Part of me wishes I had a more meaningful life. The other part wants a banana.

The pain hit me and I couldn't think, couldn't move. It was worse than anything I'd ever had before in my short memory, like being stabbed with a burning knife over and over and it wouldn't stop.

Something in my mind registered that I was the one making the awful screaming and I tried to stop before hitting the ground and beginning again with the new worse pain. I couldn't see though I knew my eyes were open.

'Ryoga…' The thought hit me and I groaned and tried to move. I needed to see that my all of this pain was for something. Then, blissfully, my eyes caught a blurry view of my companion and I was safe to slip into unconsciousness.

XXXXXXX

It had been hours as far as Ryoga could tell, but he couldn't stop, not for the pain in his legs or the sleep-deprivation fogging his brain. Ranma's heartbeat shuddered faintly against his chest.

Bum… bum… bum… silence for a few seconds, Ryoga's panicked grip on her cooling body tightened, bum… bum…; this continued late into the night, until finally the trees thinned. Finally there were lights ahead. Ryoga didn't know how but he'd managed to get to a town.

The boy's strength gave out at the first house and he collapsed on his back with Ranma still cradled in his arms in front of the door, out of it almost instantly.

'She'll be ok'

XXXXXXX

The world was slowly coming into blurry focus; he struggled to remember where he was, and why he hurt all over. When it came back to him, Ryoga sat up straight, much to the protest of his muscles.

He was in an old fashioned hut and under him was a straw mat. Weirder was the fact that his normal clothes were gone and under his blanket he was dressed only in old-fashioned forest green hakamas. The top jacket to the outfit was beside him and Ryoga grabbed it before stepping outside.

Nothing much fazed him anymore since meeting Ranma but the scene outside was crazier than anything he'd seen thus far. The village around him was completely devoid of any technology. The men all had the same topknot in their hair and everyone was wearing traditional clothes. Then he spotted the weirdest thing yet.

Across from him leaning against a building was a… something. He was obviously male, and just as obviously not human. Bright silver hair flowed all the way down his back and his bright red clothes stuck out like a sore thumb among all of the other colors of brown and grey, and his dog ears pricked forward at the sound of the door mat opening; Ryoga only had seconds to take this in however before gold eyes were matching his from two feet away.

"Keh, bout' time you woke up, Kagome's been up all night, wearin' herself out, tryin' t' save your friend." Ryoga blinked at the guy's accusatory look, and then realized what the man was saying.

"Ranma's okay then?" Ryoga tried not to sound too concerned but it still must have showed, the man's look softened slightly and he turned away.

"Lucky to be alive is what she is, follow me." He led Ryoga to a different hut not too far from the one where he first woke up. Ryoga took this chance to put on the hoari top and was surprised at how light and soft it was. Then they were there.

"Oi, Kagome! That other guy woke up!" There was some scuffling noise from inside and a girl's voice called,

"Just a second!" The mat was pushed aside and a regular teen-age girl was standing there. She wore a green and white school uniform and looked completely worn out, there were shadows under her brown eyes, but she smiled at him cheerily. "Good morning! Your friend's right in here. She had a rough night but I think she'll be alright."

Ryoga followed her into the dim hut and waited for his eyes to adjust. Ranma's small form lay on a futon in the back corner. He walked over and sat down beside her to get a better look.

The blanket was pulled up to her chin for privacy but Ryoga could still see that her color was a lot healthier than it had been. Her hand was warm and her pulse beat steadily against his hand when he checked it.

"When will she wake up?" Ryoga turned to the girl, Kagome.

"Could be an hour, could be a day." She sighed, "I'm not really an expert on the subject." Ryoga went to next most important question when she was done.

"Where are we? Are we near Tokyo?" Ryoga had some questions for the Tendos on why Ranma was a permanent girl with no memories.

"You know about Tokyo?!" She sounded shocked. "That means you must be from the future too… that's weird. I wondered, I mean your clothes, but it was so unlikely…" she babbled on, ignoring Ryoga's skeptical look.

"Okay, this is the past. I don't know exactly what time you're from, because your clothes are Chinese, but defiantly from the future. What year was it when you last checked." She looked at him expectantly and Ryoga racked his brain for the year, he didn't usually get to look at a calendar much.

"I think it was about nineteen-ninety. Last I checked."

"Okay you're from eighteen years in the past from me then and about four hundred-eighty years from your time here." Ryoga was astonished, if this girl was telling the truth, and she had no reason for lying, then they were much further from home than he first thought.

"There was this thing before, a monster or something. It did this." Ryoga gestured toward Ranma, who hadn't moved through their whole conversation. "What was it?"

"That was a demon." The dog-man answered for Kagome. "You were stupid to take it on, with just you two humans. You're lucky it didn't eat ya both."

Ryoga bristled at the apparent blow to his martial arts skills, but decided to let it go. He was too tired now anyways.

"Is there any way for us to get back to our own time?" If he realized he was subconsciously including Ranma, he didn't react on it.

"Well, I use the Bone-eaters well. It may work for you too, but then you'd be in my time." Ryoga shook his head as images of all the people he knew eighteen years older flashed through his head.

"No, that wouldn't work; we'll have to find another way." The room's atmosphere suddenly changed when Ranma sat up and gasped in pain.

"Lay back down! You're gonna open your wounds!" Ryoga and Kagome said in unison and looked at each other, surprised.

Ranma turned blurry vision on Ryoga with a stubborn set to her mouth, but did as he asked.

"Where're we? An' who're they?" She managed with effort, to ask. It was apparent her wounds were reopened by her sudden movement before; blood was beginning to stain the bandages that wrapped her chest.

"You're not gonna believe me, but we're like five-hundred years in the past from our time." Ryoga chuckled as he said this, realizing how crazy it sounded and was surprised when Ranma joined in.

"What's weirder is that I can't tell the difference. I don't remember that other time." She wheezed, "On another note, how bad off am I?"

"You have severe to minor acid burns along your chest and shoulders, some to the bone deep. It'll probly take some time to heal, six weeks at least." Kagome answered her in a brisk tone before standing, "I'll go get you some more herbs for the pain."

She walked out and Inuyasha followed her with a "keh".

"Oi, Ryoga?"

"Ya?" Ranma smirked at him.

"Why have you been holding my hand this whole time?" Ryoga looked down and sure enough he was cradling her, much smaller, hand in his. He'd forgotten to let go when he checked her pulse before and he proceeded to let go try to explain, which only made her smirk grow into a full ear-to-ear grin.

"Excuses, excuses Ryoga-kun." She teased in an overly girly voice that made Ryoga's face redden, but later, when Kagome returned with the medicine, they were both on the floor laughing like maniacs.

Somehow they'd become friends, and, Ryoga reasoned to himself, in some ways she isn't even like Ranma. So it was okay.

Lol I like the end a lot!