Time Together, Time Apart

-Prospero Hibiki Bwee!

Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of these characters (sigh unfortunately) except for a few minor characters along with a villain who hasn't made an appearance yet. They are owned by the almighty Takahashi Rumiko (among other people and organizations specifically Viz, etc. etc.) I write fanfic because I like the shows and would never dream of violating the copyright of these characters. May I be struck by lightning if I ever make a monetary profit from writing this. (I count the pride and comments I receive as profit, but then I believe everyone is entitled to that.)

BTW This is going to be a crossover/fusion with another series, which shall remain nameless for a few more pages, and I don't own those characters either. I just can't think of who does at the moment.

- - -

Once again Ranma had done it. Like he had every Saturday that Akane hadn't been kidnapped, Ranma Saotome had snuck off immediately after school had ended. It had become such a part of the daily routine ever since it started happening during his junior year that now most people didn't even bother to watch him go. Of course that was only most of the people. His many fiancés were all disappointed at his persistent refusal to make the right choice and marry them. The irony of the fact that all seven of the girls that now went to Furinkan High School were thinking this simultaneously was lost on all of them. Nabiki Tendo was also fairly put out by this event because she had forced ten of her lackeys to skip the last class of the day in order to prevent just this from occurring.

Ranma spent this time doing something so far from his normal activities that no one ever expected it. He was riding the train to the neighboring ward instead of running, jumping, or flying. To date he had resisted all attempts to find out where he went; from threats of violence, blackmail, and even the uber-cute, sad, puppy-dog look. And no one in Nerima was happy about it. (With the possible exception of Mousse, who saw it as the perfect opportunity to seduce the planter he thought was Shampoo. Afterwards, the planter was not impressed.)

Of course everyone in Nerima who knew Ranma, and many fiancés who had yet to meet him, would have been even more upset if they knew that every Saturday Ranma took that train in order to see another woman. Not that they were doing anything more than having lunch, but trying to tell that to an enraged fiancé would have been more akin to suicide than Ranma ever wished to get.

- - -

Time Together, Time Apart

A Ranma 1/2 and ?? Crossover

Written by

Prospero Hibiki

and

Brought to you by

Frozen Hell Productions

"They laughed when we bought the practical joke store. We'll see who's laughing now."

- - -

The green haired lady tapped her foot impatiently; knowing all too well that it wouldn't speed up his arrival. She sighed wondering for the hundredth time why she always arrived fifteen minutes early when she knew that he wouldn't arrive until the appointed time at the earliest. Looking at an antique pocket watch she smiled and raised her hand. The waiter nodded having become accustomed to the pattern of events by now. Two large mugs of hot chocolate and a large kettle of water soon found their way onto the booth's table. Very few people in the café noticed and fewer even cared, the number being fairly small to begin with because of the booth's location at in the shadowed corner.

It was the same every week and probably would be. Very few things would ever change the pattern, and even the changes had taken a sort of pattern of their own. Either he would call the café telling her that she had been kidnapped once again, or she would call the café telling him that 'urgent business' had come up. He'd stopped asking what her business was when he noticed that demons always showed up in the paper the following Sunday.

Setsuna Meio sighed once again and, once again, resisted the temptation to look into the future to see if he showed up or if it would again be the phone call. She'd decided long ago that she would never look into Ranma's future, instead preferring to live at least this one part of her life as a normal human being. It was actually kind of fun trying to figure out solutions to the problems of his love life, just as it was nice having someone to talk to about trivial things. Not that she would ever let any of her fellow Senshi know that she liked gossip as much as the rest of them. It just didn't fit her all too mysterious image.

She'd started to look over at the counter expecting Hiro to come over and tell her Ranma wouldn't be coming when the door swung open and a rather damp Ranma-chan walked in. Needless to say she was swearing enough to make several of the customers she passed faint. That these customers were American sailors from Yokosuka Naval Base raised Setsuna's eyebrows even more. Ranma was in rare form today it seemed.

"Hiya Setsuna." Ranma slid into her customary seat across the booth. "Can you hand me the kettle. Thanks." Ranma poured some of the hot water over her, now his, head and dumped the rest into a large thermos he pulled out of his backpack.

"Ranma should you have come with the thermos filled? That was the entire reason for me getting it for you in the first place." Setsuna pushed one of the mugs closer to the pig-tailed boy.

Ranma scowled. "I did. It's not my fault that I got splashed five times coming from Nerima. Five times! I even got splashed on the stupid train if you'd believe it."

She laughed imagining a rather frustrated Ranma-chan throw a businessman out of a train. "Oh I believe it. So what's happened lately?" She took a sip of her chocolate.

He started to tick things off his fingers. "Let's see. Glomped, poisoned, malleted, force fed, drugged, malleted again, extorted, insulted…"

Setsuna gaped at the amount of things that had happened to him. "Wow, looks like this week has been even busier than normal." It was strange that someone outside of the Silver Millenium could have so much chaos in his life. If she hadn't followed him to see his life first hand that one time she would have thought he was lying to her.

Ranma only stared at her in a way that made her wonder if she had something on her face. "Week?! That's just what happened today!"

Setsuna sweat dropped. She'd realized from their talks that things were getting worse for him, but never had she imagined that things would be coming so close to critical. "So have you made a decision yet?" She'd told him that his problems came from his inability to come to a decision that might possibly hurt someone.

"No, and I'm not going to yet."

"Ranma. You know that's not a good way of going about things. From what you've just said thing are already past a point where even the police could take a hand. Waiting longer is just going to make things worse." She was a little disappointed in him really. He knew all the reasons that his situation was impossible, and yet he still insisted on toughing it out in the hopes that some good might come of the current situation. And while it was possible, if extremely unlikely, Setsuna remained positive that he at least needed to do something about the situation no matter what it was.

Ranma looked away and when he looked back he immediately picked up his mug and took several small sips as if it was too hot, a sure sign that he was stalling for time since Setsuna's chocolate was just the right temperature.

Omake

Sighing Ranma could only nod. "Yeah, I have. I don't like it, but I figured out that the only way out of it would be to end everything."

"You're going to WHAT?!"

He looked up at Setsuna's now completely enraged face and wondered why she looked like she was going to kill him. Mentally running over his verbal transcripts he realized the possible meanings of what he had said. "Oops. Let me rephrase that. What I meant to say is that I need to end all of the engagements. Yeah that's it." He relaxed when he realized that he wouldn't become a smear on the booth's upholstery. For the moment at least though no one really knew what the future would bring.

He completely failed to see the irony present in that thought.

"Oh." Setsuna blushed and glared at all of the customers now staring at her. "Mind your own business!" She sank down in her seat as much as she could.

Ranma couldn't help it and started to laugh. His normally unflappable friend was blushing like it was going out of style. He only stopped when she reached over the table and smacked him upside the head.

"Cut it out already."

Ranma smiled as he walked through downtown Juuban. It had taken him a long time, but he'd finally found something that would be perfect for Setsuna. He tapped the box resting in his front pocket checking to make sure it was still there. Yes, Ranma thought, things were really starting to look up for him. Juuban didn't receive nearly as much rain as Nerima, he was able to be with the woman he loved on a regular basis, and best of all, not counting his sparring matches with his new friends, nothing remotely martial had happened since he had last seen Cologne.

A soft flickering of thunder could be heard in the distance. Concerned Ranma looked around, growing even more confused when he didn't see any clouds in the sky.

He shook his head. "Just my imagination. Still, I gotta learn not to think things like that." Shrugging it off as an aberration, Ranma picked up his pace slightly so he could get home quicker. He grinned at the thought that it was his home now. His and Setsuna's. Their home. He liked that.

Two minutes later he stood in front of the florist and contemplated buying some flowers. It was appropriate. Needless to say he was fairly surprised when someone came crashing through the building behind him and smashing into the florist's plate glass window. Surprise turned to shock when he realized that he knew the person.

Several Minutes Earlier:

To say that the battle was going poorly for them would be giving them the benefit of the doubt. They weren't fairing well at all against the monster. Clearly the thing knew something about how the Senshi operated because it had started its rampage by taking out Sailor Saturn who was quickly followed by Neptune and Uranus. And that was when things started to get ugly.

Sailor Jupiter was in fine form having come up with a way to create chain lightning by having Venus shoot off links for the electricity to bounce off of. It was really quite spectacular, and Pluto shook her head in wonder at the ideas that the combination had sparked in her mind. It was too bad really that it was looking like they wouldn't survive. Not for the first time did Pluto curse the order her future self had given her about looking into the future for the next few months. She knew that the fact that she had had a future self didn't necessarily mean that she still would in another five minutes. Paradoxes still gave her headaches.

All of the other Senshi were hurt now, only the Inners even standing. Tuxedo Kamen had taken so many hits for Sailor Moon that he was now unconscious. And worst yet, the thing seemed to be getting stronger from seeing their despair. It had already taken a Dead Scream without even batting an eye. No, things were not good.

For Pluto to say that time slowed for an instant would probably be misconstrued by some people who would think that she was referring to that horrible realization that something even more horrible was about to happen without her being able to stop it. And they would be partially correct. She saw the brief pulse of energy fly towards the place where Sailor Moon was going to land and knew that no one would be able to make it there in time to save her just as she knew that Moon wouldn't survive that particular blast. And with that realization came the knowledge that that wasn't true, that some one could get there in time. Her. She could make it if she bent every rule she had ever set for herself. And when the choice came down to it between the life of her future queen and her rules she found that she didn't care one wit about her damn rules.

Thus when Pluto thought time slowed for her she was right and so she shoved Moon out of the way and when time sped up once again she found herself smashing though both sides of a building and coming out the next street over before landing inside a flower shop.

Fury. Total and utter fury. No other words came anywhere close enough to describe how Ranma felt as he cradled Setsuna's unconscious form in his arms. Being careful not to injure her he carried the woman he loved across the street and through the remains of the building she had gone through. Through! Ranma buried his hate, his rage, his fury knowing that they would make him sloppy. The Soul of Ice technique that Cologne had taught him took over and his rage turned into something much more calculating.

Upon reaching the street he spoke in a voice that cut through the battlefield like volcanic glass. "Who did this? Who hurt her? Who!" At the last he shouted out to the people in front of him, his control making frost form in a circle around him.

He didn't need to see the people pointing to guess what had hurt her. It was half again his height at eight feet, and seemed to be made of a cross between a bug and a candidate for Mr. Universe. Nodding almost absently he carefully set Setsuna down, leaning her up against one of the remaining walls. Turning once again to the yellowish black creature he rolled up the long sleeves of his green Chinese shirt and sprung forward with a kick.

It seemed that the thing wasn't prepared for the speed he could move at first because it just stood there taking over one hundred blows that would have surely killed any human opponent. Ranma had pulled out all the stops for this battle, not having felt so angry since his battle with Saffron. Punches followed kicks followed elbows followed knees. After hitting it a dozen times or more Ranma would hop back to bounce off of something to jump back into the fray. And then the thing started to react to him.

It wasn't much at first, just a few swipes of the claw like things that he assumed were the equivalent of the thing's arms. Then it started to pick up speed right along side him and then go faster. Soon it was all Ranma could do to avoid blows that even Ryoga would have felt.

Ranma sighed for what must have been hundredth time that evening, the gesture once again accompanied with pulling his collar away from his neck. He frowned when he heard Setsuna chuckle next to him. She had been the one to convince him that wearing the tuxedo was appropriate for meeting the queen of the solar system and he had been forced to agree after several hours of arguing. Of course she had only won after practically seducing him. He still thought that that hadn't been fair.

He still didn't see the need for him to be here. It seemed stupid for her not to be able to marry him unless he was a nobleman. He didn't want to be a nobleman. Kuno was a nobleman and Ranma wanted nothing to do with that lifestyle. Of course the revelation that Setsuna herself was nobility was an indication that all nobles weren't like Kuno, but he was still wary.

He stopped his internal debate because it wasn't doing him any good. He had agreed to take this trip into the past so he could marry Setsuna and he was going to do it if it killed him. Reaching over to where she was sitting beside him he grasped onto her hand and smiled at her. Yes, he thought, I'll put up with quite a bit to be with her forever.

The rest of the time in the small parlor passed quickly with the two of them holding hands while they waited to be announced. Of course they wouldn't be called by their real names, or at least Setsuna wouldn't be, because that would defiantly lead to some awkward questions that they both couldn't and shouldn't answer. It would probably destroy the timestream completely if people knew what was going to happen several thousand years in the future. As it was the entire situation seemed slightly ridiculous to the young man who had become the embodiment of Charon. Here they were, Setsuna going by the name of Reimyo Meio, several thousand years in the past waiting to get approval of a queen of a kingdom that no longer existed is his time. All the time travel was giving him a headache.

"There, there Ranma. It'll all be over soon." Setsuna smirked slightly because she could anticipate his next comment.

"Soon by what definition? In some ways what we're doing has already happened we just don't know how it turned out, and once it does there's no changing it without creating a paradox, so what's there to relax about?"