Path of Chaos: Ascension of Supremacy

by Lord Rance

A powerful entity has been reborn after so many eons being dead, but what if the entity doesn't want to go back to what he used to be? This is a story of a powerful god, who doesn't want to become a god.

12. Chapter 7b

PATH OF CHAOS: ASCENSION OF SUPREMACY

- Lord Rance

Disclaimer: Seriously, I don't own any of the anime characters that appear in this entire fanfic, otherwise I'll just make sure you'll know if I do make new characters.

Author Notes: Remember... the Vandread Universe is gonna be one huge Alternate Universe. I'm gonna rewrite most of the episodes, maybe even skip some unimportant ones, but some will still be used.

I would like to thank Cory D. Rose (http/shihanna. and St Longinus (former email was now pre-reading this stuff.

Ancient Language (used by gods and goddesses, Ancient Gods): "-Ranma-"

Thoughts: ((Ranma))

Telepathy: "((Ranma))", ""((Ranma))""

English/Chinese/Other languages specified: ""Ranma""

Electronic Communications: ("Ranma"), (""Ranma"")

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CHAPTER 7B - THE NEXT FRONTIER: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, SOMEWHERE

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Space... the final frontier...

Yeah right, not for Ranma it isn't!

It has been three weeks since Ranma had appeared out of thin.
whatever. Not out of air, because space has no air, or something.

Okay, Ranma just appeared out of nowhere, and ran into the crew of the Mejer Space Pirates, an all-female group who HAD a very nasty opinion about males in general. Add three males in the group, who were initially prisoners of the group until the males proved their worth otherwise. One boy was for battle, another for medical purposes, and the last was with the ship itself. Everyone there has a place in the chain, like a well-oiled steam engine. Each part compliments the other, creating a powerful chain that made Nirvana what it was.

He was constantly hanging around Meia, more like pestering her. The girl was too serious for her own good, and Ranma thought to irritate her just the same. Besides, he enjoys making Meia scream in frustration when he bothers her. He noticed that most of the time, she was either in the briefing room constantly reviewing battle tactics and such, or she would be in the docking bay, where she would tinker with her Dread for some reason.

Of course, there are other companies out there that he tried to get into. Gascogne for example, Ranma found out that he would never win a card game against this young woman. The able-bodied supplies manager could read through his face, and Ranma knew his poker face was next to non-existent.

Paiway and Duero were usually busy in the clinic, doing kami knows whatever in there. Last time he went there, the male doctor was trying to get his blood sample. Not that he despised the bloody syringes, but spreading his weird predicament regarding his own existence was not in his list of 'to be shared' things. Paiway was constantly taking pictures of everything he does, even his sneezing. Then the girl would scribble notes on her notepad. Ranma didn't really want to know why, for the situation was akin to what happened with him and Nabiki back in his time.

The girl with the eyeglasses, Parfait, was more of a mechanical genius.
It was a deja vu featuring Washuu for Ranma when he tried conversing with the resident mechanic, chattering mostly about science and stuff.
She was usually cooped up in her office, the one with the large window on one side showing the weird gigantic ball of blue energy that pulsed every now and then. For some reason, Ranma felt drawn towards the energy ball or Paeksis as its name was mentioned by Parfait. The mechanic was also eyeing Rin-Ohki weirdly, which didn't set well on the cabbit. Just last week, Parfait tried to experiment on Rin-Ohki, much like Duero's medical examination of his body, which prompted the cabbit to bolt and hide outside the ship's hull. Poor Rin-Ohki stayed perched on the Nirvana's outer wall all day, letting Parfait's lust for experimentation pass. It amuses Ranma to learn that Duero and Parfait had something in common.

BC tried to avoid him most of the time, which suited Ranma just fine.
The pseudo-girl was probably still sore about how Ranma discovered her secret. She was the sub-commander, and was usually in the command room barking orders and/or checking the system.

Bart stayed half of his time inside the helmsman's hole, which according to rumors where he usually go into naked. Other times, the irritating young man was in the males' quarters, sleeping. Bart has this thing about those capsule food things. Once, Bart offered some to Ranma. The pigtailed hybrid took one and immediately gagged. Not only did it taste really bad, but also it was really dry. Ranma would rather have normal food than those capsule things. The guy shaved his head one day, in memory of that girl in one planet they visited. The population was plagued with a sickness that slowly killed most of them, with the girl that Bart took a liking of.

Magno was usually in her room, and Ranma didn't even bother to disturb the old woman. When he does get to talk to her, the old woman would ask about Earth and whatever customs there were.

Jura and Barnette, for some reason, seemed like lovers in Ranma eyes.
Once in a while though, the blond would come and ask him about babies and stuff, which Ranma didn't have any experience whatsoever. Besides,
the look the blond gave him really set him on edge. It was somewhat the look Shampoo gives him whenever she's near.

Misty has clearly taken a liking of the Hibiki boy, much to Dita's irritation. They usually run around chasing each other. Once, Misty and Dita even fought as to who will give Hibiki his food. Ranma really felt for the kid, but he was happy that he has no part in that anymore. Most of the time though, Ranma would see a glimmer of sadness and loneliness in Misty's eyes as she chased the boy around. Ranma felt that he should help the girl, but experience proved that he should wait for Misty to ask for his help anyway. He hadn't much experience about human emotions,
but he knew what loneliness really was.

Dita was a cheerful sort of person, more like Shampoo's happy personality and somewhat his girl type's looks. She was klutzy at times though, and was constantly making mistakes here and there, although, she really showed her affections for Hibiki in a really enthusiastic way.
Ranma already talked with her a few times, but she was too busy keeping Misty from taking the upper hand in Hibiki's heart. She says that Misty's kiss was enough for her to work really hard.

Hibiki was generally moody, because of the constant pressures of his relationships with Dita and Misty. He usually hung out inside his yellow robot he constantly calls his partner. In Talaark, those robots were called Vanguards, and they were Talaark's greatest achievement to date.

Ranma shook his thoughts out of its current state. He was back in the small greenhouse in the middle of the Nirvana, with Rin-Ohki dozing off on his side. Meia was called into a meeting a while ago, and was probably discussing things like battle strategies and such. Ranma chuckled to himself.

It was a good thing that his abilities were not seen when he helped at that one time before. The event took place behind the ship, so it was safe to assume no one took notice of his interference. Besides, who would believe it immediately anyway? Probably one or two people saw the whole thing, and they could've deduced that it was their imagination or something.

Although, his curse was harder to keep a secret.

- FLASHBACK -

A day after he showed Meia his cursed form, an incident in the cafeteria involving Dita with a glass of icy cold water and a banana peel conveniently left on the floor exposed it anyway.

To say that it was chaos after that would be an understatement. Most of the weapons of the people inside the cafeteria were charged and were trained directly towards the red-haired and wet Onna-Ranma. Jura screamed in fear, while Barnette automatically drew her sidearm. Looking miserable and utterly left alone in the middle of the mass of females who paused and trained their guns towards her, Onna-Ranma just swiped the errant red hair on her face and continued eating in silence,
ignoring practically everything around her. She was done by the time the group of BC, Magno, Duero, Parfait and Paiway entered the cafeteria room and stared at the new female in the group. Everyone stood away and formed a perimeter circle around the cursed alien, who was now staring blankly at her empty plate with a sad expression on her face. She saw that Meia was nowhere to be found.

"Who are you, girl?" Magno asked curiously as she took note of the resemblance between the newcomer girl and Ranma, especially since she wore the same clothes as well as that same weird animal that clung on her shoulders as it was with Ranma as well. She also wore those dark glasses that covered most of her eyes, which was the same with Ranma.

The red-haired girl looked up and stared at Magno. "I'm... the same Ranma Saotome that came here days ago. I'm under an ancient curse that turns me into female with cold water sprayed on me. Hot water turns me back to male. Before you ask, I am male by birth." To demonstrate, she grabbed the tea she was about to drink and poured it over her head,
immediately turning her to a 'him'. This caused everyone to gasp and back away slightly.

The girl turned boy looked around him, and saw the confused and quite disbelieving looks that went to his way. "What!" Ranma asked irritably,
"I came out of nowhere and I have a shady past (although I still haven't mentioned them), should you even be surprised if I have this condition?
I haven't told you right away because you might think of me as a freak,
just like what you are thinking right now! I want to get everyone to settle down first before I throw the bombshell, and I think you realize why I needed to do that." He pointedly gestured to their expressions.

Everyone blushed and turned away from him, embarrassed to have been told off by an outsider.

"WOW!" Parfait was gushing as she patted Ranma all over his body,
eliciting a small blush from the pigtailed boy.

Duero nodded, his eyes giving off a slight glint. "You must allow us to examine you, Saotome."

Ranma blanched at the looks he received from the two.

BC just stared at Ranma. The thought of having the ability to change from male to female was... useful... to her.

"Ranma..." BC said suddenly, "Is the change... complete?"

Ranma snickered slightly at the almost glazed look BC had on her face.
"Yeah, and taking the words from a scientist friend of mine, 'Complete change up to the DNA level'. I got the curse from Earth."

BC deflated when she heard of the location as to where she could get cursed.

Paiway was too busy snapping pictures on the phenomenon to say something. Her camera was already smoking in protest.

"Simply astounding." Magno said in awe. It was her first time ever to have witnessed such a feat. But she has heard some countless fables back in her childhood about magic and enchantments, but she thought they were just that: fairytales and make-believe.

Jura was miffed a bit. "He's got bigger breasts than I do." She muttered, although nobody paid attention to her.

Gascogne was laughing out loud. "He... He's c-cute as a girl! By the kami! Hahahahahaha!" She gasped out in between laughs.

Barnette has long dropped her weapon on the floor, and settled on just staring at Ranma. She nodded at Gascogne's comment, she really thinks Ranma was cute as a girl AND as a guy. When she realized what she was thinking, a small trace of a blush appeared on her face.

Dita however was as ecstatic as Parfait. "WOW! You really are a Mister Alien!"

"I'm not... oh hell what's the use?" Ranma glared in a futile way towards Dita. His glare slowly melted into a resigned expression as he sighed and banged his head on the table, making the plates clatter.

The door slid open as Meia stepped in. She stopped and saw everyone was around Ranma, who was... well... banging his head on the table. He was also evidently wet. Rin-Ohki was eating some carrots on another table,
trying to ignore the banging noise. She thought about what could cause this weird sight in front of her, and inspiration struck her mind.

Meia went over to Ranma and said calmly, "So, they found out about your curse, right?"

Ranma just sped up in banging his head.

- END FLASHBACK -

Ranma winced at the memory. The poor abused table snapped into half after that one. He shrugged and then glanced at the small disk in his hand. Misty gave it to him when they talked to each other again. She said it was something Washuu left her, and only Ranma's voice could activate and unlock the information.

He remembered his encounter with Misty, in the same greenhouse he was in right now, but it was on the benches that laced the stone path that led around the area.

- FLASHBACK -

Ranma was lounging around the greenhouse, which became his favorite place in the Nirvana. His blood craves for greens and clean air, and he missed the scenic view of the countryside he used to see during his training trips back on Earth. Besides, the whole area was deserted most of the time, except when Hibiki runs to the small forest to hide from the over-excited Dita. Some people eat their lunch here as well, but that was seldom. Usually, he's all alone here, well, him and Rin-Ohki that is. Sometimes, Meia goes here and sits beside him, talking to him about Earth and his adventures.

Outside the forest, there was this stone paved path where one could take strolls and such, as well as benches along the sides. The path was lit by lampposts, which Ranma was quite familiar with. It seemed that this part of the ship retained some of the old designs from Earth.

Right now, Ranma was on one of the benches for a change. Usually he was on the grass beside the artificial river, either watching the stars or viewing the smooth flowing water. He wasn't really anti-social, far from it, but because of some circumstances, with his upbringing a small part,
he didn't want to be in the middle of a large group of people. Also, he knew that he wasn't a member of this group as of yet, even if he spent a bit of time in the ship already. There are a bunch of them that he still haven't met yet, and he still reserved some secrets pertaining to who he really was and what he can really do. The only one who had most of the knowledge about him was Meia, who was there to listen on his ranting even if she was a bit too serious about everything. Once in a while, she would crack a small smile at his foot-in-mouth disease.

Ranma sighed as he stretched his arms out horizontally across the top part of the bench he was sitting on. His tail was coiled on his lap,
where it lay relaxing itself. Rin-Ohki was on his lap as before,
sleeping as usual. Not that Ranma blamed her, for he knows how exhausted the cabbit must've felt after forcing her body into transforming weeks ago. So Ranma just let her be, because she deserved every minute of it.

It was then that a blue blur went past his current position, creating a small breeze that ruffled Ranma's black hair. His glass-covered eyes easily tracked the blue projectile, which slammed against a bench next to him. The blur turned out to be Misty, who seemed to have not noticed his appearance as of yet. Ranma saw her face in a slight haughty expression, which suddenly melted into a sad smile. She quickly covered her face in her hands as a glistening orb went down her cheeks from her eyes. Her shoulders slumped forwards as she hid her head in between her thighs.

Misty was crying.

Ranma felt torn up inside, because he was used to seeing the girl happy most of the time. Her personality rivals that of Dita's, but he knew that all of it was a huge farce. Her eyes reflected loneliness, and Ranma knew that feeling quite well. He didn't notice himself standing up and transversing the empty space between his position and Misty's. He found himself reaching out and touching the girl on her shoulders,
making her gasp in surprise and was now wiping at her tears furiously.

"What... what do you want!" Misty demanded.

Ranma sighed softly. "I... feel that you're lonely and in need of company. May I sit down?" He gestured to the seat beside the girl.

After a few terse moments of contemplation, Misty finally nodded and allowed Ranma to sit beside her. The pigtailed boy smiled as he sat down, with Rin-Ohki in his arms.

Another long silence filled the air, marred only by some faint sniffling coming from Ranma's side. His sigh caught Misty's attention, and finally spoke, "Why were you crying?"

Misty's mouth opened to retort harshly, to tell the rude boy to mind his own business, but she stopped herself when she felt a small warmth encompass her. She didn't know at the time, but Ranma's aura of worry and compassion touched her subconsciously, so she was able to stop and think of what to say.

Instead of her earlier angered response, she mellowed down as she said,
"Nothing really. I just feel that sometimes, life isn't fair. You wouldn't understand..."

Ranma nodded slightly. "Oh, I understand all right. Whenever you think you have it all figured out, sometimes something comes out of nowhere and hit you real bad. Then lots of things start going wrong..." He trailed off.

Misty turned to look at him in the eye, but found it impossible for her to do so. But she saw the serious expression on his face and felt the honesty in his words. "You do understand, don't you?"

Ranma smiled slightly. "Yeah I do. Lots of things happen to me that don't help me much, but without them, I really wouldn't be who I am today. I'm just thankful I'm still alive... and I would be for a really long time." He whispered the last phrase under his breath.

The girl didn't notice his last comment, and was content in watching the expressions that seemed to have been reflected on Ranma's face as he talked.

The boy cocked his head to one side and gazed at Misty, who became flustered at the attention. "So... would you mind telling me why you were crying a while ago?" Ranma asked.

Misty sighed audibly, wincing at the same time. "I... tried asking Hibiki to stay with me. He... chose someone else." She lowered her gaze to her lap.

"I see." Ranma said softly. "You're hurt because he chose Dita, and left you all alone. You're lonely, and you think Hibiki's your last hope."

Misty stiffened slightly. "I sound real pathetic, right?"

Ranma shook his head. "Not really. Being lonely is real harsh to anyone.
I should know..." He threw a sideways glance at the blue-haired girl.
"I've been in that position before. It hurt me real bad, but I have to live on and forget about it. There's nothing to gain in pining about it."

"How..." Misty asked hesitantly. "How... did you go on with your life?
How can you live when you know everything you've lived for was lost to you? I lost everything, my home, my life, my family... I can't even claim someone's love to more or less fill the emptiness that seemed to have covered my heart..."

Ranma shrugged helplessly. "I really don't have an answer to that.
Everyone has his or her own way of coping with loneliness. But no matter what, you must always remember that you are never alone." He put his hand on Misty's shoulder. "Don't worry. You are not alone, because someone out here cares. You have lots of friends here. At the moment,
you just have to think of how to get through everyday against the enemy that keeps on attacking, and even with that thought you are still not alone. There's a whole crew of people in here who would care to give you a helping hand." He really does care, because no matter what era he's in, he was still weak against girls who were in tears.

Misty looked at him for a moment, then suddenly lunged into his chest,
dislodging the meowing Rin-Ohki, who jumped unto the side of the bench.
Misty's body suddenly shivered as a bout of loud sobs echoed across the greenhouse.

Ranma just looked on in surprise as he automatically wrapped his arms around the crying girl leaning on his body.

After nearly half an hour of crying on Misty's part, she finally disengaged herself from Ranma and handed him a disk, explaining that Washuu had left that in her pod with her. She said that nobody can view the information inside the disk other than Ranma, because the data was encoded with a voice activated file decryption.

- END FLASHBACK -

Ranma sighed as he held the mini disk on his left hand, looking at it as if judging its very existence. With a nod, he finally took hold of the small disk player on his side that he borrowed from Parfait. He inserted the disk carefully, just like how Parfait had taught him, and pressed the 'play' button. A small window appeared in the screen, which said to repeat the words written on it loudly.

Ranma's brow twitched as he read the message. "Washuu-chan... is the greatest scientist in the... Universe?" He read from the window.

The screen immediately blanked out. Ranma thought for a moment that the disk was too damaged already, but was surprised when it lit up once again.

"OHAYO! Ranma-chaaaaaan!" A familiar green-eyed redhead appeared on the small screen.

Ranma really tried not to facefault and was partially successful, but his body still teetered to one side.

The redhead smiled sunnily as she continued, "Well, if you are watching this, it seems you have been found. A lot has happened since you disappeared, Ranma-chan. For some reason, even I can't find you."

"Anyway, this message contains some historical highlights that led to whatever future you are in, if ever you were sent in the future. I have no way of knowing, but just to be sure I made this anyway."

"Alright, to start with, I must tell you what happened when you disappeared. Ryoko, my poor daughter, was catatonic for several weeks,
constantly disappearing from the shrine from time to time. I heard that she's been appearing here and there around the world, probably searching for you. After nearly ten years of searching, Ryoko finally had herself locked into forced hibernation. Yosho and I tried to tell her not to do it, but you know her... once she has this idea in her head, she won't give it up. She just figured we could reawaken her once you are found.
She says she can't bear the loneliness, so she'll just sleep while we search for traces of you."

Ranma gasped at the information. "R-Ryoko..." He muttered as he lowered his gaze to the ground. However, the disk rambled on.

"Inuyasha stayed in the shrine until the time came when he has to go and see his beloved Kagome, which was around the late 1900s. Kagero followed as well, saying something about meeting his son. Kiima went back to the Phoenix Mountain to attend once again to her liege, although somehow I think that she stayed here because of a certain... someone. Sango,
Miroku and Koneko all stayed in the shrine and lived more than a hundred Earth years, older than what most Earthlings could achieve, but in the end mortals were still mortals. They passed on in a very ripe age. The four shrine priests eventually moved out of the shrine and went out into Japan, each having gone into various locations and setting roots there."

"In the late 1800's, we received a rumor about a famous swordsman who single-handedly led Japan to peace. It was after the Restoration period,
where the Shogunate was finally disbanded. Inuyasha and I went to investigate the rumor, and watched in the sidelines as this swordsman named Himura Kenshin, battle opponents in an impressive display of sword play. I think he could even rival Yosho with just his speed and tenacity in battle."

"In the early 1900s, demonic entities appeared in Japan, effectively striking fear and chaos around the country. My sensors went up when certain powered individuals banded together and went back to battle the Darkness as they called it. I went on to investigate, and found the group hiding out in a large amphitheater, which to my delight was sheer genius. They also made great plays, which I found out when I decided to stay a bit and gather data. I was also fascinated by the mecha they used, which they called Kobu. What you dubbed as Ki, or internal energy powered it. After several months of battles, they finally pinpointed the root of evil in the old castle Edo. They managed to defeat the evil.
just barely, but defeated nonetheless..."

"After the World War Two, a new kind of entity appeared. They were dubbed Invaders, and the information was kept from public eyes. Japan created an undercover elite group called AEGIS, specific in defending the Earth against the Invaders. The AEGIS was made up of special people,
who were able to gather and release attacks from another dimension,
which were called Gate Powers. These special people were called Gate Keepers. At first, it was thought that the Invaders were aliens from another world, that which caused me to get really interested in it anyway. But later I found out, and I guess they did too, that the Invaders were transformed humans having excessive negative energy. Their final adversary turned out to be an evil Gate Keeper, who tried to conquer the world. In the end, the evil Gate Keeper was defeated eventually, along with the countless Invaders he summoned."

"So anyway, the shrine itself became Yosho's after he married a Terran named Itsuki, under the guise of Katsuhito. This happened more or less three Earth centuries after you disappeared."

"They had two daughters, Achika and Nodoka, whom both have considerable powers of Jurai. However, Nodoka didn't finish her own training, making her powers miniscule and dormant at best. Nodoka eloped with a martial artist, and was not heard from as of yet. Achika however manifested hers once, forced to use them to defeat a certain evil that was made up of anti-Juraian energy. She died a few years after Tenchi's birth."

"Some people also discovered some ancient ruins located in China, Tokyo,
as well as somewhere in a remote island located west of Japan. I went there to investigate, and found that they were ancient alien civilizations that probably crashed on Earth approximately eight hundred fifty years or so. I decided not to breach a certain barrier that seemed to have kept the whole ruin under tight wraps, but there are artifacts in there in gigantic proportions. How big, I found out years later."

"Soon, Tenchi grew up strong as his Juraian heritage manifested nicely,
although he had no idea what they were. When he finally reached the age of maturity, his powers were already in a nice level. Not enough to give Yosho, rather, Katsuhito a hard challenge, but still commendable. He was a bit of a pacifist somewhat, but he defended his family and friends in times of need. Anyway, suddenly a Juraian Dreadnought appeared out of the sky, and started attacking for some reason. That was when my own ship, the recreated Soja, fired back automatically, crippling the ship and making it crash into the lake that's located near the shrine."

"We found out later that the ship was Ryu-Oh, the royal battleship of Princess Ayeka of Jurai, together with her younger sister Sasami who were in search of their half-brother and Ayeka's fiance, Yosho. Well,
Yosho talked to me before I got to talk to Ayeka, and somehow got me to promise not to reveal his real self as of yet. We told Ayeka that Yosho was dead, and that he died of old age. Ayeka was in denial, but finally understood when Tenchi produced the Tenchi-ken. The two princesses and their guardians, Azaka and Kamidake, stayed in the now dubbed Masaki Shrine."

"It was during this time that the alien ruins I mentioned earlier came to light. It turned out to be giant war machines, which for some reason were powered with the advanced knowledge of Ki. They called it Life Sympathy, which involved the pilot's state of mind, as well as the ferocity to live through the battle. The ruins were split into two groups, one group was the Rara Army led by a certain Professor Rara, who took the ruins that were located in that remote island outside Japan.
The Tokyo ruins were claimed by the Global Defense Force, led by a scientist named Sanada Ken. The scientists were also trying to prove the existence of the parallel world, which we both know actually existed.
The two groups eventually clashed against each other for superiority over the artifacts recovered from the digs. The artifacts were the war machines their selves, and were used in the battle. I heard that the Global Defense Force acquired a pilot that reached a high negative Life Sympathy reading, and from some sources it says that the pilot was from the parallel world... probably the same world you came from. By the way,
it's not that positive Life Sympathy was weak, but the negative Life Sympathy somewhat exudes this extra power because it is like a desperation attack. You do know how powerful one becomes when he or she gets desperate."

"Check this... I found that the alien artifacts and the Manticores exhibit the same characteristics. In fact, the artifacts specifically from the Rara Army strongly suggest familiarity with each other. The artifacts the Global Defense Force claimed were under-developed and slightly weaker, but I contained some knowledge regarding them anyway.
So they used this knowledge to recreate some of the artifacts and make copies. They also managed to unearth and revive a near-death alien specimen from the ruins. They gave it a body of a robot... a bioroid.
an almost robotic replica of the human body, so that it can move and act like humans."

"I was tempted to step in when both sides managed to bring the world I was trying to save into near destruction. Their excessive usage of the artifacts caused the spatial distortion between the parallel world and the original one to expand greatly. It sped up the process that should've taken at least a hundred years or more, which would give me time to stabilize the two worlds at least until you find the source."

"An unlikely source of help appeared in the form of a meteor that fell into Antarctica, which was dubbed the Second Impact. The war between the global Defense Force and the Rara Army was halted immediately. I still don't know if it was good or bad at that time, but when I did realize the significance I was too late. The polar ice caps melted and flooded nearly 90 of the world, and left most islands underwater. Millions of people died needlessly that time, and it really bugged me. When I investigated it, I found out that the meteor was in fact a living being.
Humans kept it to themselves after it was discovered, and it was called Adam. I think it was around the year 2000 at that time."

"Around fifteen years after that Second Impact, other unique copies of the alien artifacts found in the ruins appeared, but a lot bigger than its predecessors. They were called Evangelions, which was still driven based on the Life Sympathy of the pilots. They were created out of the technology extracted from the earlier models of mecha, and combined with some DNA from the meteor that fell in Antarctica. But this time, certain children could pilot it, not all. The pilots have to 'synchronize' with the EVAs before they could even 'will' it to move... at least more than fifteen percent synchronization. These Evangelion Units appeared so that they could fight another type of invaders, which were suspiciously called Angels for some reason. These Angels have a special shield called an AT Field. Only a stronger AT Field or certain attacks of the Evangelion could penetrate this shield, also dubbed as a Divine Armor.
The EVA units themselves have this special field as well."

"As always, there was a motive behind these attacks, as well as certain dark secrets from the defenders themselves. The Angels were supposed to be a test from the gods, to judge if humanity was fit to survive in the future. The defenders, particularly their leaders, have their own agenda. The only thing I got out of it was something called the Human Compliment Project. Well, they won, barely, and the instigators of the said project failed for some reason."

"After the Angel Wars, the world was still left in shambles. Soon,
technology picked up once again, and Earth was able to construct a magnificent Space Ring outside of the Earth's orbit. It housed thousands of people, which was ideal while the planet replenished itself."

"I was in space at that time when Yosho, Tenchi and Ayeka disappeared,
as well as Ryoko and Ryo-Ohki's cryo-chambers. Sasami was back in Jurai,
having been recalled for a bit by her mother Misaki. I tried looking for them, Ranma-chan, but they vanished without a trace. It was then that the Earth unified its government into one ruling party."

"Earth sent out space explorers to search other planets to colonize. One such vessel disappeared near Jupiter, where it consisted of a whole family of explorers. The father, mother, two brothers and one sister,
and the other members of the household like personal trainers and such all disappeared. Later, one came back to Earth, who for some reason lost all his memories. The only thing he knows was just that the Venomoids,
which was the alien menace that conquered the space exploration team,
planned to attack and populate the Earth with their spores and such. You see, they were like alien spider crabs and the like."

"Back to the one that came back to the Earth, he crash-landed on the planet without any pod whatsoever. He had amnesia, but he remembered his name as Blade. He demanded to be taken back to space, so that he may stop the Venomoid attack. After hijacking a vessel, he set out to space and transformed into this Teknoman. Apparently, those alien invaders kidnapped the whole family and were the first to be transformed into their footsoldiers, but Blade got away just in time before the process was completed. He revealed that there was another Teknoman leading the Venomoids in battle, who goes by the name of Darkan. Two battlesuits were created out of the designs from the old Earth files, combined with the knowledge about Blade's own Teknosuit. After countless battles and other enemy Teknomen that the group from Earth defeated, they finally took the fight to Darkan's base on the dark side of the Moon. The battle was long and fierce, but they finally won. Blade disappeared after that,
and reappeared after another threat appeared, but this was some of the recesses from the conflict he just managed to defeat."

"The Earth finally reconstructed the Space Ring, but it was divided into five parts. They called them Colonies, and were immediately settled in by some people from Earth. The people on the planet were later called Earthnoids, while the ones in space were Spacenoids. New war machines emerged, which were called mobile suits. A lot of conflicts rose between the Earthnoids and the Spacenoids, who disputed who should be the ruler of the planet and the territories themselves. More powerful machines called Gundams were built. Those piloted most of the Gundams were from space, because of their special ability. After living in space for some time, the Spacenoids developed their mind in an advanced degree. They developed ESP powers, which was in turn used to pilot the Gundams efficiently. It is said that the Gundams were effective because of their much fluid movements and faster reaction time, because of the mindlink between the pilot and the mecha. These people were called Newtypes, and they were the best of the best in piloting mobile suits."

"The most famous of the Gundam pilots was Amuro Rei, who was the first Gundam pilot ever produced. He was revered all over because he did what he thought was right, and he defended the Earth from the invading Spacenoids. His rival and nemesis was Aznable Char, whom was rumored to have died with Amuro during their battle in space. But they both reappeared together on the same team when another conflict arose,
gathering allies. What's surprising was that there were other mechas that seemed to have joined in the defense of everything. Behind everything that has happened, there was a huge plot involved, and both Earthnoids and the Spacenoids were the culprit. For some weird reason,
they seem to have been intensifying the conflict further. Also, after some time, new threats appeared. Aliens such as Zentraedi, Boazam,
Andromedans... as well as Earth enemies like the Guests and more."

"Anyway, it was a spectacular battle. It was called the legendary Robot Wars. Every mecha on Earth gathered together and battled the enemies.
The Gundams, Mazinger Z, Raideen, Dancougar, Combattler V, Daimos,
Voltes V, Grandaizer, Gunbuster, Dunbine, Macross, and lots of others.
they all banded together, even the elusive Personal Trooper Type Robots and the dreaded Hukkebine. Even though they were severely outgunned and outnumbered, the home team won, and restored the meager peace that was destroyed when the attackers launched."

"Before you ask, no... the Saiyajin you told me about didn't come to Earth for some reason. But there WAS a Saiyajin who touched down in the end of World War 2, but you told me he was kidnapped, right? Well, he wasn't, and was able to return to his home world without any hassles at all. It seems that your appearance as well as your disappearance might've been tied to everything this world has and since you disappeared, everything came falling apart. The Earth became vulnerable,
although there were still some heroes, they just barely managed to defeat the enemy. With the disappearance of Yosho and everyone, Earth was open season."

"I had no chance in investigating this further, because the first prototypes of Paeksis Cores suddenly appeared. Earth began to send colony ships to different star systems to find places that support life.
The first one was stolen by me, then I installed it into one of the colony ships that was about to be used in transporting people to another star system for safekeeping. The second one stayed on Earth, in the hands of the Earth Council that was formed as a unified government over the planet. The third was also sent to another star system, but it was a different type of Paeksis. While the other two cores were manufactured,
this one was a natural Paeksis core that suddenly appeared. I lost track of it once it went out to space, because I was busy securing the first one."

"That was when the REAL problem exposed itself. Nobody really noticed that the Prime Minister, who was the global leader of Earth as well, was replaced by a perfect double. It was until everything was hectic due to the after effects of the wars which ravaged the planet that the Prime Minister turned out to be none other than Kagato himself! You remember him, right? The one who kidnapped Ryoko, brainwashed her, and sent her to attack Jurai to claim Tsunami's space tree. It was also him that imprisoned be for thousands of years in the Soja, my own ship! The Earth was easily subdued, and he gloated to me that he was the one who created the Paeksis Cores. I really didn't understand it, nor did I want to listen to him, but he said that those cores mean everything to me.
Seeing the situation on Earth turn as it is, I escaped to Pluto, where I found some of the earlier colonists. I gave them a copy of this message so that if ever you turn up somewhere, I'd be certain to deliver this to you. I will leave this place soon, in order to conduct my search elsewhere, at the same time hiding from Kagato, as weird as it may sound. I am the best, but I do know when to run when the odds are against me."

"Once you open this message, it automatically sends a feedback signal that will communicate with my own ship. It will act as a homing beacon so that I will be informed that you have been found, and that I will come to you as soon as possible. Ranma, you must return to Earth and defeat Kagato. He is a plague that must be destroyed. I will join you as soon as I can."

Ranma could only blink as the image of Washuu smiled sunnily and waved enthusiastically at him. Even when the screen darkened, he still stared at the blank small screen.

He finally got himself together when he muttered, "That was a really long explanation." As an afterthought, he added, "That was really weird."

Ranma sobered as he set the small disk player aside. His thoughts were wild and in a disarray because of the load of information that trickled in his mind as of late. But there was one particular thought that nagged in his head, and that was Ryoko.

"Damn it." He muttered to himself. Ranma's disappearance threw the universe in a loop, and he felt responsible for the mess it caused. Most especially, he felt saddened when Ryoko disappeared.

Ranma's eyes hardened as he replaced his shades over his eyes once again. He will find her for sure.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Everyone looked up from their planning in the Meeting Room as Ranma entered it without any preamble, with Rin-Ohki perched on top of his head. Barnette was about to lash out at the pigtailed boy when she finally noticed the serious look on his face. Magno looked at him curiously, as well as BC. Jura was rather surprised at his sudden appearance. Parfait was staring at him, because she saw the pained look on his face. Gascogne looked on in interest, while Duero and Paiway stood on one side, curiosity reflecting on their faces as well. Bart sat haphazardly against two seats, bored out of his wits. Other female faces looked at him as well, but Ranma didn't really remember all their names.
He knew they were part of the crew that manned the command center with Magno and BC. Dita and Hibiki were no where to be found. Misty and Meia looked worried at the visibly troubled Ranma, which tugged at their hearts for some reason.

Ranma breathed in deeply as he said in a calm but strained voice. "I wish to return to Planet Earth."

"WHAT!" More than several voiced their protest in that word. However,
Magno waved her hand in the air to get their attention once again, and faced Ranma.

"Boy..." Magno began, shifting her weight on her staff, "You must understand that this is a rather highly unprecedented request. I mean,
we have our own problems to see through. You see, our planets are going to be attacked by the Earth's forces soon, and we need to get there as soon as possible to save our homes." The other people inside the room nodded in agreement.

The pigtailed boy sighed. "I need to go to Earth and stop the whole thing. No offense, but I think your planets are already attacked, and are probably floating debris right now."

Shouts of indignation and anger rose in the air. Gascogne shook her head and commented, "Still, we need to go back and make sure. Who knows?
Maybe our home worlds are still in one piece."

Ranma shook his head vehemently. Suddenly, he stiffened as he stood straight. Unknown to everyone, Ranma was now communicating with Rin-Ohki, who was telling him to get her a copy of the area map the Nirvana has seen so far.

Turning to Parfait, he said, "Can you give me a copy of the star systems in this area? I really need to go back to Earth."

"Why?" BC finally spoke. "Why do you need to return to Earth so much?"

Ranma swiveled his gaze to her. "It's complicated."

BC stepped forward boldly, challenging his words. "Try explaining."

Ranma was about to argue, but a meek but firm voice interrupted from his side. "Ranma, please just explain it."

Everyone turned and saw Meia staring at Ranma pointedly and evenly. The boy in turned just sagged and wilted at Meia's weird gaze.

Ranma finally told them, explained most of the weird circumstance that revolved around his appearance in this place, rather, this time. Still,
Ranma hadn't told them about his special abilities, and a small meaningful gaze on Meia communicated to keep their conversations before a secret. After a narration of his recent encounter with Washuu's invention, the whole area was silent, save for the hum of the Nirvana's engines. Everyone adopted a stunned look on their faces, save Meia and Misty, who just looked on with amusement at their companions'
expressions.

"You... you came from the Past!" Parfait asked giddily, the thought of having met someone who survived a trip through time made her curiosity run amok.

Misty nodded sagely. "So... Washuu-sensei was correct then. I assume you're the same person she's been searching for so long."

"I guess so." Ranma said slowly.

"Should we really believe all those things you said?" Barnette asked rhetorically.

Misty fielded that question. "Yes, he is. I didn't really know the real story back then, but Washuu-sensei explained that Ranma was involved in an accident that threw him somewhere in the space-time continuum. She wasn't sure if he was sent forward, backward, or even in another dimension. She mentioned something about Ranma's chaotic tendencies or something..."

BC would've reacted too, but Magno's unresponsive face proved that the old woman did have some suspicion about Ranma's origins already. The knowledge was probably from when Misty mentioned knowing him long before she was sent to space.

Everyone jumped when the alarms blared loudly.

The enemies have been spotted.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

The crew gawked at the screen as they watched the gigantic Seed ship going towards them at cruising speed. Thousands of smaller cube drones surrounded the large capital ship, as well as several different versions of Vandread drones. The whole screen was filled with red dots, as well as the dark yellow hide of the main ship that seemed to be three-fourths larger than the Nirvana.

Ranma on the other hand narrowed his eyes at the ship. He already knew how outnumbered the Nirvana was, and this just takes the cake! It was rather a bit of overkill for Earth to send this large piece of.
something... to go after the ship he was on.

He watched intently as the battle finally ensued outside. A large assortment of Dreads was in battle formation around the Nirvana. The Dreads were many, but the drones still hugely outnumbered them. Hibiki's Vanguard and Dita's Dread by now have combined to form the gigantic blue Vandread mecha. Even Gascogne was in her own ship, joining the battle as well. Jura's red Dread was beside Barnette's own, as well as Meia's, and together they led the defense grid.

At first, the battle went smoothly for the defenders, because they were able to repel most of the drones that attacked. Even the Vandread clones were defeated after sometime, but Ranma couldn't help but feel his danger sense going crazy. Rin-Ohki was hissing softly as she arched her back on his head.

After a while, the speed of the attackers went up as well as their numbers, immediately battering the hapless Dreads. Meia took a hit when she was momentarily distracted by something, and was taken inside the Nirvana by Gascogne. She was immediately sent to the medical lab, but she promised before she went inside that she was going to come back and fight again. Ranma was tempted to visit her, but Duero communicated in the comms that the med lab was off limits for now. So Ranma stayed put in the main room, intently watching the fight.

Ranma looked around the battlefield, trying to locate the source of his uneasiness. His gaze finally settled on the unmoving capital ship.

"The mother ship is not moving..." Ranma muttered loudly, enough to be heard by those around him.

BC turned to him quickly and asked, "What's the matter, Ranma?"

The boy continued to stare at the monstrosity outside. "The big ship is not moving, not even firing any of its armaments. All it's doing is sitting there and... waiting."

"Waiting for what?" One of the crew on the room asked.

Ranma shook his head. "I don't know. But whatever it is, it's something really big. If I try and read it like a martial arts competition, the big ship is like a observing fighter, and the little attackers are just probes to prod on our defenses. It's like we're attacking blindly and foolishly, not minding what the other is thinking."

Magno sat on the captain's chair, busy in glaring at the huge behemoth that was stationary in front of the Nirvana. "I think Ranma is correct in his assessment... tell the others to be careful and keep their eyes open for any tricks."

BC gasped loudly. "You mean..."

"Yeah..." Ranma nodded. "We're being observed, and the defensive posture will most likely disappear later, once our defenses were studied extensively. Then that big ship will attack, and looking at its size, I think we're in for a slaughter in our hands. We will lose if we continue to fight recklessly like this..." He paled slightly when he saw something outside. "I think it's a little too late..." He said faintly.

Everyone turned from Ranma to the screen and watched as the big Seed ship move slightly sideways. The sensors finally beeped into attention,
displaying the ship's new statistics to everyone. It turned out that the Seed ship's sides were riddled with high-powered laser cannons that could penetrate their shields without any problem.

The Harvest ship's sides suddenly lit up and fired huge red beams of energy towards the Dreads, dismantling most of them. Luckily enough Barnette's Dread survived with considerable damages, but Vandread Dita was separated when the beam hit it. Jura's own Dread was damaged severely, as well as her own body as it was jolted violently inside the cockpit as she was hit. Her cry of surprise and pain filled the comms,
taking her best friend Barnette into a berserker rage.

Before any of them could do anything, a green beam encompassed each of their Dreads, pulling them away from the Seed ship's side. It seemed that Gascogne's ship was equipped with a special device called 'Tractor Beam' where it can lock on to any ships incapable of fighting, so that it may be pulled away from danger. Gascogne decided that it was enough and beamed most of the ships, but Barnette's ship was a special case.
The inventory manager used the pincer-like appendages from her ship and grabbed Barnette's ship on a tight hold, disabling the damaged Dread totally. Barnette's angry voice echoed all over the comms that she still wanted to fight. Ranma and the rest of the crew left in the Nirvana winced when Gascogne and Barnette bickered back and forth across the comm channel.

Ranma and the rest of the crew left in the ship blinked as Bart was forcefully pulled out of the navigator console. At the same time, the ship turned fast and escaped the other way.

"Who told you to escape!" Magno stood up angrily as she glared on the ejected Talaark navigator.

"I didn't do it!" Bart exclaimed urgently. "It was the ship!"

In the engine room, Parfait stared at the frantically glowing Paeksis core, which has more patches of red in it.

"You're scared, aren't you?" Parfait whispered to herself.

After the ones who battled went back inside the Nirvana after the lost fight, the bickering among the pilots became worse. They were currently on stand by in case the Harvest ship from Earth caught up with them. It wasn't long before that happened though.

They were inside the medical labs, where Jura, Dita, Hibiki, Barnette,
and strangely enough Gascogne were talking. Well Barnette, Hibiki and Gascogne were fighting one another, it seems. Duero, Paiway and Ranma were doing a good impression of nonchalance at the scene, trying to blend with the background.

The doctor and his assistant were busy patching Jura up, who suffered some burns because of the hit she took earlier. Ranma just watched the confrontation, unable to think of anything to pacify everyone in the room. He knew how each side felt, so he was trapped in the middle. He thinks both sides were right in some aspects.

"Why did you pull me out of the battle, Gascogne!" Barnette growled out as she glared angrily on the muscled girl leaning on the wall. Behind her, Hibiki growled his agreement to the question as well.

Gascogne didn't even flinch, as she was subjected to two scathing glares. "It is my duty to keep you out of danger. I took stock of the situation, and made a decision to pull you out."

"I could've taken them on!" Barnette insisted, standing up from her sitting position a while ago. Her fists were clenching and unclenching as she continued shouting at Gascogne. "You shouldn't have done that!"

"My, isn't it convenient..." Hibiki's voice sarcastically cut in the conversation. "For you who doesn't have to go to the front lines and fight, you just have no idea how we feel, don'cha?" He sneered at Gascogne.

Ranma shook his head as he grimaced. He knew he spoke before he thought of it before, now that he hears it from others, it really doesn't sound all that good. Sure enough, Gascogne finally moved and smacked Hibiki's face with her fist, her face in a deep scowl. For a moment, Ranma thought he saw unshed tears gathering in her eyes.

"How dare you..." Gascogne growled out as she clutched on Hibiki's collar.

Ranma immediately shuffled himself out of the room, all the while trying to blend on the walls. He didn't want to be there when the bomb of anger exploded in that room.

Nope, not at all.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

The alarms rang again as the enemy was spotted. It was still the same mother ship, but the drones were fully recovered and were now flying towards the Nirvana at full speed.

The Nirvana's Dreads met the attackers head on. As per the earlier attack, the gigantic Harvester ship was stationary, waiting for them to lose their focus and their attention towards that particular ship.

Vandread Dita immediately launched their attacks on the main ship. As usual, the Harvester ship's side opened up and fired a volley of red beams towards the Vandread, crippling them once again. Same tactic, same mistakes...

They floated helplessly along space as the enemy mother ship prepared to fire another volley of lasers. Suddenly, Gascogne's ship appeared to shield Dita's Dread and the Vanguard, much to their surprise.

Inside the Nirvana, Ranma quickly grabbed Rin-Ohki by the scruff of her neck and handed her to BC, who was still sitting shell-shocked on her seat. The sub-commander blinked as she felt Rin-Ohki's fur against her dark skin. She looked up and saw Ranma's face in a tight scowl.

"W-What's this for?" BC gestured to the cabbit.

Ranma looked down on her. "Keep her safe for the moment. I have no choice but to do something about this."

"But what can you... WHAT THE HELL!" BC shouted as she stood up in surprise, reflexively clutching as the cabbit. The rest of the crew's reactions were the same as Ranma softly smiled, his eyes reflected sorrow and for some reason, a little fear. The boy slowly dematerialized from in front of the slack-jawed crew.

Outside the Nirvana, the battle was coming to a dramatic close, with everyone that fought watching in horror as the huge red beam lanced towards Gascogne's hapless ship. Not that it was really undefended,
because it probably has the strongest shielding of all the ships available in Nirvana. Gascogne worked as supply after all, and her job required her to rush into the middle of battle to refuel everyone, so she might be a definite target of elimination for the enemies. But the firepower surging towards her right now is too much even for her heavy shields.

Gascogne will die.

Inside the supply ship, Gascogne knew that as well. Actually, before she left the Nirvana, she already felt that tug of death in her mind. Hibiki and Barnette's words hurt like hell, but she can't really blame them.
Due to the nature of her job, she was required to just sit back and watch as everyone went on their merry way. She knew they didn't really mean what they said, because she too suffered a lot of losses in the past. Her older sister's death brought back painful memories in her head, but she welcomed them. She could feel herself blaming her own for not being able to help her sister. It was just a doorway apart, but that little distance cost Gascogne her sister. The sense of loss was evident in her, and she strove not to let that happen again. She saw her friends in deep trouble, and they were basically defenseless. The Harvester ship's hull was really tough, not even Vandread Dita's cannons could penetrate it. A plan formulated in her mind, and it was simple. Have her own ship rush in and put a huge gaping hole at its side.

Yes, all for her friends... to protect them from an early death.

That was why she was smiling as her ship raced into the much bigger ship's outer hull. She was already past the point of no return, not that she ever wanted to anyway. She welcomed her death.

Just as her ship was about to hit, a mop of black covered her vision,
bathed in a soft light blue glow that seemed to be simply divine in nature. She had wondered if this was death, but she felt a soft warmth as something hugged her. Everything vanished before her eyes afterwards.

The communications channel was silent as they watched Gascogne's ship collide with the Harvest ship. It exploded fantastically, but it was still not enough for it to do much damage to the Harvest ship anyway.
But the impact point left a gaping hole, but it was still small compared to the overall size of the Harvest ship.

The silence stretched from the moment of impact to when the lit fumes of the explosion finally ebbed.

Loud wails filled the comms as the realization of Gascogne's demise finally settled down. BC announced loudly about her order of retreat,
which some had some reluctance in following, but then with no other things to do, they did it anyway.

Back in the operations room of the Nirvana, everyone screamed in shock as something materialized on the deck of the ship. Two figures actually,
one was Ranma, who disappeared only minutes ago, and the other was.
Gascogne! The girl was cradled in Ranma's arms. The boy lay her on the floor and let himself fall backwards on his back, panting.

"GASCO-SAN!" Several voices screamed as the deck flurried into motion.
They left their posts as they gathered around the dazed Gascogne.

"I... I'm still... alive?" Gascogne asked lividly as she stared blankly around her, as if trying to see if everything was real.

Ezra was the first to move, who immediately wrapped her arms around the older girl, sobbing. "Gasco-san! You're alive! We thought you were dead!"

"B-But... h-h-how!" Magno asked to no one in particular as she stared wide-eyed at her crewmember.

Gascogne shook her head. "I... I have no idea! I was there, watching as the whole thing's wall came fast towards me... then something appeared in right front of me, protecting me form the blast... then I'm here!
What happened...!"

Nobody really had an answer to that, until a loud miyah interrupted their impromptu celebration. The cabbit in BC's arms managed to squirm out of the hold and floated towards her master, who was lying somewhere nearby. Rin-Ohki approached Ranma and nudged her nose unto his face.

Ranma opened his eyes and stared at the deck ceiling. "I'm okay,
Rin-chan... just exhausted. I kinda did two tiring things at once.
Need... to rest."

"You did this?" An old voice said as Ranma turned his head to one side,
managing to keep his glasses on his face for some reason, and gazed at Magno thoughtfully.

"I... can't let her die now, can I?" Ranma asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

BC shook her head. "These things you do... they're just not possible!"

The boy just sighed as he gazed up to the ceiling once again, allowing his eyes to close slowly. "It is... now."

"Commander! Gasco-san is... Gasco-san is...!" Dita's teared-up face appeared on the viewing screen in front of the deck. Apparently, nobody outside has yet to know of Gascogne's survival.

Magno turned to the big screen as she finished staring at the pigtailed boy. Mustering barely enough dignity in her voice, she addressed Dita,
"Gascogne's fine, Dita. She's right here with us." She pointed to the slightly muscled young woman, who was looking down on the unconscious form of Ranma. Actually, all of them were staring at what was connected to Ranma's backside, which by now became visible. It was a red tail, and it was twitching a while ago.

The crew continued to stare at the appendage as they virtually ignored the frantic cries of everyone who were out in the battle. The ones fighting were very happy to know Gascogne managed to survive the explosion, so happy that they didn't even think of asking how that happened. All they knew was everything's all right.

Well, there will be time for that later.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Somewhere in Ranma's mind...

He looked around him as he was surrounded by the vastness of space. He looked down on himself and saw his appearance, but he wasn't prepared for the surprise it hid. He wasn't wearing the usual Chinese clothing,
but rather a modest silver vest that hugged his slightly muscled frame.
Silver bracers that shone against some imaginary light decorated his arms. His pants were replaced by an overly large pair of dark magenta pants that bloomed on his ankles, which felt like silk to him for some reason. His skin was pale against the black cloak that encircled over his shoulders.

For some reason, Ranma felt himself drift forwards, and found himself amidst a battle of epic proportions. Thousands of discarded weapons,
broken and not, and also some bodies of dead individuals that might've died in the conflict floated past him. His eyes narrowed at the people in front of him. He felt their evil intentions, which was so tangible that it can be cut with a bread knife. Behind him, a group of more human-looking people also gathered.

Two people were at his sides. On his right was a seemingly bishonen man with ice blue eyes and long flowing light blue hair to match that reached up to his lower back. He wore a golden armor around his torso,
and wielded a large broadsword with his right hand. On his forehead were two small circular golden gems that glowed faintly against the dark background of space. On his left was a blonde haired woman with jade eyes looking back at him fondly. On her forehead were two dark circular gems that were contrast to the ones the person on his right had on his forehead. On her cheeks were, surprisingly, star-shaped tattoos that seemed to have been comical, if not for the seriousness of the situation before them. Her personage reeks of sexiness and beauty, as her body was in perfect proportions. Her skin was dark in color, and her chest was covered in a slimmer, visibly lighter version of the armor the person on the left wore, and it was also darker in color. On her hands was an oversized mace that was seemingly quite appropriate for her for some reason.

In front of his own entourage, several figures of giants seemed to be unfazed of all the gore around them. They were in the vicinity of a large rainbow-colored planet, to which Ranma thinks that it was caused by the atmosphere. Four of the giants were mounted on what seemed to be like horses, but they were grotesque and much more horrifying than the ones Ranma knew. The 'horses' had Ram's horns on their heads, and their large bulky bodies were riddled with spikes along the sides. For some reason, the fact didn't seem to faze their even scarier looking riders.
The mounts have three pairs of legs, and have a dark leathery hide. It looked like the horse his companion had before, but they left the glorious white mount in the stables back in the planet down below... or was it up? The mount's name was Sleipner, and it was already transferred in another location when the conflict arose. In space perspective, one can never know. At the far back, the largest of the giants held his gigantic two-sided battleaxe, which seemed to gleam against the meager light the planet reflected from the star it was revolving around on.
There were others surrounding him, but were much smaller in size though still bigger than he was anyway. They were floating in the area where the light doesn't expose much, hiding them in as much shadow as it could. Not that it mattered, because their aura were blazing so hotly that it was creating an effect that made them look scarier. The powers they have were staggering.

Ranma felt himself speak in a language he didn't understand, and his body moved without his permission. He felt himself a passenger in this dream, or was it a memory? Was it his? If it was, why does it appear now?

He was speaking and gesturing to his companions at his sides. The man was shocked when Ranma said whatever he has to say then it turned to sorrow, then finally acceptance, while the woman grew angry and was yelling at him in a desperate way. Her eyes were pleading, trying to tell him not to do what he was saying. He felt his feelings falter for a moment, but then his expression hardened again as he traced the woman's face with his black-gloved finger. Having said his piece, Ranma, or rather whoever he was in this dream, turned to the giants and gathered an ominous energy that seemed to send chills up and down his spine. With a determined look on his face, Ranma materialized the energy in front of him, forming a dark ball that seemed to absorb everything, even the light was sucked into it.

Once again, a dainty female hand grabbed Ranma's arm. He turned and saw the woman once again, pleading him for something. She was probably pleading for him to stop. He just shook his head and barked out a command, to which the woman reluctantly followed as she back away with the other person on his side before. The others that were behind them finally followed the departing two, each giving him a respectful glance before backing away as well.

He saw that his enemies (yes, he figured they were enemies since his group seemed to be glaring at the assembly in front of them) were shouting in protest and were aligning themselves for the best defense.
Ranma noticed that the enemies put their weaker-looking troops in front of them, as if using them as a shield to whatever he was doing. But he felt that he doesn't have to pay the action any attention as he focused on putting all of his energy into the dark globe of force in front of him. He closed his eyes began to chant in that language he can't understand again.

Ranma opened his eyes and stated a name that he said in a different language, but for some weird reason he understood it anyway. It was the only words he could understand in what he said.

His aura shone bright silver as the black ball of power enlarged into several times from before. The cackle of an occasional lightning coursed all over the ball, which upped the intimidation factor. But everyone around nervously backed away as they recognized the power of Creation and Destruction in that sphere of energy.

Finally as everything inside Ranma felt all drawn out to the ball, he staggered to one side, still holding the ball aloft with his left hand as his right clutched at his chest. With a glare sent to his enemies, he stated the name that everyone clearly understood and heard, no matter how far they were.

"Chaotic... Disruption."

And with those words, the huge ball of darkness launched itself from Ranma, engulfing the now fleeing army of the giants. The ball swiftly absorbed all of them, dragging them into its dark confines. But it didn't stop there, as the ball continued on its merry way and streaked towards the rainbow-colored planet.

To his allies' horror, the energy he released slowly enlarged itself as it absorbed the whole planet into itself, not leaving anything... not even a speck of dust from it. Everything disappeared, except the halted ball of darkness that seemed to float in place of the planet.

Seeing his work done, Ranma or rather, his other self slowly lost consciousness, but he could feel his elation and the smile etched on his face as he felt himself slowly fade away.

As he was about to find out, Ranma was brought in the Medical Room after he collapsed on the deck.

Ranma slowly opened his eyes as his dream slowly dissipated. He blinked owlishly for second, trying to wave the fogginess in his vision. He felt something furry scamper to his side, rubbing itself into his arms. He smiled gently, knowing exactly who it was.

"Ranma?" A rather familiar voice called to him softly. "Are you okay,
Ranma?"

Ranma blinked once more, and sure enough the fuzziness in his eyes lifted. He saw a mop of light blue hair in his line of vision looking down on him. He cocked his head to one side slightly, asking, "Uhmm.
Meia-san?" He shook his head slowly, eliciting a wince on his face. The action brought some painful jolts in his brain, a residue of being drained of energy too much.

"How... how long was I asleep?" Ranma asked softly.

Meia sighed and said, "About sixty-four hours at least. You were in deep sleep that long..."

Ranma groaned. It was probably not a good idea to do two long-range teleports and the full activation of his shield to protect him and Gascogne from the explosion momentarily at the same time. The whole process drained him real badly. "Okay... so how did the battle go?"

Meia's face broke into a huge smile. "Surprisingly, we won after some planning. You see, Gascogne's 'supposed' suicide attack left a huge hole on that gigantic ship's hull, enabling us to enter it and install the virus from the information pod in Misty's probe. It wasn't easy though,
because there was a gigantic mecha that seemed to have sprouted from the giant ship. It made things difficult for us for a while, but we managed to enter the ship while the others kept the giant robot busy. The inside was huge, and it was filled with self-defense mechanisms that were composed of thousands of turret lasers. Amazingly, we reached the core of the ship and had Pyoro install the virus for us. The machines finally stopped moving, and remained stationary in space, all except the giant robot for some reason. We didn't expect it to move until it hit us dead on with its cannons. We thought we were gonna die, and we let Barnette,
who was with us at that time, to go and escape with Pyoro. We didn't want to lose, and that feeling was so strong that it enabled us to transform all three Dreads and the Vanguard into one Super Vandread. We formed a sword by experimenting the buttons and finally defeated the enemy."

Ranma frowned, looking at Meia intently. "You were not hurt, were you?"

The look on Ranma's face brought a small blush on Meia's cheeks. She replied meekly, "Well, we weren't hurt that much, especially after we defeated the robot. We were kinda happy after that." ((No need to tell him that I wanted to live and win because I wanted to see him again,
right?))

"Alright." Ranma nodded. As he sat up, gasps of surprise were heard from around him. He saw a lot of faces peering at him, some in curiosity,
while some in fear and disgust.

Ranma cocked his head to one side and commented, "What did I do? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Meia smiled slightly as she explained, "Ranma... your glasses were removed earlier."

The boy shrugged. "So? If my glasses were... removed... oh." His eyes widened in realization. In reflex, he lifted his hand to his face to feel for the glasses, only to find that it was indeed removed. Not that they blamed them, but still, the looks they were giving him were too weird.

Ranma finally got fed up of the staring and huffed, "I know my eyes are not normal, but you don't have to stare at me like I'm some kind of monster or something."

"We do deserve the full explanation, don't you think so, Ranma-san"
Magno said with a smirk. It seems that the old woman wasn't really that surprised at this.

Ranma looked at Meia helplessly, asking silently for help. But the blue-haired girl just shrugged a little, saying, "What harm could it do?
You can't hide it anymore anyway. Just accept it, you're busted."

The pigtailed boy just sighed in response, and proceeded to tell them everything about his life. He skipped his childhood, but he did explain the real phenomenon of how he got to their time in the first place, and told them of his alien blood. He still hasn't told them much about his skills, because he wanted to reserve some secrets for himself. The looks he got from Duero, Parfait and surprisingly Paiway were nothing short of maddened glee. Dita was cheery as always and a bit smug, declaring she knew all along that Ranma was a 'Mister Alien', much to his annoyance.
Meia already knew most of it, while the others were silently assimilating the information given to them.

"A real live alien..." Dita said breathlessly, her eyes were shining in happiness. It seems her pursuit of being the first one to make contact with UFO people were fulfilled. Let her have that fantasy anyway.

The door for the infirmary silently slid open and accommodated a newly recovered Gascogne, with Misty by her side. Seeing everyone turned to look at her, Gascogne smiled and said, "I'm okay. I just wanna thank the one who saved me." She blinked when she saw Ranma though. Now that his glasses were off, she could clearly see his eyes, which were far from normal.

"Damn." Gascogne commented. "I won't be surprised if you say you're not human at all."

"That seems to be the case." BC responded on one side.

"Still..." Gascogne continued, "He saved my life. Human or not, I trust him."

Everyone turned to Misty expectantly, who just looked back at them evenly. "I've heard good stories about him. There's no reason I would not trust him."

"TRUST!" Barnette finally growled out. "Look at him! He's... he's.
his eyes! Look at his eyes! Have you ever seen a human with that pair of eyes before! He has shining stones stuck on his forehead! He has a weird pet! And he has a tail for crying out loud!"

"Red, cuddly tail... to be exact." Ranma said sarcastically as Rin-Ohki climbed into his arms. He automatically cradled the small form into his body.

The others were about to comment as well, but Magno put a halt in that though. "In any case..." She began, "I don't see anything wrong with him staying. He saved Gascogne... and that is what's important."

She began to look thoughtful for a moment. "By the way, how DID you save Gascogne from inside the ship anyway?"

"Urk..." It was all Ranma said that was understandable before he babbled some nonsense, to which everyone sweatdropped heavily.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Things have become quite awkward after rumors of Ranma's weird powers came about. Most of the girls in the Nirvana eyed him with fear, and some with curiosity. Ranma just shrugged, already understanding their fear of the unknown. If they were afraid of getting in contact with men before, how can this be any different?

Besides, Ranma was usually alone anyway, so it didn't bother him much.
Some of them like Meia, Misty, Dita and Gascogne weren't like the others, because they were still usually there to cheer him up some,
despite the actions of others. Magno was also talking to him, but she was usually in her room or in the deck, and Ranma didn't want to go there for no reason at all.

Right now, Ranma was back in the greenhouse, which he thought to be his hangout place. He was currently wearing nothing for his torso, except that black and red battle suit that Washuu has constructed for him back in his time. Although he was wearing his black pants because he learned that his armor, while protecting his body perfectly, still molded against his body, leaving nothing to everyone's imagination. He was rather thrilled with the fact that he never has to worry about losing clothes, since the suit constantly reconstructs itself if ever it gets damaged. Also, the suit adjusts itself prior to his male and female forms.

Beside him was Meia, who was holding Ezra's baby. The little girl, who was the newest member of the crew, was named Karua, but that weird robot Pyoro kept on calling her 'Pyoro 2' much to Ezra's exasperation. Meia didn't know any of this, but the crew was planning a birthday party for her. Dita already whispered about it in Ranma's ears about distracting Meia for a while. The Dread team leader didn't like the idea of celebrating her birthday, so every year the crew planned this surprise party for her. Due to a rare ingenious plan hatched by the combined minds of Hibiki, Dita, Paiway and Duero, they thought of letting Meia take care of the baby as they continued on their activities without any hindrances. After making sure Meia wouldn't be able to escape via patrolling and locking herself inside the meeting room, the plan was going perfectly.

The baby made quite a ruckus a while ago, crying her heart's intent. For some reason, an instinctive compulsion led Ranma to take the baby into his arms himself, rocking the baby in slow tantalizing motions. Soon,
the baby fell asleep with a small smile in her face. Who would've known Ranma has a hidden talent in keeping babies at bay? Or maybe it's a fluke...

Misty was with them until a few minutes ago, having been called into the radar room for her turn on duty. She took the job after Ranma suggested that she find something to do so that she could somehow feel at home in the ship. Her calling seems to have led her into the radar room.

Ranma heard a small sigh at his side. He deftly looked at his right and saw Meia having a far-away look in her eyes. It looked like she was thinking of something real bad to lose her concentration like this.

"You alright, Meia?" Ranma asked worriedly.

The girl's eyes snapped back into focus. "Huh? Oh Ranma... yeah I'm okay."

The boy snorted. "You're thinking about something. You can tell me you know."

Meia gazed at the boy in wonder. She still can't get over the enticing look Ranma's eyes have when you stare at them for too long. It looked like the yellowish full moon over a dark blue sky. Now those two wonderful eyes of his were hidden behind those dark glasses of his once again, to hide away from prying eyes. She also marveled at the trio of silvery orbs that sparkled every now and then on his forehead, mostly covered by the black bangs from his hair. She had seen him do feats that defy physical limitations, and she still didn't know if that was all he could do.

Ranma said softly, "Ezra has been called into the tactical room a while ago by BC."

Meia nodded. "I know. It has something to do with not spending too much time with her baby. Parfait told me about it, although I don't understand why. I mean, the others don't mind keeping the baby busy, and I know Pyoro won't mind at all. In fact, he spends the most time taking care of the baby anyway."

The boy just sighed. "That's the whole point though. Ezra should be the one taking care of the baby. She's her mother... and from what I experienced, growing up away from one's mother is not good for the child." Ranma sadly shakes his head. "My father took me away from my mother when I was barely walking, so I can't remember much about her. I have to trust and believe all the crap my father told me about her, so when I finally get to meet her, I was so terrified and confused at her that I almost pushed her away. A child should bask in its mother's love,
so that a bond may form." He didn't notice it, but the three gems on his forehead glowed briefly.

Meia was a bit shell-shocked at what she heard. For some reason, she couldn't deny the truth in his words. She looked at him and saw the jewels on his forehead glowing. ((It must be the gems making him all introspective like that...)) she wondered in her mind. She shook her head briskly, banishing her thoughts about Ranma. "Everyone's planning something, aren't they?" She decided to change the topic, hoping for Ranma to take the bait.

And take the bait he did. Ranma used his best poker face, which we all know was bound to fail anyway. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Meia laughed slightly. "Don't worry. Every year when my birthday is near, they plan a surprise party for me. I just wished they didn't make a big deal out of it."

"They care about you, that's why they do it anyway." Ranma shrugged.

"I know..." Meia smiled. "But it's just a lot of work..."

"Well..." Ranma said, "They think it's worth it. As I said, you can't really blame them if they wanted to show you how much they care. Humor them anyway, you won't lose anything out of it, rather gain some food in the process."

He shifted slightly on his position. "You are lucky to have so many people caring for you to even remember your birthday."

Meia looked at Ranma oddly. "You sound jealous."

Ranma smiled sadly. "Partly, because they remembered your birthday, and they want to share their gratitude on your continued existence by celebrating it. I can't even remember my own birthday you know. Nobody back at home celebrated it, even my own family. I probably celebrated it when I was really small, but when I started my training trip, everything that doesn't pertain to the Art is neglected. My birthday is one of them..."

Ranma lay himself down on the grass he was on. "I have been alone most of my life, only my so-called father as a companion. And even with that the old man didn't do a good job with it, accompanying me I mean. I watched as he used his martial arts skills to pilfer and steal goods from various people. He used me as a bartering chip for his vices. That was why I feel so alone even though he was with me all those times before. My birthday is not in the list of priorities, as well as having friends. Whatever friendship I was able to build up during the short times we stopped in villages and cities, he destroyed by taking me by force away. He didn't even teach me about how to deal with people as well. That's why I was a rash and proud boy once before. I still am, but it is moderated nowadays. I can't change the way I am, but I can redirect them in some things."

"I... I never knew how hard it was for you." Meia said shortly after a somber silence surrounded them.

The boy just smiled softly. "You were never meant to understand it. But seeing that you think the people who care for you were just wasting their time, I thought I needed to tell you that it was all because they love you. You are not alone in this ship, always remember that. You have a family here, whether you think it or not."

Meia's eyes widened marginally for a moment, before moisture erupted from those same eyes. A soft sob escaped from her lips, alerting Ranma of Meia's soft crying.

"ACK!" Ranma sat up abruptly and made warding signs with his hands.
"P-Please stop crying! I'm sorry if I said something wrong! I didn't mean to, honest!"

The girl giggled with her sobs as she wiped her tears gently with one hand. "Relax, Ranma... I'm n-not really s-sad. I'm actually happy,
because you reminded me that I am loved in here."

Ranma grinned roguishly. "I'm glad you to be of service."

Just then, a familiar blare of alarms filled the air, alerting them of an impending attack. The baby was jolted awake as she cried hard because of the noise. Upon seeing Meia trying to look for a place to settle the baby down in haste, Ranma held her shoulders down firmly, locking her into place.

"You're not going anywhere." Ranma said seriously.

"But the enemy..." Meia tried to protest, but was silenced once Ranma gave her a hardened stare.

Ranma gestured to the baby. "You have a responsibility of taking care of the baby's welfare, whether forced or not. You have to see it through,
and settle on watching the battle from here. Don't worry and have faith in your teammates... they can win this battle. Meanwhile, you have your own battle to win, like how to settle that baby down."

Meia nodded numbly as the baby continuously cried out loudly, having heard the irritating alarms from earlier.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

In nearby part of the galaxy, five intricated ships were zeroing in on the disturbance that bleeped in their monitors. The data seemed to have detected a massive Lost Technology device that was under attack by something.

We go to one of the ships' interior, where a pre-adolescent blue-haired girl with long ears extending on both side of her head monitoring the signal generated by their target.

"Mint, are you sure you about the Lost Technology? It's the size of a battleship, and this will be the first time we found a technology as big as this." The red-haired face visualized in the viewscreen of a short blue-haired girl with long doggy ears.

"I am sure, Forte-san. Even I was surprised at its size... but there is no mistake. It is a Lost Technology, one that probably predates everything we've found so far." The blue-haired girl called Mint replied.

Another viewscreen appeared beside the one with the redhead named Forte,
bearing the face of a blond haired young woman with large white hair clips on her head and a small triangular tattoo pointing downwards to a small dot on her forehead.

"Quit whining, Forte! All we have to do is just go there and drag the huge hunking thing with us back to Headquarters, right? No big deal"
The blond snorted derisively.

Forte visibly bristled at that. "Shut up, Ranpha! You were also complaining a while ago, back in Headquarters right? You were the one who said, 'It may be just a waste of time, why do I have to get dragged into this' earlier, you know!"

Before Ranpha could respond, another screen squeezed itself between the two bickering girls, one with the face of pink haired girl with blue eyes and a bright smile.

"I wonder if there are people in there..." The pink haired girl said loudly, effectively breaking up the squandering duo.

Mint shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Milfeuille-san. It might be pretty old, so there may not be people on board that ship anymore,
although I'm quite curious why it's under attack or under scrutiny of something. Our sensors picked up just at that point."

Milfeuille sagged slightly. "That's... that's so sad..."

Another screen appeared on the side, showing a red-eyed girl, whose cyan hair was tied up in a high ponytail. A white headdress of some sort secured her hair over her head and the sides of her face, covering her ears in the process. She usually held a dark pink stuffed toy that has a passing semblance to a fat bird or something, but she left the thing back in Headquarters. Her face brooked no emotions, which put the rest of them except Milfeuille rather uneasy.

"People reside within the location where Kami-sama is located." The girl said cryptically.

Mint cocked her head to one side, momentarily recovering from her uneasiness. "What do you mean, Vanilla-san?"

For some reason, it seemed to them that Vanilla's face relaxed slightly,
despite having no change at all in their screens. They just 'felt' it like that. "We are currently headed to where Kami-sama is located, where my feelings are at their strongest." She replied rather vaguely.

"You keep saying 'Kami-sama', Vanilla. But what do you really mean by that!" Ranpha said in exasperation.

Vanilla merely looked at back evenly, her face not even twitching for a bit. "Kami-sama is Kami-sama."

"Guys... only three more minutes before we reach our destination. Ready your weapons in case someone's really attacking in there." Forte interrupted the impromptu ranting of Ranpha regarding Vanilla's evasive answers, although she was also quite curious as to why Vanilla seemed to react very much to this mission.

A long bout of silence permeated in their comms as they cruised along the darkened surroundings of space. Finally, their sensors picked up the Lost Technology easily, pinpointing its exact location and as well as information regarding those around it. Sadly, it proved that those smaller crafts around the technology have their weapons charged and were firing quite rapidly.

They seemed to have walked in the middle of a battle.

Sure enough, their screens displayed a large white battleship being peppered with laser fire. Other smaller crafts around it seemed to chase and destroy the red cube-like ships that seemed to fire at the big ship as well. There was a mecha-type craft that was having some trouble with its own enemy.

Without any second thoughts, the team swooped into the battle, their own lasers ablaze.

Inside the Nirvana, their sensors bleeped as they detected the appearance of five new ships. At first, the crew at the deck seemed skeptical, while Magno just watched on tensely. The old woman was hoping they weren't enemies, because they were already having some trouble with the current one. It seemed that the Harvesters developed a weapon that was equally fast and was capable of stealth technology. Hibiki and Dita were having a hard time fighting it, as the others took care of the smaller cube-types.

Magno released a huge sigh of relief as the newcomers attacked some of the Harvester drones, effectively destroying them. She also took note that the designs of the five ships were a bit like those of their Dreads.

The Nirvana's communications window lit up, and the face of Mint greeted them all. "Uhmm... hello there. Ah... are you the ones in the Lost Technology?"

BC was skeptical at best. "Lost Technology?"

The blue-haired girl nodded. "Hai. I mean the ship we detected that seemed to possess technology from long ago."

Magno answered at this point. "Yes, child, you are correct. This was once a vessel from Earth, hundreds of years ago. We named it Nirvana,
after we took it back from those who tried to possess and use it for war."

Mint's face brightened at that. "Yatta! We were not expecting inhabitants in the Lost Technology, and we thought we would grasp at straws trying to understand how it works. It seems Kami-sama blessed us with luck this time." A small explosion rocked her ship as the view shook for a moment. "We'll talk later... right now we'll have to beat the enemies."

Suddenly, they were interrupted when a loud signal suddenly lit up,
alerting them of an escape pod blasting off from the Nirvana. Everyone looked confused as to why it was so, since they haven't been beaten yet.

Near the escape pod's entry point, Ranma held Meia and the baby close to his body in reflex.

They were about to go to the bridge where it's safer when the ship shook violently, making Meia lose her balance. Ranma on the other hand didn't even flinch when the ship vibrated, along with Rin-Ohki perched on his head. He saw Meia, with the baby in her arms, stagger to one side.
Meia's hand suddenly shot forward in a vain attempt to balance herself.
Because of this, her hand accidentally pressed a large red button on the adjacent wall, making her open a circular door that happens to be the wall Meia was about to reorganize her equilibrium.

Ranma's arms shot out all of the sudden, grabbing Meia's flinging arms in an attempt to stop her backwards movement. It was totally successful,
with Ranma hugging Meia gently, pulling her away from the circular door.
Sure enough, the exit closed itself, and a loud explosion from behind the closed door followed it.

A viewscreen on the wall suddenly flared to life, with BC's worried face on it. "What happened? An escape pod suddenly left the Nirvana, is everything alright?" BC's voice cackled from the communicator.

Meia was still trying to catch her breath when Ranma decided to answer for her, "Meia almost got caught in that pod, along with Ezra's baby. I guess I just pulled her out of it when the pod escaped."

"I... I see..." BC was relieved, according to the emotion on her voice.
The screen finally went to static before shutting off.

Ranma finally noticed that he still held Meia's trembling form. He tried to pull away, but Meia's body unconsciously followed. In a soothing voice, he said, "You're safe now, Meia."

The girl snapped out of her trance and gazed at Ranma's eyes. She replied in a soft voice, "T-Thank y-you..." Seeing herself still in his arms, she slowly pulled away from him.

Ranma backed away a bit from her, also a little embarrassed at the awkward situation. His tail was even twitching from side to side, while Rin-Ohki watched in amusement.

Back to the battle outside, the only enemy left was the fast squid-like cruiser that disappears from view when it is targeted. Hibiki and Dita was having a hard time fighting it. When they finally have a lock on unto it, it ripples out of existence and reappears only when it was going to blast them with its laser. Vandread Dita was already heavily damaged and was starting to lose power. Irritated, Hibiki finally had enough and immediately took his hand from the controllers,
simultaneously immobilizing the Vandread.

It was an ancient technique, used by weaker and slower prey to attack their predators. It was the 'Play Dead for Now, Attack When the Enemy's Guard is Down' method.

The Vandread lay vulnerable and open as the cruiser kept on battering it with its armaments, but it didn't notice that the intervals it was going invisible was starting to waver. After five minutes of blasting and almost no movement was detected, the cruiser finally sped up and prepared to ram its sharpened point into the Vandread.

All those who were watching screamed for Dita as they watched the final enemy speared towards the Vandread, but at the last moment Hibiki finally held the controls and caught the tip of the cruiser with two hands. Holding it into place, he willed the two cannons on his back to life and blasted the enemy, obliterating it out of existence.

The five newcomers were awed at the destructive power of the giant blue mecha that emerged unscathed from the explosion.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

"Uhmm... hello. We're the Galaxy Angels, from three galaxies across the western quadrant sector of the universe. We do odd jobs and collect Lost Technology for our headquarters. I am Mint Bramansche." The blue haired girl with weird long ears bowed curtly in front of the crew of the Nirvana.

It was two hours after the battle, when everything finally settled down.
Magno invited the five girls into the ship, since they were also interested in the so-called Lost Technology that they seem to have referred the ship with.

When Mint stepped back, the tallest red-haired girl wearing a hat and a monocle on one eye stepped up and waved lazily. "Forte Schutolien, at your service. I must say, you have some nice weapons in here."

The second tallest blond haired girl with large white hairpins stepped forward. Her forehead was decorated with a dark blue inverted triangle tattoo with a small dot on the bottom. She was dressed in a tight-fitting red dress. She looked around and sighed, "My name's Ranpha Flambois. All of you are women here? No men? Well, aside from that small scrawny guy with the redhead, that goofy-looking bald guy... what's up with that anyway? And that okay tall guy... but I think he's already taken by that four-eyed nerdy girl by his side..."

"HEY!" Hibiki, Bart and Parfait almost exploded, if not for several of the crewmembers holding them back.

BC put her hands on her hips as she said nonchalantly, "Well we have at least those three me..." An elbow in her ribs made her amend the statement, "I mean, four men... we recently acquired another man in our travels. Our civilization may differ from yours, because we have lived without men for years. Our women were brought up thinking that men bring diseases or something. But recently, we have been in contact with them ever since."

Ranpha gaped at her. "N-No men! That's absurd!"

BC snorted. "Maybe to you, but to us it makes some sense, at least before we got into contact with them once again. Our planet, Mejer, used cloning technology to make reproduction between women a possibility. We were forced to co-exist with the men in here while we're trying to locate our home system. The men are in the same boat, growing up in an environment where they thought women were cannibals that eat men's livers."

"No... men..." Ranpha was shocked at that information.

A pink-haired young girl stepped up next, smiling brightly with her blue eyes sparkling. She straightened up as she said cheerfully, "Hello! My name's Milfeuille Sakura, age seventeen! I'm so happy to be here! Do you like tea? How about cakes? I love cakes, especially those with those cute icing on top..." She rattled on about cakes, ice cream, cooking tips... you get the point.

Everyone sweatdropped at the hyper girl that was no different from a bunny in an adrenaline rush. After fifteen minutes of talking,
Milfeuille finally managed to stop talking, simply because she lost energy to do so.

A rather stoic girl, surprisingly more serious than Meia was before,
with cyan ponytailed hair bowing slightly forward. Her eyes were blood red in color, and her head was adorned with a white headdress.

"Vanilla Ash." The girl said curtly, her face never betraying a single emotion.

Ranpha rolled her eyes and added bluntly, "Before we came here, she's been mumbling about someone Kami-sama. I think she believes Kami-sama's in this place. Is there someone like that in here?"

Magno's brows raised considerably. "Kami-sama? Here? Where did you get that thought?"

Ranpha shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. I really didn't believe it all that much. I mean, what are the chances of... HELLO! Who's that guy!"

Everyone turned to look at the approaching pair of Ranma and Meia, with Ezra's baby on tow and Rin-Ohki perched on Ranma's shoulder. Ranma suddenly looked up and noticed the attention set on them. He raised his hands in the air and said quickly, "Whatever it is, I didn't do it! I just got here for crying out loud!"

"WAI!" Milfeuille appeared on Ranma's side, curiously peering at Rin-Ohki. "I'm Milfeuille! That's so cute! What's its name?"

"Uhhh..." Ranma looked helplessly at Magno, who was stifling a laugh. He gazed back to the pink-haired girl and replied, "Well, she's Rin-Ohki."

Milfeuille clasped her hands together. "Can I hold her, pleeeeaaaaase!"

Ranma sweatdropped. "O-Okay... just don't drop her or anything." He reached up to his shoulder and looked Rin-Ohki in the eyes, saying, "Are you okay with this?"

"MIYAAAAH!" Rin-Ohki replied happily.

He chuckled and handed Rin-Ohki over to the pink-haired girl, who quickly petted the adorable silver furred creature in her arms.

Ranma turned to ask something, but stopped cold when he found himself faced with the cyan haired girl, who was looking at him with curious red eyes.

"Okaay... this is getting freaky." Ranma said softly.

Magno finally spared him the embarrassment. "Ranma, I would like you to meet Milfeuille, Mint, Forte, Ranpha, and of course, the lovely young lady in front of you is Vanilla..." She gestured to each with her hand.
"These are five Galaxy Angels, who came from another galaxy to inspect our ship. I think they are from the other colony ships that escaped the Earth years back. They are interested in Earth's technologies, or what they call Lost Technology right now."

Ranma nodded. "I see... more survivors of... uhhmm... Vanilla-san?" He started to feel nervous when Vanilla touched his forehead with her hand,
as if searching for something.

The girl gasped and stepped back, her face lighting up much to her companion's shock. Vanilla reared back and bowed to the waist,
declaring, "Kami-sama! I finally found you!"

Everyone fell silent at that. It was bound not to last.

"EEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Ranpha pointed to Ranma. "You mean this hunk of a man is the one you've been pining about since we left headquarters!"

Forte whistled. "You have to admit, she's got good taste."

Mint blushed at the implications. "Forte-san! Ranpha-san! Don't tease her like that!"

BC and Gascogne were chuckling hard. It was a rather funny thought.

Magno guffawed as she thumped her chest, laughing at Ranma's luck so far.

Dita, Jura, Barnette, and the rest of the crew just stared blankly at the pale Ranma.

"You know... Washuu-sensei mentioned the same thing back in Pluto"
Misty said, tapping her chin with her index finger.

Meia looked at Ranma thoughtfully, humming, "Hmmmm... you know,
Kami-sama seems to fit you for some reason. I mean with all your abilities, I won't be surprised at all."

"Uhm, actually, it was my mom who is the goddess." Ranma said meekly,
too softly for anyone to hear as he tried to clarify, but if he tried to think about it, that will make him a god as well. We do know thinking was not a strong point for Ranma anyway.

"Mister Alien is Kami-sama!" Three guesses who THAT was.

"I'm NOT Mister Alien!" Ranma retorted hotly. Then he paused for a moment to think about it. "Oh, wait... you're right. I am a Mister Alien."

Meia eyed him evilly. "Oh? So you DO admit you're Kami-sama?"

Ranma bristled at that. "What! NO! What makes you think I'm Kami-sama anyway! And for that matter, why are we even talking about this!"

Meia just smiled cutely at him, holding little Karua close to her breast.

Suddenly, the whole area was filled with loud wails of sirens signifying an attack.

"Enemies already? We just defeated them a while ago!" Jura moaned as she started to walk towards her Dread. Meia wordlessly handed Karua to Pyoro, who has been pestering her since she entered the room with the baby in her arms, and started to follow the blond. Hibiki, Dita and Barnette, as well as the other Dread pilots sighed tiredly and started to go to their own Vanguard and ships as well.

They were stopped when Ezra's voice filled the comms. "Ano, Captain,
there's a ship right beside ours. It seems to be hailing us."

Magno's face reflected a curious look as she replied, "Patch us through,
we may be able to avoid a conflict this time."

A high-pitched voice echoed all over the ship as it said,
"Ohayoooooooooo minna-san! How are you? Is my cuddly-wuddly Ranma-chan in there?"

"Cuddly... wuddly... pyoro?" The white egg-shaped robot turned to stare at Ranma, with the giggling Karua in his arms.

Everyone turned once again to Ranma as well, who stood up straight with a strange look on his face. His right brow was twitching rather violently as he sweatdropped. His tail was swaying quickly from side to side, to which Mint, Ranpha, and Forte were staring at right now.

Vanilla just remained fixated at Ranma's face.

"MIYAAAH!" Rin-Ohki squealed in Milfeuille's arms, apparently glad that Washuu was there already.

"That... that voice..." Ranma had a funny feeling who that was. Only one person has that kind of a deceptively sweet and annoying voice.

The voice answered back with an excited tone in it. "Is that you in there, my lovely guinea pig? It's been a long time, my Ranma-chan! I finally found you!"

"I sometimes wished you hadn't." Ranma said softly, but the smile on his face says that he didn't mean it at all.

Washuu replied back, "I am SUCH a genius! But of course, I AM the greatest scientist in the whole universe! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ranma could actually sense the two puppets on her shoulders popping out and throwing confetti all over, declaring praises to Washuu, even when the communications was voice-only.

"That's Washuu?" Magno asked, her face screwed with disbelief.

Misty nodded sagely. "Yep, Washuu-sensei has such an ego that even a black hole can't suck it all up." A small bead of sweat rolled down on the back of her head anyway. The yellow holographic blob Q that appeared outside her earrings nodded with Misty.

Everyone facefaulted at that.

"Uhmm... Washuu... chan?" Ranma asked hesitantly, his sweatdrop returning with a vengeance as well.

Washuu continued her cackling laughter in the comm channel.

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

To Be Continued...

O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O - O

Author Rants:

Sorry if this took longer than it should. I learned that wounding your index finger by the tip hurts a little, but it constricted typing speed to a bare minimum since the small wound was always pressed or something.
Who knew a little cut would give me that much trouble? I cut myself while chopping vegetables for a good beef veggie noodle soup.

My companion laughed so hard about it. She says it was the first time she has ever seen me fumble like that. It was all her fault too, making side comments about stuff bearing the R-18 rating.

Anyway.

A lot of things were prevented in this Vandread AU. We all know Ranma wouldn't allow anyone to get hurt, especially if he knew he could do something about it.

Whew. Making the history Ranma missed while he was in limbo turned out to be a chore. It was rather long. But it's now kinda understandable what the heck happened.

Sailor Moon and the other scouts remained dormant in the Parallel World,
because of the appearance of the aliens featured in Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure. Beryl seemed to have lost her will to attack, how the heck should she react on these gigantic things?

Yes, it's all Ranma's fault. His mere presence put the time line in a loop within loop craziness.

Tenchi was still strong, although the lack of Ryoko's presence changed a lot of things. Instead of killing Kagato, he ended up just hurting the villain enough to put Kagato into retreat mode. Also, instead of going after Ryoko, Kagato went after Washuu.

So, where the heck did Ryoko go? And the Juraians too?

Feh. You'll find out in the next subchapter.

Just a thought... with Ranma traveling in that limbo, he could very well be thousands of years old, since who knows if he's trapped in there or just passing through? Huh? What the heck am I talking about?

There are now two perspectives in Ranma's real age. One is according to those he met in the future after he got out of the limbo, the other is his perspective. But can we really trust Ranma's perspective, since he will live a long long LONG time.

NEXT SUBCHAPTER: Washuu finally found her Ranma-chan, but she can't return him to the past just yet. WHY? Oh! They need to return to Earth!

The secrets of the Paeksis will finally be revealed, as well as Ranma's role in the grand scheme of things. It will shock Ranma to the core when he finds out the truth about them. Everyone gets sucked into this scheme as long as they are in contact with Ranma. What will they do?

They will stumble upon a planet plagued by another familiar energy signature, which was also in the middle of a war. Stand Tall and Shake the Heavens! The Legend of the False God will unfold!

Just what is Vanilla Ash's relationship with Ranma?

Ja ne.

- Lord Rance

In case you need my email for some reason at all, those who will send flames, well, I'll just douse it with my trusty bucket of cold water!

"I swear! This ain't what it looks like!" - Ranma Saotome