Ranma took his hand, and picked one of the tablets. He put it in his mouth, and took the glass of water that was on the table, and drank deeply. He sighed. The water wasn't cold, and didn't trigger his curse. He looked at Beryl's still open hands. He took the red pill.

Beryl smiled. Closing her other hand, she took the red pill, and downed the blue pill in Ranma's shocked eyes.

"Y-you took the b-blue pill!" Ranma muttered.

Beryl's eyes went wide and hearts appeared. "R-Ranma... you a-are a hunk!" and she staggered towards him like a zombie. She licked her chops.

Ranma covered himself like he was naked. He prayed that whatever the drug was doing to the woman, he hoped it would stop it's effect now. "Get away f-from me! AHH!" Ranma shouted as Beryl took him in one great hug, and he began to move like a cockroach with his leg caught. "HELP! HELP!" Ranma shouted on top of his lungs.

Outside, Mai and two other girls were giggling softly. One was even on the floor, rolling, trying not to laugh. "Serves him right," Mai said.

Project IV: Crystal Tokyo R

Chapter 01: Truth and Revelations

Beryl was laughing her head off as Ranma cowered in one side of the room, web cracks appearing from his hand holding the wall with great pressure. "Ranma, I didn't know you were that scared of a forward female."

"NOT FUNNY!" Ranma shouted, and grumbled. "Females..."

Beryl just ignored him, and with a smile, she motioned him to approach her. Ranma, still a bit in doubt, followed her a bit reluctantly, staying a wee bit away from her.

Beryl laughed inwardly at that, and went to another wooden door Ranma didn't notice earlier, and Beryl opened it with both of her hands. Inside, Ranma saw a room filled with crude looking machines, and a shot up computer.

"What is this room?" Ranma asked Beryl.

"I will answer that question later," Beryl replied. Ranma took a look around, and saw girls on various places. The only one he recognized was Mai, who lead him to a battered up chair.

"What do you mean later?" Ranma asked.

"We are running out of time, Ranma," Beryl replied. "The longer we stay here, the much more chances of them getting here."

Mai and another girl who had long light orange hair started putting wires on his face, arms, and neck. Ranma tried to remain comfortable, but Mai seem to smile evilly, that he shuddered. "What was the red pill, by the way?" he had to ask.

"The red pill is part of a trace program, designed to disrupt your input/output system so we can pinpoint your exact location," Beryl replied easily, like it was the easiest thing in the world to understand.

"What?" Ranma asked.

"It means buckle yourself Ifuirita, 'cause El Hazard is going bye-bye," the girl with long light orange hair replied. Ranma looked even more confused.

Mai sighed at the confusion. "Forget it Ranma. Tama used to watch a lot of anime while she was still young, and sometimes goes to Crystal Tokyo to buy anime. You can consider her a anime maniac."

"Oh..." Ranma said, also not really understanding what Mai meant. The girl 'Tama' began arguing with Mai.

"I'M AN OTAKU!" Tama stated angrily. "NOT MANIAC!"

Ranma sighed. He could never really understand females, and so looked around him to see normal people. Beryl was one, just watching the exchange of the two girls with little interest, more occupied with another girl with short green spiky hair in the computer. He looked around again, and saw a cracked mirror.

Ranma stared at it with amazement, how it showed a faulty reflection of himself. He laughed inwardly. Even his reflections gave out his good looks [hey, Ranma is very confident, and I'm not surprised its because of his looks] was still... good looking. Then, he stopped laughing.

"What the..." In his shocked eyes, he saw the mirror turn almost liquid like, kinda like the mercury thingy he saw in science class. "Did any one of you..." Beryl and the others looked at him, and Ranma watched in fascination, as the mirror slowly fixed it's crack. Ranma couldn't help it. He tried to reach for it.

Beryl watched Ranma reach out towards the mirror. "Have you ever had a dream, Ranma, that you thought it was so real that you didn't know if you would wake up?" Ranma touched the mirror, and slowly put his hand away, and Ranma stared at the fascination of his unstained fingers. "What if you were unable to wake up from that dream, Ranma? How would you know the difference between the dream world, and the real world?"

By this time, the conversation was lost to Ranma as he felt coldness on his arm. To Beryl and the others, there was nothing on his arm, but for Ranma, he saw glass-like liquid which was so cold that he shivered. It was beginning to wrap around his arm like a viper. "C... cold!"

Beryl took a look at the girl in the computer. "Rahme, have you found him?"

"There is too much interference, Boss," the girl with spiky green hair replied.

Meanwhile, Ranma was now stretching his arm far away from him as the liquid proceeded to grow towards him. "C... cold... h... help...!"

Mai and Tama began to set up another machine, which was set up on the phone. It seem to run by itself, dialing something. Beryl looked desperately at Rahme, the girl with spiky green hair.

"Have you found him yet?!" she asked, a bit loudly this time.

"The system is not letting him go easily!" Rahme replied.

"He's going to pop!" Tama replied. Ranma was already looking like he was convulsing.

"Rahme!" Beryl began.

"I GOT HIM!" Rahme proudly replied as she typed in her last commands.

Beryl immediately took out her cellphone, and spoke towards it, "NOW, Rei, NOW!"

Ranma could only watch as the liquid went towards his mouth, and all he could do was shout...

Suddenly, Ranma felt a cold sticky liquid throughout all his body, and he saw his hands. Never in his life he felt so weak... Then, he realized that he wasn't breathing.

Desperation, the only thing which made Ranma painfully stand up, and took his arms above him, and felt a weak small membrane like barrier. With all his strength, he ripped it off, and emerged from the cocoon like structure he was in.

Everything was weird. First, he felt so weak, so cold. Second, he had pain all over him, as he saw his arms had wires attached all over him. Third, he couldn't feel himself swallowing because of something in his mouth. He could have fainted. There was something stuck in his mouth, and with both of his hands, he grabbed it, and forced it out, making him choke.

With that out of the way, Ranma felt something else, and it seems to be stuck on his head. Getting his hand, he placed a few fingers and found out that he was bald, and then, he felt something metallic in his skin. He was so surprised that he felt something when he touched the metal. It was like it was part of him!

"W-what the..." Ranma looked around him, and saw everything was dark, with a few pillars filled with pink cocoons. Turning his head on his side, he saw that it wasn't normal cocoons. There were people inside!

Suddenly, there was a robot that came down towards him, and grabbed him in his neck. Ranma could only stare numbly at the robot. He wanted to do something. Anything. Mokou Takabisha, Hiryuu Shoten Ha, or maybe even the Amaguriken, but he couldn't. He couldn't feel his Ki, couldn't feel his power. He was so confused about that. He saw his life pass through his eyes.

Then, something very painful. The thing behind him seem to be screwing out, and Ranma felt all the pain he could have ever felt, and then, like it came, it disappeared. The robot let him go in his neck, and Ranma gasped for air a bit, then shouted again as he felt the wires forcefully pull out of him. His arms, his back, his legs, he felt like he was being tortured for a moment, then, felt being sucked somewhere dark.

By the time he regained his consciousness, he felt wet, cold, and out of air. He was in the water, yet he felt his arms too weak to move. A bright light from above, and saw something going towards him, and it caught him. Ranma lost consciousness again.

Another flash of light, Ranma could only see two girls helping him up, and Beryl, yes, Beryl, in shabby clothes, looking at him. "Welcome..." she began, "to the real world..." Ranma lost consciousness again.

++++++++

"We did it, Mai... we found him. We finally found him!"

Ranma opened his eyes, and saw Beryl talking to Mai.

"Are you sure he really is the one?" Mai asked.

"Am... am I dead?" Ranma asked.

"Far from it," Beryl replied, looking at him.

"Why does my eyes hurt?" Ranma asked, closing his eyes at the bright light.

"You never used them before," Beryl replied. Ranma was so confused, that if he was strong enough, he would have asked what she meant. Beryl read his face easily and gently tapped his shoulders. "Rest, Ranma. The answers are coming."

++++++++

In the time Ranma was in la-la land, he felt pricks in his skin. He tried to open his eyes, but his sleepiness and grogginess were stopping him from actually waking up. He dreamed of nothing, then everything, then nothing. A few times, he saw a bright white light above him, while Beryl watched over him. There was another girl with the spiky green hair with her at that time, and they were talking about his muscles or something. He couldn't remember because everything was blended like a puree.

Finally, after being lost in time, Ranma opened his eyes and found himself under an unfamiliar roof. Looking around him, he saw nothing but metallic walls, and felt something hard and soft on his back. Sitting up, he looked around him. The grogginess was gone, and so was his sleepiness. It was like he had a very good sleep.

A prick in his arm made him look at it. Something was lodged in his arm, a needle, and it was lodged in one of the holes in his arms. Gripping the needle, he slowly took it out, gritting his teeth as he felt a very stinging pain in his whole system, and finally sighed as the pain disappeared when he finally took out his needle.

He looked at his arms. There were many metallic holes in it. So it wasn't a dream... but what the hell is going on here? Ranma thought. Then, he remembered that his head also had that metallic hole, so, with slow moving fingers, he slowly tried to reach his bald head towards behind his head, and slowly touched it...

SLAM!

Ranma jumped up a bit as he looked towards his left, and saw Beryl standing there, smiling a bit. "Awake now, I see..."

Ranma looked at her. Her clothes were so... shabby! And so was his, as he looked down on himself. And why was he bald? Where did his great hair go? "Beryl, what's going on around here? Where am I?"

"More important then where, is when," Beryl replied, raising her finger.

Ranma moved his head, a bit annoyed by the way Beryl seem to regard him. Why can't anyone answer him directly? "Oh, fine, when?"

Beryl smiled. "You believe it's a the year 1999, where in fact it is much closer to 19,999." Beryl watched Ranma's face contorted with confusion. "I can't exactly tell you the exact date, because we honestly don't know."

"Then, what is going on?" Ranma asked.

"Ah, please come with me," Beryl motioned Ranma to follow him.

++++++++

"This is my hovership, the Ragnarok," Beryl stated proudly, giving her hand towards Ranma who was a ladder slowly. Ranma ignored her hand, and pushed himself up by himself. Beryl didn't seem to be insulted, and continued. "This is where we conduct our pirate signal, and hack into Crystal Tokyo."

"Hack?" Ranma asked.

"It means we force our way in Crystal Tokyo," Beryl replied easily. Ranma nodded, and followed her. A few steps later, Ranma noticed that the other girls were around as well, with shabby clothes as well. "You met Mai, Tama, right?" Beryl asked, pointing at the two girls. Ranma nodded.

"Yeah, I know them," Ranma replied. "I recall Mai called Tama an anime maniac, right?"

Mai giggled as Tama twitched. "Otaku..." Tama replied slowly.

"And the girl with spiky green hair that you saw was in the computer is called Rahme," Beryl introduced. The girl with green hair was smiling, shaking his hand a bit too enthusiastically. Ranma nervously smiled in return. Were there any males here?

"Oh, and Ranma, meet our operator, Rei," Beryl introduced, pointing at the girl with a pale complexion and short light blue hair, with red eyes. She nodded towards him excitedly.

"H-hi! N-nice meeting you at last, Ranma-dono! I w-watched your whole life, and even h-hacked inside the CT's private libraries to see your past..." she said nervously.

Ranma scratched his head. Out of all he heard, he only heard the part of calling him Ranma-dono. "Please Rei-san, call me Ranma," Ranma began, smiling a bit.

"Oh, then that makes me Rei-chan!" Rei replied, smiling, laughing evilly. Ranma backed away from her for a while, and Rei scratched her head. "Sorry, Ranma-do... I mean, sorry Ranma, I got it from my mother. She was the greatest scientist of the universe!"

"And modest too," Mai replied softly, which only Ranma could hear.

"So, Ranma," Beryl called. Ranma turned to her. "You want to know what Crystal Tokyo is, right?"

Ranma nodded. "Yeah..."

"Then, please, follow me," Beryl began, then showed him to a bent chair. Ranma tried to relax when he sat down, but with Beryl's hand over his chest, forcing him down, he suddenly became nervous. "Relax Ranma," she began.

"What are you going to do to me?" Ranma asked.

Beryl smiled assuringly. "Don't worry Ranma, this won't hurt a bit... it'll just feel weird." And then, something seem to penetrate inside Ranma, and the boy opened his mouth to scream, but then, the pain was gone. Ranma opened his eyes, and found himself inside a white room.

Where the heck am I? Ranma asked.

"You are on the Matrix, Ranma," a voice called from behind him. Ranma turned around and saw Beryl looking at him with black leather again, sitting on a couch. She was smiling a t him. Ranma looked at himself. He had his Chinese clothes again, except this time it seem to be made of artificial leather. Approaching Beryl, he went towards one of the red leather chairs opposite of Beryl, and a TV was in front of them.

"The Matrix?" Ranma asked.

"A program designed by Rei's mother. You can say we are inside a computer program, and everything around you is not real..." Beryl said.

"Like that game I played when Akane invited me to the mall? What was the name of that thing again? RV?" Ranma asked.

"It's VR, for Virtual Reality," Beryl replied, smiling. "And yes, it's something like that, except much more advanced."

"Are you sure everything I'm seeing is not real? It looks kinda real to me," Ranma replied.

"Yes it does look real, but it's not. As you can see, your clothes have changed, your hair has grown, and the plugs on your arm and head are gone," Beryl replied, and Ranma looked at himself again. He didn't see any holes he saw earlier. "The image you project right now is the computer generated of your mind. In short, it's your digital self."

"You mean if someone drew me in a computer, I'll look like what I look like now? Man, whoever designed me had good tastes..." Ranma smirked.

"My, modest aren't we?" Beryl joked. "Anyway, please watch the television as I explain what you might want to know..."

The TV opened, and Ranma saw Tokyo from the bird's eye view. "It was in the middle of the 25th century when humankind celebrated together as a great power washed all over them," and Ranma watched as clear big castle seem to appear from Tokyo Tower. Beryl continued talking, sure that Ranma was still listening.

"Queen Serenity, a powerful reincarnated queen from a long lost civilization succeeded in calling forth her power to finally fulfill the dreams of all people... Eternal Peaceful world where everyone would treat each other with love, respect, and selflessness."

Ranma saw the TV changed the scene. Tokyo changed a lot. All the dirty alleys were now miraculously clean, and people living their lives. He saw people socializing, getting food for free. "It looks peaceful..." Ranma said.

"Yes, it was, or that is what the old people say said," Beryl began. "Like I said, it was a long time ago, so the history has been more or less erased. But what we do know is that Queen Serenity had wanted total peace to last forever, and she saw that people with magic powers, or even had a chaotic aura had to be banished."

The TV changed scene, and it showed a family hugging each other as a glowing white woman with a staff pointing at them, and in a flash of light, the family disappeared. "What did she do to them? And who is she?"

"That is Queen Serenity, and she banished them from Earth," Beryl replied. She shook a bit. "There were people, thousands of people who were deemed threats towards Crystal Tokyo, and were banished. Families were broken, and people protested. They formed underground movement, wanting to overthrow Serenity's reign. The Queen's royal guards, the Senshis, showed no mercy as they executed thousands of people who only wanted freedom."

"That... that's terrible..." Ranma watched in horror as he saw Senshis, different from the ones he knew, but nevertheless, Senshis, killing normal people.

"Then, one of the founders of the Freedom Movement went to Serenity to ask for peace. Serenity promised him a safe passage, but it was a trap, and they captured our founder. They tried him in a biased court, and executed him," and the TV changed again. Ranma began to shake with anger. Of all the dishonorable tactics...

"The Founder's wife was devastated with her husband's death, and declared an all out war..." Beryl pushed a button, and it showed people fighting, the Senshis throwing magical projectiles towards army of poorly armed soldiers. "The war lasted a thousand years, and the Freedom Movement's army were slowly decimated, and so was the Earth." And Beryl flipped another channel, and Ranma gasped as everything changed. From the white surroundings he was used to change to a dark atmosphere, where he saw cities wrecked, with only a white structure in the background emitting light. "Welcome to the desert of the real..." Beryl said gravely.

Ranma stood up, his mouth wide open. Everything was wrong! This was not the Earth he knew! "What happened here?" Ranma asked desperately.

"During the war, the leaders of the Freedom Movement found out the source of the powers of the Senshis. It was the exposure of their respective planets, and the moon," Beryl pointed up in the sky. "They somehow were able to scorch the sky, blocking the sun, the moon, and the radiating power of the planets. This helped a bit, but the Senshis seem to have reserves, and were still strong enough to defeat the Freedom's army, but by the time they seem to win the war, everything was devastated," Beryl clicked something again, and it showed pillars filled with pink orbs. "Queen Serenity could have healed the world with her powerful Crystal, but she couldn't. The missing moon reduced the power of the Crystal by half, and she just did what she could think of doing best... She used the remaining powers of the Crystal to form the Pillars."

Ranma watched in horror as he saw babies inside the pink cocoons. "Those... those are the Pillars?"

"Yes. The Pillars are created to take energy from humans to empower her Crystal," Beryl replied. "The human body has a high energy output, and the Queen found out how much power each human contained, so it began the era where humans aren't born anymore, but made."

Ranma wanted to close his eyes. He saw dead adults, girls, boys, and babies being liquified, then being fed to the other living humans. He wanted everything to end.

"In short, Crystal Tokyo is a computer generated dream world, and was designed to keep us in control, so they can turn a human being, into this..." and Beryl took out a battery cell. Ranma choked.

"N... no... That's impossible... I can't believe you..." Ranma backed away from Beryl, his knees weak. Everything he lived, everything he did, was nothing but a mere fabrication of a false existence. Akane, the fiancées, the Kuno's... everything... It cant be fake! He ahd lived his life! It can't be!

"I didn't say it would be easy, Ranma," Beryl began. "I just said it would be the truth..."

"NO! STOP IT! GET AWAY FROM ME! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Ranma shouted, and he found himself sitting up from the chair, the surroundings changing, and the girls trying to pin him down. "LET GO OF ME!" he shouted.

"Wait, Ranma!" Mai began. Ranma did relax a bit, and then he felt something in the back of his head removed, and then the girls released him. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ranma shouted, and took his arm out, and threatened them not to touch him. He felt so weak. He felt so sick. "Get... away... from... me..."

Beryl was in front of him, putting her hand on his shoudlers. "Ranma..." she began. By this time, Ranma was on his knees, his head moving around.

"He's going to pop!" Tama said.

"BREATH! DAMNIT, BREATH!" Beryl shouted a bit. Ranma bowed his head, and threw up and suddenly was comforted with unconsciousness.

++++++++

Ranma opened his eyes, and saw Beryl watching him intently. She looked a bit happy to see him awake. He was not. He wanted to desperately to think it was all a dream. "It's real, huh?"

Beryl nodded. "I'm sorry Ranma."

"I can't go back?" Ranma asked. "Can't I go back to my life?"

"Even if you could, would you, after being revealed the truth?" Beryl asked. Ranma couldn't reply, and just stared sadly at the ceiling. Beryl sighed. "I'm sorry, Ranma. There is a rule. We never free a mind after a certain maturity level. The mind has trouble letting go, and I've seen it. I'm sorry."

Ranma looked at Beryl. "Then, why...?"

"Because I had to," Beryl replied easily. "Can you stand?" Ranma nodded, and Beryl motioned him to follow him.

Ranma followed Beryl blindly, as she took him in the deep bowels of the Ragnarok, and wondered where she was bringing him. They finally stopped in a big metallic door, with frosted windows.

Beryl took her hand, and began dialing on the keypad at the left of the door, and the big door opened. Ranma followed her inside, then gasped. In the center of the small room was a frozen standing figure and it looked exactly like Ranma's girl side except that her hair was loosely tied.

"Who... who is she?" Ranma asked.

"You noticed she looks like your girl side, huh?" Beryl asked. Ranma could only nod. "That girl was the direct descendant of the first founder of the Freedom Movement. Around her mind, she had this Chaotic Energy Factor, which somehow made her able to control what was inside the Crystal Tokyo, changed it as she pleased. She freed me and the other members on this ship, with a price. Somehow, the Senshis were able to entrap her mind, her consciousness, in a chaotic prison which you know as Jusenkyo."

"Her mind was imprisoned?" Ranma asked.

"Yes. Her consciousness left her body, and was stuck in one of the 'Jusenkyo' ports. Serenity forwarded the time, and made the other ports to make the place 'dangerous'. She didn't want anyone to actually go there and accidentally free her," Beryl looked at Ranma. "And you came, and got cursed with something that makes you change into a girl with a slight code of cold liquid. The Senshis were trying to find you, but with you changing back and forth from male to female, you were able to throw off their senses."

Ranma looked at the girl. "You freed me because I have her mind, or her consciousness?"

"Yes, that was one main reason," Beryl said a bit sadly. "But please don't think that was the only reason. It was coincidence that you had her in your mind."

"So, you are going to like split her mind from mines, and get it back to her body?" Ranma asked.

"Yes, but we don't know how," Beryl replied. "But there might be a chance that she might open up her mind to you, and your mind and hers would combine, giving you the power she had."

Ranma kept quiet. The curse he hated so much was once again the cause of all the trouble. Looking at the girl, he could only watch with sorrow as the girl just stood there in her ice grave. He felt sorry for her.

"Ranma, get some rest," Beryl began. "You'll be busy tomorrow."

Ranma looked at the woman. "What for?"

"Training..."

To Be Continued...

NEXT: The truth of Crystal Tokyo is out, and Ranma realizes he is more important than he thought. Anyway, next, we have Ranma fighting Beryl, Ranma trying to fly, and Ranma finding blondes attractive!