Hello everyone, I bet you thought that you'd never see this updated again. Well, here's the next part of this fan-fiction, and here's hoping you all enjoy it. I know I said that this would come out in early or the middle of December, and here it is, the middle of February. Well, at least I got it out in a month of the year, LOL. For anybody that might be wondering, after receiving several reviews that said it'd be better for this story to concentrate solely on Ranma, and make a series of side stories that tell the story of the past, I decided that that would work better, and be less confusing. I'm working on the side story now, which will concern Shampoo and Ukyo, as well as the next part of this main story. Keep an eye open for both of them in the near future, I hope. LOL

Oh yes, for anyone interested, I got the idea for the experience Ranma has while asleep from an early VIZ translated manga, 2001 Nights, by Yukinobu Hoshino. The story was called Night 5, Rendezvous, and dealt with humanity's early experiments with suspended animation, and was honestly one of the stories that have made an impression on me since I read it. I hope I was able to capture some of the feel of that story in my writings here.

Okay, disclaimer time: Futurama is owned by Matt Groening, David X. Cohen, and the Curiosity Company, and distributed by FOX Corporation. Ranma is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and distributed by VIZ communications in North America. This chapter's special guest stars are owned by Naoko Takeuchi. Enjoy one and all, and oh yes, just remember, once you've read it, you can't unread it, Nyhahahahahahaha!

Part 3

Ranma Saotome was currently taken a moment of deep reflection, something that he had usually never had much chance to do, but was always happy when he found the opportunity. Right now he was contemplating his life, and reconciling it with the fact that it had apparently taken another insane twist. As he dodged, weaved and bobbed from the currently determined weapons of slow and horrible death, he was mentally reviewing his files, and resorting them under the category of, 'worst days ever'.

'Hmm,' thought Ranma, 'I guess the cat-fist training is right up there, along with being dragged away from my mom, as well as leaving U-Chan behind. Then there was the training to build my speed while being tied to a train, the wolves chasing me, going to China and Jusenkyo, thereby gaining my curse, then finding out that Genma made me sign a death contract. Oh yeah, I got beaten by Ryoga, and then found myself here in the future, where everyone that I knew is dead, and now I'm stuck in some demented booth, with a computer that seems to be a clinically efficient, yet homicidally insane version of Akane! Well, guess there's a new number one position for WORST…DAY…EVER!

"DIE, YOU BASTARD!" shrieked the mechanical voice, which had been oh so calm only moments before, "STAND STILL AND TAKE YOUR PUNISHMENT LIKE A MAN!"

'Man' thought Ranma, 'Déjà vu, big time. Why am I getting flashbacks to Akane, if she'd been on her period and high on PCP at the same time?'

Of course, mused Ranma, it might have helped if he had a little more room to maneuver, and if that damned robot wasn't taunting the booth as well.

"Yeehaw!" it yelled, "Come on baby! Papa wants some loving, and you can bring it for me all day long!"

Ranma shook his head, even as he dodged another hammer blow. What the hell did the damn thing mean by loving, after all it was a robot, and robots don't do…that, do they? However, this train of though was interrupted, when he was hit by a blast of cold water, that came flying from several nozzles sticking out of the compartment that the weapons had came from.

He felt the now familiar change ripple throughout his body, and cursed silently to himself. Sometimes he wondered what he'd give to be able to go for at least a day without having to change, well, he did go a thousand years, but he'd apparently been asleep for all that time, so that didn't count, did it?

Just then, he glanced over at the opening, and saw what looked like a Jacob's ladder that he'd seen in his schools science class, the electricity flowing down the rods, and…electricity?

"Oh shit" muttered Ranma out loud, "This just keeps getting better and better all the time."

Just as the electric charged rods touched the now inch or so of water on the floor, Ranma leaped up in the air, using every bit of ki power at his disposal to stay aloft for a few more precious seconds.

At that same moment, the rods touched the water, and the robot started jerking crazily, like a marionette being yanked in several different directions at once.

"Ooooooooooyyyyyeeaaahhhhh bbbbbaaaaaabbyyyy!" it squealed out, "Ttttthhhhhatttt'sss tttthhhhhheee stttttttuuuuufff!"

With that statement, Ranma finally figured out why the robot had gotten into the suicide booth now, though he wished that it hadn't dragged him into this craziness. Just as he saw that he was going to finally impact with the water-filled bottom of the booth, the rods retracted, and he landed in the now steaming water, and felt the tingling sensation of his return to manhood.

The robot, for its part, seemed more disappointed than anything else, but before it seemed to be getting up a good head of steam to start its taunting again, Ranma grabbed hold of it, and spun it around to the door

"Okay moron", he snarled at it, "You might get off on the shocking and the electric… jiggity crap, but you go ahead and leave me out of it!"

At the same moment he ended that sentence, he stopped the mallet that'd been trying to hit him for the last few minutes, and instead directed the blow right alongside the robot's head, with the subsequent result that it flew through the air, and crashed into and through the door of the seppuku booth.

Ranma quickly dashed through the hole that had been made in the booth, before turning back and bowed towards it.

"Sorry, Ms. booth" he said, "But I've only just made it back here after a long time, and I want to have a chance to find anyone that I know. See ya!"

With that said, he started to walk away, while the booth leaned slightly to the side, and a now mumbling computer voice came out of it.

"I'll get you, you idiot," it slurred, "You, and…your…little…dooog toooooo…"

With that it felt silent, leaving Ranma to feel a little sorry for it for a second. That feeling was instantly swallowed up when a short sword flew out of the booth, narrowly missing his head and embedded itself into a wall behind him.

Rolling his eyes at the stupid machine, Ranma slowly turned around to face down another stupid machine. The robot had impacted on a building across from the booth, and was now lying on the ground in a pile of rubble, groaning softly, though how something like that could feel pain was beyond his experience.

"Well" said Ranma, a little menacingly, "What was the big deal with trying to get me killed in that dammed thing a minute ago, you stupid tin can?"

The robot shook its head for a moment, before it turned and glared up at the pig-tailed martial artist.

"Hey!" it said, "Why are you trying to get in the way of my romance time? I mean, if you were standing in that booth, then I should guess that you wanted to die, you stupid pile of flesh!"

Ranma stared down angrily at the machine for a moment, before his foot hit a brick that had fallen from the wall that the robot had landed against. Smirking for a moment, he picked it up, and turned his attention back to the robot.

"Say buddy", he asked, "What's that on your face?"

"Huh?" said the robot, "there isn't anything on my…ow!"

It'd exclaimed that right after the brick that Ranma had held in his hand only a moment before cracked it hard in the middle of its head.

"That was for trying to get me killed," growled Ranma, before he turned around and started stalking off, "Don't need any help with that, and I always had enough idiots trying to do that on my own time."

Ranma had only gone a few feet, before he felt a presence beside of him, and turned his head, only to see that robot that he'd just left in the rubble a moment ago standing alongside him, holding it's arm out to him.

"Hey there!" it said in a jovial tone, 'Name's Bender, Bender Bending Rodriguez. "Pleased to meet you!"

Ranma slowly, reached out and grasped the robots three-fingered hand for a moment, wincing at how cold it was, before he withdrew it and stared back at the machine in front of him.

"So", asked the robot, "What you're doing in a seppuku booth, if you don't want to die?"

Ranma glared at it for another moment, before he dropped his head, and stared down at the ground, before lifting it and looking at the robot again.

"Well", he stated slowly, "At first, I actually thought that it was…was a phone booth."

"A phone booth? A phone booth! Ahahahahahahahahahaha!" the robot howled with laughter for what felt like a good ten minutes, though it must have been only a few seconds. Still, Ranma felt his face flush, and started to stomp off when the robot paused, and actually acted as though it wiped a tear from its eye.

"Sorry 'bout that" it said, even while continuing to giggle, "How'd you think that was a phone booth, don't you know that these things are all over the place? I mean hey, the reason I like is because they give great…"

"I don't want to know, okay!" stammered out a now more red-faced Ranma, "I don't need to know that kind of stuff about what you robots like! I just woke up from this freezer thing only a couple of hours ago, and don't know anything about this stupid future!"

"Okay, okay", laughed Bender, "Anyways, so you're one of them de-frostee's huh? I ain't met one of you before, but, first time for everything I always say. So, what do you think of the future, eh?"

Ranma stared back at Bender for a moment, before he lowered his head, his eyes no longer able to be seen, and the two of them started to slowly walk down the street.

"I hate it," he whispered, "It sucks, because I don't know anyone here, all my friends are gone, and…and the woman that I loved is probably nothing but dust now. I don't even know if her grave, or the old home I used to stay in is still there, or if it's been destroyed sometime during the time I was asleep. I didn't even ask for this, I just wanted to have a relatively normal life for once, I mean was that so much to ask for?"

Ranma had said this bitterly enough that even Bender was able to pick up on his emotional state. The robot tentatively put his hand on Ranma's shoulder for a moment, before the two continued to slowly walk down the street.

"Hey pal, I can be your first new buddy in the future, said Bender, "By the way, do you got any money, I could use a stiff drink."

Ranma glared back at the robot for another moment, causing it to chuckle nervously, before they continued on down the sidewalk.

Just as they went around the corner, a the young woman who'd introduced herself as Leela earlier, come running out of the building, looking around desperately for the now disappeared martial artist. She came to a stop in front of the destroyed seppuku booth, before she sighed heavily, and lifted her right arm up, speaking into her wrist band.

"Attention, attention. This is officer 1.B.D.1., calling all units to inform you of a defrosted person who is currently out and about without supervision. I'm sending you a picture down the line, and if you see him, observe only, do not attempt to apprehend, over."

After hearing some words of acknowledgement, Leela started off in the same direction that Ranma and Bender had just went, pausing only long enough to glance at the destroyed seppuku booth again.

Moments after she left, a repair-robot vehicle rolled up, and started to work on the booth, stopping when the booth's Artificial Intelligence voice unit growled at it.

Hey you!" it snarled out, "Take me back to headquarters, and help me get a new body! I need one that I can use to track down a certain human and his pervert robot friend!"

"What the hell for?" Asked the repair-robot, "You just need to get back in your old shape, right?

"WRONG ANSWER JERK!" screeched the booth, "Someone just made my list, and he's still out walking around, which means I'm going to find him, and then, and then, his pig-tailed ass is mine! Nyahahahahahahaha!"

At that moment, the repair robot decided that after it took the booth back to the factory, that maybe it was time to go into a less stressful position, like say, solar fusion maser relay repair. Still though, with a robotic sigh, he picked up the booth and started to trudge back to the factory, while the booth continued to rant and rave about jerks of a robot, and humans that didn't know their roles and wouldn't shut their mouths.

Ten minutes later found Ranma and his new friend Bender in a bar named O'zorgnax's about three blocks down from the cryonic center, with Ranma currently amazed that the robot was apparently an alcoholic. This was due to the twenty beers it'd already drunk, and it had just polished off its twenty-first.

"Um" started Ranma, "do you really have to drink so much alcohol?'

Bender paused in drinking his twenty-second beer to stare at him for a moment, before giving the robotic equivalent of a shrug of its shoulders.

"Oh yeah" it said as it finished, "Us robots are powered by alcohol, you know…oh, guess you didn't know that either. Well, anyway, we robots are alcohol powered, so yeah, anything with that makes us go, I just like beer and hard liqueur for the taste, you know?"

"Oh, I guess that makes sense" said a still confused Ranma, though he wasn't going to admit that, "So, what do you do for a job in the future, where everyone has to work?"

"Yeah, well, I'm a bender," said Bender, "I bend things for other people. I guess you could say I'm a freelancer; doing all kinds of odd jobs, know what I mean?"

"Oh, okay, that sounds kind of cool" said Ranma, "So, what are you bending today?"

"Well, today, I just finished bending the pylons for a new spaceship," Bender stated, "And after that, decided to go out on the town and have some fun, which is where I happened to meet up with you, and well, now here we are. Are you sure you don't want a drink?"

"No thanks", said Ranma, "Alcohol and me don't really get along too well."

"Okay, more for me then," said the robot, as it started on its twenty-third beer; while Ranma's eyes wandered around the pub that the two of them were in.

It was a fairly dingy place, with a bar with several old style stools at it, along with a few booths that were just like booths at the old ice cream parlor he and Akane used to hang out at sometimes. The floor was done in a small black and white checkerboard pattern, and the windows were a dirty yellow, presumably from all the smoke, and all the flames that the robots belched out, considering Bender had done that three times since they'd been sitting down and drinking.

Ranma continued to look around, bored because no one else was there, and wondering if it'd be a good idea to try and find the Tendo home all by himself, when he caught a figure out of the corner of his eye, and mentally groaned to himself.

Outside the window of the pub, stood that purple-haired girl that had tried to stick him with that big-ass needle…thingy and she was…

"Oh shit!" gasped out Ranma, as he saw that she was showing his picture to any passersby, "Now what am I going to do?"

"Huh?" said a now slightly tipsy sounding Bender, "What're you talking about?"

"That woman outside the window," said Ranma, pointing toward Leela, "She was at that freezer place, and is probably looking for me, if that picture she's holding is any indicator. I just don't need this crap right now, I just want to find out if my old home is still around, and what happened to my…shit!"

Ranma had exclaimed that last part because as he'd been talking, Leela had been showing his picture to anybody walking around, when a man she showed it to, stopped, looked over her shoulder, and pointed to Ranma in the pub.

He saw what he assumed was her thanking the man before she turned and walked through the door, glaring at him for a moment, before her eye softened, and she slowly walked over towards him, moving like he was a wild animal getting ready to flee, which in point of fact, Ranma was considering doing just that.

The one-eyed lady sat down in the booth next to Bender and directly across from Ranma, looking at him with a mixture of sympathy and professionalism.

"Hello Mr. Sao…I mean Ranma", she started, "I should have been more understanding of the way that you felt earlier, and I want to apologize for my previous behavior. It was rude and highly unprofessional of me, and I wish to say that…I'm truly sorry."

Ranma sat across from her and stared, it was very rare for the women in his life to apologize to him, even the ones that were "closest" to him, i.e. all of his former fiancée's. So hearing this was almost as big a shock as finding out that he'd been frozen for a thousand years, thawed out, and awoken in a land that he'd never even really conceived of before, almost.

"That's okay" said a now subdued Ranma, "I kind of understand that you were trying to do your job, it just sort of…overwhelmed me for a little bit. To tell the truth, I'm still overwhelmed, just, kind of letting the shock getting to me a bit."

When he said that, Ranma slumped back in his seat a bit, causing Leela to stand up in concern, and Bender to lean back so he could chug his beer easier. The Cyclops walked over to Ranma's side of the booth and sat down beside him, holding the back of her hand to his forehead. Satisfied that he didn't have a fever, she gently took a hold of each of his hands with both of hers, and held them while Ranma struggled to control his roiling emotions.

After a few more minutes, Ranma had finally gotten himself under control again, and looking up at the young lady nodded his head, letting her know that he was all right for the time being.

"Okay', said Leela, "What can I do to help you adjust a little better to this new world/"

Ranma looked down for a moment, and then looked back up at her, before he spoke.

"You know", he said, "I'd really like to see if the place that I called home for almost five years is still around, or if it's been swept away with a lot of the rest of my world. I want to see if I can find the graves of…of my family, and my…"

Ranma stopped for a moment to gather himself again, and looked back at Leela.

"I just have to know", he said, "You know?"

Leela gently put her right hand on his shoulder, and nodded.

"Oh hell yeah!" said Bender from his seat where he'd been forgotten for the moment, "That means we get to go to Old Tokyo then, right? Cool, maybe we can take the shortcut through Crystal Tokyo, and I can finds me some fem-bots to hit on, hehehehe."

Both Ranma and Leela put their hands to their foreheads when they heard that, and started out the door of the pub, with the quickly sobering robot following behind them.

Walking down the sidewalk, Leela pointed out various spots and sights of interest, while taking the time to inform Ranma that she'd only lived in Neo Tokyo for a few years, so she her self was still learning about the city too.

After about twenty minutes of walking, Leela slowed down, and motioned to the others to stop.

"Ranma", she said, "Now, we're going to take a shortcut to get to Old Tokyo, but to get there, we've got to go through what's called Crystal Tokyo. You know, maybe its better if we just take an air tube, and go that way, even though the tubes don't connect with Old Tokyo like they do within Neo Tokyo."

"Why should we do that?" said a puzzled Ranma, "I'd like to get there as fast as possible if it's all the same to you."

"You see," said Leela, "Crystal Tokyo is a really beautiful place, and the people are happy all the time, it's just, well, it's just…

"Hey Ranma?" said Bender from his right side, "What old one-eye here is trying to say is, that the ruler of this place, Queen Serenity? She's crazier than a metal nut-bar in a room full of rabid squirrel-bots, if you get my drift."

Leela glared at Bender, but the robot either ignored her, or was just that oblivious to her emotional barrage.

"Well," said Leela, as she tugged nervously on her ponytail, "What Bender was trying to tell you in his own inimitable style, is that, sometimes strange things happen in Crystal Tokyo, and that people that go there that aren't members of the society, well, sometimes, they don't come back, or they come back…different."

"Different…like how are they different?" said a now very confused Ranma, "You mean like, they've got different bodies, or they act like they've had their brains switched and the person who was there isn't that person, but some other person who…"

"Ranma, you're babbling like a brook" said a now smirking Leela, who turned serious again, "No, we just know that people who come back from there act differently, more at peace with themselves, but they can never say why or how it happened, only that it did. Now where did you get some of these crazy ideas from?"

"Ah", said a now pink-faced Ranma, "Well, one of my fian…friends from long ago, she was really big on these sci-fi and horror movies, and whenever I visited her, well, she always have a new one that she wanted to show me, and so, I sort of got some of those ideas stuck in my head, you know?"

"Oh yeah," grinned Leela, "I like to watch some of those ancient comedies too. Well, anyway, maybe it'd be best to just take the long way, it'll only add a three more hours at the most to reach the outskirts of Old Tokyo, and then we can find out if that old homestead of yours is still there, or if it was destroyed in the Great Earthquake of 2127.

"Ah, screw that noise!" growled out Bender, "Let's head into danger town, I want to see if they maybe got some kind of cute death booths around here."

Bender started off to the right, walking at a quick, if steady pace to the borders of Crystal Tokyo, while both Leela and Ranma stared after him, before they took off after him, hoping to catch him, Leela because she didn't really know what else to do, Ranma because he'd suddenly gotten an image in his head of the robot either dragging someone else into danger, or worse, dragging him into it, especially when he didn't really understand everything going on around here.

They caught up to Bender on a few moments later, with both of them picking him up by either of his arms, and Leela loudly berating him about going where he might have had no business, when dark shadows fell around them, followed by a loud…

THUNK!

All three of them stopped moving and talking, with each of them looking up, only to find themselves surrounded by giant…Gundam's? Maybe they would have been closer to that old anime Nabiki watched, Manzinger. They appeared to be some kind of giant robots, each one done in a particular color scheme, one in a mixture of blue and white, two of them in a mixture of greens and white, and the last one had a mix of purple and white.

Ranma looked closer, and then got another shock, these "robots" were definitely of the female persuasion, and for a minute, their intense stare reminded him of the ones that he'd get when he was on the receiving end of some of the fiancée chases through Nerima. He shook his head, and listened to Bender going on about dying and going to robot heaven, and babe-o-rama come to papa, when the shortest of the robots, the one with the purple paint scheme, but which still stood a good ten meters high, leaned down and stared at them intensely for a moment, before it spoke.

"Greetings", it said in an artificial female voice, though for some reason, it sounded very familiar to Ranma, "Welcome to Crystal Tokyo, the most wondrous place in seven universes, a realm devoted to the concepts of love and/or justice. We are the Sailor Senshi robots, guardians of this kingdom and the subjects that live here. What is your purpose for visiting this place?"

"To get a good look at some hot chick's baby", yelled Bender, before anyone could stop him, "Now howzabout letting papa have a look at them mainframes. Whoohoo!"

Both Leela and Ranma put their hands to their foreheads again, since it seemed like Bender just couldn't help himself at times, well, all the time.

The giant robot looked down at Bender silently for a few seconds, before speaking again.

"I'm sorry" it stated in a low voice, "But that answer is…INCORRECT!"

Ranma saw the windup before either of the others and had already picked up Leela in his arms and leaped to the side with her before the robots leg went back and there was a tremendous CLANG, giving them both enough time to see Bender yelling while he was flying up and out of sight, looking at least to be headed in the general direction of Old Tokyo.

Ranma turned back to look at Leela, and grinned for a moment.

"Well, at least he's getting a head start on us in the right direction" he said in a halfhearted attempt to lighten the situation.

Leela stared at him for a moment, before a ghost of a grin crossed her lips, before she noticed that both of their faces were on a few inches apart. Ranma appeared to notice only a few moments later, and he hurriedly set her on the ground.

The two of them stared up at the giant robots, which had turned their attention back to them, and were if not glaring, at least looking at them very intensely.

"Well", asked the same robot, though it sounded a little angrier than before, "Are you here for the same reason?

"No," said a more subdued Ranma, "We were just cutting through here, in order to get to Old Tokyo, so I could see if my old place was still there, or if it was destroyed completely."

"Excuse me" said Leela, "My name is Leela, and I work at Katsuhito cryogenics institute. You see, he's just woken after being in a hyper sleep chamber for the last thousand years or so, and he wants to find out about the world that he remembered before."

"Asleep for a thousand years," said the tallest of the four robots, one of the two decorated in green and white livery, "Tell me human, what is your name?"

"Ranma Saotome, of the Anything Goes school of Martial Arts," he said, his chest puffed out with confidence, "And I'm not going to let you stop me from trying to find my home, even if you are giant robots, with beam sabers, and N2 mines or whatnot."

The four robots stared for a moment, and Ranma and Leela would have almost sworn that they'd sweat dropped for a second, before the tallest of them spoke again.

"Ranma Saotome" it said, "You and your guardian may depart then. If you go in that direction, you will reach Old Tokyo in less than an hour. Simply cut across Endymion memorial park, make a right turn, walk two blocks, and turn left, walk three blocks, and you'll be at the outskirts of Old Tokyo, in what used to be the Nerima district. Please, enjoy your stay in the future, and have a nice day."

With that the four robots turned as one and started to head off in the opposite direction, while Ranma and Leela blinked for a moment.

"Okay" said Ranma, "That was… different"

"Let's not look a gift hippo in the mouth" said Leela hurriedly, and grabbed a hold of Ranma arm, "Instead let's just get going in the direction they told us, I do have places I want to be tonight."

Ranma looked over at her, and smiled a small sad smile, before he pulled his arm gently free and the two of them continued on their way.

Meanwhile, some blocks away, the four giant robots from earlier were now kneeling on one leg, and previously disguised hatches had opened up in their torsos, which converted into steps that led to the ground, allowing four young women to emerge from them. The first one to the ground had short bluish hair, looking quite similar to Akane Tendo, with a blue and white variation of a school girl sailor dress uniform, while the second female to step to the ground had short dark purple hair, almost black in color, and a hairstyle similar to Nabiki's page boy cut.

The other two women were taller than their counterparts, and had long hair, one with brown done up into a ponytail and the other one whose hair was a dark green, which flowed down to the small of her back. They all had variations of the school girl uniform each done with the same respective colors of the robot or powered suits that they'd been in, though their uniforms had a lot more bows and ribbons than the standard school girl dress.

"So tell us Pluto" asked the girl in purple, "Did you know that Ranma was going to wake up today."

The lady with the long green hair stood and looked thoughtfully at the sky for a moment, before she turned to regard each of her companions.

"Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn," she said to the blue, green and purple suited girls, "To tell the truth, I knew it was to be soon, but with everything happening with Crystal Tokyo, I honestly lost track of when it was to happen, but if it has, then we need to be ready for the coming chaos storms.

"Oh" said the girl known as Jupiter, "He looks as handsome as he did back when I last saw him. I can't wait to speak with him again, and then go on a date with him and then…eeeeeeee!"

"Jupiter," said Saturn, "You know Queen Serenity will not allow us to meet him until Ranma adjusts to this new time and world, it'd come close to breaking him mentally and physically, considering what he's going to find out when he gets to the training hall. We really need to hold off on bothering him right now, and you all know it."

"But I want to have"…started Jupiter, before another voice cut her off.

"Saturn explained it very well Jupiter," said the new arrival, "and she's completely right."

The four ladies turned to the new person, a tall regal looking woman, with a shimmering white dress that reached down to the ground, but attracted no dirt whatsoever, and had long platinum white hair, with blond streaks throughout it, done up into pigtails on top of her head, that reached almost down to the ground.

"Queen Serenity," chorused the four, who all dropped down to their right knees for a moment, before standing up again.

The Queen of Crystal Tokyo brushed this off and looked at the four again.

"So, Ranma has woken up, huh?" she asked the four, "Does he know what awaits him at the Tendo home?"

"No my Queen," said Pluto, "We only told him that he would be allowed to pass through here unmolested. Even if we had told him, it's highly unlikely he'd have believed us until he saw for himself."

"Is she with him as well?" asked the Queen, turning about as if to check for spies, "Does she know of her destiny yet?"

"No not at all, my Queen." Said Pluto again, "She is in much of the dark as Ranma is about his destiny. I know that from the way I acted centuries earlier, this would have been no problem, but, I find, along with every other one of us, that maybe we should investigate more about what Ranma's fate is to be, along with this other female, Leela."

Queen Serenity raised an elegant looking right eyebrow at that statement.

"You Pluto," she almost laughed, "The mistress of sneaking about and incomplete answers, you feel somewhat bothered by this?"

Pluto bowed her head for a moment, feeling a pink flush over her perfectly tanned skin, before she looked at her Queen again, while the three other girls stood there with jaws almost dangling.

"I find that my feelings for him have not diminished over the centuries," she said, "My Queen…Usagi, he is someone who I could imagine spending my time with, were he allowed an opportunity to be able to improve his mind more."

Queen Serenity, once known as Usagi Tsukino stared back at Pluto for a moment, before she laughed, with a voice that sound like crystal chimes in the wind. After a few moments, she composed herself, and walked over to Pluto, putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Setsuna" she said, "I will agree with you, Ranma is a fine catch, but, if any of us treat him that way, it'll drive him off, and all of us, every scout here on Earth and off-planet knows that as well. We will wait, as we've done for the longest time know, and when the time comes, we will become his friends first, and go from there. Now, let's get back to the palace, because the cooks are making quintuple decker hot fudge sundaes for dessert, and that's one thing I'm not going to miss."

With that statement, the Queen disappeared in a sparkle of lights, leaving behind a grin that faded away after a few seconds, and a group of Sailor-suited soldiers of love and justice to gawp at where she'd stood a moment before.

"Sometimes" said Mercury, "She acts like the most mature of us, and then, she's still the Usagi that we've all come to know and love over the centuries."

"Yeah" said Jupiter, "And you know we wouldn't have her any other way. Now, why don't we go check for any other demons before we head home?"

"Okay," said Saturn, "And while we're at it, let's keep an eye out for moronic space captain's that think they're God's gift to women as well."

The girls continued to chat as they walked back up into the control chambers of the power suits, and after the hatches closed, all four loped off away in different directions. Not long afterwards, Queen Serenity reappeared in a sparkle of lights again, looking around before clearing her throat. Immediately afterward, a small figure hopped off a roof of a nearby building, and kneeled in front of here, before standing back up again.

"So," said the Queen, "You are to follow Ranma and the young lady Leela to the Tendo training hall, keeping an eye out for any dangers that he may not be able to handle in his current state. He is one of the best martial artists in the world, maybe even in the universe, but even he has his limits, and I want to make sure that those limits are not reached, at least today. Am I understood?"

The small figure stood up, and bowed formally to the Queen, before he turned and started off in the same direction that Ranma and Leela had gone. Queen Serenity stared after it, and sighed once. She missed Mamoru, but was happy to see Ranma again, and maybe, just maybe, for him, she could be plain, ordinary, clumsy Usagi again, if only for a little while. Holding back a tear, the Queen of Crystal Tokyo gathered herself, before she again disappeared, not hearing a small voice say "SWEETO!" in the distance.

While this little meeting was happening, Ranma and Leela had gone in the direction pointed out to them by the Sailor soldiers in their giant robots, and had crossed through to the outskirts of Old Tokyo. Ranma actually had to repress a shudder for a moment; this was Tokyo at its worst. Everywhere he could see, the buildings were dilapidated if not completely disintegrated, and any people that he saw were covered in filthy rags.

"How could things have gotten so bad Leela?" asked Ranma as the two of them walked through the streets, "I mean, considering how nice New Neo Tokyo is, and Crystal Tokyo, how can they have let things get so bad on this side of the city?"

"I'm sorry Ranma," said Leela, it's just that Old Tokyo sort of got shoved aside when New Neo Tokyo was built, and after awhile, it was just easier to completely ignore this area instead of taking the time to fix it back up."

"Yeah, but still"…Ranma said when he stopped as he saw a sight that almost made him burst out laughing. Sticking out of a dust bin, two objects waving wildly as they were being pecked on by hungry owls, was what he assumed were Bender's legs.

"Yaaahgle! Ghleeeyeyeee! Leeemeeeegoooooo!" Bender continued to yell out mostly unintelligible words, as the dump-bin continued to rock one way, and then the other, while the owls continued to perch and peck away.

Ranma and Leela continued to stare at the flailing robot for a few moments longer, before they walked up to it and Ranma squatted down next to the bottom of the bin, so that he could make himself heard.

"Hey Bender!" he yelled, "Just hold on a minute, and I'll get you out, okay?"

Ranma waited a few moments for the robot to stop flailing about. When it hadn't after a few minutes he got ready to bang on the bin again, when it did quit, and he heard a voice float up from the bottom.

"Ranma," said Bender, "Is that you out there, or some robot-cannibal, out to strip the outer metal from my framework, and do all kinds of horrible, yet dangerously exciting things to me?

"Yeah, it's me," said a now rolling his eyes Ranma, "Now all I'm going to do is pull you out of this dust bin, and THAT'S IT! Have you got that!"

"Okay, okay!" said a less agitated Bender, "Just get me out of this stupid thing, so I can get some beers somewhere, okay?"

Ranma grabbed a hold of his legs, and started tugging, all the while keeping a wary eye on things around him and Leela, none of the residents had shown up for a little while, but he didn't want to take a chance if he didn't have too.

After pulling for about a minute, he felt the robot starting to loosen, when with an audible POP! Bender flew up out of the trash can, and both he and Ranma fell head over heels to the ground.

Leela put her hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing, as both Ranma and Bender lay on their butts, definitely looking a bit dizzy from the experience. Ranma stared as an owl that had been perched on the bottom of Bender's foot earlier, hopped over to him, blinked its eyes, and stared at him with some anticipation.

Looking back at it, Ranma tracked its eyes to where it was looking, and felt around the top of his head, only to pull his hand away hastily as he felt something bony and slimy. After a few seconds, he put his back on the top of his head, and discovered that the object was a partially eaten fish, with the head and tail still relatively fresh. Ranma held the fish in his hand for a moment, and then tossed it over to the owl, which seemed to hoot almost happily, before it picked it up the treat in its beak, and hoped away to the corner of the street, only then stopping to enjoy its feast.

Meanwhile Bender had gotten up, and wiped all the trash that he'd been covered in off, and now looked about as pristine as usual, except for the rather large bow-shaped dent in the area between his legs.

Leela walked over to Ranma, and held her hand out to him, at which Ranma stared at it and the grin on her face for a moment, before he grinned himself and took a hold of it, the two of them working together to pull him to his feet.

"Well Ranma", said Leela, "Now that we've found Bender, do you have any idea of where the place is that you're looking for at all; any landmarks that you can see that might still be here?"

Ranma looked around for a moment, before he narrowed his eyes, and then put his hand to his forehead.

"Well', he said wryly and pointing off to the distance, "Unless I'm mistaken, that looks a lot like the old high school that I went to when I lived in this area."

The two others followed his finger, and looked towards a spot in the distance, where an old Japanese high school building stood, having somehow weathered the centuries with only a medium amount of decay, considering how long it'd been there.

The three all turned to look at one another, before Bender headed off in the general direction Ranma was pointing towards.

"Okay, okay" he grumbled, "Since it looks like old Bender won't be getting some beer or action anytime soon, might as well see what so damned important about this place, eh?"

"Heh." said Ranma, "I never figured that jerk of a tin can would've tried to help anybody."

Leela looked back at him for a moment, before she smiled again, walking over to Ranma and looking at his face intently for a second, before she turned to follow Bender.

"You know," she said as she walked away, "I'd say that he's actually taken a liking to you. It's seemed that in my experience, when a bending robot actually deigns to like someone, then they'll stay with that person, through thick and thin. When they decide they like someone."

Ranma started to follow the two, grumbling under his breath.

'Yeah,' he thought to himself, 'but it still acts like a jerk sometimes. Probably as bad to me as I was to the others when…'

Quickly banishing that last thought, Ranma sped up and caught up with Bender and Leela, and together they continued to make their way deeper into the heart of what he now recognized as Nerima.

'You know its funny' thought Ranma, 'I remember walking down these streets when they were full of people only a short while ago. That spot right there, was where I caught that bus to go down to my last delivery. That building right there was where…'

Leela and Bender stopped while Ranma ran up to a small building that had fallen in on itself, and stared at it intently. The two walked over, with Bender speaking to Ranma in his usual quiet, formal manner.

"Hey, you smelly bag full of pus!" shouted the robot, and startling Ranma for a second, "What's up with the stupid collapsed building here, and do you know where I can find some hot looking fem-bots around here?"

Ranma stared back at the robot, hand twitching for a moment, and contemplated about whether it'd be so bad to just feed it to a giant…something that'd eat robots. Yet, as he looked at the robot, he could have swore that in it's mechanical eyes, that there was something there, but it seemed like Genma in a way, in that the dammed thing just couldn't express its feelings any better than that.

Ranma stared for a few seconds, before he turned back to the storefront.

"I think that this building, used to be the business I used to work at," he started out slowly, "It was a pizza parlor, the money was pretty good, but the real reason I worked there was for me to be able to buy something special for people I knew. That's what I was doing that last night, working to buy something special for someone. I had a regular job, but that was used to provide income for a household, and not much money could go to anything else, so this was just my way to earn special stuff for people that meant the most to me."

Ranma continued to stare at the decayed storefront, while Bender gazed at him, and Leela held back, not sure what the robot was going to say.

"Well, you know?" said Bender in a slow voice, "Maybe you just had something to happen, which was meant to, you know? Or something like that?"

Ranma and Leela gaped at him, considering how Bender usually spoke even they could see that that was strange coming from him, the most civil answer he'd really given up to that point.

In the palace, Queen Serenity/Usagi just smiled a small secretive smile, and started on her seventh quintuple decker hot fudge sundae while the other Senshi that had came to dinner groaned and held their stomachs, their bellies threatening to pop their uniforms off.

Back in what Ranma recognized as Nerima, he'd stopped staring at Bender, and the three of them had moved on. Ranma pointed out various landmarks to Leela and Bender, with Leela looking genuinely interested, and Bender acting as though it was the most boring place in the world, which for him, probably was.

After continuing on like this for about forty-five minutes, Ranma again stopped suddenly, and his breath hitched for a second. His two new friends stopped on either side of him, with Leela looking a bit worried, and Bender looking bored as usual.

"What's wrong Ranma?" asked Leela quietly, "Is there something wrong?"

Ranma only pointed to the building they'd stopped in front of, and the others took a closer look at it. The place they were standing in front of was a traditional-styled Japanese home, though they couldn't see very much of it due to the large wall that surrounded it. One surprising thing Leela noted right away, was that while many of the other buildings that they'd passed were either close to disintegrating, or had done so, this place looked almost immaculate, almost as though time around it had stopped.

Bender walked over to the gate, and looked at a sign that was on the wall next to it.

"Anything goes training hall. He read out loud, "All who wish to engage in savage combat should come around to the back dojo entrance. All other guests should ring bell."

Leela stared at the sign after Bender finished reading it, and then turned back to look at Ranma, whose face had gone almost ghostly white for a second before his color returned.

"Well", Ranma said after another moment, "I guess we're guests after all this time, so why don't we go see what's up?"

With that last statement, Ranma rang the bell. The three waited for a few seconds, and when it seemed that no one was going to answer, Ranma reached up to ring the bell again, more to simply hear a noise from his past, instead of expecting an actual answer.

That's why everyone was surprised when the door suddenly opened, and there stood…what was apparently a female robot, apparently the fem-bots Bender had been talking of earlier. It was as tall as Ranma, with a head that was similar to Bender's, but instead of an antennae pointing up, there was 'hair' on her head, well, more like a metal approximation of hair.

As Ranma stared at this robot longer, he could make out features that seemed similar, such as the way the hair was done up in a sort of bun, and that it was wearing a type of metallic kimono. Ranma also noticed that the hair was a dark red color, and that the features seemed very close to that of his own…

"Hey guys, why does that robot sort of look like my…Mom?" Ranma asked the other two with him, but all he got was a negative shake of the head from Leela, and Bender, well, he was currently ogling the fem-bot.

"Excuse me" asked the robot, in a voice that was a very good mechanical rendition of Nodoka's, "May I ask what the purpose of your visit is? If you have come to challenge the dojo, the current master of Anything Goes is not available to answer it at this time.

"Who's the current master?" asked a puzzled Ranma, "Can you tell me when he's due back to the dojo?"

"The current master is Ranma Saotome," the Nodoka-styled robot answered, "He is currently on a training mission for one thousand years, and is due to return anytime now."

"Um, well…"stuttered Ranma for a moment, "I'm Ranma Saotome, and I guess I'm back from the training trip then."

The Nodoka-bot stared intently at him for a good thirty seconds, before it stood up straight, and started speaking in a monotone voice.

"What was the nickname of the third Tendo daughter?" it said in that now spooky monotone voice, "A. Miss Universal Beauty Queen…B. Uncute Tomboy…C. Rat Bitch from Hell?"

"Um…I guess that'd be b." Ranma said while scratching his head.

Suddenly fireworks shot up from over the robot, and a large sphere fell from the ceiling along with confetti, and a sign sprung up that said 'Correct!'

"You are correct," said the Nodoka-bot, "Ranma Saotome, please come in and take your place as the master of the dojo. Would you like some refreshments, or would you prefer to catch up on your messages?"

"Messages?" asked Ranma, "From who, and how many are there?"

"You currently have 136 messages on the video-tronic screen," said the Nodoka-bot, as it seemed to sashay to the common room, "The latest in Tendo-dynamic technology. As for who they are from, they are from your family and friends that used to live here in Nerima. Please have a seat, while I and the others make the house more suitable for human inhabitants."

Ranma and the others looked puzzled at the mention of others, when several smaller robots, and several more that looked like clones of the Nodoka robot that had met them started to clean the place in earnest, starting in the common room, and working their way out, only occasionally pausing to ask if Ranma or Leela wanted anything, and brushing off Bender's attempt to hit on them.

Ranma and Leela sat down on the couch situated in the middle of the room, and stared at what appeared to be a very advanced television, one much bigger than the one they had had at the house before, almost as tall as it was wide. The Nodoka-bot walked over, and gave both Leela and Ranma a cup of tea, which Ranma noted was surprisingly good, for some place that hadn't probably used it in centuries. After the robots gave Bender a bottle of rice-wine from the cache in the storeroom, the three of them had seated themselves on the couch, Ranma anxious to see what he could.

The Nodoka-bots all stood in a row, four on each side, and then one more appeared, and though Ranma couldn't tell if it was the original that'd met them at the door, he had a feeling that it was that same one.

"Ranma Saotome," it began, "You currently have 136 messages. Would you like to see the introductory one first?"

"Yes, I would," said a somewhat shell-shocked Ranma.

"Very well," answered the Nodoka-bot, "If you wish to pause, rewind, or stop, you may say any of those phrases, and it will do that automatically. It and the robots in this home were designed to use and learn your speech patterns. Please, take care, and we will be there if you need any assistance.

With that the robots all left the room, with only Bender's acute hearing picking up what one of them whispered to itself as it left, "Take care…my son."

Ranma looked over at Leela on his right side, and then glanced at Bender on his other side, then said to the screen, "Play messages for Ranma Saotome."

The screen lit up, and then fragmented for a moment, before it settled down on a camera view. Ranma smiled, it was one set in the dojo, and there was everyone that he could call a close friend there. Akane, Shampoo, Ukyo, and Kodachi sat on the left, while Kuno, Hikaru Gosugunki, Mousse and Ryu Kumon sat on the right. Soun Tendo was sitting in the middle, with his mother Nodoka setting next to him. In front of everyone was…

"Hello my sweetie," said a person that Leela was frankly jealous of at first sight. She was dressed in a simple aquamarine dress, with an apron trimmed with ruffles, long chestnut brown hair, that was tied up into a simple pony-tail that hung over her right shoulder. Her face had a few wrinkles on it, and it took her a moment to realize that she must have been older than Ranma was anticipating, as he looked puzzled for a second, before she looked down, and saw the date: May 18, 2017.

Ranma already looked like he was going to cry at the sight of her, and Leela figured that she must have been a sister, or maybe she was a fiancée.

"Ranma," she said, and gently touched his shoulder to get his attention, "Is that girl your fiancée or something?"

Ranma turned to look at her a moment, before he turned back to the screen, where the girl had begun talking again.

"No, not my fiancée," said Ranma, "That's Kasumi Saotome…my wife."

To be continued…

Hope everyone liked this, and maybe that was a nice twist at the end, will wait and see what you, the readers think. Be on the lookout for the next chapter coming sometime this spring…or summer, hopefully, depends on how RL takes me.

Makes a circle out of thumb, and forefinger, holding it up to eye "Be seeing you."