18 was able to look past a lot of the bizarre things she'd encountered in the last few days. A strange map of a world that looked almost like her own, but not quite? She could accept it. A town with the same name as her own hometown, but was vastly different? It had been years since she'd been back, things could have changed. A teen that looked and acted shockingly similar to her own little brother? Barely within the realm of things she could begrudgingly accept.

All this had been dredging up old memories that she thought she had locked away, but beyond a bit of emotional turmoil and acting in ways she wouldn't normally, dealing with all of that was doable. Tough, but doable. She just needed to find her answers, and immediately put as much distance between herself and this place as possible. With distance, she could regain her icy exterior, and return to being Android 18, the cold and emotionless abomination. From there, she would train while constantly being on the move, preparing to defeat Cell when he inevitably came after her

But seeing the exact replica of her thought-to-be-dead mother enter the room and call out her old name - a name that nobody should even know to associate with her any longer - made any such plans fly out the window. This wasn't like seeing Ranma for the first time. With Ranma, the initial resemblance was uncanny, but she spotted more and more differences the longer she looked.

But this?

This was exactly the opposite. The longer she stared in wide eyed disbelief at the figure standing there, the harder it was to find any differences in the woman she remembered and the one standing in front of her. From the reddish brown hair that was tied up, to the soulful eyes that looked at her as if she was something worth loving, to the odd yet elegant silken robes that were unlike anything 18 had seen anyone else wear. It was pound for pound the same as her memories expected her to look.

As Nodoka slowly moved forward with all the grace and composure 18 remembered her having, she couldn't help but notice the wet eyes, and the white knuckled grip on the cloth covered sword she clutched tightly to her chest. The silence was deafening as she kneeled down in front of her, while 18 could do nothing but gawk, no matter how much she wanted to speak up. It was like a lump had formed in her throat, blocking any attempt at making a sound. She could only watch mechanically, drinking in the sight as a delicate hand reached up, hesitating visibly before reaching out and tucking a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

"Little Li? Is that you?" Nodoka's voice asked, barely a whisper, yet the heavy emotions in that simple question shook 18. Pained regrets, a deep yearning, and a tortured resignation haunted Nodoka's face. "Please… Do not let this be yet another dream. Please, daughter of mine, please be real." She rasped, hand cupping 18's face as she ran her thumb along the curves of her cheek.

Instinctively, 18 raised her own hand, gently grasping the back of Nodoka's and giving it a squeeze like she used to as a child. A simple gesture and a light touch was all it took, and yet 18 couldn't help but feel that warm security of her mother washing away all her aches and pains, like she was a child all over again. That warmth of a mother's love melted the icy exterior of Android 18 away for a moment, returning her to the times when things were simpler.

When she was Lazuli Saotome.

Finding her voice took a moment more, but eventually, Lazuli responded to her mother. "It's me." She took a shaky breath, shutting her eyes briefly and gripping the hand on her cheek as tightly as she dared. "I'm here Mom."

Another silence descended, as Nodoka's eyes drank in every detail of her daughter's face, a face she had thought she'd never see again. She was still questioning whether or not this was all a dream, when a sudden pulse of warmth flowed up her arm and through the rest of her body. And while she wasn't nearly as adept with Ki usage as some of the others, she was still able to recognize it for what it was. She never truly became a Ki adept, but she understood it enough to do some basic bodily enhancements, and could feel the thrumming energy beneath her skin. But the big thing was that she had never once felt her Ki while inside of a dream. Unable to hold back a choked sob any longer, Nodoka lunged forward and wrapped her daughter into a hug, any thoughts of what was proper and right gone in the face of being reunited with a lost loved one.

For a long few moments, nobody dared to speak, stunned into silence. Only the sniffles and hiccups of a crying Nodoka, who buried her face into Lazuli's shoulder, was heard. And it lasted for a long few minutes, the mother daughter pair basking in each other's presence. But eventually, the unusually timid and highly worried voice of Ranma spoke up. He could never handle crying girls. Seeing and hearing his mom break down like this was jarring to the martial artist, leaving him wanting to fix the issue, but barely even following what was going on.

"Er… Mom? What's… What's going on?"

Hearing a third party's voice startled the two out of their reverie, even causing Lazuli to mentally shift back towards being Android 18 as she was reminded that there were several other people in the room. Reluctantly, they broke up the hug, giving each other one last warm look before 18 looked away, while Nodoka wiped at her eyes. No longer feeling mentally on the backfoot, 18 could actually think more rationally and speak normally. Everyone was staring at her, which she didn't really blame them for, so she knew it was up to her to talk, while Nodoka sorted herself out.

In fact, now that she wasn't being immediately overwhelmed by the presence of her mother, this just created so many more questions and concerns. Questions that wouldn't get answered without her opening up at least a little bit. Which… Would be difficult. The last person she wanted to know about what she had become was her mother, and now she not only needed to figure out that conversation, she also needed to potentially explain this to Ranma. Who was likely her actual little brother. At least, she assumed. It would explain why he looked and acted so much like 17.

"Well," She began, straightening up and running a gloved hand through her hair. "I don't think any of us have the full picture. So we're going to have to clear some things up. And I guess, a reintroduction is in order." The android sighed, pushing through the murky and chaotic thoughts in her brain as she reintroduced herself with that unfamiliar name, incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of going by that name anymore. It wasn't her any longer. Lazuli Saotome was someone who fought and struggled everyday. She was determined, stubborn, and proud. But Dr. Gero broke Lazuli, killing her, and she was supposed to have stayed dead. Android 18 was the new identity she was given - a lifeline she had latched onto willingly - which became a hardened shell to hide her fragile interior behind. Lazuli and 18 were supposed to be two separate entities, never to mix, but she could feel the lines blurring.

It made her feel sick.

"My name is Lazuli Saotome, though I no longer go by that name." She began, noticing her mother's startled and hurt look, and mentally wincing as she reached out to grab her hand in a reassuring gesture, giving Nodoka a look that said she would explain later. "I introduced myself as 18, and that is the name I intend to go by. 2 days ago, I was attacked by a monster with the intent to kill me, but, unless this is the afterlife, then I would guess that I was somehow saved and sent here, to a world that is not my own. I woke up on a mountain about 8 hours north by train, and decided to come to Nerima to find my childhood home. But before I could even begin to find my way, I ran into a local, who told me a legend about that very mountain I'd been on, serving as a gate to another world. I didn't want to believe it, so I left to come to Nerima, but instead of finding my tiny rural hometown, I found a major city. It had been years since I'd last been in Nerima, so out of a vague sense of hope that perhaps it had just changed a lot since I'd last been, I sought out the closest notable Ki signature to ask questions, and eventually I ended up here."

Surprisingly, it was Nabiki who spoke up first, though she appeared to be thoroughly confused. "Do you hear how ridiculous you sound right now? Like, we're pretty used to weird stuff here in Nerima, but a different world? Really?" She challenged, clearly skeptical. Her world view had already been shifted by the introduction of magic when the Saotome father and son had arrived, she really didn't need it shifting again with the idea that parallel worlds existed.

And to that, 18 simply shrugged. "Frankly, I don't care whether or not you believe me. Mom knows the truth. The only one that needs to believe me is my newfound little brother."

Ranma blinks a few times, pointing at himself. "Uhh… You mean me?" He responded as he blinked owlishly at 18, obviously lost by the direction the conversation had taken.

"Unless there's another child of Nodoka and Genma Saotome running around."

The teen brought his hand up to his pigtail and fidgeted with it, the developments of the conversation having seriously confused him. If he really had older siblings, why had it never come up? But then again, knowing Genma, it wasn't out of the question for the man to just lie to Ranma about it. After all, he'd lied to Ranma about his mother for years. So perhaps it really wasn't all that strange for the man to never tell Ranma about having siblings, especially if 18 was telling the truth about being from another world. Where it didn't make sense, was the fact that his mother never talked about it. Ranma wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Pops had genuinely forgotten he had other children, but not Mom.

"Well, no. I just thought I was an only child. Are you really my sister?" He questioned, eyes turning towards Nodoka, who was dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, even as she nodded.

"Yes, my son." She took a shaky breath, composing herself to explain the sequence of events. "You see, 20 years ago, we really did live in a different world. It was a small town that was named Nerima, that didn't even have a thousand people. It didn't have such a strong martial arts culture either. In our Nerima, our little dojo was the only one. One day, a local farmer came to us to take care of a problem for him. Something had been hunting his livestock and had hurt his sheepdog. We hadn't thought it would take long, and the children knew we would sometimes leave to take care of such things, so we quickly set out to track the beast. It took most of the afternoon, but we tracked it down to its cave a few hours from our home. Genma decided to go in after it, while I stood guard outside in case it tried to run."

She sighed, picking her sword back up and hugged it tightly to her chest. "It didn't seem like a deep cave, but after 10 minutes without hearing anything, I began to worry. So I went in after my husband. But strangely enough, I couldn't find any sign that anyone was even in the cave. Not even the beast, let alone Genma. Thankfully, when I left the cave, my husband was there outside. But the problem was that we didn't recognize where we were. The cave we had entered had been at the bottom of a small cliff. The cave we left was on the top of a mountain. Entering the cave again didn't do anything, we found the end of it, and when we turned around to leave again, we were still on top of that mountain. The sun had set by that point, and we didn't recognize any of the constellations." She shifted in her seat again slightly.

"It being dark, and in an unfamiliar place, we did the only thing we could think of. We set up camp for the night. Genma went to forage for food while I got a fire going. In hindsight, it was quite foolish of us to eat foraged plants when we were in an unfamiliar place. We laid down to sleep, and when we woke up, we had both become younger, returning to the age of 17." That earned a gasp from all present, as they were all aware of the Mushrooms of Time, though Nodoka herself had not been present for that incident. "I still don't understand how that happened, but it's the truth. We were thoroughly paranoid at that point, so we attempted to find civilization, wandering aimlessly for a full day before we ran into anyone."

And it was at this point that Soun spoke up. "Ah… This explains a lot."

Everyone then turned to stare at him inquisitively. "Well, you see, the people they found were myself and the Master on a training trip. I always wondered why you called Genma your husband, I just thought you were engaged. But to think you had already been married…" He mused thoughtfully, rubbing his chin.

"Yes, Master Happosai helped us greatly. He listened to our story, and decided then and there that if Genma became his student, he would help us get acclimated to this world. Never once did he question the validity of what happened to us. While he began training Genma and Soun, he taught me many things about this world we were in. With his help, we secured proper legal identification, and he used his own capital to purchase a home for Genma and I to live in. We would have been in much more trouble if we had not ran into them." She explained, an almost fond expression on her face that certainly didn't belong to anyone that was conversing about Happosai.

And everyone present, barring 18, balked at that. Even Soun, who had been present, had been entirely unaware of the selfless actions of his Master. He had always thought it odd that Happosai had immediately warmed up to Genma and Nodoka, but simply never bothered to question it as he was too overjoyed to have the Master's attention no longer solely focused on himself. Even now, it really didn't make much sense to Soun, but perhaps the Master had seen the latent talent of Genma Saotome and thought it a waste to not train him?

"The old letch really did that?" Ranma spoke up first, absolutely flabbergasted at the prospect of Happosai doing anything that wasn't singularly focused on his perversions.

Nodoka pursed her lips at that insulting title for Happosai. "He did. Our family owes Happosai a great debt, my son. Do be a bit more respectful of him, dear." She chastised Ranma briefly, before carrying on. "After about 3 years, Genma and I were legally wed again, and we had you. And the rest is history."

Everyone turned silent, contemplating the information. "Well, it's nice to know what exactly happened. Neither of us wanted to believe that you really had passed on." 18 remarked.

"Wait, us?" Ranma asked, having barely begun to accept that he had an older sister, and being informed that he actually had two older siblings.

"You also have an older brother named Lapis. Is he…?" Nodoka trailed off, the concern in her expression for her other son obvious.

And this put 18 in a strange spot. She hadn't really wanted to talk about 17, partially from unprocessed grief, as she really wasn't sure what had happened. She had initially been operating under the assumption that 17 had died when he got absorbed by Cell. But then, she too had been absorbed by Cell, but instead of dying, she had been brought to the same world her long lost parents had been sent to?

Then, did something similar happen to 17? Was he somewhere on this parallel Earth as well? Her Ki sensing abilities weren't the best, so it's possible he was. But her gut told her that wasn't the case. She had no proof beyond that, but something in her gut told her that there was something big going on. It could maybe be considered some bizarre thing of life that caused Genma and Nodoka to be brought to this world, some unseen destiny that could only be fulfilled by them and Ranma. But for 18 to show up in the same world, on top of the odd similarities that by pure chance led her to her family?

It was suspicious. But who could possibly manipulate such a thing?

"I don't know if he's here or if he's still back on our Earth. I was on an island with my brother when we were attacked by a monster, and it blindsided me. Genuinely, I thought I was dead, but apparently I was just knocked out instead. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in an unfamiliar forest on top of a mountain, with nobody around." 18 lied through her teeth, and it seemed like they bought it. She really couldn't bring herself to tell her Mother that she had just stood there and watched 17 get absorbed by Cell after having felt the high of thinking they were invincible from her fight with Vegeta. 17 was supposed to be stronger than her after all. She never would have let him fight Cell alone if she thought he was actually going to die.

Nodoka, naturally, looked disappointed. The thought of having all of her family together in one place was something she had dreamed of many times during those lonely years in that house. It was unfortunate that she couldn't have her other son back, but on the bright side, she had her daughter back!

The contemplative silence was broken by the ringing of the phone, jarring everyone involved out of their thoughts. "I'll get it." Nabiki offered, disappearing down the hall.

"So… What now?" Ranma asked, putting the final nail in the coffin of the previous conversation, which 18 was thankful for as it was rather… Draining. Stressful. Confusing. All of the above?

But the surprises didn't really stop there, as Nodoka squeezed 18's hand. "Well, of course Lazuli will be moving in with us, won't you dear?"

18 didn't even bother to conceal that she was surprised. "I am?"

"Of course you are! Oh, it might be a bit of a tight squeeze to fit us all in the guest room, but our home will be repaired in a month or so, and we can all move back in then! Oh there's going to be so much to do, so much to talk about. We're going to need to get you set up with an ID, go clothes shopping, get you set up with some courses so you can learn about this world's rich history. Oh there's just so many things to do." Nodoka carried on cheerily, not noticing 18's discomfort about the situation.

"I can help with getting an ID set up, for a price of course." Nabiki said as she returned from having taken the phone call, poking her head into the kitchen. "Akane called to say she was going to be home in time for dinner." She then turned to Ranma, rolling her eyes at him. "She still sounded pretty mad about what happened at the school. Do with that what you will Saotome."

"Oh my, I do hope she'll have calmed down by then. It wouldn't do for her to make a bad first impression." Kasumi responded as she moved to stand in the doorway, having been listening while she quietly worked. "Dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes everyone. Will you be joining us 18?"

There was just something about this place that constantly made 18 feel like she was on the backfoot socially. She hadn't expected to be invited to eat dinner with them, not to mention her Mother advocating her moving in. "I guess so. I'll need to go check out of the hotel I stayed in, I wasn't really planning on staying here. I should be back by then?" 18 lied again, having no need to do that, as what she really wanted was some space to think.

"Oh, you should take Ranma with you, so you two can begin to have some sibling bonding time!" Nodoka exclaimed, clapping her hands together and smiling brightly. And with an expression so cheerful like that, it was difficult for either Saotome child to shoot down the idea.

18 just ran her hand through her hair again instead of sighing, pulling herself up to her feet. "Yeah, sure. Why not? Come on then." She gestured to Ranma as she made her way to the front door, who blinked a few times before scrambling to his feet to follow her.

—

Seeing as how 18 didn't actually need to check out of a hotel, she just picked a direction and began to walk aimlessly in silence, a silence that while not uncomfortable for 18, she could tell that Ranma was itching to say something.

"I don't actually need to check out of the hotel I stayed in, I already did that this morning. I just needed to get away for a little bit. So, go ahead and spit it out already." She drawled, giving him an expectant look, to which he sheepishly laughed.

"That obvious?" He chuckled a little, glancing around and noticing they weren't all that far from a local park. Pointing it out, he gestured towards a bench, where the two sat down. "It's just… Well, obviously that was a lot to take in. Suddenly finding out my - er, our family, isn't from this planet is a bit bizarre. And especially learning I have a big sister. And a big brother that may or may not also be here."

Ranma leaned back, looking up at the sky as he thought how to say what he wanted to say. "So… How much of what you said back there was a lie, and how much was the truth?" He asked, before realizing what he was implying and hastily walking back a few things. "Not that I'm saying you're lying about us being siblings or anything, I meant like… Lies of omission. It felt like you kinda just…" He trailed off, struggling to find the words he was looking for.

"Skipped a few things?" 18 supplied.

The pigtailed Saotome nodded. "Yeah, that."

The android didn't immediately respond, taking a moment to collect her thoughts. She was somewhat surprised to have been called out by Ranma like this, but 17 had always been able to tell when things were genuinely bothering her. So maybe it was just something about little brothers that let them call her out on stuff like this.

"There's…" She began, before shifting and leaning back, joining Ranma in staring at the cloudy sky. "There are some things I don't think I'll ever tell anyone. But there are also things that I know I will have to divulge out of necessity eventually. I just…" The blonde trailed off, shutting her icy blue eyes. "I'm just going to need time. Sorry."

Ranma blinked, tearing his gaze off the clouds to look at her inquisitively. "Sorry? For what?"

"For getting you dragged into my mess. Life is going to be very complicated if I stay here. Things could get very dangerous with me here. But… I think I want to stay, despite that." She whispered softly, as a few cracks formed in the wall separating Lazuli and 18.

Ranma stayed silent for a few moments before chuckling, which earned him a raised eyebrow from his sister. "I can honestly say that's the first time anyone has apologized to me about getting involved in my life. Usually, I'm the one that has to do that."

18 hummed softly. "I'm sure there's a story there."

"Yeah. My life feels like it was straight out of some manga sometimes. And since you're sticking around, you're going to have to deal with some of it. So, I'm sorry for you getting involved in my mess too. And danger is something we're used to, so don't sweat it."

18 snorted. "Maybe it's some kind of requirement for Saotome's to have a weird life."

Ranma let out a short bark of a laugh. "You can say that again, Sis."

A comfortable silence descended on the siblings, small smiles on both of their faces as they just enjoyed the cool breeze blowing in the park. A quiet moment of peace was always hard to find in Nerima, and was meant to be savored, for you never knew when that peace would be interrupted.

And for them, that peace lasted about 5 minutes.

"Ranmaaaaa! What do you think you're doing, you pervert?! I knew you'd be off with some floozy, you perv!"

-

Author's Notes:

If you want to see the more extensive author's notes, where I go over some of my thought processes of the decisions I made for this chapter, you'll need to check the story on AO3.

As a bonus, I did a very brief timeline overview for what happened to 17 and 18 in their original world. And then I also decided to list everyone's power levels out, as I really wanted to drive home how absurdly overpowered 18 is compared to the Ranma canon, as most everyone is at or below the levels of the DBZ cast during the Raditz Saga. I couldn't find any official number for 18's power level, but I believe this is close to being correct, as base Vegeta was 4 million power, and with Super Saiyan being a 50x multiplier, that would put him around 200m power, and we know that Android 18 clowned on Vegeta in their fight.

Also, let me know if I missed any characters to add to the power level list. I think I'll periodically update this list throughout the fic as characters get stronger, and add any new people that come along the way.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, any and all feedback is welcome! Thanks for reading!

-

Age 747 - Nodoka and Genma disappear. Lazuli is 7. Lapis is 5.
Age 750 - Red Ribbon Army destroyed by Goku. Lazuli is 10. Lapis is 8.
Age 758 - Dr. Gero kidnaps Lapis and Lazuli, and begins to use them as his experimental bases for perpetual energy model androids. Lazuli is 18. Lapis is 16.
Age 760 - Dr. Gero succeeds in creating perpetual energy models, dubbing them Androids 17 & 18. Lazuli is 20. Lapis is 18. They will no longer physically age, having attained what is essentially eternal life. Training begins in order for them to achieve the power required to defeat Goku. Immediately after each training session, they are forcibly deactivated, losing all sense of time.
Age 767 - Android saga. Lazuli is 27. Lapis is 25. Lazuli is not aware of her age, as Gero would forcibly deactivate them for unknown periods of time. She did not bother to check the date during their brief 4 days of being awake before being absorbed by Cell.

Power Levels:

Ranma: 328
Ryoga: 294
Pantyhose Taro (Cursed Form): 282
Pantyhose Taro (Human): 183
Saffron: ~400
Saffron (Ascended): ~1000
Herb: 360
Happosai: 352
Cologne: 338
Shampoo: 170
Mousse: 216
Ukyo: 144
Konatsu: 277
Dr. Tofu: 180
Akane (Calm): 75
Akane (Enraged): 150+
Genma: 232
Soun: 40
Nodoka: 90
Kuno: 163
Kodachi: 132
Kasumi: 10
Nabiki: 13
Android 18: ~290,000,000