Rebuilding Disclaimer: Characters and setting are the property of Rumiko Takahashi, I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

"I'm going back." The slight redhead girl insisted.

The giant panda walking beside her blocked her attempt to retreat. The pair paused to exchange blows. The panda came off decidedly worse. Head held high the girl started back in the direction from which she'd come.

"Dear, you've gone back for hot water six times already. It's still overcast and you know as soon as you get some it will start raining again." An older version of the girl sighed. "You said you could handle being out in your girl-form again."

The girl gave her mother a sulky look then turned toward their destination.

The people watching might have noted something unusual about the way the younger girl moved but déjà vu has a way of obscuring details.

Eleven Months Earlier

Soun and Nabiki stood at the airport. "Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Soun asked.

"Smile and wave Daddy." Nabiki ordered; her teeth were clenched.

Akane hesitated at the door of the plane. Soun followed instructions and his youngest took the last step inside. "You're absolutely sure?"

"Dr. Tofu's friend will take over Ranma's case next week. Akane's hopes will skyrocket, when he doesn't snap right out of it she'll crash, again. She's been penpals with her host family's daughter since jr. high. The cultural exchange program is just the distraction she needs to give the new doctor a chance to get some results." Nabiki explained tersely.

"The other two girls are staying…"

"Visiting Ranma is a waste of time. He doesn't know they're there. He doesn't care. It's better for Akane if she doesn't." Nabiki snapped.

"I feel awful about what happened. I'm trying to do what you tell me to." Ryoga told the stern looking panel. "But you're not very fair. You know Ranma didn't do anything wrong but you won't even give him the chance to get better. And you expect me to make it back to my cell by lights out when the cafeteria is all the way in Kyoto."

The member of the panel exchanged glances. The lost boy was completely sincere. He always came back after he 'escaped'. The other inmates who made use of the holes he tended to leave in his wake did not. It was even more disconcerting when he simply disappeared without leaving holes.

"We're placing you on probation. Normally there would be a probation officer you'd have to check in with, but in your case we're giving you a letter explaining things. Whenever you find a police station stop in and show it to them. They'll check to make sure you aren't carrying firearms. Kami-sama knows if you ever tried to hide something you'd probably fall off the face of the earth."

Ukyo stopped just outside the door. She wanted to be hopeful but Shampoo's comments couldn't be trusted. The Amazon was so determinedly optimistic it got downright annoying. Kasumi was worse than Shampoo about that sort of thing, even if the eldest Tendo girl did manage to do it without being aggravating. Nabiki wouldn't come anywhere near this place; she claimed that the time could better be spent doing something constructive. If Ukyo wanted to know the truth she had to see for herself.

The Okonomiyaki Chef couldn't visit as much as she liked, between the restaurant and making sure her visits never coincided with the Saotomes'… She really did want to kill someone and the panda was always a tempting target but the jackasses who ran this place gave Ranma's parents final say in who could visit. They hadn't exercised that right yet, but Ukyo didn't want to tempt them.

Still if what Shampoo said… If this new doctor did make things better…

Ukyo took a deep breath and opened the door. Nothing was different. She sighed then sat down beside Ranma. "Hi Ranchan. Sorry I don't stop by more often, but you know how your dad and I get on. He's really monopolizing…" Ukyo stopped. Ranma had turned toward the sound of her voice and his eyes focused on her.

"Ranchan?" Ukyo asked with renewed hope.

Ranma's eyes expressed frustration, but it didn't matter, for the first time in months he was looking outward, instead of being trapped in his own nightmares.

Genma watched his son work his way through a basic kata. Objectively it was awful but Genma was grinning like an idiot.

"That was wonderful dear." Nodoka exclaimed as she hugged her son tightly.

Ranma rolled his eyes, his expression made it clear that he didn't share her opinion. Genma shrugged, still smiling. "That's how mothers are supposed to be. I told you she'd be a detriment to training."

"Keep talking and I'll put you on a diet, husband." Nodoka warned. They'd come to an understanding: Nodoka hadn't dealt with motherhood at all well and something had needed to be done but Genma had used her problems as an excuse to do exactly what he wanted to, Ranma's well-being had been a secondary concern at best. They were both working on their faults.

Dr. Soy called Nodoka and Genma away for a conference. Ranma shrugged and went back to practicing.

An hour later Genma came back by himself. He waited for Ranma to finish then said. "Your doctor says it might help if you'd talk to someone about what happened."

Ranma turned away and stared across the courtyard.

"Please talk to me." Genma said. "You know me, boy. Maybe it doesn't mean as much as it should, but nothing that happened will change how I think of you."

"I'll always be your meal ticket, right?" Ranma replied without expression.

Genma grimaced. "Has anyone told you your sense of humor is becoming inappropriate?" In truth Genma couldn't tell what really bothered his son anymore or maybe Genma was just more worried about what might bother Ranma.

Ranma continued to avoid looking at his father, when he spoke his voice was flat and toneless. "When she sends me flying I try to angle for the cannel. It's a soft landing."

"You don't need the cushion to land a fall."

"I know, but water finds me anyway. It seemed like a good idea just to get it over with up front. I forgot what the weather had been like."

It was so cold; the freezing water stole the breath from his lungs as it changed his body. It seeped into her muscles and bones and sapped her strength as effectively as any moxibustion point.

Ranma dragged herself out of the water and collapsed on the bank for a few minutes trying to get her breath back and to stop shaking long enough to climbed back onto the road. She was just a few meters from the bridge she liked to sit under when she needed a break from the insanity of her life.

"Wet silk doesn't hold much heat and I didn't exactly have a chance to grab my shoes before I left the house. The pavement was like ice; my feet were getting frostbitten. I could have walked home but it was would have hurt a lot.

"When I saw them I smiled, like I do when I'm trying to get free food. I just wanted some place to dry off, maybe borrow a coat and some shoes for the walk home."

"Who'd leave a pretty little think like you out in the cold?"

"She's probably a runaway." The hushed whisper was accompanied by a look that made the hair on the back of Ranma's neck stand on end. Still she was Saotome Ranma, they weren't even martial artists, what could they do to her?

"My apartment's just a little further."

"Here, let me carry you, you don't look so good."

"The apartment's just on the next block."

"I'd offer to lend you my shoes, but then who'd carry me? I'm bigger than you are."

"We're almost there."

"Drink this, it'll warm you right up."

"Let's get you out of those wet clothes."

"No? Have another drink, you'll feel better."

"I bet you feel like you're wrapped in ice with those clothes on. Don't worry, there's a blanket around here somewhere that you can wrap up in."

"Hey relax, relax. It's just a massage. You've got some pretty nasty patches of frostbite. It'll help get the blood flowing."

"I didn't even think about what I was drinking. It was warm, what else mattered?"

"After a while everything sort of faded out. Then one of them was touching me between my legs. I hit him, but nothing worked like it should have."

"If I'd gone full out then I probably could have killed them. One burst of adrenalin; I wouldn't have had much control but I could have finished it like that. You know it takes a lot less control to smash someone's skull than to just knock them unconscious… I was seven the first time you showed me an attack that was meant to kill a person, remember? You said it was a last resort move, that I could only use it if I knew someone was going to die and the only thing left to do was decide who. You said only use it if I wasn't good enough to deal with the situation some other way. I thought I was good enough; they weren't even martial artists, I should have won no matter how out of it I felt."

"I didn't trust myself to knock them out without killing them, so I ran. That they weren't martial artist didn't matter much after another twenty minutes out in the cold and me half-naked."

Their voices sounded like baying dogs. The moonlight turned the world into a place of stark contrasts; icy illumination and pitch-black shadows. Running hurt, the frozen pavement sent knives of pain shooting through Ranma's bare feet, up into her legs, with every step she took. The drink and exposure screwed with her head. Ranma stumbled; her knees jarred brutally against the pavement. Roof hopping was out of the question. She was so tired, her reserves were empty and the night air leached away what little strength she had left.

The chase only intensified her pursuers' excitement. Mob mentality had taken hold of them. The need to catch her took on a life of it's own. It fed on itself and burned hotter than the lust and anger that had spawned it.

Ranma turned into a park. The grass and dirt beneath her feet was more forgiving than the pavement. Her pace picked up and she started to believe she'd loose them. A hand grabbed her pigtail and jerked her backwards.

Ranma shouted, outraged and furious, as she fell. Before she could regain her feet a belt was looped around her neck and pulled tight.

"They strangled me. I couldn't breath. I couldn't fight. I didn't pay attention to what they were doing, I just clawed at that damn belt."

"It hurt like nothing else."

Her body convulsed with pain and shock. For a moment the belt pulled free of her captors' hand. She had air, but all she could think to do was scream. Then the belt was pulled tight again.

It was like being in the pit again: Everything around him wanted to hurt him and he was helpless to stop them.

"I blacked out. When I came to I was throwing up so hard that I tore something in my throat. The next day I saw the story in the paper about those guys. I knew I was the one who killed them. Sometimes I wish I'd just killed them right off. Sometimes I wish I'd passed out and drowned in the canal. Sometimes I wish I hadn't come out of the Nekoken afterwards. Doesn't do any good, doesn't change anything. Even if they weren't dead, it wouldn't mean anything if I went back and fought them again, I still lost when it mattered."

"Kuno stalks both me and Akane; she's got Gosunkugi and Ryoga after her too. Maybe Ryoga can be trusted, he helped when I lost my strength, but he plays P-Chan. I don't know, he tried to protect her, I want to trust him, he's my friend, sort of. Ucchan has Tsubasa. Shampoo has, had that damn Ghost Cat chasing her… I ain't sure what to think of Mousse, he's persistent and he ain't honorable, but he only attacks me to impress Shampoo. We all got people just waiting to catch us when we're vulnerable and it ain't really that hard to do. Sentaro's wimp and he still managed to drug me; I woke up at his place in a wedding kimono, didn't think it could have been a lot worse back then."

"Focusing on looking out for the girls, making sure they didn't get hurt like that, it helped. I couldn't stop thinking about it, but that way it felt like I doing something to make it better. I kept going cat though. K'so, I remember how scared Ryoga smelled"

Ryoga had a bad feeling that, for once, he did know where he was but when his path brought him here he never turned back.

He opened the door and his eyes met Ranma's across the room. Ranma tried to jump to his feet and ended up on the floor. Ryoga hovered in the doorway, a heartbeat from fleeing.

"You're awake." Ryoga stammered.

Ranma made a disgusted sound as he got to his feet. "Sit, over there." He instructed as he pointed to a chair on the far side of the room.

"I didn't think the junk they were giving you to keep you from going cat would let you wake up." Ryoga explained.

"New doctor, new drugs. This stuff fucks up my reflexes but I can think straight."

"That sucks." Ryoga remembered the detention center's brief attempt at curtailing his abilities with chemicals and how it just fueled his Shi Shi Hokodan.

"Doc's not that bad. She's a friend of Dr. Tofu's and she lived with some Mongolian Druids for a few years so she's weird enough to make me feel comfortable. She told me to think about it as a martial arts exercise, it really is sort of like that harness the old ghoul used when I was learning the "Soul of Ice". I can override the drugs if I stay focused. Stay there."

Ryoga watched Ranma walk toward the bathroom. "What are you doing?"

"Getting some water. I'm supposed to… what'd she call it? Get re-acclimated to being around guys in my girl-form." Ranma relied. "You heal fast right? The drugs are supposed to screw me up if I go cat, but I haven't tested that yet."

"That's not funny Ranma!"

"I know." Ranma shrugged and dumped a glass of water over his head. He shrunk several inches and her body filled out in a few places. "It should work. As long as I'm being deliberate I'm fine, but when I just act the messages get out of order. I end up on the floor. Everything is instinct when I go cat."

"Everything you do normally is impulse." Ryoga pointed out.

Ranma grimaced. "Not anymore. Stay over there." The slight redhead perched on the windowsill. "Where have you been?" She produced a shaky grin. "Right, you can't answer that. What did you see? They let me work out in the courtyard, but that's as far as they let me go."

"I'm sorry." Ryoga said.

"Life's not fair. I'm going to win anyway. What did you see?"