freon@solutions.solon.com (Michael Pederson)

                        Ranma 1/2 - Parallel Lines

Based on a story by Christian Gadeken (ranma.timeslip), using characters
created by Rumiko Takahashi.  Special thanks to both of them, without whom
this story wouldn't have been possible.  Also, thanks go to my prereaders,
whose comments greatly helped.

                       Episode I: Mirror, mirror...

        In a misty valley set in the mountains of central China, a boy lay
unconscious on the ground.  The valley was filled with numerous small pools,
most of them with their surfaces gently rippling with the early morning
breeze.
        Three of the pools, however, were more agitated.  Two of them were
beginning to calm but the third was still choppy with the waves of large
objects being dropped into it.  The boy lay somewhat near these three pools,
but was still several paces away.  Ranma was a fairly young Japanese boy,
about 16 years old, dressed in Chinese style clothing and with his hair in a
pony-tail.
        The surface of the most agitated pool had just started to calm down
when two heads broke the surface.  The first belonged to a short-haired
Japanese girl, who glared at her companion almost before she finished
gasping for air.  The other girl, a red-head with her hair also in a
pony-tail, started helping her out of the pool and said, "C'mon, time to go
home."
        Akane and Ranma climbed out of the pool and walked over to the
unconscious boy Ranma on the ground, with the early morning mist curling
around their dripping clothes.  Akane was wearing her usual high school
uniform dress, while the girl Ranma was wearing ill-fitting Chinese style
clothing similar to what the boy Ranma on the ground was wearing.
        As the girls reached the unconscious boy, Ranma pulled out a mirror
and an onion and held the onion near her eyes for a moment so they started
tearing.  Then she let a tear fall on the mirror, and said "Take us back, so
none of this ever happened!"  The mirror, which was the powerful Nanban
mirror, began to glow.
        While the girl Ranma was doing this, the boy Ranma on the ground,
unnoticed by the girls, began to stir.  He heard the words and whispered
"no" weakly.  He too, had a version of the Nanban mirror, although his
mirror was cracked and taped.  Now, his Nanban mirror began to glow as hers
did, perhaps in sympathy with it, or perhaps in response to his words.
        As the expanding glow engulfed them and then died away leaving the
area empty once more, Genma and yet another Ranma arrived at the edge of the
valley.

        The two girls and the semi-conscious boy Ranma entered the void,
surrounded by the glow of the two mirrors.  All three were frozen in the
light of the mirrors, like deer caught in the brightness from a car's
headlights.
        The glow from each mirror stretched out into the mistiness of the
void and formed two diverging paths through it.  The whole mirror, with its
bright glow covering the girl Ranma and Akane, began to stretch down both
paths.  Akane was on the side leading to the Tendo-dojo and the girl Ranma
was on the path leading to the countryside near Happosai's prison-cave.
        With its weaker glow, the light from the cracked mirror lightly
wrapped the boy Ranma and Akane and began to slip along the path toward the
Tendo-dojo, but halted as the bright glow around Akane would stretch no
further along that path.
        After being at this impasse for only a moment, something strange
happened; all of the color in each of the Ranmas leaked out into the
surrounding glow.  The boy Ranma's color drained into the soft glow of the
cracked mirror, and the girl Ranma's color drained into the brighter glow of
her whole mirror.
        Both the colors and the light separated from the mirrors and the
two who held them then, and reached towards their opposites, stretching like
taffy and then flowing through each other like unearthly liquids.  The two
Ranmas drifted momentarily in the void, colored only in shades of gray as
though they had been filmed in black and white, and dimly lit by the moving
lights from the mirrors.
        The glows and colors then reached their opposites; the bright light
and color from the girl Ranma settling into the cracked mirror and boy Ranma,
and the dim glow and color from the boy Ranma settled on the whole mirror and
girl Ranma.  As they did so, the glow from each pulled in more tightly to
its new source and pulled away from the old; the dim light left Akane as it
did so, and she moved closer to the boy Ranma.
        Now completely separated, the lights and their passengers moved down
their respective passages.  The boy Ranma and Akane sped off at a high speed
toward the Tendo-dojo, with the glow from the mirror trailing behind them
like the tail of some strange comet.
        The girl Ranma, wrapped by herself in the now dim light of the whole
mirror moved more slowly along her passage.  The glow from the mirror she
held became even dimmer as it forced her to change back to her normal boy
form to more closely match the way he had been when he had left Happosai's
cave.
        Ranma's progress slowed, and as he regained consciousness, he found
that he could see through the veil separating the void from reality.  He was
able to watch his other self's life in a very fast fast-forward, as though
his life were flashing before his eyes.  As the end of the journey
approached, the images and sensations slowed and he watched the Akane trapped
in the void die before his eyes.
        "No!" he tried to shout, but the void absorbed his efforts.

        A moment later, a weak glow manifested itself on the hillside where
Akane sat weeping with her face buried in her hands.  Ranma almost hadn't
made it himself; the mirror's light had just barely pierced the veil between
the void and reality, forcing him to squeeze through the narrow opening.  He
stumbled as he arrived, his own energy drained by the long trip, with the
mirror only weakly protecting him from the ravages of the void, and all that
he had seen there.
        "Akane..." he managed.
        Akane looked up toward him with a tear streaked face.  "Ranma?" she
whispered through a tight throat.  She got to her feet quickly and rushed
toward him, which was fortunate, because just as she reached him, the last
of his strength faded and he passed out.

        Images swam before his eyes.  Ranma tried hard to sort them out.  He
saw himself fighting with Kuno, him and Ryouga training a long-haired Akane
in rhythmic gymnastics, himself and Akane at school.  He also saw the Akane
he had last seen at Jhusenkyo drifting in the void, dying again and again.
        Again, he tried to scream "Noooo!"  But no sounds emerged.
        Ranma jerked upright, breathing hard.  His eyes were open, but they
wouldn't focus on anything.  However, as it was mostly dark that wasn't
surprising.  What was surprising to him was when a pair of hands grabbed his
shoulders and someone moved in front of him.
        "Ranma?  Are you...  are you okay?"  Akane asked him.
        Ranma's eyes came back into focus.  "Akane?  Where?  What happened?"
he started.
        "Shh, it's okay.  You're in your room.  You passed out right in
front of me and you've been unconscious for two days."  Akane quietly told
him.  Ranma could now see by the moonlight that her eyes looked puffy from
lack of sleep.  "I didn't think you were coming back."  Tears started
forming in her eyes.
        Ranma's train of thought derailed; his usual sharp response to being
told he had shown some physical weakness broke apart and spun off to the far
corners of his mind.  His mouth opened as though he were about to say
something, but again, no sounds emerged.
        Sliding her hands off his shoulders, Akane put her arms around him
and held her head to his chest.  She sniffled a little, but otherwise quietly
held him.
        His arms slowly moving around her, Ranma returned Akane's embrace,
holding her as she calmed down.  This is weird, he thought to himself; his
mind finally starting to produce at least some thought.  I wonder where I am?
I wonder when this is....and why is Akane acting so... different?
        A final, irritating thought occurred to him; if this is the other
future, I wonder if I'm still cursed?
        "Akane," he said softly, "what's today's date?"
        Somewhat confused, she pulled back a bit to face him and replied.
Ranma got a confused look on his own face.  That's only about three months
after dad and I arrived here, he thought, but it's still in the past.  And I
sure don't remember anything like this....
        If this is so different, then it has to be the other future that I
would have made if I hadn't stopped myself....  His thoughts trailed off.
Maybe I'd better stop trying to think about it; this is weird enough as it
is.
        Akane watched the confused expression fill Ranma's face.  After a
moment, resolve replaced it as he appeared to come to some kind of decision.
Then, taking a deep breath, he focused on her and said, "Could you get me
some cool water?"  His faced was touched with a bit of nervousness.  "I'm a
bit thirsty," he added.
        Nodding, she said "Sure," and started to get up.  As she did so, she
leaned forward and brushed her lips against his cheek.  "Don't go away," she
said softly to him and silently padded to the door in her slippered feet.
Quietly, she slid the door open and moved into the hall, glancing back over
her shoulder as she did so.
        After watching this with a stunned expression on his face, Ranma
looked down at the blanket that he had been lying under and scowled at it.
"'Don't go away' she says," he muttered to himself.  "Great, as if I don't
feel bad enough as it is about this."
        Ranma looked quickly around the room and in a moment spotted where
his things had been set.  Moving quickly, he slipped over to them and began
searching through them.  In moments, he located the Nanban mirror and began
to look for something to make his eyes tear.  A frantic look around the room
revealed nothing useful however, and Ranma sat back and scowled at the
mirror.
        The mirror reflected his image back at him, although it was a washed
out, grayish image, as though the mirror needed to be cleaned.  Ranma looked
at it for a moment and sighed.  Bracing himself, he rubbed at the corner of
his eye to irritate it.  A few seconds later, a tear worked its way out of
his eye, and he held the mirror to catch it.  As the tear landed on the
mirror, he quietly said "take me to the Akane trapped in the void."
        The surface of the mirror rippled and a dim glow spread from its
surface.  However, as the light peaked and then faded, Ranma found that he
was still sitting in his room.
        Ranma looked around the room in a combination of anger and despair.
He threw the mirror into a corner and flopped back on his futon.  Now what?
he thought, but couldn't find any answers.
        He lay there for a few moments, watching the street lights from
outside play across the ceiling, the distant sound of a dog barking drifting
through the room.
        In Ranma's mind, chaos reigned.  Thoughts chased each other around in
circles, trying to find some answer, but it was becoming apparent there were
none to be found.  Through the middle of his confusion, however, one thought
was solid and steady; he had failed, Akane was dead.
        Akane quietly slipped out of the kitchen with a glass of water and
headed for the stairs, moving with practiced ease.  She glided along the
dimly lit hallway to Ranma's room, taking care not to spill the water.  A
pensive look had settled on her face; Ranma was okay, but he was acting
really weird.  She wondered what had happened to him in those seconds he had
been away.
        When he had reappeared, she recalled, he seemed to have spent some
time exposed to something nasty.  His skin was hot and dry, and seemed
slightly windburned, although his clothes were soaked and had the musty smell
of still water.
        Stopping by the door to his room, Akane quietly pulled it open and
slid into the room.  Ranma was lying back on his futon, although the blanket
that had covered him had been thrown aside.  He appeared to be just staring
at the ceiling.
        "Ranma?" Akane began as she moved next to him, "Here's the water."
She started to reach down with one hand to help him up, but as usual, he was
faster than she was.  Ranma reached up with his hand, grabbed the glass and
poured the water on his face.  To Akane, it appeared as though he had
intended that; his eyes and mouth had been closed against the splash of
water.  Why'd he do that again, she wondered.  Is he trying to wake himself
up, or what?
        Ranma had braced momentarily for the splash of cold water, his eyes
shut, then he had opened them and glanced down at his chest, confirming that
he had, once again, become a girl.  After pausing to let this sink in, she
sighed softly and resumed staring at the ceiling.
        "You're going to catch cold if you just lie there without a blanket
and with your face wet" Akane told him concernedly, watching his face for a
reaction.  As she had been speaking, she had noticed that his now damp hair
shone redly in the light from outside, and that his face looked different,
softer somehow.  She began to reach for the blanket, intending to cover him
up and try to find out what was troubling him so much, when her gaze brushed
across his chest.
        Akane froze in mid-reach, staring at gentle rise and fall of Ranma's
chest as she breathed.  "What?" whispered Akane, shocked.  Her eyes went
wide.  She reached for Ranma's chest and gently touched a breast as though
she couldn't believe it was real.
        "Please don't do that," said Ranma softly, her now higher pitched
voice sounding strange to Akane's ears.  Akane jerked her hand back as though
stung.
        Sitting back, Akane paused momentarily trying to think of what to do
next, but before she could do anything, Ranma continued, "I suppose I should
get some hot water and change back," she said, sighing.  She glanced at Akane
and started to sit up, "Or if you want to," Ranma finished, making an effort
to focus.
        Ranma reached up with a free hand and rubbed the back of her head.
"Or better yet, why don't I take a hot bath?" she mused not really looking at
anything in particular.  After a moment, her gaze swept back across Akane and
Ranma noticed the unusual expression on Akane's face.  She looked as though
she were in a state of deep shock, with her eyes about as wide open as they
could be.
        Having finished sitting up, Ranma waved a hand in front of Akane's
face.  "Um, hey, are you in there?" she asked, concerned.
        "What," began Akane, "I mean, how, when did you, er..." she trailed
off.
        What's with her, Ranma thought to herself.  She's acting like she
never saw me change before.  Ranma's thoughts trailed off as that idea worked
its way around her head.  I guess maybe she hasn't, Ranma's thought finished.
        Putting a hand on Akane's shoulder, Ranma sighed and looked at her as
she said, "gimme a couple minutes to change back, then we can tell each other
what's going on."
        "Um, okay," Akane responded nervously, then added more softly so
Ranma almost didn't hear it, "this is weird," while closing her eyes and
shaking her head slowly.
        Akane and Ranma stood up, and Ranma grabbed some clothes before they
slipped out of the room.  Walking quietly beside Ranma, Akane kept glancing
at her, still unsettled by the sudden change.  Ranma merely walked quietly,
her head down a bit, still trying to focus her thoughts into something
coherent.  When they reached the bath, Akane opened the door for her and
softly told her "I'll wait out here while you change.  Okay?"
        Nodding and not looking back except for a furtive glance over one
shoulder, Ranma went into the bath.
        Several minutes went by.  Akane just stood outside the door to the
bath and waited, trying to get a grip on what had just happened.  By the time
Ranma emerged, still a little damp, she had managed to calm most of the
butterflies in her stomach.  Ranma appeared to be doing better as well,
appearing far less distracted.
        "Do you want to start?" asked Akane as they walked back to Ranma's
room.
        Ranma paused a moment before answering, "I don't know...  I think
maybe you should go first."  He reached up and rested his hand against his
chin, tapping his lower lip with a finger.  "Start at the beginning...  From
when I first got here, I mean," he added as they entered his room and took
seats on his futon.
        Puzzled, Akane complied.  She became calmer as she retold the events
of the last three months, and by the time she reached the events of the last
few weeks, she was smiling at the the memory of Ranma's reaction to her
proposal.  Ranma merely sat on the futon, with his eyes wide in shock.
        Akane finished her tale, saying "then you disappeared," she looked
upset.  "I didn't think you were going to come back, but you did."  She
sighed, not looking at him but instead staring at her hands as they lay in
her lap, "after you collapsed, I brought you back here.  Dr. Tofu examined
you and told us you'd be okay.  I guess one or another of us has been waiting
here for you to wake up since then."  She paused for a moment, then
continued, her voice cracking, "if you hadn't come back, I'd..." she broke
off and tears began forming in her eyes.  Ranma looked at her, still in
shock, and tentatively reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.  She fell
into his arms and sobbed on his chest.
        Gaping, he looked at her for a moment, then glancing around
suspiciously, he put his arms around her and held her.  After a few seconds,
Akane managed to continue talking, still holding onto him.  "And now you're
awake, but you... you..." she paused, at a loss for words.  Her eyes were
closed as she whispered, "You changed into a girl.  What happened to do that
to you?"  She opened her eyes and looked up at him.
        Ranma stared back at her for a moment.  As she had been speaking, he
had been thinking about his last moments at Jhusenkyo and the more recent
events, trying to figure out what had happened and what it meant.
Tentatively, he began to speak, "It didn't work.  All that happened when I
used the mirror was that I got this stupid curse back.  You...  the other
you, I saw her die again."  He paused for a moment, a nervous expression on
his face.  He was aware that Akane was looking at him, but he avoided looking
back at her.  "And I got my memory scrambled; I don't completely remember the
last three months."  Returning her gaze and sighing, he continued "I'm
sorry."  Ranma closed his eyes and hung his head.
        "I'll remember for both of us then," Akane said with a slight smile
at the edge of her lips.  "I still love you, you know, even if you don't
remember.  And I remember what you told me."  She shifted to a position where
she could look at him face to face, and as he raised his head to look at her
again, she put her arm around his neck and pulled him to her to kiss him.
        A moment later, voices could be heard from the hallway; both a man's
and a woman's voice were distinguishable through the door.  Ranma and Akane
finished their kiss, and Akane pulled back just enough to turn and look at
the door as it opened.  The early morning sunlight immediately lit the pair
that entered the room, with Genma leading the way and partially obscuring
Ranma's view of the woman who followed him in.  "Well it looks like he's
finally up and at 'em," Genma was saying, a smile on his face.  "I told you
he was fit enough to bounce back fast."
        Genma stepped aside to let the person behind him move forward toward
the couple on the futon, and Ranma's eyes widened in surprise as he saw who
it was.  "Mom?" he gasped.
        "Surprise!" Akane said, giggling a little.  She moved to allow Nodoka
room enough to hug Ranma and partially got in the hug herself.  Akane
continued, "she was going to be a surprise wedding guest, but I think this is
surprise enough."
        "Uh, yeah," Ranma agreed, slightly pale.  He glanced at his grinning
father, and doubted that Genma would be so confident if he knew about the
curse.
        They disentangled themselves then, and Nodoka and Ranma began talking
with each other.  Akane leaned against Ranma and rested her head on his
shoulder as she listened to him tell his mother about his life.  With the
morning's excitement finally calming down, and from the long night she had
had, Akane finally drifted off to sleep and began to dream.

        She got up from her bed and, brushing sleep from her eyes, walked
over to her dresser.  She looked at it blankly for a moment, her still sleep
fogged mind not quite registering it at first.  Blinking, eyes half closed,
she looked at the top of the dresser, searching for something...
        She shivered, curling up into a ball against the awful wind that was
both hot and cold.  She could feel it cutting through her dress, through her
body to the bone and right through completely.  The misty gray blankness that
formed everything and nothing around her provided no substance, and now she
was starting to become as gray and insubstantial as it was...
        She heard a voice say "Take us home!" and there was a brilliant flash
of light.  In the middle of it, Akane could see a rippling silvery surface
that moved toward her.  She watched as it grew larger than she was, or maybe
she shrank, she couldn't tell in the nearly blinding brightness around her.
Then, gasping is surprise or fear, she fell into it and....
        Still sleepy, Akane picked up a few items from her dresser, glancing
at each for few seconds before deciding it wasn't what she was looking for
and putting it back down.  Then she picked up a mirror...
        "I can't live here," she gasped out, a coughing fit wracking her
body.  By now she was almost as insubstantial as the grayness around her and
any movement sent knives cutting through her body.  Ranma knelt beside her
saying something, to which she tried to reply, but choked off in mid-answer.
He put his arms around her to pick her up, but his touch burned and froze the
misty substance that she was now made of.  Pain tore through her and began
ripping her to shreds.  Akane screamed to Ranma as the chaos claimed her...
        She picked up the mirror, not really thinking of what it was, but
deciding that it was what she was looking for.  Staring at her grayish
reflection for a while, she thought that it looked wrong, but was unable to
determine why.  She took the onion that was in her hand and held it near her
eye so that it would tear...

        "Akane?" a voice interrupted and the dream shattered and spun off to
the far corners of her mind.  "C'mon sis, time to get up."  Nabiki helped a
sleepy Akane sit up, who yawned and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
        "Nabiki?  What?" she began, the scraps of the dream already fading
from her memory.  "Get up for what?"  Akane looked around; she was in her
room, and she could see from the clock that it was just after noon.  Memory
returned around then and she realized she must have fallen asleep listening
to Ranma and Nodoka talking.
        Nabiki was saying, "well it seems that daddy and Mr. Saotome have
managed to get everyone together, now that your fiance is finally awake, and
arranged for the wedding to be TONIGHT."  She helped Akane out of the bed.
"You need to start getting ready."
        Akane's eyes went wide as that sunk in, and she rushed to get up.

        Pausing near an intersection, Ryouga looked around to try to get his
bearings.  Somehow, he had managed to find out that Ranma's and Akane's
wedding had been moved to tonight, and he didn't want to miss seeing his
friends tie the knot.  But, once again, he was lost.
        Ahead of Ryouga, a young girl, dressed in Chinese-style clothing, and
leaning on short staff, was busily examining the street signs and comparing
them against a piece of paper she held in one hand.  Ryouga wondered if she
might be lost too, and moved forward to ask.  Absently, he noticed that she,
too, was wearing a rather large pack.
        "Excuse me," Ryouga said.  The girl stopped looking at the signs and
turned to face him, her shoulder length hair swinging around.  Ryouga
continued, "I'm afraid I've gotten myself a bit turned around," he confessed.
"I was going to the Tendo residence and I was wondering if you could point
the way."
        "Uh huh," the girl said, Ryouga guessed that she was about his own
age.  "I'm going that way myself," she continued, with a trace of a Chinese
accent and drawing his attention to the piece of paper she held as though
that explained everything.  "My, um, teacher said I was supposed to find some
venerable master there who would continue my training."  She looked hopefully
at him.  "Do you know the people there?"
        "Huh?" Ryouga said eloquently.  "Well, yes, but there's no 'venerable
master' there...  Unless someone else has moved in..."  He trailed off,
puzzled.
        "Oh, well maybe he just hasn't arrived yet," the girl said,
cryptically.  "By the way, my name is April Liang, I'm from Hong Kong."  She
shifted the paper to the hand holding the staff and started to reach out with
her other hand, but caught herself and turned it into a brief bow.  "Pleased
to meet you..." April trailed off.
        "Ryouga Hibiki", he supplied, still a bit puzzled at her comments.
        "Well Ryouga, let's see if we can find this place," she finished, and
the two of them began moving.  As they left the intersection, April asked him
"so just who does live at the Tendo place anyway?"

        About an hour later, April and Ryouga were still searching for the
Tendo residence.  April was saying "I think we should stop and get a bit to
eat...  And my back is killing me; I didn't expect to be carrying this thing
this long."  She stopped and sat down on the short concrete wall at the edge
of the sidewalk.  Removing the pack then, she set it aside and leaned back
against the grassy slope.
        Ryouga had stopped next to April on the side where she had set the
pack.  Casually, he grabbed it with one hand and lifted it.  "Well then," he
said, "I'm hungry too, so I'll if you want to rest I'll just carry this to
wherever we're going to stop.  Although," he continued, "I had hoped to
reach the Tendos by now.  I'm sure it's not that far from here."
        "Uh," said April, sitting up and watching Ryouga easily swing her
pack around with one hand.  "You remind me of my brother when you do that,"
she said, pointing in its direction.  "But anyway, if you're going to carry
it, then I suppose I could make it further."  She got up and picked up her
staff.  Then, she rested the end of the staff on the wall and held it so it
was close to vertical.  She stared at it for a second, ignoring Ryouga's
puzzled expression, and took a deep breath and leaped up to land with one
foot on the top of the staff.  It wobbled and looked as though it were going
to fall over taking her with it, but quickly steadied to a small quiver.
April, with her arms stretched out for balance, carefully turned her head and
scanned the city for a few seconds.
        "What are you doing?" Ryouga asked.
        April shushed him.  "Don't interrupt, this takes a lot of
concentration."  Then, having finished, she hopped down to the sidewalk and
caught the staff before it could fall over.  She answered his questioning
look with "Okay, I think I spotted something that'll get us pointed in the
right direction.  Do you mind if I lead this time?"
        "No, that's fine."  Ryouga said, falling into step with her.
        "Tell me," he began as they walked, "who is this 'venerable master'
you're supposed to find at the Tendos, and why there?"
        "Oh, didn't I mention that?" April queried rhetorically as she
navigated the streets.  "Well, according to my teacher... Well, my teacher
has kind of been looking for this guy for a while, and just a few days ago
he managed to get some idea of where he was."  She rambled, concentrating on
navigation.  "Anyway, my teacher, who calls himself 'Marcus' these days,
traced one of the items this guy owned to the Tendo place, and managed to see
that this 'venerable master' would show up to claim it at some point."
Pausing thoughtfully for a second, she continued "I think that if master
Marcus hadn't traced him down by this week, he would have called it quits;
when he told me I was coming here, it was a definite change in plans."
        She fell silent then, and Ryouga, after digesting that burst of
speech, asked again "So what's this 'venerable master's name?"
        April looked at the paper in her hand.  Ryouga, from where he walked
beside her, could see something written in Chinese.  Looking back up to the
street, April replied "Some guy by the name of Happosai."  She shrugged
slightly.  "Does that mean anything to you?" she asked while glancing at him,
not really expecting a positive answer.
        "No."  Ryouga said, not disappointing her.
        They walked along quietly for a few minutes.  "Anyway," April said,
breaking the silence, "you were telling me about the people at the Tendos',
right?  Tell me more about these... Saotomes."  She looked at Ryouga with an
odd expression on her face.
        Ryouga replied "I don't know how to describe them any better....  I
don't suppose it really matters though, you'll be meeting them soon..." he
trailed off.
        April had stopped and was looking at a residence just across the
street from them.  She pointed to it, looked at Ryouga, and said "Isn't that
it?"
        Ryouga looked at it in surprise; he hadn't realized they were so
close.  "Uh, yes.  Yes it is," he said.
        "Great!"  Grabbing her pack, April pulled it and Ryouga across the
street.  As they went, she commented "I don't know why it took so long to get
here though; usually I'm much better at finding things...."

        "Hello Ryouga.  I haven't seen you here for a while," said Kasumi.
Smiling as Ryouga and April arrived at the door to the house.  "Who's your
little friend?" she asked, still smiling and looking at April.
        "Oh, ah, hi Kasumi.  This is, ah..." Ryouga started, then trailed off
and turned to April "Uh, I'm sorry, I don't quite remember," he apologized,
blushing slightly and rubbing the back of his head.
        April was smiling back at Kasumi, unconcerned.  "Hello, I'm April
Liang," she told them, bowing politely to Kasumi.
        Kasumi invited them in, calling out to the other room "Father, we
have some visitors."  She ushered them inside, telling Ryouga that Ranma was
getting ready for the wedding and that she would lead him there.  When her
father Soun arrived, she introduced April and him to each other, and lead Ryouga
away.
        After they had exchanged pleasantries, April told him of her
teacher's decision to send her here to continue her training under a
'venerable master' who would arrive soon.
        "Who is this 'venerable master'?" Soun asked, looking as though he
suspected bad news was in the making.  Sweat beaded on his forehead.
        "His name is," April said, pausing and looking at the sheet of paper,
"Happosai."  She looked up in time to see Soun go white as a sheet.  "Mr.
Tendo?  All you all right?" she asked, concerned.
        Soun froze for a moment, in shock.  He almost looked as though he
were about to cry.  He tried to speak several times, but each time had to
pause to try to collect his wits.  Finally he managed, "Has your teacher told
you anything of," he shuddered as he ground out the last word, "Happosai?"
        "No," April admitted, "just that he knew him from some decades ago."
She looked concerned, "Is there some problem?"
        About to reply, Soun noticed Genma starting to slip away from the
doorway to the room.  In a flash, he bounded up and grabbed Genma by the
collar, pushing him against a wall and scowling into his face.  "Planning
on sneaking away and leaving me to face him alone Saotome?" Soun growled at
Genma.
        Genma spoke at the same time Soun did, saying "Watch you grip Tendo,
do you know how much a tux like this costs?"  He smiled, managing to look
nervous and ingratiating at the same time.  "Besides, that was years ago, I'm
sure he's forgotten all about it by now."
        Soun looked as though he were about to start a fight, when April
spoke up.  "I don't believe this!  Of all the people I just had to run into
again."  April looked at Genma angrily, and continued, "Genma Saotome, I
think you should tell me everything you know about this Happosai.  And don't
you dare leave anything out this time."  She glared at him, the bronze tip
of her staff gleaming oddly, almost as though it were glowing.
        "Uh, did I come at a bad time?" Nabiki asked as she walked into the
room.  "Well, I just thought I'd tell you that everyone is about ready to go.
We can get started any time now."  She turned to April and said, "By the way,
I don't believe we've met."
        Keeping a firm grip on Genma, Soun introduced the two girls to each
other.  He then turned to April and asked, "How is it that you know Saotome
here?"
        "Well, it's kind of a long story," she began.  "Lets just say for
now, that I met him and his son in China."  She paused and thought for a
second, then appeared to have reached a decision, saying "Since it looks
like I'm going to have to stay in the area until this Happosai arrives,
would there be a spare room I could rent?  And I'd also like to be a student
here until then as well."
        "I don't think that would be a problem daddy," offered Nabiki.
"Ranma won't be staying in the room he's been using any more, and in any
case, the Saotomes are only going to be here for a few more days."  Soun
quickly gave in to Nabiki's suggestions, and decided that April would get the
room Genma and Ranma had previously been using.
        Then Soun faced Genma again.  "Saotome," he growled, "you will stay
for a few more days, at least until HE gets here.  Also, I too would like to
know what you have to do with this."
        "Whatever you say Tendo," Genma agreed.  "And could you stop
wrinkling the suit?"  He smiled ingratiatingly, but sweat beaded on his
forehead.
        April had picked up her pack as they argued, and with Nabiki leading
the way, carried it up to the room she would be using.  She was about to
start unpacking, but Nabiki offered her an invitation to the wedding.
        "There won't be any problem?" asked April.
        "Not a bit," Nabiki answered, smiling at some secret thought.
        April agreed, and with some help from Kasumi, they had her ready just
in time to join them.

        Surprisingly, the wedding went well.  Even though Ranma had been
rushed through the rehearsal that afternoon, he still managed to make his way
through the wedding reasonably smoothly.  There had been a bit of
nervousness when Kuno arrived, but he remained on his best behavior.
        Afterward, Ranma and Akane went off by themselves, and April was
introduced to the rest of the household.  Although, she only had a brief
chance to meet the couple.
        Late that evening, after everyone had finally gotten to sleep, Akane
lay curled up against Ranma in what was now their bed.  Naturally, this
wasn't a stable position; every few minutes they would both toss, turn, or
otherwise shift around, usually synchronously.  At the moment, though, they
were still.
        Akane dreamed...

        Her match with Kodachi for the Martial Rhythmic Gymnastics challenge
was about to start.  However, she had injured herself the night before and
had to find a substitute to fight in her place.  So Ranma had taken her
place, wearing tights instead of his usual set of Chinese clothes, and was
just about to shake hands with Kodachi.
        But just then, her P-Chan showed up in the ring...
        She stood with Ranma, listening to the priest talking and hoping she
didn't mess up when her turn came to speak.  Surprisingly, Ranma had been
even clumsier than her when the time came for the real thing.
        They exchanged vows, and Ranma slipped the ring on her finger...
        She stood in a tower in central China, holding half of a scroll and
dressed for her wedding.  A tall, handsome man stood across from her, holding
the other half of the scroll.
        They brought the ends of the scrolls toward each other....
        "Ryouga!  Look out!" Akane yelled as Ryouga was slammed from behind
by a tiny, twisted caricature of an old man.  He had started to brace for the
impact, but it wasn't enough and he plunged over the cliff.
        Ranma dived after him, and Akane shouted, "Ranma!  No!  Rannnmmmaaa!"
The two of them plunged toward the ground....
        Ranma was thrown into the water, the ghoul he had been fighting
landed on the surface nearby and stood there for a moment.  Ranma surfaced
and began swimming toward her.  Then the surface of the water surged under
the ghoul and a shark broke the surface.  The ghoul landed on its back as it
dove for Ranma....

        Akane rolled over onto her other side.  Meanwhile, Ranma brought his
arm up to scratch his head.  When that was done, his arm flopped over, almost
straight at Akane.  She obligingly rolled over on top of it and started to
curl up next to him again.  Ranma, for his part rolled toward her so they
ended up face to face on their sides with Ranma's arm under Akane.
        Ranma's free arm flopped over so he now held her in a loose embrace.
After a moment of this, they both started rolling in Ranma's direction.
Akane ducked her head under his chin as their roll carried her over him to
the other side of the bed.  As she settled on the surface of the bed again,
Ranma rolled in the other direction, back toward her previous spot.  Akane,
who was now dangerously close to the edge, rolled over towards him.
        Ranma ended up on his side, facing Akane, who obligingly stopped as
she reached him and now lay on her back.
        This time, Ranma curled up against Akane.

        Dreaming again, Akane heard a voice say "Take us home!" and there was
a brilliant flash of light.  In the middle of it, Akane could see a rippling
silvery surface that moved toward her.  She watched as it grew larger than
she was, or maybe she shrank, she couldn't tell in the nearly blinding
brightness around her.  Then, gasping is surprise or fear, she fell into it
and....

        Akane sat up and sleepily glanced back at Ranma, smiling as she did
so.  Brushing sleep from her eyes and yawning, she got up from the bed and
walked over to her dresser.  She looked at it blankly for a moment, her still
sleep fogged mind not quite registering it at first.  Blinking, eyes half
closed, she looked at the top of the dresser, searching for something.
        Picking up a few items from her dresser, Akane glanced at each for a
few seconds before deciding it wasn't what she was looking for and putting it
back down.
        She picked up the mirror, not really thinking of what it was, but
deciding that it was what she was looking for.  Staring at her grayish
reflection for a while, she thought that it looked wrong, but was unable to
determine why.  She brought up her other hand and looked at it, wondering
why it didn't look right either.  It needs to be holding something, she
finally decided.
        Quietly, Akane padded to the kitchen.  After a few minutes search,
she found something that seemed to be right and returned to Ranma's and
her room.
        Fighting an urge to yawn, she held the onion near her eye and waited
for a tear to fall on the mirror's surface.  Then she spoke.
        The mirror's surface flared, sending a bright, blinding white light
surging through the room.  Then the light faded, and Akane, for the moment
wide awake, dropped the mirror and onion and fainted, falling backward onto
the bed.
        Ranma startled himself awake as her weight landed on his legs.  He
was hoarsely saying "Akane, no!" in response to the last fragments of some
dream.  As he came more awake and saw what had fallen on his legs, a surge
of adrenaline rushed through him and he quickly folded himself over Akane's
still form.
        "Akane, what-" he lifted her into his arms, trying to think.  Her
eyes fluttered and she started tossing her head from side to side.  Akane
inhaled sharply and started to say Ranma's name as her eyes opened.
        Suddenly, her fist shot up and landed on Ranma's jaw.  His mouth
slammed shut with a sharp click and his head tipped backwards at the blow.
"Ranma, you idiot!" Akane shot at him, confusing him greatly.
        "What?" started Ranma eloquently as he moved his head back into a
more normal position.  The question of what's gotten into her zipped through
his mind.
        "Oh!  I'm sorry!  Did I hurt you?" Akane asked as her hand shot to
her mouth and she chewed nervously on a knuckle.
        Ranma set her down in his lap, still supporting her with one arm.
What's with the sweet and innocent bit after THAT? he thought.  He rubbed his
jaw with one hand.  "What was that for?" he demanded, still feeling his jaw.
        An angry look swept across her face.  "You left me stuck there for
three months!" she said.  "Oh, Ranma, that place was so horrible."  She
buried her face against his chest.
        Ranma had automatically tightened his arms around her as she did so.
"What place?" he asked.
        "The- the place where I got stuck after we started home from
Jhusenkyo," she said into his shirt.  She looked up at him, confused.  "What
am I saying?  I've been here for the last three months..."
        Comprehension dawned on Ranma and was reflected across his face.
"Then you're-" he started, then paused at a loss.  "The other Akane?" he
finally finished.
        "I don't know," said the Akane in question.  She shifted around so
they were both sitting comfortably with their arms around each other.  She
stared into Ranma's face and said, "I think...  I remember things BOTH ways."
        Ranma's mouth opened and immediately closed again.
        "It's hard to keep this sorted though," Akane said and yawned, the
need for sleep making its claim on her again.  She leaned against Ranma and
was silent for a moment.  Then she held herself tightly against him saying,
"It was so EMPTY there."  Shivering, she moved again and slid her legs under
the blanket.
        Ranma continued to be speechless.
        Yawning again, Akane said, "My head feels so weird."  She held an arm
out in front of her and looked at it in the dim light.  "And everything is
solid again...  But it never really stopped." she said, partially to herself
and partially to Ranma.  She took her hand and touched Ranma's face and said,
"And you're here too."  She stared at him for a few moments, her eyelids
starting to droop with fatigue.
        "You were so nice to me these last three months."  Akane marvelled,
comparing memories.  "Even though we fought so... much... before..." she
trailed off as she drifted back to sleep.
        Ranma lay quietly for a few minutes, his arm still curled around her.
"Both ways," he finally muttered.  He turned his head and looked at her.
She's ALIVE, he thought, not really sure how to take it.  After a few more
minutes, he relaxed against her, closed his eyes, and tried to get back to
sleep.
        At the foot of the bed, where Akane had dropped it, the Nanban Mirror
lay face up.  Its now clear surface reflected the dim light from outside in
strange patterns on the ceiling.

                                    Finis
                                  (for now)
-- 
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