Disclaimer: I do not own rights to either Ranma ½ or the Assassin's Creed franchise, they belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Ubisoft respectivly. I'm just floating an Idea... Please don't sue me. I don't have any money any way... Also... as at the beginning of both Assassin's Creed games it has the disclaimer that they were made by a multicultural team of many faiths and beliefs, I do not discriminate people on the basis of race, color, religion, etc... Just thought I should add that. If issues dealing with that come up later in the fic, just remember that it's just part of the story.

Dragonfly

By: Almech Alfarion (Child of Fire)

Chapter 1: Reunion

A motorcycle and its rider tore down the inner-city highway, making their way through the early morning weekend traffic of greater Tokyo looking like a black and red blur in the pre-dawn light, even to those driving in the same direction. Angry motorists and commuters beeped their horns at its passing but it was long gone before the sounds could register to the driver. Police vehicles took one look at the streak and decided it was a bad job and ignored it, some even recognizing it and thinking that the driver was setting a conservative pace today.

The driver's long mane of red hair flew out behind her, riding the winds of speed as she expertly piloted her bike towards her destination. A place she used to call home, but had since abandoned the thought of ever belonging there. It had been three long years since she had seen the building she had once believed would one day become the most permanent home she would ever have in her life. Slowing down some, but not much, so she could more easily navigate the city streets, she turned off the highway and into the streets of the Nerima Ward. Only a little longer and she would reach her destination: the Tendo Dojo.

Nabiki was nervous... on the inside. On the outside, she held onto her mask of cold indifference as a drowning man would hold onto a life preserver in a raging tempest. Three weeks ago, she had had a run in with someone she had thought long gone out of her life. She had been sitting in a little cafe in downtown Juuban, wanting to have a change in scenery for her lunch from the cafeteria the office building she worked in provided, when, who else, but Ranma should walk in and start up a conversation with the cashier like they knew each-other, after ordering her drink.

Now Nabiki hadn't recognized Ranma at first, Oh no... Pierced ears, unbound waist length hair, and makeup were not things that went together with Ranma in her mind. She had done a double take before the redhead's voice struck a cord of recognition in Nabiki...

---Flashback---

"RANMA!!!"

Ranma turned from her conversation with the cashier, looking a little confused at the call.

"Over here!" Nabiki waved to her, a look of shock writ large on her face.

Ranma came over to her, still looking a little confused, "Nabiki?"

Faster then she had thought possible Nabiki was hugging the now thoroughly startled redhead, "Oh thank Kami-sama I found you! We've been looking everywhere for you!"

Ranma was worried now. If this truly was Nabiki Tendo, she had either changed dramatically in the three years that she had been gone from the Tendo household or something really bad had happened to get her this emotional... "What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's your mother Ranma... She's sick... Even Tofu-sensei and Cologne say that there isn't anything that they can do to help her. They say that she only has about a year at best..." Nabiki was still hugging Ranma, even starting to cry a little. Nodoka had become somewhat of a mother figure next to Kasumi in the time she had been in the Tendo home. "She wants to see you Ranma... before she joins her ancestors..."

Nabiki felt Ranma tense in her arms, and then relax a little. "I can't Nabiki..." she finally said, "At least not right away. I have some... things... that I need to do before I can go back there. Shouldn't take more then a couple weeks though."

Nabiki let go of her at this and backed up a little to more fully take in the changes in Ranma's appearance. She had already noticed the longer, unbound hair, pierced ears and light makeup. She was a little taller then Nabiki remembered Ranma's girl form being, roughly 163 cm instead of the 150 cm she used to be, but it had been a few years so she guessed that Ranma had grown a little in that time. Gone though, were the old Chinese silks, replaced by something that military personnel might wear. Calf high, heavy leather boots with the bottom cuffs of a pair of black military style fatigues tucked into the tops. A black tee-shirt was tucked into her pants which were held up by a web mesh belt with what looked like sleeves for standard and not so standard equipment for the security guards Nabiki had seen on her trips to New York City, minus the gun, along with some canisters that looked suspiciously like something called a "Flash Bang" she had seen on a TV documentary... though considering the leather jacket that Ranma wore over her shirt, she wouldn't be surprised if the gun was hidden somewhere out of sight. Noted also, were at least three very well hidden knives, only visible to her due to her time as the "Ice Queen of Furinkan High" and the powers of observation that the position demanded. One knife in her right boot, one on her belt, and one tucked into a bracer on her left arm hidden by the jacket, with more likely to be better hidden and out of sight. To top it off was a very well disguised flesh-colored ear-bud in her right ear with the cord going down into the neck of the jacket, presumably to a radio hidden somewhere on her person. Nabiki idly noted that Ranma also seemed to be wearing a bra.

Then there was how she held herself. Gone was the cocky, overconfident manner the Saotome had carried himself with, replaced with a controlled posture, still speaking of confidence, but a confidence in abilities earned and known inside and out to their absolute limits. And the eyes... those deep blue eyes held an edge that hadn't been there three years ago. Nabiki's old "Ice Queen: I know a Secret" smile couldn't have done it better, but the secrets that these eyes told of were those that were better left in the darkness that they came from.

"What happened to you?" Nabiki breathed after taking this all in. Ranma had changed dramatically in the time that she had been gone. To say that Nabiki was shocked would be akin to saying that the sun is mildly warm.

"I... can't tell you..." Ranma's face looked sad. "Not here anyway. It's not safe, for you, or me..." She looked to the side and spoke in a whisper that Nabiki barely caught, "There could still be some survivors around..."

Survivors? Survivors of what? And why was Ranma worried about 'survivors'? Questions filled Nabiki's head at these words that she was sure she both was, and wasn't supposed to hear.

After a long pause in which Nabiki could feel a heaviness in the air Ranma moved to hug her. "I'll see you around." She said, "Safety and peace be upon you" and she let go and walked out the door leaving a confused Nabiki behind.

Later that evening after Nabiki got back home she was checking her pockets to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything when she felt a peace of paper that hadn't been there before. She took out the folded peace of note paper, curious as to what it was; she opened it and saw that it was a note.

Nabiki.

There are reasons that I cannot tell you everything at this time, and they are for your own safety. Know that in time I will tell all, however I need time to tie up some loose ends so that when we next speak, we may speak with the knowledge that the enemies of freedom will not be listening. There is much that I wish that I could tell you at this time but please remember that there are things in this world greater than humanity. Jusenkyo should have been proof enough of this to your mind.

Go to the Tokyo International Airport. In Terminal 2 you will find a locker marked with an 'A' inscribed inside of a circle with a broken cross underneath it. The Combination is 3-27-65. Inside you will find a disposable phone that I will use to contact you when all is ready. DO NOT USE IT FOR ANY REASON! And destroy it after I have contacted you.

Ranma Saotome

P.S. It is extremely important that you burn this note when you are done reading it. Make sure that there is only ash that remains.

P.P.S. Also... Please don't tell anyone (Even your family or mine) that you have spoken to me... you never know who might be listening.

---End Flashback---

Nabiki's mind filled with questions when she had finished reading the note. Who were the 'enemies of Freedom'? She had spoken of, and, what did she mean by 'things greater than humanity'? And even more troubling; when did she write the note? I was looking at her the whole time we were talking and she looked surprised to see me when I called to her... was I set up?

Regardless she had done as she had been asked and burned the note after memorizing every last word, and she had gone to the Tokyo International Airport and found the locker with the phone inside. She carefully made sure that it was on her person at all times and was charged. The Tendos and Saotomes also remained in the dark, per Ranma's wishes for secrecy.

Then, three days ago, the phone rang and Nabiki answered. The message was short and to the point, and Nabiki wasn't even allowed a word in edge wise before Ranma hung up. "Gather the New Wing Council in the place where stones are broken. The Horse returns to its stable in three days time. *Click*" Nabiki was confused by this... She didn't know of any "New Wing Council" and the only times she had seen stones broken were when she witnessed Ryoga perform his Bakusai Tenketsu technique... it took her a few hours of confusion to figure out that it was a code. "New Wing Council" started with the letters "NWC", the same acronym for the term "Nerima Wrecking Crew", coined by the populace of Nerima to describe Ranma and his followers/rivals/enemies/friends.

The "place where stones are broken" was a bit harder to break but now that she knew that she was looking at a code she was more alert to things that Ranma might have associated to broken stones. It wasn't until the morning after she had received the call that it clicked, when she heard the patter of concrete bits on the roof, testament to Akane's morning brick breaking. Ranma wanted her to gather everyone in the Dojo. And she only had three days to do it. On top of that she didn't know if Ranma still wanted to keep their meeting a secret. Damn you Saotome, do you have any idea how hard that's going to be?

Somehow she had managed it all in a day. The easiest were the Amazons, as they were still living at the Nekohanten in the hopes that Ranma would someday return. She just told them that there was going to be a meeting in the Dojo in three days and that some of the things discussed may be of interest to them. Cologne had tried to gather more information from Nabiki, but came up with nothing when Nabiki said that she was "just the messenger".

Ukyou was nearly as easy, but more difficult to convince to come because she needed to run her restaurant. One passing comment, that they might discuss the topic of trying to find Ranma so he could see his mother again, and she agreed to come with hardly a second thought.

Then came the hard ones... Ryoga and Happosai. Ryoga because he could literally be anywhere in the world at any given moment, and Happosai because convincing him to do anything usually meant shedding some of your dignity and offering up a sacrifice of "Silky Darlings" to the perverted grandmaster. A few well placed calls and Nabiki found that Ryoga had been at Akari's farm for the last couple of weeks and she asked Akari if she could bring Ryoga to the Tendos and have him there in three days. Akari agreed. Happosai was located on one of his panty raids and Nabiki told him to meet her in his room at the Tendo compound to negotiate something. Three hours, some choice words from Nabiki, and two pairs of panties that Nabiki had "borrowed" from Akane and Happosai agreed to be at the dojo when the meeting began.

Then came the family... It should be said, both families, but the Saotomes had been living at the Tendo compound for so long that they seemed as much a part of the family as her father, sisters, and other assorted relations. Tofu Ono had proposed to, and married Kasumi barley a year earlier after getting over his nervousness, and Ms. Hinako had moved in to be closer to her fiancé, one Soun Tendo, shortly before Nabiki had run into Ranma. Nabiki had brought up the topic of a meeting being held in the Dojo in three days at dinner that night. After some initial questioning as to the nature of the meeting she conceded that she had been contacted by an individual, who wished to remain anonymous, who wanted her to gather all of Ranma's old acquaintances at the dojo for a meeting. With the thought that Ranma was involved somehow, they agreed to make room for the meeting in their daily plans.

The Kunos were conveniently forgotten as Nabiki made her plans to get everyone back together.

And so, here she was on the third day after Ranma's call, waiting for the hammer to drop. Six in the morning and the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, Kasumi was in the kitchen preparing breakfast as usual... and Nabiki was more nervous then she ever remembered being in her entire life, so nervous in fact that she was wide awake even in the absence of her three morning cups of coffee. Ranma was returning, but not the Ranma that anyone remembered... Oh no, this Ranma spoke in codes and hinted about enemies and greater powers. This Ranma knew secrets and knew how to keep them well. The Ranma that she remembered hadn't understood the war of minds as she had. The subtle motions that people move in that could be read if one knew what to look for. No... He had been little more than a martial arts jock who spoke more with his fists then he did with his mouth, and had all the tact of a donkey when he did voice his opinion.

She heard something that sounded like a cross between a jet engine and the noise those "crotch-rockets" Akane had taken a liking to made, approaching on the road, steadily getting louder until it seemed to stop and idle outside the front gate and abruptly stop altogether. The bell at the gate rang...

Ranma was riding her bike along streets she hadn't walked in over three years. She had slowed down considerably since reaching the area in Nerima around Furinkan High, taking in the sights and sounds, seeing what had changed and what had not, and just loosing herself in the nostalgia of the moment. She rode past the front gate of Furinkan High itself and remembered how she had been ambushed by Ryoga less then two weeks after arriving in Nerima, and the fight they had had when Akane's hair had been cut short a week later... She remembered all the other adventures that had taken place inside those walls, the search for the Japanese Nanniichuan, Liberating and returning the girls underwear that Happosai had stolen from time to time, the search for the "No Follow Da Rules" Coconut the crazed principle had set them on, the list went on...

Ranma sighed as she remembered a happier time when she had been blind to the world. Blind to the truth, because of her father's teachings, and the propaganda of the governments of the world they lived in. She still remembered the Martial Artist's Oath, "Protect the Weak and Defenseless", but now she had another creed, "Nothing Is True, Everything Is Permitted". Where one told her to shield those who are unable to help themselves from physical harm and to teach them so that they may protect themselves in the future, the other told her to protect those same people from themselves. Protect them from their own ignorance and the ignorance that their "Benevolent Leaders" would place upon them, so as to make them easier to control, in much the same manner as her first oath. Open their eyes to the truth, and teach them so that they may be enlightened.

She was riding down the street next to the canal, remembering how often she had fallen in as she had walked along the edge of the fence separating it from the sidewalk. How often she and Akane had run all the way to school from the Tendo Compound because they had taken to long to get ready. Remembering how she had first met her mother, after one of those times she had fallen in, and how her mother hadn't known that the redheaded girl she had tried to help out of the canal was actually her son turned daughter...

She slowed down even further as she approached the Tendo Compound. Memories of happier times came to her with wild abandon as the perimeter walls came into sight. All the times when she had launched Kuno over that wall and into Low Earth Orbit for some transgression or another, battling Happosai for daring to try to put a bra on her or squeeze her breasts, the never ending shogi game her father and Mr. Tendo had played... The list was even longer then that of the school and she shed a tear for the lost innocence of those times.

Ranma slowed down to a stop as she pulled to the side of the road in front of the front gates to the compound and turned off her bike. More memories of her first time passing through those gates, slung over her father turned panda's shoulder, kicking and screaming that she didn't want to get married and to put her down. The last time she had seen those gates, she had only seen them from the inside as she left, without a second glance behind her.

Taking in the early morning sights and smells, she dismounted, walked up to the gate, and pulled the cord to ring the bell...

...The bell at the gate rang.

From the kitchen Kasumi called out "I'll get it" knowing that Nabiki was awake and alert enough to respond to the call. Nabiki followed anyway and heard voices at the gate, "Good morning, how may I help you?" she heard Kasumi say.

"Is this the Tendo Residence?" a second voice said. Oh crap that's Ranma! Oh Kami-sama, please don't let Kasumi recognize her yet...

"Yes it is. I am Kasumi, how can I help you, would you like to join us for breakfast?" Nabiki was standing in the entrance hall now and distinctly heard the slight confusion in her older sister's voice. This isn't good... she thought.

"No thank you, I already ate. I'm actually looking for one Nabiki Tendo, May I speak with her?"

"I'm here!" Nabiki called out as she almost ran the rest of the distance to the front gate in an attempt to forestall her sister in recognizing who their guest was. What she saw when she got there was almost what she had been expecting... Ranma was there, still female, and wearing the exact same cloths that she had been wearing when they had bumped into each other, or if they weren't the same then Ranma owned matching sets. Ranma's hair was slightly windblown and Nabiki wondered how it got that way before spotting the motorcycle parked on the other side of the street. It looked like a red and black cross between something out of "Tron" and Clouds motorcycle form that "Final Fantasy Seven" movie she had seen a while back. Ohhh..... Akane is going to freak when she sees that. Obviously a custom job. I wonder how much it cost...

Ranma smiled and nodded to her, and then looked at Kasumi with a look that asked for privacy. Kasumi got an odd look on her face before turning and going back into the house. Once they were alone, she spoke. "Is anyone here yet?"

"No, only the family, Happosai, and Hinako-sensei, and they're all still asleep. I assume that you know that Kasumi and Tofu-sensei are married?"

Ranma nodded that she did indeed know that they were married and motioned that they should head to the Dojo building. "Is there anywhere I can stay out of sight until everyone else is here?" she said when they got there.

"Why?" Nabiki was confused. Ranma had wanted this meeting, but now she was saying that she didn't want anyone to see her.

"Many reasons. First and foremost being that I'd rather not be hounded by everyone until I can answer everyone's questions all at once."

Nabiki thought of it for a moment. "None that I know of... the roof is out because I'm betting that some of our guests will be coming over the walls so they might see you... Your best bet would actually be my room considering no one goes in there without a reason..." she looked to see where Ranma had been standing and saw that she was gone. Well that was rather rude...

Breakfast came around. Kasumi asked who Nabiki's friend was and her reply was that she was someone she had contacted for the meeting later that day. Everyone else's curiosity was piquet. Who was this mysterious person Nabiki had talked to that morning and what did they have to do with Ranma's past? Was it another fiancée? These and more were the questions that occupied their minds as they sat and ate their food.

The "guests" began to arrive. First to arrive was Ukyou, saying that "If I'm going to close the Restaurant I may as well make a day of it." Next were the Amazons who quickly found places in the back corner of the Dojo and began a hushed conversation in rapid-fire mandarin. Happosai had decided to stay the night so he was already there and just hung around the compound, ironing his "collection" to pass the time until their mysterious host decided to show themselves. Last to arrive sometime around Noon were Ryoga and Akari on her massive prize pig Katsunishiki. They found a place next to one of the walls of the Dojo. The Tendos and Saotomes were the last to completely join them seeing as how Kasumi and Nodoka were held up in the kitchen preparing a rather large quantity of food for lunch to sate the hunger of so many martial artists.

Everyone had their food and idle chit-chat started up. It was slightly past noon and everyone was enjoying themselves, though it was hard to tell for the Amazons seeing as they were still keeping mostly to themselves, when the voice broke over everyone. "I'm so glad that you could all make it."

Silence.

They knew that voice.

They all turned as one to the door. All but Nabiki, that is, as she had been looking at the door for the past half hour, wondering when Ranma would make her appearance. Standing in the frame was Ranma, still in her boots, fatigues, utility belt, black shirt, and leather jacket, though Nabiki idly noted that Ranma had straightened out her hair from earlier that morning. The redhead smiled and walked further into the building, scanning the faces of the gathered individuals, stopping when she met Cologne's eyes. She held up her left hand in a curious gesture. The back of her hand was towards Cologne, every finger extended fully except for her ring finger, which was bent to look as though it had been severed. "Nothing is True..."

Cologne's eyes widened in shock at this. Then after a short pause to gather herself, she held up her left hand towards Ranma in the same gesture and cited "...Everything is Permitted." Another pause, and then "Dear God child... How?"

Akane spoke up, "How what? What's going on?" She was confused and a little angry about being left in the dark. Cologne just sat there and stared at Ranma with her mouth hanging open slightly.

"What's going on Ran-Chan?" Was Ukyou's response. "What does that mean? Nothing is True? Everything is Permitted?"

"Yes Great-Grandmother. What that mean?" was Shampoo's response. She was wondering why the words her Airen had said had upset her Great-Grandmother so much.

Happosai was thoughtful. He spoke slowly and deliberately, "Any competent Cross-Man Spy can know those words and Sign that hand... Where is your Proof?" His gaze bored a hole into his wayward apprentice, and now everyone was staring at him.

Ranma turned slowly towards the diminutive troll. "The Cross-Man is weak, because he must hide in the shadows to survive, while we walk in the day and the night freely" and with that she held up her left arm and pulled down the sleeve of her jacket to reveal a heavy looking leather bracer with an ornate design of silver leaves and a symbol that looked like an upside-down 'V' with the tips curved inwards embossed on the surface. All in all, it was quite impressive. Happosai breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, and followed Cologne in holding up his left hand in the gesture and murmured "...Everything is Permitted."

Silence reined supreme once more before the resident idiot decided to open his mouth. "What's going on Boy, and why are you a Girl? Change back this instant!" Genma bellowed, and he grabbed the kettle kept on hand for the Jusenkyo victims in the room and threw it at Ranma's head.

Ranma successfully dodged the kettle, but failed to avoid the steaming water that had spilled out as it spun through the air and got a face full. Nothing happened.

Everyone stared in shock at the sight. "It would seam that Ranma is locked again" Ryoga said once he had recovered enough to speak.

"No... Not locked. I've just found a way to control when I change." She smiled at the shocked looks on everyone's faces and prepared for the inevitable barrage of demands to tell them how. It came a few seconds later and no one could hear anyone else over the volume of the questions/demands being shouted at Ranma for the next few seconds until Cologne shouted over everyone else, using her Ki to enhance her voice and make it so that there was no question but to obey "SILENCE!!!!!!!!!" She then turned and walked up to Ranma and asked in a voice that only the redhead could hear "I'm assuming that you don't have the staff with you?"

"No, that's safely locked away in the vault. I did however get permission to carry an 'Apple' to this little meeting." Ranma quietly answered her with a serious look on her face. Cologne and Happosai's eyes widened a little at this news and wondered why Ranma would need an "Apple" for a "family reunion" of sorts.

"Um... Ran-chan? If you can control your curse now, why are you in your cursed form" Ukyou timidly spoke up, fearing retribution from Cologne for breaking the silence again.

"Oh the Shame! My Son has turned into a Weak, Stupid, Incomp... GECK!" Genma had begun his usual tirade when all of a sudden he found himself on his back with Ranma pinning him to the ground and a blade hovering mere centimeters from his face, poised between his eyes. What everyone else saw though, was Ranma with Genma pinned underneath her, her right hand on his throat and the left hovering about thirty centimeters away from his head with her fingers spread and the hand bent back... and a long blade protruding from the bracer she had shown Happosai earlier, with the tip hovering mere centimeters from the Panda man's face.

"If I didn't know you so well from the time we spent on the training trip I'd have to say you were Templar the way you would spread your ignorance." Ranma's words were even, clear enough for everyone in the room to hear... and colder then steel in a blizzard. Cologne and Happosai gave gasps at Ranma's words, knowing full well what she had implied with them. Everyone else held their breaths as Ranma's blade hung centimeters from finishing her father's life. It hung there a little longer before Ranma pulled her hand back and straightened her wrist to retract the blade as she got up.

"You were wondering what the words mean... They are our Creed. The Assassin's Creed; Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted. We live in the knowledge that nothing we see of this world is completely true as it is seen on the surface. That there is no absolute Truth to everything that is. And that in a world where 'Nothing is True' 'Everything is Permitted'. Anything and everything can happen in a world where there is no absolute truth. Nothing is impossible and it is only through our choices that we control our own fates." Ranma was standing over Genma, glairing daggers at him, her words were still even, but the frost was gone, replaced by steel. "And that is our goal. 'To enlighten Humanity to the fact that they control their own fates, so that they can make their own choices, instead of others controlling them by manipulating that choice.' To withhold knowledge willfully is to enslave the person you withhold knowledge from. I have not forgotten, Father, how you kept things from me so that I would do what you wanted. How you told me that a 'Martial Artists doesn't need an Education' so that I would be easier to control through my ignorance..."

She turned to Ukyou and spoke evenly, addressing the room at large now. "You asked why I am a woman when I say I have the power to control what was once a curse." She looked at her mother who had been nervously sitting off to the side for the whole affair. "Liffey ó Floinn, Marie Dubois, and Catharine Hastings. Do those named mean anything to you?"

Nodoka was a little startled at being addressed so directly, and even more shocked that Ranma knew those names, and that Ranma knew that she knew them as well. She answered "They are all ancestors on my mother's side; Irish, French, and English lineage respectively. All women known better for their habits of climbing to the tops of tall buildings and getting into fights with boys instead of being proper women. Why?"

Ranma's answer caught everyone off guard. "Well other then the fact that each was born almost exactly fifty years after the previous one died, were active members of the Assassin Order when they were alive, and that they all looked almost exactly like I do? I only have half their memories stuffed sideways in my head..." She turned back to addressing the room at large, hovering over where Akane was sitting for slightly longer then the rest before moving on, "You try being a guy when you remember the life and times of a woman who got married when she was fourteen and already had three kids by the time she was twenty."

Silence hung in the air once more as the gathered assembly wondered what Ranma meant by having "Half their memories stuffed sideways" in her head and what it had to do with her preferring to be a girl. Cologne and Happosai thought they had a good idea of what she meant, but didn't want to voice their opinions without more information. A look passed between them and Cologne nodded and spoke, "What troubles me more then the fact that you appear to have relived your ancestors' lives, is that you even have that Bracer, Ranma... you weren't scheduled to take the trials until a year from now..." Ranma merely looked at her and raised a single eyebrow...

"Trials, Great-Grandmother?" Shampoo asked. She was very confused by the conversation only the two elders and her Airen seemed to be following. "And what you mean 'relive ancestors' lives'?"

Cologne was finally shaken out of her musings by her Great-Granddaughter's words. She gave a sidelong look to Ranma and asked so no one but she and Happosai could hear "I assume that this is why you wanted the 'Apple'?"

Ranma nodded and replied in an equally low tone "Yes, but I wouldn't mind if you could give an explanation, so that they can have more then just my viewpoint."

The ancient elder nodded and addressed Shampoo with a voice that told the whole room that they should listen because she was only going to explain this once. "The trials that Ranma was not supposed to take until a year from now, are the tests that prospective members of our Order undertake, with or without knowledge that they are being tested, to prove themselves ready. You, yourself, Shampoo will not be ready until you complete your education." Shampoo pouted; her "education" included properly learning the "barbaric" language of Japanese. Cologne turned to Happosai and whispered "Artifacts of the mind are more your area of expertise Happi..."

Happosai just glared at Cologne for a second before clearing his throat as he began to pace the length of the Dojo and continued, "As to what Ranma means by having the memories of her ancestors... There are things in this world, both ancient artifacts and more modern technology, which allow an individual to 'relive' the lives of their ancestors through their memories. You literally re-experience everything that your ancestor did. Thoughts, emotions, the gaining of skills, the use of skills already possessed... And this is where the problem lies..." he paused and everyone except for Ranma and Cologne were giving him funny looks, they thought that seeing what their ancestors did in their lives would be a great thing. Happosai just gave them a sidelong look and raised an eyebrow. "The Problem is that you are re-living the life of your ancestor. Their memories become yours. Their skills and talents become yours. Likes, dislikes, personal philosophies, the list goes on... Do it to much and it becomes difficult for someone to know which memories are theirs and which are their ancestors, and they can sometimes have flashbacks of their ancestors lives even when not using the device that allows them to relive the memories. Some methods, of course, are safer than others... but they all suffer from the bleeding affect to some degree or another... I would assume that this is why Ranma now prefers her Female form. The three people she mentioned that she had the memories of, as Nodoka said, were all women..."

"As to the how and why, along with the answers to many of the other questions that you have? It will be easier to show you..." Ranma picked up where Happosai dropped off. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a golden orb about the size of a softball. It had grooves set in intricate patterns etched into its surface. "This," she held the ball at eye level so that everyone could see it, "is called an 'Apple'. It is an artifact that's creation dates back all the way to the beginning of humanity. Its main purpose is to function as a sort of archive, but that is not all it can do. I have been studying this particular 'Apple' since I first found it and I still don't know everything about it. One thing I do know that it does however, is it allows the person who uses it, and anyone else around them, to view things that have happened in their past from a different point of view."

Ranma sat down on the floor and held the Apple in front of her as Happosai and Cologne returned to their seats. She started pressing points on the Apple and it seemed to open with a tinkling metallic sound and started emitting a soft white glow and a pleasant humming noise. "I will start a little bit before when I left, just so you can better understand. One warning; this will only take a few seconds to finish, but when it is done it will be as though you had been there to witness the events of the last three years of my life. It isn't like the things Master Happosai described, where you would be re-living a memory, but more like watching a very long movie, with the exception that what you see and hear are things that have actually happened."

No one in the room moved except for Ranma, who pressed a couple more points on the Apple. The light it emitted grew brighter, the humming, louder, and it began to hover a couple centimeters above her hand. The steady light turned into a pulsing, which steadily grew brighter and more frequent. Everyone in the room was staring at the ball with rapt attention now. And then it gave off one pulse that was brighter then any before. So bright that for a moment, there were no shadows in the Dojo and everyone who had been looking directly at it needed to blink spots out of their eyed as they had been temporarily blinded by the flash.

It was over. The Apple was no longer humming or glowing at all and Ranma was putting it back into her jacket. Nabiki was about to ask if Ranma had made a mistake because she didn't remember anything, but stopped when she felt a pull on her mind. Yelling... She remembered hearing yelling coming from downstairs but had passed it off as one of Ranma and Akane's usual arguments, it was a memory from the day Ranma had left. She decided to examine this pull on this memory more closely...

And the memories came...

---End Chapter 1---

Authors Notes: Ok... first chapter... not much has happened yet I guess. One thing I should say to all you nitpickers about continuity out there is that it has been THREE YEARS since the end of the Ranma ½ Manga. Of course Ranma is going to be acting a little OOC, it will be explained in time... To the Assassin's Creed people, I will explain how Cologne and Happosai can be Assassins and not have known about Ranma being one also, later. On the note of the "Pieces of Eden" and the "Apples" from the Assassin's Creed universe; Assassin's Creed II only lists nine known Pieces, the first five being "Apples" with the next listed piece being #25 "The Sword" and the last with a number being #66, and one labled "Piece of Eden X"... needless to say, there are a few that haven't been listed there, so I will be adding a few of my own in later chapters.

For those of you wondering about the "Cross-man" comment made by Ranma and Happosai at the beginning of the meeting, I had to come up with a slang/derogatory term for the Assassins to use for the Templars. The Templar emblem is a Cross so it seamed appropriate...