Disclaimer: Wheel of Time belongs to Robert Jordan. Publishing rights are held by Tor Books. Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Publishing rights in the United States are held by Viz and Kitty Films.

Author's notes: Well, I did say I'd do at least a prologue for this. If I decide to continue it is a different story. Much of the prologue will be flashback scene, well except the opening. Wheel of Time is a fun series to cross Ranma with. If anyone wants to continue this if I decide to drop it, contact me first, but I'll probably say yeah. In any case, without further ado, I present to you:

Two Halves, One Power
By Peter Gallagher (Ellf)

Prologue: The Awakening of the Great Serpent

A burst of Power rose from the hills near the ruin city that was Shadar Logoth. Shadow's Waiting, the foul place was aptly named. The foolish leaders of the city when it was Aridhol did unspeakable things that invited the darkness that now haunted the city. Mashadar laid waste to the citizens save one, and that one was corrupted by its power. A wonderful choice of location for the Dragon Reborn to attempt to cleanse saidin from. The taint would be removed this day.

Linked with Nynaeve and holding the key to the Choedan Kal, Rand al'Thor fought a valiant battle while channeling. The battle was mostly mental and directing the flows of the power. Over the course of several hours, Rand used more of the One Power than anyone could have hoped to in a lifetime. He tried everything he could think of to eliminate the taint. Constantly he poured the Power, both saidar and saidin, at the taint, but nothing seemed to faze it.

In the middle of the Great Blight lay a cave. A few miles south of the former location of the Eye sat this cave. West of the Mountains of Dhoom and north of the border to Shienar. Like the Eye of the World, this cave was never in the same place twice. However, unlike the Eye, none could find it. What was in this cave? Something far more important than a pool of untainted saidin.

The inside of the cave was, as most caves are, dank, dark, and a wee bit wet. However, further in the back of the cave stood something precious. Avendesora, the Tree of Life grew, protecting all who rested in its shade. Or was it Avendesora? Was this not the tree that stood at Rhuidean? No... It was different... it was... older... Lying beneath its branches with eyes closed was a figure encased in red ice, or was it blue ice? Or green ice? Purple? The ice seemed to change colors so rapidly, almost as rapidly as the figure inside it changed appearances. At first, one would see a raven0haired young man dressed in a red silken shirt and black pants of a similar material. His hair done up in a braided pigtail. Barely a millisecond later, a figure, different yet the same, would be seen. A buxom flame0haired beauty clad in the same clothing, but would fit in the clothes differently.

Suddenly... the ice began to crack as a dark cloud formed within the ice, appearing only when the figure was male. Thin cracks began to spread, covering the surface of the ice that encased the person. The figure seemed to change forms very rapidly now, leaving an afterimage of each form overlapping the other. Fractures continued to form on the ice, and now a visible multihued aura could be seen.

The cracks began to overlap, causing the ice to form into fragments, fragments that were blown away piece by icy piece. Away from the figure each piece ripped through the air like a hot knife in butter.

Suddenly the figure stopped shifting, remaining in male form. The dark cloud that surrounded him, darker than night, blacker than black, was exposed to the Light and began to dissipate.

Rand collapsed to the ground of what used to be Shadar Logoth. The ter'angreal that he had used to access the male Choedan Kal lay next to him. Nynaeve al'Meara also lay unconscious next to him. Her long braid ran across her shoulder and down the side of her dress. Sitting next to her was the female equivalent of the ter'angreal that Rand had used, but unlike his this one was melted, divided in half, and it could scarcely be called a ter'angreal anymore. Access keys is what they were called, used to access the most powerful sa'angreal from anywhere in the world. After all, if one were to be near them while they were channeling, they were likely to be burnt up from the Power flowing there.

When used together, by a linked man and woman, one can do anything with the Power. Black coat wearing gentlemen and dress wearing women with ageless faces approached the pair. The men were Rand's Ashaman, his defenders, male channelers trained at the Black Tower, doomed to go mad because of their channeling, but the feat accomplished today should have changed that. The women there were Aes Sedai, female channelers from Salidar, the Rebel Tower, but some were from the White Tower, under Elaida.

An Aes Sedai named Cadsuane examined the pair. Nynaeve unconscious was to be expected, she was used as the conduit for the largest amount of Power ever channeled by any member of the White Tower. It was because of her strength and stubbornness alone that she had not burned herself out during this process as the Choedan Kal had none of the protection that many sa'angreal and angreal had. This alone was a miracle.

"It's clean," said one of the Ashaman, Jahar, his name was. He was sitting on the ground with his head in the lap of one of the Aes Sedai there. "It's clean."

Inside the cave, the boy's eyes opened. He looked around, trying to get his bearings. Okay. One, he was in a cave. Two, he felt at peace. Three, there was a tree behind him, grown well in the cave. Four, no one else was around.

'Damn, where'd they all go? Didn't Saffron want to finish the fight?'

The pigtailed boy, obviously Ranma Saotome, tried to remember what happened before.

He was standing on the ground, looking directly at the Phoenix Prince. Ranma knew that if he tried harder, he could beat him. Especially with the help of the Gekkaja. All he had to do was wait for Saffron's next attack, and then the heat of it would clash with the spiral of ice that he had dug into the ground with the ice staff, and convection would do the rest.

"Digging your own grave, mortal?" Saffron had asked, "No need to strain yourself, there will be nothing left but ashes!" Once again the Phoenix God tore off one of his wings and began to do his attack, but this time Ranma would be ready.

"Oh yeah, bring it on, punk!" Even then Ranma wasn't taking the fight completely seriously. He learned differently as the flames descended towards him like a comet. Thrusting his fist up while standing in the center of the spiral triggered his special move. "HIRYUU SHOUTEN HA!" Screamed the pigtailed martial artist. Hot and cold air combined to form a spiral convection current, the Rising Dragon Ascension's tornado. Saffron was surrounded by winds, and Ranma let himself get sucked up by it.

Ranma smirked, that was a good decision he made. Sure the winds were no trouble for Saffron, but at least it got him close enough to hit the bastard. It was when Saffron had gotten the Kinjakan back that caused the problem. The clashing energies of the staffs had caused the tornado to wander... straight towards Kenseizan.

"Saotome! You and your woman will die this day!"

Ranma smirked as he held onto the Gekkaja. "I think not, bird brain! Eat this!" Ranma formed a ball of blue ki in his hand and touched it with the Gekkaja. A swirling of ice could be seen around the ball. "Mouko Takabisha Revised: Attack of the Ice Tiger!" The pigtailed martial artist thrust his hand towards the phoenix and the ball grew and flew at him. Unfortunately, Saffron protected himself by launching another fireball, engulfing the meager ki blast, and it struck the ground. Looking around, Ranma saw bits and pieces of rubble flying up from the ground.

"A pitiful attack... Landling, are you getting tired? Don't worry; it will all be over soon!"

The tornado of the Hiryuu Shoten Ha passed over the taps of Jusendo, and both heads were pulled off. They flew up into the tornado like the creatures that they were designed after. Ironically, the Phoenix Tap slammed into Saffron, sending him flying towards the pools of Jusenkyo. As he fell, more and more rubble came from Jusendo to fall on top of the unconscious Phoenix Prince.

Ranma watched as Saffron flew off, and smiled. Finally the fight was over. But then, why was the Hiryuu Shoten Ha still going? With all the rock out of the way of the waters of Jusendo, the tornado was now sucking up the magical water like a straw. The water swirled around Ranma, before the pigtailed martial artist began to sink. He fell, throwing the Akane doll out towards where Ryoga and Mousse were, and the water turned her back to normal. He smiled, and the last thing he remembered was striking the water.

'Ryoga, Mousse, Shampoo, Akane, Ucchan... I wish I could do more.'

The Gekkaja struck the water at that instant, and Ranma's memories cut off.

Ranma shook his head, at least Akane was alright. He managed to save her. He managed to save them all. Ryoga and Mousse managed to pull through in the end after all. Looking around, he noticed that he was not far from the cave's exit. As reluctant as he was to leave the shade of the tree, he knew he had to. It was his duty as a martial artist to locate his friends.

'Duty...'

There's a saying in the Borderlands. Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain. Ranma's version of that was drilled into him by Genma since birth. The life of a martial artist is fraught with peril. "Are you a martial artist, boy?" he would ask. Chibi-Ranma would answer, "Uh huh." "And what is the code of the martial artist?" "Ta protect the weak!" Ranma smiled at that bittersweet memory. That was shortly before he had met Ukyo, but it was one of the most prominent memories he had of that time.

The pigtailed boy stood and began to slowly walk out of the cave. Lying at the entrance to the cave were five things. One was an umbrella, apparently made of bamboo, another was a baker's peel made out of the finest steel with a green dragon spiraling down the handle of it, the third was a pair of bonboori, the fourth, a mallet, and the fifth was an engraving. It read: "In memory of Ranma Saotome, an amazing martial artist, and a selfless friend. We are sorry for the way we treated you, and thank you for your gift.
1980-1996."

Ranma had a tear form in his eye as he read the engraving, but that was before he noticed the dust on it. Millennia of dust had formed upon it, but yet it had not disappeared. How Ranma knew it was millennia of dust was beyond him, regardless he did know, and he knew that meant that his friends were... Ranma didn't want to think along those lines. Everyone he knew was dead and gone, but he had been given a second chance at life. Ranma wouldn't screw it up. Picking up the baker's peel, he noticed that there was a bandoleer attached to it. He put it around his body and hung the peel on his back. He hefted the umbrella, yep, it was Ryoga's alright. The weight felt natural in his hands, and it felt... right. He placed it next to the baker's peel on his back. The bonboori he hung at his sides, and he hid the mallet in subspace. Ranma Saotome was ready for anything now.

Stepping out of the cave, Ranma noticed a feeling of... wrongness that surrounded the area. He stared at the barren wasteland that filled his vision. The Byankala Range wasn't like this. More proof that his friends... Ranma killed that thought immediately. The first objective would be to find civilization.

'Let's see, damn... this place is making me feel sick... Which way? Well, down first of course.'

Ranma scaled down the mountain quicker than a cheetah at top speed. He didn't want to be near that cave anymore. It reminded him too much. Spinning around, he extended his senses to find a direction in which to go. South seemed to be a safe bet, the feeling seemed to get weaker towards that direction.

So Ranma set off at a speed that would make Olympic runners look like turtles. He slowed down a bit as he realized how fast he was going. Ranma noticed smoke in the distance. The pigtailed lad smirked, maybe he was going to be lucky and find people already. The ominous sound of thunder could be heard overhead as Ranma took off towards the smoke.

(End of Prologue)

Author's Notes:

Argh! Writer's block! Wanted to be more descriptive but couldn't think of how! At least not without giving the story away! Anyways, the story chapters themselves will be much longer. This story will be getting the backburner to "1/2 an Age", and "To be a Tomboy", but it will be worked on. Prologues... most of my stories have them, hmm... I thought about writing this one differently, but that would pretty much give everything away if I wrote it the other way. Well, you can drop me a line about any of my fics at C&C is good, flames are bad. Saffron could tell you all about that.