Aww, man...*pouts* you guys is guessin' my story faster then I can write it. I'm so predictable...Oh, well. I still got a surprise or two up my sleeve...heh.

Anyways, I'll try to keep the names straight, but no promises, every time I try to fix a mistake I make another. *shrugs* I'll do what I can do. As for grammar, I suck. Bad. Its almost as bad as my spelling, and we wont even go there. All I got ta say is thank God for spell check, you wouldn't be able to read this otherwise. Well, enough jibberjabber, time to get on with the story.

Disclaimer: Ranma belongs naught unto me, for I am nothing, but a meager peasant. Who grovels for a mere touch of the illuminating warmth emanating forth from the breath of the majestic sun, hence forth know only as the goddess Rumiko Takahashi.(In laymen's terms; I don't own Ranma.)

Chapter 8

Onna-Ranma looked at Akane-chan curiously wondering how to approach the subject of Jusenkyo curses or even whether or not she should. "Uh..."

"Ranma's cursed and she's actually Ranma, splashed with cold water Ranma becomes a girl and when he's splashed with warm water he becomes a boy again." said Nabiki matter-of-factly.

"Oh." Said Akane-chan, as if that made perfect sense. Although what she really means to say is 'Huh?'

"Nabiki!" yelled Onna-Ranma. "I thought you said we weren't going to tell her everything!"

Kasumi came back into the room with a kettle of tea in her hand.

"Hey, Kasumi!" Yelled Ranma to the eldest girl. "Can you believe that Nabiki told Akane-chan about my....ouch! Hot!"

"You see?" Kasumi asked the small girl kindly. "Now Ranma's a boy again."

"Wow." Akane-chan said in awe. "I wanna try!" She leapt at the kettle in Kasumi's hand only to be stopped by Nabiki's arm around her.

"No, No," Said Nabiki with half lidded eyes. "You need cold water...here use this." Nabiki handed her a glass of cold water.

"Hey!" Howled Ranma to the two older Tendo girls. "Do you mind?!"

Akane-chan hit him with the cold water and watched him change. "That's so COOL!" She shrieked. "Can I do it again?!"

"Certainly." said Kasumi handing her the kettle.

"Would you guy's cut it out!" Ranma was quickly losing his patience. He felt the warm water wash over him and sighed.

"So, its a curse? How'd you get it?" Akane-chan asked with perked interest.

"Well.." murmured Ranma placing a hand on his chin. "Me and my old man were training in China when..."

(A/N: I'm gonna skip this part because I'm assuming everyone already knows how Ranma got cursed.)

"...and that's how it happened."

"Whoa," Akane-chan whispered. She turned to Kasumi excitedly. "Can we go to Jusenkyo too? I want to turn into a pony!"

"NO!!!" Yelled the three teens in unison.

"Er...that is..." Kasumi cleared her throat. "Perhaps when your older...maybe..."

Akane-chan moaned. "But I want to be a pony now!"

"No." growled Ranma sternly. "You're not going to be a pony...ever. Or any other kind of livestock. You're going to stay a girl. A stupid, violent, uncute GIRL!"

Akane-chan's eyes brimmed with tears. "I will be a pony some day you'll see! I don't care what you say. I have dreams too, ya know! I hate you...you...you...BIG MEANIE!" She dashed away from the table crying.

"Gee, Ranma," said Nabiki glaring at him. "never knew you to be so heartless." She got up to leave the table.

"Oh yeah right, Nabiki," Ranma yelled to her retreating figure. "like your the one to be coachin' people about bein' heartless."

"Ranma!" said Kasumi firmly. "I think you should know that you're on my 'unpleasant' list for today." collecting the dishes she walked away into the kitchen.

Ranma groaned. "You people are crazy!" he called out to the empty room. "You can't let her think she can grow up to become a pony! Argh! I'm not going to apologize! Do you hear me?! I was in the right! I'M NOT APOLOGIZING!!"

********************

A withered old man accompanied by two excited young boys walked slowly down a highly polished, reflective corridor. He was giving them a tour of his museum showing off his priceless one of a kind statues that he had collected of fighting greats from all over the world. All of them were posed in sad, hopeless despair.

"Oh! look!" One of the boys exclaimed. drawing near to one figurine in particular. "This is Jr. 'The Mighty' Boyd!"

The other boy's face fell sadly. "Yeah, I remember him, he was one of the greatest western fighters that ever lived...but they say he disappeared over a year ago."

They both stared at the statue sadly. "He was my favorite fighter." murmured the littlest boy miserably.

"Now Now, boys," said the caretaker and owner of Dr. Hob's Amazing Marble Wonders. "surely you don't expect your heroes to live forever..."

"But he's not dead! He's not! He's alive out there somewhere I just know it!" cried out the older of the two boys.

Dr. Hob tsked. "You poor young fool," he said laying withered hands upon the two boys' shoulders. "He's dead and he's never coming back, but that doesn't mean his memory doesn't live inside you...live inside..." He began to laugh hysterically.

Both of the boys stared at him. The older boy leaned down to whisper to the other. "He's weirder then Aunt Lin."

They both watched as Dr.Hob threw his arms out and his head back to laugh with open abandonment. "No. Aunt Lin's much weirder." said the younger one with a nod.

Dr.Hob sobered rubbing the tears from his eyes. "Alright boys, your hour's up."

They groaned. "But we didn't even get to see the entire museum yet!"

"Then you'll just have to pay for another tour tomorrow, but never fear, my dears, If you train hard and become great martial arts masters, then you too can stay in the museum as long as you want."

"Cool!" They both exclaimed in unison. Then with a wave goodbye they ran to the exit where their parents awaited them.

He chuckled as he stared at the marble statue of Jr. "Yesss...train hard, my dears..."

*******************

Akane gasped shoving Shinnosuke from her.

"Akane? What's wrong?"

She was trembling with barley concealed rage.

Shinnosuke felt her tremble and misunderstood the reason. "You nervous?" He let a finger travel down her cheek. He whispered. "You trembled the last time too."

"You...You..." she couldn't contain herself any more. "...PERVERT!!!!!"

Shinnosuke frowned. "Huh?"

*KAPOW!!!*

He went flying through the roof.

Everyone who was sitting around the kitchen table, playing cards, stopped what they were doing when they heard the commotion.

Shampoo nodded. "Now that he have coming."

"You don't think he tried to put the moves on the younger Akane do you?" Nabiki asked as her bored eyes surveyed the cards in her hand.

"If so," said Kasumi cheerfully. "we could always have a lynching party."

Everyone laughed except Nabiki and Tofu, they both caught the dangerous look in the normally sweet woman's expression.

Tofu sighed. "I'll go get my coat."

Nabiki took out her cell phone and flipped it open. She hit speed dial and put the receiver to her ear. "It's Nabiki," pause. "Yes, I know what time it is..." pause. "...if your done with your pathetic whining I have a order for you..." pause. "...good. I need a strong rope, maybe 10 to 20ft..." pause "Its for a lynching..." long pause. "Its not for you!" pause "...no I don't care what color. Just so long as it can hold..." questioning eyes turned to Kasumi. "...155 pounds?"

"Better make it 200 just to be safe." murmured Kasumi.

"200." Nabiki repeated into the phone. Pause. "...ASAP..." she smirked. "...thanks, Kodachi." she flipped the phone closed.

Everyone who had previously been laughing, blink-blinked at Nabiki.

"What?" She asked with a half-lidded gaze. "My turn already?" She rearranged the cards in her hand.

*************************

Cane, Mousse and Ryoga laid in a blissful, drunken heap in Cane's front yard. After they had started to get rowdy inside, their old pal Tofu kindly 'escorted' them out. That is, he threw them one by one over his shoulder and dumped them, unceremoniously, on the ground. Currently they were racing to see who could count all the stars first, but thus far no one could get past the number ten. It was about that time when they saw a figure flying high over head.

"Hey lookie! Wazzat?" Exclaimed Ryoga. "Iz It a...burd?"

Cane paused. "No...not a *hic* bird..."

"Iz it a plane?" Said Mousse loudly.

She shook her head, making the dizziness worse. "Ishn't a plane..."

Ryoga turned to her. "Then What?"

She squinted her eyes and leaned forward trying to get a better look at the flying projectile. "Um...It...its...ah..." she suddenly sat back flabbergasted. *gasp*! "Why itz... sh..." She found pronouncing the word difficult. "...ah...sh...shooting star!" Her hand shot into the air. "I call it!"

"Hey!" Ryoga cried out. "You called th' las' four! Iz my turn!"

"I though' we agreed th'las one was a firefly." Cane said with a pout in her voice.

"Besides," added Mousse. "I don' sink thooting stars often scream like that."

"Oh." Cane murmured sheepishly. Yawning she wrapped her arms around the two men next to her. "I wuv you guys. I luv you Ryoga an' I luv you Mousse."

Ryoga nodded. "I luv you Cane an' I luv Mousse an' I luv...um...kitties."

"I luv kitties too!" Exclaimed Mousse. "My wifes's a kitty...sometimes..."

Ryoga sighed. "Lucky man."

And so they continued their maudlin 'I luv you's until the wee hours of night.

**************************

Ranma walked happily towards the Cat Cafe. He was almost positive Cologne must have figured out how to Get Akane back by now. He looked down at the young girl walking beside him holding his hand. He had already made up with her about this morning, and in the way of an apology, decided to take her with him for his visit to Cologne's. "Sooo...." He said in the way of conversation. "Ready to go home?"

Akane-chan shrugged. "I guess..." She hung her head and watched the ground through blurry, tearful eyes.

"Hey," he murmured gently. "This won't be goodbye forever you know...we'll meet again one day, you'll see."

"Its not that," she whimpered. "This may be the last time I get to see Mousse."

His left eyebrow twitched. "Hey..." Just then he heard the ringing of a bike bell and groaned.

"Niho!" Shampoo called out.

Ranma squeezed his eyes shut and stiffened, waiting for the inevitable...

*Glomp*

His eyes shot open in surprise. Shampoo had flown right by him and latched onto a giggling Akane-chan instead, giving her a big hug.

"Shampoo, too happy to see you!"

"I'm happy to see you too Shampoo." The little girl leaned forward and gave the Amazon another crushing hug. "I've missed you."

"HeelloOoo." said Ranma to Akane-chan. "You just saw her yesterday."

The little girl stuck her tongue out at him.

He did the same back to her.

"Oh, Ranma, grow up." said Shampoo rolling her eyes. With Akane-chan still in her arms she walked over to her bike.

"Hey!" Exclaimed Ranma. "What do ya think your doing?"

"Shampoo take Akane for ride on bike." She said matter-of-factly.

"Really, Shampoo, really?!" Said Akane-chan excitedly.

Shampoo nodded, and smiled at the young girl before placing her on the handle bars.

"W...wait a minute!" cried out Ranma.

Shampoo hopped on the bike and peddled away. "Bye, Ranma!"

Akane-chan waved.

"Uh...bye bye." he murmured weakly. He shook his head. 'Oh, well. I'm sure Shampoo will take good care of her...That is, she better.'

Now to go to the Cat Cafe to see Cologne and get this whole mess straightened out...

...15 minutes later Ranma found himself in front of Dr.Tofu's clinic. 'Hmmm...' He wondered. 'Why does Colonge want to meet me here.' He looked down at the note that had been waiting for him at the Cat Cafe.

Son-in-law

Come straight away to Dr. Tofu's, its very important. It has to do with Akane's situation.

Cologne.

Sighing he slipped the note in his pocket and stepped inside. He was just in time to see Dr. Tofu escort one of his patients out.

The Doctor placed an out to lunch sign on the door and turned to Ranma. "Follow me." he said grimly.

Ranma nodded, and let himself be led to a small examination room. Once there he could see Cologne sitting at the table surrounded by several books and trash from last nights take out food. Ranma noticed the dark circles under her eyes and immediately felt bad. 'She stayed up all night tryin' to figure a way to get Akane back? Wow, maybe she's not such a mean old broad after all.' He went over and sat in a chair adjacent to hers. "Alright, so...how do we get Akane back?" he leaned toward her giving her his rapt attention.

"We don't." said the Amazon leader tiredly.

Ranma felt his heart stop. "...Ya mean, 'we don't' need to wait another minute to get her...that's what ya mean, right?"

"No, Ranma," Cologne brought a hand up to rub her tired eyes. "there's nothing we can do to speed Akane's return to us."

Ranma shot to his feet. "No!"

Dr.Tofu laid gentle hands on the trebling boy's shoulders. "Please sit down, Ranma. There is some good news."

Cologne nodded her gratitude to the good Doctor before turning back to her son-in-law. "First of all, son-in-law, I'd like to point out that there are several different types of time travel and each one has its own unique ritual to follow. For example, our kidnapper used a method of sending oneself to another time, this by far is the most difficult ritual to accomplish, only one other person has ever been able to do it, a woman from Amazon history named Dee Pu, of which Shan Pu is a direct descendant. It took her a year just to find the supplies need to pull off such a feat.

We ourselves used a fairly simple, but not always successful, method of pulling a person from their time frame to yours, but because of its delicate nature you can only try it once.

Anyways, I could go on all day about the different types of time travel, but its irrelevant..."

"Wha'd'ya mean 'irrelevant'? I might be able to use one of those to get Akane back!" Ranma exclaimed jumping to his feet.

Cologne shook her head. She looked to Tofu for help. Her poor head was throbbing and she was having trouble keeping her bleary eyes open.

Dr. Tofu nodded and stepped in. "Cologne and I stayed up all night last night to comb through countless books and Amazon scrolls to see if there was any secret technique or anything we could use to get her back to us quickly, but there simply isn't. All travel is to the past, never the other way around."

Ranma fell into his seat a painful sick feeling settled uneasily in his stomach. He could barely find his voice to whisper..."So...I...may've...lost her forever..."

Dr. Tofu pulled up a chair close to the distraught boy's. "Ranma," He murmured kindly. "didn't I tell you there was some good news?"

Ranma looked up at the Doctor with hope in his eyes.

"Time can only tolerate a shift in its 'core' if you will, for a limited period of time." Tofu sat back in his chair a moment to try to find a way to explain it to the boy in a way he'd understand. "Uh...sorta, like...a piece of glass in your foot." He said finally.

Ranma frowned. "A piece of glass?"

Dr. Tofu grinned. "Yes. What do you do if you get a piece of glass in your foot?"

Ranma shrugged. "Ya try an' pull it out."

"Alright," said Tofu. "but what if its embedded really deep and you can't reach it, even with tweezers?"

"No biggie, since its not really apart of your body or nothin', when your foot heels it'll push the glass out on its own." Ranma shook his head. "I don't really see what this has to do with getting Akane back."

""Well, Ranma, think of time as the foot and Akane as the piece of glass. Since she doesn't really belong where she is eventually she'll be pulled back to her appropriate time, and the same goes for little Akane-chan as well."

"Oh," said Ranma with more than a little relief in his voice. "so she'll come back on her own."

Tofu nodded. "Correct."

"In like, three or four days."

"Um, not exactly."

"...A week then..."

Dr. Tofu shook his head.

"Then how long?"

Dr. Tofu cleared his throat. "Three months."

"Oh, three months...three months? THREE MONTHS!?! HOW IS THIS GOOD NEWS?!" Angrily Ranma thrust his face into Tofu's yelling at the top of his lungs. "A LOT CAN HAPPEN IN THREE MONTHS!!!!"

Something hard came down on Ranma thick skull with a thwack. He winched and looked behind him to see a very angry Amazon monarch.

"Show some respect, Groom!" Said Cologne as she glared at the imprudent martial artist. "At least you know she's coming back! Would you have rather sat around for three months biting your nails and wondering if you would ever she her again?"

Ranma hung his head. "I guess not..."

Cologne patted his arm in sympathy. "My only advise for you is to be patient and watch over Akane-chan until she can go home."

Ranma nodded.

"Speaking of which," said Tofu joining in. "where'd she get to? I was kind of looking forward to seeing her...it would sure bring back some fond memories."

Ranma jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Shampoo's watchin' her."

No sooner had the words left his mouth then said Amazon leapt through the door. Alone. "Ranma, Help! Shampoo can no find Akane-chan anywhere! I think she run off by self!"

"Aww Jeez, wha's that stupid tomboy up to now?"

He followed the frantic Shampoo to the door before turning back to the two people standing in the room. He gave them a quick bow. "Thanks." With that said he turned back toward the door and made a speedy exit.

"So," said Dr. Tofu to the small elderly women balancing on a walking cane beside him. "What will you do now?"

Cologne smirked. "Sleep."

Her response caused him to chuckle. "Sounds like a plan."

End of Chapter 8

Hope ya liked it. I also hope the time travel part wasn't too confusing. In my head it made sense. ('Course, that ain't saying much.) So until next time...

I