Gamer4 in, and welcome, once more, to the fanfiction that promises to never keep you waiting more than 7-8 months for the next update! Huzzah! *sighs.* I know there's no way I can possibly say sorry enough, guys, but believe me, I'm pretty upset about this one, too. I remember back when I first set out on this mission- I was getting one segment of this story out every day, and then suddenly... I dropped the ball, and dropped it The truth is, while I had a general idea of what I was doing when I set out, I didn't have as fully thought-out a plan of action as I've had for some of my more... complete stories. At some point, I got lost within my own script, and couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted this story to proceed. I knew point A and B, but the middle was just this tangled mess of lines that I couldn't sort out. And then, it seemed like others were starting to lose interest, and I started to lose interest, and it was just... not good for anyone. However, recently, I got back into a Live A Live craze, started playing the heck out of that game once more, and started filling in the blanks in the back of my mind of how this story was going to go. With a renewed interest, I now sit in front of my computer, ready to continue this story, and this time, follow it through to completion. I know I've said that before, but this time for real- I know exactly how the rest of this story is going to go, and no more farting around- by the end of this month, this story is finally going to be finished! No more stumbling around at the finish line, this time for real- two or three weeks from now, this story will be complete! Now that I've pumped myself up a bit, let's plunge right in!
Disclaimer: Ain't nobody got time for these! Let's go!
Chapter V
The Labyrinth
Akane was asleep, resting with her hands over her chest, gently rising and falling with her breath. In the chair nearby, Fireheart had curled up into a ball, whose sides were rising and falling in sync with his roommate. KOS-MOS, as a robot, had simply powered down, limiting herself to basic functions for the night until she needed to awaken and return to full power. It seemed relatively peaceful, until the door burst open and Shinji appeared, calling out, "Wake up, guys! We need to meet up right now!"
Akane snapped up, sitting bolt upright in her bed. "What are you doing here, you-"
"No time to explain here!" Shinji explained in a rush. "I need to go get Link and Harry..."
As he rushed off, Ness appeared behind him. "Sorry," he noted apologetically. "Picked up a newspaper to see if we could find out where we are, and he's been like that ever since- sprinted back up here, said we had to call a meeting right away... so, I guess we'll just meet up in the same room as last time, a'ight?" With that, he turned and dashed off again.
Looking severely agitated, Akane turned to see Fireheart stretching himself out. "I assume you heard, too, then?"
"Kind of hard to not hear it," Fireheart pointed out. "Even as deep of a sleeper as I am- and believe me, you need to be a deep sleeper to sleep next to Graystripe every night."
Akane turned to KOS-MOS, who was still slumped in her bed, eyes closed and unresponsive. "Come on, KOS-MOS, get up," Akane muttered, moving to her side and shaking her.
Immediately, the robot snapped to life. "Shion?" she asked as she sat up. Turning, she saw Akane instead. "Oh. Yes. I momentarily forgot. What is it?"
"Shinji's calling another meeting," Akane explained quickly. "Sounds pretty serious, we should get going right away."
With that, she led the three out of the room and down the hall.
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"Harry! Link!"
The aforementioned wizard and warrior turned as they heard their names being called, drawing their wand and sword respectively as they noted the urgency behind the shout. They momentarily lowered their defences when they realized who it was. "What is it, Shinji?" Harry asked.
"Meeting! In the same room as last night! Now!" Shinji repeated, before turning and dashing downstairs. Link had just barely enough time to note a large sheaf of paper in the boy's hand before he was out of sight once more.
"I wonder what's gotten into him?" Harry wondered.
"I don't know," came the gasping voice of Ness as he made his way up the stairs to the roof. "He's been panicked... ever since... we found that paper..."
"Paper?" Link repeated, confused, as Harry smacked himself in the face.
"Of course- why didn't I think of that?" he muttered. "There should be a paper around here that could tell us where we are!"
"We found one," Ness agreed. "We found the name of this city, then Shinji just... well, snapped. Come on, let's go see what he's found out."
He beckoned them forward and led them down the stairs into the main hotel.
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Eventually, they were all gathered around the same table as before- Ness collapsed into his seat, breathing heavily in an effort to return his heart rate to normal, Fireheart standing erect on the table, and the others in varying states of sleepiness or alertness. Shinji stood at the head of the table, pacing around agitatedly. "I should have realized it before- this city looks exactly like cities still uninhabited after Second Impact! The old buildings, the red sky... everything's the same!"
"So, what are you saying?" Akane asked. "That whatever time we're in, it's after the Impact?"
"It's not just the time," Shinji waved her comment aside. "It's the city! This is Jump City!"
He paused, gazing around at everyone's faces. However, none of them showed any recognition. "And...?" Akane prompted.
"Sorry," Shinji shook his head. "I forgot that... we're from different time periods... Jump City was the first city to be affected by Second Impact!"
"What?" Harry gasped. "You mean, this city we're in right now... that's where the meteor crashed down?"
"No..." Shinji shook his head again, suddenly looking uncomfortable. "Not... as such..."
Ness cleared his throat and spoke up. "On the subject of things I picked up before you guys told me to stop reading minds..." he looked uncharacteristically serious as Shinji turned his attention towards him, more uncomfortable than before, "Why not tell us the truth this time, Shin?"
"You were lying to us before?" Link asked, sounding more confused than angry.
"Y... yes..." Shinji admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "The thing is... the true cause of Second Impact is a top secret, even in NERV... I wasn't comfortable..."
A long silence hung over the table. Finally, Harry broke it. "I understand," he nodded. "At first, I wasn't going to tell any of you about... well, about magic... I only did after I was sure there was no other way. So... Shinji... what really caused Second Impact?"
"Humans," Shinji admitted. "We discovered this... this creature living under the ice in Antarctica. The first angel- Adam. We were running experiments on him when suddenly he... he woke up. Nobody expected it, nobody could have seen it coming, but when he woke up, it caused this great outburst of power, and... and that's what caused Second Impact. The meteor story is just what they feed us in school."
Everyone stared at him for a moment, then Akane raised her hands. "Okay, okay, hold up- back up!" she shook her head. "Something about that doesn't make sense- if this city was the first to get hit by Second Impact, and Second Impact started in Antarctica... don't you think this place would be a little... colder?"
"Huh?" Shinji asked, clearly confused.
"I think I see what you're saying," Harry nodded. "I've never heard of this city before, but do you know where it is, Shinji?"
"Um... somewhere close to New York City, I think..."
"That's pretty far from Antarctica," Ness nodded. "I mean, I'm not a geography whiz, by any means, but I don't think those two places are even on the same side of the planet. You'd think that there would be one or two cities that got hit first, wouldn't you?"
Shinji opened and closed his mouth, looking like a fish out of water.
"Furthermore," came a curt voice, drawing everyone's attention to KOS-MOS, "according to my historical database, Jump City experienced a cataclysm several years prior to Second Impact. Whatever happened here, I do not believe it is related."
"But... but..."
"Where did you hear about Jump City being the first place to be affected by this... Second Impact?" Fireheart asked, tilting his head.
"From... from school... it's part of that speech the teacher's always spouting 24/7..."
"And the information provided by this teacher is always fully reliable?" KOS-MOS asked, clearly scrutinizing him closely.
"N...no..."
"Of course not," Harry shook his head. "You just told us that he's the one telling you about how Second Impact was caused by a meteor. Sounds about as reliable as Professor Binns, really."
"Though, that idea does raise some disturbing implications," KOS-MOS spoke up, drawing everyone's attention once more.
"What do you mean, KOS-MOS?" Link asked, gazing down the table at the android.
"According to the information provided by Shinji, the devastation within this city is identical to the devastation caused by Second Impact," KOS-MOS recalled. "If we are to accept this as true, as Ness has suggested we should, but we also accept the truth that this city was unaffected by Second Impact- or, at the very least, its current state was not a result of Second Impact- then we are left with only one conclusion."
"I don't get it," Akane shook her head. "Isn't that a contradiction?"
"Not quite," KOS-MOS shook her head. "There is one way to resolve the contradiction- we know that this is the city from which Raven emerged to strike at our worlds. Last night, we speculated on what might have occurred in her hometown. If Second Impact did not cause this city's current state of decay, then the only thing that could have..."
"You mean... you mean Raven did this? To her own city?!" Shinji gasped.
"Why not?" Link scowled at the table, his arms crossed. "You've seen the way she thinks of others- why should those she shares her home with be any different?"
"Yeah," Ness mused, "but I think the emphasis- for me, at least- is on the fact that she's even capable of doing something like this. Just how powerful is this woman?"
A very uncomfortable silence ensued, everyone staring at the others. Finally, however, Link spoke up. "I've faced stronger."
"What?" Shinji gulped, turning his attention to the green-clad warrior.
"I've faced stronger," Link repeated. "When I was very young, Hyrule faced a threat capable of leveling an entire kingdom. Once the people of Hyrule united against it, however... it did not last long."
Another moment of silence, and Ness spoke up as well, grinning. "And compared to Giygas, I'm sure this Raven woman will be a pushover- at least she's got an actual, physical form!"
"And just what is this... 'Giygas?'" Fireheart asked.
"Ah, he was this big ol' monster threatening all life on earth," Ness shrugged. "When we let him out of his machine, he turned into this big mass of energy- or maybe he was turning into his own dimension- we really don't know for sure, it was a weird fight. All I'm saying is, compared to that, taking out Raven should be cake!"
"I'm certainly not going to stand here and just let her do what she wants," Akane growled, rising to her feet. "I don't care how powerful she is, she'll go down with a good punch to the face like anyone else!"
Harry smiled. "That's certainly the right spirit," he acknowledged. "And if all of you are going... I'm certainly not going to stay behind."
"The difference in power level between us and Raven is inconsequential," KOS-MOS agreed. "Even were it more than nine thousand, she placed Shion's life in danger. For that, she will pay."
"Indeed," Fireheart spoke up. "She has acted like a misbehaving apprentice, as though the warrior code is nothing more than her plaything. She must be brought to justice for her crimes."
Which only left Shinji. Everyone turned to him, and he turned red as he realized he was back in the limelight. "Um... well... if you guys are going to stop her... I won't stay behind."
"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Ness cheered, thumping him on the back. "Well, I think we're all rested up, and we can think of a plan on the way- what say we get going to that tower already?"
A vote ran around the group, and, with a unanimous agreement, they finally left the hotel, and, using the large T-shaped tower as their guide, began making their way through the mazelike city.
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However, despite Ness's optimism, counterbalanced by Shinji's pessimism, Link and Fireheart's gift for strategy, Akane's strength, KOS-MOS's intelligence, and Harry's constantly-turning mind all working together, they were still unable to think of a plan by the time they'd arrived at the waterside, gazing up at the tower, erected on an island a mile or so off the mainland. "Well," Akane muttered, gazing across the water, so still it could be used as a mirror, "I thought we'd at least get farther than this. She invites us to the tower, and she doesn't even have the courtesy to set up a bridge or something?"
"Well... how's everyone with swimming?" Link suggested.
"I would rather not," KOS-MOS stated, remarkably matter-of-factly. Nobody questioned her further.
"I agree," Fireheart nodded. "I am not a warrior of Riverclan- the water is not my territory."
Ness seemingly wasn't paying attention- he was busy scratching at his head, looking around agitatedly. He felt as though there was an itch somewhere on him, an itch that he just couldn't scratch. As he twisted and turned, trying to determine the cause, he finally ceased, his eyes widening as they spied something off in the distance.
"I don't suppose you could summon a boat or something?" Shinji suggested, glancing at Harry.
"No, sorry," Harry shook his head. "Like I said, I'm just a wizard-in-training. If we had a more powerful wizard with us right now, they might be able to set you up, but not me. If we had a boat already, I could probably magic us across, but without that..."
Akane stared across the water, looking increasingly agitated as she failed to think of any alternate methods across. "Alright, what do you think, Ness?" she finally asked.
Nobody answered. Turning, Akane repeated, "Ness?"
Everyone else turned as well, only to all come to the same conclusion- the young boy had seemingly vanished. "For crying out loud, where did he go now?!" Akane grumbled. Looking around, she spied a figure in the distance- small, but clearly their missing teammate, disappearing around a corner. "Dangit, Ness, I thought I told you to stop running so far ahead!" she growled, dashing off after him.
"Wait!" Fireheart yowled after her. Shaking his head, he grumbled, "What part of 'stick together' don't you twolegs understand?" before dashing off after them, his four legs carrying him much more swiftly.
"Not this again," Harry muttered, dashing off after them, Link and KOS-MOS hot on his tail, and with Shinji, looking extremely off-put, bringing up a distant rear.
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Ness dug his heels into the ground to bring himself to a stop as he rounded a corner. Normally, he'd be out of breath right now, but adrenaline was pumping through him, giving him the strength to keep going. Casting his eyes around urgently, he eventually caught sight of the figure that had distracted him to begin with- a distant figure with long, blond hair. There was something... off about her- she seemed to be shimmering in the light, and there was something off about her psychic presence, but she was definitely there. "Wait!" he called out. "Who are you?"
Heedless, the figure turned and headed off in yet another direction, leading to the young man dashing after her once more, determined to catch up.
Finally, he rounded a corner to spy the strange figure making her way into a tunnel that seemed to lead into the ground- a yawning maw that he only had very basic second thoughts about plunging into before he'd already done it, sprinting as hard as he could in pursuit of the strange figure.
Abruptly, he was running downhill, and he had to adjust his balance to prevent himself from falling over. He struggled to keep up a good pace, but the deeper into the ground the tunnel went, the less light there was to go by, and the more necessity there was to slow down to make sure he wasn't about to slam into a wall. Thankfully, the figure was remaining in view, but she was also pulling further and further ahead, the shadows enveloping her more and more as she increased the gap between them.
At long last, the tunnel leveled out, and he was running across flat ground again. The tunnel had been straight so far, with no turns or alternate routes that he'd noticed, so at least finding his way back shouldn't be an issue. But what was an issue? He was alone.
He'd just realized it- it was beginning to dawn on him just what he'd been doing the past few minutes. He'd lost the figure, and even worse, he'd lost the rest of the group. He didn't know where they were, and he didn't know if they knew where he'd gone- as far as they knew, he'd simply vanished. Looking around, he found that he was in pitch darkness- he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. Gripping his baseball bat tightly in case of danger, he quietly spoke the words, "Psi flash."
A sphere of light emerged from his forehead and floated in front of him, filling the tunnel with a brilliant light. After allowing his eyes to adjust a bit, he realized that, sure enough, the tunnel seemed to be entirely straight. In addition, it seemed like a tunnel meant for cars to travel through, complete with the paved road that he'd been running along the whole time. However, he currently had eyes only for the figure lurking just on the fringes of the light- that same blond girl, looking back at him. Slowly, she raised a hand and beckoned to him, before turning and continuing on her way. Ness weighed his options- well, this all obviously meant something. He had the feeling that, if this were a trap, he'd be able to fight his way out- and either way, the tunnel was still straight- finding his way back would be as simple as following the tunnel in the opposite direction. Moving quickly but cautiously, he set out after the figure once more.
Finally, he managed to find her, lurking on the edge of the tunnel, standing there, watching him as he approached. "We've been waiting for you," she said quietly, in a raspy voice that implied she didn't use it often.
"Who's 'we?'" Ness asked, approaching with still more caution.
And abruptly, he was surrounded. Surrounded by five figures of varying size- the blond figure who'd led him here, a young boy in a black-and-blue uniform of some sort whose skin was green, a large man whose body was comprised largely of mechanical parts, a tall woman in some kind of armor with orange skin and similarly-colored hair, and a young man with spiky black hair in an outfit of red, green, and yellow.
"Who are you?" Ness asked, dropping into a defensive stance with his bat. "Why did you lead me here? Why is there a human traffic light with you?"
The blond woman seemed off-put as she approached him- not enough to incite defensive action, but enough to make a difference. "Do you... do you recognize me?"
"Should I?" Ness asked, leaning forward for a better look. Looking her over as close as he could, he eventually found that she did seem somewhat familiar. "Wait a second... you're that girl- the one the Blue Bloods shot! What was it... Tasha... Tania... Tanea!"
The blond girl gave a smile with very little genuine happiness behind it. "Good... you have seen me before... in another life."
"Another life?"
"I've had a lot of names over the years... you weren't entirely wrong when you called me Tasha... but my first name... from before all this began... back then, my name was Terra."
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"Mouse-brains," Fireheart muttered, wandering around in the dark. "All of them- mouse-brains all the way."
He'd pursued Akane and Ness throughout this strange twolegplace for several minutes before they'd located this Starclan-forsaken tunnel, at which both of said twolegs had dashed in without a second thought. Fireheart was in the middle of cursing them- as well as himself, for following them in. A steep downward slope later, and he was lost in a dark so thick that even his feline eyes didn't help much in penetrating it. Stretching out with all his senses, he struggled to hear or smell his temporary comrades, but no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't pick out their scents.
"Harry?" he yowled out, more or less from desperation. "Link? Ness? Shinji? Akane? KOS-MOS?"
His yowl echoed back, but didn't seem to do much to help him- if anything, it made it more difficult to pick up any other noises that might help him- he elected to not call out again unless he sensed one of his comrades first.
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"Alone... you're always alone, aren't you, Shinji?" came a mocking voice through the darkness.
"No... not you..." Shinji fell to the ground, curling up into a ball. "There's enough going on here without you getting involved too!"
He was surrounded by darkness, cut off from all his friends, and, as if the day couldn't get any worse, that accursed voice in his head decided now was a good time to come back and start tormenting him.
"Friends, you call them?" the voice needled further. "For friends, they were certainly quick to abandon you, weren't they? Poor Shinji, always all alone... nobody wants to deal with a spineless coward like you..."
"I'm not a spineless coward!" Shinji objected, tears starting to gather in his eyes. "Ness said... Ness said if I was... if I was just another person... Raven wouldn't have paid me any attention! Nothing that happened with Karasu would have happened if I hadn't done something!"
"Oh," the voice sounded amused. "So Rei being blackmailed, Asuka being tortured... worthy sacrifices if you can verify your own worth in the eyes of the world?"
Shinji choked. "Of- of course not! You know that's not what I meant!"
"Wasn't it?" the voice laughed. "You can't hide your thoughts from me, Shinji... you're myself, and I'm yourself. I am the Shinji Ikari that exists in your mind..."
"Shut up!" Shinji objected, rising to his feet and sprinting off into the tunnel. "I have to find my friends!"
"Why bother?" the voice continued, absolutely scathing. "They're better off without you, right? Why don't we hear what they're saying about you right now?"
Phantom images seemed to float in front of him- Akane. "Like that worthless baka could have helped us get home anyways!"
"Indeed," Link nodded, his arms crossed. "He was only ever a hindrance, right from the beginning."
"I hate to leave a comrade behind, but he was just slowing us down too much to be worth it," Fireheart confirmed.
"From a purely logical standpoint, abandoning him in that shaft was the obvious choice," KOS-MOS voiced her agreement.
"It was a hard decision, but one we had to make," Harry nodded along with them.
"To tell the truth," Ness smiled nastily, "I was looking for a way to ditch him ever since we picked him up."
"No..." Shinji moaned, collapsing to his knees. "No... he wouldn't say that... he wouldn't say that..."
Abruptly, it occurred to him. "No... he really wouldn't say that..."
"You seem awfully sure of yourself," the voice taunted.
"No, he really wouldn't say that!" Shinji shouted, standing up again. "Last night, I tried to run out on them! I was going to come to the tower- I was going to let Raven just kill me! But he stopped me! He followed me, and begged me to stay with them! If he really wanted to get rid of me, he could have just let me go, couldn't he?"
"..." The voice, for once, was silent.
"He gave me that big speech about being who you are, and all that," Shinji recalled. "Tried to guilt me into staying, saying he wanted to finish that metaphor... if he wanted to get rid of me so badly, why did he bother? HUH?!"
More silence. "Ah, so you don't have an answer to that one, huh?" Shinji spoke up, feeling a surprising amount of defiance coursing through him. "Of course not. Now, I'm off to go and help the others- we need to find our way home!"
"Home?" the voice returned. "And where exactly is your home, Shinji?"
"Oh, give it up already, you've lost this round!" Shinji shouted back. "They want me with them, end of story!"
"But perhaps, if they knew what you were returning home to, they would suggest leaving you here as the kinder course of action..."
"What... what do you mean?" Shinji stammered out.
More phantom-figures appeared- Misato, Asuka, his father, Gendo...
"No... stop... not this again... not this...!"
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"So... where exactly are we?" Ness asked.
"This is Jump City," Terra explained. "Or rather... it was..."
"We don't know if it's even connected to the same realm as the rest of earth anymore," the figure who'd identified himself as Robin noted.
"Yes... this has become a cursed land, separated from the normal time and space of the universe," the orange girl, Starfire, explained.
"In this place, Raven's the controller of all reality," the large machine-man put in.
"And you're... Cyborg, right?" Ness pointed to him, trying to get all their names straight in his head.
"Yeah," he nodded.
"What do you mean by, she's the controller of reality?"
"As long as you're in this city, you play by her rules, is what he means," the green boy spoke up. "Any part of this city, she can change it, bend it to her own will... she was always powerful of course, but after... after that day... the day she embraced her demon blood... she became so much more powerful..."
"She destroyed the city," Robin stepped in. "Destroyed it and separated it from the rest of the universe, made it her own personal playground. As long as she's here, she's almost a god."
"After she destroyed the city, she started projecting herself across space and time," Cyborg nodded. "We didn't know exactly why, but... now we do."
"To mess with us?" Ness asked, eyes wide.
"That is what it appears," Starfire nodded. "However, it is not us that have experienced the full extent of her wrath... that would be Beastboy and Terra."
"You two?" Ness asked, pointing at the green boy and the blond girl.
"Yes," Terra nodded. "Every time she took off to another time and place, she had the two of us reincarnate there, in some new form or another. And every time, we grew up together... just so he could watch me get killed again... and again... and again... before coming back here and having some time to rest before she whisked us off to the next time and place... the Tanea you watched die was just another one of my incarnations..."
"Why?" Ness asked, eyes wide. "Why would she hate you two so much more than anyone else?"
"The truth is..." Terra faltered, as though about to admit to something very painful. "The truth is... it's my fault she's like this."
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"Akane... Akane..."
Akane glanced around, trying to locate the source of that noise. The voice sounded familiar, but it couldn't be... not here...
"Ranma?"
"Hey, Akane," the voice repeated, clearer than ever, drawing her attention to where she finally spied the boy, up on his feet in his usual Chinese clothing.
"Ranma," her eyes began to tear up. "You're okay!"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Ranma smiled. "But you've been gone a while..."
"I'm sorry," Akane admitted. "You know it wasn't my fault- the floor turned black, and it sucked me up into it..."
"Akane..." Ranma shook his head slightly as he stepped through the darkness of the tunnel towards her. "That was years ago."
"What?" Akane gasped, staring at him. "That's impossible- it's only been a day or two!"
"Years," Ranma shook his head again. "I married Ukyo, Akane."
"Ukyo?" Akane growled, anger beginning to course through her- she could feel herself turning red. "You baka... you married... her?! What about the dojo? Anything-Goes Martial Arts?"
"Well, it didn't quite work out like that," Ranma pointed out. "You disappeared, and then just never came back... what else was I supposed to do?"
Fury was washing over Akane like one tidal wave after another, but then words came floating to her, back from in that rundown hotel room... If the dispute can be solved through talking...
Akane took a deep breath, pushing the anger back down. It was drowned by a deep regret. "I... I'm sorry, Ranma," she forced out, almost feeling physical injury as she said it. "I'm sorry... we couldn't be together..."
Far from seeming relieved, Ranma seemed taken aback. "That's it?"
"What did you expect?"
"For you to get angry- call me a baka, hit me over the head with that mallet of yours..."
Akane winced. "Is that really... is that really all you think of me?"
"Well, if I were to think otherwise after all that experience, it'd make me kind of stupid, wouldn't ya say?"
Akane's head bent down. "I'm sorry... I haven't been fair to you... before... but if you're happy... with Ukyo..." She looked up, tears leaking out of her eyes. "Then I'm happy, too..."
Ranma still looked taken aback... then frowned. "Well, that wasn't supposed to happen."
"What?" Akane asked, but then had little time to react before Ranma leapt forward and grabbed her arms, pinning them to her sides.
"You're not going soft on me, are you, Akane?" he hissed. "You'll never inherit the Tendo dojo like that..."
"Ranma..." Akane gasped, "you're hurting me!"
"And you think I give a damn?!" Ranma shouted. "After all that time of you beating up on me, I'm suddenly supposed to care about you?!"
Akane felt a jolt through her body. No... that's not right... Ranma would never say something like that...
"You're not him," Akane muttered, lowering herself down, going limp.
"What's that you say?" Ranma asked, grimacing as he bent forward.
"I said... You're not RANMA!" she shouted as she swung her head up and smashed the impostor in the nose, causing him to stagger back.
"ARRRGH! What the hell?!"
Akane spun to face him. "You may look like him, but you can't actually be him! Ranma would never say those things to me! Even after everything I've done to him, he still would never do anything to hurt me, he'd always look out for me- and from now on, I'll do the same for him! And if you want to get in my way..." The anger was turning her red once more as she cracked her knuckles. "Well... I wouldn't recommend it."
The fake Ranma looked up with eyes filled anew with fear as she charged at him, yelling.
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"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry shouted out for the fifth time, and for the fifth time, a stag erupted from his wand, briefly lighting this dark tunnel and charging down the dementor that had set in on him. "This makes no sense..." he muttered to himself. "I haven't sensed dementors anywhere else in the city. Why would they be here in the first place? Did we just stumble on a hive of them or something?"
He felt another chill and a lurking sense of abject despair coming up from behind him and sighed heavily as he turned around. "EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
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"The placement of these doors is highly illogical."
"You're telling me," Link muttered, following close behind the robot whose glowing chest was currently his only light source. "A tunnel of this sort doesn't seem like it should have doors in it at all..."
"We have located another," KOS-MOS noted as she brought their march to a halt, staring at another large stone wall stretching across the tunnel, broken only by a metal door.
"Oh, good," Link muttered. "Is this one yours or mine?" Over the past several minutes, they'd located many such doors, some with a nearby key hidden for Link to find, and some with a puzzle built into the lock for KOS-MOS to solve in exchange for passage.
"Mine, it appears," KOS-MOS noted, examining a lock that seemed tied to a sliding block puzzle. Smiling slightly, she added, "Well, as Professor Layton said, 'Critical thinking is the key to success.'"
"Professor Layton?" Link asked.
"Ahead of your time," KOS-MOS brushed off, turning her attention to the puzzle. "Now, if we slide this block here, and this one here..."
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Fireheart was growing increasingly agitated as his continued expedition into the tunnel failed to yield any results. "You'd think I'd have found one of them by now... if only by accident," he muttered to himself.
Hearing a growling noise nearby, he closed his eyes. That's just Graystripe's stomach, that's just Graystripe's stomach, that's just Graystripe's stomach...
He turned, and, fighting to remain calm, came face-to-face with a large fox, followed by two cubs and a badger. It's not Graystripe's stomach, it's not Graystripe's stomach, it's not Graystripe's stomach, Holy Starclan, it's not Graystripe's stomach!
And with that, he turned and dashed off, tearing through the tunnel as fast as he could, no longer heeding his search for his comrades. Hot on his heels the whole time was the fox family and the badger.
Abruptly, the tunnel seemed to shift, turning into a maze of sorts- Fireheart swung around a corner and found himself pushed into a dead end. Spinning around, he arched his back and hissed, fluffing out his fur in an effort to make himself look larger as the creatures behind him closed in. Unfortunately, they didn't even seem to notice as they continued growling, closing in closer and closer... Fireheart closed his eyes, waiting for the blow to come...
But it never did. Opening his eyes, he found the badger and foxes attempting to swipe at him, but every time they tried, their mighty paws... simply passed right through. "I... I see..." he stuttered out, still shaken nonetheless. "They're... what did Ness call them earlier? Projections..."
Looking around, he began to doubt everything he was seeing. "And if I'm hallucinating them... what else am I hallucinating?"
Turning to the wall right next to him, he closed his eyes, guiding himself purely through sound and smell. Barred from sight, he took several steps forward, to the point he should be pressing against that wall. But he wasn't- he was continuing on as though it wasn't there. Opening his eyes once more, he saw that the maze had disappeared, along with the predators who had just been pursuing him. "Well... I see... not everything in this tunnel can be trusted..."
Abruptly, he picked up a scent he hadn't noticed before. "Shinji?" he gasped. Never before had he been so glad to catch a twoleg's scent. "Shinji!" he called out as he began sprinting in the direction of the smell.
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"And if we place this queen here... none of them are obstructing the paths of the others," KOS-MOS concluded, placing one final piece on the chessboard, and prompting the door in front of them to open.
"One more door," Link muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes furiously. "If I see one more door, I'm going to snap..."
"Link?" came a voice from the other side of the door, and they both snapped to attention to see a young, black-haired, bespectacled man approaching them, illuminated by a sphere of light at the tip of a wand.
"Harry!" Link smiled. "There aren't any more doors ahead, are there?"
"What do you mean, more doors?" Harry asked, looking confused.
"We just passed through twenty or more," Link recalled, looking back... to see an empty tunnel.
"It would seem we have been hoodwinked," KOS-MOS noted.
"I know the feeling," Harry nodded. "It seems like everything that's happened since I came down here has just been one trick after another. Come on, we need to find the others."
The three joined together and set off down the tunnel in the opposite direction Harry had just been travelling.
XXXX
"Daddy's gonna beat you, boy, oh, yes... Daddy's gonna beat you," came Gendo Ikari's voice as he approached his son, looking absolutely menacing.
"No- stay away! Stay away!" Shinji cried, going into a panic as he struggled to stay as far away from the image of his father as possible.
"I just want you to be stronger, my boy," Gendo smirked. "Strong, so you can be your own man, pilot Evangelion, and never run away..."
"Shinji!" came a call through the tunnel, and Shinji desperately turned around to see Fireheart sprinting out of the darkness.
"Fireheart!"
"Oh, my boy, you are pathetic," Gen do taunted, his smirk becoming wider and nastier than ever. "Turning to a cat for help? How low will you sink-"
"Shut it, elder, the warriors are talking," Fireheart snarled at him, before turning to Shinji. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not... I'm not physically hurt..."
"This piece of foxdung has been tormenting you, then?"
"Y... yes..."
"In that case, I'll have to ask you to stop," Fireheart frowned, turning on Gendo. "We warriors usually don't take kindly to others picking on our apprentices- even that apprentice's family."
"A-apprentice?" Shinji gasped out.
"Funny," Gendo's smirk became a snarl. "For a moment, I thought I was being told off by a cat."
"You are," Fireheart agreed. "Why not do something about it?"
Gendo froze, gazing down in increasing anger.
"You can't, can you?" Fireheart taunted him right back. "You aren't even really here- just another projection. I can't smell you, you can't hurt us. Come on, Shinji, we're going to find the others."
Gendo's snarl became a grimace. "Boy, you stay right where you are!"
"I... I..." Shinji turned from one to the other.
"Boy, when I tell you to do something, you do it!"
"Wrong answer!" came a shout, and Gendo's form suddenly vanished as a leg passed through it. Behind him was the figure of...
"Akane!" both Shinji and Fireheart gasped.
"Sorry, buddy," Akane threw a disgusted look at where Gendo had been standing just a moment before, "but I don't take kindly to people picking on my friends. Not even myself... anymore."
"Akane!" Shinji cried, leaping forward and clinging to her like she was a life preserver in the middle of the ocean. For a moment, Akane looked furious, but then, to everyone's surprise, she wrapped her arms around Shinji and hugged him back.
"Sorry it took so long to find you guys again," Akane muttered. "When we find Ness, I'm gonna kill him."
"Hey! Over here!" came a shout from elsewhere in the tunnel, and they turned to see a pair of lights approaching- eventually revealed to be Harry and KOS-MOS, standing side-by-side with Link.
"And then there were six," Fireheart gave a pleased mew. "Over here!"
As they all re-united, Akane asked the obvious question. "So... has anyone seen the idiot who got us into this mess in the first place?"
"Ness?" Harry asked. "No, haven't seen him yet."
"I suppose we should go deeper into the tunnel, then," Akane muttered reluctantly. "He definitely came in here, and if nobody's passed him yet..."
"Everyone keep their senses ready," Fireheart noted. "This place is trying to trick us, to make us lose our way..."
Everyone agreed as they set off further into the tunnel.
Nothing further of note happened until the various lights of the group fell on a set of shimmering figures in the distance. "Is that Ness?" Link wondered, squinting in an effort to see better.
"Only one way to find out," Fireheart noted, tearing off towards said figures. Everyone else followed close behind, and arrived just in time to hear Terra saying, "The truth is... it's my fault she's like this."
"Ness Locke!" Akane raged as she came into view. "What did we say about sticking together?!"
"Sorry guys," Ness nodded sheepishly. "But look! I found some new friends!"
The others who were catching up gave starts as they saw the strange new five figures standing around Ness. "Who are you?" Link asked suspiciously, reaching for his sword.
"Relax, Link, they're on our side! I can tell!" Ness raised his hands, calling him off. "We've just been talking down here while we waited for you guys to catch up!"
"For us-" Akane started, only for to be silenced by Harry.
"So, who exactly are they?"
"A long time ago, we were the Teen Titans," Robin, the leader, explained. "I'm Robin, and this is Cyborg, Starfire, Beastboy, and Terra. And, back then... Raven was one of us."
"One of you?! And you expect us to trust you?" Akane asked scathingly.
"Please, Akane!" Ness interrupted. "Just... listen to their story."
Akane turned to the rest of the group, but they all seemed willing, so she begrudgingly motioned for them to continue.
Terra spoke up again. "Like I said... it's my fault she's like this. Back then, when we were the Titans... a group of superheroes... I started to get... angry at them. Everything about them just filled me with hatred... everything they said and did, no matter what it was... so I set up a plan to kill them all off and have whoever survived discredited."
"You what?!" was the general cry among the group.
"Truly disgraceful!" Fireheart hissed. "Only the lowest of warriors would ever conceive such a plot!"
"You betrayed your friends?!" Harry burst out, fury across his face. "You turned on them, and caused them to-"
"She knows!" Beastboy interjected, seeing that Terra wasn't about to- she was hanging her head almost to the floor. "She knows... and she's already paid for it, many times over!"
"You see, Raven was the only one of us to survive Terra's plan," Cyborg put in. "First, Robin got killed in a fight with some robots, then Star over here got killed by Raven after Terra drugged her... I died trying to bail Rae out of prison... Raven killed Terra after finding out what happened... and then Beastboy committed suicide- he thought Raven really did do all those things."
"That... that's terrible!" Shinji gasped.
"Yeah," Terra nodded. "And Raven wanted to make sure we knew it. After it all happened, everyone was convinced she was a demon. And it's kind of true- she's half demon, on her father's side, but that was the day she gave into that half of her. With everyone convinced she was this horrible, evil witch... she decided to become exactly that. She destroyed the city, and locked our souls away in it... this is a cursed city, removed from time and space, where Raven rules over everything."
"She keeps us all here so that she may remember why she did the things she did," Starfire noted sadly. "And she was once such a kind person..."
Very few of them could envision Raven, in any incarnation, being kind, but they allowed the Titans to continue their story. "As best we can tell, after that, she started projecting herself across time and space, taking out her anger on the rest of the world," Cyborg related, gazing sadly at his feet. "Basically, all of you were the punching bag she was using to work out her anger about what happened..."
"Why?" Link interjected furiously. "None of us had anything to do with it?"
"We don't know," Robin admitted. "All we could do was wait down here, and hope that something like this would happen..."
"We are already fallen," Starfire noted. "However, you are all still alive, and in this place, in this moment, you stand the best chance of stopping her."
"You want us to exterminate her?" KOS-MOS asked, staring.
"No, not kill... we don't want to see her dead..." Starfire shook her head.
"But she needs to be saved... saved from herself," Beastboy looked like he was in terrible pain as he spoke. "The old Raven, she would hate to see what she's become. She would... she would never, never look at what she's doing now and say, 'yeah, that seems good.' Please... stop her."
Moving apart, the Titans pointed towards something on the ground. Eventually, KOS-MOS reached down and picked up a small ring made of gold, set with intricate designs. "What is this?" she asked, examining it closely.
"We used it a long time ago, in one of our older missions," Robin explained. "Use this, and you can cancel out the power that's letting Raven do all this. You can bring her back to normal."
"Using it, however, requires a great deal of focus... and emotion," Starfire related. "It is an object that grants the wearer a fraction of Raven's power- you must focus on stopping her, feel a great deal of emotion for power, and use her words... 'Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos...'"
"How did you figure all this out?" Harry asked, examining the ring closely. "I doubt even Hermione would be able to guess what this thing is."
"We've had nothing to do for years now but study that thing and try to figure out how it works," Cyborg gave a weak smile. "We've been trying to figure out a way to stop her from the beginning. What you've got there is just the fruit of our labor."
A long silence passed, eventually broken by Starfire. "Stop her... please, stop her. But when you do it, do it not for revenge, but to save her from what she has become. Please, do this for us..."
Another long silence, and Link finally nodded. "Alright. We will stop her for you. We just hope we'll be able to return home afterwards."
"You should," Robin smiled gently. "Now, the thing about the ring is that she has to be using her full power before it will work properly. She probably won't open up the fight using full power- wait for her to start doing that before you use it. You'll know it when it happens... trust me."
"In theory, any one of you could use the ring," Cyborg noted. "Having magic of your own might help, but it's not necessary."
"Once it's done, come back down and let us know how it went, won't you?" Terra asked gently, a weak smile gracing her features. "It'll be good... to... know..." As she spoke, she, along with the others, began to fade back into the darkness, leaving the group from across time alone in a dark tunnel with a small ring.
"Well, I suppose we should get going," Link noted. "Harry... you use this, okay?"
"Me?" Harry asked, accepting the ring.
"You heard what the robotic one said- having magic of your own should help. You're the obvious choice here."
"Alright," Harry nodded, seeming uncomfortable with the responsibility nonetheless as he tucked the ring away in his pocket.
"I believe I am detecting light ahead," KOS-MOS chimed in. "Follow me."
With that, she set off on a brisk pace, not too fast, but fast enough. Harry and Link were hot on her heels, while the remaining four lingered back a bit.
XXXX
Several minutes later, the tunnel finally changed, becoming a garage of sorts, with a set of stairs nearby. Once more, KOS-MOS, Harry, and Link took the lead, climbing up as Ness, Shinji, Fireheart, and Akane held back a bit.
"So," Ness muttered, turning to Shinji, "Fireheart and Akane told me what happened to you back in the tunnel."
"They... they did?"
"Mmm-hmmm. Things are pretty messed up back home, huh?"
"That's a bit of an understatement."
Akane and Fireheart watched as Ness drew closer to Shinji. "Say, Shin-Shin... what would you say if I said I could... help you out a bit?"
"Huh?" Shinji asked, looking at him with eyes that didn't dare to be too hopeful. "How? We live in completely different times!"
"Yeah, well, here's the thing," Ness shook his head. "I've actually traveled through time before. Millions of years into the past, as a matter of fact- Jeff's dad is a brilliant scientist, he invented a machine called the Phase Distorter that lets people travel through time. It's still got some bugs to work out, like letting organic matter go through time safely, but if we can hammer those out..."
"We could all meet again?" Shinji asked, hope appearing in his eyes despite his own will.
"Yup!" Ness smiled. "How about it? As soon as that machine gets its flaws ironed over a bit, I'll make sure to do some time jumping, and we'll all come over to Tokyo-3 and personally give those SEELE jerks the telling-off they deserve?"
Shinji, looking exasperated, turned to Akane and Fireheart. "And you two... you're okay with this?"
"Anything to help my apprentice," Fireheart smiled warmly.
"Like I said in the tunnel, I don't take kindly to people picking on my friends," Akane smiled. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."
Shinji sniffed, and was surprised to find tears going down his face. "I... I don't know what's wrong with me... I'm happier than I've been in years..."
"It's alright, buddy," Ness smiled, patting Shinji on the back. "Let it all out..."
Suddenly, the scene was interrupted by a yell from above. "Get up here, you four, you have to see this!"
The four leapt to their feet and tore up the stairs, through a large hallway, and out a door Harry was beckoning them through. The light outside was as dim as ever in that cold world, but they felt warmth in their heart nonetheless as they gazed up at the building they'd surfaced in.
"The giant T," Akane noted, her teeth grinding together. "Better get ready, Raven... we're coming for you."
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So, I hope this much longer-than-normal chapter somewhat makes up for that hiatus- though I know it can't make up for it entirely. That was terrible. The saddest thing about it, though, is that this is still only my second-longest hiatus. That... is frightening. Anyways, my head's out of my butt now, and I am determined to finish this story right. No more fumbling and farting around at the finish line- the next chapter- the penultimate chapter- will be up next week, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a thousand needles in my eye. Otherwise, I'll play through the finale from Live A Live with just Masaru, at level 2 the whole time. Most of you probably don't get the gravity of what I just said, but believe me, that's not a tantalizing proposition. Anyways, see you guys next time, assuming you're still around! In the meantime, please R&R, constructive criticism embraced with open arms, not so much with the flames, Gamer4 out!