Chaotic Waters Act 1, Chapter 1: Chaotic Plans and Ancient Memories.

If one were to look at the life of one Ranma Saotome, they would wonder how in the hell he was alive, let alone even remotely sane. Taken by his father at two years old to become a "true" martial artist the young man had trained in ways that were impossible, and was rewarded with just as incredible results. Strength training by swimming a lake with heavy weights, speed training from running from a pack of wolves in the winter, evasion training from fleeing angry shopkeepers his father had stolen from, things that no sane person would ever put a student through, let alone a child. He was taken to temples and monasteries to learn esoteric techniques and teachings in order to further the Art. Many, many times he had to prove himself worthy of the ancient texts, and when he couldn't prove himself, or when the monks said he was too young, his father would steal the scrolls and then there would be more speed and evasion training.

Their journey continued in this way for thirteen years, until China, where everything changed into a tale of Chaotic Waters and Obsidian Shadows.

"When are you going to believe that I won't leave?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"_! Watch out!"

"He did what to you?!"

"I Love you."

", don't die! Please, I can't lose you too!"

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!"

Ranma Saotome was done. Done with the threats against his life, done with being constantly assaulted by his fiancées (None of who he chose!), done with his father constantly belittling him, done with his mother threatening him with the damn seppuku contract, done with the damn old ghoul and her granddaughter trying to use potions, drugs, or magic on him, but most of all, he was done with not being able to have one gods-damned moment to himself! Any time he tried to have one, his father and Mr. Tendo would practically demand he bring Akane along, which defeated the entire point! It had been nearly a year since his battle with Saffron at Jusendo, and nearly a year since they started, the dreams. Every night since they returned to Nerima he would have one, each of them leading to the next like a film reel. They were peaceful, if not a little odd, but he could remember each and every one of them perfectly, even better than he could remember his actual life. The first one in particular had stuck with him for reasons he couldn't quite put his finger on, though how the dreams stuck with him to begin with surprised him. He couldn't recognize a single word of whatever language the people in the dreams spoke, though he supposed it didn't matter, he could still understand them probably because it was HIS dream.

~~~D1S~~~

She stood outside of her parent's room, peeking in through the crack of the slightly open door. It was something her parents did in case her or her siblings needed Mommy or Daddy at night. She'd had a nightmare, something that happened fairly frequently to her, but Mommy had said it was perfectly normal for a girl of five (and a half!) to have nightmares! She wasn't a scaredy cat like Pallas claimed! She'd been about to knock on the door when she heard them talking and about her too!

{"What shall we do, it is obvious that her nightmares are more than simple dreams...I fear they may be visions, that she has been touched by the gods."} She heard her Mommy say to her Daddy.

{"If she has, then she has, Libya my love. There is nothing we can do, who are we to argue with the will of the gods? We are but mortals, our lives are brief and fleeting compared to theirs."} Her Daddy said in his deep and soothing voice, gently grabbing her Mommy's hand.

{"But she...she's our little girl."}

{"Would you prefer it was any of our children? No. You would worry just as much with any of them."} She watched as her Daddy kissed Mommy on the top of her head, completely missing his eyes flick to the door and back. {"You are supposed to be in bed little princess."} He said, amusement clear in his voice, turning his face to the door, Mommy looking at the door in surprise.

She squeaked as the door swung open on it's own, nearly falling on her face as she lost her balance. {"I...I didn't mean to..."} She stammered, she was going to be in so much trouble!

{"Nerida! what are you doing awake? You should have been in bed hours ago!"} Mommy scolded, giving her a look that clearly said she had better have a good reason for being there.

{"Did you have another nightmare little one?"} Her Daddy asked softly, holding his arms out to her kindly.

She nodded and ran into her parent's room, snuggling into his arms. {"Uh-huh."}

Her Mommy's eyes softened as Daddy pulled her up onto their bed and set her between them, smiling at her with the gentle smile, not the cold one she gave to the other adults. Before she could say anything to either of her parents she felt her Mommy pull her close and stroke her hair in the way she always did when her or her siblings were upset, humming a soft lullaby. It wasn't long before she felt her eyes grow heavy, the feelings of love and comfort from her parents lulling her into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

~~~D1E~~~

The Dreams were...comforting in a way Ranma had never experienced before. The fact that he was a little girl in themwasa little off-putting at first, but after nearly a year of them he'd learned to tolerate their strangeness, plus he wasn't about to complain about the few moments of peace he could get, even if he was a girl in them.

He took a deep breath as the first rays of the sun hit him from atop the roof of the Tendo's house, stretching his body in a vaguely cat-like way before jumping off the roof and landing on the lawn. Lately, he had been sneaking up to the roof before dawn to avoid having to spar with pops first thing, it just...wasn't something he could do anymore. After Saffron, things just weren't the same, he couldn't tell you how long he had stared at his hands like they were something he'd never seen before. It didn't matter that Saffron was reborn almost instantly, it didn't matter he did it to save Akane, it didn't even matter that if he hadn't killed Saffron, Saffron WOULD have killed them all, what mattered was that he had taken a life and there was no going back. Both his hands and his very soul were stained with blood, something he would never be clean of. It wasn't just his pops either, he couldn't spar with anyone, not Ryoga, not Mousse, not anyone. Anytime he'd tried, his hands would shake, he'd feel the heat of the flames all around him, the wind whistling around his ears, and the frigid cold of the Gekkaja.

"What am I going to do?" He mused to himself as he leapt away from the Tendo's lawn. He needed a plan, something, anything, that would get him out of the honor trap his fathers and others had gotten him into. "It's not like there's an easy solution to all of this. If I choose to follow through on any of the engagements it would cause nothing but problems for everyone, especially me. I can't just pretend it's not a big deal either, Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, they're all getting worse, I'm honestly starting to get worried that they're gonna kill each other at this rate." He frowned as he roof-hopped through Nerima. Just last week Akane had cracked three of his ribs with her damn mallet when she had seen Shampoo hanging off of him, something he had never enjoyed. "I'm gonna need a little time away from everyone to make a plan that might work...a LOT of time if I want to make one that could work on Nabiki, let alone the old ghoul. Maybe I could hide out for a bit in one of the other districts...no, I'd only get a couple hours, maybe a day or two if I was lucky before someone would find me. It's not like I could hide out in either of my forms, especially not my cursed one, red-headed japanese girls aren't exactly common."

He wandered around for about an hour or so, not really paying attention to where he was going, he simply enjoyed moving as he thought. He dropped down to the street and started walking a slow pace, glancing at the various food stalls he could see."It's not like I can't find my way back, I'm not Ryoga after all." He mused to himself before freezing. "I'm not...Ryoga...maybe he could, but then I'd have to...no-one would know where to...and of course I'd still need to...that just leaves...maybe Konatsu?" A smile slowly started to appear on his face as a plan formed, a truly ingenious plan equal to any Nabiki could have come up with. "If I manage to pull this off, forget a day or two, I might just get two or three months away from everyone." Grinning widely he turned towards a takoyaki stand...completely missing a girl his age with short blonde hair and dark blue eyes walking past him from behind.

-
"So what do you think?"

"It's certainly a...unique plan."

"You can be honest."

"It's the dumbest plan I've ever heard sugar."

"...you didn't have to be THAT honest Ucchan ." Ranma grumbled, taking a sip from his bottled water.

"You were the one who asked Ranma-san." Konatsu replied, not taking her eyes off of the table in front of her as she analyzed the plan she had been told. It wasn't a bad plan per se...but it wasn't a good one either. It would become easier the longer it went on, but just getting it started would be damn near impossible.

The table was filled with things, eight different old maps detailing parts of China, Madagascar, America, and Iceland, camping supplies, canned food, three different wigs, a box of hair dye, a decently large amount of money, and some surprisingly well made documents for two identities, one for both of his forms. "Look, I'm not saying this is gonna be easy, hell, it's probably gonna be the hardest thing I've ever done. The entire plan revolves around everything going just right, if even the smallest thing goes wrong it's gonna fall apart and blow up in my face."

"How do you even plan on getting this started, and why the hell did you come to ME for help?" Ukyo asked, giving Ranma an incredulous look. "We've barely talked since the wedding!"

"And who's fault do you think that is Ukyo?!" Never before had the okonomiyaki chef been glad that looks couldn't kill, if they could then Ukyo would be frozen in a block of solid ice colder than Antarctica, probably buried somewhere on Pluto right now. Ranma glared at his one-time friend with a cold fury, unlike any the chef had ever seen. "You were supposed to be my friend, my best friend at that. Friends are usually happy for each other when one gets married, they do not blow it up and endanger people who can't even throw a damn punch!" Responding to his fury, Ranma's ki rippled out of his body in azure waves, buffeting Konatsu and Ukyo enough to nearly knock them over, like a tidal wave of force and energy. With a grunt, Ranma grit his teeth and forcibly dragged his ki back into his body, desperately trying to keep it from obliterating the room. After a few minutes of deep breaths, Ranma's shoulders sagged as he fell into a chair, dragging his hand across his face like a tired old man. "Look...I'm barely keeping it together these days...I need a break from it all before I snap and really hurt someone."

Trying to change the subject, Konatsu picked up one of the fake identity files and frowned as she leafed through the papers. "These are good...very good." She mused, raising her eyebrow when she came across school and medical records, along with insurance papers and even a birth certificate. "If you hadn't told me otherwise I would have thought these were real...who made them and what did it cost you?" she asked bluntly, tensing slightly.

"They didn't cost me anything, I helped someone out with a problem a while back and they owed me a favor, I just called in the marker." Ranma yawned and tilted his neck side to side, nearly groaning in relief as he felt it pop, releasing some of the stress he'd built up just coming up with this plan.

"With who, the Yakuza?!" Ukyo practically shrieked.

"..."

"Oh for fucks sake Ranma! Why the hell did you get involved with them, WHEN did you get involved with them?!"

He rubbed the back of his head, scowling lightly at the third degree. "First of all, I didn't know that they were from a Yakuza family when I helped them, all I knew was that they were in trouble, I only found out after. As for when, it was about a month before all of the shit with Saffron happened."

"The fuck did you help them with, murder?!"

"Of course not! The hell do you take me for Ukyo, some kinda street thug?!"

"That is enough Ukyo-Sama." Konatsu interrupted, giving Ukyo a frown so small it could have rivaled Kasumi's. "I do not believe Ranma-san would ever do that. I assume there were...extenuating circumstances with Jusendo."

"That's putting it lightly." He grunted in affirmation, taking another sip from his water, neither Ukyo nor Konatsu missing the slight tremor in his arm.

"...how do you even plan on getting Ryoga's help? You may get a long a bit better sugar, but he still wants to pound you into the dirt." Ukyo asked after a moment.

"That was honestly the easiest part of all of this." Ranma stated wryly, gesturing to all of his plans on the table. "Last time he turned into a pig at the dojo, I went through his pack and found the phone number of someone who could get him to agree to help AND keep quiet about it." Seeing the look of confusion on the two women's faces, he smirked. "I called his mom."

For years to come, the memory of the chef and kunoichi faceplanting into the floor would continue to amuse him.
-

It was honestly a bit...disappointing how easy it was to get away from everything. All it took was a "fight" with the Lost Boy leading to both of them inevitably ending up somewhere random thanks to his curse. Of course the entire thing was staged...well the fight wasn't, one of Ryoga's conditions was that he got to "rough Ranma up a bit" but all in all it went off without a hitch.

Surprisingly they only ended up on the opposite side of Japan as opposed to somewhere else like, Africa, Europe, or even worse...Cleveland. After promising Ryoga an actual fight later on, Ranma had immediately changed into his cursed form and thrown on one of the wigs, a short haired one that was chestnut brown according to the packaging. From there it was a simple game of entering a building as one disguise and leaving as another, changing gender, wigs, and clothes multiple times to throw off Nabiki or anyone else that might look for him. It took nearly two hours of this before Ranma felt he'd done enough, slipping into the Umi-Sen Ken until he reached the window of an apartment that had been reserved for him by the same person who set up the fake identities. If there was one thing the sealed style was good for, it was sneaking around after all.

Looking around the apartment, he couldn't stop his eye from twitching at the fact it was fully furnished and, from the smell of it, freshly cleaned. The fact that the apartment's phone started ringing mere moments after he slipped out of the Umi-Sen Ken didn't help matters either.

"I still think this is too much for a simple favor." He said, rolling his eyes after picking up the phone.

"...how'd you know it was me?" It was a teenage girl who replied, one no-one in Nerima knew and, hopefully for her sake, no-one ever would.

"Who else would know this number, or the exact moment I arrived...speaking of which there's no cameras in here are there?"

"It wasn't a simple anything...I won't ever be able to repay what you did for me, I mean you-" the person on the phone started to say before being interrupted by Ranma.

"All I did, was get you some spring water from China, Hibari. Whatever health benefits you got from it are your own. I mean it's not like anyone would believe that simple spring water could affect someone so much." He smirked, using his shoulder to keep the phone to his ear as he dug out the box of hair dye from his pack.

"I suppose that's true." The girl in the other line, now identified as Hibari giggled. "Daddy wouldn't stop crying when he realized what had happened...actually he wanted to send the rest of the family after you but me and Tsugumi managed to convince him otherwise thankfully."

"...so long as...?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"So long as you come by and teach some of the boys some of your moves."

"There it is." He rolled his eyes and sighed, shaking his head. "Look, I can teach them some stuff I've picked up along the way here and there, but I won't teach them anything from my school or from the Amazons, and they have to swear to your dad that they won't abuse what I teach 'em." He said reluctantly. "From what you've told me about him, I can trust that he'll make sure they keep their word."

"That's more than fair, in return Daddy won't send the boys after you and we'll stay out of your business, aside from what I already promised in return for the...spring water you got me, deal?"

"Deal, I'll drop by in a few days to give 'em their first lesson."

"...speaking of what I promised, I was curious why you had me sign up one of those identities to an actual school, I would have thought you would've wanted as much time to figure out your grand escape plan as possible. I was even more curious when you told me which identity in particular to sign up."

"I asked you to sign me up for an actual school because it's the last place Nabiki or the old ghoul would look for me, same reason I picked the identity I did, it's the last one they'd expect." He paused for a moment, just long enough for him to realize something important. "Hibari?"

"Yeah?"

"You never answered me about whether or not there were cameras."

~~~D2S~~~

Nerida closed her eyes as she plucked the strings of her kithara, scowling in frustration whenever she hit a wrong note. After flubbing the scale she was trying to learn for the twentieth time today she growled and set the instrument on the floor in a huff. "Why, by all the gods, does Mother insist on me learning this, I can't even do a simple scale!" She hissed.

"Because she wants you to be a well rounded little princess?" She heard Pallas reply from the doorway, swearing she could hear the smirk she knew was on her sister's face.

"I'm fourteen sister, hardly a "little" princess anymore." She grumbled, sighing before picking her instrument back up again and once more attempting the scale that had been giving her trouble these last few days. She paused for a moment before continuing in a nearly sub-artic tone of voice. "Besides, you and I know the real reason, it's to increase the amount of suitors for her to choose from so she can marry me off."

"Come now sister, Mother would never-" Pallas started to say as she walked into Nerida's bedroom.

"I heard her talking to Agamemnon about what he would consider a fair dowry." Nerida's words cut off her sister's sharply, clicking her tongue in frustration as she messed up another note in the scale.

"Agamemnon?! But he's..."

"In his three hundreds with a history of anger problems, not to mention there are rumors of him beating the women he sleeps with until they are unrecognizable, I am aware." She hissed, feeling her magic roil and rage within her.

"But...why?! Why would Mother seek to bring such a man into our family when it would only shame our house?!" Pallas cried, slashing the air in front of her with her hand.

"You aren't listening sister." Nerida said with a growl, magic surging through her body and causing her to snap the strings of her instrument in her fury. "She isn't bringing him into our family, she's marrying ME OUT OF IT!" Her words came out in a snarl, the raging currents of her magic making her hair and dress flow as if underwater.

"What...?" Her sister whispered, her eyes wide in horror.

"Think about it sister." She said, setting the now useless instrument on the floor and looking up at her older sibling with an ice cold fury in her eyes. "Mother has never been...fond of the visions the gods have seen fit to give me from time to time." She stood from her seat and moved to her bed, patting the spot next to her for her sister to sit.

"Well...no, but how does that mean Mother wants you out of the family?" Pallas asked before acquiescing to her sister's request, sitting next to her.

"In the beginning it didn't, but you remember my eighth birthday?"

"Of course, the priests used a measuring crystal to measure your mana reserves, but there was a fault in it and it shattered, pretty loudly too." Pallas snickered, her shoulders shaking in mirth. "It scared Theseus so bad he had the hiccups for the rest of the night."

"That crystal was right in front of my face, there was no fault."

"...that's impossible, there had to of been!"

"Do you really think I would miss a fault in the crystal when I had to hold it in front of my face and stare at it for twenty minutes?" She replied blandly, raising her eyebrow.

"Well...ok maybe not, but that still doesn't make sense. Are you really trying to tell me that the crystal just shattered, for no reason whatsoever?"

"That's what I thought, at first I mean." She muttered, hugging her knees close to her body. "I thought it was just something weird that happened and had put it out of my mind...until two weeks later Mother brought another priest into the palace and had them try to measure my mana again."

"She...what?" Pallas' confusion was palpable, it was perfectly understandable after all, having one's mana measured was a very public affair, the records were kept public so instructors and employers knew what to expect. Even Royalty were not exempt from this, the crown prince or princess always being the child with the highest mana reserves outside of very specific circumstances. "When was this?"

"The Royal Gala that happened that year, I wasn't old enough to go so I had to stay at the palace, Mother volunteered to stay with me."

"Right...I remember that." Pallas mused. "Father wasn't happy about Mother staying behind, it caused a bit of a scandal before he managed to put it to rest."

"They tried to measure my mana three times that night, and the same thing happened. Every. Single. Time. One measuring crystal shattering I could understand, but four different ones?" She shook her head, setting her chin on her knees. "Each time, the priest and Mother seemed to get more and more...distressed. I still haven't figured out why they were distressed, but it was right after that that Mother started having me start learning things like this-" She started gesturing to the Kithara. "-instead of learning about current politics, the state of our planet and military, not to mention forbidding me from studying magic, I've had to steal tomes from the library just to learn as much as I have." For a moment, she looked at her hand, pulling her mana to the surface and watching the shimmering waves of her magic dance across her palm. "I...I don't know what to do. Mother has been keeping me from talking to Father about it, and he's been busy with that group of dissenters in the West Province" At her sister's odd look she shrugged. "Just because Mother tries to keep me away from current affairs doesn't mean I don't hear the staff gossip."

"Maybe I could talk to Father?" Pallas offered softly, putting her arm around Nerida and pulling her close. "Mother hasn't stopped me from talking to him."

~~~D2E~~~

The next part of Ranma's plan started, not with a bang or a whimper, but with the groan of someone who has bright sunlight hit them directly in the face first thing in the morning. Muttering plans of revenge against the sun, Ranma folded up his blanket and futon before moving it into the corner of the room. Normally, he'd practice a bit of the Art before starting his day, but he'd already stayed up way too late last night making sure his disguise would be perfect, going through nearly two hundred hypothetical situations as his new persona before deciding it was as good as it was gonna get. Sighing to himself, he walked into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face, shivering at the tingles going down his spine that happened every time he changed. Looking up at the mirror, he looked over the dye job he'd recently put his hair through, it wasn't quite what he wanted, having come out lighter than expected, but it still got rid of the red. Slowly he undid his braid, letting his hair down as he got to work, putting on the finishing touches of his disguise.

When he was finished, he looked at himself in the mirror once again and flinched. The girl looking back at him was...beautiful to say the least. Teal hair coming down in gentle waves to just past her shoulders, deep blue eyes that shone with old pain and new resolve in equal measures and the slightest touch of makeup to accent what was already there. Panic surged through his veins as he looked at who he had turned himself into, feeling like some spectral hand was gripping his throat from how tight it had become. It was impossible, sure he'd gotten the idea for this disguise from the dreams but this was...this was to much of a coincidence. There, looking back at him from the mirror was an older Nerida. He was so distracted by that fact, he completely missed a part of him, long since buried under the pain and abuse of his past, that felt at peace for the first time in his seventeen years.

-Definition-

The kithara is a musical instrument from Ancient Greece that is in the same group as a lyre.