding group without removing their stares from each other.

""Hey, wait a minute!"" Green Lantern called out, his ring glowing green once again, ""We can't allow that boy to fight those women!""

""I dunno... I think he's lucky those women are after him."" Beast Boy muttered to himself, earning a bop to the head from Cyborg.

Wonder Woman stepped in front of the Green Lantern's way, barring the irate warrior from pursuing the group of travelers. She looked the wielder of the Power Ring and said seriously, ""We cannot interfere with the events to follow.""

""You already hammered that idea down earlier, Diana."" Batman said tonelessly, ""What we'd like to know is, why?""

Diana spun to face the impassive expression on Batman's visage, saying, ""Don't you get it? When they said they're Valkyries, that wasn't just an expression or a call sign."" Turning to look at J'onn, she continued, ""You know, don't you? You felt it. All those years you've been traveling in other worlds, you should've known who they were. Those weren't mere mortal beings... they're warriors of the gods.""

""Surely, we can---"" Superman began, but a scathing look for the simmering Amazon silenced him.

""Those warriors are familiar to us, since we have some sort of link from Athena. The gods are actually categorized by Pantheons, or in human terms, clans or houses. The Valkyries are from the Norse Pantheon, and are Odin's personal bodyguards and warriors. Odin, roughly speaking, is the lead god in the Norse group."" Diana explained impatiently.

""But still..."" Flash has recovered enough of his bravado to stand and step to the direction where the women had left. But something made them stop.

""Stay there!"" Ranma's voice stopped the Justice League and the Teen Titans on their tracks, as the pigtailed boy and the Valkyries moved away from the area. ""There are some fights where you shouldn't interfere. This is my fight, my honor. To disrupt my fight is slandering my honor."" the boy said coldly without turning to them.

Raven nodded in understanding. ""At some point, he is right. He accepted the challenge by himself, and he is also confident he can handle himself. We have no right to take that away from him.""

Batman turned a cold glare on the cloaked individual, saying, ""Be that as it may, but what about the damage they could potentially create? It's not their planet after all---""

""Actually..."" Raven cut into Batman's tirade, ""Ranma was born and raised here, on Earth.""

The Justice League's response was a general chorus of, ""What?""

""So he says..."" Robin asserted.

Raven glanced at the leader of the Teen Titans. ""I thought of all people, you should've noticed the small details. The way he interacted with people, the way he knew everything about this planet, the foods he loved, and the way they are cooked... all signs of a typical Earth born person.""

The boy wonder sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, saying, ""Well... okay. You've got a point there.""

""A Sai-Yahn... born on Earth..."" Starfire mentioned thoughtfully, ""I heard that in every planet a Sai-Yahn was sent to, the planet was either destroyed, or appraised to be sold to the highest intergalactic bidder.""

""Saiyan..."" J'onn, the Martian Manhunter, stared after the departing group, ""I remember. Extremely powerful warriors, if not the strongest of all in the Universe. A Kryptonian would find it very hard to do battle with a Saiyan. They thrived in a harsh environment, and their planet was called Vegeta. The planet was a natural training ground, where Saiyans are born in a gravity much higher than Earth's. They lived to fight, and their social status depends on how well each of them fights. They were hired as a mercenaries by an intergalactic family called the Cold Empire, which terrorized somewhere in the southwestern hemisphere of the Universe. This hemisphere is under the jurisdiction of another alien race, called the Juraians, which are probably the only beings that could stand up to the Saiyans.""

Turning to Superman, J'onn continued, ""And based on the amount of energy being emitted from the boy, he could beat you by strength alone.""

An explosion cut into conversation, as the whole crowd's attention was taken to the rising cloud of dust from the direction where Ranma and the Valkyries went a short while ago. Another loud explosion rocked the area, causing the Justice League and the Teen Titans scrambled towards the place of the battle, but careful not to rouse the Valkyries' wrath on their intended intrusion.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

""Crap..."" Ranma muttered to himself as he dodged another vacuum wave-induced arrow coming from a Valkyrie warrior. The four other warriors that came with Lenneth had each different elemental masteries. They complimented one another as they attacked as one, with Lenneth leading the charge.

He was idly wondering what made him accept the challenge in the first place. It was like he saw flashes for a moment, then his mouth moved in its own accord. Before he knew it, he was already in the fight for his life.

Sturmhild, the Valkyrie who wields the Bow of Eternal Winds, has excellent control over air and lightning. The arrows coming from her quill were all imbued by magic, particularly Wind magic.

Terris, the Valkyrie who wields the Hammer of Oblivion, has command over the Earth. She could mentally command clumps of earth to pull themselves out of the ground and hurl them towards her enemies. Her hammer can induce an earthquake of extreme magnitude when it hits the ground. Imagine what it could do to anyone's head.

Filaender, the Valkyrie who wields the Sword of Flame, can summon the magma from underneath the Earth. She can command any fire, and can create hot energy balls of fire that can reach the temperature of a miniature sun, and other toned down versions of it. Her flame covered sword can slice through most things like a hot knife through butter.

Aquarius, the Valkyrie who wields the Staff of Water, can actually force moisture out of the air and the ground to be formed into ice crystals or any form she wished it to be. As her name denoted, her mastery over water and every form it took was superb.

Whoops. The pigtailed boy grimaced as an arrow filled with wind magic grazed his shoulder, tearing another part of the black clothes that he wore since he got to this dimension. It's not really hurting him, the magic and all, but the clothes were the only ones he had after all. Also, he'd rather not show everyone his new armor yet. According to the reactions of the Nirvana Crew, he looked pretty damn cool in it.

The boy spun horizontal to the ground when he felt a tingle of magic approaching him once again. He shot his hand forward, completely halting his spin on midair, and he saw a shard of earth and a sharp spike of ice converging on his position. Using the same hand that stopped his earlier momentum, he pushed his body off the ground, allowing the two elemental projectiles to miss him totally. He landed a few feet from the attacks' detonations, when he stepped back and allowed another arrow of wind to stick unto the position he was in before. The trio of multi-colored gems on his forehead gleamed in anticipation as he smirked at the Valkyries that dared to challenge him. He vaguely heard the soft landings of those super hero guys that he met before. He could also hear some of the gasps of surprise from them, which forced him to blink and examine whatever caused them to be surprised.

Well, the entire place was like a moon's surface, full of craters and smoking piles of smoking debris.

Lenneth was actually impressed. She had thought that her personally-trained Valkyries would be able to finish the job in less than five minutes of struggle. The reports from Asgard must be true then, that Ranma was the epitome of fighting. Her blood suddenly boiled, but not unpleasantly so, since she has found someone she could actually let loose on and survive.

Someone who would survive and might even WIN against her in a power fight.

Well, actually, she hadn't been briefed thoroughly about this mission. She was just summoned into the Almighty's royal hall, and was given a folder and some light orders on how to proceed. The mission parameters have been sketchy at best, and the details in the file she was given was still not sufficient. All she knew was that Ranma Saotome, who declared himself as Ranma Chuushin at some point, had been involved in a temporal anomaly and was now on his way to acquire Great Power. There was the main clause as well, that Ranma was a Universal Heretic, the first one of his kind. The Almighty has generously explained to her what the unfamiliar term was, and from what she could garner from his extravagant story of the distant past, Ranma was a HUGE threat to the Universe. It would seem that he can affect ANY fate or destiny he accidentally brushed on, and forever changing paths certain universes had to take.

Because of this, the information has already been sent to her other counterparts in other parallel worlds, sent by Lenneth herself.

She has selected the prime and best student Valkyries she could find, and lucky for her they seemed to have taken different aspects of elements. The variety was a huge welcome, since this Ranma's capabilities drew a big blank.

Lenneth mentally shook her head as she gazed at the boy a few ways before the Valkyries' positions. As if by some telepathic command, the four elemental soldiers looked back at her quizzically, asking for an answer about something. She just nodded her head, and the women understood her meaning.

It was time to up the ante, and to finish the fight with a flourish.

""By Mars..."" J'onn muttered loudly, gaping at the amount of life energy each of the warriors inside the huge natural arena were emitting.

Ranma was actually surprised when he watched two of the women move faster than they had moved earlier, and the other two Valkyries rushed towards him. As good as he was in fighting, he still had a lot to learn about team tactics. He was never one for team fighting, but he can hold his own. The group of Valkyries were the gods' finest warriors, bred to fight huge and powerful demon armies and even fight at the Twilight of the Gods.

The pigtailed hybrid quickly leapt upwards to gain ground from his adversaries, but it was then he realized it was a ruse, since Sturmhild was one of those who had moved earlier on. Ranma felt the tingle at the back of his head, a sure sign of magical discharge. He was almost cut in half as a finer version of his own vacuum blade breezed by him. The front part of his clothes were already torn away, revealing the black newly modified body suit Washuu had tinkered on for him. He kicked into the air, causing a slight gust of wind to tunnel down to the ground that caused a slight crater, as he was propelled higher in the air in faster speeds.

His senses were still screaming magical energy at him. He was slammed by huge chunks of ice that came raining down from the sky. Ranma finally discerned who the other Valkyrie was. He saw that Sturmhild and Aquarius were floating above him, as he turned and fell to the ground back first with a loud crash. The whole area shook, and a whole load of cloud dust exploded upon impact.

Undeterred, Terris and Filaender released their own elemental attacks at the spot where Ranma fell, creating more explosions of dust from the area. Sturmhild and Aquarius landed beside them, watching the scene impassively as Ranma got pummeled by the attacks. They both lifted their hands in the air and summoned balls of divine mana energy, casting the elemental destruction to mesh with the attacks being thrown into the mess in the valley.

Back to the stunned super heroes, Raven breathed out, ""He's not fighting back. Why?""

Superman finally recovered his bearings and said, ""The boy's being pummeled! We can't let that happen!""

The Kryptonian was about to leap into the fray, when a cold voice interrupted him.

""Do you really believe that?"" Lenneth's unemotional voice startled the costume-clad people, both young and the old. They hadn't even seen the dark-blue armored warrior from the heavens move near them, yet there she was near their position, watching the chaos that was in the middle of the miniature arena of the area that was enclosed in a huge circle of mountain ranges. Her eyes obviously reflected a slight amusement as the earth was rocked with shattering explosions of power, which still haven't abated a bit.

The Flash retorted, ""I don't know about you but... I don't think even Darkseid can stand up against THAT."" He was still quite weary of Lenneth's blatant annoyance for his theatrics, so he settled on just skirting away from the woman's territorial circle for a while.

""How can anyone release so much power without the environment suffering for it?"" John Stewart, AKA Green Lantern, asked curiously.

Lenneth shrugged. ""There has been a divine shield situated all over the area as we speak. It may let organics inside, but the destructive energies are filtered into free form energy and allows them to disperse harmlessly outside."]

Seeing the shocked look on everyone's face, she scoffed, ""Do you believe that we would stoop so low as to go about and destroy everything just because we can? If that is what you think, then you are gravely mistaken. But then again, I never did expect anything more from mortals.""

""You expect us..."" Superman gestured around him, indicating himself and the rest of his team, ""To just stand back and watch this... mindless carnage in front of us? You didn't even offer a good explanation for doing this, other than stating how... lowly... us mortals are.""

""It is not over."" Raven's monotone voice droned, causing everyone to face her in wonder. The ash-skinned girl wouldn't speak unless spoken to, or there was something significant she wished to say. It was surprising, for her teammates as well as their sometimes partners the Justice League, for her to speak so freely. She also allowed a small sense of wonder in her voice when she did, since she was also quite surprised that she did it in the first place. But the scene was so interesting for her.

Raven could understand Superman's views on the situation, but she knew who these beings were. She was half-demon, and that side of her was screaming danger to her regarding these women. Not in the sense that they're going to do something remotely evil to the world, but it was wariness that she understood. And the 'mauling' she was watching in front of her... and the words the Valkyrie has spoken a while ago... it all gave her some clues as to why she still felt Ranma's energy in a particularly high but slightly fluctuating level.

The foursome of Valkyries that followed Lenneth had long stopped their bombardment of elemental attacks, allowing the dust and the debris to settle down, as well as to see if their quarry had been subdued.

When the dust finally abated, only a moundful of rocks was all that was visually left in the middle of a huge crater.

Everyone fell silent. The Justice League members, as well as four of the Teen Titans were staring at the scene in abject horror. They have just witnessed a murder, and they were virtually powerless to stop it.

Lenneth, Raven, and the four Valkyries were alert, watching the mound warily. One would see that they were waiting for something to happen.

A small burst of sand erupted from the mound of dirt, caused by a black fingerless gloved hand clawing out of the small hole it came from. The Valkyries watched in grim anticipation as another black fingerless gloved hand erupted on another part of the mound, which was quickly followed by a slightly muscled arm that were covered by the tattered remains of dark cloth, but underneath it was a layer of sleek black material. The part of the arm near the hand was covered in a thick dark blue bracer, that has a golden band near the hand side.

The Justice League and the Teen Titans watched with baited breath as the mound exploded, and a black and blue blur came out of the dust cloud.

Lenneth looked at the figure. ""So, you will finally take us seriously, Master Ranma?"" she was oddly smiling. There was also the slight wavering near the end of her question. She could feel the power rolling in waves from the figure that came out of the ground.

""I really didn't want to, but you were pushing it."" A deep baritone voice answered back gruffly, surprising the League and the Titans respectively. The shrill voice of the boy from earlier was gone, replaced by something far more primal and powerful. They all stared at the figure that rose from the literal grave.

The figure of the boy they had met earlier was gone, replaced by a young man no older than eighteen years of Earth age. His body was covered in a sleek black body armor that was like a spandex in some aspects. His body was covered in a dark blue armor that looked like a thick shirt. His groin area was covered in a thick white bikini brief type armor. A red furry tail slithered hither and yonder at the base of his spine, which his armor had a hole for. His dark blue boots reached up to his knees, and it has two golden anklets around the ankles themselves.

Around his neck was another thick ring of gold, and his face was smooth. His forehead displayed the trio of gold, dark purple and silver gems that shimmered every once in a while. His formerly black hair was now flaming red, still tied neatly in a tight pigtail at the back of his head, giving everyone the impression that he was definitely Asian. But the part of his face they were drawn into were his eyes.

The black tinted eyeglasses he wore was discarded by the blasts, and now Ranma's eyes were clear for everyone to see. His pupils were golden in color, which were surrounded by blue-gray instead of whites as per normal humans. It accented the golden orbs of his pupils a lot more, giving the effect of a brightly shining sun in the middle of a cloudless day.

Nevermind the fact that there was a silver aura surrounding his body, which has encompassed at least a ten-foot radius around the former boy. A bit of lightning arched all over his body as the aura burned brightly.

The crowd finally realized that he was still floating in mid-air with his battle aura in full swing, currently glaring mildly at them in annoyance. His arms were now crossed across his chest.

Beast Boy whistled appreciatively, ""Well, I've heard of growth spurts but... damn! That was one quick spurt! And the hair... man! It's wicked!"" A smack on the green boy's head from the metallic hand of Cyborg caused him to yelp.

""That doesn't happen, idiot."" Cyborg said in annoyance, visibly confused at what had happened.

""That's impossible."" Robin muttered more to himself, but he was heard by those around him anyway. He discreetly looked down on his own body, finding a barely adequate comparison to the one who was a kid from before.

""By Athena... I've never seen the likes before."" Wonder Woman said in awe. She was a warrior, and she was trained to recognize an opponent's skill. What she was witnessing right now was raw power, something she hadn't felt on any human, ever. The way the boy was currently releasing with his aura was unlike anything she has ever seen.

Superman raised an eyebrow. ""So he grew, what's so great about that?"" he said snidely, feeling very secure about his own body. Behind him, Green Lantern nodded in agreement. Although Stewart was also a bit impressed at the amount of the energy spike the transformed boy released prior to his transformation was phenomenal.

Compared to their bodies, Ranma was actually more of a lithe dancer with slightly muscled parts of his body. Just enough for everyone to see they're there, but not overly specify the thought.

Unknown to all of them, Raven's gaze was still locked on the floating figure, muttering softly, ""So cool..."" But it wasn't soft enough, since Lenneth's eyes followed hers as the leader of the Valkyries' face lit up in mischievousness.

Shaking her head out of her 'childish' thoughts for the moment, Lenneth stepped forward, her hand resting on top of the hilt of her sword. She gazed up at Ranma and smirked, ""Well well, we meet at last for real, Master Ranma. Ready for round two?""

The transformed young man grunted as he closed his eyes in irritation, replying, ""I don't fight women for no reason."" But his reasoning, albeit insulting, was deftly ignored mostly. When he opened his eyes, the women warriors have already moved.

""Sonic Flash!"" Sturmhild yelled, firing off three arrows imbued with charges of wind magic towards Ranma.

""Rising Earth!"" Terris slammed her enormous hammer into the ground, letting a couple of huge chunks of earth fly up. She then batted them towards Ranma, her hammer's head glowing with mana.

""Frost Dagger!"" Aquarius gestured some unknown symbols in the air with her staff, gathering the air molecules from the air. She formed a big ball of water in front of her, and stabbed her staff into it. The water froze and broke apart, its crystal dagger-like debris homing to the transformed boy's position.

Filaender waved her glowing sword in the air, shouting, ""Flame Pillar!"" A huge wave of red hot flame shot out of her sword, racing towards Ranma as well.

""NO!"" That alternate Earth's super heroes shouted as the attacks came speeding towards the unmoving Ranma. As they prepared to jump and defend the young man, Lenneth's sword made a soft metallic hissing sound as it slid out of its scabbard.

Lenneth's eyes glowed softly for a moment, as she said in a low and menacing voice, ""I will warn you for the last time. Do not interfere.""

Up in the air, Ranma's eyes narrowed a bit as he saw the massive amounts of mana energy being hurled towards him once again. He had wanted to test his endurance against magical attacks, especially his armor. But his body, as if acting on instinct, his back flared up in pain, causing him to grimace slightly. All thoughts of everything around him disappeared for now, as he felt the familiar twitching his back muscles were exerting as of the moment. He held the same feeling of energy that gathered at his back, but it was all in vain. He grunted as THEY burst out of his back.

A shimmer of white exploded behind him, as Ranma saw the elemental attacks close in around him. At the same time, sharp lances of pain erupted in his cranium, making him wince as he balanced his attention between his head and his back.

Ranma barely even noticed that he was already in the middle of the maelstrom of energy that was already breaking through the reddish barrier he had put up. As of the moment, his mind was in the middle of unlocking some more of his long forgotten past, rather, his past lives' memories. Just as Chaos promised him they would.

There was a loud explosion, followed by a shower of multicolored lights flying all over the place. As the light show finally subsided, the whole entourage was treated to another strange sight.

""What... what are those?!""

No one can really tell who said it first, but it seemed that they all said it at the same time. They had been surprised when a flash erupted from Ranma's floating form, before the attacks made by the Divine warriors were deflected in all directions, each exploding away harmlessly.

When everyone's attention finally focused on the young man himself, they received yet another shock.

Ranma was apparently unharmed but... there were two silver wings jutting out from his back.

Two massive wings, enough to cover his whole body like they were doing as of the moment. Wrapped around Ranma's body, it served like a long silver full body cloak.

Ranma gave silvery translucent wings that had wrapped themselves around his body protectively a brief gaze of surprise, ""Uhmm... it isn't that time of the week yet. I wonder why they came out like that...?""

At this sudden change of pace, the Valkyries slowly backed away, eyeing the gently-flapping appendages that had burst out of Ranma's back.

Lenneth on the other hand was rooted in place, staring wide-eyed at the new predicament, ""How?! The reports never said anything about you being an Angel!"" Her eyes then narrowed when she fully inspected the appendages, saying, ""Wait... no. Those are not Angel Wings. Those are manifestations of power...""

Sighing, the pigtailed young man floated downwards, eyeing Lenneth and her fellow Valkyries curiously. As he landed on the ground, he noticed that the various... 'heroes', he reckoned, dressed in different flashy-colored uniforms were wary of him. Ranma was slightly confused at that point, since he knew that they were powerful in their own might. So why did they fear him?

A slight pain throbbed into his head once again, reminding Ranma of the phantom memories that flashed into his mind while he was buffeted by numerous mana-induced elemental attacks. He paused in his contemplation, trying to ascertain how he knew what to call them in the first place.

His memories flashed him something akin to people avoiding him in his lost distant past. He was Different from the rest of the Abyss' creations, and it showed how his powers had manipulated all of Creation itself, even without his consent. Only a few people tolerated his presence in the same place long enough, and one woman was actually talking to him. Another flash flared in his mind, and he barely recognized the woman he had dreamt long ago, a platinum blond haired woman with weird and seemingly childish star tattoos all over her face.

""Why the heck am I thinking of Hild right now of all times..."" Ranma muttered to himself as he shook his head. His puzzled expression suddenly became evident as he asked himself, ""For that matter, I wonder why I never knew who Hild was before, and now I do... anyway. What a rush...""

Back to the others, the four most powerful Valkyries, aside from their leader Lenneth, were now standing around their leader. Lenneth was still gazing at Ranma contemplatively, fingering her sword Levantine. Dimly hearing her subordinates asking her a question, the harbringer of death snapped her thoughts from the young man that had completely surprised her and turned to her four companions.

""What do you intend us do now, Lady Lenneth?"" The Valkyrie of the Earth asked the question she knew her other fellow Valkyries had in their own minds regarding the current matter.

Lenneth Valkyrie eyed everyone warily, assessing the situation with her sharp wit and battle-honed strategic sense. After a few moments of formulating her reply, she finally said, ""You must rest your weary bones. I will do battle in your stead.""

The other four women bristled to protest, but when their leader raised her hand they were effectively silenced. Seeing that her subordinates followed accordingly, Lenneth continued, ""I understand your feelings, fellow Valkyries. My decision to have you stand down does not mean you have failed your mission. Rather, you fought very well, in most circumstances.""

She paused to glance at Ranma's way, who was still confused at the alien information flowing inside his head. ""There have been certain factors that have arisen, and we have none of the information regarding them. His current battle prowess was unexpected, since it was never described as such in the reports. It would seem that no one in Asgard expected this much power from one like him.""

""Indeed."" The Valkyrie of the Fire element agreed. Sheathing her flaming blade into its special scabbard around her waist, she continued, ""The attacks we threw at his person would have destroyed most high level demons and some mid-level gods. He just took them easily, and it was as if he was never hit in the first place.""

""Hey."" A bewildered voice broke everyone's lamentations. They all faced Ranma, who was idly rolling his shoulders to make himself accustomed to his wings once again.

Lenneth stepped forwards, unsheathing her sword in the process. ""Do not be hasty, Master Ranma. I believe it is my turn to do battle with you.""

The young man smacked his face with his hand, saying, ""I just can't catch a break, can't I? I don't even wanna fight girls without any real reason whatsoever.""

The Valkyrie took the comment in stride. ""I may be able to change your mind. Lord Odin wished for your capture... or death. Whichever of the two may come first is acceptable.""

Ranma shook his head dejectedly, folding his wings behind his back. ""Both doesn't seem too favorable for me, in any way."" he said softly. Looking up to the leader of the Valkyries, he said in firm resolve, ""I don't fight girls for no reason.""

Raising a delicate eyebrow in amusement, Lenneth smirked slightly at the stoic Ranma, ""Well, I might be able to give you a good reason to fight a 'girl' like me then."" She lifted her divine sword at eye level, it's curved tip pointing towards the young man.

Seeing the sword Levantine pointed at him, Ranma felt a brief flash of pain all over his body, but it was focused mainly in his head as he winced slightly. Shaking his head to ward off the momentary dizziness, he carefully considered his options.

But as always, Ranma Saotome's life was never easy. As with his experiences in the past, his opponent never gave him the time to form a nice retort when the girl leapt into the one-sided battle, with the intent to decapitate his head from his body.

The fight was on.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

In all the multiverses, there has always been a single focal point of Existence. This is the center of Everything, the point of origin. This was where the initial Dark Abyss forged the multiverses from the recesses of its power, as well as its inhabitants.

The gods and goddesses, as well as demons and demonesses that existed up until now were part of this Existence. Only the most prominent and strongest of the divine and the demonic were able to sustain their Existence well enough to repel the twists of the Timelines branching out. This constituted of the Trinity of the Divine, the Ancient Gods, and the second tier of divine and demonic generations of beings that spawned from the initial ones.

There was a general timeline for the main point of Existence, and as of now, at present ranging from all the Multiverses' points of view, the prison planet holding the Ancient Gods at bay was now waning.

Chronus, the gigantic leader of the Ancient Gods, was patiently waiting for his minions to finish drilling a hole into the very powerful shield Chaos has given his life to put up into. And since no one from the Ancient Gods can really do anything but wait, they amused themselves by carefully prodding mixed events and odd occurrence all over the multiverses. Minor changes into the different timelines that their powers can affect somehow was enough for now.

One such backlash of power tendril drifted into the current Universe Ranma was into as of the moment, and a portal of some sort erupted in the vast darkness of space just outside the Jupiterian space. A good twenty to thirty dark silhouettes exited the portal, and went straight for a collision course with the planet Earth.

Ranma, for all his mortal looks (relatively) and all, is Chaos personified. Not some cheap imitation, or an avatar even, but Chaos himself. His whole being was derived directly from Chaos itself. After countless eons of drifting along the multiverses, the dispersed energy of Chaos after he had erected the barrier to imprison the Ancient Gods had gathered into one point once again, and they all garnered into Ranma's body.

There are some strays here and there in other dimensions, but they were impure forms of Chaos.

And everywhere Chaos goes, chaos will follow. That was why the newly arrived alien beings that had just come out of their dimensional warp headed out directly towards Earth. It was as if they were drawn into it.

Ranma would probably recognize them. He had already encountered them before.

Back in the undetermined version of an altered Earth Ranma had fallen into, the young man shivered unconsciously as he dodged another one of the swipes from Lenneth's sword. He felt the tinge of wrongness echo all over the dimension, but he still hasn't been able to ascertain what that feeling was, since he wasn't fully merged with Chaos' memories.

Not yet, anyway.

To the witnesses watching the spectacle, they had mentally compared this battle from the previous one, and the differences were glaringly obvious.

If the first bout was all about strength, power, and flashy moves... this one was almost the exact opposite.

There were still a bit of power moves being thrown here and there, as they had witnessed earlier when Lenneth had thrown something called 'Nibelung Valesti' towards Ranma. The red-tailed being with silver wings had dodged the attack, but its power shuddered the entire area, even as the ones watching were outside the erected divine barrier. But no, this battle was different, because the flashy moves were limited to a T, and they were moving at supersonic speeds that the spectators were hard-pressed to follow. Probably only Flash and Superman could follow the battle, the others were just staring as to where the next point the fighters will appear for a split second, frozen in their battle stances, before disappearing into motion once again.

Ranma just shook his head as another flare of pain wracked his limbs. It had been progressively getting more frequent, especially as that blasted sword of Lenneth's was swishing near him. It was as if his body was reacting to something related to the sword. He almost got hit twice by that special sword maneuver Lenneth pulled on him because of his distraction. Not only does the pain in his head constantly irritating him, but now the pain in his body was adding to the effect. Also, flashes of memories kept on showing in his head here and there during the fight, causing him to almost stumble awkwardly in the middle of this fight. His armor, no matter how powerful it may seem, has already some scratches on some parts, because of some nicks Lenneth managed to sneak into his defenses. Still, they weren't too serious, but the sword was really powerful. Not only that, but Lenneth was a pretty damn good swordswoman.

Still, she was a woman who had absolutely no affront towards him, and she was only following orders. So here he was now, not able to form a decent counter attack, since he was still a bit leery about fighting women, especially those he has no quarrel with. Sparring is good, but fighting like this still hasn't given a good feel for him.

After a few minutes of the high-paced battle, Lenneth finally leapt for a bit of distance from Ranma, her sword poised at her side. ""Why do you not fight back?!"" she growled out.

Ranma had already spun away from her latest swipe, and was quite grateful that Lenneth decided to back away for the moment. It gave him a few seconds to collect himself. He finally replied, ""I told you earlier, I can't fight you. Not only because you're a woman, but because I don't have a reason to fight back. That's no disrespect, mind you, it's absolutely the opposite. I respect you and your dedication to your work, but I think you might have been... misinformed.""

Again he shook his head. Where the heck were these words coming from? Oh, Ranma knew they was from him, from his lips, from his mind... but still! Were these the effects of the ongoing assimilation between himself and Chaos?

Hmmm. Something to ponder in the future. Ack! He did it again!

Anyway, no need to ruminate on the mysteries of his universe, because as of the moment Lenneth was progressively getting angrier by the minute at his response earlier. Geez, can anyone really turn THAT red when they're honest to bursting with anger? Do Harbringers of Death have heart attacks?

""I am to beat you, or even kill you for that matter, and yet you think that those are not reasons enough for you to fight?"" Lenneth asked incredulously.

Ranma just shrugged. ""Kinda... I mean, you don't really WANT to kill me, you just had to coz of some mission.""

The Valkyrie's eyes flashed bright blue as she growled out, ""You miserable worm! I will decapitate your head and throw your soul into the abyss of Niffelheim! The words of the Alfadur are Absolute! We do not question them!""

""Then you are just a Puppet, foolish Valkyrie."" Ranma's face suddenly grew grim, as his eyes flashed golden for a moment. The tone of his voice dropped into an icy one, causing it to reverberate all over the area. Everyone who had the misfortune of hearing his words shivered visibly. ""You say you follow without question. Only Puppets follow their Puppeteers without question, since they do not have the Will to question so."" Then all of the sudden, his face grimaced a bit as Ranma grabbed his head with his right hand, saying, ""The hell? Where did that thought come from?""

""How dare you!"" Lenneth's voice was reflecting unbridled fury, as her sword glowed angrily to match her mood.

""Sorry..."" Ranma said sadly, still shaking his head ruefully, ""I don't know what came over me. But you have to admit, what I might have blurted out was right. Only a puppet follows without question."" Snorting loudly, he exclaimed, ""Well! I think it's time for me to... disappear right now.""

Without waiting for a response, Ranma quickly flapped his wings instinctively, and shot upwards the sky. Only to smack into the divine barrier that has been set for the battle beforehand. The pigtailed hybrid slid off the light blue barrier, but immediately regained his composure as his descent stopped in mid-air.

""You were saying, Lord Ranma?"" Lenneth asked amused, her earlier anger towards Ranma's words were momentarily forgotten. But one could see in her eyes that there was a slight flicker of doubt already forming.

""Dammit, that hurts!"" Ranma whined as he rubbed his head, his eyes screwed shut.

Lenneth wasted no time, leaping into the air and prepared her sword for her final blow. With Ranma preoccupied at his predicament, the maneuver was completed all too well. It was too late when he finally regained his bearings on the fight, since when he opened his eyes Lenneth was already upon him with her sword already in a slashing motion to slice his head off. His blood pumped into his veins, as the pain in his brain and body grew intense. Time slowed down as everything went into slow motion, slowing up to a point where everyone was almost stationary. This was the point where his point of view blanked out.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

"Don't worry, this is probably the last time I will appear before you, Ranma." His own voice echoed inside his head.

Opening his eyes, Ranma saw he was back at that point in his mind where he first saw his other self, Chaos, which was in the same Darkness. "Oh great. You again. I thought the last time WAS the last time?"

"You'd like that, won't you?" Chaos' grinning face slowly melted into a serious expression. "We need to hurry, since I won't be here for long. This time, I will vanish FOR GOOD."

"Why?" Ranma asked curiously, sitting down atop of the same nothingness around them. He sat in a yoga-like stance, crossing his arms across his chest as he gazed at Chaos.

His replica shook his head, gesturing all around them, "This place is my, I mean, our own personal space, where our memories of the long distant past were kept. It's slowly being integrated into yours since that first time we talked. I know you can't see it clearly, but now it's really small. I'm just about to do the final touches before we fully merged as one being. I was supposed to just disappear and follow the flows in your head after the assimilation, but I need to explain some things to you."

Ranma nodded sadly. "I see..." he muttered, quite distressed that Chaos was slowly fading away. Even if it was just a memory, having someone to talk to inside his head, albeit weird, was quite invigorating.

"Do not fret..." Chaos chuckled slightly, "I will never disappear. You need to remember, that I do not exist anymore. Not really, since I've already been gone for a long time. I am YOU, Ranma, and you need to know and remember that. I'm just a fragmented memory designed by me, no... by YOU, to allocate and guide yourself to assimilate these ancient memories you lost in the past. I don't really exist, other than in your own mind. The truth of the matter is, Chaos is Ranma, and Ranma is Chaos."

"I am Chaos." Ranma intoned hollowly. He was worried how everyone would take that if they ever hear it.

Chaos smirked. "They'd just scream holy terror and run around like headless chicken, trying to babble and find a way to banish you. Relax, and lemme assure you. Chaos, I mean your area of power, not you, isn't evil at all. It's just an in-between of two opposing powers, those being Order and the Dark, or Nightmare as the ancient texts had written. You are the last to be created out of the three of the Trinity of Power. The Abyss, or the Darkness that initially existed at the Dawn of Time, set out to balance out the power between your two other brethren. Other than that, you were also the ones who defeated the Ancient Gods. The latter were the first beings created from the Abyss, and they grew corrupt when they were roaming the cosmos unchecked."

"A weapon---" Ranma began to ask, but was interrupted by his counterpart.

Chaos shook his head. "No. A balance to keep the powers in check. And in the end, Chaos is the Balance for the Balance."

Ranma frowned, "How can you---"

"---finish what you're trying to say, Ranma? I think you have a short-term memory, since you've forgotten that I'm just a figment of your interactive imagination. I'm YOU, you idiot. Of course I know what you're thinking." Chaos deadpanned.

"Oh yeah." Ranma said meekly, scratching his head in shame.

Chaos shook his head, saying, "I don't have much time, and I really need to explain something to you."

The doppelganger gestured to his right side. A bright light flared momentarily before dimming into the form of an intricate katana. But it was no ordinary katana, since its blade was more than twice the normal length of one. The hilt was a made out of silver feathers that were wrapped around it, and its length was bit longer than most. Its end has a diamond-shaped dark purple gem. The blade itself was at least an inch thicker than most, and four smaller round gems lined up from near the hilt upwards to at least one sixth of the length of the blade. The blade itself was jet black, as if the light around it was being sucked into it.

Ranma was awed at the sheer presence the blade gave out, before the deluge of memories barraged his thoughts. Visions of him in a different time wielding the same sword, which was at least twice his height. He used it in battles before, cutting down enemies like a hot knife on butter. The blade has a name, and it was he himself that gave it its name. Ranma cast a curious glance at his other self.

Chaos noted the hint of awe on Ranma's face. Nodding at the real Ranma's inquisitive glance, he continued, "Seems familiar, isn't it?"

"The... Masamune..." Ranma whispered.

"Your blade..." Chaos agreed, "The same blade you forged from your own essence and lifeblood, it has come with you. I don't know how, but it's inside you right now."

Ranma looked at Chaos sharply, "What? How can that be?"

The other just shrugged nonchalantly. "Dunno. It's currently within you, and it's also struggling to come out, since you're in a desperate situation. Now you know why your body's hurting all over."

Ranma's eyes glowed slightly, "And also why my head hurts like hell."

"Exactly." Chaos' form wavered a bit, causing the image to grimace. "I think I'm finally disappearing. About time too. You're finally complete. But the changes don't really affect you all that much, just that you'd know a lot more than you used to. Your personality will gradually change over time as well, but it will be mostly because of how you'll use the knowledge you'd gather from here."

"Ah." Ranma nodded. Then, he readjusted himself so that he now sat on his knees. Looking at Chaos briefly, Ranma bowed deeply, saying, "I wish to thank you. You've done well, considering everything."

Chaos laughed softly, his form was slowly dispersing, "No need to thank yourself. One would think you're vain enough to be impressed by yourself."

Ranma returned the smile at the slowly disappearing form, "We're the best after all."

Chaos' form gazed softly at Ranma for a moment, before it finally exploded into motes of light. The same motes of light gathered into Ranma's mental body, completing the long circle that has been waiting for countless eons.

Ranma's eyes glowed for a moment as his body assimilated the final burst of energy that has been Chaos. The whole area started shaking, as the black nothingness slowly dissolved.

The young man stood, glancing at his hands in wonder. Facing the eternal abyss of his mind, he said in an eerie dual-voice, "Chaos is Ranma, Ranma is Chaos. I am Chaos, Chaos is I. I am Ranma, and Ranma is I."

With one final smirk, Ranma, or Chaos, muttered in a now-single voice, "It is Done."

The whole place dissolved in bright lights.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

The bright flash in his head slowly receded, and Ranma found himself in the middle of battle again. He almost panicked when he saw Lenneth's determined face and her blade now almost upon his neck. He quickly shifted his head slightly to the right, and allowed the righteous blade to pass by his face. He felt a few strands of hair from his bangs fly off to kami knows where, after they've been glanced by the deadly blade of the Valkyrie. Time finally flowed normally once again for him, and the Valkyrie just spun away from the attack she made. She looked at her blade in confusion, then at Ranma.

""I do not know how you managed to evade my strike."" Lenneth said grimly as she took another stance, ""But this time, I will have your head.""

But Ranma wasn't paying any attention to her, rather, he was looking at his body intently. He was currently glowing slightly, and he could actually see inside his arms right now, like an x-ray. There were points along his arms that glowed, which were centered on his wrists. A pair of round objects glowed dark purple inside his wrists. He also noted that somewhere at his ankles, a pair of dark purple glows also emitted in them. The last point was a dark purple diamond-shape in his chest, which was the largest of them all.

""The Masamune... it is reacting to my aura."" Ranma intoned ominously, half-ignoring everyone watching as he stared at his glowing body.

Lenneth seemed to have felt something peculiar as well, since she paused on her tracks and just gazed at the glowing winged being in front of her. Not that she was any less angry at what has transpired earlier, but her anger was shelved back to minor importance as of the moment since the energies she felt from the pigtailed man was spine-tingling... as well as strangely familiar and nostalgic to her.

The Chooser of the Slain was one of the second tier divine beings, one of the most prominent Aesir one level under Odin. Freya, Frey, Loki, Baldur, and the other important individuals in the Norse Pantheon were in her class, as well as her sister Hirst.

When she was but a trifling of her youth, she had seen the greater gods at work. In fact, her own style of fighting was derived from her self-proclaimed master (although the same-said master never knew he was a master of hers). Lenneth had long watched her idol at work, especially during those scuffles with the Ancient Gods. Watching him defeat legions of summoned golems single-handedly made her resolve of getting more powerful even stronger. She was not alone at worshipping him, Loki has been trying to follow his footsteps as well. It seemed that Loki had been particularly interested in chaos as well.

Yes, her idol was the great Chaos himself.

She followed him everywhere, and even though nowadays she thought she was quite the weird stalker in her childhood, Chaos never turned her away. In fact, he always invited her to accompany him whenever he went to the gardens of Heaven, where he would meet the Nightmare Goddess Hild. Contrary to what people say about her, Hild was actually a pretty nice woman. Compassionate and kind to her, at least. The older goddess never grew tired of explaining things to Lenneth, about how the universe came about, and how the cycle of life works...

Chaos would just watched them while he lay on the grass, listening and occasionally interjecting some added information regarding the subject. He was a great prankster too, usually aimed towards the uptight Thor and Heimdall.

It did make Lenneth wonder though, why Chaos never wanted anyone to call him 'Master Chaos', or 'Lord Chaos', or whatever title that should denote who he was. If he heard anyone call him that, he'll just flash one of those rare frowns of his, and demanded that he be called normally like everyone else.

Alfadur was Lord Deus, and Hellwren was Lady Hild.

Chaos would've been the in-between, but he firmly stressed not to think of him that way, or even treat him as one. He mingled with the mortals most of the time, which was frowned upon by the rest of the second tier of divine that never knew of who he really was.

Lenneth shook her head as her point of view slowly went back to the present, where she was currently facing one of the most dangerous battles of her life. Her opponent was extremely strong, much more so than those high level demons and gods in Heaven and Hell. Her exploits have been focused on gathering and sending souls of valiant heroes to Valhalla, the hall of the Fallen Heroes, to be ascended into Einherjar. She was used to seeing powerful people, but in all her gathering, she never met anyone as strong as this one before. One came close though, that man turned kid in that dimension where Shen Long got involved personally. She idly noted how similar this situation was to that one, but the resemblance was zero, aside from the tail. But even that had a wrong coloration.

Anyway, she was supposed to concentrate on her battle... hey, was that a very long katana forming in front of Ranma just now?

Sure enough, the dark purple gems that had appeared all over various points in Ranma's body had somehow ripped themselves out of his body, and converged into one point in front of the man. The blade from Ranma's last vision of Chaos slowly formed in front of his eyes. His wings had shed a few of its feathers, and an invisible gust of wind brought them to the formation as well. The feathers had formed the hilt, while the purple gems formed the highly extended length of the dark blade.

Everyone, Ranma and Lenneth, as well as those outside the divine barrier watched in fascination as the blade literally wove and shaped itself out of those that came from Ranma's body.

Ranma was actually too busy gawking at the weapon's presence to notice the flare of pain all over his body, even if his immune system was working in overtime. The wounds he sustained from the points on his body where the gems came from were slowly closing up as he watched the katana finish its formation.

With a final pulse of light, the almighty blade solidified, dropping itself into Ranma's suddenly outstretched hands. Ranma blinked at this, wondering just why his arms moved automatically like that. But when he felt the katana's warmth encompassing his body, the confusion over the events vanished.

He suddenly KNEW, that he was to wield the blade. Ranma's instincts claimed his ownership of the Masamune. And now, because of the energy discharge needed to actually form the sword itself, the Light Hawk Wings that jutted out of Ranma's back, his own manifestation of his mother's legacy on his bloodline, shrunk into two miniature-sized wings. From its gigantic size earlier, the pair had become as small as a young swan's wings now. Of course, Ranma didn't notice any of that.

A soft clang of steel made Ranma jerk his gaze to the side, catching Lenneth's shocked expression as her grip on her own weapon slacked. The Levantine fell to the ground, and with it the Valkyrie's body as she fell on her knees.

""Masamune... Lord Chaos?"" The once proud Valkyrie squeaked, her eyes wide in slight fright and, weird enough, anticipation.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

The Justice League, as well as the Teen Titans, who have been watching outside the confines of the barrier were quite shocked when Lenneth fell to her knees, staring at Ranma in shock. Sure, it was pretty amazing that something THAT long came out of Ranma's body (the sword's blade was almost twice Ranma's total height). That shock has been amplified when the Valkyries that has been with them had dropped their own weapons. What they don't know is that the four divine warriors could lip-read whatever Lenneth was mumbling inside the barrier, since it was pretty far away to be read by normal people. They were anything but normal people.

The later generations of Valkyries that had come after Lenneth and the rest of her group were a bit negligent of their history. But EVERYONE knew of the old myths about what had really happened during that age-old war of the Ancient Gods. It was then that the loss of a very important figure in the Universe, the Balance Keeper himself, had given his essence to imprison the Ancient Gods. Sturmhild, Filaender, Aquarius and Terris were among the best of the best in the Valkyrie Force. They KNEW their history.

And the lessons of Chaos, the Ancient Gods, and the War has been their history.

Seeing their senior officer fall down on her knees, staring at the mortal they've been sent to eradicate or capture while mouthing something about 'Chaos-sama' got the other Valkyrie's bristling in nervousness. Their mission has been shady at best since they got it in the first place, and they were a bit skeptical as to why certain protocols had to be implemented just to capture this certain individual. The Doublet System has been disabled, just so that everyone may participate in this 'Hunt'.

For some reason Thor, Heimdall, Loki and a few other very high level divine and demonic entities expressed their disgust at the gesture, and had explicitly replied their negative answers about it.

The stand-off between the Creator, Thor, and the rest of the gods that had declined was legendary.

Of all the beings in the Heavenly Plane, only a few people really knew the being known as Chaos, since he vanished just before the second generation of divine and demons emerged. Of all the divine though, only the Creator, Hild-sama, Loki, Thor, Heimdall and especially Lenneth were familiar and remotely close to Master Chaos.

And now, based on Lenneth-sama's reaction upon seeing the sword in the hands of the mortal they were after, it would seem that their mission has become quite complicated.

""Can anyone please tell us what's happening?!"" Superman grumped as he seethed at where he stood. He has been itching to fight the young man inside the divine barrier. His own Kryptonian blood has been burning for something to fight. While he was here on Earth, there was no one he could unleash his full power with. He couldn't just up and find Darkseid now, can he?

Batman glowered, as if he can do something else at the moment, ""I think that something has shocked our guests about this boy.""

""They are talking something about 'Chaos'. At least, that's as much as I can read from the woman's lips."" Raven commented as she watched Lenneth's lips move inside the barrier intently. Her eyes glowed a bit as she fed power into them, so that she could see what was happening inside the barrier a whole lot clearer.

""No... Master Chaos? Impossible!"" Terris whispered harshly as she looked at her co-worker and best friend, Aquarius.

The blue-haired Valkyrie just nodded, saying, ""It is what I can read from Lady Lenneth's lips as well.""

The fire-haired Filaender grimaced, ""If that is true... then... could we have made a mistake? What could Heaven be thinking, sending Lady Lenneth after him...?""

""But Lord Chaos has been gone for so many eons! It is highly unlikely for him to..."" The silvery haired Valkyrie of the Air, Sturmhild, frowned to herself as her voice softened towards the end of her tirade.

""EXCUSE ME!"" The private conversation between the four Valkyries was rudely interrupted by the irate voice of one Jon Stewart, current wielder of the Green Lantern power ring. Wielding the ring in itself was a great feat, that is if he wasn't surrounded by certain immortals that could wipe his sorry butt in battle.

The warrior women turned altogether towards the Green Lantern, and the man had to back away slightly at the glares that has been thrown towards him.

""We do not need to explain ourselves to you."" Aquarius replied coldly, giving the Green Lantern a glacial look.

Terris sighed as she glanced at her fuming co-Valkyrie, adding, ""We do need to say something about what is happening. This IS, after all, their reality.""

The blue-haired woman snorted as she grumpily turned away.

Filaender smirked slightly. ""Always the pacifist, aye Terris?"" she said in amusement. Turning towards the baffled Earth heroes, she continued, ""We do have the privilege of telling you some things. You have heard of the Theory of the Big Bang, the creation of the Universe, correct?""

Nodding, Batman answered for the group, ""That's right. We believed that everything came from one point, which expanded by itself into what is known as our universe today, and is still continuously expanding as we speak. But that doesn't explain---""

""Be patient, MORTAL."" Sturmhild growled out, her face a mask of unbridled irritation as she scoffed at the mortals in front of her. She felt that she owed these people nothing to explain what she had in mind, but Filaender already began, so it might as well be at best if the fire Valkyrie finished it anyway.

Terris stepped in front of the angry silver haired woman, saying, ""Be at ease, Sturmhild. We do not need to be so spiteful of them.""

Shaking her head in disgust, Filaender effectively ignored Sturmhild's angry mutters as she continued, ""Where was I? Oh, the Big Bang... well. It was almost precisely correct, the theory I mean. Everything in this Universe began in a single unified Darkness, which everyone in Heaven has dubbed with many names, such as the Abyss, or the Source. Nevertheless, it was there, and it after so long remaining dormant in the middle of Nothing, it became sentient.""

""I have been... acquainted with that myth."" J'onn muttered loudly, causing everyone to turn to him. He looked up as his eyes glowed in remembrance, ""My clan used to tell stories of gods and goddesses, demons and demonesses, battling for supremacy over the Universe. They all came from the Great Source of All.""

""Part of what you said is... true, Martian."" The fire Valkyrie nodded at the green humanoid appreciatively, ""You know your myths well, I commend you. The Divine and the Nightmare did come from one Source. The Abyss had made the Ancient Gods first of all, somewhat like a test of some sort. They were known as the Titans in Earth's mythology."" She glanced meaningfully at Batman, who nodded in approval.

Inclining her head, she went on, ""The Ancient Gods were the First, and were the ones who actually shaped the first stars and planets in the Universe, as well as forging the first forms of life all over. But the power over Creation corrupted their ideals, thus they became ruthlessly imperious. They toyed with whole races with their power over everything. The result was... total anarchy.""

Everyone shivered at the ominous tone of the divine soldier. They started having their own visions on how the story had turned out. It wasn't pretty at all.

Filaender nodded at the pale faces of her audience, ""So you see, the Darkness had a reason to become concerned at the sudden twist in the Universal Balance. The Darkness had to compensate... and compensate the Darkness did."" Looking directly into the eyes of the people in front of her, she continued, ""The Darkness amassed Its greatest powers, in order to forge Its greatest counterparts. Three new Beings managed to emerge, each fully empowered by the Darkness' full might. The first two were polar opposites, Night and Day, White and Black... and they were known as the Order and the Nightmare. The third was given the final burst of energy from the Darkness, so instead of having Its own domain, it was almost the same as the Darkness itself. It was further known as... Chaos.""

""Chaos?"" Cyborg interjected, his face a mask of confusion, ""Isn't that, like, evil or something?""

Terris furiously snapped her gaze towards the mechanical humanoid, who flinched visibly as he felt the hot stare directed to him, ""Chaos is NEVER evil! You mortals just perceived something mysterious as something to be feared or destroyed, did you not?! Magic, witchcraft, demons... some things you never did understand, you try to destroy!""

""Chaos is the Balance of All."" Aquarius said stonily, catching the audience's attention effectively, ""Chaos is the Unknown factor, the one that maintained spontaneous change in the Universe. Without it, evolution of various species will stop to a grinding halt, and there will be no Change. There will be no powerful Kryptonians, Tamaranians, Azarethians, or even the psychic Martians. The Amazons will die out because they will never learn how to fight effectively, since the chaos is gone. But make no mistake! Even though there is no chaos, it never meant that evil will disappear. So, what happens when the evil attacks a really docile environment? Instant Doom to all there Is.""

""Just because chaos is not there? I thought that to have peace, chaos should be removed in the picture!"" Flash gasped out incredulously.

""It shows how much you mortals knew of the consequences of Everything in the Universe."" Sturmhild scoffed.

Filaender sighed loudly, causing the bickers to minimize enough for her to continue her narration, ""The Chaos was the Balance between the Order and Nightmare. He, yes, Chaos slowly personified as a man, was a kind-hearted soul. He usually prances around Heaven, doing whatever he wants. Anyway, establishing that, he was the Mediator between the Order personified, who became a man as well, and the Nightmare, who personified as a woman. Lord Chaos called himself Chaos, retaining what the Darkness named him. Order adopted the name Lord Deus, and the Nightmare named herself Lady Hild. Lord Deus and Lord Chaos were best friends, brothers actually, and they treated each other as such. But to Lady Hild, Lord Chaos was her Love.""

""Incest?"" Batman raised an eyebrow underneath his mask.

Wonder Woman shook her head in understanding, saying, ""In the Beginning, the divine were all connected with each other anyway, so incest was never a problem for them.""

The fire Valkyrie nodded in approval, ""That is correct. To us, Incest was never an issue, since our ancestors were siblings and lovers by themselves. Anyway, the three of them were called the Trinity, a basis of most forms of religion that are present nowadays. And they were also responsible for creating the first generation of divine under them, with the three of them as the 'Originals', and the Ancient Gods as 'Ancients'. The Ancient Gods and the Trinity were the Original Generation of Divine beings.""

""The First Generation of Divine Beings..."" The Green Lantern parroted.

""Loki, Freya, Thor, Amaterasu, Susano-Oh, Raijin... they are some of the gods that has been bred out of the last remnants of the Abyss, before it disappeared into History forever."" Filaender said sadly.

""The Ancient War..."" Everyone's attention turned to the new speaker, which was Terris, ""The war between the Ancient Gods and the Trinity and its followers began in earnest. It has been brutal, and stretched for so long. We had feared it will never end.] her voice faded as she stared into the scene inside the divine barrier, where Ranma and Lenneth still gazed at one another silently.

Sturmhild followed the Earth Valkyrie's gaze, her scowl lessening, ""Lord Chaos took it upon himself to finish the fight himself. In the final twilight of the battle, he relinquished his full power into entrapping the Ancient Gods, after an elaborate ruse had lead them into the abandoned first planet of the multiverses.""

""It was a brilliant plan, one worthy of Master Chaos."" Aquarius said softly, ""When he did release his power, he also gave up his own life. In return, his final spell encased the planet inside a very powerful divine spell that no one, not even Lord Deus or Lady Hild themselves, can ever break into it. The Ancient Gods were trapped.""

""So this... Chaos... sacrificed himself to build up a prison for those Ancient Gods, right?"" The Martian Manhunter asked skeptically.

""LORD Chaos."" Sturmhild stressed firmly, glaring at the slightly perturbed green alien as she growled softly, ""Without such sacrifice, the whole of Existence would still be under dark ages up until now. Which meant that you, or any one of those not native of Earth would have been lost out there somewhere. You could be anywhere but here, and suffering too.""

""We did not realize he is THAT resilient. After being dispersed like that all over the multiverses, he still managed to bring himself back together, even if it did take him some time."" Terris muttered.

""Wait..."" Wonder Woman cut into the conversation as she looked at the Valkyries intently, ""You mean to say that... that boy... he's...""

Just then their conversation was hampered when the huge divine barrier in front of them popped like an oversized bubble, dissipating into small motes of light that floated up in the air before disappearing eventually.

It was then that they saw the stubborn and seemingly aloof Lenneth Valkyrie, commander of Heaven's Warriors, the one who leads dead heroes into the halls of Valhalla, currently being carried by a confused Ranma, who just gazed at the unconscious woman in his arms.

There was so much confusion, and everyone just gaped at the scene.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

""Well... this is pretty awkward."" Ranma mused as he mentally sorted all of the flashes that still tended to pass his brain every now and then, at the same time sitting calmly inside the design-challenged building of the world-renowned heroes called the Teen Titans. He was sipping the camomile tea Raven has made for him as he sat on the floor of the room, having gotten used to it for all of his life. He never did have a good feel for the soft things anyway, well, except women anyway. Gah. Where did that come from?

The whole group was currently assembled in the 'Game Room' of the T-Tower. Some of the members of the Justice League namely Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Martian Manhunter were currently watching the whole scene intently. The Green Lantern and the Flash had elected to return to the Watchtower, the Justice League's own headquarters situated just a little bit above the Earth's orbit. Thanks to the Batman's resources, they were able to keep watch on the planet in the best place possible.

The Valkyries were present as well, surrounding their still-unconscious leader who was laying atop the comfy couch. It was graciously offered by the Tower's owners.

There was a long strained silence as the whole group blinked at the nonchalant off-handed remark by the pigtailed young man sitting in front of them. They had wanted to ask multitudes of questions regarding what had transpired from earlier, but the whole ordeal has been too bizarre for anyone to even make a peep out of. They had accompanied the young man as he ventured towards a place where he could set Lenneth down, and they ended up in the Titan's Tower.

It was almost a couple of minutes past when the silence started the eerie scene was stopped, thankfully. It was then when Terris, the unofficial temporary leader of the Valkyries (actually, everyone just let her do as she pleased since she's the meekest of them all, and the usual neutral party), decided to voice out what most of her fellow Valkyries around her had in mind, as she asked, ""Lord... Chaos? Is that really your person?""

It was the catalyst to a long winding barrage of questions from the crowd. Well, mostly questions anyway.

""Lord Chaos...!""

""Why haven't you returned to the Heavens?""

""Why are we hunting you? Why are you being targeted?""

""What's with the wings?""

""Who are you, really?""

""Why are the gods so intent on finding you?""

""This is excellent tea, Miss Raven.""

""Uh, thanks, I guess...""

""Dude! You have a wicked right hook man! We should fight sometime!""

""What are your intentions?""

""Although you are of a Sai-Yahn race oh vile one, you fight superbly with honor! I commend you for it!""

""You just have to teach me how to make ladies faint like that man!"]

The poor pigtailed hybrid sweatdropped was everyone's faces suddenly loomed in front of him, threatening to swamp him with their questions. His wings were ruffled, literally. Clearing his throat, he struggled not to scream and scoot back in horror as saying, ""Err... wait... uhmm... that is...""

""Everyone, back away."" Raven's scowl radiated from under her hood, showing her displeasure at the treatment of Ranma. The others scooted back nervously, since the ashen-girl's eyes glowed for a moment, and a large window pane from the lower floors exploded in response to the girl's slight outburst of emotions. Breathing in deeply to relax herself, she said cautiously, ""We don't need to crowd him. He can choose whether he'd explain or not. We can't make any demands from him.""

""But Raven... we need to find out if he's an enemy or..."" Robin's monologue faded as the eyes of his white mask widened when those shining purple orbs of Raven's eyes glared daggers on him.

Raven almost growled. Another window pane exploded, but now it came from above the floor they were in. ""If there was a remote chance he was an enemy, then explain why you're still there? He could've finished us off if he wanted to. And don't even start with your 'villainous plots' spiel, because I'm not in any mood for it.""

Robin has already raised a finger to point THAT out as well, but his voice was caught when Raven finished with that statement. He sweatdropped as slowly placed his hand down to his lap, meekly looking at the proceedings.

Seeing that everyone had committed themselves to actually listening first, Raven turned to Ranma and nodded at him slightly. The pigtailed boy caught the meaning and returned the gesture.

Ranma sighed loudly, expelling the stress he had gathered since everything started. Gazing at Lenneth briefly, he was awed when flashes of memory from long ago passed across his thoughts again, containing images of the same person, laughing and playing with him. He was her master in the fighting arts, and a mentor of some sorts for most things. He took time talking with Lenneth, usually alongside... Hild. Now there's a name that brought a slight smile to Ranma's lips. He finally figured that the woman reminded him of Ryoko, as well as Lea as well. He also noticed he felt as strongly for Hild as he felt for Ryoko, and the other girls with him.

Ranma blinked owlishly behind his dark-tinted glasses that were miraculously intact even when it was blasted many times over during that obscene power fight. He had to give it to Washuu, creating stuff that were clearly useful most of the time.

It was a weird revelation for him, realizing how utterly stupid and ignorant he was before his memories of the past reawakened. He groaned mentally as he reviewed his life of the present, appalled at how socially inadept he was. He had vague pushes from his ancient memories that he gained from his past life, but that was it. He still has no idea how to handle his situation logically, so screwed up was his current mortal life that every knowledge in the Universe (at least, during the Past) were useless. Shaking his head off the depressing topic from his so-called life, Ranma saw everyone looking at him curiously, probably wondering about the emotions quickly pacing themselves on his face. It must've been a comical sight for them.

""Well..."" Ranma began, scratching the back of his head as he gazed at the faces paraded in front of him. They were curious, and he wasn't about to fault them with that. He was a visitor to their world, an enigma to decipher, but he wasn't about to reveal all of his cards yet. Like in a fight, it's his style to keep a lot of important stuff to himself, only releasing them when they're desperately needed. Snorting slightly, he continued, ""To answer the lady warriors, well... I'm Chaos, and at the same time, I'm not.""

""HUH?!"" was the general consensus of mostly everyone within the conversation as they tried to interview this weird... being in front of them.

The young man with the red tail wriggling behind him managed a soft sigh, preparing for a long and winding speech about some of what he had deciphered from his former life's memories, as well as his present life as well. Looking towards his restless companions, he began with a severely edited version of his mortal life as Ranma Saotome, the young man who became the genetic rebirth of the highest form of kami, Chaos. After the mortal details came some of the information gleaned from his ancient memories, but they were vaguely sketchy at best.

Ranma decided to hurry things along. The stares were starting to get to him.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

Three hours later, just above the sands of Saudi Arabia...

"You don't have to tag along, ya know." Ranma grumped as he flew in the air above the Arabian territory. He reverted back to Japanese speech, since it's quite easier for him to do so since he grew up in the language.

On opposite sides of his floating body, two women from the group have accompanied him. On his left was the brooding Raven, who voted herself into the task of keeping tabs on the alien hybrid. Ranma was still a big 'if' on the Justice League and Teen Titans' list of non-hostiles. She was to follow the pigtailed young man and keep him from doing any more damage. The ash-skinned girl have studied the different languages of the world when she was younger, so she had no difficulty in understanding Ranma's Japanese monologue. On his right was an unusually cheerful Lenneth Valkyrie. Her armor has been reduced into a normal chain mail, since its full mode would be too inconspicuous. She readily agreed into guarding Ranma until his departure from the dimension.

Too readily, as her other fellow Valkyries have concluded later on. The others have opted to return to Asgard for now, if only to report their findings regarding to what they had discovered on their stay on Earth.

The Valkyrie smiled slightly as she hummed the 'Ride of the Valkyries' theme under her breath, feeling the soothing Midgard air as she sped alongside the genetic rebirth of her mentor all those years ago. "I have always wanted to journey the mortals' realm..." she said loudly, enough for her voice to be carried over the noise of the air swishing around them, "You still should be monitored while on this dimension. It is imperative that I do it personally."

"Have to agree with her there... you might get into all sorts of trouble. This way the others don't have to worry about what you do." Raven commented while she flew on Ranma's other side. Her body was covered in black energy, a testament of her power's manifestation. She was a bit put back by her companions' nonchalance about her display of magic though, but nevertheless thankful about not having to explain that her powers were not evil, mostly anyway.

Ranma grumped as he crossed his arms across his chest, looking down at a couple of camels that had people on their humps down below. The desert was a vast area, a very good place when he wanted to practice controlling his power.

Lenneth finally gazed at the grumpy Ranma, all the while flying leisurely into the scarce cloud formations they had passed by, "It should not be that much of a bother, Ranma-sama. I would think that most males would want to be in a situation where females follow him around like puppies."

"Been there, done that." Ranma muttered.

Raven snorted, "I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart you know. It's a job."

"So you say..." The platinum blue haired woman interjected at Raven, "But it was noticeable how you immediately took the said job quite as easily as I did. I do not care if it showed how much I wanted to accompany him, but does it not say the same towards your own reaction? It would have been tactically sound in sending the Tamaran girl if the job was all there is. After all, she would kill just to find something to pin on Ranma-sama just to peg him as an evil being."

Ranma rolled his eyes, "I'm not a kid you know... and stop talking about me like I'm not even here."

"Forgive us then, Ranma-sama..." Lenneth said in amusement, ignoring Raven's cursory remarks about HER not being sorry about anything, "If I may also ask, where our destination would be? It is not appropriate for us to scrounge around without any target in particular."

The pigtailed hybrid grimaced slightly, remembering the abrupt rise of energy from the direction of the Asian region. It was a familiar burst of power, one of which he has encountered before back in his home world. It was also much more powerful than when he met it before. Instead of being nervous, his blood boiled in anticipation at an upcoming battle, even though he didn't really want to fight for the moment. He shrugged the intense cravings for fighting... feelings he knew that came from his Saiyajin blood.

"Hey, wake up. You might accidentally hit a plane or something if you keep on daydreaming like that while flying." Raven's voice cut through his thoughts.

Ranma shook his head abruptly, without diverting from the flight path. He continued gazing forwards as he said, "We're going to China. Don't ask why, I just felt that I need to go there." Looking over to Raven, he grimaced when he took upon what Raven was wearing, which was a dark blue cloak that covered most of her body. Before the girl could even comment on the look given to her, he had already turned to Lenneth.

"Can you spare me a cloak or something? Particularly black in color...?" Ranma requested thoughtfully to the Valkyrie. He slowed his flight cruise to a stop, and his two companions followed suit. By now, the trio was floating high above the Sahara Desert, just near the country of Egypt.

"Black...?" Lenneth noised.

The red-tailed hybrid nodded, "Yup. Got a liking of them as time passed by. Before, I usually get red, blue or green. Then I realized, what am I? A Christmas decor?"

"Ah..."

"Hey." They both turned to the one that called to them, the gothic girl, who was by now scowling at them. They wouldn't know though, since Raven's cloak covered most of her face anyway. "What's with your look before, monkey boy? What's wrong with my clothes?"

Ignoring her 'monkey boy' remark (because it *was* partly true anyhow), Ranma just shrugged and replied, "You have to admit, your clothes ain't gonna fit with me. Besides, are ya carrying an extra under those flaps anyhow?"

Slumping slightly, Raven knew when she was beat, not that she'd let Ranma know about his little victory anyway. "Whatever..." she muttered.

"Is this what you wanted?" Lenneth asked suddenly, presenting a dark trench coat in her arms. Ranma and Raven had to blink at that.

The pigtailed hybrid was about to reach for the coat when he suddenly remembered something, smacking his head instead with his hand. Before the two girls can comment on his weird behavior, Ranma reached into... somewhere... at his side, pulling out another black trench coat. But this one looked a lot heavier and thicker than the one Lenneth had pulled out.

"I forgot I have a lot of them in my subspace." Ranma shrugged towards the flabbergasted Lenneth as he shucked the trench coat around his frame. Raven raised an eyebrow at the sudden appearance of the clothes, but she was a bit impressed nonetheless. Washuu created the clothes inside his subspace room as per his request, making them a LOT more durable than the normal fabric found on Earth. The trench coat was a sudden favorite of his, usually used by Ranma to hide his tight-fit body suit.

Lenneth regained her composure as she glared at Ranma slightly. "You have your own stable subspace pocket?!" she whispered harshly. She practically had to work her ass off her own subspace privileges for eons before it was given to her as a job benefit!

"Eh?" Ranma was confused as to why Lenneth was pissed at him, "I should have one, since I have a lot of stuff to put in there."

"I had to acquire my own through hard labor and..."

"I don't care. Not gonna make a difference complaining to me about it."

"Your reborn persona is quite rude, Ranma-sama."

"I earned my rudeness. I have to live following some idiot fool's crusade of a retirement plan for ten years. That takes a lot out of a person..."

"I do not mind it at all. In fact, it is quite endearing."

"Really? Well tha-... wait. That doesn't sound too reassuring now."

Raven quickly cut into the casual banter between her two companions, "Let's just go wherever you want to go, Ranma."

"Oh. Right. Sorry." The young man mentioned noised as he started flying forwards, towards the direction of China. Of course, as what has been in the young man's life from before, he was being followed by two nubile female specimens.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

The battle against the Phoenix king was going badly for the Nerima Wrecking Crew. With Ranma gone from their lives, Ryoga was hard pressed at trying to even hit the fiery king of the mountain.

It has been months ago, during the debacle with the Dragon Prince Herb. Ranma, Ryoga and Mousse were en route to go after Herb and his cohorts, who were also after the Unlocking Kettle. Ranma had been true to his words, girl form at that time, that Ryoga and Mousse could be unlocked first. After being too selfish the first time they took the ladle that locked them in their cursed forms in the first place, it made the both of them pretty guilty about going first. But for some reason, that thought was blown away in the wind when they thought of finally getting rid of Ranma for good.

The battle went pretty badly for Ranma, since he was still locked in his girl form while Herb was already unlocked and in his guy form. Ryoga and Mousse had successfully taken the kettle from Lime and Mint, and managed to unlock their curses. In a fit of momentary insanity, they both decided to smash the kettle into pieces.

The end result was thrilling at first for Ryoga and Mousse, as they watched the hard pressed female Ranma defend himself against the male Herb's attacks. That thrill slowly melted into guilt as they saw how badly Ranma fared afterwards. That guilt turned into horror as finally, Onna-Ranma succumbed to exhaustion, allowing Herb to smash Onna-Ranma's face with his fist. The loud female cry of pain from Onna-Ranma's mouth brought chills to Ryoga and Mousse. The two looked at one another and decided to help Ranma in the end, but it was too late.

Ryoga could still remember the look Ranma gave them as Herb delivered a final thrust of his ki-blade up Onna-Ranma's sternum. Even as the female body fell down the ground, Ranma's face still stared with glazed, lifeless eyes in betrayal towards Ryoga and Mousse's position.

Mousse and Ryoga decided against telling the truth, fabricating a story of how Ranma had lost the battle in the end.

Shampoo was in denial at first, crying her heart out as she lashed at Mousse. The myopic Amazon just grunted as Shampoo beat on him, while Ryoga watched helplessly. Cologne had possibly detected something amiss, but she kept quiet. Instead, she just ordered Shampoo and Mousse to pack in order to return to China. The Amazon's left the day after Ryoga and Mousse returned.

Ukyou was terribly devastated, and another thorn of guilt stabbed into Ryoga's heart. She never did leave Nerima, and renamed her restaurant 'Ranchan's', in honor of the pigtailed martial artist. She still haven't found a suitable man for herself.

Akane's reaction greatly shocked Ryoga. She wept bitterly, crying out how much she loves him. This was the largest thorn that stabbed Ryoga's heart, as he watched Akane fall into depression. He tried to get her to notice him, but in the end all he can take from her was friendship. He told her about P-Chan, and she got mad about it for weeks. Their friendship had been tense afterwards.

Well, everything has been very difficult for them, even with Ryuu Saotome helping them. He was formerly Ryuu Kumon, and came about a couple of months ago claiming to be Ranma. In the end, he was adopted for real in the clan in favor of Nodoka Saotome's cajoling. Genma took a hard beating, not only for Ranma's pain while he was alive, but also for the pain he brought upon Ryuu's destroyed clan.

About a few weeks ago, a small child came to them carrying a worn out map of Jusenkyo. It turned out to be Plum, the Jusenkyo guide's daughter, who came and was now asking for their protection.

That's when everything went to hell.

Right now Ryoga, Ryuu, Shampoo, Mousse and Genma were on top of Phoenix Mountain, fighting an enraged Saffron who was fully grown. Shampoo and Mousse decided to go with them for good times sake after Ryuu, Ryoga and Plum came into the village to tell them of what happened. Akane was kidnapped by the Phoenix people led by Kiima and was taken as hostage in exchange for the map.

It all dwindled down to a showdown with Saffron, who gained his former adult appearance when Ryoga and Ryuu failed to stop Saffron from his rebirth. Akane has been rescued and was being guarded by Mousse and Shampoo, while Genma was still under Shampoo's thrall.

Ryoga winced as he felt another one of those Imperial Fireball thingies Saffron has been hurling towards him and Ryuu. Ryoga lay on his back staring at the miniature sun known as Saffron. He slowly turned his head to the side and saw Ryuu a few meters away, also laying on his back. It has been horrible battling the Phoenix, and this would probably be his end.

((Well, at least I can apologize to Ranma in the afterlife...)) Ryoga thought to himself as he saw Saffron prepare another one of those massive fireballs.

Saffron sneered as he prepared to release his final attack. How dare these mortals try and defeat him?! He decided to show them! But his musings were cut short when a large spike of power caused him to look about him. It was too powerful to be ignored and it was too near him. Did these mortals have another ally?

Everyone on the ground watched in relief as Saffron's fireball dwindled to nothing, but that relief slowly turned into confusion as Saffron started looking around frantically. They saw the Phoenix king's gaze zero in atop the Dragon Tap statue.

Saffron's senses had gone haywire as the presence was all around him. The aura slowly converged at one point, which was atop the Dragon Tap statue. There he saw a man in black cloak standing calmly, watching the scene impassively. Saffron's curiosity overrode his caution as he slowly floated down to the stranger's level. The cloak had a hood on, so Saffron couldn't make out the stranger's face.

"Who are you, stranger? And why are you here, trespassing in my domain?!" Saffron declared haughtingly as he flapped his wings gently in the air.

The stranger's hood-covered head lifted a bit. "To answer your second question, I'm lost, and I wasn't supposed to be here. The first question, I have no obligation to answer to you, Saffron."

Everyone was amazed at the audacity of the newcomer. Well, everyone except Saffron, who was simmering in rage. His fiery aura burst forth from his frame. "How dare you speak to the Phoenix that way?! Do you wish to lose your life?!"

A soft snort was heard from the cloaked stranger, "I should ask you the same, bird-boy. I know you can feel my aura. You know I can beat you so easily. Do YOU wish to disappear and not resurrect?"

As Saffron sputtered in mid-air, the stranger continued, "You didn't have to do this much destruction you know. You should've just asked for the map you've been coveting for from these people." Turning to the bewildered group of Nerimian's below, the stranger addressed them, "As for you, you have no right to keep the map, since it's not really yours to begin with. The reason why you were attacked, is that the map was needed for Saffron to be reborn as an adult. He is needed by his people as a source of light and energy for their mountain. It's no wonder he'd go crazy."

The Phoenix's rage grew into a frenzy, causing his decisions to be clouded. Seeing his quarry's back to him, Saffron fired off a fireball towards the stranger. The cloaked man, if he knew of the attack he didn't show it, just took the brunt of the attack without any preamble, causing the fireball to explode around him.

"Oh no!" Akane gasped out as she saw the attack on the helpless stranger. Shampoo and Mousse were appalled by the action.

"That was a cheap shot, Saffron!!" Ryuu growled out as he struggled to his feet. Sure, he didn't know the stranger, but being a martial artist he knew that attacking from behind was dishonorable.

Ryoga grunted as he stood on shaky legs. "When I get my hands on you... I'll..."

"No need for that." The man's voice came from the fading smoke. As the dust settled, they could all see that the destroyed cloak fell out of his shoulders. They gasped as they saw the man's face, and the raven-black hair that was tied in a tight pigtailed draped down his back.

"RANMA?!" Akane shouted in shock. Ryoga, Shampoo and Mousse were motionless in their spots, while Ryuu looked on in confusion. He hadn't met this world's Ranma yet.

"Saffron..." Ranma faced the Phoenix, "I will forgive you for that. Just don't do it again."

Saffron was about to retort, but the sight of the trio of multi-colored gems glowing on the young man's forehead stopped him short. So instead he stuttered in surprise, "Y-You're... Chu-"

"No need to blab to anyone who I am, ne? Stupid demigod baka." Ranma snorted as he glared under the dark tinted glasses towards Saffron. The aforementioned Phoenix shivered involuntarily.

Saffron slowly backed away from the individual, eyeing the pigtailed man nervously. "B-But... you're not here to slay me as well?"

Ranma chuckled lightly, "Who, me? Heck no. Why would I do that when you're just defending your home? But in that end, killing helpless people because you're pissed at them won't do you any good as well. You'll just become bad, and you know it. Besides, I don't wanna be hassled by those two women when I meet them later. But don't be mistaken. If you go overboard like this and keep your pompous attitude in the future, I might go pounding on you a little."

Without waiting for a reply, Ranma leapt from his perch on the Dragon's head, and slowly floated down to the ground. Seeing the old gang was quite good, but not seeing his counterpart disturbed him a bit. Nevertheless, he knew instinctively that this wasn't his world, ever since he appeared here. The absence of his analogue proved that. He silently turned and started walking out of the cavern without saying anything.

He was about to reach the enlarged cave that led to the main chambers of the mountain when he heard pitter patters of feet following him from behind. He winced slightly with his back against them, thinking of how this would affect the timeline he got lost into. Eventually, they'll ask questions, but he didn't really want to say anything unnecessary to bring the Nerimians' hopes up. No matter how much they wanted it, he will not stay in here. It wasn't his home, and besides, he still has to find a way back to Ryoko and the rest of his companions left in his adopted home dimension.

"Ranma!!" A chorus of voices erupted behind him.

Ranma grimaced, knowing that it was really useless to try and go faster. He could try teleporting away, but he thought that the Nerimians were still not ready to see all of his abilities. Instead of continuing on, he sighed loudly and turned, causing the following group to stop in their tracks a little ways from him as well.

A tense silence stretched for sometime, with Ryoga, Ryuu, Genma, Mousse, Shampoo and Akane staring at Ranma, who stood by the exit with a bored expression on his face.

"So... what do you want with me?" Ranma decided to break the silence first, seeing the group's difficulty in thinking of anything to say.

Akane was the first one who recovered, saying, "H-How? I mean... Ryoga-kun told me how you d-died. How did you come back to life?"

"I saw you get beaten by Herb!" Ryoga announced, looking at Mousse for confirmation.

"Beaten by Herb?" Ranma said quizzically, "I see... so that's how your Ranma died. Too bad..." he said sadly.

"Our Ranma?" Mousse asked.

Ranma shook his head and gazed at the group seriously. "Let's get one thing straight. I am Ranma, but not THE Ranma of this dimension. Before you ask, yes, there are other worlds out there with different Nerimas, and different Ranmas, and Akanes... etcetera, etcetera. I'm on a quest to find my home dimension. Something happened to me and it was revealed that I'm not Genma's son in my world, but don't misinterpret. It doesn't mean that your Ranma here isn't Genma's real son. Maybe he is, but I can't be so sure since I'm not from here. All I'm saying is that I'm a different Ranma, and that your Ranma here is dead, as you say. Although..."

Looking at Ryoga intently, he asked, "I wonder how your Ranma died. Didn't you get the Unlocking Kettle? You did, right? Since you did, you should've helped him beat Herb. Why didn't you?"

Everyone turned to the nervous Ryoga and Mousse, who fidgeted slightly as the attention bored into them.

"Anyway..." Their stares returned to Ranma, who turned briskly and started walking outwards once again, "If you already understand, I have to go. Some people will be mad if I'm out late. As it is, I'm on a... temporary parole or something. Feh."

"Why are you so eager to go?" Akane asked in a low voice as she and the others quickly followed Ranma.

The pigtailed young man shrugged as he continued walking, "I already told you, some people are gonna be mad if I'm late. I dunno about you but, I for one don't want to be late and have them angry at me. Women are scary."

Just then, the sky darkened as hordes of winged people floated just above them, their weapons poised and ready. Ranma stopped walking and glanced up, groaning as he spotted the irritated look on the lead Phoenix guard.

"Kiima." Ranma deadpanned.

The silver haired winged woman growled softly as she clenched her fist around the hilt of her sword. She lowered herself slightly and said, "Foolish landling. Did you think we'd let you get away after talking to our Lord that way?"

The Nerima Crew got into their battle stances as Ranma smacked his face with his hand in dismay. Looking back to the irate Phoenix, he said, "Would it help if I have wings too?"

Kiima scoffed. "You? Wings? You're a mere landling, you're nothing but barbarian filth!"

With a bright flare, a pair of silver wings erupted from Ranma's back. The slits strategically placed on Ranma's black leather coat accommodated the wings as if they were expected. The sight caused the Phoenix to whisper loudly amongst themselves, and had Kiima backing away slowly.

"Let me pass, as well as these people behind me." Ranma said softly, but the power behind his words were evident as everyone shivered at the tones used.

Kiima stared some more, but she finally shook her head and opened her mouth to retort. Before she could, however, another powerful presence made itself known.

"Leave them be, Kiima. That is enough." Saffron's adult voice echoed in the silence. The Nerimians tensed as the Phoenix King's form appeared with the rest of his people in all his majesty. Apparently all the damage he had received earlier had disappeared without a trace from his body.

Kiima reeled back as if hit, and she whirled to face her king. "But my lord...!" she began, but she was halted when Saffron threw her a look. The lead guard of the Phoenix settled down and watched helplessly as her liege turned back to the other winged man on the ground. Her lord seemed unsurprised at the transformation.

"I am sorry for how Kiima had treated you, but you must understand..." Saffron began, and waved a hand at his side to silence anyone who would protest at his words. It shouldn't be proper for someone in his stature to apologize, but this was hardly a normal case.

Ranma willed his wings to wrap around his body. The extra appendages seemed semi-transparent, and silver lightning coursed all over them as time passed by. "Don't worry about it. I could understand how she felt, and I know it's her duty to protect you." he nodded towards Kiima's direction, "But she should also know when to stop you from going overboard. The way you handled things here were too violent, and retaliation on both parties became evident. You know that, Saffron."

"How dare you!" Kiima was about to launch herself to the person, but Saffron glared at her into silence once again.

The Phoenix King just nodded humbly. "I know. A being of fire is susceptible to these kinds of mood swings, but my behavior wasn't justified as much as I wanted it to be."

Ranma tilted his head to one side, keeping his gaze up at the Phoenix King. His respect for Saffron grew a notch. "I know. Sometimes, too much power makes us forget how we must treat other beings. In the end, we become pompous jerks, totally ignoring the feelings of those around us. It's good to hear that you're not going the same path as the Saffron I met in my universe."

Saffron's face showed confusion. "You're not from this dimension, then?"

Ranma shook his head, totally ignoring everyone around them as he started to enjoy a decent conversation with a half-divine. "Naw, I got suckered into this dimension by some weirdo and his stupid summoning. I have a dimensional transporter, but it's randomized and at the moment it's not with me. I have half the mind to use a Nanban Mirror from one of the dimension we pop out of, but I decided against it. The Saffron I fought with was a bastard, pardon me for saying so, but he was really so caught up with his power. My heritage wasn't awakened at that time, so I had to fight your counterpart within human levels. Although, I may share the blame since I was too greedy to try and take the map for myself just to cure my curse. I defeated him and forced Saffron to regress into the egg state. Kiima promised to raise you as an honorable leader."

"Amazing... you truly deserve your title, Ranma." Saffron smiled slightly.

Ranma bowed little. "Thanks. Anyway, I have to go. It's nice to reminisce and all, but this is not my world. My... bodyguards might be looking for me already. Don't wanna hear them whine and brine at me later."

Saffron cocked his head to one side slightly. "Why not stay for a while? Surely your companions wouldn't worry all that much, knowing who you really are. They do know who you really are, right?"

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I don't think I'm capable of hiding anything about me from them. Women are scary."

Saffron suddenly had a weird thought in his head, with Ranma's chibi image being whipped by several women with no faces. He shuddered, "I cannot imagine what it's like for you."

"It's bittersweet for me." Ranma smiled wanly. His expression suddenly melted into a serious one as he said, "It's time for me to go. I can feel one of my guards getting angry."

Saffron frowned a bit, then his eyes widened as he too felt the all familiar dark aura that usually flared every now and then in the past. He grimaced at Ranma and said, "That 'girl' is your bodyguard?"

"Eh?" Ranma was a bit surprised, "You know of her?"

The Phoenix snorted a bit as he explained, "I had the pleasure of encountering the girl once or twice in the past. She is with that world-renowned hero group, isn't she?"

"I think it was Ten Tritons or something." Ranma muttered loudly as he readjusted his shades over his eyes.

"Teen Titans, you mean." Saffron smiled in amusement as the young man waved his comment away.

"YOU MET ONE OF THE TEEN TITANS?!" The Nerimian group all but shouted, reminding Saffron and Ranma that they were other people present with them at their position. Ranma blinked confusedly behind his glasses as he stared dumbly at the group in front of him. He had forgotten that they were still following him.

"What's the big deal?" Ranma scratched the base of his pigtail as he asked innocently. Weird kids wearing equally ridiculous costumes... really!

"Who you meet?" Shampoo asked excitedly. "Strong woman Starfire? Magic woman Raven? Steel man Cyborg? Shape-change Beast Boy? Or it too too cute Robin?"

((The girl with an angst so heavy that may rival Ryoga's? The half-machine who wore no pants? The green guy who tells those lame jokes? And that weird masked dude who wore his underwear *outside* his spandex?)) Ranma thought to himself.

Mousse sighed, shaking his head in disgust. "Not again.." he muttered, but his face suddenly grew into a contemplative look as he said, "Although... Beast Boy's abilities would be very useful."

"You kidding?" Ryoga grunted, "Cyborg's strength is cooler than Beast Boy's!"

Akane shrugged, but although her eyes can be seen with the excitement from the knowledge of hearing someone who had met Earth's most prominent heroes, aside from the Justice League. "I think Raven's powers are cool." she commented.

"I think yer all nuts..." Ryuu commented. ((I think Wonder Woman is cooler than those little girls in the Teen Titans!)) he thought.

(AN - Oh... so that's it...)

Shampoo thumped her chest proudly, declaring, "Starfire very strong woman, like Amazon womens! And Robin too too cute!"

Genma just grunted in irritation. He has no idea what these idiot kids were talking about. He was still thinking of how to entrap this Ranma into marrying Akane, and he has to come up with a plan soon!

Ranma, Saffron, Kiima, and the rest of the Phoenix left around the area sweatdropped at the humans who were arguing as to who the better hero was.

"I don't even want to know." Ranma and Saffron looked at each other in surprise at first when they droned the same sentence, which melted in amusement as they ascertained how immature they thought the sight of these people bickering was.

"You're really pretty cool to talk with when you're not some psychopath, ya know." Ranma commented at Saffron, who in turn just smirked. Ranma added thoughtfully, "It must be that you're in a more mature body. The one I encountered in my original generation had his transformation disturbed."

Saffron winced in sympathy. "That must be it, then." he intoned wryly, "I for one know how incomplete it felt when the transformation gets halted one way or another. It is not a pleasant feeling."

"Anyway..." Ranma made a show of turning away, to the direction of a still-erect Jusenkyo from afar, "I need to get going. The pull of Japan is still strong on this body of mine."

Saffron nodded. "I understand. You will not return soon, then?"

The pigtailed boy shook his head sadly. "I don't think so. Or I could, within the six months I have to wait until my aunt arrives with her experimental dimensional transporter thingie. I could decide to visit before I go."

"Excellent. It would be a great honor for me if you do so, Saotome-sama." The Phoenix God inclined his head slightly to Ranma, who bowed in return.

Ranma faced Kiima, who still had her scowl on her face. He smiled gently at her, causing the winged woman to flinch back slightly in surprise. He said, "You know, you could be beautiful if you just smile some more, ya know?" The pigtailed boy mentally frowned as he remembered having uttered the same fateful words somewhere in his past. He just can't remember it much though.

It was quite funny, with him having one of the greatest aptitudes in capturing martial arts techniques within two times of seeing them done and having his own revisions, while losing the same ineptitude when it came to important things such as these. It was pretty unreal for him.

Although, it was also amusing for Ranma to watch the normally stoic and commandeering Kiima floundering in the air like that, as she tried to think of a great come back at his heartfelt words.

It was true; if only Kiima would smile, her face would brighten up be one of the prettiest faces he has ever encountered.

Shrugging slightly, Ranma started to walk towards Jusenkyo, but not before waving back idly at the mass of Phoenix soldiers that were itching to skewer him with their spears. Not that it would've mattered, since he would just teleport away from danger. The soldiers were held at bay by Saffron himself, so not even the still stunned Kiima could do anything.

The Nerimian group finally noticed the pigtailed young man walking off away from them without a word, so they quickly gathered their wits and scampered after him. Ranma heard the incoming steps behind him and groaned loudly. He really didn't want them with him as he traveled, especially when Raven and Lenneth would meet with him later on. Seeing that Akane and the rest of the people from Nerima had the attitudes of their counterparts in his home world, he knew that Akane was still easy to anger, as well as the presence of her mean jealousy streak.

After two hours of walking, Ranma and his unwilling followers passed by Jusenkyo. The pigtailed young man noted the horrified looks of those contracted by the curse, seeing that the springs were drained dry.

For some reason, Ranma felt jittery. Even his wings were a bit 'restless' a moment ago, and it was starting to worry him. The last time he felt this way was when he was in the last dimension, in the planet where he fought Deus. Now that he thought about it, he never did learn the name of that place, but he just shrugged it off. No sense in worrying about it.

What he was worried about now was the fact that his whole body's tingling something fierce, and it was the time when the moon was...

Ranma's face snapped up, his eyes widened in shock behind those dark tinted glasses of his. He quickly searched the sky for the Earth's natural satellite, and found it already rising from the horizon. He grimaced once he caught sight of it.

Full moon. Big, round, already slightly luminescent ball of lunatic wonder. His spine quivered as he thought about it.

Saiyajins, in all their glory, were simply put... Were-Monkeys. Highly evolved space aliens that have the ability to power up and evolve into a more gigantic forms when the moon is in its fullest. The legends of most lycanthropic creatures would probably apply to them, except that they have no qualms having silver in their armors. Their lunar induced forms were truly horrifying, since compared to most werebeasts known to mortals, their forms tower more than fifty stories in height. Their strength multiplied exponentially, and their minds became a more primal stature. Although Saiyajin royalty were known to be able to control their transformations, most of those in the lower classes lose their self-control, reverting back into their primal minds of chaotic destruction. This was one of the reasons why the Saiyajins became the greatest instrument of conquest for the Cold Family.

Ranma was, in fact, a Saiyajin. A weird one at that, and also only a third Saiyajin, but Saiyajin nonetheless. Most of his crass attitude came from this side of his blood, as well as his ego and arrogance. His love for battle and ability to get stronger each time he almost lost was from being a Saiyajin. With Tokimi's blood flowing into his veins as well, his Saiyajin attributes were balanced out, somehow. He was able to control his urge to transform when full moon came, but that ability of his was still there. Whenever he's exposed to the moon's fullness, his body still reacted in some ways to it, reminiscent of his Saiyajin heritage.

So now, his tail has been agitated in anticipation as Ranma felt his blood pumping. He won't transform unless he lost his cool, but he still felt the more primal urges in his head. He mentally grimaced as he surmised that he will be insufferable during the night.

"You okay over there?" Ryuu's coarse voice cut into Ranma's inner contemplation.

"None of your freaking business..." Ranma commented bluntly, snorting as he continued on the path. Ryoga and Mousse visibly flinched at the silent accusation in his words, though. "Why are you still following me?"

"Ranma! Stop being so rude, you jerk!" Akane growled out.

Ranma didn't even turn around when he retorted, "My manners and how I act is none of all your freaking businesses. I earned the right to be sardonic, so better get used to it. It's better that way, since it helps remind you I'm not your Ranma."

Ryoga sidled up beside the slightly chastened Akane, shouting, "Ranma...! How dare you speak Akane like that!!"

"Ah, shut the f*** up, bacon boy." Ranma spat, still walking in a brisk manner that was being matched by his annoying entourage, "I don't care what you think of me, or anyone else! I am me, and I'm not gonna change just coz you can't accept it! If you can't deal with it, then why the hell are you following me anyway?!"

Suddenly, Ranma stopped in the middle of the small dirt road that led to the Amazon Village, when two shadows appeared on the ground. The Nerimian group stopped as well, seeing that the target of their ire had paused in his walk.

Before asking him why he stood frozen like that, a female voice coming from above them cut through their musings, saying, "We finally found you, Ranma-sama!"

"Just in time too..." A monotone voice followed, "You must be causing some trouble again."

Ranma didn't even offer an excuse on that as he sighed and looked up, causing everyone behind him to do the same. The Nerimians gasped when they saw two females floating above them. One they recognized, while the other was only recognized by the purple-haired Amazon who came with them.

The first female wore a dark blue body armor that molded to her skin. Her normally floating shoulder guards were now attacked to her armor. Around her waist was a thick leather belt that was held together by a silver buckle. Her girdle was dark blue as well, her legs and feet were covered by long dark-blue boots that reached her knees. A long broadsword with an intricate design was slung around her waist, and a dark blue helmet that had a pair of white feathers at the sides was over her head.

The second female was significantly shorter than the first, and she wore a dark blue cape that had a cowl to cover her head with. Her leotard was hidden within the folds of her cape, and was currently held aloft by some dark power. Her skin was ashen in color, and deep purple eyes peered through the shadows of her cowl.

"Hey... that's..." Akane was stammering as she pointed a shaky finger towards the second female.

Ryoga was oddly silent, since he was busy staring up to Raven with his jaws wide open. Ryuu was a bit surprised at seeing a superhero present, since he rarely saw any one of them while he traveled. He did see Superman once, when he was helping the Japanese Defense Force about something the military can't handle.

The female being pointed at scowled under her cowl, saying, "What's wrong with them?"

"Raven... Rae-chan..." Ranma said cheerfully, earning him a scathing glare from Raven that was deftly ignored, "Didn't you know? You're not only famous in your city, ya know."

"Whatever..." Raven droned, floating downwards near Ranma. The first female floated down as well, and was smiling smugly towards Raven. The goth girl snorted as she said, "Make them stop then. It's bugging me... those stares..."

"You must learn to accept your fame in stride, Raven." The girl in the armor said to the cloaked girl.

"Chooser of Slain!" Shampoo shrieked as she stared at the armored woman intently, her eyes widened in panic.

Mousse stiffened on his stance as well. "The Chooser of the Slain... Valkyrie!"

"Well, gee. Would' ya look at that?" Ranma grinned as he looked at the hyperventilating purple-haired amazon, "You've got your own following, Lenneth-chan."

"She's absolutely terrified. How oddly appropriate..." Raven observed calmly.

Lenneth huffed as she crossed her arms across her chest, causing the males save Ranma to drool slightly as her chest stuck out all the more. "She must know of me, for she is an Amazon. Although being seen as a horrifying creature..."

Ranma and Raven rolled their eyes. "Ya think?" they both chorused.

Lenneth ignored them, instead looking at the surroundings in curiosity. "Shall we depart to our real destination then, Ranma-sama?" She asked to the pigtailed boy.

"We don't need to..." The young man sighed as he rubbed his forehead furiously, "I've dealt with it already."

"Great..." Raven intoned, "Can we go back to Jump City now?"

The look Ranma gave her said 'No Way'.

"We're supposed to be going to Japan... but then I just had to stop by here and take care of something. Normally I would've left these people to their own devices but... they might get into trouble. I just can't leave them..." Ranma sighed as he glanced back to the weirdly silent group behind him. He saw that they were following their conversation, and somehow none of them wanted to interrupt. Akane, Ryoga and Ryuu were still enamored at seeing Raven in person. Shampoo and Mousse were still frantic at seeing Lenneth. Genma was just being his stupid self, staring at the scene in confusion.

"I see a village ahead." Good old Raven informed them as she pointed at a distance.

Lenneth gazed at the quaint little village, where a few people, mostly women, were strolling around its streets. "It seems familiar."

"Of course it is..." Ranma sighed loudly, "It's the Chinese Amazon Village."

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

To Be Continued...

x - x - x - x - x - x - x

NEXT CHAPTER:

Continuation of Ranma's short misadventure. The arrival of two high profile goddesses, where a parallel version of the mother and her lost-in-the-dimensions son will finally meet.

Ranma finally helps Raven train in her powers, but gets sucked into Nevermore accidentally. Ranma will meet Rage/Trigon inside the mirror, and a titanic battle will erupt inside it. Tragedy will befall the infamous mirror... but Raven would not care in the end.

The Justice League tries to make Ranma leave because the poor boy was causing too much havoc in their world, with the Teen Titans assisting the heroes... how will Raven react to this?

New gods descend from Heaven to challenge Ranma as well. Demons will try to take Ranma out too. Poor dimension... the strain would be too much...

Will Ranma ever return to the path he was on before Slade summoned him?

Ask Washuu... err... Washuu-chan.

And Raven... Raven procrastinates on her love life.

AUTHOR RANTS:

To those interested, the crossovers for this chapter are:

- Ranma 1/2 (Of course! Ranma is always there!)
- Teen Titans the animated series
- Justice League the animated series
- Batman the animated series cameos
- Valkyrie Profile

Yep. Updated. Cool ain't it?

Hohoho... I kinda lost track of the length when I wrote this.

Yes, most of the characters from various cartoons are OOC, but that's just the way how I want them to be. Remember, once we touch their stories, they're not gonna be 'canon' anymore. So OOC is allowed. But of course, we try to maintain their OC-ness, but hey, nobody's perfect.

Yes, Saffron is not as foolish as everyone thinks he is. Since the dimension's version of Ranma has been killed by Herb, Saffron achieved his adult form, thus, he's quite mature. His temper's the same though.

Hey, he's the Pheonix. Go figure.

Ranma's changed? Of course he is! Since the time he started to have his dreams about his former life as Chaos, he's been changing! How would you react, if eons and eons of memories and the creation of the Universe was shoved in your head?

You will be humbled. You will be enlightened. You will adapt.

Hence, they merged. But since Chaos is a really old and fleeting memory of the distant past, then of course Ranma will be dominant. But the influences will be very distinct.

I actually finished this before chapter 8a. Funny how that is.

So... anyone who's wondering WHY the Nerimians are kinda docile in the last parts, well, they're still in shock at the events compounding in their faces. Just wait for it... they're gonna be trying to get to Ranma again.

This is gonna be fun.

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

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

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 percent 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.

The Planet Zi, Planet Terra-Two, Solaris Planet (tentative name made by the Solarians when they took control of the land)

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