Chapter 3

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I…can't…believe I just….danced to Just Communication…with Duo. WOW! YEAH! WOO-HOO! ALRIGHT! …I'm done celebrating now.

"Okay, so I'll see you guys later."

I waved a bye to the Gundam bunnies as I headed for the refreshment table. I poured myself a glass of lemonade and turned around. I bumped into someone and spilled a little of the juice on my dress.

"Oh crap!"

"Geez, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it, really…"

The person handed me a napkin. I started to scrub viscously at the bottom of my dress. When I was satisfied, I looked up to see who I had bumped into.

"Y-You're Matt…right?"

He extended his hand.

"Yeah, I'm Matt…actually, Yamato, but I go by both. I personally like Matt better. You're Jen, right?"

I shook his hand.

"Uh huh! So, are you and the other Digi Destined enjoying yourselves?"

"Yeah, we're having a great time! You made a fabulous dinner, Jen. How'd you do it?"
"I'm a sorceress. Cool, huh?"

"…actually, yeah, it is."

"You're a rock star or something, right?"

"um…I guess you could say that. Why?"

"Well…I was wondering if you'd be willing to play a tiny little concert for us…"

He seemed to ponder it for a second, then nodded his head.

"You guys saved our lives, so no problem!"

"…GREAT! But don't feel that you owe us, Matt."

"…Alright. I'm gonna go check up on T.K. and Kari, so I'll meet up with you later. Since I'm gonna be performing, maybe you could help me practice later."

"…I…I…um…SURE! That would be fun! So, see ya later."

"Bye…"

I watched Matt head over to the congregation of young children in the corner of the room. It consisted of the Digi Destined, the Clamp school Detectives, and various members of the Card Captor Sakura group. It was a big group. I looked around to see who was socializing near me. Van and Allen were sitting in a corner. They seemed deep in conversation. Allen noticed me and waved me over. I considered it for a moment.

I'm not sure I should just go over and talk to them. They're…they are…um…oh crap, now I'm getting nervous….um…oh…

Allen watched as I had a battle with myself over whether or not I should go over to him. He got fed up and climbed out of his chair. He quickly walked up to me, and dragged me to the table. As I was being pulled through the crowd of people, I heard the faint beginning of Ordinary Sunday. I passed Doumyoji and Rui, who looked rather confused and scared. I yelled a "HA HA!", which just confused them more. They just stood there…silent…and BORING! I sat down in the seat between Van and Allen, and sipped my lemonade.

"Jen, it was nice of you to come over." Van's sarcasm could not be hidden.

"Van, give her a break. It's obvious that she isn't as outgoing…or loud, as Amanda or Kevy. You're just a little shy, right Jen?"

He winked at me. My face went hot red, and I couldn't answer him. Oh my god…he's an even bigger slut then I ever could have imagined. He makes me want to run away to a corner and cry my eyes out! I laughed nervously.

"Allen, stop it."

Van was emotionless and was drinking some dark liquid that could have been anything.

"You okay, Van?"

"……."

"Hmm…."

I glanced over at Allen who figured out that I had something up my sleeve.

"Van….LET'S DANCE!!!"

I yanked him up and out of his chair. I dragged him to the center of the room and started to dance. He was speechless.

"C'mon Van, DANCE! It's fun!"

"…but, I can't…"

He stood still and looked around at everyone else.

"Here Van, I'll show ya!"

I showed him how to move his feet to the beat of the song, then how to add the upper body movements. By the time the song was over, he was as good as I was. He was reluctant at first, by I could tell that he was loving the up-beat music. He even closed his eyes and moved to the music.

"Wow, Van, you're doing really well. Are you enjoying it?"

"Yeah, I am. Thanks for teaching me ,Jen."

"Aw, don't mention it! I LOVE to dance, and I want everyone to have as much fun as I have!"

"Ah crap, Allen just found a new conquest…"

I glanced over to where Allen was, and he was talking to Minako.

"Oh no…that's MINAKO!!! She is easily impressed by pretty guys!"

I watched Allen brush back her hair.

"That's it…"

I stomped over to them, smacked away Allen's hand.

"Sorry Allen-bunny, but….NOT HERE, and NOT with HER!!!"

I pulled an exasperated Minako back to the Sailor Moon group.

"Please keep tabs on this one, guys."

The girls glared at her, then nodded to me. I backed away as they started bickering. That is more bitchy girls then I can handle! Van was already back in the corner with Allen, so I strolled off to find new company. I spotted Utena dancing with Mikki.

"…ooh, that's weird.""

I walked over to them and they stopped dancing so I could say hi.

"How's it going guys?"

"I'm having a lot of fun!"

"Me too."

"That's great. How come you two are dancing together? It seems so unlikely…"

"Well…Utena was being somewhat harassed by Touga, so I decided to cut in and save her."

Utena nodded in agreement.

"Wow…very prince-like, Mikki."

He blushed.

"Sorry to break off like this, but I want to go find Amanda. You guys haven't met her yet, have you?"

"Not directly."

"Okay. So I'll introduce you properly next time, okay?"

They nodded and I headed off to find Amanda.

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The third episode of Yami no Matsuei ended, and I persevered through the horrible but cute ending song.  Something slammed my shoulder and I jumped three feet into the air.

"WHY ARE YOU WATCHING YAMI NO MATSUEI WITHOUT ME?!?!?!?!"

" Oh. Hi Jen."

"What do you mean, 'Oh. Hi Jen?' And why are you here instead of at the dance. AND WHY ARE YOU WATCHING ANIME?!"

"Well, I had a headache, so I headed off, found the film room, remembered that Kevy had mentioned an anime library, so I turned it on and started watching, then you showed up and that's pretty much it….By the way, thank you for scaring me half to death."

"It's your own fault you had the volume up so high you couldn't hear me, so too bad." The opening for Card Captor Sakura began, and Jen hopped over the chairs between us to sit next to me in the front row.

"Well, which is this?"

"Second series, episode one."

"Cool! I'm staying."

"………."

"Look at Yukito!…hehehehehehehe……….."

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The song ended and Usagi sighed. She and Mamoru walked back to the others and nabbed a drink.

"This is really fun. I'm glad we're all here."

"Not that you would have noticed anything if we weren't here, so long as Mamoru was."  Everyone laughed, even Usagi.

"That's not true Rei and you know it."

"Speaking of who isn't here, I haven't seen Jen, Amanda or Kevy, have any of you?" he group collectively shook their heads.

"They'll turn up sooner or later. Last I saw of Jen was when she dragged Minako back here." Seiya smiled and Minako blushed. Everyone else chuckled slightly. Hotaru tugged on the nearest hand in reach.

"Setsuna-momma, can I go with the other kids?" She pointed to the group that consisted mainly of digi-destined. "I want to say hi to Kari."

Setsuna nodded and Hotaru skipped off.

"I don't know about you, but I'm tired of dancing. Do you want to tour the ship?" Makoto gestured to encompass the room. "It's nice and all, but I want a good look around."

"Sure."

"That would be nice."

"Why not?"

Thirteen heads nodded in agreement. Usagi jumped up and down, and began dragging everyone as a whole group towards the doors. "It'll be fun if we all go as a group, won't it? So let's go!"

She forcefully dragged everyone through the doors and down various hallways.

"Usagi, I think the point was to see everything at less than twenty miles an hour."

Usagi stopped and giggled. "Sorry, of course you're right Michiru, but I want to see everything at once!" She continued don a hall and came to a stop at a door labeled VIEWING. Light shone from the window to fill the darkened hallway.

"Someone's watching something, lets have a look." She opened the door and walked inside a large room that resembled a movie theatre. Two figures sat in the front. Usagi started to call to them when she stopped to look at what was playing. Cartoons? What was stranger was that she thought she recognized the little girl on the screen…..But that wasn't possible, was it? She sat down, completely enveloped in the story, watching one figure transform into a beautiful winged angel. The rest of the group filled in and closed the door, curious as to what has captured Usagi's attention. Then they too sat down and started to watch, nagged by the feeling that this too was familiar.

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 Kenshin smiled as Sansouke limped back towards him. Sano grabbed the drink he offered, glared, then sat down.

"So how was it?"

"How was it?! You saw everything, Otherwise you wouldn't be smiling like that."

"Yes well, I did warn you not to ask her."

"But you didn't tell me she couldn't dance! I can't believe how many times she stomped on my feet…And in those heels….I'd almost think it was on purpose, but it was pretty obvious she was just a bad dancer…"

"Sano?…….Calm down for a moment. I have to tell you something, and you can NOT explode when you hear it, for your sake and others. Ok?" Sano immediately paid attention. Kenshin rarely asked you to do anything, so you knew it was important when he did. Sano took a few deep breaths and tried to ignore the pain in his feet, then nodded. Kenshin leaned forward and said in a whisper—

"You didn't ask to dance with a girl. You were dancing with a man. Nuriko is male."

"……………………………………………..OH MY GOD!!!!"

"You promised not to explode—"

"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT I—" Kenshin grabbed Sanosuke by the back of the shirt and dragged him the short distance out the doors and dropped him against a wall.

"You said you wouldn't explode."

"Kenshin! I danced with a GUY! How dare he do that, act like a woman? Of all the—I'm going to give him a piece of my mind when…" Sano stopped ranting when he realized that Kenshin was staring at him. "What? He embarrassed me to all hell! I'm never going to live this down! I—"

"Sanosuke, stop it. Not many people know that he's male. The only reason I know is because I overheard Amanda discussing his sleeping arrangements with a few others that would have caused problems. As far as I can tell, someone who's good enough to fool me into thinking he's  a woman isn't going to be very obvious to too many other people. He obviously is more at home as a female, so leave him be. He's staying on the girls ark, so you won't have to face him every day, if that's what's got you worried."

"Oh…Alright. Damnit though. I guess I'd better be careful. Who else was Amanda talking to. I don't want this to happen again." Sano and Kenshin began walking down a hall, happy to leave the dance behind them.

"Well, a group she called the star lights and the three lights, apparently, they can be both male and female. They're spending one week as each before deciding where they want to stay on the arks."

"And who were they?"

"Do you remember the group that sat behind us and to the left at dinner? The large one? Well it was the three guys who had long hair worn in a pony-tail and were wearing matching suits of some kind."

"Oh, them. Well that's good to know. Anyone else?"

"The Count D who stopped by to say hello is staying at the girl's ark."

"Makes sense…"

"And a woman named Haruka, who for all appearances seems to be male is staying on the Guy ark, at least for a couple of weeks."

 "Great, a tomboy…………..Hey, what's happening here?" The duo stopped in front of a large door labeled VIEWING. Sounds and flashing lights filled the hall, through the thick door. Sanosuke and Kenshin shrugged, and Sano opened the door.

After standing in the doorframe for a minute or so, both walked inside and sat down, careful to quietly shut the door behind them……..

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"……………….This is the life, right Amanda?"

"And then some……ooooohhhhh Here's the first two episodes of Samurai X. I know you don't like the animation, but the story makes up for it."

"That's Kenshin's OVA, right?"

"Yep."

"Goody."

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"Where is everyone going?" Duo looked around the room- about twenty people, plus the five pilots were still there.

"They've probably gone to bed or something."

"At 10:00? I don't think so. Besides, where's Amanda and Jen? I haven't seen them or that Kevy in a while. Something's just odd."

"He's right. This isn't adding up." Heero studied a group of four guys at the other side of the room. Something just wasn't right about them, and Heero had learned to trust his gut feeling about things like this. The only problem was that he couldn't figure out if there was actually something wrong with them, of if it was just something weird. Especially the one who's red hair stood out in the sea of blond and brown around him.

"Yeah, I feel it too." Heero didn't need Trowa to explain what he meant. Everyone in the group could feel it. Duo, Quatre and Wufei nodded in agreement. They watched as the group walked collectively out the door.

"We should leave too—"

"And if we happen to meet up with them in the hallway—"

"It would just be a coincidence."

The five of them turned and left and while they didn't see them in the hallway, they did eventually find them inside a room filled with everyone who had left the dance earlier. Not that it mattered much, considering what was on the screen….

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"Hehehe......Love those Gundam bunnies. And look-It's the special ending! This one's way better, don't you think?"

"Of course, I mean just look at Duo, that's so cute....And Quatre in that big hat...Hehehe...Endless Waltz is really good, eh?"

"Definitely. Here's Wufei's bit. I honestly can't see why you like him. He's such a chauvinist pig."

"I agree."

"Jen! What do you mean, you agree? You're the one who insisted we bring him–"

"I didn't say anything."

"But if you didn't–" Slow realization struck me as I slowly turned around and looked behind us. I suddenly wished that this was just some horror movie in which the main characters were killed when they turned around. Because if it wasn't, then me and Jen were going to have problems...BIG problems...

I couldn't see anything very well, so I ordered the lights on. The room lit up, and my eyes adjusted. The room was packed, filled with almost everyone we had saved. Directly behind us were the Gundam guys.

ShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShitShit–

"Hey Amanda, Jen. Would either of you mind explaining all of this to us?" I noticed quite a few confused looks, a couple of throbbing temples and half a dozen twitching eyebrows.

"Um...I...Jen?....Well...I...Uh....KEVY!!!!"

"What?" Kevy stood up from his seat somewhere in the back.

"You were here all along and you didn't tell us that they were watching?"

"So?"

"Ugh! Just help us explain this!" Kevy flew over everyone's heads and landed beside me and Jen.

Shrugging, he smiled. "Simple. On their world, you're all cartoons."

"KEVY!" Jen began pounding on his head, kicking him if he ducked out of reach.

"Ouch! What! Ow! Ouch! Stop it!" Kevy ducked under another punch and grabbed her arms. "What'd I do?"

Jen growled in frustration; "You IDIOT! How could you tell them they're CARTOONS! Of all the- Do you have any idea how any sane person would react? And none of them could even be considered normal, nevermind sane! God damn it Kevy! I can't-"

"Um….Jen?" She looked over to me. "I think you can stop now. We've got a bigger problem to deal with." Jen looked over towards the group of characters that had been listening to her verbal beating of Kevy with rapt attention. She slowly nodded.

"Oh……Shit."

"Well, We've got to deal with it, so might as well get it over and done with now."

"If they don't tear us apart."

"Thanks for the support…" I turned and addressed the group. "Look, I'm really sorry about this, and I'll explain everything, but it's a pretty long story, so if you could all sit down and relax, I'll begin in a moment." A wave of exhaustion hit me and the headache I'd gotten rid of was replaced by a killer migraine. I turned to Jen. "I'll explain everything, but I'm going to need your help." Jen nodded and Kevy released her hands. She slapped him over the head one last time, then turned back to me. "I'm going to need a comfortable chair, on a platform, facing the group, a small table beside it, a glass of water and some Asprin. Can you materialize all that?" Jen nodded curtly and frowned. A few seconds later, everything I'd mentioned had appeared, with one addition.

"I hope you don't mind, I added a chair for myself." I sat down and Jen followed.

"Of course not. Sorry I didn't think of one." I popped two Asprin and gulped down some water. "Thanks. Now for the hard part." I searched inside myself until I found my magic. Grabbing the tiniest piece of it, a created a slight breeze that blew from me to the back of the room. Jen gave a start.

"What was that?"

"Hey, I'm an elemental remember, so I control the elements. I used this before, during the tour. This way I don't have to shout for everyone to hear me. Pretty cool, huh?" Jen nodded. I let the breeze continue. I wouldn't have to do anything else with it until I wanted to stop it, which was fine with me, I wanted to be able to focus entirely on what I was telling the group.

"Alright everyone, I'll begin. To start with, Kevy was partially correct when he told you that you were all cartoons on our world." There was a slight murmur through the group as the smarter ones started to think of the implications. "Now before any of you jump to conclusions, let me make one thing clear- you are not just a character created from someone's mind. Nothing you have been through has been for the entertainment of others. You are all as real as Jennifer and I." The murmurs increased. "Let me explain. The Powers That Be created millions of universes, and due to some reason even they can't fathom, created life. Each of your worlds exist in a separate dimension, with one single commonality, one single thread, linking you all together. Our dimension is at the very end of this grouping. The connection is so thin and far, that when the disaster struck, it was to have a completely different effect. Unfortunately, the disaster originated from our dimension. You all need to understand that because of our slight connection to your dimensions, we are aware of all of you. Stories of your lives and adventures and told in books, on the radio, as musicals, and as cartoons. Another stroke of coincidence, or a bad joke by the PTB has lead to these cartoons - these stories, being created solely in Japan. They have been given the title of Japanese Animation, which is often shortened to 'Anime'. This is why you often hear us speaking of you as the 'Anime bunnies' and various other names. Things that happen in our dimension, however, seems to effect your own exponentially. So when a anti-anime group set fire to a pile of movies and comics based on your stories, your universes were beset by the flood of ink. Well…that pretty much sums it up. Are there any questions?" A single hand was raised.

"Yes, Tomoyo?"

"May we watch more Sakura? I want to see her in her wonderful costumes again!"

the group collectively sweatdropped.

"Um………uh……I guess so……" I ordered the computer to begin showing, and sat back with the entire group, listening once again to Catch You Catch Me.

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HAPPY BARMITSFA!!!!…AND HAIL TO CHRISTIAN SLATER…