Disclaimer, I do not own Ranma or Stargate SG1 or any other series I might choose to depict in this story.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank James Axelrad for his continuing help with this story as well as those of you that have left either a review or reply.
The rebirth of the Undomesticated Equine
Chapter 3
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Sheila MacMasters gently set down the phone not wanting to make a sound out of fear that she would let her displeasure at her most recent orders be known. She was supposed to be the one that made the important decisions concerning the project not some uptight senator with a stick up his ass.
Leaning back with her eyes closed her small frame barely contained a shiver of distaste as she considered her orders. Her orders were to terminate all traces of the project immediately. This simple order not only effectively shut her down but was also in effect a death warrant for the test subject, someone that had been the cause of her most recent bouts of insomnia.
When she had started the project it had she had fully believed in its mission to find and develop alternative weapons to fight against the goa'uld. At first it had meant taking those undesirables that society would not miss and attempting to alter them to make them stronger and faster than the standard human. This had been met with mediocre results as genetic engineering on earth was in its infancy, and even the small bits of smuggled technology and information the NID would hand over were not enough to speed up the progress to be feasible enough for immediate application.
It seemed though as if a higher power had been silently watching them though, as another project whose sole responsibility was to search the earth for left over scraps of Gou'ald technology stumbled across a village frozen in time. The village turned out to be home to a society of matriarchal warrior women. The NID team on hand had been literally stunned at the physical capabilities of the tribe as a whole as it was not only the women that seemed to have these advanced abilities but some of the men as well.
Upon of viewing a video confirming the tribe members prowess Sheila had immediately requested that the project leader on site act as an intermediary for her own project and enter talks to recruit some of the women warriors for her own project.
In the middle of these talks, during the tribes annual tournament to determine the village champion a stranger had arrived, a little redheaded slip of a girl whom was accompanied by what seemed to be at the time her pet panda. According to the agent at the scene, the girls panda had started to eat the feast set aside for the winner, that in turn spurned a disagreement to occur with the newly crowned champion and newcomer. In the end they both agreed to fight for the rights to both the food and panda.
What had happened next was simply stunning. The new girl not only defeated the newly crowned local champion but did it almost effortlessly. Sheila had been notified almost immediately and upon learning about the girl had the other project leader utilize any resources he could to acquire the girl.
That led to the NID team in the area branching out to not only track where the girl was going but also to where she had come from. It was upon catching up to the guide that had escorted the girl to the village that the NID agents had been informed about the girls supposed curse. Sheila had been very skeptical at first but then the guide had offered proof by means of tossing a rabbit into a random pool with a NID agent recording the event with a camera.
Sheila had watched waiting for a rabbit to exit the pool only to be shocked at what came out.
She had still been skeptical but at the same time the guide had informed the agent recording the event that the panda that had accompanied the girl was the boy cursed girl's father. It was with that little amount of information that Sheila was starting to lean towards giving the whole idea of a magical curse credit as domesticating a panda was something that would be difficult at best and according to sources on the initial scene the panda was not just domesticated but moved with human movements as well.
Magical curses aside the NID team managed to find the pair of travelers, with the panda restored to its human form. At that point though the team had limited knowledge of the pair as they only had the names that they went by as well as their nationality. Having not heard back from their contacts in Japan the team had been forced to act as word had reached them from the Amazon village that the former champion was now seeking out the redhead to kill her as per her tribal customs.
Due to the traveling duo's witnessed and assumed physical levels Sheila had given the go ahead for what ever means necessary except physical force to get the younger of the duo to agree to go with them. In the end, the sum of five thousand American dollars was all it took to get the child's father to release the boy cursed girl into their care with an additional promise to return the boy to a specific address in Tokyo once he was finished with the program.
While the boy whose name turned out to be Ranma was in transit from China, Sheila had been busy attempting to work out a mental profile on him to best utilize him for the program. The mental profile was the most important part of the entire project when starting off with an already physically gifted specimen. Before finding Ranma the first step in the program had been to raise the specimen's physical attributes, but with that no longer necessary they could move onto stage two which was mentally breaking the individual down in preparation for stage three. That step being a modified version of the mind stamp that the SGC had run across in which SG1 had went missing for a few weeks.
Sheila had speculated that while the mind stamps did not hold with the members of SG1 due to minute physiological differences the process could be successful if the specimens where mentally prepared to accept the changes in their memories. So theoretically if they broke someone down enough then the new memories would become a welcome escape and thus reducing the chances that the persons subconscious would want to retrieve the old memories.
While Ranma was not going to be the first test subject in the improved mind stamping procedure, he was going to be the first one programmed to indiscriminately combat the goa'uld. That meant that Sheila had to be careful in breaking him down as his physical traits and martial abilities could not suffer.
Sheila reminisced back to the first time she had begun to have doubts in what she was doing. She had known Ranma for two weeks, having constant contact with him by being his liaison for things like food, clothing, transportation to the training hall (which in reality was more of a laboratory where Ranma could work out and test his limits while being analyzed by technicians) and general miscellaneous things. All during that time she had been working to further along her physiological profile on him to learn the best means to implement the project.
It had been rather easy to get the young man to trust her, getting him to talk about his past was a different story though as it seemed that Ranma did not like to dwell on things and tended to live in the moment.
Finally though Ranma had shared something important enough for her to start the process of breaking him down. The event behind the initial breakthrough was something he had called the Neko-ken and upon learning the details Sheila had to wonder just what type of parents this child had as to her the whole idea of being wrapped up in fish products and tossed into a pit of starving cats was just plain wrong.
It had been the Neko-ken had opened the doors to the whole project with Ranma's total support, though he had no idea what the projects goal of, simply stating that she along with her team of specialists were going to help him rid himself of his greatest weakness had gotten him to comply willingly.
The problem was that while mind stamping Ranma could have possibly ridden him of his fear of cats, there would always be the underlying threat of that personality coming out in cases of severe stress. Plus at the time, especially after witnessing it in person, it was simply too valuable of an ability to waste.
Sheila had considered overwriting Ranma's mind and leaving the Neko-ken intact with the mind stamp but that would not have worked as Ranma's mind needed to be broken down as a whole to accept the new persona, one totally controlled by the NID.
In the end, under the advice of her staff, they figured that the best way to proceed was to see if Ranma could emulate the cat fist, meaning that he had to mimic the entire style, chi claws and all. Then once he started doing that they would then start him on immersion therapy so he could build up a resistance to cats.
Sheila shook her head remembering just how well the idea worked, not only had Ranma been able to emulate the entire skill set of the Neko-ken, but he had managed to become even more powerful in the process, something that had the higher ups drooling with anticipation as to when he would be put through the procedure.
Sheila knew that somewhere in that time period is when she lost her objectivity and started seeing Ranma as more of a younger brother than a test subject in a project. It was hard not to, just watching him would make her swell with pride at his progress, seeing his smug look of triumph for every part of the technique that he mastered always brought a smile to her face.
Sadly she had been forced to step away from him, at first she had agreed, but then just watching him from afar and seeing what her second in command put him through had been heart wrenching.
It had been decided that with all of Ranma's success that it would be near impossible to break his mind down to the point where mind stamping him was feasible. So in order to give him a push in the right direction he had been put into an isolation room when sleeping under the guise of that until the treatment was over there was too much of a risk in harming innocents if he were to remain as he had.
That had been only part of the plan concocted by her second in command, the next step had been for Ranma to be weaned off of her presence, meaning that as days went by she would spend less and less time with him. That in turn was cultivated into what the project called for, a means to break Ranma down. It had just been a matter of faking her death and making it seem to Ranma that he had been the one responsible for it.
It had worked, almost too well. After that event Ranma had been willing to do anything he was asked because he had been too wrought with guilt to say otherwise.
Almost immediately her second in command started him on a regimen of hallucinogenic drugs while imparting subliminal messages, information about the Goa'uld and other related knowledge, into his subconscious mind. That in turn lead to him agreeing to be chained and shackled like an animal with a collar around his neck that pumped in both the hallucinogens as well as a potent sedative to put him back under when they would finish testing the Neko-ken aspect of his mind.
Sheila sighed again remembering how difficult it had been to watch from afar, as more often than not she had found her allegiance to the NID dwindling and her hope for Ranma to find some means of escape from the nightmare that he had so willingly placed himself into. Of course she had been forced to keep her personal feelings hidden as her second in command Wanda Struthers would have reported her to the higher ups immediately.
Sheila grinned though as what happened next had given her hidden desires for Ranma fruition. Wanda had wanted to test the Neko mind's senses and thus had all doors leading to Sheila's office open once the Neko ken had been induced. Depending on the point of view the test had been rather successful but at the same time it had nearly broken her own heart.
Ranma had managed to free himself, herself at the time, and sought out the familiar scent. She had managed to find Sheila in her office and in the short time before security arrived Sheila had somehow been able to impart just how important that Ranma escape into the feline persona.
Of course Sheila realized that perhaps it had just been luck that Neko Ranma had decided to rip through the wall and escape into the Minnesota wilderness. Then again though she had seen the look on Neko Ranma's face and she could have sworn that she had seen her betrayal in those shiny blue orbs. Perhaps though that was her own guilt talking, maybe Neko Ranma did not have anything further than a simple mindset where the more complex emotions don't carry over.
Cradling her head between her hand Sheila sighed and pondered what her next move was going to be. On one hand she had just been given the order to terminate the project but being the project leader gave her a bit of leeway to seek out an appeal. One thing she knew though was that she wished she had never thought up the damnable project in the first place. Despite not wanting to appeal to keep the project alive, Sheila had no desire to see Ranma dead. That left little leeway in between.
Looking at the Clock she noted that according to the intelligence that the 'Good' senator shared with her, the remainder of SG1 along with Doctor Janet Frasier we due to arrive in the area within two hours. Glancing between her computer and the clock Sheila began to mentally calculate a plan of action, one that if carried through would most likely lead to her demise at the hands of her employers
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some time later
Teal'c was moving at a medium paced jog carrying the cooler that contained the collar that was enabling the NID to keep tabs on him. He wished he could step up his pace but he was in a unfamiliar forest with who knows how many NID agents tracking his every move.
Coming upon a clearing he paused momentarily to get a glance at the sun to double check his directions as in heavily forested regions it was rather easy to get turned around as the sun would be hidden from sight by the large trees.
With one glance he was able to reaffirm his Jaffa pride as he had not managed to get turned around. Sucking in his breath he began moving once more, intent on moving at his best possible speed given the circumstances.
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A few days ago, Nerima Japan
Genma sat sullenly in front of the Tendo's Koi pond, staring into the distance lost in thoughts involving his missing son. It was not something unusual given that it had been three months since he had sold Ranma's services to an American claiming to be in dire need of a Martial artist of a good caliber.
He had pushed aside the fleeting reluctance that always came with his decisions to temporarily pawn Ranma off to someone. After all, the man had insisted that it be only temporary and had thrown in five thousand dollars American to boot. The man, claiming to work for a Mr. Simmons, had even agreed to personally deliver Ranma to the Tendo Dojo at the end of thirty days.
Ranma never came, once more the phone number the man had given him had turned out to be no longer in service.
It was not that Genma was worried for Ranma, no, he knew Ranma could take care of himself. At first he had just figured that whatever task they had put upon Ranma had taken more time than initially thought but as weeks turned into two more months Genma was now beginning to suspect that he had been bamboozled. That was a new experience for the barrel chested martial artist as he was the one who usually did the scamming.
Hearing silent foot steps walking across the lawn Genma shifted his shoulders and cursed himself for not leaving China as soon as he had parted company with Ranma. Because if he had left then 'she' wouldn't be in Nerima with him and if she wasn't in Nerima then there would be no danger awaiting Ranma when he returned, or even Nodoka once she managed to track him down.
---- Flashback -----
Location – somewhere in China a few days after parting company with Ranma.
Genma looked back towards the town and growled angrily, having been forced to flee from the townspeople almost as soon as he had entered. It appeared that they were not used to seeing domesticated Panda's wandering around wearing nothing but an old worn traveling pack as he had removed his gi so as to not further damage it while in his cursed form.
Apparently that turned out to be a mistake as without clothes on he could not simply just douse himself in the open with hot water to revert his form back to human without making more of a scene , after all he had no desire to get the Chinese authorities on his case when he was in the country illegally to begin with.
Turning his attention back to his current surroundings he slung off his pack. IF the towns people weren't going to let a panda enter the town without making a fuss then he would have to try to enter the village as a human. Though he just hoped he would stay dry long enough to find some shelter otherwise he would probably get chased out again.
Leaving the pack where it lay Genma began to gather enough kindling to start a fire. Piling it as neatly as his paws would let him he turned his attention back to his pack and after some careful maneuvering so as to not tear the pack apart with his claws he was able to locate his flint.
Gripping it was a bit of a hassle but a flint was less of a overall hassle when living in the wild for prolonged periods as it was more reliable than matches and lighters.
Once he had a small fire going he slowly began to feed it bigger sticks, wincing every now and then as his furry paws were singed.
Hearing a twig snap behind him Genma tensed up a bit before turning around. He was beginning to get annoyed, his paws were singed, he was tired, hungry and to top it all off he had to relieve himself and he was not about to do so while he was a panda, that would just be gross.
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a few minutes earlier.
Shampoo had lost track of the redheaded girl a few days ago when she seemly disappeared, but her patron goddesses were with her as it seemed she was able to stumble across the girls pet. Thinking that the girl would not leave her pet for long she had decided to tail it and watch for any signs of it meeting up with its damnable owner.
After two days of watching it though she began to get suspicious of the panda as it seemed rather well trained, too well trained as almost all of its movements mimicked human ones and that bothered her as it gave her cause to believe that she was missing something rather important.
Watching the animal start a fire caused some memories to stir, well a memory of an old tale warning them to stay clear of a local training ground. She had not put much faith in the warnings as while her great grandmother had some magical artifacts the idea that there was a massive cursed training ground just seemed too far fetched.
But as she watched the supposedly domesticated animal not only start the fire but feed it larger twigs and sticks until there was a decent blaze going went a long way to get her to consider the validity of the old warnings.
Deciding to get to the bottom of the situation Shampoo leap down from her perch and approached, intentionally breaking a twig with her foot to give the creature warning of her approach to further along her suspicions. That way she would see the beasts reaction before she closed in on it.
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Upon turning around and noticing who had approached him Genma rolled his panda eyes, it was the girl that had given Ranma the kiss of death. Not wanting to risk a confrontation with the girl while he was in his newly acquired cursed form Genma reached over and fiddled carefully with his pack, looking for a pot to warm up some water in while keeping his eyes trained on the purple haired amazon.
Shampoo watched intently wondering what the Panda was doing. After watching it fumble around with opening a canteen and pouring its contents into the pot she realized that it must be reversing the curse.
Genma sighed as he watched the girl out of the corner of his eyes, it appeared she that she had figured out about the curse. Noticing that the water was starting to steam he grabbed a hold of the pot and was about to dump it over his head when he realized that he would be naked if he transformed. Wanting to protect his modesty he began to make motions at the girl to turn around.
Shampoo stood there for a moment with a confused expression on her face wondering what the beast was trying to tell her and why it did not just simply dump the water over its head to transform. After a minute or so of watching the animal make wild gestures she lost her patience and shouted in Chinese, "Change now!" while pointing at the pot of steaming water.
Genma's shoulders slumped, while he did not understand what the girl was saying he could make out from her angry expression and gestures that she wanted to watch him change. Sighing he stood to his full height and faced her completely, after if she wanted a show then who was he to argue.
Shampoo blinked her eyes as she witnessed the panda transform into a middle aged bald Japanese man. Her first impression that this man was a less than average male considering his appearance but then she noted that what she was mistaking for fat and flab was actually hardened muscle, that caused her to raise her guard as she figured that this must be the redheads sensei.
Noticing that the girl moved into a defensive stance caused Genma to roll his eye's in disbelief as he wondered what the girl was thinking. Not wanting to fight naked and thinking that it was his naked body putting the girl on edge he motioned to his clothes and asked, "You mind if I get dressed girl."
Shampoo saw the way the man casually dismissed her as a warrior with the roll of his eyes causing her pride to bristle. Angry at the dismissive way she was being treated Shampoo decided to disregard the mans unclothed state and rushed forward with her bombari in hand determined to teach the stupid male his place.
Genma dodged her initial attack without retaliating as he was more worried about protecting himself from the rather menacing looking bonbari that the lavender haired girl was trying to tag his little soldier with.
Shampoo grimaced in determination as the larger man moved around her strikes, briefly she considered that she had bitten off more than what she could chew but her Amazon pride pushed that aside causing her to redouble her efforts.
Genma rolled his eyes again in annoyance at having to deal with the irate girl. Normally this was something that he would push off onto Ranma to handle but since Ranma was not there he was forced into taking action. Dodging another close blow to his midsection Genma allowed himself to become distracted with formulating a plan to allow himself to get dressed. He knew that the girls skills were no match for his own as he had already witnessed Ranma dispatch the girl rather easily. He also knew that getting dressed would not take him more than a few scant seconds but the crazy Amazon girl was all over him so in order to buy himself time he would have to show the village girl the true might of anything goes. Dodging to the side away from a blow that almost tagged him Genma jerked upright pointed and shouted, "Look out behind you!"
Shampoo narrowed her eyes, her minute knowledge of Japanese not able to grasp what the large man was saying. However just because she did not understand then mans words didn't mean that she didn't understand his gestures. With a feral yell she rushed forward with everything she had, intent on showing the outsider male why it was not a wise thing to mock a Amazon warrior.
Caught off guard by the girls non-reaction to his feint Genma was forced to lash out with his foot, catching the girl square in her midriff, sending her flying backwards only to stop when she impacted a tree at the edge of the clearing.
More concerned about the current state of the girl than his own nudity Genma began to slowly approach the downed lavender haired girl, chastising himself for fighting with her on the way.
Shampoo came to slowly wondering what had happened. Last thing she remembered was rushing at the impudent male intent on showing him the might of three thousand years of Amazon history and skills. Opening her eyes she was able to make out a hazy figure standing over her. That's when the reality of the situation hit her. The outsider male had beaten her. Feeling the onset of depression at her loss tears began to streak down her face.
Genma was many things, thief, lazy, binge drinker, and at best a borderline bad parent but heartless he was not. So upon noticing that the girl had started to tear up he knelt down and tried to console her by gently brushing his hand across the girls cheek.
Shampoo initially ignored the contact in favor of just staring at the naked man that had dispatched her with such ease. Her village laws were clear on the issue and seeing that the man had made no effort to cover himself while she had been out of it, the guide must have informed him their laws. Realizing that she was trapped on the issue she began to stand up.
Genma warily took a step backwards thinking that the girl was going to try to attack him again, however that wariness soon turned into confusion as she began stripping off her clothes.
Shampoo took another step forward, noting to herself that the man seemed to be paralyzed by her beauty which cheered her up slightly as hopefully it would give her a means to keep him under control until he learned enough of her language to understand what his new place in life was.
Genma tried to advert his eyes from the naked girl before him but it had been so long since he had lain with his wife and while he may not have been the most loyal husband over the past ten years, but money for female companionship was a rare luxury at best.
Shampoo's tears stopped when she was hit with a realization, the man before her was now her husband by her laws and thus would have to obey her commands. That in turn meant that she would be able to order him to train her to help her kill the red headed outsider who had stolen her honor by defeating her. She grinned manically at that as it meant that she was one more step closer to the redheaded witch with her victory almost totally ensured, her honor would be restored and more importantly she would return back to her village with a powerful husband that would surely strengthen her family's line. At that thought though Shampoo was hit with a brief bout of worry as her newfound husband was far older than her and might not be able to perform his husbandly duties. One look at the mans naked form put those worries to rest though as it seemed that he was writhing in anticipation.
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--------- End Flashback
Genma felt a brief bout of giddiness at the memory of what had happened next until his conflicting emotions reminded him of the mess he had dug for himself. Signing in resignation he rose to his feet and turned to address his new wife, only to be cut off before he could even get a word out.
"Shampoo want to train now."
Genma shuddered to himself, he did not want to train her. It was nothing personal, more of a matter of him not wanting to train any girl. So far he had managed to keep her out of his remaining hairs by simply assigning her simple tasks to do under the guise of training but as of late the young woman's patience was starting to run thin. Genma even suspected that if not for the fact that he had promised her that his redheaded student was going to arrive soon that he would be on his way back to that backwater Amazon village Turning his attention to his impatient wife, Genma replied, "Go get Akane and meet me in the dojo."
Not waiting for a reply Genma turned and started to make his way to the dojo thinking that while he might not want to train the girl it did have its benefits as he tended to use Soun's youngest as the girls training partner further slowing down his wife's training until Akane could catch up to her.
Thinking about Soun's youngest daughter caused him to shudder momentarily. He knew that the girl despised him for having such a young wife. Honestly though what did she expect him to do about it, it's not like it was ever his idea in the first place, he was simply just too manly for any one woman to resist.
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Minnesota USA
Jack leaned up against the wall of the cave and allowed gravity to assist him into sitting down while running a mental check list. He remembered that the first thing he had done after making sure no wild animals had secured the cave was to help Teal'c get the unnamed girl comfortable. After that he had tasked Cassie with keeping an eye on her while he gave detailed directions to Teal'c. Then after Teal'c left Jack had set up a crude warning system on the perimeter, just to make sure that no one would get the drop on him.
With the more important tasks now out of the way he was finally able to turn his attention to his throbbing thigh. Feeling the sticky wetness he knew to be blood Jack was tempted to slam his head up against the side of the cave in frustration. He had managed to tear open his own stitches somewhere and had reopened the wound.
"Jack?? are you alright?" Cassie called out softly not wanting her voice to carry.
Jack, who had began to fumble around for the first aid supplies stopped and turned his head to the young girl. After a few moments of just staring at her attempting to find some witty retort to let her know everything was fine and coming up blank he simply replied, "Just peachy... Cassie."
Cassie sighed softly and temporarily shifted her gaze down to her lap to stare into the face of the mysterious redheaded girl. Using her hand to brush the girls bangs aside part of Cassie wished that she had never stumbled across the girl in the first place only to be immediately quashed down by the anger and fear of what the girl had been through. With her hand still running through the girls hair Cassie turned her attention back to Jack and asked, "Are we going to be alright?"
Jack broke his gaze away from Cassie to stare out into forest. At first he didn't say anything but after a minute of silence he started out slowly, "The local sheriff is a friend of mine and knows that we are up here, and I'm late with checking in with General Hammond... So with a little luck there are already search parties out there looking for us." Chuckling Jack added, "I wouldn't be surprised if your mom was out there right now tearing through the woods looking for you."
The mental picture of her short petite mother out there ripping trees out of the way with her bare hands caused Cassie to giggle slightly earning a mock glare from Jack. Cassie's expression sobered up at Jacks queue as she remembered that they were supposed to be hiding from the bad guy's out there and that it was not really a good time to make a lot of excess noise.
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Despite her short slender stature Janet Frasier was a strong woman with a kind smile and a glare that could give pause to even the toughest marine. At the moment though she wore neither expression as her face was contorted into a anxious frown over the current status of her daughter.
The last thing she expected when she had arrived at the SGC that morning was to find out that her daughter along with Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c had gone missing while out at the Colonel's Cabin. So imagine her surprise when she arrived at the mountain and told to go directly to the briefing room. That in itself was not that unusual as medical emergencies at the SGC did not run strictly on a six to five schedule. The fact that upon her entrance into the briefing room the non vacationing members of SG1 were there to meet her had been somewhat suspicious as she knew that Sam and Daniel were both busy attempting to catch up with the massive amount of backlogged projects that had piled up on them.
Then the briefing had started. If she had been at any other command Janet would have thought the entire idea of a sex changing alien as absurd, but she was a member of the SGC, where history and the rules of science were being rewritten on a daily basis. That combined with SG1's uncanny ability to attract trouble like moths to a flame managed to push any remaining skepticism aside. Her attitude quickly changed over from its scientific curiosity mode into very irate and concerned parent mode upon hearing that the Colonel was overdue to check in with the General.
As the meeting ended General Hammond had decided that due to the circumstances the remainder of SG1 and herself were to report to Peterson Air force base, where transport was waiting to take them to a small field Twenty miles from the Colonels Cabin. They were then supposed to wait there for the local Sheriff whom in turn was going to take them to the Colonels Cabin if the roads were clear. If not General Hammond was working on acquiring some rescue helicopters that were stationed out of Minneapolis.
The General had explained that while Colonel O'Neill suspected alien involvement to some degree that there was not enough substantial proof of an incursion to draw upon more of the SGC's resources to locate the missing trio. As it was Major Carter's orders were to evaluate the situation and then call in reinforcements if needed.
They had arrived at the small airport located in the out skirts of Duluth and from there had been given a lift into town by a member of the airports staff with directions to wait at a small cafe for the Sheriff. Not wanting to let an opportunity to search for answers pass them by both Sam and Daniel had went off to investigate the local area and question some of the towns people on if they knew of any odd happenings as of late.
That left Janet alone in the small diner with nothing to do other than to wait anxiously and dwell on the status of her missing daughter. She knew that both Jack and Teal'c could take care of themselves and were more than adequately capable of keeping Cassie safe, but that knowledge did little to ease her worries.
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Sheila stopped her car, having pulled over onto the side of the street across from a service station. Fingering a small USB drive in her right hand she hoped that she was doing the right thing. She had limited information on SGC personnel. Sure she would get mission reports that had been smuggled out of the mountain, but those were a rarity as she was only given the information that was semi relevant to her work. Also, mission reports did not really go into in depth the moral character of the SGC support staff. Sure she knew enough about SG1 to take an accurate guess at their moral makeup but their Support staff was another matter all together.
Taking out a small pair of binoculars she had purchased at a truck stop fifteen miles down the road she began to scan the windows of the Cafe, which was located a half of a block up and across the street from her current location. She was doing so because she was extremely wary of what she was about to do and wanted to pass along every file she had about Ranma to Doctor Frasier without SG1 present as she did not want to be apprehended, she still had a few things to do and once they were done then she would willingly turn herself in for her crimes.
She wasn't completely sure as to what she was looking for, sure she knew what Major Carter and Daniel Jackson looked like, but she only had the faintest of descriptions to go on as to what the Doctor looked like. In fact, the only thing she knew for certain was that the doctor had red hair.
It took a few minutes but her efforts were not in vain as she was fairly certain that the Woman in BDU's with red hair was the SGC's chief medical officer. Taking in a deep breath Sheila once again fingered the Small USB drive in her hand before sliding it into her jackets inside pocket. Stepping out of her care she began to form a plan in her mind, "I don't have to actually meet the doctor to get this to her. All I have to do is enter the Cafe, sit down order a cup of coffee and then leave the drive with a small note and generous tip at the table with instructions to give the USB drive to the redhead in uniform."
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----- A few minutes earlier
"So she's there now?"
"........."
"I see."
"........"
"No... Not yet anyway."
"...."
"For now just watch if she makes a move towards the cafe then I am authorizing whatever means to ensure her silence."
"...."
"You have your orders... Follow them."
Wanda Struthers Calmly set the phone down in its cradle, her face showing no sign of sadness for giving the order that just effectively signed her formers colleges death warrant. After all Sheila, knew the cost of treason and if Wanda had to choose between her former long time friend and colleague and the projects security, well then Sheila was in for a shock, that was for sure.
Wanda had watched from a distance as Sheila's loyalty wavered, she had even attempted to protect her former friend from herself by separating her from the test subject. It seems though as unfortunate as it was, that Sheila was too weak to see the bigger picture. The goa'uld were too much of a threat to let on insignificant test subject get in the way of what was best for the world.
Pressing the button that activated the facilities intercom Wanda cleared her throat and said, "Attention all personnel, our orders have changed... All paper research is to be destroyed... All hard research is to be packed up and made ready for transportation to a back up facility. If there are any questions see your section heads... That is all."
With her announcement made Wanda began the task of rifling through her own office getting it ready for when the NID team arrived with transportation to move them to the next facility.
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Ranma was coming around slowly, the drugs previously pumped into his system having mostly worn off due to his sleep and quick metabolism. He, or rather She at the moment, could only remember bits and pieces of information from the time he had been within the thralls of the Neko ken.
He remembered talking to Wanda just before she pumped him full of a drug that would assist him into bringing the Neko ken out. He had been told that the drug was a necessity if he was going to master the cat within him, but as of late he had been having his doubts. The visions he had when exposed to the drug were horrific, containing demonic looking cats with glowing gold eyes committing one atrocity after another, a far cry from the now seemingly tame nightmare of being surrounded by a dark pit.. As of late though, the visions have been getting stranger involving snakes that would morph into gaudily dressed men with glowing eyes joining the cats in their vile spree's. What was seeding his doubts though was that the felines in his visions were no more terrifying than the newer additions. Actually, if he were to be honest with himself then he'd probably say these new factors were far more terrifying.
Laying there on the damp ground with her head supported by a warm pillow Ranma tried to concentrate what she could remember. -She remembered tree's, lots and lots of tree's. Scrunching her eye's up in concentration she ignored the voices in the distance and tried to refocus her mind as tree's was not really much of an answer.
After a few more minutes of laying there trying to think, Ranma gave up as it was an exorcise in futility as she could not ascertain any other pertinent information. Letting out a half moan half groan to let his displeasure at not being able to remember be known, Ranma decided that perhaps more information would come back to her if she went back to sleep for a while she turned onto her side and tried to position the pillows into a more comfortable position.
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A few minutes earlier
Cassie stared down at the redheaded girl, not sure as to how she was going to handle her if she got all hysterical when she woke up. She could tell from the slight movements that the girl was going to open her eyes any minute and see a total stranger looming over her. Turning her head to Jack she asked, "You sure that she's not going to flip out and go crazy when she opens her eyes?"
Jack shrugged in response before he added, "No clue... I just know that it's a better idea for you to be the first one she sees given how she was when she fell all over you."
Blushing at the memory of having the girl sandwiched between her breasts Cassie was hit with a sudden thought and whispered out, "Oh My God!!! Jack, is she a girl or a boy?"
Jack turned his head towards the two teens and replied, "How in the heck should I know? Despite the fact that this type of things seem to happen a lot when I'm around, I'm not the resident expert on the weird and technically impossible..." Pausing briefly he then added, "I'm sure if Danny boy, or Carter was here they'd be able to tell you... What difference does it make anyway?"
Cassie shrugged after a moment and replied with, "I don't know." in all honestly she did know but was not about to mention to Jack that she was embarrassed because the girl had technically gotten to almost third base with her before any boy did. "Then again..." She thought, "If she is a guy then it was with a guy. A guy I don't know got to almost third base with me... I'm such a slut... Was he even cute?"
Belatedly though she realized that she never really got that good of a look at him the night before as she had been in partial shock from everything that had happened, not to mention having the girl transform into a boy.
Hearing a noise come from her lap she turned her attention back to the redheaded stranger, while motioning for Jack with one of her arms. Not wanting to spook the girl when she opened her eyes Cassie took her right hand and started running it through the girls hair. After all, when she was scared or in an off mood she usually got the same treatment from her mother.
Upon that realization Cassie felt a pang of guilt stabbing her in the stomach at her most recent attitudes concerning her mother. She knew she wasn't being fair with how she was treating her but at the same time was not happy being reminded of her not yet adult state.
Turning her attention back to the girl positioned on her lap Cassie realized something, the girl had started to breath a bit deeply. Hoping that meant that the girl was going back to sleep almost relieved her as she was not really sure on what she was going to say to the girl, so any delay in waking up would be greatly appreciated on her end. Noticing the breaths deepen Cassie blinked, there was something off about it, something about the way it sounded. Of course that's when she noticed that the girl on her lap was pushing slightly against her hand.
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Ranma was nearing the point that she was fairly certain that she would have to open her eyes. She didn't want to but knew that she would have to as her mind was sending out alerts telling her that something was off with her surroundings. Leaning into the warm gentle hand petting her she purred again, it being a side effect of her drive to master the Neko ken. It was not that the more she mastered the more cat like she became... no... not really. It was more of a matter of when she was watching herself within the thralls of it that she had noted how it acted and set out to emulate every aspect of it. Of course with her that meant now the purring was a reflex that was extremely difficult to suppress.
The first thing she noticed that was out of place though was the ground, while she was used to waking up on the cold hard concrete of the facility that kept people safe from her savagery. That thought caused her to pale slightly, sure she could remember seeing a lot of trees while immersed in the cat fist but that had not meant that she had somehow managed to run away from the facility. The ground though was a very huge hint as it seemed not only rocky but uneven as well. Taken in a tentative sniff, something that she had been able to heighten somewhat thanks to the Neko-ken, she became very alarmed.
She was with people, a man and a woman and the man was bleeding. Most likely because of something she had done to him. She tried to sit up quickly but immediately felt two hands on her holding her down. Ranma tried to struggle more without hurting the person but was quickly realizing that her own body was not readily complying to her commands.
Ranma tried to speak out and express to the person about how she needed to get away from them before she lost control of herself again and hurt another innocent person but her own throat was far too dry and all that came out was a incomprehensible mutter.
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"Shhh.... Clam down.... everything going to be alright.... Your safe now...." Cassie soothed realizing that the girl on her lap was starting to panic. "Nobody's going to hurt you here... just lay still...." Shooting a look to Jack, Cassie silently pleaded for him to help her, this girl was extremely strong and it was taking everything she had to keep her still.
Jack sighed to himself, he had wanted to stay away from the girl until she had calmed down as he didn't want her to get all hysterical on him once she realized that there there was a strange man with her. Of course he also realized that though he had not counted it perhaps it was a good thing that Teal'c had not yet returned as many people found him to be rather intimidating. Struggling to his feet because of the newly acquired stiffness in it from sitting to long on it Jack announced softly, "Don't worry Cassie you're doing great."
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Belatedly Ranma realized that Wanda must have upped or changed the drugs that kept him from hurting anyone. That caused a frown to mar her soft features as she knew from being told that if they had to keep upping all the drugs she would never be rid of the damnable Neko ken no matter how hard she tried. That caused her eyes to well up. It was frustrating, she had never wanted to hurt anybody but yet she had killed and shredded Sheila into an unrecognizable husk due to her inability to control herself. Now there were two other people with her, one of whom she probably had already maimed, and they didn't even realize how dangerous she was even when weakened from the drugs.
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Feeling her pants getting damp, and the girl shuddering slightly Cassie realized that the girl was crying and tried to comfort her with, "Please calm down... you're safe here... nobody is going to hurt you... Everything is going to be fine now.... You're with friends..." Cassie plead as Jack plopped down on the ground with a grunt so he could help her restrain the girl if she continued to struggle.
"Kid... you need to relax... " Jack tried as he reached out for her shoulder to turn her onto her back.
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Daniel stared out the shop window watching the woman get out of her car. It had been pure chance but as luck would have it he came across the window just as he was about to leave the store. Of course after seeing what she was doing he had to move to the side as the store window was rather large and had a clean line of sight into the woman's car.
As she exited the car Daniel was torn with which action to take after he realized that she was spying on Janet. He had no idea about her intentions nor what she wanted with the doctor. On one hand he could confront the woman now, but technically she hadn't done anything yet and would be able to deny anything. If he allowed it to play out though, it might place Janet at risk. Reaching into his pocket he brought out his cell and cursed, apparently there was no service up here. "Well there goes that idea." He muttered to himself.
Noticing that the woman was starting to cross the street, He made his way to the door, he would just have to stay close and out of site until an opportunity presented itself. Unfortunately that chance would never come as before Daniel was even out the door a black sedan sped down the road on an intercept course with the mysterious woman.
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Sheila crossed the road not bothering to look both ways in the sleepy little town and had made it half way across when she heard the roar of an engine. Turning her head in fright she saw a black sedan making a bee line towards her. Picking up her pace she tried to run onto the side walk only to notice that the car sped up. Just as she was about to clear the road the car was upon her, in a last ditch attempt to protect her life Sheila tried to dive out of the way while letting out a frightened scream, only it wasn't enough as her lower body was hit full force and sent sprawling.
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Janet had heard the scream and had turned her head just in time to see a woman sent sprawling. Rising out of the booth her medical instincts took over, barking out an order to the waitress to call an ambulance while she went out the door to see if she could do anything for the unfortunate woman.
Just as she made her way outside she noticed that Daniel had beaten her to the body. Kneeling down she nodded to Daniel and motioned for him to stay back for a moment while she checked on the woman. Noting to herself that the woman seemed to be breathing she reached out with her hand to check the pulse and started to say, "Try not to move, an Ambulance is on it's way. I'm..."
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From her position on the ground Sheila knew she was going to die. Her body was numb and with every second that ticked by she felt herself getting colder and colder. Her thoughts briefly turned to her actions over the past few months but she pushed aside the feelings of self loathing and regrets that surged forward with the memories and focused on what she needed to do. Ranma's future well being was dependent on her doing the right thing for once. Hearing voices in the distance she tired to focus her mind to the outside world but everything seemed muted and far away.
Forcing open her eyes she tried to focus but the world around her was a blurry haze, her numb body felt sluggish and unresponsive. Through the haze though she was able to pull herself together for a brief moment of clarity, her eyes focused and from her twisted position only allowing her to see the lower body of the person kneeling down in front of her.
They were BDU's... Sheila swelled hope, the only person she had noticed in the vicinity that had been wearing BDU's was the SGC's chief medical officer. That meant that she had not yet failed Ranma. Sensing that the woman was reaching out for her Sheila mustered all her remaining strength and grabbed a hold of the womans wrist. Using all her strength she ignored the woman's warning of laying still and forced herself onto her back while she fumbled with her jacket with her free hand. Finding the object she was searching for she shakily withdrew her hand, she could feel herself fading fast. Staring up into the petite redheaded doctors eyes she forced horse words out of her throat
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Janet was surprised by the woman's strong grip and was vaguely aware that Daniel had taken a step forward, looking ready to offer any assistance he could. Despite her warning the woman rolled onto her back and stared up into her eyes. Just from a quick glance Janet knew that the woman was terminal and she could see her unspoken diagnosis in the unknown woman's eyes. She watched silently as the woman fumbled about with her jacket before finding what she had been looking for. The shaky arm then sought out her free hand and the woman spoke, "Take this... Help him... Sorry I...."
Janet felt the woman's arm go limp just as she spoke her final words. Temporarily ignoring what the strange woman had placed in her hand Janet reached forward and closed the woman's eyes and looked up into Daniels worried face. "She's dead... there was nothing I could do."
Daniel moved around the body and stepped beside Janet to help her up.
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Ranma allowed the tears to continue to fall as the girl and the man tried to assure her that she was going to be alright. They just did not understand, it was not for herself that she was crying. No she was crying because that she knew that if she did not leave them soon she would wind up hurting them, yet despite that fact she had ceased with her struggles to move and instead accepted the comforting warmth that the girl was offering. She needed it, human contact was something that she had longed for since the day's following her brutal murder of Sheila as Wanda had kept her isolated in a cage and only interacted with her from the safety of outside of the cage.
Ranma did not know what to do. She didn't know where she was nor how she had gotten there. She was tired, her body felt sluggish and weak and she had the feeling that she had not eaten in several day's. On top of that she was positive that neither of the two people that were with her were from the lab as she did not recognize either of their voices. That in itself raised an interesting question, Wanda had told her that the collar around her neck would allow her to keep tabs on him and yet no one from the lab was there. Reaching up with her hand she sought out the comfort and safety that the collar symbolized only to tense up when she found it absent from her person.
Jack frowned to himself at the girls reaction upon finding out that she was no longer collared like some wild beast. He figured that perhaps the girl had gotten used to it being on her and it was something akin to Stockholm syndrome.
Jack found himself unsure as to what he should do, usually he was great with kids but something about the entire situation had him unnerved. Moving his hand to the girls shoulder he gave it a light squeeze to get her attention and said, "I had to remove it, it was pumping some sort of drug into you and had a tracking device implanted in it. With any luck it's far away from here and will lead your pursuers onto a wild goose chase while we get you to safety."
Ranma's eyes opened wide at the news, if the man knew where the collar was then maybe he could get it back, then maybe Wanda would come and take her back and she would be prevented from hurting these nice people. Feeling the man's hand leave her shoulder Ranma again tried to sit up and this time was met with no resistance. Just the small effort of righting herself sent her head spinning but she persevered and smiled sadly when the girl offered her arm to help steady her.
Cassie smiled back weakly at the redhead as she steadied herself and offered a hopefully reassuring, "Hi, I'm Cassie." Hoping that would help keep the girl from freaking out and was met with a sad smile in return as the girl tried to scoot away from her.
Ranma carefully moved away from her benefactors for two reasons, one was so that she could get a better look at them and two while she had enjoyed the comfort from the other girl she did not want to risk hurting either of them should she revert back into the Neko-Ken.
Jack watched the girl carefully as she distanced herself from them, in the dim light of the cave he could see bright blue eyes taking in their surroundings. Seeing the girl open her mouth to speak and not hearing anything but a hoarse whisper Jack immediately reached for his Canteen to offer its contents to her, which she accepted readily and drank rather greedily.
Her thirst quenched Ranma set the canteen down at her side and wiped the remaining moister away from her face with her sleeve only to blink in surprise, she didn't recognize the sweatshirt that she was wearing.
Cassie noting the girls questionable expression took initiative and said, "It's mine... when we found you..."
Ranma nodded in understanding her face flushing in embarrassment as she realized that she was wearing a few more items that must belong to the girl, "Cassie... she introduced herself as Cassie." Ranma thought bringing her hand up to trace the strap of the bra while tears threatened to escape from her eyes once again. While she identified herself as a guy it was Sheila who had taught her to not fear the change but to embrace it and use it as an extension of himself. But that brought back the memory of what she had done to her friend making her feel the emptiness within herself that Sheila's death had brought about.
Jack idly wondered why a bra strap would make a girl cry before he attempted to distract her with, "I'm Jack... You already met Cassie there..." he motioned with one of his arms while leaving it open ended in the hopes that the little prod would keep the girl from sinking back within herself.
"Sorry... I'm Ranma..." Ranma sniffed out.
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